Thursday, October 15, 2009

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxliv, no. 85 | Thursday, October 15, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Budget groups begin work across University

By Sydney Ember Senior Staf f Writer

Alex Ulmer / Herald

Negotiators from both sides posed for a photo after reaching an agreement early Thursday morning.

Tentative BDS agreement reached

By Alex Ulmer Senior Staf f Writer

The University and Dining Services workers reached a tentative agreement around 2 a.m. Thursday after days of intense negotiations — though ratification of the settlement remains contingent on an employee vote today.

Neither party would discuss the specifics of the settlement ahead of the vote, but members of the workers’ union’s bargaining committee said they would be recommending that Dining Services employees ratify the agreement.

“It’s a total settlement,” said Joseph Sarno ’91, the University’s chief negotiator and director of la-

bor and employee relations. “Now they need to get an agreement from their party.”

Previous rounds of negotiations failed to secure an agreement, chiefly due to divergences over proposed changes to health care premium payments, retirement benefits for future hires and wage increases. The contentions were amplified by the University’s bruised financial situation, which Sarno said was a “big factor.”

The seven members of the bargaining committee will “strongly” recommend that workers ratify the settlement during two meetings today, scheduled between employee shifts, said Roxana Rivera, the chief negotiator for the

Service Employees International Union, Local 615, which represents the nearly 200 Dining Services employees.

“There was a time we had nothing to recommend to the members,” said Rabbit Hoffinger, first cook at the Sharpe Refectory and a member of bargaining committee.

“To say that we got this at the midnight hour is to understate it.”

Negotiations to replace the already-extended contract began Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., according to union of ficials, and an agreement was reached more than 14 hours later. Members of the bargaining committee added that they were granted today off from work.

The University hopes to identify approximately half of $30 million in necessary budget cuts this fall through the work of 12 recently formed subgroups of the Organizational Review Committee, according to executive vice president for finance and administration Beppie Huidekoper.

These subgroups, which include faculty, staff and students, each met independently for the first time Oct. 8, and are scheduled to come up with $14 million in recommended cuts, Huidekoper said. The ORC will propose a full $30 million in cuts to the Corporation at the meeting in February, she said, when the University’s highest governing body will approve the budget for the 12 months beginning July 2010.

The subcommittees are part of the University’s latest efforts to trim down the annual budget after the endowment — a key source of annual revenue — lost nearly $740 million during last year’s financial

crisis.

“There’s pretty much no part of the University that is not addressed,” Huidekoper said of the subcommittees’ focuses, adding that the current economic situation has necessitated organizational changes that are “deeper” and that more directly address the University’s efficiency.

The $14 million figure was chosen to encourage the subgroups to come up with aggressive ideas for deficit reductions, Huidekoper said. Administrators will inform the Corporation about the formation of these review teams when the body convenes this weekend.

“We are asking them to brainstorm and think creatively,” she said. “There’s no magic and no science.”

The 12 subcommittees — among them groups charged with overseeing academic departments, facilities, athletics, events management, librar y operations and student ser vices — will develop recomcontinued on page 2

Two Brown profs make a splash in moon water research Pieters-led team makes surprise find with lunar scan

By Monique Vernon Staff Writer

inside

Water molecules have been found on the moon by a research team headed

by Professor of Geology Carle Pieters. But like many momentous scientific advances, the discovery was made almost by accident.

“You don’t expect any water on the moon,” Pieters said, and neither did her research team, which was studying lunar mineralogy. But when the team happened upon indications of water that at first confused them, they investigated further and discovered they were genuine.

“When our team saw a clear signature of water on the surface, we thought it was wrong,” Pieters said.

After months of probing and testing to try to resolve the disparity, the team later concluded that there are molecules of water and hydroxyl — a functional group consisting of hydrogen and oxygen — on the moon’s surface.

The team’s conclusion appeared in an issue of the journal Science alongside two other articles that con-

News.....1-4 Metro....6-7 Spor ts...8-9 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12

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curred with Pieters’s findings. One research group’s instrument was on its way to Saturn and found similar readings using their spectrometer, while the other’s was on its way to a comet.

When the Indian Space Research Organization offered to carry foreign instruments on their Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, Pieters and her team went to work on forming a detailed proposal to NASA to acquire funding to construct the instrument, known as the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3. The project was accepted

by NASA and the ISRO, and the Indian spacecraft containing the M3 launched successfully in October 2008.

With 10 months of data from the craft, the team was able to observe the water and hydroxyl molecules with a “unique detection using spectroscopy,” Pieters said.

“It is such a fantastic look at the way science works in the real world,” said Postdoctoral Research Associate in Geological Sciences Jeff Nettles. As a co-author of the Science paper, his role during the mission was to use software that processes and analyzes geospatial imagery to help analyze the surface.

After the team detected spectra and mapped them through the use of continued on page 3

Courtesy of J.P. Wiens / NASA Ames

With NASA’s help, Professor of Geology Peter Schultz smashed a rocket into the moon, hoping to find water.

NASA mission a smashing success for Schultz By ana alvarez Contributing Writer

A NASA spacecraft slammed into the moon early last Friday morning, exploding into a cloud of debris — and Professor of Geology Peter Schulz was elated.

The rocket’s mission — to search for signs of water in a crater near the moon’s south pole by analyzing the debris produced in

the crash — was a “complete success,” said Schultz, a co-investigator on the project.

The objective of the Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, mission was to determine if the make-up of the debris suggest a substantial amount of water is present in the crater, Schultz said.

If so, lunar mining stations could provide future water resources for

Earth, he said.

Schultz is currently at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, studying the data gathered from Friday’s impact. NASA will release initial conclusions soon, but the official scientific results of the mission will not be released until the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in December. continued on page 3

Feature, 2

Metro, 6

Opinions, 11

picture this Notice it or not, an Olneyville art puzzle puts you on the screen

fair comparison?

Could consolidated Fairfax County, Virginia be a model for Rhody government?

no strings attached Mike Johnson ’11 says donors should give unrestricted gifts

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Thursday, October 15, 2009

“I mean, how is that not fun?”

— Li Pallas, an assistant curator of a storefront art display, on the creation

Brown prof joins group of elite scholars

By Julia Kim Contributing Writer

David Konstan, professor of classics and comparative literature, was inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences this past weekend, alongside such luminaries as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former South African President Nelson Mandela and Academy Award-winning actor Dustin Hoffman P’09.

The AAAS, which was founded in 1780 as a forum for collaboration among the nation’s elite scholars, leaders, professionals and artists, annually honors “men and women of exceptional achievement” with election into its membership. Konstan was one of 212 new fellows and

19 Foreign Honorary Members inducted Saturday.

Induction into the AAAS “marks the highest level of recognition in the arts and sciences,” said Professor of History and Classics John Bodel, who has worked with Konstan since 1984.

“It’s a great honor,” Konstan said.

“I was very moved.”

His election as an AAAS member is the latest of many honors for Konstan, who has accumulated many awards and distinctions for his work during his more than 40 years as a professor, scholar and writer. Konstan’s research focuses on ancient Greek and Latin literature and philosophy, and recently has continued on page 5

Hannah Moser / Herald

Put your hand on this unremarkable-looking outline and you’ll soon see yourself displayed on a screen behind the glass. The Olneyville storefront is known as the Dirt Palace, a “feminist art collective.”

A lens into Olneyville’s community

By Hannah Moser Senior Staff Writer

Julia Kim / Herald

David Konstan, professor of classics and comparative literature.

sudoku

Two large display windows look out onto Olneyville Square from a red brick building. It used to be a public library, but the building has since been transformed into Dirt Palace, a self-described “feminist art collective.”

With the display’s nondescript black backdrop and the glare on the case’s glass, distracted passersby might walk past totally oblivious to the screen inside. The changing images on the screen zoom in, GoogleMaps style, on Dirt Palace’s location on the western side of Providence.

The screen flashes images of people on a sidewalk, peering into a window.

Some look quizzical, and others pose with friends, realizing that the camera is looking at them from behind the glass.

All these participants have placed their hands inside the white outline of a hand, triggering a sensor behind the glass. The camera flashes, and a few seconds later they are on the screen — and a new part of Dirt Palace’s most recent art installment in its Storefront Window Gallery.

Dirt Palace’s seven members each have studio space in the building for their artwork, a range of media that includes printmaking, film, lace making, writing, puppetry and painting. Each month they select an artist, usually local, to be featured in the gallery.

The window display has been active since the collective was founded in 2000. Dirt Palace looks for art they

FEATURE think will be relevant and fun for its Olneyville audience, said Li Pallas, who helps curate the display. Past displays include a constantly moving flying brain and a “fantasy world” that presents liberation as a theme.

“I mean, how is that not fun?” Pallas said.

Pallas said the collective seeks to bring “art into a community that might be otherwise disadvantaged.”

She has a “personal bent” for displays that inspire relationships and community, she said.

This month features the work of Sarah Bearse, a local installation artist.

Bearse adapted her installation from similar pieces she had previ-

ously displayed in Boston’s City Hall and a Harvard art gallery. While the camera in the Olneyville display responds to movement — a hand in front of the sensor — the camera in the city hall installation responded to noise at a certain volume, Pallas said. Loud voices triggered the camera, which then took a snapshot of the speaker and projected it onto the screen.

The installation “instantly made people feel so violated,” Pallas said, that it was altered after 48 hours to no longer include the still shots.

Bearse’s project was partly a reaction to a culture in which unprecedented amounts of personal information are made public on Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, Pallas said.

The display toys with the concept of “playing with these public and private spaces,” she said.

But the project is structured differently in Olneyville than in Boston, since many of the people getting their picture taken put themselves intentionally in front of the lens.

“It ends up showcasing our neighbors,” Pallas said. “I feel like it’s for the community here more than anyone else.”

Budget committees roll up their sleeves continued from page 1

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mendations for deficit reductions through a combination of savings and strengthening revenue streams, Huidekoper said.

Although the groups consist mostly of faculty, students and staff, Huidekoper said the subcommittee leaders, which include many of the University’s top administrators, would be doing most of the work.

It is not uncommon for large universities to convene these kinds of specialized review groups, Huidekoper said. But many tend to employ outside consultants rather than build from within, she said.

“What we did want to do is do our own work,” Huidekoper said.

“We want the University to be structured in a way that is smart.”

The subgroups will submit their recommendations to the ORC and the University Resources Committee, which will then offer proposals

to President Ruth Simmons and the Corporation for final decisions regarding budget reductions.

“At this point, they’re trying to understand what their scope is,” Huidekoper said. “It’s going to take a lot of time.” It is too soon to speculate on any proposals, she said, adding that the teams are still in a formative position.

“We are still trying to work out how we will carry out the charge we have been given by the committee,” wrote Dick Spies, executive vice president for planning and chair of a review group that will focus on fundraising operations, in an e-mail to The Herald.

Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations and one of the chairs of a review team that will focus on the graphics, Web and communications sectors, said her group intends to meet weekly over the course of the next few months to come up

with “ways to support the University more efficiently and ensure a greater quality.”

During her group’s first meeting, she said, the team briefly discussed “what we thought success and failure would look like in the process” to more successfully select “stakeholders” to aid in enacting their proposed deficit-reduction plans.

Though her group does not include student members, she said, she intends to engage with a team of students during future discussions.

But the University was wellequipped to assess efficiency, she said, adding that primary support structures were already in place for self-examination.

“It was important to get a sense of how these different areas we’re reviewing af fect our students,” Quinn said. “We’re looking at ways we can really support the mission of the University most efficiently.”

Thursday, October 15, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

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“This will be a thing for textbooks.”

— Professor of Geology Carle Pieters, on the significance of findings about the moon

U. scores another high grade for ‘sustainability’ Moon

fantasy for researchers realized

By Emily Kirkland Contributing Writer

For the second year in a row, Brown has received an A- on the College Sustainability Report Card, which compares the environmental practices of 300 colleges and universities nationwide.

The 2010 report, which was released last week by the Sustainable Endowments Institute and refers to the year ending July 2009, places Brown among the top 23 schools in the country for sustainability.

Brown earned straight As in seven categories, including green building, investment priorities and “food and recycling.” The Community Harvest Program, LEED Silver buildings and greenhouse gas reductions were highlighted as examples of demonstrated leadership. Brown earned only two Bs, one for Administration and the other for Endowment Transparency.

“This is nice validation,” said Kai Morell ’11, a leader of EcoReps, a student group focused on environmental initiatives.

“It’s nice to have maintained our grade,” said Christopher Powell, director of sustainable energy and environmental initiatives.

While the University’s overall grade held steady at an A-, its grades in individual categories improved.

The biggest jump was in the Climate Change and Energy category, where last year’s B became an A. The report cited the University’s

continued from page 1

Max Monn / Herald

Sidney Frank Hall’s LEED certification contributed to Brown’s leading A-minus grade.

commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent below 2007 levels by 2020 — and its achievement of a 7.7 percent reduction so far — as the basis for the grade.

“Last year, we had goals,” Powell said of emissions reductions. “This year, we had results.”

The other improvement was seen in the Endowment Transparency category, which was given a C last year and a B this year.

In the 2010 report, Brown received only one other B, for Ad-

Providence author finds niche in science writing

By Chelsea Xu Contributing Writer

“At Classical, they used to call me the eternal freshman — and in high school that wasn’t entirely a compliment,” writer Jonathan Weiner told a Salomon 101 crowd of community members and a smattering of students Wednesday night.

Author of “The Beak of the Finch: A Stor y of Evolution in Our Time” and a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, Weiner described how his undying curiosity, fascination with biology and love of writing propelled him to reconcile science and the

arts. In his book, Weiner discusses Darwin’s theory of evolution and the groundbreaking work of Peter and Rosemary Grant.

“The Beak of the Finch” was selected for the 2009 orientation program First Readings. This is the third year of the program, in which freshmen and transfer students receive a summer reading assignment before they arrive on campus. Students used the book as a springboard to write introductory letters to their academic advisors.

According to Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, this was continued on page 5

ministration. In determining the Administration grade, the Sustainable Endowments Institute awards a sizable boost to schools that have committed to carbon neutrality — which Brown has not yet agreed to do.

“Most schools that signed have no clue how to achieve that goal,” Powell said, explaining Brown’s decision to forgo the commitment to carbon neutrality. Instead, he said, Brown set its own emissions reduction goal.

The Sustainable Endowments In-

stitute relies on surveys distributed to administrators and students to compile information, and then makes comparisons between schools based on a list of 48 criteria. No school has ever earned an A overall.

This year the surveys were far longer and more detailed. But there are still questions about the validity of the letter grades.

“This needs to be taken with a grain of salt,” Ari Rubenstein ’11, one of emPower’s leaders, said. “If we’re already at an A-, there must be something higher than an A.”

UCS creates new category for fundraising groups

By Suzannah Weiss senior staf f writer

The Undergraduate Council of Students passed a revision to its Code of Operations Wednesday, allowing for official recognition of student groups whose primary purpose is fundraising for off-campus organizations.

Because the Student Activities Fund comes out of students’ pockets, student groups have not granted official categorization of any kind unless their efforts directly benefit Brown students — as opposed to external charities, for example.

“The money is meant to be spent for students on campus and not just

to be filtered through off-campus organizations,” said UCS Student Activities Chair Brady Wyrtzen ’11. But the idea of adding a new categor y for ser vice groups had been percolating since last spring, he said.

UCS has traditionally classified student groups as Category I, II or III. Category I encompasses most new groups, granting little or no financial support, while Category II and III status provides major clubs and organizations with stipends from the Student Activities Fund. Since last year, there has also been Category A for club sports, continued on page 5

images, they were able to provide more concrete findings.

“It was a Christmas present,” Nettles said.

“There is a whole field of science that is in its infancy,” Pieters said. Her team’s discovery has opened up doors in the study of how the surface of the moon and other “solid, silicate, rocky bodies” interact with their environments, she said.

“Water is a very important component for long-term exploration,” Pieters said. If found in abundance, it can be used for fuel by astronauts.

Crash goes off without a hitch continued from page 1 After the initial rocket crashed into the lunar crater to create debris, a second spaceship carried instruments developed by Schultz, who was involved with the mission from its earliest stages, to collect data about the debris.

The data will allow him to analyze how deep the crater was at impact, how high the debris rose and how fast it fell.

“All instruments worked well” during the mission, he said, and “enough data was collected.”

People hoping to glimpse the lunar crash on Friday expressed disappointment once it became clear that plumes of debris from the crash would not be visible with backyard telescopes as NASA had announced, according to an article on CNN’s Web site.

Brendan Hermalyn, a graduate student in planetar y sciences working with Schultz on the impact physics of the crash, added that the analysis will bring “unique insights out of the data.”

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Thursday, October 15, 2009

“It’s a hometown effort.”

— Jeff Prystowsky ’06 on The Low Anthem’s Providence show

Bikes, handbags, birthday cake stolen

spic y with - ouch !

By Ben Schreckinger Senior Staff Writer

The following summary includes all major incidents reported to the Department of Public Safety between September 9 and September 29. It does not include general service and alarm calls. The Providence Police Department also responds to incidents

CRIME LOG

Lara Press / Herald

Max Mathias ’10 helped another student with his flu shot during the seasonal clinic at Josiah’s.

Alums play Avon homecoming show tonight

By Ellen Cushing Senior Staf f Writer

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Eight years ago, as freshmen, Jeff Pr ystowsky ’06 and Ben Miller ’06 were jazz DJs for WBRU’s graveyard-shift jazz show, 2:305:30 a.m.

Now, years later, Pr ystowsky and Miller — who, along with Jocie Adams ’08, compose the folk trio The Low Anthem — have toured the world and amassed a fan base far beyond College Hill. Tonight, they will be returning home for a show at the Avon.

Local bands Brown Bear and Death Vessel will be opening.

“It should be a really special show,” Pr ystowsky said, adding that this will be the first live show at the Avon in over a decade — a

feat that took a little convincing.

“It took a lot of work to get them to agree with this,” he said of an arrangement that has proven fruitful despite the Avon’s lack of concert infrastructure.

Getting over logistical issues wasn’t the concert’s only hurdle: Due to a scheduling problem, all of the band’s instruments have

ARTS & CULTURE already been shipped to Seattle in advance of the band’s upcoming West Coast tour, Pr ystowsky said. Despite the difficulties, he said, friends of the band have lent instruments, and local establishments have offered their support.

The show will go on.

“All of our friends are helping

us out — WaterFire is providing the sound and lights; Trinity Brewhouse is providing subsidized beers,” he said. “There were all these problems, one after another, and people stepped up from the community. It’s a hometown effort.”

The band — which released its third album, “Oh My God, Charlie Dar win,” last September — has maintained a strong relationship with Providence.

Pr ystowksy and Miller began playing together during their firstyear stint at WBRU in a variety of groups and genres of music.

They finally settled on a name and a sound and began playing shows at the Underground and around continued on page 7

occurring off campus. DPS does not divulge information on cases that are currently under investigation by the department, PPD or the Office of Student Life. DPS maintains a daily log of all shift activity and general service calls which can be viewed during business hours at its headquarters, located at 75 Charlesfield St. Sept. 9 11:27 p.m. Officers were dispatched to the Fish Company to assist the Providence Police with an investigation involving Brown students. Upon arrival they were advised by Providence officers that two Brown students were involved in an altercation with Fish Co. staff and then with Providence officers. The two students were arrested by the Providence police and were being charged with disorderly conduct.

Sept. 11 10:20 a.m. A student reported three handbags with a total value of over $6,000 stolen from her room in Sears House. She had last noticed the bags on Sept. 10 at 4 p.m. and noticed them missing on Sept. 11 at 9 a.m. The room door was left unlocked.

4:12 p.m. A student stated that she had secured her mountain bike to the bike rack at Graduate Center Tower C on Sept. 6 at 8:50 a.m. She stated that she went to retrieve her bike on Sept. 11 at 9:30 a.m., and it was gone. The new Kryptonite chain and lock were still attached to the bike rack and were not damaged.

She stated that the way she attached the bike may have left the bike vulnerable because if the handlebars were removed the bike could be freed without disturbing the lock.

Sept. 12 12:00 a.m. Officers responded with Providence Police to 212 Williams Street after PPD received a call about a loud party with revelers filling the street. When Brown police arrived, Providence officers were already on scene and actively dispersing the partygoers and closing down the party. Four renters of the property, all Brown students, were cited by PPD for violating the noise ordinance.

Sept. 17 3:09 p.m. Student reported his bicycle was taken from the bike rack at Marcy House, and that he was “pretty sure” he locked up the bicycle with a cable lock on Sept.

16 at 7 p.m. When he returned on Sept. 17 at 12 p.m., he noticed the bicycle missing.

Sept. 18 2:26 p.m. Complainant reported that half of her ice-cream birthday

cake was stolen from a refrigerator in a common area in Sidney Frank Hall. The incident occurred sometime between 3 p.m. on Sept.

17 and 2 p.m. on Sept. 18. She also reported that other food items were also stolen from the refrigerator in that area in the past couple of days and months prior, that belong to other students that work in the labs on that floor. The common area room does not have a lock on that door and access can be gained by anyone.

Sept. 21 11:29 a.m. Student stated that on Sept. 19 at approximately 5 p.m. he left his backpack in the Sharpe Refectory. He remembered at 11:30 p.m. that he left his backpack and contacted DPS. Officers responded and were unable to locate the backpack. On Sept. 20 he went back to the Refectory and looked through the lost-and-found but the backpack was not there. The backpack contained a laptop, iTouch and one book.

12:23 p.m. Student stated her wallet was stolen from New Pembroke 4 on Sept. 16. She stated that she was at a friend’s room with 15 other Brown students when her wallet went missing. She searched the room but could not locate the wallet.

9:40 p.m. Student stated that at approximately 9:40 p.m. she left her room in Bronson House and went to the laundry room. Her room door was approximately three inches ajar and the laundry room is 50 feet up the corridor. When she returned to her room approximately 10 minutes later, her laptop had been stolen from her desk. The laptop was unplugged and cords were left behind. There are no witnesses or suspects.

Sept. 23 8:30 a.m. An employee in Pembroke Hall reported that on Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. she noticed all the folding tables on the ground floor level. On Sept. 21 at 8:30 a.m. she noticed one of the folding tables on wheels was missing, and then on Sept. 23 at 8:30 a.m. she noticed another folding table with wheels missing. There are no witnesses or suspects.

Sept. 27 2:16 p.m. A resident counselor in Bronson House reported that at 10 a.m. she noticed graffiti depicting images of male genitalia and some words drawn in black permanent marker on a door of a room. She stated that she waited until 2 p.m. to speak with one of the residents of the room to find out if there was any reasoning behind the markings and found there was not. Neither roommate wished to file a complaint. Facilities Management was notified of the graffiti. There are no suspects at this time.

Sept. 28 7:24 a.m. Facilities Management employee reported five large cement flower pots on Manning Walkway were tipped over and one pot with a value of $500 was found broken.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Page 5

C ampus N EWS Group honors classics professor Konstan continued from page 2 revolved around the history of emotions in ancient Greek society.

Ancients provide modern people with a “diverse and rich set of emotions,” Konstan said.

The honor also comes as Konstan nears retirement after more than 20 years on Brown’s faculty — Konstan told The Herald on Tuesday that he intends to retire from teaching full-time at Brown at the end of this academic year.

The induction of Konstan, one of Brown’s best-known classicists, into AAAS is “a great honor for Brown classics,” said Bodel, who chairs the department.

Bodel also had high praise for his friend and colleague. “He’s really one of the most dynamic figures in our profession” as well as “a widely respected scholar abroad,” he said. “He is really quite a remarkable person.”

In addition to his academic achievements, Konstan is “one of the most active and engaging” teachers at Brown, with “enormous energy (and) enormous charisma,” Bodel said.

Election into the AAAS is a twostep process that begins when current members nominate individuals they believe should be considered for election. Nominated individuals are first considered by peers in their discipline “who consider their scholarship and contributions to the field” and decide whether to recommend induction, said Paul Karoff, an AAAS spokesman.

Then the Academy’s members elect each year’s class from the winnowed group.

The induction ceremony, which took place in Cambridge, Mass. over the weekend, involved “speeches (and) more speeches,” Konstan said.

“Everybody got up, shook hands,” signed some papers, and were inducted.

UCS passes resolution for new group category continued from page 3 which receive recognition but not money, Student Activities Director Phil O’Hara said.

The addition of Categor y S, proposed last week and approved by the UCS general body without argument, allows clubs created for the benefit of causes not related to Brown to get all the University support of a Category I group except for money.

These privileges include incorporating the school’s name into the group title, using a mailbox and other resources in the Student Activities Office and having permission to table-slip, said O’Hara, who met with Wyrtzen and supported the UCS Student Activities Committee.

Wyrtzen, who devised the proposal along with the SAC, said the code change “was definitely something that we wanted to get going on as quickly as possible” because the SAC already has had to turn down fundraising groups requesting categorization this fall.

One of those groups was Nourish, a group whose mission is “to fight global poverty” by supporting “sustainable development projects,” according to Carolyn Brown ’11, who started a chapter of the club on campus and said she hoped it would be granted Category S status.

The advantages of formal University acknowledgment, Brown said, include being allowed to reserve room space and announcing events through Morning Mail.

UCS President Clay Wertheimer ’10 said the addition of Category S was “a smart solution.”

“There’s definitely some gray space,” he said. Groups that incorporate teach-ins, lectures or other ways of spreading awareness around the community, he said, are still eligible for Category I, II and III status.

Brown said her group does not need University funding because the organization’s national office provides it, but that if Nourish were to receive a portion of the Student Activities Fund, it would go toward spreading awareness of world hunger and recruiting student participants. “We weren’t trying to funnel money directly from University resources,” she said.

Whether or not the new categorization will affect existing groups is still up in the air, though Wyrtzen said it probably will not. The purpose of the code revision was “to incorporate the groups that we’ve had to turn away already,” he said, adding that if there are categorized groups that, upon reevaluation, seem better suited for Category S, “We might have to boot them.”

The debate over which groups are eligible for University funding — a “long, philosophical discussion,” according to O’Hara — has been present for decades, he said.

A challenge for UCS, O’Hara added, is that because students “only have four years,” it is “hard for a student group to have a long view.” Still, he said, the decision to recognize fundraising organizations will have a lasting impact, because their role is “a long-term issue.”

— With additional reporting by Kyla Wilkes

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

Jonathan Weiner, author of “The Beak of the Finch,” spoke to a crowd in Salomon 101 Wednesday night. The science writer said he realized science writing was his niche after four years of poetry courses.

‘Beak of the Finch’ author speaks continued from page 3 the program’s “most successful first reading yet,” adding “even the non-scientists found themselves captivated.”

The spark of Weiner’s passion for scientific writing came during his senior year at Classical High School, which is in Providence. A visit to the library led to Weiner’s discovery of an article in Scientific American, “The Social Amoeba,”

by John Tyler Bonner, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton.

Weiner was captivated by the article, in which Bonner elegantly tells a story of how amoebas come together to form “fabulous towers” in times of crises. Weiner decided then that he had to write about biology.

Weiner eventually attended Harvard, where he chose to study writing over biology.

“Since now I was a poet, I now had to hate science,” Weiner joked.

But despite four years of poetry courses, he realized science writing was his niche. He launched his science writing career with the essay “Marching Along with the Social Amoeba,” which was published in Har vard Magazine. Weiner’s first book, “Planet Earth,” was a companion book to the seven-part PBS television series.

Struggling with writer’s block, Weiner turned to Bonner, who gave Weiner the idea of writing about evolution and the work of the Grants. They were involved in a classic evolutionary study of measuring the beaks of the Galapa-

gos finches and watching natural selection in action. The study was renowned in biology but largely unknown outside of the field.

“I lit up. This is my stor y!”

Weiner said. “It possessed me from the minute I heard it.”

Still a young writer, Weiner spent two years “wooing the Grants,” who were initially hesitant about the book. The Grants documented each step of Darwin’s argument about the Galapagos finches and the swing of a “pendulum” in favor of certain beak sizes based on pressures of natural and sexual selection.

The Grants eventually agreed to work with Weiner, who said he had fallen in love with the finches and the evolutionar y process as much as the Grants and their students had. Weiner said watching

“evolution in action” is especially exciting because Dar win was so convinced that the process would be impossible to see “by mortal humans.”

Maya Sikand ’13, who attended the lecture, said she appreciated how Weiner took evolution out of the small example of the finches and applied it in a wider context.

William Donovan ’12 asked Weiner whether he would do anything differently if he had the chance to return to Har vard.

“I spent four years tr ying to crack the kind of seed I wasn’t equipped to crack,” Weiner said.

“It was only when I realized that I actually loved the science and the writing and I could put the two together — it was then when I found my way as a writer.”

Thursday, October 15, 2009

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

M etro

A Model for Regionalized Government?

Rhode Island

Fairfax County, Va.

Page 6

Rhode Island towns consider sharing services

By George Miller Metro Editor

George Miller, Jessica Calihan / Herald

Fairfax County in northern Virginia operates with one centralized government rather than distributed municipalities. Some point to it as a model for how the small state of Rhode Island could operate.

1,050,788

Population (July 2008)

Area

1,015,302 395

1,545

(sq. miles)

$3.27 billion

Budget

$52,755

Median Household Income

$105,200

39

Local Governments

1

(FY ‘09)

$3.35 billion

Jessie Calihan / Herald

Rhode Island’s cities and towns, their budgets tighter than ever, are considering sharing services such as fire departments and trash pickup to save money.

With 39 cities and towns packed into the nation’s smallest state, consolidation appeals to many, including the state’s General Assembly, which has launched a commission to study the idea. Providence Mayor David Cicilline ’83 is calling for state legislation to pave the way for regionalization.

The state commission met for the first time last week, electing as its chair State Sen. Lou DiPalma MA’89 P’09, D-Dist. 12. DiPalma, who introduced the bill that created the commission, said the increased efficiency and effectiveness from shared services could provide a crucial boost to cash-strapped towns.

“We can’t delay this any longer,” he said.

DiPalma, a former member of the Middletown town council, said there will be no “one-size-fits-all” solution, and that different services may make sense to share statewide, between just a few towns or not at all.

But he said he fully expects to put forward concrete proposals when the commission reports back to the Senate in January.

DiPalma declined to comment on any specific plans, saying the commission will explore all options but focus on “backroom” services, such as public safety and tax assessment, that don’t involve day-to-day constituent interaction.

Consolidation is not a new idea in the state, and DiPalma said the commission will hear from communities that have tried sharing services before. He wants to hear “the good, the bad and the ugly,” he said.

Examples of towns sharing services include the Government Health Group of Rhode Island, a health and dental insurance co-op encompassing 15 cities and towns, and the Bristol-Warren regional school district, which consolidated in 1993.

Sharon Ahern, speaking as act-

ing town manager for Westerly last week, said regionalization “makes sense.” Each city and town managing its own departments “doesn’t necessarily work to our fiscal advantage,” she said. “Certainly it’s something we should be looking into.”

Westerly has already acted to consolidate the finance and recreation departments of the town and its school department, Ahern said.

At last week’s commission meeting, members heard a presentation from John Simmons, executive director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, that outlined examples of shared services from the state and nationwide.

Simmons told The Herald that interest in sharing services exists, but the commission needs to decide how best to implement it.

Meanwhile, Cicilline is pushing for legislation to allow the creation of a metropolitan fire district, police district and public works district that Providence would share with Pawtucket, Cranston, Central Falls, North Providence, East Providence and Johnston.

The legislation will be filed during the next session of the General Assembly, which begins in January, said Karen Southern, Cicilline’s press secretary. He is currently looking for a sponsor, she said.

After receiving approval from the state, Providence and its neighbors could begin work on crafting the districts, which could maximize city services in tough economic times, Southern said.

Some firefighter’s union officials have expressed reservations about the plan, citing high costs and calling the proposal “political grandstanding,” the Providence Journal reported earlier this month.

But Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 praised the proposal in a press release.

“This action by seven mayors of our cities and towns is a step in the right direction,” he said. “Perhaps the magnitude of the financial challenges the state, and our cities and towns, face will take these ideas beyond discussion to meaningful action.”

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Metro The Brown Daily Herald

“The word’s gotten out that it’s a party district” — Ward 5 Councilman Michael Solomon on “Red Cup” crackdown Thursday, October 15, 2009 | Page 7

State colleges raise tuition and fees again

By Anish Gonchigar Staff Writer

The Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education voted last week to increase tuition and fees at state public colleges for the 2010-2011 school year.

According to the Providence Journal, in-state students at the University of Rhode Island will pay 9.9 percent more next year, while students at Rhode Island College will pay 9 percent more, and students at the Community College of Rhode Island will face a 8.2 percent increase.

Room and board fees will increase by about 5 percent at URI and RIC, the Journal reported.

Tuition and fees at Rhode Island state schools have been continually increasing in the last few years. Fees at the three colleges increased by

about 10 percent for this school year, and overall tuition and fees have catapulted since 2004 — 64 percent at URI, 75 percent at RIC and 72 percent at CCRI, according to the Journal.

But these tuition and fee increases have not been met by similar increases in income. According to the Providence Journal, median family income in Rhode Island only grew by 11.3 percent between 2005 and 2008, making it increasingly difficult for poor and working class families to afford higher education.

Jane Fuscl, a spokesperson for RIC, said the school does not enjoy implementing these changes but has no choice in the matter.

“No one, including administration and students, are happy when there’s a tuition increase on the horizon,” she said.

Fuscl added that she hoped the tuition hike would be coupled with an increase in educational quality.

“Our mission is to provide affordable, quality education, and we hope to stay in that realm of possibility for our students,” Fuscl said.

Joshua Laguerre, student body president at RIC, said an increase in tuition and fees will be detrimental for poorer students.

“RIC takes in a lot of first generation students,” Laguerre said, adding that fewer low-income students will be able to attend after the tuition increase.

Laguerre said student demonstrations will likely occur before the bill passes.

“Don’t be surprised if there is some kind of event or rally or something along those lines that takes place in the spring,” he said.

Alums to play Avon homecoming tonight continued from page 4 Providence at venues such as the Hot Club and Local 121.

“We did a lot on our own in Providence in terms of building what we have today,” Pr ystowsky said.

All three band members studied music at Brown — Adams joined the band in 2007 when she was still a senior — and Pr ystowsky said their experiences at the University shaped them as artists. “The professors of music at Brown certainly were influential, being people who were serious about music.”

He also said the band — which now lives together on the East Side — was ver y much shaped by the greater Providence arts community.

“In terms of Providence, it’s probably shaped us more not for the content of our songs, per se, and arrangement, but for being a great community of artists here,” Pr ystowsky said.

Pr ystowsky also said the art-

ists’ community in Providence is ver y collaborative, a quality that fostered the group’s growth.

“It’s a small town, and you have the Brown bands, but then you also have these Providence bands that help each other out and stay in touch,” he said.

ARTS & CULTURE “A lot of people at Brown don’t realize it, but the city of Providence has a lot of art going on,” Pr ystowsky added. “There’s a lot to the city to explore, but people write it off because it’s not Boston and it’s not New York.”

After the show, Pr ystowsky, Miller and Adams will be reunited with their instruments in Seattle for the West Coast tour, after which they will begin a weeks’ worth of shows in London and Holland, before heading back home to begin recording a new album.

After touring with top songwriters like Ray LaMontagne, performing alongside the likes of Elvis

Costello and playing high-profile festivals that draw hundreds of thousands of people, there is one venue The Low Anthem has yet to play: Spring Weekend.

“We’ve tried to play Spring Weekend and they wouldn’t let us,” Pr ystowsky said. He continued.

“I was like, ‘we’re playing Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo; can’t we play Spring Weekend?’ And they said no. We’ve been rejected the past eight years.”

metro in brief

Police effort cracks down on parties “Operation Red Cup” may sound like the most epic house party of all time, but it is in fact quite the opposite — a full-scale effort by the city of Providence to crack down on the raucous behavior of Providence College, Johnson and Wales University and Rhode Island College students carousing off campus in the Elmhurst neighborhood, northwest of downtown.

Town-gown relations have been tense in the neighborhood for years, said Ward 5 Councilman Michael Solomon, a proponent of the crackdown. But in the last several months, students’ drunken revelry has “really gotten out of hand,” he said.

“I think what’s happened is that the word’s gotten out that it’s a party district,” he said.

The parties have been getting rowdier because they have been “drawing people from outside the area,” Solomon said. In fact, police have “spotted a few high school students” partying in the neighborhood.

“There’s never been a unified effort” to clean up the neighborhood, Solomon said. But this most recent effort brings together city government, law enforcement, the students’ schools and landlords.

“I think when everybody gets together it’s going to be easy to tackle the problem,” Solomon said.

Solomon said he believes the effort has already started to send a message. He said 70 arrests have been made in just three weeks.

The councilman has proposed a city ordinance that would fine landlords — anywhere from $250 to $1,000 dollars — who do not evict tenants after three noise complaints in a single year.

Providence Police have also begun reporting the identities of misbehaving students to their respective colleges. “Hopefully their parents are going to know,” Solomon said.

PPD did not return multiple requests for comment.

— Ben Schreckinger

Page 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports t hursday

Equestrian earns best in show

By Fred Milgrim Contributing Writer

The equestrian riders took matters into their own hands at their home show this weekend with a strong win, earning them first place in the show as well as in the Region 1, Zone 1 season standings.

Brown’s tally of 43 points bested URI’s 34 and UConn’s 32, bringing their season total to 77, four points

ahead of second place URI. The competition began with the Flat divisions. Because of Bruno’s extremely strong day, Liz Giliberti’s ’10 score in the Open Flat was dropped, but she made up for it later with a good ride in the Open Fences.

Following Giliberti, Emma Bogdonoff ’10, the pointed rider in Intermediate Flats, took the blue ribbon earning seven points for the Bears.

www.browndailyherald.com

Rebecca McGoldrick ’12 then won in the Novice Flat for the second straight week.

Entering the Fences with 14 points after a strong showing in the Flats, Brown made an even stronger statement, tallying 18 points.

Giliberti started off with a third place finish in the Open division.

Rachel Griffith ’10 followed with a first place as the pointed rider in the Intermediates. Finally, Allison Dungey ’13, who took second last weekend, bettered her performance with a blue ribbon and added seven more points to the Bears’ total. Entering the final three divisions, the Bears had a total of 32 points, only two shy of last week’s total.

Marisa Fuerst ’12 rode a horse that was less than cooperative, but still managed to take third place in the Walk-Trot-Canter — good for four more points. Rebecca de Sa ’10 ended the day on a positive note, once again taking first for the Bears in Walk-Trot.

The only home competition of the year was a success, with beautiful weather all day. Nevertheless, it was a hectic day, as the riders all had hosting responsibilities outside of their own competitions.

The Bears will be back in action on Halloween at Connecticut College.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Men’s water polo swims to one win — and a loss

By Liza Jones Contributing Writer

While much of the student body relaxed over the long weekend, the men’s water polo team traveled to Massachusetts to face Har vard and Iona. After a 15-8 win against Harvard on Saturday, the team fell to Iona the following day, 10-9.

Against the Crimson, the Bears had complete control in the water from the beginning of the game, leading 3-2 after eight minutes. The second quarter was just as successful, as Bruno took a 9-2 lead. Har vard scored three goals to Brown’s two in the third quarter, but the Bears picked it up again to outscore Har vard, 4-3, in the final quarter to seal the 15-8 win.

On the offensive end, Svetozar Stefanovic ’13 lived up to his recent title as CWPA Northern Division Rookie of the Week by leading the team with five goals on Saturday. Gordon Hood ’11 added three goals, Ryan Gladych ’13 scored two, while Zach Levko ’10, Corey Schwartz ’11, Dean Serure ’13 and Cyrus Mojdehi ’13 each contributed one.

Defensively, Kent Holland ’10 kept up his impressive stats in goal with seven saves in the first three quarters, and Max Lubin ’12 saved three after taking over for Holland in the final quarter.

After the impressive win over the rival Crimson, the Bears lost to the Iona Gaels, 10-9, in a close game on Sunday. Brown had an impressive lead through most of the game, including a fivegoal lead in the beginning of the third quarter. But the Gaels were not fazed, as they rallied to a narrow 10-9 victor y in the fourth. The game-winning goal for Iona was scored during a penalty shot with just four seconds left on the clock, costing Bruno its first regular season Nor thern Division loss in two years.

Stefanovic was again the team’s leading scorer with three goals.

Gladych and Hood each scored two, while Serure and Schwartz each scored one.

Even with this loss hanging over their heads, the Bears were still able to defeat Connecticut College, 22-8, on Tuesday. Bruno will travel back to Connecticut College to face Queens (N.Y.) and Mercyhurst on Saturday.

SportsThursday The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, October 15, 2009 | Page 9

Men’s soccer, unbeaten, keeps rolling

By Katie Wood Assistant Sports Editor

The No. 15 men’s soccer team (7-04, 2-0-0 Ivy) continued its winning streak with a 4-2 victory over Princeton on Saturday and a 3-1 win over Rutgers on Tuesday night. Four different Bears scored goals in the two contests, including two goals each from Sean Rosa ’12 and Nick Elenz-Martin ’10.

Brown 4, Princeton 2 The game against Princeton was very offensive-minded on both sides, similar to the Sept. 30 Boston University game that ended in a 3-3 tie. The Bears were led by Rosa, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week, who contributed the first two goals of the game, and is now tied with Austin Mandel ’12 and Elenz-Martin as the leading goal scorer on the team with four.

“We did OK but didn’t play to our full potential,” said Ian Smith ’11.

The Bears came out ready to play, as Rosa scored in the game’s opening minutes on a pass to the middle of the box from Mike Manella ’12, nailing the ball to the lower right corner at the post.

The Tigers and the Bears played evenly through the next 30 minutes of play before Brown put together several strong offensive opportunities in the closing 10 minutes of the half. Jay Hayward ’12 and Rosa passed the ball back and forth to one another, away from their defenders, and were almost too unselfish as an extra pass ended the drive with seven minutes left. Taylor Gorman ’12 crossed a ball to a cutting TJ Thompson ’10 in front of the goal with five minutes remaining in the half, but this drive was also stopped by Princeton, as the ball was deflected out by the defense.

The Tigers extinguished Brown’s opportunities in the closing minutes of the first half, but the Bears came out just as offensive-minded in the opening minutes of the second.

“Our coach (Mike Noonan) gave us a fiery pep talk in the locker room and we came out with a renewed mindset,” Smith said. “We made a few adjustments and the goals came

with it.”

Thompson crossed the ball over to Rosa, who opened the second with a rocket from the 20-yard line, a common spot in Rosa’s goal-scoring resume this season. A mere 20 seconds later, the set-up man for the night, Thompson, sent a cross from the right corner to a cutting ElenzMartin, who connected on a header for his third goal of the season.

“We were ecstatic,” Smith said.

“Teams react dif ferently when they’re down and can let the game slip away. But Princeton never gave up, and we knew they wouldn’t.”

The Tigers responded immediately with a rally, as Matt Sanner scored on a header that floated over goalkeeper Paul Grandstrand ’11 and into the right corner of the net.

Jay Hayward ’12 extended Brown’s lead in the 64th minute when Rosa was fouled hard by a Princeton defender, giving Hayward a free kick from 35 yards out on the right side of the field. Hayward placed the ball perfectly over the three defenders who established a wall in front of him. The ball curved nicely into the right corner of the net, notching Hayward’s first career goal for the Bears. Hayward became the 11th player on the team to score a goal this season.

“The biggest part about staying in the lead was keeping the connection and communicating on defense,” Smith said. Princeton “created some chaos when they brought more players up for offensive opportunities, but we also had our own advantage when we sent the ball to the opposite side of the field for our own scoring chances.”

The referees called a foul in the penalty box on the Bears in the 69th minute, which led to a penalty kick

by Brandon Busch, who sent the ball to the back of the net to pull the game to within two. But Brown squelched the Princeton rally in the game’s final 20 minutes and emerged victorious, 4-2.

Grandstrand (6-0-4) recorded five saves in the contest, while Princeton’s Sean Lynch recorded one save of the five shots on goal by the Bears.

Smith returned to the starting

line-up for the first time this season after coming off a broken foot suffered during pre-season training. He was an integral part of the defense that prevented the Tigers from getting too close to the Bears on Saturday night.

“It was great to get back out there, but I was a little rusty,” Smith said. “It was great to get back in the line-up and fight out there with the guys.”

Brown 3, Rutgers 1 The Bears hoped to extend their winning streak Tuesday night in a tough non-conference battle against the Biga East’s Rutgers (5-7-0).

The Scarlet Knights and the Bears came out hot in the first half, as each team tallied over 10 shots.

Rutgers capitalized on offense first in the 18th minute, when Ibrahim Kamara sent a header into the goal past Jarrod Schlenker ’10, who started in goal for the Bears for the first time in his career. Schlenker and the defense tightened up and denied several scoring drives to keep the Bears in the game.

Rosa sent a pass to Thompson, who once again set up a goal for Elenz-Martin in the 37th minute of the half. The Bears finished out the first half with the momentum headed in their direction that would carry on into the second half.

Hayward lined up for a corner kick in the 62nd minute and sent a perfect ball right at the goal to Evan Coleman ’12. Coleman headed the ball to Thomas McNamara ’13, who connected on another header for the go-ahead goal. McNamara led Brown with five shots on the night, three of which were on goal.

With only a one-goal lead, the Bears kept the pressure on the Scarlet Knights and put together several more scoring drives in the games closing 30 minutes. Manella beat his defender in the 70th minute but fell to the ground on a hard hit by goalkeeper Alex Morgans that was not called a foul by the referee.

Co-captain David Walls ’11 followed right behind Manella and put the ball away for a two-goal lead the Bears maintained to secure the 3-1 win.

Schlenker earned his first career win in goal with an outstanding sev-

Herald File Photo

The Bears earned their seventh win over Rutgers Tuesday, 3-1. The team, ranked 15th nationally, has not yet lost a game this season.

en saves to pace the defense that allowed one goal on 20 attempted shots.

Brown travels to No. 6 Harvard (8-2-1, 1-0-1 Ivy) on Saturday for its third Ivy League match of the year.

Harvard nearly fell at Cornell on Saturday, fighting out a 1-1 tie, and is seeking to bounce back from a 0-4 loss against No. 17 Connecticut

last night.

“With each game we play, we’re looking to solidify things,” Smith said. “We definitely wanted to stay on the winning side of things against Rutgers. Our team has confidence and some momentum after several positive results heading into our match against Harvard on Saturday.”

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Thursday, October 15, 2009

evan donahue and erik stayton

e d i to r i a l

What’s on your mind?

Write it in a letter! opinions@browndailyherald.com

t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d Editor-in-Chief Steve DeLucia

Managing Editors Michael Bechek Chaz Firestone

Deputy Managing Editors Nandini Jayakrishna Franklin Kanin Michael Skocpol

editorial Arts & Culture Editor Ben Hyman Rosalind Schonwald Arts & Culture Editor Features Editor Sophia Li Metro Editor George Miller Metro Editor Joanna Wohlmuth News Editor Seth Motel News Editor Jenna Stark Sports Editor Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Han Cui Asst. Sports Editor Alex Mazerov Asst. Sports Editor Katie Wood Graphics & Photos Chris Jesu Lee Graphics Editor Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Photo Editor Eunice Hong Kim Perley Photo Editor Jesse Morgan Sports Photo Editor production Ayelet Brinn Copy Desk Chief Rachel Isaacs Copy Desk Chief Marlee Bruning Design Editor Jessica Calihan Design Editor Asst. Design Editor Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Julien Ouellet Neal Poole Web Editor Post- magazine Arthur Matuszewski Editor-in-Chief Kelly McKowen Editor-in-Chief

Senior Editors Rachel Arndt Isabel Gottlieb Scott Lowenstein

Business General Managers Office Manager Shawn Reilly Alexander Hughes Jonathan Spector Directors Ellen DaSilva Sales Claire Kiely Sales Katie Koh Finance Jilyn Chao Asst. Finance Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations Managers Kelly Wess Kathy Bui Alex Carrere Matt Burrows

Local Sales National Sales University Sales Credit and Collections Opinions

Alyssa Ratledge Sarah Rosenthal

Opinions Editor Opinions Editor

Editorial Page Board James Shapiro Editorial Page Editor Matt Aks Board member Nick Bakshi Board member Zack Beauchamp Board member Debbie Lehmann Board member William Martin Board member

Rebecca Ballhaus, Jessie Calihan, Jessica Kirschner, Julien Ouellet, Designers Anne Artley, Carmen Shulman, Copy Editors George Miller, Ben Schreckinger, Alexandra Ulmer, Suzannah Weiss, Kyla Wilkes, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Dan Alexander, Mitra Anoushiravani, Ellen Cushing, Sydney Ember, Lauren Fedor, Nicole Friedman, Brigitta Greene, Sarah Husk, Brian Mastroianni, Hannah Moser, Ben Schreckinger, Anne Simons, Anne Speyer, Sara Sunshine, Alex Ulmer, Suzannah Weiss, Kyla Wilkes Staff Writers Shara Azad, Emma Berry, Alicia Chen, Zunaira Choudhary, Alicia Dang, Juliana Friend, Anish Gonchigar, Sarah Julian, Christian Martell, Heeyoung Min, Jyotsna Mullur, Lauren Pischel, Kevin Pratt, Leslie Primack, Luisa Robledo, Dana Teppert, Gaurie Tilak, Caitlin Trujillo, Monique Vernon, Senior Business Associates Max Barrows, Jackie Goldman, Margaret Watson, Ben Xiong Business Associates Stassia Chyzhykova, Marco deLeon, Katherine Galvin, Bonnie Kim, Cathy Li, Allen McGonagill, Liana Nisimova, Thanases Plestis, Corey Schwartz, William Schweitzer, Kenneth So, Evan Sumortin, Haydar Taygun, Webber Xu, Lyndse Yess Design Staff Gili Kliger, Jessica Kirschner, John Walsh, Kate Wilson Photo Staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Sara Chimene-Weiss, Miranda Forman, Casey Gaham, Anna Jouravleva, Geoffrey Kyi, Frederic Lu, Jordan Mainzer, Madeleine Rosenberg

Effect on target Brown’s administration, like any other, has its successes and its failures, and it deser ves to be congratulated for the creation and continued improvement of the Target of Opportunity hiring program.

The initiative, a part of President Ruth Simmons’ Plan for Academic Enrichment, allows departments to request new faculty on an accelerated timetable outside of the normal hiring cycle. Twenty of the 25 slots devoted to the program under the Plan are currently occupied, but while overall hiring is slowing down, the Target positions will become available for new hires if their current occupants leave the University.

Target of Opportunity hiring has already proven its worth in full and has made great strides since its inception. The most celebrated new professor brought in through the program is the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe.

But not all targeted hires are world-renowned luminaries. Outstanding junior faculty are also among the fast-tracked new arrivals, including some talented women assistant professors in the physical sciences, according to Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P’07. Without the program, they might well have been snapped up by our peer institutions; instead, they will help make Brown a leader in tapping into the underutilized potential of women in quantitative fields.

Brown’s targeting capabilities have also improved in recent years.

In 2005, The Herald reported that many departments were disappointed by the University’s sluggish reaction to requests for Target hires, which negated much of the program’s usefulness. Four years on, the process runs much more smoothly and quickly without sacrificing careful consider-

ation of departmental choices.

The most tempting use of Target of Opportunity is to stock the faculty with big names such as Achebe. But no department can run on star power alone. While the program has been well-utilized to date, Department Chair and Professor of Histor y Omer Bartov has rightly suggested that target-ofopportunity hiring could enable an unhealthy shift in faculty composition.

Some departments could end up with an excess of senior professors; while each field has its own balance to strike between junior and senior faculty, an imbalance is an inherent risk of the flexibility targeting provides. And unreasonably high turnover rates from sought-after professors exploring other options could undermine the reliability and longterm planning required to maintain high-quality research and instruction.

If the administration continues to carefully monitor trends in the requests under the program, keeping in mind the widely var ying priorities of the departments, the potential downsides of Target of Opportunity are unlikely to emerge.

The average student enjoys the luxur y of being able to simultaneously revere Ruth individually and vociferate against the administration generally. But target-of-opportunity hiring, shepherded by a group effort, is a proven and ongoing success for which the administration deser ves our thanks.

Yes, that success is conditional. But we would all do well to keep it in mind before condemning the administration en masse for their next slip-up.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, October 15, 2009 | Page 11

A plea for the removal of strings

BY MIKE JOHNSON Opinions Columnist I may be naive to hope that alumni still read tTe Brown Daily Herald in its online format on a regular basis, but perhaps members of the nefarious Corporation or our esteemed President still find time to peruse these pages, because as classes resume, exams loom and the leaves change color, quibbles over money begin once more.

Let me begin by saying I sincerely hope that the University and the members of Brown Dining Services can find common ground.

Yes, I realize that the economy ravaged our endowment, but that does not mean we can take it out on those who work here.

On the other hand, while the University cannot visit its endowment woes on its employees, the fact remains that those who make more can afford to help those who make less acquire health insurance. The debate raises an interesting issue regarding how students see the University’s allocation of funds, and how anyone can pursue multi-million-dollar renovation projects while charging its employees more for health insurance.

The University’s hands are tied most of the time. Brown’s budget isn’t one big pot; rather, it’s a small pot, with various soup bowls, salad bowls, chafing dishes, cookie sheets, deep fryers, and roasting pans scattered all around. These miscellaneous kitchen apparatus are all earmarked for specific projects. Recent ones include the Sid-

ney E. Frank Hall for Life Sciences, the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, the Creative Arts Center and the Jonathan Nelson ’77 Aquatics Center. All of these projects have been either partly or entirely funded by donors.

But donations with strings attached aren’t unique to building construction. Anyone who receives a “named scholarship” from the University is a recipient of such a donation. These are earmarked for financial aid purposes, based on certain criteria

ment. Every year, the principal remains in the endowment funds, while the investment returns on that principle are spent. In essence, the Annual Fund helps expand the academic opportunities at Brown. According to the Annual Fund’s Web site, 120 gifts of just $25 dollars helped establish an Undergraduate TRA. Fifty gifts of $50 helped a doctoral student stay on campus during the summer. These gifts, and other Annual Fund spending, helped fund education directly, helping to pay for tuition, health in-

Brown’s budget isn’t one big pot; rather, it’s a small pot, with various soup bowls, salad bowls, chafing dishes, cookie sheets, deep fryers and roasting pans. set down by the donor. These donations are actually a critical part of the University’s “Boldly Brown” Campaign for Academic Enrichment. Yet even though the campaign reached its goal of $1.4 billion last May, it remains a critical part of helping Brown weather the economic crisis and continue to excel.

The Brown Annual Fund helps provide financial aid and research opportunities, and establishes professorships and classes. Gifts into this fund are deposited into the endow-

surance and other costs.

As members of the Brown community, we should all be grateful for the gifts that generous donors provide us. But perhaps it isn’t such a bad idea for donors to reanalyze the types of gifts to give in this economic climate. Which will help the University more: one fancy new building or financial aid for 400 students?

Our endowment took a fairly substantial hit during the stock market crash last year; of the $2.78 billion dollars we started with,

we emerged with just $2.04 billion, a loss of $740 million in market value. If $3,000 equals an UTRA, imagine what could have been accomplished with a direct infusion of $25 million dollars — an amount equal to the donation required for the Swim Center — into the Brown Annual Fund.

Granted, donating money into the Annual Fund or into the endowment directly doesn’t get one immortalized in stone, or named on a plaque in a prominent place. But it does have the added benefit of helping students come here, to one of the best universities in the world, to learn.

The knowledge they gain while at Brown could one day cure deadly epidemics, or prevent them from even occurring: could put a man on Mars, or could help develop the next great novelist of our time. The University isn’t suffering alone; students and faculty and their families struggle to pay the bills.

A direct infusion of cash could revolutionize Brown’s financial aid policy, making an Ivy League education an achievable and realistic dream for students of all economic backgrounds.

So while it’s unlikely that our generous, esteemed and privileged alumni still peruse these pages, I humbly hope that just one will forego earmarking a building with his or her name attached, and help finance an education — help finance a future.

Mike Johnson ’11 thinks the corporation should buy 2.038 billion scratch-off tickets: one has to hit it big.

For the love of animals, and of meat

BY FATIMA AQEEL Opinions Columnist It is somewhat strange that I can never associate a cooked chicken on my plate with a walking, clucking chicken that I would otherwise never hurt with my own hands.

It just doesn’t inspire the same warm fuzzy feeling. No doubt, organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Brown Animal Rights Club have come across many people like me, and dealing with us is one of their big challenges.

Plenty of people love animals but still eat meat. So what does that make us: hypocrites, confused or just plain normal?

I’m not sure how other people deal with it (or if they do at all). But I know that I have felt guilty about eating meat, especially at times when I’ve had fewer problems in life.

When I first came to Brown, for example, and felt that fantastic feeling that everything is possible, my guilt made me reduce my meat intake gradually until I was eating no meat at all. It lasted for about a month and a half. Sure, everything was still possible, but it was made considerably harder in the face of chicken finger Fridays at the V-dub.

The part that I felt worst about was that my re-conversion to omnivorism wasn’t because of a health or nutrition concern which would, in a way, legitimize my relapse. Rather, it was purely because I’d been eating

meat all my life, and, un-PC as it sounds, I think it tastes rather nice, actually.

In an effort to reconcile my love of animals with my love of juicy, juicy hamburgers, I made my way to the volunteers who manned the PETA stalls on the Main Green recently. In response to my questions they asked me to imagine how I would feel if my own pet cats were shredded to pieces like some of the animals I ate were. It wasn’t

sues.

One of these is that the meat we eat is produced and processed using highly questionable means. For example, PETA’s own Web site publicizes how Kentucky Fried Chicken stuffs chickens into filthy, overcrowded factories, and then drugs them so that they grow large, so large in fact that they can’t even walk. This is obviously done to cater to the demands of a form of con-

People should be allowed to contribute what they can without being judged for what they decide not to renounce.

hard to do, with all those graphic images around me of animals being butchered and maltreated in every possible way.

But I can’t expect to have the same kind of bond that I have with my pets with every other animal out there, and so it didn’t really help make the connection between cooked animals and live ones.

Obviously, PETA might ask what the point of my caring about animals is when I’m going to eat them anyway.

Yet ironically, being eaten is not where the struggle ends for most animals, because there are plenty of other animal rights is-

sumerism that is going out of control. But not only is this practice bad for animals, it is harmful for us as well.

The Web site cited the fact that KFC slits chickens’ throats and drops them into hot water while they may still be conscious.

Yes, the chickens will surely die, but there is no reason for them to be in pain while still alive.

Also, while plenty of people would agree that eating meat is justified, they would also agree that devouring the copious amounts of meat (and everything else too) that we do now is not okay. This over-consumption

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makes us bigger than we need to be, leads to global warming issues and inevitably causes us to waste food. Any student who eats at the Ratty is probably shocked by the quantities of meat thrown away every day, like I am. This meat comes from animals killed for no reason at all.

As somebody who cares about animals and the planet, I could help advance PETA’s campaigns for all these causes — if only they wanted me.

Like any organization seeking major social change, PETA needs popular support, and so it should allow people to contribute what they can without being judged for what they decide not to renounce. As long as they help alleviate the conditions of animals in one way or another, they should feel a part of the animals rights movement, because they are still making a difference.

And it should be okay if I turn up to a BARC meeting and eat a chicken patty, as long as I am helping the organization in another big way.

In the end, eating meat remains controversial. But animal rights groups shouldn’t waste the goodwill of potential supporters of other animal rights issues. In asking everyone to do something as drastic as giving up meat, these groups may just be losing whatever support many people can give.

Fatima Aqeel ’12 is an economics concentrator from Karachi, Pakistan. She can be reached at fatima_aqeel@brown.edu.

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Put your hand here to see yourself

Men’s soccer still unbeaten

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to day

to m o r r o w

48 / 37

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Thursday, October 15, 2009

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t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s

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9 comics

c a l e n da r Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

Today, Oct 15

Friday, Oct 16

12 pm — Brown Bag Series in Archaeology, Watson Institute

2 PM — Sarah Doyle Women’s Center Open House, 26 Benevolent Street

8:45 PM — Low Anthem at Avon Theater, 260 Thayer Street

9 pm — Brown University Jazz Band Conference, Grant Recital Hall

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

Lunch — Chicken Cutlet Parmesan Lunch — Sloppy Joe Sandwich, Sandwich, Zucchini and Parmesan Falafel in Pita Bread, Cauliflower au Sandwich, Garlic and Butter Infused Gratin Rice Dinner — Spice Rubbed Pork Chops, Dinner — Roast Turkey with Sauce, Cheese Tomato Strata, Oven-Browned Shells with Broccoli, Stuffing, Mashed RELEASE DATE– Thursday, October 15, 2009 Potatoes Potatoes

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle r Norris oss or d Lewis Edited byc Rich andw Joyce Nichols ACROSS 1 Premium movie station 4 Hammer-wielding Norse god 8 First voice of Mickey Mouse 14 “This instant!”

15 Will Rogers prop 16 Rallying cry 17 ISP with chat rooms 18 Took advantage of 19 Scrubs, as pots 20 *Bakery fare named for their shape 23 Actress Holmes 24 Mothers’ month 25 Kid’s building block 28 Part of CBS: Abbr.

29 *Quixotic reveries 32 1953 Western hero to whom Joey cried “Come back!”

34 Vacation home, maybe 35 Stately tree 38 “Wait, there’s more ...”

39 Half-__: coffee order 40 Prefix with friendly 41 Sunday dinners 43 Certain Sri Lankan 45 *Playground fixture 47 Immortal racehorse Man __ 51 Opie’s dad 52 Coffee dispenser 53 Eagle’s nest 54 *Beat poet who wrote “Howl” 58 Ohio city north of Columbus 60 Pre-holiday times 61 Pester 62 Really digs 63 Domesticated 64 MMX ÷ X 65 Basic doctrines 66 One-armed bandit 67 “__ Haw” DOWN 1 Chips and nuts 2 “Way to go!”

3 Little barn fliers 4 Cease-fire 5 L’eggs product 6 Good thing to keep when hearing opposing views 7 Bureaucratic waste 8 “Take care of it” 9 “Batt. not __” 10 Puffed up, as a sprain 11 Make queasy 12 Throw wide of the mark, say 13 NFL gains 21 Rests one’s feet 22 Ham holder 26 Detroit-based financial org.

27 Capital on a fjord 29 Variously colored flower 30 Small weight units 31 One way to lower an APR 33 Detest 35 Funny Bombeck 36 Minnesota’s state bird 37 Official spoken language of China

39 Traveling show 42 Toronto’s includes the CN Tower 43 Quotas 44 Leopold’s co-defendant 46 Hot dog holder 48 A type of one begins the answers to starred clues

49 Snoopy’s flying persona, e.g.

50 Baseball’s Jackson, a.k.a.

“Mr. October” 53 It’s a good thing 55 Ex-senator Trent 56 Genesis grandson 57 Pixar clownfish 58 Sch. near Harvard 59 Enzyme suffix

Hippomaniac| Mat Becker

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

STW| Jingtao Huang

xwordeditor@aol.com

10/15/09

Classic Deep-Fried Kittens| Cara FitzGibbon

By Todd Gross (c)2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

10/15/09