The Brown Daily Herald T hursday, N ovember 1, 2007
Volume CXLII, No. 101
Emissions measure may help U. save on winter heating By Taryn Martinez Staf f Writer
Americans are anticipating skyrocketing heating costs this winter, but University officials say the cost of keeping campus warm probably won’t go through the roof. Average winter spending on heating oil in the Northeast is expected to increase 21.9 percent this winter over last year, according to data released last month by the federal Energy Information Administration. But Brown has taken steps to reduce the University’s oil consumption, with the side effect of potentially reducing costs. On Earth Day last April, President Ruth Simmons pledged to reduce Brown’s emissions of fossil fuels burned in the University’s Central Heat Plant by 30 percent by
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fiscal year 2008. This winter natural gas, as well as heating fuel, will be used at the plant. For the “shoulder” months of October, November, April and May — also called off-peak heating months — the University bought natural gas, “which has lower carbon emissions and in general is a much cleaner fuel,” said Energy Manager Chris Powell. The Central Heating Plant emits approximately 27,000 of the University’s total 73,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, Powell said, and switching to natural gas during the off-peak heating months is estimated to reduce emissions by 4,000 metric tons. In addition, Powell said, “natural gas is much more cost effective Chris Bennett / Herald
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This Manning Hall altar commemorated the Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead.
R.I. sends delinquent teens back to Training School By Simon van Zuylen-Wood Staff Writer
The Rhode Island House of Representatives voted to overturn legislation that sends 17-year-olds to prison in a special session Tuesday night at the State House. The new law mandates that 17-year-olds will once again be tried as minors and sent to Rhode Island’s juvenile detention facility, the Training School. In June, the state legislature passed a law sending 17-year-old delinquents to the state prison in an effort to save money. The average cost of housing someone at the state prison is $40,000 a year, while housing a juvenile at the Training School costs $98,000 a year. State legislators originally didn’t realize
that housing 17-year-olds in the do an adult sentence,” said George, prison would actually cost more who attended the House Finance —$104,000 per year — because Committee hearing where legislamaximum security housing is re- tors crafted the new law. He said his quired for juveniles. experience in prison was “terrible The June law was overturned — traumatizing for a 17-year-old Tuesday by a 59-3 vote. Minors who kid.” were tried and conExecutive Direcvicted under the old tor of the Rhode IsMETRO legislation will still land ACLU Steven not be sent to the Training School. Brown said he was pleased with the Juvenile criminal records will be outcome of the vote, but said he returned to the Family Court and hopes for further modification of the sealed from the public. law to better address “gap kids,” or Dennys George, who was con- juveniles convicted under and still victed as a 17-year-old and is now subject to the old law. serving five years of probation, told “I hope legislation will make this The Herald he had mixed feelings one of the first orders of business to about his future. address the plight of these particu“I’m going to be able to have a lar juveniles,” Brown said. life and get a job, but I still have to Also on the docket was a bill con-
cerning a law that mandates nurses to work overtime shifts. The new bill prevents hospitals from requiring nurses to work mandatory overtime shifts except in emergency situations. The state legislature passed the bill in its last session, but Republican Governor Donald Carcieri ’65 vetoed it over the summer. House Minority Leader Robert Watson, R-Dist. 30, and Rep. Nicholas Gorham, R-Dist. 40, who voted against every veto override Tuesday night, vocally opposed the bill. Watson made a general appeal to nurses to voluntarily work overtime as a testament to the honor of their profession. He compared nurses to marathon runners who, despite continued on page 4
SuFI calendar features nudity, fresh local produce By Melissa Shube Contributing Writer
About 120 Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students took off their clothes and posed nude with fresh local produce last month. It wasn’t Sex Power God and it wasn’t the naked donut run — it was the photo shoot for Ripe 2008, the second edition of the Sustainable Food Initiative’s fundraising calendar. “It’s beautiful,” said Emily Benjamin ’08, one of the calendar’s three producers and a founder of SuFI three years ago. “And the message that we’re sending is really important. We’re just trying to highlight the beauty of buying local. We’re also trying to highlight the connection between our bodies and what we eat.” The profits from sales of the $15 calendar will go to the Southside Community Land Trust, Farm Fresh Rhode Island and toward the development of the Brown student continued on page 8
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Chris Bennett / Herald
Student marathoners head to NYC By Catie Straut Contributing Writer
What do almost getting hit by a car and being heckled by 5-year-olds, dancing in the streets and making friends with strangers, chaining your legs to ice packs and getting lost in the woods have in common? For a handful of Brown students, these escapades are part of the adventure of training for a marathon. Rebecca Richardson ’09, Scott Warren ’09 and Matt Cline ’09 have been training to run Sunday in the New York City Marathon to benefit Team Continuum, a charity that donates funds to provide daily care for cancer patients. This is the first marathon for the three, who said they thought of themselves as casual runners before they decided in May to run the marathon. Running a marathon was a “vague goal in life,” Richardson said. Cline said it was “something that I had wanted to do for a really long time at some point in my life.” Richardson — whom Warren described as “gung-ho” — was the first to commit last spring. She then asked Cline and Warren, with whom she had run before, if they would join her. Warren said he was “really reluctant at first,” especially when family and friends encouraged against it, but he decided to commit even though running a marathon can be “one of those spontaneous decisions that can come back to haunt you,” he said. Indeed, all three students said they have experienced hard times throughout their training, from serious foot injuries to runins with hostile drivers.
Members of the Sustainable Food Initiative showcased the Ripe 2008 calendar, full of nude students with fresh local produce.
post’s secrets post- admits its secrets and chats it up with the Low Anthem.
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Loud laffey Former senatorial candidate Stephen Laffey stopped by to speak on Republicans’ recovery after Bush.
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CAMPUS NEWS
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
EDWARDS in ’08? As campus groups for candidates spring up, Edwards supporters seek to keep up with the frontrunners.
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12 SPORTS
tough tennis Tennis captain Saurabh Kohli ’08 on his journey from sports stardom in India to tennis on College Hill.
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