Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 49 | Thursday, April 15, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Graphic novelist muses on comics, art Chem. Prof
is new Grad School dean
By Claire Peracchio Senior Staf f Writer
Ever ything Art Spiegelman P’13 learned, he learned from comics. The Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novelist, comic ar tist and one-time Simpsons character spoke to a packed List 120 yesterday about his education in comics. The medium that became his life’s passion was the subject of his sweeping lecture on comics past and present, entitled “What the %@&*! Happened to Comics?” The lecture’s colorful title — particularly its suggestion of profanity — captures the irreverent “essence of comics,” according to Spiegelman. “It’s such a f— great word!” Spiegelman declared of the jumble of characters. Spiegelman’s whirlwind lecture navigated the histor y of comics from pop art to Peanuts, a legacy he described as “a battle zone” shaped by a tug-of-war be-
By Talia Kagan Senior Staf f Writer
release from the United Way, a nonprofit organization that addresses emergency relief, along with a number of community issues and individual needs. The fund was created specifically to aid those affected by flooding in Rhode Island with “needs that will not be covered by other sources,” such as the Federal
Peter Weber, professor and chair of the chemistr y department, will replace Sheila Bonde as dean of the Graduate School beginning July 1, according to a Wednesday University press release. Bonde, whose five-year contract as graduate school dean terminates at the end of June, plans to return to full-time teaching and research, Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations Marisa Quinn wrote in an e-mail to the Herald. “I am honored to be asked to serve in this manner,” said Weber, who was chosen by a committee within the Grad School. Weber has taught chemistr y at Brown since 1989 and ser ved as department chair since 2005. As chair, he hired over half of the department’s present faculty and oversaw growth in graduate student enrollment, according to the press release. Weber studies “chemical reactions on ultrafast time scales,” according to the press release. His promotion of collaborative research on energy has helped strengthen Brown’s reputation for scholarship in this field, according to the press release. He has taught introductor y chemistr y classes as well as quantum mechanics, and currently teaches a first-year seminar on energy.
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Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
“Comics are the medium that gets past your critical radar and goes straight to the brain,” Spiegelman told a packed List 120.
While growing up in a lowermiddle class household in New York City, Spiegelman didn’t have
tween “tradition and transgression” and the worlds of children and adults.
much interest in museum art, he continued on page 2
Pre-frosh U. donates $50,000 for flood relief invade campus By Anita Badejo and Emily Rosen Contributing Writer and Staff Writer
By Anne Artley Contributing Writer
For the next two days, Brown’s population will increase by about 700 as admitted students invade campus for A Day On College Hill. More students are expected to attend this year than last year, after Brown received a record number of applications. “Since applications were up, maybe students are really taking time after they are admitted to visit campuses and see which one is best for them,” said Eleanor Brennan, assistant director of admissions. At ADOCH, prospective freshmen and their families have the opportunity to attend lectures, panels and an activities fair. They will also get a chance to stay in the dorms and meet other admitted students at social events such as a dessert social, a barbecue dinner and a talent show. Last year, the ADOCH planners added the Wednesday night barbecue to the program and brought in
inside
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News.....2–9 Metro...10–11 Sports..12-13 Editorial....14 Opinion.....15 Today........16
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In response to historic flooding across much of Rhode Island at the end of March, the University donated $50,000 last week to the United Way of Rhode Island’s Flood Recovery Fund. Brown community members affected by the flood have also begun to take advantage of
University emergency relief programs. “They are calling this the 500year flood,” said Tony Maione, United Way of Rhode Island’s CEO and president. “This was a very, very unusual event.” Funding relief Brown was among the top five financial donors to the recovery fund, according to an April 8 press
Branding Brown Third in a five-part series
On TV and the Web, sifting through images of Brown By Claire Peracchio Senior Staf f Writer
For the more than 30,000 students who applied to Brown this year, the popular college admissions Web site College Confidential, whether reliable or not, acted as a prime source of information about the school. On the site’s Brown forum, students post everything from standardized test scores to impressions of the University, mentioning the litany of stereotypes and press attention that Brown has received — liberal students, celebrity children,
a unique curriculum and even Sex Power God. Will my conservative beliefs be attacked if I matriculate? Does Brown value the sciences? Concerned students ask questions and await responses that fluctuate between petty and informational. College Confidential is only part of a larger trend. For prospective students, parsing media coverage of Brown — good and bad — is particularly daunting. Stereotypes about Brown are the fodder of blogs and college guidebooks, television shows and campus reviews, with
Kim Perley / Herald file photo
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University Hall got a rainbow-colored makeover for the 2008 Sex Power God party, an event that attracted plenty of media attention for Brown.
Metro, 10
Sports, 13
Opinions, 15
EAST SIDE TREATS Investigating ‘snuggery’ and cupcakes at a Wickenden eatery
top dog Baseball team loses to No. 25 UConn Huskies at home
freedom isn’t free Nida Abdulla ’11.5 finds faults in the looseness of the New Curriculum
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
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Spiegelman: Comics go ‘straight to the brain’ continued from page 1
Anne Artley / Herald
As part of its preparations for ADOCH, the University erected a large tent on the Main Green.
Admission office gears up for ADOCH continued from page 1 about a dozen parents of current Brown students to speak during the Parent Information session. These additions were successful enough to be included again this year. The Office of Admission is also making an effort to get more upperclassmen involved in the event. For the first time this year, juniors and seniors will also host prospective students. While many prospective students will arrive Thursday, some have been on campus for Third World Welcome, another program for admitted students, since Wednesday. Although any student admitted
through regular decision is allowed to attend, early decision students are still asked to stay home, a policy the admission office decided on three years ago. “It’s really a space issue,” Brennan said. “(Before) it was chaos, and it didn’t flow well. ADOCH is for kids who have not yet decided to come to Brown. It is not an orientation event.” The student-led ADOCH committee, which starts planning the event in September, stresses the importance of showing students an accurate picture of life at Brown. At Inside Scoop at Brown, one of the most popular and well-attended ADOCH events, students watch
video clips of how Brown is portrayed in popular culture, and then they can ask questions to a panel of students. “I really love interacting with prospective students and I really love Brown, so if I can convince them to love Brown too, that would be great,” said Jenna Kahn ’12, who is co-coordinating ADOCH with Eddie Re ’12. Fortunately, admissions officers and ADOCH volunteers agree that it does not take much work to convince others to love Brown as they do. “Most students enjoy being students here, so we don’t have to ask them to do much,” Brennan said.
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said. Yet even high art, especially cubism, has the trappings of a quality comic. “Picasso was a pretty damn good comic when he got right down to it,” Spiegelman said. Renowned for his innovation in comics and graphic art, Spiegelman spoke about “Maus,” the graphic novel about his family’s experience during the Holocaust that earned him a special Pulitzer Prize, and showed cover images that he created for the New Yorker after being hired by then-editor Tina Brown. Spiegelman’s iconic September 11 cover, which depicted two black Twin Towers on a dark background, echoed the work of Ad Reinhardt and attempted to convey a profound sense of mourning after a terrible tragedy, Spiegelman said. “Comics are the medium that gets past your critical radar and goes straight to the brain,” he said, gesturing to an image of a giant laser piercing a human eyeball. Spiegelman spoke of the “Faustian deal” comics made with high culture, which he added was “helpful for getting grants.” This exchange — in contrast to the image he showed of Americans burning comic books in the 1950s — has made comics something even librarians can appreciate, Spiegelman said. The language of comics is one of “time turned into space,” an idiom that Spiegelman compared to reading sheet music. Comics also allow the ar tist to depict human beings through their physical traits, which readers instinctively correlate with an individual’s character. Spiegelman also examined the use of images as propaganda
and cartoons that “escape their boundaries and enter into the real world of debate.” He commented on the controversy surrounding cartoon depictions of Muhammad, which were published in a Danish newspaper in 2005. His essay in Harper’s Magazine that responded to the controversy, titled “Drawing Blood: Outrageous Cartoons and the Art of Outrage,” was accompanied by cartoons invoking racial and cultural stereotypes. “I felt that there was a First Amendment issue here, because there is a right to offend even if you don’t want to be offended,” Spiegelman said. Another instance of controversial imager y, the 2008 New Yorker car toon that depicted then-Senator Barack Obama wearing a turban and “fistbumping” an artiller y-strapped Michelle Obama, was an example of images taking on new significance in national discourse. The cover evoked dialogue that had surfaced during Obama’s presidential campaign — “all euphemisms for ‘I think the guy might be black,’ ” Spiegelman said. Spiegelman added that he would even have liked to have seen a “Hitler collector’s plate” on the wall to make completely clear the cover’s satirical purpose. As for the future of comics, Spiegelman remarked on the genre’s ability to accommodate different subject matter, whether depicting vampires or “the supersized uber-mensch from outerspace.” “Some of the most sublime comics ever made are being made right now,” Spiegelman said. “Ironically, at the time when the book is under threat, the last books standing are comics.”
Weber hopes to continue Grad School progress continued from page 1 Weber is vice chair of the Human Resource Advisor y Board and serves on the advisory board for the Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation. He is also president of Ryon Technologies Inc., a local company he cofounded, according to the press release. The Plan for Academic Enrichment’s push to improve graduate education has brought the Grad School’s mission into focus. For his part, Weber said he hopes to “move graduate education
for ward, fill it with meaning and life and importance and make it relevant to society.” In his capacity as senior academic officer of the Grad School, Weber will also ser ve as a member of the president’s cabinet, according to the press release. Weber is “looking for ward” to collaborating with Bonde over the next couple of months, he said. “There will be a long learning process,” he added. — With additional reporting by Sarah Mancone
Thursday, April 15, 2010
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“In 20 years, I think we would all be surprised if David was not running the country.” — Joshua Bernard ’11 on David Poritz ’11.5
Student wins prestigious Truman Scholarship By Heeyoung Min Senior Staf f Writer
Over spring break, David Poritz ’11.5 checked his e-mail and found a message from President Ruth Simmons — telling him that he was one of 60 Truman Scholars, a select group of students chosen from 576 candidates across the nation to receive up to $30,000 for their graduate studies. Poritz, who founded the nonprofit Esperanza International as a freshman in high school, was selected for his leadership in promoting environmental change. Poritz took a leave of absence last year to develop his social enterprise organization, Gaia Certification, Ltd., which aims to institute the world’s first global certification system that creates incentives for companies to use higher standards of oil and gas exploration and production. “Gaia was an epiphany I had while working in a production industry in the Amazon. I recognized that the gas and oil industries didn’t fundamentally have to have a negative social and environmental impact,” Poritz said. “The problem in the gas and oil industries is that there isn’t a mechanism to evaluate what is an acceptable practice,” he said. “Gaia offers an industry score card on various social and environmental factors.” Scholars were selected “on the basis of leadership potential, intellectual ability and likelihood of ‘making a difference,’ ” according to a press release from the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. Poritz hopes to attend law school and pursue a master’s degree in forestry and environmental studies at Yale, he said. But in addition to the actual scholarship, he said, “You get the opportunity to be part of a globalized network of students involved in leadership and social justice issues.” “I think having a background in environmental law would be a critical skill set for (the Gaia) team,” said Poritz, who oversees an advisory council of law students that is developing environmental legislation for the Ecuadorian government as a client for the Yale Law School Environmental Protection Clinic. Though Poritz, who is concentrating in Latin American and Ca-
ribbean studies and anthropology, said he is still searching for a balance between schoolwork, campus life and running a new corporation based in Ecuador, he is confident he made the right decision in returning to Brown last semester. “My goal at Brown is to align what I’m doing with Gaia so they coalesce. Brown gives me a unique opportunity to feasibly accomplish my goals” because of the New Curriculum’s flexibility, said Poritz, adding that he would not be able to run Gaia if he attended a school with a rigid core curriculum. Brown’s “central” geographic location is also an advantage, said Poritz, who regularly travels to Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., on weekends for business meetings. “My education won’t be what it will be for many people. I spend less time in the classroom than some people, like pre-med or engineering students, but that doesn’t make my education less meaningful,” he said. “It’s the concept of experimental learning that has been the cornerstone of my education.” Joshua Bernard ’11, co-president of Esperanza International — a nonprofit that aims to aid indigenous communities adversely affected by toxic contamination — described Poritz’s “passion for social justice” as “infectious.” Esperanza International facilitates the development and writing of environmental legislation in the U.S. and Latin America, according to Bernard. “When I began working with Esperanza a few years ago, David had been dealing with issues of inequity and sustainability in the Amazon for almost a decade,” Bernard said. “In 10 years, David’s efforts may bring about serious changes in the way our society perceives and extracts natural resources,” he added. “In 20 years, I think we would all be surprised if David was not running the country.” Poritz said he has no presidential aspirations, but added that he would consider running for the U.S. Senate “sometime way down the line.” For now, he is focusing on expanding the impact of Gaia. “My goal is for 10 percent of global oil production to reach Gaia certification,” Poritz said.
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
The Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World recently received a grant to launch an international project on Roman art.
Historians dig into ‘movable feast’ By Kristina Klara Contributing Writer
The Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World was recently awarded an $180,000 grant from the Getty Foundation to begin work on an international
project titled “The Arts of Rome’s Provinces.” The grant is intended to develop an “international conversation about art histor y,” said Natalie Kampen, visiting professor of Roman archaeology and art, who will lead the project with Susan
Alcock, professor of classics and director of the Joukowsky Institute. But Kampen said she and Alcock are “not teachers in any way.” They will be “facilitators” continued on page 4
UCS election competition heats up By Nicole Boucher Senior Staf f Writer
The candidates running in this year’s Undergraduate Council of Students and Undergraduate Finance Board elections next week will encounter stiff competition, with only the UCS treasurer and UFB at-large representatives facing uncontested races. Students will also vote on a referendum to adopt instant runoff procedures for future voting in next week’s election. Last spring, five leadership positions were uncontested, including chair of the UCS Admissions and Student Ser vices, Student Activities and Campus Life committees, The Herald reported at
the time. “I am glad there has been a lot of turnout,” said current UCS president Clay Wertheimer ’10, adding that high participation “is important to get the issues discussed and the student body engaged.” Kening Tan ’12, chair of the UCS Elections Board, said the board made a point of encouraging people to apply for the chair positions this year by increasing awareness that candidates do not need to be UCS members to run. “The campaign is interesting because there is not a lot of disagreement on issue platforms,” Wertheimer said. “What is at stake is the experiences candidates have and what they can bring.” A candidate must have a “firm
understanding of how the group functions and how it functions best,” said UCS Communications Chair Evan Holownia ’11, a candidate for the council’s vice president. “It is hard for someone to just come in and effectively run the board,” added UFB-UCS Liaison Salsa Ahmed ’11, a candidate for chair of the finance board. She said the most important task next year for UFB will be “maintaining projects” started this year. Students “well-versed” in the finance board’s policy will be best equipped to follow through with these initiatives, she said. Diane Mokoro ’11, current UCS continued on page 4
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Joukowsky grant brings Students vie for UCS and UFB positions researchers together continued from page 3
continued from page 3 who will bring together groups of professionals that may not have encountered each other otherwise, she said. Twenty people with terminal degrees will be chosen to be a part of the project, Kampen said. “There is a wide spectrum of people who could conceivably be involved in this.” She and Alcock will send invitations to experts in the discipline of art histor y and related fields — to scholars at universities, museums and professional organizations throughout the world — to apply to participate. Alcock, Kampen and a small international committee will choose the fellows. Because ar t histor y is studied differently in each part of the world, the project will aim to “figure out how these different kinds of art histories can benefit each other,” Kampen said. Local traditions will lend a new perspective to the subject, she added. “What we’re proposing is to do our project in two separate countries and in each country at several different sites,” Kampen said. She called the project a “movable feast”
because the fellows will study Roman art histor y and archaeology in both Greece and England. The foundation approached Kampen and Alcock several years ago and asked if they would form a project to internationalize ar t histor y and apply for the grant. “As a 1976 Ph.D. from Brown, I knew I wanted to bring the grant back to Brown to say thank you,” said Kampen, who is a professor of women’s studies and art history at Barnard College. She and Alcock planned a project that “nobody had ever done before,” Kampen said. Though she is excited for the work to begin, she said she is ner vous about organizing such a large project. Kampen said she has been asking the question, “Why is art produced in different parts of the Roman empire different?,” for her entire career. Now, with tools and insights that the other fellows will contribute, she said she hopes not only to “find answers” but also to “figure out interesting ways to ask questions.” Being able to work on the project is “one of these great opportunities that you never think you’ll get,” Kampen said.
vice president and a candidate for next year’s president, said that past “proven leadership” is the true mark of a good candidate. Tan said the elections board will strive to “encourage fairness” in the election this year, even as the use of Facebook, Twitter and other online sites for publicity is on the rise. As in years past, campaigning will be based on a points system designed to increase fairness by limiting how much a student can campaign. Problems with online promotion have already arisen this year. UCS presidential candidate Arthur Matuszewski ’11, a former editor-in-chief of Post- magazine, sent an open e-mail to over 500 students, faculty, administrators and other staff Tuesday. An anonymous reply sent to ever yone who received Matuszewski’s e-mail mocked many statements he made. Matuszewski brought this exchange to the election board’s attention, writing in an e-mail that even though the response was anonymous and possibly a form of “shadow insult,” it might fall under the board’s ban on negative campaigning. But board member Sarah Rutherford ’12 said that because he was not misquoted and
the information was therefore not “objectively false,” nothing could be done by the board under its rules. Matuszewski spoke about the intentions of his e-mail during community time at the council’s general body meeting Wednesday, saying it was a “genuine” attempt to acknowledge connections at Brown, despite the anonymous responder’s cynical reaction. In a speech filled with sensational language and expletives, he said UCS needed to explore “bolder” initiatives to improve connections rather than just bringing “bacon to the Ratty.” He said he did not intend to “demean UCS,” but to encourage “conversations about vision and expansion” at Brown. Wertheimer later said UCS actually discusses many large issues with the administration and the community. Last year, then-candidate Wertheimer lost 15 of his 100 campaigning points after a member of the elections board joined his Facebook campaign group and was appointed as a group administrator by someone other than Wertheimer, The Herald reported at the time. With six non-UCS members on the 10-person elections board this year, Tan said UCS has sought to increase the transparency of the election process by increasing community participation. Many candidates for both UCS and UFB also said transparency was a larger, fundamental goal. Most students know little about UFB’s true function at Brown, said vice-chair candidate Jason Lee ’12, adding that increasing “openness and transparency” would be one of his main aims next year. UFB Chair candidate Adam Kiki-Charles ’11 said the problem has more to do with accessibility to the board than transparency, and that UFB must ensure that student groups understand how to receive funding from the finance board. “UFB must also improve relationships” with faculty, UCS and the outer community, said vicechair candidate and current UFB secretary Tyler Rosenbaum ’11, adding that UFB has acted too “autonomous” in years past. Reed Frye ’11, a candidate for UCS vice president, said increasing the “community audience” will help hold UCS accountable for the
way it conducts its meetings. The elections board will host a debate at 7 p.m. Thursday in Salomon 001 to provide the larger Brown community with an opportunity “to come and hear students give their perspective on the issues,” Tan said, adding that she “highly encouraged” students to attend the debate to understand what the candidates stand for. Candidate statements are now posted on the UCS Web site. Wertheimer said the “vision of the candidates,” in addition to their levels of experience, will be important for guiding initiatives UCS is involved in next year. “I’m running mainly because I love Brown, and I want to have the opportunity to make as many improvements as I possibly can,” said Campus Life Chair Ben Farber ’12, who is running for UCS vice president. In other UCS news, the council also unanimously agreed Wednesday to include a referendum on next week’s ballot that, if passed by the student body, would amend its constitution to include instant runoff plans to be implemented in general elections beginning next year. The proposed changes state that “voters shall rank candidates by preference” when they vote. If no candidate receives a simple majority, the votes for the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes will be “redistributed based on the second choice of those ballots.” If needed, the process would be repeated until a winner of a simple majority can be declared. UCS already implemented these changes for internal council elections earlier this year. “This is the most uncontroversial thing we have done all semester,” Wertheimer said. UCS also discussed the University’s response to flood damage in Providence, which occurred over the week of spring break at Brown. The council agreed that volunteering in larger groups and fundraising during Spring Weekend will be key to supporting relief efforts. Colleen McDonald ’12, who has acted as a liaison between students and administrators on disaster relief, said they have been working on these initiatives and are attempting to identify regions that can most effectively use a large amount of volunteers.
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Media an important tool for prospective students continued from page 1 commentators offering everything from criticism to effusive praise. And as the University’s visibility has skyrocketed, pinning down Brown’s image amid media scrutiny and college admissions hype remains a challenge.
‘Fitting in at Brown’ “I am not very politically active or artsy, nor am I big into the party scene,” wrote one student on College Confidential. “Will I find kids with similar interests at Brown?” “Brown is really not about any one kid,” responded Jason Becker ’09 GS, who posts under the pseudonym
“modestmelody” on the site. Becker started posting voluntarily in 2005 after finding the site to be a good source of information as an incoming student. “I mostly speak from my experience or the experiences of people I continued on page 6
TWW welcomes admitted students of color By Sara Luxenberg Senior Staff Writer
About 120 minority students admitted to the class of 2014 arrived on campus Wednesday for this year’s Third World Welcome, a day before A Day on College Hill, which welcomes the rest of their potential classmates who applied regular decision. The two-day program, which aims to give prospective students of color a glimpse into campus life for minority students at Brown, began Wednesday and ends Thursday evening. But the program, which offers campus tours, visits to classes, panels and social events for minority students and their parents, is just one part of the University’s outreach to prospective students of color. This year, the University saw an increase of about 48 percent in applications from AfricanAmerican students, and of about 42 percent from Latino applicants, compared to an overall applicant increase of about 21 percent, The Herald reported in February. “We’re making every effort to be more creative and more persistent in our efforts to recruit minority students,” said Elizabeth Hart, associate director of the Office of Admission and director of minority recruitment. These methods include electronic newsletters, a blog written by the student minority recruitment interns, gatherings in regions with high minority student application rates and a new partnership with the college access program QuestBridge, which provides full scholarships to low-income high school students, Hart said. Admitted student Redab Alnifaidy took advantage of a regional meeting in Maryland for minority students during her application process. “I got to meet the dean of admissions there and that really got me interested in Brown,” she said. Hart also mentioned that current students called potential applicants and admitted students throughout the school year. “It’s been wonderful that so many students have helped us with that effort, and I think it means a lot to the prospective students to have that outreach from a Brown undergrad,” she said. The Office of Admission’s student minority recruitment interns have been very involved in the recruitment process throughout the year. “We’ve done a lot of call-outs to admitted students and prospective students, answering any questions they have,” said Christopher Belcher ’11, one of the interns. “I was able to go to Atlanta and speak to students” at a regional event, said intern Danielle Dunlap ’10. Belcher, Dunlap, Natasha Go ’10 and the office’s three new minority recruitment interns helped organize TWW.
“It’s a very intimate program,” Dunlap said. “I think the whole idea is to put a more personal face on an institution,” she added. Attending TWW helped Belcher solidify his decision to attend Brown, he said. “I’m from Hawaii, so coming from so far away, I really needed to find that home, that family atmosphere.” The program “has transformed completely” in the four years that Dunlap has been involved in organizing it, she said, pointing to the addition of a Minority Peer Counselor workshop, a panel on undergraduate research and a panel that discusses “life after Brown.” Hart also said the number and variety of classes students can attend during the two days have increased this year. Specialized tours for students interested in science or globalization have also been introduced, she said. A big difference between this year’s TWW and previous years’ is its timeline relative to ADOCH. TWW usually follows ADOCH, but this year is happening prior to the program for all admits for scheduling reasons, Go said. Two participants said they would have preferred TWW to come after ADOCH. “I’m Hispanic. I’m all for Latinos, Mexicans, whatever, but I don’t want to be seen as a minority,” said prospective student Eddie Diaz. “I’m not coming in as a Hispanic. I’m coming in as an admitted student.” “I’d rather see more of a united
campus, rather than just, ‘You’re the minority and we’re gonna single you out,’ ” said prospective student Samantha Alvarez. “I’d rather see the whole campus put together, and then show us the Latino groups within that.” Alnifaidy appreciated the outreach to minority students but wanted to see “the other side, how to integrate that into the rest of the community,” she said. At the same time, Alnifaidy said she appreciated the efforts of the program’s organizers. “I feel like they’ve done a lot for us,” she said. “I mean, that’s kind of an understatement.” Wednesday’s events included a welcome lunch, the MPC workshop, a welcome dinner with remarks from both President Ruth Simmons and Tricia Rose PhD’93, professor of Africana studies and the department’s chair, and a cultural show put on by student groups. Thursday’s events include various panels and end at 4 p.m., when ADOCH begins. The individuals involved in organizing TWW will see the results of their recruitment efforts in the coming days as admitted students make their decisions. “The numbers of applications we’ve gotten from minority applicants is way up, but the tricky thing is always matriculation,” Hart said. “I’m cautiously optimistic,” she added.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
news in brief
For those in laptop-free classes, back to pen and paper Last year, the students who took POLS 0400: “Introduction to International Politics” with Associate Professor of International Relations Nina Tannenwald had to leave their laptops at home. If they wanted to take notes, they had to do it the old-fashioned way, with pens and paper. Laptop use in class “has become a problem,” Tannenwald said. “It’s a very public announcement that you’re not paying attention in class.” Tannenwald added that students often multitask while taking notes on a computer. They shop, blog, go on Facebook and check their e-mail. “It just diminishes students’ engagement,” she said. Vasundhara Prasad ’12, who was a student in Tannenwald’s class, said she “didn’t mind the rule.” “It’s easier to write notes and draw arrows and connections on a piece of paper,” Prasad said. “After taking that class, I never bring my computer to class.” Associate Professor of History Seth Rockman has a similar policy. In lecture-based classes, he said, using a computer will not have such a harsh impact on others’ attention spans. However, in seminars, “laptop screens interfere with students’ ability to focus and collectively engage around a text,” he said. “I encourage students to single-task,” Rockman added. “Alums often say they wish they had savored moments in class a bit more, and I’m encouraging students to do just that.” Tannenwald said the laptop ban is not an ideal solution. Some students are more efficient at taking notes on a computer than by hand, but “the cost of this outweighs the benefits,” she said. Samuel Magaram ’12, another student in Tannenwald’s class, said he didn’t like the restriction on computer use. “It prevented me from keeping organized, detailed notes,” Magram wrote in a message to The Herald. Tannenwald added that, from her perspective, being able to turn off the Internet in Salomon 101 during class time would be more suitable. Unfortunately, Brown doesn’t have the capacity to do this, she explained. “We consider it rude to use a cell phone in class,” she said. “Maybe one day we’ll get to that point with laptops.” — Luisa Robledo
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Former world leaders play prognosticators at Watson event By Sofia Castello Contributing Writer
On Wednesday night, a panel of three former world leaders confronted a challenging task — “to present in 10 minutes what will happen to the world,” in the words of panelist Romano Prodi, former Italian prime minister and professor-at-large at the Watson Institute for International Studies. The forum “The World in 2030: Tomorrow’s Scenarios, Today’s Responsibilities” featured Prodi; Ricardo Lagos, former president of Chile and professor-at-large at the Watson Institute; and Alfred Gusenbauer, former chancellor of Austria and a visiting professor at the Watson Institute. The panelists — whom Michael Kennedy, director of the Watson Institute, introduced as the “awesome threesome” — tackled
a series of divergent subjects with a focus on trends of globalization before a large and diverse audience in MacMillan 117. The topics the speakers discussed included immigration, the need for reformed international institutions, the possibility of an international currency and the current state of the world economy. The three world leaders built on and refuted each other’s points between shared chuckles. They frequently compared the current state of global affairs to the World War II era. “I’m enthusiastic about dealing with these challenges, because I think it’s true that we have to create a new world today. The only difference with 1945 is that we want to create this world without a world war,” Gusenbauer said. “A new major war would lead to the extermination of mankind.”
“It is so much easier to draft the charter of the United Nations,” Lagos said, “when you have no United Nations at all.” “How are we going to create a new world for these new scenarios when you already have an existing world?” he asked, arguing that the reformation of institutions will be a difficult challenge. “I think the solution for the world is the Europeanization of the world,” Gusenbauer said, because the European Union promotes a smaller-scale model of open trade, free movement of people and financial support for member states. The speakers also addressed concerns related to sustainability during the forum. “Today we worry about emissions. Tomorrow we will worry about how much water is available for human beings in the planet,” Lagos said. “Sometimes, or very often, it’s not important to have an agreement on a topic globally,” Gusenbauer said,
“because you might not be able to reach it. Sometimes it’s more important to start processes that lead to a certain change.” “We hoped for world peace every year, for 40 years,” Prodi said. “You have to find an agreement for the Middle East in a short time, because otherwise this will bring you unbearable consequences.” “Now, we can see most of the elements that are going to shape the future. You could say, even, that the future is now,” Lagos said. But there are always “unforeseen” events, he said, referring to the economic crisis. “We are not out of the economic crisis … and the optimism that is dispersing now is too much,” Prodi said. “In 10 years, we can have two billion new consumers. This is the only way out without inflation or without a war.” With careful gestures, Prodi outlined economic and demographic trends to illustrate points including
China’s increased prominence and the role of immigration. “Five percent of the total population will migrate from one country to another,” Prodi said. “No kids, no immigration, no future,” Gusenbauer said. Following a question posed at the event’s end by Begum Ersan ’13 on the cultural conflicts produced by immigration, Gusenbauer said that “integration is a very, very challenging issue, especially with populations that, at least for a certain time, are not accustomed to migration.” Kumud Ghimire ’13 considered the panelists’ treatment of immigration “very biased” and based on a “Western notion of the effects of migration.” The three speakers and Kennedy emphasized the importance of universities in this process of change. “We can’t simply declare the future unknowable and rest comfortable in tradition, especially in a university,” Kennedy said.
Fielding questions, quelling storms continued from page 5 know,” said Becker, who has served as a tour guide, a member of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education and a part of the College Curriculum Council. Becker aims to “dispel misinformation” on issues like Brown’s political atmosphere, its ranking in the U.S. News and World Report — the lowest in the Ivy League — its financial aid program and the rigor of the New Curriculum. But the frequency of critical questions about Brown’s academics has diminished since he started posting, Becker said.
Prospective students turn to media coverage of Brown, including The Herald, as important sources of information about the school, Becker said. Becker did “damage control” after the New York Times published an essay by a Brown student who wrote that he “nonchalantly signed up to take second-semester organic chemistry.” The essay led some high school students to believe Brown was not serious about science, a perception that may also be due to the small size of Brown’s graduate programs in the sciences, Becker said. While Becker focuses on giving
people an accurate picture of the University, he emphasizes the importance of making sure Brown is the right fit. “One of the most powerful things to tell people is that Brown might not be the right place for you,” Becker said. “But if this is what they’re looking for, we need to help students figure out that they don’t want to go to those other places even before the application process begins.” Damage control The University has received negative press attention for various incidents in recent years, including the decision to rename Columbus Day to Fall Weekend in its academic calendar, the pie launched at writer Thomas Friedman during a 2008 lecture and President Ruth Simmons’ position on Goldman Sachs’ board of directors. But echoes of media coverage from the 2005 Sex Power God party — which attracted the ire of Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly — still resonate. The event, a Queer Alliance party then held in Sayles Hall, ignited a controversy over partying at Brown. In a video made by O’Reilly Factor producer Jesse Waters, barely-clothed students are seen gyrating in a room ringed by portraits of University presidents. Calling the party “pure debauchery” in an on-air segment, Waters — who purchased a ticket to the dance for $80 online — described students’ drug use and sexual profligacy. Brown’s response largely centered on “risk management and harm control” rather than direct engagement with the media, according to Queer Alliance chair Aida Manduley ’11. Immediately following the event, the Queer Alliance was placed on probation. Instead of having a spring dance that year, the alliance launched a “sexual diversity campaign” and undertook a “big revision process of the continued on page 8
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“People get into relationships one way or another.” — Sofia Pellon ’10
Most undergrads fly solo, poll shows By Jessica Liss Staff Writer
The majority of undergraduate students say they are single and about one-third report they are in an exclusive relationship, according to a recent Herald poll. The poll found that 72.3 percent of first-years are single and 21.7 percent are in exclusive relationships, compared to the rest of the student body, of which 54.9 percent is single and 37.7 percent is in exclusive relationships. Students generally said they were not surprised that the numbers reveal differences between freshmen and older students on campus. It is natural that people enter into relationships over time, said Kristina Harding ’11. “I’m a senior and I’ve been noticing recently a lot of the people I’m living with are coupled up,” said Sofia Pellon ’10. This trend is affected by the idea that “freshman year there is this whole ‘I don’t want to be tied down’ thing,” said Gabe Schwartz ’13, finance director of Queer Alliance and co-director of the Queer Political Action Committee. “Most people like to think of their four years at Brown as an experiment to explore, but I feel like people get into relationships because they have this need for companionship,” said Cherilyn Tran ’11. But though Brown upperclassmen are more likely to find a steady partner than freshmen, “the committed relationships are few and far between,” said Michele Baer ’10. The campus appears divided — “there are two groups: one hooks up and the others are in serious relationships,” said David Chanin ’12. Baer agreed. “Either I’ve seen people in non-committal non-exclusive friends-with-benefits types of situations, or couples that are really in it for the long term,” she said. Students also mentioned the lack of a dating culture on campus. “Sometimes when I tell my friends I’m going on a date, they say I’m the only one who does that,” Pellon said. Yet students have various definitions of dating. “I see a lot of relationships where people don’t put a
What is your current relationship status? Don’t know/no Other 1.5% answer Engaged or
1.7%
In an nonexclusive relationship
married
0.4%
3.4%
In an exclusive relationship
33.6%
Single
59.4%
Gili Kliger / Herald
According to the Herald poll administered last month, about threequarters of Brown freshmen are single, whereas upperclassmen are more evenly divided between singles and those in relationships.
name on it, people don’t seem to do a boyfriend-girlfriend thing,” Kelly Eng ’11. “I think people are really uncomfortable with labels generally.” A recent study at Michigan State University and Wayne State University found that 36 percent of students asked considered themselves in a “friends with benefits” relationship, a statistic the majority of students said also applied to Brown. Referring to these casual sexual relationships, “especially for freshman, there is a big push for being sex-repressed for a long time and then having that lifted,” Schwartz said. But the Herald poll found that only 3.4 percent of surveyed students said they were in non-exclusive relationships. Students, including both Eng and Tran, said this number was significantly lower than they would have predicted. In comparison with the number of students in exclusive relationships,
Thursday, April 15, 2010
“I would have assumed that more people were dating more than just being with one specific person,” Harding said. Often, “saying you are in an open relationship has connotations, just on a societal level, as being more promiscuous and lacking the ability to commit,” Schwartz said. Ultimately, though students have different ways of classifying it, “people get into relationships one way or another,” Pellon 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. For the sample of just freshmen, the margin of error is 6.8 percent. For the sample of non-freshmen, the margin of error is 4.0 percent.
news in brief
Prof’s exhibit examines effects of climate change on New England An interactive exhibit created by a Brown professor will travel New England over the next five years. “Seasons of Change: Global Warming in our Backyard” tells the story of global warming in New England, describing how climate change may affect New England traditions such as lobster fishing and maple syrup collecting. It has been in the EcoTarium, a private science museum located in Worcester, Mass., since January. Steven Hamburg, associate professor of environmental studies, is the scientist who initiated the project, he said. Hamburg, who has served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading international body tasked with reviewing scientific research on climate change, said he has been fascinated by translating the global picture to local terms since the 1990s. “We wrote one of the first local impact studies (on) seasons of change in New Hampshire,” Hamburg said. Years later, Hamburg led the creation of a group of scientists to document the story of global warming in New England and received a $1.74 million grant from the National Science Foundation for the project, he said. The exhibit’s purpose, according to Hamburg, is not necessarily for people “to do something right tomorrow” but for people to “realize the scale of the problem.” “When things are happening slowly, it is easy to ignore it,” he said. “This year, the duration of ice on New Hampshire lakes is two weeks less than the least amount seen in 45 years,” he said. Hamburg said he hopes this exhibit will help viewers differentiate between the weather conditions and the overall climate trend, making the issue real and bringing it close to home. According to Alex Goldowsky, the EcoTarium’s director of programs and exhibits, the exhibit has attracted mostly young families with children. Goldowsky, who is also an adviser for the project, said he thinks the exhibit is truly unique in its ability to blend cutting-edge technology and an engaging method of presentation. At the end of the exhibit, participants are invited to write their thoughts on comment cards. “Even though there is a small number of skeptical comments,” Goldowsky said, “the majority of comments written are very thoughtful, and the conversations started here are extremely engaging.” — Zung Nguyen Vu
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Branding Brown
When it comes to appearances, what can Brown do for you? continued from page 6 dance and dance policies,” Manduley said. Sex Power God occurred again in 2006 with notable changes, including stricter admission policies, a list of dance guidelines given to partygoers and a new venue, Alumnae Hall. The dance has occurred yearly ever since. Party life at Brown is also an issue during Spring Weekend, when many prospective students and their families visit the University. Over 1,000 people per day have visited on the Thursday and Friday before the notoriously raucous weekend, a time that sometimes overlaps with high school spring vacations, according to Christiana Stephenson ’11, tours co-coordinator for the Bruin Club and The Herald’s alumni relations director. Diverting tours to bypass Wriston Quadrangle, the center of the University’s Greek life, during the days preceding Spring Weekend is a longstanding practice that will also be in effect this year, said Bryan Smith ’10, tours co-coordinator. Loud noise and the large number of students on Wriston make bringing tours through the area difficult, according to Stephenson, who emphasized that the goal of the tour is to present an accurate view of Brown. “Is Spring Weekend really what life at Brown is like? Probably not,” Stephenson said. Intellectual diversity A 2006 article by Herald Opinions Columnist Sean Quigley ’10 in the Brown Spectator, Brown’s publication for conservative and libertarian views, called the post-O’Reilly iteration of the party “an abomination, whose justification is an affront to logical reasoning, let alone spiritual well-being.”
In recent years, conservative students and alumni have vocalized criticism of Brown as a particularly left-leaning institution. Stephen Beale ’04, who started the Spectator in fall 2002, formed the Foundation for Intellectual Diversity after encountering difficulty funding the Spectator as a student organization. A non-profit dedicated to promoting “underrepresented ideas, beliefs and perspectives” at Brown, the foundation provides money and assistance to conservative and religious student groups, accwording to its Web site. “The most important kind of diversity on college campuses is intellectual diversity and so when you’re talking about other forms of diversity — racial diversity, ethnic diversity, sexual diversity — Brown may do very well,” Beale said. “But when you talk about intellectual diversity, that is something that Brown is very much lacking in.” One “encouraging development,” according to Beale, is the Kaleidoscope Lecture Fund, which Beale said was started after members of the foundation discussed a perceived lack of diversity in campus speakers with President Ruth Simmons. The fund is used to bring speakers that “in the stereotypical view are seen as being ‘not Brown,’ ” said Assistant to the President Hannelore RodriguezFarrar ’87 MA’90 PhD’09. Started in 2005, the fund was originally constituted with $100,000 of the president’s discretionary funds. Past Kaleidoscope speakers include Sally Winn, then vice president of Feminists for Life of America; Peter Singer, a Princeton professor who is vocal on animal rights issues; and diplomats John Bolton and Richard Holbrooke ’62. “What we need to do is fulfill our mission,” Rodriguez-Farrar said. “Part of that mission is intellectual
Justin Coleman / Herald
Students lounge on the Main Green during Spring Weekend 2009.
diversity.” In Deo Speramus Brown’s motto, In Deo Speramus, means “In God We Hope.” But in recent years, the school has not been known for having an especially religious student body. Brown’s religious ties date to its 1764 start, and until Henry Wriston — who assumed the presidency in 1937 — all presidents were ordained Baptist ministers. But Brown was the first in the nation to admit students without regard to religious identification, according to the University’s Web site. According to University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson, the demographics of Brown’s incoming student body mirror its early affiliation with organized religion. “In fact, three-quarters of you walking in the door, if we ask you about your religious backgrounds, give us proper nouns,” Cooper Nelson said, referring to an online religious affiliation survey taken by approximately 95 percent of incoming students. About 62 percent of students receive some form of communication from a religious group on campus, according to Cooper Nelson. “Brown’s range of religious identities is really interesting,” Cooper Nelson said. “Part of my intrigue is for why when you look at a Brown Web page or you look at a Brown viewbook and don’t see anything (about religion).” Brown’s contemporary lack of emphasis on religion traces to efforts to transform the school from a regional institution to a national research university in the late 1950s and early 1960s, according to Cooper Nelson. “Religion was being equated, both in the academy and the social context of the U.S., with a less intellectual brand,” Cooper Nelson said. “Brown wanted to put forward a picture of itself as a really hard-boiled, intellectual place and so it began to airbrush religion out of the public face of the institution.” Kevin Roose ’09.5, who wrote “The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University” about a semester at Liberty University, struggled with how to depict religious life at Brown “without resorting to stereotypes,” he said. Though Roose acknowledges that Brown may seem libertine by the conservative Christian values of Liberty — namely, a code of conduct
that prohibits smoking, drinking, cursing and dancing — no institution is a monolith. “I think there is a sense on campus that maybe students aren’t as religiously-minded here,” said Mindy Phillips ’10, a member of the Shepherd Team, the leadership board of College Hill for Christ. While there are “pockets of animosity towards Christianity on campus,” Phillips cautioned that the perception that Brown students are not tolerant of religion is “refuted at the individual level,” as many students are willing to talk to members of College Hill for Christ about their religious beliefs. For those who seek to practice their faith on campus, religious communities are vibrant and available, Phillips said. New takes, New Curriculum For Prerna Ramachandra ’14, what drew her to Brown is simple — the New Curriculum. Ramachandra, who hails from New Delhi, India, hopes to double-concentrate in computer science and English literature. Brown was the only university that would give her the flexibility she sought to pursue both, which was “not offered anywhere else, even in my own country,” she said. “The Open Curriculum is resonating with this generation of students in a new and powerful way,” Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said. Yet Brown’s curriculum, with its absence of pluses and minuses in grading, emphasis on personal choice and option for students to take classes Satisfactory/No Credit, has caused some to draw a link between a lack of requirements and a lack of rigor. Questions about the curriculum’s rigor — leveled by what she calls “open curriculum skeptics” — do come up on campus tours, according to Stephenson. The best answer to these questions, which usually come from parents, is to provide information “grounded in your own experience,” Stephenson said. “I tell people that the average Brown student’s choices actually end up looking like they followed distribution requirements.” But the stereotype has two sides. Skeptics may draw a link between the New Curriculum’s openness and lower academic standards. For courses taken with for a grade in the 2008-09 academic year, over half of students — 53 percent — re-
ceived an A. Only 4 percent of grades were Cs. Michael Goldberger, former director of the Office of Admission, acknowledged that the New Curriculum was of concern to parents. The University will “try to convey the sense of excitement and engagement about learning — try not to be defensive, because this is what makes Brown great,” he said. “It’s not something we have to apologize for. The key was not being apologetic, and just saying ‘No, this is our curriculum, and it’s fabulous.’ ” The good news with the bad Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations Marisa Quinn is the University’s spokesperson. Since taking the job in 2008, Quinn has steered Brown’s public relations through — most recently — layoffs of 60 non-teaching employees and Simmons’ decision to leave the Goldman Sachs board. She was reluctant to talk about specific instances of negative press or student misconduct. “We have a lot of good news,” Quinn said. “There’s certainly a share of difficult and challenging news to communicate, some of which is of interest to the media and some which is really just community-wide.” The goal is to provide “clear, concise, factual information” to dispel rumor and give people a standard set of facts as a story evolves. Privacy is a top consideration when dealing with issues regarding students, faculty and other University personnel, she said. But not all news is controversial. Director of News and Communications Sarah Kidwell largely works to provide the media and others outside the University with information about research at Brown. Kidwell often connects interested parties to faculty and graduate students making breakthroughs in their fields. “We get calls from the media all the time about the kind of research we’re involved in,” she said. In cases related to Brown’s internal governance, like faculty decisions or student discipline issues, Quinn stresses “the thoughtful, civilized process” guiding the University’s actions. “We always have processes and procedures here for dealing with any particular event or instance, and we think we are very well served by those,” Quinn said.
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C ampus N EWS
Quiz Bowl team proves they have all the answers By Sarah Julian Staf f Writer
Which town was successfully defended for 217 days by Rober t Baden Powell and his British forces? If you answered Mafeking — or have any idea where Mafeking is — the Quiz Bowl team could use your help. Last weekend this group of intrepid competitors traveled to the 2010 National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, answering trivia questions about everything from physics to philosophy to pop culture. Ian Eppler ’13, Ben Cohen ’13 and Guy Tabachnick ’13 placed first out of 32 teams in Division II. Jerry Vinokurov GS, Daniel Klein GS and Aaron Rosenberg ’11 placed seventh in Division I. “We were pretty dominant throughout the tournament,” Tabachnick said. After going down to the other main contender, a team from Clemson University, in the first round, Tabachnick and his teammates came back to beat Clemson twice and gain the championship. At the tournament, each team of up to four members participates in seven preliminary round robins, and their results determine playoff brackets. In each round, a moderator reads “toss up” questions, which
have multiple clues read in order of decreasing difficulty. There is no talking among teammates, and the team to answer correctly first wins. The winner of this “toss up” then receives three bonus questions, and the entire team is allowed to collaborate on them. Vinokurov, who said he acts as the unofficial Quiz Bowl president, said the freshman team is very talented. “I don’t want to oversell it too much,” he said, “but I think that’s a possible national champ in two or three years.” Vinokurov said his own performance in Division I was not everything he had hoped. “It was kind of a rough time for us,” he said. “We usually do better than that.” But this was in part because of the types of questions, he said. There are two separate Quiz Bowl national championships, and last weekend’s included a large portion of pop culture and sports questions. “That kind of damaged us,” Vinokurov said. But the team expects to fare better in the upcoming tournament, which Vinokurov called “more academic.” Brown has placed second at this tournament for the past three years, each time losing only to the University of Chicago. Vinokurov said this makes for some histor y. “I would say we’re
pretty big rivals. It’s a friendly rivalry but we view them, and I think they probably view us, as their biggest competitors,” he said. As with any competitive activity, the key to Quiz Bowl success is practice. The team members practice Mondays and Wednesdays where they face each other in practice rounds. The topics of sample questions include Martin van Buren, the Khyber Pass, Jane Eyre and bananas. According to Vinokurov, competitors try to be knowledgeable in a number of fields. “My background is physics and math, but those are not my only areas,” he said. Vinokurov also said many of the best teams have specialists. “It’s a team game. It’s not about being a successful player,” he said. “It’s about being a successful team.” Eppler said there are many “oneman teams” that rely on a single star player, but that they often do not place as well. Vinokurov, who ser ves as the team’s leader, will graduate in May with a doctorate in physics. “He’s been like a mentor to us, I suppose,” Eppler said. “He’s one of the all-time greats. He helped us develop as teammates and players.” According to Tabachnick, Vinokurov’s graduation “will definitely have an impact.”
G ettin ’ Q ui z z y
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
Quiz bowls duked it out in the Science Center Wednesday night.
“He’s sort of run the team as a benevolent dictatorship so we’ll sort of be missing that,” Tabachnick said. “He’s a very, very good player,” he said. “We probably won’t be as good as we are this year.” Vinokurov has high hopes for
his teammates after he leaves. “I want to see this team prosper,” he said. “I’m glad that people who care about it are going to take it over.” “Assuming I’m not playing against them, I want this team to succeed and do well and bring home many national titles,” he said.
Metro The Brown Daily Herald
“I suspect that at bars it will start as Zip-It and wind up as Tip-It.” — Abe Nathanson, on a prospective game invention Thursday, April 15, 2010 | Page 10
Local inventor goes Banana-grams Cupcakes and snuggles By Crys Guerra Contributing Writer
Age-neutral, board-free and unscored; fast-paced, portable and creative: These are just some of the words used to describe Bananagrams, a word game invented by Pawtucket native Abe Nathanson. Nathanson, whose game won Game of the Year at the Toy of The Year Awards in 2009, spoke Saturday at Books on the Square, where he was praised as a “homegrown banana” by Andrea Bien, an employee. Bien decided last August to place the Wayland Square bookstore’s first order for Bananagrams. The small store has since sold 140 games and become a proud Bananagram retailer. “That’s pretty good in a little bookstore,” Bien said. “We don’t sell 140 of anything.” A crowd of 15 people sat around Nathanson as he explained how the inspiration for Bananagrams came after a two-hour-long Scrabble game with his grandson three or four years ago. Frustrated with the length of time it took to play the game, Nathanson said “we need an anagram
so fast it will drive you bananas.” “After I said the words,” he said, “they all rolled together and then became a family project.” The game consists of 144 letter tiles, which the players combine to form individual crosswords. Letters are continuously added to each player’s pile until the tiles run out. At this point, the first player to create a word-grid using all of their letters wins. Although Nathanson has been making toys for his family his whole life, he never marketed them, he said. “I do things when the time is right to do them,” he said. The Bananagrams company is based in Rhode Island, although the game itself is produced overseas. Located at 845 Allens Ave. in Providence, Nathanson said he has tried to keep the business as local as possible. “We tried having them made in Providence, but when we priced it out, the game would have to sell for $70 or $80 dollars,” Nathanson said. Since Bananagrams was first released, Nathanson has created and sold two other word games: Appleletters, which is like Bananagrams but involves scoring, and
Pairs of Pears, a simpler letter game for younger players. At just over 80 years old, Nathanson has not lost his passion for games, especially those involving words. “Letters become words, words become sentences and sentences become knowledge,” Nathanson says. He has continued to invent games and is planning on releasing two new words games soon: Oh Spell and Zip-It. His style of gamemaking — boardless, scoreless, fast and fun — has not changed, he said. Zip-It, Nathanson said, was developed to be played within an eight-square-inch area and “is almost as fast as rock, paper, scissors.” It involves 24 six-sided cubes and plays like a sped up version of Bananagrams, with players racing each other to complete ten word-grids first. The simplicity and rapidity of Zip-It, says Nathanson, would make it a great drinking game for bars. “I suspect that at bars it will start as Zip-It and wind up as TipIt,” Nathanson said. continued on page 11
on Wickenden Street
By Avery Houser Contributing writer
The frequenter of chic East Side eateries cannot help but be haunted by the ghost of the Blue Elephant — former resident of 312 Wickenden St. — upon entering the building’s new pristine foyer. But the Duck and Bunny, which opened in February, soon coaxes nostalgic memories out of mind.
REVIEW The attention to detail is superb: the petite cupcakes, blue velvet curtains and menus on clipboards align to create a cozy aesthetic. The Web site proclaims the Duck and Bunny to be a snugger y: “A cosy and comfortable place.” The toasty feel was calculated by husband and wife team Daniel and Jessica Becker. The couple actively sought to create a space where they would want to spend time, Daniel said. They find many cafes to be pretentious, and they feel people should be able to have a drink outside of a nightclub or bar setting. Daniel said it is im-
portant that the snuggery not be thought of as a cafe, a tearoom, a bar or a restaurant. While the couple treats the culinar y aspects of the snugger y with the utmost attention, the overall experience is the primary focus. The culinary element is just one part of creating a superlative snuggery experience. Being at the Duck and Bunny for them is about being comfortable and being able to do what you want, when you want. Some people come for dinner, some come to sit and work for hours on end. They love the diversity of their customers’ needs, and aim to please everybody, they said. It has been a challenge to break free from the “restaurant” definition, Jessica said. The menu, the Beckers’ own creation, is a medley of old personal recipes, six months of watching the Food Network and modifications by their chef, a Johnson and Wales graduate. The couple has made an effort to be creative and push culinary boundaries. They are particularly continued on page 11
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“We were so happy when we got the help.”— Ece Gamsiz, post-doctoral research associate, on Brown’s flooding assistance
U. reaches out to flood victims New Duck and Bunny continued from page 1 Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration, Maione said. Maione said that United Way is attempting to use the money raised to try to work with smaller agencies which will then communicate with individuals in order to understand the “day-by-day needs that are not being met” for Rhode Island citizens. This was one of the main reasons the University chose to donate to United Way in particular, said Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations. “We have a long-standing relationship with United Way,” Quinn said. “What we really liked about this fund is that funds are being provided directly to those in need, being given to members of the community.” Administrators communicated with the governor’s office, elected officials and organizations such as Serve Rhode Island to emphasize that it stood “ready, willing and able” to assist in aiding individuals, Quinn said. United Way was able to organize its fundraising efforts swiftly in the wake of the flood, raising a total of $590,000 as of April 7, Maione said. The organization’s existing emergency hotline and relationships with corporate partners enabled it to mobilize an immediate response, he said. Closer to home The University also made a concerted effort to organize quickly in providing flood relief to members of the Brown community. “We know that cash is really important in addressing these immediate needs,” she said. Among the services the University offers are Employee Emergency
Bananagrams creator looks to the future continued from page 10 His latest creation is based on the traditional card game “Oh Hell.” Nathanson’s version, Oh Spell, is a word-based card game that substitutes font patterns for suits. “I don’t know why no one has thought of this before,” Nathanson said. “With numbers you are limited, but with words, creation is infinite.” Bananagrams breaks the mold of most word games, which Nathanson described as “fixed.” Yet he is humble about his creation. The concept “has been around for 200 years,” Nathanson said. “I just gave it a spin that would attract young people.”
Grants. These grants — offering up to $5000 each — come from a fund devoted to helping employees “recover financially from a loss due to natural emergencies, accidents, catastrophes, deaths, or illnesses,” according to a April 2 memo from Vice President for Human Resources Karen Davis. As of April 12, seven grant requests had been approved, said Beth Gentry, assistant vice president for financial and administrative services. The University shortened the application to require less financial information — since such records may have been damaged in the flood — and “relaxed some of the normal grant procedures,” Gentry said. “We are trying to be sensitive to the issues that are out there,” she said. More grant requests are expected, although Gentry is not sure of the exact number. “We can get money to folks faster than the government,” Davis added. She said though Brown may not be able to give as much money to individuals as the government, Employee Emergency Grants are a good starting place for recovery. “We were so happy when we got the help, and now everything is back to normal,” said Ece Gamsiz, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry who lives in an apartment complex in Warwick with her fiance, Alper Uzun, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Bio Med Pediatrics. Gamsiz and Uzun, who have lived in their apartment only two months, were told by police on March 30 that they could not stay in the building due to flooding. Not until April 10 was the couple allowed to return home. Within days of applying for an Employee Emergency Grant, Gam-
siz and Uzun received a check from the University. Both said they are extremely grateful for the support provided in such a difficult time. “It’s nice to be a part of this community. They really saved our lives those last few days,” said Gamsiz. Uzun’s advisor, Professor of Pediatrics James Padbury, and Gamsiz’s advisor, Assistant Professor of Biology Eric Morrow, also lent support during the disaster and encouraged Gamsiz and Uzun to apply for the grant. “I think the Brown support is extremely important,” said Uzun. ‘Anxious for opportunities’ The flood brought more attention to University support and relief programs available to employees, Davis said. “Even without this kind of historic event, we do have a lot to offer,” she said. Additional resources available to University employees affected by the flood include employee loans, the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program and benefits programs, Davis listed in her memo. The University is working on a number of initiatives to provide not only immediate relief in the wake of this particular disaster, but also to address the long-term effects that events such as the flood may produce, Quinn noted. As an example, she suggested research projects looking at longerterm community mapping and water testing, and said it is important to understand “the impact of this flood and help the state consider ways to ensure this doesn’t happen again.” “In times of need, whether ... in Rhode Island or halfway across the globe, the students, faculty and staff at Brown are always anxious for opportunities to provide support,” Quinn said.
pushes culinary bounds continued from page 10 disappointed with the cupcake scene in New York, which they called all show without the quality to back it up. They’ve made an enormous effort to produce interesting, high quality cupcakes here in Providence. All of the items on the menu are offered all day. Many of them are named after children of the Beckers’ friends. The couple has also provided drink pairings. While some items are paired with wines, Jessica explained that the mushroom dish “the Wee Baby Joseph needs to be paired with a Guinness.” Daniel’s current favorite menu item is the “T.S. Geller,” a heaping roast beef sandwich ser ved in a rye crepe. The sandwich is a spectacle, a monstrosity of meat — enough to feed one person for a few days. Jessica is partial to the “Miss Harriot,” a brie, pear and scallion sandwich. She pointed out the menu’s other highlights: the bacon-wrapped dates, and the PB and B — a peanut butter and banana sandwich drizzled with honey, ser ved on Por tuguese sweet bread. If you choose to get the “Full Elvis,” they’ll add a few strips of bacon. The success of the menu is dependent on both the Beckers’ attention to detail and the variety of interesting local vendors they have chosen. The coffee is from New Har vest Coffee Roasters, the bread from Olga’s Cup and Saucer, cheese from Shy Brothers Farm in Massachusetts. They feel that the Providence
food scene has embraced them heartily and love the sense of community they have found there. Daniel, who worked in the New York bar and restaurant world prior to starting the Duck and Bunny said the Providence environment is far more friendly and less competitive. The house is perfect for their snuggery’s feel — it was important to Jessica not to be in a storefront, she explained. Her background is in interior design, so she had a great time cultivating the snuggery’s aesthetic. It is broken up into three rooms: a foyer, painted deep blue, with a white chandelier and blue velvet curtains; a bar, with white-tiled walls, zebra-print stools and unmarked beer taps; and a dining room with a homey dining set up and “altered masterpieces.” The art in the dining room includes a Van Gogh self-portrait morphed into a bunny and Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” as a duck, commissioned from a student at the Rhode Island School of Design. The music varies from the Beatles to the Gorillaz, but the eclectic environment suits any music. The Beckers met on Fire Island, N.Y. through mutual friends a few years ago. On a recent visit to Providence to visit Daniel’s family, he took her on a walk down Benefit Street. Seeing the colonial houses, she decided she could call Providence home. The decision seems to be sound, and business is booming in the first two months. They have built the paradise they envisioned.
SportsThursday The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 15, 2010 | Page 12
rugby
No. 1 w. ruggers thrive against the odds By Tory Elmore Sports Staff Writer
Olivia Means / Herald
Kristie Chin ’11 pitched 6 2/3 strong innings during Wednesday’s doubleheader. The hurler gave up two earned runs and nine hits.
softball
Softball splits against Providence College By Ashley McDonnell Sports Staff Writer
The softball team (14-15, 2-6 Ivy) run-ruled Providence College (1320) Wednesday after only five innings, but the Bears were shut out in the second game and lost, 4-0. Brown 11, PC 3 Providence College started the game off aggressively on offense, scoring one run in the top of the first, but the Bears responded with two runs of their own. Leadoff hitter Katie Rothamel ’10 hit a double and then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from right fielder Andrea Browne ’10. Both first baseman Kate Strobel ’12 and third baseman Stephanie Thompson ’13 were hit by pitches, loading the bases. Catcher Amanda Asay ’10 then hit a single, but Rothamel was thrown out at home plate. With the bases loaded, designated hitter Alyssa Caplan ’13 hit a double for two RBI, giving Brown a 2-1 lead. “It was the kind of pitcher we easily adjusted to,” Asay said. “And defensively we were steady as well.” PC tied up the game with another run in the second. But the Bears responded quickly and started the second with a double from pitcher Kristie Chin ’11, who then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from left fielder Sandra Mastrangelo ’12. Second baseman and Herald Sports Staff Writer Erika Mueller ’13 was hit by a pitch and then advanced to second when Rothamel hit a single that brought home Chin. Browne hit a single to left field to load the bases. With two outs and the bases loaded, PC’s pitcher, Danielle Bertolette, walked two Bears, allowing Brown to score two more runs and extend its lead, 5-2. Bertolette was relieved by Kathryn Sullivan. “We were the most focused for a Brown team since I’ve been here,” said Head Coach DeeDee EnabenterOmidiji. “Everyone looked good in batting practice.” The Friars only managed to score one more run the entire game and could not stop Brown’s offense. In the fourth inning, Thompson hit a double, and then Strobel hit a home
run, making the score 7-3. A grand slam from Asay in the bottom of the fifth led to Brown’s resounding victory and ended the game under the mercy rule. “It’s a nice way to end the game,” Asay said. PC 4, Brown 0 In the second game, the Friars managed to completely shut down the Bears, both offensively and defensively. Neither team scored in the first four innings. The game was a pitcher’s duel between Liz DiMascio ’13 and the Friars’ Corinne Clauss. “Through the first four innings, it was going back and forth,” EnabenterOmidiji said. “But then the defense started falling apart, and the offense feels the pressure.” The team was unable to score due to this pressure, according to Enabenter-Omidiji. The defensive trouble started in the fifth. With two outs, DiMascio gave up a walk. Jen Abrams hit the ball right to Rothamel at shortstop, but Rothamel bobbled the ball and was unable to make the play at second. Frazzled, DiMascio hit the next batter with a pitch. With the bases loaded, Justine Stratton hit a fly ball that Rothamel, Mastrangelo, and center fielder Avery Silverstein ’13 all ran towards and allowed to drop between them. “We didn’t move our feet the way we needed to,” Enabenter-Omidiji said. “We need to be more aggressive in the outfield. Even if you just give an effort, your pitcher will be energized.” PC continued to capitalize on Brown’s errors in the sixth inning. After the Friars hit a double and a single, Strobel could not field a ground ball that went right to first base, allowing the runner on third to score and the runner on second to advance. The runner on first stole second but advanced to third on an overthrown ball from Asay to second base. The runner that had been on third also scored. “In the beginning of the season, we played better in the second game,” Asay said. “But now, we’re hesitant. We need to somehow find that aggression from the beginning of the season.”
The coaches are unpaid, the funds raised by the team. Many of the athletes have never played the sport before. Is this Little League, you ask? No, it’s not. It’s the No. 1-ranked women’s rugby program in the nation. The Brown women’s rugby team is arguably the most successful team on campus — and perhaps the most successful of its kind in the country this year — though it receives no school funding, has no ability to recruit and lacks a significant following among Brown students. As the team heads to Orlando for the opening round of Nationals this week, a lack of ESPN coverage and Vitamin Water sponsorships won’t faze the Bears. They’re determined to come home with the Division I national title, regardless of who takes notice. This determination is only one part of what makes the women’s rugby program — almost 35 years in the making — so successful. Head Coach and the Swearer Center’s
Director of Faculty Engagement Kerri Heffernan said she believes that Brown’s high standards for academic excellence in its students contribute largely to the triumphs of her team. “Rugby is a smart sport,” she wrote in an e-mail to the Herald. “You have to think and project — it’s about engineering space and using that space effectively. We have been able to find the right combination of athlete and student.” Many of the players were drawn to rugby after ending other sports careers in high school. “A lot of the sport skills are transferrable to rugby — the handling skills of basketball, the field sense of soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, the strength and speed of track,” Heffernan wrote. “Plus, Brown students are smart; they tend to have high expectations and a good work ethic — nice combinations for winning teams,” she wrote. Captain Alicia Hartley ’10 agreed that it’s the girls’ mentality that keeps the program afloat — and makes it so dominant. “Brown has steadily become
a force within Division I women’s rugby, mostly due to the time and dedication every player is willing to put in,” she said. Hard work is a huge part of being a rugby player. The sport is practically unrivaled in its demand for physical fitness: with an 80-minute running clock, no time-outs and no re-entry once a player has been subbed off the field — not to mention full contact and minimal padding — speed, strength and endurance are all necessities. The girls challenge each other to excel every day, partly as a result of, and partly contributing to, the deep bonds that have formed between members of the team. “I think most of us would not be willing to put in the amount of time we do for this team if it wasn’t for the friendships we have made. The relationships we make with each other at Brown are special to this team alone and arguably one of the reasons we mesh so well on the field,” Hartley said. It’s this camaraderie among teamcontinued on page 13
Zrenda ’11 swings for the fences By Tony Bakshi Sports Staff Writer
The baseball team devoured the opposing teams’ pitchers this weekend, scoring double digits in each of its four victories against Princeton and Cornell. Infielder Ryan Zrenda ’11 led the way, hitting two mammoth home runs and notching seven RBI. Earlier in the week, Zrenda mashed three home runs in one day during a doubleheader against Siena. For his impressive performance at the plate — along with some dazzling defense around the infield — The Herald has named Zrenda Athlete of the Week. Herald: You guys exploded on offense this weekend, scoring 58 runs in four games. How’d that feel? Zrenda: Great. It was good to see our offense come out the way that it did and get the sweep. You already have seven home runs on the year, after hitting two all of last year. What’s been the dif ference in terms of power? I feel like this year I’m seeing the ball pretty well overall. Last week I had a good week — I strung a few good at-bats together. It felt good. Last week, you came in for some mop-up pitching duty against Siena. You were a dominant pitcher in high school. Was this your first time pitching in college? Yeah, it was. I was going to pitch a little last year, but I never got the opportunity. I always throw during practice, and I enjoy pitching.
Jonathan Bateman / Herald
Infielder Ryan Zrenda ’11 has been one of the keys to the baseball team’s 6-2 Ivy League record this season.
Whenever I get an opportunity to throw, I try to take advantage of it. What are you studying at Brown? History. Do you see yourself doing something histor y-related after college, or do you still want to be involved in baseball? I hope to play as long as I can. If that doesn’t work out, I’d like to coach. I definitely see myself coaching after school. What is your favorite memor y from Brown, baseball-related or not? That’s a tough question. I think times like Christmas, when we have the whole team together. We do Secret Santa — any of the holiday parties that we have as a team.
It’s just great to get ever ybody together. What’s the team’s ultimate goal this season? Win the league. We’re in good shape right now — we’re two games up in our division. If we win our league, we get back in the regional like we did two years ago. That’s been our goal from day one. Finally, anything you want to tell The Herald’s readership, maybe something to get them to show up en masse to your games? Well, we’re in first place. If the weather’s nice, it’s great to see people come out. I know it’s hard when it’s cold to get people motivated. But lately it’s been warm out, and we’re in first. I hope people realize that and come out to support us.
Page 13
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
S ports t hursday
Thursday, April 15, 2010
“They are the 25th in the country for a reason.” — Coach Marek Drabinski on loss to UConn
rugby
W. rugby team to compete in Nationals continued from page 12 mates, as well as the physicality of the game that drew many athletes to the sport in the first place. “It is hard to convey all the things that are wonderful (about rugby). I think one element that confuses people is the idea of women playing a contact sport — but there is something wholly satisfying about collision/contact sports,” Heffernan wrote. Access to these kinds of sports “is the next horizon for Title IX,” she wrote. Title IX is the law forbidding gender-based discrimination in federally funded programs, namely the NCAA. Right now, the NCAA does not recognize women’s rugby as an official collegiate sport — hence the team’s status at Brown as a club, not varsity, athletic program. For the players and coaching staff, this means that neither the government nor the University provide funds for equipment or travel expenses. The Brown rugby Web site estimates these costs at about $80,000 dollars per year, while the NCAA Web site puts it between $90,000 and $100,000 — to be raised by the athletes alone. If the girls are successful in the preliminary rounds of the national tournament this year, they will travel to Stanford University in early May for the championships. The trip will cost significantly more than the spare change lying around their dorm rooms. The team primarily receives funding through donations, sales of team photo prints and the “Adopt-a-Rugger” program. According to the fundraising Web site, the program allows donors to adopt players for $600 each. The money helps to cover necessary equipment, tournament fees, travel expenses and meal costs over the
course of a season. With the team boasting two alums on the U.S. World Cup team, four players on the U.S. national team and three All-Americans, financial support for the team has risen in recent years. Still, there is frustration with the lack of University and NCAA recognition of the sport. “The success of the rugby program raises questions about the efficacy of the current way in which sports are designated and classified at Brown,” Heffernan said. “Rugby is considered a club sport. That is just not an accurate designation — it does not consider the reality and experience of rugby players,” Being a women’s rugby player is perhaps even more than just an experience — some would consider it a way of life. “I am graduating in May, and I know a huge part of me will always feel connected to this team. I have arguably put more time into this team than any other thing I have done at Brown and that is not something that just stops when you walk through the Van Wickle Gates,” Hartley said. This year is Hartley’s last chance to win a national title, as she will be heading to graduate school in the fall instead of continuing her rugby career, despite prior participation on the U-20 national team. “Every year we set our sights higher and higher. But, nothing can happen unless we win that first game, and that is definitely the mindset we are taking going into Nationals this year — one game at a time,” she said. The girls embark on the path to a national title this weekend, and even though their 12-2 winning record receives little recognition here on campus, there’s a UNC team waiting fearfully to take on some of the best female athletes Brown has to offer.
Jonathan Bateman / Herald
First baseman Cody Slaughter ’13 went 2-for-4 Wednesday in a 15-3 loss to Connecticut.
baseball
Brown falls to No. 25 UConn By Jesse Frank Spor ts Staf f Writer
The Bears took their home field in the sun-drenched Murray Stadium yesterday against No. 25 Connecticut Huskies and left the diamond with a 15-3 loss. “They are the 25th in the country for a reason,” said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. “They are the best team we’ve played up north. They are athletic, physical and can run. We can’t give up four or five outs per inning.” Brown squandered many opportunities throughout the game, leaving 11 runners on base and hitting into three double plays. The offensive bright spots for the Bears were Mike DiBiase ’12, who was 4-5, Pete Greskoff ’11, 2-3, and Cody Slaughter ’13, 2-4. UConn — who came into the game second place in the Big East
Conference — got on the board early with three runs in the top of the first inning on a three run home run by Mike Olt ’11. The home run came one pitch after pitcher Matt Boylan just missed low with a potential strike three. UConn added another three runs in the top of the second inning, and Brown went into the bottom of the second inning down, 6-0. In the bottom of the second, Greskoff led off with a single, and Ryan Zrenda ’11 followed with a double. Both Bears scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Josh Feit ’11 and an RBI single by Slaughter. But UConn escaped without further damage, and the Bears trailed, 6-2, after two innings. The Bears threatened in the bottom of the third inning when they loaded the bases with no outs. But a pop-out and a slick double play
turned by the Huskies kept Brown off the board. Brown once again put together a potential rally in the bottom of the fourth. Chris Tanabe ’10 singled, then stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Graham Tyler ’12. However, two batters later, the rally was cut short when Tyler was thrown out at home plate as he tried to score on single by Matt Colantonio ’11. UConn put the game out of reach with four more runs in the top of the fifth. Three errors committed to the Bears led to the Huskies runs. UConn scored another four runs in the top of the sixth inning to go ahead 15-3, the final score. Despite falling to 9-20 on the season, the Bears are still in good shape for an Ivy League title. They lead the Rolfe Division of the Ivy League with a 6-2 league record.
ivy league sports brief
Harvard’s National Championship-winning squash coach dismissed By Andrew Braca Assistant Spor ts Editor
Harvard announced Tuesday that it will not renew the contract of head men’s and women’s squash coach Satinder Bajwa for the 2010–11 season, ending his 11-year tenure. The dismissal, which came less than two months after the Crimson captured the women’s team national championship and the men’s and women’s individual national titles, stunned and upset several players, the Har vard Crimson reported Tuesday. “I think everyone’s still in the stage where they’re trying to understand it,” Laura Gemmell, who won the women’s individual national championship, told the Crimson. “Obviously people are sad, and they really respect Baj as a coach.” The reasons for the dismissal remain unclear. “We have decided to go in a different direction with the leadership of the program,” said
Director of Athletics Bob Scalise ’71 in a Tuesday press release. The Crimson reported that after Scalise met with players Monday, several remained dissatisfied with his explanations and their lack of involvement in the process. Freshman Charles Gertler told the Crimson that Scalise cited “breaches from administrative protocol, an inability to be a ‘good community member at the athletics department,’ and recruiting deficiencies.” Bajwa told the Crimson the accusations were “very vague.” Alum and donor Albert Gordon told the Crimson that racism was a factor, alleging that large donors worked to end Bajwa’s tenure, but administrators denied the charges, and players the Crimson interviewed said they did not believe it. In his 11 seasons at Har vard, Bajwa coached five individual champions and won two team national titles, as well as six women’s and
five men’s Ivy League titles. But the men have declined from the glory years of eight-straight national titles in the 1990s to a pair of fifth-place finishes in the last two seasons — its worst showings in at least 20 years, according to the Crimson. Har vard will begin a national search for Bajwa’s successor immediately, according to the press release. Brewer ’00 and Mounsey ’02.5 named to women’s ECAC Hockey All-Decade First Team Goalie Ali Brewer ’00 and defenseman Tara Mounsey ’02.5 were named to the ECAC Hockey AllDecade First Team, recalling the golden era of the women’s hockey program. Brown is one of only two schools, along with Harvard, to earn slots on the first team. In 2000, Brewer became the only Brown player to win the Patty Kazmeier Award as the most outstand-
ing player in women’s collegiate hockey. She holds school records for lowest goals-against average in a single season and a career, highest save percentage in a single season and a career, most shutouts in a single season and a career and most wins in a single season and a career. She stands second in career saves to former Herald Sports Staff Writer Nicole Stock ’08. Mounsey, who stands 13th on Brown’s all-time scoring list with 48 goals and 70 assists in just 78 games, was named a second team All-American in 1999 and a firstteam selection the following year and played in the 1998 and 2002 Olympic Games. Harvard racked up six selections to the 12-player team, including four first-team members. St. Lawrence picked up three second-team selections and Dartmouth boasted one second-team pick.
Ivy quick hits — Princeton fencers Evan Prochniak, Alex Simmons and Sinatrio Raharjo competed at the 2010 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the sabre, Prochniak took 16th individually and was a member of the American team that won the bronze medal. In the foil, Simmons placed 21st and his Canadian team finished 10th. In epee, Raharjo failed to win a bout while representing Indonesia as an individual. — Cornell’s Rob Pannell was named the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Division I Player of the Week for scoring three goals, including the game-winner, and handing out five assists in a 13-12 victory over Harvard on Saturday. — Yale’s Deb Gruen, a Paralympic swimmer who has set five world records, has been selected to the U.S. team that will compete at the IPC Swimming Worlds in Eindhoven, Netherlands, in August.
Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald
Page 14 | Thursday, April 15, 2010
l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r
Coverage doesn’t help victims To the Editor: The Herald’s article “Former student claims misdeeds by U. officials in sealed case” (April 12) failed to separate two critical issues: the alleged misconduct of Brown University administrators in compelling former student William McCormick to leave Brown after he allegedly raped the daughter of a major donor, and the truthfulness of the victim’s claim, which no one except the victim herself can speak to with any authority. The information that the article relied on came from the plaintiff’s side of a civil lawsuit, the intent of which is precisely to discredit the victim. We are not in a position to address the specifics of this or any sexual assault case, nor do we want to. We must, however, address the issue of “false reporting.” The FBI estimates that a mere two to eight percent of sexual assault cases are “false reports” (a rate similar to other violent crimes). Many victims do not name their experiences as “rape” or “sexual assault” right away; victims often come forward only after conversations with friends and supporters, and some never do. According to the Department of Justice, 95 percent of sexual assaults go unreported to police, making this the most underreported crime. According to a recent Center for Public Integrity investigation, the biggest barriers to reporting sexual assault on college campuses are disbelief from univer-
sity officials and inaccessible campus judiciary processes. Between 20-25 percent of women will be the victims of rape or attempted rape while in college. For more than three years, the Sexual Assault Task Force has been working to make Brown’s disciplinary process more accessible to survivors of assault. The McCormick case is exceptional; the vast majority of people who report sexual assault at Brown do not see their perpetrators separated from the University. Brown’s interest in maintaining silence around these issues almost always works in favor of the perpetrator, not the victim. In focusing on the truthfulness of the victim’s statement, rather than on the University officials’ alleged misconduct, the article has done the entire Brown community a disservice. We hope survivors are not discouraged from speaking out or utilizing campus resources, such as Trish Glover, Brown’s Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Program Coordinator, and other resources listed on the Health Education Web site. All survivors deserve to be supported and believed.
Haley Kossek ’13 Annie Kurtz ’11 Amy Littlefield ’09 Catherine McCarthy ’11 Emily Mellor ’10 April 13
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 General Managers Office Manager 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 William Martin Board member Melissa Shube Board member Gaurie Tilak Board member Jonathan Topaz Board member
Gili Kliger, Designer Nicole Boucher, Christine Joyce, Sara Luxenberg, Raaj Parekh, Lindor Qunaj, Copy Editors Sydney Ember, Talia Kagan, Caitlin Trujillo, Suzannah Weiss, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Ashley Aydin, Alexander Bell, Nicole Boucher, Alicia Chen, Kristina Fazzalaro, Sarah Forman, Talia Kagan, Sara Luxenberg, Sarah Mancone, Heeyoung Min, Claire Peracchio, Goda Thangada, Caitlin Trujillo Staff Writers Anna Andreeva, Shara Azad, Rebecca Ballhaus, Casey Bleho, Fei Cai, Brielle Friedman, Miriam Furst, Max Godnick, Anish Gonchigar, Thomas Jarus, Sarah Julian, Julia Kim, Jessica Liss, Anita Mathews, Ben Noble, 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, 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
PAUL TRAN AND RICHARD STEIN
e d i to r i a l
Making space Brown offers its undergraduates a significant support system and a host of opportunities, but when it comes to providing space for common use and studying, our school is somewhat deficient. With over 6,000 undergraduate students at Brown, it’s often difficult to find a free table in the library or a place to arrange an informal meeting. Now that the weather is nice and students have begun to congregate outside, the shortage of study and meeting spaces indoors is easy to forget. But for most of the year, the options seem limited. For this reason, we were pleased to hear President Ruth Simmons declare in the State of Brown address that new construction and renovation is going to create more community spaces. “One of the things that we’ve been doing on all building projects is claiming a portion of building projects for the benefit of the whole,” Simmons said. This practice is a commendable one, and we believe firmly in the “if you build it, they will come” adage. Moreover, the new spaces for common use will offer students a change of scenery and the chance to get away from crowds at the main libraries and eating establishments. The Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center at Faunce House will include a number of informal meeting spaces, as well as a new and improved place to eat, according to the Building Brown Web site. The renovations to Metcalf Chemistry and Research Laboratory will create common space for the whole community to use. And all rooms within the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts “will be assigned for multi-disciplinary work,” the Web site notes. Since finals are just around the corner, we antici-
pate that Brown’s two main libraries will soon flood with students. The Friedman Study Center and the Rockefeller Library often fill up quickly, leaving only less desirable study spots like shaky carrels or sleepinducing couches. Sketch comedy group Out of Bounds articulates this problem well. “How am I to work in these big arm chairs?/ I’m typing on the laptop and an outlet’s rare,” they lament in their video, “SciLi State of Mind.” We hope that some of the new community spaces will provide additional places for students to study, and we encourage students to seek out these new locations and make use of them. But for now, we want to suggest some underrated places where students can get their work done away from the masses. For a slightly alternative library experience, try the library at the Watson Institute for International Studies, the Orwig Music Library, the new Science Center in the Sciences Library, or the Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design, which is accessible to Brown students with Brown IDs. Our favorite non-library study spaces include the Sidney E. Frank Hall for Life Sciences and the Brown/RISD Hillel building, which is open late and welcomes all Brown students. Empty classrooms in J. Walter Wilson also offer good, secluded spots. That being said, we won’t blame you if force of habit or the need to work late brings you back to the Friedman Study Center. You’ll be in good company, and at the end of the day, that’s what community spaces are all about. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
correction An article in the April 9 Herald (“Gala moves back onto campus”) incorrectly stated that Westin workers had called for a boycott the previous Thursday. In fact, they called for a boycott Thursday, March 18. The Herald regrets the error.
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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald
Thursday, April 15, 2010 | Page 15
Brown, the FDA, ROTC and discrimination EMILY BRESLIN Opinions Columnist The U.S. Armed Forces and the Rhode Island Blood Center, a Food and Drug Administration-regulated bank, both have policies in place that exclude people on the basis of sexual orientation. According to the 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” memo, “The military will discharge members who engage in homosexual conduct.” The FDA states, “Men who have had sex with other men, at any time since 1977 (the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the United States) are currently deferred as blood donors” because they are at “increased risk” for HIV. Brown welcomes the Rhode Island Blood Center on campus at the same time that it bans Armed Forces recruiters and the Reserve Officers Training Corps precisely because it discriminates against gays, lesbians and bisexuals. Is this inconsistent? Are either of these policies ethical? There is no rational basis for the military’s policy. According to federal law (10 U.S.C. § 654), the “presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.” Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition states that she
“can foresee rampant violence in the military if macho men must share shower facilities, bunk beds in a submarine or fox holes with sex-crazed gay males” if the law is repealed. The legal justification is couched in terms of differences between military and civilian life, so “numerous restrictions on personal behavior, that would not be acceptable in civilian society” are acceptable in the military. This raises the question of whether it is a right to serve in the military or not. The legal language cited suggests that it is not, and this makes a fair amount of sense.
one that is necessary in the armed forces. The military needs all of the competent people it can get right now, and this demonstrable need would seem to override the obscure possibility that the armed forces will be “taken over by gay militants,” as Lafferty has it. So what about the FDA policy? Is this exclusion warranted as part of a statistically-grounded effort to make the blood supply as safe as possible, or is it also discrimination based on prejudice? It is undeniably not a right to donate blood; everyone agrees that HIV-infected blood ought not be used in transfusions. It is
We are not condoning discriminatory practices when we choose to donate blood in the same way some think we would be if we allowed ROTC on campus. Experts ought to be deferred to when it comes to defending the country. However, the fact that something as vague as esprit de corps is given as the reason to ban lesbian, gay and bisexual people from military service makes the policy a manifestation of persistently lingering homophobia. It is discrimination, pure and simple, not an expert opinion. Lesbians, gays and bisexuals currently serve valiantly in the military, as well as in civil society, so this restriction does not seem to be
a fact that “among the estimated number of persons living with HIV at the end of 2006,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “the greatest percentage of cases was attributed to male-to-male sexual contact, accounting for 48.1% overall.” By barring men who have had sexual contact with other men (sometimes referred to as MSM) from donating blood, the FDA might argue it has made the blood supply safer because there is less of a chance that
tainted blood will be donated and therefore less of a chance that it will fail to detect HIV in the blood. In fact, this is exactly what they argue: “Several scientific models show there would be a small but definite increased risk to people who receive blood transfusions if FDA’s MSM policy were changed and that preventable transfusion transmission of HIV could occur as a result.” We are not condoning discriminator y practices when we choose to donate blood in the same way some think we would be if we allowed ROTC on campus. The distinction made between the two policies rests on the availability of evidence. Supporters of the ban on lesbians, gays and bisexuals in the military cannot point to any facts that make the ban effective in promoting health and safety, while the FDA has hard data that its ban will. I am tempted by the line of thought that we ought to allow ROTC on campus because we believe that intelligent minds in our military are a national necessity, just like a safe blood supply. However, in the end, I think this is a false equivalency. The argument from ignorance is never a good one; we ought not leave behind our qualms about discrimination just because we cannot say with absolute and total certainty that ROTC at Brown might produce the next great general.
Emily Breslin ’10 is a philosophy concentrator from Harvard, Mass. She can be reached at emily_breslin@brown.edu.
Old is gold NIDA ABDULLA Opinions Columnist It is time to shelve the New Curriculum, at least for a while. Today I passed an impassioned tour guide who longingly, lovingly, yearningly explained the benefits of the New Curriculum. He pleaded that each Brown student wants to be here, that we’re not just here because we want to fulfill some requirements. Enough of that. Have you ever heard of organic chemistry? How about the large introductory courses you might have to take for your degree? How about courses that you have to take to fulfill some obscure requirement within your concentration? Such is the false promise of the New Curriculum. In its final report on the New Curriculum, the Task Force for Undergraduate Education states that incoming students “share a responsibility for arranging their own core programs.” The idea that we are supposed to shape our own core program sounds amazing. However, I was under the impression that we are supposed to choose courses that sound interesting until we stumble upon something in which we could possibly concentrate. At Brown, we are supposed to be free from anything remotely similar to a “core program.” Creating such a program would require serious advising — someone sitting down with each student, discussing and suggesting
possible interests, and then creating a core curriculum outside of whatever concentration he or she might choose. Of course, this is also impossible: How can you create a curriculum for a student if they don’t know in what they want to concentrate? Many of us think that we wouldn’t like to be told what to do. But when a university has a core curriculum, these classes are sure to be of good quality because the administrators know that most students are taking them. In creating one’s own core, some classes are going to be hits and others are going to be misses.
and I will give you my money. I don’t want to engage in a gamble, especially since it is my dad, not me, who is footing the bill. Some will stand on the other side of the chasm and tell me that, from these tough decisions about courses, they learned that it’s okay to fail, or that these decisions help one to learn how to fail. Well, try putting that in the Brown catalogs — “We set our students up for failure so that they can learn how to fail.” What’s the big deal if we are given some loose requirements? It makes a lot more sense than handing freshmen a list of 3,000 courses and telling them to choose four. What is wrong
What’s the big deal if we are given some loose requirements? It makes a lot more sense than handing a freshman a list of 3,000 courses and telling them to choose four. Furthermore, the demographics of the University have changed since the New Curriculum was instated. Today we have more international students, first-generation college students and minority students. For many of these students, the stakes seem higher when they are choosing classes, and it is harder for them to willingly experiment — hence they would benefit from a core, or at least distribution requirements. Give me a solid education,
with some professors and administrators (who are wiser than me) sitting down and putting some thought into what I should know in order to graduate? Distribution requirements, such as those at Harvard, require students to take eight courses in various categories, such as “Culture and Belief” and “U.S. in the World.” Meanwhile, at other schools, students are simply required to take a breadth of courses in many disciplines. At universities such as
IU Bloomington, the requirements fall under traditional disciplines such as “Arts and Humanities” or “Social and Historical Studies.” The intentions behind these distribution requirements and the New Curriculum dovetail because both aim for students to have a wellrounded, coherent liberal arts education. In short, I’m not satisfied with the education I have gotten thus far. My individual classes have been for the most part excellent, but there is a lack of cohesion among the classes outside my major. I have been the architect of a shoddy house that I wouldn’t want to live in. Having so little experience before this construction, it’s no wonder that my house is shaky. No one taught me what to use for foundations, or as pillars. Freshman orientation might be better spent on a seminar teaching new students how to be the architects of their education. Teach us what can make up the basement, and what should only serve as the roof. Maybe some history for the foundations, and literature for the roof, with some economics in the pillars. This is a possibility if the University and its students insist on maintaining the new curriculum — after all, what else would distinguish us from Harvard? In the absence of such an effort, it may be time to end this “experiment” and get back to the serious task of sending rigorously educated students out into the world.
Nida Abdulla ’11.5 is an English concentrator from New Jersey. She may be contacted at nida_abdulla@brown. edu.
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Today The Brown Daily Herald
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Joukowsky Institute receives grant
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c a l e n da r tomorrow, april 16
4:00 p.m. — Fulbright Festival, BrownRISD Hillel
4:30 P.M. — “Audience, Aesthetics, Assumptions: Putting the Groove Into Classical Music,” Steinert Hall
6:00 p.m. — Up the Nile in Style: Travel in Egypt, Napoleon to 1930, Rhode Island Hall 108
comics Cabernet Voltaire| Abe Pressman
7:00 P.M. — Latino Gala, Andrews Dining Hall
menu Sharpe Refectory
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Hot Turkey Sandwich with Gravy, Baked Vegan Nuggets with Dipping Sauces, Pumpkin Bars
Lunch — Turkey Cutlet Sandwich on Bulky Roll, Peanut Butter and Jelly Bar, Milk and White Chocolate Cookies Dinner — Chicken Caesar Salad Wrap, New Potato Salad, Rainbow Sprinkle Cake
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
Dinner — Salt and Pepper Jerk Chicken, Vegetarian Tamale Pie, Strawberry Jello
a c r o s s to b e a r ACROSS Hide Those Extra Pounds! by Natan Last `12 1 Degree “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams has: Abbr. 4 ___ Possible of Nickelodeon crimefighting 7 With “the”, something awesome 11 Say “Heads up!”, say 12 Famous ceramist Josiah 14 Kind of sauce 15 “L’___ c’est moi”: Louis XIV 16 Thing 17 Japanese noodle 18 “Family Guy” character who likes a good story about a bridge 21 Test often run on “House” 22 Scrape (out) 23 What the Mad Hatter pours upon the Dormouse’s nose to wake it up 24 Jimmy Carter says 56 When Morning Mail 9 Springsteen song 37 ___ Gay (W.W. is mailed with the lyric II plane) he saw one in 1969 57 Plotting (something) “Only you can 38 Monopoly token 26 Airport holdups 58 Does drugs cool my desire” 39 Boss of Johnny 28 Recipe qty. 59 Author Zora ___ 10 “Your Moment Tightlips and 29 Sportage maker Hurston of ___” (“Daily Icepick, on “The 30 “Everything is fine 60 “The Big Lebowski” Show” feature) Simpsons” between us” 40 Words repeated director 11 Site with a 33 Steve ___, formerly three times after 61 “___ It Up” (Bob symptom checker of the 36-Across “come together, Marley tune) 12 Elaine, notably, 34 Rack components, right now” in 62 Sentence units: in the Seinfeld maybe “Come Together” abbr. episode “The 36 Stern concern? 42 Kick some ass 63 Some Gym Serenity Now” 37 Suffix related to 44 Homestar Leaders enable you 13 Festivus ___, -ette Runner’s best to use them: abbr. religious item 38 The ability to jump, friend in the Seinfeld in slang DOWN 45 Gives a speech episode “The 39 You might pull it if 1 Video game rating 46 Eva ___, subject Strike” you’re hustling 2 Where the Bossa of “Evita” 19 “Flowers for 41 “Entourage” agent Nova was born Algernon” author 49 Equal, in French ___ Gold 3 Movie in which 52 Gorbachev was Daniel 42 D.C. fundraiser Woody Allen voices its last leader: 43 Publix opinion, in an insect named Z 20 Old Navy owner Abbr. 25 “Lay Down” band brief 4 Rapper ___ Moe 53 Nay opposers 27 Amazes 47 Gifts from some Dee 31 Where Little Jack 54 Start of a Gym Leaders: abbr. 5 “Fornication with Shakespearean Horner sat 48 Int’l group headed the person over title by Pascal Lamy there would suit me 32 “Pygmalion” 55 Ms. Frizzle author’s 49 “I said, ooh girl just fine” drives one monogram / Shock me like 6 Most grinchlike 33 Lego competitor an electric ___” 7 “Miss Smith, why (MGMT lyric) would Regina refer 34 It occurs when a single is 50 Bauxite, e.g. to herself as a ‘fugly converted in a 51 Nelly’s debut ___’?”: “Mean Girls” Solutions and residence hall? album, with the hit 8 “Street Fighter” archive can be 35 Movie in which “Ride Wit Me” move that literally found online at we first meet 55 “The Princess and means “wave blogdailyherald.com young Anakin the Pea” props motion fist”
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Thursday, April 15, 2010
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Today, april 15
to m o r r o w
Poll finds most undergraduates single
t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
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to day
Excelsior | Kevin Grubb
Fruitopia | Andy Kim
Hippomaniac | Mat Becker
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