Friday, April 6, 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD F RIDAY

Volume CXLII, No. 45

RIL 6 , 2007 20 07

Santorum: America must ﬁght radical Islam

Pressure mounts as theses crunch time nears

BY MICHAEL SKOCPOL SENIOR STAFF WRITER

BY ZACHARY CHAPMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

With the deadline for his honors thesis fast approaching, Peter James ’07 said he has often been so absorbed in his work that he sometimes forgets to eat meals. James, who will earn honors in geology-physics/mathematics with the successful completion of his thesis on the elastic and inelastic behavior of the oceanic lithosphere, said he often spends one to two days in the geology department before returning to his dorm room, usually pausing only to take brief naps on the department’s couch. As he scrambles to wrap up over a year’s worth of research and mathematical analysis, James can take solace in the fact that he is not alone in his plight. While many of their peers enjoy the onset of spring in their last semester on College Hill, a select group of seniors are working furiously to put the finishing touches on ambitious and demanding academic exercises — writing theses. Michael Gladstone ’07, who is working on an honors thesis in history, has taken full advantage of the Friedman Study Center’s long hours — he said he spent nearly 72 consecutive hours at the Friedman in the last few days before spring break, leaving only to eat and grab quick naps in his dorm room. Yet even now, in the home stretch, most seniors interviewed by The Herald expressed more enthusiasm than regret about their decision to complete a thesis. James seemed nonplussed about his irregular eating habits. He said doing a thesis has been one of the most valuable experiences he has had at Brown. “It has been really good to think through a fundamental problem from start to finish,” he said. “It brings closure to your time at Brown and makes you feel like you have accomplished something you couldn’t have gotten anywhere else,” he said. James, whose thesis topic came out of an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantship he did during his junior summer, said he is having some difficulty wrapping up his thesis because he often finds new avenues on his topic that he would like to explore. “I have notebooks and random printouts all over the place,” he said. While, technically, he has written only five pages, James said “he is not too worried” about being able to finish his thesis. Rochelle Hartley ’07, a biochemistry and molecular biology concentrator, has 21 days until her thesis is due but said she has also continued on page 6

INSIDE:

3 ARTS & CULTURE

Chris Bennett / Herald Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum spoke to a packed Salomon 101 last night on the dangers posed to Western civilization by “Islamic fascism.”

The United States “will pay a horrible price” if it does not recognize the threat posed by “Islamic fascism” and act to defeat it, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum told a near-capacity crowd in Salomon 101 last night. Santorum, an outspoken conservative brought to campus by the Brown Lecture Board, said the United States’ current struggles in the Middle East are the beginning of a new chapter in the historical conﬂict between the Judeo-Christian West and the Islamic world. He said he believed the struggle would cause Americans to reject “multiculturalism” and return to traditional values. After cracking jokes early on, an energetic Santorum quickly grew serious, saying that the last 40 years have seen “a cataclysmic shift in America and the Western

world” away from traditional Judeo-Christian values, especially in Europe. But the conﬂict with radical Islam “will bring this country together more than maybe any war has ever done” in opposition to that trend, he added. “I do not believe that all cultures need to be or should be respected equally,” Santorum said, calling that premise “one of the mainstays of the secular orthodoxy” and predicting that it will fall out of favor. Later, in a question-and-answer session following the speech, Santorum said the Judeo-Christian tradition “is superior to all other cultures” and that Islamic culture is in need of reform. “These folks have had plenty of opportunities to reform, to modernize,” Santorum said. “Christianity has become tolerant of other world views, and Islam continued on page 4

Candidates gear up for UCS elections, debate in the Ratty BY MICHAEL BECHEK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

At the ﬁnal information session Thursday night for prospective candidates for the Undergraduate Council of Students and Undergraduate Finance Board, members of the elections board, all UCS veterans, offered some seasoned advice for campaigning — and went over a few rules. Running for class representative? You’ll need 100 signatures from your classmates. If you’re running for a position on UCS’s executive board or for UFB, make

that 400. Have those turned in by Wednesday (they’ll be veriﬁed, so don’t bother cheating), and you’re ready to start spending your 100 allotted publicity points (an 8.5inch by 11-inch poster costs half a point, but print in color and you’ll pay four times that). Starting a Facebook group is a good start, but be careful of mass e-mails, which may do more harm than good. “Don’t inundate people with stuff, or they won’t like you,” said UCS Vice President Tristan Freeman ’07. It’s a lot to handle, but there

are plenty of opportunities. Every elected position on UCS is open for the upcoming spring elections — including president, vice president, treasurer, five committee chairs and five representatives from each class — as are UFB chair, vice-chair and five at-large positions. Voting will take place on MyCourses between April 17 and 19. Christina Kim ’07, chair of the elections board, said about 25 to 30 prospective candidates in total had showed up to one of the first four information sessions, and nearly 20 more were present

at last night’s half-hour session in the Upper Blue Room in Faunce House. “One of the things we’re trying to do this year is just up the number of people that are running,” Kim said. Of those who came to the ﬁrst four sessions, Kim estimated that about two-thirds were currently on UCS. Attendance at an information session is mandatory for all candidates, and most who show up to an information session end up running for something, Kim said. continued on page 4

Documentary captures w. rugby’s Ugandan adventure BY ISABEL GOTTLIEB STAFF WRITER

Sounds from African drums and wild cheers ﬁlled Smith-Buonanno 106 Wednesday night as the women’s rugby team faced off against a women’s team from Uganda in a documentary about the Brown team’s landmark trip to the country last year. The Brown women were the ﬁrst non-African women’s rugby team to play in East Africa. A few minutes further into the 45-minute documentary — which drew an audience of about 25, mostly women’s rugby and hockey players — the Ugandan and Brown women were laughing, drinking and teaching each other dance moves as they shared rugby stories. The most common theme: No one takes a female rugby player seriously. The inspiration for last year’s spring break trip to Uganda came from co-captain Jennifer Hustwitt

VETERAN FRESHMAN Kato McNickle ’10, a student in the Resumed Undergraduate Education program, has brought her extensive experience in theater to campus

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’07. Hustwitt spent the summer after her freshman year working in Uganda for the African Child Foundation, a small community organization. The following summer, Hustwitt was awarded a Royce Fellowship to return there and research children’s access to secondary school education. Driving through the capital city of Kampala one day that summer, Hustwitt spotted a rugby pitch. Later, she attended a match between Uganda and Rwanda. “I wanted the team from Brown to experience it,” she said. Team members interviewed in the documentary say the trip was ﬁrst discussed during the ﬁrst week of practice last year. The rugby team took — and paid for — all players who were interested in going. The total cost for the trip was between $85,000 and $120,000, the players said. continued on page 6

SANTORUM’S FORUM After delivering his lecture to campus on Thursday night, the former U.S. senator sat CAMPUS NEWS down for a question and answer session with The Herald

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Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo The Brown women’s rugby team, which traveled to Uganda last spring break, screened a documentary of the experience in Smith-Buonanno Wednesday night.

POINT/COUNTERPOINT Trevor Gleason ‘07 and Don Trella ’08 debate whether the dangers of global warming are exaggerated or are far greater than we realize

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WE’RE NO. 1!! The women’s rowing team is ranked ﬁrst nationally in the latest poll after defeating Princeton, Radcliffe and Ohio State over break

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TODAY

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SHARPE REFECTORY

FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — V Vegetarian Spinach and Mushroom Soup, Broccoli au Gratin, Chicken Parmesan Grinder, Saturday Night Jambalaya, Butter Cookies, Cheesecake Brownies

LUNCH — Vegetarian Mushroom, Vegetable Soup, Chicken Fingers, Vegan Nuggets, Vegan Brown Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms, Corn Cobbets, Cheesecake Brownies

DINNER — Spanish Rice, Fresh Vegetable Melange, Okra and Tomato, Chicken Florentine, Fried Catﬁsh, Chocolate Pudding, Banana Cake

DINNER — Breaded Pollock Filet, Grilled Chicken, Stuffed Shells with Sauce, Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes with Shallots, Banana Cake

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 ��

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1 Break down 5 Judgelike? 10 Pollution portmanteau 14 “A Chapter on Ears” essayist 15 Establish 16 Twice tri17 Date bk. notation 18 Quieted, in a way 19 Hoohas 20 Film about Elvis’s relationship with a fish? 23 1951 NFL champs 24 It requires an “it” 25 Org. concerned with 10-Across 28 Leader of Suriname? 29 “The __ Baltimore”: 1973 play 32 Involved yarns? 34 Film about an interspecies fish relationship? 36 Sport with a pre-match mat-salting ritual 39 AOL exchanges 40 Stain 41 Film about fish paternity? 46 One of the five Olympic rings 47 Burns rejections 48 Old spy gp. 51 Euler’s __ function 52 CD trailers 54 Juvenile raptor 56 Film about a weatherforecasting fish? 60 DeMille output 62 Heartburn 63 Comics pooch 64 Half a Jim Carrey title 65 Thus far 66 Western Belgian city 67 Silver locks 68 “Oops” inducers 69 They can be beaten DOWN 1 Noted British invader

2 Firsts 35 Literary 50 Cortisol creator 3 Road safety schnauzer 53 “Taras Bulba” invention 36 Aerobics class author patented by Mary aid 55 Travelocity Anderson in 37 “Nope” mascot 1905 38 Prime __ 57 .4 hectares, 4 Simka’s TV 42 Angola joined it in roughly husband 2007 58 Done, in 5 Patron 43 Takes down Deauville 6 cc source 44 Brays 59 Sporty car 7 Pampas 45 Edomite ancestor roof weapon 48 Proverbial fogy 60 North Dakota’s 8 Dash or vault 49 Believing, state tree, e.g. 9 Patrick Swayze metaphorically 61 __ mater Cold War movie ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 10 Ruler until 1979 11 Like knight time 12 1952 tic-tac-toe computer game 13 Great time, slangily 21 “I’m just saying ...,” in a chat room 22 Old 26 Cancún coin 27 Igor, to Dr. Frankenstein 30 Working stiff’s relieved cry 31 Chess analyst Shelby __ 33 Short letters? 34 Somewhat, musically 4/6/07 xwordeditor@aol.com

Deep Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbon

Cloudy Side Up | Mike Lauritano

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‘The Hungarian Passport’ explores identity across borders BY DANIEL RODI PEREZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Chris Bennett / Herald Sandra Kogut, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Cogut Center for Humanities, screened her ﬁlm “The Hungarian Passport” in MacMillan Hall last night.

In n following her bid for a Hungarian passport, Sandra Kogut’s documentary “The Hungarian Passport” explores the difference between nationality and citizenship. The film was presented by the Watson Institute for International Studies last night in MacMillan 117. For Brazilian citizens like Kogut, having a European passport is advantageous. European or American passports, unlike Brazilian ones, allow Brazilians to cross most borders with ease. Dual citizenships are a matter of convenience for Brazilians who travel. “Having two nationalities is like having two husbands — having two citizenships is like having two suits,” Kogut’s friend says in the documentary. In the film, Kogut searches for documents that prove her Hungarian ancestry. In an interesting parallel, the documentary compares the difficulties Kogut had acquiring her passport with the institutional obstacles experienced by her grandparents during their immigration to Brazil. Fleeing the prospect of a Nazi invasion of Hungary, Kogut’s Jewish

grandparents immigrated to Brazil in 1937. Unfortunately, a secret directive issued by the Brazilian government at the time forbade consulates to grant visas to prospective Jewish immigrants. For a moment, it looked like they might be without citizenship, as their Hungarian passports forbade them to return to Hungary and the Brazilian consulate refused to give them a visa. In mentioning this anecdote, Kogut demonstrates that while it may be impossible to have no cultural background, people can still be legally stateless.

REVIEW Eventually both quests seem to reach happy resolutions. Kogut attains her passport, and her grandparents establish themselves in Brazil. But as a result, all ﬁnd their lives changed in very unexpected ways. Kogut has only used her Hungarian passport once. In fact, she said the process of attaining her Hungarian citizenship only re-emphasized her identiﬁcation as a Brazilian. Kogut’s grandfather never felt at home in Brazil despite the fact that he was legally no longer Hungarian. But

Kogut’s grandmother — who, unlike her husband, thinks of herself as a Brazilian — is still considered a Hungarian. Toward the end of the ﬁlm, she says, “I have lived twice as long in Brazil as I did in Hungary, and that part of me which I brought from Europe may no longer exist there.” Though Kogut no longer uses her Hungarian passport, she said she values the year she spent attaining it. In a discussion after the screening, Kogut said she came to understand her Hungarian, Jewish and Brazilian facets in far more depth while searching for her Hungarian origins. Her experience taught her to put little faith in the “citizenship” granted by a passport because the citizenship attained by a passport is not an identity — a citizenship is just a legal technicality. Like the ﬁlm, identity “isn’t about going back to one’s roots, it’s about taking experience and building an identity out of the synthesis of your facets,” she said after the screening. Her passport serves two functions: It is both a membership card for the European Union and a symbol of the failure of institutions and bureaucracies to grasp the elusive quality of identity.

McNickle ’10: Healing the iPod nation with theater BY LINDSEY MEYERS ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

First-years may ﬁnd it strange to learn that they have an award-winning playwright and an accomplished female director among their ranks. But for those who know Kato McNickle ’10, it isn’t a surprise that she would choose to be the author and arbiter of her own education as a student in the Resumed Undergraduate Education program at Brown. McNickle is new to Brown, but she has been actively involved in the theater community since the early 1990s. Having written over 18 plays and directed some 14 theatrical productions, she has been an important cultural voice, someone who has sought to create theater that has a direct and lasting impact on her audience. Though her resume reﬂects

years of experience in theater — playwriting, directing and producing — McNickle doesn’t dwell on her accomplishments. Seeking to create a more immediate theater experience, the first-year says she is most concerned with human interaction and communication. Her most recent work, “In Search of a Better Elvis,” earned her this year’s first prize in the Baldwin New Play Festival Playwriting Competition sponsored by the University of California, San Diego. In the play, McNickle expresses how the misunderstanding of the past threatens the experience of the present and explores misdirection and miscommunication from the perspective of a young black girl struggling to come to grips with her African heritage. “Plays have a conversation with an audience” that no other artistic medium possesses, McNickle said. For her, good theater lies in establishing the immediacy of that dialogue with the audience. McNickle said she wants “to infuse what she learns (at Brown) into her art,” especially cognitive science. She said she has taken to that field to learn how to overcome the filtering mechanisms of the brain — in understanding how the brain functions, she hopes to find new methods that can more directly affect her audience. Aspiring to build a new theater experience, McNickle said she wishes to bridge what she calls the “void” that separates the audience from the performance. In a contemporary iPod-oriented culture where people alienate themselves from

each other and from life through the soundtracks of their solitary existences, McNickle said she wants to create an unmediated experience that will directly connect the audience to her productions through the powerful experience of theater. Through her work with the Second Step Players, a sketch comedy group that aimed to inform audiences about mental disorders, McNickle came to believe that theater has the power to both illuminate and delight the audience. As many of her actors lived with or experienced mental illnesses themselves, McNickle said she learned that “creativity heals.” McNickle has achieved success with “The Planning Stage,” a new theater company she helped develop that stages works in nontraditional spaces. By performing in spaces “like art galleries or yoga studios,” the company creates a more “alive” experience for its audience where art engages life in a new and provocative manner manner, she said. By choosing theatrical venues like these that lack a formal stage, McNickle breaks down the barriers that normally separate the audience from the action, and by eschewing the speakers and surround sound employed in cinema and Broadway productions, McNickle attempts to create an intimate theatrical environment that encourages her audiences to attentively listen to and engage with the performance. With this challenge to contemporary iPod culture, McNickle is an emerging voice in the theater community at Brown.

Rahul Keerthi / Herald Kato McNickle ‘10 won this year’s Baldwin New Play Festival Playwriting Competition, awarded by UCSD, for her play “In Search of a Better Life With Elvis.”

EDITORS’ PICKS FRIDAY APRIL 6 FRIDAY, H.M.S. PINAFORE: Presented by Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan Society — Alumnae Hall, 8 p.m. NEW DIRECTORS FESTIVAL: Production Workshop upstairs space, 8 p.m. GABRIEL YAIVA AND “THE DREAM TEAM”: Underground, 10 p.m. REJECTED: The other senior show — Hillel Gallery.

SATURDAY APRIL 7 SATURDAY, H.M.S. PINAFORE: Presented by Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan Society — Alumnae Hall, 8 p.m. NEW DIRECTORS FESTIVAL: Production Workshop upstairs space, 8 p.m. REJECTED: The other senior show — Hillel Gallery.

SUNDAY APRIL 8 SUNDAY, NEW DIRECTORS FESTIVAL: Production Workshop upstairs space, 8 p.m. REJECTED: The other senior show — Hillel Gallery.

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Candidates gear up for UCS elections continued from page 1 But a few of the students at last night’s session seemed a bit discouraged. “It’s a little more intense than I expected,” said Isabella Morton ’10. “I don’t know.” Though some current UCS members have already made known what position they will run for, the official races for every position won’t be known until next Wednesday, when signatures are due at the official candidates’ meeting. Candidates will also turn in a photo and personal statement, which will go on the ballot. The winners will be announced on the Faunce Hall steps at midnight on the night of April 19, a few hours after voting is closed. Candidates for the highest positions — such as UCS president, vice president, UFB chair and some UCS committee chairs — also typically seek the endorsements of student organizations, such as Greek Council. Each endorsement must be verified by the elections board, which must be assured that the organization’s decision was the result of a “fair, universal process,” Kim said. Endorsements appear on the online ballot. The races for UCS president and UFB chair will also heat up on the virgin battleground of the Sharpe Refectory with a dinner debate April 13, new this year to UCS elections. Kim said the Ratty debate was aimed at “trying to get students involved in the debating process” and promised an ice cream sundae bar. Last spring, the run-off candidates for UCS president, John Gillis ’07 and Zachary Townsend ’09, debated each other on the Main Green, while students lounged about on all sides. The scene figures prominently in a 50-minute documentary by Michael Morgenstern ’08 titled “Three Weeks at Brown University: A UCS Election,” which was released last month and has been viewed more than 1,300 times on YouTube.com. Kim said about half of all students voted in the UCS elections last year, and she said she was optimistic about participation this spring. As candidates test the waters, it’s still anyone’s game. Each candidate still has 100 publicity points — or a $40 limit, whichever is reached first — and as elections board member Ben Creo ’07 told last night’s session, “Everyone’s allowed to have a nametag for free.”

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Santorum likens radical Islam to Nazi Germany continued from page 1 has not.” “The enemy are, as I have termed them, Islamic fascists. Some would argue that all of Islam is corrupt. I do not. Some would argue that it’s just a very, very small, one tenth of 1 percent. I would argue that it’s not that small either. But it is serious, it is real, it is growing,” Santorum said. “They want to conquer the world for Islam because that’s what their book says.” Santorum criticized President Bush for “misdeﬁnition of the enemy” and poor communication for terming the struggle a “war on terror.” “Terror is a paramilitary tactic,” Santorum said. “It’s like calling World War II a war on blitzkrieg. … Why have we not said this is a war on an ideology?” Santorum called for political liberals to support the war on radical Islam, pointing to the vulnerable status of women and homosexuals in Islamic countries as evidence that liberal ideals of feminism and gay rights are particularly threatened. “There is a lot of common

ground here,” Santorum said. “When you look at this enemy and who they are, there is much more for liberals not to like about them than even for conservatives not to like. Liberals want a secular government. Let me assure you, radical Islam is not about secular governments.” Being called to the challenge of confronting an evil ideology “is not new for America,” Santorum said. Americans have also been hesitant to ﬁght, he said, likening American reluctance to come to the defense of its allies in World War II to the public’s current ambivalence about the war in Iraq. Like Britain in 1940, America is currently standing alone against a threat — this time from the Islamic world — without the aid of its traditional allies, Santorum said. “Europe is hardly Europe anymore,” he told the audience. “Europe will not ﬁght.” “(Islamic radicals) will not leave us alone,” he said. “My plea to you is to engage that battle now.” “When we are fully engaged in this battle,” Santorum added, “we will re-examine ourselves,

because we will be ﬁghting an enemy that fundamentally… sees the world differently than we do.” Santorum’s 45-minute speech was followed by over an hour of questions from the audience, many of whom challenged aspects of Santorum’s reasoning, sometimes vigorously. During the question-andanswer session, Santorum explained that he believed “most of the Islamic world is not violent” and that the basis of co-existence between the West and Islam would be laid by acting forcefully against radical elements to “give space” for more moderate voices to reshape the Middle East. But he contrasted the underpinnings of Judeo-Christian culture with those of Islam, saying that Islamic tradition, unlike Christianity, speciﬁes the nature of “the Islamic state.” “It’s very brutal,” he said. He also stressed the danger posed by the current Iranian government, calling its leaders “a bunch of radical mullahs” and noting the apocalyptic nature of their beliefs. Several questioners pushed

Santorum to explain his support for the war in the Iraq, which he said stemmed from the destabilizing influence of Saddam Hussein’s regime, his support of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and now-discredited intelligence indicating Hussein was pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Though most questions focused on foreign policy, a few audience members also challenged Santorum on social issues. One questioner asked him to explain his opposition to same-sex marriage. Santorum noted that “there isn’t the inherent special societal benefit” to same-sex marriage that there is to traditional marriage, which he said has historically existed to encourage men and women to have children. He also said countries that have legalized the practice have seen fewer marriages as a result. Several questioners challenged the premise that a conflict between the West and the Muslim world is necessary, but Santorum responded skeptically. “By our mere existence, we offend them,” he said.

SANTORUM: ‘IT’S AMERICA’S TURN TO PRESERVE THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT’ Following his lecture Thursday night, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum sat down with The Herald to discuss the conﬂict he sees between Islam and the West, the war in Iraq and his own controversial reputation.

think that is the highest priority in the region. Well, the highest priority is stabilizing Iraq, but in conjunction with that — equally high priority — is to foment a change in the government of Iran.

The Herald: Brown’s campus has a liberal reputation. What led you to agree to speak here, and how did you feel you were received by the audience? Santorum: I jumped at the opportunity to come here because this institution has a lot of America’s future leaders here, and any time you have an opportunity to talk to a group of young people who are in a position to make a difference in the rest of the country, you don’t pass up that opportunity if you believe in the things that you say. As far as how as I was received here, it couldn’t have been better as far as I was concerned. The students were polite, attentive, asked, by and large, thoughtful questions ... overwhelmingly respectful and thoughtful.

With regards to stabilizing Iraq, what do you consider “victory” in the war in Iraq? It’s the opportunity for a stable democracy to exist. We have a democracy (in Iraq). It is stable in the sense that it is a freely elected government — we haven’t seen a coup — but it’s also got 150,000 American troops there. ... You’re not going to have a completely peaceful country and you have to tolerate some level of anti-government activity, but what we have to do is better secure Baghdad and alAnbar province ... Gosh, I’ve talked to friends of mine who have been up in the Kurdish area — you think you’re in Turkey. There’s no violence. There’s cranes all over the place, there’s building, people are safe, they’re out in the streets all hours of the day and night. It’s in Iraq, but you would never know it’s Iraq. It’s possible for people to live together and to do these things. We just need to get to the point where we’ve damaged the insurgency, we’ve hit their infrastructure hard enough, we’ve taken away their bomb-making capability, we’ve sealed up the borders better, we’ve got cooperation.

You mentioned in your speech that America is at the start of a long battle. In this battle, what do you see as the next step? For example, you were very critical of the current Iranian leadership. Do you feel the United States should take military action against that regime? Let me just say that I agree with every other politician running for president: Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon. Iran is fundamentally different than any other regime out there. ... The president of that country has said he will blow Israel off the face of the Earth. You can ignore it. We’ve ignored people who have said those things in the past and we have paid a very heavy price. I don’t think we can ignore it. He has also threatened the existence of the United States on repeated occasions. We need to use everything now, short of military action, to make sure that we change the government in Iran. I

You’ve been noted for your outspoken views on social issues and foreign policy, leading some critics to call you a “polarizing” figure. Do you agree with that assessment, and do you think that adopting more conciliatory rhetoric might make you a more effective politician? I’ve never considered myself a polarizing ﬁgure. I consider myself someone who has beliefs in certain things and says them. People say that I have polarizing viewpoints because of a

handful of social issues thaat the media finds offensive. I stand up for traditional marriage, I stand up for the right to life, I stand up against embryonic stem cell research, I don’t believe in assisted suicide. Most politicians don’t talk about those issues. Most politicians just, they vote that way, they vote the way I vote, but they don’t say anything. So when you say something, then you’re considered polarizing. If you’re on the other side, and you stand up and you fight for gay marriage, and you fight for the right to choose, and you fight for all those things, you’re not polarizing. You’re only polarizing if you stand up and fight on the other side. It’s a rather unfair double standard. (Calif. Democratic Sen.) Dianne Feinstein gets up in these debates ... and says rhetoric twice as inflammatory as mine. She’s never considered a polarizing figure because the media agrees with her. You’re only a polarizing figure if the media doesn’t agree with you. ... The double standard in the media is ridiculous, but it is what it is, so you just have to deal with it. ... I went out of my way to argue passionately for what I believed in, making it very clear that I was not attacking any one person or that person’s beliefs, but attacking the ideas. That’s what discourse is supposed to be. Back to the Middle East. Do you see the Western and Islamic worlds you talked about in your speech co-existing in the future, and if so on what terms? I think it has to. Look, one of three things is going to happen. Either we will defeat and oppress and suppress the Islamic world — the radical Islamic world, moderate and reformist Islam will win out in an internal struggle within Islam and control the radical elements within its faith, or the radical elements within its faith will conquer the West. ... I think the best is the middle one. Through our efforts to se-

cure our country and the world against the radical elements of Islam, we give the opportunity for reformers within that faith, and moderates within the faith, to regain control — particularly in the Arab world, which is where it’s most virulent. I think we need to try. ... I think democracy is the best opportunity for a long-term solution. I think undemocratic gets you Egypt and other countries where it just foments underneath the surface — gets you Iran, gets you a lot of places where the radicals can appeal to populist elements in the country to eventually overthrow the dictatorship. Right now I’m not saying we should argue — being in a war in Afghanistan and Iraq and other fronts — that we should try to open another front in Egypt. (Egyptian president Hosni) Mubarak is not a great actor in my opinion, the house of Saud is not a great group of leaders in Saudi Arabia. They’re a huge problem on the international scene. But I’m not suggesting that we need to tackle that right now. In the 2008 presidential race, do you see any candidates who come close to sharing your understanding of the problems that America faces? If not, do you think any candidate will step in to fill that void? Would you consider being that candidate? The answer to that last question is no. The answer to the other two is: So far there’s no one there that I’m completely comfortable with. That’s why I haven’t endorsed anybody. There may be someone who gets in. We’ll have to see who does. At this point I’m perfectly content to be a Fox News contributor and comment on these things. Do you see yourself running for office again in the future? I’m 48 years old. I know I look younger. But I’ve got six kids at home, I’ve got a lot of work to do, I’m happy doing what I’m doing. At some point I may run for ofﬁce again, but no current plans.

CAMPUS N EWS FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007

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BRIEF

Without U. support, Erikson continues to teach course

Higher Keys 2nd in regionals A capella group the Higher Keys placed second in the regional semiﬁnals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella, held March 24 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Higher Keys Business Manager Emily Borromeo ’09 received the award for outstanding soloist. The Higher Keys, which was founded in 1983 and specializes in jazz and pop musical numbers, competed in last year’s ICCA competition but did not place in the semiﬁnals. This year, the group came in second to an all-male a capella group from Amherst College, the Zumbyes. Higher Keys member Lorraine Fryer ’09 said she was “stunned” and “exploded with excitement” upon hearing news of the win.“Having won second place raises our level of musicianship,” Fryer said. “The whole group is really, really excited about Emily’s win,” said Higher Keys President Carole Ann Penney ’07. The singing groups were evaluated based on musicality and variety in song choice as well as the visual components of their act, such as physical movements, appearance and posture. “Motion makes (one’s singing) better,” said Higher Keys Musical Director Drew Nobile ’07. “It’s more entertaining physically and vocally for the audience.” Nobile said the group did well this year thanks to the experience of competing in the tournament last year. “We added choreography and tightened up our movements,” he said. “We did better because we knew what to expect.” — Lisa Blunt

BY IRENE CHEN STAFF WRITER

Professor Emeritus of Medical Sciences G.E. Erikson, whose course at Brown was canceled by the dean of the College’s office this winter, has continued to teach “Ventures in the History of Biology, Medicine and Public Health” — formerly UC 102 — despite its cancellation. Erikson had been teaching a course for the University pro bono every semester since his retirement in 1990 and said he hopes to teach again despite the obstacles he encountered this year. His course was cancelled in December when Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron wrote him a letter about the course’s non-compliance with a rule requiring courses to be affiliated with a department. Though Erikson occasionally had to cancel his class UC 101: “Anatomy and Art: A Study of Form in Man and Nature” last semester for health reasons, Bergeron wrote in an e-mail to The Herald in January that the course was canceled because of a lack of “proper departmental support.” Bergeron was not available for comment on the current status of Erikson’s relationship with the University. Now, the not-for-credit course meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in Salomon 103 and is free and open to students and members of the Providence community. Erikson said he received a letter of apology from Bergeron but that the University has not formally apologized to him. “I’m completely frustrated by the way I was treated by the University. They have this mantra that you must have a departmental affiliation,” Erikson said. “I insist

that I have multiple ones but not formal ones.” Erikson is quick to point out that though he is 87 years old, he remains ﬁt to teach, and he denied rumors that his ill health led to the course’s cancellation. He said pneumonia and a resulting hospital stay previously forced him to cancel class meetings but insisted he is “young and vigorous” and will continue to teach if able. At Tuesday’s meeting, Erikson began his lecture with comments on the Black Plague by asking the students to “think of what it would be like if we had a plague — it’s not impossible, and it’s not too far away. Imagine how our community would be affected by that.” Though the course has had an enrollment as high as 57 students at one point, regular attendance is usually around 20 or so people, Erikson said. A couple of Brown students attend the course regularly, but the low student attendance is somewhat discouraging to Erikson. “I’ve been disappointed that there haven’t been more students — especially medical students — in the class,” he said. The course usually opens with a general introduction followed by slides and ends with a lengthy discussion. Most students stay much later after class ends to chat with Erikson. Erikson said the course isn’t just about the history of medicine. “It’s not just about names of doctors or dates, but the students have also have learned how to observe,” Erikson said. “This has affected the way they are learning in other courses.” Erikson’s students are mostly Providence residents, and several told The Herald that Erikson’s extensive knowledge and the varied

life experiences he shares during lectures are particularly engaging. Alfred Tente, an electronics technician for the Department of Chemistry, is one of the students in the class. “On some nights he might bring a human skull or a cow’s heart to demonstrate something related to that class,” Tente wrote in an e-mail to the Herald. “He has traveled extensively to areas of the world related to the history of medicine, and he brings these slides and stories to class often.” “Students appreciate the enormous resources I bring to the course,” Erikson said. Providence resident Dennis Skehan praised Erikson’s dynamic teaching style. “George Erikson has the proven ability to think vertically and horizontally,” Skehan wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “More than that, he inspires students to think and to learn in a way that seems to be a most natural way.” Discussing his possible plans after teaching at Tuesday’s meeting, Erikson said he will eventually look forward to working in the garden and doing woodwork. He told the class he would “get down on his stomach” while gardening — then turned to the class to ask, “What was wrong with that statement?” One of the students immediately corrected Erikson, saying the stomach is on the inside of the body, while the abdomen is the correct term for the outside. “We’ve all enjoyed this from the beginning,” said Providence resident Norma Pezzelli, another student in the class. “His scope of knowledge is a great enlightenment.”

New bilingual magazine seeks to build bridges BY CAITLIN BROWNE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

College Hill, a new Chinese-American bilingual campus magazine run by the Brown China Forum, will come out with its first print issue by May, said Weiye Li MA’04 GS, the magazine’s associate editor. The magazine’s online version, which will be similar but not identical to the print version, will be available next week, said Editor in Chief Nathan Mao GS. The magazine aims to enhance communication between Chinese and American students as well as increase the diversity of voices on campus, said Mao, who is also president of BCF. Members of BCF first conceived of the magazine last fall as a way to “establish a bridge between overseas Chinese students and domestic Chinese students,” Li said. College Hill, which has both undergraduate and graduate students as editors and contributors, features a variety of elements, including academic work, poetry, art, opinions, job information and a gourmet section, Mao said. Their first issue will include a letter of endorsement from Kai-Fu Lee, the president of Google China. A few similar student-run publications currently exist at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California-Berkeley, Mao

said. But those publications are printed only in Chinese. The students behind College Hill wanted something different, he said — a bilingual magazine that would attract English-language readers as well as Chinese students. Mao said College Hill would be “one of the ﬁrst bilingual (ChineseEnglish) magazines in the U.S.” The editors decided not to translate Chinese submissions into English or vice versa and instead print submissions in their original language. Mao said the magazine welcomes submissions not only from Chinese students at Brown and elsewhere but also from American students studying Chinese and those without any knowledge of Chinese, adding that the magazine will include “plenty of both (languages)” and so will be accessible to those who read only one or the other. Mao said he hopes College Hill will expand to include other languages in the future. Li echoed his sentiments. “We would like not only Chinese but also other international students to participate in the magazine,” she said. Mao said College Hill’s mission is closely linked to the University’s recent internationalization efforts. He said College Hill and the BCF approve of the University’s aims to increase international diversity at Brown and to strengthen Brown’s global visibility. The University appointed a committee on interna-

tionalization last November to explore ways Brown can further these goals. College Hill hopes to expand its inﬂuence beyond Providence to Kingston, Cambridge, Mass., and beyond, Mao said. BCF already has a close collaboration with MIT’s Economics and Talent Forum, which he said will help them distribute the magazine on the campuses of both MIT and Harvard. The magazine will also be distributed at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston and — budget permitting — at universities in China, Mao said. College Hill has received funding from BCF and the University University, as well as some support from outside sources, including local organizations and the Chinese consulate in New York, Mao said. BCF plans to stage an event celebrating the release of the ﬁrst print edition of College Hill in May, Mao said, which may include a karaoke competition and a table tennis competition. BCF was founded a year and a half ago, Mao said. Its aim is “the promotion of mutual understanding between China and the United States as well as the enhancement of the relationship between these two major players in today’s international community.” BCF is currently co-organizing a pharmaceutical conference in Shanghai that will take place in late May and early June, Mao said.

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Pressure mounts as theses crunch time nears continued from page 1 not produced much written material as of yet. Hartley, who has spent the last two years researching a speciﬁc protein involved in liver cancer for her thesis, said she is also unconcerned because “theses in the sciences take a much longer time to where you are at the writing stage, but once you get to the writing stage, it goes faster than if you were doing a thesis in the humanities.” Hartley said she decided to do a thesis because there was a research requirement for her concentration and she decided it would make sense to tailor her research for a thesis. Hartley has spent much of the past two years working in a lab at the Liver Research Center, part of the Alpert Medical School’s division of gastroenterology. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s also very rewarding when it comes out on paper, to see everything that you have been agonizing about legitimized,” she said. “If you enjoy research and its challenge, it’s worth it do a thesis,”

she said. “It helps you to think in a different way and to organize your thoughts in a different way, and I think it gives you a lot of skills that you can use in the future no matter what you do.” Gladstone said writing a thesis has been “a lot of fun” at times. He said he has enjoyed working closely with a professor as well as conducting primary research. Gladstone spent the spring and summer of his junior year abroad doing research for his thesis in Brussels and Paris. It was particularly challenging to do research in another country, he said, and he had to “jump through a lot of hoops” to get access to certain archives, but when he found a large tome in English that contained much of the information he needed for his thesis, it paid off. “It was a great discovery that really proved essential to my thesis,” he said. The history department averages 25 to 30 honors theses per year, wrote Professor of History Kenneth Sacks, the coordinator of the department’s honors program for the past six years, in an e-mail

to The Herald. Honors students in history are required to take a three-course sequence in order to write a thesis. “Writing a history honors thesis is in many ways learning to be a good detective: it can be quite challenging, but in the end most think it’s been great fun,” Sacks wrote. The procedure to grant honors varies by department, but generally each thesis is read by several faculty readers who decide whether the thesis deserves honors. Some departments also require an oral presentation about the thesis. Gladstone said obtaining honors was not his primary focus in choosing to do a thesis. “It’s more about the process and the project itself,” he said. “I don’t really think people do a thesis just because they want honors.” Would he do it all over again? “You really have to be dedicated and self-driven, and you might need to be prepared to travel,” Gladstone said. “But for me, it’s been a substantial and worthwhile project that has helped me to ﬁgure out that I really wouldn’t mind doing this for a living.”

FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007

W. rugby tackles issues of gender, culture in documentary continued from page 1 To make the trip a reality, the team had to get approval from University officials, who were initially reluctant to grant the team permission to make the trip. They also had to canvass door-to-door the weekend before the trip to meet their final fundraising goal. But ultimately, 32 players — along with five alums, two coaches, a photographer and a videographer — were able to make the trip to Africa. “I realized exactly how much can be achieved when you effectively pull 40 people together and persevere as a group to make it happen,” Hustwitt said. Kira Manser ’07 laughed when she remembered the obstacles the team faced last winter while fundraising for the trip. “It was challenging, it was really ... challenging,” she said. “But I never gave up hope.” “Women (in Uganda) are fighting the same battles about the right to play as they are here,” said Head Coach Kerrissa Heffernan, who is also director of the Royce

Fellowship Program, in the movie. “There is a kinship around that.” The only rugby club in Kampala that would accept a women’s team is Kyadondo, a men’s club. One Ugandan woman described in the film how she and her teammates must wash cars to raise enough money for their matches. The documentary and a discussion panel that followed the screening Wednesday night explored issues of women in sports, specifically rugby. Brown players interviewed in the documentary talked about the team being “very sexualized.” “Women’s rugby challenges what it means to be a woman, according to standard social constructions of gender and femininity,” Hustwitt said. “In addition to the athletic challenges of the sport, there’s also a social tension automatically surrounding the fact that you’re a female rugby player.” “People couldn’t believe we were female rugby players. Either we weren’t really female or not really rugby players,” Manser added. One of the documentary’s goals is to spark discussion about these issues, Hustwitt said. In addition, several team members recently submitted a Group Independent Study Project proposal for a course about women in sports. “The academic/athletic connection hasn’t stopped after the trip,” said Andria Payne ’10. “When we were planning the GISP, we considered not just women’s rugby in Uganda but any developing country athletics, or even women’s sports in America. Comparing the two is something we’re interested in.” Other follow-up initiatives include speakers, mini-seminars, discussion topics and films, Manser said. She and Huswitt “co-authored a paper about trying to begin thinking about gender implications of rugby in different contexts.” There has been extensive media coverage of the trip. The BBC covered all their games in Uganda, and team members had an hour-long radio interview with a station in Kampala. The team also decided shortly before they left to document their trip on film. They asked Laura Green ’06, a modern culture and media concentrator, to tag along with a camera. She and other students spent the summer editing it. The players hope the documentary will reach a larger audience. “We’re beginning by focusing on the Brown community and other athletic teams at Brown,” Hustwitt said. “Then we’re bringing it to the Ivy League tournament, so it will be within the greater rugby community, then to the general public. We have plans to produce and distribute it, but we’re currently working on ownership and music rights.” They would also like to bring the Uganda team to play at Brown, but athletes from that part of the world typically have problems getting visas, the players said. Even if the Ugandan team isn’t able to travel to College Hill, Brown’s visit made an impact. “We became a marker of success for them,” Heffernan said. “We’re not happy they kicked our butts, but we are happy they were recognized,” added one of the Brown players.

WORLD & N ATION A MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2007

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BRIEF

MySpace to hold online primary WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — The first primary election will be days before the Iowa caucuses and the balloting in New Hampshire. The first online primary, at least. MySpace, the popular social networking site, announced that it will hold a presidential primary on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, 2008. According to ComScore Media Metrix, MySpace has 65 million monthly users, 85 percent of whom are age 18 and over. Nielsen/NetRatings says MySpace users of voting age are three times more likely to interact online with politicians. They’re also 42 percent more likely to watch politically oriented online video, Nielsen said, and 35 percent more likely to research candidates online. Last month, MySpace launched the Impact Channel, a central hub of MySpace profiles and official videos of the candidates. In a few weeks, it will conduct regular issue-based straw polls, with specific topics decided by users themselves, said MySpace spokeswoman Dani Dudeck.

Tribune could buy up to 8 properties MELVILLE, N.Y. (Newsday) — At about the same time Tribune Co. plans to take on billions of dollars in debt to go private under a transaction announced earlier this week, the company will have a chance to buy eight former Times Mirror Co. properties — including two Newsday buildings and the Los Angeles Times headquarters — for the below-market price of $175 million. That price will only be available in January, a time when some analysts said the company’s heavy debt load from the deal with Chicago real estate mogul Samuel Zell to go private may make it difficult to finance the purchase. But if the borrowing required to take the company private does preclude the purchase in January, Tribune would have to pay at least $20 million more if it seeks to buy the 3 million-square-foot real estate portfolio at a later date. The $175 million figure comes from a September 2006 deal intended to disentangle the company from the Chandler Trusts, its largest stakeholders, with whom it had been sparring publicly about Tribune management’s policies. Tribune paid the partnerships more than $24 million per year to lease the properties. The total portfolio has been appraised at $325 million, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.

Near White House, Easter hunt planned for fake bombs WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — Seven-year-old Alvin Mitchell worked intently Thursday on what looked to be a blue balloon wrapped around a tennis ball. It was a fake version of a cluster bomb, and the real thing, he pronounced, can “blow you up and kill you.” The fake bombs Alvin and a dozen other children were making at a peace workshop will be put to use Monday in Lafayette Square. As hundreds attend the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn, a smaller group will gather at the park on the north side for what is being billed as a “family-friendly Easter cluster-bomb hunt.” It used to be that an Easter egg hunt was just an Easter egg hunt. It had no message beyond cute kids playing with colored eggs. Now the White House Easter Egg Roll, which dates from the 1870s, has become an occasion for at least two groups to make a statement that is as much about politics as it is about the spring holiday. “Obviously, we’re trying to spoof a little bit what will be happening on the South Lawn,” said Brian Hennessey of the Vineeta Foundation, a local human rights group founded in 1995 that is the lead sponsor of the cluster-bomb hunt. “We’re not trying to hit kids over the head with this — we want them to have fun. We also want to bring attention to the fact that our munitions cause a lot of death and destruction to civilians, especially children.”

Cable networks stop test advertising alliance with eBay (Los Angeles Times) — A group of national cable television networks Thursday abruptly pulled out of an experimental program that sought to use eBay Inc.’s auction expertise and technology to buy and sell TV time. Several big ad agencies and major advertisers including Home Depot Inc., Toyota Motor Corp. and Intel Corp. hired eBay last summer to create an “online media marketplace” for television ads. The companies had hoped to introduce an efﬁcient, and perhaps less expensive, tool for selling commercial time. But the Cable Television Advertising Bureau, which represents most of the large national ad-supported cable channels, said Thursday that eBay’s test product wasn’t ready for prime time. The industry group said the proposed system failed to incorporate the nuances involved in deciding which programs and networks to pair with advertisers’ products and messages. The dispute highlights the increasing tensions between old and new media. The Internet’s appeal among advertisers threatens traditional media outlets, which have struggled to capitalize on the efﬁciencies and automation of the Internet to bolster their existing businesses. But the cable group said eBay was the one falling short. “We were underwhelmed by what we saw on the system and underwhelmed by eBay’s knowledge of our business,” said Sean Cunningham, chief executive of the Cable Television Advertising Bureau. “It wasn’t very good.”

Internet phone upstart Vonage could lose a technology and a future BY ALAN SIPRESS WASHINGTON POST

Verizon has thrown a lifeline to rival Vonage Holdings, suggesting the Internet-phone provider could continue serving its existing customers despite a judge’s ruling ordering it to stop using a crucial technology connecting its network to the public-telephone system. That compromise proposal came this week ahead of a hearing in an Alexandria, Va., courtroom Friday that could decide the fate of the highly marketed Vonage. U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton is scheduled to rule Friday morning on Vonage’s request that he stay his earlier decision, which barred the company from using several technologies found by a jury to be violating Verizon’s patents. Vonage, which argues that it did not infringe the patents, has asked for a reprieve of at least 120 days while it appeals the month-old verdict. Without a means of connecting its online callers to regular telephones, Vonage — which has never generated proﬁt — would quickly go out of business, according to industry analysts. Vonage executives have countered that predictions of their company’s demise are “greatly exaggerated.” They said they were developing a “work-around” technique if the company could no longer use the disputed technology. New Jersey-based Vonage was founded in 2001 and advertised itself as a cheaper alternative that used high-speed Internet lines and circumvented the conventional phone. The company helped make Internet telephony a mainstream product in the United States, spend-

ing millions on Internet and television ads that talked about flat-rate long-distance service and featured its hallmark off-key jingle. Some industry analysts said it was too early to speculate how Vonage’s patent case could affect other Internet-telephone providers using similar technology. But a Bernstein Research report issued earlier this week characterized Vonage’s patent troubles as adding to the problems of smaller players in the industry — growth in Internet-phone service will largely be the province of large cable companies like Comcast, the investment firm wrote. “The center of gravity has shifted away from the start-up providers, (most notably Vonage),” it said in its Tuesday report. In its filing, Verizon said that there are no legal grounds for giving Vonage a reprieve from the judge’s order that it be permanently prohibited from using the technologies. But Verizon acknowledged that the judge may be reluctant to order a total ban if he believes this could do “irreparable injury” to Vonage. In that case, Verizon said, Vonage should be allowed to continue providing existing services to its 2.2 million customers but not add new ones. If a partial stay is ordered, Verizon asked that Vonage post a bond of at least $251 million to cover what Verizon says will be its lost revenue during the period of an appeal. “That was a deft move by Verizon,” said Rebecca Arbogast, a telecommunications analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. Vonage executives have said they would try to win a reprieve from the federal circuit court if Hilton does not give them one, but Arbogast said a partial stay could make it more difficult

for Vonage to win a full stay from the appeals court. A partial stay may not be enough to save Vonage over the long run, and customers could be forced to turn elsewhere for service. It’s fallen out of favor with investors and faces stiff competition against package deals offered by the phone and cable giants offering combinations of Internet, phone, wireless and television services. Even smaller Internet telephone providers, like CharterCommunications, are anxious to woo Vonage’s existing customers. “Vonage is going to be in tough shape if it can’t add new customers for the next year,” Arbogast said. The costs of Vonage’s court battle, including the $58 million in damages already awarded by the jury, the bond and interest payments demanded by Verizon as well as attorneys fees, are also taking a toll on the financially troubled company. Vonage sold shares to the public last year at $17, but the stock price declined steadily and closed down 25 cents Thursday at $3.37 a share. Citigroup, which helped underwrite Vonage’s public offering, last week put out a “sell” recommendation on company stock. Last week, Vonage notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would not be able to file its annual earnings report on time because of the ongoing litigation. Vonage said it was waiting to see whether it would be required to post bond to secure a stay and how much interest it might have to pay. Separately, Vonage said in a regulatory filing Thursday that one of its directors, Betsy Atkins, resigned from the board last week.

Defense report discounts Saddam’s prewar ties to al-Qaida BY R. JEFFREY SMITH WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides “all confirmed” that Saddam’s regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaida before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released Thursday. The declassified version of the report by Acting Inspector General Thomas Gimble, also contains new details about the intelligence community’s prewar consensus that the Iraqi government and al-Qaida figures had only limited contacts, and its judgments that reports of deeper links were based on dubious or unconfirmed information. The report had been released in summary form in February. The report’s release came on the same day that Vice President Dick Cheney, appearing on Rush Limbaugh’s radio program, repeated his allegation that al-Qaida was operating inside Iraq “before we ever launched” the war, under the direction of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist killed last June. “This is al-Qaida operating in Iraq,” Cheney told Limbaugh’s listeners about Zarqawi, who he said had “led the charge for Iraq.” Cheney cited the alleged histo-

ry to illustrate his argument that withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq would “play right into the hands of al-Qaida.” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., who requested the report’s declassification, said in a written statement that the complete text demonstrates more fully why the inspector general concluded that a key Pentagon office — run by former undersecretary of defense Douglas Feith — had inappropriately written intelligence assessments before the March 2003 invasion alleging connections between al-Qaida and Iraq that the U.S. intelligence consensus disputed. The report, in a passage previously marked secret, said Feith’s office had asserted in a briefing given to Cheney’s chief of staff in September 2002 that the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida was “mature” and “symbiotic,” marked by shared interests and evidenced by cooperation across 10 categories, including training, financing and logistics. Instead, the report said, the CIA had concluded in June 2002 that there were few substantiated contacts between al-Qaida operatives and Iraqi officials, and said that it lacked evidence of a long-term relationship such as those Iraq had forged with other terrorist groups.

“Overall, the reporting provides no conclusive signs of cooperation on specific terrorist operations,” that CIA report said, adding that discussions on the issue were “necessarily speculative.” The CIA had separately concluded that reports of Iraqi training on weapons of mass destruction were “episodic, sketchy, or not corroborated in other channels,” the inspector general’s report said. It quoted an August 2002 CIA report describing the relationship as more closely resembling “two organizations trying to feel out or exploit each other” rather than cooperating operationally. The CIA was not alone, the defense report emphasized. The Defense Intelligence Agency had concluded that year that “available reporting is not firm enough to demonstrate an ongoing relationship” between the Iraqi regime and al-Qaida, it said. But the contrary conclusions reached by Feith’s office — and leaked to the conservative Weekly Standard magazine before the war — were publicly praised by Cheney as the best source of information on the topic, a circumstance the Defense report cites in documenting the impact of what it described as “inappropriate” work. continued on page 8

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FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007

Iraqi violence ﬂares despite security crackdown in capital BY ALEXANDRA ZAVIS LOS ANGELES T IMES

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Four British soldiers and a civilian translator were killed in an ambush Thursday and the U.S. military announced the deaths of eight of its soldiers in an unusually bloody 48 hours for Western forces in Iraq. At least 38 Iraqis also were found slain Thursday in bomb blasts, shellings, gunﬁre and execution-style killings. They included two television journalists and a 3-year-old boy felled by a sniper’s bullet as he sat in his grandfather’s lap, police said. A U.S. helicopter, meanwhile, went down south of Baghdad, injuring four of the nine personnel aboard, the military said. The cause of the incident and type of aircraft were not immediately announced. The U.S. military said it had launched an investigation and provided no further details. At least nine American choppers have crashed or been shot down this year, raising concerns that insurgents may be becoming more effective at targeting aircraft. The frequency of ﬂights also could be contributing to the toll, as the military relies heavily on aircraft to ferry

troops and equipment to avoid the danger of roadside bombs. The British troops were searching for a weapons cache in downtown Basra before dawn Thursday when they came under attack with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, said Lt. Col. Kevin Stratford-Wright, a military spokesman in the southern oil port city. The troops repelled the attack and believed at least one of their assailants was killed, he said. As they returned to base, the troops were hit by the blast from a roadside bomb and came under small-arms fire on the western side of the city. The bomb ripped through a Warrior fighting vehicle, killing five occupants and seriously injuring a sixth, Stratford-Wright said. Two other people sustained minor wounds. It was the deadliest assault on British forces since Nov. 12, when four military personnel were killed on a patrol boat on the Shatt al-Arab waterway. The latest deaths raised to 140 the number of British troops killed in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003. Residents blamed Thursday’s bombing on members of the Mahdi army, a militia linked to radical Shi-

ite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. But numerous armed bands operate in the city, and it was not possible to verify the reports. British forces, whose bases are shelled nearly daily, were pressing ahead with plans to hand over security control of Basra to Iraqi forces. In March, they withdrew from one of three bases in the city center. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in February that his military would begin withdrawing 1,600 of its 7,000 troops in Iraq in the coming months. Blair, whose government only the day before had won the release of 15 sailors and marines held by Iran for 13 days, cited the attack Thursday to guardedly discuss possible Iranian involvement with violence in the south. “It is far too early to say that the particular terrorist act that killed our forces was an act committed by terrorists who were backed by any elements of the Iranian regime,” he said in London. “But the general picture, as I’ve said before, is that there are elements at least of the Iranian regime that are backing, ﬁnancing, arming, supporting terrorism in Iraq.” Most of the U.S. casualties in

recent days occurred in Baghdad, where thousands of additional forces are deploying in the latest attempt to blunt sectarian violence. U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up patrols in the capital in a bid to be more visible and to improve relations with residents, but that also leaves them more vulnerable to attack. Four U.S. soldiers were killed and four injured in two separate bombings Wednesday in Baghdad, the military said. Another was shot and killed during a reconnaissance mission that day. And two were killed Tuesday by small-arms ﬁre while patrolling different parts of the city. On Thursday, a U.S. soldier was killed when a roadside bomb hit his vehicle in Diyala province, east of Baghdad, the military said. At least 3,265 U.S. service members have been killed in the war, according to the Web site icasualties.org. In Thursday’s worst attack, gunmen overran a remote Iraqi army post near Badush prison, killing all 10 soldiers at the site near the northern city of Mosul. U.S. ofﬁcials have expressed concern about the number of car bombings and suicide attacks, which have

persisted in the capital and elsewhere despite the new crackdown. A suicide bomber on Thursday drove a trash truck packed with explosives into a blast wall blocking the Baghdad street where a military intelligence building and a television station belonging to a major Sunni political party are located, police said. At least three people were killed and 10 injured in the Baghdad TV building, which took the brunt of the blast, police and hospital ofﬁcials said. The dead included the station’s assistant manager, Tahir Ahmed Jabr. Police also found the body of Khamael Muhsin, who rose to promise as an announcer on Iraqi TV under former President Saddam Hussein. Colleagues believed she was kidnapped Wednesday in a violent part of west Baghdad. At least 76 Iraqi journalists have been killed since 2003, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The 3-year-old boy who was slain, named Ali, was brought to Baghdad’s Yarmuk Hospital. He was shot in his grandfather’s lap in a car at a south Baghdad intersection, ofﬁcials said.

Defense report discounts Saddam’s prewar ties to al-Qaida continued from page 7 Feith has vigorously defended his work, accusing Gimble of “giving bad advice based on incomplete fact-finding and poor logic” and charging that the acting inspector general has been “cheered on by the chairmen of the Senate intelligence and armed services committees.” In January, Feith’s successor at the Pentagon, Eric S. Edelman, wrote a 52-page rebuttal to the inspector general’s report that disputed its analysis and recommendations for Pentagon reform. Cheney’s public statements before and after the war about the risks posed by Iraq have closely tracked the briefing Feith’s office presented to the vice president’s then-chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. That includes the briefing’s depiction of an alleged 2001 meeting in Prague between an Iraqi intelligence official and one of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers as one of eight “Known IraqAl Qaida Contacts.” The defense report states that at the time, “the intelligence community disagreed with the briefing’s assessment that the alleged meeting constituted a ‘known contact’ “ — a circumstance the report said

was known to Feith’s office. But his office had bluntly concluded in a July 2002 critique of a CIA report on Iraq’s relationship with al-Qaida that “the CIA’s interpretation ought to be ignored.” The briefing to Libby was also presented with slight variations to then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, then-CIA Director George J. Tenet and then-deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley. It was prepared in part by what the defense report described as a “junior Naval Reservist” intelligence analyst detailed to Feith’s office from the DIA. The person is not named in the report, but Edelman wrote that she was requested by Feith’s office. When a senior intelligence analyst working for the government’s counterterrorism task force obtained an early account of the conclusions by Feith’s office — titled “Iraq and al-Qaida: Making the Case” — the analyst prepared a detailed rebuttal calling it of “no intelligence value” and taking issue with 15 of 26 key conclusions, the report states. The analyst’s rebuttal was shared with intelligence officers on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but evidently not with others.

Edelman complained in his own account of the incident that this Joint Chiefs analyst — in responding to a suggestion by the DIA analyst that the “Making the Case” account be widely circulated — told its author that “putting it out there would be playing into the hands of people” such as then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, and belittled the author for trying to support “some agenda of people in the building.” But the inspector general’s report, in a footnote, commented that it was “noteworthy ... that post-war debriefs of Sadaam Hussein, (former Iraqi foreign minister) Tariq Aziz, (former Iraqi intelligence minister Mani al-Rashid) al Tikriti, and (senior al-Qaida operative Ibn al-Shaykh) al-Libi, as well as document exploitation by DIA all conﬁrmed that the Intelligence Community was correct: Iraq and al-Qaida did not cooperate in all categories” alleged by Feith’s ofﬁce. From these sources, the report added, “the terms the Intelligence Community used to describe the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida were validated, (namely) ‘no conclusive signs,’ and ‘direct cooperation ... has not been established.’ “

FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Tru Story: Major League Vitkus ’09 comes through for w. lax Baseball Predictions continued from page 12

continued from page 12 Injury risk: Angels RHP Jared Weaver pitched out of his mind in 2006 with a 2.56 ERA and a 1.03 whip, but he also missed time due to injury and has already experienced bicep tendonitis. Even if he stays healthy, look for Weaver’s numbers to take a hit. Reeaalllly?: The Angels gave 1B Shea Hillenbrand and OF Gary Matthews $60 million to be fringe upgrades. Watch out for: Angels SS Brandon Wood and RHP Nick Adenhart, Athletics OF Travis Buck and Mariners OF Adam Jones. Breakout candidates: In his “disappointing” 2006 campaign, 20-year-old phenom Felix Hernandez struck out 176 batters in 191 innings with a 4.52 ERA. Watching Angels 2B Howie Kendrick swing the bat once will be enough to convince you he’s going to be a star in the not-too-distant future. National League East How they ﬁnish: 1. Phillies 2. Mets 3. Braves 4. Marlins 5. Nationals Bold prediction: Phillies LHP Cole Hamels racks up 200 Ks, 18 wins and takes home the NL Cy Young Award. Ryan Howard doesn’t crack 50 HRs. Scott Olsen, not Dontrelle Willis, will lead the Fish in wins and strikeouts. Sophomore Slump: The young Florida Marlins might seem like candidates to improve on their 2006 season, but don’t expect any of their top sophomores such as Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez to repeat their outstanding rookie campaigns. Reeaalllly?: The Nationals outsmarted themselves last year by not trading Alfonso Soriano at last year’s trading deadline and now have little talent at the Major League and upper Minor League levels. Watch out for: Mets RHP Mike Pelfrey and Braves RHP Tim Hudson. Breakout candidates: Batting champ Mauer gets all the press, but this could be the season that Brian McCann (.324/.372/.630 after the All-Star Break) establishes himself as the best hitting catcher in baseball. Hamels looks mentally and physically prepared to make the jump to a legitimate staff ace. National League Central How they ﬁnish: 1. Cubs 2. Cardinals 3. Astros 4. Reds 5. Pirates 6. Brewers Bold prediction: Cubs OF Alfon-

so Soriano becomes the first player in history to go 40/40 two seasons in a row. Only one team will finish more than two games above .500. Someone has to win: Despite all the money that was spent by the Cubs during the off-season, baseball’s weakest division doesn’t figure to be much better this year. Huh?: The Cubs foolishly gave Jason Marquis three years and $21 million. The Astros traded two pitchers (Taylor Buckholz and Jason Hirsch) who could each outpitch the players they were traded for (Jason Jennings) for a fraction of the price. Watch out for: Reds RHP Homer Bailey, Cubs LHP Rich Hill, Astros OF Hunter Pence and Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who was statistically the most unlucky player in baseball in 2006 and looked like Yadier Pujols during his fantastic October run. He is already the game’s top defensive catcher. Breakout candidates: Albert Pujols … just kidding. Cardinals RHP Adam Wainwright has the stuff of an ace to go with excellent command of his curveball. National League West How they finish: 1. Diamondbacks 2. Dodgers 3. Padres 4. Giants 5. Rockies Bold prediction: Giants OF Barry Bonds hits 35 home runs and RHP Matt Cain finishes second in the Cy Young race. 2006 Cy Young winner Brandon Webb won’t lead the D’backs in wins. Young Guns: The NL West features some of the best young talent in baseball, particularly position players, who will ultimately win or lose the division for their respective teams. For serious?: Brian Sabean now has the made the worst trade of the decade and also the worst signing (Barry Zito) for seven years and $126 bajillion. Watch out for: D’backs 1B Conor Jackson, OFs Carlos Quentin and Chris Young and SS Stephen Drew, Dodgers 1B James Loney, RHP Chad Billingsley, 3B Andy LaRoche, OFs Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier and catcher Russell Martin, Padres 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff, Giants RHP Tim Lincecum, Rockies C Chris Ianetta, SS Troy Tuwolitski and RHP Buckholz and Hirsch. Breakout candidates: Giants RHP Matt Cain (3.26 ERA, 1.18 whip, .214 BAA and 99 Ks after the All-Star Break) has some of the best stuff in the game and Rockies 3B Garret Atkins (.354/.437/.625 after the All-Star Break) is ready to put his name on the list of best young third basemen.

www.browndailyherald.com

ing lacrosse? I’ve been playing since fourth or ﬁ fth grade. An after-school program was organized at our middle school. A gym teacher … played in college and decided to bring lacrosse to our school, so I decided to give it a try.

We had to learn how to pass and catch before we could play any games. It was the ﬁrst time I picked up a lacrosse stick and I needed to learn the skills to be able to play. My sister, Diane, is in eighth grade now but started playing in second grade, so the lacrosse program has come a long way at Skaneateles Middle School.

Did you play other sports? I played soccer in high school, but our lacrosse team did a lot better (than) soccer, probably due to the closeness of our lacrosse team. My best friends from high school are my teammates. Playing with people you get along with and have fun with makes the team play better. That’s how we won states my senior year.

Do you have any pre-game superstitions? No, I don’t believe in superstitions. I don’t believe that doing something or not doing something will change the outcome of the game. Noelle DiGioia ’09 and I have a handshake before every game. It became a habit after last year, but that’s it.

Did you start out as a midﬁelder?

How can you improve as a team?

Since we only have three seniors, a lot of the underclassmen have had the opportunity to gain a lot of ﬁeld time. For a young team, playing the top teams in the country like (No. 1 University of North Carolina) and (No. 3 University of) Maryland helps us get better. Although we have been making some underclassmen mistakes, playing in competitive games helps you learn so much. How important are these next few Ivy League games? We have seven games left, six of which are Ivy games. The Ivy League season is basically our way of getting into the NCAA tournament. The top three teams in the Ivy League usually get in. We are just hoping to come out strong and play our game.

No. 1 w. rowing dominates Princeton, OSU and Harvard continued from page 12 seconds later. The second eight came in at 6:53.6, just ahead of Radcliffe’s time of 6:56.7. The Bears’ varsity four was the only boat to ﬁnish out of ﬁrst place over spring break, coming in 10 seconds after Princeton but still 3.9 seconds before Ohio State. The boats all fared better against Radcliffe. Both Brown “A” and “B” defeated Radcliffe “A” in the third varsity race, while Brown “C” defeated Radcliffe “B” and “C.” The novices put up strong

showings at Princeton and against Radcliffe, an encouraging sign for the future of the program. The two Brown teams placed first and second in the novice fours at Princeton, coming in at 7:35.2 and at 7:41.5, comfortably ahead of third-place finisher Princeton, which crossed the line in 7:56.6. The Bears torched Radcliffe in the novice eight race, finishing at 7:03.5, with Radcliffe 27.6 seconds behind. Dearborn said the high-level performances across the board reflect the team’s cohesiveness. “I think (winning 9 out of 10

races) shows that we have a lot of unity and that we’re all working really hard together,” Dearborn said. “We’re excited for the whole team competing because we have a really great foundation out there.” The Bears will look to continue their success when they face Rutgers University Saturday in New Brunswick, N.J. Brown only has four more competitions before the conference championships take place on May 13. “We’re racing against very competitive teams,” Dearborn said. “We have so few races that every one of them is important.”

E DITORIAL & L ETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 10

FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007

STAF F EDITORIAL

Diamonds and coal A diamond to the 19,044 students who applied to Brown this year. You validate our sense of self-worth by moving the University’s acceptance rate to an all-time low of 13.5 percent. And another diamond to the 2,577 students who were admitted. Welcome! We just hope that not too many of you are that guy in section. Coal to the 16 security cameras at the SciLi. Thanks to CCTV, fulfilling the Brown tradition of hooking up on the 13th floor is now that much harder. A diamond to the myriad seniors finishing up their theses. Seventy-two consecutive hours in the Frisc? We’re pretty sure all of your shenanigans made it onto those security tapes! Shenanigans consisting of, uh, frantic reading and writing, and you know, falling asleep at your work. A diamond to President Ruth Simmons’ decision to step down from the Pfizer board due to “increased duties” at the University. But if those duties last for longer than four hours and don’t look like they’re going away, she knows who’s to blame. Coal to the recent revelation that Professor of Computer Science Andy Van Dam is not the inspiration for Andy in Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story.” Now we have absolutely no excuse for having watched it 50 times. A diamond to getting back out on the diamond. Opening Day should be a national holiday. Too bad New England snow in April might keep Brown’s own baseball and softball teams inside. A shoutout diamond to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who referenced our editorial in his speech last night. Given your feelings about media bias, we’re glad to hear your morning routine includes The Herald — not the Spectator. A cubic zirconium to the Department of English. Getting rid of your master’s program may wisely free up funding and room for doctoral students, but we can’t believe you owned up to restructuring only because your Web site needed updating. A diamond to UCS’ decision to hold the presidential debate at the Ratty. Isn’t this taking the mandate “bread and circus” a little too far, though? Coal to ResCouncil Chair Justin Glavis-Bloom ’07 for admonishing students for drinking at the lottery. Anything to numb the pain of choosing a Diman one-room triple. A diamond to Kal Penn, a.k.a. Professor Kumar. Going from horny college student to professor at Ivy League university? You should fit right in at Penn.

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

Executive Editors Allison Kwong Ben Leubsdorf

Senior Editors Stephen Colelli Sonia Saraiya BUSINESS

EDITORIAL Lydia Gidwitz Lindsey Meyers Stephanie Bernhard Stu Woo Simmi Aujla Sara Molinaro Ross Frazier Jacob Schuman Michal Zapendowski Peter Cipparone Justin Goldman Sarah Demers Erin Frauenhofer Madeleine Marecki

Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Editor Features Editor Features Editor Metro Editor Metro Editor News Editor Opinions Editor Opinions Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor

PHOTO Eunice Hong Christopher Bennett Jacob Melrose

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

Managing Editor Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor

Brianna Barzola, Steve DeLucia, Designers Jacob Frank, Chris Gang, Ezra Miller, 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, Catherine Goldberg, Isabel Gottlieb, Thi Ho, Rebecca Jacobson, Nandini Jayakrishna, Tsvetina Kamenova, Franklin Kanin, Hannah Levintova, Abe Lubetkin, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Zachary McCune, Olivia Hoffman, Nathalie Pierrepont, Alexander Roehrkasse, Jessica Rotondi, 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, Jihan Chao, Aurora Durfee, Sophie Elsner, Christian Martell, Matthew McCabe, Ezra Miller 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

LETTERS

ROXANNE PALMER

Student, registrar respond to Banner coverage To the Editor: There were a few items in the April 3 issue of The Herald that caught my attention. Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar (“Approaching Banner,” April 3) urged students to delay judgment on Banner until they have become “ﬂuent” in it. I have spent considerable time looking at the way Banner displays course information, and I pity those that will be forced to use it. Previously we had the Brown Online Course Announcement, which was capable of searching for speciﬁc courses, and the Course Announcement Bulletin, which allowed a student to browse through all of Brown’s offerings. Banner removes the search feature without giving students a new way to browse for courses. The information for a given class is spread over four web pages, and scrolling through all 41 entries for CHEM 0330 (which take up a dozen pages) is enough to discourage anyone from using the system. From a technical standpoint,

Banner displays all the information it ought to, but the process of finding classes will be a miserable task, even for students fluent in the system. Nathanael Horton ’09.5 and Jon Lin ’08 seemed to think many people at Brown have been overreacting about Banner (“Banner catalog and schedule ill-recieved by students,” April 3). What struck me about their comments is that they both admitted that they hadn’t tested the system. I find it hard to understand why their uninformed opinion on Banner should matter to me. Finally, if Stefan Smith ’09 thinks this is “one of the most impractical applications I’ve seen on the (Brown) Web site,” it is only because he is too new to the school to remember the old www.brown.edu page. Daniel Leventhal ‘07 April 4

To the Editor: I would like to respond, by way of clariﬁcation, to the letter to the editor by K. Adam White ’08 regarding cross-listings (“Interdisciplinary study requires printed course bulletin,” April 4). In Banner, all courses related to a subject are brought together in a single course listing called an XLIST. For example, in gender studies the course GNSS XLIST provides a complete list of courses offered in other departments that may be of interest to gender studies students. Soon, all departments will have a course called XLIST, and it will be the last course in the subject area within the Banner Class Schedule (not the Banner Catalog). These XLIST courses are being populated with their cross-listings now and will be ready for viewing in time for registration. We will e-mail students when that data entry task has been completed. Here’s the reason for the change: In our old system, cross-listings relied on “phantom” courses, i.e.

the secondary cross-listing entries that held a number in a department but were not real courses. These could then be published in the Course Announcement Bulletin with the instruction that the student should register for the primary cross-listed course. However, building such bogus courses is not a possibility in Banner, and therefore there is nothing to publish. So, the change had nothing to do with the CAB but rather with the need to organize information in a new way in Banner. This is why we created a course in every department with a number of “XLIST” under which we list the courses that the department wishes to crosslist. Again, we will be in touch with students as soon as these data are complete. Michael Pesta University Registrar April 5

CORRECTIONS An article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Banner Catalog and Schedule ill-received by students,” April 3) incorrectly identified Stefan Smith ’09 as a member of the class of 2010. Due to an editing error, an article in Thursday’s Herald (“State House considers education tax credit,” April 5) misattributed a statement to Judy Knowles P’10. Josh Marland GS, not Knowles, said, “I think that there is a lot more they could do with the money on the front end. … Is it a real commitment to education or a symbolic one?” An article in Thursday’s Herald (“Venezuelan ambassador puts Chavez presidency in context.” April 5) incorrectly spelled the first name of the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States. His correct name is Bernardo Alvarez Herrera. CORRECTIONS POLICY The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. COMMENTAR Y POLICY The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. ADVER TISING POLICY The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

O PINIONS FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007 FRIDAY

PAGE 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Climate change: Blown out of porportion or much scarier than we imagine? Global cooling activists, hold your horses I don’t think it possible to argue that man plays no role in global warming any more convincingly than one could argue that gravity doesn’t exist. That an increase in greenhouse gases in some sense is linked to an increase in global temperature is as near to a truism as anything. However, this in and of itself hardly necessitates any panic that mankind is about to wipe itself out through its own excesses. While we are clearly having some impact upon global climate with our actions, the more apocalyptic scenarios that many bandy about are largely unfounded in reality. It is telling of the general ignorance regarding the speed of climate change that every heat wave is hailed in the press as a potential sign of global warming, regardless of the fact that the actual impact of global warming has been only an increase of a degree or two in global temperature over the past century, a figure cited by, among others, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This bizarre belief in the immediately observable impacts of global warming, if anything, only ends up adding fuel to the fire (or the SUVs) of those who continue to underplay global warming’s existence altogether. If an unusually warm day in Maine can be pointed to as a sign of a larger global trend, how do we explain a rare snowy day in California? Despite a general understanding that global warming is a reality, few individuals seem to really have a grasp on the implications of this problem. This does not mean that there is nothing to worry about at all. While there are dozens of projections about what the future will bring, even the most optimistic – such as those bandied about by the rightof-center Cato Institute – still suggest an increase of several degrees over the next century. Even such a seemingly small change could have potentially devastating impacts upon coastal regions, extinction rates and agricultural yields. However, two things need to be kept at the forefront of the discussion as we approach this issue. The first is that these harms are not going to be immediate. While we clearly don’t want to leave the world in shambles for future generations, an understanding that there is still time to act is vital. Second, and perhaps more importantly, we cannot let ourselves be pressed into buying into any proposed “quick-fix” solutions to our climate problems without first understanding the implications of these supposed panaceas. A cottage industry seems to have materialized around solving the issue of global warming. While a general move away from fossil fuels seems to be agreed upon by many, the energy source(s) we should shift ourselves toward — and the mechanism through which we should accomplish such a shift — are still hotly debated. While many proposed solutions may work on a theoretical level, their costs and likelihood of implementation are left undiscussed in the general stampede towards a solution. One such example would be the Kyoto Protocol — an international amendment with the proclaimed goal of helping to reduce the emission of various greenhouse gases. The United States has often found itself maligned for its reluctance to sign on to Kyoto. In reality, such a reluctance is hardly as unjustified as many make it out to be. Since the Kyoto Protocol only imposes restrictions on a few countries, the likelihood that a full implementation would achieve all of its intended effects is

unlikely. Rather, it would just shift the consumption of fossil fuels to other nations, such as China and India, which — based upon the terms of Kyoto — face no limitations whatsoever. In effect, although it may have been well-intentioned, Kyoto and similar agreements represent nothing more than lipservice. Since demand for oil is likely to rise in developing nations such as India and China and globally already exceeds supply, reducing a few developed nations’ demand is not a viable means of cutting down long-term consumption. To make matters worse, ﬁnding a way to achieve even that small victory can often be prohibitively costly. While estimates again vary wildly on this front, many of the defenders of Kyoto realize that fully meeting its requirements would cost the world hundreds of billions, if not well into the trillions of dollars, while successfully reducing global temperatures by less than a tenth of the degree. Proposals to launch us

It’s time we stopped debating global warming Ever heard of the “the National Resource Stewardship Project?” The name suggests some sort of environmental action group, but in fact the NRSP’s goal is quite the opposite — promoting inaction. The NRSP is a coalition whose leadership includes about half of the last handful of climate scientists of note who reject global warming as a “myth.” Ironically, they realize their position is so out of the mainstream, they have to use a name that not only belies their true purpose but in fact implies they are environmentalists. Go to its Web site, and against a green background, you’ll ﬁnd pictures of deer, snow-capped mountains and a mother with her baby playing in a ﬁeld. Now ask yourself — if these people hide behind the appearance of environmentalism to cloak their true position on global warming, how can we trust the arguments they are putting forth to deny its existence? This anecdote would almost be humorous if the issue of global warming didn’t

TREVOR GLEASON OPINIONS COLUMNIST

POINT COUNTERPOINT DON TRELLA

OPINIONS COLUMNIST

boldly into a new era of renewable energy generally follow the same trend — while ideologically benevolent, they very often carry with them enormous price tags for exceedingly marginal beneﬁts. This is not to say that changes towards a more conservationist way of life and alternative forms of energy are unnecessary — few would criticize either as anything less than noble goals. However, in our pursuit of such goals, we cannot allow ourselves to be pressured by our fears of an impending apocalypse. To do so would be to burden not only the developed countries but indeed the entire world with colossal economic burdens. Instead, we need to realize that change can and will be achieved in the long run, but on a more gradual basis. The question is not whether or not global warming is a problem, but whether or not it is a problem that is best responded to in the shortest timespan possible. Rather than imposing broad policies in an effort to reduce global warming wholesale, it is far more responsible for us to allow changes to be made slowly, as they become practical.

Trevor Gleason ’07 believes that spring is the result of rapid, annual global warming.

pose such a grave threat to us and to our children during the coming century. We’re probably all familiar with the litany of terrifying consequences that are predicted: Worldwide sea levels will rise and inundate of many of the world’s most economically important cities, climate change will cause animal species to go extinct and fresh water will become even scarcer than it is today, seriously exacerbating world hunger. The Bush years will look like the halcyon days of Mother Earth by comparison. The most persuasive evidence for the scientiﬁc consensus on global warming comes from the Fourth Assessment Report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report says it is “nearly impossible to say natural forces are to blame” for global climate change and explicitly recommends nations to “take prompt action.” A statement endorsing this content of this report was unanimously signed by the national science academies of “the Big Eleven” — the G8 nations plus Brazil, India and China — who are together the 11 largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. Unless we are to believe that the leading scientists of all of these nations are ﬂat-out wrong, we should seriously question why there are so many articles appearing in the popular media questioning the threat posed

by global warming. In an age marked by 24hour news coverage and a proliferation of new news sources in all varieties of media, it’s difficult for the media to act as one entity anymore, especially given the hyper-competitive dynamic. However, “the media” still makes value judgments all the time about what to publish when they routinely and purposefully ignore certain extremist positions and effectively exclude them from the political dialogue. There are a few people out there who believe the Earth is flat, a few who believe the moon landing was faked and many more who believe that the Bush administration orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. These people do not get a prominent voice in the media, nor do they deserve one. The same standard should hold true for the equally unsubstantiated claim that global warming is not a serious problem or that human industry is not responsible. Within the scientific community, global warming skeptics are a tiny minority with a similar level of credibility as those aforementioned groups — sort of like Lyndon LaRouche supporters with Ph.D.s. The competitive news dynamic makes journalists excessively fearful of accusations of bias, so they continually present this debate as one that is far more open than it truly is. If the media continues to frame the issue in this way, people can rationalize environmentally irresponsible actions through the belief that global warming might be false. So long as the issue itself remains in question, people will always view action on the issue as a secondary concern, and their popularly elected leaders will act accordingly — thus perpetuating an unimaginably dangerous cycle. It’s not just the global warming skeptics’ extreme minority status that warrants their exclusion from public discussion — it’s the time-sensitive nature of global warming itself. If 99 percent of scientists are correct, we should clearly follow their advice. On the other hand, if we craft policies based on the assumption that global warming is real and find out that 99 percent of scientists turned out to be wrong, what’s the worst possible consequence? Funneling less money to nations that sponsor terrorism? Having less smog? Some people might say economic harms would result, but even that logic breaks down. At some point in the next few decades, oil will become scarce enough that a price shock would absolutely cripple the American economy — unless we start doing something now to address our overconsumption of oil. The best argument those who oppose the adoption of an aggressive technological investment in reducing carbon dioxide emissions can make is: “Let’s wait another 10 years.” But as my grandfather used to say, “Why put off till tomorrow what you can do today?” The positive economic effects that would follow from such an investment — millions of newly created jobs and the possibility of discovering auxiliary technologies (like we did when we went to the moon) certainly outweigh the negative ones. The media is currently making it more likely that nothing at all will be done on global warming. Public dialogue needs to be solution-focused, and the media must start to fulfill their obligation to the public by bringing forth a solution-focused dialogue. That means ignoring global warming skeptics.

Don Trella ’08 would like to thank University Security Services member Brent Barrett for the conversation that inspired him to write this column.

S PORTS W EEKEND FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007

M. and w. golf struggle in spring break tournaments BY HAN CUI SPORTS STAFF WRITER

Both the men’s and women’s golf teams faced difficult competition at tournaments over spring break. The men’s golf team traveled to Richmond, Ky., to compete in the two-day Eastern Kentucky Invitational on March 30 and 31. The team placed 12th out of 15 teams, with two players finishing in the top 20. Larry Haertel ’08 led the Bears with scores of 73-73-71 for a total of 217, good enough for 13th place. His teammate, Conor Malloy ’09, finished 19th with scores of 73-75-70, for a total of 218. The women’s golf team had its first tournament of the season, in Wilmington, N.C., on March 26 and 27. Brown finished last out of 15 in the three-day University of North Carolina-Wilmington Seahawk Invitational. But at the Georgetown Invitational in Leesburg, Va, held Sunday and Monday, the Bears kicked it up a notch and placed 10th of 13, with one top-20 finisher. Compared to the other teams at the UNCW Lady Seahawk Invitational, Brown was at a disadvantage in experience. Princeton — the champion of the Georgetown Invitational — was in its fi fth tournament of the season, while the UNCW tournament was Brown’s first competition. Blythe Crane ’08 led the team as the 48th overall finisher with scores of 77-78-83 for a total of 238. Tiffany Wade ’08 also played consistently with a score of 8583-83, which put her in the 74th overall spot. In the second tournament, the team improved its standing. Crane placed 17th in the tworound tournament with a score of 157. Holly Snyder ’09 and Elizabeth Fisher ’07 both placed 47th overall with scores of 168. The women’s golf team will next compete in the Dartmouth/ Harvard Triangular on April 14 and 15 on Cape Cod before it heads to the Ivy League Championship at the end of April. The women should see tough competition in Cape Cod as Harvard and Dartmouth recently played tournaments in California and Virginia, respectively. Meanwhile, the men’s golf team is getting set for the twoday Yale Spring Opener at New Haven, Conn., this weekend.

Vitkus ’09 comes through for w. lax BY MARCO SANTINI SPORTS STAFF WRITER

Lauren Vitkus ’09 led the women’s lacrosse team to a 2-1 record over spring break. The midfielder scored seven goals in the three-game stretch, including the game winner in Brown’s 9-8 win over the College of the Holy Cross. She started all 16 games last season, recording six goals and two assists on the year. Vitkus scored her first collegiate game-winning goal against Ohio University in the 2006 season finale.

M. TENNIS: vs. Princeton, Varsity Tennis Courts, 2 p.m. W. TENNIS: at Princeton

SATURDAY, ATURDAY APR. 7 ATURDAY, BASEBALL: vs. Columbia, Aldrich Dexter Field, 12 p.m. (DH) M. CREW: at Boston University W. CREW: at Rutgers EQUESTRIAN: at Zone 1 Championship (South Hadley, Mass.) M. GOLF: at Yale Spring Opener M. LACROSSE: vs. Yale, Stevenson Field, 3 p.m.

How long have you been play-

The women’s rowing team displayed dominating performances in its first two competitions, winning 9 of 10 races against Princeton, the Ohio State University and Harvard. The team’s outstanding performance was recognized Wednesday when the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association rated the Bears No. 1 in the country with 475 points, four points ahead of the No. 2 University of Southern California. Competing at Princeton with Ohio State on March 24, the Bears lost only the varsity four race to Princeton while sweeping Ohio State. Last Saturday in Cambridge, Mass., Brown won all five races against Radcliffe, as Harvard’s women’s crew is still called — the only women’s team at Harvard to retain the banner of its female school. “It’s exciting, for sure,” said captain Rachel Dearborn ’07 of the team’s early season success and lofty ranking. “But it’s always hard to tell in the beginning of the season where we stand.” The varsity eight boats led the way for the Bears in both meets. In the first varsity eight race at Princeton, Brown’s first eight finished in 6:52.8, followed by Ohio State at 6:57.4. The second eight placed first in its race as well, with a time of 7:09.7, 2.8 seconds ahead Ohio State. In its race against Radcliffe, both varsity eights had to rally to overcome fast starts by the Black and White. The first eight won in 6:40.4 and was followed by Radcliffe 3.8

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Herald: How did it feel to score the game-winning goal against Holy Cross? Vitkus: It feels good, but the score wasn’t tied when I scored. It was nice knowing I could contribute and help the team. Holy Cross was a really big victory, because we were down 42 at halftime. We sat down on the field at halftime and all of us knew we needed to turn it around. We came out strong after halftime, scoring five of the first six goals in the second half. During the last six minutes, we were able to stall. What did the lacrosse team do over spring break? We were very busy. We had three games. We played St. Mary’s on Saturday. It was a huge win for our team especially after a tough 9-7 loss to (the University of) New Hampshire. The win against St. Mary’s picked up our confidence, not only because of the score (17-6) but because a lot of people contributed. Nine different players scored goals. We also played very consistently throughout the game. As a young team with

No. 1 w. crew dominates Princeton, OSU and Harvard BY ANDREW BRACA S PORTS S TAFF WRITER

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Jacob Melrose / Herald File Photo Lauren Vitkus ’09 scored seven goals in three games over spring break.

only three seniors, we need to consistently come out strong from the beginning and own the pace of the game. Were there many other teams here during break? We were one of the only teams on campus for some time. Baseball and softball were gone, the men’s lacrosse team was

also gone. It gave us a lot of time to bond as a team even though it was nine days playing six hours of lacrosse each day. We didn’t have a lot of free time, but we went out to Dave and Busters as a team, which was awesome.

Tru Story: Major League Baseball predictions American League East How they ﬁnish: 1. Yankees 2. Red Sox 3. Blue Jays 4. Devil Rays 5. Orioles Sipping the Asian Kool-aid: “Dice-K” Daisuke Matsuzaka looks like he’s a topﬁve pitcher in baseball. MeanTom Trudeau while, Kei Igawa Tru Story has sneaky stuff that misses bats and could reach 15 wins. Easy there, killa’: Delmon Young will be a star sooner rather than later, but all the talk about

SPORTS SCHEDULE FRIDAY, DAY APR. 6 DAY,

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

W. LACROSSE: vs. Columbia, Stevenson Field, 12 p.m. SOFTBALL: at Columbia M. TENNIS: vs. Penn, Varsity Tennis Courts, 2 p.m. W. TENNIS: at Penn M. & W. TRACK: at UConn Alumni Invitational W. WATER POLO: at Hartwick

SUNDAY, DAY APR. 8 DAY, BASEBALL: vs. Penn, Aldrich Dexter Field, 12 p.m. (DH) M. GOLF: at Yale Spring Opener SOFTBALL: at Penn W. WATER POLO: at California Baptist

batting .300 with 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases is a little bit overblown for a rookie without any plate discipline. Bold prediction: No member of the Yankees projected openingday rotation (along with injured Chien-Ming Wang) will have an ERA below 4.00. Watch out for: Toronto outﬁelder Adam Lind, Red Sox RHPs Bryce Cox and Clay Buchholz, Yankees RHP Phil Hughes, Devil Rays 3B Evan Longoria. Huh?: The Rays still need to trade from their surplus of outﬁelders (Carl Crawford, Delmon Young, Rocco Baldelli, Elijah Dukes, B.J. Upton and Johnny Gomes). The Sox may be overvaluing the closer role by taking Jonathan Papelbon out of the rotation and losing over 100 valuable innings out of him. Breakout candidates: Orioles LHP Erik Bedard had a 3.10 ERA with close to 9 K/9 in the second half of ’06: Blue Jays OF Alex Rios was hitting .330/.383/.585 before the All-Star Break before an injury slowed him down the rest of the season. American League Central

How they finish: 1. Indians 2. Tigers 3. Twins 4. White Sox 5. Royals Lucky charms: Too much went right for the Tigers in 2006, with almost everyone playing at or above their expected level of production while remaining incredibly healthy. Meanwhile, the Indians (78-84) were by far baseball’s unluckiest team. They outscored opponents by 88 runs. Bold prediction: Royals 3B Alex Gordon wins the AL Rookie of the Year but doesn’t top the production of former Royals 3Bturned-outfielder Mark Teahen. The White Sox finish under .500. Come back to earth: Jeremy Sowers went 6-2 with a 2.72 ERA after the All-Star Break in 2006, but his alarmingly low strikeout rate (35 Ks in 88 1/3 IP) suggests he was incredibly lucky. Expect an ERA closer to 4.50. Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau are phenomenal young players, but expect both to see their batting averages decline by at least .20 points given their extremely high batting average per ball in play despite average to below average speed. Seriously?: The Twins seem not to have learned from last

year’s mistake of wasting roster spots on washed-up veterans as made evident by their employing Ramon Ortiz and Sidney Ponson and sending stud RHP Matt Garza to AAA to start the season. Watch out for: Indians RHP Adam Miller, Tigers LHP Andrew Miller, White Sox LHP John Danks, Garza, Royals OF/1B Billy Butler. Breakout candidates: Assuming that Indians’ OF Grady Sizemore (.290/.375/.533) probably already “broke out,” I’ll go with Teahen. American League West How they finish: 1. Angels 2. Athletics 3. Rangers 4. Mariners Photo finish: The Angels are the consensus pick to win the division given their strong farm system and pitching depth in both the rotation and bullpen, but all four teams can legitimately expect to contend. Bold prediction: Rich Harden makes 30 dominating starts and finishes second in the AL Cy Young Race to Johan Santana. Angels 2B Howie Kendrick wins the AL batting title. continued on page 9