Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 52 | Tuesday, April 20, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Agreement between students disputed
Dorms vie to save the most energy
G oing G reen
By Luisa Robledo Staff Writer
Female student’s lawyer says rape claim is true By Ben Schreckinger and Sydney Ember Metro and News Editors Hilary Rosenthal / Herald
A lawyer for William McCormick III — a former member of the class of 2010 who is suing the University, over a dozen employees, a female student and her father — said in federal court last week that a statement made by the lawyer for the female student and her father during that same hearing was the first assertion so far in the case that the female student’s rape accusation — the veracity of which has significant ramifications for the outcome of the litigation — was not false. “This statement to that effect in the courtroom on Monday and its appearance in newspaper articles on this case is a complete surprise,” J. Scott Kilpatrick, McCormick’s lawyer, told The Herald. “In the seven months continued on page 2
Environmentalists displayed their “Truck Farm” and screened documentary clips on Monday to advocate for local, sustainable food initiatives.
By Ben Noble Staff Writer
The University is partnering with the City of Providence to upgrade most of the traffic lights on Angell and Waterman streets. The project, which will “significantly reduce congestion,” is underway and will be completed over the summer, said Michael McCormick, assistant vice president for planning, design and construction. The lights on both streets between North Main Street and Way-
land Square have lost synchronization, causing congestion during peak hours, according to McCormick. “It should be synchronized in such a way that you can pass all the way through that corridor at a reasonable speed without stopping,” he said. “All these lights need to be hooked together to do that.” The improvements were conceived four years ago in the transportation component of Brown’s Institutional Master Plan, which was approved by the Providence City Plan Commission in July 2006.
BY JULIA LONGORIA Contributing Writer
Kim Perley / Herald file photo
inside
Brown Dining Services have hired two students to research local, sustainable food options for Brown’s dining halls.
www.browndailyherald.com
continued on page 2
U. and Providence partner to upgrade traffic signals
Student hires bring ‘real’ food to the Ratty
News.....1–5 Editorial....6 Opinion.....7 Today........8
Brown’s EcoReps has dared students in Poland House, Machado House, Slater Hall and Hope College to turn off the lights. In an effort to save energy, the student group launched an inter-dorm competition on April 11 to see which dorm will be able to consume the least energy over a three-week period. “We want to raise awareness on energy efficiency,” said Adam May-
Last semester, Brown Dining Services hired two students to search for “real food” — food that is local, fair, ecologically sound and humane — and this Thursday at the Sharpe Refectory’s Earth Day Dinner Special, the Brown community will see what they’ve found. The Herald reported in October that Brown’s chapter of the Real Food Challenge, a national campaign to increase sustainable food in university dining halls, received $25,000 from President Ruth Simmons’ discretionary fund for a two-year pilot project, creating paid student jobs in Dining Services. Two students were hired: Kyle Lemle ’11, the Real Food Initiative public relations and education coordinator, and Emily Viggiano ’12, the Real Food Initiative progress coordinator. Lemle said the $25,000 goes toward the two student hires and to offset the continued on page 4
The University hired transportation consulting firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. to prepare the transportation component. While the lights were originally synchronized with internal clocks, the firm conducted a field review in September 2005 and found they had slowly lost their coordination over time. “Say you were going 30 miles per hour; you would still end up stopping at all the lights,” McCormick said. In the transportation component of the Plan, published in April 2006,
the firm called the progression of vehicles traveling on Angell and Waterman “poor” with the signals causing “unnecessary delays to both vehicles and pedestrians throughout the day.” The firm singled out the light coordination where Waterman and Angell streets meet Benefit Street as particularly “deficient” during peak hours. The firm advised the University to upgrade the signal timing mechacontinued on page 3
State House weighs bills to end pot prohibition By Claire Peracchio Senior Staff Writer
Two bills that would end the criminal prohibition of marijuana use came before the Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee last Wednesday. The first bill — proposed by Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence, whose district includes College Hill — would legal-
METRO ize the drug under certain conditions. The second bill — introduced by Rep. John G. Edwards, D-Tiverton and Portsmouth — would decriminalize marijuana consumption and levy a $150 fine for possession. The two bills come on the heels of a March recommendation by a state Senate study commission that the state decriminalize small amounts of the drug. While Ajello took into account the commission’s findings, she said that her support for legalization arose large-
ly from a realization that the state’s marijuana policy is ineffective. “Marijuana laws are not working,” Ajello said. She cited the fiscal toll of imprisoning marijuana offenders as well as the fact that “more people of color are arrested and imprisoned for small amounts of marijuana.” Letters urging legalization from Professor of Economics Glenn Loury and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Community Health David Lewis — who both also served on the Senate marijuana commission — further contributed to her decision to propose the bill, Ajello added. Ajello’s bill would legalize the use of up to one ounce of marijuana, provided that users refrain from driving under the influence, among other restrictions. Cultivators and distributors would be required to register with the state government. The bill would also establish a “verification system” so that law enforcement can ensure that continued on page 5
News, 3
News, 4
Opinions, 7
ELECTION CHANGES UFB and UCS may change campaign rules for next year
Staying in service? Students convene in response to the Swearer Center’s staff cuts
a privileged life Brian Judge ’11 urges students to come to terms with their privileged lives
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
herald@browndailyherald.com
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010
“People haven’t really changed their behavior.” — Carmen Valdivia ’10, Machado House resident
Energy-saving competition may expand Students’ agreement disputed continued from page 1
continued from page 1
nard ’11, one of EcoRep’s coordinators. “And we just want to get people jazzed about this.” EcoReps will have access to the meter that measures the energy each dorm consumes, Maynard said. They will post the results on their blog and keep students updated with tips to save more energy. The student group, which promotes green initiatives on campus, chose the four dorms because they are smaller and easier to target than other residence halls. “We want to know what to expect before we tackle the beast of a campus-wide competition,” Maynard said. According to Facilities Management’s Director of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Initiatives Christopher Powell, the group will use the results of this competition to “fine-tune the program.” Facilities Management, which sponsors EcoReps, is overseeing the project. “We will learn from it and create a long-term program,” Powell said. Each resident of the winning dorm will receive a $5 gift certificate to a business on Thayer Street, and a percentage of the money saved on utility costs will go to a campus function of their choosing, Powell said. “It’s a real initiative to spread awareness and to educate students,”
this case has been pending, neither he nor anyone else on behalf of the (female student and her father) have disputed that the claims made three years ago were false.” Joseph Cavanagh, the lawyer for the female student and her father, did not return requests for comment, and neither the student nor her father could be reached for comment Monday. The Herald is withholding her name because she may have been the victim of a sex crime. The hearing took place April 12 in front of Judge William Smith in Rhode Island District Federal Court. During the hearing, Smith unsealed the case, the existence of which was previously unacknowledged in any publicly available document. McCormick and his parents filed the claim following a September 2006 incident in which he was accused of raping the female student. The complaint states that McCormick was detained unlawfully and then sent home, and that this series of events has aggravated McCormick’s preexisting seizure condition. He and his parents are seeking unspecified damages from the defendants. The complaint accuses the University, President Ruth Simmons, Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98, Senior Vice President for Corporation Affairs and Governance Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 and 12 other University employees of breach of contract, false imprisonment and libel, among other counts of civil misconduct. The complaint also alleges that the University was guided by “financial self-interest” when handling the incident because the female student’s father, an alum, has donated to, and raised large sums of money for Brown. The truth of the rape accusation is a matter of contention with implications for the validity of a 2006 agreement between McCormick and the female student. In a motion to dismiss the claims against the female student and her father, Cavanagh cited the agreement, which stipulates “McCormick hereby releases and forever discharges (the female student) from any and all claims, demands, damages, remedies, contracts — express or implied — and causes of action of any
Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald
Residents of Hope College, pictured above, are participating in a contest to save energy, sponsored by EcoReps.
he added. To spread the word about the competition, EcoReps covered the walls of the dorms’ common areas
sudoku
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with posters and flyers. “There are signs around the kitchen and bathrooms to make you aware of it,” said Kelsey Keith ’11, who lives in Slater. “Seeing them is a constant reminder to make an extra push and double check if the lights are off when you leave the room.” Amy Heuer ’11, another Slater resident, said there’s a lot of unnecessary energy consumption that goes on in dorms. “It’s an awesome idea,” Heuer added. “Hopefully, this will make people think about how they can help out.” Carmen Valdivia ’10, who lives in Machado, said that she hasn’t felt the impact of the competition yet. “I haven’t seen much activity around the house,” Valdivia said. “People haven’t really changed their behavior.” The competition will end May 2. “I just hope people can realize how much their behavior can impact the environment,” Maynard said.
kind or nature whatsoever.” According to Cavanagh’s motion, this release nullifies any claim by McCormick against the female student. In the release, the female student also agreed not to press charges of any kind against McCormick. Kilpatrick conceded at the hearing that “if the release is valid as a matter of law, the McCormicks do not have cause of action against” the female student and her father. But he said legal precedent shows that, in effect, “there is no contract” if one party is agreeing “to not bring false criminal allegations” against another. According to Kilpatrick’s argument, if the female student’s 2006 allegation of rape against McCormick was made falsely, the agreement is not valid and cannot prevent McCormick from bringing a lawsuit against the female student. Kilpatrick also contended that the agreement was made “under duress” because Cavanagh threatened McCormick with criminal rape charges if he did not sign it. In an October 2006 e-mail to Walter Stone — McCormick’s attorney at the time — Cavanagh expressed displeasure at McCormick’s unwillingness to accede to the agreement, calling his reluctance “a mistake” and writing, “As you well know, the Brown disciplinary matter is the least of (McCormick’s) possible perils.” McCormick’s complaint calls the e-mail “a thinly veiled threat of criminal rape charges,” but Cavanagh has denied that characterization in court documents. “I’m not sure I see the same threat you contend,” Smith told Kilpatrick at last week’s hearing, but said a jury may have to determine whether the e-mail constitutes a threat of criminal charges. Originally, McCormick’s complaint claimed the e-mail constituted “extortion” by Cavanagh on behalf of the female student and her father, but it has since been changed to the claim of “duress.” The disputed agreement also mandated that McCormick withdraw from Brown and not enter Providence until the female student’s graduation, among other stipulations. McCormick declined to comment in an e-mail to The Herald. The parties are currently awaiting Smith’s ruling on defendants’ motions to dismiss before the case proceeds.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
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“Next year, we’re definitely going to try to increase the transparency of the system.”— Kening Tan ’12, election boards chair
Board will consider changes to UCS, UFB campaigns By Nicole Boucher Senior Staf f Writer
Max Monn / Herald
Traffic lights, including those at the intersection of Angell and Thayer streets, would be coordinated.
Project aims to cut traffic, save lives continued from page 1
nisms in partnership with the city’s Traffic Engineering Department. In a notice of approval dated August 10, 2006, the commission stated, “The cost of upgrading traffic signals to allow for synchronization shall be born by Brown University.” But according to McCormick, the University and the city ultimately reached an agreement in which each will pay for half of the project’s costs. McCormick said the new lights will be connected through a wireless mesh network that will ensure longterm coordination. The signals will also include vehicle detection sensors that will make intersections more efficient. “By allowing traffic to flow without having to stop, it creates gaps where cars and people can cross,” he said. “And at 2 a.m., if there is no car coming in the other direction, it won’t turn red.” In 2005, the firm completed traffic and pedestrian counts at intersections on College Hill. The firm projected what those counts would be in five years following the completion of various construction projects stipulated in the master plan, including the renovations of J. Walter Wilson and the construction of the Walk connecting Lincoln Field with Pembroke campus. The University constructed traffic lights where the Walk intersects Angell and Waterman streets, McCormick said. “We asked them to look specifically at the Walk that was being proposed at the time and its pedestrian crossings,” McCormick said. “They found a lot of congestion on Angell and Waterman, and we were going to introduce something that could, in fact, make it worse.” The firm also measured traffic flows in and out of campus and found that most cars traveling on Angell and Waterman streets do not stop at the University. “They are coming from East Providence and going downtown,” McCormick said. “This is basically a through corridor.” In 2005, the firm projected just over 500 pedestrians per hour would be crossing Waterman and Angell streets in the afternoon in 2010. The University recently hired the firm to re-examine the pedestrian crossings at heavy intersections and determine whether its projections turned out to be true.
In this new study, which will begin next month, the firm will also conduct a “broad overview of the campus to look at individual pedestrian crossings and specifically the ones where we’ve had incidents,” McCormick said. He added that the firm will likely consult with the newly-formed pedestrian safety review committee, which began meeting in March. The committee was created last month in the wake of two serious accidents that “raised sensitivity and awareness about pedestrian safety on campus,” the committee’s co-chair and Senior Vice President for Corporation Affairs and Governance Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 said at a faculty meeting, The Herald reported on March 4. On Feb.12, Avi Schaefer ’13 was killed by a drunken driver at the intersection of Hope and Thayer streets, where there is no traffic signal. Nine days later, Erinn Phelan ’09 and Alma Guerrero ’09 MD’13 were seriously injured in a hit-and-run crash in New York City. In an e-mail to The Herald, Carey wrote that the current signal improvements “will result in a smoother passage of vehicles along two major
streets passing through the Brown campus.” “We anticipate the improvements will benefit both drivers and pedestrians,” he wrote. The committee has split into two groups, according to Carey. One will focus on “education, awareness and enforcement” while the other will look at “campus infrastructure, which includes traffic signals, signage, pedestrian crossings and curb cuts,” he wrote. Members consist of students, faculty and administrators, including McCormick and Director of Public Safety Mark Porter. The committee is co-chaired by Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn. The committee meets every several weeks and hopes to develop recommendations by the end of the semester, according to Carey. “The goal would be to have those (completed) by sometime next fall,” McCormick said. “It’s always important to stay on top of things like pedestrian safety,” he added. “They just need constant vigilance.”
The elections board will consider changes to campaigning rules for future elections in light of questions raised at a hearing Sunday afternoon by two candidates for the Undergraduate Finance Board, said elections board member Sarah Rutherford ’12. “Next year, we’re definitely going to try to increase the transparency of the system,” elections board chair Kening Tan ’12 told The Herald. Rutherford added that by bringing up issues during campaigning, candidates provide input for discussion about improving the rules for future elections. At Sunday’s hearing, chair candidate Adam Kiki-Charles ’11 and vice chair candidate Jason Lee ’12 questioned whether candidates should be allowed to run on a ticket with an unopposed candidate who only needs 5 percent of the vote to win, Rutherford said. In UCS and UFB elections, “running on a ticket only refers to campaigning strategies,” Rutherford said, adding that “one of the biggest advantages and incentives to running on a ticket is the advantage of gaining advertising” through “the ability to mention another candidate positively.” Using a point system where each type of campaigning costs points, individual candidates receive 100 points and $40 to campaign, while running on a ticket together allots a total of 150 points and $60. Kiki-Charles and Lee voiced concerns over whether students running unopposed would give all of the campaigning funds to the candidate with whom they shared
the ticket, thus giving them an advantage over individual candidates. Chair candidate Salsabil Ahmed ’11, who is running on a ticket with uncontested representative candidate Kelly Wess ’11, The Herald’s sales director, told The Herald that running on a ticket with a chair is positive because it gives the representatives with more attention than they would otherwise get while campaigning. Since representatives “do the bulk of the work” for UFB, Ahmed said, they should not be “marginalized” during the campaign. The elections board ultimately concluded that because no groups violated rules regarding how funds are allocated when running on a ticket together, the issue would be considered for future elections, but could not be applied in this case, according to Rutherford. Kiki-Charles and Lee also asked for more transparency in how candidates spend their funds. Rutherford said the elections board will also examine the rules pertaining to this issue for the future. “I just wanted to raise the question so that it can be considered for next year,” Kiki-Charles said. Campaigning can be done in very creative ways, he added. Rutherford also said that this year the elections board has run into issues with vague rules pertaining to campaigning through Twitter, blogging and listser vs, and more concrete rules should be established in the future. Campaigning is now winding to a close with the polls opening at 12 p.m. Tuesday and closing at 12 p.m. on Thursday.
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“There’s a lot of controversy over what’s sustainable.” — Emily Viggiano ’12, Real Food Initiative’s progress coordinator
Sustainable, local food options becoming more prominent, despite costs continued from page 1 cost increase from purchasing the more expensive food products. Jonathan Leibovic ’12, a Real Food advocate, said in the original proposal, Brown’s Real Food chapter requested eight student positions, but in the course of negotiations with BDS, the administration, Human Resources and the Office of Campus Life, it was determined that funding was available for only two Real Food positions. The Real Food interns work with two existing Community Harvest interns — Maddie Brown ’10 and James Tarrant ’10.5, according to the BDS Web site. Those positions have been around for a few years and comprise the “local purchasing arm of the program,” Leibovic said.
Real food must be “local, environmentally sensitive, fair and humane,” Lemle said. “So basically the point of Real Food is to promote conscious consumption, to know where our food is coming from, to know who has produced our food and how, and to (take responsibility for) the broader footprint of our eating, which is such an everyday act that we do so unmindfully. Most people don’t care because they don’t know that they should care or know how the food industry works, especially in large institutional food establishments like the Ratty.” Viggiano did a study of the top 100 items consumed at the Ratty, contacting the farms, distributors and producers and applying the Real Food criteria to each of those items, Lemle said. There are different grades of real food,
depending on how many criteria they meet, and most of the food, Lemle said, met only the local criterion or none at all. Viggiano then “identified places to make switches that are both economically feasible and make a big impact,” she said. “Right now, we’ve increased our purchases of (local) Rhody Fresh milk to 65 percent,” Viggiano said. “We have switched to albacore tuna from tongol tuna, which was based on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch guidelines. We have switched to all fair-trade and organic bananas. We worked with a local seafood distributor that we get our fresh seafood from and switched all our menu fresh seafood items to sustainable species, although there’s a lot of controversy over what’s sustainable in the seafood world.” Viggiano said student involvement in the Real Food debate is always appreciated, since “it’s not always cut and dry which are the best options.” The Brown Animal Rights Club has been involved in campaigning for humanely raised eggs from cage-free chickens, Viggiano said, and BDS is in the process of switching both their liquid and whole eggs to a certified organic, certified humane provider. Lemle said he works assisting Vig-
giano with the switches, educating the whole department and staff on what Real Food is and why it’s important, and publicizing Real Food and the switches BDS has made to the larger Brown community. He said he has been working this semester to provide more Real Food options in the new Blue Room that will open in Faunce House next semester. “I go to the sampling meetings or product presentations for the Blue Room as the representative of Real Food,” Lemle said. “Basically, I get paid to sit there and eat food. Delicious, delicious food. While we won’t get 100 percent Real products in the Blue Room, for most things we’re going to really think about how we can get the best product.” “The goal (for BDS) is to understand where we are now, so we can more clearly identify the most productive steps to move forward,” wrote Associate Director of Dining Services Peter Rossi in an e-mail to The Herald. An obstacle to making food more “real” for BDS comes from food producers and manufacturers, who “don’t have required information readily available for each food item,” Rossi wrote. Viggiano said financial barriers and “accommodating the spectrum of needs that students have,” such as having beef every day, are also obstacles for BDS in increasing Real Food. While some individual Blue Room items may increase in price, Real Food
will not increase the meal plan cost to students, according to Lemle. “We recognize how much food already costs at Brown, and it takes a lot of work to source Real Food products economically, but that’s the goal. That’s the main concern students have with the initiative — that it will be too expensive.” Thursday’s Earth Day Dinner Special will work as sort of “kick-off for showing the new switches” at the Ratty, Viggiano said. Planning for the event began last summer, and the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown will be offering the same menu on Thursday, Rossi wrote. The goal of the dinner, he wrote, “is to bring awareness of the wonderful local items that are available, the importance of where food is sourced and to have discussions regarding the food choices we make.” Lemle said BDS will save the leftovers as part of an experiment, asking students to scrape their plates into a bucket to weigh the amount of waste the Ratty produces throughout the night. Dining Services is “really open to the initiative and working hard on the initiative,” Viggiano said. “I think one thing (BDS) need to know is that students are supporting these switches because they really need to satisfy what students want. I think if students are supportive of real food, being vocal about that is a good thing.”
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“I think that civil possession is a pretty normal occurrence for kids and young adults.” — Rep. John G. Edwards, D-Tiverton
General Assembly debates marijuana ban continued from page 1
marijuana retailers are approved by the state. While this would require new infrastructure to regulate the market for marijuana, Ajello asserted that the bill would be a financial boon for the state. “The taxing and the licensing would pay for that infrastructure, and the savings from law enforcement effort and imprisonment would actually increase state revenue,” Ajello said. According to Ajello, decriminalization of the drug would not go far enough because state resources would still be directed at punishing cultivators and distributors. The resulting conflict with federal laws designating marijuana as an illegal drug “is of some concern,” she said. But the federal government under President Barack Obama seems disinclined to intervene in state marijuana policy, particularly in light of California’s progressive laws regarding the drug, Ajello said. Mischa Steiner ’10, treasurer of the national board of directors of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and former president of the Brown chapter, said the group was “pleasantly surprised” by Ajello’s decision to introduce the legalization bill. “We, in fact, did not expect a full tax-and-regulate bill to even happen at all,” Steiner said. Most of the group’s efforts, which include door-to-door campaigning for progressive marijuana legislation, have been focused on decriminalization, according to Steiner. “What decriminalization would do is make sure that the black Hope High School student is treated the same way by the law as the student at Brown” for marijuana possession, Steiner said. Lt. Jack Cole, the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, testified in favor of both bills. But
he said he believes legalization to be the better policy. “The act of making these drugs illegal creates a danger for the distribution of them,” Cole said. “That very danger is the reason why there’s an artificially inflated value for these drugs.” Cole cited reductions in drug-related disease and in the use of every narcotic except marijuana following the decriminalization of recreational drug use in Portugal. Kristen Westmoreland MPH ’09, a member of the Barrington Substance Abuse Task Force, testified before the Senate marijuana commission and is opposed to both bills. “For us, the laws are very important in terms of prevention of marijuana use, especially in youth,” Westmoreland said. “Anything that weakens the laws would be seen as an entryway for youth to use more.” According to Westmoreland, though some have hailed changes to marijuana laws as means to lower enforcement costs and incarceration rates, these benefits fail to take into account the costs of increased consumption, including health risks and traffic fatalities. Marijuana use would increase due to a decreased “perception of harm” if it is legalized or decriminalized, Westmoreland said. Edwards, who introduced the decriminalization bill, opposes legalization because the ensuing conflict with federal law could cause the federal government to “suspend payments for various programs in retribution” for a policy of legalization. Edwards said his concern for the effects of harsh marijuana laws on young people influenced his decision to propose decriminalization. “I think that civil possession is a pretty normal occurrence for kids and young adults, and I don’t want to see their lives ruined just because they get caught with a small amount of marijuana,” he said.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Edwards also emphasized the financial toll of incarcerating people for civil possession, an expenditure of “up to $44,000 a year” per offender. Edwards said a similar Massachusetts decriminalization law, which mandates a $100 fine for possession, inspired the bill that he proposed. Edwards’ bill raises the fine to $150 because Rhode Island “is in a much deeper financial mess than Massachusetts,” he said. Edwards said the consequences of the new law in Massachusetts encouraged him to introduce the similar legislation. “People are not running out and smoking marijuana if they never did” before, Edwards said. “That has not occurred in Massachusetts or the 13 other states that have already approved” decriminalization. While the House Judiciary Committee will subject both bills to further review, it is likely they will have different political fates. “I probably don’t think there will be more discussion or a vote this year,” Ajello said of her legalization bill. Edwards was more optimistic about decriminalization, particularly given that he has received commitments from about 40 legislators who would support the bill if it came to the floor for a vote, he said. “I’ve already been told that if I put the bill back in next year, it would be my bill that would go through,” Edwards said.
news in brief
Students oppose Swearer Center cuts A small group of students gathered on the south side of the Main Green Monday to discuss planned cuts to the budget for the Swearer Center for Public Service and what the cuts say about University commitment to service in the community. The gathering came after over 250 alums and current students involved with the Swearer Center signed a letter to President Ruth Simmons addressing the implications that cuts to the Swearer Center budget have for Brown’s relationships with the community, according to the Providence Journal news blog. Four staff positions at the Swearer Center have been cut and there are still questions as to whether student group activity in the community will also be diminished, Arthur Matuszewski ’11, a member of the Swearer Center Community Advisory Board and a former editor-in-chief of Post- magazine, told The Herald. The gathering Monday was a chance to “begin the conversation about what the University’s priorities are,” Matuszewski said to the gathered group of students. Student Labor Alliance member Susan Beaty ’10 said she is concerned about the cuts at the Swearer Center, especially because they are only one part of the larger decision to lay off 60 staff members, which The Herald reported last month. While she said SLA members came independently to this event and were not endorsing the gathering as a group, she said SLA is “really interested in building a coalition of students” to discuss layoffs such as those at the Swearer Center and how they will affect Brown. Beaty added that she and Matuszewski also went to a community meeting on Monday with Elizabeth Walsh ’03, the education director of English for Action, a group that provides English as a Second Language services in Providence. They discussed how changes to the Swearer Center’s budget will affect how Brown is able to still connect to the community, Beaty said. — Nicole Boucher
Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald
Page 6 | Tuesday, April 20, 2010
l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r
Editorial’s opposition to Cicilline is shortsighted To the Editor: I write in response to the April 13 editorial, “Not forgotten and not forgiven,” which discourages students from supporting Mayor David Cicilline’s ’83 Congressional bid. I am surprised that the paper would offer such a myopic outlook on the matter. An editorial that suggests campus-wide disapproval of the student impact fee and the mayor’s bid for Congress runs counter to our values at Brown. Today, people around Providence are struggling. If we at Brown are an integral and vital part of the community, we must have a broader perspective. Our commitment to ser vice, cited frequently in your editorial, is a reflection of this very perspective. We are, after all, citizens with a genuine stake in the community. School improvement, crime reduction and bold sustainability efforts matter. Taxes and fees are the responsibility we take for the future of the city we call home. Mayor Cicilline has led Providence through some difficult times and ensured that it remains a dy-
namic place to live, study and work. As a senior, I’m impressed by my classmates who are deciding to stay in Providence because of the energy and professional opportunities the city provides. Beyond policy, I would like to question the premise of the editorial. Disallowing support for a candidate based on one policy position runs counter to our University’s core principles. At Brown, we value nuance and deep intellectual exploration. We tackle questions with vigor, intelligence and a commitment to exploring every possible outcome. To write off Cicilline and encourage students to support his opponent — a former party boss who has never demonstrated a commitment to Brown — based on a singular issue is shortsighted and wrong. Instead, Brown students should examine each candidate with the skills and outlook fostered by our classmates, faculty and alumni, like the mayor, who came before us. Brad Greenburg ’10 April 18
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e d i to r i a l
Mokoro ’11 for UCS president Today and tomorrow, students will have the opportunity to log on to MyCourses and elect representatives to the Undergraduate Council of Students and the Undergraduate Finance Board. We encourage students to support Diane Mokoro ’11 for UCS president. Mokoro has spent the last year ser ving as UCS vice president, giving her experience that will allow her to be effective in the top position on the council. Brown is facing major challenges and undergoing substantial growth, and UCS needs a president who can communicate with the administration and convey students’ views amidst ongoing changes. Mokoro has clearly demonstrated her strong commitment to student-administration dialogue. She played a major role in arranging President Ruth Simmons’ recent State of Brown address and establishing a student group to advise the Organizational Review Committee. We believe that Mokoro has struck the right balance between emphasizing smaller, day-to-day improvements in students’ lives and remaining mindful of broader issues about Brown as an institution. Mokoro said she thought that the greatest challenge most students face is in finding sources of good academic advice. Her concern with advising shows that she is very much in touch with students’ experiences. She also said she hopes to empower other UCS members to take on a wide variety of projects next year. Mokoro’s opponent Arthur Matuszewski ’11, former editor-in-chief of Post- magazine, brings a great deal of passion for Brown and knowledge of
Brown’s institutional history. But we worry that his agenda is ambiguous and that he is insufficiently focused on implementing substantive changes that will directly benefit students. Farber ’12 for UCS vice president Of the three vice-presidential candidates, Ben Farber ’12 strikes us as the one most likely to get positive things done. He spent this past year as chair of the UCS campus life committee and has a solid track record of accomplishments to show for it. Anyone who has used the new omelet line in the Sharpe Refrector y or gone to continental breakfast at the Verney Wooley Dining Hall has benefited from Farber’s hard work. We especially liked that Farber said he planned to help other UCS members working on projects get in touch with relevant administrators. If Farber can play this facilitating role next year as UCS vice president, he will do the council and the student body a great ser vice. Evan Holownia ’11 emphasized transparency and communication with students, but he seems overly concerned with the council’s internal procedure. Reed Frye ’11 has some worthwhile ideas, but we are war y of the fact that he has no prior UCS experience. We encourage all students to participate in the election, and believe that Mokoro and Farber are the best choices to lead next year’s council. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 | Page 7
Affects are privileges BRIAN JUDGE Opinions Columnist
Recently I attended a lecture by photographer Fazal Sheikh, a MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, during the opening of his exhibition “Blessed Daughters.” Mr. Sheikh began by showing the audience photographs of Sudanese refugees in Kenya. He went through a dozen or so pictures of gatherings of refugees posing for his camera, while reciting each subject’s name. He said he found it striking that the people he photographed there chose to represent themselves to the camera in a direct, unpretentious manner. Mr. Sheikh contrasted this authenticity to how he, say, would represent himself, a Princeton graduate and rising star in photography, in a photograph. What is different about Mr. Sheikh and the Sudanese refugees he photographed? In the pictures he was taking, Mr. Sheikh was concerned about the composition of the photograph, the lighting, and the like. Mr. Sheikh has enjoyed privileges that his subjects most likely could not fathom. I often hear people deriding others’ affects, pretensions and other ways of presenting oneself, who yearn for a life more “real” than their privileged Ivy League existence. This is idiotic. Acknowledging the privileges that have been
bestowed on us by the circumstances of our birth is humbling. Denigrating “affects” and the “mediated nature of our being-in-the-world” is myopic and self-aggrandizing. When things aren’t going well, whining about authenticity and mediation is an easy way to make one’s immediate concerns seem less important. But at the end of the day, each of us still has to care about something. The Sudanese refugees seemed direct and unpretentious because their immediate needs
to say, however, that they are unimportant. It just means that they are less essential to my physical being. This relationship goes all the way up Maslow’s hierarchy: the closer to the bottom of the pyramid you are, the more immediate the needs. People who have their immediate physical needs met still care about things. This is why I think it is silly to chastise people for being pretentious and affected. All of this is to say that our concerns are determined by our privileges. I am concerned
I often hear people deriding others affects, pretentions and other ways of presenting oneself, who yearn for a life more “real” than their privileged Ivy League existence. This is idiotic.
were pretty straightforward. It’s hard to care about how your hair looks or how tight your pants are when you have dysentery and nothing to eat. This isn’t a profound indictment of life in the developed world. Clean water comes out of my faucet and I scavenge for food in the Ratty. As a consequence, my days are free to be filled with other concerns. These concerns are necessarily going to seem less immediate when compared to the concerns facing these Sudanese refugees. This is not
by the disappearance of hot ham from the Ratty because I have had the privilege to be a Brown student. I am concerned about the University of North Carolina basketball team’s dismal showing in the NIT final because I have had the privilege of being a North Carolinian. All of us have the privilege of caring about our classes, Brown Dining Services’ union, Snoop Dogg and looking fly. We shouldn’t denigrate this privilege and those who will not have the opportunity to share in it by whining
about it and being lazy and self-centered. I am sure everyone here worked hard in high school and scored well on the SAT, but that individual effort pales in comparison to the work that being born smart in America has done for us, which we each had absolutely nothing to do with. Using beautiful photographs of Sudanese refugees to inspire us to consider the privilege wrapped up in each of our concerns is a noble project. Hackneyed commentaries on the hardships of life in the third world are not. I believe that the former will result in more being done for Sudanese refugees than simply trying to make us feel guilty about worrying about what to wear to Fish Co when children are starving all around the world. Guilt implies wrongdoing. None of us have really “done” anything yet, because none of us have had the capacity to do anything yet. But we will. We have all been given the privilege of being able to be concerned about other people’s privileges, if we so choose. It would be a disgrace to ourselves, to the opportunities we have been given and to the concerns of the rest of the world if we never go beyond the set of arbitrary concerns derived from the equally arbitrary status in the world we have inherited.
Brian Judge ‘11 is a philosophy and political science concentrator from Chapel Hill, N.C.
Consider Berlin ANTHONY BADAMI Opinions Columnist You know the dichotomies: east meets west, communism versus capitalism, classical goes contemporary, etc. Throughout the span of modern European political and cultural clash, the tension between these sets of ideas has bred conflagrant rebellion and uproarious revolution, new beginnings and salient renewals. Brown, to some extent, has inherited this discord. We walk the grounds of an antique campus, embraced by an American colonial surrounding spawned from a particular ethnocultural narrative, while seeking to deconstruct and appreciate the historical legacy precipitating the school’s existence. And when many of us walk through the Van Wickle gates one last time, into a tumultuous and exhilarating future, we will relocate to a city of popular repute, most likely New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami or D.C. However, I ask you, humbly, to consider a place that encompasses both the nature of friction we have absorbed at Brown and the spirit and character of the previously mentioned locales. I ask you to consider Berlin. Berlin is a city defined by divergent forces. It exists, strangely, in between the periphery of European society and the conventional set of Western mores. It is tethered to a past that haunts broader Germany and its population, but in turn uses this ghost as an impetus for urban repurposing. Though the wall has come down, distin-
guishing East Berlin is no difficult matter. Much of the Communist architecture still remains intact, a bold reminder of a more contentious period. While Brown students may lean towards New York or Boston because of their places in our nation’s history, remember that Berlin was the epicenter of a bipolar world order that defined global politics for nearly five decades. The seemingly frail state of this side of the city only stimulates the creative culture. Unlike other cities, artists can actually afford to survive here. Since Brown students will be setting out to reinvent themselves in the real
a responsibility to service art and culture (as it usually does in the United States), Berliners take the task into their own hands, reshaping the physical characteristics of the setting they inhabit. Compare this to the open curriculum at Brown: We espouse the rejection of rigid academic orthodoxy for independent, selfdirected study. We would fit right in. Of course, one’s financial future is a serious concern. But do not fear — Germany’s nominal GDP is the fourth largest in the world. Frankfurt is a veritable hub of European business activity, and the artist-oriented economy provides cheap (let me repeat, cheap) food and
Since Brown students will be setting out to reinvent themselves in the real world, what better backdrop than a city that constantly recreates itself?
world, what better backdrop than a city that constantly recreates itself? Walking around the former Communist East, one encounters buildings, bridges and barriers blanketed with vibrant graffiti and revolutionary allusions. An astonishing amount of squatters occupy decrepit, abandoned buildings, renovating the space as their own, constructing dim, rickety huts to house themselves. Strewn about these makeshift monoliths are banners charging people to “Reclaim Berlin!” and “Squat the World!” All of these myriad phenomena occur outside the confines of municipal direction. Though it is disputable whether the city has
housing, as well as a plethora of (admittedly non-professional) job opportunities perfect for young graduates. It is undoubtedly a feasible option for two or three years. Language can be a barrier, but simple German will get you along. Interestingly, certain companies have already started establishing English-specific housing services, made especially for new arrivals. Plus, would it not be an adventure to learn the language as you live? If it matters to you, nearly thirty thousand expatriates have already made the jump. And there is something else you might find persuasive — universal health care. Though “Obamacare” has made some strides in im-
proving the ailing healthcare industry in the United States, it pales in comparison to the comprehensive coverage offered by the German government. But all of this is ancillary. The force of Berlin, the fundamental defining feature, is its situation in our historical landscape. It is a young New York, a 1920s Paris, a city that has yet to experience the sterilizing power of gentrification. If my column seems like too broad a project, it is only because capturing Berlin’s essence would require more pages (and, on my end, more time there). Yet, from my brief days in this world, from my conversations with friends studying abroad, from my reading about the place and my exchanges with graduates and locals, I can say only that there is an allure to Berlin. Like us, Berlin endeavors to push against definition, to ditch the rigid dichotomies of west and east, good and evil, which have plagued it for so long. Like us, it refuses to be pigeonholed. Thus, consider Berlin — not for its usual draws, but for its underlying makeup. It fights against its Nazi history, its Communist influence and its volatile status as a European capital. It is time to move beyond our preconceived paths for graduation and expand our borders ideologically and geographically. Brown has the reputation for eccentricity and nonconformity. Let us push the envelope further and make Berlin a rightly frequented and generously lived location.
Anthony Badami ’11 is a political theory concentrator from Kansas City, Mo. He can be reached at anthony_badami@brown.edu.
Today The Brown Daily Herald
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Traffic signal improvements in store
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Marijuana possession bills considered
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
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Today, April 20
tomorrow, april 21
6:30 P.M. — “Curating Contemporary Art,” Ana Paula Cohen, List 120
12:00 P.M. — Wind Down Wednesday: Free backrubs!, JWW 201
5:00 P.M. — “Palestinian Options, Washington’s Choices: Noam Chomsky on Palestine/Israel,” Salomon 101
6:00 P.M. — “The Environmental Crisis in Haiti,” Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum
4 comics
Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
menu Sharpe Refectory
Verney-Woolley Dining Hall
Lunch — Linguini with Tomato and Basil, Vegan Tofu Pups, French Fusion Taco Sandwich
Lunch — Clam Strips on a Bun, French Bread Pizza, Nacho Bar, Coconut Cookies
Dinner — Vegetable Frittata, Carne Gizado, Pound Cake with Strawberries and Cream
Dinner — Chicken Ricotta Dijionnaise, Vegan BBQ Tempeh, Apricot Beef with Sesame Noodles
Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
crossword Fruitopia | Andy Kim
Hippomaniac | Mat Becker
Classic Trust Ben | Ben Leubsdorf