Thursday, March 19, 2009

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 39 | Thursday, March 19, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

In increments, S&J progress unfolds

By Ben Schreckinger Senior Staf f Writer

Two years after the Corporation approved several recommendations of the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, major initiatives are making incremental progress toward completion.

Among responses that arose from the nationally scrutinized committee’s work, the University promised to endow a $10 million

fund to aid local public schools, create a slave trade memorial and establish or expand an academic center to study slaver y and its legacy.

Though most of the committee’s cornerstone recommendations remain far from full implementation, the University expects that its responses will have passed several milestones by the end of the semester.

A commission tasked with

brainstorming the memorial issued its report Monday, and the fund may make its first grants within the next month. A fellowship program for graduate students committed to serving local public schools — one aspect of Brown’s response that got off the ground quickly — will graduate its first class in May. But even as the University makes steady progress, much work remains to be done on the committee’s ambitious agenda.

Providence schools fund To date, the University has only raised about $1.5 million of a proposed $10 million fund that would make regular grants to Providence’s public schools. President Ruth Simmons told the Brown University Community Council Tuesday that the money raised so far has come from Corporation continued on page 4

SPOTLIGHT

In search of home, lit. lovers find Irish cheer

By Juliana Friend Staf f Writer

Matthew Lawrence is not a particular fan of St. Patrick’s Day, or of one of Ireland’s best-known writers, James Joyce.

But Lawrence donned a green tie and sport jacket Monday night to lead a reading of the Irish author’s short stor y “The Dead” amid the crowded stacks and shelves of Ada Books. About 30 local residents, college students and professors filled the small space of the independent bookstore, located in the hear t of downtown Providence.

Lawrence, who organizes readings and other literary events in the city through his Web site, Not About the Buildings, picked a set of names from a green cigar box, drawing up the list of the night’s

19 readers. He gestured Maureen Reddy, one of the readers, toward a moss-colored armchair. With a copy of James Joyce’s “Dubliners” in one hand and a bottle of Harp Lager in the other, Reddy pronounced Joyce’s words in a coarse whisper.

“And haven’t you your own language to keep in touch with — Irish?” she read aloud.

But the night — complete with Irish soda bread — was not just a celebration of the luck of the Irish.

Lawrence intended the event to keep a love of literature alive in the Providence community.

“My goal is to make sure people keep reading,” he said.

Not About the Buildings Lawrence founded Not About continued on page 9

Kim Perley / Herald

Ada Books held a reading of 19 stories by Irish writer James Joyce to commemorate St. Patrick’s day last Tuesday.

Interdept. programs’ futures in question

by Nicole Friedman Senior Staff Writer

With institutional budget cuts looming for the next fiscal year and possibly beyond, some concentration programs housed outside of department structures are concerned about their ability to provide consistency to concentrators.

Unlike departmental concentrations, these multidisciplinary programs often rely on the good will of related departments to provide faculty to teach classes or to agree to cross-list their own courses.

Development Studies, in particular, is “unsure” how it will find teachers for core concentration requirements next year, said Associate Professor of Sociology and International Studies Gianpaolo Baiocchi, director of the development studies program.

The program has depended since last spring upon Cornel Ban, a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies, to teach core concentration courses and to advise about 10 theses. But Ban’s fellowship ends after this semester, and no one is lined up to replace him, according to Baiocchi.

“As of this moment, we are unsure how we’re going to staff those courses,” he said.

The program receives a $500 continued on page 2

E-mail error generates changes

By Joanna Wohlmuth Metro Editor

inside

Brown’s Office of Financial Aid most likely did not violate federal or state laws when it inadvertently revealed the names of nearly 1,800 students who have initiated an application for University financial assistance, according to Steven McDonald, general counsel at the Rhode Island School of Design.

On Monday afternoon, the office sent e-mail messages reminding students about which documents they needed to submit and the application’s deadline. Each of the three messages showed the Brown e-mail addresses — including first and last names — of approximately 500 firstyears, sophomores and juniors who have submitted financial aid docu-

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

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mentation, and the fourth contained nearly 300. In all, The Herald counted 1,773 names mistakenly divulged Monday.

Normally, students are sent information by blind carbon copy, or “BCC,” which does not reveal an email’s other recipients, said Director of Financial Aid James Tilton.

Though the release was regrettable, it was not a breach of state or federal law, said McDonald, who has edited a book about the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. “It was a mistake and we now have to put procedures in place so that kind of thing won’t happen again,” Tilton said, noting that the office routinely sends students similar reminders but had never made such a mistake.

E-mails will now be internally tested prior to sending. Messages

will be distributed to smaller contact groups, and each will also be addressed to a staff member so that any mistakes will be caught more quickly, Tilton said.

Students whose names were released received an e-mail yesterday, apologizing for the mistake and reiterating the office’s commitment to protecting student confidentiality.

The office received six e-mails from students notifying them of the mistake but has not received any specific complaints, Tilton said.

Since no personally identifiable information — such as transcripts and social security numbers — was revealed, the office does not believe any violations of student confidentiality occurred, Tilton said.

“It’s not really a violation of FERPA to make an honest mistake,”

Frederic Lu / Herald

An e-mail that revealed the names of Financial Aid applicants was sent Monday afternoon.

McDonald said Wednesday. “They are doing the right thing” by admitting the mistake and taking steps to prevent it from happening again, he added.

Under FERPA, the U.S. Department of Education may review a university’s policies if confidential

information is improperly released, but students do not have the right to sue colleges if their privacy is breached, McDonald said.

“This does not sound like a particularly big deal,” McDonald said. “It shouldn’t happen but sounds like an honest mistake.”

News, 3

Metro, 5

Sports, 7

Opinions, 11

The good Book Kevin Roose ’09.5 wrote a book about his time at Liberty University

Parking Problems A lawsuit over zoning laws has stalled the opening of a sushi bar on Thayer.

Horsing Around Brown’s equestrian team copes with sick horses, travels to Florida

Barack’s budget Boris Ryvkin ’09 considers the proposed federal budget “class war”

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

herald@browndailyherald.com

Page 2

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

New technology makes for easy ATM deposits

By Katerina Dalavurak Contributing Writer

Bank of America has installed new imaging technology in the ATMs located adjacent to the Brown bookstore on Angell Street.

The new automatic teller machines scan checks and allow for deposits without the use of envelopes, Communications Executive at Bank of America Anne Pace wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

She wrote that image-enabled machings can automatically calculate totals and print an image of checks on the receipt.

The machines also “streamline the deposit process by eliminating the delivery time for checks to travel from the branch to the processing center,” she added. The new ATMs are easier to use and usually increase deposits by more than 30 percent, Pace wrote.

Installation of the machines occurred early last week , said Kat St. Amour, an employee of the bookstore cafe.

Lauren Kenney ’10, who said she frequented the ATMs both before and after the change, said the new feature is “smooth and easy to use — once you know how to do it.”

Pace said the installation was part of a nationwide program to install ATMs with the new imaging technology. She said she could provide no information on why the Angell Street location was chosen to receive them before other branch and ATM locations in the area.

Several students said the loca-

Hang Nguyen / Herald

New Bank of America ATMs on Angell Street scan deposits, eliminating the need for envelopes.

tion would frequently run out of envelopes, making depositing checks difficult prior to the change. “My friends were always complaining that they’d run out,” said Malka Key ’09.

Karin Freed ’09 said in the past she had to call the bank and ask them to restock on envelopes. She also said that when they were available she’d grab “at least four” extra envelopes as a precaution for lean times ahead.

Other students said they did not know about the change, but expressed interest in the new machines. “Sounds convenient,” said Erik Olson ’12. “I haven’t used the ATMs, but now I will. I have a lot of checks to deposit.”

sudoku

Thursday, March 19, 2009

“There’s an irrationality in the allocation of resources.”

— Gianpaolo Baiocchi, director of the Development Studies Program

Interdisciplinary programs struggle continued from page 1 stipend from the University each year for small expenses, which will remain intact for the coming fiscal year, Baiocchi said. The concentration program has also received extra funding in recent years from the University as its size has grown — there are now about 80 declared development studies concentrators, Baiocchi said.

But those resources do not cover course instruction and advising.

Since taking over as director of the program last year, Baiocchi has worked to implement a more stringent system of concentration requirements. Those now include four development studies courses, which are “all volunteer-taught,” he said.

“I basically talk people into giving us a course of their time,” he said.

“In a concentration of this size, it’s a problem.”

The concentration’s Departmental Undergraduate Group organized a letter-writing campaign to request that a position be made available next year, either for Ban or “someone like him,” to teach and advise theses, said Alison Fairbrother ’09, a leader of the DUG. The DUG wrote an e-mail to its listserv earlier this month, saying the concentration was “at risk of losing the sophomore seminar, the methods class, the thesis class and the amazing support of Professor Ban.” “The University never promised us a continuation of the fellowship,” Fairbrother said, but the DUG hopes to “maintain what we saw as being really wonderful productive changes” to the program since Ban’s arrival last spring.

She added that she transferred to Brown because of its development studies concentration, a program few other schools offer for undergraduates.

The campaign to keep the program at its current level has received

“overwhelming support” from concentrators, alumni and faculty, Fairbrother said. The DUG collected over 60 letters, Fairbrother said.

Baiocchi said earlier this week that he planned to give the letters, with his own cover letter, to the dean of the College and the head of the Watson Institute on Wednesday.

Baiocchi said he thinks the program will be able to staff the sophomore seminar and methods course next year, but he added that no one has been found to teach the thesis course in the fall. All DS concentrators are required to write theses.

Karen Lynch, communications manager at Watson, said she had no comment about the future of the concentration.

Limited access to resources Multidisciplinary concentrations like development studies have “less claim to resources” than departments, said Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies Phil Brown, who serves as the interim director of the Center for Environmental Studies.

The science and society concentration, which draws on courses in the departments of Biology and English, among others, is run by the Faculty Committee on Science and Technology Studies. Professor of Biology and Gender Studies Anne Fausto-Sterling PhD’70, who chairs the committee, said the concentration “would be budgeted differently” if it were a department.

But the program does not aim to become a department, she added, because it values its multidisciplinary status. Baiocchi said the same of development studies.

The science and society concentration offers two core courses to concentrators. For the rest, FaustoSterling said, she must consult with departments to make sure they are offering classes that can be cross-listed as science and society courses.

“We would like to do more,” she

said.

The committee receives a budget directly from the Office of the Provost each year, Fausto-Sterling said, and the program has assurance that it will be protected for the coming year. Though she said the concentration gets “adequate support to do what we’re doing right now,” it “could get cut” if the University is forced to make more budget reductions in future years.

“We’re pretty vulnerable,” FaustoSterling said.

Other multidisciplinary concentrations have been discontinued in years past due to a lack in support from faculty and departments. The biomedical ethics concentration, for example, was phased out during the 2005-2006 school year.

Nondepartmental programs are rarely given faculty lines, Brown said, referring to the ability to hire faculty, which all departments have.

Programs like science and society and development studies depend on faculty from other departments to teach core concentration courses.

“There’s an irrationality in the allocation of resources,” Baiocchi said. “Faculty lines and resources are administered to departments, but a significant portion of the teaching happens in interdisciplinar y concentrations, which don’t have resources.”

Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P’07 disagreed with Baiocchi’s contention that funding was prioritized poorly for departmental and nondepartmental programs.

“Just because something is housed in a department” does not mean it gets special treatment, Vohra said.

The University recognizes that “there are places where (budget cuts) will have a much bigger impact than other places,” Vohra said, adding that no programs will be forced to cut their operating budgets in a way that would harm their “core academic priorities.”

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Thursday, March 19, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS Roose’s biblical ruse leads to book

By Hannah Moser Senior Staff Writer

Study for midterm. Check.

Finish paper. Check.

Publish book.

Check.

Three years into his time at Brown, Kevin Roose ’09.5 has already written for national publications such as Esquire and SPIN. But Roose is heading into uncharted territory, even for him, with the release of his first book next Thursday.

Uncharted territory seems to be what Roose does best. “The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University” chronicles the spring semester of 2007 that Roose, a Herald opinions columnist, spent attending Liberty University, a school he calls “the polar opposite of Brown.”

At the largest evangelical university in the world, which Roose calls “Bible boot camp,” he “operated at hyperspeed,” trying to do everything at once in an attempt to get a complete picture of the kinds of lives that its 10,000 students live every day.

Roose described a typical day at the Lynchburg, Va. university beginning with convocation — chapel — three times a week before students went to class. In his classes, Roose studied subjects including the Old and New Testaments, creationist biology and introduction to evangelism. After classes, he sang in the choir, played intramural sports and attended Wednesday night church, all before a 12 a.m. curfew — 12:30 on weekends.

“I was technically undercover,” Roose said. Though he made a goal to be honest and to not lie any more than he had to, students didn’t know or suspect that he was anything more than another transfer student. “Mostly they just assumed I was fleeing Brown,” he said.

The idea for the project came when Roose was interning for A. J. Jacobs ’90 and the two visited Liberty founder Jerry Falwell’s famous church as part of Jacobs’ book, “The Year of Living Biblically.” There, Roose met some Liberty students and having heard about the university and its deeply restrictive rules, he wanted to see “whether it lived up to the hype.”

“I had never been exposed to Christian culture,” he said. Coming from the “ultimate secular family,” making the adjustment from Brown to Liberty, where drinking, smoking and R-rated movies are all forbidden, was not easy.

Many differences were obvious, like the way students spent Friday nights and the way they felt about gay marriage. Roose said there were similarities to be found too, though maybe not as obvious. He found that students at both Brown and Liberty are socially active and passionately follow their beliefs.

“My Brown friends and my Liberty friends would have a lot in common even though they would disagree about just about everything,” Roose said.

Roose, who had the opportunity to interview Jerry Falwell before his death in May 2007, said he was nervous to interview the man who was often seen as “a villain” in the secular world. They talked about what Falwell anticipated seeing in politics, but otherwise tried to keep the interview light.

“We know him for his outlandish public statements,” but Roose said he got to see Falwell as a pastor, grandfather and spiritual leader.

“This is not an expose,” Roose said. “It’s not pro-Liberty, but it’s not anti-Liberty.”

Though it was not Roose’s goal, such an immersion experience rarely leaves a person unchanged.

Roose said he tries to pray everyday and can identify as a Christian.

He still maintains friendships from Liberty and said his friends have been “really gracious” seeing their school as the subject for a book.

“The Unlikely Disciple” is the result of 500 pages of notes, about a year and a half of writing and countless revisions. “I know humility is a Christian virtue, but I’m proud of the way it turned out,” Roose said.

The book, published by Grand Central Publishing, has been available for pre-order online and will arrive in bookstores March 26.

For now, Roose’s next project is graduating. From there he says he’ll think about his next move, whether it leads to another book or freelancing.

“I’ll pray about it,” he said.

www.browndailyherald.com

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“I was technically undercover.”

— Kevin Roose ’09.5 on his semester at Liberty Univ.

Group celebrates Pakistani culture

By Chelsea Xu Contributing Writer

To educate the Brown community about Pakistani history and culture and to facilitate a discussion about its politics, a group of Brown students revived the Pakistani Students Association this spring.

Originally founded in 1999, the group had a sporadic existence for several years because of the fluctuating number of Pakistani students on campus. Last fall, some undergraduate and graduate students decided to restart the association, said Sumbul Siddiqui ’10, the group’s vice president of events.

Arsalan Ali Faheem GS, president of the group, said Brown’s Pakistani students are concerned about the sensationalist media coverage of their country and hope to offer a more complete picture of its society and culture to the Brown community.

“Pakistan is home to 170 million people, but it is never really well understood by the rest of the world,” Faheem said. “There is a lot more to Pakistan than just the extremists we see on TV.” American news coverage of Pakistan typically focuses on the tumultuous political situation within the country, Siddiqui said. “In the past few years, and especially after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the image of Pakistan has just gone downhill.”

In an effort to repair this image, the group’s members aim to spread awareness about Pakistani national and cultural identity, its art, music and films.

The group held its first event, the screening of the film “Kashf — The Lifting of the Veil,” on Wednesday as a part of Islam Awareness Month.

“We aim to stimulate intellectual discussion about Pakistani culture,” Faheem said. “Brown students are probably aware of the Pakistani situation at the macro level — the GDP, form of government and level of political instability, but to understand the people — you have to go beyond that.”

Faheem said the group wants to collaborate with the Watson Institute for International Studies to

arrange a variety of lecture series, bringing notable Pakistanis to campus. It would also like to sponsor charities in Pakistan and raise awareness about Pakistani humanitarian issues at Brown.

In the long run, Faheem said the group hopes to start a studentexchange program between Brown and Pakistani institutions.

Pakistan split from India in 1947 and has developed a “unique identity” since then, Faheem said.

“We hope to facilitate a discussion of this identity and increase understanding,” he said. “In the long run, we want to promote peace and progress in the region, and ties of friendship and mutual respect.”

Siddiqui, who grew up in the United States, said the group will give her the opportunity to “meet native Pakistanis who have a different perspective while sharing a common language.”

The association currently has more than 40 members, Siddiqui said. Since the group is still in its formative stages, most of the members are of Pakistani origin, but membership is open to all students and to members of the Providence community.

Nearly 75 people, including students, faculty members and members of the Providence community, attended Wednesday’s movie screening, and many stayed afterward to discuss the film with its director, Ayesha Khan.

Set in Pakistan, the movie deals with Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam that seeks to shed the ego to understand divinity and to come closer to God. In response to a question about why she made a movie on Sufism, Khan said, “The mystical core of Sufism is present in many religions.

They are all trying to answer the same question: who we are and why we are here.”

“I have had Native Americans tell me that Sufism is so similar to their own religions,” she said in an interview with The Herald after the screening.

Khan said she believes that Sufism can possibly bridge the conflict between Muslims and Hindus because it contains elements of both religions. She said she supports the Pakistani association in its effort to show a different side of Pakistan not available through the mainstream media.

Mikail Kalimuddin ’09, who is not a member of the association but attended the movie screening, said, “It’s always good to know more about a country.”

Members of the group said they were happy with the turnout at the movie. In the future, they said they hope to continue presenting untold stories of Pakistani society than those shown to people in the West.

“We never hear about the silent millions living everyday lives,” Faheem said.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, March 19, 2009

C ampus N EWS

S&J initiatives moving forward, if slowly continued from page 1 members.

Still, a first round of grants from the fund to schools will be announced “by the end of April,” according to Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations Marisa Quinn. “The exact grantees have not been decided” but broad categories for funding have been identified, she said.

“There may be some funds available immediately,” Quinn said, but “the bulk of funds” will be for the 2009-2010 school year. Quinn said she did not know how much money the grants would total.

Simmons said at the BUCC meeting that the University has encountered “a good deal of difficulty” in awarding the first round of grants. The University “invited the superintendent to submit proposals for funding,” but “the proposals did not match up with what the fund was trying to do,” she said.

“The fund could easily be confused with replacing existing funding as opposed to enriching the education at the public schools,” Simmons said. “The bias — if I may call it that — is really towards a classroom and the students,” not administrative programs, she said.

“The first round of grants is intended to clarify what the fund can support,” she said.

Slave trade memorial In response to the slavery and

justice committee’s recommendation to construct a public memorial to the history of the slave trade in Rhode Island, Simmons convened a commission of 10 members of the Brown, Providence and Rhode Island communities, with a range of expertise including public art displays, the local black experience and slavery’s history. That commission issued its report Monday.

The commission’s report includes six recommendations for memorials. It recommends that Brown’s Public Art Committee commission a memorial, that the University continue to sponsor public events focused on slavery’s legacy and “that a prize be created to recognize research on this subject.”

The report called for action from the city and state and recommended that the University also “memorialize Native American heritage at Brown and in this region.”

The report “affirmed what the steering committee initially recommended,” Quinn said.

It did not “recommend any particular timeline,” Quinn said.

The University’s Public Art Committee, which will now have the responsibility to plan a memorial, will largely determine the pace of the project, she said.

Quinn said the commission’s recommendations were not intended to be met by a single memorial.

She also said the final result “could be some concrete memorial” or a

less material means of commemorating slavery’s legacy, such as a traveling exhibit.

Studying slavery The academic por tion of Brown’s “slaver y and justice” agenda remains amorphous.

The Slavery and Justice report recommended that the University either create a new academic center for the study of slaver y and justice or significantly expand an existing program.

Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 told the BUCC this week that the University faced the question of how to deal not only with the histor y of slaver y, but with the contemporar y legacy of slaver y and its “ethical, moral (and) social” implications.

“Rather than decide all those questions in advance,” Kertzer said, “we have begun a search ... to find a faculty leader who’s a world expert in the histor y of slaver y.” A search is also on for two additional faculty with some specialty relating to slaver y and its legacy, he said.

The Herald reported last November that Department of History Chair Kenneth Sacks and Department of Africana Studies Chair Barrymore Bogues, who are involved with planning Brown’s academic response to the Report, were developing a major lecture series on the topic for this semester.

It is unclear if the lecture series is moving ahead as planned. Sacks

referred questions about the lecture series to Bogues, who said he was unavailable for an interview before press time.

Other progress In response to the slavery and justice committee’s report, the University established the Urban Education Fellows program, which will graduate its inaugural class this year. Urban education fellows will have their tuition waived after three years working in Providence public schools or education organizations.

Kertzer told the BUCC that the University expects eight fellows for the 2009-2010 academic years. The fellowship is open to those earning Master of Arts in Teaching and Urban Education Policy degrees.

Kertzer also said the University would encourage collaboration between Brown and Tougaloo College students by using “smart classrooms” equipped with technology that allows students at the two campuses to interact.

“We’ve already pioneered one or two classes that have done this,” Kertzer said.

Brown has paid for the installation of the “smart classrooms” on Tougaloo’s campus.

Kertzer said the University was investing in communications technology partly because “relatively few students are actually going to be able” to participate in physical exchanges.

Flood, rat traps plague Sears House

The following summary includes all major incidents reported to the Department of Public Safety between Feb. 26 and March 11. It does not include general service and alarm calls. The

CRIME LOG Providence Police Department also responds to incidents occurring both on and off campus. DPS does not divulge information on open cases that are currently under investigation by the department, the PPD or the Office of Student Life.

Feb. 27 7:17 a.m. An officer was dispatched to Sears House to meet with a Facilities Management employee who needed to file a report regarding malicious damage. The officer observed water on the floor of the hallway and flooding in another section of the hallway. A hose had been run from the trash room and was still on in the hallway. They then went into the lounge where they thought some more water was coming from.

The room’s floor was covered with water and beer cans and the walls were covered in black plastic. They also noticed a smell coming from another lounge. In that room was a grill that contained rat traps and a t-shirt.

The matter has been turned over to continued on page 6

Metro The Brown Daily Herald

“We knocked on pretty much every door.”

— Peter Casale, on searching for potential parking near Thayer Thursday, March 19, 2009 | Page 5

Supt. Brady talks teaching, family

By Lauren Fedor Senior Staf f Writer

Providence Public Schools Superintendent Tom Brady discussed the need to improve teaching and encourage families’ involvement in schools at a meeting with parents, students and community members Wednesday night.

Speaking at a meeting of the Providence Education Excellence Coalition, Brady, who has been superintendent for eight months, answered audience questions for over two hours.

While the discussion centered on improving teacher performance in the city’s public schools, both the superintendent and coalition members emphasized the role of families in education.

“Didn’t President Obama say continued on page 6

Brown Daily Herald

Providence Supt. Tom Brady addressed community members Wednesday.

Zoning thwarts new sushi bar

By George Miller Metro Editor

A legal battle over parking is delaying the opening of long-planned Thayer Street restaurant, Shark Sushi Bar and Grill, which was originally slated to open in December 2007.

According to Providence zoning ordinances, restaurants must provide one parking space for every four seats, meaning that the 131-seat Shark, to be located at 275 Thayer St., would have needed to find 33 spaces. But the zoning board found last May that providing the spaces represented a sufficient hardship for the owner, given that the property had no space for off-street parking, and relieved Shark from its obligation to provide parking.

Grant Dulgarian, a competing Thayer Street businessman and trustee for the Krikor S. Dulgarian Trust, which owns properties such as Avon Cinema, appealed the board’s May decision.

In the appeal, filed with the

Rhode Island Superior Court in June, Dulgarian argued that the zoning board’s granting the variance to Shark was “arbitrary” and “capricious.”

“There’s already a parking problem on Thayer,” Dulgarian told The Herald, adding that a new 131-seat restaurant with no additional parking would “exacerbate” the problem.

The nearest available space for parking was 1.2 miles away from Shark’s location, making the requirement unfeasible, according to zoning expert Peter Casale, who testified to the zoning board on Shark’s behalf at an April hearing. Several community members, including Dulgarian, spoke against granting Shark parking relief at that hearing.

“We knocked on pretty much every door” in search of suitable parking spaces, Casale said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Ray Hugh, Shark’s owner, said at the hearing that 80 percent of the restaurant’s business would be students coming on foot, according

to the transcript. He said he based that number on his experience at the two neighboring restaurants he owns, Shanghai and Extreme Pizza and Wings.

Hugh, who declined to comment for this article, told the zoning board last April that he had invested “well over $700,000” in Shark already.

But Shark’s decision to seek a liquor license, which it was granted in the fall, contradicts the idea that 80 percent of the sushi restaurant’s customers would be students, Dulgarian said. The liquor license will only increase demand for parking, he said.

The difficulty in finding suitable parking drives customers away from Thayer Street businesses, Dulgarian said. The College Hill Parking Task Force, of which Brown was a participant, found last spring that there was enough parking on the Hill, but that it needed to be better managed.

Hearings for the appeal are currently ongoing.

metro in brief

24-hour grocer coming to downtown Students will have another option for late-night snacks when a 24-hour grocery store opens in downtown Providence in late April. Gourmet Heaven, which has two other stores in New Haven, is slated to open in a vacant building at Weybosset and Union streets owned by the Rhode Island School of Design.

“We’ve been working for years to get a grocery store,” said Joanna Levitt ’02, a representative of Cornish Associates, the development company behind the project. Most Providence residents cite a grocery store as downtown’s greatest need, perhaps second only to a gym, Levitt said.

Previous attempts to get a grocer like Trader Joe’s to open a location in the city have failed due to parking concerns. But this problem will be ameliorated for Gourmet Heaven, which hopes to cater to university students who rely on walking or public transportation, Levitt said. Trader Joe’s opened its first Rhode Island location in Warwick last year.

Both New Haven locations are on Yale-owned property, so “being in a RISD-owned building is nothing new” to (Gourmet Heaven), whose model is built around universities, Levitt said.

With free Wi-Fi, a seating area and a New York City-style hot-and-cold bar, the store will be a “real city market,” Levitt said. They will also serve unique foods, like Korean candies.

Gourmet Heaven will be affordable and “not too high-end,” she said.

The store was originally supposed to open in March, but “there are always setbacks” with building projects, said Levitt, adding that the recent snowstorms have delayed progress.

A menu of Gourmet Heaven’s planned offerings is available on its Web site.

— Sara Sunshine

Page 6

M etro

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, March 19, 2009

“I wish we had 1,000 parents here.” — Carmel McGill, president, Classical High School Community Association

Computer mouse missing at Watson Superintendent, parents talk education continued from page 4

Student Life.

March 1 9:43 a.m. It was reported that there was damage done to a personal products dispenser located in a second floor restroom in Faunce House. The dispenser was pried open and various items were stolen from inside.

12:38 p.m. Student reported that her laptop and wallet were stolen from Rockefeller Library. She left the items unattended and went to make a phone call. When she returned 5 to 10 minutes later the laptop was gone and her wallet was missing from her backpack. Brown University detectives are investigating.

March 6 11:56 p.m. Officers were dispatched to Machado House for a report of a fire. Upon arrival they found a box smoldering and sprayed it with a fire extinguisher. Through investigation by the Providence Fire Department Inspector and DPS it was determined that careless cigarette smoking had caused the fire.

A student who was leaving the building in response to the alarm noticed smoke coming from the suspected room, she entered and found a coat on fire. She threw the coat out

the window. Inside the room several violations, such as candles and ash trays with cigarettes, were found.

The student that resides in the room stated to police that she was smoking in her room when she accidentally set the coat on fire. When it happened she immediately left the room and called DPS. The case has been turned over to Student Life.

March 7 3:27 p.m. Student stated that at approximately 9 a.m. he parked his vehicle outside the Watson Institute for International Studies. He reported to police he returned to his vehicle at approximately 3:20 p.m. and found the following items missing: a GPS and charger and an iPod and charger. He also stated he could not be sure if all four doors on his vehicle were locked. Providence Police took a report.

9 p.m. A Brown University officer was dispatched to New Pembroke 4 in reference to a noise complaint called in by PPD. Upon arrival, he met with PPD officers who stated that while on patrol on Thayer Street they witnessed a large gathering of individuals located on the terrace.

After a brief investigation PPD officers dispersed a large group of approximately 30 individuals. The occupant of the room was issued a Providence Police noise complaint

summons with a fine of $200. Also, Brown University officers noted alcohol violations. The students were cooperative with police and the case has been referred to Student Life.

March 8 12:45 a.m. Student stated that between 12:45 a.m. and 2 a.m. she had propped her door open to her room in Harkness House and went to take a shower. She stated that when she returned to her room she noticed that unknown person(s) removed several items. She stated that she observed items missing from her desk and found her purse lying on the floor and that her wallet was open. She stated that the unknown person(s) took her two iPods and a case, a digital camera, two memory cards and a cell phone. Her roommate stated that she was missing one video iPod and one sweater.

11:24 p.m. Student reported that while in the Bear’s Lair she left a bag unattended for about an hour.

Sometime between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. the bag was removed from the area.

March 9 8:40 a.m. An employee at the Watson Institute reported that her computer mouse was taken sometime between March 6 at 5 p.m. and March 9 at 7 a.m.

continued from page 5 something about the responsibility of parents?” Brady asked the audience, adding that parents should become more involved in their children’s education.

“I wish we had 1,000 parents here,” said Carmel McGill, a mother and the president of the Classical High School Community Association. Nearly 20 parents were in attendance at last night’s meeting, in addition to about five students and two Brown undergraduates.

“It’s fantastic, the information that’s coming from you tonight,” McGill said to Brady.

A retired Army colonel with leadership experience in both the Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. school districts, Brady said he recognizes the enormous challenges he must confront as superintendent.

For starters, he inherits a position that few have been successful in maintaining — Brady is the fifth superintendent to serve the city’s schools since 1999.

And with the state’s budget in question, he understands that money will be tight.

“I want to put a sense of reality in this,” Brady said.

He cited Gov. Donald Carcieri’s ’65 plans to redirect millions of federal stimulus dollars away from education to close the state budget deficits. Last week, the governor presented a state budget proposal giving local communities less money than allotted under the $787 billion stimulus package.

Carcieri “is going to take that money and put it against the deficit,” Brady said, adding, “We need

to be realistic and practical.”

Brady also spoke of improving teacher evaluations and expanding the district’s professional development programs for faculty and staff.

“We need an evaluation tool to make teachers better,” he said, acknowledging that the system doesn’t “do a very good job” of assessing instructor quality. “I don’t know what the vehicle is to properly evaluate teachers.”

He said he wants to change a “culture” in which many teachers do not participate in development programs. Last year, when the city sponsored such a program at Providence College, 15 percent of the teachers registered did not show up, Brady said.

Two Brown students who attended last night’s meeting were also concerned with addressing teacher inadequacies. Mike MacCombie ’11 and Brad Greenburg ’10 represented Brown Students for Education Reform, which MacCombie co-coordinates.

The advocacy group’s current focus is encouraging people to sign a petition to end teacher “bumping” in Providence public schools. By bumping, the district shifts teachers to fill vacancies based solely on seniority, rather than teacher quality or expertise. Though the Rhode Island Department of Education has ordered schools to end the practice, the students anticipate that the Providence Teachers Union will sue to protect the seniority policies.

“We feel (bumping is) unfair and counter-intuitive,” Greenburg said. “It doesn’t make sense from an educational standpoint.”

SportsThursday The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, March 19, 2009 | Page 7

Brown equestrian: they’re ‘that good’

By Dan Alexander Staf f Writer

Herald File Photo

Men’s tennis competed outdoors for the first time this year, beating Bryant 7-0 at home.

M. tennis overpowers Bryant

By Erin Frauenhofer Sports Staff Writer

The men’s tennis team demolished Bryant University at home on Tuesday, breezing by the Bulldogs, 7-0.

The match marked the first time this season that the Bears have competed outdoors on the varsity courts.

“We just started practicing outdoors on Sunday, and right now we are adjusting to all the additional factors we have to deal with, such as the wind, sun and different court speed,” said captain Chris Lee ’09.

“So far, we are doing well, not getting frustrated because obviously it’s going to take a few days to get used to outdoor tennis again. Personally, I love getting outdoors because it really lets me introduce a lot more variety to my game.”

The Bears bounded ahead to a 1-0 lead with wins at all three doubles slots.

“The team came out very strong in the doubles matches,” said Jonathan Pearlman ’11. “It was great to be outdoors for the first time in 60-degree weather, and I think everyone’s enjoyment of the day translated into their play.”

At first doubles, Lee and Charlie Posner ’11 overpowered Nicholai Hill and Dylan Whiting by a score of 8-3. Skate Gorham ’10 and Pearlman notched an 8-4 victory over Thomas Nowak and Kevin Gardiner at second doubles, and Jimmy Crystal ’12 and Noah Gardner ’09 took an 8-5 win over Jose Rodriguez and Zehn Laliwala at third doubles.

But the Bears remained hungry after the doubles sweep and picked up their level of performance even more in singles play.

“All the guys stepped it up a notch in the singles matches,” Lee said.

“After our meeting before the singles began, we really turned our focus up a notch.”

Lee led the way at first singles, soundly defeating Cristian Balestrieri, 6-0, 6-3.

“My back is feeling a lot better,” Lee said. “I’ve really worked hard to get healthy because this is our final stretch, and I want to be part of this excitement. Sitting out sophomore year during the Ivies crushed me, and I promised myself that I would work hard to be able to play during our Ivy season, just like I did last year.”

At second singles, Pearlman trounced Jose Rodriguez by a score of 6-1, 6-1.

“I just returned from a professional tournament in Canada, where I beat one of the top ten national recruits for next year, who is going to Stanford,” Pearlman said. “I have been playing a very high level of tennis and am looking forward to some good results over spring break.”

Gorham overwhelmed Gardiner at third singles in a 6-2, 6-2 victory.

Gardner and Posner also recorded straight-set wins at fourth and fifth singles, respectively, defeating Nowak and Hill by scores of 6-3, 6-4 and 6-4, 6-4. Crystal rounded out the Bears’ dominating performance with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Laliwala at sixth singles.

“The team did an excellent job of motivating each other to play a high level of tennis,” Pearlman said. “This is our second time playing Bryant University this year. We have had experience with their team and had an idea of the level we would need to compete at coming in. This allowed us to relax, which translated into a continued on page 8

Most Brown students see more busy streets and tall buildings than open pastures and musty barns. But 33 Brown women see both. They’re usually on campus, but twice a week they escape to a farm in Warren, Rhode Island.

The equestrian team drives 20 minutes in the team van to practice at Windswept Farm, rocking out to a team mix tape along the way.

“If I’m stressed out or whatever, if I’m having a bad week, I can just go out to the barn,” said rider Jennifer Grover ’10.

The team goes to the barn year-round, but only competes in the fall and spring.

Last Friday, the team finished first at a show hosted by Johnson and Wales, the last show of the regular season. The team has high hopes going into the Region 1 Championship on March 28, the first step in what team members hope will be a trip to Nationals for the third year in a row.

“Hopefully we’ll win the region — unless something goes terribly, terribly wrong,” said captain Emma Clippinger ’09, before knocking on a wooden desk. “I think we’ll probably go to nationals again. And, you know, it’s not too much to expect top five” in the nation, she said.

But recently, the team ran into a hiccup when the barn was infected with strangles, a respiratory infection specific to barn animals. Clippinger described it as

the horse version of strep throat, named for the sound infected horses make when they breathe.

The infection is extremely contagious, but not fatal if treated with antibiotics.

The outbreak was at the top of the team’s agenda at the team meeting two Fridays ago. Clippinger, who led the meeting, explained the extra precautions the team needed to take, such as dipping their boots into bleach before mounting any horses.

“Who has strangles?” one of the team members asked her at the meeting.

“Jazz and Bristol,” Clippinger told the group.

“Aw, Jazz too?” another rider said.

It was easy to tell that something was wrong in the barn on Friday, March 13. The sides of Bristol’s stall were boarded with fresh wood and the entrance was blocked off by a rope. Bristol stood in the stall with a green warmer wrapped around him, facing the outside of the barn, and his slow, warm breaths were visible in the cold barn air.

But the team had to continue.

They had a competition the next day.

Across the barn, Dakota Gruener ’11 brushed down Oliver in preparation for practice, first with a coarse comb and then with a softer brush.

“He’s probably the nicest horse in the barn,” Gruener said of Oliver. “I’m really pleased I got him continued on page 8

Page 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports T hursday

Tennis looks forward to spring break continued from page 7 great effort.”

Over spring break, the Bears will compete against two tough foes at home — facing off against the University of Portland on Saturday and Wake Forest University on Sunday — before heading to Florida to play Florida Atlantic University the following Thursday and New Mexico State University the following Saturday.

“In preparation for our spring break matches, we are really working on getting our entire lineup healthy,” Lee said, adding that the Bears are “trying to adjust our games to playing outdoors again, and that means being more patient and waiting an extra ball or two for opportunities to attack and come in to the net.”

Thursday, March 19, 2009

“If you get a bad horse, you’re kind of screwed.”

— Emma Clippinger ’09, Equestrian

Equestrians trot toward successful season end continued from page 7

today.”

Not all of the riders were as pleased with the horses they landed for the day.

“I’m not looking forward to this.

I’m not going to lie,” Grover told her horse as she walked him out of the barn. “We are not friends.”

Each practice, the riders get a new horse so they get used to riding all kinds of horses — the calm ones and the excited ones, the obedient ones and the rebellious ones. In competitions, the home school provides the horses and a random draw determines which rider gets which horse.

“The idea is that ever yone should be able to perform equally on whatever horse. But there are better horses than others,” Clippinger said. “If you get a bad horse, you’re kind of screwed.”

With the strangles infection in the barn last Friday, Coach Michaela Scanlon wanted to make sure that her riders took extra precautions, such as not wearing any equipment that they had worn at earlier practices, so as not to spread the infection.

As usual, the riders came to practice in small groups so that they could have enough horses and get enough individual attention.

Once the riders were all tacked up, it was time to finally mount the horses and begin training. The five horses trotted out to the arena, a large building with an expansive dirt floor. The hooves clicked and spit up dirt as the girls trotted in circles around the arena, warming up the horses.

Most of the horses belong to Scanlon and some belong to others who use Scanlon’s stables, but Brown owns three of the horses, as well.

“People donate horses because they get a tax write-off,” Clippinger explained.

But horses aren’t the only thing donors give to the team.

“The equestrian team has had great success,” said Associate Athletic Director Carolan Norris. “So they have a great alumni network that supplements ... what they get

from the University.”

Norris declined to specify how much money the team receives from the University or donors.

The donations don’t go unnoticed by the team. Victoria McCullough, owner of Chesapeake Petroleum, is one of the team’s largest donors. According to Clippinger, McCullough paid for the team to go to Florida over winter break for a training trip.

“She loves to spoil us,” Clippinger said. “She’s kind of amazing.”

The team competes in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association, even though it is an NCAA team.

There are 22 other NCAA equestrian teams, but Brown doesn’t compete against them, as most of the NCAA programs are in the South and the West, too far from Providence to travel. The only other Ivy League school with an NCAA equestrian team is Cornell.

Being NCAA-affiliated means that the team receives more University funding, so Brown’s riders don’t have to pay anything to be on the team.

“Most teams that we play are actually club teams,” Clippinger said.

“They pay like $500 per semester.

Some people (on other teams) pay for their lessons, and lessons are

like $30 a lesson, so we’re really lucky.”

Competing in the IHSA also changes the format of the shows.

In NCAA competitions, only the top riders score points for the teams, but in IHSA competitions, the riders are put in five divisions — walk trot, walk trot canter, novice, intermediate, and open — based on experience.

One rider from each division is chosen to be the point rider, and it is that rider’s score that counts towards the team score.

With some sports, “you’ll have the really good starter and the benchwarmer, but on our team ever yone can be a point rider,” Grover said. “Everyone is important.”

The point riders for last Saturday’s show at Johnson and Wales were announced eight days prior to the show, during the team meeting.

On Saturday, Brown’s point riders placed first in four of the five divisions, earning the team a firstplace finish in the tournament and in the final regular season standings of the region.

“It sounds bad to say this,” Grover said. “But I was like, ‘Yeah, we should win the region because we’re that good.’”

Thursday, March 19, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Page 9

3 hours — the length of a “Frome-In” organized by Matthew Lawrence last year

Readers celebrate St. Patty’s day with Joyce, beer continued from page 1 the Buildings in 2004 after the Providence Public Library threatened to close six of its branches.

He began the informational blog for “people who didn’t want to see their public library close,” Lawrence said.

Ultimately, the PPL did not close its branches, ancestors of the nation’s first public library. But the threat of branch closure lingered, and Not About the Buildings remained on the Web. Lawrence, who said he quit his day job at the Brown Bookstore six months ago, soon broke out of cyberspace and into greater Providence. In 2007, he organized a month-long gallery show at Firehouse 13, a space for contemporary artists, musicians and entrepreneurs to showcase their work.

The library-themed show included readings, live music, movie nights, a book sale and a spelling bee, won by Dead-In reader Maureen Reddy.

Since 2007, Lawrence has organized various events — from book clubs to fiction contests — at public libraries and independent bookstores in Providence, including a three-hour reading of Ethan Frome at Ada Books last year. “The Dead-In” seemed like a festive way to continue the tradition begun by the “Frome-In,” Lawrence said.

While academics and intellectuals debate the philosophical consequences of the Internet Revolution,

Lawrence said not all Providence residents access the wealth of information that the technology provides.

According to Lawrence, public libraries are the only sources of information for some local residents.

Free readings, like those Lawrence hosts, help people enter the world of literature, he said.

“I want people to realize that libraries are important because a lot of people don’t have other access to information,” Lawrence said. “Sometimes people just need a little push.”

But Lawrence said he feels uncomfortable talking about his work in terms of “value.”

“It’s not like I’m building shelters for homeless people,” he said.

Likewise, Visiting Lecturer in English Kate Schapira, who met Lawrence while working at the Brown Bookstore, said she sometimes questions the value of literature. “What is poetry for? What can it do?”

“Nobody can eat it or sleep underneath it,” she said. “But maybe it’s okay for it to be smart fun and not have it house anybody or feed anybody.”

Libraries in Danger In today’s economic climate, it may be getting harder to bring books and people together. The PPL projects a $1 million deficit for the coming year, said Tonia Mason, marketing director for the city’s

library system.

Earlier this month, the city refused the PPL’s plan to resolve the budget deficit that involved closing five local branches, said Linda Kushner, co-founder of the Providence Community Library, an organization dedicated to maintaining the city’s libraries.

“It’s always been (the PPL’s) solution to knock down branches,” Kushner said.

Mason said “everything is uncertain now” given the lack of sufficient government funds for the PPL. “We’re trying to keep the doors open, to have someone there to turn on the lights,” she said. “Funding is not available for a lot of the stuff that makes a library a library.”

For example, the fund that usually buys new books for librar y branches has been frozen since October, Mason said.

Lawrence pointed out that since the beginning of the freeze, a new president has entered the White House.

“On the one hand, funds have only been frozen for a few months,” he said. “On the other hand, there are no books about Obama in our public libraries.”

As Lawrence embarks on a new project to solicit more donations of children’s books about the new president for public libraries whose strained budgets can’t afford them, the importance of free access to books is growing.

According to a study released earlier this month by the Rhode Island Library Association, the state’s residents have increasingly turned to their public libraries since the start of the recession. Despite the PPL’s deficit and spending freezes, the study shows that library usage has increased 40 percent since 2007.

Many residents are turning to the library’s computer labs to look for jobs, learn how to write resumes and search for affordable housing online, Mason said.

A dream realized Amid the growing concern about the survival of the PPL’s branches, others like Lawrence have committed to strengthening Providence’s literar y community — including Ada Books’ owner, Brent Legault.

After Legault first left his hometown in California, he worked at a used bookstore whose mile-high stacks of dusty tomes left customers and employees lost and confused.

When a customer came in search of a book, Legault would have to say in frustration, “You’ll have to look for it yourself.”

After working in that “behemoth” of a bookstore, he craved order, he said. Legault designed Ada Books, his “almost-dream bookstore,” with a curator’s precision.

His hand-written yellow tags mark the boundaries between the store’s sections — fiction, comics,

poetr y, philosophy and politics.

“Just the fun stuff,” Legault said.

In the front of the store, he has carefully laid out the chapbooks and ’zines of local writers on a wooden rack.

“It sounds like I’m a neat freak, but I’m not,” Legault said. “I just really like bringing a book and a person together.”

Back to James Joyce During the hour-and-a-half reading of “The Dead” Monday night, Lawrence snapped pictures of Reddy, his former English teacher at Rhode Island College, as she read aloud her section of the novella. The corners of his wiry brown beard turned up in a smile as the crowd laughed at a morsel of Joycean sarcasm.

Meanwhile, Legault sat still and attentive in the chair closest to the cash register, soda bread and beer.

As the reading continued, some people in the crowd followed along in copies of “The Dubliners” provided by the bookstore.

When University of Rhode Island student Rachel Smith read the final line of Joyce’s short story, the crowd sat silent for a moment, then applauded.

Lawrence encouraged the people sitting in the bookstore to mingle because of what they had in common.

“You’re all good readers,” he said.

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Thursday, March 19, 2009

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

MSA should carefully vet speakers To the Editor:

Concerning Monday’s editorial (“Uniting Brown,” March 16): I attended an event on campus last Saturday evening which is worthy of wider attention, as it gives some context to the event described in the editorial.

At Smith-Buonanno Hall, the hip-hop artist Hasan Salaam performed as part of the Muslim Students’ Association Islam Awareness month. A colleague of Hasan’s, Bad Sportt, started the evening with an a cappella entitled “Divide and Conquer.” Not one minute into his address, he referred to the “star of David on the Dollar bill that is really the sign of Lucifer,” and continued to expound on how the “Rothschilds are starving Africa” and “how Jews” are most certainly “not the chosen people.”

After this presentation, Hasan Salaam took the mic and the second number he delivered was entitled “Hezbollah,” the refrain of which involved the repetition of “PLO, Hamas and Hizbollah,” and “USA=KKK.” Some of the lyrics included, “Only thing they understand is money and blood then it must be shed” and “The world won’t understand till I’m buried and martyred/I’m a sleeper cell/With a bomb strapped to the track like I’m a see you in hell.”

Halfway into this track, two representatives from the Muslim Students Association, microphones in hand, asked the artists to stop and then told the audience that the lyrics did not represent the views of their association.

This was surely a commendable act

and the leaders were strongly apologetic. After a minute or so of hue and cry, the two representatives left and the show went on. I found the show quite interesting and stayed after to dialogue with the performers.

One would hope that Muslim Awareness Month should aim to celebrate Muslim identity and combat the false stereotype which Muslim students undoubtedly encounter — that supporting terrorism and demonizing Jews is in any way part of Muslim identity. I wondered why no kind of correction followed after this incident.

I asked the representative of the MSA whether he knew of the nature of the work of his invited guests. I mentioned that the Hezbollah song was amongst the top five YouTube hits for Hasan Salaam. He replied that he had had no idea. To give him the benefit of the doubt, that is at the very least a rather dramatic instance of a lack of due diligence of an organizational operator. It was disappointing, though, that their spontaneous display of courage was followed neither by audience support, nor followed up by a correction to the larger community. I shudder to think of the campus reaction had the shoe been on the other foot and had a Jewish organization inadvertently invited an Islamophobic speaker. I would hope as a community that we all come together to stand up against any kind of hate thinking and follow up such events by acts of goodwill that bind us closer together as members of the human family.

Adam Sacks GS March 16

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

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chris jesu lee

opinions extra

Kennedy and the news cycle

BY EVAN PULVERS Guest Columnist David Kennedy ’76, interim director of the Watson Institute for International Studies and vice president for international affairs, has drawn criticism in The Herald and from faculty for attempting to establish a legally-oriented global governance program.

Professor Abbott Gleason said in Monday’s article (“Watson director’s unpopular agenda draws ire,” March 16) that he thought “a certain number of people don’t understand what it is…. They’re suspicious of a program that they don’t have an idea what it’s about.”

As a student in one of these classes, I am not confused about legal studies at Brown. Legal studies examine how social rules get made and who makes them. Presenting as mysterious an idea that one has not explored strikes me as lazy and irresponsible. It is incumbent on an intellectual community to engage with the information at hand before assessing the merits of a particular initiative.

Gleason’s quote implicates Kennedy somewhat, but strongly implicates faculty who haven’t taken the initiative to understand Kennedy’s intentions. The article notes that “few in theory opposed” Kennedy’s ideas, so it’s puzzling that faculty have been so resistant.

It seems that a failure to understand Kennedy’s vision has led to a hysterical level of anxiety and endless conjecture about the direction of the Watson Institute, which has translated into excessive hand-wringing.

Note to Brown: Studying law is different from starting a law school. The faculty has understandable concerns about the Watson Institute’s selection process —

apparently, Kennedy has been perceived as nepotistic in his selection of “non-traditional” (read: non-Ph.D.) scholars. I would like to remind the Brown community that his selections must be approved by a number of other people, and that the people he has recruited are impressive. Nathaniel Berman, who will begin here in July, is a pre-eminent human rights scholar — he will be an asset to students and the Watson Institute.

The failure to understand Kennedy’s vision extends to the brazenly one-sided Herald coverage published on Monday — not a single person in the entire article defended David Kennedy or his vision. Yes, Kennedy refused to comment, but Kennedy isn’t the only person capable of defending his reputation. Now what happens?

I imagine the course of Herald criticism of Kennedy will run much like last year’s coverage of Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron.

Scathing, insinuating coverage will be rebuked (particularly the out-of-line comment about Kennedy’s “romantic relationship”). This may result in an apology by means of a relatively nice article (like yesterday’s editorial on the merits of Kennedy’s ideas), then noncontroversial coverage for the rest of time. This will close off productive, critical conversations about the issues at hand, as with last year’s coverage of Bergeron.

This is a shame. There are real issues about direction and process regarding Kennedy and the Watson Institute, just as real concerns about the operation of the Dean of the College’s office persist. Let’s hope a real discussion about creating a legal studies program, with all the requisite curricular and faculty considerations, is still possible.

Evan Pulvers ’10.5 is from Portland, Ore.

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, March 19, 2009 | Page 11

Leading ladies, look out for each other KATE DOYLE Opinions Columnist I must, as we all should, applaud Jeremy Feigenbaum ’11 for facing up to the realities of women in today’s world (“The leading ladies,” March 11) — including those of the Brown woman. It’s all too easy to say these problems don’t exist at our famously liberal institution, where we’re apt to think of our existence as all but perfect, where we’d like to think that we’ve moved far beyond the issues of inequality that plague the rest of the world.

We’ve been co-ed since 1971, have an undergraduate population that is 52 percent female and are currently served by our University’s first-ever female president. We certainly have a famous history of toleration and opportunity for all, and are known far and wide as home to the protestors and rabble-rousers of the world.

But how incredibly foolish it would be to assume that a liberal reputation exempts us from a responsibility to women, to encourage their success, to ensuring they overcome the obstacles the world will undoubtedly throw their way.

Feigenbaum is right: In a world where women are rarely encouraged to run for office to the same degree that men are, Brown must recognize that there is still much to be

addressed in our own community. He notes that women serve in far fewer leadership positions at Brown than men, and urges those thinking of running to “Do it. You are as qualified as men and just as deserving.” For this statement, I applaud him most of all.

But there is one point that Feigenbaum neglects. While he puts the onus on men to champion women’s movement into higher office, I would argue that it is most essential

University. Five men volunteered. “How about some girls?” my RC asked — but found no takers. I went to an all-girls high school, so I’d heard the statistics: that women learn differently than men, and that women participate to a markedly lesser degree in the classroom setting when men are around.

I’d always believed it, but never more so than on that first night. Where in my high school I would have had no problem speak-

Women who have found success in their fields must encourage others to follow in their footsteps, make their own opportunities and find their way in the world. Here, I believe, is where we at Brown most fall short.

that women themselves look out for one another. Women who have found success in their fields must encourage others to follow in their footsteps, make their own opportunities and find their way in the world.

Here, I believe, is where we at Brown most fall short.

On my first night at Brown, my RC asked if anyone in the unit would like to step up and share their reasons for attending the

ing up, here I found myself strangely mute.

But why didn’t we, the women in the room, simply encourage one another to join the conversation?

It’s true in the “real world,” and it’s true here at Brown — the full support of each and ever y man does no good to any woman if we cannot ourselves learn to support each other and promote one another’s success.

When first-years are too ner vous to raise

their voices on the first night of Orientation — and as they move through their years at Brown, joining clubs and student organizations and taking countless classes — female upperclassmen should be making it a priority to help these fellow women succeed in student groups and engage in classroom discussion. And when these same first-years become sophomores, juniors and seniors themselves, that same responsibility must fall to them.

It’s far too often that upperclassmen — male and female alike — unconsciously take the attitude that newly arrived first-year men are fresh talent who should be given opportunities to prove themselves, while first-year women struggle to be recognized as talented individuals capable of more than the menial tasks.

Brown women in leadership positions need to look around. You have a responsibility, yes, but also the exciting power to help your fellow women succeed. You should be recruiting them, taking them under your wing, getting them actively involved!

Then, and only then, can we hope to achieve equality at Brown — and upon our graduation, proudly bring to the world ideals of gender parity that are truly worthy of our reputation.

Kate Doyle ’12 is from Westpor t, Connecticut. She can be reached at Katherine_Doyle @brown.edu.

Brown students should worry about the Obama budget BORIS RYVKIN Opinions Columnist

The budget proposed by the Obama administration for Fiscal Year 2010 should trouble every member of the Brown community. It is a declaration of a class war, the likes of which this country has not seen in decades. It also seeks a restructuring of the way America does business by placing the state in a position of perpetual economic dominance at the expense of the private sector.

The Obama budget sends a message to all hard-working, aspiring professionals: don’t aim too high and succeed too much.

The stereotypical student at Brown seems not particularly bothered by this. Nevertheless, planning for one’s future is serious business. What you thought you would do now may prove totally unfeasible tomorrow.

Therefore, it is important not to cut your options off at the knees and oppose policies that punish upward mobility.

The administration’s visceral hatred for the affluent, successful and entrepreneurial among us is expressed most vividly at two points in the budget summar y. The President’s Message, which opens the document, condemns the “many on Wall Street” who irresponsibly chased profits and snubbed the public good. Borrowers who took on unaffordable mortgages were “inadequately informed of the risks and over whelmed by fine print.” In other words, in order to correctly envisage the stor y of the credit crisis, one should picture a group of fat cat

investors and bankers plotting the demise of the dupes on Main Street.

Whatever happened to two-way responsibility? If the borrower takes out a mortgage he knows he cannot afford because of inadequate income or the potential of a high interest rate, why take one out in the first place? The belief that Wall Street and Main Street can be clearly separated into good and evil, criminals and victims, is utter nonsense.

The section following the President’s Message continues the barrage. “Prudent

what the state currently receives. We all know that without significant government inter vention, or better yet control, we will continue to produce sub-standard students and have to tolerate people dying on the streets without health insurance. No alternatives between this black and white need be examined.

Then there is the hackneyed clarion call for a need to “restore a basic sense of fairness to the tax code, eliminating incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas, and giving a generous package of tax cuts to 95

Women who have found success in their fields must encourage others to follow in their footsteps, make their own opportunities and find their way in the world. Here, I believe, is where we at Brown most fall short.

investments in education, clean energy, healthcare, and infrastructure were sacrificed for huge tax cuts to the wealthy and well-connected.” I never knew that our options for improving any of these sectors were limited to two: allow them to collapse or inject capital from Washington.

Certainly no one would want to assign property rights to our infrastructure and have some bloke on Wall Street get three to four times the return, at half the cost, than

percent of working families.” Translation?

We aim to increase marginal tax rates on those already paying between 60 and 75 percent of all federal income taxes, punish companies taking advantage of economies of scale to control fixed costs and lower prices for consumers and give cash handouts to millions of people paying no federal income taxes at all. I have trouble understanding where fairness comes into play, but the melody of the rhetoric is soothing.

Obama’s budget targets families earning more than $250,000 and individuals earning over $200,000 for the brunt of the tax increases embedded in the budget. The Bush tax cuts will expire, which means an instant increase in federal income tax rates from 35 to 39.6 percent. These ingrates will also be hit with a 5 percent capital gains tax hike, reductions in personal exemptions and fewer deductions for charitable contributions (let’s say public good one more time!). Their wealth, justly carted away to Washington, will be spent toward a down-payment for nationalized healthcare, wasteful social welfare programs and the aforementioned handouts to non-filers.

Demonization of the rich is standard fare at Brown. Public ser vice and a life of frugality is the ethos, the University default.

The decent people are over here and the rich, exploitative, skunks on Wall Street are over there. The recent debate in the pages of The Herald over whether GPA matters underscores the attitude of some that what happens “out there” really does not affect me.

That might be fine and good now, but life changes people and forces them to make difficult decisions about their futures. I hope more members of the Brown community take heed, and do not let clichés and empty rhetoric blind them.

Boris Ryvkin ’09 is an economics and political science concentrator from New York City. He can be reached at Boris_Ryvkin@brown.edu.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

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Thursday, March 19, 2009

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Check browndailyherald.com for breaking news, and look for the next issue of The Herald on Mon. March 30.

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magazine

Brown university ● march 19, 2009 ● Volume 10 ● issue 8

Inside...

c a l e n da r March 19, 2009

March 20, 2009

6:00 P.M. — “Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming,” MacMillan 115

2 P.M. — “Emancipated Memories: Uncovering the Hidden Faces of Slavery,” Carriage House Gallery, 357 Benefit St.

7:00 p.m. — “Discovering Dominga,” Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute

03 feature

THOUGHTS ON THE FRISC \\ emmy liss

04 film and television

BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA\\ zach beauchamp HAIL TO THE KING... \\ doug eacho

05 music

12 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. — Free airport shuttles leaving from Faunce House

COVERING THE COVER BAND SHOW \\ marshall katheder PUT YOUR HEADPHONES ON... \\ katie kinsey

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Eggplant Parmesan, Beef Tacos, Hot Turkey Sandwich with Sauce

Lunch — Chinese Chicken Wings with Sticky Rice, Mediterranean Bar

Dinner — Honey Dipped Chicken, Mexican Cornbread Casserole, Savory Rice Pilaf, Brazilian Chocolate Cake

07 sexpertise

KEEP IT CLASSY, LADIES \\ allie wollner IT’S TIME\\ sam yambrovich

08 from the hill

DOGFISH HEAD\\ owen miller HOW TO DINE \\ ted lamm & alex logan

Dinner — Eggplant Parmesan, Green Pepper Steak, Garlic and Butter Infused Rice, Brazilian Chocolate Cake

crossword comics Enigma Twist | Dustin Foley

Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

The One About Zombies | Kevin Grebb