Monday, November 17, 2008

The Brown Daily Herald M onday, N ovember 17, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 114

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Student helps change law in Oregon

Nine students EMSed on night of SPG

By Leslie Primack Staf f Writer

By Emma Berry Contributing Writer

On Nov. 4 at 11 p.m., amid a sea of screaming, cr ying students celebrating the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, Evan Pulvers ’10.5 was also thinking of a second, lesser-known electoral step toward racial equality. That night, voters in her home state of Oregon passed Measure 54, an amendment that struck a long

the crowd shouted in response to Heroux’s speech. “When they say that they don’t believe that marriage is a civil right, we will say ‘I do,’ ” she said. Heroux was met with cheers when she said MERI expects the state to achieve “marriage equality” in the next three years. Rev. Eugene Dyszlewski from the Rhode Island Religious Coalition for Same-Gender Marriage also spoke at the protest, saying “God is not in favor of discrimination.” Dyszlewski said he represented a group of over 100 ministers from about 12 denominations in the state. Mayor David Cicilline ’83, State Sen. Rhoda Perry P’91 and State Rep. Frank Ferri each addressed

Matthew Kowalski ’12 stood outside of Alumnae Hall on Saturday wearing black bike shorts and a white T-shir t with “NORI WAS HERE” written on it in black marker. Nori is Noricia Aquino ’12, Kowalski’s girlfriend. Aquino was already inside Alumnae Hall getting ready to work as a party manager for Sex Power God, Queer Alliance’s annual fundraising dance. Kowalski and his friends were the first of almost 600 students to line up for Saturday’s dance. “She’s wearing completely body paint, so if any comes off, it’s coming off here,” Kowalski said, pointing to his shirt. Event coordinators called Sex Power God a success, citing poor weather as the event’s only difficulty. “It went of f without any hitches,” coordinator Zach Marcus ’10 said. A total of nine students were transported by Emergency Medical Ser vices Saturday night because of intoxication, said Vice President for Campus Life and Student Ser vices Margaret Klawunn. Three of those — two Brown students and one non-Brown student — were transported directly from the event. Sex Power God sparked controversy in 2005, when conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly sent a producer to the dance with a camera and aired the footage on his Fox News program. That year, 24 students required EMS attention. The next year, coordi-

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FEATURE unenforced literacy test requirement for voting in school board elections from the state constitution — an amendment Pulvers herself drafted and advocated. The amendment reversed outdated language in Section 6, Article VIII of the Oregon State Constitution, which stated that in order to vote for school board members, one must be able to read and write in English. Though Oregon outlawed literacy tests as a voter qualification in the early 1970s and Section 6’s antiquated provisions have not been observed for decades, the changes to literacy requirements were not extended to school board elections due to governmental oversight. In 2006, Pulvers and her father, a lawyer, were scanning the Oregon State Constitution and noticed the provisions, which they felt were unconstitutional. At the time, Pulvers was a member of the Grant High School constitution team, and they showed the passage to her teammates. They had two options: sue the state to get the laws declared unenforceable or strike them from the constitution permanently through a ballot initiative. “We all sat down and talked about it,” Pulvers recalled. “We’ve got all this knowledge, but it doesn’t really mean anything unless we’re pursuing a more just society.” The team decided to work to get the laws permanently removed from the state constitution. They wrote to Oregon Secretar y of State Bill Bradbur y, who agreed to introduce the changes in the state legislature. Pulvers then drafted the bill and sent it to the Secretary of State’s office for revisions. She and other constitution team members testified in front of the legislature — Pulvers by phone because she was in the midst of shopping period at Brown. “I thought it made a lot of sense,” said Oregon State Senator Suzanne Bonamici, a family friend of Pulvers’ who voted for the measure on Oregon’s House floor when she was a representative. “If there’s something that’s in the state constitution that is unenforceable, that continued on page 4

Hannah Moser / Herald

Protesters gathered in front of the State House on Saturday to express their disapproval of California’s gay marriage ban.

Hundreds protest Prop. 8 in Providence By Hannah Moser Staff Writer

The State House lawn was dotted with umbrellas on Saturday afternoon, as the hundreds of people gathered there maintained a hopeful spirit despite the intermittent rain. They were part of the National Day of Protest, a event organized by Join the Impact, that brought people together in cities in all 50 states to protest the passage of California’s Proposition 8. Before the event, Marriage Equality Rhode Island board member and communications chair Tiffany Rauch-Dickson, one of the organizers, said she already had 500 invitation acceptances on Facebook. The demonstration began at 1:30 p.m. on the East Coast and 10:30 a.m. on the West Coast, so that protests nationwide began

k a l h a n o n id e n tit y

www.browndailyherald.com

New administration brings new service opportunities By Joanna Wohlmuth Senior Staff Writer

Meara Sharma / Herald

Anil Kalhan ‘93, delivered the keynote address for South Asian Identity Week.

RISD THREAds Faculty members at RISD design T-shirts for online company ARTS & CULTURE Threadless

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in unison. The nationwide protest grew out people’s surprised reactions to the passage of Prop 8. RauchDickson said that people were shocked because “nobody really believed it would happen.” For the duration of the rally, supporters held a rainbow banner with the words “Love” and “Equality” across the State House steps. People held signs with a variety of messages “Straight guy for love,” “Fight the H8” and “Jesus had 2 daddies, why can’t I?” Rauch-Dickson addressed the crowd from the State House steps before Susan Heroux, chairwoman of the MERI Education Fund Board of Directors, introduced the event’s tagline, “I do,” which was featured on stickers that were distributed to demonstrators. The slogan became the affirmation that

pimp my cells Students traveled to MIT to win awards genetically modifying CAMPUS NEWS real cells

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11

OPINIONS

During their presidential campaigns, John McCain and Barack Obama both discussed the importance of increasing national community service efforts. As the country prepares for Inauguration Day, a number of policy proposals aimed at encouraging greater participation in and providing more resources for national service initiatives are on the table. In addition to broader national efforts — such as expanding AmeriCorps and encouraging individuals over the age of 55 to do volunteer work — some proposals that specifically target college students are outlined on the Obama transition team’s Web site, Change.gov. “What is particularly exciting right now is we have a president-elect and new first lady that understand (na-

Rhody should amend Zach Beauchamp ‘10 wants to see a constitutional amendment to protect gay marriage

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

12 SPORTS

tional service) at a grassroots level and a policy level,” said Director of the Swearer Center and Associate Dean of the College Roger Nozaki MAT’89. “They come into this actually having direct, hands-on experience working with young people and doing community organizing.” Under the proposed American Opportunity Tax Credit, families could receive a $4,000 tax credit if a student performs 100 hours of service per year. Students would receive the credit regardless of their families’ tax burden. If a family paid less than $4,000 in taxes, they would receive a payment for the difference. Another suggested policy would increase the number of service-oriented, workstudy jobs to 25 percent of all campus jobs. Currently, seven percent of work-study positions at Brown are continued on page 4

Bruno beats big green Football wins over Dartmouth, 45-16, to keep hopes for the Ivy title alive

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T oday Page 2

Monday, November 17, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r

Epimetheos | Samuel Holzman

TODAY

TOMORROW

partly cloudy 49 / 28

partly cloudy 42 / 25

Menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Clam Strips on a Bun with Tartar Sauce, Spinach Pie, Rosemary Portobello Sub Sandwich

Lunch — Cavatini, Tomato Basil Pie, Sauteed Zucchini and Onions, Raspberry Swirl Cookies

Dinner — Chicken Milanese, Vegan Garden Chili, Beef Pot Pie, Tomato Rice Pilaf, Carrots in Parsley Sauce

Dinner — Cider Glazed Turkey, Vegan Ratatouille, Cranberry Wild and White Rice Pilaf

Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley

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

Fizzle Pop | Patricia Chou

Classic Deo | Daniel Perez

RELEASE DATE– Monday, November 2008 © Puzzles17, by Pappocom

Los Angeles Times Daily oCrossword Puzzle C r o ssw rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Wood, in France 5 Priestly garments 9 Personal histories 14 Coffee hour vessels 15 Arrive 16 Let out or take in 17 Anatomical pouches 18 Formal greeting 20 P.O. delivery 21 Quill, e.g. 22 “I guess the joke’s __” 23 Garlic mayonnaise 25 Calf-covering footwear 29 Once in a while 32 “Annabel Lee” poet 33 Conclusions 34 Tidal action 35 __-turvy 37 River of Spain 39 Turn’s partner 41 Bamboo lover 44 Napa Valley vessel 45 Lhasa __ 49 Half of deux 50 Brought a sandwich to work 54 Boone and Bowie 56 Dancer Cunningham 57 Operatic solo 58 Radar gun aimer 60 Green and Gore 61 One who’s at home on the range 65 A/C units 66 Dalai Lama’s homeland 67 Stow cargo 68 The letter in “The Scarlet Letter” 69 Web address symbol 70 Baby blues 71 Yemen port DOWN 1 Restricted road segment 2 Speech 3 Clique 4 Draft org. 5 Tylenol target

6 Diving bird 7 German auto 8 Arizona’s “Red Rocks” city 9 Remittances 10 Healing plants 11 Erwin of ’50s TV 12 Newsman Koppel 13 “Sold out” sign 19 “Dedicated to the __ Love”: 1960s hit 21 Wrestling success 24 Did surgery with a beam 25 Old USSR spy gp. 26 Acr. from 27 Business orgs. 28 Lock opener 30 Berlin article 31 Blood classification letters 36 Subdivision of the Sioux 38 Baseball’s “Bambino” 39 Salon offering 40 Place to play ponies, briefly 41 Young seal

42 Singer DiFranco 43 Prefix with conservative 44 Rabbits on the rd. 46 OK to watch, if mom agrees 47 Withdraw into solitude 48 Black Sea city resident 51 Bridle strap 52 Delphic predictor

53 Rock band booster 55 Neck backs 58 Give up 59 Metal-yielding rocks 61 Dol. hundredths 62 Squeak quieter 63 Pugilists’ gp. 64 Word with ride or loft 65 Uplifting undergarment

Classic Deep-Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbons

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Classic But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

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11/17/08

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A rts & C ulture Monday, November 17, 2008

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Cartoon Network animator traces his path to the top By Caroline Sedano Senior Staf f Writer

When Genndy Tartakovsky first saw “Tom and Jerry” as a kid, he knew he wanted to be an animator. Now successful in that profession, 38-year-old Tartakovsky told the story of his impressive career to a rapt audience in the Rhode Island School of Design’s auditorium on Saturday night. “In high school I would drink on Friday night, wake up on Saturday with a hangover and watch my cartoons,” Tartakovsky said to his audience. “Deep in my heart, I have always loved animations.” Tartakovsky said that he always thought his animation interest would just be a hobby. Coming from an immigrant, blue-collar family, he assumed it would be something he would do in his garage, at night after he got home from his real job. Thirty years later, Tartakovsky doesn’t just pursue this passion at night, but full-time as one of the industry’s most accomplished animators. He created, wrote and directed the cartoons “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “Samurai Jack,” produced “The Powerpuff Girls,” directed the Star Wars animated mini series, “The Clone Wars,” won two Emmys and is now working on Iron Man II and a project with J. J. Abrams, director of the upcoming Star Trek movie and executive producer of several TV shows, including “Alias” and “Lost.” Tartakovsky’s lecture was organized by the RISD Events and Activities Team, that got the idea from a comment on its Facebook group. Tartakovsky flew out from Los Angeles for the weekend to speak. The animator talked about his life, stressing the importance of luck, maintaining relationships and hard work. He showed clips of his animations, including a never before seen episode of “Dexter’s Laboratory” that was deemed too risque for the Cartoon Network and shared stories about Hollywood, including accounts of his nerve-racking meetings with George Lucas. “My career has been totally haphazard, and I never really know what’s going to happen next,” he said. “But ultimately it’s been my relationships and balancing what I want with what I need that have gotten me where I am today.” “I also know where I suck and hire people who are better than me,” he said, laughing. “And then I take all the credit,” he added. Tartakovsky said that at one point he thought it would take 40 years to break into the animation industry. But through a combination of talent and luck, he got his first show, “Dexter’s Laboratory,” on air by the age of 25. “Dexter’s Laboratory,” was inspired by Tartakovsky’s doodles of a tall, spindly, blonde ballerina. “I thought, ‘What’s the opposite of a ballerina?’ Ah-ha! Science!” he said. Originally a two-and-a-half minute final project for art school, Tartakovsky did not think his story of a mastermind kid scientist would ever go anywhere. But after working in Spain for a couple of years on the Batman television series, he got a call from a new company, the Cartoon Network. It had seen his work at an exhibition coordinated by

the California Institute of the Arts, where Tartakovsky studied animation. The network remembered his student film and wanted him to make it into a seven-minute pilot. “I was like, ‘What? Ok! Yes! Definitely!’ ” Tartakovsky said of his reaction to getting this opportunity as a young animator. At Saturday’s lecture, he showed the pilot for “Dexter’s Laboratory,” as well as the original student short film that inspired the show. Both feature siblings Dexter and Dee Dee in an epic battle using one of Dexter’s creations that turns the two into a variety of animals at the push of a button. The pilot comes to a hilarious climax when the two characters, transformed into a snail and turtle, race to hide from their mother. “I realized I got to do stand up comedy in front of people without being on stage,” Tartakovsky said of the show, adding that it is his favorite animated work. Tartakovsky then showed an episode of “Dexter’s Laboratory” that Cartoon Network had banned from the air. The episode featured the “Rude Removal Machine,” a contraption that removes rudeness from Dexter and his sister Dee Dee, then creating violent and messy alter egos of the siblings, endowed with the extracted “rudeness.” “Samurai Jack,” Tartakovsky’s next project, was a much more serious and sophisticated show that won four Emmy awards. Tartakovsky described the Emmy wins as vindication after years of only nominations for “Dexter.” He joked he had only bothered to go to the ceremony for the free dinner. “We were sitting next to ‘The Simpsons’ table, who win like ever y single year. And when they called ‘Samurai Jack,’ their table all yelled, ‘What?!’ Then we all stood up and peed our pants,” Tartakovsky said. He also won an Emmy for “The Clone Wars” that same year. Tartakovsky explained that he got “The Clone Wars” gig, which was thought up by Lucasfilm Ltd., because the action figures for the recent Star Wars movies weren’t selling as well as they had hoped. Cartoon Network has a relationship with Hasbro, the company that produces Star Wars action figures, Tartakovsky explained. “Eventually I just got a call. I was like, ‘Star Wars? Of course I like Star Wars!” he said. “But it was stressful because I had to translate this world I’ve loved since I was a kid into something completely different.” To give “The Clone Wars” a new perspective on Star Wars, Tartakovsky utilized his love of martial arts and the knowledge of fighting he acquired during production of “Samurai Jack.” He showed a comic sequence where Jedi Master Mace Windu takes down an entire army of battle droids without his light saber. “I love to put the juxtaposition of comedy and violence,” he said of his work. Tartakovsky ended up doing two seasons of “The Clone Wars,” and won an Emmy for each. He has since cut ties with Lucasfilm Ltd. and become the creative president of Orphanage Animation Studios, where he is working on advertisements. He added he would love to get involved in another personal interest — film.

Courtesy of Threadless.com

Some proceeds from the sale of T-shirts designed by RISD faculty and sold online will go toward a scholarship fund.

RISD profs design line of T-shirts By Luisa Robledo Contributing Writer

Threadless, an online T-shirt company, has launched a new series of T-shirts designed by faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design. The faculty were chosen by President John Maeda, who also chose a theme of “newness” for the series. “We are amidst the election season here in the U.S., and a movement is arising driven by a palpable desire for change,” Maeda wrote in a press release. “Human nature and the creative spirit drive our desire for new tastes and new sensations, all of which can be syn-

thesized into fresh perspectives and new experiences.” The T-shirts were designed by four faculty members, including Nancy Skolos, a graphic design professor, Soojung Ham, an industrial design professor, and Trent Burleson and Randy Willier, both from the illustration department. A scholarship fund at RISD will receive $15,000 worth of proceeds from sales of the shirts, according to the press release. Michelle Ha, RISD’s director of innovation partnerships, said that “the idea (that Maeda) was coming into the presidency” and the recent presidential elections affected the choice of the theme

of “newness” as well. Ha also explained why the school’s involvement with the company makes sense. “Threadless is interesting because it operates solely on the energy of people: the individual artist, contributors and the audience that loves the T-shirts. It feels, from one person to another, like the hand-made individual philosophy RISD students have,” Ha said. The products were presented in an exhibit in Chace Center on Nov. 6. Ha said that the response from the public was very positive, and that the “students were very interested.”

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Monday, November 17, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Incentives exist for those looking to serve community continued from page 1

Kim Perley / Herald

University Hall was lit up in rainbow colors Saturday for the annual Sex Power God dance.

Security reduced at tame Sex Power God continued from page 1 nators tightened security and moved the dance from Sayles Hall to the more secure Alumnae Hall. Across campus, 14 students required EMS attention on the night of the event that year. In 2007, five did. Marcus said that event coordinators have reduced the amount of security each year since 2006. QA has reduced the number of private security guards from Green Hor n Management as well as the number of Depar tment of Public Safety officers at the event. “As the dance becomes more manageable,” he said, “it needs less oversight.” Other changes to this year’s event included a shift toward playing techno and house music

instead of the hip-hop that he said was more typical of parties at Brown. The music included the original compositions of Jonathan Gordon ’11, who won a competition sponsored by the QA’s Dance Committee. The committee also used theater gels to light University Hall and Sayles Hall in rainbow colors, which Marcus said “highlights Sex Power God’s grounded presence on campus.” Seeing University Hall lit up as a rainbow, he said, “was ver y meaningful to me.” Students standing in line outside Alumnae Hall gave various reasons for attending the dance. Jonathon Acosta ’11 said he enjoyed his experience at last year’s Sex Power God and was

excited to go again. Acosta stood in line with his friend Mike Gray ’11, who did not attend last year and wanted to experience the event firsthand. Aristides Nakos ’12 was also attracted by the event’s reputation. Nakos, who is from Greece, said he missed that countr y’s party scene and hoped that the event would “approximate it in some way.” Meg Wright, a sophomore at the University of Vermont, came to Providence for a friend’s birthday and said it was an “amazing coincidence” that Sex Power God happened to fall on the same weekend. “I’m beyond excited,” she said. “There’s nothing this crazy at UVM.” Eli Scheer ’12 said his expectations for the event were simple: “Dance my ass off,” he said. Event coor dinator Aida Manduley ’11 said the organizers resisted the dance having a “reputation” or “agenda.” Instead, she said, Sex Power God gave students a chance to explore boundaries and dress in a way that would be less accepted in other venues. “If you’re going to dance, if you’re going to hook up with someone, if you’re just going to play with glowsticks ... we provide the music and the safe space.”

service-oriented, Nozaki said. “Increasing (the number of service jobs) to 25 percent would clearly have broader campus impact,” Nozaki said. “In terms of making funds available and engaging with the community, it could be a good thing,” but existing programs could be affected if funding had to be reallocated to support new programs, he added. The programs would likely be run through the Swearer Center and the Office of Financial Aid, which already have a “great partnership,” Nozaki said. They currently are involved with the Scholarships for Service program, which provide students who serve a minimum of 300 hours of community service with a $1,000 scholarship, and Brown’s extension of the National College Advising Corps, which sends 12 college guides to local public schools, according to the Swearer Center’s Web site. Regardless of what exact policies are implemented, raising the visibil-

ity of service programs will provide resources at national and community levels, Nozaki said. “If pieces of this plan go forward there is a potentially great opportunity for Brown, the city and the state,” Nozaki said. Some students saw the proposals as an opportunity for students to become more involved in service projects. “For a lot of people there is a compromise between getting a job and making money and doing community service,” said Eliza Adams ’12. But some students wondered if giving incentives for service work would “take away from the idea of service for service’s sake,” said Niwaeli Kimambo ’12. Nozaki emphasized the vague nature of the current proposals and the greater importance of increased focus on national service programs. “It’s not a panacea or stand-alone initiative,” Nozaki said. “It’s part of a bigger picture to address social issues.”

Students protest Prop. 8 at State House on Saturday continued from page 1 the crowd. The mayor said, “One of the most important values of our democracy is equality” and urged people to “continue this fight beyond today” by getting involved and writing to their leaders and representatives. Representative Frank Ferri told the crowd about having to go to Canada to marry his husband saying, “This (protest) is about personal stories.” Demonstrators had the opportunity to share their personal stories after the scheduled speakers. Among the attendees affected personally was Nancy Chenard, who came to support her nephew in California, who was engaged before Prop 8 passed. She came to support the demonstration, along with friend Susan Flor y, who said she would have been there anyway. “I have a lesbian daughter,” she said. “I want her to find her heart’s desire someday when she’s ready.” Though demonstrators of all

ages came, Brown students made a large showing at the rally. Becky Fish ’09 said it’s unfortunate that the “discriminatory legislation” and the discrimination associated with Prop 8 is seen by some as “culturally acceptable.” Shae Selix ’12 from Sacramento, Calif., said he always felt his state was progressive, especially in May when the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Taking the right away after only a few months was, naturally, a disappointment. Thousands of miles away from the problem, he said coming to the rally gave him hope. Emma Cunningham GS, also from California, carried a hand-made sign with the Chinese character for “love,” which she said was made by combining the characters for “heart” and “acceptance.” Cunningham said she experienced mixed emotions the night of the election, with pride for her country on one side and shame for her state on another. “On a broad scale, it’s a little scary when the government gets to dictate personal choices,” she said.

Pulvers ’10.5 drafts Oregon constitutional change continued from page 1

Thanks for reading.

has been held unconstitutional, then it shouldn’t remain in there.” Neither Bonamici nor former Oregon Deputy Secretary of State Paddy McGuire was surprised to find the outdated language still in the state constitution. “We’ve ended up with all sorts of weird anomalous stuff in the Oregon Constitution,” McGuire said. “For the most part we don’t get around very often to change it.” He pointed out as another example that to this day one must be 21 to run for the state legislature, but an 18-year-old can be appointed secretary of state. McGuire said Measure 54 was met with almost unanimous approval in the Legislature but that his office had to work to promote the bill and make it a high enough priority that it kept moving forward. In 2007, Measure 54 passed in the Oregon Senate and House with only one dissenting vote.

Because all constitutional amendments must be voted on by the public, the measure was put on the ballot this November, one of 153 ballot measures nationwide. On Nov. 4, it passed with 73 percent of the votes. “This is cool and this is symbolic but this isn’t going to change people’s day-to-day (lives),” Pulvers said. While she felt honored to have been involved in the amendment’s creation, she said she hopes to push for reforms that directly impact citizens’ quality of life. On Nov. 4, Pulvers watched the election returns in the auditorium of Mississippi’s Tougaloo College. She is completing a semester exchange at the tiny historically black college and is currently the only white student there, she said. When the last polls closed on election night and students overturned chairs and swung their Barack Obama shirts over their heads in celebration, Pulvers received a text message from a

friend at Brown congratulating her on the passage of Measure 54. “It was kind of a special election,” Pulvers said. “To get rid of literacy tests and vote in the first black president, it’s something big.” Bonamici agreed that the amendment’s passage was significant. “I think it makes our constitution more meaningful,” she said. “If somebody’s reading the Oregon State Constitution and they run across these provisions that are pretty clearly unconstitutional … they might wonder, ‘Why is this here?’ and ‘Is this really part of our constitution?’” Nonetheless, Pulvers said there is still much work to be done. She hopes the passage of Measure 54 will provide an opportunity to reexamine Oregon’s race relations. “The plight of African Americans in this country is the same,” she said. “It’s still harder to get a job. Your odds of graduating from high school are still less. All those things haven’t changed.”

C ampus n ews Monday, November 17, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

NPR, Fox News contributor Liasson ’77 analyzes election By Frederique Couture-Carrier Contributing Writer

Courtesy of Adrian Reich / Herald

Brown’s iGEM teams took home a Sliver Medal and a Bronze Medal at the annual competition at MIT last weekend.

iGEM team masters DNA, places at jamboree By Britta Greene Contributing Writer

It’s a little like “Pimp My Ride,” Synthetic Biology Edition — just replace the wrecked car with a living cell and tricked-out gadgets with strings of DNA, and the reality TV show becomes the annual iGEM competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition allows teams of university students to play chop shop with living cells to give them special properties from individual handcrafted parts. Brown sent two teams to the iGEM jamboree on Nov. 8 and 9, and the culmination of months of research and experimentation earned them three medals. John Szymanski ’09 and Aaron Glieberman GS won a silver medal for their development of a limiter, which regulates the level of gene expression in cells. A second team composed of Rima Shah ’11, Neil Parikh ’11 and Katherine Jacobs ’10 developed bacteria with the ability to identify various toxins in water supplies. They received both a bronze medal and a best environmental project award for their work. On Nov. 8, 84 teams representing schools across the world, from Slovenia to Peru, presented their projects to the panel of judges and on Nov. 9, finalists gave another round of presentations before the winners were selected. Most teams had upwards of 10

members, according to Professor of Biology Gary Wessel, iGEM’s faculty adviser. He added that Brown’s team was probably the smallest and most junior at the jamboree. Shah, Parikh and Jacobs had no previous experience with independent laboratory research. Parikh and Shah started their iGEM process as freshmen. The DNA sequences submitted by competitors contribute to an MIT project to catalogue “BioBricks,” highly specialized pieces of DNA. The goal of the BioBrick organization is to standardize all newly developed DNA parts to allow researchers in synthetic biology to build on each other’s work. With no international standards in place to make sure these sequences correspond to a standardized start and end place, it is difficult for these scientists to work together. Synthetic biology, which Glieberman described as an “infusion of engineering principles into biology,” is a relatively new field. With teams addressing everything from vaccinations to fusion proteins, the annual jamboree is an embodiment of this field of study. “Just being there, you can taste the immense possibility,” said Glieberman. Shah agreed. “It’s mind-blowing.” Several of the participants said the field of synthetic biology deserves increased attention since, as Jacobs said, it is the “cutting edge of research.”

iGEM members are currently spearheading a push for greater focus on synthetic biology at Brown by writing a grant for new faculty members. “It’s something Brown really needs to hop on,” Parikh said. Though iGEM teams each develop their own biological systems, each one could theoretically fit together with any other, “like thousands of Lego parts that could build on each other in infinite ways,” Parikh said. The students easily put in a 40hour workweek during the summer months, spending hours in their tiny basement laboratory, Wessel said. “It’s not a dungeon, but it’s the next best thing,” said Wessel of the lab, though some team members expressed an attachment to the old converted storage room. “It became our second home,” said Shah, recalling many nights spent nodding off against a small refrigerator, waiting for experiments to finish before heading off for a late night pizza bite. Such space limitations reflect the many handicaps the team faced going into the competition. Of the 84 teams, many were under the guidance of professional synthetic biology research laboratories, which Brown does not have. “It was our own ideas, our own lab meetings, our own problem solving,” Glieberman said. “We were truly rookies starting from scratch.”

Mara Liasson ’77, a national political correspondent for National Public Radio and contributor to Fox News, spoke to a full hall of mostly community members about the presidential election last night at the Providence Central Congregational Church. Liasson graduated from Brown with a degree in American history and has covered all of the presidential elections since 1992. She has won several White House Correspondents’ Association Merriam Smith Awards for her work. Liasson said that this past election was the “most amazing election” that she would probably ever witness in her lifetime because it represented a “racial breakthrough,” a repudiation of President Bush and a “huge shift in power.” It is “hard to exaggerate” the “historical nature of what just happened,” she said, adding that this election was a “testament” to the country’s ability to renew itself. Liasson called Election day a “Democratic tsunami.” She explained that President-elect Barack Obama not only won an incredible popular vote majority, but also “busted down the door.” Obama won at least nine states that Bush had won in 2004. He won the Hispanic vote two-to-one, and won the youth vote two-to-one as well, according to Liasson. “The number of newly registered Democrats surpasses the number of registered Republicans by far,” Liasson said. The senator is creating a whole new generation of Democrats, she said. Liasson said that while the “knife fight” between Sen. Hillar y Clinton and Obama was much more negative than the presidential campaign, the long primary came as a “blessing in disguise” because it allowed Obama to set up roots all over the country and visit regions

of the United States that would have never seen a presidential candidate otherwise. Obama led a “pretty flawless campaign,” Liasson said. She said that his campaign used a whole new universe of political technology tools, which helped him obtain 10 million names on a listserv, 3.1 million donors and tens of thousands of volunteers. Conversely, she said, Sen. John McCain ran a “lousy” campaign. In addition, the political environment for Republicans grew “toxic” because the economy became an over whelmingly dominant issue. McCain only worsened the situation by admitting that the economy was a “bad subject” for him. Liasson also said that McCain was a “victim of his own political courage,” referring to his support of the troop surge in Iraq, and that his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate “showed what a deep hole” he was in. Though Liasson said many questions remain as to how Obama will deal with the many problems that are “coming down the pipe,” she’s certain he has the opportunity to be a “great president” in the face of those issues. The political correspondent was introduced by Darrell West, in whose honor the lecture is named. West, former professor of public policy and political science and director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy, recently moved to Washington to work as vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. Before introducing Liasson, West spoke about his recent experiences in the capital. West said that there were “wild cheers” throughout Washington on election night and that he was “excited” to see how the new president will deal with issues such as the current financial situation and the war in Iraq.

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Looting an extra worry for those in Congo’s nightmare By Stephanie McCrummen Washington Post

NYONGERA, Congo — It was her favorite dress, a pretty, long one with a wild pattern of colorful flowers. By her calculation, Anastazi Mahano saved five years for the small luxur y, keeping the dress from the mud that stains ever ything here brown, wearing it only for weddings and Sunday church. When rebel fighting engulfed this area recently, she padlocked it inside her mud-walled house and fled empty-handed, along with thousands of others, into the rolling green hills. Arriving back home Wednesday, however, she found the padlock smashed and her belongings looted — perhaps by unpaid rebels, or unpaid government soldiers, or even neighbors more desperate than she. “It took me a long time to buy that dress,” Mahano said as she sur veyed her wrecked house. “It was my special clothing. I’m so brokenhearted.” As panicked thousands have abandoned villages across eastern Congo in recent months, the scale of looting that has followed has been massive, a crime reflecting the predator y culture per vading Congo since the Belgian colonizers perfected it decades ago. The millions of minor thefts may pale in comparison to the more professional looting of eastern Congo’s vast mineral wealth, which is helping to finance the conflict. Collectively, though, the thieving soldiers have set back an already economically marginal population by years, if not decades, making it even harder to reverse the effects of a conflict that threatens to destabilize the entire Central African region.

Renegade Gen. Laurent Nkunda, a Tutsi rebel leader with close ties to neighboring Rwanda, has said he has begun fighting again to protect the region’s minority Tutsis from Hutu militias that fled to eastern Congo after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. He vowed recently to “liberate” all of Congo. Eastern Congo has been the epicenter of two civil wars in the past decade, and the most recent fighting has left the provincial capital of Goma encircled and displaced tens of thousands of Congolese. As the rebels advance, the nature of the looting here indicates how desperate Congo has become. Humiliated, retreating government soldiers, hungr y rebels and other opportunists have wrestled chickens and cellphones from fleeing villagers and smashed the doors and windows of abandoned homes, making off with mattresses, goats, pots, clothes, radios and TVs. The road that leads north from Goma has become a long, pathetic tableau of government soldiers leaning in door ways or in front of houses they now occupy. A bit far ther nor th, rebels have set up a roadblock where trucks heading to Goma heaped high with cabbages, charcoal and other goods must pay an astounding $500 tax or be turned back. Some drivers park there for days before managing, somehow, to get the money. The impact of the predation is dif ficult to calculate. Person by person, though, it has been catastrophic economically and, in a way, morally, as Congolese have watched their painstakingly earned savings and possessions carried off by drunk soldiers with guns. “I have lost my appetite,” said Jean-Marie Kabale Kapitula, 42, describing his devastation when he

Stephanie McCrummen / Washington Post

Jean-Marie Kabale Kapitula is a recent victim of the looting spree that has devastated the Congo. found two of his three saws stolen, along with three goats and his only pig, belongings representing years of work. He was among a few dozen people who returned Wednesday to this village of thatched-roof mud houses in a cool grove of banana and mango trees. Like Kapitula, most of them have lived their entire lives here, getting by throughout the notoriously kleptocratic rule of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, when some earned a decent living, the rebel invasion that ousted Mobutu and the decade of civil war that followed. Over the years, some people managed to fix up their homes with wooden doors and glass windows with neatly painted trim. Some have planted the pink and purple flowers that grow wild in this spectacularly lush part of the world. People here said they had never been forced to flee during previous conflicts. But when rebels loyal to Nkunda advanced through the area two weeks ago, the fighting was so heavy the entire village joined the mass exodus toward Goma. Kapitula left in a hurr y, padlocking the wooden door of his house and hoping for the best. When he returned, he found a village of smashed doors and broken windows. The two stolen saws had been “a remembrance of my father,” he said, touching his heart. His father had worked 30 years on a Belgian-owned coffee plantation, making $1.50 a day in the end. Before he died in 2006, he had bought the two $90 saws with what amounted to his life’s savings and given them to his son. Kapitula was able to employ four people, using the saws to fell tall trees and cut up the wood, which he sold in a local market. That brought him about $30 a month, and after a year or so, he managed to buy a third saw and add two men

to his crew. He was eventually making about $50 a month, and life was looking up. He bought the pig. He was taking care of his 70-year-old mother. “Now I’ll be able to make maybe $15 with the one ax,” Kapitula said. “Now the men I employed are jobless. They are coming to ask me, as a boss, how can we start again?” As a few dozen people arrived here Wednesday, they began asking themselves the same question — and counting their losses. In some houses, it seemed that the thieves did not so much go looting as go shopping, taking the best items and leaving the rest. Mahano, who has lived in Nyongera for six years, was at first afraid to go inside her house. When she did, she found her newest blankets stolen along with her favorite dress. “It took so long” to accumulate her things, she explained. “I go to the field and plant, and wait for reaping. Then I go to the market and sell a small quantity for money, and then wait for the next time of reaping, and then wait again. I’d say it took five years to buy the dress. Even more than five years.” Her neighbor Leonard Hangi pushed his door open. Besides a suit and other clothes, his radio had been stolen, he said. Like Mahano’s dress, it was a small luxur y, a prized possession that represented a degree of simple, humanizing pleasure in a life of mostly unrewarded hard work. “It had a cassette player, and it used batteries,” Hangi said, explaining the radio’s practical features. “It was just for my spare time. I liked to listen to the news and to African music.” He has worked for 24 years as a security guard at the Belgian coffee plantation, making about $1.50 a day. He was one of the few people in the village who had a radio,

which had cost him $15; he saved for two years, he estimated. But there were others, he said, who were worse off. Among those chased away from the area were people who had already been displaced from villages farther north and were living in a vast, tented camp across the road. When the rebels came, they fled again. Francis Huzumutima was one of them, and he returned Wednesday to assess his new position in life. Though he was now wearing an old shirt, torn pants and muddy flip-flops, things had not always been so, he said. He had once lived a semi-glamorous life in the capital, Kinshasa, attended university in the eastern city of Bukavu and gotten a job as a primar y school teacher during Mobutu’s heyday, when salaries were good. He earned $300 a month then. Even after Mobutu had cannibalized the countr y, he was able to manage, earning about $20 a month. With nearly 30 years of work behind him, Huzumutima had amassed a small rural empire of goats and chickens, dishes and cooking pots, a radio, a few suits. “I even had a mattress,” he said. It was all looted when a militia group passed through his village. But he started over. After a few weeks living in the camp here, he had managed to build a banana-leaf shelter and had acquired some pots and pans, par tly through the kindness of strangers. It was all wiped out again when Nkunda’s rebels came through. Now Huzumutima is facing retirement with nothing. “I have no hope to recover all my properties,” he said. “I had a ver y nice life before, but I don’t hope to have that life again.”

W Orld & N Ation Monday, November 17, 2008

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N B Flames engulf Southern California Obama officially resigns from U.S. Senate a t i o n

By Louis Sahagun, Mike Anton and Mitchell Landsberg Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — In a swiftly moving catastrophe that seemed as familiar as it was shocking, Southern California once again was engulfed in flame Saturday, from Orange County to Santa Barbara, with hundreds of homes consumed by three major winddriven fires, including one of the most devastating blazes ever to strike the city of Los Angeles. More than 30,000 people were ordered to evacuate from their homes amid smoke that blew like stinging fog through wind-ravaged canyons. Major freeways, including Interstate 5 and the 91 and 71 freeways were closed, making escape tricky for some. More than 500 mobile homes were destroyed at a community in Sylmar, as were more than 100 houses and apartments in Riverside and Orange Counties. The numbers were expected to grow. Remarkably, there was no new loss of life reported. On Friday, a 98-yearold man died while being evacuated in Santa Barbara, where fire destroyed multimillion-dollar homes. There were at least 11 injuries reported Saturday, including four firefighters in Riverside County who were caught in a “burnover,” briefly overtaken by flames. It was a day of record heat throughout the region, with a high of 93 in downtown Los Angeles. A wind advisory remained in effect for portions of the region through Sunday morning. Fire erupted at about 9 a.m. in Corona, in Riverside County. Called the Freeway Complex Fire — it started near the westbound 91 Freeway not far from the 71 Freeway — the blaze damaged or destroyed 16 homes in Corona before following the Santa Ana Canyon into Orange County. It destroyed or damaged at least 30 homes in Yorba Linda, then spread to Anaheim Hills, destroying at least 10 homes and 50 apartments. By nightfall, it had scorched nearly 6,000 acres and was just 5 percent contained. “The embers are falling miles ahead of the fire front,” said Kris Concepcion, a battalion chief with the Orange County Fire Authority. “That’s what is creating a lot of the problems, and the wind is a challenge. It’s creating sporadic spot fires.” Firefighter Patrick Ochoa, a veteran of numerous major fires in Southern California who was among the first responders to the Freeway Complex Fire, said he could recall no fire as difficult to fight. “Nothing has been as devastating in O.C. as this,” he said. “This is horrendous.” In Yorba Linda, wind-driven embers ignited at least five homes on one block of San Antonio Road, and firefighters were struggling to keep the fire east of Fairmont Boulevard, which divides Yorba Linda roughly in half. A separate fire a few miles north in Brea severely damaged Brea Canyon High School, a continuation school. More than 20,000 people were ordered to evacuate from the Orange County burn area, sometimes under treacherous conditions. Bobby Johnson, 18, of Yorba Linda, left on the 57 freeway, driving through fire on both sides of the road. “It was a valley of flame,” he said. Portions of major freeways and toll roads were closed in Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles counties. The fire in the San Fernando Val-

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WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama officially resigned from the Senate Sunday, removing himself from any official role in the lame-duck session of Congress that will convene this week. He also laid more groundwork for the start of his administration by deciding on additional members of his senior staff, including a White House counsel, and preparing to meet with another onetime political rival. Obama is scheduled to meet Monday with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., whom he defeated in the Nov. 4 presidential election, at his transition offices in downtown Chicago. The meeting comes days after the president-elect sat down separately with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, both of whom opposed him in the Democratic primary. Obama and McCain clashed sharply during the hard-fought campaign, but they agreed on several issues, including the urgency of combating climate change and the general need to tone down the intense partisanship that often paralyzes official Washington. “It’s well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality,” said Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. The president-elect announced his resignation from the Senate in a letter published in Illinois newspapers, telling his constituents, “I will never forget, and will forever be grateful, to the men and women of this great state who made my life in public service possible.” Saying that he is “ending one journey to begin another,” Obama added that he is stepping down “to prepare for the responsibilities I will assume as our nation’s next president.” Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, has said he will appoint a replacement senator by the end of the year. — Washington Post Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

San Bernardino County, Calif., firefighters battle a blaze near Orange County. ley neighborhood Sylmar, known as the midst of the firestorm. Bowman the Sayre Fire, began late Friday night said he and three other people found and swept through the Oakridge Mo- a 300-pound disabled woman, trapped bile Home Park. The toll appeared to in her home. be the largest number of housing units “Between the four of us, we were ever lost to fire in the city of Los An- able to take the woman out of the geles, surpassing the 484 residences house as fire was breaking the glass,” destroyed in the 1961 Bel Air fire. Bowman said. On Saturday, Oakridge was a He demurred when asked whether broad panorama of ash and twisted arson was the cause. metal. Broken water lines gushed and “We don’t know what actually hapsprayed like artesian wells. pened here,” he said. When Fernando Corral, 44, deThe Los Angeles Police Departcided to return to his family’s mobile ment said it had made five arrests in home community, he knew exactly the fire zone, at least two of them on where to go. Standing about 200 yards suspicion of looting, but none that from the main entrance and leaning were related to arson. “We’re not against a small chain-link fence, Cor- aware of anyone being questioned ral, his wife, and 13-year-old son looked about the cause of the fire,” police directly at their destroyed home. Capt. John Incontro said. “Pretty, isn’t it?” he asked as he By Sunday afternoon, residents turned his head away from the blow- were returning to survey the damage ing ash. Nearby was a charred piano by trudging down a dusty trail and songbook, “Beautiful Dreamer.” “I peering over a four-foot wall into the never liked that song,” 13-year-old mobile home park. Los Angeles City Jonathan Corral said. “It was too Councilman Richard Alarcon, who hard.” represents the area, was at the wall, About 10,000 people were evacu- talking to constituents. He shook his ated overnight, and late Saturday head. “I never had a fire chief come morning, their worst fears were real- up to me and apologize with tears in ized during a briefing by Los Angeles his eyes before. He said, `We stayed as Fire Department: The fire had begun long as we could. We did everything at 10:30 p.m. Friday, cause unknown. we could.’ “ It had spread over 3,000 acres. There Added Alarcon: “I have the highest was no containment, and, with tem- number of mobile homes in the city peratures rising into the 90s and wind in my district —at least I did before gusts of about 50 mph, the flames this fire.” were spreading with “great devastaThe fire affected electrical transtion,” said Capt. Steve Ruda. Many in mission lines. For about 45 minutes the room had watched TV coverage Saturday morning, the Los Angeles that vividly depicted the windblown Department of Water and Power imfirestorm. posed rolling blackouts through por“The television,” Ruda said, “does tions of the city to cope with a reduced not do justice to what firefighters are electrical supply. dealing with.” Earlier, Olive View-UCLA Medical Firefighters later began to contain Center in Sylmar, which sustained the fire, which had spread to 8,000 some fire damage, suffered a crippling acres by Saturday evening. They power shortage that forced the hospidescribed it as a blaze of unusual tal to quickly evacuate 18 critically ill ferocity. infants and nine other patients in the “I’ve been on 31 years in the city of intensive care unit. Los Angeles and have not seen anyOlive View relies on three sources thing like this,” said Michael Bowman, of power — the main line from DWP, a battalion chief for the Los Angeles an on-site power plant, and a backup Fire Department. He described the generator. All of them failed in quick scene at the mobile home park at 2 succession, for apparently unrelated a.m., when firefighters were rousting reasons, beginning at about 2 a.m. people from their beds to evacuate in officials said.

U.S. roads face a winter without salt CHICAGO — Weeks before the first snowflakes fell on Hamilton County, Ohio, officials hunted far and wide for road salt. The only supplier that had some was in South America -- priced nearly 300 percent above what the county paid in 2007. “We did the only thing we could: Tell the public to drive slow,” said Steve Mary, a county bridge and maintenance engineer. With winter quickly approaching, supplies of road salt across the U.S. are running extremely low. Prices are skyrocketing and transportation officials are frantically trying to find ways to pay the salt bill at a time when their budgets are tightening. “Companies are selling their stockpiles as quickly as they can produce it,” said Dick Hanneman, president of the Salt Institute, a trade association that represents owners of salt manufacturers in the United States and Canada. “No one can keep up.” The current salt woes stem from fears that the 2008 winter storms could be as bad as last year’s, which dropped record levels of snow in some parts of the country, Hanneman said. In 2007, U.S. salt suppliers shipped a near-record 20.3 million tons compared with the average 16 million tons a year through the previous decade. So, when it came time to put in this winter’s orders, Hanneman said, many states put their bids in early — and for amounts far larger than before. Illinois ordered 34 percent more salt, about 421,000 tons. Iowa boosted its orders by 52 percent, while Wisconsin and Michigan also raised their orders by double-digit percentages. The rising cost of gasoline and diesel added to the problems by making it even more expensive to ship the salt, which is usually carried by barge, rail or truck. — Los Angeles Times

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Monday, November 17, 2008

Monday, November 17, 2008

Iraqi cabinet agrees to end U.S. military presence By Tina Susman Los Angeles T imes

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Cabinet on Sunday overwhelmingly accepted a plan to end the U.S. militar y presence in Iraq by the end of 2011 and sent it on to Parliament for approval, where it faces a fight from lawmakers who consider it a sellout to the Americans. The Status of Forces Agreement was expected to be presented to the 275-seat national legislature Monday for the start of what likely will be contentious debate. Lawmakers are under pressure to vote on it by Nov. 25, when they plan to leave to attend the Hajj in Saudi Arabia. The agreement will replace the U.N. mandate expiring Dec. 31 that currently gives U.S. forces the legal basis for being in Iraq. While the Cabinet approval marked a victory of sorts for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who wrung several concessions from the United States during months of negotiations, it also puts him on a collision course with some Shiite and Sunni Muslim lawmakers who strongly oppose the deal. Among them are followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has threatened to call his Mahdi Army militia back to war against the United States to derail the pact; and Sunni parliamentarians who said the pact should be voted on in a public referendum. The pact calls for American forces to pull out of Iraqi cities by the end of June and fully withdraw from Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011. After lengthy negotiations, the U.S. also agreed to promise not to raid or attack neighboring countries from Iraq; not to search Iraqi homes or make arrests without Iraqi approval; and to drop demands for total immunity for U.S. forces accused of wrongdoing in Iraq. Despite the compromises, alSadr rejects the pact because he wants U.S. forces to leave Iraq when the U.N. mandate ends and opposes any agreement letting them stay longer. Leaders of Iraq’s minority Sunni population say the plan is too important not to be voted on by the public. The country’s most influential Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, indicated during the weekend that he would not oppose the latest draft. Sistani’s word carries immense weight with Iraq’s Shiite majority and should help fellow Shiite al-Maliki navigate the choppy waters that might result from al-Sadr’s opposition and from neighboring Iran, said Vali Nasr, an expert on Middle East politics at Tufts University. “I think al-Maliki had to get the deal that would satisfy Sistani,” said Nasr. “From the outset he is the one who mattered and is the only one who can stand up to Iran and al-Sadr’s opposition.” Iran, like al-Sadr, had said U.S. forces should leave Iraq when the U.N. mandate expires. “This will be an adventure,” said Omar Abdul Sattar, a Sunni legislator, summing up his prediction for the Parliament debate. In addition to political resistance, Sattar said time constraints on lawmakers will make reaching consensus difficult. The Cabinet approval came after a two-hour meeting presided over by al-Maliki, who urged pas-

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sage after concluding he had won all he could from Washington. “They decided it’s the best we could get,” said Khudair Khuzai, the Shiite education minister, of the 27 Cabinet ministers who raised their hands in favor of the plan. Khuzai said he would prefer to see a quick exit of foreign troops from Iraqi soil but was satisfied with wording that mandates the depar ture of American forces from Iraqi cities by the end of June 2009, and a full withdrawal from the country by Dec. 31, 2011. “If I was not convinced, I would not have voted for it,” he said. Under the plan, the touchy subject of immunity would be entrusted to a joint U.S.-Iraqi committee that would decide if an American troop should be subject to Iraqi prosecution for alleged crimes committed against Iraqis. The lone opponent in the cabinet vote was Nawal Majid Hameed, minister of state for women’s affairs. She is a member of the main Sunni bloc, Tawafik, which has said the public, not politicians, should decide on the agreement in a referendum. Hameed said amendments sought by Tawafik, including the release of about 16,000 Iraqis held in U.S. custody, were ignored and that Tawafik stood by its demand for a referendum. A spokesman for lawmakers loyal to al-Sadr, Ahmed Masoudi, called the vote “highly regrettable” and said Cabinet members “gave away Iraq on a gold platter to the occupier.” The Sunni and al-Sadr blocs don’t control enough seats in Parliament to torpedo the pact, but if it passes, it still must be ratified by the three-member presidency council. The council includes Sunni vice president Tariq Hashimi, who has led calls for the referendum and could veto any agreement. Cognizant of the possibility, the White House was cautious in its reaction. “While the process is not yet complete, we remain hopeful and confident we’ll soon have an agreement that ser ves both the people of Iraq and the United States well,” spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. If Iraq’s parliament rejected the pact or failed to pass it before the end of the year, it would not be the first time crucial legislation has fallen victim to the country’s polarized politics. A bill to manage the country’s lucrative oil industry was approved by the Cabinet more than a year ago but never passed Parliament. After the Cabinet vote Sunday, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh sought to deflect Iraqi concerns that the pact left open the door for U.S. troops to extend their stay here. He called both the June 2009 and the Dec. 31, 2011 withdrawal deadlines “final and decided.” When the talks began, the United States had pressed for wording that would have omitted deadlines for troop withdrawals in favor of a vague “time horizon” for withdrawal dependent on conditions in Iraq. Even with the deadlines, alDabbagh said Iraq would have the right to cancel the agreement if they decided their own forces were ready to assume full control of the country’s security.

Volleyball loses both of weekend bouts continued from page 12 we did in the last few years.” For the two seniors on the team, captain and setter Natalie Meyers ’09 and outside hitter and Herald business staffer Lyndse Yess ’09, the season fell just short of their goal. “We wanted to go .500 this season and we were one game short,” Meyers said. “We were a little inconsistent sometimes. But we had a young team and we were very close to accomplishing out goal.” Meyers and Yess contributed tremendously this season, according to Short. “They were great leaders, great role models,” she said. “They work hard all the time. They both had their best seasons their senior year, and (their teammates) learn from them.” Annika Gliottone ’12, starting libero, echoed Short’s comments about the two seniors. “Both of them are great athletes,” Gliottone said. “They motivate me personally because they always give their 100 percent, and that makes me want to play well, too.” Gliottone said the outcome of the last two games could have been better as the team hoped to go out on a good note for the seniors. The Bears faced Princeton on Friday night. In their first encounter this season, the Tigers swept Brown 3-0. Although the Bears tried to stop them this time, they fell short as Princeton, which stands in second place in the Ivy League with one game remaining, swept Brown again with scores of 25-22, 25-12 and 25-18. In the loss, Yess and Gliottone led the team in kills and digs, respectively, with Yess putting down nine kills and Gliottone notching 10 digs. Meyers recorded 29 assists, along with three kills and three digs. Middle-blocker Ann Cowell ’10 also played well, clipping seven kills with a .308 hitting percentage. The next day, the team faced Penn, which will finish in third place in the Ivies this season. The Bears could not execute the same play as they did at home a month ago, when they defeated the Quakers in a thrilling five-game match. This time, the host had the clear edge as it won in three straight games, 25-17, 25-17 and 25-13. Brianna Williamson ’11 led the team with nine kills and a .381 hitting percentage. Defensively, Gliottone led the team with 15 digs. Despite losing the last two matches of the season, Gliottone thought the season went “pretty well” overall. As a freshman, Gliottone was given the starting role in the libero position. She said she was “pretty nervous starting out, but the seniors made (her) feel more confident.” “I definitely want to play better next year,” Gliottone said, adding that she could pass more balls and better communicate with her teammates. The team expects to have five to six incoming freshmen join next year. Short said there will be room for more improvement. “We can certainly improve in the Ivy season,” Short said. As for the seniors, they are very optimistic about the team’s future. “I’m still in denial that volleyball ended,” Meyers said. “But I think the team will do well next year. The other teams might not be as strong because they will lose more starters. I think the team can go far in the league next year.”

Football finishes off Green in bid for another Ivy title continued from page 12 ing a 38-10 lead for Bruno. “I read the defensive end, and saw that he was crashing down on the running back,” Dougherty said. “So I pulled it back, and the receivers made some great blocks downfield, and I was able to take it all the way.” The defense continued to show no mercy to the Big Green, as linebacker Steve Ziogas ’09 forced a fumble, which was recovered by tackle Joseph McPhee ’09 at the Dartmouth 40. Ziogas had a big game, finishing with seven tackles, including one for a loss. Starting in great field position, Dougherty completed a 25-yard pass to Farnham, eventually setting up another 1-yard touchdown run for Sewall. “Any time your defense forces a lot of turnovers, and you’re able to hold onto the ball, you’re going to be successful and win games,” Dougherty said. Neither team scored again until the final play of the game, when the Big Green got into the end zone to

make the final score 45-16. Tackle David Howard ’09 registered the only sack of the day for Brown, while linemen Peter Hughes ’10, James Develin ’10 and Wale Adedokun ’09 each made a tackle for a loss. Several running backs saw action for Brown on Saturday, as Wayne Ritter ’10 had four carries for 40 yards, Marc Howland ’11 had four carries for 34 yards, and Daniel Ball ’11 had five carries for 22 yards. Knight and Jonathan Edwards ’09 each finished with 37 rushing yards on the day. Brown is currently tied for first place in the Ivy League with Harvard at 5-1, so the Bears can clinch a share of the title with a win over Columbia (2-7, 2-4 Ivy) this Saturday. With a Yale win over Harvard, Brown will win the championship outright. “We are eager to win, and we are focused,” Still wrote. “We work hard all week, whether it’s lifting, watching film, or practicing. As seniors we all want to end with a bang. We are in a position to do something special, so now it’s up to us.”

W. hockey splits weekend continued from page 12 skated up, took a shot that Stock saved, grabbed her own rebound and found the back of the net to give the Big Red a 3-2 win. “That was a heartbreaker,” Brown said. “Anything in the last minute of play is really tough, but I guess we came back the next day and showed that we deserved to win.” But the game against Colgate (7-6, 2-2) did not start out well for Brown. The Bears were whistled for four penalties in the first 7:36, and the Raiders took advantage for two power-play goals, sandwiched around a Bruno goal scored by Sasha Van Muyen ’10, to take a 2-1 lead just 6:48 into the game. “It was very unlucky,” Brown said of all the penalties. “It kind of brings a team down, but I guess we fought back and showed that we weren’t going to be taken out by the refs.” The Bears tied the game with 4:13 left in the first period on a goal by Pyett; Erica Kromm ’11 notched the assist. The Raiders retook the lead 8:37 into the second period on an even-strength goal, but Bruno responded with another score on a power play 3:23 before the break.

Erin Connors ’10 notched her first goal of the season, while assists gave Hunter her fourth point of the weekend and Kromm her second point of the game. Heading into the third period, the game was tied at three goals apiece despite the Bears facing a 28-16 deficit in shots. But Bruno turned around to control the third period with a 12-7 advantage in shots. Nicole Brown notched the game-winning goal with 9:20 left when she collected the rebound of a shot by Jenna Dancewicz ’11 in the slot and found the top right corner of the net. Stock finished with 32 saves to seal Bruno’s second victory of the year and break a four-game winless streak against the Raiders. “It’s good to go into the next weekend with a win under our belt, a hard-fought win,” Brown said. “We haven’t beaten them in a couple years, and Colgate is a pretty good team, so it felt pretty good to come away with the win.” The Bears will look to take the momentum they found this weekend into a pair of non-conference games at Meehan Auditorium. They will host the Niagra Purple Eagles (2-9-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. and the Mercyhurst Lakers (6-4) on Saturday at 4 p.m.

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Monday, November 17, 2008

Staf f Editorial

Censorship in the marketplace of ideas What is the relationship between good art and bad taste in a university environment? Does a university have the right to censor pornographic art? Or is it a denial of freedom of expression to censor any art that promotes public debate? These questions relate to a controversial artwork about Sarah Palin — one created by Ben Noam, a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design. To explore the impact of Palin’s vice-presidential campaign, Noam’s work featured a monitor playing a pornographic video of “Who’s Nailin’ Paylin” surrounded by blowup dolls of Palin. At issue is whether RISD violated artistic freedom when it literally pulled the plug on the video portion of Noam’s work. RISD seems to distinguish art from pornography in its response. Dennis Congdon, the head of RISD’s Painting Department, believes that it is inappropriate to display pornography in a public space. And while Jaime Marland, the school’s Senior Press Officer, affirms lawfully exercised artistic freedom, its general counsel, Steve McDonald, questions the legality of exposing minors to obscenity. Not surprisingly, there are divergent views among the students at RISD about this artwork. Some accuse RISD of engaging in artistic censorship. They can contend that the artist has an obligation to break down social barriers to expand the boundaries of art. Others generally question the purpose of art, saying it should provoke thought and not produce pornographic titillation. They ask: Is it not the artist’s responsibility to create a space that offers its viewers time to take in a piece? Moreover, they may argue that pornography is especially inappropriate, since it often demeans any woman with which it is associated. Because these are all important perspectives, we believe that they should be incorporated into an overarching standard. We believe that this issue, and all others like it, should be decided by determining whether the student’s work promotes debate in the marketplace of ideas. If it does, we submit that the artwork should be permitted no matter how offensive it may be to some members of the community. Applying this standard to Noam’s work, we believe that RISD erred in censoring it, no matter how well-intentioned its actions may have been. Noam’s work was part of an exhibition designed to promote dialogue about the election. And that is precisely what it did. Whether one loves or despises Palin’s political inclinations, Noam’s piece reflects the disturbing fault lines that still exist between gender and politics in America. For, while America laudably transcended race in this past election, gender was a highly divisive issue for Palin in the presidential election, just as it was for Hillary Clinton in the primaries. Like it or not, Noam’s piece provocatively reflects the commoditization and objectification of Palin as a candidate, whether by Republicans who marketed Palin’s gender to procure disaffected women voters or Democrats who branded her as an Alaskan paleoconservative. As a result, Noam’s work reveals an even more troubling sexist subtext to the election. Hence, it promotes an important intellectual dialogue that we believe should have been encouraged, not denied.

PATRICIA CHOU

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O pinions Monday, November 17, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Page 11

What professors shouldn’t do BY MANUEL POSSOLO Opinions Columnist In his recent visit to campus, professor and New York Times blogger Stanley Fish spoke about his new book “Save the World on Your Own Time,” in which he argues that professors should do what they’re paid to do and not much else. Most simply, he believes that professors should teach, not preach. That doesn’t seem like such a terrible idea, but Fish doesn’t stop there. In his view, teachers shouldn’t seek to cultivate minds, to encourage creativity, or to inspire critical thinking. In fact, they shouldn’t do a whole bunch of things because that’s just not what they’re paid or trained to do. But I got to thinking about all this, and, inspired by Fish, I couldn’t help but come up with my own list of what professors should and shouldn’t do. So here it is: Professors shouldn’t act as mere encyclopedias or craft their lectures into glorified literature reviews. Instead, they should seek to challenge their students to grapple with new ideas, to engage with readings in a constructive way and to think creatively about what’s been written before. As such, professors have a responsibility not only to offer new knowledge but to make students engage with it in a meaningful way.

Professors should aim not simply to summarize the current state of work in the field but also to help students challenge and question it. In Fish’s view, professors have two narrowly defined responsibilities, the first of which is to present students with new bodies of knowledge. That’s a fine goal, but it’s not even half the work. Students don’t need a professor to

arguments made in books and essays but also to acquire the kind of energy, drive and incisiveness necessary to build up their own ideas. According to Fish, the second duty of a professor, beyond presenting new knowledge to students, is merely to offer them the tools they need to engage in analysis. He means giv-

The process of learning aims not at the formation of specialized workers but at the creation of informed and active learners. learn about what’s out there. All they need is an encyclopedia and a pile of dusty books. Professors shouldn’t teach like a how-to book for academic writing. Rather, they should encourage students to build up their own arguments, to contribute original ideas to their field of interest and to think in novel ways. This means helping students not only to learn the analytical skills that they need in order to examine the soundness of academic

ing them a methodology for analytical writing. This is a wonderful goal, but it’s not the only end of teaching and learning. What’s the point of learning analytical skills if you don’t know how to build up your own ideas and enter them into conversation with the work of others? Students simply cannot learn to be inquisitive, energetic or innovative from a how-to manual. Such attributes must be cultivated through a vibrant learning

process in which students are challenged and engaged not as passive learners but as active contributors. Professors shouldn’t do merely what they’re paid to do. The process of learning aims not at the formation of specialized workers but at the creation of informed and active learners. As such, its emphasis lies not in the learning of specific facts but rather in the process of learning itself. Students and professors, equally engaged in this process, can only bring it to fruition if they do more than what is expected of them, and certainly only if they do more than they’re paid to do. Implicit in all that’s been said, I hope, is that there are a lot more things professors should do than things they shouldn’t. Perhaps most importantly, they should do what students need them to do. This includes challenging their pupils to engage with learning materials in new and various ways, pushing their students not only to think analytically but also to make something meaningful of their analytic tools, and ultimately doing far more than they’re paid or even asked to do. If I had to suggest just one thing they shouldn’t do, I’d say they shouldn’t take Stanley Fish’s advice.

Manuel Possolo ’09 wrote this column for free.

Rhode Island’s Proposition 8 BY ZACH BEAUCHAMP Opinions Columnist After one of the country’s most progressive states, California, passed a constitutional amendment overturning the State Supreme Court’s ruling permitting gay marriage, it’s pretty easy to think that Americans simply aren’t tolerant enough to approve gay marriage at the ballot box. That’s not the case, and if you need some proof, you should look right here at Rhode Island. We’re quietly on the verge of becoming the first state to legalize gay marriage without a court order. There are two main paths for achieving marriage equality without court intervention: standard legislation or a legislative constitutional amendment, which needs to be approved by a State House majority and over 50 percent of the state’s voters at the next election. Marriage Equality Rhode Island (MERI), the state’s leading pro-gay marriage association, favors legislation over a constitutional amendment. Both Patrick Crowley, MERI’s legislative director, and State Representative Frank Ferri, an openly gay legislator who married his husband in Canada, told me in interviews that they both believed it’s wrong to subject fundamental rights to a vote. It’s hard to see how legislation doesn’t do the same thing. Either way, the legal status of marriage equality is determined by a vote rather than, say, a court ruling or an executive order. The more important question is which route is the faster and more effective one to achieve marriage equality. I pressed Crowley and Ferri on this issue, and both said they believed legislation to be the more feasible approach. Ballot initiatives, they argued, are too subject to pressure from

interest groups — Crowley noted that federal regulation of spending in ballot initiative campaigns is almost totally unregulated — and the political climate of a particular year to be a reliable way to push marriage equality. I have nothing but admiration for Mr. Crowley, Representative Ferri and MERI as an organization. On this point, however, I think they should reconsider. Depending on the outcome of the 2010 governor’s election, a constitutional amendment may well be our best hope for marriage equality in Rhode Island. Currently, according to Crowley, “the Governor (Donald Carcieri ’65) has been the biggest road block” in the way of the legislation.

good reason to be optimistic about an amendment’s prospects for success. The two groups most likely to oppose gay marriage are white evangelicals and Republicans. Rhode Island has the lowest numbers of both in the nation. There is also no local anti-gay marriage group to speak of; the only organization to send someone to testify at the most recent state hearings on the issue, the National Organization for Marriage, has no state office or in-state contact listed on its Web site. MERI, on the other hand, has a significant presence in the state, and according to Susan MacNeil, MERI’s director of communications and devel-

A constitutional amendment may well be our best hope for marriage equality in Rhode Island. Though Crowley believes that a majority of state legislators support marriage equality legislation, the Governor is sure to veto, and Crowley doesn’t think there would be enough support for an override. Carcieri’s term expires in 2010, and if he is replaced by a Democrat amenable to gay marriage, MERI’s current strategy makes sense. However, if a Republican wins — a real possibility given the political talent of likely nominee Steven Laffey — marriage equality legislation would be doomed for the foreseeable future. If Crowley and Ferri are right about a constitutional amendment, then it would seem Laffey’s election would dash hopes for gay marriage in Rhode Island. However, there is

opment, has received a surge of new support after the passage of Proposition 8. Rhode Island was second only to Vermont in percent of votes sent to Obama in the 2008 election. Though encouraging, this does not necessarily translate into support for gay marriage. Obama carried California by a similar margin. This comparison is not as telling as it may seem, as there are major differences between the two states. To pick just one, Mormons, who made up 80 to 90 percent of volunteers in the Yes on 8 campaign in California and supplied around half of its funding, make up a negligible portion of Rhode Island’s population and unlike California, we’re nowhere near Utah. The Catholic Church, which played a ma-

jor role in recruiting the Mormons to the Yes on 8 movement, could potentially pick up the organizing slack in Rhode Island, as the state has the largest percentage of Catholics in the nation. However, the Church’s doctrinal opposition to gay marriage doesn’t trickle down to its rank-and-file as well as you might think: A recent Pew survey found that white Catholics were split evenly on whether gay marriage should be permitted. And Rhode Island Catholics (who are mostly white) are far more liberal on average than their brethren nationally: Though Obama lost white Catholics by five points overall, he won them by a whopping 16 point spread in Rhode Island. Catholics are unlikely to be the organizing edge in Rhode Island that Mormons were in California. Opponents of gay marriage would need such an advantage to compete with MERI, the state Democratic Party and the Obama 2012 operation. While previous polling has shown mixed support for gay marriage in Rhode Island — two 2006 polls found that a plurality support it — a source well-placed in the Rhode Island marriage equality movement told me that another soon to be released survey found that support for marriage rights among Rhode Islanders has increased since then. All this evidence might make one think now’s the time to push for getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2010. I have mixed feelings about this approach, as midterm elections tend to attract voters unhappy with the party in national power, and a failed constitutional amendment would do significant damage to the statutory route. However, I do think it’s worth considering. Though Crowley told me that MERI has “talked about” a constitutional amendment, I think now may be the time to talk again.

Zack Beauchamp ‘10 supports gay marriage, in case you couldn’t tell.

S ports M onday Page 12

Monday, November 17, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Football keeps Ivy hopes alive

Sports in Brief

M. hockey falls to Yale in shutout The men’s hockey team (0-41, 0-2-1 ECAC) lost to Yale (4-1-0, 2-1-0) for the second time this season, by a score of 3-0 on Saturday in New Haven. Despite 39 saves from goalie Dan Rosen ’10, Bruno couldn’t hang with the Bulldogs after giving up two goals in the second period. The Bears’ play in the opening minutes was indicative of their performance all night. In the first two and a half minutes, Yale gained an 8-0 shot advantage. But Rosen stopped all eight attempts. Yale goalie Alec Richards was not challenged until Assistant Captain Jordan Pietrus ’10 got off a power-play shot nearly ten minutes into the game. Richards saved that shot and one more in the first period. When the buzzer blew for intermission, the scoreboard remained blank, but Yale had a 17-2 shot advantage. When the second period began, Yale had 1:50 left on a powerplay. Then, just 31 seconds into the period, Harry Zolnierczyk ’11 was sent to the penalty box for tripping, giving the Bulldogs a two-man advantage. Under a half a minute later, Mark Arcobello fired a shot off the post, but Brian O’Neill was waiting by the goal and slapped the rebound past Rosen to give Yale a 1-0 lead. Just over four minutes later, Arcobello scored one of his own, on a backhand from the inside of the left circle that bounced off of the post and into the net. Although Yale outscored Bruno 2-0 in the second period, the shot totals were more balanced than in the first. Rosen faced 11 shots, while Richards stopped 10. The final period stayed scoreless until Rosen left an empty net with just over a minute left in the game. Despite the extra attacker, Bulldog Denny Kearney intercepted a pass at the point, then fired a shot and beat Brown’s phantom goalie to end the game, 3-0. Rosen finished with a .951 save percentage on 41 shots. Richards recorded the shutout after a perfect 17-for-17 effort. The Bears return to their home ice to face off against Harvard on Tuesday night at 7. — Dan Alexander

S C H E D U LE S MONDAY, NOV. 17 M. HOOPS: at George Mason, 7 p.m. TUESDAY, NOV. 18 M. ICERS: vs. Harvard, 7:07 p.m. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 19 M. HOOPS: at Holy Cross, 7 p.m. W. HOOPS: vs. Georgetown, 7 p.m. FRIDAY, NOV. 21 W. SQUASH: at Harvard, 5 p.m. M. SQUASH: at Harvard, 5 p.m. W. ICERS: vs. Niagra, 7 p.m. M. WATER POLO: vs. Johns Hopkins, TBD HERALD: vs. sadness, all night.

By Benjy Asher Sports Editor

Justin Coleman / Herald

The women’s hockey team won against Colgate and lost to Cornell in weekend games in New York.

W. hockey splits two-game road trip By Andrew Braca Assistant Sports Editor

The women’s hockey team pulled off a dramatic two-game split against tough conference opponents over the weekend. After Cornell scored with eight seconds remaining in overtime to steal a 3-2 victory on Friday, Brown rallied the next day to take home a 4-3 win over Colgate. The New York road trip ran the Bears’ conference record to 2-4 (2-5-1 overall) and jolted their confidence. “I think we did pretty well,” said Nicole Brown ’10. “I feel like we came out a lot better than we have in the weekends past.” The key against Cornell (4-2-1, 2-1-1) was staying out of trouble with the referees. The Bears have been plagued by penalties so far this season, but they took only five in this game, while Cornell was

whistled nine times. Extra power play chances led to a 36-32 advantage in shots. “It seems like this year we’ve been on a penalty streak, like we get them all the time,” Brown said. “It was really important to have a good penalty kill and take advantage of our power plays when we got them.” The Bears were able to do just that. After a scoreless opening period, Bruno took the lead just 2:02 into the second period on a power play. Assistant captain Andrea Hunter ’10 collected the rebound of a shot by Jenny Cedorchuk ’10 and pushed a shot through a crowd of players in front of the net. But the Big Red answered with a power-play goal of its own 7:48 later to tie the game heading into the third period. Cornell took its first lead of the game just 1:07 into the third, as

Rebecca Johnston scored her second goal of the game, but Brown answered 7:33 later. Hunter capitalized on another rebound for her second power-play goal of the game, this time redirecting a shot by Paige Pyett ’12. The score remained 2-2 for the rest of the period, sending the game into a fiveminute, sudden death overtime. Bruno got a power play and produced six shots in the extra frame, but Big Red goalie Kayla Strong stonewalled the Bears. Strong finished with 34 saves to out-duel her Brown counterpart, captain and Herald sports staff writer Nicole Stock ’09, who tallied 29. As time ticked away, it appeared that the teams would battle to a draw, but with just over 10 seconds left Karlee Overguard won a faceoff in the neutral zone for Cornell. She continued on page 9

Volleyball improves but loses final two bouts By Han Cui Assistant Sports Editor

The volleyball team hoped to end its 2008 season with two wins on the road. But the Bears could not pull out the upset over Princeton on Friday night, and they lost their final match of the season to Penn the following day. Despite the losses, the team showed a five-win improvement from last season, going from a 7-17 record in 2007 to 12-14 this season. The Bears finished tied with Dartmouth for sixth in the Ivy League with a 4-10 record, and Yale claimed the title. “The team worked very hard this year,” said Head Coach Diane Short. “There are good lessons to be learned.” Short also highlighted some big improvements the team made this year. “The biggest improvement we made was in hitting percentage,” Short said. “We made fewer hitter errors, and we had better reflections on setting and hitting than

Coming off a 13-3 loss to Yale, the football team (6-3, 5-1 Ivy) responded with an emphatic 45-16 win over Dartmouth on Saturday. Quarterback and co-captain Michael Dougherty ’09 completed 16 of 22 passes for 238 yards and threw two touchdowns while rushing for another. Brown controlled the game from the opening drive, when Dougherty completed his first five passes, and the Bears established the running game with running back Dereck Knight ’08.5 and receiver Bobby Sewall ’10 combining for 16 yards on three carries. Bruno got on the board when, on second-and-5 from the Dartmouth 21-yard line, Brown ran a play-action pass, and Dougherty found Sewall over the top on a post route for a touchdown. “That set the tone for the rest of the game,” Dougherty said. “Every time we’ve scored on our opening drive, we’ve been very successful offensively.” Sewall continued his outstanding season on Saturday with one receiving touchdown and two rushing touchdowns. He now leads the Ivy League with 12 overall touchdowns on the season, and has also racked up a league-leading 63 receptions and 879 receiving yards. The momentum continued to go Brown’s way when, on Dartmouth’s first play from scrimmage, outside linebacker Miles Craigwell ’09 tipped a pass to cornerback Nkosi Still ’09, who intercepted it at the Dartmouth 43. The Big Green looked like it might have a chance to stop the Brown offense at 3rd-and-5 on the 27, but Dougherty found receiver Buddy Farnham ’10 for a 17-yard completion. After Knight gained nine yards to move the ball to the 1, Sewall ran it in for a touchdown on second down to increase the lead to 14-0. On Brown’s next drive, Dougherty completed a 56-yard pass to Sewall to set up a 35-yard field goal for kicker Robert Ranney ’08.5, giving Bruno a 17-0 lead with 2:21 left in the first quarter. The Big Green cut the lead to 17-7 with a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, but Dougherty and the Bears answered right back when receiver Trevan Samp ’10 caught a 25-yard touchdown pass, Samp’s second touchdown of the season. Dartmouth started its next drive with a 19-yard completion, but two plays later, defensive end Joe Yanchunis ’09 came up with an interception behind the line of scrimmage and ran it back 31 yards for his first touchdown of the season, increasing the lead to 31-7. “Our defensive line over-powered their offensive line, thus putting great pressure on their QB, so the ball was coming out pretty fast,” Still wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Though the offense did not put up any more points before halftime, the Bears got things started again on their first drive of the second half, when Dougherty took the ball to the outside on an option play and broke off a 69-yard touchdown run, build-

Justin Coleman / Herald

continued on page 9

The women’s volleyball team concluded its season this weekend.

continued on page 9