Wednesday, February 27, 2008 by The Brown Daily Herald

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

HIGHER ED

www.browndailyherald.com

continued on page 4

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

CAMPUS NEWS

bears GET NEW DIGS Brown will spend $5 to $6 million this summer to upgrade and repair several residence halls

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

sunny, 32 / 12

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

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Buffalo Chicken Wings, Parsley Potatoes, Breakfast for Lunch, Meatball Grinder, Couscous Croquettes, Cheesecake Brownies

Lunch — Chicken Andouille Shrimp Jambalaya, Spinach Strudel, Mandarin Blend Vegetables, Pasta Bar, Cream Cheese Brownies

Dinner — Orange Teriyaki Salmon, Herb Rice, Italian Vegetable Saute, Asparagus, Vegan Warm and Spicy Dhal, Orange Delight Cake

Dinner — Roast Turkey with Sauce, Shells with Broccoli, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Stir Fry Pork Lo Mein, Orange Delight Cake

Sudoku

Gus vs. Them | Zachary McCune and Evan Penn

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday,©February 2008 Puzzles by27, Pappocom

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited byC RichrNorris o s and s wJoyce o rNichols d Lewis

ACROSS 1 Strings of angels 6 Revise 10 Evel Knievel prop 14 Force out of the country 15 Remini of “The King of Queens” 16 It has about a three-octave range 17 Some frigid temperatures, e.g. 20 Finish off, as a fire-breather 21 Not chug 22 Croquet striker 23 Early talk show name 25 River through Aragon 26 Vaudeville performances, often 30 Fleeting trace 34 Continuously 35 Not comfortable with 37 Dry, as wine 38 Mel Blanc’s is “That’s all folks” 41 Nail setting 42 “Yankee Doodle” word 44 Sphere of influence 46 Epps of “House” 47 Gridiron officials 50 Laundry woe 52 Crèche group 53 Silver __ 56 Branch of Buddhism 57 Automaker headquartered in Turin 61 Oscar-winning boxing documentary 64 Musical with the song “Another Pyramid” 65 Jagged rock 66 Capital of Ghana 67 Sheffield slammer 68 Stan’s pal on “South Park” 69 “The Merry Widow” composer DOWN 1 Chick tenders

2 Jump with a twist 3 Latvian seaport 4 Nursery piece 5 Harden 6 Horror host dubbed “Mistress of the Dark” 7 Profound 8 Golfer Woosnam 9 Okay sign 10 “Brothers & Sisters” actor 11 One raised with Cain 12 Additional amount 13 Nuisance 18 “My word!” 19 Scuff or scratch 24 One doing sums 25 Sicilian smoker 26 Glamour shelfmate, familiarly 27 Early hr. 28 Much-visited place 29 Interrupt on the dance floor 31 Suitcase attachment 32 Lifted, so to speak 33 Spenser selections

36 “I dunno” gesture 39 Brit’s sweater with a closefitting collar 40 Monogram ltr. 43 Munitions center 45 Urban skyline component 48 Come into view 49 Actress Seymour 51 Service seat 53 Highwayman’s booty

Opus Hominis | Miguel Llorente

54 Pet with green fur? 55 Make over 56 Passion 58 Ruler segment 59 Indian tomb site 60 Old Russian sovereign 62 Sardonic 63 __-El: Superman’s birth name

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: War and Peas | Linda Zhang and Eli Jaffa

xwordeditor@aol.com

2/27/08

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

2/27/08

If you do one thing on College Hill today... Quit playing Sudoku and get a job! Career Fair, 12 - 4 p.m. in Sayles Hall

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown

Business Phone: 401.351.3260

University community since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the aca-

Simmi Aujla, President

once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to

Ross Frazier, Vice President Mandeep Gill, Treasurer Darren Ball, Secretary

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.

H igher E d Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Colleges confront their ties to slavery By Sophia Li Senior Staff Writer

The 150th anniversary of the University of Maryland, College Park’s founding should have been a cause for celebration. But some members of Maryland’s community were dissatisfied with how little mention was made of the university’s connection to slavery in the commemoration events in 2006, said Herbert Brewer, a doctoral candidate at UMD. In response, Brewer and Professor of History Ira Berlin have designed and will teach a two-semester course called “Knowing Our History: African-American Slavery in the University of Maryland.” UMD’s investigation follows Brown’s study of the role slavery played in its own past. Admission into the course will be competitive, said Brewer, and about 30 lucky students who are chosen to participate will research the university’s historical ties to slavery. “The university has decided to systematically go about understanding what happened,” Brewer said. UMD is not the only institution undertaking research into its past ties to slavery. Several other colleges and universities across the nation have found their racial histories difficult to ignore. Alfred Brophy, a professor of law at the University of Alabama, said he began looking into the university’s historical ties to slavery in 2003. He has researched faculty members’ ownership of slaves and their role in propagating pro-slavery thought. In March 2004, Brophy and several colleagues approached the university’s faculty senate and asked for an apology for the university’s connection to slavery, Brophy said. The faculty senate issued the apology

in April 2004. That spring, discussions about whether the faculty should issue an apology took place all around campus, and it was “controversial to say the least,” Brophy said. Though Brophy said Brown “set the standard” with the Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice’s report released in Oct. 2006, he said investigating ties to slavery is even more important at a school like Alabama. Discussion in Rhode Island, he said, “may not resonate with the same power as in a place like Alabama or Mississippi or Virginia.” Brophy estimated that 30 percent of Alabama’s population is AfricanAmerican. “A vast majority of them are descended from (slaves),” he said. “It is a very live issue for the people of Alabama.” Terry Meyers, professor of English at the College of William and Mary, also took a glance into his institution’s past. Meyers first wrote a short history of the college’s involvement in slavery a year ago. An extended version that he worked on this summer is slated to appear in William and Mary’s law school journal this spring. “My hope is to pass a resolution to hire a professional historian to do this,” Meyers said. While plans to hire an outside scholar are still tentative, Meyers said William and Mary’s faculty and Board of Visitors have shown support for his idea. In 2003, Emory University founded the Transforming Community Project to examine its own ties to slavery and race. Though the project was initially launched as a five-year endeavor, the steering committee

By Catherine Straut Staff Writer

A lawsuit recently filed against Wheaton College for its study abroad tuition policies by a Wheaton parent might, if successful, have ramifications for Brown and other universities with similar policies. Wheaton’s study abroad tuition policy is similar to the one that Brown implemented this fall. The policy requires students to pay full university tuition regardless of the cost of the overseas program. In an e-mail sent to the Wheaton faculty, staff and students, Wheaton’s president, Ronald Crutcher, wrote that the college “strongly disagrees” with the parent, James Brady, over his claims that its policies are unfair and unclear. “It is important to remember that the expenses of the college’s study abroad programs encompass more than the cost of tuition, room and board at an approved institution overseas,” Crutcher wrote. He added that the counseling service provided by Wheaton’s Center for Global Education is an example of such an expense. Cr utcher also wrote that Wheaton’s tuition policy allows financial aid recipients to apply their grants to the study abroad programs. “This policy puts study abroad op-

portunities in reach for many more of our students,” he wrote. The lawsuit directly challenges these claims, with Brady calling the college’s billing practices “illegal, unfair and deceptive.” Brady’s daughter, now a recent Wheaton alumna, traveled to South Africa in 2006 on a program that cost approximately $4,000 less than what Wheaton charged. But Brady said he only discovered this discrepancy after independently researching the program. “Wheaton never discloses to parents what the real cost of overseas studies is,” Brady said. Brady said he wrote to Wheaton in November 2006 asking the college to explain how it utilized this “windfall,” but never received a response. After waiting 13 months, he filed suit. Brady said Wheaton does not provide adequate services for studybroad programs. “There’s no genuine Wheaton involvement in the overseas programs,” he said. Brady also said he thinks Wheaton’s claim that it uses the extra money to support financial aid for students studying abroad is “entirely false.” “There’s nothing to show that they put this money back into financial aid,” he said. Brady said he hopes the court will rule that Wheaton’s practices are unfair and will require the college to “be honest” with parents and students and to be “barred from profiting.” If

Princeton to launch a formal gap-year program By Eli Piette Contributing Writer

Chris Bennett / Herald File Photo

A book used to trace Brown’s roots to the slave trade. is considering extending the initiative. Director Leslie Harris, associate professor of history, said it has two purposes — to investigate Emory’s racial history and to provide a forum for discussion about race at Emory. The project has involved students, faculty, staff members, administrators and alums, said Harris. “Often on campuses you have people who are the usual suspects in a conversation about race and other people sit back,” Harris said. But in this project, she said a “wider range of people have gotten involved.” The project has not limited its focus to slavery — students have examined Hispanics, Jews and desegregation at Emory. “We go all the way to the present,” Harris said. The projects have taken the forms of artwork, exhibits and plays, Harcontinued on page 4

Wheaton sued over study abroad tuition Policies in question similar to Brown’s

Page 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

the court rules against Wheaton, he said, Wheaton students who have traveled abroad and been billed for the past six years will be able to cite this as grounds for reimbursement from the college. The lawsuit is being filed as prosecutors in New York and Connecticut are investigating potential conflicts of interest between colleges and organizations that provide study-abroad programs. Investigators behind the probes have subpoenaed 15 colleges and universities, including Brown. Officials at Brown’s Office of International Programs and the Office of Public Affairs and University Relations declined to comment on Brady’s lawsuit. Some Brown sophomores who are planning to go abroad are questioning the implications of Brown’s new study abroad tuition policies, particularly in light of the pending lawsuit against Wheaton. “I sort of question where all that money is going,” said Katherine Stoeffel ’10, who hopes to study in Paris next spring. “Considering the fact that Brown’s not paying for my housing or food or anything there, I’m wondering what Brown is paying for.” Stoeffel also said she has heard of other students who would rather take time off and go abroad than study abroad through Brown because of the cost. She added that her parents have expressed concern that studying abroad will be “stressful and expensive.”

Students matriculating at Princeton will soon have the opportunity to take a formal university-sponsored gap year pursuing service work abroad, according to a Feb. 18 press release. The university has established a working group to design the tuition-free program, which is slated to begin in 2009. An increasing number of students are taking time off between high school and college, according to a Feb. 19 article in the New York Times. Still, though many schools allow a one-year deferral, personal cost and a lack of institutional guidance often deter students from taking a gap year, according to the article. Princeton’s new program will allow about 100 students — or 10 percent of each incoming class — to participate in a bridge year of service, which should not be confused with studying abroad, said Sandra Bermann, chair of the Department of Comparative Literature and leader of the working group. The experience will be “a break from the pressure to excel, from the pressures of high school life,” Bermann said. Students will “gain a new perspective on education and how they live their lives,” she added. Princeton proposed the idea of a gap year as a part of its “Princeton in the World” initiative, which aims to establish Princeton as “a center for a multitude of scholarly networks humming with activity and effectively responding to changes in scholarship and the vagaries of world affairs, while creatively defining the cutting edges of global research,” according to the university’s Web site.

Princeton decided to launch the bridge year program for a few reasons, notably because the university would like students to “form an international perspective,” Bermann said. “We want our students to become involved in public service to fulfill Princeton’s motto: ‘Princeton in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations,’” Bermann said. The bridge year will also “prepare students for a more meaningful Princeton experience,” according to Princeton’s Web site. The logistics of the program are still in the works, but a report with more details will be issued in the early summer, Bermann said. Bermann and the rest of the working group are currently discussing the kinds of service that participants will perform and how they will be selected. The working group is also handling legal and cost issues and will set an enrollment cap for the program. Current Princeton students said the program will be beneficial in bringing structure to gap years. “Even though many universities encourage newly admitted students to take a hiatus year, I think that barriers — from the immense logistical planning required to the hefty financial burden of a year abroad — prevent students from participating,” said Michael Chou, a sophomore at Princeton. “I would definitely have taken advantage of the program if it had been available to my class,” he said. Brown students have also expressed interest in such a plan. Simon Salgado ’07, who took a year off during his time at Brown, said taking time off would benefit students and “bring a new perspective to their first year.”

Page 4

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

How do I look, BioMed? ‘Damn good’ Following Brown’s lead, more schools look at past continued from page 1

continued from page 3 ris said. She added that she hopes to incorporate these different types of presentation in a book that will represent the culmination of TCP. Harris said she does not have a “traditional history book” in mind and wants it to be accessible to a wider range of people. She said she would like to include images, multimedia and maybe even a CD-ROM in the back. The book should be “more alive and reflective of the process that we went through to come up with this history,” she said. Harris has found that the Transforming Community Project is living up to its name. She said participants have discovered in themselves “a greater sense of connection to the university.” “Open, honest conversations have made people feel better,” she said. “The process of talking about it openly rather than hiding it has created a new sense of trust in the institution in many ways.” Not all schools are so willing to speak openly. The University of Virginia apologized for its use of slaves between 1819 and 1865, in an April 24, 2007, press release. But UVA has done little to examine what its role in propagating and advocating slavery might have been, Brophy said. “The problem with apologies is they can be a sort of on/off deal,” Brophy said. “Everyone’s expected to go away.” But even when universities aren’t willing to speak out, sometimes students are. In 2001, three Yale grad students took matters into their own hands and released an unofficial report titled “Yale, Slavery and Aboli-

tion” about Yale’s ties to slavery. David Blight, director of Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, said that since then, Yale has sponsored lectures, talks and conferences about the history of slavery, including a 2002 conference about slavery in New England. “The Center does a great deal to investigate, research and reveal to the broadest possible public the history of slavery in general,” Blight said. But he added that Yale has not launched an investigation into the university’s own historical ties to slavery. In the meantime, some schools that have looked into their own pasts are doing what they can to repair them. In the 1940s, Paul Jones applied to the University of Alabama and was denied admission, Brophy said. Jones received a letter saying that black people were not admitted. Jones kept the letter and came forward in 2004 after Alabama made its apology, Brophy said. In August 2006 he received an honorary degree from the university. For others, it is too late. At least two slaves lie in unmarked graves in a 19th-century cemetery on Alabama’s campus, Brophy said. One was a young child named Boysey, and the other was a slave named Jack who had been born in Africa and brought to the United States. Brophy said both had been owned by the president of Alabama at the time. All that the university could do was raise a brick pedestal — on it, a brass tablet commemorates Boysey and Jack and bears the university’s apology.

BioMed Center five days a week, sees dozens of students staring at their reflections several times a day. “Anyone that walks through here looks at themselves in the windows,” Gallucci said. “I don’t think they even really realize they’re doing it. They walk by and pull their pants up and tuck their shirts in.” She said even professors and University officials succumb to the temptation to gaze at themselves. As she spoke, a middle-aged man in a suit and tie entered the building. “He just did it,” she smiled. “They’ll look, and then they’ll see me,” she said, laughing. “And then they’ll look down, look away or kind of look like, ‘Aw, you didn’t see that.’” Some people, Gallucci said, are so preoccupied with their reflections that they trip over the small concrete step onto the terrace from Brown Street, often sheepishly meeting her eye as they right themselves. “There’s definitely a distinctly elevated level of preening during Orientation,” Swartz said, speculating that the newly arrived freshmen are especially self-conscious and that it has not occurred to them that the windows are oneway mirrors. She also noted that males look at their reflections as often as females. Professor of Psychology Joachim Krueger attributes this behavior to a mixture of vanity and instinct. “Most people like it when they see their own mirror image,” he said. “It’s an image that’s been repeated many times, so it’s more

Two male students, one clad in a highlighter-yellow sweatshirt, turn their heads in unison to stare at the glass. A heavyset man with gray hair is so transfixed by his reflection that he meets his own eyes at each glass panel. Lena Buell ’08 glances to her right and examines her reflection for several seconds. “Sometimes people look at themselves and then stare as they keep walking,” Buell said later. “It’s pretty funny.” Though she was unaware of the offices behind the windows, she said she believes the pull of one’s reflection would trump students’ embarrassment at being viewed from inside. “Even if you knew those people are there,” she said, “it’s an ingrained part of walking past (the BioMed Center).” Goddard offered her own pet theory. “Maybe one of the reasons it’s so captivating is that you rarely get to see yourself in motion,” she said, since people generally stand still when looking in a mirror. She likened it to the experience of watching oneself on video or entering a dance studio lined with mirrors. Though this may explain why people initially glance at themselves, why do they continue to stare? Krueger attributes this to narcissism. People with lower selfesteem and greater social anxiety, he thinks, are more likely to avoid their reflections. But even someone keenly aware of the narcissistic undertones of mirror-gazing can give in to the urge. Krueger walked by the BioMed Center earlier that day, he said. “And I looked.”

Faculty react to task force education report continued from page 1

www.browndailyherald.com

pleasant.” By contrast, our true image — the way the world perceives us — is often unpleasant, he said, citing people who complain that they look strange in photographs. Krueger believes that the phenomenon is primarily a result of people being distracted by movement in their peripheral vision. “We’ve evolved to have this exceptionally wide field of vision,” he explained, to help us detect potential threats. But now, instead of seeing predators out of the corner of our eyes, we are greeted by the tantalizing image of our own reflections. The phenomenon is not lost on the student body. In 2005, Caroline Goddard ’09.5 and several friends created the Facebook group, “Don’t Deny it ... you Know You Check Yourself Out In the Bio-med Windows Every Morning,” which now has 245 members. “When you walk to class and you’re walking behind someone, you can totally see them looking at themselves,” Goddard said. “It’s pretty noticeable.” Goddard lived on Pembroke campus for two years and remembers looking at her reflection every day, until someone mentioned the offices on the other side of the glass. “I realized I should probably stop,” she laughed, “because it was really narcissistic and embarrassing that there would be people on the other side seeing me.” “I’m not ashamed,” said Andrew Berg ’11. “I just want to see how damn good I look.” Just a few minutes in front of the BioMed Center produce a number of prime examples.

form the basis for the University’s required “self-study” for its reaccreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in the fall. (The process is mostly a formality for schools with Brown’s credentials, but universities frequently consider the examination — conducted every ten years — as a useful review of its strengths and weaknesses.) The task force’s report said that although faculty rules place the responsibility for advising with professors, just 70 percent fulfill that requirement. Bergeron also expressed concern that only 30 percent of the faculty advise firstyears. But some faculty don’t have time to advise, Professor of Computer Science John Savage said. He said a figure cited in the report — that 70 percent of faculty currently advise — should be considered as good. Bergeron said the 70 percent figure was in one sense inflated because it included faculty who advise only one or two students. But Professor of Geological Sciences Jan Tullis said he wondered if forcing professors to advise would yield quality advisers. Several faculty suggested that the problem lay in the importance academic departments place on advising. Greg Elliott, an associate professor of sociology, argued for rewarding the best advisers with money to hire research assistants. Associate Professor of Psychology Ruth Colwill, who chairs the Faculty Executive Committee, sug-

gested rewarding professors who advise by allowing them to teach fewer classes than they usually do — the treatment currently given to department chairs. “We can’t have everyone not do research” because they are spending extra time advising, Colwill said, noting the importance of research to a school’s reputation. But the discussion’s leader, Professor of Mathematics Thomas Banchoff, said he resented the idea that research was more important than teaching or advising. Nancy Jacobs, associate professor of history, suggested that advising could be improved not by an increase in faculty commitment, but by “empowering” students to help themselves, particularly sophomores. “Turn it over to them, because they’ll tell us what they want,” she said. Colwill also asked how the current faculty could accommodate the recommendation that students complete culminating “capstone” experiences in their concentrations. Given the role of the report in the University’s reaccreditation, several faculty members questioned how much the standards of an outside institution had affected an internal review of a curriculum that is considered a critical part of Brown’s culture. Professor of English Geoffrey Russom asked whether the reaccreditation agency had any sort of “intellectual authority” that Brown professors could accept. Many of the professors present joined him in expressing reservations to the idea of bowing to pressures from

outside agencies, whether from NEASC or from the federal government, which has suggested measures of assessment for higher education. “We shouldn’t feel like we’re in a box,” Savage said. Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences Sheila Blumstein, a task force member and former dean of the College and interim president, reassured the faculty that Brown would stay true to its principles, while acknowledging the reality that the University must answer the requirements of NEASC to remain accredited. Much of the rest of the forum focused on the matter of course evaluations. The task force report recommended moving all evaluations online as well as having professors offer midterm evaluations. Except for Banchoff, all professors who spoke at the forum opposed letting students complete course evaluations outside of class. Tullis opened the forum by saying that having students filling out evaluations on their own time would mean the evaluations will be of lower quality. Other faculty raised concerns about peer influence on evaluations completed outside the classroom. “It should be the opinion of one student, not the work of a committee,” Russom said. Jacobs told the forum the University should evaluate professors using more than just student sur veys, perhaps by reviewing syllabi.

C ampus n ews Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Page 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Summer renovations in store for Caswell, Minden

Finance firm provides students data terminals

By Anne Simons Contributing Writer

Since last fall, Brown students have been able to use two on-campus computer terminals to access a service previously available to only top-tier clients of the financial firm Lehman Brothers. Students have access to an exclusive online information system, LehmanLive, which provides financial analyses, research and data compiled by the company’s top employees. “LehmanLive is a platform to access our published research, valuation models, and supporting data on the global economy and the stock, bond, commodities and foreign exchange markets around the world,” Paul Salerno, a senior vice president at Lehman Brothers, told The Herald in an e-mail. It was developed to “make research more interactive and to provide customers with Lehman Brothers’ market intelligence through each phase of the investment cycle.” Though the terminals have been at Brown since the fall, students — not knowing the ins and outs of the program — haven’t been using them, said Laura Joshi, manager of employer relations at the Career Development Center. So on March 3, Lehman will hold an instructional workshop at the CDC to show students how to properly use the system. The two data terminals, located in the multipurpose room on the first floor of the CDC and the first floor of the Rockefeller Librar y near the reference area, are provided in part by Brown’s program in Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship, the University Library and the CDC.

Caswell, Miller, Metcalf, Hegeman, Barbour, Littlefield, Perkins, Minden and Slater halls and Graduate Center Tower A, Vartan Gregorian Quad B and New Pembroke 4 are all to be refurbished to varying degrees during the summer of 2008.The University will spend between $5 and $6 million on these upgrades, said Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, vice president of campus life and student services. Currently approved plans include roof replacements in Caswell, Miller, Metcalf, Perkins, New Pembroke 4 and Slater. A boiler will also be replaced in Minden and bathrooms will be repaired in Vartan Gregorian Quad B, Hegeman and Barbour. Caswell and Hegeman will receive fresh paint and flooring, while Grad Center Tower A will also get a fresh coat of paint. Carey said University officials have been talking about both the “quality and the quantity of housing” over the last few years. Students spend a lot of time in their dorm rooms, and the renovations should “improve student experience,” he said. Student opinion plays a big role in the renovation planning process, Carey said. Administators took into account anecdotes from the Residential Council and more “quantified” evidence from service calls when they decided where to make improvements, he said. The plans are “a result of student feedback,” Carey said. “It’s a great example of students having a voice.”

Summer lovin’ • U. will spend $5 to $6 million this summer on dorm upgrades. • Bathrooms will be repaired in Vartan Gregorian Quad B, Hegeman and Barbour. • Floor of Caswell lounge will be replaced. • Minden Hall’s elevator may later be replaced. He and Paul Dietel, director of project management for Facilities Management, said that dorm improvements take place on campus ever y year. Slater and Machado House were repainted last summer, they said. They said some of the renovations, such as the roof replacements and mechanical work, would not be immediately obvious to many residents. But, Carey said, it’s important to start with such projects before moving on to interior cosmetic improvements. This summer’s work is part of a long-term strategy to improve oncampus housing, Carey said. The University plans to spend around $24 million over the next few years on housing improvements, he said. The administration has also started early-stage planning for new dorm construction, although it remains unclear when work on a new residence hall might begin. The idea of expanding housing would represent an effort to match Brown’s peers, some of whom can house 90 continued on page 9

By Lily Szajnberg Contributing Writer

Janus Forum hopes to hold Supreme discussion By Max Mankin Senior Staff Writer

Consistent with its rising profile on campus, the Janus Forum is looking to bring Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia to campus. On Feb. 21, the forum hosted a speech by two former U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations: Professor-at-Large Richard Holbrooke ’62, ambassador under President Clinton from 1999 to 2001, and John Bolton, ambassador under President Bush in 2005 and 2006. Last November, the for um brought Stanford political scientist Morris Fiorina and University of Virginia professor James Hunter to campus to discuss cultural conflict in America. In October, it brought Johns Hopkins political economist Francis Fukuyama and Princeton professor Lee Silver for a talk on the changing face of biotechnology. The forum steering committee is hoping to raise the bar and host a talk by Ginsberg and Scalia sometime next year. The Janus Forum is an undergraduate sub-group of the Political Theor y Project, a graduate-level political think tank founded by Associate Professor of Political Science John Tomasi, that promotes “thought, debate and discussion around political ideas,” according to the forum’s Web site. The group is named after Janus, a Roman god depicted by two

heads looking in opposite directions. True to their organization’s name, the Janus events always host two speakers to provide contrasting opinions and thoughts on the same topic. “We’re working on a couple different events for next year. That’s one that’s come up but we’re not anywhere near getting them to come yet,” said the forum’s Executive Director Jesse Maddox ’08, on the possibility of the justices speaking at a future event. The first event next fall will be a discussion about the effectiveness of the Electoral College, Maddox said. A variety of factors, including gradual and intelligent growth, contribute to the for um’s success, said Nathaniel Manning ’08, its marketing director. “We haven’t chosen Salomon (101) until now,” Manning said, speaking of the Bolton-Holbrooke lecture. He said the expectation to immediately be able to fill a large lecture hall was unrealistic and that it was better to start off small. Recent Janus Forum events have been held in MacMillan 117, Salomon 001 and List 120. Maddox provided a different view. “Gradual growth is more of a by-product than something we’ve been focusing on,” he said. Despite the seemingly rising profile of speakers, Maddox said the Janus Forum focuses instead on “looking for leaders in fields.” He cited Lee Silver as an example.

“Most people hadn’t heard of Lee Silver,” he said, except people in the biotechnology field, to whom Silver was well-known prior to the Janus lecture. But both Maddox and Manning agreed that quality is a key to success. “We put in a lot of effort — we do everything well,” Maddox said. “We’re trying to build up the Janus Forum brand: (events) will be put on well, the speakers will be interesting and people like the idea.” Manning agreed, saying, “We’ve been able to continually deliver a quality product — it’s the amount of thought (that goes into the events).” The forum is “always delivering — we’ve been successful every time,” he added. “It’s easier to fill Salomon with two U.N. ambassadors, but it doesn’t happen by itself,” Maddox continued. “There are lots of people who put lots of effort into making things happen.” In addition, the success of the project stems from the novel idea of hosting two speakers instead of one, Manning said. “One problem is that having only one speaker does a disservice to the fact that for any given issue, there are many ideas and viewpoints that exist and that are taken seriously by intelligent and thoughtful (speakers),” Maddox wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “Thus, two speakers rather than one.”

Lehman’s donation of the two terminals is part of a broader effort to increase the company’s presence at Brown, Joshi said. Lehman employee Ajay Nagpal ’90, who runs the company’s global sales effort for equities, is heading the effort to strengthen ties between Lehman Brothers and Brown. Although there is already a strong alumni presence at Lehman, the company wants to “broaden the awareness of its analytical capabilities” at “a very strong school,” Salerno told The Herald. The terminals will also benefit students. Professors who teach finance courses often use outdated data sets for class assignments, said Professor of Economics Andrew Foster. The Lehman terminals allow instructors to give students more current material to work with, he said. “But in terms of getting students excited about this process and, therefore, motivated to build through necessary program skills, it helps to give them something to get their teeth into,” Foster said. “If you’re going to do original research, you need original data,” he said. The COE’s administrative director, Maria Carkovic, echoed this sentiment, equating the terminals to a laboratory for finance students. COE is helping fund the program through a donation from Jeffrey Tabak ’72, an alum who wanted to “fund data access to Brown students for a number of years,” Carkovic said. Professor of Economics Ivo Welch tried unsuccessfully to use the LehmanLive terminals in a new course he taught last se-

mester, ECON 1759: “Data, Statistics, Finance.” Welch may use the terminals for the course in the fall, but because the research techniques necessar y for it are relatively complex, “the course is in flux,” Welch wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “I realized that students need to learn how to program before they get to my course, so we are still in experimental design stage,” he added. “The idea was to teach a course to teach students how to program and use financial data, thanks to the money raised by COE and by Tabak,” Carkovic said. Saler no applauded Brown professors incorporating the data from LehmanLive into their coursework. “We’d like them to speak to the ideas coming from our research department,” Salerno said. “It’s beneficial to bring that into the coursework being done at Brown,” he continued. Mark Ramadan ’08, a teaching assistant for ECON 1720: “Corporate Finance” and a co-president of the Brown Investment Group, noted it might be difficult to use this resource with a class of 30 students and only two terminals. “It’s definitely a good starting point, though,” he added. “We are trying to give students tools to work with, and employers are interested because word has gotten out,” Carkovic said. Salerno agreed, saying Lehman wanted to make sure everyone on campus interested in pursuing a career in finance knows what the company has to offer. continued on page 6

Page 6

Lehman now providing students data continued from page 6 Until recently, the terminals have been a well-kept secret. Ramadan and co-president Christopher Manatis-Lornell ’08, who have been working with the Brown Investment Office to get research reports, saud they were unaware of the two terminals on campus. “I think it’s strange that the Investment Office didn’t even mention it to us. If they’ve been there, it seems there has been a lack of communication somewhere down the line,” Ramadan said. “I can see it being an additional research supplement for the Investment Group,” Ramadan said, adding that he would try out the terminals and make an announcement at the group’s next meeting. No formal evaluations of the terminals have yet been designed, Carkovic said, adding that she is waiting to “see how much it is used and what it entails.” Salerno said formal sur veys would best show how much students are using the terminals. “It’s something we’ll have to look into,” he said. He added that Lehman is working with the CDC and the library to understand how well the terminals are used, but that he’d also appreciate direct feedback.

The Herald. Available at all computer terminals.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Ivy head looking forward to rooting at games continued from page 1 Orleans has also been instrumental in applying some of those broader rules to individual cases, Murphy said. When one of her athletes faced an eligibility issue because she was a double transfer, “the Ivy League was very supportive in getting her eligibility,” said Murphy. “The little nuances of the League — he would support those kinds of initiatives as opposed to questioning and rejecting them. He’s a good listener.” Orleans said he wished he could have spent more time with coaches and student-athletes. “For me, it’s a chance to hear what people think is working and what’s not working,” Orleans said. “It’s part of figuring out where to put our energies and to answer questions for people — to put a face on the words ‘Ivy League’ and a face on the rule book.”

Orleans did get a chance to visit Brown in the fall of 2006. During his two-day visit, Orleans met with various coaches and student-athletes and had lunch with President Ruth Simmons. “I had tons of fun,” Orleans said. Norris said Orleans has also showed up at athletic events. “He’s been at games. Whenever we win the league, there’s always somebody from his office who’s there; it’s always nice to have that support,” she said. Orleans has put much of his energy into promoting gender equity in sports. When serving as a federal civil rights lawyer in the 1970s, Orleans was part of a core group that drafted Title IX. “It was exhilarating because we knew we were going to change educational opportunity in the country in a positive way,” Orleans said in a January interview with NCAA Champion-

ship magazine. In addition to his role within the league, Orleans represents the Ivy Group in the wider athletics arena. He serves on the NCAA’s Division I Management Council, its Restructuring and Gender Equity Task Forces and its Financial Aid and Women’s Basketball Issues committees. “He has been a really strong voice for the Ivies,” Taylor said. “He’s always ensured that votes surrounding regulations benefit the Ivies rather than hurting us.” Barbara Stevens of the firm Isaacson, Miller will conduct the search for Orleans’ successor, alongside presidents Amy Gutmann of the University of Pennsylvania, Drew Faust of Harvard and James Wright of Dartmouth, Orleans told The Herald. In addition, an advisory committee that includes Dean of Admission James Miller ’73 and other Ivy League administrators

Courtesy of NCAA Champions

Jeff Orleans will retire next year. will aid in the hiring process.With regard to his plans for retirement, Orleans remarked, “I want to stay involved in athletics in some way. The only shortcoming of working in this league office is that 90 percent of the games you go to, you can’t root. I’m going to go to a lot of ... games and root for a change.”

White student’s MPC application challenges program continued from page 1 her host family — a widow and her three young children — with housework. “Most of my time was occupied in the house with my host siblings — playing with them, helping them with their homework, cooking and washing clothes,” she said. Wilde’s experiences in Ghana shaped her thinking about race and class, but another aspect of her identity — her sexual orientation — remained a relatively minor factor in her thinking about the MPC application process. She said she downplayed her sexual orientation in her application and tried not to send the message: “I’m gay, so therefore I’m a minority, and you should accept me in the program.” “The way I express my gender and sexuality comes out of

my class and the privilege that I have,” Wilde said. “I know what it’s like for people to make judgments on me.” Wilde said she understands that when she applied, many MPCs did not think she should be accepted to the program because of her race. “Who knows what would happen if the floodgates were opened?” she said. “Historically, the MPC program has been recognized as for students of color.” Wilde said setting the precedent of accepting a white student as an MPC could weaken or strengthen the program. “It depends on what the goals of the TWC are,” she said. “I don’t want to say that race doesn’t exist and isn’t an important element of the MPC program.” She said the TWC is able to create such a powerful sense of

community because it chooses to define its community as one based on race. “That’s why the program is so strong — it’s that there’s a sense of an ‘us.’ ” But still, “the experiences of all the students who identify as students of color vary very widely, in terms of other factors,” such as geographic region and economic class, Wilde added. She said she thought the qualification of race seemed “almost arbitrar y” as a result. Wilde said her inter viewers directly addressed how her race would affect her effectiveness as an MPC. “In the end, they seemed preoccupied that I would not be able to relate to students, to first-years of color, not being of color myself,” she said. “That is a major concern with

all white applicants,” said Marisa Chock ’10, a current MPC and one of Wilde’s interviewers. Adam Kiki-Charles ’11, who will be an MPC next year, said that if his MPC had not been a student of color, he might have felt apprehensive at first but would have gotten to know him or her eventually. “I can’t say that all individuals would be that open, that all freshmen of color would be comfortable going to someone who wasn’t a minority,” he said. “They could empathize, but they still would not be able to connect (with freshmen) on the same level, and I think that’s something that’s really important.” Chock said that white students have applied to be MPCs in the past, but none were accepted. “We can’t ever predict how it would play out,” she said. “It could affect how the MPCs are perceived in the dorms, and that would redefine their positions.” Chock said that if there were white MPCs, it would clarify part of the mission of the MPC program: Are MPCs available to all students, or only to students of color? Currently, MPCs ser ve freshmen of all races, but Chock said students may not realize that because MPCs “target students of color because of the unique issues they face here at Brown.” Chock said Wilde showed strong promise as a candidate and that she brought a unique story to her application. “I admire her decision to apply,” Chock said. Bradley Toney ’10, a current MPC who wrote one of Wilde’s recommendation letters, said, “Ever yone should have the opportunity to apply.” “If she were chosen, she’d figure out her own way to reach out to first-years,” he added. Kiki-Charles said that Wilde’s placement on the wait list was evidence of her qualifications to be an MPC. But Chock said current and former MPCs hold different opinions about the possibility of having white MPCs in the future. “Ultimately, the MPC program is what the MPCs are going to make of it,” Toney said. “One of the most frustrating yet wonderful and remarkable things is that we really do get to decide — us current and former MPCs — what we want to make with this community for the future.”

W orld & n ation Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Documents detail politics Loans could paint McCain into corner in EPA’s emissions decision By Matthew Mosk Washington Post

By Richard Simon and Janet Wilson Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON— Some officials at the Environmental Protection Agency were so worried their boss would deny California permission to implement its own global-warming law that they worked with a former EPA chief to try to persuade the current administrator to grant the state’s request. That unusual effort was revealed by documents released Tuesday by congressional investigators probing whether EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson was swayed by political pressure when he decided not to allow California to enact its own vehicle emission standards that are stricter than the federal government’s. The documents were released as a battle escalated between a key California Democrat, Sen. Barbara Boxer, the chairwoman of the Senate Environment Committee, and the Bush administration over her efforts to get correspondence between the White House and the EPA leading up to Johnson’s decision in December. One of the newly released documents features “talking points” prepared by an agency staff member for former EPA administrator William K. Reilly to help him build the case for granting California’s request. In the October 2007 memo, the staffer says that there was “no legal or technical justification” for EPA to deny the request. If the agency refused California permission to implement

its tailpipe law, the document says, “the credibility of the agency ... will be irreparably damaged.” Reilly, an EPA administrator in the administration of the first President Bush, said Tuesday that he asked staff who worked under him and are still at the agency to prepare the memo. “I’m a busybody,” he joked. Then, he added, “I really believe in the urgency of addressing climate change. ... It is the foremost environmental threat to this planet at this time. California was attempting to lead on the premiere environmental issue of the day.” In an e-mail also released by Boxer, William Wehrum, a former lawyer for the chemical, utility and auto industries who recently left his EPA job after serving as acting assistant administrator for air and radiation, argued against granting the waiver as far back as 2006. Wehrum said Tuesday that he didn’t recall the specific e-mail. But he said he had argued against granting California’s request because he did not think the state could show it was suffering uniquely from global warming, a condition required by the federal Clean Air Act. But in another document released Tuesday, EPA’s climate change division staff cited conditions in California that make the state “vulnerable to climate change.” Boxer said the documents are further evidence that Johnson acted against the advice of his legal and continued on page 8

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain’s campaign and a Bethesda, Md., bank strongly defended $4 million in loans Tuesday, as Democrats questioned their legality and said that the way they were secured requires the Arizona Republican to abide by federal spending restrictions. Trevor Potter, a former Federal Election Commission chairman who is McCain’s lawyer, wrote in a letter to the nation’s top election official Tuesday that the loans were proper and that they should not prevent McCain from withdrawing from the presidential public financing system. On Monday, the Democratic National Committee filed a complaint with the FEC arguing that the way the loans were structured — by using the promise of federal matching funds as collateral — requires McCain to remain in the system. McCain “secured a $4 million line of credit to keep his campaign afloat by using public financing as collateral. He should follow the law,” said Howard Dean, the DNC chairman. The dispute centers on some of the most esoteric aspects of campaign finance law, but the implications for McCain’s presidential bid are potentially serious. McCain applied for public financing last year, when his campaign was faltering. In February, when his campaign had turned around, he wrote the FEC seeking to exit the system.

A musical interlude for U.S.-North Korean diplomacy By Barbara Demick Los Angeles T imes

PYONGYANG, North Korea — It was a potentially awkward occasion. The flags of the United States and North Korea, two countries locked in animosity for more than half a century, hung from poles at opposite ends of the stage at the East Pyongyang Concert Hall. The crowd of about 2,000 North Korean dignitaries attending the New York Philharmonic concert Tuesday night mostly sat with their hands neatly folded. The men all wore dark suits with lapel pins of the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, while the women wore formal Korean gowns. From the podium, conductor Lorin Maazel tried out a little joke to introduce George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.” “Some day a composer might write a piece entitled ‘Americans in Pyongyang.’ ” The North Koreans broke into laughter, and a good time followed as the orchestra played in one of the world’s most repressive capital cities. The concert, arranged through private channels, was the first major cultural exchange between the United States and North Korea and the occasion for the largest visit of Americans to Pyongyang since the 1950-53 Korean War. The concert was broadcast live on North Korean television. Some audience members appeared misty-eyed when the orchestra played its encore, “Arirang,” a lilting folk song emblematic of the Korean people. By the time the orchestra was taking its final bows,

the North Koreans were on their feet, applauding and waving at the musicians. Unsure what to do, the musicians stood and waved back. “We felt such a connection with these people,” cellist Jeanne LeBlanc said. “They didn’t want us to leave the stage, and we didn’t want to leave either. Some of us were crying, we were so moved.” The concert had a distinctly American theme throughout. The Star-Spangled Banner was played at the opening, just after the North Korean national anthem. Besides the Gershwin tune, the featured piece was Antonin Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” the Czech composer’s impressions of a visit to America. There were a few discordant notes in the evening. The most conspicuous absence was North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who many believed would make a surprise appearance. During the concert, audience members glanced repeatedly at a VIP box in the mezzanine to see if they would be graced by an appearance of the “Dear Leader.” The highest-ranking official in attendance was Yang Hyong-Sup, vice president of the Supreme People’s Assembly. A news conference by the vice culture minister before the concert was canceled without explanation. And despite the orchestra’s stated intent to “bring music to the people,” the attendees appeared to be mostly officials of the ruling Workers’ Party. Nonetheless, Philharmonic organizers were thrilled with the concert, which they predicted would be a watershed in U.S.-North Korean relations.

“To say I am over the moon is an understatement,” said an exultant Maazel as he was toasted by throngs of well-wishers afterward. He shrugged off Kim’s non-appearance, saying, “I have yet to see the president of the United States at one of my concerts.” “Bravissimo, Maestro,” said former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, clasping Maazel on the shoulder after the concert. Perry, who has become a leading advocate of engagement with North Korea, said the concert might break through years of tortuous talks aimed at getting North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program, a key step in the normalization of diplomatic relations. “It was a sublime moment,” Perry said. “It might just push us over the top.” If less gushy, the North Koreans agreed that the Philharmonic concert could be a turning point in establishing relations. “It is good for the understanding of the peoples of the United States and of (North Korea),” said Pak Chol, a North Korean official with a group known as the Korea-Asia Pacific Peace Committee. “I’m sure one day we will have better relations between our countries.” Many had hoped U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was in Beijing on Tuesday for talks on the nuclear program, would attend. Rice said she welcomed the concert as a step toward a more open North Korean society but added that the event should not distract from the real issue: dismantling continued on page 8

But to do so, McCain needed to show he had not yet received any federal funds and had not used the promise of those funds as collateral to borrow money. Should the FEC or a federal court force him to remain within the system, he would have to abide by a $54 million spending cap until September, when the primary season ends. His campaign had spent $49 million as of Jan. 31, reports show. Potter gave the FEC a letter from the lawyers for Bethesdabased Fidelity & Trust Bank that said both parties were careful to avoid using the federal matching money as collateral. Barr y Watkins, the bank’s president, said in an interview Tuesday that the loan was secured instead with McCain’s promise to raise more money in the future. “McCain has been raising money for a long period of time,” Watkins said. “It was that long histor y that meant there was little risk.” Still, questions about the legality of the deal have turned the fine print of McCain’s borrowing into a source of intense scrutiny among leading campaign lawyers. Several suggested McCain has landed in a legal bind: If McCain used the promise of public financing to secure the loan — as Democrats suggest — he faces strict spending limits. If public funds were not involved — as Potter argues — that poses other problems. Potter said the campaign offered as collateral its assets, includ-

ing McCain’s massive fundraising lists and his willingness to keep raising from them. But that may not satisfy the FEC, which requires that politicians borrow using only terms that assure repayment. “If the bank is saying they lent him money on the basis of future receipts, well, in presidential campaigns, their future receipts can be zero or millions,” said Marc Elias, an election lawyer who arranged a loan in 2003 for the presidential bid of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. “The idea that this would be a dependable source of collateral is preposterous.” Another question, Elias said, is whether McCain received special treatment in obtaining the loan. Watkins said McCain did not. But he noted that Fidelity’s bankers had prior relationships with several top McCain advisers, including lobbyist Charles R. Black Jr. and campaign manager Rick Davis. Davis’ consulting firm borrowed money from Fidelity bankers in the mid-1990s when they worked at Franklin National Bank, according to Watkins and public records. (Franklin National later merged with BB&T.) Lawrence Noble, a former FEC general counsel, said he believes the commission, which currently lacks a quorum to consider the matter, would want to study the loans when they are at full strength. “This is a very unusual loan, and at the very least it does look like they were trying to use loopholes to make it work,” Noble said.

U.S. steps up deportation of immigrant criminals By Ernesto Londono Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Immigration officials are increasingly scouring jails and courts nationwide and reviewing years-old criminal records to identify deportable immigrants, efforts that have contributed to a steep rise in deportations and strained the immigration court system. Long accused of failing to do enough to deport illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, federal authorities have recently strengthened partnerships with local corrections systems and taken other steps to monitor immigrants facing charges, officials said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that in the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, it placed 164,000 criminals in deportation proceedings, a sharp increase from the 64,000 the agency said it identified and placed in proceedings the year before. The agency estimates that the number will rise to 200,000 this year. The heightened scrutiny, fueled by post-9/11 national security concerns and the growing debate over illegal immigration, has introduced a major new element to the practice of law in parts of the country with large immigrant populations. “It used to be two parties in the courtroom, the state and the defense,” said Mariana Cordier, a Rockville, Md., defense lawyer. “Now you know immigration is waiting in the wings.” Two groups of people are now more likely to be placed in deportation proceedings: illegal immigrants

who might once have been criminally prosecuted without coming to the attention of immigration authorities, and legal immigrants whose visas and residency permits are being revoked because of criminal convictions. The number of deported immigrants with criminal convictions has increased steadily this decade, from about 73,000 in 2001 to more than 91,000 in 2007, according to ICE. Julie Myers, the assistant secretary of homeland security who heads ICE, said in a recent interview that she has strived to use technology and improved relationships among local and federal law enforcement officials to multiply her agency’s eyes and ears in all levels of the criminal justice system. “It’s such a high priority of mine to make sure that people are not released from criminal institutions onto the street,” said Myers, noting that when she took the helm of the agency in January 2006, ICE did not check all federal detention facilities for immigration violators. Since then, she said, the agency has studied the demographics of correctional facilities across the country and has assigned more agents to check facilities with higher numbers of foreign-born offenders. ICE’s Criminal Alien Program created partnerships between immigration officials and jailers at nearly 4,500 detention facilities. Federal agents now frequently visit courthouses and jails to comb through court files. In 2006, the agency opened a division in Chicago that is responsible for screening federal inmates nationwide for deportation.

Page 8

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Taekwondo masters dropkick into the NYU Invitational continued from page 12 or three are entered into a tournament in A, B, C or D divisions that correspond to belt colors. The NYU Invitational hosted 20 schools from across the Northeast and included over 300 people, the most in its 17-year history. Brown brought 28 to the competition, slightly more than a third of the club’s 80-person membership. Brown’s best performance over the weekend was turned in by Clare Kim ’11, Anjali Rao ’10 and Caitlin Feehery ’10. The three-person team finished second in the sparring tournament for its division. “I was really proud of how we did this weekend,” Yang said. “We performed really well in the sparring and had many of our teams advance.” The club provides a team atmosphere that is apparent both at practices and at matches. Yang pointed to the team’s spirit as key to the weekend’s success. “It was great to see the team’s camaraderie,” she said. “If people weren’t competing, they were cheering for their teammates.” The team’s rigorous practice schedule engenders this team feeling. Those who compete in matches practice from 7 to 8 a.m. five days a week in Faunce House, along with additional sessions that take place at night. As a Category III student group, the Taekwondo club receives funding from the Undergraduate Finance Board. While some of this goes to equipment and travel, a significant

portion goes towards the hiring of Master Sung Park ’99, a professional instructor who regularly runs evening practice. Students conduct much of the instruction, however. Yang commented that Head Instructor Michael Hoe ’08 “runs a pretty strict regimen,” as competitors are allowed to miss no more than three morning classes until nationals. Hoe pointed out that the large time commitment to the club has forced him to be disciplined in order to balance school and the club. “I have to run a lot of (the) practices, so I take on most of the teaching,” Hoe said. “I feel like everyone who practices learns to manage time and be self-motivated.” Because of limited funding, the squad competes in very few regional competitions and thus is never ranked high in the area, Yang said. Instead, the team saves its funds and prepares diligently for its annual trip to the Collegiate Nationals. Hoe emphasized that the key for the next two months is to remain healthy. “In any contact sport, injuries are a concern,” Hoe said. “We need to stay healthy, which comes with staying motivated.” But with a work ethic that has brought the Tae Kwon Do club to a nationally elite level, staying motivated will hardly be an issue. “We’re in good shape right now because we always spend a lot of time on conditioning,” Hoe said. “We’ve got to focus on fine-tuning some things ... and if we do that we’ll be fine for nationals.”

N.Y. Philharmonic lightens N. Korean-U.S. tensions continued from page 7 that nation’s nuclear weapons program. “It’s a long way from playing that concert to changing ... the nature of the politics of North Korea,” she told reporters. “But I think it’s a good thing.” Ahn Insong, a 52-year-old North Korean violinist who attended a dress rehearsal of the concert earlier Tuesday, was among those who saw significance in the playing of “Arirang,” which is seen as symbolic of the separation of the Korean peninsula. “The Americans don’t play it as well as we do, because they don’t fully understand the suffering of the Korean people,” he said. “But the fact that they played it in Pyongyang

gives me a really good feeling.” For all the talk of change in North Korea, there were signs that it was business as usual. Even as it announced the Philharmonic concert in Monday’s editions, the official KCNA news service kept up its customary antiAmerican drumbeat, denouncing the United States as a “harasser of world peace and stability.” Not to be outdone by the Americans, KCNA noted in another article, “Quite a few symphonies of new themes have been created in (North Korea) in past years.... The typical of them are ‘The Leader Is Always with Us,’ ‘Victory in Great Anti-Japanese War’ and ‘Please Receive Our Salute,’ which have been performed before enthusiastically acclaiming people.”

Backroom politics behind EPA’s emissions decision continued from page 7 science advisers in denying California’s request. “We see more and more evidence of Administrator Johnson ignoring the science and the facts,” said Boxer, who plans to grill the EPA chief when he testifies before her committee Wednesday on the agency’s budget. EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said Johnson received a “wide range” of advice from inside the agency. “At the end of the day, it was his decision to make, based on the law,” he said. “He made the decision he felt was

right, and he stands by it.” California and more than a dozen states that want to enact similar laws have sued to overturn Johnson’s decision. Legislation to overturn the decision had picked up 23 Senate sponsors as of Tuesday, including Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. Johnson has denied he was influenced by political pressure. He has contended that the tougher vehicle fuel-economy rules required by the recent energy bill are preferable to a “patchwork of state rules.”

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

More dorm renovations planned for this summer continued from page 5 percent of students on-campus, Carey said, while Brown can only house 80 percent currently. The Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, recently approved Phase II of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, which endorses the goal of new housing “as planning and finances allow,” Carey said. Renovation projects currently in the planning stages include systems improvements throughout Miller and Metcalf and replacement of the elevator in Minden Hall. Due to the large-scale nature of these projects, more time spent planning and preparing is required, Carey said. Summer housing presents another difficulty, he said. The Uni-

versity uses its dorms over the summer for various programs that the renovations must be scheduled around, Carey said. Caswell residents interviewed by The Herald didn’t have many complaints. The students agreed that the dorm was in a great location and appreciated the room size. Some said the dorm’s only lounge needed renovations. “They definitely need to fix the lounge,” said resident Matthew Gariboldi ’10. According to a report from Facilities Management, the floor of the lounge is decomposing and will be replaced this summer. He added that lighting in some Caswell rooms was poor. Caswell Hall’s need for renovations notwithstanding, Liling Soh ’10, another resident, said she thinks “it’s one of the better dorms.”

Gymnastics finishes last, but with a personal best continued from page 12 15th and 16th, respectively. Sobuta added a ninth-place finish on vault, a 9.475-point effort that made her the Bears’ top finisher in that event. “We came out strong and carried momentum throughout the entire meet,” said Head Coach Sara Carver-Milne. “Coming out of Ivies with the best finish of the season was a goal of ours.” Brown scored more points in the meet than it had in any meet up to that point. Sobuta’s 37.95 brought her second place the all-around. Albert came in seventh overall with 37.60 points, while Binkley and Zanelli followed in ninth and 10th.

Though the Bears came out of the weekend with a fourth-place finish, they’re anxious for the rest of the season. The hard work they’ve put in is paying off and the scores for both the team and individuals are improving. “The score didn’t reflect how well we did,” Goldstein said. “We’re gaining confidence for the rest of the season.” The Bears’ positive momentum will be tested this weekend when they take on rival Bridgeport on March 9 at 1 p.m. at the Pizzitola Center; Bruno has finished behind Bridgeport twice this season. This is one of Brown’s last three home meets.

Soccer rivalry looks a lot like Yankees-Red Sox continued from page 12 in the soccer world. Like, the real world, not just the U.S. To be fair, most of that money is paid for with the giant advertisements covering the players’ jerseys. So cheer up, Blue Jays fans; at least your team doesn’t have to overcome a gap of over $300 million to hope for a wild card spot. While the Yankees and their foreign counterparts in Madrid may have the edge in the rivalry overall, in recent history, the tide has turned. Following Boston’s unprecedented sucker-punch comeback in the 2004 ALCS, the Red Sox have won two out of the last four World Series and are currently the reigning stickball champions. After overtaking Real Madrid in the signings of Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o (don’t worry if you haven’t heard of them, they’re no big deal), Barca cruised to two championships of La Liga and the 2006 UEFA Champions League. But as everyone living in the Northeast knows, winning produces bandwagon fans. Just like John Henry and Red Sox management mass-produced the gimmick of Red Sox Nation (hint: it’s not the U.S.), Barcelona manufactured a similar slogan of “more than a club.” While the not-so-catchy slogan seems trite, the gimmick isn’t taken so lightly by some citizens in Barcelona who have invested real money in purchasing a card that affirms

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

their identity as a member of the “Barca nation.” Okay, so team nationalism and heated rivalries might not be exclusive to one hemisphere. Still, more substance backs the style behind Madrid and Barcelona’s ongoing feud. During the Spanish Civil War, Franco’s “nacionalistas” overtook most of mainland Spain as their stronghold, including Madrid. The hub of the “republicana” resistance to Franco’s regime was Barcelona, whose defeat effectively marked the end of the war. Even though the Franco dictatorship is now long gone and Spain is operating under a democracy, there still exists a very popular movement in Catalonia to become a separate nation. Say what you will about New England wanting to secede during the War of 1812 or Alex Rodriguez embodying the antichrist; there’s no real beef between the two northeastern cities. Maybe that’s something those in the Western Hemisphere should take note of. True, our game has an absurd substance abuse problem with little resolution in sight. But as arbitrarily divisive as they may be, no baseball games dig into the historical tensions of a painful past. Here in the States, the games make those tensions on their own.

Ben Singer ’09 thinks Red Sox Nation should secede from the United States

Skiers slip, slide their way national stage continued from page 12 1:49.77, good for 18th place. Bruno was saved on Saturday by Sophie Elgort ’08 and Elisa Handbury ’10, who were the only Brown skiers to finish with two clean slalom runs. Elgort led the Bears with a 16th-place finish in a total time of 1:48.42, and Handbur y was right behind her with a combined time of 1:49.77, earning 17th place. “I don’t know if it was pressure that got to us, because really nobody was putting any pressure on us,” Consiglio said. “I think we just had a little bit of bad luck on Saturday, but we were fortunate that it didn’t hurt us too much and we

were able to ski much better on Sunday.” In the giant slalom on Sunday, Consiglio and the Bears returned to form, placing three of their skiers in the top 20. Consiglio led the way for Brown, rebounding to finish in third place with a total time of 2:06.66. Unfortunately for the Bears, Bengtson suffered a knee injur y on a fall during her first giant slalom run, and was unable to finish the race. “We’re waiting to hear the results on Anna’s MRI,” Consiglio said. “We’re all hoping it’s not serious and she’ll be OK” Overall, Brown took fifth place as a team in the slalom and fourth

in the giant slalom, giving them nine points, good for a tie for fourth place with Plymouth State. Colby-Sawyer won the overall title, sweeping both races, while Boston College and UMass finished tied for second place. All five teams will next compete at the 2008 USCSA National Championships, which will be held in early March at Sunday River, Maine. “As a team we haven’t set any specific goals for nationals yet,” Consiglio said. “We just want to go up there, have a good time and ski well. For me, I just want to take in all the experiences of my first trip to Nationals.”

W. squash ends season eighth in nation continued from page 12 No. 8 who, despite a sprained ankle, managed to push her opponent to four games, and Breck Haynes ’09 at No. 4, who narrowly lost in the fifth game of her thrilling match. Despite performances stronger than on the previous day, Bruno still came up short, 7-2. The last match of the weekend proved to be the most exciting, as the Bears battled the Stanford Cardinal for seventh place. Though the Bears beat Stanford, 5-4, on Feb. 1, Brown entered the encounter at a disadvantage. One of its key players, Cohen, was still hobbled by her sprained ankle. Schellenberg and Roberts both played consistently well, but the team was only capable of winning three of the nine matches. The third win, however, was undoubtedly the best of the day,

coming from Fadaifard in her last mach for the Bears. Having lost the first game, 9-0, Fadaifard fought her way back to overcome her Stanford counterpart, also a senior, 0-9, 9-5, 9-6, 10-8, after being down 0-8 in the fourth. Closing out her Brown career with an excellent performance, Fadaifard said she “felt great. It was the last match for both my opponent and me. Having lost by a wide margin in the first game I realized it was time to give it my all. I then played the best squash I think I could play.” She then admitted to sneaking the score sheet as a memento, causing her to doubt whether or not there are now actually any official records of her win. The season as a whole has been a relatively successful one for the women, who, at one point, remained

undefeated for six consecutive matches. “We’re a very young team, with a lot of freshmen and sophomores,” Fadaifard said. “I think we can be proud of playing a lot of great, consistent squash over the season. We were somewhat lucky in that most of our games were played at home so we had the benefit of our fans’ presence, but our competitive outlook has meant that we have turned up to each match ready to play, she said. We’re a very close squad who have a lot of fun both on and off court, so it’s somewhat sad that the season is over.” The Bears pulled out some exceptional performances this season, with three matches ending five games to four, in a sport where close matches are almost unheard of. The team will lose seniors Denia Craig ’08, co-captain Megan Cerullo ’08 and Fadaifard.

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S t a ff E d i t o r i a l

A rock and a hard place In their noble quest to improve our four years at Brown, the Task Force on Undergraduate Education may have come across a task too daunting: undergrad advising. At a faculty forum Tuesday on the task force’s draft report, professors objected that if its recommendations on bolstering advising are followed, faculty would be too overworked to properly handle research, teaching and advising duties. This is not a particularly surprising objection. But imagine the situation reversed, with the same logic: professors angry that the University wants to build new labs because they are so tied up with advising and teaching that they have no time left for research. It’s unfathomable. That’s the elephant in the room when it comes to overhauling the advising system. Most professors understand they are evaluated based on their research, not their teaching (and certainly not their advising). Therefore, it’s only natural they would object to changes that increase time spent guiding students at the expense of time spent in the lab. There are no easy solutions, unfortunately. To start, all professors should set aside a few hours a month for advising. This won’t solve the problem, but even a small amount of time can have an enormous benefit for students. In reality, though, the University must pursue institutional change if it wants to see significant results. There are several solutions to the advising problem, but none of them are currently feasible. For example, the University could change the tenure and promotions process to more highly value advising service. Or Brown could dramatically expand the faculty, again, lowering the number of students each professor must advise. Yet with ongoing capital projects and financial aid pressure, the University cannot afford to take this path either. The current capital campaign will end soon, though; we hope further expanding the faculty will be a top priority in the next one. The scope the University currently envisions for expanding advising can be measured by the $550,000 the Corporation allocated toward the effort last weekend. Half a million is great, but a wholesale change would cost millions. Until that investment is made, University officials should expect to continue to hear the sort of objections raised by the faculty Tuesday. As underwhelmed as we were by the task force’s thoughts on the curriculum, we understand it’s in a tight spot when it comes to bolstering advising. With resources stretched, Brown cannot possibly pursue the sort of change students and professors crave for several years. Given these realities, we support the targeted boost the task force wants to give to advising, through expanding the Meiklejohn system, attending to mentoring in the concentrations and providing research stipends to advisers. These policies won’t fix the problem, but they will help bring more people into the advising system.

T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Simmi Aujla Ross Frazier editorial Arts & Culture Editor Robin Steele Asst. Arts & Culture Editor Andrea Savdie Higher Ed Editor Debbie Lehmann Features Editor Chaz Firestone Asst. Features Editor Olivia Hoffman Metro Editor Rachel Arndt Metro Editor Scott Lowenstein News Editor Mike Bechek News Editor Isabel Gottlieb News Editor Franklin Kanin News Editor Michael Skocpol Opinions Editor Karla Bertrand Opinions Editor James Shapiro Sports Editor Whitney Clark Sports Editor Amy Ehrhart Sports Editor Jason Harris Asst. Sports Editor Benjy Asher Asst. Sports Editor Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Megan McCahill

production Steve DeLucia Production & Design Editor Asst. Design Editor Chaz Kelsh Catherine Cullen Copy Desk Chief Adam Robbins Graphics Editor

Senior Editors Taylor Barnes Chris Gang Stu Woo Business Darren Ball General Manager Mandeep Gill General Manager Susan Dansereau Office Manager Alex Hughes Sales Manager Lily Tran Sales Manager Emilie Aries Public Relations Director Jon Spector Accounting Director Claire Kiely National Account Manager Ellen DaSilva University Account Manager Darren Kong Recruiter Account Manager Katelyn Koh Credit Manager Ingrid Pangandoyon Technology Director photo Rahul Keerthi Meara Sharma Min Wu Ashley Hess

Photo Editor Asst. Photo Editor Asst. Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

post- magazine Matt Hill Rajiv Jayadevan Sonia Kim Allison Zimmer Colleen Brogan Arthur Matuszewski Kimberly Stickels

Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor

Rachel Isaacs, Steve DeLucia, Designers Ria Ali, Erin Cummings, Jennifer Grayson, Madeleine Rosenberg, Jason Yum, Copy Editors Michael Bechek, Sam Byker, Caroline Sedano, Michael Skocpol, , Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Sam Byker, Nandini Jayakrishna, Chaz Kelsh, Sophia Li, Emmy Liss, Max Mankin, Brian Mastroianni, George Miller, Alex Roehrkasse, Caroline Sedano, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Simon van Zuylen-Wood Staff Writers Stefanie Angstadt, Caitlin Browne, Marisa Calleja, Zachary Chapman, Noura Choudhury, Joy Chua, Catherine Goldberg, Ben Hyman, Erika Jung, Sophia Lambertsen, Cameron Lee, Christian Martell, Anna Millman, Evan Pelz, Leslie Primack, Marielle Segarra, Melissa Shube, Catherine Straut, Gaurie Tilak, Matt Varley, Meha Verghese, Allison Wentz Sports Staff Writers Han Cui, Evan Kantor, Christina Stubbe Business Staff Diogo Alves, Steven Butschi, Timothy Carey, Jilyn Chao, Pete Drinan, Dana Feuchtbaum, Patrick Free, Sarah Glick, Soobin Kim, Christie Liu, Philip Maynard, Mariya Perelyubskaya, Paolo Servado, Saira Shervani, Yelena Shteynberg, Robert Stefani, Lindsay Walls, Benjamin Xiong Design Staff Jessica Calihan, Aubrey Cann, Serena Ho, Rachel Isaacs, Andrea Krukowski, Allison Kwong, Joe Larios, Joanna Lee, Aditya Voleti, Pete White Photo Staff Oona Curley, Alex DePaoli, Austin Freeman, Emmy Liss, Tai Ho Shin Copy Editors Fariha Ali, Paula Armstrong, Ayelet Brinn, Rafael Chaiken, Stephanie Craton, Erin Cummings, Katie Delaney, Jake Frank, Anne Fuller, Josh Garcia, Jennifer Grayson, Joyce Ji, Jenn Kim, Tarah Knaresboro, Ted Lamm, Max Mankin, Alex Mazerov, Seth Motel, Alexander Rosenberg, Madeleine Rosenberg, Emily Sanford, Elena Weissman

F rances C H O I

Letters Freshmen needn’t worry about the squatting change To the Editor: As a former chair of the Residential Council’s Housing Lottery Committee and a student who squatted a room myself, I wanted to address an erroneous notion that has been expressed in both the article about the change in squatting policy (“Sophomores may be able to squat in dorms,” Feb. 25) and the staff editorial on the subject (“Squatters’ rights,” Feb. 26). Both the article and the editorial claimed that rising sophomores will have less housing to choose from as a result of the change. This is not the case. Current sophomores who decide to squat do so instead of selecting another room in the Lottery. Since sophomores pick before freshmen in the Lottery, the actual inventory of rooms that will be available when freshmen select housing will remain unchanged under the new policy. In my view, the effects of squatting are positive and fair. By squatting students choose to live in rooms that a worse lottery number allowed them to secure last year. Conventional wisdom would dictate that a better lottery number (due to seniority) would allow them to come away from this year’s Lottery with at least a room in the same category. Squatting merely enables students to claim the room or suite they have come to know and like in advance of the Lottery instead of having to settle for another room

or suite of the same category. Squatting does not change the distribution of housing or give anyone an undue advantage — it just makes the distribution of individual rooms more efficient. Finally, it should be noted that squatting by sophomores is nothing new. It was permitted as recently as nine years ago when I exercised that option myself. I selected a room in New Pembroke #1 (then Quiet Dorm) my freshman year, became comfortable in it, and chose to remain there for the rest of my years at Brown. Despite the fact that it was small and up three flights of stairs, it was my home. It was nice to know in advance of the Lottery that I could remain in that room. As it turned out, my number in each of the subsequent years’ Lotteries would have allowed me to pick that exact room each time, but it was nice not to have to worry about it. So freshmen, do not worry: You are not worse off because those in classes above you can squat housing. The number of housing choices for you this year will be unchanged, and next year you will have the option of staying where you are if it proves to be a happy place to live. Not a bad deal. Ross Lipsky ’01 Housing Lottery Chair 1999-2001 Feb. 26

Grammar pedant is an ‘amateur philologist’ To the Editor: Clare Leonard ‘08.5 may indeed be the only person under the age of 50 who enjoys enforces the split-infinitives “rule,” but she writes, in her letter (“Poor writing can be found just about anywhere,” Feb. 25) in a long tradition of amateur philologists who bizarrely apply a syntactic constraint of Latin to English. In Latin, infinitive verbs are not formed with an auxillary (the English “to” in “to nag”), but rather with a suffix (the Latin “increpitare”). Thus, it is impossible to separate an infinitive auxiliary from a main verb in Latin, because there is no auxillary to separate. This rule in English neither seems cognizant of the history of the split infinitive nor addresses why English writers should base “good style” on the syntax of a distantly related language. As for her indictment of “their” as a singular, third-

person, gender-neutral pronoun, Leonard is ignoring real English. There is no reason, other than convention, that “their” is incorrect in the sentence “Every grammarian grabbed their hat.” English uses one word, “you” for both singular and plural second-person prounouns, regardless of gender. So why can’t “their” function similarly as a third person gender-neutral pronoun, something I find myself desperately needing in both speech and writing? Nowadays, “their” is widely accepted this way in speech, and I feel comfortable using it in my writing. So, I’ll expand your challenge: Got writing game? Prove it by writing and critiquing based on words’ beauty and persuasiveness, not using arbitrary and linguistically ill-supported “rules.” Samuel Oliker-Friedland ’09 Feb. 26

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 Wednesday, February 27, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Page 11

There are Yankee Republicans, and then there is Lincoln Chafee SEAN QUIGLEY Opinions Columnist In the February issue of Providence Monthly, former Senator Lincoln Chafee ’75 was interviewed with regard to his views on the upcoming presidential election. The questions were mediocre; the bias was incredulous at times, such as when the writer proffered the following definition of Republican In Name Only (RINO): “a derisive buzzword for anyone not blindly towing (sic) the party line.” One can consult the article to see Chafee’s recycled lines about how the Republican Party supposedly went wrong. For now, however, I will address his claim that the Yankee Republican has “come and gone.” As a Protestant Yankee Republican myself, I am unprepared to accept defeat, if for no other reason than to reclaim the title for those to whom it actually applies. Traditionally, a Yankee Republican has distinguished himself from other Republicans by his forceful insistence on limited government. Even when he comes to power, he refuses to get caught up in the perpetual back-scratching that has characterized the recent years of Republican dominance. For many Yankee Republicans, therefore, President Calvin Coolidge is the patron saint. A firm believer in low taxes, low spending, federalism, the entrepreneurial spirit and government discipline, he in no way resembles Chafee, who stated, “I care about using the tools of government to help the less fortunate.” President Coolidge rightly observed that using the federal government to engage in coercive charity is both wrong and imprudent. That is to say, it is neither virtuous nor productive for Washington to

spend other people’s money in the name of “compassion.” Yet Chafee, the fifth-richest senator in 2006 according to Forbes, seems not to realize or even to care that taxes place an enormously heavy burden on the most populous and most targeted segment of society — the industrious middle class. He likewise seems oblivious to the Calvinist roots (Coolidge was a Congregationalist) of most Yankee Republicans — roots that have historically led those who have them to distrust human nature and therefore to

I accept his contention that the Southern base exercises far too much control over the agenda and leadership of the Republican Party. Nonetheless, Chafee merely notes the prevalence of Southern Republicans, and fails to analyze why the Southern base has so much power. While he is correct to decry the decidedly rightward lurch of his former party, he misapplies the blame. Chafee appears to regard the rise of the conservative Republican as the most noteworthy political change in recent times. I would

Chafee, the fifth-richest senator in 2006 according to Forbes, seems not to realize or even to care that taxes place an enormously heavy burden on the most populous and most targeted members of society — the industrious middle class. abhor both centralization and collectivism. Such roots also tend to produce unassuming, forthright, practical politicians, such as President Chester Arthur, who, though an Episcopalian, attended Baptist churches as a child. Yankee Republicans exhibit humility, in stark contrast to the Democratic Party’s two remaining, equally vain presidential candidates. But despite my distaste for Chafee, I can find common ground with him. For instance,

argue that the more monumental change has been the death of the moderate Democrat. After that most unsavory of decades, the 1960s, few Southern Democrats willfully remained within their once respectable party, but most still could not fathom crossing into the Republican Party. The betrayal of President Carter, the rise of President Reagan and the occurrence of the Republican revolution, however, ended their qualms with affiliating with “the party of Lincoln,” as Chafee cor-

rectly identified it. Most ex-Southern Democrats found a comfortable home in the Republican Party. Unlike its opposing party, it recognized the duty to protect all innocent life, to stave off judges’ attempts to re-write constitutions at the federal and state levels to accord with their utopian theories, and to preserve a system of diffused power whereby states and local communities handle virtually all non-defense matters. Unfortunately, the new wave of Southern Republicans capitalized on the growing divide by harping, almost exclusively, on the issues that splinter the parties most. Many of them have sullied conservatism by associating it with the right wing. Still, I am more inclined to assign blame to the Democratic Party than to the Republican Party for the increased polarization of recent years. Chafee, on the other hand, is quicker to castigate the latter party. That is his business, I suppose, but I become visibly irritated whenever his lack of any first principles is lauded as “independence,” and his modern liberal views are mislabeled as those of a Yankee Republican. Lincoln Chafee was never a Yankee Republican, except in the sense that he is a Yankee (a New Englander) and was a Republican. But that term encompasses more than the sum of its parts — it entails a disposition, an approach and a certain set of values, none of which Chafee has. But with the last major imposter gone, Yankee Republicans can begin a restoration, building a coalition that adheres more faithfully to our inheritance. Chafee, I assure you, will not be welcome.

Sean Quigley ’10 met Ed Cox while volunteering for Senator John McCain’s campaign. Perhaps Padawan Chafee could learn from that Yankee Republican Master?

Tomorrow begins now MAHA ATAL Opinions Columnist

On Feb. 5, a tornado struck the South. As power lines died and homes collapsed, Union University in Jackson, Tenn., struggled to keep its students and faculty safe. There was an emergency information blog on Union’s website, but when the server crashed, administrators needed a new plan, and fast. They turned to Facebook, posting up-tothe-minute safety advice and images of the damage to the Union network page. Students followed suit, uploading their own live images, while alumni used the page to send messages to former classmates and professors. That night, when CNN needed live footage of the damage, they used screenshots from the Facebook wall, and credited Facebook — not the students or Union — for the images. Facebook has always boasted that theirs is a “real” network, a virtual community with links to the physical world, and Union’s experience supports that claim. Indeed, I’m not surprised to see Union use Facebook in this way; it’s about time they realized where their students actually look for information. Nor am I shocked that CNN credited Facebook for the photos. This is all legal under Facebook’s new platform agreement, where most of what you post belongs to the network. Though I have my personal misgivings about the new Facebook, the raging debate among young people about the changes is old news, and appears to be working in Facebook’s favor.

After all, no students have complained about CNN’s coverage. What shocks me about this story is that Union hasn’t complained either, accepting CNN’s appropriation as part of the Facebook deal. Is Union’s choice to be open source with their footage the first step to making the Web 2.0 culture the norm? Is this the beginning of tomorrow? In the recent history of technological and cultural transitions, academia has played a central role. In the 1960s, American culture wars pitted students and the ideological avant-garde against the bureaucratic regulation of university

“newfangled” form of entertainment. In each of these transitions, the forces of the old media have complained that the new technology is dangerous because it doesn’t fit the rules that hold society together, boundaries between public and private or elite and popular. In each case, society manages to stay intact, because new rules are written. To date, media technologies have failed to produce cultural anarchy. But the collaborative, decentralized nature of Web 2.0 has critics and supporters predicting a paradigm shift, where the old fabric unravels and is left that way. And until now, they’ve ap-

Web 2.0 technologies, I now believe, have become the normal means of interaction for traditionalists and techgeeks alike. authorities. In the last decade, students have increasingly turned to new technologies, though academia has been reluctant to endorse e-books and Wikis as educational resources. But a longer historical view reminds us that cultural change always occurs in such phases, that new ideas are often derided by the mainstream as suspicious before they cease to be “new” at all. Newspapers were regarded as a dangerous political medium right up until the invention of photography. Radio became “normal” when television replaced it as the

peared to be right. In my columns portending the arrival of a new social-regulation-book, a Web 2.0 establishment, I’ve sounded like a religious zealot predicting the arrival of the messiah who never shows. To me, the Union-CNN collaboration is a second coming: Web 2.0 technologies, I now believe, have become the normal means of interaction for traditionalists and tech-geeks alike. Looking around me at Brown, I have seen other signs of that change. In my freshman

year, I remember marveling at the professors who were savvy enough to navigate WebCT. As a sophomore, I smiled at a professor who struggled to pronounce Wikipedia, but was appreciative that he’d heard of the site. Now, only two years later, a whole lecture hall laughed derisively at the professor who couldn’t figure out how to stream video online. Better still, the professor felt compelled to apologize for her “ineptitude.” Turning on the television at home, I watched an elderly woman — maybe eighty-five years old — explain that in January 2009, all cable signals will switch to digital. The analog TV with the tracking dials in your parents’ basement won’t work anymore. That the advertisers chose her to communicate their message is telling. It’s a sign that women her age are jumping on the digital bandwagon and that(she reminds us) by next year, it will be the only bandwagon out there in TV land. For enthusiasts like myself, the transition from calling digital technologies “new media” to simply “media” is a bittersweet one. After all, if they cease to be new, I’ll have to find something else to decipher and explain in my columns. On the other hand, I’m excited to see these technologies as the norm. The idea of graduating from college as a new beginning is a cliche that parents tell their children, but for the class of 2008, leaving Brown at a moment when the technology and culture of our college years have pervaded mainstream life, it just might be true.

Maha Atal ’08 is jumping on the digital bandwagon

S ports W ednesday Page 12

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

High notes from over high seas With spring training games officially starting today, it’s only a matter of time before Bill Simmons starts rambling about why the Red Sox are going to beat out the Yankees for the AL East. But on the other side of the Atlantic, another season is already well Ben Singer High Notes under way in the European soccer leagues, and it may have more in common with our bastardized form of cricket than you might think. Much like the Northeast of the baseball world (the US), Spain has a similar rivalry dominated by its two most prominent cities. FC Barcelona is the BoSox of Catalonia, the region of Spain of which Barcelona is the capital. Since its inception in 1899, the club has been an 18-time champion of Spain’s premier soccer league, La Liga. That’s not too shabby, and neither are seven World Series championships. Real Madrid , Barcelona’s Lex Luthor, is a 30-time champion of La Liga. But the problem for both of these teams has been the other guys standing in front of them in their respective divisions. If you thought people from New York wouldn’t shut up about 26 rings, at least they weren’t deemed the official “Club of the Century” by an entire continent. Those bragging rights go to fans of Real Madrid. Much like the ALCS, the focal point of soccer on the Iberian Peninsula revolves around the two teams whose matches are known as “The Classic.” If you only watch Fox or ESPN, you probably didn’t know there were 28 other teams in Major League Baseball. And if you bothered to check payrolls, you’d see why. The Bronx Bombers and Beantown Boys top the charts at $195 and $143 million, respectively. Next up are the New York Mets at $116 million. But that pales in comparison to the 352 and 291 million Euros that make Madrid and Barca the first- and third-highest payrolls continued on page 9

Gymnastics lands fourth place at Cornell By Katie Wood Contributing Writer

The gymnastics team finished in fourth place at the Ivy Classic at Cornell on Sunday, but the Bears achieved a goal they had been shooting for all season, turning in their best performance of the year. For the second time in two years, Cornell took top honors, finishing with 191.8 points, and Yale (189.060) and Penn (188.025) finished just ahead of Brown (186.725). The meet started off well for Brown on the floor exercise, and their momentum continued throughout the day. Captain Hannah Goldstein ’08 began the meet with a personal best, 9.475 points, and finished in 14th place. Chelsey Binkley ’11 tied Goldstein on the floor exercise. “It was a great way to start the meet off,” Goldstein said. “I went into the routine in hopes of setting the tone for the rest of the day.” The rest of the team stepped up and handled the pressure at this crucial meet of conference foes as well. Despite an ankle sprain earlier in the week, Jen Sobuta ’09 fought through the pain and finished first on the uneven bars with a personal best of 9.775, far surpassing her previous record. This was the Bears’ only first-place finish of the day. Vida Rivera ’11 also turned in a strong performance on the bars, an impressive 9.65 that earned a second-place finish. The Bears have struggled on bars throughout the season but put forth a great effort — the five Bears who finished in the top 16

Faunce filled with martial arts masters By Peter Cipparone Sports Staff Writer

team and stayed strong with lots of energy.” Albert finished in seventh on the beam with 9.475 points, followed by Sobuta and Zanelli at

For a school known for academic success rather than athletics, Brown has an impressive number of national title contenders, including the defending national champion women’s crew team, a top-ranked women’s rugby squad and the men’s soccer team this fall. But one of the Bears’ most consistent national contenders come from an unexpected source — the Brown Taekwondo club. After placing third overall at the Collegiate Nationals a year ago, the Taekwondo club has cemented itself among the nation’s elite teams. Last weekend, the club took a large step towards repeating this feat, as it performed admirably at the NYU Invitiational in its last competition before nationals, which will be held on April 25 and 26. While the competition did not have implications for the team’s national title aspirations, the competition was both good preparation and enjoyable, said club President Angela Yang ’09. “This weekend, we wanted to go out and have a lot of fun, do our best and kick some butt,” Yang said. Taekwondo matches are split into two parts: a form competition and a sparring competition. In the form portion, competitors score individually for the team, while in the sparring competition, teams of two

continued on page 9

continued on page 8

Ashley Hess / Herald

Hannah Goldstein ’08 led the way for the gymnastics team on the floor exercise.

were the most from any school. Binkley, Stephanie Albert ’10, and Victoria Zanelli ’11 rounded out the final three spots in the select group. “Good things happened,” Rivera said. “We came together as a

Ski team tumbles into fourth place, heads to nationals By Megan McCahill Assistant Spor ts Editor

The ski team had trouble finishing runs cleanly over the weekend but still was able to overcome a few spills to tie for fourth place at the 2008 Eastern Collegiate Ski Conference Regional Championships, which were held in Waterville Valley, N.H. The fourth-place finish earned the team a trip to the U.S. Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association National Champion-

ships. The racing format was different from that in the regular season. Each team fielded only five skiers, as opposed to 10 in the regular season, and only the top three times counted toward each team’s score, while usually the top four are considered. The top five teams at Regionals move on to Nationals, so the pressure was on Brown’s top performers to put together strong runs. On Saturday, the Bears got off

to an icy start when only two of the team’s skiers were able to finish clean runs. Krista Consiglio ’11, who had been remarkably consistent all year, completing every run, fell on her first run and finished in 33rd place. It was the first time Consiglio had finished outside of the top 10 in a race all season. “I don’t really know what caused the trouble,” Consiglio said. “The conditions were great on both days. The weather was

beautiful and sunny, and the snow was hard and held up well, so it wasn’t the conditions.” Consiglio wasn’t the only Bear who str uggled on the slalom course. Blaine Martin ’11 lost a ski on her second run and did not finish. Anna Bengtson ’09 took a small fall on her second run but was able to recover quickly enough to finish the run in 54.27, which gave her a combined time of continued on page 9

W. squash drops three, ends season in eighth By Lara Southern Spor ts Staff Writer

Ashley Hess / Herald

Minoo Fadaifard ’08 lost the first game of her match against Stanford, 9-0, but came back to win in four games. The Bears managed three wins in a loss to Stanford, one of their three losses this weekend.

The women’s squash team faced its final challenge of the season this weekend, traveling to Princeton, N.J., to compete in the A division of the 2008 Howe Cup, the national tournament for squash. After starting with a 9-0 loss to Princeton on Friday, the team improved throughout the weekend, managing two wins in its 7-2 loss to Dartmouth, and three in Sunday’s match with Stanford. The loss to Stanford dropped the Bears in the national rankings from seventh to eighth place. This weekend leaves Brown with a final 8-10 season record. The team overcame an immense psychological hurdle in facing second-ranked Princeton, the eventual winners of the tournament, in its

first match by continuing on from the 9-0 loss to perform well in its subsequent matches. Co-captain Minoo Fadaifard ’08 said that “it was a little bit frustrating facing the expected winners of the tournament first, and playing the best you can play to no avail. But I think everyone took their losses in their stride and used the match as an opportunity to get comfortable playing on the Princeton courts.” Just as the men’s team bounced back from a first-match loss at nationals two weekends ago, the women built momentum with wins from Kali Schellenberg ’10 at No. 7 and Sarah Roberts ’10 at No. 9, who both won their matches, 3-1, against Dartmouth. Other valiant performances were delivered by Lily Cohen ’11 at continued on page 9

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Published on Feb 27, 2008

The February 27, 2008 issue of the Brown Daily Herald

browndailyherald

Similar to

Popular now

Just for you

Go explore