Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, N ovember 19, 2008

Volume CXLIII, No. 116

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Finances put applicants in a tough spot

Bit of Brown in Obama’s cabinet?

Holbrooke ’62 on short list for secretary of state

BY Emma Berry Staff Writer

When Elizabeth Mucha was an infant, her parents invested in bonds that they planned to cash in when it came time to pay for her college education.

But Mucha, now a senior at Whitney Young Magnet High School in Chicago, said the bonds will not

HIGHER ED cover the cost of her education unless she receives financial aid. As the global financial system falters, she worries that colleges will not have enough money to provide.

Mucha is not the only one concerned about the effect of the economic crisis on America’s colleges and college students. As the economy stumbles, both colleges and families are facing a financial crunch — and high school seniors are caught in the middle.

“There’s a double whammy going on,” said Edward St. John, professor of higher education at the University of Michigan.

As many families have seen their college savings funds disappear, so too have many universities seen their savings and budgets dwindle.

“I think it’s going to be, from a student’s point of view, a somewhat unattractive year to apply to college,” said Caroline Hoxby, professor of economics at Stanford University.

Because of the nation’s economic woes, she said, families will be more concerned with financial aid — but colleges may be less able to meet students’ needs.

Moreover, applications could increase because a bad job market makes more people choose to go to school, Hoxby said.

Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 said that in his 25 years of experience in college admissions, “this is as much uncertainty as I’ve seen.”

“So far this has been primarily an asset event and not a job-loss event,” Miller said. He added, however, that many parents might be planning for the worst when considering the financial viability of supporting their kids’ higher education plans.

Many public universities say their applicant pools have increased significantly for admission in fall 2009.

Ashley Memory, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that although applications have been steadily increasing in recent years, first-deadline admissions this year increased by 15 percent over last year.

“That is a big jump,” she said.

Curious about the economy’s effect on the jump in applications, the admissions office at UNC sent surveys to first-deadline applicants continued on page 4

3

HIGHER ED

By Isabel Gottlieb News Editor

continued on page 6

continued on page 4

Chris Bennett / Herald File Photo

Students who require ambulance transport on nights and weekends go to hospitals as part of a newly enforced regulation.

EMS policy enforcement could affect use Privacy, cost at issue for students taken to area hospitals

By Sarah Husk Staff Writer

The newly enforced state regulation mandating that students who require emergency medical transportation go to a facility that has a doctor on staff, which Brown

Health Services does not on nights and weekends, may be changing the way some students choose to use Brown’s Emergency Medical Services.

The Rhode Island division of EMS informed Brown in July of its decision to enforce a longstanding Rhode Island law, which mandates that ambulances must transport passengers to a physician-staffed facility. While Health Services has a nursing staff around the clock, doctors are only present during

working hours.

Residential Peer Counselors and Health Services have stressed to freshmen that being EMS’d is still punishment-free, according to Gabriela Camargo ’11, a Women’s Peer Counselor in Morriss Hall.

But some students said they are concerned with the nondisciplinary consequences of calling EMS in alcohol-related instances.

The cost of emergency transportacontinued on page 4

Students to discuss U.S.-Russia relations Plan for trip to Moscow in works

By Emmy Liss Senior Staf f Writer

Last spring, Henry Shepherd ’08 began exchanging e-mails with students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, after being put in contact with them by Terrence Hopmann, professor emeritus of political

science.

“I wanted to have some sort of dialogue between Brown students and students at their school (to) bridge misunderstandings,” Shepherd said.

After communicating by email, one of the Russian students suggested holding a conference in Moscow the following spring with students from both countries.

That correspondence gave birth to The Working Group for

Early apps fairly stable, falling about 4.5 percent

By Shara Azad Contributing Writer

Brown received about 4.5 percent fewer early decision applications for the class of 2013. It received 2,343 applications, slightly down from the 2,453 early applications for last year’s class, Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 said.

Miller attributed the small decrease to a drop in the number of applications for the Program in Liberal Medical Education. “PLME is down by about 80 applications,” he said, though he added that he did not know the cause of the drop.

Sally Rubenstone, senior adviser at College Confidential, a Web site dedicated to providing information about the college admissions pro-

BROWN TO STAY IN CUBA U.’s program is unaffected as an appeal to reduce travel restrictions was thrown out

www.browndailyherald.com

Russian-American Relations, which will hold its first meeting tonight at 6 p.m. in the Buxton House lounge.

The group is somewhat amorphous — not quite an official Group Independent Study Project, but not just a student club either.

Shepherd said he began talking about the idea with students he knew from his classes, who

Even before the presidential campaign was over, speculation flourished among political bloggers and media outlets over the next big question: Who would work in Barack Obama’s administration?

With President-elect Obama and his transition team preparing to announce major cabinet appointments in the coming weeks, several prominent figures with ties to Brown have been mentioned as candidates.

Among those who may trade the halls of academe for a government post is Richard Holbrooke ’62, professor-at-large at the Watson Institute for International Studies and a former Herald editor-in-chief, who is considered a top contender for secretary of state. Holbrooke, who served as President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1999 to 2001, has also been assistant secretary of state for Europe and for Asia, and helped broker the Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia in 1995.

Holbrooke has been listed as one of the top three candidates for the position by Politico, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Fox News, along with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has also recently been rumored as a possible pick.

“He’s on the short-list, no question about that,” said Professor James Morone, chair of the Department of Political Science.

5

CAMPUS NEWS

cess, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that she predicted the number of applications for early decision would decrease while the number of students applying with early action would greatly increase because of the recent economic crisis.

“Middle class students … may favor Early Action over Early Decision in order to be able to compare financial aid offers in the spring,” Rubenstone wrote.

The number of early applications to Brown has stayed fairly consistent in spite of the economy’s downturn, which Miller said might be due to the new financial aid policies the University adopted last February, which relieved the loan

DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR? Student reported his car as stolen off Waterman and found it on Benevolent and Brook

continued on page 4

11

OPINIONS

Herald File Photo

Early admission numbers for the class of 2013 remain relatively constant from previous years, though about 80 fewer students applied to PLME.

CONVERT ME NOT Adam Cambier ‘09 says Mormons should stop baptizing deceased Holocaust victims

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

12 SPORTS

BEARS’ FINAL FALL RIDE The equestrian team took forth place at Wesleyan, finishing its fall season ahead of URI

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

TODAY

TOMORROW

sunny 38 / 23

partly cloudy 39 / 24

Menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Beef Tacos, Vegetarian Tacos, Spanish Rice, Refried Beans, Spinach with Toasted Sesame Seeds

Lunch — Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich, Tomato Quiche, Glazed Carrots

Dinner — Pork Medallions with Portobello Sauce, Spinach Stuffed Squash, Quinoto, Green Beans

Dinner — Rotisserie Style Chicken, Sweet and Sour Tofu, Mediterranean Shrimp Stir Fry

Epimetheos | Samuel Holzman

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

Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley

Puzzles by Pappocom RELEASE DATE– Wednesday,©November 19, 2008

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

ACROSS 1 Tiny bits 6 Incan pack animal 11 Best-seller 14 Real hoot 15 Legendary storyteller 16 Colony denizen 17 *Gift-wrapping material 19 Bonding words 20 Loses it 21 Lose one’s footing 22 Eager beaver’s demand 25 Trattoria orders 27 Source of strength 28 Like some garages 30 Tennis tactics 31 A mint may freshen it 33 Elected officials 36 Summer, to Sartre 37 Item for Gil Grissom’s team—one begins the answer to each starred clue 38 Caught on to 39 Inspiring talk: Abbr.

40 Fortune 41 Farming prefix 42 Lime and rust 44 Childish retort 45 Pinellas Peninsula city, briefly 47 Like some candles 49 “Darn it!”

50 Cote cries 52 Kimono accessory 53 *Handy PC key 58 VCR button 59 High-calorie cake 60 Rush 61 Road wiggle 62 Calculator, at times 63 Everglades wader

DOWN 32 Dinner side dish 47 Spud 1 Likely choice 48 Crunch targets 2 __ chi 34 Like Eric the Red 50 Martin or swift 3 Come-__: lures 35 Tolerated 51 Preliminary 4 Social duds 37 Lit __ stake 5 Rush 41 Hardwood floor 53 School support 6 Wash softly covering org. against 43 Ballot marks 54 Casting need 7 Security concern 44 Geronimo’s tribe 55 Get it wrong 8 African snakes 45 Indicator of a dull 56 Byron’s “before” 9 Duff Beer server speech?

57 Empire St. paper 10 Earth Day mo.

46 Paste holders since 1851 11 *Easily provoked 12 Where rupees ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: are spent 13 Sporty sunroofs 18 Some Texas A&M grads 21 Luggagescreening org.

22 Burros’ relatives 23 Cybermemo 24 *Modern communications science 25 White House res.

26 Yearn (for) 28 Computer company whizzes 29 Corduroy ridge 31 It’s usually not a 11/19/08 xwordeditor@aol.com 11-Across

Fizzle Pop | Patricia Chou

Classic How To Get Down | Nate Saunders

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

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

Simmi Aujla, President

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

Ross Frazier, Vice President Mandeep Gill, Treasurer Darren Ball, Secretary

By Gail Grabowski (c)2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

11/19/08

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

H igher E d Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Page 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Federal court upholds limits on study in Cuba

By Stephanie Bernhard Staf f Writer

The Brown in Cuba program won’t change following a federal appeals court’s Nov. 4 dismissal of a lawsuit against academic travel restrictions to Cuba. But many professors expressed disappointment and frustration over an issue that’s been simmering since 2004.

That year, the Bush administration placed new restrictions on the types of programs American universities may conduct in Cuba, ef fectively eliminating the vast majority of programs. The new policy required that all programs last longer than 10 weeks, barred universities from accepting any outside students into their programs and permitted only fully tenured professors to teach in Cuba.

T wo of these restrictions changed ever ything for Wayne Smith, an adjunct professor in political science at Johns Hopkins University. Smith was the director of the school’s University of Ha-

vana exchange program — until the 2004 regulations forced its cancellation.

Smith said the program used to take students to Cuba for three weeks in January or June.

“That went off very well — the students liked” the program, said Smith, a former diplomat who led the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1979 to 1982. He said the short time frame worked because it didn’t interfere with Hopkins students’ graduation requirements.

Johns Hopkins’ program wasn’t the only program to be shut down — Associate Professor of History James Green, who helped found Brown’s Cuba program, said the new 10-week minimum dropped the number of programs nationally from over a hundred to about a dozen.

In a 2004 Miami address to Cuban-American leaders, Treasur y Secretar y John Snow said these shorter duration programs “had been abused for trips that amounted Courtesy of Meredith Curtis

continued on page 6

Brown students studying abroad in Cuba, including Donata Secondo ‘10, right, will not be forced to leave the country.

Obama’s tax credit may improve college access

By Melissa Shube Senior Staf f Writer

President-elect Barack Obama, who taught for 12 years at the University of Chicago Law School, has spoken about the importance of higher education for a stronger economy.

“If we want to out-compete the world tomorrow, we must out-educate the world today,” Obama said in a speech in Ohio Sept. 9.

Obama’s plan for higher education, at least for now, centers on making college more financially accessible. His plan includes providing a tax credit toward education and simplifying the federal financial aid process. He has also proposed increased funding for scientific research.

The tuition relief program is called the American Opportunity Tax Credit. Under the proposed credit, families could receive a $4,000 tax credit contingent upon completion of 100 hours of community ser vice. According to Obama’s campaign Web site, the $4,000 could cover two-thirds of the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and all of community college tuition.

Assistant Professor of Education Martin West said the tax credit would primarily benefit the middle class “by virtue of the fact of who ends up going to college and who would be in a position to do service.” It will not do much for the most disadvantaged students, he said.

Daniel Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, said that linking community ser vice with education sets a “nice precedent.”

He guessed the tax credit would have a modest effect on college admissions, and said he would rather see the government “just invest money up front in terms of grants.”

Obama also hopes to improve college accessibility by simplifying the way students apply for financial aid. He plans to eliminate the fed-

eral financial aid application and have the government determine aid based on families’ tax returns.

“Right now, filling out the application is a ver y bureaucratic and time-consuming and confusing process,” Hurley said, adding that it deters some students from pursuing higher education. “They don’t fill it out, they don’t get the money and therefore they don’t attend college,” he said.

Reforms to financial aid are supported by both the federal government and the academic community, said James Tilton, Brown’s director of financial aid.

Tilton said he also hoped to see an increase in Pell Grants, which come from the federal government and go directly to students from low-income families. He said an increase had been suggested by Congress, but added that it was more of a “big hope” in light of the current economy. Currently about 700 Brown students receive Pell Grants, amounting to $2.6 million annually, he said.

In addition to financial assistance, Obama has prioritized scientific research.

Obama has called for doubling federal funding for basic scientific research, said Tim Leshan, director of government relations and community affairs.

This would be “ver y good for research universities like Brown,” which “depend very heavily on federal funding.”

Leshan also speculated that in addition to funding, new policies within the Obama administration might increase avenues for research. For example, stem cell research, which Leshan said “has not grown substantially” under the Bush administration, might expand in the new administration, he said.

“We’re just hopeful that maybe there will be a renewed interest in research and research funding” in the next four years, Leshan said.

But he acknowledged that “given the tightness of the federal budget,” it may be hard to find the money to

pursue these initiatives.

However, West said the issues facing higher education will not be solved simply through funding and financial aid for college and universities.

“I think that the most important issue is actually a lack of academic preparation,” he said. “Higher education policy can’t be successful without paying attention to improving the quality of K-12 schools.”

The Obama campaign has outlined a series of measures to improve K-12 schools, which include reforming No Child Left Behind and increasing participation in Advanced Placement and other college-credit programs by 50 percent by 2016.

His campaign has also mentioned an Early Assessment Program — a voluntary 11th-grade test designed “to inform students what they need to do to prepare for college while they still have time to do it,” according to Obama’s Web site. The campaign has suggested that the tests will be developed by individual states but funded by the federal government.

The amount of money allocated to colleges and universities for all of the programs proposed by Obama, as well as for scholarships, will depend on how much money the government is willing to allocate during a financial crisis.

“Clearly job one is addressing the economic crisis facing the country,” Hurley said. “The forecast is bleak.”

Despite all of Obama’s intentions, Hurley said, “I don’t see significant changes at least in the first few months of his administration.”

Hurley is worried that public universities and community colleges will suffer from budget cuts as states reduce funding in an effort to weather the financial crisis.

Hurley said lawmakers make these cuts “because they know colleges can raise tuition.”

If tuitions rise, some students will be priced out of the college market, he said.

California colleges face severe state budget cuts

BY Matt Klebanoff Contributing Writer

Having already made significant cuts in spending this year, California may now be forced to make sweeping mid-year reductions to its education budget because of recent turmoil on Wall Street.

On Nov. 6, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed further across-the-board budget cuts which the state legislature must vote on by the end of the month. Schwarzenegger’s plan could have public colleges and universities statewide facing $464.1 million in combined cuts.

The proposed reductions are part of the state’s efforts to combat its budget crisis, which Schwarzenegger described in a message to the state legislature as “the result of a budget system where there continues to be no linkage between revenues and spending.”

The state’s budgetary problems preceded Wall Street’s recent troubles, but have only worsened in the volatile economic climate. This year, state revenues are expected to fall by $11.2 billion, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Schwarzenegger’s plan asks the legislature to cut $323.3 million from the state’s 109 community colleges, $65.5 million from the 10-campus University of California system and $66.3 million from the 23-campus California State University system, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

These reductions in California’s budget are expected to create challenges for public colleges and universities, which had already been facing reduced funds from the state.

“We recognize that the state’s fiscal situation is increasingly deteriorating, but these potential mid-year cuts combined with reductions already made to our budget will result in fewer qualified students being admitted to our

universities,” Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed said in a press release earlier this month.

As a result of the cuts, the Cal State system will face difficulties opening its doors to new students and offering a sufficient number of classes for current ones, said a spokeswoman, Teresa Ruiz.

“Across the board, many of the state’s entities are going to have to deal with budget cuts, and there’s not much we can do because the state is so much in debt at this point,” Ruiz said.

Patrick Murphy, an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said that the budget cuts would not affect “the really super bright kid that has means” to pay for an education.

According to Murphy, the fiscal cuts would directly affect those students whose families cannot afford full tuition. Ensuing admissions cuts might force otherwise admissible students to be deferred, he said.

Murphy described this process as a “roll downhill” — certain students who might have attended a UC school in past years will now enter the Cal State system, and students who would typically have attended Cal State will now head to a community college.

Murphy said he believes the state could combat its budget crisis without putting such a strain on its institutions of higher education, in part by raising state budget revenue through taxes.

However, it is unlikely that California will adopt policies that dramatically increase taxes on its citizens in the near future, he said.

A statewide survey conducted by the Murphy’s institute this month found that while 83 percent of Californians are concerned about the potential effects of the state’s budget crisis on higher education, a majority said they were unwilling to pay higher taxes or tuition to alleviate the problem.

Page 4

Chafee ’75, Kennedy, Jr. P’07 potential Obama appointees continued from page 1 “I have served the country that I love on and off since I graduated from college,” Holbrooke told The Dartmouth, that college’s student newspaper, last week. “And if the president-elect feels I can help him in any way, I will do so, and that is without any specific position in mind.”

Holbrooke could not be reached for comment by The Herald.

Another politician turned academic, Lincoln Chafee ’75, could also return to Washington — possibly as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Politico reported last month. A member of the grassroots organization Republicans for Environmental Protection, Chafee voted against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and served on the Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works.

Chafee, now registered as an independent, served as the Republican senator from Rhode Island from 1999 to 2006 and has strong credentials as a political moderate. Presently a visiting fellow in international studies at the Watson Institute, he endorsed Obama this fall.

Chafee told The Herald earlier this month that he had not had any

conversations with Obama’s transition team. “I’m certainly happy here, working at Watson,” he said.

“We just can’t predict what might occur.”

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. P’07 is widely considered the leading candidate for the EPA post. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and activist, is chairman of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a clean-water advocacy group.

“I would be of service in any way that the administration asked me to be,” Kennedy told the Huffington Post the day after the election.

The Washington Post and Bloomberg News, among other news outlets, reported earlier this month that Obama was considering Kennedy for the position.

Brown faculty, administrators and alums could also join the next administration in lower-profile positions like undersecretaries and deputies of cabinet-level departments, Morone said.

“In the next couple of ranks down ... Obama will tap lots of people who are bright, effective, but not very high-profile names,” Morone said.

“Those folks will make a lot of policy decisions and I’m betting we’ll see a lot of Brown folks at that level.”

Slumping economy puts applicants in tough spot continued from page 1 asking them to evaluate the importance of the economy to their decision to apply. Of the 6,020 students who responded to the survey, 917 said they “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the economy was a factor in their decision, Memory said.

Memory said UNC would not know the application situation in full until the school’s second admissions deadline on Jan. 15. As for whether the increase in this year’s applications was related to the economic crisis, she said, “It’s a little early for us to draw a definite conclusion, but we can’t rule it out.”

Jim Blackburn, director of enrollment management services for the California State University system, wrote in an e-mail that the applicant pool has increased by 6 to 10 percent for fall 2009, even though Cal State reduced its allocation of free applications this year.

Blackburn said the increase in the number of applications was “probably related” to the economic crisis. He said Cal State saw a similar spike in applications during the economic downturn in the 90s.

St. John said he expected some students to lower their expectations for college, choosing not to apply to more selective, expensive institutions because they believe the schools are out of their reach, financially speaking. But he recommended that students aim high.

“The better place they can go, the more likely they are to get money,” he said. Despite falling endowments, more selective schools remain better equipped to provide financial aid, he said.

“We’re in a very good position to make Brown affordable,” said Miller, who said he is working to

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

reassure families of prospective students that the financial aid the University promises this year will be maintained.

“We get a lot of ‘what if’ questions” from families whose children will attend college in the next few years, Miller said. “They’re worried about what (the economic crisis) might mean. It’s still unclear what it does mean.”

Hoxby said the type of student more likely to be affected by the crisis is “the student who’s right on the margin of going to college or not going to college.”

Such students, like the vast majority of Americans seeking four-year degrees, typically attend schools that do not have large endowments or research programs, leaving them more vulnerable to fluctuations in revenue. St. John and Hoxby said these are the schools likely to be hit hardest by the financial crisis.

Still, Hoxby said she expected more of these students to choose to attend college because in a recession the opportunity cost of attending college is relatively low.

“It’s probably a healthy decision,” she said. By the time students graduate, the job market may have improved, and students with degrees will be more attractive to employers.

Mucha, for her part, said she was applying to “more schools than I would have otherwise,” including state schools, something she”never thought I would have ever done.”

She is also applying to schools that offer merit-based aid and schools with large endowments, she said. Though she felt they would be more competitive in terms of admission, she said, they were also more likely to offer her good financial aid packages.

Upperclassmen react more to EMS regulation continued from page 1 tion to the hospital may force some students to choose whether to pay the large transport fee themselves and keep an alcohol-related incident secret, or use their health insurance to cover the cost but potentially having to explain the charge to their parents.

According to Health Education Director Frances Mantak ’88, there is no charge for ambulance transport provided by Brown EMS, as that service is covered by the student health services fee.

For students who use health insurance to cover the cost of care at a hospital’s emergency room, though, co-payments will vary among different health insurance plans, Mantak wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Brown’s health insurance policy would require a co-pay of $100, she added.

A representative from Rhode Island Hospital said the cost of emergency services for someone without health insurance can vary for any number of reasons — primarily because each case will require an individual medical plan determined by a physician at the time of arrival.

Because some students are only covered by a parent’s health insurance policy, though, the co-pay is not the only consideration. For these students, an alcohol-related trip to the hospital may appear on a parent’s insurance bill. Brown’s health insurance bills directly to students, Mantak said, so parents are not part of the equation.

But, she added, each insurance plan works differently, so the way a charge is itemized varies from plan to plan.

For one female sophomore who was EMS’d last spring, before the policy had gone into effect, her trip to the hospital had come as a surprise.

For one female sophomore who was EMS’d last spring, before the regulation was enforced, her trip to the hospital came as a surprise.

The sophomore, who asked not to be named in this story, had assumed she would be taken to Health Services.

“I didn’t even know that being brought to the hospital was an option,” she said.

She said that a regulation that increases the likelihood of a trip to the hospital instead of Andrews Hall could be a major deterrent to those who need to utilize emergency services.

On the night she was EMS’d, the sophomore said, she made her way back to her dorm after drinking what she estimated amounted to eight drinks in a matter of min-

utes. Once at her dorm, she said, she began vomiting. She said that her friends became concerned and called EMS when, 45 minutes later, she had not stopped vomiting.

Though she said that she understands why her friends made the decision to call EMS and harbors no hard feelings toward them, she hopes that in the future under similar circumstances, her friends will just put her to bed and call EMS only in an extreme emergency. She spoke with Health Services after the incident for a follow-up assessment, and said the experience wasn’t a “punishment” and was “kind of a good thing, actually.”

Though she ended up telling her parents the truth about her hospital visit, she said she thought the greater likelihood of parental notification might create a disincentive for students deciding whether or not to EMS a friend.

RPLs interviewed for this story acknowledged these concerns, but all said they felt that students have been using EMS responsibly. According to Camargo, the freshmen in her unit “have been using (EMS) when they’ve needed it.”

The number of students who were EMS’d for cases of alcohol or drug intoxication in the first three weekends of the semester is slightly lower than the number of students EMS’d on those same weekends last year, down from 31 to 26, according to data provided by EMS. According to Camargo, though the system might seem to create deterrents to using EMS, the fear that students will use EMS more selectively hasn’t materialized.

Camargo said the small decrease in the number of students who have been EMS’d during the first several weeks of school may reflect differences that have little to do with enforcement of the regulation. The freshman class, she noted, requested a record number of rooms on substance-free and quiet floors.

Josh Singh ’11, a residential peer counselor in Morriss, agreed with Camargo and said that the newly enforced policy hasn’t dramatically affected students’ incentives for calling EMS. The first-years in his unit, he said, “all have a pretty good understanding that (calling EMS) is OK,” Singh said.

Singh also said that, according to statistics that Health Ser vices distributed to the RPLs, the percentage of students who actually require hospitalization after an EMS call is similar to those in past years, despite the change in policy enforcement.

“It’s a common myth that EMS just takes you to the hospital,” said a sophomore RC, who asked not to be named to protect the privacy of

her first years. Emergency medical technicians, she said, conduct an assessment that includes asking the intoxicated student basic questions to test their lucidity and looking at the student’s surroundings and the intoxication level of the student’s friends.

The RC said she thought the first years in her unit have been “really responsible” with EMS. But many students are still wary of implications for the EMS’d student, she said.

She said her first years woke her early one morning, hesitant to call EMS for a friend. She said the students knew even before they approached her that they should call EMS for their friend, but she added that it was “kind of scary” how hesitant they had been to make the call themselves.

But a male freshman who was EMS’d for intoxication earlier this semester said he thinks first years, for the most part, “are willing to call EMS.” He was “happy” that his roommate had called EMS for him, he said. After an assessment that included taking his blood pressure and pulse, the EMTs determined that he did not need further medical attention. “I’d rather be safe,” he said.

Both the sophomore RC and Camargo said they thought that the regulation’s enforcement has not affected freshmen as much as it has upperclassmen, who had been accustomed to the previous policy.

Upperclassmen, Camargo reasoned, know that it was formerly an option for EMS to transport students to Health Services instead of to the hospital, whereas freshmen may not even be familiar with the enforcement of this policy. “The general consensus is that upperclassmen are having the most reaction to it,” Camargo said.

Aminy Ostfeld ’11 thought that the possibility of going to the hospital rather than Health Services “probably would create less incentive to call” because there could be “more serious consequences” for the student EMS’d.

Ostfeld said she would probably still call EMS if she thought a friend was in danger. She added that she thought most students would likely do the same despite what may perhaps be perceived as a greater chance of hospitalization.

Camargo agreed, saying that the change in policy enforcement was less of a concern than some have perceived it to be. “Generally I don’t think it’s as big a deal as people have made it out.”

— Additional reporting by Joanna Wohlmuth

Early applications to Brown fall 4.5 percent continued from page 1 burden on some families.

The class of 2013 is the first to use the common application in applying to Brown, but Miller said the only effect it seemed to have had on early decision applications was that applicants were submitting their paperwork closer to the deadline. More applicants also submitted their applications online than ever before.

“Ninety-eight percent of (early) applicants applied online, up 10 percent from last year,” Miller said.

Applicants to the class of 2013 face a demographic challenge. This year’s group of high school seniors is likely one of the largest groups apply-

ing to college in history, according to a Sept. 13 New York Times article.

Rubenstone said the rumor that a lot of people would be applying might have adverse affects for applicants and colleges.

“When the word gets out that a huge number of seniors will be heading off to college, with it comes the fear that extra seniors means fewer college slots. To compensate, many students file more applications … which wreaks havoc in admissions offices because ‘yield’ statistics from past admissions cycles may not be reliable,” she wrote.

Fifty-two more students than were expected enrolled for the class of 2012 this past fall, but de-

spite that, Miller said the admission office would not make it a point to admit fewer students to compensate for prior overenrollment.

“Our expectation is that we’ll have a normal sized freshman class of about 1,485,” he said.

He also reiterated the current state of uncertainty in the admissions office.

Though admissions hasn’t seen much of a change, Miller said any change in the number of applicants will be seen after the regular decision deadline.

“We’re in a wait-and-see mode,” he said. “We don’t know how applications and enrollments will be affected.”

C ampus n ews Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Page 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

News in Brief Gander wins prestigious fellowship Literary Arts Program Director Forrest Gander has won an unrestricted $50,000 fellowship award for his poetry and fiction from United States Artists, an artist-advocacy group, the organization announced Nov. 10.

Gander, professor of English and comparative literature, became one of this year’s 362 nominees when his name was anonymously suggested by a prominent figure in the field of literature, he said. A panel of experts then selected him for one of 50 fellowships. At the awards gala at the Chicago Museum of Courtesy of Brown.edu Contemporary Art last Monday, Forrest Gander, director of the Literary he was one of only eight artists Arts program and professor of English to give a special presentation of his work.

United States Artists has given 50 awards annually for the past three years to artists across the country to honor their “artistic excellence, unique artistic vision, and significant contributions to their field,” according to the group’s Web site.

“In just three years, USA has introduced a solution to the lack of funding for artists and awarded $7.5 million across all disciplines,” its executive director, Katharine DeShaw, said in a statement.

The organization awards artists in eight categories: architecture and design, crafts and traditional arts, dance, literature, media, music, theater arts and visual arts. Gander was one of nine winners in the literature category and the only winner in Rhode Island.

“This is a well-deserved honor for Professor Gander,” Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P’07 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “While it is about personal accomplishment, it also reflects in some ways on the strength of the community of scholars at Brown that supports and nurtures creativity.”

Gander has written 10 books of poetry and translated five from Spanish. He published his first novel, “As a Friend,” in October.. Gander said he believed the award was “mostly for poetry,” although he also submitted a section of his new novel for review by the panel.

He said that with the $50,000 award, in addition to a Guggenheim Fellowship, which he won in April, he will be able to take off the spring and fall semesters next year to write. He plans to work on a book of poetry, a work of fiction and translations of two poets, one from Spanish and the other from Japanese.

Gander will return to Brown in the spring of 2010.

— Shannon O’Brien

Shorts stolen and stranger peeps into dorm The following summary includes all major incidents reported to the Department of Public Safety between Nov. 7 and Nov. 13 It does not include general service and alarm calls.

The Providence Police Department also responds to incidents occurring

CRIME LOG off campus. DPS does not divulge information on open cases that are currently under investigation by the department, the PPD or the Office of Student Life. DPS maintains a daily log of all shift activity and general service calls which can be viewed during business hours at its headquarters, located at 75 Charlesfield St. Saturday, Nov. 8 9:32 a.m. A student reported his unattended and empty laundry bag was taken from Keeney Quadrangle on Nov. 7 between 6:30 p.m. and 7:10 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 9 12:23 p.m. An employee at the Sharpe Refectory stated that between 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., an unknown person took his cellular phone and $2 out of his pants pocket. The pants were left unattended and unsecured on a clothes rack in the men’s locker room while he worked. The locker room is not secured.

2:24 p.m. A Student stated that he was playing basketball at the OlneyMargolies Athletic Center between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Nov. 8, when

unknown person(s) took his debit card and $40 from his jacket pocket.

His jacket was left unattended and unsecured on the floor of the gym.

The debit card was used at retail establishments in Johnston.

2:30 p.m. Student reported that someone had entered his room between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. and stole a pair of tan shorts that were hanging on a chair. He stated that at approximately 2 a.m. he had returned to his room. He then left the room to use the bathroom. He closed the door, but left it unlocked. He stated that when he returned to the room, he locked the door and went to bed.

He stated that when he woke up at approximately 11 a.m., he noticed the shorts were missing. In the pockets were his wallet containing his driver’s license, two debit cards, a credit card, Brown ID, $8 in cash and keys. On Nov. 10, the student called detectives to report that all of his property was returned by two unnamed students who found it in another area.

5:57 p.m. Two students reported that at approximately 5 p.m. they had placed their belongings on the floor as they worked out in the OMAC. When they returned about an hour later, they noticed that some items were missing.

Two cell phones, a hand purse, dorm key, debit cards, credit cards, Brown IDs, cash, a wallet, driver’s license, a personal check and a number of gift cards were taken.

A witness stated she observed two

male subjects running from the area.

The males were running toward the rear door which took them into Lot No. 87. One of the subjects dropped a wallet as they ran past her. She picked up the wallet and returned it to him, not knowing of the larceny.

The two subjects were seen getting into a light blue vehicle with another male subject driving.

8:25 p.m. An officer responded to the intersection of Power and Brook streets in reference to a possible motor vehicle theft. A Brown student stated he was unable to find his vehicle which he said was parked on Waterman Street. He also stated he had looked for the vehicle for a while and believed it had been stolen.

At this time the officer escorted him around to search for the vehicle.

The student was then dropped off at the PPD substation to file a report. A while later the student flagged down another Brown police officer and stated the vehicle had been found at the intersection at Benevolent and Brook Streets.

10:10 p.m. A student reported he went out of state on Nov. 6 at 3 p.m. and when he returned on Nov. 9 at approximately 8 p.m. he found his laptop missing from his room in Sears House.

He reported his roommate was on campus the whole time but had no idea the laptop was missing.

continued on page 9

Page 6

Meeting tonight to set up talks with Russia continued from page 1 immediately took to the idea, and a core group of eight began discussing ideas.

The students were interested in more than just a trip to Moscow.

They wanted to get together to discuss the U.S.-Russian relationship in depth and to bring speakers to campus.

The conference, which will likely include group discussions and guest speakers, “will be a forum for discussion, not a debate with a winner and a loser,” said Hristo Atanasov ’10.

Details for the trip are “not set in stone yet,” Atanasov said.

The group needs to formally put together a delegation, potentially including students from other uni-

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

versities, and find funding.

Although the group has done little so far to adver tise itself, “there are already at least a dozen students who want to take a leading role,” Shepherd said.

Between Russian language classes, Eastern European cultural clubs and students who are concentrating in international relations, the “incentive is already there” to discuss these issues, he added.

Nat Brown ’10, who studies Russian, said he came to the group “more from the language and culture side.”

“It’s a refreshing thing for me to address Russian in the context of international relations,” he said.

With a tense military situation

in Georgia, the group leaders said, now is a crucial time to research and discuss relations between the two countries.

The working group will ser ve as a forum to take on “controversial and difficult” topics like NATO, the role of the U.N. and energy, said Max Rusnak ’10.

“Reality with Russia is something that can’t be sugar coated,” Shepherd said. “It has to be dealt with pragmatically.”

Sergei Khrushchev, a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies and son of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, said many mistakes result from cultural misunderstanding and that people of different countries need to understand each other, “especially if you are planning to rule this countr y in the future.”

“It’s not about the Cold War,” Khrushchev added. “It’s about day-to-day interaction with other cultures.”

Members of the working group have had conversations with Khrushchev about the project and have spoken to other professors, including Professor of Political Science Linda Cook, who studies former Soviet states.

Cook said she thought relations between the U.S. and Russia were presently at a very low point.

“I think that the Georgia conflict in particular and the response to it on both sides shows a deep difference in perceptions,” she said.

She supports the students’ project because it is something that “promotes mutual understanding, or at least a dialogue between young people,” she said.

For the moment, the working group is focused on building interest and momentum among students.

“Getting a whole group engaged would be a really strong sign that this is desirable or needed at Brown,” Shepherd said.

Though planning for the April Moscow trip is not the sole purpose of the working group, it will be a large component of the agenda of tonight’s meeting, Shepherd said.

The Moscow school is affiliated with Russia’s Ministr y of Foreign Relations, and is well connected politically and logistically, so the Brown group is letting the Russian students take the lead on planning the conference, he said.

“We’re giving them input on what interests us,” Shepherd said.

“At the same rate, we understand that they have their own way of organizing it.”

U.’s Cuba program won’t change following ruling continued from page 3 to little more than tourist travel, thus undermining the intentions of the U.S. sanctions against Cuba.”

The administration sanctions U.S. tourist travel to Cuba in order to keep American dollars out of the Cuban economy, which may potentially weaken its Communist government and force a transition to democracy.

Smith vehemently disagrees that academic travel constitutes tourism — he said the government “couldn’t point to a single case of abuse” — and decided to protest the restrictions.

Smith said the Bush administration only implemented the new rules because 2004 was an election year, and because the preisdent thought they would bolster his Cuban-American voting base.

“People thought Bush wasn’t doing enough to bring down Castro, so he came up with these cockamamie restrictions as if that was going to change something,” he said.

In late 2004, Smith became a founding co-chair of the Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel, a group of professors and supporters who have tried taking legal action to reverse the Bush administration’s restrictions. In 2006, ECDET unsuccessfully sued the U.S. Treasury Department in a federal district court and decided to appeal.

Following the appeal’s dismissal by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, ECDET lawyer and Task Force Coordinator Robert Muse said further attempts don’t look promising.

“We’re running out of legal recourse at this point,” Muse said.

He said the next step would be to take the case to the Supreme Court, which is “really a long shot.”

Muse called the restrictions “unconstitutional,” saying they denied American citizens their First Amendment rights.

“This administration’s aggression towards the constitution is something I find quite interesting,” he said. Muse said the court simply deferred to the President in this case, with the judges essentially finding no reason to disagree with the executive branch’s foreign policies.

“Astonishingly, the courts questioned whether this was a case of academic freedom,” Muse said, adding he couldn’t think of a case that involved it more.

Equally as upsetting as the judges’ dismissal, according to Muse,

was the lack of universities’ support for ECDET’s case. Though individual professors joined the Coalition, not a single university would sign on. Muse said he approached many “private, prestigious institutions” asking for support, but they were “afraid of losing federal grant money if they challenge these conditions.”

“The judges in each stage in this case have commented on the lack of institutional support,” Muse said.

He would not name which schools he looked to for support, but said Brown was not among them.

Esther Whitfield, an assistant professor of comparative literature and the only ECDET member among Brown’s faculty, said she wants today’s students to have the same opportunities she did. Whitfield, who teaches Cuban literature, spent an undergraduate semester in Cuba, and also studied there in the late ’90s.

“It’s a shocking experience,” Whitfield said. “It looks completely different to much of the Western world because it’s thrown out capitalist corporations.” But she thinks there’s more at stake than Cuba’s political uniqueness.

“It’s a question of individual freedoms,” Whitfield said.

Kendall Brostuen, director of international programs, agreed, saying, “It’s one thing to have a textbook knowledge of another place, and another to be on the ground.”

“Cuba’s at a pivotal time in its histor y,” Brostuen said. He says the goal of the semester-long Brown in Cuba program is to erase “the boundary between cultural awareness and cultural experience.”

Currently in its first semester, the program has been successful thus far, according to Brostuen.

“There’s a lot of student interest looking ahead to next year,” he said.

Because Brown’s program lasts well over 10 weeks, the 2004 restrictions do not affect it.

Smith, Muse and the other professors whose programs were cut can only hope that the incoming Obama administration will rescind Bush’s restrictions. Obama hasn’t yet said anything specific about Cuba, but has suggested he will ease U.S. travel restrictions and allow family members to travel back and forth. Smith will hold a press conference in December to lobby for a policy change with the coming administration. He said he’s hopeful that Obama will lift the academic travel limitations.

“These can be removed with the stroke of a pen,” Smith said.

W orld & n ation Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Eric Holder likely to be next Attorney General

By Carrie Johnson Washington Post

Candace Rondeaux / Washington Post

The United States and NATO are looking for alternate supply routes into Afghanistan as Taliban attacks become more frequent.

Taliban threatens NATO supply route

By Candace Rondeaux and Walter Pincus Washington Post

TORKHAM, Afghanistan — A rise in Taliban attacks along the length of a vital NATO supply route that runs through this border town in the shadow of the Khyber Pass has U.S. officials seeking alternatives, including the prospect of beginning deliveries by a tortuous overland journey from Europe.

Supplying troops in landlocked Afghanistan has long been the Achilles’ heel of foreign armies here, most recently the Soviets, whose forces were nearly crippled by Islamist insurgent attacks on vulnerable supply lines.

About 75 percent of NATO and U.S. supplies bound for Afghanistan — including gas, food and military

equipment — are transported over land through Pakistan. To get here, they start in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi and move north through Pakistan’s volatile NorthWest Frontier Province and tribal areas before arriving at the Afghan border. The convoys then press forward along mountain hairpin turns through areas of Afghanistan that are known as havens for insurgents.

Drivers at this busy border crossing say the death threats from the Taliban now arrive almost daily.

Sometimes they come in the form of a letter taped to the windshield of a truck late at night. Occasionally, a dispatcher receives an earlymorning phone call before a convoy sets off from Pakistan. More often, the threats are delivered at the end of a gun barrel.

“The Taliban, they tell us, `These

goods belong to the Americans. Don’t bring them to the Americans. If you do, we’ll kill you,’ “ said Rahmanullah, a truck driver from the Pakistani tribal town of Landikotal. “From Karachi to Kabul there is trouble. The whole route is insecure.”

The growing danger has forced the Pentagon to seek far longer, but possibly safer, alternate routes through Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, according to Defense Department documents. A notice to potential contractors by the U.S. Transportation Command in September said that “strikes, border delays, accidents and pilferage” in Pakistan and the risk of “attacks and armed hijackings” in Afghanistan posed “a significant risk” to supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan. continued on page 9

Obama team carefully vetting appointees

By Philip Rucker Washington Post

WASHINGTON — There was a time when smoking marijuana during college threatened your hopes of landing a top presidential appointment. Then came the nanny questions: Are your domestic workers legal? Did you pay their employment taxes?

Now, as President-elect Barack Obama assembles his administration, an army of lawyers volunteering on his transition team are vetting his potential picks with unprecedented scrutiny of their personal, financial and professional backgrounds.

Embarrassing e-mails, text messages, diar y entries and Facebook profiles? Gifts worth more than $50, other than those from relatives and long-standing friends? Family members with connections to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG or any other company receiving a federal bailout?

Obama is conducting the vetting process much the way he managed his campaign: methodically, thoroughly and on a prodigious scale. He did not wait until he won the election to vet his favored picks. Soon after he clinched the Democratic nomination, lawyers quietly prepared

dossiers of about 150 contenders for senior positions — often without the candidates themselves knowing — said a senior Obama transition adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“You start with public sources: You go on Google, Nexis and other public record databases,” the adviser said.

Now Obama is asking contenders to complete a far-reaching questionnaire and furnish detailed personal and financial records dating back a decade.

“Now you’re going to the next level and really tr ying to understand if there are any potential issues in nominating and confirming this person for the job,” the adviser said. “The real purpose of vetting is to understand the person’s ability to perform the job and be confirmed for the position. We also want to avoid surprises.”

The vetting process extends beyond a 63-item questionnaire Obama is requiring of top candidates. For the roughly 800 executive posts that require Senate confirmation, nominees must undergo an FBI background check and file records with the Office of Government Ethics.

For the president-elect, vetting candidates and selecting nominees is his first test of leadership,

said Dina Habib Powell, a former director of presidential personnel in the Bush White House.

“The decisions that (Obama) makes in appointing individuals to ser ve in these critical roles will have an impact on his entire presidency,” Powell said.

Obama’s scrutiny is so intense that some top candidates hired personal attorneys in the spring and summer to “pre-vet” them in advance of submitting information to Obama’s team. The lawyers scoured tax returns for any errors or details that could jeopardize their chances, said a Washington lawyer who is involved in Obama’s vetting process and played a similar role for President Bill Clinton’s transition.

“Sometimes they will have us go through their tax return and say, ‘I did X, Y and Z, my accountant recommended it, but do you think that was kosher? Do you think that would raise red flags?’” said the lawyer, who has prevetted some clients and agreed to describe the process only if he and his clients would not be identified.

“It has become a nightmare,” E. Pendleton James, who managed personnel for President Ronald continued on page 9

WASHINGTON — Eric H. Holder Jr., a former Justice Department official who was President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign co-chairman, is the leading candidate to serve as the next U.S. attorney general, according to Democratic sources familiar with the choice.

Holder, 57, was offered the job late last week and accepted it on the condition that he receive at least moderate support from Republican lawmakers and that he complete the vetting process, conditions set forth by Obama’s transition team, the sources said. Intermediaries began to reach out to Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, and the vetting pace accelerated Tuesday.

Sources close to the process said Holder was a “near certainty” to become the first African American nominated to head the Justice Department, which plays a leading role in enforcing civil rights laws.

Officials in the Obama transition office said no final decision has been reached.

The nation’s next top law enforcement officer will inherit significant challenges, including a workforce demoralized by allegations of political interference in the Bush years, the vexing issue of how to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and whether to open criminal investigations of administration officials who approved harsh interrogation tactics and warrantless

wiretapping programs.

As a former judge and top federal prosecutor in Washington D.C., Holder has extensive experience with the criminal justice system. He is widely known within the city’s legal community and for his philanthropic work on behalf of troubled juveniles. In recent years, he defended corporations as a partner at the Covington & Burling law firm, and he took an active role in the presidential campaign after befriending Obama at a dinner party.

Over the course of his career, Holder has won praise from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, though his selection is likely to revive questions about his inability to prevent a last-minute pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, who won relief from President Bill Clinton during his final day in office in 2001.

In congressional testimony, Holder acknowledged that he had made a mistake by not spending more time on the pardon request and by making a quick judgment of “neutral leaning towards favorable.”

At the time he was serving as acting attorney general, dealing with inauguration security, death penalty cases and other matters. Holder told Republicans on the House government reform committee that efforts to make he and the Justice Department “the fall guys in this matter are rather transparent and simply not consistent with the facts.”

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the ranking Republican on the Senate continued on page 9

EPA to ease air pollution regulations near nat’l parks

By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas, despite the fact that half of EPA’s 10 regional administrators have formally dissented from the decision and another four criticized the move in writing.

Documents obtained by The Washington Post show that the Bush administration’s push to weaken Clean Air Act protections for “Class 1 areas” nationwide has sparked fierce resistance from senior agency officials. All but two of the regional administrators objecting to the proposed rule are political appointees.

The proposal would change the current practice of measuring pollution levels near national parks, which is currently done over three hour and 24-hour increments in order to capture emission spikes during periods of peak energy demand, and instead average the levels over a year. Under this system, the spikes in pollution would no longer violate the law.

In a series of written submissions, EPA regional administrators have argued this switch would undermine critical air quality protections for parks such as Virginia’s Shenandoah, which is frequently plagued by smog and poor visibility.

EPA Region 4 Administrator J. I.

Palmer, Jr., whose office oversees Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, wrote that the new formula “would reduce consistency, accuracy and public review” and “could allow greater deterioration of air quality in clean areas rather than preventing significant deterioration.”

Bharat Mathur, who oversees air quality for the Great Lakes states as acting administrator for Region 5, wrote, “The proposed approach is inappropriate and could lead to gaming the increment calculation.” And Region 8 acting administrator Carol Rushin, whose office covers Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, North and South Dakota, wrote that the rule provides “inappropriate discretion” when calculating pollution levels.

EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said in an e-mail that he could not comment in detail on the air-quality rule but said the submissions “are all part of the regular agency process, so all I can say is that that process has been moving forward.”

EPA could issue the final rule as early as this week. Shradar wrote that “work continues on a number of rules including the (Class 1 areas) rule, but no timeline has been set for completion at this point.”

Many national parks struggle with poor visibility shrouding otherwise spectacular vistas as well as acid rain deposition and other problems caused continued on page 9

Page 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

DPS catches peeping Tom Obama team asks Holder to lead Justice Dept. outside Hegeman window continued from page 7

continued from page 5 Monday, Nov. 10 10:10 a.m. A student stated that on Nov. 6 at about 7 p.m. she locked her bike to a tree at the southwest corner of Caswell Hall. She noticed the bike missing when she returned to campus on Nov. 8 at about 8 a.m.

She called detectives on Nov. 11 and said her bike was returned to her.

7:21 p.m. A student stated that while in the ladies’ restroom on the first floor of the Center for Informa-

tion Technology, she placed her cell phone on top of a towel dispenser and forgot it there. She stated she noticed it missing right away and returned to the restroom two minutes later, but could not find it anywhere in the area.

The student e-mailed DPS on Nov. 11 stating she found her phone.

8:05 p.m. A male subject was found trespassing from University property after he had been observed by a female student peeping into their first-floor dorm window in Hegeman Hall.

NATO rethinking supply routes to Afghanistan continued from page 7 A reliable supply route is considered vital to sustaining the approximately 67,000 foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan, including 32,000 Americans. Nearly half of U.S. forces operate under NATO command. Attacks on convoys have also been a problem in Iraq, where the United States has improvised effective but costly ways to keep supplies flowing.

A week ago, a bold Taliban raid on a NATO supply convoy on the Pakistani side of the pass forced authorities to temporarily close traffic through Torkham. For days after the attack on the 23-truck convoy, many of the hundreds of truckers who regularly traverse this treacherous route were stranded as they watched their profits dwindle. Pakistani authorities reopened the NATO supply route through Torkham on Monday after assigning extra security to the convoys.

But on Tuesday, a day after the reopening, dozens of truck drivers seemed far from certain that their troubles were over. The attack in the Khyber tribal area on the Pakistani side of the border last week was one in a series in recent months that has cost NATO suppliers millions in losses this year.

In March, insurgents set fire to 40 to 50 NATO oil tankers near Torkham.

A month later, Taliban raiders made off with military helicopter engines valued at about $13 million.

NATO and U.S. military officials have said raids on the supply line from Pakistan to Afghanistan have not significantly affected their operations. “This is nothing new,” said Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, a U.S. military spokeswoman in Afghanistan.

“Bandits and insurgents have long proclaimed that they will attack our supply lines, though nothing they have done has caused any real impact to the military operations here.”

EPA divided on new rules continued from page 7 by air pollution, which has intensified the debate over how best to regulate lead smelters, coal-fired power plants and other nearby pollution sources.

Don Shepherd, an environmental engineer at the National Park Service’s air resources division in Denver, noted that the agency determined in the 1980s that every one of its parks was “visually impaired,” and “nothing really has changed that.” Visitors to Shenandoah National Park’s Skyline Drive in the mid-1930s reported seeing the Washington Monument more than 70 miles away; now on some days visibility is barely one mile.

“The approach that’s being proposed is going to underestimate the emissions, both for power plants that are out there now and for the ones that are proposed,” Shepherd said.

“It’s going in the wrong direction for our efforts to try to improve air quality in the parks.”

While limiting pollution in national parks does not have the broad public health implications of federal air quality rules that govern soot or airborne lead pollution, it has both symbolic and ecological importance. The four major pollutants now affecting these areas — sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and mercury — contribute to degrading once-pristine habitats that Congress sought to preserve for generations when it decided to protect those areas.

Jeffrey Holmstead — who helped initiate the rule change while chief of EPA’s air and radiation office and now heads the environmental strategies

group at the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani — said it was unsurprising that regional officials would have a different position from headquarters.

“The headquarters perspective tends to be much broader,” Holmstead said, adding that President Bush has pursued air pollution reductions but has seen his proposals tied up in court. “Air quality in national parks, in particular, has very little to do with an individual source. What you really want to do is lower air pollution in that region.”

Regional EPA officials, he added, want “every weapon in their arsenal” to reduce pollution from a given source: “Regions are focused on a permit for a specific plant. Often what they focus on is anything that gives them leverage.”

But Mark Wenzler, who directs clean air programs for the National Parks Conservation Association, said regional administrators “weren’t just looking at parochial concerns” but instead conducting a broad analysis of the rule’s impact.

“The administration’s staunch commitment to coal is so deep that they’re willing to sacrifice our national parks on the way out the door,” he said.

If EPA does adopt the rule change, Wenzler added, his group plans to file a petition for reconsideration with the agency, which would allow the incoming Obama administration to reverse the policy. If enacted, the association estimates it would ease the way for the construction of at least two dozen coal-fired utilities within 186 miles of 10 national parks.

Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that the pardon issue is “a factor ... that will be on center stage.”

He said he will need to examine Holder’s background in greater depth, given the importance of the Justice Department. Another Republican Senate source said that Holder’s background is “not a deal breaker” and that the initial reaction to his possible nomination was “neutral.”

Michael Madigan, a Republican lawyer who has served in several high-profile positions on Capitol Hill but who supported Obama’s bid for the presidency, said that “the whole Marc Rich thing is a bad rap and it won’t go anywhere” if GOP senators press it at confirmation hearings.

Whoever receives the nomination is also likely to face tough questions from Democrats interested in rehashing Bush administration battles that Obama has demonstrated little appetite for pursuing.

Holder has yet to complete a rigorous vetting process by the Obama transition team. A formal announcement of the choice may not come for several days, sources said. Holder did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.

If nominated and confirmed, Holder would join several other members of the Clinton administration who have signed on to

the Obama team, including White House counsel Greg Craig, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

As attorney general, Holder would be in charge of a department that has overseen enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, two of the landmark pieces of legislation affecting blacks and other minorities.

“It’s fantastic that he will be a great attorney general,” said John Payton, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “It’s also significant that he will be the first African American attorney general. ... His mission is going to be to restore the soul of the Department of Justice.”

Earlier in his career, Holder flirted with the idea of running for political office, once mulling over a run for mayor of Washington D.C., only to face questions from community leaders as to whether he was “black enough,” according to news reports from the mid-1990s.

Holder has a traditional law enforcement background and has advocated an aggressive federal role in enforcing laws regarding health care, civil rights and the environment, as well as more resources to combat violent crime.

As a surrogate for the Obama campaign, Holder appeared at a meeting of police chiefs, promising more federal grant money for state

and local police.

But in the months leading up to the election, Holder resisted speculation that he would return to government service. Instead, he told reporters that his family would worry about his absence. Holder’s wife, Sharon Malone, is a prominent local obstetrician-gynecologist. The couple have three children.

As a prosecutor and judge for more than 25 years, Holder supported the death penalty and targeted public corruption. While he was the U.S. attorney in Washington D.C., his office won the conviction of ex-congressman Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill. Holder was the first African American U.S. attorney in Washington and he faced high expectations to value diversity in his promotion practices for the office, an issue that emerged after disaffected black candidates complained to a trade newspaper that they had been passed over for supervisory jobs.

In private practice, Holder helped broker a $650 million settlement between Merck and the government over the pharmaceutical company’s alleged failure to pay Medicaid rebates. He defended Chiquita Brands, which paid $25 million to resolve allegations that it made protection payments to rebel and terrorist groups in Colombia.

And he represented the National Football League in its review of dogfighting charges against quarterback Michael Vick.

Texts and taxes fair game for Obama vetting continued from page 7 Reagan’s transition, said of the questionnaire. “I don’t know how anybody with some self-esteem can subject themselves to all of these questionnaires. ... Ever y candidate who fills out the form is deathly afraid of making a mistake. If he or she does make an innocent mistake, that can be used as a political weapon in the confirmation process to question your integrity.”

Inquiries into candidates’ backgrounds grow deeper as each administration’s scandals add new thresholds. In the 1980s, a history of marijuana use killed some nominations. During the past decade, scandals about domestic workers clouded transitions. Clinton’s nominee for attorney general, Zoe Baird, withdrew from consideration when it became public that she and her husband had hired a Peruvian couple living in the countr y illegally as a babysitter and chauffeur. Eight years later, Bush’s nominee for secretary of labor, Linda Chavez, withdrew after she was found to have provided haven to an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.

Obama’s questionnaire has four questions about domestic workers.

“If you looked at the questionnaires that they used back in 1976 and 1980, they would be very tiny compared to this questionnaire,” said Michael S. Berman, a lawyer and lobbyist who worked on the Jimmy Car ter and Bill Clinton

transitions. “Over time, in each transition, whether Democratic or Republican, some new issue will arise, some question that hasn’t been asked before that causes consternation, so you simply add that in.”

Personal information obtained through the vetting process does not automatically disqualify a candidate from a political appointment, but the transition team uses the information to judge a person’s fitness for the office and likelihood of being confirmed.

The questionnaire does not directly ask about drug use — which Obama himself admitted to in his 1995 memoir — but it includes a question seeking any information that would be “a possible source of embarrassment.”

Some officials who vetted nominees for previous administrations said Obama’s standards are so onerous he risks turning away the best candidates.

“It takes major talent to do this work,” said a senior Pentagon official who has worked on transitions for four Republican presidents. “With two wars going on and several major acquisition programs, they need the best people they can find in the Untied States today, and you’ve got to be careful not to be so stringent that you eliminate those people. If you get too difficult, people will say, ‘No, thank you.’”

For vetters, there is a mantra: “Vetters never think that no one else will find something out,” the Obama adviser said. “We know

Thanks for reading.

that if we found it, someone else will find it.”

Tom C. Korologos, a D.C. lobbyist and former ambassador to Belgium, has vetted and prepared more than 300 nominees for confirmation hearings, beginning during President Nixon’s transition.

He begins each session by asking the candidate a simple question: “What is there in your background that you have done that’s going to come up in the hearing and embarrass the president and embarrass you? I’m not telling you to tell me what it is. What I’m telling you is to get the answer in your head, because it’s going to come up.”

When Korologos vetted Nelson Rockefeller before his selection as President Ford’s vice president, Rockefeller was reluctant to make his financial history public. “ ‘I’ve got something to worry about,’” Korologos recalled Rockefeller telling him.

“His concern was that when it became public, he wasn’t going to be as rich as everybody thought he was,” Korologos said. “He was going to be embarrassed among his peers that he didn’t have all the billions people thought.”

To prepare Donald H. Rumsfeld for his confirmation hearing to become defense secretary, Korologos held a “murder board.”

“I’d ask the rottenest questions in the world,” Korologos said. “My goal was to have him at the end say, ‘You (expletive), you were much harder on me than the committee was.’”

E ditorial & L etters Page 10

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Up the ante, not the A’s As students finished their coursework last semester, Brown passed a small landmark: More of the grades it granted were the highest the University offers than were not.

We reported yesterday that, for the first time in recent memory, more than 50 percent of the grades Brown students received were A’s. We do not want to jump to the conclusion that this percentage reflects grade inflation but want to instead reflect on the academic environment that exists when more A’s are awarded than not.

As James Dreier, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee and professor of philosophy, told The Herald, the rise in the number of A’s could reflect the higher selectivity rates of the University each year — students might just be better prepared by their high schools. It is true that Brown and its peer schools become increasingly selective each year. Applicants for the current freshman class set a record low admission rate for the University — just 13.3 percent were admitted, we reported in April.

But we need to match this increasing selectivity with an increasingly rigorous academic environment. If students come potentially better prepared for their college experience, classes should up the ante to fully harness students’ capabilities. If the rising number of A’s is due to students being better prepared for their college academics, then college academics should be better prepared for the caliber of students coming in — and present them with more challenging material.

We also hope that the rise in A’s does not come from students too tepid to stray from their strong subjects in fear that poor grades could damage their hopes for job prospects or graduate school admissions. One member of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education told The Herald that the New Curriculum and shopping period allow students to choose classes that they do not think will be overwhelmingly difficult. But we think the college experience is a time ordained for exploration.

Students will go on to careers and graduate schools in their specialized areas of strength, but our undergraduate years are the only time set specially aside to explore — and fail, or at least get B’s and C’s — where the consequences of not succeeding with flying colors are minimal. For students who excelled in high school and beat the odds to get into a selective school, these letters clearly are distasteful. But we hope a lower grade in a challenging subject will be read as an attempt to tackle something outside a student’s comfort zone and, therefore, admirable to a degree.

We do not believe that the University should lower the number of A’s offered through a quota. Rather, we want students and faculty to recognize the challenges that they are capable of taking on and set the bar accordingly high — even if it means fewer of us receive the highest grade.

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

Executive Editors Taylor Barnes Chris Gang

Senior Editors Irene Chen Lindsey Meyers

editorial Ben Hyman Hannah Levintova Matthew Varley Alex Roehrkasse Chaz Firestone Nandini Jayakrishna Scott Lowenstein Michael Bechek Isabel Gottlieb Franklin Kanin Michael Skocpol Ben Bernstein James Shapiro Benjy Asher Amy Ehrhart Megan McCahill Andrew Braca Han Cui Katie Wood

Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Editor Higher Ed Editor Higher Ed Editor Features Editor Metro Editor Metro Editor News Editor News Editor News Editor News Editor Opinions Editor Opinions Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor

production Production & Design Editor Steve DeLucia Chaz Kelsh Asst. Design Editor Kathryn Delaney Copy Desk Chief Seth Motel Copy Desk Chief Adam Robbins Graphics Editor Web Editor Greg Edmiston

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

Photo Editor Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

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

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

Anna Migliaccio, Jessie Calihan, Designers Janine Lopez, Jordan Mainzer, Tarah Knaresboro, Copy Editors Michael Bechek, Melissa Shube, Gaurie Tilak, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Mitra Anoushiravani, Colin Chazen, Chaz Kelsh, Emmy Liss, Brian Mastroianni, George Miller, Melissa Shube, Anne Simons, Sara Sunshine, Gaurie Tilak, Caroline Sedano, Jenna Stark, Joanna Wohlmuth, Simon van Zuylen-Wood Staff Writers Zunaira Choudhary, Leslie Primack, Sydney Ember, Connie Zheng, Christian Martell, Alexandra Ulmer, Lauren Pischel, Samuel Byker, Anne Deggelman, Nicole Dungca, Olivia Hoffman, Cameron Lee, Debbie Lehmann, Sophia Li, Hannah Moser, Seth Motel, Kyla Wilkes, Juliana Friend, Sarah Husk, Jyotsna Mullur, Chris Duffy, Nicole Friedman Sports Staff Writers Peter Cipparone, Nicole Stock, Jason Wade Business Staff Maximilian Barrows, Thanases Plestis, Agathe Roncey, Allen McGonagill, Ben Xiong, Bonnie Kim, Cathy Li, Christiana Stephenson, Corey Schwartz, Evan Sumortin, Galen Cho, Han Lee, Haydar Taygun, Jackie Goldman, Jilyn Chao, Kathy Bui, Kelly Wess, Kenneth So, Lee Chau, Lyndse Yess, Margaret Watson, Matthew Burrows, Maura Lynch, Misha Desai, Stassia Chyzhykova, Webber Xu, William Schweitzer Design Staff Marlee Bruning, Jessica Calihan, Rachel Isaacs, Jessica Kirschner, Joanna Lee, Julien Ouellet, Maxwell Rosero Photo Staff Alex DePaoli, Eunice Hong, Kim Perley, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Rafael Chaiken, Ellen Cushing, Younhun Kim, Frederic Lu, Lauren Fedor, Madeleine Rosenberg, Kelly Mallahan, Jennifer Kim, Tarah Knaresboro, Jordan Mainzer, Janine Lopez, Luis Solis, Ayelet Brinn, Rachel Starr, Riva Shah, Jason Yum, Simon Liebling, Rachel Isaacs, Geoffrey Kyi, Anna Jouravleva Web Developers Jihan Chao, Neal Poole

CARLY HUDELSON

Letters SDS made ‘sustained, broadly supported effort’ To the Editor: In your editorial Tuesday on the current disciplinary proceedings involving Brown SDS members (“Crossing the line,” Nov. 18), you characterize the Oct. 18 protest at the Corporation meeting as “just antics.” Nowhere do you acknowledge that the assertive tactics used by SDS on this occasion came after a long, sustained, broadly supported effort to persuade the Corporation to make their deliberations more open, transparent, and inclusive.

The notion that in its “confrontational tactics” SDS was “seeking arrests and disciplinary hearings” strikes me as completely mistaken. SDS confronted the Corporation as it did out of frustration over the absence of any serious response to student demands.

To the Editor: Two pieces appeared yesterday referring to the Oct. 18 SDS demonstration against the Brown Corporation (“Crossing the line;” “SDS protest injured officers, University says,” Nov. 18). The factual errors in the staff editorial suggest that the editors didn’t read the article written by their own reporter before writing their editorial. The editorial claims the eight students charged are directly responsible and should “take on a special culpability” for allegedly injuring DPS personnel while attempting to enter University Hall. However, nobody, DPS nor the University, has claimed that any individual is directly responsible; in fact, all testimonies note that 30-40 students rushed the open door of University Hall and attribute alleged injuries to the ensuing struggle. The editors call it “absurd” that the Corporation be held responsible for creating an environment in which individuals could be injured. The only absurdity is the fact that the Corporation would rather force University personnel and students into confrontation than

As for the alleged violations of University rules with which SDS students are being charged, shouldn’t the Corporation and the administration be held responsible for using armed campus police to force students away from one of their own University’s main buildings?

I strongly support the broader objectives of the SDS campaign, and I urge member of the Brown community not to let these objections get lost in the administration’s efforts to discipline students willing to pressure the Corporation to do the right thing. If it takes a ladder to get the attention of what you call “Brown’s highest governing body,” I’m all for it.

Professor of English William Keach Nov. 18 open its meetings to democratic accountability.

The editors claim that our tactics are ludicrous and over the top. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again — SDS does not enjoy arrest or disciplinary hearings; we are idealists, not masochists. We don’t employ “confrontational tactics” by choice, but rather realize that after eight months of being ignored and disrespected by the Corporation in our attempts to try the “official channels”, other tactics must be tried. It’s small wonder that the The Herald editorial staff continues to misrepresent our aims and actions when they habitually refuse to publish letters written by SDS members and supporters, preferring to leave space blank than allow us the opportunity to be heard.

Julian Park ’12 Naima Brown ’09 Chantal Tape ’09 Sophia Lambertsen ’11 Jeremy Stricsek ’09 Nov. 18

Correction An article in last week’s Herald (“Obama’s election has big implications for country, professors agree in panel,” Nov. 13) incorrectly attributed a quote to Marion Orr, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy. Orr did not say that the faculty is “on pins and needles” about a possible cabinet appointment for President Simmons.

Clarification An article in yesterday’s Herald (“Bad economy will delay many new buildings,” Nov. 18) reported the University has decided to delay construction on these buildings because of current economic conditions. The University has decided to move forward with construction on buildings when it receives all the pledged funding for the buildings from donors, which could happen at any time.

C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

C ommentary P O L I C Y The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

O pinions Wednesday, November 19, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Page 11

Baptize this ADAM CAMBIER Opinions Columnist The Mormon Church has been in a bit of trouble lately. First, they got a bad rap for siccing Mitt Romney on our poor, unsuspecting country. More recently, legions of supporters of gay marriage have been protesting outside Latter Day Saints churches across the nation after Mormon support for California’s Proposition 8 played a significant role in its passage.

There are even people trying to get the church stripped of its tax-exempt status because of its involvement in political issues.

But the Mormon Church isn’t just in hot water with the gays. Rather, it is in trouble with the other group that controls Hollywood: the Jews.

The trouble stems from the Mormon predilection for giving posthumous baptisms by proxy to victims of the Holocaust.

Mormon baptism by proxy? It sounds like something parents tell their unruly children to get them to go to bed. It’s not too much of a stretch to picture parents sitting at their child’s bedside warning, “If you don’t quiet down and go to sleep they’ll turn you into a Mormon when you’re not looking.”

Because the church is less than two centuries old, however, they have a little eschatological problem: Do people unlucky enough to have died before Joseph Smith established the church go to Hell just because of their unfortunate timing?

The solution lies in baptism by proxy. To ensure

that good believers will be reunited with their entire ancestral trees in Heaven, the church basically reserves the right to turn anyone of any religion into a Mormon, anytime, anywhere.

Forced baptism isn’t exclusively Mormon territory. In medieval Spain during the Reconquista, for instance, Christian officials would gather large crowds of Jews and Muslims in

being a Jewish is no longer a Jewish after all.

Consequently, the Holocaust group reached a deal with the Mormon Church in 1995 to restrict baptisms by proxy to only those victims directly related to current Mormons and to remove all other names of Holocaust victims from their baptism database.

Unfortunately, those in charge of the data-

To ensure that good believers will be reunited with their entire ancestral trees in Heaven, the Church basically reserves the right to turn anyone of any religion into a Mormon, anytime, anywhere. public squares before hosing them all down with gallons of holy water. Unlike the Mormon practice in question, however, this at least required the victims to be present (not to mention alive).

The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, though, thinks this is pretty offensive.

I guess that there’s something unforgivable about declaring that someone murdered for

base don’t appear to have much of a problem with giving false oaths. An independent monitoring group in Salt Lake City, Utah, has noted the recent re-addition of old names of victims plus new names of Jews killed in the Holocaust to the list of those to be baptized. The church said that the additions were the work of a rogue few acting outside official LDS policy, but that doesn’t negate the fact that Holocaust victims

were baptized as recently as July.

Jewish leaders have met with members of the Church recently to address the problem, but to no avail. While the Jewish leaders hoped that the baptisms could be undone, the Mormons must have taken a policy along the lines of no takesies backsies.

What, then, is there to be done? Someone needs to show Mormon leaders what it feels like to be forcibly inducted into a religion they don’t want to be a part of. If I know the Religious Right (and, coming from Kansas, I think I do), I can safely say that the one religion they are least interested in joining would be Islam.

In order for non-Muslims to become Muslims, they must recite the shahada in public.

The shahada is an oath affirming that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is his prophet. The fun part of this little exercise is finding ways to trick Mormons into taking said oath. The oath could be inserted into the lyrics during a Gladys Knight karaoke singalong, or we could tell Mitt Romney that it’s a magical incantation that guarantees him the presidency in 2012.

Ultimately, the mechanism isn’t important.

Although the Mormons probably mean well and just want to make sure that the streets of Heaven are too crowded with angels, they need to understand that there are some boundaries you just don’t cross. As Ernest Michel, honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, so eloquently put it, “They suffered enough.”

Adam Cambier ’09 would like to invite you to his un-baptism.

Tyranny and the UFB? SEAN QUIGLEY Opinions Columnist If we are to believe the president of the Undergraduate Council of Students, Brian Becker ’09, the UCS is essentially a government to which each Brown undergraduate is accountable simply by virtue of attending this University.

After the release of a poll finding that almost half of the student population has no opinion of UCS, Becker told The Herald, “You’re always going to have a problem with constituents not always knowing what their governments are doing” (“Half of students have no opinion on UCS,” Nov. 7).

Apparently, UCS is a government and not merely the student advocacy group that one would expect it to be. But Becker cannot be faulted for having such a view, as I am sure that most of the leaders of UCS find their work to be critically important to the proper functioning of the school.

However, as the poll should indicate, a massive plurality of undergraduates find our student “government” to be so trivial as not to have an opinion of it.

Notwithstanding the campus laughter over tabling amendments with non-“gender-neutral” language, undergraduates rarely cross paths with UCS unless a grievance against the University’s administration requires a conduit.

The Undergraduate Finance Board, however, is a totally different animal. As the financial wingman to UCS, with its own separate leaders, UFB has an immense impact on the social and extracurricular lives of most students.

UFB, after all, decides which groups shall get

what amount of money, beyond the baseline funding. UFB is the ultimate gatekeeper.

Anyone who has ever applied for regular funding via the spring budgeting process, or supplemental funding throughout the academic year, knows the deal: A body comprised of a chair, vice chair and then 10 additional representatives hears requests for funding and later decides if the request accords with their vision of the appropriate use of the Student Activities Fee. The fee is currently at $164 (incorrectly

students’ money.

Furthermore, paying the Student Activities Fee is compulsory.

To recap: Each undergraduate is forced to pay a fee that a team of experts later allocates at its sole discretion, in a manner sold to prospective students and even current ones as being part of a system of student self-governance.

What in God’s name is self-governing about a system that coerces monetary involvement by the population, and then disburses funds

To recap: Each undergraduate is forced to pay a fee that a team of experts later allocates at their sole discretion. listed on the UFB website as $146, which was the amount before last year’s increase), though UCS has recently passed a resolution requesting that the University Resources Committee raise the amount by $7.

This system is absurd. It requires a type of logical dance for most funding decisions.

For example, UFB has a policy where they will not fund food except in special circumstances. What these circumstances are and when they apply are relatively arbitrary. Moreover, the anti-liberty element inherent to a system where self-proclaimed “experts” on student groups decide how to allocate other

as its directors see fit?

Self-governance implies control of one man over himself and his property, not one man over another or a group over a population.

Even elected representatives, such as the ones who sit on UFB, should not have the power to violate that relationship.

A small elite weighs options for spending money and subsequently makes decisions on behalf of the entire population, all the while using money acquired from that population by a spirit of theft. Each student should be able to choose how to spend his $164 individually.

The leaders of UFB, I must stress, do not

use their own money, or merely the sum of money derived from the Student Activities Fee that each leader pays (collectively $1,804 or 11 x $164). They mostly use other students’ money, thus operating under two tacit assumptions: First, they assume they are in a better position, as central planners, to spend our money — an empirical assumption that has been refuted by a century of collectivist experiments.

Second, they assume they are wiser and are more capable of choosing which groups and events should be funded and to what extent — a moral assumption that flies in the face of actual self-governance. In a true system of self-governance, a student would be able to spend his own money.

However one evaluates UFB actions, the underlying, uncharitable assumptions about the capabilities and wisdom of each student are enough to make its existence morally unacceptable. I tried to get the UFB perspective but was met with refusal. Both Chair Lily Tran ’10 and Vice-Chair Stefan Smith ’09 denied me an interview.

Tyranny certainly manifests itself in much more calamitous ways, but the seeds of the tyranny intrinsic to rule by experts are sown in the small things of life. These small things create a culture in which this type of illiberalism becomes accepted.

I hope, therefore, to begin a conversation regarding how student groups on campus are and should be funded. Should each student, using his own money, decide which groups are worthy of funds, or should a team of experts make those decisions, using other people’s money?

Our choice comes down to that.

Sean Quigley ’10 is an expert.

S ports W ednesday Page 12

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Equestrian finishes fall with fourth place finish

By Megan McCahill Sports Editor

Herald File Photo

The wrestling team got off to a solid start in their first match of the season on Saturday, as Stephen DeLorenzo ’10 and Zach Zdrada ’09, right, led the way for the Bears with third and fourth place finishes, respectively.

Wrestling shows promise in first tourney

By Han Cui Assistant Sports Editor

The wrestling team started its season at the Brute Binghamton Open in New York last Saturday. The team sent 26 wrestlers to the tournament, which also featured Ivy League rivals Cornell, Columbia and Princeton.

Although no team score was kept, the Bears turned in solid performances.

Stephen DeLorenzo ’10 placed third in the 141-pound weight class and Zach Zdrada ’09 placed fourth in the heavyweight class, while five more wrestlers were one match away from placing.

“I thought the team did pretty well,” said Assistant Coach John Clark. “We were in a lot of matches. It showed that we are competitive.”

DeLorenzo had the Bears’ highest finish. After defeating Matt Dugan of Drexel by a 7-1 decision, he went on to win his next two matches, including a win by fall, to reach the semifinal round. In the semis, DeLorenzo faced the No. 2 nationallyranked wrestler in the weight class, Mike Grey from Cornell.

Despite facing such a formidable opponent, DeLorenzo did not show

Sp

o r t s

any signs of intimidation, and was tied with Grey, 4-4, at the end of regulation time. While Grey got the upper hand in overtime to win the match, 6-4, Clark said DeLorenzo was with Grey the whole way.

“I didn’t think about his ranking going into the match,” DeLorenzo said. “I wrestled hard and took it like any other match.”

In the third-place match, DeLorenzo defeated Anwar Goeres of Binghamton with a major decision, 12-3. Grey went on to take first place.

The other wrestler who placed for Brown, Zdrada, also went undefeated until he reached the semifinal round, where he lost to Bryant Dienhardt of Drexel, 8-1. Zdrada lost by a one-point margin in the third-place match to DJ Russo of Rutgers, 5-4, and was forced to settle for fourth place.

Clark was pleased with how Zdrada stepped up to fill the void left by last year’s tri-captain, Levon Mock ’08. But he also acknowledged that the team as a whole “lost a lot of overtime matches and had a lot of one-point losses.”

“If we make some adjustments, we can avenge those losses,” Clark

i n

B

said.

DeLorenzo also said winning close matches will be a focus for the Bears in practice this week.

“We wrestled a lot better (this weekend) than shown on paper,” DeLorenzo said. “We talked about winning close matches at practice today and we will work on improving our techniques.”

Five more Bears, two of whom were freshmen, were one match shy of placing. In the 174-pound weight class, Ziad Kharbush ’12 won five straight matches after dropping his opening match. In the 141-pound class, Grant Overcashier ’12 won three matches in the consolation bracket before he was stopped by Shane Strumwasser of Columbia.

“The freshmen adapted well in their first tournament,” Clark said.

Also contributing for the Bears were Lenny Marandino ’09, Bryan Tracy ’10 and Eli Harris ’09, who all advanced far in their respective weight classes.

The team will travel to the University of Pennsylvania this Sunday to compete in the Keystone Classic.

“I see a lot of positive attitude on the team,” Clark said. “We will be looking for even better results.”

The equestrian team took fourth place at Wesleyan over the weekend in its last show of the fall season. Despite the fourthplace finish, the Bears still hold a two-point lead over University of Rhode Island in the overall season standings, which gives Brown solid ground to start on when the season resumes in the spring.

Although the Bears had two first-place finishes in the Open Fences division to start the day, neither Elizabeth Giliberti ’10 nor Elise Fishelson ’11 was the point rider, and despite their blue ribbons the Bears picked up only one point from the division. Fortunately for the Bears, their next Herald File Photo first-place finisher, Dakota Gru- Equestrian was able to hold onto its ener ’11, was the point rider in first-place lead in season standings the Intermediate Fences division, despite a fourth-place finish Saturday. earning two points for Brown and pulling Bruno within two points of Unfortunately for the Bears, the URI for the lead. Leona Rosenblum team struggled in Beginner Walk ’09 concluded the jumping portion Trot Canter and Walk Trot, and of the show by adding a third-place the Bears finished the show tied finish in the Novice division. for fourth with a total of 26 points, Sitting four points behind the 15 behind winner URI. first place Rams, the Bears entered While the Rams got the best the flat portion of the show eager of the Bears in the show, it wasn’t to make up ground in what have enough to overcome the Bears’ been many of their strongest events 17-point lead in the season standthis season. In Open Flat, Giliberti ings entering the show, and Brown took second as the point rider, and finished the fall season in first place Fishelson and Cody Auer ’09 also in the season standings, two points pinned second and third in their ahead of URI. classes, respectively.

While the Bears didn’t have In Intermediate Flat, the Bears their best performance as a team again turned to Gruener as their at Wesleyan, the show proved to be point rider, and Gruener came up a strong showing for Giliberti and big with a third place finish, earn- Fishelson as individuals, as both ing another four points for Brown. were able to improve their positions Cara Rosenbaum ’12 added another in the Cacchione Cup standings, crucial five points for Bruno by plac- which sends the top rider from each ing second in Advanced Walk Trot region to Nationals.

Canter, and Colleen Brogan ’10, feaGiliberti’s two second-place fintures editor of post-, The Herald’s ishes increased her season total to weekly arts and culture magazine, 61 points, giving her an impressive had an impressive showing in the 12-point lead over Fishelson, who event as well, pinning first in her jumped into second place with a class. Katy Eng ’11 also had an im- season total of 49 points, overtaking pressive showing in Novice Flat, riders from JWU and URI, which earning a second place finish. both have 46 points.

r i e f

Women’s crew finishes fall season with sweep, setting school record The women’s crew team wasn’t tired after its trip to the White House last week, finishing its fall season in dominating style at the Foot of the Charles Regatta in Boston over the weekend. The team won all three events: the Varsity 4, Freshman 8 and 3 Varsity 8. They easily captured the overall team title.

In the first race of the day, the Bears earned four of the top 12 finishes in the varsity four race, including first and sixth from the two fours that were made up of rowers from the Bears’ varsity eight. The first four rowed across the finish line in 14:15, cruising to a 7-second victory over second-place Radcliffe. Perhaps even more impressively, Brown’s third and fourth boats finished only 40 seconds behind the first, a much smaller gap than any other team at the regatta, signalling the outstanding depth of the Bruno squad that has won back-to-back NCAA titles.

In the second event, Bruno’s freshmen continued the rout, placing first and sixth in the freshman eight contest. The first boat finished in 13:34, the fastest time of the day in any event, and a full 22 seconds ahead of Radcliffe, which once again finished second. The Bears’ second boat finished in 14:29, beating many team’s “A” boats, including UMass, Northeastern, and Boston College. In the final event of the day, Bruno’s 3V8 boat completed the Brown sweep in dominating fashion, crossing the finish line 25 seconds ahead of the runner-up with a time of 13:49. Only four other boats were within one of Bruno’s time.

The sweep also marked the best team score in Brown’s history at the Foot of the Charles, giving the team plenty of momentum heading into the spring season.

— Megan McCahill

Courtesy of Miriam Fuchs

The women’s crew team, pictured in the center boat above, set a new school record at the Foot of the Charles Regatta this past weekend.