Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 29 | Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Snoop, MGMT to headline Spring Weekend

By Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Editor

After much anticipation, the Brown Concert Agency announced that smooth-spitting rapper Snoop Dogg and the kaleidoscopically electric MGMT will headline this year’s Spring Weekend concerts, which will also feature Major Lazer, the Black Keys and Wale and will take place over the weekend of April 23–25.

This year, which marks the 50th anniversary of the Spring Weekend concerts, BCA aimed to “combine the new as well as the old,” said James Hinton ’10, the group’s booking chair.

The chosen acts are “imbued with a certain appeal to GenY,” according to BCA’s press release.

Hinton said BCA’s goal for the milestone occasion shifted from emulating notable past concerts to finding modern icons and up-andcontinued on page 2

By Julia Kim Staff Writer

League school after Har vard to have an engineering school.

Brown’s proposal involves faculty hires, research investment and construction totaling $100 million.

Much of Tuesday’s conversation centered on the substance of the changes and how these would affect other science departments.

Most faculty agreed that engineering needed some expansion

A data breach involving unauthorized access to paper records of Brown employees and their family members occurred in December, and Brown officials were notified of the breach Jan. 5, said David Sherry, chief information security officer.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island accidentally sent paper records of more than 500 Brown employees and their family members to another subscriber company and its agent, according to Sherry.

Within 24 hours, both the companies received the records and, upon recognizing the mistake, destroyed the records and notified Blue Cross Blue Shield, which subsequently notified Brown, he added.

There was no health or Social Security information in the sent report, Sherry said. It only included names, Blue Cross subscriber numbers and “charges during the period.”

“From what we were told … it was human error,” Sherry said.

He said there was no “malicious intent” or “criminal activity.”

Brown addressed the breach with legal counsel, human resources and Sherry, Sherry said.

continued on page 3

continued on page 2

Courtesy of Brown Concert Agency

This year’s Spring Weekend concerts will feature, clockwise from top left, rappers Snoop Dogg and Wale, rock/ electronic duo MGMT and DJs Major Lazer.

‘Bats with Faculty debate engineering school frikkin’ lasers’

By Goda Thangada Senior Staf f Writer

By Sarah Forman Staff Writer

Chains hang from the ceiling and not a drop of sunlight can enter the bat lair hidden in the restrictedaccess basement of Hunter Laboratory.

“They are masters of flying,” said Assistant Research Professor of Neuroscience Seth Horowitz MSc ’93 PhD ’97 of the big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) he sends into this eerie room as part of his research on the interplay between sensory and vestibular systems.

He wants to determine how bats are able to “pull nine-G turns in total darkness while eating” and perform other feats of balance and speed far beyond the technological capabilities of man-made vehicles.

His current research project — originally proposed to the Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium with the title “On the Road to Autonomous UAVs: Bats with frikkin’ lasers on their heads” — uses laser technology to explore how bats use their sonar systems to fly so skillfully. He seeks to apply the results of his research to improve designs for unmanned aerial vehicles — or UAVs. The knowledge he gains from this

inside

continued on page 2

News.....1-3 Sports.....4-5 Editorial....6 Opinion....7 Today........8

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Breach hits hundreds of employees

A Tuesday faculty forum to discuss a proposal to transform the division of engineering to full-fledged school drew about 60 professors and administrators, mostly from the sciences, and many of whom expressed skepticism of the proposal.

The most contentious part of the discussion, which preceded

an April 6 vote on the proposal, concerned a potentially disproportionate emphasis on engineering at the expense of other sciences.

“The administration does feel that this is an important step,” said Clyde Briant, vice president for research, who said he was speaking on behalf of Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98. “It’s part of the natural evolution of building the sciences and engineering.”

Brown would be the last Ivy

W. hoops takes Cornell

By Zack Bahr Assistant Sports Editor

This weekend, the women’s basketball team was playing for many things.

They were playing to sweep Cornell on the season. They were playing to upset Columbia. But perhaps the biggest thing the Bears were playing for this weekend was their seniors. And in the final games of the season, Bruno dominated the Big Red, 74-58, and fell hard to the Lions, 54-41.

Brown 74, Cornell 58 Friday night, the Bears (8-20, 5-9 Ivy) traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., where they snapped a three-game losing streak by claiming the victory over Cornell (7-20, 2-12).

Lindsay Nickel ’13 and Aileen Daniels ’12 led the way for Bruno, each scoring career-highs of 23 and 22 points, respectively. The team shot 52 percent from the field, far above the

season average of 32 percent.

Cornell led by six with 12:31 left in the first half, but Brown gained a 35-30 advantage heading into the locker room.

Bruno retained the lead for the rest of the game behind near-perfect free throws — missing just one of 16 chances — and strong play in the paint.

“We run offenses that have a lot of options — many of which are inside — and Cornell focused heavily on our shooting game, which really opens up the inside,” Daniels said.

“We simply have good passers who looked in the post.”

Brown led by as many as 20 points on the evening.

Columbia 54, Brown 41 Saturday’s contest was the last of the season for the Bears, but the continued on page 5

Jonathan Bateman / Herald file photo

Lindsay Nickel ’13 scored 23 points in the women’s basketball team’s victory over Cornell on Friday.

News, 3

Sports, 5

Opinions, 7

The blog today

engineering debate The discussions on creating a separate school of engineering continue

skiing champions Ski team places third at National Championships, best of the East Coast

intro to interviews Mary Bates GS tells how to master the graduate school interview

blog daily herald More on Spring Weekend and the expensive and the argyle of Brown fashion

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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BCA draws several big artists for concerts continued from page 1 coming artists.

Hinton said students will look back on the lineup and think, “Wow, these guys played here.”

“I’ve liked (Snoop Dogg) for a long time,” Hinton said of the hiphop artist who released his first album in 1993. “He was one of the first three songs I downloaded on Napster.”

Brooklyn-based electronic indie rock duo MGMT was the top request of respondents to BCA’s survey in fall’s Undergraduate Council of Students poll, which asked students to list bands or artists they would like to see perform for Spring Weekend, according to Hinton.

“Usually we don’t even get into the top 10 or 20 in the poll,” he said.

The rest of the artists are less well-known, Hinton said. “We’re always excited about bringing newer artists,” he said.

Major Lazer, a collaboration of British DJs Diplo and Switch, will open for MGMT Friday evening.

Alex Spoto ’11, BCA’s administrative chair, said the board members identified Major Lazer as “something that would be pretty popular by the time Spring Weekend rolled around.”

Starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday,

April 24, rapper Wale, blues-rock band the Black Keys and Snoop Dogg — who just released an album and is currently shooting a film — will take over the Main Green.

“I love the Black Keys, and I’m pretty excited about Wale, too,” Spoto said. “We snagged him kind of early on, and I think he’s getting bigger and bigger.”

Because the Black Keys are releasing an album in May and have gotten a lot of radio play in recent months, “we felt like it was just a really cool time to get them,” Hinton said.

Spoto also added that several of BCA’s board members have seen — and been impressed by — the Ohio-based duo’s past performances. “They’ve put on a really great live show,” he said.

With an increased budget in honor of the anniversary, BCA solicited some “far-fetched” prospects, according to Spoto. “We tried a few kind of crazy bids early on,” such as Neil Young, Elvis Costello and the Beastie Boys, he said.

At the end of the day, though, Hinton said he “couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.”

Tickets will be sold online beginning March 24 for $18 per day with a Brown or Rhode Island School of Design ID and $25 for the general public.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

“We’re always excited about bringing newer artists.”

— James Hinton ’10, BCA booking chair

In the lab with Brown’s own bat man continued from page 1

work also helps inform another project: “NeuroPop.” Using his extensive understanding of sound, neuroscience and balance, Horowitz partnered with composer Lance Massey to create NeuroPop, a music album designed to help people fall asleep. He said he originally came upon the idea while working at SUNY Stony Brook with funding from NASA, where he tried to understand the insomnia problems that often plague astronauts in space.

“Could the balance system be driving the sleep system?” Horowitz asked himself, since astronauts’ stability changes when they go into space.

Subsequent research found that the human balance system is completely tied to the emotional system, he said.

Because balance is based in the ears and vestibular system, with emotions centered in the brain, he thought that sound could be used to activate neural sleep centers.

He found that the “whole curve from arousal to sleep has a lot of input from the balance system,” and that low frequency vibrations could influence the vestibular system and encourage sleep.

Horowitz asked Massey to alter classical music according to algorithms that he developed in the lab, and upon distributing the music to

some friends, he found that it very effectively made them fall asleep.

“It seems to work,” said James Simmons, professor of biology and director of the lab in which Horowitz conducts his bat research, of NeuroPop. “People like it.”

Horowitz was quick to mention that “NeuroPop is completely separate from what I do at Brown,” but his lab work informs his understanding of human interactions with sound and also has several other practical applications.

Still, NeuroPop depends upon the scientific knowledge of the vestibular system that Horowitz has gained in part from watching the motion of bats flying around the chain-room in Hunter Lab. Only “three or four” of Horowitz’s bats, which he collects from natural habitats around Providence — including one taken from a math department building last week — will tolerate wearing the modified four-gram lasers that Horowitz uses.

These lasers, combined with 20 microphones and four infrared cameras in the isolated research cave, tell Horowitz exactly where each bat was pointing its head when it let out a call. As the sound waves return to the bat after hitting the chains hanging from the ceiling, the bat receives a picture of its surroundings that Horowitz hopes to use for practical

applications.

“The bats are using their sound system the way we use our vision,” he said, hoping to use his research to understand exactly how that happens.

Horowitz has yet to make any formal recommendations for flying vehicles based upon his laser research with the bats, partly because of the odd set of challenges inherent to working with the animals.

He has had to special-order toupee tape to attach the lasers to the bats’ heads because they fly so quickly that the lasers often fall off. One bat went bald from the constant re-attachment of lasers.

The lab also deals with the constant threat of rabies and other diseases affecting the bats, since they are taken from the wild.

Sharon Swartz, professor of biology and director of a bat laboratory focusing on flight and aeronautics in Prince Laboratory, said she only uses bats raised in captivity, and therefore does not face the same health risks from working with them.

“To me, they’re just incredibly beautiful,” Swartz said of the bats in her lab. “It’s a little bit like giant fairies.”

According to Swartz, each one has a different personality, with unique reactions to her trials, which mostly continued on page 5

Data breach spurs Blue Cross audit continued from page 1 They “pressed” Blue Cross Blue Shield to “do a few things,” including recovering all the copies, notifying the affected individuals, offering a change of subscriber numbers and reviewing its claims for the next six months, Sherry added.

“Brown has no responsibility in this whatsoever, but we took it very, very serious — enough to make sure that Blue Cross Blue Shield acted in a way that would rectify this whole thing and protect our employees and their families,” Sherry said.

Blue Cross Blue Shield “conducted an internal review and modified existing security procedures to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future,” Director of Communications Services Jacqueline Ibbitson wrote in

an e-mail to The Herald. The company “will also be conducting an audit of the affected members’ claims later this year,” she added, declining to answer further questions.

Brown was required by new legislation to report the breach to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services because the privacy breach affected over 500 individuals, Sherry said.

The law is part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, intended to “safeguard” private information and build consumer trust, according to an official at the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services.

There have been 47 breaches of “unsecured protected health informa-

tion affecting 500 or more individuals” across the nation since the act was implemented last August, according to a list of breaches posted on the department’s Web site. The majority of the breaches were due to theft, according to the Web site.

Though the breach was publicized on the department’s Web site, there has been little media attention to the breach at Brown. This is because the breach was of “low risk” and because Brown was required to notify the media only if the breach affected more than 500 people from one state, Sherry said. Affected individuals reside in `three different states — Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, according to Sherry.

“Quite frankly,” Sherry said, “Brown did not make any mistakes.”

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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“It’s kind of like a football draft.”

— Rodney Clifton, interim dean of the division of engineering

Faculty across disciplines weigh in on potential engineering school continued from page 1 at the University.

“Engineering is small,” said Professor of Physics Chung-I Tan P’95 P’03, chair of the department and head of the Faculty Executive Committee. “It should grow. As it grows, it will benefit all science areas.” The important issue, he said, was to ensure coordination so that other areas grow at the same time.

Those behind the proposal sought to win the approval of other departments prior to the vote. “It’s ver y important for us to interact with as many of you as we can,” said Rodney Clifton, interim dean of the division of engineering.

Before the discussion began, Clifton showed a slide of Brown’s Prince Engineering Laboratory, the University’s principal engineering research space, which was built 50 years ago. “That’s not the way research is done today,” he said, “We need quiet spaces, clean spaces.”

To illustrate a model of modern research facilities, he showed a slide of Har vard’s state-of-the-art Northwest Science Building.

The Har vard comparison persisted when Professor of Physics David Cutts pressed Clifton on the organizational structure of the school.

Cutts said he was concerned about “a leadership of the school that was reporting at the highest level and thus was independent of other faculties.” Har vard’s model, he said, was “much more inclusive” than Brown’s proposed school, because the dean of the school of engineering reports to the dean of the faculty. Under the new proposal at Brown, the dean would report di-

rectly to the provost, bypassing the faculty of the arts and sciences.

The decision to have a new dean report to the provost was made because “it’s just a much more attractive position if we show that the person is reporting at the level of the provost,” Clifton said.

Clifton also explained that engineering would be unified internally, with no departmental divisions within the school. The departments of applied math and computer science were initially envisioned as part of a new school, he said.

“They have opted not to join this school, but I think there’s quite a lot of support,” he said.

Many professors spoke about “collateral benefits,” using a term introduced by Professor of Pediatrics James Padbur y, who said increased research in nanotechnology would complement his own work. Dietrich Neumann, chair of the faculty forum, said he heard “a chorus in unison.”

When other professors began to suggest alterations to the plan and voice concerns, Susan Alcock, professor of classics and director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, highlighted her department’s unusual involvement with engineering. She urged other faculty to take a “slightly more holistic view of the whole situation.”

Tan asked whether there was a comprehensive plan for the reorganization of all the sciences.

Vohra replied, “The whole question of how we are organized ought to be considered in its own right.”

Donald Forsyth, professor of geological sciences and vice-chair of the Academic Priorities Committee, said there may be discussion of having “another layer of deans

beneath the provost.”

Other faculty brought up the idea of creating multidisciplinar y institutes in the three areas identified in the proposal as needing attention and expansion — microand nano-technologies, biomedical engineering and energy and environment and infrastructure. “ ‘Interdisciplinar y’ is ver y exciting,” Professor of Physics James Valles said. “What is challenging about it is in fact maintaining a core intellectual feeling.”

In choosing areas in which to bring new faculty and expand, engineering would work with other departments whose research areas overlapped, Clifton said. “It’s kind of like a football draft,” he said, “You go for the best athlete.”

Clifton emphasized the importance of the name change and the need for visibility to attract students. Of the 25 top universities in the nation, 23 have schools of engineering, he said. The other top university lacking a school is the California Institute of Technology, which has a formidable reputation in engineering but does not have schools. “For visibility, it is important to us that it really be a school,” Clifton said.

Several speakers touched on the issue of diversity, both in

terms of the ethnicity and gender of students and new faculty hires. However, Harvey Silverman, professor of engineering, said he was satisfied with the Department of Engineering’s current gender breakdown. In his course, he said, “we’re just about 40 percent women now. I’m not terribly unhappy.”

With the emphasis on building sophisticated research capacity, the impact on undergraduate students was another thread of the discussion. “We do not want to tamper with the undergraduate experience at Brown,” Briant said.

Clifton said the presence of more faculty would mean more courses of general interest could be taught.

“We don’t have enough elective courses to offer undergraduates,” said Professor of Engineering Eric Suuberg.

The last major arc of the discussion was the plan to raise $100 million for engineering, of which about one-third would go toward the construction or renovation of a new building.

“We’ve been ver y careful in planning this whole thing that this won’t take away from others,” Clifton said. “We had a bigger proposal there before.” The current proposal is the third version of a

proposal first drawn up in summer 2008.

The game is not necessarily zero-sum, Clifton said. “The focus here is to bring into the University money that we’re not getting, money that’s being left on the table. My prediction is that the overall giving will go up.”

Cutts suggested giving coappointments to new professors.

This could be “an opportunity for all the sciences to work together in bringing these people here,” he said.

As for the physical location of the building, Clifton said it has not been discussed. John Hermance, professor of geology, spoke about how he valued running into his students as he walked around campus. “We need that kind of casual interaction,” he said, concerned that the location of a new facility in the Jewelr y District or Wayland Square would scatter students and faculty.

Forsyth said he would like Prince Laborator y itself to be replaced. “That would be one thing many of the faculty would like to see,” he said.

Briant noted that Ker tzer is planning to appoint a committee to develop the physical space component of the proposal.

SportsWednesday The Brown Daily Herald

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | Page 4

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

Bears make tough trip down south After two wins, Brown loses

By Jesse Frank Sports Staff Writer

The baseball team took on some of the nation’s elite talent when it travelled to Louisiana to face Pepperdine and defending national champion Louisiana State over the weekend.

The Bears finished the trip 1-3, but came back to Providence with an upbeat attitude.

“We really swung the bats very well,” said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. “We played some great teams and did pretty well. We need to work on timely hitting, but overall it was a positive weekend and we have lots to build on.”

The Bears earned their lone win on Friday, an 8-7 victory over Pepperdine. But then they dropped two games to No. 1 LSU, 13-7 and 9-2, and lost the rematch to Pepperdine, 19-3.

Brown 8, Pepperdine 7 Brown got off to a strong start on Friday to open the season. In the victory, winning pitcher Kevin Carlow ’13 and starter Mark Gormley ’11 each pitched four innings, giving up a total of only five earned runs. Matt Kimball ’11, the team’s closer, gave up only one hit in the 9th inning to close out the game.

Offensively for the Bears, the highlights came in the sixth and eighth innings when the Bears scored four runs in each frame.

Daniel Rosoff ’12 went 2-3 with three RBI and two runs to lead Brown’s offense.

LSU 13, Brown 6 The happiness from the seasonopening win didn’t last long, as later that afternoon the Bears ran into the juggernaut that is the No. 1 LSU Tigers. The Tigers got off to a fast start and led, 8-0, by the end of the second inning.

But the Bears did not go down without a fight. They scored seven runs in the last five innings and the final score was 13-6 in favor of LSU. In the loss, Matt Colantonio ’11 was 3-5 and Graham Tyler ’12 was 2-5 with three RBI. Pepperdine 19, Brown 3 The next day, the Bears took on Pepperdine again, but this time, the Waves came out with a vengeance.

Despite a first inning 1-0 lead after an RBI single by Pete Greskoff ’11, the Bears trailed after two innings, 9-1. From there, Pepperdine didn’t let off the gas and went on to the 19-3 victory. In the loss, Cody

Slaughter ’13 was 3-4 and Ryan Zrenda ’11 was 3-5 with an RBI. During the game, Brown was plagued by spotty defense. Brown’s inability to practice outside because of the weather may have hurt the team’s fielding, Greskoff said.

“Having not been on the field yet, we struggled defensively,” Greskoff said. “But our offense performed better than we expected.”

LSU 9, Brown 2 The Bears closed out the road trip by playing LSU again. Brown took an early 2-0 lead on the Tigers on RBI singles by Slaughter and Nick Punal ’10.

But from there, the Tigers’ pitchers kept the Bears in check, and LSU went on to a 9-2 victory.

Brown took away some positives from the first road trip of the season. “We definitely are beginning to get a feel for what positions guys are really going to succeed in,” said Will Weidig ’10. “The atmosphere and competition is some of the best we will play all year and definitely some of the best in the nation, and we really held our own in the games.”

The Bears next play on Friday, when they travel to face the University of South Carolina.

Retriever Classic to UMBC

By Ashley McDonnell Sports Staff Writer

The softball team (2-2) began the Retriever Classic at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County on a strong note, beating Morgan State (4-6) and Fairleigh Dickinson (4-4) on Saturday. But UMBC (9-1) beat the Bears in both games on Sunday, including the championship game.

Brown 9, Morgan State 8, 11 innings Saturday began with Morgan State scoring two runs in the top of the first inning with two hits, a stolen base and two errors on the Bears’ part. Brown had a total of six errors in the game.

“We figured it would be a bit of a rough start because it was the first time we actually felt the dirt underneath us,” as the team has had to practice indoors, said Head Coach DeeDee Enabenter-Omidiji.

But the Bears managed to find their footing. At the end of seven innings, Brown tied the game, 4-4.

The game went to extra innings until Katie Rothamel ’10 drove in Danielle Comissiong ’11 for the winning run in the 11th.

Brown 7, Fairleigh Dickinson 5 The Bears led the game, 4-0, after the top of the third but allowed Fairleigh Dickinson to come right back with three runs. Pitcher Liz DiMas-

cio ’13 relieved Trish Melvin ’12 and gave up just two more runs. The Bears posted three more runs in the seventh inning to win the game.

“The defense struggled and the pitching wasn’t where it should’ve been, but the team just came together,” DiMascio said.

UMBC 4, Brown 2 The Bears jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning Sunday morning against UMBC, but the host team answered right away with two runs of their own. UMBC scored two more runs in the fourth inning to clinch the game.

UMBC 6, Brown 5 Later that afternoon, the Bears faced UMBC again in the championship game.

“We really wanted to beat them,” Rothamel said. “This time we felt more confident that we could beat them.

But they had good hitters and their pitching was consistent.”

UMBC came out swinging, leading the Bears, 4-1, after two innings.

Though the Bears attempted to rally back in the seventh, their two runs were not enough to overcome the deficit.

“If we’d had (the rally) earlier on, we would’ve been much better off,” Enabenter-Omidiji said. “But overall, we were pleased with what we saw” this past weekend.

www.DiamondsAndCoal.com

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports W ednesday

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

“They were relaxed and confident.”

— Mike LeBlanc, head coach of the skiing team

W. hoops fall to Lions Cornell m. hoops ready to ‘March’ in last game of season

By Andrew Braca Assistant Sports Editor

continued from page 1

players weren’t able to carry over the success from the night before.

Only two Bears made it over the five-point mark on the evening. Daniels led the way with 14 while Courtney Lee ’10 netted six.

With 4:05 remaining in the first half, Bruno went on a run and cut the Lions’ 14-point lead down to just four at the half. In the second half, Brown came out with strong defense and tied the game with 16:50 remaining.

Columbia (18-10, 9-5) slowly pulled away behind a dominating performance by Judie Lomax, who

had 20 points and a school-record 27 rebounds on the evening.

It was a tough ending to the careers of seniors Lee, Natalie Bonds ’10 and Christina Johnson ’10.

“It is going to be really hard to see our seniors go,” Nickel said. “I don’t think it has actually sunk in yet that they won’t be back on the court with us next year. But all three have had such an impact on the program in their four years, and they will be truly missed.”

The Bears finished the season sixth in the Ivy League. Brown will take a week off and begin postseason training on Monday.

SKIING

Bears place third at Nat’ls, best in years

By Ashley McDonnell Spor ts Staf f Writer

The ski team finished in third place at the USCSA National Championships — best among East Coast teams — on March 1-6 at Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine.

“It’s by far the best finish we’ve had since I’ve been on the team,” said captain Krista Consiglio ’11.

“It’s better than winning Regionals or our division.”

It was the best finish for the Bears since the 2004-05 season, when the team claimed second place, according to Head Coach Mike LeBlanc.

“The level of competition just went up quickly” in the past few years, LeBlanc said. “The fact that we’ve fought our way back up to the top is incredible.”

And given the team’s performances this season, a third-place finish at Nationals was even more impressive. In the ECSC MacConnell Division, the Bears came in fourth place and at Regionals managed only a fifth-place finish overall.

“It’s saying something to go to Regionals and get fifth and then go to Nationals and get third,” LeBlanc said. “This was the first time in a while that the team has just gone out and executed like they can.”

In giant slalom, the Bears raced out to a strong start and finished third. Consiglio led the team with an 11th-place finish. Her teammates followed close behind — Kia Mosenthal ’12 finished in 14th and Emily Simmons ’12 came in 16th.

However, it was the team’s fourth-place finish in slalom that clinched third for the Bears overall. It was one of the Bears’ best finishes in slalom all season.

“That was definitely a big shock to all of us,” Consiglio said. “It was really, really close between all the teams. The dif ference between second and sixth was only a few hundredths of a second.”

“All the girls finished with clean runs,” LeBlanc said. “That’s only happened once all season. They

were relaxed and confident.”

Consiglio and Mosenthal were the Bears’ top performers in both slalom and giant slalom — and they both won All-America Honors for each event.

Only Westminster College and Sierra Nevada College placed higher than the Bears. Both teams “recruit European skiers who are very fast” and “have access to snow all the time because they go to school in the mountains,” Consiglio said.

“It’s just really big to beat these teams from Europe,” LeBlanc said.

Our team “has to travel for two hours in one day to train, and they sometimes only train for one day a week. If people could see what these girls did, how they’re so incredibly strong. It’s just mindboggling.”

The Cornell men’s basketball team could earn a No. 11 or No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which begins March 18, according to a prominent analyst.

After clinching the Ivy League Championship with a 95-76 win over Brown on Friday, the Big Red finished the season with a 27-4 record overall and a 13-1 mark against Ivy foes, but that single conference blemish may come back to haunt them.

ESPN college basketball analyst Joe Lunardi told Bloomberg newswire that the 79-64 loss to a lousy Penn squad on Feb. 12 likely cost Cornell a shot at a single-digit seed.

Only three Ivy teams have won their opening round game in the past 25 years — Penn in 1994 and Princeton in 1996 and 1998. Cornell will learn its opening-round matchup when the selections are announced Sunday evening, but the Big Red did get recognition in the interim.

Senior forward Ryan Wittman was named to the United States Basketball Writers Association AllDistrict II team. Ten players were

selected from mid-Atlantic Division I schools, eight of them from the elite Big East Conference.

On the women’s side, Princeton completed an undefeated season in the Ivy League to earn its first-ever bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Three ECAC teams take on field in women’s NCAA Ice Hockey Championship Three ECAC Hockey teams — league champion Cornell, Clarkson and Harvard — will be among the eight squads competing for the 10th National Collegiate Women’s Ice Hockey Championship. No. 4 seed Harvard will host Cornell on Friday, while Clarkson travels to face the No. 3 seed Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday.

No. 1 seed Mercyhurst hosts Boston University and No. 2 seed Minnesota-Duluth hosts New Hampshire on Saturday. The winners will advance to the Frozen Four at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. The semifinals will be played on March 19 and the championship game on March 21. Harvard and Cornell each boast five all-Ivy selections.

ECAC quarterfinal matchups face off starting Friday The ECAC Hockey men’s quarterfinals begin Friday, as the top four teams come off a bye week to face the four opening-round winners in best-of-three series. No. 11 Brown will travel to New Haven to face regular-season champion Yale. The Bulldogs prepared for the matchup by taking Monday off to try curling, the obscure Olympic ice sport, according to Yale Sports Information.

No. 2 seed Cornell hosts No. 9 Harvard, No. 3 Union hosts No. 7 Quinnipiac and No. 4 Colgate hosts No. 5 St. Lawrence this weekend.

Harvard dominates squash championships Har vard swept the College Squash Association Individual Championships on Sunday, taking “A” Division titles on both the men’s and women’s sides.

Senior Colin West swept Princeton’s Todd Harrity in the finals, 11-9, 13-11, 11-1. Freshman Laura Gemmell beat Trinity’s Pamela Hathaway in a tense final, 11-7, 5-11, 13-15, 11-8, 11-9.

Batty research yields clues on sound continued from page 2 involve tracking their motions in a wind tunnel.

Though she said she prefers “to maintain a certain professional distance” from her subjects, and therefore does not give them names, some of the 20 people involved in her lab do have very personal relationships with the bats.

Horowitz’s subjects also have names, including Frosty and Ma-

rina, and he said that one bat, Vlad, was the “meanest bastard I’d ever met.”

FEATURE As he continues his bat work, Horowitz said that he hopes to expand NeuroPop to include CDs targeted to different age groups — he has a hard time staying awake to work on the music targeting the 40plus age bracket — and that he also hopes to find other sound-related

treatments for tinnitus and lack of focus.

Massey and Horowitz have yet to make a profit from the work, but Horowitz said recent publicity has increased orders for the NeuroPop album.

Horowitz said that work and science consume most of his time, and that even his hobby, NeuroPop, was research-based.

“Some people collect stamps, I just keep doing science,” he said.

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 6 | Wednesday, March 10, 2010

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

Group’s use of ‘apartheid’ appropriate To the Editor: The guest column by Roberta Goldman ’13 (“Brown Students for Palestine (and Israel),” March 4) misrepresents Brown Students for Justice in Palestine, as well as their use of the word “apartheid.”

To be clear, I am not writing as a member of Brown Students for Justice in Palestine. I attended BSJP’s presentation on their campaign for University divestment from companies profiting from Israeli apartheid in the Occupied Territories. I learned that the goal of BSJP is not divestment from Israel itself; rather, it is divestment from companies that profit from the illegal military occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

BSJP has demonstrated a precise and responsible use of language.

Anyone who attended their event or visited their table on the Main Green would know that they limit their use of “apartheid” to refer to the Occupied Territories only.

Misrepresenting BSJP by distorting their language (down to their name and main goal) and then accusing them of “cheapening” words demonstrates a refusal to engage in a factual debate about divestment and the reality of life under occupation. It would be nice, for example, to hear Goldman’s perspective on

illegal settlements, in which Israeli settlers are subject to civilian law while Palestinians endure military law. This dual system of law establishes the condition of apartheid as defined by the United Nations.

The illegal settler population can live freely, while limitations on movement, confiscation of natural resources, and restrictions on political freedom define the Palestinian experience.

A sign on the main green asking, “Do you want your university profiting from apartheid?” leaves no room for objection. Whatever you label it (apartheid, occupation or plain old injustice), let’s not pay for it. If the use of a single word was the sole objection of BSJP’s detractors, then I see that as an endorsement of BSJP’s message of ending our complicity in Israel’s human rights violations.

Currently, Brown University is potentially invested in companies that facilitate the illegal militar y occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Rejecting an unacceptable status quo through selective divestment is the true message of Brown Students for Justice in Palestine. It is one that all of us should endorse.

Malcolm Shanks ’11 March 7

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

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A le x Y uly

e d i to r i a l

One bigoted man The Herald reported Feb. 25 that Health Services plans to implement several new measures in order to be more welcoming to transgender students.

These steps include training caregivers and staff on transgender issues, changing forms and signs to reflect the range of gender identities and allowing students to state a different name or pronoun than is listed on their medical forms. We support these efforts and we are glad to see that Health Services is trying to be as inclusive as possible.

These sorts of initiatives are important not just because they improve the experiences of students here at Brown, but also because they set a positive example for other institutions and policymakers.

Many critics of equality for gender and sexual minorities speak as if giving these individuals rights and protections is in some way socially destructive.

They’re just wrong. And not surprisingly, since The Herald’s report two weeks ago, life at Brown has gone on just fine.

It’s highly regrettable when others choose not to go the full distance in making all individuals feel accepted, but it’s downright reprehensible when public officials go out of their way to make life more difficult for marginalized groups. That’s why we’re outraged at Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who last week sent a letter to the state’s public universities telling them to end policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

According to Cuccinelli, only Virginia’s General Assembly has the authority to extend legally enforceable protections to certain classes of citizens.

It hasn’t, so universities cannot, Cuccinelli claims.

But the University of Virginia, for instance, has included sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policy since 1991.

So why is the recently elected Cuccinelli making such a fuss all of the sudden? A statement he

made five months ago while campaigning offers a pretty good clue — and undercuts any credibility he might have had in claiming he’s just enforcing the law.

“Homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong,” Cuccinelli said. “And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that.”

So while Cuccinelli now wants to be thought of as a principled conservative defending the prerogatives of the democratically elected legislature, it’s clear he is just a bigot intent on using his authority as attorney general to do a little social engineering.

Cuccinelli apparently has not been persuaded by the basic ideas of fairness and privacy that justify equal treatment of gender and sexual minorities.

Still, we’re fairly confident that the 41-year-old will recant these views at some point in his lifetime. If he’s concerned about his political viability, he will eventually be forced to take note of the fact that 58 percent of Americans between ages 18 and 34 support legalizing same-sex marriage, according to a CNN poll conducted last year. If he is concerned about his social acceptability, he will want to keep in mind that roughly half of all Americans report having a close friend or relative who is gay.

Unfortunately, the state of Virginia is stuck with an attorney general whose views are backwards and whose methods are frighteningly aggressive.

We can only express solidarity with the LGBTQ students, faculty and employees at Virginia’s universities, who will actually have to deal with the direct effects of Cuccinelli’s willingness to permit discrimination and oppression.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board.

Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | Page 7

Grad school interviewing 101 Mary Bates Opinions Columnist It’s that time of year again: the applications have been reviewed and a lucky few have been invited to attend interview weekends at their prospective grad schools. This is a chance for both the faculty and the potential students to evaluate each other and get a feel for the “fit” between student and program.

And while it’s important for you, the student, to learn about the program and professors during your visit, you should not forget that this is an interview, and to treat it as such.

As a grad student, I went to several interviews before deciding to come to Brown.

Now, for the past several years, I’ve been in the position of watching prospective students interview with my department. I’ve seen some pretty egregious interview mistakes that could easily be avoided. So I have decided to share some tips here on how not to screw up your grad school interviews.

Don’t talk about how another school is your top choice. Even if the school at which you’re interviewing isn’t your number one choice, don’t tell them that. A graduate program can only admit a certain number of students. If they think you’re going to decline an offer of acceptance in favor of another school, that’s an easy reason to eliminate you from

their final list of accepted students.

Don’t be late to an appointment. If you are late, apologize. Interview days can be marathons of meetings with different professors, many of whom will not be keeping an eye on the time for you. If you can politely remind someone that you have to meet with your next appointment and leave, do so. If Professor X keeps you late, apologize and explain the situation when you meet with Professor Y. They know how it works, but you should

his or her research, he or she will likely talk for the next twenty minutes straight, giving you some time to collect your thoughts and think of more interesting things to say.

Research the department to which you are applying and the professors who are interviewing you. All this requires is looking at the university’s Web site. See what the program requires of graduate students so you get a general idea about the department. When you know which professors will be interviewing

If you ask a professor about his or her research, he or she will likely talk for the next twenty minutes straight, giving you some time to collect your thoughts and think of more interesting things to say. demonstrate that you realize how valuable their time is.

Have questions ready, and ask them. I have seen far too many prospective students, when asked if they have any questions for their interviewer, simply say, “No” and then just sit there. This sends the message that you are uninterested in the program and the research that goes on there. Take charge! Ask questions. Show them that you care about this program and that you are an intellectually curious person. Plus, if you ask a professor about

you, look them up. See what they teach, what their area of research is and what their most recent publications have been about. It is a bad idea to appear unaware of or uninterested in the research of someone in the department to which you are applying. By making a small effort, you show that you are invested in the program and will be an involved member of the department. Looking over your interviewers’ Web sites is also a great way to come up with incisive questions about their work, demonstrating both that you did your background

research and that you are capable of critical thinking.

Don’t get sloppy with the current grad students. It is likely that the current students in the program to which you are applying will take you out. Even though you have had a very long day, and are probably exhausted and maybe still nervous, don’t drink too much.

Professors ask the current students what they think of the visiting prospectives. If, when your name is mentioned, the overwhelming response is, “Oh, you mean that guy who threw up in the bushes and then got into an argument with a stop sign?” chances are no one will be very impressed. Use your time with the current students to ask them questions about the department, the social scene, the city — not to get wasted.

That’s my humble advice, taken from experience. Getting invited to interview at a grad school is a great opportunity. If your application was strong enough to get to that point, it would be a shame to squelch your chances by making a silly, preventable mistake. The takeaway message here is be aware of how you are presenting yourself and make an effort to show that you think the interview is important. Showing enthusiasm, interest and respect at an interview will always make a good impression.

Mary Bates GS is a Ph.D. candidate in the psychology department. She can be reached at mary_bates@brown. edu.

What to do with Uganda?

YUE WANG Opinions Columnist The Anti-Homosexuality Bill introduced in Uganda last fall is deeply disturbing: it called for the death penalty for “any form of sexual relationship between persons of the same sex,” which was later lightened to life imprisonment. However, capital punishment is still applicable for “serial offenders” and HIV positive individuals. Unsurprisingly, this bill, reflective of the excessive homophobia and ruthless suppression of gay rights in many parts of the African continent, immediately drew condemnation and protests from the West which hoped to pressure the Ugandan congress to stop its gruesome criminalization of homosexual activities.

Among progressive minds, however, there are also objections to the Western pressure and interference. My colleague Dominic Mhiripiri ’12 noted “extremely one-sided takes on this controversial issue” in a recent opinion column (“Understanding the odd story of gay rights in Africa,” March 5). Underlying the liberal efforts to defend the basic human rights in Uganda, Mhiripiri argues, is a lamentable want of understanding of the ultra-conservative root in African culture; correspondingly, stern attitudes of Western societies on this issue would yield no positive outcomes. Such objections to Western intervention in the Ugandan situation are well-intentioned and laudable, but in this particular case cultural relativism is a poor excuse to support Western non-action in the face of the anti-gay rights bill in Uganda.

To begin with, it is arguable that homopho-

bic sentiments in Uganda could be attributed as much to indigenous culture as to colonial import of Christian doctrines. In any event, we must bear in mind that evangelical groups from America had a hand in stirring up the most recent waves of persecution of homosexual people in Africa. It is certainly no coincidence that the bill was introduced shortly after three American evangelical Christians arrived in Uganda’s capital to teach about “curing” homosexuals, which received a great deal of publicity at that time.

If Africans’ hostility towards gays is Western in origin — whether the fruit of past im-

elites in Africa. Despite the Ugandan public’s determined antipathy towards homosexuality, the political leaders there are clearly in a bargaining mood with the Western countries who implored for the cause of gay rights. So far, the Ugandan government has backed down a little bit and changed the death penalty provision to life imprisonment for the homosexuals for the sake of millions of dollars in foreign aid.

These changing positions likely point to a very cynical circle of Ugandan leaders who reason differently from their constituents, but were willing to mobilize popular feelings and cultural differences to barter for diplomatic

In this particular case cultural relativism is a poor excuse to support Western non-action in face of the anti-gay right bill in Uganda.

perialism or modern evangelism — it is at least a sign that a portion of African people are already hugely susceptible to Western values and influence. Thus, the real question posed is not just giving the right amount of respect for a different culture, but to propagate Western values of liberalism to countervail an existing culture of homophobia and intolerance that unfortunately was also of Western origin. To exert the right kind of Western influence is therefore more relevant than the concern of cultural relativists.

Second, we need to carefully discern the sentiments of the populace and the ruling

gains regardless of the cultural beliefs their people have long held against homosexual behaviors. This shocking cynicism and hypocrisy of the political elites is obviously not something that cultural relativism can account for. Therefore, any moral objection to stronger Western pressure on Ugandan leaders should be removed.

Third, the anti-gay rights bill in Uganda goes beyond the question of cultural relativism and reaches the jurisdiction of universal human rights. Indeed, cultural differences exist not only across national borders but also within a country’s bounds. In the United

States, for instance, we can easily make an legal argument for protecting diverse and even exotic religious doctrines or cultural traditions — insofar as the most fundamental rights are protected within those religious or cultural groups. For instance, some form of protection or legal exception is offered to peculiar religious groups, but ultimately even in those groups, the recognition of their special status is contingent upon the principle that minimal rights of the members are guaranteed.

We can reasonably compare the right to autonomy of those groups and a nation’s right to resist foreign interference: the anti-gay bill in Uganda violated homosexuals’ right to live; this must no longer be explained away by cultural relativism. International condemnation and intervention in this case is not just warranted but essential to African gays’ survival.

For all these reasons, we should not stop at the concept of cultural relativism in deliberating our strategies in Uganda. True, it is a complicated problem, one of clashing Western values, crooked political calculations of Ugandan political elites and, above all, the urgent need to defend the basic human rights of homosexual groups in Africa. Meanwhile, it is also a case where strong determinations to condemn and stop gross violations of human rights must take precedence over enlightened sensitivities towards different cultures and values.

Yue Wang ’12 is a political science and German studies concentrator from Shanghai. She can be yue_ wang@brown.edu.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

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Spring Weekend artists announced

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c a l e n da r tomorrow, March 11

4:00 P.M. — It’s Not Too Late to Find an Internship, J. Walter Wilson

5:30 P.M. — Professional Skills Reception for Seniors, Maddock Alumni Center

7:00 P.M. — An Evening with Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, Sayles Hall

comics Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

8:00 P.M. — Fusion Dance Company’s 27th Annual Show, Alumnae Hall

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Polynesian Chicken Wings, Vegan Stir Fry Vegetables with Tofu, Chocolate Frosted Eclairs

Lunch — Italian Sausage and Peppers Sandwich, Vegetable Strudel, Molasses Cookies

Dinner — Sweet ‘n’ Sour Shrimp, Cheese Quesadillas, Lime Jello

Dinner — Spicy Herb Baked Chicken, Vegan Veggie and Bean Stew, Frosted Marble Cake

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

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Today, March 10

to m o r r o w

Baseball heads south for tough games

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

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to day

Fruitopia | Andy Kim

crossword Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

Hippomaniac | Mat Becker

Island Republic |Kevin Grubb

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