The Brown Daily Herald T uesday, O ctober 14, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 90
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Workers protest Pembroke contractor
Power Vote works to build membership By Unikora Yang Contributing Writer
Among the many stands at the Farmer’s Market on Wriston Quadrangle, one table does not sell organically grown food. Instead, it asks students to pledge to vote for clean and just energy. With the presidential election less than a month away, Power Vote has been campaigning to increase voter awareness. According to Power Vote’s Web site, the national non-par tisan campaign hopes to mobilize one million young “climate voters” on campuses to make the global climate crisis a priority in the election and a platform to invest in a “clean energy future, which will create millions of jobs and build new industries,” to protect the environment and to “support a peaceful, energy independent future.” The “youth vote,” according to the organization, comprises 25 percent of the electorate. “The point is that it’s not only an environmental issue — it’s the energy of the economy,” said Holly Martin ’09, a Power Vote subcommittee leader. “This issue affects ever yone and ever y sector of our society.” At Brown, Power Vote is one of the five subcommittees of emPOWER, an open forum for environmental issues. Power Vote is part of the third phase of emPOWER’s three-year Campus Climate Challenge. Durcontinued on page 4
By Gaurie Tilak Senior Staff Writer
relationship,” he says. “There are all these real world challenges that come up.” These challenges include pregnancy, sickness and death — difficult life issues that can’t be found in the virtual world.
A group of sheet metal and electrical workers gathered on Oct. 9 and 10 next to Pembroke Hall, holding signs and handing out flyers to express their concerns about the business practices of E.W. Burman, the contractor in charge of renovations there. The demonstrators were members of two unions, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Chapter 99, and the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 17. “This contractor regularly uses open-shop subcontractors,” said John Shalvey, the president of IBEW Chapter 99. Open-shop — or nonunionized — contractors and subcontractors are not required to pay their workers the area standard wage as set by the unions, Shalvey said. Open-shop contractors also don’t offer the same health or insurance benefits to their workers that union contractors do, he said. The protesters’ signs and flyers said the company focused too much on profit at the expense of the well-being of its workers. The flyers read: “Notice of E.W. Burman Construction and their piggish practice in Rhode Island” and had a drawing of a pig holding a pot of money at the top. But Vice President of Facilities Management Stephen Maiorisi said all subcontractors that E.W. Burman has hired to work on the Pembroke Hall renovations are unionized. Brown has hired the company in the past and has never had problems with their work, he said. The demonstrators had problems with the contractor in general, but their concerns did not apply to Brown, according to Maiorisi. Unions guarantee their workers health benefits and a standard wage, said a worker from the sheet metal workers’ union who participated in the demonstration and who asked not to be named in this article. He said the use of nonunionized labor drives down the wages for everyone else and makes it harder for people to support families. The worker also said nonunionized workers are not required to participate in the state apprenticeship program. During the four-year apprenticeship program, workers learn about the trade that they are specializing in, including the legal and technical protocols of their profession, he said. Unionized workers are all required to participate in the state’s standard program, but non-union contractors do not have to insist that their employees participate, said the worker. “There are some contractors that work for (Burman) that do have the state apprenticeship program and have health care. But some of them do not,”
continued on page 7
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Justin Coleman / Herald
Bob Mammoser, a Buddhist monk, spoke to a meditative crowd Friday.
Buddhist Zen master brings his self to U. By Jyotsna Mullur Contributing Writer
Smith Buonanno 106 lay in meditative silence on Friday afternoon as a Zen master named Bob, clad in dark blue robes and beige Birkenstocks, entered the auditorium to introduce the small crowd of about 20 to the teachings of a 101-yearold Zen Buddhism master. Bob Mammoser, who became an ordained Buddhist monk in 1978, said it was essential to understand the current self in order to address life’s difficulties. “The self that I need to understand is the self in this particular moment,” he said, because “the self is dynamic and changing.” Mammoser is a follower of Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, a master
in the Rinzai sect of Buddhism. They practice a unique form of Zen known as Tathagata Zen, which emphasizes the understanding of self to solve problems in life. He began studying with Joshu Roshi in 1974 at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center in southern California. Mammoser today is the abbot of Albuquerque Zen Center in New Mexico, which he founded in 1989. Friday’s event was sponsored by the Brown Contemplative Studies Initiative. Mammoser put Zen teachings into a modern context for Friday’s gathering. He discussed the challenges of life: the choices people make on how to live, the difficulties and problems that confront them and the challenge of determining our priorities. Zen Bud-
dhism, he said, is based on the insight gained from evaluating our situation, seeking to answer the question, “What fundamentally am I?” The primar y way to study one’s self and understand one’s experiences, Mammoser said, is meditation. Moreover, one cannot consider oneself as one meditates as just an object, Mammoser said, because that would be removing oneself from one’s experiences. Rather, he advocated a more selfaware, introspective meditation. “What am I experiencing in terms of the world around me?” he asked. “What am I experiencing in terms of the world within me?” Through this process, Mamcontinued on page 4
Alum’s film brings real camera to virtual world ‘Life 2.0’ follows three lives in and out of Second Life
transformations users experience through Second Life. Second Life is compelling because every avatar is a real person By Marielle Segarra and all of the content is generated by Staff Writer its users, setting it apart from similar life-simulation programs like “The It’s the 21st century. You can choose Sims,” Spingarn-Koff says. In Secyour clothing and make your own ond Life, users invest real money to money. You can build houses and buy land from Linden Lab and then drive cars, form relationships, have create homes, clothing and other sex, fall in love — all through your material items in the virtual world. computer screen. For this reason, he says, In his documentary Second Life’s virtual FEATURE film “Life 2.0,” Jason world has more connecSpingarn-Koff ’96 examines what tions to the real world than any other he calls “the world’s first virtual program before this time. world” — Second Life. Launched “It’s kind of like a psychological in June 2003 by Linden Lab, Second petri dish,” he says. Life allows users to create simulated avatars that inhabit a vast virtual en- A ‘fantasy relationship’ vironment he says is “sophisticated “Life 2.0,” which Spingarn-Koff enough that people feel it is real.” hopes to release on television and In his documentary set to come in theaters next year, follows three out next year, Spingarn-Koff says he main story lines. In the first, a man has filmed a small cross-section of from Canada and a woman from users over a period of two years so New York fall in love in the virtual that viewers can see the dramatic world through their avatars and
3
METRO
projo loses legend M. Charles Bakst ‘66 retires from his post as a hard-hitting ProJo political columnist
www.browndailyherald.com
Courtesy of Linden Labs
Jason Spingarn-Koff ‘96 has made a documentary on the lives of avatars.
then meet up in real life and form a relationship. Though Spingarn-Koff says people often make their avatars look and act like themselves, he says there are also many challenges to translating a relationship from the virtual world into the real world. “It’s hard to make a real relationship as good as their fantasy
cozies for charity Caution: the drink you are about to enjoy may be warm CAMPUS NEWS — and fuzzy
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OPINIONS
U. only hurts itself Max Chaiken ‘09 wants Brown to stay in the business of student parking
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
12 SPORTS
comeback kids The men’s soccer team scored three goals in the second half of its game to beat Princeton
News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com
T oday Page 2
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
We a t h e r
Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim
TODAY
TOMORROW
sunny 67 / 52
partly sunny 73 / 50
Menu Sharpe Refectory
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — butternut Apple Bake, Tuna Noodle Casserole, Pepperoni and Feta Calzone, Fudge Bars
Lunch — Hot Ham on Bulky Roll, Spinach with Lemon, Peanut Butter and Jelly Bar, Fudge Bars
Dinner — Curry Chicken with Coconut, Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Tahini Sauce, Basmati Rice Pilaf
Dinner — Roast Beef au Jus, Vegan Vegetable Couscous, Wax Beans, New York Style Cheesecake
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 Pappocom RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, October 14,by2008
Los Angeles Times Puzzle C r o sDaily s woCrossword rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Somewhat 5 Memory mishap 10 Cool, in recent slang 14 Isle where several Scottish kings are buried 15 “Let’s Fall in Love” composer 16 Corrida beast 17 Bakery cookware 19 Deputy: Abbr. 20 The picky pick them 21 Prankster’s act 23 Herbal drink 24 “__ Fideles”: carol 26 Warmup places for pitchers 28 Cap initials at Busch Stadium 29 Eggs 31 Studies closely 32 Poland’s secondlargest city 34 Poet’s “before” 36 Flight attendant’s serving area 37 They secure wheels on axles 41 Determined to carry out 44 Grass in strips 45 Aspiring GP’s exam 49 Mentor’s charge 52 “Brokeback Mountain” director Ang 54 Pres. or P.M. 55 Longtime Met coloratura 57 Relishes 59 “__ be a pleasure!” 60 USA __ 62 Greet the day 63 Crustacean with edible legs 65 Typical frames from “The Far Side” 68 Slippery 69 Activist Medgar 70 Q.E.D. part 71 Evans who rode Buttermilk 72 Takes a breather 73 Count (on) DOWN 1 Draw a bead
2 Certainly will, after “is” 3 Shortstop’s locale 4 First family before the Wilsons 5 PC-to-PC system 6 Heavenly strings, in Sorrento 7 Alternative course of action 8 Lampooned 9 Store, as fodder 10 Mom-and-pop org. 11 Restaurant greeter 12 Weapons center 13 Just the way you like it, in the kitchen 18 Analogy words 22 Dust, polish, etc. 24 Communication for the deaf: Abbr. 25 Odd’s opposite 27 Spectrum maker 30 Jump shot path 33 Polish coin 35 Questioning syllables 38 All thumbs 39 Capitol Hill VIP
40 Bad day for Caesar 41 Joined, as film 42 Ethiopia neighbor 43 Blabbed 46 Sense of psychological completeness 47 Epinephrineproducing gland 48 __-80: old RadioShack computer
50 Review 51 Curly salad green 53 Rank below marquis 56 Freelance writers’ encls. 58 Poisonous snake 61 Mongolian tent 64 “So long” 66 Barnyard brayer 67 Porcine pen
Alien Weather Forecast | Stephen Lichenstein and Adam Wagner
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Fizzle Pop | Patricia Chou
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10/14/08
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M etro Tuesday, October 14, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
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Metro in Brief Longtime columnist Bakst ’66 heads out Olive Street now one-way to create parking By Nandini Jayakrishna Metro Editor
M. Charles Bakst ’66 has accepted the end graciously and gratefully. Last month, the Herald alum and veteran political columnist at the Providence Journal accepted an early buyout offer by the newspaper’s owner, A.H. Belo Corp., bringing to an end a career spanning four decades. As he sits down with this Herald reporter on the Faunce House terrace, Bakst looks relaxed, at ease. He has a lot of time to answer questions, he says. After all, he is retired. For the next two hours he shares numerous stories — about life after retirement, his career and his days at Brown. It’s surprising how time flies, he says. Over the years as a reporter and later as a columnist, Bakst exposed every aspect of Rhode Island politics — the good, the bad and the ugly — to his readers. Many saw him as the voice for the voiceless. News of his early retirement sparked considerable dialogue on many local political blogs. Some rejoiced, some lamented. But at the end of the day, they all read what he had to say. The process of retiring is more complicated and time-consuming than one might think, Bakst says. A flurry of activity marked his last few weeks at the Journal. Old acquaintances, loyal readers and even complete strangers called to say goodbye, to wish him well, to ask him “What’s next?” Many colleagues and friends wanted to take him out to lunch. His desk — that turned out to be a treasure trove of memorabilia, including letters and business cards from former presidents, governors and legislators — had to be cleaned out. The last, the very last column had to be written. In it, he reflects on his career — people he met, things he saw, problems he wrote about, problems that still plague society. At one point he writes, “I have spoken several times with John McCain. And Barack Obama told me in a 2006 telephone interview that he would not run for president this year, but I do not hold his change-of-mind against him; as I am seeing in my own life these days, things happen.” On his last day he was the center of attention amid hugs, speeches, and a goodbye cake. It was an emotional time, Bakst says simply, almost like “going to your own funeral.” Starting out When the Fall River, Mass., native
first came to Brown as an undergraduate in the fall of 1962, he thought he would become a lawyer just like his father. During his first week on campus he started writing for The Herald, soon realizing that writing was fun and came naturally to him. The newspaper quickly became his life. He fondly remembers the nights he spent in its office, then located on the second floor of Faunce, eating hot dogs or fried egg sandwiches and helping produce issue after issue of the paper. He rose through the ranks to become editor-in-chief the spring of his junior year. In Faunce, he also met his future wife, Elizabeth Feroe ’67, a student at Pembroke College. In their first encounter, Feroe confronted Bakst about an editorial he had written criticizing the Pembroke administration. Later, they became friends. In early December, Bakst and two other editors decided to run a “hoax issue,” writing two stories and an editorial claiming that the Advisory and Executive Committee of the Corporation was allowing up to 100 senior Pembrokers to live off campus as an experiment the following semester. The administration and some faculty members did not appreciate the joke. And the next day, Bakst and his two colleagues resigned from their positions. A front page story in The Herald informed everyone of their decision to resign. In a statement that ran in place of the editorial that day, the editors wrote, “We three editors conceived the idea for these articles, planned, and executed them because we believed both that the issue would be humorous in the short run and conducive in the long run to a more thorough discussion of Pembroke’s residential and social system.” “I think (the incident) was good for me in a way. It knocked me a little off my pedestal,” Bakst now says. “I think it made me a little more humble.” It certainly didn’t deter him from wanting to pursue journalism. During the summers he had worked as an intern at the Journal and after graduation, he went on to earn a journalism degree from Columbia. By 1968, he was back at the Journal full-time. From obits to opinions In more than 40 years, Bakst saw and did it all — from writing wedding notices and obituaries as an intern to having his very own column that ran three times a week from 1995 to 2008. The opportunity to interview prominent politicians and average citizens, the luxury of a front-row seat at key events and a space to voice his
opinions on both the local and national political scenes were a few perks of the job. He learned a lot from it. When he wrote against racism or homophobia and received hostile calls or e-mails from readers, he says he could appreciate the challenges that many members of our community face today. He could hold officials accountable for their actions and criticize them for their failures. Earlier this year he wrote a scathing column about Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65, calling him “distant and uninformed and incurious.” It was no surprise that in late August when he told Carcieri that the rumors about his buyout were true, the latter responded with, “Oh ... well.” At the end of the day, it’s all part of the experience. “Being a columnist is a real privilege,” Bakst says. “(To be able) to cut through the sound and fury, to speak truth to power. It was an honor.” No more notes Bakst is not angry with the changes in the journalism industry that took away the job he loved, he says. Instead, he laments the fact that buyouts and layoffs have become regular features of many newsrooms today. On Friday, the Journal reported that it has laid off 31 part-time and fulltime employees, “as part of a broader cost-cutting effort” — an unavoidable measure since not enough people accepted the initial buyout offer. “You just want to cry (when you hear about the layoffs), but that’s what’s going on in newspapers around the country,” Bakst says. In such turbulent political and economic times, he says he feels reporters are all the more crucial. His advice to budding journalists is to accept change, to embrace Web technology and to be prepared for their careers to take a toll on their family lives. “It wouldn’t hurt to marry someone wealthy,” he adds. It’s been more than a month since Bakst’s last day. In the meantime, he has been relaxing, going to Red Sox games, visiting family in New Jersey and writing lots of thank-you notes. He has also been resisting the urge to write about national politics. “It has been pleasant for me to find that I can watch those (presidential) debates, enjoy them, take them in, and not have to take notes and not worry if I doze off for a few minutes,” he says. He was, is and will be a fan of politics. Now, he will also be a spectator, watching from the sidelines like every other fan.
Olive Street, to the surprise and joy of Spectrum India owner Jagdish Sachdev, has recently gone one-way. Several College Hill residents, including Sachdev, successfully lobbied for the road to run only east to west, while others tried to keep it running both ways, according to Will Touret, president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association. Sachdev told The Herald that he spoke to City Councilman Cliff Wood, D-Ward 2, over the summer about making Olive Street one-way to increase the number of parking spots around campus. “Parking is a mess,” he said. “There isn’t much parking here and 15 (added) spaces would make a difference.” Sachdev, who said he was “surprised Brown people didn’t do anything (about the street) on their own,” complained to the University about the lack of parking more than a year ago, he said. When the University did not act, he decided to meet with Wood himself. Sachdev said he was unaware the street had been legally changed to one-way, and upon being informed, happily exclaimed, “I had no idea.” It is easy to see how Sachdev could have overlooked the change — there is no signage at the Thayer Street-Olive Street intersection indicating the street is one-way, though there is one at the intersection of Brown Street and Olive. But not everyone is happy about the change. A private citizen e-mailed Wood on Oct. 2, a day after Olive Street became one-way, pointing out that Angell, Olive and Meeting Streets now form three consecutive east to west one-way streets. “Commuter traffic from the West (coming up College, Waterman or South Court/Meeting streets) must now funnel from three to six blocks north on either Prospect or Brown streets to Bowen Street in order to reach Thayer Street,” increasing traffic in an already congested area, she wrote. Touret told The Herald that the essence of the complaints was that there wasn’t enough public discussion about the issue, noting the lack of communication between East Side residents and the City Plan Commission. “In the process of making these changes, the left hand never seems to know what the right hand is doing,” Touret said of Touret said the upcoming construction on Angell will “make the whole area more of a mess — so you would think you’d want to allow some sort of east-west direction sooner than Bowen Street.” — Simon van Zuylen-Wood
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Tuesday, October 14, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Power Vote tries to energize student voters for new energy policies continued from page 1 ing the first two phases, each student group of the 600 participating college campuses plans ways to make its college environmentally friendly and has the administration invest in researching these changes. Power Vote is a temporar y campaign that star ted this school year — in early October at Brown — and runs through Election Day. The pledge goal at Brown is 2,000 voters. Nationally, the goal is one million voters between the ages of 18 and 31. Power Vote has been distributing green pledge cards on the Main Green, at the Sharpe Refector y, at the Farmer’s
Market and in environmental studies classes, Martin said. Residential Counselors and Minority Peer Counselors have been distributing cards in dormitories. Power Vote is also coordinating with the Rhode Island Student Coalition to acquire more pledges throughout the Providence youth and college community. Currently, the campaign has distributed 1,000 pledge cards at Brown, Mar tin said. Using the one million pledges as leverage, 15,000 students plan to converge on Capitol Hill in Februar y for Power Shift 2009. During the first 100 days of the new administration, they will pressure the executive and legislative branches
to pass a strong energy bill capping carbon dioxide emissions and demand energy independence and solutions like renewable energy. Last fall, as part of Power Shift 2007, 6,000 students were trained to lobby Congress members like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. Power Shift also provides conferences and workshops for students. “(Power Vote) is making it feel like a national campaign. So much of it before was based on our individual campuses. Now we are working for a common goal that’s actually a collective tangible result,” said Tess Hart ’09, a Power Vote subcommittee leader. After the last year of the Campus Climate Challenge, emPOWER
plans to continue to expand its subcommittee projects at Brown by making the investment of the University’s endowment more socially responsible, reducing Brown’s carbon footprint with the Community Carbon Use Reduction projects and establishing monitors in facilities to reduce usage. Both Hart and Martin said the Brown administration and students have been responsive to environmental concerns and the Power Vote campaign. One of the pledges, Margot Grinberg ’12, even though she will not be of voting age by Nov. 4, said, “Environmental issues are ver y important especially in this political climate where it’s partisan oriented. It’s important that no matter who the next president is, he understands young Americans
— the next generation to lead this country — care about the environment and its sustainability. They should take that into consideration in the upcoming election and when they make policies.” About Brown, Grinberg said, “I’ve noticed that people leave lights on ever ywhere. It’s important that people realize (when) they leave their lights on, it’s wasting energy. The University should take measures to use other forms of energy to decrease the output as a whole.” Har t said she does not want pledges to feel like they should only focus on the environment when voting. “We just want people to keep this issue in mind when they’re making their decisions,” she said.
Buddhist Zen master speaks to humanity and consciousness continued from page 1 moser said that one can come to a consciousness of how to make a decision in life. “Consciousness is essential for human experience,” he said. Mammoser also delved into the more philosophical aspects of Joshu Roshi’s teachings. He described experience in terms of three aspects: the subjective, the objective and awareness. The subjective, he said, consists of the thoughts, memories and inner self, whereas the objective is the rest of the world. “You cannot have experience with just one or two of these components,” he said. Ultimate unity, a central tenet of Buddhism, Mammoser argued, is not possible since one cannot be aware of it. “It is nonsensical to say I am experiencing oneness with everything.” He spoke of the “dharmakaya,” one of the main concepts of Tathagata Zen. The dharmakaya “has everything within it, but it’s not in it,” he said. “It is complete unity.” According to Tathagata Zen beliefs, the world is constantly dividing and reuniting into a whole on the order of millions of times per second. The dharmakaya exist, and then break down into the plus — the subjective and expanding components — and the minus — the objective and contracting components — and once again come together to form a new dharmakaya. “This interaction is completely spontaneous,” Mammoser said. He compared this cycle to numerous still shots, which ultimately combine seamlessly to form a movie. In relation to everyday life, Mammoser characterized this relationship as the subject — the individual’s
past and inner feelings — expanding out to meet the objective world. Tathagata Zen, he said, focuses on parsing subject, object and distance in the midst of this impermanence. The result is a “sphere of sensations,” he said, which is our sense of the world. “The way to resolve your problems is to stop thinking you’re a player in the problem,” Mammoser said, emphasizing that the dharmakaya is dependent only on the subjective and objective. “The resolution to a potential conflict is to manifest the selfless quality that is the nature of the process,” he continued. Humans need to step back and allow the subjective component to meet the objective component — for example, he said, parents can be good parents by allowing their inner thoughts and feelings to meet the parenting situation they face through the natural cycle of the dharmakaya. By reducing our expectations from situations and our attachments to material things, the suffering in life goes away. “You don’t have to worry about protecting yourself when you are not latched on,” Mammoser said. “Buddhism promises an end to suffering,” he said, though he did point out that pain cannot be destroyed. He avoided adding any agents, like a supernatural force, or possessive concepts to the model he put forth, saying “Buddhism is rigorously clear about the fact that everything is empty.” Mammoser also emphasized that Zen Buddhism is not faith-based, and that greater importance is given to practice rather than standardized beliefs.
Workers protest at Pembroke continued from page 1 he said. One concern of the demonstrators was the lack of quality control with non-unionized labor, since non-union laborers are not held to the same standard that unions require. “We have a very skilled workforce,” Shalvey said. He said unions ensure a certain quality of labor since all unionized workers must be licensed in their profession and have a safety certification. “There are a lot of discrepancies
with the way the work is done with nonunion contractors,” said the sheet metal worker. “The issue here is community standards,” said the worker. “It’s what the client is paying for and what they’re getting.” Maiorisi said the protesters had a right to demonstrate. “We certainly respect the right of any groups to demonstrate as long as they are peaceful demonstrations and they happen on public property.” Paul Burman of E.W. Burman Construction declined to comment.
C ampus n ews Tuesday, October 14, 2008
News
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
i n
Brief
Knitted coffee cozies help R.I. families It’s not often that the Brown Bookstore sells products made by their customers. But a collective of Brunonian knitters has put their coffee cozies on sale in the same place where they buy their school supplies — with proceeds helping Rhode Islanders pay utilities bills. “They look really cute and it’s an original idea,” said Carol Feliciano, who buys products for the Brown Bookstore. “I like anyCourtesy of Sophia Li thing that reduces waste and I Knitted coffee cozies for a good cause. also like what they’ve done with the proceeds going to the Salvation Army.” Sophia Li ’11, Project HEALTH co-coordinator and Herald staff writer, said she realized last semester that local residents may need more help paying their utilities when a woman she met while volunteering told her that asking for financial assistance made her nervous. When the two called a utilities fund to help the woman pay her energy bill, they were told the fund and others like it had run dry. “That was one of the most heartbreaking things for me,” said Li, who started Close-Knit, the small business that creates and sells the cozies. Li began thinking of ways to boost the energy funds. Amy Heuer ’11, Li’s roommate, taught Li how to knit last spring. So Li and a couple of friends began knitting coffee cozies to raise money for the Salvation Army’s Good Neighbor Energy Fund, which helps struggling Rhode Island residents pay energy bills. Every dollar donated to the fund is matched by local energy companies, according to the fund’s Web site. Li called local stores this summer to see who would buy and sell the coffee cozies. The Brown Bookstore and Blue State Coffee bought 30 and 20 cozies, respectively. They began selling them within the past month for $6. Feliciano said the bookstore already sold 19 of its 30 cozies and is going to order more. Li, Heuer and Beth Spriggs ’11 knit the cozies, which are meant to fit any standard coffee cup. All three make the cozies out of washable yarn, but each knitter has her own style. “We have mutual friends who can look and be like, Beth made that one, Sophia made that one and Amy made that one,” Heuer said. Other friends have pitched in. Melanie Garunay ’11 created the business’s Web site and Maria Macrina ’11 helped by designing posters and tags for Close-Knit. Heuer’s initial knitting lesson may have been just for fun, but the students don’t take their project lightly. “I’m very serious about what we’re doing — we all are. And it’s exciting,” she said. — Dan Alexander
ATM up and running again after delay By Lauren Fedor Contributing Writer
The Bank of America ATM at the Brown Office Building, which has been inaccessible since Sept. 29, is once again available to students. The ATM opened over the weekend — more than a week after the reopening was originally scheduled. Students were initially told in the Sept. 26 Morning Mail that the automated teller machine would be ready for use on Oct. 3. Manuel Cunard, director of the Brown Bookstore, said restoration of the banking area was part of the building’s ongoing renovations. But when Bank of America personnel visited the building on Oct. 3 to reactivate the machines, they discovered that they were missing a router that was “essential for operation,” he said. The bank technicians told Bookstore management that the part would be in by Oct. 9, but the following day Cunard said the router had yet to be installed. Cunard said the situation was “frustrating” because the construction crews had completed the necessary building repairs by the Oct. 3 deadline. “We’d done the painting and everything,” he said. Bank of America operates another on-campus ATM in the lower level of Faunce House. While students still had access to the Faunce ATM while the other one wasn’t functional, the machine does not accept checks.
Min Wu / Herald
The Bank of America ATMs at the Brown Office Building have reopened a week later than scheduled. As the scheduled reopening date passed, some students trying to cash paychecks grew increasingly frustrated with the inconvenient situation. “I just got my paycheck,” Alex Arruda ’11 said. “I need my money. It’s not fair that I can’t get to it. They need to fix this.” In the meantime, students with checks ventured off-campus to lo-
cal Bank of America branches. The nearest locations are downtown at 111 Westminster St. or at 23 Providence Place. Another option is near Wayland Square at 457 Angell St. Solomon Eppel ’10 said he had to visit the farther Angell Street location in order to deposit four checks. “I understand that they needed to shut the ATMs down for the renovation, but it was an inconvenience,” he said.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Spingarn-Koff ’96 blurs lines of reality in Second Life documentary continued from page 1 “Their sense of reality is so mixed up now that their memories are blended,” Spingarn-Koff says. “Sometimes they’re not sure what was real and what was virtual.” Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Theresa DiDonato wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the virtual world can often be a substitute — rather than a supplement — to the real world. “My concern when it comes to these games is that people still need real relationships with real people. We have a fundamental need to connect with others, and when it comes down to it, there’s really no adequate substitution for real interpersonal interactions,” she wrote. “I worry that their real-world context is not affording them ample opportunity to be with others, or that they lack the sense of belonging that they need.” But one way Second Life does mirror the real world is in its focus on money. Users can convert virtual money, or “Linden dollars,” into real money, which is the springboard for “Life 2.0”’s second story line. The film follows an AfricanAmerican woman in Detroit who lives with her parents and develops a business making virtual clothing and virtual houses out of her basement. A graphic designer, the woman builds a six-figure salary off her designs. Her plans go well until another user robs her store, her business crashes and she is left to pick up the pieces in both the virtual and the real worlds. Spingarn-Koff says the robbery offers an example of the potential effects of the virtual world on the
real world. Since property is protected by copyright in Second Life, users have brought several cases to court. In one case, settled in a Brooklyn court, a thief was ordered to cease his actions and pay a small fine, according to Spingarn-Koff. “They treated (the designs) as property and the actions as theft,” Spingarn-Koff says. “What interests me is when the real and the virtual cross paths.” One reason the real-world government might have to step in is that there is no government in Second Life. Linden acts as what SpingarnKoff calls a “benevolent monarchy,” setting up the main rules and acting in cases of extreme misbehavior. But he says the company has decided to allow the virtual world to be mainly self-governing, until users decide to establish a government on their own. In fact, the virtual economy may be more realistic than some imagine, Spingarn-Koff says. “It seems to be somewhat tracking the real economy,” he says. According to a Reuters blog that reports on Second Life, the virtual economy has risen and dipped alongside the Dow Jones, mirroring the recent woes and even yesterday’s recovery. But those who might want to hide their faces — or their identities — after the latest stock projections have that opportunity in the virtual world. Life 2.0’s third story line is about a man in his thirties who creates the avatar of an 11-year-old girl. He is part of a subsection of adults who pretend to be children in the program.
M. soccer bests Princeton, 3-2 continued from page 12 T.J. Thompson ’10 in the 85th minute. Thompson took a shot at the goal that bounced around out in front of the net. The Tigers and Bears fought for possession, and Elenz-Martin got a foot on it and, with a quick flick, sent the Bears home with their second Ivy League win. “I think our determination to get back in the game really was the reason why we won,” Bernstein said. “Everyone was motivated during halftime. After we scored that first goal in
the opening seconds of the half, the adrenaline was flying through our bodies. It helped give us confidence for the rest of the game.” Brown outshot Princeton 11-3 in the second half for a game total of 178. The Bears took two corner kicks to the Tigers’ six. Leech improved his record to 6-0-1 on the year after receiving the win in net. The Bears will look to continue their Ivy League success as they return to action at home this Saturday to take on Harvard at 7 p.m.
Since users must be 13 or older, many children in Second Life are actually adults. Spingarn-Koff says the man believes his avatar is an expression of his subconscious and has a life of her own. In this sense, he says, the program could be used for good. “I think psychologists will have a field day with some of the stuff I’m uncovering,” he says. DiDonato agrees. “Second Life can give you a chance to experiment with a different side of yourself. You need not be the same person on-line as you are offline, and this may give you a chance to better understand yourself,” she wrote. “Psychologists have long understood that we have a varied, multi-faceted self-concept. Trying on a different self in the virtual world can be positive.” But Spingarn-Koff also says the idea of simulated children in a virtual world can have real-world legal implications. For example, in the United States, simulated pedophilia is illegal and is not generally protected as free speech. In Second Life, people are meeting in a virtual, international space, so determining which laws govern them is tricky. Generally, the decision comes down to where the Internet server is located. Still, Linden Research has decided to outlaw any depictions of lewd acts involving children. “What’s so interesting about Second Life is it’s always more complicated than you can imagine, which is why I do documentary and not feature film,” Spingarn-Koff says.
Science fiction or science fact? Spingarn-Kof f says he had planned to study filmmaking as an undergraduate and then become a doctor. Since he could not get into the Modern Culture and Media filmmaking class as a freshman, he joined a computer graphics group headed by Professor of Computer Science Andy van Dam. He switched his concentration to history, but also took three years of MCM classes and learned filmmaking during his free time at the computer graphics lab. After graduating, Spingarn-Koff moved to Berlin and took an interest in documentary filmmaking, before returning to the United States to study journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. But Spingarn-Koff says though he never became a doctor, he has been able to further explore his interests in science and technology through his films. His first fictional film at Brown attempted to give a 10-minute glimpse of the history and future of mankind, ending with the character entering virtual reality. “It’s funny because while I was at Brown, I put away the whole academic science interest,” SpingarnKoff says. “But then when I became a documentary filmmaker, I specialized in science.” He added that he is interested in modern realizations of what was once seen as science fiction. His master’s thesis at Berkeley was about the quest to build a robotic fly and involved aspects of science and technology. Biologists studied fly motion and then others built the fly to the scientists’ observations.
“Robofly,” a film which ran on the Public Broadcasting Service, won a National Student Television Award — the “Emmy” of student filmmaking. “Honestly, while I was at Brown it didn’t all congeal into a firm career path,” he says. “It was only later on that I was able to combine all these interests into documentary filmmaking.” Fittingly, 20th- and 21st-century improvements in technology have played enormous roles in SpingarnKoff’s academic and career development. Because the Internet was born when he was an undergraduate at Brown, Spingarn-Koff says he and his peers did not have many of the same technological luxuries as filmmakers today. They used tape-to-tape editing, rather than professional editing software. Spingarn-Koff says he created one of the first digital films within the MCM department. Spingarn-Koff says the concept of virtual reality as seen in Second Life was purely science fiction when he was in college. There was a notion of a three-dimensional, computergenerated world that people would inhabit, but it was seen as futuristic and infeasible. Now, with programs like Second Life, he says the idea does not seem so crazy — and the consequences are real. “It should be approached with caution. It can be a force for enormous good but it can also be a place where people can get in over their heads. I think people need to know that it can have a profound impact on their sense of self and their relationships in the real world,” he says. “It’s not a game.”
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Volleyball team beats Harvard, loses to Dartmouth in busy weekend continued from page 12 behind Williamson was veteran Lyndse Yess ’09, who was solid as usual, notching a doubledouble with 11 kills and 16 digs along with three serving aces. Middle-blocker Ann Cowell ’10 put down seven kills with a team-high .500 hitting percentage. Cowell also blocked five of the team’s
total seven blocks in the match. Making all these kills possible was setter and captain Natalie Meyers ’09 who put up 49 assists along with 12 digs. Meyers also put down five kills and three aces of her own. “I got some really great sets from Natalie,” Williamson said. “There was great communication among the hitters. It was a team effort.”
Behind their offensive fire, the Bears got an early lead in game one, which they maintained throughout the set before taking the first win 25-19. But the Crimson answered back in the second game when its offense picked up as well, racing to a 14-6 lead. The Bears fought hard to shrink the gap to three at 20-23. Harvard hung on in the end and scored the final two points to take the second game. The Crimson beat Brown in hitting percentage for the only game of the match, .267 to .239. With the match tied at 1-1, both teams were determined to take the crucial third game. Brown controlled the game at first, leading 19-13, before Harvard got on an 11-5 run to tie the game at 24-24. Neither team was able to gain a two-point lead for the win, and the rally continued for six points, before the Bears finally ended it at 30-28. Williamson said the team came out on top because everyone has trained hard in practice to play in tight situations. “When it comes down to it, we finish it,” she said. The win in the third game gave the Bears new energy in the fourth set. Much like in the first game, the Bears’ offense outshined Harvard’s .389 to .154, and they won the final game 25-19, for their first Ivy League win. “The win against Harvard was very emotional for the team,” said Head Coach Diane Short. “It was a good team win.” The Bears did not have too much time to celebrate as they prepared for their match against Dartmouth the next day. Harvard had already beaten the Big Green (5-9 overall, 1-3 Ivy) twice, including a 3-0 sweep in their last match. Dartmouth had a three-game losing streak of its own coming into the match against Brown. Brown had the edge, but the Bears’ offense disappeared on Saturday when facing the Big Green. “I don’t know what happened against Dartmouth,” Short said. “There was just (a) lack of intensity.” It didn’t look like the Bears were going to have a letdown at the beginning of the Dartmouth match, as the team built an early 8-2
lead in the first game. But the lead quickly disappeared, and Dartmouth came back to tie it at 14-14. After that, Brown could not muster any offense and only scored two points, while watching the Big Green go on an 11-point run to take the first game. Dartmouth kept attacking in the second game and led by seven points at 23-16 when the Bears’ offense woke up, making up the six-point difference at 22-23. But it was a little too late, as the Big Green scored the final two points to take the second game. Trailing 2-0, the Bears knew they needed to do more if they wanted to make a comeback. Dartmouth controlled the game midway at 10-5, but Brown came back to tie the score at 15-15. The two teams traded points from then on, and Bruno was able to win its first game of the match, 25-22. But that would be the last win for the Bears, as the Big Green came back strong in the fourth game, taking a 10-point lead at 13-3. The Bears played catch-up again, but this time, they fell short and lost the game 25-19, giving Dartmouth their first Ivy League victory. In the four games against the Big Green, the Bears’ offense only managed to hit .153, including a weekend low .100 in the last game. Dartmouth only hit .195 in the fourth game, but that was enough to win the match against a harmless offense from the Bears. “It just didn’t feel like the same team on the court. It wasn’t exactly the same chemistry,” Williamson said. The Bears will play at Harvard and at Dartmouth later in the season. Before that, the team will first take on Penn and Princeton this Friday and Saturday at the Pizzitola. It will be the Bears’ second-to-last home stand. “We’ve got to play well,” Short said. “We certainly will battle this weekend.” The team learned from the Dartmouth game that “we can’t just be a one night team,” Williamson said. “We have a lot of talent on the team. You are not going to see us playing like that again.”
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Men’s water polo nears undef. record continued from page 12 ’09. Holland and Max Lubin ’12 shared time in the cage, tallying three saves apiece. “Max played the shallow end parts,” Holland said. “I have no experience with it so I was happy with that and he really played great. He came out big and had a couple of great blocks.” To finish off the weekend, Brown traveled to Flushing, N.Y., to take on Queens College. Mercado’s red card left him unable to coach, throwing a wrinkle into Bruno’s plans. Then Gartner also received a red card, taking him out of the game, and Weintraub was ejected three times, leaving him majored on the bench for the remainder of the game. Without their head coach and down two starters, the Bears were in for a tough fight. But captain LeBeau rose to the occasion, scoring six goals to help the Bears to a 14-11 victor y. Brandon Yoshirmura ’11 also stood out, with two assists and drawing five ejections throughout the game. “In each game we got off to a slow start but were able to gain momentum,” McBride said. “Each game required a different kind of adjustment so we were glad to escape with three wins.” The men are back in action tonight for their first “home game” against Connecticut College at Wheaton College. With a win here, the Bears would earn an undefeated record for league play for the first time in school history.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Football goes ‘back to the drawing board’ after tough loss continued from page 12 On just the third play of the next drive, Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph found receiver Jon Brock for a 57-yard touchdown to put the Crusaders up 14-0, just over seven minutes into the first quarter. Randolph had his way with the Brown defense all day, completing 41 of 54 passes for 430 yards and four touchdowns. He has been a thorn in the side of Brown defenses for the past three seasons, throwing for 404 yards in six touchdowns in a 48-37 win over Bruno in 2007 and 329 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-30 win over the Bears the previous season. On Saturday, the Holy Cross running game was also effective — the Crusaders gained 141 yards on the ground. “Because of the way our defense is designed, a missed assignment, alignment or miscommunication by a defender will create holes in our defense,” linebacker Miles Craigwell ’09, who led the Bears with eight total tackles, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “We just have to eliminate our critical errors, do what is assigned, and we’ll be alright.” With Brown trailing by two touchdowns, Nkosi Still ’09 gave the team a spark with a 26-yard kickoff return. With his team in good field position, Dougherty went to work, completing all seven of his passes on the drive, with the seventh completion going for a two-yard touchdown to receiver Bobby Sewall ’10 to cut the deficit to 14-7. But the defense had no answer for Randolph, who took the Crusaders 83 yards in just eight plays, the last of which was a 33-yard touchdown throw to Brock to widen the Holy Cross lead to 21-7.
Dougherty’s precision passing attack continued to keep the Bears in the game. On the second play of the ensuing drive, Dougherty threw a 24-yard completion to tight end Colin Cloherty ’09 to move the ball to the Brown 44. Dougherty kept the drive alive with two third-and-long completions in Holy Cross territory to receiver Matt Sudfeld ’11 and Cloherty. Then, on first-and-10, with the ball on the 13, Dougherty connected with Samp for his second touchdown pass of the day, cutting the Crusaders’ lead to 21-14. “They had a huge weakness in their passing (defense) and we wanted to exploit that,” Dougherty wrote in an e-mail to the Herald. “We were also behind for most of the game so we had to make up some ground and get some quick scores in the air.” Randolph continued to dominate, though, completing five of his six passes on the next drive, and expanding the lead to 28-14 with a 19-yard touchdown pass. Yet again, the Bears fired back, when Dougherty completed six consecutive passes. The Bears came back to 28-21 on a 22-yard touchdown strike to Cloherty. Cloherty had an outstanding game, leading all receivers with 14 catches for 166 yards, while Sewall added 10 catches for 157 yards, including two touchdowns. With the Bears down 28-21, the Brown defense finally came up with a stop, but the offense was unable to mount a scoring drive. A Holy Cross field goal on the last drive of the half gave the Crusaders a 31-21 lead going into halftime. The Crusaders opened the second half with another field goal drive to increase their lead to 34-21. On the next drive, the Bears moved the ball
all the way down to the Holy Cross 8, but on fourth-and-two, Dougherty’s pass to Sewall fell incomplete, and Bruno squandered another scoring opportunity. On Bruno’s next drive, Dougherty kept finding Sudfeld and Cloherty for long completions, and the Bears moved the ball down to the Holy Cross 10. Again, Brown found itself in a fourth-down situation in the red zone, and this time, the Bears opted to play it safe: Kicker Robert Ranney ’09 kicked a 27-yard field goal to make the score 34-24. Ranney added another field goal from 40 yards out to cut Holy Cross’s lead to 34-27 with 10:06 remaining in the game, but Randolph led an 86-yard drive that ended in a nineyard touchdown pass with 6:46 left to play. After the next Brown drive failed to produce any points, the defense came up with another stop, and Dougherty kept Brown’s victory hopes alive with a 64-yard touchdown completion to Sewall, to make it a one-possession game again with 1:12 left. But the onside kick attempt failed, allowing Holy Cross to run out the clock and escape with the 41-34 win. Despite the loss, the offense took pride in its performance on Saturday. “It’s frustrating anytime you lose, but I think it’s good we finally got the offense back into rhythm heading into our Ivy schedule, which we haven’t really done up until Saturday,” Dougherty wrote. After losing two nonleague games, the Bears will need to return to top form next weekend when they resume their Ivy League schedule at Princeton. “The coaching staff will go back to the drawing board and formulate
a defensive package best suited for Princeton’s offense. It’s our job to execute it, and again, eliminate the errors and just play football,” Craigwell wrote. “Our team has the same confidence we had going into the season: unstoppable. We have learned from these past two losses, and are looking forward to Princeton.”
E ditorial & L etters Page 10
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
S t a f f E d i to r i a l
Give the Man a chance Uncle Sam wants YOU. That call likely doesn’t ruffle many Brunonians. Brown certainly isn’t a school known for die-hard nationalism. Remember, this is the school that effectively forced the Reser ve Officers Training Corps off our hill in the early 1970s. We pride ourselves on independent thought, and “establishment” may as well be a four-letter word. But wait. We’re the same Brunonians who believe passionately in our ability to change the world for the better. You probably need no evidence to be convinced of this, but look at the recent pages in our paper. A student cooperative knits coffee cozies to help Rhode Islanders pay their utilities. A fraternity raises money for victims of Hurricane Ike, gets punished for breaking the rules — and its members become honorar y Houstonians in the process. Students bring the “Hendrix of Africa” to give a fundraising concert on campus to improve health conditions in Malian slums. Brown certainly is a school known for making its mark near and far. Uncle Sam indeed wants you. The nonprofit Partnership for Public Ser vice has given our Brown a “Call to Ser ve” grant to help connect students looking for work with available positions in the government. Approximately a third of federal employees are eligible for retirement now or will be in the next several years, The Herald reported Friday, and the government is eager to fill these vacancies with fresh, young minds. Public ser vice lacks the glamour of the careers to which many Brunonians aspire. Don’t hold your breath for a six-figure salar y, even if your full-time job is in the Department of the Treasur y. Save by being an elected official, you likely won’t have the name recognition necessary for a best-selling autobiography. After seeing Brown as the backdrop for episodes of the O.C. and Family Guy, students who become career public ser vants staffing federal departments will likely not see their offices profiled on prime-time TV. But while working for the federal government may not offer the superficial qualities of an Ivy League dream job — save the world in a day, and make a killing while doing it — it’s a way for the bright minds to contribute to an institution we all recognize as important to the wellbeing and advancement of our livelihood. Take advantage of an opportunity that presents itself while others are diminishing. Jennifer Slattery-Bownds, adjunct lecturer and manager of career and employment development at the Taubman Center and writer of the grant proposal, recognized the timeliness of the grant. “Because of the economic crisis, there are so many more people tr ying to figure out what their plan B is — and this is a good fit for most of them.”
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
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P atricia C hou
L e tt e r s Increase Corporation transparency To the Editor: As Brown students, we are concerned that the present practices of the Corporation of Brown University do not lend themselves to some of the values most fundamental to the Brown Community: transparency, accountability and democracy. Historically, initiatives such as the New Curriculum have demonstrated a commitment to these values, but it has been too long since Brown took a positive step toward more fully realizing them. If Brown wants to retain its credibility as a socially conscious institution, we must at least adopt the most basic democratic processes in our own decision-making. We are calling for a number of changes to the Corporation’s structure in order to give members of the Brown community basic control over the decisions that affect us most. First, we believe that Corporation meetings should be open and accessible to everyone in the Brown community. As of now, Corporation decisions are made behind closed doors and meetings are held at extremely inconvenient times for interested parties. Furthermore, we ask that meeting minutes be made available to the public immediately. The current policy of sealing minutes for fifty years demonstrates a lack of transparency and accountability. We also feel that those affected by Corporation decisions should have the power to decide which issues are discussed. Therefore, there must be a mechanism by which students, faculty, staff and other members of the Brown community can place items on Corporation meeting agendas. This will
ensure that the Corporation addresses issues important to the community. Finally, in order to guarantee democratic and accountable decision-making, we call for community referenda on major Corporation decisions, so that those most affected by Corporation decisions will be those who have the final say. This past May, during the previous Corporation meeting, we presented every member we could reach with a letter much like this and asked to begin a dialogue about these changes. We received responses from only two of the over fifty members. Since neither of these responses mentioned opposition to these demands, we look forward to seeing these changes become a reality at the October 18th meeting. We assume that this means we will be greeted at University Hall with unlocked doors and a warm welcome. Lily Axelrod ‘09, Atilio Barreda ‘12, Eden Castro ‘12, Mike da Cruz ‘09, Olivia Ildefonso ‘09, Sophia Lambertsen ‘11, Amy Littlefield ‘09, Mark Morales ‘10, Julian Park ‘12, Daniel Patterson ‘12, Chantal Tape ‘09, Alex Tye ‘10 Oct. 4
Joanna Lee, Amy Kendall, Anna Samel, Angela Santin Ceballos, Jessica Calihan, Designers Kathryn Delaney, Nicole Friedman, Jennifer Kim, Copy Editors Michael Bechek, Franklin Kanin, Emmy Liss, Michael Skocpol, Jenna Stark, 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 Tuesday, October 14, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Page 11
Deconstructing Obamanomics Boris ryvkin Opinions Columnist This year will, given current trends, see both a presidential victory for Sen. Barack Obama and a filibuster-proof Democratic majority in the Senate. The Republicans have temporarily ceased to offer an effective center-right alternative to the center-left vision, as evidenced by the Republican leadership’s push for a financial bailout, party divisions over immigration, and the massive budgets overseen by successive Republican congresses. Yet Republican duplicity had better end soon. The consequences of an Obama-Biden administration for the nation’s economy are too awful to ignore. Who pays the majority of income taxes in the United States? Statistics of income reports issued by the IRS provide some good data. According to its 2005 analysis, three-quarters of all income taxes are paid by the top quarter of income earners. The bottom 50 percent pays a mere 3.07 percent of taxes. The Obama campaign Web site openly states the candidate’s intention to restore tax rates for families earning over $250,000 (top two percent of households) to their 1990s levels at 39.6 percent; this would increase the top individual tax rate by 12 percent. Yet the site explains that this is the Democrat’s effort
aimed at “restoring fairness and returning to fiscal responsibility.” Sen. Joe Biden called tax increases for high earners the “patriotic” thing to do. Considering liberal disdain for entrepreneurs and high-income asset holders, as evidenced by Michelle Obama’s campaign stop remark about wanting more social and fewer corporate workers on America’s streets, this rhetoric is not surprising. However the numbers
top earners by two to four percent to save Social Security. These taxpayers neither rely on the program for their retirement nor expect a high rate of return for their annual investment. Current investors, especially young workers, may see their returns driven to zero if long-term cost projections for Social Security hold. Obama should be incentivizing people to leave the broken system and seek more
Obama’s economic plans are as deceitful as they are destructive. of the matter make it just plain insulting. The top two percent of households already pay 44 percent of income taxes! According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center, if one was to also include the unmarried taxpayers affected by Obama’s proposal, rates would increase on those who pay more than half the total taxes — so much for lack of patriotism. Obama’s plan will raise payroll taxes on
profitable alternatives. Instead, he wants those benefiting least from Social Security to fund it further and augment their current contributions. Couple this with increases in capital gains taxes from 15 to as high as 28 percent and you have a scenario where the most productive and efficient workers in our country will be sending two-thirds of their incomes to Washington. Fairness and Obamanomics create the perfect oxymoron.
Aside from increasing tax rates on top earners, the second part of Obama’s plan extends a series of new tax credits to the low end of income ladder. A “Making Work Pay” credit of $1,000 will be given to working families and an “American Opportunity” credit of $4,000 doled out to low-income college students, while the Child and Dependent Care credit will be expanded. These are all conspicuously masqueraded as tax relief, which is a contradiction in terms since the beneficiaries pay virtually no income tax. The money for this redistribution scheme will almost certainly come from the fat cats in the top two percent, whose generosity will go unnoticed until high labor costs and property taxes will force them to lay off workers and close their businesses. Obama’s economic plans are as deceitful as they are destructive. Those who already pay most of the income taxes will see their rates increase. Combined with hikes in payroll and capital gains taxes and these earners will experience European levels of taxation. The working and middle classes, which pay virtually nothing in income tax, will get new tax credits. All this plus a four-year $900 billion spending spree make Obama’s economic stew less than palatable and his fiscal discipline stump speeches less believable. Successful Brown students beware!
Boris Ryvkin ’09 has finally written something about the election.
New parking plan insufficient BY MAX CHAIKEN Opinions Columnist For the current academic year, Brown began offering students the option of parking at a University lot at Providence Piers, on Allens avenue. The University offered students 250 spots with a 24-hour shuttle service. The new policy was prompted by an increased lack of space on College Hill given the current construction on campus, as well as to decrease congestion in the area. Early last week, The Herald reported that only 28 students were taking advantage of the off-campus parking and shuttle ser vice, and that the University is considering bringing those spots back to campus. Later in the week, the editorial page took a moment to commend the University for its handling of the situation and suggest that the University “stay out of the student parking business altogether.” (“Parking problems” Oct. 8). I hope that University ignores The Herald editorial’s advice. First and foremost, the University’s books can’t be in the black with the new policy. They leased off-campus spots and provide a 24 hour shuttle service to students. Based on safeRIDE’s website and Herald coverage of the parking plan, this shuttle service adds many more hours to existing safeRIDE service. These are not negligible costs. The University must have lost revenue with the plummeting number of students using U. parking ser vices. No matter how you slice it, the University budget seems to be a big loser in this situation. The Herald editorial suggests that reducing congestion should be a goal of the University, and perhaps it should. Personally, I
think finishing the construction will do the most to alleviate that problem. Additionally, I haven’t heard any students complaining about this supposed congestion problem. But even assuming that reducing congestion should be one of the University’s goals, they certainly haven’t achieved it with the new policy. Demand for parking spots certainly hasn’t dissipated even though fewer than 30 stu-
new parking policy undercuts a whole host of student activities. Many groups on campus rely on upperclassmen with cars to function. A capella groups routinely drive to studios and gigs off campus. Political groups carpool to rallies or to knock on doors up in New Hampshire, while service groups volunteer at the JCC or the YMCA. You get the idea. But by creating an extra barrier to having a car on campus,
Most importantly, however, is that the new parking policy undercuts a whole host of student activities.
dents have chosen to park two miles away. The rent at the lot where I park increased by 40 percent over the summer, and I would imagine that any renter in the area has done the same because of the increased student demand. So now the University not only loses money, but increases the rents of local businessmen. Cool. Most importantly, however, is that the
the University implicitly hinders all of these types of social participation and activism. The lack of parking may also be an acute problem for students with jobs in driving distance. I’ve known students who have taken jobs in Cranston, Barrington or Swansea. Many of these students need these jobs and accordingly need their cars to get to them.
Access to a car improves students’ social lives tremendously. With a car, Brown students have access to far more concerts, beaches, parks and other activities. While this may seem trivial, for the University to stay competitive with schools in far larger cities (Boston, New York) we need to have social opportunities. In Rhode Island these activities often necessitate easy access to a car. The University has certainly made some important strides by making RIPTA free for Brown students and tr ying to provide incentives to utilize alternate forms of transportation, such as the popular hourly car renter, Zipcar. That’s great. The University should continue to do this not only for ease of transportation, but for a number of other reasons such as the environment and the apparent concern about congestion. But seeing as these have, thus far, been relatively ineffective, and the University is basically creating higher rents for private renters on College Hill, I suggest that they get back into the business of student parking. Why not build the Power Street parking garage up a few more levels? We’re already doing enough construction, and with the seemingly never-ending demand for parking spaces, the University would be building a source of revenue. Whatever the University does, they should be fostering the diversity of student activities that having cars in close proximity to campus provides. They are a boon to the student body and the community. And probably to the University’s budget, too.
Max Chaiken ‘09 is really just cranky that he has to walk to Wickenden to get to his car.
S ports T uesday Page 12
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Elenz-Martin ’10 leads m. soccer in second-half surge Men’s water polo wins three in N.Y. By Katie Wood Assistant Sports Editor
The No. 19 men’s soccer team (8-2-1) fell behind 1-0 to Princeton (2-8-1) on Saturday going into the half, but the Bears’ determination to fight 3 Brown back sparked a Princeton 2 three-goal second half — a first for Brown this season and a rarity in the game of soccer — leading to a 3-2 win. “We were resilient, coming back from two deficits,” Head Coach Mike Noonan said. “It’s always a good sign. The team is headed in the right direction.” Brown played a strong first half despite a goal by the Tigers’ Brandon Busch in the 36th minute. “They had a good play,” goalkeeper Jarrett Leech ’09 said. “(Busch) finished the shot well. I wasn’t concerned being down 1-0 going into the half. I wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page in the locker room.” In the second half, the team moved the ball well and focused on the game plan. They happened to be down, but they kept at it and had an offensive explosion against the Tigers in the second half. The momentum shifted in favor of the Bears when Iain Eldredge ’10 scored his first collegiate goal in the first 19 seconds of the half and knotted the game at one apiece. “It was unreal — we took the ball right off their feet, played it wide and scored,” Leech said. “They were afraid of what we could do. Everyone rallied, and we carried a lot of momentum into the rest of the game.”
Volleyball splits Ivy weekend By Han Cui Assistant Sports Editor
The weekend was bittersweet for the volleyball team (9-7, 1-4 in Ivies), who hosted two Ivy League matches, against Harvard on Friday and Dartmouth on Saturday. Bruno was finally able to break its five-game losing streak on Friday by beating Harvard in four games, 25-19, 23-25, 30-28 and 25-19. But the team could not muster the same offense on Saturday when it faced the Big Green and lost the match in four games, 16-25, 22-25, 25-22 and 19-25. After starting the season with a strong 8-3 record in preseason tournaments, the Bears’ momentum stalled right before the Ivy season began. Unlike last weekend, when the team played the role of underdog in its matchup against Yale, one of the best teams in the Ivies, the team had a different mentality heading into the Harvard match. “We were definitely looking for a win,” said right-side hitter Brianna Williamson ’11, who had one of her best offensive nights of her career against Harvard. “We were looking to get our confidence back.” The Bears meant business starting with the first serve. The offense came out firing behind the lead of Williamson, who put down 15 kills at a .350 clip along with an ace. Right continued on page 8
By Anne Deggelman Spor ts Staf f Writer
Justin Coleman / Herald
Midfielder Nick Elenz-Martin ’10 scored two consecutive goals on Saturday to lead the Bears past Princeton, 3-2. Midfielder Jay Hayward ’12 tallied his first collegiate assist on the Eldredge goal in his first start as a Bear. Busch scored again in the 53rd minute on a penalty kick. A Brown defender dragged him down on his way to the goal, and Busch was re-
warded with the free-kick. He fired the shot to the left past Leech’s outstretched arms. The Bears quickly bounced back from the 2-1 deficit in the 60th minute. Nick Elenz-Martin ’10 scored his first goal of the evening on a long throw-in from the far sideline. Hay-
ward picked up his second assist of the night, and Rhett Bernstein ’09 tallied an assist as well. With time winding down, and the score tied 2-2, Elenz-Martin scored the game-winner off an assist from continued on page 7
Football loses despite strong passing Dougherty ’09 threw for 526 yards By Benjy Asher Sports Editor
Saturday was a career day for quarterback and co-captain Michael Dougherty ’09, who set an Ivy League game record by throwing for 526 34 yards on the Brown Holy Cross 41 day. But unfortunately for the Bears, that performance came in a loss for the football team, as Holy Cross’s offense overpowered Brown, 41-34. The loss was the second in a row for the Bears, whose record is now at 2-2 (1-0 Ivy). Dougherty earned Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week honors for his performance. After forcing Brown to punt on the game’s first drive, the Crusaders took over with the ball on their own 47-yard line. They quickly moved the ball down the field with an eight-play drive that culminated in a one-yard touchdown run by running back Terrance Gass. On the ensuing drive, Dougherty found receiver Trevan Samp ’10 for a 21-yard completion, but on the next series the Bears were forced to punt again. Samp had the best game of his collegiate career, making four receptions for 76 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown in the second quarter. continued on page 9
Justin Coleman / Herald
Co-Captain Michael Dougherty ’09 set an Ivy League game record by throwing 526 yards on Saturday against Holy Cross.
The No. 18 men’s water polo team battled their way through three New York teams this weekend, sinking the competition along the way. With wins against Fordham, 12-6, Iona, 13-12, and Queens College, 14-11, the Bears are now 6-0 in league play and have clinched the first seed for the Northern Championships. With a win tonight against their final league foe Connecticut College, this year’s team will become the first in Brown history to go undefeated in CWPA North league play. “We went in knowing we were going to play three teams we were supposed to beat, so it’s always a little tricky to get your head straight for those games,” said goalie Kent Holland ’10. “But we went in with urgency because we knew if we won we’d be one game away from that undefeated record.” But playing in three small pools, two of which — Iona and Queens — are shallow on one end and deep on the other, the men felt at a disadvantage. “All three games were in small pools, which doesn’t help us as a fast team,” Mike Gartner ’09 said. “And shallow-deep is always a curve ball. It really changes the game.” This different type of pool mainly affects the goalies and their timing for saves, when they’re allowed to jump off the bottom, as well as putting awkward restraints on the rest of the players’ movements who are not allowed to push off the bottom. Assistant Coach John McBride echoed this sentiment. “The team that practices every day in the shallow-deep pool will always have the advantage,” McBride said. The three-game series kicked off Friday night against Fordham. The game got off to a rocky start for Bruno, but the men fought back and took down the Rams 12-6. Gordon Hood ’11 and Gartner led the Bears in goals, scoring four apiece. Gartner also drew nine ejections throughout the game, giving Brown some much needed offensive opportunities. Holland kept the Bears in the game from the cage, blocking two penalty shots and tallying 14 total saves. On Saturday, the men continued their success, taking down Iona and Queens colleges. The day started off in New Rochelle, NY where the Bears faced off against Iona in the first shallow-deep pool. The Gaels came out swinging and took the early lead with a score of 9-6 at the half, while Brown’s Head Coach Felix Mercado was given a red card to take him out of the game. “It was the right thing to do,” Gartner said. “Because at halftime that really pumped us up and we were able to come back from behind.” And so the Bears fought back, outscoring Iona 7-3. Gartner and Hood continued to dominate the offensive end of the pool, notching five and four goals respectively. The Bears also saw goals from Nico Fort ’09, Grant LeBeau ’09, Corey Schwartz ’11 and Hank Weintraub continued on page 9