E ditorial & L etters Page 10
Thursday, November 15, 2007
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Staf f Editorial
The spirit of 2007?
Though the members of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education have tirelessly tried to solicit student feedback, it’s become clear that their review of the New Curriculum isn’t going to generate the same ardor as the “spirit of 1969.” Almost 40 years ago, a wave of genuine student-led fervor for curricular change swept the campus, and the result was a uniquely flexible curriculum that has become the hallmark of the Brown experience for decades of students. The current review of the curriculum, which was formally launched last March with the creation of the task force, has been met with a mixture of disinterest and trepidation, and both reactions are unsurprising. Time and again, we’ve seen students largely ignore important administration-driven efforts. The October 2006 release of the final report by the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice had the potential to be a dramatic moment in University history and make a lasting mark on President Ruth Simmons’ legacy at Brown. Instead, the campus response was decidedly muted. It seems that the campus’s attention is only captured by intense — and short-lived — student-initiated movements, whether in response to a proposal to outsource the Brown Bookstore, alleged incidents of police brutality, the supposedly pernicious introduction of an online course registration system or a plan to ax the American Sign Language program. Facebook activists and Main Green protests garner students’ attention. It’s clear campus-wide e-mails sent from University Hall do not. The distrust of the curricular review among some students is more curious. To be sure, we’ve observed that Brown students tend to be surprisingly resistant to change — recall that nearly 15 percent of undergraduates joined the “Brown Against Banner” Facebook group last February, expressing concern about an effort to bring the University’s registration system into the 21st century. Yet even as administrators and, especially, students on the task force have made a concerted effort to solicit feedback, some students whisper with suspicion that the “review” will alter the unique curriculum that drew many of us to Brown. Students seemingly cared enough about the perceived impact that online course registration might have had on their Brown experience to speak up, yet virtually none discuss, much less publicly articulate, their thoughts for the comprehensive review of academic life on College Hill. In this space, we’ve strongly supported the task force’s mission and made the case for reviewing the not-so-new New Curriculum. We’re eager to see what the task force — and the campus — will ultimately decide. But before any decisions are made, a lengthy public discussion is slated to take place. And we hope that both students who care deeply about keeping things as they have been and those who support adding new ideas to the discussion will speak up. It’s not hard — visit a dean, chat about it in the Ratty, submit a letter or column to The Herald or, as task force members invited students to do in a campus-wide e-mail Wednesday, author a 1,000-word personal statement. It’s easy to ignore the discussion, and many current students will not be around to experience the changes the task force might bring. But Brown isn’t just about the four years you spend here. As the students living with the New Curriculum at this important moment in the College’s history, we can passionately defend it or aggressively fight for change, just as our predecessors on College Hill did nearly 40 years ago.
Executive Editors Stephen Colelli Allison Kwong Ben Leubsdorf
Senior Editors Jonathan Sidhu Anne Wootton
editorial Lydia Gidwitz Robin Steele Oliver Bowers Stephanie Bernhard Simmi Aujla Sara Molinaro Ross Frazier Karla Bertrand Jacob Schuman Peter Cipparone Erin Frauenhofer Stu Woo Benjy Asher Amy Ehrhart Jason Harris
Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Editor Campus Watch Editor Features Editor Metro Editor Metro Editor News Editor Opinions Editor Opinions Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor
photo Christopher Bennett Rahul Keerthi Ashley Hess
Photo Editor Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor
Business Mandeep Gill General Manager Darren Ball Executive Manager Dan DeNorch Executive Manager Laurie-Ann Paliotti Sr. Advertising Manager Susan Dansereau Office Manager production Steve DeLucia Catherine Cullen Roxanne Palmer
Design Editor Copy Desk Chief Graphics Editor
post- magazine Hillary Dixler Melanie Duch Taryn Martinez Rajiv Jayadevan Sonia Kim Matt Hill Arthur Matuszewski
L e tt e r s Harrison ’08 sees sexism where none exists To the Editor: In his recent column (“Ira Magaziner ‘69 P’06 P’07 P’10 is not your daddy,” Oct. 31), Patrick Harrison ’08 made a throwaway comment that Adam Cambier ’09 was being “unimaginatively sexist,” since in his Oct. 23 column, “an ambitious woman is compared to a witch.” Though Cambier’s column (“We’re not on College
Managing Editor Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor
Hill anymore: Dean Bergeron and the New Curriculum,” Oct. 23) may not have been the best thing to publish in The Herald, it was nevertheless not sexist. Reading sexism into places where it is not is childish and indicative of the larger problem of hypersensitivity at Brown. Michael Sokolovsky ’10 Nov. 11
Brown and UCS need to reevaluate funding priorities To the Editor:
T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Eric Beck Mary-Catherine Lader
jason li
I was shocked and disappointed to read that the Undergraduate Council of Students voted to recommend an increase in the student activities fee (“UCS votes to increase student activities fee by $54,” Nov. 8.) While the proposed increase is small change compared to the overall cost of attending Brown, it is merely a band-aid on a significantly larger problem. Indeed, the proposed increase could be misconstrued to represent student assent for the University’s poor hierarchy of financial priorities. To put it bluntly, the University is being cheap when it comes to allocating its money for the educational and extracurricular experiences of its current students. Student activities are not a luxury, but rather a basic and integral part of a university education. While long-term goals like capital improvement and endowment expansion are admirable, such improvements have little effect on my own
Brown experience. Indeed, contrary to rhetoric from above, Brown is still one of the richest universities in the world. When I see widespread capital improvement on campus and hear of Brown’s endowment-to-student ratio, I question why relatively small-change funding of student activities is so lacking. Brown’s fragmented and confusing administrative bureaucracy often kills radical and innovative ideas from above, and thus the responsibility for formulating such ideas and asking controversial questions falls upon the students — established representative bodies like UCS in particular. The UCS vote to blindly give in to the University’s philosophy of “cheapness” is not the sort of student representation that I expect. I encourage fellow students to express their displeasure with UCS support for an activities fee increase as well. Graham Anderson ‘10 Nov. 8
Phil Maynard, Aditya Voleti, Steve DeLucia, Designer Erin Cummings, Alex Mazerov, Max Mankin, Katie Delaney, Copy Editors Simmi Aujla, Irene Chen, Chaz Firestone, Michael Skocpol, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Rachel Arndt, Michael Bechek, Irene Chen, Chaz Firestone, Isabel Gottlieb, Nandini Jayakrishna, Franklin Kanin, Kristina Kelleher, Debbie Lehmann, Scott Lowenstein, Michael Skocpol, Nick Werle Staff Writers Stefanie Angstadt, Amanda Bauer, Brianna Barzola, Evan Boggs, Caitlin Browne, Sam Byker, Zachary Chapman, Joy Chua, Patrick Corey, Catherine Goldberg, Olivia Hoffman, Chaz Kelsh, Jessica Kerry, Sophia Lambertson, Cameron Lee, Sophia Li, Emmy Liss, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, George Miller, Anna Millman, Evan Pelz, Sonia Saraiya, Andrea Savdie, Marielle Segarra, Gaurie Tilak, Simon van Zuylen-Wood, Matt Varley, Meha Verghese, Joanna Wohlmuth Sports Staff Writers Andrew Braca, Whitney Clarke, Han Cui, Evan Kantor, Christina Stubbe Business Staff Diogo Alves, Emilie Aries, Beth Berger, Steven Butschi, Timothy Carey, Jilyn Chao, Ellen DaSilva, Pete Drinan, Dana Feuchtbaum, Patrick Free, Sarah Glick, Alexander Hughes, Claire Kiely, Soobin Kim, Katelyn Koh, Darren Kong, Christie Liu, Philip Maynard, Ingrid Pangandoyon, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Viseth San, Paolo Servado, Kaustubh Shah, Saira Shervani, Yelena Shteynberg, Jon Spector, Robert Stefani, Lily Tran, Hari Tyagi, Lindsay Walls, Benjamin Xiong Design Staff Brianna Barzola, Chaz Kelsh,Ting Lawrence, Philip Maynard, Alex Unger, Aditya Voleti, Wudan Yan Photo Staff Oona Curley, Alex DePaoli, Austin Freeman, Emmy Liss, Meara Sharma, Tai Ho Shin, Min Wu Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Rafael Chaiken, Erin Cummings, Katie Delaney, Jake Frank, Jennifer Grayson, Ted Lamm, Max Mankin, Alex Mazerov, Ben Mercer, Ezra Miller, Seth Motel, Alexander Rosenberg, Emily Sanford, Sara Slama, Jenna Stark, Laura Straub, Meha Verghese, Elena Weissman
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.