C ampus N ews Thursday, January 24, 2008
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Voter ID laws reduce participation, U. study finds By Dana Teppert Contributing Writer
Courtesy of Siobhán Silke At a march held in Paris to mourn the death of Benazir Bhutto. The signs read, from left, “No to religious fundamentalism” and “Victim of cowards.”
Pakistani students remember Bhutto By Joanna Wohlmuth Senior Staf f Writer
When Asad Jan ’10 first heard on Dec. 27 of an attempt to assassinate former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, he wasn’t shocked. Only months before, a similar attempt had been made on the life of Bhutto, the leading opposition party candidate in the upcoming election, but she had escaped unharmed. Jan, 1,000 miles away from Rawalpindi at his home in Karachi, soon learned that histor y was not repeating itself. Despite early repor ts that she had sur vived, Bhutto, the victim of a suicide attack, was pronounced dead after 45 minutes in surger y at Rawalpindi General Hospital. Karachi, “a city of 15 million,
looked like a ghost town,” Jan said. In the days following Bhutto’s death, most Pakistanis stayed in their homes waiting to learn more about the assassination — accounts of the attack and the cause of death are still disputed — and its effect on the upcoming election, Bhutto’s party and the nation. Bhutto had returned from self-
FEATURE imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates and London to make a bid for a third term as prime minister. As chair of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which her father — former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto — founded, she held the office from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996. Both terms ended with Bhutto forced out of office amid allegations of financial corruption.
As a moderate, female candidate in a nation where politics is dominated by religious men, Bhutto was viewed as the embodiment of democratic ideals by many Pakistanis, Jan said, though he was not among her supporters. Pakistan-born Sumbul Siddiqui ’10, who visited family there last August, said Bhutto “was not a saint in terms of her politics” and was “mostly talk.” But, Siddiqui added, the leader was “a really impressive woman to stand out among men.” In a countr y where social pressures forced Siddiqui to be accompanied by a male chaperone when she left the house, Bhutto stands out as a role model for female empowerment in the Muslim world, Siddiqui said. A tense period followed the continued on page 8
For 25 students, an ‘amazing’ January@Brown By Caroline Sedano Senior Staf f Writer
The second year of January@Brown only attracted a little more than onefourth of the projected attendance, but it earned positive reviews from students who saw it as a way to expand their academic and social experiences without the pressure of grades. “Oh it was amazing!” said J.D. Andrade ’10, a chemistr y concentrator who took “Workshop on Studio Art.” “I loved the small class setting, the freedom to do what we wanted in class and the new people I met,” he said. “All the feedback we got was extremely positive,” said Robin Rose, associate dean of continuing studies. The program took place from Jan. 9 to Jan. 18 and offered five classes — “Workshop in Creative Nonfiction,” “Chemistry 33T,” “Storied Neighborhoods: Race, Place, and Narrative,” “Workshop on Studio Art,” and “Persuasive Communication” — that met for three hours a day. The 25 students lived together in Littlefield Hall and did activities like ice skating, visiting the RISD Museum, and meeting with Career Development Center and Swearer Center officials. This year’s Januar y@Brown attracted
Chris Bennett / Herald File Photo
Snowy isolation and no course credit didn’t stop the 25 students taking classes this past January.
six more students than it did last year and was two days longer, Rose said. The term cost students $640 including room and board, with financial aid available. Though many colleges of fer January courses for credit, Brown does not. “Courses would have to be more rigorous than they are now,” Rose said. “Now students are getting a great introduction or sampling to different topic and course areas.” At the end of the 10-day program, students met with administrators to discuss how the January session had gone.
“Students were ver y mixed in terms of receiving grades and credit for their work — some students were ver y interested and some liked the more relaxed approach to learning without the stress of grades,” said Rose, who added the work the students put into their classes equates to about two-thirds of that needed for getting credit. Rose said the Office of Summer and Continuing Studies is still unsure of how or if they will change next year’s program. “For me it doesn’t really matter continued on page 6
A new report recently released by a Brown professor and graduate student provides evidence that requiring voters to show identification decreases naturalization rates and suppresses political participation, particularly among minorities and lower income individuals. The report, released Jan. 2 by Professor of Sociology John Logan and Jennifer Darrah GS, adds to the debate on the effects of state requirements for voter identification. Building on previous studies, Logan and Darrah conclude that voter ID requirements affect not only voter turnout and registration, but also immigrants’ decisions to become citizens. In 2000, in states that required voters to show proof of identity before casting a ballot, the odds of naturalization for foreign-born residents were 5 percent lower than in states that did not have a voter ID requirement, affecting Hispanics most strongly. Logan and Darrah found that voter ID requirements disproportionately affect minorities, people without a high school diploma and those with an annual income of less than $15,000. Darrah said the report, which has received national attention, was a response to the current debate about voter identification requirements. It notes that as of 2004, 19 states required voters to provide some kind of identification. “We knew this had become a hot political issue and that these kinds of policies were about to be under review by the Supreme Court,” Darrah said, referring to Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, a case currently before the Supreme Court that challenges the constitutionality of a 2005 Indiana law requiring voters to show a photo ID issued by the federal or state government before voting. In an e-mail to The Herald, Logan wrote that he sent a copy of the report to one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, though he added he doesn’t know if the report will affect the case. Proponents of Indiana’s voter ID law cite it as a necessary tool to prevent voter fraud, but the report states that, “at a time when many public officials express regret that immigrants seem to lag in their
Courtesy of Brown.edu
Professor of Sociology John Logan participation in mainstream society, even small suppressive effects on naturalization — the formal step to becoming an American citizen — work in the wrong direction and should be taken into account as people evaluate the benefits and costs of more stringent identification requirements.” Darrah said she and Logan wrote the report in the hopes that it might advance the voter ID debate. “It might gain the attention of policy makers, of the public at large, potentially even the attention of those who are making arguments in official bodies,” she said. Darrah said the study was originally meant to focus on the effects of voter ID requirements on political participation and to address conflicting reports on the effects of voter ID requirements. “We started to think more about what might be affecting political participation of immigrants and all Americans, regardless of their nativity status,” Darrah said. But as Logan and Darrah looked more closely at the existing research and their own study, they began to consider what effects voter ID policies might have on naturalization. “Looking at whether these policies affect becoming a citizen was totally new, but we did build on previous research that looks at becoming a citizen as an action that reflects a desire to join the American polity for a number of reasons,” Darrah said. “If a political system is perceived to be difficult to access … people might think their vote might not matter or that their political participation might not be welcome.”