The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, O ctober 29, 2008
Volume CXLIII, No. 101
Since 1866, Daily Since 1891
Linney ’86 talks about life, acting to packed Salomon By Alexandra Ulmer Staff Writer
Laura Linney ’86 spoke to a large Salomon Center crowd last night about the healing power of art, the importance of attention to detail in good acting and the unpredictability of life, all with a dash of quirky humor. “My life is bigger and more complicated and more flavorful than I ever thought it could be,” said Linney, a three-time Academy Awardnominated actress. Linney described her journey from memorizing lines on the Main Green to being directed by Clint Eastwood. In the event, hosted by Friends of the Library in the De Ciccio Family Auditorium, Linney lectured for just five minutes before taking questions for more than an hour. Linney was most recently nominated for an Oscar this year for her starring role in “The Savages” alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman, and won an Emmy Award for her role as Abigail Adams in the HBO television series “John Adams.” Her parts in “Love Actually” and “The Truman Show” have made her a household
name. “I’m well-known, but I’m not famous,” Linney said. “I really feel like I was here yesterday.” She used to be a “closeted actress,” she said, realizing her passion during late adolescence and deciding to go to Northwestern University to pursue it. But she realized she also wanted a strong liberal education, and transferred to Brown after a year. “It’s unconventional for actors to have such an academic background,” Linney said. “For me, it was essential.” At Brown, Linney said, she spent most of her time doing theater, and had never considered a career in film. Gradually, she transitioned to films, and has grown to love the field as much as she loves theater, she said. At first, she took small parts — often playing a schoolteacher or a lawyer, she said, adding that she has no favorite role of the many she has played. Acting, however, is not an “easy life,” she added. “The costs are not being able to go to marriages, to continued on page 4
Move to end Columbus Day at U. gets push By Nicole Friedman Contributing Writer
and on the other hand, the whites (do) not see him as one amongst them,” said Oscar Brookins, an associate professor of economics at Northeastern University. Obama’s racial identity is problematic as a political issue, said Pete Shungu, a community organizer in Boston, because his opponents characterize any mention he makes of his race as “playing the race card.” The problem for Obama is exacerbated, Shungu said, by the risk of alienating a particular demographic in identifying himself. “For him to identify as multiracial, people look at that immediately as identifying as not black,” Shungu said. Despite the dif ficulties of discussing his own race directly
Administrators, faculty and staff should address the recent student proposal that the University stop obser ving Columbus Day, the Brown University Community Council unanimously recommended yesterday. The resolution came in response to a presentation by Reiko Koyama ’11, Dana Eldridge ’10 and Jerr y Wolf Duff Sellers ’09, who said that in future years Brown should not observe Columbus Day by cancelling all University exercises, and instead choose a different day off. The students also proposed that the University designate a week in October as “Indigenous Week” for discussions, events and lectures about Native American history. Nearly 20 supporters showed up to the meeting and held up signs with slogans like “Historical Accuracy is Important to Me” and “Hear Indigenous Voices” during the council’s discussion of the proposal. Observing Columbus Day, Koyama said in her presentation, is “in effect condoning the atrocities that (Columbus) was responsible for” and “at odds with Brown’s reputation.” Brown and Harvard are the only Ivy League schools that currently recognize Columbus Day. But in discussion, council members raised concerns about where the line should be drawn between abolishing Columbus Day and doing away with other holidays that could be seen as honoring shameful points in history, such as Thanksgiving. Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 also addressed the “practical issues” of having a holiday calendar at odds with that of Providence’s school district, where many children of faculty and staff attend school. While the presenters recognized that the calendar change could be inconvenient for some community members, it would allow Brown to serve as a role model and set a precedent for local school districts, Koyama said. “This is not a departure point of Brown from Columbus Day,” Sellers said. “Increased dialogue is a cornerstone.” The council was hesitant to take action on the issue without first holding a broader community forum, but President Ruth Simmons urged members to make a statement of support in the face of what she warned could be “tremendous resentment” and “a lot of national attention directed at students for doing this.” “I think it would be important for us to have a sort of community statement about this,” Simmons said.
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Eunice Hong / Herald
Emmy-winning actress Laura Linney ‘86 spoke about her career in the Salomon Center yesterday. She also spent the afternoon coaching students in acting. See Q&A, Page 4
Best friends, roomies and loved ones: voting for the other guy By Lauren Pischel Staff Writer
When Caitlin Clark ’11 purchased an inflatable John McCain doll for her common room, seven eighths of her Chapin House suite approved. But Whitney Sparks ’11 was quick to remind her roommates that they lived in a “bipartisan suite.” For those who room with or date a person of opposite partisan
persuasion, political difference is a her relationship with conservative Graham Rogers ’11. part of everyday life. But with the presidential elec“Even if we don’t change each tion only days away, roommates other’s mind, we come out underand couples at political standing (the other’s odds with one another opinion) more,” Rogers FEATURE have had a lot more to said. talk about in the dorm room. At the beginning of their rela“In a lot of conversations, we tionship, “our conversations about are sure that one of us will change politics were really heated,” Mothe other person’s mind,” said Ju- hamed said. “It was hard to see lie Mohamed ’11, a liberal, about where the other person was com-
hel p y o ursel f — reall y
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HIGHER ED
health benefits at risk Across the U.S., universities are cutting back on graduate student health insurance
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Barack Obama has been heralded as the first black man to reach the threshold of the presidency. But Obama is not black — or at least not only black, professors and community organizers said last night at a Multiracial Identity Week panel. “In France, he’s understood as a mixed-race candidate,” said Kimberly McClain DaCosta, a professor of social studies at Harvard. However, Obama’s identity is not as simple in the United States, said the panel’s moderator, Evelyn Hu-Dehart, a professor of history at Brown and director of the University’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. Panel members agreed. “On the one hand, blacks (do) not see him as one amongst them,
roof-napping Crime Log: A student’s habit of sleeping on top of the Sciences CAMPUS LIFE Library is discovered
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Panel says challenges remain for those of multiracial identity By Riley Blanton Contributing Writer
Meara Sharma / Herald Trying to get cars off campus, some colleges are giving out bicycles to students.
ing from. I guess we’ve learned to deal with it.” Though it almost cer tainly fosters debate, political disagreement does not necessarily mean incompatibility. For the Chapin suite of girls — Clark, Sparks, Abby Hinds ’11 and Shannon Stacey ’11 — their conversations take the form of roundtable discussions.
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OPINIONS
BEYOND ‘REAL AMERICA’ Sarah Rosenthal ’11 thinks politicians should acknowledge the rest of the country, too
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
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nice fall finish The women’s golf team ends its season with a season-best second-place finish
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T oday Page 2
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
We a t h e r
Brown Meets RISD | Miguel Llorente
TODAY
TOMORROW
partly cloudy 47 / 32
sunny 51 / 31
Menu Sharpe Refectory
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Beef and Broccoli Szechwan, Spinach Strudel with Cream Cheese Sauce, Sticky Rice with Edamame
Lunch — Pulled Pork Sandwich, Grecian Zucchini Bake, Fresh Sliced Carrots, Sugar Cookies
Dinner — Pork Chops with Seasoned Crumbs, Macaroni and Cheese with Avocados and Tomatoes
Dinner — Sesame Chicken Strips with Mustard Sauce, Egg Foo Young, Jamaican Pork and Apricot Saute
Epimetheos | Samuel Holzman
Sudoku Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.
Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley
Alien Weather Forecast | Stephen Lichenstein and Adam Wagner
RELEASE DATE– Wednesday,©October 29, 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 Honalee frolicker 5 Babe often seen running home? 9 Old Turkish title 14 Spiced tea 15 Jacob’s brother 16 Prankish 17 Pretended not to see, with “to” 20 Like many whistles 21 Contribute 22 Word with canal or drum 23 Huge hit 26 Light source 28 Belladonna or bittersweet 32 Edible South American tuber 34 Madison, in NYC 35 “Walk the Line” actress Witherspoon 36 Loses hair 38 “That’ll show you” 40 Subtitle of the last “Godfather” film 42 Shaw with a band 43 Tea biscuit 45 Rest room sign 46 “Who touches a hair of __ gray head ...”: Whittier 47 One on a shooting spree? 49 Dance move 51 Back of a single 52 Sun, in Saltillo 54 Get-up-and-go 56 Turns back to zero 60 End of a Broadway run, figuratively 64 NBC newsman Roger 65 Parts of semanas 66 Fed. food inspector 67 Vatican leaders 68 Small body-shop job 69 Nest emanation DOWN 1 Exam scores: Abbr.
2 “No way!” 36 Dog show 52 Cease 3 “M*A*S*H” actor attendee 53 “Yikes!” 4 Complete 37 Do a number 55 Anti-DWI gp. 5 High-tech pointer 39 Trace 57 Relax 6 1996 Olympics 41 Corrosion58 Laundry room host preventing brand 7 File folder feature 44 Chicago player 59 Piece of cake 8 Island dance 47 Turn in a game of 61 Old cry of 9 Bamboo eater dreidel annoyance 10 Fish-chips 48 Gather one’s 62 Recline connector strength 63 Soda 11 Tough uphill 50 Harmful aspects container struggle 12 “Howdy!” ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 13 One demonstrating excellent service? 18 Source of splitresistant wood 19 Sit at a red light 24 “Good grief!” 25 Contains 27 Medieval attack deterrent 28 Shuttle org. 29 Traditional key material 30 Overcome the insomnia 31 Railroad stops 33 So long, by the 10/29/08 xwordeditor@aol.com Seine
Classic How To Get Down | Nate Saunders
Classic Deo | Daniel Perez
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Wednesday, October 29, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Looking to cut down on cars, some schools pass out bikes
Health benefits for U.S. grad students at risk
170 freshmen at Ripon College get wheels
If grad school and strollers are both in your future, you may want to think about staggering your studies and starting a family. Recently, graduate students at Stanford University and three University of California campuses have had their health benefits significantly reduced. At these two universities and a number of others across the country, health insurance for the family members of graduate students has been cut, leaving some to look for coverage elsewhere. The diminished coverage at these schools seems indicative of a national trend, according to Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a health care advocacy group in Oakland, Calif. “It is within trends not just in California, but across the nation to have employers and universities drop dependant coverage. It’s disturbing,” he said. In addition to Stanford and the University of California branches at Berkeley, Davis and Ir vine, coverage for graduate students’ dependents has also been cut at the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary. Stanford administrators opted to cut insurance coverage for dependents of graduate students in 2006, saying that the plans were not cost effective. They arrived at the decision in consultation with the Stanford Graduate Student Council, according to Ira Friedman, director of Stanford’s health services. The plan was only covering around 100 spouses and children, and the small number of people
By Zunaira Choudhary Staff Writer
How would you like a free bike? The only catch: your precious car must be left parked at home. For freshman at two colleges, that option is giving them an alternative way to travel. The programs at Ripon College in Wisconsin and the University of New England in Maine, which give students who don’t bring a car to campus a new bike, are part of a growing trend of universities trying to discourage the use of cars on campus. This year, 170 freshmen at Ripon College received brand new Trek 820 mountain bikes in exchange for signing a pledge not to bring a car to campus. Although the Ripon Velorution Project was started to deal with a shortage of parking on campus, the college also has promoted it as a way to “reduce the College’s ecological footprint” and help lessen the “societal ills of obesity, traffic congestion, fuel consumption and pollution,” according to the program’s Web site. The deal has led freshmen to “find fun in Ripon” as “more kids are spending time in town,” said Ripon freshman Charlotte Evans. Calling the student response to the program “excellent,” she said that it has fostered an atmosphere with new bike-owners planning excursions together. “Me and some friends go riding across town to the prairie,” said Evans, adding that she has met many more people since joining the cycling community. Ric Damm, coordinator of the
program and head coach of Ripon’s cycling team, said that discussions of the bike-giveaway incentive began with Ripon President David Joyce, whom Damm described as an “avid cyclist” and a fellow competitor in mountain biking series. When Joyce remarked that he wished there were more bikes used on campus, the two researched the cost of the program and Joyce made a “spur of the moment” decision to go ahead with it, Damm said. For students attending Ripon, a college situated in a town two miles in diameter, bikes are an “ideal way to get around,” Damm said. While the school plans on conducting surveys to measure how frequently the bikes are actually being used, Damm said he guessed that overall, students are riding them “less than we anticipated,” but added that “several dozen are using them all the time.” At the University of New England, offering free bicycles to freshmen who don’t bring cars to campus is one part of a larger program to address the issue of insufficient parking, said Kathleen Taggersell, director of marketing and communications. In addition to an expanded shuttle service, the class of 2012 had a choice of incentives to leave their cars at home: access to two Zipcars with 28 hours of free usage or a nearly $500 Gary Fisher Tiburon bicycle, complete with lock and helmet. Taggersell said the free bike program has been “very successful,” noting that 75 percent of freshmen brought cars to campus last year compared to only a quarter who did so with the new incentives. There continued on page 9
Bleak employment scene? There’s always Uncle Sam By Hannah Moser Staf f Writer
Hiring prospects are looking dim across the board. The only exception? Government. Fifty-two percent of employers sur veyed in the Job Outlook 2009 Special Repor t said they would probably “be hiring fewer graduates during the 2009 recruiting season than they hired from the Class of 2008.” The sur vey was conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers between Oct. 6 and 17. The results show a marked increase from about one-third of the same employers sur veyed in August who said they were “reassessing their projection of college hires downward.” The report found that between August and October, expectations for manufacturing and professional ser vice jobs remained steady, but expectations for hiring in business ser vices, finance and insurance, distribution and utilities, trade and agriculture decreased with the biggest hit coming to construction, a 19.6 percent reduction. Federal government was the only area where expectations surged, with a 19.8 percent positive change. Geeta Chougule, the faculty liaison for Brown’s Government
at Work project, said the government hiring increase stems from baby boomers who will retire in the next five years, leaving vacancies in one-third of government jobs. She said the economic downturn has not affected the federal government as “drastically” as other job markets. The Government at Work program helps students apply for government jobs, guiding them through the application and security clearance processes. The initiative star ted in Januar y, so Chougule said she could not compare interest in the program to past years. Chougule said in the past, government posts were filled by people who just “fell in” to them, and the federal government wasn’t generally known for recruiting. But with one-third of the workforce retiring, Chougule said “they really are looking for the best and brightest.” The government is especially tr ying to find employees for five “mission critical” areas: security, enforcement and compliance assistance; medical and public health; engineering and sciences; program management and administration; and accounting, budget and busicontinued on page 4
By Riley Blanton Contributing Writer
enrolled in Stanford’s graduate schools made cost of coverage “unreasonable” — about $1,000 per person per week — said Kristina Keating, a member of Stanford’s Graduate Student Council. Graduate students were left to look elsewhere for coverage for their families, often from publicly funded programs like MediCal and Santa Clara Healthy Families, Keating said. But while some students were able to take advantage of these public programs, others were denied. The programs only consider offering coverage to families whose income is below a certain threshold, according to Wright. Still, falling below that threshold does not guarantee coverage, he added. Wright said family members of students who were denied by programs like MediCal ended up either uninsured or paying expensive premiums for coverage with private insurers as individuals. “(Public programs) are not a viable option for many people,” Wright said. “If you’re a young couple without children, it doesn’t matter how poor you are. There’s no coverage available.” However, not all universities are following suit. The Yale Health Plan, for instance, continues to of-
fer coverage for spouses, same-sex partners and children, according to Katie Kelly, a Yale spokesperson. She said 250 students currently have family members covered by the university plan and added there are no plans to reduce or cut their benefits. According to Brown’s Director of Insurance and Risk Jeanne Hebert, health coverage for family members of Brown graduate students is not a standard benefit. But family members can purchase health insurance through the University, she added. Administrators at universities that had both cut and kept health coverage for graduate students’ family members maintained that the current economic climate might not necessarily be a critical factor for other schools trying to make the same decision. Instead, they characterized such a decision as a normal budgetary issue that has been considered year in and year out. Still, Wright thinks the problem is pervasive enough to warrant attention. “Hopefully we won’t reach a tipping point where employers and institutions are forced to drop coverage all together because of competitive pressures,” Wright said.
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‘Best Actress’ nominee Linney ’86 draws crowd continued from page 1 funerals or birthdays.” In all of her roles, Linney said she tries to incorporate a little of herself, but tries to find emotion in the material and not use her own emotional baggage. To understand a character, Linney said, she begins by asking, “Why, why, why?” about all of the character’s actions and words. “It’s a lot of research,” she said. “You’re constantly a student.” She added that after being awarded an honorar y Doctor of Fine Arts from Brown in 2003, she started thinking about the concept of a “Doctor of the Arts” who could help patients with emotional problems. “You should be able to go to the Doctor of the Arts and say, ‘I’m having problems with my mother,’” Linney said. “Well, read Oedipus,” the doctor could recommend. Linney also drew chuckles from the audience when she said “Love Actually” made her want to become British. “I love working with those Brits. I love being in that British land,” she said. People often approach her to tell her how sorry they are that her character’s love did not blossom by the end of the film, she said. “But I say, ‘I got the best kiss’” with “that really good-looking Brazilian man.” She said a woman she met in a
London hotel could not believe she was Laura Linney. Fans also comment on her physique, she said. “I have to remind myself that it’s a compliment when someone says, ‘Gosh, you’re so much better-looking in person.’” Tuesday afternoon, Linney also led a master-class workshop in Leeds Auditorium for more than two hours. About 100 people watched as Linney directed students from three theater classes in short scenes. At times kneeling on the floor watching the actors or whispering to the students on stage, Linney emphasized the importance of knowing every character motivation to the students. “I feel like everything she said was simple in its wisdom,” said Max Posner ’11, whom Linney directed in a scene from Kenneth Lonergan’s “This Is Our Youth.” “She’s a role model for how to be a person in the theater.” Per Janson MFA ’10, whom Linney directed in a scene from Moliere’s “The School for Wives,” called Linney’s attention to detail inspiring. “It’s given me a lot to think about,” Janson said. During the question-and-answer session with students after the workshop, Linney said it is impossible to “act” emotion. “You act a situation, a problem,” Linney said. “If you’ve done all that work, emotion will come.”
Q & A with Laura Linney ’86 Academy Award-nominated actress Laura Linney spoke to a packed DeCiccio Family Auditorium and held a master-class workshop yesterday. The Herald sat down with her to talk about her time at Brown, her versatility as an actress and what she looks for in a role. The Herald: How does it feel to be back at Brown? It’s fantastic to be here. I was walking around the campus, and I was like, my God, how was I lucky enough to have been here? It is so incredibly beautiful. As you sort of go out in the world and encounter the challenges that life gives you and just the challenges of work, you miss this kind of environment, where you can really concentrate and be surrounded by like-minded people. It’s fantastic. Is there any place you went back to immediately? Here, this building (Leeds). Just walking around the Green, the statue of Marcus Aurelius. You know, walked up and down Thayer Street. I called about four friends of mine who went to school with me here. All of my best friends are all Brown grads. I called them all and was like, “Store 24 still exists! You’ll be happy to know that Store 24 is still going.” How did your academic preparation affect your work as an actress? Well, I don’t really know. I’m sure that it affected the way I think.
Panel discusses mixed race post-Obama continued from page 1 in his campaign, panel members agreed that Obama’s campaign has furthered the national discourse on race and multiracial identities. The panelists cited as seminal a speech in which the Democrat
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
explained the racial composition of his family. “He has done more to normalize interracial kinship than anyone or any public event ever has,” McClain Dacosta agreed. “The speech that Obama made on race got a lot of people thinking,”
Shungu said. “If he is elected, that conversation will continue and progress.” Panelists also addressed more general questions of multiracial identity in the United States, prompted by Hu-Dehart’s mention of the national census. In 2000, citizens were for the first time given the choice of selecting more than one race on census paper work, according to Hu-Dehart. The 2010 census, she said, will be the first time people are allowed identify themselves as outside of the constraints of categories offered in the past. Shungu, at mention of the census, removed his dress shirt to reveal a T-shirt reading “Not Other” after a checked box. Some panelists were less enthusiastic about the changes made to the national census, saying the issue of multiracial identity could not simply be solved by changes to government forms. “I was recently asked to draw where I came from and I was stuck,” said Kohei Ishihara, a multiracial activist from Providence. Hu-Dehart asked the panelists if progress made toward acceptance of mixed-race identity on the census and through Obama’s campaign might serve to obscure the traditional racial categories, or at least alleviate tension between them. The categories are continually being remade, McClain DaCosta concluded.
It certainly helped my sense of discipline. And also I learned all my social skills here, you know, as you do in college. It’s not only about how you foster your mind and how you learn how to tackle intellectual issues. It’s also how you interact with people and how you problem-solve within relations. People fall in love here, most of them for the first time, all of that that goes on. In college you sort of learn, who do I like, who do I not like. Who do I, you know, want to kiss, who do I not want to kiss. There’s all of that stuff as well. And when you have a student body that is so fantastic, as the student body at Brown is, it makes that process pretty rich. You said you weren’t sure how academia has impacted you as an actress, but do you think it is a strength that sets you apart from other Hollywood stars? I don’t know. I can only talk about my own ... I can’t compare myself to other people about that. It certainly is a huge part of, you know, of who I am, and how I approach things. You’ve had a fantastic year. What do you still want to accomplish? It’s really just about just staying in the process. I hope I still get to just continue to work with interesting people and attempt challenging projects. It’s a privilege. Was there any role or produc-
tion you were involved in at Brown which really af fected you? Oh, there were so many. I did so many plays at P.W. I did so many plays here at Leeds. It’s hard to ... I certainly remember “Child Byron” well and a lot of my time at P.W. A lot of the student-run productions, where we were all learning, in such an intense way, together. You’re a very versatile actress. Do you prefer film or theater? That used to be an easy question. It’s not an easy question anymore. It used to be just theater, theater, theater. But the more film I do, the more time I spend there, I’ve really loved the process. And I find it very, very challenging and it’s very, very different from theater. It’s not an easy question to answer anymore. What makes you choose a role? It depends. There has to be one of three things. There has to be either a great script, a really good director or a terrific actor. It doesn’t have to be all three, but one of those elements has to be there. Can you pinpoint any time in your past where you had all three together? “Mystic River.” “Kinsey” was that way. I think those are the two most obvious examples. — Alexandra Ulmer
Anti-Columbus Day movement considered continued from page 1 Professor of Physics David Cutts then proposed a motion stating the council “feels there are important concerns associated with the holding of Columbus Day as well as with the honoring of Native American history, and these concerns should be addressed by the University faculty as well as the administrative bodies.” The motion was seconded and the word “staff” was added as another body that should address the issue. The council then voted unanimously in favor of the motion. “I’m glad that they gave us the support to go forward,” Koyama said. “I was kind of hoping for a more explicit endorsement but I
guess given the circumstances, they just needed to know how the rest of the community and faculty perceived it.” In the remainder of the meeting, the council discussed the Amethyst Initiative, a petition that encourages debate and open discussion about lowering the federal drinking age. About 130 college and university presidents have signed on, though Simmons has not. The meeting also included a presentation by Brenda Allen, associate provost and director of institutional diversity, on the current status of the Diversity Action Plan and an update by Kertzer on the University’s financial status in the face of the current economic crisis.
If you want it, the govt. still has a job for you continued from page 3 ness. Chougule said many students in the sciences don’t realize that there are careers available to them in the federal government. “I’ve set myself up pretty well
Thanks for reading.
the last three years,” said Eric Slais ’09. He said he’s already had a job offer in the private sector and plans to move home to Missouri. Linguistics and English double-concentrator Rachel Sohl ’09 said her friends are becoming more and more stressed about job prospects. She said she was also a little worried, but said there will always be jobs in K-12 education. “It just shouldn’t be the case that someone graduating from an Ivy League school should be concerned,” Sohl said.
C ampus n ews Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Student labor activists take on hotel chain for practices By Leslie Primack Staff Writer
Elizabeth Martinez has worked at the Hilton in Long Beach, Calif., for 11 years. She said her job used to be “really a pleasure,” but when HEI Hotels and Resorts bought the hotel four years ago, they laid off many workers and stretched the remaining staff thin. Now workers scramble to complete the work of multiple people, she said, sometimes working unpaid during their lunch breaks so they can finish on time. “I’m working by myself a lot of times,” said Martinez, who waits tables at the hotel restaurant for minimum wage. “I’m basically running to get the job done.” As part of the Brown Student Labor Alliance’s campaign to raise awareness of HEI’s mistreatment of its workers, Martinez told her story to a moderate turnout of students and community members Monday night in MacMillan 115. Over the past week, the SLA has flooded the campus with posters and set up tables on the Main Green to inform students about the treatment of workers in HEI-owned hotels. On Monday, they hauled two mattresses with sheets and pillows onto the Main Green and invited passers-by to try making the beds to demonstrate the physical toll of changing the sheets of even one bed. HEI denies the claims of worker mistreatment. “The accusations pre-
sented are wholly unfounded and we have received no formal complaints — either from associates or the National Labor Relations Board,” HEI’s public relations office wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “We in fact have a very positive relationship with our associates at the Hilton Long Beach, as evidenced by the very low associate turnover rate at the hotel compared with industry averages.” SLA member Lily Axelrod ’09 disagreed. “There have been complaints. Perhaps not through the National Labor Relations Board, but as a lot of people know, the National Labor Relations Board, especially under the Bush administration, is generally not very sympathetic to claims from low-wage workers.” She said the NLRB often takes too long to investigate claims of workers’ rights violations, if it follows up on them at all. Though the University has not disclosed whether it has invested in HEI — the fastest-growing hotel management company in the United States — the SLA hopes to encourage the administration to use its leverage as a current or potential investor to pressure the company to improve its working conditions. HEI “receive(s) almost all their investment from university endowments,” SLA’s Will Emmons ’09 said to the crowd on Monday night. “Brown keeps all of its investments a continued on page 6
Student found sleeping on SciLi roof; fry thief nabbed The following summary includes all major incidents reported to the Department of Public Safety between Oct. 16 and Oct. 22. It does not include general service and alarm calls. The Providence Police Department also responds to incidents occurring
CRIME LOG off campus. DPS does not divulge information on open cases that are currently under investigation by the department, the PPD or the Office of Student Life. DPS maintains a daily log of all shift activity and general service calls which can be viewed during business hours at its headquarters, located at 75 Charlesfield St. Friday, Oct. 16 3:02 p.m. An officer was dispatched to meet with a dean regarding a health and safety inspection in Young Orchard #4. The dean stated that while conducting a check of the room she observed a glass pipe with marijuana in it. Also in plain view, the officer observed what appeared to be a quantity of a greenish or brownish substance in a clear bag which he believed to be marijuana. The pipe and the marijuana were seized by DPS. The pipe and the substance were taken back to department headquarters, where a field test was conducted using a narcotics analysis kit. The test showed positive for marijuana. The matter is being handled by Student Life. Saturday, Oct. 18 12:06 a.m. Student stated that her
car had been broken into in Lot 75 and that the driver’s side-door control panel for the power windows, locks and mirrors had been taken, along with her anti-theft device. Sunday, Oct. 19 1:14 a.m. A manager at Josiah’s observed an individual sticking his hands into a pan of french fries and eating them. The pan of french fries was then thrown away. The student was warned about his behavior by the manager. Approximately five minutes later the manager observed the same student eating french fries out of the pan again and drinking a Vitamin Water. The manager informed the student that he had to pay for the items he ate and drank. The student stated that he did not have his ID and did not have any money to pay for the items. The manager told officers he did not wish to press charges but would like Josiah’s to be compensated for the loss. The matter has been turned over to Student Life. 8:24 a.m. A student in Diman House reported that she had gone to bed at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 18, and when she woke up at about 7:45 a.m., she noticed that her laptop computer had been taken from her desk. The door to the room was left unlocked. 2:02 p.m. A student in Jameson House stated he brought a speaker to his friend’s room to listen to some continued on page 6
Meara Sharma / Herald The University’s fundraisers held a birthday party for the Campaign for Academic Enrichment, luring students with cake.
Students celebrate Boldly Brown birthday By Rosalind Schonwald Contributing Writer
Trick-or-treating started a little early this year for students supporting the University’s capital campaign. For the third anniversary of the fundraising initiative — and its tagline, “Boldly Brown” — organizers lured students to a party using cake and a campus-wide scavenger hunt that landed them free campaign t-shirts. Sayles Hall was host to a festive celebration, including giant rectangular cakes on either side of the room. The Bear Necessities sang Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “American Girl,” and a giant card in
the middle of the room was covered in red-penned birthday messages for the campaign. “It seemed really fun — there was cake,” said Michael Williams ’10. “It seemed like a celebration of what had come to fruition.” Yesterday marked the third year of the $1.4-billion Campaign for Academic Enrichment as well as the end of the clue hunt that is the latest in a series of promotions designed to spread enthusiasm for the campaign among students. Since it began in 2005, the campaign has raised $1.25 billion toward its goal. For the clue hunt, which started Oct. 20, a mass e-mail was sent out with four fairly easy clues pointing
to locations where students could find cards with the letters B, O, L and D. Clue hunters turned in the cards at yesterday’s party in exchange for this year’s edition of the Boldly Brown t-shirt. Each of the cards, collected at the Maddock Alumni Center, Rockefeller Library, the Blue Room and the Financial Aid Office, contained information about how the capital campaign relates to, and in some cases, has made major contributions to life in that building. “We call it ‘The Amazing Race,’” said Johanna Corcoran, the assistant director for student programs for the Brown Annual Fund, refercontinued on page 6
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Hotel chain mistreats its workers, students say
Students flock to U.’s campaign party
continued from page 5 secret. We fit the profile of a school that would be invested in HEI.” Emmons added that even if the University has not invested, it is still in a good position to pressure the company to change its business practices. “HEI is very proud of their Ivy League investors,” Becky Fish ’09, a member of SLA, told The Herald. Because Brown is the type of investor that HEI courts, the University could send a powerful statement to the company by refusing to invest unless HEI improves workers’ conditions and allows them to unionize, Fish said. Over a month ago, the SLA contacted Sandra Seibel, director of Investment Office operations, to find out whether Brown has invested in HEI. She directed them to the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies. SLA members said they have not received a response from ACCRIP. Tuesday morning a group of SLA members along with Martinez went to the Investment Office to speak about HEI and ask again whether Brown is invested in the company. They did not receive a response but plan to continue pursuing a dialogue with the Investment Office and with ACCRIP, Fish said. The owners of HEI “aren’t out to have a really great hotel. They’re in it to have high returns,” said Sarah Roberts, a Swarthmore graduate and a research analyst for Unite Here — a union representing unorganized workers in a variety of industries across the country. She said HEI
buys hotels with the intention of selling them for a profit after about 10 years. In the meantime, they minimize business costs by cutting staff, hours, benefits and supplies. Jess Petitt, HEI Corporate Director of Communications, would not comment on whether HEI often downsizes its staff when its buys a hotel but said that the company has no official downsizing policy. SLA member Lenora Knowles ’11 said she first learned about the working conditions in HEI-owned hotels during the Hotel Workers Rise Up internship with Unite Here, when she worked with employees at the Long Beach Hilton. The movement to raise awareness about HEI is relatively new, she said, but is being spread by students at campuses such as Harvard, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. “We want to know where our money’s going and that it’s invested in responsible companies,” Knowles said. Though Martinez’s hotel is not unionized, she and other hotel workers are meeting with organizers from the local chapter of Unite Here to learn about their rights as workers. They hope to convince the hotel to allow them to unionize in order to improve their working conditions, she said. Martinez told The Herald she is committed to fighting for more workers’ rights, but worries about her job security. “I’m very afraid,” she said. “I’m here, I go to marches, I go to delegations, and my voice is always shaking, thinking, ‘They’re going to fire me.’ I need to have a voice and tell to you now, this is not right.”
continued from page 5 ring to the reality television show. Corcoran said the race, organized by the Boldly Brown Student Campaign Committee, was meant to “generate excitement and enthusiasm for what’s happening” as a result of the campaign. There were only 200 copies of each letter (and ultimately, each t-shirt) produced, she said, “because we wanted to create excitement and buzz around it.” The desk of Maren Nelson, coordinator at the Maddock Alumni Center, was the first stop in the clue hunt. “The first day was last Friday, but people were here on Thursday,” she said.
As of last Oct. 24 — a week into the clue hunt — two thirds of the B-cards were already in students’ hands. Students who collected cards at Maddock also received information from Nelson. “We like to have students come in and visit, and I can tell them about the house,” she said. The card contained information about organizations housed by the Maddock Alumni Center as well as alumni contributions to the Annual Fund. The clue hunt “was trick-ortreating fun,” Nelson said. “We have to do this again.” The search for the O, L and D cards brought students to buildings and organizations that are affected by the capital campaign. The O-
card, which could be found at the Rock’s circulation desk, described plans for aesthetic renovations as well as the addition of a multimedia lab. It also described plans for the re-opening of the study area in the John Hay Library. The L-card, retrieved from the cash register in the Blue Room, contained information about the plans to transform Faunce House into the Stephen Robert ’62 P’91 Campus Center, a process that will begin this summer. The D-card, retrieved from the financial aid office, recounts how aid is becoming the largest section of the University’s budget, an increase that the campaign will help pay for.
Caught once, Jo’s french fry thief tried again continued from page 5 music. He left the speaker in a closet for about a week. When he contacted his friend about retrieving the speaker, she was unable to find it. 9:45 p.m. DPS officers assisted Providence Police on Bowen Street, where a student reported that someone had smashed the passenger’s side window of his vehicle and stole his GPS. Providence Police responded and took the report. Monday, Oct. 20 8:36 p.m. Student complainant stated that on Oct. 19 at approximately 4 p.m., he was playing basketball at the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center. He had left a sweat-
shirt, cell phone, money clip with $5 and a Brown ID card at the end of the basketball court. When he returned to his belongings at approximately 6 p.m., he found that his money clip was missing. The sweatshirt and cell phone were untouched. Tuesday, Oct. 21 7:36 a.m. A student was found sleeping on the roof of the Sciences Library. He stated that he had been sleeping there lately because he spent many hours working on a project and that it was easier than going home. He was escorted off the roof. The matter has been turned over to Student Life. 4:36 p.m. A student at the Center for Information Technology stated that on Oct. 20, she took her laptop and the recovery disks to the Help Desk. She stated that at 3 p.m. she placed her items on the counter while her computer was being checked out by a technician.
She returned to the counter at 5 p.m. and noticed that her recovery disks had been taken. It is possible that another customer may have accidentally taken them. The case is under investigation. Wednesday, Oct. 22 10:07 p.m. A University employee at the corner of Charlesfield and Brown streets reported a satellite radio stolen from his vehicle. Providence Police responded and took a report. 11:08 p.m. An employee of Sterling Security, while on duty, observed a suspicious male who was looking around and carrying bolt cutters at his side. He followed the suspect and called dispatch. The suspect, who was hiding behind 68 ½ Brown Street, was found in possession of bolt cutters and subsequently had three warrants, was arrested by Brown Police. He was turned over to Providence Police for charging.
W orld & n ation Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Nation
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i n
Brief
Microsoft turns to blackouts to block piracy BEIJING — Microsoft Corp. is trying to annoy Chinese software users into buying genuine copies of Windows software. The software giant drew criticism from a top copyright official and howls from consumers here over its new anti-piracy method: When it detects that an improper copy of Windows is running, Microsoft turns the computer screen black. Users can switch it back manually only to have the process repeat itself every 60 minutes amid a stream of warnings: “You may be the victim of pirated software.” The Redmond, Wash.-based company’s “Windows Genuine Advantage” initiative, started in 2005 to fight software piracy, goes further in China than in other countries. Microsoft said it wants to protect its intellectual property and help users avoid getting attacked by viruses. But the program has left many users disgruntled in a market where pirated software is widespread. Yan Xiaohong, vice director of the National Copyright Administration, told the state New China News Agency late Monday that his agency supported corporate efforts to safeguard their copyrights but questioned this approach. “Whether the ’blackout’ method should be adopted is open to question,” Yan said. “Measures for safeguarding rights also need to be appropriate.” Some computer users said they appreciated that their government was protecting their interests but weren’t worried about the inconvenience. A rash of free fixes have sprung up, including one called “360 Guard,” which allows users to filter out Microsoft downloads that aren’t pirate friendly. “No matter how severe the anti-piracy efforts are, Chinese users will figure out how to get around them,” said Yang Fangzhou, 25, a brokerage worker from Fujian province. “Most people here don’t want to spend the money and have no moral qualms about using pirated software.” Recent polls on Chinese Web portals, including QQ.com, Sohu. com and 21cn.com, found most respondents used pirated copies of Windows XP and Vista, and more than 70 percent strongly disliked Windows Genuine Advantage. Last week, Beijing attorney Dong Zhengwei sent a complaint to China’s Ministry of Public Security urging the police to go after Microsoft for economic damage and collective inconvenience. He termed the company’s program a “hacker-style attack” that infringed on users’ privacy without their permission. An estimated 82 percent of software in China is pirated, according to the Business Software Alliance industry group, compared with 20 percent in the United States. “I think Microsoft is doing the right thing to protect its legal rights,” said Su Wei, a 31-year-old real estate consultant, before admitting he’s never purchased genuine software and probably won’t. “There’s little risk,” he said. “And you can download it for free.” Microsoft has tried various strategies to stem piracy in China, including giving software to schools and government offices in hopes of building a legitimate base and offering discounts to users of pirated products who switch. Past experiments in other markets with disabling programs outright met with such an outcry that it backed off, and in China the company is wary of angering the government given its power over markets. In 2007, Microsoft supported a series of raids in southern China on groups that reportedly made and distributed $2 billion in counterfeit software in 27 countries. And in August, at the behest of the software giant, Chinese police shut down the Tomato Garden Web site to stop it from offering free pirated Windows XP downloads. Some critics in China, however, argue that such an integral part of the Chinese economy as computing software should not be in U.S. hands. They also complain that Microsoft charges too much in a country that still has widespread poverty. Legal Windows XP software goes for around $140 in China, compared with a few dollars or less for pirated versions. Some online forums in China have needled Microsoft by offering free downloads of “genuine pirated” black desktop wallpaper. — Los Angeles Times
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Japan’s blue-chip firms hit hard by crisis By Blaine Harden Washington Post
TOKYO — In Japan, the global financial crisis seems to have singled out some of the world’s best-known and best-managed companies for an especially bloody thrashing. Consider Toyota Motor Corp., whose stock has lost almost twothirds of its value since February of last year. Like many Japanese exporters, Toyota has been doubly clobbered this fall, first by collapsing consumer demand in the United States and Europe, and then by the exploding value of the yen against the dollar and the euro. Still, the automaker is exceptionally rich and well positioned for the future. It has about $47 billion in liquid assets, the lowest manufacturing costs in its industry and global leadership in fuel-sipping hybrid cars such as the Prius. It announced this week that it will build a seventh factory with its joint-venture partners in China, where sales, although slowing, have jumped 24 percent so far this year. So, is the company really worth just a third of what it was worth 20 months ago? The short-term answer for Toyota and other blue-chip Japanese companies is a qualified maybe, according to economists and investment analysts in Tokyo. The medium- and long-term answer, they say, is likely no. “These stock prices reflect new fundamentals,” said Takatoshi Ito, a professor of economics at the University of Tokyo. “Exports earnings are being cut severely because of yen appreciation. Even if Toyota sells the same amount of cars, its earnings decline.” The annual operating profit of Toyota tumbles by about $400 million every time the dollar’s value falls
by one yen, the company says. Toyota and many major Japanese exporters had expected a dollar exchange rate of around 105 yen throughout 2008, but it has dipped as low as 90 this month. Although the yen lost value Tuesday in trading against the dollar, many analysts here are predicting the currency’s value will continue to increase and squeeze profits out of Japanese companies for at least several more months. The declining popularity of complex transnational bets known as “carry trades” is partly responsible for the pressure on the yen — in the current turbulence, investors are unraveling these trades and bringing money back to Japan for conversion into yen. With global recession a near-certainty, Toyota and other Japanese exporters have also had to revise sales and production plans downward. The company recently recorded its first quarterly global sales decline since the downturn that followed the 2001 terrorist attacks. In the United States, Toyota’s largest market, sales plunged by 32 percent in September compared with that month last year. The home market has big problems, too. Japan’s real gross domestic product shrank by 2.4 percent in the quarter that ended Oct 1. Unemployment is at a two-year high of 4.2 percent, and last week the government issued a report warning that the economy “has weakened further.” Fundamentals, though, do not tell the whole story of why stocks in the world’s second-largest economy have lost, on average, about a quarter of their value in the past month. Japanese stocks gained back some of their losses on Tuesday, after the Nikkei average reached a 26-year low the day before, but remain at disheart-
ening lows. “Overseas investors and investment funds are selling Japanese stocks like mad, said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research in Tokyo. “There is panic, and there is blood on the floor.” Merner and several other analysts said foreign investors, including managers of mutual and pension funds, are being forced to sell because they need cash to meet other obligations, particularly for redemption requests from nervous smaller investors. “Big Japanese stocks like Toyota are easy to sell,” said Merner, who has followed the Tokyo stock market for three decades. “Maybe you can’t get a good price, but you can certainly sell them quick.” The Japanese government has “very few defense systems” to support the country’s stock market, according to Shumpei Takemori, a professor of economics at Keio University in Tokyo. The central bank here has little flexibility to lower interest rates to make stocks more attractive. They are already at rock bottom, about 0.5 percent for loans between banks. Despite limited capacity for cuts, the central bank will consider a 0.25 percent rate cut when it meets Friday, the Nikkei financial newspaper reported Wednesday. The Japanese government, however, did move Tuesday to beef up one defense against market speculation. Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said the government has banned the practice known as naked short-selling, which is selling a stock short without first borrowing the shares or making sure they can be borrowed. While companies here can do little continued on page 8
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Some Japanese blue-chip firms hit by global crisis continued from page 7 about turbulence in the stock market, many of them do have plenty of cash to ride out the storm. About 40 percent of publicly traded Japanese companies are debtfree, according to a survey by the Nikkei financial newspaper. Major banks and many large companies have huge cash reserves, a legacy of the cautious management style that came into fashion here after Japan’s financial crash in the 1990s. Thanks to “balance sheets of armored steel,” major Japanese companies such as Toyota are much better prepared than their competitors to withstand a long global recession and grab a significantly larger market share when consumers do start spending, said Ken Courtis, former vice chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia. “My view is that Japanese producers will be hit much less hard by the crisis,” he said. “They have lower cost structures, more product, technological momentum and better image. They can put products on the market which people can afford and will want to buy.” Courtis said the Japanese advantage is especially powerful in the automobile market in the United States, where General Motors and Chrysler are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and in need of government bailout. Toyota reached into its deep pock-
ets this fall to grab the attention of reluctant car buyers in the United States. Taking the lead from other companies, it created Toyota’s firstever interest-free financing program and applied it to nearly all the vehicles it sells in the U.S. market. Toyota has also responded to the listless American car market by halting the assembly of big pickup trucks at its U.S. plants for three months. The company says it has laid off none of its 42,000 workers in North America. Instead, many of them are being retrained. “We plan to use this very severe business environment as an opportunity to strengthen the flexibility and toughness of the company,” said Toshiaki Hori, a Toyota spokesman. In 2010, Toyota plans to open a new plant in Mississippi to make the Prius, the popular hybrid car that is now imported from Japan. By producing the car in the United States, Toyota expects to escape the punishing consequences of a higher yen. Sometime after 2010, Toyota plans to begin mass production of all-electric cars. It has already launched a joint venture to design and manufacture long-life batteries for those cars. “This downturn will probably be to the long-term benefit of Toyota,” said Merner at Atlantis Investment. “They have high profit margins and lots of cash. There is going to be a big shakeout in the auto industry. Toyota is in better shape now than ever before to survive it.”
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Students get Big Three seek to tap lending program a new set of wheels By Ken Bensinger Los Angeles Times
continued from page 3 have been no incidents of stolen bikes or other problems, Taggersell said, adding that the positive student response has translated into bikeowners taking care of their newly obtained goods. “It’s a great sight to see the tremendous number of bikes,” Taggersell said, adding that they have created a “much more active campus” and encourage student access to Maine’s coastal environment. At Brown, Kurt Teichert, the University’s environmental stewardship initiatives manager, said he was unfamiliar with programs that provide free bikes to freshmen and said Brown’s resources are “probably better spent” on investing in the infrastructure associated with locking and storing bikes. While he was unsure if a free bike program would work at Brown, Teichert highlighted resources such as free access to public transportation and access to five Zipcars. Additionally, in order to discourage driving on campus and reduce the need to add parking, the Transportation Office made the parking rate higher for undergraduates, Teichert said.
Hard up for cash, the lending arms of all three U.S. automakers have asked for access to the Federal Reserve’s new short-term lending program. GMAC Financial Services, 49 percent owned by General Motors Corp., has applied for the program, called the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, said spokesoman Gina Proia. “We were approved to participate” on Monday, she said. Ford Credit, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Co., also applied for the program, according to spokeswoman Brenda Hines. And Chrysler Financial, the lending arm of Chrysler, has registered for access to the backstop, according to a person familiar with its operations. Under the program, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York purchases 90day short-term notes, giving the debt issuer access to cash in a tight market. Neither Ford nor Chrysler confirmed whether they had been granted access. The news that all three had applied for the program is the first concrete step taken by the automakers in Washington to shore up their precarious cash positions. But all three companies said they are exploring other options with the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.
“Obviously, the automakers are going through a particularly difficult time,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Tuesday. “The automakers have been in contact with us. We’ve been talking to them at various levels and at different departments, including Energy, Treasury and Commerce. And we’re trying to work with the tools that Congress has provided us.” GMAC will issue the debt through its New Center Asset Trust facility, which can borrow up to $10 billion. In recent months, all three automakers have been forced to curtail lending to consumers and dealers as their access to cash has dried up in the credit crisis. On Tuesday, GM said it would cease lending in seven European countries, including Finland. As a result, they have had to draw down existing credit lines and tap their cash stockpiles. Both GM and Ford were burning about $1 billion a month as of the second quarter. As a privately held company, Chrysler does not release financial statements, but it is estimated that its cash burn is at least $300 million a month. Of the three lending units, GMAC is perhaps best poised to access the different assistance programs introduced by the government in recent weeks. Unlike Ford Credit and Chrysler Financial,
it is a chartered bank, which gives it, in theory, access to the Federal Reserve’s discount lending window and puts it farther up in the line for programs such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the $700 billion plan passed by Congress to purchase bad loans from lending institutions. Carmakers have suggested that removing impaired loans from their books would be an important help to their liquidity problems. At the same time, GMAC, which is 51 percent owned by Cerberus, the private equity company that also owns Chrysler, is in perhaps the most precarious position. Unlike Ford and Chrysler, GM’s lending arm invested heavily in mortgages, particularly subprime mortgages. Those loans cost the lender $1.9 billion in the second quarter alone. GM is exploring a merger with Chrysler in hopes that it would save the combined company as much as $10 billion through cost cutting. But that has been held up over financing issues, and speculation has grown that the automakers are looking to Washington to help pay for the deal. “The Treasury Department is going to have to take a good, hard look at whether these companies would be eligible for that type of help,” Perino said, referring to possible assistance in cementing such a deal.
Politically divided country plays out in dorm room continued from page 1 While Clark, Hinds and Stacey are liberal, Sparks is conservative (at least fiscally). “When social issues are brought up, we are very much on board with each other,” Sparks said, so political discussion does not get too heated among them. That said, “we argue out points out to the fullest,” she continued. Though living with someone of a different political persuasion may offer a more intimate look at another view, neither group’s opinion has been changed by living with each other. For the suite of girls, it has been more of a process of educating one another. “You definitely see the other side a bit more,” Sparks said, adding that her views have been influenced by the current financial situation rather than living with liberals. “We feel like we learned a lot about each other,” Stacey said. For Mohamed and Rogers, their political disagreement is over philosophy rather than the upcoming election and its candidates. They disagree slightly on foreign policy, but more so on health care and the economy. “That’s just a fundamental difference,” Rogers said. “It’s a dogmatic difference on certain important issues.” In the girls’ suite, the major point of contention is over taxes. Some political tension arose during one of the debates when Clark bought Stacey the inflatable McCain doll and put it in the common room. “And then we put an Obama sticker on (Sparks’) door,” Clark said. “It was really hard for me to pick someone to vote for,” Sparks said. “I kind of needed my own McCain perspective — and that around did not help.” “I didn’t tell (my suite mates) who I voted for,” Sparks said. “But we know,” said Hinds.
For all their disagreement on philosophy, Mohamed and Rogers feel fairly similarly about the upcoming election. “McCain is angry,” Rogers said, “and he has a history of going both ways in Washington, D.C. Obama, I feel like, is so polished that I can’t connect with him at all.” “I feel like he’s not fleshed out, his campaign is running on ideals rather than substance,” he continued. “I kind of agree with Graham that both candidates aren’t my cup of tea,” Mohamed said. “It’s kind of a scary thing to let someone run a nation who might run things into the ground. That being said, John McCain would definitely run things into the ground.” “What do you think John McCain is going to do to run the country into the ground?” Rogers shot back. “Do you think that America will cease to exist four years from now?” Sparks also expressed her worries about the candidates in that “both are obviously qualified on merit,” she said. “It is sad that this could come down to a racial thing, or an anti-woman thing. There are so many factors that come into play.” When with each other, Mohamed and Rogers said they can have candid political discussion; but the same candor is not as prevalent in the rest of the student body, Rogers said. “I feel that it should be more open-forum,” Rogers said of the Brown community. “I don’t want to feel like by saying that I am going to vote for John McCain that I am starting a fight immediately.” “Certain groups get looked down upon,” Mohamed said, “and that’s not fair, especially for a school that prides itself on being open.” Sparks said she feels the student body would be receptive to conservatism if it were well articulated. “I think if you made an educated
opinion, people would listen,” she said. As for responding to off-the-cuff criticisms, Rogers said even though he wants his ideas to be respected, he does not jump in because “it’s just not worth the fight.” Mohamed said she is more prone to jump in and defend a conservative opinion because she
figures people are more likely to listen to a Democrat. And though they may disagree, Mohamed and Rogers said politics don’t sour their relationship. “I like Graham a lot even though he’s a Republican,” Mohamed said. Rogers grinned. “I like Julie a lot even though she’s wrong.”
Mazerov ’10: Politics and sports tied continued from page 12 ridiculous indicators, however, has been even close to as successful as the Redskins in forecasting the winner. Glossing over the rather obvious notion that the Redskins’ streak was all just coincidence, this all begs the question of which team supporters of both Barack Obama and the Redskins (myself included) should root for next Monday night when the ’Skins take on the Pittsburgh Steelers at home, since a Redskins victor y would predict a win for John McCain on Tuesday. Yes, the Redskins did fail to predict the winner in 2004, but a 17-for18 record of correctly foretelling the presidential victor is hard to ignore. Normally I might have to think twice about this, but, trying to keep this as apolitical as possible — this isn’t an opinions column, after all — I’ve got to say that one Redskins loss against a tough opponent during a thus far incredibly successful 6-2 season would be a small price to pay to put a President Obama in the White House for the next four years. Besides, with upcoming home games against such perennial dysfunctional underachievers as the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, one loss for the ’Skins is about as relevant as the New England Patriots are these days. (My apologies, Pats fans, though I have been feeling a little sorr y for you all lately). And if both the ’Skins and the O-man win next week and histor y fails to repeat itself once again, all the better. Alex Mazerov ’10 hopes his hemlines are going down.
E ditorial & L etters Page 10
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Staf f Editorial
Forgetting the past
Last week, the Herald reported on the Veritas Fund for Higher Education (“Centers try to change focus on diversity”, Oct. 22), an initiative of the Manhattan Institute, which believes that today’s universities are focusing too much on “Diversitas over Veritas,” resulting in a focus on postcolonial scholarship and the historically marginalized. Mark Bauerlein, who directs the Program in American Citizenship at Emory University (also funded by Veritas), sees these initiatives as a battle: “Our enemy is forgetfulness, the obliviousness to the past.” While the position of organizations to promote cultural and civic tradition is admirable, how do we define the ‘past’ we are all supposed to recall? In a nation largely known as a “melting pot” of diversity, to claim ‘truth’ over diversity begs the question — whose version of the ‘truth’ are we claiming? Columbia’s core curriculum, for example, focuses on a ‘core’ that is still based on a typically western canon. While not representative of the entire curriculum, its Literature Humanities exemplifies this strikingly Western focused thinking. For almost 70 years, its reading list has included the following titles: Homer’s The Illiad; Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Dante’s Inferno and Shakespeare’s King Lear. While Columbia considers this canon as a foundation for more contemporary literature, including Virginia Woolf, feminist literary critics like Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar argue against a simple insertion of female writers in a paternalistic hierarchy of a western (male) authorship — the etymology of the word itself suggesting: “ … a begetter, beginner, father or ancestor.” Reading Virginia Woolf in the context of her male predecessors requires an understanding of feminist theory to understand the struggles of women writers against the oppression of male “authorship.” Similarly, understanding writers from colonized nations requires the dreaded “postcolonialist” focus that Veritas attempts to discredit. The choice of a single truth over diversity has implications for a university as a community. For Brown students of Native American descent, the willingness of a community to take history at face value results in a discourse that is largely one-sided. As a group, they have spoken against the University’s implicit — though perhaps unconscious — observance of Columbus Day, arguing that their history was written from a European, rather than Native American, point of view. The presentation of their petition to the BUCC yesterday brings us a step closer to the multi-voice discussion that is necessary on campus, one which we hope the University will continue to consider as an important part of any education. If funds like Veritas are indeed about opening a dialogue in scholarly discourse then it is necessary to include ‘Diversitas’ to achieve the ‘Veritas’ they are seeking — two forms of discourse which are not mutually exclusive. As French philosopher Paul Ricoeur writes in Memory, History and Forgetting, the danger of an official history lies in the “... handling of authorized, imposed, celebrated, commemorated history” and by imposing a canonical narrative, Ricoeur suggests, “... a devious form of forgetting is at work here.”
T he B rown D aily H erald Editors-in-Chief Simmi Aujla Ross Frazier
Executive Editors Taylor Barnes Chris Gang
Senior Editors Irene Chen Lindsey Meyers
editorial Ben Hyman Hannah Levintova Matthew Varley Alex Roehrkasse Chaz Firestone Nandini Jayakrishna Scott Lowenstein Michael Bechek Isabel Gottlieb Franklin Kanin Michael Skocpol Ben Bernstein James Shapiro Benjy Asher Amy Ehrhart Megan McCahill Andrew Braca Han Cui Katie Wood
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C arly H udelson
Letters Vegetarian stereotypes are inaccurate To the Editor: A recent article (“Vegetarian athletes toss pigskins aside,” Oct. 27) managed to expose some negative stereotypes in our community regarding vegetarianism: namely, that being a vegetarian tends to make one shorter and less athletically fit. It was rather disappointing to me that the article presented no opinions or evidence to the contrary. In the five years that I have been a vegetarian, I’ve grown five inches and gained thirty pounds. I’m not an especially tall person, but I’m taller than any close relatives on either side of my family. I also get more protein in my diet than any of my meat-eating friends. The fact of the matter is that most studies have shown no correlation between meat consumption and height, and a few studies have shown that children eating a healthy (key word!) vegetarian diet grow to be
slightly taller. Many vegetarian protein sources, such as legumes, actually have a higher percentage of calories from protein than meat typically does. The article mentions that “in terms of feasibility, most restaurants offer… salad or various side dishes that appeal to various players.” This is the largest problem I’ve faced as a vegetarian: The image of vegetarianism is so intertwined with the dieting craze in American society that people often expect vegetarians to make a meal of only sides or salads instead of balanced meals, hence the assumption that we can’t get enough protein. Vegetarianism, when done right, has never been conclusively shown to have a positive or negative effect on height, fitness, or athleticism, something that far too few people seem to know. Abe Pressman ’09 Oct. 28
University should prioritize pool construction To the Editor: I was rather surprised and alarmed to read Provost Kertzer’s remarks regarding potential delays in construction projects on campus, especially the new pool. His claim, in a recent article (“Delays in growth likely, URC says,” Oct. 28) that the temporary pool is “working well as it is” is factually untrue. Yes, the temporary pool is a far better option than traveling to Wheaton College and Seekonk high school for practice; however, the facility is not, in many ways, even a moderately good solution for the Varsity Water Polo and Swimming programs or the Brown community as a whole. Neither the Swimming team nor the Water Polo team can host home events and the pool is not large enough to be a regulation-sized facility for water polo matches. Moreover, with the wires that stretch across the pool and the lack of a diving platform, even practicing at the temporary pool is difficult for both teams. Ultimately, this jeopardizes the programs in their abilities to recruit, fundraise and promote Brown University. Most importantly, the temporary pool fails to provide adequate opportunities for the community
that frequently used the Smith Swim Center. The pool is only available to students, faculty, and staff for a few hours a week in the middle of the day, making its use difficult for those who have classes, work and enjoy eating lunch. Youth swim teams no longer use the Brown facility and intramural activities at the pool are nonexistent. Every other Ivy League school has a pool on campus that provides a location for recreation and exercise. Without programs that teach scuba diving or even basic swimming lessons, Brown is simply not up to par. This problem needs to be fixed and should not be delayed any longer than it already has. The Smith Swim Center was officially closed in January 2007, nearly two years ago. The temporary pool is not “working well as it is” and I would encourage Provost Kertzer to revisit his opinions on this matter and make an effort to support the construction of the new aquatics facility as quickly as possible.
Alex Robb ‘08 Oct. 28
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O pinions Wednesday, October 29, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Page 11
Back to the front BY WILLIAM MARTIN Opinions Columnist Just when the spotlight began to turn to the volatile border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the carnage in the financial sector eclipsed it. With the election a week away, John McCain and Barack Obama are too busy mouthing endless invocations of the almighty Middle Class to devote much time to our most dangerous adversaries. Sad to say, the diminished public attention to the central front in the war on terror — don’t mistake it for anything else — is not a great loss. Public discussion of the issue was stunted by the oversimplifications of the candidates and their affiliated pundits. The question, we are supposed to believe, is to bomb or not to bomb. Early in the primary campaign, Senator Obama declared that if the Pakistani government couldn’t or wouldn’t strike al-Qaeda targets in their lawless western border provinces, his administration would. The right wing, and Obama’s political rivals, howled their overblown derision. They told us that an initiative designed to eliminate some of the world’s most dangerous criminals while sparing our close ally from the political risks of military action was tantamount to a threat of invasion, and proof of the freshman senator’s naiveté. This was a political ploy, and it was exposed by the same right-wingers’ silence after recent revelations of covert strikes inside Pakistan authorized by the Bush administration — not only without the Pakistani government’s consent, but over its explicit objections. Except for those who thought even Bush
wasn’t going far enough, the right cynically lashed Obama for talking tough, then turned around and tacitly sanctioned a much more audacious policy from one of their own. Even with an issue as sensitive as this, we cannot safely muzzle public debate. Anyone who purports to offer a worthwhile opinion on this subject needs to step back and acknowledge that it is not a simple question of whether to strike, but an incredibly difficult balancing act that takes into account the types of targets, the means of attack, the quality of
alter one whit the Bush policy of striking who we want, where we want, when we want. Like Obama, he knows how deadly our enemies are. Al-Qaeda and their Taliban allies have been riding roughshod over western Pakistan — even sending thousands fleeing into Afghanistan for safety. If we let up they will be that much freer not only to ravage their own region but to plan their next attack on the West. In the aftermath of a major terrorist strike, our current economic troubles will look like an apogee of
We need to continue the air strikes in Pakistan. And we need to be very careful about whose finger we put on the button. intelligence, the wishes of Pakistan and the judgment of America and the world. And anyone with an interest in the next president’s approach — that covers all of you, I hope — needs to know that McCain and Obama are not nearly as distant as they would like you to believe. To play up his extensive experience and temper his reputation for belligerence, McCain has seconded the naysayers dogging Obama. But in office, it is doubtful whether he would
confidence and free-flowing capital. Our missiles aren’t going to sit still. The reasons for restraint are robust but not overriding. The Pakistani government’s primary objection to our recent strikes is the risk for civilian casualties that impose both a practical and a moral burden. But the best way to keep these bystanders alive and on our side is to take out their worst enemies — and ours — whenever possible.
They also play the sovereignty card—a twisted joke from a country that has always granted extreme autonomy to the provinces that now host the Taliban and al-Qaeda. We cannot afford to allow Pakistan to veto our strikes. Pakistan will never address this problem themselves, and they will always err on the side of inaction, so we must act. The civilian government, under the unscrupulous swindler Asif Ali Zardari, is squeamish about the strikes because it places its own survival over its country’s interests, not to mention our own. And the powerful military agency known as Inter-Services Intelligence has long cultivated al-Qaeda and the Taliban as an asymmetrical counter to its rival India’s conventional superiority. Even the American public isn’t much of a judge. We see the results of a strike, but not the highly classified information that motivated it. Every four years, we get a snapshot of the person we’re saddling with this overwhelming responsibility. But the president can’t take the public’s pulse on every attack. Any would-be president with a serious shot at tackling this issue properly has to face a dizzying maelstrom of factors — the chance for a successful strike, the impact on various Pakistani tribes and factions and the costs and benefits for his political capital, just to name a few. We need to continue the air strikes. We need to be very careful about whose finger we put on the button. And, now and forever, we need to remember that there is no simple way to make the right choice for that job.
William Martin ’10 was bred to kill, not to care.
Small-town Tourette’s BY SARAH ROSENTHAL Opinions Columnist So now it’s official. Robin Hayes, a Republican representative from North Carolina, has gone out and said what everyone has been thinking: “Liberals hate real Americans.” When alerted to the foot in his mouth, he first tried to deny he said it and then lamely suggested that he didn’t mean it — he was just trying to whip up the crowd at the campaign rally. Nice to know he’s appealing to his audience’s best instincts. I think that I’m the sort of liberal that Representative Hayes was talking about. That said, I do find the idea of a real America to be pretty annoying. Fewer than 20 percent of Americans are lucky enough to live in the real America (i.e. not in a metropolitan area), and with the healthy self-esteem booster of politicians’ constant praise, they think they’re, like, sooooo much better than everyone else. Talk about elitist! Then again, everyone knows that they live in the heartland and city dwellers live in godless bastions of sodomy and baby killing, so I guess it makes sense. Demonizing the cities was a politically astute strategy in the ’70s and ’80s, when it seemed like the cities were in permanent decline. Even now, it pays to pander to rural voters, who have a disproportionate influence in elections. Why do you think our first nominating contests take place in Iowa and New Hampshire? Why do you think the electoral college even exists? Why do you think Homeland Security found the greatest number of potential terrorist targets in Indiana, and included on its funding report such
tempting Tennessee bull’s-eyes as Sweetwater Flea Market 50 miles from Knoxville or the Mule Day Parade in Columbia? So now we get to have the message of the magnificence and rectitude of real American small towns burned into our brains. Even Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of (fake) America’s most populous city, has jumped on the bandwagon. Giuliani must have become the “real” America’s mayor when he stopped living with a gay couple and their pet Shih Tzu and started using “cosmopolitan” as a
town Tourette’s. This is a rare disease that strikes politicians, particularly conservative ones, during election season. No cure has been found apart from the steady march of time, which heals all wounds and ends all elections. As politicians feed real Americans’ apparent need for affirmation, they are also excellent at stoking the incurable fear of terrorism that seems to be a hallmark of the “pro-American” areas of the country. Recently, I watched a West Virginia voter
Now we get to have the message of the magnificence and rectitude of real America’s small towns burned into our brains. slur. I’m referring to the period immediately after he told his wife he was divorcing her via press conference. Giuliani also suffered from what Jon Stewart dubbed “9/11 Tourette’s” — the compulsion to randomly insert the phrase “9/11” into every sentence possible (and even some that were less than possible). Studying this affliction might be useful in understanding the Republican ticket, which seems to be suffering from Small-
on the news declare that she would never vote for Barack Hussein Obama because “I’ve had enough of Hussein.” I desperately wanted to assure her that neither the rotting corpse of Saddam Hussein nor anyone else with a similar name will ever attack her because — get this — she lives in West Virginia! West Virginia is the real America, and foreign terrorists don’t bother with the real America. And honestly, who wouldn’t want to be part of the real America? You pay fewer taxes
and get more tax money allocated to you, you get a huge voice in every election, you don’t have to worry about terrorist attacks, and that pretty lady on TV will sing your praises from the mountaintops. Joe the Plumber lives in the real America! Another great resident? Westbrook Pegler, the guy Sarah Palin quoted in her speech at the Republican National Convention who loved small towns but turned out to be a rabid racist and anti-Semite who openly wished for the assassination of both Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy! What could be more “pro-American” than that? In all seriousness, if you are running for President, you should not insult big city voters, even through implication. I don’t hate “real Americans,” but I do hate it when politicians come to my hometown of New York City, wrap themselves in 9/11, and then badmouth the city and the people in it as soon as they leave. Nor should anyone running for president insult small town voters. The president is the president of all Americans, and we’ve seen what a disaster it can be when someone governs only in the interests of the 20 percent of people who will always support him. City dwellers are no more monolithic in their values than people who live in the suburbs or in rural areas. Most are decent, hardworking people who are probably less “elite” than Iowan corn farmers receiving millions of dollars in subsidies. In the end, we all want what’s best for our country, so it’s not fair to act as though some 80 percent of us are somehow trying to destroy it from the inside out.
Sarah Rosenthal ’11 is faker than American cheese.
S ports W ednesday Page 12
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Divided loyalties for this fan The fall of 2004 witnessed the end of one of the most everlasting streaks in American sports. And no, all you selfabsorbed Red Sox fans, I’m not talking about Boston’s 86Alex Mazerov Maz’s Minute year World Series title drought, which finally came to a gracious conclusion when the Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in that year’s Fall Classic. I’m referring to the Washington Redskins’ infallible record of predicting the winner of the presidential election. It’s actually amazingly simple: if the Redskins win their final home game before the election, the incumbent party holds on to the White House. If they lose, the candidate of the opposing party wins. In ever y presidential contest after 1936, when the thenBoston Redskins eked out a 13-10 win on November 1 at, yes, Fenway Park, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected over Republican Alf Landon, this trend held true. Up through 2000, when a 27-21 Redskins loss to the Tennessee Titans in a Monday night game correctly predicted George W. Bush’s win over Al Gore, the ’Skins went a perfect 17 for 17 in forecasting the winner of the presidential race. (As a loyal and often-disappointed Redskins fan since childhood, I have to admit that this is one of the few things they were consistently proficient at.) But 2004 changed all that when the Redskins lost 28-14 at home against the Green Bay Packers, predicting a win for the candidate of the out-of-power party, John Kerry. Alas, the Redskins’ 68-year streak of picking the winner was snapped. Incidentally, a number of other so-called “unconventional indicators” of presidential election results have caught observers’ eyes over the years. As the American Enterprise Institute noted in a recent political report, the winner of the World Series, the state of Bordeaux wine futures and changes in hemlines during presidential election years are all relatively accurate predictors. (A hemline, for all my fellow fashion neophytes, is defined by MerriamWebster’s dictionar y as “the line formed by the lower edge of a dress, skirt or coat.”) If the National League wins the World Series, or if it is a good year for Bordeaux wine, or if hemlines go up during an election year, the Democratic candidate generally wins. When the American League team wins the World Series, the Bordeax vintage is poor or hemlines fall or stay the same, the Republican usually triumphs. None of these similarly continued on page 9
W. golf finishes fall with second-place performance By Megan McCahill Spor ts Editor
The women’s golf team headed to Milford, Conn., on Sunday to play in the Sacred Heart Fall Classic, the team’s last tournament of the fall season. The Bears finished their season by taking second place at the tournament, their highest finish in a competition this year. The Bears came in 19 shots ahead of Dartmouth, the only other Ivy team in the field. “The course was in great shape and the weather was really nice, especially for October,” said Heather Arison ’12. “It was a great couple of days for golf, and we were excited to finish out the fall season strong.” On the first day of play, Julia Robinson ’11 set the pace for the Bears. She carded a 79, good for third place individually on the day. “Julie played really well, and it was awesome to see her score well and put together great rounds,” Arison said. Sarah Guarascio ’11 and Arison both carded scores of 82 for the Bears, leaving them tied for seventh place individually after the opening round. Guarascio took advantage of shooting birdies on the par-threes, and Arison had 12 pars, though she was unhappy with her play at the end of her round. “I was disappointed with how I played the first day,” Arison said. “I had a good front nine, but struggled on the back nine.” Megan Tuohy ’12 finished the opening round at 87 and Susan Restrepo ’11 shot an 88 to round out the scoring for the Bears. Bruno’s team score of 330 put the Bears in second place heading into Monday’s final round, 12 strokes behind first-place Sacred Heart and
Herald File Photo
Women’s golf played in the Sacred Heart Fall Classic, their last fall tournament, this weekend. only five strokes ahead of Boston University. In the final round, the Bears put together a solid team performance, as Guarascio stepped up and led the team by dropping two strokes off of her opening-round score to shoot an 80 on the day. Guarascio’s two-round 162 put her in sixth place individually in the tournament. Robinson edged out
S po r t s
W. hockey starts season with loss, tie The women’s ice hockey team started its season last week, recording a 3-0 loss and a 2-2 tie on the road at St. Cloud State. In their first game of the season the Bears were unable to take advantage of power play opportunities and an impressive performance by captain and Herald sports staff writer Nicole Stock ’09. Brown was unable to find the back of the net, despite putting 18 shots on goal and having three power play opportunities. Despite struggling with special teams play when they had the player advantage, the Bears were stellar when playing down a player, as they killed off all three of the Huskies power play opportunities. The Bears’ ability to kill off penalties was in part due to Stock’s stellar performance in the net, as she recorded 49 saves in the 3-0 loss. The very next day Brown got a chance to seek revenge against St. Cloud State, and this time the Bears were able to capitalize on their power play opportunities. Bruno got on the board first when Samantha Stortini ’11 found the back of the net on Brown’s first power play opportunity of the game early in the first period. Paige Pyett ’12 and Skyelar Siwak ’12 had the assists on the goal. Later in the first period the Bears were able to capitalize on a 5-on-3 power play chance, as Siwak this time scored the goal off of a rebound from a shot by Vika Mykolenko ’12. In the second period the Huskies were able to tie the game at 2-2 after scoring two goals in less than a minute. In the third period neither team was able to score, and Stock came up big with one of her 44 saves on a breakaway by St. Cloud State. Neither team managed to score in overtime, and the game was officially recorded as a 2-2 tie since it was a non-conference contest. However, the teams went into a shootout anyway, with each side getting to take 3 shots. Erica Kromm ’11 was unable to score on Bruno’s first shot, and Stock kept the Huskies off the board by stopping their first shooter. Assistant captain Andrea Hunter ’10 ripped a shot into the upper right hand corner of the net to give Bruno a 1-0 lead, and Stock came through again with another impressive stop on St. Cloud State’s attempt. Afterward, Maggie Suprey ’11 slipped the puck past the Huskies goalie to seal the shootout victory for the Bears. The Bears will look to get their first win of the young season this Friday, when they take on Rensselaer on the road. — Herald Sports Staff
Guarascio in the individual standings by carding an 82 on Monday, putting her in fifth place individually with a total score of 161. While Robinson and Guarascio were leading the way for the Bears, the rest of the team was not far behind, as all six Brown golfers individually finished in the top 20. Arison, who has had an incredible start to her collegiate career and
i n
has been the Bears’ top finisher in ever y other tournament this fall, shot an 83 in the final round, putting her in 10th place individually. “On the second day I played well on the back nine but not so well on the first,” Arison said. “It was frustrating to know I could shoot well on both sides, but I wasn’t able to put it together and play them both well on the same day.” Tuohy had one of her best performances of the year, as she knocked an impressive seven strokes of f her opening round score to shoot an 80 in the final round and place 13th in the individual standings. Rounding out the top-20 finishers for the Bears were Carly Arison ’12, who finished in 14th place (85, 83), and Restrepo, whose final-round 85 was good for 19th place. Brown’s solid final-round performance gave them a team score of 325 on the day, and though the Bears were unable to catch firstplace Sacred Heart, they finished 13 shots ahead of Boston University. “We wanted to end the season well and have a strong finish, and we think we did that by taking second,” Heather Arison said. “It was exciting to do what we set out to do.” The Bears’ second-place performance was their highest finish of the year, and the team is excited to carr y the momentum from its final tournament of the fall into the spring. “It’s definitely a confidence booster for us to place so high in a tournament,” Heather Arison said. “Now we just need to keep practicing in the off-season, and hopefully we’ll come out just as strong when we start the spring season.”
Brief
W. rugby second at New England Rugby Football Union Championships After crushing rival UMass-Amherst, 17-0, in the opening round, the women’s rugby team found itself on the opposite end of the same score as they fell to top-seeded Army in the final of the New England Rugby Football Championships here Saturday. In the opening-round matchup, Brown dominated the larger UMass forwards and ran away from the UMass backline. Virginia Buckles ’11 opened the scoring for the Bears with a nice pick near the goal line, diving over for the first score of the match to put Brown up 5-0. Later in the first half Nina Safane ’09 found a gap on the weak side and passed to Whitney Brown ’08.5, who streaked up the sideline 30 yards for the score, and Blaine Martin ’11 converted to put Brown up 12-0. Later in the game, Martin came through for the Bears again when she put a deep kick up midfield then sprinted down the field, stole the ball on the bounce and ran in untouched to add the final score of the game, as Brown came away with the 17-0 victory. Later in the day, Brown took on Army in the championship match. The Army players were fired up and eager to avenge an early-season loss to the Bears, and overloaded the line to score and go up 7-0 in the opening 10 minutes. Just a few minutes later, Army struck again, scoring between the center to go up 12-0. Brown came back strong, pushing Army back until a few penalties kept Brown off the scoreboard at the end of the half. In the second half, both teams fought hard for possession, but late in the half the Army fullback found her wing for a score, putting the final score at 17-0 to earn Army the NERFU title. Brown’s B-Side played a round robin with UMass and Dartmouth, with each team playing 20-minute halves. Brown dominated Dartmouth, 220, and was led by strong performances from Michelle Vander Ploeg ’12, Marisa Rodriguez ’10, Lindsay Joseph ’09, Emily Hsieh ’12, Katie Davis ’12 and scrumhalf Blair Station ’12. However, the B-Side was unable to make it a Brown sweep over the Minutewomen, as the Bears fell 7-0 to UMass. The Bears will get a chance to bounce back next Saturday when they face Cornell at 1 p.m. at Marvel Field for the first round of the Northeast Rugby Union playoffs. Bruno is hoping to get a rematch with Army later in the playoffs. — Megan McCahill