Thursday, April 29, 2010

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Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 58 | Thursday, April 29, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Brown faces dilemma with assault accusations

Journalist Rohde ’90 will give baccalaureate address

I wish !

By Claire Peracchio Senior Staff Writer

For David Rohde ’90, addressing the class of 2010 during Brown’s 242nd Commencement marks another step in a journey that has taken him from Providence to Pakistan and back again. Rohde, who will also receive an honorary degree, is slated to deliver this year’s baccalaureate address on May 30, according to a University press release issued Wednesday. Nobel laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela will also receive an honorary degree. Mandela will accept his degree in absentia, with the charge d’affaires at the South African embassy receiving the honor in his place, according to the press release. “I think it’s quite unusual to reach out to someone who cannot come to accept the degree,” said University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson, who organizes and hosts the Baccalaureate event. She said she believes the University wants to “send that very deep

By Ben Schreckinger Metro Editor

After a federal judge expressed apprehension earlier this month over the University’s decision to handle a rape allegation internally without notifying law enforcement, representatives from a students’ rights organization and a sexual assault victims’ advocacy group have both criticized universities’ practices in handling rape cases. Both a current and a former University employee have questioned Brown’s ability to investigate and adjudicate rape cases. But universities are in a difficult position. According to guidelines set forth by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Title IX mandates that in cases of sexual misconduct, universities take “prompt and effective action calculated to end the harassment, prevent its recurrence, and, as appropriate, remedy its effects.” An ad hoc University committee charged with reviewing Brown’s disciplinary system issued a report in 1997 refuting the argument that the University was not suited to hear sexual misconduct cases and stating that declining to do so would “send a chilling message that there are a range of actions for which the University may not hold the perpetrator accountable.” And a policy requiring administrators to notify the police of rape continued on page 2

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

Some fairy tales come true while others turn sour in Production Workshop’s musical, “Into the Woods.”

voted to expel the program from College Hill. Now, some students

By Talia Kagan Senior Staf f Writer

At Brown today, bared navels are a more common sight then naval officers — but that wasn’t always the case. Brown was once home to a Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, but 40 years ago the faculty

NEWS ANALYSIS want to bring it back, though they’re facing opposition. In 1969, amid fierce dissatisfaction with American involvement in Vietnam, the Faculty Execu-

By Nicole Boucher Senior Staff Writer

Emmy Liss / Herald file photo

inside

Now that renovation projects are well underway, the University will have a chance to focus on expanding and renovating dorms, as with Minden in 2007-08.

www.browndailyherald.com

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‘Reserve’-ing judgment for ROTC Fall term tive Committee voted to phase out ROTC, a militar y program that commissions students as officers in the U.S. military and trains them during their university years. By 1972, the Brown ROTC program — once headquartered

The administration will be focusing more energy on new residence halls now that several major construction projects have gotten underway, said Dick Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the President. “As some of the early priorities move along, and we get the budget back in balance,” Spies said, “then you can begin to focus” on projects such as expanding dorm options. Now that the ground has been broken on the new Alpert Medical School building and plans to begin building the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center have been approved, Spies said, the focus can

might stay longer By Rebecca Ballhaus Staff Writer

shift to projects in their early stages of planning. The University originally began looking into expanding dorm options on campus in 2006 and 2007, said Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services. “We had a lot of conversations with students” about what would be needed to keep upperclassmen on campus, she said. “What we found in 2007 is you need apartments and suites to make students stay in Brown housing,” she said, adding that as of now, “when we look at our inventory, we find more traditional residential life.” A 2003 report which outlined construction goals to support the Plan for Academic Enrichment

The College Curriculum Council met last month to discuss changes to the academic calendar that might permanently start the school year the Wednesday before Labor Day in order to make the fall and spring semesters the same length. The spring semester is currently four days longer than the fall semester. The motion was initially to start the academic years of 2010–11 and 2013–14 earlier because Rosh Hashanah falls during the first week of September in both those years. But when the Council met to discuss this proposal in May 2009, faculty members asked whether the University should consider making every fall semester begin before Labor Day. The question of starting the 2013–14 academic year before Labor Day has been dropped from the motion in order to give the Council an opportunity to consider the permanent change. The council did pass a motion to move the fall 2010 semester up. It will begin on Wednesday, Sept. 1, five

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U. in planning stages of new dorm projects

News.....1–8 Metro.....9–11 Sports..14–16 Editorial....22 Opinion.....23 Today........24

bow and thank you” even if a recipient is not well enough to come. Rohde, an author and two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter, graduated from Brown in 1990 with a degree in history. He survived almost a year of captivity under Taliban combatants before escaping back to the U.S. in June 2009. His November visit to the University marked his first public speech, just four months after escaping captivity. Rohde earned Pulitzer prizes for his 1996 coverage of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and as part of a New York Times team of reporters covering Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2009. Rohde was captured twice in his career, once in Bosnia and again in Pakistan. He has also penned a novel about his experience in captivity — “A Rope and A Prayer: The Story of a Kidnapping” — that will be published in fall 2010, according to the press release. Joining Rohde and Mandela as honorary degree recipients is a distin-

Sports, 12

Arts, 15

Learning the Plays Brown grad lives the NFL life as a rookie playing for the Indianapolis Colts

Crafty ’Lums Rhode Island School of Design hosts Alumni Spring Art Sale 195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

editor’s note This is the last Herald of the semester. We will publish one issue in July and one issue during orientation. We will resume daily publication on September 1. Check browndailyherald.com and blogdailyherald.com for updates. herald@browndailyherald.com


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