The Brown Daily Herald T hursday, A pril 10, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 49
Brown-RISD dual degree program accepts 18
Students, faculty anxious about enforcing prereqs
Mr. and Ms. Brown
By Matthew Varley Staff Writer
As they peruse the Course Announcement Bulletins stuffed into university mailboxes this week, students are paying more attention to one detail — prerequisite classes. For the first time, the University will block students from pre-registering for a course if they have not satisfied the class prerequisites. During the upcoming pre-registration period, beginning on April 22, faculty members will have authority to override the barrier at their discretion. “It’s not meant to say you absolutely cannot get in” to a class, Registrar Michael Pesta said of the change in Banner. “But on the other hand (faculty) are trying to tell students, ‘You really should have this previous course in order to do the material.’” Fulfillment of prerequisites was not checked under the “complicated”
By Gaurie Tilak Staff Writer
Not many people are excited by the idea of getting an undergraduate degree in five years. Except, that is, the 18 students admitted last week to the first class of the pilot dual degree program started by Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design. The program, which will allow them to study at both institutions and graduate in five years with a degree from each school, received about 400 applications in its inaugural year, said Lucy King, RISD’s assistant director of admission. Of those, 30 to 50 applicants were admitted to both Brown and RISD, and from that pool, both schools chose the 18 who were admitted to the program, both admissions offices confirmed. Ten students are expected to matriculate, admission officers from each school said. Students will spend their first year at RISD taking necessary freshman foundation courses and their second year at Brown. “The idea is that they get an immersive experience at both institutions,” said David Bogen, associate provost for academic affairs at RISD. For the remaining three years, students devise their own plan of study and can divide their time between the two institutions however they need. “As an art student, it was always daunting for me to consider sacrificing in-depth study of social sciences and literature, which I am equally passionate about,” student Stephanie Swart, who was admitted to the program, wrote in an e-mail about why she applied to it. “I think it’s a great option for students who are looking to combine an interest in art with a love for academics,” said admitted student Elizabeth Soucy, who plans to enroll in the program next fall. Soucy was initially thinking of applying to Brown to study engineering. But after reading the brochure for the dual degree program over the summer, she changed her mind. “I thought I could combine art with a major at Brown,” she said. Soucy now plans to study business economics at Brown and industrial design at RISD. She even has an idea of how she will use her degree. “I’m hoping to start up an industrial design firm,” she said. Another of the 18 admitted to the program, Alexa Minc, plans to enroll. “I was so happy that I got into Brown, and then to get into this brand-new, small program is so amazing,” Minc wrote in an e-mail. Minc plans to study biology or physics at Brown and jewelry and metalsmithing at RISD. “I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to do only liberal arts,” she wrote. She added continued on page 4
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METRO
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paper registration system used at the University prior to fall 2007, Pesta told The Herald, adding there was “almost too much ... flexibility in that system.” Pesta said Banner did not check prerequisites this academic year because all student records had not yet been added to the database. About 17 percent of courses at the University have prerequisites; of those, about 25 percent are language courses. The latest change to the University’s evolving class registration process has brought mixed reactions from students, some of whom said they are concerned the enforcement of prerequisites may bar students from classes for which they are academically prepared to take. Different ideas of the course Dean of the College Katherine continued on page 4
Med seniors matched to residencies in record rate Min Wu / Herald
Devon Butler ’08 and Shyam Sundaram ’08 were crowned winners of the competition in Alumnae Hall last night.
Fuentes: Education will move Latin America ahead ment, spoke at the conference organized by the department and the Brown University Transatlantic Project, an “academic initiative on cultural interactions between Europe, Latin America and the United States,” according to the project’s Web site. The theme of this year’s conference is “Independences: Historical Reinscriptions, Atlantic Theory and Criticism, 21st Century Voices.” As he presented theories
By Isabel Gottlieb News Editor
Prolific Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes called for a “new New Deal” for Latin American political and social reform in a speech to a half-full Salomon 101 last night. The speech kicked off a week-long conference on the bicentennial of Latin American independence movements during the University’s “Year of Focus on Latin America.” Fuentes, a professor-at-large in the Hispanic Studies depart-
continued on page 10
By Kyla Wilkes Contributing Writer
Med students matched
On Monday, March 17, Joshua Gepner MD’08 nervously checked his e-mail for the decision that would impact the next several years of his life. At the top of his inbox was the notification he’d been waiting for: an e-mail from the National Resident Matching Program. He had been successfully matched with a medical residency program. NRMP, the not-for-profit organization that runs the competitive match process that each year pairs medical students nationwide with medical residency programs, announced on March 20 that this year’s success rate in the matching process nationwide was the highest in the last 30 years. This year’s process saw the highest number of residency program applicants in the history of NRMP — 28,737 students vied for one of 22,240 first-year residency positions. Of these applicants, 15,242 were U.S. medical school seniors, with other
• • •
Nine Alpert seniors matched to R.I. residencies 69 of 77 Alpert seniors matched 94.2% of U.S. med seniors matched
applicants coming from international schools, said Philip Szenas, director of research for NRMP. Of the U.S. seniors, 94.2 percent were successfully matched with residency programs, and 84.6 percent of them were matched with one of their top three residency programs, according to an NRMP press release. Although this is the highest rate of matching in three decades, it is only up a fraction of a percent from last year, Szenas said. Alpert Medical School was no exception to this year’s matching succontinued on page 8
Wild night? Avoid morning misery with prof.’s advice By Leslie Primack Staf f Writer
This weekend, many students will take in more than just the sights and sounds of M.I.A’s and Lupe Fiasco’s performances, partying long after the musicians have left the stage. But as the sun rises on Wriston Quad, scattered with red plastic cups and crushed beer cans, many students will be searching for ways to fight a nasty hangover. Ever y drinker has a favorite cure for hangovers, ranging from the reasonable-sounding — Brandon Cook ’08 suggested taking lots of vitamin C — to the more
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CAMPUS NEWS
colorful. ing after. He suggested drinking “Two raw eggs in orange juice,” lots of water or mixed drinks insaid Pablo Larios ’10. “It works.” stead of shots, drinking on a full But these ideas and other folk stomach and avoiding caffeine and cures may be more creative than medications with acetaminophen, effective. like Tylenol, which can damage “Everybody’s looking for hang- one’s already-fragile liver. Drinkover cures,” said Robert Swift, pro- ing lighter alcohols like vodka fessor of psychiand white wine atr y and human can give a milder FEATURE behavior, who hangover than studies the effects of alcohol. “If dark drinks like whiskey and red there was one that really worked, wine. everyone would know about it.” As for the aphorism, “Beer Swift said the science on hang- before liquor, never been sicker; overs is uncertain, but there may liquor before beer, you’re in the be ways to reduce the risk of that clear,” Swift isn’t so sure. “I have certain unpleasantness the morn- heard it,” he said. “I don’t know
Need a pal? DPS offers free, personal safety alarms to students that are louder than Friedman’s decibel limits
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OPINIONS
Comping college Maha Atal ’08 reevaluates college competition, looking at various arguments on the topic
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
that it’s been scientifically proven that that’s the case.” Though no one definitively knows what causes hangovers, Swift presented several theories. A hangover can be viewed as alcohol withdrawal, he said. Because alcohol is a sedative, the brain tries to compensate by becoming overexcited. When the sedative effects wear off, the brain is still in overdrive, causing one to feel irritable, achy and sensitive to light and noise. “The person may feel actually somewhat sedated and fatigued,” continued on page 4
tomorrow’s weather Which will be more painful on Spring Weekend —the rain or your hangover?
rain, 55 / 43 News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com
T oday Page 2
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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Sudoku Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.
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© Puzzles by Pappocom
RELEASE DATE– Thursday, April 10, 2008
Los Angeles Times Puzzle C r o sDaily s w oCrossword rd
War and Peas | Linda Zhang and Eli Jaffa
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Eva’s half sister? 4 Furnace control 10 Ready for anything 14 Satori-seeking sect 15 Mrs. Robinson’s daughter 16 “Metamorphoses” poet 17 Blemish 18 *Doing the Macarena, e.g. 20 Actor Milo 22 Cold and rainy, say 23 *Stationery 28 Nevada Shakespeare Company home 29 Move carefully 30 Movie about giant ants 34 Bloomer who first wore bloomers 37 Incite 39 Artist Yoko 40 Hip dude 41 *Anti-strike law circumvention 43 “Red Seal” record co. 44 First-aid paraphernalia 45 Dodger coach since 1980 46 Add salt to, e.g. 48 Bygone blade 50 Nicknames for moms’ moms 52 Relinquish 53 *Carefree 57 Aide with a pad 60 Moray seeker 61 *Cannonball origination spot 65 Two-yr. degrees 68 Actor Rickman 69 Like olde England 70 Half an antelope 71 Numbers game 72 More to the point 73 Tarzan player Ron DOWN 1 Sound of sawing wood? 2 Sette meno uno 3 Perry for whom an award is named
4 India’s New __ 5 Strange 6 Run 7 Symbol of ease 8 Do the final step of 9 Actor Stephen 10 Miniature racer 11 Budget rival 12 After-dinner confection 13 Trendsetting 19 Storm hdg. 21 Plane for short runways, briefly 23 Severely damages, with “up” 24 Are left 25 Miss USA contest, e.g. 26 Beginning with 27 Carillon output 31 Shrewd bargain 32 What cryptographers do 33 Showed pain 35 “Big Blue” 36 “Drums __ the Mohawk”: 1939 film 38 Fair share
42 Rainbow Bridge state 47 Farm measure 49 Pacific phenomenon 51 Gardener’s tool 54 It’s not free of charge 55 Spine-tingling 56 Rot-resistant wood 57 Wyo. neighbor 58 Mah-jongg piece
59 “__ Almighty”: 2007 Carell/ Freeman film 62 London hrs. 63 Bonnet denizen? 64 1960s-’70s ice ace 66 Have a bug 67 Word that can precede the first word in the answers to starred clues
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Free Variation | Jeremy Kuhn
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4/10/08
Dunkel | Joe Larios
T he B rown D aily H erald By Gary Steinmehl (c)2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
4/10/08
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M etro Thursday, April 10, 2008
Vintage baseball pushes through pain By Mitra Anoushiravani Contributing Writer
The hands of Scott Olson, a pitcher for the Providence Grays, keep getting beaten up. The pain is “getting problematic,” he said. The worst was in a game in which he was subbing for a catcher and had his pinky nearly ripped off by a ball. Olson can thank Timothy Norton for that pain, which he said he doesn’t mind because it goes along with the fun of playing for Providence’s vintage, gloveless baseball team. About 10 years ago, Norton, a writing instructor at the University of Rhode Island, stumbled upon an article about Providence’s old baseball team, the Grays. Norton was surprised to learn that many people recognize the Grays as winning the first World Series against the New York Metropolitans in 1884. The winning team members were hailed as the “champions of the world,” and the baseball championcontinued on page 6
Downtown Providence isn’t where one would expect to find live bluegrass jams, crisp apples and fresh mussels. But at the Providence Wintertime Farmers’ Market, held Saturday afternoons at music venue and art gallery AS220, it’s standard fare. Farm Fresh RI, a non-profit organization that aims to link Rhode Island farmers to consumers, started the Wintertime Market in December. The Wintertime Market is “important because farms don’t just exist in the summer time,” said Karla Simmons, from Simmons Farm in Middletown, who was at the market selling meat and eggs. “It’s nice to have an outlet to sell directly to consumers even in the winter time.” “I like to support local farmers,” said Alex Sommers, a Federal Hill resident who frequents the Wintertime Market, adding that the market is “fun — it’s like a little meeting place.” The Wintertime Market “is a good opportunity for people who want to buy from their farmers’ market during the winter” since “there’s still a
‘Green’ legislation grows in senate after report By Alex Roehrkasse Senior Staff Writer
Courtesy of Anish Mitra
The Providence Grays, the city’s baseball team in the late 19th century, won what many recognize as the nation’s first World Series. Now they’re back.
Fresh veggies outlast winter cold in local market By Allison Wentz Staff Writer
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
good amount of produce,” said Jessica Knapp, development coordinator at Farm Fresh RI. Knapp is currently working at Farm Fresh RI to build a permanent “year-round market space,” she said. The Wintertime Market is “a jumping off point” for this project. “Farmers’ markets are a really important community event. It’s a really festive part of a school or a neighborhood — it kind of brings people together in a way that going to a grocery store doesn’t,” Knapp said. It also allows consumers to support farmers directly, choose healthy foods and learn about the food they’re eating, she said. Providence’s downtown farmers’ market, another of the six Providence markets managed by Farm Fresh RI, will relocate this year from the city’s downtown ice-skating rink to Kennedy Plaza at Exchange Street and open June 13. The market’s move aims to “increase visibility,” and to aid the city’s and local businesses’ attempt to “revitalize the downtown area,” Knapp said. The new location was determined in part by an informal survey conducted by Farm Fresh RI, asking people who used the organization’s Web site to e-mail
suggestions. Farm Fresh RI also oversees the Brown Farmers’ Market along with Food Service Supervisor Steve Henderson and other Dining Services officials. Louella Hill ’04, who cofounded Farm Fresh RI with Noah Fulmer ’05, was the driving force behind opening Brown’s market in 2003. “Farmers’ markets are important because it’s a place for diverse parts of the community to dialogue and interact,” said Hill, adding that the Brown farmers’ market “is the only place where you see students and professors and staff mingling in a neutral environment.” Farmers’ markets let small farms connect with consumers the way only retailers could before,Hill said. But, she added, they also help promote public health by letting people “see where their food came from,” Hill said. Currently working as a cheese maker, Hill said, “A farmers’ market allows me to explain to the end customer how the cheese was made and why it tastes the way it does, and to me that’s incredibly exciting because that’s not something we can do in supermarkets or Wal-Mart.”
In January, the Rhode Island Senate Policy Office issued a report outlining the state’s progress in environmental stewardship and the challenges it still faces on that front. Now the state senate is seeing a flurry of bills designed to tackle those challenges. The report identified several critical areas for improvement such as recycling, transportation, the health of Narragansett Bay and investment in existing infrastructure and green building design. But the report also noted that Rhode Island already has a bit to brag about: The state has the lowest per capita energy consumption in the nation and ranks 48th in per capita carbon emissions. “There’s plenty that’s good to report,” said senate spokesman Greg Pare. “There’s also some concerns, and some of our major initiatives this year are interconnected with the findings in that report,” he said. Currently before the senate are several bills that would address the state’s poor recycling record. One bill would place a redeemable tax of five cents on bottles. Another intends to expand a system of staggered trash, cardboard and glass collection that has had success in Woonsocket, Pare said. The report found that recycling efforts in Rhode Island capture only 15 to 20 percent of the total municipal waste the state generates — less than 10 percent in Providence. 61 percent of that waste is considered recyclable, according to the report. Pare noted that recycling in the private sector is even more “abysmal” — about 3 percent. As for transportation efforts, Rhode Island college students can
help to improve the state’s commuting habits by making use of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s new UPASS Program, which allows students from 16 campuses, including Brown, to ride the bus for free. Universities pay for those rides, Pare said, but slated legislation aims at eliminating those payments. Other bills hope to encourage more carpooling, he added. The report also found that much of the state’s infrastructure — particularly its water systems — is in need of repair, noting that mismanagement of water is compounding its scarcity. “If we don’t take some action with the aging pipes, etc., we could be looking at problems, particularly in the summer,” Pare said. A crucial factor in much of the planned legislation will be obliging cooperation and investment from private firms in Rhode Island. For example, while Massachusetts is home to more than 140 buildings that have undergone LEED certification for sustainable design, Rhode Island has just 13. A large part of the legislation mobilizing environmental action throughout the state will focus on incentivizing “green” capital investments and business practices, Pare said. The private sector will also play a large role in the state’s efforts to produce renewable energy, said Chris Powell, Brown’s director of sustainable energy and environmental initiatives, recently appointed by the governor to the state’s Energy Efficiency and Environmental Resource Management Council. In 2004, the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Standard, which mandates incremental increases in the proportion of renewable encontinued on page 6
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Brown-RISD program takes 18 in first yr. continued from page 1 that she is interested in becoming a doctor. But being a doctor may not be enough, since she has been metalsmithing for nearly eight years and would like to pursue a career in that as well, she wrote. “I think I want to go to med school and also start a small jewelry business after college,” she wrote. Swart hopes to enroll in the program next year to study painting at RISD and international relations at Brown. “The only thing preventing me from enrolling at the moment is financial aid,” she wrote. She is still considering other options because of the financial aid issue. “This program was my distant dream since I heard that it might happen while visiting RISD last spring break; the fact that it is becoming a reality is still unbelievable for me,” she wrote. The amount of aid a student receives is calculated according to the standards of Brown’s financial aid office, but both schools share the burden of the cost, Bogen said. The amount of aid is essentially counted against the revenue from tuition for the program. Both schools then split the revenue from the program evenly, he said. Since the program is in its first year, there is no plan to open it to transfers in the near future, said King. “There is no plan to open it up to transfers at this point,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean it will
never happen.” Students applying to the program this year could apply early to either school, or both, King said. Unlike Brown, which has a binding early decision procedure, RISD has a nonbinding early action process. “It wasn’t clear to people that you could apply early to both schools,” said Panetha Ott, associate director of international admission at Brown. Brown traditionally has a singlechoice early decision policy. The only exception to this policy is the dual degree program, for which applicants may apply to both schools early. Program hopefuls are also not required to withdraw their applications from RISD after being accepted early to Brown. A student accepted early to Brown and later to the dual degree program may choose to attend the program. However, if a student is admitted to Brown early but not to the dual program, he or she must still attend Brown, Ott said. Only one student was actually admitted early to both Brown and RISD. She was later accepted into the dual degree program as well, King said. Although admissions decisions for some students who applied to both schools were made by early January, the admission committee for the dual degree program decided to wait until all applications had been reviewed before making final decisions. “It seemed too risky to admit
people early before we saw the rest of the pool,” Ott said. In order to apply to the dual degree program, a student must apply to both Brown and RISD and submit an additional essay about how they envision the program helping them shape their goals. The essay is reviewed by admissions committees from both schools along with the standard application material, Ott said. “We took into account the statements they submitted for the program, as well as their academic and artistic strengths and creativity,” Ott said. “These students are enormously versatile in their abilities and bring with them exceptional strength.” “It’s a pretty extraordinary thing for people to be admitted separately to RISD and Brown,” King said. “We think they’re going to be an extraordinary and interesting group of students.” If a student is accepted by both institutions, their application is then reviewed by the Dual Degree Admission Committee, said Ott, who serves as a representative from Brown on the committee. The other representatives from Brown are Deputy Dean of the College Stephen Lassonde and Professor of Visual Art Richard Fishman. The representatives from RISD are Professor of English Mairead Byrne, Professor of Industrial Design Adam Smith and Director of Admissions Edward Newhall.
Students share hangover recuperation tips continued from page 1 he said, “but nevertheless their brain is actually overexcited.” Some people have another drink in the morning to dull this overexcitation, but Swift warned that this solution is only temporar y, because the body has to process all the alcohol sooner or later. Though ethanol is the primary alcohol found in beverages, Swift said another potential cause of hangovers are congeners, other types of alcohol found in many drinks. “All these other alcohols are more toxic to the human body than ethanol,” he said. One of the most sinister congeners, present
Thursday, April 10, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
in certain whiskeys, is methanol. In an effort to break it down, the body produces formaldehyde — “embalming fluid,” Swift said. “Alcohol is relatively toxic stuff,” he said, laughing. It irritates the esophagus and stomach, causing nausea and stomach pains. Alcohol is also a diuretic, stimulating urine production and dehydrating the body — the reason one hangover symptom is thirst. It also lowers blood sugar, Swift said, by clogging the liver with fat globules so that it cannot metabolize sugar properly. A solid meal before drinking can slow the alcohol’s absorption into the bloodstream, compensate for low blood sugar and protect the stom-
ach from irritation. Swift warned that women have a lower alcohol tolerance than men. Not only are women generally smaller, but they have less body water. “If a woman and man who weigh the same amount drink the same amount of alcohol,” he said, “the woman will always have a higher blood alcohol level.” Though some tired students may turn to caffeine to re-energize a exhausted system, Swift said coffee can exacerbate a hangover. Not only can it irritate the stomach, but its caffeine can stimulate the already over-excited brain, and is a diuretic, further dehydrating the body. “There’s so much variability,” Swift added. “Some people might get very sick if they drink coffee but other people will down two 20-ounce Starbucks and feel fine.” Due to the guesswork involved in selecting hangover cures, Swift proposed a more responsible solution — “the only absolute effective way is to not drink.” But if the folk cures have persisted this long, science may do little to dissuade students from them, no matter how creative or fanciful. “If you watch like a season of MacGyver before you go to sleep, you’ll be sober,” said James Brandt ’08. “And you’ll know a lot about the world.”
For next fall, prereqs no longer a recommendation continued from page 1 Bergeron said prerequisites are “built into the structure, the idea of the course” as determined by individual faculty members. Enforcing prerequisites through Banner essentially “carries out the will of the faculty to the extent that the curriculum is designed by the faculty,” Bergeron said. “There are some courses that will be heavily impacted,” she added, noting the prevalence of prerequisites in fields such as economics. Professor of Economics and department chair Andrew Foster said he considered the change “a good thing” for his field. “Economics very much benefits from a sort of sequential approach to things,” Foster said. “In the past, we’ve never quite known what students have done and haven’t done when they come into a course, and it really affects how you teach.” Foster said he expects course enrollments to expand in intermediate micro- and macroeconomics and econometrics courses since it will be “harder” for students to get into higher-level courses without them. While Foster said faculty would override prerequisites for students who “make the right case,” he said he expects most overrides will take place during regular registration, not pre-registration. Lacey Drucker ’08 transferred to Brown from the College of William and Mary, which also uses Banner. Though Drucker said checking prerequisites was “one of several things that made Banner suck a lot” at William and Mary, she was more optimistic about the system’s future at Brown, where students are “very proactive” about the registration process. Community health concentrator Julianna Alson ’10 said she trusts professors to understand students’ level of preparation for a class, even if they haven’t taken the prerequisites. “I’d like to have faith that Brown professors understand what Brown students are all about and can judge their ability,” she said. Still, Alson said she is “a little nervous” about getting into upper-level classes with prerequisites next year. “The beauty of the open curriculum is that you can take classes you’re interested in,” said Elana Goldstein ’10. “This undermines that.” Goldstein said incoming first-year students could potentially be “afraid” to ask professors for prerequisite overrides and that future Brown students might be less likely to “exploit the system” of registration, which she said was “made to be used and manipulated.” Goldstein also said she completed an upper-level class in political science, her concentration field, without taking the prerequisite, POLS 0200: “Introduction to Comparative Politics.” She added that the new system does not reflect the distinction between science and mathematics classes that teach “facts” and hu-
manities classes that focus more on “conceptual ideas.” Override or overrun? Foster said he, too, had some reservations about the implementation of the change in Banner. “I just know there are going to be problems when the prerequisites are enforced in terms of students wanting to get into courses, and that will be a pain,” he said. Foster said the current computer override process is “very intensive in faculty time” when it comes to large classes. Bergeron also said faculty had to go through “several steps” to clear a student for registration on Banner. “We need to make the override process as easy as it can be,” Bergeron said. “Right now, it’s cumbersome ... we’ve got to fix that. And there’s a real will to fix that. It won’t be fixed in the next six months, but I hope it’s fixed by next year.” Professor of Mathematics Thomas Banchoff said his department has always done “a very serious job of placement,” even without access to student records. “Our aim is to get people into the highest level class for which they have reasonable prerequisites,” Banchoff said, adding that the department gives placement tests to potential concentrators. While Banchoff said enrollment in MATH 0090: “Introductory Calculus” has declined over the years as more students take calculus in high school, he said he expects to hear from a number of economics concentrators looking to avoid the prerequisite during pre-registration. “I anticipate I’m going to get a bunch of calls,” Banchoff said. “No one has ever come to me and said, ‘I got kicked out of (ECON 1110: “Intermediate Microeconomics”) because I didn’t have Math 9. Now, I expect that to happen.’” Pesta said he has long been aware of concerns about the change in Banner and that the University was “undergoing, in a sense, a quasi-change in culture.” “When you try something for the first time, I think you have to go into it with an open mind,” Pesta said. Pesta said any registration software purchased by the University would have involved a way to check students’ prerequisites as part of its “more structured” registration process. Bergeron also said she hoped Banner would improve the process of selecting classes at Brown. “The Brown curriculum is ultimately about a responsible reflection on your educational goals,” Bergeron said. “No tool can make you do that ... but even a tool that says ‘no’ makes you really reflect on why you want something and, maybe, makes you argue for it.” In the past, Banchoff said students who chose to take classes with unfulfilled prerequisites at the University did so at their own risk. “Banner will prevent people from taking their chances,” he said.
Thanks for reading.
C ampus n ews Page 5
Thursday, April 10, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Spanish president, newspaper founder go beyond El Pais
Students mostly deaf to free alarm promotion
By Christian Martell Staff Writer
Forget bone-breaking karate chops and grandma’s pepper spray — the Department of Public Safety is now providing free personal alarms to students, though few have taken the offer. DPS and President Ruth Simmons decided to make the alarms — previously sold for $10 — free to students after a meeting in March, said Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police Mark Porter. The personal alarms, which effectively ser ve as a sound grenade, emit a piercing 130-decibel sound that can be used to “call for help, draw attention to a situation, or to scare off an attacker,” according to the
The longest-serving president of Spain, Felipe Gonzalez, and Juan Luis Cebrian, a founder of Spain’s most-read newspaper El Pais, spoke of the relevance of Europe and Latin America in an age of globalization in half-full Salomon 101 Tuesday afternoon. The dialogue, held completely in Spanish, was a continuation of their co-authored book, “El futuro no es lo que era,” or “The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be,” and will serve as a starting point for a sequel. “This talk will be a bit like presenting a book, before it is actually written,” Cebrian joked. Cebrian said it was first decided to discuss the upcoming book at an American university when an English translation was released of their first book. But the talk served a larger purpose than that, he said. The dialogue was second in a series of events for an international conference held at Brown from April 9 to 12 to commemorate the bicentennial of the independence of Latin American countries. The conference is organized by the Brown Transatlantic Project and hosted by the Department of Hispanic Studies. The dialogue mostly consisted of Cebrian raising topics of discussion and asking for Gonzalez’s reply. The first theme Cebrian raised was
how Europe and Latin America were both losing relevance in a continually interconnected world. Gonzalez said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks both marked the start of the 21st century and the end of Latin America’s relevance. “Latin America lost its significance when those attacks made politicians shift their focus to other parts of the world — a different enemy,” Gonzalez said. “The last time Latin America was really relevant was when the U.S. launched the War on Drugs and when the rest of the world placed a greater emphasis on collective security,” Gonzalez said. “What I want to know is how do we gain back that relevance,” he added. Gonzalez said Europe lost its significance because it fell behind in the technological boom and because it is no longer the go-to country for intervention. “When Europe stopped being the first security measure, their position diminished exponentially,” he said. Both speakers also spoke on issues of cultural, religious and national identity and how they affect politics, especially in the 20 new European nation-states created in the past 20 years. Gonzalez said the “postmodernism-identity crisis is a step back” in continued on page 11
By Alexandra Ulmer Contributing Writer
DPS Web site. The deafening devices became free for students after an inquir y by a parent and a senior administrator prompted DPS and Simmons to decide to distribute them free of charge. “Making personal alarms available to all the community is assisting the community with personal safety. I thought it was a ver y good inquir y,” Por ter said. Students who bought the alarms before they were made free will be reimbursed, he said, adding that DPS is paying for the devices. Although 110 personal alarms have been distributed, Brown students account for only a dozen of the purchases, Porter said. There has been no reported use of these
Courtesy of Brown.edu
Pull the pin on these alarms and you’re in for a loud sound and a flashing light.
alarms, which Porter called positive. “We’ve had no incidents repor ted when the device could have been used,” he said. continued on page 11
URC election nullified in lengthy meet By Chaz Kelsh Senior Staf f Writer
The Undergraduate Council of Students agreed to hold a revote to fill a seat on the University Resources Council at a three-and-a-half hour general body meeting Wednesday evening. After extensive debate, the council voted to hold a second election to fill the seat on the University’s budget committee. After the first election received only 300 votes and neither of the two candidates, Kieran Fitzgerald ’10 and Chaney Harrison ’11, received 50 percent
of the vote. The problems were apparently due to difficulty voting on MyCourses, Appointments Chair Ryan Lester ’11 announced. Fitzgerald won the first election by a margin of about 10 votes, Lester said. Debate on the issue began when Harrison appealed the election results to the council, claiming the election was illegitimate because it wasn’t publicized. Harrison charged the council with violating their code of operations in holding the election, though Drew Madden ’10, student activities chair and parliamentarian pro tempore, ruled
that there was no violation. Opinions on the council ranged from restarting the election process completely to accepting the election results. “We didn’t even notify every member of UCS prior to the election going live,” said Madden, who supported a second vote. “I think at this point this has been so screwed up — I’ll say screwed up — that we just need to restart it.” Academic and Administrative Affairs Chair Rakim Brooks ’09 said that UCS has not nullified election results in recent memory. “There continued on page 9
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Vintage baseball teams too tough for gloves continued from page 3 ship was dubbed the World Series soon thereafter. The Grays are a rich par t of Providence’s histor y, but “so few Rhode Islanders and so few people know about it,” Norton said. “I wanted to have one commemorative game,” Norton said, “but it became more.” The cost of reviving the Grays and the time involved in just setting up to play one vintage baseball game was too much not to continue. “It takes a lot of dedication to take on this hobby, which is all out of pocket,” Norton said. The Grays invited a New York club to play in a “World Series” in Providence in 1998. But the spirit of the Metropolitans prevailed and reversed histor y, beating the Grays.
10 years later, the Grays are flourishing again, and the “team has a good national reputation as far as vintage baseball,” Norton said. The Grays’ next project is turning a Providence baseball diamond into a 19th-centur y vintage field with the dimensions as accurate as Tom Hof fman ’99, the “team historian,” can make them. The team will play there May 3 against the Olneyville Temperance Cadets, Norton said, and Mayor David Cicilline ’83 will throw the first pitch. “We’re going to get the field in shape and have a permanent presence in Providence. Up until now it has been Providence Grays in name only,” Norton said. The Grays have been practicing at a field in East Providence for about ten years. The Grays are known for being one of the toughest vintage baseball teams in the United States because they play by 1884 rules, Norton said. That year was one of the most difficult for professional baseball, he said, because players did not wear gloves and catchers wore mitts that resembled gardening gloves without padding. As more players used overhand throws, the lack of gloves became so brutal that the rules were changed in 1885 to allow gloves. A few years later, mitts became widespread. Not just the catcher takes a beating in vintage baseball. Pitchers have to stand 50 feet from the batter, and do not pitch from a mound. Furthermore, foul balls don’t count as strikes, so a star ting pitcher playing vintage baseball typically has a pitch count of 200, as compared to a modern starting pitcher’s count of about 100.
“Sometimes my hand gets beat up, and I wish I had a glove,” Faria said with a smile. “It took a couple practices to get used to not using gloves,” said Mike Duggan. “You learn to cut your nails — if not, they’ll bend back if you don’t catch the ball right.” “We really feel like we’re standing in for those players 120 years ago,” Norton said. “Our team is ver y militant about passing on the word, and our team is never shy with tr ying to encourage other teams to play correctly, and sometimes feelings get hurt, but we’re really passionate about this,” Norton said. Different leagues throughout the nation play by different rules depending on the years the original teams played in the major leagues. Most games are doubleheaders, so the Grays will play one game using the rules from the other team’s time period, and the other team will play one game using 1884 rules. Norton and the team hope that the Grays will get community suppor t during the vintage league season, which starts in late April. The Grays’ games are free — “We would feel bad even charging five dollars” because histor y is “freely available,” Norton said. The future success of the Grays depends on how well they are received by the youth of Providence, Norton said. “When young people take an interest ... we know it’s worthwhile,” he added. “Anybody who has interest in the sport is welcome to come by.” When asked why he still continues to play this often harsh game, Faria said, “I love baseball. Love doing this, and the guys on the team.”
‘Green’ bills bloom in wake of new state senate report continued from page 3 ergy that is sold in the state, went into effect. Now the state must figure out ways to make that commitment a reality, Powell said. The greatest example of the state’s underutilized potential for renewable energy production is wind power, Powell said. He noted that a wind assessment has already been conducted across the state, and that the state legislature must create incentives for businesses to invest in those ventures. The state is also working on a project to harness wave power off the coast of Block Island with an Australian company that has pioneered that technology, Powell said. Powell said part of his goal on the management council will be to evaluate the balance between energy costs and environmental efficiency, adding that the pros and cons of this balance are often poorly thought out. Much of the proposed legislation was designed to avoid heavy price tags in the face of record budget deficits and proposed cuts. “The intent of each one of these bills is that there will not be a fiscal impact,” said Senate Policy Director Marie Ganim. For example, recycling centers would be costly, but legislators expect that they will be covered by the revenues from unredeemed bottle taxes. “We would like it to be self-supporting, and who knows? Maybe there could even be a profit,” Ganim
said. One student group has had a hand in the development of some of the upcoming legislation. The Rhode Island Student Climate Coalition, which brings together high school and college students from across the state, has been developing partnerships with local advocacy groups and talking with sponsors of environmental legislation. “What we’ve been doing is trying to plan for discrete opportunities to make our voice heard, and building up our coalition and the amount of voices that we have going for us,” said RISCC member Danny Musher ’10. Musher says his group has focused its strategy on convincing the state to invest in “green collar jobs” — manufacturing, consulting, research and design professions that develop and promote climatefriendly industry. RISCC was responsible for the inclusion of green job provisions in the state’s “Global Warming Solutions” bill, which will mandate an 80 percent reduction in green house gas emissions by 2050, Musher said. The group hopes to testify at hearings for that bill next month, he said. Musher said that there are so many environment-related bills currently before the state legislature that RISCC has to pick and choose the legislation it throws its weight behind. “We’re lucky that there’s a lot of bill out there and a lot of momentum at the state house,” he said.
C ampus n ews Thursday, April 10, 2008
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i n
Brief
Two students’ research pays off Caitlin McKenna ’09 and Sara Damiano ’08 were announced as the winners of the University Library’s second annual Undergraduate Research Awards for “extensive, creative use” of library resources, according to an April 4 press release. Ron Fark, leader of Gateway Services and facilitator of the selection committee, said this year’s contest was very competitive, with the committee receiving 12 “very good” applications. “We would have given out a few more,” Fark said, if it had been possible. What set the two winners’ research projects apart was the way each “seamlessly integrated primary source material into lively and engaging narratives,” University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi said in the press release. McKenna’s research, titled “Golden Orbit: The Black Sun Press in the Shadow of Modernism” was about a small printing press run by the American Crosby brothers in 1920s Paris, and how it impacted literary modernism, she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. McKenna, who is currently studying abroad in Paris, wrote her paper as a final project for HIST 2970: “The Authority of the Word,” a graduate seminar she said was “the most influential class I’ve ever had at Brown.” Damiano’s paper, “‘Such virulent temper added to the Rigour of the Laws’: Enforcement of the Conventicle Acts in Charles II’s England” was written as a project for a history seminar with Professor of History Timothy Harris that she worked on throughout the semester, she said. She looked at the effects of a series of laws mandating religious conformity to the Church of England and the persecution that resulted from them, she said. The anonymous committee that selected the winners consisted of two Brown faculty, a dean from the Office of the Dean of the College, two librarians and a member of the Friends of the Library, Fark said. One of those members, when reviewing McKenna’s project, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that “after reading her piece, I wanted to run straight to the library and see what treasure I might find that could possibly start me on a similar journey!” Committee members looked at usage of library resources, lucidity of writing and ability to synthesize these into a project that showed potential to lead to more research, according to the Library’s Web site. The Library will award the winners $750 each. The competition will be offered again in 2009, Hemmasi said, and the committee will expand the contest to accept multimedia projects, Hemmasi said. Fark said he hopes that more students will apply, though he added that “the review committee might not think that.” Both Damiano and McKenna said they were unsure how they would use the prize money. Damiano said she would probably use it to support her plans after graduation, and McKenna wrote that since Paris is “incredibly expensive,” the money may end up going towards “chicken, toothpaste, metro tickets.”
— Kurt Walters
Brown ranks sixth on dream school list By Eli Piette Contributing Writer
Brown is now ranked sixth in a survey of college applicants’ “dream colleges,” up from eighth place in the same survey last year. The results come from the Princeton Review’s annual “College Hopes and Worries Survey,” released March 27. Parents’ views of the University fell from last year, however, with fewer selecting Brown as their child’s “dream college” — Brown fell from fourth place to 10th this year, according to the survey. The survey, which was completed by 8,776 college applicants and 1,612 parents of applicants, asked, “What ‘dream college’ do you wish you could attend (or see your child attend) if acceptance or cost weren’t issues?’” The top 10 applicants’ choices, respectively, were Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, New York, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell universities, the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles. Parents’ top 10 were Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, NYU, the University of Notre Dame, Cornell, Duke, Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown. NYU had previously ranked first among students for the past three consecutive years, and Stanford was the first choice for parents last year. “It’s great that we’re in the top 10 for both parents and students,” said Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron. 50 percent of all respondents — including both students and parents — said the most significant factor determining the college they will choose to attend is “overall fit,” according to the press release. 30 percent of respondents said they look
Meara Sharma / Herald
As Brown climbs Princeton Review’s list of applicants’ “dream colleges,” one tour guide said she notices her groups getting larger. for the college that is “best for career interests.” Respondents also noted the high stress of the college application process — 61 percent of those surveyed said their level of stress was “high” or “very high.” Additionally, 84 percent said financial aid would be very or extremely necessary in paying for college. Bergeron said some of the recent decisions about financial aid made by Brown and its peer schools may be influential in the survey. The changing attitudes of applicants and their parents may also
be partly attributed to increased knowledge in college decisions, said Vernissia Tam ’09, a tour guide for the past five semesters. “Students are doing more research and know things about campus before they arrive,” she said. “Tours are getting bigger, and parents are asking more questions.” Tam said in the past, prospective students would arrive for a tour without much prior knowledge. But now they already know specifics about continued on page 11
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Med school students meet their matches continued from page 1 cess. Sixty-nine students from this year’s graduating class of 77 were matched, according to the medical school’s online match list. After leaving College Hill when they graduate in May, they will disperse across the country — from Florida, to Oregon — or stay put in Rhode Island. Not all members of the class chose to apply for a residency through the NRMP. “My recall is that Brown always does well in the match,” Julianne Ip ’75 MD’78, associate dean of medicine and a medical student adviser, wrote in an e-mail. “I was personally thrilled for every one of my advisees and for the entire class,” she said. “They all seemed extremely pleased and I know I was extremely proud of them.” Associate Dean of Medicine Philip Gruppuso said Brown’s rate of matching is much higher than many other institutions nationwide. Gepner, perhaps like others who were matched, waited on pins and needles for three days after receiving the preliminary e-mail from NRMP in order to find out exactly which program he was matched with. On March 20, matching ceremonies were held on College Hill and nationwide. On that day, in front of local media,
friends and family, Brown med students opened their letters to find out where they would be living for the next three to seven years. Gepner, who will be doing his residency at Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine, said he was very pleased. Although Oregon was his first choice, Gepner said he ranked the program second because he didn’t think he would get in, so he instead put as his top choice a program he thought he was more likely to get into. “To be completely honest, I had thought the (Oregon) program was too good for me,” Gepner said. “It’s always kind of an emotional, stressful experience,” said Liza Aguiar MD’08, who was matched with Rhode Island Hospital, about “match day.” Her classmate, David Ain MD’08, agreed. “I think the whole process can be pretty nerve-wracking,” he said. The NRMP uses a computer program to match students to programs depending on how the student and the residency program ranked each other after an application and interview process, Szenas said. For local Rhode Island programs, this year has the been the most successful match-up in six or seven years in terms of getting their desired applicants, said Dominick Tammaro, associate residency director for the internal medicine programs at Rhode Island Hospital and co-director of the
medicine pediatrics program at Alpert. Nine med school seniors will be completing their residencies at local hospitals, according to the Med School’s online match list. “We always have some degree of partiality to our own students,” Tammaro said. Although Brown does well each year in terms of matching, not everyone leaves the matching process happy. Though it’s rare not to match, Gruppuso said, a few students each year do not. The reason some students don’t match is usually because they are in a competitive specialty or they want a very specific geographic location, Gruppuso said. Those students who aren’t matched often take part in what is called “the scramble,” Szenas said. According to the press release on NRMP’s site, unmatched residents are sent lists of residency programs that still have vacant spots, and students can then contact the program directly in order to discuss placement in those open positions. Aguiar, Ain and Gepner were all pleased with the results of their match. Both Aguiar and Ain were matched with their first choice programs. Aguiar said that it seemed their peers were also satisfied with the results. “From what I saw on match day, everyone was pretty happy,” she said. “I think our class did pretty well this year.”
W orld & n ation Thursday, April 10, 2008
Pope leads green efforts BY Bart Jones Newsday
Last year, Pope Benedict XVI raised eyebrows when the Vatican announced it was installing 1,000 solar panels on the roof of a football field-sized building that is the main auditorium in Vatican City. Then the pope led an eco-friendly Catholic youth rally in Loreto, Italy, where the faithful received backpacks made from recyclable material and crank-powered flashlights. Last month, the Vatican added polluting the Earth to the church’s list of sins, and the pope has issued a string of increasingly strong statements on global climate change. No wonder many have now declared him the first “green pope.” “I think the pope recognizes that for this and the next generation, it may very well be that global warming is the most important international moral issue that faces humankind,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, former editor of the Jesuit magazine, “America.” The pope and other church officials have said that good stewardship of the earth, as they see it, has theological underpinnings, and they often cite Genesis 2:15: “The Lord God took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it.” Pope Benedict XVI is not the first pope to talk about the environment — his predecessor, John Paul II, was an outdoorsman who also expressed alarm about global warming.
UCS agrees on revote for budget cmte. continued from page 5 seems to be no reason to actually nullify this election other than the whims of this council,” he said. After several motions, objections, tabled motions, straw polls and failed motions to end debate, the motion to hold a runoff election passed with 12 yes votes, six no votes and no abstentions. The stress and fatigue of nearly four hours of debate caused two members to begin crying once it ended. President Michael Glassman ’09 said the meeting reflected a “fair question” between approving results that are “technically correct” and holding a more publicized election. UCS also passed a resolution asking the University to allow kegs at Class F parties, sponsored by At-Large Representative and vice presidential candidate Michael MacCombie ’11 and Gregory Anderson ’10, who is not on UCS. MacCombie said he plans to continue to work on the resolution until he receives a response from the University. “Either I’m going to see it through, or I want to know what’s wrong with it,” he said. UCS also approved the Brown Progress Initiative, Brown Free Thought and Colombianos Unidos en Brown for Category I status.
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American cancels over 1,000 flights for inspections By Martin Zimmerman and Andrea Chang Los Angeles T imes
More than 100,000 air travelers across the U.S. wrestled with flight cancellations, long lines and ruined vacation plans Wednesday as American Airlines again grounded planes for maintenance inspections and said more were coming in the days ahead. American Airlines canceled 1,100 flights on Wednesday and said it expected to scrub at least 900 more flights Thursday while it inspects and makes adjustments to wiring bundles on its fleet of 300 MD-80 aircraft. There have been a string of air travel disruptions caused by maintenance inspections in recent weeks. The latest cancellations created chaotic conditions at several major airports around the country. Passengers at Los Angeles International Airport complained of jammed phone lines to American ticket agents and a lack of warning from the carrier’s computerized travel update system. “We know we have to fly, and we have no say-so,” said Ron Ensz, 52, who was trying to return home to Wichita, Kan. “They tell us to wait in line like cows, we wait in line like cows.” Adding to the problems: Alaska Airlines canceled 19 flights while it did checks on its MD-80s. American said the inspections weren’t prompted by safety problems, but came in response to Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directives that spell out precise procedures for keeping the nation’s airliner fleet in top condition. Many travelers waiting at LAX said they didn’t understand why the airline would inconvenience so many travelers if there wasn’t any danger. And one travel expert said the repeated maintenance-related cancellations are taking a toll. “Travelers cannot count on the
air travel system as it stands right now,” said Kevin Mitchell, head of the Business Travel Coalition. American chief executive Gerard Arpey, in Los Angeles to attend a conference of airline executives, apologized “for the inconvenience that we have caused our customers because of the continued inspections of our MD-80s. “We are doing everything possible to re-accommodate customers on other American Airline flights or on other airlines. We obviously failed to complete this airworthiness directive to the precise standards that the FAA requires, and I take full responsibility for that.” Many passengers said their biggest complaint wasn’t the cancellations, but the lack of advance warning from the airline. Although American said Tuesday it was automatically notifying affected passengers, many said they didn’t find out about their travel disruptions until they arrived at the airport. “They didn’t get a message to me at all,” said Colleen Betts, who was flying from Sydney, Australia, to visit her son in Denver. “For them to not let anybody know is just disgraceful. It’s just common courtesy to let people know.” Joe Sanders, owner of a home healthcare business, arrived at Palm Springs International Airport Wednesday morning to find his flight to Omaha, Neb., had been canceled. Sanders, 69, said the airline hadn’t contacted him by phone or e-mail to warn him. “In fact, I got an e-mail from them this morning that said, ‘Wouldn’t you like to print your boarding pass here before getting to the airport?’” he said. American rebooked him on a flight from LAX to Omaha with a layover in Dallas and shuttled Sanders and other passengers to LAX. “However, now that I’m here, they’ve informed me that Dallas to Omaha is now canceled,” Sanders said. “So now I’m not where I want to go and I don’t know what’s
happening. I’m sure tired of standing in line.” American reportedly had to shut down its automated flight rebooking system after the computer began rebooking passengers on MD-80 flights that were then canceled. Dallas-Fort Worth International and Chicago’s O’Hare International, American’s two biggest hubs, were hardest hit Wednesday, with 337 and 168 flights canceled, respectively. Including its American Eagle subsidiary, American accounts for about 80 percent of the traffic at Dallas-Fort Worth.
LAX, O’Hare and Dallas-Fort Worth are all among the country’s busiest airports. The abruptness of Wednesday’s cancellations may have been partly due to American’s hope that it would be allowed to inspect its MD-80s in batches over several days. But the airline decided to ground the entire fleet after discussions with FAA officials in Washington. As of late Wednesday, American said it had inspected 179 of its MD-80s. Sixty of those had been returned to service while 119 were still undergoing work and 121 still need to be inspected.
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Fuentes retells history of Latin America continued from page 1 surrounding the different stages of Latin American history, Fuentes drew upon the ideas of writers from French author Victor Hugo to contemporary Latin American historians. But as he moved into a discussion of Latin America’s present and future, he laid out his own ideas for substantive reforms. Though poverty rates in Latin America have been falling in recent years, Fuentes said, tax systems remain “primitive” compared to Europe and education is inadequate, especially in science and technology. Today, in the face of a possible economic recession, “we need a new New Deal,” he said, a “system of governance from the bottom up. There is no ... way to meet global demands from the top down.” Fuentes emphasized the importance of education, specifically a public education system that would offer equal opportunities to all. “The basis of inequality is exclusion from education,” Fuentes said. He also talked about strengthening infrastructure, using microloans to reach out to poor women and modernizing Latin America in a way that emphasizes information
and technology. Fuentes called for the elimination of “bureaucratic fat” from governments, offering citizens “not more or less government but better government.” As the conference commemorates the bicentennial of Latin American emancipation, Fuentes traced the historic arc of the independence movements in the region.The revolutions, in which Spanish American nations broke off from Spain, were “long and violent,” and saw the destruction of infrastructure and agriculture in many of the countries. “Was independence worthwhile?” Fuentes asked, in light of the sacrifices made for sovereignty from colonial power. “Could Spanish America have developed within a Hispanic commonwealth of nations? ... How much did the loss of the colonies affect the crown and the loss of the crown affect the colonies?” For states to form in Latin America in the post-colonial era, “we had to undergo the pain and loss of dismemberment.” For example, he said, Mexico lost a tremendous amount of territory to the United States, in what Americans call the Mexican-American War. But even among the difficulties of early state-building, Fuentes said, a high value was placed on the rights
of the individual. The “repeated failures” to create successful governments “paradoxically strengthened individual freedoms,” which Fuentes called a “pragmatic liberal tradition.” Fuentes then compared the authoritarian, socialist and democratic regimes that dominated the political landscape of 20th century Latin America. Authoritarian regimes “often presented themselves as anti-communist to get Washington’s blessing,” Fuentes said, adding, “We can argue until the cows come home whether (Fidel Castro) was driven into the arms of the Soviet Union by (the United States government’s) hostility” or whether he would have taken that position anyway. Fuentes commended President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor” policy, which renounced military intervention in the region and left Latin American nations to work out a solution leading to freedom and cooperation. In contrast, the “bloody and murderous” regime of Pinochet in Chile was the result of Nixon “dismiss(ing) the Chilean people’s capacity to correct mistakes.” “Such were the bitter fruits of Cold War politics in Latin America,” Fuentes said. A few students, but mostly visitors attending the conference, asked questions in English and Spanish after the lecture. Agustin Patino, an artist, presented his painting to Fuentes called “Carlos Fuentes without Time.” Beatriz Pastor, a professor of comparative literature at Dartmouth who introduced Fuentes, said, “There are people in this world who don’t require an introduction and Carlos Fuentes is one of them.” Pastor cited Fuentes’s accomplishments and ubiquity as an author, political writer, academic and media presence, saying he is “truly unique in the cultural and political landscape of our times.” Other notable speakers in the Transatlantic conference include Eduardo Lago, a Spanish novelist, and award-winning Polish-Mexican author and journalist Elena Poniatowska. The conference will continue through April 12 with discussions, forums and lectures by academics and writers on such topics as “The Catalan Literature Scene,” “Film and Literature” and “Allegories of the Nation.” Saturday will be devoted entirely to 21st century literature, and will feature a speech by the contemporary Mexican novelist Mario Bellatin. Professor of Hispanic Studies Julio Ortega, one of the conference’s organizers and director of the Transatlantic Project, said the main focus of the conference was the process of emancipation of Latin America. “From this experience we explore the notion of emancipation and independence (through) cultural history, literature (and) political thinking,” Ortega said. Fuentes’ lecture was a “great synthesis of cultural memory of Latin America,” Ortega added.
Spring Weekend basically starts today, right?
Thursday, April 10, 2008
‘The future isn’t what it used to be,’ say speakers continued from page 5 the political realm. “These new nation-states all have their own culture, wave their own flags, speak their own language, but they have no real mode of governance,” he said. He did give credit to the nationstates for reinstating true representative democracy again, because all political activity — such as debates amongst candidates — is held at a much more local level. Gonzalez said this was a rare occurrence in this age of globalization and impressibility, where countries’ economies are increasingly dependent on each other. Cebrian opted to emphasize religious identity and how integration in Europe is gradually affected more by it than cultural differences. “Do you think it is rational that students in Spanish schools still learn about the Holy Trinity when there are more and more Muslims and other religious affiliations present in Europe?” Cebrian asked Gonzalez. Gonzalez answered that it was irrational for religion to still be a part of national institutions such as schools, and religion posed a greater threat to the upholding of democratic values and the distribution of “a package of social rights” inherent to every person. Cebrian agreed there is a definite tension between democratic values and the religious and cultural ones. Cebrian then shifted the conversation to one of climate change, energy and the state of the environment, which he said “is almost religious” now. “Is it another leftist movement or is climate change a real threat?” he asked Gonzalez. Gonzalez responded that like many global threats, it is easy to see how environmental advocacy can be seen as an ideology, but climate change does pose a real and immediate threat. Their comments on energy soon moved towards a political analysis of the U.S. occupancy in Iraq. Cebrian asked Gonzalez what difficulties the U.S. would face in trying to remove its troops, to which Gonzalez answered with an anecdote of a phone conversation he had with former President George H.W. Bush the day the Gulf War ended. This conversation revealed to Gonzalez that the reason the former president did not remove Saddam Hussein was because “there wasn’t anyone to replace Saddam with,” he said. “The problem in Iraq is that they do not know how to leave or how to stay and maintain stability in the country.” The presidential story prompted Cebrian to ask Gonzalez what
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he thought about the lack of communication between President George W. Bush, whom he referred to as “the photocopy of Bush,” and Spain’s current president, who has publicly shown some anti-Americanism sentiments — he was seen remaining in his seat when the American flag was presented at a ceremony, something very rude in their country. Gonzalez said the current administration has been the most difficult to establish and maintain a relationship with since former President Jimmy Carter was in office. “I have had positive experiences with everyone who was in office while I served my fourteen years,” he said, citing his first incident with former President Ronald Reagan as proof. “Reagan would always have his note cards that stated all his talking points. At that meeting, he pulled out the red card on me first — Cuba,” he said. “Reagan said, ‘Gonzalez, how can you maintain a relationship with Castro?’ to which I looked him in the eye and asked, ‘How can you, the leader of such a democratic country, maintain a healthy relationship with the leader of China, perhaps the most communist country in the world?’” “Needless to say, he placed the card at the bottom of the stack and left it at that,” he said. The talk gave way to a questionand-answer session, where the audience was able to engage in the dialogue with questions about various topics including China’s emerging role in the world and issues of immigration. Gonzalez answered the latter with his own question, “How is it possible that in a time of such free flow of information, knowledge and money all in the name of the people it serves, the people themselves cannot pass freely to where they so choose?” “That comment was just amazing,” said Associate Director of Admission Mercedes Domenech, who was in attendance. “Gonzalez is such an intelligent human being with such a wide scope of knowledge. Thanks to him, Spain has the international relevance it has now.” Jordi Torres ’10, a Spaniard living in the U.S., said he enjoyed the dialogue a lot and described it as “a very candid discussion of very complicated issues that they managed to present well.” “As a Spaniard, it was a unique opportunity to see the man who was so influential in bringing democracy to my country,” he said. Other events in this series include the acclaimed Spanishwriter and current Professor-atLarge Carlos Fuentes, as well as former President of Chile Ricardo Lagos and Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska.
DPS offers free PALs but gets few student takers continued from page 5 Marketed by DPS under the slogan “Do you want a PAL?” these ear-splitting devices have found few eager pals among Brown students. Sam Ewenczyk ’10 bought two personal alarms from DPS for $20 and said he threw them away once he realized they were “so inconvenient and tricky. It’s a crappy little mechanism with too many wires.” The alarms are pocket-sized with a light that flashes when the emergency cord is pulled. The alarm’s cord can be switched to attach to a door or window, and will ring if opened. Although worried about security on campus, Ewenczyk recommended a reinforced police presence over distribution of personal devices. “Foucault’s ‘Panopticism’ should be taken into consideration at Brown,” he said, referring to the idea that if ever yone in society is being watched, ever yone will obey. Among students who had examined but never purchased an alarm, the its shrill echo seemed not to resonate favorably either. “It’s good that DPS is tr ying to address the issue of student safety,” said Rhea Wharton ’10, “but I don’t know if I would use a little gadget.” She added that self-defense classes are better protection. “I don’t think these would re-
ally scare people who were attacking you,” said Hee Kyung Chung ’09. She added that the alarms should be better publicized because she had not heard of them. Rebecca Russo ’08, however, said “they could be ef fective,” especially for someone who lives off campus, as she does. The personal alarms can be attached to a belt, purse, pocket or door, and are “effective because they’re easy to carr y, simple to activate,” Porter said. He praised the alarms for their multiple advantages, saying that they make “others in the area aware (and) our officers are familiar with the sound.” In addition to alerting others, “it would scare off an attacker,” he added. In the event of an attack, Porter said to activate the alarm, “keep it on you and continue to run.” In spite of these benefits, Porter may not carr y one himself. When asked whether he carried a personal alarm, he said with a smile, “Certainly I recommend carr ying one to students, family and friends.” Crime Prevention Of ficer Mark Perr y said that he doesn’t carr y one either — “I’m leaving them available for people at the University.” DPS is coordinating several outreach programs in which they will provide alarms to students, including one today at the VerneyWooley from 12 to 1 p.m.
Parents rank Brown tenth dream school continued from page 7 Brown, such as the University’s open curriculum. Parents on tours are more likely to ask “tougher” questions than their children, and the general level of excitement among those on tours has increased as the year has progressed, tour guide Bryan Smith ’10 said. “Sports and academics are very important to me,” said Kelly Rotstan, a prospective student who took a tour of Brown. But when her father, Bob Rotstan, was asked by The Herald what he cared about in a college, he responded: “Purely academics.” The difference between parents’ and applicants’ interests in colleges may also lie in how “parents probably don’t care that much about campus life,” said Johnny Blanchard, another prospective student touring Brown. Some current students echoed Blanchard’s thought. “A student’s dream school has more to do with personal choice, whereas parents are probably looking for something more structured,” said Matthew Kimball ’11. But Bergeron said parents do care about more than just academics. “Parents are also very concerned about their children’s happiness,” she said. “In talking to Brown parents, I am struck by their enthusiasm about how welcoming, open and generous Brown students are.”
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Page 13
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Mazerov ’10: tourney too tiring for me M. golf struggles to overcome Southern heat continued from page 16
12 Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games were decided by fewer than 10 points. Yawn. A number of games between powerhouse schools that had the potential to be epic — Louisville-Tennessee and Stanford-Texas, for instance — weren’t even close. And this year’s tournament was awfully chalky as well. In the East region, only the top four seeds survived the first two rounds, and in the South, the top three seeds and the fifth seed made it to the Sweet 16. And then there’s the whole matter of all four number one seeds advancing
to the Final Four — the first time in tournament history that’s happened. At least with the four “best” teams playing during the last weekend, we could expect to be treated to some great games. But again, that’s exactly what we didn’t get. Tournament favorite North Carolina turned into a cellar-dwelling ACC team in its national semifinal, falling in embarrassing fashion to Kansas, 84-66, and UCLA lost by 15 to a suddenly hot-from-the-free-throw-line Memphis squad. The tourney’s one saving grace this year, for me at least, was Monday night’s thrilling championship
game, in which Kansas mounted a furious comeback in the final two minutes against Memphis, whose inability to sink free throws finally caught up to the Tigers. Kansas’s win continued my string of finishing just out of the money in my dad’s office pool. This year wasn’t a total loss, however, as my third-place finish at least won me $150 to donate to the charity of my choice. Any suggestions?
Alex Mazerov ’10 owes your agility 20 bucks. He would pay you, if only your agility was a charity.
Freshman runners shine at invitational continued from page 16 discus and shot put, respectively. “Coach has been perfecting and changing our technique, but we still managed to throw some really decent marks,” said Grunloh. “We are in great shape to compete this weekend at home. Hopefully, as the weight training eases up, our strength and speed will be at their peaks, and the distances will follow.” The rest of the women displayed determination and consistency, with third-place finishes from Rachel Biblo ’11 in the long jump, Shannon Stone ’10 in the triple jump and Herald
Junior’s bat spurs Bruno continued from page 16 nings, scoring two runs off of reliever Josh Feit ’11. Feit has struggled with his control lately, and Tuesday was no exception. When Feit walked four batters and threw a wild pitch while allowing two runs in two and two-thirds innings of work. In the sixth inning, Conor Reardon ’08 delivered a two-out RBI single to make the score 9-2, and shortstop Matt Nuzzo ’09 added a solo home run in the eighth. After hitting only three home runs in his first two collegiate seasons and going without a home run in this season’s first 18 games, Nuzzo has exploded for four round-trippers in the team’s last seven games. “In the first 10 to 15 games, he wasn’t … getting through with his hips, so he was just swinging with the upper half of his body. Now he’s getting his lower body into his swing, and that’s given him a lot more power,” Drabinski said. Nuzzo currently leads the team with four homers, 25 RBI and 23 runs scored this season. Quinnipiac threatened to make a comeback when Tyler Turgeon launched a three-run homer to right field off Mark Gormley ’11, cutting Brown’s lead to 10-5 with one out in the bottom of the eighth. But Peter Moskal ’08 came on in relief of Gormley and got the next two batters out to end the inning. The Bears added two more runs in the top of the ninth and Moskal came back out to pitch the bottom of the inning. After walking the lead-off batter, Moskal struck out the next two Bobcats. With Moskal on a strict pitchcount limit, tri-captain Rob Hallberg ’08 came on to record the final out when the first batter he faced popped up to Eno to end the game. Brown will return to the field this Saturday for a two-day, four-game series against Ivy opponent Dartmouth.
Sports Staff Writer Katie Wood ’10 in the javelin. Subsequent fourth-place positions were won by Tiffany Chang ’08 in the pole vault, Grace Watson ’11 in the high jump and Brynn Smith ’11 in the shot put. The Stanford Invitational further proved the talent of the Bears’ runners as Christian Escareno ’10 posted a personal best of 14:14.17 for the 5k race, one of the top 10 times in the history of the team for the event. Other brilliant performances in the 5k came from Duriel Hardy ’10, who finished in 14:21, and Colin Brett ’10, who debuted with a time of 14:35. “We had some fantastic perfor-
mances this weekend,” said Lake. “That Escareno, Hardy and Brett all performed so well demonstrates that our young sophomore class will be a huge part of our future, which looks bright.” First-years who performed well include Kesley Ramsay ’11, who reeled in a 2:16 finish in the 800-meter, and Michaeline Nelson ’11 and Caitlin Clark ’11 who ran very well in the 800-meter and the 1500-meter, respectively. Weather permitting, the track and field team will have a home invitational this Saturday, starting at 9 a.m.
continued from page 13 79. To finish out the first round, Malloy shot an 81 and John Giannuzzi ’10 was just behind with a score of 82. In the next round of holes, Malloy came out on top, shooting a 74, the Bears’ best score for the tournament. Haertel also improved on his first round score, shooting a 77. At the end of the day the Bears had three players, Haertel, Malloy and Hoffman, tied for 16th place, each shooting a two-round score of 155. Amato and Giannuzzi finished the day in 20th and 21st place respectively, while the team settled into fifth place overall with a total score of 624. On the second day of competition the Bears played one more round of golf and Malloy led the Bears once again, shooting a 75 for a three-round total of 230. With this finish, Malloy was bumped to 12th place individually. Haertel was not far behind him, shooting another 78 for a total score of 233, good enough for 15th place. Next came Hoffman, placing 20th with a final score of 239, and Giannuzzi followed at 21st place with 243. Amato finished not far
Golf results 1 2 3 4 5 6
Brig. Southern McNeese Centenary North Dakota Brown Alabama State
888 890 917 921 940 982
behind, with a final score of 248. By the end of the second day Malloy said he felt like he was starting to get into a rhythm. “We’re still shaking off a little bit of rust from the fall and winter break,” Malloy said. “But we should be ready to play to our fullest potential this week.” Haertel agreed, placing an emphasis on timing. “The team has made a lot of progress since the fall, and we don’t want to peak too early,” Hartel said. “I think we are hitting our stride, in time for the New England Championships and then Ivy’s.” On Saturday and Sunday the Bears will compete in the 13-team New England Division I Championship at Triggs Golf Club in Providence. Haertel, who won the individual championship last year, will defend his title against the rest of the Northeast before the Ivy Championships the following weekend.
E ditorial & L etters Page 14
Thursday, April 10, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Staf f Editorial
Diamonds and coal Coal to high school students’ parents, who according to a Princeton Review sur vey, like us less than they used to. We got rid of SpagFest and adopted prereqs! What more do you want? A diamond edition of MacGyver, seasons one through seven, to the young scholar who suggested watching a season’s worth of the great American hero before bedtime to avoid a hangover. “And,” he says, “you’ll know a lot about the world.” A cubic zirconium to Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65, who according to a member of his staff, wears an odometer when going on exercise walks. If you need a car part to measure how far you travel, you’re not the svelte stud we thought you were. Coal to the sophomore intellectual, surely reminiscient of the hero of Proust’s “The Fugitive,” who casually dropped a reference to Foucalt’s “Panopticism” when contemplating DPS’s personal sound grenades. Why would you need a personal alarm when you can scare people away with self-conscious references to things we have to look up on Wikipedia? A diamond to the transfer applicant who stood in the rain outside the Office of Admission earlier this week giving away doughnuts. We know the dean of admission questioned your taste in Dunkin’, but lately his choices have been a little more Common than we’re comfortable with. Coal to former men’s basketball Head Coach Craig Robinson. You were in Rhode Island for a while, but now that the primar y fever has moved on to Oregon, you’re gone. Curious. Off to Pennsylvania next? Then maybe Puerto Rico? Coal to the students who were caught tossing two fr ying pans of hot oil out a window. If we see you doing that again, we’re going to throw 130 decibels of DPS-sponsored whoopass into your kitchen. A diamond to the Providence Grays for playing vintage baseball without gloves. Seriously, ouch. Sounds like you’re hurting almost as much as the College Hill ’Dependent will be after we trounce them in kickball. A diamond to Spring Weekend. And McGyver.
T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Simmi Aujla Ross Frazier editorial Arts & Culture Editor Robin Steele Andrea Savdie Asst. Arts & Culture Editor Debbie Lehmann Higher Ed Editor Chaz Firestone Features Editor Olivia Hoffman Asst. Features Editor Rachel Arndt Metro Editor Scott Lowenstein Metro Editor Michael Bechek News Editor Isabel Gottlieb News Editor Franklin Kanin News Editor Michael Skocpol News Editor Karla Bertrand Opinions Editor James Shapiro Opinions Editor Whitney Clark Sports Editor Amy Ehrhart Sports Editor Jason Harris Sports Editor Benjy Asher Asst. Sports Editor Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Megan McCahill Asst. Sports 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 Philip Maynard 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
A lexander sayer gard - murray
L e tt e r s University policies hurt SpagFest To the Editor: Two years ago I served as the Greek Council Chair during a period in which policies related to social events and alcohol use came under intense scrutiny. The administration altered social policies in order to show parents and donors that “something” was being done in light of the bad publicity and irresponsible party management of a single student group on campus. (Yes, I am talking about the Queer Alliance’s poor management of the Fall 2005 SexPowerGod party, and yes, I served as one of the party-managers at that party and thought it was a disaster. However, I commend the current QA leadership for the great strides they have taken to improve the safety of their parties.) Take, for example, the constraints put on SpagFest, a party that I helped run as an undergraduate. In my senior year, the administration insisted that the party be pushed back to Friday at 4 p.m. instead of its normal 1 p.m. start. Hundreds of students started lining up at 3 p.m., many with drinks literally in hand. As a direct result of changing the time of the event, students came to the party having had a few drinks on an empty stomach — not enough to get turned away at the door, but enough to cause the party to get out of control within an hour. Ironically, the administration’s biggest concern was preventing pre-gaming, something they only encouraged by forcing a new policy on a party that had run successfully with a given format for over 15 years. Many other policy changes have prevented the successful execution of SpagFest over the past few years.
The administration forced Zete to charge on a per drink basis instead of a flat fee (encouraging pre-gaming and causing students to steal from servers and sneak alcohol into the party), to manage occupancy aggressively while making the party accessible to as many students as possible (forcing the house to invest in a tent and hire professional security staff), to institute food safety policies and to purchase insurance. It became evident that Zete (a small, independent house) would be unable to meet this laundry list of demands and still have a good time. Running SpagFest became a burden. Inappropriate behavior on the part of the student body is also to blame. The University can get away with making changes to social policy because the institutional memory of the community is only four years short. Zete is using the same tactic to change attitudes towards SpagFest. It’s a shame that we’ve had to resort to an invite-only format because we can’t trust the general undergrad population to behave themselves. When you attend any party, try to think about how you would like students to act if they attended a party at your home. If one of your friends acts like a jerk, tell them to cut it out. And please, continue to make your voices heard to the administration about the social policies that have prevented the general student body from having access to the one of the best parties of the year. Meghan Gill ’06 Brother of Zeta Delta Xi, Former Greek Council Chair April 7
post- magazine production Steve DeLucia Production & Design Editor Chaz Kelsh Asst. Design Editor Catherine Cullen Copy Desk Chief Adam Robbins Graphics Editor
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
Aditya Voleti, Steve DeLucia, Designers Ria Ali, Anne Fuller, Tarah Knaresboro, Copy Editors Sam Byker, Chaz Firestone, Franklin Kanin, Emmy Liss, Jenna Stark, 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, Marisa Calleja, Noura Choudhury, Joy Chua, Ben Hyman, Cameron Lee, Ben Leubsdorf, Christian Martell, Anna Millman, Seth Motel, Evan Pelz, Eli Piette, Leslie Primack, Marielle Segarra, Melissa Shube, Catherine Straut, Sara Sunshine, Gaurie Tilak, Matthew Varley, Meha Verghese, Allison Wentz Sports Staff Writers Peter Cipparone, Han Cui, Meagan Garza, Lara Southern, Nicole Stock, Katie Wood Business Staff Stephanie Cheung, Veronica Yu, Jay Guan, Jennifer Chang, Jamie Phinney, Anna Reisetter, Kartika Chourdhury, Serena Ho, Akshay Rathod, Galen Cho, Maryrose Mesa, Van Le, Maura Lynch, Grant LeBeau, Jacqueline Goldman, Dana Feuchtbaum, Geraldo Guanaes, Lauren Presant, Lindsay Walls, Lucy Wang, Ruyi Jiang, Saul Lustgarten, Diego Gomez, Laura Sammartino, Ava Amini, Charley Chen, Lee Chau, Rory Stanton, Oliver Bowers, Katherine Richards, Alison Greenberg, Lilia Royanova Design Staff Jessica Calihan, Serena Ho, Rachel Isaacs, Andrea Krukowski, Joe Larios, Joanna Lee, Alex Unger, Aditya Voleti Photo Staff Oona Curley, Alex DePaoli, Erik Maser, Kim Perley, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Ria Ali, Paula Armstrong, Kim Arredondo, Ayelet Brinn, Aubrey Cann, Rafael Chaiken, Stephanie Craton, Erin Cummings, Katie Delaney, Julianne Fenn, Jake Frank, Anne Fuller, Josh Garcia, Jennifer Grayson, Rachel Isaacs, Joyce Ji, Jenn Kim, Tarah Knaresboro, Ted Lamm, Alex Mazerov, Seth Motel, Lisa Qing, Alex Rosenberg, Madeleine Rosenberg, Elena Weissman, Jason Yum
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O pinions Thursday, April 10, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Page 15
Dictatorship means terrorism Zack Beauchamp Opinions Columnist During the Cold War, the American foreign policy establishment made a calculated decision to provide substantial amounts of financial and military assistance to a variety of repressive dictatorships on the grounds that these governments, so successful at keeping their own populations down, could prevent their countries from “falling to communism.” Whether or not this policy actually contributed to the conclusion of the Cold War is debatable, but its human cost — the thousands of people tortured, summarily executed or “disappeared” — is not. Today, the United States is pursuing a similar policy in the war on terrorism. The 2007 appropriations bill sent $13 billion to Egypt and $17 billion to Saudi Arabia, nations whose governments are two of the worst human rights abusing and least democratic in the world (according to Freedom House, an independent human rights and pro-democracy organization). This aid is justified by the same tired Cold War argument: These governments are our allies against a common enemy, and if we work for democracy there, these countries will stop supporting us, or worse, will fall to the enemy. Even if one is willing to engage this position on its own terms and overlook its tacit sanction of torture and mass murder, it cannot be seen as effective counterterrorism policy. To say that autocracies in the Islamic world are bulwarks against terrorism is to betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of modern terrorism and its relationship to dictatorships in the Middle East. The pro-autocracy view’s mistake stems
from a failure to comprehend the nature of political belief in modern nation-states. All but the smallest communities have at least some and generally many citizens who hold strong opinions concerning what the political structure of that society ought to look like. Further, some subset of these people will want to work to make the political system align with their beliefs, and many of the people in this subset will likely have different views from their fellow citizens and the goverment on what the political system should be. These last two facts, put together, mean that in any society there will be conflict over how
different from the government’s and there are no real elections to give citizens the feeling that they have a stake in their government, dissent from the current political order takes different forms, especially when the citizens feel oppressed by their government. The precise mechanisms used for advocating change differ by time and place. In 18th and 19th century Western nations, citizens organized mass rebellions against monarchical government. In post World War II India, Indians rallied around Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance to British colonialism. In the contemporary Muslim world, the primary
He gathered us around in a hushed huddle and told us he had a surefire plan for us all to get rich. He said he was sharing it because he liked us, and was too busy to do it himself. it should be governed. Liberal democracy has a natural way of resolving this conflict. Freedom of speech and the press allow different political views to be expressed, and elections make citizens feel like they actually do have some role in shaping their government. So long as the citizens view the electoral process to be on the whole legitimate, then political disagreements are resolved in a largely peaceful manner. In autocracies, where citizens are prohibited from expressing their opinions if they are
mechanism has been terrorism inspired by Islamic fundamentalism. This is not to say that terrorism is somehow solely the province of Muslims or endemic to Islam; one merely needs to look at Turkey to see that nothing about Islam mandates violent non-democratic politics. Rather, multiple contingent historical factors — Saudi Arabia’s funding of the global and radical Wahabbist sect, the victory of the Islamist elements of the Iranian revolution over the Marxists and the demonization of Israel by mass media in
Arab states, among others — have created the conditions for the rise of violent Islamism as the primary means of political dissent in the Muslim world. Though a tiny minority of Muslims are active members of terrorist organizations, a substantial minority (between 10 and 15 percent, meaning about 130-195 million people) ascribe to the Islamist ideology. Even that group, however, is not the real danger of Islamism. Rather, Islamism is made most dangerous not by the people who ascribe to all of its tenets, but by non-radical Muslims who support such groups because they best represents their interests vis-à-vis discontent with their current governments. If Islamist parties are allowed to remain the groups best able to mobilize the mass anger engendered by autocratic governments among their populations (as they were in Iran), the emergence of radical Islamist governments which will serve as bases for global terrorist groups will be inevitable. This process can be headed off by the promotion of gradual democracy by Western nations (primarily the United States). Significantly enhanced public diplomacy and support for pro-democracy groups in Arab nations is necessary, as is conditioning aid to countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia upon ending human rights abuses and opening up the political process. This must be done ver y gradually, as elections in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories have shown that attempting to introduce democracy too quickly can significantly benefit violent Islamist groups and will be a long and difficult process. However, the alternative — a Cold War style support of autocracies — is unacceptable.
Zack Beauchamp ‘10 is a cheery sort of fellow, ain’t he?
Keeping up with the Joneses MAHA ATAL Opinions Columnist In her column last week (“Thin envelope blues,” April 4), Sarah Rosenthal ’11 explored the frenzy of the college admissions process. A sensationalist media and an academic establishment obsessed with U.S. News & World Report rankings have conspired, she says, to produce a paranoid rat race among high school seniors. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: The more students believe they need multiple part-time jobs and Boy Scout experience on their resumes, the harder it is for the merely intelligent to shine through. The cycle of over-achievement, Rosenthal believes, goes beyond the SATs and the Common Application. It begins with parents who enroll their toddlers in after-school origami classes in the hope of getting a head start. It moves on to elementary schools where teachers emphasize standardized tests over individual attention. It continues into an economy where an elite (and expensive) college education is a prerequisite for employment. Rosenthal is right that “the college admissions frenzy is both a sign and a symptom of our increasingly competitive society.” But she is wrong to suggest that we collectively “chill out,” stop running so fast and assume our college applications and job searches will turn out right. Doing so would be both unrealistic and unwise. The numbers game suggests a future of more, not less, competition. There are more students applying to college each year because a greater number of American jobs require a college education. Low-technology manufacturing jobs are rapidly moving (if they haven’t
already) to Asia and Latin America. Regardless of current campaign promises to renegotiate NAFTA, those jobs are not coming back. The future for American workers is in hightech, high-skilled work and that means high levels of training. A college education is no longer a luxury for future C-suite occupants; it’s a necessity for the majority of jobs this country is likely to retain. Without a college degree, the future of a young American is bleak. Rosenthal is wrong, too, in her suggestion that students are, overall, applying “to a greater number of colleges.” It may be that
less the same. Class sizes are growing, but not fast enough to match the demographic explosion: Brown’s is up only 5 percent since 1998. Together, these economic and demographic transformations require us to rethink the meaning and purpose of a college degree. Though we harbor aspirations of universal rights to education, our current system is based on the assumption that college is a cultural rite of passage for the intellectual and social cream of the crop, and thus, that there need not be anywhere near as many dorm rooms as there are 18 year olds.
Together, these economic and demographic transformations require us to rethink the meaning and purpose of a college degree. ... If Americans universally need to take high-skilled jobs, then college will need to become statistically more accessible. individual students are sending out ten applications instead of seven these days; that’s a 43 percent increase over the last five to ten years. But this does not account for the 15 percentage annual rise in applications to individual schools. In fact, age demographics are the root of the competition: the number of young people in America is expanding, while the number of colleges has stayed more or
In the globalized economy, that logic cannot hold. If Americans universally need to take high-skilled jobs, then college will need to become statistically more accessible. Chilling out, as Rosenthal suggests, will not suffice. Unfortunately, no college can single-handedly expand its student body at the speed the economy demands without cutting back on staff salaries or athletic facilities to build
dorms and fund scholarships. It’s a game of educational chicken: No institution wants to sacrifice its individual edge for the national need unless they are sure everyone else will follow suit. That’s where the federal government comes in. Grants to individual students are valuable, but government aid in America seems to work best when it fuels market competition in socially responsible ways. What we need is a government incentive for colleges and universities that agree to expand their class size, build more dorms and observe a temporary moratorium on gentrification efforts, like outdoor amphitheaters and dining halls. Incentives could take the form of federal research grants available only to institutions that pursue demographic expansion, or a government promise to match institutional investment in new dorms. This is by no means an ideal solution: Colleges and universities in countries where education is state-sponsored tend to have a cookie-cutter feel and a lot less of the individual quirks that differentiate Brown from M.I.T. Students often apply to several schools but get told by the government where they are going. When the goal is simply to get everybody into college, individuals have to be less picky. Unappealing as it sounds, however, the consequences of ignoring the problem are far worse. As low-skill jobs move south, and rising powers like China expand their high-skill education, America will fall behind unless it takes drastic action. Look at the rat race we are in against the rest of the world, and the college admissions frenzy seems a lot less out of place.
Maha Atal ’08 thinks a little competition never hurt anyone
S ports T hursday Page 16
Thursday, April 10, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
M. golf searching for magic touch By Anne Deggelman Spor ts Staf f Writer
After an icy start to the spring season, the men’s golf team loosened up Monday and Tuesday in the Louisiana heat. The Bears teed off against teams from the deep South in the Hal Sutton Invitational, held in Shreveport, La. at the Stonebridge Golf Club, a par-72 course. While they enjoyed the 86-degree weather, the Bears struggled to make it out of the back of the pack, finishing fifth out of six teams with a score of 940. Birmingham Southern edged out McNeese State University on the final day of play for the victor y, finishing with a score of 888. “We played better than we had played (earlier in the season),” Head Coach Mike Hughes said. “But it’s still a work in progress. We’re still searching for that magic.” For Hughes, the key word is consistency, something that First Team All-Ivy golfer Conor Malloy ’09 also recognizes. “There was a lot of good golf played, a lot of positive spots,” Malloy said. “But a couple big numbers on a few holes really hurt the scores.” On day one, the Bears played two rounds of golf. Chris Hoffman ’09 finished the first round of 18 on top, shooting a 75. First Team All-Ivy golfer Larry Haertel ’08 shot a solid 78 with Michael Amato ’11 one stroke behind, with a score of continued on page 13
Achilihu sets school triple jump record March Lameness By Lara Southern Sports Staff Writer
Despite wet conditions, in its second outdoor meet of the season, the Brown track and field team delivered some outstanding performances at the UConn Invitational this weekend, resulting in six first-place finishes for the men and several second- and third-place finishes for the women. Several team members earned personal bests in their events, most notably Ikenna Achilihu ’08, who jumped 50 feet, 9.25 inches in the triple jump, setting the record for the best jump in the history of Brown’s track and field program. His jump also qualified him for the NCAA regionals at the end of May. A group of distance runners from the team also traveled to Stanford over the weekend, producing some more top performances from members of both the men’s and women’s track teams. Though all of the men on the team brought their best to Connecticut, several exceeded expectations. Though this was the first outdoor meet for the track athletes — the team’s second outdoor meet — they came into the event with full force. Nick Sarro ’08 ran a time of 1:57.28 in the 800-meter race, earning first place in addition to his second-place finish in the 1500-meter with a time of 3:57.28. “Despite this being our season opener, and taking place in less than ideal weather conditions ... I was proud of how the team competed,” said Sarro. “This was a good meet to test out our fitness levels and see where we are at in our training so we can continue to prepare for later in the season. On an individual level, I only have a few more chances left (to compete), this being my senior year, so it always feels good to compete well.”
“A lot of the time, I would sit on the bench for six innings and then come in as a defensive replacement, and it’s hard to sit for six innings and then expect to be loose,” Punal said. “When you start a game, and take batting practice on the field and get those at-bats, you feel more energized.” Despite Punal’s big numbers, Drabinski plans to keep him in the seventh spot in the lineup. “We want to have some balance in our lineup, so we like him where he is right now,” Drabinski said. Punal also likes his place in the lineup, as it gives him frequent opportunities to hit with men on base. “A lot of the time when I get up, there are a lot of people on base,” Punal said. “Since they don’t want to walk me to load the bases, they have to throw me a good pitch to hit.” Second baseman Ryan Zrenda ’11 hit an infield single to score Colantonio from third. The hit was one of three on the day for Zrenda, who also scored three runs while driving in two. First baseman J.J. Eno ’08, batting ninth, followed with an RBI single to right field, and Zrenda later came around to score on Daniels’ ground ball to the right to expand the lead to 8-0. The Bobcats began to chip away at the lead in the fourth and fifth in-
Well, it was great for the first week or so, but after that, I gotta say, it kind of sucked. No, I’m not talking about that pizza in your fridge. I’m talking, of course, about the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Sure, the action in the first two rounds was Alex Mazerov Maz’s Minute fantastic, truly worthy of the phrase “March Madness.” The first several days of games provided a slew of bracket-busting upsets and close finishes. Two 12 seeds (Villanova and Western Kentucky) and two 13 seeds (Siena and the University of San Diego) pulled off first-round upsets, giving us an unprecedented two 12-vs.-13 matchups in the second round. Western Kentucky guard Ty Rogers’ game-winning desperation shot from 26 feet with three defenders in his face and no time left on the clock, which propelled his Hilltoppers over heavily favored fifth-seeded Drake in the first round, gave us one of those classic tournament moments where everyone in the room jumps up and screams. It also gave us, thankfully, a few more days of the Hilltoppers’ big red amorphous blob of a mascot, known, oddly enough, as Big Red. Siena’s complete domination of fourth-seeded Vanderbilt in the first round was an even bigger surprise. And then there was Davidson. The 10th-seeded Wildcats, led by middle-school student look-alike and point machine Stephen Curry, came out of nowhere to stun Georgetown in the second round and dominate Wisconsin in the third. Hailing from a school with an enrollment of just 1,700 students, the Wildcats put up a hell of a fight against top-seeded and eventual tournament winner Kansas in the Midwest regional final, falling one poorly executed final play short of becoming 2007’s George Mason and advancing to the Final Four. Even when the close games didn’t end in upsets, they often provided great finishes. A number of top seeds survived scares in the early rounds. Top-seeded UCLA barely escaped with a 51-49 win over Texas A&M in the second round. Memphis, another number one seed, eked out a win against Mississippi State in their second round matchup. Second-seeded Duke needed some last-second heroics from Gerald Henderson to edge 15th-seeded Belmont in the first round, narrowly avoiding what would have been one of the most monumental upsets in tournament history. But sure enough, Coach K’s boys came through for all us Duke haters, losing in classic Blue Devil fashion in the second round to West Virginia. But other than a few great games and thrilling upsets, this year’s tourney was mostly a snoozefest, boring game after boring game after boring game. I thought I was watching the NBA playoffs for a while there. Most of the games, in both the early and the late rounds, were essentially decided by halftime, with a 10-plus point differential separating the teams once the final buzzer had sounded. In the later rounds, where we expect to see close games between great teams, we saw hardly any. Just two of the
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Ashley Hess / Herald
DeShaun Mars ’08 continued Brown’s strong jumping performances, after Achilihu’s record triple jump, when he earned first place at UConn this weekend.
Another runner for the men’s team who earned first place was Matt Jasmin ’09, who ran a 14.78-second race in the 100-meter hurdles. In the field events, four athletes won their events, including Deshaun Mars ’08 in the long jump, with a jump of 22 feet, 7.25 inches; Bryan Powlen ’10 with a discus throw of 163 feet, 4 inches; and Eric Wood ’09 in the shot put and hammer, with throws of 50 feet, 1.25 inches and 168 feet, 11 inches, respectively, in addition to Achilihu’s win in the triple jump. Head Coach Craig Lake was especially impressed with Achilihu’s comeback.
“Ikenna missed indoors as well as all last year with a series of injuries,” Lake said. “It was fantastic to see him perform so well, as he very easily could have just quit at some point. Great to see his hard work and persistence pay off for him.” The women’s team placed third overall at the meet with 80 points, behind winners Connecticut and runner-up Rhode Island. The highest-ranked finish of the day came, once again, from Danielle Grunloh ’10, who earned second and third place for her throws of 147 feet, 11 inches and 45 feet, 0.5 inch in the continued on page 13
RBIs help baseball easily grab win over Quinnipiac By Benjy Asher Assistant Sports Editor
The baseball team jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the third inning of Tuesday’s game at Quinnipiac and never looked back, cruising to an 12-5 win. The win saw four players get three hits, as well as four multi-RBI performances, and it also marked the fourth time in seven games that Brown’s run production has been in double digits. With the victory, the Bears improve to 12-13 overall. With runners on second and third and one out in the top of the second inning, right fielder Nick Punal ’10 grounded a single to right field to score tri-captain third baseman Rob Papenhause ’09 and catcher Matt Colantonio ’11, putting Bruno up 2-0. Center fielder Steve Daniels ’09 and left fielder Brian Kelaher ’08 each added an RBI single later in the inning to give the Bears a 4-0 cushion. Daniels and Kelaher gave Brown strong production out of the top two spots in the lineup, both finishing with three hits and two RBI on the day. Colantonio also had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-3 and scoring three runs. His performance was a continuation of his impressive play last week, when his .500 on-base percentage earned him Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors for the
Ashley Hess / Herald
After winning his second Ivy Rookie of the Week honor from a stellar weekend, Matt Colantonio ’11 scored three runs to help Brown to its 12th victory.
second time this season. Starting pitcher Conor Burke ’11 pitched two scoreless innings to hold the lead for the Bears, who added to the lead in the top of the third. Brown got runners on first and second with one out, and the bottom of the order came up big. Punal drove the ball the opposite way for a double to left center field, scoring Papenhause. “Nick’s big strength is being able to hit the ball to left and left center,”
said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. “And when you can hit the other way with consistency, you’re going to hit for a high average.” After his 2-for-4, 3-RBI performance on Tuesday, Punal, who was originally recruited as a pitcher, now ranks second on the team with a .361 batting average and 22 RBI. Last year, Punal started just 10 games and had a batting average of .204. This year, though, he has relished his starting role.