Thursday, March 25, 2010

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 40 | Thursday, March 25, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

BSA ticket Web site crashes, students snoop for answers

By Talia Kagan and Sara Luxenberg Senior Staf f Writers

Spring Weekend rain-capacity tickets sold out yesterday morning after trouble with the Web site that hosted sales left frustrated students refreshing their browsers for 40 minutes.

The tickets were adver tised to go on sale at 8:00 a.m., but students from Brown and Rhode Island School of Design who attempted to buy tickets were not able to do so until about 8:40 a.m., according to Alex Spoto ’11, the Brown Concert Agency’s administrative chair. By 9:30 a.m., the 6,500 tickets available — 3,250 for each day’s concert — were completely sold out.

Inadequate capacity MGMT On April 21, at 1:30 p.m., students, staff and faculty who were shut out will get a second chance —

if BCA determines that the weather will be good enough to hold the concert on the Main Green. Until then, the number of tickets is restricted to 3,500, the capacity of Meehan Auditorium. BCA could only offer 3,250 tickets per day in Wednesday morning’s online sale because the agency reserves 250 tickets for people such as the artists, security, volunteers and stage crew, said BCA Hospitality Chair Abby Schreiber ’11.

Of the 3,250 tickets available, a “negligible” number were reserved for RISD students, staff and faculty, while the rest went to the Brown community, according to Spoto.

As students attempted to purchase tickets online, “the server’s capacity to handle the amount of data transfer at 8 a.m. was inadequate,” Mike Caron ’12, technology and e-commerce coordinator for continued on page 4

Yellen ’67 tapped for Fed

N e w d irection

By Anne Artley Contributing Writer

you.”

“We do stuff after practice together,” Prough said. “It’s nice having two guys you went to college with.”

Vokes said he is enjoying the lifestyle of a professional hockey player.

“You have a lot of freedom and time to pursue outside interests,” Vokes said, mentioning that he does

Janet Yellen ’67, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as vice chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

The Board of Governors is the main branch of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system in the United States. If confirmed, Yellen will replace Donald Kohn in the second highest Fed position in the country.

Yellen wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that, if confirmed to the position, she hopes to help the Federal Reserve work towards its two key macroeconomic goals: full employment and price stability.

“We need to foster a great deal of job creation to achieve the first goal,” Yellen wrote.

She wrote that another goal of the Federal Reserve is to supervise banking organizations and monitor developments that could threaten the financial system, especially in light of the current recession.

Yellen wrote that she is “strongly committed to price stability,” and has voted 20 times to “raise interest rates in order to contain inflation-

continued on page 9

continued on page 3

Min Wu / Herald

Brown/RISD Hillel’s new executive director, Marshall Einhorn, will take over this summer. See page 3.

Neurosurgery Hockey alums wear same pro uniform department gets new head rarely play on the same line. They do, however, see each other plenty off the ice.

By Ben Noble Contributing Writer

By Sarah Mancone Senior Staff Writer

Garth Cosgrove has been appointed as inaugural chair of the newly created Department of Neurosurgery at Alpert Medical School and as chief of neurosurgery at Rhode Island Hospital and the Miriam Hospital, according to a press release from the Med School. These appointments will be effective June 1.

The neurosurgery department was formed in December 2008, but has not had a permanent chair before now.

It takes a while to appoint a new chair, said Karen Scanlan, communication and administrative manager of the office of Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing.

There is a “stringent process of hiring a new chair,” she added.

The search committee first must find candidates for the position, and then there is a rigorous interview process “once they get past the point of being worthy,” she said.

The department was formed after the Corporation separated the Department of Clinical Neurosciences into the Department of Neurology and the Department of Neurosurgery. It is great to be bringing “neurosurgery onto the campus,” Scanlan said.

Cosgrove is taking over for Interim Chief of Neurosurgery Curt

inside

continued on page 2

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

www.browndailyherald.com

Three former men’s hockey players — Matt Vokes ’09, Jeff Prough ’08 and Chris Poli ’08 — have kept in touch better than most graduates. The three alums play for the East Coast Hockey League’s Trenton Devils, a professional team owned by the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.

All three alums are forwards but

Sports

Vokes and Prough are roommates in Trenton, and Poli lives next door.

“It’s a fun atmosphere,” Vokes said. “Its easy to make the transition from college to the pros when you have close friends looking out for

Blue State brewing two new locations

By Brigitta Greene Metro Editor

The order is simple: coffee, black.

Alex Payson ’03.5 doesn’t miss a beat.

He pours the 200-degree water over the grounds, watching carefully as the brown grains swell upward and begin to froth. The mixture is

Metro creamy and rich. Coffee beans give off carbon dioxide for a brief period after they are roasted. The bubbles betray a truly fresh cup to come.

He waits 50 seconds before delivering the first serving. It tastes of cocoa and stone fruit, of peaches with a salty note.

Payson is co-owner of Blue State Coffee — a shop that has established itself, in less than three years, as a

staple for coffee drinkers from both Brown and the greater East Side.

Blue State has two locations on College Hill, and now runs through approximately 10,000 pounds of coffee a year. If all goes well, the company hopes to open two new locations before the end of this year, another store in Rhode Island and one in Boston.

“We try to push the envelope for how good coffee can be, to do the best we can to treat coffee well,” Payson said. He says his goal is absolute quality in every cup. And the coffee-curious customer is rarely disappointed.

The company’s first store, at 300 Thayer St., opened in the summer of 2007. Last January, Blue State opened a new location — the College Hill Cafe — within the Brown continued on page 6

Herald file photo

Blue State Coffee, which opened two new locations last January, is looking to expand yet again by the end of this year.

Metro, 6

Sports, 8

Opinions, 11

What’s percolating?

Take a sip of the coffee shops Providence has to offer

pitch perfect Pitching for Kristie Chin ’11 has been a walk in the ballpark recently

IN DEFENSE OF LARRY Susannah Kroeber ’11 ponders the benefits of studying the gender gap

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

editor’s note This is the last issue of The Herald prior to spring break.

Publication resumes April 5.

herald@browndailyherald.com

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Thursday, March 25, 2010

“You can expect to see a feistier version of me.”

— President Ruth Simmons on her coming years in office

Neurosurgery dept. gets first chair Simmons: dorms, grad school to expand next continued from page 1

Doberstein at the Med School and Chief of Neurosurgery John Duncan at Rhode Island Hospital, who stepped down in 2007.

“It is a real testament to our growth at Rhode Island Hospital and the Miriam Hospital to have him lead our Department of Neuro-

surgery,” Chief Executive of Rhode Island Hospital Timothy Babineau said in the press release. “We are confident that Dr. Cosgrove’s experience and leadership skills will enable him to effectively direct the Department of Neurosurgery and help us to successfully expand the program to meet increased patient needs.”

sudoku

Cosgrove comes from the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass. There he served as the chair of the Department of Neurosurgery and senior neurosurgeon. In addition, he served as professor of neurosurgery at Tufts University School of Medicine. Before working at the Lahey Clinic, Cosgrove was an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School as well as attending neurosurgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Cosgrove has research interests in epilepsy, stereotactic and functional neurosurgery, surgical treatment of brain tumors, functional imaging of the human cerebral cortex and radiosurgery, according to the press release.

Cosgrove “is an outstanding neurosurgeon with expertise in functional neurosurgery, a critical tie to enhancing our research at Brown,” Wing said in the press release.

“Everyone’s very excited about him coming,” Scanlan said. He will serve as a tie that “brings everyone together in the clinical setting and research,” she added.

Cosgrove will also be joining the Brown Institute for Brain Science.

“Dr. Cosgrove brings exceptional leadership, neurosurgical and scientific skills to Rhode Island and Brown’s flourishing multidisciplinary brain research community,” said John Donoghue, the institute’s director, in the press release.

“This appointment will create important future collaboration with the departments of neuroscience, psychiatry, and neurology,” Wing said in the press release. “Leaders like Dr. Cosgrove will help boost our potential to be one of the top destinations in the country for clinical and academic neuroscience.”

By Nicole Boucher Senior Staff Writer

The University will improve and expand residence halls in the coming years, President Ruth Simmons told the Undergraduate Council of Students at its general body meeting Wednesday night.

“I envision a big dorm project,” Simmons said. Though she did not discuss any specific residence hall projects, she invited the council’s input in the planning process.

“I think we have a lot to do,” Simmons said, adding that it will be important to garner support from the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, for the capital projects that establish new student spaces.

Simmons also discussed growing the Graduate School, saying that her “State of Brown” speech was a means “to launch that debate” within the larger community. She said lively discussion must occur before instituting any plan for growth to ensure that Brown continues to “support the undergraduate program as opposed to detracting from it.”

She said any plan must strike a balance between maintaining a vibrant undergraduate experience and improving the Grad School to enhance Brown’s reputation.

Simmons advocated sharing information between universities as a means of reducing costs while expanding knowledge across a wider community. “If we cooperate more, we would have the ability to reduce costs to students” and improve the transfer of knowledge, she said.

Simmons also discussed her plans

for the rest of her time as president.

“You can expect to see a feistier version of me,” she said of her coming years as president. “I think I’m going to have a lot of fun and not worry too much about ruffling feathers.”

Simmons has ser ved since 2001 and announced at February’s meeting of the Corporation that she will remain at Brown beyond next year.

“I learned a lot in my first nine years how hard it is to move things.

It takes a long time,” she said. “I think I’ve concluded that I’m probably going to have to break some rules.”

President Simmons meets with UCS annually, Clay Wertheimer ’10, the council’s president, told The Herald. The fact that Simmons’ visit falls less than a week after her “State of Brown” address means that “members of UCS have had time to think” and prepare questions about undergraduate life that “springboard” off of Simmons’ discussion last Thursday, he said.

The council also approved changes to the requirements for the constitution that student groups must file before receiving categorization from the Student Activities Committee.

The changes include an expanded statement of purpose that will better reflect the group’s individual purpose, according to Student Activities Chair Brady Wyrtzen ’11. It also requires that groups agree to UCS procedures after they receive official categorization.

The Campus Life Committee also discussed its proposal for increasing lighting on the Main Green, said Campus Life Chair Ben Farber ’12.

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Thursday, March 25, 2010

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“She’s not there to follow a party line.”

— George Borts, economics professor, on Fed nominee Janet Yellen ’67

Hillel’s new director starts in summer Fed nominee found ‘life’s work’ on College Hill

By Qian Yin Staf f Writer

Megan Nesbitt, executive director of Brown/RISD Hillel, will be leaving at the end of the semester to pursue graduate studies. She will be replaced by Marshall Einhorn, who comes from a business background.

Einhorn has been working with Nesbitt since Jan. 25 and will fully take charge this summer, he said. This arrangement gives him the opportunity to meet students, faculty members, administrators and alums and to “get an overall sense of Brown and the Jewish community at Brown,” he said.

Nesbitt will leave Brown in June to pursue a master’s degree in critical psychology at George Washington University, she said.

She said she loves Brown for “the strength of the community and the sense of really belonging here.” Her experience at Brown has been “incredibly rewarding,” challenging her in unexpected ways as well as teaching her what she wants to do next, she added.

Einhorn said the Hillel community has been ver y “warm and welcoming.” He said he has been struck by the diversity of the Jewish community at Brown in terms

of Judaic practices and student backgrounds. “It has been amazing for me to see the dif ferent avenues for Jewish students to get involved and to have Jewish experiences with their classmates,” he said.

Einhorn called himself a “career switcher.” Prior to coming to Hillel, he had 11 years of working experience in business, consulting, informational technology and marketing. He also holds a masters in business administration.

But his career in the for-profit world “wasn’t speaking to me,” Einhorn said, and so he began looking for “work that had a larger meaning to the community,” he said. “I wanted to be in a position where I felt the connection to the work that I was doing.”

As an undergraduate student at Tufts University, Einhorn was on the executive board of Hillel for two years, and had been “a big believer in helping develop Jewish life on campus.” He said this position at Brown/RISD Hillel “was exactly the kind of thing that I was looking to shift into.”

Einhorn also said he wanted to have a career through which he could “help improve the world in some small ways,” so as to set up an example for his kids — a four-and-half-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy.

Einhorn said he thinks having a strong set of business experiences will ser ve him well in Hillel. He said he sees similarities in operation between Hillel and a business, and will utilize skills he gained in the for-profit world, such as financial and marketing skills, to ser ve the Hillel community.

Nesbitt said she has been “ver y impressed” by Einhorn’s “mind for business operations and management” and his ability to see how the community works as a whole and how individuals fit into the organization.

The student executive board at Hillel is “ver y excited” to have Einhorn, according to Yoni Dolgin ’10, president of the board.

Dolgin said he thinks Einhorn is a “good listener,” “a true leader” and someone who is both visionar y and capable of gathering resources to support his visions.

“People just love him,” Dolgin said.

Einhorn will work on crafting an “authentic experience for students to connect and do so in a way that is meaningful to the individual students themselves,” he said. He said he hopes that when students leave Brown, “their Judaism is in some ways important to them” and they will bring this to other communities.

continued from page 1 ary pressures.” She predicted that the inflation level will sink even lower than its present level because of the historically high unemployment rate and low rate of wage increases.

Yellen has held the position of president of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco since 2004, and chaired the Council of Economic Advisors under the Clinton Administration, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

Before that, she taught at the London School of Economics and, at present, is a professor at University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. After graduating from Brown, she went on to earn her doctorate in economics from Yale, and received an honorary degree from Brown in 1998.

As a Brown graduate of the late 1960s, Yellen remembers the debate around the changes in the curriculum. Overall, she wrote she has fond memories of her college days and is grateful to Brown for providing her with a well-rounded education.

“I discovered economics as a field of study, was excited by the coursework I took in that field, and am thankful that I found my life’s work in the process,” Yellen wrote. “I also greatly enjoyed remarkable courses that I took

Courtesy of federalreserve.gov

Janet Yellen ’67.

in fields as diverse as art history, architecture, the philosophy of science, Russian literature and geology.”

Professor of Economics George Borts, who was chairman of the department when Yellen was an undergraduate, said he was not surprised by her success.

“She was very sharp and quickwitted,” he said. “It was clear she was going to have a good career in economics. She was very interested in the field and she picked good advisers.”

Though Borts said it was too early to pinpoint Yellen’s policies should she be appointed to the position, he said he had confidence in her ability to govern.

“I expect her to be pretty independent,” he said. “She’s not there to follow a party line. She follows her own instincts and intelligence.”

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Thursday, March 25, 2010

“The system did not work the way we wanted it to.”

— Alex Spoto ’11, BCA administrative chair, on its Web site’s crash

Site crashes, tickets sell out, causing ‘Major’ student outrage continued from page 1

Brown Student Agencies, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Caron attributed the crash to “a lack of sufficient bandwidth for such a high-volume day.”

BCA and BSA members still do not know why the bandwidth was not large enough to accommodate the demand. Caron wrote that either the bandwidth had been decreased from last year or the demand was

greater.

BSA uses an outside software company called TouchNet to handle the ticket sales for Spring Weekend and other events. BCA was “working closely with the software developers” before Weds. morning’s sales, Schreiber said. “We were told it should have had the bandwidth to function with every person logging on at once,” she added.

“As more information comes in, we’ll be able to provide a more ac-

curate picture,” Schreiber said.

“The system did not work the way we wanted it to,” Spoto said. He added that when the crash occurred, both BCA and BSA members did everything they could to get the Web site up and running again. “It was frustrating. It was something that we were trying hard to fix for an hour, with the phones ringing off the hook,” he said.

While BSA specifically is responsible for managing the online ticket transactions, “it wasn’t their program that they could fix,” Spoto said.

BSA has no control over the server TouchNet uses and how the program functions, Caron said.

Spoto said he has been in contact with TouchNet to attempt to figure out why the bandwidth was set inappropriately.

“In light of the situation, I think it is fair to say that BSA was very quick to respond to all questions and issues with sales, be it by e-mail, phone call or visit to one of our offices,” Caron said.

The possible heightened demand for tickets could have been due to BCA “making a bigger push to accommodate grad students, faculty and staff,” Schreiber said. “Last year we didn’t publicize it as well,” she added.

“Demand cer tainly seemed

much stronger this year, with this Spring Weekend marking the 50th anniversary and promising a strong list of performances,” Caron said.

“Tickets sold out much faster this year than they did in previous years,” he added. Last year, tickets did not sell out until just past midnight on their first day of sales. While there were reports of slow loading times, the response to last year’s online sales was mostly positive, The Herald reported at the time.

BCA did not sell any tickets to the general public this year, Schreiber said.

Before last year, tickets were sold in person to the Brown community. After 2008 Spring Weekend ticket sales led to multi-hour lines, online implementation was seen as more effective, The Herald reported in March 2009.

BCA sent to the Dogg-house Stories of just how students did — and did not — get tickets were everywhere on campus yesterday.

Sam Barney ’12 has a story that might make certain Brown students turn green with envy.

After failing to get through to the Brown Student Agency Marketplace Web site at 8 a.m., she called her parents. Confused at why she was awake so unusually early, their

immediate question was, “Are you hurt?” Barney explained the ticket situation, gave them her Brown ID number and went back to sleep. Her parents — “huge concert buffs,” she said — tried for an hour, and were eventually successful. When she woke up, she had tickets.

At 8:40 a.m., Melanie Johnson ’13 woke up her roommate, who told Johnson she had been dreaming about not getting tickets. Johnson had been tr ying since 8:30 a.m., though she did not get tickets until about 9:00.

Catherine Freije ’13 wasn’t so lucky. After trying to log onto the Web site, and making it as far as the ticket selection menu at one point before being shut out, she had to go to her organic chemistry class at 8:45, ticketless.

Early on in the day, Facebook became a repository for misery and schadenfreude.

“Everyone’s status was really angry or really happy,” said Rachel Zolno ’13.

Sometime before noon, Benjamin Mossbarger ’10 created the Facebook group “Spring Weekend Riot” in response to the ticketing controversy. At press time Thursday morning, the group had over 400 members. continued on page 5

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For more student reaction — and other news too — visit www.BlogDailyHerald.com

Complaints, traffic at high volume continued from page 4

Mossbarger had hit the BSA Web site’s refresh button “continuously for an hour,” but failed to get tickets before he had to leave for his 9 a.m. quantum mechanics class. He later found out that tickets had sold out as he sat in class. “I was livid,” he said.

He created the group and e-mailed BCA, frustrated, he said, that the agency hadn’t prepared adequately.

BCA should have instituted a policy of one ticket per student, he said, since many people got tickets for a friend from another school.

Additionally, he said he believed BCA should show preference to seniors because this Spring Weekend is their last. Mossbarger said he has only been to one Spring Weekend concert while at Brown — his sophomore year, he got shut out of tickets, and the following year he went abroad — and he is worried that he might not be able to go this year.

“Both BSA and BCA understand the frustration people have after today with the payment site,” Caron said. He added that nobody, including BSA members, could access the site in the 40 minutes it was down.

“The majority of the BSA staff did not end up with tickets to the events, highlighting the fact that everyone had the same chance of obtaining

Herald File Photo

Spring Weekend 2009 marked the inauguration of online ticket sales. The concert was ultimately held outside, permitting the sale of more tickets.

tickets,” he said.

With or without glitches, BCA is still limited by the capacity of either Meehan Auditorium or the Main Green.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

“If it had r un smoothly or not,” Schreiber said of this morning’s sales, “there would still be a couple thousand students without tickets.”

Metro

The Buzz Providence’s Coffee Culture

In Pawtucket, perfecting the roast

By Avery Houser Contributing Writer

North of the Rhode Island School of Design, Main Street is a desolate wasteland, a drag flanked on the west by gas stations and fast food chains and on the east by a graveyard. Main Street dampens the soul.

There is a beacon of hope, though, just north of the Providence city limits. Near the Pawtucket border, bomb-shelled storefronts give way to old warehouses. And this is the home of New Harvest Coffee Roasters.

The New Harvest facilities are divided into a roasting room and a training room. When a coffee shop first begins working with New Harvest, the company’s coffee gurus lead the shop’s baristas through an intensive training regiment.

The slightest mistreatment of New Harvest’s beans can ruin a coffee’s flavors.

“You can buy the most beautiful coffee and destroy it in seconds,” said Gerra Harrigan, New Harvest’s director of business development. A coffee like their “El Alto” from Costa Rica must be roasted very lightly for the flavor profile to show its bright notes. While trends are moving towards roasting and brewing coffees to their own specifications, many shops indiscriminately dark-roast all beans.

While coffee is central in barista training, many of the classes are espresso-centric, she said. Many baristas want to jump right to espresso art.

Harrigan says that espresso art is important for baristas as it helps them focus on steaming well-textured milk. When the milk is thin enough to create detailed designs, its density is ideal for a latte.

“It’s like chemistry,” Harrigan said.

The community roast The training room also plays host to monthly “barista jams,” during which baristas go head-tohead over latte art. The judge usually throws out the losers’ latte, but someone will drink the winner’s cup.

It’s too painful to throw it out, Harrigan said.

“It’s like basketball,” Harrigan said, gazing at the dry-erase bracket proudly. This past weekend the crew was in Boston at the Northeast Regional Barista Competition. It is the first time the competition has been held in the Northeast, after previously being held in conjunction with t h e Mid-

Atlantic competition. New Harvest’s own Todd Mackey came in fifth place, Harrigan said.

Mackey and Simon Ouderkirk, who runs the coffee program at Seven Stars Bakery, are working to develop the Providence Coffee Society. The society’s goal is to establish a “coffee community.” The barista culture in Providence is upand-coming, Harrigan explained.

“You can taste it,” he said.

The roasting room is home to two coffee roasting machines, affectionately called “Wolf Maiden” and “Cupcake.” Wolf Maiden is capable of roasting up to 35,000 pounds of coffee a week. When coffee is roasted, it is placed into a large drum that rotates it over a gas flame, then transferred to a cooling chamber. The roaster — a person, not a machine — regulates the temperature and air flow during the entire process.

Wildness of the bean This Tuesday morning, Rik Kleinfeldt, the founder of New Harvest, changes the air flow on the Sumatra he’s roasting to split it between the heating drum and the cooling chamber. He explains that a goal of roasting is to separate the chaff from the quality part of the bean through a heavy air flow, while simultaneously maintaining a high temperature.

Kleinfeldt roasts this Sumatra as a “full city roast,” or a medium roast. Upon picking, most artisanal coffee is washed before the fruit is removed from the bean. The fruit of a Sumatra coffee is left in contact with the bean far longer, so Kleinfeldt roasts Sumatra longer to “temper that wildness.”

All of the beans are shipped to Pawtucket by importers in New York City. While the New Harvest roasters have visited a number of their feeder plantations, they still buy primarily from importers. To buy directly from the farmers would require an enormous volume, but New Harvest is beginning to form relationships with individual farms as part of a goal to start buying from the source.

It’s all in the slurp Mackey runs a “cupping” every morning — a blind coffee tasting.

Mackey sets out the grounds of three or four coffees in twice as many cups. Employees gather to smell the grounds and take notes.

A barista then carefully pours boiling water over grounds at the bottom of each cup.

They count down four minutes, the optimal brew time before the “break.” When the magic moment is reached, a barista sticks his nose almost into the coffee and pushes back the layer of grounds that has formed at the top of the cup. It is at this moment that the most intense aromas are released.

The proper tasting method is a loud slurp, such that the coffee coats the entire mouth. A sip only touches the tip of the tongue.

Some tasters cup in absolute silence and under a red light to heighten their senses of taste and smell. Without speaking about what they experience, the baristas proceed to taste the coffee hot, and as it cools. A coffee that is good even as it cools proves itself to be free of defects.

A cupping can consist of any combination of coffees, often from one region. Tuesday morning, the New Harvest team is cupping east African coffees. Sometimes they will cup a triangulation, which consists of two of the same types of coffee and one different type, just to keep themselves on point.

Mackey loves tasting coffee from other roasters, as he likes to keep track of what others are doing. It’s not for the sake of competition, he said, so much as for the sake of learning. “We like to enjoy everyone’s roasting style,” he said.

Mackey says that he is always growing at New Harvest. The spirit is one of adventure — of reevaluation — and it is always a learning experience.

Passion steams behind the Blue State counter continued from page 1 Bookstore, and a third branch in New Haven, Conn. near Yale.

Beyond deep-rooted passion for quality taste, the company has worked to give back to the community — donating five percent of sales to local causes — and to be as environmentally sustainable as possible, Payson said.

“Most people still use coffee as a conduit for caffeine,” he said. “We want to get people to think about coffee like people think about wine.”

Blue State, like many independent Providence cafes, brews coffee roasted at New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Pawtucket.

New England’s coffee culture is “exploding right now,” said Ryan Ludwig, manager of the College Hill Cafe.

Interest in the art of coffee is growing nationwide, he said, and Providence’s local coffee scene is “very passionate but also very small.”

The University’s proximity creates a great opportunity to reach out to students — often the most open to “getting out there and trying new things,” he said. He recently rear-

ranged the bar at his cafe to facilitate conversation between baristas and customers.

These conversations are incredibly valuable, he said, adding that he hopes to “create a community around the shop,” to “really make the impression that this is a quality product.” Whether or not the coffee is appreciated to its fullest “totally depends on the person,” he said, but he is not pretentious about his art.

Sugar and heavy cream are considered to mask the true flavor of the roast, to take away from the full appreciation of its complex flavors. “But a mocha is a delicious drink,” he said with a smile. “I have absolutely no problem with it.”

The location on the Pembroke campus offers open coffee cuppings every Friday at noon. Community members are invited to taste different blends, develop their palate and learn about the art and theory of coffee.

As Payson clears off the counter, he speaks excitedly of a package he ordered last week. Inside is an aroma kit full of 36 samples, each one a distinct coffee aroma. His pallete, he says, awaits fine tuning.

Over twenty five years, and the coffee’s still hot

By Ellen Cushing Senior Editor

Avery Houser / Herald

From training the city’s baristas to roasting the perfect coffee, New Harvest Roasters are passionate about their craft. Cities like Portland, Ore. and San Francisco have long been considered isolated hubs for quality coffee — where a cup of joe becomes more about the complex aromas, multi faceted taste and the art of presentation.

But Providence is not far behind. New Harvest has played a large role in facilitating the recent “explosion” in local coffee spirit. New Harvest distributes their specialty roasts to many of Providence’s independent coffee shops — including Seven Stars Bakery, Blue State Coffee and White Electric Coffee — and hosts regular coffee cuppings and workshops for Rhode Island’s coffee-savvy.

A year before the first Starbucks opened its doors and long before there was an identifiable coffee culture in Providence or anywhere else, Charlie and Bill Fishbein started roasting and selling brewed coffee and whole beans in a cozy, wood-walled storefront on Wickenden Street.

“When we founded Coffee Exchange, there was nothing,” Charlie said, sitting at a wooden table in the cafe’s upstairs office, more than a quarter-century after he and his brother first set up shop. But now, 26 years later, Coffee Exchange has managed to thrive, even as the coffee culture around it has grown and

changed immensely.

This is, Fishbein said, in large part due to the fact that even in 1984, long before terms like “organic” and “fair trade” even existed, he and the rest of the business’s managers adopted an ethos of social responsibility — a commitment that hasn’t wavered.

The business is highly connected with Coffee Kids, a nonprofit founded

by Bill Fishbein in 1988 that aims to improve the economic and life circumstances of those who actually grow the beans from which Coffee Exchange’s lattes are made. What’s more, the cafe’s coffee is 100 percent organic and fair-trade, according to Charlie Fishbein. “All of our coffee is continued on page 7

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, March 25, 2010

M etro: The Buzz

Lucky Clover brews pots of coffee gold

By Talia Kagan Senior Staff Writer

“You’ll smell the berries,” said Steve Peck, manager of a Wayland Square coffee shop, inhaling the earthy smell of sun-dried Ethiopian coffee. He then displays the Sumatra bean, which he said has been aged for three to five years. The Ethiopia Sidamo is another favorite, because of its “kind of lemony flavor,” he said.

Peck said he enjoys small-batch coffees like these because they give him “the ability to talk coffee with people.”

But Peck doesn’t work at some obscure artisanal coffee house. He works at Starbucks.

Starbucks may have popularized the concept of gourmet coffee — expanding from Seattle to countries as far as Oman and the Philippines — but most coffee purists these days turn up their noses at the multinational corporation’s mass-market appeal.

Yet the Starbucks in Wayland Square houses a Clover machine, an advanced coffee brewer found in only 47 Starbucks locations nationwide, according to the company’s Web site.

This sleek, single-cup machine — with an $11,000 price tag — could arguably be deemed the most advanced brewer in the state of Rhode Island.

The Clover was designed by the Coffee Equipment Company, also based in Seattle, which originally sold the machine to independent coffee shops. But in March 2008, Starbucks bought the company. Cafes that previously owned a Clover still own one, but Starbucks no longer distributes the machines to stores other than its own.

Starbucks debuted the machine in four test markets nationwide — the Wayland Square branch was the only Rhode Island location included — and plans to install 250 more machines soon, Peck said.

The store boasts a metal plaque reading “Clover” outside one of its entrances to highlight its unique brewing capacity.

The Clover is a good fit for the Wayland Square Starbucks, which sells a lot of drip coffee. In comparison, at some other branches — such as the Thayer Street branch — lattes and specialty beverages are more popular, according to Peck.

When a customer orders a Clover coffee, the beans are ground on the

spot, then poured into the cylindrical brew chamber at the top of the machine. Hot water fills the chamber, and the barista mixes the grounds and water with a metal beater. The grounds are lowered down slowly, then raised, then lowered again. The process aerates them more for the vacuum press, which pulls the water through a filter out of the grounds, Peck said. The coffee brews into a cup while the grounds remain in a sort of patty that Peck squeegees into a container.

“They make a really great fertilizer,” he adds.

The whole process takes about two minutes, which can sometimes cause a bit of a delay, Peck said. If customers prefer cold drinks, the coffee can be brewed double-strength and poured on ice.

Clover coffee has changed some habits, Peck said. Some customers no longer drink their coffee with milk, he said, because they now prefer to taste straight coffee.

But not everyone is buying it. One possible deterrent is price — depending on the blend, a Clover coffee can cost over twice the price of a regular brew.

Eva Goodman, who tried a cup of Clover-brewed coffee on the recommendation of a friend, said she did taste a difference, finding the taste “clean and bold.”

According to Peck, about threequarters of his branch’s Clover sales come from regular, die-hard fans.

One Clover fan drives to Wayland Square even though he works in a different part of Providence, Peck said.

Another regular customer sometimes buys two cups of Clover coffee in the morning when she knows she won’t have time to return later in the day, he added.

Peck said customers are also protective. If the machine is not working, “people can get very upset,” he said.

Coffee culture settled in on Wickenden continued from page 6 purchased with a social component in mind. That’s part and parcel with who we are,” he said. “We’ve always tried to put the most sustainable product out that we can.”

Coffee Exchange buys all of its beans from a cooperative and roasts them in-house — another part of the formula that Fishbein said keeps people coming back. “Very seldom do we have coffee beans that are more than two days old,” he said.

“It’s that freshness that translates into taste, that translates into staying in business for 26 years.”

Over the course of those 26 years, Providence’s coffee scene has grown exponentially and a whole host of competitors has sprung up around Coffee Exchange, starting with the arrival of Starbucks in Providence around 15 years ago.

“When (Starbucks) first came into town, there was a question: ‘Is Coffee Exchange going to go out of business?’,” Fishbein said. “But,” he continued, “we were never really concerned about Starbucks putting us out of business.”

Though the Seattle-based chain has sparked an interest in gourmet coffee and made for an increasingly sophisticated customer palate — the biggest change he said he has seen over the years — Fishbein said his cafe’s unwillingness to yield to trends and enduring allegiance to taste has allowed it to occupy a protected niche.

Starbucks is “a great marketing company and they’re responsible for a lot of the current coffee craze,” he

said. “But we’re a coffee business and it’s because we do really great-tasting coffee that we’ve been able to stay in business for so long.”

He continued, “We don’t change simply because somebody might have a new marketing scheme. We will improve the taste of our coffee, but we won’t change it to follow some sort of trend.”

Starbucks — which has six stores in Providence, five of which are within a mile of Coffee Exchange — isn’t the cafe’s only competitor, as Providence’s coffee market has seen enormous growth in recent years.

And oddly enough, Coffee Exchange actually trained some of the founders of New Harvest Coffee Roasters, which now supplies roasted beans to dozens of the city’s coffeeshops.

Fishbein said the two businesses have a friendly relationship. “We get along very well,” he said.

“When his roaster breaks, he can use mine, and

when my roaster breaks, I can use his. The bond is personal and very much enjoyable.”

Fishbein said business is as strong as ever even in the face of a changing market and growing competition, and a look at the Exchange’s deck on a Sunday morning, as a long line of bleary-eyed Rhode Islanders waits patiently for their Ethiopian Oromia or Narragansett Blend, seems to back this up.

“We do have the reputation with the big deck and the crowds and the line in the morning,” Fishbein said.

Parker Wood, a Rhode Island native and longtime barista at the cafe, said Coffee Exchange’s “loyal local following and solid base” was largely responsible for the store’s longevity.

“It’s like a community center,” he said. “It’s an unchanging variable in the equation that is coffee in Providence.”

Avery Houser / Herald

Coffee Exchange roasts their beans in-house, allowing the coffee shop to maintain high quality and freshness standards.

SportsThursday The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, March 25, 2010 | Page 8

athlete of the week

Softball’s Chin ’11 on no-hitters, BBQ and Taylor Swift

By Seth Motel Senior Editor

How do you match perfection? After sending down 21 Arcadia batters in a row on March 14, Kristie Chin ’11 came close to throwing a perfect game again last Sunday. In Chin’s five scoreless innings of work against St. Peter’s, she gave up no hits and allowed only one walk.

After 26 2/3 innings this season as a starter and a reliever, Chin sports a 3-0 record and a 0.79 ERA. Her stellar ERA and .132 opponent batting average top all Ivy pitchers.

In light of her second consecutive gem, Chin has been named The Herald’s Athlete of The Week.

Herald: Your first two years on the team, you went 1-3, but now you can’t lose. What’s been the difference?

Chin: This year, I think we have more consistent defense and our offense has been really pulling through. As far as my pitching goes, I’ve narrowed my scope of my pitches, and I try to focus on one or two and mix up my speeds.

You’ve given up zero hits in 12 innings as a starting pitcher this year. So are you done coming in as a reliever?

I’m just going to keep working whenever my team needs me.

Is (the cur veball) your strikeout pitch or is it the fastball?

Probably my curveball, mostly.

I’m more of a movement pitcher, whereas the other girls have a lot more speed.

How much fun are you having concentrating in civil engineer-

ing and being a varsity athlete?

I’m actually having a lot of fun.

I’m doing civil engineering and architectural studies. I really try to mix both the science and the humanities perspectives.

Just like the fastball and the cur veball.

Yep, there you go.

Take us to the seventh inning of that Arcadia game. Are you aware that you’re three batters away from a perfect game?

What’s going through your mind?

I was mostly trying to forget. I just tried to put that out of my mind, take it inning by inning, pitch by pitch.

Were your teammates staying away from you on the bench?

They weren’t speaking of it. They didn’t want to jinx it or anything.

Was your coach (DeeDee Enabenter-Omidiji) saying anything to you?

Not to me, specifically. She asked one of the other coaches, “So are there any hits? No? Shh, don’t say anything. Are there any walks? No? Don’t say anything.”

Why did you trade in the sunniness of Texas to come play in Rhode Island?

I love Texas and everything, but I’ve lived there most of my whole life, so I really wanted to see what else was out there. ... I like the fall, but I don’t know if the four seasons are worth the winter.

Have you been getting used to pitching in the cold?

I get a lot colder a lot faster. My body thinks the best way to deal with it is to go numb.

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Softball pitcher Kristie Chin ’11 has not allowed a hit in her last 12 innings.

Her 0.79 ERA and .132 opponent batting average lead the Ivies.

Are the northern kids tougher than the southern kids when it comes to (cold weather)?

I’ll put up a pretty good fight.

You won Ivy League Pitcher of the Week last week, and the week before, your teammate Liz DiMascio (’13) did the same.

Where do you think Brown’s pitching staf f is going to be among the Ivies this year?

I think we have a ver y strong staff this year. There’s four of us. We have a very good mix of speeds and different pitches, and I think that flexibility is really going to help us out in the long run. We’ll be able to keep teams off balance and really work the batters.

The Ivy season starts for you April 2. Both Brown and Cornell have 10 non-conference wins right now. Do you think it’s go-

ing to be a battle to the finish between these two teams?

For me, I always enjoy playing Cornell. I feel like they’re a very competitive school and they always bring a great game, so hopefully we’ll be able to bring our best this year.

I know they won (ECAC) men’s hockey (and) they’re in the Sweet 16 of men’s basketball — Hopefully, we can take them down a notch in softball.

Have you thought about life after graduation?

I’d like to go to grad school for architecture and eventually become a licensed architect and then, a Ph.D. somewhere in there.

It doesn’t sound like as much fun as softball.

Not at all. I’m really going to

miss competing, I think. I’ll try to at least play pickup or might even try and coach a little bit.

Would you want to go back to Texas eventually?

Eventually. I really miss the South. I mainly miss the sunshine.

Do you have a favorite thing back home to eat?

I’ll eat it all, but I’m a big fan of brisket — get a barbecue baked potato with chopped brisket on top.

When I think of good barbecue sports, I don’t think softball.

You’re going to the wrong softball parks.

Really? There’s good brisket at softball games?

In Texas, you go to any concession stand, they got barbecue going, they have chopped brisket, sausage on a stick.

Have you tried United BBQ? I haven’t tried any barbecue up here actually.

There’s a whole vegan section (on the menu). They don’t really have that in Texas, do they?

No. We don’t cater to vegans or vegetarians ver y much, which is kind of unfortunate because our coach really likes Logan’s Texas Roadhouse. We’ll go there and kids will end up having to order the side of broccoli, hold the bacon.

Have you found any good countr y music out here?

I just do Pandora, but I’m a big fan of old country music, none of that Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift stuff, Carrie Underwood. That’s pop.

So you don’t like Taylor Swift?

Her stuff’s OK, but she’s singing about the same thing over and over. There’s only so many teenage high school dramas you can go through.

What’s the rest of countr y music about, though?

Drinkin’, heartache, livin’ life.

Stony Brook, Buffalo no match for Bears

By Han Cui Assistant Sports Editor

The women’s tennis team extended its winning streak to five victories after defeating both Buffalo and Stony Brook, 5-2, on Sunday and Tuesday, respectively.

Brown 5, Buffalo 2 Emily Ellis ’10 and Marisa Schonfeld ’11 won the No. 3 doubles, 8-5, to give the Bears a strong start. Julie Flanzer ’12 and Misia Krasowski ’13 followed by winning the No. 2 doubles, 8-4, to earn the doubles point for the Bears.

Flanzer and Schonfeld then moved on to win the No. 4 and No. 6 singles, respectively.

With less than half of the spring season remaining, the Bears have an

impressive 12-3 record. Head Coach Paul Wardlaw P’13 said the team is building on the success of last year, when Brown finished with a 19-4 record.

“Last year was a breakthrough year for us,” Wardlaw said. “We were winning at a consistent basis, so the expectation is pretty high this year too.”

Brown 5, Stony Brook 2 Unlike against Buffalo, when Brown played outdoors in the sunny weather, Tuesday’s rain forced the Bears back indoors for their home game against Stony Brook. But the results of the competition were the same.

The Bears featured the same lineup as they had against Buffalo.

Brown won the doubles point again

after the pair Bianca Aboubakare ’11 and Cassandra Herzberg ’12 and the pair Ellis and Schonfeld won the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, 8-1 and 8-4, respectively. The Bears then took the first four singles in order to clinch the team victory.

“We won the first two singles convincingly,” Wardlaw said.

The team will travel to Florida next week to play against Florida International and Miami on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then the Bears will kick off their Ivy League season with a home stand against Penn and Princeton April 2 and 3.

“We will be playing outside in Florida against two teams seeded higher than us,” Wardlaw said. “Princeton is the defending (Ivy) champion and we look forward to playing them at home.”

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports t hursday

“It would have been foolish not to give it a shot.”

Hockey alums now teammates, roommates continued from page 1

a considerable amount of reading at local bookstores.

Vokes said it is no coincidence that three Brown alums ended up in Trenton. Chris Lamoriello, the team’s general manager, played for Providence College, where his father Lou was longtime head coach and athletic director. With strong ties to Providence, the Lamoriellos regularly scout PC and Brown games and have recruited many athletes to the Devils in recent years.

It has worked out well for the Devils.

After an early-season injury, Vokes has recovered and has been on fire lately, currently leading the Devils in assists. He assisted on three goals in Trenton’s Feb. 20 win at Johnstown, only to score four of his own the very next day against the Wheeling Nailers — his first professional hat trick.

“He really understands how to get to the net,” Trenton Head Coach Rick Kowalsky told NHL.com earlier this month. “He just seems to be very comfortable offensively right now.”

Vokes scored nine goals and eleven assists in just 11 games, earning him Reebok Hockey ECHL Rookie of the Month for February. Of the nine, three were game winners.

In his Brown days, Vokes played 115 games for the Bears and scored 28 goals. He was assistant captain his senior year and the recipient of the Joe

Tomasello Award, presented annually by the New England Hockey Writers Association to the “unsung hero in New England.”

“We didn’t necessarily win a lot, but we had a lot of fun,” he said.

Vokes concentrated in economics and interned at Deutsche Bank after his junior year. He turned down a fulltime job for a chance to play professional hockey.

“Finance is always going to be there,” he said. “Millions of kids want the opportunity to play hockey in the pros, and I was fortunate to have that opportunity.”

“It would have been foolish not to give it a shot,” he added, without a hint of regret.

The ever-selfless Vokes was quick to note that teammates Prough and Poli have also been playing well.

Prough is the team’s leading scorer with 27 goals, and Poli has posted 37 points in just 31 games.

Prough, meanwhile, was eighth on Brown’s all-time scoring list with 109 points. He led the Bears in scoring in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08.

He began his ECHL career with the Florida Everblades and was traded to Trenton last season after a brief stint with the Gwinnett Gladiators.

Poli signed with the Devils just days after his last collegiate game in 2008.

“My dream since I was a little kid was to play in the NHL, and that hasn’t changed,” Prough said. “So going pro

Thursday, March 25, 2010

really wasn’t a hard choice for me.”

On Tuesday, The Herald reported that the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL signed current tri-captain Aaron Volpatti ’10 to a two-year contract. Volpatti, who led the Bears with 17 goals this season, will begin his career next year with the Manitoba Moose, the Canucks’ AHL franchise.

Freshman defenseman Rich Crowley ’13 said the team looks up to its alums playing in the ECHL, AHL, and beyond.

“We all aspire to go pro,” he said.

Prough said he was able to watch a couple Brown games this year while he was temporarily called up to Lowell, Mass. — the Devils’ AHL franchise — in late November.

“The ECHL is a good developmental league,” Prough said. “It’s competitive, and a lot of guys are getting called up to the AHL and NHL.” “I’m hoping that next year, I’ll make it to the AHL full time,” he added.

“From there, you’re one step away.”

Vokes said he is happy with the way his rookie season has gone and is becoming a better player in Trenton, but is unsure if he will ever make it to the NHL. “I take life one day at a time,” he explained. “If that’s the way the course goes, then great. If not, I have my Brown education to fall back on.”

“And in case you’re wondering,” he added, “Yes, Professor (Emeritus of Engineering Barrett) Hazeltine, we’re still friends.”

— Matt Vokes ’09 on playing professional hockey s p o rt s i n b r i e f

Big Red play Cinderella The Cornell men’s basketball team made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament Sunday with a win over No. 4 seed Wisconsin. The Big Red will face Kentucky, the top overall seed remaining in the tournament, on Thursday night at 9:57 in Syracuse, N.Y. in the Carrier Dome. The winner will face No. 2 seed West Virginia or No. 11 Washington on Saturday for a Final Four bid.

Cornell is the first Ivy League team to advance this far since 1979, when Penn made the Final Four in a 40-team tournament.

Ivy hoops teams finish in postseason The Princeton men’s basketball team also won its first two games to move on to the College Basketball Invitational semifinals after a 74-68 double overtime win over IUPUI. Three other Ancient Eight teams have bowed out of other postseason tournaments. The No. 11 seed Princeton women were trounced by No. 6 seed St. John’s, 65-47, on Saturday in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.

Both Harvard teams lost their opening games. The men fell to Appalachian State, 93-71, on March 17 in the CollegeInsider. com Tournament, and the women lost to Syracuse, 87-68, the following day in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

Cornell on national stage in women’s hockey, too The Cornell women’s hockey team fell just short of a national championship, falling to Minnesota-Duluth on Sunday in the championship game, 3-2, on a goal with 33.6 seconds left in the third overtime.

Yale and Cornell look to advance to men’s Frozen Four Two ECAC Hockey teams will shoot for the men’s NCAA Championship. In the East Regional, League champion and No. 2 seed Cornell will face No. 3 seed New Hampshire in the semifinals Friday evening in Albany, N.Y. The winner will face Denver or the Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday for a trip to the Frozen Four.

—Andrew Braca

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Thursday, March 25, 2010

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

Athletic dept. a key University component To the Editor: In his recent column (“Why spare athletics?”, March 20), Tyler Rosenbaum ’11 calls into question the Corporation’s decision to incorporate a $64 fee for recreational facilities, arguing that the Department of Athletics should not be exempted from University-wide budget cuts, especially as athletics are a financial drain that most students “don’t care about.”

What Rosenbaum fails to consider is that the athletic department did in fact have to make significant budget cuts. With the smallest budget of the Ivy League, the department has incurred significant cuts in both personnel and operational costs. Just ask any member of an aquatics team about the new pool, which is more than two years behind schedule.

Other institutions, such as the University of Pennsylvania, charge significantly more than $100 per year for athletic facility use. Prudent busi-

ness strategy calls for the Corporation to emulate the successful policies of its competitors, especially with regard to fundraising in tight times.

As approximately 15 percent of the Brown undergraduate student body plays a varsity sport and another seven percent play club sports that also utilize the facilities and athletic department budget, it seems that despite low attendance at games, athletics do indeed matter to the community. It would be difficult to find any department, group, or other association on campus that represents such a large number of undergraduate students.

I encourage Rosenbaum to consider this example in his future work. The athletic department is a committed part of the Brown community. As such, when the University feels a crunch, the entire community is affected.

Corey Schwartz ’11 March 24

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 Maximilian 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

Gili Kliger, Katie Wilson, Designers Victoria Hartman, Lindor Qunaj, Copy Editors

R ichard S tein and P aul T ran

e d i to r i a l

Ticked off Organizing back-to-back concerts featuring wellknown acts is extraordinarily hard work. We can’t even imagine the full range of concerns that students in the Brown Concert Agency face each year in arranging Spring Weekend. By and large, BCA does a tremendous job of finding performers and making the show happen, and the Brown community should be appreciative of their efforts. Nonetheless, justified discontent with the Spring Weekend ticketing process persists.

The process has improved significantly in recent years. Starting last year, BCA limited students to two tickets per show and moved to an online ordering system. The cap on tickets helped reduce the problem of students buying tickets for outsiders. And at least in theory, the opportunity to order tickets electronically at a predefined time is preferable to waiting in a long line.

Given the size of the possible venues, the process will not be perfect. In the first round of sales, BCA can only release enough tickets to fill Meehan Auditorium, in case weather forces the show to be held there. This is just a fact of life for Brown’s 6,013 undergraduates, who are only initially supplied with about 3,000 tickets per show. Those who comprise the excess demand have little choice but to wait anxiously for the week of the shows, when BCA evaluates the weather report and finalizes the venue.

If the shows are held outside, then about 1,500 more tickets per show are made available — even then, still not enough to guarantee each student a ticket for both performances. We recognize BCA is facing restrictions they cannot control.

But under these circumstances, BCA certainly shouldn’t make things worse. Unlike previous years, this year BCA allowed Rhode Island School of Design

students to purchase tickets at the same time as Brown students. A BCA member told the editorial page board that this move was intended to show gratitude to RISD, as BCA was allowed to use a RISD auditorium for the fall concert without charge. But Spring Weekend is a long-standing Brown tradition, and no quid pro quo should impact Brown students’ ability to get tickets.

As far as steps in the right direction, we propose this: Starting next year, in the first round of ticket sales, the limit should be one ticket per show per person.

As long as the number of students is greater than the total available tickets, a one ticket per show per person rule is the only sensible policy. If you have a significant other or sibling at another school that you were hoping to invite, then tough luck — he or she can come visit you on a weekend that isn’t supposed to be a communal celebration. Students should only be able to buy a second ticket if extras remain.

Of course, all this assumes that the Web site can handle the traffic, which this year it clearly couldn’t.

Even though tickets went on sale at 8 a.m., everyone we talked to said they weren’t able to place an order until closer to nine. This was particularly frustrating for students who woke up early, hit refresh often, and still couldn’t get tickets. A member of BCA told The Herald on Tuesday that the website would be up to the task. Next year, BCA should take the necessary steps to ensure this is the case. If this isn’t possible, then the line-up in Faunce House is how it has to be.

For now, though, all anyone can do is pray for good weather. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

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

Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

Brigitta Greene, Talia Kagan, Sara Luxenberg, Hannah Moser, Caitlin Trujillo, 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, Thomas Jarus, Sarah Julian, Julia Kim, Anita Mathews, Lindor Qunaj, Mark Raymond, Luisa Robledo, Emily Rosen, Bradley Silverman, Anne Simons, Qian Yin Senior Sales Executives Katie Galvin, Liana Nisimova, Isha Gulati, Samantha Wong Sales Associates Roshni Assomull, Anthony Calcagni, Brady Caspar, Anna Cook, Siena deLisser, Begum Ersan, Tommy Fink, Ryan Fleming, Evan Gill, Rajiv Iyengar, Debbie Lai, Jason Lee, Katie Lynch, Sean Maroongroge, Zahra Merchant, Edjola Ruci, Webber Xu 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, Ethan Richman, Adam Zethraeus 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 Haile-Mariam, 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

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, March 25, 2010 | Page 11

Grin and bear it SIMON LIEBLING Opinions Columnist

Another year, another tuition hike, another chorus of compliant students racing to be the first to thank our benevolent administrators for once again balancing their budget on our backs. Judging just by the gratitude some of us expressed for the Corporation’s infinite financial wisdom, you’d think they’d frozen our tuition and cancelled layoffs. But no, we masochists just love it when they jack up our expenses five percent and fire more staff while Building Brown continues apace.

This brown-nosing, “Thank you sir, may I have another” attitude, expressed most famously by The Herald’s editorial page board, is precisely why tuition keeps going up year after year. At the University of California, administrators who tr y to get away with a tuition hike of essentially the same magnitude have to face thousands of students on strike, rallying in the streets. At Brown, they get a congratulator y editorial.

The administration doesn’t charge us more and fire its workers because it has to, but rather because when it comes time to save money, tuition hikes and layoffs offer the path of least resistance. There’s never an organized mass student response forcing

them to respect our interests. We let them fire staff members without so much as a peep. Instead, we thank them, because for some mysterious reason we faithfully put our trust in a president and an administration that have done nothing to deser ve that deference beyond projecting an image of cool accessibility that has never been grounded in fact.

Because administrators know that whatever they do, they will meet no opposition from their fawning students, they know that

themselves and forcing the administration to meet us halfway. Even if you think this year’s hike isn’t particularly bad, perhaps even necessar y, responding so eagerly to still more administrative disregard for our interests is what empowers the Corporation to keep asking us for more sacrifices. It is confident that whatever it does and whenever it does it, we would rather defer to them than think for a second about putting up a fight. And so the tuition hikes will proceed unabated, as they have for four decades.

This brown-nosing, “Thank you sir, may I have another” attitude is precisely why tuition keeps going up year after year.

they can safely cover budget deficits with tuition hikes while protecting their own priorities from any meaningful cuts. That’s precisely what they’ve done this year, proceeding with spending increases and massive capital projects that put buildings over people yet again.

Those who are so quick to laud the Corporation fail to understand that the tuition hikes are going to continue — necessar y or not — until students start sticking up for

This is Brown Incorporated — the University acting like a for-profit enterprise by charging us as much as it can get away with rather than as little as it needs. You can see it when they waste a $2 million tuition surplus — our money — not on financial aid or mitigating this tuition hike but on speeding up construction projects that will get done anyway. You can see it when the budget ignores taking care of the University community in favor of initiatives that will

help Brown “remain competitive.”

But above all you can see it in the ethical illogic of coupling budget cuts with tuition hikes in this economic climate. The University, with $2 billion in the bank, decides it has to spend less money, so it thinks it is justified in asking families to spend more.

Why it thinks we are somehow better positioned than it is to increase spending in times like this is beyond me. It’s hypocrisy, straight up, and the only explanation is the obvious one — this administration discarded the University’s non-profit mission to ser ve its community long ago.

The tuition hikes and layoffs reveal a University administration consumed with profitability and its own priorities — at the expense of students and staf f. Passively accepting — even welcoming — the administration’s disrespect will do nothing to change that; tuition will not level off just because we asked nicely. The only way to win respect for our interests — or rather, our needs — is to demand it, to make raising tuition and firing workers so politically damaging that the administration no longer thinks of us as the easiest way to patch budget problems.

The alternative is another forty years of annual tuition hikes, but at least we’ll be begging for it.

Simon Liebling ’12 is from New Jersey.

He can be reached at simon.liebling@ gmail.com.

Unfortunately, Harvard doesn’t always get it wrong SUSANNAH KROEBER Opinions Columnist

Five years ago, Lawrence Summers, thenpresident of Har vard University, made a remark at a conference that ended with his resignation from the post. Many students now in their junior or senior years of college might remember this as the mar on Harvard’s name at the time they were applying to colleges — the suggestion that “differences in sex may explain why fewer women succeed in science and math careers.”

It may seem to many women that Dr. Summers has not received his just deserts. He is now a senior economic advisor to President Obama, and is probably just as famous within intellectual, political and economic circles as he was during his tenure as President of Harvard University. But men who do not have any respect for a woman’s place in the sciences should not have a place in public discourse.

But what if Dr. Summers’ comments actually had been an all-too-calculated move, so calculated that many missed his intention at the time? Dr. Summers made a very valid point about the stark underrepresentation of women in the math and science fields.

As any good president of an elite research university should, he called on researchers from all disciplines, including those in the biological sciences, to determine why this

is the case.

Had Dr. Summers only called on social scientists to determine what societal pressures force women to abandon aspirations in the sciences, no one would have noticed.

Instead, he attracted a media frenzy, eager to point out the blatant sexism in the president of the most famous American university.

In the following years, there was a parallel frenzy in research, as institutions around the country poured dollars into disproving Dr. Summers’ ignorance.

they are closer to answers, closer to understanding how much societal barriers as opposed to biological factors are limiting the number of women in the sciences. Maybe Dr. Summers was just one of the first people outside a science field asking these sorts of questions.

In a more tangible way, Dr. Summers’ departure from Harvard heralded many new changes at the institution. In 2005, only 13 percent of tenure offers at Harvard went to women, while in 2009, 39 percent of tenure

In 2005, Dr. Summers personified the faults that America’s leading educational institutions possessed, and represented the failure of academia to rise above institutional and societal biases.

Many of those dollars were put into investigating the biological differences between men and women, particularly in terms of excellence in education. Many of the questions include what structural features of current educational practices benefit women — not only in terms of how women have been socialized, but also in terms of how women learn from a neurological angle. Is this discrimination framed by science? Is it any different from the questions Dr. Summers was asking?

The only difference today is that we have more data, and some scientists believe that

offers went to women. A three-fold increase in four years suggests a massive change in attitude and priorities beyond simply appointing a woman as president of the University.

Five years ago, America was gloating that Har vard — the bastion of liberalism, tolerance and egalitarianism — was in fact run by a sexist man no different from many other men in the country. It was a moment where intellectuals and average Joes united behind the idea that Harvard, and the men there, were not morally better than the rest of us. In 2005, Dr. Summers personified the

faults that America’s leading educational institutions possessed, and represented the failure of academia to rise above institutional and societal biases.

Five years later, Har vard has not fallen from its pedestal. It is still one of the most selective institutions in the countr y, and over the past several years has been there alongside Brown in seeing a dramatic rise in applicants. Har vard no longer has the lowest percentage of female tenured faculty, vacating that position to Princeton University last year.

The numbers are still low. Columbia leads with women representing 38 percent of tenured faculty. Princeton hovers at barely above a quarter. But instead of these numbers only being released by the American Association of University Women, college newspapers like the Daily Princetonian are interested in gender discrepancies, along with national papers like the New York Times.

Dr. Summers was doing his job. He increased visibility and funding for projects relating to women in academia and genderrelated differences. He upheld the academic standard of being open to answers from any field, no matter how unsavory society might think them. And for those who still think he has not received his comeuppance, they just might want to reconsider just how easy a job as an economic analyst in a political administration is in today’s world.

Susannah Kroeber ’11 didn’t want to go to Harvard anyway.

Today

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Hillel welcomes new director

The Brown Daily Herald

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Coal to Matthew Tsimikas, assistant director of the athletics and physical education department, who told The Herald that the PE program should “mirror the Brown curriculum.” We’re not excited to take Zumba S/NC.

1 c a l e n da r Today, March 25

tomorrow, march 26

6:30 p.m. — Lecture by Kathleen Coleman: “Orchestrated Violence: Music in the Roman Amphitheatre,” List 110 7:00 P.m. — Palestine in Crisis: What We Can Learn from Gandhi, MacMillan 117

4:00 P.M. — Opening Gala of the Formative Center for the Evaluation of Environmental Impacts on Fetal Development, Laboratories for Molecular Medicine 5:30 P.M. — Architectures of Minds and Cultures, Alumnae Hall

A diamond to the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, which Olivia Harding ’12 called “a magic Mary Poppins bag of art spaces.” We can only hope the next Julie Andrews is made within its glass walls.

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Eggplant Parmesan, Chicken Pesto Pasta, Molasses Cookies

Lunch — Buffalo Style Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese, Wisconsin Ziti with Four Cheeses, Pumpkin and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

NatanLast Last’12 ‘12 by by Natan

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2 Drink whose mascot is a giant anthropomorphic pitcher 3 The Silver __, superhero alter ego of Mosquito Valentine 4 Superhero alter ego of Virgil Ovid Hawkins who can manipulate electricity 5 “...__ a consummation devoutly to be wish’d”: Hamlet 6 Jack Johnson’s alma mater 7 ‘N Sync singer 8 “Aladdin” prince 9 Brother of Fidel 10 Religion for Ayn Rand and Mila Kunis

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11 Latin phrase meaning “to the stars” 12 “That ‘70s Show” dad 14 It may be over easy 18 Tina’s “30 Rock” role 22 Rained lightly 24 One offering condoms, maybe 26 Most overly sentimental 28 Vodka seen on “Ab Fab” 30 “__ City” (Frank Miller graphic novel) 32 Stronger version of “lol” 34 Erected 37 The __ Peaches (“Anyone Else But You” band) 39 What one in five adults can’t do 41 Where to buy you a drank, on campus 42 Harry Potter love interest Chang 43 Secret haven for bandits 44 “Let It Be” track about selfishness

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Fruitopia | Andy Kim

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46 Fred Flinstone’s boss 47 Business, facetiously 48 The smallest perfect number 51 Fixes, as a computer program 56 Super Smash Bros. character 59 “Once there was a __... and she loved a little boy.”

61 Takes out, Cosa Nostra style 63 Cafe __?, early venue for Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix 64 Slumber party attire 65 Murder weapon in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” 67 Bach’s “__ on a G String” 68 Rapper who remixed Jay-Z’s “The Black Album” Solutions and archive can be found online at blogdailyherald.com

A coal to the English Cellar Alehouse. While we wouldn’t complain about a little British flavor coming to the East Side, Molson Canadian isn’t really considered European.

A diamond to spring break. We’ll see you in April!

Want more D&C? Check out a retro-diamond from 1998 at blogdailyherald.com, and write your own at diamondsandcoal.com.

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

Dinner — Marinated Beef, Spinach with Lemon, Cheese Bread

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A diamond to the NHL’s newest player, Aaron Volpatti ’10, not that you need it with that kind of salary. You’ll be seeing enough ice, anyway.

comics

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Coal to those advocating for a “gay” check-off box on the Common Application — we don’t think Brown needs that kind of affirmative action.

A diamond to a “feistier” Ruth Simmons. The red power suit was only the beginning.

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A diamond to the University for “not shrinking back” when it comes to construction. Just remember that bigger isn’t always better.

HomoFones HomoFones

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Thursday, March 25, 2010

A diamond to the Senate panel for recommending decriminalizing pot. You’re doing a much better job of preparing for Spring Weekend than the Brown Concert Agency’s Web site.

ACROSS 1 `Fortnight pair: Abbr.

4 “Rugrats” dad 7 Bombad General in the Gungan Grand Army 13 “__ a big spliff of some good sensimilla” (“Smoke Two Joints” lyric) 15 “The Berenstain Bears and the __-Tac-Toe Mystery” 16 Grand Theft Auto III protagonist 17 Mad-Eye Moody’s mirror-like contraption that shows the enemies of its owner 19 Spanish for “city” 20 “Too __ To Quit” 21 What are you looking at?

23 The Shangri-__ (1960s pop group) 24 Yoga surface 25 Invader of cartoondom 27 Dorm overseers, for short 29 “__ My Party” (1963 hit) 31 The South Street Seaport, e.g.

33 Picasso or Braque 35 __ Lanka 36 Thing in a jewel box 38 QVC saleswoman who wrote “The Road to Wealth” 40 Certainly, to a certain Spring Weekend headliner 42 Figurative relaxant 45 Poetic feet 49 “’Til __” (song in “The Producers”) 50 Tried Atkins, say 52 Three, in Germany 53 “__ to Deodorant” (Coldplay song) 54 525,600 mins.

55 “Hurricane” rapper Mos 57 James Brown hit “__ Machine” 58 911 respondent 60 Judge Lance of the O.J. Simpson case 62 4/20 units 64 “Murder on the Orient Express” detective Hercule

to m o r r o w

Softball’s Chin ’11 on her no-hitter

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

Dinner — Cilantro Grilled Chicken, Pumpkin Raviolis with Sage Cream Sauce, Brazilian Chocolate Cake

to day

Hippomaniac | Mat Becker