Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 91 | Friday, October 23, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891
When building Brown meant burning bridges By Sophia Li Features Editor
Bracketed by the Van Wickle Gates and Soldiers Arch, Brown’s bustling campus 50 years ago reached little beyond the Main Green and Lincoln Field. A residential neighborhood of old colonial homes and stately Victorian mansions extended right to its doorstep. Today, the University sprawls over most of College Hill, and has plans to expand even further into the city. But this growth has brought controversy as the University’s boundaries have blurred. It was a shift that Ed Bishop ’54 P’86 P’91, a long-time Providence resident, witnessed as a student: the University’s struggle to grow in an urban neighborhood without, at the time, any “perspective on preser vation.” Wriston Quadrangle was being built when he was a first-year student, and construction on Keeney Quadrangle had not yet begun. Those projects, each landmark continued on page 6
Locals promote heirloom vegetables
The number of reported incidents involving underage drinking and copyright infringement at the University decreased this past year, according to Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services. Overall, violations declined slightly. A summary of non-academic
cally grown heirloom fruits and vegetables to their menus. Though Mardosa drove Red Looking forward to a comforting Planet Vegetables’ oblong pumpThanksgiving meal — that’s not kins, which resemble oversized at the Sharpe Refector y? Last zucchinis, a mere seven miles week, patrons of Providence res- to Local 121’s tables, the seed taurant Local 121 were treated stock reputedly has its origins to a unique version of a typical in the Azores Islands. Thanksgiving dish: a pumpkin In 1832, whalers brought the pie that — from seed to restau- long pie pumpkin — once the rant table — had covered fewer only pumpkin used for pie in miles than many students trav- New England — to Nantucket. el to return home for the fall Over the next century and a half, holiday. long pie pumpkins The heirloom became increasSPOTLIGHT ingly rare — until pumpkins wer e grown over the the late 1980s, when summer in Johnston, on 150 farmer Ernest Leroy Souther feet of land owned by Catherine Jr. took his pumpkin seeds to Mardosa ’02 and Matt Tracy. Maine’s Common Ground Fair. Together, the two run the local He sold them to a seed distribufarm Red Planet Vegetables, a tor, saving the prized stock from small business that got its start extinction. growing produce in downtown Several generations later, Providence’s vacant lots. Souther’s seed stock had sproutMardosa and Tracy received ed into the pumpkins for Local the seeds as part of a New Eng- 121 chef David Johnson’s pie — land-area Grow-Out sponsored delicate desserts three inches by Renewing America’s Food in diameter and ser ved with a Traditions, a coalition of sus- scoop of molasses ice cream. tainable food advocates. The Grow-Out culminated in Heir- Harvesting a local heritage loom Harvest Week, which was When cooking with heirheld Oct. 13-18 to celebrate the looms for the Har vest Week, season’s crop, to promote local Johnson said he tried “to keep food and to preserve heirloom it as simple as possible and ... produce. Seventeen Providence to highlight that particular heirrestaurants partnered with 13 continued on page 4 Rhode Island farmers to add loBy Leslie Primack Staff Writer
Courtesy of the University Archives
Surveying the demolished remains of the buildings that Brown knocked down to make room for Keeney Quadrangle. The effort to stop that demolition gave birth to the Providence Preservation Society.
town/brown
The Herald examines Brown’s multifaceted relationship with the city it calls home.
Second in a five-part series.
Brown students, minding their Ps and Qs By Anne Speyer Senior Staff Writer
50 years old, and fresh as can be
disciplinar y proceedings for the 2008-2009 academic year, released recently, showed that the total number of alleged violations to the University’s non-academic behavior policy was 3 percent lower than in the year before. A total of 171 violations to the Standards of Student Conduct were reported between July 2008 and June 2009, down from 177 incidents the previous year.
Reported cases are addressed in hearings before the Peer Community Standards Board, a dean or administrator, the University Disciplinary Council or a University administrative hearing officer. The majority of the cases from the past year were resolved in hearings with a dean. Dean’s hearings are used to address incidents that continued on page 5
European health care model an inspiration, Prodi says By Alex Bell Staff Writer
inside
The United States should follow Europe’s lead in recognizing that health care is a right, said Romano Prodi, professor-at-large and former prime minister of Italy, who spoke to a full Joukowsky Forum Thursday along with his wife. Prodi and his wife, Flavia Franzoni, a professor of politics at the University of Bologna, compared the differences between the health care systems of the United States and European nations. Prodi said the disproportionate amount of money spent on care in the United States is largely due to the high salaries of American phy-
News.....1-7 Ar ts........8 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12
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sicians relative to those in Europe. But he also observed that the high cost of health care in America may be tied to the relatively high prevalence of malpractice suits, which forces physicians to spend more on insurance. This process “increases costs and makes life unhappy,” Prodi said. “Don’t underestimate litigation. This to me is one of the dangers of democracy.” Prodi and Franzoni said the major ideological difference between American and European thinking is that Europeans consider health care a right, whereas Americans do not. continued on page 2
Julia Kim / Herald
Romano Prodi, professor-at-large and former prime minister of Italy, said the need for malpractice insurance in the United States “increases costs and makes life unhappy.”
News, 3
Arts, 8
Opinions, 11
sugar and spice An NSF grant aims to help Brown support female science researchers
‘Anna Bella’ Um, uh...
word to the wise Brown students should embrace their inner elitists, says Anish Mitra ’10
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
Despite talented acting and thoughtful direction ‘Anna Bella Eema’ not up to par
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