Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 79 | Tuesday, September 28, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
Med School, Lifespan expanding affiliation By Sarah Mancone Senior Staff Writer
The Alpert Medical School has expanded its partnership with Lifespan, amending an existing affiliation agreement meant to bring the Med School and Lifespan hospitals into closer alignment. The two institutions formally announced the agreement at a press meeting Monday. The institutions have agreed to name Rhode Island Hospital the principal teaching hospital of the Med School, coordinate joint strategic planning through formal monthly meetings and use resources in a more meaningful way, including direct support from the hospitals to the Med School, said Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing. Speaking at the announcement
Upgrades complicate cluster printing By Claire Gianotti Contributing Writer
There is the slightest hint of change hanging in the musty air of the Friedman Study Center. Physically the computer clusters look the same, but the home screen has exchanged its brooding black monochrome for an ethereal bluegreen. This is the first evidence cluster-users have of the new software upgrade. Consequent encounters may not be so pleasant. In some cases this semester, users have been unable to find a PawPrints printer to handle their printing demands. At the end of this summer, Computer and Information Services upgraded the operating system on PCs across campus from Windows XP to Windows 7. The change was made to convenience students, said Christopher Grossi ’92, assistant director of desktop support services. Before, students using a PC in a computer cluster in the Rockefeller Library, the Friedman Study Center or the Center for Information Technology would lose all work they may have saved after logging out of the system.
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News.......1–4 Metro..........5 Editorial......6 Opinion.......7 Today..........8
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Residents sound off on streetcar line
were Wing, President and CEO of Lifespan George Vecchione and President and CEO of Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital Timothy Babineau. Decisions have yet to be made about where investments from Lifespan and Brown will go, but there will be direct support toward recruiting department chairs for areas such as neurology and psychiatry. This type of support has already been put to use in recruiting Rees Cosgrove, chair of neurosurgery, and Louis Rice, chair of medicine. “We are also planning a neuroscience institute that combines the strength of neuroscience at Brown and in the Department of Psychiatry with that of the Rhode Island Hospital,” Wing said. continued on page 5
Lines planned for 2015 would aid U. transport to Med School, Jewelry Dist. By Caitlin Trujillo Senior Staff Writer
Providence residents gave feedback last week on the proposed installation of a streetcar system connecting College Hill with four other neighborhoods throughout the city at a series of open houses hosted by the city of Providence and the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. Herald file photo
Rhode Island Hospital will be Alpert Medical School’s official teaching hospital, officials announced Monday.
ister and his allies are opposed to creating an independent Palestine.” Mearsheimer touched on what he called the “American impotence” in this debate. He claimed that the Israeli lobby — an interest group that has profound influence on American policy towards Israel —“makes it impossible for any American president to play hardball with Israel.”
The Providence Core Connector Study held its first open house forum Sept. 21 at the Brown/RISD Hillel for College Hill residents. More forums took place later in the week in Upper South Providence and the downtown area. The study, a joint effort by the city and RIPTA, is aiming to gauge public opinion on a proposal to install a streetcar system. The proposal arose from the Providence Metropolitan Transit Enhancement Study — completed in December 2009 — that sought to identify new ways to improve public transporta-
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Mearsheimer advocates two-state solution By Margaret Farris Contributing Writer
John Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, predicted Monday night that “Israel faces a bleak future as a Jewish state.” His talk — “Greater Israel and the American Jewish Community” — focused on the future of Israel and the fate of the people who live
there. He proposed several possible outcomes for the current situation, saying the most advantageous for both Israel and the Palestinians would be the creation of two separate states. However, he said, this is an unlikely result. “Most Israelis are unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to create a Palestinian state,” Mearsheimer said. “The prime min-
METRO
Renovated Underground opens, to be dedicated Friday By Shefali Luthra Contributing Writer
Stephanie London / Herald
Renovations on the Underground, an event space on the bottom floor of the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, were finished on Sept. 20. It will now be available for community use and for student reservations.
The Underground is back in business. Renovations to the event space on the bottom floor of the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center were completed Sept. 20, according to Project Manager for Facilities John Cooke. Renovations included removing the ceiling, adding a service elevator for the building’s new ser ver y, creating a new floor system and restoring the bar area, Cooke said. A new game lounge was also added adjacent to the Underground, Senior Director for Student Engagement Ricky Gresh wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Though the Underground is open for student use, it will formally be dedicated with the rest of the continued on page 2
Eco-aware
Hard-liner
R.I.’s 1st
All about us
New sub-group of emPOWER raises awareness
Illegal immigration critic takes strong stance
Give Mayor David Cicilline ’83 a second look
Sissi Sun ’12 appreciates Brown’s focus on students
News, 3
metro, 5
Editorial, 6
Opinions, 7
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS
“One good story is worth a thousand academic papers.” — Neel Shah ’04 MD ’09, on what makes a good essay
New environment student group formed
news in brief
Alums’ nonprofit offers prize for healthcare stories Costs of Care, a nonprofit organization founded by a recent grad, recently launched a national essay contest on the cost of healthcare. Two $1000 prizes will be awarded for anecdotes that best illustrate the importance of costawareness in medicine. Neel Shah ’04 MD’09, who founded Costs of Care in 2009, said he realized that “even the best doctors have little idea of how their decisions impact what the patients pay.” The principal vision of the organization is to reduce medical bills by using information technology and social media to encourage doctors to keep costs in mind. The group is creating smart phone applications to help doctors and patients “understand healthcare’s costs,” said Ariana Green ’04, the nonprofit’s director of public affairs, who first met Shah when they were writing fellows at Brown. After Brown, Shah became a doctor, and Green wrote articles about healthcare as a Fulbright scholar, she wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “We need people from various disciplines working on these issues together,” Green wrote. The essay contest was conceived as a “first step in characterizing this issue,” said Shah, who said he believes that “one good story is worth a thousand academic papers.” The primary goal of the essay contest is to shed light on stories of people who are made “financially sick” by “unexpected and outrageous healthcare costs,” Green said. In the spring, Costs of Care will bring together a group of leaders from different disciplines to discuss the finalists’ stories and launch a dialogue on creative ways to fix the healthcare system. In just two weeks, Costs of Care has received submissions from all over the country. The organization is accepting submissions until Nov. 1. Essays will be judged by leaders from different disciplines, including Michael Leavitt, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Jeffrey Flier, the dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard, and surgeon and New Yorker writer Atul Gawande. Six finalists — three medical professionals and three non-professionals — will be announced Nov. 15, and the $1000 prize winners will be announced Dec. 15. — Inni Youh
sudoku
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Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 | Business Phone: 401.351.3260 George Miller, President Claire Kiely, Vice President
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
By Mark Raymond Senior Staff Writer
Members of emPOWER have recently formed a new student group to raise awareness about environmental issues. The group, which is currently named “Environmental Events,” is the latest sub-group of emPOWER, a student organization that Steering Committee Chair Ari Rubenstein ’11 calls the “hub of student environmental activity at Brown.” The goal of the new sub-group will be to work on raising awareness about major environmental issues the planet faces, according to co-founder and fellow emPOWER member Ben Howard ’11. Howard and Rubenstein said they created the new group based on a perceived need for more events centered around environmental issues. “We want to have dif ferent awareness events about issues that may not be in the news every day,” Howard said. He mentioned the buildup of plastic bags in the ocean as an issue that has compounded over time and has not received enough coverage by the media.
Rubenstein said many Brown students who care about the environment still have not found a group that suits them, adding that he hopes this group will motivate more students to get involved. “There are a lot of students at Brown who consider themselves environmentally conscious but don’t have an outlet to be active,” Rubenstein said. “You don’t have to be part of Beyond the Bottle or working for sustainable food systems or a specific issue like that to get involved.” The new Environmental Events group is not the first initiative created under the umbrella of emPOWER. The popular Beyond the Bottle campaign and the new composting initiative SCRAP are just two of the many projects that were created as a result of student ideas. Howard said the new effort is a bit more “amorphous” than past sub-groups, but he and Rubenstein are already beginning to plan various projects that the group will work on. “We’re in the early stages of planning for what we think will be an ocean-oriented event,” Howard said. “This could include having a
panel speak, documentary screenings and some other fun events throughout the day.” The new group hopes to build on the success of past sub-groups and use the knowledge they have gained to help this current initiative succeed. “We’ve gained a lot of knowledge about how Brown works and who does what,” Howard said. “We’ve gotten a lot better at having very important and meaningful messages that the University is receptive to.” “The sub-group model allows us to build relationships with the administration and Facilities and Dining Ser vices so we can more easily work on other projects,” Rubenstein added. Both Howard and Rubenstein emphasized that emPOWER takes the ideas of its members seriously and that the sub-groups show how student ideas can come into fruition. “A lot of sub-groups rise naturally out of the conversations of a few emPOWER members, such as Beyond the Bottle,” Rubenstein said. “We’re always looking for new ideas that we can implement.”
Underground re-opens in Campus Center continued from page 1 Campus Center at a ceremony Oct. 1. Gresh said there will be a First Friday celebration that evening. The Underground was last open for events in May 2009, Cooke said. Vice President for Facilities Management Stephen Maiorisi said it was closed with the rest of the building for the renovations. Cooke said he and Maiorisi
tried to maintain the original look of the room despite the renovations. “Obviously with the new elevator in the room, physically the stage had to shift over, and some adjustments in the physical appearance did take place, but we wanted to keep the original aesthetics of the room,” Cooke said. He cited the exposed brick and “somewhat darker colors” as ele-
ments that he thinks students liked about the space. Before the renovation, the space was operated by two student groups — the Underground student organization worked the bar on weekends, and the Hourglass Cafe sold drinks and pastries on weeknights. The room also served as a venue for student organizations, artists and performers. Students can reser ve the space through the scheduling office, Director of the Campus Center Dean Kisa Takesue ’88 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. Gresh said that it is not yet clear if either the Underground organization or the Hourglass Cafe has interest in using the space. Gresh said that the student coordinators for the Campus Center will help organize students to make sure the Underground stays utilized and “contributes to the overall life” of the building. Another change he noted was that when the room is not reserved for events, the Underground will be open for community use. Previously, the Underground was closed on Sundays and days before evening events. “Throughout the renovation, we had an eye towards making ever y space as available to the campus community as possible and allowing for space to meet many different needs,” Gresh said. Gresh said he foresees the new Underground will be a well-used element of the Campus Center. “The Underground has been and will continue to be a popular venue for music, performance and other forms of entertainment and a home for various social events and meetings,” Gresh said.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS
“You can tell it to print, but nothing goes through.” — Eric Hubble ’11 on PawPrints
Technology snafus cause printing headaches continued from page 1 Windows 7 allows a student to save files for up to 24 hours on these communal machines. But this added benefit has resulted in the inability of some PCs to connect to PawPrints. Jeffrey Clark, assistant director of classroom information technology and computer repair services, said that under Windows 7 there is “more network traffic.” A PC connects with a printer at the time a student logs into the system. Because of the higher traffic associated with the new file-saving feature, Clark said, “it takes more time for the system to set up a printer.” As a result, the PawPrints printer option occasionally does not load. This problem is resolved rather easily — signs direct frustrated users to restart their computers. Library Lab Consultants at the Help Desk can also fix the problem. Lab Consultant Ben Farber ’12 said “the majority” of questions he gets are about printing. This semester, Farber said he was not just asked to help resolve paper jams or approached by freshmen new to the PawPrints system — this new genre of printing woes has far outnumbered the others. But Farber said this problem has been happening a lot less frequently in recent weeks. Eric Hubble ’11 has encountered
Stephanie London / Herald
Students in the Friedman Study Center attempt to use PawPrints. Struggles cause some to reach out to Library Lab Consultants.
this glitch when using the scanner computers at the Sciences Library. “You can tell it to print, but nothing goes through,” he said. Chishio Furukawa ’12 has also encountered the printer problems. He suggested that students “try out a couple computers to find one that works” but added that the problem was “not that serious.”
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But the glitch seems to target randomly — Gladys Ndagire ’13 considered herself a satisfied user of the system and said “the printing is fine.” CIS has been working hard to mediate the printers with the clusters, Grossi said. “We reconfigured the network to prioritize printing activity and make it faster.”
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
“RIPTA is more than just buses running up and down the street.” — RIPTA Assistant General Manager Mark Thierren
RIPTA, city seek feedback on streetcars Mearsheimer warns of continued from page 1 tion in Providence. A report issued on the study this summer issued 10 recommendations, including a recommendation for a city streetcar system. During the College Hill forum presentation, Mark Therrien, RIPTA assistant general manager, said the agency is currently planning to connect College Hill with downtown, Upper South Providence, the Jewelry District and the area near the State House. Therrien raised the prospect of expanding streetcar coverage beyond those five points to other areas of the city, but meeting participants expressed concern that widening coverage could detract from the goal of faster and more efficient travel. If a streetcar system were to be installed, it would coexist with the regular RIPTA bus system, Therrien said, though some bus routes would be altered to accommodate the streetcar. Therrien said the transportation agency is taking into account the potential impact of the study on
the environment, job creation and tourism in the city. “RIPTA is more than just buses running up and down the street,” he said. Though a modern streetcar system is the focus of the current study, another option is to provide better traditional bus service between the five targeted areas. Amy Pettine, RIPTA special projects manager, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that, at open houses elsewhere in the city last week, community members said they were “interested in the benefits that come from technology like a streetcar, both transit and economic,” but also expressed concern about the expense of installing a rail line. According to RIPTA, the capital cost of the proposed streetcar project would be $76 million, and the annual operating cost would be $2.8 million. The University has also played a part in planning the project. Brown has an interest in the study because of how a streetcar system might impact life on campus, said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the
president. The University currently operates shuttles to transport students to and from campus, the Jewelry District and hospitals associated with Alpert Medical School. A RIPTA streetcar that operated in the proposed core would provide additional transportation for those students, Spies said. The University has conducted its own surveys to gauge student opinion, but Spies said that participating with the Core Connector study “doesn’t lead to an automatic support for the outcome.” It remains to be seen whether such an investment would pay off, he said, but if the investment is made, private investors like real estate firms might be willing to make further investments. The next step in the planning process is to narrow down route possibilities and submit the specifics for public review in December, Pettine wrote. The current study ends in June 2011, Therrien said, and if the initiative moves forward, a streetcar route could open downtown by 2015, according to the report issued this summer.
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apartheid state in Israel continued from page 1
He referenced President Barack Obama’s call for “two states for two people” and his request to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cease the settlements in Gaza and the West bank, saying Netanyahu’s dismissal of this plea demonstrated that “Obama is no match for Netanyahu.” He also said it was possible, though unlikely, that Israel would attempt an ethnic cleansing by exiling the 5.5 million Palestinians. “We should not underestimate Israel’s willingness to employ such a horrific tactic given the right circumstances,” he said. He hypothesized that the most likely result of the current conflict will be an apartheid state in Israel in which the Arab population will be denied full political rights. He said he believes this will be “similar to white-rule in apartheid Africa.” He said that as this state of apartheid progresses, it will become more visible and harder to defend, forming a situation so contradictory to Western values that American opinions on the debate will shift. The ultimate American opinion of Israel will be shaped by the attitude of what he calls the “great ambivalent
middle” group of Jewish Americans, Mearsheimer said. He said he trusts that once this group witnesses the state of apartheid, they will choose to support equal rights for the Palestinians, leaving the Israel lobby unable to sustain support. “Israel is doomed” once public opinion in the West turns against it, he said. He said the current situation in Israel is “unsustainable,” and predicted that the two-state solution will be crushed. The event took place in a mostly full Salomon 001 — though many people left throughout the speech. “I definitely thought it was a different perspective,” Dorothy Lutz ’13 said. Dean Serure ’13 called the speech “very pointed.” Mearsheimer has written extensively about security issues and international politics. He has published five books, and is currently working on his sixth entitled, “Why leaders lie: Truth about Lying in International Politics.” His talk was sponsored by Common Ground: Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel, the Brown Journal of World Affairs, the Office of International Affairs, and the Watson Institute for International Studies.
Metro The Brown Daily Herald
“This agreement will allow us to provide the best medical care for Rhode Island.” — Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing Tuesday, September 28, 2010 | Page 5
Illegal immigration poses threat, says local activist Med School partnership formalized By Anne Artley Staff Writer
Terry Gorman, the founder and director of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, incited debate among listeners last night as he argued that immigrants imposed a drain on both the local and national economy, especially in the education and medical fields. The group was founded to inform Providence residents of the financial consequences of illegal immigration, advocating hard-line reform, according to the organization’s website. Gorman set the tone for the lecture with an anecdote about 17 undocumented factor y workers from Mexico, only one of whom could speak English after living and working in the United States
for 15 years. “I was offended that people would be here for so long and not learn English,” he said. English proficiency “would be a courtesy to the country where they were living.” Undocumented immigrants cost Rhode Island $44 million a year — specifically, $125 million in medical care and $7.2 million in incarceration costs, Gordon said. He added that a high number of undocumented women in Rhode Island delivered babies who are then considered U.S. citizens, and who then qualify to receive the full benefits of the Social Security System. “Mothers aren’t entitled to welfare, but their babies will be, so the mothers will still get the money,” Gorman said, explaining how he said undocumented immigrants deprive U.S. citizens of welfare money.
“If a woman came here on vacation or on a work visa, we should take care of (the baby), but I don’t believe a woman should come here pregnant to have a baby born.” Gorman said that he is not racist or targeting immigrants specifically from Mexico. “We need to send them back, regardless of where they came from and the conditions they would go back to — whether it be Russia, France, Ireland or Honduras,” he said. Gorman’s talk was organized by Rabbi Alan Flam, who is coordinating a lecture series for University Community Academic Advising Program, a pre-orientation program for students who are interested in community service in Providence. Immigration was one of the key themes of this year’s program.
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While Flam said he doesn’t agree with Gorman’s immigration views, he invited the speaker so the program participants could be exposed to different points of view. “We want people to understand how complicated immigration is,” Flam said. “Talking about a complex issue is what being at a university is all about.” Students had the opportunity to debate with Gorman during a question and answer session that ran longer than the lecture itself. Jesse McGleughlin ’14 said she thought Gorman’s claim that all immigrants should learn English lacked an understanding of the resources available to them. His argument “was founded on blame and not what it means to assimilate and how hard it is to learn another language,” she said.
post-
continued from page 1 This will be the first time that Rhode Island Hospital is formally recognized as the principal teaching hospital for the Med School, Wing said, and this change reflects the fact that it contains the majority of department chairs and residents in relation to the other hospitals, now referred to as “major teaching affiliates.” “This agreement will allow us to provide the best medical care for Rhode Island, add to the economy and have a medical school that all of our citizens can be proud of,” Wing said. The institutions will have a greater ability “to pool our resources in a more synergistic way,” Babineau said, adding that citizens “will see a difference.” This expanded affiliation with Lifespan and the Med School will be far-reaching and long-lasting, Vecchione said, adding that this will allow the institutions to “address the challenges and create opportunities in today’s healthcare environment.”
Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald
Page 6 | Tuesday, September 28, 2010
l e t t e r to t h e e d i to r
Off-campus involvement benefits students, alums To the Editor: I strongly agree with Kurt Walters’s exhortation (“Off the Hill,” Sept. 24) to his fellow Brown undergraduates to get off the hill. I remember that when I started at Brown in 2000, the only time most undergrads left campus was to go to the Providence Place Mall. Most of them took the trolley — I was surprised in my first week when I walked down the hill and discovered that the mall was just a 15 minute (at most) walk away. A decade later, and six years after graduating, I am still in Providence, a result of the strong bond
I made with the city due to my involvement as a student journalist and activist at Brown. Most of the people I know from Brown who are still here had a similar experience at college, spending plenty of time learning and having fun on campus but also enjoying what the wider city has to offer. Most of them also were involved in some kind of local (off-campus) political activism or community service, often through Swearer Center programs. The column’s claims are one hundred percent true. Peter Ian Asen ’04 Sept. 27
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On Sept. 14, Mayor David Cicilline ’83 won the Democratic nomination in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I. Cicilline will now face the former state House minority whip from Tiverton, Republican John Loughlin II, in vying for the right to represent Rhode Island’s first district, which includes Brown. Most students already know Cicilline from his time as mayor. We suspect many remember his proposal to levy a “student impact fee” on out-of-state students attending private colleges, as well as his plan to tax the property holdings of large nonprofits like Brown. Cicilline’s relationship with his alma mater was further strained after his campaign improperly used the University’s name and logo in a fundraising mailer. Although we weren’t happy about either of these incidents, we are willing to say that students should give Cicilline a second chance and at the very least consider his candidacy with an open mind. In an interview with the editorial page board, Cicilline’s campaign manager, Eric Hyers, sought to address these two issues and the Mayor’s relationship with the University. Hyers explained that the use of Brown’s logo was a “staff oversight,” and that both the Mayor and the campaign had “no intent whatsoever” to violate fundraising regulations. We understand that mistakes happen, and we don’t hold it against Cicilline. The tax issue is more troubling. The Herald reported in July 2009 that the tax proposals originated in the Mayor’s office. We expressed our concerns to Hyers, who told us that the tax issue was a “mayoral question” that’s “not on the campaign agenda.” When we asked for clarification, Hyers assured us that in his seven months as campaign manager, he’s heard
Cicilline talk about “virtually every possible issue,” but that the Mayor has “never brought that up.” We are satisfied that, if elected, Cicilline would not look to tax nonprofit organizations like Brown. The Mayor’s proposals last year started a conversation that showed the public how much Brown and other universities contribute to their surrounding communities, as well as how counterproductive it would be to saddle schools with new taxes. Ultimately, we should not let one past disagreement cloud our evaluation of a candidate’s ability to contribute in the future. In the coming weeks, we plan to delve deeper into both candidates’ positions on policies that will affect Brown, including tuition aid, research funding and support for the “knowledge economy” in Providence. We encourage students of all political persuasions to pay close attention to this race. In the current political climate, it may well be closer than expected. Indeed, the Cook Political Report just last week said the race could be more competitive than expected and changed its assessment from “Likely Democratic” to “Lean Democratic.” Alluding to projections that control of the U.S. House of Representatives may be up for grabs, Hyers said that Brown “could be a precinct that determines whether or not (Democrats are) keeping the House.” Although he expressed confidence in the ultimate outcome, he said the campaign was “running as if we’re tied.” If he wins, Cicilline would be only the second alum in Congress. We’re excited that Brown and its students may well play a significant role on the national stage this year. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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correction A caption accompanying an article in Monday’s Herald, (“Fall production focuses on family fury,” Sept. 27) incorrectly attributed the photo. The photographer was Nava Winkler. 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
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 | Page 7
Inviting ignorance
david Sheffield Opinions Columnist Brown hosts many talks throughout the year. The lecture board brings in well-known speakers, departments hold colloquia and numerous groups and organizations get interesting people to talk about various subjects. This makes the University a livelier place — one with an exchange of ideas and discussion. While Brown should welcome a broad range of viewpoints, we should not allow ourselves to be used as a soapbox for whomever would like to come speak. There is a point at which the damage done by hosting a speaker outweighs the benefits. Last Friday, the Brown Bookstore hosted Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill, the authors of “The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-Made Epidemic,” for “a reading and [discussion] of their research.” Research is a highly generous word to use to describe what the authors have done. Essentially, they repackaged the last decade’s worth of claims that mercury causes autism, disregarding the actual research that shows those claims to be utterly false. Study after study has shown that autism is not caused by mercury in vaccines. To state it briefly, the authors of “The Age of Autism” make demonstrably false claims that lead to parents refusing to vaccinate their children. Falling vaccination rates lead
in turn to the reemergence of diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough. The bookstore should not have hosted the Olmsted and Blaxill. What do we as a university have to gain by hosting people promoting obviously false ideas? The anti-vaccination crowd will continue to give talks around the country and appear in credulous media outfits. The greatest benefit is that it could have allowed doctors and scientists to see the vogue anti-vaccination claims. It is very useful for interested doctors and scientists to know what is be-
him or her to come give a talk about how the British Empire is currently the biggest world threat and how that relates to Obama being a Nazi. We expect people to be coherent, thoughtful and not live in a fantasy world. By giving the authors a prestigious soapbox, the bookstore is lending them credibility that they otherwise would not have. People are liable to give the medical claims in “The Age of Autism” more sway than they otherwise would because they expect Brown to not host people giving bad medical advice. These haven’t been the only unsavory
When Brown hosts a speaker, it provides a certain level of endorsement. Essentially, the University is saying, “this person is worth listening to.”
ing said. Otherwise, they could not check the claims against actual research and try to correct false statements. However, the bookstore had this as a normal book reading targeted at the public. The detrimental effects of this event overshadow the positive ones. When Brown hosts a speaker, it provides a certain level of endorsement. Essentially, the University is saying, “this person is worth listening to.” We do not just pick speakers up off the street. No one would go up to one of Lyndon LaRouche’s acolytes on Thayer Street and ask
characters that have appeared at Brown. Pervez Musharraf and Rick Santorum, among many others, have given talks here. The same thing happens at Brown’s peer institutions. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited New York City to speak at the United Nations last week. During his 2007 UN visit he controversially appeared at a Columbia event. These talks should undergo the same ethical calculus as the “Age of Autism” reading. Is it a net benefit or detriment to bring in these speakers? On the whole, it is beneficial to have them
speak. Unlike the authors of “The Age of Autism,” these speakers are not giving bad medical advice. Santorum would not have had much of an effect by using unsound science to try to justify why embryos should be considered humans or why queer people effectively should not be. Ahmadinejad would not have had much success from a Columbia stage convincing people that the Holocaust did not happen. But the anti-vaccination crowd does rely on these sorts of talks to spread their personal dislike for vaccines and whatever rationalization they currently use to justify it; in Olmsted and Blaxill’s case, it is mercury and autism. They do have plenty of media at their disposal. Oprah, Larry King and the Huffington Post are all too happy to promote these beliefs. Luckily, those people and organizations do not have any academic heft. People may trust them, but they are not doctors. We need to be mindful of the consequences of choosing speakers. Just as the biology department would need to think carefully about the consequences if they wanted to have some fun by bringing in a creationist or the same with the physics department having a colloquium speaker advocate for geocentrism, all organizations at Brown should be conscious of whether a speaker will make Brown a better or worse place.
David Sheffield ’11 is a math-physics concentrator, who actually does enjoy listening to pseudoscientists. He can be contacted at david_sheffield@brown.edu.
Transfers appreciate Brown’s non-corporatization BY SISSI SUN Opinions Columnist Four weeks into the fall 2010 semester at Brown, the group of new students specially invited to President Simmons’s August 29 welcome speech seemed to be gradually adjusting to the new community. Among this new student group is not only Brown’s freshmen, but also the University’s newly-admitted transfer students. It is not surprising that a significant part of the transfer population each year comes from those colleges with administrative operations that model the management of large corporations. Some of those schools might enjoy similar national standing and scale to Brown, but their intimacy with their trustees’ pockets unfortunately gears their concern away from their students’ education and welfare. While those who came to Brown as freshmen are used to the University’s attentive and caring atmosphere, students who transferred from schools like New York University or the University of Pennsylvania might feel more strongly about this student-centered feature under the sharp contrast between their old and new schools’ administrative focus. As a junior transfer from Northwestern University, I have for the past two years seen the manifestations of the notorious “corporatization of higher education.” On Northwestern’s beautiful lakeside campus in Evanston, Ill., the school administration never allowed any scarcity of outdoor flowering plants every spring to fall. Under the school’s special investment, the purple and white hyacinth
blossoms, which match the school colors, never die. The Department of Economics takes pride in frequently inviting some of the nation’s most absurdly priced speakers to this flower-clad campus. At the same time, however, while the students consistently complained about the unreasonable pricing at Northwestern’s dining facilities, President Morton Schapiro, along with NU’s board of trustees, specifically commented that they do not consider students’ dining as something worth spending more money on.
a patch of blossoming flowers. Nor might Brown students enjoy the frequent company of VIPs who cost thousands of dollars. But the resources have been saved for projects like the newly opened Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center that hosts most student organizations, activities and events. The Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts will also be shortly completed, providing extra lab and studio space for multi-disciplinary work. Even though “being attentive to student life” might sound like a qualitative assess-
As a junior transfer from Northwestern University, I have for the past two years seen the manifestations of the notorious “corporatization of higher education.” Clearly, instead of being an education and research institution, Northwestern University well demonstrates a “You pay, so I teach” business. Thus, oftentimes it results in an interesting phenomenon. While schools like Northwestern boast their national reputation of excellence represented in the U.S. News & World Report national college ranking, their students, who have paid to come for this “excellence,” end up suffering from an “I can’t even care less” attitude from their administration. In comparison, at Brown one can be impressed by the level of attention from the school’s executives for its students’ benefit. On Brown’s campus, one could hardly find
ment, even a quick look at the numbers in a student’s tuition statement reveals Brown’s investment in students versus something different at Northwestern. For instance, Northwestern University’s 2010-11 total estimated charge reaches more than $56,000, exceeding Brown’s estimated total of $51,360 by nearly 10 percent. Given that extra money, Northwestern charges a student living on campus somewhere between $10 to $18 for a meal, while a guest would only pay from $6.50 to $10.50. In other words, students pay around 50 to 70 percent more than a non-student to eat. At Brown, on the other hand, a meal for a student on meal plan averages somewhere
between $7 to $13, versus $9.30 to $14.25 for guests. Looks like even in the recession, we have some of the tuition raise back on our plates. During the recession, one might expect the “corporate colleges” to live better, given their supposedly profit-focused management. But as seen in the meal plan sharking, students definitely get ripped off to make up for the deficit in the board members’ deposit books. Fortunately for Brownies, whether in boom or recession, Brown’s attention to students is reflected not only in accounting but also in its academic support and extracurricular encouragement. Every day, the Brown Morning Mail puts together most campus extracurricular events and activities, showing the school’s encouragement for student interests. We are privileged to have administrators who care about the lives and passions of students, rather than some thousand-dollar-worth speeches or purple hyacinths. Among the administrations at corporate colleges, it is a common belief that the rankings, reputation and beautiful exteriors of the school would eventually trickle down to benefit the students. After all, people would say “wow” when they visit your school. But out of my own experience at NU, where I really got stuck with this four-year corporate business, the wows of others could never make up for what I missed, which I fortunately found at Brown.
Sissi Sun ’12 is a theater and mathematical economics concentrator from Chicago. She can be reached at siqi_sun@brown.edu.
Today The Brown Daily Herald
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New group publicizes environment
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1 1 c a l e n da r
11:00 A.M.
ToMORROW
comics SeptemBER 29
Bat and Gaz | Sofia Ortiz
3:00 P.M. 2010 Study Abroad Fair,
Cambodian Poetry Recital,
Lincoln Field
McCormack Family Theater
7:30 p.M.
8:00 P.M.
A Reading by Poet Elizabeth
Kubisch Film Screening, Grant
Robinson, McCormack Theater
Recital Hall
menu SHARPE REFECTORY
VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH
Grilled Tuna Sandwich with Cheese, Spinach Quiche, Corn Cobbets, Chocolate Chip Cookies
Shaved Steak Sandwich, Spinach Strudel, Mandarin Blend Vegetables, Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
DINNER Sesame Chicken Strips, Vegan Chow Mein and Tofu with Chow Mein Noodles, Birthday Cake
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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to m o r r o w
Who should Brown invite to lecture?
t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
Today
to day
Roast Pork Ouvert, Pastito, Baked Potato with Sour Cream, Cheese Zuder Bread, Birthday Cake
crossword Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
Fruitopia | Andy Kim
The Adventures of Team Vag | Wendy Kwartin
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