THE BROWN DAILY HERALD M ONDAY, F EBR UAR Y 5, 2007
Volume CXLII, No. 9
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Super Bowl draws students’ attention but not their passion BY ZACHARY CHAPMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Students congregated in dorm rooms and frat houses across campus last night, downing beers and scarfing slices of pizza as they watched the Indianapolis Colts defeat the Chicago Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI. Though most students tuned into the game, for many it seemed only an excuse to put off weekend homework for at least a few more hours. And with the New England Patriots watching from home, students seemed mostly disinterested in the game’s outcome. At the Sharpe Refectory, which had promoted its pre-game festivities for much of the week, students seemed more focused on the new
Christopher Bennett / Herald
Princeton University professor Cornel West spoke to a packed Salomon 101 about “The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.” on Friday.
Cornel West speaks on MLK Jr.’s legacy BY RACHEL ARNDT SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a “wave in an ocean” of social activism, said public intellectual and Princeton University professor Cornel West in a lecture on King’s legacy last Friday. “There is no Martin Luther King Jr. without ordinary people,” West told a packed Salomon 101. West, a professor of religion at Princeton, has published 16 books, including the widely acclaimed “Race Matters” in 1993 and “Democracy Matters” in 2004. West’s captivating speech, “The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.” was the 11th annual lecture named for the civil rights leader. Darnell Fine ’08, an Africana studies concentrator, introduced West to the audience by saying, “I friended him on Facebook.” Unfortunately for Fine, West did not respond to his friendship request. After praising the University for its recent report on its ties to slavery and President Ruth Simmons for her leadership, West moved on to discuss King. “It’s almost like talking about my mama,” West said of King. “I love him.” But West avoided turning King into a glorified icon and explored the implications of his legacy. “He frightens me because his standards of greatness so radically call into question who I am,” he said. West cited King’s constant questioning of life and society as distinctively powerful. King wanted people to “engage in self-examination — that’s a Socratic note,” he said. “You have to come to terms with learning
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how to die in order to learn how to live.” West encouraged the audience to engage in King’s brand of self-examination and do the same for the United States. There is a “dogma of white supremacy” alongside which democracy cannot survive in the United States, West said. Midway through his hourlong speech, West talked about the role religion played in King’s life. Speaking as King, West said, “Lord, you promised to be with me always.” “I had some doubts about you in the seminary after reading Nietzsche,” he added, provoking laughter from the audience. But race informed religion as well. “We can’t even worship God without white supervision,” West said of slaves in the United States. Despite this historical white control, he said, religion became part of black identity — for communities and for King himself. “Martin Luther King Jr. was a child of the black church,” West said. Imagining what King would say about American society and politics today, West said the United States “can never be great” with 21 percent of children in poverty. “Where’s the moral outrage?” he asked. West ended the lecture encouraging the audience to “dig deep to the sources of our own self-formation, of our own American society.” He received a standing ovation. After the lecture, West lingered for another half hour to answer questions, including one from Simmons about Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur province. “I think it’s a disaster,” he responded. But he did praise the Amer-
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Med students auctioned off for asthma prevention BY KRISTINA KELLEHER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Medical students stripped off their white lab coats and strutted their stuff down the runway in Sayles Hall Friday night in an effort to raise money for asthmatic children. The charity auction, dubbed “Date a Doctor,” raised $3,641 for the Community Asthma Programs at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, including a top bid of $469 for a date with Stacey Weinstein ’05 MD’09, who co-hosted and organized the event. “It’s all for the kids,” participant Cliff Voigt ’05 MD’09 said to the crowd after demonstrating his dancing talent. The event was hosted by Breeze Against Wheeze, a group comprising Brown
med students and undergraduates, and the proceeds went toward the group’s goal of providing the Community Asthma Programs with a quarter of the money needed to run its summer educational camp, which teaches lowincome children with asthma how to live with the disease. Since 2001, Breeze Against Wheeze has hosted an annual fundraising run and walk to raise money, and most of the money the group raises comes from their annual 5K run, according to coordinator Hanae Fujii-Rios ’06, who is now a research assistant in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology and Biotechnology. “We wanted to do something fun to get people excitcontinued on page 4
Amy Seibel / Herald Stacey Weinstein ‘05 MD’09 and Vivek Shenoy MD’10 participated in the “Date a Doctor” charity auction held in Sayles Hall on Friday night.
Plan B now available over-thecounter at Health Services
In 1965, Brown physician sparked furor over the Pill
BY TAYLOR BARNES S TAFF WRITER
BY GABRIELLA DOOB CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Spring break in 2006 became stressful rather than reWhen Toby Simon was in college in the 1960s, it was laxing for one undergrad when she could not easily nearly impossible for an unmarried woman like her obtain emergency contraception after she had unproto get birth control pills. Undaunted, Simon bought tected sex. a box of Cracker Jacks, put on the fake diamond ring Since University Health Services had closed for she found inside and told her doctor she was getting the break and a prescription was then remarried and wanted to go on the pill. It quired for EC, the student, who spoke on worked. FEATURE the condition of anonymity, took a taxi to Simon, who became the University’s the Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. She first director of health education at Health Services left campus around 5 p.m. and waited in the emergenin the 1980s and is now the director of the Bryant cy room for two hours before she was able to see a College Women’s Center, was one of the many young doctor. women affected by the controversy that surrounded “I was pretty panicky,” she said, since she knew birth control in the 1960s. Concern about the pill centhat EC’s effectiveness decreased as she waited. “The tered around fears that it would promote promiscuity whole ordeal took about three hours.” among women and lead to a surge in premarital sex Obtaining emergency contraception, or EC, has and a nationwide decline in moral standards.
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FACULTY EXHIBITION List Art Gallery is currently hosting a faculty exhibition that allows students to observe pieces by their professors
entrees that were being served to mark the occasion than the country’s most-watched sporting event. The Ratty was filled with footballshaped balloons and festivities such as a football toss game, but students and Dining Services staff alike seemed not to notice that at 6:15 p.m. — only minutes before kick-off — the dining room’s television was still tuned to a local newscast. The channel was eventually changed, and when Chicago’s Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown, a few cheers chorused through the Ratty. The momentary eruption was soon replaced by the more routine clank of forks and knives.
continued on page 4 RESCOUNCIL REVIEW Three houses failed last fall’s program house review and four others were put on notice for behavior and membership issues
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195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
NEWT FOR NOTHING Katy Crane ’07 discusses Czech visionary Karel Capek’s early 20th-century novel “War with the Newts” and the lessons we can learn from it
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12 SPORTS
M. ICERS MOVING UP The men’s hockey team picked up three points this weekend and jumped to eighth place in the ECACHL standings in the process
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