Thursday, April 12, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD T HURSDAY A PRIL 12, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 49

12 undergrads targeted by RIAA, lawsuits may follow

BY NICK WERLE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The University received pre-litigation settlement letters yesterday from the Recording Industry Association of America accusing 12 undergraduates of illegally downloading copyrighted music. The letters give the targeted students a 20-day window to settle with the record companies out of court before they will subpoena the University for the students’ names and file lawsuits against them.

The letters are part of a “third wave” of RIAA action that includes 413 letters sent to 21 universities in the United States, according to a press release from the RIAA, an industry group representing the major record labels. The letters inform the students that they will be sued if they do not settle by paying a reduced amount to prevent the issue from going to court.

Since March 6, the University

MAIN GREEN BORDER-CROSSING

has received eight “preservation notices” from the RIAA, citing illegal downloading from Brown IP addresses, and Computing and Information Services informed the affected students. The eight students whose IP addresses were cited are among the 12 undergrads who will receive the letters announced yesterday.

“Basically what (the preservative notice) obligates us to do is preserve the information associated with this IP address, but we are under no obligation to share any information about anyone at Brown unless there is a legal subpoena,” said Connie Sadler, director of information technology security for CIS. “What the RIAA is asking of institutions (now) is that we forward these settlement letters to the 12 students, which we will do. The Office of the General Counsel is looking over this information right continued on page 4

Eunice Hong / Herald

A Main Green display on Wednesday featured crosses representing individuals killed on the U.S.-Mexican border.

U. considers gender-blind housing Restrooms in residence halls to be designated as gender-neutral, RPLs to receive gender sensitivity training

BY ROSS FRAZIER NEWS EDITOR

University officials are considering designating an undetermined amount of gender-neutral restrooms for next fall and will provide specialized gender sensitivity training to residential peer leaders as a result of recommendations made in Febru-

ary by a student working group.

But proposals to allow genderblind housing — which would allow a male and a female to live together in a double — will be discussed more before a decision is made, to the dismay of some students in the five-member working group. The group has been meeting in various forms for several years — and has

Top scholars, athletes get ‘likely’ letters from Office of Admission

met four times this semester — to propose these changes.

Beyond single restrooms and those in suites, which are already gender-neutral, residential life officials may designate a number of larger dormitory restrooms as mixed-gender. How many might become mixed-use will depend on the gender makeup of dorm populations, which will be known and should re-

BY JAMES SHAPIRO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

While most regular decision applicants to Brown waited nervously for their admission decisions late last month, some students could rest easy in the knowledge that a fat envelope was headed their way.

The Admission Office sent out 75 “likely” letters, most of which went out in the second week of March, to top academic students.

“It’s the first time we’ve done it in a number of years,” said Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73. “We’re always looking for ways to enhance our recruiting efforts.”

The Ivy League Admissions Statement — a set of rules governing admission to Ivy League schools, signed by the directors of admission and athletics from each school — states that admission offices can send likely letters to both early and regular

continued on page 6

Self on self: Inspired by the 1970s, Guggenheim Fellow will examine gender and sexuality in postwar America

BY STU WOO FEATURES EDITOR

When Associate Professor of History Robert Self opened his mail earlier this month, he was “stunned” to learn he had received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, one of five Brown professors

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

this year to do so. Self, who arrived at Brown in 2004, recently sat down

FEATURE with The Herald for a cup of coffee (cream, no sugar) and to talk about his upcoming book, “The

Politics of Gender and Sexuality in America from Watts to Reagan,” his upbringing and his inspirations.

Herald: With your fellowship, you’ll be working on a project examining the continued on page 4

admission candidates after Oct. 1. The statement describes likely letters as formal letters of admission conditioned on a candidate’s continued “satisfactory secondary school experience.”

“I truly don’t know why it wasn’t done in past years,” Miller said. “We decided to do it essentially as a way to reach some of our top students early in the process and to bring Brown to their attention as early as some of our competition.”

Miller said Dartmouth College and Harvard University also send likely letters to outstanding applicants.

The recent batch of likely letters was in addition to 35 likely letters sent to recruited athletes in the fall. Ivy League schools cannot offer athletic scholarships and will often use likely letters to attract student-athletes with continued on page 4

Four to run for UCS president Most races in next week’s UCS and UFB elections will be uncontested

BY MICHAEL BECHEK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Chris Bennett / Herald Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who leads the Banner project, responded to questions from UCS and community members at the council’s meeting Wednesday.

INSIDE:

post-

POST- SAYS GOODBYE Before the semester ends and summer hits, post- takes a look at campus groups, music and fashion — and asks, what the dealio?

www.browndailyherald.com

3 METRO

Four students filed to run for the presidency of the Undergraduate Council of Students Wednesday night, but a number of races for important positions will be uncontested.

Michael Glassman ’09, Eric Mukherjee ’09, Moses Riner ’08

WI-FI IN WOONSOCKET? A bill under consideration in the General Assembly calls for improved technological infrastructure in the state, including border-to-border Wi-Fi

and Stefan Smith ’09 will square off in campaigns this week for UCS’ highest office. The races for five positions on UCS’ executive board, as well as the chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board, have just one candidate.

Mukherjee, the only presidential candidate who is not currently on UCS, is running on a platform of dissolving UCS and replacing it with an “open forum” in which all students can simply show up and participate.

Mukherjee insisted that his candidacy was not a joke — though “at

5 CAMPUS NEWS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

DPS BUSINESS CARDS At the Public Safety Oversight Committee’s open forum last night, DPS announced plans to distribute

first it started that way” — and instead came from a genuine desire to reform student government.

“It’s at a point where it really isn’t (a joke),” he said. “There are issues that need to be rectified.”

Every elected position on UCS and UFB will be decided by next week’s online election. Students will elect UCS president, vice president, treasurer, five committee chairs and five representatives from each class, as well as UFB chair, vice chair and five at-large positions. continued on page 8

12 SPORTS

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

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

TODAY THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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WE A

Chocolate Covered Cotton | Mark Brinker

T H E R

TODAY

TOMORROW

rain / wind 41 / 36

showers 49 / 36

MEN SHARPE REFECTORY

THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2007

U VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Hot Ham on Bulky Roll, Wild Colonial Risotto, Green Peas, Jelly Roll, Swiss Fudge Cookies

LUNCH — Vegetarian Cream of Mushroom Soup, Country Wedding Soup, Pulled Pork Sandwich, French Bread Pizza, Cauliflower au Gratin, Swiss Fudge Cookies

DINNER — Dinner with Visiting Chef Barry Correia

DINNER — Dinner with Visiting Chef Barry Correia

SU

WBF | Matt Vascellaro

D O K U

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 �������������������

CR ACROSS 1 Skater Starbuck who was married to Terry Bradshaw 5 Equivocal word 10 Ring punches 14 Have __ of good luck 15 Playwright Clifford 16 Graceful arch 17 Simba’s mate, in “The Lion King” 18 Obstruct, as a copier 19 Beer 20 Stable training 22 Mythical Islamic spirit 23 Former Minnesota governor 26 Nasty habit 27 Send to cloud nine 31 Hawkish god 33 Was on the tube 35 APB letters 36 Alt. spelling 37 School’s second team, and this puzzle’s title 39 Debuting on the market 40 Lodge 41 “She was __ from the low country”: old folk song lyric 42 Brief briefs?

43 Gulf of Tonkin country 45 Ireland, e.g.

47 “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” author 52 Mia and others 55 End results 56 Calculus calculation 57 WWI French soldier 59 European blackbird 60 Bad luck bringer 61 Hi-tech students’ haunt 62 Saarinen who designed the Gateway Arch 63 Grenoble games 64 Démodé 65 “Darn it!”

O S S W O R D

DOWN 1 Co. whose brand names include Band-Aid and Tylenol 2 “__ Ben Jonson”: literary epitaph 3 “Journey to the Center of the Earth” author 4 Jackie’s Ari 5 Desert known for Joshua trees 6 Proverb 7 Red Sea republic 8 HVAC measure 9 Uncommon sense?

10 Honey-do list alternative 11 Business prefix 12 “How’ve you __?”

13 Darned 21 Wall St. watchdog 22 Judge played by Stallone in 1995 24 Cheerios shape 25 Eye part 28 “Girl with a Pearl Earring” painter 29 Signed off on 30 Sails temporarily off course 31 Tel __ 32 Indian royal

33 “Ditto” 34 Stanford-Binet nos.

37 Two-faced god 38 __ the Impaler, who inspired “Dracula” 42 Opened its petals 44 Discount apparel chain 45 ER hookup 46 Incite to attack, with “on” 48 Works very hard

49 Hippy dances?

50 Spanish missionary Junípero __ 51 Groove for a letter-shaped bolt 52 Muslim journey 53 Grammy-winning soul singer India.__ 54 Diner handout 57 Opposite of “fff,” in music 58 Andean tuber

Deep Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbon

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Cloudy Side Up | Mike Lauritano

xwordeditor@aol.com

4/11/07

T HE B ROWN D AILY H ERALD Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 Business Phone: 401.351.3260

University community since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the aca-

Eric Beck, President

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

Mary-Catherine Lader, Vice President Ally Ouh, Treasurer Mandeep Gill, Secretary

By Karen M. Tracey (c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

4/11/07

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

METRO THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2007

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GTECH to leave CS partnership GTECH Holdings Corp., a Rhode Island-based gaming services company, is unlikely to renew its membership in the Department of Computer Science’s Industrial Partnership Program after it expires this year.

Companies participating in the program offer students internships and are involved in research with faculty. They also send representatives to symposiums to make presentations to Brown students.

Participating corporations must pay a membership fee, which can be as high as $25,000 for premier partners.

Currently, member companies include Google, Apple and Sun Microsystems.

Michael Black, professor of computer science and former co-director of the Industrial Partnership Program, said programs such as the Industrial Partnership Program “help companies with hiring … and give them more visibility.”

GTECH, which finished moving into its world headquarters from West Greenwich to downtown Providence in late 2006, has participated intermittently in the program since its creation in the early 1990s, said Donald Stanford ’72 MS’77, adjunct professor of computer science, former chief technology officer of GTECH and currently an adviser to the company.

It has been “a struggle” to get it back into the program, Stanford said.

Though GTECH has moved its headquarters close to Brown, involvement in the program has “nothing to do with physical distance but with operating philosophy,” he said.

“People come and go,” Stanford said.“The person who was champion (of IPP) at GTECH left in December 2006. There’s a leadership vacuum.” No one else at GTECH has expressed interest in maintaining the firm’s relationship with the University, he added. “(IPP) is not a priority at GTECH anymore. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is,” he said.

Black said the department has had “a great partnership with GTECH.” “It is a tremendous technology company with really exciting technological problems to solve, like computer security,” he said.

Black said he hopes there will be more interaction between GTECH and IPP in future.

“We’d love to have them back. One day it’ll happen,” he said.

Matthew Whalen, vice president for systems engineering at GTECH, was not available for comment. Associate Professor of Computer Science John Hughes, the current director of the program, declined to comment.

— Nandini Jayakrishna

Students testify at State House for publicly financed elections

BY SARA MOLINARO METRO EDITOR

Students from the group Democracy Matters testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday in favor of a bill that would create a system of public campaign financing in Rhode Island.

The Public Financing of Elections Act was introduced in the state Senate in February by Sen. Rhoda Perry, D-Dist. 3, whose district includes Brown’s campus.

After testimony was presented, the committee voted to hold the bill for further study rather than send it to be voted on by the full Senate.

Under the bill, the state will provide participating candidates a certain amount of money for campaigns for local office. The legislation will reduce the influence of “special interests” and allow candidates to run for office who might not otherwise have the means to do so, said Ravi Ramanathan ’09, a member of Democracy Matters.

This is the third year such a bill has been introduced in the General Assembly, and a similar bill was introduced earlier this year in the House of Representatives by Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Dist. 3, who also represents Brown’s campus.

Members of Democracy Matters have been lobbying regularly at the State House to educate legislators about the bill, said Rebecca

Binder ’09, another member.

At the committee hearing, Perry presented the bill and said it would help to “restore the public’s confidence in elected officials” and “free candidates from the ordeal of fundraising.”

Christina Ma ’09, the first student to testify, discussed the funding of the bill. She said that the public financing program would be funded by an appropriation of $7 per state resident per year, which totals one-tenth of 1 percent of the current state budget. “That’s less than it costs to go to the movies,” Ma said.

Ma admitted that the state’s budget deficit is a concern but called the public financing program “an investment worth making in Rhode Island,” adding that she believed the budget could be balanced while funding the program.

Herald Copy Desk Chief Chris Gang ’09, another member of Democracy Matters, also testified at the hearing, discussing the structure of the public financing program. One important aspect of the program, according to Gang’s testimony, is that the amount of public money provided to a candidate increases if the candidate is running against a privately financed candidate who spends at a higher level.

“Leaders should be chosen based on merit, not on how many

rich friends they have,” Gang said, explaining that young people are “disillusioned” by an electoral system that favors wealthy candidates. “Government is not only for the privileged,” he said.

Grant Gilles ’10 discussed the public financing system in Arizona, where he is registered to vote. The system proposed by the Rhode Island bill is based on the systems in place in Arizona and Maine. Gilles said once public campaign financing was implemented in Arizona, the number of contested seats in the state legislature rose significantly, as did the number of women and racial minorities elected to office.

Several other witnesses also presented testimony on the bill, including representatives from AARP, the Rhode Island State Council of Churches, the Environmental Council of Rhode Island and students from Providence College.

Amy Vitale, representing the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ACLU opposes the bill because of “concerns with free speech and fairness.” Once candidates decide to receive public financing, they cannot accept funds from private donors. Under the legislation, potential private donors will not be able to monetarily express their support for a particular publicly funded candidate, Vitale said.

Legislator aims to make Rhode Island first wireless state

BY CAMERON LEE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

If Rep. Amy Rice, D-Dist. 72, has her way at the General Assembly, Rhode Islanders could be the first Americans to benefit from a free statewide Wi-Fi network.

Introduced last month in the state House of Representatives, Rice’s bill — the Electronic Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Act — does not specifically call for the installation of a Wi-Fi network, but rather it would create a state innovation center to oversee improvements to the Ocean State’s telecommunications systems that could include such a system. The center, which would be a part of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, would also finance the development of related technologies.

As legislators consider Rice’s bill, the Business Innovation Factory, a nonprofit that began pilot wireless programs last spring in Newport and Providence, is expanding its free Wi-Fi system to Foster. The BIF hopes to create a border-to-border wireless network, and though BIF and Rice are not collaborating, they share similar goals.

Brown has partnered with BIF in implementing its network, called Rhode Island Wireless Innovation Networks, said Melissa Withers, communications director of BIF. Because of the partnership, BIF has two base stations on the roof of the Sciences Library, Withers said.

Withers said the BIF network, called RI-WINs, is completely

separate from Rice’s legislation.

“I’m not sure how much Rep. Rice knew about RI-WINs until recently,” she said. “Rice has proposed that she wants to open a center of excellence. … She’s not proposing building a network.”

But Withers added that BIF supports Rice’s endeavors. “We think she’s got the right idea,” she said. “She was trying to raise the level of consciousness in the General Assembly.”

“The goal is to make Rhode Island be the first state fully Wi-Fi,” Rice said of the proposed innovation center bill, which is modeled after similar legislation in West Virginia.

A statewide Wi-Fi network would “narrow the digital divide between those with Internet access and those without,” Rice said.

Younger people, and especially college students, are more likely to have access to Internet, Rice said, leaving older people at a disadvantage.

There are currently 68 municipal Wi-Fi networks throughout the country but none in Rhode Island, Rice said.

“Nationally, the Internet penetration rate is only about 60 percent, so more than a third of Americans are outside this technology revolution,” said Professor of Political Science Darrell West.

Rice said Wi-Fi legislation in Rhode Island and other states has met opposition from telecommunications companies who could lose business if the system is implemented. “That’s like Borders and Barnes and Noble saying we can’t have a library,” she said. “I think

competition’s good.”

Rice said she does not know how much a Wi-Fi system would cost. The state of Maryland considered implementing statewide Wi-Fi and determined it would cost $2 million, Rice said.

Rice’s 2006 visit to Taiwan, where the capital city of Taipei has gone Wi-Fi, spurred her vision of statewide Wi-Fi. West said he supported the bill because he thinks closing the “digital divide” is an important issue.

“It will open up opportunities for government, commerce and entertainment,” he said. But West added that determining whether Wi-Fi service should be a publicly managed service funded by taxes or a private sector venture is complicated. West said Rhode Islanders might ask themselves, “Is access to technology important enough that everybody should pay?”

While some students supported statewide Wi-Fi, others doubted the viability of the logistics.

“I personally think it’s pretty cool,” said Christina Kim ’07, who said statewide Wi-Fi was a progressive idea. “Maybe it’s possible because it’s such a small state.”

But she said it is doubtful that it would be possible on a nationwide level, “especially in states that are more rural.”

Owen Strain ’08 said implementing statewide Wi-Fi might be more likely once advancements have been made in wireless Internet technology.

“I don’t think that it’s very techcontinued on page 4

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Top scholars, athletes get ‘likely’ letters from Office of Admission continued from page 1 time-sensitive scholarship offers from other institutions. William Fitzsimmons and Janet Rapelye — the deans of admission at Harvard and Princeton University, respectively — announced last fall that they will continue to send likely letters to athletes, despite their institutions’ decisions to discontinue early admission programs as of next year.

In addition to likely letters, the Office of Admission takes other measures to promptly contact admitted students. International applicants receive their acceptance letters by express mail, Miller said. All admission letters

were sent on March 28 at midnight, and Kartika Chaudhary — who lives in Gurgaon, Haryana in India — received her acceptance letter on March 31.

“I was really surprised to hear from the University so fast! It was rather quick and I was pleasantly surprised,” Chaudhary wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“We send (international letters) on overnight mail because the mail for a lot of the countries takes a very long time,” Miller said. “We get them out as quickly as we can.”

“We do also have decisions available on the Web site, but some students can’t get access to it,” he added.

Rhode Islanders may be first to receive statewide wireless continued from page 3 nologically feasible to do it well with the current technology,” he said. “Witness (Computing and Information Services) putting wireless in the dorms. It doesn’t work in my dorm or in my friends’ rooms. … The tech-

nology isn’t robust enough.”

While she hopes the bill will pass, Rice acknowledged the chances were slim this time around. “I’m not going to be foolish and think it’s going to pass this year,” she said. “More often than not good legislation takes some time to pass.”

THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2007

12 undergrads targeted by RIAA, lawsuits may follow continued from page 1 now to verify its legitimacy,” Sadler said.

“We are not required to share any information with students. However, we would like our students to know as much as we know, so we did forward the information of the eight preservation letters to the students … and we will be sending out these settlement letters by (Thursday) at the latest,” she added.

The Office of the General Counsel referred requests for comment to Media Relations, which did not respond to inquiries.

According to CIS’ Copyright Infringement Policy, first-time offenders have their Internet access revoked until CIS has been notified that the downloaded material has been removed. For repeat offenders, CIS and the Office of Student Life can take further action.

The legal implications of the situation are more serious. According to a sample letter provided by Educause.edu, the RIAA letters state that individuals found guilty of illegally downloading music can be fined minimum damages of $750 per illegally downloaded song under federal law. Such fines become the responsibility of the student — as the Internet Service Provider, the University is merely required to release the name of the student associated with a particular IP address after receiving a subpoena.

Though Sadler said she doubts lawsuits against individual students

have effectively curbed illegal downloading, the RIAA has repeatedly expressed confidence that its crackdown on college students has helped slow illegal activity.

“Without question, this new enforcement initiative has invigorated a meaningful conversation on college campuses about music theft, its consequences and the numerous ways to enjoy legal music,” said RIAA General Counsel and Executive Vice President Steven Marks in a press release.

Sadler said she sees no evidence that students’ practices have changed — only that industry groups are paying more attention to college campuses.

“There is no indication that behavior has changed at all, but we have been getting more complaints — the complaints have at least doubled,” she said. “Most of our peer institutions are also getting double the complaints that we all got last year.”

Sadler said she thought Brown received an average number of complaints for its size, compared to peer institutions.

Sadler said “other institutions have taken additional action to stem the tide” of illegal downloading. Some have tried to ban peerto-peer file sharing programs, but those programs are not themselves illegal. Others have established fines as high as $1,000 for a second complaint of illegal downloading.

Though Sadler said University officials have discussed implementing

a fine, she doesn’t expect Brown will adopt such a policy.

“I think what Brown wants to do is more outreach,” she said.

“We really don’t have a sense about how much of this activity is common to students or whether there are some students who really do think that anything they pull down from the Internet is fair game, so we don’t know whether more education would be effective.”

In addition to costing some students money, Sadler said the recently intensified efforts of the RIAA and other groups — like the Motion Picture Association of America — to combat piracy have cost the University between a half to one full-time employee in staff time in order to deal with the complaints.

“The thing that I find disturbing about this is that it puts us in the middle of this situation,” Sadler said. “The RIAA may be using my office and the University to get to information that otherwise they may not be able to get to. I think a lot of folks would say that, ‘Yes, education is an easy target.’ ” Liz Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the RIAA, said the group does not simply target college students, it goes after non-student violators as well. “The idea is that anyone engaging in the illegal activity runs the chance of coming in contact with our enforcement actions. We are not targeting individual universities, we are targeting users,” she said.

Self on self: Inspired by the 1970s, Guggenheim fellow will examine gender and sexuality in postwar America continued from page 1 politics of culture, sexuality, gender and race from the Watts riots to the Reagan presidency. What was your inspiration for choosing this topic?

Self: The politics of gender and sexuality of this period are especially acute and influential. They shift dramatically the meaning of American liberalism, and I think they shift the meaning of American citizenship in some pretty important ways. I think there’s just a general importance for them.

In terms of how I came to the topic — in all honesty, in my first book, “American Babylon,” I dealt primarily with questions of civil rights, urban development, poverty, suburban politics. In presenting my work in various conferences and to various colleagues, a lot of people said, “Well, you’ve done a nice job with thinking about race and class here, but you haven’t really thought very much about gender. Aren’t a lot of processes you’re talking about really gender?” You know, thinking about female poverty, for example, or the number of female-headed households in poverty or things like this. So I started saying, “Yeah, you’re right.” I haven’t done nearly as good a job taking gender into account, so I started thinking about ways of doing that in my second book.

As you did in your first book, are you also going to delve into questions of race in this timeframe?

Well, race is inseparable from these questions because all of the issues around how gender and sexuality are contested in American politics, all those processes are “raced” in some way. You think about the Moynihan report and the so-called crisis of the black family in the middle-1960s. You think

about feminism, the sometimes cooperative, sometimes tensionfilled relationship between white feminists, African-American feminists and Latina feminists. The ways that masculinity and femininity are defined are very raced and have a lot to do with how race is understood.

Is there anything in your personal life that inspired you to write these two books?

Other than to say that I’m a child of the ’70s, and that I think I was just shaped by the political culture that I’m now studying — it’s not necessarily a good thing for all historians to study their own era.

And it may have had to do with the kind of family I was raised in.

I remember my sister wanting to play Little League and to play baseball and not softball, and my parents fighting for her right to play baseball instead of softball. In my experience, it was a very personal, family issue, but then as I began to look at it I began to see, historically, that this was a very big issue around the country in the early 1970s — women’s access to sports — so something like that which felt like an individual issue to me growing up turned out to be a much broader, historical question.

I think I was influenced by — and, of course, this is the romanticizing of it, thinking back on it — the relatively more opened gender systems of the 1970s, a little more accepting of gender-bending, for lack of a better word.

Looking at your work, one common theme is California. Your first book is about Oakland, Calif., and the title of your second book includes the Watts riots of Los Angeles and Ronald Rea-

gan, two important parts of California history. Why is that?

I think that one of the things historians are finding is that California is a central site in postwar America for many of the developments of the era — in particular, the rise of the kind of lifestyle and consumer culture focused around lifestyle, suburbanization, the military-industrial complex, the rise of the new right and new conservatism. These, of course, are national phenomena, but there is a particular way that California, as the major economic engine of the country in the postwar period, and its demographic explosion, its post-1965 immigration from Asia — all these things made it an archetypal place to study the major postwar national processes.

Let’s shift this conversation to you.

Who are some of your heroes? Who has inspired you?

Muhammad Ali, L.L. Baker, Woody Guthrie, Kermit the Frog.

Those will do.

Why them?

Why Ali? (laughs) I think it goes back to the 70s, actually. If you can understand how Muhammad Ali and Kermit the Frog are so emblematically American and stand for a certain kind of American populism that I identify with and a certain of kind seriousness of purpose mixed with a kind of a self-deprecating humor, mixed with a total entrepreneurial spirit mixed with invention — all those things.

Last question: How much do you get for being a Guggenheim fellow?

How much do I get? (laughs) I get a year of leave from Brown, is what I get.

C AMPUS N EWS THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2007

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Students form Political Union

DPS to implement new field stop procedure

BY DEBBIE LEHMANN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Students looking to ignite political discussion on campus have founded a Political Union, expected to start its activities next year, said Aartik Sarma ’08, one of the group’s organizers.

The members hope to create a forum where they “could have an emphasis on discussion and communication,” he said, with “less of an emphasis on scoring points” than on creating dialogue.

Sarma said the inspiration for the group was his cross-partisan friendship with his freshman-year roommate, who tended to vote Republican, while Sarma was a “centrist Democrat.” The union is modeled after groups at other campuses, such as the Oxford Union at Oxford University in England, the Yale Political Union and the Columbia Political Union, Sarma said.

Some students think there really isn’t a need for the group, said Zack Drew ‘07, president of the College Republicans, because formal debate-scoring points are rarely used in debates between the Brown Democrats and the Republicans.

But Tor Tarantola ’08, who is president of the Brown Dems and is involved in organizing the union, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the group “will hopefully serve to increase both the quantity and quality of political debate on campus. Right now there’s no true forum for students to debate these issues outside the opinion pages of The Herald.”

Tarantola added that he hopes the group becomes “a vital part of campus culture.”

Group members are in the beginning stages of planning the organization and will meet tonight to set the rules of their debates.

— Marielle Segarra

Department of Public Safety officers will soon begin distributing a business card with their name, information about stops and a call number to all people they ask for identification during field stops.

The new procedure will allow people who are stopped to verify that the incident was properly documented, said Vice President for Administration Walter Hunter, who announced the policy Wednesday at an open forum for the Public Safety Oversight Committee. Hunter said the charge was sparked by concerns that DPS field stop data does not reflect all stops that take place.

PSOC members held the forum in MacMillan 117 to brief community members on the committee’s work, answer questions about DPS practices and give students and staff an opportunity to provide recommendations to PSOC members. Attendance was sparse and included fewer than 10 students, most of whom were part of the Coalition for Police Accountability and Institutional Transparency.

Field stops were the focus of the discussion, which followed an hour-long presentation on the PSOC’s work and an update from Chief of Police Mark Porter on training and security initiatives.

In response to students’ questions about the field stop policy, Hunter said stops are made only

“when there is some factual basis to ask for ID,” such as when an individual is thought to be connected to suspicious activity.

“If students are concerned that there are random inquiries, that’s a valid point,” Hunter said. “But I think lots of students think we ask for IDs just out of personal curiosity, and that just doesn’t happen.”

Hunter added that students should be the “primary group” insisting that officers ask for IDs because “it’s for their safety.”

But forum participants continued to ask questions about transparency, suggesting ways to facilitate trust in the field stop process.

Co-PAIT member C.J. Hunt ’07 suggested publishing all field stops and their call numbers in the weekly incident summaries.

All field stops are documented, Porter said, but they are made public only once a year.

Hunter was receptive to Hunt’s idea, but he said the suggestion would demand increased bureaucracy that could shift officers’ focus away from ensuring the community’s safety.

“We want our officers to spend most of their time protecting us rather than preparing reports or fulfilling documentation requirements,” he said. “Maybe these stops need to be reported more frequently than once a year, but not so much that it becomes an administrative burden.”

Porter expressed concerns about the idea but added that the

PSOC “should have a broader discussion” of the idea.

Co-PAIT members told The Herald after the forum that they didn’t think the committee made a clear enough connection between security and transparency.

“Transparency is campus safety,” said Shane Easter ’10. “If there is no transparency, then students don’t feel safe around officers.”

If the PSOC were serious about transparency, Hunt said, it would publish stop reports on a regular basis without considering it an administrative burden.

“They have this idea that transparency is between students and the University,” Hunt said. “But transparency is between the student and the officer in that moment, with community hearing about it that same week.”

Co-PAIT members who attended the open forum left with mixed feelings. Ian Sims ’10, another member of Co-PAIT, said he felt “good and bad” about the new field stop procedure.

“I don’t think it’s perfect, but I think they’re putting in real effort to address the issues of transparency and accountability,” he said.

Hunt agreed, calling the procedure “a promising possibility for safer, more transparent policing.” But he added that DPS must discuss the specifics of individual stops on a regular basis to avoid “foreclosing the very type of discussion they say this is all about.”

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THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2007

American cultural hero Further consideration required for gender-blind housing, U. officials say Kurt Vonnegut, 84, dies continued from page 1 main fairly stable after the housing lottery this week. Signs on genderneutral restrooms will not have an image of a male or female.

Before any decision is finalized, University officials will survey the residential population to determine how supportive students are of designating some bathrooms as gender-neutral, said Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and student services.

“We have to look at this very carefully and do a more systematic job of collecting input than the working group has had the resources to do, because this is a significant change,” Carey said.

The specifics of the more extensive gender sensitivity training for RPLs are still being worked out, but Carey said the commitment to devote more time and resources to that aspect of training has been made for next fall.

“We’re expanding this part of training to bring in more resources from the area to address broader gender issues,” said Richard Bova, senior associate dean of residential life.

“Being able to have people get a greater understanding of gender issues is important for the community,” Carey said.

Because RPLs help set “community standards,” the extra training will prepare them to guide students in conversations about the implementation of gender-neutral bathrooms and other housing options, said Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president for campus life and dean of student life.

The student working group spent about 40 hours studying bathrooms on campus and recommended that 102 multiple-person dorm bathrooms be designated as gender-neutral, according to Robin Peckham ’10, who was on the working group.

“We visualized from the perspective of every single dorm room on campus that you wanted to have a male, a female and a gender-neutral bathroom either on your hallway or directly up or down right by the stairs, so that everybody has the proper bathroom right there,” Peckham said.

Peckham was one of several students who protested the lack of gender-neutral bathrooms last semester. In terms of policy, he said he thought students and University officials have been extremely productive since then.

The group also recommended that ResLife allow incoming firstyears to request that they be assigned housing without regard to gender, effectively making it possible for male and female first-years to live together in a double. Additionally, it suggested that upperclassmen be allowed to choose housing in the

lottery without regard to gender.

Currently, there are some genderneutral dorms, such as Graduate Center, but the working group’s recommendation would allow a male and a female to go into a double together.

“The current housing policy is incredibly hetero-normative and doesn’t think about students who don’t fit into the gender binary,” said Residential Council Chair Justin Glavis-Bloom ’07. “Besides, most college students are smart enough not to room with their significant other.”

Peckham said at least a dozen colleges have gender-neutral housing for upperclassmen though none of them are peer institutions, “which is what really matters.”

Klawunn noted that very few schools have gender-blind housing for first-years. “We’re willing to be an institution to look at this ahead of the curve, but that’s an area very few schools have taken on,” she said, adding that changes over the last several years have been made to accommodate students with special housing needs.

“Most college students are smart enough not to room with their significant other.”

Justin Glavis-Bloom ’07 Residential Council Chair Peckham said he and other students met with Bova and GlavisBloom in early March to determine whether the policies seemed reasonable and felt their proposal would receive a favorable response.

But Peckham and Glavis-Bloom told The Herald they were upset at the University’s response when the working group eventually proposed their policies to Carey in mid-March.

Carey supported further RPL training and was open to gender-neutral bathrooms, but he thought 102 bathrooms designated as gender-neutral would be too many, Peckham said.

Carey also told the working group that the idea of a gender-blind housing policy would have to be considered further by various University committees.

“We said this in a meeting that we had with students a couple of weeks ago involved in this working group, that it would have to go through a number of established University governance processes and decisionmaking, that it’s a significant policy change that would require further discussion and thought,” Carey said.

“I think sending this issue to a committee is a good way to kill a proposal,” Glavis-Bloom said. “I was not

happy — I was very disappointed to find out Russell Carey had said no to these changes.”

“He essentially killed that proposal,” Peckham said. “Just talking with other students, it feels like Russell Carey is doubting the maturity of people to live with someone of the opposite gender. Because at that point, you’re not just living with someone — you’re picking who your roommate is.”

Referring to the interim status of Carey’s position, Peckham added, “He’s basically dealing with trying to get that job right now, so he isn’t really concerned with satisfying the minority position at all and has no reason to. Before that one meeting, we were under the impression he was much more amenable to this kind of thing than the administration had been in the past.”

Bova, who has been involved with gender-neutral housing issues for a number of years, disagreed that further discussion is a method of killing the proposal. “As a comprehensive institution with folks with all different opinions, this is the proper route to take,” he said. “All students (should) have the opportunity to look at this issue and look at it critically and to vet it in a robust and appropriate but amicable way that allows us to decide what’s the best direction for us to take.”

Kelly Garrett, coordinator of the LGBTQ resource center, will lead a task force within the Diversity Advisory Board that will begin addressing housing issues next semester, Carey said. He stressed the importance of patience. “No decision has been made, and it’s going to take some time for this to wend its way through the governance process.”

Both Glavis-Bloom and Peckham told The Herald they were under the impression that concern about a potential alumni reaction to gender-blind housing kept their proposals from being implemented more quickly.

Referring to efforts several years ago to offer more gender-neutral housing options, Glavis-Bloom told The Herald, “Last time, this maybe wasn’t explained to alumni in the best way. Their minds immediately went to boys and girls living together, but that’s not what this is about,” he said. “It’s about the current policy being discriminatory.”

“I can’t speculate about alumni or parent or student reaction, which is the reason we’re sending these policy proposals through the University governance process,” Carey said.

But Peckham told The Herald that in the working group’s March meeting, Carey indicated alums and Corporation members might react poorly to a policy allowing genderblind cohabitation. “The fact of the matter is that if we have (Carey’s) approval, we can get through these other channels,” he said.

BY ELAINE WOO LOS ANGELES TIMES

Kurt Vonnegut, an American cultural hero celebrated for his wry, loonily imaginative commentary on war, apocalypse, technology, materialism and other afflictions in “Slaughterhouse-Five” and other novels, has died. He was 84.

One of the last of a generation of great American novelists of World War II, Vonnegut died Wednesday night in New York City. Vonnegut suffered brain injuries in a fall several weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz. He had homes in Manhattan and Sagaponack, N.Y., “There was never a kinder and, at the same time, wittier writer to be with personally,” author Tom Wolfe, a friend and admirer of Vonnegut’s, told the Times. “He was just a gem in that respect.

And as a writer, I guess he’s the closest thing we had to a Voltaire.

He could be extremely funny, but there was a vein of irony always underneath it, which made him quite remarkable.”

“He was never funny just to be funny,” Wolfe added.

An obscure science fiction writer for two decades before earning mainstream acclaim in 1969 with “Slaughterhouse-Five,” Vonnegut was an American original, often compared to Mark Twain for a vision that combined social criticism, wildly black humor and a call to basic human decency. He was, novelist Jay MacInerny once said, “a satirist with a heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion.”

Although he was disdained by some critics who thought his work was too popular and accessible, his fiction inspired volumes of scholarly comment as well as Web sites maintained by young fans who have helped keep all 14 of his novels in print over a 50-year career.

Five of his novels have made the leap into films. “(H)e is … together with John Hawkes and Gunter Grass ... the most stubbornly imaginative” of writers, novelist John Irving once wrote of Vonnegut. “He is not anybody else, or even a version of anybody else, and he is a writer with a cause.”

His novels, which include “The Sirens of Titan,” “Cat’s Cradle,” “Mother Night” and “Breakfast of Champions,” introduced a revolving cast of odd characters, from the downtrodden visionary Billy Pilgrim to Kilgore Trout, the unsuccessful writer who was Vonnegut’s alter ego.

Vonnegut was also an essayist, playwright and short-story writer, whose shorter pieces were collected in such volumes as “Welcome to the Monkey House” (1968), “Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons” (1974) and “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage of the 1980s” (1991).

“Slaughterhouse-Five” was a book he tried but failed to write for 25 years. An agile mix of fantasy and Vonnegut’s World War II experiences, it features time traveler Pilgrim who, like Vonnegut, survived the Allied firebombing of Dresden.

Unorthodox in structure and patently anti-war, the novel resonated with a rebellious younger generation. Vonnegut became an icon of the countercultural 1970s and his book became a milestone of post-modern American litera-

ture, unequaled in force or artistry by any of his later novels.

“He writes about the most excruciatingly painful things,” Michael Crichton observed in a review of “Slaughterhouse-Five” for the New Republic. “His novels have attacked our deepest fears of automation and the bomb, our deepest political guilts, our fiercest hatreds and loves. Nobody else writes books on these subjects; they are inaccessible to normal novelistic approaches.”

He made no pretense of his intentions: He was a public writer — one who directly addressed some of the most vexing issues of his day.

“My motives are political,” he once told Playboy magazine. “I agree with Stalin and Hitler and Mussolini that the writer should serve his society. … Mainly, I think they should be — and biologically have to be — agents of change.”

On another occasion he explained that his goal in writing novels was to “catch people before they become generals and senators and presidents” and “poison their minds with humanity. Encourage them to make a better world.”

A fourth-generation German American, Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis on Nov. 11, 1922.

Although he had an older brother, Bernard, and a sister, Alice, Vonnegut was often lonely as a child. His mainstay growing up was a black woman named Ida Young, the family cook. He suggested that the “intolerable sentimentality” that some critics saw in his writing was owed to Young, who spent long hours reading to him from an anthology of poems about undying love, faithful dogs and humble, happy homes.

The son and grandson of architects, he grew up in prosperity until the Depression struck and his father, Kurt Sr., went 10 years without a commission. The family finances were so abysmal that his mother, Edith, who had been born to affluence, had to sell the family china. Vonnegut would later say his parents left a legacy of pacifism and irreverence as well as “bonedeep sadness,” and in much of his later fiction his characters would be afflicted by unemployment and the subsequent loss of status and purpose.

He was close to flunking out of Cornell University in early 1943 when he joined the Army and was sent to Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee to study mechanical engineering. He was trained in artillery and as an advance infantry scout.

Just before he was shipped out to England, Edith Vonnegut committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills on Mother’s Day, 1944. She had suffered bouts of depression after failing to make much money writing magazine fiction in the 1930s, an activity she took on to bolster the family income. According to her son’s recollection, she also had become dependent on alcohol and “unlimited amounts of prescribed barbiturates.” Her death was the first in a series of bizarre and brutal turns in Vonnegut’s life that would color his later writing.

In late 1944, Vonnegut was captured by the Germans during the continued on page 8

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Islamic militants strike targets in Algiers CAIRO, Egypt (Los Angeles Times) — Suspected Islamic militants struck the Algerian capital Wednesday morning, killing at least 23 people and injuring more than 162, a dramatic intensification of Islamic violence in a country still struggling to recover from a brutal years-long civil war.

One of the bombs targeted the main government building in Algiers, a modern office tower called the Government Palace, killing at least 12 people and wounding 118, according to the nation’s official news agency. The building houses the offices of the prime minister.

The other attack struck at a police station east of the capital in the suburb of Bab Ezzouar, killing at least 11 and wounding 44, said the Algierie Presse Service, citing civil defense officials, who warned that the casualty figures could rise.

Wednesday’s attacks, the first major bombings in the battlescarred Algerian capital for several years, come amid a recent swell of Islamic militant activity in North Africa.

Times poll shows McCain is dropping in GOP race WASHINGTON (Los Angeles Times)— Sen. John McCain, once considered the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has fallen to third place in a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, and is running behind Fred Thompson, an actor and former senator who has not even entered the race.

Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani leads the crowded field of announced and potential contenders with support from 29 percent of Republican primary voters surveyed, followed by Thompson with 15 percent and McCain with 12 percent. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and fund-raising powerhouse, had 8 percent.

McCain’s showing in the poll is his lowest in any national survey to date, marking a new benchmark in his flagging fortunes. The surge of interest in Thompson is a sign of conservative dissatisfaction with the established field of candidates and underscores just how unsettled the Republican race remains.

“Thompson is a Reagan conservative, and that’s what I want,” said Robert Little, a poll respondent in Duluth, Ga., who views other leading Republican candidates as unreliable allies on social issues.

Among Democratic primary voters, the campaign continues to solidify into a three-way race, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards by comfortable margins.

Pleading no contest, Snoop to avoid jail LOS ANGELES (Los Angeles Times)— Rapper-actor Snoop Dogg will avoid jail time after pleading no contest to two felony charges Wednesday, officials said.

The entertainer, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, entered the plea to charges of gun possession by a convicted felon and a marijuana-related drug charge, prosecutors said.

Broadus, 35, appeared before Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling in Pasadena clad in a fur-lined leather jacket, black jeans and a T-shirt.

As part of the agreement, he received a three-year suspended sentence, five years’ probation and will have to do 800 hours of community service, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The agreement also places restrictions on his entourage and employees. He is prohibited from hiring anyone as a security guard or driver who has a criminal record or is affiliated with a gang.

“It was a very satisfactory resolution to the case,” defense attorney Donald Etra said. “Snoop is pleased he will be able to continue his career without interruption as a world-famous musician and film star and that he will be able to continue his work with community youth.”

Criminal probe opens into Afghan incident WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — The U.S. military announced Wednesday that it has opened a criminal investigation into whether an elite Marine Special Operations platoon used excessive force in reacting to a suicide bombing in Afghanistan last month, an incident that left at least eight Afghan civilians dead.

Army Maj. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III, who commands U.S. Special Operations Forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, determined after an initial review of the March 4 incident that “the escalation of force might have been too high” and warranted an inquiry by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said Lt. Col. Lou Leto, a spokesman for Kearney’s command.

“We deeply regret the loss of life and casualties that resulted from the (suicide vehicle) attack and the actions that followed,” Leto said.

“General Kearney wanted to really stress that our goal is the safety and security of the Afghan people.”

A platoon of about 20 to 30 highly trained reconnaissance troops was traveling in a convoy of six vehicles in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangahar province on March 4 when it was ambushed by fighters using a bomb-rigged vehicle and small-arms fire, according to U.S. military accounts. The troops fired back in self-defense.

Afghan witnesses said the Special Operations troops fired recklessly at passing vehicles and pedestrians along the crowded highway, which was flanked by markets. The U.S. military initially said 16 civilians were killed but changed the estimate to eight, with 35 others wounded. Local hospital officials said 14 people died.

U.S. says Iran aids, abets opposing forces in Iraq

BY CHRIS KRAUL LOS ANGELES T IMES

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military on Wednesday renewed its accusations that Iran is providing arms, training and other unspecified “support” to Shiite and Sunni factions in this country’s ongoing civil war.

The accusations were leveled by top-ranking coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV at his weekly news briefing, and were based on recent raids that he said uncovered weapons bearing Iranian markings and dates that suggested they were delivered after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The charges could fuel U.S.Iranian tensions inflamed by the Islamic Republic’s claims to have begun manufacturing “industrial” quantities of atomic fuel in violation of a United Nations resolution. Last week, the Iranians ended a nearly two-week standoff

with Britain by releasing 15 British sailors and marines they had captured in a disputed area of the Persian Gulf.

Caldwell’s claims came as hopes faded for a U.S.-Iran rapprochement in the aftermath of an Iraqi peace conference held here in March. U.S., Iranian and Iraqi representatives sat down in a rare effort to try to iron out their differences. Observers described the meeting as cordial but tense.

Previous charges that Iranian leaders were providing arms and training support for Iraqi insurgents were denied by Iran. U.S. critics of President Bush said they were part of a campaign to prepare the ground for an invasion, much as allegations that weapons of mass destruction were stockpiled by Saddam led to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

But two academics who have criticized Bush policy in the past say Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation, probably is covering its

bets with aid to the various insurgent factions.

“The goal of the Iranians is to be the dominant player in Iraq after the Americans have gone. By getting us out, and with enough ties to people who will be in power, they are guaranteeing their role,” said Gregory Gause, director of middle eastern studies University of Vermont in Burlington.

Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution in Washington, said he doubted that the Bush administration was repeating charges of Iranian interference to justify another invasion.

“As much as I tend to criticize the Bush administration, the claim that they are preparing for another invasion doesn’t begin to hold water to a strategist. ... We don’t have the forces. ... We don’t have the rationale,” O’Hanlon said. “We have other options, noncontinued on page 9

Charges are dropped against Duke lax players

BY MICHAEL MUSKAL AND DAVID ZUCCHINO LOS ANGELES T IMES

RALEIGH, N.C. — Three former Duke University lacrosse players Wednesday were cleared of all charges that they assaulted a stripper during a team party, ending a case that widened the fissures of race, gender and class in North Carolina.

The North Carolina attorney general’s office announced that after a 12-week investigation it was dropping all charges against the trio, including sexual assault and kidnapping, and sharply blamed the local district attorney for a rogue prosecution.

“The result of our review and investigation shows clearly that there is insufficient evidence to proceed on any of the charges,” North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a televised news conference. “Today we are filing notices of dismissal for all charges. The result is that these cases are over, and no more criminal proceedings will occur.”

The state office took over the case when Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong was accused of ethics violations in connection with the case. Cooper was especially harsh in comments

directed toward Nifong.

“We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations,” Cooper said.

“There were many points in this case where caution would have served justice better than bravado.”

Asked whether an apology was owed to the three lacrosse players, Cooper said: “I think a lot of people owe a lot of apologies to other people. I think that those people ought to consider doing that.”

Reade Seligmann, 21, of Essex Fells, N.J.; Collin Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, N.Y., and David Evans, 24, of Bethesda, Md., were indicted last spring on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense. But as the case fell apart, Nifong dropped rape charges in December.

The athletes, their lawyers and many relatives spoke at an afternoon news conference. The joy, however, was tempered by the pain of being the targets of more than a year of investigations and hostile publicity.

“It’s been 395 days since this nightmare began. We are as innocent today as we were then,” Evans said. “All of the men of the Duke University lacrosse team

have gone to hell and back. Today, the legal system has prevailed.”

Said Finnerty: “Today is that day we have all been looking forward for.”

Seligman said he did not know how other suspects, who lacked financial and family resources, could prove their innocence.

“I truly hope you never have to experience what we did,” he said.

The case began the night of March 13, 2006, when Duke’s highly rated lacrosse team threw a party.

A 28-year-old black woman who attended nearby North Carolina Central University was hired to perform as a stripper. She claimed she was gang-raped by three white players.

The claim captured in one sweep issues that uncomfortably challenged ideas such as the role of race in the South and the chasm between a prestigious school catering to outsiders and a college that enrolls mainly locals.

But the case had problems from the outset, when DNA testing found no physical evidence.

The players insisted that the accusations were lies, and another dancer who had attended the party said she could not corroborate continued on page 8

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Charges dropped against Duke players continued from page 7 any rape.

As questions about the case continued to grow, Nifong became more stubborn about pursuing charges. He was visible on national television shows and active in supporting the accuser.

At one point, Nifong branded the team as “a bunch of hooligans.”

Critics said he was playing to prospective black voters during a tight re-election campaign in May. Nifong, who was narrowly returned to office, eventually was charged by the North Carolina State Bar with ethics violations tied to his handling of

the case. Nifong was accused of making misleading and inflammatory comments about the athletes. Later, more serious charges of withholding evidence from defense attorneys and lying to the court and investigators were added.

Nifong still faces a hearing on those charges in June and could be disbarred.

Duke temporarily suspended Seligmann and Finnerty, and they refused a later invitation to return to campus. Evans had graduated the day before he was indicted. The remainder of the lacrosse team’s 2006 season was canceled.

THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2007

Four to run for UCS president next week continued from page 1 Students can vote on MyCourses from April 17 to 19.

Glassman, the UCS communications chair and the only candidate for UCS president who is currently on the council’s executive board, said if elected he would focus on preventing Banner from changing the open curriculum, trying to get dorms renovated and improving dining halls by purchasing locally produced food.

Glassman also emphasized his experience, noting that he has worked on “all different kinds of UCS projects.”

Smith, an at-large representative

to UCS, said he would fight for a tuition freeze, the expansion of interdisciplinary studies and improvements to advising.

“I want more stringent advisers, and I want them everywhere,” Smith said.

Riner, who transferred to Brown last semester from Duke University, said he came to Brown for its unique academic freedom and that he hoped to promote school spirit by implementing a “points reward” system that would encourage students to attend athletic games.

As for his own school spirit, Riner said of Brown, “I love it.”

Ryan Mott ’09 is the only candidate for UFB chair. Jonathan Natkins ’08 and Herald Opinions Columnist Don Trella ’08 are running for UFB vice chair.

Lauren Kolodny ’08 and Jake Heimark ’10 will face off for UCS vice president, and Deborah SaintVil ’10 and Drew Madden ’10 will vie for the chair of the student activities committee.

The other four UCS committee chairmanships will be uncontested.

Rakim Brooks ’09 is unopposed for the chair of the academic and administrative affairs committee, Jane Zhang ’10 for the admissions and student services committee, Ellie Cutler ’10 for the campus life committee and Tan Nguyen ’10 for the appointments committee. Jose Vasconez ’10 is the only candidate for UCS treasurer.

Each candidate in a contested election has a strictly regulated amount of allowable advertising, or “publicity points.” Advertising of any kind — including posters, banners and flyers — is closely monitored by UCS’ elections board.

UCS presidential and vice presi-

dential candidates will also be able to promote their platforms at a dinner debate in the Sharpe Refectory this Friday, a new event aimed at increasing student interest in the elections.

Also at last night’s general body meeting, UCS members voiced concerns about Banner with Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who is leading the Banner implementation project, for about an hour and a half.

Dunbar was sympathetic with many of the concerns and suggestions brought up by UCS members but emphasized that Banner would improve pre-registration in the long run and that the project team was constantly considering input from students and faculty.

Though she could not say what modifications to Banner would be prioritized, she said the implementation would be fluid.

“I am sure the next pre-registration will have something that’s different,” she said.

In other business, Student Activities Chair Hugh Livengood ’07 recommended eight student groups funded by UFB for de-constitution or demotion because either they were defunct or their financial needs had changed.

African Sun, 68 Degrees, Dead White Men, Buddhism Society and Students for Aids Awareness were recommended for de-constitution.

Jabberwocks, ONYX and PLME Senate were recommended for demotion to Category I or Category II status.

Each of the groups has until Monday to appeal to the student activities committee before UCS can vote to officially de-constitute or demote them at the next general body meeting on Wednesday.

American cultural hero Kurt Vonnegut, 84, dies continued from page 6 Battle of the Bulge and wound up in a prisoner work group in Dresden, a city so treasured for its baroque beauty that no one thought it would be targeted. If he remained there, Vonnegut thought, he would be safe until the war ended.

But on Feb. 13, 1945, Dresden was hit by successive waves of British and American bombers, which destroyed the city’s extraordinary architecture and art treasures and killed at least 60,000 people and perhaps as many as 200,000 — more than in the atomic blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

Vonnegut and his group were spared because their prison was

as good as a cement-block underground bunker: “a cool meat-locker under a slaughterhouse,” two floors below ground, which they shared with six guards and “ranks and ranks of dressed cadavers of cattle, pigs, horses and sheep.”

When the bombing was over, he emerged to find that the Allies had “burnt the whole damn town down.”

He and the other prisoners were put to work as “corpse miners,” recovering the dead who had suffocated in bomb shelters. Vonnegut dragged out the bodies and piled them on huge communal funeral pyres. The recovery effort eventually was halted, and the Germans just torched the dead where they lay, turning the shelters into crematories.

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U.S. says Iran aids, abets opposing forces in Iraq continued from page 7 military and military.”

In mid-February President Bush and Gen. Caldwell both distanced themselves from assertions made earlier that month by unnamed U.S. officials that Iranian leaders personally had ordered the aid to insurgent groups. Bush instead blamed elements of Iranian armed forces.

On Wednesday, Caldwell said Shiite insurgents had received training at undisclosed locations in Iran “this month.” Asked whether the Iranian government has conducted the training, Caldwell responded that “Iranian intelligence surrogates” had been responsible.

Caldwell and ordnance specialist Maj. Martin Weber also showed reporters a cache of a dozen mortar rounds, rockets and rocket propelled grenades found in Baghdad on Monday. Their design and the markings they bore indicated they were manufactured either in Iran or China, and were painted over with Iranian stenciling, the officials said. They added that the weapons were similar to those used by Hezbollah, an Ira-

nian-sponsored Islamist organization in Lebanon.

The seizure was part of what Caldwell said was a 50 percent increase in weapons seizures since February, to an average 36 per week. He attributed the rise to improved military-citizen cooperation since U.S. and Iraqi forces began implementing a new Baghdad security plan that includes more troop presence in neighborhoods.

Caldwell said Iran is helping both sides in the sectarian conflict. “We have found cases were Iranian intelligence ser vices are giving Sunni insurgents some support,” Caldwell said, declining to say what form the support has taken.

The U.S. previously claimed that Iran was helping Iraqi Shiite insurgents and militias with arms training, notably in the assembly of lethal explosive devices that can penetrate heavily armored tanks.

Syria also is providing aid and comfort to the insurgency, Caldwell said. Two of 14 insurgents detained over the weekend in a Baghdad sweep said during interrogation that they had received training in Syria, Caldwell said.

Moreover, Syria has been allow-

W. crew sweeps Rutgers continued from page 12 sophomore and junior classes, and I’m very impressed with our freshmen class, so I thought we had a chance. I definitely thought we had a chance.”

Co-captain Elizabeth Fison ’07 said talent is best complemented by a sense of community, which creates a winning team.

“My goal is for the whole team to come together and to share success for the whole crew,” Fison said. “It’s not about one boat or another boat. I really want our whole team to come together and keep having the success we’ve been having.”

Fison said she was pleased with the team’s early success, but she added that there are still a lot of competitions left.

“I think you go into every season hoping for the best,” Fison said. “We work all year for this, and it’s been a goal

all year for us to do this well. … I think (our early success) does (build our confidence) in a sense, but at the same time we have a long way to go and a lot of tough competition ahead. We need to keep working hard.”

After starting the season with three road competitions in a row, Brown finally heads home for two straight meets on the Seekonk River, including Friday at 5 p.m. against Boston University, a prospect that excites the team.

“Yeah, that’s fun,” Murphy said. “We don’t have to load the trailer and travel. And a lot of people at Brown and local people have a chance to see it, which is good.”

It is an especially sweet prospect for the seniors.

“As a senior, it’s really exciting to have these last two home races on the Seekonk,” Fison said. “I think it would be really cool if a lot of people showed up to support us.”

so it goes.

ing 40-60 insurgents per month to “flow in” to Iraq, Caldwell said.

The charges coincided with the beginning of the third month of the U.S. military buildup that will deploy an additional 21,000 troops to Baghdad and other regions in a bid to quell sectarian violence. Caldwell said the results so far have been mixed at best, with violence in Baghdad down but deaths overall rising in the rest of the country.

Statistics indicate that the surge so far has done little to stem suicide bombings and civilian deaths.

Instead, it has pushed them outside of Baghdad. Caldwell said more concrete results won’t be measured until the final deployment of troops by the end of May. The U.S. military on Wednesday reported the deaths of two more soldiers, both the victims of attacks in Baghdad Tuesday and Wednesday. The fatalities brought total U.S. military deaths to 3,294, according to icasualties. org, a Web site that tracks military and civilian casualties. In addition, the bodies of 16 Iraqi civilians were found in the Baghdad area, all thought to be the victims of sectarian death squads.

Intelligence head details plan to fix spy problems

BY GREG MILLER LOS ANGELES T IMES

WASHINGTON — The nation’s intelligence director Wednesday announced broad changes at U.S. spy agencies, including an expedited effort to improve collaboration and speed up the screening of job applicants who speak Arabic or have other critical skills.

Retired U.S. Navy Adm. Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence, outlined what he described as a 100-day plan to fix problems that have persisted in the nation’s spy community despite a host of changes since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

McConnell said the Sept. 11 plotters “were able to take advantage of our structures and processes” and that the al-Qaida terrorist network remains committed to launching further strikes on U.S. soil.

“The intent is clear, and the planning is still going in,” McConnell said.

McConnell said his top pri-

ority is to improve collaboration among U.S. spy agencies. Several changes he outlined are modeled on reforms made by the U.S. military in the 1980s to encourage the separate armed services to work more closely together.

Among the changes is a plan to require senior intelligence officials to have served tours at multiple agencies before being eligible for high-level promotions.

The CIA and other agencies also continue to be hindered by screening processes that make it difficult to obtain security clearances for U.S. citizens who are immigrants or whose parents were born abroad.

“It’s a cultural bias, and we need to move beyond that cultural bias,” McConnell said, referring to the longstanding reluctance by spy agencies to hire applicants with close relatives overseas. Foreign-born applicants have aroused concerns that they could be susceptible to pressure from foreign family members or that they might not be loyal to the United States.

Despite late surge, m. lax falls to Harvard continued from page 12 quarter.

On the other end of the field, progress was slower for the Bears.

Brown managed just one goal in the first half, which came off a turnover forced by the Brown pressure that led to a transition goal by Walsh.

Despite only putting one in the back of the net, the momentum began to swing in the second quarter, when Brown began to control the pace of the game.

“In the second quarter we had good shots,” Walsh said, “but they all seemed to hit defenders or got saved.

There was no change in strategy. We just executed better.”

For all the hard work, Brown went into the locker room down 3-1 at the half. The third quarter was much of the same, as Brown pressured Harvard with its ride, which has been one of its most effective weapons all season.

While Brown struggled to find the back of the net, it was Harvard who finally got on the scoreboard again, with 2:39 remaining in the third quarter. This, and a fi fth goal just a minute later, appeared to undo all of Brown’s hard work. But the Bears could not be tamed, and the next play turned

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the game around.

Harvard won the subsequent face off, but Brown prevented the Crimson from clearing the zone. Harvard turned the ball over and it came to attackman Thomas Muldoon ’10 behind the net. He beat his defender around the cage and ripped a shot into the top right corner.

Though Harvard got one goal early in the fourth, the first 12 minutes of the quarter saw everything go right for Brown. In a complete reversal from earlier in the game, Bruno won every face off and ground ball during the stretch.

“We pride ourselves on getting ground balls and scrapping,” Westermann said.

Tiffany agreed, saying, “we are great at scrapping — (defensive midfielder) Brian Asher (’08), in particular.”

These hustle plays seemed just a little bit easier once Brown was reinvigorated from the Muldoon goal.

“There was a lot of energy,” Walsh said. “The fans were great.” The Brown side, which outnumbered the Harvard contingent, could sense that Muldoon’s goal was exactly what Brown needed to jumpstart the offense.

Down 6-2, Brown scored four

straight goals. Two came from Muldoon, and attackman Kyle Hollingsworth ’09 found tri-captains Alex Buckley ’07 and Dave Madeira ’07 for goals in man-up situations. The tying goal came with 3:10 to play, but that is when it all fell apart for Bruno.

Brown once again won the next face off, but immediately turned it over. Though the Bears pressured Harvard as they had done effectively all game, Crimson midfielder Brian Mahler beat the ride and took the ball all the way down the field, scoring on goalie Jordan Burke ’09 in transition.

The goal seemed to take the wind out of the Bears’ sails. They lost the next face off and then had to double team to try to force a turnover. This left open space for Harvard and it got two late insurance goals as Brown pressed, making the final 9-6.

“Harvard made a couple plays down the stretch,” a disappointed Tiffany said. “We pressed and they ran by us so quickly.”

But Tiffany was proud of the energy and fight that Brown showed in the comeback. “I feel lucky to coach these men. All you can ask is for everything and they just keep giving.”

Brown will try to shake off the defeat Saturday at home against the University of Pennsylvania.

E DITORIAL & L ETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 10

THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2007

STAF F EDITORIAL

The limits of gender bending housing Advocates of gender-blind living options — the most vocal of whom are part of the LGBTQ community — are right to urge colleges to recognize that not everyone fits into the hetero-normative worldview on which most residence hall systems are currently based. But we shouldn’t rush into completely removing gender from the housing system. Navigating the relatively uncharted waters of gender-blind housing requires thoughtful deliberation and careful planning.

As the housing lottery advances to its second and final day today, we’re mindful that the gender-blind housing issue ue extends beyond u the LGBTQ community. Brown’s housing lottery — painful and dramatic as it may be for some — gives students tremendous flexibility in picking where and with whom they want to live. But that flexibility isn’t limitless.

Students who want to live with friends of the opposite sex realize this time of year that they had better fit nicely into a Grad Center suite or one of the other coed-optional housing choices — otherwise, they’re out of luck. Want to live with both a girl and a guy? Don’t count on grabbing three singles in a Hegeman triple. Because the doors don’t lock and accessing the fire escape requires passing through an adjacent room, Hegeman triples — like much on-campus housing — are off-limits to mixed-gender lottery groups.

Expanding coed-optional housing to more residence halls with suites seems simple enough. Most Grad Center suites were available to mixed-gender groups in 2005 after about $15,000 in renovations. But calls that students — both first-years and upperclassmen — should be able to live in mixed-gender doubles raise thornier questions.

Are all incoming first-years, many of whom have never lived away from home, prepared to decide whether they want to live in a gender-blind double? Would a gender-blind housing system lead to more complicated living arrangements for students choosing to live as couples? Or should all students — regardless of their class year or personal connection — have the same access to gender-blind housing?

However students feel about gender-blind living arrangements in the abstract, these details raise questions that don’t have easy answers. Campus life officials must consider those questions, but it’s unrealistic and unreasonable to expect answers — and changes — immediately. We understand gender-blind housing advocates may fear that administrators’ deliberation will only lead to inaction. We hope Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 and officials in the Office of Residential Life will continue to advance the gender-blind housing dialogue by keeping the issue high on their agenda.

Advocates of gender-blind housing should help the administration engage the question by explaining its broad importance and addressing potential concerns, rather than assuming the administration won’t act because Carey, whose appointment is currently on an interim basis, is reticent to undertake a risky initiative that could upset parents and alums.

Though it might not be the trailblazer of the gender-blind housing movement, Brown is in line with or ahead of peer institutions. For the third year in a row, the numer of suits available to co-ed housing groups has increased. Such a living situation — an option taken for granted by many Brown students — is still only a dream for students at many other institutions. So as Brown students and administrators continue to pursue this issue, we hope serious and even-handed discussion will lead the way.

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O PINIONS THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2007

A simple solution for Banner

BY MATT GELFAND GUEST COLUMNIST

The problems with the Banner course catalog interface are easy to spot, and they are receiving the attention they deserve. But are there other, more insidious problems with the planned new system of course registration?

Early protests against Banner were focused on the way the system will affect shopping period and the New Curriculum. The administration has confirmed a number of additions to course registration that coincide with Banner’s implementation: a single, 8:00 a.m. registration opening time for each class year on three consecutive days, ordered by seniority, course enrollment caps enforced at the time of preregistration, filters allowing professors to designate seats in their capped courses for students who meet specific criteria and the automated enforcement of prerequisites.

The effect of these changes is to shift decision-making about who gets into courses from shopping period to pre-registration.

This could have numerous practical benefits in terms of enrollment planning, but the negative effects might easily outweigh these benefits.

Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar has admitted that individual professors could take advantage of the new system to circumvent shopping period completely.

Is getting rid of shopping period a good idea? Shopping period is a vital part of the New Curriculum. It allows students to explore new topics and make sure that the topic and format of a course is well-suited for them, an arrangement that benefits both students and their professors.

Personal interactions with professors during shopping period are irreplaceable.

The administration should understand that Brown students don’t use shopping period to simply confirm some pre-existing set of courses by making one or two small changes. Rather, pre-registration lists are just convenient starting points for the real decision-making time, which takes place during the first two weeks of each semester. For reasons such as these, changes like those being implemented in the new registration system should involve substantial student input at least a year before they are enacted.

Luckily, the opportunity to solicit student input on this issue has not passed. By simply turning off class size restrictions on Banner, the administration could create an online course registration system that closely approximates the paper system we’ve had for many years. This way, students could have an online registration system now, while avoiding potentially detrimental features until there has been time for an adequate dialogue with the student body.

This also seems consistent with Dunbar’s desire for a more streamlined first-pass at B anner registration, and it greatly simplifies the task of easing educating students and professors into the new system.

If the administration implements Banner course registration as originally intended, it risks making undesirable changes to the way Brown students choose courses, all in the guise of a technological upgrade.

I have offered a practical and easy alternative that allows students to have their rightful voice in this matter before it is too late, and I would urge the administration to consider my recommendation. I am certain that students would be willing to wait a few extra days for registration, if it meant giving them a greater voice in the implementation of these changes.

Matt Gelfand ‘08 is collecting body parts to create a perfect mate.

PAGE 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Ruth Simmons’ new boss, patron of the Right

BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT GUEST COLUMNIST

What if the soon-to-be most powerful man at Brown, our supposed bastion of liberalism, was backing some of the most right-wing elements at work in American politics today?

Meet Thomas Tisch ’76 P’07.

I’m willing to bet you’ve never heard of him. Which is a bit odd, because Tisch was named Brown’s next chancellor in February, meaning he will become head of the Corporation and Ruth Simmons’ new boss on July 1.

Since the Brown Corporation holds the ultimate decision-making authority to set University policy, Tisch — at least technically — will be Brown’s highest governing officer.

Who is Tisch? Managing partner of a New York City investment firm, he’s the son of the late Laurence Tisch, a self-made billionaire and philanthropist who controlled Loews Corporation and was chief executive of CBS. This is pretty much what one would expect on the resume of a man who, as chancellor, will be expected to “set the tone at the top” in the University’s quest to extract money from every alum with a pulse (and a few without).

But close readers of the press release announcing Tisch’s election will notice that he’s on the board of trustees of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research — a rightwing think tank best known for churning out the op-eds that lent “intellectual heft” to Rudy Giuliani’s work “cleaning up” New York. This meant sweeping the homeless from public sight, while at the same time cutting the vital social services that actually helped their situation.

More recently, writers for the Manhattan Institute’s magazine — City Journal — have argued that three (now indicted) New York City detectives did nothing wrong when they fired 50 shots at Sean Bell, an unarmed black man, killing him as he left his bachelor party. City Journal also calls the recent election of a female president at Harvard a “triumph of feminist ideology” and “a tragedy not just

for Harvard, but for the American academic world,” and argues that American lives depend on invading Iran with “swift, massive, devastating force.” Tisch is on City Journal’s publication committee.

Somewhat less amusing — and left out of the official press release — is the fact that Tisch was, until a few months before his election as chancellor, on the 19-member publication committee of Commentary magazine. Commentary has the distinction of being, in the magazine’s own words, “the flagship of neoconservatism.” In other words, it is staffed by the same intellectuals who thought up and sold the political science experiment now playing out in Iraq.

Formerly put out by the deceptively bland-sounding American Jewish Committee, Commentary’s editorial policy is typically aligned with Israel’s right-wing Likud party and articulates the view that America must support Israel, whether Israeli policies are right or wrong. So if, for example, you found yourself wondering why the United States fast-tracked a shipment of bombs to Israel during Israel’s devastating attack on Lebanon last summer (in which upwards of 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed) — read Commentary to find out. It’s as good a place as any to find the thinking behind this kind of foreign policy.

Recent Commentary gems include an article arguing that two New York Times reporters (including Brown alum James Risen ’77) should be prosecuted for revealing the Bush administration’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program (they later won a Pulitzer for their work), and another advancing the notion of “the new anti-Semitism,” which conflates criticism of Israel with — you guessed it — anti-Semitism.

Unsurprisingly, Tisch has spread many thousands of dollars to the worst Republican politicians around the country in recent election cycles, as well as to chief Iraq war cheerleader Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. One typical recipient of Tisch’s largesse in 2002 was Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. He’s the congressman who made headlines last week with his

ludicrous description of a bomb-wracked Baghdad shopping area as “a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime” — while flanked by troops, armed vehicles and helicopters.

So what? So Brown’s new chancellor supports abhorrent politicians and organizations, but what does any of this have to do with the University? After all, there’s no reason to think Tisch is anything but an affable guy who is going throw gobs of money into the University’s coffers — right?

Well, maybe. The Brown Corporation, which meets behind closed doors and is led by the chancellor, makes highly political decisions all the time. Witness its response to the slavery and justice committee, the establishment of a social choice fund in the endowment and the decision on divestment from Sudan.

While Corporation members do not micromanage daily operations of the University, there are a whole host of political decisions that the chancellor could influence.

They include defining Brown’s stance toward labor unions and the ROTC, schemes to bring so-called “intellectual diversity” to campus, plans to restructure the curriculum, Brown’s stance on affirmative action and even invitations extended to controversial speakers (remember Nonie Darwish?).

And if tradition is any guide, Tisch will chair the committee that will select Brown’s next president.

It’s difficult to know where exactly Tisch will stand on all of these issues — especially because Brown’s public relations office told me he “won’t be available for an interview” until his term officially begins in July. And since the chancellor works mainly behind the scenes, it will be impossible to gauge his influence in the coming years.

But be aware: Brown will not be gaining a voice for progressivism at the top.

Former Herald Executive Editor Justin Elliott ’07 does not mean any personal insult to Mr. Tisch and hopes to work in New York City at some point in the future.

A comedy of terrors BENJAMIN BRIGHT OPINIONS COLUMNIST The kidnapping of 15 British sailors and marines by Iranian forces two weeks ago set off a bizarre chain of political maneuvering between Iran and the West. Now, after the release of the hostages last Thursday — an “Easter gift” to the British people — it is clear that Iran cleverly outfoxed the United Kingdom in a battle of propaganda.

Of course, we will never know if Iran’s reclusive mullahs and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad choreographed this crisis from the start. But let’s disregard that fact just for the moment and figure out who really came out on top in this battle of national wills.

On the domestic front, Ahmadinejad has successfully shored up his own claim to power. Faced with waning support while isolated under the harsh international spotlight, he successfully performed an old trick up the collective developing world’s sleeve: Blame the imperialist aggressor.

The supposed violation of Iran’s territorial waters provided the perfect opportunity to decry the violation of Iranian sovereignty, even as Tehran initially gave coordinates that placed the British Navy vessel in Iraqi waters.

But details rarely matter when constructing propaganda. Protests by Iranian students turned violent last Sunday outside the British embassy in Tehran, with firecrackers and projectiles hurled into the compound.

The Iranian government shrewdly adopted the moral high ground, playing the part of humble pragmatism and religious sensitiv-

ity. Iranian Ambassador Gholam-Reza Ansari speaking through the Islamic Republic News Agency in Iran: “If the U.K. government admits its mistake and apologizes to Iran for its naval personnel’s trespassing of Iranian territorial waters, the issue can be easily settled.”

Ahmadinejad even called Britain “arrogant” for not apologizing and expressed the incomprehensible injustice of forcing a mother to wage war far from her family. In the final act, he pardoned the 15 hostages just in time for the Easter holiday, in sharp contrast to the botched execution of Saddam Hussein at the beginning of the important Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha.

This crisis could not have come at a better time for Iran. Taking place the day after the United Nations passed a resolution condemning Iran’s nuclear ambitions, with Tony Blair’s retirement as Prime Minister only months away and suspicion of the British government’s foreign policy at an all-time high, 26 percent of Britons favored apologizing to Iran to ensure the safe return of the hostages according to a poll in the Daily Telegraph, despite hard evidence from 10 Downing Street that the Navy patrol ship was at least 1.7 nautical miles from Iranian waters.

In simpler times, this might have been considered an act of war. Not so in Britain today. According to Anshel Pfeffer in the Jerusalem Post, “Blair was careful not to mention any forceful tactic and his aides downplayed remarks that might be construed as threats.”

You can’t help but wonder if President Bush would have been so conciliatory if American officers had been taken hostage.

Now let’s think about the consequences.

Iran has successfully thumbed its nose at the West, proving that you can commit an act of piracy and get away with it. So perhaps we

shouldn’t be surprised when Iranian-backed Hezbollah announced for the first time last week that captured Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser are being humanely treated or when Hamas rendered a list of 450 Palestinian prisoners last week to be exchanged for the release of Gilad Shalit.

Pfeffer concludes, “If Ahmadinejad can gain international legitimacy by capturing and then releasing prisoners, then other groups are also going to get in on the act.”

Perhaps more alarming is the collective agreement between the British government and media that — in a pinch — diplomacy really works. That’s hard to disagree with, but when taken to extremes, there are dangerous consequences.

As the editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post,, David Horovitz, wisely puts it, ““The danger is that with diplomacy seemingly vindicated, there may now be a temptation to rely exaggeratedly on its employment again, to try afresh to talk to Iran without urgent resort to means of greater pressure as it continues its unstinting march toward nuclear power, even as time runs out on thwarting that ambition.”

Buried under the sensational story of the hostage crisis last week, Iranian Vice President Parvaiz Davudi announced the opening of a new nuclear power station at the Bushehr reactor at same time as pundits affirmed on Sky News that “talking works.”

Iran’s good fortunes in this crisis have been almost breathtaking. Announcing the release of the hostages, Ahmadinejad told the press that all Iran wants is “peace and security under the Almighty for all human beings.” And to Iran’s miraculous advantage, the U.K. actually bought this political sleight of hand.

Benjamin Bright ’07 is leveling up!

S PORTS T HURSDAY THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2007

PAGE 12

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

M. golf scores best finish at chilly Yale Invitational

BY MEGAN MCCAHILL SPORTS STAFF WRITER

Jacob Melrose / Herald File Photo

Thomas Muldoon’s ’10 three goals were not enough to overcome an early surge by the Crimson Tuesday.

Late surge not enough for m. lax against Harvard Hofstra University on March 3.

“There is no specific area of concern,” said attackman Jack Walsh ’09. “We are just not focused coming out of the gate.”

Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90 was perplexed as well. “The first quarter was frustrating,” he said.

“We have to change our mindset.

We don’t want to find out who they are, we want to show them who we are.”

Play was a little sloppy, with the ball on the ground a lot, and Harvard seemed to get there first every time.

“The effort was there, but there were a lot of mental mistakes out there,” said defenseman Cole Er-

BY JASON HARRIS SPORTS STAFF WRITER

BOSTON — The men’s lacrosse team fell to the Crimson, 9-6, on Tuesday in the first lacrosse game in 17 years at Harvard Stadium, as well as the first ever night lacrosse game at the stadium. A fourth-quarter comeback was not enough to prevent the Bears from falling to 64,1-2 in the Ivy League.

Brown continued its pattern of sluggish starts, spotting Harvard a 3-0 lead in the first quarter. The team was at a loss for answers to this dilemma, which has plagued it in every game except when the team jumped out to 3-1 lead against

W. crew rows past Scarlet Knights Brown also smoked Rutgers in the freshman/novice eight race, taking first place with a time of 6:39.6.

Rutgers followed at 7:05.2.

Murphy said the team-wide success across the board is a sign of the team’s depth.

“I think we do have quite a bit of depth,” he said. “Unfortunately, so do some of our competitors.

But I do think we have a lot of depth, and I’m sure it will make a difference in the long run.”

Murphy said though there are still plenty of races left in the season and nothing is guaranteed, he knew early on that the team had a chance to be this good.

“It’s hard to really expect anything,” Murphy said. “I think you hope for success and you work for it. I thought in the fall there was really good spirit and leadership from the seniors, good, strong

BY ANDREW BRACA SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The Brown women’s crew team continued its early success by sweeping Rutgers in all three races Saturday in New Brunswick, N.J. The Bears have won 12 of their first 13 races in the first three meets of the season.

Head Coach John Murphy said he appreciates the results.

“I was very pleased with their effort,” Murphy said. “They’ve been showing steady improvement. They raced well, and we’re very happy with the results.”

Brown’s varsity eight blitzed Rutgers by 22 seconds, finishing in 6:28.5, while the Scarlet Knights crossed the line at 6:50.5.

In the second varsity eight race, two Brown crews finished in the top two spots, at 6:46.2 and 6:57.1 respectively, while Rutgers finished third, clocking in 6:57.1.

SP

O R T S

continued on page 9

SCH

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THURSDAY, DAY APR. 12 DAY, SOFTBALL: vs. Boston University, Softball Field, 4 p.m.

W. WATER POLO: at Harvard

ickson ’10.

Luckily for Bruno, the slow start was once again followed by much better play as the game progressed.

The defense stopped the bleeding by adjusting to Harvard’s team speed.

“We went to a predominantly zone defense that we had practiced earlier in the week,” said defenseman Jake Westermann ’10. “They had some excellent dodgers, and the zone negates that.”

The change to the zone stifled the Crimson offense for 34 straight minutes, preventing Harvard from scoring again until late in the third continued on page 9

The difficult conditions at the Masters last weekend were nothing compared to the cold and wind that the Brown men’s golf team had to fight at the Yale Invitational this Sunday. With the help of top-10 finishes by Larry Haertel ’08 and Conor Malloy ’09, the Bears overcame the cold to place fourth overall.

“I’ve been playing golf for 40 years,” said Head Coach Mike Harbour. “And I’ve never seen conditions like that.”

The Bears hit the links despite conditions that forced the cancellation of a Yale baseball game. Despite the cold weather, Brown golfers were hot throughout the two-day event and posted a two day-team score of 602 (301, 301).

“The key was to try and stay warm,” said Chris Hoffman ’09.

“We wore a lot of layers, Under Armour and windbreakers.”

Bruno finished behind Hartford and Johnson & Wales Florida at 597 and host Yale at 598.

UConn tied Brown with a score of 602, but the Bears finished ahead of the rest of the field, including Harvard, University of Massachusetts -Dartmouth, Central Connecticut State University, Cornell, Quinnipiac University, Salem State College, Bryant College, Dartmouth, Canisius College, Fordham University, another team from Yale, Boston University, College of the Holy Cross, the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Our guys never complained about the cold,” Harbour said.

“A lot of the other teams were complaining, and I told our guys that if we forgot about the weather and played well, we could end up winning it. We almost did too,

and we played as good of golf as I could’ve imagined in those conditions.”

Haertel led the Bears with a two-day score of 146 after posting rounds of 74 and 72 on the par-70 Yale Golf Club. Haertel also tied as the top Ivy League individual finisher and finished third overall.

Malloy also played impressively and carded a twoday 149 (75, 74) to place 10th.

Hoffman was another Brown golfer who stepped up at the tournament, finishing 16th overall with a two-round score of 150, on consecutive rounds 75.

“Coach Harbour does a great job of keeping the whole team really relaxed but still keeping our expectations high,” Hoffman said. “And for me personally, he’s really helped me out with the mental side of my game.”

Also helping the Bears to their fourth place team finish were Aaron Telch ’07 and John Giannuzzi ’10. Telch shot rounds of 76 and 80 to finish with a total score of 156, good for 33rd place individually in the 119-man field. Giannuzzi signed off his scorecard at 157 after posting rounds of 77 and 80, placing 37th individually in the event.

“Hoffman is playing really good golf this year, and so is Telch,” Harbour said. “Giannuzzi is hitting the ball phenomenally but just isn’t really scoring yet.

When he starts scoring and joins in with how well everyone else is playing, I really think we have a chance at an Ivy League championship.”

The Bears will compete in the New England Championship this weekend at the Triggs Golf Club.

“We’re looking to try and win the New England Championship so we’ll have some momentum going into the Ivy League tournament in two weeks,” Hoffman said.

W. water polo ends losing skid with decisive win The women’s water polo team made quick work of Connecticut College Tuesday, decisively winning the match 19-3. The No. 19 Bears, now 15-8 overall and 2-2 in Northern Division play, were never seriously challenged by the Camels, who now have a dismal 1-7 record.

Though Connecticut College hosted the event, the familiar venue did not provide an advantage as Brown leapt out to an 111 lead in the first quarter. After the first quarter free-for-all, the Bears added eight more goals and allowed only two goals into their net for the remainder of the game.

Twelve different players scored for Brown, with Alexis Blaxberg ’08 leading the charge, the junior recording three goals and four steals. Goalkeeper Stephanie Laing ’10 continued her consistency, despite being only a freshman — she made eight saves, just as she did four days earlier against No. 13 Hartwick.

The victory comes after a three-game losing streak against

Jacob Melrose / Herald File Photo

Alexis Blaxberg ’08 helped lead the water polo team to a dominating 19-3 victory over Connecticut College on Tuesday. Blaxberg scored three goals and tallied four steals.

a trio of nationally ranked teams.

Brown will face Harvard today in Cambridge, where Bruno will hope to continue its winning effort. If past results are any indication, the Bears should have a

good shot at defeating the Crimson. In their last match on March 14, Brown defeated the Crimson 8-3.

— Madeleine Marecki