Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Daily Herald the Brown

vol. cxlv, no. 99 | Wednesday, October 27, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891

M. soccer Pop icon speaks about wins Tues. gay Israeli experience night game

By Katherine Sola Contributing Writer

By Zack Bahr Sports Editor

With fog thick in the air, the weather may have been a little reminiscent of home for defender David Walls ’11, who hails from England, at the No. 13 men’s soccer game Tuesday night.

Brown (10-1-3) battled through the thick air to pick up a 2-0 victory over Holy Cross (3-10-3).

SPORTS “We’re used to training in the rain, and we’re used to training in the wind,” Walls said. “We have fun whenever we play.”

Bruno welcomed back forward Jon Okafor ’11 from a hamstring injury. He stayed in the game just long enough to score the first goal at the 28:12 mark. After Walls drilled the ball at the net from the top of the box, midfielder Evan Coleman ’12 finessed the ball to Okafor, who put it away.

“Tonight Brown made things difficult for us, especially early in the game,” said Holy Cross Head Coach Ted Priestly. “Getting used to the speed and level that Brown plays at was hard for us.”

Brown dominated the attack on the field throughout the entire game.

The Bears took an astounding 28 shots on goal, compared to a mere six by the Crusaders. But an almost unbelievable showing by the Holy Cross continued on page 5

“When I’m performing, I love to see a gay couple, next to a straight couple, next to a religious couple — all experiencing the same energy,” Ivri Lider told an audience of about 40 Israelis, students and community members at Brown/RISD Hillel last night.

The gay pop star, one of the most popular musicians in Israel, told The Herald that he does not consider himself an “official gay activist.”

Rather, when people from different backgrounds listen to his music and “experience (their) emotions in those lyrics, that’s my activism,” he said.

Lider spoke about becoming famous and coming out publicly after

the release of his second album. He also sang three songs in Hebrew and English.

Lider stressed that “Israel is a very liberal country” and the leader of gay rights in the Middle East.

Only religious marriage ceremonies can be performed in Israel. But gay couples who are married abroad are granted a marriage certificate, which gives them the same rights and benefits as a heterosexual married couples. Gay Israelis serve in the military and adopt the biological children of their partners. Lider said that he had no trouble getting an extended visa for his American boyfriend.

When asked about coming out, Lider said he “was the first major continued on page 3

Rachel Kaplan / Herald

Israeli pop star Ivri Lider performed and spoke about religion and sexuality in his home country.

1,700 students receive free flu vaccines on campus

By Hannah Abelow Contributing Writer

During the past two weeks, University Health Services held 12 free walk-in flu shot clinics at Josiah’s.

According to Lynn Dupont, assistant director of Health Services, employees administered approximately 1,700 vaccines at the Jo’s clinics. This number is significantly lower than the number administered last year, but is in line with the number of flu shots administered in 2007 and 2008, she added.

In previous years, the clinics averaged between 1,600 and 1,800 student

flu shots, but in 2009, they provided 2,675 seasonal flu shots and 2,816 H1N1 vaccines. This year’s vaccine protects against the H1N1 flu and two other strains of influenza.

The gap between this year and last year can be attributed to last year’s H1N1 pandemic and the massive attention the media paid to influenza and flu vaccines, Dupont said. She emphasized that last year, not this year, was the anomaly.

“This was really on course with what we’ve done,” she said. “I’ve been doing these clinics for years. If you take last year out of it, we’re absolutely consistent with prior years.”

When asked whether they got the flu shot, many students who responded that they had not also said they simply do not like vaccines.

“I don’t like the idea of not knowing what they are putting into my body. I’m just against it,” said Christopher Schiesser ’13.

Others worried that side effects of the vaccine could interfere with their commitments on campus. “I’ve been told that sometimes if you get the flu shot, there are repercussions of getting flu symptoms,” Sami Horneff ’12 said. “I’m in a show right now, and I don’t have time to be sick.”

Daniel McGill ’14 was one of the

students who received a flu shot at Jo’s during this year’s clinics. He said he got the flu shot because “who wants to get sick? Sickness spreads so easily on a campus like this.” McGill also said that he had been more inclined to get the flu shot because it was available for free.

“I knew that the flu shot clinics were going on because I got an email. I was going to do it but I just totally forgot,” said Grace Dunham ’14, adding that she would be interested in getting a flu shot if more clinics were offered in the future. continued on page 3

Med student sisters earn Peace Prize nod

By Sarah Mancone Senior Staff Writer

Anyone who watched the shootings at Columbine on the news likely looked on in shock at how something so horrible could have happened in a school.

FEATURE

Courtesy of Jessica Marrero

inside

Sisters Jessica Marrero ’07 MD’11 and Shannon Marrero ’10 MD’14 created a nationally acclaimed program for teens as teens themselves.

News.......1–3 Sports........5 Editorial......6 Opinions.....7 Today..........8

www.browndailyherald.com

It was out of this shock that two teenage sisters decided to use their voices and take action.

Jessica Marrero ’07 MD’11 and Shannon Marrero ’10 MD’14, of Gainesville, Fla., decided there was “urgency for something to change,” Jessica said, and they took it on themselves to make that happen.

“We had been watching all of the school shootings on the news,” Jessica said. It was “a constant conversation at the dinner table. We didn’t want to live like that in fear and anger anymore.”

Now, the Marreros’ efforts to reverse this negative trend in schools have grown from a dinner table conversation in Gainesville to a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Getting started Jessica and Shannon made that change by starting the Partners in Adolescent Lifestyle Support, or PALS, program when they were 15 and 13 years old, while attending Buchholz High School and Fort Clarke Middle School, respectively.

The fact that the sisters went to different schools enhanced the program’s development. “With our joint efforts we were really able to expand this program,” Jessica said.

The process of getting the programs integrated into the different schools varied for the two sisters because of different school climates.

“I went to an unusual school,”

Shannon said, of her high school. It was a public school that had an International Baccalaureate program within it, which led to a “very segregated dual education,” she said.

The student population was 94 percent African American, yet the students in the IB program were almost all white. “I wanted to unite the community,” Shannon said. As a person of Hispanic heritage, Shannon found the separation of these two spheres “a little bit uncomfortable.”

Despite the separation, there never was any outward animosity between the two groups, which made people more hesitant in accepting this program. It brought out a lot of race issues and caused a lot of controversy, Shannon said, when convincing the two groups that they were part of one community. continued on page 2

Primary care

Lost weekend

Failed system?

Medical School department receives family care grants

M. Water Polo headed west and lost all five games

Stephen Wicken GS

Campus news, 3

SPORTS, 5

Opinions, 7

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

explores the problems of “great expectations”

herald@browndailyherald.com

Page 2

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

“Everyone goes through times as they’re growing up where they feel isolated or alone.” — Jessica Marrero ’07 MD’11

Sisters give a voice to troubled teens through school-based program continued from page 1 Shannon said that Jessica’s school was a more typical high school with more social problems than racial ones.

According to Jessica, there had not been too much trouble getting the program into her high school, and “the school was surprisingly supportive.”

The Sapphire Award In order to fund the program, the Marreros wrote a grant proposal to receive the Sapphire Award from the Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida, a philanthropic affiliate of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida. This is an “awards program that recognizes excellence in community health in Florida,” said Susan Wildes, assistant director of the Blue Foundation.

PALS received the three nominations required for consideration for this award, and the health care professionals chose PALS as the winner. The $100,000 award was given to help the program “expand into other schools in the county” as well as “develop a manual to share with other schools” to start their own programs, Wildes said.

The PALS program stood out by demonstrating excellence, Wildes said. The grant had extensive data supporting it and good analysis of that data, as well as having partnerships with local schools, colleges and businesses, she added.

“They identified what they needed and went out and got those resources,” Wildes said.

Program expansion Since its creation, the program has grown significantly by expanding into more schools. Involved

schools include A-Quinn Jones Center, Buchholz High School, Eastside High School, Fort Clarke Middle School and Gainesville High School. It is overseen by health care professionals from Shands Vista Behavioral Health, associated with the University of Florida Health Science Center.

“It started out as a teen violence and suicide peer group,” Jessica said, but now it also includes groups for students with chronic illnesses and those that have experienced abuse.

There are three main components to the program, said Susan Garcia, PALS program director. One includes intervention services such as crisis inter vention, individual counseling and group counseling.

Another component is the educational prevention piece, which involves going into the classrooms and discussing topics such as suicides and violence with the students, as well as eating disorders and substance abuse. After the shooting at Virginia Tech, PALS counselors went to the classrooms and involved the students in a discussion that served as “kind of like a debriefing,” Garcia said.

Leadership is the third component, with the program specifically focusing on altruistic leadership in the community. The program does “whatever we can do to promote a sense of community, of inclusiveness,” Garcia said. They often look to the “popular” students to provide an altruistic stance, which other students are likely to follow, she said.

Specific programs cater to the differences between school climates, she added.

sudoku

Seeing the effects So far, the program has made “a great difference in children’s lives,” Garcia said.

It is a “tremendous support system for all the students,” said Barbara TenBieg, a PALS counselor at Fort Clarke Middle School. “It permeates the entire campus,” she said, adding that one can see the students using the tools that they have learned through PALS within the school setting.

A program for students with diabetes has led to significant improvements in the health of students. Prior to the existence of the program, 12 students with diabetes had each missed around half of the school year due to illness-related absences.

After learning how to manage their diabetes, not one of those students missed any school days related to their illness, Wildes said.

There have also been “no suicides or school shootings” in any of the PALS schools since the beginning of the program, Wildes said.

“The whole climate of the school is more positive,” TenBieg said. Each student has “learned how to be a friend,” she added.

“Instead of silencing the teen and reprimanding them,” Jessica said, the program gives the student “a voice to explain what the real issue was behind the behavior.”

By meeting weekly with students who are in crisis and are in danger of harming themselves or other people, PALS gives the support the students need, Garcia said.

Students are educated by the schools on how to be mentally and physically healthy, Wildes said.

“Everyone goes through times as they’re growing up where they feel isolated or alone,” Jessica said.

“I definitely felt that way,” but also “felt in a strong position personally to address the need I was seeing,” she added.

From Nikki to Nobel Since its development, the program has been gaining publicity as it has expanded. Notable supporters of PALS include Rep. Cliff Stearns, Sen. William Nelson and the lead in the movie adaptation of Hairspray, Nikki Blonsky.

“She’s become a huge advocate for

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PALS,” Jessica said, and has “taken on herself as the kind of really amazing face for PALS.” Blonsky “has experienced marginalization,” Shannon said, and as a result felt an “immediate draw to the program.”

“The more attention we can draw, the better,” Shannon added.

This publicity is certainly taking off, which was made most apparent in the program’s nomination for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, ultimately awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. The nomination came from the Blue Foundation but had a large number of supporting nominators including Stearns and Nelson.

“My initial reaction was a kind of disbelief and shock,” Jessica said.

When she was able to wrap her head around it, Jessica said she felt extreme pride in the program and was really excited that the idea she and Shannon came up with is being recognized by a wider audience. Jessica added that she hopes it spurs other teens to start similar programs.

“It really should be given to a whole group of people,” Shannon said, acknowledging that the program is able to run because of the school, the donors, the hospital and people involved like Blonsky.

The members of the program felt very honored by the nomination, Garcia said, adding that the award could not be given to one or two people. “We did this as a community,” she said.

Garcia said that she hopes it brings these issues to the forefront.

“When you look at some of the tragedies in the news right now, kids are hurting,” she said, and “act out in desperate ways which can lead to very tragic results.”

Going national When asked if they would like to see programs like PALS go national, the Marreros, Wildes and TenBieg all emphatically responded in the affirmative.

“It is hugely important and incredibly timely,” Jessica said. Many teens are still not being reached out to, she said, and programs like PALS provide “outlets that can lead to positivity and self exploration that don’t need to lead to violence, suicide and anger and fear.”

“Growing up is hard to do,” Wil-

des said. “If you can get that one kid healthy… they’ll take some of that home and share some of those skills with their family.”

With the recent economic downturn, families are less able to take care of their children’s needs, Garcia said.

This can lead to students being no longer able to do programs like cheerleading or soccer that enable them to make social connections and keep busy. Without activities like these, it can be very isolating and depressing, she said.

Often adolescents do not talk to their parents about their problems, Garcia said. PALS provides trained counselors who are separate from a student’s friends, families and teachers.

“Our goal locally is to have this program in all schools in our county,” Garcia said.

This is definitely a problem that is not confined to only Gainesville, Jessica said. In terms of nationalizing PALS, Jessica said she “would do anything… in order to be involved and get that started.”

The sisters also encourage other students to start programs like PALS. “People have so many interesting and exciting ideas,” Jessica said, adding that students “would be surprised how many people have been waiting for an idea like this.”

Jessica’s advice for students is that they should believe in their ideas and vocalize them. Shannon added that students need the direct involvement of the community and have to explain to people how they are affected by problems in their schools in order for this to work.

Currently, both of the Marreros are attending Alpert Medical School.

This does not allow the sisters to be as directly involved as they once were.

“I get updates,” Jessica said, but now she is more an “enthusiastic fan.”

“I am so impressed at how expansive it’s continued to be,” she said, adding that she gives “all the credit recently to those who are running the program now.”

“I check up on it,” Shannon said, but “it’s really self-sufficient.”

Their input has not been forgotten, though. Wildes said that the sisters are “what every parent wants their child to be,” adding that they are incredibly selfless and “just amazing.”

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

C ampus N EWS

“Primary care is the future of medicine.”

— Edward Wing, Dean of Medicine and Biological Services

Grants to improve primary care medicine

By Alejandro Dauguet Contributing Writer

The Alpert Medical School’s Department of Family Medicine received four federal grants totaling more than $4.4 million in September. This funding, spaced out in $900,000 increments over five years, will go toward improving family medical practice alongside further education and research.

The awards, announced by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services, will be allocated in different ways, said Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Edward Wing. One grant will involve research and faculty development, another will go to the Med School and the last two will cover residency education.

The grants “all deal with different

areas based on curriculum models within the school,” Wing said. “However, they’re all equally important.”

More specifically, the grants are intended to change the curriculum at the Med School for students studying primary care, improve education for residents, attract new teachers and improve communication and relations with health care providers in the area.

Wing emphasized the Med School’s focus on primary care as an overarching theme.

“Primary care is the future of medicine,” he said. “We have de-emphasized primary care in this country.

Sixty percent of doctors in England provide immediate care for people in their region. The access is very good.

In this country, many people have to go to expensive specialists that don’t know the patients as well. Primary care is much more cost-effective and can pick up problems earlier.”

Page 3

The application process for the grants was a long process, Wing said, and it took HRSA months to make a decision regarding the awards.

The grants will stimulate education in the Med School’s facilities as well. “The funding will help educate more students to care in community health centers which provide primary care,” Wing said. This is especially influential for many of Brown’s current and aspiring medical students, as “PLMEs comprise 50 percent of the medical school’s class,” he added.

Wing said he was hopeful that the grants would improve family practice.

“These grants will help us teach better and are more innovative in helping us to design teaching offices.” The Department of Family Medicine, based at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, will be able to benefit directly from the increased funding toward such methods, he said.

More free flu shot clinics to be offered in coming weeks continued from page 1 She also said she had received flu shots in past years.

“This is one of the first years in a long time that we’ve had an ample supply of vaccines, so we want to use it,” Dupont said. “We want to make sure that every student who wants

the vaccine can have it.”

She also said there will be more on-campus clinics during the week of Nov. 1, including a Nov. 4 clinic in the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center. After those clinics, students who wish to get the flu shot will be able to get it by appointment at Health Services.

Musician muses on gay life in Israel at Hillel continued from page 1 pop artist to do something like that in Israel” and that his record label was “scared shitless.” His fans were “very lovely, very accepting,” he said.

Lider told The Herald that people were often surprised that Israel is “different to what they see in the news” and that he is happy to have “opened people’s eyes.” Israel stands in contrast to the Palestinian territories, he said, where gay Palestinians are in an “impossible situation” because they will be persecuted at home and can be jailed as illegal residents in Israel.

But there are also fervent opponents to gay rights within Israel, mostly from the ultra-religious community, Lider said. Ultra-orthodox

Jews often object to his performances.

He performs in Jerusalem at least once a month and described the city as “interesting and a little scary,” he said. He has spoken with a support group for gay, religious Jews in Jerusalem and a friend made him a “pride yarmulke.”

He said he hopes his music forms part of “a world that erases a little bit of boundaries between people and between countries,” though he does not consider his work to be “obvious political writing.”

Lider drew comparisons between the gay experience in Israel and America, describing his home city of Tel Aviv as “pretty gay,” on par with New York City or San Francisco.

Israel is so small that the culture of acceptance prevalent in Tel Aviv has

permeated the rural areas, he said.

He contrasted this with the isolation of a gay teenager in Omaha or Iowa.

Lider said Israel’s small size and support groups explain why there are few incidences of gay teen suicide, adding that recent suicides of LGBTQ American youth are “mindblowing.”

T H E N OA H K R I E G E R ’ 9 3 M E M O R I A L L E C T U R E

An Afternoon with Joel Klein Chancellor of New York City Department of Education

5:00 PM Thursday October 28, 2010 De Ciccio Family Auditorium (Salomon 101)

Public Schools Education Reform Children First Free and Open to the Public

Salomon Center for Teaching is wheelchair accessible

401-863-2201

Sponsored by A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/

SportsWednesday The Brown Daily Herald

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 | Page 5

W. Golf

Team concludes season second in tourney

By Sam Rubinroit Sports Staff Writer

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Kevin Gavey ’13 battles Holy Cross players for the ball.

Bears defeat Crusaders 2-0, prepare for Quakers on Sat. continued from page 1 defense held Bruno to one point in the first half, clearing three Brown shots in a matter of 10 seconds.

“Give Holy Cross credit. They must have cleared the ball off the line six or seven times,” said Brown Head Coach Pat Laughlin. “That really attests to their never-say-die attitude.”

Midfielder Jay Hayward ’12 headed the ball over the Holy Cross goalie early in the second, giving him his first goal of the season.

“I’ve been struggling a lot getting in and making the team,” Hayward said. “My teammates have really been helping and pushing me.”

A notable addition to Brown’s squad is former player and new assistant coach Cory Gibbs ’01. Gibbs helped the Bears to an Ivy champi-

onship and Elite Eight appearance in 2000. He was also a First-Team All-American selection that year.

Gibbs, who currently plays for the New England Revolution, was a 2006 member of the FIFA World Cup team but was replaced after being injured.

“It’s great to have a person who is so passionate about soccer and so passionate about Brown,” Laughlin said. “Our team can do nothing but learn from a guy who was a great college player and still is a great professional player.”

Bruno travels to Philadelphia this Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. matchup against the No. 14 Penn Quakers.

The game will be a major factor in who wins this year’s Ivy crown.

Brown, 2-1-1 in the Ivy League, trails Penn and No. 20 Princeton (both 4-0) in the standings.

M. Water Polo

Bruno goes winless in West Coast matchups

By Garret Johnson Sports Staff Writer

It wasn’t exactly a dream vacation.

The No. 20 men’s water polo team (14-9) dropped all five of its games at the Santa Clara Rodeo Invitational last weekend.

Bruno lost to No. 15 California Baptist University (24-5) 9-3, No. 11 University of California at Davis (157) 9-6, Air Force (9-13) 11-10, No. 13 Santa Clara University (17-9) 16-9, and No. 7 University of the Pacific (12-6) 16-9.

Despite the five losses and the lingering jet lag, Head Coach Felix Mercado saw the trip as a learning experience for his squad, and said his team was competitive in every game.

“We didn’t go out there to go undefeated, we went out there with no pressure, just trying to get better,” Mercado said. “There’s no question that we are a better team because of the trip, regardless of going 0-5.”

The Brown coach was hesitant to point out individual performances, but noted that the team as a whole “saw how good we can be.”

“There’s 12 guys that saw playing time out there, and every one of them contributed,” Mercado said. “I saw a lot of good things from a lot of people.”

With just under six weeks left in

the season, the pressure on the Bears is not letting up. Mercado’s squad will face the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (11-7) on Thursday for Senior Night, held at Wheaton College. Following the MIT game, the Bears will compete in the Ivy League Championships, held at Princeton this weekend.

Mercado was cautiously optimistic about his team’s chances in the tournament. He expects to face Harvard (8-15) in the semifinals. If Brown can win its first round game, No. 18 Princeton (13-8), seeded first in the Ivy League, looms as a likely finals opponent.

“Princeton’s going to be the team to beat,” Mercado said.

He believes his team can handle anyone in the Ivy League, but knows that they have to avoid careless errors to play with some of the best teams in college water polo.

“We’re going to have to play solid defense and protect the ball,” Mercado said. “There’s eight to ten teams that all have the same vision and can all make it. The reality is, it’s a gauntlet.”

Even with the challenges ahead, Mercado is sure that the Bears are capable of victory.

“We’re going to show up to Princeton looking to win a championship,” Mercado said. “That’s why we do this.”

The women’s golf team concluded its fall season on Monday, earning second place in the Sacred Heart Invitational. Bruno, with a two-day score of 643 (330, 313) placed behind only Yale (623) in the ten-team field.

“We came ahead of teams that have been ranked above us in the past, which I think is a great way for us to end our season,” said Susan Restrepo ’11.

Restrepo shot the low score for the Bears with a two-day 158 (83, 75), earning her eighth place individually. Megan Tuohy ’12 placed 10th individually as Bruno’s second top scorer, shooting 160 (82, 78). Sarah Guarascio ’11 had a consistent tournament, shooting 161 (80, 81) to earn 13th individually. Carly Arison ’12 finished at 166 (87, 79) and Heather Arison ’12 carded a two-day 171 (85, 86).

“I think our team dynamic is better than it has ever been before,” Restrepo said. “You just try to do the best you can, and you know that if you play well that’s going to help the team.”

That team dynamic has helped

the Bears finish in the top ten in every match on its fall schedule.

The finish on Monday marked Bruno’s second in the top two, after capturing the title in the Northern Illinois University Huskie Classic earlier this month.

“I think this fall we showed a lot more potential than we have in the past, and that will set us up for a better spring season,” Tuohy said. “Placing in the top ten consistently showed us that we could beat a lot of teams that are out there.”

Bruno has seen strong performances throughout the year from a variety of golfers — three different players have turned in the low score in Bruno’s five different matches. Tuohy led the Bears in their first two matches, but in the third Carly Arison earned medalist honors. Tuohy carded the low score in Bruno’s fourth match and Restrepo led the Bears on Monday.

“Megan has been the leader in more than half of our tournaments, and that comes from her competitive drive,” said Head Coach Danielle Griffiths. “That made everybody else step up and be more consistent.”

One aspect of their game the team needs to work on as they break until March is improving their per formance in opening rounds. In all but one of their tournaments, the Bears finished higher than they stood after the first day. The team would often dig itself into a hole in the first round, and would be forced to claw its way out the next day.

“I think we have had a lot of times where our first round wasn’t as low as we wanted it to be, and then we came back in the second round,” Tuohy said. “If we could put two solid rounds together, I think that would really improve our finish in a tournament.”

As the Bears enter the offseason, Griffiths encourages her players not to be passive and urges them to enter college tournaments even as the squad continues to workout and train as a team. She said she hopes her players do not view the break as an endpoint, but rather as a sort of halftime.

“I look at it as we are in the middle of our season, not that the fall season has ended,” Griffiths said. “With women’s college golf, everything counts, so our spring is just as important as our fall.”

Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald

Page 6 | Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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

Concentration DUGs combine social interaction with intellectual stimulation To the Editor: It seems like Chelsea Waite ’11 missed out on a big part of that highly-vaunted Brown Education (“Classrooms should create learning communities among students,” Oct. 25). In her column, she never acknowledges the existence nor the efforts of the concentration DUGs, which work hard to provide social settings and events for concentrators to mingle and experience some extracurricular activities together.

She might have enjoyed her fouryear stretch here a bit more had she met the communities that form around these intellectually stimulating seminars, and I can only hope that anyone unfamiliar with them at

least swing by a meeting or two to see if they can find the same.

Also, it never hurts to actually be friendly and an engaging personality regardless of whether or not there’s an infrastructure in place for concentration-bonding.

Smiling, memorizing the results of the semester-starting name games and being invested in the material isn’t enough; friendships are made of more than just mutual interests, and the two may end up, depending on the people in question, being mutually exclusive.

S am R osenfeld

Nicholas Morley ’13 Oct. 25

e d i to r i a l

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Play it safe Earlier this month, the Trojan Sexual Health Report Card ranked the University fifth in the nation in a study of sexual health on college campuses.

While Health Services Educator Naomi Ninneman told the editorial page board she didn’t know if the report card was comprehensive and was unsure exactly what factors Trojan took into account, we see the survey as a recognition of Health Services’ impressive efforts to spread sexual health awareness.

These include increased programming, distribution of condoms and other safe-sex supplies, a detailed website, partnerships with Residential Peer Leaders, extended Health Services hours and the brand-new peer-to-peer Sexual Health Awareness Group.

But we cannot rest on our laurels. There’s only so much that Health Services can do to improve our sexual health and happiness. Ultimately it is up to us to seek out the information, care and safe-sex supplies that we need. Lest we become complacent in the glory of Trojan’s report, here are two things that we should all remember: — We may be smart, but that doesn’t mean we know everything about sexual health.

Not everyone comes to Brown with extensive sexual health knowledge or a background in sex education. As Ninneman said, “it’s a big mix, everybody comes from a different place, a different high school, a different family.” Even students who know a lot may still discover gaps in their knowledge or come up with new questions, she said.

To get us up to speed, Health Services’ website brown.edu/healthed is an easy first stop for detailed information on sexual health and pleasure. Students can also e-mail SHAG@brown.edu for confidential answers to sex questions or make an appointment at Health Services to talk to a health educator. And no one should feel as if he or she was supposed to know the answers already. “Learning about your sexuality and your sexual health is a lifelong process,” Ninneman said.

— We may be at an elite institution, but that doesn’t mean we’re immune to STIs. We don’t believe anyone actually thinks they’re immune, but we want to mention it just to be sure.

Condoms and other safe-sex supplies are available in dorms, at Health Services and in the gender-neutral bathroom in Faunce House. And 10 cents per condom is a pretty good deal.

Health Services also offers testing for STIs and will begin offering free HIV testing sessions Friday afternoons starting Nov. 5, by appointment. Annual HIV testing is recommended for anyone who’s sexually active, Ninneman said.

Brown is lucky to have such high-quality sexual health services, but unless students take advantage of the resources, they’re almost meaningless. It’s up to us to take the next step.

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

Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 | Page 7

A call for investment integrity

BY Haley Kossek Guest Columnist This coming week, students are joining with hotel workers across the country to declare a national week of action against HEI Hotels and Resorts.

We are coming together to protest the unjust working conditions at hotels managed by HEI, the country’s seventh-largest hotel management company. Like several other universities, Brown is invested in HEI, meaning that it is implicated in the company’s ongoing workers’ rights abuses and has an obligation to act to end them.

This is not a new revelation. Workers and students began organizing against HEI two years ago. After consistent pressure from students and a recommendation by the University’s Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP), in February 2010 President Ruth Simmons publicly wrote a letter to the company’s CEO, saying, “if there were to be any truth to the claims of the union and others that workers at some of your properties have been subjected to intimidation by managers due to their prounion activities, this would be a matter of deep concern and contrary to our standards for investing” (“Simmons warns HEI over rights,” Mar. 19).

On paper, at least, the University is committed to the principle that it should not invest in practices that violate workers’ rights to organize. In practice, in the eight months since Simmons wrote her letter, evidence to verify

the allegations over which she expressed concern has mounted, with no corresponding University action to validate the integrity of her statement.

In August, workers at the HEI-owned Embassy Suites Irvine called a one-day strike in response to management’s systematic denial of their legal right to take breaks during their workday. The hotel’s working conditions and explicit orders from managers had prevented workers from taking their daily breaks, lead-

workers’ union activism. Brown and ACCRIP, however, should know better than to believe that. Last year, the committee heard evidence regarding the firing of union leader Ferdi Lazo at another HEI property, the Sheraton Crystal City. At the time, the company adamantly claimed that Lazo’s firing was entirely justified and unrelated to his union activity. This June, a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board’s General Counsel re-instated him with full seniority and back wages.

If the University’s publicly-stated investment standards are to be taken to have any integrity, than it must stop funding HEI now.

ing half of the hotel’s workforce to file a complaint seeking $120,000 in backpay owed as compensation.

Since the Embassy Suites workers’ campaign began, the company has threatened and disciplined union activists. One housekeeper, Albertina Solorio, was threatened with losing her job for allegedly taking too long to clean a room. Another, Teresa Lozano, was suspended after raising a question about her paycheck with her manager. Both of these disciplinary actions were taken after they participated in picket lines to demand that workers be allowed to take their breaks.

HEI will deny any correlation between the company’s disciplinary actions and these

The Student Labor Alliance, in bringing this information to representatives of ACCRIP and the investment office, was assured that the settlement rendered concerns about unfair labor practices at the Sheraton Crystal City a thing of the past — that only new reports of such abuses going forward merited University attention. Alas, prior to this settlement, ACCRIP had instead maintained that, because the Labor Relations Board had not yet responded to these claims, it could not take action based only on allegations.

Therein lies the brilliance of the University’s logic. It is unable to respond to claims of mistreatment voiced directly by workers, like Ferdi Lazo, Albertina Solorio and Teresa

Lozano, because their assertions are “unconfirmed.” However, it is also unwilling to consider these complaints once they are settled with the NLRB — even if such settlements result in the reinstatement of workers who were disciplined for their pro-union leadership, at which point they should not be retroactively dwelled upon. When the company again disciplines a new group of workers starting to organize, the primary evidence that initially exists regarding their claims is direct testimony, which ACCRIP rejects as “unverified” — and the cycle of inaction and disrespect to workers begins anew.

If the University’s publicly-stated investment standards are to be taken to have any integrity, then it must stop funding HEI now.

As Simmons wrote, anti-union intimidation of workers is “contrary to our standards for investing,” and the records of workers’ rights violations at the Sheraton Crystal City and Embassy Suites Irvine leave no ambiguity about whether or not HEI is in violation of those standards.

Maribel Duarte, a housekeeper at the Embassy Suites Irvine, says that before workers at the hotel began organizing, “we were ignored and we were afraid to lose our jobs.

That’s why I want to have a union — so I feel like we can speak up.”

Workers at HEI hotels across the country have been “speaking up” for the past two years. It’s time that the Brown investment office starts to listen.

Haley Kossek ’13 is a member of the Student Labor Alliance. She may be contacted at haley_kossek@brown.edu

Of grade-grubbing and toe-stubbing

BY STEPHEN WICKEN Opinions Columnist Allow me, gentle reader, to tell you a brief story. It happened at Yale, where I was an MA student and first-time TA in a large lecture class. My fellow TA and I had just graded and returned 100 midterms when one of my students approached me. He radiated a quiet fury and might have been a little intimidating were he not wearing flip-flops. (It was February.)

He half-strutted, half-waddled up to me in a comically percussive manner, like a Western gunslinger with maracas for shoes, and thrust a blue exercise book under my nose.

“You gave me a C,” he growled.

“Yes I did,” I agreed in as even a tone as I could manage.

“But I studied all weekend for this exam!”

“Ye-eees?”

“So I don’t understand why you gave me a C.” I thought about pointing out that understanding things didn’t appear to be one of his stronger suits, but thought better of it.

Someone who wore flip-flops in the filthy street-slush that passes for snow in New Haven evidently was of solid physical stock.

“Look,” I said, with that kindly authority with which we Englishmen are born. “Let’s sit down and go through the exam. I’ll show you how I graded each question and you can argue your case if you think I was unfair.”

“No, s’ok,” he muttered, before slinking off, flip-flops beating a somber tattoo out of the lecture hall and down the corridor.

Alas, my point here is not about the atmospheric dimensions of footwear choice in our post-Havaiana age, although I suspect someone in a cultural studies department somewhere is writing a whole dissertation on the topic. What concerns me is that this young man seemed genuinely to feel that studying material for “an entire weekend” before an exam entitled him to a good grade. And let me tell you this: at Brown he would have got at least a B, no questions asked. When a student knows he or she can turn in a piece of

don’t laugh, I’ve taught one myself. Imagine that one student is diligent in undertaking original research, another an innovative thinker and still another a brilliant writer.

Each exemplifies the highest standards of student work: Who is to say that one should be penalized because it would look wrong to give everyone an A? To say, however, that “[g]rade inflation is simply an indication that students are meeting and exceeding professors’ expectations” is nonsense. Academic teachers tend to be

When a student knows he or she can turn in a piece of work that shows little engagement with anything other than Wikipedia and a cup of coffee and receive a B at the very worst, what motivation is there to try any harder? work that shows little engagement with anything other than Wikipedia and a cup of coffee and receive a B at the very worst, what motivation is there to try any harder?

Recently the editorial board of this esteemed publication came out against action on grade inflation (“Editorial: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Oct. 18). As it happens, I agree with the authors that the dread Princeton’s “expectation” that no more than 35 percent of any class should receive top grades isn’t an ideal approach. Students deserve good grades for different reasons and flexibility is important.

Take a section with three students —

observant (if poorly-dressed) types. If students constantly were exceeding expectations, those expectations would change over time. Are we being asked to believe that every successive class of students produces better work than its predecessor?

Unlike, say, “Glee,” the broad appeal of the status quo isn’t hard to grasp. Students are safe knowing that they’ll seldom have to demonstrate much ingenuity to get their A or — heaven forbid! — their B (which usually gets converted into an S in any case). Parents expect that their increasingly exorbitant outlays won’t come back to bite them in the form of an under-performing child. Teach-

ers can “give ‘em an A, send ‘em away,” and get back to their own absurd workloads as researchers, writers and administrators.

In this age of budget-slashing, any move to buck the trend at a personal or departmental level would be dangerous: As recent events at Middlesex University in the UK and the University of Nevada at Reno attest, the department that alienates its “customers” puts its own future in jeopardy.

The editorial concludes that there is “absolutely no reason to do anything radical.”

Respectfully — and I mean that — I disagree. Isn’t Brown supposed to be the radical of the Ivy League? The current mess of a grading system is like a restaurant with a binder-length menu of mediocre dishes. Either Brown should take the letter system seriously, bringing in pluses and minuses and allowing for more than just As and Bs, or it should adopt the S/NC system completely.

Or — bear with me — we could honor the New Curriculum and do away with grades altogether. If Brown’s application system is so faultlessly selective, why not remove the temptation to pick and choose cynically among classes and allow students to follow their noses? As it is, the current system is both a sop to those fixated on law school applications and an invitation to follow one’s intellectual curiosity. I fear that it trips students up on both tracks, regardless of footwear.

Stephen Wicken GS, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History, favors boat shoes year-round. He can be reached at stephen_wicken@brown.edu.

Today The Brown Daily Herald

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Women’s golf scores second place

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to day

to m o r r o w

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Exploring the harms of grade-inflation

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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

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c a l e n da r Today

october 27

6 p.m.

ToMORROW

october 28

12 P.M.

The Crisis In Pictures: Films from

Brown Institute for Brain Science

Nigeria, McCormack Family Theater

Lunch, Sharpe Refactory

7 P.M.

4 p.m.

Halloween Pumpkin Carving,

Decolonizing Media an Cultural

Sarah Doyle Women’s Center

Theory, Campus Center

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Buffalo Chicken Wings, Vegetarian Reuben Sandwich, Pasta with Eggplant and Olives

Chicken Fajitas, Vegan Black Bean Tacos, Mexican Succotash, M&M Cookies

DINNER Steak Teriyaki, Spinach Strudel with Cream Sauce, Vegan Rice Pilaf, Fudge Bars

Today on the blog Debating Ritalin and Adderall Halloween costume ideas & more! blogdailyherald.com

Cilantro Chicken, Mexican Cornbread Casserole, Stir Fry Vegetable Medley

crossword

comics Bat & Gaz | Sofia Ortiz

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

The Adventures of Team Vag | Wendy Kwartin

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