Monday, March 15, 2010

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 32 | Monday, March 15, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Fitness, aquatics center to open in Jan. 2012 Construction will begin this June, with the of ficial opening planned for Januar y 2012, said Stephen Maiorisi, vice president for facilities management. The project’s projected budget is $46.6 million, the majority of which will be used for the three-level fitness and aquatics center, he said.

By Talia Kagan Senior Staf f Writer

Right now, Brown’s athletic complex is unattractive, inconveniently located and insufficient to meet the community’s needs. But come January 2012, the fenced construction site and asphalt parking lot will be replaced by a red-bricked fitness and aquatics center and a grassy tree-lined quadrangle.

“Compared to most other institutions, (our athletic facilities) were a far cr y from where we should have been,” said Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger.

Varsity athletes and community members alike will benefit from increased workout space, additional dance studios and a larger pool facility, among other new features in the plan, University administrators said. Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president, said he hopes the new facility will be a place “where so many people can

Faculty stick together in work and marriage

By Nicole Friedman News Editor

Finding a tenured or tenure-track position is hard enough, but locating two academic job openings at once is next to impossible. Faculty recruitment — a key priority of the University’s long-term Plan for Academic Enrichment — gets more complicated when a prospective hire’s spouse also needs a position, and universities, including Brown, are facing this situation more than ever before.

In fact, one complicated dual hiring decision led to a clarification last month from the state Superior Court. Since Senior Lecturer in American Civilization Beverly Haviland’s position was negotiated when the University was recruiting her husband, Professor of English and former Dean of the College Paul Armstrong, the ongoing legal dispute over her contract sheds light on the uncertainties that can arise when universities hire married or long-term partners who both work in academia.

But while such couples make up 36 percent of professors in America, according to a 2008 study from the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford Univer-

inside

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News.....1-4 Section.....5-6 Spor ts...7-9 Editorial..10 Opinion...11 Today........12

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Erik Ornitz / Herald The Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center and Jonathan Nelson ’77 Fitness Center are combined into one building.

ness Center were combined to cut costs and the Corporation approved the new center’s design and the start of construction at its Februar y meeting.

and will come together.”

Originally intended to be two separate buildings, the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center and the Jonathan Nelson ’77 Fit-

Last weekend’s Ayiti Cheri Haitian Film Festival revealed the depth and complexity of Haiti’s culture beyond the recent earthquake-related publicity it has received.

The festival, which took place from March 12-14 in various locations around campus, was sponsored by the Center for Latin

American and Caribbean Studies, the Haitian Earthquake Relief Effort, the New England Festival of Ibero-American Cinema and the Alliance for Haiti. Festivalgoers were asked to contribute at least $5 at each film to raise money for Boston-based nonprofit Partners in Health.

The festival — whose name is “Haiti my love” in Haitian Creole — was organized in light of the Jan. 12 earthquakeas an effort to

By Anita Mathews Staf f Writer

better inform the University and Providence communities about the many dimensions of Haiti’s culture and people.

Jose Tor realba, outreach coordinator for the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, expressed a desire for “adding a cultural element” to the large amount of recent discussion surrounding Haiti. He

In keeping with a recommendation by the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, the College Curriculum Council is continuing its reviews of concentrations in seven departments this year, said Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron.

On the 2009-10 agenda are East Asian studies, South Asian studies, physics, gender and sexuality studies, American civilization, public policy and American institutions and Latin American and Caribbean studies.

Though the order of concentration reviews is mostly determined by the broader departmental external reviews that they follow, Bergeron said this year’s lineup demonstrates “an emphasis on multidisciplinar y departments.”

She said that a priority of the review is getting departments “to articulate their goals apart from a list of required courses.”

Some of these departments are already wrapping up the review process, which involves completing a self-study, hosting a subcommittee from the CCC, sur veying faculty and students in the department and submitting a final proposal for approval by the CCC. The proposals may include changes which stem from the

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Something old, something new “Up in this area of campus, the buildings didn’t feel like part of Brown University,” Maiorisi said.

Goldberger agreed. “It’s not a ver y attractive combination of buildings,” he said. The new redesign will create a community hub intended to give a sense of arrival on Brown’s campus, he said.

The complex’s parking lots will be relocated to the east of the new quad. The temporar y pool facility located behind the Olney-Margolis Athletics Center continued on page 2

Festival reveals new sides of Haiti

By Anita Badejo Contributing Writer

Curriculum council look at concs. well underway

Sex week kicks off with ‘Kink’ documentary

By Luisa Robledo Staff Writer

As the images of lashing whips and spanking fill the screen, the showing of the documentary “Kink,” followed by a panel discussion on Sunday night, provided a kickoff for what promises to be a mindblowing Sex Week. Using the film as a platform for discussing the intersection between race, ethnicity and sexuality, the event aimed to explore the different power dynamics that can surface in relationships.

“Kink and BDSM are worlds in which power dynamics are more explicitly discussed,” said Aida Manduley ’11, the chair of

Brown’s Sexual Health Education and Empowerment Council. “We wanted to stimulate an honest and truthful conversation.”

The film, which specifically focuses on African-American sexuality, crosscuts between experts and average people’s opinions about different topics related to kink. Asking outward questions — like, “What’s the kinkiest thing you’ve ever done?” and, “Is God OK with kink?” — the documentary explores a sexual realm that is unknown to many. By combining both professional and common perspectives, the film gives an integral insight to the practices and continued on page 5

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

Students organized the Ayiti Cheri Haitian Film Festival to show dimensions of Haiti beyond the earthquake.

News, 5

Sports, 9

Opinions, 11

Neighbors alerted U. notifies residents of summer construction schedules.

winning Streak M. Hockey advances to the ECAC championship after defeating Yale.

Application videos?

William Tomasko ’13 opposes applications’ video components.

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Monday, March 15, 2010

“It’s fascinating feeling like you’re creating your own game.”

— Arthur Matuszewski ’11, on being a representative on the CCC

In new athletics complex, green space and top facilities continued from page 1 will be demolished once the new center is built and replaced with more parking, Maiorisi said. When the plan is completed, the total amount of parking by the facility will be “roughly about the same,” he said.

A new pedestrian walkway will lead to the athletic fields behind the OMAC, and a new green will be by the planned fitness center, according to plans drawn up by the architecture firm designing the new center and area, Robert A.M. Stern Architects.

Maiorisi expects the new center to earn a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certification, a distinction awarded to construction projects that use environmentally sustainable practices, he said.

Stern Architects studied other buildings on campus to come up with a design that felt like it fit, Maiorisi said. The planned center’s look is “traditional,” with a redbrick exterior reminiscent of local industrial warehouses, he said.

It might look familiar to those who remember Mar vel Gymnasium, he added — a colonial-style building located across the street from the football stadium, which closed in 1989 when the Pizzitola Sports Center opened, according to the Encyclopedia Brunoniana.

The gymnasium was demolished, but its cupola was salvaged and will be placed on top of the new fitness and aquatics center, Maiorisi said.

A new pool shapes up After several years of competing of f-campus and practicing in a temporar y aquatics facility, Brown’s diving, swimming and water polo teams will finally have a permanent home.

The new pool will be 56 meters long, Goldberger said. A standard Olympic-sized pool is only 50 meters long, but the extra six meters were added to allow for bulkheads which can divide the pool into three sections, allowing for greater flexibility of use, he said. During competition, the bulkheads can be pushed to the side.

With the bulkheads, recreational swimming can occur alongside team practices, he said. Recreational swim hours are currently limited, but in the new facility, the pool could be open to recreational swimmers for eight to 12 hours a day, he said.

The new center will also have separate lockers for the water polo and swim teams, as well as separate lockers for visiting teams, “which they haven’t had for three years,” Goldberger said.

Recreational swimmers will have their own set of lockers as well, he added. The new space means that intramural inner-tube water polo will be able to return, Goldberger said.

The plans include permanent seating for 400 spectators, according to the sketches. There will also be additional temporar y seating available for competitions, Goldberger said.

sudoku

Erik Ornitz / Herald

An open green quadrangle is featured in the design of the complex.

Harder, better, faster, stronger The center will also solve the crunch for varsity strength and conditioning facilities, which currently forces some teams to lift as early as 5 a.m., Goldberger said.

Several years ago, an independent assessment of the varsity athletics program noted that Brown’s program was most lacking in strength and conditioning facilities, Goldberger said. The current facility, located in the Pizzitola Center, has 3,700 square feet — falling far short of the 14,000 that the assessment recommended, according to Goldberger.

“We were putting athletes in ver y awkward times to work out,” Goldberger said, noting that such crowding could be unsafe.

Works out for everyone Non-varsity athletes will also benefit from nearly 10,000 square

feet of increased fitness space on the top floor of the center, according to Maiorisi. This new area will include roughly 150 new exercise machines such as treadmills and rowing machines, he said.

Three new dance studios, located on the ground floor, will also increase physical education class of ferings, Goldberger said.

A lobby on the ground floor may have vending machines or a cafe similar to the current Friedman Cafe, Goldberger said.

The new plans are par t of a desire to improve University infrastructure, Spies said. “It is ver y much a par t of the Plan for Academic Enrichment.”

“I think it’s a great statement about athletics and physical education,” Goldberger said.

CCC cycles through concentration reviews continued from page 1

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

The new strength and conditioning area, which will include mostly free weights and weightlifting platforms, will be located in the fitness center, east of the pool.

With about 12,000 square feet exclusively for varsity athletes, the center will triple the number of teams it can accommodate at once. Team conditioning will now occur mainly between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and there will no longer be lifting before 6 a.m., Goldberger said. There will also be a rehabilitation area, he said.

“I think that’s going to improve ever y team we have,” Goldberger said.

Katie Koh, Treasurer Chaz Kelsh, Secretary

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CCC’s suggestions, as well as from the department’s own plans — whether recruiting additional faculty, which requires funding approval, or restructuring course requirements in the concentration.

Sheela Krishnan ’10, a student representative on the CCC, said that during the review discussions there is “definitely a lot of backand-forth. Everyone has their own opinions and ever yone’s opinions are heard, which is great. It’s amazing in that ever yone comes to the table with open minds.”

Krishnan, a human biology concentrator who was on the subcommittees for the South Asian studies and East Asian studies reviews, said she has been able to witness “the inner-workings of course of-

ferings” and “how a humanities concentration is achieved.” As a student, she said she has enjoyed seeing “how the concentration ties in with the idea of liberal learning at Brown.”

Arthur Matuszewski ’11, a former Post- editor-in-chief who is serving his second year as student representative on the CCC, said he thinks the review process is crucial in keeping up with the changing needs of students. “Seeing the new curriculum be reinvented and reinscribed has been the most phenomenal part to me,” Matuszewski said.

“As a student (representative on the CCC), in part, defining Brown becomes defining what you want your own educational experience to be. It’s fascinating feeling like you’re creating your own game.”

Hye-Sook Wang, associate professor and chair of East Asian studies, said the department had not conducted this type of self-examination since its inception more than a decade ago, and having a concentration review allowed the faculty to consider changing the structure of the undergraduate program. The department is debating eliminating the current countr yfocused track system, and doing so

would necessitate a revision of the advising framework, Wang said. By undergoing the review, the department received insight on the countr y-track question from the CCC, particularly with regard to how similar departments handle the issue. The CCC also independently recommended clarifying wording about course requirements on the department Web site, something Wang said the faculty had not previously considered. Wang said the review was useful because there was “two-way communication. It was a reciprocal process.”

Bergeron said reciprocity is a particularly important aspect of the second round of concentration reviews. “I think tr ying to articulate clearly the intellectual goals (of a concentration) needs to be an iterative process,” Bergeron said.

“It needs to be a conversation.”

Bergeron also said she has been pleasantly surprised by the outcomes of the reviews. “Faculty at Brown care a lot about their students and their concentrations.

Ultimately I find this conversation ver y enriching because you find out how much people really want to make their courses of study better.”

Monday, March 15, 2010

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“If you bring in more money, you get more money.”

— Jan Hesthaven, Professor of Applied Mathematics

Students whip up tastes of the world New incentive program to support graduate students

By Alicia Chen Senior Staf f Writer

By Sarah Mancone S enior S taf f Writer

While most Brown students have to rely on the Sharpe Refector y for some Tastes of the World, the participants in the Office of International Programs’ Top Chef competition last Thursday displayed some of the foods that these students enjoyed when they studied abroad.

FEATURE Contestants gathered at 7 p.m. in the OIP office for their chance to show off their culinar y flair to the strains of music from different corners of the world, The competition — which was organized by OIP Associate Director Ned Quigley — was part of a “series of re-entr y events” for students returning from study abroad, said Adrian Doyle, an OIP study abroad adviser.

It helps “keep them connected to their countr y,” said Andrea Lipkin, an OIP study abroad adviser.

During the competition, four judges carefully tasted each food entr y and asked the contestants questions about their dishes, which they prepared beforehand and brought to the competition.

After the tasting, the judges gathered to make their deliberations, leaving the contestants to mingle. During this time, contestants shared battle stories about their guerilla cooking endeavors in their dorms and reminisced about their experiences studying abroad.

The dishes represented an assortment of delicacies from various cultures. Rocio Bravo ’10 made tortilla espanola — a Spanish omelette appetizer made with potatoes — and recounted the difficulty of peeling the potatoes without a peeler.

Stephanie Le ’10 partnered with Alexis Mancini ’10 to recreate Anzac biscuits and Lamington cakes, two dishes that they discovered from their time abroad in Sydney, Australia. The lack of some cooking supplies limited the team’s options, Le said, adding that being short an electric mixer “ruled out some dishes.”

Michelle Morales ’11, who partnered with Julia Salinas ’11 to make limonada suiga — a lime, condensed milk and ice water drink — said the “stress seemed more manageable” in Brazil.

After lengthy deliberations, the judges announced that Amos Lichtman ’10 won first prize for the risotto and tiramisu that he perfected during his time abroad in Bologna, Italy, last spring.

David Goff ’10 won second prize for his rendition of knackebrod, a

Alexis Mancini / Herald

Stephanie Le ’10 prepared Australia’s Anzac biscuits and Lamington cakes for the competition.

rye wheat and fennel seed cracker.

Goff grew to enjoy the traditional Swedish snack during his time studying abroad in Stockholm, Sweden — however, he has not yet won many converts to the unique snack back at Brown, he said.

Kelsey Peterson ’10 earned third prize for her trifle — an English raspberr y, pudding and custard confection — that she was introduced to during her studies junior year at University College London.

The edible creations of the eight contestants were evaluated by four judges, who donned chef hats from the Ratty.

Food Network enthusiast Youenn Ker vennic, a lecturer in French studies and resident director of the Brown-in-France program, said his French nationality figured in the coordinators’ decision to include him as a judge.

Others were chosen because they would bring a more objective point of view to the judging table.

Associate University Chaplain for the Roman Catholic Community Henr y Bodah said he was just an “innocent bystander” who worked in the same J. Walter Wilson corridor as the event’s coordinators when he was recruited to judge.

The event’s two other judges were Senior Study Abroad Adviser Linda Brault and Office of International Student and Scholar Services Assistant Director Jamie Kendrioski.

The first prize winner received $50 and the second and third prize winners each received $25. All contestants also received certificates for a free scoop of ice cream at Ben and Jerr y’s.

Reflecting on the night’s success, Doyle said he hopes the competition will become an annual event.

The Graduate School is launching a new research assistantship incentive program designed to bring in a greater number of research assistants during the 2010–11 academic year.

The incentive plan was announced in a September 2009 memo while it was pending Corporation approval for the funding needed for its launch, Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“The RA incentive program is intended to enable departments to bring in additional external funding to suppor t graduate education through research assistantships,” Bonde wrote. “The program reflects Brown’s strategic aim of fostering a culture of excellence in research.”

The incentive program is meant to provide “a mechanism for programs to grow by gaining external suppor t that can alleviate the demands placed on the graduate school to suppor t students,” Associate Professor of Medical Science and University Resources Committee Vice Chair David Sheinberg PhD’94 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“For ever y three new RA appointments above a baseline established by the Graduate School, the program will be able to fund one additional student,” Bonde wrote.

This is beneficial to professors, because the money they give to the University for three new students will come back to them in the form of an extra fellowship, said Professor of Applied Mathematics and URC member Jan Hesthaven.

The program “puts incentives in place that would tr y and get faculty members to write more grants,” Hesthaven said. “If you bring in more money, you get more money.”

“In late Januar y, each of the depar tments that qualified this year for a share of the funding were advised of the amount that would be provided, so that they could factor it in to their doctoral admissions process this spring,” Bonde wrote.

When professors get money from outside resources to fund assistantships, there is an overhead that has to be paid to the University, Hesthaven said.

Through this program, the “overhead pays for the four th student” and “doesn’t cost the

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University,” he added.

“In the ideal world, it’s a winwin,” he said.

The program will commence in the next academic year and be available to any department that brings in external funds to support research assistants, Bonde wrote. This share in revenue will enable graduate programs and researchers to plan for growth in a future fiscal year, she added.

While the program is meant to aid all depar tments, it is meant to specifically target science and engineering depar tments, Hesthaven said.

A number of faculty members proposed and collaborated on this program with the Graduate School, including Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Beppie Huidekoper, Bonde wrote.

“The budget for FY 20102011, which was approved by the Corporation, includes a one-time allocation of $250,000 from the Provost’s budget to launch this RA incentive program,” Bonde wrote.

The URC “certainly discussed the request and the requested amount,” Sheinberg wrote, and “determined that if the program as described were to work there would be a minimum amount that would make sense to get it going.”

After this initial allocation of money, the program will be self-suppor ting, using research dollars brought in by grant recipients for research assistantships, Bonde wrote.

“The rationale behind the one-time allocation is that this allotment is designed to provide a bank for the program that can allow it to provide incentives to existing programs that will, themselves, fund the program by winning external awards to pay for RA-ships,” Sheinberg wrote.

The program is a model aimed at incentivizing growth of the graduate programs “at little or no cost to the University,” Hesthaven said.

The $250,000 allocation is a way to get the process star ted, and eventually the program “pays for the cost,” he said.

This is a “once-in-a-lifetime allocation,” he added.

The program is meant to be long-term, Sheinberg wrote.

“The one-time allocation is not intended to be a shor t-term fix, but rather to ser ve as seed money for a program that can be self-sustaining.”

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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Monday, March 15, 2010

“Double hires take a lot of … good astrology.”

— Michael Steinberg, Cogut Center for the Humanities director

Faculty couples struggle to find tenure together continued from page 1

sity, Brown has no written policy that concerns married and partnered faculty, said Dean of the Faculty Rajiv Vohra P’07. Nor does the University plan to institute one, he said.

“Having a policy means different things to different people,” Vohra said. “What we have is a protocol, or an understanding, about how we help with job placement.”

The University addresses dual career hires on a case-by-case basis because it cannot guarantee that tenured or tenure-track positions will be available for both partners, Vohra said, or that both partners will meet departmental standards for available positions. Brown’s approach and efforts to accommodate are no different for same-sex couples, he added.

Even without a “written explicit policy,” the University has done “a fair bit of hiring where we’ve found a way to hire couples,” he said. “If you look at the actual outcomes, I think we are doing quite well.”

‘Good astrology’ “Double hires take a lot of … good astrology, because you can’t really control the situation,” said Michael Steinberg, director of the Cogut Center for the Humanities and professor of history and music.

Steinberg arrived at Brown in 2005 with his wife, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Studies Suzanne StewartSteinberg, who applied for an open faculty spot at the University after Steinberg was offered his current job.

If Stewart-Steinberg had not also been offered a position at Brown, “we probably would have both stayed at Cornell,” she said.

But not all academic couples can choose between two institutions with available positions for both partners.

Before Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and her husband Associate Professor of Music Joseph Rovan came to Brown in 2004, they maintained a long-distance marriage while working at institutions in California and Texas.

“It’s great to be able to talk about your life, not over the phone,” Bergeron said of her marriage now.

Bergeron and Rovan “didn’t go on the job market” to find work at the same institution — instead, “the opportunities opened up,” she said.

“I think that in our case, the Plan for Academic Enrichment was a benefit, because of the expansion of the faculty that the University was undergoing,” she said, which led to the open positions and “possibilities for

recruitment” that allowed the couple to move to Providence.

When one partner is applying for a job at the institution where the second partner already works, that relationship may never come up during the application process.

“Sometimes, frankly, I don’t even know that we’ve hired a couple,” Vohra said.

When Professor of Sociology Mark Suchman applied to Brown, his marriage to Nina Tannenwald — who was already an associate research professor of international relations — was “no secret, but it was not a formal part of the application,” Tannenwald said.

Still, his marriage was a big consideration — if Suchman had not gotten a job at Brown, he and Tannenwald would have both accepted positions at another institution, she said.

“We were willing to do the commuting thing for awhile, but we have children, and it’s not sustainable or viable over the long run,” Tannenwald said. “That’s basically the only choice you have.”

Clarifying expectations While dual career couples “can present a great opportunity” to the University, the general scarcity of available faculty positions means that universities sometimes have to scramble to find a way to employ a potential hire’s partner, Vohra said.

For example, the University could transfer funds so that a department that wouldn’t normally have an open position can hire, Vohra said.

When no tenured or tenure-track position can be made available, the University may offer a partner a temporary or untenured job — an option both Steinberg and StewartSteinberg said they probably would not have taken.

When the University offered Armstrong a position as Dean of the College in 2000, a five-year position as visiting associate professor and senior lecturer in American civilization and comparative literature was offered to Haviland, who held a tenured position at the time at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, The Herald reported in July 2006.

Though Haviland’s position at Brown was untenured, she accepted based on the understanding that her contract would be automatically renewed unless she failed to meet the same job performance standards that tenured faculty are held to, according to the Feb. 11 Superior Court decision.

Haviland appealed to the Superior Court when the University only renewed her appointment for

two and a half years. Haviland’s job performance was evaluated against the Department of American Civilization’s standard of teaching excellence, rather than by the standards used to evaluate tenured faculty, according to the court decision.

Because senior lecturers have the “primary responsibility” of teaching classes, the University’s “basic commitment” to “ensure excellence in teaching is of paramount importance,” Vohra wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

The court determined that it was “reasonable” for Haviland to assume her contract would be renewed for the full five years, and the decision further clarified that in the future, “Haviland’s appointment shall be renewed for additional five-year terms” unless her conduct meets the same standards that would determine “adequate cause for dismissal of a tenured faculty member from the University.”

Haviland did not sue the University, so the court decision is simply a legal clarification of her contract.

“To the degree that the court placed the special circumstances of this instance above that fundamental University responsibility” of enforcing its standards of instruction, “I do not believe this was a satisfactory outcome,” Vohra wrote.

The University’s lack of a written policy defining its approach to dual career hires is “sometimes taken to mean, if only we had a policy,” disputes and dissatisfaction could be avoided, Vohra said.

But “I don’t think in our context that makes a lot of sense,” he said, adding that it’s “not very fruitful to have a cookie-cutter approach to this.”

‘Quality control’ While recruiting top faculty members is central to the University’s mission, “recruiting an individual is not just recruiting that person,” Vohra said. Administrators try to entice prospective hires in any number of ways, including offering start-up research packages, helping recruits find housing and providing academic positions for their partners.

When it cannot offer two longterm jobs, the University can try to help a partner locate available positions at nearby institutions, Vohra said. Brown is a member of the New England Higher Education Recruitment Consortium, a collaborative search engine of job postings at affiliated institutions in New England. On occasion, the University has collaborated with a nearby college or university to offer a dual career couple a job at each school, Vohra said.

The University works to accom-

modate the needs of all potential faculty members, but “one has to be clear that there are certain recruitments that are of far greater value to the institution than others,” Vohra said.

Of the 100 new faculty positions called for by the Plan for Academic Enrichment, 25 were allocated to the Target of Opportunity hiring program, which allows the University to bypass traditional search procedures when the chance to hire a particularly distinguished professor arises.

But regardless of how badly an institution wants to recruit someone, universities can do more harm than good by offering a position to that person’s partner if they are unqualified for the job, Steinberg said.

“I think what a university will ask itself is, ‘Would we hire this person alone?’ ” Steinberg said. To do otherwise, he added, could be damaging to the institution as well as to the professors’ personal relationship.

The 2008 Stanford report found that 29 percent of faculty members thought their departments had, in fact, hired a partner whom they considered “underqualified.” Despite this, professors who are hired after their partners are not less productive than other scholars in their disciplines, according to the survey.

Brown has a “very strict approach to quality control” when hiring for tenured or tenure-track positions, Vohra said, and the University would never ask a department to hire someone “it might otherwise not wish to hire given its own standards.”

Because departments are ultimately allowed to decide whether or not they wish to hire someone, the University could not institute a policy that guarantees placement for dual career couples, Vohra said.

“There’s no question about it, that we don’t always succeed” in accommodating dual career couples, he said. “Nor do I think one would want a system where the only definition of success is that anytime you decide to hire one person, you succeed in hiring the partner as well.”

Looking ahead Though faculty positions are particularly hard to find in the current economic climate, rising numbers of couples make it increasingly important and valuable for university hiring policies to accommodate dual career hires, according to the Stanford study.

Universities appear to view hiring faculty couples as “advantageous,” because “more and more one sees this happening at universities across the country,” Bergeron said.

Large universities and those located in remote areas are more

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likely to have written policies outlining their approach to hiring faculty couples, Vohra said. Since it is relatively easy for Brown to shift funds from one department to another, or help organize partner hires at nearby schools, such a policy would not be helpful to the University, he said.

Junior faculty members are at more of a disadvantage when attempting to find dual career positions because they have “fewer weapons on the table,” Steinberg said.

Discussing their partners before receiving a job offer could be “risky” for junior faculty, Tannenwald said.

“I think for beginning professors those kinds of things are generally not disclosed and I think it’s probably in their interest not to do that,” she said.

But though there is no formal point in the hiring procedure for applicants to bring up their partners, academic couples pose “a common enough situation that I don’t think at this stage that people find it all that difficult to bring it up,” Vohra said.

The University recognizes that dual career hires can be a “very good recruitment tactic,” Vohra said.

Faculty couples can be lucrative for institutions because they will probably stay in those positions until retirement, rather than go through another double job search, Tannenwald said.

“They are more likely to really invest in institution-building, because they see themselves more likely to be there in the long haul,” she said.

While dual career hiring is “going to have to increase” in the future as faculty couples increase, Tannenwald speculated there may be a “downturn over the next few years” due to the economy.

With less money to spend, institutions have fewer open spaces to hire faculty — which are “the most important resource a university has,” Steinberg said.

“The kind of black comedy way to put it is, there’s no spousal problem if there’s no position to begin with,” he said.

When the economy does improve, Vohra said he hopes to hire a staff member devoted to providing resources and facilitating partner placements for potential hires.

For the time being, “we try to do the best we can given the circumstances and, of course, given the constraints we have,” he said.

“Once we fill a faculty position — especially a tenured faculty position — we hope to do it in a way that we get the best people we can and that they stay here for a very, very long time.”

Page 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

“They’ve never asked me to sing like Nina Simone.”

U. informs neighbors of construction

By Qian Yin Staf f Writer

The University is reaching out to its neighbors to inform them of the impending construction of the new aquatics and fitness center, said Jennifer Braga, government relations and community af fairs liaison.

Construction of the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center and Jonathan Nelson ’77 Fitness Center — located at the corner of Hope and Cushing streets — will begin this summer and is projected to end Januar y 2012, Braga said.

A letter was delivered last Wednesday to Moses Brown School, the Wheeler School and residents along Stimson Avenue, which will be affected by the construction, Braga said. The letter contains general information about the construction project and a picture of the design of the building. It also promises continuous communication with the neighbors throughout the construction process, she said.

The work schedule for the construction will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., said Stephen Maiorisi, vice president for facilities management. Maiorisi said the construction parking will be on site, so parking will be available to the community after 5 p.m.

As for the dust that construction will generate, “the key is to have really good communication with the neighbors,” Maiorisi said.

He added that steel erection is not as loud as some other kinds of construction.

As with all major University construction projects, there will be a Construction Mitigation Plan to minimize the impact of construction on the neighborhood, said Albert Dahlberg, director of state and community relations. Some of

the University’s actions include systems for directing pedestrians, traf fic control plans, dust- and noise-control measures, badges for off-site parking for contractors and wheel cleaning for vehicles departing the complex to prevent spreading dirt, Dahlberg said.

The University will hold a series of meetings open to the public to discuss issues related to the construction of the center, Dahlberg said. The first meeting will be held March 31 to give a quick over view of the project and to discuss the design and the parking reconfigurations, he said. The second meeting, to be held in June before the construction begins, will provide more details about the project, he said.

E-mail invitations to the meetings will be delivered to members of the larger community surrounding the University, including institutions and residents in College Hill, Fox Point, Jewelr y District and Mount Hope areas, Braga said.

Ms. Soltani, who lives at 19 Stimson Ave. and declined to give The Herald her first name, said she is concerned about the dust and noise that the construction will bring.

“That means our summer is ruined,” Soltani said, adding that it was so dusty when the old Smith Swim Center was being demolished that she had to keep her windows closed. She hopes the construction will “go fast,” she said. She received the letter from the University and said the effort to communicate with neighbors is “absolutely appreciated.”

Gar y Esposito, the Wheeler School’s business manager, said someone from the Wheeler School will attend the University’s meetings to learn more about the construction. He said he is concerned about the potential impact of the

construction, but is confident that the University will be “sensitive” about the issue as “they always are.”

In the past, the University has always communicated with the community before major constr uction projects, Braga said.

She said she has received mainly positive feedback regarding the University’s notifications and no complaints about the construction projects.

“We’ve been really vigilant about minimizing impact and about communicating things that are coming up,” Braga said.

The University has been “ver y informative and ver y proactive” with construction projects, Esposito said. He said he has been constantly receiving e-mails from the University informing him of developments in the construction of the Perr y and Marty Granof f Center for the Creative Arts.

Son Ho, owner of Phonatic Restaurant, located opposite the creative arts center currently under construction, said the project is taking a long time and the noise and blocking of the sidewalk is creating inconvenience for his customers. He said a light that was left on at night used to bother people sitting in the restaurant.

In response to the community’s requests for regular meetings, the University will hold bimonthly meetings open to the public regardless of whether there is a new construction project, Braga said.

She said the goal of these meetings is “to build a sense of community between people at Brown and our neighbors,” to keep the community informed of the construction and other topics of interest and “to create a regular two-way dialogue.”

— With additional reporting

by Talia Kagan

Panel confronts sexual stereotypes continued from page 1 the people of the kinky world.

Audience members said they found the film eye-opening. “The film was amazing,” said Chihiro Hashimoto ’13. “It was so informative, and it opened a new realm of discussion for me.”

After the screening, a panel explored some of the more complex issues revolving around the relationship between racial and ethnic identity and sexuality. The self-selected student panel, embodying a range of sexual identities, explored topics such as BDSM and cultural stereotyping in the bedroom.

“For me, race doesn’t go into power dynamics,” said Eduardo Garza ’12. “Part of the beauty of being in a relationship is sharing intimate experiences with someone.”

Gypsy Vidal ’12 shared her own experiences with racial stereotyping. She said she tries to discuss

power dynamics openly with her partners.

“I’m constantly aware of them,” she said. “I think they’re so important in life, relationships and interactions.”

Through his discussion of how black men can be perceived in sexual situations, Malcolm Shanks ’11.5 said, for him, his race has played a leading role in his sexual identity and his relationships. When the panel spoke of viewing race play — an invocation of fantasies and romances, mysteries and dreams — as a positive, he said that most of the stereotypes he’s dealt with tend to be more denigrating than sensual.

“Trust me,” he says. “They’ve never asked me to sing like Nina Simone.”

He explained that some of the images revolving around the black male have a connotation of dominance or can allude to slavery.

The screening and discussion

Monday, March 15, 2010

was the first in a series of sexthemed events that will be taking place around campus for the rest of the week, including a discussion on the relationship between physical ability and sex, “the joys and pleasures of strapping it on” and an indepth workshop on the importance of good communication for the success of a relationship, according to event descriptions. There will also be three raffles with prizes such as sex toys, including a vibrator that syncs with people’s iTunes and iPods.

Manduley said the main purpose of Sex Week is to empower people and to incite them to explore and better understand different aspects of sexuality that may get overlooked by society.

“It’s important to unpack these categories — gender, sexuality and sexual expression — and go beyond defining them,” she said. “We want to show students what people think and not what people should think.”

— Malcolm Shanks ’11

Y o ho !

Alex Bell / Herald

The pirate a cappella group, Arrr!!!, performs under Wayland Arch in traditional garb.

Arts & Culture The Brown Daily Herald

On stage, words of female prisoners come to life

By Sarah Mancone Senior Staff Writer

Five women dressed in black stand in a line while the audience waits patiently. As the first words are spoken, the entire audience becomes very quiet.

No one shuffles in his or her seat. No one speaks. They just listen.

They listen to the words of incarcerated women telling tales of being raped, beaten, tortured and abandoned, during which some members of the audience are moved to tears.

They listen to phrases like “You ain’t been beat by your own mama,” “He then proceeded to rape me” and “If I ever left him, the result would be the death of my children.”

These words were recited during “Any One of Us: Words from Prison,” a performance of writings from women in prison wanting to tell their stories, presented in Smith-Buonanno Hall last Thursday.

Two writings from “Any One of Us” are original works by women from Rhode Island’s Adult Correctional Institute. Tab Glavin, who co-produced the event with Shanna Wells, said she hopes to present the stories at the prison next year.

Other writings come from the Robert Scott Correctional Facility in Plymouth, Mich.; Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, N.Y.; Broward Correctional Institution in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; and San Francisco County Jail No. 8. They were read by volunteer actresses Rhonda Araujo, Kim Baker, Kristen Butler, Carolyn Mark and Maria Mendes.

According to Glavin, the concept started as a writing workshop that Eve Ensler, writer of the “Vagina Monologues,” ran for 10 years.

“The words were so very powerful” that they evolved from just a writing workshop into not only a performance but also a book and a film, Glavin said.

The different stories that were told are moving, and they are real.

One is about a 9-year-old girl who was drugged and raped by her brother.

Another is about an incarcerated woman who was raped by a correctional guard and threatened with “major misconduct” if she told anybody.

“My body was no longer mine,” she said.

One girl was raped by two men in an abandoned building. “I crawled out of that building,” the performer said.

There were multiple stories of severely abusive husbands and boyfriends. “If this is love, then please hate me,” one prisoner wrote.

“You beat me, I let you,” another performer said.

Writing these stories down was “very cathartic for these women,” Glavin said.

This event is meant to show the complexity of imprisoned women’s situations and “bring attention to end violence against women and girls.” It is bringing the issue out and “throwing it in people’s faces,” Glavin said.

“You need to care about this.”

“Any One of Us” was hosted by the

Coalition Against Relationship Abuse, the Sexual Assault Task Force and the Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

The proceeds went to OpenDoors, a program that provides long-term case management services for former prisoners reintegrating into the community.

Abuse victims constitute 79 percent of women in federal and state prisons, and female prisoners are three to four times more likely to have experienced abuse than male prisoners, according to a pamphlet distributed at the event. Ninety percent of women now in prison for killing their husbands or boyfriends did so in order to protect themselves from violence.

“People need to hear the truth,” Glavin said. “There’s a story why this woman is going to jail.”

“It doesn’t justify it, but it certainly qualifies it,” she added.

The recitations have a clear progression from acts of abuse toward these women to their feelings of anger and ultimately revenge to punishment for their retaliation.

“You say, ‘Lock them up.’ I say, ‘When were they free?’ ” one woman read.

“You say, ‘An eye for an eye.’ I say, ‘I long to see,’ ” another added.

A panel discussion about issues affecting women in prison followed.

Four participants answered questions posed by Wells and the audience.

Sol Rodriguez, executive director of OpenDoors, said prison is particularly difficult for women because they have “lost years of their lives, years of their children’s lives.”

“Women tend to suffer more quietly,” said panelist Koren Carbuccia from SER-Jobs for Progress.

“Sometimes things hurt so bad” that women tend to just put them aside, she added.

To help these women, judgment must be withheld, said Liz Tobin Tyler, director of public service and community partnerships at Roger Williams School of Law. “Listening is a huge part of it,” she added.

“They just need somebody to be a friend to them,” said panelist Robyn Frye from Providence Re-entry Initiative. Frye added that people often get too caught up in statistics, and there is “no connection to a face, no connection to a soul.”

A woman’s situation behind bars does not preclude the fact that she has an amazing story to tell, Carbuccia said.

The event was presented by Until the Violence Stops: Rhode Island, a week-long festival bringing attention to violence directed toward women.

This is the festival’s third year in the state. Other parts of this festival included multiple performances of “The Vagina Monologues,” a peace photo exhibit, a sex trivia night and an allmale event, which were all fundraisers for organizations formed to aid women, Glavin said.

This event is “the hardest to hear,” Glavin said. “It’s very staggering for you.”

“It’s very shocking,” she said, “but it’s real.”

Monday, March 15, 2010 | Page 6

B oom B oom P ow

Alex Bell / Herald Students exhibit Taiko drumming skills in a performance on Saturday night in Sayles Hall.

After fourth ‘fifth symphony’, Beethoven up next

By Jonathan Chou Contributing Writer

Music filled Sayles Hall as the Brown University Orchestra amazed audiences with a wonderful performance of “Music from the Year 1915.” Led

by Senior Lecturer in Music Paul Phillips, the orchestra held its third concert of the academic year Friday and Sunday.

Igor Stravinksy’s “Chant du Rossignol” opened the concert, followed

by Sergei Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, op. 19” with co-concertmaster Catherine Chiu ’12 as violin soloist. The last piece, Jean Sibelius’ “Symphony No.5 in E flat major, op. 82,” perhaps the highlight of the concert, continued the theme of fifth symphonies that was chosen in the beginning of the

year.

Phillips said the process of choosing the repertoire is “one of the most challenging parts of the job.”

The Stravinsky that opened the concert was a “very challenging piece,” Phillips said. But in the short time they had to practice, the members of orchestra had “risen to the challenge.” Bass player Ed Backlund ’13 said they could only rehearse five to six hours a week, but added that the concerts “went pretty well given the time we had.”

Chiu, who was brilliant during Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto,” began studying violin at the age of 10 and won the 2009 Concerto Competition last year, earning her a soloist spot in the concerts. She brought the audience to its feet at the end of her performance, receiving flowers and

a thunderous standing ovation.

Sibelius’ “Fifth Symphony” was quickly withdrawn after its 1915 premiere in Finland because Sibelius was dissatisfied with the piece.

Only in 1919 did he release its final version, performed at the concerts.

In the last movement especially, the orchestra demonstrated Sibelius’ signature techniques, including the use of a suspenseful mood, created by changes in dynamics and pace as well as bow strokes such as tremolo — a very fast reiteration of the same note — throughout the piece. The powerful and moving composition resulted in shouts for encores.

The year’s concerts will conclude on April 30 and May 2 with the “Season Finale,” completing the theme with Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony.”

Raffel ’79 brings book to campus

By Fei Cai Staf f Writer

Vanity Fair has called her book “as sharp and bright as stars.” O, The Oprah Magazine says her stories “strikingly explore how small moments can influence personal and familial identity.” And on April 14, she will be coming to Brown to read from her new book.

“Further Adventures in the Restless Universe,” a collection of 21 short stories about the struggles of family life by Dawn Raffel ’79, will be published by Dzanc Books and released Tuesday. Raffel has been critically acclaimed for her other works, which include the novel “Carr ying the Body” and the collection of short stories “In the Year of Long Division.”

Next month’s event, which will take place at the McCormack Family Theatre at 7:30 p.m., was coordinated by the Literary Arts Program.

Professor Brian Evenson, chair of the Literar y Ar ts Program, wrote of Raffel’s past readings in

an e-mail to The Herald, “Dawn is an excellent reader, almost hypnotic sometimes. She works so closely and so consciously with the dynamics of her fiction that by the time she reads a story aloud she’s almost memorized it. I’ve seen her ‘read’ a story without ever having to look at the page that the story is written on.”

Raffel said the title of her newest book came from a memory of a book her father read to her as a child in place of bedtime stories.

The book, “The Restless Universe”

by Max Born, claimed to be a layman’s guide to physics that even a child could understand, which her father took literally, she said.

Hence, the title became a symbol of family and personal life.

The stories were influenced by the recent death of her parents, she said.

“Loosely, I guess all of my stories are about family,” she said. “ ‘In the Year of Long Division’ is about the divide of impulses and of what we’re trying to express,” she added.

While many of the stories center around family issues, Raffel also said that her new book “is about different aspects of people trying to connect and understand each other.”

As a way to promote her book, Raffel collaborated with Luca Dipierro, co-director of the film “60 Writers/60 Places,” to create a short film resembling a trailer for one of the stories from the book, “The Heir and His Relatives.” The bright and colorful images, set in a planetarium, are accompanied by voiceovers of Raffel reading lines from the story.

“The video took me by surprise,” she said. “It was ver y impressionistic, and I liked what (Dipierro) did with it.”

Raffel added that there are a lot of visual images in her work, and she believes they come from being surrounded by visual artists, particularly her sister and mother.

“I often start a work with a visual image that is charged for me continued on page 7

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

A rts &C ulture

Monday, March 15, 2010

“I write when I feel like I’m going to explode if I don’t write.”

— Dawn Raffel ’79

At festival, spotlight on Haiti’s struggles Alum shares personal continued from page 1

said he proposed the film festival to push discourse on Haiti beyond the sentiment of, “I feel guilty and I have to help because there was an earthquake.”

Torrealba, who has also coordinated the University’s Latin American Film Festival for the past three years, said “instead of exploiting the guilt feelings,” he aimed to convey “a consciousness of what the culture is. I think when you know somebody or something or a culture and you feel it’s related … it’s easier for you to care for that.”

Kona Shen ’10, one of four students who organized the festival, expressed similar sentiments. “I think there’s really a need to show different sides of Haiti, considering that we’re in a recover y stage,” she said. “The beauty of the films is that we can show different sides of Haiti through the lens of filmmakers.”

The festival kicked of f Friday evening with a screening of “How to Conquer America in One Night” by Haitian director Dany Laferriere. In French with English subtitles, the film is set mainly in Montreal and, while largely a comedy that drew much laughter, is a telling and poignant commentar y on the hardships facing Haitians who immigrate to America, whether they have spent years tr ying to acclimate or are new arrivals full of hope and wonder.

Films such as this provided Haitian perspectives on issues surrounding the countr y, as opposed to views circulated by the media that don’t necessarily give weight to the opinions of Haitians themselves.

Shen, who is traveling to Haiti next week to finish research for her senior thesis said the organizers tried to combine some of the few films they knew had received recognition with some lesser-known films, so that the festival would represent a mixture of mainstream films and lowbudget documentaries.

The second day began with “The Agronomist,” which profiles the life of Haitian radio journalist and human rights activist Jean Dominique. Shen cited it as a “really amazing … powerful film” that is “heartbreaking” and speaks to recent events. Another film of the four shown Saturday, “Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy,” is about Haitian women’s roles in globalization.

Festival organizers invited Myrdell Belizaire and Judith Alexandre of the Association of Haitian Women in Boston to be guest speakers after the screening of “Poto Mitan.” The two women spoke about issues pertaining to Haiti’s current economic situation and challenges to the nation’s development and also answered audience questions.

Toward the end of the discussion, they urged caution in

choosing how to contribute to relief efforts in Haiti. Many assume that when they donate money to Haiti, their funds are going to the poorest and neediest Haitians, Alexandre said. But the bureaucracy surrounding many organizations prevents this.

“For those who want to (help), do a little bit more research before you choose to donate to the organization,” she said. “I want money to go into helping people.”

The festival screened four films Sunday, closing with “Dr. Farmer’s Remedy for World Health,” a CBS “60 Minutes” segment about Partners in Health founder Paul Farmer.

According to Shen, the festival was part of “building a foundation for the long-term commitment that Brown wants to make” in promoting the study of Haitian issues.

The University is already furthering its unique programs regarding Haiti. According to the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Web site, the John Carter Brown Librar y houses the second-best collection of materials on colonial Haiti in the world and is in the process of digitizing its Haitian materials in partnership with Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti. The University is also one of few outside Haiti to offer two full years of Haitian Creole, and the annual Haitian Studies Association conference will take place on campus in November of this year.

history through fiction continued from page 6

in a way that I don’t understand,” she said. “The way to unpack it is through writing.”

She added, “I write when I feel like I’m going to explode if I don’t write.”

Raffel said that “Further Adventures in the Restless Universe” shares stylistic elements with her prior works, “In the Year of Long Division,” which is full of extremely compressed stories, and “Carrying the Body,” which is written in very short vignettes.

As for upcoming works, Raffel just finished a memoir also in vignettes. She is unsure when the book will be published.

Despite the compactness of the stories, the book took Raffel a long time to complete. She began writing the stories in 2001, not realizing she would be writing a book.

“I revise by cutting,” she said.

“The book is ver y short, about a hundred pages.”

Evenson, who has read both of Raffel’s previous works, wrote, “I think Dawn has a remarkable attention to language, a real sense of rhythm and a genuine control of sound that makes her work a pleasure to read. No word feels wasted.

She makes language palpable, but not at the expense of story and narrative progression.”

A semiotics concentrator at Brown, Raffel said she had always wanted to write but did not start seriously until after college. She first was a fiction editor, and though she always had the desire to write, she said it was very hard to do so because she did not know what to write about.

“It’s your life that gives you something to write about,” she said.

Raffel said she wants her book to evoke emotions in its readers. She usually does not give her characters names so that they become more universal: The events in her stories can happen to any person.

www.blogdailyherald.com

SportsMonday The Brown Daily Herald

SCOREBOARD

baseball

softball

Brown 4 South Carolina 8

Brown 5 Central Conn. 6

W. LACROSSE

Brown 7 South Carolina 10

Brown 12 Coppin St. 1

Brown 5 South Carolina 6

Brown 12 Hampton 2

Princeton 16 Brown 6

M. LACROSSE

Monday, March 15, 2010 | Page 8

FENCING

Equestrian

NCAA qualifiers Adam Pantel ’10 Caitlin Taylor ’13

2nd at Johnson and Wales 2nd at Trinity

Brown 18 St. Joseph’s 4

M. LACROSSE

Bruno shuts down St. Joe’s despite weather

By Andrew Braca Assistant Spor ts Editor

The No. 17 men’s lacrosse team demolished St. Joseph’s, 18-4, on a rainy, windswept Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia to advance to 2-1 on the season, but Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90 was more pleased with his team’s effort than the large margin of victory.

“That is ver y satisfying as a coach, to know that in a torrential downpour we are excited to play, to compete and to demonstrate how much we care about each other and how much we care for this program,” he said.

Andrew Feinberg ’11 led the way with three goals, but the offense came from many sources, as 11 players scored goals, including five with two apiece, and eight players handed out assists. Tiffany said that the entire 32-man travel roster saw action.

“What was so gratifying was to see the (backups) get their opportunity and make the most of it, and demonstrate to me that we do have depth, that we’re able to rely on others to step up and make plays,” he said.

Parker Brown ’12 scored the first of his three goals 30 seconds into the game, and the Bears were off to the races, notching the first six goals of the game against the Hawks (0-7). Tiffany said he was pleased that the Bears did not let up from there, as many teams would have done with a large lead.

“I was ver y proud of the men that they did not allow the lull to occur, and every one of them who stepped in the game competed at a very high level,” Tiffany said.

The Bears sailed into halftime with a 13-3 lead despite having to battle a constant downpour and high winds that ravaged the field consistently from one goal to the other.

“If it had been a football game, one direction you could have thrown the ball 80 yards, the other direction maybe 30 yards. Lacrosse

balls are not affected as much by wind and rain,” Tiffany said, but he still wondered before the game if teams would have a football-style advantage going with the wind. “I don’t think it really makes a difference, but it was enough to make me think that way.”

The Bears continued to control the game in the second half, outscoring the Hawks 5-1, despite facing even tougher conditions.

“I really commend the men because they stood on the sidelines for an extended period of time,” Tiffany said. “By the time I told them to run into the game, they were cold, but they made no excuses and we overcame the challenge.”

Brown received strong play from a pair of goalies. After Matt Chriss ’11 notched two saves in five first-half tries, he gave way to Wills Curley ’13, a native of nearby Berwyn, Penn.

“Wills, going home, was able to make five saves and gave up one goal in the second half,” Tiffany said. “He played very well.”

It all added up to a significant defensive improvement, surrendering only four goals after giving up 15 in a March 6 loss to Hofstra and 12 in Tuesday’s overtime victor y over Hartford. Tif fany credited the upswing to “increased intensity and enhanced pressure on our opponent,” but he said he is not completely satisfied.

“We know that our next opponent, Har vard, is a much better offensive team, with a lot more weapons, so certainly we will not rest on any laurels from this game,” he said.

The Bears will travel north to face the Crimson (3-1) in their Ivy League opener Saturday, knowing they need to win more face-offs after losing 14 out of 25 to the Hawks.

“Despite the margin of victory this past Saturday, we still struggled at the face-off ‘X,’ ” Tiffany said. “Against an opponent such as Har vard, we cannot continue to give them the ball.”

www.browndailyherald.com

Courtesy of dspics.com

After scoring three goals on Saturday, Parker Brown ’12 writes about going on the road and winning by a landslide again St. Joseph’s.

Parker Brown ’12: Floodgates open at St. Joe’s For the name on the front, and back, of my jersey The men’s lacrosse team hit mauled St. Joe’s, 18-4, in Philadelphia on Saturday, and Parker Brown ’12 helped lead the Bears’ attack with two goals and two assists. Here is how it went down from his perspective.

As my road-trip roommate and personal life counselor Rob Schlesinger ’12 sat down next to me on the bus last Friday, with his renowned cowboy boots and BoSox hat in tow, a sense of relief came over me as we pulled away from the Ratty. Long bus trips, like the one we took last Friday to St. Joe’s that eclipsed five hours, provide me and my teammates ample opportunity to zone out, watch movies, sleep, Facebook creep and, most importantly, an excuse not to work because it makes us “car sick” (unless, of course, you actually have work due, or you are a machine a.k.a. Jason Pohanka ’11). By the time we checked into our hotel at 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning, my mind was cleared of all the stress from last week and focused on our next opponent: the Hawks of St. Joseph’s.

After a rejuvenating sleep and exceptional breakfast from the Crowne Plaza Hotel thanks to the

efforts of Assistant Coach Errol Wilson (or at least Bob and I felt good — our third roommate, Sam “Caviezel” Ford ’13 was appointed the fold-out cot even though he is 6’4” and I am 5’9” — sorr y Sam), our team took the field with a sense of urgency and purpose that over whelmed our young opponent. In the third game of the season, the Brown men’s lacrosse team improved to 2-1 in a convincing 18-4 victor y over St. Joe’s on Saturday afternoon. Facing torrential downpours from the opening face-off, our team embraced Coach Tiffany’s message to squeeze these opportunities to play when it is easy to make excuses. Yeah, man.

The Bears jumped out to an early lead in the first quar ter thanks to a very balanced offense, despite the river of water flowing in front of our sideline. Eleven different Bears scored during the game, including Shane McHugh ’13, Matt Shakespeare ’10, Johnny DePeters ’13, and Dan O’Brien ’12, who each scored their first career goal. With soggy socks and our newly promoted Riddell helmets, the Bears moved the ball with ease around the St. Joe’s zone defense and finished the first quarter lead-

ing, 9-1.

The Brown defense, when the ball managed to get onto our defensive side of the field, swarmed the St. Joe’s offense, putting the ball on the ground and clearing the ball efficiently. Wills Curley ’13 got some hometown love as he replaced Matt Chriss ’11 in the second half and played solid in his first Division I action. The defense simply over whelmed St. Joe’s, and I wish I could make more shout-outs, but what more is there to say? One goal allowed in the first, two in the second, one in the third and no goals allowed in the fourth quarter — I think it speaks for itself.

Like Coach Tiffany told us at the beginning of the day, Saturday was less of a test of our lacrosse ability as it was a test of our character. We could either slip by St. Joe’s and go home somewhat satisfied, or come out flying and make a statement in the first quarter. I think we did the latter, and the bus ride home from St. Joe’s was full of good vibes, good energy.

Next Saturday is a bigger test: our Ivy opener at Harvard. 3 p.m., Har vard Stadium. Get some.

— Parker Brown ’12

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports M onday

Monday, March 15, 2010

“We were all playing in the same crappy weather.”

— Alexa Caldwell ’11, women’s lacrosse player W. LACROSSE

Incessant rain and clouds dampen Brown’s spirits

By Tory Elmore Spor ts Staf f Writer

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Jack Maclellan ’12 scored the Bears’ only goal in the rubber match vs. Yale, which was enough for the win.

M. HOCKEY

Brown shocks No. 6 Yale, heads to ECAC semis

By Dan Alexander Spor ts Editor

Goalie Michael Clemente ’12 stared through his metal facemask out onto the ice as the final minutes of game three of the ECAC quarterfinals winded down. He had held No. 6 Yale, the top goal-scoring team in the league, scoreless so far.

But the Bulldogs’ offensive attack, which averaged 40 shots on goal per game and was led by the third-leading scorer in the nation, was gunning for him. And with the Bears ahead by only one goal, Clemente couldn’t afford any mistakes.

“You’re just going one shot at a time — deny the shot and control the rebound,” Clemente said.

He did just that — 44 times, without slipping up once.

Clemente maintained his shutout until the final buzzer sounded, sending Brown to the ECAC Hockey semifinals in Albany, N.Y., for the first time since 2003.

“It’s definitely the best time of year to be playing hockey,” Clemente said.

The Bears will look to pull another upset next Friday when they take on No. 9 Cornell in the ECAC semifinals on Friday.

This weekend’s series all came down to game three after Brown beat Yale on Friday, 3-2, then lost on Saturday, 6-3.

Brown 3, Yale 2 It was a similar stor y Friday night, when Yale was held to under three goals for just the second time since January, as Clemente stopped 37-of-39 shots.

Yale’s normally explosive offense fizzled while missing its leader, Ivy League Player of the Year Sean Backman, who broke his foot earlier in the week.

Brown’s offense did its part, thanks to Bobby Farnham ’12, Jeff Buvinow ’12 and tri-captain Aaron Volpatti ’10 — who each had one assist and one goal on the night.

“Game one, we came out on fire,” Clemente wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “The offense was clicking and the defense limited their second chances. I was beating passes, getting to the top of the crease and eating pucks.”

After a scoreless first period, Buvinow lit the lamp just seven seconds into the middle frame on a shot from the far side of mid-ice that found its way through traffic and between Yale goalie Billy Blaise’s legs.

Volpatti, who is tied for the most goals on Brown, had his 15th of the season 57 seconds after Buvinow’s to give the Bears a 2-0 lead.

The teams traded goals in the opening 6:18 of the third period, and neither team scored again until the Bulldogs got one with 38 seconds left after pulling their goalie in favor of an extra attacker, narrowing Brown’s lead to 3-2, where it stayed until the buzzer sounded.

Yale 6, Brown 3 Neither Clemente’s play nor Backman’s absence could slow down the Bulldogs’ offense Saturday night.

Broc Little — the third-leading goal scorer in the nation — scored just 26 seconds into the game.

Three other Bulldogs added goals in the first two periods, giving Yale a 4-0 lead heading into the final frame.

“Saturday we got off to a slow start,” Clemente wrote. “I let in a couple soft goals.”

In a third period plagued by penalties, Brown mounted a comeback that made the final score look more exciting, but never gave the Yale crowd much to worry about as the Bears couldn’t get closer than three goals away.

The Bears’ first goal on the night came shorthanded, when Jack Maclellan ’12 executed a 2-on1 rush after a turnover in the neutral zone, making the score 4-1. But any momentum Brown could have

gained from the goal died quickly when Yale added its fifth goal just 1:10 later.

Volpatti scored for the sixth game in a row on a five-on-three power play with 6:08 left in the third period, and Scott Van der Linden ’10 matched a late Yale goal with his first of the season in the last minute of the game, making the final score 6-3.

“We just tried to turn it around a little bit in the third period to just try to get some momentum going into tonight, and it looks like it paid off,” Maclellan said after Sunday’s game.

Brown 1, Yale 0 It was just a little off from the start for the Yale, as Marc Arcobello put one off of the pipe less than two minutes into the game.

The one-inch miss came back to haunt the Bulldogs.

Maclellan scored the only goal of the game shorthanded 9:21 after the opening faceoff.

Two Yale defenders collided, leaving the puck lying open and Maclellan punched it out, raced down the ice and fired it past the goalie from one stride inside of the blue line.

It was Maclellan’s second shorthanded goal of the series.

Neither team scored for the rest of the night. The Bears lost on the shot charts, 44-21. But with Clemente shutting down Brown’s goal, Maclellan’s one was all the Bears needed.

“It’s pretty impressive to get a shutout against the No. 1 offensive team in the countr y,” Maclellan said.

When the clock finally showed 0:00, the Brown benched poured onto the ice to celebrate with Clemente. Maclellan said everyone on the team had a word of congratulations for the goalie.

When asked what those final moments were like, Clemente simply said, “Lots of fun. Lots of smiles.”

If you were at the women’s lacrosse game on Saturday, you might remember the weather — or be scarred by it.

Monsoon-like rain soaked the dedicated athletes and fans, while 25 mph winds ripped lacrosse sticks and umbrellas alike free of slipper y hands.

Coming off a week of pristine practice conditions — so atypical of Providence in March — the Bears succumbed to the abrupt climate change and a dominant Princeton squad, losing the game, 16-6.

“The weather was definitely hard to play in,” Alexa Caldwell ’11, who led the Bears with four ground balls, two draw controls and three forced turnovers, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “Both teams had to make adjustments. … We were all playing in the same crappy weather.”

Indeed, both teams dropped the ball more than usual, and, unfortunately for the Bears, Princeton capitalized on almost ever y mistake.

Though Molly McCar thy ’10 and Katelyn Caro ’12 gave the Bears an early 2-0 lead within five minutes of the opening draw, as the first half drew to a close, the 13th-ranked Tigers went on a fivegoal run, essentially putting an end

to Brown’s hopes of a 3-0 home record.

“At the very end of the first half we let down on defense — had some miscommunications that resulted in a couple quick goals

by Princeton,” Caldwell wrote.

“That’s when they took the lead for the rest of the game,” she added. “I think if we hadn’t let down in those last three minutes it would have been entirely different, but for the rest of the game we were fighting to clear that deficit.”

Despite the 10-goal loss, the Bears are eager — and confident — for a rematch.

“Coming into the game we all knew it would be a fight, and we wanted to strike first — which we did,” said offensive standout Caro, who scored twice. “We had the effort and the fight the whole game, we just didn’t put all the pieces together.”

“All we can do now is focus on what’s ahead and know that we will get another shot at Princeton in the Ivy Tournament,” Caro added.

Brown will need a win on Wednesday at Yale to keep hopes of the tournament alive, as only the top four of eight Ivy League teams qualify.

“I think the team is very excited to rebound from this game against Yale on Wednesday,” Caldwell said.

“We are on a mission to make it to the Ivy Tournament.”

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Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Monday, March 15, 2010

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

Oxford’s system more than just tutorials To the Editor: As someone who studied at Oxford in my junior year abroad, I am naturally sympathetic to arguments offered by David Sheffield ’11 and Sean Quigley ’10 in their recent columns in favor of adopting the tutorial method of learning (“What could Brown do for you?” Feb. 25; “Being truly collegial,” March 9). However, both columnists failed to properly situate the Oxbridge system within its overall institutional context. This is critical for understanding the tutorial method: In order to apply to the Oxford colleges, prospective British students must identify the subject area they wish to pursue and receive top marks on their “A level” exams. The process of preparing for A levels consumes the last two years of sixth form (high school). If accepted by one of the colleges, students spend their three years at Oxford absorbed in the single subject area they scored highest on in their A levels.

Thus, the tutorial method can be an effective means of academic exploration — provided that a student is fully committed to his or her given subject area. It enables a deeper and more intimate understanding of a discipline. But how reasonable is it to expect a 17-year-old to determine the sole subject area in which to earn a university degree? In a world where interdisciplinary collaboration is essential, how effective is it to restrict one’s range to a single domain? Institutions are embedded in a unique social setting that should be examined more deeply before latching on to the next big reform.

Christopher Hardy ’10 March 9

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e d i to r i a l

Make it count This month, Rhode Island residents will receive surveys for the 2010 census. The only problem is there aren’t enough people to go door-to-door surveying households that fail to return the form by mail. We encourage students to help resolve this issue by getting jobs with the local census office.

The U.S. Census Bureau will mail out forms during March, with a target return date of April 1. Census-takers, also known as enumerators, will then visit households that filled out the form incorrectly or didn’t return it at all and conduct the sur vey in person. These door-to-door visits take place from April to July. Administrators try to hire enumerators who live in the neighborhoods they will survey. This year, the census bureau plans to hire 2,300 people to serve as enumerators in Rhode Island’s communities.

Despite Rhode Island’s 12.7 percent unemployment rate, officials are having difficulty hiring enough qualified applicants to carry out the census, according to a recent Providence Journal article.

Many applicants do not have sufficient language and literacy skills to conduct the survey. Further, since the start of the testing process for potential hires last year, there has been considerable attrition in the pool of applicants still interested in the position.

Many of Rhode Island’s unemployed may also be worried about losing their access to unemployment benefits by taking a temporary job.

The Providence office plans to fill a total of 1,200 openings, but its director told the Providence Journal that it is still short of target recruitment.

And the census office in Warwick — which is responsible for surveying communities like Newport and Woonsocket — has less than 60 percent of the applicant pool size needed to ensure that all positions are filled by qualified enumerators.

Employment as an enumerator is a great opportunity for students to support the local community and get directly involved in a core process of our political system. The results of the census are critical to apportioning representation fairly and distributing federal funds effectively. But the job, which lasts about eight weeks, isn’t just noble. It’s also profitable: Enumerators earn $15 to $17 per hour, more than most on-campus jobs at Brown.

Most Brown students meet the basic employment requirements easily. The national census Web site especially encourages bilingual speakers to apply, and there’s no shortage of those here on campus. Enumerators usually conduct door-to-door sur veys in the evenings and on weekends, making the job reasonably compatible with students’ schedules. And given the experience many students already have canvassing for political causes, we feel students are exactly the type of qualified, enthusiastic applicants the local census offices hope to find.

In an ideal world, every household would complete the form accurately and return it by mail on time. For every one percent of the population that doesn’t return forms by mail, the government spends $85 million to locate them, U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves told the New York Times in January.

But as long as some households don’t respond, citizens need to step up and make sure everyone is counted. We hope students will take advantage of this opportunity to participate in an important nationwide process and make a good chunk of change for doing so.

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

Monday, March 15, 2010 | Page 11

Charlie bit my Common App William Tomasko Opinions Columnist A high school senior speaks to the camera in a fake British accent and describes his passions for video games and philosophy. Another displays her drawings and paintings.

Another shows off original dance moves representing pie charts and scatter plots.

These are all YouTube videos, and they all exist because of Tufts University. Starting this year, each Tufts applicant has the option of including a link to a one-minute video that, according to the instructions on the admissions application, “says something about you.”

In Tufts’ supplement to the Common Application, on top of two mandatory essays, the video presentation is one of several possibilities for an optional submission. (The other possibilities are essay questions.) Out of around 15,000 applicants this year, 1,000 have chosen to send in videos.

When I first learned about Tufts’ new policy, one of my concerns was that this new option would disproportionately benefit applicants who could afford fancy video cameras and editing software.

Apparently, though, around two-thirds of the applicants who chose to submit a video are also applying for financial aid. The Tufts Daily reported last year that 55 percent of students admitted to the class of 2013 qualified for financial aid. Therefore, it seems like lesswell-off students are not disproportionately shying away from the video option.

Furthermore, when interviewed for a Feb. 21 Boston Globe article, the dean of undergraduate admissions at Tufts, Lee Coffin, insisted that the committee would not evaluate videos based on their production value.

Rather, the admissions officers would be looking for applicants to show the “spark” they would “bring to the class.” Coffin explains that he values videos that “feature an appealing narrative or clever conceit that introduces us, more deeply, to an individual student.”

Even if the videos do not disadvantage less-privileged students, the new option is

Admissions essays can demonstrate students’ skills in critical thinking and selfexpression. While a YouTube video is a valid form of self-presentation, it is less substantive than an essay. Students can use the YouTube submissions to practice packaging themselves into virtual sound-bites. That is an important skill for a political campaign, but it is less suited to academic success.

The medium is limiting, but it is also too revealing. In a Feb. 22 New York Times article about the new Tufts policy, Coffin said he is excited that this aspect of the admissions

Each Tufts applicant has the option of including a link to a one-minute video that, according to the instructions on the application, “says something about you.” still flawed. The school may be looking too deeply at a questionable source.

While it’s valuable for colleges to look beyond grade point averages and standardized test scores, it’s clear that they already do so.

Schools can put that data in context by understanding students’ general background and high school information. They can use extracurricular activities to find out applicants’ interests and how avidly they pursue them.

If colleges want more insight into a student’s personal qualities and character, they can examine recommendation letters and conduct interviews with applicants.

process will be “completely transparent,” even though he admits, “it didn’t occur to me that these videos would be so public, and so followed.” One of the video submissions that I mentioned at the beginning has attracted over 100,000 views on YouTube.

Admissions decisions are frequently frustrating because we can only guess at schools’ reasoning, but the process does not need this kind of transparency. I went to a small, private high school in which it felt like everyone knew (and thought he or she had a right to know) everyone else’s college-related business. I would never want to exacerbate that tension

by posting my essays or extracurricular activities (with my full name next to them) on the Web for everyone to see.

Now that anyone with an Internet connection can view these videos, it will only increase stress. When applicants can see exactly how well their peers are doing, it increases the pressure on them to succeed. That stress already leads privileged students’ families to pay small fortunes to private admissions counselors.

If more schools start accepting video submissions, a new industry of professional YouTube consultants will arise. These consultants can become experts in creating videos that will appear to be uniquely personal, no matter how many thousands of dollars were spent on them or how many dozens of staffers worked on the production. Admissions officers will have a harder time identifying an applicant’s “spark” when it could be the product of a professional image consultant.

Adding a new video component to applications ultimately puts additional pressure on already-crazed students and parents, especially when the whole world can and will judge their creations, and it does not add substantively to the content of an application.

Tufts should end this practice when they start taking applications for the class of 2015, and other colleges should think twice before they implement it.

William Tomasko ’13 is an undecided concentrator from Washington, D.C. He can be reached at william_tomasko@brown.edu.

Organic food is bovine manure DAVID SHEFFIELD Opinions Columnist Many forms of pseudoscience are linked to political ideology. The last presidential administration perfectly demonstrated how some sets of pseudoscientific ideas can tag along with other political beliefs. While President Barack Obama has done a good job of restoring science to most of the White House, the new organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn shows that faulty views of reality are not limited to any political party. It is no surprise that Brown does not have hordes of creationists or climate change deniers.

They are here; but by far, the most prevalent pseudoscientific beliefs on campus are about things like organic farming.

The naturalistic fallacy underlies most of the organic ideology. This is the belief that natural is better. According to this fallacy, fertilizer that comes out of a cow is better than fertilizer that comes out of a factory because the former one is natural. But being natural obviously does not mean that something must be good. Which is better: all-natural hemlock or a synthetic poison? Rather than blanket statements, each claim must be individually justified.

Some of the many claims that supporters of organic food make are that synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are dangerous to human health, organic farming is better for the environment and supporting organic farms helps smaller

farmers instead of large corporations.

Natural fertilizers like manure actually have serious problems. Feces, you may recall, are not very sterile. They can contain pathogens like E. coli and salmonella. Remember the big recall on organic spinach a few years ago? That’s what happens when you grow your food in a toilet and fail to properly sanitize it.

These pathogens are abundant and get on conventionally grown produce too, but there are more ways to protect consumers using con-

duce but the levels are low and safe.

Contrary to what pushers of organic food would like you to believe, pesticides can also be used on organic food. The only catch is that farms are required to use natural pesticides, rather than the synthetic ones designed to cheaply kill the desired bugs while doing the least collateral damage. I fail to see why a natural poison is better for you than a synthetic one. Luckily, we regulate the use of both to ensure their safe use.

That’s what happens when you grow your food in a toilet and fail to properly sanitize it.

ventional methods. The rules for organic food in the United States prohibit irradiating food to kill off the dangerous bacteria. Irradiation uses ionizing radiation to kill off living things on your food — it does not turn it radioactive!

Synthetic fertilizers are instead made directly from the desired nutrients without the added pathogens.

Next on the list is the claim that pesticides are not on your conventionally grown produce.

They are. They’re also inside your food. Long before humans, plants evolved pesticides and fungicides to kill off their would-be attackers.

This accounts for most of the pesticides you consume. There are also synthetic pesticides found on both conventional and organic pro-

Then there is the claim that organic food is better for the environment. Again, the facts contradict the organic hype. Conventional agriculture has its problems but intensively farming the least amount of land that we can leaves room for natural habitats. The agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug saved more lives than anyone else in history by breeding plants that produced more food per year than anyone had before. Each farm could then feed more people. He summed up the effect of universal organic farming as follows: “Even if you could use all the organic material that you have — the animal manures, the human waste, the plant residues — and get them back on the soil, you couldn’t feed more than

4 billion people. In addition, if all agriculture were organic, you would have to increase cropland area dramatically, spreading out into marginal areas and cutting down millions of acres of forests.” Organic farming not only puts rainforests and other ecosystems at risk due to the need for more arable land, but it also means less food for an already starving world.

Calls for organic food come from countries of plenty, not countries that are still struggling to feed their people.

Finally, there is the claim that buying organic is a blow to corporations. Wrong again.

Corporations like Dole and Chiquita might be evil, but they are not stupid. Organic foods sell for much more than conventionally grown counterparts. When organic food became vogue, the large corporations were right there to sell overpriced products to the new market.

Sorry, but unless you’re going out of your way to research each product’s origin, odds are you are still supporting Big Agra.

To quote the Food Standards Agency, the British agency in charge of food safety: “Consumers may also choose to buy organic food because they believe that it is safer and more nutritious than other food. However, the balance of current scientific evidence does not support this view.”

David Sheffield ’11 is a math-physics concentrator, who thinks everything is more fun when it’s irradiated. He can be contacted at david_sheffield@brown.edu.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

6

Alum writes of “Restless Universe”

8

comics

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

c a l e n da r tomorrow, March 16

7 P.M. — Persian Storytelling: The Epic of Bizhan and Manizheh, Kassar House

4 P.M. — Community Council Meeting, Hillel

7 P.M. — Activism is NOT Enough, John Hay Library

8 P.M. — Jazz Combos Concert, Grant Recital Hall

Excelsior | Kevin Grubb

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, Spicy Fries, Rice Krispie Treats

Lunch — Shaved Steak with Mushroom and Onions, Artichoke and Red Pepper Frittata, Rice Krispie Treats

Dinner — Roast Pork Loin Calypso, Belgian Carrots, Brown Rice Garden Casserole, Ambrosia Cake

Dinner — Chicken Milanese, Cheese Ravioli, Wax Beans, Ambrosia Cake

crossword

43 / 36

49 / 35

Monday, March 15, 2010

Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

Today, March 15

to m o r r o w

M. lacrosse scorer recaps game

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

2

to day

Fruitopia | Andy Kim

Hippomaniac | Mat Becker

STW | Jintao Huang

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