The Brown Daily Herald M onday, S eptember 10, 2007
Volume CXLII, No. 64
Simmons condemns proposed Israeli academia boycott By Debbie Lehmann Senior Staf f Writer
A boycott of Israeli universities and professors proposed by Britainâs University and College Union in May has since been âvirtually a daily issueâ for President Ruth Simmons, who recently wrote a letter to the UCU condemning the boycott. Simmons told The Herald that she is assessing other opportunities to make her views known and promote dialogue on campus. The UCU, an academic professional association in the United Kingdom, will hold a series of debates on a motion passed May 30 that calls for a boycott of Israeli academia in response to Israelâs occupation of Palestinian land in the Middle East. The resolution deplores âthe denial of educational rights for Palestiniansâ and says Israel has âseriously damaged the fabric of Palestinian society.â It goes on to condemn the âcomplicity of Israeli academia in the occupationâ and calls on members of the UCU to consider the moral implications of connections with Israeli universities. The proposal yielded a strong response from presidents of American universities. In early August, presidents of 286 universities, including Cornell and Princeton universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, signed a full-page advertisement in the New York Times declaring, âBoycott Israeli Universities? Boycott Ours Too!â The ad featured a statement by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, who called the boycott âutterly antithetical to the fundamental values of the academy.â
c o ll e g e hill kicks o ff
Simmons did not sign the petition, choosing instead to write a personal letter to UCU Joint Secretar y General Sally Hunt condemning the boycott. In her letter, posted on her Web site, Simmons expressed her support for Israeli universities and wrote that supporting such a boycott âis not an option for people who are dedicated to the core principles of the academy.â Simmons told The Herald she would never sign an advertisement as the president of Brown without first consulting with others. Even though there was âimmediate and intense dialogueâ over the summer about what action to take, she said, she ultimately decided to do something distinctive that would have a larger impact. âIâm weary of one-shot efforts for profound issues,â Simmons said. âItâs tempting to sign things like this and walk away.â Simmons added that she thought the advertisement did not express fully why the boycott was inappropriate, and she stressed the need for a âsalient and more prolongedâ argument. Many in academia will be tempted to view this issue as a political one, Simmons said, adding that political discourse âbelongs in the political world.â âFundamentally, this is something that is an attack on what universities are and what universities do,â Simmons said. âYou have to explain to people why this is so inimical to what freedom of speech and scholarship is all about.â It is a âdangerous step,â Simmons added, to single out students and scholars from any one group
Chris Bennett / Herald
Student band Mister Tamel performs during Saturday nightâs College Hill Kickoff on Wriston Quadrangle.
Internationalization takes shape in report By Michael Skocpol Senior Staff Writer
Aiming to establish Brown among the worldâs top universities, a report released today calls for the University to invest significantly over the next several years in a spate of new initiatives designed to highlight its international strengths. The wide-ranging repor t of Brownâs Internationalization Committee provides guidance for plans to raise Brownâs global profile, highlighting potential projects ranging from a new global health institute to an expansion of the Universityâs existing International Writers Program, which provides a haven for persecuted writers from around the world.
continued on page 4
Ne
ws
i n
Br
The report represents the first major step in the larger internationalization effort that President Ruth Simmons put at the top of the Universityâs agenda last fall. Likely to guide University policy for the next several years, internationalization will shape everything from faculty hires to new academic partnerships. âThe best universities in the United States in the future are going to be judged in good part by their standing not simply in this country, but in the world,â Provost David Kertzer â69 Pâ95 Pâ98 wrote in a campus-wide e-mail sent today announcing the reportâs release. âThis means having a world-class faculty and the world-renowned graduate programs and research that go with them, as well as a world-class under-
INSIDE:
3
ARTS & CULTURE
www.browndailyherald.com
graduate program. Brown must be one of the major meeting-grounds of the worldâs greatest scholars and intellectuals.â The 21-page report represents the conclusions of the Internationalization Committee created in October 2006 and chaired by Kertzer. Charged with investigating ways Brown could improve the international quality of its education and become a more significant player in global higher education, the committee stopped short of prioritizing its proposals or presenting a detailed blueprint for executing its goals. That task will fall to a new vice president for international affairs, whom University Hall officials expect to continued on page 6
i e f
John Hay Library now open for longer hours The John Hay Library will have extended hours starting today, thanks to a gift from Richard Gilbane. For the rest of the semester â and possibly the rest of the year â the library will remain open an extra hour, until 6 p.m. on weekdays. The library, which has traditionally been closed on the weekends, will now also be open on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. This semester will be a trial run for the extended hours to gauge student and community interest, according to Brent Lang, a Brown library communications and marketing specialist. âTo say we need this might be a stretch,â Lang said. âBut itâs enhancing and improving library services and access to special collections.â Lang added that the extended hours may allow more people in the community who work during the week to visit the library on Sundays. The John Hay Library, which housed the Universityâs entire library collection from 1910 until the Rockefeller Library opened in 1964,
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Admission officers poke around Facebook By Rachel Arndt Senior Staff Writer
Chris Bennett / Herald
The John Hay Library is now open for an extra hour on weekdays.
now features a variety of special collections, including the University archives, the worldâs largest repository of military and naval uniforms and over 60,000 comic books, graphic novels, comic art and related materials dating from the mid-1970s to
SEA OF TREES Japanese installation artist Yumi Kori uses light and sound to turn the Bell gallery into a peaceful space.
3
ARTS & CULTURE
the present. The library is named for John Hay 1858, a personal secretary to Abraham Lincoln and, later, secretary of state under William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. â Debbie Lehmann THE VIDEO EXPERIENCE At a new RISD exhibit, modern music videos and avant-garde silent film are combined to good effect.
11
OPINIONS
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
This fall, Brown hopefuls might want to consider a new potential aspect of the application process: their profiles on Facebook. Though they deny doing so on a regular basis, University admission officers sometimes follow up on anonymous tips to examine applicantsâ profiles. These days, Facebook is no longer a place just for students â as its Web site states, âAll thatâs needed to join Facebook is a valid email address.â There are currently 39 million active members on the social networking site. âWe donât use Facebook unless someone says thereâs something we should look at,â said Dean of Admission James Miller â73. But Miller conceded that admission officers take outside tips seriously. âAnything we get, we follow up on,â he said. R.I.P., PINK SLIPS Maha Atal â08 mourns the passing of the Universityâs old pink-and-white add/ drop forms.
Associate Director of College Admission Elisha Anderson â98 agreed with Miller. There is a âlimit to what we can appropriately judge people on,â he said, but added, âYou have to remember (Facebook) is a public place.â He said there was âmaybe one caseâ in which Facebook yielded information that affected an admission decision. Sometimes admission officers receive friend requests on Facebook from applicants, Anderson said, noting that accepting the requests âwould appear weird.â At least one admission officer at Brown questioned even caseby-case visits to Facebook profiles when evaluating applications. âI donât think thatâs a fair practice,â said Victor Ning â07, a Brown admission officer who said he looks only at the materials the students send to the office. Though he said
12 SPORTS
continued on page 7 M. soccer sweeps The m. soccer team beat No. 5 Santa Clara and Fordham to win the AdidasBrown Classic
News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com