Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxliv, no. 101 | Friday, November 6, 2009 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Poll: Students more satisfied with advising For Bears, By Hannah Moser and Seth Motel Senior Staff Writer and News Editor
Student satisfaction with academic advising is on the rise — 10 percent higher this fall than a year and a half ago, a recent Herald poll found. Nearly 60 percent of students reported they were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with advising, compared to just under 50 percent
Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with academic advising at Brown? Don’t know/ No answer Strongly dissatisfied
Very satisfied
THE HERALD POLL in spring 2008. A plurality of students, 40.6 percent, responded that they were somewhat satisfied and 19.1 percent said they were very satisfied. First years were much more likely than upperclassmen to approve of the advising system, with 75.1 percent reporting satisfaction, while this number dropped to 53.9 percent among the rest of the student body. Both numbers were significantly higher than they were in 2008, though that poll was conducted later in the academic year. Administrators have changed many aspects of the advising system recently, including a revamped Faculty Fellows program and the addition of Advising Central, which makes faculty members available throughout the week in J. Walter Wilson.
Somewhat dissatisfied Somewhat satisfied
The Herald poll was conducted from Nov. 2 through Nov. 4 and has a 3.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. A total of 687 Brown undergraduates completed the poll, which The Herald administered as a written questionnaire to students in the University Mail Room at J. Walter Wilson during the day and in the Sciences Library at night. A year after being elected president, Barack Obama remains popu-
lar among Brown students — though he enjoys less popularity than last year. The poll found that 77.2 percent of respondents approved of the way he is handling his job, while most national polls rank his job approval at about 50 percent. Of the poll’s respondents, 57.4 percent said they somewhat approved of Obama’s job and 19.8 percent said they strongly approved. In last fall’s Herald poll, conducted just before the election, 86.1 percent of students reported
Diplomat remembers the wall’s fall By Nicole Boucher Contributing Writer
inside
When the Berlin Wall, which served as a “symbol of difference and division” between the east and the west sides of Germany, fell, it represented the culmination of changes in Soviet Union policies in the 1970s and ’80s, Consul General Reiner Mockelmann told a small gathering at the Watson Institute for International Relations Thursday night. Mockelmann, a retired West German diplomat and director of the Summer School Wust, spent most of the lecture outlining historical transitions from the Berlin Wall’s implementation to modern concerns in a “unified Germany.” “The concept of openness” which emerged under Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost — economic and political transparency — in 1986 and 1988 “led to major changes in Soviet society as well as profoundly changing East and West relations,” he said. Increased demonstrations, including a million people gathering
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that they would vote for him. Seven months after the last poll, many students are still about as concerned about their families’ ability to finance their education. While 59.4 percent were confident of their ability to finance their Brown education, 38.1 percent reported being worried, including 10.3 percent reporting that they were very worried. Student opinion of President Ruth Simmons remains high, with 77.5 percent of respondents reporting approval and 3.6 percent disapproval. The distribution between those who strongly approved and those who somewhat approved was nearly even. 18.8 percent said they did not know or had no answer. Approval of the Undergraduate Council of Students is relatively unchanged since last semester’s poll. Of those polled, 48.7 percent strongly or somewhat approved of UCS, with 10 percent reporting disapproval. 41.2 percent said they did not know or had no answer as opposed to 35.5 percent last year. The poll found that a plurality of students support reinstating the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University, which was disbanded here in 1971. Though more than one-third of respondents said they did not know or had no answer, 41.3 percent of students said they would
one last shot at Yale By Dan Alexander Senior Staff Writer
Coming into this season, the football team’s seniors had — at some point in their college careers — beaten every team they have faced except three: the University of Rhode Island, Holy Cross and Yale. But the Bears beat URI, 2820, in a home game on Oct. 3. The next week, they took down Holy Cross, 34-31. Now, only Yale remains.
SPORTS The Bears will kick off against the Bulldogs at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday in the Yale Bowl in New Haven. Brown (4-3, 2-2 Ivy) is coming off a 14-7 overtime loss to Penn. The Quakers, now 4-0 in Ivy League play, stand at the top of the league standings, tied with Harvard. “We had a tough one last week,” said cornerback David Clement ’10. “Definitely the fact that we haven’t beaten Yale is helping bring us back. And we’re definitely as motivated as any game we have had this year.” Penn shut out the Bears’ offense last week, which had led the Ivy League in scoring before the game.
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Remembering when GISPs were groovy By Alicia Chen Staf f Writer
As students scrambled to pre-register for courses this week, certain people were looking outside Brown’s course catalog to pick their classes for next semester. By 3 p.m. Thursday, those students had to submit their proposals for group independent study projects and independent study projects — curricular options created in 1969 as part of the New Curriculum. “One of the classic Brown experiences is to do a GISP,” said Alison Cohen ’09, who did multiple independent studies during her time at Brown and is studying environmental policy on a Fulbright Scholarship in Belgium. Students who have participated are so enthusiastic
they “spread the gospel” to other students, Cohen said. GISPs allow faculty to experiment with new courses and give groups of students a way to pursue what really interests them, said Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine. Hazeltine, who teaches ENGN0090: “Management of Industrial and Non-profit Organizations,” said the course — long one of Brown’s most popular classes — originated as a GISP. In the inaugural year of the New Curriculum, more than 500 students par ticipated in GISPs. But after flourishing for the first few years after their creation — reaching a high of 50 projects in the 1974-75 academic year — GISPs have faded from
SPOTLIGHT
Freddy Lu / Herald
Reiner Mockelmann spoke at the anniversary the fall of the Berlin Wall Thursday.
in protest on Nov. 4, 1989, led to the final push before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Between 1990 and 1994, the Reunification Treaty was passed and the Soviet military left Germany, he said.
But, Mockelmann said, major problems arose even with the Berlin Wall’s collapse. After the wall came down, many residents continued on page 3
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News, 3
Arts, 5
Opinions, 7
is it hot in here? Pembroke Hall hosts experts in a lecture on climate change
black, gay at the hay A Rhode Island College professor opens a new exhibit at the John Hay
Working hard, or — Tyler Rosenbaum ’11: Thank goodness lawmakers faced up to urgent matters
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
herald@browndailyherald.com
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS
Friday, November 6, 2009
“We definitely have something to prove.” — Football co-captain Paul Jasinowski ’10 on Saturday’s Yale game
Football faces elusive Alcohol, marijuana remain popular Bulldogs Saturday continued from page 1
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Paul Jasinowski ’10, a co-captain and offensive tackle said the Bears’ offense is coming into the Yale game with a chip on its shoulderpads. “We definitely have something to prove against this defense and against this team,” Jasinowski said. Brown and Yale (4-3, 2-2) are tied for third in the league, sporting identical records. No team with two league losses has won the Ivy League title since 1982, and both Yale and Brown will need a win to keep their slim title hopes alive. Like Penn, Yale has one of the top defenses in the league and an offense that ranks in the middle. Yale’s defense has allowed just 13.3 points per game, which is second best in the league — behind Penn. “Penn and our defense have some similarities in terms of scheme,” said Yale Head Coach Tom Williams. “We’re going to run our defense and look to try to contain the Brown offense.”
“Obviously they’ve got explosive capabilities,” he added. Yale’s defense has held the Bears to only 10 points in the last two years combined. The Bears’ only Ivy League defeat last season was a 13-3 loss to Yale. “We beat Harvard and we had won all of our Ivy games up to that point,” said Jasinowski of last year’s Yale game. “That was definitely a really tough defeat for our team because that was our one loss in the league and the one that made us end up having to share the title.” Yale’s offense — which runs out of a two-quarterback system — ranks fifth in the league in scoring. The passhappy Bulldogs are last in rushing offense and second, behind Brown, in passing offense. “They have good quarterbacks and good skilled-position players,” Clement said. “They throw the ball, run the ball — they’re definitely a solid offense. But if we do our jobs and are more physical than them, we should be fine.”
Head-to-Head: By the Numbers Brown
v.
Yale
4-2 (2-2 Ivy)
Records
4-2 (2-2 Ivy)
25.4 pts/game
Scoring Offense
17.9 pts/game
20.1 pts/game
Scoring Defense
13.3 pts/game
115.1 yds/game
Rushing Offense
85.3 yds/game
283.0 yds/game
Passing Offense
207.7 yds/game
33.3%
3rd-down conversions
29.7%
Versus Common Opponents Cornell Penn
W, 34-14 L, 14-7 OT
L, 14-12 L, 9-0
sudoku
approve of reinstating ROTC, compared to 24.9 percent who said they would disapprove of reinstating it. In the past month, about threequarters of undergraduates have used alcohol and about one-third have used marijuana, the poll found. At 77.9 percent and 32.3 percent, respectively, they were the two most-commonly used substances. They were followed by tobacco (18.3 percent), prescription painkillers taken without a prescription (3.9 percent), amphetamines (3.8 percent) and cocaine (2.6 percent).
Levels of substance use have not significantly changed since the fall 2007 Herald poll. In this semester’s poll, higher numbers of males reported using marijuana than females — 39.1 percent to 26.4 percent. Also, significantly fewer first-years — 67.8 percent — reported using alcohol than upperclassmen, 82.8 percent of whom said they had drunk alcohol in the past month. (Due to smaller sample sizes, there are margins of error of 5.2 percent for male respondents, 4.9 percent for female respondents, 6.9 percent forfirstyear respondents and 4.2 percent for
Results of the Herald Poll 1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Ruth Simmons is handling her job as president of Brown University? Strongly approve: 39.7% Somewhat approve: 37.8% Somewhat disapprove: 2.9% Strongly disapprove: 0.7 % Don’t know / No answer: 18.8% 2. Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Undergraduate Council of Students (UCS) is handling its job? Strongly approve: 10.0% Somewhat approve: 38.7% Somewhat disapprove: 8.7% Strongly disapprove: 1.3% Don’t know / No answer: 41.2% 3. Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with academic advising at Brown? Very satisfied: 19.1% Somewhat satisfied: 40.6% Somewhat dissatisfied: 28.5% Strongly dissatisfied: 9.6% Don’t know / No answer: 2.2% 4. How confident or worried are you about your or your family’s ability to finance your Brown education? Very confident: 33.2% Somewhat confident: 26.2% Somewhat worried: 27.8% Very worried: 10.3% Don’t know / No answer: 2.5% 5. Would you approve or disapprove of Brown reinstating the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, which was disbanded here in 1971? Strongly approve: 17.9% Somewhat approve: 23.4% Somewhat disapprove: 12.8% Strongly disapprove: 12.1% Don’t know / No answer: 33.8%
Daily Herald the Brown
Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 Stephen DeLucia, President Michael Bechek, Vice President
Jonathan Spector, Treasurer Alexander Hughes, Secretary
The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each members of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2009 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
upperclassman respondents). Of those polled, 17.1 percent indicated that they had engaged in some form of academic dishonesty this semester, most commonly by copying answers off another student’s homework or using outside resources in their work without citing them properly. About half of the students have attended at least one varsity sporting event as spectators this semester. First-years were more likely to have attended a game, with 59.4 percent responding that they had been to at least one game this semester compared to 47.3 percent of upper-
6. How many times have you attended a Brown varsity sports game as a spectator this semester? 0 times: 49.5% 1-2 times: 29.1% 3-4 times: 10.3% 5-6 times: 4.7% 7 or more times: 6.3% Don’t know / No answer: 0.1% 7. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president of the United States? Strongly approve: 19.8% Somewhat approve: 57.4% Somewhat disapprove: 11.8% Strongly disapprove: 4.5% Don’t know / No answer: 6.6% 8. In the past month, which of the following substances — not prescribed to you — have you used? Alcohol: 77.9% Marijuana: 32.3%
Tobacco: 18.3% Prescription Painkillers: 3.9% Amphetamines (including prescription stimulants): 3.8% Cocaine: 2.6% Ecstasy (MDMA): 1.3% Psychedelic Mushrooms: 1.3% LSD: 1.0% Opium: 0.7% Nitrous Oxide: 0.3% Phencyclidine (PCP: 0.3% Heroin: 0.0% Other: 0.4% None of the Above: 19.8% Don’t Know / No answer: 0.9% 9. Have you done any of the following in class this semester? Copied answers off another student’s homework: 12.4% Used outside resources in your own work without proper citation: 4.2% Copied answers off another student’s quiz, test or exam: 2.3% Obtained unauthorized test materials in advance: 1.6% Used notes on a closed-book quiz, test or exam: 0.7% Submitted someone else’s work as your own in a paper, presentation or lab report: 0.4% I have not done any of the above: 80.1% Don’t know/No answer: 2.8% Methodology Written questionnaires were administered to 687 undergraduates from Nov. 2 to 4 at the University Mail Room in J. Walter Wilson in the mornings and afternoons of Nov. 2, 3 and 4 and at the Sciences Library on the nights of Nov. 2 and 3. To ensure random sampling, pollsters approached every third person and asked each one to complete a poll. The poll has a 3.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. The sample polled was demographically similar to the Brown undergraduate population as a whole. The sample was 53.4 percent female, 46.1 percent male and 0.4 percent other. First-years made up 26.2 percent of the sample, 28.2 percent were sophomores, 22.4 percent were juniors and 23.1 percent were seniors. 63.3 percent of respondents identified themselves as white, 24.9 percent Asian, 9.2 percent Hispanic, 5.5 percent identified as black or African-American, 1.0 percent American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.6 percent Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 0.4 percent identified with a racial group or ethnicity not listed and 2.2 percent chose not to answer. The sum of the percentages is greater than 100 percent due to respondents who identified with multiple ethnic or racial groups. Senior Staff Writer Hannah Moser ’12 and News Editor Seth Motel ’11 coordinated the poll. Herald section editors, senior staff writers and other staff members conducted the poll.
Friday, November 6, 2009
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C ampus N EWS
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“There are no reasons not to act.” — Hugh Ducklow, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, on climate change
Experts urge action on climate German Studies marks fall of Berlin wall
By Ashley Aydin Contributing Writer
Acknowledging the negative human impact on the environment is essential to preventing drastic climate change, three experts said in a panel discussion on climate change at Pembroke Hall Thursday afternoon. The event attracted about 30 students and faculty members to hear Elijah Huge, assistant professor of art at Wesleyan University; Timmons Roberts, professor of sociology and environmental studies; and Hugh Ducklow, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. Roberts emphasized climate justice and the need for adequate funding for developing countries to save the environment. He said those who are least responsible for causing the problem of climate change are also those most likely to suffer climate change’s impacts, including hurricanes, sea level rise, droughts and heat waves. “Climate change is also going to affect those least likely to cope,” he said. Roberts also listed the necessary steps for people to take against climate change, which he called an injustice. The first, he said, is to stop doing the harm, and the second is to assist those who are already harmed and are most vulnerable. Roberts also discussed the “polluter pays principle” — those who create a mess ought to clean it up. “There are 125 countries where it takes over five of their citizens to emit as much as an American (does),” he said. He also called for developing mechanisms to extend the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement branched from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, setting targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Huge, an architect by profession and director of the design firm Periphery, emphasized the many effects that architecture has on the environment, and presented a few of his projects about the preservation of wetlands and natural
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Julia Kim / Herald
Hugh Ducklow, from Brown and the Marine Biological Lab at Woods Hole, spoke at a discussion panel on climate change Thursday.
settings. He said architecture has a direct impact not only on the spaces that it defines, including rooms and buildings, but also on the broader environment. Concluding the lecture, Ducklow, who is also a biological oceanographer, focused on the debates about the existence of global climate change. He said the majority of climate scientists have accepted global climate change due to Earthmodel obser vations made over many decades. Ducklow said scientists have come to the general realization that if the world temperature increases by two degrees Celsius, the shift would affect the environment negatively. “We need enormous changes in policy to avoid the two-degreeCelcius threshold,” he said. Despite the degree of scientific consensus, a strong opposition disputes the existence of climate change to argue against steps to preserve the environment, he said. Though there “are significant uncertainties in science,” Ducklow said, “there are no reasons not to act.” Ducklow said the proportion of Americans who say climate change is exaggerated has risen to 41 percent.
“We’re not getting better, we’re getting worse — there still isn’t enough being done,” he said. The event was organized by the Humanities/Science Project, a three-year-collaborative program launched by the Cogut Center for the Humanities and the Faculty Committee on Science and Technology Studies. The project promotes interdisciplinary seminars and research opportunities bridging the sciences and the humanities.
of former East Germany migrated to former West Germany for “better gross wages, salaries and lower unemployment rates.” Rebuilding former East Germany produced mixed results, as “older structures were saved and cultural heritage was rescued” but ultimately “the catch-up process ... stalled,” Mockelmann said. He said that to deal with prejudice between the previously divided regions, a “decentralized” approach must be taken. “There is no recipe to break down prejudices politically,” he added. To break down these existing prejudices and increase educational opportunities, he cited educational programs such as the Summer School Wust, which was founded in 1991 in former East Germany by, among others, German Studies Professor Kay Goodman. The program brings English literature, theatre, music and increased opportunities for conversation about the culture to the region, he said. Nonetheless, he said a “national pride” is now obser vable which “was not known in Germany before the fall of the wall,” he said. “To be proud of a nation that was only partly known was difficult.”
He concluded, saying, “The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago marked the beginning of a new era in history — the end of the Cold War — but a lot has to be done” to deal with continuing problems between the East and West sides of Germany. Last night’s lecture marked only one event in the “Freedom Without Walls” series, sponsored in part by the German Embassy and hosted by the Department of German Studies. The 20th anniversary celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall opened on Wednesday with a screening of the 2003 German comedy “Goodbye Lenin” and will continue through the weekend. The anniversary has prompted reflection and commemorative events across the country. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently visited Congress, partly to mark the anniversary. “The Berlin Wall is part of a much bigger picture,” Sergei Khruschev, senior fellow in international studies and son of Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev, told The Herald. “If you tr y to build any wall, it is against human nature. You feel you are resolving a problem and you are doing nothing. You are tr ying to stop the movement of a people.”
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S POTLIGHT
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Friday, November 6, 2009
GISPs: Now just an ‘afterthought’ for many students continued from page 1
view. “For more than 20 years, the number of GISPs has hovered in the mid-20s,” wrote Associate Dean of the College for Curriculum James Valles in an e-mail to the Herald. This semester, 84 students are enrolled in 16 GISPs. Shifting perceptions Today, fewer students and faculty members know about GISPs or consider them to be serious course options than during the New Curriculum’s early years. Faculty turnover may have contributed to the decline in awareness about GISPs among professors. Seventy percent of professors who were at Brown 40 years ago when the New Curriculum first began are no longer teaching, said Arthur Matuszewski ’10, GISP/ISP co-coordinator at the Curricular Resource Center and editor-in-chief of post- magazine. GISPs are also not as well-known among students as they once were. Nick Donias ’12, who is developing a proposal for a spring GISP on multiculturalism and identity, said he did not know the program existed until Associate Dean of Student Life Kisa Takesue ’88 suggested one as a way for Donias to pursue his interest in cross-cultural issues. After he sent out e-mails and
Morning Mail notices advertising his GISP, Donias received 20 responses — a level of interest that surprised him, he said. A lot of the students who responded to Donias’ announcements had also been unaware of the option to create a course, he said. “The ’70s had a lot more acceptance of academic experimentation,” said Hazeltine, who has been teaching at Brown since 1959. But in recent years “there’s been pressure on making GISPs more like regular courses because people are worried about academic credibility,” he said. Professor of English William Keach, who started teaching here in 1986, agreed. “The culture at Brown over the past six or eight years has become somewhat more cautious, somewhat more risk-averse,” he said. Keach, who also has sponsored several GISPs, said many students may see GISPs as “not being courses.” As Brown’s student culture has shifted, the increasing opportunities for extracurricular involvement have pushed students to look beyond the classroom, possibly lessening student interest in pursuing all possible curricular avenues. “Meaning and purpose used to really be part of the college curriculum. Now they’ve been pushed
to the extracurricular,” said Clinical Professor of Engineering Josef Mittlemann ’72 P’00 P’04. In the last 40 years, Brown also has bolstered its course offerings. With more options than ever, students have less need to look beyond the course catalog to pursue their academic interests. (This fall’s more than 900 course options are a record, according to Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron.) Too much work ... When compared to the time- and energy-intensive process of creating a GISP, the ease of enrolling in a normal course — which only requires entering a CRN number on Banner — may also dissuade many students from designing their own course. To propose a GISP, students must find a faculty sponsor and submit an application that includes a syllabus, bibliography and evaluation plan months before the semester starts. The College Curriculum Council evaluates the proposal and either accepts or returns it with suggested revisions. The early deadline is to allow time for revisions and mirrors the application process for a normal course, Matuszewski said. “I think the GISP process overall can look daunting, but it is actually a really great process to go through,” Cohen said.
Cohen went through the application process for her first and only official GISP, but she chose to do her next two collaborative study projects on an unofficial basis because the GISP application process was so cumbersome, she said. Cohen and the other group members “signed up for a departmental independent study under the same professor under the expectation that we would work collectively, just as in a GISP, but with less paperwork,” she said. The process also requires students to clearly express the course’s goals and their reasons for creating a GISP, which may deter some students from proposing one. While normal classes are “more focused on the product, independent study focuses a lot more on the process of learning,” Matuszewski said. “Really investing yourself in independent study requires you to articulate why what you’re doing matters.” ... Too little time When faculty members have other responsibilities, including research and teaching regular courses, having the time to sponsor a GISP can be difficult. “I think faculty are busier than ever, so it is perhaps harder for faculty to be involved,” said Mittlemann, who has declined sponsor-
ing some GISPs because of time constraints. Keach said, “I’m glad to be doing it, it’s a lot of fun to be doing it, but it’s an additional time and energy commitment.” There should be more incentives for faculty to sponsor GISPs, Matuszewski said, suggesting that Brown should work on “appropriately recognizing faculty for their support of independent studies.” But to properly address the recent decline in student participation in GISPs, “the first thing is for the administration and the faculty to find out what’s going on,” Keach said. While some people believe that group independent studies deserve more support, others think the decreasing number of GISPs is a natural consequence of the increasing diversity of other opportunities on campus. “I think over 200 students per year is still a very healthy level, given this increase in regular courses,” Bergeron wrote. Still, others are concerned about the decline in GISPs. The trend “generally reflects a lack of investment of what it means to really stick to Brown’s ideals and values,” Matuszewski said. “The GISP option used to be seen as a lot more central to what Brown was,” he said. “And now it’s become an afterthought.”
Arts & Culture The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, November 6, 2009 | Page 5
What Nic Cage and Handel have in common By Luisa Robledo Staff Writer
Kayleigh Butera / Herald
Rhode Island College English professor Daniel Scott ushered in a new exhibit at the Hay with a lecture about black, gay men in Rhode Island.
Black and gay, on display at the Hay By Caitlin trujillo Staff Writer
An exhibit about the contributions of black gay men to Rhode Island, its culture and its politics premiered Thursday evening at the John Hay Library. Rhode Island College professor Daniel Scott kicked off the display with a lecture about his work documenting the oral history of the traditionally overlooked minority group. Black Lavender 2, which curator Robb Dimmick spun off from an earlier Black Lavender exhibit, broadens its scope to include politicians, artists, civic leaders and academics in the state throughout the 20th century. The first exhibit, shown at the Hay in 2005, focused on black gay writers. The exhibit stands in a small room near the entrance to the library, but what it lacks in space to spread out it makes up in its wealth of material. The glass cases contain photographs, flyers, newspaper clippings and other memorabilia that commemorate the represented figures. The writer James Baldwin, who only visited Rhode Island once to speak at the First Baptist Church in America, has a mug in his section of the display case that is emblazoned with his portrait. Poet Langston Hughes is represented by a poem (“Ask Your Mama!”) that he wrote in Newport. Some of the men featured in the exhibit were visitors — frequent visitors such as Hughes or one-time celebrities such as Baldwin. They were public servants and performers, artists and writers.
There is a section titled Black, Gay and Brown, showcasing people like Ed Brockenbrough ’95, who contributed to literary magazines during his time as a student. Scott, an English professor at RIC who conducted 16 separate interviews for the project, said in his lecture that despite recognition of these men and their achievements, very few black gay men have yet come forward with their stories. He emphasized that Rhode Island’s size plays a major role in gay black men’s sense of community — the people to whom he spoke said the state’s small size makes it relatively easy for people to know about each other. “The positive spin on that is we have a more intimate community,” Scott said, but he added that people were also probably reluctant to share too much with others for fear of losing their sense of privacy. Scott said when he asked his subjects what they most wanted to see happen in the state, many responded that they hoped they could foster a better sense of community. Black Lavender 2 aims to achieve a similar goal — by commemorating the achievements of prominent men, the project keeps alive the legacies and contributions they made to Rhode Island, ensuring that each man’s presence does not soon wane. Midway through the night, Mayor David Cicilline ’83 arrived at the library to present a proclamation that declared Thursday “Black Lavender 2 Day” in Providence. Black Lavender 2, on the ground floor of the John Hay Library, is open during librar y hours through J an . 8.
Thanks to Brown’s New Music Ensemble, the famous action scenes of the Nicolas Cage movie “Con Air” won’t be scored to the sounds of “Sweet Home Alabama” this weekend. Instead, John Cage’s avantgarde music will be the accompaniment in Saturday’s “Cage Match,” the ultimate “Face/Off” between the king of silence and the king of explosions. “The name is a complete gimmick,” said Alex Kruckman ’10, one of the event’s coordinators. “But it’s going to be an awesome one.” “Cage Match” will pair up some of John Cage’s compositions (including his most famous one, 4’33” — four minutes and 33 seconds of silence) with various moments from Nicolas Cage’s most celebrated movies, including “Gone in 60 Seconds,” “Snake Eyes,” “Ghost Rider” and “National Treasure 2,” said Alex Dupuis ’10, the other coordinator. “We have around 20 performers,” Dupuis said, including Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and Associate Professor of Music Joseph “Butch” Rovan, her husband. They will present Cage’s “Water Music.” Kruckman, who will also be performing, will use a prepared piano — that is, an instrument whose
sound has been drastically changed by the placement of foreign objects, such as screws, in the strings, he explained. “It’s difficult to organize a prepared piano — a bit risky,” Kruckman said. “But we’ve been really careful and plan to get the instrument tuned afterwards.” Dupuis will be performing John Cage’s “Imaginary Landscapes” using a computer. To honor what Dupuis called the composer’s “spirit of randomly determining aspects of the piece,” he hasn’t chosen the film that will accompany his piece yet. “Cage really experimented with the boundaries of classical music,” Dupuis said. The free event will take place in Grant Recital Hall at 8 p.m. Saturday. And now for something completely different ... In sharp contrast to “Cage Match,” the music department’s other concert offering this weekend will be the Brown Chorus’s performance of George Frideric Handel’s 18th-century oratorio “Israel in Egypt” this Friday at 8 p.m. in Sayles Hall. Under the direction of conductor Fred Jodry, a senior lecturer in music, the chorus will tell the “dramatic biblical story of the Jews
fleeing out of captivity from Egypt,” Jodry said. “This piece features mostly the choir,” he said. “It’s very exciting and has ver y contrasting movements.” Jodry called the orchestra writing “wonderful” and the overall triumphant tone of the piece inspiring. “We’ll have trumpets, strings and oboes along with a small baroque organ and three wonderful professional singers who are joining us.” Chorus President Sarah Baker ’10 said the piece has been both fun and challenging to put on. “There’s eight parts going on at the same time,” Baker said, referring to Handel’s multi-layered vocal writing. “We really have to listen to each other.” For Baker, the most exciting part of the rehearsal process was moving from the chorus’ usual rehearsal space in Steinert Hall to singing in Sayles during the week leading up to the concert. The beauty of the building, combined with the “interesting acoustics,” helps her not to be nervous about the upcoming show, she said. “We’ve worked really hard,” she said. “It’s going to be a great concert.” Tickets cost $10 ($5 with Brown ID) and are available in Orwig Music Building Room 101 and at the door one hour before the performance.
Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald
Page 6 | Friday, November 6, 2009
l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r
Committee cares about HEI’s labor practices To the Editor: As current chair of the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies, a committee representing students, faculty, staff and alumni charged with advising the President and the Corporation on matters relating to the social impacts of the University’s investments, I write to correct a misimpression given by the column by guest columnists Mark Morales ’10 and Alex Campbell ’10 (“The Truth about Brown’s Investments,” Nov. 5). In the column, the authors state that ACCRIP “dismissed our claims as outside their pur view.” Actually, the committee met with members of the Student Labor Alliance about labor practices at HEI Hotels and Resorts twice in the 2008-09 academic year, the second time also having a dismissed HEI worker address us.
After the second meeting, I communicated to the student who had ser ved as contact for the SLA group that ACCRIP’s members had discussed the matter and had recommended to President Ruth Simmons that the University should communicate with HEI that the labor practices alleged to have occurred “would be matters of real concern to the University were they to be substantiated.” I stated that our committee “recommends ongoing engagement between the University and HEI over these matters.” Let me add on a personal note that I commend Morales and Campbell for their concern regarding the workers, and that I write at this time solely to set the record straight on the role of ACCRIP in this matter. Louis Putterman Professor of Economics Nov. 5
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julia streuli
e d i to r i a l
Farmer Brown
On Tuesday, bioethicist Peter Singer delivered a talk on the ethics of human-animal relations. He contended that humanity has unjustly ignored the interests of animals for the sake of producing meat, and indicted in particular the modern practice of factory farming, which crowds huge numbers of animals together in miserable conditions, fostering virulent diseases and dangerously concentrating enormous quantities of waste. Singer is a gifted intellectual provocateur who has taken a number of controversial stands, and we certainly do not endorse all of his opinions. But we do recommend that Brown actively pursue more humane, healthy, small-scale and ecologically sound meat production, not only for its own consumption, but for that of its peer institutions and omnivores around the world. The scale and techniques of modern meat production cause enormous suffering that cannot be ignored. For the sake of increased productive efficiency, factory farms routinely confine animals for nearly their entire lives in spaces so small they cannot stand or turn around; their only release is slaughter. So far, a handful of states have restricted such practices. But the case against factory farming and the current level of meat consumption extends well beyond altruistic concern for animal well-being. These gargantuan operations concentrate their inhabitants’ excrement in huge lagoons that regularly seep or burst, befouling nearby waterways and wrecking livelihoods based on fishing. And through their heavy use of machinery and their vast numbers of animals, factory farms contribute heavily to the tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide released each year overall by fostering, processing and transporting livestock. The usual defense of factory farms is their efficient
production of vast quantities of meat. But this is not an unalloyed good. The overabundance of meat in the United States has helped fuel an epidemic of obesity that now affects roughly one in four of our fellow citizens. And the difficulty of tracking and inspecting this huge excess as it is transported and mixed into products such as ground beef has led to E. coli outbreaks like the one that recently killed two people and sickened many more in the northeastern states. To his credit, Singer admits that for all the problems with modern production, meat is still an absolutely vital source of key nutrients for poor and under-nourished people worldwide; children of all backgrounds rely heavily on meat to provide iron and protein for their growing bodies. This means that the most privileged members of the human race have to provide the impetus for reducing the scale and inhumanity of meat production. Whether or not you want to admit it, that includes all of us. In cooperation with other institutions of higher learning in the Providence area, Brown can help lead the way. In particular, partnership with Johnson and Wales’ culinary college would directly influence choices about the production and use of meat across the country. The University can seek local meat sources with verifiably healthy, humane and ecologically sustainable practices; it can also research and promote such techniques. As a University, we can make sacrifices and take the initiative to reduce meat farming and make it more humane and sustainable. Or we can allow factory farms and other reckless practices to take a staggering moral and ecological toll on this country. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
corrections An article in Thursday’s paper (“Buyout plan offered to U. employees,” Nov. 5) contained the information that Brown would pay all but $83 per month of the health-care premiums for employees who take the buyout offer. In fact, the employees would be responsible for the full premium, with $83 contributed by the University each month. An article in Thursday’s paper (“UCS votes to increase activities fee by $8,” Nov. 5) incorrectly identified Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn as the chair of the University Resources Committee. Klawunn is not a member of the committee. A caption on page 1 in Thursday’s paper (accompanying “Filmmaker views Haiti revolution through leader’s eyes,” Nov. 5) incorrectly identified the man speaking as the filmmaker, Noland Walker. The man pictured in the photograph is Professor of Africana Studies Barrymore Bogues. C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. C ommentary P O L I C Y The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
Opinions The Brown Daily Herald
Friday, November 6, 2009 | Page 7
Mission accomplished! Tyler Rosenbaum Opinions Columnist You may not have noticed, but Rhode Island is a relatively small state. In fact, you can fit almost 2,500 Rhode Islands into the area of the United States! It also has a relatively small population, as states go. So it may come as no surprise that the General Assembly (the state’s legislature) meets for only half the year. Normally, the January through June session is enough time for the General Assembly to get all its business finished. Of course, even spending half a year might not be necessary — Florida’s legislature, for example, is constitutionally restricted to meeting only 60 days per year. But this year, circumstances were very different. Clearly, the situation was dire. So dire, in fact, that legislators took the drastic step of coming back to Providence for an unusual October session. What, specifically, drove our legislators back to Providence for two whole days, with some having to make the perilous journey from as far as Westerly or Newport? Rhode Island was facing some serious problems, which in the aggregate have created the worst crisis the state has faced in decades. No, I’m not talking about that trivial economic situation. If you read any of the newspapers, you’ll discover the biggest threat facing the state; indeed, it was the primary target of this new session: legal, commercial sex. Yes, although a legal loophole has permitted
indoor prostitution in Rhode Island since 1976, and although the General Assembly has met for a total of 198 months during the time this loophole has existed, only very recently have the pernicious effects of this permissiveness been felt, apparently. I, for one, am quite relieved that prostitution will be criminalized immediately. Rhode Island likely would not have survived had it been forced to wait until the next regular session of the General Assembly commences in early January to begin fining and jailing prostitutes.
proved a law allowing individuals in same-sex couples to make funeral arrangements for their deceased partners. This legislation was urgently necessary to make legislative leaders seem less callous and heartless in their steadfast opposition to same-sex marriage or civil unions. Whether anti-gay Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 signs the bill or not, the General Assembly and its overwhelming Democratic supermajority, by bravely tossing this bone to the gay community, managed to silence perhaps the most heart-wrenching testimony presented in favor
What use is a solvent state government if, for example, intoxicated teens can operate motorboats with impunity? Another crisis of epic proportions was averted when the House of Representatives agreed with the Senate’s plan to ask the state’s voters whether to change the state’s official name from “Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” to simply “Rhode Island.” Cynics might point out that the referendum on the straightforward issue will take place in November 2010, and that therefore the House’s action could have waited until January. But they underestimate the importance of planning ahead. Moreover, some voters might not be appreciative of having only 10 months’ time to make up their minds on such an issue, preferring instead to have a full year. Additionally, the General Assembly ap-
of marriage equality at the yearly legislative hearings on that subject. Undoubtedly, had the bill not been passed at this special session, legislators might have been forced to hear such testimony on the harmful effects of their inaction on gay rights again. Truly, this was a crisis averted. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the General Assembly stiffened penalties on minors operating boats while intoxicated. Unquestionably, delaying action on this crucial measure for two months would have resulted in a catastrophe of epic proportions. Unfortunately, other, less pressing business had to be left until January. Legislators are, after all, part-time, and do have jobs outside
of government. It is therefore understandable that some issues just could not be considered during this special session and therefore needed to be postponed. The main issue that failed the make the cut was the state’s rapidly worsening fiscal condition. Some naysayers might argue that last year’s $60 million deficit and this year’s projected $60 million deficit warranted more attention than allowing Rhode Island motorists to buy license plates that indicate support for the New England Patriots, or permitting bars to stay open an extra hour (but not to serve alcohol during that hour). Such naysayers, however, clearly miss the point, blindly focusing on Rhode Island’s impending bankruptcy at the expense of many more important issues. What use is a solvent state government if, for example, intoxicated teens can operate motorboats with impunity? Can you put a price on the immediate incarceration of women who sell sex in their own homes? I didn’t think so. Luckily, Rhode Island lawmakers recognized the pressing issues facing the state, and they traveled from far and wide to come back into a special session specifically to address them. And though the legislators have already left town, the enduring legacy of their brief presence will remain with us for quite some time. The General Assembly bravely faced the numerous crises confronting the state and prioritized accordingly. All I can say as an admiring citizen is: mission accomplished!
Tyler Rosenbaum ’11 is dismayed the General Assembly didn’t act to penalize drunken Segway drivers.
Rejected 31 times over Susannah Kroeber Opinions Columnist Maine was supposed to be the first. After ballot initiatives failed in thirty states, in each case translating to a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, Maine was supposed to be the first notch in the win column for gay rights advocates. Instead, it followed the herd. Students didn’t come out in the numbers expected by gay marriage advocates to support Question 1. Once again, young people are being blamed for the failure of this initiative. Perhaps the narrow margin could have been filled by the numerous liberal college students who populate the state. But with an off-year election turnout of over 50 percent of registered voters, high for any election, perhaps it is time for the middle-aged campaign organizers to look within rather than to blame those outside their inner circles. It seemed that geography would help beat the initiative. New England states have been the most resounding supporters of same-sex marriage, if so far only through legislative and judicial action. And same-sex marriage seemingly had momentum on its side. New Hampshire and Vermont both legalized gay marriage in the last year, with Maine passing legislation soon after. Gay rights advocates had time and money on their side. They have been active on this issue in Maine since Massachusetts started allowing gay marriage in 2004. Conser va-
tive groups have only put significant money into the state this calendar year, in order to support this particular ballot item. Gay rights groups outspent conser vatives two to one, but the rejection of gay marriage in Maine has filled the coffers of conservative groups. Until Tuesday, Maine had same-sex marriage. Against all odds and projections, the voters took it away. Gay advocacy groups such as the Human Rights Campaign set high hopes for this election and are now trying to forestall
lenged Obama for not addressing gay issues in the first year of his term. Obama’s focus has been on health care, which is one of the most pressing problems for the gay community. Gay youth are more prone to suicide and drug and alcohol addiction, and gay girls are as likely to become pregnant as their straight peers. Same-sex couples don’t necessarily get covered under one partner’s policy. Just because gays share some of the same issues as straights doesn’t mean we are being ignored.
Until Tuesday, Maine had same-sex marriage. Against all odds and projections, the voters took it away.
fallout similar to that from the California Prop 8 debacle last year. At the recent gayrights march in Washington, D.C., in October, many of the speakers called for an all-hands-on-deck approach in Maine, making gay marriage in one state the sole focus of this election. The saddest part of the battle for gay rights is that marriage is at the center of what those rights mean, even when there are so many other issues that unify both gay and straight communities. Many gay rights advocates have chal-
My greatest question about this is why people who care about gay rights keep putting gay marriage legislation up to a vote, and then futilely hoping for victory. We aren’t getting brownie points for effort. We keep losing and wasting our money on campaigns that don’t have a historical basis for hope. The problem with the gay rights movement right now is that it is too idealistic, and is looking towards the wrong ideals to guide it. A cursory glance back at American history shows that progressive change does not come through the voters. It is almost always
imposed on the voters, or on a significant portion of the voters, to their utter dismay before that dismay turns to acceptance. Slaver y was forcibly abolished in the South despite massive opposition. Women’s suffrage came through legislative action, despite widespread protest and almost a centur y of building momentum for a constitutional revision. Civil rights were also legislative initiatives, and school desegregation and interracial marriage were both judicially imposed. Abortion was legalized through judicial action years before the majority of Americans believed that it was a woman’s right. Democracy is about protecting the minority from the tyranny of the majority. The majority voting to repress a minority goes against the spirit of the Constitution. All this demonstrates is the failure of the American Republic to protect the rights of all its citizens in a fundamental way. Representative democracy provides a structure in which many sets of values should be able to coexist. Obama promised during his campaign to fight for equality, but we need to be fighting, too. The gay rights community is not monolithic: resources need to be allocated in a way that represents the diverse needs of a diverse community to achieve results rather than become rhetoric for a future campaign.
Susannah Kroeber ’11 really wants to party it up at a post-election gay marriage celebration.
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Friday, November 6, 2009
Page 8
d i a m o n d s a n d c oa l A diamond to Sayles Hall’s world-famous organ, which, not unlike the newly crowned World Series champion Yankees, was born around 1903, fell into disrepair in the 1980s and was restored to glory in the 1990s. Despite those 16-foot pipes, though, it still doesn’t whine as loudly as A-Rod. Coal to the developer who is proposing to build a $35 million luxury hotel on Brook Street. Beyond the dissonance between “luxury hotel” and “Brook Street,” we don’t see why more expensive hospitality is needed when Bagel Gourmet is already charging $9 for Mexican food. A diamond to bioethicist Peter Singer for sharing an anecdote about how he first became interested in animal rights when he saw a friend choose a salad over a dish with meat. A lot of Brown students get where your friend was coming from — though it sometimes has less to do with vegetarianism and more to do with the fact that those “chopped sirloin patties with onion sauce” look like dirty socks.
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
Providence was aglow Thursday afternoon, as sunsets creep earlier.
c a l e n da r Today, november 6
saturday, november 7
7 pm — MEZCLA “On a Boat,” Salomon 101
7 PM — Rangeela! with Badmaash Dance Company, Andrews Dining Hall
8 pm — Brown University Chorus Concert, Sayles Hall
8 pm — Brown New Music Presents: Cage Match, Grant Recital Hall
menu Sharpe Refectory
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Hot Pastrami Sandwich, Vegan Vegetable Couscous, French Green Beans with Tomatoes
Lunch — Chicken Fingers, Rice Pilaf with Zucchini, Baked Vegan Nuggets
Dinner — Cajun Baked Fish, Vegan Stir Fried Noodles with Tofu, Rice Pilaf
Dinner — Paella with Mussels, Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Spinach-Stuffed Tomatoes
A cubic zirconium to a state senator’s proposal to consolidate all of Rhode Island’s cities and towns. We’re not big fans of such a concentration of power — but it’s probably true that all of Central Falls’ one square mile could fit snugly into the wine cellar of a Newport mansion. A diamond to the Food Network for featuring our fine University on not one but two shows this week. Now that the cable TV floodgates have opened, maybe the Discovery Channel will cancel on the Alaskan tundra and come here to film “Man vs. Wild: The Friedman Center in February When the Heat is Off.” Coal to the visiting performer whose avant-garde play “An Oak Tree” involves a second actor who has not seen the script beforehand. We get it — watching people flounder is fun. But for real entertainment, you could just watch the second-semester orgo kids get their midterms back next week. A cubic zirconium to the new Thayer Street restaurant Better Burger Company. Your establishment sounds good — or at least, as you say, “better” — but if you don’t serve barbeque tortellini pizza or Mexican Philly cheesesteaks with frozen yogurt, you probably won’t last long around here. A wistful diamond to Wednesday’s farmer’s market on Wriston — the last of the season — and those delicious harvest vegetables. It was gourd while it lasted.
comics Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
crossword
Hippomaniac | Mat Becker