Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, O ctober 22, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 96

Questions on spending, income have plans up in air

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Son of former Soviet leader talks Georgia

r u l e s o f att r act i o n

By Kelly Mallahan Contributing Writer

by George Miller Senior Staff Writer

Uncertainty is the name of the game for the moment, as the University’s long-term strategic plans are being held hostage by the health of the economy in the coming months and years. With growing demands on expenditures — including higher interest payments and expanded financial aid allowances — even as the economy threatens giving to the University and the growth of the endowment, tough decisions about slated construction projects and other academic goals may be on the horizon, administrators said. “Until everybody has a higher level of confidence, it’s very hard to imagine making firm plans,” said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning. The University will “prepare for every possibility,” he added. At its meeting this past weekend, the Corporation decided to complete a number of physical projects — including utility upgrades, renovations to comply with fire codes and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and renovations to labs and classrooms, according to Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration. continued on page 6

cially aware that the crisis won’t only affect Wall Street, but also College Street. But among the sizable number of students studying abroad, many cannot help but feel disconnected. “I feel very removed from it actually,” said Lauren Santiago ’10, who is studying in Madrid this semester. “Even though it’s a global crisis.” Meredith Curtis ’10, who is studying abroad in Cuba this semester, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that the state of the economy

Sergei Khrushchev, son of former Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and senior fellow in international studies at the Watson Institute for International Studies, analyzed the recent Russia-Georgia conflict last night in a lecture to an over-capacity Salomon 001. The lecture was the first of the year for the Brown International Organization lecture series, co-sponsored by the Watson Institute. Khrushchev used the histor y of the Caucasus and the Balkan Peninsula to give the conflict a context beyond perceived Russian expansionism. He started by recounting the history of both the Caucasus region, where Georgia is located, and the Balkan Peninsula, beginning with the schism between Roman Catholicism and Christian Orthodoxy. In light of the various empires that have ruled the two respective regions, Khrushchev asked, “Who has the right of independence? Or do we preser ve borders? Whose borders?” Americans and Russians often consider only their own interests in Georgia, he said, not considering internal conditions in the region. Analysis of the Russia-Georgia conflict “is part of our reflection on ourselves,” Khrushchev said. “In reality,” Khrushchev said, “We don’t know who is the master of this game. Is it the great countries giving orders to the governments of small countries? Or is it the small countries manipulating the great powers?” The rest of his lecture focused on the histor y of the highly disputed region of South Ossetia. “About 100 percent of South Ossetians became Russian citizens” following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev said, but “Georgia wants to take ... (South Ossetia) back under their control.” But the issue is further complicated because “South Ossetians are not united with North Ossetians,” and the leader of South Ossetia does not wish to join with Russia.

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Courtesy of Anjali Sridhar

Students attended the Interracial Dating Forum last night in the DeCiccio Family Auditorium in the Salomon Center.

Man Man, Islands to play at fall show BY Melissa Shube Senior Staff Writer

Man Man, a group that plays what the Brown Concert Agency describes as “vaudeville,” “tribal” and “gypsy ska,” will headline the BCA’s fall show on Nov. 7. The indie pop group Islands will open for them in Alumnae Hall. Man Man plays “a contrast of jostling rhythm and bittersweet

melody,” according to a BCA press release. The Philadelphia-based band is known for their “unbelievable” live performances, said Daniel Ain ’09, BCA’s booking chair. “They’re crazy,” he said. The band members, who like to perform in white suits and facepaint, go by the names Honus Honus, Sergei Sogay, Pow Pow, Critter Crat and Chang Wang. The

BCA has tried to bring them to Brown in past years, Ain said. Islands, who hail from Montreal, are “a little more traditional indie pop,” he said. Since most of the BCA’s budget funds Spring Weekend shows, the agency tends to choose bands with less mainstream appeal in the fall. “We wanted to follow in continued on page 6

Abroad, not feeling the crisis By Ben Schreckinger Contributing Writer

Min Wu / Herald File Photo

Students studying abroad have not felt the effects of the economic crisis as acutely as the ones on College Hill.

From the news and market tickers, one is led to believe the financial downturn is affecting not only Wall Street, but Main Street, College Street, Thayer Street and every other street. But for Brown students studying abroad in foreign countries or away in other parts of the United States, it is harder to notice that much of the world is frantic. Because Brown feeds many of its graduates into the financial sector, students seem to be espe-

Brown students bring fun to middle school newsroom By Connie Zheng Staff Writer

The mainstream media are saturating their airwaves, broadsheets and bandwidth with the nation’s economic and political dramas, but at least one Providence newsroom has managed to steer clear of such stories by playing to its demographic. This audacious publication is far from conventional, with students

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filling the pages of the Saint Pat- ists and cartoonists who assemble rick Tuesday Journal with op-eds every Tuesday to work on an issue on the nutritional value of candy of their paper. True to the name of their puband detailed analyses of recently instituted gum-chewing bans — all lication, eight Saint Patrick’s stuin time for dinner. dents and six Brown Organized as a colstudents congregated FEATURE laborative after-school at 3 p.m. Tuesday for program between Brown students the semester’s first meeting, in a and Saint Patrick’s School in down- classroom on the second floor of town Providence, the Tuesday Jour- the Smith Street Catholic school. nal provides a creative outlet for Sporting sharp green sweaters and the budding columnists, journal- white collared shirts and ranging

veritas squad An arm of a conservative think tank funds programs like Brown’s Political Theory Project

www.browndailyherald.com

ITCH TO TALK Brown researchers find some people get facial rashes from CAMPUS NEWS cell phones

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OPINIONS

from fifth to seventh graders, the aspiring journalists spent an hour and a half tossing back and forth ideas and jokes with the volunteers from Brown. “You can write stories about pretty much whatever you want,” Lindsay Southworth ’09, the project’s leader, said to the students after she and the other volunteers introduced themselves. The content continued on page 4

reason for suspicion Conservatives should be skeptical of community organizing, says Anish Mitra ’10

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

12 SPORTS

Courtesy of Brown.edu

Sergei Khrushchev, son of the former Soviet leader, talked about Georgia.

SCRUMDEFEATED! Women’s rugby finishes their season unbeaten after a 10-5 victory over Dartmouth

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

TODAY

TOMORROW

rainy 51 / 36

sunny 52 / 33

Menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Polynesian Chicken Wings, Sweet and Sour Tofu, Stir Fried Rice, Green Peas

Lunch — Italian Sausage and Peppers Sandwich, Vegetable Strudel, Peas, Chocolate Frosted Eclairs

Dinner — Salmon Provensal, Cheese Quesadillas, Mushroom Risotto, Greek Style Asparagus

Dinner — Apricot Beef with Sesame Noodles, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, BBQ Chicken

Dunkel | Joe Larios

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

Epimetheos | Samuel Holzman

Fizzle Pop | Patricia Chou

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday,©October 22, 2008 Puzzles by Pappocom

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

ACROSS 1 Well-mannered 6 Biblical kingdom first ruled by David 11 Jerk 14 Fred’s dancing sister 15 Mediterranean boot? 16 Poe’s “The Murders in the __ Morgue” 17 Adjust one’s sights 18 Teddy Roosevelt’s party 20 Hash out 22 Migrant 23 Shreveport-toBirmingham dir. 24 Nada 27 Marxist? 28 Judge 32 Enjoy a restaurant 34 Fancy watch 35 Tours ta ta 37 Menlo Park monogram 40 End of an Esso ad metaphor 43 “What’s more ...” 44 Tribal symbol 45 Perform exceptionally 46 Dole 47 Prepared, as for a daunting task 49 Salinger teenager 52 Summer drink 54 Hematological classification system 55 Commandment verb 57 Come before 62 Golfer’s greenside choice 65 Locker room item 66 Work unit 67 Veep after Humphrey 68 Billy Goats Gruff menacer 69 Jaguar classic 70 Rises to great heights 71 Hollers DOWN 1 Links rental 2 Brainstorm

41 Letter after theta 51 Cur’s curse 3 __ Oscar 53 Gung-ho 4 Slogan on a ’50s 42 Beaver, to his 56 “__ the angry mom red-white-andnight ...” 46 Spock’s Vulcan blue button 58 It might be mind __ 5 Tangy dessert breaking 48 Make lace 6 Correspond 49 Newark’s county 59 MP’s quarry 7 One-eighty 8 Indian lentil stew 50 Ocean predator, 60 “Do __!” 61 Building of which there 9 Tide competitor wings are five types 10 “The Battle __ of 63 Swelled head starting this the Republic” 64 Genetic puzzle’s longest 11 Bakery letters answers emanation 12 Oscar winner ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: Hayward 13 Sleazy 19 Behave like goop 21 “Devil or Angel” singer Bobby 25 Cold feet and hot air 26 Stead 28 Hammett pooch 29 Check 30 Cowboys’ home, familiarly 31 Carried on 33 Renée Zellweger title role 36 Salon supply 37 Shadow 38 Youngest Brontë 39 Barely managed, 10/22/08 xwordeditor@aol.com with “out”

Alien Weather Forecast | Stephen Lichenstein and Adam Wagner

Brown Meets RISD| Miguel Llorente

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

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

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

Ross Frazier, Vice President Mandeep Gill, Treasurer Darren Ball, Secretary By Robert A. Doll (c)2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

10/22/08

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

h igher e d Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Centers try to change focus on diversity By Sarah Husk Contributing Writer

Today’s universities value “Diversitas over Veritas,” according to the Veritas Fund for Higher Education, an initiative of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think-tank. The fund gives seed money to campus groups and professors in the spirit of “a commitment to freedom of inquiry and the broadest possible range of viewpoints,” as its Web site says. The fund and others like it are part of a growing trend of private institutions looking to stanch what they consider a strong focus on cultural diversity in the humanities and social sciences. Brown’s Political Theor y Project and its initiative, the Janus Forum, is one of a variety of American academic institutions funded by Veritas. Balance in the System The Veritas Fund seeks to restore “the original conception of the university” as a place “based on neither conservative nor liberal doctrines, but rather on the search for knowledge and truth,” according to the organization’s Web site. The organization funds programs at the University of Virginia, the University of Colorado, Boston College, Cornell, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Emory and New York universities, as well as Brown. By funding professors and research institutes, organizations like the Veritas Fund, the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History and the National Association of Scholars say they are working to create balance in a system they consider dominated by postcolonial scholarship and an emphasis on the historically marginalized. A number of recent studies “provide actual statistical evidence

… that students are not getting the opportunity to study America’s founding histor y,” Michael Deshaies, the Jack Miller Center’s vice president, told The Herald. “We respond to requests from college professors who teach in the social sciences or the humanities,” Deshaies said. “They reach out to us and ask for our support.” At Emor y University, Mark Bauerlein directs the Program in American Citizenship, which is funded by Veritas. “In terms of content, we support any course that immerses students in a significant cultural or civic tradition in American history,” Bauerlein said. “The courses we’ve supported are pretty broad on the ideological spectrum,” he said. “For example, we supported a course on the history of conservatism in the United States. We also supported a course on the literature of progressivism.” Bauerlein said that the program ran 17 courses last year and enrolled 270 students. “Right off the bat we can say we have a lot of students reading the Federalist Papers, reading the Bill of Rights, reading Friedrich Hayek, so if we have more freshman students reading serious work, then right there we’re happy.” The program, Bauerlein said, is not a means of advancing a conservative agenda. “Our enemy is not any political position,” he said. “Our enemy is forgetfulness, the obliviousness to the past.” Roots of the trend Stephen Balch, president of the National Association of Scholars, said the organization was founded in 1987, during a “period when political practice was first becoming an issue.”

“There was a sense that the academy was moving away from its ideals,” he said, adding that the association is committed to liberal education and eradicating the “philosophic one-sidedness” of contemporary American higher education. But Brown History Professor Evelyn Hu-Dehart, who ser ves as director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, said it is important to contextualize this interest in returning to traditional academic subject matter within the context of a changing America. According to Hu-Dehart, waves of European immigrants in the mid- to late-19th century caused American higher education to “become more popularized,” fundamentally changing the philosophies and practices of the university. She added that the ideology of the 1960s simply “accelerated the movement.” Prior to this profound change in American demographics, universities like Brown and most of its other Ivy League peers focused on the instruction of classics and catered to the male elite. But “today we’re not just training seminarians; we’re not just teaching sons,” HuDehart said. According to Hu-Dehart, organizations like the NAS were founded to work with trustees and alumni as “pressure points” against universities that were increasingly focused on multiculturalism. At some schools, such as UCLA and UC-Berkeley, she said, “there is no majority group … it’s an expression of the rapidly changing demographics.” In other words, she said, the inclusion of depar tments and academic programs that focus on ethnic and gender studies reflect continued on page 6

Profs sign statement in support of Ayers By Stephanie Bernhard Staff Writer

Over 3,000 educators nationwide, including six Brown professors, have signed a statement supporting the man Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain called a “washed-up terrorist” at the third presidential debate last Wednesday. In recent months, the McCain campaign has criticized Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama for his connection to William Ayers. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have accused Obama of being “friends” with Ayers and claimed Obama has hidden the extent of their relationship. Both residents of the Chicago area, Ayers and Obama first met in 1995 when they served on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school reform initiative. They also were board members of the Woods Fund, a Chicago charity, from 2000 to 2002. Ayers, now a distinguished professor of education and senior university scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was a co-founding member of the radical activist group the Weather Underground in 1969. The group’s extreme tactics to end the Vietnam War included planting bombs in the Pentagon and

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

the United States Capitol. In response to the McCain campaign’s focus on Ayers’ radical acts of the 1960s and 1970s, “Friends and supporters of Bill Ayers” are circulating a statement online to vouch for the professor he has become. “I think he’s doing a lot of positive, progressive, constructive work right now,” said Professor of English William Keach, the first member of the University’s faculty to sign the statement of support. Keach was referring to Ayers’s work in the field of education. As a professor, Ayers has written more than a dozen books on his holistic approach to learning that downplays the boundaries between teacher and student. Ayers was one of the original proponents of “free schools,” where students call teachers by their first names and don’t receive grades on assignments. Constance Crawford, an adjunct lecturer in theater, speech and dance, was educated in free schools and said she disagrees with the concept, favoring a more traditional approach. But she signed the statement supporting Ayers, and said his ideas “should be combated with clarity, not with personal demonization and vilification.” Keach voiced a similar opinion regarding Ayers’s involvement with the Weather Underground, saying he “disagree(s) with Ayers’s tac-

tics,” but he signed the statement “without any hesitation.” Keach also protested the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, and said he wanted to show “solidarity” with Ayers. He said he wished Obama could have done the same when Ayers came up during the third debate. “He’s being unnecessarily cautious,” Keach said. Ayers entered the debate in the context of a question about both sides’ negative campaigning. Ayers hosted a coffee event for Obama’s first office run in 1995, prompting McCain to say to Obama, “You launched your political campaign in Mr. Ayers’ living room.” Obama responded, saying, “Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign. He has never been involved in this campaign. And he will not advise me in the White House.” Keach thinks “it’s disturbing that he had to take such a dismissive approach.” He added Obama could have “brought up the positive things about the person (Ayers) has become.” Crawford signed the statement supporting Ayers because she thinks it is necessary to appreciate the man’s accomplishments, not just what she calls the mistakes of his past. “It’s easy to paint someone with a broad brush,” she said. “It’s easy to vilify, but it’s harder to consider.”

Schools take learning off campus with iTunes U. By Unikora Yang Contributing Writer

In cyberspace, you can learn to cook lemon chicken and become a bellydancing star in less than 10 minutes. But you never expected your professor to be an online sensation. Now, anyone with internet access can learn about pendulums by watching Professor Walter H.G. Lewin swing on a rope in a classroom at M.I.T. or sit in bed to contemplate the philosophy of mortality with Professor Shelly Kagan of Yale. In collaboration with Apple, many universities have been opening up their courses to the online public to make content ranging from special lectures to classes free to download through a new feature on their iTunes store — iTunes U. Since the launch of iTunes U on May 30, 2007, over 100 universities like M.I.T., the University of California, Davis, Boston University, Stanford and Yale have contracted with Apple to put various types of university content online. According to Apple’s Web site, iTunes U users can “easily search, download, and play course content just like they do music, movies, and TV shows.” iTunes U also allows prospective students to explore the universities, current students to stay engaged on-the-go and alumni to stay connected to their alma maters. Each institution uses iTunes U differently, tailoring it to its needs and goals. M.I.T. provides a selection of recorded public events and symposia, lectures, historical documents and other media created by the M.I.T. community. Yale mainly provides audio for public events focusing on specific conferences held on campus. Other universities like Michigan Technological University use iTunes U to provide supplementary materials for specific courses through podcasts or videos. According to Stanford Provost John Etchemendy, in the original online press release of iTunes U in 2007, “(Stanford’s) partnership with Apple and iTunes U provides a creative and innovative way to engage millions of people with our teaching, learning and research and share the experience of intellectual exploration and discovery that defines our university.” Knowledge ‘deserves to be free’ But certain universities have been looking for alternative ways to make academic content online long before iTunes U. Initially, the “Open Educational Resources” movement was spearheaded by M.I.T. There, the OpenCourseWare program began in 2001 as an initiative for enhancing students’ learning through technological resources, both on campus and from afar. Within two years, the goals of OCW had transformed and the program was relaunched to publish materials from all M.I.T. courses for any Web user. In 2005, OCW inaugurated the OCW Consortium, which now has more than 100 universities internationally that support open publication of materials in courses. Many universities have been following the “Open Educational Resources” movement. Open Yale Courses, which was launched in the 2006-07 school year and is a program

separate from Yale’s use of iTunes U, features introductory courses from a wide palate of departments available to anyone with an internet connection. The initiative provides videos of lectures, sample exams, and audio and video supplementary materials. Although Yale is not the first to deliver open courses online, Kagan said, “Yale decided to do it better than it has been done so far: high quality videos, the production value, cameramen who follow (the professors), all the supplementary materials online, recommended readings and audio.” He added that open courses create new ways for current students to “shop” classes and for prospective students to compare universities. On Oct. 16, OYC introduced eight new courses from various disciplines. Diana Kleiner, a Yale professor of art history and classics and OYC’s principal investigator, handpicks a wide array of introductory courses in order to appeal to “the broadest interests of (the) widest variety of people across the world.” Stanford has also adopted OCW, claiming in its proposal for the initiative that “education should not discriminate,” and that knowledge “is transformative” and “deserves to be free.” The initiative “challenges the traditional approach to teaching in universities, with the potential to modernize education inside and outside the university,” the proposal suggested. Even Harvard Medical School has an Open Courseware Initiative offering courses like “Dementia, elder abuse, driving” in order “to exchange knowledge from the Harvard community of scholars to other academic institutions, prospective students, and the general public,” according to the Harvard Medical School MyCourses Web site. The site notes that opening up its course content is in line with its “moral obligation to share this knowledge with other academic communities and the general public.” The challenges of access But this digital movement of making college content broadly available online and through iTunes U can create some challenges, professors say. According to Kagan, during the OYC development, faculty and administrators questioned how open courses would affect enrollment. “Would more people want to take the class because of the celebrity status on the web? Would fewer people take the class not to waste a credit because they can just take a laptop and watch? Would people take the class and then not show up?” said Kagan, recounting original concerns about online content initiatives. Enrollment for Kagan’s philosophy course on death actually increased this year, but the enrollment during the year of recording was lower than years before. “The potential downside is that students here might start skipping classes,” astronomy professor Charles Bailyn of Yale wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “That didn’t seem to actually happen, at least in my case.” Many professors using the program have only just started to do so this year, so the effects of OYC on enrollment are still unclear. For OpenCourseWare, which was established earlier than Open Yale continued on page 6

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Economy doesn’t look the same abroad continued from page 1 has not impacted her spending habits abroad. Nevertheless, she said that being away from home left her feeling like she was “outside looking in.” She said she was thankful that government-sponsored newspapers, like the Granma, are covering the financial crisis — though the papers sometimes portray the economic developments as the “failures of capitalism.” Brown students studying in North Africa said they too feel isolated from events on Wall Street. “Maybe the shock will hit me when I come back next semester,” said Anna Newby ’10, who is studying in Egypt. She said that financial news makes front page headlines most days of the week, but that while Egyptians “are definitely conscious” of the economic crisis, “it’s very much a distant thing.” Elana Goldstein ’10, who is studying abroad in Morocco while taking intensive Arabic classes, said that she has family in the financial industry and it has been stressful to keep up with their experiences via e-mail rather than in person. Moroccans, Goldstein said, know that an economic crisis is “happening,” but do not feel that it will affect them. She said that the economic reach of most Moroccans does not extend beyond the local marketplace, and that for people with such indirect ties to the global economy,

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

the larger financial system does not seem relevant to their lives. As for Goldstein, “everything is so cheap anyways that it hasn’t really affected my spending habits,” she said. Brown students as a whole, conversely, have not been immune to Wall Street’s troubles. In an interview with The Herald earlier this month, Senior Vice President for University Advancement Ronald Vanden Dorpel MA’71 estimated that as many as one in five Brown alums work in the financial industry, loosely defined. Not surprisingly, New Yorkers are very aware of the economic situation, said Molly Jacobson ’10, who is away taking classes and teaching social studies to seventh and eighth graders at a middle school in Queens, N.Y. Jacobson said she recently asked her students what the best economy in the world was. Initially, she was met with silence, but the hesitant responses left her struck. “I don’t know, China?” one student ventured. “We’re in a crisis!” another exclaimed. Most of her students come from working class backgrounds, Jacobson said, but the financial industry’s troubles have already begun to affect the rest of the city, effectively the world’s financial capital. New York had previously benefitted from “sort of a bubble” when Wall Street seemed to be thriving, despite signs

of a downturn in the United States, she said. Now, for example, many private drivers have found themselves out of a job. “The most interesting thing that I’ve noticed is the odd hours that I’d see people with briefcases on the subways,” Jacobson said,adding that she has grown used to going out on Friday nights and sharing subway cars with men and women in suits “looking really morose.” Evan Pulvers ’10.5, who is studying in Mississippi on the BrownTougaloo Partnership, said Wall Street’s troubles have yet to have an impact in Mississippi, the poorest state in the union. Nonetheless, students there are very aware of the economic situation, she said. “It’s going to be a problem for Tougaloo,” which doesn’t have the resources that Brown does, she said. But she said that she has yet to notice changes in the spending habits of Tougaloo students, noting that they do not have a lot of disposable income to begin with. She said many students have cars on campus financed with loans, and that as borrowing becomes more difficult, “a lot of cars are going to disappear.” Jared Williams, a sophomore at Tougaloo and a friend of Pulvers’, said that while “maybe the muckety-mucks at corporations” are feeling the downturn already, “a lot of us do not have money tied up in stocks.”

Kids’ fun antics get Brown volunteers to help out continued from page 1 did, however, have to submit to a “G” or “PG” rating, she said. “You can write about chicken pot pie,” seventh-grader Dimitri Astby added from the back of the room. “Teacher of the week. Your favorite ice cream.” Distributed to the fifth through eighth grades and with a print run of 100 copies per issue, the Tuesday Journal was started by Joanna Joly ’07 in the spring of 2006. Nostalgic for her days as editor-in-chief of her high school newspaper, the architectural studies concentrator spearheaded the program with fellow former editor-in-chief Kate Johnston ’07. Though it originated as one of the University’s Catholic community outreach programs — and began as the Wednesday Journal — the sustainability of the program was far more important to Joly than its initially Catholic roots, she said. “It doesn’t need to be an exclusively Catholic thing,” Joly said. Shortly before her graduation, Joly handed the program’s reins to Southworth and Julie Siwicki ’10, who joined in the spring of 2007 after hearing about it from a table slip. Joly had been having some difficulty finding successors — and even participants — before the two showed up. Funded by Professor of Medicine Timothy Flanigan, who writes a check out to the program for $120 a year, the St. Patrick’s Tuesday Journal is not a newspaper in the traditional sense. Past issues have included Halloween-themed quizzes, comics and poetry. “Some kids take the journalism aspect more seriously,” Southworth said. Still, she said, “it’s their paper. It’s not our paper.” There is, however, a limit to what the students can include. “Remember what Lindsay said?” Siwicki said to Astby as she looked over his pencil-drawn series of comics titled “Halo Minisodes,” based on the popular video game. Stick figures shoot at one another and use words such as “poop.” “It’s PG!” Astby protested. “But there’s shooting.” “I could put in a lesson in conflict,” Astby, who has contributed

to the paper since fifth grade, said excitedly. “Like ‘Don’t settle with guns, just use fun!’ Something like that. … Instead of using guns, we can use water guns.” When Siwicki noted that parents have complained in the past about references to Halo, Astby said in sing-song, “I can call it Halo backwards — OLAH.” Students sign up for the Tuesday Journal for a number of reasons and the class is mostly divided between students who want to see their comics published and those who want an outlet for their writing. “It’s fun and you’ll gain a lot from it,” fifth-grader Fatima Lawal said. She likes to write stories and poetry and has already begun working on a piece about one of her teachers. Even those who aren’t particularly excited about writing or drawing find something to do. One student wanted to create a Sudoku. But Astby said, “I joined ’cause I don’t wanna stay home,” to the laughter of his classmates. The volunteers from Brown agreed that they find themselves returning week after week to St. Patrick’s, despite — or even because of — the frequent “antics” of the students. “I do it for the kids, pretty much,” said Southworth, who described them as “great” and “crazy.” “There’s something to be said for getting off the hill” and getting to know members of the community downtown, Siwicki added. “It’s cliched, but I really, really loved the kids,” Joly said. “That age group is an especially unique group. They’re so fragile, yet so passionate. … They’re so excited about being published.” But their time at the school hasn’t been without its bumps. “The biggest challenge was probably getting the children that like to misbehave — quote unquote — to produce something that they could be proud of,” Joly said. “I didn’t want anybody to slip through the cracks.” But despite their best efforts to keep their students, some of the kids have left for other pursuits. “We lost a lot of kids when basketball season started up,” Southworth said.

Khrushchev speaks on Georgia continued from page 1

Thanks for reading.

The stor y of South Ossetia, Khrushchev said, “is the story of a people who decided that they do not want to live with you. It is like your wife coming to you with the papers saying, ‘I need divorce.’” “What is (the) future?” Khrushchev asked in conclusion. “Future is murky.” In the question-and-answer section, Khrushchev dismissed the notion that the conflict signaled the beginning of a new Cold War. “It will not be the Cold War because Russia lost their position” of power, he said, and added that the European Union, China and India are more likely to be future global powers than Russia is. Khrushchev attributed the fear of a new Cold War to the United States’ “nostalgia for the old enemy.” Now, he said, “President Bush ... will fight 100 years against some man sitting in a cave.” “The Cold War was about more serious things,” he added.

Students had mixed responses to Khrushchev’s lecture. Anthony Badami ’11 said he felt that “Khrushchev was a softball pick” and that his lecture was only “engaging to the extent that it was entertaining.” “He made it sound like it was all some big misunderstanding” and “disregarded the geopolitical aspect of the conflict,” Badami said. “The fact that he didn’t even entertain that as an argument made his analysis a little superficial,” he added. Prerna Khanna ’11 agreed. “It was a lot like a history lesson,” she said. “There was no real insight into what was going on.” But Andrew Doty ’12 said the lecture was “definitely” valuable. He cited the importance of hearing a new view about a foreign conflict. “I think it’s hugely important for people to be made aware that the situation is more complicated than just (current Russian Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin going in and beating up people just because he can,” he said.

C ampus n ews Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Talk describes rise of Brazil and its cars By Anne Simons Senior Staf f Writer

The history of the automobile industry in Brazil is inextricably linked to the country’s attempts to modernize and liberalize, Joel Wolfe, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, told about 40 people in a speech at the Joukowsky Forum last night. Wolfe’s book, “Autos and Progress: The Brazilian Search for Modernity,” grew out of his students’ questions about the country. The book is a “reinterpretation of 20th century Brazil,” he said. “Automobility is the lens through which I look at Brazil’s struggle to become modern,” Wolfe said. Brazil’s 2002 election of a former auto worker as the country’s president demonstrates the importance of the industry, he added. Wolfe described the automobile industry’s transformation of Brazil, starting with the arrival of factories in the 1920s. At the time, Brazil was not a democracy and elites did not want to allow the poor and uneducated to participate in the government, Wolfe said. But leaders hoped that by bringing in the auto industry, they could “radically transform” the lower class into a middle class that

could participate in politics in a way the elites could allow, he said. In 1927, Henry Ford was given a chunk of land the size of Connecticut for an automobile factory in Brazil. In addition to creating jobs, Ford also brought free schools, health care and clothes and a culture of consumerism to the rural, less-developed areas of the country. Brazilians began to believe they could become modern because they were doing jobs that Americans were doing, he said. Ford’s message that the workers should be paid enough to be able to buy what they produce brought “incredible hope to people,” Wolfe said. It also gave rise to an increasingly sexist culture in which the men went to work and the women stayed at home to raise the children. People thought auto plants were going to “civilize people,” Wolfe said, and “reshape the nation and reshape Brazilians.” Wolfe called the belief that auto workers were different — educated, literate consumers — “the national myth.” The national media embraced these workers and people began to believe that Brazil had a “mature enough working class to sustain a democracy,” he said. But the idea that cars could mod-

“Automobility is the lens through which I look at Brazil’s struggle to become modern.” Joel Wolfe Professor, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

ernize and democratize Brazilian society ended in failure with the coup in 1964, which led to 21 years of oppression in the country, Wolfe added. In addition, no one thought about the downside of a rapid move to modernity, he said. Wolfe blamed the auto industry for the nation’s pollution, dependence on foreign oil, immigration of the rural poor to the wealthier cities and a spoiling of the beauty of the Amazon by roads. Wolfe’s lecture was punctuated with frequent jokes and laughter from the audience. Michelle Vanderploeg ’12 said that what Wolfe discussed was “very relevant.” She said she had lived in South America and knew something about modern times, but said it was “interesting to get the historical perspective.”

Don’t be intimidated by science, WISE urges by Julia Kim Contributing Writer

Professor Gar y Wessel discussed reproductive technologies in fertilization in the first of a lecture series designed to make science research more accessible for students without extensive science knowledge. The series is called “Quicknotes” and is sponsored by Women in Science in Engineering. Standing in MacMillan 115 Tuesday afternoon, Wessel eagerly addressed the group of about 20 students on comparisons between sea urchin fer tilization and human fertilization. The talk, titled “Matchmaking,” highlighted specific mechanisms of fertilization that create the perfect match between a sperm and an egg. Wessel also introduced guest speaker Dr. Peter Klatsky, from Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, who talked about assisted reproductive technologies in medicine. Wessel supplemented his lecture with many photos and movies depicting sea urchin fertilization. One of his preliminar y slides was a photo collage of eggs from various organisms. He pointed to one particular picture and told his audience, “This is what you look like

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before fertilization.” Wessel explained that sea urchins make ideal organisms for fertilization research because they are capable of producing a large amount of eggs. “Their insides are mainly guts and gonads,” he said. He followed this comment with a picture of uni, the sea urchin sushi, along with wasabi and ginger. “I’m more a fan of the wasabi and ginger,” Wessel joked. Though the hour-long lecture was about scientific topics, Wessel used analogies to explain biological terms to students without a science background. The “zona pellucida,” became a halo surrounding an egg, and various science ideologies were likened to the Democrat, Republican and Independent parties. Halfway through the lecture, Klatsky talked about infertility in humans and clinical treatments performed on patients. Klatsky, a research fellow in Brown’s biology department, said he is interested in the long-term effects that assisted reproductive technologies have on human development and health. Both Wessel and Klatsky interacted with the students throughout the lecture —Wessel even sang about beluga whales — and took questions at the end of each of

their segments. Wessel also invited students to come visit him and Klatsky in their labs at Sidney Frank Hall. Klatsky detailed statistics on infertility, and explained mechanisms behind IVF. Sri Kalyan ’09 said the lecture“was an effective way of making a medical issue approachable from a broader standpoint.” Event coordinator Elaine Tamargo ’11 said “the event is a great way for professors to talk about their research to students of all backgrounds. It’s entirely casual, so no one has to feel stressed about taking notes.” The idea of science lectures, with their technical terminology, Tamargo said, could be potentially overwhelming for students without an extensive background. “Quicknotes” is a way for these students to feel more at ease and learn about interesting topics, she said. She said she plans on having two more mini-lectures this semester and three in the spring. The series was started two years ago, but only hosted sporadic lectures. Professor Julie Kauer will deliver the next “Quicknotes” lecture on tissue engineering, scheduled for November 24.

News

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Nickel in cell phones causes rash in some Brown researchers published a study in January that found a connection between cell phones and facial rashes. The study was published in Canadian Medical Association Journal and conducted by a PLME student John Luo ’09 and Dr. Lionel Bercovitch P’00 P’02 P’08 a dermatologist at Health Services and the Alpert Medical School. After a patient was found to have an allergic reaction to the free nickel in his cell phone, the researchers went on to test 22 other cell phones and found free nickel in 10 of them. Free nickel is nickel that comes off the cell phone easily, especially when it comes in contact with sweat. “The people most at risk are those who get rashes from earrings or belt buckles,” said Bercovitch, but he added a very inexpensive test can be bought online to check if your cell phone contains nickel without damaging the phone. Students unsure if they are allergic to nickel can contact Health Services for more information, Bercovitch said. Nickel allergies affect about 20 percent of women, but significantly fewer men since piercings are one of the greatest causes of exposure to the metal, according to Bercovitch. The American Contact Dermatitis Society named nickel the Allergen of the Year for 2008 and the EU already has restrictions on the amount of free nickel that can be used in a product, he said. The U.S. currently has no such regulations. When asked about regulations for free nickel, Bercovitch said “I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually you see nickel disappearing as a voluntary action on the part of the industry,” but he said he does not think it will be regulated by any government organization. Bercovitch said phone companies should allow users to return phones with the allergen if they have a doctor’s note indicating they are allergic to nickel. Without the note, he said, everyone could say they were allergic and trade in their phone for a different model. —Matthew Scult

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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Economy holding U. plans Intellectual diversity debate comes to Brown hostage for time being continued from page 3

continued from page 1 A number of projects — including the Nelson Fitness Center, a new swimming pool and a $70-million brain sciences building — are all presently in the works, along with many smaller plans. But if the economy continues to do poorly, “we’ll at least have to consider slowing (some) down,” Spies said. Others may even have to be dropped. “There’s definitely some wait and see,” Huidekoper said, adding that “it’s going to take a couple of months to come up with revised scenarios” for the capital construction projects. While the University would not have trouble borrowing money to build, Huidekoper said, high interest rates make the cost of that path undesirable. Administrators would prefer to wait for gifts to flow in and interest rates to go down, she said. Meanwhile, the same construction projects will be jockeying for money with the Plan for Academic Enrichment’s other priorities. Those goals include the growth of the faculty and graduate schools, boosting Brown’s international profile and increasing financial aid. Huidekoper said the University will have to decide whether financial aid or physical expansion is a more important priority right now,

because of the multitude of pressures on spending even as income from gifts and the endowment is unclear. “We really don’t know what to expect on financial aid,” Huidekoper said. “We really don’t know what to expect on gifts. We really don’t know what to expect on endowment payout.” Brown earned a meager 6.3 percent on its endowment in the fiscal year ending in June — a sharp decline from the previous few years, though relatively strong compared to peer schools. President Ruth Simmons has said the returns for the months July, August and September are likely to be worse than minus 5 percent. Spies compared the University’s different goals to a balancing act, saying that for some priorities to rise, others will need to fall. Plans still need to move forward, however, even if that means making some reductions, he said. “Nobody wants to go into a deep freeze,” he said. Though the Corporation discussed the financial crisis at its meeting last weekend, it made no decisions about long-term goals. Spies said administrators will try to hold off on making any decisions until February, the Corporation’s next meeting, when it will approve a budget for the next fiscal year.

Man Man, Islands booked continued from page 1 the success of Girl Talk’s popularity to pick artists who would be more suited for a smaller show in an indoor venue to create an upbeat dance party for students,” said Abby Schreiver ’11, BCA ticketing chair. The BCA has $15,500 to spend on the fall concert, and both Man Man and Islands will be paid $7,500, Ain said.

Tickets will be available in the Faunce box office starting Oct. 27 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. They will be $5 for Brown students and $12 for the general public. Students will be permitted to purchase two tickets per person with their Brown ID. In November, the agency will administer a poll asking students what they’re listening to, and who they’d like to see play on campus for Spring Weekend. “We’ll do our best to bring them to Brown,” Ain said.

changes in the make-up of American society. Formerly a professor of women’s studies, Gail Cohee, director of the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, said that the center is based on an understanding that the concerns of one particular group are collective concerns and rejected the idea that a focus on ethnic or gender studies detracts from focusing on other intellectual issues. “Identities are so intersecting at this point,” she said, adding that the Center is interested in “looking at everything more holistically.” Balance at Brown The Political Theor y Project, founded and directed by Associate Professor of Political Science John Tomasi, receives funding from Veritas. According to its Web site, the Project aims “to invigorate the study of institutions and ideas that make societies free, prosperous, and fair” as well as to provide a forum for “diverse viewpoints.” The fund also provides money to the University’s Political Theory Project and the Janus Forum, and the Manhattan Institute counts

Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76 among its trustees. Among the courses offered by the Political Theor y Project this semester are a freshman seminar on the political theor y of capitalism and senior seminars on welfare rights and environmental ethics. In addition to sponsoring courses, the Project hosts academic conferences, supports research, helps secure funding for graduate research and hosts a lecture series through the Janus Forum. Dan MacCombie ’08.5, who serves as co-director of the Janus Forum’s steering committee, said that the project receives funding and support from “across the political spectrum.” The 17 student representatives on the Janus Forum’s steering committee hail from a variety of campus organizations including the Brown Democrats, the College Republicans and the Brown Spectator as well as groups of a variety of other political persuasions. The Janus Forum itself is apolitical, but, according to Sean Quigley ’10, a Herald columnist who is active in both the College Republicans and the Spectator, it can often benefit the conservative population

at Brown. “It provides an actual institutional means by which right-leaning campus groups can have a voice in campus politics,” he said. In this way, Quigley added, these organizations “seem to structurally just help conservatives” simply in that “it demonstrates the fact that this is a university and not a factory for turning out liberals.” Sumeet Goil ’09, the other codirector of the steering committee, said the group’s goal is to give voice to different ideas. “In terms of bringing a conservative voice to campus, that’s not our goal,” he said. “We really believe in it as a forum not to promote or highlight one ideology but to get them to all interact,” MacCombie said. Anish Mitra ’10, a Herald columnist who is a current College Republican representative to the Janus Forum, said he hopes issues like “Christianity, atheism, abortion,” and economic issues like government spending will be among the topics for this year’s lectures. “There are a lot of different opinions represented on campus,” Goil said. “Before Janus, there was not really a place on campus where people could just discuss issues.”

Among online courseware, iTunes’ entry continued from page 3 Courses and had already spread to other institutions, enrollment problems do not appear to be an issue. Both Kleiner and Kagan said the courses being digitalized are very popular courses, with or without such Web sites. Kleiner emphasized that online content does not replace the educational experience of being an enrolled student in the course. “Education remains a highly interpersonal undertaking,” Kagan said. After dismissing the idea that future students will be learning only from computer screens, he said the online portion is an incomplete picture of education. Much of it has to do with the classroom experience: asking and answering questions, going to professors’ office hours and the interstudent experience. Other issues include copyrights, college credit-seekers and intellectual property rights. All the open course Web sites explicitly write that credit

is not given to online participation in these courses. Intellectual property becomes an issue when the professors are interested later publishing on topics discussed in recorded lectures. “The single biggest challenge is intellectual property,” Kleiner said. “On the internet anyone in the world can access it, you can also download, and incorporate it into your own sources, but you have to cite, reuse and remix. It’s no longer protected where you use only material belonging to you.” “I could imagine some of my colleagues had plans to turn their intro classes into textbooks,” Kagan said. “If I had such inclinations for the class, it would have given me pause.” Will Brown open up? Although Brown is not currently participating in iTunes U, according to Catherine Zabriskie, associate director of teaching and learning ser-

vices at Computing and Information Services, the University is currently working with Apple “to provide the safest use of iTunes U content” and to provide public media space in iTunes for the faculty. Instead of providing open course content, certain groups at Brown like the Watson Institute for International Studies are interested in putting special events and lectures on iTunes U. Zabriskie said that Brown has been making efforts “to create a way to make Brown content more accessible outside of Brown.” According to Zabriskie, there has not been a demand from faculty and students to make courses open and available online. CIS has been working with Apple to provide faculty with media space on iTunes for supplementary materials exclusively for students enrolled in their courses. Professor Dana Gooley, who teaches a course in the music department on opera, uses an iTunes interface called iTap to provide listening assignments for students in the course. It is an open framework where professors can put up different menu items and upload content. Previously, the Brown music department had a system called Brown Ears, an electronic audio reserve system where enrolled students could stream the sound files. “(iTap) changed the way I teach because when I was a student, I had to go to the library and listen to cassette recordings. It was very hard to find the beginning of the track because the track would be forwarded to the middle of some track, and they would be labeled unclearly. So this ability to upload sound files is enormously helpful,” Gooley said. Since students spend less and less time in libraries, he said, “the ability of iTap to adapt to the way students tend to study today is totally positive.” About the idea of open online college content in other universities, Gooley said, “I have not seen this system in action. But I’m advising a graduate student who found 14 lectures, a series by a leading professor on Marx, at NYU. He said it was amazing and he learned so much. Educationally, it’s a positive thing.”

w orld & n ation Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Bush urges continued aid despite crisis BY Dan Eggen AND Anthony Faiola Washington Post

WASHINGTON — President Bush, who has made international aid a cornerstone of his foreign policy, warned Tuesday against cutting U.S. assistance to impoverished nations in the midst of the financial turmoil sweeping Wall Street and Main Street, arguing that doing so would undermine America’s economy, national security and moral authority. “During times of economic crisis, some may be tempted to turn inward — focusing on our problems here at home, while ignoring our interests around the world,” Bush said at a White House summit on international development. “This would be a serious mistake. America is committed, and America must stay committed, to international development for reasons that remain true regardless of the ebb and flow of the markets.” The remarks came amid fears that the financial crisis could further harm developing nations already whipsawed by surging food and energy prices over the past two years. The United Nations estimates that, even before the market crisis, rising food prices have pushed an additional 75 million people into chronic hunger, bringing the total to 925 million after years of decline. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said in an interview Tuesday that her country, and others in Africa, were already feeling the pinch of the global economic crisis. Foreign investors battered in their home countries are already scaling back plans to build a massive palm oil plantation and factory, she said. A major London-based mining company is now behind schedule on a $1.5 billion plan to extract iron ore and build new roads. “That’s going to have a major impact on the poor,” she said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a pitch for preserving foreign aid at Tuesday’s conference. “Some will ask the inevitable question in these troubled times: `How can we afford it?”’ she said. “I would ask instead, `How can we not afford it?”’ Even before the recent crisis, Western largesse was waning. The

Bush administration, which has garnered accolades for dramatic increases in U.S. international aid programs, cut its foreign aid in 2007 by 3.5 percent, to $21.7 billion, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “Developing countries have been making real progress, so this is a real setback,” said David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy group. “The one piece of good news from the last eight years is that the world has made real progress against poverty, and the U.S. has been quite good in this area.” The two major U.S. presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain, R, and Barack Obama, D, have suggested that the financial crisis will curtail their ambitions for foreign aid. Obama has vowed to more than double the annual outlay for international aid, to $50 billion, while McCain has focused on reforming the bureaucracy that doles out U.S. assistance. Obama spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said that if elected president, Obama will likely “extend the time period” for meeting his $50 billion aid target. “The current financial crisis, along with the $700 billion recovery package, will clearly put short-term pressure on our budget,” she said. McCain has not put a dollar amount on foreign assistance, but is committed to using both public and private funds to pay for increased aid, according to Richard Fontaine, McCain’s senior foreign policy adviser. “We are going through tough economic times and we have to take that into consideration,” he said. “But we are also a generous country.” Years of global plenty ushered in a period of generosity in the early 2000s, with wealthy countries forgiving billions of dollars worth of debt in poor countries and scaling up direct foreign assistance. Yet those increases had already begun to level off even before the crisis erupted. Excluding debt-relief, aid from the world’s 22 richest countries edged up only 2.4 percent in 2007, to $94 billion. If history is any guide, poor nations could be hit hard as wealthy countries cope with financial bail-

outs and potential downturns. Stung by a stock market and real estate crash, Japan slashed aid by some 44 percent between 1990 and 1996. While Tokyo ramped up assistance in subsequent years, it still is spending less on foreign aid now than it did in 1990, according to David Roodman, a researcher at the Washington-based Center for Global Development. After a financial crisis struck a number of Nordic countries in 1991, Norway slashed foreign aid by 10 percent and Sweden by 17 percent. Finland, which underwent a harsher economic contraction than its neighbors, cut foreign aid some 62 percent. “I would not be surprised to see global aid flows fall by a quarter or a third,” said Roodman. Aid to countries Washington sees as less strategically important, and whose needs are relatively less dire, is perhaps most vulnerable. Few believe, for instance, that financial assistance to Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer. Funds to fight AIDS in Africa may also be relatively safe, given bipartisan support for the recent legislation that gave those programs $50 billion over the next five years. But a host of recipient nations that have made strides to improve their economies and strengthen their political systems may fall victim to their success, with wealthy countries now seeing them more able to withstand cuts. In July, the Senate appropriations committee already voted to dramatically scale back a funding request for new programs at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, established 4 1/2 years ago by the Bush administration to reward countries meeting strict requirements of transparency, sound economic policy and good governance. But the MCC has faced criticism for disbursing less than 10 percent $6.3 billion it has received to fund projects in 18 countries. John Danilovich, who heads the MCC, defended the agency, saying the crisis has made it “even more important” that foreign aid not be disbursed haphazardly. “I think the global financial crisis will force governments to look at the effectiveness of their aid as well as the amount of aid,” he said.

Bolivian leaders OK vote on constitution By Oscar Ordonez and Patrick J. McDonnell Los Angeles T imes

LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivian legislators Tuesday approved a national referendum on the country’s controversial draft constitution, a major victory for leftist President Evo Morales in this divided nation. “There is no going back from this process of change,” said a jubilant Morales, addressing thousands of supporters in the Plaza Murillo downtown. The new constitution provides autonomy for indigenous groups and clears the way for more socialist reforms by a president who already has moved to nationalize the nation’s energy and telecommunications sectors. However, Morales reportedly agreed to modify several of the constitution’s more incendiary sections,

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including those governing land reform and the authority of indigenous courts, which would augment the government judiciary. Morales, who took office in January 2006, also compromised on term limits. He agreed that he would be allowed to seek re-election to one five-year term; an earlier draft would have allowed him to run for two additional consecutive terms. Most analysts expect the constitution to be approved in a national vote scheduled for Jan. 25. Morales probably would then stand for reelection in December 2009. Ethnic, geographic and class divisions have split this nation of 9 million, South America’s poorest, since Morales won election as an outspoken advocate for the disenfranchised. Morales has labeled his opponents “oligarchs” and “fascist” allies of Washington, which he has

accused of plotting to oust him. Last month, he expelled the U.S. ambassador for alleged meddling in Bolivian affairs — a charge denied by the Bush administration. “The people will always be in favor of defeating the empire and neo-liberalism,” Morales told the cheering crowd, referring to the United States and its conservative economic strategies. Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, personally led a portion of a historic 100-mile-plus march on the capital pressuring Congress to pass the long-stymied constitutional package. Backing Morales on the route was an energized column estimated at 100,000 supporters, including peasants, helmeted miners, union activists and growers of the coca leaf, the raw ingredient in cocaine. continued on page 9

Iraqi leaders ask for changes in pact with U.S. BY Ned Parker and Saif Hameed Los Angeles T imes

Iraq’s Cabinet asked for changes in a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement Tuesday, once more casting doubt on the document’s speedy passage with less than three months to go before the U.N. mandate authorizing the presence of American troops in Iraq expires. The first Cabinet session reviewing the document revealed what a divisive issue the security agreement has become. Only the countr y’s Kurdish bloc is publicly backing the current accord, while Shiite Muslim and Sunni Arab allies of the United States remain war y of endorsing the draft, which had been described by both Americans and Iraqis as in its final form. The Iraqi side again called for more negotiations. “The Council of Ministers has unanimously agreed that there are necessar y amendments which need to be made to the current draft in order to raise the agreement to a nationally acceptable level,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement. The slow pace means an agreement might not be reached before the U.S. presidential election in two weeks, and that Iraqi and U.S. negotiators might ultimately forgo a long-term security agreement in favor of a more temporar y arrangement. In Washington, Secretar y of Defense Rober t M. Gates told reporters that the door to change was “pretty far closed” and warned that failure to reach a deal or renew the U.N. mandate would mean suspension of U.S. operations. “There is great reluctance to engage further in the drafting process,” he said, according to Reuters news ser vice. One Iraqi government official who attended the session said the Cabinet would start debating the suggested changes Sunday. He described the new objections as proof that the main factions in the government, particularly Shiite, are reluctant to risk their political future on an agreement that has been assailed by Iran and Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a rival to the ruling Shiite coalition. “These are diversionar y tactics. We’ve gone through this before and now we are back to square one,” the of ficial said. “Definitely we are running out of time.” The official heaped blame on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for failing to put his weight behind the draft. For his part, the prime minister said a decision on the agreement does not belong to him but the government. Al-Maliki told Kuwaiti journalists Thursday that he was not sure when the deal would go for ward. The Cabinet session Tuesday crushed lingering hopes that meetings last week involving al-Maliki, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and other top leaders might marshal the political will to shepherd the agreement through parliament.

Expectations were already low after al-Maliki’s political coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, or UIA, called for changes in the document’s wording over the weekend. The of ficial who attended Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting said some ministers called for the agreement to be put before a national referendum. Ministers also demanded alterations to the language regarding immunity of U.S. troops from prosecution in Iraqi courts and calling for a withdrawal of U.S. forces by the end of 2011. The language regarding immunity, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by the Los Angeles Times, provides U.S. military and government personnel protection from prosecution when they are on their bases or on missions. The agreement, according to an official Iraqi interpretation, would allow the Iraqi government to petition a joint U.S.-Iraqi committee if someone commits a serious and premeditated crime while on duty. If both sides agree, the suspect could stand trial in an Iraqi court. But the language is not precise enough for Cabinet members. Iraqi officials also have worried about the implications of a clause in the agreement allowing U.S. troops to stay beyond 2011 if both sides agree. “The Iraqis want to find a specific formula regarding the withdrawal that closes the door and doesn’t leave all the windows open,” said Sheik Jalaluddin alSaghir, a senior member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the largest party in the ruling Shiite coalition. The largest Sunni Arab political bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, also said it wanted clarifications to the text and that it probably would not endorse the agreement until the government’s Shiite majority made its position clear. “I think if the UIA and the Kurdish alliance agree on it, then we won’t object,” spokesman Salim Abdullah Jabouri said. Al-Saghir noted that Iraq could seek a renewable U.N. Security Council extension of the mandate for six months or one year to provide a legal umbrella for U.S. forces. Then U.S. and Iraqi officials could renew negotiations when the next U.S. president comes into office in Januar y. “When there is a new administration, there will be new options, new conditions,” al-Saghir said. Iraqi politicians are also mindful of their countr y’s provincial elections expected early next year and the public’s negative view of the U.S. after five years of sectarian war, suicide bombings and poor basic ser vices. Their stance ser ves to distance them from the Americans, whom they have relied upon since 2003. “It gives the message the Iraqi government is not a traitor, that America has not produced a fake government but a legal and true government,” Shiite lawmaker Sheik Humam Hamoodi said in a September inter view.

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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Water polo takes one of four west coast games

W. ruggers end regular season unbeaten

continued from page 12 ers the Bears got off to another slow start, leaving them down 9-2 at the half. “It’s obviously difficult playing teams that practice 360 days a year like UC Irvine does,” LeBeau said. “It was really impressive to see the guys really rally.” With two minutes remaining in the third quarter, Brown earned a six-on-five opportunity, giving Nico Fort ’09 the chance to put one away. This brought the score to 10-6. The Bears continued to fight back, earning another man-up opportunity with four minutes left to play. And hitting Hood for the goal, they brought the score to 11-8. But the Anteaters pulled away again, adding another two goals to increase their lead. While down late, the Bears continued to work hard, as LeBeau scored his second

penalty shot of the game with 49 seconds to play. Unfortunately for the Bears, the clock ran out on their comeback attempt, as the Anteaters held them off by a final score of 13-9. “Irvine was good because of the way we kept fighting,” Weintraub said. “We didn’t pull off the comeback but we didn’t give up, which was a testament to our toughness — that four games in we’re still working hard.” This weekend, the Bears head to Princeton University to take on Bucknell, George Washington and Navy. “This last weekend was good because it magnified ever y error that we made, ever y weakness that we had,” LeBeau said. “This upcoming weekend will be a big measuring stick for how we will do at Easterns. I think we are all eager to show how hard we’ve been working.”

Trudeau ’09: It’s still fun to say — your team sucks continued from page 12 NHL fans have ever laced up the skates), so we know and respect just how difficult it is to be that good at something. But respect seems like a questionable explanation when some of the most egotistical, selfish, idiotic and despicable people in the public eye are professional athletes. Besides, plenty of people are horrible painters and respect talented artists, but you don’t see tens of millions of people flocking to The Metropolitan Museum of Art every Sunday. Ross Trudeau ’06 offered this explanation (he’s an English major, so don’t feel bad if you don’t know some of the big words or small, difficult words): “Of course I’m aware of the inherent contradiction that baseball represents in my life. It’s frivolous entertainment. And yet it rules my emotions on a day-today basis to a degree that makes girlfriends scratch their heads (at best). I think about it the way I think about religion. I’m an atheist, and

to this day haven’t been able to satisfactorily answer the obvious questions about what my purpose is, or what the meaning of life is. It’s hard to square a logical answer to that question with a belief that we’re here ostensibly by accident. And yet I continue to work hard for little money at an inner city public school. In both cases we partition our beliefs extremely well. Our convictions are highly insular in this way.” Personally, I like what my friend from Toledo, Ohio, said to me this past weekend: “It doesn’t matter if it’s technically pointless. Life’s not fun if you don’t care.” And it’s a lot more fun when the Sox suck, Pats suck and Celtics (in that way that people used to say the Yankees sucked when they clearly didn’t suck) suck.

Tom Trudeau ’09 wants Boston fans to keep in mind that at least they won the Superbowl … oh wait.

Bolivian referendum on draft constitution approved continued from page 7 “Evo is our blood, and we will defend him to the death if necessary,” said Angel Condori, 58, a farmer who participated in the march, which is being called one of the largest ever here. Lawmakers approved the referendum after a reported 17 hours of debate. The opposition objected to much of the draft constitution as a power grab designed to consolidate what they call Morales’ autocratic rule. But Morales disagreed in an interview with the Spanish news agency EFE. “Evo is not ambitious,” he said. Still, critics in lowland states seeking greater autonomy from the capital based here in the western highlands assailed the draft.

“The only thing this will lead us to is confrontation and a lack of democracy,” Carlos Dabdoub, an autonomy advocate in the oppositioncontrolled state of Santa Cruz, told La Razon newspaper. A raucous constitutional convention convoked by Morales was split before the document was approved in December amid an opposition boycott. Morales is a protege of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose constitutional revisions were narrowly defeated in a referendum last year. Another ideological ally, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, pushed for a new constitution that was approved in September. In all three cases, the leftist presidents rejected criticism that they sought greater power through the constitutional reforms.

continued from page 12 “We did not take Dartmouth lightly, they are (a) ver y good squad peaking at the right time,” Heffernan wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “It was their Homecoming weekend so it was an emotional match for them, but we kept it cool and just engineered space on them. The second side was on fire and showed strong running and great patience.” The B-side’s dominant performance reflects the depth that Bruno has throughout its 42-player roster. The team’s strength is going to be especially important heading into Saturday’s championships, as the team is battling injuries. “One of the difficulties we’ve had the past few games has been injuries,” Brown said. “Girls are having to learn new positions, and that’s something we’ve been trying to work through at practice.” This week of practice will be crucial for the Bears, not only because of the adjustments they have to make due to injuries but also because they need to prepare for what is sure to be the team’s toughest competition of the year at the NERFU Championships. The tournament will feature the reigning national champion Bears; their perennial rival, UMass; Army, the No. 1 seed from the other conference; and Vassar. “Both UMass and Army will be really tough,” Heffernan wrote. “UMass always plays us close and Army is very physical, we’ll need to reduce mistakes and improve on reading the better options on the field. Both matches should be hard hitting.” Since the Bears’ opponents at the NERFU Championships will all be big, physical teams, Brown will have to utilize its speed in order to beat them.

“All the teams we’ll potentially face this weekend are strong in their for ward loose play — the rucks that form after tackles — where aggressive support can keep the ball or cause turnovers,” Assistant Coach Kurt Teichert wrote in an e-mail. “So we need to be prepared to have good close support and quickly get the ball out to our backs where we can go at them with a lot of speed and many different attacking combinations.” The Bears will be looking to use their speed and athleticism on both sides of the ball, and Bruno’s new style of defense provides them the opportunity to do just that. “We’re faster than they are, so since we won’t out-muscle them, we know we’ll have to use our backs to go wide and use our speed,” Brown said. “One of our strengths is that we’re playing a new style of defense that forces (fewer) players to go into contact. We’re able to use our speed and we’re able to secure the ball more rapidly.” In addition to their team speed, the Bears will also have the advantage of preparing for this weekend’s tough opponents by practicing against some really talented competition — their own teammates. “Because we have such a strong team of 42 girls, our B-Side has really been our toughest competition all year, so getting to practice against them every week has really been one of the reasons why we’re able to keep improving,” Flynn said. Heffernan agreed, but stressed the importance of not taking things too far. “We need to prepare for the intense contact (we’re going to get from NERFU Championship opponents) without beating ourselves up too badly in practice,” Heffernan wrote. The Bears’ ability to work hard and play physical with each other in

practice has created a strong team bond that Brown feels is one of the main reasons for Bruno’s success in recent years. “We have a great team culture, we’re all good friends and we work hard and push each other to succeed as a unit,” Brown said. The team’s friendship on and off the practice field has translated into better communication that leads to wins on game days. “Since we’re all really tight, we all know how each other play and we know everyone’s personal strengths and abilities,” Flynn said. “Because of that, we know where everyone is going to be on the field, and we make sure to put our support players in positions where we know we’re going to succeed.” Bruno will need to capitalize on all of its strengths — speed, athleticism, and teamwork — to hold off perennial rival UMass, who the Bears take on in the NERFU Championships qualifying round. “We haven’t gotten along with UMass on the field in previous years,” Brown said. “We know they’re really different from us in that they have really strong forwards and are much bigger in general. It’s always a really physical game and it’s definitely a rivalry.” The Bears will play the Minutewomen at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Berylson Family Fields behind the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center. If Brown is able to speed past their rivals, the team will then take on the winner of the other qualifier game between Army and Vassar in the championship match at 3 p.m. “It’s tough to be the team everyone is shooting to beat, but I see the players growing and believing they belong and have a responsibility to deliver,” Heffernan wrote. “We are hosting the tournament, and it’s parents’ weekend so we want to put on a good show.”

Banks reassigning use of bailout money By Peter Whoriskey and Zachary A. Goldfarb Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Several major U.S. banks are leaning toward spending a portion of their federal rescue money on acquiring other financial firms rather than for issuing new loans, the primary purpose of the government’s $250 billion initiative to invest in banks. J.P. Morgan Chase, BB&T, and Zions Bancorporation have all said in recent days that they are considering using some of their federal money to buy other banks. About 10 financial institutions belonging to the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents 100 of the nation’s largest financial services firms, are also considering making acquisitions with the money, said Scott Talbott, the group’s senior vice president. There is a growing consensus among Treasur y and other federal officials that allowing healthy banks to use the money to acquire banks in jeopardy of failing could stabilize the economy and bolster confidence in banks. This could also save money for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Treasur y Secretar y Henr y Paulson confirmed Tuesday that some banks may use the capital they receive through the Treasury program to buy weaker banks and that this could benefit the financial system.

In an appearance on “Charlie Rose,” Paulson said acquisitions were “not the driver behind this program. The driver is to have our ... healthy banks be well-capitalized so they can play the role they need to play for our country right now.” He added, “There will be some situations where it’s best for the economy and for the banking system for there to be a consolidation.” Under the $250 billion program, the federal government will give banks cash in exchange for preferred shares. The interest among banks in tapping the funds to finance acquisitions raises the possibility that the financial ser vices industr y could undergo a wave of mergers even more intense than what many analysts had predicted. According to some analysts, an excess of mergers and acquisitions in the financial sector over the past decade created too many institutions deemed “too big too fail,” meaning that the government would be obliged to rescue them if they faltered. Now, some worry the government’s program will continue to drive that trend. “I think it’s a ver y serious problem, and I think it’s part of a general failure to enforce antitrust laws in the last few years,” Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday. “So one of the

things I think is part of your exit strategy is that we have to think about breaking up some of the big banks,” added Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor. But supporters of consolidation say that bigger banks have bigger financial cushions and that healthier banks are able to buy — and save — weaker ones. The Treasury program, which is designed to aid only healthy banks, could widen the disparity between the strong and the weak, analysts said. Some of the weakened banks could then be forced to look for a merger to survive. “If the Treasury withholds its capital injection from banks ... , then we could see many firms looking for partners in short order, as they would be at a competitive disadvantage against their peers,” Morgan Stanley analyst Ken Zerbe wrote in a note to investors this week. When the Treasury’s program was announced last week, some bank executives said they didn’t need the money and resented the federal intrusion. But in a number of earnings calls and interviews in recent days, several bank executives were more receptive. The federal deal is relatively sweet in financial terms — it requires banks to pay 5 percent interest annually on the investment over the first five years — and some bankers said they would not pass it up.

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Devil is in the details

When members of the Brown community checked their e-mail earlier this month, they found a letter from President Ruth Simmons, with a link to her remarks on the financial environment, as given at an Oct. 6 faculty meeting. In these comments, Simmons encouragingly noted that the University was on “a reasonable, manageable trajectory insofar as the operating budget is concerned.” Her active response to the growing concern on College Hill was received warmly by the student body, and left this editorial board feeling that we were in “good hands.” But returning to her remarks after more reflection, we feel the need to ask new questions. For while Simmons did take a step toward greater transparency on Brown’s response to the economic crisis, her comments still stir some troubling thoughts. For example, on second reading, her note that “even as we were inclined to build more costs into our budget, we took into account the possibility that revenue streams could weaken” strikes us as opaque and directs our desire for more information. Certainly, it is beneficial that the University reportedly had the foresight to account for lower operating revenue in its operating budget for this fiscal year. However, the fact that it exercised foresight merely points us to the more important question of whether it exercised adequate foresight. Hence, we are inclined to return to her remarks. And our return prompts us to believe that the real issue is not whether the University is currently managing its budget. Rather, it is whether and to what extent it projects a shortfall between revenue and expenditures for this fiscal year. Simmons reported that revenues are declining this fiscal year in the statement. She instructively advised that while the University had one of “the top 5-6 endowment returns in the country” for the fiscal year that ended June 30, its returns are “down about 5 percent” and are likely to be further reduced by the recent downturns in the market. She also noted that the University is not “immune” to market forces such as the “rising cost of debt” or to economic retrenchment that may have a “potential impact on giving.” We sincerely appreciate these comments. However, if we are to understand the total financial equation of the University, we urge President Simmons to follow up with a few more details. In particular we are curious as to how expenses relate to revenues. For example, with the new finanical aid changes, will there be an impact on tuition revenue? This issue is especially important given the short-term credit crisis in our economy. If there is a shortfall between revenue and expenses for this fiscal year, the University may have to depend on short-term credit to fund its operating expenses. Or failing that, it may have dip into the principal of the endowment to fund any operating shortfalls. In fairness to President Simmons, she does address this issue, in part, when she announces that the University has “not encountered some of the short-term disruptions that many colleges and universities have faced.” In sum and substance, President Simmons’ letter leaves us wanting more, as our second glance suggests that Simmons seemed to parse her words with great care. While President Simmons’ comments may assuage some of our concerns, she can perhaps further address the possibility that the University may face a short-term credit crisis in the future or explain whether it has a contingency plan should this occur.

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

Senior Editors Irene Chen Lindsey Meyers

Executive Editors Taylor Barnes Chris Gang

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 Assoc. Design Editor Chaz Kelsh Copy Desk Chief Kathryn Delaney Copy Desk Chief Seth Motel Graphics Editor Adam Robbins

PATRICIA CHOU

Letters Every class should get its four hours To the Editor: As a junior, I have taken many courses at Brown in a variety of departments and I have noticed that the level of work fluctuates each semester. The way that Brown’s credit system works, I choose four courses each semester and all courses count equally. Unfortunately this is not an accurate measure of each class’ workload nor does it account for interaction with the professor. The registrar claims that one credit is equivalent to four credit-hours at other institutions, yet in the syllabus for a course I am taking it states that “the class will meet for 2.4 hours each week.” If you count in starting late and the break in the

middle, I am only getting half the face time that the registrar claims, and that I pay for. At the same time there are courses like organic chemistry where the inclass time exceeds eight hours per week. This can mean that one semester a student can have commitments to spend over 20 hours per week while others they can spend as few as 10. At the very least I suggest that the registrar require all professors to schedule four hours each week for class time. For those who only spend 10 hours a week in class, it would be like getting a 60 percent bonus. Neal Cohen ’10 Oct. 21

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

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post- magazine Matt Hill Rajiv Jayadevan Arthur Matuszewski Colleen Brogan Kelly McKowen Patrick Martin-Tuite Bob Short Monica Huang Kristen Olds

Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor From the Hill Editor Film Editor Music Editor Layout Editor Layout Editor

Anna Migliaccio, Jessica Calihan, Chaz Kelsh, Designers Tarah Knaresboro, Janine Lopez, Jordan Mainzer, Luis Solis, Copy Editors Michael Bechek, Melissa Shube, 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 22, 2008

Page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Deconstructing gender, Lego style BY ADAM CAMBIER Opinions Columnist Legos are pretty much one of my favorite things on the planet. Looking back over the years, I’ve realized that I may have spent just as much money on the small plastic bricks in my lifetime as I have on food. A quick glance at my basement would probably reveal more Lego ice stations, Lego drilling machines and Lego Star Wars sets than I’d like to admit to owning in public. Imagine my considerable consternation, then, when I discovered that my favorite toy has been attacked by a Swedish advertising watchdog group for promoting stereotypical gender roles. The Trade Ethical Council against Sexism in Advertising (also known as the ERK) points to a recent Lego catalog as evidence of the company’s effronter y. One page in the catalog depicts a young girl dressed in pink in a pink room playing with pink ponies and a pink palace, altogether described as “ever ything a princess could wish for.” The next page featured a young boy whose room, painted blue, was full of Lego fire trucks, police stations, airplanes and other things that might conceivably provide the potential for satisfying explosions. The caption for this page describes the toy sets as “tons of blocks for slightly older boys.” Personally, I fail to see the problem. I don’t have much of a desire to play with Lego ponies and princesses, and I doubt that too many little girls share my penchant for having the Lego Millennium Falcon blast

enormous ice robots back into the Stone Age. The ERK, unfortunately, disagrees. It contends that the Lego catalog “preserve(s) traditional and anachronistic gender roles” and “constitute(s) a form of stereotyping degrading to both men and women.” Lego defended its catalog by pointing out other pages that depicted boys and girls playing together with the same toy sets,

tea parties, and little girls would be seen helping little boys rack up as many little plastic fatalities as possible when the 6:38 to Boston jumps the tracks and lands on top of the rock monster’s volcano lair. This solution looks good on paper, but I don’t buy it. Deny it all you want, but most little boys aren’t huge on princesses and most little girls aren’t particularly into explosions. Since Lego can’t realistically market

I don’t have much of a desire to play with Lego ponies and princesses, and I doubt that too many little girls share my penchant for having the Lego Millennium Falcon blast enormous ice robots back into the Stone Age. but the ERK was quick to cite a rule from the International Chamber of Commerce that prohibits advertising that discriminates when it comes to gender. The way I see it, Lego has two options. The first is to print catalogs that feature both boys and girls playing with ever y type of set: little boys would be photographed helping little girls throw unicorn princess

sets like these to children of both genders, the obvious alternative is to create all new sets that appeal to each gender separately but break the mold of traditional gender roles. For boys, why not create a set depicting Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha? Like traditional sets, it stems from little boys’ propensity to smash things together, but it substitutes

fiery passion and the death of oppression for regular old fire and death. And if that doesn’t float your boat, why not buy a Lego set based on the Age of Enlightenment? These sets trade in actual physical upheaval for its intellectual counterpart, and little boys could spend hours playing with plastic figurines of Hume, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. The possibilities for girls are just as endless: instead of promoting gendered sets featuring princesses and ponies, why not highlight the rebellion of the feminist movement and the bra-burning of the 1960s? Sets like these would show little girls that there’s more to femininity than the color pink; even better, because they’re basically shaped like rectangular prisms, Lego women don’t really need bra support anyways. Other sets could depict the life of Frida Kahlo: a bus crash set could put traditional Lego explosions to use, using the aftermath to inspire plastic Frida to spend the rest of her life expressing her pain and sexuality on canvas. Frida sets make good economical sense for Lego, too, since it already manufactures plenty of plastic heads featuring moustaches. The ERK’s accusations have put Lego in a tough spot, but the controversy over its catalog gives the company an opportunity to change the world. Rather than hew anachronistic notions, Lego now has the chance to deconstruct how we think about gender, brick by brick.

Adam Cambier ’09 can make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

Why conservatives should be skeptical of community organizing BY anish mitra Opinions Columnist In the recent past, The Herald ran a column by Matthew Corritore ’09 (“Why conservatives should love community organizing,” Oct. 17) that examined conservatives’ aversion to community organizing. Unfortunately, the piece conflated opposition to Obama with opposition to organizing and neglected to mention why organizing gives conser vatives pause. First, many conser vatives supporting McCain and Palin (and opposing Obama and Biden) do not deride community organizing in and of itself. They only claim that Obama’s experience as a community organizer does not qualify him for the American presidency. The column also seemed to suggest that conservatives laud Palin simply because she was a small-town mayor. In fact, ver y few conservatives would support all small-town mayors based on their title alone. Nevertheless, even a small-town mayor has credentials that a community organizer lacks. While community organizers may have good intentions, they legally cannot provide official representation and are not legitimate political operators. Corritore misleadingly compared Obama’s community organizing days to Palin’s terms as mayor. Obama’s supporters glorify his time as a community organizer because, quite frankly, they have little else to glorify. While some crazed supporters can name

obscure pieces of legislation that Obama has sponsored here and there, he does not have a long track record as an Illinois and United States senator. Palin, on the other hand, has held two other prominent leadership positions: as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation commission and governor of Alaska. Corritore completely overlooks these facts

draw attention to Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” a document appropriately considered the official handbook for community organizers. A cursory reading of these rules shows that community organizing is, at its roots, anything but civilized. Alinsky’s rules constantly invoke militant imager y; He paints community members as soldiers and envi-

Community organizing is, at its roots, anything but civilized. by exclusively emphasizing her time as Wasilla’s mayor. National politics aside, Corritore’s characterization of community organizing is deeply flawed. He claims that community organizing is not radical by nature, and is a harmless, civilized way to better individuals. This skewed conception of community organizing comes straight from Saul Alinsky, the man widely considered the father of community organizing. I would like to

sions the community as an army. Alinsky himself would say, “the first step in community organization is community disorganization” (meaning that the future organizer should first instill some sort of resentment amongst the neighborhood about the issue in question). After this is done, “the organizer tries to create a mass army that brings in as many recruits as possible.” In addition to promoting hysteria, Alinsky also values deception. In Rule 1 he advises

organizers that “power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.” The last cornerstone of Alinsky’s strategy centers on the creative use of fear and the power of threats. Rule 9 proclaims “the threat is more terrifying than the thing itself.” To demonstrate this dangerous principle, Alinsky once spread word that hoards of Chicago’s poor would occupy and vandalize the bathrooms in O’Hare airport. To avoid national embarrassment, Chicago officials regrettably caved into his demands and created a ghetto organization that Alinsky’s soldiers had been demanding for some time. Alinsky’s rules are riddled with militant, anti-establishment language. If community organizing were as friendly as Corritore suggests, why would its father fill his handbook with words like “tactic,” “fear,” “weapon,” “army,” “opponent” and “attack?” The cornerstone of Alinsky’s philosophy revolves around the fact that the current establishment is the “enemy,” and the apparently good-natured community organizer needs to develop an unrelenting army of soldiers to force change. There is nothing democratic or individualistic about this philosophy. It requires everyone (excepting the organizer) to submit themselves to the infantry, vying for a “higher cause.”

Anish Mitra ’10 is creating a mass army.

S ports W ednesday Page 12

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Remind me: why do we care, again? Really quick, what time is the Sox game on Wednesday? During the Yankees run of six World Series births and four wins in eight seasons, I marveled at the disdain other baseball fans had for the Bombers. I sometimes wondered if Red Sox fans actually hated Tom Trudeau the Yankees Tru Story more than they loved the Sox. I felt bad for them, until I became one of them. Not a Yankee hater, of course, but certainly a hater in general. I’d like to think I’ve matured since my days of anti-Boston outbursts as a high school student, impulsively chanting “19-18” on the streets of Boston to complete strangers wearing New England sports hats. Maybe I have, but as a sports fan, I’ve regressed. I spend more time rooting against USC football, Duke basketball, the Patriots, Celtics and Sox than I ever did in high school. I don’t know why I’m compelled to tell 5-year-olds wearing Red Sox hats that they’re making a lifelong mistake, but I often do. My anti-Boston outbursts have sadly returned (18-1*, anyone?), although I have that under more control than I did in my younger days. So why do I care about sports to the point that I’m legitimately upset when teams that I don’t even root for succeed? Or rather, why do we care so much? I know for a fact that I’m not the only one. In fact, I have proof. In addition to a life of anti-Yankee fan anecdotes (I was refused mail my first day at Brown because of my Yankee hat. Not “Ha ha, just kidding” but, “Seriously, you’re not getting your mail.”) I also received a couple dozen text messages and e-mails ranging from happy to joyful within ten minutes of Jed Lowrie grounding out to end the Sox’ repeat bid on Sunday night. For example, “Is my new Facebook status obnoxious enough? I want to try to stick the knife all the way through the heart and then twist it and stab it from the other side.” And if you think this potentially irrational passion for (technically) meaningless games is confined to men, then you’ll be surprised to know that last gem was from a woman. I’ve asked around and tried to read up on this ver y question as much as I can, and it’s been very difficult to come up with a consensus. If you read on the Internet about people trying to explain why they love sports, they’ll no doubt reference the bonding experience that comes with watching a game with your family, friends, or even strangers. But if we love sports just to be in a group, then how do you explain the army of sports fans like myself that usually watch and read about sports alone? Some people reference the great respect they have for the athletes they are watching. Indeed, most sports fans at some point have played the game(s) they love (although I question whether continued on page 9

W. rugby wraps up undefeated regular season By Megan McCahill Sports Editor

Last Saturday, the women’s rugby team defeated a fired-up Dartmouth squad, 10-5, on the road, finishing its regular season with a 9-0 record that gives the team plenty of momentum heading into this Saturday’s New England Rugby Football Union Championships. “Dartmouth was a really fastpaced game,” said Ploipailin Flynn ’09. “It was the first time we played a team that has provided good competition for our backs.” The Bears jumped out to a quick 10-0 halftime lead thanks to scores by Blaine Martin ’11 and Yadi Ibarra ’09. But the Big Green, feeding off of the energy from its Homecoming weekend crowd, capitalized on a few Brown letdowns to keep the game close. “We had a few moments where we lagged a bit, and Dartmouth was able to capitalize on those,” said Whitney Brown ’08.5. “Dartmouth played fantastic, probably their best game of the season, and I was proud that we were able to come out of there with the win. It was good preparation to play a tough game heading into the NERFU Championships this weekend.” Head Coach Kerrissa Heffernan was proud of the Bears’ ability to stay calm through the momentum shifts of the game, and praised the B-side for their outstanding play in their 43-0 victory. continued on page 9

Herald File Photo

Women’s rugby beat Dartmouth 10-5 to finish the regular season undefeated. The team heads to the New England Rugby Football Union Championships Saturday.

S po r t s i n Brief Strong finishes for rowers in Boston The women’s crew team started the defense of its national title with seventh and 23rd place finishes by the A and B boats, respectively, at the 5000-meter Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston this past weekend. The Championship Eight’s time of 16:43 beat Ivy foe Princeton by less than half a second. The US Rowing squad beat Bruno by only 13 seconds, and the other top-six finishers constituted a national team field that included Canada and the Netherlands. The B boat finished well ahead of many of the other collegiate A boats that were competing, coming in with a time of 17:25. The Championship Four took eighth. The Bears will continue their national championship defense next weekend at the Princeton Chase. The men’s crew finished on top of all the Ivy and EARC teams that competed in the men’s Head of the Charles race, taking second overall to Washington. The Bears were only 1.7 seconds behind the Huskies with their time of 14:29, while beating out national teams from all over Europe. They also had to overcome interference by the Wisconsin boat on the way to one of their best finishes at this race in a decade. The B boat finished eighth, and the Championship Four took 17th after incurring a penalty for interference. The next race for the men is the Tail of the Charles Nov. 22. — Amy Ehrhart

No. 18 m. water polo beaten by tough California teams By Anne Deggelman Staf f Writer

Last Tuesday night the men’s water polo team took down Connecticut College to become the first water polo team in Brown’s history to go undefeated in league play. Having left their mark on the East Coast, the No. 18 Bears traveled to Southern California to take on some of the best teams in the countr y. In four hard fought games, the Bears came out on top against Claremont-MuddScripps but fell to No. 6 Loyola Marymount, No. 4 UCLA and No. 9 UC Ir vine. “It was a tough weekend,” said Assistant Coach John McBride. “We definitely had some rough spots but we have a good foundation to work from. We want to win Easterns and we need those kind of games to do that.” The Bears star ted of f their California trip with a tough loss against LMU on Saturday afternoon by a score of 13-4. Captain Grant LeBeau ’09 led the Bears on offense, scoring their only goal in the first half. But the Lions finished of f the first half with a 7-1 lead. Gordon Hood ’11 tired to jump-star t Brown’s offense in the third quarter with a goal, while LeBeau and Brandon Yoshimura ’11 each scored in the fourth. Kent Holland ’10 worked hard in the cage, tallying nine saves throughout the game. But LMU continued to attack the Bears,

scoring another six goals to finish out the game at 13-4. Bruno was back in action later that afternoon to take down Claremont by a score of 12-8. “The Claremont game was good because we held it together even though we were tired,” said Hank Weintraub ’09. “That was big after playing LMU.” Hood continued to dominate the Bears’ offense, scoring three goals for Brown. But Hood wasn’t the only one scoring. Mike Gartner ’09, Corey Schwartz ’11 and Weintraub each scored two goals. Yoshimura and LeBeau also scored one goal apiece. “Gordon probably led the team in goals, which is really impressive since he’s our primar y defender,” said LeBeau. “But overall I think that the weekend was really a team effort.” When teams put extra pressure on Gartner, they left Hood and the other members of the Brown offense open. The team also relied on their bench players throughout the weekend to ease the pressure of the starters. “It was a good opportunity for our bench players to get some good experience,” McBride said. “We’re going to need our bench if we want to win Easterns.” On Sunday, the Bears took on two more top-ten competitors, falling to UCLA, 14-2, and UC Irvine, 13-9. The UCLA Bruins got an early lead against the Bears, and Brown was only able to get one goal,

Herald File Photo

Men’s water polo fell to top-ranked teams in its California trip, but defeated Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

scored by Yoshimura, in the first half, bringing the score to 8-1. While UCLA continued to score in the second half, Hood was able to notch another goal for Bruno with seven minutes left to play. Despite the 14-2 final score, Brown’s defense put together some im-

pressive highlights against the powerful Bruins’ attack. “Kent blocked a couple one-onnobodies, which was incredible,” Weintraub said. Against the UC Ir vine Anteatcontinued on page 9