Wednesday, October 8, 2008 by The Brown Daily Herald

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, O ctober 8, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 87

Economic crisis may affect U. fundraising

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

U. projecting a tight budget, Simmons says

TOWN HALL POLITICS

By Jenna Stark Senior Staff Writer

By Isabel Gottlieb News Editor

Though the Campaign for Academic Enrichment is still projected to reach its goal of $1.4 billion by 2010, the ongoing economic downturn may have a negative effect on the Brown Annual Fund and on donor participation, and a prolonged recession could further depress giving in the future, according to campaign leadership. Annual Fund revenues have grown by an average of 24 percent yearly since President Ruth Simmons took office, but the current economic slowdown may take its toll. “In a time like this … we’ll see slower growth,” said Ronald Vanden Dorpel MA’71, senior vice president for University advancement. How the credit crisis on Wall Street will affect University fundraising remains to be seen, but Vanden Dorpel estimated that about 20 percent of Brown alums work in the financial sector — banks, investment banks, financial services and hedge funds. That number, Vanden Dorpel said, is unusually high compared to Brown’s peer institutions. “Let’s say the entire (financial) sector is affected,” Vanden Dorpel said. “We could see some significant slowing of gifts … a slowing in the rate of growth,” though not a steep decline. Historically, giving to education has dropped by about 1.1 percent during recession years and .5 percent in years with an economic slowdown, compared with an average increase of 4.6 percent in non-recession years, according to data released by the Giving USA Foundation of Indiana University. The National Bureau of Economic Research defines a recession as two successive quarters with a decline in gross domestic product. The United States is not currently in a recession, but the economy is growing more slowly than it did last year and many economists are predicting one. The University’s campaign, publicized under the tag line “Boldly Brown,” will almost certainly surpass its goal after finishing fiscal year 2007 at $1.24 billion — 89 percent of the goal raised with a quarter of the campaign’s seven-year duration remaining. The campaign’s goal for the Annual Fund has still increased this year, albeit only slightly –– the fund netted slightly more than $35 million last year, and the University aims to raise $36 million this year. Last year, the goal increased by $4 million. University officials have long expected the campaign to surpass its goal and have proceeded with improvements under the Plan for Academic Enrichment, Simmons’ wide-ranging blueprint for raising continued on page 4

HIGHER ED

Meara Sharma / Herald

“You’re not interested in politicians pointing fingers,” Barack Obama reminded a crowded List 120 last night. Students packed the auditorium to watch the live presidential debate at a screening co-sponsored by the Janus Forum, Brown Democrats, Brown Republicans and Brown Students for Barack Obama. The left-leaning audience clapped wildly after each Obama response and laughed throughout each of John McCain’s. While Obama received whoops of applause, McCain was booed. Critiquing McCain’s ambiguity, an overzealous viewer yelled, “Not an answer, John!”

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Students, faculty protest U. celebration of Columbus By Sydney Ember Contributing Writer

About 30 students and faculty gathered on Lincoln Field yesterday bearing signs reading “No Racist Holidays at Brown,” “Remember History Responsibly” and “Say No to Columbus Day at Brown” in a “speak-out” against the University’s recognition of Columbus Day this weekend, and to raise awareness in the community about the historical inaccuracies associated with the holiday. Many members of the Native American community feel that celebrating Columbus as the discoverer of America negates the existence of the indigenous people who were living in America before his arrival. The speak-out, called “Say No to Columbus Day at Brown!” was part of a larger movement within the Native American community at Brown to end the observance of the holiday, push for an Indigenous Week in October to honor Native American heritage and to continue the dialogue about Native American history. “We think the celebration is ver y one-sided,” said Reiko Koyama ’11, who spearheaded the effort. “We don’t want to cut off conversation. We just don’t want to honor Christopher Columbus.” The speakers, including students, faculty and members of the local Native American com-

Reconsidering Test DAy National Association for College Admission Counseling’s panel bubbles in “no” for the SATs

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President Ruth Simmons warned the faculty at its monthly meeting yesterday of the need to defer or slow University projects given the current economic crisis, but she emphasized the importance of continuing to fund need-blind financial aid. But not all the talk was on economic gloom and doom: Simmons’ announcement was followed by the news that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $3 million to the Graduate School to endow fellows in the humanities. But as the financial sector continues to struggle and with major hedge funds expected to go under, Simmons said, the economic crisis could last up to five years, and the University would live with the consequences of a faltering economy even beyond that. Consequently, University projects will need to be slowed so that additional funds can be allocated to financial aid, she said. “Brown’s principle purpose is academic and research issues. In this moment, it is important not to lose

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munity, spoke at length about Native American history and the devastation Columbus caused to the indigenous community, including genocide and the spread of disease. They also spoke about the continued sense of invisibility and ignorance surrounding the current Native American community. Besides Harvard, Brown is the only Ivy League school to observe Columbus Day, though some schools celebrate a Fall Break. After Jerry Wolf Duff Sellers ’09, one of the coordinators of the event, made introductions in Lakota and Osage — pronounced Wah-zah-zhe — he turned the program over to the speakers. “For far too long, Native Americans have been treated as little more than a footnote,” said Dana Eldridge ’10, who began her address in Navajo. She added, “America is our countr y, too… and Brown is our community.” Wanda Jean Lord, who is of Cherokee and Choctaw descent and is the leader of Honoring Our Own Power, an organization dedicated to strengthening the initiatives of indigenous communities, also asked for more respect for Native Americans. “Invisibility not only harms Native people, it harms all people,” she said. “You cannot logically discover a land that belongs to someone

We the people... Esperanza International, Inc. writes environmental law for the Ecuadorian constitution

continued on page 4

OPINIONS

J u nkyard P oetry

Michela Fitten / Herald

Derrick Brown performed spoken-word poetry last night at the Junkyard Ghost Revival.

Let me in! Joshua Kaplan ’11 makes the case for universal swipe card access

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

12 SPORTS

“An impact player” Gordon Hood ’11 scores big for men’s water polo — from the defense line

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T oday Page 2

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

TODAY

TOMORROW

sunny 68 / 49

partly cloudy 73 / 54

Menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Couscous Croquettes with Cider Pepper Sauce, Buffalo Chicken Wings with Bleu Cheese Dressing

Lunch — Chicken Fajitas, Vegan Black Bean Tacos, Mexican Succotash

Dinner — Vegan Warm and Spicy Dhal, Coconut Crusted Tilapia, Chicken with Raisins and Olives

Dinner — Cilantro Chicken, Mexican Cornbread Casserole, Stir Fry Pork Lo Mein

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

Puzzles by27, Pappocom RELEASE DATE– Wednesday,©February 2008

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

ACROSS 1 Strings of angels 6 Revise 10 Evel Knievel prop 14 Force out of the country 15 Remini of “The King of Queens” 16 It has about a three-octave range 17 Some frigid temperatures, e.g. 20 Finish off, as a fire-breather 21 Not chug 22 Croquet striker 23 Early talk show name 25 River through Aragon 26 Vaudeville performances, often 30 Fleeting trace 34 Continuously 35 Not comfortable with 37 Dry, as wine 38 Mel Blanc’s is “That’s all folks” 41 Nail setting 42 “Yankee Doodle” word 44 Sphere of influence 46 Epps of “House” 47 Gridiron officials 50 Laundry woe 52 Crèche group 53 Silver __ 56 Branch of Buddhism 57 Automaker headquartered in Turin 61 Oscar-winning boxing documentary 64 Musical with the song “Another Pyramid” 65 Jagged rock 66 Capital of Ghana 67 Sheffield slammer 68 Stan’s pal on “South Park” 69 “The Merry Widow” composer DOWN 1 Chick tenders

2 Jump with a twist 36 “I dunno” gesture 54 Pet with green 3 Latvian seaport fur? 39 Brit’s sweater 4 Nursery piece 55 Make over with a close5 Harden 56 Passion fitting collar 6 Horror host 58 Ruler segment 40 Monogram ltr. dubbed “Mistress 43 Munitions center 59 Indian tomb of the Dark” site 45 Urban skyline 7 Profound 60 Old Russian component 8 Golfer Woosnam 48 Come into view sovereign 9 Okay sign 49 Actress Seymour 62 Sardonic 10 “Brothers & 63 __-El: 51 Service seat Sisters” actor Superman’s birth 53 Highwayman’s 11 One raised with name booty Cain 12 Additional ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: amount 13 Nuisance 18 “My word!” 19 Scuff or scratch 24 One doing sums 25 Sicilian smoker 26 Glamour shelfmate, familiarly 27 Early hr. 28 Much-visited place 29 Interrupt on the dance floor 31 Suitcase attachment 32 Lifted, so to speak 33 Spenser 2/27/08 xwordeditor@aol.com selections

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H igher E d Wednesday, October 8, 2008

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U. of Illinois political speech rule stirs controversy Panel wants By Sophia Li Staff Writer

Spotted any professors sporting Barack Obama T-shirts on campus recently? Know any staff members who proudly display John McCain bumper stickers on their cars? At the University of Illinois, such expressions of political opinion this campaign season might warrant disciplinary action. The university’s ethics office issued a memo late last month reminding its employees that, under state law, they should not engage in partisan political activities on campus. It specifically prohibited activities such as wearing a button endorsing a particular candidate or party while on university grounds. The memo generated controversy on campus, with several faculty members and graduate student employees speaking out against the policy as an infringement upon their constitutional rights. In response, B. Joseph White, president of the University of Illinois, released a statement on Monday that amended the restrictions

set out in last month’s memo. He stated that the university would permit employees to display partisan bumper stickers and wear partisan political buttons or attend rallies while they are not “on duty.” The controversy centered on the university administration’s interpretation of a 2003 state law and the activities the law prohibits in order to avoid the use of state resources in partisan politics. Nevertheless, university officials said the law will not be enforced by the university. “Enforcement of the law is the responsibility of the Office of the Inspector General for the state of Illinois,” said Thomas Hardy, executive director of the university’s media relations. Cary Nelson, professor emeritus of English at the university’s Urbana-Champaign campus and president of the American Association of University Professors, called some of the prohibitions set out in the memo “comical, or absurd.” Nelson issued a statement on Sept. 23 on behalf of the AAUP and reported himself to the school’s ethics office for violating the law. He said a number of professors

and graduate students also selfreported violations of the policy last Friday.. Although university officials maintained that they were only transmitting state law, Nelson said, “the position of the AAUP is that the ethics committee is adding to the law. That’s inappropriate.” He also called the university’s interpretation of the state policy unconstitutional. “The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of assembly, free speech,” Nelson said. “These are things that enable our democracy to survive.” Nelson added that the policies endorsed by the university threaten academic freedom. Many departments, including his own, take advantage of the national election as an educational opportunity, he said. “The university environment, we feel, should be the freest and most open of the public forums,” said Michael Verderame, a graduate student at Illinois. “To me it felt like an attack on our rights, as members of the community, to express ourselves.” Nelson said that the local AAUP still considered White to be violating

the U.S. Constitution despite Monday’s announcement. “Obviously this is an improvement, a major improvement over the position that he took before, but it’s still not wellinformed by law,” Nelson said. The president’s statement on Monday said university employees may only wear partisan political buttons when they are neither on duty nor in a workplace environment. According to Nelson, this means a professor would have to take the button off whenever he entered a university building. Nelson said he intended to write to White again about this specific issue. The university’s reassurances that it does not plan to enforce the law did not seem settle faculty and graduate students’ anxieties. “We think it’s a dangerous precedent to set. We have no guarantee that they won’t start policing it,” Verderame said. Verderame also said university assertions that the rights and freedoms of its employees could be restricted in this way would create a “chilling effect” that would make people warier of expressing their political opinions in the future.

Harvard University Press, Yale University Press and MIT Press shipped a collective donation of over 5,000 books to libraries in Iraq on Sept. 22. The donation was coordinated by the Sabre Foundation, an organization that facilitates charitable projects to libraries abroad. A grant from the United States Embassy in Baghdad funded the transportation of the books from the presses’ shared distribution facility in Cumberland. The books were sent to the Iraq National Library and will also be distributed to the libraries of Baghdad University, Mustansiriyah University and Baghdad Technical University, said Rebecca Schrader, assistant director of MIT Press. The three universities first established contact with the Sabre Foundation in 1997, when they and 18 other university presses worked with the foundation to ship books to Bosnia to restore the National Library in Sarajevo. “Since that time a number of us have stayed in touch with Sabre

and helped where we could,” said Bill Lindsay, assistant press director at Harvard University Press. “There’s a tremendous need for books in the world and no publisher has the wherewithal to actually to solve it.” In a wave of looting following the U.S. invasion in 2003, many of the volumes held by the Iraq National Library were stolen or destroyed. “Occasionally, when something like this particular disaster happens, it’s possible to rally people together to make a meaningful contribution,” Lindsay said. Lindsay chose to approach Yale University Press and MIT Press about donating books to Iraq because the three presses share a single distribution facility, TriLiteral. “We knew of Sabre’s history and (Lindsay) brought to our attention the fact that they were getting involved with the library system in Iraq and that there was a need for contributions,” said John Rollins, deputy director for finance and operations at Yale University Press. “It was something we’re happy to do because obviously there is a need

and we’re in a position where we can do it,” he said. Each press sent a list of 2,500 books they were willing to donate to librarians in Iraq. The librarians then made selections based on what books they wanted. “In Sarajevo, presses sent books that they thought (the National Library) might need and a lot of them weren’t appropriate for that culture,” Schrader said. “It was good that we did it the other way around this time.” The presses did not donate any books that were not specifically requested by a librarian in Iraq. Ultimately, Lindsay said, the libraries were “very modest in their requests.” The presses were willing to donate up to 7,500 books collectively but only ended up sending about 5,700 books. Lindsay said the librarians were particularly interested in the Harvard University Press’s humanities books. They chose a noticeable amount of titles having to do with the Middle East, Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean from Yale University Press, Rollins said. Publications in economics and computer

they’re accurate.” In her Unigo.com review, Go wrote that Brown students are not all “tree-hugging, pot-smoking, Birkenstock-wearing hippie liberals who take all their classes S/NC and frolic all day.” While acknowledging students are “generally more laid back” at Brown than at many other schools, she added, “ we do work very hard. And there are way more hipsters than hippies here.” But Go added that no single review can describe Brown in its entirety. “The college experience is made up of all these different pieces, so having different reviews colored by different perspectives gives a more continued on page 6

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science were popular choices from MIT Press, Schrader said. Since the university presses are not-for-profit organizations, they will have to “absorb” the cost of the donations, Rollins said. Nevertheless, there are plans to ask other university presses to get involved through the American Association of University Presses, Schrader added. “We hope we don’t have any more situations that require us to rebuild a country’s library infrastructure, but certainly if there is a need, I’m sure (university presses) would sort of be the first in line with something like this,” Schrader said. It is important for university presses and universities to be charitable in improving education worldwide when they are able, Lindsay said. “Universities themselves are charities, if you will, so obviously they have to serve their own purposes,” he said. “But I think that in general there’s an obligation that most academics would agree to that it’s part of our responsibility to help not only the people here, but everywhere else.”

Web site gives high schoolers a new look at college life By Kelly Mallahan Contributing Writer

Move over Princeton Review; there’s a new college information Web site on the block. Unigo.com, a studentgenerated college Web site, allows students from 267 schools across the country to post reviews, pictures and videos and provides the information for free. Unigo.com was founded by Jordan Goldman, a Wesleyan University graduate, and went online in September, the New York Times Magazine reported on Sept. 19. Brown’s Unigo page as of Tuesday night includes 82 student reviews, 44 videos and numerous photos that offer a slice of campus life. Two on-campus interns, Wes-

ley Royce ’08 and Elif Ince ’08, provided much of the initial content for Brown’s page. Royce said that she heard about the position in an e-mail sent to her Creative Nonfiction class. As an intern, she wrote a review, encouraged other students to submit reviews and took many of the pictures that are now featured on Brown’s Unigo page. Royce said that along with the student reviews, the multimedia content on Unigo.com “gives students who don’t have a chance to visit (Brown’s campus) an opportunity to see what they’re getting into.” Royce and Ince contributed startup reviews and multimedia content, but since then dozens of voluntarily written reviews have added to the information about Brown available

on the site. One of the reviews featured is by Natasha Go ’10. Go sent in her review last March in response to an e-mail asking for volunteer reviewers from a site called bystudents. com, Unigo’s startup name. When the site was launched in September, what she saw surprised her. “I didn’t really know about Unigo until I got the e-mail that my review was on it,” she said. Go said she likes the way that the reviews on Unigo.com are formatted. “I think one of the interesting features is that they ask you some of the stereotypes about your school,” and whether or not they are true, she said. “Sometimes you’re able to debunk them, and sometimes

BY Zunaira Choudhary Staff Writer

Colleges and universities able to make “appropriate admission decisions” without the SAT or ACT should consider eliminating their testing requirement, a panel assembled by the National Association for College Admission Counseling to study the issue said late last month. Led by William Fitzsimmons, dean of admission and financial aid at Harvard, the group of college admissions officers, high school guidance counselors and other education experts drew from a diversity of perspectives in formulating their recommendations on the usage of standardized testing. The panel’s report advises colleges to consider the disparities among students in accessing test preparation resources. “Students without the financial resources to gain access to test preparation may, in effect, be penalized for lower test scores in some admission and scholarship scenarios,” the report said. The commission also called on schools to “understand differences in test scores among different groups of people.” Advocating a critical perspective on the appropriate use of test scores in admissions decisions, the report suggests universities should independently examine the correlation between test scores and first-year grades among their own student bodies to decide “whether the predictive utility of these tests warrant their use as admission tools.” In an official response to the report, the College Board, which administers the SAT, said it “intends to work closely with (its) member institutions to understand the new and changing needs of (its) constituents.” Describing the SAT as a “fair” test and a valid measure for predicting success in higher education, the College Board attributed disparities in preparation for college admission to “inequities in the K-12 education system in this country,” according to the statement. In an official statement regarding the commission, Fitzsimmons said “the commission offers many helpful recommendations that Harvard will consider with great care.” Harvard will work with other institutions of higher education in the effort to evaluate the best methods for measuring “academic progress” from high school to college, according to the statement. In response to data indicating associations between “race, household income and test performance,” Smith College in Massachusetts made the submission of SAT scores optional, beginning with the class entering in the fall of 2009, according to a press release by the college. Questions about the legitimacy of standardized tests in forecasting academic ability contributed to the decision, the press release said. Connecticut College, which does not require applicants to submit the SAT Reasoning Test, has adapted its admission criteria to evaluate students in the “most subject-specific way,” said Mitchell Herz, assistant director

From the U.S. to Baghdad: university presses donate books By Nicole Friedman Contributing Writer

schools to reconsider SAT use

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Wednesday, October 8, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

U. concerned about giving continued from page 1

Meara Sharma / Herald

Dana Eldridge ’10 spoke on Lincoln Field yesterday as part of a protest against the University’s celebration of Columbus Day.

Community speaks against Columbus Day continued from page 1 else,” Lord added. Honoring Columbus is “celebrating the value of spin over truth.” “We have the right to tell our stor y,” said Paulla Dove Jennings, executive director of the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum and a leader of the Narragansett tribe in Rhode Island. “You all are being cheated ... in education,” Jennings said, because histor y was written from the European rather than the Native American perspective. Dan Beckman ’10, who is not involved with Native Americans at Brown, attended the speak-out and agreed afterwards that Native

Americans were underrepresented in the community, adding that ending the obser vance of Columbus Day would “finally present an accurate view of histor y.” The protest also featured a performance by a local drum group from the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in Massachusetts. In addition to the speak-out, Native Americans at Brown is circulating a petition, which currently has about 400 signatures, asking to end the obser vance of Columbus Day in exchange for a different day off next year. Marisa Quinn, vice president of public af fairs and university relations, has not seen the official petition but is aware that

it is going around. If a group of students presented the administration with a proposal to change the day off, she said University officials “would welcome it, bring it for ward and review it.” But many students appreciated the upcoming day off despite the unintended celebration of historical inaccuracies. “I’m going to be happy to have Monday off … but I did sign the petition,” said Steve Larrick ’11, who briefly stopped by the petition table at the protest, though he did not stay for the speeches. Greg Lowen ’12 agreed: “Whether we celebrate Columbus Day or not, it’s a much needed day off.”

Panel advises against SATs in admissions continued from page 3 of admission. Although standardized testing “has a place” in the admission process— the college does ask for two SAT Subject Tests or the ACT — Herz suggested staying away from making decisions based on “fine distinctions” in scores. The approach to testing taken by Connecticut College “levels the playing field” among applicants from different backgrounds and forces the admission committee to “look beyond the numbers” and understand the context of the application, he added. A section of the committee’s recommendations is devoted to an inquiry of what it deems various misuses of standardized test scores. These include the use of cutoff scores as an initial factor in awarding scholarships, systems that rank institutions based on test

scores and the practice of treating test scores as an index of high school achievement. Specifically, the report cites the National Merit Scholarship Program, calling on the organization to “cease using non-contextualized PSAT scores as the ‘initial screen’ for eligibility.” Dean of Admission James Miller ’73 said the analysis of the “misuse” of standardized tests was the most important point of the report. While the SAT is a credential considered for admission to Brown, “nothing is more important than the high school transcript,” Miller said. The admissions committee at Brown takes the circumstances of applicants — especially whether they have access to enriched curriculums and test preparation — into consideration during the admission procedure, Miller said. However, making the SAT an optional compo-

nent of the University’s application is “not something we have talked about,” he added. About 60 percent of institutions of higher education assigned “considerable importance” to standardized test scores in 2006, according to the report. The panel noted that although standardized tests today have largely been rid of “individual item bias,” differences in SAT scores across students of varying family income, race and ethnicity are “distinct” and must be properly considered in admission decisions. Additionally, although the exact degree to which test preparation actually improves scores is debatable, it is clear that scores can be improved “at least to some extent,” the report said. Therefore, the panel suggested that colleges mitigate the unbalanced effects of test preparation themselves.

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Brown’s academic profile, with the expectation that additional funds beyond the $1.4 billion goal will be forthcoming. “We’re not hearing yet that institutions are facing lower giving rates,” said Rae Goldsmith, vice president for communications and marketing at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in Washington. “Historically, in times of economic challenge, giving may drop a little bit … 1 or 2 percent,” Goldsmith added. “While fundraisers are cautious, and of course they know that donors are cautious as well, most of the time the impact is relatively small if there’s an impact at all.” But the administration is also concerned with alumni participation in donating. Alumni participation rates account for 5 percent of the U.S. News and World Report college rankings. Brown currently ranks sixth in alumni giving rate, up from 13th in 2002 — the highest it ranks in any of the Report’s categories. The University hopes to solicit donations from 34,350 alumni this year, but Vanden Dorpel expressed concern that they may not reach that figure. “Participation matters in a time of economic downturn and recession,” he added. “Participation does tend

to drop off. You tend to lose smaller donors.” Smaller-donor participation in the annual fund — gifts of $250 or less — declined by about 11 percent last year, though the annual fund returns did not suffer overall because of larger gifts and recordsetting reunion giving. “The concern about smaller donors,” Goldsmith said, “is that they are not as well-positioned as large donors to ride out a downturn.” Larger donors might also have a longer history with the university, she added, since “major gifts are the results of long-term relationship building.” “That’s why giving usually doesn’t dive as much as people think, because the relationship (between the donor and the university) is already strong,” Goldsmith added. Donors will still make good on pledges during times of economic difficulty, but might repackage their gifts or extend the pledge period for payments. Though Vanden Dorpel said the campaign would be sympathetic to donors’ situations, its fundraising strategies will not fundamentally change. “It’s … important not to make this a self-fulfilling prophecy, to go to donors and say, ‘Oh, isn’t the economy terrible,’” he said. “We will continue to ask for money. We will not be shy about it.”

Grad School receives $3 mil. continued from page 1 our focus,” Simmons said. “We have a strong commitment to maintain the matriculation of students. We must stick to the financial aid plan even though it will face great challenges.” In 2002, the University changed its financial aid policy to a need-blind system. The University will uphold its promise to pay according to a student’s need, Simmons said, even as applicants’ needs are expected to increase given the current economy. “We expect to hear about enormous swings in the financial aid budget,” she said. “We’ve made that commitment, so we’re going to have to weather this time of putting much more into financial aid than we intended.” Although additional funds taken from other University projects to help fund financial aid will slow some expansion of the University, with “prudent adjustment — slowing our pace — we should be able to reach our goals,” Simmons said. Effectively, the administration intends to continue the programs and activities in line with the Plan for Academic Enrichment, she said, though that may happen on a longer timeline. Despite a grim economic forecast, Simmons said the University was better prepared for the financial crisis than other universities because the administration took an “excessively cautious approach” in its investments. “There are some institutions that can’t make payroll,” she said, while assuring faculty members that they should not be spooked by the announcements made at other colleges in the United States. “We put more assets into cash than others — provided some cushions,” said Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration. “Many other universities have been caught with a greater level of surprise.” The University is not planning to make any changes to its investment portfolio while the economy is so unpredictable. “The watchword for now

is to be very attentive,” Simmons said. “We were very fortunate that we were very slow (in making investments), so we hadn’t committed as much as our peers.” Still, Simmons accentuated the need to remember the University’s dedication to both its students and the greater community. “Values will matter more than ever,” she said, adding that the University should look into creating organizational systems to get rid of waste and building structures to maintain communication with the Providence community. Although the economic crisis should slow expansion of the University, the Grad School received on Friday $3 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to expand enrollment in the humanities and fund new currricular-development awards that will support faculty trying to connect different disciplines, said Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde. “This represents confidence in Brown and the humanities graduate program,” Bonde told The Herald. “This is a real honor.” The grant will fund fellowships for 14 new graduate students over the next five years, providing stipend and research costs for years one, two, four and five of their studies, Bonde said. In addition, up to 13 new curricular grants for interdisciplinary work will also be funded, enabling the creation of different courses or different kinds of courses at the graduate level, she said. The new interdisciplinary seminars, which will be co-sponsored by the Cogut Center for the Humanities, will work to bring students across fields to train in languages, analytic skills and quantitative skills. “It will introduce more cuttingedge interdisciplinary research, attract the best humanities graduate students in the country and bring international attention to the graduate school humanities program at Brown,” Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 said. A portion of the proceeds of the $3 million will be used to help the incoming graduate class, Bonde said.

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Study examines OCD among children Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is often thought of as a disorder that affects adults. But a new study by Brown researchers shows that it can actually develop in children as young as four years old. The study, which began in 2001 and was published Sept. 18 in the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, involved clinical psychological assessments of 58 children from ages 4 to 8 with moderate to moderately severe OCD. The study was co-authored by Abbe Garcia, assistant professor of psychiatry; Jennifer Freeman, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior; and the late Henrietta Leonard, a professor of psychiatry, in conjunction with researchers from the universities of North Dakota and Oregon. About one in five of the children were on medication, while one in four had undergone therapy. The study showed that even though children with OCD may have similar symptoms to older children and even adults with OCD, there are key differences, such as a later onset of depression. The patients’ young ages can also help in early intervention. “We were very pleased with our findings because we believe they shine a light on an under-researched population,” said Abbe Garcia. “Early diagnosis and intervention are critical to reducing the severity of symptoms and improving quality of life,” Garcia said in a press release. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, OCD is found in about 2.2 million adults. It is characterized by “persistent upsetting thoughts (obsessions),” and many people affected by the disorder performs “rituals,” such as washing their hands repetitively, in order to temporarily relieve the obsession, according to NIMH’s Web site. Garcia said that while symptoms tend to be consistent across ages, young children with OCD do show some differences. “Young children who have washing rituals, for example, may exhibit the ritual in a different manner than an adult or an older child,” she said. This may be spitting in their hands, she said, or in some cases, young children may need someone else to carry out their ritual because they themselves are unable to do it at that age. For instance, Garcia said, if a child needs to see his clothes washed in a washing machine, he would need his parents to take part in that activity. Then the parent may carry out the ritual for him. But if a parent does not take part in it, then it may curtail that symptom, she said. However, because the child becomes very distressed, the parent may eventually give in. One of the treatments that these children can go through is cognitive intervention, which is a type of “exposure with response prevention,” Garcia said. Basically, the child is forced to face what he or she is anxious about and is prevented from using the ritual that he would use to temporarily relieve it, she said. —Tasnuva Islam

Med school appoints new dean for minority affairs By Lauren Fedor Contributing Writer

Emma Simmons MD’91 MPH’04 has been named assistant dean for minority medical affairs at the Alpert Medical School. In a statement released in early September, Edward Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences, said he was “very pleased” that Simmons is assuming such a “new and essential role” at the Med School. Simmons will take the place of Alicia Monroe, who served as associate dean of diversity for the Med School before taking a position at the University of Southern Florida College of Medicine last May. Simmons said Monroe has been one of her mentors. While Simmons’ title is the first of its kind, she will take on many of Monroe’s old responsibilities. But Simmons plans to focus primarily on minority issues, while her predecessor had other duties to attend to, she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Simmons said her new position is “part-time” and will include recruitment of medical students and student advising. She wrote that she wants to foster a “vibrant” and “diverse” student body through her new position, and later said in an interview with the Herald that she plans to increase mentorship between students and work with the “underrepresented medical students” to make them

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“the best they can be.” The Office of Minority Medical Affairs was founded in 1981 and works to help minority students at the Med School. Its stated goals are “the recruitment, selection, education, successful academic progression and graduation of minority students from Alpert Medical School, and raising awareness about cultural competency and diversity,” according to its Web site. It sponsors various programs within the Med School as well as with the greater Brown community, including the advising and tutoring program, the Interpreter’s Aide Program, the Rhode Island Advocacy Program and the Student Ambassador Program. Simmons wrote that the Office and its programs are “absolutely” relevant and necessary in the Med School today. She wrote that a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine showed an “unacceptable level of disparate care among minorities,” and that the only way the situation can be corrected is through a “consistent and collaborative commitment to improving diversity at all levels.” Simmons, who graduated from Tougaloo College and Brown Medical School, has spent much of her career working to correct health disparities among minority populations, and has won many awards in areas including AIDS prevention, continued on page 6

Student group influences Ecuador’s constitution By Etienne Ma Contributing Writer

A little more than a week ago, Esperanza International, Inc., a student group focused on environmental issues in Ecuador, had its largest breakthrough to date when it introduced an article to the Ecuadorian constitution that establishes the right of nature to be preser ved. Ecuador has never had a system of legislation pertaining to environmental law, said David Poritz ’11, president of Esperanza. Because of this lack of legal obligation, the government has not been held accountable for environmental damage. The new article, which is one of the first environmental laws passed in Latin America, will lay the groundwork “for a larger piece of the constitution” granting nature the right to environmental restoration, Poritz said. Esperanza’s aim is to “aid communities adversely af fected by toxic contamination both through the collaborative development of international environmental policy and the education of students and professionals globally,” according to its Web site. Poritz founded Esperanza four years ago. His interest in Ecuador

Poet reads in his native German BY Ben Hyman Ar ts & Culture Editor

The latest installment in the Contemporary Writers Reading Series featured poetry that charms in two languages. Last night, in the McCormack Family Theater, poet Jan Wagner read a selection of his works in the original German. He shared the stage with Forrest Gander, professor of literary arts and interim director of the program, who read English versions of the same poems by a number of translators, including himself. Wagner’s naturalistic works often mined the details of day-to-day existence for poetic material, touching on subjects ranging from hair cuts to jellyfish. Many pieces, including “Fish and Chips” and “Champignons,” explored the significance of particular foods. Others focused on the stories of relatively obscure historical figures like pirate Klaus Stoertebecker and 17th-century scientist Otto von Guericke. The artful translations succeeded in echoing Wagner’s playful approach to sound, replicating the German rhymes and alliteration in English. Wagner’s work includes poetry collections “A Trial Drill in the Sky,” “Guericke’s Sparrow” and “Eighteen Pies.” He has also worked as a translator and editor, and is currently a writer-in-residence at Oberlin College. After last night’s event, Wagner — who speaks English as well as German — told The Herald that he had never heard English translations of his work read out loud before. “I had the strange feeling of listening to somebody else’s poetry.”

Courtesy of Esperanza

Esperanza has emphasized environmental concerns in Ecuador’s constitution.

started with a sixth grade research project on the countr y. Poritz was shocked to discover that companies extracting oil from Ecuador –– a countr y with some of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world –– were dumping 18.4 billion liters of waste water into the main tributar y of the Amazon River, an equivalent of eight Exxon Valdezes, Poritz said. The following year, Poritz’s seventh grade teacher was actually the daughter of a famous

lawyer, Cristobal Bonifaz P’87, who was working on a large class action lawsuit for approximately 40,000 indigenous people in the Amazon region. With some nagging, Poritz said he managed to convince his teacher to introduce him to Bonifaz, and began accompanying him on trips to Ecuador when he was in seventh grade. The concept behind Esperanza continued on page 6

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Esperanza all about Ecuador continued from page 5 is to “develop and pass progressive environmental legislation in Ecuador,” said Josh Bernard ’11, an executive staff member. In doing so, Bernard said the group hopes to “create an environmental regulator y framework for the countr y that didn’t previously exist.” Esperanza created an advisor y council made of a group of students from the Yale Law School’s Environmental Protection Clinic and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, in Ecuador. The council conducts research and is in the process of writing actual legislation for the Ecuadorian government. Esperanza itself ser ves as an “intermediar y,” providing “the impetus for starting and facilitating the entire process” and “connecting the dots,” Bernard said. Esperanza is a relatively small group, with about 20 members on campus. It works closely in conjunction with the Center for Latin

American and Caribbean Studies, and hosted a lecture last week by one of Esperanza’s members, Manuel Pallares, on the social, environmental and geopolitical consequences of oil extraction. Pallares has worked in Ecuador on introducing legislation over the past seven years, and it was mainly through his efforts that the recent environmental legislation in Ecuador was passed. By hosting events around campus, Esperanza hopes to engage students on issues in Ecuador and the Andean regions of South America. In addition, Esperanza has led a number of student-led trips to the Ecuadorian region of the Amazon Basin. In the year ahead, Poritz says Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa Delgado may come to Brown to speak about Ecuador’s constitution and hopes that the event will further “cultivate interest in Ecuador.”

Alpert appoints new dean continued from page 5 minority faculty development and excellence and proficiency in her own teaching, according to Wing’s press release. She said working at Brown is a “joy and a pleasure” as it lets her “work outside the box,” adding that this job will do more to promote diversity than any other position she has held.

In an e-mail to The Herald, Wing wrote about the “high quality” of Simmons’ work as a clinician and an educator. “Dr. Simmons will provide solid leadership as the assistant dean of minority medical affairs and in the efforts of strengthening diversity among the student body of the Alpert Medical School. We have a long standing commitment to the belief that diverse perspectives enrich the learning environment,” he wrote.

Site helps college applicants continued from page 3 complete view,” she said, adding she thought the University’s Unigo page gave a “pretty good description” of campus life. Go said Unigo.com is “great for the Facebook generation.” But she had one significant complaint about the site. “I’m upset that they put my last name on the site,” she said. “I feel like it makes me very searchable now, and that everything I said about Brown is out there forever.” Go said that she e-mailed Unigo.

com and asked them to remove her last name, but it is still online. Vice President of Campus Life and Student Ser vices Margaret Klawunn said that the Unigo.com facilitated “students speaking to students” about the college experience. “There are a lot of things that have to go into the (college) decision,” Klawunn said. “The insider perspective is an interesting and important part of that.” Royce agreed that the site filled a helpful niche: “I think it’s a great idea, and I kind of wish I had had it when applying to colleges,” he said.

Rama Lakshmi / Washington Post

Longtime customer Lakshmi Rajgopal, of New Dehli, says she’s confident her savings will be secure in a government-run bank.

As India rises, so do slums of builders By Emily Wax Washington Post

GURGAON, India — Rubbing the cement dust from her eyes, Gudiya, a 10-year-old girl with braids and a torn frilly dress, weaved her way through a column of women in tattered cotton saris hauling bricks on their heads. She slipped into a labyrinth of ramshackle shelters in this New Delhi suburb, her tiny legs sprinting over stacks of 10-foot-long steel rods. It was dusk, and the air was heavy with the fog of cooking fires. Gudiya, whose name means doll in Hindi, boiled a pot of lentils for her family on what passes here for a stove — a pile of kindling surrounded by rocks. That’s because this is Gudiya's home: a construction site. Gudiya has grown used to being shuttled from one such site to another. Two years ago, her parents gave up farming for jobs spawned by New Delhi's construction bonanza. They have helped build shopping malls, houses and highways, aspiring to one day be part of a new, more prosperous India. But with every glass-and-steel skyscraper and high-tech call center that goes up, a slum also rises. And efforts to demolish those slums have only pushed thousands of migrant worker families like Gudiya's to squat in the very structures they are building, hanging their laundry on clotheslines strung between support beams. “I don't always like it here. My parents are always working, and it's lonely,” Gudiya said, sitting on a mound of earth dug up to make way for a condominium and shopping complex near her family’s shanty. Her mother, Vimal, 35, stared at the ground. “We were hoping that if we came here, things would be easier than in the village,” she said. “At least here we can get work.” Gudiya and her parents are among an estimated 40 million people, mainly unskilled porters, bricklayers and other low-caste laborers, who have left poor and remote areas to build the new India in emerging towns such as Gurgaon, just outside India’s capital. By contrast, an estimated 2 million people work in software jobs. The construction industry is one of India's largest employers, and it is growing at a rate of 15 percent a year. The work sites are often danger-

ous. India has the world’s highest accident rate among construction workers, according to a recent study by the International Labor Organization that cited one survey by a local aid group showing that 165 out of every 1,000 workers are injured on the job. Anil Swarup, director of labor and welfare at the Ministry of Labor and Employment in New Delhi, has said the government is “very concerned about the accidents that are taking place, and we are looking into ways to do better.” Builders associations also say they are improving conditions. Still, workers rarely wear helmets, and work sites often lack fire extinguishers or first-aid kits. In India, multistory buildings are demolished not with explosives or wrecking balls, but by dozens of laborers with pickaxes and sledgehammers. Since most families live on-site, children and toddlers often wander unsupervised amid the rubble and scaffolding, raising accident rates, labor rights groups say. In the absence of clean drinking water and flush latrines, cholera and other diseases spread quickly, and many people suffer hacking coughs caused by inhaled paint fumes and cement particles. About 70 percent of the children at construction sites suffer from malnutrition, compared with the national average of 21 percent, according to a study last year by Mobile Creches, a nonprofit group that provides day care and schooling for an estimated 1,800 children at 24 construction sites in New Delhi. “Today the outward stor y of India is one of a boom, of new construction projects, of growth. But that boom is on the backs of the poor and lower castes who are building this new India,” said Mridula Bajaj, former executive director of Mobile Creches. “Does a new India want to live with thousands of worker slums next to five-star hotels and offices?” Under India’s ancient caste system, manual labor such as cleaning latrines, sweeping streets, hauling loads and firing cooking bricks is stigmatized as work performed by those at the bottom of the hierarchy. Members of lower castes make up 70 percent of India’s 1.1 billion people, and millions of them are flocking to the cities, hoping for better jobs and better standards of living — if not for them, then for their children.

Emily Wax / Washington Post

“Being poor is a cure,” says Sumedha, 35, who moved to New Dehli.

“In India, the caste system has always made it so the haves don't have a sense of the have-nots,” said T.K. Mathew, chief executive of Deepalaya, a nonprofit organization that educates children who live in slums. “Most people are not emotional about the living conditions of construction workers. Without a change in public opinion, the conditions will not change.” For most migrant workers in India, like Gudiya's parents, the decision to work in construction is born of a lack of options. For a few, it offers a chance for social mobility. In Gudiya's case, she is able to attend a Mobile Creches primary school, a small concrete structure on the dusty Gurgaon construction site. For a few hours each morning, after she finishes washing the family laundry, she and other children learn to spell their names and practice basic math skills. They sing, draw in coloring books and dance. “I enjoy being a learner so much. Math is my favorite,” said Gudiya, whose tiny ribs show through her dress. She looks several years younger than her age. She spends much of her time babysitting her siblings. She said she misses her grandparents, back home in the village, and fresh milk from the village cows. Because of crime at the construction site, parents often tell their girls to stay indoors. “It's not as safe as the village. But at least here she has some schooling,” said Vimal, her mother. “I will stay working under the sun's hot fires to see my child get even a little learning done, so she won't be dumb like me and have to carry loads for the rich people.”

W orld & n ation Wednesday, October 8, 2008

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B Judge rules Uighurs must be released YouTubeNviewers can be buyers, too a t i o n

By Del Quentin Wilber Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A federal judge Tuesday ordered that 17 Chinese Muslims held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison be released into the United States by Friday, agreeing with the detainees’ lawyers that the Constitution bars holding the men indefinitely without cause. It was the first time that a U.S. court has ordered the release of a Guantanamo detainee, and the first time that a foreign national held there has been ordered brought to the United States. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina issued the landmark ruling in the case of a small band of captives, known as Uighurs, who have been held at Guantanamo for nearly seven years and are no longer considered enemy combatants by the U.S. government. At a hearing packed with Uighurs who live in the Washington area, Urbina rejected government arguments that he had no authority to order the men’s release. He said he had such authority because the men were being held indefinitely and it was the only remedy available. He cited a June decision by an appellate court that found evidence against the Uighurs to be unreliable. Urbina said in court that he ordered the release “because the Constitution prohibits indefinite detention without cause.” He added, “The separation of powers do not trump” the prohibition against holding people indefinitely without trial. A government appeal of the decision is likely. Urbina scheduled a hearing for Friday with the Uighurs present to take testimony on how they might be monitored in the Washington area. He said the Uighurs would be in the

custody of 17 Uighur families in the Washington area. Members of the area’s Uighur community reacted to the decision with jubilation. “We won!” one attendee exclaimed after the hearing, setting off a loud cheer. Unlike other captives, the men cannot be sent to their home country because the Chinese government considers them terrorists and might torture them. U.S. authorities released five Uighur detainees to Albania in 2006, but no other country wants to risk offending China by accepting the others. The Uighurs’ attorneys argued that the men have been confined for too long on flimsy evidence and pose no security threat to the United States. The lawyers have suggested that authorities could supervise them much as they monitor criminal defendants released pending trial. Later, the government could find the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurz) another home, the lawyers have said. Monday’s hearing was originally scheduled to examine whether Urbina had the power to order the release of at least five of the Uighurs. Their attorneys filed court papers asking Urbina to also consider releasing 12 other Uighurs who remain in custody. Over the years, more than 500 detainees have left Guantanamo Bay, an unknown number of whom ultimately were set free. They include about 127 men sent back to Afghanistan, 90 repatriated in Saudi Arabia and 59 returned to Pakistan. Only one detainee, a Saudi, Yaser Esam Hamdi, was moved from Guantanamo Bay to the United States after authorities determined he held U.S. citizenship. He was eventually deported to Saudi Arabia and relinquished his U.S. citizenship. Scores of detainees are challeng-

ing their detentions in federal court after winning a Supreme Court ruling in June that gave them the right to have their cases reviewed by federal judges under the legal doctrine of habeas corpus. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has been conducting closed-door hearings in the cases of more than 20 of those detainees and intends to hold habeas hearings at a brisk pace, beginning later this month. First in line are six Algerians who were picked up in Bosnia in late 2001. Each detainee is scheduled to have a hearing over a six-day period. In those cases, judges must weigh government evidence to decide whether the detainees are being held fairly. In this case, Urbina had only two options: leave the Uighurs at Guantanamo Bay or order them released into the United States. Justice Department lawyers have argued in court papers and at hearings that only the president has the authority to allow the men into the country. They also said the judge is barred from ordering their entry if they have ties to terrorist groups. In court documents, they have contended that one of the men received training from a group that was later determined by the Bush administration to be a terrorist organization. The Uighurs are natives of northwestern China who have been demanding an independent homeland. Chinese authorities consider them separatists. Over the years, some have sought military training in other countries. In 2001, most of the Uighurs now in Guantanamo Bay were living in camps in Afghanistan until U.S. air strikes drove them into neighboring Pakistan. They were captured there and turned over to U.S. authorities.

Britain plans to prop up banking sector By Kevin Sullivan Washington Post

LONDON — The British government was preparing Tuesday night to announce an emergency plan to inject tens of billions of dollars in capital into U.K. banks, which suffered a second consecutive day of dramatic losses in share prices. Alistair Darling, Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, or finance minister, said he would make an announcement about steps to put banks “on a longer-term sound footing” before jittery financial markets opened Wednesday morning. Analysts and media reports said Darling’s announcement would probably involve a bank recapitalization worth up to 50 billion pounds, about $88 billion at current exchange rates. Stabilizing London, the world’s second-largest finance center, is a key task in calming the world crisis. Two major British banks have been rescued in recent days, and the central bank has pumped billions into money markets, but new weaknesses continue to emerge. Although spokesmen for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who huddled with Darling and other economic advisers Tuesday evening, said any plan would be presented in a “calm and orderly way,” the plan was clearly spurred by a second consecutive day of tremendous sell-off of bank shares on the London exchange.

Although the London market overall leveled off after a historic drop Monday, bank stocks took another beating after word leaked that Brown and top bank officials had met Monday night to discuss a possible bailout. Brown has given no indication that he favors a move as broad as the $700 billion U.S. bailout, but analysts and bank officials said he thinks a major infusion of taxpayer capital is required to thaw Britain’s frozen credit markets. Several analysts said the plan would probably include a provision for the government to receive preferred shares in the banks, ensuring that the taxpayer would benefit when business improved. Attention focused Tuesday on the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which dropped 39.2 percent to a 15-year low that wiped about 10 billion pounds, or more than $17 billion, from its value. The troubled Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), which is being bought by Lloyds TSB, was down 41.5 percent. Lloyds, meanwhile, lost 13 percent of its share value, and Barclays fell by 9.2 percent. Officials are considering up to 15 billion pounds ($26 billion) each for at least three large banks — RBS, Lloyds and Barclays — according to media reports, with half paid now and half delivered as needed later. Britain has opposed a European Union-wide bailout fund but, in the meantime, is proceeding on its own.

Henk Potts, an equity strategist at Barclays Stockbrokers — a division of the banking group — said the government’s rescue plan would be “a huge, historical” move. “The market needs something, and the sooner the better,” Potts said. “It’s a sector that’s devoid of confidence.” Potts and other analysts said action was needed even though shareprice losses suffered by major banks do not necessarily reflect the reality of their financial stability. “Clearly there’s a wave of fear and uncertainty in banking stocks, and people are throwing valuation and fundamentals out the window,” he said. He added: “Clearly the authorities needed to offer a level of confidence regardless of whether the banks needed it or not.”

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Ever watched a video on YouTube and wanted to buy the song? YouTube is counting on it. The world’s most popular video-sharing site is hoping to make money by installing buttons under YouTube videos so that the ability to buy the music and video games featured in the clip is just one click away. The “click to buy” buttons, which began appearing Tuesday, connect viewers to the product page on Amazon.com or Apple Inc.’s iTunes. To start, YouTube, which will receive a commission for each sale, is selling songs from two major labels, EMI Music and Universal Music Group, and video games from Electronic Arts Inc. Eventually it wants to expand to sales of movies, television shows and concert tickets. “This is the first step in a viable e-commerce platform,” said Bakari Brock, business affairs counsel at YouTube. It’s another effort by the video-sharing site to figure out how to profit from its popularity. So far, YouTube has focused on advertising as a source of income, including text ads that run along the bottom of videos as they play, contests sponsored by advertisers and homepage video ads. But it has begun to experiment with new ways to take advantage of the site, which attracts nearly 100 million people a month in the United States. Google Inc. bought YouTube two years ago for $1.65 billion. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has pledged to investors that YouTube will make money once it hits on the right formula. Last month, he said Google was being patient. “We are where we should be,” he said. Revenue this year is expected to be about $200 million. — Los Angeles Times

Firm to offer genetic test for breast cancer WASHINGTON — A biotech company Wednesday will begin offering the first genetic test to assess a woman’s risk for the most common forms of breast cancer, reigniting debate about the growing number of unregulated genetic tests. The test by deCODE genetics of Reykjavik, Iceland, a respected pioneer in genetic research, promises to determine a woman’s risk through a simple blood sample or cheek swab. Previously, the only tests for breast cancer risk were for relatively rare genes, leaving most women with no way to assess their individual genetic predisposition. “What this does for women is allow them to assess their personal risk for the common forms of breast cancer,” said Kari Stefansson, deCODE’s chief executive. “That’s what you need to do to make early diagnoses or take preventive measures. This test will most definitely save lives.” While welcomed by some patient advocates and doctors, the $1,625 test raises concerns among others. Some questioned its reliability, while others worried the results could either lull women into a false sense of complacency or needlessly alarm them, prompting them to take unnecessary tests or even undergo unneeded surgery. “There is at least a significant chance this test will could falsely reassure some women and alarm others,” said Eric Winer, a breast cancer expert at Harvard Medical School and spokesman for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “I fear for many women the results could be quite misleading.” “I wouldn’t recommend to anyone that she have such a test. I certainly wouldn’t want my daughter to have such a test,” said Mary-Claire King, a breast cancer genetics expert at the University of Washington. “It’s meaningless, and it could very easily introduce real confusion.” The test comes as concern has been rising about the proliferation of genetic tests. Hundreds of laboratories are now offering genetic testing for more than more than 1,200 conditions. The Food and Drug Administration does not regulate such tests when they are performed by the labs offering them. “There is concern about the validity of many genetic tests that are being offered,” said Joan Scott, deputy director of the Center for Genetics and Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University. “Without an external review, the consumer — be it the physician or the patient directly — is not going to know which ones have been validated.” An FDA spokesperson said the agency had just become aware of the new test and could not say whether it would take any action, though she noted that in August the agency sent a letter expressing concern to another company marketing a questionable genetic test for ovarian cancer. — Washington Post

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A head start for medicalminded high schoolers By Maria Glod Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Juno Love started at Wheaton (Md.) High School without a brain, but the students fixed that. The 29-inch-tall manikin soon had a wrinkly, reddish frontal lobe, a blue parietal lobe, a yellow occipital lobe and a green temporal lobe. “She’s going to be a genius,” said Michael Robles, 16, as he admired the cerebral cortex sculpted from clay. Aspiring doctors and medical technicians these days can often get lessons in anatomy, disease or radiology before college. The human body systems class at Wheaton High is among an increasing number of rigorous classes for high school students seeking an early glimpse into the growing health-care field — and a head start on the training they’ll need. This summer, 50 Fairfax County public school students passed Virginia’s pharmacy technician exam, qualifying them to step into a job at a drugstore or hospital. Prince George’s County, Md., schools launched a biomedical program at Bladensburg High School in 2005. Health care, one of the largest industries in the country, is projected to grow as the ranks of aging baby boomers swell. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 3 million health-care jobs will be created in the decade before 2016 — more than in any other industry. Seven of the 20 fastest-growing occupations are in health care. The programs are designed with a hands-on style intended to give students a clear picture of the connec-

tion between real-world jobs and the biology and chemistry they study in other classes. Many of them, reflecting an effort by schools to provide increasingly sophisticated vocational education, prepare students to graduate with the training and certifications they’ll need to immediately enter health-care jobs. Those jobs can be a starting point for students who plan to work to help pay for college. One morning this week, Loudoun County (Va.) High School’s radiology technology class toured the Loudoun Free Clinic in Leesburg, which provides care to poor, uninsured county residents. Teacher Terri Settle fired off questions. “Another name for swelling is?” “Oh! Edema,” said Sarah Nuval, 18. “Bile is secreted by the ... ?” “Liver,” several students chimed in. “And it’s used to digest what?” “Fatty food,” they said. Health-care providers see the students as part of a promising workforce. And as hospitals and doctor’s offices serve an increasingly diverse population, many high school students in the immigrantrich Washington suburbs come to the field with the added skill of a second language. In Settle’s class, there are several Spanish speakers and students fluent in Urdu and Arabic. Schools nationwide use different models. Last year, Mesa, Ariz. schools opened a high school devoted to health sciences. The Loudoun program is a partnership between the county school system,

Fall season has some early standouts in polo, soccer continued from page 12 Leech’s stellar play in goal has been an integral part of Brown’s success this season, with the team’s record currently standing at 7-2-1, with a 1-0 mark in the Ivy League. Brenna Hogue ’10 (W. Soccer) Hogue has also sparkled in goal this season, and currently leads the Ivy League with 8.3 saves per game, with the second-ranked goalie averaging only 4.89 saves per game.

Hogue’s season has included three shutouts, with two coming back-toback in a 1-0 win over then-No. 11 Penn State and a scoreless tie with then-No. 1 UCLA. Grant LeBeau ’09 (M. Water Polo) LeBeau leads the No. 19 men’s water polo team with 37 points, coming on 18 goals and 19 assists. The team currently boasts a 6-5 record after four consecutive wins, including the most recent victory, a 10-8 overtime win over Harvard.

Have a news tip? Want to drop us a press release? Or just a friendly note? herald@browndailyherald.com

Dominic Bracco II / Washington Post

Philip Deke, of Wheaton, Md., models part of the brain on a mannequin as part of his body systems class. the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation and the Inova Health System. Students also earn credit at Northern Virginia Community College. “We said, `How do we address the growing need for medical providers?’ “ said David Goldberg, chief growth officer at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital. “The goal was to educate and cultivate people.” Wheaton High’s human body systems class is among the offerings at the school’s Biosciences and

Health Professions Academy. The class is part of a four-year program at 152 schools nationwide developed by Project Lead the Way, a nonprofit group based in Albany, N.Y., that helps prepare students for careers in engineering and biomedical sciences. Sasini Bentota ’12 said classes at the Biosciences and Health Professions Academy gave her an advantage in her college lab sessions. “They expect you to have experience

using a pipette and using a centrifuge,” she said. “There are so many kids in the Ivy League hoping to be doctors. I feel like I have much more experience than a lot of people.” Wheaton student Joseph Akeefe, 15, said he’s getting a jump on the education he’ll need to become a biochemist like his brother. “I want to follow him,” said Akeefe, who is also taking honors biology. “They are looking for medial solutions for cancer and HIV.”

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Parking problems This semester the University began an ambitious attempt to move student parking off-campus and help ameliorate some of the demand for parking on College Hill. It opened a new lot downtown with 250 spots and provided security and 24-hour shuttles to keep people safe. This was an excellent, well-administered response to a difficult situation. But it turns out students are looking for more than just any old parking spot in Providence. Only 28 students opted to use University parking this semester, down from 250 last semester on campus. We’re not sure what to make of this, exactly, because we were surprised to find out there’s not much demand for the downtown parking. The fact that fewer than 30 students are using University parking means either students are deciding it’s too much trouble to bring a car to Brown, or students are simply finding other options on College Hill. Our hunch is they are renting parking spaces on College Hill from area renters and property owners, which means the University’s dilemma is solved, but the overall problem of a congested neighborhood continues. We’re not totally sure how to solve this problem, but as the University considers whether to move the 28 spots back to campus, we suggest it get out of the student parking business altogether. If nothing else, this experiment shows students don’t need Brown to find parking space, and Brown needs to do whatever it can to trim its budget and lower the number of cars in the neighborhood.

Don’t mess with Texas We were pleased the other day to read a letter from Houston Mayor Bill White to the brothers in Delta Tau, letting them know he is taking steps to make them honorar y citizens of the city of Houston. The letter came in response to news that DTau was put on probation by Greek Council for failing to register its Date-A-Delt charity auction, which collected money for a foundation for Hurricane Ike victims, many of whom are in Houston. If the letter of the law were to always be followed exactly, there would be no reason for a student-run group such as Greek Council. Its function is to make sure that the spirit of the law is followed in cases where the regulations don’t properly address a situation. Perhaps DTau should have been punished for breaking a perfectly good rule, but Greek Council’s six-week probation seems oddly harsh, especially when the infraction was for a charity event and the fraternity had already spent funds on a scheduled party. Perhaps we can get the Houston City Council to handle these disputes going for ward.

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

Executive Editors Taylor Barnes Chris Gang

Senior Editors Irene Chen Lindsey Meyers

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

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

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

Business Darren Ball General Manager Mandeep Gill General Manager Shawn Reilly Office Manager Alex Hughes Sales Director Emilie Aries Communications Director Jon Spector Finance Director Claire Kiely Local & National Sales Manager Ellen DaSilva University Sales Manager Philip Maynard Local & Recruiter Sales Manager Katelyn Koh Asst. Finance Director

CARLY HUDELSON

Letters Dining Services taking action on cups To the Editor: In response to the article in Friday’s Herald regarding Dining Services’ phaseout of plastic tumblers (“Budget slows replacement of possibly unhealthy cups,” October 3), I want to clarify the actions BDS has taken regarding plastic tumblers in use in both the Verney-Woolley and Sharpe Refectory dining halls. In late August, we were able to source a BPA-free tumbler that met our specifications. We tested the performance of these new tumblers during the first several weeks of the semester when both operations were at full capacity. As a result, the entire V-W inventory was replaced in September and the Refectory inventory is being swapped out over the next several weeks. Dining Services’ primary concern has been and continues to

be the health and safety of our customers. Though the Federal Food and Drug Administration – which formed a Task Force in April of this year to review concerns about the safety of BPA – has not recommended the discontinuation of products that contain BPA, Dining Services decided this summer to act in the event that the evidence eventually affirms the health concerns raised by the Canadian government.

Ann Hoffman Director of Administration Brown Dining Services Oct. 7

photo Meara Sharma Min Wu

Photo Editor Photo Editor

post- magazine Matt Hill Rajiv Jayadevan Arthur Matuszewski Colleen Brogan Kelly McKowan Monica Huang Kristen Olds Ellen Cushing Reshma Ramachandran

Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor Off the Hill Editor Layout Editor Layout Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor

Jessie Calihan, Chaz Kelsh, Joanna Lee, Max Rosero, Amy Kendall, Designers Tarah Knaresboro, Luis Solis, Copy Editors Manuel Possolo, Isabel Gottlieb, Emmy Liss, Gaurie Tilak, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Mitra Anoushiravani, Colin Chazen, Chaz Kelsh, Emmy Liss, Brian Mastroianni, George Miller, Melissa Shube, Anne Simons, Sara Sunshine, Gaurie Tilak, Caroline Sedano, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Simon van Zuylen-Wood Staff Writers Zunaira Choudhary, Leslie Primack, Connie Zheng, Christian Martell, Alexandra Ulmer, Lauren Pischel, Samuel Byker, Anne Deggelman, Nicole Dungca, Olivia Hoffman, Cameron Lee, Debbie Lehmann, Sophia Li, Seth Motel, Marielle Segarra, Kyla Wilkes, Juliana Friend Sports Staff Writers Peter Cipparone, Nicole Stock Business Staff Maximilian Barrows, Thanases Plestis, Agathe Roncey, Allen McGonagill, Ben Xiong, Bonnie Kim, Cathy Li, Christiana Stephenson, Corey Schwartz, Evan Sumortin, Galen Cho, Han Lee, Haydar Taygun, Jackie Goldman, Jilyn Chao, Kathy Bui, Kelly Wess, Kenneth So, Lee Chau, Lyndse Yess, Margaret Watson, Matthew Burrows, Maura Lynch, Misha Desai, Stassia Chyzhykova, Webber Xu, William Schweitzer Design Staff Jessica Calihan, Amy Kendall, Joanna Lee, Rachel Isaacs, Angela Santin Ceballos, Marlee Bruning, Rachel Wexler, Maxwell Rosero, Katie Silverstein, Shara Azad, Jessica Kirschner, Jee Hyun Choi, Heeyoung Min, Andrea McWilliams, Anna Samel Photo Staff Alex DePaoli, Eunice Hong, Kim Perley, Quinn Savit, Justin Coleman Copy Editors Rafael Chaiken, Ellen Cushing, Younhun Kim, Frederic Lu, Lauren Fedor, Madeleine Rosenberg, Kelly Mallahan, Jennifer Kim, Tarah Knaresboro, Jordan Mainzer, Janine Lopez, Luis Solis, Ayelet Brinn, Rachel Starr, Riva Shah, Jason Yum, Simon Leibling, Rachel Isaacs

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O pinions Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Limiting Brown card access is a failed strategy JOSHUA KAPLAN | Opinions Columnist Living in Perkins last year, I never had a problem with using my Brown card to access my dorm. Cast out into the boondocks with our own zip code, left off the campus map, we Perkinites bonded and as a result all my friends lived in my dorm. This year my friends are everywhere and each time I try to visit them, I am frustrated by my limited card access. But, we should not mind it too much — should we? After all, limiting card access to a dorm or two and some academic buildings is essential to our security, right? Wrong. Technology has the potential to improve security, but too often it merely creates a hassle and the illusion of safety. The reason for this failure is human kindness. In an attempt to be polite and cooperative we quickly nullify any security benefits of the technology. The reason, as far as I know, for the limited access policy is so that if I lose my ID card and some random (non-Brown student) person picks it up they would only be able to get into a a few buildings. If they tried it randomly on some dorm it probably would not work. The idea behind the technology is solid — in practice, however, the idea fails. First, there is a decent chance the ID card would have been lost somewhere near the dorm it opens. Since we take out our ID cards whenever we need to enter our dorm, there is always the possibility that someone misses their pocket putting the ID card away and it lands on the ground right near the door. Now we get to the real problem, the imagined threat and the real one. The imagined one: Someone wants to break into a Brown dorm. He scours the campus for a lost Brown Card and then ventures around from dorm to dorm until he finally finds the one that the card opens. It would take forever and they would likely give up. Or there is a much simpler way — one that completely defeats the purpose of limited card access — he could show up at the door of a dorm and wait until someone opens the door. There is even a decent chance the door will be propped open so that, for example, people can come in for some party or a study group in the dorm lounge.

I can imagine two scenarios. In one a college age kid simply asks to be let in to a dorm. More than likely, he will be let in no questions asked. If he is a bit younger he could pretend to be a pre-frosh or visiting a sibling at Brown. A bit older and he is an older sibling. In the other scenario, an older person wants to get into the dorm for nefarious purposes. In this case, they claim to be a parent, uncle, aunt, grandparent, etc. As long as they are friendly and reasonably presentable they can rely on the kindness of a Brown student to let them into the dorm. The likelihood of needing to offer one of those claims is minor. I’ve certainly let several “parent-age” people into my dorm, particularly during move-in, without asking questions. I don’t believe there are limits to this either. Even if someone quite a bit older than a college student tried to get into the dorm during a Friday or Saturday night I might be suspicious, but I would not stop them. In every scenario I’ve ever encountered I’ve opened the door. Thus, while our Brown IDs cannot open most dorms on campus — the reality is that no card is needed to get into any of them. By limiting the access of our Brown Cards, the University provides us with an illusion of safety and a very real inconvenience. What they don’t provide is any meaningful security gain. The correct response to this situation is to give all cards universal dorm access. For starters that would make propping doors pointless and thus limit the people who could just stroll in. Another possibility is the installation of a system installed in each room or suite to unlock the dorm entrance from the room itself (like apartment buildings have). They do not even need to put in an intercom — we all have cell phones. This is expensive, however, and Brown would be better off giving us universal access. Give us this small increase in power and perhaps we will become a little more suspicious of opening the doors for others. But as it stands right now, Brown students are just too nice to do otherwise.

Joshua Kaplan ’11 thinks the man who trades convenience for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either.

Politicians being politicians SAM LOOMIS | Opinions Columnist This is a weird semester to be abroad. I spend my days riding my bicycle blissfully down the streets of Copenhagen, admiring the smiling Danes, and my nights huddled in my computer chair, watching America fall to pieces. The election is a particularly fascinating and horrifying spectacle. I find that the most appropriate lens through which to view it is that of my “Ethnic Conflict in Modern States” course. The class’s concept of the “security dilemma” is informative. I will briefly outline it here (IR majors may send complaints and corrections to letters@browndailyherald.com). The idea is that two entities, be they states, groups or individuals, acting in the interest of their own security, take steps that eventually compromise the security of all parties involved. The arms race of the Cold War would have been a good example of this if anyone had actually gotten nuked. In the case of the election, the parties involved are the parties involved, Democratic and Republican. The securityoriented buildup has been the growing number of misleading comments and attack ads released by both sides. I’ll play to my audience and start with McCain. One of the best examples of an unfounded attack is the advertisement in which the campaign accuses Obama of referring to Sarah Palin when he said, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” It is logically impossible that Obama was actually talking about the Vice Presidential nominee, because unlike a pig, Palin is hot. Maybe if he had said something about putting lipstick on a cougar… but I digress. This is no more than a slanderous attempt by the McCain campaign to paint Obama as out-oftouch with the common man’s taste in women. Another example of misleading advertising is a McCain campaign ad which states that Obama is in favor of “comprehensive sexual-education for kindergartners.” No one would support this plan outside of the Brown Gender and Sexuality Studies department, and naturally middle-America was up in arms. However, it was quickly revealed that the bill Obama voted for actually recommended teaching kindergartners how to avoid sexual predators. Apparently the McCain campaign is trying to lock up the pedophile vote with this advertisement.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

It could be the difference in Florida. So far, this seems less like a security dilemma than an all-out assault, but the response from the Obama campaign saves the analogy. To avoid an attack-ads missile gap, Obama played defense with offense, releasing ads of his own. One example is a Spanish-language ad linking John McCain with Rush Limbaugh that plays aremark from Limbaugh in which he called Mexicans “stupid and unqualified.” The Obama campaign could have gone further. If you can link McCain to Limbaugh you should break out one of his more colorful quotations, such as: “Hugo, Cesar — whatever. A Chavez is a Chavez. We’ve always had problems with them.” The point is that this ad is misleading. Limbaugh and McCain have often butted heads over immigration. With this ad, Obama perpetuates the security dilemma by attacking, even if it was for defensive reasons. So what is lost, what is compromised by this political arms race? It is the integrity of the candidates, which will soon mean the integrity of the president. It threatens the political capital that either candidate would be able to expend in office. The campaign process drags down even well-meaning candidates as they defend against unwarranted attacks. Obama may have promised “a new kind of politics,” but as the race went on it became clear to him and everyone in his campaign that the new kind of politics is the kind of politics that loses elections. McCain learned this lesson after his campaign in 2000 against President Bush. If you don’t come out fighting, Karl Rove will convince a bunch of racist South Carolinians that you had an illegitimate black child. So this time around, McCain played the political game, correcting his more liberal positions for the Republican primary, courting some “agents of intolerance,” and indulging in the kind of attack ads that he has decried in the past. I’m not blaming these candidates for being normal politicians. Hell, if I were running for office I’d lie my head off to get elected. They are just products of a system that encourages and rewards this kind of behavior. Now how do we fix this? I’d tell you but I’ve reached my word limit.

Sam Loomis ‘10 is reporting from Scandinavia, the land of fairies and elves.

What to do after graduation BY MICHAEL RAMOS-LYNCH Opinions Columnist Like many seniors, I am not sure about what I plan to do after graduation. That age old question — “What do you want to be when you grow up” — seems to have finally caught up with me. My difficulty deciding what to do after graduation probably stems from an unclear understanding of my goals after Brown. Should I try to save the world? Make money? Pursue graduate studies? Unfortunately, tr ying to answer these questions only leads me to ask even deeper ones. Should I resolve these questions based on what I expect will make me happiest? Based on what will best advance my career goals? Are the answers to these questions different? The only conclusion I have been able to reach is that this is a stressful, anxiety-provoking time. But that conclusion doesn’t get me anywhere. It’s obvious that I need to make a decision soon, but how? I have started to look everywhere for possible answers. Correcting social injustice seems like a particularly ripe area for conscientious seniors. I received an e-mail the other day from colorofchange.org, a Web-based civil-rights organization, urging me to call the

I will not exclusively consider income or even happiness. I will try instead to make myself useful. Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles and ask them to not execute Troy Anthony Davis who was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of a police officer in Savannah. According to the Washington Post, a number of witnesses have recanted their testimony and a few have said they were coerced by police when giving their statements. I’ve written about supporting the death penalty in the past, and I still support it. I nonetheless maintain that executing an innocent person is one of the worst injustices imaginable. It calls into question the legitimacy of our government. If laws meant to protect the innocent end up killing them, then it is clear that our system needs extensive revision. Since 1973, over 125 people have been exonerated from death row. A disproportionate number of death sentences are handed out to those whose apparent victims were white, according to Amnesty International. And institutional racism is not limited to our justice system. We have allowed injustice to spread a wider web. Inadequate public education is another source of many problems. On average, poor 4th graders trail behind their wealthy counterparts by three grade levels in terms of academic achievement. The National Center for Children in Poverty reports that 61 percent of Latino children and 60 percent of AfricanAmerican children are members of low-income families, compared to 26 percent of white children and 28 percent of Asian children. Poor education and poverty constrain many students of color. With limited resources, these students often struggle in the marketplace and turn to support systems outside of the law. As it stands, students of color are being victimized by institutional racism in and outside of school. Obviously, Troy Davis is not the only person in this country who needs someone to lend a hand. So what does this all mean for us graduating seniors? These daunting, national problems suggest that, when evaluating career opportunities, we should look beyond our personal interests. In deciding what to do after graduation, I will not exclusively consider income, career advancement or even personal happiness. I will tr y instead to make myself useful. In a country that prides itself on being “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” it is dishonest for us to let institutions continue discriminatory practices. Pervasive inequities in public policy pose a grave danger to the United States. If we do not act soon, America will crumble under the weight of inequality.

Michael Ramos-Lynch ’09 thinks a game of eeny meeny miny moe would be easier.

S ports W ednesday Page 12

Who wants to be a millionaire? The current economic crisis has most Americans pinching pennies as concerns for the future grow. So how is it that some people can’t wait to spend hundreds of millions of dollars? It helps to have a brand new baseball stadium, complete with 56 luxury boxes, in the biggest Tom Trudeau sports market Tru Story in America. It also can’t hurt to have five employees whose expiring contracts total $86 million. Such is the life of Hal and Hank Steinbrenner, the sons of the Yankees principal owner, George. While most sports franchises are struggling to renew sponsors, the Yankees recently turned down close to $30 million annually for the rights to name the new Yankee Stadium, evidence of the organization’s seemingly unlimited budget. Copious amounts of money may not be anything new in the Bronx, but it’s been a while since the Bombers have flashed their financial might in free agency. Although they’ve spent plenty of money to retain their own free agents, the Yanks have mostly opted to avoid bidding wars over top free agents in recent years. Last season the only player the Yankees added was middle reliever LaTroy Hawkins, who signed for just under $4 million and was gone from the roster by the end of the year. All that will change this offseason. With the Yanks’ World Championship-less streak at (gasp) eight seasons and counting, general manager Brian Cashman will not be shy to overpay for this crop of free agents. Expect Cashman to get exactly what he wants, because for all the players’ talk about giving hometown discounts, having amazing teammates, their geographical preferences, and comfort in a situation, where they end up still comes down to “CREAM” (cash rules everything around me). Sports blogs and chat forums have spent weeks giving reasons why the top free agents might settle for less than top dollar. They wrote that starting pitcher C(ha)-C(hing) Sabathia enjoyed hitting in the National League way too much to ever go back to the American League. Starting pitcher A.J. Burnett was rumored to be interested in Toronto’s reported $30 million extension so that he could stay in Toronto. Ben Sheets’ muscle tear near his pitching elbow meant that the Brewers might get a chance to re-sign him for below market value. Scott Boras’ client, Manny Ramirez, is happy in Los Angeles. Mark Teixeira, another Boras client, has been saying how he loved his time with the Angels, which will give him “something to think about” this winter. Don’t believe it. Because when the dust settles, all these players will end up where the money is best, which means you can expect the New York Yankees to sign just about whoever they want.

Tom Trudeau ’09 heard that Sabathia is interested in the Yankees’ slimming pinstripes.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Hood ’11 making a big splash for m. water polo By Anne Deggelman Sports Staff Writer

Three goals against Cal Baptist, two against Johns Hopkins, Princeton and Bucknell, another three against Harvard: This is the track record of water polo’s Gordon Hood ’11. And the best part is, he’s a defender. Head Coach Felix Mercado and Assistant Coach John McBride recruited Hood, a utility player in high school, into the Brown program last year from Carlsbad High School in Carlsbad, Calif., to train under Gerrit Adams ’08 for the position of two-meter defender. Last season Hood came out strong, earning playing time in all 31 games of the season and scoring 32 goals for the team, making him the team’s fifth leading scorer as a freshman, behind Adams, Hank Weintraub ’09, Grant LeBeau ’09, and Mike Gartner ’09. Hood also stood strong on assists, helping his teammates to another 28 goals throughout the season, giving him the third best assist-record on the team. “We recruited him to be an impact player immediately and he’s been one,” McBride said. “He’s a true team-minded player and will field any role we ask him to play.” And while Hood has taken on the role of the two-meter defender for the team, he is also the Bears’ second in line for the offensive twometer position. Not to mention his position at the top of the Bears’ scoring card. “Gordon is probably the most underrated player on the team,” said LeBeau, the team’s captain this season. “He is by far the most consistent player we have and he can play any position.” And much of Hood’s success seems to stem from his attitude. In addition to being classified by

both teammates and coaches as a “team player,” Hood is probably the only athlete in history to express satisfaction with morning practices. “We’ve been training a lot harder and I like that because we’re going to be better off because of it,” said Hood. This work ethic has paid off. This year Hood has continued to prove his skills in the pool, helping the Bears to victories against No. 12 Santa Clara and No. 13 St. Francis and a record of 3-0 in league play. “I definitely had some big shoes to fill with Gerrit leaving the team,” Hood said. “But I’m working with the best (Gartner) every day in practice.” On September 29, Hood was named CWPA Northern Division Player of the Week for his combined statistics of six goals, two steals, an ejection drawn, and an assist in Brown’s two victories over MIT, 15-7, and St. Francis, 9-8. The win over St. Francis marked the first time the Terriers have been defeated in Northern Division regular season play since Oct. 19, 2002. Since earning this title, Hood has helped Bruno take down Harvard 10-8 in overtime, contributing three goals to the game, one of which tied things up at a key moment in the end of the fourth quarter. “He’s a quiet kid who’s never intimidated, who just lets his play speak for itself,” McBride said. “I would guess that he will be one of the top players on the East Coast by the time he’s a senior, and he should be an all-American.” Hood and his fellow teammates will continue their season Friday in New York, where they will take on Fordham.

Herald File Photo

Gordon Hood ’11 has had an impressive scoring record — as a defender.

S po r t s i n Brief

Athletes shine Equestrian starts strong amid season’s The equestrian team got its sea- ups and downs

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

son off to a good start with a second-place finish out of ten teams at University of Rhode Island’s Faith Hill Farm on Saturday. Brown spent much of the show in third place, and eventually finished just three points behind host URI for the win. Liz Giliberti ’10 led the way for the Bears with a first-place finish in the Open Fences event and a secondplace finish in the Open Flat, to earn a team-high 12 points. The team also got strong performances in the Walk Trot, where Kona Shen ’10 turned in a second-place finish, and Cate Berger ’11, though not riding as a point-rider for the Bears, earned first place. Jenny Grover ’10 also had a great day as a non-point rider, coming away with the victory in the Walk Trot Canter. Captain Rachel Griffith ’10 had a solid outing, as well, with thirdplace finishes in both the Intermediate Fences and Intermediate Flat categories, earning a total of six points for Brown. The team also got strong performances from its young riders, as Dakota Gruener ’11 won the Novice Flat and Katy Eng ’11 earned second place as the point rider for the Bears in the Walk Trot Canter. Brown will return to action on Saturday at Trinity’s Farmington Equestrian Center.

Liz Gilberti ’10 had a first-place finish in the Open Fences event and a secondplace finish in the Open Flat at Faith Hill Farm on Saturday.

—Benjy Asher

BY Benjy Asher Sports Editor

So far, this fall has been a season of ups and downs for Brown sports, but here are some athletes who have shone for Bruno: Abigail Taft ’12 (Field Hockey) Taft, from Shaker Heights, Ohio, has burst onto the collegiate field hockey scene, tallying seven goals through her first 10 games. Taft scored two goals in her debut, a 5-2 loss to UNH, and has been instrumental in leading the Bears, who went 1-16 in 2007, to a 3-7 record thus far. Taft has scored in all three of those victories, scoring once in a 2-1 win over Maine, and scoring two goals in each of Brown’s other wins, a 2-1 victory over Fairfield and a 3-2 decision yesterday against Sacred Heart. Her play last week against Fairfield earned her Ivy League Rookie of the Week Honors. Jarrett Leech ’09 (M. Soccer) Through Oct. 6, Leech had allowed just one goal in six starts in goal, and currently leads the Ivy League in goals-against average, at .16, and save percentage, at .952. continued on page 9