Wednesday, October 14, 2009

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Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 84 | Wednesday, October 14, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

U. spent thousands on lobbying

E y es on the s k ies

By Alexandra Ulmer Senior Staff Writer

By Sydney Ember Senior Staf f Writer

The University spent nearly $160,000 on various lobbying activities, including direct contact with government officials to influence national, state and local legislation, in the 12 months ending in June 2008, according to its most recent publicly available tax filings. The total includes $65,755 spent on total compensation for Brown officials who work to influence efforts at the federal and state levels and nearly $93,698 to organizations that specialize in lobbying the federal government on behalf of research universities. The tax filings for 2008 show a large jump in spending on lobbying. In the previous fiscal year, spanning parts of 2006 and 2007, the University coughed up only $52,329 for lobbying activities. But the University may be cutting back on the fees doled out to lobbyists and related organizations, said Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations. “Every year, we review the value for the University of belonging to these organizations,” Quinn said, adding that since 2008 the University has reduced some of its contributions to lobbying organizations and is planning to reduce more. For example, Quinn said, the continued on page 4

BDS workers authorize strike

Max Monn / Herald

A new exhibit, “Beyond the Moon: 400 Years of Astronomical Observation,” opened recently at the John Hay Library.

In a nearly unanimous vote Tuesday night, Brown Dining Services employees authorized their bargaining committee to call a strike if today’s negotiations on a new contract do not yield a satisfactory agreement. Officials on both sides will meet at 11 a.m. today to attempt to reach a consensus on the contentious issues of health care payments, retirement benefits for new hires and wage changes ahead of the looming expiration of the workers’ contract at midnight tonight. The contract was extended by 48 hours, and a federal mediator was summoned to today’s bargaining session, after negotiations failed to secure an agreement on Monday. More than 120 of the approximately 200 employees congregated for a membership meeting Tuesday and expressed disapproval of the University’s most recent proposal, said

Roxana Rivera, the chief negotiator for the Service Employees International Union, Local 615, which represents the workers. “It was loud and clear that workers don’t believe that what the University is putting forward is just,” Rivera said. The University is confident that the two sides will reach a consensus today, Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations Marisa Quinn wrote in an e-mail to The Herald Tuesday afternoon. “If for some reason we are unable to accomplish this,” she added, “we can agree to a further extension, or the University can present its final offer to the union membership for a vote to ratify or reject the same.” It is too early to predict whether another contract extension could be in the cards, or when a potential strike might begin, Rivera said. “We have to see tomorrow to see how we’ll go forth in the next couple of days.”

SEE STORY, PAGE 2

Researchers get big award to investigate OCD treatment By Jamie Brew Contributing Writer

Brown professors are among a team of researchers that recently received a $10.5 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study a new treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Brown faculty will lead two of the study’s six subprojects. OCD, an anxiety disorder, affects more than 2 percent of the world’s population and can be debilitating. Treatment regularly includes medi-

cation and cognitive therapy. But deep brain stimulation may soon be more common in treating the disorder. The therapy, which is the focus of the study, involves surgically inserting an electrode in the patient’s brain. The electrode connects to a pacemaker-like device in the chest that sends the brain electrical impulses. DBS therapy has proven effective as a treatment for other conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease. Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Ben Green-

berg of the Alpert Medical School is leading a project to investigate the efficacy of DBS as OCD treatment. Greenberg recruited Professor of Medical Science Barry Connors — who is heading his own sub-project to study the cellular effects of DBS — to the project. If Greenberg’s team finds that DBS consistently helps treat the disorder, doctors will have a strong case for expanding its use, which Greenberg said is currently restricted to only the most extreme cases of OCD.

Greenberg’s project is one of several in the larger study. Suzanne Haber, a pharmacology and physiology professor at the University of Rochester, is the principal investigator of the study. There are several sub-projects based at various institutions, she said, including the two at Brown. “The components of the group address the same question but from different angles,” Haber said. The study grew out of an existing continued on page 2

Art group exploding traditional art forms By Talia Kagan Staf f Writer

inside

A solitary, sneakered flautist plays slow and mournful tones on the side of an informal stage. Nearby, nine barefoot students contort their bodies and weave through each other. Though their movements are improvised, at times the students are eerily in sync. Two floodlights provide a warm glow in the nearly empty black-box theater in Production Workshop’s Upspace. Twenty-three hours later, nine students writhe and bend on the same stage. But this isn’t a repeat performance — it is the same show, finally coming to an end. These performances were part of a continuous 24-hour show produced by the Brown University Movement Experiments. Founded last year, the experimental student

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performance group coordinates events involving music, visual art and dance — sometimes all three simultaneously. Last week, BUME combined the three in a series of events — a collaborative trash sculpture, a “playground happening” and a day-long show — attracting questions, wonder and, sometimes, no notice at all.

FEATURE BUME (its members pronounce the name “boom”) started off the week’s events last Tuesday by producing a collaborative trash sculpture on the Main Green, said Sam Tarakajian ’10, the event’s coordinator. BUME members began by building a wooden scaffold in the morning, he said. They asked bewildered onlookers to trade their trash for cookies and added the collected

items onto the wooden skeleton throughout the day. Cables, Ratty containers and a high-voltage switch were among the items that people traded in, Tarakajian said, adding that he kept the switch. Some donors simply emptied pockets full of loose candy wrappers and papers, and others went to their rooms or offices to bring back garbage, he said — a box of micropipettes, for instance. The initial construction and eventual dismantling of the sculpture took just under 12 hours, according to Tarakajian. The sculpture, he said, was commonly mistaken for some sort of protest. “I just like sculpture,” he said. A creative connection The next night, a more ambitious creative undertaking began at 9 p.m. — and ended on Thursday,

Kim Perley / Herald

BUME members worked on a “trash sculpture” last week.

after 24 hours of performances. The concept for the event, titled “and” by its coordinator Alina Kung ’12, was inspired by a 24-hour piano performance by experimental musician John Cage. Kung wanted to plan a similar performance for

BUME, she said, and for practicality, divided the event into hour-long time slots. The hour-long acts included cooking, break-dancing, even imcontinued on page 4

News, 2

Sports, 5

Opinions, 7

Spaced out The Hay launches an exhibit celebrating 400 years of astronomy

Spiked! The volleyball Bears suffer two decisive losses over the weekend

Up in Smoke Sean Quigley ’10 laments a ban on sweet and spicy cigarettes

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