The Brown Daily Herald F riday, O ctober 10, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 89
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Media notices Brown less than Ivy peers Ranking favors large research schools By Charlene Kim Contributing Writer
Brown receives less media attention than most of its Ivy peers, according to a new ranking compiled by the Global Language Monitor, a Web site that tracks trends in the English language. Brown finished 30th overall — and seventh in the Ivy League — in the ranking, which analyzed how often 100 top colleges and universities appeared in global print and electronic media and on the Internet. Dartmouth trails Brown in overall mentions, but both are far behind the next Ivy, Penn, which GLM rated 11th. Harvard, the most-mentioned Ivy, led all schools in mentions. Brown’s relatively low placement among its Ivy peers on the ranking could be attributed to its smaller graduate school and lower research profile. Schools that are considered high-profile research institutions tend to fare best in the ranking, GLM founder Paul Payack said. Payack said the ranking was unique in that it “provided another way to look at colleges without the inherent biases and prejudices of other rankings.” The ranking, according to Payack, continued on page 4
Justin Coleman / Herald
George Edwards, left, and Tara Ross, both authors of books on the Electoral College, debated the merits of the system last night.
Experts cast votes on Electoral College at Janus lecture By Sydney Ember Contributing Writer
Eight years after Al Gore lost the presidential election despite winning the popular vote, two experts faced off on issues regarding the Electoral College in presidential elections. A crowd of mostly students packed into MacMillan Hall last night to hear the speakers debate the current election process in a Janus Forum lecture called “Thinking Outside the Ballot Box:
Is the Electoral College Good for America?” Tara Ross, author of “Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College,” and George Edwards, political science professor at Texas A&M University and author of “Why the Electoral College is Bad for America,” sparred over issues including the power of electoral minorities under the current system, the importance of federalism and the existence of swing states. “I think that pure democracy is not a good thing ... and the found-
SPOTLIGHT
Students Google competitively for cash By Chaz Firestone Features Editor
Andrew Bergmanson ’11 draws stares from his competitors as he pushes open the double glass doors and enters the silent room. They might feel threatened by the shamrock-green streak in his otherwise black hair — an “intimidating good luck charm” he got over the weekend — but most just seem amused by his lateness. “I was making tea,” he says, thermos in hand. “I can’t come here without my tea.” Knuckles crack around the room as he takes his place among the 40 or so competitors. All share a common goal with Bergmanson — to search and destroy. Search the Internet, that is, and destroy the competition; Bergmanson is a competitor in the Digital Literacy Contest — “a high speed battle of the minds to find information online.” Using the computer as a “cognitive prosthetic,” says contest developer and Purdue University graduate Daniel Poynter, competitors scour the Web to answer obscure questions chosen by Poynter for the cunning strategies required to solve them.
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“If Napoleon Dynamite were here,” Poynter says, “he’d say something like, ‘Chicks dig Internet skills.’” Competitive research As the seconds left before the start of the contest tick away on a projected virtual countdown, Poynter surveys the John D. Rockefeller Library battlefield. Competitors of varying ages and concentrations have turned out for the $200 prize awarded to the winner. “Who thinks they’re going to finish in the top 10 percent?” he says. Bergmanson and a small handful of others raise their hands. He has practiced questions and trained with databases in the days leading up to the Wednesday competition, and he already knows all the rules: 30 questions in 30 minutes, organized by subject and varying in difficulty and point value. “I’m pretty confident,” he says. “As long as I have my tea I’ll be fine.” As the contest begins, the sound of fingers tapping on keyboards fills the room, but Bergmanson stares blankly at the first question, which asks him to “calculate the percentage of U.S.
not that buds Brown Undergraduate Dramatic Society re-imagines “The History Boys”
www.browndailyherald.com
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energy consumption in both 2003 and 2007 which was made possible by fossil fuels” for the maximum five points. He skips to the second question, a one-pointer that asks for the name of the youth organization founded by Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65. Bergmanson makes creative use of a political resource Web site to answer correctly: “Academy Children’s Science Center.” It’s a solid start for the political science concentrator. But beside Bergmanson is Music Librarian Ned Quist, who is playing to his strengths and has skipped to a question about an article in a Swedish academic journal. He uses his intimate knowledge of the library’s databases to answer quickly and confidently. The second-floor computer cluster bursts with silent activity as the competitors lock onto their screens, their hands flitting across their keyboards. “We’ve never seen this room so quiet,” says Head of Reference and Research Services Ron Fark. “And this used to be the Absolute Quiet Room.”
continued on page 4
kid-friendly Brown researchers get a $12 million grant to track 1,000 local childrens’ health
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OPINIONS
ing generation agreed with me,” Ross said. She urged the audience members to consider the logic behind the Electoral College regardless of their party affiliation. “The fundamental aspects of human nature remain unchanged,” she said. “You still need a government that protects you from that.” Ross went on to say that the Electoral College requires presidential candidates to seek the support of a diverse group of people who would not necessarily matter
under a direct election process. She added that under a more direct process for presidential elections, candidates could “camp out” in areas with larger populations and ignore rural, less-populated areas. The current system also decreases the impact of “extremist” third parties, she said. Edwards argued that the Electoral College should be abolished. “At the heart of democracy is the continued on page 4
Federal gov’t includes U. in recruiting program By Gaurie Tilak Senior Staff Writer
If you’re ner vous about finding a job in the struggling economy, fear not — roughly one third of all federal employees are currently eligible for retirement, and the government is looking to replace those retirees with college graduates. Brown is one of five schools to have received “Call to Ser ve” grants this year from the Partnership for Public Ser vice — a nonprofit organization geared towards helping connect potential recruits with government agencies. The grant provides $3,000 of funding as well as personalized consulting to help the Brown community embrace federal ser vice. The money, received in Januar y, must be used in advancing the par tnership’s goals within 18 months. The federal gover nment is tr ying to fill positions in sectors deemed “mission critical” — those areas where agencies would be unable to carr y out their designated functions without additional manpower, said Tim McManus, vice president for education and
pumpkin eaters Jake Heimark ‘10: Let’s stop sweeping cheating under the rug
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
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outreach at the PPS. Eighty percent of the projected new “mission-critical” hires are projected to be in five broad occupational categories: security, protection and enforcement; medical and public health; accounting and business; engineering and sciences; and program management and analysis, he said. Along with the monetar y assistance from the grant, the PPS is providing personalized consulting to all of the grant schools — which are California State University at Sacramento, Washington University in St. Louis, Western Michigan University and the State University of New York at Albany, in addition to Brown — to help them tailor their campaigns specifically towards their student bodies. The goal of the “Government at Work” project, as it is called at Brown, is three-fold: to educate the community about available opportunities in government service, to train faculty at Brown so that they can help students navigate the application process and to build relationships with more federal continued on page 4
athlete of the week Rhett Bernstein ‘09 is the Ivy League Player of the Week — and ours, too
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