Monday, April 19, 2010

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 51 | Monday, April 19, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Students flock to campus for film festival

BrandingBrown Fourth in a five-part series

Is U’s popularity a passing trend or here to stay? By Ana Alvarez Senior Staff Writer

From Serena van der Woodsen of “Gossip Girl,” to Brian Griffin of “Family Guy,” to the nearly 30,000 students that applied for admission this fall, it seems like everyone wants to go to Brown. With myriad popular culture references and a couple wellknown students over the years — not to mention, of course, Brown’s reputation as an selective Ivy League institution with very happy students — it’s no surprise that a spot in the class of 2014 is in high demand. But with this year’s unprecedented 20.6 percent jump in undergraduate applications, is Brown simply “in” at the moment? And what’s more, will this trend

By Jessica Liss Staf f Writer

pass or is this welcomed increase in interest here to stay? Colleges can catch momentary waves of popularity, and increased media attention does help spread the Brown name. But students, admissions officers, alums and higher education experts all agree that Brown’s increase in applications isn’t caused — at least not fully — by popular trends. Instead, they say, the increase is due to enduring qualities like the University’s friendly environment, liberating curriculum and reputation as an academically rigorous institution.

early 2007. The complaint claims that Paulson knew to bet against Abacus, which it helped to form, and therefore had “economic interests directly adverse to investors,” but the hedge fund’s role in the portfolio selection was not disclosed in Goldman’s marketing materials to investors. The SEC alleges that Goldman’s marketing materials for Abacus represented that the portfolio was se-

The six-day 2010 Ivy Film Festival began on Tuesday with advance screenings of feature films, a series of student film showings and industry guest panels. The festival received over 350 submissions from undergraduate and graduate students both domestically and internationally. “Those accepted are the best of the best student films of the world,” said Program Director Zach Bornstein ’12. Screenings of student films began on Friday night and continued through Saturday. The final showing included 35 films and 11 screenplays. Student director Ben Leonberg from University of Massachusetts screened his 5-minute comedy “Two Men Drowning in Quicksand” on Friday. He chose to submit his film to this venue since it is the biggest student film festival, he said. The first event Tuesday was a showing of the new Davis Guggenheim documentar y as well as a question-and-answer session with the director at Avon Cinema. The Sundance Film Festival movie “Cyrus” was shown Friday night at the Avon while on Saturday evening, actor and writer Christopher Thornton presented his film “Sympathy for Delicious.” Several student awards were given out Saturday night. A series

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‘An enclave of trustafarians’ Last week, over 700 admitted continued on page 2

Courtesy of NASA

John F. Kennedy, Jr. ’83 was one of the first in what some say has become a trend of celebrity students attending Brown.

SEC files fraud suit against Goldman Sachs Board member Simmons does not comment By Alex Bell Senior Staff Writer

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged financial services company Goldman Sachs and one of its vice presidents with fraud,

it announced Friday. President Ruth Simmons sits on Goldman’s board of directors. The SEC is accusing Goldman of “defrauding investors by misstating and omitting key facts about a financial product tied to subprime mortgages as the U.S. housing market was beginning to falter,” according to the commission’s press release. Simmons wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that it would not be appropriate for her to comment on the situation at this time.

Simmons has been on Goldman’s board of directors since 2000, joining the board while president of Smith College. She announced in February that she would not stand for reelection at this May’s annual shareholder meeting. The SEC complaint alleges that Goldman allowed Paulson and Co., a large hedge fund, to “play a significant role in the portfolio selection process” for a collateralized debt obligation, called Abacus 2007-AC1, that Goldman brought to market in

With writer’s visit, readers’ childhood dreams come true

t h awin g o u t

By Talia Kagan Senior Staff Writer

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

inside

With dance contests, arts and food, the ninth annual Spring Thaw Pow Wow took place Saturday at the Pizzitola Center. The All-Ivy Native Conference was also held this weekend.

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

www.browndailyherald.com

For the dedicated students who loved and continue to love Tamora Pierce’s young adult fantasy novels, perhaps Saturday was a day more magical than most. After all, it’s not every day you get to meet one of your childhood idols. Pierce spoke with a group of 30 students at a lunch discussion, read from her newest manuscript and signed books at a packed Brown Bookstore, and gave a lecture about her writing during her visit to College Hill, organized by the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance. Talia Wong ’13 held her battered copy of Pierce’s “Alanna: The First

Adventure” as she waited in line at Saturday’s book signing. The book’s spine is peeling because Wong has read it over 10 times, often to help her relax if she’s having trouble sleeping, she said. Wong was so excited when she found out about the event that she was compulsively double-checking the time of Pierce’s visit, she said. “She was my childhood,” Wong added. Alanna Kwoka ’10, head of the Brown chapter of FMLA, said she first read Pierce’s books at age 10 and turns to them now for comfort during finals week. She loves the books partly because of the complex way they address issues of race, class and continued on page 6

Elections, 4–5

Arts, 6

Sports, 8

Opinions, 11

candidate profiles Nine undergrads are competing for four spots on UCS and UFB

injustice in india An exhibit by Fazal Sheikh is a lens into gender-based violence and suffering

Men’s Lacrosse Yale challenges the Bears and comes out victorious

census dilemma Yue Wang ’12 wants the Census to count the immigrant population

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

herald@browndailyherald.com

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Monday, April 19, 2010

Branding Brown

Mentions of Brown, but not its academics, abound in media continued from page 1 students visited Brown for A Day on College Hill. Sitting beneath a packed white tent on the Main Green, they — like thousands before them — laughed along with a 15-minute video clip that proves Brown is no stranger to showing up in popular culture. From “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” to “The O.C.” and “Gossip Girl,” television shows popular with high school students love sending their characters to Brown. “The O.C.,” FOX’s hit drama running from 2003 to 2007, heavily featured Brown. In the first three seasons, main character Seth Cohen — a pot-smoking, geeky, comic book lover with a witty sense of humor — had his sights set on Brown. Yet in a plot twist, Seth is denied admission, and instead, Summer Roberts — his superficial, valley-girl girlfriend — is offered a spot. The show’s final season features Summer’s life at Brown, where she befriends Winchester “Che” Cook, a left-wing environmentalist student. In a YouTube spoof of the show — “paid for by Brunonians for Enhanced Animal Karma” — Che is nominated as a candidate for student body president because he is “a dedicated environmentalist … friend to animals … keen on diversity … and a protest musician.” Cory Hargus ’13 said the image of Brown presented by “The O.C.” piqued his interest in the University, even if the image was a bit stereotypical. “Watching these shows as a high school kid, I was like, ‘Damn, I wanna go there,’ ” Hargus said. “The show gives an image of Brown as a kind of unique university with a non-snooty

feel. It’s really progressive, socially liberal and open-minded.” Yet not all shows present Brown in such a flattering light. On “Gossip Girl,” a popular CW show, New York socialite Serena vies for a spot at Brown. Yesenia Vidal ’13, a fan of the show, remembers watching an episode last year where Serena and Blair Waldorf, both of whom are about to tour colleges, argue over Brown’s respectability as an Ivy League institution. Blair, who wants to go to Yale, calls Brown “an enclave of trustafarians” — a portmanteau of Rastafarian and trust-funder — “and children of celebrities that major in drum circles and semiotics.” When Serena reminds her that Brown is part of the Ivy League, Waldorf responds that “the only real Ivies are the holy trinity: Harvard, Yale and Princeton.” Before leaving, Blair tells Providence-bound Serena, “Maybe you can get your hair dreadlocked while you’re there.” Vidal said Brown’s stereotype in the show didn’t make it less attractive to her. “Friends would ask me if I was sure I wanted to go to such a ‘hippie’ school,” she said, “but personally, it didn’t affect me. You’re going to see that stereotype here, but it’s not the only thing.” On the other hand, Vidal said, Brown’s presence in pop culture “made it so much cooler.” “Gossip Girl” isn’t the only show that questions Brown’s academic rigor. In the clip shown to prospective students at ADOCH, Lisa from “The Simpsons” is told by Harvard’s president after she fails a test that she will be unable to attend Harvard,

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The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

but he can “pass (her) file along to Brown.” Incoming student Alexandria Sharpe ’14 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that she saw Brown mentioned in the HBO show “How to Make It in America,” which focuses on two young men trying to succeed in New York’s fashion scene. Sharpe wrote that in a recent episode, a Brown graduate “showed up late for a meeting and her business partner in the scene said he thought they taught her about being on time at Brown.” ‘Any press is good press’ But it’s debatable whether Brown’s presence in pop culture helps attract students, or if stereotypes give prospective students the wrong idea. David Hawkins, director of public policy at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said prominent schools can be set back at times by the images tied to their names — which are out of the hands of admissions officers. “The idea that any press is good press is really put to the test in admissions offices,” he said. “Stereotypes cause the admissions office to have to work really hard for the full picture of the institution to be shown.” Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 said the stereotype he most often has to combat is the idea that, because of the New Curriculum, Brown is not as academically rigorous as its peers. Miller said he has to emphasize — especially to parents — that the curriculum has “opportunities and rigor embedded” in it and because of its freedom it allows students to be “intellectually entrepreneurial.” Miller added that fighting stereotypes presented in popular culture is something the Admission Office will always have to deal with. The best way to do this, he said, is to “keep repeating the realities about Brown.” “We have to do a very good job to communicate to applicants because they get so much information out there,” he said. “There is a lot of noise around college talk, but ultimately facts will outweigh the myths.” And that’s why, Hawkins said, he does not see pop culture references as a bad thing. They “can serve to spread information of institutions to interested students,” he said, something schools are always trying to do. Hargus said he thinks that the negative stereotypes shown in these shows ultimately don’t affect the schools’ overall reputation to applicants. “Brown is obviously a good school to start with, so that’s what’s really important,” he said. “If you’re in popular media and in the back of people’s minds, that’s not totally a bad thing,” Miller said. Spotted at Brown A parent who recently took an admissions tour wrote a summary of her time at Brown in the Washington Post blog “The Answer Sheet.” Before even stating the name of the school, she mentioned one thing —

celebrities. “People go there looking for Emma Watson (’13). And if they can’t find Emma Watson, they want Scout Willis (’13), and if they can’t find Scout Willis, they look for other people on the celebrity list,” the parent wrote. “Brown is known for that.” The claim that Brown is “known” for admitting celebrity students is often brought up by critics and challenged by faculty. According to Miller, since the admission of John Kennedy Jr. ’83 — possibly Brown’s first “celebrity student” — celebrity presence at Brown has “stayed with our image.” Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Golden claimed that admission officers at Brown lower their standards for applicants from celebrity families in his 2006 book “The Price of Admission.” Golden wrote that — more than any other university — Brown sought applicants with celebrity status in order to increase its endowment through donations. In a 2006 interview with The Herald, Golden said though he didn’t think there was a “huge number” of celebrity students at Brown, he still thought his “portrayal of the admissions policy is accurate.” Miller said that he didn’t think “we have an enormous amount of celebrity students.” But from incoming freshmen to alumni, Brunonians inter viewed by The Herald agreed that having even a small celebrity presence does make the school better known. David Laidlaw ’83, professor of computer science, said he felt having Kennedy as a classmate “made a difference because it drew more attention to the school.” Students today said they feel the same way. Alexa Steuer ’14 said that Watson invariably came up every time she would tell her friends she was going to Brown. “Emma Watson being a student at Brown definitely made an impression on people,” she wrote in an email to The Herald, “but it wasn’t what shaped my decision to apply.” Having big-name students helps the University by raising attention and getting more prospective students interested in Brown, Vidal said. She said she wouldn’t be surprised if “people might hear about Emma and read up on Brown.” Ultimately, Hawkins said, while “Brown has developed a reputation of attracting celebrity students,” he doesn’t think that translates to higher application numbers. “While I don’t doubt that having celebrity students helps, I doubt any student that thinks of enrolling really bases it all on celebrities,” he said. Associate Dean of the College Carol Cohen ’83, also Kennedy’s classmate, said that in the end it’s not the celebrities, but the school, that brings in applicants. “If Brown didn’t have a good academic image, it wouldn’t have mattered if JFK (Jr.) was here,” she said. ‘Dream school’ While always placing high academically, Brown is probably best

known for being at the top of studentlife rankings, especially as the school with the “Happiest Students,” according to the Princeton Review’s 2010 edition of “The Best 371 Colleges.” Miller said the happiness at Brown — highlighted in these rankings — resonates well with applicants and helps Brown stand out against peer institutions with higher academic rankings. “When the countr y is under stress,” he said, “you want a positive space.” More recently, the Princeton Review placed Brown on the “Top Ten Dream Schools” list for both parents and students. The “Dream School” ranking, like all of its other rankings, was “based solely on student and parent response,” said Rebecca Lessem, senior editor of “The Best 371 Colleges.” Lessem said both students and parents were asked what school they would choose regardless of financial or admission considerations. Brown placed fifth in the students’ list and eighth in the parents’ list. While this ranking is “a good measure of where students would like to be,” Lessem said she doesn’t believe that any one ranking — or any pop culture reference or celebrity student — should be the primary reason for students to apply to Brown. Instead, she said, “students need to look at every aspect.” Just a trend? While Brown could be considered a trendy school, prospective students said that is not the reason why they are choosing to attend Brown and certainly not the most exciting thing the school has to offer. Steuer, the incoming student, wrote that, at least where she lives, she has felt Brown’s popularity rise. “Just in Northern (New) Jersey alone, many more people that I have spoken to or heard about have applied to Brown,” she said, “whereas in the past, I had not really heard of Brown really being on the map.” “The thought of choosing a college to go to on the basis of it being trendy or ‘in’ has never crossed my mind,” Annette Lopez ’14, an incoming freshman, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “Neither ‘ranking’ nor ‘image/ trendiness’ is more important,” she wrote. “No matter what rank, I feel Brown is where I belong.” Even the parent so enthusiastic about famous students in the Washington Post blog concluded it was the New Curriculum, and not the celebrities, that really matters. “But we loved Brown because there are no requirements,” the parent wrote. “It could be an ideal place for someone who doesn’t know what they want to take but has a strong level of intellectual curiosity.” So while fads do come and go, Brown’s longer lasting academic appeal is what counts, Hawkins said. “I do think as in any marketplace, there are trends,” he said. “But Brown’s reputation as an excellent and good institution is not subject to these trends, and in that sense it will always be popular.”

Monday, April 19, 2010

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS news in brief

Study: Psychiatrists diagnose without consulting professional guidelines Many doctors are not referring to predefined criteria when diagnosing major depressive disorder, according to a study by Mark Zimmerman, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior and director of outpatient psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital. Zimmerman administered a survey to 291 psychiatrists and 40 “non-psychiatrist physicians” prior to speaking at a number of medical conferences. One of the questions asked participants how often they used the criteria outlined in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders when diagnosing depression. The participants were then asked to select “less than 25 percent of the time,” “26-50 percent of the time,” “51–75 percent of the time” or “more than 75 percent of the time.” The results showed that 10.7 percent of the psychiatrists and 45 percent of the other physicians indicated that they consult the criteria less than 25 percent of the time. “The concern is that individuals are being treated with medicine unnecessarily,” Zimmerman said. Both Zimmerman and Katherine Sharkey, assistant professor of medicine at the Alpert Medical School, agreed there is a limited effect of drug treatment on milder cases of depression. Monitoring the possible effects of an incorrect diagnosis becomes difficult because of the “so-called placebo response,” Zimmerman said. Zimmerman said doctors are not using the guidelines outlined in the DSM-IV because they are too long for clinicians to remember and include points that are “difficult to apply in medically ill patients.” Sharkey added that the reasons may have more to do with the doctors’ desire to diagnose and successfully treat the patient. “Doctors say, ‘Well, this isn’t going to change what my treatment is going to be anyway,’” Sharkey said. There are nine criteria included in the DSM-IV to classify a major depressive episode, of which the patient must present five or more. The manual notes not to “include symptoms that are clearly due to a general medical condition.” Zimmerman has recently published a paper suggesting a shorter definition, leaving out the physical symptoms that cause confusion for medically ill patients. Sharkey highlighted the importance of having criteria agreed upon by the psychiatric community to ensure consistent diagnoses across the country and to allow for advancements to be made in the way of treatments. “Making accurate diagnoses in psychiatry is really dependant on using the criteria,” she said. “The hope is, by shortening the definition, the criteria will be applied more rigorously in clinical practice,” Zimmerman said.

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“People can get a better sense of place through media.” — Steven Ellis ’10.5

Grant funds media projects abroad, online By Ashley Aydin Senior Staff Writer

This summer, 11 students will travel to nine countries on a new fellowship funded by a $100,000 AT&T grant awarded last fall to the Watson Institute for International Studies. The grant, given by the AT&T Foundation and AT&T Corporation to fund new media projects, is meant to create new forms of communication at the University and expand its presence internationally. The grant was awarded to “facilitate international dialogue on social action issues,” said Laura Sanford, president of the AT&T Foundation. The grant includes two parts, one focused on supporting global student work integrating new media and another focused on creating an online portal within the Brown community called “The Global Conversation.” “It was an idea that Brown brought to us,” Sanford said. “We thought it was great to get college students more deeply involved in the issues concerning corporate citizenship perspectives. It’s not uncommon that students are looking at social action issues.” This summer’s AT&T New Media Fellows will travel to Croatia, Mexico, India, Rwanda, El Salvador, Georgia, Ireland, Vietnam and Mali “armed with video cameras, audio recorders and laptops to explore important issues related to health, identity, politics, education, youth, conflict and language,” wrote Geoffrey Kirkman ’91, deputy director of the Watson Institute, in an e-mail to The Herald. One of these students, Steven Ellis ’10.5, will travel to Croatia to produce a documentary examining the European Union’s accession process — the process of joining the EU — and its impacts on Croatia’s young

democracy. “My project will study underrepresented Croatian voters against the EU accession and explore that as an impact of globalization in Croatia,” Ellis said. Ellis said he found out about the fellowship through Brown Morning Mail, adding that he has been to Croatia before and had been trying to find a way to go back ever since. Ellis said the interaction of faculty, staff and alums is important for Brown to establish itself as an open community, emphasizing the University’s need to have a better presence on the Internet. According to the AT&T New Media Fellows press release, Ellis and the other fellows will conduct research that will lay the foundation for “The Global Conversation” online portal by sharing their comments and posting their media projects, such as documentaries, podcasts and blogs for the University community to view. Though he is working on a documentary, Ellis said he will use a Flip camera for video blogging to talk to people about the Croatian experience. “People can get a better sense of a place through media,” Ellis said. The grant will incorporate new media into academics, Sanford said, adding that the new generation consumes information by means of film, Web and sound. “If you continue to rely on the traditional communication channel, you’re not going to reach all audiences,” Sanford said. The grant’s second component,

— Abby Kerson

Read Post- magazine, Thursdays in The Herald

“The Global Conversation,” will “host video, audio, blogs and other media produced by Brown students, faculty and alumni that relates to major global challenges,” Kirkman wrote in an email. Though many Brown students have already produced audio and video projects for classes, research projects, internships or semesters abroad, there has not been a shared place to post the creations, he wrote. “We hope that ‘The Global Conversation’ Web site will become the ‘go to’ place for serious media projects that tackle global issues,” Kirkman wrote. Kirkman wrote that media is a powerful tool for shaping perceptions. “The old saying that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ has a lot of truth — audio and video can amplify messages in important ways,” he wrote. Kirkman hopes “The Global Conversation” will become a central place where the Brown community can come together to interact about the most pressing challenges faced by the globe today, he wrote. With thousands of alumni all over the world, one-third of the junior class studying abroad and the international work of faculty, there are limitations to bringing parts of the University together, Kirkman wrote. But, he wrote, by considering the Web, audio and video media content that Brown students, faculty and alumni are producing, “we can try to create a vibrant space for conversation that brings the global nature of Brown to the forefront.”

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Monday, April 19, 2010

C ampus N EWS

Student filmmakers connect with industry continued from page 1

of awards were granted in the Film and Screenplay Competitions, and a Machinima Competition Prize was also given to the top film using 3-D video game animation. While one of the festival’s primar y goals is to allow the best student films to be seen by others, according to Associate Director Sam Grey ’10, a former Post- film editor, the festival also encourages interaction and dialogue among

“You get access to a lot of industry people most student filmmakers wouldn’t.” Dan Parnes ’10 Ivy Film Festival

filmmakers and with the various industry guests. On Saturday there were a selection of panels with individuals in the field: “From the Ground Up: Writing and Producing Independent Cinema” with Andrew Renzi

and Christopher Thornton, and “From Idea to Image: Where Creativity and Commerce Merge” with Abby Ex, Adam Rosenberg, Bryan Unkeless and Milan Popelka. “It is interesting to hear other perspectives of how other people are making films,” Leonberg said. “You get access to a lot of industry people most student filmmakers wouldn’t get to chat with, meet with and pick their brain,” said Industry Talent Coordinator Dan Parnes ’10. “The festival helps increase exposure for students,” agreed Carolyn Lee ’10. The Ivy Film Festival is also working to broaden its scope beyond the annual April event. A new initiative, Executive Director Whitaker Lader explained, is the Ivy Filmmaker Series, which shows films at the different Ivy League schools and brings the respective directors to campus. Ultimately, “the most important part of the festival is giving student filmmakers the opportunity to display their work, meet other students interested in film, watch other movies and get advice from industry professionals,” Grey wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Stiff competition for UCS, UFB UCS President

Arthur Matuszewski ’11

Diane Mokoro ’11

Arthur Matuszewski thinks the Undergraduate Council of Students needs to better represent the student community. “UCS has to reorient its priorities about what it is and who it is serving,” Matuszewski said, adding that “UCS is following the administration and then getting students to follow the administration.” Matuszewski, an independent concentrator in the social philosophy of shaping world views and and former editorin-chief of Post- magazine, said he envisions UCS as the missing link needed to empower students as its predecessor, the Cammarian Club, did in the 1970s. We must “try to return UCS to its past ideals, which were community and looking at the world at large,” he said. The Queens, N.Y., native, who said he has “lived the life of a Brown student as fully as possible,” served on UCS for a semester before he became disillusioned by its bureaucratic structure, he said. He has served on the College Curriculum Council executive board since his sophomore year and has been active in the collaboration between Brown and local prisons through the Brown Education Link, which brings professors to local prisons to speak, and Space in Prison for the Arts and Creative Expression. These experiences off campus have made him “see how fortunate we are here” and have been a large part of his learning experience at Brown, he said. He said UCS must address student concerns rather than sitting by as students become apathetic. “UCS is an institution and was created by individuals, and when individuals stop believing in institutions, they are no longer valuable to the community.”

Diane Mokoro thinks the Undergraduate Council of Students can become a powerful advocacy group if it increases collaboration with the committees to which it appoints student representatives. The current UCS vice president said the council can gain more leverage with the administration if it better engages diverse groups — including committees like the Residential Council and the College Curriculum Council — in conversation. She said she envisions UCS as a “hydra-type, many-headed monster” that must create “a natural and intrinsic link between UCS and the student body.” UCS will also play a vital role in determining the plans for construction of new residence halls next year, she said, and understanding student needs will be necessary to communicate with the administration. The Lowell, Mass., native cited her experience with the internal structure of UCS and her ability to delegate tasks as essential to achieving these goals. “Having a realistic vision and knowing the concrete steps of how to deal with administrators” is essential, said Mokoro, who served on the communications committee last year. Mokoro worked on election reform in runoff procedures this year. After researching different systems across the U.S., the international relations and public policy concentrator advocated for an instant runoff procedure that will be voted on this week along with the candidates. “I was the kind of student who never expected to get into Brown,” she said. She wants to make sure Brown is still “lovable” 30 years from now.

Future of workshop on communicating research uncertain By Julia Kim Staf f Writer

For some seniors, it’s the most wonder ful time of the year: the time their theses are finally due. As seniors prepare to present their research to their professors and peers, some who participated in the inaugural year of a year-long workshop on research communication will be prepared to explain their work to just about anyone, not only academics. The workshop, called the University Keystone, aims to provide seniors with an oppor tunity to learn and practice how to communicate their research to diverse audiences, said Matt Scult ’10, one

of the Keystone’s creators. But the new program’s fate remains undecided, as administrators and students continue to evaluate its success. The Keystone’s format consists of lectures — delivered by professors, graduate students and other academics known for their communication skills — followed by discussions for students to practice what they have learned, according to Scult. Topics and lecturers have included Professor of Biology Ken Miller ’70 P’02 on connecting with the audience, Associate Director of the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning Kathy Takayama on visual representations and Professor of Classics David Konstan on

crafting a stor y. Participant Kelsey Lane ’10 said she especially liked Miller’s and Konstan’s lectures, adding that she found Konstan “really fun” and “brilliant.” Lane has also found the discussions among the students, who are from many different disciplines, to be particularly helpful, she said. Scult also had positive feedback. “I’ve personally found it ver y helpful, not only in the way I anticipated,” he said. It is easy to get caught up in the minutiae during research, Scult said. “When I was conducting the research myself, (the Keystone) helped me to think about it in a different light,” he added. “It re-

ally provided me the opportunity to step back.” The Keystone was born from a group independent study project in spring 2009 on science communication, after some members of the GISP decided that they wanted to expand upon what they learned, Scult said. “It’s a really impor tant skill, communication in general,” Scult said. Although there has been a “good amount of support” to practice communicating research to people within one’s specialty, opportunities to talk to people outside of one’s field are scarce, he added. “We didn’t get as much practice as we would have liked” in the GISP, he said. At the end of last year, several of the students that participated in the GISP proposed the idea of the Keystone to some University officials, said Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron. “I think it’s a great example of student ingenuity at Brown,” she said. It has been “mostly studentr un,” though the group is advised by Professor of Geological Sciences Jan Tullis, and the University helps fund the Keystone and helped advertise it as an opportunity for rising seniors, Scult said. In order to par ticipate in the Keystone, seniors had to submit an application, according to Scult. Not all of the participating seniors are working on theses, said Lane, who conducted self-directed research in marine biology.

Initially, 12 students were admitted, but as the year progressed, six students dropped out of the program — something its organizers had not anticipated, he said. There were two reasons that students stopped par ticipating, Scult said. Some students who planned to write a thesis changed their minds, he said, and other students stopped participating because the program did not meet their expectations. Other students stopped participating because of scheduling conflicts, according to Lane. Though students quit early into the fall semester, the program ran more smoothly as the weeks went by, Scult said. If the program continues, there will be more time to smooth out its logistics and goals. The seniors who participated in the Keystone will have a roundtable discussion on their experiences with it as part of the Theories in Action conference, an oppor tunity for seniors to present their capstone projects. Scult is working with Peggy Chang, director of the Curricular Resource Center, to refine the program with the goal of continuing it next year. “This is like a pilot,” Bergeron said. Depending on the feedback it receives, it may become institutionalized and happen ever y year, she said. “It’s definitely what I would like to see,” Lane said. “I definitely think that there’s both an interest and a need for it to become a regular program.”

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C andidate P rofiles

Monday, April 19, 2010

Vote on mycourses.brown.edu beginning today at noon. Voting ends Thursday at noon.

Nine undergrads vie for four spots on student government Profiles by Nicole Boucher

Photos by Max Monn and Nick Sinnott-Armstrong

UCS Vice President

Ben Farber ’12

Reed Frye ’11

Ben Farber thinks a visionary leader must find a balance between focusing on small-scale improvements and broaderrange goals. Farber believes his extensive experience as this year’s chair of campus life provides him with the experience to assume the position of vice president. “I expect that new members and committee chairs would be able to turn to me for advice,” Farber said, adding that he can provide a “strong support system” while also holding a firm understanding of the way in which UCS functions internally. Farber has led many smaller initiatives this year, including implementing continental breakfast at the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall and bringing a specific brand of hot sauce to the Sharpe Refectory. He also said patio seating outside of the Sciences Library and cigarette depositories outside of Keeney Quadrangle will be forthcoming. He mentioned several potential projects for next year, such as conducting a heating audit across campus, investigating improvements to the housing lottery through an online system and increasing lighting on the Main Green. As the second in command, the Moorestown, N.J., resident said he would be “thinking on a broader scale” without forgetting the substantive change that can occur at the smallest level. “My list of goals is based entirely on feedback and will continue to expand and change,” Farber said. “Our job is to be responsive to the student body.” Farber said he wishes to translate his passion for Brown into making visible improvements.

Reed Frye believes in the value of community input and doesn’t think a vision of change can come from an established UCS member. “A lot of UCS members agree that what we need is a large vision,” Frye said, but added that he believed it is difficult to enact such large changes without community participation. Frye, who has never served on the council, said increasing a community audience at UCS meetings is possible by improving advertising, having more faculty speakers and possibly providing food. “UCS consistently underestimates how important it is to have the community there,” he said. Frye also cares about achieving pragmatic goals on UCS such as improving shopping period and establishing waiting lists for seminars, but he does not believe serving on UCS in the past is vital to solving these issues. “These are logical issues that logical people can find answers for,” he said. Vision, on the other hand, requires a unique perspective. The public policy concentrator said he is “willing to provide and advocate for the structural changes that will put Brown in a high place.” Frye cited the “erosion of the New Curriculum” through “with distinction” marks as one of the large issues Brown should look at. While Frye has not served on UCS before, he has experience with encouraging increased dispersal of information to the community. Frye works for the Providence Plan, a nonprofit group that organizes research for community action groups so that they can understand trends in Providence.

UFB Chair Salsabil Ahmed ’11 Salsabil Ahmed, the current UCS-UFB liaison, thinks the Undergraduate Finance Board needs to be the “central resource” for student groups on campus when they are planning events. The public policy and commerce, organizations and entreprenuership concentrator is no stranger to organizing events herself, estimating that she has helped organize over 20 events as Brown University Activities Council vice-chair, a member of the Bruin Club and secretary of the 2011 Class Board. She thinks UFB needs to do a better job with transparency so that groups can have realistic expectations for the funding they may expect. While there are already detailed minutes of all meetings, she said closed deliberations should be opened to student groups not being considered for funding within that meeting itself so they can see first-hand how the finance board employs the guidelines for funding. Ahmed also thinks groups with similar experiences would benefit from brainstorming together. She envisions monthly meetings for all cultural groups, for instance, in order to find “collaborative” ideas for ways to increase the value of the resources they do have. The Lisbon, Conn., native has also worked on many initiatives to reduce costs to student groups, including working on the Capital Closets project to be implemented next year, which will rent out event supplies such as speakers to Category III groups at a reduced price. She has also “spearheaded the tableslipping phase-out” and believes the finance board must find a good advertising alternative for next year. “I am 100 percent confident I have the best leadership for the job,” Ahmed said.

Adam Kiki-Charles ’11 Adam Kiki-Charles joined UFB because he wanted to know how requesting funding for events actually worked. This lack of campus-wide understanding of how UFB works is one of the largest issues facing the finance board for next year, KikiCharles said. The political science and economics concentrator said that since all students pay the activities fee through tuition, “everyone should know how to access it if they have got a legitimate claim to it.” Kiki-Charles said the current chair, Jose Vasconez ’10, has been very effective in improving relationships between administrators, UFB and students, but he believes initiatives to improve accessibility must continue. Certain steps must be taken to improve how UFB relates with the student groups it is working with this year. “We should send minutes directly to the groups to explain rationale” for decisions, Kiki-Charles said. Training of representatives must occur earlier, Kiki-Charles said, possibly beginning with a meeting in May to outline the plans for the following year. The Deer Park, N.Y., native, who attended high school in Bermuda, said he thinks the student activities fund amount limits what can be done, adding that UFB should have a specific endowment for student activities. As chair, he said he believes it would be important to reach out to alums to tell them that they can donate to the student activities fund. Kiki-Charles said “the chair has a unique position for setting the tone for the entire board.”

Evan Holownia ’11 As chair of the communications committee, Evan Holownia has first-hand experience with attempts to increase contact between UCS and the student body. “UCS needs to be responsive and take the temperature of the student body,” Holownia said. Only then can it take “proactive and concrete steps,” he said. Office hours, a YouTube page, Twitter and Morning Mail are just a few of the ways UCS has increased its connection to students, but “communication externally is something we need to continue working on,” Holownia said. Holownia thinks improving communication is truly “about improving the Brown experience for the student body.” Holownia also thinks internal communication over time can be improved through better record-keeping and alumni relations so that UCS can learn from past leadership rather than having “to reinvent itself” with every transition. He said he has worked this year to have chairs document what they have accomplished throughout the year. He also recognizes the importance of initiatives to improve the student experience, supporting the availability of all syllabi online and increasing advising opportunities so that sophomores and transfer students can “feel better integrated.” Holownia transferred to Brown from Tufts University after his freshman year and is now triple-concentrating in classics, public policy and history. He said he hopes his energy and commitment will translate into positive work next year regardless of the election’s outcome.

UFB Vice Chair Jason Lee ’12 Jason Lee believes UFB must understand funding from the student group perspective in order to be effective. The biology and likely economics concentrator says his experience on the “receiving end” makes it “far easier to understand what (groups) are asking for.” As the current social chair of the Korean-American Student Association, a sales associate for The Herald and a previous member of Model U.N., Lee sees the issues from both ends. This experience, along with his role as a UFB representative, has been vital in shaping his views on many of the key issues that UFB will face in the coming year. Lee disagreed with the recent cut in funding in advertising for student groups, which he said funds essentially only one set of posters. He said tableslips were likely “one of the most successful methods” for advertising, and UFB must work with UCS and Brown University Activities Council next year to ensure that advertising does not suffer. Still, he said UFB should look at creative ways for cutting costs without employing a “minimalist point of view” such as ignoring the importance of food and decorations. He also sees how the finance board’s lack of professionalism at meetings can be a turnoff for presenting groups. The Los Angeles resident said increasing professional behavior and improving connections between at-large representatives and groups will inspire better confidence in UFB. “We have this reputation for screwing people over,” Lee said, adding that UFB should be “known as a group that helps things happen instead of the group that just says no.”

Tyler Rosenbaum ’11 Tyler Rosenbaum thinks UFB may need to increase its funding of student groups while the effects of the recession are still being felt. “I think we could definitely step up during this time of financial distress,” Rosenbaum said, specifically because the student activities fee has not been cut despite the economic difficulties. “Precedents are important,” Rosenbaum said, “but when there has been a landslide in the economy that is unprecedented, I think we can be more generous than we have in the past.” The Seattle native, a Herald columnist, mentioned funding instructors for dance teams as an example of the type of aid UFB should consider. Rosenbaum has had a lot of experience with both UCS and UFB, ser ving as the chair of the academic affairs committee before becoming the UCS-UFB liaison and eventually becoming the secretar y for UFB this year. As secretar y, he has put detailed minutes online, which he believes is one step in increasing transparency. He also said letting people into closed deliberations would help to dispel the “smoky room vision” students may have concerning UFB’s funding decision process. Rosenbaum has also been involved in the Capital Closet initiative, which he said will reduce costs for both groups and the finance board. Rosenbaum thinks UFB has the capability to be a dynamic force on campus, so long as it increases dialogue on issues such as tableslipping. “When I first joined UFB, my mentor on the board was like ‘you are never going to want to leave,’ ” Rosenbaum said. And the mentor was right, he said.

Arts & Culture The Brown Daily Herald

Monday, April 19, 2010 | Page 6

Photos portray injustice 12-year-old travels 2 hours for author toward Indian women continued from page 1

By Sarah Mancone Senior Staf f Writer

In India’s main cities, approximately ever y six hours a woman will be abused to death by being burned, beaten or driven to suicide, according to a caption near one of the many photographs in “Beloved Daughters,” an exhibit of photographs by Fazal Sheikh on display in the David Winton Bell Galler y in List Art Center March 27–May 30. “Beloved Daughters” consists of two series of photographs taken in India. The first part, “Moksha,” is an exhibit of photographs of widows who have become the responsibility of their in-laws, said JoAnn Conklin, director of the Bell Gallery. More often than not, the families cannot afford to take care of the widows, who often go to Vrindavan, a town where they are able to devote themselves to worship of the Hindu deity Krishna. Moksha is a state above the ordinar y world “of change and illusion which is the cause of disappointment and suffering,” as written in a caption, and this is the state of being that women in Vrindavan try to achieve through devout chanting and meditation. Hinduism puts strict rules upon remarriage, Conklin said, which makes life dif ficult for young widows who were married to men much older than them. Because of this, most women and girls have nowhere to live when their husbands die. There are many pictures of

women who have been “cast out by their families and condemned by strict marital laws which deny them legal, economic and, in extreme cases, human rights,” according to a caption, with another adding that widowhood “remains one of the greatest stigmas in Indian society.” The lives of these women, worshipping in temples and surviving off charitable handouts or begging on the streets, are displayed in “Moksha.” The photographs are entirely black and white, and the majority show adult women in Vrindavan. Some are portraits of their faces, while others have women facing away from the camera or show them on the streets begging or in prayer. Mixed with the pictures of the widows are pictures of religious shrines and animals such as birds, monkeys, sheep and mice in the town. Quotes from women in Vrindavan tell stories of violent abuse from husbands and in-laws because of an inability to produce a male child, as well as ostracism following the death of the husband. Their last resort is to move to Vrindavan and devote themselves to religious pursuits. “At first I wanted to kill myself,” the exhibit quotes one woman from Vrindavan, “but then I realized that Lord Krishna would look after me.” Some women’s quotes express a sense of happiness with their current lives, while others are more focused on rewards in the continued on page 7

gender, she said. Scrolling through Pierce’s Web site last semester, Kwoka noticed that the author visited campuses and decided to e-mail her. Saturday’s resulting visit was “a perfect crowning moment of my time at Brown,” she said.

The woman, the legend A love for baby name books — she owns about 22 — and a soft spot for Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman were among the details that Pierce revealed in Saturday’s talk “Pierce-ing the Status Quo: The Writing Process,” delivered to a halffull Metcalf Auditorium. Pierce looked unassuming in an oatmeal-colored cardigan — except for the bright pink and purple laces on her black sneakers and the tattoos that became visible whenever she pushed up her sleeves. Pierce said she began writing stories as a child, but during her teen years suffered a severe five-year case of writer’s block that finally ended during her sophomore year of college at the University of Pennsylvania. She began to write again and made $75 on the first story she ever sold, “What We Did Was Sin,” published in Intimate Story Magazine. That publication gave her the courage to take a fiction class and eventually finish a novel — a book, according to Pierce, that was phenomenally terrible. When Pierce graduated from Penn, her degree simply read “Bachelor of Arts,” since she had twice failed the second statistics requirement for her major in psychology. She began working in a group home for teenage girls, where she wrote a 732-page manuscript about a girl who crossdresses to become a knight. Telling the story to the girls was an experience that taught Pierce how to write for a young audience, she said. Pierce tried to sell her book to several publishers, one of whom told her that her book had too many rules. That was when she learned that “editors are human beings, too, and sometimes they’re stupid human beings,” she said. Finally, she found an editor willing to publish an edited version broken into a fourbook series known as “Song of the Lioness,” which remains one of her most popular series. After relating her journey to becoming a New York Times bestselling author, Pierce opened up the floor for questions. The well-informed audience — the majority raised their hands when asked who had read at least 10 Pierce books — asked about

her writing process as well as specific aspects of her books. Pierce spoke about her love of history, which she often uses for inspiration. When Pierce wanted to include a civil war in one of her books, she drew from an unlikely source — the American involvement in Vietnam. She explained her obsessive attention to detail in her writing, recounting the time she called a friend at two in the morning to ask what color gems one of her characters would wear with a “flame-red dress.” Rubies, the friend replied. Pierce often bases her characters on photographs or celebrities, she said. Numair, a character from her “Immortals” series, was originally based on Gene Simmons from the rock band KISS “because I thought Gene Simmons was hot,” she said. Even some animal characters have real-world counterparts — Pierce based the sparrows from one novel on sparrows she had “met” in Manhattan’s Riverside Park.

Fantasy fanatics Pierce’s 26 published novels contain sorcerers, knights and mythical beasts, among other usual fantasy trappings, but there is something particularly captivating about hers, students said. “I just fell in love with all the characters,” said Luis Lazo ’12. Pierce’s novels were among the first books he ever read in English after moving to the U.S. from China, he added. Sarah Peterson, an Emerson College graduate student, said she admires the determination of Pierce’s characters. “They have a passion they want to follow, and they go for it,” she said. Peterson is currently finishing her first novel, for which Pierce was a major influence, she added. Pierce’s main characters, who often inspire online fan fiction, share another trait — for the most part, they are female. Though young adult books with female heroines are relatively commonplace today, they were a rarity when Pierce began writing in the 1970s. Still, at the lunch discussion, Pierce — a self-described “card-carrying” feminist — said, “We need more girl heroes.” “Tamora’s a good example of someone who’s feminist and writes feminist characters, but doesn’t hit you over the head with them in an obnoxious way,” organizer Kwoka said. Perhaps for this reason, Pierce has devoted male fans, too. Ben Marcus ’13, one of two boys at the 30-person lunch discussion, was “absurdly excited to meet her,” he said.

“My life has been informed by her books in so many ways,” he said, adding that they sparked his interest in medieval studies, feminist theory and queer theory. Suzanne Michalak ’11 said she didn’t get “the feminist angle” at all, but just enjoyed the books. They had such a big influence on her that she spoke about them for her high school application interview, she said. Though Brown students made up the majority of the audience for Saturday’s events, there were a few younger faces, too. Using her “puppy-dog eyes,” 12year old Emily Delsali convinced her parents to travel over two hours from Connecticut to see her favorite author, said her mom, Beverly Delsali. Emily said she wants to be a writer, too. And what does she want to write? “Fantasy, like Tamora Pierce,” she said. Fantastical future Pierce said she has noticed a shift in her readership in recent years. Her newer “Tricksters” series in particular attracts older teen readers. In general, older readers are starting to take a second look at teen fantasy, which is experiencing a “golden age,” she told The Herald. “There’s a lot of good reading there.” She attributed the demographic shift to the popularity of Harry Potter as well as the fact that older readers find “less gratuitous sex and violence” in young adult books. She added that young adult books tend to be better edited since editors have lighter loads and have to answer to teachers who want well-written examples for their students. Pierce currently has multiple book contracts on her to-do list. Her next book published will be “Mastiff,” which she read from at the Bookstore, followed by a short-story collection. She has a few other series to wrap up before she starts on a new one, which will focus on Numair, she said. Pierce said she is always curious to find out what will happen to her characters in the future. She spoke about these characters like old friends, saying, for example, that she is “really looking forward to working with Tris again.” When one student at the lecture asked her how it feels to write a character’s death, she responded, “It hurts.” Beyond character curiosity, Pierce revealed another motivation for her writing at the book-reading. “If I inspire other people to write,” she said, “I ensure that I never run out of stuff to read.”

Goldman calls suit ‘unfounded’ continued from page 1

lected by ACA Management LLC, an independent company with expertise in analyzing credit risk, rather than by a hedge fund that stood to gain if the mortgage-backed securities selected for Abacus were to default. The SEC said investors in these products may have lost more than a

billion dollars. “The product was new and complex but the deception and conflicts are old and simple,” said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in Friday’s release. “Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an

investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party.” A press release issued by Goldman on Friday called the charges “completely unfounded in law and fact” and promised to “vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation.”

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

A rts &C ulture

Exhibit raises awareness of gender dynamics in India continued from page 6 afterlife. “I pray that when I die (Krishna) will grant me less suffering than I have experienced in this life,” an Indian widow’s words in the exhibit read. The second series, “Ladli,” portrays “younger girls that have been cast out of their families,” Conklin said. “It is a powerful series, really quite moving,” she added. “For most families in India, a girl child represents a burden,” according to a caption, adding that “for generations midwives were paid extra to smother an unwanted child at birth.” For girls that do not suf fer infanticide or abortion — more common now because of medical technologies allowing sex determination prior to birth — there is an ever-present threat of rape or sex traf ficking, as described in multiple photograph captions. “Thousands of girls work behind barred windows, enslaved for years trying to earn their freedom,” one caption said. Another told the story of a girl, Kamla, who was sold to a brothel owner in Delhi. She was then tortured and forced to work in a locked room without ever being able to leave for two years, before she was able to escape. The photographs are portraits of infants, children, young adults, women and the elderly, showing that no age group is excluded from the mistreatment. Many show women who are dirty, wounded and, in one particular part of the exhibit, murdered. In 2005 there were over 6,000 dowr y deaths, or murders committed because of arguments over

dowries, according to a caption. There are photographs and stories of women who were drowned, burned and beheaded by their husbands, fathers and in-laws. The goal of the exhibit is to “make people aware of these situations,” Conklin said. Fazal Sheikh is an artist and activist who “spends a lot of time with the people” he photographs and thus “gets images that are much more meaningful” than portraits of strangers could be, Conklin said, adding that he is a “documentar y photographer.” Sheikh wrote in a photograph caption, “I returned to India to start from the beginning: to discover what women, the mother and her daughter, suffer from childbirth onward.” Sheikh has photographed refugees in locations such as Kenya and East Africa, Conklin said. He has been working with refugees since he graduated from Princeton, she said, adding that he is “ver y respected” in his field. In 2005 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship as well as the Henri Cartier-Bresson International Award, Conklin said. “Beloved Daughters” is a travelling exhibition organized by Princeton, she said. Bringing it to Brown began as the idea of Brown parent Peter McGill, and was then taken to the Bell Galler y committee for consideration, she added. The galler y’s goal in making this photographer’s work available to students parallels that of Fazal Sheikh — to make people aware of life for women in India, Conklin said, adding that it also coincides with Brown’s Year of India program to educate the community about Indian cultures.

Monday, April 19, 2010

“I returned to India to start from the beginning.” — Photographer Fazal Sheikh

Choral concert entertains, enthralls By Jonathan Chou Contributing Writer

The Brown University Chorus filled Sayles Hall with songs of worship and love Saturday night. Led by conductor Frederick Jodry, senior lecturer in music and director of choral activities, the chorus entranced a large audience. Featuring five works from various genres, the hour-long concert elicited thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Jodry said he was “delighted” by the way the performance went, adding that the audience was great and very responsive. The chorus, which is composed of 50 singers and is one of Brown’s oldest performing groups, began the concert with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “All-Night Vigil,” a Christian song of worship. The performance started off peacefully but quickly rose to a crescendo, giving the audience its first glimpse of the chorus’s musical abilities.

Robert Evett’s “The Mask of Cain” and Stephen Chatman’s “There is Sweet Music,” based on the poetry of Alfred Tennyson, Percey Shelley and William Blake, followed. The latter featured Sabrina Skau ’12 on oboe, an addition that complemented the vocals. The oboe’s sounds and the chorus’s voices resulted in a piece that celebrated the glory of music and wonders of life, such as “the dimpling stream” and “the painted birds laughing in the shade.” A light-hearted choreographed piece, Kirby Shaw’s “Plenty Good Room,” closed the first half of the concert, which preceded a recognition of graduating seniors. Jodry said it was imperative to choose a “wide array of music” so that the audience didn’t lose interest, since the performance was so long. The first three pieces were distinctly heavier than the fourth, which carried a more whimsical tone and “made the audience grin,” accomplishing its purpose of keeping the

audience engaged, Jodry said. The second half of the concert featured a performance of “Narcissus,” a cantata written and arranged by James Woodman. Normally, a composer is responsible only for arranging the music, but Woodman also “wrote the poem itself,” Jodry said. The composition, divided into nine movements, tells the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus, the child of river god Cephisus and nymph Leiriope. Narcissus was born with “strength and youth and grace unflawed,” as the song goes, and was sought after by all. The song culminates when Narcissus — the source of the word “narcissism” — becomes infatuated with his own reflection in a pool created by goddess of revenge Nemesis. He eventually vanishes because of this actual and metaphorical “endless stream of desire,” the program’s synopsis reads. After the piece’s last movement, the audience exploded into a standing ovation.

SportsMonday The Brown Daily Herald

Monday, April 19, 2010 | Page 8

M. Tennis

W. Tennis

M. CREw

W. CREw

w. Water polo

Harvard 5 Brown 2

Brown 2 Harvard 5

Brown Sweep, 5:40.0 in Varsity Eight

Brown Sweep 6:27.4 in Varsity Eight

Hartwick 12 Brown 9 (OT)

Brown 1 Dartmouth 6

Dartmouth 2 Brown 5

Northeastern 5:41.4

Boston University 6:44.6 Northeastern 6:46.1

SCOREBOARD

Harvard 10 Brown 14

M. lacrosse

No. 19 Bruno falls to No. 16 Yale By Andrew Braca Assistant Sports Editor

Saturday’s game between the Bears — the No. 19 men’s lacrosse team — and No. 16 Yale figured to pit two of the top teams in the country, but for much of the game only one team showed up. The Bulldogs (9-2, 3-2 Ivy) invaded Stevenson Field and smothered the Bears (5-5, 2-2) for three quarters, opening up a 13-5 lead, en route to a 14-11 victory. Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90 said Yale was more prepared in all aspects of the game. “I take responsibility for this loss,” he said. “I thought their coaches did a better job coaching their team, and I thought their players did a better job being ready to make plays.” “Yale made plays throughout,” Tiffany continued. “Granted, the last six or seven minutes there we stepped up, but that’s too little, too late. I’m proud of the fact that we made an effort at the end, don’t get me wrong, but we have to do a better job, as coaches and as players, for 60 minutes.” The Bulldogs gashed the Bears for five goals in the first quarter, which Tiffany said left him secondguessing his decision not to play more zone defense early. Brown could not answer and went into the second quarter down, 5-0. “Yale is a very good team with some amazing shooters,” said quadcaptain Thomas Muldoon ’10. “They came out firing and we came out kind of slow. After their first couple goals, we had the opportunity to answer and get our goals, (but) we had trouble finding the back of the net today until the fourth quarter, when we started to look like ourselves again.” The Bears showed signs of life

in the second quarter. Rob Schlesinger ’12 finally put Brown on the scoreboard 1:49 into the second, but Yale answered just 29 seconds later and quickly added another goal to take a 7-1 lead. Midway through the quarter, the Bears scored a pair of goals in quick succession after a Yale penalty. Following a goal by Andrew Feinberg ’11, Roger Ferguson ’13 quickly brought the ball up and fed Parker Brown ’12, who scored his first of three goals just 15 seconds after Feinberg’s. Yale’s Max Rodman then scored 11 seconds later when the Brown defender marking him lost his stick, but Feinberg followed with his second goal to cut the halftime deficit to 8-4. “We finally awoke,” Tiffany said. “We played some zone defense, which was what I should have called right from the get-go. The men finally stepped up and made some plays.” The Bulldogs reasserted their dominance in the third quarter, outscoring the Bears, 5-1, behind a suffocating defense that allowed Brown to put only 25 of its 44 shots on the cage — 23 of Yale’s 33 shots were on goal — and strong play in goal from Johnathan Falcone, who finished with 14 saves. “Their goalie played really well,” Tiffany said. “He stymied some earlier runs.” Brown’s only goal of the third came on a slick man-up play, as Muldoon charged the cage and received a pass from below from Collins Carey ’10 for the first of his three assists. The Bears went into the fourth quarter down, 13-5, before the light finally went on. Tiffany said the team started to play with aggressive abandon, not worrying about giving Yale breakaways. David Hawley ’11

scored twice in the opening seven minutes, before the goals started coming quickly in the final four minutes. Parker Brown scored the second of his three goals with 3:20 left, but Yale answered 31 seconds later when Matt Miller split the defense for his third goal. Muldoon scored an extra-man goal with 2:25 left, just nine seconds after Yale was flagged for the penalty. Nicholas Laster ’12 scored 40 seconds later, and Parker Brown completed the scoring with one minute left. “We’ve got some amazing talent on our offense,” Muldoon said. “Once we start getting excited and playing together, there aren’t many teams that can stop us. We’ve been scoring a lot of goals all season, and it’s because we have the ability to dodge, pass it and find the man who’s open, and then we’ve got some really good shooters, too.” Now the Bears will have to figure out how to bounce back from a debacle. Before Ivy League play resumes Saturday at Cornell (8-3, 3-1 Ivy), Brown will host crosstown rival Providence College (0-10) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Tiffany said he isn’t taking the Friars lightly. “This is going to be a challenge because we just got beat up on our own field,” he said. “We have two days to get ready for a dangerous Providence College team. I know people are going to say, ‘Well, Coach, they’re win-less,’ but they lost to Yale, 7-5. That was a close game throughout. We just got beat up by Yale. You look at those two scores, and PC’s right there with us.” Muldoon said the Bears just need to “have a good couple practices and get refocused. We lost this game today, but sometimes you just gotta put the past behind you and look forward to the next game.”

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Brown defeated Harvard on Sunday in both parts of a doubleheader.

Baseball

Pitching leads Bears to two ‘huge’ wins over Harvard By Tony Bakshi Spor ts Staf f Writer

The baseball team is 3-18 against non-conference opponents this season. But when it comes to Ivy League baseball, no squad is playing better. The Bears (11-20, 8-2 Ivy) swept their doubleheader against the Harvard Crimson (11-20, 4-6) Sunday afternoon, and extended their in-conference winning streak to seven straight games. Head Coach Marek Drabinski called the division contests “huge.” Brown won both games by comfortable margins over the error-prone Harvard team, defeating the Crimson in the opener, 10-3, and in the second matchup, 7-1. Brown 10, Harvard 3 Kevin Carlow ’13 hurled a complete game in the opener, but it did not look like he would stick around long in the first inning. Carlow loaded the bases after getting just one out, with Har vard’s number-five hitter coming up to bat. But Harvard catcher Tyler Albright lined into a double play to second baseman Chris Tanabe ’10, which helped Carlow escape the jam. “He battled,” Drabinski said. “I really like the way he competes. He seems to get stronger when the situation gets tougher.” In the top of the third inning, the Bears scored three runs after getting some help from the Crimson defense. Har vard third baseman Jeff Reynolds could not make the play on a ground ball and Bruno took advantage of the extra out. Cody Slaughter ’13 hit a two-RBI double and Matt Colantonio ’11 drove in Slaughter with a base hit. Last week’s Herald Athlete of the Week Ryan Zrenda ’11 again contributed at the plate. Zrenda hit his eighth home run of the year, a solo shot, in the fourth inning, and went a perfect three-for-three at the plate overall.

Brown 7, Harvard 1 The Bears got a sterling pitching effort from Will Weidig ’10 in the second game. Weidig came into the game with an 11.33 ERA but pitched extremely well at O’Donnell Field yesterday afternoon. He scattered five hits and pitched six scoreless innings before being charged with the Crimson’s only run in the bottom of the seventh. “Will pitched fantastic,” Drabinski said. “He had some real quick innings, and would throw up zeroes after every time we scored.” As in the first game, the Bruno bats took advantage of some sloppy Crimson defense. On the very first play of the game, Graham Tyler ’12 capitalized on a Har vard fielding error to advance to second base on a single. He came around to score later in the inning. In the second, Tyler reached base on another fielding error. Nick Punal ’10 scored an unearned run on the play, giving the Bears a 2-0 lead. Harvard threatened in the bottom of the seventh, with Brown holding a 5-0 lead. Weidig loaded the bases on two hits and a hit batter and was replaced by Andrew Bakowski ’11. Bakowski walked the first batter he faced, but then struck out the next two to preserve a four-run lead for Bruno. “Andrew was great,” Drabinski said. “He walked the batter on a 3-2 pitch, which I thought could have been called strike three. But he got us out of the bases-loaded situation.” Because of inclement weather, the Bears must return to O’Donnell Field on Monday afternoon for two more games against their division opponent. But Drabinski is already considering the looming threat of the Dartmouth Big Green, the 2009 Ivy League champions who sit two games behind Brown in the Rolfe Division. “We have to keep winning, and put as much distance between ourselves and Dartmouth before they come in next weekend.”

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports M onday

Monday, April 19, 2010

“Towards the end, we had a lot of energy because we were fighting back.” — Kaela McGilloway ’12

W. LAcroSSE

Brown drops two games, but one was a ‘victory in defeat’ By Katie DeAngelis Contributing Writer

In its last two home games of the season, the women’s lacrosse team lost to both Cornell on Friday and Boston College on Sunday in two close matchups. Cornell edged out Brown with just 1.5 seconds left on the clock, and BC beat Brown with 11 seconds left in the second overtime. But the Bears left the field Sunday feeling positive about their performance against a strong BC team. “I think (how we played against BC) gives us a lot of momentum and confidence going forward to play Penn next weekend,” Lindsay Minges ’13 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “I know we can repeat our performance and leave the field without any regrets, as we did (Sunday).” Cornell 10, Brown 9 On a bitter, cold Friday afternoon, the Bears fell to Cornell in the last second, following a controversial call that resulted in a free position shot for Cornell. This disappointing loss ended the team’s three-game winning streak. “The Cornell game was a huge game for us because we were both fighting for a spot in the Ivy tournament so we were all so excited and pumped for the game,” wrote Paris Waterman ’11 in an e-mail to The Herald. “We really felt like we played so hard and with so much confidence, but we were unlucky in the final seconds, which was so heartbreaking for us.” With two back-to-back goals off free position shots from Waterman, Brown went up two. Cornell responded, and Katelyn Caro ’12 rebutted a minute later. Ten minutes into the first half, Brown led, 3-1. But in the final 10

minutes of the half, Cornell scored three in a row and led the Bears at halftime, 4-3. Brown started off the second half with intensity. With a goal from Minges in the first minute, the Bears pulled even. But the momentum quickly swung the other way, as Cornell scored three in a row within a twominute span. For the next 10 minutes, Brown and Cornell exchanged goals, each scoring twice. Down 9-6 with seven minutes left in the game, Kaela McGilloway ’12, reigning Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week, scored three times in six minutes, tying the score, 9-9, with a minute left in play. With just 1.5 seconds left, Cornell’s Kate Dewey scored on a free position shot. “The call by the refs was a hard one, and was definitely a big deciding factor in the outcome of the game,” McGilloway said. Cornell was awarded the controversial free position attempt, despite what looked like a charge on Cornell’s account. Both Brown defender Bacie Winship ’11 and goalie Isabel Harvey ’12 were knocked to the ground during Dewey’s run. “As unfortunate as it was, there were things we could have done earlier in the game to prevent this scenario,” McGilloway said. “We played tentatively in the beginning of the game. Towards the end, we had a lot of energy because we were fighting back. We needed to have the same level of energy that we had at the end throughout the entire game.” BC 9, Brown 8 After a hard-fought game, with neither team ever leading by more than two goals, BC scored with 11 seconds left in sudden-death overtime, handing the Bears a loss in

their final home game of the season. Sunday’s game was the last home game for seniors Bethany Buzzell, Kara Kelly, Kiki Manners and Molly McCarthy. “Instead of moping about the loss on Friday, we really wanted to bounce back on Sunday against BC,” Waterman wrote. “We came out and played an awesome game together as a team.” Minges added, “As a team, we all felt so positive after today’s game, knowing that we played our best against a very good BC team.” BC scored the first goal of the game, 10 minutes into the first half. A minute later, Waterman responded from the Bears. In the last 15 minutes, BC scored twice, sandwiching a goal from Alexa Caldwell ’11 to put BC ahead, 3-2, at the half. The back-and-forth action continued in the second half, when there were five ties. Every time Brown evened the score, BC responded with a goal to give the Eagles a lead. With 17 minutes left in regulation, backto-back goals from McGilloway and Minges gave the Bears their first lead of the game. Five minutes later, BC tied the score again. With 8:37 left, Kara Kelly ’10 scored for the Bears, and Brown led, 8-7, until the last minute of the half, when BC’s Hannah Alley forced the game into overtime. With 11 seconds left of the second

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Boston College defeated Brown by one in women’s lacrosse on Sunday.

overtime, Alley scored again, giving BC the victory over Brown. “To lose the game against BC in sudden-death overtime was a testament to what the rest of the game was like. Both teams played their heart out,” Caldwell wrote. “Even though the score (differential) was the same as the game against Cornell, it wasn’t as disappointing,” McGilloway said. “In previ-

ous years, we’ve lost to BC by a lot more, so the fact that the score was so close says a lot about the growth of Brown women’s lacrosse in the past years. It was a victory in defeat because we proved to everyone that we have become a stronger team.” Next Sunday at 1 p.m., the Bears will play their final regular-season game against No. 6 Penn, which has won its last 27 Ivy League games.

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Monday, April 19, 2010

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

Statistics misused in blood donation ban piece To the Editor: Emily Breslin’s ’10 column (“Brown, the FDA, ROTC and discrimination,” April 15) states that, because 48.1 percent of people living with HIV attributed their infection to male-to-male contact, indiscriminately excluding MSM (men who have sex with men) from donating blood makes our blood supply safer. I take issue with her use of statistics. According to a 2010 CDC fact sheet, MSM do indeed constitute about 48 percent of those living with HIV, or about 532,000 people. Based on current estimates by the CDC and Census Bureau, there are about 6,000,000 MSM in the United States. This means that about nine percent of American MSM are HIV positive. The rest, about 5.5 million people, are inexplicably barred from donating blood. For a number of reasons, people having unprotected anal sex with varied partners are at the greatest risk of contracting HIV. The FDA, however, does not distinguish between types of sexual contact. Furthermore, since all donated blood is tested for HIV, and viral presence in donations is detected about three weeks after infection, the FDA makes no distinction as to when sexual contact occurred, though it does for heterosexuals. The FDA’s policy is unfair because it (mis)uses general trends in the diverse MSM community to discriminate against individual gay and bisexual men. Not all MSM engage in risky sexual practices, and the use of misleading statistics to shove this message down the throats of the American public is less about legitimate worries over the blood supply and more about making homosexuality seem unhealthy and dangerous. Andrew Bergmanson ’11 April 15

correction The editorial cartoon in the April 16 Herald was incorrectly credited. The cartoon was by Julia Streuli. The Herald regrets the error.

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

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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

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abe pressman

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UFB leadership endorsements Tomorrow, the Brown student body will have the task of choosing the leadership for next year’s Undergraduate Finance Board (UFB), the group responsible for apportioning funding for student groups. We first want to encourage the entire student body to take time to research the candidates and vote. When they do, we hope that students elect Adam Kiki-Charles ’11 and Herald columnist Tyler Rosenbaum ’11 for UFB chair and vice chair, respectively. Kiki-Charles has the requisite experience, as he represented 17 student groups during his two semesters on the board. We were impressed with his pledge for greater representative training. To accomplish this goal, he plans increased communication between UFB members during the summer and training before the new school year starts. He also promised thorough scrutiny of representatives’ progress throughout the year. Kiki-Charles expressed a desire to strengthen communication between the Board and student groups by sending meeting minutes to group leaders and supplying more robust fund-raising advice for groups. Further, we agree with his assessment that the UFB Web site is underwhelming, and support his pledge to provide a more accessible feedback mechanism for groups and the greater student body. Both candidates — Kiki-Charles and Salsabil Ahmed ’11 — are extremely competent and experienced. Ahmed has admirably served the board for two full years, and demonstrated a convincing vision for greater advocacy, guidance, and support for student groups. Further, Ahmed pledges to collaborate with the University administration to advocate for greater financial aid support for members of groups.

Like Kiki-Charles, she also hopes to enhance the Board’s accountability and collaboration with the student body. We would feel comfortable with Ahmed as UFB chair. For vice chair, we believe Rosenbaum is the candidate most likely to improve UFB’s transparency and foster a productive relationship between UFB and the Undergraduate Council of Students. For the last two semesters, he has served as representative, secretary and webmaster for UFB. His meeting minutes (available on the UFB Web site) proved very detailed and organized, providing clear and cogent notes for the student body. Further, Rosenbaum has served on UCS for four semesters, and this unique qualification would allow him to work closely with the Council. Rosenbaum has also worked on the Capital Closet project, under which UFB would buy commonly used event equipment to loan to student groups. Rosenbaum’s opponent, Jason Lee ’12, emphasized professionalism and etiquette on the Board. We appreciated Lee’s goals, especially since the vice chair plays a large role in maintaining orderly discussions and overseeing meetings. Though we feel that Rosenbaum would make a better candidate for vice chair, we hope that he will remain mindful of this element of Lee’s platform. Endorsements for the positions of UCS president and vice president will appear in tomorrow’s Herald.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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

Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Monday, April 19, 2010 | Page 11

Take (ac)count of immigrants Yue Wang Opinions Columnist The National Census Day passed quietly on Brown campus on April 1, 2010. In fact, many of us didn’t receive the census form in our mailboxes until the second week of April, while average American households received the forms in early March. The American Constitution stipulates that all residents of the land, citizens and non-citizens alike, be counted in the census. The residence rule for the 2010 census also specifies that foreign students living in the U.S. while attending college here be counted where they live and sleep most the time. So for much of the past month I had looked forward to getting the census form in the mail. When I didn’t get one on the National Census Day, a profound feeling of loss gnawed at me. I felt marginalized and ignored in a momentous event in American politics when political maps are redrawn and the political weight of each state is recalibrated. But my complaint must sound very atypical. Elsewhere in the nation, census workers were fervently mobilizing troops to address an altogether different problem, which is the pandemic political indifference to the census among the American populace, especially among the immigrant population. Instead of being ignored by the census bureau, immigrant groups have become the focus of community outreach efforts in the 2010

census due to their reluctance to participate. To ensure an accurate population count, the census workers need to persuade and cajole those who received the form to fill it out and return it. Given the national campaign to get the tens of millions of immigrants involved in the census process, one has to conclude that the conspiracy to bar just a few hundred foreign students at Brown from the population count does not exist; on the contrary, there seems to be a genuine desire to include all foreigners and immigrants, even those who

The most immediate fear an illegal immigrant would have when he or she receives the census form is that whatever information he or she puts in the form would be turned over to immigration authorities. Despite the census bureau’s public assurance that no such information will be shared with other government agencies, volunteers and census workers found they needed to go to extraordinary lengths to assure the immigrants of the absolute confidentiality of their personal information and gain their trust.

At the heart of the puzzle and frustration is the cold fact that the courting of the immigrant communities every 10 years cannot compensate for the distrust and fear immigrants in America have in an atmosphere of perennial intimidation and harassment. are in this country illegally, in this important political process. This is why it is both puzzling and frustrating to see the ambitious effort to reach out to the immigrant communities to fall far short of its goal to get every immigrant counted. And at the heart of the puzzle and frustration is the cold fact that the courting of the immigrant communities every 10 years cannot compensate for the distrust and fear immigrants in America have in an atmosphere of perennial intimidation and harassment.

Yet many other forces constantly work to undermine immigrants’ trust and confidence in the authorities. Recently, it took a Supreme Court ruling to establish that “lawyers have a duty to warn their non-citizen clients about the potentially disastrous immigration consequences of pleading guilty to a criminal charge.” It is indeed shocking that the need for honest legal counsel was even under debate in the first place. It is also obvious that forcing an immigrant to reveal her immigrant status before he or she

can report a crime constitutes a big risk to public safety and renders immigrant communities in particular vulnerable to violence and crime. Illegal immigrants’ reluctance to cooperate with the police and other government agencies has resulted in a life outside legal protection. It is the consensus of police forces in the country that the best policy to police the immigrant population and ensure public safety is to bring immigrants out of a life in shadow. Treating illegal immigrants as dangerous criminals not only ignores the basic fact that the immigrants are actually the most vulnerable victims of crimes, but creates obstacles to any real solution to crimes. Similarly, the huge effort of the 2010 census to get every resident in the country counted points to the profound wisdom that a truthful counting of immigrants in the United States serves as the necessary foundation of any reasonable and rational discussion of immigration in American political life. Perpetuating immigrants’ fear and distrust of lawyers, policemen and the census bureau only precludes genuine political solutions. The presence of a vast immigrant population in the U.S. is a fact. Any sensible solution to deal with the problems arising from immigration should start with a realistic step to count and account for the new immigrants to this land.

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

Toward a more productive dialogue on the Catholic Church and religion Adrienne Langlois Opinions Columnist In the wake of any disaster, both victims and bystanders find themselves haunted by difficult questions. The recent child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is one such disaster. With such a widespread range of harm and a confounding reaction from the Vatican, the scandal has sparked many tricky discussions. Initial reactions, especially those on Brown’s campus, have been concerned mainly with the question of “What is wrong?” In a recent column, Dominic Mhiripiri ’12 sought to distance the wider array of Christian religions from Catholicism by criticizing the institution of the Catholic Church. David Sheffield ’11 took Mhiripiri’s criticisms further, using the scandal as an opportunity to criticize religious belief in general. Both columnists are correct to revile the widespread abuse of children by Catholic priests and the Church’s subsequent coverup. But simple condemnation of the actions of members of the Church hierarchy does little more than fan the flames of increasingly vitriolic rhetoric. “What is wrong?” is indeed an important question to ask. But it needs to be accompanied by others, most importantly, “How can we make sure this never happens again?” To answer these questions, one must delve deeper than simple generalizations based on anger and actually seek to understand the offending institution. In portrayals of the Catholic Church as corrupt, monolithic and

infallible, critics overlook the nuances of doctrine, institutional structure and history that help explain the Church’s response to the sexual abuse scandals and initiate a productive critique. While it is true that the institution has been manipulated in the past to maintain power, focusing overwhelmingly on this fact overlooks the true reasons for the Church’s responses. Take the concept of infallibility. Contrary to popular belief, the Pope and Church are

this same history of defensiveness. Such an explanation of the Church’s actions certainly does not exonerate the institution’s response to these sex scandals or its many other negative actions and inactions throughout its long history. But it does provide a framework in which to initiate productive reform. Reform is possible. Although the Church is undeniably conservative by nature, history reveals the institution is indeed amenable to reform and even reversal of its decisions. The

Simplistic critiques of the Church, and of religion more generally, not only close the door on the potential for reforming an institution and preventing future horrors, but also prevent productive dialogue by implicitly dismissing those who choose to remain within the religion to engage in this reform. not constantly infallible in every statement or action they choose to make. Papal infallibility, “ex cathedra,” is a specific convention which has only been invoked seven times in the history of the Church. Infallibility is a controversial doctrine which has been critiqued and condemned heavily from both inside and outside the Church, but contrary to Mhiripiri’s statement, it is based in the interpretation of multiple scriptural references, as is the rest of Catholic doctrine and dogma. In the wake of the Church’s tremendous conservative power today, it is easy to forget that Christianity was once a minority faith whose members were tortured and killed for their beliefs. The Catholic Church’s otherwise puzzling response is a continuation of

Council of Trent, initiated in 1545, responded to the critiques of Luther and Protestantism with vigorous reform, even as it sought to reaffirm the power of the institution. Similarly, the Second Vatican Council of 1962 was a reaction to increasing calls to modernize from inside and outside the Church hierarchy. The Church has even reversed its statements under harsh pressure. One recent example comes in the case of the military government of 1960s Brazil, a country in which the Church has historically held powerful sway. The Church had initially supported the conservative government for its opposition to communism, but when many of its bishops and priests were violently suppressed for their more liberal views, the Church was ultimately

forced to change its position and condemn the dictatorship. This reversal did not simply occur because the Vatican felt that its institution was under attack, but because thousands of members of the Catholic hierarchy openly and vocally opposed its position. A concerted effort of vocal opposition could have a similar effect in the case of the recent Church sexual abuse scandals. Simplistic critiques of the Church, and of religion more generally, not only close the door on the potential for reforming an institution and preventing future horrors, but also prevent productive dialogue by implicitly dismissing those who choose to remain within the religion to engage in this reform. People continue to participate in institutions even while strongly disagreeing with decisions and actions made by their leaders because they believe they themselves can be agents for change. Remaining in the Catholic Church in hopes of reforming the institution is not so dissimilar from continuing to participate in the American electoral system when one’s desired candidate is not elected. Of course, I cannot claim to speak for all those who espouse a religious faith, or even those who identify as Christian or Catholic; everyone’s spiritual (and aspiritual) experiences are different. It is this diversity of experience we must draw on as we seek to open a dialogue to answer these questions about a very difficult subject.

Adrienne Langlois ’10 is indeed Catholic and would like to initiate a full-scale campaign to establish liberation theology as a viable doctrine of the Church.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

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Chorus celebrates glory of music

Women’s lacrosse ends season

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c a l e n da r Monday, April 19

tomorrow, April 20

7 p.m. — Scary Arabs and Sexy Hijabis, List 120

5 P.M. — “When Experiments Travel,” Pembroke 205

8 P.M. — Truck Farm: A Wicked Delicate Film and Food Project, Salomon 101

5 P.M. — Noam Chomsky Lecture, Salomon 101

comics Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Vegan White Bean Casserole, Savory Chicken Stew, Country Wedding Soup, Butterscotch Cookies

Lunch — Chicken Cutlet Sandwich, Macaroni and Cheese, Asparagus, Nacho Bar

Dinner — Vegan Roasted Veggie Stew, Grecian Style Beef, Squash Rolls, Angel Food Cake

Dinner — Roast Pork Calypso, Coconut Ginger Rice, Ziti, Angel Food Cake

to m o r r o w

59 / 40

64 / 45

Monday, April 19, 2010

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

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to day

Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

crossword

Fruitopia | Andy Kim

Hippomaniac | Mat Becker

Cabernet Voltaire| Abe Pressman

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