Thursday, April 24, 2008 by The Brown Daily Herald

The Brown Daily Herald T hursday, A pril 24, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 58

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

One of Friedman pie throwers identified

M ai n g r e e n s u pp o rt

Little ’08.5 in YouTube video of food attack By Chaz Firestone Features Editor

Kim Perley / Herald

Students made sexual assault information available to passers-by on the Main Green yesterday.

One of the two audience members who threw pie dishes filled with green whipped cream at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman last night has been identified as Margaree Little ’08.5, she confirmed yesterday. Little and a male accomplice leapt from their seats seconds into Friedman’s Earth Day lecture in Salomon 101, stunning the crowd and Friedman, who was left with green paste on his face and clothing. Friedman blocked one dish with his hand and dodged the other, but was smeared with the

contents of each. In an inter view with The Herald, Little confirmed that she had thrown a pie at Friedman. Several students who attended the lecture also independently identified Little as one of the pie-throwers. Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police Mark Porter said he “could not confirm or deny” Little’s involvement, but said DPS has identified one of the attackers as a student. Porter added that the captured student’s case has been turned over to the Of fice of Student Life, and DPS Lt. Rick Lombardi said no party wishes to press charges. Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president of campus life and dean for student life, also would not continued on page 4

Tenured professorships may be in Watson’s future Prof. finds By Brian Mastroianni Senior Staf f Writer

A working group at the Watson Institute for International Studies is considering creating tenured positions at the center in an effort to increase its academic strength. The proposal comes as administrators work to increase Brown’s international standing and as a high-profile interim director will begin leading Watson this summer.

Since 1981, the Watson Institute, in its different incarnations, has been a center focused on the research and education over issues of international affairs, according to the Institute’s Web site. Though a part of the University for more than 20 years, the institute has never made tenure appointments for its professors. In Januar y, Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 appointed a working group to analyze how the

University should act upon Watson’s Board of Overseers’ proposal to award tenure to professors at the institute. Vice President for International Affairs David Kennedy ’76, who will soon take over as Watson’s interim director, served as chair of the working group. This proposal was brought to the forefront by the Board of Overseers this past fall, Kennedy told The Herald. The Board of Overseers “advise(s) the University

Canadian gov’t may ban compound in Ratty cups BUDS investigating levels of BPA in cups By Gaurie Tilak Staf f Writer

If the Canadian government continues moving toward a ban on a compound used in many plastics, the cups in University dining halls may be considered too risky to drink from by America’s northern neighbors. The Canadian government recently declared toxic a clear plastic compound known as bisphenol-a, or BPA, which is found in the cups in the Ivy Room, Sharpe Refectory and Verney-Woolley Dining Hall. The Canadian government officially declared BPA toxic because of studies that linked it to long-term changes in animals, the New York Times reported April 19. Chemicals given the toxic designation undergo a lengthy process that could result in a ban on their use, the Times reported. The government has also moved to ban all baby bottles made with polycarbonate plastic.

PostLights out for the Territory ahead of the rest

4 RIL 2 , 2008

IS S

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and the institute director on all aspects of the institute’s research and other activity, as well as the stewardship of the endowment,” Kennedy wrote. “Their mission of research and teaching in international affairs requires a world class international affairs faculty at Brown. They are convinced, and I agree, that recruitment and retention of the very best continued on page 6

a w e s o m e b l o ss o ms

The cups in the dining halls are made from polycarbonate plastic, which contains small amounts of BPA, a representative of the Carlisle Company, which manufactures the cups, confirmed. It is still unconfirmed if the level of BPA in the dining hall cups is enough to cause health ef fects, Ann Hoffman, director of administration of Dining Services, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. BPA is part of a larger group of plastic additives called plasticizers, which are incorporated into plastics to increase their pliability, said John Buster, reproductive endocrinologist at the Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. Buster said health concerns arise from heavy exposure to the chemical and that the amount of BPA in dining hall cups is probably not enough to cause damage to the body. The first indication Dining Ser vices had that the cups may be harmful was the media coverage over the Canadian government’s continued on page 4

CAMPUS NEWS

Meara Sharma / Herald

Over the weekend, College Hill flowers began their short blooming.

Redesigning qatar RISD president becomes executive director of the Qatar Museums Authority

OPINIONS

By Emmy Liss Senior Staff Writer

David Egilman ’74 MD’78 teaches community health at the Alpert Medical School. But once in a while, he dabbles in ethics. Egilman, a clinical associate professor of community health, along with Joseph Ross of New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine, was hired to examine risks associated with Vioxx, a drug used to treat conditions that cause chronic pain, like arthritis. In 2004, pharmaceutical giant Merck and Co. pulled the drug off its shelves because some were concerned that its long-term use increases the risk of heart attack among patients. Many people even sued Merck for the wrongful death of their family members. Egilman and Ross were just a small part of the controversy surrounding Vioxx. They were hired to serve as plaintiff’s witnesses in a case against the company, which meant they had access to many internal Merck documents while researching the drug. “When looking through old clinical trial results, we stumbled, literally, across examples of guest authorship that were disturbing,” Ross said, referring to studies conducted by Merck but signed by scientists who were not actively involved in the work. Unsettled by what they had found, the physicians went back and began a formal investigation of Merck’s documents. Egilman said they didn’t have to look too deeply — simply reading the documents turned up evidence of misconduct. Led by Ross, the group of four physicians found that certain published continued on page 4

Greeting gail Max Chaiken ’09 sets a new standard for student-staff interactions

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

Merck used ghostwriters

tomorrow’s weather Sunshine in Providence or suspicious Ratty cups — which is more surprising?

sunny, 69 / 46 News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Thursday, April 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Vegan Tofu Raviolis with Sauce, Santa Rosa Calzone, Grilled Ham and Swiss Sandwich

Lunch — Hot Roast Beef on French Bread, Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Nacho Bar, Cream Cheese Brownies

Dinner — Roast Turkey with Sauce, Vegetarian Gnocchi a la Sorrentina, Sauteed Broccoli with Garlic

Dinner — Chicken Tikka, Vegan Curry Vegetables, Coconut Rice, Vegetable Egg Rolls

Aibohphobia | Roxanne Palmer

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

Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley

RELEASE DATE– Thursday, April 24, 2008

Los Angeles Times Puzzle C r o sDaily s w oCrossword rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Computer unit 5 Gymnast Korbut 9 Accounts that span generations 14 Things in locks 15 Stringed instrument 16 Kind of fund 17 *New Guinea’s black sicklebill, e.g. 20 High jumpers 21 Sea eagle 22 __ double take 23 *Tall timekeeper 27 Promgoer’s concern 30 Soak (up) 31 Claudius’ grandnephew 32 Key of Beethoven’s Sym. No. 7 34 Yield to gravity 36 Hair-raising 40 1936 Prokofiev work, and hint to parts of the answers to starred clues 44 East German secret police 45 High degree 46 Narcissist’s love 47 Greek portico 50 Some NFL guards’ neighbors 52 Advantium ovens, e.g. 53 *Protection method from flying debris 58 “Man on the Moon” band 59 One giving Starbuck’s orders 60 Readied the bow 64 *Stealthy sort 68 Flu symptoms 69 Nickleby portrayer on stage 70 “Casablanca” woman 71 Shoulder warmer 72 Mother of the Valkyries 73 Off! ingredient DOWN 1 Big hit, in slang

2 Everyone in Dixie? 3 Unswerving 4 Cornerstone abbr. 5 Lacto-__ vegetarian 6 Longevity 7 Opt to play for pay 8 Friends-andfamily support group 9 RR stop 10 Suffix with dull 11 TV’s Sarducci 12 Org. 13 Restaurant turf? 18 Those, in Toledo 19 Thinker Descartes 24 Fifth 600-homerun-club member 25 Hudson Bay native 26 Theater name 27 Microwaves 28 “__ a girl who sang the blues”: McLean lyric 29 “Later, old chap” 33 Wrestler Ventura 35 Econ. yardstick 37 “Walkabout” director

38 __-et-Vilaine: French department 39 Failing grades 41 Musical ticket writer 42 Pulsated 43 DISH Network offering 48 __ even keel 49 Stick 51 Scorch 53 SeaWorld critters

Gus vs. Them | Zachary McCune and Evan Penn

54 Shakespeare’s Sir Toby 55 Missouri River city 56 Do lunch? 57 Unyielding 61 Fr. miss’s title 62 Comfort 63 “Fiddlesticks!” 65 Opposite of FF 66 Cuba or Aruba: Abbr. 67 232-yr.-old land

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

xwordeditor@aol.com

04/24/08

Free Variation | Jeremy Kuhn

04/24/08

If you do one thing on College Hill today... Go see an intense-sounding lecture “Demon of Melancholy: Genealogies, Modernities” 2 p.m. in Alumnae Hall’s Crystal Room

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372

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M etro Thursday, April 24, 2008

U. shining a little too much light By Anne Simons Staf f Writer

When Brown installed several 90-foot-tall light posts in the Berylson Family Athletic Complex, College Hill residents were not happy. Neighbors of the fields, located behind the Olney-Margolies Athletic Complex, complained that the lights cast too much glare on surrounding houses and that the University had violated zoning restrictions by building the lights above the allowed heights in the residential neighborhood. Neighbors will challenge the lights at a zoning hearing on May 13. The fields’ planners believed the lights were installed legally under an electrical permit issued by Providence’s Building Department last summer, said Michael Chapman, a University spokesman. But when nighttime use of the fields began to increase last fall, Brown was cited by Providence’s Zoning Board for constructing the lights without a building permit, though Chapman said the University thought the electrical permit was sufficient. The University was told that the city would not grant it a building permit after the fact because the poles exceed the maximum height for buildings in the area, he said. Barbara Harris, a College Hill resident and lawyer, will represent the neighbors at a hearing in front of the Zoning Board on May 13, though the date has not yet been officially posted. She said she felt Brown didn’t need to be informed that the lights were not in compliance with zoning laws. The neighborhood feels “like Gillette Stadium,” she said, adding that the offending structures are a form of “light trespass,” which detracts from the peace of the neighborhood. Professor of Economics Allan Feldman, who lives within 200 feet of Ber ylson Fields, is among those challenging the lights. He also likened the fields to a professional sports facility, but said Fenway Park is only used 50 to 60 days a year, as opposed to the 200 nights that the lights at Ber ylson will probably be on. In the past, the fields were lit by much shorter lamps, he said, and were shielded by trees that border the area. But when the fields were reconfigured last summer, their use, as well as the height of the light posts, increased dramatically, he said. Feldman, who wrote a column in The Herald (“The Carbon Footprint of the Ber ylson Family Athletic Complex,” Apr. 7) about the lights, said they aren’t just a nuisance, but also an environmental waste. When he walks his dog past the fields, he often notices that an area the size of two football fields is lit when only a dozen people are using it, he said. All the lights are controlled by one switch, he added, which means that both fields must be lit even if only one of them is being used. According to his column, in one year, the use of these lights releascontinued on page 8

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Little Rhody getting big on the microbeer front By Rachel Arndt Metro Editor

The smallest state packs quite a punch when it comes to the smallest beers. Building on its craft-beer brewery and a handful of brewpubs, Rhode Island is gaining strength in the microbeer scene. Craft beer, which is produced independently on a small scale using traditional methods — and boasts more complex and intense flavors than mass-produced beer — is on the rise in Rhode Island and across the country. The industry has had a 58 percent increase in sales over the last four years, says Julia Herz, craft beer program director for the Brewers Association. But craft brewers are fighting the spike in prices of two of their most important ingredients — hops and barley — which they use to make their ales more flavorful than big brands like Budweiser. In the last year, the price of hops has increased 350 to 400 percent, according to Aaron Crossett, a

brewer at Providence’s Union Station Brewery. As a result, some craft brewers are turning to beer that derives most of its flavor from yeast and not hops, and others are forced to take in less of a profit despite charging higher prices. Coastal Extreme Brewing Co., which calls itself the state’s only microbrewer y, had to raise its prices for only the second time in its history to deal with the hops shortage, but “we won’t be forced to reformulate,” says Brent Ryan, the brewery’s president. But while higher grain prices are putting brewers in a pinch — the commodities are more costly in part due to the rising price of corn ethanol, Crossett says — specialty brewers see another, more favorable trend: increasing demand. “It seems that consumers are embracing the beers,” says Gregg Glaser, editor of Yankee Brew News and news editor for All About Beer Magazine. “The overwhelming majority of Americans drink

mainstream American beer,” he says, but the craft beer movement is “always growing throughout the U.S.” Craft brewers tend to make ales and not lagers, Glaser says, which fits in well with New England’s beer past. “We were always more of an ale-brewing and drinking part of the country,” he says. “The roots of New England brewing” lie in ales, he says. While the East Coast is known for making more ales, the Midwest has more lager in its history. The difference between an ale and a lager lies in the type of yeast used. Ryan says he is trying to “get people away from just drinking yellow fizzy beer.” He and three other Colby College graduates started Coastal Extreme Brewing after realizing there wasn’t a microbrewer y in Rhode Island. Now, nine years later, the Newport Storm producer is still the only true distributing microbrewer y in the state. “The one thing that we really

Big on beer • Craft beer is gaining a greater share of the beer market — New England sales of craft beer are 18.9 percent in just the last year, according to the Brewers Association. • The price of hops increased 400 percent last year, forcing up the prices of craft beer, which tend to use more hops than mass-produced beer. • Coastal Extreme Brewing Co. considers itself the state’s only microbrewery, though Narragansett is technically classified as a microbrewery by the Brewers Association. • Craft beer makes up 9.9 percent of beer sold in New England supermarkets. wanted to do,” Ryan says, was “develop a local brewery.” Coastal Extreme sells 85 percent of its five continued on page 11

Providence Geeks network, adjust glasses downtown By Simon van Zuylen-Wood Senior Staf f Writer

The after-work crowd sipped IPA and snacked on quesadillas at tables set up in front of the stage. But instead of jeans and sneakers, they wore suits with name tags and typed on laptops. And there was no live music — just a projection screen with the words, “Our World is a Microsoft World.” This was the Providence Geeks’ monthly meeting, which was held last night at AS220.The popular downtown restaurant, bar and club turned into a convention center for geeks across the Renaissance City. Last night, the guest speakers were Chief Executive Officer Chris Crawford and Chief Technology Officer Peter Mackey from The Corporate Marketplace, a North Kingston company that creates online stores that allow companies to redistribute brand-name goods to other companies or to employees as rewards. Crawford called TCMPI a “hub that fields world-class brands into alternative distribution chan-

nels.” When Crawford initially told Geeks organizer Jack Templin about his company, Templin said he immediately thought, “Oh great, a crazy person.” Mackey and Crawford gave a brief Powerpoint presentation about their company’s success and then gave way to a few hours of socialization, which was the Geeks’ primar y focus. “There’s a typical congregation on little groups,” said Emlyn Addison, rolling his eyes. Addison’s friend Steve Babigian, who jokingly identified himself as a “cool geek,” said the point of the meeting was “to get ever ybody drunk enough for ever yone to think whatever they’re saying up there is ... genius.” Addison and Babigian were first-time Geeks who said they came for the fun of the event, but many at AS220 seemed to be scouting business opportunities and came equipped with stacks of business cards. “It’s a networking thing,” said Dave Brown, a local software consultant who regularly comes to Geeks meetings. “Find peo-

Thanks for reading.

ple, find workers, shout around ideas.” Though the dinner did feature some local entrepreneurs, Templin said, the Providence Geeks were not using AS220 only as a business breeding ground. “There’s such a connection between technology, design and art,” Templin said. “That’s something people don’t understand about the technology scene.” Templin, who started Providence Geeks three years ago with Brian Jepson, said they thought AS220 would be the “perfect location” for Geek dinners. “This group is ver y comfortable here,” Templin said. AS220, which houses Taqueria Pacifica restaurant, also serves as a small art gallery. Jepson showed off a friend’s piece — a hamster ball — amidst paintings hanging on the walls. The ball, which drew more attention than the galler y’s paintings, was equipped with eight “keys,” a light sensor on the outside and tangled electronic wiring, Jepson said. When hooked up to MIDI equipment like GarageBand,

the ball could be used to play music, Jepson said. “One hamster ball at a time, we’re changing the world right now,” Jepson said. The crowd, which was split between self-proclaimed geeks ogling computer screens and beerdrinking loungers, represented a critical mass of technology innovators, said Wendy Lawton, a media relations officer at Brown and Templin’s girlfriend. Lawton said these gatherings give attendees the sense that “there are other people like me here.” “To some degree this is a startup ... creating (an internet-based organization) that hasn’t been there before,” Lawton said. Providence Geeks is “dedicated to creating more connections and collaboration between R.I.’s burgeoning info-tech and digital media community and the state’s many academic institutions,” Templin wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “Student entrepreneurs find a support network full of potential collaborators, advisers (and) investors.”

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Thursday, April 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Merck’s practices questioned after misleading authorship continued from page 1 articles about Merck’s products had a suspicious origin: The drug studies had been conducted and written by Merck but were signed by scientists unaffiliated with the company. Such unethical practices have always been rumored to exist, Ross said, but they were surprised to find such blatant examples. Last week, the doctors released a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association exposing several of Merck’s articles as having been ghostwritten by the company and signed by scientists as “guest authors.” “If a student did that in one of my classes, I wouldn’t call that legitimate work,” Egilman said. “In fact, I might call that plagiarism.” Both doctors emphasized that this practice is not limited to Merck and that it affects the entire pharmaceutical industry. The physicians were able to make an example of Merck because of their access to documents normally kept hidden, they said. In an April 15 statement, the company called the article “false, misleading or lack(ing) context.”

“We have explicit policies governing the authorship of papers related to Merck’s medicines and vaccines, and we take those policies very seriously. The outside authors of the papers about Merck’s clinical trials referenced in the JAMA article were intimately involved in the studies,” Dr. Peter Kim, president of Merck Research Laboratories, said in the statement. “(Merck is) no worse or no better,” than other pharmaceutical companies, Egilman said. “They do what they’re supposed to do. ... It is unethical in this country for a company to act ethically if it will reduce profit to their shareholders.” “This is the system,” he said of the culture of profit-seeking pharmaceutical companies. “This is not a bunch of bad apples. This is a barrel that is making the apples rotten.” Rules against plagiarism that seem standard to students are missing from faculty handbooks, Egilman said. Despite the unethical nature of what pharmaceutical companies do, they are technically not breaking any laws, and neither are the scientists who sign papers they did not write. “It’s natural for a for-profit indus-

try,” Ross said. “(But) science should not be conducted in this way.” In an April 16 editorial, JAMA criticized scientists who allowed their names to be attached to studies they didn’t play a big role in. “Individuals, particularly physicians, who allow themselves to be used in this way, especially for financial gain, manifest a behavior that is unprofessional and demeaning to the medical profession and to scientific research,” the editorial reads. The doctors called their paper a part of a process that could improve research standards. “We’re standing on the top of the tallest mountain we can find and screaming that the system is corrupt,” Egilman said. “It only takes one person to step forward and say, ‘The emperor has no clothes.’ And then everyone will say, ‘You know what, the emperor has no clothes.’ But it’s not easy to be the person who runs around saying (that).” Much of the responsibility for reforming the system falls on universities, medical schools and faculty deans, both doctors said. The institutions must keep a closer eye on their faculty who are collaborating

with the pharmaceutical industry, Ross said. Universities are not-for-profit and therefore have an obligation to enforce ethical standards, Egilman said. “They don’t have an obligation to stockholders, so they’re not supposed to act like a business,” he added. Those looking to improve the system of drug-related research should improve standards for published material, Egilman said. But there’s no authority that will correct the articles Merck has already published, he added. Ross said journals need to have explicit disclosure criteria for authors, explore whether an author has truly contributed and ensure that those who did contribute are credited. When asked how he felt about Merck ghostwriting for legitimate scientists, Egilman said, “They’re well-recognized, famous, prestigious scientists — I didn’t comment on whether they’re legitimate or not.” “Having someone else do your work for you,” he said, “makes you less than legitimate.”

Little ’08.5 one of two Friedman pie-throwers continued from page 1 confirm Little’s involvement. “Protests are encouraged, but they cannot disrupt the event or interfere with another person’s ability to participate in an activity,” she added. “They certainly must not cause any harm or damage or injur y to someone.” Little and her male accomplice dashed out of Salomon after throwing the two pies. As the pair left the building through its southeast exit, event organizer and Assistant Professor of Biology Stephen Porder jumped out of his front-row seat and chased them. He said he followed the two down the large staircase on the

southern face of the building. They split up at the bottom of the stairs when the male turned south and Little continued east across Lincoln Field. Porder apprehended Little shortly after the split. “She didn’t get ver y far,” he said. “I told her she was caught, I held her hands behind her back, made a citizen’s arrest.” Porder then led Little toward the front of Salomon, where DPS officers took her into custody. The Herald has not confirmed the identity of the male accomplice, but did receive a phone call and e-mail from the “Greenwash Guerillas,” the group named on pamphlets thrown into the crowd seconds after the pie-throwing. The caller identified himself

as the male accomplice and referred to himself only as “Colonel Custard, or the corporate criminal creamer.” He volunteered Little’s name and provided details of Porder’s pursuit that matched Porder’s own description, which had not been released to the public. The caller challenged Friedman to a “debate duel,” but added that the motivation for the protest was not specific to Friedman. “It’s not just Thomas Friedman. It’s what he stands for and what he promotes,” the person said. “It’s a pie in the face of corporate environmentalism and capitalism.” A radical environmentalist, the caller said he and Little targeted Friedman — an environmentalist himself — because of what he calls a wrongheaded approach to climate change. “The climate deniers are easy to take down because they’ve been proven wrong,” he said. “If we’re actually going to do anything about the problem, we need to look at the false solutions.” “Things like biofuels are just as harmful as climate change itself,” he added. A 1:39-minute YouTube video posted by “greenwashguerillas”

Courtesy of YouTube

Friedman was caught off-guard at first, as seen on a YouTube video posted by “greenwashguerillas” captured the incident from Salomon’s mezzanine and shows the male pie thrower seated in the front row of the auditorium, which was supposed to be reser ved for event officials. Little was seated in the press row to the right, off-screen. The caller said nobody questioned him when he sat down in the reser ved row. “I walked in there wearing the college costume of a dressed-up shir t, dressed-up shoes and a Brown Bears hat,” he said. “I could do anything I wanted to.”

Canada condemns type of cups used in Ratty continued from page 1 actions, Hoffman wrote. “We didn’t have any reason to believe these cups might be harmful at the time we purchased them,” she wrote. Although Dining Services is not currently looking into replacing the plastic cups, Hoffman and her colleagues have been investigating the issue further to determine whether or not changes need to be made, she wrote. “If it is confirmed that our plastic tumblers are unsafe for normal everyday use, we will take steps to identify an appropriate alternative without delay,” Hoffman wrote. In the past, potentially contaminated food has been taken off the menu in dining halls as soon as a threat was posed, Hoffman wrote, citing a national recall on baby spinach in 2006 and a 2004 Food and Drug Administration alert on alfalfa. In both instances, the dining halls halted use of the food in question. Both BPA and other plasticizers, including a group called phthalates, can impair reproductive function when introduced to the body in large quantities, Buster said. He added that plasticizers are also used widely in medical supplies such as syringes and intravenous tubing and bags, which poses a major concern for doctors. Exposure to BPA in large amounts in newborns can lead to developmental problems and reproductive inefficiency, Buster said. He said studies have also suggested, but not confirmed, that BPA can lead to a decreased sperm count in men. The compound has also been linked to infertility in rats. The chemical affects reproductive function because metabolites from BPA act as natural estrogens, which can interfere with the body’s hormonal signaling, Buster said. The manufacturer told Dining Ser vices the material used to make the cups dif fers from the material used in Nalgene bottles, which also contains BPA, Hoffman wrote. Nalgene Outdoor Products has recently stated it will stop using BPA in the production of its water bottles, the Times reported April 18.

C ampus n ews Thursday, April 24, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Approving referendum, RISD president leaves for Middle East UCS eliminates class reps By Alexandra Ulmer Contributing Writer

By Chaz Kelsh Senior Staf f Writer

The Undergraduate Council of Students approved the results of a referendum to abolish class representatives at its general body meeting Wednesday night, following a debate about whether the referendum process violated the council’s code of operations. The referendum, which passed with the approval of 85 percent of students voting, did not appear on the ballot “in its exact written form” as the UCS code requires, said Student Activities Chair Drew Madden ’10. Instead, the referendum was listed on the ballot with a shorter text that summarized its purpose. Campus Life Chair Ellie Cutler ’10 said the summary contained “biased wording” that encouraged students to vote for the referendum. But council members overwhelmingly supported approving the results. An initial motion passed with 14 yes votes and four no votes but was not recognized by President Michael Glassman ’09 because he believed recognizing the results violated the UCS code. A second motion overruled Glassman’s objections. The council also passed changes to the UCS code to prepare the council to operate under the ref-

erendum, setting the number of signatures required to become an at-large representative at 150. UCS was joined at the beginning of its four-hour meeting by Chancellor Emeritus Artemis Joukowsky ’55 P’87, Corporation member Joan Sorensen ’72 P’06 P’06, Secretary of the University Al Dahlberg and Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and student ser vices, who answered questions from UCS members about financial aid and advising. Joukowsky said increased financial aid for international students was “certainly a priority.” Asked about a possible endowment to fund student activities, Sorensen said it was “hard to add anything more to the current (fundraising) campaign.” UCS also passed code changes regarding its relationship with Ivy Council, redefining the positions of head delegate and policy chair. These positions will now automatically serve on both Ivy Council and UCS, the code now states. “One of our primary missions is to foster communication between student governments,” said Harris Li ’11, class representative and current head delegate, who sponsored the code change. “Student governments are the ones that can enact continued on page 10

For GISP, the grass is greener on the other roof By Lauren Pischel Staff Writer

Brown is turning green. As activists and administrators alike embrace high-profile environmental causes, though, there is one project that is a bit more under the radar — and over the heads of a few Brown students. Six

FEATURE upperclassmen are installing a green roof — a roof covered with vegetation to reduce a building’s environmental impact — for a Group Independent Study Project this semester. Michelle Beaulieu ’08, Louisa Bukiet ’08, Anna Duncan ’08, Julie Flynn ’08, Nicole Poepping ’08 and Eric Rudisaile ’09 came up with the idea for this GISP while driving and talking about their common interests. Though they concentrated in a variety of subjects, from urban studies to environmental science to engineering, they all were intrigued by green architecture. They then decided to create “the first green roof on College Hill,” their Web site’s slogan reads. “Green roofs send an important message — small gardens can have an impact and make cities more livable,” Flynn said. “People love green spaces. They increase the quality of life.” In green roofs, vegetation replaces traditional roofing materials. Green roofs “provide insulation for the building,” among other benefits, Duncan said. Green roofs reduce heating and cooling costs, increase the life expectancy of the roof and reduce the carbon footprint of the building.

They also improve the surrounding aesthetic environment and reduce water runoff, according to the GISP’s Web site. The group wanted the green roof to provide an educational opportunity and increase awareness of environmental issues at Brown. They also “hoped to work with the Sustainable Food Initiative and add to what they do at the community garden,” Beaulieu said. With the guidance and permission of Michael McGarty, scenic designer for the Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance and the GISP’s adviser, the group selected the University-owned building at 50 John St. as the site for their roof. McGarty said the department asked him to “create a multi-discplinary design center” in the building, currently the home of a set-building workshop. But after organizing the proper paperwork for the designated site, the group’s plans were sidelined by Facilities Management during spring break. Facilities Management told the students that “it was too much too soon,” and the liabilities were too great, Flynn said. Representatives from Facilities Management did not return calls for comment. Because they could no longer build the roof on the Brown campus, the GISP members decided to install the roof on a New York brownstone owned by one student’s family. Duncan said he would have liked to have had “more of an impact on the Brown campus.” continued on page 8

After 15 years on College Hill, Rhode Island School of Design President Roger Mandle is headed for the sands of Qatar, where he’ll become executive director of the Qatar Museums Authority, a group developing museums in the small Persian Gulf country. Mandle’s role will focus on the business aspects of the newly established QMA. He will develop a strategic plan, concepts for the intended museums and the staffing and training for them, Mandle wrote in an e-mail from Qatar. “To have a chance to develop a group of museums, almost like the Smithsonian Institution ‘from the sand up’ is a unique opportunity,” he added. From a cultural viewpoint, Qatar will be different, and Mandle said he is “highly interested in learning about Islamic culture and the Arab world.” Mandle will oversee the construction of the Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, currently the QMA’s main project, which has been designed by famed architect I.M. Pei. The museum will open on November 22 and “is setting a new standard of excellence for museum architecture everywhere,” he said. “Qatar is in extremely good

hands with a man of vision and an encyclopedic knowledge of how art and design cultural institutions are built and sustained,” John Maeda, who will replace Mandle as RISD’s president on June 2, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Maeda is currently associate director of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. The recently created QMA is “the vehicle for the aspirations of the Qatar people to create a unique complex of institutions for the 21st century,” Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, chair of the QMA board of trustees, said in a March 21 statement. “In all these areas, Roger Mandle has unsurpassed talent and experience,” he added. During his 15-year presidency, the RISD campus grew significantly, adding a new library and residential halls. Before his tenure on College Hill, Mandle was deputy director and chief curator of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Mandle’s last months at RISD will be spent “helping in the transition of my successor, Professor John Maeda, raising funds for an important scholarship initiative,” Mandle wrote, and “leading the college in completing the groundwork for a new strategic plan.” Mandle expressed enthusiasm

about Maeda. “I really like my successor and am excited by the energy, ideas and connections that he will bring to RISD at a time when his expertise is dearly needed in the art and design world,” Mandle said. He added that Maeda “will keep us on our toes!” RISD students mostly seemed unaware of Mandle’s upcoming transition from Providence to the Persian Gulf. “You could certainly say that our student body is not informed about that as it should be,” said Bjorn Muten, a RISD senior. “I think it’s great for him. It’s a really interesting job,” said Alice Costas, a RISD junior. She added that she saw his presidency “as a lot of mismanagement.” Others felt Mandle’s absence before his announced departure. “I’m a senior, and I’ve never seen him,” Monica Gonzalo said. “I’m not really familiar with what he’s done,” said Amy Diaz-Infante, a graduate student at RISD, of Mandle’s presidency. “I’ve heard really good things about Maeda.” Future president Maeda has already started communicating with the RISD community through an internal blog. “I see my goal as defining ‘the RISD Community.’ It’s as simple as that,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I believe that our RISD is your RISD ... is the world’s RISD.”

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Working group calls for tenured Watson professorships continued from page 1 scholars requires the capacity to grant tenure,” he wrote. Working on Watson The eight-person working group consists of researchers and key chairs from Watson and the economics, political science, anthropology and sociology departments, said Andrew Foster, chair of the Department of Economics and a member of the group. A March 20 memorandum sent to Kertzer by Kennedy states that the working group recommends “that the Corporation respond to the initiatives of the Watson Board of Overseers by approving the capacity to make tenured and tenure-track appointments at the Watson Institute.” The memorandum reveals that, if able to grant tenure, the institute would have “an academically powerful core faculty,” that Watson would have an enhanced “pedagogic contribution” to the “undergraduate and graduate curriculum” and that Watson scholars would be able to “pursue bold and innovative lines of scholarly inquiry.”

The memorandum also states that Watson would become more unified within the rest of the University, something echoed by the institute’s current director, Barbara Stallings. “If the tenure proposal is approved, I think the most important change will be closer integration with the rest of the University. This will imply that Watson will become more academic, including doing more teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, while still trying to maintain its mission as a policy-oriented research institute,” Stallings wrote in an e-mail. “The Watson Institute is a center for advanced research and teaching,” Kennedy wrote in an e-mail. “With tenure, I expect the institute to be more closely integrated with our social science departments, better able to contribute to graduate education and to support the (international relations) and (development studies) concentrations.” Foster said he feels that it is important to look not at how tenure would affect the direction of Watson as a whole, but more importantly, how the tenure itself will be used. “If it is used to attract first-rate

economists to engage with my department, then Watson would be a different Watson it is today,” Foster said. Tenure per se is not the issue. How it is used is the issue.” Stallings wrote that she feels the implementation of tenure designations at Watson would allow the institute to attract researchers and educators who would not come otherwise. “Some people we would like to hire won’t come without (tenure), and we have lost some people because they were offered tenured jobs elsewhere,” Stallings wrote to The Herald in an e-mail. She also wrote that tenure assures candidates for Watson positions “security, status, and academic freedom.” The working group made it clear in their meetings that before any implementation would take place, more discussion and the formation of an organized plan would have to take place. “We recommend that the Watson leadership, working closely with the Vice President for International Affairs and the Provost, develop a clear substantive plan for building a faculty at the Watson Institute, and make tenured appointments only in the context of an iterative process of strategic planning,” reads the memorandum. The working group appeared unified throughout its review meetings, Foster said. “We all shared the same kind of goal of what would be the best way to get there — I think it reflects the opinion of the campus at large,” he said. Doubting the proposal Not all individuals within Watson are fully supportive of the proposed

measure. “You need to separate the personal from the professional. I am a research professor and gave up tenure at other institutions — I do not see tenure as the holy grail of academe,” said Professor of International Studies James Der Derian, but he added he understands “tenure’s benefits when they come to retention and hiring.” Der Derian, who has been at Watson for close to seven years, said that he sees Watson as a unique institution in its inter-disciplinary approach. “Institutionally maintaining those values and structure is very important about Watson, and addressing global issues through thoroughly informed policy research,” he said. It’s difficult to know if Watson’s direction would change course as a result of the potential tenure changes, Der Derian said. “I don’t know if (the proposal) is aimed for changing course, but I don’t know how it cannot help but change the direction. ... Would (Watson) lose its pluralist, multi-disciplinary character?” he asked. Foster recognizes the concerns that some members of Watson’s faculty may have. “Watson has the flexibility to have people for short time periods depending on important topical issues of the day. Watson would become less flexible with the tenure system.” There would always be concerns of how tenure would be used, Foster said. Der Derian said it’s too early to know if the changes at Watson would prompt his leaving the institute. “It is speculative and difficult to respond to. Watson is a rare institution because it has a policy orientation. If tenure meant jeopardizing that,”

then it “would make Watson a lessappealing place,” he said. Discussions over the issue of instituting tenure at Watson will continue, Der Derian said. “There has been a lively discussion that has been frank and candid. We have seen other departments weigh in on this. How do they judge excellence in policy research? What would the criteria be for assessments of faculty?” he said. In the face of the University’s initiative to internationalize, Foster said the institution of this measure would have a positive effect. “There is a tremendous opportunity here, and it’s important that the University figures out and squares that with the interests of the Watson Board.” “Decisions have to be as much as possible an organic process in which people feel they are involved to help assure a positive outcome,” Der Derian said. Tenure is in place at some of Watson’s peer institutions, such as Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. “The Woodrow Wilson School has tenured faculty according to guidelines identical to that of Princeton University,” Princeton spokesman Steven Barnes wrote in an e-mail. Stallings wrote she recognizes the criticisms some may have. “There are trade-offs, especially between more time for research versus more teaching, also between a more policy-oriented focus versus a stronger academic one,” Stallings wrote. “These differences will be accommodated by having some people in tenured positions (assuming the proposal is approved) and others on term contracts.”

W orld & n ation Thursday, April 24, 2008

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Gen. Petraeus promoted to Middle East supervisor By Ann Scott Tyson and Thomas Ricks Washington Post

Ernesto Londono / Washington Post

A child plays in the courtyard of a Baghdad building once owned by the Baath Party. Squatters lived there until the Iraqi army evicted them last weekend.

Iraqi women must fill in for husbands By Ernesto Londono Washington Post

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Sabriyah Hilal Abadi began sleeping with a loaded AK-47 by her bed shortly after the war began. It was a comforting possession for a woman who had lost her home, her husband and, last weekend, a room in a dilapidated building she

shared with 27 squatter families, most headed by women. The mother of four fought mightily to stay in the sparse, two-stor y building in the Zayouna neighborhood of Baghdad that once belonged to Saddam Hussein’s Baath Par ty, but soldiers forced her out. Iraq’s government is intent on proving it can enforce the law. But

in its determination to rid the party building of its squatters, the women say, the government has plunged them deeper into homelessness and may have pushed others toward violence. Thousands of Iraqi women have in recent years embraced new roles as violence has claimed their men. continued on page 10

Global mobsters are the new gov’t target By Richard B. Schmitt Los Angeles T imes

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey offered a stark assessment Wednesday of a rising threat from international organized crime, saying that a new breed of mobsters was infiltrating strategic industries, providing logistical support to terrorists and becoming capable of “creating havoc in our economic infrastructure.” Launching one of his first new law-enforcement initiatives since becoming attorney general last fall, Mukasey said he recently revived a multi-agency group first established in the Johnson administration with the goal of identifying the most urgent organized crime threats around the world and developing strategies for combating them. The Organized Crime Council, composed of senior officials from nine federal law-enforcement agencies, had not met since the early 1990s when it went dormant in the wake of a series of high-profile victories against U.S. organized crime. “The challenge we face with the new breed of organized criminals is quite different from the one we faced a generation or two ago,” Mukasey said, addressing the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. “They are more sophisticated, they are richer, they have greater influence over government and political institutions worldwide, and they are savvier about using the latest technology, first to perpetrate and then cover up their crimes. “This new group of organized criminals are far more involved in our every-day lives than many people appreciate,” he said. “They touch all sectors of our economy,

dealing in ever ything from cigarettes to oil; clothing to pharmaceuticals.” Mukasey said international organized crime groups control “significant positions” in global energy and strategic materials and are expanding holdings in the U.S. materials sector. A strategic plan on fighting organized crime released by the department also said such groups manipulate securities exchanges and launder billions of dollars through legitimate financial institutions. “They are expanding their holdings in these sectors, which corrupts the normal functioning of markets and may have a destabilizing effect on U.S. geopolitical interests,” he said. Prosecutors’ attention to organized crime, like other subjects of traditional law enforcement, has been diverted since the attacks of Sept. 11, as the department has shifted money and people to thwarting terrorists. While many experts believe the opportunities for corruption are so vast that the problem will never be solved, the speech appeared to be an effort by Mukasey to signal U.S. determination. “Investigators and lawyers and the folks engaged in organized crime are perfectly aware that this (post-9/11) shift in priorities means criminals are less likely to get caught,” said Robert D. Luskin, a Washington lawyer who since 1995 has been the Justice Department approved monitor seeking to eradicate long-standing organized crime influence in the laborers union in New York. “It takes concentrated specialized talent, not unlike our anti-terrorist effort,” said John M. Dowd,

a Washington lawyer and former organized-crime chief in the Justice Department. “I am delighted to see Michael Mukasey revive it. I don’t know why it ebbs and flows. To me, it always has to be a priority.” Organized crime has a rich and colorful history at the department, going back to its battles with gangsters in the Prohibition and Depression eras. As attorney general in the 1960s, Robert F. Kennedy reestablished the nation’s attention on the broad threat posed by mobsters. “Strike force” teams helped bring down Mafia bosses and purged the Teamsters union of organized crime influences. That battle continues: In February, U.S. authorities indicted 60 people in federal court in Brooklyn including top leaders of the Gambino family. The prosecution, considered one of the biggest takedowns of the Mafia in years, alleged a web of crimes including murders and extortion schemes with links to the construction industry. Mukasey cited a number of recent arrests showing how the terrain has changed, including the arrest last month of arms trafficker Victor Bout for conspiring to sell weapons to terrorists in Colombia, and the case of a Russian organized crime kingpin known as “the Brainy Don” who is suspected of corrupting the natural gas industry in the former Soviet Union. That figure, Semion Mogilevich, was arrested in January in Moscow on tax charges. He had been indicted on racketeering charges by the U.S. in 2003, but Russian authorities have refused to extradite him. Mukasey said organized crime also had become a major engine behind international smuggling and human trafficking networks.

WASHINGTON — Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq and the public face of the war effort there, Wednesday became President Bush’s nominee to super vise U.S. militar y operations in the Middle East and Central Asia as head of Central Command, putting him in position to oversee American strategy in Iraq for years to come. Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, who worked closely with Petraeus as the No. 2 commander in Iraq until two months ago, was nominated to receive a fourth star and to take Petraeus’ current job as the leader of Multi-National Force-Iraq. Together, the moves would elevate the two American military officers most responsible for executing last year’s new counterinsurgency strategy and “surge” of nearly 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Senior officials said the shifts in top command are aimed at minimizing disruption to the military campaign in Iraq, at a time when security there remains fragile and as the prospect looms in Washington of major changes in Iraq policy after the U.S. presidential election in November. “This arrangement probably preserves the likelihood of continued momentum and progress,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in announcing the nominations at the Pentagon Wednesday morning. Referring to Odierno as Petraeus’ “right-hand man” and pointing to the officers’ close relationships with U.S. and Iraqi commanders, Gates said the decisions will “provide some continuity for a new administration,” though he added that the next president will “always have the opportunity to

make a change.” In a pattern similar to that of World War II, the nominations mark the ascent within the military of a generation of Army division commanders who rose to prominence as combat leaders during multiple battlefield tours. Petraeus led the 101st Airborne Division during the Iraq invasion, then returned as a three-star general overseeing the building of Iraqi forces before taking his current job — spending in all nearly four of the past five years in Iraq. Odierno led the fourth Infantr y Division in the Sunni Triangle early in the war and returned to Baghdad as the top commander for day-to-day militar y operations. Gates said he hopes the Senate will confirm the nominees before Memorial Day. Hearings are expected next month, and senior Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Armed Ser vices Committee Wednesday referred to Petraeus’ confirmation as a fait accompli. “In his new position, General Petraeus will have a much larger regional and strategic responsibility,” Sen. Edward Kennedy, DMass., said in a statement. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, praised the “two remarkable fighting men” and urged the Senate to confirm them quickly. Some Democrats, however, said Petraeus has focused too narrowly on Iraq. “As he begins the confirmation process to become the next commander of Centcom, General Petraeus must answer the most important question we face, which is not whether we are winning in Iraq, but why we are not defeating continued on page 9

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GISP tries to construct a green roof on a U. building continued from page 5 “The community, city and state should look to Brown for leadership in environmental projects,” McGarty said. Green roofs come in two varieties: extensive and intensive. In an extensive green roof, vegetation provides an “alternative to roof materials,” Beaulieu said. The soil is normally six inches deep and the plants used are often grasses or ones that are low to the ground and require low levels of maintenance. Intensive green roofs are heavier than extensive green roofs and are considered to be more like gardens — designed so that people can walk and enjoy themselves there. The intensive green roofs provide more aesthetic appeal, while the extensive green roofs are more functional. One major disadvantage of green roofs is the cost of installation. “Retrofitting can be expensive,” Flynn said, but he added that in the long run, the amount saved on energy consumption will displace the costs of installation. Also, green roofs are “very heavy additions,” Beaulieu said. But the

group said weight was not the reason why the project could not be completed. A structural engineer from the Rhode Island School of Design’s Department of Architecture found the structures of 50 John St. to be very strong, according to the GISP’s Web site. Gretchen Peterson, manager of the Curricular Resources and Academic Support Center, said she finds that green projects are very popular among GISP applications. “Green architecture is really a popular theme every year,” Peterson said. Though there are a number of courses at Brown on green architecture — such as ENVS 0410: “Environmental Stewardship and Sustainable Design” and ENVS 1400: “Sustainable Design in the Built Environment” — Flynn said she would like to see the University match student interest in the topic. “There are not enough professors to teach it,” Flynn said. The two environmental studies courses are both taught by the same professor. Though the GISP members won’t be the ones to build it, Brown’s first green roof is on the way. The University is planning to install a green roof on the new Creative Arts Center, scheduled to be completed in 2010.

U. to argue for field lighting in upcoming zoning hearing continued from page 3 es about 60 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, roughly the same amount as driving a Hummer H2 around the world twice would. For Harris, the only acceptable solution to the problem is to remove the lights, she said. Feldman, however, said he sees a few potential solutions that would make the situation tolerable, including lowering the height of the posts, shielding the lights better and changing the system so the fields can be lit independently from one another, he said. Chapman said lowering the lamps’ height may not get the residents the result they want. He said taller posts allow for the light to be more easily focused on the fields, and that shorter posts would diffuse more light into the

neighborhood. “We had the concerns of the neighbors in mind,” Chapman said. The field is currently used by the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams and the women’s rugby teams, among others, for practices and games. According to Jessica Colmenares ’11, a member of the rugby team, the lights are “the perfect height.” In comparison to other fields where she has practiced, the lights on Berylson Field do a better job of illuminating the whole area, she said. As for now, Chapman said the lights will stay up until the Zoning Board hearing, where the University will petition to have the decision reversed. If that fails, the University will apply for a variance to allow the taller light, he said.

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Petraeus appointed to Childhood even better, study shows run Central Command By Donna St. George Washington Post

continued from page 7 al-Qaeda,” Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., said in a statement. Gates also announced that his senior military assistant, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, will replace Odierno as Bush’s nominee to become the Army’s vice chief of staff. Chiarelli, a veteran of two commands in Iraq who has written articles advocating fresh thinking within the Army, would run the ser vice day-to-day and would seek to manage the strain on the force from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The personnel changes come at a critical time for decisions on troop levels in Iraq, currently at 156,000. Petraeus testified before Congress this month that after five U.S. brigades withdraw from Iraq by July, he will require at least 45 days to evaluate the impact of the reductions on security before assessing whether to recommend further reductions. But Gates said Petraeus will decide whether to bring out another brigade, about 3,500 troops, before he leaves Iraq in “late summer or early fall,” suggesting an immediate decision after the 45-day evaluation. “I would expect that General Petraeus would ... carry out not only the evaluation, but that first decision in terms of, are we able to draw down another brigade combat team?” Gates said. Subsequently, the job of making regular weekly evaluations of troop levels will pass to Odierno, he said. Another key question the three nominees would face, if confirmed, is how to balance the demands for U.S. ground forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, while also allowing U.S. troops more time at home to recuperate and train for other missions. Top U.S. commanders in Afghanistan, where a record 32,000 American troops are deployed, have asked for as many as three more brigades, which senior commanders say would be available only if drawdowns from Iraq continue. Pentagon officials are weighing whether the command structure in Afghanistan should be changed, Gates said, while the overall strategy for the countr y is also under review. Violence in Afghanistan increased sharply last year. “One fascinating question will be the degree to which Petraeus’s Iraq counterinsurgency doctrine will work in Afghanistan,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution. The relatively close relationship between Odierno and Petraeus could make such decisions easier, in contrast to what officers described as friction last year between Petraeus and Adm. William “Fox” Fallon, who resigned abruptly as Centcom chief last month.

Thanks for reading.

Indeed, militar y officials familiar with the relationship between Petraeus and Odierno said mutual trust will make it easier for Petraeus to turn his attention to pressing regional issues such as Iran, Pakistan and Lebanon while Odierno assumes the reins in Iraq. As Centcom chief, Petraeus will oversee more than 200,000 U.S. militar y personnel in the region. “Petraeus has the opportunity to hand off with confidence and expand his area of control and responsibility,” said Lt. Col. Nathan Freier, a former adviser to Odierno in Iraq. Both Petraeus and Odierno have voiced concern over what they say is Iran’s training, financing and provision of sophisticated weapons to insurgents and militia in Iraq who are attacking U.S. troops. In congressional testimony this month, Petraeus cited what he considers Iran’s significant role in Iraq as the foremost problem in the region. But rather than push for a military confrontation with Iran, he is likely to focus on ways of minimizing its influence in Iraq. Gates said the two commanders have identical views on Iran. “It is a hard position, because what the Iranians are doing is killing American servicemen and women inside Iraq,” he said. Retired Gen. Jack Keane, a former Army vice chief of staff under whom Petraeus and Odierno both served, said Petraeus “is responsible for a stunning turnaround (in Iraq) and his knowledge of the region also is well known. He brings to Central Command ... a stature and credibility to be able to operate in the region that is unprecedented.”

WASHINGTON — In a wide-ranging look at how children have fared in their first decade of life, a study to be released Thursday offers a promising picture of American childhood: Sixth-graders feel safer at school. Reading and math scores are up for 9-year-olds. More preschoolers are vaccinated. Fewer are poisoned by lead. The analysis, which created a composite index of more than 25 key national indicators, reports a nearly 10 percent boost in children’s well-being from 1994 to 2006. This overall improvement comes in spite of two significant downtrends: a worsening in rates of childhood obesity and in low-birth-weight babies. “There are some really encouraging signs of progress,” said Ruby Takanishi, president of the nonprofit Foundation for Child Development, which funded the research. “I think it’s important as a country ... to see that there are things that parents can do, that government can do, that institutions can do, to make measurable differences for children.” Experts familiar with the report credited shifts in government policy, in the economy and in parenting for the advances highlighted in the study, done by Kenneth Land, a Duke University sociologist and demographer. But they also cautioned that significant problems remain and that the recent economic downturn could take a toll. Andrew Cherlin, a professor of sociology and public policy at Johns Hopkins University, noted that the greatest progress tracked by the report occurred before the nation’s economy slowed in 2001. “With the economy weakening further, we may see an additional slowing of the improvement or perhaps even

some backsliding,” he said. The report brought together a broad collection of mostly federal data, much of it from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bureau of the Census, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice. In some cases, calculations were done for missing years. The study is unusual for its melding of trend lines over 12 years: in education, health, safety, economics, social relationships and community involvement. The authors said the idea was to examine how the younger half of American children is doing — apart from generally improving statistics on teenage pregnancy and substance abuse. The report showed, for example, that mortality rates for children ages 1 to 4 have declined by one-third, from 42.9 per 100,000 in 1994 to 28.1 in 2006. Land cited possible reasons including better medical care and nutrition, mandator y use of car seats and safer playgrounds. The homicide rate for children ages 5 to 9 dropped by half, from 1.2 per 100,000 in 1994 to 0.6 in 2005. “Even for relatively rare events, that’s still good news,” Land said. Another statistic that stood out was in the number of sixth-grade students who said they feared attack or harm at school, or on the way to or from school. The report showed a 36 percent decline, from 14.3 percent in 1995 to 9.1 percent in 2006. That progress came as fewer mothers smoked during pregnancy, with statistics showing a decline from 14.6 percent in 1994 to 9.3 percent in 2006, also a 36 percent drop. Craig Ramey, director of the Center on Health and Education at Georgetown University, said he took heart in the findings. “We still have quite substantial levels

of problems to deal with, but isn’t it nice to see some trend lines that say some programs are having impact?” he said. In family life, more parents limited television watching with three or more rules about programs or hours in front of the screen. For children ages 3 to 5, the percentage climbed from 54 percent in 1994 to 70 percent in 2006. For children ages 6 to 11, the numbers rose to 73.2 in 2006, from 60.3 in 1994. To a lesser extent, more parents read to their young children. The percentages of children who were read to by a relative every day in the previous week rose from 57 percent in 1994 to 59.8 percent in 2006. Parents are more engaged than in previous generations, said Takanishi, but “they can’t do the job alone, and government policies can’t do the job alone,” she said. “It takes both.” At school, more children attended full-day kindergarten — with 70 percent enrolled in 2006, up from 48.6 percent in 1994. And among 9-year-olds, National Assessment of Educational Progress scores in reading and math increased by what Land described as significant amounts. Scores remained flat in science. Several exper ts suggested that some of the good news was the result of a blend of research, policy changes and public health campaigns, as in cases of smoking during pregnancy and exposure to lead-based paint. With lead, the study reported a striking decline in the percentage of children under 6 with elevated levels of lead in their blood, which can have damaging health and neurological effects. In 1997, 7.6 percent of children tested positive at elevated levels; the percentage fell to 1.2 in 2006, marking an 84 percent decline, according to the report.

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SDS officially sanctioned Iraqi women face unique struggles as student group by UCS continued from page 7

continued from page 5 major changes.” Students for a Democratic Society was given Categor y I status after a debate regarding the group’s treatment of Faunce 301, a room to which the group does not officially have access. Until now, SDS was not an officially sanctioned student group. In a letter from Communications Chair Gabe Kussin ’09 read aloud at the meeting, Kussin said SDS’ name is spray-painted into the room’s carpet. “I don’t feel morally okay with

approving this group,” said Li, the major opponent of approving the group who was present. A motion to give the group Categor y I status eventually passed with 15 yes votes, one no vote from Li and four abstentions. Brown Poler Bears received Category I status. The Uganda Action Movement, the African Sun and GAIA at Brown were upgraded from Category I to Category II. Friends of Turkey, which UCS de-categorized last week because it believed the group had been inactive, was reinstated as a Category II group.

Two days until your demise, College Hill ‘Dependent

For Abadi, 43, the turning point came when she accepted the powerful assault rifle from friends concerned about her welfare. “Before the invasion — never,” said Abadi, who oscillated between rage and sadness during three interviews. Speaking about the army, she waggled her finger. Speaking about her son in college, she looked dismal. Speaking about her old house, she began to weep. T imes have changed, she said. “The women now take on the responsibilities of men and women.” Nearly 1 million women in Iraq are widows or divorcees or their husbands are missing, according to Samira al-Mosawi, a Shiite member of parliament who heads the women’s af fairs committee. She said the number, an estimate reached by several government agencies, includes women who became widows during Iraq’s war with Iran in the 1980s. Mosawi said approximately 86,000 widows are receiving about $40 a month from the government. Aid organizations and government agencies are unable to help more widows because of a lack of funds and the challenges of doing social work in volatile neighborhoods. “Frankly speaking, there’s not much attention paid to the social issues in the countr y,” she said in an inter view. “Attention goes to security and defense.” Before U.S. troops strode into Baghdad in the spring of 2003,

Abadi worked as a seamstress to complement the earnings of her husband, who worked at a government factor y. She was optimistic during the days after the invasion. Her impressions of Americans, shaped largely by a news stor y she saw on television, gave her hope. The stor y was about an hours-long effort to rescue a cat stuck in a sewage pipe. “If those people are so good to the animals,” she said, “I was expecting good things.” But the invasion and its aftermath brought more troubles than blessings. When the family’s rent rose from about $20 a month to more than $80, Abadi moved into the building that had housed Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party after the structure had been looted and set ablaze. “During Saddam’s time, no one had a right to raise rent on the people,” she said. “After the invasion, the rules were gone.” The building had no windows or doors, she said. Inside she found mounds of debris and ashes. “It took me one day just to clear a path so I could sleep,” she said. Soon, 27 other Shiite families joined her, each occupying a small room. They got the electricity running and the water flowing and began operating like an extended family that included 43 children. Only eight of the families were led by men. After the invasion, crime became rampant in Baghdad. Then sectarian violence flared. Mass bombings became routine. And kidnappings occurred daily. Abadi’s husband and a friend were taken in July 2005. “They entered an area they weren’t supposed to enter,” she said, sounding numb. “Armed men took them with their car.” Betoul Jawad, 45, lost her husband in July 2006. Men called her and asked for prepaid phone cards as a condition to let her speak to her husband. She bought the cards but did not get him on the line. The men stopped calling. “We lost contact with him,” she said. “We don’t know anything.” A third woman interrupted to provide the name of her husband. “Can you run his name through the computer?” she asked. The war in Iraq has displaced about 2.7 million residents, according to the International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental organization. Hundreds have occupied government buildings, a situation Iraqi officials say is untenable. The campaign to evict squatters from these buildings was one of the cornerstones of a plan launched last year to improve security. Brig. Gen. Abdullah Abdul Karim Abdul Sattar, commander of the Iraqi army brigade responsible for Zayouna, said squatters have brought crime to neighborhoods. He said many rent out their own houses in other parts of the city. “Ever y government building should be empty from intruders,” he said in an inter view in his office, which is decorated with several photographs of him with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. “Many of these families have houses,” he added. The general said a member of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, lived in the building in Zayouna. Iraq’s government, con-

trolled by political parties at odds with al-Sadr’s, has cracked down on the militia in recent weeks. Abadi acknowledged that the Mahdi Army member was a resident and said that she often urged him to leave the militia. Early this month, the residents were given two weeks to abandon the building. Initially, Abadi was defiant. “I will stay inside and have them destroy the building over my head,” she said at the time. If they were forced out, she said, her son Muqdam, 19, an engineering student, might be forced to drop out of college to help support the family. “This is how you push young men to become terrorists,” she said angrily, as her son stood quietly nearby, clicking on a cellphone, eyes downcast. The women in the building should lead the fight, Abadi decided. Shortly after the soldiers gave them an ultimatum, she packed the women into a handful of taxis and traveled to the military base where Abdul Sattar works. Soldiers at a checkpoint told the women the general was not inside. The women assumed he was lying and walked toward the building. “Shots were fired in the air,” Abadi said. Instead of turning back, the women ran toward the base until soldiers pulled them away. As they left, dejected, she noticed that one of the soldiers was weeping. Abdul Sattar confirmed Abadi’s account but denied that his men had fired their weapons. Days later, soldiers placed waisthigh yellow cement blocks around the former Baath Party building. They cut off the power and knifed the water tanks, residents said. Abadi never used her AK-47 to defend her building. Iraqi soldiers confiscated it. She later noted, in a moment of levity, that she had fired it only once, when a stray cat sneaked into her room at night, making her think an intruder had broken in. Days after the yellow blocks were laid, a thicker wall was built around them and concertina wire was fixed on the roof. Soldiers told the residents that the men would be arrested if they didn’t leave, Abadi said. The Mahdi Army member in the building warned soldiers the militia would retaliate, Abdul Sattar said. The residents decided that the men should leave, at least temporarily, thinking that the women might be better suited to stave off eviction. But soldiers rolled in on Friday and took over the building. One by one, the families left. Some called relatives and asked for shelter. Abadi moved in with her brother and his wife in Amin district, in eastern Baghdad, where they share a room. She is looking for a new place to stay. Amin is far more dangerous than Zayouna, she said, and her two sons now have longer commutes to class. An Iraqi army convoy driving toward the former Baath Party building was attacked with a roadside bomb over the weekend, Abdul Sattar said. He said it had probably been placed in retaliation for the eviction. When Abadi heard about the bomb, she asked whether it had killed anyone. “Thank God,” she said, upon learning that no soldiers had been hurt. “They follow orders. They have not done anything wrong.”

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Thursday, April 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Local breweries meet industry challenges Nine players score in game against Manhattan continued from page 3

lines of beer in Rhode Island and only exports to Connecticut and Massachusetts. “We really wanted to give an identity to our beer and Rhode Island beer in general,” he says. The brewery makes about 4,500 barrels of beer a year in 20-barrel batches. Though some brews take longer to make, most are done in about two weeks, Ryan says. “A lot of the mantra of the craft beer movement is to drink local,” Glaser says. “It’s really easy to do that in New England.” “We also wanted to make beers that didn’t just focus on hops, (but) that also focused on the malt characteristic,” Ryan says. The brewery’s Hurricane Amber Ale has a “sweet malty flavor balanced by ample but delicate hopping,” according to the company’s Web site. But the current shortage of hops is not what turned the company to maltier beers. To change the recipes of their beer “just to react to a cost situation doesn’t seem like a good idea for us,” Ryan says. The focus on malt makes Coastal Extreme Brewing’s beer noticeably different from other craft beer, he says. Union Station Brewery, on the other hand, is turning to different kinds of beer to deal with the ingredient shortage. The brewery, part of the John Harvard’s Brew House chain, is “experimenting with some Belgian ales,” Crossett says, which get most of their flavor from yeast, not hops and barley. This makes “a nice, big-bodied, full-flavored beer,” he says. India Pale Ales, which rely on hops for their bitter taste, are very expensive to make, Crossett says, and “a lot of craft brewers are starting to adjust.” Still, he says, “it’s tough to see where it goes from here.” Despite the struggle against high-priced ingredients, Union Station has not stopped making its most well-known beers — the Golden Spike, the brewpub’s “flagship pale ale” with a “nice light American

style” and the Half Bay IPA, according to Crossett. The brewer y produces all of its beer in the restaurant using a 10-barrel system. The small batches allow for more “flavor and really a lot more depth,” Crossett says. “It’s really all about just being local,” he says. “Something that’s unique about brewpubs is that they can brew in very small batches,” Glaser says. Union Station Brewer y works with a 10-barrel system, Crossett says, to create “hand-crafted, smallbatch” brews. The beer-making process itself is “pretty simple,” he says. Like Union Station Brewer y, Trinity Brewhouse, Providence’s other brewpub, takes advantage of the ability to change its beer menu throughout the year. But Trinity, which opened in 1994, has taken its role as a brewpub one step further — the restaurant’s Trinity Beer Company began selling its bottled Trinity IPA at liquor stores and bars in 2005. Trinity’s head brewer, Sean Larkin, “comes from a food background,” Glaser says. “It’s always interesting to see chefs” making beer with unique recipes and tastes, Glaser says. Trinity’s most popular beer is its IPA, but the brewhouse always serves either a lager or pilsener and a porter or stout. “What we focus on is stuff that we feel is seasonal,” says Josh Miller, owner of the brewhouse. The growing popularity of craft beers can be attributed in part to a maturing American beer palette, Miller says. “Consumers are starting to warm up to full-flavored beers.” The “resurgence” of larger microbrews, like Samuel Adams and Dogfish Head, has helped too, Crossett says. Samuel Adams Boston Lager was the second highest selling craft beer in 2007, after Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Herz compares the increased demand for craft beers to the rise of dark chocolate: “People want flavor-

Trudeau ’09: Time to get pumped for NFL draft continued from page 16 again rise to fame as quickly as Scout’s Inc.’s Todd McShay? Anyone who has followed the draft to date is starting to feel guilty as they realize McShay sometimes makes more sense than Kiper. Meanwhile, anyone who hasn’t followed the draft but has seen Sportscenter at least once in the last six weeks has seen this guy. He’s ever ywhere… like that one person that you haven’t met, but somehow see twice a day ever y day. Will running back Darren McFadden or quarterback Matt Ryan fall to the Jets at pick number six? The J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets lack a franchise quarterback and a dynamic playmaker on the offensive side of the ball, making D-Fad and Ryan particularly intriguing. Will money rule the draft? The

ridiculous price tags on top selections make trades into the top five unlikely, but it’s possible the capconscience 18 and one-ers (The Patriots) will decide no one is worth the $40 million that their selection is likely to cost and trade down. Will Madden 2009 outdo past draft day commercials? Electronic Arts often reveals their first TV ads during day one of the NFL draft featuring draft prospects. In the past, they’ve produced instant cult classics, such as Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs’ masterpiece: “13 sacks… owned by me, Terrell Suggs. Two sacks… of dirty laundry, owned by me, Ray Lewis, for you, Terrell Suggs.” Does it get any better than an entire afternoon of watching your favorite team’s future unfold in front of your ver y eyes? Wings, football and Mel Kiper’s hair? Sign me up.

Get pumped about the news.

ful and diverse products.” The northeast region is third in craft beer case sales, ranking after California and the West, according to the Brewers Association, and craft beer makes up 9.9 percent of beer sold in supermarkets. “A lot of people are getting tired of the Bud Lights and the Coors Lights,” Crossett says. But craft beer’s higher price tag is a snag in its popularity, Ryan says. “It’s more expensive than Budweiser or Coors or Miller,” he says, but “it also tastes quite a bit different.” A six-pack from Coastal Extreme Brewing costs about $7.49, and a six-pack from Trinity costs $7.99, but the same amount of Bud Light costs more than $2 less. Big-name American lagers “tend not to be as assertive in flavor,” he says. “When people try our beer, there’s a flavor profile hurdle they have to get over. We think it’s a hurdle they should want to get over.” “Where I see the biggest opportunity for us is getting people to stop drinking some of this imported beer,” Ryan says. People who drink imported beer are already willing to spend more, so “you don’t have to get over the price hurdle at that point.” “Don’t just think because you spent more money you got something better,” Ryan says.

continued from page 16 Manhattan continued its run and within five minutes increased its score to four. But a goal from Holland stopped the rally with 20 seconds left in the half and the Bears posted a solid 10-4 lead at the break. “That (playing down to their level) was talked about at half time. The second half was much more consistent,” DeLuca said. The Bears jumped into the second half much like the first. Jesse Nunn ’09 struck first off a freeposition shot, earning her second goal of the game 2:02 into the half. Although Brown started scoring relatively early, by that time in the first half, the team had already grossed three goals. But two minutes later, the Bears proved that they weren’t finished with the Jaspers. A spin move around her defender freed up Vitkus for a pass to Nunn, who put one in on the left side of the net for her third goal of the night. This put Bruno up 12-4 at 34:14. Brown’s offense was patient and precise for the remainder of the game. The Bears never intended to stop scoring, but instead aimed

to work on their play. “We were really looking for assisted goals,” Kelly said. “Just pass the ball, no one-versus onedrives, make connections with our teammates and move the ball on attack.” Mirroring the first half, the Jaspers scored all their goals of the second half in the last seven minutes, managing four more goals, while Bruno put in an extra six before the final whistle. Although the Bears’ letdown at the end of the first half led to a late onset of Jasper goals, McDonald attributed this sequence of delayed scoring to “just the flow of the game.” Nine different Brown players scored goals in Tuesday’s contest, including four from Vitkus and Nunn — marking their 27th and 26th goals of the season, respectively — and two goals apiece from Holland and DeLuca, as well as goals from Justine Lupo ’08, Kelly Robinson ’09, Kelly, Kiki Manners ’10 and Winship. Goalkeepers Melissa King ’08 and Maggie Suprey ’11 contributed to the win with three saves each. The Bears will host Princeton this Saturday at 1 p.m. in their last Ivy League match and second-tolast game of the season.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

W. rugby now headed to Final Four continued from page 16 grueling match for Bruno, who had to turn around to play again the next day. But the Bears were not distracted by fatigue, jet lag, high altitude or anything else because they had to bounce back against No. 4 seed UC Davis, who defeated UCLA the day before, also by a score of 50-12. “It was clear all weekend that our players focused their emotions in the right place, blocked out distractions and just got their jobs done,” Club President Kalie Gold ’08 wrote in an e-mail. Brown needed all that focus against the Aggies, who were almost as big as West Chester and tackled better. They were able to contain the high-scoring Brown attack and keep the match close with a very organized defense. Bruno got on the board first with 15 minutes to play in the first half when No. 8 Alex Hartley ’10 scored off a lineout from 15 meters. Brown missed the conversion and took a 5-0 lead into the half, despite possessing the ball and keeping it in UC Davis territory. Bydwell added to the lead after a victorious scrum when she broke through the Aggie line with a 50-meter dash. The conversion made it 12-0, though UC Davis’ tri-line defense continually frustrated Bruno. The Aggies fought hard in the rucks, which slowed the ball coming out to the Brown backs and allowed the UC Davis backs to regroup and step up

M. golfer sets course record continued from page 16 The highlight of the tournament for the Bears came early on day one, when Haertel finished his first 18 holes at 67, four strokes under par. With this score, Haertel set a new course record, beating the old record set by PGA tour professional Hale Irwin in June of 2004 by one solid stroke. But Haertel didn’t hold this position for long. During the next round of golf, Penn’s Michael Blodgett shot another 67, sharing both Haertel’s course record and his first place individual standing in the tournament. Both Blodgett and Haertel finished off the day with an even par 142. Other highlights from day one included Malloy’s scores of 73 and 78. His combined score of 151 put him in position to snag a 12th place finish. Chris Hoffman ’09 was not too far behind shooting 80 and 83 over the first two rounds for a total score of 163. Rounding out the Bears were John Giannuzzi ’10 and Ryan Larson ’08, who scored a first-day totals of 172 and 173, respectively. This put Brown in seventh place going into day two. On Sunday, Haertel continued to play well, shooting a 79 in the tournament’s final round. Unfortunately, the round was not good enough, and Blodgett claimed the individual championship title. Malloy shot an 83 in his last round, putting him in 19th place overall. As opposed to the rest of their team, Hoffman, Giannuzzi and Larson all improved during the final round of play. Hoffman shot another 80, while Giannuzzi and Larson each shaved off a couple strokes to score 84. The Bears will finish their season this Friday at the Northeast Invitational in Newport.

hard to make tackles. UC-Davis stormed back with two tries, including one with under five minutes left, to tie the score at 12-12, but Brown had a little bit left in the tank after a lot of travel and two exhausting matches. “Fitness is our greatest asset,” Heffernan said. “We can outwork any team which allows us to execute, even in the late minutes of a match.” Bruno did execute to perfection as the clock wound down. With under three minutes remaining in the match, Brown had another lineout inside the UC Davis 22-meter line. The throw came in straight, something Brown had struggled with all day because of strong winds. The ball went through the hands to Bydwell outside. She drew the defense and put wing Kristen Sylvester ’08 away on the outside for the game-winning try in the waning moments. “We were able to sync our forward and back play beautifully on (the game-winning play) by disorganizing their defense and having the ball go through everyone’s hands,” Ibarra said. Heffernan also felt as though the play was the culmination of all that the team had been working on all game. “The clock was ticking, virtually no time left and every player did her job right on time — it was impossible to stop,” Heffernan said. The team was aided throughout the weekend by strong team spirit and support from a number of parents, according to Gold.

“I would say that no sideline was as boisterous as ours — we simply never quieted down,” Gold said. “The refs were even impressed.” The team was very excited about the victories and “to be regarded as a top program,” according to Heffernan. Though the team was tired from the trip and intense matches, it will be back at work in preparation for the next round, each member trying to match the intensity of the past weekend. “Every player has value for us,” Gold said. “It was very clear to me throughout the trip how much these women care about each other, and you could feel that every day.” The wins put Brown in the Final Four at Stanford. There, Bruno will face off with defending national champion and perennial powerhouse Penn State. This is the furthest Brown has ever been, and it has been a long road for the current seniors. Four years ago, according to Carlson, Brown was not even good enough to make the New England Final Four and now they are headed for a shot at a national championship. “I think for the seniors especially, this progression has been incredibly rewarding and something we never would have predicted four years ago,” she said. Though it is uncharted territory for the Bears, Ibarra is confident they will put up a good fight against the Nittany Lions. “We’ve never been here before, but I have no doubt that we have what it takes to bring it home.”

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E ditorial & L etters Page 14

Thursday, April 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Rudeness isn’t effective As Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 — who once rallied outside the hall where he now works — can attest, protests are an important part of campus culture and often are the first step to advancing necessary change. Depending on how they are carried out, protests can be effective vehicles to push forward dialogue and progress. But they can also simply be attention-grabbing stunts that dominate headlines, in the end only leading to further polarization on an issue. Hillary Clinton’s visit to Brown in the spring of 2006 saw both kinds of demonstrations. Outside Meehan Auditorium, various anti-war groups protested Clinton’s voting record with signs — by no means mild, with slogans like “You have blood on your hands” — and speeches that the crowd waiting to enter the event could hear. When the audience took their seats inside Meehan Auditorium, they saw another kind of protest. Several attendees stood up during Clinton’s speech and shouted so that she could not continue her lecture. The first demonstration was effective because it was not disruptive nor aggressively forced upon its listeners. The second, however, was both. It served only to immediately polarize its listeners against the protesters, precluding any sort of dialogue and further ingraining nationwide perceptions of Brown as an ultra-leftist institution that refuses to hear views from any other point on the political spectrum. Tuesday night, when two students threw pies at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, they lost any chance to pursue constructive dialogue with him, which they claim to want. A pastry to the face is not an invitation to exchange ideas. It is simply a form of humiliation. The audience’s reaction to the pie-tossing shows that the activists gained little sympathy to their cause through the use of ludicrous tactics. The attendees applauded loudly not when the pie was thrown, but rather when Friedman regained his composure and started to return to the lecture podium. A more effective way to protest is to engage, not to humiliate; to start a dialogue with reasoned opinion, not to shock onlookers and use the resulting minute of fame to shout. Vocalizing diverse views, and even harsh criticisms, is an entrenched part of guest lectures on campus. Most audience members address disputes with speakers in the question-and-answer session following those lectures. Protesters are welcome to raise both their voices and their protest signs outside the lecture where they will not obstruct others’ rights to free speech. Inside a lecture, silent forms of protest, like wearing clothing with protest slogans or displaying banners, can be both effective and respectful. Protests should not be an event but rather a sincere effort to start constructive dialogue. A pie in the face is memorable, but given its inappropriate and insulting nature, this kind of publicity stunt will only hamper future attempts to discuss the issues that brought it about.

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

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

C hristopher L ee

L e tt e r s Friedman pie stunt displays disturbing intolerance To the Editor: I was disappointed, but not surprised, when a law school classmate forwarded me the Providence Journal blurb about the silly pie-throwing stunt at the Thomas Friedman lecture the other night. People should not be too quick to dismiss the antics as the work of a couple overzealous individuals. Such incidents are only the symptom of a culture of intolerance for dissimilar views at Brown among many of the more active advocacy groups. In my time at Brown I witnessed in many of

the politically-active circles an unwillingness to show basic respect for other’s viewpoints, to the point that many of these Brown students think some viewpoints do not deserve the right to be voiced. Vocal students at Brown should ask themselves — if I’m not even willing to let those I disagree with speak, why in the world do I expect anybody to listen to me? Matt Lawrence ‘06 April 23

Atal ’08 misunderstands Catholicism To the Editor: In a recent column (“Reclaiming the ivory tower,” April 22) Maha Atal wrote that the pope’s praise for “Catholic educators who infuse all aspects of their teaching with religious doctrine” implies “no performances of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ or ‘The Laramie Project’ on campus, and no courses on evolutionary biology.” Atal is correct to assert that some Catholic Universities have placed limits on students’ freedom to produce “The Vagina Monologues.” Although I am not familiar with any Catholic schools that have blocked ‘The Laramie Project’, I do not know enough about that debate to assess her claim, except to note that Gonzaga, Notre Dame, and Georgetown have permitted screenings of the film and productions of the play. Setting these two examples aside, however, Atal’s

last claim is simply ill-inspired. There is no reason whatsoever that evolutionary biology courses would not be taught at Catholic universities. The Church has explicitly stated since 1950 that evolutionary theory does not preclude Catholic teachings, and both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the potential compatibility between Catholicism and evolutionary theory. For more information, one should refer to Ken Miller’s books on religion and evolution, or the relevant Papal Encyclical, “Humani Generis.” There are many religious institutions that refuse to offer courses on evolution, but Catholic universities are not among them. Elizabeth O’Neill ‘08 April 22

Steve DeLucia, Aditya Voleti, Designers Aubrey Cann, Hannah Doyle, Anne Fuller, Copy Editors 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 24, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

See you soon, Gail! BY max chaiken Opinions Columnist As I bought my coffee at the Blue Room and opened to the editorial page of The Herald a few weeks ago I was shocked and saddened by a letter to the editor — Gail was leaving for the spring. After countless “good mornings” and “have a nice days,” Gail has become as much a fixture of the Ratty (and accordingly the Brown experience) as there could possibly be. She is a warm, friendly and familiar face, and she will most certainly be missed. But after all this ran through my mind, I started to ponder the nature of Brown students’ fascinating communal relationship with Gail. Why is it that Gail, but not Jose, Fatima or any other chef or cashier at Brown, has captivated our attention and our love? According to the University’s Web site, Brown employs nearly 2,800 staff and yet we only know a handful. It seems that at best we do not know the staff and at worst we ignore them. Instead of attempting to cultivate the same rapport that the community has with Gail, we are largely content to view the rest of the Brown staff merely as employees of the University that we attend. So, over the past couple of weeks I have been making an extra effort to say “hello” and “thank you” and all of the proprieties

that students sometimes forget when they are in a hurr y. It has been an illuminating experience. I had a nice conversation with one of the security guards at the SciLi. I say thanks to Paul (the janitor of Marcy House) whenever I see him. Granted, my anecdotal obser vations do

are normally rude, mean or arrogant if they forget to say “hello,” or “thank you,” when they are in a rush. But it does seem like we should do something as a community to show more appreciation for the employees who make our University run. I came up with a few ideas.

Why is it that Gail, but not Jose, Fatima or any other chef or cashier at Brown, has captivated our attention and our love? According to the University’s Web site, Brown employs nearly 2,800 staff and yet we seem to only know a handful. not provide a systematic exploration of the relationships that students have with Brown staff. I am sure that many other students are also friendly with the security guards at the SciLi and the safeRIDE drivers. Nor am I suggesting that Brown students

I first thought about creating an “employee of the week” award for dif ferent groups of staff. There could be one in the Ratty and one in the V-Dub, one in the SciLi for Media Ser vices and so on. If students saw a picture and a few sen-

tences about a previously unknown employee ever y week, it might give them a chance to approach these employees and congratulate them on their hard work. Of course, this might be difficult to implement — selecting winners and losers could be problematic — so it may not work for ever y division of the Brown staff. Then I wondered whether the Herald could do a weekly feature on different staff members. Instead of polling students on various topics, it might be worthwhile to survey the staff. Even hearing from a handful of staff members each week would help students cultivate new Brown employee obsessions and relieve some of the pressure on Gail. But as I sat around tr ying to come up with ideas, I realized that I was on the wrong track. Brown doesn’t need a feature or an employee of the week in order to acquaint students with staff. Brown students just need to exercise a little compassion. Maybe, in this sense, Gail’s brief absence benefits us all. It benefits Gail because we will all be excited to see her when she returns. It benefits the broader community because it affords us an opportunity to meet and interact with new staff celebrities. So, Gail, I wish you the best. And I hope that your brief hiatus from life at Brown will enable the student body to get to know other cashiers, security guards, drivers and janitors just a bit better.

Max Chaiken ’09 is the reason that the Ratty runs out of Hot Ham on Bulky Roll

The reality of activism against Banner BY KATE BROCKWEHL Guest Columnist Although I appreciated his response to Tyler Rosenbaum’s ’11 column (“Banner went too far,” April 16), I found Matt Gelfand’s ‘08 letter (“Banner advocacy created the prerequisite fiasco,” April 17) both incomplete and misleading. One of greatest problems of the Undergraduate Council of Students and the student body is their lack of institutional memory. Although I am no longer on UCS, I was, and I have an advantage in this realm of memory because I will see more UCS bodies than most students – six, to varying degrees. It is neither fair nor accurate to celebrate the legacy of John Gillis ’07 while criticizing the tenure of Michael Glassman ’09 on the issue of Banner. If Gillis had had the power to address these concerns, Glassman would not have had them on his plate, after all. I started at Brown in the fall of 2004, with Gelfand ’08, I assume; Brown was working to implement Banner then. As first-years we registered on paper, but Banner was coming, even if many were unaware. In 2005-06 many UCS members tried to warn students about Banner and foster activism while at the same time advocating for students with administrators and the Banner team. For the record, the administration and those who were working on Banner did solicit some student input. Members of UCS and the few community members who chose to attend UCS meetings did have chances to voice their concerns. That year, when I was actively a member, I can promise that Banner frightened many on UCS. David Beckoff ’08, Sara Damiano ’08, Jon Margolick ’06, Sarah Saxton-Frump ’07 and Zachary Townsend ’10 — to name but a few of many — were not arguing against

eliminating the trek to University Hall; they were concerned about elements that define Brown changing. As a Development Studies concentrator who has taken anthropology courses and has had the privilege of traveling and living in countries often described as having numerous “cultures,” I am reticent to refer to aspects of this institution as part of a single “culture.” Nevertheless, I have heard many students use the word about Brown, and I agree that there are elements of this institution which distinguish it from other undergraduate ones. I would argue that a – or even the – key theme

deciding what courses they will take in September. The reality is that if one does not preregister for many classes, one is unlikely to get in. It is true that individual professors can institute their own policies and essentially ignore Banner’s rules, but, overall, Banner rules. As the Banner era drew closer, students on UCS and in other leadership positions at Brown remained active. In 2006-07 Beckoff and Townsend on the College Curriculum Council, Damiano as UCS Academic and Administrative Affairs chair and Gillis as UCS president worked together to fight against

The harsh reality is that all this will be forgotten in a few years as students graduate and new ones matriculate — and the culture that attracted many of us to Brown will be gone — unless students act now to make Banner work for us instead of against us. in Brown’s “culture” is choice; Banner affects how students make choices and the extent to which they can. Banner gives me more course choices than it provides rising sophomores and fewer choices than it grants rising seniors. Two years ago this week, students were deciding what classes they were considering taking the coming fall. This week, instead, more students are

many of the issues Rosenbaum and others now gripe about — course caps, prerequisiteenforcement, enrollment based primarily on seniority and more. Based on his letter, I trust that Gelfand himself worked to try to spread awareness about how the introduction of online registration through Banner would mean much more than simply switching from paper to the internet.

Although these self-made activists may have done a poor job making the student body aware, the student body at large did itself harm by not heeding the warnings, some of which were quite loud. What was once truly a shopping period lies crippled: many courses’ enrollment limits are reached during online preregistration. And yes, now prerequisites will be enforced to a degree that they were not before. But this ought not to be news, as this has been in the works for years, and UCS members have been wary of Banner for years. Gillis did not solve and did not have the power to address these issues as president and neither does Glassman. Over my eight semesters at Brown and three away (I heard anti-Banner sentiments from as far away as Durban, South Africa), I have seen Joel Payne ‘06, Brian Bidadi ’07, Saxton-Frump, Gillis and Glassman; I will see Brian Becker ’09 next year and someone else the year after that. All have and will have their strengths and weaknesses, passions and pet projects. The reality is that UCS only has so much power. Unless Brown students are willing to react to Banner en masse as students did in 1969, the Brown administration will continue to do as it pleases. Banner was never in students’ control or UCS’s. Banner was going to be implemented, but it could have been done with greater consideration for students’ interests. The warnings fell on dear ears, as those who fought hardest for changes to Banner were ignored by both administrators and the student body. The harsh reality is that all this will be forgotten in a few years as students graduate and new ones matriculate — and the culture that attracted many of us to Brown will be gone — unless students act now to make Banner work for us instead of against us.

Kate Brockwehl ’09.5 believes that credit ought to be given where it is deserved

S ports T hursday Page 16

Thursday, April 24, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Spending a W. rugby wins two in dash to Final Four weekend with Mel’s Hair

Record for one golfer, but team falters

April marks the beginning of the playoffs that some people notice (NBA) and another that no one outside of Canada does (NHL). It’s a time of Rich Harden’s annual trip to the disabled list and panic fantasy baseball trades after slow first weeks that threaten to ruin the league (David Or tiz Tom Trudeau for Brian BanTru Story nister? Really?) And of course, it’s time to admire Mel Kiper Jr.’s mesmerizing hair, which signifies the greatest non game-day sports weekend of the year: the NFL draft. Even after Jake Long was made the first pick of the draft on Tuesday, plenty of questions abound. Will Jeremy Shockey or Chad Johnson be traded? Shockey is recovering from a broken leg, and true to crazy, selfish athlete form, is unhappy with his role on a team that just won the Super Bowl. “Ocho-Cinco” is an elite talent that many teams would love to roll the dice on, but the $8 million cap hit that the Bengals would assume by trading Johnson makes dealing him unappealing. Will the Chiefs (owners of six of the top 82 selections) become the youngest team in pro sports since the 1993 Cubs signed 12-year-old Henry Rowengartner, owner of the 100 mph fastball with inexplicably perfect command and control? Or will they use their plethora of picks in trades to move up in the draft? Will any ESPN contributor ever

By Anne Deggelman Sports Staff Writer

By Jason Harris Sports Editor

continued on page 11

A week after destroying its Ivy League competition, winning the Ivy League title by a combined 145-0 over three matches, the women’s rugby team excelled again at the next level. The Bears won both their matches at the NCAA National Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M., last weekend, taking down West Chester University, 50-12, and then pulling out a victory over a tough UC Davis team with a late try, 17-12. Brown, out of the New England Rugby Football Union, was the No. 5 seed and drew the 12th-seeded Golden Rams in the first round on Friday. West Chester, a “well-funded varsity program” according to Head Coach Kerri Heffernan, was larger than Bruno and tried to bully Brown behind its large pack, but the Bears were able to play just as physically. “In New Mexico, we had to deal with very large teams,” Heffernan wrote in an e-mail. “I think we consistently surprise teams with just how strong we are... We are small but powerful, just blowing large packs off the ball.” In addition to matching West Chester up front, the Bruno backline used its superior speed on the outside to attack the defense. Though West Chester drew first blood, Brown rattled off five straight tries, including two from wing Blaine Martin ’11, to go into halftime up 29-5. “They scored in the first five minutes, but we didn’t for a second think that we couldn’t turn around and control the game, which is exactly what we did,” forwards captain Keisha Carlson ’08 wrote in an e-mail. Once the Brown forwards absorbed the West Chester pack’s

punishment, the Bruno backs went to work. “Whitney Brown (’08.5), our flyhalf, did an excellent job mixing up the plays and exploiting the gaps on the outside of the West Chester defense,” backs captain Yadi Ibarra ’09 wrote in an e-mail. “Most of our points came from beating their backs on the outside play.” After halftime, it was more

continued on page 13

W. lacrosse takes a bite out of strong Manhattan team

Sailing lands three All-New England accolades

— Sports Staff Reports

continued on page 13

Ashley Hess / Herald

Nina Safane ’09 turned in a strong effort at flanker to help the women’s rugby team to two NCAA tournament wins over the weekend.

Sports in Brief

Three All-New Englanders were named from the No. 7 women’s sailing team as they prepare to head to nationals. Meris Tombari ’08 made the All-New England crew as well as being named to the ICSA All-Academic Second Team in 2007. Charlotte Lipschitz ’10 earned a First Team All-New England Skipper honor, and Elizabeth Barry ’11 followed her up at the same position with a Second Team All-New England honor. The women’s team will be hosting the Intercollegiate Sailing Association Women’s Nationals May 26 to 28 at the New York Yacht Club in Newport. It will be the team’s first national appearance since 2005. The No. 6 co-ed team is traveling to the University of Southern California this weekend to compete in their national semifinals. If they win there, they will have a chance to compete at the ICSA National Dinghy Championship June 2 to 4 in Newport as well. They finished seventh at nationals last year.

Bruno as star center Emilie Bydwell ’08 had her second try of the game. Brown was up 43-5 before West Chester managed to string together a few successful phases and break through for a try. Though Brown walked away with a decisive win, 50-12, on the scoreboard, it was a physically

With an experienced team and high expectations, the men’s golf team took on the Ivy League last weekend in a two-day tournament at the par-71 Galloway National Golf Club in Absecon, N.J. But the Bears struggled to make it out of the back of the pack at the Ivy League Men’s Golf Championship, finishing last despite Larry Haertel’s ’08 record-setting first round. The Bears scored a three-round team total of 952 at the tournament, while Columbia captured the title with a score of 900, just nine shots ahead of Yale. Haertel, who finished second in the tournament for the second year in a row and tied the Ivy League record, earning All-Ivy honors for the third time, was left wanting more. “Obviously, I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t bring home the win for my team,” he said. “But I thought it was a pretty good ending to my season.” Despite Haertel’s positive attitude, his teammates wished they could have given him a better farewell. “Larry capped off a great Ivy League career this past weekend,” said Conor Malloy ’09. “I was hoping we could send him off in better fashion as a team.” Malloy said that the course was tough and the Bears had trouble capitalizing on their opportunities and the low scores Haertel provided. “We definitely weren’t happy with the way that we finished,” Malloy said. “We hadn’t played great golf as a team all season; we thought maybe this tournament we could come together.”

By Whitney Clark Sports Editor

Courtesy of DSPics.net

Kara Kelly ’10 scored one of Brown’s 18 goals in the women’s lacrosse team’s 18-8 win over Manhattan College.

With under three minutes left in the first half on Tuesday night, the women’s lacrosse team (6-8, 2-4) was already beating Manhattan College (7-6, 2-4) by nine. But Macie Winship ’11 wasn’t done just yet. After an unselfish pass from Ali Holland ’08, Winship secured the last goal of the game, beating Bruno’s previous record of the greatest offensive output this season (17) and earning her first career goal. The Bears came out of the match with a secure 18-8 win. Brown began the game against a new opponent, Manhattan, whom they had never played before, with a goal just 31 seconds into play off a free-position shot from Lauren Vitkus ’09. A one-timer from Kara Kelly ’10 off a Mimi De Tolla ’08 pass put the Bears up, 2-0, about a minute later. “I think what we have come to realize all season is that you have to go into every game not expecting anything,” Vitkus said. “We knew that if we came in strong offensively and defensively that we could gain the momentum.” And the Bears did just that. Although Brown outplayed the Jaspers in virtually every aspect of the

game, embracing a 38-18 advantage in shots, a 24-16 advantage in ground balls and a 20-8 advantage in draw controls, the Bears kept going for the net. “They’re very scrappy and aggressive,” Kelly said. “So we knew that they could come back at any point ... We weren’t overconfident.” After Vitkus’ second goal of the game 1:57 into play, Krystina DeLuca ’09 scored unassisted at 4:23, putting the Bears up 4-0. Brown hit about everything that it shot at this point, and the announcer even jokingly called Bruno an “ungracious host.” “We attacked this team like any other,” DeLuca said. “We knew that nothing is a guarantee.” But the last 10 minutes of the half were a slightly different story. At 23:22, the Jaspers weren’t ready to lay down and roll over just yet, and they scored their first goal of the game. Although this would only put them within eight at 9-1, the Bears’ play begin to falter as the half neared. “We started to play down to their level a bit,” DeLuca said. Head Coach Keely McDonald added that the team let up a little defensively. continued on page 11