Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 43 | Wednesday, April 7, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Faculty OK engineering school

New venue sought for Gala event

Branding Brown First in a five-part series

By Claire Peracchio Senior Staff Writer

The faculty approved a resolution endorsing the creation of a School of Engineering from the existing Division of Engineering at its meeting Tuesday.

Following the faculty’s recommendation, the proposal will now be considered by the Corporation at its May meeting. If the University’s highest governing body approves, Brown will become the last Ivy League university to create an engineering school.

“We’re very happy for the strong faculty support of the motion to establish the School of Engineering,” said Professor of Engineering Rodney Clifton, who is also the interim dean of engineering.

The measure approved by the faculty maintains the current system of admitting undergraduate and graduate engineering students and preserves undergraduates’ ability to opt in or out of an engineering concentration during their time at Brown.

The resolution also stipulates the hiring of a new dean of engineering, who would be charged with increasing “diversity among engineering faculty and students” and working to promote interdepartmental engagement with regard to engineering research and other activities.

The school’s expansion through faculty hiring and new construction continued on page 2

Labor dispute at Westin prompts student protest

By Alex Bell Senior Staf f Writer

Instead, administrators and exper ts proposed dif ferent explanations for the wild surge in Brown’s application rate, which has increased 65 percent in the four years since 18,316 students vied for spots in the class of 2010.

Higher nationwide application

Amid concerns over labor disputes at the currently scheduled Gala location, and after a prolonged series of meetings Tuesday, the event’s organizers and the Student Labor Alliance agreed to search for a new venue, while educating students about the controversy surrounding the currently scheduled location.

With tickets to the Gala going on sale Wednesday, members of the SLA had cautioned that if the event’s organizers failed to heed their warnings about the contentious choice of venue, this

continued on page 4

continued on page 6

Michael Skocpol / Herald

The number of applications for the class of 2014 exceeded the capacity of the Admission Office’s building, forcing administrators to open a satellite center in Alumnae Hall.

Shedding light on the surge in apps

By Sarah Forman Senior Staf f Writer

This year, 30,136 students — 20.6 percent more than last year — filled out applications for undergraduate admission, painstakingly responding to the required short answer, “Why does Brown appeal to you?”

Now that 2,804 of those students have received offers of admission, translating to a record low acceptance rate of 9.3 percent, University administrators and higher education professionals are left unable to agree on a single response to another pertinent question: Why did Brown appeal to more than 30,000 students?

R.I. group gives $1 million for new Med School library

By Rebecca Ballhaus Staf f Writer

A Rhode Island foundation will give Brown $1 million to fund a new library for the Alpert Medical School, the foundation announced March 25.

The Champlin Foundations an-

nounced its plan at the Champlin Scholars Luncheon last month.

The librar y, which will be part of the new Medical Education Building at 222 Richmond St., will be named after one of the founders of the foundation, George continued on page 3

Dyslexic alum writes of educational ‘injustice’

By Talia Kagan Senior Staff Writer

Jonathan Mooney ’00 couldn’t read until he was 12. A decade later, the writer and public speaker, who is dyslexic, graduated from Brown with a third-grade spelling level, the phonetic awareness of a seventh-grader and a 4.0 grade point average.

H e l i u m F o ’ re l i u m

FEATURE

Max Monn / Herald

inside

Relay for Life organizers promoted Friday’s 12-hour event with balloons and a bake sale on the Main Green Tuesday.

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

www.browndailyherald.com

That is the success story that helped sell his first book, “Learning Outside the Lines: Two Ivy League Students with Learning Disabilities and ADHD Give You the Tools for Academic Success and Educational Revolution.” Mooney co-wrote the book with David Cole ’00 while the two were enrolled at Brown.

But the explanation for that success — Mooney was also a finalist for the Rhodes scholarship — is not some magical personal transformation, according to Mooney.

“What changed was not dyslexia, what really changed was the context,” he said, crediting the flexibility of his education at Brown.

And what he wants to convey, more than his own Ivy League success story, is “the belief that kids like

me are not broken, are not defective and that what happens in their education is really a form of injustice,” Mooney said.

Mooney continues to explore and celebrate those marginalized students by speaking about education at schools and universities around the country. In 2007, he published a second book, “The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal.” The book, which took him six years to write, chronicles his journey across the country in one of the short yellow buses typically reserved for disabled children while telling the stories of learning-disabled children in the U.S. and describing his own personal struggles in institutionalized education.

Riding on the short bus As a second grader terrified of spelling tests and reading out loud, Mooney would hide in his school bathroom and dream of killing his teacher, he wrote in “The Short Bus.” In fourth grade, he was diagnosed with dyslexia. He dropped out of the sixth grade, though he enrolled in a new school the next year.

In high school, Mooney struggled continued on page 7

News, 4

Sports, 8

Opinions, 11

The blog today

Ivy Acceptance Application numbers rise while acceptance rates continue to fall

lacking consistence Baseball team struggles with steadiness but still ends positively

education with bias Sarah Yu ’11 expresses concern about politics invading the classroom

BLOgdailyherald.com Springtime trendspotting!

Plus, as always, eating free and wasting time

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

herald@browndailyherald.com

Page 2

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Simmons discusses flooding, India trip continued from page 1 will be contingent on fundraising through “increased philanthropy, increased sponsored research support and revenue-enhancing programs.”

Such programs might include offering expanded master’s degree programs, said Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98.

Some members of the faculty expressed concern that the new School of Engineering might crowd out resources for other departments.

Professor of Physics David Cutts proposed that the faculty instead vote to support the “co-evolution” of engineering and the physical sciences. But the motion failed to attract broad support.

The faculty also considered discontinuing Brown’s four-year degree programs that allow students to earn both an undergraduate and a master’s degree provided they obtain additional credits and fulfill departmental requirements.

Dean of the Graduate School Sheila Bonde said that these integrated degree programs lack “sufficient breadth” to comply with the spirit of the New Curriculum. Bonde instead suggested directing interested students toward a “more robust option” that would entail completing the standard five-year master’s degree.

Faculty members contended that the elimination of integrated degree programs would hamper efforts to recruit ambitious and talented students and that abolishing the program would have a limited

effect given the small number of students who have chosen to take advantage of the option. The motion was withdrawn because of procedural issues with the motion and a lack of outspoken support.

In a report to the faculty, President Ruth Simmons expressed concern over Rhode Island’s recent flooding and stressed her desire to “do what we can to help.” Simmons said she had contacted Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 and offered the University’s aid in recovery efforts.

Simmons also tried to allay concerns about possible expansion of the University’s student body. There needs to be careful planning with regard to “the needed balance between graduate and undergraduate life,” Simmons said. She addressed the University’s need to add students at the graduate level, but said that the conception of Brown as an “intimate, undergraduate-centered” institution could be preserved.

Simmons also discussed her recent trip to India, where she attended a meeting of Brown’s new India Advisory Council, met with alumni and India’s minister of education and worked to develop a strategy for promoting Brown in “an important part of the world.” She shared her impression that India was eager to avail its most talented scholars of educational opportunities at American universities, adding that Brown would continue to seek talented students and faculty from India.

“I was extraordinarily moved by what is taking place in India today,” Simmons said.

sudoku

Daily Herald the Brown

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

“I was extraordinarily moved.”

— President Ruth Simmons

Non-res Greeks offer different experience

By Clare de Boer Contributing Writer

Non-residential fraternities and sororities provide a select group of undergraduates with a tight community and the opportunity to get to know peers beyond College Hill, according to Antar Tichavakunda ’11, president of Alpha Phi Alpha’s regional chapter and the sole member at Brown.

The three active non-residential Greeks — Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta and Alpha Phi Alpha — cater to African Americans and “have a long history at Brown,” according to Shelley Adriance, assistant director of leadership development for student activities. The first black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, “was established in Providence by a few professional men and some Brown students in 1921,” according to Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Since then, six more African-American fraternities and sororities have been established under the umbrella organization of the National Pan-Hellenic Council.

Many of the groups have become inactive since they were first founded, Adriance said. “Some will come back as they can recruit members,” she said.

Because of their specific missions

and lack of visibility on campus, they rarely induct new members. This year Alpha Phi Alpha does not have any pledges, but Tichavakunda is “not worried” because “four out of five of us will still be in college.”

“We will definitely have intake next year,” he said.

Anna Darby ’10, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, is “confident that there are plenty of young women at Brown interested in (their) goals of sisterhood and service,” she said.

Without the “visual presence of residentials,” Adriance said that nonresidential Greeks may be “harder for people to notice.”

Tichavakunda said there “wasn’t much recruiting” for his fraternity.

Non-residential Greeks attract members who have “done their research” and are seeking a specific experience, Tichavakunda said.

“Philanthropy is the main priority” of the non-residential Greeks, according to Adriance. Most of their events are educational or for charitable causes, she said. Recognized by the Student Activities Office, each Greek house can host one large party per semester while the majority of their events are smaller, she said.

On March 20, Alpha Kappa Alpha hosted the Flashing Lights Charity

Fashion Show to raise money for earthquake relief in Haiti, which Darby called “very successful.”

“A lot of friends and new faces came out to support” the event, which was sponsored by the Late Night Fund, she added.

Like residential Greeks, nonresidential fraternities and sororities do not receive any funding from the Undergraduate Finance Board.

Alpha Kappa Alpha is “pretty selfsufficient,” Darby said, but she is “sure if (they) were having issues with programming, (they) could talk to someone” at the University.

Frequently attended by people from other schools, events hosted by non-residential Greeks “break the Brown bubble” and create “solidarity within the black community,” Tichavakunda said. “It’s good to hear other perspectives.”

Darby has made some of her closest friends through the sorority and has gotten “to know people outside Brown” through her participation in Alpha Kappa Alpha, she said.

Tichavakunda enjoys being a member of a local chapter because he is able to meet students from other schools, he said. “It makes me a citizen of a community, more than just a Brown citizen,” he added.

NYU seeks huge expansion to campus

By Ben Noble Staf f Writer

New York University has proposed a 20-year plan to expand its campus by six million square feet with new classrooms, offices and dorms around New York City, the New York Times reported last month.

With a projected cost of $1,000 per square foot, this would be the largest expansion in the university’s histor y.

HIGHER ED NYU plans to grow by 40 percent with an array of new buildings, including a satellite campus

with student and faculty housing on Governors Island, in the middle of New York Harbor. The Tisch School of the Arts will also receive new theaters and rehearsal studios, and the College of Nursing will be relocated to a “health corridor” on First Avenue where the school’s dental college is currently housed.

The plan also includes a new tower on Bleecker Street in the heart of NYU’s Greenwich Village campus.

The aggressive expansion plan will require approval from several city agencies and commissions as well as the City Council. It has already drawn criticism from neighbors and preservationists, who are concerned that NYU will invade local neighborhoods and ignore community input.

URI selects evangelist speaker David Dooley, the incoming president of the University of Rhode Island, has selected the founder of an evangelical mega-church to speak at his inauguration this week.

Rev. Gregory Boyd, the senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn., will deliver the keynote address at Thursday’s ceremony, which will be held at URI’s Kingston campus.

The choice has sparked controversy and drawn considerable attention to URI, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Students and professors have criticized Boyd’s views on gay marriage.

Dooley has defended his choice, noting that the event will include engaging speakers from a variety of religions and backgrounds.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS THE HERALD POLL

Nearly half of students have not used CDC, poll shows

By Sarah Julian Staff Writer

More than 40 percent of students have not used resources or services provided by the Career Development Center this semester, according to a Herald poll conducted last month.

These numbers come despite recent changes to strengthen its advising process. Of the students polled, 41.9 percent said they had not made use of any CDC resources, including drop-in hours, events and online services.

Thirty-eight percent said they used the center’s resources once or twice.

In response to a review conducted last spring to evaluate its advising process, the CDC implemented a number of changes, including restructuring the advising process, expanding Brown Degree Days, creating blogs and emphasizing alumni relations.

The initial review was spurred by a recommendation by the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, according to Associate Dean of the College and Director of the Swearer Center for Public Service Roger Nozaki MAT’89, who is the CDC’s acting director. The “in-depth review” focused on how to “strengthen and deepen resources” in order to help students figure out plans for life after they graduate, Nozaki said.

One-eighth of students — 12.5 percent — said they used CDC resources three or four times this semester, while only 4.2 percent said they used the center five or six times, and 2.2 percent used the center’s services seven or more times.

As part of the changes following last year’s review, the center now employs four career advisers. Each adviser focuses on specific industries and concentrations and provides guidance in those areas. According to Nozaki, these advisers are “charged with incorporating outreach to employers and alums, building networks in those fields and increasing the depth of knowledge in those fields.”

Interviewed students seemed to find that meeting with counselors was not very helpful, but that the Web site presented useful information as did information sessions.

Nozaki mentioned that new emphasis is being placed on developing collaborative programs with other groups and departments on campus and “building on existing resources and tapping them for support.” He said it is especially important to utilize existing resources because of the University’s current budget constraints.

An example of the recent push for collaboration is the expansion of Brown Degree Days, a project that launched last spring. Departments organize their own events that bring back alumni concentrators to speak about career paths. The events “seem to have been very well-received by students and departments,” Nozaki said, and the center’s staff is “excited about doing them.”

Blogs are also another aspect of the center’s new approach. The Scoop, a collection of six blogs, focuses on specific career interests, including the arts, business, government, law and policy.

Lise Rahdert ’10 said she and five other peer career advisers, who work with the career advisers, are almost exclusively responsible for maintaining and updating the blogs. The peer career advisers do “most of the posting” and “a ton of research,” she said.

“Because it’s so new, we’re trying to get the word out there,” she said, adding that she has “seen people starting to use it more for jobs and advice.”

The center has also instituted other, smaller changes. There are now groups of alumni on LinkedIn organized by employment field to facilitate connections between students and alumni. The center has also begun offering events for networking, during which alumni speak with concentrators of a given department.

“We are trying to develop a dedicated set of resources for students,” Nozaki said.

Page 3

“It’s a really important gift.”

— Edward Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences

New library on the way for Alpert continued from page 1

Champlin.

“It’s a really important gift,” said Edward Wing, dean of medicine and biological sciences. He said he had “no idea” that the foundation was going to announce a donation at the luncheon, though he and President Ruth Simmons had spoken to the foundation six weeks ago to propose the plan.

The groundbreaking for the new building will take place on April 26. After that, it will take “not quite a year and a half” to finish the building, Wing said, adding that medical students will be able to use it in August 2011.

“The library is not going to be what your grandmother’s librar y was,” Wing said. “So much is online now — students access online textbooks and online journals, and a lot of medical publishing is going online. So a lot of the librar y is designed for computer access and study space.”

As for undergraduates, there will be some restrictions on their usage of the librar y, Wing said.

“We couldn’t have 6,000 under-

graduates coming into the building — they wouldn’t fit,” he said.

But the librar y will be open to undergraduates taking courses at the Med School or needing to speak to its faculty members.

“It’s really about the space, specifically study space,” said Philip Gruppuso, associate dean of medicine. He called the new librar y the “equivalent” of the Friedman Center in the Sciences Librar y.

“Though it’s obviously a lot smaller, we really used the Friedman Center as a model when we were looking at how (the librar y) can be configured,” he said.

But unlike the Friedman Center, the librar y will feature some books and print journals, though its main emphasis will be on electronic textbooks and journals, Wing said.

Gruppuso described “several different zones” in the librar y: computer stations, places to use a laptop and offices for information technology and for a librarian. He said the librar y will be not only a “study space, but also a touchdown space for faculty members coming to the building

to teach.”

The building itself originated out of a need for more space for medical students, Wing said. The new building will also house the admissions and the financial aid office, among others.

Wing also pointed out that the new building would place students in closer proximity to Providence hospitals. “That’s something that’s really important, and students now aren’t close (to the hospitals) for the first two years,” Wing said.

The Champlin Foundations are a set of three Rhode Island foundations started by the Champlin family to support Rhode Island organizations. The foundation has donated to the University several times in the past and has endowed scholarships for Rhode Island students to attend Brown or the Alper t Medical School, Wing said.

Gruppuso said that its request that the librar y be named after George Champlin is a “new precedent” for the foundation. “They obviously think that it was just the perfect choice for them, and I think it’s great,” he said.

The Herald poll was conducted on March 22 and 23 and has a 3.5 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. A total of 714 Brown undergraduates completed the poll, which The Herald administered as a written questionnaire to students in the lobby of J. Walter Wilson during the day and in the Sciences Library at night.

How often this semester have you used resources or services — including drop-in hours and events — provided by the Career Development Center either online or in person?

5-6 times

7+ times

Don’t know/No answer

4.2%

2.2%

1.3%

3-4 times

12.5%

0 times

41.9% 1-2 times

38.0%

www.blogdailyherald.com

Page 4

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Branding Brown In a flagging economy, applicants less certain continued from page 1 rates, a greater emphasis on recruiting low-income and minority students, and the weak economy — coupled with corresponding high levels of unemployment — have all induced Brown’s largest-ever applicant pool, they said.

‘Going up across the board’ “Application numbers have been going up across the board,” said Melissa Clinedinst, assistant director of research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

The number of applications to four-year American colleges increased by 20 percent from 2002 to 2006, according to NACAC’s 2009 State of College Admission report.

Not only are there more high school graduates, but also a greater proportion of graduating seniors have decided to pursue higher education — and they are applying to more schools than they used to, according to the report.

Ever y Ivy League university except Yale received a recordhigh number of applications this year. Princeton saw a 19.5 percent growth in applications, going from 21,963 students hoping to enter the class of 2013 to 26,247 prospective 2014 graduates, according to an April 2 article in the Daily Princetonian.

“I haven’t seen any school that’s not up,” said Michele Hernandez, a college consultant and author of three books on preparing for college admissions.

Since Har vard and Princeton dropped their early admission options in 2006, high-level students have started to apply to more regular decision schools than before, Hernandez said.

Michael Goran, director and educational consultant for IvySelect College Consulting, said he estimated that most students now apply to about 10 to 12 institutions.

Cydney Gillon, a senior at North Atlanta High School in Atlanta, applied regular decision to Brown along with 26 other schools, including ever y member of the Ivy League.

Her father wanted her to apply to 27 schools in order to have plenty of options for matriculation, she said. “My father pushed me to get a little more going,” although Stanford and Brown were her top choices, Gillon said. She was not offered admission at Brown, but wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that she plans to attend the University of Pennsylvania unless she gets off the waitlist at Har vard.

Will they come?

But even as Brown’s application rate has risen steadily over the last several years, its yield rate — the percentage of accepted students who enroll — has fallen every year since the class of 2010 applied, according to the Admission Office’s

Herald file photo

Campus tours are one means the University uses to present itself to prospective students and their families.

Web site.

Only 53.1 percent of the 2,797 students accepted to the current freshman class enrolled, while 58.9 percent of the 2,555 students offered a spot three years ago decided to enroll.

Students who are admitted to Brown but do not attend usually matriculate instead to Har vard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford, according to Jim Miller ’73, dean of admission.

Clinedinst said because more students now apply to a greater number of competitive schools, national yield rates have declined. Average yield at four-year institutions decreased from 49 percent in 2001 to 45 percent in 2007, according to the NACAC report.

“There’s probably still a little bit of, ‘If I get into Yale … I’ll probably go to Yale over Penn or Brown,’ ” Goran said, explaining the thought process of his students who are accepted to Brown along with other Ivy League institutions.

Hernandez said she thought 95 percent of her clients would accept an offer of admission from Yale over Brown.

Even international, minority and low-income students — whom the University recruits heavily — often reject offers of admission.

“We’re not as well-known internationally as we’d like to be,” said Matthew Gutmann, vice president for international affairs, about the University’s efforts to tr y to convince students from abroad to apply to Brown.

For some of the international students who “are interested in a high-profile name,” Brown did not

have enough prestige, though he added that he did not think international students were any more influenced by name recognition than American applicants.

Similarly, high-performing minority and low-income students “know they’re a commodity” and apply to and gain admission to many top-tier schools, Hernandez said. Especially for students from less affluent backgrounds, a school with a stronger name and reputation than Brown’s is very attractive, she said.

‘Flight to quality’ The nationwide surge in applications coincides with a faltering economy, and high school students and their families are engaged in a “flight to quality,” according to Miller.

“If I’m going to spend money, I’m going to spend it on a highquality education,” he said, explaining the mind-set of students and parents in precarious financial situations who decide to invest their money in a Brown education.

People view a Brown diploma as a wise investment, since it might ensure them a more lucrative, rewarding career later on, he said.

“An Ivy (League) degree is going to be worth more in the marketplace,” said Goran, particularly “because of the economy and the uncertainty out there.”

As the nation’s unemployment rate has nearly doubled over the past five years — jumping from just over 5 percent in 2005 to almost 10 percent in 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — the University has started

to increase emphasis on student outcomes after graduation in admission literature.

“Outcomes are ver y important in an economically constrained environment,” Miller said. “People are rightly concerned about outcomes.”

Brown’s ability to give people an invaluable skill set that they can bring to the workplace is nothing new, Miller said. But by stressing the high percentage of Brown graduates who go on to their top choices for law, medical and graduate schools and the success graduates find in the workplace, the Office of Admissions has been able to increase applicants’ perception of Brown as a good economic investment, he said.

Many other schools have been less capable of capitalizing on the economic downturn to increase applications. The NACAC report described a poll of high school guidance counselors that found that students entering college in the fall of 2009 were more likely to enroll in public colleges instead of private schools, choose a community college over a four-year school or delay their college education because of financial concerns.

‘Money talks’ Brown has also improved its financial aid packages in response to the economic downturn, making a four-year stay on College Hill much more affordable for some students.

“We’re actually less expensive for some students than their state schools,” said Director of Financial Aid James Tilton. “Families

are supported for the entire time that they’re here.”

The University only recently adopted need-blind admissions for U.S. applicants under a directive from President Ruth Simmons in 2002, becoming the last Ivy League institution to do so. Although international and transfer applications are still not need-blind, the change has allowed many low-income students to consider Brown, whereas the school would have been entirely unaffordable for them 10 years ago, Miller said.

“That made a dramatic difference in our ability to recruit,” Miller said.

Representatives from the Office of Financial Aid travel with admissions officers to communities with high levels of low-income, minority and first-generation college applicants in order to explain that Brown can be affordable, Tilton said.

The financial aid office’s Web site has also allowed families to estimate the cost of a Brown education by comparing their incomes with several examples of financial aid packages, Tilton said.

Still, some applicants are war y that they will be unable to afford Brown, even if they get in.

“As much as I love Brown, money talks,” said Shezza Shagarabi, a regular decision applicant from North Atlanta High School.

She said that her family earns less than $100,000 per year, and that cost would inevitably influence her college plans.

Lauren Reed-Guy, a senior at Piedmont High School in Piedmont, continued on page 5

Calif., said that although Brown was her top choice, she would need to “think about the whole family” when she decides this month where to study next fall.

Despite the financial aid office’s attempts to facilitate application for aid, Reed-Guy said she needed her parents’ assistance to fill out all of her financial aid applications.

“That was sort of my parents’ forte,” she said. “I just really didn’t know how to do it.”

First-generation college applicant Jenna Frerichs from St. Joseph-Ogden High School in St. Joseph, Ill., said her parents could not offer the same level of support to her when she was applying for admission and financial aid at Brown.

“I don’t think anybody else from my school applied to any Ivy Leagues,” she said. Because she could not afford to travel to Rhode Island, Frerichs used the Internet to “just get answers on (her) own” about the New Curriculum, program housing and other aspects of life at the University.

Frerichs was rejected by Brown.

Though accepted to the University of South Carolina, she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that she hopes to spend next year teaching English in Spain and then plans to reapply early decision to the class of 2015.

Building Brown Though Brown’s name may not carr y the same prestige as some of its peers’, the University has increased its efforts to heighten its profile within the U.S. and internationally.

While less internationally recognized than some of its peers, Brown’s academic prestige has increased while its applicant pool has grown.

“We need to get away from the notion that Brown is going global.

Brown is global,” Gutmann said.

Eighty-one countries are represented in the admitted class of 2014, according to a April 1 University press release, and Brown is “eager to reach out” to more international students, Gutmann said.

The University added new programs last year as part of its push to internationalize, The Herald reported in October.

The Corporation has nearly doubled the financial aid budget for international students, Tilton wrote in an e-mail to The Herald, bringing it to about $6.5 million for this academic year.

International students are particularly interested in the availability of undergraduate research, according to Gutmann.

Under the Plan for Academic Enrichment, which began in 2004, undergraduates have more “access to ver y elegant research opportunities” than ever before, Miller said.

Efforts to encourage minority

and low-income applicants to apply have also increased in recent years.

This year, Brown partnered with QuestBridge, an organization that matches low-income students with scholarships at top universities.

Miller said his of fice received 1,700 applications this year from QuestBridge students, most of whom are first-generation college applicants.

“Talent is not a function of socioeconomics,” he said, explaining Brown’s “opportunity and responsibility” to provide education to students from poor backgrounds who have a lot of potential.

Minority students currently enrolled at Brown will contact admitted black, Latino and Native American students this week under a new program to tr y to convince students to choose Brown over other colleges.

“This is a fiercely personal place,” Miller said. He thinks these outreach efforts will help to “personalize a scary and somewhat impersonal process” and bring more minority students to campus.

What now?

The highlights of a Brown education — the New Curriculum and friendly environment — have been there for years, Miller said.

“I loved not having distribution requirements,” said Elijah ben Izzy ’14, a student from College Preparatory High School in Oakland, Calif. who was accepted early decision.

Ben Izzy applied because of the University’s long-standing liberal atmosphere, he said.

Some of the trends that have encouraged the applicant rate to rise, like the flagging economy or increasing number of high school graduates, may start to level off in the coming years.

But because Brown has continued to maintain a high-quality education, Miller said he does not expect to see large drops in application rates.

“The quality of students at Brown over the last couple of generations is just skyrocketing,” he said, insisting that Brown will not lose popularity anytime soon.

More selectivity has led to a much more talented student body, Miller said. And since “large, large numbers” of applicants write on their applications that they hear about Brown from graduates, Miller added, any rise in applications and selectivity will produce a greater number of successful, unique Brown students who will encourage other quality students to apply to Brown.

“Ask almost any Brown graduates,” reads one of the pamphlets sitting in the Office of Admission.

“And it is an excellent bet that they will say they feel deeply satisfied — grateful — that they chose Brown.”

Unless that changes, application rates will not fall any time soon, Miller said.

www.browndailyherald.com/ series/branding-brown

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Acceptance Rate 35000 Number of applicants 30000 Accepted students

Number of students

continued from page 4

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

25000

20000

15000

10000

5000 16.9%

15.9% 16.4% 15.3% 15.9% 16.4% 15.3%

14.0% 14.1% 13.7% 11.2% 14.0% 14.1% 13.7% 11.2%

9.3% 9.3%

2006

2007

2010

2014

2008

2009

2011

2012

2013

Year of Graduation Katie Wilson and Marlee Bruning / Herald

As applications have soared in recent years, the University’s admit rate has steadily decreased (above).

The percentage of accepted students who choose to enroll has dropped steeply in the last four years (below).

Matriculation Rate 60

58

Percent Yield

Page 5

56

54

52

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Year of Graduation

2011

2012

2013

Page 6

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS Excitement grows among water teams for new pool

By Ben Noble Staf f Writer

Though not scheduled to be completed until January 2012, the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center is already receiving high praise from the Brown community.

“I think it will be the best indoor aquatics facility in the countr y,” said Felix Mercado, head coach of the men’s and women’s water polo teams.

Construction is slated to begin in June for the $46.6 million building, which will also house the Jonathan Nelson ’77 Fitness Center.

For the past three years, the swimming and diving and water polo teams have practiced in a temporary pool located behind the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center. The teams have not hosted a meet in Providence since the Smith Swim Center was demolished in 2007.

“This has been a ver y frustrating experience,” said swimmer Sage Erskine ’11. “Being the only team in the Ivy League without a pool has become somewhat of an embarrassment.”

“It would have been easy for the easy for the aquatic teams to become bitter about the situation,” she added. “But I think overall the teams have handled it with as much patience and poise as possible, given our disadvantage.”

Erskine and other members of the class of 2011 will not have a permanent pool at any point during their time at Brown.

The new aquatics center will include a 56-meter pool and threemeter diving board, eliminating the need for divers to practice off-

campus.

“I’m grateful to have a pool on campus, but definitely excited to have one where we can host our own games on campus,” said Brittany Westerman ’13, a member of the water polo team. “It will bring more spectators.”

The swimming and diving and water polo teams will no longer have to share a locker room with the general public in the OMAC. Separate lockers will be built in the new facility for members of the swimming and diving, water polo and visiting teams and recreational users.

“Ever ything will be state of the art, and varsity athletes will have their own private areas,” Mercado said.

The building will also house three dance studios and over 22,000 square feet of fitness space, with 12,000 dedicated solely to varsity athletes.

Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger told The Herald last month that physical education class offerings will increase, intramural inner-tube water polo will return and pool hours for recreational users will be expanded significantly.

While praising the new center’s design, Mercado was also quick to hold off on criticizing the temporar y facility.

“To be honest, I just want a pool,” he said. “Sometimes we get spoiled and our expectations get too high.”

“In this environment, we should just be happy to have a place to practice,” he added. “Our temporar y pool is better than a lot of other university pools.”

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

“People are going to have to cross picket lines.”

— Sam Adler-Bell ’12, SLA member

SLA to ‘educate’ about dispute continued from page 1

year’s guests will likely arrive at the dance to find a picket line of hotel workers.

The annual formal event is scheduled by the Class Board and Key Society for Saturday, April 17, at the Westin Providence hotel downtown. But workers at the Westin are calling for a community boycott of the hotel due to grievances including recent wage and benefit cuts and large increases in workers’ health care costs.

At a meeting that ended at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, SLA members finally got the chance to sit down with members of the Class Board to hash out a tentative agreement that was more sensitive to the labor dispute at the Westin. It was an opportunity they had been seeking since they learned of the choice of venue a week ago.

Neil Parikh ’11, the 2011 Class Coordinating Board president who e-mailed students on Tuesday to inform them of the ticket sales, said that he and the events’ other organizers did not know about the hotel’s labor issues until they heard from SLA late last week.

“We’re going to do everything we can between the two groups to find another venue,” SLA member Sam Adler-Bell ’12 said after the meeting, adding that his group will make use of contacts at other hotels and convention centers they have through their union affiliations. “If we can’t find another venue, we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure people know what’s going on.”

SLA members will accompany ticket sellers starting Wednesday morning at J. Walter Wilson to inform guests of workers’ griev-

ances. Adler-Bell said both groups agreed that there was a need to fully inform students of the labor dispute before they bought tickets.

“We’re not going to be antiGala,” he said. “We’re just going to be there educating people.”

The late-night summit followed a meeting Tuesday afternoon between members of the SLA and Director of Student Activities Phil O’Hara ’55. O’Hara also met separately with members of the Class Board — which he advises — and the Key Society after hearing SLA’s concerns, and said he also intends to call the hotel’s director of human resources to gather more information.

Aubrie Ramsay, a Westin employee who attended the meeting with O’Hara and the SLA, told O’Hara at the meeting that the boycott, now in its third week, is “just beginning.” She said workers have been asking groups not to stay at the hotel and have been requesting that members of the community hold their events elsewhere in order for the boycott to succeed.

If the Gala is held at the Westin, Ramsay promised, guests will be faced with the decision of whether to join the picket line or cross it.

And if they cross it, she said, they will have to listen to the picketers from outside.

Prominent community figures have already taken sides — last month, John Lombardi, Democratic city councilman and candidate for mayor of Providence, announced he would cancel a fundraiser scheduled for later this month in response to the union’s call for a boycott.

The hotel is owned by the Cr-

anston-based Procaccianti Group.

Representatives of the Westin Hotel and Procaccianti Group did not return e-mails and phone calls Tuesday afternoon.

“Everyone wants this to be a successful event,” Adler-Bell said at the end of the afternoon meeting with O’Hara. “The Gala is not going to be a successful event if it’s held at the Westin. People are going to have to cross picket lines.”

At the end of Tuesday’s latenight discussions, Adler-Bell was confident another venue would be found.

“When we find another location, (the Gala’s organizers) will make a public announcement about why we won’t be going to the Westin,” he said. “We have to find another venue.”

But Parikh said earlier Tuesday afternoon that finding an alternative to the Westin is unlikely. He said that after looking into over a dozen venues in and around the state, the organizers found no other sites in their price range that were available for the night.

The group has already paid a $5,000 deposit to the Westin for the Gala, which usually costs a little more than $30,000 totally, according to Key Society President Camilla Spinola ’10. The group’s organizers were not sure whether the deposit is refundable. Parikh said it would be “something for the lawyers to handle” if need be.

Salsa Ahmed ’11, the 2011 Class Board’s secretary, said ultimately students may have to decide on their own whether they are comfortable attending in light of the picketing. She said the organizers plan to visit the Westin this week to address security concerns.

Ahmed said she anticipates demand will still be high enough to sell out the Gala, a 14-year Brown tradition, especially because the Westin holds only 900 guests, while most previous locations have held well over 1,000.

Coming out of their meeting at almost midnight, both sides seemed satisfied with the progress they made in tweaking the plan for the Gala.

“We all really want it to be an amicable situation,” Parikh said.

“It’s been a very long day.”

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

“It’s a totally only-at-Brown story.”

— Jonathan Mooney ’00, on working on his first book at Brown

Author proudly stays on ‘short bus’ continued from page 1 through his honors English class. It always took him far longer to read, write and spell-check assignments than it took his classmates. Mooney worked hard in his only English class during his first semester at Loyola Marymount University, where he ended up attending on a soccer scholarship. But after a semester of late-night spell-checking with his mom, he found out that half his grade in the class would be based on a timed, in-class exam — with spelling and grammar counting for a large portion of the grade. Though he did well in his four English classes the next semester, he had a rocky term, exacerbated by a DUI, heavy drinking and a declining interest in soccer.

Brunonian beginnings After his freshman year, Mooney transferred to Brown, an experience “best described as an explosion,” he wrote in his second book.

On his first day at Brown, Mooney met Cole — who has ADHD­ –– a fellow transfer student who had purple hair and wore bicycle chains as bracelets around his arms. “I was like, that’s my boy right there,” Mooney said. “That’s totally my soul mate.”

During the fall semester of 1997, the two friends bonded over their shared experiences with learning disabilities, and together came up with the book concept that later became “Learning Outside the Lines,” Mooney said. In the spring, the two sophomores ran a group independent study project to conduct research for the book. That summer, they found an agent and sold their book proposal to publishing house Simon and Schuster.

“They even gave us money,” Mooney said. “Which we were amazed at.”

The next spring, the two took a semester off in order to work on the book. When Mooney returned in the fall, all four of his classes were independent study projects devoted to completing different aspects of the book. One of his ISPs focused on autobiographical writing, and his project for that class formed what would become the first chapter of “Learning Outside the Lines.” Another ISP centered on critical education theory, which was the focus of the book’s third chapter. By December, the entire book was finished.

In fact, during his two-and-a-half years at Brown, about three-quarters of his classes were independent studies, Mooney said. It was Brown’s philosophy of encouraging student agency over intellectual life that allowed him to succeed, he said.

As a very purpose-driven learner, Mooney was able to find inspiration for his work in his independent studies as opposed to what he called the “broadcast” type of learning found in lecture classes.

“It’s a totally only-at-Brown story,” he said.

A foot in both worlds At Brown, Mooney was also able to find a sense of purpose outside of the classroom in Project Eye-toEye, a Swearer Center program that he founded with Cole. The program matches learning-disabled mentors with their younger counterparts to create a dialogue about their struggles.

“We were in some dorm room ... and we literally said we should share our stories with kids,” Mooney said. The two found other volunteers for the program by reaching out to

art classes in particular, where they found many creative students who had struggled in more traditional classes. Today, the project is a national organization with 28 chapters in 25 states, he said.

Mooney is currently at work on a new nonfiction book tentatively titled “Normal People Scare Me.” In it, he plans to examine the “neurodiversity rights movement,” which advocates for a need for the different skill sets of people with Asperger’s Syndrome, autism and other neurological disorders in society.

Mooney has told his story many times, in venues ranging from second-grade classrooms to university lecture halls. But he said he is still struggling with the question of how to reconcile the desire to be normal with the desire to celebrate his own status of being different.

The book’s editor wanted to end “The Short Bus” with Mooney physically getting off of the bus after his journey because he thought it would be a neater conclusion to the book.

But Mooney said he insisted that the book’s ending continue to emphasize his continued journey. Mooney said he still considers himself, in part, to be riding on the “short bus,” while standing as a proud part of the community it represents.

Mooney still has a foot in both worlds. “Am I the Brown kid or the short bus rider?”

www.browndailyherald.com

SportsWednesday The Brown Daily Herald

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 | Page 8

M. lacrosse

Baseball

By Zack Bahr Assistant Sports Editor

over spring break series

Bears ward off late run by Bulldogs Team seeks consistency “If you would have said that (Thomas) Muldoon (’10) would have been held to one goal and (Andrew) Feinberg (’11) would have none, I would have been sure that we were going to win this,” said Bryant Head Coach Mike Pressler. But the Bears disproved Pressler’s logic Tuesday night and battled to a 9-7 win over their intrastate rival.

The Bears started out playing like the top 20 team that they are. For the first 19 minutes, Brown held the Bulldogs scoreless behind goalie Matt Chriss ’11 while Rob Schlesinger ’12, David Hawley ’11 and Dan O’Brien ’12 were all able to find the goal.

Brown’s tenacity was obvious in the first quarter, as Jake Westerman ’10 lit up one Bryant player so hard that his stick went flying.

“I’m really pleased with the effort the men came out with today, three days after a tough Princeton loss,” said Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90. “We responded really well. It was a really rewarding feeling as a coach to see how we played today.”

Bruno held a 4-1 lead heading into the locker room against what Pressler called his team’s “hellacious defense.”

The second half would not be as

By Jesse Frank Spor ts Staf f Writer

The baseball team traveled to take on the Troy Trojans and New Orleans Privateers before opening Ivy League play with two games each against both Penn and Columbia. The Bears’ week got off to a tough start, as the team lacked consistency, but they ended the week on a strong note.

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

The men’s lacrosse team bested Bryant 9-7 Tuesday.

kind to the Bears, as Bryant whittled a 7-3 lead to a game tied at seven apiece with 5:56 left in the game.

Bryant then went on a five-to-one scoring run with players marching down the field and scoring an average of one goal a minute. In the game, the Bulldogs took 39 shots on goal compared to just 26 by Bruno.

Several of Bryant’s goals came while Bruno played man down. Muldoon and Seth Ratner ’11 were called at the same time for slashing and crosschecking respectively. Thirtyfour seconds later, Clay Del Prince ’13 was called for slashing.

The Bears came back behind the leadership of All-American Muldoon

— who came into the contest averaging five goals per game. His lone goal of the night came at 4:45 to put Bruno up by one.

“Every game’s a fight,” Muldoon said. “We’ve been in that position before. You always want to score that goal, but then you understand that if you work together as an offense, then you’re going to get that goal.”

David Hawley ’11 scored the last goal of the game, bringing his evening’s total to three goals and leading Bruno to a hard-earned victory.

The men will be back in action this Saturday in an away Ivy matchup against Penn. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m.

Troy 4 games, Brown 0 To open the week, the Bears traveled to Alabama to take on Troy. But in all four games the Bears were overmatched by the Trojans’ offense. In the series, Troy scored 9, 6, 11 and 26 runs respectively.

The closest game of the series was game two, when the Bears fell, 6-3. In the game, the Trojans got out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning and never looked back. In the loss, Matt Colantonio ’11 was 2-5 with an RBI and Graham Tyler ’12 was 2-4 with an RBI. New Orleans 2 games, Brown 0 The Bears next went to New Orleans to take on the Privateers in a two-game series. In the first game, Brown got of f to a fast start, leading 7-0 by the top of the third inning.

But Brown could not hold the lead. New Orleans fought back with two runs in the third inning, four runs in the fourth, one in the sixth and four more in the eighth to go on to the 11-10 victor y. In the loss, Pete Greskoff ’11 went 2-4 with 3 RBI, Daniel Rosoff ’12 was 2-5 with an RBI and Ryan Zrenda ’11 was 3-4 with a run scored.

The next day, the Bears came out looking for revenge but found themselves trailing 3-0 after the second inning. Brown had a late rally, but New Orleans held on for the 5-3 victory.

In the loss, Brown got some good pitching, led by starter Matt Boylan ’10, who gave up three runs in five innings.

“At times, we pitched the ball very well, and at times we hit very well,” Colantonio wrote in an email to The Herald. “We ran into trouble during the trip because we were not able to put the two together and dominate a game like we are capable of doing.”

Penn 1 game, Brown 1 Brown left the South and traveled to Penn to open Ivy League play. Needing a win badly, Brown’s bats came out of the gate strong and the Bears led 5-1 after three innings.

But Brown’s pitching could not

hold the lead as Penn’s offense came alive to score seven runs in the final three innings, and Brown fell 8-6. In the loss, Zrenda was 2-3 with one run scored, Josh Feit ’11 was 3-4 with three runs scored, and Mike DiBiase ’12 was 3-3 with two RBI. In game two against Penn, Brown desperately needed a win to avoid falling to 0-2 in the Ivy League. But, heading into the fourth inning Brown trailed, 5-2.

Brown rallied late though, tying it up in the fifth inning on after Tyler and Greskoff knocked runs in.

The game remained tied until the eighth inning, when the Bears took the lead with four runs. They then backed it up with two more in the ninth. Brad Kottman ’13 got the win for Brown, pitching three scoreless innings out of the bullpen to secure the 11-5 win.

Columbia 1 game, Brown 1 The next day, Brown traveled to New York to take on Columbia.

The game remained scoreless going into the middle innings. But Columbia eventually pulled away and went on to the 7-0 win.

In game two, Brown took the field behind starting pitcher Matt Kimball ’11, needing a win.

Kimball pitched a gem, going six innings and only giving up one run.

Offensively, Brown took the lead with four runs in the fifth inning when Tyler and Greskoff each had 2 RBI. Brown’s bullpen was able to fend off a late rally by Columbia and Andrew Bakowski ’11, who pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings, got the win.

The Bears hope to take momentum from the split against a good Columbia team. “I’m happy where we are heading into conference play,” said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. “To split with Columbia after the way we had been playing was great, but we’ve definitely got a lot more work to do.”

The series split leaves Brown in contention for the Ivy title.

“None of the teams in our division won more than two games this week, so we are still in good position to get to the championship series,” Greskof f wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “We have three mid-week games to get our hitters going heading into the weekend, and we need to win three or four games this weekend since we are at home.

Our goal is still to win the league and we are in good position to do that.”

www.browndailyherald.com

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

S ports W ednesday

W. Water Polo

W. Golf

Bruno leaves California Bears putt to 12th place in invitational with six wins, six losses

By Chris Williams Contributing Writer

By Katie DeAngelis Contributing Writer

No. 20 Brown headed to California for spring break and went 6-6 in 12 games. Highlights included an upset victory over No. 19 Cal State at Bakersfield and a 7-6 overtime win against Cal State at San Bernadino on the final day of competition.

The offense was led by stellar performances from tri-captains Sarah Glick ’10 and Lauren Presant ’10, as well as Herald Senior Editor Joanna Wohlmuth ’11 and Brittany Westerman ’13. Tri-captain Stephanie Laing ’10 had an impressive week, leading the defense in goal.

Laing received Northern Division Defensive Player of the Week honors, Glick was named Co-Player of the Week and Westerman was both the Rookie of the Week and Co-Player of the Week.

LMU 11, Brown 7 In their first game of the week, Brown fell to No. 7 Loyola Marymount University, 11-7. The score was 6-4 after the second quarter, but the Bears weren’t able to come back in the second half. Presant led Brown with three goals, and Laing had 13 saves.

Brown 12, Fresno Pacific 4 After losing their first game, the Bears rallied to beat Fresno Pacific on March 27. Tied after the first quarter, 3-3, Brown held Fresno Pacific to only one goal in the remaining three quarters. Glick and Wohlmuth both scored three goals, and Laing had 11 saves.

Brown 8, Sonoma State 4 Brown kept the momentum going to win another game that same day against Sonoma State. Again tied after the first quarter, 1-1, Brown outscored Sonoma State, 7-3, in the remaining quarters. Glick had four goals, and Claudia Ruiz ’13 had her first goal of the series.

Brown 9, Cal State at Bakersfield 7 Brown’s third win came on Sunday with an upset of No. 19 Cal State at Bakersfield. Brown jumped out to a 3-0 lead during the first quarter.

“We started the game on a 4-0 run and never looked back,” said Head Coach Felix Mercado.

Presant had four goals, and Laing had 10 saves.

UC at Davis 10, Brown 6 After the exciting win against Cal State, Brown fell to No. 18 UC at Davis, 10-6. Tied after the first quarter, 2-2, UC at Davis outscored Brown, 3-1, in the second quarter.

“So far this trip has started well,” Mercado said after the game against UC at Davis. “I know we are a better team today than on Thursday, and I feel we are only going to get better.”

Brown 8, Pomona 3 After a day of rest, the Bears

bounced back from their loss and came back with energy to win their next two games on Tuesday, the first against Pomona. Behind the leadership of Glick, who scored four goals, Brown led from the beginning and held on versus Pomona. Laing finished with 12 saves.

Brown 12, Claremont 4 Brown finished Tuesday strong with a decisive win over Claremont.

The Bears opened the gap early, finishing the first half ahead, 9-2.

Goals were, for the most part, evenly spread across familiar faces. Glick and Presant led the group of scorers with three goals each and Laing had an impressive 15 saves.

USC 15, Brown 6 Brown then played No. 1 ranked USC and fell, 15-6. Though Brown held on during the first quarter, keeping the game to a close score of 4-2, by halftime USC had opened the lead to 9-4. Laing had six saves and three steals, and Glick, Presant and Stanton each scored two goals.

San Diego State 10, Brown 5 Despite a strong third quarter, Brown was unable to fight back from San Diego State’s early lead. San Diego State’s defense held Brown to zero goals in the second and fourth quarters. Offensive powerhouse Glick scored two goals, and Laing had 10 saves.

Cal Baptist 12, Brown 8 After losing center defender Stanton to an injury in the game against San Diego State, Brown couldn’t overcome Cal Baptist Friday. Westerman and Glick scored three goals each, and Presant added two.

“It’s tough to play without your top defenders against an offensively-talented team like Cal Baptist,” Mercado said after the game. “We hung in there for the most part, but we ran out of steam at the end. It’s been a long trip, and I’m hoping we can rebound with good play on Saturday.”

Brown 7, Cal State at San Bernadino 6 (OT) After losing three games in a row, Brown pulled through and finished the week on a high note, beating Cal State at San Bernadino in overtime on Saturday. Despite going 2 of 17 on their power plays, the Bears forced the game into overtime by playing good defense. Glick led Brown with two goals. Ruiz scored the gamewinning goal in the second overtime to give the Bears the win.

UC at San Diego 11, Brown 7 No. 17 UC at San Diego jumped out to an early lead, finishing the first quarter ahead, 6-2. Brown was unable to make up the difference, and UC at San Diego kept the fourgoal lead until the end. The Bears were two of 11 on their power plays, an aspect of their game that they have struggled with throughout the season.

In a weather-shortened Hoya Women’s Invitational, hosted by Georgetown University, the women’s golf team finished 12th out of 17 teams.

The event, held March 29 and 30 at the Members Club at Four Streams outside Washington, D.C., was originally scheduled as a 54hole tournament. However, due to extremely wet conditions the first morning, the host club decided to shorten the first day from 36 to 18 holes in order to help dry the course.

This shortened the whole event to 36 holes, with 18 holes of competition each day.

The Bears posted scores of 337 and 334, with Heather Arison ’12 leading the way both days for Brown.

Arison played consistently, shooting 83-83 — 166 on her way to tie for 43rd place in the 90-player field. Just behind Arison was Megan Tuohy ’12 at 168, closely followed by Julia Robinson ’11 and Susan Restrepo ’11 at 169. Carly Arison ’12 rounded out the Bears’ top five, shooting a two-day total of 176.

Tuohy called the tournament a

“good learning experience,” noting that “everyone stayed in the tournament and had a good attitude” despite the tough playing conditions.

Head Coach Danielle Griffiths was especially pleased with the Bears’ play on Tuesday, noting that the Bears were the “only team to improve on the second day.” Looking forward, Griffiths stressed that her team will be “working hard on (its) short game and mental game” in preparation for its next tournament, the Columbia Invitational, and ultimately the Ivy League Championships in late April.

M. Crew

Crew team gets two wins over Yale

By Sahar Shahamatdar Sports Staff Writer

The men’s crew team started off the season with a second-place finish at the San Diego Crew Classic and continued to show its impressive skills by coming out victorious in two events against Yale Saturday.

Yale took gold in the first three events of the morning — the third varsity eight, the varsity four and the first freshman eight, winning the races by a combined six seconds. But Brown came back to win

the first and second varsity eight races.

Brown’s varsity four finished just 1.7 seconds after Yale, despite being behind as much as a full length by the 1,000-meter mark.

The Bulldogs continued their winning streak after taking first in the third varsity eight, topping Brown by 2.7 seconds.

Despite defeating Yale by more than nine seconds in the freshman eight last year, Brown was not able to hold off the Bulldogs in the event this year as they sprinted toward

the finish line and finished 1.3 seconds ahead of Bruno.

Brown was not discouraged by the losses and came back to win the last two events. In the first varsity eight, Brown’s top boat finished the line just four seats ahead of the Bulldogs with a time of 5:38.0.

The second varsity boat also rowed a fast race and defeated its event by open water as the Yale boat trailed by more than six seconds.

The Bears will row against Ivy rival Harvard April 10 at home.

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Wednesday, April 7, 2010

A le x Y uly

e d i to r i a l

Mixed signals

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

There is no doubt that Brown is in the midst of serious financial stress. To cope with endowment losses, the Corporation recently approved $30 million in budget cuts and spending reductions for fiscal year 2011. The University let go of 31 staff last year and plans another 60 layoffs this year. On top of that, next year tuition will increase 4.5 percent — a significant amount, even if it is consistent with the annual increases seen before the recession.

At the same time, the University is pushing ahead with major capital projects, including the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center in Faunce House and the new medical school building located in the Jewelry District. The Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts is slated to open for student use next spring, and the combined Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center and Jonathan Nelson ’77 Fitness Center will be complete in January 2012. Given the two conflicting messages — restraint and growth — the University has an obligation to be extremely forthright about its strategic vision.

We understand that students may be at least puzzled or even upset to see large infrastructural investments alongside tuition increases and staff layoffs. The Herald reported Monday that 30 percent of students are either “somewhat worried” or “very worried” about their ability to finance their education.

As a result, the administration must do a thorough job of explaining its plans and justifying the financial burdens it places on students and their families.

While we can’t allay every concern about Brown’s plans — only administrators and members of the Corporation can do that — we do think a few points are in

order. First, much of the funding for capital projects and renovations comes from earmarked donations.

In many cases, the Corporation accepts funds based on the stipulation from donors that the money will be used for certain designated purposes.

Brown relies heavily on the generosity of alumni, parents and others whose support helps keep our institution thriving, and many contributions are made without stipulations attached. Nonetheless, we urge major donors to consider giving to Brown without specific designations. While we are grateful to benefit from donors’ loyalty and unselfishness, right now it seems like the University could use greater discretion and control over its short-term finances.

At the same time, concerned students should try to temper their skepticism towards capital projects and infrastructural growth. These investments ensure Brown’s long-term ability to recruit talented faculty and students, thereby allowing Brown to maintain and enhance its reputation for excellence. This kind of expansion also facilitates worthwhile research that can have a positive impact on society and spur broader economic growth.

As far as helping students goes, the Corporation was right to expand next year’s undergraduate financial aid budget by 6.5 percent. Nevertheless, the University must recognize that it is sending mixed messages. Administrators should keep this in mind as they address students’ concerns in the months and years ahead.

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 | Page 11

When lawyers and dentists teach the kids Sarah Yu Opinions Columnist Last month, the Texas Board of Education approved of a series of curriculum changes in the social sciences for public elementary, middle and high school programs. These changes will lay out a set of guidelines for textbook publishers that may affect a larger demographic than just Texas students, as the state is one of the largest purchasers of textbooks in the country.

The “conservative stamp” of these new guidelines reflects perfectly the skewed ratio of Republican and Democratic members on the Board — the proposed curriculum now emphasizes the superiority and importance of American capitalism, questions the secularism of the Founding Fathers’ ideology and diminishes societal responsibility for issues such as dating violence, drug use and eating disorders. The Board diverged from local educators’ views of public education laid out earlier in March.

While much of the nation has been concerned about the dominance that the Republican majority has on the 15-member board, I have a much more fundamental question to ask of the Texas education system: Why must it be the case that the Board is polarized politically in the first place?

The Board of Education is the elected overseeing body of the Texas Education Agency,

a branch of the state government responsible for public education. The board members, who have the ultimate say in what should be included in elementary, middle and high school curricula, are elected to their positions. There seem to be no real requirements for them to qualify to run as candidates — no members of the Board have any professional background in history, sociology or economics.

I hope readers are not offended when I say that this is one terrible institution — it’s a little too 1984 for me to endorse. Perhaps

conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats. For something so fundamental and necessary to any society, such a high degree of intrinsic controversy can be dangerous. Revisionism is occurring at the hands of those who lack knowledge and expertise but make up for these deficiencies with political party support. The real decision-makers are not those who are educators or professionals in academic fields, and this makes me anxious.

Throughout the course of our liberal col-

Education should not be clouded with political affiliation, and neither should its administration.

the electoral process of the Board is a noble manifestation of the ideals of democracy — but when the elected board members consist of mostly lawyers and one dentist who would ignore the advice of educators in making decisions about education, I question the validity of a democracy whose voters seem confused about whom they should be voting for.

I find it hard to get my head around the profound degree of politicization infiltrating what should not be political. This public education system, I realize, is effectively monitored by a body that is politicized and bifurcated between

lege education, we are taught that all social sciences are subjective, that there will always be different opinions and that no writer can ever escape the influences and barriers that society and politics have placed on him or her.

We begin to read texts more critically but with a more open mind, trying to assess the writer’s context along with the content. We know now that any occurrence in our world is affected as much by individuals as by the societies that shape them. It is ultimately up to us as individual intellectuals and learners to decide what our view of our society should be.

We cannot possibly, however, expect a younger and untried audience to do the same.

More likely than not, a textbook with standardized material is what will be taken at face value for those learning its content for the first time. While we cannot train young students to recognize all possible biases and controversies in our society, they are at least owed the opportunity to be exposed to a curriculum composed by nonpartisan experts. Education should not be clouded by political affiliation, and neither should its administration.

When the world decides to look into what the United States is and has been all about, it is the books that Americans have written about themselves that others will turn to. The Texas Board of Education’s arbitrary rewrites and politically-driven educational revisionism are sure to retract from the understanding of the American nation as accepting and progressive if there is not a real guarantee that younger generations can learn freely without the taint of ideological incoherence.

It would be nice to see at least some agreement from the ever-warring political factions in this country — for the children, and for the future. It might mean that lawyers and dentists swallow their proud political affiliations for the time being, but I trust they will find a place for their views in the discussion of environmental issues.

Sarah Yu ’11 is an international relations and history concentrator from Sydney, Australia. She can be reached at xia_yu@brown.edu.

A more serious commitment to physical education at Brown Yue Wang Opinions Columnist Adding to the numerous buzzing construction sites on College Hill, the ongoing project of the new aquatics and fitness center seems to appeal to everybody. For varsity athletes, it means a permanent home for the swimming and water polo teams, a much less crowded strength and conditioning area, separated lockers for teams, etc. The Brown community at large will also enjoy extended hours for swimming, more dance studios and more fitness centers. All these efforts are said to make the Brown athletic complex more attractive to both varsity athletes and other members of the Brown community.

Is that really the case? While one may concede that the improvement of facilities will make the varsity athletes — whose physical training makes up a huge part of their life on campus — better off, I suspect that adding a new athletic center doesn’t mark a significant change of direction from Brown’s long history of inertia and complacency about providing good physical education for the rest of the student body.

Whether you know it or not, along with Princeton, Yale and University of Pennsylvania, Brown is one of four Ivy League colleges that do not fund students’ recreational sports. By contrast, Dartmouth, Columbia and Cornell offer mostly free physical education classes.

They even enforce physical education requirements — which count toward academic credits — as well as a mandatory swim test by the time of graduation. By funding and mandating recreational sports for the whole student body, those colleges are promoting the idea that sport is an indispensable part of a liberal education and that exercise is as important for average students as it is for athletes.

How different, then, is the situation at Brown? To begin with, we have to pay fees to take physical education courses. Starting next

office before she was finally told the course was canceled.

For yet another sign of how physical education is ignored at Brown, one needs only to look at the scheduling of the classes, which usually conflicts with our academic schedules. In this spring semester, for example, many physical education classes meet either during lunch time or at hours crowded by other classes. This makes enrollment in a physical education class at Brown more difficult.

Solving these long-existing problems, not

Solving these long-existing problems, not increasing the number of dance studios or fitness rooms, will determine how attractive physical education is to Brown students. semester, the use of gyms will probably incur more fees that will appear on our bills. Even in paid courses, there seems to be pandemic and even systemic mismanagement of the courses and indifference to students’ needs. Some instructors simply fail to show up without any notification in advance or explanation afterwards.

In an extremely frustrating incident, a friend of mine went over to the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center to attend a yoga class at the beginning of last semester. The class gathered three times without the instructor ever showing up. It took numerous phone calls to the physical education

increasing the number of dance studios or fitness rooms, will determine how attractive physical education is to Brown students. By charging students for the use of gyms and building another giant sports center, the school seems to indicate that recreational sports and physical education takes a higher priority than before. Yet, by ignoring factors such as a lack of funding for physical education classes, chaotic management and schedule conflicts, the administration is sending us conflicting messages about the importance of exercise and physical fitness.

Of course, the amount of time and energy that is invested in sports and exercises is ultimately decided by individuals. Coursework, jobs, extracurricular activities and — let’s be honest — laziness all influence our willingness to exercise. But an administration truly committed to physical fitness and the health of the student body should at least take steps to provide the ease and comfort that may encourage student participation in sports.

Right now, these are the obvious initial steps to consider: First, the University should fund physical education classes, even if they do not make them mandatory; second, the physical education department should work with the Dean of the College to come up with a schedule that permits greater compatibility between academic courses and PE classes; finally, more reliable instructors and staff can make attending a PE class a more pleasant experience.

Over two thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Plato offered the following advice regarding exercise: “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.” This piece of ancient wisdom still holds true today. If Brown really believes that exercise matters for its students, it is high time to address the real problems plaguing the program instead of concealing them beneath the grandeur of a new sports center.

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

Today The Brown Daily Herald

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Ivy acceptance rates continue to fall

9

9 comics

c a l e n da r

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

5:00 P.M. — Brown Degree Days Event: Science and Society, Third World Center Formal Lounge 1

4:00 P.M. — Brown Degree Days Event: Education, Barus and Holley 168

8:00 P.M. — Interfaith Dating Forum, Arnold Lounge, Keeney Quad

4:00 P.M. — Transfer and RUE Spring Mixer, J. Walter Wilson 411

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Buffalo Chicken Wings, Vegetarian Reuben Sandwich, Cream Cheese Brownies

Lunch — Chicken Fajitas, Vegan Black Bean Tacos, Mexican Succotash, Cream Cheese Brownies

Dinner — Steak Teriyaki, Couscous Croquettes, Orange Delight Cake

Dinner — Texas BBQ Brisket, Mexican Cornbread Casserole

crossword

81 / 56

67 / 52

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

1 tomorrow, april 8

to m o r r o w

Crew team has two wins against Yale

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

Today, april 7

to day

Fruitopia | Andy Kim

Hippomaniac | Mat Becker

Island Republic | Kevin Grubb

Classic Trust Ben | Ben Leubsdorf

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