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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD T UESDAY,

Volume CXLII, No. 33

ARCH 13, 2007 2 007

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Simmons gives $20,007 for senior class gift ber of people on board and how well this class was organizing this effort,” Simmons told The Herald, adding that it was a spur of the moment decision. “So I will have a shorter vacation this year.” The Brown Annual Fund, which last year raised $30.7 million from parents and alums, focuses more on rates of participation than the size of donations when coordinating the class gift, said Johanna Corcoran, the fund’s assistant director for student programs. “I had chills,” Corcoran said of

BY ROSS FRAZIER NEWS EDITOR

If President Ruth Simmons’ annual donations to the senior class gift campaign are any indication of her conﬁdence in the graduating class, she’s feeling especially optimistic this year. Simmons, who in years past donated an amount equal to the seniors’ graduating year — $2,004, $2,005, $2,006 — this year announced at the senior gift campaign kickoff event last weekend that she will give $20,007 to their class gift campaign. “I was very moved by the num-

Rahul Keerthi / Herald

The Ofﬁce of International Programs has added a sponsored program in Barcelona for next year.

Barcelona, Cuba on U.’s study abroad radar BY RACHEL ARNDT SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Students planning to study abroad in coming years will ﬁnd changes in the offerings of the Ofﬁce of International Programs, including a new Brown program this fall in Barcelona, Spain, and a program in Cuba that is still in the initial planning stages. Meanwhile, other programs that have

been available in the past are being reduced or ended by the OIP, such as the Brown in Egypt program and the approved alternative program in Ethiopia. Last fall, payment structure for studying abroad changed — students in the class of 2010 and later will pay full Brown tuition for all programs instead of simply the fees for the approved program. But this spring, changes at

the OIP have mostly concerned the status and addition of new programs. The OIP offers two types of study abroad programs: programs run by and directly associated with the University and other programs — often run by other institutions — known as approved alternative programs. continued on page 4

continued on page 4

Nussbaum denounces religious intolerance of Chicago, where she holds appointments in the law school, divinity school and philosophy department. “When people are afraid or insecure — when some unusual economic or political threat confronts a nation — respect for equality is even harder to sustain, and the comfort of an orthodoxy becomes ever more alluring,” Nussbaum

BY JAMES SHAPIRO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Noted philosopher Martha Nussbaum criticized systematic discrimination against religious minorities Monday in a half-ﬁlled Salomon 001 during the 41st Annual Meiklejohn Lecture, titled “Liberty of Conscience: The Attack on Equal Respect.” Nussbaum is a professor of law and ethics at the University

continued on page 4

Brown Noser gets a whiff of success

Mission of Burma joins Spring Weekend lineup

BY MICHAEL BECHEK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Alternative rock band Mission of Burma has been added to the Spring Weekend lineup, the Brown Concert Agency announced last night. The band will open for The Roots and Soulive on Thursday, April 19. In a press release, BCA credits Mission of Burma with creating “some of the most inﬂuen-

FEATURE

When the editors of the Brown Noser were turned down by the Undergraduate Council of Students for Category III status early last month, they appealed the decision, and arrived at UCS’s general body meeting last Wednesday night fully prepared to ﬁght their case. Decked out in face and body paint, Noser members — including the editors and at least a dozen others — rallied around a sign: “Don’t be a Poser. Free The Noser.” “There was a bit of a misunderstanding,” co-editor in chief Mitch Moranis ’10 said of the initial rejection, which was based on the grounds that the satirical newspaper did not have a demonstrated need for funding. Not so this time, as Noser editors Moranis and Steve Daniels ’10 successfully lobbied the council to reconsider their status. The motion passed unanimously, and the parade exited Petteruti Lounge in celebration. For Moranis and Daniels, the ﬁnancial help comes as a relief, though they said they will consider the new money as mostly “backup.” As part of brokering their deal for funding from the University, Moranis and Daniels admitted they — and their families — had absorbed the roughly

INSIDE:

3 METRO

$500 of debt incurred in printing the ﬁrst issue. “Our short-term goal is just to break even on our own,” Daniels said. For the two editors, the Noser’s take-off has been unexpected. The paper, which runs “fake news” in the style of the Onion, has developed rapidly in just a few months, putting out three issues and starting a Web site, thebrownnoser. com, that already features Brown Noser TV video “reports.” Daniels and Moranis said the Noser counts almost 50 students as members — almost all of them ﬁrst-years. “I really never thought it was going to happen,” said Daniels, who met Moranis, a high school friend of his roommate, during freshman orientation. He said the two discussed starting a humor paper together, but never got around to it as the school year began. But one boring afternoon in November, Moranis said he gave Daniels a call and suggested they get started. The Noser was born. “There was a void,” Moranis said, adding that the existing humor publication, the Brown Jug, had a different style — more MAD magazine than the Onion — and “wasn’t exactly what we wanted to continued on page 6

STOP & SHOP WON’T STOP A planned strike over health insurance by Stop & Shop workers was averted, and a contract agreement was reached Saturday

www.browndailyherald.com

5 CAMPUS

tial music ever to come out of the American punk scene,” noting that acts such as Nir vana,

ARTS & CULTURE R.E.M. and the Pixies have all drawn from their sound. BCA also announced that tickets for this year’s Spring

Weekend are selling much faster than in years past, with over 5,000 already purchased for the two shows. There are roughly 800 tickets still available for Thursday’s concert and only 200 left for the show headlined by the Flaming Lips on Saturday, April 21. — Allissa Wickham

ANOTHER SIDE OF HISTORY

Rahul Keerthi / Herald

The John Carter Brown Library’s exhibition on historical documents related to slavery will run until May. SEE CAMPUS NEWS, PAGE 5

NUDITY ASSAULT, LOBSTER NUDITY, Campus crime last week included indecent exposure, an assault at the Gate and the theft of 2 lbs. of lobster from the Ratty

11 OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

BRING BACK THE DRAFT Sean Quigley ’10 proposes the United States bring back the draft to universally conscript all men from 18 to 26 in service to their country

12 SPORTS

SOFTBALL SPLITS 2-2 Playing in Virginia, softball wins against YSU and Morgan State before falling in a rematch against YSU and a game against George Mason

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

TODAY THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 2

WE A T H E R

TODAY

mostly sunny 56 / 44

TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2007

Chocolate Covered Cotton | Mark Brinker TOMORROW

mostly cloudy 61 / 43

SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Grilled Chicken Sandwich, Philly Cheese Steak Calzone, Fried Fish Sandwich with Tartar Sauce, Parslied Rice, Chocolate Cake with White Frosting

LUNCH — Beef Stew, Tomato Quiche, Italian Vegetable Saute, Vegetarian Spinach and Mushroom Soup, Cherry Tarts with Bavarian Cream

DINNER — Meatloaf with Mushroom Sauce, March Madness Nacho Bar, Popcorn, Sticky Rice, Ginger Sugar Snap Peas and Carrots, Whole Beets, Vegetable Frittata, Ice Cream Sundae Bar

DINNER — Baked Parmesan Chicken, Rice Pilaf with Zucchini, Baked Spaghetti Squash, Broccoli Cuts, Chicken and Rice Soup, Honey Batter Bread, Chocolate Cake with White Frosting

WBF | Matt Vascellaro

SUDOKU Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Hi, How Are You | Alison Naturale

Deo | Daniel Perez Puzzles by Pappocom

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Bit of baseball news 6 Makes a commitment 10 California neighbor 14 Century 21 alternative 15 ’80s Democratic hopeful Gary 16 Mideast carrier 17 Joe cool? 19 Tales of old 20 Cram for exams 21 Like most divans 23 Either extreme of a loaf 24 Witnessed 26 Retain 27 Kind of Boy Scout badge 29 Pugilist’s combo 33 Juanita’s home 36 Jaguars or Panthers 38 Animal track 39 Not getting any younger 41 Place to unwind 42 To the left, at sea 43 Barber’s tool 44 Cards with the most pips 46 Fraternal group 47 Ready-made home 49 Give pause to 51 Harbor hauler 53 Pine goop 54 Bar spigot 57 Majestic 60 St. Peter’s Basilica feature 62 Shredded 63 News source 66 One of the Great Lakes 67 To be, in Burgundy 68 Brief moment 69 Factory, or word that can follow the last word of 17- and 63Across and 10and 27-Down 70 US 101 and I-5 71 Spud bags DOWN 1 Group on a reservation

2 Scout’s mission, briefly 3 Make changes to 4 Miami’s former county 5 “I forgot” isn’t a good one 6 30 to 300 MHz range 7 Boor 8 Unleash, as mayhem 9 Mono successor 10 Salad veggie 11 Medicinal succulent 12 Preserves holders 13 Drinks from 54Acrosses 18 Dizzying pictures 22 Bright bloc 25 “Parenthood” Oscar nominee Dianne 27 Metropolis moniker 28 Playable on a VCR 30 Hammer or sickle 31 Put in one’s eight hours 32 Table scraps 33 Be overly picky

34 Culture medium 35 Clothing tag datum 37 “Luncheon on the Grass” painter 40 “Extra time to pay” period 45 Actor Keach 48 Less timid 50 Pops one’s cork 52 Brother of Virgil, Morgan, James and Warren

54 Agenda item 55 Smart person? 56 Removes the rind from 57 Arise (from) 58 Actress Spelling 59 Seed protector 61 Chute or graph lead-in 64 Choler 65 Guitar man Paul

Deep Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbon

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Cloudy Side Up | Mike Lauritano

xwordeditor@aol.com

3/13/07

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once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to

3/13/07

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Ofﬁces are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

METRO TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2007

Stop & Shop won’t stop, strike is averted BY SIMMI AUJLA METRO EDITOR

Stop & Shop customers can rest assured that they will be able to continue shopping at their local grocery store without crossing a picket line. Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 328 — which represents 12,000 retail workers in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts — voted Sunday to ratify a three-year contract approved by union leaders and Stop & Shop executives Saturday. The Local 328 is one of five UFCW unions — representing a total of 43,000 workers in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut — that voted in favor of seven new contracts for workers, said Stop & Shop spokeswoman Faith Weiner. Union leaders and company executives had been negotiating a new contract for three months, said Jim Riley, secretary-treasurer of Local 328. After the old contract expired on Feb. 17, workers threatened to strike if a satisfactory contract could not reached by Feb. 18. “The company realized the members were mad at them and they would walk if they didn’t get a contract they would be happy with,” Riley said. The contract specifically addresses union members’ concerns about health care benefits and pension plans, Riley said. The contract will allow Stop & Shop to “remain competitive,” Weiner said. “Luckily we don’t have to deal with the strike, and we’re grateful,” she said. “We’re glad that the negotiations are behind us.” Weiner would not comment on how much a strike would

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

have cost the company. But the company appeared to have been preparing for the worst — as of Monday night, the company’s employment Web site displayed a “now hiring” notiﬁcation that read, “In the event of a stoppage by our store associates, temporary replacement workers will be hired.” Full-time cashier and clerk positions would pay $15 an hour, while part-time positions would pay $11 an hour, according to the Web site. The contact dispute centered on healthcare costs. The company initially wanted employees to pay $50 a week to cover a spouse. Now, the spousal surcharge has been eliminated, and a worker must pay $10 a week for a couple coverage plan instead of $5 a week for a single-employee coverage plan, Riley said. “They will have a premium co-pay for the health insurance,” Riley said. “But I would say they expected that to happen,” he said, noting that workers were “pleased with the small number.” Part-time workers will not pay any healthcare premiums, Riley said. They must work two years before receiving health care beneﬁts, as opposed to three years in the expired contract, he added. The union also kept the current pension plan, which pays former employees on a monthly basis. The company intended to replace the plan with a 401(k) plan, which would require employees to invest part of their current paychecks for returns after retirement and would not pay employees on a monthly basis. Full-time employees also received wage increases of $65 per week over three years, while part time employees received wage increases of $1.05 per week over that time period, Riley said.

www.browndailyherald.com

Raids on illegal immigrants draw student protest BY SARA MOLINARO METRO EDITOR

A “raid-free zone in Providence” was the stated goal of 30 protestors who gathered in front of Providence’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office yesterday. The protest — which lasted about an hour and a half — was organized in response to a raid last week on a New Bedford, Mass., leather manufacturing factory, resulting in more than 300 workers being detained to confirm their immigration status. Most of the protestors were students, though some community activists and concerned families were present. Rep. David Segal, D-Dist. 2, was also in attendance. The protestors gathered in a circle directly in front of the doors of the ICE office and chanted and sang in English and Spanish. Many also held signs with messages such as “Stop the Raids!,” “No Human is Illegal,” “ICE Raids are Terrorism” and “Mobilize Union Power to Stop the ICE Gestapo.” Many community organizations endorsed the protest, including Jobs with Justice, English for Action, the Olneyville Neighborhood Association and the International Socialist Organization. Several student groups also came out to support the protest, including members of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Atzlan, the Latin-American Students Organization and the Student Labor Alliance. Several leaders addressed the crowd through a megaphone, calling for amnesty for illegal immigrants and for Providence to be a “raid-free zone.” SLA member Will Emmons ’09 called the group’s endorse-

Sara Molinaro / Herald

Protestors organized outside of Providence’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement ofﬁce in response to last week’s raid on a factory in New Bedford, Mass.

ment of the protest “tactical and moral.” Emmons said pro-labor groups such as SLA “can’t support any worker without supporting all workers.” Segal told The Herald he attended the protest because he believes “we shouldn’t be deporting immigrants who are mothers of small children.” Segal said the protest will raise public awareness about the issue but may not have any legal ramiﬁcations. “The people who perpetrated the raid are not terribly accountable to anyone,” he said. “One has to do something.” About halfway through the protest, a man charged the protestors’ circle, obtained a megaphone and attempted to shout down the protestors, according to Emmons. Protestors from the ISO quickly took the megaphone back and called the man a racist, Emmons said. Renae Chaves, a Providence resident who brought her children to the protest, said she hoped the

protest would call attention to the “dire situation” in New Bedford. “I am a breast-feeding mother,” she said. “For nursing children to be taken away from their mothers is unacceptable.” MECdA and LASO members Vivian Garcia ‘10 and Agnes Barrios ’09 said they attended the protest to draw attention to the New Bedford incident. Garcia said she wanted government ofﬁcials to “see that there are a lot of people disturbed” by what happened. Barrios said she hoped the protest would help solicit donations of clothing and food for “children left without families.” Some of the protestors are coordinating donations of canned food, bottled water and baby products for families affected by the New Bedford raid, to be left at the entrance of Norwood House, which houses the Department of American Civilization, and the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.

City’s Interim Comprehensive Plan goes digital BY FRANKLIN KANIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The city’s Interim Comprehensive Plan, “Providence Tomorrow,” which outlines goals for the city’s development over the coming halfdecade, is currently available online so residents can read and comment on it before the City Council and the City Plan Commission address it. The interim plan is the first draft of the comprehensive plan, which guides how the city will develop over the next five years. State law requires each city in Rhode Island to submit a comprehensive plan. The last comprehensive plan was adopted by the City Council in 1994 but not ratified by the state until 2002, said Thomas Deller, the city’s director of planning and development. This year, the city has gone to new lengths to make the plan interactive. The city has and will continue to use a number of forums and charrettes — week-long, intensive collaborative sessions for brainstorming ideas and formulating plans — to involve Providence residents in the planning process. The plan was placed online for public view on Feb. 28, and residents can post comments online on any section of the plan throughout March. Mayor David Cicilline ’83 said the interim plan is “excellent” and that he hopes people will respond to the plan’s online availability. “A lot of hard work went into the

development of that plan,” he said. “I hope people will read it carefully and contribute to it and share their ideas and reactions,” he added. Deller noted that, “to my knowledge,” Providence is the first city in America to put a comprehensive plan online. The Web site and level of interaction “is quite intriguing and interesting, and I hope people find it useful,” Deller said. “I think we’re going to try to use it with everything we do from now on.” The Department of Planning and Development reviews the comments weekly and plans to download all the comments and compile them to guide the revision process, Deller said. The plan has garnered praise from neighborhood activists. Daisy Schnepel, the acting secretary of the Fox Point Neighborhood Association, said she has looked over the Web site and read the comments and found it “pretty well put together.” “I think it’s very interesting,” Schnepel said. “I haven’t signed in to make any comments just yet. I want to read it more carefully.” Anne Hersh, a member of the Residents of Williams Street Association, said the city’s efforts to make the interim plan interactive are commendable, so long as city officials pay attention to the feedback. “Any opportunity to engage in a dialogue is in anybody’s best interest, assuming that they actually

consider the comments,” Hersh said. Hersh also said she was worried not everyone would have access to the plan. “It is great when you can engage in a dialogue with a Web site,” she said. “But you make an assumption with socioeconomic class that everyone has easy access to a Web site,” she said. “But not everyone does.” Copies have also been distributed in print to every library and community center and have been advertised, Deller said. Written comments and verbal comments at town meetings will also be accepted and posted online. “This is just a new way to get comments — this is not the only way to get comments,” he said. A computer terminal is also available at the Department of Planning and Development for those without access to the Internet to view the plan. The plan’s length may prove another obstacle for readers, especially those with little patience, Deller and Schnepel said. But the table of contents will facilitate residents’ review of the plan, Schnepel said. Schnepel said she hopes that, despite its length, residents will take advantage of the report’s accessibility. “I just hope people get out and make whatever comments they feel need to be made because this is the one chance we have to say something,” she said.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 4

Nussbaum delivers Meiklejohn Lecture continued from page 1 said. The 1953 amendment to the Pledge of Allegiance to include the phrase “under God” exempliﬁes this trend, Nussbaum said. “The aim was to distinguish Godfearing Americans from godless communists. But its effect, of course, was to denigrate atheists, agnostics, polytheists, members of non-theistic religions such as Buddhism and Taoism and all of those more standard theists who just don’t like to think of God as playing favorites among the nations,” she said. Nussbaum compared current anti-Muslim hysteria to unsavory historical patterns of discrimination against Catholics. “Catholics could be well-treated in the U.S. of the 19th and early 20th centuries only if they pretended to be like everyone else, reciting Protestant prayers in the schools and foregoing any public ceremonies that drew attention to their religious particularity,” Nussbaum said. The solution to these problems “requires giving citizens ample space to pursue their conscientious commitments, even when this involves giving them exemptions from some laws that apply equally to all citizens,” she said. “Only … a compelling state interest should ever be able to justify any diminution of that space,” Nussbaum added. “Today we hear the same demand that Muslims should assimilate, which means stopping any practice which draws attention to their difference from others,” she added. Nussbaum said opponents of equal respect for all religions typically fall into establishmentarian or anti-religious groupings. Establishmentarians believe that good

order and public safety require a public commitment to a dominant religious orthodoxy. They assert and establish the primacy of their religion at the expense of other groups. Nussbaum said establishmentarians have stopped persecuting other groups in favor of “a more cozy, apparently benign” claim that Christianity or monotheism undergirds American society. The second, opposing group conceives of religion as difﬁcult, primitive and counterproductive, Nussbaum said. Nussbaum criticized anti-religious activists for several reasons — anti-religious sentiment favors dominant religious groups while harming minority sects, she said, noting that French schools prohibit students from wearing yarmulkes, hijabs and “large crosses.” But since Christian dogma does not mandate wearing a cross, these anti-religious restrictions unfairly discriminate against Jewish and Muslim students, Nussbaum said. Anti-religious individuals identify dominant religious practices — such as Sundays off from work — as secular norms. But they are typically hostile to deviations from that trend, Nussbaum said. Finally, Nussbaum said antireligious advocates tend to assert their cause with unhealthy smugness. “This (is) not a very good stance to take towards one’s fellow citizens in a world full of mystery and complexity. It’s a very good bet that nobody, not even the anti-religious, have the ultimate solution to questions about the meanings of life and death that have plagued humanity ever since humanity began to exist,” she said. The Meiklejohn Lecture is organized by the Taubman Center for Public Policy.

TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2007

Simmons gives $20,007 for senior class gift continued from page 1 Simmons’ surprise announcement. “She gave me goosebumps.” Last year, the fund received gifts from 64 percent of the graduating class, totaling about $19,000. This year’s class has set the most ambitious participation goal yet, hoping that 70 percent of graduating seniors — or 1,071 students — will donate, Corcoran said. The class of 2005 holds the current record with 68 percent participation. “We’re trying to get people in the habit of thinking about giving back to Brown. The more people participate now, the more people will think each and every year about giving back,” Corcoran

said. “What (Simmons’ gift) really shows is her faith in the class — that they will reach the 70 percent goal,” Corcoran said. “She’s really putting down her two cents and showing she believes in the class and that they can reach this goal.” “The president, I believe, sees the senior class each year as an example to the rest of the community,” said Priya Shah ’07, the class gift committee’s leadership cochair. “So, promoting giving back to Brown encourages seniors to remember that the Brown Annual Fund is fundamental to providing all of our facilities.” Student organizers like Shah are working hard to fundraise for

the gift. A large committee will hold events during the rest of the semester to encourage gifts, and several subcommittees are focusing on Greek organizations, international students and athletes, among others. Shah said an anonymous donor has promised to match gifts from graduating seniors. The kickoff event last weekend featured student performance groups, remarks from Simmons and an opportunity for students to socialize. “This was the ﬁrst event of its kind for the rest of the semester that emphasizes the need to give back to Brown and make that ﬁrst gift before we walk out of the Van Wickle Gates,” Shah said.

U. launches Barcelona program, Cuba might follow continued from page 1 The University is now reviewing 24 applications from students interested in studying in the “ﬁrst fully integrated program” in Barcelona this fall, said Kendall Brostuen, associate dean of the College and director of international programs. Brown currently offers four approved alternative programs in Spain but does not have its own program. The new program in Spain is being run as a consortium program with ﬁve other U.S. universities — Cornell, Harvard, Princeton and Northwestern universities and the University of Chicago. The program also relies on three partner universities in Spain. Students will have the option to attend the program for either the fall or spring semesters or a full year. Because Brown is working with other U.S. universities, the development of the program was more complicated than if the University had worked on it on its own, Brostuen said. “Every move that’s made is reviewed by six (universities),” he said. Last summer, Cornell asked the University to assume leadership of the program, which it had previ-

ously administered. “I think it’s a natural ﬁt,” Brostuen said, noting that Brown is the only university of the six that offers instruction in Catalan, one of the languages spoken in Barcelona. “I’m just absolutely delighted that we’re doing something in Spain,” he said. He said he expects Brown to send 60 to 80 students per year on the program. The Brown program in Spain isn’t the only change in the University’s study abroad offerings. The OIP is discussing starting a program in Cuba, though Brostuen said it would be at least a year until it would be available. For a new program, there are a “lot of i’s that need to be dotted and t’s that need to be crossed,” Brostuen said. The ofﬁce must conduct background and investigative work, receive approval from the College Curriculum Council for its programs and address “legal questions,” Brostuen said. Other programs have been ended or reduced in recent months. Due to political unrest in Ethiopia, the University is no longer “actively recruiting” for the approved alternative program that was previously available there to students, Brostuen said, noting that the pol-

itics made it “difficult to maintain momentum” in the program. The OIP ended the Brown in Egypt program as of this semester, though students can still attend the American University in Cairo as an approved alternative program. Brostuen said the University was playing an unnecessary role as a mediator between students and AUC. “It didn’t make a lot of sense” to have Brown serving as a go-between, he said. Robin Zelman ’09, who plans to study in Botswana next year, said she has had a “very pleasant experience” with the office. She said the OIP doesn’t necessarily know students individually since it deals with so many students, but that shouldn’t cause problems as long as students come to the office with a “good idea” of what they want to do. Jonah Rosenberg ’09 was recently accepted to a Brown in Britain program at Oxford University. He said he was generally satisfied with the office but said the OIP’s “reluctance to work through e-mail” and their “sort of strange” hours were sometimes frustrating. The OIP has recently made internal changes — last year, the office was reorganized in order to make it more “user-friendly,” Brostuen said. The office assigned its advisers to specific parts of the world and can now “match a student with an adviser from the beginning” instead of the previous practice of more random matching, he said. For students interested in studying abroad, it’s an “exciting time to be at Brown,” Brostuen said.

CAMPUS N EWS TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Slave records, Brown family documents on Ratty lobster theft among incidents reported last week display at John Carter Brown Library exhibit BY DEBBIE LEHMANN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The following summary includes all major incidents reported to the Department of Public Safety between March 3 and March 8. It does not include general service and alarm calls. The Providence Police Department also responds to incidents occurring off campus. DPS does not divulge information on open cases that are currently under investigation by the department, the PPD or the Office of Student Life. DPS maintains a daily log of all shift activity and general service calls, which can be viewed during business hours at its headquarters, located at 75 Charlesfield St. Saturday, March 3: 2:56 a.m. A DPS officer was informed that two Rhode Island School of Design students were being verbally harassed by three subjects on Wriston Quadrangle. Upon further investigation, officers identified the subjects responsible and arranged transport for the RISD students involved. 4:22 p.m. Two complainants reported that an unknown subject followed them from the Congdon Street Park area and later exposed himself on Prospect Street. DPS officers searched the area to no avail. Sunday, March 4: 12:46 p.m. Persons reported that the glass on the east exterior door of a building on Thayer Street was smashed. A building check was performed for safety purposes and found secure. Facilities Management was notified. 1:23 p.m. Complainant reported that sometime between 10:30 p.m. on March 3 and 1:15 p.m. on March 4, unknown persons took her laptop computer from her room in Hope College. The door to her room was left closed but unsecured at the time of the incident. 4:03 p.m. DPS and PPD officers responded to the report of larceny from an automobile on Benevolent Street. Complainant reported that unknown persons smashed the passenger-side window of her vehicle and took a component of the stereo. There are no suspects

CRIME LOG or witnesses at this time. 9:38 p.m. A DPS officer responded to the report of lost property at Barbour Hall. Complainant reported that she last saw her ID and associated cards in her room at about 10 p.m. on March 3. She noticed her belongings missing at about 9 a.m. on March 4. There are no suspects or witnesses at this time. Monday, March 5: 1:26 a.m. Complainant reported that he was tackled to the ground at the Gate during a disturbance and that the person responsible had left the area. Upon further investigation, a DPS officer made contact with the person responsible. The Community Director on call was notified, and the matter is being handled by the Office of Student Life. 8:25 a.m. Complainant reported that she parked her vehicle in Lot 75 at about 1:30 p.m. on March 4. Upon returning to her vehicle at about 11 p.m. the same day, she found that unknown persons had damaged the fender over the front tire. There are no suspects or witnesses at this time. Tuesday, March 6: 3:26 p.m. Person reported that unknown persons removed two pounds of lobster from the refrigerator in the main kitchen of the Sharpe Refectory sometime between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. There are no suspects or witnesses at this time.

BY ISABEL GOTTLIEB CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Newspapers advertising slaves for sale, logs of slave-trading vessels and personal notes from the papers of abolitionist Moses Brown are among the documents on display at the John Carter Brown Library this spring. The exhibit, which began in February and runs until May, accompanies the report of the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice. The documents illustrate a chronological history of the University’s ties to slavery, including the Brown family’s history and Rhode Island’s role in the slave trade. A guide based on the slavery and justice report, which was released in October, narrates this history, and many of the documents on display were used by the slavery and justice committee in its research on the University’s ties to slavery. The exhibition begins with a ﬁrst-hand account from 1638 of the Pequot War, when New Englanders exchanged captured Native Americans for black slaves from the West Indies. Rhode Island documents include a 1652 ban on owning a slave for “more than 10 years” and a 1774 state census of Rhode Island residents, broken down by race. Also on display are records of trade deals and excerpts from the ship log book of the Sally, the ship owned by the Brown family. The

Sally’s only involvement in the slave trade, a 1764 voyage, led to the death of 108 Africans on their way from Africa. According to the exhibit guide, the journey was “the most lethal slaving voyage ever launched from Rhode Island.” University documents include a 1763 draft of the College Charter by Ezra Stiles, who was later president of Yale University, and 1770 architectural plans of University Hall. The exhibition also includes letters and essays written by prominent colonial and early American abolitionists, including Brown family member Moses Brown. “It is our job and mission to save and provide access to these documents in perpetuity,” said Richard Ring, one of the exhibit’s curators and the references and acquisitions librarian for the John Carter Brown library. “When we heard the report was going to come out … we decided that we would try to give the Brown community, and people in general, an idea of the kind of documents the report might be based on.” Ring compiled the material and wrote the accompanying narrative in the exhibition handout. Ring estimated that fewer than 50 people have been through the exhibit, but he said, in general, “These exhibitions are, for the most part, staff exercises. The room really doesn’t support high trafﬁc … the exhibitions primarily, while a nod to the public, ex-

ist as a staff exercise for the researchers to get to know the collection better.” The John Carter Brown Library hopes to make all of its exhibitions available online, but Ring said he is not sure how soon that will happen. Associate Professor of History James Campbell, who chaired the slavery and justice committee, said the exhibition’s greatest value is in providing visitors contact with primary source documents. “We can read about mortality on transatlantic slave voyages, but looking at records of a slave voyage and seeing a particular individual and the way the numbers get tallied touches us much more profoundly than dealing with it in more abstract ways,” he said. Campbell said he was particularly struck by a picture of slaves in the hold of a ship, portraying “the bodies stacked like cordwood” and a woman giving birth. “The broader point is simply to try to ensure that the aspects of our history that are uncomfortable don’t get forgotten or swept under the rug, that we continue to reﬂect on them, that they do not paralyze us with shame but enrich our sense of society in the present,” Campbell said. By confronting this history, the library exhibition is intended to have a similar effect to the proposed on-campus memorial commemorating the University’s ties to slavery, Campbell said.

Wednesday, March 7: 4:17 p.m. Complainant reported that her vehicle sustained minor damage when the entrance gate to Lot 68 came down on the roof when she entered the lot. The entrance arm was later tested and found to be operating without issue. Thursday, March 8: 10:07 a.m. Complainant reported that unknown persons removed his unattended backpack from his seat in the Ratty while he was away. The backpack contained two books.

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Cash in hand, Noser smells success continued from page 1 do.” As people signed up to write for the Noser, Daniels said, the editors found many students couldn’t believe there wasn’t already a satirical newspaper at Brown. “People at Brown are so witty, so funny,” he said. “How could something like this not exist?” When the ﬁrst issue of the Noser was ready, on the morning of Dec. 1, the paper’s staff were all around campus, personally distributing the unfamiliar rag by hand. The ﬁrst headline snarkily proclaimed, “Brown Noser to Replace Daily Herald as Campus’s Premier Comedy Newspaper.” Daniels and Moranis, though, hadn’t counted on actually appearing to have replaced The Herald. But due to a printing error that

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morning, the day’s issue of The Herald hadn’t yet been delivered. Because of this mistake, Daniels and Moranis said, Herald editors thought the Noser had stolen the entire run of The Herald to gain an exclusive presence in the dining halls and other locations. But the misunderstanding was quickly resolved, they said. That wasn’t the only time the Noser has run into conﬂict with another campus publication. After the ﬁrst issue was published, Daniels and Moranis said, they got an e-mail from Ian Spector ’09, an editor of the Brown Jug. Spector wanted to discuss the possibility of collaborating, but nothing emerged from a subsequent meeting with the Noser editors. “After thinking about it,” Spector told The Herald, “we came to the conclusion that we should just

do our separate things.” But Spector didn’t deny that he was somewhat annoyed that Daniels and Moranis had started another humor publication. “I don’t think anyone in our position would be ‘Yeah, totally cool with it’ at first,” Spector said, though he added that the relationship between the Jug and the Noser is “more of a complementary situation than a competitive one.” Since their first issue, the Noser — which still calls Daniels’ Champlin Hall dormitory home — has published two more issues and has added more staff. For the most recent issue, Daniels and two advertising staff sold space in the paper to many Thayer Street businesses — perhaps a step up from the second issue, when Moranis’s grandmother paid for space urging other Brown grandmothers to support the Noser. Though the Noser has a few upperclassmen, the organization is almost entirely run by first-years. “I think seniors and juniors have already established what they’re doing here,” Moranis said. But, Daniels said, “It’s great to have all freshmen, because they’re going to be with us for the next four years.” In fact, despite their reputation for mocking just about everything at Brown, Daniels and Moranis have only one problem. “Our only beef is with the BDH,” Moranis said. “You’re going down.” “You can quote me on that,” he added.

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Sudan engaged in war crimes, U.N. reports

Police clamp down on Zimbabwe protesters

BY MAGGIE FARLEY LOS ANGELES T IMES

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Los Angeles Times) — Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was severely beaten Sunday by police after being arrested on his way to an anti-government protest rally, according to opposition movement members. Tsvangirai and at least 120 members of the Movement for Democratic Change were seized before they could join a rally called by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, a coalition of civic, political and Christian activists, opposition members said. Tsvangirai lost consciousness several times and suffered a deep gash to the head, they said. One protester, Gift Tandare, 41, was shot dead by police Sunday. Opposition figures described the arrests and beatings as an attempt by the regime of President Robert Mugabe to crush dissent amid rising anger over economic collapse and an estimated annual inflation rate of more than 1,000 percent. The 83-year-old president, who has been maneuvering to extend his term, which ends next year, until 2010, is the only ruler Zimbabwe has had since independence in 1980. “He (Mugabe) knows it’s the end of his regime. He is trying every last effort to hold onto power and crush any opposition to his rule,” said Roy Bennett, a movement figure who was forced into exile in South Africa. “I believe we are in the final stages. The people of Zimbabwe have had enough. They (the authorities) might suppress it for a while. But there will be another protest and another one. They can’t suppress it forever.”

UNITED NATIONS — A highlevel U.N. mission to Darfur reported Monday that the Sudanese government had orchestrated human-rights crimes against its own people and urged that leaders of Sudan’s government and militias be charged with war crimes. But Khartoum is successfully blocking U.N. attempts to stem the violence, organizing opposition to the mission’s report and stepping back from its agreement to accept a joint U.N.-African peacekeeping force in the region. Sudan’s government “has manifestly failed to protect the population of Darfur from large-scale international crimes, and has itself orchestrated and participated in these crimes,” according to the 35-page report by a team commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council in December. It added that rebels “are also guilty of serious abuses of human rights” in the fighting against government forces and their allied militias. In four years of conflict, more than 200,000 villagers have died and more than 2.5 million have fled their homes, according to the U.N. The Human Rights Council will consider adopting the report Friday, but Sudan’s allies are tr ying to thwart it, said human-rights advocates. Khartoum had blocked the team, led by U.S. Nobel Peace

Gas prices jump, expected to keep rising WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — Gasoline prices have jumped 33 cents a gallon across the United States over the past month and are expected to climb still higher at least through March, according to the AAA automobile club. Nationwide, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose to $2.54 Monday from $2.21 a month ago, according to a survey by AAA. Analysts blamed higher crude oil prices, greater demand and fears of shortages. If the upward trend persists, auto companies and political leaders could start to feel the heat, analysts said. House Democrats, using their new clout after gaining control of Congress in the November elections, plan to pressure auto executives on fuel-economy standards at a hearing tomorrow. The automakers say higher standards would cost the industry billions of dollars. Prices were highest in California, where a gallon of regular sold for an average $3.09. In the San Francisco area, drivers paid an average $3.25. “It isn’t clear yet how prices might affect sales of large SUVs and pickup trucks, which have already experienced sharp declines in recent years,” said Alex Rosen, an industry analyst at Edmunds.com, a consumer automotive Web site.

Hundreds turn out to mourn 10 fire victims NEW YORK (Newsday) — For a few hours Monday in the Bronx, a city street seemed to transform into a grief-stricken African village, with deeply religious mourners dressed in traditional garb for the funerals of 10 people, including nine children, killed in a devastating house fire. Nine simple, wooden coffins were carried inside a mosque, one by one, Monday afternoon before hundreds. The sight of the coffins of the Magassa and Soumare family members — especially the tiny ones — as they were carried into the Islamic Cultural Center prompted many in the crowd to shake their heads. Twin sisters, 7 months old, shared a coffin. The funeral was closed to the public. Even mourners who knew the family were turned away at the packed mosque because there was no room. The hundreds of mourners, some carrying prayer mats, instead sat without shoes atop blue tarps lined outside on the city street. “Brothers, we can pray on the backs of our brother,” Sheikh Moussa Drammeh of the Islamic Leadership School said over a loudspeaker for those unable to enter the mosque. The Muslims and Africans in the crowd wore an array of colors, with women in elaborate scarves and head wraps and men in long, one-piece garments, some hand-woven. Before the service, the men washed their hands, feet and faces with bottled water as part of the ritual. Women covered their hair before entering the mosque. One onlooker, who only identified himself as Guye, a native of Mali, said he didn’t know anyone who died, but said a shared faith in Islam binds strangers even in a big city.

Prize winner Jody Williams, from visiting the western region, so the mission had to rely on interviews with refugees across the border in Chad. The conclusions, say opponents, are “compromised.” The report recommends that officials from Sudan’s government and allied militias be tried for war crimes. The International Criminal Court already has named a militia leader and a state minister as suspects for working together to organize attacks against civilians. Darfur is one of the top issues being discussed at the Human Rights Council, which is trying to establish its credibility after previous sessions focused mainly on Israel. The council replaced the largely discredited Human Rights Commission, which had been taken over by “arsonists rather than firefighters,” said Mark Lagon, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations. The United States sat out the first two-year session and last week announced it would not seek a seat for the next term, opting to promote human rights from outside the council. “It is still unclear whether the council can take action to further the recommendations of the human-rights mission,” said Peggy Hicks, the global advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, who is in Geneva for the council’s threeweek session. “There is debate about the

conclusions because the mission wasn’t able to reach Darfur. But this report simply conﬁrms what is well known and documented by other missions and investigations into what is happening in Darfur — some of the most serious human abuses in the world.” The report comes days after Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir rejected a plan for the U.N. to share control of a new peacekeeping force with the African Union. In a letter delivered Thursday to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Bashir insisted that the AU keep full command of a planned joint force of 22,000 to augment the overstretched 7,000 AU peacekeepers now in Darfur. U.N. regulations say that it must control the peacekeeping operations that it funds. British ambassador to the U.N. Emyr Jones Parry said Bashir’s letter was an attempt to renegotiate a hard-won agreement to deploy the U.N. troops and foreshadowed months of more delay. “It’s a major setback,” he said Monday. U.S. and European Security Council diplomats have said it is time to impose sanctions on Sudan and its leaders for allowing the violence to continue. But veto-holding members China and Russia have resisted sanctions, arguing that the penalties would cause Sudan to break off the little cooperation it has offered the U.N and strand the people of Darfur.

Report cites failures of disability evaluation system BY ANN SCOTT TYSON WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — The thousands of soldiers wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have overwhelmed the Army’s system for evaluating their eligibility for disability benefits, leading to a neartotal failure to complete such reviews in a timely manner, the service’s inspector general concluded in a report released Monday. The report also found medical “hold” facilities lacked critical staff and formalized training for personnel caring for wounded soldiers, with more than half of unit commanders reporting “inadequate” staffing. It also cited inadequate and unreliable databases for tracking the wounded. At some facilities, a lack of wheelchair access — in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act — meant wounded soldiers had difficulty reaching restrooms. One facility had ramps, but also a gravel parking lot and no sidewalks, “making it nearly impossible for soldiers in wheelchairs and difficult for soldiers using crutches and canes to access the building” without help, the report said. More than 25,000 service members have been wounded in the two wars, nearly half of them seriously enough that they cannot return to duty within 72 hours. Delays in the Army’s rating of disabilities have been a source of deep frustration for many, with wounded soldiers waiting to move on with their lives outside the military. Problems with that rating sys-

tem are pervasive, the report found, particularly in meeting time standards for processing cases. In more than 90 percent of cases, for example, the Army failed to meet its 40-day time limit for completing physical evaluation boards, as the number of cases increased from 9,000 in 2001 to more than 15,000 in 2005, the report found. And in 43 percent of cases, the Army did not meet the 30-day goal for processing medical evaluation boards, as those cases grew from 6,560 in 2002 to 11,000 in 2006. The Army had only 30 people assigned to manage all the physical evaluation boards, even though the organizations cited an “overwhelming need” for support staff, according to the report. They did not receive funding to hire more people, however, and thus relied on “ad hoc manpower” agreements, including with contractors. Such issues “diminish the ability of the evaluation system to meet the needs of soldiers,” the inspector general, Lt. Gen. Stanley Green, stated in a memo on the report. The investigation, ordered last April by former Army Secretary Francis Harvey and completed March 6, involved interviews with 650 soldiers, civilians and leaders at 32 Army posts in the United States and overseas. 70 percent of the medical hold unit leaders reported they did not have adequate personnel assigned, effecting their ability to “provide soldiers the level of attention and support they required to

complete their medical care,” the report said. More than half said their stafﬁng was “inadequate for them to execute their mission.” Especially worrisome, the medical hold commanders reported, was the lack of behavioral health specialists who could help identify soldiers with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or suicidal behavior. The need for such specialists was underscored in a study published Monday in the American Medical Association’s professional journal. It found that 25 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans seen at Veterans Affairs health care facilities were diagnosed with mental health problems, and a further 6 percent had “psychosocial or behavioral problems.” One of the largest studies to date of veterans from the wars, it was published by the Archives of Internal Medicine. The youngest veterans, those 18 to 24 years old — who also make up a large proportion of the total — were at the greatest risk for mental health problems and post-traumatic stress disorder, the study found. As the Pentagon and Army review their systems for managing the wounded, the Department of Veterans Affairs is also stepping up scrutiny of its care. The VA is ordering its 1,400 hospitals and clinics to conduct “a full and immediate review” on the quality of its facilities. VA Secretary Jim Nicholson’s March 7 memorandum, released Monday by the agency, requests for a full report by March 14.

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White House suggested dismissing all U.S. attorneys 2 years ago BY DAN EGGEN AND JOHN SOLOMON WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — The White House suggested two years ago that the Justice Department fire all 93 U.S. attorneys, a proposal that eventually resulted in the dismissals of eight prosecutors carried out last year, according to e-mails and internal documents that the administration will provide to Congress Tuesday. The dismissals took place after President Bush told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that he had received complaints that some prosecutors had not energetically pursued voter-fraud investigations, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. Gonzales approved the idea of firing a smaller group of U.S. attorneys shortly after taking office in February 2005, but he left it to an aide, Kyle Sampson, to carry out most of the details, according to interviews and documents reviewed Monday by the Washington Post. Sampson resigned Monday, officials said, after acknowledging he did not tell other Justice officials who testified to Congress about the extent of his communications with the White House, leading them to provide incomplete information in their testimony to lawmakers. Congress has requested the documents as part of an investigation by both Judiciary committees into whether the firings were politically motivated. While it is unclear whether the documents answer that question, they show that the White House and other administration officials were more deeply involved in the dismissals, and at an earlier date, than they have acknowledged. Seven U.S. attorneys were fired Dec. 7 and another was fired months earlier, with little explana-

tion from the Justice Department. Several former prosecutors have since alleged intimidation, including improper telephone calls from GOP lawmakers or their aides, and have alleged threats of retaliation by a Justice Department official. Administration officials have repeatedly portrayed the firings as a routine personnel matter, designed primarily to rid the department of a handful of poor performers. But the documents and interviews indicate that the idea of the firings originated at least two years ago, in February 2005, with former White House counsel Harriet Miers suggesting that all prosecutors be dismissed and replaced with new personnel. Over the next two years, Bush, top adviser Karl Rove and other White House officials also forwarded complaints that U.S. attorneys were not doing enough to prosecute certain crimes such as voter fraud, according to officials and documents. Perino said that “it doesn’t appear the president was told about a list nor shown a list” of U.S. attorneys at any point in the discussions. She said Rove had an early conversation with Miers about the idea of firing all chief prosecutors and did not think it was wise. White House officials said a variety of senior officials — including Rove and ultimately the president — passed on to the Justice Department concerns they had received starting in 2004 that U.S. attorneys were not doing enough to prosecute certain crimes, especially voter fraud. Bush personally mentioned such complaints to Gonzales in a conversation in October 2006, Perino said. “He believes informally he may have mentioned it to the AG during the meeting discussing other matters,” Perino said. “White House officials including the presi-

dent did not direct DOJ to take any specific action with regards to any specific U.S. attorney.” The e-mails also show Rove was interested in the appointment of his former colleague, Tim Griffin, as an Arkansas prosecutor. Sampson wrote in one e-mail that “getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.” Administration officials say they are braced for a new round of criticism from lawmakers Tuesday who may feel misled by testimony in recent weeks from Gonzales, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and William Moschella, principal associate deputy attorney general. Several Democrats, including Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, have asked for Gonzales’s resignation in recent days. The documents, which include numerous e-mails between Sampson, Miers and others in the White House counsel’s office, show the firings plan dated from February 2005, when Miers’s office brought up the question of whether U.S. attorneys should be replaced with new Republican appointees for Bush’s second term. That proposal was immediately rejected by Gonzales as impractical and disruptive, Justice officials said, but it led Sampson to send an e-mail to Miers in March 2005 ranking all 93 U.S. attorneys. Strong performers “exhibited loyalty” to the administration — low performers were “weak U.S. attorneys who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors, chafed against Administration initiatives, etc.” — a third group merited no opinion. Only three of those eventually fired were given low rankings: Margaret Chiara in Grand Rapids, Mich., Bud Cummins in Little Rock, Ark., and Carol Lam in San Diego. Two were given strong evaluations: David Iglesias in Albuquerque, N.M., who has alleged

political interference from GOP lawmakers, and Kevin Ryan in San Francisco, whose firing has generated few complaints because of widespread management and morale problems in his office. Ten months later, in January 2006, Sampson sent to the White House the first list of seven potential candidates for dismissal, including four who ultimately were dismissed at year’s end: Chiara, Cummins, Lam and Ryan. The list also recommended Griffin and other replacements, most of whom were edited from the documents viewed by the Post. In September, Sampson produced another list of firing candidates, telling the White House that Cummins was “in the process of being pushed out” and providing the names of eight others who “we should consider pushing out.” Five of the candidates on that list were fired in December — three others were spared. Iglesias, the New Mexico prosecutor, was not on the list in September. Justice officials said Sampson added Iglesias in October, based in part on complaints from Sen. Pete Domenici and other New Mexico Republicans that he was not prosecuting enough voter-fraud cases. Sampson also strongly urged bypassing Congress in naming replacements, using a little-known power slipped into the renewal of the USA Patriot Act in March 2006 that allows the attorney general to name interim replacements without Senate confirmation. “I am only in favor of executing on a plan to push some USAs out if we really are ready and willing to put in the time necessary to select candidates and get them appointed,” Sampson wrote in a Sept. 17, 2006, memo to Miers. “It will be counterproductive to DOJ operations if we push USAs out and then don’t have replacements ready to roll immediately.

“I strongly recommend that as a matter of administration, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG to make USA appointments.” By avoiding Senate confirmation, he added, “we can give far less deference to home state senators and thereby get 1.) our preferred person appointed and 2.) do it far faster and more efficiently at less political costs to the White House.” Miers thanked Sampson for the idea. “Kyle thanks for this. I have not forgotten I need to follow up on the info. But things have been crazy,” she wrote. One e-mail from Miers’s deputy, William Kelley, on the day of the Dec. 7 firings said Domenici’s chief of staff “is happy as a clam” about Iglesias. Sampson wrote in an e-mail a week later: “Domenici is going to send over names tomorrow (not even waiting for Iglesias’s body to cool).” The documents also provide new details about the case of Griffin, a former Rove aide and Republican National Committee researcher who was named interim U.S. attorney in Little Rock in December. E-mails show Justice officials discussed bypassing the two Democratic senators in Arkansas, who normally would have had input into the appointment, as early as last August. By mid-December, Sampson was suggesting Gonzales exercise his newfound appointment authority to put Griffin in place until the end of Bush’s term. “There is some risk that we’ll lose the authority, but if we don’t ever exercise it then what’s the point of having it?” Sampson wrote to a White House aide. “(I’m not 100 percent sure that Tim was the guy on which to test drive this authority, but know that getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.)”

2008 hopefuls convert to ethanol BY SHAILAGH MURRAY WASHINGTON POST

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WASHINGTON — What’s the closest thing in politics to a religious experience? The ethanol conversion. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., experienced one in May of last year. Long opposed to federal support for the corn-based biofuel, she reversed herself and endorsed even bigger ethanol incentives than she had previously voted against. Now running for president, Clinton is promoting a $50 billion “Strategic Energy Fund,” laden with more ethanol perks. Political opponents depict Clinton’s about-face as pandering to Iowa Democrats, who will cast the ﬁrst votes of the 2008 nominating season. When the senator made her ﬁrst trip to Iowa in January, the Republican National Committee circulated a synopsis of her ethanol record, awash with “no” votes. “A Calculating Clinton Flips on Ethanol to Score a Run with Iowa Voters,” the headline read. Although the timing of Clinton’s shift tracks neatly with the primary calendar, it also coincides with an ethanol boomlet in New York state, along with a nationwide surge in alternative fuel demand. For years, ethanol was disparaged beyond the Corn Belt as a farm subsidy disguised as an environmental cause. Now it’s accepted as a mainstream

solution to global warming and oil imports. Even Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., an ethanol foe so fierce that he skipped the Iowa caucus in 2000, said he is willing to give it another look. As ethanol becomes more accepted, it appears to be losing its potency as a presidential campaign issue. That means Clinton’s flip-flop might not translate into much of an advantage for, say, Sen. Barack Obama, whose Illinois political roots have made him a natural ethanol crusader. A senior Clinton aide explained that the senator’s views shifted as the industry took hold in her own back yard and as the nation’s energy demands changed. Iowa voters understand those evolving circumstances, said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. “Nowadays, I think they kind of expect people to be for ethanol — whether they’re newly born-again ethanol people, or old-fashioned, long-term ethanol people.” Ethanol became a political cause in the early 1970s, when the Arab oil embargo raised voter concerns about U.S. dependence on foreign oil, and it got its first federal assistance in a 1978 energy tax bill. It took a while to catch on. A 1986 Department of Agriculture study predicted ethanol could not survive long-term without “massive government subsidies.” Candidates campaigning in Iowa faced a simple choice: pander to

caucus-goers by vowing to lavishly fund ethanol, or reject it and hope to be rewarded for ﬁscal integrity. It was an especially tricky choice for GOP politicians, because Iowa farmers lean Republican. But starting in the 2004 presidential cycle, public and internal campaign polls have showed Democratic caucus-goers in particular rate agricultural issues lower than other concerns, including the economy, the Iraq war, health care and education. “It’s the lore that if you come to Iowa and you want to campaign here, you want to understand that ethanol is vital to the state,” said Des Moines-based pollster Ann Selzer, whose January survey found 92 percent of Iowa voters rated ethanol as important to the state’s economic future. “But it’s perfectly reasonable for someone’s opinion to shift as the world has shifted.” McCain’s reversal has been almost as dramatic as Clinton’s. In a 1999 Des Moines debate, the senator bluntly said: “Ethanol is not worth it. It does not help the consumer. Those ethanol subsidies should be phased out.” Campaigning in Iowa last month, where he is trailing GOP candidate Rudy Giuliani, McCain told voters: “We need energy independence. We need it for a whole variety of reasons and obviously ethanol is a big part of that equation.”

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Bush defends deportations, prods Congress for immigration law on trip BY PETER BARKER WASHINGTON POST

GUATEMALA CITY — President Bush defended a recent surge of deportations that have inflamed passions here in Latin America but vowed Monday to redouble efforts to overhaul immigration laws and called on the Senate to pass comprehensive legislation by summer. “The system needs to be fixed,” he said during his first visit to this impoverished nation which many have fled seeking opportunities in the United States, legally and illegally. “It seems like to me, we’ve got to get this done by August.” Although he called that a goal rather than a deadline, it was the first time Bush has prodded lawmakers with a time frame since Democrats took over Congress. It also was a tacit acknowledgment that the next few months represent his last chance to push through the most significant domestic initiative remaining in his presidency. After that, aides think, the approach of the 2008 presidential primaries would make consensus implausible. The president’s visit put him in the awkward position of defending tough enforcement actions he has ordered lately to assuage conservatives while assuring Latin Americans he remains committed to not

expelling from the United States most illegal immigrants. President Oscar Berger pressed him about recent deportations of Guatemalans that upset a country where a 10th of its population has moved north of the Rio Grande. “I’m sure they don’t want to be sent home,’’ Bush said during an appearance with Berger at the National Palace. “But we enforce our laws.” The real solution is to rewrite those laws to deal with changing realities, Bush said, endorsing as he has in the past a “rational middle ground’’ that balances stricter enforcement with compassion for the 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. “The biggest problem in this, in the debate, is going to be what to do with the people who are already in our country illegally,’’ he said he told Berger. “And I explained to him there will not be amnesty, automatic citizenship. It’s just not going to happen. Nor is it feasible to try to kick everybody out of our country. That’s not possible.” Bush’s August goal pleased Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the main Democratic author of a bipartisan plan that the president generally favors. “There is no excuse for inaction,’’ Kennedy said Monday night. “We must get comprehensive

immigration reform done this year and done right.” The immigration issue dominated the fourth day of the president’s six-day Latin America tour and likely will continue for the remainder of the trip as he headed Monday night for two days in Merida, Mexico. Tension over the matter complicated Bush’s efforts to use his trip to convince Latin America that “we care” about poverty, destitution and “social justice,” as he has put it. The president made a point Monday of choosing stops in Guatemala that he hoped would reinforce his message that the United States is working hard to uplift its neighbors, even though they have felt ignored by his administration. He visited a U.S. military program that provides medical care to rural poor and an agriculture cooperative for indigenous farmers whose irrigation system was built with U.S. aid. For the sake of the cameras, he loaded two shallow crates of lettuce in a truck. Bush also played tourist for a change, stopping by Iximchi, a 537year-old Mayan ruin that was the inspiration for the name of the country, where he watched a performance of the Dance of the Deer. He was formally welcomed to the country at an elaborate arrival ceremony at the National Palace and laid

W. lax snapped 19-6 by No. 3 Terrapins in match on road continued from page 12 we realized we had a chance,” Markowski said. “We started forcing turnovers and used that to our advantage to score some goals.” Co-captain Mimi DeTolla ’08 and Jesse Nunn ’09 both scored, and Molly McCarthy ’10 added a goal and one of her two assists during the run. “ We played a lot better towards the end of the ﬁrst half,” Sherry said. “We had a stretch where we played pretty well.” The Bears maintained the momentum that they had created at the end of the ﬁrst half and emerged from the locker room with a lot of energy. Co-captain Ali Holland ’08 scored on a free position goal to get Bruno to a score of 9-5 just three

minutes into the second half. Maryland responded with two more goals, but with 21:28 to go in the game, Holland added her second goal to make the score 11-6. Holland’s goal was the last score Bruno was able to put on the board. The Terrapins scored eight unanswered goals to cruise to victory. “The game was really up and down the ﬁeld, and we got a little tired,” Markowski said. “They were tough to stop once they got going.” Goalie Melissa King ’08 did her best to hold off the high-powered Terrapins, posting a season-high 15 saves. The Bears return to action for their home-opener Friday afternoon against Temple University at 4 p.m. The game is the ﬁrst of a four-game home stand before Brown begins

Baseball swept over weekend continued from page 12 hitter Drew Martin, walloped a 1-1 pitch from Dietz over the centerﬁeld wall for a grand slam. South Carolina tacked on another run in the eighth inning and won 9-4. “Jeff had a good game both at the plate and on the mound,” said second baseman and tri-captain Bryan Tews ’07. “He only made one bad pitch and it turned out they were ready for it.” Drabinksi said he was happy to see that the team improved as the series went on. He was pleased with the team’s pitching, though he said the defense — which committed eight errors over the weekend — still needed work. He also said the team needed to cut down on strikeouts, but credited the deep South Carolina pitching staff for striking out a whopping 39 batters this weekend. “Everybody they have throws in the upper 80s, lower 90s with power breaking balls,” he said. “It’s the best pitching we’re going to see this year.” Tews said the series was a good experience for the team, despite the

sweep. “It’s a pretty good conﬁdence builder because there’s nobody remotely comparable to South Carolina,” Tews said. “If we can hang around a No. 2 team for seven, eight or nine innings then we have the ability to compete against anyone.” The Bears will have a week and a half to rest before they travel to Connecticut to face Sacred Heart University March 22. The Bears will begin Ivy League play March 31 at Princeton.

its Ivy League schedule. “We are really excited to be at home after being away for four games,” Markowski said. “We are looking to beat Temple and to have a big crowd.”

a white rose on the Peace Statue, a bronze sculpture of two hands honoring the 1996 accords that ended 36 years of internal armed conflict. As in stops in Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia, Bush’s visit was cause for protest among people angry about his policies. Hundreds of demonstrators massed a block from the National Palace as a wall of riot police prevented them from moving farther. Even at Iximchi, Mayan priests said they planned to “purify” the ruin after Bush left to get rid of any “bad spirits” he may have left behind. Guatemala is a case study in the sort of economic desperation Bush says he wants to address. Many in this Tennessee-size country of 12 million struggle to make ends meet. The per capita gross domestic product of $4,900 a year is barely a 10th of the $43,500 in the United States. Bush arrived at a time of scandal for the government. Four police officers killed three Salvadoran members of the Central American Parliament and their driver last month in what officials suspect was a planned killing carried out by professional assassins. The police officers were

taken into custody but then were mysteriously killed in prison. Several top security ofﬁcials of Berger’s government have since submitted their resignations. “There is the implication that’s going relatively high up into the Guatemalan police,” Dan Fisk, Bush’s top Latin America adviser at the National Security Council, told reporters on Air Force One. “So one of the issues that will be discussed, we’ll talk about crime and security issues. Security is the number one issue of interest to the average Guatemalan, so we expect to cover that.” Berger used their meeting to complain about the recent raid that netted Guatemalans in New Bedford, Mass., and told Bush that many here believe they were singled out. Bush assured him they were not, and Berger publicly said he was persuaded. But Berger prompted Bush to put a public time frame on an immigration bill, telling reporters the president had set it as a goal during their private meeting. Bush tried to temper that by saying it was not a hard-and-fast deadline.

E DITORIAL & L ETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 10

TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2007

STAF F EDITORIAL

Lottery blues It’s not surprising that a recent University survey sent to undergrads enticed freshmen and sophomores to participate by offering them the chance to win the highest lottery number in their brackets. Nor is it shocking that ResCouncil’s First Pick Competition routinely draws elaborate submissions from students desperately seeking that perfect suite. During the spring semester, it’s not midterms or summer plans that have most students stressed out — it’s the housing lottery. The lottery exposes all the fractures of college friendships. Picking housing for a full academic year forces students to choose among their friends — assuming they have some. First-years discover they aren’t as close to their unitmates as they thought, sophomores realize they never want to live with their current roommate again, juniors find themselves deciding which friend to cut out to make four for a Young O suite and surprise bids from program houses and fraternities whisk viable roommates away from the process altogether. All of a sudden, innocent meals at the Ratty and carefree latenight chats lead to a sudden question: “What are you doing for housing next year?” Now it’s business. How many shared meals make a friend? How many hours of idle conversation? Callous treatment of your beloved roommate suddenly comes back to haunt you. How many times do you have to be sexiled before you’re sick of your roommate? How many times can you pass out drunk on the floor before you’ve crossed the line? We sort of wish ResCouncil could wave a wand and solve every housing crisis, from the four best friends whose freshmen numbers won’t get them a suite to the sophomore who just realized they’re the odd one out in their group of friends. But the perfect suite — one in the right building on campus with exactly the right number of beds and the proper ratio of singles to doubles — is a mythical construct. For the hundreds of students who didn’t win First Pick and won’t win the survey raffle, the perfect suite is only a dream. But while these fantasies are nice to cling to, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for students to figure out what’s feasible — and what’s not — and construct a realistic lottery game plan. Last week’s roommate social was a good opportunity for students without roommates to connect with others, even if speed-dating is a dubious start to a year-long commitment. Beyond the awkward social question of figuring out who you’re living with, the lottery is a logistical quagmire of housing options and contingency plans. Next year’s housing probably won’t be ideal. A few of your friends this year may become acquaintances on the other side of campus next year, or you and your best friends might get squashed with a stranger into an uncomfortably intimate triple … who knows. Fortunately, you’ll survive. Most students do. Short of moving back home, there’s no good way to avoid the housing scramble, and this problem perplexes college students everywhere. Though it’s painful to test friendships against the gauntlet of choosing housing, life — and the strongest friendships — will go on. Good luck.

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

Photo Editor Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

General Manager Mandeep Gill General Manager Ally Ouh Executive Manager Darren Ball Executive Manager Dan DeNorch Laurie-Ann Paliotti Sr. Advertising Manager Ofﬁce Manager Susan Dansereau PRODUCTION Design Editor Steve DeLucia Copy Desk Chief Chris Gang Graphics Editor Mark Brinker Graphics Editor Roxanne Palmer Web Editor Luke Harris POST- MAGAZINE Hillary Dixler Melanie Duch Taryn Martinez Rajiv Jayadevan Mindy Smith

Banner implementation ignores student needs To the Editor: Though Banner certainly is a needed move into the 21st century, the way it is being implemented strikes me as biased. Most of the “beneﬁts” — such as automatically not allowing students to enroll once a course is full, enforcement of pre-requisites and a convoluted process to get instructors to approve an add-course after pre-registration period — are not beneﬁcial to students even though they are supported by faculty. One simple concession the University administration could have given to students was to eliminate the $15 fee to add a course after the second week of classes. According to the current add/drop form, the fee is

in place to “help meet additional administration costs.” Certainly with Banner, these costs will be diminished or eliminated. Perhaps if the administration had spent as much time working with students as it did with faculty in forming the new policies our registrar will adhere to, my fellow students and I would be more willing to support the modernization of the registration process.

Neal Cohen ’10 March 8

Health Services clariﬁes HIV test billing policy To the Editor: We would like to clarify Health Services’ policy regarding HIV testing. An article in The Herald (“QA and GAIA team up for free HIV testing,” March 9) inaccurately stated that Health Services mails home HIV testing bills to parents. Students who have the rapid oral HIV test at Health Services have the choice to either pay the $25 fee at the appointment time or to charge the fee to their bursar’s account, which reads “Health Services Lab Fee” and provides no speciﬁc information about what test was performed. We want to reassure students that HIV testing at Health Servic-

es is conﬁdential. Although Health Services is presently unable to offer HIV testing at no cost, we have supported important events organized by the QA and GAIA, such as free testing on World AIDS Day, to ensure Brown students have access to HIV testing if cost is of concern. Edward Wheeler Director of Health Services J. Cherry Health Educator March 12

Alum question students’ liberal persuasion

T HE B ROWN D AILY H ERALD Editors-in-Chief Eric Beck Mary-Catherine Lader

LETTERS

ROXANNE PALMER

Managing Editor Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor

Steve DeLucia, Ezra Miller, Designers Catherine Cullen, Erin Cummings, Madeleine Rosenberg, 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, Brianna Barzola, Evan Boggs, Irene Chen, Nicole Dungca, Thi Ho, Rebecca Jacobson, Tsvetina Kamenova, Hannah Levintova, Abe Lubetkin, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Zachary McCune, Nathalie Pierrepont, Marielle Segarra, Robin Steele, Allissa Wickham Sports Staff Writers Amy Ehrhart, Kaitlyn Laabs, Eliza Lane, Kathleen Loughlin, Megan McCahill, Marco Santini, Tom Trudeau, Steele West Business Staff Dana Feuchtbaum, Kent Holland, Alexander Hughes, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Viseth San, Kaustubh Shah, Jon Spector, Robert Stefani, Lily Tran, Lindsay Walls Design Staff Brianna Barzola, Aurora Durfee, Sophie Elsner, Christian Martell, Matthew McCabe, Ezra Miller, Sarah Raifman Photo Staff Stuart Duncan-Smith, Austin Freeman, Tai Ho Shin Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Catherine Cullen, Erin Cummings, Karen Evans, Jacob Frank, Ted Lamm, Lauren Levitz, Cici Matheny, Alex Mazerov, Ezra Miller, Joy Neumeyer, Madeleine Rosenberg, Lucy Stark, Meha Verghese

To the Editor: I recently began reading The Herald online, mostly in an effort to reconnect with my alma mater. I never thought it possible, but Brown has become more liberal over the past 20 years. The Herald published an article Monday lamenting the Department of Public Safety (“DPS, students disagree on meaning of stop data,” March 12). The Coalition for Police Accountability and Institutional Transparency (is there really a group for that?) doesn’t believe the data collected by the University police officers. They have no basis for their challenge, other than the data doesn’t support their charge of racial profiling. Essentially, the police, who swear to uphold the law and to do so with utmost integrity and honesty, are being called liars. When did an elite education begin teaching students to ignore statistically relevant data they don’t like? Or under the new rules of liberalism, is it now scientifically acceptable to ignore data that indicates the police may be fair and just? A few clicks later, I see that Students for a Democratic Society have written a letter (“SDS: Raytheon protest was well-founded,” March 12) essentially

claiming that any corporation that supplies the military should be boycotted by “socially responsible” students. After all, the campus has banned ROTC … why not cleanse itself of any related entity? Again, have Brown academics glossed over the fact that warfare has been a necessary means of defending the very democracy the students claim to pursue? Are students now taught that the American Revolution, the American Civil War and World War II were immaterial in the defense of democracy or preservation of America? I imagine these students are too young to remember that even Bill Clinton used military force in the Balkans — sometimes military action is required. I love Brown, and I am proud to be a graduate … a token conservative from a sea of liberalism. But I can’t help wonder how these students will adapt to the real world when they actually have to support themselves and pay taxes. Jonathan Bastian ’89 Lexington, KY March 12

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 TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2007

PAGE 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori SEAN QUIGLEY

OPINIONS COLUMNIST

“It is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country.” Written by the Roman poet Horace in the first century BC, those words receive my full endorsement. I am neither a jingoist nor a warmonger. I just happen to believe that mere existence in this world is not the only important value. And, like that crazy liberal Jesus Christ, I believe that “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15: 13). Which brings me to my point: We must reinstate the draft. I am not writing this column for shock value. Believe it or not, I actually support the draft. It is high time that America recommit itself to the values of duty, sacrifice and service. As a nation, we must realize that freedom is not defined as the absence of all obligations. And, for those of us who are enrolled at the elite Ivy institutions, we should realize that we will be among the leaders of tomorrow. Will we do what is right and give of ourselves in order to ensure liberty, or will we shirk our duties? I advise the former. My vision for a draft would encompass roughly all males who fall within the age bracket from 18 to 26. Note the difference between the Vietnam-era draft and the type of draft that I am advocating — all militaryage males (and possibly females) should be obligated to fulfill a two-year commitment to our country’s defenses. Of course, for every rule, there is an exception. In practice, not all military-age males would fall under this system. However, the exceptions should be far less numerous than those during the

1960s and 1970s. Such exceptions to the general rule of conscripting all military-age males would be the conscientious objector, the physically unfit and those with obligations in their personal lives that must be fulfilled in the immediate future. Yet, on the whole, all of these exceptions could be accounted for in my vision of a modern draft. That is to say, the updated draft would include a civil service component, in which all males who object to or physically cannot participate in military service would be allowed to fulfill their commitment in a civilian capacity. I maintain that, with this civil service

more alternative options the draft may have or how much more equitable and fair it may be, many people still dismiss the idea of “forcing” a person to serve or defend his homeland. I wonder what such people would have said to the father of our country, George Washington, when he declared, “It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services, to the defense of it.” For those on the left who oppose the draft, I ﬁnd it curious that they have no prob-

Believe it or not, I actually support the draft. It is high time that America recommit itself to the values of duty, sacriﬁce and service. option, all possible reasons for not serving one’s country would lose their merit. Those who object to military service could become a teacher for two years (the same idea as Teach for America). Those who cannot physically perform military service could serve for two years in the Peace Corps, traveling to less fortunate nations and helping to pull their peoples out of the gripping forces of poverty. Those with pressing obligations that need immediate attention could temporarily postpone their military or civil service commitment. Alas, it seems that no matter how many

lem with breaking our backs by increasing the amount of personal property that citizens must forfeit to the government through taxes but recoil at the idea of the government asking citizens to give personal service. For those on the right who oppose the draft, I ﬁnd it curious that they would wage a “culture war” against the depredation of social liberalism but refuse to take positive action toward reinvigorating the duties to God and country that played such an integral role in the establishment of our republic. The draft, then, occupies a peculiar position in our society. Replaced in 1973 by the

all-volunteer military, it is frequently decried by both sides of the political divide. Both sides claim that military service must be based on volition. Yet, I scratch my head when I ponder the fact that jury duty and payment of taxes — both civil obligations — are rarely condemned on the basis of the “volition” principle. No one is suggesting that we switch to all-volunteer juries. Further yet, it is rather disconcerting to me that American politicians have no qualms with a professional military. I contend that, if anything, the all-volunteer, professional military is more of a threat to American liberty than a conscripted one. For, while the conscripted military allows for a steady flow of civilians and civilian ideas into the ranks, a professional military runs a greater risk of insularity. A professional military, due to the loss of a constant influx of civilians, can lose the sense of civilian control that exists under a conscripted military. No nation can remain free for very long if its soldiers forget that, ultimately, they are accountable to the citizens and constitution of the country and not to their internal military structure. We as a people must return to our nation the values of duty, sacrifice and service. We must realize that seeking narrow-minded personal comfort is not our purpose in this world. We must regard complete nullification of duty to our fellow man as the purest of vices. We must revive the ideal of the citizen-soldier. For all these reasons, we must reinstate the draft.

Sean Quigley ’10 played quarters this weekend with Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y.

A mainstream that is hard to pinpoint BY MAHA ATAL COLUMNIST ABROAD

OXFORD, England — My father recently asked me to explain the word “indie” — a term he keeps seeing in magazines but can’t attach a definition to. I played him a selection of my iTunes library — everything from The Smiths to The Strokes — and saw him frown. “It’s so mild! Where’s the protest rock? You can’t dance to this!” I tried to explain that at the concerts I attend, people wave lighters and sing along, rather than dance and shout in a socialist rage. I tried to explain that most of my friends aren’t too concerned with “sticking it to the man.” This only compounded my father’s disillusionment. My mother and I have had similar conversations about politics. Reading newspaper articles about how increasing numbers of female college graduates want to be stayat-home mothers, my working mother wonders what she and her peers were fighting for when they burned their bras 30 years ago. Our generation, my parents complain, doesn’t seem to be fighting for anything. We are apathetic, cynical and artistically barren. How, they ask, can the older generation be more radical than the rising youth? The New York Times’ David Brooks posed a similar question in his recent column on hipster parents — 30-something moms and dads who try to impose indie music and leftist politics on their children (“Mosh Pit Meets Sandbox,” Feb. 25). These days, Brooks writes, “There is nothing more reassuringly traditionalist than the counterculture.” Brooks is right, partially. The logic of

setting established traditionalism against a youth counterculture has collapsed with our generation. But he seems to think it’s because our generation has lost the will to make change. Our lack of countercultural radicalism is not a sign of unoriginality. It’s an act of radical non-commitment. Youth movements from the 1950s to the 1990s, though always championing the rhetoric of individualism against an impersonal “system,” were also always about group identity — young people have traditionally

a cause — for Generation Y — is personal. It goes beyond the labels that set old against young, culture against counterculture. In a paradoxical way, the unifying cultural preference of our generation is to reject the need for a unifying culture. In the age of the Internet, of YouTube and MySpace, how could it be otherwise? For the last several decades, it has always been possible to identify major trends, to single out a few dominant countercultural voices — underground rock groups or populist politicians — as separate from and opposed

The unifying cultural preference of our generation is to reject the need for a unifying culture. banded together against a clearly identiﬁed “establishment” consisting of the government and their parents. Generation Y takes individualism more literally — our act of youth rebellion has been to reject all allegiances, be they political, social, cultural or even generational. Most of my female friends believe in gender equality, but few call themselves “feminists.” Those of my friends who dress in skinny jeans and listen to Franz Ferdinand would be unlikely to call themselves “hipsters.” Indeed, the most musically minded people I know roll their eyes at such a label. At Brown, we debate politics constantly, but my most politically savvy friends aren’t registered members of a political party — they’re all Independents. True passion for

to an established culture they sought to critique. Once upon a time, a well-meaning parent could switch on MTV or open Rolling Stone and be reasonably sure to ﬁnd out what his teenage child was listening to. These days, there are no clear demarcations. As a group, young people in America don’t turn en masse to any one TV show or blog for news, music or fashion. In today’s decentralized world, where a band can rise to fame through Web downloads and never appear on MTV, every individual can have a personalized encounter with pop culture. Similarly, we customize our news, setting our homepage preferences to report only on the subjects that interest us. It’s difﬁcult, if not impossible, to identify where the mainstream ends and the “under-

ground” begins — that’s just another demarcation that has disappeared in this age of absolutist individualism. When there isn’t a clear cultural “establishment,” there’s no need for a counterculture to resist it. But that doesn’t mean we’re a generation without ideas. Rejecting the hyperbolic radicalism of youth movements past is an ideological choice. Our individualism, grounded in a personal and decentralized encounter with the outside world, feeds into more individualized but no less passionate responses to questions of artistic or political import. Our “feminism” is of the “Sex and the City variety.” The struggles of feminists past are an empty cause for a generation that takes it for granted that individual women will decide the balance of career and family for themselves — a generation that sees no inherent contradiction between liberation and tradition in the ﬁrst place. Our politics is Independent (with a capital I) because it’s about the search for candidates who are individuals and, like us, disregard organizing categories. Our favorite politicians are either centrists who can take the best from all sides or renegades who appear outside the system altogether. Our musical tastes are diverse, and artists like OutKast or Gnarls Barkley succeed because they are able to blend genres. They play to an audience whose encounter with culture is based in eclectism. When everything links to everything else, musical genres and political movements are linked to their seeming opposites. David Brooks believes the years of revolutionary youth are past. But I wonder if, since the idea of radical youth is no longer revolutionary, our rejection of such countercultural labels is its own brand of nonconformity.

Maha Atal ’08 is really bad at “Categories.”

S PORTS T UESDAY TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2007

PAGE 12

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

W. tennis picks up 2 wins over weekend

Baseball gets slammed in S.C. sweep

SPORTS EDITOR

BY JUSTIN GOLDMAN

BY STU WOO FEATURES EDITOR

The women’s tennis team nabbed two wins this weekend. On Saturday, the Bears defeated cross-state rival the University of Rhode Island 6-1 and then downed West Virginia University 5-2 Sunday. The Rams’ defeat at Bruno’s hands was their ﬁrst loss of the season. Michelle Pautler ’07 played well, winning two singles matches and two doubles matches, while Sarah Mansur ’09 also nailed four wins for Brown. Daisy Ames ’07 continued her solid play, contributing three more wins for the Bears. On Saturday, Brown got off to a hot start, sweeping all three doubles matches. The duos of Pautler and Mansur, Kelley Kirkpatrick ’08 and Emily Ellis ’10 and Katherine Sorokko ’10 and Ames all earned easy victories for Bruno. On the singles end, Pautler breezed past URI’s Valerie Chacon 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 singles, while Mansur beat her competitor almost as easily, winning over Nyssa Peele 62, 6-2 at No. 3 singles. In the third position, Brett Finklestein ’09 beat Grace Hedstrom 6-2, 6-2 as well, and Alexa Baggio ’09 downed Amanda Berletta 6-4, 6-2 at No. 4 singles. Ellis rounded out Brown’s singles victories, beating Steff Catanzano, 6-0, 6-2 at No. 5 singles. Brown came out with another strong effort on Saturday, winning two of three doubles matches to seize the doubles point. The Bears also continued to play well in singles. Ames set the tone with a tough three-set victory over the Montaineers’ Natalia

This weekend, the baseball team found out why the University of South Carolina is one of the nation’s top-ranked teams. Currently No. 4 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll and the Collegiate Baseball poll, the South Carolina Gamecocks (13-2) jumped out to early leads in each game of the three-game series and outscored the Bears 33-7 in the sweep. Though the Bears threatened late in Sunday’s game, the Gamecocks were able to run away with the series behind solid pitching and even better hitting. After the three losses, Brown’s record stands at 1-6. “South Carolina is very good — I think they’re better than the (then-No. 6) Florida State team we played last year,” Head Coach Marek Drabinski said. “With the way they swing the bats and play defensively, they are a legitimate World Series contender.” Like last weekend, when Brown committed 21 errors over four games, the team was stung by defensive mistakes in Friday’s game. Two Brown errors in the first inning led to two unearned runs and helped the Gamecocks take an early 6-0 lead. Gamecocks pitching then silenced the Brown offense, allowing just five singles and an unearned run. Designated hitter J.J. Eno ’08 led the Bears in hitting, going 2-for-4, as Brown fell 13-1. Starting pitcher James Cramphin ’07 gave up seven runs — including five earned — over six innings and took the loss.

W. lax snapped 19-6 by Terrapins BY MEGAN MCCAHILL SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The women’s lacrosse team fell 196 to the third-ranked University of Maryland on Saturday afternoon. Playing their fourth consecutive road game, the Bears started out slow and allowed the Terrapins to take an early 3-0 lead to start the first half. Despite the early deficit, Brown came out with focus and passion. “We came out really strong,” said Meghan Markowski ’10. “Our defense did a great job of making them take tough shots, and our goalie made a lot of good saves.” Even with Brown’s strong effort, the Terrapins were quicker on the offensive end than their nickname suggests, firing 54 shots in the 60minute contest. To combat the offensive attack, Brown’s defense had to try to weather the storm. “They were a really talented team,” said defensemen Val Sherry ’09. Markowski put Brown on the board with her second goal of the season with 14 minutes remaining in the first half. Maryland continued its relentless attack, finding the back of the net six times in less than five minutes. But the Bears refused to give in and started to settle in offensively. Brown scored the final three goals of the half to cut their deficit to 9-4. “After we scored our first goal, continued on page 9

Jacob Melrose / Herald Michelle Pautler ’07 won all four of her matches in both of Brown’s wins over the weekend.

Prinz. After dropping the ﬁrst set 5-7, she fought back to take the next two sets 6-4, 6-3. After Ames, Paulter defeated Stacey Percival in another tough three-set match. After Pautler took the ﬁrst set 6-3, Percival battled back to win the second set, 7-5. Despite losing the second set, Pautler did not lose focus and won the third set 6-2, ultimately winning the match.

WVU took the next two singles matches and brought the score to 3-2. But Baggio defeated Stephanie LaFortune 6-2, 6-4 to ensure the victory for Brown. Ellis gave Brown another three-set win at No. 5 singles, downing Alexandra Kaluza 6-2, 1-6, 7-5. Brown is currently 5-7 overall on the season and will face Yale on March 31.

“Friday was a little disappointing,” Drabinski said. “I think we came out a little star-struck early.” early The Bears offense didn’t fare much better in Saturday’s game, as they managed only two runs and four hits, with catcher Devin Thomas ’07 and first baseman Jeff Dietz ’08 contributing RBI singles. A trio of Brown first-year pitchers — South Carolina native Rob Wilcox ’10, Will Weidig ’10 and Matt Boylan ’10 — was hit hard by the Gamecocks, who scored 11 runs on 13 hits in the 11-2 victory. Sunday’s game was a much closer affair than the previous two, as Brown ace Dietz — who was named the Ivy League Preseason Pitcher of the Year by Collegiate Baseball — took the mound. In the first inning Dietz gave up two first-inning runs on a double to Gamecocks first baseman Justin Smoak, a preseason All-American who went 7-for-11 with a homer and 13 RBIs for the weekend. But Dietz helped himself with a thirdinning sacrifice fly that cut the lead to 2-1. South Carolina tacked on single runs in the fi fth and sixth innings, but the Bears tied the game in the top of the seventh off Thomas’ bases-loaded sacrifice fly, which Drabinski said barely missed being a grand slam, and Dietz’s tworun single. The deciding point of the game came in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs and runners on first and third, the Bears decided to intentionally walk Smoak to load the bases. The next batter, pinchcontinued on page 9

Softball splits decisions in Virginia road trip BY AMY EHRHART SPORTS STAFF WRITER

Playing in Fairfax, Va., the softball team pulled out a 2-2 record against Youngstown State University, Morgan State University and George Mason University over the weekend. On Saturday, Brown faced Youngstown and Morgan State, pounding the Penguins 6-3 and the Bears 8-4. In both games they fell into a hole in the second inning before mounting comebacks to take the lead. In the first game when Brown was down 1-0, Whitney Lewis ’10 scored on a single by co-captain Liz Anderson ’07, and then Andrea Browne ’10 brought in fellow freshman Amanda Asay ’10 on another single to tie it up. Anderson hit another single in the fi fth inning to bring in co-captain Amy Baxter ’08 and Asay to take the lead for good. Baxter made her presence felt again, hitting a two-run homer in the seventh to secure the win. “Their pitcher was a little hard to adjust to, but once we got it going we were fine,” Baxter said. “I don’t think (getting down early) is a strategy to keep up with though.” Michelle Moses ’09 recorded her first win for the Bears, pitching 5.2 innings and striking out four while scattering 11 hits. Kristen Schindler ’09 came in for the save. Against Morgan State, the Bears faced a 2-0 deficit in the

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo Kristen Schindler ’09 won her ﬁrst game for Brown against Morgan State on Saturday. Schindler struck out six and allowed only three hits. Brown went 2-2 during the weekend.

second when Asay and Anderson once again brought in two runs for Bruno. Anderson doubled in Asay in the fourth and Brown coasted in the ﬁ fth, scoring four runs off of three walks and a double by Asay. Schindler kept the Morgan State offense guessing, allowing only three hits along with six strikeouts.

“We definitely had the momentum coming from the first game,” Schindler said. “I think we’re still coming together as a team, and we have a lot of starting freshmen who are doing great.” On Sunday, however, it was a different story for Brown, as the Bears lost 5-2 in both games — the first a rematch against YSU and the second against George

Mason. “It’s hard when you face slow pitchers one day and have to adjust to different ones the next,” Baxter said. Brown only had three hits in the rematch against the Penguins and just four more against George Mason. “Competing teams will see what you’ve done the day before … and when you’re the only undefeated team, then you’re going to have the bulls-eye on you,” said Head Coach DeeDee EnabenterOmidiji. “We didn’t have the offense to support our pitching. We faced different type of pitchers … and George Mason threw with a lot more speed.” Kelsey Wilson ’09 had three strikeouts in the loss against Youngstown. Moses and Schindler allowed only seven hits combined against George Mason. The Bears’ next game against Central Connecticut State University this Wednesday was canceled, so they will not be playing until their spring break trip to California, where they will start off the week against the University of San Diego on March 24. “It’s difﬁcult because we’ll be sitting for the next two weeks and they’ll be our toughest competition yet,” Enabenter-Omidiji said. Yet Brown will use the time off to gear up for their trip, well aware that they must recover from last weekend. “We’ll really need to step it up as an East Coast team out there,” Baxter added.