THE BROWN DAILY HERALD F RIDAY, F EBR UAR Y 9, 2007
Volume CXLII, No. 13
Grad School applicant numbers at all-time high
Two students challenge Asian American admission discrimination BY IRENE CHEN STAFF WRITER
BY OLIVER BOWERS SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The number of applicants to the Graduate School has jumped over 60 percent since the 2001-2002 academic year, and though this year’s applications are not fully tallied, their number already surpassed last year’s figure of 6,282 by about 200, according to data gathered by the Grad School. The Grad School has become more selective over the same period, with its acceptance rate falling from 27 percent to 17 percent. “The single factor I’d point to as being the most important … is the Plan for Academic Enrichment, which has brought a new faculty influx at Brown,” said Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde. Applications climbed 27 percent, from 3,811 to 4,844, in the 2002-03 academic year — the first class after the University launched the Plan for Academic Enrichment. The following year, the applicant pool grew by an additional 25 percent to 6,079. Andrew Foster, professor of economics and chair of the department, echoed Bonde. “Brown’s (economics department) has become more visible in certain circles,” due in part to acclaimed additions to the faculty, he said. But, he noted, it is not clear how many applicants are aware of that change in such a short period of time. Bonde also cited a 40 percent rise in stipends paid to doctoral candidates who become teaching assistants, research assistants or join fellowships as another factor attracting more grad students. “We went very quickly from continued on page 4
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Christopher Bennett / Herald Even though it opened in October, most students don’t notice the Sidney Frank Hall for Life Sciences.
LiSci passes by almost unnoticed BY EVAN BOGGS STAFF WRITER
It’s the most expensive building in University history and one of the largest on campus, but the Sidney Frank Hall for Life Sciences now goes ignored by most students. Throughout the day, many students follow the planned pathway of the Walk — the greensward that will eventually link Lincoln Field with the Pembroke campus — and cross beneath the skywalk that links the two wings of the LiSci, which opened in October and houses the departments of neuroscience and molecular biology, cell biology and biochem-
istry. But few students actually enter the building. “It still seems like people are still discovering it as a work space and a study space,” said Paul Krueger ’07 as he waited to meet with his thesis adviser in the LiSci. “It may look lonelier than it really is, obviously, because a lot of the space is lab space,” said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president. “The real life of the building is in the labs where students and faculty are working.” “If you know where to look, there’s quite a lot of activity,”
Many may pass over the question without a second thought, but identifying race or ethnicity on Brown’s undergraduate admission application has become a concern for Neil Vangala ’09. Vangala has started a group on campus called Asian Equality in Admissions, which will address discrimination in admission against Asians and Asian Americans. Vangala and Jason Carr ’09 started the group last month after learning of a recent case of supposed discrimination against Jian Li, currently a freshman at Yale University. Li filed a civil rights complaint against Princeton University, alleging that the university had discriminated against him during the admission process. “Stereotypes are ingrained in the admission process,” Carr said. “Like (Asians) are too studious, or they lack extracurricular activities.” “I think we have a right to know if (admission officers) discriminate against us after reading our names,” Vangala said. “On paper, simply because they’re Asian, you assume certain things about them.” Carr said many students at Yale think Li shouldn’t complain about where he ended up. “(Li) was such a good student, so he got into one of the Ivies that he applied to,” Carr said. “We fully realize that his complaint won’t
fully change anything.” “We think this is indicative of a trend,” Vangala said. “Jian Li is tr ying to identify a trend, but the response is that Asians should accept less.” This general ambivalence towards Li’s case was reflected in an op-ed published in the Daily Princetonian, the school’s student newspaper. The op-ed mocked Li’s complaint against the university, stating, “I so good at math and science. Perfect 2400 SAT score. Ring bells? Just in cases, let me refresh your memories. I the super smart Asian. Princeton the super dumb college, not accept me.” Chanakya Sethi, the editor in chief of the Princetonian when the op-ed was published, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald, “The piece should be judged in context with due consideration of its intent. It was run in a joke issue full of parody and satire, and our intent was to mock stereotypes.” “It’s not appropriate. It doesn’t matter who perpetuates the stereotypes,” Carr said. Vangala and Carr’s concern follows in the footsteps of a 1983 report conducted by various student groups at Brown, including the Latin American Students Organization, the Asian American Students Association and the Organization of United African Peoples. The groups used information given to them by the admission office to conclude in a continued on page 6
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Fuentes remembers three close friends D.C., during the time of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, which was a series of programs instituted to bring relief and reform to the nation during the Great Depression. For Fuentes, in a time when the rest of the world was turning to militarism and fascism, “the New Deal meant a great deal. The initiatives in themselves did not address the problem directly, but what Roosevelt did was overcome the worst effects that could have come of the Depression.” Those were the times in which economist Galbraith and authors Miller and Styron lived. According to Fuentes, by invoking the era he also invoked the three men
BY CHRISTIAN MARTELL STAFF WRITER
Tai Ho Shin / Herald Author Carlos Fuentes spoke at Hillel yesterday afternoon about three of his friends and former colleagues.
INSIDE:
3 ARTS & CULTURE
Author Carlos Fuentes praised three of his closest friends Thursday afternoon in a lecture titled “In Memoriam: John Kenneth Galbraith, Arthur Miller, William Styron,” delivered in Hillel’s Wickenden Chapel. Fuentes, an eminent Latin American political novelist who once served as Mexico’s ambassador to France and is now a professor-at-large at Brown, spoke in English a day after he delivered a lecture on his own work in Spanish, also at Hillel. Fuentes was introduced by Professor of Hispanic Studies Julio Ortega. Fuentes began by recounting his years living in Washington,
IN DA “CLUB” Sarah Doyle Gallery hosts Liz Nofzilla’s site-specfic art installation “Club,” which will blend in with the gallery for the rest of the month
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continued on page 9
5 CAMPUS NEWS
RISD PRES TO STEP DOWN RISD President Roger Mandle will step down in 2008 following growing tensions between his administration and the faculty
Tai Ho Shin / Herald Neil Vangala ’09 (left) and Jason Carr ’09 started a new group called Asian Equality in Admissions, which confronts questions of discrimination against Asians in the admission process.
11 OPINIONS
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
POINT-COUNTERPOINT The Herald’s columnists debate an issue pressing to our time: What is the most effective timetable to pursue for the invasion of Fiji?
12 SPORTS
W. ICERS DOWN UCONN The women’s hockey team came away with a 2-1 overtime win against UConn, led by Savannah Smith ’09, who scored both goals
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WE A T H E R
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007
WBF | Matt Vascellaro
TODAY
TOMORROW
partly cloudy 29 / 12
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MENU SHARPE REFECTORY
VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL
LUNCH — Chicken Fingers, Vegan Lentils with Roasted Vegetables, Sliced Turkey and Ham, Lobster Bisque, String Beans la Belle, Butterscotch Layer Cake, Chocolate Chip Cookies
LUNCH — Vegetarian Caribbean Black Bean Soup, Manhattan Clam Chowder, Chicken Fingers with Sticky Rice, Vegan Vermicelli with Garlic Sauce, Sugar Snap Peas, Chocolate Chip Cookies
DINNER — London Broil, Zucchini and Summer Squash, Lima Beans, Shoepeg Corn Casserole, Strawberry Jello, Cherry Pie, Onion Rings, Sliced Turkey and Ham
DINNER — Vegetarian Caribbean Black Bean Soup, Manhattan Clam Chowder, Italian Meatloaf, Grilled Chicken, Cherry Pie, Chocolate Cake, Cream Peach Cake
How to Get Down | Nate Saunders
SUDOKU Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. Deo | Daniel Perez
12 Pictures | Wesley Allsbrook
CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Practice 4 Café container 9 Jerk 14 “The Facts of Life” actress 15 Used a well, maybe 16 Lead-pipe thing? 17 Key to getting out of a jam? 18 Deli offerings 19 Itty 20 Dieter’s credo? 23 At all 24 Closes a window, perhaps? 28 Undealt portion of the deck 32 Streisand classic 33 Greetings 36 Ticked off 38 Stag party attendee? 39 Robin’s mate on the lam? 43 Horizontal bar 44 Sidestep 45 Hog heaven? 46 Perplex 49 Spread out 51 Slippery slopes 53 She played Adrian in “Rocky” 57 Head of endives? 61 Highboy or lowboy 64 Revolving door feature 65 Mineo of “Rebel Without a Cause” 66 Pound parts 67 Central Florida Community College site 68 (In) half 69 Fire 70 Kick back 71 Darn DOWN 1 Work on one’s coat 2 Catch, on the range 3 “Ick factor 10!” 4 Fictional travel aid 5 From scratch
6 Popular card game in Germany 7 Eve’s third 8 Unsuccessful 1957 debut 9 2002 film whose sequel is subtitled “The Meltdown” 10 Drink for losers? 11 “Newhart” setting 12 Mil. training academy 13 Talese’s “__ Neighbor’s Wife” 21 Recent, as an escapee’s trail 22 Dandy 25 Some Anna Quindlen pieces 26 Auto collection 27 Charon’s carrier 29 Be tactful, perhaps 30 Cutlass, for one 31 Massage targets 33 Tea flavorings 34 “Wicked Game” singer Chris 35 Genre for a 4Down 37 Loser
40 Like some summer dining 41 High-tech navigation aid 42 It helps pay for road repair 47 Sheen 48 Something besides the ltr. 50 Run on 52 Taste 54 Tips for a sailor?
55 Thunderstruck 56 Visibly happy 58 Bush cabinet member 59 Like zero 60 “Copacabana” girl who “would merengue and do the cha-cha” 61 Calculating pro 62 What’s-__-name 63 Break off
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ARTS & CULTURE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007
Site-specific art installation evokes spirit of Sarah Doyle BY LYDIA GIDWITZ ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
On entering the Sarah Doyle Gallery’s larger exhibition room, Liz Nofzilla’s month-long installation “Club” seems to blend into the gallery’s white-washed brick walls, thickly painted shutters, drab carpet and fireplace. But on closer examination, the artist’s site-specific installation interacts and informs the surrounding space by playing off of the life of Sarah Doyle, the physical space of the room and Nofzilla’s experiences. Nofzilla’s work is the fourth exhibition at the Sarah Doyle Gallery, located on the first floor of the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center. The purpose of the gallery is to provide a space for professional artists, said Liz Bird ’07, student coordinator of the Sarah Doyle Gallery. Though located in the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, the gallery is not limited to works dealing only with women’s issues. “A lot of times we have women’s artists, and some have to do with women’s issues, but artists are selected for the images themselves,”
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Bird said. Although gender roles had some relevance in Nofzilla’s installation, her work took inspiration from the physical space of the room itself. A bare light bulb blinks on the table-top fountain made of fake wood that Nofzilla found in a garbage can in Philadelphia. The fountain stands across from an old, brick fireplace coated with the soot of past fires. “The fireplace is now defunct. There is a space of scrubbed brick that has not been charred in the center,” Nofzilla said. A 14-minute looped film of volcano lava crashing into the ocean, taken during a trip to Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park, is projected onto the fireplace. “I re-ignited the fire,” she said. “I wanted to oppose the rekindled fire with a beacon of the inauthentic. A blinking light is a sign bulb masquerading as nature,” Nofzilla said. “This is a dried-up, fake fabrication of what it stands across from.” The legacy of Sarah Doyle also influenced the work. “I thought about Sarah Doyle and her direct
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community influence through education. She was influential in clubs, the coming together of creative, like-minded people who … challenge one another,” Nofzilla said. Indeed, the theme of clubs — their potential to facilitate interactions as well as to exclude others — influenced Nofzilla’s work in the adjoining room. Blown-up looseleaf torn from elementary-school notebooks and typed pages with typos are relics of the artist’s childhood clubs created with friends. One page outlines the rules of the club, and another details a short story. The third work mimics legal contracts, but with a child’s cursive writing and misspelled words describing the “certification” of two friends becoming “Adopted Sisters.” Nofzilla’s installation explores the dual nature and purpose of social clubs while promoting the center. Although the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center is not a club, its monthly exhibits provide an alternative space that attracts a diverse group of art-lovers, Bird said. “It’s a great way to get people who aren’t gender-minded to come in,” Bird said.
Brown U./Trinity Rep Consortium kicks off New Plays Festival BY MARIELA QUINTANA
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
On Feb. 7, the Literary Arts Masters of Fine Arts Graduate Program kicks off its 25th annual New Plays Festival. For the third year running, a series of plays will be performed in conjunction with the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium. In the past, the combination of these blossoming playwrights and the Trinity Repertory Company has garnered great success and high praise from both the Providence and Brown communities, as well as that of greater New England. The 2007 festival promises to live up to expectations. MFA playwrights enrolled in the Brown graduate program for literary arts receive a unique creative experience. Working with renowned playwright and Professor of English Paula Vogel in association with Trinity Rep, students develop their writing in an intensive and collaborative environment. The intimacy offered by the size of the MFA program provides a familiar setting that allows the students to develop their personal writing style on their own terms and to experience the innovative atmosphere of Trinity Rep. The consortium offers the MFA students the rare combina-
tion of experience in both literary arts and performed theater. This versatile approach to playwriting accounts for the impressive achievements of the University’s small but strong MFA program, said Christopher Tyler ’10, associate producer of the festival. This year’s festival features plays written by the three firstyear graduate students in the Literary Arts MFA program in playwriting. The works that will be performed are the culmination of their year’s work, Tyler said. Earlier this fall, the playwrights submitted a series of possible plays for the festival. Each student’s most promising work was then selected to be featured in the New Plays Festival. After a careful process of revisions and edits, the scripts were streamlined and polished, Tyler said. Working closely with MFA directors, the playwrights lay out the artistic goals they hope to achieve in the production of their plays. Taking a more removed role as an involved and critical spectator, the playwrights step back from the maestro position during the rehearsal process. The directors, sensitive to the playwrights’ original intentions, hold the playwrights’ artistic interests at a premium, Tyler said. The continued on page 4
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007
New Plays Festival kicks off Applications to the Grad School at all-time high continued from page 3 end result — the play’s premiere performance — is an exceptional opportunity for the playwrights to hear their words spoken and their actions played out, he noted. This year’s festival offers a variety of theatrical entertainment. The three plays comprise a range of settings, characters and plots, and all three plays identify with various manifestations of seduction, according to Tyler. “Forever Never Comes,” written by Enrique Urueta GS and directed by Donya Washington GS, tells
the story of a young man’s hesitant return home to rural Virginia, according to the press release. At first determined to head off to San Francisco for a fresh start, he soon finds that his initial strong will and resolution falters. “Common Decency,” written by Ann Marie Healy GS, explores the tortuous throes of love and the terrible woes of abandonment. The heroines of this play know no bounds until they find themselves facing a mysterious and murderous wedding at the play’s culmination. In Gregory Moss’s GS “House of Gold,” a fantastical account unfolds involving a little girl who returns to the world of the living and searches her suburban house for her internal organs. The pace of play escalates as she desperately tries to separate herself from the fantasies of the animate world and those responsible for her reincarnation. The leaps and bounds taken by the playwrights in this year’s New Plays Festival are representative of the multi-faceted and dynamic approach with which the Brown MFA program fosters these young talents. Confident in their creative capacity, these students take risks and push boundaries, showing promise that they will take modern theatre to a whole new level.
continued from page 1 a 2002 stipend of $12,000 to the present stipend, which is $18,000,” Bonde said. She added that the improved financial package makes Brown more competitive with peer institutions such as Yale, Princeton and Columbia universities. Graduate Student Council President Joseph Bush GS wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that “competitive” stipends help “make for good offers to the prospective grad student.” Bonde also attributed the growth in applicant numbers to the Grad School’s decision to make official a policy that will guarantee five years of stipends to its incoming class of doctoral students. But some students believe it does not go far enough to support doctoral students beyond their fi fth year. Chad Galts, director of communications for the Grad School, said every other school in
Brown’s peer group with the exception of the University of Chicago offers five years of guaranteed support. Galts and Foster also credited the applicant increase to an increase in electronic applications, which Foster said allow “greater accessibility” to distant students. Galts said 97 percent of the Grad School’s applications are now submitted online. Individual departments have also been recruiting more prospective students, Bonde said. The increase in grad student applications is not constant across all departments. The Department of Economics, which has one of the largest graduate departments at the University, saw an increase in applications for its doctoral program from 473 in 2005-2006 to 579 in 20062007, according to department data. So far, the total number of applications this year is around 550, Foster said. Applications in the Division of
Engineering, which also has one of the largest grad programs, now total over 400, up from around 300 last semester, Galts said. But applications for the Department of English, another large department, have remained relatively constant at around 300, said Daniel Kim, associate professor of English and director of the graduate studies for the department. Although application rates are going up, the Grad School plans to decrease the size of its program by about twelve students due to uncertainty about how much the guaranteed support to all doctoral students for five years will affect the budget, Bonde said. The twelve cuts will be taken from several departments. “We’re making sure that we can cover the students who are already here before we admit more into this guaranteed system,” Bonde said. She said she doesn’t foresee any problems, but “we’re just being cautious.”
Few students enter new Sidney Frank Hall for Life Sciences continued from page 1 said Barry Connors, professor of neuroscience and chair of the department. The LiSci is divided into two wings. The west wing houses its distinctive atrium and administrative offices for both departments, while the east wing — known as the “tower” — contains faculty offices and labs. “It’s such a huge building, it’ll take time for it to feel like it’s being used,” Krueger said. The Metcalf Chemistry and Metcalf Research buildings, which used to house the neuroscience department, contain large classrooms for introductory undergraduate courses, but the LiSci has only one 98-seat auditorium. “As far as the Registrar’s Office controlling spaces for classes, (the auditorium) is the only room we have control over,” said University Registrar Michael Pesta. This semester, only five courses are assigned by the Registrar’s
Office to meet in the LiSci, though some professors hold seminars for upperclassmen and graduate students in departmental conference rooms. “There’s definitely more teaching space than we had before,” Connors said. “(The building) could have used a really big lecture hall,” said James McIlwain, professor emeritus of neuroscience, but he cited the need to make more room for graduate students as a key reason why plans for a large lecture hall were abandoned. “It’s designed mainly as a research building, and I think that’s mainly what it’s being used for,” said Carlos Aizenman, assistant professor of neuroscience. Though major construction was finished prior to the building’s dedication ceremony in early October, the building was only granted a temporary certificate of occupancy by the city that allowed only special events related to its dedication to be held inside. In November, the LiSci was is-
sued a full occupancy certificate, wrote Paul Dietel, assistant director of design and construction for Facilities Management, in an email to The Herald. Following the dedication, a company hired by the University, Sterling Office Services, began the process of moving the two departments into the LiSci, Dietel wrote. Connors told The Herald in September that the process of moving his department into the LiSci would take roughly six weeks. “It was a very elaborate schedule,” McIlwain said. Sterling employees e-mailed departments a series of master spreadsheets and schedules that indicated when each laboratory and office would be moved. The Department of Neuroscience began moving in December and completed the process as the spring semester began. “We should give the administration and particularly the people who organized the move credit (for such a smooth moving process),” Connors said. “Almost all the labs are up to speed in terms of research. … We’re open for business.” Spies said only a few minor construction projects within the building’s animal quarters still had to be completed after the dedication ceremony. “Any expectation I had for (the facility) has been realized,” Spies said. Aizenman said he enjoys the benefits of a building specifically designed to suit his department’s needs. “We got a say in how we designed (our laboratories) to some degree,” he said. So far, the LiSci has only experienced hiccups characteristic of any new facility. “It’s a big, complex place because it’s a research building,” Connors said. McIlwain said motion-controlled light systems in faculty offices have been deactivated after the system proved troublesome because the lights shut off if a room’s occupant stood still for too long. South-facing faculty offices are also expected to be refitted soon with darker window-shades, Connors said.
CAMPUS N EWS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007
NEWS
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I N
BRIEF
RISD president announces plan to step down BY OLIVIA HOFFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Courtesy of the Washington Post
Windows Vista will not be supported by CIS until later this year.
CIS to hold off on support for Vista Computing and Information Services will not support Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista, until later this year. Many programs currently used by the University, such as its antivirus software, are incompatible with Windows Vista, said Timothy Thorp, manager of training and communication for CIS. Software vendors need time to make versions that will work with Vista, Thorp added. “If we recommend (using) it at this time, people will have a very negative experience trying to use software that they would expect (to work),” Thorp said. “So, basically, we’re not ready yet to have it on our campus.” The CIS Help Desk is not yet familiar enough with Vista to be able to help students with problems, said Peter Tirrell, associate director of desktop services for CIS. Tirrell said he does not know how long it will take to be ready to support Vista. “There’s no specific timeline. Some (programs) are better than others,” he said.“There are projected dates of anywhere from 60 to 90 days, but (those are) just estimates.” The delay in supporting a new operating system is similar at other institutions, Thorp said. Tirrell said he expects CIS will “definitely have some kind of support in place for the fall semester.” In the meantime, CIS may become more comfortable with Vista and may be able to provide some limited support to users, Tirrell said. Daniel Leventhal ’07, a computer science concentrator, said he understood CIS’s decision.“You don’t want to be the first person to use a totally new operating system, because it’s going to have bugs, it’s going to have security holes, and in a couple of months they’ll solve all that … until you put it out there, it’s hard to tell if it’s secure,” he said. — Franklin Kanin
UCS aims to bring more newspapers to campus The Undergraduate Council of Students is working to boost the distribution of the New York Times on campus. UCS is also investigating the possibility of adding other newspapers, such as the Boston Globe, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, to on-campus distribution, and newspapers may even find their way into residence halls soon. The University now receives 165 copies of the Times each day. “If you look at other schools, it’s embarrassing,” said Sara Gentile ’09, chair of the UCS Admissions and Student Services Committee, comparing Brown’s newspaper distribution to that of Wesleyan University, which supplies 800 copies daily to its 2,800 undergrads. Gentile said Dining Services administrators are “very receptive” to the idea of expanding newspaper distribution, but plans for expansion have been delayed by cost concerns. The funding for more copies may come out of the Dining Services budget, which currently allocates $22,984 annually to supply the Times and the Providence Journal to the Sharpe Refectory, the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall and the Campus Market. Dining Services is not prepared to fully finance the increase in copies, so UCS would have to find funding from other University institutions, Gentile said. She expressed confidence that monetary issues would not stop the project from happening. This semester, the newspaper initiative introduced 25 copies of the Times at the Campus Market, a change that was well-received by students, said Linda Whittaker, the manager of the Campus Market. “Kids like it, they like to get coffee and a paper in the morning,” Whittaker said. The copies are usually all gone by noon, she added. The Campus Market would “probably (need) another 25 to get through the day,” she said. UCS President John Gillis ’07 said the project is “one of many things that UCS is working on right now.” “We put out the poll and got back many responses from people saying that they wanted more newspapers, so we’re trying to get it done,” Gillis said, referring to a poll UCS conducted via MyCourses last semester. UCS hopes to eventually introduce copies of the Times directly to residence halls, Gillis said. — Patrick Corey
Rhode Island School of Design President Roger Mandle will leave the school when his contract expires on July 31, 2008, he announced in an open letter to students on Feb. 2. The decision follows a no-confidence vote in Mandle by the faculty prompted by contentious contract negotiations between the RISD faculty union and the administration. Mandle took RISD’s top post in 1994 and is the longest-serving president in the history of the institution. Last October October, after months of contract negotiations between the administration and the full-time faculty union, university department heads ratified a vote of no confidence in Mandle. An Oct. 31 document outlining their concerns criticized the “lack of transparency with respect to financial decisions” and the “disproportionate growth in upper-level administration of the college.” Following a period marked by such tension, some students were less than surprised at Mandle’s announcement. “I was a little shocked, but it wasn’t totally out of the blue because of the no-confidence vote,” said Laura Worrick RISD’08. Worrick said she was “thrilled” when she heard Mandle would not seek renewal of his contract. “There is so much that we are left in the dark about,” Worrick said of the administration’s decision-making process, especially with regard to the school’s budget. Despite speculation that Mandle’s decision might have been prompted by the recent tension surrounding the contract negotiations, Mandle maintains that the two issues are unrelated. “None of my decision has anything to do with any of the kerfuffle that happened last fall,” he said. According to Mandle’s letter to students, his decision had been under consideration since prior to the fall term. “In talking with RISD trustees in the late summer, I began to make them aware of the potential that someday I might move on to new challenges,” Mandle wrote. Though Mandle says he has received an outpouring of support and understanding since he announced his decision to step down, reactions among members of the RISD community vary. “A lot of people seem pretty happy about it,” said Marin Brennan RISD’08. Mairead Byrne, associate professor of English at RISD, called the news “disappointing” but added that it is a reasonable decision and that Mandle made a good contribution to the university. “In the last year or two there was a very difficult contract negotiation, and there was a visible rift between the faculty and administration,” Byrne said. “I thought he was going to set about bridging that, so I was a little bit disappointed that that’s not going to happen.” The press release announcing Mandle’s departure stated that RISD has undergone many changes under Mandle’s leadership — including a significant rise in the number of faculty and graduate students, growth of the undergraduate student body, establishment of new programs and departments, the success of a $150 million capital campaign and the in-
Eunice Hong / Herald File Photo RISD President Roger Mandle will leave the university when his contract expires in July after serving the longest term in the history of the school.
crease of the endowment from $67 to $340 million. Also among Mandle’s accomplishments is the considerable physical expansion of the university. Mandle oversaw the construction of a new library, additional residential facilities and most recently the Chace Center, which is slated to open in fall of 2008. Still, Mandle said he is most proud of having built a greater sense of community among RISD’s various constituents and of having worked with the faculty to ensure that the curriculum reflects the changing world. At the root of these accomplishments, he said, is an understanding of the importance of “adhering to the core values of the institution, being careful to understand clearly what the mission of RISD is through every single decision.” Though Mandle expressed his excitement at the prospect of exploring new professional opportunities, he said he has no concrete plans for the future. “I am approaching this experience in my life like a blank canvas,” he said. In the time that remains on his contract, Mandle said he plans to focus on completing expansion projects, creating a structurally balanced budget that includes scholarship funds and competitive salaries and improving transparency and decision-making within the university. “I plan on continuing to work on all the issues that relate to RISD’s quality and effectiveness while I’m
here, and that means interacting with all elements of the community, particularly the faculty,” Mandle said. “It’s not just making information available, it’s creating a climate in which there is a willingness to engage, and that’s everybody’s responsibility.” Byrne said Mandle had done a good job listening to the concerns of the faculty despite the fact that the school’s recent growth has complicated communication between the faculty and administration. “I don’t doubt his commitment to RISD,” she said. As far as the expansion projects that Mandle has overseen and will continue to preside over for the next 18 months, Brown is affected indirectly, said Richard Spies, Brown’s executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president. “RISD’s willingness and foresightedness in thinking about expansion and pushing outside the envelope of their own campus has been a good thing for everybody,” Spies said. He praised Mandle’s vision and courage, citing the risks inherent in the types of expansion projects that Mandle has overseen and his success in such endeavors. According to Spies, Brown and the city of Providence will miss Mandle’s leadership, but his departure will not have a direct impact on Brown’s current expansion plans. “A new president will bring a new perspective and a new leadership that I hope will work as well with Brown as Roger has,” he said.
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PROTEST RITE
New group focuses on Asian American discrimination continued from page 1
Erik Ornitz / Herald Brown medical students joined Rhode Island residents in the State House yesterday afternoon to lobby for the reinstatement of RIte Care for all children.
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007
43-page report that the University had discriminated against Asians. “As a matter of fact, they even convinced the Brown Corporation to admit that forms of inadvertent discrimination were working to preclude Asians from Brown,” Vangala said. “They then said that if this type of prejudice went ‘unrectified,’ the discrimination would be intentional. It is a major aim of our group to publish a similar report. If our report proved discrimination, then these prejudices would be, by past admission of the Corporation, intentional.” Vangala is hoping to work with other campus groups to establish the group’s goals and to provide fair representation of their interest on campus. “We want to work with different groups, other multicultural groups on campus,” Vangala said. “Each of us will have a vote. Our first question will be if (we can) ask the admissions office for data, and we will ask a representative from each organization to vote.” Dean of Admission James Miller ’73 told The Herald that the admission office is ready and willing to discuss these issues with Vangala and Carr. They have scheduled a meeting for later this month. “I think it’s absolutely appropriate to talk to anyone who wants to discuss this issue,” Mill-
er said. “However, it’s against University policy to release individuals’ data. For one thing, the admissions process looks at a myriad of variables, and to look at one factor makes no sense.” “We have an increasing amount of students not reporting their racial or ethnic identity out of principle or because they no longer fit into a certain categor y,” Miller said. “Our priority is to build a community intellectually and culturally diverse and to put together the most vibrant and diverse group of students.” Li’s hope in filing his complaint against Princeton is that he will be able to bring awareness to the issue. In an e-mail to The Herald, Li wrote that he “expected to see a surge of criticism after these discriminator y admissions policies were revealed, but there was none.” “I am ver y glad that Neil and Jason have taken the steps to start AEA — this is precisely the kind of activism and consciousness-raising that I hoped to encourage when I filed the civil rights complaint,” Li wrote. Don Joe, a Florida lawyer and an activist for Asian Americans, started an online petition calling on Princeton to release its admission statistics. “Part of Princeton’s response was that ‘We don’t release information on our ethnic groups because no one in the public has asked,’ ” Joe said. “We decided to start this petition — Jian Li and myself and some other people — tr ying to put pressure on Princeton to release statistics.” “My personal viewpoint is that they should eliminate race. If they want to recruit disadvantaged students, they should use family net worth to make the distinction,” Joe said. “I don’t think people should discriminate against Asian Americans in order to increase the number of black and Hispanic students.” “You can look at test scores, they’re easily obtainable and objective … There was a Princeton professor (who) looked at it, and he determined that Asian Americans need to score at least 50 points higher than whites to have the same chance of admission,” Joe said, referring to a 2005 study by Princeton researchers Thomas Espenshade and Chang Chung, who analyzed data from three selective private universities. When asked about what he thought of the group started by Vangala and Carr, Joe said, “As far as I understand, their goals are similar to mine — to achieve equality in education for Asian Americans.” Belinda Navi ’09, who coordinated Southeast Asian Week in November, said she was ambivalent when asked about the group and its goals. “I think equality is
subjective. It’s hard to pinpoint discrimination,” Navi said. “It’ll be a challenge of this group. But I think starting dialogue with the admissions committee is vital.” Navi said she was war y about simply not checking off ethnicities on her college application. “My ethnicities are definitely a part of who I am, and inevitably what you communicate in your application is who you are,” Navi said. “I think the purpose of checking ethnicity is to understand the environment that an applicant comes from,” Navi said. “I think that if people didn’t check their ethnicity (on applications), those who are privileged with the parents who have the money to pay for a violin, cleats, to pay for debate trips — those will be the ones who are going to be at an advantage.” Navi said affirmative action is a necessar y evil and that students should focus on the lack of equality in public schools around the countr y rather than affirmative action. “(Public schools) are the reason why these race quotas exist,” Navi said. “Affirmative action wouldn’t be necessar y if the government would look at racism in public schools today. It’s tr ying to correct for past injustices in a somewhat unfair way.” Vangala and Carr said they are not opposed to affirmative action. “Policies like affirmative action and other forms of positive racial preferences were introduced for the ver y same reason that we constructed our group,” Vangala said. “By fighting such policies, we would therefore be implicitly encouraging the ver y discrimination that our group is tr ying to stop.” “I do believe in affirmative action. There are people who have fewer opportunities to educate themselves — those people tend to be of a different racial background,” said Soyoung Park ’09, the Asian and Asian-American student ser vices programming assistant for the Third World Center. “(Asians are) constantly grouped with white Americans, but when it comes to admissions, I think it’s unfair to group us with minorities then,” Park said. “All I can say is that until we become a society that’s non-discriminator y, we’ll never really have ‘fair’ admissions.” Vangala said he wants to be clear about what he is tr ying to do with the group. “We’re not arguing for the University to change the definition of merit. We’re not arguing against racial preferences. We think a diverse community is important,” Vangala said. “We’re arguing solely against Asian Americans being discriminated against in the college admissions process.”
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BRIEF
Celebrity Anna Nicole Smith dies suddenly at 39 WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — Anna Nicole Smith, a postmodern pinup for a tabloid age, died of unknown causes Thursday in a Florida hotel room, her sudden death at 39 delivering the same shock and uproar as the celebrity life she cultivated from the hardscrabble dust of small-town Texas. Smith was in her sixth-floor room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., when her private nurse called the operator for help, according to Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger, who said a bodyguard attempted CPR but could not revive her. The former Playboy Playmate of the Year was rushed to a hospital, where she died at 2:49 p.m., sparking breathless live news coverage from the Indian reservation. The Broward County medical examiner planned to conduct an autopsy Friday. Embroiled in an epic court feud over the hundreds of millions of dollars left behind by the octogenarian oil tycoon she married at 26 but never lived with, Smith cultivated a Marilyn Monroe image with her breathy singsong voice and va-va-voom figure. She pursued fame with a dignity-be-damned abandon, and her life unfolded in lurid headlines, tragedy and triumph in outsize measure — with so much legal drama that Smith was as likely to appear in a courtroom as a centerfold.
French police officers charged for 2005 riots PARIS (Washington Post) — A French judge has charged two police officers in connection with the electrocution of two teenagers whose deaths in 2005 set off three weeks of suburban violence across the country and have influenced much of the debate in this year’s presidential elections. The judge in the Paris suburb of Bobigny charged the two officers with failing to assist people in danger, officials said Thursday. If convicted, they could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $97,000 under French law. The two youths, Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore, 15, were electrocuted in October 2005 when they climbed into a power substation while trying to hide from police who were chasing them. A third youth who was injured said the teenagers, who were of African descent, had done nothing wrong but were afraid of being harassed by police who had set up a roadblock.
Libby prosecution rests case WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — Prosecutors rested their case Thursday in the perjury trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, completing a methodical portrait of a top-tier vice presidential aide who they say diligently scrambled to defend the White House against an early critic of the Iraq war and then lied to investigators about it. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald concluded the prosecution’s portion of the trial after 11 days in which he laid out for jurors a chronological narrative of the summer of 2003 that was sometimes dry but provided tantalizing glimpses into the worlds of President Bush’s closest advisers and an elite tier of Washington journalists. On Monday, defense attorneys are scheduled to begin presenting their case, which will try to cast a more flattering light on Libby’s statements and behavior. The defense has said it plans to begin by calling as witnesses several journalists, including some from the Washington Post, in part to show that Libby did not mention Plame to every reporter with whom he spoke in the summer of 2003.
Report faults pre-war Iraq intelligence WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — Intelligence provided by former undersecretary of defense Douglas Feith to buttress the White House case for invading Iraq included “reporting of dubious quality or reliability” that supported the political views of senior administration officials rather than the conclusions of the intelligence community, according to a report by the Pentagon’s inspector general. Feith’s office “was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida,” according to portions of the report, released Thursday by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. The inspector general described Feith’s activities as “an alternative intelligence assessment process.” An unclassified summary of the full document is scheduled for release Friday in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Levin chairs. In that summary, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Post, the inspector general concluded that Feith’s assessment in 2002 that Iraq and al-Qaida had a “mature symbiotic relationship” was not fully supported by available intelligence but was nonetheless used by policymakers.
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Study finds more autism cases than expected BY JAMIE TALAN NEWSDAY
The federal government has been looking for autistic children and found far more than it expected. A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week shows that one in 150 children has autism. “This is a sad day,” said Alison Singer, a New York mother of an autistic 9-year-old girl who also is senior vice president of Autism Speaks, a parent advocacy group. “This means that more families are being shattered by the news that their child has autism.” Two decades ago, experts believed that autism was a rare disorder, which in the 1980s was classified as a psychiatric illness. Now, it is accepted as a neurological condition, a developmental problem that causes significant delays in communication, social interactions and behavior problems. Two decades ago, the government estimated that one
in 10,000 children had autism. “Autism has become a major health care crisis,” Singer said. In 2000, the CDC study identified 8-year-old children in six states in an attempt to determine the prevalence of autism. A random sample of 4.5 percent of the 8year-olds was assessed from these states, and 1,252 children with autism spectrum disorder were identified. The prevalence varied per state, with a low in West Virginia of 4.5 per 1,000 children to New Jersey at 9.9 per 1,000. On average, that meant that 6.7 per 1,000 children have autism. That adds up to 550,000 children, said Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, chief of CDC’s autism program. Two years later, in 2002, they went back and collected data from another set of 8-year-olds. In all, there were 14 states participating in the study. In the survey, boys were twice as likely to have a diagnosis of autism than girls.
The symptoms range from slight to quite severe, such as a child who never talks or interacts socially. The cause of autism is hotly debated. That New Jersey had the highest rate in the nation — one in 100 — makes Eric London question the environmental triggers. “It certainly makes the environmental hypothesis more attractive,” said London, a psychiatrist and father of a 19-year-old son with autism. One of the major hot topics these days is whether vaccines trigger autism in susceptible children. But London said that these numbers suggest that the vaccine theory, which has been refuted in several new scientific studies, may not hold up. New Jersey has many more autistic children but has the same rate of vaccination as the rest of the country. London founded the National Alliance for Autism Research that recently merged with Autism Speaks. So did Cure Autism Now, another advocacy group.
Apple offer gets cool reception from recording industry BY MIKE MUSGROVE THE WASHINGTON POST
The recording industry is beginning to respond to a proposal earlier this week from Apple Computer Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who called for an open music system that would allow songs to be played on any device. The answer, so far, is no. Warner Music Group chief executive Edgar Bronfman said in a conference call with analysts Thursday that Jobs’ stance is “completely without logic or merit.” “We advocate the continued ... protection of our and our artists’ intellectual property,” Bronfman said. Jobs’ letter, which was posted Tuesday on Apple’s Web site, has sparked a broad conversation about the business of digital music and renewed interest in the measures that have so far limited consumers’ options with their music. Today, music purchased on Apple’s iTunes music store, for example, can be played only on iPod players while music purchased elsewhere on the Inter-
net is not playable on the iPod, the dominant digital music player on the market. Jobs argues that, without digital rights management — or DRM — software, consumers would be able to buy tracks from any online music store and play them on any digital music device, just as DVDs purchased or rented from any store can be read by any DVD player, regardless of the manufacturer. “This is clearly the best alternative for consumers,” he wrote. But Bronfman attacked the assertion that anti-piracy technology was the reason that iTunes music will not play on non-iPods. “The issue is obscured by asserting that DRM and interoperability is the same thing. They are not. To suggest that they cannot co-exist is simply incorrect.” Jobs also suggested that Apple might consider licensing its technology to competitors to help loosen the ties between online music stores and digital players, an idea that the Recording Industry Association of America prefers over the elimination of the protection software.
“We don’t think that a wholesale abandonment of DRM is necessary,” said Mitch Bainwol, chairman and chief executive of the RIAA. “I think you’ll see some experimentation, but that’s a lot different from a policy saying `Forget it.”’ Phil Leigh, senior analyst and president of Inside Digital Media, said he believes the two sides need to come together to compromise on the matter of anti-piracy software, which was intended to curb music piracy. Jobs asserted in his letter that anti-piracy software has been ineffective at stopping piracy, which continues on Internet file-sharing sites. Leigh suggested that music publishers test the waters by stripping tracks that appeal to older audiences, as they are less likely to use file-sharing sites to trade music illegally. “There’s a number of ways to negotiate this transition,” he said. “You don’t have to flip the switch all at once.” Apple did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.
Conservatives take aim at Giuliani BY CRAIG GORDON NEWSDAY
WASHINGTON — Eager to head off Rudolph Giuliani’s recent gains in the polls, conservative activists this week strengthened their attacks, with some promising to step up their efforts on the Internet, talk radio and “belowthe-radar” to discredit him going forward. They are taking direct aim at one of Giuliani’s strongest selling points, at least to some backers — that he is the Republicans’ best hope of stopping Hillary Rodham Clinton. These critics argue that his nomination would prompt a conservative third-party candidate to join the race and split the GOP vote, clearing the way for Clinton’s election. “There’s no way conservatives could stand for Giuliani becom-
ing the Republican nominee,” said Richard Viguerie, one of the founders of the modern conservative movement. “I guarantee whoever the Democrats nominate would be the next president.” Giuliani this week has taken pains to back away from some positions in a bid to make himself more palatable to social conservatives. He backed off his earlier opposition to a ban on the medical procedure referred to as partial-birth abortion, and expressed support for gun owners’ Second Amendment rights, even though as New York mayor he sued gun manufacturers and argued that more guns lead to more crime. And his campaign produced an anti-abortion-rights Michigan congresswoman on its first-ever conference call for reporters Thursday to testify to Giuliani’s plans to pick conservative judges. In many ways, the Republican
Party’s battle over Giuliani truly got under way this week — partly because he all but announced his candidacy Monday and partly because conservative activists appear to have been caught offguard by his gains in the polls. He now leads Arizona Sen. John McCain in several national polls, and in state polls in New Hampshire and Florida. In addition, a few prominent conservative commentators have begun making the case for Giuliani. Columnist George Will posed what he called the seven-minute test: If the president had just seven minutes to decide what to do if the nation was attacked, who would you want to be president? Will said Giuliani, based on his actions in New York. Added Michigan Rep. Candice Miller, “I trust his judgment to respond to a crisis to keep our nation secure, because he has been tested.”
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007
Finally free with others left behind BY BRUCE WALLACE LOS ANGELES T IMES
JUMUNJIN, South Korea — Rusty squid trawlers chafe at their tethers in this bustling harbor along Korea’s east coast, just as they did on the August morning in 1975 when fisherman Choe Uk-il boarded the Cheonwang with a crew of 31 others and set out on an expedition that was supposed to last a week. It would be heading toward 32 years before he came home. Choe, now 67, returned in January, a gaunt shadow of the man who went to sea as a hired hand looking to help support his wife and four children. He and his shipmates had vanished four days into the trip. Their families were told they had been lost at sea. More than two decades passed before Choe got word to his family that the Cheonwang’s crew instead had been captured by a naval vessel from North Korea and sent to live there. He since had remarried, to a North Korean widow with two children, and was scratching out a living as a farmer in a small village. It would be 10 more years before he was able to escape the North Korean dictatorship and return home a free man. But only the happy ending makes Choe’s disappearance stand out. By count of the government of South Korea, 3,790 of the country’s citizens have been kidnapped by North Korea since the 1953 truce in their civil war, of whom 485 are believed still alive, held against their will and unable to keep in touch with their families. Yet successive South Korean governments have been reluctant to press their cause. If Choe owes his freedom to anyone, it is to his South Korean wife, who never gave up on the possibility of his returning home, and to a soft-spoken but determined rescuer named Choi Sung-yong. Choi has become the embodiment of hope for families whose loved ones have been abducted by North Korea. His own father was kidnapped from a fishing boat in 1967. Pushed by a mother who “ordered” him to bring his father back,
Choi, 55, has spent 15 years developing a network to penetrate the mists of North Korea. Over the years, his “messengers,” as he calls them, have managed to locate some of the abducted South Koreans — and have freed five, at a price as high as $30,000 each. The story of Choe’s rescue underscores the perils of Choi’s enterprise. More than three decades after being abducted, Choe was still closely watched by North Korean security agents and afraid to risk escape. “For 32 years I lived under the surveillance of the North Korean security agency,” he said at a news conference after his release. “I was not able to eat or live properly.” So acute was his fear that he went to the local police department and reported some of the messengers sent to rescue him. Four of the eight Choi dispatched ended up in the hands of North Korean authorities. Their fate is unknown. “In the end, this is a happy story,” Choi said recently in his cramped Seoul office, its walls papered with photos of abducted South Koreans. They are haunting portraits of previous lives, snapped on graduation days or at tourist attractions with long-lost wives and children. “But there were sacrifices,” he added. “It’s like the movie ‘Saving Private Ryan’ — a lot of people sacrificed to save one man.” No one knows for sure why North Korea kidnapped civilians. Many of the abductees were fishermen, but North Korean agents are also alleged to have snatched South Korean students and workers from their hometowns or as they traveled abroad. Some observers contend that the civilians were abducted in order to teach North Korean spies the vernacular and customs of the South. Others say the abductions were a way for North Korean agents and military personnel to demonstrate their allegiance to the Kim family that has controlled North Korea since the end of World War II. “It was a reward system, like policemen who get rewards for hand-
Jinna Park / Los Angeles Times
Choi Sung-yong has become the embodiment of hope for families whose loved ones have been abducted by North Korea. His own father was kidnapped from a fishing boat in 1967.
ing out a high number of parking tickets,” Choi said. “Fishermen were just easy targets.” Through the years, South Korean governments have been reluctant to make a major issue of kidnappings. There has been no South Korean diplomatic campaign to free the victims, no financial aid for wives and children left without a family breadwinner. Families also complain that their government refuses to share whatever information it has on the missing. “When we said we would go look for our family members ourselves, we were treated as an obstacle to reunification,” said Choi Woo-young, whose father was kidnapped when she was in high school. She remembers telling classmates made-up stories of weekend outings with her dad. “I would tell them about the father of my imagination,” she said. “I am really living a sad life,” she added. “But I am not the only one. And that makes South Korea a sad
country.” A letter from Choe, smuggled to China in 1997 and soon after passed along to activist Choi, alerted families of the Cheonwang’s crew that their loved ones might still be alive. Choe’s carefully worded letter was addressed to an older brother and lamented the years of lost contact. But Choi read it as a signal that the fisherman wanted to get out. Choi contacted Yang Jeong-ja, the fisherman’s South Korean wife, who was working as a cleaner in Seoul, and they began lobbying the government for help. When none was forthcoming, Choi agreed to send messengers into the North to try to contact the missing seaman. Choe, however, was suspicious of the intermediaries who came to the farming village of Pungnyon-ri, asking if he wanted to escape. Worried that he was being set up by the North Korean authorities, he reported some of the approaches to the police, resulting in arrests. By last fall, Choi was ready to quit.
Only incessant appeals by Yang convinced him to take one more chance on her husband. Choi had a messenger carry Choe a letter that listed the birthdays of his children, enough evidence to convince the abductee that the offer was authentic. Choe said he was ready to come out, and Choi began organizing his escape. On Dec. 22, Choe left his village, and his North Korean family, traveling north toward the Chinese border by freight train. The train passed through 18 checkpoints. “My organization dealt with each checkpoint well,” Choi said with an enigmatic shrug. There were still difficulties once Choe crossed the border. The car carrying him through China crashed on a snowy mountain road, and he needed eight stitches for his injury. But Choi’s handlers got him to a safe house, arriving at 3:30 in the afternoon on Christmas Day. continued on page 9
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Finally free with others left behind
Rival Palestinian factions agree to share power
continued from page 8 Then, from his office in Seoul, Choi called the fisherman and put his South Korean wife on the line. Yang flew to China to join her husband, but the couple still had to contend with reluctant South Korean consular officials in China. China has treaty obligations (sometimes ignored) to send defectors back and, without the protection of South Korean citizenship, Choe could yet have found himself back in North Korea. But Choi had a recording of his clients getting the bureaucratic brush-off (“How did you get this number?” the diplomat shoots back at the couple when they reach him on his cell phone), and arrangements were soon made to fast-track the fisherman’s way home. Choe landed in Seoul on Jan. 16, shakily telling reporters that “life in North Korea was so hard I cannot even express the difficulties I experienced.” He was questioned by intelligence officials for two weeks, and then went to live with his son in Ansan, a city southwest of Seoul on the Yellow Sea. In Jumunjin, news of the fisherman’s return has been met with mixed emotions. Choe embodies the possibility that other missing fathers and sons might find a route out of
the walled North. But his escape also raises new fears among the families still waiting. Will surveillance of those still detained be tightened? Will their already harsh lives get harder? “I guess we might meet him one day, but what can he tell us, really?” said Lee Dae-u, the son of a kidnapped fisherman, sitting in the chilly dried-fish packing plant where he works. “Sometimes I think: Why would you come out? You don’t solve anything.” Choi, on the other hand, sees Choe’s return as a success. He has continued his long-odds rescue work, even though he learned seven years ago that his own father was executed in North Korea, probably in 1970. “At first I felt I couldn’t continue after I learned of my father’s death,” Choi said. “I lost all my mental and physical strength.” Choi’s mother insisted that he keep trying to bring other kidnapped South Koreans home. She died two years ago, and Choi carries on. He travels with a full-time police bodyguard now, after whispers of North Korean death threats. “Every time I bring someone out, I feel like I am bringing my father out,” he said. “It relieves my burden.”
BY SCOTT WILSON WASHINGTON POST
JERUSALEM — Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas agreed Thursday to form a power-sharing government and end the armed feuding that has killed scores of Palestinians over the past year. It remained unclear whether the new government will meet conditions laid down by Israel and international donors to fully restore funding to the Palestinian Authority that they cut off after Hamas’s victory in January 2006 parliamentary elections. The agreement does not explicitly recognize Israel’s right to exist, a key international demand. Hamas officials said their movement would not do so. The new cabinet will set aside seats for Fatah — it currently has none — and some smaller parties, but it will continue to be led by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. In assigning Haniyeh the task of forming a new government, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah leader, stated that its platform must conform with “international resolutions” and “respect” previous agreements signed with Israel. The wording amounted to a
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compromise acceptable to Hamas, formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, which refuses to openly endorse the 1993 Oslo accords and other agreements that the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization negotiated with the Jewish state. The deal “brings us to the shores of peace,” Abbas said in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where the factions have been meeting. “This initiative has been crowned with success.” Dubbed the Mecca Accord, the agreement emerged after two days of negotiations under the auspices of King Abdullah, a Sunni Muslim who is concerned about Shiite-dominated Iran’s growing influence within the Palestinian territories through the money it has provided Hamas during the aid embargo. Leaders of the Saudi royal family lined the ornate palace meeting room with a view of the Grand Mosque for the announcement. Palestinian officials used the deal to appeal for an end to the partisan violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that has killed about 70 Palestinians since December, when Abbas threatened to call early general elections unless Hamas agreed to share power. The disunity has undermined
the Palestinian national movement as Abbas is preparing to meet Feb. 19 with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss ways of reviving the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Palestinian leaders said the agreement, which gives Haniyeh five weeks to form a government, would begin closing those rifts. “We will rebuild our Palestinian house on strong foundations,” said Khaled Meshal, exiled leader of Hamas’s political wing, who took part in the talks. “This agreement will be fully committed to before God.” After Hamas ended Fatah’s long monopoly on political power last year, it invited Fatah to join its cabinet, but the secular-nationalist party declined. Since then, party leaders have twice announced the formation of a national unity government, only to see the agreements collapse soon after. The United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — the group of Middle East peace mediators known as the Quartet — have demanded that Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by previous agreements in return for resumption of aid that accounts for nearly half the Palestinian Authority’s operating budget.
Fuentes remembers his friends Galbraith, Miller, and Styron in lecture continued from page 1 — all of whom passed away in recent years — because “we cannot speak of those times without also speaking of those men.” Fuentes shared stories about how he had met each of them. He talked about living in Galbraith’s home in Boston in his younger days, and how Galbraith’s work had influenced him. “His foresight allows me to see that the (United States) needs immigrant labor, but Mexico needs their work even more,” he said.
“What will we do without him?” Fuentes said Miller helped “renew his faith in America” during a time of tension while he was ambassador, and said he admired Miller for his faith in the imagination. “According to Miller, if human imagination couldn’t change the world, it could at least create an alternative one,” Fuentes said. Fuentes spoke at length about Styron — whose widow, Rose, sat in the first row of the chapel during the lecture — whom he met at a conference for North American writers in Yucatan in Mexico.
Fuentes recounted how he and the Styrons had climbed to the top of a pyramid after a day spent participating in the conference and were shot at by the guards. From that moment, the two men became life-long friends. He would later realize that even though Styron — who was born in Virginia — came from a different background than he did, they agreed on many things, and they would joke that “Latin America began south of tthe Mason-Dixon Line.” Fuentes said a trait he valued in Styron, as well as Miller and Gal-
braith, was the way they accepted others — a trait he said the United States should adopt as well. “America is at its best when it embraces other cultures,” he said. Fuentes ended his hour-long speech on a melancholy note: “I am losing my best North American friends, and I don’t feel like crying anymore,” he said. Members of the audience said they were able to see how much Fuentes admired and missed his friends. “Carlos Fuentes had a way with words that was really intellectual and a perspective that was clearly well
educated, but you could sense just how much each of the authors meant to him,” said Dan Cellucci ’10. Many of the audience members present were those who attended Fuentes’ lecture in Spanish, “La Muerte de Artemio Cruz: The Politics of Fiction,” on Wednesday night, but few attended the second event. “I am really bothered by the turnout of students,” said Alia Lahlou ’10. “When we are provided with an opportunity to meet someone like Carlos Fuentes, I don’t understand how only a few actually take advantage of it.”
W. icers top UConn, 2-1 M. and w. squash both trample Tufts continued from page 12 With her two assists, Moore extended her point streak to 12 games, and she now has 18 goals and 12 assists on the season. Hunter has had a remarkable season as well, amassing seven goals and a team-high 18 assists in her freshman campaign. The win was a major improvement over last weekend’s losses against Princeton and Quinnipiac University when the Bears were plagued by defensive lapses and a failure to convert on power-play chances. Both were Brown’s strongest areas of play on Wednesday. “We saw better team defense and quicker decision-making from our players tonight,” Murphy said. “We also stayed out of the penalty box, which allowed us to use our depth to our advantage.” Moore added, “It wasn’t a matter of playing a flawless game, but when we did make mistakes we didn’t get down on ourselves, and we kept fighting back.” The win also carried some extra significance for Murphy. The win moved her one victory away from
becoming the third coach in collegiate women’s ice hockey history with 300 wins. The win had playoff implications as well. Brown currently trails Clarkson University by seven points for the eighth and final spot in the ECACHL playoffs with four games to play. “We have an outside shot, but we will need help from other teams in the league to get the eighth spot,” Murphy said. “Our team was unable to execute in some key games early on and needed to learn the lesson that things don’t always work out if you don’t play your best.” Nonetheless, the Bears will attempt to make a strong showing in their remaining games. This weekend the Bears will return to College Hill for two must-win games. On Friday, Brown plays Union College — 0-14 in the ECACHL — and then will face a stiffer challenge when they play Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday. “Whether or not we get a playoff spot really isn’t up to us,” Moore said, “but we will do everything we can from here on out to control our destiny.”
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continued from page 12 The top eight teams make the first division of the Howe Cup. A win over Cornell is crucial for Brown because a loss would likely allow Cornell to leapfrog Brown into the eighth spot. The men’s team, meanwhile, snapped its three-game losing streak with the win over the Jumbos. North Whipple ’08 started the day off on the right foot by controlling the entirety of his match at the No. 4 spot. Whipple varied his shots constantly and kept his opponent on his heels for the balance of the match en route to an easy three-game win. Brown also benefited from several comeback victories. Adam Greenberg ’10 at the No. 3 spot and co-captain Patrick Haynes ’07 at No. 5 both triumphed after trailing early on. Greenberg came back from an 8-1 deficit in the second game to win the game, 10-9. Haynes found himself down 6-1 in the first game, but pulled out a 9-7 win that started him on a three-game victory. Wins also came from Edward Cerullo ’08, Alex Heitzmann ’10 and Brett Camarda ’09. The match of the night, however, was at No. 1, where co-captain Dan Petrie ’07 battled Tufts’
Jake Gross. Petrie, who has been playing very well recently, started slowly, splitting the first two games. “Dan might have been distracted early on because it was his last home match. He was not sharp in the first few games,” LeGassick said. “Dan played really well against two outstanding opponents last weekend, and this might have caused a bit of a letdown tonight.” Gross sustained a strong start, but Petrie stuck with him and the two rallied back and forth in seemingly endless points. Though Brown had already claimed the overall victory, the match received the attention it deserved. All other matches had finished, putting the focus of all spectators and players on Petrie, who was trying to pull one last match out in the Pitz. By the middle of the second game, Petrie gained the advantage over his tired opponent, even as Gross’ deep breathing became audible to those in the crowd. Between each drawn-out point, Gross had his hands on his knees. However he continued to test Petrie, managing to grab a 2-1 lead in games, though each point was closely contested. Petrie came back and pushed the match to the decisive fi fth game. Emotions
ran high as both players were upset with let calls. Each point was characterized by a flurry of shots and Petrie dove to the ground on multiple occasions, stretching out to answer Gross’ shots. In the end, Petrie pulled it out, completing the storybook ending with a 9-7 win in the fi fth game. “I just had to grind it out. I was not playing well but I told myself to just grind it out, it’s the last home match. Just grind it out,” Petrie said. The men’s team will be on the road this weekend, heading to Yale and Cornell as well.
E DITORIAL & L ETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
PAGE 10
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007
STAF F EDITORIAL
Diamonds and coal A diamond to those enrolled in Rhode Island’s Medical Marijuana Program who get their medical marijuana from a friend, who gets it from an unknown source. Yeah, that’s how we get ours too. Coal to the proposed bill that would close the loophole in Rhode Island law that allows indoor solicitation of sex … specifically in massage parlors. So much for our happy ending. Coal to Facilities Management for not adopting Phi Kappa Psi’s apparent solution to the mouse invasion — a live-in snake. And a coal to ResLife for punishing the pet snake. Come on, what better solution is there to the residence-hall rodent problem? Speaking of fall review, coal to ResLife for missing the Super Bowl stripper in a certain fraternity’s lounge. Make sure you self-report that for spring review, guys. A diamond to the doctors who cheerfully auctioned themselves away. We’re glad they’re carrying on the recent practice of prostitution at the Med School — oops, the Alpert Med School. Coal to Balkan-style conflict at Brown. Maybe Herald alum Richard Holbrooke ’62 can help broker a peace agreement to prevent Bulgarians driving more helpless UCS members from their homes in Faunce.
ROXANNE PALMER
A cubic zirconium to using fake diamond rings from Cracker Jack boxes to get birth control. Innovative and effective, but we never want to have to do that. Coal to Issac Haxton ’08 for making our plans for the future seem stuffy and grown-up. If we’d known beforehand that resorting to vices could make a career, we would totally have the “body-shots-off-of-hookers” consulting job in the bag. A diamond to every poor drunk and baked stoner who burned three meal credits at 1 a.m. and were forced to go hungry the next day because of a glitch in the Dining Services computer system. Though we have to add, now that UCS has approved Scrabble Club and Lego Builders for Category I status, maybe you guys can find a better way to spend your Friday nights. A diamond to the dumb Facebook gift-giving thing, which we’ve been waiting for all night. But coal to the fact that each gift costs a dollar. It’s a good thing that there are other gifts — in boxes — that are more fun to give and receive. Coal to UCS for trying to increase the number of copies of the New York Times on campus. Our local, tabloid, 12-page publication is definitely not threatened by your large, broadsheet, national, Pulitzer-Prize winning … oh, crap.
T HE B ROWN D AILY H ERALD Editors-in-Chief Eric Beck Mary-Catherine Lader
Executive Editors Allison Kwong Ben Leubsdorf
Senior Editors Stephen Colelli Sonia Saraiya BUSINESS
EDITORIAL Lydia Gidwitz Lindsey Meyers Stephanie Bernhard Stu Woo Simmi Aujla Sara Molinaro Ross Frazier Jacob Schuman Michal Zapendowski Peter Cipparone Justin Goldman Sarah Demers Erin Frauenhofer Madeleine Marecki
Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Editor Features Editor Features Editor Metro Editor Metro Editor News Editor Opinions Editor Opinions Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor
PHOTO Eunice Hong Christopher Bennett Jacob Melrose
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Managing Editor Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor
LETTERS Grad school dean addresses new funding policy To the Editor: I am writing to correct some of the misconceptions and incorrect information in a letter in Wednesday’s Herald (“New Grad School policy is poorly thoughtout,” Feb. 7). Primarily I was dismayed by the tone of this message and its implication that the changes it refers to have been sudden. During my tenure as dean of the Graduate School, I have made significant and consistent efforts to keep students and faculty aware of any changes or updates to our policies or practices. In fact, we began discussing the new plan for doctoral support with department chairs and directors of graduate study more than a year ago, and last semester we invited all doctoral students to an open forum on the plan. In all of these discussions we stressed, and still do, that the plan is an important step toward improving the academic experience of graduate students at Brown. I appreciate history students’ concerns about their ability to complete their courses of study within five years. They are not alone with their concerns. I would, however, like to clarify a number of things. First, the decision to guarantee five years of funding was new. A number of our programs have been offering this guarantee for some time, but this guaranteed period has now been universally applied. (It’s worth noting that history has never guaranteed five years of aid to a student, until now.) Second, the intention of this decision was to ease students’ concerns about funding within this period so they could focus more effectively on their research or teaching. Third, as I announced in a note to all graduate students on Jan. 29 (the note remains available on the Grad School’s Web site), there is a process for allocating student support for those who are beyond their fi fth year of study. It is our ex-
pectation that some sixth-year doctoral students will be funded, but only after we satisfy our obligation to students in their first five years, and through a collaborative process with the department. As for the letter’s comments regarding teaching needs within the Department of History, I am both puzzled and unclear on its sources. In fact, we have already received requests from history for TA appointments for next year that are not consistent with what is described in the letter. More generally, it is not our expectation that the number of TAs in history — or in any other department — will decrease. Under the terms of the new plan for support, departments will have more flexibility, not less, with which to respond to the needs of all of their students, graduate and undergraduate. The issues of instructional support are a University priority, not simply a Grad School (or history department) concern. We have been, and we remain, in regular consultations with the provost and the deans of the College and faculty to make sure that any changes made within the Grad School are consistent with the goals of Brown. Lastly, I would encourage any graduate student who has concerns, comments or questions about their support — or about any issue related to their experience at Brown — to come to my regular Monday office hours (1-2:30 p.m.). I don’t mind replying to letters in The Herald, but I’d much rather hear from students directly.
Sheila Bonde Dean of the Graduate School Feb. 8
Medical marijuana is compassionate To the Editor: Sick citizens should have access to cannabis. When I read that Rhonda O’Donnell called the bill “compassionate” (“Medical Marijuana Act up for review,” Feb. 6), I was reminded of its Biblical implications. “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother
in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). Stan White Dillon, Colo. Feb. 6
Steve DeLucia, Christian Martell, Designer Jacob Frank, Sarah Molinaro Molinaro, Copy Editors Senior Staff Writers Rachel Arndt, Michael Bechek, Oliver Bowers, Zachary Chapman, Chaz Firestone, Kristina Kelleher, Debbie Lehmann, Scott Lowenstein, James Shapiro, Michael Skocpol Staff Writers Susana Aho, Taylor Barnes, Evan Boggs, Alissa Cerny, Irene Chen, Stewart Dearing, Nicole Dungca, Hannah Furst, Sarah Geller, Thi Ho, Rebecca Jacobson, Tsvetina Kamenova, Hannah Levintova, Abe Lubetkin, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Zachary McCune, Jennifer Park, Nathalie Pierrepont, Kam Sripada, Robin Steele, Spencer Trice, Sara Walter, Allissa Wickham, Max Winograd Sports Staff Writers Amy Ehrhart, Kaitlyn Laabs, Eliza Lane, Kathleen Loughlin, Megan McCahill, Marco Santini, Tom Trudeau, Steele West Account Administrators Emilie Aries, Alexander Hughes Design Staff Aurora Durfee, Christian Martell Photo Staff Stuart Duncan-Smith, Austin Freeman, Tai Ho Shin Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Catherine Cullen, Erin Cummings, Karen Evans, Jacob Frank, Lauren Levitz
CORRECTIONS POLICY The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. COMMENTAR Y POLICY The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. ADVER TISING POLICY The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
O PINIONS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007
PAGE 11
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
A NUANCED LOOK AT THE TIMETABLE FOR THE INVASION OF FIJI We should invade Fiji immediately We should soften up Fiji first President Bush has come under unrelenting criticism recently for leading us into a quagmire in Iraq, even though when he first declared “mission accomplished” support for him was at, like, 99 percent. However, as I watch the confusing images on television and listen to all the meaningless facts on Iraq that bombard me, one thing has become increasingly certain in my mind. America was not wrong to try to export democracy or to declare a doctrine of pre-empting possible threats to national security before they even begin to materialize. What we did wrong was to bite into something that was too big for us. When it comes to democratizing the world by force, we ought to start with little countries that we can digest, and only once we’re really good at it should we move on to bigger ones. Just this past Dec. 5, a coup d’etat led by Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama (more commonly known as ‘Frank’ Bainimarama) deposed Fiji’s elected government. The Commodore — or rather, Commodorissimo — has declared himself Fiji’s president and prime minister. He has also taken personal control of the Ministries of Information and Home Affairs — the infamous Fijian security services. Did the Fijian people choose to live under tyranny? Or do you think they might prefer democracy? That’s a no-brainer — They prefer democracy. And the great thing about Fiji is that it’s a tiny archipelago in the South Pacific, with a population of less than 1 million. Did someone say something about “not enough troops on the ground?” Consider the following fact: We could send 10,000 troops into Fiji and we’d have more than double the ratio of forces to occupied population than we currently have in Iraq. And even if an insurgency developed in Fiji, with only 2 percent as many forces there, what would that amount to — like, two of our soldiers killed annually? It’s impossible to measure the intangible value of democracy, but certainly it’s higher than “two.” Dictator-coddling critics might ask: Is Fiji a threat to U.S. national security? The simple fact of the matter is: We don’t know. And how could we ever be fully certain? I challenge someone to answer that question. Let’s take a look at the intelligence. According to Wikipedia, 54 percent of the population of Fiji is made up of native Fijians, a people of mixed Polynesian ancestry, while 38 percent is made up of Indo-Fijians, who are descendants of Indian laborers brought to the islands by the British in the 19th century. Wait, what’s that? It says “the percentage of the population of Indian descent has declined significantly over the last two decades because of exclusionary policies against them and related emigration.” So Fiji has a repressed ethnic minority. Don’t worry, Indo-Fijians — we’re on our way. People say the Iraqis didn’t welcome us with open arms or shower our liberating troops with flowers. All I have to say to these people is: no sh*t, Sherlock, Iraq is a desert! In Fiji, the people would be well supplied to greet us with woven necklaces made of tropical flowers. These images could be transmitted back to the United States to maintain popular support for the war. And while Marines and soldiers may be getting demoralized fighting in a desert quagmire, who would get demoralized serving in a tropical paradise? We also know that native Fijians are overwhelmingly Christian, while Indo-Fijians are 77 percent Hindu and 16 percent Muslim. Just to repeat that — 16 percent are Muslim. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the CIA has strong evidence of connections between Muslims and al-Qaida. We have countless instances of meetings between Muslim and al-Qaida leaders. Fiji could be being used as a training ground for al-Qaida extremists as we speak. We won’t know for certain unless we invade. So to summarize: We have a dictator and we have Muslims, in the same country. What are we supposed to wait for — a smoking gun? Wait until we wake up with an army of tribesmen in downtown Manhattan? Imagine how much damage a well-sharpened lau could do in a dense urban area, where its wielder could penetrate several victims simultaneously with each blow. Then
imagine if someone sent the NYPD on a mission, telling them “shoot all the ethnic Fijians but not the dark-skinned, ethnic New Yorkers.” We’re talking about a serious civilian bloodbath. One article I found about Fiji had the following to say: “Kills were indicated by the inlaying of human teeth or ivory around the head, or by the cutting of notches on the grip. A weapon with many kills to its credit was thought to have achieved its own ‘mana,’ with power and life of its own.” Apparently, the most common type of weapon in Fiji is a type of spear known as the lau. With a tip most commonly made of sharpened ivory or rock, the lau may not seem that imposing in the hands of one man, but multiply that one man by 900,000 (the population of Fiji) and you get a weapon of mass death. Does this sound like the type of country that we want as our neighbor? Remember that in this rapidly globalizing world, the Pacific Ocean is more like a puddle. All the Fijians need to get across is the Internet. There are also strong humanitarian reasons to argue for intervention. Here’s an excerpt from another article on Fiji, this time from Oct. 31, 1839: ““This morning we witnessed a shocking spectacle. Twenty dead bodies of men, women and children were brought to Rewa as a present from Tanoa. They were distributed among the people to be cooked and eaten … Human entrails were floating down the river ... ” While the United States had a hard time sell-
Though it is true that the nation of Fiji has a pleasant climate and a small Muslim population — and for both of these reasons, it is a tempting candidate for democratization — military force should only be used as a last resort in international relations, as our dutiful president has so often reminded us. We are still a long way from using all of the tools at our disposal in civilizing this island state. It is simply unbecoming of us (and dare we say “crass”) as a great, sophisticated power to cause violent regime change in Fiji until we have exhausted all the diplomatic alternatives: chiding its economy via naval blockade, educating its people through sanctions, disciplining its leaders via torture, et cetera. Personally, we prefer secretly launching hundreds of tiny rockets at strategic locations within the state in hopes of killing its leaders — perhaps this can be done simultaneously to all the above — a socially graceful way to circumvent full-frontal combat and unnecessary civilian bloodshed. The groundwork has to be laid for democracy to succeed in a country. Imagine if we had tried to reform Japan before annihilating two of its largest cities with nuclear bombs. If we
MICHAL ZAPENDOWSKI OPINIONS EDITOR
POINT COUNTERPOINT BY DANIEL ANDIS, ANNA AUFSEESER AND XIAOJUE HU GUEST COLUMNISTS ing its case on Iraq to the United Nations, surely such flagrant proof of cannibalism would mobilize the world community to take action. And if the government of Fiji tried to protest — Just remember, they’re a ruthless dictatorship trying to cling to power. Has anyone seen the movie “Wag the Dog?” The best way for the Bush Administration to get people’s minds off Iraq is to get them focused elsewhere — on a tropical paradise, whose people are being crushed by a ruthless dictator and where even a botched occupation would produce casualty rates that could be counted on one hand. Our military has no precedent for a successful democracy-implantation maneuver in the Arab world, but there is a successful precedent for occupying and democratizing a tropical archipelago. In fact, my friend is getting married there in a couple of months. Could Fiji be the next Hawaii? If we don’t invade, we will never know. Mr. President: it’s time to dust off your flight suit, sir.
Michal Zapendowski ’07 is concentrating in international relations.
rashly rush into war, without at least attempting to psychologically lubricate the nation, so to speak, into accepting our imminently ruling presence, we will only gain disdain and condemnation from the international community. The United States should behave less like an angry pitbull in its foreign policy and more like a mischeivous feline that plays with its smaller prey. We should also remain aware of the fact that, unlike a suit from the Men’s Wearhouse, the success of a military occupation of Fiji is not guaranteed. According to Wikipedia, “for a country its size, Fiji has large armed forces.” The island’s tyrant, Commodore “Frank” Bainarama, is an elusive figure and spawns much doubt, at least in my mind, about the stability of his mental faculties. We are not necessarily dealing with a rational leader of the free world here, dear readers. What are the origins of a name like Bainarama anyway? Could it be an oblique, albeit obviously tasteless, tribute to late 1980s pop a la Bananarama? And if so, why?
And if not, why not? Could this “Frank” character have chemical and biological weapons up his mad sleeve, and if so, will he use them frankly, so to speak, against our troops? And what if the Commodore flees his palaces in an epileptic fit and got it in his head to lead a guerrilla insurgency? Imagine trying to chase a man down in a nation the size of Rhode Island, and you don’t even know whether his name or even he exists. Even a cursory glance at Wikipedia would make it plain to the dimmest of my readers why occupying Fiji could turn into a logistical nightmare. The archipelago consists of 322 islands and 522 islets. If we concentrated our forces on one of them, the insurgency could thrive elsewhere. If we spread our forces among all 844, the insurgents could concentrate on one, leaving our divided troops vulnerable to attack. As we crush those pesky barbarians on one island, more would simply pop up elsewhere, waving sharpened weapons from their jungles, causing our occupation to resemble a nightmarish game of whack-a-mole. And if our soldiers then tried going after those bloody cannibals, they could flee on makeshift canoes and send smoke-signals to their relatives on another island who could then ransack our undefended base — exposing our armed forces to the ridicule of the whole world. And then where would we be? In order to succeed in sowing our enlightened seed abroad, we must prevent insurgencies from happening at all. The Fijians must first be impregnated with our ideas. They must become heady with excitement about our coming. We must make them want to be invaded. Though they may not seem like they want it yet, they really do. They have so much to learn from us, after all. They don’t even know what they’re missing. I quote from Wikipedia about the use of Fiji’s national drink during what they call social ceremonies: “One should clap once, clasping the hands, take the cup, and drink the yaqona in a single mouthful, before returning the cup to the bearer, clapping three times, and saying the word maca.” The word “yaqona” is a mouthful in and of itself, I can’t even imagine wanting to do that for more than one drink. I can’t even imagine what courtship is like for Fijians; perhaps something like musical chairs. Indeed, the time has come for America to adopt a more pragmatic foreign policy, one with more panache, more of a “je ne sais quoi” about it. Why wage war when one can play with the enemy first? Hot-heads have gotten us into a quagmire in Iraq — in Fiji, we could redeem our reputation as a hegemon acquainted with the finer feelings in life. Let’s get to know our subjugatedto-be-colonies first — say hello doff our hats, invite them in for tea, take them out for a jaunt around the block. What I mean to say is: We should tease Fiji with a “shock and awe” missile barrage, until their nation is about to collapse, then stop and leave the islanders bewildered. Then do it again, right until they’re about to collapse, and stop, and withdraw. By the time we actually invade they’ll be going crazy. They’ll be begging for it.
Xiaojue Hu ’06 MD ’10, Anna Aufseeser ‘09 and Daniel Andis swell up to over three times their usual size when put in water.
S PORTS W EEKEND FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2007
PAGE 12
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
M. icers’ Garbutt ’09 gabs about growing up in Canada BY MARCO SANTINI SPORTS STAFF WRITER
Last weekend, Ryan Garbutt ’09 recorded his first collegiate hat trick, leading the Bears to a 6-3 victory over No.18 Quinnipiac University. On the year, Garbutt ranks third on the team in goal-scoring with seven, and he is eighth on the team in points with 10.
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo Savannah Smith ’09 scored her second goal of the evening 1:51 into overtime to give the Bears a 2-1 victory over UConn. Smith’s two goals were a breakout performance as she doubled her goal output for the season in Wednesday’s game.
W. icers stun UConn in OT BY BENJAMIN ASHER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The women’s hockey team came away with a thrilling win Wednesday, emerging with a 2-1 overtime victory over the University of Connecticut. Savannah Smith ’09 scored both goals for the Bears, while Hayley Moore ’08 and Andrea Hunter ’10 picked up the assists on both goals. The win puts the team’s record at 7-15-2 overall and 4-13-1 in the ECAC Hockey League. The Bears fell behind just one minute into the second period when a shot from UConn’s Brianna Uliasz went past Brown goaltender Nicole Stock ’09, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead. From that point on, Stock shone. She made 25 saves in the game and allowed only that lone puck to sneak past her. Brown struck back just six minutes later in the period when Smith secured a rebound off a shot by Hunter and took advantage of an open net to tie the score at 1-1. “We knew if we just kept pressuring them and shooting, the goals would come,” Smith said. “We just had to focus on making fewer mistakes in our own zone and capitalizing on our opportu-
nities.” After a scoreless third period, the game went into extra time. Bruno were awarded a golden opportunity 57 seconds into the bonus period. The Bears went on the power play after the Huskies’ Amy Hollstein was penalized for interference. In last weekend’s games the Bears were plagued by their inability to convert during powerplay opportunities, but Wednesday night this was not the case. Hunter controlled a rebound off of Moore’s blocked shot and found Smith to set up the gamewinning goal 1:51 into the overtime period. Smith entered Wednesday’s game with only four goals this season, so her two goals came as something of a welcome surprise. “I think the opportunities just came my way tonight,” she said. “It seemed like my linemates did all the work, and the puck just happened to fall on my stick twice with a wide open net.” “We have been waiting for Savannah to have a breakout game like this,” said Head Coach Digit Murphy. “Hopefully this is the first of many great games for her.” continued on page 9
SPORTS SCHEDULE FRIDAY, DAY FEB. 9 DAY, M. BASKETBALL: at Cornell W BASKETBALL: vs. Cornell, Pizzitola Center, W. 7 p.m. M. ICE HOCKEY: at Clarkson W ICE HOCKEY: vs. Union, Meehan Auditorium, W. 7 p.m. M. & W. TRACK: at St. Valentine’s Invitational (Cambridge, Mass.)
M. TENNIS: vs. Stony Brook, Pizzitola Center, 2 p.m.; vs. Colgate, Pizzitola itola Center Center, 6:30 p.m. W TENNIS: vs. Kentucky, W. Kentucky, Pizzitola Center, 9:30 a.m. M. & W. TRACK: at St. Valentine’s Invitational, (Cambridge, Mass.) W. WATER POLO: vs. Yale, Smith Swim Center, 11 a.m.; vs. Penn, Smith Swim Center, 2:45 p.m.; .m.; vs. Wagner, Smith Swim Center, 5:45 p.m.; WRESTLING: at Harvard; with Franklin & Marshall; and Boston University
SATURDAY, ATURDAY FEB. 10 ATURDAY, M. BASKETBALL: at Columbia W BASKETBALL: vs. Columbia, Pizzitola Center, W. 7 p.m. GYMNASTICS: at UNH Invitational M. HOCKEY: at St. Lawrence W HOCKEY: vs. RPI, Meehan Auditorium, 4 p.m. W. SKIING: at Boston College Carnival (Mt. Ascutney, Vt.) M. & W. SQUASH: at Yale
SUNDAY, DAY FEB. 11 DAY, FENCING: at Ivy South (Philadelphia, Pa.) SKIING: at Boston College Carnival (Mt. Ascutney, Vt.) M. & W. SQUASH: at Cornell W TENNIS: at Boston University W. W. WATER POLO: vs. Villanova, Smith Swim Center, 8 a.m.
Herald: What was special about your first collegiate hat trick? Explain the goals. Garbutt: I sat out the night before in our 1-1 tie to Princeton because of undisciplined play. Then against Quinnipiac, (Head Coach Roger) Grillo had the confidence to put me on the first power play. It was the first time I got in on a power play this season and I scored on a broken play. We have such talented players on our power play it was easy to get the other goal and assist. The third goal was a result of hard work by Devin Timberlake (’10) and a great pass by Aaron Volpatti (’10). They are both Canadian and the two hardest hitters I’ve ever played with. Do the Canadians try to stick together? We actually play games in practice where the Canadian players take on the American players. We switch jerseys and the battles tend
to heat up. We fight for pride. What do you miss most about Canada? I spend a lot of time at outdoor rinks and everyone loves hockey. My last year playing in Canada was when the NHL lockout occurred, so many people focused a lot more on the hockey in the city because they couldn’t follow the NHL. They love to follow hockey no matter the level of play. We also had five guys who went on to play at NCAA programs, so we did have a good team. Do you root for any teams that aren’t Canadian? I was born in Edmonton and raised as an Oilers fan. My dad was a goaltender and he played a few games for the Edmonton Oilers before he became the broadcaster for the Oilers through their five Stanley Cups. But I do like the Colorado Avalanche. One of my friends Tyler Arnason plays for the team. My roommate Sean Muncy (’10) has a friend, Paul Stastny, who plays for them as well. We hear they are good buddies like me and Munce, and like to have a good time off the ice. Did you ever meet former Oilers star Wayne Gretzky? Yes, a few times. I got to meet everyone on the team when my dad worked there. I was pretty little, but I still remember it. My dad is still friends with all of them.
What is the best Canadian-related sporting event you can remember? Well, I was very young in 1992 and 1993 when the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series. It was very exciting when the Oilers went to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006, although they lost to those brutal Carolina Hurricanes. When a Canadian team goes to the Stanley Cup, the entire country jumps on the bandwagon. Since the Oilers were still playing for the cup in April it gave Brian McNary (’08) and myself a chance to train with the speed training coach of the Edmonton Oilers for a week. This was possible through my dad’s connections with the Oilers, and it was definitely beneficial. What is the team’s mindset going into this weekend? It’s our longest road trip of the season. We take an eight-and-a-half hour bus ride to St. Lawrence (University) and Clarkson (University in New York). It’s fun for the guys. We watch movies or play cards on the bus, if we’re not talking about goons and chirpin’ Rose. We seem to play better against good teams, and they both have proven to be tough to play against. St. Lawrence has a cool rink that’s almost like playing in an old barn. It’s all made of wood. If you lit a match you would set the whole place on fire. Plus, I have extra incentive to play well against St. Lawrence because they were one of the schools recruiting me.
M. and w. squash both trample Tufts BY JASON HARRIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
For the men’s and women’s squash teams, Wednesday night was a performance that will not soon be forgotten. In the women’s squad’s final home match of the season, the Bears crushed Tufts University 9-0 without dropping a game, and the men were victorious, 7-2, on a night full of emotion. The women improved to 4-6 and the men improved to 2-7 on the season. The women’s team was far too strong for Tufts and rested multiple regulars. Some players were as many as three spots above their usual positions in anticipation of the blowout. The eighth-ranked Bears performed impressively across the board, bouncing back from two close losses this past weekend. “We did well and stayed on our game,” said Kali Schellenberg ’10 after her 9-1, 9-0, 9-0 win. Sarah Roberts ’10, Herald Staff Writer Nathalie Pierrepont ’07 and Denia Craig ’08 all “triple bageled” their opponents, winning by scores of 90, 9-0, 9-0. Brown also received victories from classmates Zarah Rahman ’07, co-captain Erin Andrews ’07 and co-captain Katie Lew ’07, who had a quite a cheering section to celebrate her final match in the Pitzzitola Center. a “The seniors definitely were a little sad and emotions were running high,” said Head Coach Stuart LeGassick. “But it was a good match for distractions because we knew that we should win this match if we played well.” LeGassick also mentioned that while this match was important to
Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo Co-captain Dan Petrie ’07 led men’s squash to a 7-2 victory over Tufts on Wednesday. In his last home match, Petrie won in five tease games, pulling out the last game 9-7.
the team, it was really focusing on this weekend and matches at Yale on Saturday and Cornell on Sunday. Megan Cerullo ’08 agreed. “We are really excited,” Cerullo said. “Yale is always good and they will be a good warm-up for Cor-
nell. The Cornell match will decide where we are placed for the Howe Cup.” Yale is currently ranked fourth in the nation and Cornell ninth. continued on page 9