Tuesday, September 23, 2008 by The Brown Daily Herald

The Brown Daily Herald T uesday, S eptember 23, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 76

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Mailroom to be back on track soon

Sen. targets prof ’s ties to big pharma

By Christian Martell Staff Writer

Psych chair told to disclose payments

While many students have received late packages and had to wait in long lines to trade in their blue slips recently, the mail room expects to be caught up on orders by Wednesday. “Currently, the mail ser vices staff is processing the packages delivered on Saturday and this morning, and expects to be completely back on track by Wednesday of this week,” said Elizabeth Gentry, assistant vice president of financial and administrative services, which oversees mailservices. Regular mail continues to be sorted and placed in mailboxes as it arrives, but the processing of packages — including the recording and writing of mailbox notifications — has been delayed because of the move across the street, Gentry said.

By Chaz Firestone and Chaz Kelsh Features Editor and Senior Staff Writer

Harrison Kreisberg ’10 sent to the group’s mailing list. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, Reed, who is up for reelection this year, is a member of the Senate’s Armed Services; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; and Appropriations committees. In his 20-minute speech, Reed addressed the nation’s diminished “economic, aspirational and militar y powers” undercutting its standing in the international community. He lauded Sen. Barack Obama as the candidate to vote for this

Investigators from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee are scrutinizing Brown over disclosure of conflicts of interest in clinical research, Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 confirmed Thursday. Though University Inside spokespeople Research would not disputed: comment on Prof’s study the details of a letter of inquiry may have from ranking hid drug’s committee suicide link member Sen. See page 6 Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a source familiar with the investigation has confirmed that the letter names Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Martin Keller, the chairman of the psychiatry department at the Alpert Medical School. Grassley has sent letters to more than 20 academic institutions asking that specific researchers disclose all financial ties to drug companies. The letter from Grassley is the latest in a years-long string of questions that have been raised over Keller’s clinical research and his relationships with the drug companies who sponsor it. The research and relationships have been lambasted in medical journals, the popular press and, more recently, an inflammatory book. The Herald contacted Keller several times starting Sept. 10, but he said he was unavailable for comment before press time. Keller has gained notoriety for authoring a controversial clinical study

continued on page 4

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Kim Perley / Herald

Students wait, blue slips in hand, to retrieve packages at the mail room. Services are set to be caught up by Wednesday.

“The complications of the move so close to the start of the semester and the ongoing construction added a dimension of complexity that was not well understood initially,” Gentry wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “This made establishing a

smooth processing system in a new physical environment that much more complicated.” Five temporary mail clerks and a student worker have been hired, while a staffer from Gentry’s office was relocated temporarily to aid the

usual 16-person mail room staff, which has logged overtime to address the problem, Gentry said. There are about 5,800 student mailboxes and another 500 faculty continued on page 4

Reed discusses national politics at Dems’ series By Paula Kaufman Contributing Writer

Min Wu / Herald

Ladies from Brown’sTones a capella sings under the MoChamp arch earlier this year.

After the audition, a cappella groups court new members Students strut their stuff, then await ‘drunkapella’ to decide their fates

campus Thursday night, marking the culmination of a more than week-long a cappella audition and selection process. With over a dozen a cappella groups, Brown has one of the most By Kyla Wilkes vibrant and active collegiate a capStaff Writer pella communities, said Jonathan Aronchick ’09, a member of HarLate last Thursday night, an excited monic Motion and the “Czar” of group of seven girls crept quietly Brown’s “Intergalactic Community down a hallway on Pembroke Cam- of A Cappella,” an umbrella organipus. “We have to be quiet zation for all the groups like ninjas — we want it that sing without instruFEATURE to be a surprise,” Kim ments on campus. Gemme ’09 heard one of her coThis year saw a record number conspirators whisper. of students audition, said Allison The girls knocked sharply on Schneider ’10, a member of the Naomi Heilweil’s ’12 door. When Chattertocks. Schneider said 60 to it swung open, all seven — mem- 70 girls showed up over two nights bers of the Brown’sTones a cappella of auditions for her group alone. group, of which Gemme is president Matt Bauman ’10, musical direc— burst into song and enveloped tor for the Bear Necessities, said Heilweil in hugs. his group was also “blown away” by This wasn’t an isolated incident continued on page 4 — such festivities happened across

METRO

Ripping into RIPTA Students for a Democratic Society stage a “sit-in” on RIPTA buses to protest fare hikes

www.browndailyherald.com

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., spoke to a half-full Salomon 101, addressing and fielding student questions about the economy and international strife Monday afternoon. Reed, the senior senator from Rhode Island, was the second speaker in the Brown Democrats’ “Better Know Your District” series. The Dems hope the series will help Brown students learn more about local and state districts and their representatives, according to an e-mail Brown Democrats President

Alum favored to win Del. governor race By Lauren Pischel Staff Writer

Even when Jack Markell ’82 was at Brown, his friends thought he would go into politics. “It was not if, but what year, is Jack going to become president,” said Pamela Petro ’82, a classmate and friend of Markell. After a decade in politics, Markell is now likely to become the next governor of Delaware. Markell won the Democratic primary for governor on Sept. 9 with record-setting voter turnout, defeating Lt. Gov. John Carney by 1,700 votes. He will face former Superior Court Judge Bill Lee, a Republican, in the Nov. 4 general election. “Carney did not even have a los-

ROCKIN’ THE SKATING RINK Ben Folds brings his pianoplaying skills to the Bank of CAMPUS NEWS America Center in Providence

OPINIONS

Courtesy of Jack Markell for Governor

Jack Markell ’82, who studied economics at a fundraiser.

ing speech prepared, so this is really a stunning victory on Markell’s part,” said Gretchen Bauer ’82, professor and chair of the University of Delaware Department of Political Science and International

FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY Graham Anderson ’10 advocates helmet use and safe bike habits — it’ll save your life

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

12 SPORTS

Relations. The primary was likely a more challenging election for Markell than the upcoming general election continued on page 8

TIE SOME, LOSE SOME Women’s soccer records a tie and a loss on their recent trip to Minnesota

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

TODAY

TOMORROW

partly cloudy 67 / 47

partly cloudy 70 / 47

Menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Popcorn Chicken with Dipping Sauces, Tempeh Fajitas with Pico de Gallo, Jelly Roll

Lunch — Shaved Steak Sandwich, Falafel in Pita, Meditterranean Bar, White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dinner — Orange Turkey, Au Gratin Potatoes with Fresh Herbs, Chocolate Pudding

Dinner — Pot Roast Jardiniere, Pasta Primavera, Oven Browned Potatoes, Butterscotch Layer Cake

Brown Meets RISD | Miguel Llorente

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

Free Variation | Jeremy Kuhn

Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley

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

ACROSS 1 Put on, as cargo 6 “Carmina Burana” composer 10 Rigged support 14 Asian cartoon art 15 Game in which left-handed play isn’t allowed 16 Red sky, to sailors 17 Agenda entries 18 Brother of Jacob 19 Pigeonhole 20 Lincoln 23 Neon, e.g. 24 Encouraging word 25 Like some city lots 29 Sword with a bowl-shaped guard 31 Vatican vestment 34 Cognizant 35 Sheltered area 36 __-friendly 37 Lincoln 40 “Fine by me” 41 Variegated 42 Things to crack 43 No longer working: Abbr. 44 “Wheel of Fortune” choice 45 Abandon 46 Considerably 47 Singer Benatar 48 Lincoln 56 Stereo predecessor 57 Wedge or mashie 58 Lead-in for José? 59 Big name in hotels 60 Remarked 61 Something to read online 62 __ gin fizz 63 Architectural shapes 64 Ditties DOWN 1 Not of the cloth 2 Not backing 3 Losing proposition? 4 Award since 1949

33 French seaport 48 Thwart 5 Fashion bigwig 35 Henry __ 49 Not tricked by 6 Some 36 Strange 50 Caspian Sea tournaments hoverers feeder 7 Plant with hips 38 Evaluate 51 Drudgery 8 Spare tire 39 Colorless 52 Franchised makeup? solvents clown of early 9 Ernie Banks’s TV 44 In a funk retired uniform 45 Reservoir 53 Cry from the first number creator finisher 10 Like some tree 46 Stopped in one’s 54 Superboy’s Lana trunk areas tracks 55 Peepers 11 Wild way to run 47 Ducks’ habitats 56 Family title 12 Word repeated after “Que” ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 13 Big bang maker 21 Jazzman Adderley 22 “__ we there yet?” 25 Something in the air 26 Came to 27 Diamond measure 28 Pseudosophisticated 29 Moth-__: worn out 30 Trudge 31 Actor-toaudience comment 32 Vote finalizer 2/12/08 xwordeditor@aol.com

Alien Weather Forecast | Stephen Lichenstein and Adam Wagner

Dunkel | Joe Larios

T he B rown D aily H erald Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 Business Phone: 401.351.3260

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

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

2/12/08

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

M etro Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Metro

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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Brief

Campaign Notes: Biden to raise funds Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Biden, DConn., will attend a private fundraiser for the Obama campaign in Rhode Island Thursday evening at the Alpine Country Club in Cranston. Entry will go for $1,000 per head, though donors are encouraged to contribute more to the campaign. Additionally, the Rhode Island for Obama headquarters hosted its grand opening to a crowd of over 600 last Friday. Democrats Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts ’78 attended the event at 321 South Main St., said Ray Sullivan, state director for the Obama presidential campaign. “So many people RSVP’d and told us they were coming, we had to move the event from the office to the green in front of the river,” Sullivan told The Herald. The Obama headquarters, which shares office space with other democratic state leaders, houses three full-time employees, about 20 interns and hundreds of volunteers, many of whom are Brown students, Sullivan said. During the primary season the campaign’s office was temporarily located on Westminster Street. Though the new office was already functional before the kick-off event Friday, it has added over 50 telephone lines, said Deputy Field Officer for the campaign Max Chaiken ’09, also president of Brown Students for Barack Obama and a Herald opinions columnist. Sullivan said the focus of the campaign will have a “twofold” approach going forward. “Our first responsibility is to turn out a big win in Rhode Island,” he said, adding that campaign staffers were also “working extremely hard to support our sister state, New Hampshire.” “This weekend is a nationwide ‘Students for Obama’ push. We send folks into target battleground states,” Sullivan said. “We are working with all (Rhode Island) area schools to recruit folks to put boots on the ground.” — Simon van Zuylen-Wood

Beware of fake baseball players If you have recently given a young man money for a youth baseball team trip to Japan or to buy children’s books for a hospital, you may have been scammed. A man in his twenties has been patrolling Doyle Street on the East Side in the last two weeks, asking for cash or checks for a company he calls Prestige Sales USA, City Councilman Cliff Wood (D-Ward 2) told The Herald Monday. The young con artist, who calls himself Michael, secured money from one couple on Doyle Street earlier this month and recently solicited money from another resident. Wood said he was subject to the same scam attempt last year but did not bite. “This guy in his twenties shows up at the door and says he is raising money for a baseball team trip to Tokyo.” Woods said con artists like Michael often supplement their pitch by saying they are washing windows to raise money. “Then you’ve got to give them money ... and then they disappear,” he added. Wood said he knew immediately that the pitch was bogus when “Michael” said he lived at a Providence address that did not exist. A similar scam was reported by the New Hampshire Union Leader on Aug. 29. Michael Moorefield of Tuscon, Ariz., was arrested Aug. 27 in Rye, N. H., for solicitation without a permit, according to the Union Leader. He was working with an accomplice, who was charged with possession of a controlled substance. One family cut Moorefield a check for over $200, according to the report. Both perpetrators were released on bail. Moorefield’s details were slightly different from those cited in Providence; for example, he said he was raising funds for a baseball trip to Hawaii. His scam was eventually uncovered for the same reason as the Rhode Island Michael: He said he lived in a house that did not exist. Lt. John Ryan, whose District 9 office patrols College Hill, said that he has not yet received any complaints from local residents. — Simon van Zuylen-Wood

Angry SDS riders take over RIPTA meeting By Nandini Jayakrishna and Scott Lowenstein Metro Editors

Under the specters of public transit budget shortfalls, fare increases and fewer routes, Providence Students for a Democratic Society stormed into a monthly board meeting of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority Monday afternoon, causing the meeting to be adjourned early. Amid the heat and smell of a conference room filled with too many people, more than 20 SDS members — most of whom were Brown students — took over the meeting at RIPTA’s headquarters on Melrose Street. They protested fare hikes, proposed service cuts and RIPTA’s power structure, which they said does not adequately represent the public. RIPTA is run by an eight-member Board of Directors appointed by Governor Donald Carcieri ’65, said Chelsea Miller, a Rhode Island College student who led the protest. The RIPTA board originally planned to discuss the fiscal year 2009 budget, among other items, before the protest made it impossible to continue with the regularly scheduled meeting. As soon as the meeting was called into session, Miller started the pro-

test by sitting down at the board table and placing a placard before her reading, “Chelsea Miller RIPTA Board Member.” At the same time, SDS members handed out to board members and others in the room their own agenda for the meeting. The new agenda included motions such as “no cuts or freezes to staff wages and benefits” and “no route shortenings or eliminations.” At first, Board Chairman John Rupp told Miller that he appreciated her coming to the meeting and that she would be given time to make comments at the end. But when Miller continued to speak, Rupp told her she was showing disrespect to the board. “I am trying to run a meeting and you are out of order,” he told Miller. Whenever Rupp tried to speak over Miller, the protestors used noisemakers and yelled slogans like “Let her speak,” “This is what democracy looks like” and “Who’s RIPTA? We are RIPTA,” After letting Miller voice her group’s concerns for a few minutes, Rupp said, “If it’s your RIPTA, take the board seat,” and adjourned the meeting, prompting cheers from the protestors. Officer Al Lima of the Providence Police Department, who arrived at the scene after the meeting was

adjourned, said the police weren’t looking to arrest anyone but were there to “just keep peace.” RIPTA is funded by rider fares and government subsidies, such as the gas tax. Among the SDS’s demands was a transfer of RIPTA’s deficit this year to the R.I. General Assembly. SDS cited the deficit as $12.2 million, though a RIPTA press release Monday put the figure at $10.8 million, saying it has increased ad revenue and decreased costs to decrease the shortfall. Miller told the board that it should not “put the deficit on the backs of riders” by increasing fares and reducing routes. She said of the roughly 200 RIPTA riders surveyed by SDS, most said they felt they had no power or voice in the way things were run at the authority. The protestors also said the board meeting time — Mondays at noon — was inconvenient and inaccessible for most RIPTA riders, since many work nine-to-five jobs. Miller invited the board members to attend a public meeting that SDS is organizing on Oct. 5, at the Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) offices on Lockwood Street. Organizers of the protest called continued on page 8

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Senior R.I. senator calls for more economic regulation Post office packages not arriving posthaste continued from page 1

continued from page 1 and administration boxes currently in use. Maribel Oliveras, office assistant to the literary arts pProgram, is in charge of picking up and dropping off all mail items for the program’s mailbox. “We usually just get letters, but we’ve had no trouble with package deliveries so far,” Oliveras said. But Meleha Ahmad ’11, who ordered four posters online three weeks ago, did not receive her package until Monday morning. “Oh, my God. This is the fourth time I’ve come here to get this,” Ahmad said. “They kept telling me they couldn’t find it.” Like Ahmad, the girl behind her in line was also told to come back later in the day to pick up a package that apparently had not yet been sorted. But others have had better luck. Alejandra Ceja ’12 said she only had to wait about five to 10 minutes in line to pick up her package — books she ordered online about two weeks ago. “This line usually takes longer than the yellow slip line for some reason,” she said, referring to the window that provides deliveries from shipping companies like United Parcel Service and Federal Express. Scotty Carroll ’11 started at the back of the line Monday at noon and also only had to wait 10 minutes for his package delivery. Carroll said he didn’t mind the wait because it gave him time to take in his surroundings. “Having ever ything in one building like this is convenient, but it reminds me a lot of a state university,” Carroll said. “One of the reasons I came to Brown was because of its old-school feel, which is something the old mailboxes really captured.”

November. “Senator Obama will help our standing in the world,” he said. Reed said he suppor ted Obama’s strategy of diplomacy in the Middle East. “Our next president will have to send an envoy to Palestine to help broker stability,” he said. Reed also said multiple deployments have placed high strains on the militar y, citing a spike in military suicides. A member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Reed also spoke about the housing debacle and Wall Street. He said the “lax regulatory environment” has perpetuated the economic downturn. “America gives $470 billion to oil-producing nations in the Middle East without recognizing the environmental consequences,” Reed said, calling for changes to country’s energy policy.

Drew Harris ’11 told The Herald that he was glad to hear Reed speak on campus. “His presence was particularly relevant with the financial situation,” he said. Talia Kagan ’12 said she enjoyed the event but wished more students had attended. “In general this is a great way to make political figures more accessible to the greater student body,” she said. “The main demographic seems to be just Brown democrats, which makes sense,” given that the speech could have been better publicized, she said. “You’d think because he’s a senator more people would have come,” Kagan added. Kreisberg said he was pleased with the turnout for an event during lunch. Though Reed recognized the current economic conditions, he said he remained hopeful for the future. “The good old boom days have passed for now, but they’ll be back,” he said.

Min Wu / Herald

Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I., speaks in Salomon 101 yesterday as part of the Brown Democrats’ “Better Know Your District” series.

For some a cappella groups, recruitment looks to ‘cool-factor’ continued from page 1 the talent they saw this year. “In the past ... 20 people would go by without us wanting to call them back. This year we had 20 people go by and we wanted to call back all of them.” The audition process Several current members and auditionees compared the a cappella audition process to the rushing of a fraternity or sorority. Auditions often involve a nervous freshman singing a musical number while simultaneously acting the song out. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard ‘Les Miserables,’” Bauman said. “‘Rent’ is a big one too.” Many auditionees are also asked to do pitch-matching exercises or sing scales — all in front of a group of potentially intimidating upperclassmen. Aronchick said less-than-qualified auditionees sometimes show

up. “There are definitely people who do not have experience.” Bauman agreed. “It’s hard not to laugh ... I’ve had a few American Idol moments, but of course I’m not Simon (Cowell) and I won’t say anything that will make someone stop singing for the rest of their lives.” Not only are the frightened auditionees trying to stay on pitch, but they’re also trying to showcase their style. Personality is “ver y important,” Aronchick said. “We always do the cool-factor,” Bauman said. Just before midnight, the Thursday after the first round of auditions — and a week before final decisions are made — each group posts its list of callbacks at MoChamp and Wayland Arches, Aronchick said. Clusters of excited first-years — many attempting to appear nonchalant — flood the area to look for their names. Courting On any given weekend evening, the campus is full of students attempting to impress a potential mate. The Friday after these callbacks are posted, the same process of wooing begins between a cappella groups and the students they’ve called back — the so-called “call-backees.” “We’re auditioning for them just as much as they’re auditioning for us,” Schneider said. Bumping into a call-backee is comparable to bumping into that cute girl from last Saturday’s party. “If we bump into them, we’re as friendly as possible,” said Ben Simon ’11, business manager for the Brown Derbies. And while the main focus of callbacks is to gauge a student’s musical talent, it’s also a time for call-backees and current group members to get to know each other. “The point isn’t to bribe them with a free lunch,” said Bauman — though that tactic is actually employed quite often. Courting is more about letting the groups get a feel for the call-backees’ personalities, while the call-backees figure out which group feels like the best fit, said Priyanka Chatterjee ’12, who got called back by three groups. “You can usually tell which person will go with which group” based on their personality, Aronchick said.

Min Wu / Herald

The Brown’sTones are just one of the many a cappella groups on campus that recruit new members competitively. “We say, ‘That guy is totally a Jabberwock,’ or, ‘That guy is totally going to go to the Derbies,’” Bauman said. The much-anticipated moment Last Thursday at 11 p.m., all the a cappella groups crowded into lower Salomon for their traditional “midnight meeting” — affectionately dubbed “drunkapella” by some, Schneider said. As the group continues imbibing, Aronchick serves as a moderator “because we’re all so loud and we’re so drunk,” Bauman said. Alongside Aronchick is someone commonly called an “elf” — a neutral individual not involved in a cappella. No one else outside the a cappella community is allowed to attend, Aronchick said. Before this meeting, all of the call-backees fill out a preference card ranking the groups that called them back. Only the elf is ever allowed to see these preference cards. The meeting’s procedure is relatively straightforward: One group shouts the name of the student it wants the most. If any other group wants that student, its members raise their hands. The elf examines that call-backee’s preference card and then announces the pairing. This repeats until all groups have selected all of the call-backees they want. “It’s a lot of fun. Everyone is laughing and cheering and booing,” said Emily Borromeo ’09, president

of the Higher Keys. After last Thursday’s meeting, the groups left Salomon energetically. “Everyone was sort of on a high,” Gemme said. Meanwhile, across campus, Heilweil and dozens of other callbackees waited nervously in their dorm rooms for either a celebratory knock or a disappointing phone call. Anna Samel ’12 was “sung in” by Harmonic Motion. “I heard Mika’s ‘Lollipop’ coming down the hallway and ran outside. ... I was so excited I couldn’t really do anything but hug all of them,” she said. Though it’s a festive event, a cappella groups sometimes leave disappointed, with fewer recruits than they had hoped for. And some students answer the knock to find their third-choice a cappella group singing, or don’t get chosen by any groups, Gemme said. After “singing in” their new inductees, each group has its own special celebration — which members often consider secret. “We don’t haze,” Bauman said, adding, “If they don’t want to drink, they don’t want to drink.” Heilweil was the first inductee to hear the good news from Brown’sTones Thursday night. She joined her fellow singers as they all left her dorm to announce the news to the other new girls. “I’m extremely happy,” she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “(I) got accepted into a close-knit group that I already feel a part of.”

C ampus n ews Tuesday, September 23, 2008

News

i n

UFB may move to limit UCS president’s power to enter contracts

Brief

UCS-Herald ad deal may be at stake By Mitra Anoushiravani Senior Staff Writer

Herald File Photo

Ben Folds plays at Brown during Spring Weekend in April 2005.

WBRU, BCA bring Ben Folds to play downtown Piano-rocker Ben Folds will play on Thursday at the Bank of America City Center in downtown Providence, in a concert put on by WBRU with support from the Brown Concert Agency. BCA is selling discount tickets at $20 each to Brown students in Faunce House from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Wednesday. Any tickets purchased on Thursday will cost $25. The concert, which is part of the WBRU Dunkin’ Donuts Concert Series, begins at 6 p.m., and doors will be opened at 5 p.m. Singersongwriter Missy Higgins is also performing at the facility, which functions as an ice skating rink during the winter. “We want to make students aware that there’s great music off campus too,” BCA Booking Chair Daniel Ain ’09 said. BCA’s primary role in organizing this concert is publicity on the Brown campus, he added. Traditionally, BCA is in charge of organizing various events held at Brown including the main Spring Weekend concerts. In the past, it has co-sponsored a few concerts with Lupo’s, selling a few hundred tickets to Brown students in advance. However, this is the first time BCA has worked directly with WBRU. WBRU General Manager Jon Zucker ’09 decided that working with BCA would be an effective way for the station to interact more with Brown students on campus. Although WBRU is run mostly by students, it operates independently of the University. “We’re excited to get more involved with Brown,” Zucker said. He added that he would like the station to build a stronger relationship with the Brown campus. According to Zucker, WBRU decided to work with BCA on this particular concert because it will take place next to Kennedy Plaza, which is relatively close to campus. WBRU usually sponsors concerts held over the summer, or concerts at venues farther from campus, making it harder for Brown students to attend, he said. Both Ain and Zucker were enthusiastic about the two student groups working together to put on the concert. “It seems to me like it would be beneficial for both groups,” Zucker said. Ain said he agrees and feels that BCA and WBRU are at the beginning of a good relationship. Ain said that BCA’s involvement with this concert will not change their plans to have other on-campus concerts this fall. While BCA is still in the process of planning the fall concert schedule, the agency hopes to announce an upcoming on-campus concert within the next month. — Emily Rosen

Thanks for reading.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

At Wednesday’s general body meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students, Undergraduate Finance Board Chair Lily Tran ’10 presented three amendments to UFB’s constitution. One amendment, if passed by a one-third vote at this Wednesday’s UCS meeting, will serve as a check on the UCS president’s ability to enter into contracts with the expectation that UFB would provide the funding. This amendment would require that any contract that the president of UCS enters into — including one currently being negotiated by UCS and The Herald — also be passed by one-third vote of UFB. Under this amendment, if UFB rejects a contract signed by UCS, the contract will not be paid for by UFB. UFB Vice-Chair Stefan Smith ’09 said the “spirit of the language” currently in UFB’s constitution is that the board would need to pay for contracts entered into by the UCS president. However, former UFB Chair Swathi Bojedla ’07 said the language in the constitution is “pretty cut and dry that it’s UFB’s authority to decide whether or not to pay for a contract.” Bojedla, when she was chair in the 2005-2006 school year, terminated a long-standing contract between UCS and The Herald regarding advertising space. Tran, who is also on the business staff of The Herald, said the current language in the board’s constitution is vague. The new amendment

is meant to prevent any ambiguity and to provide a means for clear discourse between UFB and UCS about the dollar amounts and payment of future contracts. Smith said the reason this amendment has been brought forth is to potentially “prevent the abuse of power” by the UCS president, though he added that UFB did not foresee the current UCS President Brian Becker ’09 entering into a contract without consulting UFB. Ryan Lester ’11, UCS student activities chair who also serves on UFB, points to a new potential advertising contract between The Herald and UCS as the main reason that UFB has brought up the amendment so early in the year, saying the contract is “what this is basically about, although they are all talking in code.” The potential contract, which has gone through several negotiations within the past two weeks, is currently for a weekly half-page advertisement in The Herald for any Category III student group or UCS to freely use. It would cost $2,025 per semester if signed by Becker and approved by UFB. Since Becker has yet to formally present the contract to UFB, Tran said UFB could not comment on it. Becker has also declined to comment about the specifics of the latest contract, except to state that he has not set a time frame for presenting the contract to UFB or for signing it at all. Becker said that based on “anecdotal” evidence he thought having ad space in The Herald was desirable for student groups. “It was something recognized in years past that is really beneficial,” he said. But Lester said student groups

had not had any input on whether they want the contract. “I honestly don’t know that student groups would be in favor of a BDH contract if they understood the changes in UFB policy regarding their publicity funding,” he said, since spending on the contract could mean decreased funds for other forms of publicity, such as table slipping and posters. Tran said that one form of spending does not have to preclude the other. “I don’t think that UFB should take such a strong stance about the contract. We shouldn’t use the BDH contract, if it happens, as an excuse to not give money to the student groups for table-slips. It’s not necessarily one or the other,” Tran said. UCS Vice-President Michael MacCombie ’11 will head UCS’s initiative to determine whether or not student groups actually want the contract. “I am going to be going around to student groups this week to see if they have a need and a want for using space in the paper to advertise their events,” he said. But Lester, who said student groups haven’t had enough of a voice in the matter so far, said he worries that “UCS wants the contract on their list of accomplishments.” Lester has been working to give the newly formed Brown University Activities Council a voice at UFB. BUAC consists of members from all Category III student groups on campus and will elect a representative to serve on UFB in time for the meeting this Thursday. Tran said she hopes that “BUAC will be a great resource to us.” She added, “It’s not UFB’s job to decide arbitrarily (whether to support the contract), because the money is held in trust by student groups.”

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Professor’s research on antidepressants draws scrutiny Keller’s findings on Paxil disputed by doctors, FDA

continued from page 1 of the antidepressant drug paroxetine — marketed as Paxil in the United States — which concluded that the drug was safe and effective in adolescents. Keller and some of the study’s co-authors have been accused by doctors, lawyers and journalists of having the 2001 study ghostwritten, earning large sums of money from Paxil’s maker, GlaxoSmithKline. In addition, some say the researchers manipulated and suppressed data — including those showing increased suicidal tendencies in children taking the drug. Study 329, as it is referred to by GSK, went on to become one of the most-cited articles in medical literature supporting the use of antidepressants for adolescent depression. At the time, GSK jumped on the favorable results, seeking to promote the use of its product among children, a largely untapped market for antidepressants. In recent years, new studies and secondary research using old data have demonstrated that Paxil can lead to increased suicidal tendencies in children. Keller would later acknowledge in a 2006 deposition that he had been accepting tens of thousands of dollars in consulting fees from GSK and Scientific Therapeutics Information — a company acting on GSK’s behalf — during and after the years he was conducting crucial research on the efficacy and safety of Paxil in children. The University encourages its researchers to collaborate with outside companies, said Regina White, associate vice president for research administration, though it requires full disclosure of all payment involved. But Alison Bass, a former reporter for the Boston Globe, said Keller may have earned more than he acknowledged in tax returns. In a 1999 article for the Globe, Bass reported that Keller had earned a total of $1 million in consulting fees from various drug companies over the fiscal years 1997 and 1998, according to his tax returns from those years. According to Bass, the tax returns show that Keller received $218,000 from Pfizer and $77,400 from Bristol-

All images on this page courtesy of Healthy Skepticism A 1998 GSK position piece, above, and a 2002 FDA review of the Study 329, below.

Below, Professor Martin Keller’s letter to a GlaxoSmithKline-affiliated employee who allegedly wrote the study published in his name.

Myers Squibb during the same year he was praising Pfizer’s Zoloft and publishing positive conclusions on BMS’s Serzone. Missing from his tax returns, Bass told The Herald, was the money Keller acknowledged earning from GSK. To root out conflicts of interests in research, the National Institutes of Health requires all of its grant applicants to disclose “significant financial interest” involving at least $10,000 in earnings. But the same restrictions do not extend to research funded fully by the private sector, of which GSK is part. However, some of Keller’s other research on antidepressants like Prozac, Celexa, Zoloft and Paxil is funded by the NIH, which may be how he landed on Grassley’s list. Grassley’s office has recently made public a small number of the letters requesting information, includ-

ing one this month to Karen Wagner, a clinical professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and a co-author with Keller of Study 329. The letter claims that GSK paid Wagner $160,404 over six years, of which Wagner reported $600. The Iowa senator has also targeted physicians at some of Brown’s peer institutions over similar charges, including Alan Schatzberg of Stanford — who recently resigned his position as principal investigator on a federal research grant in response to the committee’s scrutiny, the Stanford Daily reported Monday. GSK’s Director of U.S. Media Relations Sarah Alspach wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the company has given Grassley full information on Keller’s financial compensation. She added that GSK requires full disclosure from its employees and imposes “rigorous guidelines” over researchers who are compensated by the company. In an e-mail to The Herald, Kertzer wrote that the University has complied with Grassley’s requests and has supplied the appropriate information. No University spokesperson would comment on the specifics of Keller’s case, citing the privacy of its employees, but Kertzer wrote that the University is diligent in monitoring conflicts of interests among its researchers. “The University promulgates and enforces policies that require disclosure of significant financial interests related to their University responsibilities,” Kertzer wrote. He referred to the University’s policy for responding to allegations of research misconduct, which defines conflicts of interest as any case where “bias may occur due to prior or existing personal or professional relationships. White added that it is common practice for researchers to have financial relationships with outside companies, but these only become problematic when they interfere with a researcher’s objectivity. Policies like Brown’s are “very common in most universities,” she said. “Conflict of interest is not inherently wrong.” But White drew the line at misconduct. “Scientific misconduct is inherently wrong. It’s unethical, and it actually is harmful to the research environment.”

Controversial study may have hid suicide links

Among the reasons Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has targeted Professor of Psychiatr y and Human Behavior Martin Keller in his scrutiny of conflicts of interest in clinical research is Keller’s authorship of a controversial study of the antidepressant Paxil in children. The study and its authors have been fiercely criticized in medical journals for allegedly misrepresenting data, suppressing information linking the drug to suicidal tendencies and reaching a conclusion unsupported by the relevant data. The Herald contacted Keller several times starting Sept. 10, but he said he was unavailable for comment before press time. Keller and his colleagues began looking into paroxetine — marketed as Paxil in the United States — in 1992, when they successfully sought funding for a study of the drug from its maker, SmithKline Beecham — now known as GlaxoSmithKline after a 2001 merger with GlaxoWellcome. The study, which compared Paxil with another class of antidepressant and a placebo, ran from 1994 to 1997. Referred to by GSK as Study 329, the study investigated whether Paxil was safe and effective for use in adolescent children suffering from depression. Paxil is a popular antidepressant widely prescribed by physicians to adult patients, but few large-scale studies of its use in children were conducted before Keller’s. The results of the study were compiled in 1998 and published in 2001 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatr y, which listed Keller as the lead author in front of 21 others. It found that “paroxetine is generally well tolerated and effective for major depression in adolescents.” But even as questions about Keller’s financial relationships with drug companies remain open, several members of the medical and legal communities have independently criticized his research on scientific grounds. Ar ticles in medical journals and letters to journal editors have called into question the scientific practices that led to Study 329’s conclusion that Paxil is a safe and effective way to treat depression in children. Misrepresentation, profs say In 2003, University of Adelaide physicians Jon Jureidini and Ann Tonkin wrote a strongly worded letter to the editor of JAACAP expressing their concern over what they felt was a conclusion unsupported by the data. The letter argues that the criteria originally decided upon to determine whether Paxil was effective failed to show that Paxil was better than no treatment at all. Specifically, improvements on the Hamilton rating scale for depression — a questionnaire that rates the severity of symptoms like mood, insomnia and anxiety —

were not significantly greater for patients on Paxil than for patients on a placebo or a different drug, imipramine. Paxil patients did improve more than the other two groups, but the improvements in the “primar y outcome measures” were too small to suppor t the study’s conclusion that Paxil was effective. In their response to the letter, Keller and seven of Study 329’s coauthors conceded that the primary outcome measures decided upon “did not reach significance,” but pointed to a number of “secondar y outcome measures” — such as scores on other depression assessment tests — that did show a significant improvement. Keller’s response added that in the time between 1993, when the relevant outcome measures were chosen, and 1998, when the study was written, the psychiatric community had moved away from the Hamilton scale and toward the measures that had turned out to be significant. Though much of the medical community appeared to side with Jureidini and Tonkin — including the editorial boards of leading medical journals the Lancet and the Canadian Medical Association Journal — the disagreement appeared to have reached an impasse, which wasn’t bridged until this year. In May, Jureidini and two other colleagues published a review of Study 329 in the International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine. In the intervening time between the 2003 letter and the 2008 article, lawsuits against GSK by families of patients who claimed to have been harmed by Paxil gave Jureidini access to previously unreleased documents. Those documents were subpoenaed by the law firm Baum, Hedlund, Aristei and Goldman, which compensated Jureidini for his work. Among the documents Jureidini could access were drafts of the paper that had been submitted for peer review. Before medical journals accept papers for publication, drafts are circulated among medical professionals to carefully scan the paper for miscalculations, careless errors, misleading figures and occasionally larger, more critical inaccuracies. Jureidini learned that the paper had been rejected by the Journal of the American Medical Association, the world’s most widely circulated medical journal. But, more crucially, Jureidini could now sketch out a timeline of the evolution of the paper, from the first draft submitted to JAMA in 1999 to the final draft published in JAACAP in 2001. The drafts showed that none of the eight outcome measures outlined in the original 1993 protocols showed a significant positive effect for Paxil over placebo. Instead, Jureidini argued that the authors had used “selective reporting” to produce their positive conclusion, and introduced new outcome measures in the 2001 paper, some of which were only continued on page 7

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

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Profs say U. should start discussion of psychology chair’s research ethics continued from page 6 decided upon after the blind was broken. That means researchers knew which data belonged to the Paxil groups before they chose a method for determining whether the drug was effective. ‘Commercially unacceptable’ results Study 329 may have obscured critical findings on Paxil users’ suicidal tendencies using creative coding of results. In the study, “suicidal ideation/ gestures” were reported under the label of “emotional lability,” which Jureidini sharply called a “euphemism.” In total, Study 329’s data showed that patients on Paxil were six times more likely to exhibit “emotional lability” than patients on placebo, and twice as likely than patients on imipramine, the other antidepressant tested in the study. Jureidini pointed out that the study failed to report the significance of those data, which were presented in a table but were not discussed in the text of the article. Additionally, a GSK report on the study from 1998 identified at least three other patients who threatened suicide or had suicidal thoughts but were coded under “hostility,” “worsening depression” or even “euphoria” and so were not grouped with emotionally labile patients. Juredini’s calculations showed the serious adverse effects on Paxil to be significant over placebo. “The misrepresentation about the ef fectiveness of the drug is something that can’t have been accidental,” Jureidini said. The Herald has also obtained a copy of a 1998 GSK position piece marked “for internal use only,” in which the company reacts to the findings of Study 329. The memo says that Study 329’s original standards used to measure drug efficacy were not met, but points to “trends in favour of paroxetine.” The document goes on to say that competitors Eli Lilly and Pfizer were making significant progress in testing their respective antidepressants, and concludes with the overall goal to “effectively manage dissemination of these data in order to minimise any potential negative commercial impact ... it would be commercially unacceptable to include a statement that efficacy had not been demonstrated.” By contrast, the company’s promotional literature from 1999 trumpeted the efficacy of the product to physicians. And a 2001 internal memo from Paxil’s product manager to sales representatives selling the drug asser ted that Keller’s “cuttingedge” study showed that “Paxil demonstrates REMARKABLE Efficacy and Safety in the treatment of adolescent depression.” ‘Potentially confusing’ coding There have also been more controversial allegations raised against Keller and his Study 329 co-authors, many of which appear in former Boston Globe reporter Alison Bass’s book, “Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial,” which was released this summer. In it, Bass claims that Keller coded some suicidal patients as “non-compliant,” which means that their adverse effects would not have been included in the ar-

ticle. University officials would not release memos about the coding that Keller sent to the University’s Institutional Review Board, which could ser ve to confirm or refute Bass’s claims. But Donna Howard, an assistant administrator under Keller in the mid-1990s, said she had personally faxed those memos to the IRB. “There was two or three (instances) where there was severe adverse reaction that brought the child into contact either with the police or a hospital, and the children that were involved were eventually dropped from the study and coded as non-compliant,” Howard told The Herald. She said the mood in her office at Butler Hospital would turn sour anytime a patient experienced a serious adverse effect. “You would come in on Monday and it’s, ‘Oh no, patient so-and-so attempted suicide or hit a cop or overdosed,’” Howard said. GSK’s Director of U.S. Media Relations Sarah Alspach denied the claim that Study 329 underreported serious adverse effects, citing a 2002 clinical review of the study by the Food and Drug Administration, which “found no statistically significant signal for suicidality,” Alspach wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Though the FDA review did not find a link in the study between Paxil and increased suicidal tendencies, it noted that researchers’ coding of adverse reactions was “potentially confusing.” The report also concluded that Study 329 was a “failed trial,” because Paxil was not significantly more effective than placebo. Two years later, the FDA issued a suicide warning for all selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors — the class of antidepressant to which Paxil belongs — after the British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulator y Agency issued a similar warning earlier that year for paroxetine in the United

Kingdom. Then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued GSK in June 2004, charging the company with consumer fraud and alleging that it had deliberately withheld data that showed that Paxil increased suicidal tendencies in adolescents. Spitzer’s case targeted only the pharmaceutical company and did not investigate Brown’s or Keller’s involvement. GSK settled the suit for $2.5 million two months later but admitted no wrongdoing. As part of the settlement, GSK agreed to release all results from future clinical trials, whether negative or positive. Jureidini said he is confident that data in Study 329 were delib-

“What I find most distressing is that there has been absolutely no attempt at Brown to even discuss these issues.” Roy Poses ’73 MD’78 clinical associate professor of medicine

erately misrepresented but added that he can’t definitively attribute the perceived misrepresentation of data to Keller. “Whether Keller sat down with somebody and said ‘Let’s tr y to make this drug look good when really it’s not,’ is not something I have evidence for,” he said. Charges of ghostwriting The issue of blame is also complicated by allegations made by Bass and others that Study 329 was ghostwritten by a GSK-affiliated employee. In any given clinical study with multiple authors, the actual article is usually written by one author and

looked over by the others. In this case, there appears to be evidence that the article was drafted by Sally Laden, an editorial director for Scientific Therapeutics Information, the company that prepared the manuscript on GSK’s behalf. Alspach denied the ghostwriting charges but acknowledged Laden’s contribution to the study, which was recognized with the line “editorial assistance was provided by Sally K. Laden” in the fine print of Study 329’s first page. But a leaked memo appears to paint Laden as the one who did the vast majority of the writing. Referring to the first draft of the manuscript, a letter from Keller to Laden dated Feb. 11, 1999, begins “Dear Sally, You did a superb job with this. ... It is excellent. Enclosed are rather minor changes from me.” Clinical Associate Professor of Community Health David Egilman ’74 MD’78 said such work is unethical unless proper credit is given. That credit is missing in Study 329, he said. “In the third grade you’re told not to copy,” he said. “Now that we’re all grown up we’ve got a really long word for it, but it’s the same thing and it’s just as wrong.” Egilman noted that ghostwriting is not an entirely uncommon practice in writing up clinical studies. But it’s still considered unethical, he added, especially when the ghostwriter has a stake in the findings. Lack of U. discussion Each allegation of scientific misconduct in Study 329 — the claimed ghostwriting, outcome measures switch and miscoding of suicidal patients — have led scientists to call for Brown to lead a public investigation into the issues. “What I find most distressing is that there has been absolutely no attempt at Brown to even dis-

cuss these issues, much less have a forum or an investigation,” said Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine Roy Poses ’73 MD’78. “If Keller’s actions have been exemplar y and that’s what ever yone at Brown thinks, then they should go public and refute the charges. If they can’t do that, the accusations are serious enough and they should address them.” “When they find out that there’s been potentially ethically questionable research ... they’re supposed to do a freaking investigation,” Egilman said, adding that Keller should be able to present evidence on his behalf. Poses added that Brown’s lack of public discussion of the study, despite widespread interest, is potentially embarrassing for the University. “Someone (at Brown) should be talking about it, because the rest of the world is talking about it,” he said. Jureidini agreed that Brown should investigate Keller’s involvement. Study 329 “can only be interpreted as deliberately misrepresenting what was found,” he said. A lawyer at Baum Hedlund — who is now representing the families of patients who claim to have been harmed by Paxil in class action lawsuits against GSK — said the University’s attitude toward his firm’s efforts has been “less than cooperative.” Lawyers for the University, George Murgatroyd added, have “fought us ever y inch of the way.” Murgatroyd said Brown claims it no longer had the memos that Keller had sent to the IRB, Brown’s research ethics panel. The University, however, “can’t discuss par ticular cases of possible claims of wrongdoing and what we do about them,” Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 said — ending the possibility of a public inquir y.

Page 8

Markell ’82 hopes Delaware ‘can do better’ continued from page 1 will be in a state that traditionally “leans blue,” she added. “The assumption is that now he is going to win,” she said. Markell, who has had three consecutive winning campaigns for state treasurer, won the Democratic primary without the endorsement of the party. Both the current governor, Democrat Ruth Ann Minner, and the state Democratic Party supported Carney as their candidate of choice. “The whole Democratic establishment was behind Carney,” Bauer said. Delaware Democrats “tried to persuade Markell not to run,” asking him to wait his turn, she added. Since his primar y victor y, Markell has worked to unify the party’s base by gaining the support of many leading state Democrats, including Minner and the State House Democratic Caucus. He has also gained the support of his previous rival, Carney. Carney “has been ver y gracious,” Markell said of his rival in the primary. “He will support me 100 percent and, as a result, people are inclined to come together.” Markell attributed the record voter turnout in the primary to his campaign’s grassroots efforts and “compelling and concise” communication. “I’ve demonstrated an ability to connect with independents and Republicans,” Markell said of his success. “Though Carney may have had the support of the Democratic Party, Markell had a very strong grass-

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

roots campaign,” Bauer said. “I would even compare him to Barack Obama,” she added, referring to the Democratic presidential candidate. Petro said that those who knew Markell at Brown are not surprised by his accomplishments. “He is a very funny guy,” Petro said, “but underlying that he’s always been deadly serious. He really strongly believes he can make the world better through the governmental system.” “Delaware can do better ... starting with education,” Markell said. Because education leads to a stronger economy and more jobs, Markell said, one of the first things he will do in office will be to change the way education is funded. In order to inform Delaware’s voters about his position, Markell published an 83-page book entitled “Blueprint for a Better Delaware,” which lays out his positions on many key issues including the environment, jobs and education. “A lot of campaigns are really focused just on the rhetoric,” Markell said, “but I gave people a lot of detail (in the book). People are entitled to know exactly where I stand.” Delaware has been cast into the national spotlight recently by Obama’s selection of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. “This has brought a lot of excitement to Delaware,” Markell said. “Biden is an amazing, amazing guy. He is helpful to all Democrats running at this time.” During his three terms as state treasurer, Markell inaugurated a

series of policies recognized for their innovation and effectiveness. In 1999 he created the Delaware Money School to promote financial literacy by offering free classes on topics such as saving for college tuition. Twenty thousand Delawareans have attended classes at the Money School so far, according to Markell’s campaign Web site. Markell said that he was probably most proud of his work on financial literacy. “I’m a big believer that the more you give people the tools, the more effective they will be,” he said. Markell said he was inspired to get involved with public service during his senior year of high school, when he spent a few days in India while traveling with his family. It was there, he said, that he realized that the world was a lot bigger than he expected. He realized then that he wanted to get involved in public service, though at the time he did not know how. In 2000 Markell was named one of the 100 Rising Stars of the Democratic Party by the Democratic Leadership Council. In the same year, he was also named one of the 10 most innovative leaders of the country under the age of 40 in The New Democrat magazine. Prior to his career in politics, Markell worked in the private sector. He spent about 10 years with the wireless technology companies Comcast and Nextel. At Brown, Markell concentrated in economics and development studies. “He believes that he can,” Petro said. “He believes in himself and the system.”

B ag e ls , G o u rm e t !

Kim Perley / Herald

Alex Conway ‘12 helps make bagel dough at Brown-RISD Hillel.

Providence SDS protesters occupy RIPTA boardroom continued from page 3 it a success. Mael Vizcarra ’09, an SDS representative at the meeting, said the protest “gave a really clear statement to the board and hopefully to Rhode Island that RIPTA riders cannot allow an unrepresentative, undemocratic board to tell us what we have to do.” Still, RIPTA officials said it would be difficult to move forward after the protest. “I don’t have the opportunity to run a meeting,” Rupp told The Herald when asked if the board meeting would be rescheduled. “We just lost a month,” of progress, since meetings

are monthly. In the coming weeks, RIPTA plans to hold several public meetings in various communities to discuss proposed service reductions in the authority’s 2009 budget. Rupp told The Herald that he did not plan on attending the Oct. 5 meeting organized by the group. Michael Lewis, board member and director of transportation for RIPTA, said it was “unfortunate that the board meeting was allowed to be disrupted,” but acknowledged that SDS had a valid message to convey. “It was an effective protest,” he said. “These are the very issues that we as a board are wrestling with.”

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Men’s tennis fights hard in two tourneys continued from page 12 Alex Kruger-Wyman. In the second doubles flight, Au and Pearlman dropped a close 8-6 match to the Crimson’s Alistair Felton and Michael Kalfayan. Lee said the tournament provided the team with an opportunity to bond with new assistant coach Nestor Bernabe, who accompanied the Bears to New York while Head Coach Jay Harris remained in Providence to run the Northeast Intercollegiate. Bernabe is “awesome,” Lee said. “He’s a great guy. He’s really engaging on the court.” The Bears then traveled back to Providence Saturday night, so they would be able to cheer on Skate Gorham ’10 in the semifinals and finals of the first singles flight of the Northeast Intercollegiate the next morning. Last season, Gorham suffered an ACL tear that kept him from competing for most of the year. “This weekend was the first time in over a year I’ve even played a full match of singles, let alone three of them in two days,” Gorham said. “It was great being out there on the courts playing for Brown again.” After Gorham’s first-round opponent withdrew, Gorham defeated Dominic Hemy of Farleigh Dickinson University 6-2, 6-2 to reach the semifinals. Against Bucknell’s Ryan Sandburg, Gorham dropped the first set 6-2 but breezed by his opponent 6-1, 6-2 in the next two sets to advance to the finals, where Martin MacIntyre of Colgate beat him 7-5, 6-3 despite Gorham having set points in the first set. “As much as I wanted to win the tournament and was upset with myself for losing, I have to be realistic and understand that I’m definitely not one hundred percent healed,” Gorham said. “My mobility is still on the mend.” Andrew Yazmer ’12 also competed in the first singles flight, making his first appearance for the Bears. After losing his first-round match 6-2, 6-2 to Bucknell’s Zach Hascoe, Yazmer earned straight-set wins over Cameron Parker of Harvard and Simon Miller of Brandeis University by scores of 6-4, 6-4 and 6-1, 6-1, respectively. Yazmer then outlasted Villanova’s Brian Maher 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 to take ninth place overall. Fellow freshman Jimmy Crystal ’12 advanced to the quarterfinals of the second singles flight by defeating Villanova’s Alex Leeser by a score of 6-2, 1-6, 6-3. Crystal then fell 6-3, 6-4 to Cristian Balestrieri of Bryant. The Bears rounded out the tournament with a quarterfinals showing in the first doubles flight. Gorham and Yazmer nabbed an 8-4 victory over Donald Van Velzer and Josh Krieter of the United States Military Academy before dropping an 8-4 match to Hemy and Andrew Denny of FDU. “I truly think we as a team work way harder physically in these early months of school than certainly all the other Ivies, let alone a lot of college tennis in general, so to some degree the guys were feeling the effects of that,” Gorham said. The Bears will next host the Bruno Classic, Oct. 3 to 5, and according to Lee, the team is excited to host another tournament. “We’re only getting better from here, which is a good thing,” he said.

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Lions outlast field hockey W. soccer comes home winless from Minnesota despite strong defensive effort continued from page 12 eight saves. Minnesota went into Friday’s match with a perfect record, having won their first eight games prior to facing Brown. Ultimately, the Gophers took their own tournament title by winning their game against BU on Sunday. Milwaukee placed second in the tournament, finishing 1-0-1 and the Bears took third with a 0-1-1 record. Both Lindsay Cunningham ’09 and Hogue were named to the Minnesota Gold Classic All-Tournament Team. The Bears brought back some of the offensive fire that they had played with in the UConn Classic for Sunday’s match against Milwaukee. Even though the Panthers appeared to have more scoring chances, the Bears capitalized when opportunities presented themselves. Melissa Kim ’10 managed to score the first goal, at the 15:32 mark, after a series of rebounds that followed a corner kick by Silvia Stone ’11. Milwaukee’s Sarah Teegarden tied the game at 1-1 less than fifteen minutes later off a header. Only 8:11 after returning from halftime, Kate Megna put Milwaukee up 2-1. The Bears answered back swiftly and got even less than 10 minutes after Megna’s goal. Bridget Ballard ’10 directed a cross to the middle of the box

forcing the Milwaukee goalkeeper, Erin Kane, to come off of her line to play the ball. Cunningham got to the ball before Kane and sent a header into the net on a play that midfielder Kim characterized as “really pretty.” Much of the one-sided dynamic of Friday’s game followed the team into Sunday’s game with Milwaukee gar nering ample scoring opportunities. Though outshot 27-15, what made the difference on Sunday was the increased drive with which the Bears played, Kim said. “I think we came out more intense than we did on Friday,” Kim said. Cunningham reiterated the greater “intensity,” but also pointed out “of course, the way to win is to score.” Hogue held off another opponent’s strong attack, living up to her Player of the Week nomination from Soccer America magazine last week. “Brenna played ver y well,” Pincince said. “She made two big-time saves in our game against Milwaukee.” Sunday’s hard-fought tie leaves Brown feeling “confident and pretty excited about the way things are going,” Kim said, as the team prepares to take on BU and its first Ivy opponent Dartmouth on Wednesday and Sunday, respectively. “Playing these games makes our team better,” Pincince said.

continued from page 12 anything generated to get it up to our forwards consistently.” Midfielder Sara Eaton ’09, who had scored the team’s only goal against Northeastern, took Brown’s lone shot on goal. Forward Leslie Springmeyer ’12 was the only other Bear to get off a shot. “We just couldn’t get the link going today between the defense, the midfield and the offense,” Sacco said. “Columbia did a good job of stepping in front of any balls we tried to get through to the attack. They beat us to the ball quite frequently, so that definitely helped them to keep the ball out of their defensive circle.” Things got even worse for the Bears in the second half. Brown failed to take a single shot during the 35-minute period, while Columbia unleashed seven shots and had four penalty corners. The Lions finally broke through the Bears’ defense and took the lead 12:29 into the second half, when Catherine Campbell fired a shot from the left side that beat Kessler to the far side of the cage. “I think at first it really affected us, but we got right back into the swing of things, and I think we just wanted it even more,” Iacovetti said. After another Columbia penalty corner a minute later, Brown took a time out. “The coaches just called us in to get us settled,” Sacco said. “They wanted us to know that the game was still within our grasp. We totally had the opportunity to beat that

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team. It was more of just calming down and taking a quick second to recheck and come back out and attack them hard.” For the remainder of the game, the Bears generated more offensive push than before, but they never reached the Lions’ defensive circle, and they were not able to unleash the shot that could have tied the game. It may have been a bitter ending, but the Bears were still excited to be back playing in front of their own fans in their home opener. It was an especially moving experience for the freshmen, according to Iacovetti. “As a rookie, it was a really awesome feeling to play on my home turf,” she said. “We really wanted to win, so that’s why it’s that much harder that we lost.” While it was tough to lose to an Ivy League foe, Harrington said the game points out areas the team needs to improve on. “Under pressure, the fundamentals or basics of our game were lacking a little bit,” she said. “We didn’t take care of the ball, individually or collectively, and I think that we have to stay focused on that if we want to turn a corner and generate the attack that we have the ability to generate.” The Bears will need to turn that corner quickly. They host the Massachusetts Minutewomen (5-2) today at 4 p.m. on Warner Roof. “The UMass game is definitely going to be a test of our resiliency this season,” Sacco said. “We’ve taken our lumps, but we’re going to bounce back and we’re going to fight hard.”

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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

Slowing the bus down Yesterday, more than 20 members of Providence Students for a Democratic Society disrupted a monthly RIPTA board meeting and forced Board Chairman John Rupp to end it early. They chanted stock slogans, spoke over board members and handed out fliers indicating their own agenda for the meeting. The students had a noble goal: protesting cuts and freezes to staff wages and benefits and the shor tening and elimination of routes. RIPTA has reported a deficit of $10.8 million so far this year and will probably have to change operations or find new sources of revenue to solve the problem. It’s easy for Brown students, faculty and staff to take RIPTA ser vice for granted, since it available for free to us. But cutting or shortening routes will acutely affect those who most need it, like senior citizens who can’t drive and low-income Rhode Islanders who use it to travel to work each day. It’s great that college students are ostensibly sticking up for thousands of other riders, who probably can’t take time off of work to make a RIPTA board meeting. But SDS’s demonstration only posed as help. In actuality, their disruption means RIPTA’s progress toward some sort of solution will be delayed for at least a month, since the board’s meetings are monthly. SDS members will not make the decisions that affect thousands of people. The board members will; no protest can change that. Furthermore, SDS’s choice of protest — badly treating a group of people who are at least tr ying to do some good — probably alienated many of the board members in the room on Melrose Street. One of them was even frightened enough to call the Providence Police Department. There’s a way to convince a group of Rhode Islanders to remember whom their decisions will affect. A group that includes many Brown students putting on a show in the hopes of getting arrested is not one of them. SDS often alerts media to their protests in order to have someone record arrests, if they happen. In the past, they have had protests that have delivered a strong message without getting in the way of people doing their jobs. The only people who benefit from SDS members actually storming into and ending a meeting are the members themselves. Some of them hope to get arrested at protests to draw more attention to their goals. And in this case, members didn’t even achieve that goal. It’s hard to understand why students were cheering when the meeting was adjourned. Where was the success? But congratulations anyway.

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L e tt e r s Brown needs a sexual assault counselor To the Editor: In a recent letter to the editor, (“Hiring of sexual assault counselor unnecessary,” Sept. 19) Jonathan Bastian ‘89 suggested that we should lower tuition rather than provide access to sexual assault counseling services. I take offense. On Friday night, I was walking up College Hill from RISD around midnight with four other females. Three men came out of their house and started to verbally harass and pursue us. I believed that my entire group’s safety was compromised, and I started to yell as we broke into a jog up the hill from the bottom side of Meeting Street. The three men continued to follow us, so I pulled out my cell phone and called the Department of Public Safety while screaming two choice words: “F*ck” and “Help.” The men continued to pursue us but fell back to within a block behind us, by which point, I was on the phone with DPS giving them the location. Of course, the would-be assailants could have been drunken guys, meaning no harm. They could have followed us with the intention of scaring us. But it only takes one female and one male in order to facilitate violence.

Even if Brown published a “zero sexual assault rate in 2005,” there is still violence on this campus. Simply because the statistics report zero assaults, does not make that the case. I, for one, am glad that I called DPS and that they were there to come aid us. The five of us walked into DPS at the corner of Meeting and Brown with the three men still in pursuit. DPS pulled out their flashlights and questioned the men. Brown made an excellent decision in hiring a sexual assault staffer. Staffers, like DPS, and the new sexual assault officer, help make Brown a safer and more secure environment, but we cannot assume that Brown will be safe and secure based on statistics. I completely support the University’s decision to hire Trisha Glover in order to deal with these issues on campus, regardless of statistics.

Vanessa Rubin ‘12 Sept. 22

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C o r r e ct i o n In Monday’s article about Rabbi Rackover (“Hillel’s new rabbi arrives from Canada,” Sept. 22), Hillel President Liz Piper-Goldberg’s graduation year was listed as 2008. She will in fact graduate in 2009.

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O pinions Tuesday, September 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Page 11

McCain’s Palpatine complex Zack Beauchamp Opinions Columnist In the real Star Wars movies, by which I mean the original three, the nefarious Emperor Palpatine has an addiction to building Death Stars, seemingly believing that you can’t lose if you have the biggest guns. After the first one is destroyed, he builds another and invites the Rebels to visit during construction. This goes as more or less as you would expect. All of this became oddly relevant to international politics when former President Ronald Reagan, playing the part of the Emperor, announced the creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983. The Initiative, a program aimed at developing satellites that could shoot down Soviet missiles with space lasers, became known as “Star Wars” by the general public, and unsurprisingly never quite made it to deployment. Though Star Wars never became a reality, it certainly wasn’t from lack of trying: Every Republican Party platform since Reagan’s speech has called for the construction of Star Wars-like systems. The most recent piece of glorified science non-fiction, theater missile defense in Eastern Europe, is per usual enshrined in the 2008 platform. There is reason to believe the Republican commitment this time around is more than just words: Throughout the campaign, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has made it abundantly clear that an Eastern European missile shield is one of his top priorities. This commitment can perhaps best be seen in the October 21 Republican debate,

where McCain claimed that “the first thing (he) would do” in office vis-a-vis Russia is build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. This line, odd enough given that there are several other more pressing Russia-related issues, is even more disturbing in context: “(Vladimir Putin) bullies his neighbors and he wants to get a control of the energy supply of Western Europe. This is a dangerous person. And he has to understand that there’s a cost to some of his actions. And the first thing I

of the United States or its allies, while doing significant damage to our bargaining position with a very large and very nationalistic nuclear power. The system currently proposed for deployment, Ballistic Missile Defense, has never been tested. According to Philip Coyle, the former head of testing in the Department of Defense, BMD “has no demonstrated effectiveness to defend the U.S., let alone Europe, against enemy attack under realistic operational conditions.” The other McCain

McCain’s promise to put a missile shield in Eastern Europe, whatever Putin’s objections, demonstrates a disturbingly myopic approach to our relationship with Russia. would do is make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don’t care what his objections are to it.” This diatribe is notable for more than its proposal to put missiles in a non-existent country. McCain’s promise to install a missile shield in Eastern Europe, whatever Putin’s objections, demonstrates a disturbingly myopic approach to our relationship with Russia. Eastern European missile defense is just about the worst thing we could do in the region: It does nothing to protect the interests

rationale for deploying BMD to Eastern Europe — protecting European allies from Iranian missiles — is laughable. If Iran were to launch nuclear weapons, they would hit Israel, not European countries, and if BMD actually worked, it might make some degree of sense to deploy it in Israel. McCain’s failure to propose any such measure, or even a major cooperative venture to learn from Israel’s existing missile defense systems, gives the lie to the claim that BMD deployment in Eastern Europe is anything but Cold War style Russia-baiting.

Eastern European BMD isn’t just a bad idea because it’s a waste of money. It also takes away a valuable bargaining chip in negotiations with Russia on other, more important issues, which we need given Putin’s general hostility towards the United States. When dealing with issues of interest to Russia, Putin’s government (and let’s not kid ourselves, this is still Putin’s government) will not simply do what the United States tells it, as we saw during the Georgia crisis this summer. In order to get Russia to make concessions on U.S. concerns like NATO expansion or supplying fissile material to Iran, the United States will need to compromise on other issues, and BMD, given just how angry it makes Russia and its utter uselessness as an actual missile defense system, is an ideal candidate. McCain’s plan to deploy BMD (or any other missile defense system) regardless of “what (Putin’s) objections are to it” entirely rules out this kind of negotiation. McCain’s inability to see that an Eastern European missile shield both must and ought to take a backseat to protecting Georgia or stopping Iranian nuclearization betrays either a breathtaking ignorance about the giveand-take nature of international relations, or a shockingly monomaniacal obsession with “confronting Russia,” consequences be damned. Neither is acceptable in a candidate to be our top foreign policy official. In “Return of the Jedi,” Emperor Palpatine’s addiction to Death Stars results in destruction of the Galactic Empire and his own death. Let’s hope we don’t get a chance to see whether McCain’s Palpatine complex will make Putin into a real-life Darth Vader.

Zack Beauchamp ’10 wanted to be Luke Skywalker when he was a kid.

Don’t be suicidal on the bicycle BY Graham Anderson Opinions Columnist Bicycle riding on the Harvard campus is forbidden, as security personnel there pointedly informed me once last spring. While I think I may have been discriminated against based on my school affiliation — and we all know that Harvard policymakers are only slightly more progressive than Calvin Coolidge — it deepened my appreciation for the bicycle culture at Brown. I am a bicycle racer. I make earnest efforts at bicycle commuting, and global warming scares me. As a result, the daily swarm of bicycles around College Hill always charms me, especially knowing that most people ride for reasons that go beyond simply getting to class. The Harvard experience also reminded me that at Brown there are no draconian rules and indeed very few rules at all — based on the fact that we are naturally good, responsible students. The problem, though, is that the vast majority of Brown students on bicycles are horrendously unsafe, idiotic and downright suicidal. By all means ride, but please consider my advice as I’ve ridden tens of thousands of miles and know a bit about bicycling, and I want you to be able to ride without getting killed. Mark Greve, clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine and one of the leading researchers on cycling-related injuries, said that “there is no more effective strategy to reducing head injuries and fatalities in cycling than the use of a helmet. 95 percent of all cycling-related fatalities were un-helmeted.” Riding like a maniac is one thing, but rid-

ing without a helmet is another. People die all the time due to head injuries from simple falls — slipping on icy steps, for example. Add in the extra distance to the ground and kinetic energy involved with riding a bicycle, and you are absolutely doomed if you fall and hit your head. There’s a common saying in collegiate bicycle racing: “Your best assets aren’t your legs. Your best asset is your head. That’s why you’re in college. Wear a helmet.” I always do, training or otherwise, and you should too. End of story. Helmet hair is very fixable. Regarding riding like a maniac: I highly

dence Police officers on bicycles who ride the wrong way on Thayer all the time. You leave yourself no path of escape, and if a car hits you, then the force of impact multiplies while you fly through the windshield. Stop hurtling through stop signs and stoplights at intersections without the slightest tap of the brakes. I see this occur everyday, and it makes me wonder how good of a job the admissions office really does. Besides the obvious, there are some more subtle tips that I would like you to consider. A car door is typically two to three feet long, so you should ride at least that far away from all

I want you to be able to ride without getting killed. doubt that more than a handful of Brown bike riders actually possess the experience, instincts, and bike-handling skills necessary to ride like bicycle messengers on speed. Can you bunny hop a six-inch curb? Have you actually practiced falling with the proper technique to prevent breaking bones and protect the head? Have you had somebody crash six inches in front of you while going 55 mph during a bicycle race — and not hit him? If not, don’t pretend you have. Stop riding head-on into traffic on one-way streets — and that goes double for the Provi-

parked cars. Unfortunately, this does not always seem possible on the narrow East Side streets with cars passing on the other side. A simple solution is to simply occupy the middle of the lane or the middle of the road if it is a one-way street. You have the full right to do this and it should be no inconvenience to cars, as the speed of traffic flow on College Hill is that of a bicycle. You remain visible to cars behind you and nobody in their right mind would intentionally hit a Brown student near campus. If somebody honks, you possess a middle

finger. “Line jumping,” when you bike around a line of cars while they’re stopped at an intersection, should be done slowly, only when cars are at a complete stop, and while watching out for pedestrians and car doors. I only “line-jump” sparingly, as doing it outside of gridlock traffic unnecessarily angers car drivers. And fixed-gear riders might want to consider putting a brake on the bike. Unless you can actually stop in an instant on a fixed gear, you’re riding with your life in your hands. Finally, yes this might be the East Side of Providence, where non-felony offense laws are usually flexible, but that is not an invitation to run red-lights and mandatory stop signs. Wait for the green. Wait for your turn at stop sign intersections. The blatant disrespect for traffic laws and discourtesy of many cyclists on the East Side sparks a passive anger in many drivers. The Brown cycling team often takes the brunt of this passive anger when it turns to road rage when out training. Trust me, you will not look dorky if you ride with a mind for safety. I would not be surprised if you knew somebody involved in a bicycle accident on College Hill — they happen all the time. I have teammates who have been t-boned by hit-and-run drivers near campus, even though they were riding lawfully and safely. Still, you can control your own actions and take steps to avoid the inherent danger of College Hill streets. People get killed in bicycle accidents. Don’t be one of them. For even more tips and information, I encourage you to check out yieldtolife.org.

Graham Anderson ’10 is Brown’s very own baroudeur-rouleur.

S ports T uesday Page 12

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Women’s soccer settles for a loss and a tie in Minnesota By Jason Wade Contributing Writer

Unlike the Bears’ success in last week’s games, the Minnesota Gold Classic was not followed by a celebration for the No. 21 women’s soccer team. Coming off of two outstanding games against top ranked teams, the team fell to the Minnesota Gophers on Friday night by a score of 2-0. In its second game of the tournament, Brown tied the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2-2 on Sunday. Following the trend of prior games, the Bears were outshot by Minnesota, 24-9, with a corresponding 10-4 deficit in shots on goal. Coming out of this weekend’s games, the Bears are sporting a 33-70 deficit in shots, but they still have managed a 2-2-2 record through an exceptionally difficult non-conference schedule. Head Coach Phil Pincince commented that he believes all four teams par ticipating in the tournament are of “high quality and national caliber.” National polls

Tough weekend for men’s water polo

agree, as Brown, Boston University, Milwaukee and Minnesota all received votes in the latest NSCAA poll. Minnesota’s first goal came in the 11th minute when Gophers’ for ward Lindsey Schwar tz won a fight for the ball from Brown’s defenders. Her shot from 20 yards out sailed into the upper right corner of the goal to give Minnesota the lead. Later in the half, Minnesota’s Kaitlin Wagner put the Gophers up by two. Her 25-yard free kick managed to hook past tri-captain goalkeeper Brenna Hogue ’10. The play by both sides stayed the same through the second half with Minnesota retaining most of the possessions. The Gophers outshot the Bears in the second half by a 13-4 margin, limiting their chances for a comeback. The game also resulted in Minnesota holding an 11-2 edge in corner kicks. Meanwhile, the Bears were able to hold the Gophers scoreless in the second half as Hogue recorded

Herald File Photo

continued on page 9

Women’s soccer lost one game and tied another at the Minnesota Gold Classic over the weekend.

By Anne Deggelman Spor ts Staff Writer

Lack of offense hands field hockey a loss at home opener By Andrew Braca Assistant Sports Editor

Time of possession is not a statistic that is recorded in field hockey, but it would have gone a long way in explaining why Brown lost its Ivy League opener to Columbia, 1-0, on Saturday. Playing its home opener on Warner Roof, Bruno (1-4, 0-1 Ivy) expended a strong defensive effort to limit Columbia (4-0, 1-0 Ivy) to only one goal, but the Bears failed to even threaten on offense for much of the game. “We were not generating our attack from our backfield to our forward line,” Head Coach Tara

Harrington ’94 said. “Our forwards didn’t get to touch the ball that much today. It was more because of what we were doing as a team — not connecting and taking care of the ball and getting it to our forwards and creating scoring opportunities.” Harrington said that while the Bears’ performance marked a big improvement over Wednesday’s 7-1 loss to Northeastern, she was not satisfied with just staying close to the Lions. “I’m disappointed, and the kids are disappointed,” she said. “Our goal was to win, and we fell short of that goal.” Columbia took 17 shots to

Brown’s two, but the disparity could have been much larger considering how often the Lions were on the attack. The Bears did an exemplary job of limiting scoring chances by holding their opponents to only five shots on goal. “We really focused on staying ahead on our marks and really trying to trap them from getting the ball into the circle,” said Victoria Sacco ’09, a backline defender. “We had some sticky situations here and there throughout the game, but we really held it close.” The defense did its job in the first half. Columbia took ten shots, but only three made it through to

goalkeeper Lauren Kessler ’11, who made the saves to keep the game scoreless going into halftime. “I think we did do a very good job of putting ourselves, once we got rolling, in positions to intercept the ball,” Harrington said. “Laura Iacovetti (’12), our right halfback, played a great game, marked well, intercepted well, distributed well.” “We did do a very good job controlling the tempo (and) controlling their attack,” she added. “Going into our attacking end, once we won the ball back we couldn’t get continued on page 9

‘Rusty’ men’s tennis opens season with two tournaments By Erin Frauenhofer Sports Staff Writer

Herald File Photo

Men’s tennis got its season started with the USTA Invitational and the Northeast Intercollegiate.

The men’s tennis team kicked off its season over the weekend with double the fun. On Friday, the more seasoned players on the team traveled to Flushing Meadows, N.Y., the site of the U.S. Open, to compete at the USTA Invitational, before returning to Providence the next night to catch the conclusion of the Northeast Intercollegiate, where their teammates competed. In New York, captain Chris Lee ’09 won his first-round match in the first singles flight to advance to the quarterfinals. Lee defeated Princeton’s Peter Capkovic, last season’s Ivy League Player of the Year, by a score of 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (5). “I had a really good win, even though I wasn’t playing at one hundred percent,” Lee said, referring to a pulled quadriceps muscle. “Beating the Ivy League Player of the Year was really good for me.” Unfortunately, Lee said he pulled his quad again at the end of that match, and as a result, he had to retire from his quarterfinal match against Jonas Berg from the University of Mississippi.

“Pulling out of my second match was a big bummer,” he said. Also competing in the first singles flight, Jonathan Pearlman ’11 lost 6-3, 6-2 to another Rebel, Bram ten Berge. In the third singles flight, captain Sam Garland ’09, captain Noah Gardner ’09 and Kendrick Au ’11 dropped their first-round matches, as did Charlie Posner ’11 in the fourth singles flight. “Everyone fought pretty hard,” Lee said. “But we’re all a little rusty.” Despite the rustiness, the Bears made a strong showing in doubles play. Lee and Posner edged out Harvard’s Chris Clayton, the No. 69 singles player in preseason rankings, and Alexei Chijoff-Evans by a score of 9-8 (7-4), but had to withdraw from the quarterfinal match due to Lee’s injury. Gardner and Garland also reached the quarterfinals of the first doubles flight, by earning an 8-6 victory over Kyle Doppelt and Joshua Goldstein of Cornell. The Bears were then defeated 8-3 by Princeton’s George Carpeni and continued on page 9

The No. 19 men’s water polo team endured two tough losses against Bucknell and Princeton on day one of the ECAC Championships, but came back the next day to take down Harvard in their home pool for a seventh-place finish overall. “It was a good weekend because we got an opportunity to give our bench some experience,” Assistant Coach John McBride said. “It’s still early in the season so these are experimental games. We’re seeing what works.” The Bears, seeded fifth, kicked off the tournament on Saturday against fourth-seeded Bucknell. The first half was a battle, ending with the teams tied at 5-5. The Bison focused their defense on Mike Gartner ’09 in an effort to force perimeter players to shoot the ball. But that didn’t stop Gartner from netting two goals in the game, along with Hank Weintraub ’09, Corey Schwartz ’10 and Gordon Hood ’10, who each also scored twice. Gartner’s brother Marcus ’12 got one goal. On the defensive end, Kent Holland ’11 recorded seven saves. But in the third quarter, Bucknell outscored Brown 4-2, a lead the Bears could not recover. Bucknell finished the game on top with a final score of 11-9. This put the Bears in line to play Princeton, a team tied with Brown in the national rankings at No. 18. After the first quarter, the Tigers were up by one with a score of 4-3. Princeton continued to outplay Brown in the next two quarters, increasing their lead to 14-5 at the start of the fourth period. But the Bears finished the game with a bang, scoring five goals in the last eight minutes of play and holding Princeton to one, bringing the final score to 15-10. “These weren’t the results we were hoping for,” Holland said. “But the mentality of the team right now is to take each quarter as it comes, as a learning experience. We were trying out a lot of new things.” Grant LeBeau ’09 led the Bears on the offensive end of the pool with three goals, while Weintraub and Hood each netted an additional two goals. Max Lubin ’12 manned the cage in his first complete game and came up with four stops for the Bears. On Sunday, Brown faced off against Harvard for seventh place and ended the tournament on a high note, crushing Harvard 14-6. “We destroyed Har vard,” McBride said. “That was a highlight.” Weintraub and Hood each picked up three more goals in this victory, while Schwartz and LeBeau each net in two. To round out the scoring, Mike and Marcus Gartner each scored a goal, while Holland logged eight saves. “The team really came together against Harvard,” said Holland. “It was great to finish with a win.” The Bears will kick off league play on Thursday against MIT. In a few weeks, they will head to California for their next big test against some of the top ranked teams in the country. “We’re hoping for the best,” Holland said.