The Brown Daily Herald T uesday, O ctober 30, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 99

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Protesters greet Colombian Ambassador Barco P’10 By Leslie Primack Contributing Writer

As a band of Brown students picketed outside the Salomon Center last night, Colombian ambassador to the United States Carolina Barco Isakson P’10 spoke about U.S.-Colombian relations and answered students’ frank questions about her country’s cocaine production, paramilitary violence and the controversial free trade agreement being discussed by Colombia and the United States. Barco urged the audience to look past Colombia’s problems and focus on the country as one of “creative, compassionate people.” “Many Americans have seen Colombia from one prism, and especially your generation,” she said. She described how Colombia was once known for coffee, then for marijuana in the 1960’s, and now for cocaine. “And yes, we’ll talk about human rights and we’ll talk about democracy and what it means,” she said, ad-

By Michael Skocpol Senior Staff Writer

As parents flocked to College Hill Friday for Parents Weekend, President Ruth Simmons sat down with The Herald to discuss a reassessment of her Plan for Academic Enrichment, recent changes in the dean of the College’s office, the University’s position on climate change and the state of academic freedom on college campuses.

Oona Curley / Herald

continued on page 6

Protesters filled the back rows as Colombia’s Ambassador to the United States, Carolina Barco P’10, addressed a Salomon 001 crowd.

Dead air on BTV may lead to station’s extinction

Stressed out? Visits to Psych Services on the rise

By Dana Teppert Contributing Writer

The static students see when they tune into Brown Television may become a permanent feature of the channel, as the student group that runs the station faces extinction. BTV has not been on the air since last semester, when sound quality was a problem and there were often long gaps between programs. Now, if the station’s student organizers do not resume at least showing movies on the channel, it will not receive any funding for the spring semester, said Undergraduate Finance Board Chair Ryan Mott ’09. BTV “has the potential to go extinct,” said Liz Backup ’08, one of only four students currently involved with the station. The others are Kevin Volk ’08, David Notis ’10 and Jad Joseph ’10. Last year, UFB awarded BTV $12,496 in funding for this semester, for the purpose of showing commercially released movies — usually the staple of the channel’s programming, along with student-produced shows. But the group was not budgeted for the spring, Mott said, because the station had been unable to show movies without difficulties. BTV has run into trouble this fall because it was “inherited as a dead organization,” Volk said, as last semester’s only staffers — Pascale Georges ’07 and Matt Listro ’07 — both graduated. Notis said he and the other current members became involved with

By Rachel Arndt Senior Staf f Writer

Brown students are supposedly among the happiest in the country, but almost one in five students visits Psychological Services each year. Moreover, that number has risen by 31 percent over the last decade, according to University officials. That percentage may also be higher than at other Ivy League schools. About 15 percent of Princeton University’s students went to the university’s counseling services in 2001, according to a March 2002 article in the Yale Daily News. About 14 to 18 percent of Yale students see the school’s Department of Mental Hygiene each year, and Harvard University’s counseling service sees between 12 and 14 percent

of the student body each year, according to the same article. The growing use of Psych Services at Brown may reflect a more stressful academic environment than Brown’s laid-back reputation suggests, some students say. But Brown officials say the numbers

CHECK-UP Third in a series on the state of health at Brown are high because the University provides easy and convenient access to services. Psych Services is “the place where students can get fairly immediate and also knowledgeable help,” said Director of Psychological Services Belinda Johnson.

G r ee k o r T r eat

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METRO

www.browndailyherald.com

Students never have to wait longer than a week to get an appointment, Johnson said, and there is also always a “crisis clinician” on call. Though students see Psych Services for test anxiety and psychoses, the most common issue is depression — both short- and long-term. Each Brown student can have five free sessions with a psychotherapist at Psych Services per semester. If a student needs more treatment, Psych Services provides a referral to a nearby doctor or therapist. Visits to Psych Service’s staff psychiatrist, Jonathan Bolton, are unlimited. Caroline Kersten ’07 went to Psych Services in 2004 for bipolar disorder and was later referred to an outside therapist, she told

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CAMPUS NEWS

peta grades U. ‘a’ Brown ranks highly in a PETA survey of vegetarianfriendly universities, thanks in part to spicy dal.

Has the University been adequately prepared to deal with contingencies such as the closing of the Smith Swim Center, and how prepared is continued on page 8

First-generation college students adjust to Brown

Rahul Keerthi / Herald Greek Council held its annual ‘Halloween on Wriston’ carnival for schoolchildren Monday.

Off-campus rush The off-campus housing application became available yesterday, and juniors are already scouring for deals.

The Herald: At a faculty meeting earlier this month, you said it was time to pause and reassess the Plan for Academic Enrichment, noting that “no budget can bear a limitless succession of good ideas.” Overall, how disciplined do you think the University has been in aggressively pursuing the goals of the Plan for Academic Enrichment? Simmons: Well, I would say amazingly disciplined, given the fact that when you look at the plan, responsibility for different areas is dispersed across so many people, so many different offices, and one of the real concerns that I had when we started this was how to make that level of effort consistent. I’ve been very gratified to see the focus, and I think one of the reasons that occurred is because we set real timelines, we gave visible responsibility to certain offices for following up on some of the recommendations. There are hundreds — if not thousands — of moving parts in the plan. So one way of showing accountability to the community was to make sure everybody knew who was doing what and could legitimately question how it was going and whether or not we were following the plan. So overall, I think pretty well.

continued on page 4

By Irene Chen Senior Staff Writer

continued on page 4

INSIDE:

A conversation with the president

Karen Pridham P’10 had no qualms about her daughter Julie’s decision to go to college, but helping her daughter through a process she was unfamiliar with was overwhelming. Julie Pridham ’10 came to Brown last year as a first-generation college student. “As a parent, we don’t have words of wisdom to encourage our students to feel free to talk to professors openly ... because we don’t have anything to relate to,” Karen Pridham said. “We can’t guide them in their first adventures out in the college world.” Julie Pridham thought she had adjusted well her freshman year, until

11

OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

halloween ho’s Alison Schouten ’08 ponders the origin and meaning of students’ smutty Halloween costumes.

she met with a group of first-generation students and realized she needed this community of support. “I never knew there were other people who felt the same way that I do,” Julie Pridham said. “It was amazing to me, thinking that I had it all figured out and I can do it on my own, and then realizing that there are really people who are in a similar boat who I can relate to on this level.” Because of her experiences adjusting to life at Brown, Julie is now helping to organize the First Generation Mentoring Group, or First-Gen, which hosted a reception for firstgeneration college students and their families during Parents Weekend. continued on page 4

12 SPORTS

w. soccer wins one In double-overtime, the women’s soccer team takes charge to beat out Penn’s Quakers.

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

We a t h e r Today

T O M O RR O W

sunny 59 / 42

sunny 64 / 46

Menu

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Tempeh Fajitas, Sweet Potato Fries, Chicken Rice Soup, Vegetarian Lentil Soup, Popcorn Chicken, Vivizone, Jelly Roll, White Chocolate Chip Cookie

Lunch — Shaved Steak Sandwich with Mushrooms, Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Sandwich, Sunny Sprouts, Vegetarian Corn and Tomato Soup, Bean and Bacon Soup, White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dinner — Acorn Squash with Curried Rice and Chickpeas, Orange Turkey, Italian Meatloaf, Vegetarian Lentil Soup, Butterscotch Layer Cake

Aibohphobia | Roxanne Palmer

Dinner — Pot Roast Jardiniere, Vegan Rice and Beans Italian Green Beans, Butterscotch Layer Cake

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

Nightmarishly Elastic | Adam Robbins

RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, October 30,by2007 © Puzzles Pappocom

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

C

o s and sw or d Lewis Edited by RichrNorris Joyce Nichols

ACROSS 1 Haw’s partner 4 Key of Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto 9 Meaningless, as a promise 14 Island strings 15 Type of schnapps in a fuzzy navel 16 Skiing champs Phil or Steve 17 Graphic designer’s responsibility 20 Follow all the other players 21 Pierre’s plane 22 Was sorry for 23 Pesto herb 25 One in Santa’s support group 28 Since Jan. 1, on a financial statement 29 Oracle site 31 Recipe direction 32 Dutch flower 33 Like Seattle, meteorologically 34 “This race is going down to the wire!” 38 Control __: obsessive type 39 Revolting one? 40 Transvaal settler 41 La Scala offerings 43 High-speed Internet letters 46 Bank pmt. 47 Pantry platform 48 Sunshine cracker 49 Goodnight gal of song 51 Garnishes for martinis 53 Make an appearance 57 Coliseum 58 “... had a farm, __” 59 Trawling equipment 60 Burger’s court opponent, in legal fiction 61 Rocker John 62 Day-__: pigment brand DOWN 1 Having a rumbling stomach

2 Barely make 3 Whimpered 4 Actor Omar of “House” 5 Accomplishment 6 Portable computer site 7 Bullet, in poker 8 Defeat thoroughly 9 Online correspondence 10 It’s sometimes held at a diner 11 Like spelling that teaches pronunciation 12 Play about Capote 13 Until now 18 Melancholy 19 Half of CXIV 23 Radar image 24 Duds 26 Sausage unit 27 Cook in deep fat 29 Basketball “slam” shot 30 Yalie 31 First king of Israel 32 Romanov ruler 33 Hwys. 34 Golfer’s choice 35 Golfer’s reservations

36 Big name in spongy toys 37 Alias, for a co. 38 “Without a Trace” org. 41 “Heavens!” 42 Dodger great Reese 43 The last words of 17-, 34- and 53Across are body positions in it 44 Israeli currency 45 Be bested by

47 Coupe cousin 48 With it 50 Attorney General before Ashcroft 51 Buckeye’s home 52 Trotsky of Russia 53 Ending for web, sky or nanny 54 “... man __ mouse?” 55 Zip 56 Vietnamese New Year

Octopus on Hallucinogens | Toni Liu and Stephanie Le

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Classic How To Get Down | Nate Saunders

xwordeditor@aol.com

10/30/07

T he B rown D aily H erald Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 Business Phone: 401.351.3260

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

Mary-Catherine Lader, Vice President Mandeep Gill, Treasurer Dan DeNorch, Secretary By Donna S. Levin (c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

10/30/07

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

M etro Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Juniors master the art of finding off-campus housing By Emmy Liss Contributing Writer

The beginning of the academic year might still be a recent memory, but many juniors have already committed to off-campus housing for next year, even though the off-campus permission process did not officially begin until Monday. Although finding off-campus housing is notoriously stressful, many juniors this year report experiencing little drama. One frequently recommended strategy is to pursue students already living off campus who can put prospective tenants in touch with landlords. Asking around lets students “get a feel for what rent is like, what landlords are like” and gives students a better overall sense of what they will be getting into, said Harry Anastopulos ’09. But the search process is still “daunting,” said Leah Rosenbaum ’09. “There’s pressure to get something good before it’s all gone,” she said. Students begin signing leases as early as Sept. 1, which makes the entire process “more cutthroat,” said Cour tney ByrneMitchell ’09. One complicating factor is the high percentage of juniors studying abroad. Byrne-Mitchell is looking to live with six other students next year — five of whom are currently in Europe. For her group, the “hardest part (of searching) has been communication.” “With seven people, different people want different things,” and having only two representatives from the group on College Hill is “stressful in itself,” she said. Studying abroad forces students to examine their options and make housing decisions far in advance. “I made some choices sophomore year about the environment I wanted to be in, talked with some friends and this year had a friend in Providence broker the deal for me,” wrote Jacob Winkler ’09, who is currently studying in Tokyo, in an e-mail to The Herald. The prospect of studying abroad also affects some sophomores, as they look to secure offcampus housing for their junior years. “If we weren’t going abroad next year, we wouldn’t mind living on campus,” said Maddie Wasser ’10, “but the issue is that nothing is guaranteed.” Wasser and her friends are planning to study abroad in the fall, which prevents them from securing housing through the housing lottery this spring. But their decision is not so simple, because Wasser and her friends do not know if the Office of Residential Life will grant them off-campus permission as rising juniors. The online application to obtain off-campus permission became available yesterday and is available through next summer. Though Wasser and her friends did locate off-campus housing, they said they were hesitant about putting down a deposit in case ResLife requires them to live in dorms. But they expressed worry that if ResLife grants them offcampus permission, by that time,

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

“there will be almost no apartments and off-campus housing options left. Things get taken so quickly,” Wasser said. Nonetheless, they plan to apply for off-campus permission, but because so many off-campus options have already been leased, they are unsure of what to expect. The overwhelming sentiment among students is that “it’s never too early to start looking,” Anastopulos said. “Doing it earlier will make you happier” because it ensures finding housing that satisfies your expectations, said Darshan Patel ’09. Looking early is also a necessity if price is a concern. Though most students spend an equivalent amount of money living on or off campus, it is possible to save money by living off campus, and “the earlier (you start looking), the more ability you have to weigh the costs,” Patel said. Extraneous costs vary greatly among off-campus options. While some off-campus residences include parking spaces and laundry facilities, many students still have to pay additional fees. What adds up is “all the little things you don’t think about,” Rosenbaum said, including, among other things, utility and furnishing costs. continued on page 7

Emergency siren system to be tested soon By Rachel Arndt Senior Staff Writer

Brown plans to test a proposed emergency siren system by the end of the year, Darrell Brown, director for state and community relations, told a meeting of the Fox Point Neighborhood Association Oct. 24. “Brown is proposing an emergency warning siren for the University ... directly in response to Virginia Tech,” Brown said, referring to the shootings in Blacksburg, Va., last April when 32 people were murdered. Brown of ficials spoke at the neighborhood meeting to inform community members about the siren system. Such community outreach events must be completed before the Providence City Council will consider an ordinance granting approval for the sirens, Ward 1 City Councilman Seth Yurdin told The Herald earlier this month. The University has been working with the Providence Police Department and the Providence Fire Department to develop plans to integrate the campus siren system with the city’s 911 emergency ser vice. “We have to go backwards to the old days of siren warning systems,” said Leo Messier, director of the Providence Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security, at the meeting last Wednesday. “I give Brown credit for having a system like that in place.”

Stephen Morin, Brown’s director of environmental health and safety, spoke about the details of the system. Before the siren could be sounded, he said, certain University of ficials — most likely from the Depar tment of Public Safety — would have to inform the Providence Police Department. Once the siren was activated, instructions would be given from a loudspeaker system. People in the area would then be called by an automatic reverse-911 system. The siren would be used in only three situations: if an “active shooter” is near campus, if a chemical is released somewhere close by or if there is natural disaster, Morin said. He said hurricanes are not be included in the natural disaster categor y, since there is enough advance warning of those events through other channels. Brown said Walter Hunter, vice president of administration and chief risk officer, plans to test the siren system sometime between mid-November and mid-December. “You will know when it’s going to be tested, and you will know what it means,” Brown said. The specific locations of the sirens around campus will not be made public to avoid vandalism, Morin said. However, he said he thinks one siren will be near the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, another near the Brown Bookstore and a third near the Sharpe Refectory. Morin, Messier and Brown said they hope the sirens will be loud enough so people both on and close

to campus can hear them. They may not be loud enough to hear in some buildings, Morin said, though in most cases the intent of the sirens will be to get people inside, anyway. The siren system will be paid for entirely by the University, Morin said, adding that the system is “really not that expensive” other than the initial cost of installing the sirens. Morin’s remark addressed concerns raised by community members at the meeting about increases in property taxes to pay for the system. Another community member expressed concern about whether children at nearby schools would be scared during the siren’s test runs. After initial hesitation, Brown said the University would be willing to work with nearby schools to teach the students about the system. The University plans to work with the Rhode Island School of Design to operate the siren system and is considering a partnership with Johnson & Wales University as well, Brown said. “RISD wants to piggy-back off of our system,” Brown said. The University’s new dual-degree program with RISD has provided even more justification for a combined effort, he said. Moses Brown School and the Wheeler School are happy with their proximity to the system, Brown said. “The idea (behind the sirens) is notification,” Brown said, which is particularly important since the University is located in a “dense, urban place.”

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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Almost 20 percent of First-generation students seek support students use Psych Services continued from page 1

continued from page 1 The Herald in an e-mail. She was so pleased with the referral that she is still seeing the same therapist, she wrote. Last year, about 285 students met with the psychiatrist, according to Johnson. “Some of those students were not prescribed medication, and other students have their medication prescribed by doctors at home or in the Providence community,” she added in an e-mail to The Herald. A national college health assessment by the American College Health Association in 2002 reported that 24 percent of all college students are in therapy for depression, and 35 percent of American college students take medication for depression. Richard Kadison, chief of mental health services at Harvard, writes in his book “College of the Overwhelmed” that highly publicized suicides like those at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University force institutions to “choose between trying to ignore or minimize the serious emotional challenges faced in college.” By his assessment, Kadison adds, “Most have chosen wisely.” Brown abides by that philosophy. “Do what you think is right for students and then worry about liability,” said Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president of campus life and dean for student life. “We really don’t make our decisions based on liability.” “There are other institutions that are more focused on the liability issue,” Johnson said, emphasizing that Brown’s Psych Services aims to do what they think is right before worrying about liability. Despite Brown’s adherence to confidentiality policies, some extreme circumstances call for a break in confidentiality. If a student is in “immediate danger of killing themselves or someone else,” confidentiality can be broken, Johnson said. “We don’t protect confidentiality at the expense of someone being harmed.” In the case of a court subpoena, Psych Services must comply, also breaking confidentiality. Last spring’s shootings at Virginia Tech and the subsequent suicide of the student gunman sparked debate about institutions’ responsibility for students’ mental health treatment. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 12.5 people for every 100,000 people aged 20 to 24 commit suicide each year, based on numbers for 2004. There have been three “probable suicides” in the last five years at

Brown, according to Johnson. Carrie Schepker ’09, co-president of the Brown chapter of Active Minds, a national organization concerned with students’ mental health in college, called liability a “non-issue” at Brown. She described Psych Ser vices as a “safe place” where “everything does stay selfcontained.” Katie Tsubota ’08, also co-president of the Brown chapter of Active Minds, has used Psych Services every year she’s been at Brown. “It’s a really great resource ... and very convenient,” she said. Brown’s chapter of Active Minds holds weekly discussion groups to discuss “all aspects of mental wellbeing,” Schepker said. The group, made up of a “core group” of five to ten students, also aims to “raise awareness about the resources at Brown,” she said. “I’ve personally found Brown to be a very supportive place,” Tsubota said. Psych Services’ funding comes from the student health fee — $306 per semester for the current academic year — that all students are required to pay each year. Johnson said she is satisfied with the current level of funding, but admitted there were “a couple of years when we were really pressed.” Schepker said she wishes Psych Services received more funding, though, to allow for more free visits for each student. “Other colleges are much more liberal” with the number of free visits allowed to students, she said. “We’d like to see finances be a non-issue.” If students have “good enough insurance,” Tsubota said, referrals to outside providers work well. But the five-visit limit is “something that’s come up” in conversations with students. Yale, for example, offers students unlimited visits to its mental health service. Though Tsubota said Brown students do not have exceptional mental health issues compared to other schools, Schepker said Brown’s high-stress academic environment is “really overlooked.” Peter Kramer, a clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior, isn’t so sure. “There is a general impression that stress is high — I’m not sure I buy it,” said Kramer, author of “Listening to Prozac.” Part of the reason more students are using Psych Services may be because “students are consuming ... different services,” he said. But, Kramer added, “There are plenty of people who think there’s an epidemic.”

Kisa Takesue ’88, associate dean of student life, said she thinks this was the first event of its kind held during Parents Weekend. Linda Dunleavy, associate dean of the College for fellowships and pre-law, is among the group’s faculty and administration advisers, and she has been informally advising first-generation students for some time. Dunleavy says the percentage of first-generation college students has been growing. First-generation college students represented 15 percent of the applicants admitted into the class of 2011. That number was up from 12 percent in the class of 2010. “I think that the culture at Brown is that a lot of the parents and students are fairly well-educated, and students have their families to rely on as a resource,” Dunleavy said. “(Students have) this whole other level of resources and support as they move through their college education at Brown. ... Students who are the first in their family to go to college don’t have that whole other layer of support outside of the University.” Last year, Dunleavy sent letters to a group of first-generation students, asking them how Brown could better support them. With a group of students, Dunleavy organized a panel of faculty and administrators who shared the students’ experiences as first-generation college students. First-Gen has emerged from students’ initiative, Dunleavy said. “It’s really important for the students to support each other and meet new students and support them,” she said. “I think a lot of it is just very personal,” Julie Pridham said. “Because Brown is such an elite school, a lot of people feel like it’s a lot of legacy students who go here, so they don’t feel as comfortable sharing their own experiences.” Shane Reil ’09, a Herald sports columnist, said he would have appreciated the chance to share his experiences as a first-generation college student with those from similar backgrounds. “There’s definitely places you can go for help and people you can talk to, but it’s not really addressed. ... You have to

figure things out on your own,” Reil said. “I had trouble adjusting as a freshman. Had I known about something like (First-Gen), it would’ve been different.” Ashley Anderson ’10 agreed that students often feel uncomfortable sharing with their peers that they are first-generation college students because “you don’t think that anyone else can possibly relate.” Dunleavy agreed. “Being firstgeneration in some ways is almost an ‘invisible other’ at Brown,” Dunleavy said. “Students can’t really identify each other, as opposed to other kinds of, I suppose, marginal status (like) race, gender.” The University may consider formal support for first-generation college students as well, Dunleavy said, adding that she chaired a faculty and administration meeting on student mentoring that touched on first-generation students’ needs. Deputy Dean of the College Stephen Lassonde became involved with First-Gen after serving as faculty liaison for a similar group at Yale, where he was a dean until this summer. Increasingly, Lassonde said, campuses are recognizing the different experiences of firstgeneration students. “For a lot of people when they come to college, it’s to transcend their parents’ socio-economic background. And in coming to college, in a way it’s kind of denying your own past, and that’s something that’s not easy to talk about,” Lassonde said. “When people discover that there are other people going through the same thing ... it’s an important moment for people individually to recognize what’s been happening to them psychologically and emotionally that they haven’t been able to put a name to. One way a former student described it as though someone was telling jokes and they never understood the punch line.” Douglas Brown, director of the Writing Support Programs, who serves as a faculty adviser for FirstGen, was a first-generation college student. When he attended Wesleyan University as an undergraduate, it took two years for him to adjust to what he perceived as the culture of privilege there, he said. “I remember when I arrived there was a sense that I was surrounded by people for whom this

was the logical eventuality, that everything in their lives was preparing them for this moment when they would arrive at Brown, Wesleyan or Yale,” Brown said. “And they were kids from prep schools high-fiving each other. I had no idea there was a huge culture of privilege. I arrived and I couldn’t have felt more like I didn’t belong.” Lassonde said the growing discussion at Brown about first-generation college experiences, which began two years ago, presents an interesting historical moment in higher education. Brown said the group has formed because a language now exists with which these issues can be discussed. Among the issues first-generation students face is the additional difficulty of applying for financial aid. The group met with James Tilton, director of financial aid, and Susan Farnum, associate director of financial aid, to discuss issues relating to financial aid, including the clarity of the application and bills. “Improving the financial aid application … and the visibility of the office as a whole would really improve the types of people who come and apply,” Pridham said. While First-Gen was formed specifically to address these issues, Anderson is hesitant to extend the group beyond an informal network. The University can do more, she thinks, to help ease students’ transition to Brown and can better address some of the underlying assumptions of privilege in the college process. “When you get a letter to (A Day on College Hill) thinking that people can just take off school, and parents can take off work and you can just fly on out there, to just have something included saying, ‘Hey, not everyone (can) just do this,’ ” would have been an improvement, Anderson said. She suggested an alternative letter offering support to first-generation students. Pridham said she hopes FirstGen will reach out to prospective first-generation students by getting more involved with ADOCH and making sure students know that they have a support network on campus. “Hopefully that will also open the door for students coming into Brown with wider ranges of experiences,” she said.

UFB funding cut may doom Brown TV continued from page 1 the station after being the only four people to show up to a BTV open house in the spring. At the open house, the previous station managers showed the new group how to work the equipment in an hour and passed on the responsibility for BTV. The equipment has been the main obstacle in getting BTV up and running, Notis said, because it is so out-of-date. “All our equipment is straight out of the ’90s,” Backup said. For example, all of the station’s material is run off VHS. Backup said when BTV co-founder Doug Liman ’88 — director of “Swingers,” “The Bourne Identity” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” — visited the studio last year during the Ivy Film Festival, he said, “A lot of this stuff is what I was using in 1988.” Getting the technology working again has been the major aim of the

tomorrow, 117 turns 100.

group so far, Volk said. The students’ lack of technical expertise has also proved to be an obstacle, Backup and Volk said, and they have had to rely on Computing and Information Services to help provide working sound. The problem with BTV, explained Volk, is that in the past it was mostly student shows, and when those disappeared for various reasons, BTV became a channel that just showed movies. “BTV is like a phoenix, and we’re trying to raise it from the ashes,” Volk said. Volk said BTV is hoping to eventually adopt digital equipment. After going digital, BTV could become a “production resource” for the Brown community, he said. Updating the technical infrastructure of BTV would allow the group to accomplish its ultimate goal: airing student-created content, Backup and Volk said. That would ideally include a

combination of student-produced shows and recorded lectures presented on campus, and perhaps even additional inter views with speakers. “Hopefully, by the end of this year, all our content will be derived from student activities and maybe a little bit of original programming,” Notis said. In the meantime, “getting movies back on that people can hear and enjoy” is BTV’s goal, Volk said — especially since that is the benchmark UFB is using the determine if the group should continue to receive funding. The group’s fall budget is being used completely for obtaining the rights to show movies, and the plan is to show movies during this semester, perhaps within a month, Notis said. “BTV is currently stuck in the ’90s, like Spice Girls. Unlike Spice Girls, BTV is committed to making a successful comeback,” Volk said.

C ampus n ews Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Brown’s reputation among vegetarians is Grade A By Helena Anrather Contributing Writer

Brown’s vegetarian and vegan menus allow for “fine dining,” according to peta2, the college branch of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The University is one of 30 contestants in the organization’s “Most Veg-Friendly Colleges” competition alongside Georgetown University, New York University and last year’s winning contestant, Indiana UniversityBloomington. In particular, Brown has been nominated for its vegetarian chili and nachos, spicy dal and vegan hot dogs. Other dishes in the competition include vegan chili cheese fries at the University of California, Los Angeles, sauteed portobello mushrooms over polenta at Humbolt State University and Moroccan vegetable tagine with couscous at Bowdoin College. The winning school will receive a peta2 party on its campus, featuring a vegan and vegetarian food giveaway. The “Most Veg-Friendly Colleges” contest, now in its second year, is an ef for t to highlight schools committed to vegetarians and vegetarian food options, according to Ryan Huling, PETA’s college campaign coordinator. Though the 40 contestant schools were nominated by students, PETA ensured that selected colleges were receptive to students’ requests for vegetarian options and have shown commitment to vegetarian food in dining halls and on campus in general. “The competition was much greater this year, because (colleges have) all started adding vegetarian options in the last year or two,” Huling said, citing publicity and student activism as reasons for the increased attention to vegetarian menus. In par ticular, Huling said, students have been organizing against the presence of more industrial companies like Kentucky

Fried Chicken on college campuses, putting pressure on colleges to incorporate local food initiatives in their dining halls. Brown students gave the University’s vegetarian of ferings positive reviews, and many cited the vegetarian sandwich bar as a perennial favorite. Lifelong vegetarian Amos Lichtman ’10 said he has no trouble finding food to eat at the Sharpe Refectory, mentioning the couscous croquettes as a particular favorite of his. A visiting vegetarian from Columbia University, junior Priya Murthy, raved about Brown’s vegetarian spread. “It’s much better than Columbia — you don’t even understand. I’m thrilled about the Ratty selection,” Murthy said. Murthy called Columbia “unaccommodating,” adding that “often the only thing to eat is wilted salad.” Columbia does not label its vegetarian dishes and has no vegetarian section, according to Murthy. The school does not participate in peta2’s competition. Some students take advantage of Brown’s vegetarian options simply as respite from dining halls’ meat offerings. Students such as Madeleine Filloux ’11, Anna Reisetter ’10 and Geolani Dy ’08 said they eat mostly vegetarian food in the dining halls due to the state of the University’s meat selection. “The Ratty doesn’t make you want to eat meat,” Dy said. “I usually only eat the vegetarian food” in the dining halls on campus, said Reisetter, who is not a vegetarian. “The meat frightens me.” “Brown is a vegan valedictorian,” Huling said, adding that he noticed a connection between top schools with motivated students and good vegetarian cuisine. “It’s a very logical extension of social justice activism to have compassion for animals. Smart people like good food,” Huling said. Dining Ser vices officials declined to comment for this article.

Ross Frazier / Herald

Late-night eatery Josiah’s has drawn a variety of complaints recently, including charges that the food lines stop serving before the posted closing time.

Josiah’s generates student complaints By Caitlin Browne Staff Writer

Hungry students were devastated last Monday night, Oct. 22, when the new sandwich line at Josiah’s closed 20 minutes early. “I called my friends really excited because I look forward to hot sandwich night — I was going to get a grilled cheese,” said David Notis ’10. “We get here at 10:40 (p.m.), we get in line and the lady says no sandwiches,” Notis described, holding up his arms and crossing his forearms in an X to demonstrate. The sandwich line officially closes at 11 p.m. “I unhappily ate my ‘spicy with,’ but I wasn’t in the mood for it,” Notis said. Notis is not the only Jo’s customer who has lately been disappointed with the late-night eatery. Multiple students told The Herald they were upset about food lines closing early, overpriced products and a shortage of condiments and other basic items.

an inuit pe r spective

Chris Bennett / Herald

Peter Irniq, former crown commissioner for the Canadian territory of Nunavut, discussed climate change from an Inuit perspective on Friday afternoon. Irniq created an Inuksuk, a landmark made of stone, on the grounds of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology in Bristol the following day.

“They often don’t have ketchup, napkins, hot sauce,” Notis said, continuing to list a series of complaints that included burnt food, bad tomatoes and high prices for baklava and Odwalla drinks. “What if you went to a restaurant and they said, ‘Sorry, we ran out of forks.’ It would be unacceptable,” Notis said, adding, “I think they should take more pride in what they do.” Barbara Stekas ’10 said she noticed that Jo’s appears short-staffed lately. “It seems like they’ll have fewer things open just because there aren’t enough people there,” Stekas said. Despite these complaints, Ann Hoffman, director of administration for Dining Services, said there are no unusual problems at Jo’s this semester. In response to a question about the grill line shutting down earlier than its official closing time of 2 a.m., she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the staff stops taking orders around 1:45, in order to allow enough time for the grill to cool

and then be cleaned. “However, at that time the staff puts up about 15 sandwiches to accommodate orders that come in between 1:45 and 2,” Hoffman wrote. The grill line does occasionally close earlier, when it runs out of food, according to Johnson & Wales University senior Alonna Tuggles, who staffs the line. Hoffman also dismissed suggestions that the grill has been understaffed lately. She wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the current number of JWU students employed at the grill line, 27, is “about on-par with previous staffing levels. ... We always try to achieve a balance between those two employee groups. The JWU and Brown student staffing levels fluctuate over time but the majority of that staff continues to be JWU students.” Casey Bohlen ’08, a Jo’s cashier, said he has not encountered any continued on page 7

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Colombian ambassador Barco P’10 draws student protest continued from page 1 dressing the protesters as they filed into the back rows of the audience. Barco discussed Plan Colombia, the U.S. aid plan to alleviate Colombia’s drug trade, and attempts by President Alvaro Uribe’s government to reduce cocaine production through eradication of coca crops, military force and reduced jail sentences for paramilitary leaders who turn themselves in. She pointed to graphs showing decreases in the size of paramilitary forces (which she also referred to as “self-defense groups”), homicides, kidnappings and poverty. She said 60 paramilitary leaders and 60,000 soldiers have surrendered to serve jail time, and 10,000 guerrilla fighters have become reintegrated into society. In fact, she said, the Colombian Congress now contains former members of M-19, a Colombian guerrilla group. Over 650 drug traffickers have been extradited to the United States, according to Barco. Describ-

ing the cocaine market as consumer-driven, she stressed the need to reduce American and European consumption of the drug. After her speech, Barco fielded questions for an hour, including some about the paramilitary chainsaw massacre of civilians, the destruction of famers’ crops due to fumigation and Uribe’s alleged connection to the drug lord Pablo Escobar. “You’re asking me all the questions I have to answer, but in months, not all in the same half an hour,” Barco said, smiling. Protest organizer Jake Hess GS asked Barco why peace activists are repeatedly killed by so-called “selfdefense” organizations. Hess and other demonstrators were protesting human rights violations perpetrated by Uribe’s government. In an interview with The Herald, Hess said the United States’ uncritical support for Uribe’s administration, despite flagrant human rights violations, reflects unease over the recent leftward shift of Latin American countries such as Venezuela,

Ecuador and Bolivia. He cited Human Rights Watch’s characterization of paramilitar y groups as an extension of the government’s armed forces. According to Human Rights Watch, 14 congressmen from Uribe’s administration are under arrest for ties to drug-trafficking paramilitar y organizations, and more — 30 in total, according to Barco — are currently under investigation. Yet Barco said the perception of Colombia as politically corrupt is misguided. The current administration, she said, is weeding out criminal politicians who were in office long before Uribe was elected, and that he is working to make politics “clean and transparent.” Still, Yesenia Barragan ’08, another protest organizer, said “the distinction between government officials, paramilitaries ... and guerrillas is very blurred.” “The group of students (protesting) is highlighting the really quite baffling labor rights violations of the Colombian government,” Bar-

ragan said. An American citizen of Columbian and Ecuadorian descent, Barragan said the situation in Colombia hits home given her family connections to the country and broader region. Her aunt is a South American trade union activist and her distant relative was murdered while working as a journalist. The protesters set up roughly 40 wooden crosses on the Main Green with the names of murdered Colombian unionists. Almost two in every three labor unionists murdered worldwide are from Colombia, according to the U.S. Labor Education Americas Project. Colombia also has one of the highest rate of internally displaced persons in the world, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Barco’s visit was organized by Brown’s Center for Latin American Studies. At 7:30 p.m. today at the Watson Institute, a forum entitled “Colombia: Human Rights and Free Trade” will explore the Colombian free trade agreement.

Court to reconsider Exxon oil-spill damages By David G. Savage Washington Post

WASHINGTON ­­­­— After the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, experts predicted it would take years to clean up the worst oil spill in U.S. history and restore the pristine waters of Alaska’s Prince William Sound. It has turned out that cleaning up the litigation left in its wake has taken even longer. To the surprise and dismay of plaintiffs’ lawyers, the Supreme Court announced Monday it would reconsider whether Exxon Mobil Corp. can be forced to pay a record $2.5 billion in punitive damages for allowing a heavy drinker to take the helm of the huge ship. The money would go to more than 32,000 fishermen, canner y workers and Alaska natives — although more than 20 percent of the original plaintiffs have died during the course of the litigation. Exxon already has paid out $3.4 billion in fines and settlements to cover the cost of the cleanup and compensate those whose livelihoods were affected. The extra punitive damages were intended to punish the world’s largest oil company for what the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called “reckless misconduct.” “Spilling the oil was an accident, but putting a relapsed alcoholic in charge of a supertanker was not,” the appeals court in San Francisco said in 2006 in upholding the award. David Oesting, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, awoke in Anchorage, Alaska, on Monday thinking the day finally would bring an end to the litigation. Instead, he received a 6 a.m. phone call from a clerk at the Supreme Court saying the justices wanted to hear the case early in 2008. The court has become increasingly skeptical of juries awarding large punitive verdicts, so the call was anything but good news. “We are kind of stunned and discouraged,” Oesting said. “After 18 years, and three decisions by the district court and two by the appeals court, we thought they would say: ‘Enough is enough.’” Oesting has been on the verge of victory several times. In 1994, a jur y in Anchorage awarded the plaintiffs $5 billion in punitive damages. Since then, the case has gone back and forth between a judge in Alaska and the 9th Circuit Court in California. The award was lowered to $4.5 billion, then $4 billion and finally $2.5 billion in late December. “It is time for thi s protracted litigation to end,” the 9th Circuit declared. Not surprisingly, Exxon’s lawyers were not ready to quit. Walter Dellinger, who served as U.S. solicitor general under President Clinton, filed a lengthy appeal in the Supreme Court arguing that for 200 years, it has been understood that ship owners cannot be punished for damages caused by their vessels on the high seas. Dellinger picked up an important ally this year when 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski, a well-known conservative, filed a dissent. He accused his colleagues of “throwing overboard” the long-standing rule of maritime law that ship owners are not “subject to punitive damages.”

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Jo’s draws students’ ire Juniors scour for off-campus housing continued from page 5 staffing issues among cashiers, although it can be difficult to find workers for Friday and Saturday nights. “All the drunk people are so outrageous that nobody wants to work those nights,” he said. Tuggles has staffed the grill line at Jo’s for the past year and a half, and she said there seem to be fewer JWU student employees this semester. “Usually there are a lot of (JWU) students,” Tuggles said, but recently administrators have sought to achieve a more even balance between Brown students and JWU students. Tuggles used to work at the Ivy Room, she said, where “Brown students complained (JWU) students were taking over.” As a result, administrators began making more of an effort to balance the numbers of students from each school. Theft is one of administrators’ main concerns about Jo’s, accord-

ing to Hoffman. “We continue to have a problem with theft, particularly during late-night weekend hours,” she wrote. Sebastian Gallese ’10 said he has noticed theft is an issue at Jo’s. “It’s a game (for students) after Fish Co. on Wednesday nights, to come and take as much food as you can,” he said. Changes could come to Jo’s in the future, Hoffman wrote, but changing the closing time from 2 a.m. back to 1:30 a.m. is not currently on the agenda. “There are still plans to add a salad concept and a pasta concept, but those plans have had to be put on hold for the time being,” she wrote, noting that she hopes those changes will be implemented early next semester. Despite some student complaints, Jo’s remains crowded both during the week and over the weekend. “Personally, I like having a place to come where I can eat disgusting food,” Notis said.

continued from page 3 Distance strongly influences rent: the closer to campus, the steeper the price. “I would have liked to live closer, but it’s monetarily less feasible,” Byrne-Mitchell said. But that doesn’t mean students will be miles from the Main Green. “I will be, in some cases, closer to my classes than when I lived on Pembroke,” Patel said. As long as you are “proactive,” he added, it is possible to live close to campus and still pay relatively low rent. Though prices between on- and off-campus housing may be comparable, on-campus living offers less to many students. “If I lived in Young O(rchard Apartments), I would be living the same distance away, but the rooms are tiny ... and I would be dealing with accommodations that are not as nice. It just makes sense to live off campus,”

Black Sea resort gears up for 2014 Olympics By David Holley Los Angeles T imes

SOCHI, Russia — The changes in store for this dowdy Black Sea resort are captured in one city official’s vision for the typical taxi driver, now likely to drive a battlescarred Russian model and wear shabby trousers and a scowl. “We want him to sit not behind the wheel of a Volga but a Mercedes,” Deputy Mayor Vladimir Boychenko said. “We want him to wear a tie, with white leather gloves and a beautiful smile.” That may sound farfetched, but don’t count Sochi out. After all, this famed summer destination, with its palm trees and magnolias, has incongruously managed to win the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Sochi’s subtropical strip of beach has long made it a premier playground for Russians of all ages, and the city’s mystique lives on despite unfashionable Soviet-era hotels and an overcrowded shore. Now, thanks to its Caucasus Mountain backdrop, city and national leaders aim to retool Sochi as a year-round money-making machine. “The victory in the Olympic race means a lot to us,” Boychenko said. “It’s really a victory. It will allow us to jump forward several steps at a time. Russians know Sochi and love Sochi quite a lot. ... We want to turn it into a world-level resort.” Many of the locals are happy at that prospect. But others are afraid that when the developers move in, they’ll lose their homes and forests, and even their access to the nearby mountains. For Russia as a whole, winning the Olympic bid in July was trumpeted as a major geopolitical victory reflecting the country’s newly restored weight in the world, which has come largely thanks to money from oil and gas exports. Plans call for $12.5 billion to be poured into local preparations for the Games, providing a major economic boost to the wider Sochi region in southern Russia. Optimists predict that the Games in Sochi will help ensure that Russia and neighboring Georgia resolve disputes over the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia without an eruption of war. “I think it’s magnificent, because it’s a huge event for our country,” said Irina Larkina, 34, who was visit-

ing Sochi on vacation and said she’d be back for the Olympics. “Of course it’s a political victory too,” added her husband, Sergei Larkin, 35. “We’re proud that the Olympics will take place here,” said Anna Ivanova, 50, who works at a Sovietera resort hotel that caters to beachgoers. “The summer season is five months. The rest of the time people don’t have proper work, they’re just preparing for another season. All the new buildings will bring more tourists. We’ll have more work to do and we’ll make more money.” The blocky high-rise resort hotels and beachside promenades have a quirky lost-in-time charm of their own. Thrilled children, young lovers and overweight grandmothers and grandfathers spend their precious days here packed towel-to-towel on the narrow pebbly beaches, turning winter-white skin into painful-looking shades of pink. In the lingering brightness of evening, vacationers stroll past shoreline shops and restaurants while the whiff of Cauca-

sian spices and the energizing beat of Russian pop music float through the air. Fighting traffic jams to get out of the city, and then climbing through a series of tunnels along a rugged river valley, holiday-makers can reach Krasnaya Polyana, the mountain settlement where the outdoor Olympic events will be held. Even in summer, the simple chairlift here is packed with visitors riding up the thickly forested mountainside into the clouds. In the summertime, the relatively narrow ski runs carved from the forest are lush with wildflowers, attracting hikers who feel they don’t need the chairlift. Winter resort boosters point to these summertime day-trippers, arguing that some warm-weather vacationers will follow the reverse pattern: staying in a hotel in the forest with side trips down to the beach. Similarly, improved transport should allow winter visitors to stay in beachside hotels and zip up the mountain to ski.

Anastopulos said. “I told myself I was going to live here all four years, but I’m sick of dealing with ResLife and Facilities.” Many students said they would choose to live off campus even if more apartment-style dorms were available — a construction project the University is considering. “I always planned to live of f campus as a senior,” Rosenbaum said. “It’s not that I don’t like Brown housing per se, but there’s something really nice about living in your own place.” One large incentive for students is “not wanting to be on meal plan and being able to have a nice kitchen,” Byrne-Mitchell said. For students who cook, off-campus living is far less expensive, Patel said. Students are also able to live in larger groups off campus, which is often impossible through the University’s housing lottery. For Patel, finding off-campus housing was ultimately less complicated than the

lottery, because fewer things “were up in the air.” Byrne-Mitchell said she felt the same way, since her group of seven would have had a hard time finding on-campus housing together. Though University of ficials have expressed concern about the separation from campus life that results from living off campus, many students said off-campus living provides a strong community environment. There are generally “hubs of off-campus Brown student activity ... where all houses are inhabited by Brown students,” Anastopulos said. “It’s a different kind of community.” But isolation from campus life is still a concern for some, and missing things like table slips at the Sharpe Refector y makes offcampus life a “step away from being at college,” Byrne-Mitchell said. And for most students, living off campus is “practice for living in the real world,” Rosenbaum said.

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Simmons speaks out on changes in Bergeron’s office and protecting academic freedom

Chris Bennett / Herald

“I’m definitely concerned about the state of universities generally and whether or not we have sufficient protection for freedom of speech,” President Ruth Simmons told The Herald in an interview Friday.

continued from page 1 it to deal with further unforeseen expenses in the future? That’s exactly the question the Corporation asked us when we proposed undertaking so many different things. Early on in the plan, we mapped out for the Corporation a set of alternatives if we discovered something along the way that was different from what we knew, so we had all kinds of contingencies built in. We could stretch out some of the timelines over a longer period of time — we could delay the start of projects, for instance — and reassign capital, which is basically what we’re looking at now in terms of the swim centers. We also knew that we’d have the option of slowing the faculty growth, for example. We’d have the option of delaying the implementation of some improvements in virtually every area of the University. So (the plan) was timed, actually, to add certain things along the way. We did not, for example, add an improved sabbatical program for the faculty right away. We are in fact just beginning to implement that. In the example of the Smith Swim Center, which seems like both an immediate example and a fairly representative one, what are some of the alternatives that the University has to weigh? One issue is, “What should we do in the interim?” It was in many ways a very controversial discussion. Some people thought we shouldn’t build anything temporary, some people thought it would be a dereliction of our responsibility if we didn’t, and there was an immediate cost attached to that. We just had the good fortune to have had a surplus where we could allocate funds for the temporary facility. The bigger question of whether we would do a permanent facility and how to finance it was really folded into the capital budget discussion, and that budget discussion is currently underway and probably won’t be resolved until the February meeting of the Corporation, in terms of timing and how we’ll do it and so forth. When it comes to a Smith Swim Center, your number one goal is to see if there’s somebody out there who wants to pay for it. And so we would be fundraising for the swim center. Secondly, there is the option of financing it through, for instance, a bond issue. The question of whether or not that’s a desirable way to do it because of the interest rates at the time — that’s a finance decision that

the members of the board make as to how we manage a variety of resources. So there are lots of different ways to do it, the question of how to do it has not yet been decided. Given the centrality the plan has assumed under your presidency and how much the University has already invested, is it unreasonable to expect any major changes of direction at this stage? Part of the process that’s underway now is to keep a promise that we made to the campus, to alumni who supported the plan and to others. I just don’t know anybody who’s perfect enough to make a complex set of recommendations and to have them be the right set five years, 10 years later. So it’s always prudent to examine what we’re doing and to ask whether something has been missed, or whether circumstances have changed sufficiently that you want to alter some of the goals that you set in the plan. I don’t expect any radical change such as, say, declaring that the plan was somehow fundamentally flawed. I doubt very seriously that will happen. On the other hand, I do expect people to say, “I wonder if we missed this opportunity,” and “Should we have had this on the list?” and “Should we add it now?” I expect there will be people who do that, if for no other reason than the fact that the composition of our faculty is somewhat different from what it was five years ago. The Herald has reported that a number of long-serving deans have left the dean of College’s office in the past year, following Katherine Bergeron’s assumption of that post and subsequent restructuring of the office. Several of the departed deans are reported to have been fired or to have sought jobs elsewhere because of dissatisfaction with the changes, and present and former deans have described the current office as under-staffed and lacking institutional memory. Do you support the changes Bergeron has made during her tenure? Well, Katherine Bergeron is an extraordinary person, and I feel very fortunate to have her in that job. By the way, I thought (Adam Cambier’s ’09 Oct. 23 opinions column in The Herald, “We’re not on College Hill anymore: Dean Bergeron and the New Curriculum”) was chilling. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an uncivil article since I’ve been at Brown. I mean, that wasn’t nice. Nevertheless, people are entitled to their opinion, but I think there’s a way to criticize offices without name-calling, and I don’t like to see us descend into

name-calling. First of all, she cares very deeply about the quality of services that students have access to. That’s number one, that’s what I obviously want in a dean — somebody who knows what kind of resources students have access to at the best places and is absolutely committed to making that happen at Brown. When you start a job, when people see what your interests are and what you care about, it is a natural process by which people decide, “Well, I’m not interested in that and therefore I’m going to find something else to do.” That’s natural. There aren’t many people here in senior positions who are the same as when I arrived. And I respect that. You could have leveled the same criticism against me, because when I was brought to Brown, I was told, “This is very important, we’re a great university, we need to do certain things in order to be more competitive. And we expect you to do that. And that means if you need to change some things, change them. If you need to hire some people, hire them.” Making the judgment about whether or not you need somebody new in a position or making the judgment as to whether or not a new person will be better — it’s the toughest thing you will ever do in your career because you really don’t know until people are in their positions how it’s going to work out. So I’m very sympathetic to the fact that she’s had to make this tremendous leap, that she has made personnel decisions. But there’s no one who is ever appointed dean who isn’t given the right to do it and who isn’t told, “Your first obligation is to make sure that the office functions well and that you have the right people in place.” I think this is a very rocky period because there are a lot of new people. ... I think it’s always difficult, when changes are made and you’ve become accustomed to certain individuals. You know, I don’t like disruption at all. I hate it. Personally, I don’t like it. And I understand profoundly how people feel when so many faces change, and it’s different and they have to deal with new people. It’s human nature to find that disruptive. But if you take the longer view, I think it’s possible to see that there are some advantages to really having new groups of people come in and bring good practices to Brown. When I am speaking with Katherine Bergeron, when I hear her stand up in front of the Corporation and talk about her excitement about the students at Brown and what they’re doing and how valid the New Curriculum is — which is the other thing that I didn’t like about (Cambier’s column): the totally unsubstantiated claim that this is a ruse for getting rid of the New Curriculum. ... That was very disappointing. But in any case, to hear her stand up and talk about how wonderful the curriculum is and the way that she supports student projects, the way she fights for resources for students to have to be able to do more (Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards), to be able to have better advising — it’s hard for me to believe that I’m seeing the same person that some people are seeing. I think she’s working very hard at it. I think that she will persist with that. I think she’s going to be immensely successful as dean. I do. I believe it. Climate neutrality has been a big issue on campus in the past year. How do you think the University can and should make progress in reducing its carbon emissions

with all the other commitments it has already made? To me it doesn’t matter what the stresses and strains are. Part of the bankruptcy of U.S. policy vis-a-vis this is that it’s always inconvenient to do something like this. It’s always costly, it’s always inconvenient. And look how long we’ve stayed addressing this problem because of those inconveniences. It’s irresponsible not to have some kind of major program addressing carbon emissions. Part of what I’m trying to get (Brown) to do is to raise our sights, to increase our involvement, to take this seriously and not just to do it on campus but to do what we’ve done in so many other areas of national and public life, and that is to take it outside Brown and then see if we can be a force for the kind of change we’d like to see in other places. My hope is that we will play a leadership role in that rather than just being a follower. I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make with an issue like this is for somebody to sit in an office and decide what you’re going to do. The whole point of it is really to get everybody involved in it. So, what I’ve been puzzling over ... is how we can move this to a level of general adoption by the campus community, by the alumni community and so forth. Ira Magaziner ’69 P’06 P’07 P’10 is doing a lot of work around the world on this, and so one of the things that he has offered to do is to come and to sit with us and give us some ideas of some of the things that he and the Clinton Global Initiative are using in projects, fairly massive projects, around the world in different countries. He’s going to be coming to campus to talk about some of this in detail, and he promised he’d bring some of his technical people also. In your first Convocation speech in 2001, you spoke of the University as a place for the free and unfettered exchange of ideas. Are you concerned that freedom of speech is at risk in academia in general, particularly as it relates to the Arab-Israeli conflict? How about at Brown? Do you think the University is currently a place where a sufficiently broad range of opinions are welcomed and considered? First of all, I would say I’m definitely concerned about the state of universities generally and whether or not we have sufficient protection for freedom of speech. We have to be concerned about that. Once universities stop being concerned about that, do you know what they become? What would they become? What would we be doing here? Practically nothing. In a frightening sense, civil society is shrinking. Powerful forces often cause that to occur, because it’s not necessarily all that pleasant to hear people criticize things that you believe in, to challenge things that you want to do and so forth. So naturally that’s the kind of thing that we have to be concerned about as universities. In general, Brown is faring better than most of our peers in this regard. In a number of different instances, I’ve been able to go to pretty controversial events and to see Brown students tackle very tough issues, challenging the representations made by speakers and doing it in an entirely civil way, but absolutely withholding nothing in regard to criticism of that person’s perspective. It has been extremely important and also extremely edifying to most people present in those audiences to see the way that students do that.

We are not here to protect people from being wounded by speech. We can’t protect them from that, because it is constitutionally their right to speak. What we can’t do is ever suggest to anybody that because it’s unpleasant, because it is wounding, because it’s offensive, we should shut it down. That’s absolutely beyond the pale for a university to do. So what can we do to make sure that we never get mired in self-congratulatory discourse? Well, the only way to do that is to work actively to bring people to campus who we know offer radically different or different perspectives. Do you know many people who say, “By Jove, I want to have that person who holds heinous views and thinks I’m a worthless person. Why don’t I have him or her come to campus?” Nobody does that. So it’s very hard to get that perspective. When it comes to world figures, I think that’s different... Because we are obligated as citizens of the world to know what’s out there, right? And much of what is out there today is anti-American, much of it calls into question our way of life, our fundamental values as a nation. Should we hear some of that? Absolutely, we should. Because how will we know how to deal with the rest of the world if we don’t understand how we are perceived> Earlier this fall, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger defended his school’s decision to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on campus, only to excoriate him while introducing the lecture. Do you believe Bollinger handled the situation appropriately? If the opportunity presented itself, would you invite a leader like Ahmadinejad to speak at Brown? Well, you can’t be serious in expecting me to comment on another president, so I’m not going to do that. So let me talk, if I may, about the way I make decisions vis-a-vis speakers. I try to remember most of all that I’m president of Brown. Like it or not, sometimes if I give an imprimatur to something, people take that to be Brown’s imprimatur, so I try to be very sensitive to that and differentiate between what is good for the campus to hear and see and what is good for Brown to be seen as promoting, acknowledging and so on. I would be concerned personally inviting anyone or sharing a platform with anyone who holds views that are inimical to what we value as an institution, because I see my presence and my role and my voice as being for many people inseparable from what this institution is. So what would I do if there were an individual who held such views and I thought it was very important for students to hear that perspective, and, in fact, important for me to hear that perspective? Then I’d want it to be on campus. But I’m not sure that I would validate that presence with my own voice, whatever form that takes. So I actually am very careful about introducing speakers. I, by and large, don’t do it unless it fits in with my responsibilities as president or something that we are sponsoring. I think it’s entirely important for departments to invite speakers that somehow are interesting and are perspectives that students should be able to criticize or to discuss, and I would never interfere with a department’s ability to invite someone to do that; nor, frankly, with a student group’s ability to do that. Whether I would do it is to me an entirely separate question, and one that I weigh very carefully.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Golden goal in 2nd OT Volleyball squanders early lead in loss lifts w. soccer past Penn continued from page 12

continued from page 12 the 73rd minute, a Penn player was left open in front of Brown’s cage, but her shot went right to Brown goalkeeper Steffi Yellin ’10, who made the save. Two minutes later, Penn took a shot from 25 yards out that deflected off Scott’s head and up into the air, forcing Yellin to make a leaping save. Desperately searching for the winning goal, the Bears pushed for ward at the end of the game. Their strategy nearly backfired 25 seconds into overtime, when the Quakers played a ball through the Bears’ defense, but Yellin came out and made the save on the breakaway, deflecting the ball out of bounds for a corner kick. Penn had another shot off the corner kick, but again Yellin made a clutch save. Neither team could find the back of the net for the remainder of the first overtime, and the second overtime nearly passed scoreless as well. But with under a minute remaining to play, the Bears were awarded a free kick from 25 yards out on the right side of the goal. With nine Bears and all 11 Quakers in the box, Carney played the ball toward the back post, and it carried into the net for the winning goal. Before the game and at halftime, Pincince had told his team that a tie would not be good enough — it needed a victor y. “There was not going to be a tie … a tie was like a loss for us,” he said. Indeed, the Bears needed to win to maintain a legitimate shot at the

Ivy League Championship. Brown is now in a three-way tie with Yale and Har vard for third place at 3-2, just one game behind Penn and Princeton, each at 4-1. “For us, it was all or nothing,” Carney said. After a shaky start to the season when offense was hard to come by, the Bears now have a threegame win streak and have won six of their last nine games. “Once you break the ice scoring, you remember how it feels to be scoring and winning,” Shapira said. “We had never gotten in a flow where we were consistently finding the net, and now that we’ve done that it seems like we’re a lot more offensive-minded and a lot more confident.” Carney agreed, saying, “We’ve moved some people around, and they’ve actually fit really well together. Some freshmen have stepped up a lot, and I think we’re clicking really well.” Those changes include moving Shapira from center back up to midfield, with the freshman Scott filling in on defense. “Ever yone trusts each other a lot more, we just have a lot of team confidence right now,” Shapira said. “I love being more offensive-minded, and I feel ver y secure having (Carney) and (Scott) behind me.” With the victor y, Yellin posted her third consecutive shutout, with six saves, and extended her scoreless streak to 291 minutes and 59 seconds. She will put that streak to the test on Saturday at Yale in another must-win Ivy League battle for the Bears.

us with (Williamson), who can attack on the second touch (with her left hand) and can hold the block more,” Short said. Outside hitters L yndse Yess ’09 and Megan Toman ’11 led the team in the third game with 11 kills combined. Yess played well in the back row, along with captain Katie Lapinski ’08 and Lizzie Laundy ’08, and all finished the match with double-digit digs. The four th game was close throughout, with neither team going ahead by more than four points at a time. The decision came down to match point for Har vard at 29-27, but the Crimson missed its next ser ve, and Toman put down three straight kills to finish off Har vard. Setter Natalie Meyers ’09 distributed the ball evenly, as four players almost finished in doubledigit kills for the Bears. Toman and Yess posted 16 kills each, Vaughan had 12 kills with four blocks and Williamson had nine to go with three blocks. Meyers finished with 51 assists and 22 digs. “(Meyers) did a good job paying more attention to their block-

ers,” Shor t said. According to Short, Meyers set up most Brown hitters in positions in line with Har vard’s smaller blockers — a tactic designed to avoid Trimble and give the Bears better chances for the kill. The match against the Big Green star ted out better for Bruno. They won the first two games 30-27, 30-22. Down 24-15 in the first game, Brown went on an 11-2 run to tie it up at 26-26. The run was the result of a swarming defense that covered blocked and tipped balls much more closely. The Bears cruised to the victor y on kills from Kiana Alzate ’10, Toman and Vaughan. Toman started off the second game with two kills and finished with six for the game in a win where Brown was in front from the first point on. Then the tide turned. Brown remained within one point of Dartmouth through the middle of the third game, but the Big Green pulled away on quick hits just out of the reach of Brown’s blockers. Dartmouth’s setter Katie Hirsch started utilizing quick back sets to her middle hitters more, fooling Brown’s blockers.

The Big Green took the third game, 30-21, and the fourth, 30-23, on similar hits that exploited holes in the Bears’ defense. In the fi fth game, Toman star ted off the game with another kill, but unfortunately, that was the only lead Brown would hold. Dartmouth came roaring back, building a six-point lead when Brown got stuck in one of its rotations for four straight points with the score 6-5 in favor of Dartmouth. Brown received a few more points on Dartmouth hitting errors, but ended up losing the game 15-9, as well as the match. “When you lose in five (games), it sucks a lot of energy out of you,” Short said. “But they came back (against Har vard), and it was a great team effort.” Toman finished with a matchhigh 21 kills and 10 digs, and middle blockers Vaughan and Mandolini-Trummel put up 11 kills each. Meyers had a superb double-double of 52 assists and 21 digs. Lapinski led all defensive players with 34 digs. Brown goes on the road one more time this weekend against Cornell and Columbia, before finishing the season with three home matches.

Sox latest title doesn’t quite compare to 2004 continued from page 12 for the MVP trophy.” “Maybe. Is Papelbon gonna dance now?” “Beats me … what else is on?” There’s no way, after Keith Foulke dispatched a weak dribbler from Edgar Renteria for the final out, that I would have entertained the idea of watching anything on TV in 2004 other than post-game celebrations for at least three days. Well, anything other than a Wally vs. Raymond — the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ mascot — cage match showdown, that is. But now, the only thing I’m truly excited about is watching Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon riverdance during today’s celebration parade. Ostensibly, there are many similarities between Boston’s 2004 and 2007 postseason journeys. Both years, the team swept the everredundant Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, came from behind to win the ALCS in seven games, then proceeded to expose the impotency of the National League by sweeping the World Series. In truth, there are only two differences between then and now. First, three years ago the Sox made an unprecedented four-game comeback against their arch-rival in the ALCS. Second, they hadn’t won it all in 86 years. As any Boston fan will tell you, those two dramatic elements made a huge difference in how they felt about

the outcome. In essence, what those two points boil down to is one simple fact: The Red Sox weren’t expected to win in 2004 but they were in 2007. That is, winning wasn’t nearly as important in 2004 as the fact that winning was such a surprise. The 86 years of suffering and torment, ironically enough, accounted for most of the joy that came when the albatross was heaved off the franchise’s neck in 2004. Well, now the Beantown Boys have done it twice in a four-year span. Oddly enough, I’ve never been more disinterested in the game. October is no longer a desolate abyss of sorrow in New England. I’ve become acclimated to that, and in the process, I’ve been desensitized to winning. Don’t get me wrong — it feels better than the alternative. There are plenty of people who will continue to be ecstatic with every title — it’s not like we’re rolling in them — regardless of the history. Maybe it’s kind of like a puzzle. Now that all the pieces have been put together, and ever ything is accomplished, I’m no longer as fascinated by it as I was before. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m glad we lost all those years.

Ben Singer ’09 does not support or know anything about mascot cage matches.

tomorrow, 117 turns 100.

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Growing accustomed to victory To say it’s a good time to be a fan of New England’s professional sports franchises would be a gross understatement. The Red Sox just captured their second World Series in four seasons, and the Patriots are 8-0, the undisputed best team in the NFL and the odds-on favorite — by a wide margin — to win a fourth Super Bowl in seven years in January. Even the Celtics are generating major headlines, with Sports Illustrated putting Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce on its cover this week. Times are so good now, it’s hard to fully comprehend how much has changed since the fall of 2004. As anyone on campus in mid-October of that year can attest, the atmosphere was markedly different then. The Sox were still lugging 86 years of futility along with them, the Patriots were the most overlooked two-time Super Bowl champion in histor y and the Celtics were far from relevant. But then the Sox completed what was arguably the most amazing comeback in the history of sports, and the Pats silenced any remaining critics with their third championship in four years that winter. Boston sports fans have had preciously little to complain about since. This dramatic shift in fans’ frame of mind was utterly apparent after Boston’s series-clinching win Sunday night. There was little doubt the Sox were the best team in the playoffs this year, and short of another showdown with the Yankees, the entire month of October was fated to fail to elicit the emotions of 2004. On Sunday, not only was the outcome expected, it was blase — pretty much every Sox fan just wanted to get the series over with so they could officially say their team won again. When the Sox defeated St. Louis for the title three years ago, The Herald reported that a crowd of about 200 jubilant students poured onto Thayer Street, chanting and celebrating. More gathered and rejoiced at Josiah’s, at the Gate and in dorms across campus. The win elicited a unique mix of relief, ecstasy and unity from the fans of Red Sox nation, reminding us that few things in life can elicit the mass euphoria that sports can. Understandably, that type of celebration was far from reality this year, as many on campus watched but few bothered to follow with the fervor of 2004. On Sunday, for better or worse, no one wandered aimlessly down Thayer hugging strangers and exchanging high fives with other fans. Unfortunately, that is an outcome of the privilege afforded to those who experienced 2004’s triumph. Nothing will ever top that win for fans who lived through it — this win wasn’t no less than the previous one in material terms, but it was far from equal. Few Sox fans will ever forget the late-inning heroics (and insanity) provided by left fielder Manny Ramirez, the scrappiness of rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia or the intensity of closer Jonathan Papelbon in the fall of 2007. But those memories won’t ever compare to the nostalgia generated by the mere mention of David Ortiz, Curt Schilling and Dave Roberts and the rest of the 2004 team. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just reality. Congratulations to the 2007 Red Sox, and to all the Boston fans out there: enjoy the good times, even if they aren’t quite the best times.

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

Executive Editors Stephen Colelli Allison Kwong Ben Leubsdorf

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

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

J ee hyun choi

Letters Islamofascism speaker responds to Herald editorial To the Editor: “Polemics don’t advance the debate,” says The Herald’s staff editorial Monday (“Ignoring ‘Islamofascism’ hype” Oct. 29), a vicious little polemic that accuses the organizers of Islamofascism Awareness Week of wanting a “fight.” The editorial preens: “We’re glad that the debate is being carried out at this level, not with signs and shouting.” Of course, there was shouting when I spoke at Brown last week, although not too much, so The Herald has every right to be proud. Very proud, considering the immense provocation they had to suffer through: “Fortunately, despite confrontational remarks made by Robert Spencer, who said in his lecture here Thursday that he does not believe ‘that Islam at its core is a peaceful religion,’ Brown’s campus remained largely calm.” Largely? Anyway, this was not an assertion I made without evidence. I drew a distinction between teaching and practice and explaining the vulnerability of peaceful Muslims to jihadist recruitment on the basis of the jihadists’ use of various passages of the Quran and Hadith (which I cited), I explained that all the schools of Sunni and Shi’ite jurisprudence have a doctrine involving warfare against and the subjugation of unbelievers. This was and is a statement of fact. If it is false, The Herald, or the Muslim community at Brown, should refute it. Anyone is welcome to refute it if they can. I can and have (in my books and elsewhere) explained it at length, with abundant citations from the Quran and Sunnah, as well as from mainstream Islamic commentaries on the Quran and Islamic jurists. But The Herald doesn’t refute it. No one ever has

refuted it. Instead, here The Herald treats it as if the very statement constitutes incitement to violence against Muslims. And in an unconscious irony, The Herald expresses relief that the campus remained “largely calm,” rather than erupt into violence over someone daring to assert that Islam is not a religion of peace. Well, bravo, Brown students! What admirable, nay, noble restraint! But if The Herald really wants a debate on the key issues, as it says in this editorial, simply heaping abuse and contempt on your opponent and being glad that nobody popped him one is not actually a demonstration of the falsity of his arguments. If you are willing to engage in a genuine discussion and debate of this question — does Islamic doctrine actually teach peace? — I am at your service and will return to Brown. If you do not wish to engage in such a debate, as appears clear, then be assured that you will not forever be able to ignore this question or act as if the mere asking of it is the equivalent of burning a cross on someone’s front lawn. Unfortunately, those Muslims who do not believe that Islam is a religion of peace, who are the ones who benefit most from the ruling of this question out of polite discourse, will continue — unimpeded by their peaceful coreligionists — to commit acts of violence in order to advance the cause of Islamic supremacism. It is more than likely that this conflict will touch you personally, and your vilification of the anti-jihad movement and your refusal to engage it intellectually may at that point look very different to you from the way it looks today. Robert Spencer Director, Jihad Watch Oct. 29

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

Aditya Voleti, Steve DeLucia, Designers Catherine Cullen, Ezra Miller, Alexander Rosenberg, Meha Verghese, 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, Chaz Kelsh, Jessica Kerry, Cameron Lee, Sophia Li, Abe Lubetkin, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, George Miller, Anna Millman, Sonia Saraiya, Marielle Segarra, Simon van Zuylen-Wood, Matt Varley, Meha Verghese Sports Staff Writers Andrew Braca, Han Cui, 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, Andrew Kurtzman, 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

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O pinions Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Halloween: the good, the bad and the smutty ALISON SCHOUTEN Opinions Columnist

Autumn is my favorite season. The leaves, the air, the apples and the sex. Or, rather, the blatant expression of sexuality that accompanies my favorite holiday: Halloween. On 364 days of the year, we must be subtle. That’s 364 long, hard days of reflecting our self-respect in the way we dress, 364 days of tearing my napkin into strips, chewing ice and peeling the label from my water bottle until it is as naked as I imagine others to be. But on Oct. 31, we can wear our sexual frustration, our promiscuous ways and the fruits of our workouts, all in lieu of a sleeve. Halloween, to quote classic dramedy “Mean Girls,” “is the one night of a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” Genius. And while some people may look down on the girl in the pink bra and panties dressed as “sexy breast cancer awareness raiser” this Wednesday, I will salute her. She is simply carrying out a proud and long-standing tradition. Though the origins of the sexy Halloween costume are unknown, a glance at historical events that have taken place in late October is quite illuminating. Harvard University was founded on Oct. 28, 1636. On the same day in 1793, Eli Whitney applied for a patent on the cotton gin. On Halloween itself — Oct. 31, 1864 — Nevada, aka the Cleavage Bearing Costume State, was named the 36th state in the union. Clearly, the sexy Halloween costume was a long time coming. Now it’s ingrained in our culture. Maybe you were exposed to it at a young age, as I was when a group of my sixth-grade classmates came to school dressed up as whores. The strange part of that was that I went to an

all-girls school. Others of you may not have encountered the phenomenon until college. I know one Harvard student who attended a Halloween party wearing the same bumblebee costume he’d worn for years only to find everyone else topless. Arguably he should have known better given Harvard’s probably deep-seeded and infamous founding/Halloween soiree. Most of you likely have an opinion on what level of attractiveness is appropriate in a Halloween costume. I see three categories of reaction: embracers, deniers and joy killers.

That guy’s not only shirtless, he’s donning a Matthew McConaughey costume to boot! Embracers will astutely point out that a seethrough leotard is a precaution against dehydration, a real issue at some of these crowded Halloween parties. Plus, it’s cold outside. My see-through leotard attracts a lot more people willing to huddle close for warmth. Deniers hold a broad range of opinions. Some deniers believe that Halloween is a stupid excuse to dress sexy. They show their cleavage all the time, so it doesn’t really matter if they’re wearing devil horns in addition to

Halloween, to quote classic dramedy “Mean Girls,” “is the one night of a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” The embracers go all out. They enter costume contests wearing nothing but underwear and exit costume contests wearing nothing at all. They rally their friends to adopt a group theme under the infallible logic that if a bunch of girls all go as the same scantily clad version of something, it’s the amount of clothes the group wears in total on which others can judge them. These people may attempt to shield themselves from criticism by giving their exhibitionist outfit a creative spin. Is that girl wearing clothes? Nope, not any real clothes, she’s just dressed up as Saran Wrap!

that staple American Apparel mini dress that makes their nipples look so cute. Other deniers will just wear an outfit they normally wouldn’t have the confidence to wear and agree with whatever other people guess they’re dressed up as. It hurts when someone guesses fifth grade teacher when you were going for five star hooker, but since every weekend people ask me if I’m going to an 80s party, I don’t have too much sympathy. Others will come up with really creative costumes that just happen to be attractive. Oh my God, you’re a Greek God/aerobics instructor/hot celebrity/ironic

imitation of a friend who is better-looking than you! No, you’re just in slutty Halloween costume denial. Finally, we have the joy killers. They scoff at sexy costumes, which objectify bodies and sully the good name of cheerleaders and nurses nationwide. They instead prefer to dress up as witches (totally ignoring how offensive that is to ancestors of those persecuted during the Salem witch trials) and pumpkins (never acknowledging how pumpkin farming has led to deforestation and defamation of the Dutch national color by associating orange with the sinister jack-o’-lantern figure). Joy killers are probably right. Halloween has become an opportune time for self-degradation. But so many people want to be wrong. No matter where you fit in, we can all agree that we’ve departed from the days during which trick-or-treating didn’t involve condoms or Jell-O shots. When we have children of our own, we’ll feel just a little gross making their costumes. We’ll remember that guy dressed as a ghost who had cut the holes in the sheet in slightly different places. That girl who dressed as sexy Sleeping Beauty and the ironic rape jokes that followed her passing out on the couch post-vomit. Grinding with a nun. Gone are the innocent pagan getups of yore. We have entered a new realm of creativity, one in which sexual expression takes the form of sexual objectification. We have the opportunity, the duty, to hook up with someone who actually wants to resemble Al Gore on some level, even if that level is reached via a bikini she can wear in October due to global warming. How lucky we are, as a sexually liberated generation! The new millennium offers so many new freedoms! Which is why I’m going to dress up as slutty Y2K.

Alison Schouten ’08 thinks you are what you wear. Especially you, boy dressed as a sexy Goldfish snack cracker. Yeah you are.

A love to last past Saturday night RENATA SAGO Opinions Columnist

How many times have we heard, “College is all about the experience” — that second-rate remark that is usually uttered after receiving a failing grade or changing majors for the ninth time? Yes, college is an “experience” — ideally, constant opportunities for academic and personal growth. It is during our college years that we attain fulfillment through the pursuit of the seemingly impossible. We immerse ourselves in a new environment, interacting with diverse groups and stumbling upon our first situations as “adults.” In my time at Brown I have eagerly — and sometimes reluctantly — faced opportunities that have tested my level of maturity. I have found that the most exciting part of college is social networking, fostering relationships with fellow alluring Brunonians. For some, being pulled into Brown’s dating scene is easy (unless you’re a misanthrope or socially awkward — and even awkward people are compelled to seek companionship). By far, it has been Brown’s dating scene that has rendered my perspective of this so-called “college experience” quite cynical. It is my introduction to the increasingly prevalent college phenomenon of “hooking up” that has led me to question what I want from my college experience — and it does not include shame and guilt after a night of libertine action. After endless discussions with friends,

I have concluded that “hooking up” is relative. It can mean participating in a thirty-minute make-out session with a random person at a Machado party, disappearing into a dark corner while holding a random person’s hand or sauntering into a random person’s room to engage in disturbingly random activities. Key ideas we should take away from these examples are spontaneity, physical affection

possibility of “hooking up” with someone who has ill intentions and has little shame in taking advantage of you. I could provide a thousand possible conclusions to this nonsensical reverse process of handling physical attraction. Brunonians, “hooking up” is problematic. It has taken me so long to understand the concept because it is so ridiculous. Sure, it is an ideal occurrence for wanton college students

An innocent make-out session at that Buxton party could turn into an unfortunate herpes exam session with Health Services. and emotional detachment. “Hooking up” is temporary, yet frequent, requiring little obligation. It is, in short, an “opportunity” to engage in reckless behavior that could lead to an undesirable ending. Let us think about this. An innocent makeout session at that Buxton party could turn into an unfortunate herpes exam session with Health Services. Perhaps sneaking off into that shady corner with that random person could lead to your later realization that that person is that awfully obnoxious student in your economics class. There is always the

with little value for their feelings or physical safety. However, it devaluates the traditional dating experience — the actual process of becoming acquainted with an individual — before familiarizing oneself with physical attributes. People who “hook up” belong to a distinct culture. They are capable of sharing physical gratification with a stranger and having little emotional attachment. I view relationships as a process, one in which physical interaction is at the end. For me, physical interaction comes with a certain level of trust and understanding — a level that cannot be gained within two

minutes of contact with a random person in the middle of a stuffy room filled with crazed drunkards. A lot of times after people have hooked up, they feel guilty or embarrassed. They will see the random person they “experienced” in passing and will not even be able to make eye contact. Some people have hooked up so many times that they cannot be viewed as anything beyond a temporary thrill. Is this the kind of college experience we want to remember? There is a difference between liberal and libertine, between careless and reckless, between sociable and sexual. Newsflash: “hooking up” is trite and tasteless. Are we so curious that we have to exploit the dating scene, “experiencing” every individual on this campus? How can we be taken seriously as students when we do not even take ourselves seriously? I am not requesting that we lose our sense of adventure and excitement in meeting other people. Neither am I asking that we have the intention of entering a relationship with every person that we meet (which would be slightly weird). I am, however, requesting that we actually take the time to “meet” people, that we respect ourselves. Brown is teeming with phenomenal individuals. We are distinctively innovative, intelligent, insightful, diligent and witty. “Hooking up” is so beyond us. Let us transcend, Brunonians. Let us have experiences that we can be proud of, that do not involve promiscuity, guilt and uncertainty. I implore that we not fall victim to the temptation of physical attraction and that we pursue meaningful friendships. In the long run it will be more beneficial.

Renata Sago ’10 is thinking about hooking up.

S ports T uesday Page 12

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Ivy dreams not dead yet as w. soccer defeats Penn

Red Sox are World Champs? Ho-hum

been on fire … what she’s done individually as far as stepping up her personal play has been electrifying for us.” Still, toward the end of the half and after being outplayed and outhustled for the majority of the first 70-plus minutes, Penn showed why it sits atop the Ivy League in crunch time. The Quakers began to control the tempo and set up for good shots down the stretch. In

I don’t want to be a Debbie-downer, but I really wasn’t all that excited Sunday night when the Red Sox clinched their second World Series title in four years. Say what you will about the team putting up the largest r un differential ever in a Ben Singer World Series or a High Notes postseason — 99 r uns scored to only 46 allowed. That is certainly impressive. And it’s not like Boston breezed by everyone in the playoffs — I know I’m not the only one whose pockets are feeling lighter after Beantown dropped three in a row to Cleveland. But this wasn’t 2004. Wait, I know what you’re thinking. This isn’t going to be another whiny rant by some smug Boston fan gloating about the hardship of having multiple championship sports franchises, is it? Well, sort of. There’s a little more to it than that. Let me explain. After Seth Smith whiffed at a 2-2 fastball, somewhere in between Joe Buck’s ego-massage and Varitek throttling a convulsing Papelbon, I called up a friend from Boston. “Is it wrong that watching grown men play a kids’ game makes me so happy?” “Yeah, that’s pretty cool. It would have been better if they had finished it in Boston, though.” “True. Who do you think will be MVP?” “I dunno. Josh Beckett didn’t get enough starts, so I have no clue. Maybe Wally. No ... Raymond.” “Maybe Wally and Raymond could duke it out in a cage match

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By Evan Kantor Spor ts Staf f Writer

With 18 seconds remaining in double overtime and a chance at the Ivy League title hanging in the balance, co-captain Kerrilynn Carney ’08 drilled a free kick from 25 yards out off the goalkeeper’s hand and into the net to secure a crucial 1-0 win for the women’s soccer team. In thrilling fashion, the Bears dealt the University of Pennsylvania its first Ivy League loss at Stevenson Field Sunday, snapping the Quakers’ six-game win streak. “I was going for far post … (thinking) hopefully someone gets a head on it,” Carney said. “But it just kept sailing, and then she tipped it into the net.” The goal came after almost 110 minutes of scoreless play, with the Bears (6-8-1, 3-2 Ivy) battling the league-leading Quakers (11-3-1, 4-1 Ivy) the whole way. Brown earned the first scoring opportunity of the match in the eighth minute off a corner kick. Melissa Kim ’10 crossed the ball beyond a crowd of players to Anne Friedland ’08, who crossed the ball back to Bridget Ballard ’10, but Ballard’s header sailed over the goal. Brown controlled play for much of the first half and had several scoring chances. In the 14th minute, the ball was loose in front of the Quakers’ goal — but unfortunately, the Bears could not get a clean whack at the ball, and it was eventually cleared. Six minutes later, the Bears had another opportunity to score after Penn’s goalkeeper, Sara Rose, did not

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

With time ticking down against Penn on Saturday, Kerrilynn Carney ’08 buried a free kick to give the women’s soccer team a much-needed victory.

handle a Friedland cross cleanly. Co-captain Julia Shapira ’08 onetimed the rebound, but Rose made the save to keep Brown off the board. The Quakers had a scoring opportunity of their own in the 41st minute when they snuck behind the Bears’ defense on a through ball, but Kate Scott ’11 used her speed to catch up and clear the ball out of danger. After halftime, the Bears had another great chance to score in

the 67th minute. Shapira played the ball to the wing to Lindsay Cunningham ’09, who crossed it to Susie Keller ’08. Keller took a shot that was tipped by the goalie off the crossbar and then cleared. After the missed opportunity, Keller stepped up her game in a big way, winning nearly ever y 50-50 ball and playing with loads of confidence. Head Coach Phil Pincince praised her play, saying, “Susie Keller, the last few games, has

Volleyball digs deep to beat Harvard, falls to Big Green By Amy Ehrhart Assistant Spor ts Editor

This weekend, the volleyball team almost duplicated the magic it produced in sweeping two matches at home two weeks ago, but though the Bears beat Har vard in four games Saturday, they fell to Dartmouth in five games Friday. The mixed results put Brown at 3-6 in the Ivy League and 5-14 overall. “(Friday) night was disappointing, but I was proud of the way they came back (against Harvard),” said Head Coach Diane Short. The Bears opened up slowly against Har vard on Saturday, losing 30-18 in the first game. But they rebounded in the second for a win by the identical score, before settling down for 30-23 and 31-29 wins for their third Ivy League victor y. “We had an elevated level of intensity for Har vard,” said Brianna Williamson ’11, who had nine kills and led the team with a .286 hitting percentage. Brown relinquished the first game when it had trouble adjusting its blocking and ser ve-receive to Har vard’s tall lineup, which included 6-foot 2-inch Suzie Trimble. In the second game, the Brown blockers found their marks, helping the offense heat up in the pro-

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

Natalie Meyers ’09 had more than 40 digs in two matches this weekend.

cess. Brown opened up with a 14-5 run that was punctuated by middle blocker Danielle Vaughan ’11 hitting Har vard’s libero in the face with a kill. Four points later, Julie Mandolini-Trummel ’08 delivered another facial, much to the delight of the Parents Weekend crowd.

Williamson dispensed some hard, left-handed hits of her own to keep the lead above double digits, and a Mandolini-Trummel block finished the game for the Bears. “It was a better match-up for continued on page 9

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M. and w. icers stumble in openers The men’s and women’s hockey teams both came up short in their season-opening games this weekend. The men’s squad fell 2-0 to Yale on Saturday, while the women’s team lost 3-1 to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute the same day. The men’s team traveled to New Haven, Conn., for its matchup. The Bears and Bulldogs are both members of the ECACHL but the game will not count toward the league standings. The Bears and Bulldogs went scoreless in the first period, but 16:11 into the second period, Yale’s Matt Nelson took a pass from David Germain behind the net and sent it to Jean-Francois Boucher who one-timed the pass on net. Goaltender Dan Rosen ’10 made the initial save but Boucher collected the rebound and threw the second chance by Rosen. At 8:46 in the third period, the Bulldogs scored again in the same fashion when Rosen deflected an initial shot from Mike Matczack but Michael Karwoski buried the rebound. The Bears were unable to post a goal of their own during the remainder of the game. Rosen recorded a total of 30 saves in the 2-0 loss. The women’s team was also unsuccessful at Houston Field House in Troy, N.Y. Only 8:13 into the game, the Engineers took a 1-0 lead when Allysen Weidner bounced the puck off the shoulder of goaltender Nicole Stock ’09 and into the net. But a little more than eight minutes later, Erin Connors ’10 evened the contest at 1-1, scoring off the rebound of a shot by Andrea Hunter ’10. Unfortunately, the Engineers were not finished scoring. RPI’s Allison Wright tallied two more goals, once in the second period and again in the third period. Meanwhile, the Bears could not capitalize on their own scoring opportunities, leaving New York with a 3-1 defeat. Stock tallied 31 saves for the day. Next weekend, both hockey squads will be back in action. The men’s team will travel to New York to take on Union College and RPI on Friday and Saturday, and the women’s team will host Yale at 2 p.m. on Saturday, then head to Storrs, Conn. on Sunday to face the University of Connecticut. — Erin Frauenhofer