Thursday, April 2, 2009

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 43 | Thursday, April 2, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

2 students missing since break

Cutbacks, renovations alter lottery calculus

By Ben Schreckinger Senior Staf f Writer

Two Brown undergraduates traveling together over Spring Break “have not yet returned to campus,” according to an e-mail message sent to students late Wednesday night.

According to the e-mail, from Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn, University officials are “working with family, friends, law enforcement officials and other agencies to locate the students.”

The e-mail provided no details of the students’ identities or where they were travelling, and Klawunn, contacted by The Herald late Wednesday night, declined to elaborate on the e-mail’s contents.

“In order to assist ef for ts to locate the students,” administrators wrote in the e-mail, “law enforcement has requested that we not provide further information at this time.”

“We will send more information as soon as we can,” they wrote. “In the meantime, we are all hoping for their safe return.”

By Katerina Dalavurak Contributing Writer

inside

www.browndailyherald.com

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Students favor scrapping ‘Columbus Day’ celebrates.

The poll found that 67.2 percent of students support changing the name of the holiday, and 45.6 percent of undergraduates

By Sydney Ember Senior Staf f Writer

More than two-thirds of Brown students approve of changing the name but keeping the date of Columbus Day, according to a Herald poll conducted last month.

A group of students began advocating last fall that the University stop obser ving Columbus Day to protest historical inaccuracies they believe the holiday

Many students agreed that the transition to a new language was the hardest part of their adjustWhen Jiacui Li ’12 arrived on Col- ment to Brown. lege Hill, it wasn’t just the size of “The language barrier is the the campus that surprised him. biggest problem,” said Nancy Li “I thought ever ything Ameri- ’12. “For example, I can’t say the can is 1.5 times the size of what names of streets correctly when it is in China,” he said. “The cars, asking for directions. Ordering the food, the people.” food is kind of a problem and (so Despite the lanis) understanding people’s conversaguage difference and FEATURE the ever-increasing tions.” portion sizes of American food, Ben Zhang ’10 said he had many of the 26 first-year students trouble adjusting to the format from China said they are adjust- of humanities classes. “American ing well to life at Brown. students are really good at makWebber Xu ’12 first came to ing arguments,” he said. “They the United States in 2005 to at- can think and talk at the same tend the Hotchkiss School in time. I think first. … It’s hard to Lakeville, Conn. “When I first got keep up with the pace of discushere, it was like a culture shock,” sion.” he said.

Nancy Li said going to an Xu said the language differ- American university was “a little ence proved especially challeng- dream” she has had ever since ing. “I already spoke English she was young and she read a well,” he said, “but I wasn’t fluent, continued on page 3 especially with slang.”

News.....1-3 Metro.....5-6 Spor ts...7-9 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12

approved, 6.4 percent somewhat disapproved, 4.7 percent strongly approved and 2.8 percent strongly disapproved.

Cicilline, a Democrat who has ser ved as mayor since 2003, re-

Herald File Photo

A group of students started a movement protesting the observance of ‘Columbus Day’ last fall.

For Chinese students, ‘culture shock,’ then adjustment

By Anne Speyer Staf f Writer

With the first round of housing lottery taking place tonight, changes this year may make certain residence halls more — or less — desirable.

Students should note that residents of Graduate Center will have to clean their own bathrooms next year, and Caswell and Slater Halls will be renovated this summer, said Residential Council Housing Lotter y Committee Chair Ben Lowell ’10.

In addition, two singles in Vartan Gregorian Quadrangle A will be converted to doubles next year, and five doubles in Barbour Hall will become triples.

The new bathroom policy in Grad Center is a result of budgetary and staffing cuts, said Senior Associate Dean of Residential and Dining Ser vices Richard Bova.

There are currently five custodians responsible for maintaining Grad Center, but two of those positions will be cut, he said.

“I am happy to say this was the only direct impact on students” that resulted from custodial staffing cuts, Bova said, adding that the practice of having custodians clean Grad Center bathrooms was aberrant and inefficient. Bathrooms in Grad Center were the only in-suite bathrooms on campus not maintained by students, he said, and the personal belongings that students kept in the bathrooms made custodians’ jobs difficult.

“Brown is no stranger to the broader financial crisis,” said ResCouncil Chairman James Reed ’09, but so far the Office of Residential Life has remained “relatively unscathed.”

The designation of rooms for higher occupancy in New Dorm A and the conversion of three kitchens into housing in Caswell reflect the need to add more capacity, Lowell said.

The fall semester this year began with an unusually severe housing crunch, The Herald reported last September, with some first-years living in upperclassman residence halls and many older students housed temporarily in kitchens and lounges.

Caswell is one of the most popular dorms for sophomores on campus and “it’s great that the building

THE HERALD POLL said they specifically favor changing the name to “Fall Weekend.”

About 27 percent of students favored keeping the name and date of the holiday the way it is,

though a larger percentage of male students supported maintaining the current label.

The gender divide was statistically significant — slightly more than two-thirds of men favored changing the name or did not indicate a preference, as opposed to a greater percentage of women, 78.2 percent, who said they did not want to keep the current clascontinued on page 2

On Mayor Cicilline, Bruno draws a blank

By Melissa Shube Senior Staf f Writer

Though many Brown students have strong opinions on ever ything from bottled water to Columbus Day, a recent poll suggests they might not have much to say about Providence politics.

METRO Results of a recent Herald poll indicate that most students are not following the actions of Providence Mayor David Cicilline ’83, with an over whelming 71 percent of students choosing “Don’t know/No answer” when asked if they approved or disapproved of the way the mayor is handling his job.

Only 7.5 percent of students indicated they had a strong opinion about Cicilline’s job performance.

Of the students who answered, 15.1 percent said they somewhat

Metro, 5 the kids are alright New bill will allow 16 and 17 year-olds to pre-register to vote in Rhode Island

Students on Cicilline Do you approve or disapprove of the way David Cicilline ’83 is handling his job as mayor of Providence?

• Strongly approve: 4.7% • Somewhat approve: 15.1% • Somewhat disapprove: 6.4% • Strongly disapprove: 2.8% • Don’t know/No answer: 71.0%

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195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

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Opinions, 11

raises the Ruth, talks snacks with Dude Food and still loves Battlestar

my generation Jeremy Feigenbaum ’11 encourages students to reconsider plastic bags herald@browndailyherald.com

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

“Issues that are completely symbolic tend to bring out strong feelings.”— James Drier, FEC Chair

Changes on the way for housing

news in brief

continued from page 1 will accommodate more people,” Lowell said. The three new doubles will probably be filled through the summer assignment process, which was previously known as the waitlist, he said.

Another change to Caswell will be renovations in the basement to create a “larger and centrally located” common area and kitchen,

Courtesy of Brown

Transfer applications up 40 percent Over 1,400 students submitted transfer applications this year, an increase of about 40 percent from last year, according to Director of Admission Annie Cappuccino.

Transfer enrollment will also likely be slightly higher next year than it has been in recent years, Cappuccino said. The Office of Admission expects to enroll 80 transfers in the fall and 40 transfers in the spring.

The University received 24,988 applications for the class of 2013, the highest number in the University’s history.

Regular admission decisions, which were released March 31, set a record low acceptance rate for the University at 10.8 percent.

The University received 955 transfer applications last year and 1,050 applications the previous year.

Transfer applicants were able to apply online for the first time this year, Cappuccino said. That change may help account for the spike, she said, but she is unsure exactly what factors are responsible.

“We’d like to think (the rise) is due to the popularity of Brown,” she said.

Transfer applicants will likely receive their decisions in mid-May, Cappuccino said.

— Anish Gonchigar

sudoku

Daily Herald the Brown

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 Stephen DeLucia, President Michael Bechek, Vice President

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Jonathan Spector, Treasurer Alexander Hughes, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com.

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Reed said. The plan “sounds like it will more than compensate” for the loss of the three current “small” kitchens in the building, he added.

The designation of preexisting rooms for higher occupancy followed a yearly review and adjustment carried out by ResLife, Lowell said.

The doubles designated as triples in Barbour are more than 300

square feet — “way beyond what normal doubles are on campus,” Reed said. Similarly, the singles becoming doubles are more than 200 square feet.

The changes are “just one more thing to discuss with your group” when prioritizing and planning for the lottery, Lowell said, adding that the housing lottery Web site has information students should consider before making their selections.

Faculty favor neutral holiday name continued from page 1 sification.

“I think maybe women can tend to be more sympathetic and in tune with the weight of language,” said Reiko Koyama ’11, who spearheaded the movement cosponsored

by Native Americans at Brown to change the name of the holiday.

“We as females realize the power of words.”

Only 5.3 percent of undergraduates said they favored changing the name to “Tomato Day,” while 1.8 percent said they wanted to remove the name and not have a day off at all.

Koyama said she was glad that a majority of students said they supported changing the current name.

“It really is symbolically denouncing the name in the way that I hoped it would,” she said about the preference for a neutral name such as “Fall Weekend.”

But she said she was surprised that some still said they wanted to keep the name and date.

“I didn’t really see what the reasoning could be for keeping the name,” she said. “It definitely exposes the need for increased awareness.”

The initial movement included a provision to end obser vance of the holiday at Brown, establish an indigenous week in October and increase educational awareness surrounding the historical context of the holiday. But it now includes

only a name-change after months of dialogue with the administration and faculty.

But even with the revisions, approval for the motion has taken longer than anticipated, Koyama said.

“I really didn’t expect the regional backlash and the dissent,” Koyama said. But she acknowledged that “any meaningful social change will cause divisiveness, or it would have already happened.”

Though the Faculty Executive Committee said it favored changing the name of the holiday to one honoring Native American heritage instead of a neutral name, faculty members at a faculty meeting early last month ultimately approved changing the name to “Fall Weekend.”

But the vote did not officially pass because the meeting lacked a quorum. One hundred members must be present for a motion to pass, but only 43 faculty attended the March meeting. The vote is set to come up again next Tuesday, said FEC Chair Jamie Dreier, a professor of philosophy.

Drier said the favorable student response would probably not affect the faculty vote next week. He thinks many faculty members are in favor of the proposal, he said, and the motion’s passage will depend on whether a quorum is established.

“I think some people are worried about the public relations angle, and they’re worried that some groups might be upset,” Dreier said, add-

ing that he said he thought many faculty members “kind of wish it didn’t come up at all” because of the controversial nature of the proposal.

“It’s a symbolic issue and for some reason, issues that are completely symbolic tend to bring out strong feelings,” he said.

Many students said they suppor ted the name change even if they did not necessarily think changing the date of the holiday was as important.

“I think that we should actually have a day off,” said Brielle Friedman ’12. “But I also don’t think it should be called ‘Columbus Day’ or ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Day.’” “From an administrative perspective, I understand why they want to keep the date,” said Osman Ghani ’11. “But I also think there needs to be a recognition of the atrocities that were committed.”

The poll, conducted from March 16 through 18, has a 3.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. The information specifically about male respondents has a 5.1 percent margin of error and the information about female respondents has a 5.0 margin of error, both with 95 percent confidence.

A total of 676 Brown undergraduates completed the poll, which The Herald administered as a written questionnaire to students in the University Mail Room at J. Walter Wilson, outside the Blue Room in Faunce House and in the Sciences Library.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Page 3

“It’s a very comforting culture.”

— Jaicui Li ’12, on making the transition to life in the U.S.

Chinese students adjust to life in U.S. continued from page 1

Herald File Photo

In a Herald poll, 71 percent of Brown undergraduate students say they have no opinion of Providence Mayor David Cicilline ’83, seen here.

Students unfamiliar with Cicilline, poll finds continued from page 1 cently announced that he will run for a third term in 2010.

Harrison Kreisberg ’10, president of the Brown Democrats, said the mayor’s focus has generally been away from College Hill and on the less prosperous areas of Providence. “So in that sense, there just hasn’t been that much on the mayor’s agenda that has brought him to the attention of Brown students,” he said.

“You’ve got a lot of people who are in from out of state and it makes sense, I think, that people aren’t quite sure what’s happening locally,” Kreisberg said.

But students may become more aware of local politics the longer they spend on College Hill. While 81.1 percent of freshmen selected the Don’t Know/No Answer option, only 57.7 percent of seniors chose that option.

“The more time you spend in a place, the more you begin to care about it,” said Sean Quigley ’10, president of the College Republicans and a Herald Opinions Columnist.

Arielle Balbus ’11 said she hoped the results of the poll would encourage students to get involved locally. “I have a certain amount of enthusiasm for any effort that would encourage students, myself included, to engage a bit more in Providence politics,” she said.

“Students see College Hill as being separate from Providence,”

said Meghan Short ’12.

Short knows students who do volunteer work in the Providence community, she said, adding that trekking off campus “feels like a trip away.”

“It just goes to show that there’s a lot of work to be done to tie the Brown community to the Providence area,” Kreisberg said.

Some students, however, felt that students’ separation from Providence politics might not be such a bad thing.

“It’s probably a good thing that we don’t get too heavily involved in city politics, because our stake in the community isn’t as permanent as people who live here and pay property taxes,” Quigley said.

“Most Brown students don’t live here,” said Adrik McIlroy ’10. “It’s probably not too bad that they don’t keep up with the local politics.”

The poll, conducted from March 16 through 18, has a 3.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. The information specifically about first-year respondents has a 6.6 percent margin of error and the information about senior respondents has a 7.6 percent margin of error, both with 95 percent confidence.

A total of 676 Brown undergraduates completed the poll, which The Herald administered as a written questionnaire to students in the University Mail Room at J. Walter Wilson, outside the Blue Room in Faunce House and in the Sciences Librar y.

book about a girl who goes to Har vard.

“To a little girl, that’s ver y inspiring,” she said.

Xu said he was attracted to college in the United States because of the opportunities it would provide.

“You get more resources for research. You get a lot of resources for study abroad, which there aren’t in China,” he said. “The facilities here are excellent.”

“The people here are pretty friendly, and it’s a very comforting culture,” Jaicui Li said.

Nancy Li said the resources Brown provided helped ease the transition.

“My academic advisor was very helpful, very nice and patient, willing to answer ever y question,” she said. “People here are ver y nice.”

Xu agreed.

“Everything’s normal now,” he said. “I’m making friends.”

Some students found Brown’s International Mentoring Program

helpful in making the transition smoother.

Started in 1999 by international student Maithili Parekh ’02, the program matches each incoming international freshman with an older international student.

“The (program) offers social, academic and educational programming to assist with students’ transition to Brown and the United States,” Kisa Takesue ’88, associate dean of student life, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

IMP hosted a “meet and greet” in Februar y specifically for students from China to welcome them to Brown. “I think most of us can gradually adapt to the school by making some friends with other United States students or getting some help from the advisors,” said Qidong Chen ’12, a Herald photographer, adding that the mentoring program “definitely helped.”

Brown also has a chapter of the Chinese Student and Scholar Association, which ser ves Chinese-American students nationwide. Jaicui Li said members of

the organization helped him with logistical problems when he first arrived in the United States. “A bunch of Chinese graduate students came and picked me up at the airport,” he said.

But Zhang said he thinks Brown’s support programs are “not quite adequate.”

“It’s good, but I do think they could be better,” he said. “In some schools, they match incoming international students with local families. That would be ver y helpful, just to know what it’s like to live in an American family. It would be a real opportunity to explore family life, the traditions.”

Zhang is currently in the process of starting a student group called Undergraduate Students from China. He said the group might be a way for students from China to work together on projects such as hosting lecture series or organizing workshops open to the entire Brown community.

“We were all scattered,” he said. “I thought it would be cool to bring people together and work together.”

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Metro The Brown Daily Herald

“It’s good public policy to get young people involved as early as possible.”

— Matt Sledge ’08, Fair Vote Rhode Island Thursday, April 2, 2009 | Page 5

Change is coming to Hope

By Lauren Fedor Senior Staff Writer

Hope High School will undergo significant restructuring in the coming months, a representative from the Providence Public Schools Department said this week.

Since 2005, Hope has been divided into three learning “communities” — Arts, Leadership and Information Technology. But at the end of this school year, the Leadership wing will close, and its students and faculty will merge into the other two communities, said Christina O’Reilly, a spokeswoman for the department.

The division, and other 2005 changes, resulted from a statemandated Consolidated Corrective Action Plan aimed at ending Hope’s history of unusually poor test scores.

Test scores have improved since, and O’Reilly said the impending closing of the Leadership community would not hinder the school’s overall progress.

“The size of the student body in total isn’t going to increase,” she said, adding that the plan primarily involves the consolidation of “top level” administration.

The current model calls for three principals, one for each learning community. Next year, just two principals will lead the school. Scott Sutherland will continue as principal of Hope Arts and Arthur Petrosinelli will remain at the helm of Hope Info Tech.

O’Reilly said the plan to close Hope Leadership was crafted by Sutherland and Petrosinelli after Leadership Principal Wayne Montague retired earlier this year.

Since then, Sutherland and Petrosinelli have been running the Leadership community together, O’Reilly said.

Neither Sutherland nor Petrosinelli could be reached for comment.

Though Arts and Info Tech have “very specific” course tracks associated with them, the principals recognized that the Leadership program teaches skills that the school department “would hope to impart” to all of Hope’s students, O’Reilly said.

The skills could be absorbed or incorporated “across the board,” she

Legislature votes to let teens register early

By Monique Vernon Contributing Writer

Herald File Photo

The three learning communities that make up Hope High School will merge into two.

said, adding that one of Leadership’s main programs, the junior ROTC, will continue in the two remaining communities.

The principals’ suggestions were well received by the school department, O’Reilly said, because the two “know the dynamics” of Hope. “They know what works in the building,” she said, adding that they will not compromise the school’s culture of individualized attention.

“It’s safe to say that the interaction that a student gets day-to-day with teachers in the building will be very much the same,” she said.

Since learning about next year’s changes, Leadership students have begun a “choice process” through which they can matriculate to either the Arts or Info Tech communities, O’Reilly said. If neither of the pro-

grams appeals to them, students can bid into another high school.

But students are generally more attached to the building than their individual community, O’Reilly said, and most are choosing to stay at Hope.

All Leadership teachers will likewise be given the opportunity to remain at Hope.

John Day, president of Hope’s Parent Teacher Organization and the parent of a Hope Arts student, said he is glad that few changes will take place at Hope Arts.

“It doesn’t sound like courses are going to be stopped,” he said. “All the programs and the classes are still going to be offered.”

“They just won’t have the identity of being Hope Leadership,” he added.

The Rhode Island General Assembly has voted to allow 16and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote.

Bills to change registration law have passed in both the Senate and House, and, once both bodies sign off on reconciled legislation, the measure will go to Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 for his signature.

In 2007 and 2008, Carcieri vetoed bills similar to the one currently on the table, but his office could not be reached for comment. In the past, the governor has said the law would prevent the state from keeping accurate voter registration rolls and preventing voter fraud.

Currently, citizens must be 18 years old by the next election in order to register.

Information for pre-registered teens would be entered into state voter rolls with the designation “pending,” and they would automatically achieve voting status on their 18th birthday, said Fair Vote Rhode Island Director Matt Sledge ’08.

“They go through the same controls as anyone else who registers,” Sledge said.

Founded in 1992, Fair Vote RI is a volunteer organization concerned with improving the election process. Sledge said it has been advocating for this legislation for the past two years.

“It’s good public policy to get young people involved as early as possible in the democratic process,” Sledge said.

A benefit of the bill, he said, is that it will “close the registry gap

between young voters and the rest of the population.”

In the 2004 election, less than 60 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds registered to vote, but 81 percent of those young people who registered turned out to vote, according to Fair Vote RI. “There is no universal registration in this country, so many young people fall through the cracks,” Sledge said.

Secretar y of State A. Ralph Mollis has also endorsed the bill.

His platform promotes voter rights with the inclusion of an “aggressive high school registration program,” said spokesperson Chris Barnett. “We are capitalizing on (high school voters’) interest to make it easier for them to make their voices heard in the voting booth.”

State Senator Rhoda Perr y P’91, who sponsored the Senate bill, said the change would get more people involved in the civic process.

“The problem with our bill is that the governor vetoes it,” Perry said. But with greater support in the General Assembly, she said, the legislature will be able to override a veto. She said legislators are planning early for a veto and want the leadership to agree to an override.

Sledge said the assembly may be able to override a veto this year, since “the margin just keeps growing and growing.”

A vote of three-fifths of the legislature would be required to override a possible veto. The House passed its version of the bill by a vote of 56 to 10, and the Senate voted 32 to 2 in favor of its version.

World & Nation The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, April 2, 2009 | Page 6

U.S., Russia agree to cut nukes Assertive China emerges amid crisis

By Christi Parsons and Megan K. Stack Los Angeles T imes

LONDON — President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed Wednesday to open negotiations on a treaty that could slash their nuclear arsenals by one-third, part of what they described as a step “to move beyond Cold War mentalities” in relations between the two countries.

The agreement to undertake the most significant arms control talks in more than a decade emerged from the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders, and included a promise by Obama to visit Moscow this summer to pursue the talks.

“Over the last several years, the relationship between our two countries has been allowed to drift,” Obama said. “What I believe we’ve begun today is a very constructive dialogue that will allow us to work on issues of mutual interest.”

The schism has developed over issues such as NATO expansion into countries once part of the Soviet Union and soured even further last summer when Russian troops

fought a war with Georgia, a U.S. ally.

Wednesday’s consensus on the need for new nuclear weapons talks was the most concrete expression yet of the Obama administration’s decision to opt for improved relations with Russia rather than greater confrontation.

In turn, Medvedev said he was prepared to cooperate on non- proliferation, among other issues.

“It is important to note that there are many points on which we can work,” he said. “And indeed there are far more points where we can come closer, where we can work, rather than those points on which we have differences.”

For Russia, the push for a new nuclear treaty has as much to do with diplomatic clout as with strategic necessity, said Nikolai Zlobin, director of the Russia program at the Center for Defense Information in Washington.

“This is an area where Russia and the United States together can force the rest of the world to accept their view,” he said. “It makes Russia a global power again. Russia feels like it’s back to old times.”

Although hailed by arms control experts, word of the agree-

ment was not seen as a surprising development. Obama is on record saying he favors beginning talks ,and Russian officials have been eager to forge a new treaty to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires in December.

The current treaty, which took effect in 1994, limits the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals to between 1,700 and 2,200 nuclear warheads. A new treaty conceivably could cut arsenals to 1,500 warheads.

“This has been been on the radar for quite some time,” said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington. “The fact that they’ve put it front and center of their bilateral agenda is important.”

The two men met with the media after their meeting, laughing at one another’s jokes — Obama said he preferred not to visit Russia in the winter — and smiling broadly as they shook hands.But while the two leaders struck a friendly tone in the meeting, officials acknowledged a series of obstacles to an agreement that could be ready when START expires.

By Don Lee Los Angeles T imes

SHANGHAI, China — At a time when the United States and other traditional economic powers are weakening, China is flexing its muscle, signaling it will seek a more assertive role in shaping the world financial order.

The apparent shift in Beijing’s approach is likely to be displayed at Thursday’s meeting of the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, as China presses for changes in a global finance system long dominated by the United States and Western Europe.

Leading up to the London gathering of the heads of 20 major developed and emerging economies, Chinese leaders have publicly criticized the U.S. economic system, raised concerns about the safety of China’s massive holdings of U.S. debt and, most recently, proposed the creation of a new international reser ve currency to replace the dollar.

At the same time, China is snapping up foreign oil fields and mines, ensuring that its raw-materials cupboard will be well stocked when the economy rebounds.

China has signed deals with Iran, Russia and Venezuela for oil and gas deals worth tens of billions of dollars this year, and it has made moves for stakes or outright purchases of at least seven mining companies.

Chinese companies also are looking to buy high-profile Western brands on the cheap, while recruiting foreign talent to upgrade China’s technology. China’s Geely Automobile Holdings reportedly has talked with Ford Motor Co. about purchasing its distressed Volvo unit.

And analysts on both sides of the Pacific have floated the prospect of a Chinese automaker acquiring General Motors Corp.’s venerable Buick line, if not the entire company — something once considered unthinkable.

China sees the global downturn as a once-in-a-centur y opportunity — and it has the wherewithal to seize the moment. Although Chinese leaders are struggling with shrinking trade and rising joblessness, their economy is still growing faster than those of other major nations. Chinese banks are more stable. And the Beijing government is sitting on the largest stockpile of foreign reser ves in the world, some $2 trillion.

“They have fairly clear objectives of where they see their place in the new world order,” said Oded Shenkar, a management professor at Ohio State University and author of “The Chinese Centur y.” “They see it’s time to position themselves more assertively.”

China’s clout has increased as

it has surged to become the thirdbiggest economy after the United States and Japan. But even as recently as November’s G-20 meeting in Washington, Chinese leaders kept a low profile and stated that the best way for them to help the world would be to focus on domestic affairs.

As global financial problems deepened, and China’s expor t industries were pummeled by slumping demand, Chinese officials recognized their economy’s vulnerability.

“The capitalist system dominated by the West is stuck in serious and deep crisis — and is bringing disaster to the entire world,” said Huang Jisu, a sociologist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and co-author of a best-selling book, “Unhappy China,” that lashes out at U.S. hegemony and calls for China to take a stronger hand in world affairs.

Other scholars worr y about such nationalist fer vor and its influence on government policymaking. Still, there appears to be broad recognition and public support for China’s rising voice.

“To ever yone’s surprise, China made a break from its old way of only emphasizing general principles and instead raised lots of detailed measures this time,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Beijingbased Renmin University of China.

Although it may be too early to describe it as a shift in policy, he said, “I will call it a remarkable increase in China’s sense of the international role it can play.”

Shi and other analysts reckon China’s bid to wield more clout in global economic affairs will be met with resistance from the United States and other leading developed nations.

Even so, U.S. and European leaders are looking to cash-rich China to bolster the International Monetar y Fund’s resources, and in that they appear to be moving toward giving China and other emerging economies an expanded role.

Beijing has indicated a willingness to inject money into the IMF, but it has long been unhappy with the Washington-based organization, particularly with the way voting rights are assigned. China wants a greater say in the fund before adding to its coffers.

Last week the head of China’s central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, raised the idea of creating a new global reserve currency to replace the dominant dollar — a kind of super-currency made up of a basket of national currencies and controlled by the IMF. Exper ts agree it would take years, if not decades, to design and manage a truly global reser ve currency that could supplant the greenback.

SportsThursday The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, April 2, 2009 | Page 7

Hahn ’10: Softball goes 6-10 in month of March MLB surprises

By Katie Wood Assistant Spor ts Editor

With the start of the 2009 MLB season approaching, it’s time for some predictions. Everyone loves to be a forecaster, and Jonathan Hahn though there Sports Columnist are many fancy projection systems out on the Web, this Herald sports columnist has a few of his own. These are my predictions for division winners, end-of-year awards and future breakout teams.

American League West: Oakland Athletics. It will be close, but I’ll start off with a surprise pick. Adding Matt Holliday and other hitters, playing in the spacious Coliseum with talented rookie pitchers to throw at teams, and getting to beat up on Texas and Seattle? It adds up to a division title. Sorr y, Los Angeles Angels, but your style of small ball, lack of on-base percentage and power, an aging outfield and last year’s over-performing pitching spell out a year of disappointment.

Central: Cleveland Indians. It’s a four-way flip between the teams not named Kansas City Royals. This is less a pick based on Cleveland’s strengths and more a pick based on lack of faith in the pitching staffs of the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers and the lack of a Minnesota offense with an injured Joe Mauer.

When the dust settles, the midges will be back with a vengeance.

East: New York Yankees. The three best teams in the MLB (Yankees, Red Sox and Rays) are in the AL East. The race will be exciting, disgusting and at the end we’ll see one 90-plus win team at home in October. Even with the Alex Rodriguez injury, the Yankees’ offense and pitching staff are too much to handle — who cares if they can’t play defense? Cry for Toronto and Baltimore.

Wild Card: Boston Red Sox. As much as it pains me to not pick my defending AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays who improved their lineup and rotation in the offseason, the Red Sox have a much better offense and under-performed last year. I’ll be praying for luck.

MVP: Grady Sizemore, OF, Indians. Finally recognized, does everything.

Cy Young: CC Sabathia, Yankees. Media darling, workhorse, book it.

Rookie of the Year: Matt Wieters, C, Baltimore Orioles. Best catcher right off the bat and for years to come.

2010 Team: Texas Rangers.

Pitching will finally catch up with a great offense, thanks to the best farm system. Young hitting prospects and flame-throwing pitching prospects make the Rangers legit in a year, but look for signs now. continued on page 8

The softball team wrapped up a grueling stretch of 16 games in two weeks with back-to-back wins over the University of Rhode Island Tuesday. The frenetic finish to March came after the Bears’ first seven games of the month were all cancelled due to rain.

The Bears opened up the stretch with a win over Holy Cross in their first home contest of the season before heading to sunny Florida for a week-long Spring Break trip. Brown fared well in the Rebel Spring Games in Kissimmee, Fla., as the team came away with two wins and two onerun defeats.

The Bears then took on Stetson and Jacksonville, before facing a North Florida team fresh off a win over nationally ranked Florida State. After a day off, the team hit the road again to take on their first Ivy League opponents of the sea-

son in Cornell and Princeton.

The Bears returned home Tuesday to defeat in-state rival URI twice, 4-3 and 3-1.

Brown 12, Holy Cross 3 On March 18, the Bears were ready to play in front of the home crowd after an 18-day lay-off from competition. Amanda Asay ’10, Trish Melvin ’12 and Kate Strobel ’12 led the way for the Bears as each hit one out of the park, accounting for seven of the runs on the day.

Pitcher Michelle Moses ’09 put together a solid all-around performance, allowing three runs while striking out three for the win. She also knocked in two runs in the third inning on a single to right.

“To come out on the field and play strong, it was a really good way to start our spring break,” said Kelsey Wilson ’09.

Herald File Photo

continued on page 9

The softball team had a busy two weeks, playing 16 games, including some far away in Florida.

Equestrian team competes in Regionals Brown’s teams were spread out during Spring Break, some staying on home turf, with others crossing the country to compete for Bruno.

Equestrian On Saturday, the equestrian team competed at the Region 1 Championship, where Brown qualified three riders for this weekend’s Zone 1 Championship.

Liz Giliberti ’10 rode to a first-

place finish in the Open Flat to qualify for Zones, and Allegra Aron ’11 followed with a win in the Intermediate Flat, also earning a qualification for Zones. Rounding out the selections for Brown was Kona Shen ’10, who won the Walk Trot to qualify.

The Zone 1 Championships will take place at Mt. Holyoke on Saturday.

Men’s golf The men’s golf team travelled to

the West Coast to compete in two tournaments over the past week.

The Bears opened their spring season at the Cal Poly Men’s Intercollegiate tournament on March 26 and 27, where they placed 11th out of 12 teams, then competed in the Western Intercollegiate tournament, where they finished last among the 18 teams.

John Gianuzzi ’10 led Brown at Cal Poly with a 33rd-place individual

finish on a three-round score of 230, followed closely by co-captain Conor Malloy ’09, whose third-round score of 75 gave him an overall score of 231, earning him 35th place. Joe Rued ’09 shot a 237, and rounding out the lineup for the Bears were co-captain Chris Hoffman ’09 and Michael Amato ’11, who each shot a 238. continued on page 8

Page 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, April 2, 2009

S ports T hursday Hahn ’10: Braves are back continued from page 7

National League West: Los Angeles Dodgers.

Sure, the rotation scares me, but the NL West is pathetic. The Arizona Diamondbacks might challenge with a good balance of pitching, hitting and a favorable home park, while the San Francisco Giants will do well with their rotation — but both fall short. Gas is up!

Central: Chicago Cubs. An offensive machine, solid pitching — it won’t be close. Make these precious chances count because your window is closing fast with aging hitters, terrible minors and a payroll monster in two years.

Baaaaaa.

East: New York Mets. Congratulations, you finally have a bullpen, just don’t blow it, again, times two. Third time’s the charm, right? Sorry, Philadelphia Phillies, no more September runs — you over-performed like crazy last year, so expect to regress, by a lot.

Wild Card: Atlanta Braves.

That’s right. After a three-year hiatus, they’re back. Pitching additions, solid hitting and elite prospects who will be up this year. It

will be tight but I’ll go out on a limb and say the Braves will surprise in the NL. MVP: Hanley Ramirez, SS, Florida Marlins. Sorr y Albert Pujols, Hanley solidifies himself as the best player for the next three years.

Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants. He doesn’t ice his arm for crying out loud.

Rookie of the Year: Cameron Maybin, OF, Florida Marlins. Future stud, if only the Marlins had more everything.

2010 Team: San Francisco Giants. Since I already picked the Braves to break out a year early, I’ll pick the Giants instead. Premium pitching prospects, solid young hitting prospects and core, everyone else in the NL West better make this year count.

Sure, some of these predictions are a little extreme, but we’ll just blame whatever errors I make on luck, or the World Baseball Classic.

Go watch baseball! Enjoy the 2009 season! I know I will.

Jonathan Hahn ’10 is ready to get heckled in his Rays gear.

Thanks for reading, friend.

W. Tennis sweeps Spring Break matches continued from page 7 At the Western Intercollegiate, Gianuzzi once again led Brown, finishing 61st with a 234. Amato was second for the Bears with a 239, while Hoffman shot 246, Malloy shot 247, and Rued finished with a score of 253.

The team will next compete at the New England Divison I Championships on April 10 and 11 in Providence.

Women’s golf The women’s golf team competed at the UNC-Wilmington Lady Seahawk Classic on March 23 and 24, where it placed 11th out of 12 teams with a team score of 983. Julia Robinson ’11 led the Bears with a 240 over three rounds of play, for a 38thplace finish. Heather Arison ’12 and Carly Arison ’12 each shot a 248, and Megan Tuohy ’12 was close behind with a 250. Sarah Guarascio ’11 was fifth for the Bears, shooting a 259 for the tournament.

The team will resume competition this weekend at the Brown Invitational in Brockton, Mass.

Women’s tennis The women’s tennis team earned wins in all three of its matches over spring break, winning 6-1 over Davidson on March 23 and 5-2 over Furman on March 27, before upsetting No. 45 Yale on Saturday with a

Justin Coleman / Herald File Photo

Cassandra Herzberg ’12 upset the 85th-ranked player in the nation with scores of 6-0, 6-0.

4-3 victory.

Against Davidson, Brown swept the doubles matches and won five of six singles matches, all in straight sets, for the 6-1 victory. Against Furman, the Bears once again won all three doubles matches, followed by four singles wins, including a dominant win at No. 2 singles for Cassandra Herzberg ’12, who upset the 85th-ranked player in the nation with scores of 6-0, 6-0.

Against Yale, Brown won two doubles matches to secure the doubles point, but dropped matches at No. 3 and No. 4 singles to fall behind.

Bianca Aboubakare ’11 and Julie Flanzer ’12 picked up straight-set wins for the Bears at No. 1 and No. 6 singles, respectively, and Herzberg locked up the win for Bruno with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory at No. 2 singles.

This weekend, Brown will travel to Penn and Princeton.

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, April 2, 2009

S ports T hursday

Bears softball starts Ivy competition 1-3 over break continued from page 7 Brown 5, Army 1 On March 20, Bruno played their first two games of the Rebel Spring Games, starting off with a 5-1 win over Army.

Army tallied one run on the scoreboard in the first before Brown added two of its own in the bottom half of the inning, when Melvin knocked a two-run double to right center. Moses shut down the Black Knights’ offense for the rest of the game and the offense added another three runs to the board, as Kristie Chin ’12 added a two-run single.

But the win for Brown also included misfortune. Asay suffered an ankle injury in the first inning that will likely sideline her for much of the rest of the season.

Iona 1, Brown 0 The win over army was followed later that day by a narrow loss to Iona, 1-0.

Jessica Iwasaki ’10 held Iona scoreless for 6.2 innings, but ran into trouble with two outs in the seventh, leaving runners at the corners for reliever Emily Chaddock ’11. Iona scored the winning run on an illegal pitch to get the 1-0 win over the Bears, who were unable to muster any run production despite a strong game from Sandra Mastrangelo ’12, who led the way for the Bears with a 3-for-5 performance at the plate.

Wagner 5, Brown 4 The Seahawks jumped out to a 4-0 lead over the Bears, but the Bears fought back with a four-run sixth inning. Strobel and Wilson each came up with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 4-2, and Melvin hit a two-run single to tie up the game.

But Wagner scored a run off of

Moses, who came on in relief, to secure the 5-4 win over Brown.

“You’re out there for seven innings, you never give up and have confidence that you can rally back,” Wilson said. “We just fell short.”

Brown 2, Farleigh Dickinson 1 Strobel tallied the only runs on the day for Bruno with a two-run homer, and Melvin and Moses combined for seven innings of one-run pitching.

Stetson 8, Brown 0 Stetson built a commanding lead with six runs in the first inning and held on for the 8-0 win.

Jacksonville 11, Brown 1 Paced by two four-run innings, Jacksonville handled Brown in the first match-up, as the Bears could not get their offense going, recording only two hits.

Jacksonville 3, Brown 2 The Bears bounced back in the second game, rattling off seven hits while holding a 2-0 advantage for the majority of the contest. Strobel continued to produce as she brought Mastrangelo home with a single, to put the Bears up 1-0 in the top of the fourth, and Jackie Giovanniello ’12 added to Bruno’s lead with an RBI double in the seventh.

But the Dolphins’ bats came alive in the seventh as they tied it up to send the game into extra innings, and Jacksonville went on to score the winning run on a bases-loaded walk by Chaddock in the eighth inning.

“We played well leading up to the final inning,” Wilson said. “We didn’t close them out and could have scored some more runs.”

www.browndailyherald.com

North Florida 2, Brown 0 North Florida jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, and though Melvin held North Florida scoreless or the remainder of the game, Bruno could not fight its way back.

“It was positive that we were hanging in with the teams, but on the other side, it’s hard to lose the close ones thinking we should have won the game,” Wilson said.

North Florida 12, Brown 10 Game two featured two hot offenses, as the two teams combined for 26 hits and 22 runs. The Bears gained a 4-1 lead in the second before the Lady Ospreys answered with six runs to take a 7-4 lead.

Brown added another three runs in the fourth inning, when Melvin hit a two-run double, and eventually scored on an illegal pitch to tie the game, 7-7. After another three-run fifth inning put the Bears up, 108, North Florida cleared the bases with a two-out three-run triple to pull ahead for good.

Melvin went 4-for-5 from the plate with two RBI, while Wilson finished 3-for-3 with two RBI and Giovanniello went 3-for-4 with three RBI in the losing effort.

Cornell 11, Brown 0 Cornell began the day with an offensive onslaught as the Big Red tallied all eleven of their runs in the

first inning. Melvin gave up six of the runs, while Iwasaki surrendered the other five, before Chin came in to pitch two shutout innings of relief.

Cornell 6, Brown 0 The second game did not turn out better for Bruno, as the offense continued to struggle. Chaddock led the Bears with an .800 average over the two games, going 4-for-5 from the plate.

Princeton 8, Brown 2 The Bears started off strong, tallying two runs in the opening three innings while holding the Tigers scoreless. The Tigers battled back with six runs in the fourth inning to take a lead they would never relinquish. Princeton tacked on two more runs in the sixth to finish out the game, 8-2.

Brown 2, Princeton 1 The Bears capitalized early again in the second game, as they scored two runs in the third inning. Iwasaki allowed one run in three and two-thirds innings before Chaddock came in to pitch two and one-third innings of shut-out softball to earn her first win of the season and the team’s first Ivy win of the season.

“The win showed that we are capable of closing out a game,” Wilson said. “We didn’t have a lot of offen-

sive opportunities, but we were able to capitalize on them.”

Elaina Atherton ’12 scored two runs on the day while going 2-for-5 from the plate. Wilson added two doubles and one RBI, while Strobel contributed two hits and an RBI. Brown 4, URI 3 Bruno scored three runs in the first inning, when Wilson hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded to tally the first run and Giovanniello singled to right field to bring in two more runs. In the third, Strobel doubled to right field and Giovaniello brought Strobel home with an RBI single to give Brown a 4-0 lead.

A three-run double in the top of the seventh cut Brown’s lead to 4-3, but Moses closed out the game for the win.

Brown 3, URI 1 The Bears took game two by a score of 3-1 as Moses recorded her first complete game of the season, moving her record to 4-3. Strobel led the offensive attack for the Bears with a 4-for-6 performance, including two doubles, while Giovaniello contributed a team-high three RBI. The Bears will host Penn and Columbia this weekend in Ivy League action on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., followed by a double header on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Thursday, April 2, 2009

e d i to r i a l

So Unfortunate, But Unsurprising The Student Union of Brown University has effectively died. We are sad, but we are not surprised. The group was founded in the spring of 2006 with the intention of becoming an advocate for student interests and an alternative to the Undergraduate Council of Students. However, the group has not held a meeting which met quorum since the fall of last year, and seems to be defunct.

SUBU’s mission — to create a space where all students have an equal voice and an equal vote — is certainly a noble one. Undergraduate students need a forum where they can voice their concerns and advocate for their own interests. The traditional forums — student councils and the editorial pages of newspapers — are typically controlled by a small group of students who supposedly represent the whole. What SUBU tried to be was a truly democratic group, one in which all students could participate just by showing up.

Several factors have contributed to SUBU’s unpopularity at Brown: To begin with, the structure of UCS was changed this year to include any student who wants to join, attends two UCS meetings and can collect 150 signatures. This is a much more open and inclusive system than in earlier years, and it has successfully worked to decrease student frustration with the council.

Additionally, SUBU’s emphasis on a non-hierarchical structure may have worked towards its demise. Since its organizers did not want to impose any constraints on the meetings without the consent of the whole union, students who showed up to the first meeting out of curiosity were subjected to several hours of discussion and voting on organization forms and rules, such as how many students would make up a quorum. While the organizers had the group’s best interests at heart, this may not have been the most auspicious beginning.

However, we should not let this group fade into memory so easily.

The time may come, next month or in a few years, when students need a forum in which they can stand up and loudly voice their opinions, when the power of UCS and of The Herald may not be enough to protect their interests. A democratic forum is, sometimes, the only thing that works.

Though SUBU isn’t the most popular group on campus, we hope its organizers will keep it alive, at least in name, so it can be used more widely if the need should arise.

CHRIS JESU LEE

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

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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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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, April 2, 2009 | Page 11

The future of Brown Webmail JARED LAFER Opinions Columnist The kids nowadays are crazy about this thing called e-mail. You see, it’s like mail, only you get it through the Interweb. It makes you wonder what the technophiles will think of next.

But e-mailing can be frustrating, especially when the Webmail provider is obsolete and difficult to use. Fortunately for us, Brown’s Webmail service is a shining exemplar of perfection.

(That was a joke.)

A recent editorial (“The Gmail Revolution, 5 years late,” March 17) expounded the benefits of outsourcing the Brown e-mail server to Gmail. I couldn’t agree more, and in this column I will elaborate on some of the points raised by the editorial, and mention several details it neglected.

Brown provides its own webmail service through Microsoft Outlook Exchange. The service is a bit different depending on what Internet browser you use; Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome users are condemned to the Basic version, while Internet Explorer users have the choice between Basic and Advanced, the latter of which is somewhat more tolerable than Basic.” Nevertheless, since most people do not use Internet Explorer (if you do, immediately uninstall), I will just address the Basic version.

As the name suggests, the application is very basic. It’s sufficient for composing and sending e-mails, but inadequate for everything else.

Organizing and deleting e-mails is extremely

time consuming, you can only control a handful of settings, when I look at the color scheme I feel like vomiting — I could go on, but I’m sure someone more tech-savvy could do a far better job. Simply put, this application is terrible.

And a number of students have taken the hint. A 2007 article (“U. considers outsourcing student e-mail,” Sept. 8, 2007) reported that, as of mid-August of that year, 849 undergraduates used a third-party application, 651 of whom used Gmail. I assume the numbers haven’t changed much since then.

On the other hand, if that’s true, scores of Brown students must still use Outlook. While I

of Southern California, Vanderbilt University, Arizona State University, George Washington University, Northwestern University, etc.) have already espoused Google’s Apps for Education Edition which, as per its Web site, is a free suite of hosted communication and collaboration applications designed for schools and universities.

The package of applications is rather expansive, so I will just focus on its Gmail component in this column, but rest assured, its other applications are just as remarkable.

Why adopt Gmail? Google lists 10 reasons on its Web site, which are applicable to Brown’s webmail in several important ways.

It’s Brown’s responsibility to ensure we have satisfactory University webmail, and at that it has completely failed. won’t pretend to know their real reasons, I can only surmise it’s either for convenience’s sake or ignorance of far better alternatives. However, these reasons don’t cut it. Brown Webmail is no more convenient than any other Webmail service, and its relatively laughable system should have driven them away a long time ago.

Of course, I can’t completely blame the students. It’s Brown’s responsibility to ensure we have satisfactory University Webmail, and at that it has completely failed. But there is a way for Brown to live up to its responsibility — adopt Google’s Apps for Education Edition.

Several universities (such as the University

First, and perhaps most important, there is a major financial incentive. According to searchstorage.com, ASU apparently saved “$350,000 per year in storage, maintenance and personnel costs.” This change would be a very easy way for Brown to save money during troubling economic times.

Second, unlike Brown’s Webmail, Gmail’s server is not centralized, so you are safe from the kind of unforeseeable accidents that a previous column envisioned (“Backing up Brown,” March 2).

Third, currently Brown students are only allotted 50 MB of storage space on the server.

With Gmail, each student would get over 7 GB, which means no more annoying messages from the administrator saying you’ve exceeded your storage quota or e-mails bouncing back to the sender because your mailbox is full.

Fourth, you get to use a Webmail service that is not only at the head of the pack, but leading the way in innovation. With organizational features such as labels, filters, folders and conversations, a chat function that has both text and video capabilities and the power of the Google search engine, once you go Gmail you’ll never turn tail.

Fifth, with Gmail you get the massive technology support team of Google, which means easy access to assistance. Knowing Google, however, you won’t need it often anyway.

Sixth, you get the same security Google uses to protect google.com, which, no offense to CIS, is probably far more advanced than Brown’s security. This coincides with Google’s serious emphasis on privacy protection, which you can read about at its Privacy Center online.

Seventh, you get to keep the domain name “@brown.edu,” so you can flaunt your education to all your friends.

The bottom line is that Gmail is vastly superior to Brown’s Webmail, and the opportunity to freely implement the service across the student body should be seized immediately. And according to the aforementioned editorial, this may be a reality soon enough. Until then, you can always forward your Brown inbox to Gmail.

Jared Lafer ’11 is a philosophy concentrator from Manhattan. He can be reached at jared_lafer@gmail.com

Reduce, reuse, return to Eastside Marketplace

BY JEREMY FEIGENBAUM Opinions Columnist Whenever I empty my garbage in Caswell’s basement, there are plastic bags in the trash bins. And most days, as I walk down Thayer Street to Grad Center, I come across bags lying on the sidewalk. I never used to pick them up. I assumed that these light objects could do little damage.

As part of a project for ENVS1410: “Environmental Law and Policy,” four of my classmates and I conducted research on legislation that seeks to reduce plastic bag litter. To write about the bill, I had to study why it was necessar y in the first place. I quickly learned that plastic waste causes far greater problems than I had recognized.

There is always the obvious issue: An average plastic bag will fill up space in a landfill for thousands of years. Since Earth has finite space and the human population is growing rapidly, unnecessary waste is a real concern.

The disposal of plastic bags not only consumes more space in landfills, but also spurs the production of more bags. This has an immediate impact on human health because plastic manufacturing releases car-

cinogenic benzene gas into the air. Just as problematic, the creation and transportation of plastic bags — frequently from Asia — usually employs fossil fuels and thereby contributes to global warming and makes it difficult for the United States to become energy independent.

Beyond carbon emissions and carcinogens, littered bags pose other serious problems. Plastic bags are often blown great

tions and human welfare. People should start cutting back on their use of new plastic bags immediately. Thankfully, Rhode Island has already made rapid change possible.

Last year, the state legislature passed the Plastic Bag Recovery Act of 2008. This bill mandates that large retail establishments selling goods and food in the state allow customers to return any plastic bag to them — even if the store did not dispense that

Plastic bags, which most people frequently use but rarely think about, have deadly impacts on the environment, animal populations and human welfare. distances, due to their light weight. They end up in state parks, on lawns and in waterways and oceans.

In the water, bags kill animals by suffocating or immobilizing them, or by interfering with their digestion. According to the United Nations, thousands of pieces of plastic coat the surface of every square mile of ocean.

Plastic bags, which most people frequently use but rarely think about, have a deadly impact on the environment, animal popula-

bag. These stores must maintain collection barrels for plastic and then send what they receive to nearby recycling plants. Residents only need to bring back their old bags the next time they go shopping; the state has taken care of the rest.

Some of the stores closest to Brown are participating in this program. There are four stores near campus that take back bags: Carcieri’s Market, Eastside Marketplace, Shaw’s and Stop & Shop. Brown students —

especially those who are regular customers — should start bringing their plastic bags with them.

But there is an even more effective option: Bags can be reused. After I brought my textbooks to Caswell at the beginning of this semester, I threw the bags out. But I went back to the bookstore three times (I had trouble choosing classes) and could have used those bags again. Even though plastic bags might not seem like a necessity, there are often opportunities for reuse.

Most important, however, is the need to stop using disposable plastic bags altogether.

The Brown Bookstore sells reusable cloth bags and even gave some away to students who made large enough purchases. Cloth bags are clearly the best option in environmental terms.

Reduce, reuse, recycle is an underappreciated mantra. Nearly everyone can recite it, but few truly practice it. Government initiatives are important — and we’re lucky that Rhode Island has taken the lead in this area — but individual changes are necessary too.

Reducing the use of plastic bags is easy and beneficial. Why not start now?

Jeremy Feigenbaum ‘11 is a political science concentrator from Teaneck, N.J. He can be reached at Jeremy_Feigenbaum@brown.edu.

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Transfer applications on the rise

Softball hits the road over break

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c a l e n da r April 2, 2009

April 3, 2009

5 P.M. — Romano Prodi, ”Italy Today: Priorities, Politics and Prospects,” Watson Institute

7 P.M. — “Civil Sex by Brian Freeman,” Churchill House

5:30 P.M.— Donald Tong, “Hong Kong & the Global Economic Crisis,” Salomon 101

8 P.M. — “Brown University Gilbert & Sullivan Present Iolanthe,” Alumnae Hall

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Cheese Tomato Strata, Zucchini Pie, Hot Ham on Bulky Roll, Garlic and Butter Infused Rice

Lunch — Hot Sausage Sandwich, French Bread Pizza, Cauliflower au Gratin

Dinner — Spinach and Rice Bake, Beef Saute with Cumin, Spice Rubbed Pork Chops, Oven Browned Potatoes

Dinner — Baked Chicken, Shells with Broccoli, Garlic Bread

crossword comics Enigma Twist |Dustin Foley

The One About Zombies | Kevin Grubb

Cabernet Voltaire |Abe Pressman