Thursday, April 22, 2010

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 53 | Thursday, April 22, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Branding Brown Fifth in a five-part series

The ‘universitycollege’ on the hill

By Ellen Cushing Senior Editor

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

Students started lining up as early as noon for the 5 p.m. sale of additional Spring Weekend tickets.

Spring Weekend tickets sell out

By Alicia Chen AND CAITLIN TRUJILLO

Senior Staff Writers With his fold-out chair and boombox, Devin Wilmot ’10 came prepared for the wait. Though the additional Spring Weekend concert tickets did not go on sale until 5 p.m., Wilmot arrived at the George Street ticket

Pitchers struggle in two losses

By Tony Bakshi Sports Staff Writer

With four huge games coming up this weekend against division rival Dartmouth, the baseball team is slumping. After dropping their last two games against Harvard

SPORTS on Monday afternoon, the Bears (11-24) came home and lost both ends of their doubleheader against the Holy Cross Crusaders (19-16).

Head Coach Marek Drabinski summed up the losses bluntly: “We just did not pitch today.”

Holy Cross dominated the Bruno pitching staff from start to finish, and the Crusaders won the first game, 8-5, and the second, 18-11.

booth just after noon. Soon, he was not alone.

By 4:30 p.m., the line for tickets had already wound completely around the block bounded by George, Brown, Benevolent and Magee streets.

The Brown Concert Agency announced Wednesday afternoon that both Spring Weekend concerts would be held outside on the Main Green,

By Leonardo Moauro Staff Writer

In the month of March, Rhode Island saw the largest number of people

METRO

continued on page 6

‘A major cultural shift’ The 2004 Plan for Academic Enrichment, enacted under President Ruth Simmons and intended to increase Brown’s national and international prestige, has spurred a dramatic expansion of the University’s faculty, graduate programs and research capabilities. But with growth comes an increasing focus on graduate students and a concern that undergraduates may be neglected.

The way Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 tells it, the Plan signifies a tectonic shift in the University’s aspirations.

“Brown has ambition to be one of the world’s great universities. We’re increasing our international visibility and we’re increasing our ambition,” he said. “Those aspirations have an impact on the spirit and the ethos of the place. It’s all part of a major cultural shift. By thinking of ourselves as a major player on the continued on page 2

U. looks to ensure Spring Weekend safety

By Brian Mastroianni Features Editor

Two years ago, Kathleen McSharry, associate dean for writing and issues

Fifty Years Spring

of

Second in a four-part series

continued on page 9

continued on page 3

inside

executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless.

Ryczek’s organization has noted a steady increase in the amount of homeless people checking into shelters over the past two years. Numbers are especially high during the winter months, when most shelters are open

without a home since 1985, when it began keeping track, said Jim Ryczek,

of chemical dependency, wanted to see for herself what Spring Weekend was like. Coming into work on a Saturday, she put her hair up in a ponytail, wore jeans, a windbreaker and tennis shoes and walked around

www.browndailyherald.com

continued on page 5

High homeless rates prompt action

Holy Cross 8, Brown 5 Holy Cross jumped ahead in the early innings, scoring seven runs in the first three frames.

The Crusaders took advantage of Matt Boylan’s ’10 slow start.

He gave up a single and two walks

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

and that an additional 1,500 tickets would be released for sale. Between four and five hours after the ticket booth opened, all tickets had sold out, said BCA Administrative Chair Alex Spoto ’11.

At this point, about 200 people were left in line, said BCA Director of Ticket-

In 1980 — long before the University embarked on an ambitious plan to expand its graduate programs, research capabilities and international prestige, when the University’s faculty was only two-thirds the size that it is now, when the endowment was onetwentieth the size that it is now and when the University received one-third of the applications it does now — the University viewbook, distributed to prospective applicants, presented a picture of a Brown whose undergraduate and graduate offerings were equally strong.

Brown “is one of the very few institutions which has achieved and maintained that delicate balance between the undergraduate aspects of a college and the research aspects of a university,” the viewbook proclaimed. “And that should be important to you in your deliberations.”

Thirty years later, the Brown that prospective students see has changed immensely. The Graduate School and the faculty have dramatically expanded. Billions of dollars fund new capital projects and the campus boasts updated facilities extending to the south and west. Applications have soared and the University’s once-slumping graduate programs are now some of the best

in the nation. The University has acted on its ambitions to become one of the best in the world and an equal competitor with institutions like Harvard, Yale and Stanford. But the message that Brown is a university-college — equally focused on graduate and undergraduate education — has hardly budged.

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

Students spending the afternoon on the Main Green on April 20.

Metro, 7

Sports, 9

Opinions, 11

EARTH LOVIN’ Volunteers spent a recent Sat. morning uncovering trash in Gano Park

WATER POLO WONDER Athlete of the Week Sarah Glick ’10 makes a splash

signs of APARTHEID Jonathon Ben-Artzi speaks out on injustice and segregation in Israel, Palestine

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

editor’s note There will be no Herald tomorrow because of Spring Weekend. Publication resumes April 26.

herald@browndailyherald.com

Page 2

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Branding Brown

U. tries to strike a balance between research and undergrad emphasis continued from page 1 world stage, it sets the bar higher and sets our sights higher.”

But these ambitions necessitate a larger and more powerful graduate school — which, some caution, may herald a decreased focus on teaching and advising as faculty devote more time to research and grants.

“It is a question of proportionality,” Simmons said of the ratio between graduate and undergraduate students. “A lot of universities have outpaced, outgrown, outshown their undergraduate programs. It’s important that that proportion not get out of whack. That proportion tells you what matters. Here, (undergraduates) know that they matter.”

Simmons also said the expansion of the Graduate School need not threaten the undergraduate experience. “It’s a false dichotomy to speak in terms of the undergraduate experience versus the graduate experience, just because the nature of education has evolved over this period of time,” she said.

Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, whose job includes maintaining the quality of the undergraduate experience in the face of the Plan, said the University’s expansion benefits undergraduates greatly, allowing for more readily available research opportunities.

“At a place like Brown, undergraduates are not detached from the work of the faculty,” she said. “At Brown, they’re working side-by-side in their labs, they’re helping to design new courses, they’re teaching faculty about their own expertise in some cases. So I feel that the enhancement of the seriousness of the research program can only benefit

undergraduates. Good research that goes on on the campus is a benefit to everyone,” she said.

Moreover, Bergeron said, the increase in the faculty has paved the way for more specialized programs and institutes, such as the development of the Cogut Center for the Humanities, as well as spurring an increase in the number of graduate courses — classes that have come to be populated by undergraduates.

“It really isn’t an either/or proposition,” she said. “But a both/ and.”

Narratives over numbers Ultimately, policy proscriptions like the Plan — dense and technical, outlined in bullet points and graphs, tucked away in memos — may simply not be of interest to prospective students and their parents, said Michael Goldberger, who began as associate director of admissions in 1983 but has been director of athletics since 2005.

“Most kids don’t know much about who the president of an institution is,” he said. During his tenure as director of admission, Goldberger found people not to be “as concerned about the expansion of the Graduate School outside of the University” as they were inside.

Christiana Stephenson ’11, tours co-coordinator for the Bruin Club and The Herald’s director of alumni relations, said that by and large, the questions she receives on tours revolve around quality-of-life measures like dining halls and dormitories, rather than intricate details of administrative policy.

As for the Plan, “talking about the Plan for Academic Enrichment may be more than prospective stu-

sudoku

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Though an increasing emphasis on graduate programs could direct attention away from the College, expansion in the Graduate School has allowed for more undergraduate research opportunities.

dents and their families want to digest,” said Keith Light, associate director of admission and director of communications for the Office of Admission.

Indeed, the Plan scarcely shows up in the University’s admissions literature. Though viewbooks and the Web site emphasize much that it has yielded — state-of-the-art laboratories and art studios, bigger and better research opportunities for undergraduates — the Plan itself is not mentioned by name.

The guiding force for University policy is thus in large part invisible to the world off College Hill. And this is intentional.

“A lot of what is most useful in our outreach is more impressionistic,” Light said. “We want to com-

municate the nature and character and opportunities of Brown in such a way that it can be compelling and digestible.”

Especially as the college search moves online and students can find all kinds of information without having to page through a viewbook, the admission office is focusing less on numbers and more on narrative — telling stories that focus on individual students and faculty and highlight the opportunities available to undergraduates.

“We do try to showcase those kinds of stories that show faculty engaging in research with undergraduates,” said Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations.

“We’re not merely listing the

number of research institutes or books in the library,” Light said.

“For high school seniors, an overview is often important.”

The admission of fice works closely with the Office of Public Affairs and University Relations to “be conscious of what Brown hopes to have the universe know about the University,” Light said. “We pay attention to emphasizing what the University’s priorities are.”

The Office of Admission, he said, is “being more conscious of highlighting Brown’s strengths, particularly those that may not be widely understood.”

Goldberger said that during his time as director of admission, “the notion of a university-college” was one of Brown’s biggest selling points, along with the New Curriculum.

“We wanted to make sure that we were seen for what distinguishes us, and that’s the university-college and the Open Curriculum,” he said.

These days, according to Quinn, academic terms like “universitycollege” are becoming scarcer and scarcer in the University’s promotional materials.

Jason Becker ’09 GS, a former tour guide, also said that while the university-college model is “extremely attractive,” he found as a tour guide that it was “more complex than what people needed.”

But even as the term has disappeared from admission literature, Quinn said, “that doesn’t mean we don’t value that part.”

Now what distinguishes the University is its focus on providing a high-quality and flexible undergraduate education alongside research opportunities — and that’s what admission officers are working to emphasize.

In recent years, the Bruin Club has developed and institutionalized its Science Tours program, which gives prospective scientists a closer and more comprehensive look at the University’s science facilities.

During these tours, “we spend a continued on page 5

Thursday, April 22, 2010

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS news in brief

Election will be lengthened for first-years The MyCourses poll for student government elections will be extended for first-year students until 10 a.m. Friday, said Elections Board Chair Kening Tan ‘12 at the general body meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students Wednesday. Non-freshmen still must finish voting by Thursday at noon.

The election extension comes after members of the class of 2013 could not access the ballot on Tuesday because their names had not been added to the course list. The issue on MyCourses was resolved Wednesday morning, Tan said, adding that the Elections Board decided to extend the election for freshman so that they would have the full 48-hour window to vote. The board sent an e-mail to all freshmen Wednesday evening, notifying them of the change.

“For sophomores through seniors, nothing will change,” said UCS President Clay Wertheimer ’10.

Candidates can continue campaigning until Friday with material that has already been approved by the board, but cannot introduce more material, Tan said.

The results of the election will be announced at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Quiet Green side of Manning Hall.

At the meeting, UCS also discussed fundraising plans to address flood damage in Providence that occurred in late March.

Wertheimer met with the Brown Concert Agency on Tuesday to discuss doing a “Miracle Minute” collection between sets at Saturday’s Spring Weekend concert. During the 15-minute break between the Black Keys and Snoop Dogg, members of UCS would collect money from students for 10 minutes. “I think visibility has gone up over the last week,” Wertheimer said, adding that “the event of Spring Weekend is perfect timing” for fundraising.

— Nicole Boucher

Page 3

“It’s a typical psychological phenomenon.”

— Frances Mantak, director of health education, on perceptions of drug use

EMTs set to be stationed at Spring Weekend events continued from page 1 the Main Green. The transformation was complete, and she blended in easily with the mass of students crowding the lawn.

She saw exactly what she expected — a wide array of Brown students drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana.

“There was a pervasive smell of beer, and quite a bit of pot smoking with no consequences for students,” she said.

As someone who meets with students on a daily basis to discuss issues such as substance abuse and chemical dependency, McSharry wanted to experience Spring Weekend firsthand in order to get a sense of the temptations students who have substance abuse problems might face during the annual concert series.

“That’s a really hard environment for someone who is recovering. This year, everyone wants to go to Snoop Dogg, right? If it’s like how it was when I used to go to concerts, I’m assuming pot is passed row-to-row,” she said.

“It’s hard for people trying to recover, because they want to participate — it’s a symbolic way of joining in Spring Weekend,” she added.

‘Prevalence versus perception’ This sense of a communal atmosphere surrounding the use of alcohol and other substances during

Spring Weekend helps feed into the cultural stereotype that a large number of Brown students use drugs and drink regularly.

“It’s all about prevalence versus perception,” said Frances Mantak, director of health education.

Mantak said that many students on campus overestimate how often their peers use drugs and alcohol on campus.

“It’s a typical psychological phenomenon,” Mantak said.

“You have a small number of students who drink heavily and make noise, and then all that people talk about the next day is that group of students — this makes those who don’t drink or don’t use drugs to think it is more prevalent,” she said.

According to a 2008 study conducted by Health Education and the Department of Public Health, nearly one out of five students at Brown don’t drink. A Herald poll last fall found that about one in three students smoked marijuana within the previous month.

These figures are not that different from national statistics. A 2005 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University showed that 33.3 percent of college students had tried marijuana in the previous year, while 68 percent reported drinking alcohol.

Mantak said that issuing such statistics out to the student body is part of her office’s attempts at subliminal

“passive education.”

Throughout the year, Health Education issues table slips in the dining halls and puts up posters featuring statistics and safety tips in order to “help people think about prevention” and “harm reduction,” Mantak said.

Maintaining vigilance Having worked at Brown for 10 years, Mantak said that all groups involved in putting on Spring Weekend have done a much better job at “maintaining vigilance from multiple levels.”

Mantak cited that event management has become “very strong” in recent years, by doing everything for students from providing food at large events to the use of Green Horn Management security.

Mantak said this improvement in managing events has occurred across the board during activities at other points in the year, such as Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day and Sex Power God, when alcohol and drug use are at an elevated level on campus.

“We just do a much better job overall than in the past,” she said.

Part of what makes the weekend run smoothly is the work done by Emergency Medical Services. This year, EMS will have Emergency Medical Technicians stationed at all major Spring Weekend events including Friday and Saturday’s concerts, Fricontinued on page 4

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, April 22, 2010

C ampus N EWS

Free breakfast, EMS among U.’s weekend safety precautions continued from page 3 day’s Foam Dance Party on Lincoln Field, Saturday’s Rage on Wriston and Sunday’s Dave Binder concert, wrote Amy Sanderson, manager of safety and EMS, in an e-mail to The Herald.

In anticipation of large crowds at Saturday’s Snoop Dogg concert, EMS has arranged to have a second ambulance at the concert in addition to the usual Brown EMS personnel and emergency vehicle. “Our ambulance needs to be available to the entire campus community, so the additional hired ambulance ensures that there is a dedicated unit at the concert, similar to what you see at football games,” she wrote in her e-mail.

For Mantak, EMS response is crucial at events like Spring Weekend — but there is always room for improvement.

“We are always working on ways to address what goes on at each event.

Every year we review what happens at Spring Weekend,” she said.

“We try to be pretty consistent in getting lots of messages out to lots of people,” she added.

Mantak said she had no idea how many EMS transports would be called out this year. Last year, The Herald reported that the total count of EMS transports dropped by two from 2008 to 2009. At last year’s Spring Weekend, eight total transports were called out between the two concerts.

To party, or not to party?

Though a long line snaked down George Street yesterday when it was announced that more tickets would be released because both concerts would

be held outdoors, some students will not be participating in the weekend festivities.

“It’s just such a big crowd and it really doesn’t appeal to me,” said Sara Mann ’10.

Mann, who attended an outdoor Spring Weekend concert her freshman year, said the concept of hundreds of Brown students crowding the Main Green does not hold much appeal.

“When I think of Spring Weekend, I think of really muscular football players tossing bags across the yard outside (Theta Delta Chi),” Mann said.

Mann said another association she has with Spring Weekend is an added incentive for the student body to drink more than normal or try drugs.

“I think a lot of people are involved in that scene. Most of my friends drink more than they usually do,” she said, adding that “I think it’s cool that everyone is very consciously trying to let go, and that they have a place for that.”

What Mann said she does not like is the trash that usually covers the campus greens. “It’s really annoying how there’s litter everywhere,” she said.

While there are plenty of events and parties surrounding the weekend’s concerts, Mann said there are not many alternative options for people who choose not to party throughout the weekend.

“The options are either do your own thing, or participate in the boisterous fiesta of Spring Weekend,” she added.

Jodi-Ann Dattadeen ’12 will probably have a different weekend than

Mann.

Dattadeen said the drug and alcohol culture that has come to be associated with the weekend “is one of the reasons people look forward to Spring Weekend,” calling drug and alcohol consumption during the concert series “more accelerated” on campus.

When it comes to students, like Mann, who do not participate in many of the weekend’s events, Dattadeen said, “there’s not a lot of options for them.”

“I didn’t really think about that before. I feel there’s a lot of pressure to drink or smoke or do whatever they’re doing,” she added.

A student-driven campus When Director of Student Activities Phil O’Hara ’55 attended Brown, there was no Spring Weekend.

“We had nothing like this. The only thing I can remember are rallies during football season that we used to have on the Faunce terrace,” O’Hara said.

Flash for ward 65 years, and O’Hara called the Brown social scene “exciting” with events like Spring Weekend.

Working at Brown since 1987, O’Hara said he is proud of the work that various departments at the University do to ensure Spring Weekend runs smoothly.

“Everything we do — whether it’s Health Education, DPS, Student Life, Facilities — is to try to support these events and have them be successful and safe,” he said.

To ensure this, O’Hara’s office has worked carefully with Brown Concert

Agency planners to set up a decibel meter to “make sure sounds are not invasive” to the surrounding Providence community, a standard that is included in performers’ contracts.

The Student Activities Office has also worked on setting up a Brown Key Society-sponsored breakfast on Wriston for students attending the Sunday Dave Binder concert.

“They’re providing free food for students who might be going on an empty stomach to mitigate any unfavorable results,” O’Hara said.

Helping BCA with the weekend’s concerts is part of the mission of O’Hara’s office. “We are one of many departments that helps students to plan safe and financially-viable activities,” he said.

“You can expect a hospitable, amicable and friendly environment for the community,” O’Hara added.

O’Hara said that there are “a lot of challenges students face today” — issues involving substance abuse included — “and a whole process of learning who they are and who they are meant to be.”

“This is a student-driven school, not a staff-driven school,” he said.

“At Brown, students schedule cocurricular activities, and we’re here to support everyone in a safe and successful way.”

A watchful eye From her third-floor University Hall office, Dean McSharry has a good view of the Brown campus. Every day she interacts with students who come to see her after multiple EMS visits or are referred to her from Psychological Services or other sources on campus.

“Some find me themselves,” she said, noting that 80 to 90 percent of the students she interacts with are undergrads.

She said for students with tendencies toward substance abuse and possible chemical dependency — a need to use alcohol or drugs that doesn’t diminish over time — the college setting provides a “higher, artificial environment, where students are protected.”

Addiction to various substances is three times more likely between the ages of 12 and 19 — which overlaps with the range when most teens decide to head off to college, she said.

McSharry said this includes both marijuana and alcohol use, with “daily pot smokers shaving off the top ten percent of performance. They say they are ‘making it’ just fine, but they could be doing so much better,” she said.

McSharry said she understands the struggles of some of her students because she herself is a recovering alcoholic.

“I’ll see more students as we approach finals — they come to see me. They’ve had varying success of moderating their substance use and cannot handle the work as well as they’d like to,” she said, adding that there are a lot of outlets on campus for students to seek help.

She said it is also important for the campus to realize that not all Brown students use drugs or alcohol. “Do you guys really want your student body to be defined in such a reductive way? I would like all students to bear in mind that not everyone does alcohol and drugs,” she said.

McSharry said it is important to be vigilant when it comes to those students who do suffer from addictions on campus, especially during celebratory times like Spring Weekend.

“I would like to see more awareness that there is a population out there dealing with this — we need to be more mindful of that,” she said.

Page 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, April 22, 2010

C ampus N EWS

Though U. changes, message is refined Students on line frustrated with cutting, wait times continued from page 2

lot of time talking about research, taking students into labs,” said Jonathan Eldridge ’11, who coordinates them for the Bruin Club.

“We also like to show off that it’s undergraduate research.”

“It’s about emphasizing that we do do science and engineering and technology, thank you very much,” Light said.

Research sells With the increasingly competitive college admissions process and the advent of research opportunities for high school students, prospective applicants are getting into research earlier and earlier — and expecting their colleges to offer them more opportunities than in the past.

“The notion of undergraduate research has really taken hold since I started in undergraduate admission in the 1980s,” Light said.

“I think there’s a higher hope and expectation that this is something that undergraduates can do.”

Becker, who engaged in research in high school and studied chemistry as an undergraduate, actively sought out research opportunities when looking for schools.

“I wanted the flexibility to explore my interests, but I needed to go somewhere that I would be doing hands-on laboratory science work directly with faculty.”

For this reason, Brown’s expansion may prove to be a significant selling point for prospective students.

“We lose students to other research universities, not small liberal-arts colleges,” Kertzer said. “We don’t lose students to Williams, to Amherst, to Bowdoin, to Wesleyan.

Students want the excitement of a

top university.”

Simmons said Brown’s research capabilities attract students who “would not have come to Brown if it were, in fact, a college. These are students who want faculty who are involved in scholarship at a very high level.”

While the viewbook of 1980 touted Brown’s state-of-the-art facilities and powerhouse research programs, it was published before the Sidney Frank Hall for Life Sciences towered over Meeting Street, before the University expanded into the Jewelry District, before the faculty ballooned from 475 to nearly 700.

Becker said that since he came to Brown, he has seen the University’s language and focus change.

“I think we’re emphasizing the research university part much more heavily — and backing it up better than we used to.”

Sharpening the message As the University continues to grow into its aspirations and deepen its commitment to research — and while the nature of college admissions changes — the University appears to be sharpening, though not overhauling entirely, the story it tells to prospective students and their families.

“The terms we use to talk about the University haven’t changed,” Quinn said. “We talked about our excellence in teaching and research even (before the Plan).”

The difference, it seems, is that now the University has more to back it up.

“Brown has always carved itself out as a research institution,” said Becker, who in addition to touring has worked closely with administrators on shaping University policy as a member of the Task Force on Undergraduate Education. “But it’s only becoming true now.”

“The attempt to bring out the research character of this institution has always been there. Our job now is to make it even more visible,” Bergeron said. “Will that change our identity? The fact is, the term ‘university-college’ has two words in it, and ‘university’ is first.”

“We sell ourselves as caring considerably about the centrality of the undergraduate experience,” Simmons said. “I think Brown’s identity as an undergraduate college that is unique and very successful at providing a total undergraduate experience … is empowering to students.”

She paused. “I think that will never go away. It is central to our identity and it is necessary to our success.”

Perhaps it is this growth, this ambition, that drives the narrative of the University. “One of the great things about telling the story in our own way about the academic plan is that it is aspirational,” Light said.

“No one will get excited about a university that merely rested on its laurels.”

continued from page 1 ing Sandy Ryza ’12.

“I’m used to being No. 1, so it was just another conquest,” Wilmot said.

But others expressed greater frustration.

Waiting students — already angered by earlier troubles with online ticket sales — grew increasingly concerned about other students cutting in line.

Chantel Taylor ’10, who had been waiting for tickets since 3:30 p.m., warned that if she did not get tickets because of people cutting in line she was “going to get feisty.”

Emma Ramadan ’13, a BCA staff member manning the ticket desk, said BCA had called the Department of Public Safety earlier about regulating the line. “DPS said there is nothing that they or we could do about cutting in line,” she said.

At 8:30 p.m., the line still stretched from the booth on George Street to the front of Maddock. Emily Shelkowitz ’12, who had been waiting since 4 p.m. for tickets, was still in line. “My friend got me food,” she said.

“There is no valid reason for why it’s taking so long,” said Justin Wolfe ’12, who had also been waiting since 4 p.m.

BCA “accepts responsibility for yesterday’s long ticket wait,” it wrote

in a statement on its Web site. The line was “an order of magnitude larger than anticipated,” it wrote.

BCA did not want to sell additional tickets online so that the sales would be “surcharge-free, equitable and immediate,” according to the statement.

Students were allowed to hold up to three Brown ID cards and purchase one ticket for each concert per ID. As a result, some students gave their ID cards to friends who had a better position in line.

“Over 150 students sent e-mails about their inability to pick up tickets at release time,” BCA wrote on its Web site. The three-ID policy “addressed this issue and ensured equitable distribution” of the newly available tickets.

BCA had only two sales positions open in the booth from which tickets were being sold. Each position was staffed by two BCA members.

Spoto said BCA needed to concentrate on the money transactions and checking ID cards in their computer program to make sure no one bought more tickets than they were allowed.

Because the BCA members were handling “an extraordinary amount of money,” Spoto said, they needed to ensure they were keeping track of everything.

“We wanted to have complete control over the money,” Spoto said.

Metro The Brown Daily Herald

“My biggest fear is this will become the status quo, and nobody will care.” — John Ryczek, executive director of RI Coalition for the Homeless Thursday, April 22, 2010 | Page 6

Rhode Island’s homeless rates top charts, shelters hit limits continued from page 1

and people without a bed are in most need. In March 2010 there were 1,283 registered homeless in the state, up from 996 in February 2008, according to the coalition’s records. This is the highest level ever recorded.

“We would tend to see the lowest numbers in the summer months,” Ryczek said, but not in the past four years. This “is an indicator that there are more people in the system,” he added, since it is usually the newlydispossessed who seek aid from shelters.

The considerable increase in the homeless population can partially be attributed to the recent foreclosure crisis, which hit Rhode Island very hard, Ryczek said. The subsequent rise in unemployment “has caused a lot of people to fall off the economy horse and enter the shelter system,” he added.

Indeed, the coalition estimated that shelter check-ins have increased by 300 percent because of the crisis, Ryczek said. Most of the shelters’ new members are not previous property owners, he said, but renters whose

landlords have faced foreclosure.

In fact, while families have three days to vacate a housing unit after the notice of eviction, landlords are not obliged to notify these renters of the risk of foreclosure, he said. Ryczek noted that this has a very damaging effect, because people often do not have time to find alternate housing.

Shelters under stress Increased demand has forced St. Paul’s shelter to lead a more aggressive fundraising campaign this year, said Sheryl Marshall, program director for Access Rhode Island, the organization that runs the shelter. So far, “we’ve survived through donations and community involvement,” Marshall said, “but we need more.”

Access Rhode Island is an organization that is “set up to do intensive case-management for the Providence homeless,” Marshall said. Their operations include connecting the homeless to resources, finding housing and applying for social security, she said. The organization also runs the emergency shelter in St. Paul’s church, open annually from November to April.

The group usually obtains funding from a variety of sources. “We get about a third of it from the state and some from the city, but we have to piece it together to make it work,” Marshall said. This year, extra funding will allow St. Paul’s shelter to stay open for two more months, she added.

Since there are definitely more homeless in the system, this will be very helpful, Marshall said, but the true numbers will only be known once shelters close for the summer.

The unusually high level of homelessness hasn’t affected the organization’s case-management service, Marshall said, as eligibility for the program requires individuals to have been homeless either for a year, or four times in the past three years.

The state has been trying to accommodate these new developments and alleviate the plight of the homeless. State officials recently allocated an extra $90,000 to organizations for the homeless, Ryczek said. This has allowed the coalition to stagger summer shelter closings, he added, as well as render more efficient the transportation system to and from these shelters.

“The Providence metropolitan area has the vast majority of our homeless population,” Ryczek said, estimating that between a third and a half of the state’s homeless live within city bounds. There are two reasons for this, he said. Because there are simply more people living in the city, there are also more homeless. What is more, because smaller towns are less likely to have facilities or shelters to aid the homeless, individuals or families who lose their house often come to Providence or Pawtucket.

Looking long-term “We don’t like shelters — we look for permanent solutions, not temporary ones,” Ryczek said. Permanent housing is not only a more attractive solution for the dispossessed, it is also a considerably cheaper option, he added. The state saves approximately $8,000 for every person in permanent housing rather than in a shelter, he said.

But such a fundamental shift in the homeless system towards more permanent solutions requires initial capital, Ryczek said. He said legislators up for election in November are

less likely to vote for long-term investments rather than options that yield quick results. As things stand, “the regular shelters have become permanent housing for many,” Ryczek said, which is a problematic situation.

Indeed, the Coalition for the Homeless is currently focusing on the maintenance of the Neighborhood Opportunities Program, which aims to provide the homeless with permanent housing solutions, Ryczek said.

The program serves a double function, Ryczek said. It funds the construction of new units of housing and it pays for some of the ‘operating support’ of the buildings, which include utility costs among other things. Homeless residents usually pay for a third of their living costs.

The program represents a concerted effort to implement a long-term plan to combat homeless levels in the state, he said.

The Housing First program, a permanent-housing solution operation run by River Wood Mental Health Services, currently houses about 130 people and has a 90 percent success rate in finding its residents permanent housing, Ryczek said. In the long term, this is much more successful in aiding the homeless population than short-term housing solutions, he added.

But current levels of state funding do not address the situation completely. The Neighborhood Opportunities Program saw a recent $5 million drop in funding, Ryczeck said, and its funding is not included in the governor’s current budget proposal. The coalition is “fighting” to secure funding for the program, he added.

“The resources are stretched to the limit,” Ryczek said. “Our providers are having to stretch the same amount of dollars over a greater amount of folks.” A ‘bottleneck’ scenario has developed, and the coalition cannot provide the chronically homeless with enough places to stay, he said.

“My biggest fear is that this will become the status quo, and nobody will care,” Ryczek said. Faced with fewer and fewer prospects of assistance, the homeless “may just go off the grid and hide — literally in tents,” he said.

Page 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

M etro

Thursday, April 22, 2010

“There’s probably 10 years’ worth of litter here.”

— Robert McMahon ’68, superintendant of the Providence Parks department

Raking out trash and debris, volunteers clean up Gano Park

By Caitlin Trujillo Senior Staf f Writer

Gano Park was seasonably gray beneath Saturday morning’s steady drizzle. But by noon, volunteers had cleared piles of trash, wet logs and debris from the banks of the Seekonk River. As the chainsaws slowed, community members spoke of a renewed life for the park — of boat ramps and bike paths — an anchor for future neighborhood activity.

The Fox Point Neighborhood Association geared up for Earth Day last Saturday by cleaning up litter and invasive vegetation at Gano Park, an endeavor that sets the stage for a proposed boat ramp for the Seekonk River at East Transit Street.

Neighborhood volunteers and city workers from the Providence Parks Department and Forestr y Division spent three hours Saturday morning cleaning out the area around the park near the Seekonk River, where litter was strewn among the trees. Volunteers also worked to clean out the Japanese knotweed plant that had invaded and was killing the trees, said Robert McMahon ’68, superintendent of the Providence Parks Department.

“There’s probably 10 years’ worth of litter here,” he said.

Courtesy of John Rousseau

Neighborhood volunteers and city workers spent three hours cleaning up litter and invasive vegetation near the Seekonk River for an Earth Day event last Saturday.

The cleanup was funded by a $500 Earth Day grant from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, according to a press release issued by the neighborhood association.

The clearing of debris and the

invasive plants also coincides with a proposal to build a new boat ramp off East Transit Street, said John Rousseau, the association’s executive secretary and organizer of the cleanup. Plans for the boat ramp stalled three years ago after the dis-

covery of a landfill near the site, but contaminated soil has since been removed, said Seth Yurdin, councilman for Ward 1 and coordinator for the event.

Construction is expected to begin in September and finish in

12 days of Spring Weekend The fun don’t stop on blogdailyherald.com

next May, according to the press release.

The beach used to be a popular hangout and swim spot, Rousseau said, but has been marred over the years by trash. With the area cleared and clean, it could become appealing once again, he said. There has been discussion among neighborhood residents of constructing bike paths through the park, Yurdin said.

Brown’s crew teams race down the Seekonk River, and clearing the area might bring in more spectators, Rousseau said.

“We’re hoping to develop the area so people can watch the races,” he said.

Yurdin said the cleanup both spread the word about environmental awareness and made community members feel like they had “ownership” of the park, allowing them to feel more participatory in the community.

Some of the mulch that the volunteers and city workers collected from clearing out the woods was used for the park’s community garden.

“It’ll be really nice, I think, to see the waterfront again,” said volunteer Keri Marion. “It’s such a great park.”

She said she hoped further cleanup would take place on the other side of the river in the future.

SportsThursday The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, April 22, 2010 | Page 8

IVY LEAGUE SPORTS BRIEF

Old is new for Dartmouth basketball

By Andrew Braca Assistant Spor ts Editor

After under taking a national search for a new men’s basketball head coach, Dar tmouth looked backwards to rehire one of the most successful coaches in recent program histor y.

Paul Cormier, who in his seven seasons posted two of the three winningest campaigns in the program’s past 50 years, will begin his second stint with the Big Green 19 years after leaving to become Fairfield’s head coach, the school announced Wednesday in a press release.

Cormier will have to stabilize a program thrown into turmoil last season. Terr y Dunn abruptly resigned as head coach Jan. 8 with the Big Green off to a 3-10 start.

FoxSpor ts.com repor ted that Dunn was forced to resign after “each player signed a document that was taken to the administration on Friday stating they refused to play for Dunn.”

Assistant Coach Mark Graupe replaced him on an interim basis, and the Big Green limped to a 5-23 overall finish and a 1-13 Ivy League record. continued on page 9

athlete of the week

Glick ’10 brings power plays to the pool

By Katie DeAngelis Spor ts Staf f Writer

Women’s water polo tri-captain Sarah Glick ’10 may only be 5 feet 4 inches tall, but she’s been a huge par t of the team in her time at Brown. Glick ranks as the all-time leader in points in a season and a career at Brown, as her 82 goals and 72 assists this season have raised her career totals to 282 goals and 257 assists.

This past week, she scored nine goals, including five in her last home game, a 14-10 victor y over Har vard.

For her ef for ts over her career, during this season and in the last week, The Herald has named Glick Athlete of the Week.

Women’s water polo tri-captain Sarah Glick ’10 ranks as the alltime leader in points in a season and career at Brown.

Herald: When and why did you get involved with water polo?

Glick: I started playing water polo when I was 12 years old because my older sister played and she didn’t want me to. Being the nagging little sister I was, of course I had to play. Before that, I started swim team when I was four years old, so I’ve always been involved in water sports. They are kind of sister sports.

What’s your pre-game routine? Any songs you have to listen to before ever y game?

I actually don’t normally listen to music before games, which I know is weird for athletes. I know when you watch the Olympics you

see Michael Phelps with his iPod on. But my only pre-game ritual is that I like to drink a Monster.

Weird.

Yeah, we’re actually really into energy drinks on our team, which I know is horrible. But yeah, I like to drink one. I’m sure its psychosomatic, but I just feel really pumped up after I drink one.

What kind of pressure — because of the records you hold for Brown water polo — do you feel when you are playing in a game?

I don’t really think about my stats when I’m playing. The only thing I really want to do is make sure that we do what we need to do to win the game or play the

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

best that we can. I tr y to keep out of my mind how many goals I’ve scored or how many assists I have. I just try to make sure we’re all doing what we need to do to play our best.

If you could tell someone one thing about water polo, what would you tell them?

The most common question I get is, isn’t it really hard to tread water for that long? And actually the harder part about water polo is the swimming. It’s definitely a lot harder to get into swim shape than to tread water. I could probably tread water for two days.

We’re that efficient at it.

Did you play any other sports in high school?

I did swim team and cross countr y. Cross countr y I only did my freshman year because of injuries — I’m not meant for land really.

Do you have an athletic ­— or non-athletic — hero?

I’d say in the water polo community, Brenda Villa, because she’s the exact same height as me. And that’s one of the disadvantages for me, because I’m only 5’ 4” and a lot of the girls on the Olympic team are 5’ 8”, 5’ 10’’, even 6’ tall. She’s an inspiration for me because she shows you that you can be a smaller player and still make a big impact. She’s actually the captain of the U.S. Olympic team right now.

Are you planning to do anything water polo–related after

Brown?

I’m actually having a dif ficult time right now deciding if I want to play professionally next year or if I want to get a real job.

There are professional leagues all over Europe and Australia. I kind of want to keep playing just because I love it and I’m not sick of it yet, even though I’ve been playing for 10 years. But at the same time, ever yone wants to become independent and not rely on parents any more, and I’m not sure I would be financially stable playing professionally. It’s going to be a gamble.

How has your height affected you?

It was really more of an issue when I was trying to get recruited to college. People would look at that number and think, oh, well, she’s small, so she’s probably not that strong. But I don’t really let it affect me when I’m in the pool, so it hasn’t really had an impact on the way I play.

Why do you think water polo is the best sport?

I love water polo because ever y practice and ever y game you have to push yourself to the limit — and it’s a huge adrenaline rush.

And I also love it because it combines so many different sports.

You don’t have to know anything about the game and you can still watch it and enjoy it, having no clue what the whistles mean, just knowing that they’re trying to get to the goal.

Page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports T hursday IVY LEAGUE SPORTS BRIEF

Columbia player wins major award continued from page 8 Hired by Dar tmouth in 1984, Cormier coached the 1987-88 team to an 18-8 record and a 10-4 Ivy mark, followed in 1988-89 by a 17-9 record with a 10-4 Ivy mark, becoming the only coach since 1960 to lead the Big Green to consecutive second-place finishes in the conference, according to the press release.

In 1991, he moved to Fairfield, where he also spent seven seasons, leading the Stags to the NCAA Tournament in 1997. Cormier then moved to the NBA, most recently ser ving as an advance scout for the Golden State Warriors.

Ivy Quick Hits — Har vard assistant coach Carl Junot has been named the head men’s soccer coach at Tufts. Junot, who was named a Top Assistant Coaches honoree by College Soccer News in 2008, moves from a Crimson team that made the NCAA tournament in each of his two seasons to a Jumbos squad that finished 2-10-2 and 0-8-1 in NESCAC play in 2009.

— Har vard All-American Alex Meyer won the Nike Swim Miami Open Water Meet 10K event, beating 61 other swimmers with a time of 1:57:58, almost four minutes ahead of his nearest competitor.

— Columbia basketball players earned spots on the men’s and women’s All-Metropolitan Area teams, recognizing the best Division I players in the New York metropolitan area, as awarded by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association. Noruwa Agho made the men’s third team, marking the four th straight season a Lion was named to the team.

Judie Lomax was named to the women’s first team, the first time a Columbia woman was selected in the 15-year histor y of the award.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

“We battled back, but they answered.”

— Baseball Head Coach Marek Drabinski

BASEBALL

Bears look to sweep four against Dartmouth continued from page 1 to the first four batters he faced, and all three runners came around to score.

In the third inning, Heath Mayo ’13 replaced Boylan on the mound with runners on first and third, but was unable to shut the door. Holy Cross catcher Steven Tkowski hit a two-run double, and the next batter, Nick Ciardiello, slammed a two-run home run to left field.

Despite the seven-run deficit, the Bruno batters almost made a comeback. The bats finally came alive in the bottom of the seventh inning. Down 8-1 with three outs to go, Nick Punal ’10 led off the inning with a double. Graham Tyler ’12 drove Punal in with an RBI double.

Later in the frame, Matt Colantonio ’11 connected on a three-run home run to bring the Bears within three, 8-5.

“We saw what the offense can do,” Drabinski said.

But after the Crusaders replaced Vaughn Hayward, their tiring pitcher, the Bears could not get any more runs on the board, falling short of a dramatic last-inning comeback.

Holy Cross 18, Brown 11 The Bruno pitching staff struggled all seven innings of the second game. Holy Cross scored in every inning, and seven different pitchers were forced to step on the mound for the Bears.

Brown enjoyed a brief lead in the first inning, going up 2-1 after an RBI double from Mike DiBiase ’12 and an RBI single from Ryan Zrenda ’11. But the Crusaders took the lead right back in the next inning, after outfielder Patrick Puentes tripled, bringing home Ciardiello and scoring himself on an error by Chris Tanabe ’10.

The Bears did put together a big inning, scoring six runs in the sixth.

Pete Greskoff’s ’11 grand slam was the highlight of the frame, as his shot to left field brought the Bears within three, 14-11.

But the Bruno pitchers could not keep the team close, as Holy Cross scored four runs in the top of the seventh. Crusader third baseman Matt Perry hit a solo home run to lead off the top of the inning, capping his 5-for-5 day.

“Every time we came back and scored, (Holy Cross) came right back,” Drabinski said. “We battled back, but they answered. You’re not going to win many games doing that.”

The Bears went quietly in the bottom of the inning, wrapping up

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Second baseman Chris Tanabe ’10 had three RBI in Wednesday’s doubleheader, but the team lost both games.

their fourth consecutive loss. If they want to stay in contention for the Ivy League title, they will have to

get out of their funk quickly, and Drabinski knows that begins with the beleaguered pitching staff.

“The guys who aren’t pitching well just won’t be pitching in-conference.”

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Thursday, April 22, 2010

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

Misogynistic lyrics ignored on campus To the Editor: This weekend, Brown students will celebrate the arrival of an artist whose lyrics explicitly advocate violence against women. In light of The Herald’s past commitment to investigating and encouraging discourse about women’s issues, we are surprised at the paper’s lack of commentary on the student body’s unchecked enthusiasm for Snoop Dogg’s music, as well as the virtual absence of dialogue throughout campus.

Snoop Dogg’s lyrics go beyond objectifying women to the point of attacking women’s rights. In his 2004 song “Can U Control Yo’ Hoe,” the lyrics speak for themselves: “You got a b---- that won’t do what you say.../ She hardheaded, she just won’t obey/ You’ve got to put that b---- in her place/ Even if it’s slapping

her in her face.”

Given Brown’s reputation as a liberal campus, we are shocked that tickets for such a blatantly misogynistic artist would sell out within an hour of their release and without a word of commentary. Whether it reflects apathy toward or ignorance of Snoop Dogg’s lyrics, we find the student body’s lack of deliberation disturbing. We take pride in our University’s history of standing up for women’s rights, and we believe that we all share a responsibility to preserve that tradition. In the future, we must at least pause to discuss the significance of the messages promoted by the figures we invite to perform on campus. richard stein and paul tran

Jasleen Salwan ’12 Michelle Uhrick ’11 April 20

e d i to r i a l

Working for the weekend

t h e b r o w n d a i ly h e r a l d Editor-in-Chief

Managing Editor Chaz Kelsh

George Miller

Deputy Managing Editors Sophia Li Emmy Liss

editorial Anne Speyer Suzannah Weiss Brian Mastroianni Hannah Moser Brigitta Greene Ben Schreckinger Sydney Ember Nicole Friedman Dan Alexander Zack Bahr Andrew Braca Han Cui

Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Editor Features Editor Features Editor Metro Editor Metro Editor News Editor News Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor

Graphics & Photos Graphics Editor Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Alex Yuly Photo Editor Nick Sinnott-Armstrong Asst. Photo Editor Max Monn Sports Photo Editor Jonathan Bateman Production Copy Desk Chief Kelly Mallahan Design Editor Marlee Bruning Asst. Design Editor Anna Migliaccio Asst. Design Editor Julien Ouellet Web Editor Neal Poole Post- magazine Editor-in-Chief Marshall Katheder

Senior Editors Ellen Cushing Seth Motel Joanna Wohlmuth

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Gili Kliger, Designers Nicole Boucher, Sara Luxenberg, Lindor Qunaj, Copy Editors Brigitta Greene, Talia Kagan, Hannah Moser, Caitlin Trujillo, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Ashley Aydin, Alexander Bell, Nicole Boucher, Alicia Chen, Kristina Fazzalaro, Sarah Forman, Talia Kagan, Sara Luxenberg, Sarah Mancone, Heeyoung Min, Claire Peracchio, Goda Thangada, Caitlin Trujillo Staff Writers Anna Andreeva, Shara Azad, Rebecca Ballhaus, Casey Bleho, Fei Cai, Sofia Castello, Amy Chen, Claire de Boer, Brielle Friedman, Miriam Furst, Max Godnick, Anish Gonchigar, Thomas Jarus, Sarah Julian, Julia Kim, Jessica Liss, Anita Mathews, Ben Noble, Lindor Qunaj, Mark Raymond, Luisa Robledo, Emily Rosen, Bradley Silverman, Anne Simons, Qian Yin Senior Sales Executives Katie Galvin, Liana Nisimova, Isha Gulati, Samantha Wong Sales Associates Roshni Assomull, Brady Caspar, Anna Cook, Siena deLisser, Begum Ersan, Tommy Fink, Ryan Fleming, Evan Gill, Rajiv Iyengar, Debbie Lai, Jason Lee, Katie Lynch, Sean Maroongroge, Zahra Merchant, Edjola Ruci, Webber Xu Senior Finance Associates Jason Beckman, Lauren Bosso, Mae Cadao, Margot Grinberg, Sajjad Hasan, Adam Fern Finance Associates Lisa Berlin, Mahima Chawla, Mark Hu, Jason Lee, Nicholas Robbins, Daniel Slutsky, Emily Zheng Design Staff Caleigh Forbes, Jessica Kirschner, Gili Kliger, Leor Shtull-Leber, Katie Wilson Web Staff Andrew Chen, Warren Jin, Claire Kwong, Michael Marttila, Ethan Richman, Adam Zethraeus Photo Staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Nicole Boucher, Zoe Chaves, Greg Conyers, Claire Gianotti, Aida Haile-Mariam, Victoria Hartman, Tiffany Hsu, Christine Joyce, Mrinal Kapoor, Abby Kerson, Matthew Lim, Sara Luxenberg, Alexandra McFarlane, Joe Milner, Rajan Mittal, Lindor Qunaj, Kate-Lyn Scott, Carmen Shulman, Rebecca Specking, Dan Towne, Carolina Veltri

The sea of students lounging on Main Green and the sound of music blasting on Wriston Quad serve as constant reminders that Spring Weekend is only a day away. Yet it seems one can hardly go five minutes without hearing the all-too-familiar gripes of students who have midterms, papers or projects due early next week. We’d like to see this change.

Spring Weekend is a long-standing Brown tradition and professors should appreciate how difficult it is to get work done when most of the school is outside having fun. More importantly, professors ought to recognize that the weekend is the one annual tradition that the entire school has been looking forward to all year.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Spring Weekend concerts. Most professors have never known Brown without Spring Weekend. It therefore comes as a surprise to us that so many professors still insist on assigning major projects and papers due early the following week.

The purpose of having an annual celebration is to allow students to take a break, relax and appreciate the incredible community we have here without feeling guilty about foregoing work. Or at least that’s how it should be.

Having a major assignment due on Monday or Tuesday after Spring Weekend forces students to make the difficult choice between participating in the festivities and spending time in the library. This usually means either missing out on the most highly anticipated event of the year or taking a risk that

one’s grades will suffer. Some may rush to complete assignments quickly before the weekend starts. In each scenario, students end up in an unfortunate situation.

This doesn’t have to be the case. From a professor’s perspective, there’s very little inconvenience added by having a paper or project due at the end of the following week, especially if the due date is planned out in advance. In fact, the quality of the assignments would probably improve if students didn’t feel pressure to work quickly so as to free up their weekend.

We would all very much appreciate it if professors planning spring course syllabi would be a little more cognizant of Spring Weekend.

Professors may claim that the due dates were clearly indicated at the beginning of the semester and that students should plan accordingly and get work done ahead of time. But we don’t think students should have to change their normal, diligent working habits just to be able to enjoy the one campus-wide celebration that happens each year.

Brown students are remarkably industrious the rest of the school year. In fact, with finals approaching in just a couple of weeks, most of us will soon be spending a few more weekends in the libraries. Before we return to our usual routine of incessant studying, it’s important to recharge and enjoy ourselves for a bit. Please, just let us have this weekend.

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

Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

correction Due to a design error, a graphic in an article in Wednesday’s paper (“How BCA looks for an A-plus,” April 21) incorrectly stated that 17.4 percent of surveyed students “approve” of Brown Concert Agency’s Spring Weekend choices. In fact, 37.3 percent of students “somewhat approve” of the choices. The Herald regrets the error.

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, April 22, 2010 | Page 11

Yes, apartheid JONATHAN BEN-ARTZI Guest Columnist In their recent columns, Simon Liebling ’12 and Ethan Tobias ’12 debated the comparison of the contemporary struggle against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the struggle for divestment from the apartheid state of South Africa in the 1980s (“The right side of history” and “No apartheid here,” Apr. 16).

Today, apartheid is considered to be a low point in South African history. In the 1980s, however, those who fought against it faced fierce resistance. Dissent, unfortunately, is a lonely business.

As an Israeli, I had to start planning for my military service during my senior year of high school. In Israel, interviews, medical checkups, examinations and forms are all a routine part of one’s 18th birthday. However, long before scheduling my first interview, I had already made up my mind: “I will not join the military.” I decided that I had to take a stand in the face of policies of segregation and discrimination that ravaged (and still ravage) my country and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Within Israel, these acts of segregation include towns reserved for Jews only, immigration laws that allow any Jew from around the world to immigrate but simultaneously deny displaced indigenous Palestinians that same right, and national health care and school

systems that receive significantly more funding in Jewish towns than in Arab towns. Even former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert described the situation as a “deliberate discrimination,” and added that “governments have denied [Palestinian citizens of Israel] their rights to improve their quality of life.”

The situation in the Occupied Territories is even worse. Nearly 4 million Palestinians have been living under Israeli occupation for over 40 years without basic human and civil rights. Examples include roads that are for Jews only, discrimination in water supply (Is-

of maintaining that regime.”

Refusing to join the military had its consequences. After a long legal battle, the Israeli military prevailed and incarcerated me for a total of a year and a half, ignoring calls for my release issued by Amnesty International, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights.

Being a conscientious objector placed me in the minority not only in Israel, but within my extended family as well. Both of my parents were born in Israel. Both my grandmothers

Much as the struggle for equality and freedom in South Africa required international support and motivation, so does today’s struggle for justice in the Holy Land. raelis use as much as four times more water than Palestinians, while Palestinians are not allowed to dig their own wells and must rely on Israeli supply) and the collective punishment of Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians have been living in the largest open-air prison on earth for over four years.

What should one call this situation? The International Criminal Court defines the crime of apartheid as “inhumane acts […] committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention

were born in Palestine (when there was no “Israel” yet). In fact, I am a ninth-generation native of Palestine. My ancestors were amongst the founders of today’s modern Jerusalem.

Both of my grandfathers fled the Nazis and came to Palestine in time to take part in the war of 1948. My mother’s only brother was a paratrooper killed in combat in 1968. All of my relatives served in the Israeli military for extensive periods of time, some of them in units most people don’t even know exist.

Much as the struggle for equality and freedom in South Africa required international support and motivation, so does to-

day’s struggle for justice in the Holy Land.

Americans, unfortunately, are complicit in the situation: The U.S. is heavily involved in the conflict through means ranging from funding (by providing Israel with roughly $3 billion annually in military aid) and corporate investments (Microsoft has one of its major facilities in Israel) to diplomatic support (by vetoing 32 UN Security Council resolutions unsavory to Israel between 1982-2006).

There’s much that Brown students can do. The first step is to refuse to accept the prevailing “pro-Israel” narrative, and to learn about the situation through means other than mass corporate media. Being “pro-Israel” does not mean blindly supporting anything that Israel does.

The next step should be involvement in groups on campus that promote unbiased discussion and that call upon Brown to divest from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians — such as Brown Students for Justice in Palestine.

Their agenda is not “pro-Palestine” or “proIsrael.” In fact, it is not a nationalistic agenda at all. Rather, it is a “pro-human” agenda, seeking to help Brown end its association with unjust practices. In the end, only this path will be the true savior of Israel from its otherwise inevitable decline into an outcast, rogue society.

Jonathan Ben-Artzi is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Mathematics from Jerusalem. He can be contacted at yonib@math. brown.edu.

Remembering Theodor Herzl JACK L. SCHWARTZWALD Guest Columnist May 2, 2010, will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Theodor Herzl — the father of modern political Zionism. Herzl’s desire for Jewish self-determination in Judaism’s ancestral homeland came to fruition on May 14, 1948, an uncanny fulfillment of a fifty-year prediction he had made in 1897.

Ironically, the notion of Jewish statehood did not occur to Herzl until eight years before his death. An avid proponent of Jewish assimilation in emancipation-era Europe, he was anguished to find the road to true equality blocked by lingering anti-Semitism. Desperate to see assimilation succeed, he wrestled with myriad possible solutions — even proposing the mass baptism of Jewish children. Only in 1895, when he heard a Parisian mob chanting “Death to the Jews!” at the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus (a Jewish officer falsely accused of treason by the French Army) did he realize that assimilation was doomed even in the most “advanced” of Western societies.

The epiphany drove him to write the treatise that made him famous: “The Jewish State, An attempt at a Modern Solution to the Jewish Question” (1896). In it, he proposed the reestablishment of a Jewish state in Palestine — a model society in which Jews would “at last live as free men on [their] own soil,” freeing the world by their liberation. A year later in Basle, he convoked the inaugural “World Zionist Congress” — Judaism’s first repre-

sentative assembly in 2,000 years — which promptly declared for “a publicly recognized, legally secured home in Palestine for the Jewish people.”

Herzl’s remaining years took him on an odyssey through the courts of Europe. Although he didn’t create a Jewish state during his lifetime, he did lay its foundation stone — and he knew as much long before he died. “At Basle,” he recorded in his diary, “I founded

restaurants. Likewise, Israel alone is accused of “war crimes” for attempting to suppress Palestinian rocket attacks that left more than 75 percent of the children of Sderot (the most frequently targeted Israeli city) with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was allowed freedom of expression at Columbia University, Israeli speakers worldwide have been disgracefully shouted

The greater part of Herzl’s dream remains unrealized; for far from liberating the Jewish people, Israel, by degrees, has been transformed into the “Jew among nations.”

the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter.

Perhaps in five years, and certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.”

Fifty years later, the United Nations voted in favor of Jewish statehood. Yet the greater part of Herzl’s dream remains unrealized; for far from liberating the Jewish people, Israel, by degrees, has been transformed into the “Jew among nations.” Of the U.N.’s 192 members, Israel alone is denied Security Council eligibility. While Russia, Sri Lanka, Turke and other states do as they please to suppress terrorism, Israel alone is accused of “apartheid” for building a security barrier to allay bombings of its buses, marketplaces and

down (as Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren recently was at U.C. Irvine) or forced to cancel speaking engagements. Israeli cabinet ministers have cancelled trips to England under threat of being arrested as “war criminals.”

Throughout Europe, anti-Semitic extremists used last year’s Gaza War as a pretext to attack innocent European Jews. For safety reasons, some Danish schools actually denied admission to Jewish children. Due to rioting in Malmo during the 2009 Davis Cup competition, Sweden’s match with Israel had to be held in a closely guarded empty stadium.

Less ominous, but closer to home, Brown University joined a handful of universities nationwide in providing a forum for 2010’s

“Israeli Apartheid Week,” an annual event that demonizes Israel as an “apartheid state.”

Unmentioned in these festivities is the fact that Israel is the lone Middle Eastern country to provide all of its citizens with full and equal democratic freedoms — irrespective of race, gender or religion. Today, Israel’s 1.4 million Arab citizens possess freedom of speech and assembly. They vote and serve in the Knesset, and attend and teach at Israeli universities.

No such freedoms were extended to blacks in apartheid South Africa. Nor, indeed, can they be found in other Middle Eastern states, where gays are routinely imprisoned or hanged, where women face severe restrictions on education, employment and travel, and where religious minorities are relegated to second-class citizenship. Based on criteria such as these, Freedom House (an independent organization that rates governmental human rights records) awards Israel its highest rating (i.e., “1” on a scale of 1-7), while none of the surrounding Arab states scores better than a five.

In sum, Israel is not a perpetrator of apartheid, but a victim of it. To her detractors, however, innocence is no excuse. In a 1997 New York Times article, Princeton Professor Arno J. Mayer was quoted as saying that, “Herzl would be spinning in his grave” if he could witness the “hijacking” of his state by fundamentalist rabbis. More likely, Herzl’s feelings would be mixed: Pride in Israel’s accomplishments — and dismay with the world.

Dr. Jack Schwartzwald is a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the Alpert Medical School.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

5

Dean visits concert, finds pot

Census confusion in Central Falls

7

Coal to the 12-year-old girl who made her parents drive four hours round-trip to hear author Tamora Pierce. Unless you’re the same kid who sells Girl Scout Cookies all year long. In which case, om nom nom.

Thursday, APril 22

Coal to an alum’s invention of an alarm clock that makes you wake up not tired — but does nothing for your hangover.

Friday, april 23

12:00 P.M. — “The Environment and Where it is Going in Terms of Technology and Careers,” Urban Environmental Lab 106 5:00 P.M. — Special Events Committee Carnival, Main Green

you know.

Coal to the student who is concerned that Snoop Dogg doesn’t “rap about things Brown students support.” Brown Concert Agency didn’t know to find someone who raps about Ruth.

A diamond to the Battle of Qadesh. Though the Egyptians and Hittites dueled violently Tuesday afternoon, they proved a couple hours later on the Main Green that everyone can share and get along, too.

menu Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Vegan Tofu Raviolis with Sauce, Grilled Ham and Swiss Sandwich, Cream Cheese Brownies

Lunch — Butternut Squash Ravioli with Cream Sauce, Hot Pastrami Sandwich, Cream Cheese Brownies

Dinner — Earth Day Dinner Special: Braised Chicken, Spinach Tortilla, Stone Fruit & Blueberry Bread Pudding

Dinner — Earth Day Dinner Special: Braised Chicken, Spinach Tortilla, Stone Fruit & Blueberry Bread Pudding

Per Simmons

A diamond to recent campus speaker Noam Chomsky and his new book, “Hope and Prospects.” Though we wish you could have had more Meetings, it’s comforting to know you still believe in the Power and Benefit of Friendship.

A diamond to Spring Weekend precautions, like providing “free food for students who might be going on an empty stomach to mitigate any unfavorable results.”

Thank you for understanding.

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

comics Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

Fruitopia | Andy Kim 40 It merged with AT&T 42 It might spin a bit?

43 Theater section 46 ___ guitar 48 Lil’ Romeo’s dad 51 Seats in many a studio 52 As ___ a rail 54 Pet welfare org.

55 Poet Federico García ___ 57 Of service 60 Org. associated with the Rodney King riots 63 “I smell ___!”

65 Thrice, in prescriptions 66 Tramp stamp, for examp 67 “Isn’t ___ bit like you and me?”

(Beatles lyric) 68 See 45-Across 69 D.D.E.’s predecessor

Solutions and archive can be found online at blogdailyherald.com

Page 12

Coal to Banner shutdowns and freshman MyCourses disenfranchisement, though in the face of riot-worthy lines, even the online Spring Weekend ticket sales don’t seem so bad. At least we had access to pajamas and porn during that one.

by Jonah Kagan `13

62 Coat covered with 11 “The Royal feathers Tenenbaums” 64 What you might director Anderson prefer learning 12 Response to “Are about if you didn’t you sure you’re like “The Beak of not hungry?” the Finch” 13 Nickname for the 66 See 18-Across ghostly President 70 Unaccompanied, Simmons who like the Minors (var.) takes your tuition 71 Makes fizzy and doesn’t tell 72 Mine always starts you where it with 69 goes?

73 Have intercourse 14 “The ___ with said person Sanction” (Eastwood film about a Swiss DOWN Alp) 1 Toll-less turnpike: 17 Hatcher of abbr.

“Desperate 2 Thai tongue Housewives” 3 What makes me 21 He sings “Just feel safe and Like a Woman” sheltered while President Simmons 23 Hill in Hollywood 24 Battery terminal is in charge?

26 TV opera “___ 4 Subject involving and the Night strings and threads: Visitors” abbr.

27 Software version 5 SmarterChild, for 28 King’s sound? one 33 ___ tai 6 “There’s no ___ 36 Baseball features team” 7 4-Down, e.g.: abbr. 37 Reason one might not 8 Garb participate in a 9 Showed to the door standing ovation?

10 Women’s golf 38 Left-clicker garment

63 / 43

Coal to the first person on the Spring Weekend ticket sales line. “I’m used to being No. 1, so it was just another conquest,” he said. If you’re such a winner, how come you didn’t get tickets the first time around either? But a diamond for being the No. 1 douche.

crossword ACROSS 1 In need of Viagra, perhaps 8 Obnoxious jerk 15 Imperial Star Destroyer, e.g.

16 What you might do to celebrate 4/20 at 4:20 18 Possible comeback to someone hating on President Simmons, with 41& 66-Across?

19 Like rockets that break apart midflight 20 Half a rack 21 “... the Christian in Christian ___, damn they don’t make ‘em like this anymore” : Kanye West 22 Fed. power dept.

23 “God, mon” 25 What President Simmons’s 11 older siblings might have called her?

29 Prefix with pod 30 Cause of the Beatles’ breakup, according to some 31 Reason to line up at the Ratty 32 “The way I see it,” online 34 National Peanut Butter Lovers Mo. 35 “Toodles!”

36 Garlicky entrée 39 Gator and Power 41 See 18-Across 44 “Blame ___ the Pop” 45 Infused drink, with 68-Down 47 What “the buffalo” do 49 Like Pokémon Red and Blue, vis-á-vis Pokémon Gold and Silver 50 When in Rome, 1011 51 Scarlet letter, e.g.

53 Tell it like it isn’t 54 Foxy 56 What we would be without President Simmons?

58 Bagel Gourmet Olé topping 59 Sci-fi author Frederik 61 Put your back into it

65 / 45

d i a m o n d s a n d c oa l A diamond to Diane Mokoro ’11, vice president of the Undergraduate Council of Students and a candidate for next year’s president, for calling her council a “hydra-type, many-headed monster.” Perhaps when one prefrosh wrote that he hoped to concentrate in the “Defense against the Dark Arts,” he actually meant he hoped to one day serve on UCS.

c a l e n da r

to m o r r o w

Thursday, April 22, 2010

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

7

to day

Hippomaniac | Mat Becker