Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 14 | Monday, February 9, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Minority prof. hiring accelerates
Vogel still mum on future plans
By Emmy Liss Features Editor
The University has seen an increase in minority and women faculty since the creation of the Office of Institutional Diversity in 2003, according to statistics released by the Office of the Dean of the Faculty. Though the faculty expansion outlined in the Plan for Academic Enrichment has been completed, minority hiring will continue to improve despite the economic downturn. “Over the last six years we have made remarkable progress in diversifying the faculty,” said Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P’07. “The growth in minority as well as female faculty has been considerably higher than the overall growth of the faculty.” Since 2003, the number of Asian faculty has increased by 36 percent, black faculty by 52 percent and Hispanic faculty by 40 percent. During the same period, the number of white faculty increased by only 13 percent. The number of women on the faculty has increased by 31 percent. Vohra said these numbers demonstrate the net effect of hiring and faculty departures. Although the percentage increases show minority faculty hiring has grown faster than general hiring, the total number of minority faculty still remains relatively small. For example, there were 21 black faculty in the 2002-2003 academic year, and 32 in 2008-2009. “In terms of the big picture, because for many of these categories the numbers are still small, it’s important to measure progress over a number of years rather than on an annual basis,” Vohra said. Brenda Allen, associate provost and director of institutional diversity, said she has noticed steady growth in general minority hiring, “really good success” with women and increases in diversity “all across the University.” Though she acknowledged change does not happen “fast and overnight,” looking at the numbers from the past six years, “we can see that we’ve really made some progress,” she said. The University’s strategy for actively diversifying the faculty is “two-fold,” Vohra said. Primarily, departments searching for faculty work with Allen to determine the best strategy for increasing the number of minority applicants. “The idea is, the more people you recruit to your pool, the more
inside
continued on page 4
News.....1-4 Arts........5-6 Spor ts...7-8 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12
www.browndailyherald.com
By Sydney Ember Senior Staff Writer
and Derek Bangle ’10, to a dramatic tango set to Shakira, danced by Visiting Professor of Applied Mathematics Vladimir Dobrushkin and Michelle Norworth ’10. Short videos were played before each routine, showing some of the training process in true “Dancing with the Stars” style. This year’s event featured a real Brown celebrity judge —
Pulitzer Prize-winner and Professor of Literary Arts Paula Vogel has remained noncommittal about her plans to return to Brown for the 2009-2010 academic year, echoing the stance she took when the University granted her a one-year leave of absence. Vogel, who announced last January that she would take a leave to chair the playwriting department at Yale, has left Brown’s program without its most esteemed lecturer and its corps of second-year graduate students, all of whom followed her to Yale. In an e-mail to The Herald, Vogel wrote, “I am currently the Eugene O’Neill (Adjunct) Professor of Playwriting at Yale School of Drama, and Chair of the Playwriting Program. And that’s really, all I can say. I don’t wish to speak about leaving Brown.” “She is on leave this academic year,” said Gale Nelson, assistant director of the literary arts program. “We have not heard back from her at this point about her plans.” But Vogel added in her
continued on page 4
continued on page 4
Frederic Lu / Herald Professor of Biology Robert Reenan and Reina Saki ’10 of the Brown Ballroom Dance Team dazzled Friday night en route to first place in the second annual “Dancing with the Profs” competition.
Professors show off their moves By Kelly Mallahan Staff Writer
The Brown Ballroom Dance Team’s second annual “Dancing with the Profs” on Friday night had it all — charismatic emcees, celebrity judges and, of course, a sea of sequins. From the moment Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Theresa DiDonato and Eric Ho ’11 took the floor with a hip-hop-infused cha-cha to the
crowning of Professor of Biology Robert Reenan and Reina Saiki ’10 as 2009 dance champions, the audience packed into Alumnae Hall never stopped cheering for — and occasionally laughing at — their professors’ dance moves. Six professors were paired with members of the Ballroom Dance Team to learn 90-second dance routines ranging from a high-spirited quickstep, danced by Chaplain Janet Cooper-Nelson
RISD’s Balls play tough, ‘stick together’ their fans’ applause and cheers were not diminished. “We have great fans who come As players practice their jump out to our games,” said Don Morshots on the court, the soundtrack ton, associate director of the Ofto “Space Jam” blares in the back- fice of Student Life at RISD. “It is ground. The coaches of the two not about winning — it is just all opposing teams walk over to one about pure support for the team.” another and shake hands. The two Morton said the small turnout for teams stop warming up that week’s game was and gather around their FEATURE atypical for a RISD Balls respective coaches. “Go game. Recently, he said, Balls!” shouts the team in maroon the Balls drew 400 fans when they uniforms. faced RISD’s main rival, the Pratt It’s time for the Rhode Island Institute. School of Design’s basketball team, The Balls (yes, it’s intentionthe Balls, to take the court. al) have been entertaining fans Quiet at first, a small crowd since 2000 with their moves on the of about 20 spectators who have court and their signature slogan: ventured into the Wheeler School “When the heat is on, the Balls gymnasium where the Balls are stick together.” RISD’s other taking on Sarah Lawrence soon athletic headliners, the ’Nads, becomes animated. play hockey at Meehan AuditoThough the Balls lost to the rium to fans cheering (of course) Gryphons (an alternate spelling continued on page 2 of the mythical “griffins”) 57-53, By Brian Mastroianni Senior Staf f Writer
Justin Coleman / Herald
The RISD Balls maintained strong team spirit and loyal fan support despite a loss to the Sarah Lawrence Gryphons Saturday.
Arts, 5
Sports, 7
Opinions, 11
Israel in film A College Hill film festival focused on Israeli society opened Saturday
Pretty in Pink Men’s tennis raised Breast Cancer awareness in a victory over Marist
r-e-s-p-e-c-t Tory Hartmann ’11 decries students’ lack of respect for facilities
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
herald@browndailyherald.com
Page 2
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS
Monday, February 9, 2009
“We play with as much passion as Duke, but without the full-ride scholarships.” — William Miller, RISD basketball coach
Justin Coleman / Herald
Coach Miller raises Balls’ visibility continued from page 1
Justin Coleman / Herald
A RISD basketball player shows off his ball-handling skills against Sarah Lawrence
sudoku
Daily Herald the Brown
Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 Stephen DeLucia, President Michael Bechek, Vice President
Jonathan Spector, Treasurer Alexander Hughes, Secretary
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to 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 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
“Go Nads!” “My nephew is on the team and it is great to go out and support him — but I’ve been a fan of the Balls for awhile now,” said team supporter Sherry O’Brien. “Usually being at a RISD game is unlike going to any other game.” For O’Brien’s nephew, freshman Cooper O’Brien, what adds to this unique atmosphere of a RISD Balls game is the make-up of the team itself. “People come from different parts of the school, which provides completely different points of view when it’s game time,” he said. “There are so many different levels of skill on the team, and I think that as a team we are all pieces of a larger whole — we are all complementing one another’s level of skill.” Sherr y said that the positive energy of the Balls’ fans and the RISD players makes for exciting, unpredictable games. “When there are big crowds, there is usually a lot
of really amusing yelling out, and it’s hilarious when the RISD band will come out and it will just be a kid with a ukulele and another with a wooden flute,” she added. For the team’s players, the opportunity to play for the Balls offers the chance to escape from a heavy workload. “Obviously this gives us a chance to stay in shape, but it’s definitely nice to have something to do other than work,” said team captain and RISD junior Coral Anderson. Anderson, who had participated in athletics throughout his childhood and high school years, was unsure of what it would be like to attend an arts school where athletic programs are not a major part of campus life, he said. “It was a big adjustment at first and completely different from high school, but it is like home in that we have great support from our fans,” Anderson said. “We don’t win all the time, but they all come out to support us. It’s a lot of fun.” Behind every united team is a
dedicated coach. Leading the Balls is William Miller, a RISD alum and technician in the school’s painting department. After the Balls’ previous coach left the team, students in the painting department asked Miller to take the position. For Miller, a former high school athlete now in his second season as the team’s coach, the opportunity to coach the Balls gave him the chance to enjoy two of his passions, sports and art. This balance of athletics and painting is evidenced by the arrangement of his 2 College Street office. The shelves are filled with stacks of paint buckets, brushes and other art supplies, but a sack full of basketballs sits nearby. Since taking on the coaching position, Miller has been trying to get as much publicity for the team as possible. This publicity includes a deal with Converse that resulted in the company providing the team with warm-up gear, uniforms, shoes, socks and gym bags. “The visibility of the program has gone up with the Converse deal — my objective was to garner as much attention as I could get for the team,” Miller said. Miller said that he would love for this visibility to include the Balls opening for a Brown game in the future, or for more Brown students to venture over to watch games at Wheeler. But more important than publicity is the need to encourage the sense of school spirit that the Balls seems to generate, Miller said. “I really like the joy that (basketball) brings to the students, the players, the fans and the staff at the school. It’s equal part recreation and entertainment value,” Miller said. What adds to this entertainment value is unique energy and creativity that the players bring to the game, Miller said. “We play with as much passion as Duke, but without the full-ride scholarships. RISD students are creative and creativity can find itself in almost every field in human endeavor,” Miller said.
Monday, February 9, 2009
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS
Simmons makes annual appearance at B.E.A.R. Day By Sydney Ember Senior Staff Writer
The smell of hors d’oeuvres wafted onto the Main Green as faculty and staff gathered Friday afternoon at a reception for Brown Employee Appreciation and Recognition Day, an event commemorating service, performance and excellence in the Brown community. The annual awards ceremony and celebration recognizes dedication to the University and acknowledges accomplishments that reflect a commitment to sustained achievement. Nearly 600 faculty, staff and their families and friends filled a festive Salomon 101 with laughter and congratulatory greetings before President Ruth Simmons thanked the honorees for their citizenship, innovation and effectiveness. Despite this year’s change in venue — the event was previously held in the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center — “our gratitude for the work you’ve done on a daily basis is unchanged,” Simmons said. “We appreciate everything you’ve done to make the University what it is today.” She said the service awards, which honor all faculty and staff who have worked at the University for five or more years, are a testament to the “supportive and cohesive nature” of the Brown community, adding that the honorees “reflect the letter and the spirit of Brown’s character.” Staff members celebrating their time at Brown — 119 current employees have 30 or more years of service, according to Simmons — were called to the stage to accept recognition for their service, before excellence awards were given to teams and individuals for their work in the community. Employees were honored in categories such as citizenship, diversity, efficiency, innovation, managing, “rising stars” and service, representing the breadth of accomplishment that Simmons said benefits the community. “Every service,” Simmons said, “helps to build a better environment for teaching, learning and research on College Hill.” At the reception in Sayles Hall following the ceremony, community
Excellence Awards Citizenship • Ladd Observatory Team, Physics and Dean of the College • Psychiatry and Human Behavior Team Efficiency • Jennifer Slattery-Bownds Efficiency • Raymond Bubier, David Coite, Kathryn Salisbury, Kenneth Talbot Innovation • Sean Ferns, John Huffman, Kathleen Shannon, Kenneth Silva • CORE Team, Division of Biology & Medicine Managing for Excellence • Mary Lepry, Paul Magliocco Rising Star • Suzanne Brough, Marc Doughty Service • Louis Amadio, Mary Beth Bryson, Richard Reed, Katherine Schott
members mingled while munching on hamburgers and reflecting on their Brown experiences. “I’m very happy that I made 20 years,” said Eugene DeJesus, a campus police officer celebrating his milestone anniversary. “I never thought I’d be in the same job for 20 years.” “It’s pretty exciting,” said Shannon Silva, a program coordinator in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology who has been at Brown for 19 years. “It’s just a huge honor.” Simmons said in an interview afterward that Brown could not “carry on its work of learning and teaching and doing research” without these employees, adding that it is important to honor faculty and staff not only because “we are grateful to them for what they do,” but also because “it’s fun.” “I’m still kind of in a state of disbelief,” said Kit Salisbury, humanities center manager in the Cogut Center for Humanities, who received an Excellence Award for Efficiency for her work on last year’s annual report. “I was just doing my job.”
Page 3
“I never thought I’d be working in the same job for 20 years.” — Eugene DeJesus, campus police officer
Students gather on campus for Ivy Summit By Ellen Cushing Senior Staff Writer
Approximately 450 Ivy League students gathered on campus over the weekend for the ninth annual Ivy Leadership Summit, a two-day conference featuring speakers and workshops centered on the theme of “Leading in a Globalizing Community.” The conference was organized by the Ivy Council, a nonprofit organization composed of student leaders from the eight Ivy League schools, all of which sent delegates. According to the conference’s organizers, the Ivy Leadership Summit aims to bring together students from across the Ivy League to discuss current issues. “It’s an opportunity for students to come together and collaborate,” said Stacey Park ’11, one of the event’s co-chairs. The conference was organized by Park, co-chair Paris Hays ’10 and a team of about a dozen Brown students, and featured three keynote addresses given by US Ambassador Charles Manatt and Irish Ambassador Michael Collins, as well as President Ruth Simmons. In her speech Saturday, Simmons discussed the conference’s theme and the importance of diversity, exploration and nuance in solving the world’s problems. “Tomorrow’s reality, whether we like it or not, is global. The topic ‘leadership in the global community’ could not be more timely,” she said. Simmons also thanked the event’s organizers and praised the summit’s goals. “The Ivy Leadership Summit is an inspired idea, as it allows us a chance to consider debate and learn from the most challenging issues of this time,” she said. Activities began Friday evening with opening ceremonies featuring a number of Brown’s performance groups, a welcome reception and a keynote address by Manatt. Many students were impressed by the performances, including those by Mezcla, Out of Bounds, Fusion Dance Company and the Jabberwocks. “The student groups were phenomenal,” said Yale sophomore Abigail Cheung. After Simmons’ speech Saturday morning, students attended workshops covering topics such as business etiquette, civic engagement, global
leadership and energy independence. The day ended with a final keynote address from Collins, as well as a banquet and an after-party in Leung Gallery. The conference was sponsored primarily by various Brown offices, including the Office of the President and the Dean of the College, with funds also coming from the Cornell University Johnson School, Michael Hanson, USA Today and student and school fees. Jose Vasconez, ’10, the Ivy Council’s Finance Chair, said the University provided financial and logistical support to the summit. “The administration sponsored us, and everyone I approached at Brown was more than willing to help,” he said. According to Park and Vasconez, planning began in April, when a Brown steering committee submitted a proposal and a budget to the Ivy Council. According to Vasconez, the steering committee then raised approximately $24,000 through sponsorships. They later worked to recruit speakers and coordinate event spaces. Student delegates, who underwent an application process and were selected to attend by their respective schools, paid a $21 fee for attending
the event, in addition to transportation, and were housed by Brown students. Student delegates said they were attracted by the conference’s focus on global and environmental issues. “I was partly drawn by all the sustainability speakers,” said Brian Levin, a Yale sophomore. “I think that global warming is the challenge of our generation, and it’s incumbent upon us to work to solve it.” Alexa Chu, another Yale sophomore, said, “I was drawn by the international aspect. There are a lot of ambassadors speaking.” Others said that they were interested in collaborating with other Ivy League students. “One reason for the summit is to foster relationships between the Ivy League, which I think is important. We always think of these rivalries between the Ivy Leagues, but we really need to work together to solve problems,” said Columbia University first-year Amber Tunnell. Vasconez and Park both said they were pleased with the way the conference went. “We worked really hard to plan everything, and it’s all going exactly to plan,” said Vasconez.
Page 4
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS Vohra: Diversity is key continued from page 1
diverse and rich that pool will be,” Allen said. Strategies include outreach — both on the department’s and on Allen’s behalf — as well as attendance at conferences where high-quality applicants might be found. In addition to depar tmental searches, the University’s “Target of Opportunity” program has had a “significant impact on our ability to diversify the faculty,” Vohra said. The program allows a department to pursue an unusual hiring opportunity, even if it doesn’t have an immediate vacancy. The Plan for Academic Enrichment called for 100 new faculty hires and allocated 25 of them specifically to the Target of
Opportunity program. As of this year, nearly all of the 100 positions outlined in the Plan for Academic Enrichment have been filled, Vohra said. But despite the end of the major expansion and the current financial situation, the University still expects to hire about 30 faculty members each year, and opportunities remain to further diversify the faculty. Though the overall number of hires will be smaller, the percentage of spots that go to minority applicants will continue to increase. “Diversity will continue to be a goal integral to any growth we have,” Allen said. “As we manage the economic situation, our priority is protecting the quality of the academic program.”
Monday, February 9, 2009
“Definitely the booty drop. Dip it low, take it up slow.” — Professor of Biology Robert Reenan on his favorite dance move
Number of Regular Faculty by Gender and Race/Ethnicity
600
563 499
500
Women Men ## = Total
400
300
200
100
53
72 21
0
02-03
08-09
Asian
02-03
President Ruth Simmons herself. As a judge, Simmons was “looking to have fun myself” and wanted to see couples that danced with “attitude,” she said. The other two judges were former collegiate chairwoman of the Rhode Island chapter of USA Dance Laura Colaninno and Ballroom Team Coach Russell Monk — who was described by Bangle as the competition’s token “cantankerous British judge.” The friendly banter between Monk and Bangle was an entertaining theme of the evening: When the mustachioed Bangle asked Monk what he was looking for on the dance floor, Monk replied, “A cleanshaven face.” This year’s event also featured a special performance by dancers from the Dance Alliance of Rhode
Island, a nonprofit organization that promotes dance education in the community. Last year’s “Dancing with the Profs” debut raised $2,000, which the team donated to the Brown Annual Fund, according to Chihiro Ikegami ’10, who helped to organize the event and also served as co-emcee. This year, the team will donate half of its proceeds to the Dance Alliance of Rhode Island. The other half will be used to support the 40 to 50 active Ballroom Team members in their travels and competitions. At the end of the evening — after the cha-cha by DiDonato and Ho, the sultry first-place samba by Reenan and Saiki, the quickstep by CooperNelson and Bangle, the tango by Dobruskin and Norworth, a jive by Visiting Lecturer in French Studies Stephanie Ravillon and Michael Kim ’10 and a mambo by Assistant
08-09
Black
15
21
02-03
08-09
1
1
02-03
08-09
Hispanic
Source: Dean of the Faculty
Profs tango with Ballroom Team continued from page 1
32
Professor of Economics Geoffroy DeClippel and Deeksha Gupta ’10 — the audience was asked to vote for their favorite performance. As the audience cast their votes — extra votes were on sale for a dollar apiece — Simmons said that, though she couldn’t name her favorite pair for the sake of impartiality, “the fact that the faculty are fundamentally out of their element” and are “willing to allow themselves to be judged on something so unlike what they’re used to — that’s what I find so exciting.” Like Simmons, the champions wouldn’t name their favorite performance, though they did agree on their favorite dance move. “Definitely the booty drop,” Reenan said. “Dip it low, take it up slow.” “We worked on it quite a bit,” Saiki added. “It was the climactic moment.”
Native American
02-03
08-09
White
Prof. Vogel’s return to Brown uncertain continued from page 1 e-mail that she was “happy to report” that she is continuing her work on “A Civil War Christmas” at Yale’s Long Wharf Theatre. She is also working on a new play in conjunction with Yale Repertory Theatre, where she is playwrightin-residence, and Long Wharf Theatre, where she is the artistic associate, for the 2010 season. Ken Prestininzi, lecturer and associate chair of playwriting at Yale, declined to comment on whether he thought Vogel intended to return to Brown next year. Vogel’s departure has left a hole in the University’s literary arts graduate program. The program usually has six graduate students
— three first-year students and three second-year students — but all three of Vogel’s second-years decided to attend the Yale School of Drama when Vogel announced she was leaving Brown. Without a second-year class, the department has had to hire a number of visiting artists to serve in oneyear positions in order to replace Vogel and her graduate lecturers, Nelson said. He said the department also accepted four first-year continuing students in playwriting this year to fill the void. Next year, though, the department plans to return to accepting three students. Before taking her leave of absence, Vogel, who won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “How I Learned to Drive,” spent 24 years in the University’s Department of Literary Arts. In her absence, the department has temporarily replaced her with Gregor y Moss, Samuel Marks and Dan LeFranc, all visiting lecturers in literary arts. But it is unclear how the department will be affected if Vogel’s absence becomes permanent. Nelson, who said he took a course from Vogel as a graduate student at Brown, acknowledged that the department is under strain in Vogel’s absence. “I think I can say from my own personal experience that she is an exceptional teacher,” he said. “How her leaving will affect the program will certainly depend on who comes in to teach these programs.”
Get Herald Mail Sign up online!
Arts & Culture The Brown Daily Herald
DRUMMING IN THE NEW YEAR
Monday, February 9, 2009 | Page 5
Mixed-media exhibit uses runaway slave ads By Luisa Robledo Staf f Writer
Frederic Lu / Herald
Students took part in a celebration of the Chinese lunar New Year Friday evening in Andrews Hall.
Israeli Film Festival opens on College Hill By Andrea Savdie Arts & Culture Staff Writer
The first annual Israel Film Festival of College Hill kicked off on Saturday with a screening of Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz’s “The Seven Days.” The festival, which runs through next Thursday, is composed of films that focus on salient issues in Israeli society. They cover a range of topics including migra-
read fold read recycle
tion and sexuality, religion and the kibbutz experiment, and several attempts to reconcile centuries-old traditions with the progressive ideals of contemporary Israel. The apparent absence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may seem like a giant elephant in the room. But the aim of the festival is to portray aspects of Israeli society that are disconnected from the political lens through which Israel
is usually discussed, said Danya Chudacoff ’11. She organized the event and selected the films in collaboration with Brown/RISD Hillel Israel Fellow Yossi Knafo. “We are not ignoring Israel’s political issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” she said. “The festival was specifically organized to be a look into Israeli culture, society continued on page 6
Cora Marshall revisits a difficult point in American history in “Emancipated Memories: Uncovering the Hidden Faces of Slaver y.” The show, which opened Thursday at the John Nicholas Brown Center, showcases Marshall’s deft use of mixed media to recreate newspaper ads used by slaveowners to sell slaves or to offer rewards for runaways. Marshall first discovered these ads at the Librar y of Congress while doing research for a different art project. “These newspaper advertisements were ver y rich in description: color of hair, type of complexion, clothes,” Marshall said. “You know, it was a skirt with blue polka dots and a red stripe.” For Marshall’s ar tistic eye such detailed verbal description “conjured up images.” Inspired to transform these into art, Marshall, who had long used exclusively oil paints, began to experiment with acr ylic paints and mixed media. She wanted to reveal the characters and emotions absent in the bare wording of the ads. Slaves were described as soulless commodities, but Marshall sought to animate these ads, incorporating them into visual depictions in order to reveal the slaves as “ordinar y people.” The ads used by Marshall were primarily drawn from New England newspapers. According to Marshall, many slaves in New England, unlike most slaves in the South, could read and write but still had
to “blend in, not stand out.” “I want to give them an identity,” Marshall said. The exhibit features two series of Marshall’s paintings: “Going, going, gone” and “To be sold.” The former is based on the descriptive runaway ads, while the second one is based on newspaper ads that simply said “to be sold” and lacked any visual description at all. The empty “to be sold” ads are an object of curiosity for Marshall. “Who are they? Where did they go? Were they being separated from their families?” she writes on her Web site. “I think it’s really beautiful,” said Ife Salam, a graduate student from the Rhode Island School of Design who viewed the exhibit on Friday. “She kind of flips traditional roles and makes the slaves that are depicted really personal and makes the slave holders abstract.” Marshall uses layering as her primary method, fusing snippets of the ads with acrylic paint and later covering her images with a layer of wax. With this technique, Marshall is able to direct the viewer’s attention through various parts of the painting. “Certain aspects of the figure come out and become all the more real to you,” Salam said. The layer of wax Marshall applies seems to act as a veil over the faces of the slaves. She also uses bright colors that allude to the African ancestr y of the slaves. Although the background of each work inter weaves these different elements, Marshall paints each continued on page 6
Page 6
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
A rts & C ulture Exhibit shows slave ads in a new light continued from page 5
slave’s face as one cohesive whole. “No matter where you go in the room, their eyes will follow you,” she said. In addition to her exhibit, Marshall gave a lecture on black female artists last Thursday. She mentioned artists such as Betye Saar and Faith Ringgold and
spoke of the ways that each of them had honored black histor y in her works. Through her art, Marshall seeks to find a connection to her past as well. “I am par t of ever yone before me,” Marshall said. “I am the summation of all my ancestors.” The exhibit will be run through April 5 and is free and open to the public.
Monday, February 9, 2009
“I am part of everyone before me.” — Cora Marshall, artist
Festival films shy away from politics continued from page 5
and art outside the context in which it is found so often abroad.” Chudacoff began organizing the festival in September, although the heaviest part of the planning took place over winter break, when she was in Israel. “It was a very hard time,” she said, referring to the war in Gaza. She considered postponing the festival, but decided not to. “Something like a film festival which celebrates culture doesn’t have to fluctuate with political climate.” “Israel is more than just the (Israel Defense Force),” she said. “The country is not based on war and violence and definitely not based on politics.” Israel may not be all about conflict, but “The Seven Days” is brimming with bitterness and secrets from the start. The film centers on a Moroccan family’s tragic, agonizing and at times comic attempt to live under the same roof for seven days of shiva — the period of mourning for the death of a relative. The shiva house featured in the film at times threatens to erupt into a walled-in family battlefield. One can feel the tensions simmering beneath the surface long before it becomes clear how the characters are related and exactly who died. While overwhelming at first, the way viewers are thrown into the chaos from the start allows them to experience the realistic intensity of an unexpected, involuntary and emotionally charged family reunion. As one audience member said during a discussion following the film, there is a lot of talking going on, but very little communicating. Perhaps that explains why the
most powerful stor y line of the film, that of Vivianne — played by director Ronit Elkabetz — and her sister Simona, is also the quietest. As the characters’ efforts to act civil towards one another out of respect for the deceased begin to fail, family members’ claims to be observing the somber tradition of shiva border on ridiculous. Squabbles over bankruptcy, business and male responsibility tear the brothers apart, while the women deal with issues of marriage, adultery and widowhood. Some audience members found the film powerful, but others argued that it tended to stereotype and exaggerate. “The Seven Days” will play again on Wednesday. The screening will follow a showing of the film’s 2006 prequel “To Take a Wife,” which tells the story behind Vivianne and Eliyahu’s strained marriage and depicts the tension between their old Moroccan traditions and their life in modern Israel. Any subtlety that may have been lacking from “The Seven Days” can be easily found in Eran Kolirin’s “The Band’s Visit,” which played Saturday at the Brown/RISD Hillel and will be screened again. Elkabetz acts in this film too, stealing the show in a bittersweet comedy about an Egyptian band that gets stranded in a desolate Israeli desert town. The band members end up at a small restaurant owned by Dina –– Elkabetz’s character –– a confident Israeli woman who offers them hospitality for the night. Avoiding the recycled and excessively politicized Middle East culture clash, Kolirin instead opts for a funny, curious and occassionally awkward depiction of cultural differences. The atmosphere of isolation extends beyond the film’s desert setting. The tremendous yet effectively
understated sense of loneliness and relative insignificance that the characters seem to share transcends cultural differences, particularly in the interactions between Dina and the band’s leader, Tewfiq, played by Sasson Gabai. “If you’re only going to see one of the films in the festival,” Chudacof f said, it should be “The Band’s Visit.” The festival will include a screening of Ari Folman’s 2008 animated documentary “Waltz With Bashir,” followed by a Q&A with the film’s art director and illustrator David Polonsky, who is at Brown this semester as the Creative Art Council’s artist-in-residence. In the Golden Globe-winning and Oscar-nominated film, Folman delves into his past experiences as a soldier in the first Lebanon War, trying to decipher a recurring nightmare in which he is being chased by 26 vicious dogs. “Most people really want to see ‘Waltz With Bashir,’” Chudacoff said. She worries, however, that it may divert attention from the rest of the films, she said. “I’m personally most excited to see ‘Homeland,’” Chudacoff said. Homeland takes place during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence and explores the contrast between the Diaspora Jew and the new Zionist Jew, according to the film festival brochure. Chudacoff praised the film’s cinematography, referring to the shots as “breathtaking.” The theme of global immigration seems to recur in the festival’s lineup. “Paper Dolls,” directed by Tomer Heymann, explores the world of a group of transsexual Phillippine immigrants and “Noodle,” a film by Ayelet Menahemi, tells the story of the bond between an Israeli flight attendant and an abandoned Chinese boy.
SportsWeekend The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, February 9, 2009 | Page 7
Sporting pink, men’s M. hoops still winless in Ivy tennis wins for cause By Benjy Asher Sports Editor
By Erin Frauenhofer Spor ts Staf f Writer
With a 6-1 victory over Marist College on Friday, the men’s tennis team also made strides against breast cancer. The match represented a special opportunity for Kendrick Au ’11, a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which hosted Brown’s Second Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Week. “My mom passed away from breast cancer when I was really young, so breast cancer awareness is a personal stronghold to me,” Au said. “I wanted the team to get involved not just for the personal meaning it had for me, but I wanted the guys to know we’re so fortunate to be here and there’s more to life than wins and losses.” The Bears wore pink wristbands and used pink grips on their racquets to show their support for the cause. The Bears also sold raffle tickets to fans during the match, with the proceeds going to the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation. “It’s one of the coolest things we’ve done since I’ve been here at Brown,” said Head Coach Jay Harris. “It was a great thing for us to be involved in.” During the victory, the Bears also received their rings for winning the 2006 Ivy League Championship. “It motivated the younger guys to see the older guys getting our rings,” Lee said. “It was a complete
surprise to all of us. It was really cool.” The Bears started strong, nabbing the doubles point by winning all three doubles match-ups. At first doubles, captains Sam Garland ’09 and Noah Gardner ’09 overpowered Christian Coley and Rhys Hobbs, 8-4. Captain Chris Lee ’09 and Jonathan Pearlman ’11 defeated Loic Sessagesimi and Matt Himmelsbach, 8-6, at second doubles, and Au and Skate Gorham ’10 had an 8-5 victor y over Landon Greene and Nicolas Pisecky at third doubles. In singles play, Pearlman breezed by Coley at first singles by a score of 6-2, 6-3. Meanwhile, his teammates at second, third and fourth singles found themselves in three-set matches, all of which they ultimately won. Lee outlasted Sessagesimi at second singles by a score of 6-2, 6-7, 6-4. “I thought I played pretty well throughout the match,” Lee said. “I haven’t played a lot,” he said, since pulling a quad muscle in September, “so I’m proud of myself.” At third singles, Gorham swapped tiebreakers with Pisecky before trouncing him in the third set for a final score of 7-6, 6-7, 6-2. Meanwhile, at fourth singles, Garland battled back from neardefeat for a 2-6, 7-6, 6-2 victor y over Marcus von Nordheim. Lee said he was impressed that continued on page 8
The men’s basketball team (6-14, 0-6 Ivy League) struggled over the weekend, pushing its losing streak to six games. After falling to Dartmouth (6-14, 4-2 Ivy) in a 63-61 overtime loss on Friday night, the Bears suffered a 64-63 loss on a last-second free throw by Harvard’s ( 10-10, 2-4 Ivy)Jeremy Lin. With the two losses, Brown remains winless in league play under first-year Head Coach Jesse Agel. Dartmouth 63, Brown 61 (OT) At Dartmouth, the first half saw five lead changes and neither team was able to build a lead of more than five points. After Brown took a 19-18 lead, the Big Green went on a 6-0 run to grab a 24-19 lead with 6:36 remaining in the first half. But tricaptain Scott Friske ’09 scored seven consecutive points to give Bruno a 26-24 lead, and Brown closed out the first half clinging to a 28-27 lead. Friske, who had nine first-half points, finished with a team-high 19 points and 13 rebounds against Dartmouth. Tri-captain Peter Sullivan ’11 led the way for Brown with 12 points in the first half, including two three-pointers, and he finished the game with 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting. “I went and worked with the coaches a lot this week to get my confidence in my shot back,” Sullivan said. “I started shooting better in practice, and that carried over into the game.” Dartmouth started off the second half with a jumper to go up 29-28, and the Big Green held the lead until Sullivan knocked down a jumper off the assist from Friske to give the
M. icers continue losing slide By Dan Alexander Sports Staff Writer
Men’s hockey was locked in a tight contest with No. 19 Darmouth Friday night early in the third period when the Big Green’s Evan Stephens slipped a shot past Bears goalie Dan Rosen ’10 to give his team the lead. Rosen laid his head on the ice in exasperation as Stephens celebrated. The moment was a turning point for the Bears, who would lose the game and fail to score a goal the rest of the weekend. Dartmouth (12-8-3, 9-5-2 ECAC Hockey) added two more goals before the final buzzer to make the score 5-2, and Merrimack blanked the Bears, 2-0, the next night in North Andover, Mass. Brown (2-17-4, 2-11-3 ECAC) entered the weekend on a threegame losing streak, having dropped back-to-back-to-back 5-1 games at the hands of Cornell, Quinnipiac and Princeton. Dartmouth 5, Brown 2 Dartmouth Coach Bob Gaudet, continued on page 8
Justin Coleman/ Herald
Men’s hockey loses close game against Dartmouth.
Justin Coleman / Herald File Photo
Men’s basketball is having a hard time getting a win in the Ivy League this season.
Bears a 34-33 lead with 14:49 left. Following Sullivan’s go-ahead jumper, Dartmouth answered right back with an 8-0 run, which included a pair of three-pointers from the Big Green’s Alex Barnett. Barnett, who entered the game as the Ivy League’s leading scorer at 19.2 points per game, was virtually unstoppable in the second half, pour-
ing in 20 of his game-high 28 points. He went 11-of-21 from the field on the night, and knocked down five treys, including four in the second half. Brown finally got the lead back with 3:36 left in regulation when Matt Mullery ’10 sank two free throws to make the score 52-50, but 40 seccontinued on page 8
Page 8
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
S ports W eekend
M. tennis preps for ECACs continued from page 7
Garland was able to come back from behind. At 6-2, 5-4, he had been two points away from losing the match. According to Harris, once Garland was able to break his opponent’s serve in that game, he played perfectly for the rest of the match. “The maturity he showed was something I was really proud of,” Harris said. At fifth singles, Au defeated Greene by a score of 6-3, 6-3, a result Au said “doesn’t reflect how tough the match was.” Au’s win secured the team’s fourth point, putting the victory beyond doubt. “It was fitting Kendrick was the one to clinch the match,” Harris said. “It was a very efficient match.” Charlie Posner ’11 dropped a 6-3, 7-5 match to Himmelsbach at sixth singles to bring the final team score to 6-1. The Bears compared the difficulties they faced against the Red Foxes — with so many match-ups going to three sets — to their loss to Boston College three weeks ago, and said that they were proud they were able to prevail this time. “It was similar to the BC match because we had to deal with a lot of challenges,” Au said. “In the case of the BC match, we didn’t respond that well. But we’ve gotten tougher, and we were able to tough out these matches.” “Marist is a little better than BC and a little tougher,” Harris agreed. “Marist didn’t go away (after the doubles point), and we didn’t expect them to. We had to really work hard and fight hard to put them away.” The Bears are now preparing for the ECAC Championships, which will be hosted by Harvard. Brown will face Yale in the first round on Saturday. “This is the first-ever ECAC tournament held in February,” Harris said. “It’s going to be a ver y intense tournament this time of year. The guys are really excited about it.” According to Au, the Bears’ victory over Marist bodes well for the future. “We’ve come a long way, and I hope this win and what it represented will fuel the fire,” Au said.
Monday, February 9, 2009
“A lot of that was pure luck, to be perfectly honest.” — M. hockey’s Matt Vokes ’09, on scoring the Bears’ first goal
M. hoops loses two nail-biters, falls to 0-6 in Ivy continued from page 7
onds later Barnett tied it up with a jumper. On the next two possessions, tri-captain Chris Skrelja ’09 sank a pair of free throws and Sullivan hit one of two. The free throws gave Brown a three-point lead, but with 57 seconds left, Barnett connected from behind the arc to send the game into overtime. Down 62-61 with 11 seconds left in overtime, the Bears had a chance to win, but Dartmouth’s Robby Pride came up with a big steal to end the possession. Pride got fouled and made one of two from the line, leaving Brown down two with just two seconds left. Friske’s full-court pass looking for a last-second miracle was picked off, and Dartmouth escaped with the win. Harvard 64, Brown 63 The following night, the Bears controlled the game throughout the first half, as Sullivan scored 15 of his 20 points to lead Bruno to a 32-20 halftime lead over Harvard. But in the second half, the Crimson turned things around behind a scoring outburst from Jeremy Lin, who leads Harvard with 19.0 points per game this season. Lin made national headlines earlier this season when he scored 27 points in an upset win over Boston College on Jan. 7. After being held to just five points
in the first half, Lin erupted for 22 points after intermission, including three treys. “Our defense was still good in the second half, but they started making real tough shots,” Sullivan said. “I think we also started to feel some fatigue after a long, hard game against Dartmouth, and another hard game at Harvard.” As good as Lin was, Mullery was equally impressive for Brown. After sitting out much of the first half because of foul trouble, Mullery scored 21 of his team-high 27 points in the second half to keep the Bears in the game. Following a disappointing effort against Dartmouth, in which he went 3-of-14 from the floor, Mullery, who leads the team with 16.1 points per game this season, dominated the paint on Saturday, knocking down 13-of-16 field goal attempts. Mullery’s 27 points were a career high. “I sat out a lot of the first half, so I got back in fresh in the second half, ready to go hard for 20 minutes,” Mullery said. “I was fortunate to have a good shooting night, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.” A layup by Mullery gave Bruno a 54-46 lead with just over seven minutes remaining, but the Crimson fought back to cut Brown’s lead to two points. With 2:57 left, Lin drained a three to put Harvard up 57-56, its first lead of the game. Mullery hit a layup to regain the
Justin Coleman / Herald Tri-captain Peter Sullivan ’11 had a banner scoring weekend, sinking 38 shots.
lead 19 seconds later, and Adrian Williams ’11 expanded the lead to four with a three-pointer with 2:12 remaining. The Crimson came back to tie the game at 61, then Mullery made another layup with 55 seconds left. With 40 seconds left, Lin hit two free throws to tie it up. After a missed shot attempt on Brown’s possession, Lin was fouled on his last-second shot attempt, and he drained a free throw with no time left on the clock to give Harvard the 64-63 victory.
Coming off a five-game road stretch, Brown will look to get its season back on track when the Bears return to the Pizzitola Center this weekend to take on Penn on Friday and Princeton on Saturday. “We’ve got to be persistent,” Mullery said. “It would be easy for us to go in the tank right now, but we’re a team that has a lot of character. We’re right there, and we can win games — it’s just a matter of staying positive and working hard in practice.”
Tie game slips away in 3rd period for m. hockey continued from page 7 the predecessor of current Bears Head Coach Roger Grillo, returned to the Meehan Auditorium with a Dartmouth team that was undefeated in its last five games and that defeated the Bears, 5-1 in Hanover on Jan. 10. “We came out flat when we were on the road” earlier in the season, said Assistant Captain Matt Vokes ’09 after the game. “Tonight we came out well.” Vokes scored the game’s first goal just under eight minutes after the puck dropped. Mike Wolff ’12 passed up to Vokes, who took the puck down the right side. Vokes switched sides to avoid a defender, but the puck got tangled up in the defender’s skates. Vokes got control of the puck at the bottom of the left face-off circle and threw it on net, giving the Bears a 1-0 lead. “A lot of that was pure luck, to be perfectly honest,” Vokes said. The Big Green evened the score on a power-play less than four minutes later. Doug Jones came from
behind the net and passed across the crease to captain Rob Pritchard. Rosen tried to recover to the far side, but Pritchard one-timed the puck through the five-hole to make the score 1-1. Dartmouth took its first lead of the game 3:14 into the middle frame on a 5-on-3 power-play. Adam Estoclet sent a cross-ice feed from the left goal line to Scott Fleming, who one-timed it into a half-open net. Brown got that goal back less than two minutes before intermission. On a play that looked almost exactly the same as Dartmouth’s previous goal, Vokes sent a cross-ice feed from the left goal-line to Jarred Smith ’12, who one-timed it into a half-open net, making it a 2-2 game. Grillo said that he told the team after the game that he “was happy with the way they played the first two periods.” “I was happy with the energy, the way they battled,” he said. With the score tied going into the final frame, Gaudet said he thought that the team that scored the next goal was going to win. Stephens’
game-winner proved him right less than five minutes into the period. Dartmouth’s Pritchard fired a hard shot that Rosen blocked less than five minutes into the third period. Rosen couldn’t control the puck, and the rebound went to Stephens, who beat Rosen on a partiallyopen net. “We made a mistake and gave them that third goal and the momentum shifted,” Grillo said. Dartmouth made it a two-goal game when Fleming, who leads the Big Green in goals, put in his second of the night. With heavy traffic around Rosen, Fleming found the puck and slapped it into the back of the net to make the game 4-2. Grillo pulled Rosen in favor of an extra attacker, and Dartmouth scored an empty-net goal with 1:31 left in the game, making the game seem like more of a blowout than it was. “Basically it was a one-goal game, despite the score at the end,” Gaudet said. “We shot ourselves in the foot in the third,” Vokes said. “You know, that’s kind of been our Achilles’ heel.” Merrimack 2, Brown 0 The Bears couldn’t turn their weekend around when they headed to North Andover, Mass., to take the ice against Merrimack (6-17-3) the next night. Merrimack entered the contest against Brown on an eight-game losing streak. Excluding two wins in the UConn Holiday Classic, the
Warriors hadn’t won a game since November. In the first period of their matchup with the Bears, Merrimack led the shot count, 15-9. Joe Cannata of Merrimack and Mike Clemente ’12 were perfect in net to keep the game scoreless. The Warriors looked like they were going to score the game’s first goal when Rob Ricci got on a breakaway midway through the second period. He took the puck all the way into the crease, but Clemente stoned a low shot from point blank. Brown spent the first three minutes of the third period killing penalties. It was a telling beginning, as the Bears took seven penalties for a total of fourteen minutes in the twentyminute long final frame. Merrimack made use of the resulting power-play opportunities. The Warriors scored on a 5-on-3 advantage 6:15 into the period. Ricci made up for his missed opportunity earlier when he beat Clemente off of a rebound with a wrist shot. Just 21 seconds later, Pat Bowen fired another hard shot at Clemente. Clemente stopped the first attempt, but Joe Cucci corralled the rebound and beat the goaltender with a try from the bottom of the left face-off circle to make it a 2-0 game. The Bears will try to end their five-game losing streak when they travel to Troy, N.Y. next Friday to take on Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at 7 p.m. RPI got the best of Brown in a 7-2 game in Providence on Dec. 6.
Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald
Page 10 | Monday, February 9, 2009
e d i to r i a l
Increasing black enrollment Brown’s relatively unimpressive level of black enrollment (secondto-last in the Ivy League) should be cause for concern. Black students comprise a mere 6.7 percent of Brown’s freshman class compared to 12.1 percent at Columbia University. While Brown admitted 22 percent of black applicants — much higher than the overall rate of 13 percent — only 37 percent of admitted black applicants accepted the offer. Ever y other school in the Ivy League has seen an increase in black student enrollment over the last 16 years, yet Brown’s enrollment rate has remained constant. These statistics are surprising given that blacks have a strong and active presence on Brown’s campus. The Department of Africana Studies, Third World Center, Harambee House, the Third World Transition Program and Minority Peer Counselors all help make Brown a community that celebrates the African diaspora. We have the first black president of an Ivy League institution and placed 20th in the Black Enterprise Top 50 Colleges for African Americans rankings. So why is Brown lagging behind? One possibility is location: Columbia’s high ranking may be due, in part, to its attractiveness as a black cultural center. Yale and Columbia also have large local black applicant pools due to their respective locations in New Haven and New York. Another important factor may be the presence of a core group of black students at other schools. A larger black student population at Brown would help ease the transition to a challenging and predominantly white environment and would increase the likelihood of prospective students hearing about the many opportunities Brown has to offer black students. The Office of Admission is moving in the right direction by bringing more low-income admits to the Third World Welcome and putting accepted students in touch with black alumni. But in order to close the gap, the University needs to do more. Many colleges solicit feedback from admitted students who do not accept their offers of admission. Brown should sur vey black applicants who decide to matriculate elsewhere in order to figure out how it can make itself more attractive to admitted black students. The University’s diverse student body is one of the most important components of the Brown experience. A complacent approach to sustaining diversity runs the risk of losing talented students to our peers and jeopardizing what makes Brown unique.
F ranny choi
t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d Editor-in-Chief Steve DeLucia
Managing Editors Michael Bechek Chaz Firestone
editorial Arts & Culture Editor Ben Hyman Hannah Levintova Arts & Culture Editor Features Editor Sophia Li Features Editor Emmy Liss Higher Ed Editor Gaurie Tilak Higher Ed Editor Matthew Varley Metro Editor George Miller Metro Editor Joanna Wohlmuth News Editor Chaz Kelsh News Editor Jenna Stark Sports Editor Benjy Asher Sports Editor Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Alex Mazerov Asst. Sports Editor Katie Wood Graphics & Photos Graphics Editor Chris Jesu Lee Graphics Editor Stephen Lichenstein Eunice Hong Photo Editor Kim Perley Photo Editor Justin Coleman Sports Photo Editor production Kathryn Delaney Copy Desk Chief Seth Motel Copy Desk Chief Marlee Bruning Design Editor Jessica Calihan Design Editor Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Julien Ouellet Asst. Design Editor Neal Poole Web Editor
Associate Editors Nandini Jayakrishna Franklin Kanin Michael Skocpol
Senior Editors Rachel Arndt Catherine Cullen Scott Lowenstein
grievances
Business General Managers Office Manager Shawn Reilly Alexander Hughes Jonathan Spector Directors Ellen DaSilva Sales Director Claire Kiely Sales Director Phil Maynard Sales Director Katie Koh Finance Director Managers Local Sales Kelly Wess National Sales Kathy Bui University Sales Alex Carrere Recruiter Sales Christiana Stephenson Opinions Sarah Rosenthal
Opinions Editor
Editorial Page Board James Shapiro Nick Bakshi Zack Beauchamp Sara Molinaro Meha Verghese
Editorial Page Editor Board member Board member Board member Board member
Post- magazine Arthur Matuszewski Kelly McKowen
Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief
Jessica Calihan, Designer
c l a r i f i c at i o n A recent editorial (“Undergrads can solve TA crunch,” Feb. 5) mentioned an increase in the number of students in undergraduate classes. The editorial intended to describe the rise in total undergraduate enrollment from 2007 to 2008, not an increase in enrollment in academic courses.
correction
Frederic Lu, Luis Solis, Copy Editors Hannah Levintova, Brian Mastorianni, Ben Schreckinger, Anne Simons, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Mitra Anoushiravani, Colin Chazen, Ellen Cushing, Sydney Ember, Lauren Fedor, Nicole Friedman, Britta Greene, Sarah Husk, Brian Mastroianni, Hannah Moser, Ben Schreckinger, Caroline Sedano, Melissa Shube, Anne Simons, Sara Sunshine, Staff Writers Zunaira Choudhary, Leslie Primack, Christian Martell, Alexandra Ulmer, Lauren Pischel, Samuel Byker, Anne Deggelman, Nicole Dungca, Cameron Lee, Seth Motel, Kyla Wilkes, Juliana Friend, Kelly Mallahan, Anita Matthews, Jyotsna Mullur, Chris Duffy, Andrea Savdie, Rosalind Schonwald Sports Staff Writers Peter Cipparone, Nicole Stock Business Staff Maximilian Barrows, Thanases Plestis, Allen McGonagill, Ben Xiong, Bonnie Kim, Cathy Li, Corey Schwartz, Evan Sumortin, Haydar Taygun, Jackie Goldman, Jilyn Chao, Kenneth So, Lyndse Yess, Margaret Watson, Matthew Burrows, Maura Lynch, Misha Desai, Stassia Chyzhykova, Webber Xu, William Schweitzer Design Staff Jessica Kirschner, Joanna Lee, Maxwell Rosero Photo Staff Alex DePaoli, Quinn Savit, Meara Sharma, Min Wu 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, Geoffrey Kyi, Anna Jouravleva Web Developers Jihan Chao, Greg Edmiston
A photo caption on page 3 in Friday’s paper accompanying an article about classroom renovations incorrectly identified a classroom as Wilson Hall 102. While the article discussed renovations to Wilson 102, the classroom pictured is in Barus and Holley.
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 editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page 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 clarity 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.
Opinions The Brown Daily Herald
Monday, February 9, 2009 | Page 11
The Brown Technology Center’s ‘key partners’ JARED LAFER Opinions Columnist
Is there anything more frustrating than a broken computer? I can think of a few things, but that would ruin this exciting hook, so let’s ignore them. Computer problems are inevitable, and if you haven’t yet experienced the blue screen of death consider yourself lucky and preemptively dash for the nearest Amish community. Fortunately, in the worst of times you have the Bookstore Technology Center to expedite the recovery of your beloved personal computing devices. Well, that’s not completely true. I have the utmost respect for the BTC, and am confident that its employees are highly competent and helpful when it comes to customer ser vice. In fact, they proudly flaunt their impressive 65 years of experience on their Web site, and I have no doubt it shows in their work. However, their work ethic does not excuse their business ethic, as the BTC has overt relationships with only a small group of hardware brands, exclusively selling those companies’ products and satisfying those companies’ customers. This is just not fair to Brown students. Here’s the deal: the BTC has “key partnerships” with Dell, Apple and Lenovo (apparently Lenovo owns IBM). According to
BTC Assistant Director Michael Romauld, contracts with these companies allow the BTC to perform hardware warranty repairs, and “exclusively affect vendor campus store setups.” What does the former entail? If you happen to own a Dell, Apple or Lenovo system and it malfunctions, the repair can conveniently be performed right at the bookstore. On the other hand, if you happen to have any other system, you have to
companies. The plot thickens as I reaffirm that the BTC only sells Dell, Apple and Lenovo products on its Web site. I guess the BTC knows something we don’t about the quality of computers, because apparently these are the only systems in demand. Although that’s not all, for CIS, which according to Romauld works closely with the BTC, outright recommends only Dell and Apple computers, and HP printers (I
The BTC has overt relationships with only a small group of hardware brands, exclusively selling those companies’ products and satisfying those companies’ customers. This is just not fair to Brown students. ship your computer to the manufacturer, which is quite a hassle, especially for timepressed college students like us. Of course, the bookstore says on its Web site that it’s willing to assist in the process of getting “Non Dell, Apple and Lenovo systems” repaired in any way under warranty, and for that it has my respect. The BTC even performs general repairs on excluded brands, which certainly speaks to its versatility. But that doesn’t change the fact that the BTC’s ser vices privilege only a triad of
guess HP computers aren’t recommended), on its Web site. Selling only a select group of computers is one thing, but explicitly recommending that group over all others is simply unjust. If that’s not enforcing some kind of monopoly (or triopoly?), I don’t know what is. I know what you’re thinking. Doesn’t the Dell-Apple-Lenovo triad encompass a large majority of the student body, making this column seem petty? Well, at Brown there is a 70-to-30 PC to Mac ratio. I couldn’t find the exact computer brand breakdown
among the student body, but I really don’t think Dell and Lenovo collectively account for 70 percent of computers at Brown. Accordingly, there is bound to be a decent number of students that do not benefit from the BTC’s ser vices or sales in any way, including me(I have a Hewlett-Packard laptop). Are we supposed to accept this condemnation to technological neglect? I hope not. I realize Brown’s intentions of providing us easy access to computing ser vices and products are admirable, but the reality of it just doesn’t make sense. To throw a bit of a cliche out there, policies for the students should reflect the needs of the students. I don’t see this happening here. Attempting to remedy the situation doesn’t seem that difficult. Brown could certainly start by forging partnerships with other major computer system manufacturers. Naturally it would be impossible to partner up with ever y computer brand on the market, but big names like HewlettPackard, Sony and Toshiba are undeniably a necessity. This might call for a little financial expenditure on the part of the University, but that’s something I’m willing to sacrifice for a technology center with more comprehensive policies.
Jared Lafer ’11 is a philosophy concentrator from Manhattan. He can be reached at jared_lafer@brown.edu
Brown students, show some respect BY TORY HARTMANN Opinions Columnist Brown students are generally respectful of our fellow community members. We are attentive in class, we stay relatively quiet in the libraries and most of us do not cut in line at the Ratty. We understand that other people have things that they need to do and we try not to get in each other’s way too much. Knowing that Brown students are so respectful some of the time makes me all the more disappointed that we are not that way all the time. Moreover, many of us are downright rude to the people who are hired to maintain our facilities. This tendency is best exemplified in University housing. In my experience living in University housing for the past two years, breaking exit signs has become something of a sport. I will assume that no one is breaking the exit signs with the express intent to ensure that students who live in the dorms cannot find their way out of the building in the event of a fire, so my only available assumptions are that students break them because they are bored, drunk, stupid or all three. Maybe ever y weekend it is entirely different students who break the signs, maybe not, but regardless, it is an extremely
disrespectful and expensive habit. The worst part is that it is expensive in both time and money, and these expenses are not paid by the miscreants who vandalize University property. By now, you would have to be living under a rock not to realize that the University has had to tighten its pursestrings lately. According to Richard Bova, senior associate dean of the Office of Residential Life, the University generally spends between
ployees’ time and the University’s money to fix problems caused by student recklessness. Ever y dormitor y bathroom has the “Betcha didn’t know” sign that informs students that they can call Facilities Management if they notice any bodily fluids in the restroom and Facilities will come clean up the mess. This sign shows the University’s commitment to our right to clean, functioning public spaces in our dorms.
It seems like a pretty basic idea: if you make a mess, clean it up, and if you do not have the supplies to clean with, call Facilities yourself.
$8,000 and $10, 000 in an academic year repairing broken exit signs and windows. Bova notes that there is sometimes a “general lack of respect for the places where some folks live.” Some students do not care in the slightest that what they do for “fun” negatively affects other people. It is a waste of the Department of Facilities Management em-
I do not think this sign is intended to give students license to make messes in the restrooms and not clean them up. It seems like a pretty basic idea: if you make a mess, clean it up and if you do not have the supplies to clean with, call Facilities yourself. Do not leave vomit in the sink or on the carpet in the hallways so that it will fester overnight until someone else calls
and reports it. Facilities is not a maid ser vice. It is the responsibility of ever y student to take his or her own trash to the in-dorm trash facilities. It is for this reason that the University provides each dorm room with trash cans. Nevertheless, it is routine in some dorms for students to leave their room trash and recycling in the bathroom for someone else to take care of. First of all, this act is incredibly lazy. Seeing as most of us are relatively fit 18- to 22-year-olds, I do not understand why taking trash down a few flights of stairs into the trash room is such a challenge. Second of all, this act leaves dorm custodians to take not only bathroom trash, but also students’ gross, ketchup-covered cartons from Jo’s, old shoe boxes and dozens of old water bottles outside. No one would tear pages out of a librar y book or trash a classroom. Brown students are clearly capable of respecting communal facilities, so it’s time they assumed some responsibility in maintaining their dorms. It seems that we are off to a good start — I have not seen a broken exit sign yet this semester, and I hope that it stays that way. Tory Hartmann ’11 is a political science concentrator from Hillsborough, NJ. She can be reached at victoria_hartmann@brown.edu.
Today
5
Israeli Film Festival kicked off Saturday
The Brown Daily Herald
M. hockey team continues skid
7
to day
to m o r r o w
38 / 21
43 / 32
Monday, February 9, 2009
Page 12
the news in images
1
1 c a l e n da r
12 s p o rt s w e e k e n d p r e v i e w
February 9, 2009
February 10, 2009
4 P.M. — “The Babylonians in Tyre, no Tyre in Babylonia: On the Administration of the Babylonian Empire’s Western Provinces,” Smith-Buonanno 106
5 P.M. — Women’s squash vs. Tufts, Pizzitola Center
Men’s hoops still looking for first Ivy win
7 P.M. — “Cop in the Hood,” MacMillan 115
It was a heartbreaking weekend for Bruno on the court, losing two games by a combined total of three points.
8 P.M. — “Pleasure Dome,” The Production Workshop
menu Sharpe Refectory
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Chicken Fingers with Dipping Sauces, Couscous, Sunny Sprouts, Chinese Green Beans
Lunch — Chicken Cutlet Sandwich, Spinach and Rice Bake, Green Beans with Tomatoes
Dinner — Beef Shish Kabob, Vegetable Cheese Casserole, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes, Whole Beets
Dinner — Country Style Ham, Macaroni Pudding, Candied Yams a la Warren, Cauliflower au Gratin
The Bears of basketball followed up a two-point overtime loss to Dartmouth on Friday with a one-point loss to Harvard the following night on a lastsecond free throw. The two losses leave Brown in the Ivy cellar with a League record of 0-6, an unwelcome start for new Head Coach Jesse Agel, who replaced former Head Coach Craig Robinson when the “First Coach” left for Oregon State.
RELEASE DATE– Monday, February 9, 2009
Los Angeles Times Puzzle c r o sDaily s w oCrossword rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Epps of “House” 5 Misbehave 10 Certain herring 14 Volcano top 15 Terrible twos, e.g. 16 Sharpen 17 Group dance song with the repeated lyric “that’s what it’s all about” 19 German “a” 20 River through Idaho 21 Step counter 23 Long-eared beast 25 Theater award 26 Go over again and again 30 Answered a charge 32 Water source 35 Versatile, as a tool 37 Baseball tally 39 Coal containers 40 To whom Lee surrendered 42 Like Dalí’s famous watches 43 Signed 45 Points to 47 Word before break or dream 48 Points (at) 50 Beloved princess, familiarly 51 Hair line 53 “___ the fields we go” 54 Jelly-legged traveler to Oz 58 Get the better of 63 Lottery-like game 64 Commotion 66 Upsets 67 Roast host 68 Pinocchio, notably 69 Eyelid woe 70 Little arguments 71 Late-night Jay
DOWN 1 Adolph of publishing 2 Apollo 11 destination 3 “Diana” singer Paul 4 Really smell 5 Software program, briefly 6 Veal cuts 7 Movie director’s unit 8 Like cars in many classifieds 9 Desert hallucinogen 10 Luster 11 Pretentious 12 Actress Heche 13 Does and bucks 18 It can raise your dough 22 Hip ’60s types 24 Chase flies 26 Overzealous 27 Minneapolis suburb 28 Funny business 29 Church recess 30 Agendas 31 Give temporarily
33 Battle-ready 34 Soft drink with a “generation” 36 Hat edge 38 Dressed 41 Scrabble piece 44 Take a chance 46 Chocolate substitute 49 Cravings 52 Awakened 53 Barn baby
54 Runners on slopes 55 Part of CPA: Abbr. 56 Rear end 57 Ocean predator 59 Partner of void 60 One of the Great Lakes 61 __ Bator, Mongolia 62 Prefix with mania 65 Thumbs-up
comics Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley
xwordeditor@aol.com
02/09/09
Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
By Bob Rois (c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
02/09/09