Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 94 | Wednesday, October 20, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

Islam in America panel highlights acceptance

l et it rain

By Morgan Johnson Contributing Writer

Courtesy of Christopher Bull

A collaboration between Brown and RISD students is bringing clean water to Kerala, India, but not without difficulties. See Campus News, page 2.

A panel of four Brown and Providence experts on the Muslim community addressed the causes of negativity toward Islam in America, offering different opinions on how to combat increasing intolerance, in a mostly full MacMillan 115 Tuesday night.

The panelists cited media coverage, especially from cable news outlets, as a frequent perpetrator of stereotypes about the Muslim community.

The notion that “Islam is a totalizing way of life that accompanies everything a Muslim does” is an example of the media’s biased interpretation of Islam, said Assistant

Professor of Religious Studies Nancy Khalek.

She said the media capitalize on a common public assumption that Muslims are intolerant of religious and cultural differences. The media imply that if Muslims are permitted to follow Shariah law, she said, the public should be afraid that such laws would be imposed on the rest of the community.

“We must be aggressively undoing what the media is doing,” said Sherine Hamdy, assistant professor of anthropology. “You have to work against it. You can’t just be passive.”

In a 2005 cartoon contest held by a Danish newspaper, artists depicted continued on page 3

Off the Hill, Latin, Caribbean Studies center has new director students find role teaching

By Emily Rosen Staff Writer

By Ashley Aydin Senior Staff Writer

For some Brown students, classroom time extends beyond College Hill. This isn’t just the typical educational experi-

FEATURE ence –– it involves teaching younger peers in places like Olneyville and Providence’s West End. In these classrooms, it’s all about students teaching students.

Summer for bonding and learning

Providence Summerbridge’s mission is to create an opportunity for low-income, academically motivated middle school students to attend college. The students come from local public schools, and the program encourages high school and college students to pursue futures in education, according to the program’s website.

Michael Goldstein ’92, co-founder of Summerbridge Providence, said he was inspired by his past experience with Summerbridge in New Orleans and decided to start the program in Providence.

“It was just completely a part of who I was and how I found myself, and so the opportunity to be able to do something I love was great,” he said.

Providence Summerbridge uses the students-teaching-students model because “the teachers are students

inside

continued on page 2

News.......1–4 Sports........5 Editorial......6 Opinion.......7 Today..........8

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As the new director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Professor of Political Science Richard Snyder said he plans to implement new initiatives as well as to continue and build upon existing ones.

“Latin American and Caribbean studies is an absolute jewel at Brown,” said Matthew Gutmann, vice president for international affairs and the former CLACS director. “(Snyder) can provide the leadership the program needs right now.” Snyder, who began his term as direc-

tor in July, is a well-known scholar in Latin American and Caribbean studies.

The programs, events and conferences organized by CLACS are geared toward both undergraduate and graduate students.

“These types of centers are important for enhancing graduate education,” Snyder said, adding that as a graduate student, he benefited greatly from “robust area centers” similar to CLACS, which bring together people from multiple departments. “It’s good to be exposed to people in other disciplines,” he said.

This year, Snyder is reinstating “Politics, Culture, and Society in

Latin America and the Caribbean,” a graduate student colloquium that he launched a few years ago. These seminars allow graduate students from a variety of departments — including sociology, anthropology and political science — to present their research to other graduate students.

In addition to the interdisciplinary undergraduate concentration in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the center also offers programs and various opportunities for undergraduates. As director, Snyder said he is going to start initiatives on social entrepreneurship and climate change as they relate to Latin America.

Snyder said he thinks undergraduates will find the field of social entrepreneurship interesting, and he is planning to have a workshop on the subject during this academic year.

As part of the climate change initiative, there will be a conference Apr. 8 with experts on climate change from Latin America and Washington, D.C. invited to attend, Snyder said.

In addition, a small group of undergraduates — sponsored by CLACS, the Watson Institute for International Studies and the Center for Environmental Studies — will continued on page 3

M. water polo wins, gears up for California trip

By Garret Johnson Sports Staff Writer

It was a little too close for comfort, but the No. 20 men’s water polo team (144) escaped from Harvard’s Blodgett Pool with a 12-9 win over the Crimson (8-13) last Thursday.

SPORTS Bruno jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first quarter, but the game tightened up after Brown was unable to score in quarter two.

“I was pleased with the way we started the game,” said Head Coach Felix Mercado. “But obviously the last three quarters on the scoreboard, Harvard outplayed us.”

Despite the rocky finish, Mercado

said he was pleased with the game’s outcome.

“I’m happy we were able to get out of there with a victory and a top-two seed at (the Northern Championships), which was probably the most important thing,” he said.

Mercado praised the offense of Svetozar Stefanovic ’13, who scored five goals, as well as Corey Schwartz ’11 and James McNamara ’14, who netted three apiece. Cyrus Mojdehi ’12 added Brown’s other goal. Mercado said these offensive performances “definitely propelled us to the win.”

“We did a little worse in the last quarters,” Stefanovic said. “But it doesn’t matter because we won.”

Goalie Max Lubin ’12 was able to continued on page 2

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Svetozar Stefanovic ’13 scored five goals in the No. 20 men’s water polo team’s 12-9 win over Harvard.

Europe care

Hawk down

It ain’t cheap

Danish minister explains benefits of European health care

No.14 men’s soccer beats Hartwick at home, 3-1

Hunter Fast ’12 commends Brown’s price discrimination

newS, 3

SPORTS, 5

Opinions, 7

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

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W. polo gets ready to hit the West continued from page 1

preserve the Bears’ lead, recording nine saves in net.

Brown now prepares for what will be its toughest test of the season: a West Coast trip against some of the nation’s best teams. On Thursday, the Bears will head to the three-day Santa Clara University Invitational in Santa Clara, Calif.

Bruno will face No. 14 California Baptist University (22-3), No. 11 University of California at Davis (12-6), Air Force (7-11), No. 11 Santa Clara University (13-9) and No. 7 University of the Pacific (10-5). UC-Davis and Santa Clara are tied in the rankings.

Even with the daunting schedule ahead, Mercado said he is confident in his team, and the win against Harvard reminded his squad of an important lesson.

“It let us know that we need to play four quarters,” Mercado said. “I think the last three days of practice that we’ve had have been very focused. The guys have worked hard.”

Stefanovic said he was not intimidated by the higher rankings of Bruno’s upcoming opponents, saying that they are “not much better than us.”

“If we work hard in every game and we give our best, we can beat every one of those teams,” he said.

Mercado agreed, saying the team will be in good shape as long as it avoids bouts of sloppy play and turnovers.

“That has been the biggest Achilles’ heel: our turnovers,” he said. “If we protect the ball and we take advantage of every offensive possession, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing.

We’re going to be in the game.”

“It’s been an incredible learning experience to get off College Hill.” — Kayla Urquidi ’11, leadership program coordinator

Students teach students in Summerbridge initiative continued from page 1 themselves, so there is a real bond that is created between the students and teachers,” Goldstein said. “The high school and college teachers are exceptional.”

At first, Ari Rubenstein ’11, who taught in the program the past two summers, was not really sure he wanted to do Summerbridge. He found, though, that “it was the most rewarding way to spend my summer.”

Rubenstein taught English his first year and mathematics his second year.

Typical days at Providence Summerbridge are long — “the kids arrive at 8 a.m.,” Rubenstein said.

Rubenstein’s day usually ended at 6 p.m. “We spend a lot of our time writing quizzes and grading homework,” he added.

For Keith Catone ’00, a program alum now attending the Harvard School of Education, Providence Summerbridge was also a big, but valuable, commitment.

Catone spent most of his time working with students after school ended, for two hours twice a week.

Catone said the program’s model of students teaching students had many advantages. People aged 16–20 “can do a lot if they’re given the right type of training, and if they’re given the support and space,” he said.

“They can have more success with students than older teachers. There’s a built-in sort of respect.”

Rubenstein also said being close in age is beneficial.

“One big thing is the students come in and see someone who is young and friendly, listens to the same music they listen to,” he said.

“We’re students ourselves. We’re not that far out of middle school, so we can be really sympathetic.”

This relationship is not a one-way

street, Rubenstein said.

“The learning is going in both directions,” he said. “We’re not just coming in to teach or do a favor for these kids because that’s not what it’s about. It’s about working hard and learning a lot.”

Expression through collaboration The students-teaching-students model is also used in the Brown Language Arts Program, a writing club intended to encourage self-expression and help elementary students with their written communication skills, according to the Swearer Center website. The clubs meet at William D’Abate and Asa Messer elementary schools.

Jeff Bauer ’11, the coordinator of the program, has participated in it since his freshman year after finding out about it at the Student Activities Fair.

“We basically do creative writing with third-, fourth- and fifth-graders with fiction, nonfiction and poetry,” he said.

“We’re old enough for the teaching aspect of it, but on the other hand, we have a really close relationship with the kids. We can relate easier to them,” Bauer said. “Since we’re after school, it’s not as rigid a structure.

We’re in a unique position because of our age.”

Bauer said the program involves a lot of individual help.

“We usually have a 2-1 studentto-teacher ratio,” he said. “We try to bridge the gap between building skills and fun activities.”

Leadership out- and indoors While many Brown students have the opportunity to explore the great outdoors through Brown Outdoor Leadership Training, some have taken their experiences one step further. Many participate in the Outdoor

Leadership and Experiential Education Program, which teaches environmental science and leadership through workshops and field trips to students at the Met School, according to the Swearer Center website.

Program Coordinator Kayla Urquidi ’11 discovered the program ­— which was started by two BOLT leaders about 13 years ago — during her sophomore year.

“It was a fusion of my passions,” she said. “I just returned from the backpacking trip on BOLT, and I was really looking to get involved in the community. I was in other teaching programs before, and I wanted to get involved with the Met School.”

Urquidi said there are multiple focuses of the program.

“We try to help fulfill the lab science requirements for the Met School. We do hands-on environmental science workshops,” she said.

“Another facet of the program is the camping component. We usually have two trips each semester, and the mentors and mentees go together.”

Urquidi said many Brown students in the program act as mentors and have helped their mentees in the past with community service projects and college applications.

“We help them with whatever they want,” she said. “Some of the pairs click and take off.”

Urquidi said that with the close age difference of the mentors and mentees, engaging the interest of mentees is much easier.

“I really feel like the Brown students learn so much in terms of how to communicate their own knowledge and facilitate discussions with the Met students,” she said.

Mutual learning With such large outreach in the Providence community, Brown serves an important role in support-

ing students — of all ages.

“Some of the middle schoolers can be inspired by the fact that there are these students going to an Ivy League that tell them they believe in them and that they can make it to Brown, too,” Rubenstein said.

Urquidi said she is amazed there are so many programs involving Brown students helping out in the Providence community.

“Now that I’m coordinating, I can see how many programs there are. We had an amazing amount of people apply this year. I really think student groups do a good job in getting involved in Providence,” Urquidi said. “It’s been an incredible learning experience to get off College Hill.”

With the participation in these programs, students volunteers said they have discovered many valuable lessons about themselves and about teaching.

“It’s a very real way to understand the setting the University is in and the other parts it’s isolated from,” Catone said. “I think Brown students are given space and freedom to think about ‘Why am I learning this?’ and ‘Why am I here?’ ” Bauer said he learned a lot about the way kids think and how to make activities “more exciting for students.”

For Rubenstein, hard work led to many new discoveries.

“I worked harder then I ever had in my life over this summer. I learned to have faith that the work that I was doing was worthwhile and valuable even if I couldn’t see the results right away or ever,” he said.

Urquidi said she realized from the experience that she could be a teacher.

“I always had done tutoring, but this showed me that I could really be a teacher,” she said. “Confidence was the biggest thing.”

Groups work to bring clean water to India

sudoku

By Katherine Sola Contributing Writer

Daily Herald the Brown

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

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Katie Koh, Treasurer Chaz Kelsh, Secretary

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Rainwater for Humanity, a collaboration between Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students, has developed a system for providing clean, drinkable water to people living in Kerala, India — but the project has met some cultural challenges.

The residents of Achinakom, a village in the state of Kerala, do not have access to affordable drinking water.

Much of the local groundwater is contaminated, leading to disease and increased medical costs, according to the group’s website. Clean water is available from vendors, but at high prices.

Brown and RISD students have designed a solution to this problem — tanks that catch, filter and store rainwater during the monsoon. The water collection frees families from the financial burden of buying water and paying for health care costs. The first tank was built in 2009, according to the group’s website.

The group received about $40,000 in grants and has spent approximately half of the funds, said Senior Research Engineer and Senior Lecturer

in Engineering Christopher Bull ’79 MS’86 PhD’06, who advises the Rainwater for Humanity team.

Bull said the tanks are generally connected to the rainwater gutters on existing dwellings. When it rains, runoff from the first five minutes is discarded and the rest of the water is stored. The system is entirely humanpowered and gravity-fed, requiring no electricity.

There are currently two prototype tanks functioning in Achinakom, Bull said.

The team also designed a payback system to make the tanks economically sustainable. Several families purchase a communal tank and pay for it over the course of a few years. Villagers pay less per month than they spend on water vendors and medical fees for water-borne diseases.

The group members wanted the project to be economically sustainable and use locally available materials, said Christina Tang ’09, one of the project’s original members. The group has also partnered with a local university and community members.

Though the team has successfully come up with a solution for providing affordable, clean water, the project

is facing cultural challenges. The tanks currently functioning in Achinakom were built as prototypes, at no expense to the residents, Tang said. Some now consider it unfair that the tanks were provided free to those families, while others will be expected to pay back the cost. This attitude stems from Kerala’s communist political ideology, which has led residents to expect free services, she added.

Tang added that persuading villagers to purchase tanks is the “major challenge” facing the project. In addition, politicians are often unwilling to support grassroots projects, preferring larger projects that gain media coverage.

Current group member Eli Crumrine ’11 said that many of the villagers are employed unreliably as day laborers or in seasonal agricultural jobs and are therefore unwilling to commit to paying off debt. But he said he is optimistic about the possibilities for success and expansion in the future.

“I definitely feel good about what we’ve learned, what our partners have learned and about the effect that we’ve had,” Crumrine said.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

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“What is Islam? Who is Islam? There is no pope.”

— Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Nancy Khalek

Panel discusses myths about Islam continued from page 1 the prophet Muhammad in various derogatory illustrations, which incited a slew of angry and at times violent protests from the Muslim community.

“Westerners interpreted this as Muslim intolerance to freedom of speech,” Khalek said.

She added that the reality of the situation was quite different. From the Muslim perspective, the protesters were not necessarily critical of the illustrators’ rights to free speech, but they wanted to demonstrate that the drawings were highly offensive and injurious.

Khalek also critiqued the reaction of the media and the American public toward the recently proposed Islamic community center in the vicinity of Ground Zero.

“It seems to me that what we’re really talking about is not whether religion belongs in the public sphere,” she said. “What we’re talking about is whose sensitivities ought to be respected.”

Khalek disputed the common argument used against the community center — that a majority of Americans

are not in favor of its construction, according to some polls. Referring to past instances of popular public opinion, such as the strong support of slavery by the American public before the Civil War, Khalek argued that such an argument has no historical or moral validity.

Brown Muslim Chaplain David Coolidge ’01 argued that such prejudice against Islam is uncharacteristic of the American ideal as “the last best hope on Earth.” Unlike countries such as France and Switzerland, where nationalist values contribute to a negative climate for Islam, American sensationalism of Muslims appears to be in contrast of its traditional platform of religious tolerance, which can be damaging to young Muslims when confronting Islamic identity, he said.

According to Coolidge, messages from the public and the media concerning symbols of Muslim identity, like the generalization that “scarves are bad,” discourage people from wearing them who might otherwise.

Coolidge said he is treated differently when wearing a cap or sporting a longer beard.

Khalek said a difficulty with getting the American public to accept Is-

Danish minister reflects on European health care

By Katrina Phillips Contributing Writer

Though Denmark and the United States are facing similar challenges — namely an aging population and costly new medical techniques — the two nations have “different points of departure,” said Danish Minister of Interior and Health Bertel Haarder at a lecture Tuesday.

Haarder explained the benefits of European health care systems to an overflowing crowd in the Joukowsky Forum at the Watson Institute for International Studies. Though Denmark provides universal health care and the U.S. does not, the U.S. spends a much greater percentage of its gross do-

mestic product on health care. This disparity is largely due to money spent on insurance companies and the possibility of “some element of overtreatment,” Haarder said, citing the high rate of inpatient surgeries in the U.S. The minister said all European countries have universal health care, based either on the Scandinavian tax-based model or the “German Bismarck” model of compulsory insurance. With the new implementation of health care reform, the U.S. is “moving a little bit to the German Bismarck model,” he said. But from the European perspective, “it’s puzzling that the continued on page 4

lam, as opposed to some ethnicities and cultures, relates to terrorist activity inspired by radical sects of the religion.

“People don’t do things in the name of their ethnicity,” she said, but Muslims who perpetrate acts of violence usually do so “in the name of Islam.”

The technology-saturated culture in the U.S. also poses a problem in confronting myths and ignorance about Islam, she said. Citing popular conservative figures in shaping public opinion, Khalek said, “Sarah Palin can say something and 2 million people read it later on Facebook.”

One way to fight generalizations about Islam may be to change the popular usage of the word.

“We cannot use the word ‘Islam’ as an agent in a sentence,” Khalek said. “What is Islam? Who is Islam?

There is no pope. There are bound to be variations in a religion practiced by 1.5 billion people.”

Local Imam Farid Ansari suggested another way to dispel misconceptions is by encouraging people to read the Quran.

“Learn for yourself,” Ansari said to those who believe in myths about the Muslim community but take no steps to educate themselves about the religion. “If people are not informed, don’t vote, don’t take responsibility — that’s going to affect the future in a very negative way.”

Max Monn / Herald

Professor of Political Science Richard Snyder is the new director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

New director hopes to foster ‘cross-regional dialogue’ continued from page 1 have the opportunity to travel to Cancun in December for a global climate change summit. A report of their findings and experiences at the summit will then be a point of discussion at the climate change conference at Brown.

Snyder said he also plans to continue an initiative started by Gutmann on violence in Latin America.

People from Latin America, India, South Africa and other countries have been invited to attend an April conference on the subject.

Snyder said that scholars from Latin

American cities will be paired with scholars from other cities in the global south, adding that such “cross-regional dialogue” doesn’t happen often.

“The best way to address theoretical questions in the social sciences is to have people grounded in context,” Snyder said.

“There are very exciting pedagogical and intellectual agendas that come out of Latin America,” Snyder said. Latin American studies remain an important field of research, he said, since the “share of the U.S. population that’s Latino is growing.”

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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

“The Danes smoke too much.”

— Danish Minister of Interior and Health Bertel Haarder

RISD launches partnership with Zipcar, bringing car count to 20

By JAKE Comer Contributing Writer

The Rhode Island School of Design launched a partnership last week with car sharing company Zipcar, making two Toyota Scions available last Thursday.

The partnership was prompted by the Graduate Student Alliance at RISD, said Jerri Drummond, assistant dean for student life at the design school.

The new Zipcars have specially re-

served parking spaces on Waterman Street across from the RISD Public Safety Office. They will be available to Zipcar members 24 hours a day and can be reserved online or by phone.

The arrival of RISD’s Zipcars brings Providence’s total Zipcar count to 20, according to Zipcar spokesman Greg Winter. The car sharing company already has two vehicles at Johnson and Wales University and 16 vehicles at Brown.

Zipcar members can rent cars by the hour or the day. Gas, insurance

and roadside assistance are included in the rental fee.

Though there isn’t yet any concrete information or numbers regarding the demand for and popularity of RISD’s new Zipcars, “they’re always out of their slots,” Drummond said. The design school arranged for Scions, relatively large cars, so art students can use them to transport supplies, she said.

“Providence is a great market for us,” Winter said. “We anticipate that it’ll be really successful,” he said of

RISD’s new program.

This is at least partly because the new cars are available to all Zipcar members, though the program centers on the student demographic, he said.

Brown’s Zipcars have already been popular with students at the design school, Drummond said. Brown’s program, now about three and a half years old, also started out with only two vehicles, said Carleia Lighty, the University’s transportation manager.

The partnership has expanded, she said, to keep up with the demand for

convenient, inexpensive, short-term car sharing on- and off-campus.

Lighty said having Zipcars available to students “works well” with Brown’s efforts to be environmentally friendly.

“We want to think green and do our part to help our environment,” she said.

For now, according to Drummond, RISD is monitoring the usage of the two vehicles, and will reevaluate the situation according to demand and popularity “maybe in a month or a couple months.”

Danish, Italian leaders talk European health care continued from page 3 reform did not go further because the need seemed to be evident,” Haarder added.

Haarder also addressed the common assertion in the U.S. that the Danish health care system is “only one step away from communism” by noting that many Danes are reluctant to allow too much political influence on their private lives. Being liberal in Denmark means supporting free choice, Haarder said. Though Danes are obligated to go through specified general practitioners as “gatekeepers to the rest of the health sector,” there is an element of choice in that citizens choose their general practitioners themselves and can change them once every year, he said.

Haarder acknowledged that his country’s system is far from perfect and that certain social behaviors have led to Denmark’s belowaverage life expectancy in Europe.

“The main reason is that the Danes smoke too much, and particularly, the young Danes drink too much,” he said.

Throughout his speech, Haarder

stressed the importance of equality in health care and other areas of governance. The principle that any service available to one should be equally available to all is “one of the fundamentals of Danish politics,” he said.

“The Europeans are way ahead of us” in terms of health care, said Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing in his introduction for Haarder. Wing noted that he favors the recent U.S. reform but does not think it will be adequate to bridge the gap with European countries.

Among those who turned out for the lecture was Professor-at-Large and former Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi. During the questionand-answer session, Prodi drew on his experience in Italy to elaborate on Haarder’s points concerning the possibility of primary care neglect in the European health care system.

After the lecture, Kristen Englund GS said the talk was “enlightening.” Before hearing Haarder, she said she had seen Prodi speak and noticed there were “a lot of parallels” in their priorities.

SportsWednesday The Brown Daily Herald

Wednesday, October 20, 2010 | Page 5

M. Soccer

No punches pulled as No. 14 Bears score home victory

By Zack Bahr Sports Editor

While there were not quite as many yellow cards as there were against Harvard, there was no lack of action in the men’s soccer game Tuesday night, as No. 14 Brown (8-1-3, 1-1-1 Ivy League) picked up a decisive 3-1 victory over the Hartwick Hawks (2-10-1).

After a tangle in front of the goal with just over 16 minutes left in the game, Hartwick midfielder Greg Mathers threw a punch at defenseman Kevin Gavey ’13 before Mathers fell to the ground grabbing his ankle and was eventually helped off the field by an athletic trainer. Mathers’ teammate, forward Dan Summers, was later given a red card and escorted off the field after receiving his second yellow card of the game.

“Brown deser ved to win the game,” was all Hartwick Head Coach John Scott had to say of his feelings about the game.

The Bears, who had only found

the net once in their past three games, wasted no time in scoring, as defender David Walls ’11 rocketed a free kick into the goal from about 23 yards out. Forward Sean Rosa ’12.5 tallied another goal 15 minutes later after redirecting a hard, low shot by forward Austin Mandel ’12.

“It’s always going to be a tricky game after such an emotional game against Harvard,” said Head Coach Pat Laughlin. “But we came out, and we did some good things. We also did some not-so-good things.”

Breaking Brown’s shutout opportunity after an early 2-0 lead, a Hartwick fast break in the 25th minute left Mathers wide-open. He fired left-to-right from the top of the penalty box, skipping the ball off the turf and netting it past goalkeeper Paul Grandstrand ’11.

The final goal for Bruno came when Hartwick’s goalkeeper, Lee Fenner, left the box to grab a ball that was launched in the air. The ball bounced over his head, leaving nothing between Walls and the goal. On

cross country

Squads run away with titles at Warwick race

By James Blum Sports Staff Writer

Last Friday was a day of firsts for the men’s and women’s cross country teams. Not only did Brown host the inaugural Rothenberg Race in Warwick’s Goddard State Park, but both squads also dominated the competition, as they ran to matching first-place victories. The strong team efforts were reflected in the individual results, with Brown runners claiming the top three slots in each race.

The women scored 18 points to win and placed seven runners in the top 10, handily beating second-place finisher Boston College. Margaret Connelly ’14 finished the five-kilometer course first for Brown in a time of 17 minutes, 27 seconds.

“It’s encouraging, but I look at myself in the larger field of competition, too,” said Connelly, who has placed first among her teammates in each race she has run for Brown.

As the top finisher overall, Connelly also earned the meet title on the women’s side.

Heidi Caldwell ’14 finished second both for Brown and overall with a time of 17:29. It was only her second collegiate race, since she had been sick earlier in the season.

“This race felt a lot better and I think I will be feeling 100 percent soon,” she said.

Elaine Kuckertz ’13 finished third for Brown in 17:38 and Ari Garber ’12 finished next (fifth overall) with a time of 17:55.

“I was really happy with how they raced,” said women’s Head Coach Jill Miller. “We played around a little with the race tactics and they all did really well in executing the plan.”

On the men’s side, Brown scored 15 points and placed eight runners in the top 10, dominating runner-up Harvard. Co-captain Matt Duffy ’12 claimed the overall top spot on the eight-kilometer course in a time of 24:48.

“I think the race went just as well as I wanted,” Duffy said. “It got me ready for Heps,” referring to the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships.

Brian Schilder ’11 and Dan Lowry ’12 finished behind Duffy in 25:05 and 25:23, respectively.

The first two rookie runners to finish for Brown were Brendan Boyle ’14 in 26:22 and Colin Savage ’14 in 26:31. They finished 12th and 15th, respectively, in the overall field of 36 competitors.

“It was definitely the best race we had as a team all year,” Duffy said.

With this race over, the teams have almost two weeks until they compete at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships at Van Cortlandt Park in New York, N.Y. on Oct. 29.

The men and women will look to improve upon their fifth-place finishes at last year’s championships.

The team’s training during this pre-championship period will help them succeed later in the season, said men’s head coach Tim Springfield.

“It’s not about what the other teams are doing,” Springfield said.

“It’s us trying to run as a team the absolute best that we can.”

In addition to preparing for the conference finale, both teams are focused on being in top shape for regionals and nationals.

“We want to give 100 percent at every meet, but we also want to have the vision that our season is not over at Heps,” Miller said.

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

In a victorious 3-1 game against the Hartwick Hawks, defender David Walls ’11 scored two goals.

the evening, the Bears took 22 shots, compared to 14 by the Hawks.

Grandstrand, in a rare mental error in the second half, received a foul for a botched throw-in inside the penalty box. But the ensuing free kick from roughly 12 yards out met a wall of Bear defenders and eventually picked up by the goalie.

“We obviously didn’t play our best,” Gavey said. “We needed a win here. Here, we came out and got the job done.”

Gavey was one of just a slew of

reserves that entered the game for Brown throughout the contest — so many that Laughlin said he lost count. In total, 21 different players saw playing time.

“I thought there were some guys that really stepped up,” Laughlin said.

“Kevin Gavey was outstanding.”

Defenseman Dylan Remick ’13, who has been a consistent player for Brown all season, made numerous quick breaks that left Hartwick players struggling to keep up.

“I’m going to try and get as much

offensive power and help that I can give,” Remick said. “My personal goal is to all-around play for keeps.”

The Bears continue their whirlwind schedule of four games in 10 days as they take on Cornell this Saturday at Stevenson Field. The 7 p.m. game against the Big Red will give Brown a chance to move up in the Ivy standings. A win is worth three points and a tie is worth one. The squad is currently one point behind Harvard and five behind league co-leaders Princeton and Penn.

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 6 | Wednesday, October 20, 2010

sam rosenfeld

Letters, please! letters@browndailyherald.com 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

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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

Business General Managers Claire Kiely Katie Koh

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Directors Sales Kelly Wess Finance Matthew Burrows Asst. Finance Danielle Marshak Client Relations Margaret Watson Christiana Stephenson Alumni Relations

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

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 Business Operations Lauren Bosso Business Analytics Jilyn Chao Margot Grinberg Credit and Collections Special Projects Alexander Carrere Staff Kathy Bui

Post- magazine Editor-in-Chief Sam Carter Editor-in-Chief Kate Doyle Editor-in-Chief Marshall Katheder

BLOG DAILY HERALD Managing Editor Matt Klimerman Managing Editor Anne Simons Managing Editor David Winer

Opinions Opinions Editor Michael Fitzpatrick Opinions Editor Alyssa Ratledge Editorial Page Editor Matt Aks

e d i to r i a l

What happens in college In an op-ed about the upcoming elections last week in the New York Times, Gail Collins asked, “How far back in a candidate’s history do we want to travel?” With multiple campaigns across the country bringing up opponents’ college writings and actions, what counts as fair game is a now a particularly open question.

Collins argues that college is a time for experimentation and growth, and that in electing candidates to office “nothing anyone did in college short of a felony should count against them.” As Collins points out, “We do not want the next generation to embrace premature conformity just because they nurture a dream of one day serving with Max Baucus on the Senate Finance Committee.” Future campaigns must do a better job of heeding Collins’ advice.

There’s no denying that for many college is a time of testing new ideas and learning by experience. But for our generation more than any previous one, a person’s decisions — bad and good — are well-documented and easily accessible thanks to the Internet. Though a Google search of a candidate can often provide his or her position on the issues, it can also frequently reveal a chronicle of ancient indiscretions. Incriminating evidence about political candidates will increase exponentially in the next decade as every unflattering personal photo and melodramatic status update comes to light.

Earlier this year, we weighed the pros and cons of banning employers from using Facebook in the hiring process. Should the calculus be different for those seeking to become public officials?

Of course, all college students do and say things

publicly that they may regret later. Though we don’t want to discourage the kind of experimentation that makes college so special, a little forethought and prudence during these years probably wouldn’t hurt. It’s important to be aware of who has access to your various online personas, as well as what medium you’re using.

Indeed, an inappropriate rant on your blog is likely to be more detrimental than a picture of you holding a red Solo cup.

Ultimately though, we agree with Collins that campaign mudslingers should stay away from all but the most serious incidents that occur in college. The statements and actions of a candidate during his or her postgraduate career are clearly of more relevance. If a candidate has retracted or revised statements published during college, or provided plausible explanations for forgivable actions, that ought to be sufficient. In fact, such actions reflect an admirable level of maturity and self-awareness.

Our nation has thrived for over two hundred years choosing leaders without a complete digital history of their lives. If we open the floodgates now, it’s going to get worse, and it’s going to make political discourse even less substantive than it already is. The “Facebook generation” will be especially tempted to use digital histories for vicious campaigning. Let’s be better than that.

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

Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

Gili Kliger, Julien Ouellet, Designers Juhee Kwon, Joe Milner, Raaj Parekh, Copy Editors Ana Alvarez, Rebecca Ballhaus, Sydney Ember, Luisa Robledo, Night Editors Senior Staff Writers Ana Alvarez, Ashley Aydin, Rebecca Ballhaus, Alexander Bell, Nicole Boucher, Fei Cai, 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, Mae Cadao, Adam Fern, Krystle Onibokun Finance Associates Lisa Berlin, Mahima Chawla, Mark Hu, Jason Lee, Justin Lee, Kevin Lynch, Jennifer Morgan, Sam Plotner, Nicholas Robbins, Dan Seder, Daniel Slutsky, Emily Zheng Design Staff Rebecca Ballhaus, Caleigh Forbes Web Staff Warren Jin, Claire Kwong, Adam Zethraeus Photo Staff Qidong Chen, Janine Cheng, Alex DePaoli, Frederic Lu, Quinn Savit Copy Editors Ted Burke, Corinne Cathcart, David Chung, Olivia Conetta, Carrie Craven, Max Ernst, Nicole Grabel, Jeffrey Handler, Emma Janaskie, Bridget Jeong, Jenny Kaplan, Abby Kerson, Juhee Kwon, Claire Luchette, Sahil Luthra, Shefali Luthra, Katie MacDougald, Alexandra Nuttbrown, Elizabeth Orr, Raaj Parekh, Katrina Phillips, Amy Rasmussen, Winnie Wang, Emma Wohl Editorial Page Board Members Anita Mathews, Tyler Rosenbaum, Melissa Shube, Gaurie Tilak

correction A photo caption accompanying an article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Beds lacking in shelter system across Rhode Island,” Oct. 19) misidentified the speaker pictured. The speaker was Jim Ryczek. 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.

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Wednesday, October 20, 2010 | Page 7

Brown Airlines hunter fast Opinions Columnist Consider two prospective Brown students.

One, Alice, is unsure of whether or not to attend Brown, while the other, Bob, has been committed to Brown from the start. Alice decides to fly to Providence to visit College Hill and finds while purchasing her airline tickets that there are three different classes of seats from which she can choose. Bob, who decides to forgo a visit due to his certainty in his choice of school, receives a tuition bill later on. He learns that his family is only expected to pay a quarter of full tuition, thanks to the University’s financial aid.

Despite their differing levels of enthusiasm for attending Brown, Alice and Bob have something in common. They have both witnessed the phenomenon of price discrimination, in which a vendor charges customers a price that they would likely be willing to pay on an individualized basis. While the price gap between first class and coach that Alice noticed is innocuous and non-controversial, the fairness of the price discrimination that Bob faced in tuition has been debated in numerous recent Herald columns.

Susannah Kroeber ’11 notes that tuition increases that are coupled with commensurate financial aid act similarly to progressive taxes (“Raising our Brown taxes,” Oct. 7), and uses this to advocate for massive increases in both tuition and financial

aid. While Kroeber’s observation is true for small tuition hikes, Manas Gautam’s ’12 retort that a massive progressive tuition increase will do nothing but drive wealthy students to peer institutions (“Are you scared yet?” Oct. 14) is demonstrably valid.

Although Gautam’s argument is closer to the mark, the debate thus far covers only half of the story. The role of students as price takers is important, but much more remains to be said for Brown’s position as a strategic

pay, which can be estimated from data given in the FAFSA. If Brown looks only after its profit, then it gives financial aid for the same reason that airlines sell open seats on imminent flights at bargain prices: The choice is not between some amount of revenue and a higher amount of revenue, but rather between some amount of revenue and none at all. Furthermore, if Brown were suddenly unable to price-discriminate in the form of financial

The role of students as price takers is important, but much more remains to be said for Brown’s position as a strategic price setter. price setter. Somewhat ironically, the general accusation that the University has become a profit-maximizing corporate machine provides a useful model for exploring this aspect of the tuition issue.

To understand fully why tuition and financial aid are at their current levels, one must consider the game that Brown and other universities play when offering tuition rates to accepted students. After accepting a batch of applicants regardless of their respective levels of income, Brown’s goal is, in this model, to maximize its income. Because the marginal cost of educating one additional student is relatively small, Brown is best served by offering each individual student the highest tuition rate that his or her family is willing to

aid, standard tuition rates would almost certainly drop, but many would be priced out of a Brown education.

Viewed through these lenses, the drop that Kroeber cites in the number of students with post-graduation debt obligations is likely an artifact of the recession and the consequent slump in students’ ability to pay tuition, rather than benevolence on Brown’s part. Likewise, because the cost to the student is tied to his or her ability to pay, the disparity in ease of paying that Gautam describes is an unlikely scenario.

However, price discrimination does not work forever; Brown isn’t a monopoly, and must therefore set a maximum tuition cost competitive with peer institutions. In line

with Gautam’s reasoning, a prospective student from a wealthy family may be willing to pay an extra $5,000 per year to go to Brown over, say, Dartmouth, but very few, even among the richest families, would part with $50,000 more per year for what is effectively the same education.

In a competitive market, the ability of a university to raise tuition without hurting revenues is ultimately based on the rate at which tuition rises at peer institutions, much like one airline would suffer from raising its fares unless competing airlines’ fares were increasing as well.

While it is intuitive that Brown can benefit from improving efficiency, slashing maximum tuition in order to force such a change, as Dan Davidson ’11.5 suggests (“Raising tuition both unrealistic and unwise,” Oct. 18), would be disastrous. The path of least resistance in lowering costs generally consists of unsavory actions like layoffs and labor contract changes. Because Brown is fully capable of lowering costs without cutting tuition, shocking it into efficiency would entirely preclude smarter alternatives.

It is apparent that lower-income students generally benefit from price discrimination in tuition. If the University were to throw these strategies to the wind in the name of a vague ideal, it would meet the fate of ATA and Skybus.

Hunter Fast ’12 is a frequent beneficiary of Southwest’s “Wanna Get Away” fare pricing.

In support of Brown library workers

BY CHRIS NORRIS-LEBLANC Opinions Columnist Right now, the team responsible for Brown investments and endowment security is gloriously exhaling a sigh of sweet relief. In the calm after the economic storm, Brown’s endowment returns were 10 percent in the fiscal year 2010, and Alice Tisch, our esteemed chancellor’s wife, can finally stop living like a plebeian, having been forced for the past year to cut her daily lunch budget to a pittance of $30–40 per day. At least for the wealthy corporations and individuals of the world, the worst of the economic storm has passed. By the grace of what can surely be attributed only to a divine power, we can safely resume hoarding enormous sums of money.

It would seem that in the wake of this lifted burden, the entire community should be able to join Alice Tisch in celebration. However, the administration has taken a rather puzzling path with respect to our increased financial stability. Balancing the budget on the backs of Dining Services and other University workers was objectionable and fairly useless even in the climax of the financial crisis, but the nature of the current contract negotiations between Brown and the library workers is downright nonsensical given our recent monetary rebound.

The first and possibly most egregious term of the new contract being offered by the University is an increase in health care premium co-pays from 6 percent to 15 percent over a three-year period. With the full fam-

ily plan premium currently costing $1,304.19 per month, a simple calculation shows that in practical terms, the percentages boil down to an increased co-pay of $117.37. Although euphemized and disguised as an increase in the worker’s health care co-pay, in practical terms this simply boils down to a wage decrease.

Secondly, Brown is trying either to eliminate or to change an important clause in the library workers’ contract. Briefly, the library workers currently have the right to be notified of permanent shift changes months

they need to “take their share” of the loss in the aftermath of a huge economic crash, thus framing the proposed conditions as fair and necessary. This is a demonstrably false narrative, not only because our endowment is once again on the rise, but also because of scale. There are about 60 workers who will be affected by this contract change, meaning that if each of them pays an extra $117.37 per month, the increased revenue for the University will amount to $84,506.40. Since the operating budget of the University for the 2011 fiscal year is $786.6 million, these cuts

The priorities of our University are thus brought into stark relief: buildings trump people, prestige trumps community, and the well-being of workers is cast to the gutter by administrators who face little consequence and community accountability.

in advance, and if they don’t like their new hours, they can strike. Brown is trying either a) to completely eliminate this clause, or b) to water it down such that the workers will have less control over their shift changes and will no longer have the right to subsequently protest.

In these contract negotiations, the University keeps telling the library workers that

would represent a .01 percent increase in our available capital. Taking the highest possible salary a Brown library worker could make, $52,648, the rise in health care premium co-pay would cost such a worker roughly 2.67 percent of his or her yearly income.

Thus, Brown is asking the library workers to make a contribution, on average, 267 times larger for them than its respective value to

the University.

The implications of this follow pretty easily; even if these proposed changes will come at great cost to a number of Brown community members and at little to no value to the University itself, they will be pursued just the same. The reappropriation of money from a single Building Brown project to our budget would account for every staff cut and contested contract in the last two years, the current one and many to come.

The priorities of our University are thus brought into stark relief: buildings trump people, prestige trumps community and the well-being of workers is cast to the gutter by administrators who face little consequence and community accountability.

As I am a strong believer in praxis, anyone who agrees with this analysis should stand beside the library workers as they fight for the benefits that can make or break a family’s well-being in these tough times. The Student Labor Alliance has been campaigning strongly against these proposed contract changes and has requested that members of the Brown community send e-mails to the Director of Labor and Employee Relations Joe Sarno, sign a petition and make calls to the administration demanding that these ridiculous proposals be rebuked. As a strong community should, let’s close rank around the library workers and let the administration know that we will not stand for this callous devaluation of workers’ rights.

Chris Norris-LeBlanc ’13 is from Rhode Island. He can be contacted at chris.norris.leblanc@gmail.com.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

2

Students bring clean water to India

5

3 5 c a l e n da r

8:30 a.m.

ToMORROW

comics October 21

Bat & Gaz | Sofia Ortiz

4 p.m.

Hunger Breakfast for Nourish

Is the Internet a Democratizing

International, Main Green

Technology?, Petteruti Lounge

7 p.m.

6 p.m.

Choose Your Classes WiSEly ‘Murder

RISD Museum After Dark: College

Mystery’ Party, Science Center

Night, RISD Museum

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Bruschetta Mozzarella, Italian Toscano Couscous, Spanish Steak, Pumpkin and White Chip Cookies

Beef and Broccoli Szechwan, Bruschetta Mozzarella, Pumpkin and White Chip Cookies

The Adventures of Team Vag | Wendy Kwartin

DINNER Sustainable Salmon Teriyaki, Spanish Steak, Oven Roasted Tofu Triangles, Frosted Brownies

62 / 47

60/ 38

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

4 October 20

to m o r r o w

Cross country claims top spots in races

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

Today

to day

Sustainable Blackened Catfish, Macaroni and Cheese with Avocado and Tomato, Frosted Brownies

crossword Cabernet Voltaire| Abe Pressman

Dr. Bear | Mat Becker

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

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