The Brown Daily Herald T uesday, A pril 22, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 56
Brokaw airs a generational analysis
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Leaving professors deprive several depts. of star power History’s Wood, classics’ Putnam to retire; Vogel will take leave
Be good citizens, former anchor encourages by Jenna Stark Senior Staf f Writer
By Sophia Li Senior Staff Writer
What do Tufts, Princeton, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown have in common? Having lectured at those universities in recent weeks, Tom Brokaw says he would not have been accepted into any of them. But the former NBC News anchor didn’t joke for long with his audience in Salomon 101 Monday, as he addressed the legacy of the 1960s in context of today’s political environment. Brokaw said he wanted to create a “conversation” with the audience about the state of American society as a political system by contrasting the current climate with the racial, economic and political issues of the 1960s. Before beginning his lecture, Brokaw asked the audience to “take
The retirements of two long-time professors and another’s leave of absence will leave three departments without their biggest stars next fall. Professor of Histor y Gordon Wood and Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature Michael Putnam are retiring at the end of the semester. Paula Vogel, professor of literary arts and director of Brown’s playwriting program, will take a one-year leave of absence before deciding whether her departure will be permanent, said the chair of the literary arts department. Wood and Putnam have been at Brown longer than nearly all members of the incoming class of 2012 have been alive. Putnam has been teaching at Brown since 1960, and Wood since 1969, the same year the New Curriculum was implemented.
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Kim Perley / Herald
Author and former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw spoke yesterday about contemporary American society and how it relates to the country during the 1960s.
Wood has taught part-time for the past five years with the intention to retire at the end of the five-year period. He said he realizes he has been at Brown a long time. “It is a little disturbing to hear people say, ‘My mother took your course,’” he said. Putnam, who has served as chair of the Department of Classics multiple times and as director of graduate studies, said he has been planning to retire for several years. He said he formally told Deborah Boedeker, chair of the classics department, of his intention about a year ago. But for both professors, retirement hardly means rest. Wood said he plans to finish a volume about the early American republic for The Oxford History of the United States and to work on two volumes of John Adams’ writing for the Library of America series. Putnam said he will continue to work on a collection of essays about how Virgil was received in a variety of different disciplines in the 2,000 years since his death — one of “half a dozen” projects he’s doing, he said. continued on page 9
Groups frustrated with Carbon-reduction programs receive funds use of Faunce room By Alex Roehrkasse Senior Staf f Writer
Facilities Management accidentally throws away activist texts By Colin Chazen Contributing Writer
The door to Faunce 301 is unlocked. The carpet inside bears the spray-paint letter outlines of the countless signs and banners made on its crusty surface. A shopping cart and a furry chair share the room with the poster board remnants of past displays. A sign on the door reads: “Please respect this space! Stop taking from other groups; stop giving out the key combination; stop leaving your messes in the middle of the floor.” With the planned renovation of Faunce House still more than a year away, many student groups that use Faunce 301 are feeling cramped. Growing frustration over sharing the room has led a coalition of groups under the banner of the Social Justice Network, a group of several student organizations, to draft a proposal for the reallocation of space next year. The proposal calls for the reassignment of the Brown Democrats and Model United Nations to the space currently occupied by the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life — which will become
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available next fall — and the creation of a social activist work and meeting space either in 301 or elsewhere in Faunce. Most of the office space in Faunce is “not highly utilized,” said Ricky Gresh, director of student activities. But Faunce 301 — home of the Brown Democrats, Democracy Matters, the Young Communist League, Model United Nations, the Green Party and Amnesty International — plays host to a wealth of activity. In addition to its official occupants, the room is frequently used by Students for a Democratic Society, Operation Iraqi Freedom and other student organizations that are not assigned office space because of their lower category status. For the Brown Democrats, the space is a board meeting room. Model UN sees it more as a storage area, and YCL uses it as an area to work on banners and to paint signs. Although scheduling conflicts arose earlier this semester, the addition of a whiteboard — which groups use to map their schedules — has largely resolved issues regarding overlapping use of the room. The principle problem is the room’s cleanliness. The use of the space as a workshop for the creation of banners
say it, don’t spray it Graffiti artists anger College Hill residents, business owners and Brunonians
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CAMPUS NEWS
The funding of four student-initiated projects under the Community Carbon Use Reduction at Brown program was announced yesterday, though administrators refrained from outlining the selected projects in detail or naming the recipients, saying that partnerships and sponsorships with community members had yet to be hashed out in full. The CCURB program was born out of substantial donations by the
Sidney Frank Foundation and the Office of President Ruth Simmons to fund student-led projects that reduce carbon emissions in the Providence community. The four projects that will receive the program’s funding plan to install high-ef ficiency lighting, programmable thermostats and “weatherizing” technology in Providence homes. They also plan to partner with a local low-income girls’ school to develop and implement emissions-reducing ideas. CCURB committee co-chair and
Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Elizabeth Huidekoper said that more official details about those projects will unfold “in the next couple of weeks.” In the meantime, the University has not released the names of leaders of projects whose proposals were successful. Among the successful applicants for CCURB funding was Herald Higher Ed Editor Debbie Lehmann ’10, who, along with Dan continued on page 9
One night in the life of Brown EMS Life, laughs and vomit on the graveyard shift By Sam Byker Senior Staf f Writer
On a recent Saturday night, as many Brunonians prepared to set out for on-campus parties and Thayer Street bars, four radios crackled to life in the basement of the University Health Services building. A student had sustained a sports injury earlier in the day and needed transport to Rhode Island Hospital for care beyond what the University could provide. Brown’s on-duty Emergency Medical Services crew — consisting, that night, of student volunteers Dan Resnick-Ault ’09, Cathryn Ol-
enviro-nerds Two undergrads win $16,000 scholarships for independent research
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sen ’09 and Brita Larson ’11, along with paid supervisor Brendan McStay — sprang into action. After gathering jackets and equipment, the four rushed upstairs and helped the patient into an ambulance idling in the parking lot behind the building. Unlike Dartmouth or Cornell,
FEATURE where student Emergency Medical Technicians call in municipal ambulances for life-threatening emergencies, or Penn, which has no EMS service at all, Brown belongs to the 10 percent of colleges that maintain Advanced Life Support services. On College Hill, no outside crew will arrive to take over. Whether the problem is a dislocated shoul-
free the farmers Travis Forney ‘11 believes the government should change its farm policy
sunny, 72 / 50 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
der or cardiac arrest, patients at Brown are evaluated, treated and transported by the University’s own EMS teams, which must meet the same standards as any professional service. That night, the team divided responsibilities quickly. Resnick-Ault drove and Larson took blood pressure with an old-fashioned nylon cuff, while Olsen quizzed the patient on medical history and made small talk (“Is this your first time in an ambulance?”). McStay, the only paid member of the crew, kept careful watch over the scene. The patient, a bit dazed, stared at the sterile, well-lit interior of the ambulance from a stretcher bolted to the middle of the floor. Glasscontinued on page 4
tomorrow’s weather Maybe the sun will fill the glaring void that Gordon Wood and Michael Putnam are leaving
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