Monday, February 23, 2009

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 22 | Monday, February 23, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Corporation deepens cuts; U. to keep building Predicts slow rebound for struggling endowment Some staff will lose jobs, Simmons says By Chaz Kelsh and Jenna Stark News Editors

New Numbers

Predicting a slow recovery for the endowment, the Corporation focused this weekend’s meeting on long-term plans to reduce the University’s budget by about $90 million over the next five years, and revised ambitious plans for two major capital projects so they could begin even during a period of economic recession. The University’s highest governing body deepened budget cuts recommended by President Ruth Simmons both for this year and for future fiscal years but attempted to maintain academic priorities and a commitment to financial aid. It said two high-priority projects — a Medical Education Building and a brain sciences building, would likely be addressed through renovations of existing buildings instead. It also granted final approval for two other projects, the renovation of Faunce House and a new Creative Arts Center, to begin this summer. “This is the first meeting I remember since I’ve been at Brown where so much has been debated and changed,” Simmons said in an interview Sunday. In an e-mail to the Brown community in January, Simmons set a framework for sustaining the University’s financial situation that included freezing most salaries, postponing the expansion of the Graduate School and proposing to reduce next year’s budget by $4.5 million and cutting roughly $60 million in planned budget increases by 2014. But the Corporation decided to

$60 million Original proposed reductions to planned spending by 2014

$90 million New goal for 5-year reductions (est.)

$6 million

Spending cuts for next year’s budget, up from $4.5 million

Courtesy of Brown University

A rendering of the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center in Faunce House, one of the projects that will proceed.

Brain science, Med School buildings will be renovations

take more drastic measures to preserve the health of the University’s endowment and financial stability, moving to increase budget cuts for the 2010 fiscal year from $4.5 million to $6 million, and aiming to cut as much as $90 million from the projected budget for 2014. Simmons also announced for the first time in an e-mail to the Brown community on Saturday that the University plans to cut some current administrative and staff employees’ jobs to help reduce the budget. “Targeted position eliminations will be enacted in the coming months to help achieve this goal,” Simmons wrote. “While some will come from existing vacancies made permanent, some administrative and staff positions will unfortunately have to be eliminated.” The meeting was “enormously engaged and in some respects sobering,” said Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76, Brown’s highest officer and the Corporation’s leader. “There was an attempt to strike

By Brigitta Greene Senior Staff Writer

Facing a difficult economic climate, the Corporation scaled back plans this weekend for two major academic projects — a planned Medical Education Center and a brain science building — saying those projects would likely involve renovations of existing buildings instead of new structures and would proceed sooner rather than later. The Corporation also gave final approval for construction of the new Creative Arts Center and the renovation of Faunce House into a new campus center, which will begin this summer. In scrapping the original plans for the two buildings, one a centerpiece of a $100 million gift to the Alpert Medical School and the other an ambitious building that was supposed to be built along The Walk, the Corporation appeared to strike a solution that allowed it to

continued on page 3

push ahead with important academic priorities while navigating new financial obstacles to campus expansion. “We thought very hard about the consequences of putting everything on hold,” President Ruth Simmons said in an interview Sunday, but the Corporation deemed it “not sensible” to do so. The cost of renovating an old building is about one-half to twothirds of building new, said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior advisor to the president. He said the University first began exploring renovation in early January, when it became clear that the economic crisis would have a long-term effect on the University’s finances. “We haven’t just given up our goals — that’s the other way to save money,” he said. “The whole idea has been to focus our resources to continued on page 3

Bequest puts pool back on fast track By Sydney Ember Senior Staff Writer

Construction on a new aquatics center may begin as early as this summer, after a large bequest breathed fresh life into a project that appeared likely to be shelved by the economic downturn. Approval for designs to proceed on the project came this weekend, as the Corporation officially accepted $14.75 million from the estate of Raymond Moran ’41 in the name of his late sister. That amount is enough to fund more than half the project, according to Ronald Vanden Dorpel MA’71, senior vice president for University advancement. Under Brown’s current guidelines, final approval for the project can come once the Moran continued on page 3

BuDS clamps down on no-homework rule Managers for BuDS, the student employment arm of Dining Services, have introduced a new no-homework policy for many on-duty workers, a provision that was first presented to students in their contracts earlier this month. The new policy, which formally prohibits all non-cashier workers, and cashiers in the Blue Room, from doing homework on the job, has resulted in some workers refusing to

sign their annual contracts. “We felt a formal warning sent a message that this is important,” said Cindy Swain ’09, a former BuDS general manager who introduced the formal policy with current BuDS general manager Alex Hartley ’10. “It makes sense that people are talking about it because it affects a lot of people.” Workers have reportedly responded with a petition, though Swain said no one has presented the petition to her or Hartley yet. “People are going to have knee-jerk

Arts, 5

Sports, 7

Editorial, 10

Opinions, 11

Staging conflict “Gever/Shebab” brings Israel-Palestine conflict to the stage.

Saving Grace Nicole Stock ’09 broke her own saves record in a season-ending win.

we’re in business A new partnership helps Brown fill a business education void.

money matters Simon Liebling ’12 wants the University to freeze tuition and tap the endowment.

By Sydney Ember Senior Staff Writer

Kim Perley / Herald

inside

A new BuDS policy bans homework for many workers.

News.....1-4 Arts........5-6 Spor ts...7-8 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12

www.browndailyherald.com

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

reactions,” she said. “We can’t do anything about it until they come to us.” Though the no-homework policy previously existed as an informal rule for most workers, putting the policy in the contracts rather than just adding it to the new version of the handbook was “faster in terms of getting the word out,” Swain said. “We basically wanted something physical in peoples’ hands,” Swain said. “We wanted people to continued on page 4

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

CDC service attracts chatty students By Jeremy Jacob Contributing Writer

A brightly colored dialogue box popped onto a screen in addition to the two that were already present. Caroline Chiang, assistant director of the Career Development Center, quickly responded to the new conversation, handling three at once. Each of the chat boxes represented a student with a virtual question for a career counselor. The CDC’s new service, IM walkin hours, gives students a chance to talk over the Internet with career counselors in real-time. “Customer service is our highest priority,” Chiang said. The walk-in hours, for which students to sign in to chat via Google accounts, debuted in January, said CDC Assistant Director Kerry Feather. “We are tr ying to reach students where they are. For some people, walk-in hours are fine; for other students a quick question is good,” Feather said. “We (now) offer both.” The IM walk-in hours began after a successful two-day pilot program over winter break, Feather said. After conducting a survey of participants, the CDC settled on regular IM walk-in hours on Friday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., taking the place of traditional walk-in hours, which are offered Monday through Thursday at the same time. Feather said the program, which has run each Friday since the start of the semester, has been

ver y successful. She estimated that in each of the last couple of sessions, the Center has received approximately 20 students with questions. “I think the word is really getting out,” Chiang said. To use the program, students must either create or sign into a Google account and invite a CDC e-mail address to chat. When students log on and begin to chat, the message is directed to a counselor, Feather said. If the service experiences an uptick in traffic, an additional counselor can be brought in to facilitate. “There’s been no wait time,” Feather said. Chiang said the conversations last for about 10 to 15 minutes. If the question is difficult to answer online, the counselor will suggest an in-person appointment. Feather said the office hours are more helpful for students who have only quick questions, rather than those who need detailed critiques of resumes. Questions like, “Where do I get started looking for an internship?” and, “Can you look at my resume or my cover letter?” tend to be asked frequently, Chiang said. Because counselors are right at their computers, they can quickly do research to help answer a student’s question. Feather said the newly offered walk-in hours fit into the CDC’s efforts to incorporate more technology into their services. In addition to the walk-in hours, the CDC will be debuting a new Web site in the coming weeks, Feather said.

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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.

Monday, February 23, 2009

“I love the fact that I’m training a new generation of journalists.”

— Visiting Professor of English Tracy Breton

Keys host a cappella competition By Sarah Julian Contributing Writer

“Put on your pretty lies, you’re in the city of wonder. Ain’t gonna play nice, watch out you might just go under,” sang Pitch Slapped, in its cover of Rihanna’s “Disturbia,” to a packed Salomon 101 last Saturday night. The group from Berklee College of Music won the Northeast quarterfinals in this year’s International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, hosted by Brown’s Higher Keys. Brown students, as well as friends and family of performers from Harvard, Boston University, New York University, Northeastern University and University of Maine, Orono, gathered to watch the five a cappella groups compete in the 14th annual competition. The first runners-up in the competition were the Opportunes of Harvard College, with the Maine Steiners of the University of Maine, Orono as second runners-up. The top two groups — Pitch Slapped and the Opportunes — will advance to the semifinal round of the Northeast region on March 21. The men and women of Pitch Slapped sang “Gravity” by Sara Ba-

Hang Nguyen / Herald

A cappella groups from the Northeast performed in Salomon Saturday.

reilles and “Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna, along with the crowd-pleasing “Disturbia.” Cate Wright won the award for outstanding solo. The coed Opportunes, dressed all in black with suits for the men and dresses and heels for the women, sang “Lady Marmalade” and James

Taylor’s “Fire and Rain”. “Fire and Rain” won the “outstanding arrangement” award of the night. The group also sang a medley of songs including parts of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and “Smooth Criminal.” continued on page 4

Professional profs mix business, teaching By Ben Schreckinger Senior Staff Writer

It’s almost a cliche for aspiring standup comedians and rock stars to hear, “Don’t quit your day job.” But some Brown professors have also taken this advice to heart. Despite their fully-booked days, these faculty members find satisfaction in both teaching and pursuing professional careers. Teaching “doesn’t leave me with a lot of the spare time that I used to have,” said Tracy Breton, a visiting professor of English who has worked as an investigative reporter at the Providence Journal since 1973. She added that time spent in the classroom makes up only a fraction of the time she spends on her teaching job. Breton, who won a Pulitzer prize in 1994 for her investigation of corruption in the Rhode Island courts, began teaching at Brown in 1997. She currently teaches two sections of ENGL0160: “Journalistic Writing” in the fall, ENGL1160A: “Advanced Feature Writing” in the spring and a three-week course in Brown’s pre-college summer program. This year, she is also one senior’s thesis adviser. Despite their busy schedules, professors said they do not feel as if one job suffers because of the other. “Just the opposite, and I can’t quite explain why,” said Visiting Lecturer in English Tom Mooney. Mooney, who has been a reporter for the ProJo since 1986, said he has been teaching the spring section of “Journalistic Writing” for five years. “I don’t think I’d have the energy to do it” year-round, Mooney said. But he said his productivity increases when working both jobs. “If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it,” he said. “When graduation rolls around, I become a slug

in comparison.” The professors said their outside careers improved their teaching, and vice versa. “I’m often using the real-life experiences that I’m living at that moment to teach,” Mooney said. He said he believes he was hired partly because “I’m really down in the trenches” instead of “sitting up in an ivory tower.” Mooney said teaching has allowed him to look differently at the practice of journalism. Earlier this semester, he was writing a piece about a veterans’ advocate who had gone to jail 30 years ago for killing a man. Mooney said he felt “frustration and confu-

FEATURE sion about how I was going to tell this story.” When Mooney told his class about the story, he raised the question, “Can a man ever be forgiven for taking a life?” Mooney eventually began his article with that exact question. Breton said she appreciates the job security of teaching during the ongoing economic downturn. Daily newspapers have been hit especially hard, she said, and the ProJo has been forced to lay off reporters in recent months. Though some established reporters are losing their jobs, Breton’s students still have been able to find jobs in journalism, she said. Newspapers may be cutting costs by hiring recent graduates with shorter contracts, she said, instead of continuing to pay a premium for their more experienced counterparts. Sarah Fox ’89 said she is “energized” by teaching GNSS0090C: “Reproductive Health: Science and Politics.” Fox is an obstetrician-gynecologist at Women & Infants Hospital

and teaches at the Alpert Medical School. This year is her first teaching undergraduates, she said. “My life is much more busy right now,” said Fox, who added that her work has begun to spill over into nights and weekends. But she attributed much of the added stress to a learning curve. “I have a sense that … the next year that I teach, it will be pretty reasonable,” she said. Her students bring a “diversity of views,” Fox said, that makes the extra work fulfilling. The professors said they struggle to pick favorites between teaching and their outside careers. “I think I like the doing more” than the teaching, Mooney said. “That’s a tough question because they both have their own rewards.” He said teaching allows him to appreciate just how much he learns by practicing journalism. “Both jobs get you outside your comfort zone a little bit,” he said. “I love the fact that I’m training a new generation of journalists,” Breton said. “The Providence Journal is a pretty stressful place to work” right now, she said, but “I still get a news high from doing a good story.” The professors said they plan to maintain a mix of teaching and practicing. “I sort of like the mix,” Fox said. “I don’t know if I’d want to change the proportions.” “Right now, I’m really enjoying the undergraduate course, I have to admit,” she said. “I don’t ever see myself giving up the teaching,” Breton said. “I have no idea how much longer I’ll stay in daily journalism,” given the newspaper industry’s uncertainty. Still, Breton said she plans to continue practicing some form of journalism for the foreseeable future. And as for Mooney — “I hope to keep doing both until I drop.”

Monday, February 23, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS an appropriate balance between the uncertainty and the challenges of the financial market and the economic market on one hand and the importance of moving Brown forward consistent with the goals of the Plan for Academic Enrichment,” he added. Slow growth predicted Administrators had previously planned for no significant change in the endowment’s value this year and then an immediate return to growth of about 10 percent per year, said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, but the Corporation decided that planning on a “rebound at that pace” would be overly optimistic. As a result, the projected budget for fiscal year 2014 — excluding the Division of Biology and Medicine and auxiliary departments which receive no endowment funding — will be about $610 million, down from the $695 million originally projected, a number that factored in ambitious growth prescribed by Simmons’ wideranging Plan for Academic Enrichment, Huidekoper said. A large portion of the cuts will be realized by eliminating salary increases for most faculty and staff for the coming years, Huidekoper said. The projected Bio-Med budget will have to be reduced by about $10 million, though it is less dependent on endowment income than the general budget and much smaller to begin with, Huidekoper said. In the short term, administrators are still debating how to cut the additional $1.5 million from next year’s budget, though Huidekoper said students can expect to see reductions in campus services, resulting in part from vacancies that will continue to go unfilled.

“Since I went into the meeting with the recommendation of $4.5 (million), I had a pretty good idea of what that would be, but this is a completely new figure,” Simmons said. “We have to go back and begin to sort out how to make that happen.” “It’s going to be hard, no doubt about that,” she added. The Corporation also decided to increase undergraduate tuition by 3 percent next year, to $38,048. That represents the smallest annual increase in 45 years, according to a University press release. Tuition increased last year by 3.9 percent. The overall undergraduate charge, including standard room and board and health fees, will increase 2.9 percent, to $49,128. “Obviously, it means less revenue and we’ll be able to do fewer things,” Simmons said, but “our goal was to minimize as much as possible the effect on families.” Still, the University faces increased spending in some areas, including financial aid, meaning total budget expenditures, despite cuts, will increase by 0.9 percent. The University plans to maintain its financial aid policy, which the Corporation expanded at its meeting last February, Simmons wrote in her e-mail Saturday, adding that the financial aid budget will increase 10.9 percent. Capital planning developments The Corporation also allocated between $3 and 4 million in capital funding for the construction of a science resource center in the Sciences Library, Huidekoper said. Other increases in spending include new faculty positions based on searches already underway and increased funding for the UPass program, through which Brown subsidizes RIPTA travel for Univer-

sity affiliates, and for SAFEride in anticipation of rising expenses for both services. “The areas that we’re growing are the areas that we’ve committed to growing,” Huidekoper said. In addition to budget issues, the Corporation discussed the deferral of capital projects. (See “Brain science, Med School buildings will be renovations,” page 1.) The so-called “Mind Brain Behavior” building a largebrain sciences project originally planned for the site of the Urban Environmental Lab on Angell Street, may no longer be a new construction project. Instead, the University is considering renovating a building on campus, Huidekoper said. The planned Medical Education Building will also be a renovated structure, according to Simmons’ e-mail. The construction of the Creative Arts Center and the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center in Faunce House will begin this summer. Designs for a new swim center will also be drafted immediately. “We’re not stopping,” Simmons said. “Part of the effort is to really announce that we’re still here, we’re still doing things.” “The future is still uncertain, and we could say, let’s defer it and maybe things will be better in a year,” she said. But, she added, “If you’re going to be guided by what the students need, we can’t wait for another oneto-five years for things to return.” In other business this weekend, the Corporation formally accepted gifts to the University totaling just over $35 million. The gifts include a $14.75 million bequest for the new swim center, a $10 million gift for the re-configured brain sciences building, a $5 million gift for the Faunce renovations and a $2 million gift for undergraduate scholarships.

$15m bequest resurrects aquatics center continued from page 1 funds are in hand and gifts have been secured for the remainder of the approximately $25 million project. “We’re extremely fortunate to have received the donation,” Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Beppie Huidekoper said. The gift, she added, seems almost like it “came from the heavens.” Plans to go ahead with a new pool represent an abrupt turnaround for a project that, as recently as last week, administrators had said was indefinitely on hold. The final stamp of approval for construction to begin can only come once funding has been secured for the entire cost of a project and at least half the cash to pay for it is in University coffers. But the bequest — well over the required 50 percent of the center’s projected $25 million cost — should be available to the University by June, Huidekoper said, and the University “is now close to having the full amount pledged.” Though a precise date for breaking ground on the project has not been set, Huidekoper said, the Cor-

poration this weekend authorized the University to select an architect and proceed with final planning for the project. The design process would then begin “as soon as possible,” she said. Administrators declined to project a completion date for the project. But that day may be substantially sooner than recently seemed plausible thanks to the gift from Moran, who died earlier this year. The executor of Moran’s estate chose to bequeath the money to name the pool as a memorial to Moran’s late sister, Vanden Dorpel said. Though Moran was not on the swim team while at Brown, he said, he was a “daily swimmer.” The details of the bequest are still being managed by the donor’s trust, Huidekoper said. The exact location of the new pool, which Huidekoper said the architect will help determine, is still uncertain, but it will be in the Erickson Athletic Complex. The aquatics center is part of a larger plan for revamping the athletic complex that also includes building a new fitness center, but that project

“It’s going to be hard, no doubt about that.”

— President Ruth Simmons, on having to find $1.5 million in cuts

Corp. confronts financial squeeze continued from page 1

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did not receive approval for construction at this weekend’s meeting of the Corporation.. “We have to raise the money first,” Huidekoper said. “I hope that will be raised soon.” The planned aquatics center will succeed the University’s last permanent natatorium, the Smith Swim Center, which closed suddenly in January 2007 after structural deficiencies were discovered in its roof supports. Since Januar y 2008, Brown’s swimming and diving and water polo teams have practiced in a $3.8 million temporary pool behind the OlneyMargolies Athletic Center. They have been forced to compete off-campus, however, and a new, permanent facility would allow aquatics competition to return to College Hill. In addition to a 56-meter pool, included on Brown’s wish list for a new facility is seating for up to 800 spectators, The Herald reported last year. “We’re definitely really excited about it,” said Ken Collins ’10, incoming captain of the men’s water polo team. “The rest of the team is really psyched that it’s going to go through.”

Campus construction projects Nelson Fitness Center and acquatics center Swim center design phase approved.

Creative Arts Center Construction planned to begin this summer.

Nelson Fitness Center project on hold.

Mind Brain Behavior Building

Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center

Plans for new building replaced with plans for renovation of an existing building.

Construction planned to begin this summer.

Medical Education Center

Plans for new building replaced with plans for renovation of an existing building.

Images courtesy of Brown University

Capital projects to go forward in new forms continued from page 1 be able to move forward.” Simmons wrote in an e-mail to the Brown community Saturday that “the difficulty and inadvisability of debt-funded capital projects led the Corporation to suggest that we should, wherever possible and prudent, consider re-use and renovation as an alternative near-term solution to our unfunded facilities needs.” Although there is no set deadline for a decision on how and whether renovations might take the place of a new brain sciences or medical education building, the University hopes to present a definitive plan to the Corporation at its next meeting in May, Spies said. He said construction on both projects could potentially begin as early as this summer. Renovations could transform either an existing campus building — as with the recent creation of a new student services building in J. Walter Wilson, previously a laboratory — or a new acquisition, like the former factory building in the Jewelry District that now houses the University’s fundraising operations. The new brain sciences building — previously slated for land currently occupied by the Urban Environmental Lab and two nearby houses — will most likely occupy an older building near campus, Spies said, and the medical education building will be located in the Jewelry District. No decisions have been made on specific buildings to renovate, said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, and the University already has over $25 million in funds for each project. Moving ahead Construction on the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center in

Faunce House, which will begin this summer, may be less expensive than expected. Because contractors have bid more competitively for that project than previously expected, the University has been able to negotiate lower prices, Huideloper said. Bids have been coming in up to 25 percent lower than originally budgeted, bringing the estimated cost down from $20 to $18 million. Spies said the University will begin looking for a contractor and drawing detailed plans for the Creative Arts Center, which has met Corporation funding guidelines with over half of its funding in hand and the rest lined up to come in before completion. Ground has already been broken for the building along The Walk between Angell and Olive Streets, and construction could begin as early as late spring or early summer, he said. “We’re not stopping,” Simmons said Sunday. “We’re still here, we’re still doing things.” The University has postponed other large-scale capital projects — including the construction of a new data center and a planned replacement of the Human Resources system — in order to meet tightened budget goals, Huidekoper said. Currently, the University’s core technology infrastructure — including data storage, research systems and financial databases — is stored in the basement of the Center for Information Technology. There is no backup for this information and little room for expansion in its current location, Huidekoper said. “If it got flooded, we would have big trouble,” she said. The University was also looking into replacing old Human Resources computer systems. “We’re just going to have to keep (the current system) alive some years longer than we were going to before,” Huidekoper said.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Singers swarm Brown continued from page 2 “I was really proud of it,” said Carolina Franch, a sophomore member of the Opportunes. “We’re really pleased with how we did. There were a couple last-minute things we were tweaking, and it all turned out really well. ‘Lady Marmalade’ was good and we got some good laughs, which was good. We even got laughs for Michael Jackson, and normally we kind of just get ‘awws.’ ” The Steiners, who will not advance to semi-finals, sang a version of “Circle of Life” complete with monkey noises and intricate choreography — which included the occasional jazz hands — for which the group won the “outstanding choreography” award. Nathan Richard, the lead of the Steiners, said they had spent the majority of their time since January working on choreography. Other groups included the N’Harmonics of NYU, Suno — a South Asian and Western fusion a cappella group from BU — and The Nor’easters of Northeastern. Brown’s Higher Keys did not participate in the competition but opened and closed the show. Their songs included “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes and a Michael Jackson medley for which the group donned white gloves and Manjula Raman ’11 moon-walked across the stage. Though the Higher Keys hosted the event last year as well, they

have competed in previous years. Lorraine Fryer ’09, a Higher Keys member, said she expects they will participate next year but added that participating in the ICCA would require a big time commitment on top of the six hours a week the group already practices. Some singers said competing can be an intense experience. “It’s definitely stressful,” said Danielle Larocque, a member of the Nor’easters. “There’s, you know, extra time because it’s encouraged that you add choreography. It’s a lot of pressure, you want to make sure you choose the right songs to give yourselves the opportunity to do the best you can.” Even as hosts, the Higher Keys had to prepare for the tournament. “There was a lot of publicity because, you know, we want to give them a good audience to perform to,” said Kayla Ringelheim ’11. The audience seemed to appreciate the effort of the a cappella groups and joined in at times with clapping or cheering. Especially popular was the impromptu beatboxing competition held while the judges deliberated. Nandan Nath ’09 said his favorite group was the Opportunes. “Everything was great, arrangement and song choice, everything. They had the talent.” Kara Kauffman ’12 said, “The NYU second piece was amazing. They did a really long medley and we were blown away.”

Monday, February 23, 2009

“We’re not paying people to come and do homework.” — Sophie O’Connell ’09, Blue Room unit manager

Two inches of water flood LiSci By Dan Alexander Staf f Writer

Water from a faulty pipe flooded the first floor of the Sidney E. Frank Hall for Life Sciences yesterday morning, soaking dr ywall and carpeting, but destroying no research. Though the flooding spread to six labs, “There was no compromise to any research projects, programming and equipment,” Director of BioMed Facilities Planning and Operations Peter Holden said. “The damage was pretty much to the building itself.” Water covered 10,000 square feet of the first floor after the pipe broke in the core ser vice area of the building’s east wing, Holden said. There were two to two-anda-half inches of water in the most affected spaces and one inch in outlying areas. The flooding began between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., when pressure caused the cap of a water line to fly of f, Holden said. The cause of the pressure in the pipe is still unknown, but he said it was not related to yesterday’s rain. The water started to fill the first floor and touched a fire alarm, causing the alarm to go off. When facilities management responded to the alarm, they found no flames but inches of water instead. Director of Custodial Services Donna Butler and Director of Maintenance Services Jim Coen were among the first at the site. “Donna Butler and Jim Coen did a really great job of getting everyone on site fast,” Holden said. “Because of their effort, we were able

Chris Bennett / Herald File Photo

A leaky pipe covered 10,000 square feet of the LiSci in water Sunday.

to get a situation cleaned up that could have been a lot worse.” Butler and Coen could not be reached for comment. Facilities Management then contacted Water Out, a company the University uses for structural drying. According to Holden, Water Out began dr ying the building within two hours after the flooding began. “What a company like that allows us to do is get a quick response, a fast cleanup and minimize any damage to the building,”

Holden said. Holden said the cost of repairs to the five-story science research building is unknown at this point. “The water soaked into the drywall, so it’s hard to know,” said Associate Dean for the Program in Biology Edward Hawrot. According to Hawrot, carpeting and dr ywall may have to be torn out and replaced. The fast response by facilities management prevented more serious damage, Holden said. “It could have been a lot worse.”

‘No-homework policy’ appears in BuDS contracts for first time, managers say continued from page 1

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know about it as quickly as possible — make sure they got the policy, understood it and understood the repercussions.” Many managers said they are happy with the new policy. “We’re not paying people to come and do homework. We’re paying them to do work,” said Sophie O’Connell ’09, unit manager at the Blue Room. The policy, she said, makes it easier for supervisors to monitor employees, now that it is “actually in writing.” But among her workers, O’Connell said, there has generally been a good response to the policy. “No one’s directly come to me and complained about it,” she said. “For the workers who work behind the line, the homework policy didn’t change anything.” Though Swain said the restriction on homework never needed to be formally written before this year, growing concerns from non-student professional managers about contamination from books and study materials, along with cases of decreasing employee performance, led the BuDS general managers to

“streamline” the policy, she said. The policy was partially implemented because BuDS managers are trying to avoid cutting student jobs, she said, especially given the current economic situation. “People need jobs,” she said. “We’re trying to not get pressure to cut peoples’ jobs.” She added that she hoped the new policy would improve student productivity and reduce any complaints from professional managers that might jeopardize workers’ positions. The new policy also stemmed from growing complaints from unit managers that their workers were “slacking off,” Hartley said. As a result, the new policy, which explicitly changes the policy for Blue Room cashiers and workers at The Gate — catering prep workers were already subject to new homework restrictions as of last fall ­— seeks to decrease clutter in the workspace and alleviate the strain on coworkers. Hartley said workers frequently had to compensate for coworkers shirking their duties in order to complete assignments or study. But most cashiers, who are still allowed to bring a book, paper and

a writing utensil, have jobs that are “directly related to customer flow,” Swain said. Prohibiting these cashiers from doing a limited amount of homework would be a “slap in the face” since they sometimes get only a few customers an hour, she said. “We were limiting how much clutter could be at the register,” Swain said. “I can’t think of a single register where there’s enough space.” Though many workers say they are unaffected by the formalization of the policy, Hartley said she was aware that there are “a select few who are upset.” Most of these students work at the Gate, she said, where she was aware that many workers had books in the area used for food preparation. But Laurie Schleimer ’12, who prepares food at the Gate and works as a utility cashier at the Ivy Room, said the policy tends not to affect many of the students who prepare food, adding that “there wouldn’t be any chance for me to do work, anyway.” She said the policy did not seem necessary. “It seems like they’re being a bit ridiculous,” she said. “It’s not like they’re going to whip out a book when they’re making falafels.”

Arts & Culture The Brown Daily Herald

‘Gever/Shabab’: Insights into the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict BY Shara azad Staff Writer

A body suddenly rocked and slithered forward as the lights dimmed, while the audience of about fifty shifted in their seats in preparation for the emotionally turbulent hour ahead. In light of the ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip, “Gever/Shabab: Shadows of Israel-Palestine,” the latest production at the Rites and Reason Theatre, is a particularly timely show. Written by Noam Dorr, RUE ’09, the play commendably portrays the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the relationship between a captured Israeli soldier and a Palestinian man. The production is especially memorable because of the Gever and the Shab, disembodied representations of the respective nations’ voices. The hisses and words exuded by the Gever and the Shab intersperse the conversations between Utzi, the Israeli soldier played by Himmat Randhawa ’09, and Ismail, the Palestinian man played by Dominic Wu ’12. Mica Fidler ’12 — who played one of the two Gever — said these sounds were meant to evoke “a snake protecting its own.” The hisses came from the darkened right half of the stage, while action continued on the left. According to Fidler, this setup was a result of experimentation, much like the entire production. Dorr emphasizes that this play is “not a finished piece” — he hopes to fine tune it in the future, and will consider it a perpetual work in progress. “Gever/Shabab” is Dorr’s first effort as a playwright. The project started in fall 2007 when Dorr wrote the play as his final project for a Research to Performance Method class in the Africana Studies Department. Regarding the subject matter, Dorr said, “I knew I wanted to write

a play about where I come from.” Dorr grew up in Israel and served in the Israeli army before coming to Brown, though the story is not inspired solely by his personal experiences. In putting together his script, Dorr did a great deal of research, reading several personal narratives of both Israelis and Palestinians who had been directly involved in combat or who had been affected by the violence in other ways. “I’ve learned so much from the research I’ve done,” Dorr said, “but sometimes it was difficult to hear in light of my own experience.” Fidler called Dorr a “master” at equitably representing both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. For Dorr, achieving this balance was one of the most difficult components of the show. “The greatest challenge for me,” Dorr said, “is representing both sides of the story.” The cast of 11 collaborated closely to produce the play since the beginning of the semester to create the drama ultimately seen on set. “So much of what you see comes from the actors,” said Dorr. “I gave away the script — it stopped being mine; this is not something I’ve done but just something I wrote.” Upon seeing the show, Aditi Pinto ’12 said, “It was quite a beautiful play with a different sort of ending. Though the story was very simply told, the elements on the right (the shadows, the Gever, the Shab) made it all the more intense.” Dorr said he hoped the audience would leave with an understanding of the complexity of issues in the Middle East. “It’s not a simple black and white situation,” he said.

Monday, February 23, 2009 | Page 5

Goldberg Variations captivate listeners By Rafael Chaiken Contributing Writer

As Senior Lecturer in Music Frederick Jodr y performed the Goldberg Variations in a Friday evening concert, listeners were aurally transported to the princely courts of eighteenth-centur y Germany. Audience members nearly filled Grant Recital Hall to hear this landmark of Baroque counterpoint performed on the harpsichord. Johann Sebastian Bach is said to have composed the variations in 1741 for Count Keyserlingk. The count had his court musician, Johann Goldberg, play the piece to treat his insomnia. Appropriately, Jodr y joked in his introductor y remarks that it would be understandable if some audience members fell asleep during the recital. Jodr y described the Goldberg Variations as a great journey “from the melodic to the vir tuossic.”

The work begins with a delicate aria that certainly exerts a calming effect. The aria is followed by 30 variations, which share a common base line. Alternately buoyant, mournful and stately, they are united by Bach’s master y of counterpoint –– the juxtaposition of melodies for harmonic effect. Finally, the aria is played again, bringing the piece full circle. Jodry performed the recital on a harpsichord with two manuals, or keyboards. Whereas a piano produces sound by hitting strings with hammers, a harpsichord plucks its strings, producing a more metallic, twangy and bright tone. Since the player cannot vary the instrument’s loudness by exerting more pressure on the keys, he or she must provide expression in subtler ways. Though Jodr y was rhythmically precise, he expertly varied the tempo to create drama in the music. Jodry’s skill was especially evident in the 12 movements that are

meant for two voices, or, in musical terms, “a 2 clav.” With his left hand on the upper keyboard and his right hand on the lower one, Jodr y was essentially playing a duet by himself. In the 14th variation, for example, his two hands engaged in a call-and-response exchange, and his arms crossed ever y so often. Other memorable variations included number 10, the work’s sole fugue, and number 25, which Jodry played with a wistful-sounding lute voice. Trained at the New England Conser vator y, Jodr y is a specialist in early music. At Brown, he ser ves as director of choral activities and teaches music history, conducting and harpsichord performance. He is also music director at First Unitarian Church, located on Benevolent Street. Proceeds from the recital went to the Brown University Chorus, which will travel to Prague and Vienna in June.

“Gever/Shabab” is on stage at the Rites and Reason Theatre from Feb. 26th to March 1st, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.

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SportsMonday The Brown Daily Herald

Stock sets saves mark in season finale

Monday, February 23, 2009 | Page 7

By Andrew Braca Sports Editor

The women’s hockey team ended its season this weekend, capping the college careers of several players, including captain and goaltender Nicole Stock ’09, who broke her own single-season saves record in the team’s final game, a 3-1 victory over Quinnipiac Saturday at Meehan Auditorium. “It was a nice way to go out on Senior Day,” said Head Coach Digit Murphy. “The kids played hard. After all the losses we’ve had all season it’s nice to go out with a victory.” The win over Quinnipiac followed a 3-0 loss to Princeton the previous day. The .500 weekend left the team’s final record at 7-21-1 and 6-16-0 in ECAC Hockey, each two wins better than last season. All three of the team’s seniors — Stock, a Herald sports staff writer, Savannah Smith ’09 and Frances Male ’09 — started both games to bring their careers to a close. Brown 3, Quinnipiac 1 Saturday against Quinnipiac (3-26-5, 2-15-5 ECAC Hockey), the Bears brought a sometimes trying season to a victorious close. The Bears started quickly, taking just 5:12 to break through for the lead on the first goal of forward Katelyn Landry’s ’12 career. Jacquie Pierri ’12 took a shot from the right

By Benjy Asher Sports Editor

Courtesy of Jesse Morgan

The Bears split the weekend, losing to Princeton Friday but beating Quinnipiac in the season’s final game.

point that deflected off Landry at the top of the crease and ricocheted just inside the right post. Male was also credited with an assist on the play. It was early in the second period, with Brown still holding its one-goal advantage, that Stock recorded her record-breaking 1,005th save of the season. She would finish the game with 1,026 saves for the season and 2,848 for her career, extending a record she captured earlier in the season. Jenna Dancewicz ’11 doubled the lead 9:32 into the second period

W. hockey seniors say goodbye By Andrew Braca Sports Editor

In the afterglow of Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Quinnipiac, the women’s hockey team’s seniors were honored in a post-game ceremony as the team both reflected on its accomplishments and turned its attention to seasons to come. The star of the ceremony — and the season — was captain Nicole Stock ’09, a Herald sports staff writer. She leaves holding many of the team’s goaltending records, including a singleseason saves record she set earlier that day and Brown’s record for career saves — 2,848 in all. After the game, Stock was awarded the Panda Cup, which is given for “outstanding team spirit, good sportswomanship and dedication to playing ice hockey,” according to a guide provided by the Athletic Department at the game. “It’s nice, for sure, to be acknowledged for that kind of stuff,” Stock said. “At the same time, it’s a long season. You just grind it out and you don’t really think about that stuff when you’re playing.” “It’s bittersweet to be losing Stock,” said Head Coach Digit Murphy. “She’s just an incredible person and athlete. Quite frankly, Brown’s lucky to have her as a graduate, because she’s going to go on to do great things. She’s got the work ethic of any Olympian I’ve ever coached.” Murphy also said her two senior forwards both closed out their careers

Wrestling wins big over Columbia after loss to Cornell

with strong games. Frances Male ’09 “played with energy and enthusiasm — like she had the heart of a lion,” Murphy said. “The third goal was scored because of her ability to ... get it out on the (penalty kill) all the way down and allow (Nicole Brown ’10) to go down and do the wrap-around.” Savannah Smith ’09 “really fought hard along the boards,” she added. “She’s small in stature but I thought she played big today.” Murphy said the young team will get older, but the Bears will bring in more recruits than they will lose players to graduation. “We’ll bring in seven or eight more kids,” she said. “We need to be more talented to win more games, so my assistants have been out beating the bushes for even more talent. I think we’ll bring in a few more talented forwards so we can put the puck in the net. We have a goaltender, one of the top goalies in Canada.” Murphy declined to name the goalie, but the Waterloo Chronicle reported earlier this month that Katie Jamieson, a goaltender who currently stars between the pipes for of the Toronto Junior Aeros will join the Bears next year. “I think next year’s team, with the kids that are here now, is going to be stronger,” Murphy continued. “Our kids are going to be wiser. We’re going to have a big senior class. I’m looking forward to success of our future, and I think it starts because of senior rolemodeling that happened this year.”

with her team-leading eighth goal of the season, off assists by assistant captain Andrea Hunter ’10 and Nicole Brown ’10. Brown notched a goal of her own 8:09 later while her team was on the penalty kill. After the Bears cleared the puck all the way down the ice, Bobcats goalie Nanna Holm Glaas came out of the crease to stop the puck for a teammate. Brown stole the puck, circled behind the net, wrapped around and slipped the puck just past a diving Glaas. With 2:19 remaining in the second period, Bruno had a 3-0 lead

to protect. “We pulled together as a team and were like, ‘Okay, we have three. Let’s manage the game, be smart about it and hopefully we’ll come out with a win.’ I think we did that really well in the third. We played good defense,” Stock said. The Bobcats ruined Stock’s shutout bid 5:31 into the third period, but the goalie bore down to keep it from getting any closer, making 12 of her 33 saves in the final frame. Murphy was pleased with many continued on page 8

The wrestling team’s final dual meets of the season ended on a positive note this weekend with an emphatic 22-9 victory over Columbia on Saturday, after struggling in a 32-9 loss to a dominant Cornell team on Friday. Cornell, ranked No. 2 in the USA Today/Intermat/NWCA poll, jumped out to an 11-0 lead after two matches, but Stephen DeLorenzo ’10 picked up the first win of the day for the Bears with a 5-2 decision at 141 pounds. At 157, Bryan Tracy ’10 pulled out a 3-2 win, and Zach Zdrada ’09 closed out the meet with a 3-2 win at 285. Despite the final outcome, the Bears felt they wrestled well against Cornell. “I thought the guys wrestled great and wrestled tough,” said Bran Crudden ’10. “We won three out of ten bouts against a real tough team, so I thought the team wrestled excellent on Friday, and that momentum carried over into Saturday for our match against Columbia.” Against the Lions, Greg Einfrank ’10 got Brown off to a good start in his 125-pound match, where Einfrank scored two takedowns in the first pericontinued on page 8

M. basketball wiped out by Big Red By Katie Wood Assistant Spor ts Editor

The men’s basketball team struggled this weekend to build on its first conference win, Feb. 14, over Princeton, as Columbia and Cornell each took a game from the Bears. Columbia 70 T h e 57 Brown Bears (7-17, 1-9 Ivy) fell to Columbia 85 Cornell (11-12, 6-4 45 Brown Ivy) Friday night at the Pizzitola Center by a score of 70-57. The Bears then suffered their second home loss in as many nights Saturday against Cornell (18-8, 8-2 Ivy), an 85-45 rout that the Big Red dominated from start to finish. Poor outside shooting plagued the Bears throughout the homestand, as Brown shot 18 percent from behind the three-point line on the weekend, while its opponents shot better than 45 percent. Columbia 70, Brown 57 In Friday’s game, the Bears couldn’t keep pace with Columbia’s hot shooting, falling by thirteen points. Columbia outshot Brown 54 percent to 41 percent from the floor and 53 percent to 22 percent from three-point range. Columbia’s bench also out-scored Brown’s by an outstanding 45-1 margin, including 21 points from Patrick Foley

Courtesy of Jesse Morgan / Herald

Men’s basketball fell to Columbia and Cornell over the weekend.

and 14 from KJ Matsui. Columbia guard Noruwa Agho, a star ter, led all scorers with 27 points. Muller y led the way for the Bears with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting, also making 7-of-8 at the free throw line. Mullery also added four blocks, bringing his season

total to 43. That set a new Brown record, surpassing Jaime Kilburn’s ’05 42 in the 2003-2004 season. Sullivan followed close behind with 19 points, going 7-of-14 from the field. Adrian Williams ’11 joined the two in double figures continued on page 9

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports M onday

Women’s icers split weekend games continued from page 7 aspects of her team’s play against a Bobcats team that she called much stronger than the one Brown beat 3-0 on Jan. 30. “I was proud with our adjustments that we made,” Murphy said. “We executed our forecheck really well (and) we got pucks to net. ... Our (penalty) kill was good, it was aggressive (and) we blocked a lot of shots.” “My hat’s off to the team,” she added. “They played like a team and they finished like a team, which is what I’m most proud of.” Princeton 3, Brown 0 Brown’s contest the previous night against Princeton (18-9-2, 156-1 ECAC Hockey) ended in defeat even though the Bears hung within a goal until the game’s final minutes. The Tigers took the lead on

a power-play goal just 1:37 into the second period, then added a pair of insurance goals in the game’s final six minutes to seal the win. The Bears’ struggling offense, shut out for the 10th time of the season, was handicapped by a lack of power-play opportunities and was unable to gain a man advantage until there were seven seconds remaining in the game. Princeton rolled to a 49-21 advantage in shots. “I didn’t think that Princeton played no-penalty hockey for that long,” Murphy said. “It was very frustrating, especially since they scored on their power play.” There were a few positives the Bears could take out of the game. Stock had a typically strong game with 46 saves, while the defense stepped up to block 17 shots, led by Erica Kromm ’11 and Paige Pyett ’12 with three apiece.

www.browndailyherald.com

Monday, February 23, 2009

“My hat’s off to the team.”

— Digit Murphy, women’s hockey head coach

Wrestlers bounce back against Columbia continued from page 7 od en route to a 6-4 win. Ross Baldwin ’09, wrestling at 133, followed with a 7-3 victory in the final home match of his career, and at 141, DeLorenzo scored a takedown in the first period to take a 2-0 lead, and held on for a 4-0 win, giving the Bears a 9-0 lead following the first three matches of the day. In the match at 149, Columbia looked poised for its first win of the day when Dave Foxen ’11 fell behind 4-2 early in the second period. But Foxen scored a takedown with three seconds left in the second period to tie the match at 4-4, then took control of the match in the closing seconds of the third period to come away with a 10-5 win. At 157, Tracy fell behind 3-2 in the opening seconds of the third period, but a two-point takedown with just over a minute left gave Tracy a 4-3 advantage. In the final minute, Tracy stayed in control, resisting his opponent’s continuous attempts to tie the match with a reversal, and held on for the 4-3 win to expand Brown’s lead to 15-0. “I think the whole team in general did a good job of controlling our matches against Columbia, which enabled us to come out with the victory,” Crudden said. “The atmosphere was real good, and we had a lot of our al-

ums there, so everyone stepped it up, and I think we all wrestled well.” The Lions finally got on the board at 165 when, after two scoreless periods, Columbia’s Eren Civan scored an escape and a takedown in the final period for a 3-1 win over Chris Musser ’09, cutting the Bears’ lead to 15-3. But Crudden swung the momentum back Brown’s way with a dominant performance at 174. Crudden scored two takedowns in the first 40 seconds of the match, and an escape and two more takedowns in the second period widened the lead to 10-0 for Crudden, who won the match with an 11-2 major decision to give the Bears a 19-3 lead. “I was able to get my offense going on my feet, as well as on top, to score some points and pick up the major,” Crudden said. “I shot an outstep single on my feet to get the first takedown, and on top I used the half I always use to ride on top during the first and second periods, then in the third period I was just holding onto the lead.” At 185, Matt Gevelinger ’09 fell behind, 2-0, with just under a minute left in the first period, but responded with a reversal and a takedown to take a 3-2 lead heading into the second period. After Gevelinger widened his lead to 5-2 in the second period, Columbia’s Kenji Porter

scored a two-point reversal to come within one point early in the third period. But Gevelinger came right back with a one-point escape, and a takedown with one minute left gave Gevelinger an 8-4 lead. Porter cut the lead again with a two-point reversal, but Gevelinger held on to secure the 9-6 win. That would be the last win of the day for the Bears, as Branden Stearns ’09 and Zdrada lost matches at 197 and 285, respectively. The bout at 197 went into the final period tied 2-2, and Columbia’s Lou Miller scored an escape in the opening seconds of the third period to take a 3-2 lead that he would not relinquish. Zdrada headed into the final frame of his match with a 5-1 deficit, and started the third period off with a two-point reversal, but that was as close as he would come, as Columbia’s Ryan Flores secured a 6-3 win, making the final score 22-9 in favor of Brown. With the win over Columbia, Brown improved its record to 3-2 in Ivy League competition, good for third in the league, behind Cornell (5-0) and No. 25 Penn (4-1). With the dual meet season over, the Bears will now turn their attention to the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships, which will take place in Philadelphia on Mar. 7-8.

Monday, February 23, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Monday, February 23, 2009 | Page 9

S ports M onday

Men’s basketball falls to two conference rivals continued from page 7

with 10 points. Brown jumped out to a quick early lead against the Lions but quickly fell behind trailed throughout the second half. An early scoring spurt started the weekend strong for the Bears, as Matt Mullery ’10 scored four early points and Morgan Kelly ’11 connected on a three-pointer to put the Bears up 11-4 with 11:16 remaining in the first half. The game tightened but remained close midway through the period as both teams struggled to create shot opportunities at the offensive end. But the Lions found their groove and finished the half on a 17-4 scoring run, breaking out of its offensive cold streak while Brown continued to struggle. Brown headed into the locker room down, 27-21. “We went cold shooting the ball, but when that happens, we can’t give up runs like that,” Muller y said. “Guys are playing a lot of minutes, but we have to play well on both sides of the ball.” The Bears scored the majority of their points in the paint in the first half, as the team could not find a shooting rhythm from the outside, going 12.5 percent (1 for 8) from behind the three-point line. Columbia stayed in control after the break, scoring the first six points of the second half to take a commanding 33-21 barely a minute into the period. Brown made a push to get back into the game, as a jumper by tricaptain Peter Sullivan ’11 brought the Bears within five, 45-40, capping a 7-0 run with nine minutes left.

But the Lions responded to Brown’s run with a 15-6 run of their own, and the Bears got no closer than nine points the rest of the way. The Lions built up their lead by shooting 65 percent from the floor and 5-for-8 from behind the arc in the second half. Cornell 85, Brown 45 After a hard-fought loss on Friday, the Bears found themselves on the receiving end of a thrashing from defending Ivy League champions and current league leader Cornell. Cornell over-powered a smaller Brown team by a rebounding margin of 48-29. Brown’s shooting woes also continued, as the Bears struggled to make shots, shooting just 14 percent from three-point range and 32 percent overall. Cornell made more than half its shots from the floor. The Big Red put four players in double digits for the game, led by Foote with 16, Ryan Wittman with 15 and Louis Dale, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, who netted 12. Sullivan led the way for the Bears with 12 points, and Mullery finished with 11. Co-captain Chris Skrelja ’09 played well all-around for the Bears, contributing six points, five rebounds and six assists. Despite a hot start from Mullery, who scored 10 of the Bears’ first 11 points, Cornell pulled away early. By the time a Mullery lay-up put the Bears in double figures, the Big Red had already opened a 21-11 lead that they would relentlessly extend throughout the game. With easy inside looks and dan-

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The Bears dropped to 1-9 in the Ivy League with two conference losses.

gerous outside shooting, Cornell built its lead to 44-27 by halftime, with forward Ryan Wittman going 3-for-3 from behind the arc in the first period. “I got off to a good start, but they started collapsing, putting the pressure on, and forcing us to make outside shots,” Mullery said. “We just didn’t have a good weekend of shooting.” With tri-captain Scott Friske ’09, a 6’-7” for ward, out of the lineup because of illness, the Bears gave up a lot of size against the Big Red’s seven-foot center, Jeff Foote. Foote began the second half with two emphatic dunks, sparking a 10-0 run that blew the game open even further. Sullivan ended the drought with 15:38 remaining, but Brown failed to build any momentum. With the team down by 30 with

over ten minutes to play, Head Coach Jesse Agel emptied his bench. Nearly every player logged at least 15 minutes of play in the game, an opportunity to spread playing time among the young Brown squad. The Bears second unit faired little better, and Cornell ultimately won by 40. “We missed the leadership and floor presence of Friske,” Mullery said. “He’s played hard all year — it’s hard to go out there without him.” The Bears have two more weeks of conference play remaining in the season. They will travel to Princeton and Penn for the season’s final road trip before returning home to celebrate their two graduating seniors, Friske and Skrelja, during a final homestand against Dartmouth and Harvard.

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Monday, February 23, 2009

e d i to r i a l

We’re in business

The University recently took the first steps toward establishing a partnership with the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, a business-oriented Spanish university. The Herald reported last week that the University will plan exchanges with the Instituto de Empresa that might eventually include study abroad opportunities. We view this collaboration as a welcome development in the University’s internationalization efforts, and a valuable chance to reexamine business education at Brown. Due to restrictive language in the University’s charter, Brown is one of only two members of the Ivy League without a graduate school in business. Brown still offers a handful of business-related courses in the engineering department and the Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship concentration. These classes seem to clash with Brown’s academic philosophy. Like most reputable institutions of higher learning, Brown does not offer a pre-law concentration. The reasons are many: Pre-professional courses of study conflict with a liberal arts education, colleges cannot teach the subject as well as law schools and pre-law students do not have an advantage in graduate school admissions. The same considerations apply to business programs at the undergraduate level. We’re especially concerned about the study of management, entrepreneurship, innovation, commerce and related topics at Brown because there is no organized discipline or robust tradition of scholarship in these areas. We question the rigor of business-related programs relative to other courses of study at Brown. For example, the “Organizational Studies” and “Entrepreneurship and Technology Management” tracks in COE allow concentrators to fulfill the statistics requirement in any of seven different fields, including the Departments of Education and Psychology. Entrepreneurial courses, in engineering and more broadly, contrast with the rest of the curriculum. According to the Department of Engineering’s Web site, these classes are largely intended to prepare science and engineering students for careers at start-up companies. We fear that other students who only enroll in “engineering-lite” courses and their fluffy COE counterparts will graduate with some basic training in marketing but without anything marketable. Given the University’s shortcomings in business education and the field’s limitations as an undergraduate academic discipline, we strongly encourage administrators to aggressively pursue collaboration with the Instituto de Empresa. Short of a dramatic transformation of Brown’s existing program, the best solution may be to outsource business education altogether. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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

F ranny choi

l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r s

Human rights abuses are no laughing matter To the Editor: During last Thursday’s Janus Forum lecture on the universality of human rights, I heard a lot of laughter in Salomon 101, though to be frank, nothing that was actually humorous. Speaker John Yoo’s tactic of using jokes and snide remarks to deflect questions and statements that challenged his stance was a pathetic and sad thing to witness. There is nothing humorous about the deprivation of human rights. Yoo’s “humor” was a poor defense mechanism and reflected his complete disregard

for human rights. Perhaps he and many of the audience members who laughed at his “jokes” should reflect on what their laughter meant, and how it may have served as a way to ignore a serious problem while shrugging away culpability for an issue that should truly concern all of us. After Thursday’s talk I approached Yoo with a question about his use of humor. Tellingly, he chose to brush it off. Anna Hidalgo ’09 Feb. 20

Senior Editors Rachel Arndt Catherine Cullen Scott Lowenstein

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 Jilyn Chao Asst. Finance Director Managers Local Sales Kelly Wess National Sales Kathy Bui University Sales Alex Carrere Recruiter Sales Christiana Stephenson Credit and Collections Matt Burrows Opinions Opinions Editor Sarah Rosenthal Editorial Page Board James Shapiro Editorial Page Editor Nick Bakshi Board member Zack Beauchamp Board member Sara Molinaro Board member Post- magazine Arthur Matuszewski Kelly McKowen

Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Monday, February 23, 2009 | Page 11

A defense of the Corporation BY SUSANNAH KROEBER Opinions Columnist With financial troubles setting in at Brown, it doesn’t surprise me that students’ discontentment with the governing body of the University has increased recently. The standard concerns about the lack of transparency in the Corporation’s decision-making process have transformed into anger about the handling of the University’s finances, including resentment over what programs have been cut and which projects have lost funding. A number of students have vocally protested the Corporation’s actions, with little regard for what those actions might entail for students. It’s time to think about what exactly these decisions, and the alternatives, mean. Being concerned over financial problems at an institution where you live, work and study does seems reasonable. But the forms that recent protests have taken, and the issues they have focused on, have been somewhat bizarre. Earlier this month, The Herald repor ted a controversial $15,000 registration fee for Vice President for International Affairs David Kennedy ’76 to attend the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting (“$15k donation stirs controversy,” Feb. 3).

But $15,000 is small change for a University with a multi-billion dollar endowment, and the benefits of Kennedy’s attendance may have justified the cost of admission. Because of Brown’s investment, a senior member of the administration was able to advance the University’s standing and network with potential donors and other influential figures. Brown students seem less bothered by the $15,000 fee than the Corporation’s de-

I almost wonder if Brown students would be less upset with the Corporation if it were called something more familiar and less capitalist. The Corporation is composed of a mixture of people: some who were previously affiliated with the University and some who weren’t, some who have extensive financial experience and some who don’t, and none of them have a monetar y stake in the University. Corporation members are not paid for

When it comes to the fair maintenance of a university, I’m glad that we are run by an oligarchy. cision-making procedures. Many students are concerned that the Corporation does not actively or adequately solicit student feedback on important financial decisions. At least, this is the charge levied against them. But this is hardly a bad way for a university to operate. When it comes to university governance an old adage applies. Too many cooks spoil the broth, however undemocratic that may sound. When it comes to the fair maintenance of a university, I’m glad that we are run by an oligarchy.

their efforts but attempt to maintain and improve this University of ours. They act as students’ advocates and, unlike other members of the community, can govern equitably because they don’t have any financial interest in the University. A democratically operated Brown University wouldn’t last long. In the current financial crisis, decisions about investments, staff hiring, financial aid and program cuts have to be made quickly. If the federal government and its efforts to stimulate the economy have

taught us anything, it’s that democracy is often a slow process that cannot move at the pace necessar y to implement changes at the opportune moment. With a small group of experienced individuals who have dealt with the University’s finances in the past, the Corporation can reach decisions and act on them without having to deal with coalition-building and other political pressures. I believe histor y will vindicate the Corporation for their actions in this time of financial instability. Their decisive action is needed to keep the University afloat. Students are primarily interested in the short term, as they are only on College Hill for four or five years. The Corporation, with a membership that ser ves for six- or 11-year terms, can take into account Brown’s longterm health. Brown students aren’t exposed to the ugly details of running a machine as large as the University — they only see the people determining its direction and blame them. We need to look at where the University is going, and how far we have come already before we decide that the form of governance needs to change.

Susannah Kroeber ’11 is a Slavic studies concentrator from Beijing, China. She can be reached at Susannah_Kroeber@brown.edu.

Stealing from the poor and giving to the rich SIMON LIEBLING Opinions Columnist A curious point in President Ruth Simmons’ e-mail to the Brown community on the financial apocalypse: “In light of our commitment to meet the full need of our financial aid students, scholarship expenditures have increased. Given all the changes that have occurred since the FY09 budget was approved last February, we now expect scholarship expenditures to be almost $1 million more than planned.” I’ll pass on the opportunity to comment on just who gets to decide what constitutes “need.” In spirit, the added contribution to financial aid—a 9.8 percent increase over last years’ aid budget, according to the provost — is laudable. Props for finding an extra million for aid in a year when the endowment took an $800 million hit while scraping $21 million off the operating budget. But then I have to wonder: if the University could find a million dollars for additional aid in a year like this, why couldn’t it back when things weren’t so terrifying, when the endowment was knocking on the three billion dollar door? The school, it seems, wasn’t always living up to its commitment to make a Brown education affordable. And it’s not that the need wasn’t there; plenty of students who even then were taking out loans could have used that added help. The Corporation acknowledged that when it targeted loans for reduction

last spring. I’m skeptical, then, that Brown is ever doing as much as it can to ease the financial yoke that it imposes with its outrageous tuition. Gradually and surreptitiously, it shifts to its students the burden of funding its operations. (Surreptitiously, except when the chancellor gaffes and says that Brown is “lucky” to rely so heavily on tuition.) The plan outlined in the president’s e-mail and the budget approved by the Corporation uses these same old habits to sustain Brown through its financial difficulties. For students, it still includes a 3 percent tuition hike. Staff

it through some tough times. Our families, apparently, will be able to pay even more for our education in this climate. Staff will clearly be in a position to give up their jobs for the good of the school. Talk about being Ever True. As one of those expected to step up to sustain my school, I feel comfortable saying to the administration here that no matter how much money you’ve lost, you’re still sitting on $2 billion. As desperate as your circumstances may seem, you’ve got it way better than we do. What is often forgotten when considering

Despite administrative assurances to the contrary, Brown’s plan for dealing with the financial crisis is built on the backs of students and staff. get a pay freeze and, by the president’s euphemism, face “possible reductions.” And I’ll bet that when the layoffs come, the pink slip goes to the office assistant, not the genius who lost 28 percent of our endowment. So despite administrative assurances to the contrar y, their plan is built largely on the backs of students and staff. The implicit assumption seems to be that the University is suffering from the financial crisis far worse than anyone else. They act like the constituent parts of the community are plenty able to bankroll the school while Brown roughs

Brown’s financial circumstances is that no matter what amount of money has been lost, the resources still on hand are way larger. But the University obstinately refuses to dip further into its rainy day fund on this most rainy of days. Instead, it goes calling on individuals with less financial clout, less ability to assume debt and far less cash stashed away for the future, and demands they pay up, whether with their money or their careers. Even though things are apparently so bad as to warrant a $21 million budget cut and cancelled expansion projects, the University

thinks it can justify asking its students and their families for a greater contribution. Consider the basic equation in all its absurdity. “We have to find a way to spend less money, so you all have to spend more.” The presumption: “This situation hurts us a lot more than all of you.” I wish. The reality is that students can’t afford higher tuition any more than Brown can afford a bigger Graduate School. Staff can’t afford to lose their jobs. Students will be forced out of this school and deprived of the education they have earned. The families of the victims of job cuts will suffer. There will be human tragedy wrought by the administration’s plan. The just answer is to cancel the tuition increase and guarantee the employment of every competent staff member on campus. Fill the gap by tapping a little bit more into that still unimaginably huge endowment. Give up on the superfluous construction projects that, unbelievably, the University says it is still pursuing. But don’t ask for more money when you know that there isn’t a soul who can spend more this year than last. If Brown does, people will leave. The University will necessarily become more exclusive and less diverse. But since we at Brown have a chancellor who sat on the board of an organization responsible for kicking homeless people out of Manhattan, you have to ask whether that’s the point.

Simon Liebling ’12 is from New Jersey. He can be reached at simon.liebling@gmail.com.

Today

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Harpsichord: Music to Brown’s ears

The Brown Daily Herald

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to day

to m o r r o w

35 / 20

35 / 17

W. hockey wraps season with a victory

Monday, February 23, 2009

Page 12

the news in images

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4 c a l e n da r

comics Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

February 23, 2009

February 24, 2009

2 P.M. — “Emancipated Memories: Uncovering the Hidden Faces of Slavery,” Carriage House Gallery

11 A.M. — The Great Jeans Giveaway, J. Walter Wilson

4:30 P.M. — Prof. Steven Koonin. “Energy, Environment, Security: Can We Have it All?” Barus and Holley 166

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4:30 P.M. — Panel Discussion: “Evolution and Religion,” Pembroke Hall 305

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Rosemary Portabello Sub, Clam Strips on a Roll, Spinach Pie

Lunch — Meat Tortellini with Sauce, Cheesy Zucchini Casserole, Raspberry Swirl Cookies

Dinner — Vegan Garden Chili, Chicken Milanese, Beef Pot Pie

Dinner — Sweet & Sour Tofu, Chinese Fried Rice, Dutch Cherry Cake

Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley

RELEASE DATE– Monday, February 23, 2009

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

ACROSS 1 It went everywhere Mary did 5 Capp’s Li’l __ 10 “Good buddy” 14 “Tosca” feature 15 Pickling medium 16 Je ne sais quoi 17 Actress Ringwald makes her escape? 19 1502, to Caesar 20 Hoi __: the masses 21 Moved, like many hairlines 23 Titles for Fox and Rabbit 26 2004 film in which Brad Pitt played Achilles 27 Nevada border lake 30 Franz’s “Alas!” 32 Davis of “Do the Right Thing” 35 Salty greeting 36 Emergency wailers 38 Env. in an env., say 39 D.C. wheeler-dealer 40 Lions and tigers, but not bears 41 Commotion 42 Popular ISP 43 Legally on the hook 44 Daze 45 Hair arrangement 47 Souvenir shop top 48 Gypsum painting surface 49 Frosty coating 51 Jordan neighbor 53 Wanders the Web 56 Plant pests 60 Metronome sound 61 Actress Brice prepares for a trip? 64 Sommer of “A Shot in the Dark” 65 Beginning of el año 66 Exited 67 Snoopy 68 Lear daughter 69 Piano’s 88

DOWN 1 Genie’s home 2 Buck suffix 3 Flour producer 4 Tennis match kid 5 Yippie Hoffman 6 Pal in the ’hood 7 Zero 8 __’acte: intermission 9 Put back to zero 10 Small parts for big names 11 Ebsen ushers at the theater? 12 Cleveland’s lake 13 Busting operation 18 Olden days 22 Christian symbol 24 Rebuke bitterly 25 Medieval copyists 27 Seville snacks 28 “Give __, don’t pollute!”: old Forest Service slogan 29 Actress Hunter visits a pawn shop? 31 English regatta town 33 Pakistan river 34 ‘’Money-saving,’’ in product names

36 Signora’s six 37 Hillary Clinton, __ Rodham 40 Pet parasites 44 Seattle NFLer 46 Not at all intense 48 Footballer George who ultimately inspired a Reagan nickname 50 Allude (to)

52 Synthetic silk 53 Vitamin __: PABA 54 Hershey’s candy 55 Compos mentis 57 Slurpee cousin 58 Designer label initials 59 Concordes, e.g.: Abbr. 62 Not pos. 63 Gun owners’ org.

Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

The One About Zombies | Kevin Grubb

xwordeditor@aol.com

02/23/09

Classic Deep-Fried Puppies | Cara FitzGibbon

By Mike Peluso (c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

02/23/09