Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Brown Daily Herald T uesday, N ovember 18, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 115

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

More than half of grades are now A’s, data show

By Seth Motel Staff Writer

Chaz Firestone / Herald File Photo

Members of Students for a Democratic Society are facing disciplinary action after attempting to force their way into University Hall — through both door and window — during a protest outside last month’s Corporation meeting.

SDS protest injured officers, U. says

BY Joanna Wohlmuth Senior Staff Writer

The University is alleging that Students for a Democratic Society members injured three employees while trying to force their way into University Hall during a protest outside last month’s Corporation meeting, according to SDS members.

As per evidence given to the accused students, two Department of Public Safety officers and James Trail, President Ruth Simmons’ executive driver, reported minor injuries as a result of trying to prevent students from entering the building, said Carly Devlin ’09,

one of the eight students facing disciplinary action in relation to the event. One of the officers sustained a wrist injury and the other was hit in the eye, while Trail hurt his back, Devlin said.

“No one was able to pinpoint one individual” as responsible for their injuries, said Chantal Tape ’09, who is also facing charges. Students were later told by Associate Dean of Student Life Terry Addison that the injuries were minor and none had required hospitalization, she added.

Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services, declined to discuss the details of the case. But in letters

sent to the students by Addison and obtained by The Herald, the University contended that they “caused a meeting of the University Corporation to be disrupted,” “forcibly entered a University building that was closed” and “caused University personnel to be injured” in the process.

The eight students are facing the University’s most serious level of disciplinary proceedings after 20 members of the group tried to get past DPS officers stationed outside University Hall who attempted to stop them.

After about three minutes, eight continued on page 6

For the first time in recent memory, the majority of grades Brown students received last year were A’s, according to data from the Office of Institutional Research.

The proportion of A’s given increased to 50.6 percent in 2007-08, 1.1 percent higher than the previous year and a new peak for a figure that has risen significantly over the last decade. Since the 1994-95 academic year, the proportion of A’s given has increased 15.8 percent.

According to the data, students in humanities, social science and life science classes all receive A’s at least 50 percent of the time, with only physical science professors giving out fewer than half A’s — 47.1 of physical science students received top marks last year. The percentage of A’s awarded is up across all disciplines in the last 10 years.

Overall, 21.7 percent of students received B’s last year and only 4.2 percent received C’s, with “satisfactory” grades going to 19.9 percent of students. The remaining 3.6 percent of grades given last year were “no credit.”

The proportion of both B’s and C’s awarded has declined as A’s have risen over the past 10 years. The proportion of S’s awarded has hovered at or just above 20 percent during the same period. The proportion of students taking classes S/NC has been roughly constant.

James Dreier, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee and professor of philosophy, said he did not want to jump to the conclusion that grade inflation caused the increase in A’s.

Distribution of undergraduate grades in 2007-’08 08

50.6% B: 21.7% C: 4.2% NC: 3.6% S: 19.9% A:

Source: Office of Institutional Research

Instead, he said, the data could reflect better high school preparation and higher admission selectivity.

“I think people should not rule out the possibility that students are just doing better,” he said. “We don’t have to always look for nefarious or bad reasons.”

Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine, who has taught at Brown since 1959, said that incoming students now have stronger academic backgrounds than they used to.

“I’m doing more sophisticated stuff now in my courses than we used to,” he added.

But Valen Johnson, author of “Grade Inflation: A Crisis in College Education” and a professor at the University of Texas, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that a more talented student body shouldn’t alter the grades students receive. continued on page 4

For some, California ban Bad economy will delay new buildings on gay marriage hits home Campus construction projects delayed

By Chaz Kelsh Senior Staf f Writer

Several weeks before the election, Shae Selix ’12, from Sacramento, Calif., decided to organize Leah Fraimow-Wong’s ’11 parents a phone bank so that Brown stuhave been together for nearly 25 dents, unable to participate in dooryears. But it wasn’t until a Tuesday to-door campaigning and other acevening several weeks ago that tivism in California, could still help they decided to get married — that the “No on 8” campaign.

Friday.

Selix said about 40 students Fraimow-Wong’s mothers, who participated in the phone bankare lesbians living in ing, which was publiBerkeley, Calif., passed cized primarily through FEATURE on their opportunity to Facebook and by word get married a few years ago when of mouth.

San Francisco legalized gay marFor former Herald Assistant Deriage, but decided to go for it this sign Editor Alex Unger ’11, who is time — just weeks before Proposi- openly gay and participated in the tion 8 passed by narrow margins phone bank, the ideological implion Nov. 4. cation of prohibiting marriages for “It’s kind of hard to know that gay couples is crucial. half of the people in your state don’t “You are considered a differreally approve of the way you live,” ent class of citizen,” he said. “One Fraimow-Wong said, expressing definition applies to one group of her disappointment last week. people and another applies to anAnd despite the distance be- other.” tween the coasts, other students Restricting marriage only to heton Brown’s campus are reacting to Prop. 8, too. continued on page 7

By Sarah Husk Staf f Writer

3

METRO

A NEW KENNEDY PLAZA? A group of city organizations is trying to spruce up the transportation hub

www.browndailyherald.com

5

CAMPUS NEWS

Planned completion dates as of...

Concern about the University’s financial situation will delay the construction of several new buildings around campus.

Administrators “expect lower revenues” in the short-term and are therefore more cautious about beginning capital projects, said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration.

“The concern is the pace at which some projects will go forward,” she said, adding that uncertainty about how much financial aid will cost is a central problem.

Delayed projects will include the planned Creative Arts Center, the Mind Brain Behavior building, the Nelson Fitness Center, the new swim center and the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center at Faunce House, Huidekoper said.

The buildings are a part of

Nelson Fitness Center and swim center

Nov. 2007: 2010/2011 Nov. 2008: TBD

Nov. 2007: Summer 2010 Nov. 2008: TBD

Mind Brain Behavior Building

Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center

Creative Arts Center

Nov. 2007: 2011 Nov. 2008: TBD

Nov. 2007: 2010 Nov. 2008: TBD

J. Walter Wilson renovations: Near completion Pembroke Hall renovations: Complete Images courtesy of Brown University

Steve DeLucia / Herald

POST OFFICE REMIX You can once again expect to have groups accosting you — J. Walter Wilson style

11

OPINIONS

BREAKFAST-TIME VOTING Rachel Forman ’09 doesn’t regret getting up at 4:30 a.m. to cast her ballot

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

12 SPORTS

continued on page 4

A SHOOT AND A MISS Men and women’s basketball suffer losses over the weekend despite strong efforts

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r TODAY

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Dinner — Curry Chicken with Coconut, Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Tahini Sauce, New York Style Cheesecake

Dinner — Roast Beef au Jus, Italian Vegetable Saute, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes, Wax Beans

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M etro Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Page 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Residents meet to talk development East Siders discuss neighborhood plan

By George Miller Senior Staff Writer

Courtesy of Adam E. Moreira

A working group of Providence organizations is trying to transform Kennedy Plaza, now primarily a busy bus terminal, into a pedestrian-friendly cultural hub.

City group works to give Kennedy Plaza a new look Markets and concerts spruce up bus hub

By Jyotsna Mullur Staf f Writer

For many Brown students, downtown’s Kennedy Plaza is simply a crowded bus terminal, a place to make a quick transfer en route to a final destination.

But city groups want to make the bustling Providence landmark a destination in itself — a lively center of arts and culture.

In February, the city brought in a New York nonprofit consulting firm, Project for Public Spaces, to host a workshop to determine what improvements residents wanted to see made to the Greater Kennedy Plaza Area — which also includes Burnside Park, the Bank of America Skating Center and Biltmore Park.

A group, including representatives of the Rhode Island Public Transport Authority, the Downtown Improvement District and the nonprofit Providence Foundation, has been meeting to see Kennedy Plaza’s facelift through.

Over the summer, the group sponsored daily events, such as Farmers’ Market Fridays at Burnside Park, Rhythm and Soul Sundays with performances by the AfroSonic Collective, a rhythm band with live drummers and Public Square Tuesdays — at which local nonprofit organizations could present their missions. Many of the organizations represented in the working group also provide funding for the attractions.

Other events included band performances, Market Bazaars and other cultural shows.

“The greatest feedback was that people wanted to see more activity,” said Deb Dormody, program manager for the working group. The idea is to create a “more active and vibrant city center,” a goal that will include making the area more pedestrian friendly, she said.

“We’re trying to turn Kennedy Plaza into a statewide public plaza,”

said Councilman Cliff Wood, D-Ward 2, who has worked with the group as a member of Cornish Associates, a real estate development company devoted to community improvement and a partner of the Kennedy Plaza group.

“The more reason that people have to come down, the better it is for that public space,” he said. “Our goal is that when people come down to do one thing, they find two other things to do.”

The European idea of a public square is making a comeback in the United States, said Frank Latorre, director of public space for the Downtown Improvement District.

Kennedy Plaza is a place where “we can see people connecting with people,” he said.

With winter approaching, outdoor activities will wrap up, Dormody said, adding that the skating center, which opens this weekend, will become the group’s focus. Dormody said the group is preparing, behind the scenes, a spring schedule that will return with a “big bang.”

The group also wants to encourage participation from Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design students, Dormody said. “What I would really like to see is for students to think of this particular area as a way for them to bring whatever clubs or organizations they work with on campus right into the city,” she said.

“College students have a tremendous amount to offer,” Latorre said.

“We need to break the walls down between the colleges and downtown.” The revitalization project might provide an opportunity for students to become involved in its planning, organization and implementation, he added.

The group has met with challenges, however — including the public’s existing notions of what Kennedy Plaza is and is not.

“It was hard to convince people that (Kennedy Plaza) could change and that it was worth it,” Dormody said. But she added that she was encouraged by how quickly atticontinued on page 4

Access to the waterfront and neighborhood preservation should be priorities for a forthcoming neighborhood plan, East Side community members emphasized at a meeting last week. College Hill, Fox Point and Wayland residents met at Lincoln School to discuss the plan, which will be drafted in the coming weeks, with a representative of Providence’s Department of Planning and Development.

In 2006, the city began organizing charrettes, intensive meetings going by the name Providence Tomorrow, for residents to discuss plans for city growth. The meetings resulted in a Comprehensive Plan, a broad document passed by the city council last year that delineates a path for the city’s future development.

The neighborhood plans, which are still being drafted, share topics with the comprehensive city plan but delve into details like changes to specific zoning laws.

The College Hill, Fox Point and Wayland plan will be drafted within the next few weeks, Linda Painter, deputy director of the city’s planning department, told The Herald.

Once it is ready, the draft will be

posted online, reviewed by participants and submitted to the City Plan Commission. The plan will guide the commission when it decides the fate of empty parcels of land near the planned route for I-195, but it will not act as a binding legal document, said Painter, who led last week’s meeting.

At last week’s discussion, residents suggested enhancing public access to the waterfront by including green spaces, pedestrian walkways and bicycle paths.

Daisy Schnepel, president of the Fox Point Neighborhood Association, said her organization was concerned with preserving the neighborhood’s historical nature by keeping building height down, providing access to the waterfront and keeping Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design from spreading into nearby neighborhoods.

“We felt that (the Department of) Planning and Development had really listened to a lot of our issues,” Schnepel said.

But other neighborhood association leaders had more mixed feelings about the charrette process.

While the meetings allowed community members to make suggestions, a number of issues weren’t discussed, said Will Touret, president of the College Hill Neighborhood Association. The association’s main concern was institutional expansion — a topic that was

“almost just mentioned in passing,” Touret said.

A charrette in May used facilitators from out of state, whose lack of familiarity with local issues led to a “superficial” discussion, Touret said.

“The charrette process did not reach its full potential,” he added.

“A lot of useful consensus” came out of the charrettes, said David Kolsky, member of a Wayland discussion group formed in response to Providence Tomorrow in 2006 that meets at Books on the Square.

But he said the meetings were marred by “haphazard” organization and other problems, including the fact that the planning department’s Web site has been under construction and does not provide adequate information about Providence Tomorrow to citizens.

The group has no explicit agenda for the neighborhood plan, but has discussed keeping neighborhood businesses in Wayland Square, enhancing public space near the waterfront and reducing traffic.

Kolsky also lamented the fact that College Hill students are not involved in the planning process, saying that while many students will move away after graduating, some will “be hanging out here.”

The next neighborhood charrette, covering the Federal Hill, Reservoir and West End neighborhoods, will take place in December.

Page 4

A’s surpassed 50 percent in 2007-08 continued from page 1 “Grades are a comparative measure of student performance among students at the same university,” he wrote. “If a college admits particularly talented students, then a C must be defined relative to that university’s student pool.”

Whatever the reason for the rise, Brown is not alone. Grade inflation has been a hot topic in higher education in recent years, and a 2002 report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences found that rising grades have been “especially noticeable” in the Ivy League. In 2004, Princeton became the first Ivy to cap A’s, setting a goal that only 35 percent be awarded.

Over the subsequent three years, the percentage of A’s its professors distributed fell from approximately 47 percent to 41 percent, The Herald reported last year.

Dreier said he disagreed with Princeton’s approach, which he said only helped with “public relations.”

“In general, I don’t like the registrar or the dean of the College to tell the professor how to grade,” he said.

Fiona Heckscher ’09, a member of the Task Force on Undergraduate

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Grade distribution for undergraduate classes 60%

60% 50.6%

50%

50%

A

40% 30%

40%

B

30% 21.7%

20%

S

19.9%

10%

C

4.2%

NC

3.6%

0%

1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

20% 10% 0%

Steve DeLucia / Herald

Education, said she strongly opposes the idea of mandated grade standards, adding that her friends at Princeton don’t like the policy.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying that 50 percent of Brown students are doing A-level work,” she said.

The New Curriculum and the existence of shopping period mean that Brown students are more able than many of their peers to take classes they know will not be overwhelmingly difficult, she said.

Students are “making conscious choices” to find classes with workloads they can manage, she said.

Another difference in comparing

Brown to other universities is the lack of plus and minus grades. A 2001-2002 University study found that many faculty members felt Brown’s grading system created pressure to give higher marks.

That study also found that 60 percent of faculty respondents — 109 out of 181 — “felt pressure to inflate grades.” The survey identified student admission into graduate school, student evaluation of professors and student success at finding a job as contributing factors to that pressure.

Pressure to receive positive course evaluations is one of the biggest causes of grade inflation,

according to Johnson. He recommends colleges consider discarding the bottom 20 percent of a faculty member’s evaluations, for instance, if that professor gives C’s to 20 percent of his students.

Schools could also “statistically adjust the value of student grades according to the grading practices of instructors,” he wrote.

Hazeltine dismissed the notion that evaluations have a large influence on professors’ grading. While professors may enjoy receiving positive evaluations, he said, they don’t figure prominently in evaluating professors for tenure or promotions at Brown.

Fewer students are “goofing off”

at Brown in recent years, he added, pushing up the number whose work warrants at least a B. Brown professors face two problems, Hazeltine said: It can be difficult to distinguish good work from great work, and it is also hard to tell competent students they did not deserve an A. If there were a grade of A-plus, or if a B were more widely regarded as a very good grade, professors would have an easier time separating their students, he said.

“There really are people who excel, who really excel,” Hazeltine said.

“By definition, there can’t be very many of them. There isn’t any sort of way to reward them.”

City groups give Kennedy Fitness center, Faunce renovations on hold Plaza a needed facelift continued from page 1

continued from page 3 tudes changed after the projects began.

She likes watching people playing catch and walking their dogs in the parks, she said. “It’s a small thing, but really remarkable for those parks,” she said.

Transforming a concrete and pavement bus terminal into a thriving cultural center required the addition of some greenery to go with the blossoming cultural scene. A number of small physical improvements — “flowers, ban-

ners and better maintenance and repair work” — have spruced up the Plaza, said Dan Baudouin, executive director at the Providence Foundation.

In the future, the working group hopes to increase the number of activities offered in the area and to involve more people and organizations. “There needs to be more things to do for a wide variety of people,” Latorre said, describing the possibility of a small stage set up in the future, along with permanent food kiosks and more tables and chairs.

the Plan for Academic Enrichment, President Ruth Simmons’ sweeping program of goals and improvements for the University.

Because the full effects of the economic downturn are still unclear, the Corporation has set “the hurdle a little higher” for approving construction projects, she said. It will now require the University to have the cash in hand before breaking ground, rather than just having enough money in pledged donations, she added.

Corporation members want to make sure the University doesn’t become “overextended” and that pledged donors can still meet their commitments “comfortably,” she said.

But Huidekoper emphasized that administrators remain optimistic that all construction will be completed sooner rather than later.

The economic problems began so recently that their long-term implications are still unknown, and University administrators are hopeful the economy will “bounce back.”

“We’re optimistic, but we want to be cautious,” she said.

Despite financial uncertainty, no construction plans have been changed or scaled down, Huidekoper said.

“I think it’s more about timing than it is about scope,” she said, adding that it is still possible that some plans could be changed.

Huidekoper declined to provide specific fundraising numbers for individual buildings, adding that the University would probably give a more concrete update on fundraising in the spring.

Pledged donations have been raised to cover the entire $45 million cost of the Creative Arts Center, which is in the final stages of design, she said.

The 35,000-square foot Creative Arts Center will include a 200-seat recital hall, gallery space, multime-

dia labs and a recording studio, The Herald reported in May. Huidekoper added that building cost could actually be lower than anticipated because of the economic downturn. Even so, construction will not begin until donors actually give the University the money they have pledged. She declined to speculate as to when that might be.

Once bids are in for the construction, a final proposal for the building will be presented to the Corporation at its spring meeting, she said.

Architecture firm Diller Scofidio & Renfro, which is designing the center, has already placed a sample of the materials to be used in the building along Angell St. at the Walk to demonstrate them to Corporation trustees, she said.

But the Mind Brain Behavior building is a different story. “Very little so far has come in” for the $69 million, 80,000-square foot building, Huidekoper said.

Though the cost of long-term debt has risen over the last three months, the University still plans to finance $34 million of the building’s cost through borrowing, she added.

The University has used debt to finance a number of recent construction projects, such as the renovations to the J. Walter Wilson Building, utilities system upgrades, visiting scholar housing and residence hall improvements, she said.

Administrators are still hoping to find one or more “naming donors” for the Mind Brain Behavior building, who would pay as much as half of the remaining $35 million and give their name to the building.

Huidekoper said the Mind Brain Behavior building has a “different constituency” interested in it than the Creative Arts Center. It has “not as broad a base,” she said, adding that many people are interested in the arts, while cognitive science is a narrower interest.

The University has already received several promising proposals to relocate the houses at 127 and 129 Angell St., which will be displaced by the Mind Brain Behavior building, she said. The University advertised in October to sell each of the houses for just $10, with the condition that the buyer move the house, even offering to defray moving costs by up to $1 million.

But the future of the Urban Environmental Lab is less clear, she said. The converted carriage house was originally slated to move to a lot on Brown St., The Herald reported in August, but “the neighborhood was definitely not supportive” of the location, she said.

A final decision on the UEL has yet to be made, she said.

Construction on other projects is delayed simply by the Corporation’s stipulation that the University have cash in hand before construction.

Administrators have actually increased the budget for the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center at Faunce House from $15 million to $20 million, and fundraising is “about halfway there,” Huidekoper said.

The exact dates for the renovation are still unclear, though the University would like to begin construction as soon as possible, she said.

The construction timeline for the Nelson Fitness Center and the new swim center is similarly unclear and depends simply on how soon donations come in, she said.

Though construction on the Walk and J. Walter Wilson is nearly complete, both are still “naming opportunities,” or possible incentives for large donations, she said.

All pledged donations have come in for Rhode Island Hall.

As for the perennial question of a new residence hall, Huidekoper said one is unlikely to be built any time soon.

“Not in this economy,” she said.

C ampus n ews Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Page 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Now in a new building, traditional post office tabling returns

By Nicole Friedman Staff Writer

As temperatures continue to drop, student groups can now escape the cold of the Main Green by tabling indoors, in the University Post Office in the J. Walter Wilson building.

Starting Monday, the Student Activities Office made slots available for tabling in the post office for the first time this year.

In past years, student groups tabled in the post office in Faunce House. Though construction on J. Walter Wilson is still ongoing, both Mezcla and the African Students Association set up tables to sell tickets for events this weekend.

“I would definitely say that the (J. Walter Wilson) lobby is more heavily trafficked than the Faunce mailroom, because of the office and seminar room traffic,” Director of Student Activities Ricky Gresh wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “Also, being at the corner of Waterman and Brown (Streets) and given the high transparency of the lobby area, tabling (there) is a significant improvement over the previous location in Faunce.”

But the set-up in Faunce was more convenient for student groups because the old post office was in the same building as the SAO, said Jonathon Acosta ’11, who tabled yesterday for Mezcla and has tabled in the Faunce post office. Acosta and Gresh both said tabling in J. Walter Wilson will have advantages over the Main Green, especially in the coming months.

“I feel like more people walk in the Main Green, but it’s colder and it’s harder to get their attention,” Acosta said. “So here you catch people where it’s a little quieter. Almost everybody checks their mail during peak hours.”

The SAO had hoped to make

Min Wu / Herald

Students from MEZCLA, Brown’s Latino performing arts troop, sell tickets to a show in the University Post Office yesterday. The new mailroom in J. Walter Wilson opened to tabling for the first time Monday, allowing student groups to escape the cold and wind of tabling on the Main Green. table slots in J. Walter Wilson available by Nov. 1, but was delayed due to the construction, Gresh wrote.

The move to J. Walter Wilson comes along with added security protocols after a student group tabling in the Faunce post office was robbed last year. Student groups are now required to make deposits

to the SAO at the end of each day to decrease the amount of cash accumulating in the cash box. Also, students planning to collect over $500 in cash must tell the SAO so that the Department of Public Safety can be notified, according to the SAO Web site.

Additionally, “Brown Student

Post-election, no love lost among Dems

By Gaurie Tilak Senior Staf f Writer

The members of the Brown Students for Barack Obama worked for months to get their candidate elected, and on Nov. 4 they finally celebrated the culmination of those efforts.

But as they basked in their candidate’s triumph, they were faced with another question: What next?

One thing is cer tain — the group will not be merging with the Brown Democrats, from which many of its initial members came. The Dems’ decision not to endorse a candidate in the primaries led to the creation of Brown’s chapter of the SFBO, according to Max Chaiken ’09, president of the group and a former Herald opinions columnist.

The two groups’ relationship has been tense ever since, said Ariel Werner ’09, a member of SFBO’s executive board.

The loyalties of the Dems’ board members were pretty evenly split between president-elect Obama and Sen. Hillar y Clinton D-NY during the primary season, said Harrison Kreisberg ’10, the Dems’ president.

Once Obama accepted the party’s nomination, there were efforts to unite Brown’s Clinton and

Min Wu / Herald

The future of group Brown Students for Barack Obama is up in the air.

Obama supporters in the same way the national party tried to join the two camps, Werner said. But there were some “ruffled feathers” about who should be in charge of the joint effort, she added.

Kreisberg said that after the primary, there were difficulties in determining each group’s responsibilities, particularly because the Dems’ endorsement policy prevented them from campaigning during primar y season.

Werner and Kreisberg said

that, ultimately, both groups coordinated campaigning events together.

“It was about sacrificing your ego to the greater cause,” Kreisberg said.

Despite the period of collaboration, the groups’ rocky histor y and ideological differences make a merger unlikely.

“We stayed distinct because we had a distinct membership,” said Chaiken, adding that many members of SFBO don’t consider themselves vocal Democrats.

Werner said that, for her, “SFBO was about Barack Obama, not the Democratic Party in Rhode Island or nationally.”

“I feel a ver y strong affiliation with SFBO that I don’t feel for the Brown Dems,” Werner said, adding that although she was an Obama supporter, she is not an active Democrat in regards to local elections.

Kreisberg added that the two groups have different goals.

“SFBO was about winning this election,” he said. “We have a more long-term focus.”

Werner said the executive board members of SFBO do not intend to join the Dems, though the two boards intend to meet and discuss whether or not the SFBO continued on page 7

Agencies has begun launching ecommerce, so groups can now set up sites to do credit card sales at tables through wireless connection instead of relying on cash,” Gresh wrote.

Katharine Joo ’09, who has tabled on the Main Green for the Asian American Students Association twice this semester, said that despite these

precautions, preventing theft is the responsibility of the group handling money and no one location is safer than another.

“I think it really depends on whether you have someone guarding the table at all times,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s contingent upon whether you’re inside or outside.”

Library director looking to share old Haiti documents

By Ellen Cushing Contributing Writer

The John Carter Brown Librar y may soon embark on an initiative to digitize hundreds of early Haitian documents and make them available to the country’s residents, according to Edward Widmer, director of the JCB. “The advent of digital technology is revolutionizing the world of libraries and ... we would like to offer some of our holdings to people who don’t traditionally have access to them,” said Widmer.

Right now, Widmer and the JCB are looking for one or more donors to make the project possible.

Widmer said he hopes that within six months they can secure funding and finalize plans to scan and distribute the documents.

Widmer, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton and current member of the Clinton Global Initiative, said the idea was discussed at a CGI conference earlier this year, along with other projects intended to help the island nation. At the conference, which was attended

by Haiti’s president, Clinton emphasized a larger focus on helping the Carribbean nation, especially in the wake of several devastating

Min Wu / Herald

Edward Widmer, director of the John Carter Brown library

hurricanes this year. Widmer said Clinton’s plea generated interest in the philanthropic community.

“It’s a good time to be helping Haiti,” Widmer said. “There’s a lot of good will at the moment, so we just want to raise the money and do the scanning.”

Widmer said it is precisely because of the nation’s current chalcontinued on page 7

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SDS members face disciplinary action continued from page 1

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of the students were able to make it up to the third-floor landing outside the room where the Corporation was meeting, while the rest had been removed from the building, Devlin said. The reports given to the accused students suggest that “people were injured in the process of students pushing in and students getting dragged out” of the building’s entrance, Devlin said. “The injuries were a function of a lot of people being in the same place at the same time.”

The eight students being charged will choose to face either a University Disciplinary Council panel — consisting of students, faculty and administrators — or a hearing before a single administrative officer.

Seven of the students who were charged have been identified by the University as having made it up the stairs, Tape said. But officials have been unable to establish whether the eighth student facing charges was also the eighth who made it up the stairs.

“They know that there is at least a possibility there was another student that was on the stairs” who is not being charged, Tape said.

University officials will allow the SDS members facing disciplinary charges to have their cases heard as a group.

A provision in Brown’s nonacademic disciplinary code allows cases with “common facts and a common set of evidence” to be heard at once, Klawunn said. Students still present their own cases individually, and each student’s responsibility is determined separately.

All eight students are being accused of Offenses I, II.a and IX of

Min Wu / Herald Members of Students for a Democratic Society are questioning some of the

charges against them.

the Standards of Student Conduct, Devlin said, charges related to entering the building and the employees’ injuries. Offense II.a proscribes “actions that result in or can be reasonably expected to result in physical harm.”

Seven of the students are also being charged with Offense VII, failure to present identification to a University official upon request. The student that is not being charged under that standard is being charged with Offense II.b, which addresses “actions that are unreasonably disruptive of the University community.”

That student was not charged with failure to present identification because he or she has not been definitely confirmed as among the eight on the stairs, Tape said.

Members of SDS have questioned the legitimacy of charging only eight of them, even though other students tried to enter the building at the same time.

Though Klawunn would not comment on the specific charges, she said “if there is a reasonable basis for believing that a student is responsible for a violation of the code of student conduct,” a hearing

will occur, regardless of whether all students who may be responsible can be identified.

“These are the students that we believe might be involved, and they have a hearing to determine whether they might or might not be responsible,” Klawunn said.

SDS members also question whether these cited offenses can be applied to their actions, particularly Offense I, which prohibits “behavior that disrupts ... the basic rights of others and the educational functions of the University.” The group does not think a Corporation meeting should be considered an educational function of the University, Devlin said.

Klawunn, conversely, said she “would interpret ‘educational function’ broadly.”

Regarding the charge that they failed to present identification, the group members deny that officials made any such request, Devlin said.

The reports of two DPS officers, which were included in the evidence packet given to the students, support the students’ assertion, she said.

But Senior Vice President for Corporation Affairs and Governance Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 “says in his testimony directly that he asked for IDs and students refused,” Tape said.

The students who reached the third floor during the protest were told by Carey that they could not enter the meeting.

In accordance with University policy, the eight charged students were given the final pieces of evidence against them, as well as lists of both disciplinary council members and administrators, on Nov. 7. The date of their hearing will be set soon, Klawunn said.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Obama meets with McCain Californian students speak out on Prop. 8 to talk Washington change continued from page 1

By Anne E. Kornblut Washington Post

President-elect Barack Obama continued his reconciliation tour Monday, sitting down with former rival John McCain for the first time since the election, a meeting that resulted in a joint statement promising that they will work together to “change the bad habits of Washington.”

NATIONAL NEWS Obama and McCain, accompanied by advisers Rahm Emanuel and Lindsey O. Graham, respectively, flashed broad smiles during a brief encounter with reporters at the start of their meeting in Chicago.

Asked by reporters whether he will help Obama once his term in office commences, McCain replied: “Obviously.”

Though less than two weeks had passed since their contentious election showdown, the former opponents had a “respectful” discussion that centered around their broad areas of agreement, including climate change, immigration and detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a senior Obama aide said. They also concurred on the need for an “air of reform” in Washington, the aide said, adding that they chatted amicably about life on the campaign trail and operated on a first-name basis.

Behind closed doors, officials involved in Obama’s transition continued to examine the work of another onetime opponent, former President Bill Clinton, to determine whether his business dealings since leaving office would preclude his wife from becoming secretary of state, individuals familiar with the process said.

Officials did not describe Obama as having formally offered Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton the top diplomatic job during their private meeting at his Chicago transition office last week, but said that there is an understanding that if she can sort out some of the complications that accompany her husband’s global work — which has made him an

international philanthropic powerhouse but also earned him millions in speaking fees from foreign companies, creating a potential conflict of interest — she would have a strong, if not completely certain, shot at it.

“There’s a lot of momentum in the direction of this happening,” close Clinton friend James Carville said. He said that the former president’s work — both past and future — remained a complicating matter.

“She’s not married to Todd Palin,” Carville said, referring to the oil field worker and snowmobile champion who is married to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee.

Reports of the possible Hillary Clinton appointment, which surfaced last week, have stunned some Obama loyalists who said they fear that the incoming administration is becoming heavily weighted toward veterans of the Clinton years, with the transition run by former Clinton chief of staff John D. Podesta.

Greg Craig, who was special counsel during Bill Clinton’s impeachment, is slotted to serve as White House counsel (he is less of a Clinton partisan, having backed Obama during the primaries). Emanuel, who was political director during the Clinton administration, is now Obama’s chief of staff.

But longtime Obama supporters have for the most part expressed their concerns quietly; Obama has not, as of yet, made any Cabinet appointments, leaving all complaints about the makeup of his administration mostly in the realm of the hypothetical. And Clinton backers said the appointment’s benefits would far outweigh the risks.

“I’m sure there’d be some people who’d be disappointed, but they’d get over it. Things have cooled down a lot since June,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., a close Clinton ally. “When I heard about it, I thought, `What an inspired choice, what a bold move, and what an incredible, positive signal to the world.”

erosexual couples, Unger said, implies that relationships between same-sex couples are fundamentally different from those between men and women.

“I think I care what it’s called because I know that love is the same no matter who is feeling it,” he said. It is in effect, he added, a “law that tells people … your deepest feeling — love — is not valued. It is not the same.”

“Our countr y has had a long histor y of discrimination,” Unger continued, adding that cases of racial dif ference prove that “separate but equal is not truly equal.”

David Brown ’12, who is from Palo Alto, Calif. and also gay, echoed that sentiment.

When Prop 8 passed, “I felt like I was slapped in the face,” he said.

“It felt like I was a second-class citizen.”

Unger said though the issue has personal significance for him, it is relevant to ever yone.

“It affects us all because we all know someone who is directly affected,” he said, adding that a degradation of civil rights is a broader social issue affecting ever yone, not just the group whose rights have been limited.

But Anish Mitra ’10, vice chairman of the Brown Republicans and an opinions columnist for The Herald, said he doesn’t see gay marriage as a civil rights issue.

“Any gay person can still marry a person of the opposite sex,” he said, adding that extending marriage to same-sex couples would “change an institution that’s been around for thousands of years simply on a political whim.”

Brittany Lavine ’10, who is a registered Republican and identifies as a conser vative in fiscal policy matters, doesn’t follow her party on the issue of gay marriage.

Lavine said growing up in Arizona where she didn’t know anyone who was openly gay, she didn’t have a specific opinion on gay marriage. But now, after meeting and becoming friends with gay students at Brown, she does.

Now, “I don’t really see why anyone would have a problem” with extending equal rights to gay couples, she said. “I don’t see why I should be able to say that you shouldn’t be that way.”

According to Selix, data from the exit polls show that Lavine’s perspective is increasingly the norm among young people in California.

The narrow margins with which

Prop 8 passed — 52.2 percent of Californians voted “yes” while 47.8 percent voted “no,” according to the Web site for California’s Secretary of State — suggest that the ban might only be temporary, Selix said. While Californians 65 and older voted “yes” roughly 2:1, those aged 18 to 29 voted “no” by the same margins, he added.

“What that basically tells me is … it’s not going to take ver y long,” he said, before the majority of Californians are willing to support same-sex marriage.

Fraimow-Wong and her family sure hope so.

The passage of the proposition leaves her mothers’ marriage in ambiguity. According to FraimowWong, there have already been several court cases brought by various California counties in protest of the validity of Prop 8.

But whether these cases go to the California Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court, she said, is still unclear and means that no one really knows what will happen next.

But, perhaps for now FraimowWong is content knowing that the proposition doesn’t take away her mothers’ love for each other.

“They’ve been together so long that (the marriage) didn’t really change much,” she said.

Tension between Obama supporters, Dems continued from page 5 listser v should be turned over to the Democrats.

“The Dems are cer tainly a great group,” Chaiken said. He has no plans to join them but said he couldn’t speak for the rest of the group.

Werner said she’d hesitate to turn over the SFBO listser v because joining the Dems should be a decision left up to individual members.

Although SFBO as a group

does not have a current agenda, individual members are still interested in remaining politically active.

“There are plenty of issues that need immediate attention,” wrote Samuel Magaram ’12 in an e-mail to The Herald, who said he plans to continue his involvement in Democratic causes and campaigns.

“I’d potentially be interested in getting involved in the Brown Dems,” Tanya Lewis ’10 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“Now that Obama’s elected, we need to get involved in the particular issues that drew us to him in the first place,” wrote Nick Hagerty ’10, who now dedicates his time to the advancement of renewable energy sources with the group emPOWER. But some people are still unsure about their continued commitment to political activism.

Shane Easter ’10 wrote he does not intend to join another group but will remain active in SFBO if the group has any further plans.

Widmer hopes to digitize Haiti documents at JCB continued from page 5 lenges, including widespread poverty and damage to infrastructure, that the project is so important.

“Haiti has one of the richest histories of any country in this hemisphere, and it’s one of the oldest republics on earth,” he continued.

“All people need access and deserve access to their history, so we just want to make these rare books available for free to people on the ground in Haiti.”

He said in addition to private donors, companies that specialize in scanning technology may be interested in donating their services. If the project goes through, the JCB would digitize between 500 and 1000 documents from the

island of Hispaniola, which is comprised of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The library’s collection — one of the largest in the world — includes economic reports, manuscripts, books, traveler’s journals and other historical documents, primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries, according to Widmer.

Naika Apeakorang ’11, who is half-Haitian and an Minority Peer Counselor, said, “It seems like a really great thing. My people are really proud of our history, being the first independent black republic. It’s a shame that Haiti is in the situation that it is right now — economically, politically, socially — but having access to this type of historical information is a really good thing.”

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

M. soccer falls to Dartmouth in 2-0 battle W. hoops overwhelmed

by Quinnipiac, 79-62 continued from page 12

“In years past, Brown teams are resilient in coming back,” said Head Coach Mike Noonan. “And with this year’s team, when we tried, we just couldn’t seem to get back on top of it. I don’t have a lot of answers as to why, it was just difficult for this team to come back from being a goal down.”

Brown’s first attack of the second half came in the 53rd minute when an unselfish extra pass proved to be too much for Austin Mandel ’12, who finally got a foot on the ball as the Big Green goalie awaited him. Several minutes later, Jon Okafor ’11 sent a header off of a corner just wide of the net.

Dartmouth’s Lucky Mkosana timed his run perfectly, avoiding the offsides call and shot past the Bears’ defense. He faked to the outside and jumped over Grandstrand and fired a shot on a wide open net. The Big Green finished out the game, sending the Bears home with their fourth conference loss on the year, 2-0. Leech came in to finish the game in goal.

“We’ve been averaging about two defensive lapses per game in the last few contests — and this was another one,” Noonan said. “For a team that’s struggling for goals, the defense has

a lot on their shoulders. They feel like they can’t make a mistake. After the team goes down one, it feels like they have to climb a mountain to get back on top.”

Dartmouth emerged as conference champion with the win, for its eighth title in school history.

Overall, the players and coaches agree the team did not live up to the expectations set before them at the beginning of the season. The team hoped to return strong in the Ivy League and defend its title, return to the NCAA tournament and make it past the second round.

Walls said he felt there were not as many positives, especially after the 15-2-1 season the team put together last year.

“The past two seasons have been two extremes — a miracle season as one of the top teams in the country to underachieving and finishing below .500 in conference,” Walls said. “But we had a solid win at BC and went for a stretch of 500 minutes without allowing a goal. A lot of freshmen also got a lot of playing time, creating depth.”

Noonan said he was proud of the freshmen and their ability to step up.

He said they played more minutes than was usually expected of them.

“Because of some of the trials we’ve faced this year, we’ll be more battle-tested,” Noonan said. “You learn more from losing than you do from wining. Right now, the entire team is very humbled.”

The Bears will be a young team next season as they lose six seniors to graduation. Walls said he believes the team needs to improve with baby steps to restore Brown’s strong soccer tradition.

“We have to put things right because Brown is a strong program — we need to keep that going,” Walls said. “Everybody on the team understands this, and we’re prepared to take on that responsibility. Our goals will not be set lower than any other year.”

Lauding his senior class, Noonan said he believes they have left a high standard of success and the hard work it took to get there.

“They have crafted a nice legacy in the history of the soccer program,” Noonan said. “They went undefeated with no ties in League play last year.

Very rarely do any teams go undefeated in conference play, only two times in the past 30 years (out of any Ivy team). I’m proud of them, I hope that their memories will live with them for the rest of their lives.”

M. hoops hopes to surprise opponents continued from page 12 the Bears feel they will continue to improve and are excited about their potential for the season after playing a team like URI, who nearly upset No. 5 Duke two days ago.

“We played a good athletic team down to the wire, and we felt like we

controlled most of the game so that gives us a lot of confidence,” Friske said. “We have a tough schedule to start the season, but we’re excited to play good teams that will give us tough games, because that’s only going to help us down the road.”

Sullivan said the team feels “good about where we’re at and we think

we’ll prove we can play with a lot of teams that people don’t think we can play with. I think we’ll take a lot of people by surprise this year.”

The Bears lost 89-52 to 2006 Final Four team George Mason last night and will continue their tough schedule Wednesday in a road game against Holy Cross.

continued from page 12 half, blocking a shot at the 4:40 mark and then pulling down an offensive rebound for a second shot attempt. Blood had four points at the end of the first half, which left the Bears only four points behind the Bobcats going into halftime, 35-31, behind a 45.8 team field goal percentage in the first half for Brown.

“The subs came in well; Hannah, Blood, and CJ gave us a good performance. They helped give us the ‘make stops and get points’ attitude that we needed,” Burr said.

But Brown fell into the same second-half lull against the Bobcats, ending up on the losing end of 12-0 run. The Bears trailed by 16 points just 3:29 into the second half. Johnson again tried to spark the Brown squad with a couple drives to the basket and one steal.

Grace had another great game behind the three-point line, shooting 5-for-10 from behind the arc, which accounted for all 15 of her points.

“Grace opened up the inside game by shooting 50 percent under pressure. That along with Christina Johnson’s penetration gave us options on offense,” said Burr.

Brown got back in the game, trailing by only eight with only six minutes left to play.

Although the bench played well, the Bears could not complete the comeback as the Bobcats opened up the lead to 12 with just two minutes left. The Bears had another strong game on the glass with 38 rebounds to Quinnipiac’s 40. Johnson led the way with eight rebounds, in addition to her 15 points on the afternoon.

“I knew I needed to penetrate to relieve the shooters. I got some openings, luckily, to do so,” Johnson said.

Quinnipiac pulled away to win by a final score of 79-62, despite the high level of competitiveness from the Bears throughout the game. Quinnipiac’s Erin Kerner and Mandy Pennewell led the Bobcats with 25 and 17 points, respectively.

“We felt the same after each game. We need to play all 40 minutes. Need to come out in the second half,” said Johnson.

“What kept us from winning we can control. Once we work out chemistry we will be fine.”

The Bears are back in action this Wednesday with a 7 p.m. tipoff at the Pizzitola Sports Center against Georgetown.

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E ditorial & L etters Page 10

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Staf f Editorial

Crossing the line In one of the more public sets of disciplinary proceedings in recent memory, eight students are currently facing possible separation from the University because of their conduct last month at a Students for a Democratic Society protest outside a Corporation meeting. Several other students had run onto the Main Green with a ladder, apparently planning to climb up the side of University Hall and into the meeting of Brown’s highest governing body.

As police officers scrambled to stop the climbers, the eight students facing disciplinary charges used the diversion to enter University Hall and disrupt the meeting, allegedly injuring three Brown employees in the process.

SDS has asked that the University punish the student group rather than prosecuting its individual members. In a recent letter, several members of SDS alleged that “the demonstration was planned by SDS with wide support across the University” — citing a petition signed by more than 1,000 members of the Brown community. While we wouldn’t be opposed to sanctioning a student group that spends its time figuring out how to break into board meetings and career fairs, it is difficult to imagine only punishing the group and ignoring the individuals. In addition, the eight individuals were directly involved with the alleged injury of three people. Unless SDS condones hurting people in its protests, those individuals take on a special culpability that the group does not. And the attempt to hold the rest of the petition signers — and at one absurd point in the letter, the Corporation itself — accountable for their over-the-top tactics is just ludicrous.

In fact, for all SDS’s claims of conflict of interest and gross injustice, we think the University has been rather lenient. It has apparently not sought to punish the students with the ladder, perhaps because they didn’t succeed, though they did successfully create a diversion. It also hasn’t yet imposed sanctions on SDS as a group. It has seemingly only sought to punish those involved with physical injuries.

The sad thing about the latest set of SDS follies is that the group has hung so tightly to its 60’s protest legacy that it has diminished its own ability to fulfill its political purpose. The emphasis on confrontational tactics, seeking arrests and disciplinary hearings, serves only to alienate potential members who might agree with their views on Corporation accountability, financial aid and other campus and national issues.

Drafting a petition seeking support for its views is a more positive step than trying to break into a meeting. We hope they will follow their consensusbuilding instincts more often. More than a year ago, several SDS members tried to form a student union, which offered a brief glimmer of hope that they would forget the antics and try to build a diverse coalition of students and some legitimacy for their cause. Now, there’s just antics.

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C hris J E su L ee

L e tt e r s Something rotten in the state of dining To the Editor: For the past year and a half at Brown, I have thoroughly enjoyed my dining experience at the Sharpe Refectory. The variety, atmosphere, and location have made it an ideal establishment to enjoy my daily meals.

However, in the past week, I have lost all confidence in the Ratty. I now fear for my safety and the safety of others that eat there.

During breakfast on Monday, November 10th, I ate an omelette unaware that it contained rotten cheese. I soon developed a stomach ache that exacerbated as the day went on. The stomach ache stopped me from eating lunch and dinner that day. I did not know what made me sick until the next day when multiple people at my table said that their omelettes reeked of foul cheese.

After finally starting to feel better from the unfortunate incident two days earlier, on Wednesday I decided to indulge myself in a chicken quesadilla. I noticed there was no cheese in the salad bar so I asked a Ratty worker for some. She came out of the kitchen with a

used, already open bag and gave it to me. I wanted to confirm the condition of the cheese, so I asked about the expiration date. Looking over her shoulder, I saw it had expired on September 29th 2008. This rotten cheese has been lingering around since students were still able to add or drop a class for the Fall semester.

It terrifies me that the bag of cheese had been sitting around for over six weeks past its expiration date and that the Ratty worker did not even bother to check the expiration date before she handed it to me. This incident shows that the Ratty workers are not properly checking expiration dates and not rotating the food appropriately.

Hopefully the administration overlooking Refectory employees will reiterate the responsibilities they hold in providing nutrition and sustenance for the Brown community, and as a result help the Ratty regain its prominence as my dining hall of choice at Brown.

Brent Mylrea ’11 Nov. 12

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O pinions Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Give me liberty, give him something else

BY RACHEL FORMAN Opinions Columnist On Tuesday, Nov. 4 I woke up at 4:30 a.m., took the train to Boston and cast my ballot in person before heading back to Brown for a 10:30 meeting.

I know this was completely unnecessary because you can request Massachusetts absentee ballots until the day before the election. Still, sending something in the mail doesn’t feel as good as gathering with your fellow citizens and actually watching your ballot go into the counter machine.

My post-election high was still strong when I returned to school. I was participating in the annual Strait Talk Symposium as a United States delegate, and I eagerly shared my voting experience with my Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese peers during a discussion about the basic needs of people living on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

My mood was promptly ruined by a follow-up question from one of my Chinese friends.

“Is democracy really a basic human need?”

Democracy isn’t a human need like food or water, but in the United States, it’s an integral part of our identity. Unlike China, we aren’t united by a common ethnicity or history. Our nationalism is a civic one — we believe that anyone, regardless of culture or religion, can accept our values of life, liberty

and the pursuit of happiness.

Inasmuch as voting is the highest expression of our civic identity, I’d say that democracy is, in fact, a basic human need for Americans. Aside from national security, upholding the strength and integrity of democratic institutions is one of the only interests that all Americans share, at least in theory. And even though over one third of

liberty? Does relative indifference about political expression in China somehow threaten freedom of political expression in the United States?

One of my Taiwanese-American friends then pointed out the paradox of our democratic values. We believe people are free to worship as they please, vote for whom they please and say what they please so long as

Does relative indifference about political expression in China somehow threaten freedom of political expression in the U.S.? eligible voters choose not to vote each year, I bet they would be up in arms if the right were officially revoked.

Yet even after I had reaffirmed my gut belief that democracy was a basic need for myself, his question still unner ved me. If we believe Martin Luther King Jr.’s claim that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice ever ywhere,” shouldn’t the same apply to

their actions do not restrict the ability of others to exercise those same freedoms.

What does this mean for a nation like the People’s Republic of China, where stability is the master value? If you polled every person living in the PRC and asked whether they thought freedom of speech or social stability was more important, most people would probably choose the latter.

Does this undermine the proclaimed “selfevident-ness” of our values? I think many Americans would answer this question by blaming the stability-over-liberty choice on the “brainwashing” tactics of the Chinese government.

But I’ve met many Chinese people who are highly educated and have spent extensive time abroad, and they still believe that the PRC government is right to limit access to information and freedom of expression, as least for the time being. This makes me think that maybe, given the PRC’s one-party system, income inequality problems and complicated relationship with its ethnic minority groups, the stability-over-liberty position is legitimate.

We all want to be safe, and we all want to be fed. In China, people believe these goals are best achieved when collective stability is maintained. In the United States, we believe these goals are best achieved when individual liberties are more protected (with the exception of fun diversions like the Patriot Act).

I was naive before to think that Chinese people would want what Americans want, if only they could know what we know. But while the reality of China may have shaken my belief in the universality of democratic values, I don’t think it undermines the validity of those values for Americans.

If I had the choice to do it all over again, I would still get up at 4:30 in the morning to cast my vote in person.

Rachel Forman ’09 loves democracy.

What we can learn from James Bond

BY ADRIENNE LANGLOIS Opinions Columnist He may not order his martinis the way he used to, but 007 still ser ves up the kind of action that keeps audiences coming back for more. “Quantum of Solace,” the twentysecond installment in the film series based on British writer Ian Fleming’s novels, opened November 14 to mixed reviews but packed theatres, almost doubling the opening weekend box office gross of its more highly regarded predecessor, “Casino Royale.”

In this time of economic instability and political change, it’s nice to know that some things never change: moviegoers will always be willing to shell out $10.50 for a few good chase scenes, some choice one-liners uttered in a British accent, and, of course, gorgeous women.

To some, the Bond films seem to be a hackneyed, over-marketed concept that proves that misogyny and violence still sells.

But there’s much more to learn from this womanizing, car-crashing brute than how to pick up the disaffected wives of international terrorists or what kinds of buildings and barriers can be used as shortcuts in a high-speed automobile chase. Based on my own extensive viewings of the series, I’ve compiled a few lessons for both fans and opponents of MI6’s most famous fictional agent: 1. As the world changes, so must we. James Bond was originally a Cold War creation — the plots of Fleming’s ’50s novels and the first films in the ’60s pitted 007 against Soviet agents and looming secret agencies that resembled the KGB. The Cold War ended, and James Bond lived on, facing off over-bearing media moguls, economic and ecological terrorists.

Our favorite fictional agent uses new techniques against these new villains; therefore, it makes sense that we should too. International economic crises and never-before-seen environmental problems can’t be solved with the same tactics used for prior challenges — we need new ideas and new allies more than ever to bring them under control.

2. Gadgets and technology will only get you so far. One of the most exciting moments in a Bond film for any fan is the introduction of Bond’s array of gadgets. Indeed, 007’s customized ride and multi-purpose watch

to anyone looking for success. An added bonus: they won’t be lost in an unexpected fier y explosion.

3. If you’re in a difficult spot, keep your cool and keep your adversar y talking. Inevitably, 007 falters on each of his missions and finds himself face-to-face with his nemesis du jour in a less-than-ideal situation.

Whether threatened by an emasculating laser or the potential death of a friend, Bond rarely breaks down.

Instead, he turns his enemy’s jabs around,

Whether searching for a madman bent on blowing up the moon or taking on a sharp-shooting skiing assassin, Bond’s innovation and perseverance are always inevitably rewarded. and phone usually feature as notable plot points. Inevitably, however, Bond loses his arsenal and is forced to rely on the keen insight that initially made him an agent.

Ultimately, whether you own the latest iPhone or an Aston Martin with laser sights and a smoke screen won’t matter. Though gadgets can make you look and feel cool, sharp wits, a quick reaction time and social grace are the most versatile tools available

maintaining a steady stream of banter, no matter the situation.

Faced with a difficult question you’re not sure how to answer? Bond’s strategy for reframing situations comes in handy for politicians and job inter viewees alike.

Keep your cool and keep being articulate, until you can make a graceful exit, whether aided by your keen intellect or the arrival of your personal equivalent of perennial Bond

pal and CIA agent Felix Leiter.

4. Always keep your sense of humor.

Life can get pretty grim, even when playing high-stakes poker or sunning oneself on a Caribbean beach is part of one’s job description. That’s why it’s imperative to always retain the ability to laugh at your situation, no matter how dire.

These days, even presidential candidates have taken up Bond’s ability to spit in the face of death — McCain’s appearance on Saturday Night Live and Obama’s joke-laden introduction of future Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel indicate that even serious situations call for a few wisecracks.

5. Follow a job through until the end — even if that includes changing your original plans. James Bond is notorious for “going rogue” to follow an instinct, much to the chagrin of his boss M. While we may not have the opportunity to fly to exotic locations on a whim or rifle through the possessions of a shady character on the sly, it usually doesn’t hurt to go off the beaten path to pursue a goal. Whether searching for a madman bent on blowing up the moon or taking on a sharp-shooting skiing assassin, Bond’s innovation and perseverance are always inevitably rewarded. Emulate him to similar success and you might be too.

While marketers certainly have no shame in playing up the gratuitous violence, sex and product placement, these qualities aren’t ultimately what makes the Bond films so successful. The hero of the longest-running English-language film series in histor y provides us with more than a mindless diversion — Bond shows us how to get by in an increasingly complex world, with or without an ubiquitous theme song.

Adrienne Langlois ’10 prefers her Ivy Room smoothies shaken, not stirred.

S ports T uesday Page 12

M. hoops starts season with a tough loss

By Megan McCahill Sports Editor

In Head Coach Jesse Agel’s first game, the men’s basketball team played well but couldn’t come away with a win in their Brown 74 season opener, fall76 ing 76-74 on the URI road to a talented URI squad.

“We were fortunate to have had a four-game trip to Europe over the summer where we got comfortable with (Agel’s) coaching style,” said tri-captain Chris Skrelja ’09. “So we knew what to expect, but when the game counts and there are fans in the seats, it’s a totally different environment.”

The Bears came out strong in the first half and took a 33-29 lead into halftime with 10 points from Matt Mullery ’10 and eight points from tri-captain Peter Sullivan ’11.

“We did a good job getting the ball down low, and Matt (Mullery) and (tri-captain) Scott (Friske ’09) both played really well underneath the basket and that opened things up for us to get shots on the perimeter,” Sullivan said.

Mullery finished the game with a career-high 22 points on 9 of 13 shooting, and Friske put together a solid all-around game, finishing with eight points, seven assists and five rebounds. Sullivan led the way for the Bears on the boards, grabbing a game-high nine rebounds, while also adding 15 points on the night.

“I could’ve shot the ball a little better,” Sullivan said of his 5-18 shooting. “I didn’t score as efficiently as I did last year.”

URI came out hard after halftime, and the second half was a back and forth battle. Brown was able to take a five point lead, 64-59, with 6:44 remaining in the game on a threepointer by Adrian Williams ’11. But the Bears missed a few free throws down the stretch, and URI was able to take advantage, putting together a 7-0 run to gain a permanent lead, 66-64, with 3:14 left in the game.

“In the first half we controlled the tempo,” Friske said. “In the second half we had a lot of guys who played a lot of minutes, and I think we got

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

W. basketball stuck with a pair of losses in openers

By Nicole Stock Spor ts Staf f Writer

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

The men’s basketball team struggled to perform during their coach’s first game with the team, losing to URI 76-74. fatigued a little bit and (URI) got to play their style a little more and got quicker baskets.”

Williams, Sullivan and Mullery certainly had good reason to be fatigued, as both Williams and Sullivan played the entire 40 minutes, and Mullery played 37.

Fatigue may have been one of the reasons why the Bears struggled at the free throw line, as Brown converted just 13 of 23 free throws in the game and went 12 for 19 in the second half.

“Overall we felt like we played well and executed well,” Skrelja said. “But we made some minor mistakes that cost us down the stretch, and missing free throws is definitely something

we’re going to have to improve on.”

Free throws made the difference in the game, as URI was able to convert from the charity stripe down the stretch, making 17 of 20 attempts in the second half to help the Rams hang on for the 76-74 win.

“We felt that we did a good job executing our game plan overall. We executed our plays well and played solid transition defense,” Sullivan said. “But we needed to finish down the stretch. If we had made some free throws here or gotten a rebound there, we probably would’ve come away with the win.”

While frustrated with the loss, continued on page 9

The women’s basketball team’s 2008-2009 season got off to a slow start over the weekend, falling 62-39 to 39 Providence Brown Providence 62 College on Friday and 79-62 to Quinnipiac 79 Quinnipiac 62 University Brown on Sunday.

Despite starting 0-2, the Bears saw promising performances from several players, including Karly Grace ’11 and Christina Johnson ’10.

In Friday’s contest against PC, Brown looked a bit tentative early on, turning the ball over six times in the first 10 minutes of the game.

Although the Bears were unable to control the ball, the Friars shot only 2-for-13 from the field during the same time period, which kept the game close early.

“We had a bit of first game jitters. Also, bigger teams have a lot of ball pressure, which we need to get used to,” Grace said.

The Friars quickly turned their play around and broke the game open with a 14-0 run, giving PC a 19-6 lead with just under four minutes to play in the first half.

With scoring contributions from Johnson, Hannah Passafuime ’12 and Aileen Daniels ’12, the Bears were able to match the Friars basket for basket the rest of the half, making the score 25-12 at halftime.

Although Brown was down at the half, they led in rebounding by a 26-19 margin, which helped keep the Friars’ second chance opportunities to a minimum.

The Bears came out flat in the second half, committing several early fouls which, combined with the Friars’ 53 percent field-goal percentage in the second half, dug Bruno into a deep hole. With only 7:20 remaining in the game the Bears’ deficit had grown to

Coming off championship year, m. soccer falls to 5th

By Katie Wood Assistant Sports Editor

The men’s soccer team (9-7-1 overall, 3-4 in Ivies) finished its season on national television Friday night at Dartmouth 0 (5-1-1), falling Brown Dartmouth 2 2-0. The Bears finished fifth place in the Ivy League after going undefeated and winning their conference last year. David Walls ’11 said this was one of the worst seasons for the men’s soccer program in quite some time.

“We never dealt with setbacks well all season,” Walls said. “We came from behind once against Princeton — that’s what cost us in so many games. That’s really no excuse. We should have been a more mentally strong team.”

Despite losing the last five of six games in the season, the senior class of Rhett Bernstein ’09, Darren Howerton ’09, Will Lee ’09, Jarrett Leech

’09 and captains Stephen Sawyer ’09 and Dylan Sheehan ’09 ended their careers as one of the most successful classes ever at Brown. This group of men went to three NCAA tournaments, advancing to the second round each year, winning two conference championships, finishing above .500 every season and receiving many allconference awards over the past four years.

The Big Green struck first in the game when Andrew Olsen scored the eventual game winner in the 19th minute of play, putting the ball past starting goalie Paul Grandstrand ’11.

The Bears tried to clear the ball out of the box, but they were not expecting the quick shot.

Brown did not produce very many offensive looks during the first half.

This trend continued on into the second half as they could not find the back of the net, extending their scoreless streak to three games. continued on page 9

49-24.

Grace led the Bears with nine points, all of them coming on three-pointers.

“I was recruited for three-point shooting, and my team relies on me for that. This is my way of contributing to the team,” Grace said.

PC’s Mi-Khida Hankins and Chelsea Marandola put their skills on display as they led the Friars in scoring with 18 and 16 points, respectively.

Although the score was not favorable, the Bears led the Friars in rebounding for most of the game. Sarah Delk ’11 grabbed six rebounds, while Johnson and Sadiea Williams ’11 hauled in five apiece.

“We rebounded exceptionally well against Providence, which was a confidence builder,” said Head Coach Jean Marie Burr.

In addition, Passafuime and Williams had seven and six points, respectively.

But the Bears shot just 23.7 percent from the field, while committing 28 turnovers, and the game ended with PC on top, 62-39.

“We need to cut down on turnovers and capitalize on high percentage shots and foul shooting.

Our confidence will go up when we hit shots and then we will be good,” Grace said.

After Friday’s loss, the Bears looked to rebound on Sunday in their first home contest of the season against Quinnipiac. Brown was strong early, pulling ahead of Quinnipiac 17-13 on the strong play of Betsy Jacobson ’11 and Williams. The Bobcats fought back, going on a 10-0 run of their own to go ahead 23-17, but Johnson took it upon herself to get the momentum back for Bruno, putting in two quick lay-ups to get the Bears within two. Alyssa Blood ’11 gave Bruno a spark off the bench at the end of the first continued on page 9

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Runners compete at Regional meet

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo

Even with a talented senior class, the men’s soccer team had a disappointing season this year, ending with a loss to Dartmouth 2-0 on Friday night.

The Brown cross country teams competed in the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships last Saturday. The men finished in 12th place with 341 points while the women placed 10th with 301 points.

On the men’s side, Duriel Hardy ’10 led the team with a time of 32:17.4, good enough for 15th place. John Haenie ’11 and Brian Schilder ’11 followed behind at 33:36.5 and 33:44.3, finishing 63rd and 68th, respectively.

On the women’s side, Ari Garber ’12 set the best time for Brown as she finished the 6k course in 23rd place at 22:18.4.

The next Bear to cross the finish line was Lauren Pischel ’11, who finished in 56th place at 23:01.0.

— Han Cui