The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, F ebr uar y 27, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 24
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Professors discuss task force report
After 24 years, Ivy athletic director plans to retire
Profs say task force ideas may overwork them
By Stefanie Angstadt Staff Writer
Jeff Orleans, the man who helped draft Title IX and secure nearly perfect graduation rates for Ivy League student-athletes, announced last week that he will retire next year as executive director of the Council of Ivy Group Presidents. “It just seemed that this was a good time, both for me and for the council, for a transition,” Orleans told The Herald about his decision to step down from the body that governs Ivy League athletics. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and things were running well enough with the league where this would be a good time for me to leave. After 24 years at the helm of Ivy athletics, Orleans will depart in June 2009 as one of the longest-serving college sports commissioners ever, according to a statement from the Ivy Group. Reactions from the Brown administrators and coaches he worked with varied. “I wasn’t surprised — he’s been in the league for a long time,” said Carolan Norris, associate athletic director, who has been involved with Brown athletics, both as a coach and administrator, since 1983. “I’m sure he’s up for a new change and a new challenge.” Longtime women’s ice hockey Head Coach Digit Murphy, though, said she was surprised. “I was actually pretty shocked. I didn’t even know he was thinking about retiring.” As director of Ivy League athletics, Orleans’ primary role is to serve as a liaison between the various committees within the Ivy Group, which is comprised of the presidents of the eight Ivy League universities. According to Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger, Orleans is responsible for interpreting rules, relaying information and presenting the right information to the right groups. “He’s brought a continuity and a stability,” Goldberger said. “When you have somebody who’s worked with the rules — and the Ivy League has more than its share of rules — and the changing personalities in these institutions, it’s nice to have someone who’s been here for a long time and can understand the rules and explain them clearly.” “Jeff has done such a great job within the league office,” said Joan Taylor, senior associate athletic director, who has worked in Brown athletics since 1969, when she was hired as head coach of the women’s tennis team. “He’s been a very strong proponent of the principles of the Ivy League, and he’s been really adept at providing us all — all the committees within the Ivy structure — with guidance.”
By George Miller Senior Staff Writer
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Kim Perley / Herald
Students who look at themselves in the mirrored wall of the BioMed Center are rarely aware of the offices within.
Check it out: Windows have a flip side By Leslie Primack Staff Writer
It is a commonly accepted truth. Just as the sky is blue and the earth is round, when students pass by the BioMedical Center on Brown Street, they look at themselves in its reflective windows. A lesser-known fact, though, is that there are people inside, looking out. Behind the glass lie several faculty offices and a conference room: the ultimate people-watch-
ing venue. “It is odd,” said Thomas Roberts, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, whose corner office gives him views of Brown Street and the BioMed
FEATURE Center’s concrete terrace. “You can be standing four feet away from somebody, and you can be essentially looking at each other, but they can’t see you.” Sharon Swartz, associate pro-
Wilde’s ’11 bid to become first white MPC falls short for now By Sophia Li Senior Staff Writer
Meara Sharma / Herald
Annalisa Wilde ’11, a white MPC applicant, has been waitlisted.
continued on page 6 TIGERS GO ABROAD Princeton will soon sponsor an international gap year of service for 100 incoming students
fessor of biology, holds the office adjacent to Roberts’. She notices students adjusting their clothes, touching their hair and stopping to pick at their teeth. “That’s the most unpleasant, I think, from the inside,” she said. She rearranged her bookshelves to cover the windows when the stream of self-conscious college students became distracting. Alexandra Gallucci, a security guard stationed outside the
Many professors do not have the time to advise students along with their teaching and research duties, faculty said in a sometimes heated discussion Tuesday. In a broad discussion of the preliminary report of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, which calls on more faculty to serve as advisers, faculty also raised concerns about course evaluations and the legitimacy of outside accreditation agencies. The task force’s report, which was released on Jan. 30, contained a set of 25 recommendations for improving undergraduate education, and recommended a focus on improving undergraduate advising. Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, who chaired the task force, emphasized to the faculty forum that the report was preliminary. “The cover of the report does say draft,” Bergeron said. The final report, which she said will take into account student, faculty and staff feedback, is due to be released by this summer. It will
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CAMPUS NEWS
bears GET NEW DIGS Brown will spend $5 to $6 million this summer to upgrade and repair several residence halls
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OPINIONS
Annalisa Wilde’s ’11 application for the Minority Peer Counselor program stood out among the more than 60 others. If accepted, she would become the program’s first white counselor, a possibility that sparked heated conversation among current MPCs. But Wilde found out Tuesday that, for now, she has failed in her bid. Twenty-two students were selected as MPCs, but Wilde was waitlisted. “It is a huge letdown,” she said. There are nine students on the waitlist, said Jennifer Soroko MA ’06, assistant director of the Third World Center. She said she did not know if any white applicants have been placed on the wait list in previous years. She added in an e-mail to The Herald that the selection process is confidential. Owen Hill ’10, another white applicant this year, was also waitlisted. He declined to comment for this article. Wilde said she plans to continue to be involved with the TWC and will apply to be an MPC Friend, a
EX-’rino’ ROAMS R.I. Sean Quigley ‘10 takes issue with Sen. Lincoln Chafee’s ‘75 view of his former party
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
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volunteer who helps run the Third World Transition Program and other TWC programs throughout the year. “I’ll still be a part of the program, just by virtue of how many of my friends who will be MPCs,” she said. The Third World Transition Program, which she attended last fall, “was my introduction to Brown,” she said. It was a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience, she said. “I probably never would have considered being an MPC had I not gone to TWTP,” Wilde added. “I really like the idea of forcing people to think and talk about the ‘isms’ and pushing yourself to try to understand why society is the way it is.” Wilde went to TWTP after spending her senior year of high school in a rural town in southern Ghana. “In that one year, I was able to think a lot and completely change the way I lived,” she said. Wilde was supposed to attend school there, but there was a teachers’ strike during the first three months of her stay. Wilde taught English at an orphanage and helped continued on page 6
tomorrow’s weather Sunny! Put on some tanning lotion and give BioMed professors something nice to look at for a change
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