The Brown Daily Herald F riday, N ovember 9, 2007
Volume CXLII, No. 107
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Playing candidates, Dems spar over policy
‘Lots of surprises’ planned for Sex Power God By Sophia Lambertsen Staff Writer
Saturday’s Sex Power God dance, hosted annually by Queer Alliance, will give students a chance to explore their identity in a “sober, sane, safe and consensual” environment, said event co-coordinator Robin Peckham ’10. Party coordinators and University student life officials say they are optimistic about security and safety at this year’s event. Both have been issues in the past — at Sex Power God in 2005, 24 students required medical attention, and students without tickets tried to break into the party through second floor and basement windows in Sayles Hall. At the same time, a producer for Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” brought a camera into the event, and footage of the party was later aired on the show to highlight what the producer called “pure debauchery.” Last year’s Sex Power God was held without major incident, though 14 students required medical attention. Pre-dance anticipation came to a head on Tuesday evening with a public debate over whether the event should be held on campus. “Editorial critics” Joshua Unseth ’08 and Sean Quigley ’10, a Herald opinions colummnist, responded to event coordinators Katie Lamb ’10 and Peckham, who maintained that the party was about freedom to experiment with identity. Quigley voiced his opposition to Sex Power God, saying, “Liberty is not licentiousness.” Unseth protested the raffling off of SPG tickets at the debate by saying he would raffle off what he described as “a bag of shit.” It was, in fact, full of candy. Peckham and Lamb said Tuesday’s debate was effective, though they said they wished more people on campus had heard it. The approximately 600 tickets available for Sex Power God sold out by Wednesday. Gem Chema ’11 said that about 100 people lined up for tickets Wednesday morning in Leung Gallery; tickets went on sale at 9 a.m. “People were cutting in line, and it was very disorganized,” Chema said. “I showed up at six in the morning, and people who showed up at eight got tickets, and I didn’t.” Security will be vital for the safety of attendees, Peckham and Lamb said. Last year, coordinators responded to security issues by moving the dance to Alumnae Hall — which has fewer entrances than Sayles — and hiring private security firm Green Horn Management to staff the event. Roaming student party managers also patrolled the space to ensure consensual behavior. The party managers — who dress and act like partygoers — wear shiny purple armbands continued on page 6
INSIDE:
By Allison Wentz Contributing Writer
www.browndailyherald.com
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Kim Perley / Herald
Abrihette Yawa ‘10 incorporates elements of Wicca into her daily life.
Campus Wiccans spell out their beliefs By Irene Chen Senior Staff Writer
When other freshmen plastered their walls with posters of movie stars and filled their shelves with pictures from home, Ashley Tuccero ’11 took a different approach to decorating the bookshelves in her Keeney Quadrangle dorm room. She placed gourds, 13 nails, a decorative rune, part of an asteroid rock, a cornhusk doll and an assortment of books about the practice of Wicca on her shelves. The books on Wicca are carefully concealed with brown paper, and next to them is a copy of the Bible. Tuccero, while hesitant to describe herself as Wiccan, does practice some elements of what
she calls “solitary eclectic” Wicca — that is, she does not adhere to traditions of secrecy and hierarchy that are part of the formal religion but instead incorporates elements into her own brand of
FAITH ON CAMPUS
third in a series on religious life at the University
spirituality. The more formalized Gardnerian Wicca, popularized by Gerald Gardner in 1954, is supposedly a revival of an old religion of witchcraft, originating in paganism. Wicca is only one form of pagan witchcraft and varies in beliefs and practices across individuals and traditions. Tuccero said her own practice
RISD attracts aspiring filmmakers By Olivia Hoffman Staff Writer
Brenda Han / Herald
“Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane and “Good Will Hunting” director Gus Van Sant both got their start at RISD’s Film/Animation/Video program.
Guerrilla Girls Feminist art activists tell students to question disARTS & CULTURE crimination in the art world — with gorilla masks.
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of Wicca has helped her transition to college and her daily life. “It is definitely a practice that coincides well with being a young adult, being a freshman in college, being a woman, trying to figure out how the world works, and who I am, and my place in it,” Tuccero said. Tuccero was baptized three times. Describing her religious background, Tuccero said her religious roots are in Christianity. “My mom was Catholic, my dad was Episcopalian, and I think when I was born they had an idea, ‘We’ll raise her … in a Christian household,’ but that kind of petered out,” she said. With her Baptist grandmother,
More than 120 students plus Providence Mayor David Cicilline ’83 filled Salomon 001 last night to attend the Brown Democrats’ mock presidential debate. Brown students played the parts of all eight Democratic candidates for the 2008 presidential primary, discussing everything from tax policy to transgender rights, mixing serious policy discussion with sharp barbs and bits of humor. The students debating were Ava Lubell ’09 as Sen. Hillary Clinton, DN.Y., Billy Packer ’09 as Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Stephen Moilanen ’08 as former Vice Presidential nominee and North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Max Winograd ’09 as New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, John Voorhees ’09 as Sen. Joe Biden, DDel., Jeremy Feigenbaum ’11 as Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Tor Tarantola ‘08 as Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and David Rangaviz ’08 as former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel. The debate began with opening remarks from each candidate followed by questions submitted from audience members before the event. Questions touched on topics including the removal of troops from Iraq, the national deficit, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, climate change and partial-birth abortion. The questions often were addressed to multiple candidates, though some questions were directed toward individual candidates as well. Winograd’s alter ego, Richardson, was asked what he thought his biggest mistake had been in trying to broker a cease-fire in Darfur, and Packer’s Obama character was queried on why he was the only candidate not wearing an American flag pin — to which he answered, “Patriotism is not about what you wear on your
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CAMPUS NEWS
command & conquer Nearly 1,000 Brunonians are members of GoCrossCampus, a new online strategy multiplayer game.
What do “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane, “Good Will Hunting” director Gus Van Sant and Academy Award-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson have in common? They are all alums of the Rhode Island School of Design’s Film/Animation/Video program. With a curriculum that incorporates field trips to places like the Sundance Film Festival, the Ottawa International Animation Festival and the set of NBC’s “Law and Order,” the program offers students unique training in both live action and animated media. Housed in RISD’s Auditorium
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OPINIONS
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
OPINIONS Extra James Shapiro ’09 thinks countries borders should be more open for immigrants and migration.
Building on North Main Street, with offices in the Market House nextdoor, the department consists of 115 undergraduates, five full-time professors and between 12 and 15 part-time adjunct professors, said Peter O’Neill, a film professor in the final year of a five-year term as head of the FAV department. In recent years, about 20 students in each class have focused on animation, and 17 or 18 have chosen to pursue live action filmmaking, he said. Though the full-time professors generally have broad knowledge in at least one of the three departmental disciplines, adjunct professors offer specialized instruction in continued on page 4
16 SPORTS
A Slam Dunk Men’s basketball plans to kick off its season today with last year’s solid lineup — and a better record.
News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com
T oday Page 2
Friday, November 9, 2007
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow
We a t h e r Today
TOMORROW
partly cloudy 48 / 36
rain 44 / 31
Menu
Sharpe Refectory
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Saturday Night Jambalaya, Zucchini Burgers, Rhode Island Quahog Chowder, Vegetarian Vegetable Soup, Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies, Blondies
Lunch — Chicken Fingers, Couscous Croquettes, Vegan Brown Rice Pilaf with Mushrooms, Steamed Vegetable Melange, Baked Potato Bar, Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies
Dinner — Fried Catfish with Tartar Sauce, Red Potato Frittata, Fresh Vegetable Melange, Chocolate Pudding
Dinner — Breaded Pollock Fillet, Grilled Chicken, Tortellini Angelica, Bananas Foster with Ice Cream
Aibohphobia | Roxanne Palmer
Sudoku Octopus on Hallucinogens | Toni Liu and Stephanie Le
Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.
Classic Deep-Fried Kitten | Nate Saunders
RELEASE DATE– Friday, November 9, 2007 © Puzzles by Pappocom
Los Angeles Times Daily oCrossword Puzzle C r o ssw rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Book after Danl. 4 Movie tough guy 9 Some second degs. 13 Durango or Monterey 15 Highway through Whitehorse 16 Halo 17 Quit 18 Battles between the FDA and drug companies? 20 Fairly shared 22 Like expressions? 23 Malibu or Montego 24 “The Lion King” lion 25 Get a bit less dignified? 32 Corrode 34 Chap 35 19th-century novel set on Tahiti 36 Hip-hop pawn shop transactions? 41 Hun king, in Scandinavian legend 42 What Huey, Dewey and Louie call Donald 43 Word with ball or caddy 44 What to do when you spot a periscope? 49 Take __: doze 50 Navy hitches 53 Hanukkah centerpiece 57 It doesn’t involve an overnight 59 More than just splash in the pool? 61 High-tech selection devices 62 Philippic 63 Microphone inventor Berliner 64 Opal ending 65 Serb or Croat 66 “42nd Street” song 67 Awaited the surprise party honoree
DOWN 1 Some fasteners 2 Bizarre 3 Froze 4 Engrossed 5 Inter __ 6 CCXXX x V 7 Christmas buy 8 Capable of being retrieved 9 Visitors to Jesus 10 Pitcher Bob of the 1950s Braves 11 Prado display 12 Talk back 14 First name in talk 19 Non-PC purchase 21 “The vulgar boil, the learned roast, __”: Pope 24 Bridge bid 26 Dict. offering 27 Wintry product prefix 28 Bit of high-tech amusement 29 Inept 30 Hot 31 2000 N.L. home run champ 32 Modern shopper’s destination
33 Der __: Adenauer 37 Zilch 38 Some trial evidence 39 Elec. textreading method 40 Flock 45 Puppeteer Tony 46 Not impressed 47 Grand __ Island 48 “You’ve got the wrong person”
51 See 55-Down 52 Dispatch 53 GE and GM 54 Flight to Haifa 55 With 51-Down, maker of L’Air du Temps perfume 56 Airing, in a way 57 Editor’s mark 58 God in the “Iliad” 60 Tiny fellow
Classic How To Get Down | Adam Robbins
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Classic Deo | Adam Robbins
xwordeditor@aol.com
11/9/07
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11/9/07
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.
A rts & c ulture Friday, November 9, 2007
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
The world needs more feminists ‘Melancholy Play’ a masked avengers, Guerrilla Girls say witty take on sadness By Marisa Calleja Contributing Writer
A founding member of the Guerrilla Girls, an influential art activist group, spoke Tuesday night to a packed Carmichael Auditorium. The speaker — who goes by the name Kathe Kollwitz and wears a gorilla mask when working with the group — presented a slide show of the group’s past work, and with humor and facts, outlined problems of discrimination in Hollywood, politics and the art world, from the founding of the Guerrilla Girls in 1985 to today. Tuesday’s event was sponsored by the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance. The Guerrilla Girls, as the credo on their Web site states, are “fighting discrimination with facts, humor and fake fur.” Members of the group maintain anonymity by wearing gorilla masks and using the names of dead female artists when representing the group publicly. When a group member misspelled “guerrilla” as “gorilla” on a poster, the group found its image. Members of the Guerrilla Girls have worn gorilla masks ever since, both to protect their careers and personal lives. The masks also serve to remove their personalities from the work of the group, so that when viewers look at them, they see an icon that stands for fighting for fairness and not a person, Kollwitz told The Herald. “Now, anonymity is kind of a schtick,” Kollwitz said. “But in the beginning it was totally self-serving. We were afraid our work with the group would hurt our careers. Also, the anonymity kept the focus on the issues, and it made us a symbol for women. We needed a disguise, so we came up with this conflation of gorilla and guerrilla.” The group’s earliest work targeted the art world and the sexist culture that it felt allowed male artists to dominate shows in museums and top galleries. The Guerrilla Girls were founded chiefly in reaction to an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The 1985 exhibit, “An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture,” was designed to showcase the most significant works of contemporary art in the world. Out of 169 artists, only 13 were women. Since then, the Guerrilla Girls have branched out to new domains — they have recently focused their attention on Hollywood. Recently, the Guerrilla Girls staged a billboard campaign to protest race and sex discrimination in the film industry. The billboards combined humor and compelling visuals — a gorilla in a pink dress clutching an Academy Award — with disturbing facts. For example, one billboard, which Kollwitz showed a slide of at the event, noted that women directed a mere seven percent of the top 200 films of 2005. As its work began targeting different creative fields, the group began investigating tokenism and multiculturalism. This year, the Washington Post gave the group a full page for a special section on feminism and art to critique the tax-payer-funded national art museums, she told The Herald. They created a mock tabloid, complete with catchy headlines and a Brangelina photo, to announce the scarcity of artists of color, as well as “thousands of women locked in
By Andrea Savdie Staff Writer
Emmy Liss / Herald Guerrilla Girl Kathe Kolkwitz wears a mask to maintain anonymity to describe the problems of discrimination in the art world.
basements of D.C. museums!” Soon after, the National Gallery hurriedly installed a sculpture by an artist of color, Kollwitz said. Kollwitz attributed much of the success of the Guerrilla Girls to the group’s small size. There is no joining the Guerrilla Girls, she said. Rather, the rare new members are invited when the group size reaches a critical low point. While many men over the years have tried to get involved with their work, the Guerrilla Girls have always been exclusively female, she said at the Tuesday lecture. That exclusivity protects the members’ identities and allows them to communicate better, she told The Herald. “You can’t write a book with 100 people,” Kollwitz said. In the near future, the Guerrilla Girls plan to focus more of their attention on politics, especially related
to the upcoming 2008 presidential election. “We want to add noise,” Kollwitz said, “not just make more noise.” The group also plan to continue expanding their women’s issues projects globally and have been working with Amnesty International and Greenpeace, she said. Kollwitz said she believes that people — students especially — can carry out the message of the Guerrilla Girls using their own creativity. “Even if you’re not an artist, be aware of what’s going on,” Kollwitz said. “If you go to a museum and see a pathetically low number of (art by) women and people of color, speak up. Stand up for things and try to find a creative way of doing it.” “The world needs more masked avengers. More feminist avengers. More feminists,” she added.
“Melancholy Play,” which opened last night at Leeds Theater, is a farcical, clever and funny representation of the American idea of happiness and the human capacity for melancholy. Written by Sarah Ruhl ’97 MFA’01, the play — Sock and Buskin’s second production of the semester — is directed by Ken Prestininzi GS, and contrasts the cheerfulness of a small American Midwestern town with the seductive, glamorous melancholy characterized by subtitled European films. The protagonist, Tilly, played by Sarah Tolan-Mee ’09, is a bank teller in a cookie-cutter Illinois town whose sexy, hopelessly romantic melancholy makes every person she meets fall in love with her. The townspeople — a psychiatrist, a tailor, a hairdresser and a nurse — all consider themselves happy until Tilly’s enchanting melancholy disturbs their peace and leaves them desperately headover-heels in love. Her psychiatrist, Lorenzo — played hilariously by former Herald Opinions Editor Patrick Harrison ’08 — is from an “unspecified European country” but is accused by his mother of being too cheerful. He is abandoned in a candy shop as a baby and ends up living in Illinois, where he fits in among the perpetually happy Americans. Tilly’s respectful tailor, Frank, played by Byron Asher ’08, is so mesmerized by Tilly that he is tempted to kiss her during their first encounter. Phoebe Neidhart ’09 plays Frances, Tilly’s sweet hairdresser, who becomes lovesick for Tilly to the point that she literally turns into an almond.
REVIEW Frances’s partner, Joan, is an overprotective British nurse played by Katherine Cooper ’09. When Tilly becomes inexplicably happy, she leaves her admirers in a state of despair because they thrived on her sorrow. TolanMee gracefully makes the sudden transition from exaggerated sadness to bustling cheerfulness, maintaining her charm throughout the play. However, sad Tilly is especially lovable, as she is meant to be. Speaking with glossy eyes, gazing out windows into the horizon and catching the rain in her hands, sad Tilly’s dramatic and seemingly self-mocking gestures are simultaneously moving and funny. It is Lorenzo, however, who really makes the audience laugh. Harrison’s accent, gestures and energy complement his lines almost flawlessly as he defies the cliche of the tortured, glamorous European. Each character is meant to satirically fit a stereotype, and the actors do so effectively, resulting in a dynamic portrayal of life’s most inherent contradictions. For example, in a desperate attempt to convert her partner back from an almond to human form, Joan consults her medical notes on melancholy, only to find that its causes and cures are the same — among them food, music and love. Similarly, throughout the first part of the play, the simple mundane things that make other characters content manage to make Tilly so melancholy — from the memory of the ocean and the gleam of the afternoon sun to remnants continued on page 4
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Friday, November 9, 2007
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Brown’s Wiccans seek spiritual comfort despite fire code continued from page 1 Tuccero attended baptismal classes and Bible camp, finding a spiritual community in the church. This experience has stayed with her — the copy of the Bible placed side-byside with Wicca books on Tuccero’s bookshelf was given to her at her baptism. Rhys Hackford ’10 was drawn to Wicca, where she found a spiritual home, because of her family’s Celtic cultural traditions. “I was raised Christian, but again sort of when I hit the age of 13, I wanted to learn more about myself, my family heritage,” Hackford said. That’s when she became interested in pagan traditions. Though elements of other religious ideas and myths are easily incorporated into Wicca, it is a religion of its own, said Abrihette Yawa ’10. Growing up, Yawa read the Old Testament, Norse mythology and a sprinkling of Hindu and Egyptian stories. Yawa was fascinated by these different beliefs but couldn’t find one spiritual path that fit her. In her freshman year of high school, she met another girl who was Wiccan and began researching the religion. “Wiccans have a lot of different guidelines, but really the only rule that you can get most Wiccans to agree on is a two-page poem which basically boils down to ‘and it harms none, do as you will,’ ” she said. “I
‘Melancholy Play’ a witty take on sadness continued from page 3 of recently trimmed hair and the purpose of wallpaper. The relatively simple set design keeps the focus on the characters and their dialogue. The play’s mood is set through variations in the color and intensity of the lighting and musical accompaniment by cello player Colin Baker ’08. Contrar y to its title’s implications, “Melancholy Play” is far from gloomy. This witty and comical farce keeps the audience smiling while it simultaneously touches on more profound ideas of American culture, the existence of a social contract and the melancholia that sometimes comes inevitably with life. Although the play is bizarre to the point that one of its characters turns into an edible nut, for the most part, Prestininzi and the cast pull it off. However, the ending’s excessive focus on the absurd outcome of the melancholy epidemic detracts from the wit that characterized the rest of the play. “Melancholy Play” will show at Leeds Theater from Nov. 8 to 11 and Nov. 15 to 18. On Nov. 15, Ruhl will come to the University to discuss her work.
like that, in that it gives you a general idea of just being a good person..” “It’s very much about recognizing that there is no such thing as a right path or a right god. It’s just the one that’s right for you,” Yawa said. These general principles of acceptance and flexibility are conducive to working with other religions, and Tuccero doesn’t believe Wicca contradicts any other religion. “I don’t take ideas about God or gods particularly literally, and I’m more open to their existence rather than asserting their existence,” Tuccero said. “For me I don’t see a reason to go out to convert or debate or convince. I’m always happy to hear other perspectives, to understand how other people think and see if it’s applicable.” Yawa, like Tuccero, identifies as a solitary practitioner of eclectic Wicca. When she became Wiccan in high school, Yawa practiced alone because there were few other Wiccans in her small Colorado hometown. Wiccans who prefer not to practice alone join covens, typically groups of 13 Wiccans who read, practice, perform rituals and spells and celebrate holidays together, Tuccero said. While she still keeps a personal altar, the ritual aspect of Tuccero’s practice has diminished some since she came to Brown. “Formalized ritual is something that I haven’t been quite so involved in, especially since I’ve been at Brown,” Tuccero
said. “To practice rituals, you need a certain degree of privacy, and in college you’re living with a roommate and you’re on a campus. There’s not much in the way of something like a secluded field.” Like Tuccero, Yawa keeps a personal altar but has become less strict about practicing specific rituals since coming to Brown. Yawa has a goddess statue and other items to represent the four directions: water for the west, Earth for the north, air for the east and fire for the south — which she admitted is difficult while respecting residence hall rules prohibiting candles and incense. The process of an actual ritual is different from what people may think about when considering the stereotypes surrounding witches. “Spells are not like, ‘ Go into the woods and sacrifice a baby’ type of thing,” Yawa said. The first step in the process is to draw a circle to push out negative energy and place yourself in the right mindset, Yawa explained. Candles, incense, herbs, wands, athames — ceremonial knives — and even fingers are all used to direct energy, Yawa said. Certain tools are aligned with the different elements, which are in turn associated with other concepts: fire is aligned with love and passion, air is intellect, earth is home and fertility. When celebrating events or asking for guidance, Yawa performs abstract spells. She has performedspells “to make people hear me, or to make myself more understood.”
Yawa’s Wiccan practices have easily fit into her life at Brown, more than at her high school in Colorado, where she never quite fit with the “ideal high school girl” image. Tuccero, who participates in Interfaith House and attends Thursday night suppers at University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson’s house, agreed. “I think Brown attracts a certain type of person who is open to anything, who is willing to accept the practices of others,” Tuccero said. Cooper Nelson said it is precisely this understanding that creates a community of acceptance for students. “People who come here may come from very different spiritual and religious practices, but oddly enough, in each other’s company, they have found their human communal base of appreciation of engagement, (and) intellectual life,” she said. “There are some theologians who say prayers are not words, it’s what you do with your feet.” Cooper Nelson herself presided over a Wicca ceremony for a friend’s newborn child. After the 2003 Station Nightclub fire, which killed 100 people including several members of the pagan and Wiccan communities, Brown hosted an interfaith memorial service in Manning Chapel that included these communities, who had been largely excluded from other memorial events as an unintentional oversight. Cooper Nelson and another as-
sociate chaplain presided over the packed ceremony. “These people had no other place to go, in a moment of such public tragedy, there’s a need for this kind of acknowledgement by the larger world,” Cooper Nelson said. “I felt really proud of Brown that we could open our arms like that and say, ‘of course you are welcome here.’ ” Now, Tuccero is looking for a similar community at Brown and in Providence. Tuccero attended the Rhode Island Pagan Pride Day and is trying to connect with the Rhode Island School of Design’s Pagan Society. A group might help increase Wicca’s visibility on campus, Tuccero said. “In terms of P.R., Wiccans tend to be their own worst enemy,” Tuccero said. Many people get the wrong idea about the religion, she added, referencing television shows like “Charmed” that glamorize the religion. Hackford thinks most reactions to paganism or Wicca are out of ignorance. Most Brown students react out of embarrassment because they don’t know more about Wicca and are uncomfortable with their ignorance, she said. So is Wicca really about magic and witchcraft? Not exactly, Yawa says. “Look at things. Look at a sunset. Just sit down; be in silence or darkness: that’s magic. Magic is the world, it’s life, its all around you, it’s in everything you breathe and do, you just need to look for it.”
Aspiring filmmakers find niche at RISD’s FAV program continued from page 1 specific techniques such as lighting or sound production, O’Neill said. FAV professors have a range of backgrounds, but he said many have worked in independent, experimental or documentary filmmaking. Amy Kravitz, a professor of animation, said the “hybridized” nature of the department draws professors with diverse talents and experiences. “(Film, animation and video) are actually three distinct disciplines, but here they’re all grouped into one department,” which distinguishes RISD’s program from those at other institutions, Kravitz said. After completing the foundation studies courses required of all RISD freshmen, students entering the FAV program spend their sophomore year taking classes in each of the three departmental disciplines before choosing to pursue a live action or animation curriculum. But O’Neill said for some students, this transition is “fluid.” “Some students kind of blend (live action and animation), which is great,” O’Neill said. “In a lot of films that are being made now at the highest level, you see a lot of blending.” In particular, he said, students interested in the field of special effects, which “overlaps into
both areas,” may choose to study both disciplines. According to Kravitz, exposing students to each of the three departmental disciplines gives them a more comprehensive understanding of “the visual world” and of the area in which they eventually choose to specialize. “Each aspect of the program requires a different kind of thinking and a different kind of work process,” she said. “They augment each other.” Colin Healey, a RISD senior studying live-action film, said he enjoyed learning about each of the three departmental disciplines. “A lot of stuff I learned in animation that I didn’t know about before has become really important in my live action work,” he said, citing pixilation techniques that he studied in his sophomore animation course and has since incorporated into live-action projects. In addition to being situated within a multidisciplinary department, RISD’s film program is also distinguished by its unique setting. “We’re a film program in an art school,” O’Neill said, noting that this contrasts with major film programs such as those at New York University or the University of Southern California. At RISD, students can study other visual arts media, which O’Neill said may “buttress” the work they are doing in the FAV department. Animation students might also study illustration, he said, or live action film students might supplement their work by studying photography. “I think students come here to study film who want to be in an art school environment.” Healey said that was a factor in his decision to attend RISD. “It was important to me that I be around other fine artists like painters and
sculptors,” he said. “That’s stuff that I did a lot of in high school and that I care about.” Still, Healey said he’s been frustrated at times with the liberal arts training he’s received. “I love being around artists,” he said. “But art about art gets kind of boring after a while.” In particular, Healey said he’s struggled with the task of crafting stories for narrative film projects. “In retrospect, I think it would have been really good for me to have been doing more creative writing classes and more theater,” he said. “We just don’t have that much of that here (at RISD).” It’s exactly that kind of concern that O’Neill said he hopes the newly approved Brown-RISD dual degree program will address. After an agreement was signed in September by Brown President Ruth Simmons and RISD President Roger Mandle, the program will launch in the fall of 2008, allowing 20 students per year to earn both a bachelor of fine arts from RISD and a bachelor’s degree from Brown. Kravitz said the dual degree program also has the potential to facilitate less obvious connections. “You have resources at both institutions that really complement each other,” she said. “There may be really unusual combinations of interests that work together really well.” Hannah Schafer ’09 agreed that an interdisciplinary approach is useful in filmmaking. “Even if you wanted to do microbiology at Brown and do film at RISD, I think that would be amazing because you would have a completely different perspective.” Schafer, who is currently enrolled in O’Neill’s introductory filmmaking course at RISD, first came into contact with the FAV program
last year when she landed a lead role in RISD student Rachel Israel’s senior thesis film. Though the filmmaking class is the first course she’s taken in the FAV department, she said she “absolutely” plans to take more, praising the course’s “hands-on” approach and access to professional production and editing equipment. “They kind of just throw you into it,” Schafer said. “And you learn it really quickly.” Students have long had the option of taking classes at either of the two institutions, but for many students the two school’s differing calendars have made cross-registration difficult. Healey said he was never able to fit Brown courses into his schedule. In the coming months, the FAV program will undergo a thorough review required of all RISD departments every 10 years and conducted on a rotating basis. “It’s a self-evaluating process as well as an external evaluation,” Kravitz said. Faculty will consider how the three departmental disciplines came to be grouped into a single department and assess whether this is effective, Kravitz said. They will address the ways in which teaching has changed since the onset of digital technology and look at future goals, particularly with regard to the rise of high definition equipment. In March, a visiting committee comprised of professors from other institutions and knowledgeable professionals in related fields will evaluate all aspects of the FAV department, observing classes and meeting with students and faculty. “We hope that this evaluation process will help us understand what we’re doing right and how we can improve,” Kravitz said.
C ampus n ews Friday, November 9, 2007
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Frisc takes home the gold — twice Students may complain about the aesthetics of campus libraries, but the Friedman Study Center in the Sciences Library can now defend its design as a “Trend Setter” with “High Marks” in Rhode Island Monthly’s 13th annual Design Awards. The study center received gold rankings in both the commercial interior design and commercial construction/renovation categories in the magazine’s November issue. The magazine noted the Friedman Study Center’s “jolts of vibrant color and contemporary furnishings” and judges commented on the “high level of organizational strategy.” The three judges, Kiel Moe, assistant professor at Northeastern University’s School of Architecture, architect Anthony Piermarini and interior designer Nancy Stracka, gave a gold, silver and bronze award in each of five categories. Brent Lang ’04, a communications and marketing specialist for the University Library, told The Herald he is pleased with the award and the study center’s success. “We think it’s fabulous because it’s such an exciting space and environment for students to study and socialize and a vibrant new area,” he said. “And obviously if you take a look at it, it’s always busy,” Lang said. He added that about 121,000 card swipes have been recorded at the SciLi in the months of September and October of this academic year. The Friedman Study Center opened in January following a $5 million renovation funded by a gift from Susan Pilch Friedman ’77 P’08 and Richard Friedman ’79 P’08. — Franklin Kanin
Courtesy of Ryan Bilodeau
The Rhode Island College Republican Federation, including some members from Brown, is gearing up for the 2008 election.
Executive experience running RI’s college GOP federation trumps Hillary’s, leader says By Nandini Jayakrishna Senior Staff Writer
As the 2008 presidential election ramps up, the College Republican Federation of Rhode Island has begun a push to organize young Republicans, raise funds and spread “the conservative message to campuses” across Rhode Island, said Ryan Bilodeau, the federation’s chairman. The federation currently has six active chapters and over 1,000 registered student members at Brown, the University of Rhode Island, Providence and Bryant colleges and Johnson and Wales and Roger Williams universities. The federation wants to start chapters at Rhode Island College and Salve Regina University, said Bilodeau, a URI junior. “We’re unique because we’re so organized in a state like Rhode Island, (where) Republicans are such a minority,” he said. Though the organization has existed sporadically for the past 10 to 15 years, it has “come together in an organized and structured way” only recently, Bilodeau said. On Oct. 13 the group organized a training event at the campaign headquarters of Scott Avedisian, the Republican mayor of Warwick. Chapter heads received manuals on how to conduct fundraising events and write press releases, Bilodeau said. Sarah Highlander, chairwoman of the Providence College chapter, said the October seminar was a “good networking event.” “It was nice to hear how the GOP community supports the college Republicans,” she said, adding that the college Republicans are the “grassroots arm” of the Rhode Island GOP. Andrew Kurtzman ’08, the federation’s executive director and secretary of the Brown College Republicans, said he is working to introduce conservative magazines on other campuses and hold journalism training events for interested students. Kurtzman, a former Herald staff writer, spoke about the impor-
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tance of college conservative publications at the October training event, Bilodeau said. The organization has also started a fundraiser called “Drive for Five,” which aims to collect $5,000 before the election next year to “pay (its) bills and reinvest in a direct mail program” to raise more money, Bilodeau said. Bilodeau, who solicits most donations through e-mails and phone calls, said the group has already collected $1,000 from Republicans across the state and will easily reach its goal of $5,000. He added that the board is trying to run like a business. “I think I have more executive experience than Hillary Clinton after running this group,” he said.
METRO Bilodeau said in an age when “leftist professors are indoctrinating students,” the college Republicans federation seeks to provide “a balance” of ideas. When “favorable ratings (for Republicans) are dropping,” it is important for the federation to reassert “core beliefs” and “feed ideas” of Republicanism, said Justin Katz, who writes a conservative blog on Rhode Island politics called Anchor Rising. The current board with elected and appointed members from various colleges came into existence this April. “They’re a relatively young group,” Katz told The Herald. “There’s a need for them.” “We have a Web site, a P.O. box, debit cards, a bank account ... to ensure that there are no more lapses in existence,” Bilodeau said. In past years, the federation’s executive board didn’t provide enough support to individual chapters, Bilodeau said. “(Ethan Wingfield ’07) was a chairman missing-in-action,” he said, referring to the federation’s last chairman. “Ethan was an intelligent businessman ... but he spread himself too thin. I think we met twice throughout his term.”
“Last year we had issues with people at the top,” said Sean Quigley ’10, second vice chairman of the federation and treasurer of the Brown College Republicans. “They were committed at the time and are still committed Republicans, but they had a lot of other things going on in their lives.” The organization has “better vision” this year, said Quigley, a Herald opinions columnist. Kurtzman said though he wouldn’t “go into detail out of respect for older members,” the organization now has “more transparency and has been able to accomplish more.” But Wingfield said the group was “just as active” last year under his leadership. The current executive board simply follows a “different strategy.” Wingfield said there are two schools of thought among Rhode Island college Republicans — one that believes in “generating noise about Republican ideas” and the other that tries to “build college Republicans as an asset to the Republican party.” As chairman, Wingfield said he pursued the latter strategy by providing more manpower during election campaigns. “(Currently) there’s an increase in the noise the college Republicans are making in the state,” he said. “I’m sure people (in the organization) were frustrated by the strategy I took.” Avedisian, mayor of Warwick and a Providence College alum, told The Herald that organizations like the federation are a “great volunteer support to candidates.” “Having anyone talking about Republicanism in a positive way is good for candidates,” he said. “(The group is) a viable force.” But on campus, some said most Brown Republicans don’t seem to be very active in the federation. “Students from Brown are from all over the country. If you’re from outside (the area), it’s hard to take interest in Rhode Island politics,” said Pratik Chougule ’08, vice president continued on page 6
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Republicans gear up for ’08 continued from page 5 of Brown’s College Republicans and former chairman of the federation. Though Brown’s Republicans share a “good working relationship” with the federation, they have a “different agenda and purpose,” Frank said. Quigley said that since Brown’s Republicans have a “good foundation” and “high-powered alumni,” they don’t need as much support from the federation as do other chapters. “I don’t mean to sound elitist, but we tend to be a bit more intellectual,” he said. “That’s not to mean others are less intellectual, but the environment we find ourselves in allows for more exchange of abstract ideas than mundane analysis
of policy.” Katz said he hopes the college Republicans will engage in more intellectual discussion of conservative ideology in addition to focusing on activism and politics. But Kurtzman said the state organization does allow for more “community-building” among young Republicans in Rhode Island. Members often attend events organized by chapters at other campuses. URI Republicans attended a recent event in the Salomon Center where local Republican Steve Laffey spoke about running against Chafee in a Republican primary in 2006. Avedisian said he would encourage the organization’s members to think about running for office someday. “I started out as a college Republican,” he said. “I am now the mayor of Warwick.”
Dems hold mock debate continued from page 1 chest.” One question that sparked a heated debate referenced Clinton’s failure in the 1990s to reform health care and how she plans to address the issue if elected. Lubell, playing her part, responded by saying that her past failure provided her with a learning experience and stressed the need to “go around and talk to Americans and find out exactly what it is that they feel comfortable with” in terms of their health care coverage. Edwards’ alter ego, Moilanen, responded by bringing up the half million dollars in contributions that Clinton has accepted from health care and drug companies. “You can’t tell me that this money is not going to have an influence — that they’re not going to have your ear when you become president,” Moilanen said, at which point he was cut off by the debate moderator for exceeding his time limit. Speaking as Clinton, Lubell used her response time during the next question to return to the previous topic and point out that Edwards himself served on the board of a hedge fund. “If we’re going to talk about hypocrisy, let’s talk about hypocrisy,” she said. When the moderator put the candidates back on track, one audience member shouted out, “Go with it,” frustrated that the argument was not allowed to play out. In response to questions on many different topics, the “candidates” steered the discussion back to the Iraq War. Winograd, playing Richardson, brought up Iraq for the second time in response to a question on Pakistan, saying, “We need to get out of Iraq now.”
Friday, November 9, 2007
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
“We need to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in,” said Moilanen, playing Edwards. Lubell, as Clinton, spoke about the need to remember that, while Americans may want to end the war, there is still work to be done in Iraq, such as fighting al-Qaida. “The only way we’re going to be able to safely leave Iraq is through a political solution,” said Voorhees, playing Biden. Iraq was brought up often, even when not specifically asked about. The mood was not always serious — one question asked Gravel’s character, “How do you respond to the allegations that you are the sexiest candidate?” The candidates had fun with their roles, often adding humor to their responses. When Packer, Obama’s alter ego, was asked how he felt about the claims that there is not a big difference between Clinton and Obama as candidates, he replied with a joking tone, “Senator Clinton represents the textbook, and I represent throwing out the textbook and buying a new magazine or something.” Cicilline arrived an hour late and spoke to the audience and candidates briefly. “There is no more important election than that for the next president,” he said. Cicilline spoke on the importance of young people in the election process and the shaping of the country’s future. Brown Democrats President Gabriel Kussin ’09 said in his opening remarks for the debate that the 2008 presidential election is “the most important election of our lives.” “I can’t think of a better way to kick off this year than with the debate we’re having now,” Kussin added.
M. basketball hopes for same — except record continued from page 12 “but there’s even more so as a senior. It’s really your last go around. Everything you’ve worked for since you were four or five years old ... is now going into this one season. We’re not LeBron James or Steve Nash, and we’re not probably not going to make it to the NBA, so it means a lot.” For now, the Bears are tempering their optimism. Though Robinson and McAndrew said their stated goal is to win the Ivy League title, both
said that the team still has a long way to go before that becomes a realistic possibility. Robinson said he’ll rely heavily on his starters and returning players at the beginning of the season as he tries to figure how good his seven freshmen are. But he’ll get his first chance to test them out this weekend, as the Bears will play Eastern Michigan of the Mid-American Conference, and then the University of Michigan on Sunday. Both teams will have bigger and more heavily recruited rosters than
the Bears, but Robinson said his goal is winning. “And if you can’t win the game, you want to be a close game, when you’re playing bigger games in big conferences,” he said. McAndrew was a bit more blunt about his expectations for the team this weekend. “To face that kind of athleticism and talent early in the year is really good for us to see who we really are,” he said. “We’re going on this trip to win both games. And that’s the bottom line.”
Gartner ’09 treads water, and life continued from page 12 get rewarded. So using underwater techniques to grab and pull helps you get in position. So, grabbing the Speedo, grabbing whatever you can get a hold of, and drowning or impeding them from where they want to go, it’s what you want to do. Sometimes, you get a dirty player who thinks a punch to the kidney is going to make you not going to think about it while he gets into better position. As long as it’s underwater, a referee won’t see it. A lot of rough play goes on, a lot of dirty things happen. Are there a lot of dirty players on your team? In the past, Brown has been known as a dirty team, and it’s hurt us in the big picture because referees will not give us good calls because we were just rough. This year, our team has done a great job of holding back, don’t initiate it. We’re also not going to take it. If someone’s getting rough with us, we have some big, strong men who
are going to fight back. Do you consider yourself a dirty player? (Pause) There have been times when I’ve needed to step in and be like, “This is not going to happen.” If you let someone punch you three times, then they’re going to punch you all game. But if they punch you once, and you get them really good with a knee to the back or something, they’re not going to touch you anymore. It’s very simple. You got into water polo a bit late as a kid. What other sports did you play? I played baseball and soccer. I wish I had played basketball. If I could pick a sport that I could be amazing at, it would be basketball. One of the things I realized when I got into water polo was that these guys were — whether or not this is the coolest sport in the world — these guys were the most inshape people I’ve ever seen. To be able to swim that fast and muscle people
around, it takes incredible endurance and strength. My coach in high school was just like an army sergeant, and I liked that feeling of just punishing my body, to know that I’m going to be a stronger human being. That sounds kind of sadistic. One last, weird question: Do you believe in reincarnation? I’m going to say yes, just to make this interesting. If you could be reincarnated as any animal, what would you be? I think if I could be reincarnated, I would be a lion. A male lion, preferably. It has a lot of benefits. You know, just chilling and waiting for the ladies to bring you all the food and whatever. I would actually like to go one day on a safari to Africa to see these awesome animals. But yeah, if I could be reincarnated, I’d take a lion. Not a fish or a dolphin or any marine animal? You know, dolphins are the only
May ’09 holds football’s defense continued from page 12 his success, he hasn’t surprised his coaches. “We always believed that Jon would be a very good football player for us,” Kelleher said. “And (outside linebacker) is a position that has the opportunity to make a lot of plays.” Brown’s group of linebackers includes several players in new roles, including Miles Craigwell ’09, a receiver-turned-linebacker, and Steve Ziogas ’09, who, after spending most of his time on special teams, has started at inside linebacker in several games this season. “We were a little inexperienced at the outside linebacker position, with both Miles and Jon, but they’ve continued to improve each week,” Kelleher said. “Having Steve (Ziogas) back, and the outside linebackers back (next season), it makes you feel
pretty good.” May’s big hits have made him one of the most exciting playmakers on the team this year. In the fourth quarter of Brown’s win over the University of Pennsylvania, a hard tackle by May knocked Penn fullback Nick Cisler out of the game. May said that while it is not his intent to hurt anyone, his physical style is a key part of his game. “If I hit a guy real hard on one play, then maybe the next time he runs that same route, he’ll be thinking of me instead of catching the ball,” May said. It comes as something of a surprise, then, that May is such a quiet person off the field. “He’s pretty reserved off the field,” Kelleher said. “But he’s wellrespected by his teammates.” Despite his quiet demeanor, May is a leader by example, according to
Kelleher, and will continue to step into more of a leadership role as he gains more experience. “I think the players will be looking up to Jon to see the type of work ethic that he has and what it takes to be able to go out there and perform on Saturday,” Kelleher said. After college, May, an economics concentrator, is not yet sure what he wants to do. “I’m still trying to figure out my end goal in terms of a career,” May said. “I’ll try to figure it out by the end of the year.” Luckily for the football team, May still has one year left at Brown. The defense will lose several key players to graduation after the season, including Yearwood, defensive end Kai Brown ’08, and tri-captain linebacker Eric Brewer ’08. But with Jonathan May remaining to lead the defense, the future looks good for Brown football.
Free condoms, lubricant and other party favors at Sex Power God continued from page 1 for easy identification. Also new to last year’s dance were an EMS room to better handle overly intoxicated students and a guest list to avoid counterfeit and scalped tickets. Those measures will be used again this year. Thirteen GHM guards will be present at the doors but not inside the party, and shifts of 21 student party managers will roam the dance floor. Six Department of Public Safety officers will patrol the streets on the perimeter of the building to handle student agitators and any media presence, which is not permitted at the party, Peckham and Lamb said.
Free condoms and lubricant will be available at the party, but alcohol will not be served. “It’s almost ridiculous that we can throw a party on a Saturday night with no liquor and get 600 people there, which I think speaks to the draw of that safe space,” Lamb said, noting that at many parties, party managers do not patrol the dance floor to ensure that all sexual activity is consensual. This year, the party’s advertising has strongly emphasized that Sex Power God should be enjoyed soberly, said Associate Vice President for Campus Life and Dean of Student Life Margaret Klawunn. In the past, visibly intoxicated stu-
dents have not been allowed to enter the dance, Klawunn said, adding that this year’s party coordinators have been especially effective in focusing the event away from alcohol use. “I think that Katie and Robin have done a really good job making it clear that this is about a celebration of the queer community and a range of sexual and gender identities, and that’s the focus of this event,” Klawunn said. “It’s not about excessive alcohol use.” Peckham and Lamb said the dance was not primarily queer or straight and that sexual identities are not necessarily carried into the party. “It’s experience, not identity,” Peckham
said. “Everyone’s queer at Sex Power God.” Sex Power God, which receives no funding from the University, is the chief fundraiser for Queer Alliance every year, said Coordinator for Student Activities Shelley Adriance. “The QA could not do the educational outreach or social support outreach that it does without this event,” she said. Adriance said if she had attended Brown as a student, she would have gone to the dance to support QA, and in fact, she has volunteered to help run this year’s event. “I’ll be fully clothed,” she said. Other than continued health and safety measures, Lamb and Peckham
said there will be “lots of surprises” for the attendees at this year’s dance. They were guarded about details, but did say the “booty box” — which involves a projection screen to convey messages among attendees — will be returning this year after a threeyear hiatus. Each attendee will, upon entering the dance, be given a colorful rubber ball with a number unique to that individual. Admirers who wish to post messages on the screen can use those numbers as identification. The coordinators also mentioned glowsticks, party favors and a wider range of music will be available. “We’re really exploiting a genre called sex techno,” Peckham said.
C ampus n ews THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
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From their keyboards, commanders conquer
Brawl on George Street and small fires at Jo’s reported to DPS
Friday, November 9, 2007
By Sophia Li Staff Writer
The latest showdown between Ivy League schools isn’t taking place on the football field — it’s on the battlefield of the new online strategy game GoCrossCampus — or, at least it was. The recently founded Web site is down indefinitely for repairs, but the founders promise play will resume as soon as they fix the problems, possibly within the next two weeks. Once the site is running, the schools’ rivalries will play out on the Web site’s Ivy League Championship, which began on Oct. 22. After a little more than a week, the game involved about 15 percent of Ivy League undergraduates, according to Yale senior Brad Hargreaves, one of the game’s founders. Nearly 1000 Brunonians are registered, and more than half regularly participated before the site went down, according to J.P. Eberenz-Rosero ’10, one of the four commanders of Brown’s team. Eberenz-Rosero compared GoCrossCampus to the game Risk. He said the similarities, like the strategy and chance involved, were what initially attracted him to GoCrossCampus. “The map, instead of the whole world, is the northeast part of the U.S.A., and it covers all of the regions that are around the Ivy League schools,” EberenzRosero said. To organize players, commanders issue battle plans about attacking other armies, defending territory and placing armies. Registered users then place their armies onto the map and await the battle. John Cucco ’09, another of Brown’s commanders, said two dif ferences between Risk and GoCrossCampus are the levels of participation and cooperation required to succeed. “Each person controls their own armies,” Cucco said. “To succeed at the game you need to have not only a lot of armies but a lot of discipline in that you have to get people to sign on to the site and follow the orders that have been decided.” Players agreed that the time commitment required by the game was minimal. “One turn is usually one day, so you only have to go on for say, five minutes a day, and then you don’t have to go on again until the next day,” said Ben Xiong ’11, a regular participant. But GoCrossCampus doesn’t end at the computer screen — another quality that makes it stand out from other online games. Hargreaves called it a “locally social online game” because it involves “the people you eat with, live with, go to class with every day.” “The beauty of the game is ... you can have strategy meetings with the people that live in your building,” Hargreaves said. “You actually have in-person interactions
By Kristina Kelleher Senior Staff Writer
The following summary includes all major incidents reported to the Department of Public Safety between Oct. 25 and Oct. 31. It does not include general service and alarm calls. The Providence Police Department also responds to incidents occurring both on and off campus. DPS does not divulge information on open cases that are currently under investigation by the department, the PPD or the Office of Student Life. DPS maintains a daily log of all shift activity and general service calls which can be viewed during business hours at its headquarters, located at 75 Charlesfield St.
Courtesy of GoCrossCampus
At the end of Round 9, with the servers overloaded and the game paused by the developers, Brown and its ‘commanders’ in GoCrossCampus held on to the territories marked in black.
instead of in-game interactions.” Xiong agreed. “You’re not just playing with random people — you’re playing with people from your school, so there’s a bond built in there,” he said. Hargreaves said the founders have received comments from many students who have met new people through the game they wouldn’t have otherwise interacted with. The social aspect of the game is one reason why Hargreaves thinks GoCrossCampus is more similar to a “co-ed game of pickup football than World of Warcraft.” He said because of the types of people it draws, the attitudes people take to playing it and the social dynamics that form within the game, he considers GoCrossCampus an “online sport” rather than an online game. GoCrossCampus began as a game played among the residential colleges at Yale. It was originally designed by Yale alum Gabe Smedresman, but Hargreaves, along with three other Yale students and one Columbia student, decided to spread it to other schools. After spending the summer planning and developing the site, the five founders contacted the Ivy League schools and several other institutions, including Rice University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Washington University in St. Louis. The game launched on Oct. 15 at RPI, where students battled other students from the same college. GoCrossCampus had attracted about 10,000 users by the weekend of Nov. 3, after its launch at other universities. Because its servers began experiencing an unexpectedly large amount of traffic, the game began to operate very slowly, and users had difficulty even logging in. “It was supposed to be really
easy and quick for people to go in, place their troops,” Cucco said. “Once it became real slow, I think fewer people used the site and people gave up on it.” Because of the overload, the founders have put the game on hold. Hargreaves estimated it would be back up in two weeks but cautioned that he couldn’t guarantee anything. Cucco, the Brown commander, described other problems with the site as well. “People reported not being able to place their armies in the correct place, placing them and losing them — the game all of a sudden would not keep track of their armies.” Hargreaves said they have received a large number of user suggestions, most of which they will not be working on right now. “It’s probably best just to fix some tech issues and then re-evaluate gameplay issues later, whenever that may be. Maybe not this year — but there will be another one,” said Hargreaves, who predicts the Ivy League Championship will become an annual event. Eberenz-Rosero, Cucco and Xiong found out about the game through an e-mail the Undergraduate Council of Students sent out on Oct. 23. During the first few days of gameplay, a user on the Web site’s message board suggested holding a meeting. Through this meeting and active involvement online, Cucco, Eberenz-Rosero, Jeff Hofmann ’08 and Dan Altman ’08 were elected commanders. According to Eberenz-Rosero, in total there were nearly 1,000 Brown students registered when the site was paused, and about 50 to 60 percent of them participated regularly. “It’s never too late to join,” said Eberenz-Rosero. “I think the most important thing is to have as many people to join as we can.”
Thursday, Oct. 25: 10:32 a.m. Student stated that on Oct. 23 at about 9 a.m., he chained his bike to the older bike rack outside Wilson Hall. When he returned to get it on Oct. 24, it was gone. He noticed that the bike rack was loose from the ground. Sunday, Oct. 28: 2:20 a.m. Two Brown students stated that some verbal exchanges were made between them and several unknown subjects occupying a silver vehicle. The vehicle stopped and a fight ensued in the middle of George Street. Providence Police units in the area also stopped to investigate. No one involved wished to press charges. The students were transported to Rhode Island Hospital. DPS detectives are investigating. Monday, Oct. 29: 12:55 p.m. An officer was dispatched to take a report of graffiti on the third floor of Vartan Gregorian Quadrangle B. Black dr y erase marker was all over the walls
CRIME LOG between rooms 301 and 351. The incident occurred between 3 p.m. on Oct. 26 and 8 a.m. on Oct. 29. There are no suspects at this time. 3:28 p.m. An officer was dispatched to speak with a residential counselor in New Pembroke 4. She stated that a student was leaving the dorm when a male was walking in. The person was asked to identify himself. He did not and said that he was here to see a friend. The unknown male was walking around the inside of the building and checking the dorm rooms. The reporting party stated this person was talking on a cell phone and it appeared that he was talking to himself on the phone. She also stated that he appeared to be unstable. A check of the area was done but no one was found. Tuesday, Oct. 30: 5:47 a.m. A Facilities Management employee reported that somebody has been lighting small fires in the handicapped men’s restroom at Josiah’s. He stated that the fires are fueled by toilet paper and have left burn marks on the floor. He said that this is the third time this has happened this year. Wednesday, Oct. 31: 3:05 p.m. Complainant stated that between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Oct. 30, unknown person(s) slashed the rear tire on his bicycle that was located on the bike rack on the West side of Barbour Hall. There are no suspects at this time. 7:16 p.m. Complainant reported that between 7:20 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Oct. 31 the window of his vehicle in Lot 89 had been shattered.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Friday, November 9, 2007
O pinions E xtra Friday, November 9, 2007
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Open the borders JAMES SHAPIRO Opinions Columnist
The United States should pursue an “open borders” immigration policy. An open borders policy would let any immigrant (without a criminal record or terrorist ties) reside in America. Opening the borders would rapidly and dramatically boost human welfare at home and abroad. The economic benefits alone would be staggering. High-skilled immigrants start businesses and invent new technologies. These immigrants have a long record of fostering economic growth. Over the past few decades they have contributed considerably to burgeoning fields like information technology and electronics. Recent immigrants co-founded Google and Yahoo. Tens of thousands of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs want to come to America. The United States government should invite them to collaborate and prosper. High-skilled immigrants often receive temporary visas. This undermines the United States’ international competitiveness. When immigrants know that their time in America is limited, they invest less in their transient careers at American companies and have a larger incentive to hoard and resell information abroad. Low-skilled immigrants fuel economic growth by taking jobs that native workers do not want. Immigrants often take low-paying jobs on farms and in factories. They also provide valuable services including childcare, elderly assistance and janitorial services. United
States employers need cheap labor, and the economy thrives when needy employers can contract with willing employees. Some Americans worry that low-skilled immigrants depress wages and employment levels for native workers. This sentiment is misguided for several reasons. First, immigrants frequently aren’t competing with native workers — they usually take jobs that do not attract large pools of native applicants. Second, immigrants can complement native workers and actually increase native employment. If an
and creating more jobs. Finally, the welfare of low-skilled immigrants is an end in itself. Low-skilled immigrants generally come from less affluent backgrounds than even the poorest Americans. It would be irrational and morally repellant to privilege the well-being of a tiny sliver of the American public over the well-being of the vast majority of Americans and millions of impoverished immigrants. Native-born Americans receive the exclusive privilege of citizenship by dint of their ancestors’ migration patterns. There is no sense in
There is no actual justification for the implicit assumption that people should live and die in their country of origin, especially if that country happens to be poor, dangerous or oppressive. immigrant can look after someone’s child and clean his house, the would-be caregiver can then enter the marketplace. Third, immigrants reduce production costs, making goods more affordable for low-income consumers. Fourth, immigrants also consume a large share of domestic goods, stimulating demand for goods
which they deserve this privilege more than people born into less fortunate areas. Open borders would directly benefit immigrants’ families. A recent study by the Rand Corporation found that the typical American immigrant earns $20,000 more in yearly income. Immigrants in affluent countries send
a lot of money to their families back home. According to some estimates, poor countries receive six times more money in remittances than they receive in foreign aid. Remittances are by far the best available means for transferring money to the world’s poor, because foreign aid often ends up in the hands of corrupt government officials. In contrast, remittances go directly to needy families. Increased immigration also confers useful social benefits. Importing more high-skilled workers would non-coercively promote income equality. High-skilled immigrants compete against educated US workers and bid down their wages. In practice this reduces the earnings gap between educated and uneducated workers. High-skilled and illegal immigrants are an underutilized source of government revenue. Since they tend to be young, immigrants can help sustain programs like Social Security and Medicare that depend on a high ratio of workers to retirees. Humanitarian concerns make the case for open borders all the more compelling. Illegal immigrants in the United States sometimes cannot visit their families, because they cannot risk or afford another dangerous border crossing. On a more fundamental level, immigration restrictions hamper the human desire for mobility and exploration. There is no actual justification for the implicit assumption that people should live and die in their country of origin, especially if that country happens to be poor, dangerous or oppressive. We should not prevent enterprising, motivated, talented immigrants from pursuing the American dream.
James Shapiro ’10 hired a high-skilled immigrant to write this column.
Brown’s vegetarian dining options fall short BY ADAM MERBERG, ADAM HOFFMAN AND ERIC GASTFRIEND Guest Columnists There’s no question that Brown’s on-campus eateries do a better job of catering to a vegetarian diet than do most college dining facilities. As members of Brown’s community of vegans and vegetarians, we appreciate the efforts of Dining Services to accommodate our dietary choices. Yet we find the coverage in the recent Herald article (“Brown’s reputation among vegetarians is Grade A,” Oct. 30) to be remarkably one-sided and incomplete. While better than average, Brown’s vegan and vegetarian options still leave something to be desired. Most Brown students know the “Roots & Shoots” section of the Sharpe Refectory as the “vegetarian section,” but probably fewer stop to think about what this really means. In our discussions with Dining Ser vices through the Brown Veg*n Club — which has since been renamed the Brown Animal Rights Club — we have learned that Dining Services uses definitions of “vegan” and “vegetarian” that include ingredients most actual vegans and vegetarians eschew. For example, most vegetarians will at least try to avoid eating gelatin (a product derived from collagen in the tendons, ligaments, and tissues of animals), which is found in certain packaged yogurts sometimes sold at the supposedly all-vegetarian Ivy Room at night.
Of course, one might argue that if we want food that meets our standard of vegetarianism, we should read the ingredients for each dish before we eat it. After all, ingredient listings are available in both the Ratty and Verney-Woolley Dining Hall. Unfortunately, these are of little use when they tell us only that the Ratty’s Black Bean Burgers are packaged veggie burgers. They might similarly leave one wondering whether the canned
that soy yogurt is available from the salad bar at the Ratty during some weeks. The soy yogurt had been completely unlabeled, and, owing to its visual similarity to dairy-based yogurt, no vegan would have thought to try it. In the V-Dub, labeling is even more frequently a problem, as vegetarian dishes are often placed alongside similar meat dishes without labels to distinguish them. Even ignoring the aforementioned some-
Most Brown students know the ‘Roots & Shoots’ section of the Sharpe Refectory as the ‘vegetarian section,’ but probably fewer think about what this really means. refried beans contain lard (as many refried beans do), whether cheeses contain animal rennet or whether the margarine used in recipes contains whey. An absence of labeling on some foods has also served to make finding meals harder than it needs to be. Last semester, when talking to Dining Services, we were surprised to learn
what technical issues, sometimes the menu makes it genuinely difficult — particularly for vegans — to obtain a nutritious meal. In some cases, this could be rectified by relatively modest changes to a recipe. For example, falafel served in the Ratty contains eggs and is therefore not compatible with a vegan diet. Yet a quick Google search for “falafel recipes”
turned up a number of recipes, and of the first 25, all but four were vegan. Lest one should think that the Ratty would sacrifice palatability by switching to a vegan falafel recipe, East Side Pockets has promised to supply BARC with vegan falafel for an upcoming event, and — let’s face it — how many students would choose Ratty falafel over East Side Pockets? Good vegetarian and vegan sources of protein can be especially hard to find in the dining halls. This is particularly the case on weekends, when breakfast foods, most of which are not vegan and whose calories are primarily in the form of carbohydrates, invade the Roots & Shoots section at lunch. On Saturday, Nov. 3, for example, vegans found Mediterranean stew and cold tofu from the noodle bowl bar to be their only significant sources of protein at lunch at the Ratty. As vegans and vegetarians, we’re used to having fewer options than our peers when it comes to food. We don’t expect Dining Services — or all of our readers — to agree with our dietary choices or the ideas that lead us to make them. What we hope others can agree with, though, is that as paying customers of Dining Services, we should receive access to reasonably complete information about our food and a wide enough selection of food to eat a varied diet. We hope that Dining Services will work with us to better meet these objectives.
Adam Merberg ’08, Adam Hoffman ’10 and Eric Gastfriend ’10 are members of the Brown Animal Rights Club.
E ditorial & L etters Page 10
Friday, November 9, 2007
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
S t a ff E d i t o r i a l
Diamonds and coal A diamond to Ryan Bilodeau, the URI junior and chairman of the Rhode Island college Republican federation who told The Herald, “I think I have more executive experience than Hillary Clinton after running this group.” And arguably, you may have more executive experience than Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron. Thankfully she’s not running for president — or is she? A cubic zirconium to the cryptic words of the Guerrilla Girls, who “want to add noise, not just make more noise” in the 2008 presidential election. Isn’t that what Stephen Colbert tried to do? Or Bergeron? Coal to GoCrossCampus, whose creator describes the online Risk clone as a “co-ed game of pick-up football.” Yeah, we’re sure the 1,000 Brunonians who play — almost 20 percent of undergraduates — are of both genders, just like Tech House. Coal to the six minute delays sophomores faced when they pre-registered on Banner today. Not that it would have mattered. We hear ECON 0110 and POLS 0020 aren’t too hard to get into anyway. A cubic zirconium to Sex Power God, which will offer free lube and condoms as roving patrols ensure that all sexual activity is consensual. While we’re curious how these patrols will work, we’re pleased to hear alcohol is banned. We wouldn’t want liquor to loosen students’ inhibitions.
pete fallon
Coal to emPOWER, which is advocating the use of local carbon offsets. FYI — our coal is made of ink, not carbon. So feel free to burn it. A diamond to the holiday-themed cups now at Starbucks — the truest marker of the change of seasons. Indeed, a cubic zirconium to Daylight Savings Time. At first glance the extra hour of sleep screams diamond, but then we realized the days are shorter, drearier, and get, well, oh so dark — like coal — oh so early. Sad. A diamond to the Frisc, which won two design awards from Rhode Island Monthly recently. We wish we felt the same at 4 a.m. Coal to 2007, which according to University Registrar Michael Pesta will be known as the year without a printed course announcement. We’d like to think that maybe — just maybe — 2007 might be remembered for the resurgence of democratic protest in Myanmar, demonstrations in Pakistan, the lively Democratic Party debates or The Herald’s epic defeat of the College Hill ’Dependent at kickball.
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C l a r i f i c a t i o ns A caption accompanying a photo in Wednesday’s Herald (“Simmons to speak at UCS,” Nov. 7) imprecisely stated that the photo was taken last year. The photo was taken on March 1, 2006. The headline for an opinions column by Michael Boyce ’08 in Tuesday’s Herald (“The classes of enemies,” Nov. 6) was intended to be “The closeness of enemies.” C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. C ommentary P O L I C Y The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
O pinions Friday, November 9, 2007
Page 11
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Overheard on College Hill By Spencer Amdur, Jacob Izenberg and Laszlo Syrop
Who do you want to see perform at Spring Weekend? James Williams ’10
Michelle Beaulieu ’08 I want to see the Spice Girls for Spring Weekend, because I think a big part of Spring Weekend is an escape from college realities, and what better way to do that than with a band straight out of fifth grade. I think part of what makes a good show is audience participation and how much everyone else cares. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love the Spice Girls.
Clayton Nelson ’09
Eric Lopresti ’10 I think we should bring Bela Fleck and the Flecktones because they put on an awesome show, and it would be a lot different than the normal indie, hip hop, all the other stuff that we have. It’s jazzish, it’s a great show.
My choice would be Modest Mouse and Lupe Fiasco. Modest Mouse has a huge repertoire of songs and gives an amazing live show. And Lupe Fiasco is a great hip hop artist. The two are very different. They both released phenomenal albums in the last two years and would be great to have on campus. Spring Weekend is about the coming of spring, it’s about the campus livening up again. It’s good to have bands that are high energy. It can really inspire people to continue with their spring semester.
I would like to see Lil’ John & the East Side Boyz come for Spring Weekend because what he represents is the overall excitement and hyped-up-ness of Spring Weekend. And of course his genre of music is Crunk, and what Crunk is is an amplified version of yourself. Spring Weekend is all about having fun and going crazy, so why would you not have someone that exciting here to put on a show.
Scott Cary ’10
I’d say Daft Punk, not really because the music’s that great, but just because it would probably be an awesome show. Everyone would be really into it, with lots of dancing, lots of craziness would be going down. I would say high energy shows bring a lot to it. You can appreciate good music and that’s great, but Spring Weekend’s a time to party and have a good time on College Hill. With the weather starting to get nice, it’s time to get out and have a good time, instead of being cloistered in the dorms.
Expressing my selves MAHA ATAL Opinions Columnist
Every generation has its pop culture heroes. And from The Who’s “My Generation” to Nirvana’s “Smells like Teen Spirit,” adolescents have gravitated towards contemporary artists whose music defined what it meant to be young at the time. But you’d be hard pressed to find one contemporary song to define Generation Y. Our musical tastes are eclectic: My iPod is playing Wilco, the girl sitting next to me is singing along to Kelly Clarkson, and it’s hard to say who’s more mainstream. Instead of taking our cues en masse from Billboard charts, where different trends compete for the number one spot, Generation Y follows a decentralized pop culture, where hipsters and teenyboppers download their playlists from different Web sites and rarely butt heads. In fact, the defining pop icon for Generation Y might not be a contemporary one at all, but one from the decade in which we were born — the 1980s. Generation Y, I’m beginning to think, is the Madonna generation. That’s not just because the 1980s have suddenly become cool again, in some circles. Nor is it because any one Madonna song perfectly describes our collective attitude toward life. It’s because no Madonna song ever perfectly encapsulated Madonna’s own approach to life. If there is one thing she’s known for, it’s her ability to reinvent herself at every turn. In her 2004 Reinvention tour,
she even brought out a troupe of dancers dressed in costumes from each of her many phases: the clone Madonnas took up the whole stage. Like Madonna, the decentralized culture of Generation Y escapes definition. Like Madonna, Generation Y individuals are prone to self-reinvention. And like Madonna, we bring all our personas on stage, so comfortable are we with being many things at once. Part of our Madonna culture comes from
opens seven tabs, so I get news and weather as though I were living in New York, Providence and London, while I check two e-mail addresses, my Facebook profile and respond to comments on my blog. None of these is the “real” me by itself, which is why none of them could be my home page. Like Madonna, I perform best with all these identities dancing behind me. That diversity is what’s made Madonna so enduring, what’s allowed her to stay suc-
Generation Y, I’m beginning to think, is the Madonna generation. the Web technology we’re growing up with. It’s easy to reinvent yourself with a new screenname or a new e-mail address, but what’s important is that neither Instant Messenger nor Google require you to cancel your previous alias to begin anew — the result is that most of us have at least two e-mail addresses, a screen name, a Skype name and sometimes a blogging pseudonym. My web browser doesn’t require me to stop blogging when I want to check my e-mail, so I can play these many roles at once. The Internet is built for such multitasking. When I log on in the morning, my browser
cessful even as trends have changed, what allows her to be dancing on MTV at age 40 in an industry where so many careers end at 25. Like Madonna, Generation Y is geared for the long haul. Advances in medical science will have us living well past the century mark. Our youth-culture had better be long-lasting, because we’ll be in our “youth,” relatively speaking till the age our parents associate with mid-life crises. We’ll also have careers that last longer: with the unraveling of Social Security, retirement will soon be pushed to age 70 or 75.
And this is perhaps where Madonna-esque reinvention is most important. My father graduated from college in 1978, he worked a brief stint for Price Waterhouse, then he took a gig at Citicorp and stayed. Citicorp has since become Citigroup, but my father has effectively spent the last three decades with one company. In anxious senior year conversations about my future, he reminds me that few in my generation will have such clear trajectories. My friends and I are looking for first jobs, not for careers. Friends applying for the kind of fields that used to imply a long-term upward climb — banking, law, even academia — tell me, “It’s something I’m into for the next few years.” The speed of life in the Web 2.0 age helps. Just as it is easy to create new screennames at a moment’s notice, it’s possible to become a 35-year-old millionaire or CEO. You can max out your first job quickly, but since you’ve got more years to work, early retirement has been replaced by a paradigm of multiple careers. Indeed, a graduate in the class of 2008 might spend a few years as a journalist, some time in graduate school, become an academic or policy expert at a think tank, serve as a consultant, then write the great American novel, open a restaurant or star in a reality TV series, all by age 60, with time for one more incarnation before retirement. The thought is both exhausting and exhilarating, but one thing is for sure, success in the reinvention age will require from even the shyest among us the stamina and energy of a pop diva.
Maha Atal ’08 is touched for the very first time, again.
S ports W eekend Page 12
Friday, November 9, 2007
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
M. hoops hopes for more of the same, except for record By Stu Woo Spor ts Editor
The men’s basketball team will have a familiar look this season. Four starters are returning. Head Coach Craig Robinson will be running the same offense. The one thing the team hopes to change is last year’s 11-18 record (6-8 Ivy League) — something the team, which kicks off its season at noon today at Eastern Michigan University, is optimistic it can do. “We really haven’t changed anything,” said shooting guard Mark McAndrew ’08, one of the team’s three captains. “We’ve haven’t recreated it. We’ve just built off what we established last year under Coach Robinson and just reapplied it this year.” Robinson said in an interview last month that he feels much more organized in his second season at Brown. Besides holding practices at 5 a.m. this season — the team mainly had afternoon practices last year — he’s trying to keep things the same as before so players can know what to expect. “By the end of last year, we started figuring out what we were doing,” Robinson said. “The team got comfortable running the offense.” With the return of most of its starting lineup, including the All-Ivy backcourt of McAndrew and point guard Damon Huffman ’08, and with perennial powerhouses Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania in something of a rebuilding mode, this may be the Bears’ best chance to win the Ivy League title in recent history. McAndrew said he felt some added pressure coming into this season. “I’ve always felt a sense of urgency every day,” McAndrew said, continued on page 6
By Stu Woo Sports Editor
By nature, water polo forwards are lean, mean machines. Perhaps none are leaner and meaner than Mike Gartner ’09, who was named the College Water Polo Association Northern Division Player of the Week after scoring 10 goals and drawing 10 ejections over three games at the Northern Division Championship. Gartner’s 67 goals on the season are eighth in the country, making it a strong possibility that Gartner, an Honorable Mention All-American last year, could win another national award. But first, he has to lead the Bears to the Eastern Championships next weekend at Harvard — and face a grilling from The Herald. Herald: It’s been a bit of a weird season, hasn’t it? Gartner: It’s been tough. We’ve been through having a pool, to not having a pool, to maybe having a pool, to having a coach, not having a coach and probably having a coach, and in the end, we’ve ended up doing pretty well.
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Ashley Hess / Herald The basketball team, led by Mark McAndrew ‘08, tips off at noon today against Eastern Michigan University.
May ’09 brings hard hits to football’s defensive line By Benjy Asher Assistant Sports Editor
As a first-year starter at linebacker, Jonathan May ’09 is not one of the football team’s most heralded players. But this season, May has stood out from the crowd on the Bears’ defense. May comes into Saturday’s home game against Dartmouth — the final home game of the season for the 3-5, 2-3 Ivy Bears — leading the team in both solo tackles and total tackles. He has impressed teammates, coaches and fans alike with his electrifying hits on opposing players.
While playing for Naples High School, a perennial Florida state powerhouse, May’s aggressive style drew the attention of the Brown coaching staff. “He was a great hitter,” said Defensive Coordinator and Linebackers Coach Mike Kelleher. “On a perennial playoff team, he was always the most physical player, on every tape we watched.” When it came time for May to choose a college, Brown seemed like the best fit for him. “A major factor was the academics,” May said. “It came down to a choice between Patriot League and
S C h e dul e Friday, NOvember 9 M. basketball: at Eastern Michigan W. basketball vs. Providence College, 7:30 p.m., Pizzitola Center Volleyball: vs. Princeton, 4 p.m., Pizzitola Center W. ice hockey: at Colgate M. ice hockey: vs. Colgate, 7 p.m., Meehan Auditorium
Saturday, November 10 Football: vs. Dartmouth, 12:30 p.m., Brown Stadium M. Soccer: vs. Dartmouth, 4 p.m., Stevenson Field W. Soccer: vs. Dartmouth, 7 p.m., Stevenson Field
Gartner ’09 on water polo, reincarnation
Ivy League schools, and when I took a visit to Brown it just seemed like a better work environment.” In his first two seasons at Brown, May saw relatively little playing time but had the opportunity to learn from older players such as All-American linebacker Zak DeOssie ’07. “Zak was a great role model, both on and off the field,” May said. “Everyone on this team comes from different backgrounds ... and you learn a lot from each person.” Last season, May was used mostly as a free safety, but for a large part of the season had a limited role as he played behind All-Ivy safety Jose
Yearwood ’08. “Last year I really just wanted to help the team out, and whatever way I could help the team would be great,” May said. But could he have envisioned himself becoming the team’s leading tackler? “Absolutely not,” May said. This year, the coaching staff moved May to the outside linebacker position, and he has flourished in his new role. Through the first eight games, he has recorded 68 tackles, including 47 solo tackles. Though he has shocked himself with continued on page 6
S liding toward an ivy T itl e
Volleyball: vs. Penn, 4 p.m., Pizzitola Center W. ice hockey: at Cornell M. ice hockey: vs. Cornell, 7 p.m., Meehan Auditorium W. track: Ncaa Regionals (Franklin Park, Mass.) M. track: NCAA regionals (Franklin Park, Mass.) Equestrian: Windcrest Farm Show (at Central Connecticut State) Wrestling: Brockport/Oklahoma Gold (at Brockport, N.Y.)
Sunday, november 11 M. basketball: at Michigan W. basketball: at Quinnipiac
Ashley Hess / Herald
David Walls ‘11 and the men’s soccer team play Dartmouth on Saturday night.
What has been the toughest thing? I think it’s been hard to get the team on the same page. Now looking back, even though I thought we had an amazing team and knew exactly what was going on, in the beginning of the season, things were very unstructured, kind of like off-season water polo. Kind of like putting an all-star team together — no one was playing together. Even though we had all played together, it felt like we hadn’t. Now, looking back at the end of the season, looking back at how much we’ve come together and put things where we should be and playing the game as a team instead of individuals, we’ve done a really good job considering the problems we’ve had. Realistically, what do you think are your chances of winning the Eastern Championships next week? I think our chances of getting to the Eastern Championships are very high. We had Navy beat when we played them — we’re going to play George Washington, and then most likely we’re going to play Navy, and we had them beat last time we played them, and in the fourth quarter, they came back on some really poor calls by the referees. If we can hold them off, we’d be in the championships. Winning against the St. Francis team is just going to come down to who wants it more. And I didn’t feel like in the Northern championship, our team showed that we wanted it more. I’ve always heard about a lot of dirty things that water polo players do. What kind of stuff goes on underwater? Water polo is an advantaged-based game, kind of like basketball. If you have the lane to drive in, the referee is going to reward you. If the defender’s in good position, then it’s an offensive charge. In water polo, if you have the shot, and someone is impeding you from making that good shot from behind, from out of position, then you continued on page 6