Thursday, September 23, 2010

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 76 | Thursday, September 23, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

U. to provide more guidance for int’l students Undergrad wins upset in election

By Nicole Boucher Senior Staff Writer

Max Monn / Herald

The expanding international face of the student population at Brown must be met with extended academic and advising options catered to assisting with the cultural transition, Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron said at Wednesday’s general body meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students.

Bergeron and Vice President of Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn gave an interactive presentation to the council, encouraging student input in dialogue about these issues.

“Our international population of students has really changed a lot in the last five years,” Klawunn said, with students increasingly coming from countries that were previously underrepresented.

On retreats between different

Simmons joins Muslim outreach Partners for a New Beginning, an organization that aims to improve relations between the U.S. and international Muslim communities, welcomed President Ruth Simmons to its steering committee Wednesday, according to a University press release.

Simmons will use her knowledge and resources to enhance local publicprivate partnerships with Muslim communities in regard to economic opportunity, science and technology, and education.

Brown’s Heritage as Bridge project — which views heritage sites as potential growth areas for communication and understanding across cultures — is one of the first initiatives to be supported by the organization.

“Scholars have a fundamental role to play in advancing understanding and cooperation across cultures,” Simmons said in the release. “I am pleased to participate in launching this effort.”

inside

— Kristina Fazzalaro

News.....1–4 Metro......5–6 Sports.....7–8 Editorial....10 Opinion.....11 Today........12

www.browndailyherald.com

Both athletes were honored May 5 at the second-annual Senior Celebration and Awards Banquet

Tennis player Misia Krasowski ’13 and water polo player Svetozar Stefanovic ’13 arrived at Brown last fall as talented athletes, excited to help their respective teams. What the two did not expect was just how influential they would end up being.

sports as the most outstanding first-year athletes at Brown. Krasowski received the Kate Silver ’86 Award and Stefanovic was awarded the Joe Paterno ’50 Award.

continued on page 8

continued on page 5

Alums, undergrads advise college-bound R.I. students

By Luisa Robledo Senior Staff Writer

For many high school students in Rhode Island, going to college seems like a long-lost dream, an unfeasible future. But the National College Advising Corps at Brown aims to make

FEATURE this “mission impossible” possible with the work of undergraduates and recent graduates who serve as college guides in local high schools.

Creating possibilities “A lot of times, these kids think that college is not for them because they don’t know anyone who has gone,” said Emily Rodriguez ’09, a college guide at Woonsocket High School. “Our main goal is to close that gap.”

Funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and AmeriCorps, the program was established in Rhode Island about three years ago. In a statewide effort to increase access to and vision for higher education, the corps now has a strong presence within 12 chosen schools in six urban districts, said Roger Nozaki MAT’89, director of the Swearer Center for Public Service.

College guides like Rodriguez are recent college graduates who enroll in the AmeriCorps program, which offers them a full-time position for two years.

Each school gets a recent graduate, usually from Brown or the University of Rhode Island, who works as a liaison with college guidance staff and helps students through every step of the application process, Nozaki

METRO

Serving up an ace “I know how many great athletes there are at this school, so I was really flattered and honored,” Krasowski said.

When Krasowski arrived at Brown last fall as the tennis team’s lone recruit, she expected Brown to offer a great experience, and her

continued on page 3

Bright futures ahead for soph athletes

By Fred Milgrim Sports Staff Writer

Aspiring politicians take note — resumed undergraduate Teresa Tanzi may unseat a powerful incumbent, win election to the state legislature and help craft crucial state policies, all before receiving her Brown diploma.

In fact, she has already completed the first of these three daunting tasks.

Tanzi, a public policy concentrator from Wakefield, R.I., is running to represent Rhode Island’s District 34 in the state House of Representatives.

Last Tuesday, she won a surprising victory over House Judiciary Committee Chairman David Caprio — younger brother of state treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio — in the district’s Democratic primary. Tanzi will face Republican Timothy Burchett and independent Peter Stone in the November general election.

Rep. Caprio, D-Narragansett, Wakefield and Peace Dale, is an 11year veteran of the General Assembly and a scion of a prominent Rhode Island political family. He was one of 10 incumbent state legislators to

Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, left, and Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn, center, attended Wednesday’s meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students.

news in brief

By Claire Peracchio Senior Staff Writer

screamin ’

Freddy Lu / Herald

Students enjoy the Sharpe Refectory’s local dinner special.

continued on page 2

Rocky Rhoda

Net gains

Mad hatter?

Could a local state senator be the next incumbent to lose?

Youthful men’s tennis team wins home tournament

Fast ’12 considers the Tea Party’s conspiracy theories

Metro, 5

SPORTS, 7

Opinions, 11

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

herald@browndailyherald.com

Page 2

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Depts. host writers from Asia, Africa

By Gillian Michaelson Contributing Writer

This August, three international writers joined the International Writers Project as writing fellows. Run through the Department of Literary Arts and the Watson Institute for International Studies, the program is hosting Kho Tararith of Cambodia, George Seremba of Uganda and Dul Johnson of Nigeria.

The project’s main goal is to promote free expression and free speech through writing and performance, said Visiting Professor of Literary Arts Robert Coover, the program’s founder.

The initiative hosts writers from unstable, developing countries who want to continue their work. Seremba, who is living in exile, performed his autobiographical play last week.

“We work with writers ... who live under regimes that stifle free expression because the problem of free expression is one that just won’t ever go away,” Coover said.

“People seeking power or wealth or holding power or wealth want to preserve what they have and can’t abide any impingement on that.”

While the writers arein residence, they receive $45,000 annual stipends, an office at the Watson Institute and help with finding living arrangements. In addition, Coover said, “we give the fellows complete freedom.”

This freedom, which the fellows did not experience in their homelands, has led to a new and productive environment for Tararith and Dul.

“The freedom is good for writing,” said Tararith, who is primarily working on short stories. “I can write about the poor people in Cambodia, about children living on trash heaps.”

Dul, who is writing a book and working on documentaries, agreed with his colleague when referencing his focus on his primary project.

“While we’re writing what we want to face, we can do other things on the side,” Dul said.

The three writers are from different countries with different backgrounds, but they still have shared similar experiences relating to their Third World origins, Johnson said.

“We are all concerned about social issues,” Johnson said. “We share similar experiences, and our people went through the same mess.”

The writers also share an objective concerning the purpose of their art, he said.

“Those of us who can affect people through the art, we should not leave them alone. If we run away from the situation, who handles it?”

Johnson said. “It’s the same story in a different place.”

Tararith added, “I want to change my country.”

Though there are currently three fellows in the program, the funding for the project is meant to support one person. Due to monetary constraints, only one of the fellows will be staying the whole year. Seremba will be leaving at the end of September, Johnson will be staying until January and Tararith will stay until May for the entirety of the fellowship.

sudoku

Daily Herald the Brown

Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 George Miller, President Claire Kiely, Vice President

Katie Koh, Treasurer Chaz Kelsh, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community.

POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com.

World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com.

Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily.

Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

“I want to change my country.”

— Kho Tararith, international writing fellow

Program supports local college applicants continued from page 1

explained. At 300-to-1, the student-toguidance counselor ratio is huge, he added, so having more people available to assist truly makes a difference.

“We get fantastic guys every year who are effective at the schools and at building relationships with the staff, the kids and their families,” Nozaki said.

‘All about college success’ Helping families understand how to finance higher education is fundamental, said Ralph Johnson, program director for the corps at Brown.

“Just because the cost of college is high does not mean students shouldn’t be going,” Johnson said, adding that the corps offers to help students fill out their financial aid forms.

“Sometimes the families get overwhelmed when they start filing for financial aid,” said Ashley Greene ’09, college guide at Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School in Providence. “They don’t get why colleges want all that financial information from them.”

Greene added that, as college

guides, they also help students register and prepare for standardized tests and build comprehensive resumes.

“It’s exciting work for all of us,” she said. “With a little bit of a push, these kids reach a height of potential that you didn’t realize they had.”

Last year, one of Greene’s students, who spent his entire academic career in the special education program, got into Rhode Island College.

“It was very fulfilling,” she said. “It was the school of his choice.”

In an e-mail to The Herald, Nozaki wrote that “by the end of last school year, 91 percent of the students with whom the Guides worked reported actively pursuing college,” showing just how much a little bit of help and advice can do for these students.

As the students succeed and make it to college, Greene said, the corps continues to assist them.

“We are all about college success — it’s not just about getting them in,” she said. “It’s about getting them out with a degree.”

Through a partnership with the Community College of Rhode Island and by staying in touch with the students during the summer, the corps

ensures the students receive the necessary support and motivation, Greene added.

An early start Undergraduates also get involved in the advising corps. About 10 members of the Brown community can work eight to 10 hours a week to expand the outreach that the corps can have.

These “undergraduate access scholars” take on many of the same tasks as college guides and serve as a helping hand on site. “You don’t have to wait to graduate,” Greene said. “It’s a great way to give back.”

Aadon Penny ’11 became an access scholar two years ago. As an undergraduate member of the corps, he comes back to Providence two weeks before winter break ends to fully devote himself to the students.

This period also allows him to immerse himself in the school and to have more one-on-one meetings.

“What we do is beneficial all around,” Penny said. “My job validates itself at the end of the year when students come up to me and say, ‘Thank you, Aadon.’ ”

Top Latin American students visit Brown

By Jordan Hendricks Contributing Writer

Brown students and faculty will lead 40 of Latin America’s top university students in a pilot program aimed to support developing democracies in Latin America.

The program — the Brown and Botin Program in Leadership, Liberal Arts, and Public Service in Democracy’s Extension — is a partnership between the Watson Institute for International Studies and the Fundacion Marcelino Botin in Spain. It is 10 weeks long, with the first week held at Brown from Oct. 3–9 and the remaining nine at La Universidad Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid.

The week will feature a variety of lectures, said Geoffrey Kirkman ’91, deputy director of the Watson Institute and Brown’s primary coordinator for the program. Topics for the lectures, which will be given by members of Brown’s faculty including former President of Chile and Professor-At-Large Ricardo Lagos, will range from democracy, race in Latin America, the international financial crisis, civil society and public service.

“We’ve created what we think is a very exciting, high-level week for these students, but we also want them to get to know Brown,” Kirkman said.

In order to allow the Botin scholars to make a more personal con-

nection with life on campus, eight Spanish-speaking Brown students — almost all of whom are Latin American — volunteered to be peer liaisons after being recommended by their professors.

“We’re just the friendly faces that they can come to with any questions and show them around what people our age are doing, too, ” said Silvia Dos Santos-Pereira ’12, one of the peer liaisons.

Students will also participate in a variety of non-academic, teambuilding activities, including a trip to a ropes course. The Brown Leadership Institute helped coordinate the activities to allow the scholars to participate in an “American type of team-building exercise,” Kirkman said.

“After their week at Brown, they’re going to Spain for an additional nine weeks. We really want them to bring them together as a group,” Kirkman said.

The students hail from eight Latin American countries — Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Uraguay and Peru — as well as Puerto Rico. They were chosen for the program by first being nominated by the rector of their university, and then selected through an application process through Botin, Kirkman said.

Richard Snyder, director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and professor of political science will also be lecturing on

democracy and development in Latin America.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to address and interact with a very exciting set of human capital — a group of young and energetic students,” Snyder said.

He also noted the importance of discussing these issues with Latin America’s potential future leaders.

“In particular for Latin America, most of the democracies are still fairly young and new, especially compared to the democracy in this country,” Snyder said.

“There are social and economic problems facing these young democracies, and one important question for this program is, ‘What difference does democracy make?’” he added.

“These are things we’ll be looking at.”

Kirkman added that it was a “bummer” that the students will be forced to stay at a hotel instead of on campus due to overcrowding in dorms.

“It’s complicated — bringing students from all these countries to Providence and then to Madrid.

There are a lot of logistical challenges to it,” Kirkman said.

Despite complications, many Brown faculty and students said they welcome this opportunity to potentially begin a new program.

“We all want it to be a success, and if it as a success, this could be a new kind of collaboration that hopefully we can repeat in the future,” Kirkman said.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Page 3

C ampus N EWS

Researchers invent artificial ovary Changing int’l student body prompts increased focus

By Anna Lillkung Contributing Writer

A group of researchers from Brown and Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island have created an artificial human ovary.

The ovary is able to sustain the growth of oocytes — or immature ova — into mature human eggs, according to a University press release. The invention could be a possible solution for infertile women who have ovarian issues from cancer treatment and could be helpful in future fertility research.

The artificial ovary brings three different ovarian cell types into the same 3-D arrangement as in a real human body. The arrangement is possible because the cells are nurtured in moldable agarose gel in 3-D Petri dishes, which encourages them to gather into certain shapes, according to the press release.

This technique was invented in the lab by Jeffrey Morgan, associate professor of medical science and engineering.

The artificial ovary “is another validation of our technology because it promotes cell-to-cell interaction,” Morgan said. He said he is also particularly satisfied with the artificial ovary because it was “invented right here at Brown.”

In order to create the ovary, theca cells, which are one of two main cell types in the human ovary, are donated by women aged 25–46 and formed into honeycombs, according to the press release. Donated

continued from page 1

Courtesy of Sandra Carson

Theca cells, at top, envelop granulosa cells like a real ovary. At bottom, the cells are shown after two days and five days.

granulosa cells in addition to human egg cells are then inserted into the holes of the honeycombs. The theca cells then envelop the granulosa and egg cells in the next few days like a real ovary.

The researchers have also confirmed that the structure could mature eggs, proof that the invention has been successful.

The team’s innovation “repre-

sents the first success in using 3-D tissue engineering principles for in vitro oocyte maturation,” said Sandra Carson, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Alpert Medical School and senior author of the paper that discusses the invention, in the press release.

Morgan said active collaboration will continue between the researchers who worked on this project.

departments this summer, the topic of increased international student support arose as a core mission given the changing demographics, Bergeron said.

International students are taking advantage of existing programs, Bergeron said, citing the fact that 50 percent of students attending the pre-orientation Excellence at Brown program were international.

A buddy system also exists, Klawunn said, but many students want a more comprehensive system for internationals beyond orientation.

Bergeron related a story of a student from New York who came to her office hours and said that he could not imagine the culture shock that international students must experience, given the magnitude of his own culture shock after arriving at Brown.

Bergeron said there was “a lot of energy and interest” in bringing in an English as a Second Language specialist into the Writing Center

UPCOMING EVENTS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 - STEVENSON FIELD 4:30 - BROWN VS. UMASS FIRST 200 FANS RECEIVE A COFFEE MUG

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 - BROWN STADIUM www.BrownBears.com Ticket Office: 401-863-2773

6:00 PM - BROWN FOOTBALL VS. HARVARD FIRST GAME UNDER THE LIGHTS! FIRST 1500 FANS WILL RECEIVE A KEY CHAIN WITH LIGHT!

ACADEMY BUSES WILL TAKE YOU TO BROWN STADIUM FROM THE PIZZITOLA CENTER, STEVENSON FIELD, POWER STREET PARKING GARAGE, SOLIDER'S ARCH AND FAUNCE ARCH STARTING AT 3PM ON SATURDAY

in recognition of students’ needs.

“This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time,” she said, adding that when students’ issues with writing stem from a language barrier rather than conceptual issues, different services should be provided.

Increasing interactions with graduate students ser ves as another potential way to improve the strength of the international community network, Bergeron said. With international students composing 35 percent of the Graduate School population, the idea of “creating a cohort” would be a potentially beneficial system, she said.

They also actively encouraged suggestions from council members on possible responses to the changing demographics at Brown.

Bergeron and Klawunn also emphasized positive and ongoing improvements to advising as a whole, with last year’s addition of Advising Central, an initiative originally evolving out of UCS student suggestions. “It’s funny how, if certain continued on page 4

Thank you to these sponsors for providing the giveaway items!

Page 4

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, September 23, 2010

C ampus N EWS

Business center named ‘program of the year’ Housing,

By Max Ernst Contributing Writer

The Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a collaborative venture between the Brown Forum for Enterprise and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, has been designated “Program of the Year” by the Northeastern Economic Development Association. The award recognizes the center as a valuable resource for both Rhode Islandbased entrepreneurs and members of the Brown community.

“Entrepreneurism is the economic change agent of the 21st century. The RI-CIE has emerged as a model in its collaborative support

of entrepreneurial development and, as such, NEDA is pleased to recognize it as its 2010 Program of the Year,” said L. Michael Ross, chair of the awards program, in a press release.

The center was selected for the award by a panel of judges, which comprised business professionals from 11 different states across the Northeast. The award will be presented to the center at the 2010 NEDA Conference in October, according to the press release.

The award is “validation that the concept of RI-CIE is correct,” said Brendan McNally, the center’s director. “It shows we’re doing the right things to support science and technology and promote economic

development.”

According to the center’s website, the organization is a statewide venture that helps entrepreneurs, researchers and existing companies advance best-practice business models by diffusing ideas and information. The organization has aided the emergence of the knowledge economy in Rhode Island by supporting businesses in alternative energy, industrial design, health care and the physical sciences, according to the site.

Over the course of a year and a half, the center has offered workshops, networking opportunities and business development through mentoring. It has also opened an “office incubator,” which dedicates workspace adjacent to the center’s facilities to select business ventures, McNally said.

“We provide the resource and physical hub to help entrepre-

neurs,” he added.

Brown has played an active role in the development of the center by providing it with funding and managerial talent. In exchange, the organization has been working to provide entrepreneurship opportunities to faculty, students and alums.

The center has helped launch a number of businesses founded by professors and former students, according to McNally. It has worked with MicroTissues, a venture led by a professor to use 3-D cell cultures for scientific innovation, and NuLabel Technologies, a business run by former students that markets a new mailing label technology.

“We’d love to keep a lot of recent Brown students who would like these types of jobs,” McNally said. “We are looking to create a healthy commercialization environment to help graduates stay here in Rhode Island.”

advising top U. priorities continued from page 3 things start to work, they seem to have been around for a long time,” Bergeron said.

Students, particularly first-years and sophomores, can now use this other faculty resource for a broader perspective prior to declaring concentration, Klawunn said.

Bergeron also said she hopes the connection between advising and career development may become “more continuous” through each year of a student’s time at Brown, a concern students and parents have raised.

Exploring housing improvements for the upcoming years also continues to be a priority of Campus Life, Klawunn said. “We are not happy ourselves that we have students in temporary spaces,” she said, and there are many different ideas that require input on how to best improve housing in the long term.

Klawunn told The Herald last year that Brown would like to strike the right balance between renovation and new projects for future residence hall improvements.

The student job “is to keep asking the questions” to ensure the preser vation and enhancement of the undergraduate experience, Klawunn said.

read share recycle

www.blogdailyherald.com

Metro The Brown Daily Herald

“There aren’t a lot of Teresa Tanzis in the legislature.”

— Ross Cheit, associate professor of public policy and political science Thursday, September 23, 2010 | Page 5

Perry P’91 sees challenge Undergrad advances to general election in state Senate election continued from page 1

By Claire Peracchio Senior Staff Writer

Sen. Rhoda Perr y P’91, D-Providence, was unopposed in last Tuesday’s primar y elections, but the defeats of 10 sitting state legislators that night signaled that a national anti-incumbent mood might have traction in the Ocean State.

This November, the 20-year veteran state legislator will face competition in the race to determine whether she will again represent Brown’s district in the General Assembly. Republican Morris Markovitz — who said he is running against the Democratic domination of Rhode Island’s politics — and independent Miriam Ross — who touts her support for local small businesses — are both vying to replace Perry in the Senate.

“I will work hard, as I always have done,” Perry said of her reelection efforts, adding that she has run unopposed in the general election only once — in 2008 — ­ since she first gained office in 1990. Over her two decades as a state senator, Perry has risen to prominence within the General Assembly. She currently serves as chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health

and Human Services and as a member of the Senate Committee on Judiciary.

She pointed to achievements on her signature issues of health care and civil liberties as evidence of her commitment to causes important to her constituents. One of the most progressive members of the Senate, Perr y said she may not use yard signs in her campaign since many of her supporters view them as “an environmental blight,” she said.

“It’s a combination of hard work and having been successful at getting important public policy adopted that my constituency supports, which is progressive and liberal legislation,” Perry said. In particular, Perry said she is proud of legislative accomplishments combating human trafficking, ensuring women have access to contraceptives under health insurance plans and expanding the rights of gays and lesbians.

Perr y’s reliable advocacy for progressive causes and strong support on the East Side make her well positioned for the November general election, according to Maureen Moakley, chair of the University of Rhode Island department of politi-

lose their seats in an election year deemed particularly inhospitable to political insiders.

While Tanzi is using her time at Brown to pursue a passion for policy, her political inclination didn’t start on College Hill.

“I have definitely always been a political junkie and a little bit of a policy fanatic,” Tanzi said, adding that as a child, a subscription to the New York Times was at the top of her birthday wish list.

Tanzi, the daughter of an Italianimmigrant father, had a “modest upbringing” that led her to a New Jersey community college and then to the University of Rhode Island before enrolling for three years at Brown, she said. Tanzi, 38, left Brown in October 2008 to start a family and later struggled with the prospect of paying both the cost of her daughter’s primary schooling and her Brown tuition.

But with her daughter off to kindergarten this fall, Tanzi said she tentatively plans to return to College Hill in the spring.

Though education informed Tanzi’s outlook, her advocacy work

for the National Organization for Women, Ocean State Action and the Campaign for Rhode Island’s Priorities ultimately convinced her of the need to change state policies from the inside, she said.

“One of the ideas of the National Organization for Women is to bring women into the political process and the policy-making process,” Tanzi said. “It came down to looking at myself and saying ‘Well, why not me?’ ” Tanzi “probably stands a fairly competitive chance” of winning the November general election, according to Maureen Moakley, chair of the URI Department of Political Science.

“She worked very hard, she started very early and she didn’t take anything for granted,” Moakley said.

Union backing may also have played a role in Tanzi’s victory, according to Victor Profughi, Rhode Island College professor emeritus of political science and director of the polling firm Quest Research.

“There were a number of legislators who were targeted in the race this year, and Caprio was one of those,” Profughi said.

Yet, Tanzi faced a well-funded incumbent who may have benefited from the help of workers from el-

der brother Frank’s gubernatorial campaign, according to Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy Ross Cheit. Cheit — who taught Tanzi in PPAI 0100: “Introduction to Public Policy” — served as Tanzi’s adviser in the race.

“She was up against some definite money and established interests,” Cheit said. “I think she presented a different vision and gave people a choice that looked better.”

Cheit noted that a number of public policy concentrators, including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ’91.5, have gone on to careers in public service. Matt Dunne ’92, also a public policy concentrator, ran in Vermont’s Democratic gubernatorial primary this year, though he was defeated. Reconciling idealistic goals with practical political realities is a challenge, even for someone with Tanzi’s “amazing dedication,” Cheit said.

“It’s an environment where you have to build coalitions and trade votes and make compromises, and those will be the things that she’ll have to negotiate,” he said. “It’s not completely an old boys’ club there, but put it this way: There aren’t a lot of Teresa Tanzis in the legislature.”

continued on page 6

Letters, please! letters@browndailyherald.com

Page 6

M etro

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Thursday, September 23, 2010

“I didn’t plan my campaign or think about it.”

— Morris Markovitz, Republican candidate for General Assembly

General Assembly candidates target Perry continued from page 5 cal science.

“She is one of the most liberal, progressive members of the Senate,” Moakley said. “She’s always been very up-front and consistent in her views, and I would expect that she would be able to carry the day.”

The smaller role that special interests play in general elections will likely make incumbents more secure in November than they were in the primaries, Moakley said.

“My take would be that the vetting has been accomplished and there’s going to be more predictability in the general election,” Moakley said. “The people that were ousted were ousted by activists, and the time to do that is in the primaries.”

But two candidates are vying to make sure they oust Perr y on Nov. 2.

Markovitz, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on NASA’s Apollo Project, said he volunteered to run because he didn’t want Perr y’s reelection bid to be unopposed.

Markovitz has been endorsed by

R.I. Clean Slate, a Republicansponsored initiative aimed at ending “one-party” rule in the state and supporting candidates committed to job creation and lower taxes, he said.

“I didn’t plan my campaign or think about it,” Markovitz said, adding that so far his only campaign efforts have been to hand out flyers to voters exiting the polls on primar y day and to run an ad in the East Side Monthly.

Markovitz said his participation in hearings for the Deepwater Wind project left him “totally disgusted” with a Republican governor and Democratic General Assembly that he believed circumvented the popular will by approving an initiative that will raise taxes and funnel money to an out-of-state company.

He said he would refuse a salar y if elected.

“We have one-party rule essentially and that’s not good — I don’t care if it’s the Democrats, the Republicans or the Zulu party,” Markovitz said.

For Ross, a corporate attorney and adjunct professor at Roger Williams School of Law, the differ-

ence between her and Perry comes down to priorities.

“My priorities are ver y much focused on small business and job creation,” Ross said. “We need to create jobs in this state, and the only way we’re going to do that is by supporting our small businesses.”

Ross credited her experience providing legal counsel to small businesses through her law firm for informing her awareness of the challenges facing the business community and of the need to reform the state’s approaches to taxes and regulation. She also pointed to her advocacy for legislation to require small business representation on the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and to streamline renewable energy regulations as proof of her dedication to small business issues.

Referring to Rhode Island’s political status quo, Ross invoked a popular definition of insanity — continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result.

“We need change, and we need new voices to move our state forward,” Ross said.

Read Post- magazine, Thursdays in The Herald

SportsThursday The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, September 23, 2010 | Page 7

m. Tennis

m. water polo

Lubin ’12 strong, but squad falls just short of ECAC title

By Garret Johnson Contributing Writer

They went up against the best, and just barely fell short.

The men’s water polo team fell to St. Francis College last weekend in the finals of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship, held at Harvard.

In the first round, Brown (8-3) beat Washington and Jefferson (0-5) by a wide margin, winning 16-5. The Bears then avenged last weekend’s loss to Bucknell (8-4) by beating the Bison 11-7. In the semifinals, Bruno won a thrilling 10-9 overtime game against Johns Hopkins (6-5).

The winning streak ended in the final round of the championship with a 13-9 loss to division leader St. Francis (10-0).

“They are the best on the east coast,” said Head Coach Felix Mercado.

Mercado’s squad was able to hang with St. Francis in the first half, allowing only five goals. But the Terriers pulled away with six goals in the third quarter alone. “That was the deciding factor,” Mercado said.

Despite Sunday’s loss, Mercado said that he was pleased with the team’s performance.

“It was a really good weekend for us. I wanted to finish top four, that was the goal,” he said.

Mercado also spoke of the exceptional work in goal by Max Lubin ’12,

who set a career high with 13 saves against St. Francis.

“Max gave us a little bit of momentum,” Mercado said. “He was the backbone of our defense.”

Lubin, a veteran on a very young Brown team, was named the CWPA Northern Division’s defensive player of the week for the week’s play.

The junior goalkeeper praised his team’s performance, calling the ECAC tourney a “sign of improvement.”

Lubin said he is confident in the Bears’ potential. “We always believed that we could beat the other top teams on the East Coast, and we took a small step towards proving it,” he said.

The men have a chance this weekend to take a giant leap in that direction — if they can win a rematch against St. Francis. Lubin admitted that a win “would definitely be good for our team,” but reiterated that he is focused on a league championship.

“There are only a few games that matter to us — the Northern Championships and the Eastern Championships,” Lubin said. “It just comes down to who wants to win the most.”

The Bears will head to Connecticut College Friday for a weekend tournament featuring games against the home team as well as Queens College.

On Sunday, Brown has its chance to upset St. Francis.

“There’s less pressure on us because we’re not supposed to beat them,” Mercado said. “But I know we can.”

Team sees twist in season opener

By Tony Bakshi Sports Editor

The men’s tennis team hosted the Northeast Intercollegiate last weekend in its first tournament of the fall season.

The young Bruno squad had 10 players compete in the invitational, an individual-based competition.

Sam Fife ’14, Mike Hill ’13, Brandon Burke ’14 and Soufiane Azargui ’14 won their singles draws Sunday — the final day of the event.

In an unusual twist for a team sport, Fife, Hill and Burke faced teammates in the finals. But despite the circumstances, co-captain Kendrick Au ’11 believes such competitions help the team.

“It is extremely important that this newfound team begins to develop cohesion and confidence in their teammates,” Au wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “Even though we are competing individually out there, we can still create a team atmosphere.”

On the second day of the tournament, the Bears dominated the doubles action. Tom Deighton ’13 and Burke teamed up to win the Circle Flight, Fife and Au won the Square Flight and Andrew Yazmer ’12 and Azargui defeated a squad from Bucknell to take the Star Flight.

Au noted the success of his un-

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Mike Hill ‘13 won his singles draw at the Northeast Intercollegiate on Sunday.

derclassman teammates.

“I think our youth is what makes us dangerous,” Au wrote. “We have a bunch of fresh guys that love the game.”

Eight teams — Brandeis, Bryant, Bucknell, Colgate, Hofstra, Marist, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Villanova — traveled to Providence for the tournament. The Bears will continue their fall schedule this weekend at the USTA National Tennis Center Collegiate Invitational

at Flushing, N.Y., the site of the U.S. Open.

Even though these tournaments will not count toward the team’s record, Au said they are important.

The players can “gain more match experience and sharpen up their game for the bigger tournaments in the late fall and of course the spring season,” Au wrote.

Head Coach David Schwarz deferred comment to team co-captains Au and Charlie Posner ’11.

Page 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

S ports t hursday

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Krasowski ’13, Stefanovic ’13 at top of class athletically continued from page 1 expectations were fulfilled.

“I was the only freshman, so it’s kind of different than most situations,” she said. “But I felt like I was welcomed completely, and right away I was part of the team.”

She hit it off with her older teammates, who were ready and willing to help her both academically and athletically. Up to the challenge, she vaulted to the No. 3 singles spot and finished the season with an impressive 23-13 record overall. With her help, the team was able to post a 16-8 record on the year.

The team is like a family, Krasowski said, and because of the amount of time they spend together on road trips and during practices, they become extremely close.

“It’s nice having so many girls you see around campus that you know,” she said. “There’s a level of understanding, being so busy, having to balance school and sports.”

Krasowski excelled as a member of the team and put the team ahead of herself when she spoke about the best moments of last year. When No. 66 Brown played No. 32 William and Mary, the Bears came away with a 4-3 victory thanks in part to Krasowski’s straight-set win.

“I think this match was a big step for our team because of the attitude that we had during the match,” she

wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“Beating that team showed us that we could compete with other highly ranked teams as long as we continue to work hard and have the right attitude.”

In addition to her team-first mindset, her teammates and coaches praised her work ethic.

“Misia was a great addition to our team both on and off the court,” teammate Casey Herzberg ’12 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “She is incredibly talented, enthusiastic, and hard working, and without a doubt was a huge part of our team’s success last year.”

Head Coach Paul Wardlaw echoed this sentiment.

“Besides being an excellent player, she is the most responsible member on a very responsible team — she requests extra hitting sessions on a weekly basis, already one of my all-time best listeners, is consistently ten minutes early, volunteers for any duties needed or requested, is a top host and recruiter, and is always in a good mood with a smile on her face,” Wardlaw wrote in an e-mail to the Herald.

While teams like tennis and water polo do not receive the same kind of attention as other Brown sports, Krasowski doesn’t mind. She just likes to work hard and she loves what she does. For her, being a student at Brown has been one of the most

rewarding things about being a collegiate athlete.

“I’ve met so many interesting people that all have so many unique characteristics about them that I feel like I just couldn’t get at a different school.”

No. 1 at two-meter Stefanovic, the recipient of the men’s award, had an equally positive experience in his first year at Brown.

Before choosing Brown, Stefanovic — a native of Belgrade, Serbia — had made the decision to choose academics over professional water polo.

“I did a lot of research about schools in the U.S. and when I saw the water polo program was really good, I chose Brown, because it is an Ivy League institution,” he said.

“I hadn’t been to the United States before I came here.”

Coming from a country that currently holds the world championship in water polo, Stefanovic quickly became one of the Bears’ most valuable assets. He finished the season as the nation’s third-leading scorer and broke a Brown scoring record that had stood for 26 years. Having helped the Bears to their first Collegiate Water Polo Association Northern Championship since 1993, he was also named an Honorable Mention All-American and the Northern Division MVP at season’s end.

For Stefanovic, the best part about

the season was not the accolades, but the team’s clinching match against Fordham, when they won the Northern Championship. Stefanovic’s two goals helped propel the team to an 8-7 win.

“It was probably the best game of the previous season,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Head Coach Felix Mercado credited Stefanovic for excelling at the two-meter, or center, position.

“The craziest thing about his season last year was that he was the leading scorer in Division 1 and the 3rd overall from a position that is easily double-teamed,” Mercado wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

Mercado also praised Stefanovic’s attitude.

“The best part about Sveta is that while he is a very talented water polo player, he is a better teammate,” he wrote.

Stefanovic said he enjoyed being part of the team.

“I really liked my first year,” Stefanovic said. “Not only because I had a good experience with water polo itself, but I also really like my relationship with my teammates and my coaching staff. And the whole atmosphere of being a student-athlete is great.”

To be on a team without a true home-court advantage — or homepool advantage, in this case — is something that he and his teammates

have to battle. It becomes very demanding to keep up with schoolwork while spending so much time away from campus, he said.

“Academically, I always try to have a high GPA. I really enjoy classes at Brown,” wrote Stefanovic, an economics and international relations double concentrator. “I am also thinking about studying abroad next year, as I am interested in programs in the UK.” Stefanovic acknowledged that juggling athletics and schoolwork is a challenge, but added that there are also some benefits.

“I like traveling and seeing new places,” he said. “We travel to California every year. ... The chance to play with California water polo teams was of great significance because the water polo there is on a high level.”

Stefanovic added that the team is looking strong this year, and he’s anticipating the competition against West Coast teams like Santa Clara University and the University of California at Davis. “We can win lots of games against them,” he said. “Our team goal is to win the Eastern Championships and play at the NCAA Final Four tournament.”

Even though the new aquatics center is not set to be completed until spring 2012, Stefanovic is just happy to call himself a Brunonian.

“I have to say I like everything about Brown,” he said. “Except maybe the weather.”

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 10 | Thursday, September 23, 2010

Interested in drawing our editorial comic?

We’re still looking for more editorial cartoonists.

Get in touch. herald@browndailyherald.com A le x Y uly

e d i to r i a l

Meal plan math

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

Managing Editor

Deputy Managing Editors

Senior Editors

George Miller

Chaz Kelsh

Emmy Liss Joanna Wohlmuth

Ben Hyman Seth Motel

editorial Arts & Culture Editor Anne Speyer Arts & Culture Editor Suzannah Weiss Features Editor Sara Luxenberg Features Editor Brian Mastroianni Metro Editor Brigitta Greene Metro Editor Ben Schreckinger News Editor Sydney Ember Sports Editor Zack Bahr Sports Editor Tony Bakshi Asst. Sports Editor Ashley McDonnell Asst. Sports Editor Erika Mueller Graphics & Photos Graphics Editor Stephen Lichenstein Graphics Editor Alex Yuly Photo Editor Stephanie London Photo Editor Max Monn Photo Editor Hilary Rosenthal Jonathan Bateman Sports Photo Editor Jesse Morgan Asst. Sports Photo Editor Production Copy Desk Chief Kelly Mallahan Asst. Copy Desk Chief Joe Milner Asst. Copy Desk Chief Dan Towne Design Editor Julien Ouellet Asst. Design Editor Gili Kliger Asst. Design Editor Leor Shtull-Leber Asst. Design Editor Katie Wilson Web Editor Neal Poole Post- magazine Editor-in-Chief Sam Carter Editor-in-Chief Kate Doyle Editor-in-Chief Marshall Katheder

Business General Managers Claire Kiely Katie Koh

Office Manager Shawn Reilly

Directors Sales Kelly Wess Finance Matthew Burrows Client Relations Margaret Watson Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations Managers Local Sales Isha Gulati Local Sales Arjun Vaidya National Sales Rajiv Iyengar University Sales Aditi Bhatia University Sales Jared Davis Recruiter Sales Trenten Nelson-Rivers Maximilian Barrows Business Operations Business Analytics Jilyn Chao Danielle Marshak Credit and Collections Special Projects Alexander Carrere Staff Kathy Bui Opinions Opinions Editor Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor Alyssa Ratledge Editorial Page Editor Matt Aks BLOG DAILY HERALD Managing Editor Matt Klimerman Managing Editor Anne Simons Managing Editor David Winer

Julien Ouellet, Katie Wilson, Designers David Chung, Tiffany Hsu, Shefali Luthra, Carmen Shulman, Copy Editors Kristina Fazzalaro, Sara Luxenberg, Ben Schreckinger, Alexandra Ulmer, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Ashley Aydin, Rebecca Ballhaus, Alexander Bell, Nicole Boucher, Fei Cai, Alicia Chen, Kristina Fazzalaro, Sarah Mancone, Claire Peracchio, Lindor Qunaj, Mark Raymond, Luisa Robledo, Caitlin Trujillo, Alexandra Ulmer Staff Writers Anna Andreeva, Anne Artley, Anita Badejo, Casey Bleho, Amy Chen, Alicia Dang, Sarah Forman, Miriam Furst, Max Godnick, Thomas Jarus, Julia Kim, Kristina Klara, Leonardo Moauro, 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, 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, Adam Fern Finance Associates Lisa Berlin, Mahima Chawla, Mark Hu, Jason Lee, Nicholas Robbins, Daniel Slutsky, Emily Zheng Design Staff Caleigh Forbes, Jessica Kirschner Web Staff Andrew Chen, Warren Jin, Claire Kwong, 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, Juhee Kwon, Matthew Lim, Alexandra McFarlane, Joe Milner, Rajan Mittal, Lindor Qunaj, Kate-Lyn Scott, Carmen Shulman, Rebecca Specking, Dan Towne, Carolina Veltri Editorial Page Board Staff Anita Mathews, Tyler Rosenbaum, Melissa Shube, Gaurie Tilak

It’s a generally accepted fact that the larger meal plan options are a better deal than the smaller ones.

But just how much better are they?

We took it upon ourselves to determine the cost per meal associated with each plan. Begin by assuming that points are not used to swipe into the two main dining halls, but would only be spent at Josiah’s, the Gate, the Campus Market or the various cafe carts (we’ll revisit this assumption later).

Take the total cost of each meal plan and subtract the number of points, which are interchangeable with dollars at other dining locations besides the two main dining halls. Then, divide the remainder by the number of meal credits per year.

So how much does a meal at the Sharpe Refectory or the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall cost? According to our calculations, the per-meal cost on the two most expensive meal plans (20 meals per week and Flex 460) is in the $6 to $8 range, which is very reasonable considering the overhead costs of running the dining halls and paying Brown Dining Services staff.

As you get to the lower meal plans, the numbers don’t look as good. The cost per meal for the two of the cheapest plans (7 meals per week and Flex 240) comes out to a little over $13. That means it could be less expensive to eat out for every meal than to stay on a plan.

Yet, the worst deal appears to be the off-campus plan, which costs a whopping $16 per meal. To put that in context, one could use cash to pay $9.30 for breakfast, $12.15 for lunch and $14.25 for dinner to enter the Ratty for 50 meals, and it would still be cheaper than paying for the plan.

Even if we relax the assumption that points are never spent in dining halls, some of the plans still aren’t that cheap on a per-meal basis. Students can use 6.15 in points to enter a dining hall. If someone on the off-campus plan spends all 500 of their points to swipe into the Ratty, the average cost per meal is still close to $10. That’s certainly not as bad as $16, but it is a lot considering other restaurant options in the area.

About 200 students per year select the off-campus meal plan, Director of Dining Services Gretchen Willis told the editorial page board. We’re a little surprised the number is that high, and we certainly hope these students are allocating their points to bring down the per-meal cost of the plan.

In at least some ways, Brown offers more flexibility with meal plans than other schools. At Dartmouth, for example, any student enrolled in classes must be on a meal plan. And although it’s hard to fully grasp the purchasing power of meal plans at other schools, it appears our plans are a little cheaper than comparable meal plans at schools like Cornell and Columbia.

However, when the total cost of a meal plan exceeds its apparent purchasing power, it’s time to rethink just how convenient some of the plans are.

While we feel Dining Services generally does a good job of keeping costs low and serving students, this math does give us cause for concern.

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

Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

correction A headline on the second page of an article in yesterday’s Herald (“Athlete of the Week: Tronti ’11 gets it done for the Bears,” Sept. 22) mistakenly said the Brown/Harvard football game would take place on Friday, Sept. 24.

In fact, it will take place on Saturday, Sept. 25. The Herald regrets the error.

C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

C ommentary P O L I C Y The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Thursday, September 23, 2010 | Page 11

A field guide to Thayer Street HUNTER FAST Opinions Columnist On Thayer Street, the last remnants of warm weather often herald a panoply of activists handing out literature for causes reputable and otherwise. Thayer has recently played host to demonstrators for eight-time Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

LaRouche’s followers may seem harmless with their accusations that President Obama and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) are agents of “the Inter-Alpha banking group and related banks.” However, this farce is a mere hors d’oeuvre in comparison to the insanity of the economic, social and scientific policies that LaRouche and his cadre endorse.

LaRouche, a self-styled economist, derives much of his influence from his claim to have accurately predicted all nine recessions that have occurred since 1957, to the point that he has claimed to be “the most successful economic forecaster in existence.”

However, in this assertion, LaRouche conceals his predictions of turmoil that did not come to fruition. Throughout his career, LaRouche has made over 200 forecasts of imminent economic cataclysm. Even giving him the nine recessions that actually happened, his success rate is indicative not of a seasoned economist, but of a random number generator.

In addition, one must consider that in the time frame in which LaRouche has made

such stellar predictions, the average time between recessions has been approximately five years and five months. Assuming that a forecast of collapse can be pointed to as evidence of prescience for two years, he could have simply issued warnings every three years and accurately “predicted” all nine recessions while only making 18 total claims.

Among both economists and Major League hitters, such an average would be phenomenal.

dent Obama of sporting a toothbrush moustache, the LaRouche movement also alleges that the current administration is quashing scientific innovation by opposing manned space flight programs. Though this statement’s validity is dubious at best, its credibility is undercut further by the gargantuan hypocrisy of the LaRouche movement’s calling anyone else “anti-science.” The fact of the matter is that throughout its history, the LaRouche movement has preyed on pub-

In what is presumably a massive effort to make the Tea Party appear sane and rational in comparison, Lyndon LaRouche frequently accuses opponents and journalists of being agents of a global drug-running cabal headed by Queen Elizabeth II. Be that as it may, LaRouche’s difficulty in understanding randomness is not the only flaw in his forecasts. He touts his July 2007 prediction of the current economic downturn as proof that his wisdom is worthy of the title of revelation, completely oblivious to the fact that in August 2005, Alan Greenspan — the man frequently accused of precipitating the financial crisis during his chairmanship of the Federal Reserve — admitted the existence of a mortgage bubble. Other economists, such as Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, had been warning of it long before that.

Furthermore, aside from accusing Presi-

lic confusion in the name of political visibility. Nowhere is this more apparent than LaRouche’s response to the AIDS pandemic.

In 1986 and again in 1988, despite overwhelming evidence that HIV was not easily transmissible, LaRouche and his associates pushed an initiative onto the state ballot in California that would have mandated the quarantine of hundreds of thousands of residents who had tested positive for HIV, including 47,000 children. Meanwhile, all across the country, LaRouche’s followers waged political campaigns to ban HIV-positive children from public schools, in some

cases targeting individual children for removal.

To make matters slightly worse, in his psychotic rush to terrorize victims of a horrific disease, the alleged economist LaRouche did not take into account the fact that his proposals would have inflicted billions of dollars in economic loss on California, destroying the livelihoods of many thousands for media attention.

In light of this, how do LaRouche and his followers deflect inevitable criticism? Enter the role of conspiracy theories. In what is presumably a massive effort to make the Tea Party appear sane and rational in comparison, Lyndon LaRouche frequently accuses opponents and journalists of being agents of a global drug-running cabal headed by Queen Elizabeth II. Much could be said about LaRouche’s other, less plausible conspiracy theories, but that would be to beat a dead horse. It is readily apparent that though LaRouche bills himself as an intellectual in the school of Leibniz, he belongs more to that of Nostradamus, constantly blurting out sufficiently vague nonsense such that it would eventually seem to his devotees as if he had predicted the future.

How, then, does one confront LaRouche’s followers claiming that President Obama will usher in a new age of Nazi British rule?

The only option is with pity.

Hunter Fast ’12 has been reprogrammed

by British MI6 agents. Please send help.

A Brown, Inc. education

BY SIMON LIEBLING Opinions Columnist Education — the one-size-fits-all defense for the transgressions of Brown, Inc. in the age of university corporatization, the easy rationalization of the contradiction of the profitseeking non-profit institution.

The argument is simple: profit is reinvested in education, meaning that the classically corporate behaviors of Brown, Inc. — the layoffs, the wage cuts, the tuition hikes — are justified by the resources they redirect to learning.

The unspoken premise — that securing additional funding is a higher priority than fulfilling the University’s obligations to its community, its employees and its less- privileged students — is of course more debatable than those who excuse profit in the name of education will admit. But even for those who do accept the centrality of Brown’s educational mission, the corporatizing influences that have transformed Brown University into Brown, Inc. do more to undermine that mission than promote it.

We should be skeptical, first of all, of the unquestioned link between profit-maximization and increased funding for education.

There is ample incentive in the rankings-obsessed higher education industry to waste resources on aimlessly biggering and biggering untapped endowments like a Dr. Seuss villain. The lure of the status projected by a jealously guarded stack of unspent cash means that reinvestment — at the core of the defense of Brown, Inc. — is merely an empty promise. The administration’s recent

announcement that it will reduce the annual draw on its endowment by 20 percent is evidence of its susceptibility to these temptations, and such hoarding of wealth provides no material benefits for our education.

Elsewhere, Brown, Inc.’s executive administration implements corporate reforms whose educational consequences outweigh the benefits of whatever reinvestment may remain. The provost, for instance, transforms the faculty into a cutthroat marketplace by slashing the tenure rate and undermining professors’ job security, forcing them to turn on one another in competition for fewer slots than there are people.

independent faculty and the consolidation of educational authority in University Hall.

This monopoly on control over education is so critical to the growth of the Brown, Inc. model because at the essence of university corporatization is the transformation of the traditional university-student relationship into a cynical association of business and consumer. It is a change visible in the rhetoric of Brown, Inc.’s defenders, who speak of profit enabling the University to better serve its “customers.” Brown, Inc. posits that our education is a product sold to us for $200,000, and that we passively consume it in finished form by attending our classes

We are not customers drumming our fingers on the retail counter while a store clerk fishes our degree out of the storeroom in the back. Our education is not a prefabricated product to be plucked off the shelf.

For the University, this means increased profit — Brown, Inc.’s raison d’etre — resulting from the replacement of senior faculty with cheaper adjuncts and other new hires. For the rest of us, it means a faculty whose high turnover rate jeopardizes both student-faculty relationships and the faculty’s involvement in campus culture. It means diminished academic freedom, as professors have to worry about appeasing their employer and protecting their future job prospects.

And it means, in a profound cultural shift, the seizure of academic power from a once

and completing our assigned work. Its production — the transformation of raw educational ideals into finished academic instruction — is conducted entirely out of sight of the customer, no more visible to us than any other assembly line manufacturing T-shirts or automobiles.

But we are not customers drumming our fingers on the retail counter while a store clerk fishes our degree out of the storeroom in the back. Our education is not a prefabricated product to be plucked off the shelf.

It is, as Brown assured us when we applied,

the creation of our own initiative and direction. We are supposed to be active participants in its conception and construction.

This is the spirit of the New Curriculum, seen both in its content and in the story of its creation — the contention that an undergraduate education consists not only of 32 classes, but also of active extracurricular engagement with the University as a civic and political community. If we are customers buying a product, we have not been educated, we have merely attended class and purchased a degree — which suits the cynically pre-professional among us just fine.

But to be truly educated, we must take an interest in the production of our education and assert that the student is more citizen than consumer. We must insert ourselves into University politics and into the debates that carry pedagogical and academic implications, because Brown claims to believe that education without participation is no education at all.

Brown, Inc., though, is the administration’s repudiation of this longstanding academic philosophy. By dominating academic decision making, by turning the undergraduate experience into a standardized product for our consumption, Brown, Inc. would ultimately deny us access to the full breadth of a Brown University education, and that is a problem that all the reinvested profit in the world cannot fix.

Simon Liebling ’12 is from New Jersey.

He can be reached at simon.liebling@gmail.com.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

5

Perry P’91 challenged in Senate election

7

to day

to m o r r o w

73 / 59

83 / 67

M. tennis team wins early tournament

Thursday, September 23, 2010

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

Page 12

inside

post-

Post- magazine, today in The Herald

magazine

Brown University September 23, 2010 Volume 11 Issue 3

Post- relives Big Boi,

4

chases down Neumann, dishes on Top Chef and examines foot fetishes,

c a l e n da r Today

SeptemBER 23

4 P.M.

ToMORROW

M.I.A. and why Brown’s

SeptemBER 24

better.

12 P.M.

Race and Genomics Lecture Series

Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center

Smith-Buonanno Hall, 106

Open House

Original Poster by Jonathan Key

Liza Schmidt

8 P.M.

4 p.m.

A Lie of the Mind, Leeds Theatre

A Teach-In on the Floods in Pakistan, MacMillan Hall, 117

“ You All Have a Bomb Ass School Here.

You’ve Got a Really Nice Library big boi comes to brown

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

”

comics Fruitopia | Andy Kim

LUNCH Chicken Milanese, Mashed Red Potatoes with Garlic, Vegan Nuggets with Dipping Sauce

Grilled Santa Fe Chicken, Eggplant Parmesan, Fair Trade Chocolate Cookies

DINNER Roast Pork Calypso, Tortellini Angellica, Pineapple Carrot Cake with Frosting

Blackened Catfish, Macaroni and Cheese with Avocado and Tomato

a c r o s s to b e a r ACROSS The Lady Is A Vamp

by Aimee Lucido `13 1 Antique gun 5 Link’s ride 10 Reward for naughtiness 14 Staff note 15 Why Amy Winehouse is saying “No, no, no” 16 Desire 17 Campfire tale 19 Rhythm 20 New BUDS employees, e.g.

21 Foreign policy grp.

23 Prime meridian std.

24 Paramecium propellers 25 “Nonsense!”

27 Witnesses 28 ___ on AOL (AIMbot) 30 Bert’s roommate 31 Lith. or Est., once 32 ___ test (practice 55 First bit of the pot 11 Trail where 44 Adjective to run) 57 Molasses cookie you might get describe a 33 Run a tab Dysentery bikini 34 The fifth member 60 Cambodian currency 12 Career Golden 45 Mad ____ of the group made 61 “U Got It Bad” Slam winner (Johnny Depp up of the first singer 13 “Come on baby role) parts of 17- and ____ good 46 Reed player 57-Across and the 62 Soil: Prefix times roll!”

47 It’s a lever, in last parts of 25- 63 Skin: Suffix 64 Fifth-century pope 18 Vote for esse and 48-Across 65 “This is how ___” 22 Solo’s first mate 49 “____, 38 Brian of Roxy 24 It makes HTML Thongs, and DOWN Music pretty Full-Frontal 1 BBM alternative 39 Lessen 25 Phi Psi party Snogging” 40 “___ Blinded Me 2 Sunlab theme (young adult inhabitants, for With Science” 26 Before: Abbr. novel) example (Thomas Dolby 28 Cursed hole50 Onetime 3 Many pen pals, song) digger of kid lit U.A.R. member nowadays 43 Prefix with 29 Slugger Mel 53 Double curve 4 Chuck who can -centric 54 Claire Bennet count to infinity, 32 Oversexed 46 “___!... I Did It primate or Peter according to Again” (Britney 33 Declines, with Petrelli from a legend Spears hit) “out of” canceled NBC 5 Celtic tongue 47 Mix drama 6 Front row sitters, 35 Hang in the 48 Butt of some balance 56 Nightmarish often jokes 36 One who cries street 50 Company known 7 “What have we during “The 58 Penguins’ got here?!” for its Counting Notebook,” league 8 Land entered Sheep ads perhaps 59 Fecal matter through a 51 How a toddler 37 Alienate wardrobe might leave Solutions and 41 Really affected 9 Mrs. Coulter’s his bed in the archive online at 42 Victorian ___ grave in “The morning acrosstobear.

Amber Spyglass” 43 Glittery object 52 Beatles breaker wordpress.com of desire for 10 Bruno’s baby, 53 Kool-Aid brownpuzzles many preteens Email: perhaps catchphrase @gmail.com

The Adventures of Team Vag | Wendy Kwartin

Bat & Gaz | Sofia Ortiz

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline