Friday, October 26, 2007

The Brown Daily Herald F riday, O ctober 26, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 96

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Islamofascism lecture sparks heated response

By Melissa Shube Contributing Writer

As part of conser vative activist David Horowitz’s “Islamofascism Awareness Week,” author Robert Spencer spoke Thursday night to a crowd that was heated even before he took the stage.

Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch, and the author of New York Times bestsellers “The Truth About Muhammad” and “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam.” Before Spencer’s talk began, pamphlets including “The Violent Oppression of Women in Islam” and “The Islamic Mein Kampf,” linking jihad to Nazism, were available outside the auditorium.

As soon as he took the stage, Spencer declared that the Islamofascism week was “an attempt to call attention to the reality and the magnitude of the oppressive

character of a supremacist ideology that is routed in the teaching of the Islamic religion.” The controversial term “Islamofascism” is used by some commentators, including Horowitz, to describe an association between radical Islamist ideology and 20th century European fascist movements. Spencer said he would have preferred to dub the week jihadism awareness week.

“I do not believe that Islam at its core is a peaceful religion,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t believe there are peaceful Muslims.”

Pointing to examples of violence in the Islamic world — spousal abuse, the threat of death to those who want to leave Islam, female circumcision practices in Somalia, the murder of homosexuals — Spencer said he believes Islamofascists see these behaviors as consistent with continued on page 4

After BOCA, U. tries to absorb Mocha

By Chaz Firestone Senior Staff Writer

believe a more specialized opinion is needed, said Director of Health Services Edward Wheeler.

“Our emphasis is on primary care, sort of the routine problems and concerns of that particular age group,” Wheeler said. “For problems that need a higher level of expertise, we have a rich referral list.”

Though most students interviewed by The Herald were pleased with Health Ser vices’ quality of care, Barlow is not the only student who felt the providers failed to accurately diagnose his problem.

The University intends to acquire Mocha, the student-run coursesearching application, Computing and Information Ser vices officials and Mocha’s student developers told The Herald.

“We have officially decided to adopt the Mocha functionality,” said Michael Pickett, vice president for computing and information ser vices and the University’s chief information officer. “By Januar y 1, CIS will definitely own that piece of the code.”

Launched in Januar y 2006 by five students concentrating in computer science, Mocha quickly gained popularity as a user-friendly alternative to the Brown Online Course Announcement for its ease of use and “shopping cart” feature.

But it wasn’t until the recent switch to online course registration under Banner and the introduction of the ill-received Banner Catalog and Schedule applications that Mocha seemed to become the default course index of choice for students.

“I’d like to think that Mocha solves a lot of problems that I and a lot of other people had with Banner,” said Daniel Leventhal ’07, who led the original Mocha development team. Leventhal estimated that about 80 percent of undergraduates have used Mocha.

Recognizing deficiencies in Banner’s course indexing systems, Pickett, Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who led the Banner imple-

continued on page 8

continued on page 4

Chris Bennett / Herald

“I do not believe that Islam at its core is a peaceful religion,” author Robert Spencer said in a lecture on Islamofascism. “That doesn’t mean I don’t believe there are peaceful Muslims.”

The pulse of the University’s Health Services Some disappointment with after-hours care, most students pleased

By Noura Choudhury Contributing Writer

When Stephen Barlow ’08 limped out of Health Services after an injury playing intramural soccer his freshman year, he fully believed the providers’ diagnosis that he had a sprained ankle. When his ankle failed to improve, his second trip to Health Services led to a referral to an orthopedist, where X-rays proved his alleged sprain to be a full-blown break.

“The orthopedist took an X-ray and looked at it for a bit, and told

me it was broken,” Barlow, a Herald injury, Barlow said he will probably cartoonist, said. “She said it should go elsewhere.

Health Services, which is comhave been pretty obvious from an X-ray.” prised of four physicians and seven Barlow, who nurse practitioners and physilater returned to CHECK-UP cian assistants Health Services for other reasons, recruited mostly said he thinks from the New First in a series on England area, for the most part the state of health at Brown only provides Health Services accurately diagprimary care sernoses and treats common problems, vice. For more complicated cases, but they should have known earlier the Health Ser vices providers to refer him elsewhere for his in- make a “medical decision” to send jury. Next time he gets a sports students to outside sources if they

Mass transit can work in Rhode Island, planner says

By Evan Boggs Staff Writer

For Charles Hales, Thursday morning was all about “why transit matters.”

By Nick Werle Senior Staff Writer

METRO Hales, a former commissioner of planning and transportation for Portland, Ore., and longtime proponent of mass transit, spoke yesterday morning at the University of Rhode Island’s Shepard building in downtown Providence. In his keynote address for a conference on transportation in Rhode Island, Hales promoted the far-reaching economic benefits of public transportation in American cities. His speech kicked off a day’s worth of panel discussions, walking tours of the state and a rally at the State House advocating public transport.

The conference, “Getting There: Transportation for a Prosperous, Sustainable Rhode Island,” was organized by Grow Smart Rhode Island, a public interest group that works for sustainable urban

INSIDE:

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ARTS & CULTURE

www.browndailyherald.com

English training for int’l grad students stretched to the limit

Rahul Keerthi / Herald File Photo

RIPTA is experiencing an increase in riders, and some buses are forced to leave riders behind due to overcrowding, RIPTA Assistant General Manager of Planning Mark Therrien told a discussion panel.

development. Its events addressed responsible planning methods and sustainable development within urban areas.

“We’ve come a 50-year full circle from when cities had streetcars,” Hales told approximately 100 audi-

The Living Dead Free zombie films will be screened at the Cable Car Cinema, running this weekend until Halloween.

5

CAMPUS NEWS

ence members. “And we moved to a system where we tried to run our societies on oil.”

With global warming, shrinking oil fields and renewed interest continued on page 4 Swearer Center stage Former President Howard Swearer’s life is commemorated at a Watson Institute exhibit.

11

OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

When Linli Zhu GS arrived on campus this semester from China for his first year as a doctoral student in the Division of Engineering, he found himself unable to register for an English class.

Although the Center for Language Studies provides some international graduate students — primarily those whose English proficiency is insufficient to work as teaching assistants — with English classes through the English for International Teaching Assistants program, Zhu was locked out. The two classes the ITA program is running this semester are both filled past capacity.

When he contacted the staff of the ITA program at the beginning of the semester, Zhu was told it was too late. I was “told the class is full, so she sent me an e-mail and told me to look for someone with who I can take another class,” Legit Labor Alex Campbell ‘10 argues that Brown should ensure University apparel is not made in sweatshops.

he said, referring to a conversation with one of the program’s coordinators. “She also suggested I go to the International House (of Rhode Island) to practice my English.”

Zhu, who is not working as a TA in his first year at Brown, is planning to try to enroll again in the ITA program next semester.

Nevertheless, he said he feels the University should provide better support for international graduate students. “I think it’s necessary for international students (to receive language instruction). ... I think Brown should give us more English classes for the first semester we are here,” he said.

For the students, teachers and the undergraduate consultants who work with the ITA program, this semester’s classes already feel stretched. “In general I think an appropriate student-teacher ratio for the type of English that we

12 SPORTS

continued on page 8 Kicking quakers Men’s soccer hopes to continue as Ivy League front-runner when it faces UPenn Saturday.

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T oday Page 2

Friday, October 26, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r

But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

Today

TOMORROW

sunny 60 / 54

rain 69 / 50

Menu

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Lobster Bisque, Chicken Fingers, Swiss Corn Bake, Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Sandwich, Raspberry Chocolate Streusel Squares

Lunch — Chicken Fingers, Vegan Nuggets, Zucchini, Carrot and Garlic Medley, Nacho Bar, Baked Beans, Butter Cookies

Dinner — Seafood Pot Pie, Garlic and Butter Infused Rice, Zucchini and Summer Squash, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Chocolate Cake

Dinner — Cajun Baked Fish, Grilled Chicken, Golden corn and Rice Casserole, Orange Beef Pad Thai, Chocolate Cake

Aibohphobia | Roxanne Palmer

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

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

RELEASE DATE– Friday, October 26, 2007 © Puzzles

by Pappocom

Los Angeles Times Daily oCrossword Puzzle C r o ssw rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Half of a Pacific island 5 Headline features, briefly 9 Oakland paper, familiarly 13 Church figure 14 Indigenous Kiwi 15 Western city with an annual September balloon race 16 Shop for cereal?

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48 Core 49 Fort near McGuire Air Force Base 50 First name in objectivism 51 Subtle greeting 52 Living in Fla., maybe 53 Power source 55 Author of the 3,000-page “The Civil War: A Narrative” 57 Chutzpah source 58 God who gave up an eye to gain wisdom 59 Albany veto?

61 Frank or Seymour 62 Pot user

63 Glance’s opposite 64 Cylindrical containers 65 Maker of Dibs ice cream snacks 66 Wasn’t colorfast

31 Group of 8-Down 33 Coddle 36 __-poly 37 Waiter 38 Left over 39 Daughter of Minos 40 Sending messages, in a way 43 Kind of gland above the kidneys 44 Lament

45 Treated in rehab 47 Stop up 48 Word with court or pool 51 “The Highwayman” poet 54 Till bills 56 Big-eyed 58 Iowa’s state tree 59 Society page word 60 Spy novel org.

DOWN 1 Six-foot seventhgraders, say 2 Vast 3 __ cuff: shoulder part 4 At least one 5 Dieter’s concerns ANSWER TO PREVIOUS 6 Japanese golfing great Isao 7 Computer reports 8 31-Down number 9 Pitfall 10 Overhauls 11 Circling 12 Submit 14 Unstable leptons 17 Spanish philosopher José __ y Gasset 21 Bouncer’s handful 25 Custom 27 Let go 29 Russian villa 30 Military store, xwordeditor@aol.com familiarly

Octopus on Hallucinogens | Toni Liu and Stephanie Le

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Classic How To Get Down | Nate Saunders

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Page 3

Neidich ’08 invites you to sit, stand or squat

Zombies invade Providence at the Cable Car Cinema

Friday, October 26, 2007

By Ben Hyman Contributing Writer

“Sit, Stand or Squat,” an exhibition of colorful, other worldly sculptures by Stephen Neidich ’08, is currently showing in the lobby of List Art Building. A reception will be held tonight from 7 to 10 p.m. for the exhibit, which will be on display until Sunday.

By Sonia Saraiya Staff Writer

REVIEW Neidich’s sculptures are all made of expandable foam, a polyurethane compound similar to the material used to make insulating window moldings. “These pieces kind of sprung out of an accident,” Neidich said. “I’d been working in concrete for about six months, but I got tired of it. I was trying to make an end table, and one of my TAs said, ‘Why don’t you use expandable foam?’”

That was five months ago.

Since then, Neidich has been experimenting with this unconventional and, as he puts it, “fickle” material.

Expandable foam begins its life as two separate liquids that, when mixed in equal parts, solidify and swell to up to ten times their original volume. Neidich said he pours the initial chemical mixture into buckets and trash cans. He shapes the foam as it grows and cascades down the sides of the container, which remains encased in the sculpture itself. By adding different types and colors of foam, he creates complex, multi-layered pieces.

But the foam is a highly unpredictable material, and Neidich said he discovered getting it to do what he wanted could be difficult ­— a quality that he embraced.

“I really enjoy pushing the limits of a material,” he said. “Each time I push the limits of the foam a little further, it adds a level of interest to the piece.”

Neidich, who likes to “blur the lines between sculpture and furniture,” originally conceived most of the works in the show as chairs or stools. This is immediately recognizable in some of the

Meara Sharma / Herald

Stephen Neidich’s ’08 sculptures melt into the List lobby floor.

simpler works, such as a pearl-colored piece that resembles a giant, floor-bound hat. As layers of foam are added, however, the sculptures begin to look less inanimate and more organic: There is something eerily gill-like about the ripples that form on their sides.

With their bright colors and gelatinous shapes, the pieces can appeal to the taste buds as well as the eyes — one purple and yellow sculpture resembles a heap of melting ice cream. At the same time, however, the sculptures can sometimes seem like slithering alien beings. They give the unsettling sense of not having been installed in the exhibition space so much as let loose.

Neidich, who is articulate, passionate and self-effacingly humorous when speaking about his work, isn’t about to resolve this duality: For him, it’s an important aspect of the works themselves.

“On one hand, you’ve got these fun, warm, welcoming colors,” he said, “and on the other hand you’ve got these organic blobs.”

The sculptures also express a different kind of duality, serving as both art and design objects, and Neidich encourages viewers to experience both sides of his work. “If I say it’s a seat, you can sit on it,” he explained. “I try to stay true to that aesthetic.”

Though Neidich isn’t certain if the pieces are “fully functional” yet, he welcomes viewers who want to test out the works as furniture to sit on them, so as long as they approach them with “a slight sense of ginger-ness.”

“I’m having a blast making these pieces,” Neidich said, and “Sit, Stand or Squat” communicates exactly that — the sense of experimentation and play that went into the creation of these strange, captivating sculptures.

Zombies are invading Providence this weekend.

The Providence Zombie Film Festival, running at Cable Car Cinema tonight through Halloween, will feature 12 free screenings of zombie movies over the next six days and — perhaps in preparation for a mass attack — a lecture from the author of “The Zombie Survival Guide,” Max Brooks, tonight at 6 p.m in MacMillan 117.

Screenings will include a zombie musical, the first zombie movie ever made and a made-for-TV zombie movie. The festival will show some well-known zombie movies, but the selections are a deviation from traditional zombie fare. For example, George Romero’s famous films “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead” and “Day of the Dead” will not be shown, despite their obvious relevance, in order to make room for lesser-known films that stretch the boundaries of “the zombie genre,” said David Bering-Porter GS, one of the organizers of th e festival.

Bering-Porter, Matthew Tierney GS and Pooja Rangan GS, all Modern Culture and Media graduate students, and Richard Manning, the department’s film archivist, are looking to attract a wide range of viewers with their eclectic selection. “It’s the kind of thing we hope will appeal to cinephiles, punked-out zombieheads and Providence professionals,” Tierney said.

When the organizers originally conceived of the film festival, they planned to simply show the films they liked best. Bering-Porter is treating zombie films in his dissertation, and all the organizers are fans of the genre. “It was just going to be our favorites,” Tierney said. “But then we thought, maybe we don’t know everything about zombies yet.”

As they further developed the idea for the festival, the collaborators realized that, to best explore the political and social implications of zombies, they needed to show a range of movies to address those themes. Zombies are an “amazing

E d itor ’ s picks FRIDAY, OCT. 26 (Locations not specified are TBD) “Fabulous Fakes: Jewelry of Kenneth Jay Lane,” Rhode Island School of Design Museum Parents Weekend Dance Concert, 8 p.m. at Ashamu Dance Studio Shades of Brown Concert, 8 p.m.

Brown University Jazz Band, 9 p.m.

Brown Stand-Up Comics, 10p.m. in List Art Building 120

SATURDAY, OCT. 27 Harmonic Motion, 1:30 p.m.

Brown’s Tones, 2 p.m.

The Bear Necessities, 3:30 p.m., Salomon 001 The Higher Keys, 4 p.m.

The Brown Derbies, 6 p.m.

Brown Madrigal Singers, 7 p.m.

The Ursa Minors, 7 p.m.

Chattertocks and Jabberwocks, 8 p.m., Sayles Hall Gallery Talk with Maya Benten ’98, 7 p.m.

Brown University Wind Symphony, 8 p.m.

Parents Weekend Dance Concert, 8 p.m., Ashamu Dance Studio

SUNDAY, OCT. 28 Parents Weekend Dance Concert, 2 p.m., Ashamu Dance Studio

enjoy parents weekend

empty vessel” for social commentary because they are simultaneously alive and dead, Tierney said.

“They show cultural anxieties in a different way,” Bering-Porter said, adding that the archetypal vision of zombies in masses and crowds can be imbued with political meaning.

“These are films that are concerned with what you wouldn’t think zombie movies are concerned with,” Tierney said.

The team “dug and dug and dug” in Internet forums and communities to find a wide range of films that demonstrate “other ways of thinking about zombies,” Tierney said. “The Brown film archive now has quite a few more zombie movies than we ever thought it would.”

The films in the festival express different tones: Hong Kong art film “Re-Cycle,” which will close the festival on Halloween, was described by Bering-Porter as “beautiful,” while Tierney described “Z: A Zombie Musical,” as “anarchic,” “trashy” and something that “needs to be seen to be believed.”

Because the festival will screen the first ever zombie film, 1932’s “White Zombie,” viewers will be able to observe the evolution of the genre over the years.

The festival is free because of funding from the Malcolm S. Forbes Center for Research in Culture and Media Studies, the Creative Arts Council, the Watson Institute for International Studies, the Department of Modern Culture and Media and the Cable Car Cinema. Tickets for each day’s screenings will be available at 4 p.m. that day at the Cable Car, and interested students can obtain up to four at a time.

“We’re pleased to be able to put this on,” Bering-Porter said. “We’re really interested to see what it looks like.”

Tierney added that while he hopes people appreciate the relevance of zombies, the festival is also for entertainment value. “We’re interested and invested in the geopolitics of race and sexuality that binds together film — but it’s also a lot of fun,” he said.

Page 4

Author Spencer provokes in evening lecture continued from page 1 and justified by the Quran’s teachings. Discussing jihad, he cited terrorist leaders’ use of verses from the Quran for “justification and recruitment” and their declaration that acts of terrorism are an “Islamic duty.” Spencer said there have been over 9,000 jihad attacks since Sept. 11, 2001.

Spencer said he hoped to encourage dialogue, especially within Muslim communities. “There are human rights issues and they need to be discussed by ever y person of goodwill. They need to be discussed without finger pointing, with an honest look at what is causing these things to happen,” Spencer said.

He also opposed the U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia and supported the development of alternative sources of energy.

“We need to stop financing our destruction,” Spencer said.

The question-and-answer session became heated, as students delivered rants instead of asking questions. Spencer repeatedly said that he, not they, had been asked to speak.

Ben Winkler ’11 said the response misrepresented Brown students. “I think ever y person who felt morally indignant was indulging their anger as opposed to directly probing his arguments,” he said.

Students’ questions expressed a desire for positive information about Islam and Islamic countries that Spencer acknowledged but said missed the point of his argument.

“At Brown, we pride ourselves on breaking down dichotomies, avoiding generalizations and using an ‘us or them’ mentality that overlooks nuances,” Atena Asiaii ’08 said. “In this spirit, can you provide us with some examples of tolerance, avoiding judgment and gender equality that are found in the Quran?”

But while Spencer answered Asaii’s question with examples, when asked why he didn’t dis-

Friday, October 26, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

cuss positive interfaith relations in Islamic countries, Spencer replied, “What is the cause of jihad violence? People being nice is good, but it doesn’t explain the problem.”

Other students expressed frustration that Spencer did not talk more about problems caused by fundamentalists of other religions. One student asked about evangelical Christians’ opposition to gay marriage, to which Spencer replied, “Opposition to marriage is not the same thing as toppling a wall (to kill homosexuals),” spurring applause from some. Another student mentioned the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades as examples of Christian atrocities.

“There hasn’t been a crusade since 1291,” Spencer said quickly in response.

But Spencer did acknowledge that people of all religions have committed atrocities, repeatedly saying, “There is no monopoly on evil.”

By the end of the question-andanswer session many students had left, some in protest. Stragglers’ reviews of the event were mixed.

Osman Chaudhry ’11 said he thought the lecture unfairly cast suspicion on the entire Muslim community.

Asiaii said she believed Spencer voiced a minority opinion. “I think there is definitely some truth in the ideas that he expressed, but it’s always really important to discuss historical context and acknowledge different interpretations and perspectives on those issues that the majority of Muslims adhere to,” Asiaii said.

College Republicans President Mark Frank ’09 said he was pleased with the lecture. “It was great to get an alternative view.

Where he was very provocative, he largely backed his arguments with solid evidence, and I do think a lot of people in this room, while (they) disagreed with him, at the minimum thought it was thoughtprovoking and worthwhile,” Frank said.

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Student-created Mocha will be acquired by Brown, terms unclear continued from page 1 mentation project, and CIS Director of Applications Development John Styer met with Leventhal and other members of the Mocha team over the summer and in recent weeks to discuss incorporating Mocha’s features into the Banner system.

Styer said the University is committed to integrating Mocha — which is currently hosted on a computer science department ser ver — but may take one of two paths on the way.

“One path would be to take the software that Dan and his buddies created and host it on our ser ver,” Styer said. “The other one is not to take the software, per se, but build our own program that uses their ideas and functionality.”

Styer has formed a team within CIS to assess the different strategies. He said a final decision should be made by winter break, with hopes to have the new interface live by the April pre-registration period for Fall 2008. In the meantime, a link to Mocha has been added to the Banner project Web site.

Many of the details of the transaction between the Mocha team and CIS have yet to be resolved. No agreement has been reached about whether money will be involved or whether ownership of the code will transfer to the University.

“We don’t want to give up our intellectual property rights,” said Colin Gordon ’08, who took over Mocha along with two fellow computer science concentrators when four of the original developers graduated last spring. “We did write this code.”

Leventhal and Gordon said they would prefer to grant the University a license to use and manipulate their code but not to redistribute it.

They also said they will ask for financial compensation.

“I think Mocha has value,” said Leventhal, who now develops applications for Microsoft. “But that’s something I would have to talk about with other people at Brown and CIS.” Pickett said he hasn’t received an offer from Leventhal or made up his mind about what to do if asked for money.

“Things like this have happened before at other universities without money involved,” said Pickett, who was deputy chief information officer at Duke University before coming to Brown over the summer.

“I will certainly take them out to dinner.”

Pickett added that he would consider providing financial support to the Mocha developers if they wished to improve the system.

“If Daniel and his team came to us today and said, ‘Here are five things that would really make the system a lot more usable and more helpful — can you support us while we tr y this out?’ I would be ver y supportive,” he said. “I would not mind making a financial contribution to students or faculty to help them develop a useful tool for the University.”

Gordon said he and other members of the Mocha team haven’t come up with a financial request yet, but he said they would like to be rewarded for their work.

“The amount would be nontrivial, but not Banner-level,” Gordon said. “Not 10 bucks, but not 23 million.”

Pickett and Leventhal said the process has been friendly and productive for both parties and may encourage the University to support more student projects.

“We’ve always been in contact, and we’re all on the same page,” Leventhal said.

“It’s something we need to do more of. We need to have a regular process by which we can have faculty and students build systems as prototypes and be recognized by the University,” Pickett said. “I’m very, very happy with the process.

I couldn’t have asked for a better example of what deser ves promotion at this level.”

Conference discusses mass transit in R.I. continued from page 1 in urban centers threatening the automobile’s dominance over transportation, Hales said it was time for cities to begin turning back to mass-transit systems.

“Cities doing this are going to be the economic winners,” he said, listing investments in public transport options such as expanded bus routes, lanes dedicated to buses, downtown streetcars and commuter trains in suburbs.

While in Portland, Hales was hailed for leading the team that built the first new streetcar system in the United States in five decades, and he has since worked with several cities to promote sustainable development options, said Scott Wolf, Grow Smart’s executive director, in his introduction for Hales. Wolf called Hales, who is now the transit planning principal for the Omaha, Neb., engineering firm HDR, “a national resource for the American urban renaissance.”

Hales began his address with a call to redefine public transport in America. He described traditional reasons why transit matters — lowincome Americans are dependent on public transportation, he said, and some of those with means of driving to work seek public transportation to avoid a stressful commute. “It’s a good old American value to have a

choice, and we’d like to offer these poor folks a choice in how to get to work,” he said.

Finally, Hales described an admittedly tongue-in-cheek third reason: Some commuters value public transportation simply because it gets other drivers off the road.

People view highways as critical transportation and public transportation an excess, Hales said. “Most Americans still look through bifocals at how we spend money on transportation,” he said.

While optimistic that global warming will disprove the belief that “this generation is not capable of altruism,” Hales said the dwindling oil supply will push people to use more public transportation even before they switch to energy alternatives. The alternative energy “dog don’t hunt,” Hales said, citing nuclear power as a taboo, wind, solar and geothermal energies as impractical for cars, the turning of waste products into light crude oil as reliant on oil-based plastics and ethanol supplies as falling far short of the nation’s fuel demands.

Instead of these alternative energy options, Hales proposed a number of mass-transit opportunities already taking root across the United States.

“Light-rail” systems — essentially long sets of streetcars which travel from suburbs into urban centers — are being built and expanded even in sprawling cities, notably Phoenix and Minneapolis.

Bus rapid transit systems, which use designated lanes and large stations to imitate light-rail routes, have gained prominence, and traditional commuter rail systems can be major draws for travelers even in smaller communities ensconced in the highway system.

“That’s part of the good news for Rhode Island — it’s not just cities that have a transit tradition,” Hales said.

The conference’s first panel, immediately following Hales’ address, brought public transport to a local level with remarks from both city and state officials.

“Our whole plan for the state is a focus on Rhode Island’s quality of life, quality of place,” said Kevin Flynn, associate director for planning in Rhode Island’s Division of Planning.

With buses in Rhode Island now reported to be leaving riders behind at bus stops due to overcrowding, Mark Therrien, assistant general manager of planning for the Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority, who was a speaker on the panel, noted an increase in riders and “an opportunity to move in a new direction.”

But audience members demanded more than plans. One woman called for a state-wide light-rail system along the shores of Narragansett Bay, only to be dismissed as unrealistic by Therrien.

“We need to go where we’re going to see a lot of development,” Therrien said. Currently, there isn’t enough demand along the bay to merit such an expensive project, Therrien said. Establishing public transportation between Warwick and Woonsocket would be a better use of funds, he said.

Panel member Melanie Jewett, principal planner for the Providence Department of Planning and Development, said Mayor David Cicilline ’83 has called for a streetcar feasibility study. Another audience member questioned the usefulness of such studies.

“We are looking at all alternatives,” responded Therrien, who hinted that a bus rapid transit system could be a less costly alternative to streetcars.

“A lot has to do with the stigma,” Jewett said. “Whether we like it or not, there is a stigma against the bus as opposed to riding streetcars.”

C ampus n ews Friday, October 26, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

i n

Br

15th University president Howard Swearer celebrated for fundraising, public service

i e f

By Hannah Mintz Contributing Writer

Steve DeLucia / Herald

Blood-stained sheets on the floor of Alumnae Hall mark the spot where a 45-year-old man fell from an upper-story staircase Thursday evening.

Man injured in Alumnae Hall fall A 45 year-old man fell about 25 feet from a spiral staircase in Alumnae Hall Thursday evening, according to officers from the Department of Public Safety and Providence Police.

The man, who is not affiliated with Brown, was participating in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting on the third floor of Alumnae Hall when he fell off the circular staircase. “He decided to show his friends how to slide down the banister,” DPS Sgt. Robert Enos told The Herald. “He was fooling around.”

Two University caterers witnessed the fall and made official statements to the PPD, according to DPS Campus Police Officer Cory Patenaude. The fall was an accident, he said.

The victim was “bleeding from the head” and may have had a broken leg, Enos said.

Students going to the Gate in Alumnae Hall were advised by DPS officers to avoid the blood on the floor, but most students did not seem fazed by a bloody jacket and sheets at the scene. The main passageway in Alumnae Hall, where the incident occurred, was not restricted by police officers.

— Rachel Arndt

Anonymous grandparent gives $5 million to boost Brown’s theater arts A grandparent of a member of the class of 2008 donated $5 million at the beginning of the summer to theater arts at Brown. The anonymous gift was received after a long pursuit of the donor by the Office of Development.

“This major gift, like all of the major gifts to the campaign, was indeed solicited by the campaign staff,” said Ronald Vanden Dorpel MA’71, senior vice president for University advancement. “In this particular case, it was solicited by the president and our associate vice president for development,” he added.

Though the donation was given generally to theater arts, it will be split up in use between the different theater programs at the University.

“The gift, as I understand it, is not just for this department but for theater at Brown, which includes the playwriting program and literary arts, our program here in theatre, speech and dance and Rites and Reason (Theater) and all the fabulous theater programs,” said Rebecca Schneider, associate professor of theatre, speech and dance and chair of the department.

She pointed out that one of the chief needs of the Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance is an upgrade of Lyman Hall, where many of its programs take place.

“We have a long list of renovation needs. We have some really poor office space, and we need lighting to be completely redone. The dance studio also needs lighting,” Schneider said. With laughter she added, “In some ways this building — we like to think of it as a well-loved teddy bear. We use it, and it shows.”

The different directors of theater programs at the University will work with the administration to determine the donation’s specific uses.

“In terms of splitting it between other programs, all of the programs are really communicating well together. We’re in a good place at recognizing collectively what all our needs are,” Schneider said.

— Linh Nguyen

Many on campus are familiar with the Watson Institute for International Studies, the Taubman Center for Public Policy and the Swearer Center for Public Service. But few know much about the man behind them — Howard Swearer, Brown’s 15th president.

An exhibit on Swearer’s life and achievements is on display through Nov. 30 at the Watson Institute. The Swearer Center created the exhibit to honor its namesake for its 20th anniversary.

In the lobby of Watson, banners depicting documents and pictures chronicle Swearer’s life, focusing on his time at Brown. Roger Nozaki MAT’89, associate dean of the College and director of the Swearer Center, said he wanted to create the exhibit because Swearer made “huge contributions” to the University during a “pivotal time.”

Looking into Swearer’s files in the University archives and collecting artifacts and documents from his family, Nozaki and Seth Aitken, program and communications co-

Chris Bennett / Herald

An exhibit honoring Howard Swearer’s presidency is on display in the Watson Institute.

ordinator for the Swearer Center, sought to capture “the vision and energy that (Swearer) brought to Brown,” Nozaki said.

“There are still many people at the University who remember him and love him,” Aitken said.

Back in the black Swearer became president of Brown in January 1977 and led the University until 1988. Swearer, who was sometimes known as “Clark Kent on College Hill” for his youthcontinued on page 6

Rhodes Center to fund U. research projects

By Max Mankin Contributing Writer

Following a $10-million donation from William Rhodes ’57 last February, the William Rhodes Center for International Economics was formally instituted in July. Though the center has kept a low profile since Rhodes’ initial gift, its director, Professor of Economics Ross Levine, has taken steps to increase its activity and profile.

Levine is serving as chair of an advisory council that coordinates the center’s activities and will review applications for research project funding. The council is organizing an inaugural conference to bring international scholars to discuss finance, trade and differences in economic development.

Other council members include Andrew Foster, professor of economics and department chair, Watson Institute Director Barbara Stallings and professors with related research interests. Deputy Provost Vincent Tompkins ’85 serves as the council’s bridge to the provost’s office.

The council has been in close contact with members of the depart-

ments of sociology, political science and economics, along with various groups at the Watson Institute, to advertise the center, Levine said.

The center’s goal is to be “less of a top down management arrangement and much more of a vehicle where innovative ideas by faculty and graduate students can be supported,” he said.

The advisory council is currently considering several proposals, according to Levine. The biggest among these is a request for support for another conference similar to the center’s inaugural conference.

Another proposal concerns funding for travel by a graduate student to Germany to collect data for a research project, and a third proposal seeks to invite visitors to Brown from international organizations such as the International Monetar y Fund and the World Bank.

The center could connect those visitors with classes and faculty to “broaden the exposure that students have and also just form a connection for graduate students and faculty,” Levine said.

Levine attributed the low num-

ber of proposals so far to the hectic nature of the beginning of the fall semester. “Given the innovativeness of faculty, when there are resources available to do research, ... there will be an intensification of proposals that come our way,” Levine said, noting that teaching responsibilities ease at the end of the semester.

Levine is also chair of a search committee for a new professor of economics, which Rhodes is funding separately from his namesake center. The search committee, which includes more than one member of the center’s advisory council, has identified several strong candidates, but “moving senior people is hard,” Levine said. The candidate, once acquainted with the University, might take over Levine’s job as director of the center, he said.

“Rhodes is very generous. It’s very nice of somebody to devote a huge amount of his or her money to supporting any sort of activity at Brown, so that’s great — it’s great for students, it’s great for faculty.

I know it’s cliched, but in the end, an individual has to write a very big check and that makes all of our lives a lot better,” Levine said.

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Friday, October 26, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Swearer’s legacy commemorated in Watson exhibit continued from page 5 ful look and large, square glasses, is credited with leading Brown out of financial turmoil. Swearer’s presidency was also marked by the creation of many academic and extracurricular programs taken for granted today.

The University was in dire financial straits when Swearer arrived on campus. Under Swearer’s predecessor as president, Donald Hornig, the Corporation consistently approved unbalanced budgets. As Newell Stultz, now a professor emeritus of political science, remembered, “We were eating into the endowment to pay the bills” — “a real no-no,” he added.

Overexpansion in the 1960s, a national economic downturn and the energy crisis contributed to the

University’s fiscal woes. By 1975, Brown had exhausted $11 million of its endowment, bringing it below $100 million.

Student concern over the university’s financial problems was high when Swearer began his term. A special issue published by The Herald for Swearer’s inauguration in April 1977 included an in-depth article about the University’s deficit budget and spending cuts.

“Morale was 30 degrees below sea level,” said Sheila Blumstein, professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences and former interim president of the University.

The solution: fundraising.

Swearer “immediately set about to raise money,” said Maurice Glicksman, now professor emeritus of engineering, who served as provost under Swearer.

By 1978-79, the University had its first of 10 consecutive balanced budgets under Swearer. The same year, Swearer embarked upon a fiveyear, $158 million capital campaign.

By 1983, the campaign had brought in over $182 million, exceeding the goal by $24 million.

Glicksman said the campaign “sort of perked things up.” By the time he announced his resignation, Swearer had increased Brown’s endowment to $350 million, The Herald reported on Oct. 19, 1987.

The public service connection Born in Kansas in 1932, Swearer spent his undergraduate years at Princeton University, where he ran track, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with high honors from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. At Harvard University, Swearer earned his master’s degree in a regional program on the Soviet Union and his doctorate in political science.

While at Brown, Swearer was committed to expanding public service opportunities, international programs and interdisciplinary connections. His work in these three fields left a lasting mark on the University.

As the name of Brown’s hub for community service projects suggests, Swearer was deeply committed to connecting Brown to the greater community. Glicksman, the provost under Swearer, said he “was very strongly interested in community service” and wanted “to ameliorate the feeling that the institution of Brown is stuck up and sitting on the Hill.”

The Swearer Center for Public Service was established in 1986. In an op-ed in The Herald on Jan. 21, 1977, Swearer wrote, “The future of private higher education cannot be divorced from public understanding and public policy.”

Swearer was committed to supporting students’ projects in the

greater community. Nozaki recounted an anecdote about Swearer taking the subway in New York to visit a group of Brown students working in the south Bronx. “He wanted to see the work and spend time really listening to students,” Nozaki said.

In 1978 and 1979, Swearer conceived of an institute for international studies, which later became the Watson Institute. Stultz, now based in the institute, said the idea for the center first emerged because Swearer “was very worried that students would believe the University was indifferent” to the importance of learning of foreign languages.

Swearer “encouraged faculty to think across disciplinary lines,” Blumstein said. He “had faculty talk to faculty to build bridges among disciplines,” she added — something that “really set Brown apart.”

In the process, Swearer fostered the creation of many interdisciplinary concentrations, including East Asian Studies and Development Studies, Glicksman said.

The man, the legend While Swearer’s most important legacy may be that he brought Brown out of the red and established several important, long-lasting programs, his colleagues remember him as “warm,” “open” and “personable.” In interviews with The Herald, they said he knew all the faculty and many staff by name and frequently engaged them in informal discussions.

Gayle Lynch, library associate at the University Archives, remembers Swearer coming in to do his own research. In her 40 years in the archives, she said, “He is the only president who came in as a patron.”

“It was just like having a student come in,” she said.

Lynch also remembers having coffee with Swearer in the Blue Room in Faunce House. “He took

a genuine interest in what you said.

I think that’s what hit me the most: His sincerity. ... You felt you could talk to him about anything,” she said.

Swearer’s time at Brown was not without some bumps. In October 1984, Brown students voted in a campus referendum to have suicide pills stocked at Health Services “to raise awareness of the foolishness of nuclear war.” Swearer said before the vote that the University would not stock the pills, regardless of the referendum result.

“The national media got a hold of it and started calling Brown ‘Suicide U,’ ” Aitken said. “The level of dialogue that (Swearer) was willing to have about it was pretty unbelievable ... He didn’t totally dismiss it, but addressed it.”

All in all, Swearer was popular on campus. Students and faculty showed their appreciation for Swearer by honoring him with a number of accolades over the course of his tenure. The faculty honored Swearer in 1983 with the Susan Colver Rosenberger Medal of Honor — the first time the award had been given to a sitting president. The tribute hailed Swearer for “the abundant feeling of security” he had “rekindled” in the faculty.

While Swearer was regarded highly by the majority of faculty members, administrators and students, he was not without critics.

According to a Herald editorial published after he announced his resignation, some people argued he focused too much on fundraising at the expense of improving the substance of undergraduate education. Others were angry because he refused to add a sexual orientation passage to the university’s nondiscrimination clause, the editorial noted.

After almost 11 years on the job, Swearer announced his resignation on October 16, 1987. Holding back tears at a press conference at Maddock Alumni Center, Swearer said, “The most satisfying feature of the decade has been the dynamism of the academic program and the stunning accomplishments of the faculty in research and scholarship.” At 55 years old, Swearer said he wanted to do something other than run a university.

According to a Herald article in the first issue following his announcement, student response to Swearer’s resignation was mixed.

In a story titled, “Many Students ‘Indifferent;’ Some Sorr y; Some ‘Happy,’ ” most students said they were unfamiliar with the details of his presidency. Some saw him as a “good public relations man” and someone who made Brown a “hot college,” the article noted.

A Herald editorial in the same issue saluted Swearer’s leadership.

“Brown will be lucky to find another navigator as capable as Howard Swearer,” it read.

After taking a six-month sabbatical, Swearer served as the Watson Institute’s first director. Stultz noted, though, that Swearer “kept a very low profile on campus” during this time.

In 1991, just four years after resigning from the presidency, Swearer died at the age of 59. In an interview with The Herald, Swearer’s successor, Vartan Gregorian, said, “History will remember Howard as one of Brown’s greatest and most beloved presidents.”

Blumstein, who was then dean of the College, said at the time that Swearer “is one of the finest of human beings I have ever known. We should all celebrate his life.”

W orld & n ation Friday, October 26, 2007

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

U.S. commanders say corruption is funding insurgency

By Alexandra Zavis Los Angeles T imes

TIKRIT, Iraq -— Iraqi insurgents and sectarian militias are funding their deadly activities by muscling in on Mafia-style rackets involving everything from real estate and oil to cement and soft drinks, U.S. commanders say.

U.S. diplomats and senior Iraqi officials have repeatedly singled out corruption as one of the greatest obstacles to stability in Iraq. But until recently, commanders acknowledge, they knew little about the murky dealings that sustain militant groups across the country.

“If you think that the majority of money is coming from outside the country to fund the insurgency, you’d be wrong,” said Lt. Col. Eric Welsh, commander of the U.S. Army’s 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment in the northern city of Mosul. “I think a majority is being done right here ... under the disguise of legitimate storefront operations.”

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, who is wrapping up 15 months as commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said shutting down the networks that finance the insurgency will be a growing priority as U.S. forces seek to consolidate recent gains against Sunni extremists in Mosul, Baqouba and elsewhere.

An internal U.S. Embassy assessment leaked to the media in August said endemic graft was crippling the government and providing a major

source of funding to the insurgency and sectarian militias. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has described the fight against corruption as Iraq’s “second war.”

“We can’t win this thing with a bullet. We can’t win it by killing everybody,” Mixon said. “We have got to attack the insurgency from what source it comes from. Part of that is the financing.”

Kidnapping rings have long been a focus of U.S. operations in Iraq. But commanders say insurgents have many other ways of skimming and strong-arming the money they need to buy weapons, build bombs, support fighters and pay restitution to their families.

Recent U.S. and Iraqi raids targeting the financiers of bloodshed in the northern city of Mosul have uncovered a criminal network of kickbacks, over-billing and illegal sales that has pumped millions into Sunni Arab militant groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq.

In Mosul alone, illegal real estate deals, in which government-owned property is sold to unsuspecting buyers, have generated $40 million to $60 million for the insurgency in the last couple of years, one source told U.S. forces. Black-market sales of gas and propane in Nineveh, the province that includes Mosul, are believed to generate a an additional $1 million a month.

Such rackets are a mainstay of armed factions across the country, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

Sunni and Shiite Muslim militias have infiltrated every node in the production, processing, transfer, sale and export of oil, the major source of government funds, said Judge Radhi Radhi , who recently resigned as Iraq’s chief government corruption watchdog and sought asylum in the United States. He cited repeated threats to his life in his work for the commission, which has seen at least 31 employees assassinated.

“This has resulted in the Ministry of Oil effectively financing terrorism through these militias,” Radhi told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at an Oct. 4 hearing on Iraqi corruption.

Sunni extremists, who last year declared their own caliphate headquartered in Baqouba, extort cash from drivers and a portion of the har vests and goods transported through the areas they control as “taxes,” U.S. commanders say.

In Baghdad, Sunni and Shiite militias have chased thousands of people of the opposite sect from their homes, which they then rent out to displaced families from their own sect. They also take kickbacks from the men and boys who line up in front of gas stations with jerrycans of fuel to sell to the customers who don’t want to wait for hours in line to buy their gas legally.

U.S. commanders even suspect that militants may have tapped into American reconstruction efforts, by extorting money from contractors and recipients of business grants.

Fires compromise border control

By Richard Marosi Los Angeles Times

TECATE, Calif. -— With flames encircling the remote border crossing east of San Diego, U.S. Customs inspectors wasted no time evacuating.

They closed the gate blocking the lanes into California, wrapped a chain around it, and snapped on the lock.

The Tecate Port of Entry officially was closed.

But not for long.

Minutes later on Sunday afternoon, someone cut the chain. The gate swung open. People began rushing through the unguarded crossing.

“Who knows if they had papers or not?” said Adan Nunez Estrada, a Mexican Customs inspector who works at the crossing.

The Harris wildfire burning the U.S.-Mexico border has created both opportunities and deadly traps for migrants, four of whom were found dead Thursday. The fires also have made the difficult job of patrolling even tougher.

Already stretched thin across the rugged mountains east of San Diego, more than 200 federal border officers have been redeployed to fire-related emergencies. Many of the remote roads they usually patrol remain sootcoated and inaccessible.

U.S. and Mexican officials say they have the scorched frontier under control -- and that the fires appear to be stopping immigrants when law enforcement cannot.

“There’s not much border patrol around,” said Luis Enrique Delgado, a Mexican immigrant safety officer from Tecate, “but many immigrants see the smoke and turn back.”

Still, catastrophe breeds chaos and some people can’t resist seizing the moment, especially when other

options -- such as crossing hot deserts or swift rivers -- might seem even more perilous.

“This is their big chance. Everybody’s doing other things,” said Joseph Cisneros, who lives near rural Barrett Lake and regularly sees migrants on his property.

Since the blazes started, agents have arrested more than 200 migrants in the fire area, many after being smoked out of ravines and trails.

Some may have started to cross before the fire. But some likely decided to cross because of the opportunity it provided.

Four badly burned men climbed out of a flame-filled canyon Sunday night. California Department of Transportation worker Don Elms, driving by on State Highway 94, got them inside his truck, where they doused themselves in water and pressed their blistered hands against the air-conditioning vents.

“They were hurting bad. They

were moaning and groaning,” said Elms.

All four remained in critical condition Thursday at the University of California-San Diego Medical Center’s burn center, along with 10 other suspected illegal border crossers rescued from the fire.

In Tecate on Sunday, inspectors at the small port of entry saw few options as the flames roared down the surrounding hills. One man died trying to save his home, and four firefighters were injured. With the roads north shrouded in smoke, the inspectors fled into Mexico, locking the gate behind them.

After someone opened the gate, the rush was on, said Nunez. People started walking and driving back and forth unimpeded. Most, he said, appeared to be U.S. residents who had been visiting Mexico and were rushing back across the border to get their parked cars away from the flames.

Iraq developed a flourishing black-market economy to counter the U.N. embargo in the 1990s, and it did not take insurgents long to realize this was a quick and untraceable way to generate and transfer funds.

White-collar criminals in Mosul are forced to pay a cut to insurgents, whose causes they may or may not espouse, Welsh said.

Government anti-corruption agencies have proven ill-equipped to tackle the problem, because of the level of obstruction and violence.

In addition to the 31 employees who have been assassinated since Radhi’s commission was created in 2004, family members have also been targeted, including the father of Radhi’s security chief, whose body was found hanging from a meat hook.

Radhi estimated that the corruption uncovered by his panel had cost the government as much as $18 billion. But he said only 241 of the 3,000 cases brought to court have resulted in convictions, with sentences ranging from six months to 120 years in jail. Now he faces corruption charges himself, which he maintains are politically motivated.

With Iraqi investigators stymied, U.S. forces have been forced to step in. Cracking the code on the way such transactions are done has presented challenges to a force schooled in more traditional aspects of soldiering.

“Imagine going into a Pepsi plant with a bunch of soldiers in 116-degree heat,” Welsh said. “In

the accounting office, you have a bunch of people working ledgers, and you have astronomical amounts in stacks of Iraqi dinars sitting literally in boxes and piled in safes. Now where do you begin when you don’t speak the language?”

It took the soldiers three visits to zero in on the manager they said was overcharging stores for Pepsi products and using his position as a cover to drive up and down Iraq’s roads with large quantities of cash for insurgent cells.

The U.S. soldiers rely heavily on Iraqi security forces and translators who speak the language, are familiar with correct business procedures and have provided key leads. But the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, is itself riddled with corruption and militia influences.

Efforts to disrupt the cells that make car bombs, a major U.S. focus in recent months, led soldiers to scrutinize the sales at used-car dealerships.

Once they had the bills of sale, they could go to the customers and ask how much they had paid for their car, Welsh said. In many cases, it was substantially more than had been recorded. Typically, the dealer was pocketing part of the difference and paying the rest to insurgents, according to information supplied by detainees and other sources -including some of the racketeers themselves, who he said are frustrated at being forced to share their illegal gains.

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Friday, October 26, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

English support for int’l grad students stretched to the limit continued from page 1 are teaching — which is advancedlevel, specialized language training — a ratio of one instructor to 24 students is standard throughout the field,” said Barbara Gourlay, the coordinator of the ITA program. Currently, Gourlay and the program’s other teacher, Kathy Brenner, are teaching classes with a ratio of one instructor to 30 students.

Compared to similar programs at other universities, Brown’s ITA program is both new and small in scope. Brenner and Gourlay said these more “mature” programs have large staffs that enable them to provide more services to a broader array of students. “The Ivy League schools have been a little bit slower to address the needs of the international students. The demand has been higher at the larger state institutions,” Gourlay said. “Brown started the ITA program in 1992, but across the nation, ITA programs were started in the late 70s, early 80s. So we’re a little bit behind. We also don’t have the generalized English language program that can support a lot of the issues (international students face), so we end up trying to accommodate things beyond the scope of a specialized program.”

At Brown, Gourlay and Brenner are the program’s only two staff members. They are responsible for teaching, administrative work and evaluating international TAs’ language needs. A team of under-

graduate consultants, who help with everything from teaching to evaluation, assists them. Even with this additional support, the program’s resources appear to be stretched.

“I think the class sizes are larger than usual. I’ve witnessed for the first time this year a student being turned away,” said Katrina LencekInagaki ’08, who has worked as an undergraduate English consultant with the ITA program for three years. “I think that most improvement comes from having speaking time and practice and getting individual attention … so the more students there are the more difficult it is to work with them individually and address their specific problems.”

Although the classes are primarily focused on teaching international grad students the language skills necessary to be effective TAs, the teachers, consultants and students all spoke passionately about the program’s role in helping international graduate students acclimate to working in the American academic system and living in the United States in general. In and out of class, many of the ITA program’s activities incorporate language learning into experiential activities.

“We do things in class such as reading Sunday comics that are fun and culturally engaging,” LencekInagaki said. “I’ve taken my students to Spike’s to have hot dogs and practice vocabular y words like ‘sauerkraut.’ ” In class, there

is also a focus on teaching students informal language tools, including American idioms, slang and body language, she added.

While many of the same things can be said about standard language classes, Brenner stressed that the ITA program’s offerings are unlike other language classes at the University in an important way: For the international graduate students taking classes in the ITA program, there is a firm deadline for achieving a high level of competency because they will all be placed into a classroom as TAs one or two semesters in the future.

“I think the program is really good for international students when we first come to America,” said Jie Liu GS, who is studying psychology. “We think we are prepared but that is not the fact. You need to pick up the language very quickly for your TA job.”

Ultimately, the ITA program is structured with this specific goal in mind. Students are expected to reach a level of English proficiency that is appropriate to the type of teaching they will be doing.

“Historically the largest number of (international graduate) students have come from the sciences, and so when we work with international graduate students, we have to help them develop communicative skills for their discipline. So we work a lot with question-and-answer interactions,” Gourlay said. “When we switch to students from the hu-

manities and social sciences, that requires some more discussion sections.”

Moving forward, the distinction between preparing science grad students and humanities students to be TAs will be key. One of the priorities identified in the September report of the University’s internationalization committee is to diversify the international component of the graduate student population by trying to attract more scholars from abroad in the humanities and social sciences. If the administration is successful in this effort, the work of the ITA program will only get harder as its students are increasingly pursuing more advanced English proficiency.

“The challenge in chemistry and physics is sometimes the international students can do lab sessions, so only they only need to get levelthree English,” Liu said. “But for psychology, I need level-two English, and that’s a lot of work, and it requires a lot of practice.”

Liu felt that smaller classes and the increased instructor attention would help international students develop discussion skills more quickly. “When I took the English class, there were no native speakers in the class except for the professor,” she said. “I think that if they got more native English speakers in the class, it would be really helpful.”

In addition to the classes, the ITA program runs a three-week lan-

guage and acculturation orientation open to incoming international graduate students. However, since the University only funds 20 students’ participation in the program, enrollment is limited to those in physics, chemistry, math and applied math.

Gourlay and Brenner both agreed that it would “absolutely” be better for all arriving international graduate students to be able to participate in the program.

Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde said she is working on a proposal to integrate the ITA program’s summer language orientation into a “graduate preparation program that would present fuller orientation and acclimatization opportunities for various groups of students that would that need that extra time,” including international students, minority students and students who start working in a laboratory early.

Bonde admitted that the ITA program is currently overstretched and argued for expanding the support available to non-native English speakers, but she stopped short of backing a language program for all non-native speakers.

In addition to the expanded orientation, Bonde hopes to standardize the assessment of international graduate students’ English proficiency. Currently, assessment is conducted in a piecework manner by department evaluations and Test Of English as a Foreign Language scores.

Students mostly pleased, some disappointed with after-hours care continued from page 1 One sophomore, who spoke to The Herald on condition of anonymity, had far less trust in Health Services after multiple visits with four different providers failed to diagnose and treat her mononucleosis. Her sickness ultimately resulted in an emergency trip to the hospital.

“I felt like I had to prove to them that I was sick. I felt like they didn’t take me seriously,” the sophomore said.

A physician in the ER recommended she visit a Providence general practitioner instead of Health Services so she would receive faster treatment from only one physician.

The student said driving the extra distance to the general practitioner is worth avoiding the complications of Health Services on campus.

Like Barlow, Deidrya Jackson ’10 visited Health Services after hours for an emergency — but she was satisfied with the result. Jackson felt that the nurse on duty acted appropriately to find the cause of her abdominal pain, which the nurse believed might have been food poisoning or allergies.

“I felt bad because I didn’t feel sick anymore by the time I got there,” Jackson said. “But the followup was excellent. I think I’d be okay about going to them for a more serious problem.”

Monica Kunkel, infirmary coordinator of Health Services, urges students to only use after-hours care in emergency cases such as Jackson’s.

Kunkel said students might not be able to receive full treatment after hours, when most services are shut down, and that too many students

visiting for minor problems detracts attention from the real emergency cases.

Wheeler said what a student often considers urgent does not fall under the same definition a clinician would use. Wheeler advises students to call, not walk in, after hours.

Katie Lamb ’10 visited Health Services after hours last year after hitting her head in the middle of the night and finding herself unable to read a book properly afterwards.

They redirected her to the Miriam Hospital for treatment.

“I think given the circumstances of them existing on campus, they do a really good job,” Lamb said.

“They are very aware of where their boundaries lie and of the services they can’t provide.”

Health Services tends to refer patients to doctors and specialists with whom they are familiar and have a history of getting patients in quickly.

For emergency room situations, providers typically refer students to the Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital because both are affiliated with the University and the Alpert Medical School, Wheeler said.

Wheeler said many of Health Services’ physician referrals are affiliated in some way with the med school. For problems that require more than basic care, patients are often referred to specialists.

“Our focus is primary care. If we think that someone needs care that is beyond the level of services that we provide, such as a typical family practice, we refer them elsewhere,” Wheeler said. “It’s when we feel that we need a more expert opinion than ours and when we need more help with diagnosis.”

thanks for reading

For a typical concern, patients will usually be scheduled with a nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant, though a physician is available during daytime hours for consultation, Wheeler said. Many students, like Lisa Gomi ’10, are pleased with the care they receive from both nurse practitioners and doctors. Gomi said the providers have been attentive and clear in addressing her concerns.

“The treatment was about what I expected,” Gomi said. “It was a little time-consuming, but it was worth it.”

Health Services’ Kunkel said she realizes that before coming to college, few students have ever been responsible for their own health treatment. Many students come in for similar problems related to respiratory illness, lack of sleep and poor dietary habits, she said.

“It’s a bridge time between being an adolescent and an adult. I think that part of what we’re able to do here is teach students how to access the healthcare services,” Kunkel said.

Working with patients to bridge the gap between adolescence and adulthood draws many of the providers, like Staff Physician Marsha Miller, to Health Services.

“I have many patients that I’ve followed through maybe eight years, followed very regularly. One of the things I like is establishing relationships, otherwise I’d work in an emergency room,” Miller said.

Health Services’ size also drew Miller to Brown. Compared to other universities’ enormous health care centers, she said Brown’s is very manageable, and even intimate.

Despite the smaller size, the University has several ser vices most other colleges cannot provide due to budgetary constraints, said Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president for campus life and dean of student life.

“The fact that we offer the infirmary and the EMS are two features that most schools don’t have in terms of their health services,” Klawunn said.

The student health fee that all students pay as part of tuition almost entirely funds Health Services, Wheeler said. Because of this fee, the University can afford services such as EMS, the infirmary, health education, nutritionist staffing and psychological services. A very small portion of Health Services’ funding comes directly from the University, Wheeler said.

“If you come to Brown you pay the health fee and you can come as much as you want without thinking of paying a co-pay or insurance,” he said.

That fee is $306 per semester for the 2007-08 academic year, according to Health Services Web site.

A number of schools, including many in the Ivy League, require a health services fee. One of the few exceptions is Cornell University and their health service provider, Gannett. University allocation funds roughly 60 percent of Gannett’s costs, and charges for visits, which are subsidized by Cornell, cover the rest. A typical visit to Gannett costs a flat fee of $10.

Konstantin Kashin ’10, a transfer from Cornell University, was used to the “bureaucracy” of Gannett that meant long waiting times and going through a series of nurses before seeing a provider.

For a cough, Kashin had to go through two nurses at Gannett before seeing a nurse practitioner.

Though he was given a same-day appointment, the visit took between four and five hours.

On the other side of the spectrum from Gannett is Middlebury’s health services, Parton Health Center. In agreement with the size of the school itself, Parton is staffed by one physician, fourteen registered nurses, and

two nurse practitioners, said Terry Jenny, the associate director of the health services. Middlebury lacks an EMS, but has a two-bed infirmary for student use.

Kaitlin Fitzpatrick ’10, a transfer from Middlebury, was frustrated by how many times providers at Parton sent her home rather than treating her illnesses directly. Fitzpatrick said she once visited Parton four times for the same illness and never saw the staff physician in her seven to eight total visits to Parton last year.

“If you want to see a real doctor — because there was only one — you had to wait two weeks for an appointment with him,” Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick also noted the difference between the ease of filling prescriptions at Brown compared to Middlebury. At the University, the in-house pharmacy can fill most prescriptions or have them delivered within a day. At Middlebury, Fitzpatrick had to walk more than 15 minutes to the nearest pharmacy in order to have her prescription filled.

“Health Services here is more likely to address the problem sooner and help you... as opposed to Middlebury — they sent you home until you were on your death bed,” Fitzpatrick said.

Health Ser vices is externally reviewed every three years by the Joint Commission accrediting organization, said Russell Carey, interim vice president for campus life and student services. The review helps the center stay updated on issues that need to be resolved within the department.

“We are constantly looking at everything that we are doing,” Carey said. “Students are not aware of how much work goes into what we do, but we make a very positive impact on students lives and are trying to constantly improve that.”

Friday, October 26, 2007

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Trudeau ’09 foresees LeBeau ’09 doesn’t hold his breath the future in the NBA continued from page 12

continued from page 12 O’Neal (still wasting away in Indy), Jason Kidd and Vince Carter (ditto in New Jersey) and Rashard Lewis (left Seattle uncompensated) staying put. When are GMs going to learn when to wave the white flag, cut their losses, sell high and improve their future? Imagine how much Philly could have gotten if they had traded Allen Iverson before it became obvious that he was declining. How many more assets could the Wolves have acquired for Garnett if they had traded him two seasons ago? The counter argument, that stars put fans in the seat, is ridiculous. You know what appeals to fans of losing teams even more than star players? Winning games.

Crazy pills, man, crazy pills.

The Bulls will reach the NBA Finals. Apologies to the aforementioned C’s, The Cleveland LeBrons and “De-troit-bask-et-balll.” The Bulls were the unluckiest team in the NBA last year, failing to approach their Pythagorean win-loss record of 59-24, which is a fancy way of saying I know more about basketball than you because my brother has ESPN Insider. In addition to adding Aaron

Gray and Joakim Noah in the draft, Chicago figures to see improvements from most of the team’s key contributors, such as Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, Ty Thomas, Thabo Sefolosha, Chris Duhon, and Michael Jordan. Haha, I’m just kidding… I know Chris Duhon isn’t a key contributor.

Eddy Curr y and Zach Randolph will terrorize the league.

Inser t joke about donuts here.

Seriously though, they’re going to score a lot of points. It’s too bad they can’t guard anyone and the Knicks will once again be watching ping-pong balls when the season ends… and not the good kind in theatres starring Christopher Walken, I’m talking about the bad kind with awkward interviews done by Stuart Scott and obnoxious analysis from Stephen A. Brian Scalabrine will tr y really, really hard. And still be the worst player in the entire NBA. Here Brian, have another Tommy point, courtesy of the New England Sports Network.

Tom Trudeau ’09 can dunk on his 7-foot hoop at home.

W. soccer brings heartbreak to Sacred Heart continued from page 12 After the early second half goal, Sacred Heart rarely threatened the Bears lead, and Brown kept scoring.

Co-captain Julia Shapira ’08 scored her third goal of the season in the 60th minute after she redirected a perfect cross into the goal. She was assisted by Keller and Kellie Slater ’10. Moments later, in the 62nd minute, Mize had her second assist of the game when she passed the ball to Kim near midfield, leading to the breakaway that gave the game its final score of 4-0. Kim, who before the game had not scored this season, had a breakout game with two goals.

Brown has scored eight goals in its last two games but struggled offensively earlier in the season.

“We need to take advantage of our scoring chances,” Kim said.

The Bears played without veteran

starters Lindsay Cunningham ’09 and Mollie Mattuchio ’08, who is recovering from an ankle injury. Additionally, Pincince shook up the team’s formation, adding a midfielder in place of a defender to ignite the offense. The lopsided formation also gave younger players time on the field.

“Everyone came off the bench really strong,” Keller said.

With the win, Brown emerged victorious in back-to-back games for the first time this season. The team’s recent success creates much-needed momentum for its matchup with the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Stevenson Field. Penn is 4-0 and first in the Ivy League and 11-2-1 overall.

To beat Penn and stay in the chase for the league championship, Pincince said, “We are going to have to play our best game of the 2007 season.”

this season?

I’d say we’ve definitely shown promise. At this point in the season, I say we’re the team most likely on the East Coast to have a big upset, and most likely to lose a game we shouldn’t because we have high variance in our level of play.

What do you think you have to do to become more consistent?

Just keep on working. This weekend, we play Princeton, Navy and Johns Hopkins. Those three teams are ranked pretty high — they’re three of the top teams in the East and they’re all ranked in the top 20 nationally. We just need more experience and we need to get better conditioned. We have a small team.

What’s your favorite part about playing for the Brown water polo team?

My teammates. In the pool and out of the pool, they’re my best friends.

I’ve spoken to a couple of water polo players, and they say there’s a lot of nasty stuff that happens underwater that the referees can’t see. Is that true?

That’s what ever ybody says.

Yeah, it’s a ver y physical sport, but by this time you just take it for granted.

What kind of bad things go on?

There’s always one or two guys on the other team who — wait.

You’re not going to put this in your interview.

How does it feel to win the CWPA Northern Division Player of the Week award?

It’s great, obviously, but we played three average teams and there’s a couple of guys on our team that could have won it: Mike Gartner (’09), Gerrit Adams (’08).

They all played great for the past couple of days and for the whole season.

What do you think your team has the potential to do for the rest of the season?

Definitely top four. I’d say we have a shot at winning (the) Eastern (Championship). We’re by no means a favorite, but our front six is as good as anyone in the East Coast. We’re starting to sub a lot more, and our subs have been doing a really good job of not getting scored on and getting our starters a rest. I’d say we have a shot of winning Easterns.

Why do you think water polo hasn’t gained as much visibility as other sports?

It’s not spectator friendly. So much goes on under water. And so many of the rules are open to interpretation. It’s hard for me to

describe what a foul is, technically, to someone who hasn’t seen a game. In football, you gain 10 yards and you get a first down. If you’re offsides, all these things are clear. It’s hard, as a fan, to watch a (water polo) game and know what’s going on.

I don’t know. We’ve all tried to figure this out. Maybe it’s not long enough — it’s only 45 minutes long per game. The thing is, it’s huge in Europe. It’s like their Little League. Everyone grows up playing water polo.

You’re studying business economics here at Brown. What do you hope to do after you graduate?

This summer, I plan on interning with a venture capital firm in San Diego and getting an idea... if that’s something I want to pursue.

As of now, I don’t think I want to do the Wall Street thing. Growing up in San Diego and growing up with the beach culture, it’s hard to imagine myself working 80 hours a week in an office.

Do you see water polo in the future for you?

I definitely see myself playing Masters when I’m older. Ever y time I go home, I coach my old high-school team and middleschool team. Ultimately, I’d like to coach, not full time, but I love the game. Staying a part of it as much as possible would be ideal.

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Friday, October 26, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S t a ff E d i t o r i a l

Diamonds and coal A cubic zirconium to Bobby Jindal ’91.5, the newly elected governor of Louisiana. Sure you were a PLME, a double-concentrator with honors in public policy and biology, a Rhodes Scholar, president of the University of Louisiana system, a congressman and governor-elect all by the age of 36. Your greatest legacy, however, was naming yourself Bobby after the “Brady Bunch” character at age four. Bravo, sir.

A pity diamond to Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president for campus life and dean of student life. You and your colleagues may stalk us on Facebook, but you still don’t have any friends in your network. So how will you get invited to the really cool parties?

A cubic zirconium to DPS for gamely sticking it out for 40 minutes while no students bothered to show up to ask you questions. Coal to the students who will protest their lack of transparency, anyway. Solidarity, brothers!

Coal to those toddlers apparently giving the maximum legal donation to presidential candidates this year, according to the Washington Post.

Even Jindal wasn’t that precocious — his foray in politics didn’t begin until age four, when he selected his Americanized political moniker.

A diamond to a recent study that showed that students who attended public high schools were generally as successful in college as those who attended private high schools. Of course, we all go to private school now.

Coal to Brown researchers trying to develop nanomaterials. It’s not the size of the molecule that counts, it’s how you use it. Zing!

A commemorative diamond to former President Howard Swearer.

True to his nickname — Clark Kent on College Hill — he saved Brown not only from fiscal ruin but also from mass suicide in the face of Soviet aggression. Bravo, sir.

Coal to Michael Pickett, vice president for computing and information services, whose main method of persuasion seems to be taking students out to dinner. If we can get on that gravy train, we’ll bump you up to at least a cubic zirconium.

A welcoming diamond to the hordes of parents that will descend on College Hill this weekend. We recall a previous Parents Weekend party called “No Pants, No Parents.” But, uh, we’re pretty sure that won’t happen again this year. Enjoy the weekend, but don’t forget why you’re really here: to donate to the Campaign!

Executive Editors Stephen Colelli Allison Kwong Ben Leubsdorf

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

photo Christopher Bennett Rahul Keerthi Ashley Hess

Photo Editor Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

Business Mandeep Gill General Manager Darren Ball Executive Manager Dan DeNorch Executive Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti Sr. Advertising Manager Susan Dansereau Office Manager production Steve DeLucia Catherine Cullen Roxanne Palmer

Design Editor Copy Desk Chief Graphics Editor

post- magazine Hillary Dixler Melanie Duch Taryn Martinez Rajiv Jayadevan Sonia Kim Matt Hill

To the Editor: I’m writing in response to The Herald’s coverage of the Richard Meier lecture (“Meier gives a window into his creative process,” Oct. 24). I can’t help but feel that the article presented a rather glorified picture of the event. Meier unfortunately did not give “a window in to his creative process,” as the headline indicates.

Meier came across as a congenial man, and the images he presented were incredibly beautiful, even inspiring, but they were just that — images.

Meier did not provide much insight into his motivation for particular buildings, his evolution as an architect, the process of designing, conceiving of ideas or solving problems, and he ultimately failed to deliver any cohesive themes. What he provided was a soupedup slide show that I could have viewed, dare I say, on

To The Editor:

Senior Editors Jonathan Sidhu Anne Wootton

editorial Lydia Gidwitz Robin Steele Oliver Bowers Stephanie Bernhard Simmi Aujla Sara Molinaro Ross Frazier Karla Bertrand Jacob Schuman Peter Cipparone Erin Frauenhofer Stu Woo Benjy Asher Amy Ehrhart Jason Harris

Letters Herald overstates Richard Meier lecture the Richard Meier architect Web site. Entertaining?

Yes. Enlightening? No. I realize that The Herald tried to present a detailed outline of the event: the crowded auditorium, glowing introduction and presentation of slides, but some of it was just overkill. For example, “Meier’s down-toearth remarks drew laughter from the enthusiastic audience — a sound that continued throughout his lecture.” Ugh! Not everyone left the Richard Meier lecture feeling exalted, wishing they had brought their HIAA 0850: “Modern Architecture” book for him to sign. The Herald need not glorify every event it covers; a balance should be struck and some attempt at objectivity should be made.

Katharine Hermann ’09 Oct. 24

Shield ’09 unfairly characterizes pro-lifers

T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Eric Beck Mary-Catherine Lader

P ete fallon

Managing Editor Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor Associate Editor

Steve DeLucia, Designers Jennifer Grayson, Seth Motel, Elena Weissman, Copy Editors Senior Staff Writers Rachel Arndt, Michael Bechek, Irene Chen, Chaz Firestone, Isabel Gottlieb, Nandini Jayakrishna, Franklin Kanin, Kristina Kelleher, Debbie Lehmann, Scott Lowenstein, Michael Skocpol, Nick Werle Staff Writers Stefanie Angstadt, Amanda Bauer, Brianna Barzola, Evan Boggs, Aubry Bracco, Caitlin Browne, Zachary Chapman, Joy Chua, Patrick Corey, Catherine Goldberg, Olivia Hoffman, Jessica Kerry, Cameron Lee, Hannah Levintova, Abe Lubetkin, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Anna Millman, Sonia Saraiya, Marielle Segarra, Matt Varley, Meha Verghese Sports Staff Writers Andrew Braca, Han Cui, Evan Kantor, Kaitlyn Laabs, Kathleen Loughlin, Alex Mazerov, Megan McCahill Business Staff Diogo Alves, Emilie Aries, Beth Berger, Steven Butschi, Timothy Carey, Jilyn Chao, Ellen DaSilva, Pete Drinan, Dana Feuchtbaum, Patrick Free, Sarah Glick, Alexander Hughes, Claire Kiely, Soobin Kim, Katelyn Koh, Darren Kong, Christie Liu, Philip Maynard, Ingrid Pangandoyon, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Viseth San, Paolo Servado, Kaustubh Shah, Saira Shervani, Yelena Shteynberg, Jon Spector, Robert Stefani, Lily Tran, Hari Tyagi, Lindsay Walls, Benjamin Xiong Design Staff Brianna Barzola, Chaz Kelsh,Ting Lawrence, Philip Maynard, Alex Unger, Aditya Voleti, Wudan Yan Photo Staff Oona Curley, Alex DePaoli, Austin Freeman, Meara Sharma, Tai Ho Shin, Min Wu Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Rafael Chaiken, Erin Cummings, Katie Delaney, Jake Frank, Jennifer Grayson, Ted Lamm, Max Mankin, Alex Mazerov, Ben Mercer, Ezra Miller, Seth Motel, Alexander Rosenberg, Emily Sanford, Sara Slama, Jenna Stark, Laura Straub, Meha Verghese, Elena Weissman

As a pro-life activist, I must respond to the column by Lily Shield ’09 (“New study indicates need to reframe abortion debate,” Oct. 25). Although I appreciated the new (and certainly important) view on the abortion debate, Shield either ignored or was unaware of certain facts concerning this public health issue.

Shield used information presented by the Guttmacher Institute, and she seems to state that all abortion opponents will immediately disregard such information because it provides statistics for Planned Parenthood. However, Rock for Life, a project of the respected American Life League, provides links to the Institute on its webpage. Additionally, though Shield referenced a study proving that abortion rates are no lower in countries where it is criminalized over countries where it is legal, the same Guttmacher Institute shows that in the United States, the number of women out of 1000 (aged 15-44) who had abortions jumped from 16.3 in

1973 to 26.4 in 1977, after Roe v. Wade was handed down. Women may not be deterred by illegality, but they clearly must have been somewhat encouraged by legality.

Additionally, Shield makes another accusation against pro-lifers that is simply not true. She insinuates that many (or all) abortion opponents believe all women who have abortions are murderers who deserve to die. However, the truth is that very few of us believe women who have abortions “deserve to die,” and in fact many of the most prominent pro-life advocates are women who have aborted their children, and we welcome them with open arms.

I truly hope Shield examines the opinions of the entire pro-life community in the future, instead of assuming that we all share opinions that fit well into an article.

Christina Cozzetto ‘10 Co-President of Brown Students for Life Oct. 24

Corrections A comic strip in Wednesday’s Herald (Oct. 24) was incorrectly labeled as “Nightmarishly Elastic” by Adam Robbins ’09. In fact, that comic was titled “Vagina Dentata” and was drawn by Soojean Kim ’09.

Due to an editing error, an article in Thursday’s Herald (“Red Sox rock the Hill,” Oct. 25) incorrectly referred to Rogelio Ramirez ’11 as female. Ramirez is male.

C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

C ommentary P O L I C Y The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

O pinions Friday, October 26, 2007

Page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Overheard on College Hill

By Laszlo Syrop and Jacob Izenberg

Who is your favorite 2008 presidential candidate so far?

Andrea Barnes ’08

My gut feeling right now is that I’m in favor of Barack Obama for the presidency.

From what I’ve seen of him, I like his attitude — he seems really positive.

Some of his policies so far I kind of agree with. Like his position on climate change — he seems to realize it’s happening and wants to do something about it. As far as some of his other policies go, I still don’t know enough about him to fully support him. I still want to learn some more about some of the other candidates.

By the time the polls roll around, I’ll probably feel pretty strongly about someone.

I really don’t like any of them.

I feel like a lot of them are promoting false images of who they were, and now they’re promoting who they want to become, which is usually different from their previous selves. Especially if you look at Hillary Clinton or Giuliani. Giuliani specifically — he claims to have cleaned up crime in New York City. But if you look at it from a statistical point of view, that’s just not true.

If you read “Freakanomics,” one of the big things is Roe v. Wade, which actually led to a drop in crime that nobody emphasizes, because it’s not politically correct.

Mitt Romney has completely flip-flopped.

He was the Massachusetts governor, and someone I kind of liked. But now as a presidential candidate, he just comes out with these views that didn’t exist before.

Hillary Clinton is playing her cards right.

That doesn’t mean I like her though. Fred Thompson — I need to look up a little more on him. I know he just entered. I think he’s probably my guy for now.

Peter Drinan ’11 My favorite candidate right now is John Edwards because he is a proponent of the war on poverty.

I believe that most of the problems that exist today are because of gaps in wealth. He wants to increase the living wage to something above $8.50, which would be amazing. I believe that the effects of increasing the living wage would cross boundaries into education and other aspects of life.

I hate Rudy Giuliani. I’m from New York.

He’s riding the wave of Sept. 11 all the way into the ’08 election. I can’t believe it.

Let

t e r s

Ex

Brown should adopt the Designated Suppliers Program

t r a

Waterfire a watered-down spectacle To the Editor: This weekend is Parents Weekend. It’s also time for bonding with family ... and going to bullsh*t events like Waterfire.

If you haven’t heard of Waterfire, you’ve been living under a very large and convenient rock that blocks out propaganda about worthless activities. You probably haven’t heard of Freshman Orientation Week either.

For those of you who have managed to find such a rock, let me tell you about Waterfire. The official Web site calls Waterfire “a powerful work of art and a moving symbol of Providence’s renaissance.” Its “one hundred sparkling bonfires... engage all the senses and emotions of those who stroll the paths of Waterplace Park.” It’s probably true that Waterfire is powerful and engaging to the senses and emotions for anyone who has never seen water, or fire, before in his or her life. I, however, grew up with an intimate connection to water, and fire made more than a few appearances, so the sight of either failed to engage my desensitized person.

I will grant that I thought water and fire together (so close as to form one word) might be a unique experience. My mental picture of Waterfire included the Providence River ablaze, flames roaring at the banks, scorching spectators who dared venture too close. Needless to say,

Paul Huber ’09

this is not the case. The water and fire involved are safely separated by braziers (not brassieres, though that would potentially be more interesting). Further, the fires are hardly the liberally described “bonfires” that the Web site promotes.

Rather, they are well-spaced, tiny disappointments, each burning an eternal flame of insufficiency. If you can push your way through the throngs of enthusiastic yet misguided onlookers, you might see their faint glow barely penetrating the dense Providence air.

Such was my experience as I walked along the river with my father, trying to find a restaurant that didn’t have a threehour wait. The fact that we could not find a table within two miles of this idiotic gathering seems to indicate something startling: everyone in the world disagrees with me. You all enjoy Waterfire and think it brings much-deserved prominence to Providence, Boston’s often overlooked step-sister city.

Maybe this is all a matter of relativity.

Relative to Rhode Island, Providence is a bustling metropolis, and relative to Providence, Waterfire is a stunning spectacle. As for myself, I prefer absolutes, and Waterfire is an absolute joke. Unfortunately, I’m the only one who’s laughing.

Samuel Loomis ’10 Oct. 23

BY ALEX CAMPBELL Guest Columnist One of the most unifying labor rights issues of the past decades has been the issue of sweatshops. Even outside of the labor rights community, the miserable wages and appalling conditions of garment workers are almost universally decried and detested. Garment workers suffer from a lack of drinking water, no pregnancy leave, denial of medical care for work-related injuries, starvation wages and the constant threat of being fired or blacklisted for complaining about any one of these issues.

Much of the debate around the issue, however, revolves around the question of whether helping these garment workers is actually possible. Fortunately, there is something that Brown can do with little difficulty that could have an impact on the sweatshop situation: we can adopt the Designated Suppliers Program.

The Designated Suppliers Program is a program for enforcing worker’s rights in garment factories by denying University apparel contracts to factories that violate basic rights to their employees. The DSP guarantees a load of work for factories with tolerable working conditions, such as potable water at the workplace and the right to organize to address grievances. Brown’s participation can reverse the trend, prevalent for so long now, of factories losing their contracts and shutting down after creating a livable work environment.

Thirty-eight schools have already signed on to the program, such as the University of

California system, Syracuse and Georgetown.

Fellow Ivies Columbia and Cornell have adopted the program, and big names such as University of North Carolina and the University of Michigan have released statements in support of the program.

So why isn’t Brown part of this program?

The administration, primarily represented by Vice President for Administration Walter Hunter, has dragged its feet in adopting the program for over two years in the face of overwhelming student support and activism as well as support from community members and local lawmakers.

Cost is not the issue: Approximately 25 cents would be added to the price of a t-shirt, which Brown community members can certainly afford. Nor is the legality of the program a legitimate cause for delay; we ask only that Brown commit to adopting the program once it has passed its pending review by the Justice Department.

Each day that Brown delays means that another factory with good practices can shut down, endangering the economic wellbeing of entire communities. Brown must make good on its commitment to becoming a global leader in social justice and sign on to the DSP as soon as possible. With the recent publication of the Slavery and Justice report, we have shown that we are willing to acknowledge our complicity in past labor injustices. Now it is time to step up and take a stand against the violations of workers’ rights today.

Alex Campbell ‘10 never wears sweatshirts.

S ports W eekend Page 12

Friday, October 26, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Foreseeing No. 6 men’s soccer looks to pacify Quakers the NBA future

By Jason Harris Assistant Sports Editor

I’m a bit rusty, but I’m hoping writing columns will be just like riding a bike if I had actually ever learned how to ride a bike.

But what to write about? The National Patriots and Colts League, err, rather the NFL, is Tom Trudeau pretty uninspiring Tru Story this year. Major League Baseball died for me the moment I saw Jeff Francis throw his junk balls to Red Sox hitters. I think the NHL season started several weeks ago, but I’m not going to pay attention to that sport until the Rangers are in the Stanley Cup Finals, at which time I’ll make pink hat-wearing, post-’04 Sox fans feel like die-hards compared to my bandwagonry. Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is, let’s talk about some pre-season basketball, baby.

I don’t mean to brag, but in addition to being a level six Halo slayer, I’m also something of a soothsayer.

I once predicted a Scott Brosius home run off Pedro Martinez. Do you know how unlikely that is? His name rhymes with atrocious! The following things will happen in the 2007-2008 NBA season: The San Antonio Spurs will make the playoffs. I know, I know, it’s crazy! I just think the Ime Udoka signing could put them over the top.

Plus Tony Parker has to be pissed about watching all those episodes of Desperate Housewives to support Eva “Longboria” Parker. You know, since she had to go to all those incredibly fun nationally televised games, in which her husband’s team almost always won and indirectly gave her millions of dollars worth of free self-promotion and invaluable publicity.

LeBron James will win the MVP award, fueled by the hatred for his situation. He grew up a fan of the Cowboys, Bulls and Yankees, so I think it’s safe to assume he’s something of a front-runner. How long will it be before he realizes that Cleveland is an incredibly boring city, Eric Snow is still the starting point guard, the second option’s name is Boobie and the Cavs are going nowhere even if he is the best player in the world? I just hope he’s a Denzel fan so that if he gets really pissed off there’s a chance he’ll say “I’m LeBron James! King Kong ain’t got nothin’ on me!”

The Boston Celtics will not reach the NBA Finals. They have the big names, but trust me as a Yankee and (former) Ranger fan, that will only get you so far. There’s a lot to like about the team — Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are all still great players even if they’ve slipped since their prime and Rajon Rondo is an absolute nightmare for other teams on the defensive end. However, the coach is still Doc Rivers, they’ll struggle to stay healthy and their bench is thinner than Keira Knightly in the morning.

General managers will continue to be gun shy about making smar t trades. What’s the over/under on mutually beneficial trades that should happen but don’t?

Ten? Twelve? More? Last season the trade deadline came and went with, among others, Jermaine continued on page 9

There’s a delicate balance in sports.

Be confident, but be humble. Respect your opponents, but don’t fear them. How do athletes find the middle ground to ensure optimal performance?

The men’s soccer team has found this balance. Throughout the season, the team has been confident, but not overconfident.

This mentality has led Brown to a 10-1-1 record and a No. 6 national ranking.

Brown’s grounded approach was evident in its most recent match, a 3-1 victory over Cornell.

Coming off three overtime wins in a row, two against top-15 ranked opponents, it would have been easy to take the Big Red lightly.

The Bears made sure this was not the case.

“We didn’t want to underestimate Cornell,” said co-captain Matt Britner ’07.5. “It was tough-fought.

It’s difficult, especially traveling all the way to Ithaca.”

Brown’s attitude showed in its performance. The Bears dominated play throughout the game.

Head Coach Mike Noonan was pleased with the win on the road.

“It was good to get a result Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo away from home,” he said. “The goals we scored were good goals. Chris Roland ’10 and the men’s soccer team will try to get one step closer to winning the Ivy League title on Saturday when the University of Pennsylvania comes They were well-conceived.” to Stevenson Field.

The win keeps the Bears as frontrunners in the Ivy League. said. “They have almost everyone Bears will have to bring energy In this position, it is even more back from last year.” to the match.

“Defensive intensity is a key,” important for the team to bring The Quakers have just three its A-game every day. seniors on their roster, and eight Noonan said. “We need to have “We have good confidence,” freshmen make up a class that has the ability to attack and make Britner said. “But we don’t take already contributed this season. decisions a little quicker. Against anything for granted.”

Freshman Loukas Tasigianis leads Cornell, we played well tactically, Brown hopes to maintain this the Quakers’ balanced scoring at- but executed slowly.” attitude and get one step closer tack with four goals on the season.

To stay on the path toward the to winning the Ivy League title Penn has seven players with at team’s 19th Ivy League championtomorrow when it hosts the Uni- least two goals. ship, the Bears have to maintain “They possess the ball well in the attitude they have had throughversity of Pennsylvania at 7 p.m. at Stevenson Field. The Quakers the midfield and are fast up front,” out the season. They refuse to be are 5-6-2 on the season and have Noonan said. “Penn plays very, phased by the fact that each competitor is gunning for them. positive momentum coming into very quickly.”

“We expect that we are going Last year, the Quakers played this weekend’s match after a 2-1 victor y last Saturday at home Brown to a tough 0-0 tie in Phila- to get every team’s best,” Noonan against Yale. delphia. To overcome Penn’s said. “When we play well, it makes “They are very good,” Noonan speed and aggressiveness, the it satisfying.”

Even without a pool, LeBeau ’09 scores

By Stu Woo Spor ts Editor

Grant LeBeau ’09 seems to have trouble staying out of the spotlight.

After scoring 11 goals on the men’s water polo team’s six-game road trip in California, he was named the College Water Polo Association Northern Division Player of the Week.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK Apparently, LeBeau got a taste of fame and liked it so much, he came back for seconds. After scoring nine goals in three Brown wins last week, he won the award again this week. With all the recent honors, we figured it wouldn’t hurt if we bestowed another upon him, as The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

Herald: With the challenges of this season — a new coach, no home pool and a practice pool 15 miles away at Wheaton College — has it been difficult so far?

LeBeau: Probably the biggest difficulty out of the pool is not so much the total amount of time — the total amount of time (for practice) hasn’t changed that much — but last year, we would practice in the mornings. We would get all of our swimming done in the morning and all of our conditioning and then we could scrimmage for two, twoand-a-half hours in the afternoon.

So it’s a lot harder to work on the team defense and offense because we have split time (in current practices) between conditioning and practicing. Our coaches do a good job of budgeting time, but it’s so much more difficult than it was last year.

With these challenges in mind, how do you think the team (12-7, 5-1 CWPA North) has done so far continued on page 12

W. soccer breaks Sacred Heart

By Christina Stubbe Contributing Writer

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

Melissa Kim ’10 scored two goals in the women’s soccer team’s 4-0 victory over Sacred Heart University on Wednesday night.

“Running on all cylinders” was how Head Coach Phil Pincince described the women’s soccer team (5-8-1, 2-2-0 in the conference) after it beat Sacred Heart University 4-0 Wednesday night. Despite being without several veteran players, the Bears, led by Melissa Kim ’10 and Jamie Mize ’09, dominated Sacred Heart for 90 minutes on a rainy night at Stevenson Field.

The Bears began the game aggressively, with several good shots in the opening minutes. Despite numerous opportunities to score, Brown’s inability to follow through on goals plagued the team early on.

Not until midway through the half did the Bears break through.

In the 26th minute, Anne Friedland ’08 passed the ball down the right sideline to Susie Keller ’08. Keller, turning toward the goal, made a run behind the line of Pioneer defenders. Sacred Heart goalkeeper Kristen Burch, left unprotected, sprinted out to meet Keller as she entered the box.

But Keller quickly let fly a low drive

into the left corner of the net to put the Bears up 1-0.

Although Brown had more chances to add to its lead, the half ended 1-0. But the Bears controlled play as they outshot the Pioneers 14-4 in the first 45 minutes of the game and kept constant pressure on their opponent’s defense.

Brown started the second half with new energy. Less than two minutes after the break, the Bears drew just their second corner kick of the night. Brown tried a short corner, putting two players on the corner to draw out the defense. Pincince said he had recently devised the play to try to improve the team’s effectiveness on corners, as the squad recently had been “stuck in a rut.”

Mize tapped the ball through the legs of Kim then ran on to the pass.

With only one Sacred Heart defender on that side of the field, Kim had the space to run into the box and set up a shot. The Pioneer defense seemed unable to react as the ball soared across the box and landed in the top corner of the goal. continued on page 9