C ampus n ews Wednesday, October 31, 2007
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Independent study projects allow students to be architects of their own courses By George Miller Contributing Writer
As the deadline to submit proposals for Independent Study Projects approaches, administrators are preparing to review proposals for the spring semester. ISPs and Group Independent Study Projects, or GISPs, are designed to allow students to create their own courses to fill gaps in the University’s formal offerings. With a faculty sponsor and a custom-made syllabus, a single student or group of students can get college credit for courses of their own design. But frequently, ISP proposals are “more appropriate to an evening adult education class than to a university,” said J. William Suggs, associate professor of chemistr y and biochemistr y and a member of the independent concentrations subcommittee of the College Curriculum Council. He emphasized that ISPs and GISPs must include strong academic content and oppor tunities for evaluation by a professor. The CCC has discussed taking steps to ensure the quality of proposals, including having depart-
mental rubrics for ISPs, according to minutes from a meeting last May. But Suggs said formal changes are unlikely, noting that the other two members of the CCC’s independent studies subcommittee have since left the council. James Valles, associate dean of the College for curriculum and professor of physics, said the CCC has no concern about the quality of proposals. Though he said a discussion about the procedure for creating proposals might come up at a future meeting, he said he doubted formal changes would be made. Few ISP proposals are rejected outright, Suggs said. Rather, the committee frequently suggests that a proposal be revised and resubmitted. One of the most common complaints, Suggs said, is an incomplete bibliography that does not cover all the source material used for the course. But Suggs said he remains a strong supporter of ISPs and GISPs. “I think it’s a wonderful thing. I think students should do more of them,” he said, adding that the projects give students an idea of how continued on page 6
Janine Kwoh / Herald
Professor of Economics Ivo Welch’s textbook-in-progress on investments is used in his and Assistant Professor of Economics Xiaoli Qiu’s courses.
For some courses, profs write the book By Evan Pelz Contributing Writer
Some students like to complain about course textbooks, whether because they are overpriced, confusing or just plain ineffective. But occasionally, students need to be extra careful about complaining too loudly about their textbook — because it was written by their professor. For example, students in ECON 1170: “Welfare Economics” use a textbook written by Allan Feldman, professor of economics and the course’s instructor. His book, “Welfare Economics and Social Choice Theory,” is the main textbook for the class — the first edition was published in 1980, and a second edition, which he currently uses for the class, was published two years ago. For that edition, Feldman col-
laborated with another professor of economics at Brown, Roberto Serrano. Feldman said the reason he decided to use his own book was that welfare economics is a “small, theoretical area” and that there weren’t many options for textbooks. After reviewing current books on the topic, Feldman came to the conclusion that he could explain the material on his own better than any of the existing books could, so he wrote his book, which was published by Kluwer Nijhoff Publishing. Feldman said most professors don’t necessarily hire an agent to hawk their textbooks — some will just write one and send it to publishers. Since Feldman’s book was originally published in 1980, he continued on page 6
Herald File Photo
Revamped and with a new professional coach, the cheerleading team is back on the field this fall.
Cheerleading back on solid ground By Amanda Bauer Staff Writer
After almost a year on the sidelines, the cheerleading team has returned to the field this fall. Last year, the team was thrown into turmoil when its former coach left and the University hired a student replacement — rather than a professional — to lead the team, resulting in many members leaving the squad. This year a revamped cheerleading team, led by a professional coach and including many new members, appears to have overcome last year’s challenges. Shirley Corio, who also coaches a competitive professional cheerleading team, was hired as the cheerleading coordinator this semester. Attempts to find a new coach began in August 2006, after the former coach left the squad and moved to Boston. “I found (Corio) that summer online,” said captain Jasmine Plummer ’08. “I searched cheerleading teams in Rhode Island, and her name came up. I e-mailed her saying, ‘We have no coach and we could really use somebody to help us out.’ ” Corio, who worked as a volunteer for the squad starting in the spring, is officially considered an independent contractor of the University and is not a University employee, according to Rick Merriam, assistant athletic director for marketing. “She gets paid to perform the duties that we have outlined as the cheerleading coordinator, but she does not get University benefits. She does not keep regular office hours, but she is paid by the University,” Merriam said. Veronica Lowe ’09, who rejoined the squad this semester after not cheering last fall and taking a leave of absence from Brown in the spring, said she is enthusiastic about the change in coaching. “I felt as if the whole coaching situation just held me back a little from being more involved” in the squad last year, Lowe said. “She is a wonderful coach. ... We couldn’t ask for better.” Though the squad had only between six and 10 members last year, the team has recovered to its former strength of 20 cheerleaders, consisting mostly of freshmen and sophomores with one junior and one senior. Though some of the new members have little or no experience in cheerleading, they are all excited
to learn, Lowe said. “For the most part we have people on the team who are into athletics, who have done gymnastics,” she said, adding that a few were cheerleaders in middle school or high school. Lowe and Plummer both voiced high hopes for the team’s future. “When I was a freshman, we were Ivy League champs, and it was really exciting, and now we’re back to the way it was,” Lowe said, adding that the squad is now traveling with varsity teams to road games. “It’s really nice that teams are saying ‘can you be here for us’ again,” she added. The squad performed its first halftime show this year at the football team’s game against the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, and it will perform another at the home game Nov. 10 against Dartmouth, according to Plummer. The squad may also go to cheerleading competitions in the future. The need for a new coach arose more than a year and a half ago after former coach Kristin Capasso left in the spring of 2006. The University originally asked the team’s three captains at the time to become coaches, but they declined because they felt they did not have enough experience. Athletics officials then tapped Cindy Vuittonet
’07 as the new coach. “The athletics department hired a student to be the coach last year, which was problematic because you need certain certifications to be a cheerleading coach, and she didn’t have any,” Plummer said. According to Merriam, the change in coaching was due to a change in classification by the University’s human resources department. “It was determined early last fall that the classification of that cheerleading coordinator position had to change from what it had been previously and that we could only either hire a volunteer or hire a student, which is what we ended up doing last year, when we hired Cindy,” he said. After Vuittonet was hired as coach, several members left the squad and the captains handed out flyers at a football game protesting the change in coaching. Two of the captains involved were later asked to leave the squad. “Some members didn’t want to be a part of the team when they felt so disrespected by the University,” Plummer said. Both Lowe and Plummer said that the team is moving on from the difficulties of last year, however. “The team works hard and is bigger and better,” Lowe wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.