Monday, September 15, 2008 by The Brown Daily Herald

The Brown Daily Herald M onday, S eptember 15, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 70

Maeda inaugurated as RISD’s president

Ike, Gustav give Cuban study abroad a stormy debut

16th president lays out vision for college

By Lauren Pischel Staf f Writer

By Ben Hyman Arts & Culture Editor

Two hurricanes in two weeks have delayed classes for 11 Brown students studying abroad in Cuba, disrupting what Director of International Programs Kendall Brostuen called an otherwise “very smooth” start to the inaugural Brown-run program in the Caribbean nation. On Sept. 8, the day classes were set to begin, Hurricane Ike swept across central Cuba, which delayed classes a week and forced the students to evacuate their residence in Havana for three days to a nearby hotel. Ike followed on the tail of Hurricane Gustav, which hit Cuba on Aug. 30 — two days before the students arrived — and stoked fears that their travel plans could be disrupted. Brown is one of only a handful of colleges with a special license from the U.S. government allowing students to study abroad in Cuba. Admission to the program’s first run was competitive, Brostuen said. The semester-long program, known as Brown in Cuba, is in partnership with Casa de las Americas, a research institution affiliated with the University of Havana. During Hurricane Ike, which

The Rhode Island School of Design must “rise to the challenge” of the digital era “because we can,” said John Maeda, former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during his inaugural address Friday as the 16th president of RISD. Speaking to a large audience that filled the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of America before

ARTS & CULTURE heading off to the post-inauguration block party, Maeda painted a picture of a future in which “the new conventional wisdom must recognize the essential nature of right-brained innovation, and policy makers and employers should take note.” “What’s missing today is the notion that artists and designers are among the most passionate people about what they do — and this world needs more passion,” Maeda said. Also the former associate director of research at the MIT Media Lab, Maeda assumed his responsibilities as president of RISD last June. His work blurs the border

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Courtesy of Brian Jones

John Maeda, the 16h president of the Rhode Island School of Design, delivers his inaugural address Friday. He took on his duties in June.

between art and design. According to a RISD press release, his resume includes projects for major corporations like Google and Samsung, as well as museum and gallery exhibitions of his own artwork. With an ensemble playing Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common

Man,” Maeda entered the church as part of a procession of trustees, faculty and representatives from 22 other colleges and universities, including President Ruth Simmons. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Rep. Jim continued on page 4

Courtesy of Meredith Curtis

A guide from Casa de las Americas and Donata Secondo ’10 on a tour of Cuba.

narrowly missed making a direct hit on Havana, the students were moved to the Hotel Nacional de Cuba because, unlike the rest of the city, it had generators and running water during the storm, program participant Meredith Curtis ’10 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “We were made ver y aware of continued on page 4

SDS marches for aid, Corporation transparency Seven days of silence By Anne Simons Senior Staf f Writer

Friday afternoon, in the face of a gray sky, cold winds and the threat of rain, members of Students for a Democratic Society protested a perceived lack of transparency from the Corporation. They also demonstrated for a tuition freeze and better compensation for student workers. About 50 students marched around campus, ending their parade in front of University Hall, where the Corporation — Brown’s highest governing body — holds its meetings. A few students addressed the crowd of SDS members with a megaphone while the rest chanted, banged on drums and waved signs, including a cloth banner that read “Open the Gates” with a picture of the Van Wickle Gates. Former Herald Staf f Writer Sophia Lambertsen ’11, who addressed the crowd, said that SDS believes in the “radical idea” that Brown exists for its students, so students should have a say in the decisions that affect them. The group wants students, faculty and staff to be able to participate in Corporation meetings and have access to their minutes, she said. Protestors chanted against the classification of Corporation records for 100 years. According to the University Archives Web site, the minutes from

CAMPUS NEWS

U. Hall bell outage goes unnoticed by many By Michael Skocpol News Editor

The classic riddle of the tree falling in the woods just got a new twist. After decades of faithfully and loudly tolling off class periods, the iconic 300-pound bell atop University Hall fell silent this month — and almost no one noticed.

FEATURE

continued on page 4

continued on page 6

Courtesy of Daniel Patterson

Protestors from Students for a Democratic Society march down Thayer Street. They called for more transparency from the Corporation, a freeze on tuition and better pay for student workers. meetings are actually released 50 years after first recorded. Lambertsen said SDS believes minutes should be accessible to students “as soon as they’re recorded” because the Corporation’s decisions affect students in “an immediate sense.” Alexander Wankel ’11 said the Corporation, which will hold its fall meeting in early October, “operates outside the student eye,

ORchestra Pops sayles Rain pushes concert indoors, but movie theme songs draw big crowds anyway

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there shouldn’t be “a bunch of old white men” who are running the school and making decisions about how to spend students’ money. The Corporation has shown indifference to SDS protests in the past, Lambertsen said. During the February 2008 Corporation meeting, two members of SDS delivered a petition with more than 600

Facilities Management staff first realized the bell wasn’t functioning on Sept. 4, the second day of classes, and a quick investigation revealed that the steel cable that rings the bell had snapped, according to Director of Maintenance James Coen. (The bell beckoned new students through the Van Wickle Gates during Convocation the day before, but it was unclear if it had rung since.) A new cable wasn’t delivered and installed until Sept. 11, a full week later. In the meantime, the bell sat mutely atop University Hall; class after class began and ended without the familiar rhythmic tones to mark their passing.

EDITORIAL

without any check on its decisionmaking.” He didn’t know that the Corporation existed until a few weeks ago, he said. “We want to be able to see what they do, to know what they’re discussing and to have a voice in the decision-making for a really democratic education,” Wankel said. Brown should be “democratically student run,” Lambertsen told The Herald, meaning that

WELCOME, JOHN RISD’s 16th president brings a eye towards our College Hill neighbor’s future

OPINIONS

Intro courses too Fuzzy Alvin Kerber ‘11 objects to easy introductory courses, suggests more depth and difficulty

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

12 SPORTS

Entourage and the Pats Alex Mazerov ‘10 sees a connection between Vincent Chase and Tom Brady

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Monday, September 15, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

TODAY

TOMORROW

partly cloudy 84 / 54

partly cloudy 72 / 52

Menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Clam Strips on a Bun with Tartar Sauce, Rosemary Portabello Sub Sandwich, Spinach Pie, Cauliflower

Lunch — Chicken Parmesan Grinder, Swiss Broccoli Pasta, Asparagus

Dinner — Beef Pot Pie, Chicken Milanese, Vegan Garden Chili, Tomato Rice Pilaf

Miguel Llorente | Opus Hominis

Dinner — Roast Pork Calypso, Vegetarian Pot Pie, Garlic and Butter Infused Rice, Moo Shu Chicken, Moo Shu Tofu

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

Epitmetheos | Samuel Holzman

Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley

Los Angeles Times Daily oCrossword Puzzle C r o ssw rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Nearly boil 6 Kind of school 10 The “m” in E = mc2 14 CD reader 15 Sly look 16 Choir member 17 Persian, today 18 Comfort 19 “You’re putting __!” 20 Goldilocks had a taste from his bowl 22 What hunters hunt 24 Underwear logo 25 Airport area concerned with contraband 26 “When is a door not a door?,” e.g. 30 Middle Corleone brother 31 Jordan neighbor 32 Place for space cadets? 36 Pleased 37 “Spare” meat 38 Eins plus zwei 39 Crazy about 42 Gloomy 44 “... friend is __ you give yourself”: Stevenson 45 Takes by force 46 Mountain chains 49 Buddy 50 Mounted the soapbox 51 “Saturday Night Live” character who introduced herself with “Hewwo” 56 Jeans pioneer Strauss 57 One needing tech support 59 Without face value, as stock 60 Individuals 61 H.S. science class 62 Tee shot 63 Home out on a limb 64 Talk show host Banks 65 Gives the nod to DOWN 1 Error

2 See 47-Down 3 Pronto, to execs 4 Singer Horne 5 Bounce the basketball 6 Beg 7 Stern, at sea 8 Some Caltech grads 9 “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace,” for one 10 1970 #1 hit for Three Dog Night 11 Last new Olds 12 Rainout cause 13 PlayStation and Walkman 21 Stunt biker Knievel 23 Meat-inspecting gp. 25 Bisque crustacean 26 Mrs. Peel portrayer Diana 27 Cuba, to Cubans 28 Pull along the ground 29 Arp or Duchamp 30 Coquette 33 Wall St. figures

34 Nair rival 35 Board members: Abbr. 37 Ring arbiters 40 Storybook monster 41 Railroad bridge 42 Shipboard mop 43 Disney World city 46 Athenian lawgiver 47 With 2-Down, “Fame” singer

48 House overhangs 49 Cheese city in northeast Italy 51 Microbrewery product 52 Nine-to-five routine 53 Samoan seaport 54 Like Pringles Original chips 55 Greek war god 58 A little short, as of money

Alien Weather Forecast | Stephen Lichenstein and Adam Wagner

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C ampus N ews Monday, September 15, 2008

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Orchestra Gathering emPOWERs dazzles with Brown’s climate crew pops in rainy opener By Brian Mastroianni Senior Staff Writer

By Rafael Chaiken Contributing Writer

Inclement weather and minimal rehearsal time did not stop the Brown University Orchestra from delivering an exciting program of film and pops music to a packed Sayles Hall on Friday. Slated to be the group’s first-ever outdoor performance, the season opener was moved inside due to a light drizzle.

REVIEW Although conductor Paul Phillips, a senior lecturer in music, announced that the orchestra had only rehearsed for three days, one wouldn’t have known it from the musicians’ capable playing. The hour-long concert began with two pieces by John Williams, perhaps the most successful composer in the history of film. A medley from the iconic “The Empire Strikes Back” was a fitting opener, though some of the louder passages seemed to have been rehearsed with an outdoor setting in mind. With its memorable themes and sweeping orchestrations, music from “Star Wars” never fails to elicit a smile from the listener. The other Williams piece on the program was the “Harry Potter Symphonic Suite,” a more recent film score that sounded both magical and menacing. Unfortunately, the opening theme was played on the piano rather than the less common celesta, a keyboard-operated instrument with bell-like tone, as heard in the movie. Next was Howard Shore’s “Symphonic Suite from Lord of the Rings,” featuring music from the trilogy’s first film. A prime function of soundtracks is to stir emotion in viewers, and at this Shore is a master. Combining grand orchestral gestures, percussive battle music, an idyllic middle section and even comical moments, the piece was a highlight of the evening. Phillips gave the orchestra a workout with the concert’s last cinematic piece, “Pirates of the Caribbean.” The composer, Klaus Badelt, merged swashbuckling pirate melodies with a modern action score for the first film in Disney’s lucrative franchise. The film music was followed by a piece from the classical repretoire, Leonard Bernstein’s 1956 “Overture to Candide.” Uncommon rhythms, rapid glissandos and a rollicking tempo make the work challenging to play, but the orchestra gave a solid rendition. “Brunoniana,” a 1940s arrangement of Brown songs by acclaimed pops composer Leroy Anderson, concluded the concert. Featuring marches, a waltz and a short section imitating a fife and drum band, this artifact from the University’s heritage deserves to be heard more often. The orchestra had a successful season last year, culminating in its stunning May performance of Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 6.” Considering the quality of their playing after only three days of rehearsal, the upcoming season promises to be just as memorable. Hopefully, the pops concert will become an annual tradition, and next year, nature will cooperate.

Some Brown students are ready to get emPOWERed this academic year. Last night, students attended the general body meeting for emPOWER to discuss ways in which the Brown community can become more aware of the University’s effect on global warming. Filling about half of the seats in MacMillan 115, the meeting was attended by a mixture of returning and new members. Zindzi McCormick ’09 and Aden Van Noppen ’09 opened the meeting by describing the group’s purpose and its plans for this academic year. “Our group’s original goal had been to cut down Brown’s carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020 — but we realized that is not enough. We want to serve as an example throughout campus. Wwe want to push the envelope of what’s possible,” Van Noppen said. During their first year, Van Noppen, McCormick and Michael Glassman ’09 started emPOWER

in a discussion section of ENVS 0110: “Humans, Nature and the Environment.” The group operates as an open forum and strives to include initiatives that can extend beyond Brown. The group began to work closely with Brown administration on the University’s carbon emissions, and eventually participated in the threeyear Campus Climate Challenge, a program that includes more than 600 college campuses nationwide and addresses the development of environmental reforms and implementation. In the first two years of the Challenge, each student group brainstorms methods to make its school more environmentally friendly and eventually get its school to invest in researching methods of climate change. This year’s goal is to inspire students to vote in the 2008 presidential election, making climate change their most pressing concern, McCormick said. “It is fundamentally continued on page 8

Kim Perley / Herald

Students gathered in MacMillan 115 to discuss campus climate initiatives Sunday as part of emPOWER’s first general body meeting of the semester.

Monday, September 15, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

RISD’s Maeda lays out vision at inauguration

Students clean up Cuba after hurricanes

continued from page 1 Langevin, D-R.I. and Mayor David Cicilline ’83. In his address, Maeda drew a parallel between MIT’s rise as a top research institution and his own vision for RISD. MIT, he explained, came to prominence amid the great technological challenges posed by World War II, elevating the status of science and engineering. “What if there’s one art and design school out there that can elevate a new set of skills that are crucial to our continued livelihood?” Maeda asked. “What if the new form of American invention that will solve these problems isn’t a machine anymore, but is the invention of a feeling? The right feeling — an emotional experience articulated in the principles of art and design.” “What MIT did for technology, RISD will do for creativity,” he said. In this theme, Maeda echoed the words of his teacher and mentor Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder and chairman emeritus of the MIT Media Lab, who delivered the keynote address. In his speech, Negroponte expressed a hope that RISD could become a place where new media could be produced by artists and designers, who would then utilize those media to their fullest creative potential. “The future of expression, the future of media in general, has got to come from the people who use it, not just the scientists that are going to invent it,” Negroponte remarked. “And I think that’s something that can happen here, something that will happen here.” In her speech welcoming Maeda, Simmons drew laughs by alluding to the blog he has maintained since last December, when it was announced that he would succeed former RISD President Roger Mandle. “John, not only do I not blog,” Sim-

mons joked, “but I am a university president who perceives the activity that this noun-verb neologism entails as a troubling trend.” She continued, “Yet I have to confess that when I read your blog, I found the freshness, immediacy and simplicity of this medium effective and endearing.” As several speakers noted, Maeda donned a student volunteer T-shirt on move-in day and helped RISD freshmen unload their luggage. RISD Provost Jessie Shefrin described Maeda’s giving $2,000 toward books for a student looking for scholarship money. A video on RISD’s Web site shows Maeda on his first tour of the campus, shaking hands, talking to students and commenting on various aspects of the school, all with an air of ingenuous nonchalance. The inauguration of this approachable president spilled out of the church to a block party across the street from RISD’s new Chace Center. Maeda arrived, still wearing his official robes, to join the throng crowded under a large tent to avoid the rain. “I love John. He’s awesome!” said Murphy Chang RISD’11 at the block party. “I’ve seen him more in the last two weeks than I’ve seen the last president in a year.” “He really listens to the students,” said Lauren Jack RISD’09 before the inauguration. “I’ve heard a lot of talk about him saying that he wants to bring more of a business aspect to the school, which I think is a really good idea. But, at the same time, I think that he has a lot of care for the students and what they want to do.” Natalie Herrera RISD’09 hoped Maeda’s presidency would lead to a greater integration of the various RISD departments and more interaction between the school and the city of Providence. “I expect him to say the unexpected,” Herrera said.

continued from page 1 how our treatment differs from that of normal Cubans,” Curtis wrote. The students got “VIP treatment, like staying in one of the country’s nicest hotels and watching cable television while most Havana residents were cooped up in small houses without gas to cook or running water during the storm.” “Hurricane Ike had the potential to be very, very destructive,” Curtis added. Adrian Lopez-Denis, the program’s on-site manager and a postdoctoral fellow at the Cogut Center for the Humanities, “prepared (students) for the worst,” she added, and helped focus their attention on the threats that other Havana residents faced from the storm. After returning to their residence near the research institute on Saturday, the group helped remove fallen brush in the town of Las Terrazas as part of relief efforts. Now that the hurricanes have passed, the program will pick up as planned. Students will be taking

four credit courses, all in Spanish, with professors contracted through Casa de las Americas and Lopez-Denis. Donata Secondo ’10 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that she was excited about the program because it places Brown and Cuban students together in the classroom, an arrangement she said was “unique” among the handful of study abroad programs currently operating in Cuba. The arrangement will “make for strong debate,” she added, and their classes should “provide an intellectual space to engage with” what they’ve experienced so far in the country. The courses students take as part of the program focus on Cuban culture and history. “I applied to Brown in Cuba because I wanted to go somewhere I wouldn’t have been able to on my own, and Cuba is definitely that,” Curtis wrote. Secondo was also attracted to the program because of the restrictions that usually preclude travel there. “What drew me to Cuba in the first place is how unknowable it is from the outside, especially from the United States,”

she wrote in her e-mail. “As prepared as any of us felt we were, there was so much we simply couldn’t imagine before getting here.” While in Cuba, the students will be witnessing preparations for the 50th anniversar y of the Cuban Revolution, which Cubans will celebrate starting Dec. 27. The students “are living histor y right now” Brostuen said. “Cuba is at a very important crossroads. ... They are going to see the world through completely dif ferent eyes.” Being one of the few programs of its kind, and given the oftenstrained relations between the Cuban and American governments, Brown’s students have encountered some unusual circumstances already. All 11 students and LopezDenis “were ‘randomly’ selected for extra security checks and segregated from other international flights,” Curtis wrote. They also can’t use U.S.-based credit cards or cell phones, she said, and the Cuban government imposes a 10 percent tax on American dollars being converted to Cuban pesos.

SDS parades for Corporation transparency continued from page 1 signatures on it to a meeting, but were ushered out of the room and received no follow-up, she said. Lambertsen said that they also “loitered” outside of Corporation gatherings and handed out letters to members asking for various reforms, including public release of the minutes and student access to the meetings, she said. The Corporation members “for the most part, ignored us,” she said. They received only two responses, she said — one stating that members would like to

get more information and another from Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76, the University’s highest officer and the Corporation’s leader, who said that he appreciated their concern. During the protest, SDS students also called for a tuition freeze and better compensation for student workers. Education is a “human right and ever y single person should have access to it,” Lambertsen said. Students at the protest chanted that they “just want some of that free education.” “Brown is in a position where it has a huge amount of money that

it could be using towards things like financial aid that it’s not and it’s ... building things like the Walk,” Lambertsen said. SDS wants to attract attention to issues of transparency and tuition costs, Wankel said, adding that the group is also looking to recruit more members. The group will also protest in October, when the Corporation has its first meeting of the school year, he said. Some Department of Public Safety officers were posted outside of University Hall during the protest, but didn’t do anything other than observe.

W orld & n ation Monday, September 15, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

B Gas prices rise in hurricane’s wake LehmanNBros. prepares bankruptcy filing a t i o n

By Nancy Trejos and Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Gasoline prices once again soared across the country Sunday as federal officials said a preliminary survey of damage found that a number of production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico had been destroyed by Hurricane Ike. The average price per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline climbed from $3.73 to just shy of $3.80 Sunday, according to the auto club AAA. That followed a 6-cent jump on Saturday, when Ike ravaged the Texas Gulf Coast, home to 23 percent of U.S. oil refining capacity. Prices broke the $4-a-gallon barrier in seven states, including some as far from the storm’s path as Alaska and Hawaii. In some parts of the country, there were reports of gouging, with prices reaching $5 a gallon. A flood of complaints - more than 549 since Thursday - led Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum to issue subpoenas to four companies seeking documentation on what they paid for the gasoline they were selling to consumers. To ease the gas crunch, the U.S. government agreed Sunday to release 309,000 barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to a Conoco Phillips refinery in Illinois and a Placid Oil refinery in Louisiana because of supply disruptions from the Gulf. For the second time in two days, President Bush said the government would be on the alert for any exorbitant price increases in the wake of a shortage. “The federal government, along

with state governments, will be monitoring very carefully as to whether or not consumers are being mistreated at the pump - in other words, gouged,” Bush said from the White House. It was unclear Sunday how badly the storm had crippled the Gulf oil infrastructure. Eileen Angelico, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, said flyovers Saturday and Sunday showed 10 destroyed oil platforms. There are 717 manned platforms in the Gulf, and as of Sunday 591 of them had been evacuated in anticipation of the storm. Angelico said the assessment was preliminary and that there were no further details available. The agency was working with oil companies and the Coast Guard to confirm other reports of damage, she said. Meanwhile, the nation’s leading oil companies began returning crews to some of their facilities to assess structural damage. But already, the loss of power to many refineries and offshore platforms and pipelines remained a top concern. “To the extent that we hear that damage is minor, the larger issue is going to be power restoration,” said Kevin Kolevar, assistant secretary of energy for electricity delivery and energy reliability. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that it could take up to nine days for the refineries to get back online and that Americans should expect possible gas shortages. “We are looking at another week or eight or nine days before refineries are up and going, so refined gasoline is going to be in a shortage situation

because of the power outages and flooding,” she said. As of Sunday afternoon, 99.6 percent of the oil production and 91.9 percent of the natural gas production in the Gulf was still shut down, according to the Interior Department. The Gulf of Mexico produces about 1.3 million barrels of oil and 7.4 billion cubic feet of gas per day. Personnel had been evacuated from 92 of the 121 rigs in the Gulf. However, only four of 17 oil refineries on the Texas coast from Corpus Christi to Beaumont remained closed, six were ramping up and the rest were operational, Kolevar said. Operators of two major pipelines that serve the Eastern Seaboard, the Plantation and Colonial pipelines, said they were able to resume operations Sunday carrying diesel, heating oil, jet fuel and gasoline from the Gulf Coast at reduced rates. Exxon Mobil said power was restored to its Baytown facility and that a start-up plan was being developed. Its Beaumont facility remained without power. Bill Day, a spokesman for Valero Energy, the nation’s largest refiner, said it would take several days for power to be restored to its Houston, Texas City and Port Arthur refineries. Nonetheless, assessment crews found no significant structural damage to the Valero facilities. Exxon Mobil said damage appeared to be limited at its Baytown complex. Shell, too, had only moderate damage to some of its facilities, including its Pasadena terminal, which it reopened. Its Houston terminal, however, did sustain some damage and was being assessed further, the company said.

Obama sets fundraising record in August By Matthew Mosk Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Democrat Barack Obama again set a monthly record for presidential fundraising, bringing in $66 million in August that included donations from half a million new people, according to his campaign. Obama’s August total easily outpaced Republican John McCain, who raised $47 million during that month, a personal best. Obama broke the record $55 million he raised in February and has taken in nearly half a billion dollars since he launched his presidential bid at the beginning of 2007. Obama started September with $77 million in the bank and, because he opted out of the public financing system, will be able to raise as much as he can between now and Election Day. McCain opted to take public money, limiting him to the $84 mil-

lion he received Sept. 1. Nevertheless, Obama may not have an overwhelming financial advantage against McCain because of a strong effort by the Republican National Committee, which has outraised its Democratic counterpart for months. The RNC raised about $23 million in August, and through its various state and federal accounts, the Republican Party started September with more than $110 million at its disposal for the presidential contest, GOP sources said. The Democratic National Committee has not made its August totals public, but it is not expected to match the RNC. August numbers are due to the Federal Election Commission by Saturday. While McCain can no longer raise money for his campaign, he and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have aggressive plans to solicit contributions for the

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NEW YORK — Lehman Brothers was preparing a bankruptcy filing Sunday night that could make it the largest financial firm to fail in the global credit crisis, after federal officials refused to help other companies buy the investment bank by putting up taxpayer money as a guarantee. By Sunday night, a series of marathon negotiations over the weekend had failed to produce a buyout of Lehman Brothers, and sources familiar with the talks said the firm could file for bankruptcy before markets open Monday morning. After galloping to the rescue of other major financial institutions in recent months, the federal government drew the line with Lehman Brothers, ignoring pleas from would-be buyers who insisted on receiving federal backing for the company’s troubled assets. Leaders of the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department decided that Lehman was unlike the investment bank Bear Stearns, whose sudden collapse in March threatened the global financial system, or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose potential insolvency did the same. In betting that Lehman, the nation’s fourth-largest investment bank, could be allowed to fail without catastrophic consequences, New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were making it clear that struggling financial firms cannot count on a bailout. — Washington Post

Firefighters suing over parade participation SAN DIEGO — Four San Diego firefighters are suing the city government for damages because they were allegedly sexually harassed while participating involuntarily in the 2007 gay pride parade. The four say they were ordered to drive their firetruck in the threehour parade even though firefighters at previous parades had been subjected to catcalls and sexually suggestive comments by parade watchers. The trial begins Monday. The mandatory participation order was part of a policy by Fire Chief Tracy Jarman, according to the firefighters’ attorney. Jarman, a lesbian, marched in the parade, which drew a crowd estimated at 150,000 people to Hillcrest, a neighborhood with a large gay population. “This is not an anti-gay thing,” said Charles LiMandri, the firefighters’ attorney. “These guys have served the Hillcrest community for years with dignity and honor. They just feel firefighters should not be forced to participate in a parade where firefighters have been harassed in the past.” City Attorney Michael Aguirre, representing the city and the FireRescue Department, says the firefighters are “required to serve the community without discrimination as to sexual orientation.” — Los Angeles Times

RNC. RNC officials said Sunday that there has been a dramatic uptick in contributions since Palin joined the ticket and that online contributions have quadrupled. With the 500,000 new donors Obama attracted in August, the Democrat has received donations from 2.5 million people since he kicked off his campaign. The number of donors is significant, because most have not reached the $2,300 contribution limit, giving Obama a huge pool of supporters to call upon during the final, expensive weeks of campaigning. Fundraisers for Obama’s campaign said they already believe September will surpass August in money raised, partly because of a wave of donations following McCain’s selection of Palin. They said the Alaska governor’s conservative positions have helped galvanize the Democratic donor base in ways they had not seen previously.

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Monday, September 15, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Valeria Lavtouhovitsh / Herald

University Hall’s bell malfunctioned for days. Why did so few seem to notice?

FacMan: Absence the longest since 1980s continued from page 1 Coen, who came to Brown in 1982, said the outage was the longest he could remember in at least 20 years. But just before noon on Wednesday, after more than six days of the sentinel’s abrupt silence, most students sitting just a stone’s throw away from the ailing bell had little inkling anything was amiss. Just across the walk from University Hall, two friends tossed a Frisbee back and forth. Closer to Sayles Hall, a class was coming to an end. The dim buzz of conversation thickened as students trickled out of Wilson Hall and the Salomon Center, but within its cupola over University Hall, the bell remained still. “I don’t remember,” said Christie Louie ’12, a student in the class, SIGN 0100: “American Sign Language I, II,” when asked whether the bell had been ringing. “I haven’t really paid attention. I guess not.” Nearby, Tali Rozensher ’09 and Carly Sieff ’09 had just sat down on the grass for lunch. “I usually notice it because I lived in Slater sophomore year,” Rozensher said. But today she’s less sure. “It did ring today, didn’t it?” she asked Sieff. “Did you hear it ring?” After a moment’s consideration, Sieff said she didn’t think she had. The 300-pound bell echoes across College Hill as often as twice an hour, reaching the ears of thousands of students. But Associate Professor of Psychology Ruth Colwill, who studies conditioning, says she’s not surprised its regular audience didn’t miss it. “We tune out a lot of what we consider to be extraneous or irrelevant stimuli,” she said. “Most people don’t need the bell to tell them that a class is over, so it doesn’t mean very much to them.” Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Mika MacInnis ’02 PhD’07 said because people on campus are likely to have more reliable ways to keep track of time, the ringing bell is not useful day-to-day, and they’re less likely to register its occurrence — or its absence. The recent proliferation of cell phones — which automatically link to a universally standardized time source — may have left the campus particularly oblivious to the bell, said MacInnis, who researches time

perception. “I remember this happening a while ago” — MacInnis has been on College Hill since 1998 — “and people noticed,” she said. “The first day the bell was out, practically by the time the bell was out, I had noticed something was up.” MacInnis thinks that’s because cell phones were less “ubiquitous” then. “We were more dependent on it as a time marker then than we are now,” she said. The bell’s absence might only be that noticeable now if a student left for class without his cell phone or watch and had to depend on the bell to know if he was late, Colwill said. “It’s a far less salient event unless you are using it to direct your behavior.” If Colwill is right, then Lauren McShane ’10 and Chloe LeMarchand ’09, sitting on the Main Green Wednesday afternoon, may be among the few students who still hang on the bell’s every ring. They were both confident the bell hadn’t been ringing lately. “No,” LeMarchand said. “It didn’t ring, which is strange.” “I thought about it earlier this week,” McShane agreed. “I noticed in the morning” on the way to a 9 a.m. class. “Don’t they usually ring it at 8:50?” The pair also said they had noticed the absence of the bell when, in classrooms near the Green, their professors droned on past the end of class without its familiar sound wafting through a window. Zach Marcus ’10 also noticed the broken bell almost immediately, during the first week of classes. “There were a few classes that would sort of go to a point where I would think it would be over, but there would be no signal,” he said, adding that he’s always had a particular affinity for the bell. “It’s something that I’ve always enjoyed as part of being at Brown. I just particularly like the idea of having that sound.” Marcus mentioned his observation to some of his friends. “Some people were sort of like, ‘Yeah, I haven’t heard it,’” he said. “But I was surprised people weren’t more aware of its absence.” Several residents of Slater Hall also said they had noticed the silence almost immediately — the north end of the building sits just a few feet from University Hall, and its residents are among the students who hear the bell most clearly, most

frequently. Ruth Heindel ’10, who just returned to Slater for a second year, said the bell’s absence has impacted her life. “Living in Slater, you don’t have to pay attention to the time as much,” she said. “I’ve definitely noticed it and I have missed it.” Heindel may owe her quick realization to her regular, long-term exposure to the sound. That’s a key ingredient of the type of intensive conditioning necessar y before a student would find the bell’s silence conspicuous, Colwill said. But from his first-floor office in University Hall, Deputy Provost Vincent Tompkins ’84 is within earshot of the bell most of the day, and even he said he was surprised to learn the bell had been out for nearly a week — as were many of his University Hall coworkers. “I usually notice the bell,” he added. “When it rings, that’s when I look out my window and see hundreds of students crossing the Green.” But today? “I would honestly say I haven’t noticed,” Tompkins said. Neither Tompkins nor any of nearly a dozen other University Hall employees approached by The Herald Wednesday afternoon seemed to know who or what in the building might be responsible for their metallic upstairs neighbor. (“I assume it’s either a small gnome” or “something electric that rings it,” Tompkins offered.) That’s because, while the bell is indeed run by a computer, it’s not actually located within the building. So where is the little machine that keeps the bell ringing day after day (except, it turns out, when it doesn’t)? “I can’t tell you that,” Coen said. If the right group of sufficiently bright students were armed with the knowledge, he said, they could cause mischief. But Coen did confirm that workers replaced the cable Thursday, ending the first time the bell had been, by his estimation, “out of service for any extended period of time” since the 1980s. By 2:30 p.m. Thursday, with a fresh cable installed and its undisclosed ner ve center sending the proper signals afresh, the bell was swinging away as usual, sounding out 14 full-throated clangs before trailing off. It was a sunny afternoon, and the Main Green was crowded. No one seemed to pause to take note.

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Want to join the Peace Corps? Filmmaker challenges Iran-Iraq war myths Budget cuts mean long waits By Borzou Daragahi Los Angeles T imes

By Cynthia Dizikes Los Angeles T imes

WASHINGTON — The Peace Corps boasts that it’s “the toughest job you’ll ever love,” but this year, just getting hired may be the toughest part. At a time when both presidential candidates have pledged to promote and expand national service, the popular humanitarian assistance program that sends thousands of Americans abroad annually is now planning to cut 400 volunteer positions in the face of an unexpected multimillion-dollar budget shortfall. With fewer spots, an increasing number of Peace Corps nominees who were expecting to begin service this fall have seen their deployments delayed at least until next year -- and in some cases indefinitely. “There are more people waiting this time than in years past,” said Rosie Mauk, the Peace Corps’ associate director of volunteer recruitment and selection. “The recruiters don’t like to tell people that there isn’t a spot for them. To have to tell people that they have gotten to know -- and they know are passionate about the Peace Corps -- that there is just not room for them now is the most difficult part.” Jen Casto, like many aspiring Peace Corps volunteers, applied to the program during her senior year of college. A double major in English and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia, she volunteered for years as a youth mentor and student tutor and speaks French and Spanish. Last October the Peace Corps nominated her to a secondar y education program in sub-Saharan Africa, with an expected departure this month. “At the end of the interview, (my recruiter) said that I was definitely nominated and that she was going to find me a spot in Africa,” Casto said. Over the next six months, she visited an array of doctors to complete the famously thorough Peace Corps medical clearance process. Although she passed without much trouble, others have had to have wisdom teeth removed and costly blood work done to gain medical clearance. But last month, about six weeks before she was expecting to leave for 27 months of service, Casto received an e-mail informing her that her program was full. Along with about 125 others, she was told she would have to wait until another program could be found. “There is just a sense of frustration,” said Casto, who turned down several summer internship offers to prepare for deployment. “I am really committed to this. I have wanted to do this for so long that I am willing to put my life on hold ... but at what point do I just move on?” The Peace Corps usually nominates twice as many people as it needs, so delays are not uncommon. Recruiters also make it clear that a nomination does not guarantee a formal invitation. But this year, as the agency cuts volunteer positions to save money, a greater number of competitive applicants like Casto, who have spent considerable time and money to join the Peace Corps, are finding themselves sidelined at the last moment. With the bar suddenly higher,

some of these delayed applicants have enrolled in extra classes and volunteer programs to improve their chances. After Dorian Connelley, 24, found out she would not be leaving in October as planned, she began studying French to make her application stronger. She is waiting to hear if that has made a difference. “You have to go at it full steam, with no guarantees, because that is the only way you will be qualified,” said Connelley, a 2007 graduate of California State University, Long Beach. “That is why people are frustrated. They have jumped through all these hoops and now the Peace Corps is saying, `Not in this economy.’” The agency, which has a budget of $330.8 million, is preparing for an $18-million shortfall over this fiscal year and next, primarily because of the declining value of the dollar and increased food and fuel costs worldwide. It estimates its foreigncurrency losses from 2008 alone to be $9.2 million. “We are preparing for the $18 million, but that is a worst-case scenario,” said communications director Richard Parker. The budget for fiscal 2009 has not yet been passed. The House Appropriations subcommittee that sets Peace Corps funding has supported the Bush administration’s request for $343.5 million, and its Senate counterpart has approved $337 million. But until Congress passes that budget -- which could be delayed until after the presidential inauguration in January -- the agency must operate at its existing funding levels. Even though the new budget is likely to mitigate some of next year’s shortfall, the current funding problems are real. In addition to cutting volunteer positions, the agency has asked its managers in Washington and its 11 regional offices to reduce their budgets by 15.5 percent. In what Parker called a move toward a more efficient recruiting model, the agency is planning to merge its Minneapolis office with Chicago’s and its Denver office with Dallas’. Although the Peace Corps has made an effort to insulate current volunteers, the budget cuts have been felt overseas as well. This year, the agency plans to stop providing copies of Newsweek to volunteers -- a magazine it had provided since the 1980s -- because subscription costs are expected to rise $140,000. Foreign posts also havetaken measures to reduce spending. In some cases, two or more employee positions have been folded into one, and volunteer training time reduced. “This all adds up to less training and less support for volunteers on the ground,” said Sunaree Marshall, who served in Mongolia as a volunteer from 2005 until August. Despite the cutbacks, Parker said, each foreign post still must meet Peace Corps competency requirements in such areas as safety, language skills, and cultural and technical training. “Our priority would be to make sure we get as many volunteers out there as we can, but to support them,” he said. “We believe that quality, safety and security is much more important than quantity.”

TEHRAN, Iran — The plot may seem familiar: A group of wayward and foulmouthed young men volunteer to go to the front because of their devotion to their bomberjacket-wearing ringleader. They are wisecracking, rude and undisciplined, singing bawdy songs and breaking prohibitions against smoking and gambling. But eventually they become heroes, proving themselves on the battlefield. But in the Islamic Republic of Iran, such a less-than-holy depiction of the men who fought the “War of Sacred Defense,” as the 1980s conflagration with Iraq is sometimes called, was groundbreaking. Director Massoud Dehnamaki’s iconoclastic 2007 film, “Ekhrajiha,” or “The Rejects,” struck a deep chord among Iranians accustomed to seeing the war that transformed the country as a noble cause fought by pious Muslim recruits. Dehnamaki, a war veteran turned hard-line militia leader turned rabble-rousing newspaperman turned would-be Oliver Stone, says he was inspired by his love of war movies such as “Platoon” and “Saving Private Ryan” to write and direct what would become the most popular Iranian film of all time, the first to spawn a sequel, which began casting in July. “This film shattered a cliche and made it clear that the War of Sacred Defense was not limited to a special stratum,” Dehnamaki says. “Everybody was involved.” With tensions building between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear program, Dehnamaki’s film also contains an inherent warning for America: The same seemingly irreligious and materialistic Iranian youth the West is banking on to eventually moderate Iran will defend their country against any foe. The movie questions the very myths about war upon which the Islamic Republic rests: namely, who from Iranian society fought in the war, out of which strata they hailed and why they fought. As the hero, Majid, risks his life to walk through a minefield to clear the way for an offensive, the images rushing through his head are not fantasies of 72 virgins in heaven, but a shot of the woman he loves, his memories from a stint in prison and a grandfatherly cleric back in Tehran. “If the country is attacked, everyone will go to war to defend it,” Dehnamaki says. “All of them love their nation.” Just as Vietnam shaped the domestic politics and international policies of the U.S. for decades, the Iran-Iraq war, which ended 20 years ago Aug. 20, continues to play a profound role in Iranian society, politics, foreign affairs and even filmmaking. Tensions between Iran and Iraq stretched back decades, centuries if you count the struggle between the Ottoman and Persian empires for control of the Middle East. In September 1980, Saddam Hussein’s troops crossed the Iran-Iraq border. Despite the warnings of some of his advisers, Saddam was convinced that he could quickly seize oil-rich territory and weaken the zealous Shiite Muslim clerics who a year earlier had declared an Islamic republic in Iran.

Instead, Iranians rallied behind their new leaders and fought back, eventually bringing the war to Iraqi territory and solidifying popular support for the ruling clerics. Fearful of an Iranian victory, the U.S. and Arab states began overtly and covertly backing Saddam while ignoring his excesses, which included using outlawed chemical weapons on soldiers and civilians. The casualties mounted. Missiles struck cities. Hospital wards filled with wounded and amputees. Mothers and wives shrieked in grief over fallen loved ones. Cemeteries devoted entire sections to the fighters. Like Stone, Dehnamaki served in the war he chronicles. At 16, in the mid-1980s, he defied his parents and went to the front. Within a few months he was wounded, but he insisted on going back once he recovered. He eventually rose to become a commander of the Basiji militia, the religiously motivated and lightly armed volunteers who raced across minefields in human wave attacks on Iraqi positions. The characters in his movie resemble those he led, he says. They were good-humored, smart-aleck toughs, some of whom volunteered to go to battle on a whim and wound up finding faith and meaning on the front. He keeps in touch with his soldiers. “Some of them were martyred, and some others are living their normal lives,” he says. By the time the war sputtered to an end, as many as 1 million lives had been lost in a conflict that profoundly changed both countries. In Iraq, the war’s dynamics sharpened the divide between the Sunni Arab government in Baghdad and the country’s pious Shiites and rebellious Kurds, both culturally or religiously close to Iran, defining the battle lines in the civil conflict that would engulf the country after Saddam was toppled in 2003. In Iran, the war became the ideological underpinning of the Islamic

Republic, as well as the justification for the state’s repression. Major and minor streets were renamed after soldiers who lived there and died in the war. The conflict created a divide between those perceived as having sacrificed relatives at the front and those who didn’t. Dehnamaki, a small man with a scraggly beard, seems to pick up fashion tips from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom he supports. He and the Iranian president grew up in the same east Tehran district. After the war, Dehnamaki joined an extreme right-wing militia called Ansar-e Hezbollah, infamous for cracking down on rebellious students and women who wore immodest clothes. He was an angrier man back then, he says. But his views mellowed. Partly because his audience has changed, he says. He’s now speaking to ordinar y people rather than government officials or students. “I was more into religious stuff,” he explains, hunching in on himself as he talks, lowering his head and moving his lips ever so slightly as if confiding secrets. “Now, I’m the father of a daughter. I have a different audience.” He worked for a while as a journalist, publishing newspapers sharply critical of the businessminded clerics who dominated Iran during the 1990s and the reformists who tried to liberalize it. He accused them of corruption and betraying the ideals of the revolution. After his papers were shut down for being too extreme, Dehnamaki turned his hand to documentary filmmaking, directing the underground movie “Poverty and Prostitution,” about women forced to sell their bodies out of desperation. Denied official approval, it became a bootleg sensation, helping secure his reputation as a moviemaker. Then he pitched “The Rejects,” despite opposition to the continued on page 8

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Endowment spending, carbon use on agenda continued from page 3 important that we try to get substantive national legislation dealing with climate change this year,” McCormick said. Another part of the Challenge’s third phase is a program called PowerVote, designed to get one million signatures from young voters making energy efficiency their top priority in the presidential election. The group’s plans for the academic year stretch beyond the goals set by the Campus Climate Challenge. Every Sunday at 9 p.m., the group will divide into five separate subcommittees, each addressing a different environmental initiative at Brown. This is the first year the meetings have been organized in this way. “I think that this meeting is much more organized from what we did last year,” emPOWER Secretary Aaron Zick ’11 said. The five subcommittees are designed to be open forums where emPOWER members can propose new projects or work on pre-estab-

Monday, September 15, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

lished initiatives from past years. One committee focuses on PowerVote and the Rhode Island Student Climate Coalition –– a network of Rhode Island colleges and high schools dedicated to stopping global warming. The endowment committee focuses on getting Brown to use more of its $2.3 billion endowment on environmental concerns. Community Carbon Use Reduction at Brown, whose work has been reported on by CNN, focuses on reducing energy use and pollution by the University and surrounding community. The Brown Progress Initiative, in its second year, focuses on brainstorming ideas for technology and products that are more environmentally friendly. Glassman also introduced a subcommittee focused on campus activism about climate change, which reflected emPower’s main goal. “As a college group, it is hard for us to have a meaningful national impact –– we need to force Brown to be a model of sustainability, but this won’t happen without students pushing for change,” Glassman said.

‘Very fast’ Villanova drops field hockey continued from page 12 on the attack gives you numbers upfield.” Brown’s of fense needed the help against a Villanova team that had shut out four of their first five opponents. The Wildcats used a swarming defense to hold the Bears to only 13 shots, and Villanova’s Maura McCormick matched Kessler with eight saves. “I think our forwards had a little trouble shaking their defenders, and their defenders were quick to get a first step to the ball,” Harrington said. Villanova held an 8-5 advantage in shots and a 4-2 advantage in penalty corners, but the game remained scoreless for more than 32 minutes. Villanova got on the board with 2:35 remaining in the half when Lauren Wuzzardo scored her third goal of the season, beating Kessler with a shot from the top of the circle. “It’s always tough to give up a goal that close (to halftime),” LeClerc said. “We just lost it for a second, and losing it for ... that

quick second allowed them to score.” It could have been a crushing blow for the Bears, but the team refused to let up. “It was definitely something that threw us off a little bit, going into the half being down,” Sacco said, “But I think it ended up helping us for the second half to come out with a great deal of intensity and a lot of fire that really put Villanova on their heels for the second half.” Brown rallied for an 8-6 advantage in shots in the second half, getting a shot in the arm from a key late substitution giving the team a good chance to tie the game. “We got Natalie Harrington (’09) into the midfield towards the end of the second half, and she was a really nice spark plug coming off the bench,” Coach Harrington said. “She came into the game and really lifted the level of intensity when we really needed it. ... We did a good job at the end of the game of really gutting it out and trying to give us a couple more opportunities to score.” With under five minutes left in

Corps trying to do more ‘with less’ following cuts continued from page 7 About 190,000 volunteers have served in 139 countries since the program began in 1961. Long a symbol of U.S. efforts in person-toperson international relations, the Peace Corps now supports 8,079 volunteers in 74 countries –– more than in the last 37 years but well off the 1966 peak of about 15,000. “Congress loves the Peace Corps ... and in most cases accommodations are made to give it a little bit more,” said Maureen Carroll, who went to the Philippines in the first wave of volunteers in 1961 and still helps with training. “But if they think it is a good thing or a nice thing, it seems they don’t think about it enough to double or triple its funding. There are a lot of competing forces.”

In fact, while the actual dollar amount appropriated to the Peace Corps has risen steadily, when adjusted for inflation it has remained relatively flat for the last 30 years. “We are trying to do as much or more than we did before, but with less,” said Parker. Those waiting on invitations are still hoping they might come through with a new administration, but they aren’t going to wait forever. “The Peace Corps application process is kind of like roulette -you don’t know what you’re going to get,” said Rocio Enriquez, who was supposed to leave in September and is now working at a nonprofit in New York City. “You have to have Plan A through D.”

Film on Iran-Iraq war draws large audiences continued from page 7 script from some military leaders and Iranian cineastes. The film delighted young moviegoers but outraged some conservatives. Dehnamaki says authorities immediately tried to counter the film’s myth-busting, trotting out former soldiers who questioned his take on the war. “Certain groups who want to keep the war for themselves were angry at the realities shown in the film,” he says. Still, it became the highestgrossing Iranian film ever, with ticket receipts totaling $2.5 million. Several million Iranians saw it in theaters, and uncounted numbers bought unlicensed DVDs or downloaded it off the Internet until television showed the controversial film in its entirety. The sequel, “The Rejects II,” will explore another touchy topic; it will take place almost entirely

in an Iraqi prison where Iranian soldiers were held. Iranians, he says, have rarely shown defeat in war movies. “In our films about the war, we had always depicted the Iraqi army as fearful soldiers who fled our `God is great!’ cries,” he says. “But I believe the contrary. The Iraqi army was very powerful. I saw its strength during the conflict.” His movie shows how far Iran would be willing to go for its rights, he says. Despite Iraq’s strength, and the fact that “the whole world stood by Saddam, not even an inch of the Iranian territory was lost to them,” he says. “Our youths went to battle the enemy for religion and patriotism,” he says. “The war that was imposed on us was aimed at toppling the Islamic Republic, and people had understood it. Those same people who fought are now pushing the country toward progress.”

the game, Sara Eaton ’09 took a shot that was saved by McCormick, but Brown got a penalty corner. McCormick denied the ensuing shot by Katie Hyland ’11, then stopped a shot by Leslie Springmeyer ’11 two minutes later to seal the shutout, leaving the Bears to wonder what might have happened had they played a stronger first half. “I think we had a lot of fight, but it just came a little bit too late,” LeClerc said. The Bears will look to bounce back when they travel to Boston on Wednesday to face Northeastern (4-2) in their final tune-up before they take on Columbia in their Ivy League and home opener on Saturday. “Northeastern is a really strong team, (and) they play in a really physical and tough league (the Colonial Athletic Association), but I definitely think we’re ready for it,” LeClerc said. “We had a lot of positive things that came out of Villanova. If we take those and move forward, then I think we’ll be in pretty good shape for Wednesday’s game.”

Mazerov ’10: Cassel can perform with the best continued from page 12 But just as Vince vows at the end of the premiere episode that “I’m not going out like this,” and Drama declares, “Aquamen. We’re back,” so should Pats fans refuse to give up on this season so easily. Yes, Cassel was a second-stringer during his four years at USC, but who was he backing up? Just a couple of Heisman Trophy winners in Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart, so you can’t exactly call him a scrub. Cassel also has an offensive line in front of him that completely dominated opponents for 18 games last season (we can overlook that 19th for now), and, of course, one of the biggest offensive threats ever to play the game in Randy Moss, who last season set the NFL single-season record for touchdown receptions with 23. Cassel, who got plenty of snaps in the preseason, put in a solid performance to lead the Pats to a seasonopening victory against the Chiefs last week, as narrow as it was. Completing 13 of 18 pass attempts for 152 yards and a touchdown, Cassel actually posted a better passer rating than Brady did before he left the game (116.0 versus 83.9). Cassel also turned in a respectable performance yesterday against the Jets, completing nearly 70 percent of his passes to lead the Pats to a 19-10 win and a 2-0 record. As much as I’m hoping that Spygate karma catches up with the Pats and they go 5-11, I just don’t see it happening. Brett Favre hype aside, the AFC East is still a weak division, and the Pats still have to be favorites to make the playoffs. And hey, even if I’m wrong, all you New England faithful still have two defending champions to keep your sports egos afloat, which, like Vincent Chase’s soon-to-be resurgent superstardom, is a situation that the rest of us can only dream about.

Alex Mazerov ’10 is hugging it out.

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Texans take stock after hurricane By Keith B. Richburg, Joel Achenbach and Jerry Markon Washington Post

Richard A. Lipski / Washingotn Post

DNA analysts Warner Borres, foreground, Frank Basile and Bart Naugle, rear, work in the pre-amplification lab at Bode Technology in Lorton, Va.

Stringing together DNA’s clues yields new links By Michael Laris Washington Post

WASHINGTON — That some people can’t see the connection between JonBenet Ramsey’s long johns and the charred bones from a mass grave in Peru doesn’t surprise Ed Huffine. Huffine has spent his life exploring the thin scientific strands that connect such tabloid stories with the unwritten histories of places that are easy to ignore. With the same understated, patient tone he has used for decades — first as a top U.S. military expert on soldiers’ remains, then as leader of international efforts to identify victims of massacres in Bosnia — Huffine, a top executive at the Lorton, Va.-based DNA identification lab Bode Technology, walks though the connections he finds amid the static. “You see, DNA technology never works in a vacuum,” Huffine said. “If you improve a technique that might help get DNA results from a very challenging environment, like in the JonBenet Ramsey case, those same types of techniques could be used to help identify people who are missing in other countries. It could help to address systematic and governmentsponsored rape in other countries, and so on.” And so, on a typical afternoon in a lab near a landfill and storage warehouse in Fairfax County, scientists can be found churning through shipments of bones and samples and swabs from a world of cases. Technicians with hammers and centrifuges and lasers are using extraction techniques developed in Bosnia to help decipher 13,000 bone fragments from the World Trade Center. Experience with the Trade Center, where bones were subjected to intense heat, is in turn applied to the work in Peru, where soldiers tried to hide killings by burning bodies. “It’s very September 11-like material. It’s very degraded,” said Jose Pablo Baraybar, executive director of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team, which has been sending exhumed remains from a massacre in southern Peru’s Accomarca area to Lorton. “There are a lot of children. That’s a problem. The bones are very fragile.” Catching criminals by using genetic clues has become commonplace in courtrooms and ubiquitous on crime dramas. Bode’s work on the remains flowing into its Virginia headquarters shows how leaders, lawyers and investigators are seizing lessons from here and around

the world to spread DNA’s impact to new areas. The grinding work is being done by a cadre of investigators at Bode and beyond who are surprisingly philosophical and upbeat for people who spend their days handling disturbing evidence of tragedy. “Day to day, we’re motivated by the challenges, the techniques, the science, technology improvements,” said Mike Cariola, vice president of forensic operations for the firm. “But at the end of the day ... there’s an impact. It’s solving crimes; it’s making identification of remains from 20 or 30 years before. It’s always been something that’s just been incredibly motivating.” This summer, Bode’s discovery of skin cells on 6-year-old JonBenet’s long johns helped clear her parents and brother in her killing. So-called “touch DNA” can find results without blood drops or swabs. Bode has translated its work on an estimated 40,000 criminal cases into a focus on unraveling mass tragedies and human rights abuses around the world. The analysis of thousands of bone fragments from the World Trade Center led to hundreds of DNA matches. Bode’s results are also being used to help build a case against a former Peruvian lieutenant accused of conspiring to commit war crimes. Huffine, who lives in Springfield, Va., started working with DNA after finding out that his wife was having twins. He was in graduate school at the University of Oklahoma and needed insurance, and the Federal Aviation Administration needed a DNA lab to handle plane crashes. He later headed part of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Rockville, Md., where he developed new techniques for deciphering the weathered, aging remains of service members. He moved to Bode after leaving Bosnia in 2004. The company, with 90 employees, was founded 13 years ago. Now Huffine inspects parcels of evidence from some of the world’s harshest conflicts. After a disputed election in Kenya last year, women reported being gang-raped. But there was little ability to test the samples locally. Earlier this year, hundreds of samples started arriving in Lorton. Most show multiple male profiles. “We might be able to determine if it’s the same group of men responsible for these attacks,” Huffine said. “DNA can’t tell you if there’s sponsorship going on, but it can tell you if there are patterns.”

HOUSTON — The devastated Texas Gulf Coast began Sunday to assess the scope of the impact of Hurricane Ike, finding that the massive storm washed away homes and knocked out power to millions, but failed to cause the catastrophic loss of life that federal and state authorities had feared. The damage from the 600-milewide hurricane was widespread, with flooding and debris spread across Texas’s eastern coast from Freeport to Port Arthur. Nearly 2,000 people were rescued from flooded homes and elsewhere in the Galveston area, and more than 2 million remained without power statewide. Yet the number of deaths from the hurricane’s driving rains and 100 mph winds was reported to be seven — five people in Texas and two in Louisiana — even though thousands ignored orders to evacuate. By late Sunday, there were reports of six additional deaths in other states as the storm moved north. Federal officials said there were no reports of major damage to the region’s critical oil, gas and petrochemical installations. “Hurricane Ike threw us a hard punch, but it did not dent our spirit,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry said as he urged the more than 1 million people who did evacuate to stay away for another week. While Perry said the damage was “monumental,” he stressed that the state would recover. Citing concerns about looting, however, Houston officials imposed a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew until Saturday. In Washington, President Bush said he will visit Texas on Tuesday to assess recovery efforts and lend support. “This is a tough storm, and it’s one that’s going to require time for people to recover,” the president said after being briefed on the storm. Bush said his top priorities are restoring electricity, clearing debris and getting the Houston sewage plant running again, and he vowed to ensure that gas stations are not gouging customers. About 2.2 million residences and businesses remained without power Sunday, along with 161,000 customers in Louisiana and about 154,000 in Arkansas. Authorities had restored electricity to about 600,000 customers, but frustration was building among some residents and local officials

about what they considered a slow governmental response. Callers to Houston radio stations were frantically asking where to find ice, a desperately needed commodity in a sweltering city without electricity for air conditioning. The Categor y 2 hurricane roared ashore early Saturday and plowed across eastern Texas before being downgraded 11 hours later to a tropical storm. While authorities feared that Ike could inundate 100,000 homes and cause widespread fatalities, the storm veered north at the last minute and spared the Houston-Galveston Bay area from worse destruction. It also did not strengthen. Still, scenes of devastation belied the relatively low number of fatalities, though authorities were still conducting house-to-house searches late Sunday. Along Bolivar Peninsula, on the east side of Galveston Bay, acres of what had once been beachfront houses were washed away, with only the stilts that had supported them remaining. A Washington Post photographer flying with the U.S. Coast Guard saw vehicles halfway submerged in sand and only three people on a long stretch of beach, including a woman sitting with her dog next to one of the few houses that remained. Galveston city manager Steve LeBlanc said the pummeling that Galveston Island took from Ike was “horrendous. I counted at least 30 homes that were in the water. I saw homes picked up off the pilings and set down alongside the pilings.” About the only signs of life greeting rescuers, LeBlanc said, were a few random cows who had scrambled in some cases onto house decks. “They must have swum around all night,” he said. Authorities remained concerned about people who chose not to evacuate. Among them was Matthew Bartlett, assistant fitness instructor at the Galveston Health and Racket Club, who stayed in his second-floor apartment because he fled during Hurricane Rita in 2005. “I didn’t want to go through that again,” said Bartlett, whose apartment came within five feet of being inundated. “It was close,” said Bartlett, who was interviewed about 10 miles from Galveston, where he had gone to get supplies. He was not allowed back home. Coupled with the devastation was fr ustration. Of ficials exchanged accusations over logistical problems that slowed the movement of food, water, generators

and other critical supplies from Federal Emergency Management Agency staging areas to local distributors. “We expect FEMA to deliver these supplies, and we will hold them accountable,” Houston Mayor Bill White said at a televised news conference. FEMA Administrator David Paulison forcefully rebutted the criticism, saying the agency sent 5 million pre-packaged meals and 3 million bottles of water to Texas, much of it housed in Houston’s Reliant Stadium, with 7 million more meals on the way. “We have not been slow to deliver anything,” said Paulison, who said Texas officials were responsible for coordination but asked federal officials for help late Saturday night. White said Sunday morning that Houston was planning to set up 40 distribution points for ice. But those plans foundered because of flooded or blocked roads and fears that residents would put themselves in danger by venturing outside. By late afternoon, no one seemed able to locate a city ice truck. The other precious commodity was gasoline. People lined up, many with plastic canisters, filling up at the few open stations. But most gas stations remained closed. Becky Little, who runs a real estate agency in Galveston, questioned why local and federal authorities haven’t distributed vouchers for displaced residents who can no longer pay for hotels. “They have no money. No food. They’re coming in for bread, anything. Diapers. Tylenol for kids,” Little said at the foot of a bridge 10 miles from Galveston, where police were stopping drivers trying to go home. Many people were taken to an enormous warehouse on Lackland Air Force Base in Port San Antonio, the largest shelter for those who fled the storm. About 3,000 evacuees were trying to adjust to their new home with cement floors and cots just arms-length away from each other. By late afternoon, workers had set up an additional 1,500 cots. “They’re really hustling,” said Kate Conradt, of the Washingtonbased organization Save the Children. “It’s a very organized madhouse here.” — Staff writers Spencer S. Hsu and Carol Leonnig in Washington and staff photographer Jahi Chikwendiu over the Bolivar Peninsula also contributed to this report.

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Monday, September 15, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Envisioning the future The Rhode Island School of Design and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology apparently have little in common — except for their lengthy names and the visions of John Maeda, former professor at MIT and recentlyinaugurated president of RISD. Maeda, who worked as a researcher in MIT’s Media Lab, compared MIT’s rise as a science and engineering university in the boom created by World War II to his vision for what RISD can do for creative work. As a media outlet ourselves, we applaud his goal for artists and the media in the digital age — “The future of expression, the future of media in general, has got to come from the people who use it, not just the scientists that are going to invent it” — since he challenges students to produce both the meaning and the form of the media they use. All students on College Hill can use a reminder that we need to take our futures into our own hands and that the time is ours to create what will define our generation. Our hard-working colleagues on the Hill have much to offer the world in both the aesthetic and practical value of their work, and we wish Maeda luck as he takes his vision into his own hands to bring RISD in a new direction.

Cleaning up our acts Entering dorm bathrooms on weekend mornings is an exercise in avoidance for students, never knowing just what could be found in them from the night before. The accumulation of the weekend’s activities is even worse for the maintenance workers who have to clean them up on Monday morning. Those who are living off-campus for the first time this year have a newfound appreciation for the effort it takes to keep our bathrooms clean. The scrubbing tool purchased by parents in September seems foreign to some students. Judging by the weight of the various bottles of mysterious cleaning fluids found in the dark caverns beneath off-campus sinks, cleaning was also a mystery to the previous residents. After Friday’s story about Brown’s weekend cleaning program, we’ve decided it was time that we recognized that cleanliness doesn’t just happen. We understand that partying on the weekends may get a little out of control –– and the state of the bathrooms on campus often reflects that fact. It’s time to clean up after ourselves, doing a small bit to make sure that the next person using it won’t have to circumvent that strange pool of ‘something’ on the floor the next morning. Students off-campus who have had to clean their bathrooms for the first time may remember the days when weekend escapades didn’t seem like their own responsibility. Our advice: get used to the fact that messes don’t simply disappear, and appreciate the hard-working individuals who do clean them up for us now.

T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Simmi Aujla Ross Frazier

Executive Editors Taylor Barnes Chris Gang

Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Editor Higher Ed Editor Higher Ed Editor Features Editor Metro Editor Metro Editor News Editor News Editor News Editor News Editor Opinions Editor Opinions Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor

production Production & Design Editor Steve DeLucia Asst. Design Editor Chaz Kelsh Copy Desk Chief Kathryn Delaney Copy Desk Chief Seth Motel Graphics Editor Adam Robbins

Letters TA reporting needed more information To the Editor: The Herald missed an opportunity to let readers know about the good work done by Chemistry Department Chair Peter Weber to resolve the enrollment issues for CHEM 0330: “Equilibrium, Rate and Structure” this fall. On Wednesday of last week new spaces were opened in the lectures for this course, along with two additional lab sections. It is unfortunate that your story on the TA situation, which appeared on Thursday (“TA shortage means new course caps,” Sept. 11), did not present any new information, but chose instead to quote from a Herald article published almost a year ago in October 2007. If the reporter had asked Professor Weber or members

of the administration about the current enrollment problem in CHEM 0330, they would certainly have told her what was being done to resolve it. We continue to seek a permanent solution for CHEM 0330 so that we will not experience the same enrollment pressures next fall. Students should also be aware that the chemistry department will be offering CHEM 0330 again in the spring to serve those who may not have had the opportunity to take the course this semester.

Katherine Bergeron Dean of the College Sept. 14

Senior Editors Irene Chen Lindsey Meyers

editorial Ben Hyman Hannah Levintova Matthew Varley Alex Roehrkasse Chaz Firestone Nandini Jayakrishna Scott Lowenstein Michael Bechek Isabel Gottlieb Franklin Kanin Michael Skocpol Ben Bernstein James Shapiro Benjy Asher Amy Ehrhart Megan McCahill Andrew Braca Han Cui Katie Wood

J oe L arios

Business Darren Ball General Manager Mandeep Gill General Manager Shawn Reilly 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

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photo Meara Sharma Min Wu

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

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Steve DeLucia, Designer Rafael Chaiken, YounHun Kim, Frederic Lu, Ellen Cushing, Copy Editors Colin Chazen, Brian Mastroianni, Anne Simons, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Colin Chazen, Sara Sunshine, Melissa Shube, Anne Simons, Gaurie Tilak, Mitra Anoushiravani, Chaz Kelsh, Emmy Liss, Max Mankin, Brian Mastroianni, George Miller, Caroline Sedano, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Simon van Zuylen-Wood Staff Writers Sam Byker, Debbie Lehmann, Sophia Li, Noura Choudhury, Joy Chua, Cameron Lee, Christian Martell, Anna Millman, Evan Pelz, Eli Piette, Leslie Primack, Marielle Segarra, Catherine Straut, Allison Wentz Sports Staff Writers Peter Cipparone, Han Cui, 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, Julianne Fenn, Jake Frank, Anne Fuller, Josh Garcia, Jennifer Grayson, Rachel Isaacs, Joyce Ji, Jenn Kim, Tarah Knaresboro, Ted Lamm, Alex Mazerov, Lisa Qing, Alex Rosenberg, Madeleine Rosenberg, Elena Weissman, Jason Yum

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O pinions Monday, September 15, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Page 11

An important thank you BY MATT AKS Opinions Columnist A few days after I moved in to my room in Barbour Hall, the Community Assistants organized a study break in the lounge where new residents could mingle with one another and receive important information about life in their new dorm. At this study break, Lionel Butterfield, the DPS officer responsible for keeping an eye on Barbour Hall, addressed the students. He gave a sincere speech in which he praised Brown’s illustrious tradition and reminded my dorm-mates and me that we are now a part of that tradition. He told us that we were “making history in this place” and that he was there to help us. I was particularly struck by how genuine Officer Butterfield was. He believed strongly in the goodness of the average Brown student and the priorities of the institution as a whole. Shortly thereafter, I spotted an instance of graffiti on the white hallway walls. “Why the f*** is it so hot?” was written in black Sharpie. I remembered the countless times the exit signs in Keeney Quadrangle had been defaced last year in an apparent tradition. I thought of the Saturday mornings when vomit would be strewn across the bathroom floors and sinks. Conscious of Officer Butterfield’s words, I became upset. If his sincerity wasn’t enough to

convince students to refrain from unnecessarily destructive behavior, what could be? It should go without saying that DPS officers and Brown employees deserve a great deal of respect and praise. Daily practices that will make their jobs easier are not hard to perform — make sure your garbage is placed properly in dumpsters, don’t deface school property and clean up food that spills off your tray. Without the hard work of people like Of-

the concerns I raise do not simply make the jobs of Brown employees more difficult. I fear they do something far more dangerous and insidious — they damage employees’ faith in the overall value and purpose of Brown as an institution. I imagine that if many of us were in the position of Officer Butterfield or other Brown employees, we would experience a certain level of cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, we would be keenly aware of the intelligence

It should go without saying that DPS officers and Brown employees deserve a great deal of respect and praise. Daily practices that will make their jobs easier are not hard to perform. ficer Butterfield, this institution simply could not survive. This fact alone should be enough to generate an overwhelming consensus in favor of those aforementioned daily practices and other similar ones. The few students who are insensitive to

of Brown’s student body and Brown’s tradition of producing students who make a positive impact on society. But at the same time, we would witness (at least a few) current Brown students acting insensitively and immaturely. I sensed that Officer Butterfield had prob-

ably experienced this sort of dissonance at some points. “If you could see what I see,” he said to us. Of course, no individual student will ever single-handedly undermine Brown’s strong sense of institutional values and priorities. But there is a real threat to life at Brown if some students’ behavior causes this sense of dissonance to grow stronger. It would be very easy for DPS to stringently enforce the letter of the law and to not tolerate any “experimentation.” On many other campuses, this sort of strict policing is a reality. But the other night, Officer Butterfield articulated a different view of campus safety — one that does not look to make students pay for their mistakes, one that believes students can conduct themselves maturely in the privacy of their own dorms. Like people in any line of work, Brown employees could simply go through the motions. But instead, they genuinely care about helping students and many are willing to go the extra mile to make sure we all get the most out of our time here. I believe the vast majority of Brown students are grateful to the employees who help sustain a high quality of life on campus. Nonetheless, as we begin a new year, I hope we can all take some time to appreciate their hard work, and to recognize our obligation to conduct ourselves in ways that reflect that appreciation.

Matt Aks ’11 wants to know why the f*** someone would write that on the wall.

Empty introductions BY ALVIN KERBER Opinions Columnist For once in my life, I may finally be part of an exclusive club. I think I am the only person at Brown to have done this, but I actually read the report of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education. The task force recently released their final report, summarizing their assessment of the current Brown curriculum and what can be done to improve it. Among the many issues addressed in this document was the liberal education Brown ought to provide to students. The report makes many good suggestions, including strengthening Brown’s writing requirement and adding better, more consistent advising support for students. However, one vital factor in the quality of Brown’s education is brushed over, namely the quality and breadth of the courses themselves. Much of the effort of the University goes towards helping students to receive the strong, broad selection of courses necessary for a liberal education. To that end, the task force recommends that Brown examine all the existing concentration programs while encouraging departments to offer better introductory courses. In particular, the task force suggests that “departments create a number of regular undergraduate offerings that introduce the spirit of their disciplines, thus encouraging students to explore the curriculum in the broadest possible way.” This is indeed an important goal: Students at Brown should definitely be encouraged to

experiment academically and learn a wide variety of subject matter. Unfortunately, the idea presented here will not help, and may actually work against this goal. First, what is the task force report even suggesting? It does not demand that each broad introductory course provide a good foundation for continuing in its field or even demonstrate some of the primary ideas and thought processes needed for the subject. It merely advises that courses introduce the “spirit” of their disciplines — and the prospect of the

This seems like a positive development, and it is — in some ways. What happens, though, when the department and professor try to make a course more fun and appealing to a wide audience? They dumb it down. The result is the over-the-top ridiculousness of fancy PowerPoint presentations, endless jokes and sometimes even class-long skits. The difficult concepts in the course, which don’t seem important right away but will be necessary in future courses, are replaced by material that is more superficially interesting. The reasoning and thought processes central

Classes that only serve as fun, fuzzy introductions do nothing to give students a liberal education University course catalog containing such entries as “PHYS 0020: The Spirit of Classical Mechanics” is patently absurd. There is a larger problem than this request for nonsensical changes. Many departments, especially those with subject matter that is considered especially difficult, attempt to attract students with glitzy lectures and fun material. If the University pushes each department to produce general introductory courses that cater to wide audiences, the number of these courses will sharply increase, and more effort will be put into making them engaging and attractive.

to the subject are ignored in favor of simple problems and rote memorization. This outcome is terrible for all students. Students who are actually interested in the difficult aspects of the course’s subject matter will be left completely hanging. On the other hand, even the students from other fields, whom the course was meant to attract in the first place, will be negatively affected because they will not genuinely learn anything about the subject matter. Why, after all, does Brown want students to take a wide variety of courses? Surely it is not so that they can gain knowledge of the

“spirit” of diverse areas and think of them all as entertaining. Students need to understand how experts in the subject approach problems and what concentrators in it will actually study. The Brown education should not be marked by brief tastes of disjointed material. Classes that only serve as fun, fuzzy introductions do nothing to give a student a liberal education. The problem is not just that these courses are too easy, but also that they make the actual material discussed seem dull. Instead of making the material interesting, these classes attempt to create a flashy exterior and hope that somehow the important information seeps into the student’s brain. Sure, the introductory course is fun, but how many students will continue? How many are genuinely captured by the lecture topics? Brown already has many introductor y courses – some of them considered “jock” classes, almost all of them extremely large in size. The task force must not encourage Brown’s departments to create more in the same mold. It is not that they would be dull, difficult or tedious – in fact, they would probably be very popular. But it does not matter how many students take a course if none of them obtain anything important from it. Brown must realize that these lightweight introductory courses do little to give students a truly rounded education. More importantly, Brown’s departments must evaluate their own course selections. For any course, the facts, the thoughts and the genuinely exciting ideas are far more important than the spirit.

Alvin Kerber ’11 chooses courses based on peer pressure.

S ports M onday Page 12

Monday, September 15, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Have no fear, Matt Cassel is here to stay Let me begin by talking about perhaps the most anticipated event of the summer, something that returned to the airwaves just over a week ago after months and months of buildup and Alex Mazerov intrigue. Maz’s Minute It was a debut that, in less than a few hours on Sunday, Sept. 7, managed both to finally satisfy its fans’ cravings and to fill the hearts of many faithful with doubt, disappointment, and, for some, despair. I’m talking, of course, about the “Entourage” premiere. (I’ll get to Tom Brady and the NFL in a minute.) Sure, Jeremy Piven was as golden as ever as Ari — as usual, he had plenty of snarky one-liners that can’t be printed in a newspaper — and it was refreshing to see Turtle with a dependable lady-friend, but was everyone else as underwhelmed as I was? It was certainly entertaining to see Richard Roeper slam the “Hindenburg of a screening” of “Medellin” at Cannes and Bow Wow as E’s newest client, but those cameos weren’t enough to make up for largely uninspired dialogue and too much screen time of Vince being his usual whiny, naive, stubborn self. The plot wasn’t exactly stirring, either. When the boys learned that the big movie offer we thought Vince had wrapped up was just a ruse, all hope seemed lost, the unemployable Vince and Co. resigned to a bleak existence in a Reseda duplex with basic cable and a TV small enough to make Turtle cry. Which brings me to last week’s calamity at Gillette Stadium that left Pats fans depressed and hopeless. Kansas City Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard’s hit on Brady was eerily reminiscent of Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Kimo von Oelhoffen’s dustup with Cincinnati Bengals QB Carson Palmer back in 2006, a seemingly innocuous collision that nevertheless left the star quarterback writhing in pain and kept him off the field for months with an ACL tear, among other injuries. So when word finally seeped out of Bill Belichick’s tight-lipped operation that the same fate had befallen the face of the franchise, who would have to undergo season-ending surgery, Patriots Nation’s hope of getting that elusive fourth Super Bowl title went largely by the wayside. With Brady out for the year, Pats fans’ worst fears had been realized. This is a team, we’ve been told for years now, that is nothing without a Brady-led passing attack, just a middle-of-the-road franchise with a mediocre defense and an average running game. And a team that, without Brady under center, an ESPN analyst several weeks ago compared to the Kansas City Chiefs, a cellar-dwelling squad that, ironically, the Pats just barely hung on to beat last Sunday after Brady left the game. Brady’s replacement, Matt Cassel, was a backup in college and hadn’t even started a game since high school. And you thought Vince had it bad. continued on page 8

M. soccer splits in S.C. tournament By Katie Wood Sports Staff Writer

The men’s soccer team traveled south to Mount Pleasant, S.C., last weekend for the Aaron Olitsky Memorial/Nike Soccer Classic. Brown finished 1-1, edging out Furman University 1-0 and falling behind early to the College of Charleston before losing 3-1. The Bears struggled in the first half of their match on Friday with Furman, recording only two shots on goal. The eventual gamewinning goal came off a corner kick in the 65th minute. When the Paladin defense failed to clear the ball out of their territory, David Walls ’11 gained control of the ball and his shot found the back of the net. Brown’s defense held Furman scoreless for the remainder of the game, as Jarrett Leech ’09 recorded his second shutout of the season. Bruno was looking to finish out the weekend with a win over host Charleston on Sunday. The Cougars won their first game against No. 10 Ohio State 2-1 and were poised and ready to play another ranked team in the No. 18 Bears. The game got off to a fast start, as Charleston lead Brown after the first 13 minutes of play. Cougar Matt Morris shot one past goalie Paul Grandstrand ’11 in the 13th minute and quickly followed up with a second goal in the 19th minute. With the Bears down 2-0 early in the game, they had an uphill battle to end victorious. Shortly before the half, Charleston’s Jedd Cordisco scored on an unassisted breakaway goal. After the intermission, the Brown defense held back the Cougar charge and did not allow a goal for the remainder of the game, but the offense could not cut into the 3-0 Charleston lead. Dylan Sheehan ’09 finally put one in the net for Bruno in the 89th minute, assisted on a corner kick by Taylor Gorman ’12. With only one minute to play, the first goal of the day came too late as the final score remained 3-1.

Villanova drops field hockey By Andrew Braca Assistant Spor ts Editor

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

David Walls ’11 scored the only goal against Furman Friday after the Paladin defense failed to clear the ball. Leech was selected to the alltournament team after his shutout on Friday, along with defender Rhett Bernstein ’09 and midfielder Rob Medairos ’12. Leech was also selected to the Adidas-Brown Classic All-Tournament team last weekend, where he received Defensive MVP honors. Medairos joins midfielder Evan Coleman ’12 as two first-years who have been

named to all-tournament teams from the past two weekends of play. The Bears will try to rebound from their loss when they battle Boston University on the road on Wednesday night. They return home next Saturday as they take on in-state rival URI at 7 p.m. following the football season opener.

It was a tale of two halves for the field hockey team on Friday, but a strong finish was not enough for Brown to beat Villanova. The Bears (1-2) succumbed to the Wildcats (5-1), 1-0, in Villanova, Penn., after surrendering a goal less than three minutes before halftime. “(The Wildcats are) a ver y, ver y fast team all over the field and they’re ver y aggressive, and I think we just got caught back on our heels a little bit,” Head Coach Tara Harrington ’94 said. “Once we settled in and sorted it out, we had a much better second half, but unfortunately they capitalized and put one in the net in the first period.” It was the lone blemish on an otherwise sterling defensive effort. Brown held Villanova to 14 shots, and goalkeeper Lauren Kessler ’11 made eight saves. Victoria Sacco ’09 attributed it to a group effort. “We’ve really been focusing on our pressing system this season,” said Sacco, a defender. “It starts with the attacking forwards all the way back to the defense. Whenever we were all working very well as a unit with our press and really focusing on it, it helped to keep them out of our defensive circle.” Harrington praised the leadership of two senior defenders, especially Kessler. “She’s extremely vocal in our backfield; she’s really helping settle our defense in and keep our defense organized,” Harrington said. “I think two of our seniors, Ann LeClerc (’09) and Vicky Sacco, our left and right (fullbacks), have been very steady. They, too, have been a strong organizing force. Vicky’s been going on the attack a lot. From the fullback position going continued on page 8

Willard’s ’06 mind now on London By Nicole Stock Spor ts Staf f Writer

Herald File Photo

Steeplechaser Anna Willard ‘06 faced a lousy diet and high anxiety at the Olympic games in Beijing over the summer.

Anna Willard ’06, former Brown track and field standout, finished 10th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Beijing Olympic games, slightly behind fellow American Jennifer Barringer. Willard finished in a time of 9:25.63, which was almost 27 seconds behind the Russian gold-medalist Gulnara Galkina-Samitova. Galkina-Samitova finished the race with a world-record time of 8:58.81, nearly nine seconds in front of the silver medalist. Although Willard did not medal in the finals, she was still happy to compete in the final race. “At the beginning of the season it was my goal to make the Olympic final so it was really rewarding for me to accomplish that feat,” Willard wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Willard had high expectations coming into the Olympic Games after setting the American re-

cord at the July Olympic Trials in Eugene Ore. Willard, a firsttime Olympian, was overcome with emotion when she walked into the stadium in Beijing. She was at a loss for words when she described the atmosphere of the Bird’s Nest. “Walking out onto the track for the first time was a thrill,” Willard wrote. “To see the Bird’s Nest from the track, I was overwhelmed by the crowd and the backdrop of the torch.” Although anxiety may have been a contributing factor to Willard’s off-pace times, she thought the food seemed to play a bigger role, because the difference in culture made her diet a bit more of a challenge than she anticipated. “I had a lot of problems with the food in the Village,” wrote Willard. “In retrospect, I believe this made me weaker in the finals, and if I could change one thing I would have changed my diet in the week leading up to the

race.” Willard plans to continue competing. Now with her first Olympics under her belt, she hopes to be a force in the upcoming season. She is looking ahead to the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, and considers it a building block in getting back to where she was a month ago. “It was exciting for me to have accomplished my goal in making the Olympic final, however, I believe I have the ability to accomplish much more,” Willard wrote. “I have learned that I should always approach these races with the goal of contending for a medal and next year at the World Championships in Berlin, I hope to do just that.” Although Willard has accomplished a great deal this season, she hopes to improve. She also plans to continue her training in pursuit of a second Olympic berth for the 2012 London Olympics, which she has already marked on the calendar.