Thursday, February 11, 2010

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 12 | Thursday, February 11, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

50 extra transfers next year

U. considers cutting varsity sports teams

b rr - ra w r !

BY Amy Chen Staf f Writer

The University should re-evaluate the “number and mix” of varsity sports programs to save money and improve athletes’ experiences, the athletics subcommittee of the Organizational Review Committee recommended to President Ruth Simmons in its report released last week.

By Kate Monks S enior S taf f Writer

The University plans to increase next year’s transfer class by 50 students, according to the Admission Of fice, bringing the expected number of incoming transfer students from 120 to about 170. Provost David Ker tzer ’69 P’95 P’98 said the University’s decision to increase the transfer class was based in par t on the high quality of applications received so far. More than two weeks before the March 1 deadline, Brown has already received over 1,400 transfer applications, according to Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73. “We have a large number of highly qualified applicants,” Ker tzer said. He said the decision was also a result of the University’s success in welcoming transfer students in the past. The addition of 50 more transfers, for whom the admission process is not need-blind, also means additional revenue for the University. Miller said the decision “helps to alleviate some financial pressure.” “There are clearly budgetar y considerations,” Ker tzer said. “Other peer institutions have been increasing the size of continued on page 2

SPORTS

Brigitta Greene / Herald

The company of a snowy doppelganger kept Bruno warm Wednesday.

To bolster budget, U. looks for more research grants By Sydney Ember News Editor

As part of its plans to reduce next year’s budget, the University is looking to streamline research support and boost its revenue by securing more grant funding. The academic administration team of the Organizational Review Committee — one of the 12 teams formed last September to identify ways to cut $14 million

Polls show Chafee ’75 in good shape in race Previously, Chafee had loaned his campaign $110,000, according to the campaign finance data — Independent Lincoln Chafee ’75 $60,000 in May 2009 and $50,000 loaned his campaign $200,000 in in September. December, as polls continue to Chafee told The Herald that his show him on top of loan was meant to the race for goverserve as a signal METRO nor. that he is serious Chafee, a former U.S. senator about his candidacy, and intends and fellow at the Watson Institute to remain in the race. for International Studies, made “I wanted to send a message the loan on Dec. 29, according to that I’m committed to this race,” the quarterly finance report filed he said. by his campaign with the Rhode Chafee’s campaign began the Island Board of Elections, two fourth quarter of 2009 with a baldays before the end of the fourth ance of $200,122.26 and ended fundraising quarter. continued on page 6

inside

By Bradley Silverman Contributing Writer

News......1–4 Metro.....5–6 Sports......7 Nation.....8–9 Editorial....10 Opinion.....11 Today........12

www.browndailyherald.com

from the University’s budget — outlined its recommendations in a report released Feb. 2. The full set of recommendations will be submitted to President Ruth Simmons and to the Corporation for approval when it convenes Feb. 25 to finalize next year’s budget. The Organizational Review Committee report detailed proposals for continued on page 4

The subcommittee was one of the 12 review committee teams charged last spring with finding ways to save the University $14 million. The team also proposed recreation fees for students, faculty and staff after the opening the new Nelson Fitness Center. The athletics team was the only subcommittee not to meet its savings goal, according to the Organizational Review Committee report. “If we’re going to offer a varsity sport, we should do that correctly, with all the protections that students should have for competing in a sport,” Simmons said. “That’s the wake-up call for us, to face up to the fact that we simply don’t have the resources to mount the number of team sports that we offer.” No cuts are finalized yet, Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “It is not definite that a reduction will be made, although we think it is possible,” Klawunn

wrote. “No teams have been identified and no timeline has been established.” The committee “felt that any consideration of a reduction to the varsity program required more time and a process that would include coaches and student athletes,” Klawunn wrote. The athletics team recommended a process to look at whether the University should reduce its number of varsity teams. Brown offers 37 varsity sports, but the Department of Athletics has the smallest budget and staff of any athletic department in the Ivy League, Klawunn said. Despite having the lowest budget in athletics, the University has the “third largest commitment to Division I sports in the League,” according to the executive summar y of the review committee report. When asked how they would react if their teams were to be cut, student athletes expressed shock and dismay. “I don’t think that’s even fathomable,” said football co-captain Jimmy Develin ’10. “Football is everything to me.” “It would be devastating to me,” said Jordan Pietrus ’10, tri-captain of the ice hockey team. Other student-athletes said that sports are an integral part of their experience at Brown. “I’d say that my experience with the equestrian team has been one of my favorite things about going here and definitely one of the things that will keep me feeling continued on page 7

Minority, first-gen apps increase By Talia Kagan S enior S taf f Writer

Minority students and first-generation college students applied to Brown in greater numbers this year than ever before, according to Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73, who attributed the rise to University ef for ts to recruit a more diverse applicant pool. “We made a ver y conscious decision to focus recr uitment almost exclusively in schools and populations with students of color and first-generation college students,” he said of high school visits made by admissions officers in the past year. continued on page 2

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

Minorities and first-generation students applied in record numbers.

Metro, 5

Sports, 7

Opinions, 11

Easy streets Streets connecting downtown to Jewelry District to be restored

athlete of the week Matt Mullery ’10 on secret Santa, graduating and the press

toyota and brown Ethan Tobias ’12 discusses what Toyota’s failures can teach Brown

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

herald@browndailyherald.com

Page 2

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Thursday, February 11, 2010

“There are clearly budgetary concerns.” — Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 news in brief

UCS elects new secretary and UFB representative

Phoebe Neel / Herald

Sophie Netanel ‘11.5, a transfer student, will be joined by 170 more transfers next year.

Transfer class increase will garner cash for U. continued from page 1 the student body as well.” Miller said the number of transfer students each year ranges from about 40 to 180, depending on the University’s var ying student population and ability to provide for additional students. “It’s not a progression one way or the other,” he said. The decision to increase the transfer class will not af fect the size of next year’s freshman class, which Miller anticipates will be about 1,485 students, a number consistent with previous years, he said. “We decided not to increase the number of freshmen,” Kertzer

said, because resources for freshmen are limited. For instance, University administrators want all freshmen to be able to par ticipate in firstyear seminars, Ker tzer said. A larger freshman class would also af fect introductor y classes that typically are filled with freshmen, he said. Overall, more freshmen “would risk having a negative impact on student experience for first-year students,” he said. Along with the decision to increase the size of the incoming transfer class is a plan to add 97 more beds by conver ting offices in Wayland Arch back into dorms or conver ting Saunders

sudoku

Inn at Brown in Vartan Gregorian Quad, Ker tzer said. When housing first-year students, the University prioritizes placing freshmen together, but Brown currently does not have the facilities to accommodate more first-years, according to Ker tzer. Unlike freshman admissions, transfer admissions are not needblind. This “need-aware” admissions process means that a student’s ability to pay is a factor in the University’s decision to accept an applicant, according to the Web site of the Of fice of Financial Aid. “We have a finite number of dollars that we can spend,” Miller said, adding that the University is hoping to increase the amount of funding available for financial aid for transfer students by about $400,000.

The Undergraduate Council of Students elected a new representative to the Undergraduate Finance Board and a new secretary at its general body meeting on Wednesday night. Mae Cadao ’13 ran unopposed to fill the secretary seat left open by Alyaa Alkhadhar ’13, who resigned at the beginning of the semester. “I’m responsible, I’m committed, and I take really good notes,” Cadao said in her brief speech to the council. UCS also elected Herald Sales Director Kelly Wess ’11 as the newest representative to the finance board. Wess defeated two other candidates — Cecilia Strombeck ’11 and Lisa Berlin ’12 — for the position. “I can bring a fresh new perspective to the UFB,” Wess said in her speech. “I can add some new ideas.” UFB Chair Jose Vasconez ’10 was in attendance at the meeting and delivered a brief statement to the candidates and general body before the contenders gave their speeches. “We need someone who will vote based on reason and logic, not based upon their biases,” he said. “We want to be fair in all of our decisions, so we need someone who really cares about making decisions.” UCS President Clay Wertheimer ’10 then moved the focus of the meeting to the upcoming UCS Midyear Report, which the council will tableslip Thursday. The report details UCS’s accomplishments throughout the first semester, the council’s overall goals and its goals for second semester. Among the accomplishments listed from first semester are the $46,000 increase in student activities funding, the continental breakfast offerings at the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall and the launch of the Matched Advising Program for Sophomores. The council’s goals for the second semester include continuing efforts to launch a new student services Web directory, plans to better the equipment and hours of satellite gyms and the creation of UCS office hours at the Sharpe Refectory every week. The Student Activities Committee, chaired by Brady Wyrtzen ’11, approved two student groups for Category I recognition: the Capital Good Fund development team, a nonprofit micro-lending organization started by Brown students that gives loans to small businesses, and the Brown Aerial Arts Society, which practices different types of aerial arts including static trapeze. — Max Godnick

U. focuses on minority applicant rates continued from page 1

Daily Herald the Brown

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 George Miller, President Claire Kiely, Vice President

Katie Koh, Treasurer Chaz Kelsh, 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 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

The University received about 48 percent more African-American applicants this year than last year and 42 percent more Latino applicants, in both early and regular decision rounds, Miller said. Applications from first-generation college students increased by about 40 percent, he said. Applications increased overall by about 20 percent, he said. The Admission Of fice and the Of fice of Institutional Diversity decided to tr y to improve recruitment of minority students in par t because they saw that black enrollment at Brown was low in comparison to its peer institutions. “It was an issue of focusing on not the students who were admitted,” but those who applied, said Valerie Wilson, associate provost and director of institutional diversity. “There’s no magic number that anybody’s looking for,” she said.

When visiting high schools, admissions of ficers stressed the availability of resources such as the Third World Center and University suppor t ser vices for first-generation college students, Miller said. Another point admissions officers emphasized was the availability of financial aid at Brown, due to recent University initiatives to increase aid and eliminate loan packages, he said. For example, the Alumni of Color Initiative, begun in April 2008 as par t of the Campaign for Academic Enrichment, “provides financial aid with a preference for students of color with financial need,” according to the Boldly Brown Web site. The University’s entrance into the QuestBridge consor tium, a national program that awards full scholarships to low-income, firstgeneration college students at top schools, also helped Brown gain visibility among those student populations, Miller said.

The decision to focus admissions of ficer visits to these schools meant that others had to be passed over. “There are a finite number of dollars we have to recruit, and a finite number of days and people,” Miller said. While admissions of ficers are still reading the more than 27,000 regular decision applications, the demographic shift in applicants can already be seen in the group of students admitted early decision this December. Compared to last year, 80 percent more black students and 37 percent more Latinos were admitted early, resulting in the most diverse group of admitted early decision students ever, The Herald repor ted in December. The Admission Of fice is currently working on A Day on College Hill and the Third World Welcome program to convince as many admitted students as possible to matriculate. “We need to spend a lot of time on that,” Miller said.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

“Brown’s mission is to give education to people.” — Karen Sibley, Dean of Continuing Education

Pfizer partnership offers workers Brown classes By Goda Thangada Senior Staf f Writer

Since 1993, some 100 Pfizer employees have earned degrees from Brown, and many more have taken a single course, through the University’s long-running partnership with the pharmaceutical giant. While it may seem odd that the makers of Viagra are taking classes at Brown, the partnership is about research, not business, administrators said. Through the special continuing education program, Pfizer employees can take courses towards a master’s degree in biology without setting foot in Providence.“The program is delivered to them,” said Karen Sibley, dean of summer and continuing education. Because Brown faculty members travel to two Pfizer labs in southeast Connecticut to teach courses, students — who pay almost $5,000 per course — can earn degrees without leaving their workplace. “It’s a wonderful model for the kind of education that Brown can and should do more of,” Sibley said. “Brown’s mission is to give education to people.” Nancy Thompson, associate dean for graduate and postdoctoral studies in the Division of Biology and Medicine, selects the courses offered each semester and personally approves the topics of the

culminating exercises required of master’s candidates. Two of eight courses must be in the areas of cell biology, biochemistry, genetics or pharmacology, with the remaining six courses coming from anywhere in Biology and Medicine. Typically, the University only offers two courses a year and enrolls about 30 students per semester. But due to increased faculty availability and a hiring boom at Pfizer, an average of 42 students enrolled in four different classes last year, according to Adjunct Assistant Professor in Neuroscience Jennifer Aizenman. The program starts when the employees enroll as continuing education students and then apply to enter the master’s program. Though students pay the tuition for the courses, Pfizer subsidizes the program if students receive a grade of “B” or better. A bachelor’s in any major qualifies students to enroll. Though Thompson said she is satisfied with how the program is running, she said administrators did not anticipate its longevity at the beginning. Pfizer approached members of Brown’s faculty in 1993 for a special lecture on pharmacology. After that point, “nobody stopped it,” she said. Thompson said she recalled the “vigorous discussion” about the program when it was first proposed.

Last Saturday at the Faculty Club, an intimate brunch attended by participating sophomores, seniors and faculty kicked off the Match Advising Program for Sophomores. The program has paired 40 selected sophomores with 40 seniors who share their interests and will provide them with advice and mentoring throughout the semester. Molly Jacobson ’10, the program’s coordinator, said she saw the need for a sophomore-oriented advising program while working as an outreach coordinator at the Curricular Resource Center. “Being a sophomore at Brown is being in a uniquely precarious position,” Jacobson said. “Your freshman faculty advisor might no longer fit you, you no longer have a Meikle-

john, many have not registered for a major to receive departmental support, yet you are still a legitimately anxious student at Brown.” Encouraged and supported by the CRC, Jacobson drafted a proposal that received support and funding from the Dean of the College’s office and enabled the MAPS program to start this semester. The program sent out applications to sophomores and seniors during winter break. According to Jacobson, the program received about 360 applications — roughly 230 sophomores and 130 seniors. Jacobson said this number not only demonstrated a high demand for advice in the sophomore class, but also a willingness to help from the seniors. “I decided to join the program because I remembered what it felt like to be a sophomore,” wrote Anjali

news in brief

She said the more traditional faculty asked, “How can it be a Brown course if it’s not on campus?” But with the advent of online courses, distance education is no longer an anomaly, Thompson said. “Back then, it did seem ver y, very strange,” she said. Mutual symbiosis Professor of Biology Peter Heywood has taught his course on cell biology at Pfizer every four years, most recently in the spring 2009 semester. In his most recent class, he had 49 students, up from 25 in 2005, he said. Heywood said he was impressed by how hard his students worked while holding down a full-time job and maintaining a family life. Though an advanced degree could lead to promotions at Pfizer and other job opportunities, the Brown courses are also a way for employees to learn more about the field they work in, Heywood said. “It’s career advancement in a very broad sense,” he said. “They gain key knowledge to apply in dayto-day work.” Courses offered at Pfizer are identical in content to Brown courses, but the format differs. The classes take place one day per week. With the distance between continued on page 4

Sophomore advising program in high demand By Zung Nguyen Vu Contributing Writer

Page 3

Rao ’10 in an e-mail to The Herald. “It was almost like being in academic no-man’s-land.” MAPS chose the 40 students in each of the two classes based on their range of needs, experiences and interests, Jacobson said. Last Saturday’s brunch, when seniors and sophomores had the chance to meet their match for the first time, was the culmination of the process. Besides maintaining a close and constructive relationship with their advisees, the seniors involved will also organize four panels during the semester on issues particularly relevant to the sophomore class. “I was worried that the program might just be an empty buzzword to throw out on a campus tour, but it actually seems like a really useful and much-needed addition to the advising system,” wrote Amit Jain ’12 in an e-mail to The Herald.

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

A new Samsung charging station in the back cave of the Ratty.

Samsung jolts campus with charging stations Students coming back to campus this semester may have been surprised to find brightly lit Samsung charging stations in the Sharpe Refectory, the Gate and the OlneyMargolies Athletic Center. Samsung approached Brown with the idea, and the University agreed to host the consoles for two years, said Richard Bova, senior associate dean of residential life and dining services. Brown is receiving about $4,500 a year for the deal, which is going toward student programming, Bova wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “All money that comes in because of the Samsung logo will be going to the student programs budget,” Bova said. “They were installed at no cost to us.” Samsung is already hosting similar stations in 27 other universities across the nation, according to Bova. “Dining Services was approached in the fall, and told that the Gate and the Ratty were selected as installation sites for these charging stations,” said Ann Hoffman, director of administration for Brown Dining Services. “We are pleased to be able to host the units.” Students, however, were not ecstatic about the stations. “I think that they are ugly,” Shannon Parker ’12 said. But she said she realized they might be helpful for others who may need them for their electronics. “I see people doing work in the Ratty all the time.” William Schweitzer ’12 agreed. “They are useful for people who like this environment to work,” he said. “But I think it’s kind of shameless promoting for Samsung — like a brand infiltrating the Ratty. I don’t like that.” — Fei Cai

Page 4

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Thursday, February 11, 2010

“The first priority is to students on campus.” — Peter Heywood, Professor of Biology

New office for grant support proposed

heads u p !

ter. If the center is approved later this month, it will relieve staffing pressure by joining administrators and staff from various departments in a centralized office. This consolidation would provide better resources and financial advice for grant support, Dunbar said. “There’s an effort to figure out how to make the current system more efficient,” she said, adding that the center would make the research support process “less error-prone” and lift some of the burden from individual departments. The center would most directly aid the humanities and social sciences, departments which the team found were most lacking in grantsupport expertise, Dunbar said. In addition, the center could solve staffing problems for the departments that have lost members who decided to accept the University’s voluntary retirement program, Dunbar said, adding that these departments could seek assistance from the center’s staff instead of relying on members within their academic fields. Since the Organizational Review Committee’s teams first assembled

Undergraduates gathered for an impromptu snow fight on the Main Green late Wednesday.

continued from page 1 a consolidated administrative center that would help strengthen support for research in all departments by providing more unified services and guidance. By improving the availability of staff resources, the center would ultimately help to relieve the University’s budget crunch by providing an increased source of revenue through supported grants, according to the report. The group also suggested increasing staff in the Office of Sponsored Projects, the arm of the University that helps faculty identify grant opportunities. The team was asked last fall by members of the review committee to find ways the current model of research support could be streamlined to make better use of the University’s administrative capacity, said Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who led the team along with Professor of Engineering Rod Beresford. Expanding on Brown’s already aggressive push to improve its research capacity, Dunbar said the group is proposing ways to strengthen research support through a new academic administrative service cen-

in September, the groups have been trying to find better ways to allocate the University’s available resources to alleviate existing financial pressures, said Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance Beppie Huidekoper. She added that the team’s goal was to identify ways to enhance efficiency without having to make cuts. Huidekoper said the team’s proposals — which also include increasing training and pay for existing administrators — will allow fewer staff to more effectively provide more services. “The focus was to improve operations as much as we could,” Huidekoper said. But she said the recommendations have not been fully embraced, especially the plan for the new administrative center. Some University officials feel research support should be implemented through department chairs and through the Dean of the Faculty, rather than through an administrative hub, she said. “The president’s response was to pursue (the center) carefully and slowly,” Huidekoper said. “This is a set of recommendations based on a highly consultative process.”

Brigitta Greene / Herald

Partnership connects Pfizer to U. continued from page 3 Pfizer’s Connecticut locations and Brown, regularly attending office hours is difficult for full-time employees. Heywood said he arrives at class early to take questions and that students otherwise can contact him through e-mail. Unlike on campus, there is no lab component to the courses, but Heywood said he compensates by “making the lecture and text rich in experimental detail.” Since most Pfizer employees have practical experience in a laborator y environment, Heywood said, they are at an advantage in learning the material because “they can see the relevance of what’s going on in the lectures.” Heywood described the program in terms of the biological concept of mutual symbiosis: Pfizer gains a more educated workforce, students gain knowledge and Brown faculty can interact with a different and more mature student body with clear career goals. Heywood said the benefit of teaching for the Pfizer program is that he gets to know and teach a different type of student. Because the pharmaceutical industry is an ap-

pealing prospect for many graduate students in biology, Heywood said it was useful for him to observe “how a large pharmaceutical company operates in the 21st century.” Heywood said his students at Pfizer approach research in a slightly different way than his other students. He said the difference between pharmaceutical research and research at Brown is that scientists “have different end goals in mind,” including a focus on marketable products. His Pfizer students “work very hard to conquer the material,” Heywood said. Stacey Boyer, who began taking classes in 2006, received her master’s through the Pfizer program in 2009. The courses gave her “the tools I needed to seek out new opportunities in the industry,” she said. Despite not being on the Brown campus, she said “I felt like a Brown student since the professors always incorporated the Brown influence into their teachings.” A Pfizer employee is “a different type of student, but not too different from Brown students,” Thompson said. Still, she said, in determining which faculty member and which course would be offered at Pfizer,

“the first priority is to students on campus,” she said. The University generates significant revenue from the program. But Thompson said the benefits also include the possibility of scholarly collaboration between the two institutions. The existence of the program has motivated some Pfizer employees to go beyond the master’s degree. Three students have already completed doctorates while another one will finish at the end of semester, but students have pursued those degrees on campus. Sibley, the dean of summer and continuing education, said the model could be replicated at other businesses. But she said the University would not pursue “a program that we aren’t made for.” The Pfizer program makes sense because biology is one of Brown’s strengths, she said. “The next evolution may be online courses,” Sibley said. “My hope would be a blended program with some delivery online and some time face-to-face.” Heywood said he may not be ready to teach the course online just yet. “I actually prefer the human contact,” he said.

Page 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

M etro

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Today on BlogDailyHerald: Talk of the Brown, 10 awful dates, Penn’s snow day

Restored streets to connect Jewelry District to downtown

By Brigitta Greene Metro Editor

As final demolition begins on the old Interstate 195, design plans for city streets are nearing completion. The old highway will be completely removed by 2011, at which point streets formerly connecting the Jewelry District to downtown will be restored, said Lambri Zerva, design project manager for the Iway relocation project at the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. Restored roads will include Chestnut, Richmond, Ship and Eddy streets, according to Department of Transportation planning documents. The plans are meant to emphasize a sense of continuity between “the old and the new,” Zerva said. The old I-195 arched just north of Providence’s Jewelry District, creating a physical barrier between the district and downtown. City, state and University officials have expressed hope that removal of the highway — combined with the growth of Brown’s Medical School facilities — will inspire renewed economic development in the Jewelry District. “The streets are going to provide the infrastructure for those developments to happen,” Zerva said. But roadwork will not include infrastructure, such as in-road tracks,

Courtesy of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation

Streets fragmented by construction of the old Interstate 195 will once again be restored to their full length, renewing key connections to downtown.

for Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority’s proposed streetcar system, which Zerva said remains in “very conceptual” stages. The narrow span of both Rich-

mond and Ship streets — the future home of the Alpert Medical School — would be restrictive to the installation of streetcar lines, he said. But he added that the planned

width of Eddy Street, a “major northsouth artery” through the district, allows for potential streetcars in the future. The former I-195 bridge across

www.blogdailyherald.com

the Providence River will be replaced by a pedestrian and bike bridge, Zerva said. Construction on the new bridge will begin “sometime after 2011,” he said.

Page 6

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

M etro

Thursday, February 11, 2010

“Rhode Islanders know him, they like him.” — Professor of Political Science Wendy Schiller, on Lincoln Chafee ’75

metro in brief

Same-sex marriage a hot issue in the race for governor Three gubernatorial candidates — former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75, Attorney General Patrick Lynch ’87 and General Treasurer Frank Caprio — planned to declare their support of a same-sex marriage bill at the Marriage Equality Rhode Island rally set for Wednesday at the State House until it was postponed until March 3 due to poor weather conditions. Current Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65, meanwhile, has vowed to veto any such bill. But a bill providing for same-sex marriage has never passed through either the House or Senate Judiciary Committees for a vote in the past 13 years, according to an article in Edge Boston. Chafee plans to run as an independent, while Lynch and Caprio will compete in the Democratic primary. Margie O’Brien, a spokeswoman for Caprio’s campaign, said the candidate’s declaration would not affect his electability. “This is something that has been very public for a while. People who support him would also support that decision,” she said. According to Marriage Equality Rhode Island’s Web site, 49 percent of Rhode Island voters favored marriage rights for same-sex couples in a 2008 telephone poll, up four points from 2006. — Rebecca Ballhaus

A diamond to you for reading. www.DiamondsAndCoal.com

Chafee leads in polls, lags in fundraising continued from page 1 with $396,482.74. His total cash is $441,717.38 and his total liabilities amount to $310,000 as of the end of the fourth quarter, according to the finance report. These numbers fall short of those reported by his two Democratic rivals, Attorney General Patrick Lynch ’87 and General Treasurer Frank Caprio, who are competing for their party’s nomination. Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 is prevented by term limits from running again. L ynch reported a balance of about $620,000, with total cash of about $777,000. Caprio reported an even more impressive haul, ending the fourth quarter with a balance of over $1,540,000, with total cash coming to about $1,707,300, according to his report. Chafee also lags both Democrats in contributions from individuals, raising only $39,546 from individual donors, as opposed to Lynch’s $208,874 and Caprio’s $179,825, according to campaign finance reports. Republican candidate John Robitaille, currently Carcieri’s communications director, joined the race in January, and does not need to file his first campaign finance report until April 30. Chafee attributed his low fundraising numbers to the fact that he has been out of office and thus not raising money for a number of years, while both Democrats are current elected officials and have been raising money continuously for years. “I could argue back that (my opponents) have been campaigning for the last three years, while I’ve been at the Watson Institute,” Chafee said, acknowledging that Lynch and Caprio have a “head start” in

terms of fundraising. To underscore his point, Chafee said that he has only hired a professional fundraiser in the last few days. He also said that because he has been out of office and is no longer affiliated with a party, Rhode Islanders might need more time to get reacquainted with him. He said he feels confident that once they do, his fundraising will pick up. “We haven’t had an independent governor in Rhode Island,” Chafee said, “and people want to watch a little bit longer in circumstances such as these.” Although Chafee trails his opponents in fundraising, his poll numbers should give his campaign optimism. A new poll by WPRI-TV shows him leading the race no matter which Democrat wins the nomination. Against Lynch, Chafee has the support of 34 percent of registered voters, Lynch has 23 percent, with Robitaille taking 18 percent and 22 percent undecided. Chafee said that as he continues to perform favorably in the polls, his fundraising numbers will increase, as voters gain confidence that he can win as an independent. Against Caprio, the poll shows a much closer race. Chafee leads by only 1 percent, 31 percent to 30 percent, a statistically insignificant difference. Robitaille comes in third with 13 percent, while 23 percent remain undecided. These results are similar to those of an internal poll released last November by the Chafee campaign, which showed the independent candidate beating Lynch by 13 percent and Caprio by 2 percent. With voter backlash against the Democratic Party and candidates of all stripes looking likely in 2010, Chafee believes he is well-poised

to benefit from the current political environment. “I think the recent elections in Virginia and New Jersey and Massachusetts have shown that (independent voters) rule,” Chafee said. “Independents are very influential. I can make the case very clearly that I am one of them — my record reflects it.” Chafee’s relatively low fundraising figures should not be seen as a sign that he is unpopular or that his campaign is flagging, said Wendy Schiller, professor of political science. It was widely assumed that he would in part self-finance his bid, she said, as he has never been an enthusiastic fundraiser. Schiller also said that fundraising is not a crucial priority for Chafee, as he already possesses widespread name recognition and a deep reserve of goodwill among Rhode Islanders — two main aims of campaign spending. Exit polls taken during the 2006 Senate election showed Chafee’s approval rating at 63 percent, even as he lost to Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse 46 percent to 54 percent. In addition, Chafee’s decision to campaign without party support complicates his fundraising efforts, Schiller said, as office-seekers typically rely on the institutional support of political parties to raise money. Schiller said she also believes that Chafee would have been better off by running as a Republican. Rhode Island voters have in recent years elected Republican governors, she said, such as Carcieri and Lincoln Almond, who served from 1995 to 2003, to counterbalance the Democrat-dominated General Assembly. Caprio’s superior performance to Lynch in match-ups against Chafee is a reflection of voter anxiety about the economy, Schiller said. His stewardship of the state’s finances as general treasurer is an advantage, she said, with many voters approving of his performance. In contrast, voters are less concerned with the law and order issues that are dealt with by the attorney general. “People are worried about the economy, not crime,” she said. Schiller identifies Chafee’s main challenge now as showing what he would do about the budget and unemployment. “Rhode Islanders know him, they like him,” she said. “Now he has to show what he would do as governor.” Although voters nationwide are growing wary of Democratic governance, and despite the rise of the right-wing tea-party movement, Schiller says such developments are unlikely to play a significant role in the gubernatorial race. Because Rhode Island is such a small state, she said, and because voters have more opportunities than in larger states to meet the candidates personally, they are very aware of who the candidates are. “Rhode Islanders have a localized view of elections,” she said. “They are not swayed by national trends. They use their own personal judgment.”

SportsThursday The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, February 11, 2010 | Page 7

s p o rt s i n b r i e f

Third alum in three years makes it to Super Bowl For the third straight season, a former Brown football player suited up for the Super Bowl. Colin Cloherty ’09 made the Super Bowl roster as the fourth-string tight end for the Colts. Last season, Sean Morey ’99 played in the big game for the Cardinals as a wide-receiver and special teams player. And Zak DeOssie ’07 won a Super Bowl ring as a long-snapper with the Giants the year before. Both DeOssie and Morey also played for the 2009 NFC Pro Bowl team. Men’s lacrosse ranked No. 16 in preseason national poll The men’s lacrosse team is one of five Ivy League teams ranked in the top 20 by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association. No. 6 Cornell took the highest spot of the Ivies. In addition to the four Ivies, Brown will face three other ranked teams this season: No. 2 Duke, No. 10 Hofstra and No. 17 UMass. Syracuse earned the top spot. Top two Ivy League basketball teams tip off this weekend Princeton (13-5, 4-0 Ivy) will host No. 22 Cornell (20-3, 6-0 Ivy) on Saturday night in a matchup of the only Ivy League teams yet to lose a conference game. The Big Red defeated Brown, (7-16, 1-5 Ivy) 74-60, last in weekend in Cornell’s closest league game yet. Still, the No. 22 team in the nation has won its six Ivy League games by an average of 25 points. Yale men’s hockey takes down Harvard, shares lead in ECAC standings Harvard (6-14-3, 6-7-3 ECAC Hockey) defeated Brown (7-13-3, 5-8-3 ECAC) in Meehan Auditorium on Friday, but the Crimson fell, 6-3, to their archrival, No. 7 Yale, the next night. Also on Saturday, Princeton upset No. 6 Cornell, 5-3, opening the way for a three-team tie for first in the ECAC standings between Cornell, Yale, and No. 16 Union. Men’s hockey’s Fratkin ’11 gets banged up Jesse Fratkin ’11 spilled a puddle of blood on the ice Friday night after taking a hit from behind by Harvard’s Danny Biega in the second period. Biega was given a five-minute major penalty and kicked out of the game for the hit. It took 46 stitches to close the cut on Fratkin’s face, which was still bleeding 24 hours later, but Fratkin said he will be able to play this weekend. — Dan Alexander

Squash falls to Yale but emerges victorious against MIT and Tufts The No. 13 men’s and No. 10 women’s squash teams both opened the week by hosting Yale’s No. 2 men’s and No. 5 women’s teams. In the women’s matches, the Bulldogs beat the Bears, 8-1. Sophie Scherl ’11 had the Bears’ lone victory, after her opponent was forced to withdraw due to an injury. Sarah Roberts ’10, Sarah Beresford ’13 and Laura Pyne ’10 each took one game from their opponents but eventually lost their best-of-five-game matches. The men’s team also fell to Yale, 6-3. Tucker Bryan ’12, Alex Heitzmann ’10 and Chris Holter ’13 all had big individual wins. On Tuesday, the Bears traveled to Boston, and the men took on MIT while the women faced No. 19 Tufts. Both squads returned home triumphant with 9-0 victories. The next home match for the Bears is Saturday when the men take on No. 9 Dartmouth and the women play No. 6 Dartmouth. — Jesse Frank

Mullery ’10 passes 1,000-point mark

By Dan Alexander Sports Editor

Matt Mullery ’10 became just the 23rd player in Brown histor y to score 1,000 career points, hitting the milestone in the men’s basketball team’s game against No. 22 Cornell last weekend. The Bears were ahead in the second half against the Big Red, but Cornell ultimately won, 74-60. Mullery led all scorers with 21 points. The for ward leads Brown in points (15.3 per game), rebounds (6.0 per game), assists (3.0 per game), blocks (1.5 per game) and field goal percentage (55.3) on the season. Last weekend, he led the Bears in points and rebounds for both the Cornell and Columbia games. The Herald has named him Athlete of the Week. Herald: What was going through your head when you guys were ahead against Cornell last weekend? Mullery: I mean, they took the lead about five minutes into the second half, but it was really a close game throughout. It would have been great to pull it out, but they’re so deep that they just keep bringing guys in and out. They’ve got fresh legs, and I think that had a lot to do with it as the game went into the second half. But we were all — you know, you get a little excited inside at that point, when you’re beating a team that’s ranked, on the road. Did you realize during the game that you had scored your 1,000th point? I knew going into the game that I was close. It wasn’t until after the game that I knew exactly when I had gotten it … It was nice, for me personally. It’s really a — you know, it’s an honor — to be along with other names in the program’s history who have done it also. I’m sure you’ve seen Cornell on SportsCenter and ESPN. What’s it like to be an Ivy League player and see the conference getting that kind of press? Any time that you can get that kind of press, I mean obviously it’s great for them, but it’s also great for the league. It gets the league — not just the team — but the conference and the league in the minds of a lot

Herald file photo

Last weekend Matt Mullery ’10 hit a milestone in his Brown career.

of people. The Ivy League is the only Division I conference without a postseason tournament. What are your thoughts on an Ivy League tournament? I don’t know how soon it will happen or if it will happen, but I think it should happen. When you have eight teams, the reality of it is that after five games, you have a couple of teams that are kind of out of it already. I think the league would be more competitive down the stretch if there were one because there are teams that are basically eliminated from any chance of having a postseason. You guys are 1-5 in the league and obviously not where you want to be in the standings. Do you feel like you’re one of those teams this year? You could do the math and realize that we’re a far cry from first place right now. But we still have some stuff to play for. We want to beat some teams in the top half of the league and finish well. I’m not going to be here next year, but to sort of set the precedent for what Brown basketball is going to be and how they’re going to compete next year. From a competitive standpoint, nobody — especially me, in my last year — wants to go out losing games

left and right. I want to beat some teams in the top half of the league. What was the funniest moment for the team this season? I would say secret Santa was definitely one of the highlights this year. What happened? Oh, I don’t want to get into too much detail. The gifts are not traditional gifts, they’re gag gifts … We have a guy who can’t really focus too well — he kind of zones out a lot. You’ll be talking to him, and he’ll be on the BlackBerry instead of listening, and then he’ll be like ‘Oh, what?’ So someone got him a ginkgo biloba or something — it’s like a memory, mental sharpening pill — a remedy for people who can’t focus. What do you want to do after you graduate? Right after I graduate, I want to give playing a shot. I’m hoping to go overseas for at least a year and try it out and see where it goes. But if that doesn’t work out, I’m not sure. I have a degree in history, so I might want to go to law school, I might want to start working somewhere — I’m not really sure. I think I’m not going to know what exactly I want to do for a living unless I actually start working.

Proposed sports cuts elicit protests continued from page 1 tied to the University in the years to come,” wrote Elizabeth Giliberti ’10 in an e-mail to The Herald. Another rider, Marissa Fuerst ’12, wrote, “This sport is unique and interesting. Our team has overwhelming alumni support, and we work just as hard as many other Brown athletes.” Pietrus said that — if his sport were cut and he were an underclassman — he would “strongly, strongly consider transferring to other schools.” Giliberti wrote that eliminating a

team could affect admissions. A “large percentage of the student body is in some way involved with Brown athletics and perhaps a great percentage of those people based their decision about where to apply … based on the expectation of being part of that program at Brown,” Giliberti wrote. The Organizational Review Committee report, with its savings goals and recommendations, was discussed Tuesday at the Brown University Community Council meeting, a forum for students, faculty and other members of the University community. Athletics were

not mentioned until the questionand-answer session near the end of the meeting. At the council meeting, Klawunn — weighing the athletic program’s needs and the ability of the University to financially support the program — recommended a fee for athletes which would prevent the University from having to make “deeper cuts.” Simmons said at the meeting that discussions for the athletics program will continue to next year. — With additional reporting by Alex Bell

World & Nation The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, February 11, 2010 | Page 8

In tough times, college students turn to food pantries expenses, she said. At Wayne State University of Detroit, there are no food banks specifically for students. But there are safety nets and food programs throughout the city, of fered by nonprofits and church groups, said Kami Pothukuchi, a Wayne State associate professor of urban planning.

By Patricia Montemurri D etroit F ree P ress

DETROIT — Michigan State University student Nichole Wickens never imagined standing in line to get staples from a food pantr y. But that’s what the 21-yearold is doing this night at MSU’s Olin Health Center, where the student-run food bank has seen a 25 percent jump in need from the 2007-08 school year. In three bags, Wickens carries away boxes of instant mashed potatoes and dried pasta, a loaf of baker y bread, applesauce and a box of shredded wheat cereal. At retail, it’s only worth about $20 — but it makes a big dif ference to Wickens. “My student account was in stocks, and stocks were hit hard,” Wickens said. “And I’m the oldest of five.” She has a par t-time job on campus as a night receptionist, and gets some financial aid for tuition. “But I’m paying for a car, phone, computer, rent and ever ything else,” she said, “so coming here really helps. It’s a resource to students.” College campuses aren’t places where you expect to find a food bank. But students are turning to college-sponsored food banks for help because of ever-increasing tuition costs, the loss of financial aid programs like state scholarships and financial suppor t from home being cut-off or diminished because parents have lost jobs. “This perception that students, because they’re going to college, have money isn’t accurate and never was,” said Dennis Mar tell,

Kimberly P. Mitchell / Detroit Free Press

Nichole Wickens, 21, of Walled Lake, picks out food while waiting for her groceries from a food bank in the Olin Health Center cafeteria on the Michigan State University campus, Jan. 13. The food pantry is run by students for students.

the MSU health education services coordinator and the food bank’s faculty adviser. ‘Eat or pay bills’ Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., opened a food pantr y last April, following a suggestion from student Susana Villagomez-Barajas. “One of the girls I worked with ... told me she never had food — that it was either eat or pay bills,” said Villagomez-Barajas, 20, of Grand Rapids, Mich., who is majoring in clinical lab science. “I

heard my friends talking about the same thing and students in my classes, so I came up with that idea.” Villagomez-Barajas talked to the director of GVSU’s Women’s Center, who put together a task force of school counselors and financial aid of ficials, who confirmed that a food pantr y would be beneficial to students. The GVSU food pantr y has helped more than 200 students since it opened, said Rachael DeWitt, who runs the food bank while pursuing a master’s degree in social work and public administration. “Students feel the br unt of tough economic times,” said DeWitt. “Their parents were able to suppor t them before, but now their parents have lost their jobs.” The GVSU pantr y is supported by cash donations and food that’s donated. DeWitt posts items she needs on an electronic bulletin board. “If I say we’re in need of toiletries and peanut butter, people respond to that,” she said. Emergency funds available While other large Michigan schools don’t operate food banks, many are reporting a surge in students asking for more financial aid. The University of Michigan

has experienced an increase in students showing demonstrated financial need, said school spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham. “We occasionally see a student who is in need of emergency funding. In those cases, we provide an emergency grant to cover immediate needs like food, money to move into an apartment, purchase medication, etc.,” Cunningham said. “If the student comes for ward, we can help them. We always reser ve funds for emergencies, and we can disburse emergency funds as quickly as the same day the student asks for help,” Cunningham said. “Students can apply online and receive up to $500 the next morning.” In Marquette, Mich., Salvation Army director of operations Walter Sleeter said about 100 students a month from Northern Michigan University pick up donated boxes of food, and four or five come to a weekday free lunch program. On Saturday, its Salvation Army Thrift Store offers a 20 percent discount to college students. Diane Anderson, Wester n Michigan University’s vice president for student affairs, said WMU explored the notion of opening a food bank, but decided that it duplicated resources that already exist in the Kalamazoo area. The school of fers shor t-term emergency loans to help with living

Peanut butter, tomatoes, corn Earlier this month, 256 people lined up at MSU’s Olin Health Center, where the food bank operates biweekly, to haul away bags filled with peanut butter, canned tomatoes and cor n. Michigan State University students have run a program for needy students, fueled by cash and food donations, since 1993. On this pick up day at MSU, about 30 student volunteers packaged food, stocked shelves and ser ved customers, who range from undergrads to students pursuing graduate degrees while raising families. Many of those in line were international students. Kater yna Ananyeva, 28, from Kiev, Ukraine, is a doctoral student in crop and soil sciences. She picked up a box of Cocoa Pebbles cereal, a favorite of her 1-year-old son, Mark. Her husband, Dmytro, also is a graduate student. “If you’re totally alone, or if you have a child or dependents, it’s really tight,” Ananyeva said. Lauren Jones, 21, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, is a senior studying communications and hospitality. She has a par t-time job on campus and said the food bank “helps you get from one paycheck to the next.” Her father, who works in a business clearing land for construction, has seen his hours cut, and “you don’t want to ask them for money.” Director Kristin Moretto said the MSU food bank’s budget is about $40,000. The food bank purchases items in bulk from the Mid-Michigan Food Bank, which is operated by the American Red Cross. Retailers sometimes donate perishable items, such as milk or baked goods. “This is a grass-roots studentrun organization,” Moretto said. “The food isn’t being taken away from anyone else who needs it.” Students need only prove that they’re enrolled at MSU and haven’t purchased a university food plan.

Does this bohter you? Come copy edit! herald@browndailyherald.com

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, February 11, 2010

W orld & N ation

Scientists uncover genetic link to stuttering By Thomas H. Maugh II Los Angeles T imes

LOS ANGELES — Government researchers have discovered the first genes linked to stuttering — a complex of three mutated genes that may be responsible for one in every 11 stuttering cases, especially in people of Asian descent. Studies of stuttering in both families and twins had long suggested that stuttering has a significant genetic component. But until now, scientists had not been able to identify specific genes that might cause the disorder. The finding is important, experts said, because it shows that stuttering, which affects as many as 1 percent of all adults worldwide, is biological in origin and not the result of poor parenting, emotional distress or other nebulous factors that many physicians have cited as causes. “We hear every day from parents worried that they have caused their child’s stuttering,” Jane Fraser, president of the Stutter-

ing Foundation said in a statement. “Parents don’t cause stuttering, and this research could lift the burden of guilt from their shoulders.” Surprisingly, the newly identified genes play a role in clearing metabolic wastes out of brain cells, and when a person has two mutated copies of them, they cause a lethal disease. Down the road, the research could help identify children who are likely to develop stuttering problems, allowing early initiation of treatments that can minimize or eliminate the problem. Even further in the future, it could lead to new treatments to overcome the biological underpinnings of the disorder. But those goals are still far in the future. “The task of connecting the dots between genes and stuttering is just beginning,” wrote geneticist Simon E. Fisher of Oxford University in an editorial accompanying the report in the New England Journal of Medicine. Stuttering is marked by the involuntary repetition or prolon-

gation of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, as well as frequent pauses, impeding the fluency of speech. An estimated 5 percent of children develop stuttering between the ages of 3 and 6, but most either grow out of it or are successfully treated. The problems can be exacerbated by stress and anxiety, but most researchers now believe that those are not the underlying causes. Researchers estimate that about 50 to 70 percent of stuttering is genetic in origin, so there must be many other genes that play a role. The lead author of the study, geneticist Dennis Drayna of the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, speculated that it might eventually be possible to screen at-risk children for the presence of the gene so that therapy can be initiated earlier. It may be possible also to develop therapies in which the affected enzymes are replaced with healthy ones that would clear out the cellular garbage.

Lawsuit claims student detained for Arabic cards By Raja Abdulrahim Los Angeles T imes

LOS ANGELES — A college student who says he was detained at a Philadelphia airport because he was carrying English-Arabic flashcards filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against employees of the Transportation Security Administration, the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Nicholas George, a senior majoring in physics and Middle Eastern studies at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., was returning to California from Philadelphia in August when he was randomly selected for extra screening at Philadelphia International Airport, according to the lawsuit. When George emptied his pockets, he took out the flashcards. Authorities detained him in the screening area for 30 minutes before he was questioned by a TSA

supervisor, the lawsuit states. At one point, the super visor asked George if he knew who committed the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to the lawsuit. “Do you know what language he spoke?” the supervisor asked, according to the document. “Arabic,” George answered. The supervisor then held up the flashcards and said, “Do you see why these cards are suspicious?” George said he was handcuffed and held for almost five hours, during which time FBI agents asked if George was “Islamic” or a member of a “communist group,” according to the complaint. “I don’t understand how locking me up and harassing me just because I was carrying the flashcards made anybody safer,” George said in statement released by the ACLU. TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said she could not comment on pending litigation.

Tech leaders reinvent themselves for a ‘cleantech’ revolution By Scott Duke Harris San Jose Mercur y News

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Brent Constantz’s last startup, Skeletal Kinetics, created a bone-fracture cement that costs $200 per gram and helps orthopedic surgeons heal their patients. His new startup aims to churn out billions of tons of market-price construction cement that Constantz says can help heal planet Earth by embedding billions of tons of greenhouse gases into concrete. And it will deliver desalinated water as a byproduct. Constantz is founder and CEO of Calera, a 3-year-old Los Gatosbased startup with a demonstration operation at a Moss Landing facility that once helped make incendiar y bombs during World War II. His move from the medical device field illustrates how Silicon Valley’s dynamic, risk-taking business culture has quickly turned a region best known for computer technology and life sciences into America’s top incubator of clean, green innovations. Reinvention is at the heart of cleantech, and several of the sec-

tor’s leading entrepreneurs have transformed themselves to pursue these massive new market opportunities. Elon Musk, the CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Motors and chairman of Solar City, first prospered as a young dot-com mogul whose credits include PayPal. Better Place, a buzz-making electric car ser vices startup in Palo Alto, was founded by Shai Agassi, who previously had been a rising executive at software giant SAP. Bloom Energy, an innovator in fuel cells, is led by K.R. Sridhar, formerly a University of Arizona professor who helped NASA explore the potential of life-sustaining technologies for Mars. Marc Porat had been a key player at Apple and an e-commerce entrepreneur before launching three green building materials startups — Serious Materials, Zeta Communities and CalStar Products. Kevin Surace, the CEO of Serious Materials, had previously led an e-commerce company. As Surace tells it, he did not have great expectations when he accepted Porat’s invitation in 2002 to build a business around a

polymer patent: “It started out as a hobby,” he said. Today, Serious Materials is producing energy-saving glass, window and dr ywall products at five manufacturing facilities in California, Colorado, Illinois and Pennsylvania. The company has raised more than $120 million in venture capital and won praise from the Obama administration for creating green jobs amid environmental and economic troubles. Several valley entrepreneurs see potential in reinventing “the built environment.” Conventional means of producing cement, bricks and dr ywall are energy-intensive and give off vast amounts of carbon dioxide, which scientists view as the chief accelerant of climate change. Surace and Porat cite a Department of Energy report that found the full life-cycle of buildings, roads and bridges — the production of materials, the construction and operation — accounts for 51 percent of the nation’s energy use. Constantz, who is also a consulting professor at Stanford, said it was at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment that he first became aware that the cement in-

dustr y produces 5 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emission, ranking it a third leading cause behind transportation and power plants. Constantz developed a radically different chemical process that eliminates carbon dioxide production. Then he placed a call to venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, whom he had known since the 1980s, when Khosla was among the founders of Sun Microsystems. Khosla, known for investing in experimental technologies aimed at big markets, quickly embraced the project and has provided an undisclosed amount of funding. Calera was founded in 2007 to bring Constantz’s brainstorm to market. While conventional cement production requires kilns that heat limestone to 1,400 degrees Celsius, Calera’s process recycles power plant emissions, scrubbing the carbon dioxide with alkaline water to create a raw material for cement. The result, Constantz says, is a “negative carbon” product because it both cleanses power plant emissions and eliminates carbon dioxide in cement production. At its demo operation beside

Dynegy’s natural gas-burning power plant at Moss Landing, Calera is fed by two old pipelines with seawater and a new pipeline from the power plant that redirects 10 percent of its flue gases. (The goal is to eventually use it all.) The chemical process, which Constantz says is akin to converting milk into powdered milk, produces cement powder. The byproduct of desalinated water is sold to the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency or returned to the ocean. Calera also has pilot projects in Australia, using underground brine water, and in Dubai, using seawater. In those locales, Constantz said, the water byproduct is a much-coveted bonus. Calera has inked a partnership with Bechtel, the San Francisco-based construction giant, to bring the technology to global market. Power plant operators facing pressure to curb carbon emissions may do so by getting into the cement business. Calera also spread the word by delivering a set of benches made from its green concrete to the plaza outside the recent Copenhagen climate summit. Viewed from above, the benches spell: HOPE.

Join The Herald’s business staff! Business info session TONIGHT at 8 p.m. at 195 Angell (between Thayer and Brook) herald@browndailyherald.com

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Thursday, February 11, 2010

l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r

One day at Brown not enough To the Editor: While I appreciate the sentiment of Yue Wang’s ’12 column (“For the sake of Hope,” Feb. 9), it nevertheless left me feeling uneasy. The implicit suggestion that all Hope High School students need to succeed is the inspiration provided by a day on Brown’s campus presents two problems. First, it belittles the drive and motivation to succeed embodied by many of Hope’s students despite significant odds, both statistical and otherwise. Second, it downplays the very challenges described by Wang that stand between most Hope High students and a Brown education. Students who enter high school with literacy and math scores well below grade level need sustained academic support if they are to graduate “college ready.”

They also need consistent, positive, mentorship — both academic and personal — to support their efforts and their desire to succeed. While a one-day visit to College Hill may leave both visitor and host feeling good about themselves, it can hardly be described as a sustainable or adequate intervention. To truly provide hope to underprivileged students at Hope High and other urban schools throughout Providence, I would strongly urge you to consider a longer-term commitment such as those offered through Brown’s Swearer Center or other local organizations. Even a few hours each week can have a marked impact on their life and yours. R ichard stein and paul tran

Michael Ewart ’11 Feb. 9

e d i to r i a l

Green is the new Brown

Letters, please! letters@browndailyherald.com

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

Managing Editor Chaz Kelsh

Deputy Managing Editors Sophia Li Emmy Liss

editorial Arts & Culture Editor Anne Speyer Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Editor Features Editor Brian Mastroianni Features Editor Hannah Moser Metro Editor Brigitta Greene Metro Editor Ben Schreckinger News Editor Sydney Ember News Editor Nicole Friedman Sports Editor Dan Alexander Asst. Sports Editor Andrew Braca Asst. Sports Editor Han Cui Graphics & Photos Graphics Editor Stephen Lichenstein Alex Yuly Graphics Editor Nick Sinnott-Armstrong Photo Editor Max Monn Asst. Photo Editor Jonathan Bateman Sports Photo Editor production Copy Desk Chief Kelly Mallahan Jordan Mainzer Asst. Copy Desk Chief Marlee Bruning Design Editor Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Julien Ouellet Asst. Design Editor Neal Poole Web Editor Post- magazine Editor-in-Chief Marshall Katheder

Senior Editors Ellen Cushing Seth Motel Joanna Wohlmuth

Business General Managers Office Manager Shawn Reilly Claire Kiely Katie Koh Directors Sales Kelly Wess Finance Matthew Burrows Client Relations Margaret Watson Alumni Relations Christiana Stephenson Managers Arjun Vaidya Marco deLeon Aditi Bhatia Jared Davis Trenten Nelson-Rivers Alexander Carrere Kathy Bui

Local Sales National Sales University Sales University Sales Recruiter Sales Special Projects Staff

Opinions Opinions Editor Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor Alyssa Ratledge Editorial Page Board Matt Aks Editorial Page Editor Debbie Lehmann Board member William Martin Board member Melissa Shube Board member Gaurie Tilak Board member Jonathan Topaz Board member

Gili Kliger, Designer Anne Artley, Nicole Boucher, Sara Luxenberg, Lindor Qunai, Copy Editors Max Godnick, Brigitta Greene, Brian Mastroianni, Kate Monks, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Alexander Bell, Alicia Chen, Max Godnick, Talia Kagan, Sarah Mancone, Heeyoung Min, Kate Monks, Claire Peracchio, Jenna Steckel, Goda Thangada, Caitlin Trujillo Staff Writers Shara Azad, Nicole Boucher, Kristina Fazzalaro, Anish Gonchigar, Sarah Julian, Matthew Klebanoff, Anita Mathews, Kevin Pratt, Luisa Robledo, Emily Rosen, Anne Simons, Sara Sunshine, Dana Teppert, Connie Zheng Senior Sales Staff Katie Galvin, Liana Nisimova, Isha Gulati, Alex Neff, Michael Ejike, Samantha Wong Design Staff Caleigh Forbes, Jessica Kirschner, Gili Kliger, Leor Shtull-Leber, Katie Wilson Web Staff Andrew Chen, Warren Jin, Claire Kwong, Phil Park, Ethan Richman Photo Staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Anne Artley, Nicole Boucher, Sarah Forman, Claire Gianotti, Christine Joyce, Sara Luxenberg, Alexandra Macfarlane, Joe Milner, Lindor Qunaj, Carmen Shulman

It’s been an exciting year for Brown in the sustainability department. In October, the Herald reported that the University lowered its energy-related carbon emissions by 18 percent since 2007, greatly exceeding its initial goal of a 4-percent-per-year reduction. Last month, President Simmons took Brown’s efforts a step further, signing the Sustainable Campus Charter and committing the University not only to environmentally conscious construction and development, but also to sustainability-focused research and education. Administrative divisions across the University have implemented a host of initiatives aimed at reducing their carbon footprints. Facilities Management has undertaken lighting projects and has switched the central heating plant from number six fuel to cleaner natural gas. The Bursar’s Office announced that it will go paperless next month, issuing billing statements exclusively online, and starting next year, the Admission Office will read all applications in electronic form. Dining Services has been donating fry oil to a biodiesel producer and has been composting hundreds of thousands of pounds of food waste. In the past few weeks, the University has announced a task force on bottled water, as well as plans for an inter-dorm energy reduction competition. The University certainly deserves a pat on the back for taking the lead to turn Brown green. But an institution can only do so much without the participation of its students. Now that the University has stepped up to the plate, it’s time for students to do their part. We talked with Chris Powell, director of sustainable energy and environmental initiatives and the chairperson of the Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee, about what students can do to contribute to a sustainable campus. Here are some of his suggestions: — Report overheated rooms. Powell estimates that heating and ventilation account for about 75 percent

of Brown’s total energy consumption. Instead of cracking the window open to cool down your dorm, call the Facilities Management Service Response Center at 863-7800. — If you’re a science student, practice good lab etiquette. Labs consume more energy than any other buildings on campus. In fact, each fume hood uses more energy than three average homes and produces 60 to 80 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Closing the sash when a fume hood is not in use can decrease energy use by 60 percent. — Ditch the tray in the dining halls. It takes half a gallon of water to wash each tray, not to mention the energy associated with heating that water and the chemicals used to clean the tray. After the V-Dub went trayless in 2008, Dining Services saved 4,800 gallons of water per week. Trayless diners also produce less food waste than their tray-toting counterparts — up to 30 percent less, according to the Yale Daily News on Jan. 26. — Invest in a reusable container. Little Jo’s sells reusable water bottles for $7, and you can buy travel mugs for only $2 at a number of dining locations. In addition to keeping plastic out of landfills and oceans, you’ll receive a discount on your morning coffee. — Recycle your paper, cardboard, bottles and cans. The University increased its recycling rate from 33 to 38 percent last year, and this year the goal is 40 percent. This is a classic case of a University sustainability initiative that cannot succeed without student participation. Turning Brown into a sustainable campus will require action at all levels. The University is already tackling the more technical issues like campus-wide lighting and heating. It’s up to us to make an effort with the small things.

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

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

Thursday, February 11, 2010 | Page 11

What Toyota can teach Brown ETHAN TOBIAS Opinions Columnist Things are not looking too good for Toyota. After having worked relentlessly on building up its image as the safest and most reliable car company, edging out General Motors for the top spot in car sales in 2007, the company’s foundations seem to be crumbling at every turn. Toyota received complaints from European customers in late 2008 about sticky accelerator pads, but was slow to correct the problem. Only last month, over a year later, did Toyota finally recall the vehicles — a whopping 2.3 million cars in the United States and over 9 million worldwide. And, this episode seems to be only the beginning. Most recently, Toyota is being investigated for problems with the brakes on its latest model of the Prius hybrid. The stunning problems facing Toyota should be a stark warning to others. While Toyota had previously spent decades creating the image of reliability, the veil over the simmering issues beneath has finally been exposed. Most detrimentally, Toyota’s slow response to this crisis and its lax handling of a defect present in its most popular models threaten to ruin the company. What can the troubles facing Toyota teach Brown? Like Toyota, Brown has been steadily improving its image over the last several years. The Plan for Academic Enrichment, the renovations and the building of new facilities have all

been a significant part of the effort to improve the quality of a Brown education. The results of Brown’s determined push for academic enrichment are all around us. Early decision applications were up 21 percent, and the number of total applicants has gone up by 46 percent over the past two years. At the same time, steady and observable progress continues to be made on the construction of the new Creative Arts Center and the renovations of Faunce House.

student staying in Andrews would think upon visiting Brown and realizing that the only latenight eatery is on the complete opposite side of campus. Any visitor who wonders aloud about going for an occasional swim is going to be sorely disappointed. To make matters worse, President Ruth Simmons has recently announced budget cuts in order to close a gap in the University’s budget for fiscal year 2011. While President Simmons has asserted that these budget cuts

Brown must insist on doing everything in its power to maintain the high caliber of its education. Toyota has already demonstrated what can happen to a company when it starts to skimp on the little things. However, there have been setbacks looming just underneath the surface. The cancellation of the proposed Mind, Brain and Behavior Building and the collapse of the roof of the swimming pool were symptomatic of these issues. Most recently, a burst pipe in Alumnae Hall has indefinitely put the Gate out of commission, and left students on Pembroke campus in deep dismay over how to spend meal credits, especially late at night and on weekends. While these small problems will not make or break Brown’s reputation, they should be dealt with swiftly. Imagine what a prospective

will not come at the expense of the plan for academic enrichment, there are several proposals that suggest otherwise. The Organizational Review Committee, which was charged with finding savings and cost reductions, has released a report with many proposals, most of which will likely be endorsed by President Simmons and approved by the Corporation. Some of the more egregious proposals include ending lunch at the Gate (which is obviously not an issue right now due to the great infrastructure already present), eliminating the current subscriptions to the New

York Times and the Providence Journal (or charging Undergraduate Council of Students to keep it available) and ending inpatient care at Health Services. Additionally, President Simmons has gone as far as to state that layoffs are coming soon. While these may not seem like a huge deal, they must not be ignored. Brown has earned its reputation as one of the premier institutions of higher education by constantly improving on its offerings. Even little things, like reading the paper in the morning or having the choice of a panini for lunch, can have a big impact on the experience of a prospective student. Brown must insist on doing everything in its power to maintain the high caliber of its education. Toyota has already demonstrated what can happen to a company when it starts to skimp on the little things. Once known for its dependability, Toyota now finds itself trying to put back together the shards of its reputation. The long and torturous process of assuaging the newfound doubts and fears of consumers is going to be a lot tougher and costlier than just fixing sticky brakes. President Simmons better take a long look at Toyota and make sure that Brown does not start to lower the quality of its product. If Brown sacrifices its reputation in order to make a few budget cuts, fixing it will not be so simple.

Ethan Tobias ’12 cannot wait until The Herald is the only daily publication in the dining halls and everyone will have to read his columns. He can be reached at Ethan_Tobias@brown.edu

Entitled naivete remains on College Hill TYLER ROSENBAUM Opinions Columnist Over the course of my last five semesters at Brown, I have found that it falls far short of the hype that its ultra-liberal reputation and conservative detractors led me to expect. Though the general apathy that pervades much of the student body is certainly nothing to cheer about in itself, I certainly believe that the disappearance of activism for the sake of activism has been a positive development. I’m sure many of you, then, will understand and share the dismay I felt upon reading Simon Liebling’s ’12 column last week demonizing the Providence Police Department, and police officers generally (“Police brutality comes to College Hill,” Feb. 5). Last October, in the course of apprehending a suspect, Luis Mendonca, the Providence Police were caught on a surveillance camera treating Mendonca roughly. I saw the tape myself — it’s not pretty. But neither is it clear cut. Whether Mendonca was innocent or a felon, his treatment appears to be unacceptable. But there is no context, and Liebling’s straightforward and vivid portrayal of Mendonca’s victimization as if he were present at the time of the incident is unwarranted. Rather, Liebling takes this incident — one officer (Police Detective Robert DeCarlo) apparently kicking a man and punching him several times — and blows it up into a bitter

diatribe against “cops.” Reading his column, one gets the impression that the police are some sort of unwelcome invaders, preying relentlessly on a helpless community. In order to further this offensive and outrageous narrative, Liebling attempts to gloss over the shortcomings of DeCarlo’s target. For example, he mentions Mendonca’s conviction for assault in a context that insinuates the conviction was an unfair result of the altercation with DeCarlo, instead of punishment for assaulting two RISD officers after attempting

Of course, the column also neglects to mention that the Attorney General of Rhode Island is also conducting an investigation (2). But that would spoil the narrative that police always get away scot-free in their relentless crusade to brutalize “innocent” felons who are merely seeking to escape from the scene of their crime. Amazingly, however, Liebling does not stop there. Later in the column, he laments that “police are often the perpetrators” of violence. Take a minute to let that statement and all of

People don’t sign up to be police officers if they’re interested in secretly attacking people. Such people join gangs — you know, the guys police shut down. to break into a RISD dorm at night. Liebling also takes issue with Mendonca’s imminent deportation, highlighting his status as a legal immigrant. But for non-citizens, residency in the United States is a privilege, not a right. This privilege is (and should be) revoked upon conviction of a violent felony such as assault. Liebling’s column also implies that the incident will go without a fair investigation by the Providence Police Department — after all, not everyone can be as just and fair a judge as Liebling.

its implications soak in. The men and women who risk their lives every day to enforce our laws and defend us all from murder, rape, theft and other violent crimes are “often” perpetrators as well. And finally, as if to prove that the column could indeed be more offensive and libelous, Liebling ends with the conclusion that “the Providence Police Department has shown that its officers can beat defenseless citizens with impunity,” and therefore “more cops means more situations like this one.” I am not related to anyone who works in

law enforcement, and I am not a knee-jerk law-and-order, throw-’em-all-in-jail conservative. I’m simply a law-abiding American. And it is on that simple level that Liebling’s article offended me. People don’t sign up to be police officers if they’re interested in secretly attacking people. Such people join gangs — you know, the guys police shut down. Neither are officers abusive, paternalistic overlords. Their only duty and concern is to keep the peace and apprehend lawbreakers. But like everyone else, the police are human. Sometimes in the course of events, an individual can make poor decisions or abuse his authority. This should be investigated and punished, as the DeCarlo incident will be. But suggesting, as Liebling does, that officers are just as bad as violent criminals and should be kept out of our community, simply because one man might have overstepped the bounds of propriety in the heat of a chase, is akin to saying that Dr. Kevorkian proves that all doctors are deliberate murderers. Being from a somewhat conservative town, I appreciate Brown’s liberal atmosphere as much as anyone. I certainly contribute to it on this page. But the entitled, naive and petulant disrespect that Liebling’s column demonstrates brings Brown into disrepute.

Tyler Rosenbaum ’11 is reluctant to leave his room for fear of being assaulted by the police.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

5

Providence ’hoods to reconnect

Brown squashes MIT, Tufts

7

1 c a l e n da r

Today, February 11

tomorrow, February 12

6:00 P.M. — Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Info Session, Brown Faculty Club

12:00 P.M. — Lecture by Orin Starn, Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum

7:00 P.M. — 1st Annual Environmental Activities Fair, Salomon Lower Lobby

comics Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

7:30 P.M. — Dancing with the Profs, Alumnae Hall

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Hawaiian Pizza, Hot Turkey Sandwich with Sauce, Chicken Salad, Cajun Potatoes

Lunch — Ginger Chicken and Pasta, S’mores Bars, Asian Vegetable Blend

Dinner — Pasta Primavera, Hamburgers, Cheese Pizza, Rice Pilaf, Spinach and Feta Pizza

Dinner — Cherry Kuchen Cake, Roasted Honey and Chili Chicken, Anadama Bread

to m o r r o w

37 / 21

36 / 18

Thursday, February 11, 2010

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

2

to day

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

crossword Excelsior | Kevin Grubb

Fruitopia | Andy Kim

Hippomaniac | Mat Becker

Page 12