THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
PAGE 4
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2007
Students don’t mind trek to buildings off the Hill continued from page 1 posed to a physical one,” she said. Helen Lamphere ’08 is enrolled in BC 244 and said she would prefer taking classes on campus but does not mind going to off-campus buildings. “I think we’re spoiled compared to other college campuses in terms of how easy and fast it is to get from class to class,” she said. Lamphere said it takes her about 15 to 20 minutes to walk to 121 South Main St. Kim Gans, associate professor of community health, said she likes the South Main Street facility because it “puts all the public health people together who were earlier spread all over.” She said it is a necessary step on the way to establishing a School of Public Health, which would be “a boon to Brown” and is slated to be es-
tablished by 2010. “Brown’s campus is expanding anyway, and there’s no place for the public health department on the main campus,” Gans said. Gans said commuting to and from the building on South Main Street might be “somewhat of a hassle” for students, but she said “the pros outweigh the cons.” Tamara Del Rosso ’08 and Jana Loeb ’08, both of whom are taking BC 168, Sec. 12: “Tobacco, Smoking and Evil Empire,” said they do not mind walking down College Hill to South Main Street. Del Rosso, who has a class on Pembroke campus just before BC 168, said her professor doesn’t mind if she is a few minutes late to class. The labs at 70 Ship St. also attract a significant number of undergraduate students who work as research assistants or conduct independent research there. Wolfgang Peti, assistant pro-
fessor of medical science, has four undergraduates currently working in his lab at the Ship Street facility. Peti said the building allows undergraduate researchers the chance to “focus more” and “not get as distracted” as they would on the main campus. Students working in labs at 70 Ship St. have a variety of ways to commute, including walking, biking or taking the free safeRIDE BrownMed/Downcity Express shuttle. Peti said the fact that safeRIDE does not run during academic breaks, such as during the summer when some students work in his lab, raises “a bit of a security concern.” But he added that most undergraduates are able to get rides from graduate or post-graduate students, which makes the lab environment “more collegial.” Rene Kessler ’07.5, who worked in the Peti lab during
the summer and fall of 2006, said he liked “getting off College Hill ever y day.” Kessler said it took him only 10 minutes to bike there, compared to 15 minutes if she took the shuttle, including time spent waiting for it to show up. Some students find taking the shuttle more trouble than it is worth. “Sometimes the shuttles get off schedule and become a little inconvenient,” wrote Ojus Doshi ’08 in an e-mail to The Herald. Since November 2005, Doshi has worked in Assistant Professor of Biology Rebecca Page’s lab, he wrote. “The trip back to campus is pretty tiresome by the time you walk back up the hill, but it’s probably good exercise. A bike makes the trip much faster, but I’ve only gotten halfway up the hill on the return trip before I needed to walk the bike up to the top,” he added.
431 U. employees take on Shape Up R.I. challenge continued from page 1 — no individual results — on employees’ well-being and how much employees are participating. We hope we can positively impact everybody’s health and wellness,” said Drew Murphy, director of benefits in Human Resources. Murphy, who is taking part in the general fitness and the pedometer step competitions of the program, said the Health Promotion Committee then recommended the University finance employee participation in the Shape Up program. He attributed the increase in participation by Brown employees to greater publicity for the program, not just the University’s financial assistance. Grouped in teams of 5 to 11 members, participants support each other while trying to win competitions in weight loss, total exercise hours and pedometer steps taken. In the program’s debut last year, 205 teams lost a total of 5,911 pounds and logged 69,132 hours of exercise. The program’s team-building spirit is popular among competitors like Cynthia Yearwood, coordinator of learning, professional development and employee programs in the University’s human resources department. “There is a fun competitiveness. We’re all striving to reach our goals of losing weight, increasing exercise and being more aware of health, but there’s a competitiveness to it too, of saying, ‘We’re going to win,’ ” she said. Rickman credited this year’s high participation in part to what he described as a greatly improved Web site. Its features include easier registration, a private weight tracker and an image of a person that moves across the screen to track progress. Participants also receive e-mail newsletters with health tips and are encouraged to attend healthy cooking demonstrations across the state. Kumar has ambitious goals for Shape Up R.I. “I’d love 15,000 people in the program next year. We’ll keep expanding as long as people are excited,” he said. He said there are plans to create a Shape Up R.I. for youth, which is currently being tested at several high schools and middle schools across the state that will promote healthy eating and physical activity for children. Kumar is also eager to see the fruits of his labor. “I can’t wait to see the day when we can see the impact in the health statistics,” he said. “When obesity is decreasing, we’ll feel like we’ve succeeded, and we can see that in a place the size of Rhode Island.” In the meantime, he has to rely on anecdotal evidence to measure the program’s success, but he said he’s not lacking for inspirational stories. “People who have never exercised in their lives now exercise four to five times per week. They have never been more excited, never been healthier, never looked forward to waking up in the morning like now,” Kumar said. “One woman was able to opt out of gallbladder surgery because she lost weight. Diabetics decreased their numbers of medications due to losing weight. That’s what really keeps us going — bringing the program to as many people as possible.”