THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXLII, No. 56
PRIL
24, 2007
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Banner pre-registration begins today with rising seniors BY CHAZ FIRESTONE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Chris Bennett / Herald File Photo
SunGard HigherEd representative Don Thibault responds to a student’s question during a Banner information session earlier this semester.
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Seeking to cultivate ties, U. officials visit China, India BY MICHAEL SKOCPOL SENIOR STAFF WRITER
University delegations traveled to India and China in March and April, continuing the University’s efforts to establish ties in those countries. Both trips, led by Vice President for Research Clyde Briant, focused on building research and exchange ties with universities in those countries. In China, officials sought to build ties with Zhejiang University in the southeastern city of Hangzhou. Zhejiang’s president, Wei Yang PhD’85, studied engineering at Brown and has expressed interest in connecting the two universities. While at Zhejiang, the Brown delegation participated in a “signing ceremony” to declare hope that the universities will work together in the future. Briant, Associate Dean of Medicine Julianne Ip, Professor of Sociology Michael White and four engineering professors traveled to Zhejiang April 9-13. The university has over 40,000 students, including some 23,600 undergraduates. Fields of study at Zhejiang range from engineering to philosophy, unlike the Indian universities Briant and others visited in that country. In India, the Brown delegation visited three universities, all with a science and technology focus — the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and the Indian Institute of Science, which is in Bangalore. The trip took place March 20-29 and included Briant, Vice President for International Advancement Ronald Margolin, Dean of Engineering Greg Crawford and three engineering graduate students. Briant said the trip had three
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main objectives: to discuss possible research partnerships with the three Indian universities, to continue discussions with Indian companies that offer internships to Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship concentrators and to introduce Crawford to some of Briant’s Indian contacts. Briant preceded Crawford as dean of engineering before taking his current post in July 2006 and had traveled to India twice in that capacity — in 2004 and again last year. Possible areas of exchange with the Indian universities include nanotechnology, mechanics of materials and entrepreneurship — specifically Brown’s Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship, with which the graduate students traveling with Briant, Margolin and Crawford — John McMurdy GS, Fred Biga GS and Anthony Napolitano GS — are involved, Briant said. IIT Bombay — which retains the name given at its 1958 inception even though Bombay is now known as Mumbai — lists on its Web site four U.S. universities with which it has signed “memoranda of understanding” establishing official relationships, including Harvard and Northwestern universities. Brown is not on the list. IIT Delhi, along with IIT Bombay, is one of seven Indian institutes of technology aimed at providing instruction in engineering and applied sciences. It claims nearly 5,000 students — 2,265 undergraduate — on its Web site. The Indian Institute of Science, which Briant described as primarily focused on graduate study, “is neither a national labocontinued on page 4
SOVIET SUB SUNK The famed Russian Sub Museum is now submerged 28 feet under water after bad weather turned the sub on its side
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After months of anticipation, training and protests, pre-registration with the electronic Banner system begins today at 8 a.m. as rising seniors are given access to the system’s registration module. Rising juniors will be able to register Wednesday at 8 a.m., and rising sophomores Thursday. The beginning of pre-registration arrives on the heels of a twoweek advising period, during which freshmen were to get their authorization PINs from advisers, sophomores would declare concentrations and all students could browse Banner’s online course catalogs to identify courses for next semester. Now that the advising period is over, University officials say the success of pre-registration will de-
pend largely on the cooperation of students and how they handle the new system. “Right now, students have the lion’s share of the work,” said Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who leads the Banner project. Though the University has hosted discussion forums and information sessions, many students still seem ill-informed about how Banner is going to function. “I haven’t read any of the e-mails about Banner,” said Candice Chu ’10. “I wish I had read the materials they sent out.” Though Chu said she plans to find out more about Banner before it is time to register, she said she has not yet familiarized herself with the system or received her PIN from her freshman adviser. continued on page 7
Frustrated with Middle East studies program, longtime prof. leaves Brown BY FRANKLIN KANIN STAFF WRITER
After years of frustration with the University’s limited Middle East studies resources, William Beeman has left his post as professor of anthropology to chair the department at the University of Minnesota. Though Beeman continues to work with anthropology-linguistics concentrators at Brown, his departure may force the concentration to be folded into the Department of Anthropology. One of only a handful of professors whose research and teaching
focused on the Middle East, Beeman said he spent many of his 33 years at Brown advocating for development in Middle East studies — without results. “It seemed really foolish of me to continue to beat my head against the wall trying to get some action on Middle East studies,” he said. Ultimately, Beeman said, higher pay, an administrative position and a chance to develop those academic areas important to him lured him away to the University of Minnesota. “It became very clear to me that there was no commitment whatever on the part of the administration to
ever develop Middle East studies,” Beeman said, adding that his other areas of expertise — South Asian studies and linguistic anthropology — similarly suffered from limited resources. The current lack of support has caused other professors to leave Brown, he said, and discourages younger faculty from coming to the University. “The process is going to continue unless the University gets serious about those areas of study,” he said. Alex Ortiz ’09, a Middle East studies concentrator, agreed with continued on page 4
Eating Ayurvedic and keeping kosher Students with special diets make do at the Ratty BY REBECCA JACOBSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER
When Sophie Simkin ’09 looked at colleges in high school, she considered more than student-to-faculty ratios, acceptance rates and tuition price tags. Simkin, who has kept kosher her entire life, wanted to know how each school accommodated observant Jewish students.
FEATURE She didn’t like the kosher selection at Tufts University and Williams College, and other schools required students to eat all their meals at the Hillel center on campus. But at Brown, Simkin could head to a room in the Sharpe Refectory designated for kosher meal service and BANNER SPREAD The Herald tells you everything you need to know about your upcoming preregistration with two pages on Banner’s ins and outs
Herald File Photo
Students eat in the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall.
then sit with friends elsewhere in the dining hall. “I like that I can be on kosher meal plan and eat with other students,” Simkin said. “I’m not isolated and eating alone at Hillel.” Simkin is one of many students following a special diet while at Brown. Though most college students have to adjust to dining hall cuisine, some work a little harder to navigate the culinary offerings.
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195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
NOT ENOUGH PROTECTION Lily Shield ‘09 argues the language in the partial-birth abortion ban upheld by the Supreme Court last week is inadequate
Take Richa Bhatnagar ’09. She follows Ayurveda, an ancient Indian system of health care. Meditation, breathing techniques and yoga play an important role in this system, as do dietary needs. Bhatnagar began meditating about four years ago, and last year she decided to follow Ayurvedic dietary recommendations. She saw an Ayurvedic doctor, who continued on page 4
12 SPORTS
W. WATER POLO NABS 2ND The women’s water polo team scored second place at the Northern Division Championship, falling to Hartwick but earning a spot at Easterns
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