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vol. cxlv, no. 37 | Monday, March 22, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Bears take 3rd in ECAC championships Africana studies to launch grad program in fall 2011

By Dan Alexander Sports Editor

The men’s hockey team was the first No. 11 seed in ECAC Hockey Tournament history to make it to the tournament Final Four, but the Bears’ unlikely run to the championship ended Friday night in a 3-0 loss to No. 7 Cornell, who went on to win the tournament. “We were a program that was utterly down when I got there, and we’ve had to change the mentality and culture,” said first-year Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94. “It would have been nice to obviously win a championship, but we made some good strides.” The Bears beat St. Lawrence in a 3-0 consolation game the next day to finish in third place.

By Talia Kagan Senior Staf f Writer

Cornell 3, Brown 0 When Cornell took the ice minutes before the opening faceoff, a sea of red shirts roared. And when Jonathan Bateman / Herald

continued on page 7

The 11th-seeded men’s hockey team lost to No. 7 Cornell in the semis.

Med students fundraise for new building By Sarah Mancone Senior Staff Writer

On Friday night the Medical Student Senate hosted a fundraiser at 222 Richmond St. for the renovations that will transform it into Alpert Medical School’s new Medical School Education Building. With drywall pieces scattered on the floor, large

holes in walls, light fixtures missing and orange spray paint decorating the walls, the building — whose renovations were approved by the Corporation last month — is a work in progress. “We’re going to shell this whole thing,” said Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing. Renovations are scheduled to of-

ficially begin on April 26, but the University has received demolition permits that allowed some work to begin earlier, Wing wrote in an email to The Herald. The event, attended mostly by medical students, faculty and University administrators, raised funds continued on page 2

The creation of a graduate program in Africana studies marks the latest development in the growth of the department, which hired renowned author Chinua Achebe in the fall. The Corporation approved the new program in December, said Tricia Rose, professor of Africana studies and chair of the department. The department, which is only a decade old, currently offers only an undergraduate degree. The graduate school will open admissions next fall for the program’s two fully-funded student openings, and the first students will enroll in fall 2011, Rose said. While students will earn a master’s degree en route to their doctorate, the approved proposal does not include a terminal master’s program, Rose said. The program’s curriculum has three areas of focus: history, politics and theory; literary, expressive and performance cultures; and feminism, gender and sexuality. Doctoral candidates will take two required classes and other seminars during their first two years and begin their dissertation proposal in their third. They will be able to choose among graduate seminars with topics including black feminist thought and race and cultural politics, according to a September memo sent to admin-

istrators by the Africana studies faculty. The small size is not unusual for a graduate program in the humanities at Brown, according to Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde. The first class is limited to two students because of the amount of available funding, Rose said, adding that she hopes the program will expand to four or five students in each class. This would require the dedication of additional resources and fundraising efforts to create endowed student fellowships, she said. The department began considering the program in 2001, but did not actually begin working on it until two years later, said Barrymore Bogues, professor of Africana studies and a former chair of the department. In the following years, the depar tment made a series of high-profile hires such as Rose and Professor of Africana Studies and English John Wideman. These hires were part of a conscious decision to strengthen the department in specific areas, Bogues said. It is a departmental priority to “have the largest number of highly ranked cutting-edge research faculty” in order to attract top graduate students, Rose said. The Graduate Council apcontinued on page 2

Depts., concentration Creative arts opens programs face review center spring 2011 By Xuan Gao Contributing Writer

inside

Five academic units are in the midst of being reviewed this semester by internal review teams — led by the Academic Priorities Committee — and external review teams of scholars from other institutions, according to guidelines and procedures for reviews of academic programs produced by the Office of the Provost. The review process gives departments and concentration programs an opportunity to “improve the quality of academic units individually and the University as a whole,” according to the guidelines and procedures. Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who oversees the reviews of academic departments and cen-

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ters, said the goal of the review process is to “think about where we are, where we are trying to get and how to get there.” The units undergoing review this year are physics, chemistry, modern culture and media, English and literary arts. The issue most departments wanted to focus on was “how the department is doing in relation to its national or international peers,” Dunbar said. Scholar visits from other universities would help departments see themselves in relation to their broader disciplines, she said, adding that departments want to reflect on their strengths and their capacities for leading scholarship. continued on page 2

By Anna Andreeva Staf f Writer

The Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts will open for student use and offer classes and programs in spring 2011, said Richard Fishman, professor of visual art and director of the Creative Arts Council. The center will feature a recital hall, three production spaces, a gallery, a recording studio, a physical media lab and an outdoor amphitheater, according to the Creative Arts Council’s pamphlet about the center. The center is also designed with spaces for groups to “gather, talk, hold a seminar” in order to facilitate the exchange of ideas, Fishman said. The Creative Arts Council offic-

Hilary Rosenthal / Herald

The new Creative Arts Center is slated to open in spring 2011.

es that will be housed in the building should be open in December 2010, Fishman said. The center will be used for programs and courses taught by faculty from various departments but will not house any academic departments, Fishman said. Rhode Island School of Design students and faculty will be invited to make use of the building as well, he

said, and “public presentations and events that will be open to the community” will also take place in the building. The center was inspired by the need at Brown for a space where barriers between the arts, science and technology could be crossed, Fishman said. He said the resulting continued on page 3

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MONK ON HINDUISM Scholar to lecture on history, philosophy, and spiritual paths

WORD! FUNDRAISER Word! members to compete in national slam poetry invitational

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Monday, March 22, 2010

“Our undergrads will benefit extensively.” — Professor of Africana Studies Tricia Rose

New ‘home’ for med Depts. undergo review process student community continued from page 1

continued from page 1 for the building’s renovations. A private donor has committed to contribute twice as much as the senate raises overall, said Patrick Worth MD’11, president of the Medical Student Senate. Friday’s event alone raised $900, which with the donor’s two-to-one match will bring the total raised to $2,700, Worth wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. The event was held on the building’s second floor. Painted lines on the floor outlined where walls and openings would be constructed, and written descriptions showed that the space would become classrooms, a lounge and part of the building’s atrium. Despite the construction in progress, the building appeared relatively intact. “I expected rafters, pillars, beams,” said Steve Lee MD’11, secretary of the Senate. The building is going to separate each medical class into its own academy, Wing said. Each academy will have its own lounge and eating area and will serve as a home for students during their four years at the Med School, he added. It will be great for students to have their own “home and space” because it will provide study space and better access to resources, Worth said. Having their own space will be very helpful for medical students because main campus facilities close when undergraduates are not in session, Worth said, adding

that the Med School operates on a calendar different from that of the College. The new building will also “foster a better sense of community between upperclassmen and lowerclassmen,” said Audrey Butcher MD’13, a Senate representative. There are already plans for “academy Olympics” as a form of bonding, she said. The renovated building will include a large atrium and stairs that will lead up to each floor from the atrium, Wing said. At night, four LED panels will be lit up on the side of the building so “you can see it from College Hill, from downtown,” he said. “Seventy percent of the surface of the building is windows,” providing spectacular views of downtown Providence, Wing said. Anatomy labs with windows, will be a welcome change, Worth said. Their current location in the basement of the Biomedical Center seems more “like a dungeon,” he added. The building has a parking lot next door, which will help make it easily accessible, Lee said. James Miller MD’10 expressed disappointment that he is graduating and will not be able to use the new building, which is slated for completion in August 2011. It is “what the Med School needs,” he said, adding that it will “push the school in the right direction.” “We’re really excited about this building,” Worth said.

get some student input,” he said. McLaughlin said one of the things the English department wants to get out of this review is an assessment of the non-fiction writing program and its relationship with the literature program. “More of our literature faculty are teaching courses in the non-fiction writing program, but we’d like to have more integration of the two if possible,” he said. Brian Evenson, professor of literary arts and director of the literary arts program, said the program consulted with other departments that had gone through the review process in the past, because the literary arts program was part of the English department until 2005 and has never been reviewed before. “We worked very hard and figured out what was both good and bad about our department. We got some very productive responses from the external review. Now it’s up to the University” to implement the external review team’s recommendations, he said. “We have a responsibility as a top-ranked program to expose students to the best writers and the best teachers possible,” Evenson said. “We feel very good about the process. The recommendations of the external review committee were good. We’re really hoping the administration will respond positively,” he said. — With additional reporting by Anita Mathews

U. dept. ‘poised’ as leader in Africana studies continued from page 1

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Historically, departments have said the most useful part of the review process is the initial discussion that happens among faculty, Dunbar said. “Our departments are all interested in being the best they can be,” she said. The review process “provides us an opportunity to assess where (we) currently stand, both in terms of teaching programs and research directions,” Professor of Physics Chung-I Tan P’95 P’03 — who chairs the Department of Physics and the Faculty Executive Committee — wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Tan wrote that the most meaningful part of the review to the physics department is the self-study, which allows the department to examine “what we have done over the past decade for our faculty hire, undergraduate and graduate programs, future research direction and hiring and expansion.” Tan added that the physics department discussed how to “expand strategically in order to maximize the outcome” of the growth of the Division of Engineering into an engineering school. While the self-study is valuable, “it is nice to receive validation by the external visiting team, which the administration should take seriously,” he wrote. According to Tan, the internal review of the physics department has been completed and a report will be provided to the external vis-

iting team. This team consists of five faculty members — two from Harvard and one each from Princeton, New York University and Duke University. They will visit the physics department in April. “The Department is always evolving, both in terms of new faculty and the natural evolution of the frontier areas of physics research,” Tan wrote. The concentration program is evolving in tandem, he added. Tan wrote that the department is adding new tracks in biophysics and astrophysics to its bachelor of science concentration due to increased faculty research and student interest in those areas. The English department identified four issues — its undergraduate concentration, doctoral program, non-fiction writing program and hiring plan — to focus its review on, said Kevin McLaughlin, professor of English and chair of the department. The review will not lead to “a revolutionary change” but the department will try to “simplify our numbering system, and that’s a little bit difficult because of the way the concentration requirements are,” McLaughlin said. “That’s probably going to lead us to step back and look at everything.” The department’s practice has been to stay open to making changes, McLaughlin said. “We’ve been in this current kind of system for four years. It’s time to maybe look at it again and have a conversation, try to

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proved the proposal in 2007, but the department waited until after an external review of the proposal was completed to bring the program before the Corporation, Rose said. The external review did not require any revisions to the program, Rose said. According to the faculty memo, the review concluded that with the graduate program’s creation, Brown’s department is “poised to be one of the top three Africana studies programs in the country.” Brown will be joining only 10 other U.S. schools with doctoral programs in the field, according to the memo. In comparison with other schools’ programs, Brown’s proposed graduate curriculum is “notable for the fact that it’s very interdisciplinary,” Bonde said. It will also be the only graduate program in the country with a focus on gender and sexuality, Rose said. Because of the program’s highly interdisciplinary nature, Rose said, she expects that graduate students from other departments, who already take undergraduate courses in the department, will be interested in taking graduate seminars in Africana studies. The program’s students will serve as teaching assistants in the department’s undergraduate cours-

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald file photo

The Department of Africana Studies’ recent growth includes the hire of Chinua Achebe and the creation of a graduate program.

es, Rose said. In the past, the department has had to borrow graduate students from other departments or use undergraduates. “Our undergrads will benefit extensively,” Rose said. Graduate students will also be able to take upper-level undergraduate seminars, Rose said, adding that they often “elevate the conversation” in those courses. The initial proposal included opportunities for graduate study abroad as part of the Trilateral Reconnection Project, but there is currently no budget in place to sup-

port that, Rose said. The Trilateral Reconnection Project, a partnership with the University of Cape Town and the University of the West Indies that the University established in 2006, encourages joint research and student and faculty exchange between the schools. Bogues, who will teach graduate courses on intellectual and critical theory, said he is personally excited to go deeper into subjects in a way that more basic undergraduate survey classes are not able to. “I’m looking forward to that kind of work,” he said.

Monday, March 22, 2010

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

“Every aspect of life affects the search for truth.”

Researchers fight infections with nano-particles By Margaret Yi Contributing Writer

Associate Professor of Engineering Thomas Webster and Erik Taylor GS have created nanoparticles to fight implant infections. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, about a million people receive implants to replace a hip, shoulder or knee each year. Over 11 percent of these implants become infected with bacteria, Webster said. The bacteria that cause these infections can be found on most surfaces, including human skin. But if they enter the body and colonize, the bacteria can cause severe damage to tissue, especially in people with compromised immune systems, he said. In the case of infected bone implants, the bacteria gradually

multiply and form a layer of biofilm on the implant, Webster said. The biofilm subsequently discourages attachment of the implant to the patient’s bone, causing pain and discomfort, he said. Doctors usually prescribe antibiotics to treat the infection, but in the case of antiobiotic-resistant bacteria, the treatments prove ineffective and the patients end up having the implants removed, Webster added. But the nanoparticles that Webster and Taylor have created “penetrate the biofilm, start manipulating bacteria, decreasing bacteria function,” Webster said in a March 15 interview with KFSN-TV. In lab tests, these nanoparticles killed 74 percent of bacteria in 48 hours, Webster said. Their studies have shown that the nanoparticles promote growth of new bone cells, which could be an effect of the iron

in the particles, he added. Webster said he envisions future treatments that will involve a simple injection of iron oxide particles. Doctors could then use a magnet to direct the particles to the source of the infection, he said. Unlike traditional antiobiotic treatments, humans can withstand “repeat exposures of iron” until the infection is completely gone, as long as the recommended daily intake of iron is not exceeded, he said. Though several years of research and clinical studies are still required before the nanoparticle treatment becomes approved for implant infections, iron oxide nanoparticles are already approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which will substantially reduce the time for the treatment to be approved, Webster said.

Hindu monk lectures on ‘search for self ’ By Goda Thangada Senior Staff Writer

A scholar of one of the mystical traditions of Hinduism, Swami Atmarupananda of the international Ramakrishna Order of Monks, led four guided meditations Sunday centered around the theme “Who am I? The Search for the Self” as part of the Sixth Annual Mary Interlandi ’05 Lectureship. The event, held in J. Walter Wilson, was organized by the Office of Chaplains and Religious Life and the Year of India. Atmarupananda, who is from California, studies Vedanta, a philosophy of self-knowledge. “The four meditations were designed to point to something in our present experience which is the ultimate reality,” Atmarupananda said. He will give a lecture Monday on the history, philosophy and methods for the search of the self. Many of the approximately 20 participants had a background in

Buddhism, he said. Having been a monk in America for forty years, Atmarupananda said he has observed major changes in peoples’ attitudes toward and appetite for spirituality. In the 1960s, “many young people were interested in seeking a spiritual path just for spirituality’s sake,” he said. “Nowadays, their entry is somewhat different. They are looking for connections. They’re interested in environment, social justice and so forth. Spirituality is connected to that.” Founded in 1897 by Swami Vivekananda, the Ramakrishna Order reinterprets Hinduism for modern times. “Hinduism is a living tradition that has always met the changing times,” Atmarupananda said. The Ramakrishna Order maintains several centers in India itself. “In India, our centers are involved in a great deal of work for the poor and the distressed as part of our spiritual process,” he said. “In the West, we do more teaching work.” While people

less frequently choose to become monks in America, Atmarupananda said the order is growing rapidly in India. The interest in the order remains strong in both the East and West, he said. “The view of our tradition is that religion is really one,” he said, and as a result, Ramakrishna monks maintain connections and dialogue with people of other faiths. “I have been challenged, certainly,” he said. “Most people give at least a sympathetic hearing.” Atmarupananda said he attempts to make Vedanta accessible to people, especially Western audiences, with a range of backgrounds and needs. “It’s something everybody can understand,” he said. “It’s a question of explaining it in the language people can understand.” “Every aspect of life affects the search for truth,” he said. “The goal is to find a way of making everything a spiritual practice.”

New arts center to encourage community continued from page 1 spaces will allow faculty to undertake “more ambitious projects with all of these constituents.” Construction of the center is funded fully by “generous donor support” that covers the cost of construction and an endowment for the building, including maintenance, Fishman said. This project would not have been possible without external funding, he said. “Brown was very forward-thinking by not shrinking back from doing this at a time when other schools were not moving forward with new initiatives,” Fishman said. “The goal is to have a building which benefits all constituents of the University community, Providence and Rhode Island,” Fishman said. He said the main purpose of the center will be to “get people to

work together and to bring diverse disciplines together.” In outlining the goals of the building to architects, the Creative Arts Council emphasized three main points: that the building not privilege any one department, discipline or media, that it “allow for transparency between activities so that one could generate relationships among people and programs” and that the building be conducive to “chance encounters among people in the community,” Fishman said. “I think the challenge is to maintain the vision behind it and to allow it to grow and develop, always to be forward-thinking,” Fishman said. Fishman said his hope is for the center “to always question assumptions of what art is and what art can become and to play a role that benefits the makers and the audience and contributes something of

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real value to this community and to the larger community.” “I am excited to see how all those different spaces are going to fit into one building. It will be like a magic Mary Poppins bag of art spaces,” said Olivia Harding ’12. Ana Escobedo ’11 said she is happy to have a building dedicated to the arts on the Pembroke side of campus. Students involved in theater currently “have a lack of rehearsal spaces and places to perform in general. The idea of having spaces where people can go, sign up and work is wonderful,” she said. The topping-off ceremony for the building — when the steel beam marking the building’s highest point is put in place — will take place Tuesday at 10 a.m., Fishman said. “It’s going so fast. It’s just amazing. In one day, you’ll see the steelwork doubling in size,” he said.

— Swami Atmarupananda, Vedanta scholar news in brief

VP for research elected to engineering academy Vice President for Research Clyde Briant was elected to the National Academy of Engineering Feb. 17. Election into the academy is one of the highest professional distinctions awarded to an engineer and is based on a candidate’s lifetime achievements in one of the many fields of engineering. Briant was recognized for his accomplishments in the “elucidation of microstructural effects on high-temperature mechanical performance of metals,” according to a news release from the National Academies. Though Briant no longer does research, his work prior to his promotion to vice president centered on perfecting new heating techniques to manipulate the performance of metals, he said. These techniques can then be applied to many areas of science and engineering. Prior to joining the University in 1994, Briant was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and worked for almost two decades at the General Electric Research and Development Center, according to his curriculum vitae. While at GE, Briant worked on improving enhanced filaments in light bulbs at high temperatures, and he said that this experience inspired him to further his research into structural materials. Briant said he credits a “strong team effort” with a major part of his success throughout his career. Though he now dedicates much of his time to his duties as vice president for research, Briant said he hopes to apply his experiences and skills as a researcher to improving the research experience at the University, stressing the “importance of team approach and collaboration.” The National Academy of Engineering — one of four organizations comprising the National Academies — was founded in 1964 to advise the federal government on matters pertaining to the engineering sciences, according to the academy’s Web site. The academy also “conducts independent studies” and seeks to “provide the leadership and expertise for numerous projects” in engineering and technology, according to its Web site. The engineering academy consists of more than 2,000 peerelected members and foreign associates who are among the world’s most accomplished engineers, according to its Web site. Candidates to the academy are elected by a board of their peers and must be first nominated by an existing academy member, then voted on by the entire membership during January. Some prominent members of the engineering academy include Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. — Margaret Yi

Arts & Culture The Brown Daily Herald

Word! poets to go to slam poetry nationals By Anita Badejo Contributing Writer

Brown’s first-ever team destined for the College Unions Poetr y Slam Invitational — an annual nationwide competition for slam poets — performed for a packed and enthusiastic Macmillan 117 last Friday. Laura Brown-Lavoie ’10.5, Kai Huang ’11, Phil Kaye ’10, Tim Natividad ’12 and Jamila Woods ’10 will be the first to represent the University in the invitational, which will take place at Emerson College in Boston April 7–10. At Friday’s show, the team performed individual and collaborative pieces, including the ones they currently plan on presenting at nationals. The team was selected Feb. 17, when 13 hopefuls competed in front of an audience of about 150 students. Accomplished Providence slam poet Jared Paul hosted the competition and selected five students at random from the audience to ultimately decide who made the team. The team members selected are all members of Word!, the campus spoken word poetr y group. Audience members were asked to pay a $2 entrance fee, which will go toward paying for the team’s competition costs. In an inter view with The Herald, team members Kaye and Natividad said their feelings were a little mixed when first consider-

ing the idea of going to nationals because of the dif ference between spoken word poetr y, which is more collaborative, and slam poetr y, which is primarily competitive. “It is very dangerous” to make the transition, Natividad said. “We have so little experience in slam poetry. It’s going to be a lot harder than people make it out to be.” Kaye echoed Natividad’s concerns, adding that inflated egos and antagonism between competing slam poets often keep them from uniting as a team. But Kaye said the Brown team’s shared experience as spoken word artists gave the team an advantage. “I think we’re really fortunate that ever yone on the team is really close already,” Kaye said. “We trust each other, know each other’s work.” Natividad compared the combination of camaraderie and competition to playing football with one’s family on Thanksgiving. “It’s kind of like you get to go on a road trip with your friends, plus poetr y,” he said. Kaye cited members’ close relationships with one another as the reason he is not concerned that they don’t have a coach, unlike many other teams. Both agreed that the team is invested in winning, but that it is not their only — or even their main — goal. The desire to learn from and connect with other students who care about the art of

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spoken word provided much of the impetus for Word! members’ decision to send a group of poets to nationals, the students said. Kaye said the team doesn’t necessarily expect to “blow ever yone out of the water.” “Slam is a big part luck, but the talented teams tend to be luckier and I have full faith in our talent as a team,” Kaye said. Friday’s team per formance featured a mix of individual and collaborative poems, both old and new, with interludes of rap as well. The first piece of the night was a collaboration of all the team members pacing throughout the auditorium and prompting audience members to “listen” — to both poignant and serious lines, and to such light-hearted ones as “listen to Snoop Dogg ever y night from now until Spring Weekend.” The rest of the pieces performed covered a range of topics. A collaboration by Huang and Natividad addressed their frustrations and anger toward stereotypes of Asian-Americans. Another collaboration by Brown-Lavoie and Woods played off “that’s what she said” jokes to address issues surrounding gender in communication. Pieces by Kaye and Natividad addressed internal conflicts arising from, respectively, having two separate family histories on opposing sides during World War II, and ambivalence about religion. “We tried to offer (the audience) something that we haven’t given them before,” Natividad said. This of fer included a fullfledged rap battle between Woods and Huang in the middle of the show, in which both humorously attacked each other to the beats of Three 6 Mafia’s “Stay Fly” and Lil Wayne’s “A Milli,” complete with backup dancing by other members of the team. The battle elicited roars of laughter from the audience, as the two threw a number of verbal gems at each other, such as Woods’ playful derision of Huang: “At least you got a backpack and a bowl of ramen, yes, you and homeless people got a lot in common.” Huang performed two other raps, one called “Sick,” which listed things he is sick of, including “free market capitalism” and “policing political correctness,” and another that provided a humorous, but also thought-provoking, take on a typical meal at the Sharpe Refector y. All of the pieces conveyed what Natividad described as each of the members’ “ver y distinct styles,” which included incorporations of song, backup instrumentals, repetition and other aesthetic devices. The one-hour performance, infused with each member’s unique interpretation of spoken word, left audience members clapping vigorously. The team will travel to Boston next week to participate in a practice slam competition against host college Emerson in preparation for nationals.

Monday, March 22, 2010 | Page 4

b y e b y e bir d ie

Max Monn / Herald

Brown EcoReps placed a 4-foot osprey ice sculpture on the Main Green Friday to raise awareness about plastic marine debris.

SASA showcases culture through performance arts By Jonathan Chou Contributing Writer

The South Asian Students Association entranced the audience with performances of dance, music and comedy during their annual culture show, Nashaa, Friday in Salomon 101. A “year-long venture” of planning culminated that night to meet the vision of showcasing and spreading awareness of South Asian culture, said SASA President Aparna Kumar ’10. Applause filled the packed auditorium as the show provided performers’ families, friends and peers with a night full of laughs and cultural appreciation. The event was organized chiefly by co-chairs Radhika Kumar ’12 and Faiz Jiwani ’12, with Akash Kumar ’10, Soumya Sanyal ’10 and Gaurab Chakrabarti ’10 emceeing. The performances that night, which can be found in videos online, included comedic skits, elegant dances and emotional spoken word pieces, addressing a variety of issues such as arranged marriages. Songs and dances told stories of forbidden love, praised Hindu deities and recounted Indian customs. One act was based on a song from a popular Bollywood movie. Musical acts spotlighted instruments like the tabla, a popular North Indian drum, and the veena, an ancient lute instrument carved out of a single piece of jackwood. The traditional South Asian costumes included

colorful Indian women’s garments called saris, as well as ghungroos, bells tied to the feet of the dancers, which serve as both decoration and percussion. The performances were tied together by hilarious videos starring the emcees, which kept awkward transitional pauses to a minimum and kept the audience at the edge of their seats. The most popular performances seemed to be the class dances, which integrated modern and hip-hop styles with classical South Asian dance and sounds. A tradition started long ago, the class dances serve as a fun way not only to pit the classes against each other, but also to give the graduating seniors their “moment of glory,” said Aparna Kumar, and to “usher in the new class” of freshmen. The event’s success stemmed from the emcees’ ability to keep the audience engaged. The emcees succeeded in stringing together the diverse selection of performances, Aparna Kumar said. The planning of the event began a year ago when the three emcees approached SASA for the position, and much of the show came from their vision for it, she said. Aparna Kumar also attributed the event’s success to the positive attitude with which the events chairs and emcees met obstacles, adding that despite a few minor problems the event “turned out to be fabulous.”

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

A rts &C ulture

Monday, March 22, 2010

“For the semis, it’s more about having fun for us.” — Dominic Wu ’12

Jabberwocks, Higher Keys compete at MIT By Fei Cai Staf f Writer

The Jabber wocks and the Higher Keys placed second and fourth, respectively, at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella’s Northeast semifinals at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Saturday. The two groups wowed the crowd in Salomon 101 by taking both first and second place in the Northeast quarterfinals Feb. 20. The Jabber wocks, who came in first, also took home awards for Outstanding Soloist — Andrew Wong ’11 for “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon — and Outstanding Vocal Percussion, won by Erik AbiKhattar ’10. MIT a cappella group Resonance hosted Saturday’s semifinals, where eight groups from all over the Northeast region competed. The winners, Pitch Slapped from Berklee College of Music in Boston, will compete in the international finals at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York in April. But for the Higher Keys, who sang “Cr y Me a River,” written by Arthur Hamilton, “Think” by Aretha Franklin and a Beatles medley, the experience was not all about competition. “We have never been to semifinals, and it’s really great. We want to work on our sound and not get caught up in the competition,” said Nick Herrmann ’10, the Keys’ president. Josh Chu ’11, the group’s music director, agreed. “We entered the competition as a goal to motivate ourselves,” he said. “You always study better when there is a test coming up. We weren’t expecting to win.” Chu added, “When we won at quarterfinals, it kind of validated all the hard work that we put in.” Normally, the group practices six hours a week. For the quarterfinals, though, they put in extra sessions so that they were practicing nine to 10 hours weekly, Chu said.

“A coed group is lot harder to blend than if you were in, say, an all-guy group,” said Dominic Wu ’12 of the Keys. “Adding choreography to the group is also very hard because we’re so big. Another challenge is keeping up the energy.” Despite the long hours and tiring practices that could last until midnight, the members of the group pulled through. “After the quar ter finals, the Keys were like, that was a lot of work,” said Wu. “For the semis, it’s more about having fun for us.” The Jabberwocks, on the other hand, are veterans of the competition. The group had been to the semifinals two years ago, where they also took second. This time, they sang “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers, “Use Somebody” and a hip-hop medley that included Kesha’s “TiK ToK,” Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” and other songs. Like the Keys, the Jabberwocks put in a lot of rehearsal hours: three or more hours a night the week before the semifinals. “It’s a lot of commitment,” said member Leland Lazarus ’12. Normally, the group practices seven hours a week. But being in an a cappella group does not mean all work and no play. “We hang out all the time. Some of us live together, and we do potlucks ever y once in a while,” said Herrmann about the Keys. “Sometimes we go to Ben & Jerr y’s and share a Vermonster.” “One of the main reasons I would pick the Keys over other groups, even though other groups have different styles that I may be into, is that the Keys has a great family atmosphere,” Wu said. For the Jabber wocks, hanging out means going to Wes’ Rib House, a southern style restaurant in Providence, before or after a big concert. The group also gets together to play sports. Lazarus, who joined the Jabber wocks his freshman year, envisioned college a cappella as mainly a campus-oriented function.

Courtesy of Dominic Wu

The Jabberwocks placed second and the Higher Keys fourth at a college a cappella competition Saturday.

“It was at (A Day on College Hill) that I first saw the Jabber wocks,” he said. “Ever yone in the crowd knew each member, and everyone had their own fan club. There was a lot of campus camaraderie. But I also realized there is a global component. We travel ever ywhere in the country and have international tours. We went to Hong Kong, Europe and Korea.” Similarly, the Keys have expanded their horizons beyond the University’s borders. The group has traveled to many places, including San Francisco, and plans to go to Hong Kong next year. “I did not expect to be connected to such a large network of people,” said Christopher Unseth ’11.5, the Jabber wocks’ publicity manager. “We have really strong alumni. They are so committed to the group that they give money and allow us to live at their (houses).” At the competition, the Jabber wocks were first to perform. “There were a bunch of numbers in a hat, and ever y group picks a number,” Lazarus said. “We got first. It was good because we didn’t have to wait and be ner vous. We were able to perform and watch all the groups after us.” He added, “On the other hand, we were setting the tone. The judg-

es didn’t have anything to compare us to.” The semis also ser ved as a learning tool for both groups. “The competition changed the way we approach a cappella,” said Herrmann, who discovered that “a large portion of the competition is based on visuals,” but at the same time, “it’s easy to over-choreograph stuff, and things look unnatural at an expense to the music.” Herrmann added that he was glad the competition was over, as now the Keys can focus on other songs. Lazarus said he thought all the groups had great choreography and impeccable sound. “I feel like what differentiated first and second place and the rest were minute things — one person coming in too loud or someone doing choreography a little too late. Little things.” Hopefully next year or the year

after, the Jabberwocks can compete again and get to finals, he added. Currently, though, the group has other projects to take care of. Their last CD, “Breaking & Entering,” is currently nominated for the annual Contemporar y A Cappella Recording Awards for best male collegiate album, best all-male song and best arrangement. Results will be announced in April. The Jabberwocks will also be singing at a Mets game April 8. The Keys also ended the competition on a positive note. “The finals are during the time of Spring Weekend,” said Herrmann. “So after the competition, one of the members of our group turned to a member of the Jabberwocks and said, ‘I guess we’ll see you at Snoop Dogg.’ ” Wu mirrored the sentiment. “The Higher Keys have a saying: IJA – it’s just a cappella.”

SportsMonday The Brown Daily Herald

Softball

SCOREBOARD

M. Tennis

Brown 6 Manhattan 4

Brown 4 St. Peter’s 1

Brown 0 Cleveland St. 6

Brown 8 Farleigh Dickinson 7

Brown 0 Wis.-Green Bay 6

Brown 2 Marist 3

Monday, March 22, 2010 | Page 6

W. Crew

Farfield 2 Brown 5

Brown 6:50 URI 7:06

Connecticut 2 Brown 5

Gymnastics

Boston College 5 Brown 2

Brown, 3rd out of three, with 189.825 points

Equestrian Brown 32 Yukon 31 URI 30 JWU 28 Wesleyan 28

M. LACROSSE

No. 16 Bruno scores upset victory over No. 11 Crimson By Zack Bahr Assistant Spor ts Editor

Many things rode on Saturday’s men’s lacrosse game between 11thranked Har vard and 16th-ranked Brown. There was a chance to start the Ivy season with a win. A chance to move up in the national rankings. And of course, a chance to taste sweet victor y over an archrival. In what has become one of the top lacrosse rivalries in the nation, Bruno earned bragging rights with a 13–11 victor y over the Crimson at Har vard Stadium. Brown 13, Harvard 11 The Bears jumped out to a 5–0 lead to set the pace for the game. In the words of Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90, Bruno played a “go 100 miles per hour and ask questions later” kind of game. It seemed liked Bruno couldn’t miss with Thomas Muldoon ’10 making a 360-degree shot in front of the goal and David Hawley ’11 launching a shot from 15 yards out. Charlie Kenney ’10 and Seth Ratner ’11 dominated the midfield, capturing 16 of 26 faceoff opportunities and allowing Bruno to have

Courtesy of David Silverman

Against Harvard Saturday, the men’s lacrosse team took the lead early and never looked back.

more scoring opportunities. “We crushed ’em,” said goalie Matt Chriss ’11. “We had a great game, controlling the field. The Ivy opener is always a big game.

Har vard’s a great team but, well, we just wanted it more.” Brown’s defense had a strong showing behind Chriss, who made nine saves and even went the length

of the field to make a shot, only to have it called back on a penalty. Poking fun at former Brown AllAmerican goalie Jordan Burke ’09, Chriss said, “I don’t think Burke

ever tried scoring a goal.” Har vard was able to rally back several times in the second half. Crimson standout Terr y White found the goal four times, as did teammate Jeff Cohen. “We played all 60 minutes of that game,” said Har vard Head Coach John Tillman. “It’s hard though when you have to keep digging yourself out. It wastes a lot of time and energy.” Tiffany said teams must walk a fine line when they’re up big in the second half. “It’s the 4th quarter. Do you keep pushing or do you kill the clock? It’s hard.” This led to some errors on behalf of the Bears as they tried to pass the ball around the field to run time off of the clock. Andrew Feinberg ’11 answered the Crimson rallies, finding the goal four times, with some shots looking almost impossible. When asked which goal was his favorite, Feinberg said, “I’m not sure. I don’t really remember the shots. I’m just glad we won.” The Bears will be at home Tuesday for a 4 p.m. game against the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

After career twists, goalie shines in last game By Dan Alexander Spor ts Editor

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Goalie Dan Rosen ’10 had 21 saves and an assist in Saturday’s game against St. Lawrence.

Goalie Dan Rosen ’10 was once the bright future of Brown hockey. Plagued by injuries, Rosen’s career slowly slid downhill until he was made the backup in his senior season. But in his last game wearing a Brown uniform, Rosen got one more chance to start in goal Saturday. And he made the most of it. In the Bears’ 3-0 win over St. Lawrence, the goalie played flawlessly. Rosen had 21 saves in the shut-out and even got an assist on the game’s first goal. “We were all just hugging and crying in the locker room,” Rosen said after the game. “The team just gave it all out for me today and that means a lot — after, not just for me personally, but the number of injuries and bad times that we’ve had … to have ever ybody come together today and get a win in this game is really special.” Rosen’s play was a reminder of the promising career everyone expected him to have. As a freshman, he earned second team All-Ivy honors and etched his

name in the Brown record books towards the top of the list in every major goalie statistical categor y. For eight weeks in a row, he led the nation in goals against average and save percentage. His statistics were less impressive during his sophomore year, but he still started 25 games. By the time Rosen was a junior, the oncedecorated freshman was battling a hip injury and fighting for ice time with a new young talent — Michael Clemente ’12. As a freshman, Clemente played the hero in last season’s playoff series with Har vard, in which Clemente became the only opposing goalie to shut out Harvard in backto-back home games in Crimson hockey history, which dates back to the nineteenth century. “We both had very high levels of success our freshman years,” Rosen said, without a hint of resentment of his teammate in his voice. “It was kind of interesting to see it from the other standpoint, as the goalie that wasn’t playing at that point.” The hiring of first-year Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94 last offseason reopened the battle for the goalie slot, but Clemente again

won the starting job. Rather than harbor any bitterness in his senior season, Rosen said he was thankful for his opportunities in his first three seasons and supportive of Clemente in his last. “I was pretty fortunate and I was lucky to be able to play a large portion of the games my first three years,” Rosen said. After returning from a groin injury this season, “I just tried to be as best of a team player as I could, because Mike was playing really well this year.” The support didn’t go unappreciated by Clemente. Clemente called Rosen “one of the most supportive and helpful teammates that anyone could ask for.” This season has been a struggle for Rosen. He got his first start on Nov. 17 when Brown played at Providence. But just less than two minutes into the game, he felt a pop in his groin and fell to the ice in pain. As he was helped off of the ice by a teammate and the trainer, Rosen looked down at the ice, shaking his head. “Given that it was my first chance continued on page 7

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports M onday

Monday, March 22, 2010

“I didn’t want to get a pity start on Senior Night.” — Hockey goalie Dan Rosen ’10

M. Hockey

M. icers take home third place continued from page 1

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Aaron Volpatti ’10 set a new record for most penalty minutes in men’s hockey’s history, surpassing Ryan Mulhern ’96 by seven minutes.

Volpatti ’10 breaks penalty minutes record — on purpose By Dan Alexander Spor ts Editor

Tri-captain Aaron Volpatti ’10 went down in the record books Saturday for the most penalty minutes of any player in Brown history — and he did it on purpose. Volpatti — who was five penalty minutes shy of the single-season record before the game — told referee Chip McDonald before faceoff not to be scared to give him a 10-minute game misconduct if the Bears were ahead late in the consolation game, Volpatti said. So when the Brown forward was whistled for a slashing penalty with 4:33 left in the third period with Brown ahead 2–0, he knew it was his chance to break the record.

“I got that penalty and then I said to Chip (McDonald), ‘Was that a 10 or?’ And he goes, ‘Do you want a 10?’ And I can’t really say what was said, but, yeah,” Volpatti said. McDonald gave Volpatti the game misconduct and boosted his season total 10 extra minutes, pushing Volpatti to 115 penalty minutes on the season, ahead of former leader Ryan Mulhern ’96, who had 108 minutes in the 1994– 95 season. Ten of the top 11 leaders in Brown history before this season were former teammates of Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94. “We had some knuckleheads back then,” Whittet said with a laugh. “I’m glad (Volpatti is) the king of knuckleheads.”

the Bears skated out seconds later, only a murmur came from the small Brown contingent. But the atmosphere didn’t intimidate the Bears. “I thought we were going to win this game because we were on a roll, and our guys believed — not only believed we should be here, but believed we should win a championship, and that’s pretty powerful,” Whittet said. Brown controlled the opening period, getting out to an 11–5 advantage in shots. But both goalies shut down the nets, and the teams skated into the locker rooms at intermission with the scoreboard still blank. “They did a lot of good things in the first period against us and put us back on our heels,” said Cornell Head Coach Mike Schafer. “We did a good job in the second period and started to create some offensive chances.” The first chance to find the back of the net came off the stick of Locke Jillson 15:35 into the period. Jillson took the puck from the left faceof f circle, sized up Brown goalie Michael Clemente ’12, made a quick move and fired a blistering wrist shot inside of Clemente’s elbow to give Cornell a 1–0 lead. “What happened in the second period was we couldn’t get any pressure at all because they were in our zone for 40 or 50 seconds,” Whittet said. “By the time we got out, we were dumping pucks in and we were gassed and had to change.” The chances were there for Brown in the third. Bobby Farnham ’12 got on a breakaway seven minutes into the third period but was shut down. And Jack Maclellan ’12 had a chance from point blank with 6:30 left in the final frame. But Cornell goalie Ben Scrivens denied those two pucks

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

The men’s hockey team’s postseason run ended in a third-place finish.

and 21 more in the shut out. “If one of those pucks went in, it’s a different game,” said tricaptain Jordan Pietrus ’10, who returned Friday from what was once labeled a season-ending injur y. John Esposito and Riley Nash both beat Clemente in the third period, giving Cornell the 3-0 victor y. Brown 3, St. Lawrence 0 In his last collegiate game, Dan Rosen ’10 — who backed up Clemente in goal this season — got the start and made the most of his opportunity. Rosen blanked the Saints and had 21 saves. “He’s the real deal,” St. Lawrence Head Coach Joe Marsh said of Rosen. “He sees the puck so well, he’s quick. He made a couple of saves that we had some really good shots on — we set screens and he just stuck the pad out there. … There’s two really quality goaltenders at Brown.” After a scoreless first period,

Rosen got some support on the other end when second team All-Ivy selection Aaron Volpatti ’10 got on a breakaway with little more than five minutes left in the period. Volpatti approached the goal from the right, then swooped to the left and dinged a wrist shot off of the post and into the net, giving Brown a 1-0 lead. “I think (the first goal) set us up for, ‘Okay, let’s pop another one and get the win for our class and for the rest of the team and send these guys on a high note for next year,’ ” Volpatti said. And the Bears did just that. Jesse Fratkin ’11 made it a 2–0 game on a one-timer from Harr y Zolniercyzk ’11, who then added an empty-net goal with 3:08 left on the clock to seal third place for Brown. “Not many teams, or especially seniors, get to go out with a win,” Rosen said. “To have the team play as hard as they did and play the way they did … it meant a lot to the seniors and particularly to me.”

Rosen ’10 closes out hockey career continued from page 6 to play with the new coach, I really wanted to make a good statement in my first game,” he said. “To have (the injury) happen, it was just very frustrating.” The groin injury kept him out of uniform for seven games, and he wasn’t back on the ice until 10 games after he was helped off it. Rosen struggled in his two regular season appearances after the injury, and with the Bears locked in a race for playoff home ice at the end of the season, Rosen didn’t even play on Senior Night. In fact, he asked not to. The night before, Whittet called Rosen into his office, sat him down and told him face-to-face that Cle-

mente was going to start on Senior Night. “I was glad he did that,” Rosen said. “I told him I didn’t want to get a pity start on Senior Night.” Instead, he said he wanted Clemente to go out and win it for the Bears. Even this weekend — Rosen’s last games of collegiate hockey — he maintained the selfless attitude. After the Bears lost to Cornell in the opening round of the Final Four, Whittet asked Rosen if he wanted to have one more start in goal for the consolation game. It was a question Rosen wished his coach didn’t have to ask. “To be honest, we all — including myself — would have rather had Mike ... playing in the championship game today,” Rosen said.

But Rosen had spent all season backing up the position he once held so firmly, and in his last game, he took the opportunity to get one more start. “Dan’s a selfless guy,” Whittet said after Rosen shut out St. Lawrence in the final game of the season. “Dan was a guy that bided his time, and he was unbelievable tonight. It was a tribute to him.” Twenty-one saves, no goals against and one assist — what a way to go out for Rosen, who said the bright future now belongs to Clemente. “Mike’s a great goalie, and this team is going to do a lot of special things with him in net,” Rosen said. “They’ll be back in Albany and they’ll win it with him there.”

The other BDH. It’s what’s for dinner. BlogDailyHerald.com

Page 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports M onday

Monday, March 22, 2010

For a photo slideshow of Friday’s men’s hockey game: browndailyherald.com/sports

Upstart Cornell dismantles Wisconsin, moves on to Sweet 16

By Jeff Potrykus Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — So Wisconsin was the higher-seeded team Sunday at Veterans Memorial Arena? Like so many previous games in the 2010 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, 12th-seeded Cornell proved to Wisconsin and the rest of the nation that seedings mean little once the teams step onto the court. The Ivy League champions were the better team early in building a double-digit lead less than four minutes into the game, withstood one surge by the Badgers late in the first half and then dominated the rest of the way to oust fourth-seeded Wisconsin, 87-69, in the second round of the East Region. When top-seeded Kentucky takes the floor in the East Region semifinals Thursday night in Syracuse, N.Y., the Wildcats’ opponent will be the upstart Big Red (29-4). The reason: Cornell played Wisconsin’s style of basketball and did it better than Bo Ryan’s team. The Badgers, who saw their season end in the second round for the second consecutive season, will be home with a 24-9 record and painful memories of their stay in Jacksonville. Senior guard Louis Dale hit 10 of

17 field-goal attempts and scored 26 points to lead four Cornell players in double figures. Senior forward Ryan Wittman hit 6 of 9 field-goal attempts in the first half when he scored 14 of his 24 points to help the Big Red build a 43-31 halftime lead. Wittman finished 10 for 15, including 3 for 5 from three-point range. The Big Red repeatedly burned Wisconsin’s defense and finished at 61.1 percent (33 for 54), including 53.3 percent from three-point range (8 for 15). The overall shooting mark was a season-high against Wisconsin. The previous high was 53.3 percent, set by Illinois in a 63-56 victory at the Kohl Center. Senior center Jeff Foote (12 points) and sophomore guard Chris Wroblewski (12 points) also played well for Cornell. Junior forward Jon Leuer was Wisconsin’s best player. He went 5 for 5 in the first half en route to 14 points but didn’t get nearly enough help. He finished with 23 points. Senior guard Jason Bohannon broke out of his three-game shooting slump and finished with 18 points on 7-for-15 shooting Senior guard Trevon Hughes had five first-half turnovers, struggled defensively and gave a forgettable performance in his final game at

Wisconsin. He fouled out with 2 minutes 39 seconds left and finished with 10 points, six turnovers and two assists. Junior forward Keaton Nankivil was limited to two minutes in the first half because of two early fouls and picked up two more in the first 3:10 of the second half. He finished with no points and two rebounds. Redshirt freshman forward Ryan Evans added 11 points for Wisconsin, Sophomore guard Jordan Taylor, also limited by foul trouble in the first half, finished with seven points. Cornell was sharp early and Wisconsin appeared discombobulated. Wittman buried two open jumpers; Nankivil missed two shots and Jon Jaques stole a pass by Hughes and drove in for an uncontested layup to give the Big Red a 6-0 lead just 1:45 into the game. Ryan called a timeout just one second later and pulled Hughes and Nankivil in favor of Evans and Tim Jarmusz. Wisconsin missed its first three field-goal attempts and didn’t score until Leuer hit 1 of 2 free throws with 17:09 left. Leuer hit a jumper to cut Cornell’s lead to 11-4 but the Big Red, which hit its first five field-goal attempts, got a three-pointer from

Jonathan Bateman / Herald file photo

Pictured here in a game against Brown, Cornell’s forward Ryan Wittman scored 24 of his team’s 87 points against Wisconsin.

Wittman to push the lead to 14-4 with 15:47 left in the half. Leuer continued to carry Wisconsin in the first half. He scored Wisconsin’s first 12 points, on 4-for-4 shooting to keep Wisconsin within striking distance at 18-12. Bohannon finally got on the board with a three-pointer with 10:26 left and when he scored on a drive to pull Wisconsin to within 24-19 with 8:37, Cornell called a timeout. Brimming with confidence, Bohannon buried a step-back jumper to bring Wisconsin to within 24-21 with 7:20 left. Cornell answered with an 8-2 run, highlighted by a three-pointer from Wittman with one second left on the shot clock, to build the lead back to 32-23. Leuer hit a jumper to cut the deficit to seven and then forced Foote into a traveling violation. Wisconsin failed to capitalize, though, when Hughes saw his drive rejected. Unlike Wisconsin, Cornell took advantage of the opening. The Big Red outscored Wiscon-

sin, 11-6, over the final 3:29 of the half to build its lead to 43-31. Wroblewski sparked the run with a three-pointer and a jumper and Wittman closed the scoring with a three-pointer with five seconds left in the half. Led by Wittman, Cornell shot a sizzling 59.3 percent in the first half (16 for 27). Wisconsin, which had made just 18 of 56 three-point attempts (32.1 percent) and 64 of 179 shots overall (35.8 percent) in its previous three games, shot 40 percent from three-point range (4 for 10) and 52.2 percent overall (12 for 23) and still trailed by 12. Wisconsin’s comeback bid ended in the opening minutes of the second half. The Badgers hit 2 of their first 4 field-goal attempts to pull within nine points but Dale hit a three-pointer and followed that with a three-point play. That sparked a 13-6 run that allowed Cornell to build the lead to 56-41 with 16:15 remaining. Wisconsin never got closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

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World & Nation The Brown Daily Herald

Monday, March 22, 2010 | Page 9

13-year-old college student claims discrimination in abroad program By Kathleen Megan The Har tford Courant

HARTFORD, Conn. — To Colin Carlson, it’s clearly a case of discrimination. As a double-degree honors student with a 3.9 grade point average at the University of Connecticut, he was a natural candidate for an African ecology course offered this semester that involved a summer field study in South Africa. In fact, when he decided to go to UConn, it was partly because this course particularly addressed his interests in the interplay between culture and the environment. However, Colin, a prodigy, is 13 years old. And he believes that the professor who is teaching the course turned him down last fall because of his youth. His mother, Jessica Offir, offered to pay her own way on the trip to chaperone Colin and to release the university from any liability, but the university response remained a firm “no.” Colin, who plans to earn a doctorate degree and then a law degree, said, “If you don’t feel comfortable taking a 13-year-old just because you don’t, then it’s the same thing as if you don’t feel comfortable having a black student on your trip or having a woman on your trip.” “If you can’t teach any student that the university deems capable of taking your class and teaching them, then you shouldn’t be teaching. You can’t pick and choose your students based on personal comfort,” he said.

Michael McAndrews / Hartford Courant

Colin Carlson, a 13-year-old honors student, has brought a complaint against the University of Connecticut after being told he could not study abroad in South Africa.

Colin and his mother, Jessica Offir, contend that the decision violates the university’s anti-discrimination policy and state and federal civil rights law. The Coventry family has filed a complaint with the university’s Office of Diversity and Equity and with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Mike Kirk, spokesman for the university, said he can’t comment on cases where litigation may be involved. However, he said, when it comes to trips abroad, “generally speaking, student safety is our number one concern.” If his mother accompanies him on the trip, Colin doesn’t see any

reason for the university to worry about his safety any more than other students. “Yes, something could happen,” he said. “I could get eaten by a lion, but I am at just the same risk as any other student.” If the university believes it’s unsafe for him, Colin said, “by that logic, no one should be going on the trip and UConn should not be offering a study abroad program.” Colin started taking courses at UConn at age 9 and matriculated as a freshman last year. He has excelled at UConn, and professors who have worked with him have nothing but praise for both his academic talents and his ability to get along

easily with other students. His lawyer, Michael Agranoff, said that although it appears that Colin’s age was the reason he was not allowed into the course, it is not clear exactly why his age is a problem. “Given the fact that UConn did accept him,” said Agranoff, “I’m not sure yet what UConn’s problem really is.” After he was turned down for the African field ecology course, Colin was admitted to another ecology and evolutionary biology course that also involves field study in South Africa. But that course focuses on plants rather than animals, which are his greater interest. In addi-

tion, because he applied late for the course — delayed while waiting to hear whether he was accepted into the African field ecology course — there was no grant money left. He expects that his family will have to pay his way at close to $4,000, plus the cost of his mother’s travel expenses. Colin fears now that the university might find a way to keep him from going on this field trip, as well. Offir said, “We are willing to do anything and ever ything to assuage their fears on the liability front.” Colin said he also fears that his financial aid might be in jeopardy. Until now, Colin said, his education has gone smoothly at UConn, and he has enjoyed it greatly. “I’d like to say that I am really shocked that the university would behave this way. I don’t go looking for fights. I’m generally a very agreeable person,” he said. Carl Schlichting, the professor who has agreed to have Colin in his class and on the South African trip, said in an e-mail that he “easily qualifies for inclusion” and is “a fine student.” Isaac Ortega, the professor who was teaching the class to which Colin was not admitted, was out of the office and could not be reached for comment. Chris Simon, a professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology and Colin’s adviser, said that he is a “fantastic student” who “asks the kinds of questions that usually come from graduate students or a colleague” and is “very mature.”

Growing numbers of students turn to ‘alternative’ spring break By Kate Santich The Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla. — Time was when spring break was synonymous with beer and bikinis. But these days, a large and growing number of college students are spending their precious time off helping underprivileged kids, abandoned pets, disabled veterans and disaster victims. Alternative spring break, as the movement is called, will draw roughly 72,000 students across the country this year, according to the national nonprofit Break Away. Florida is both a leading provider of student volunteers and the beneficiary of scores of team projects led by out-of-state students seeking a side of sunshine with their altruism. “Our alternative spring break program has become so popular that we’re actually booking schools two to three years out,” said Susan Storey, communications director for the Kissimmee-based Give Kids the World, which treats children with life-threatening illnesses and their families to an all-inclusive Central Florida vacation. “This week we have Purdue with 55 students and Colorado State with 10. DePaul gets here next week, and St. John’s (University) and the University of Georgia

just left.” With 1,500 volunteer shifts to fill each week, Give Kids the World puts the students to work doing everything from laying sod to serving up pizza parties for the kids. At University of Central Florida, the alternative spring break program has grown so much, so fast that this year three students were turned away for every one accepted. Jessica Maureen Schwendeman, 23, said there’s no better way to spend the week. “I’m very passionate about this work, and I’m having a great time,” she said last week from Birmingham, Ala., where she was leading a group volunteering at inner-city schools. “I feel like it’s a waste of time to just sit around when I could be doing something that’s fulfilling to me as a person and helps somebody else. I have the rest of my life to sit around.” That seems unlikely. The UCF senior is not only a double major in political science and sociology, but she also has minors in women’s studies and public administration — and she is student director of Volunteer UCF, the group that coordinates the alternative spring break trips. She already has applied to the Peace Corps and, after graduation, hopes to spend two years working in Africa.

The super-achiever personality is typical of today’s generation of alternative spring breakers, said Samantha Giacobozzi, program director of Atlanta-based Break Away, which helps match participating colleges with eager charities. “The caliber of student leadership within these alternative break programs is astonishing,” she said. “The ones we meet have tremendous motivation and interest in so-

cial justice and the desire to make an impact.” Although Break Away was founded in 1991, Giacobozzi and others say the concept of alternative spring break really came into its own after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Colleges that already had alternative break programs added trips aimed at disaster relief, and colleges that lacked such programs began to launch them.

Since then, Giacobozzi said, student participation has risen 10 percent to 15 percent each year. At the University of Florida, which has won national recognition for its extensive volunteerism, students this year could choose from nearly two dozen projects, including protecting marine life, educating communities about HIV and AIDS and laboring alongside impoverished farm workers.

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Monday, March 22, 2010

correction An article in Friday’s Herald (“Seniors struggle with theses,” March 19) incorrectly stated that the Department of Economics had instituted a summer course for rising seniors interested in writing theses. In fact, the course is being offered this spring to juniors. An editorial in Friday’s Herald (“Motion to Table,” March 19) incorrectly attributed an estimate of potential savings from phasing out tableslips to Juan Vasconez ’10. The editorial also incorrectly stated that Vasconez was the chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board. In fact, the estimate came from Jose Vasconez ’10, who is in fact chair of the finance board. Juan Vasconez is the vice-chair of the finance board. The Herald regrets the errors.

A be P ressman

e d i to r i a l

State of the U.

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

Managing Editor Chaz Kelsh

George Miller

Deputy Managing Editors Sophia Li Emmy Liss

editorial Anne Speyer Suzannah Weiss Brian Mastroianni Hannah Moser Brigitta Greene Ben Schreckinger Sydney Ember Nicole Friedman Dan Alexander Zack Bahr Andrew Braca Han Cui

Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Editor Features Editor Features Editor Metro Editor Metro Editor News Editor News Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor

Graphics & Photos Graphics Editor Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Alex Yuly Photo Editor Nick Sinnott-Armstrong Asst. Photo Editor Max Monn Sports Photo Editor Jonathan Bateman Production Copy Desk Chief Kelly Mallahan Design Editor Marlee Bruning Asst. Design Editor Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Julien Ouellet Web Editor Neal Poole Post- magazine Editor-in-Chief Marshall Katheder

Senior Editors Ellen Cushing Seth Motel Joanna Wohlmuth

Business Office Manager General Managers Shawn Reilly Claire Kiely Katie Koh Directors Sales Kelly Wess Finance Matthew Burrows Client Relations Margaret Watson Alumni Relations Christiana Stephenson Managers Local Sales Arjun Vaidya National Sales Marco deLeon University Sales Aditi Bhatia University Sales Jared Davis Recruiter Sales Trenten Nelson-Rivers Maximillian Barrows Business Operations Business Analytics Jilyn Chao Credit and Collections Danielle Marshak Special Projects Alexander Carrere Staff Kathy Bui Opinions Opinions Editor Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor Alyssa Ratledge Editorial Page Board Matt Aks Editorial Page Editor Debbie Lehmann Board member William Martin Board member Melissa Shube Board member Gaurie Tilak Board member Jonathan Topaz Board member

Marlee Bruning, Anna Migliaccio, Leor Shtull-Leber, Noni Wang, Designers Christine Joyce, Kelly Mallahan, Rebecca Specking, Dan Towne, Copy Editors Ashley Aydin, Nicole Friedman, Heeyoung Min, Suzannah Weiss, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Ashley Aydin, Alexander Bell, Nicole Boucher, Alicia Chen, Kristina Fazzalaro, Sarah Forman, Talia Kagan, Sara Luxenberg, Sarah Mancone, Heeyoung Min, Claire Peracchio, Goda Thangada, Caitlin Trujillo Staff Writers Anna Andreeva, Shara Azad, Rebecca Ballhaus, Fei Cai, Miriam Furst, Max Godnick, Anish Gonchigar, Sarah Julian, Julia Kim, Anita Mathews, Mark Raymond, Luisa Robledo, Emily Rosen, Bradley Silverman, Anne Simons, Qian Yin Senior Sales Staff Katie Galvin, Liana Nisimova, Isha Gulati, Alex Neff, Michael Ejike, Samantha Wong Senior Finance Associates Jason Beckman, Lauren Bosso, Mae Cadao, Margot Grinberg, Sajjad Hasan, Adam Fern Finance Associates Lisa Berlin, Mahima Chawla, Mark Hu, Jason Lee, Nicholas Robbins, Daniel Slutsky, Emily Zheng Design Staff Caleigh Forbes, Jessica Kirschner, Gili Kliger, Leor Shtull-Leber, Katie Wilson Web Staff Andrew Chen, Warren Jin, Claire Kwong, Michael Marttila, Jeffrey Matteis, Ethan Richman Photo Staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Nicole Boucher, Zoe Chaves, Greg Conyers, Sarah Forman, Claire Gianotti, Aida HaileMariam, Victoria Hartman, Tiffany Hsu, Christine Joyce, Mrinal Kapoor, Abby Kerson, Matthew Lim, Sara Luxenberg, Alexandra McFarlane, Joe Milner, Rajan Mittal, Lindor Qunaj, Kate-Lyn Scott, Carmen Shulman, Rebecca Specking, Dan Towne, Carolina Veltri

Last week’s weather began to undo some of the damage done by the cold, rain and snow of the past four months. Most students quickly forgave Mother Nature and embraced the outdoors. But on Thursday, several tore themselves away from the festivities on Main Green to attend the State of Brown lecture. Those who did were treated to an extremely informative and engaging look at where the University stands now and where it is going in the future. Thursday’s lecture was the first State of Brown address President Ruth Simmons has delivered since 2006. Simmons addressed the University’s internationalization efforts, plans for expansion and response to the economic crisis, as well as its identity and position relative to other schools. She also took students’ questions, and brought along several other top administrators to help provide as detailed answers as possible. We thank President Simmons for agreeing to give the talk and speaking candidly, and we applaud the Undergraduate Council of Students for arranging the event. In deciding whether to hold another State of Brown lecture next year, President Simmons and UCS should not be discouraged by the low attendance — which can mainly be attributed to the beautiful weather outside. The State of Brown presents a unique opportunity for students and the administration to engage with one another. The speech should become an annual tradition. The next several years will be especially challenging for the University, as it seeks to recover from the economic downturn while simultaneously growing. And with new dorms and expanded graduate programs on the agenda, the University could very well undergo a surprisingly great amount of change in just a few years. At the very least, four years must not be allowed to pass before the next State of Brown address. We don’t doubt President Simmons’ willingness

to give a speech like this more regularly, nor do we doubt UCS’ willingness to arrange it. We mainly want to impress upon students that attending the State of Brown is extremely worthwhile. We’d even go so far as to say it’s obligatory for those who want to be informed and engaged members of the Brown community — a community centered on College Hill but also including alums across the globe. Current students may be primarily concerned with Brown’s consistently strong showing in the Princeton Review’s annual student happiness rankings. But as alums venturing into a competitive labor market and an interconnected globe, we’ll all have reason to be equally if not more concerned with how Brown is perceived both domestically and internationally. All students make a tremendous investment in Brown in terms of both time and money, and the State of Brown crucially exposes students to the kind of long-range, strategic thinking that one sensibly applies when considering any big investment. For underclassmen, the need to stay informed about the administration’s outlook is particularly pressing. At the speech last week, President Simmons noted that the University must expand and improve its graduate school and research capacity if it wants to remain competitive with its peers in the years to come. But she also expressed her belief that the graduate school can grow without affecting Brown’s emphasis on undergraduates. Current underclassmen will watch this expansion continue to unfold and will have to be active in ensuring that it is mutually beneficial. We look forward to the next State of Brown address — we just hope President Simmons and UCS will keep the weather report in mind before finalizing the date. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. C ommentary P O L I C Y The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Monday, March 22, 2010 | Page 11

Why spare athletics? TYLER ROSENBAUM Opinions Columnist Well, we’ve finally reached the big five-oh — the magic threshold of $50,000 per year in tuition and fees, that is. The increasing cost of going to Brown is, of course, as generally unwelcome as it is inexorable. For this reason, it would be a little too cliched and starry-eyed to criticize the tuition hike. Especially in these tough economic times, when everyone is expected to sacrifice somehow, it would seem callous not to support increasing the tuition. After all, those who can afford to pay a little extra will pick up the slack of those who are presumably having a tougher time making ends meet. Having increased financial aid by 6.5 percent, more than the tuition and fees increase of 4.5 percent, the Corporation has demonstrated its continuing commitment to less well-off families. But is everyone sacrificing equally? In a letter President Ruth Simmons sent to the campus two weeks ago, I was troubled to find buried deep in the text the announcement of another fee: the “recreational facilities usage fee,” through which every student must now contribute $64 to athletics. But, I can hear supporters of the fee protest, mightn’t the fee also end up supporting the gyms that most students use? Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services

Margaret Klawunn has suggested that this is the case. If so, it certainly seems fishy, and sets a disconcerting precedent. Those of us who live on campus already will be paying approximately $6,500 per academic year for that privilege. During the seven-and-a-half months we actually spend at Brown, that works out to more than $860 per month, much higher than comparable off-campus housing (even taking the free utilities into account). Presumably the upkeep of gyms and all other aspects of on-campus housing have been subsumed into the amount the Univer-

Last month, before the Corporation met to finalize the budget, The Herald reported that the Organizational Review Committee, which President Simmons appointed to look for ways to cut $14 million from the University’s budget, would be recommending the creation of a $65 fee which would go to the Department of Athletics (“ORC proposes new recreation fee,” Feb. 15). Perhaps sensing that $65 was excessive, the Corporation cut the final version to $64. But why would a committee charged with cutting the budget recommend the creation of a new fee? Evidently, of the 12 subcommittees

Apparently, every area of the University has to make its fair share of sacrifice — except the athletics department. sity charges us to live here (not counting, of course, the $600 the University charges those who choose to live off-campus for that courtesy). If this new fee is going to pay for gym upkeep, will a new fee crop up next year to pay for common area upkeep, or the myriad other things we thought were included in the room fee? Of course I think it very unlikely we will see any such fees in the future, because the new fee is transparently not primarily for gym upkeep, but rather to support athletics.

that investigated various areas of the University to trim down in light of the recession, the athletics subcommittee was “the only one that did not meet its savings goal.” This strikes me as quite unfair. Apparently, every area of the University has to make its fair share of sacrifice — except the athletics department. This is despite the fact that a poll conducted by The Herald at the end of last semester found that half of students had not gone to a single sports game that semester, and in total nearly four-fifths had attended two or fewer such games.

Brown is not a “sports school” like Duke, or even Cornell for that matter. Most students here don’t care about athletics — universities are for higher education, after all, not athletic endeavors. I might sing a different tune if sports here were financially self-sustaining, or brought in additional funding, as they do at other places. But, as this new fee aptly demonstrates, athletics at Brown are a financial drain on the University’s budget. The question, then, is why in these tough times the Corporation decided essentially to exempt the athletics department from the shared sacrifice in which every other facet of this University was expected to take part. I hope in its future meetings the Corporation reconsiders its priorities. I laud the Corporation and the administration for making this subsidy to athletics readily visible as a separate fee and not hiding it in the general tuition increase. This should spur a campus-wide debate about the place of athletics at our institution. Should a financially non-self-sustaining program that is completely extraneous to the purpose of a university, and about which the vast majority of Brown students are apathetic at best, be sheltered from the tough decisions the rest of us have to make? I should hope not.

Tyler Rosenbaum ’11, a public policy concentrator, thinks the public policy concentration needs a fee to protect it from cuts.

More UTRAs, please ADRIENNE LANGLOIS Opinions Columnist When we, as college students, go home for spring break (or, if we’re lucky enough to be going somewhere exciting, when we call home) we’re likely to be asked one terrifying question: “What are you doing this summer?” With an ever-increasing number of summer internships and jobs to choose from, increasing competition for them and a seemingly dwindling funding pool, the question of summer work can be a scary one indeed. Luckily, as Brown students, we have a few unique opportunities at our purveyance, most notably the UTRA program. The Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards offer students the opportunity to pursue collaborative projects in research or course design with professors — and receive $3,000 for a summer of work. Sounds like a dream, right? As the old adage goes, “Nice work if you can get it.” Each year, the UTRA program offers around 200 summer grants to students. The Office of the Dean of the College also funds a smaller number of grants for projects during the fall and spring semesters. While the program is no small shakes (200 is a pretty large number, all things considered), UTRAs have grown considerably in popularity, with the number of applications exceeding the available grants every year. As a result, many projects go unfunded. The obvious solution would be to expand

the program, but this, too, is easier said than done. Unfortunately, the University announced in February that due to economic pressures, it would be unable to expand the UTRA program this year. It’s a catch-22. As paid internships become fewer and further between in our currently weakened economy, more and more students turn to University-funded programs for summer work. At the same time, however, the economic recession prevents the University from expanding the program for its increased numbers of applicants. UTRA decisions were released last week,

enrich the Brown community. The UTRA program provides undergraduate students from all disciplines with the valuable and unique opportunity to explore intensive research in an academic field. Lab work and independent study projects are the only comparable experiences the University currently offers, but neither of these programs are as accessible to students in all fields as UTRAs. More broadly, UTRAs promote a level of collaboration between professors and students not possible within the classroom. While working on an UTRA grant, students have

The UTRA program provides undergraduate students from all disciplines with the valuable and unique opportunity to explore the experience of intensive research in an academic field. and as expected, the program was forced to reject many worthy projects, as it always does. Rejection from the UTRA program puts both professors and students in an awkward situation. Because of the University’s fiscal situation, professors may be unable to fund important projects without UTRA funds, and the late rejection date puts students in a disadvantaged position to apply for other funds or search for other summer opportunities. Obviously, being rejected for an UTRA grant is not the end of the world. But the flexible, collaborative nature of this program deserves more fiscal attention for the ways in which it has transformed and continues to

the opportunity to do research and receive critique and guidance from a professor without being graded. In doing so, the student forges a strong relationship with a professor in an academic field he or she cares about, providing him or her with an academic touchstone and a potential source of recommendations and advice for graduate school or other career opportunities. Most importantly, the UTRA program not only enriches the academic community at Brown through faculty-student collaboration — it also improves it. Many UTRA projects focus on designing courses, Web sites and other teaching aids, and improving or revising other

Brown programs. Still others allow students and professors to connect with Providence through research in the local community, or build contacts abroad through international research projects. I understand that the financial crisis has necessitated funding freezes for many worthy programs. However, given the extraordinary benefits of UTRAs, the University should return to prioritizing this program when funding becomes available. While we wait for the economy to recover, there is still a possibility for expansion of the program. Currently, the UTRA program has over 20 named grants generously made possible by University alums. More donations from alumni could sponsor additional grants. I would like to echo The Herald’s recent editorial encouraging alums to support the Brown Internship Award Program (“Building BIAP,” Feb. 10): Not all of the most valuable experiences in a student’s academic career occur within the classroom. Alums looking to make a donation to a particularly worthy program at Brown should consider the UTRA program. The University is already doing a good job making the UTRA program available to students. Expanding the program to serve as many willing collaborators as possible will enrich the University community, and give students a great answer to the question of what they will be doing with their summers.

Adrienne Langlois ’10 was rejected for an UTRA last year and had a great summer anyway.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

5

A cappella groups compete at MIT

7

1 comics

c a l e n da r tomorrow, mArch 23

6 P.M. — “Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know,” Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute

10 A.M. — Wigs for Kids Haircut-AThon, Sayles Hall

7 P.M. — QUEERican, List Art Building, Room 120

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

5 P.M. — Thinking about Taking Time Off?, J. Walter Wilson, Room 310

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Vegan Plantains with Garbanzos, Jamaican Curried Chicken, Shrimp Bisque

Lunch — Chicken Cutlet Sandwich, Spinach and Rice Bake, Green Beans with Tomatoes

Dinner — Beef Shish Kabob, Broccoli Spears with Lemon

Dinner — Macaroni Pudding, Herb Bread, Vegetarian Washington Chowder, Country Style Baked Ham

56 / 46

53 / 42

Monday, March 22, 2010

7

Today, March 22

to m o r r o w

Aaron Volpatti ’10 sets new record

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

5

to day

Excelsior | Kevin Grubb

crossword Fruitopia | Andy Kim

Hippomaniac | Mat Becker

Classic Trust Ben | Ben Leubsdorf

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