Daily Herald the Brown
vol. cxlv, no. 113 | Tuesday, November 16, 2010 | Serving the community daily since 1891
satisfied or dissatisfied are/were Just the two of us: Most satisfied How you with the freshman-year roommate you were assigned at Brown? with freshman roommate By Kristina Fazzalaro Senior Staff Writer
Brown enrolls over 6,000 undergraduates from across the globe, bringing together a host of people with diverse interests, experiences and ideas. From athletes to mathletes, each year the Office of Residential Life matches up a fresh batch of first years as best it can — with overwhelmingly positive results, according to the The Herald’s poll this semester. About 70 percent of students are or were satisfied with their assigned freshman roommate, with 47.9 percent stating they were very satisfied. Each year, ResLife asks freshmen to fill out the “New Student Housing Questionnaire,” which includes basic
Streetcar talks continue By Caitlin Trujillo Senior Staff Writer
Three possible streetcar routes were discussed Monday night at the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s meeting with the College Hill Neighborhood Association. Each route provides a slightly different link between major city hubs including Brown, Rhode Island Hospital, Kennedy Plaza and the train station.
questions about students and their behavior, according to Natalie Basil, associate director of residential life. ResLife is dedicated to providing a similar first-year experience for everyone, Basil said. Their philosophy is that every first-year student should
THE HERALD POLL learn the art of negotiation, communication and how to live with someone else, she added. For this reason, roommate requests are denied, Basil said, with the only possible exception being made on occasion for siblings to ease the financial burden of parents who might otherwise have to purchase double dorm furniture or appliances.
Matchmaking 101 The “New Student Housing Questionnaire” includes questions such as “Do you smoke?” and “What time do you wake up/go to bed?” ResLife inputs the results into a computer system that matches students based upon their answers, with some questions weighted more heavily than others, Basil said. Basil said that scheduling, in particular, is taken heavily into account, as the system is programmed to match students with others who plan to go to sleep and wake up around the same time. Smokers and non-smokers are also usually not paired with each other. Also, individuals with the same continued on page 3
According to The Herald’s poll, 70 percent of students are or were satisfied with their roommate. Natalie Basil, associate director of ResLife, said the student-pairing system focuses heavily on differing sleep schedules.
Students present work, help promote local cafe By Nicole Boucher Senior Staff Writer
In a neighborhood on the south side of Providence, the pleasant glow of the Friendship Cafe beckons people from all walks of life to come in from the cold and share a meal together. Low-income residents living in surrounding affordable housing units and local politicians can sample delicious sandwiches named after familiar
names of the neighborhood. And it was here at the Friendship Cafe that members of Word! gathered Thursday evening to perform pieces for an audience of fellow Brown students.
FEATURE Embarking on his self-proclaimed “virgin Word! experience,” poet Paul Tran ’14 told The Herald that he wanted to show who he
is through his work. He wrote a piece about his own community in California. There, he said, many struggled with poverty and hardship. Tran’s poem was a stark contrast from his upbeat introduction, as he expressed his raw emotions through his performance. In the piece, he described entrapment in a world “black like the sewers, black like the sky split by thunder.” The venue where Tran per-
formed is more than meets the eye. Located within a mixed-use affordable housing community, the cafe offers a cozy dining atmosphere. Knowing the cafe’s role in the community reveals its character more than a loaf of bread or the amiable lighting ever could. Of, by and for the community The cafe wastes no opportucontinued on page 2
Animal rights activist: foods can have consequences
METRO The meeting focused on RIPTA’s Core Connector Study, which is investigating the feasibility of installing a streetcar system to strengthen Providence’s current system of public transportation. One proposed route — the East option — would offer the most direct path from Brown to Rhode Island Hospital, the state’s two largest employers, said Amy Pettine, RIPTA special projects manager. Another route — the West option — would link the two hubs less directly but provide better access to Upper South Providence, she said. The third option would service the Downcity area, located southwest of the Financial District and adjacent to the Jewelry District. T his route provides the most downtown access.
By Jonathan Staloff Contributing Writer
Animal Rights activists and meat eaters alike packed List 120 Monday night as Gene Baur urged the audience to consider the consequences of what we eat. In his visit to Brown, Baur said he hopes to send the message that “our food choices have profound consequences and it’s important for people to be thoughtful how they eat.” Baur has a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Cornell. He is the president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, an organization that rescues animals from stockyards, factories and Stephanie London / Herald
inside
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Gene Baur, president of Farm Sanctuary, advocated that people think about what they eat and its consequences.
continued on page 2
Via no more
New bridge
Not for profit
Cosa Nostra replaces Via Via IV on Meeting St.
City awaits selection of bridge design in “knowledge district”
William Tomasko ’13 thinks U. is far from being “Brown, Inc.”
metro, 4
metro, 4
Opinions, 7
195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
“We all can be empowered to make choices to make a huge difference.” — Gene Baur, president of Farm Sanctuary
Baur encourages less Cafe brings community together meat-centric diet continued from page 1
continued from page 1 slaughterhouses. Farm Sanctuary boasts a 175acre farm in New York and a 300acre farm in California. Both play host to hundreds of animals and provide them with food, clean barns and freedom. Baur’s presentation centered around the disparity in living conditions of farm animals on factory farms and those on Farm Sanctuary, highlighting the use of gestation crates and the slaughter of downed, or sick animals on factory farms. As he put up pictures of pigs rolling in mud or cows seemingly smiling at Farm Sanctuary, Baur said, “They express a companionship and love.” In addition to his involvement with Farm Sanctuary, Baur also helped pass the first ever U.S. laws banning inhumane farming techniques like gestation crates. In his presentation, Baur showed the relevance of largescale factory farming in personal health, the health of the environment and in the animal rights movement as a whole. Due to eating habits in the United States, the current generation is expected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents, according to statistics Baur displayed. He explained that obesity in the United States is now officially considered an epidemic and that the United States spends more money on health care per person than any other country. Using a more environmental-
ly-centered argument, Baur also pointed out that a meat-oriented meal requires 16 times as much energy to prepare as that required for a vegan meal. According to his presentation, the livestock sector is one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at both local and global scales. “At the end of the day, we all can be empowered to make choices to make a huge difference,” Baur said. “I’m in an environmental studies class and he came and spoke to us earlier today,” said audience member Megan Nolet ’14. “He is very inspirational.” As the audience sat in awe, Bauer explained that 10 billion land animals are raised and slaughtered in the United States every year. “These animals are seen as financial units and not as living breathing creatures,” Baur said. Claire Miller ’11, president of the Brown Animal Rights Club, said, “I would like the audience to think about their food choices when they sit down to eat a meal and how it affects their health, their environments, and animals.” “I drove down from Boston,” said audience member Marc Pedi ’84 excitedly. “This is like a big deal.” Closing his presentation, Baur quoted Anne Frank. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world,” he said.
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The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2010 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
nity to funnel support back into the ver y community that molded it into existence. The eatery opened in May as a business venture intended to raise revenue for Amos House, Rhode Island’s largest soup kitchen. But the cafe benefits the community in many more ways, said Jill Moniz ’04, vice president of marketing for Amos House Works. Amos House Works is the forprofit business division of Amos House that currently consists of three enterprises partly staffed by graduates of its own job training programs. The cafe grew out of the More than a Meal catering group, which Amos House Works established after graduates certified in catering still failed to find job placements, Moniz said. These Amos House programs and the cafe feed off one another, working to draw up revenue for Amos House while also providing jobs and fueling the local economy, to achieve a “triple bottom line,” according to the cafe’s menu. Originally designed to provide healthy food alternatives to residents of the affordable housing and business complex, the cafe also provides a support system fulfilling the needs of low-income and displaced workers who are part of a job training program, Moniz said. Halfway through the Amos Culinar y Education program, some students complete an internship at the cafe, and many of the current full-time employees are also graduates of the program, said
Geneva Johnson, the program’s coordinator. And that’s not all. The wooden seats and tables at the eatery contain placards revealing that participants in the Amos Carpentr y Training Program made all of the furniture out of scrap materials. At the cafe, ever ything is clearly an inside job — an innovative enterprise of, by and for the community it serves.
Expanding horizons So how did such a locally-based enterprise burst the Brown bubble and attract students to a night of poetr y and food that would raise revenue for the cafe? The answer lies in the commitment of a group of students bent on helping the Friendship Cafe succeed. The collaborative event between the cafe and Word! performers represents the culmination of a marketing campaign project several students undertook this semester for the class ENGN 1930Q: “Social Entrepreneurship,” said Briana McGeough ’12, one of the students involved in the project. The course, taught by four professors, assigned students to work with different local and international agencies. “We were given a general framework” to spread awareness of the cafe to the student population, McGeough said. “We were given a fair amount of freedom to decide what that meant.” They decided to organize this poetr y event to gauge interest in the cafe and spread awareness, she said. The group has also been conducting surveys to see if students would go to the cafe if it were open
later at night. The cafe is usually open until 2:30 p.m., when local high schoolers and college students are usually unavailable. “Friendship Cafe has really become a community home” for a wide range of people, Moniz said. The student organizers sought to add the student population into this community mix. Soul and solidarity This sense of community and solidarity resonated in the pieces the Word! students chose to perform at last Thursday’s event. Tran’s poem about his own struggling community easily fit the setting, as Amos House faces record numbers of people using its services in light of a bad economy. Tran’s poem dealt with dark but empowering themes of finding freedom and oneself amidst poverty. “I come from a community where half of the students didn’t even graduate from high school,” Tran told The Herald, adding that many people in his community dreamt of freeing themselves from poverty. “To crawl out of sewers, holding the future in one hand and the dreams you buried in the other,” Tran recited, “wet swollen dreams full of feces and of too many summers spent waiting for food stamps and wildfires to crawl through your windows.” Tran told The Herald that he hopes each poem says a bit about who he is as a person. Much of the night’s poetry expressed these themes of pain, a well-known fact of life for many of the cafe’s regular customers. Many of the poems captured the shared experience of communities enduring in the face of struggle. In a poem in prayer form, Zack Ballard ’13 recognized the common struggles people face throughout life, urging God to “remind us, remind us of our heads in our hands.” And Laura Brown-Lavoie ’10.5 chose a piece about the bond she shared with her younger sister that extended outward to address a larger sense of sisterhood in the poem’s conclusion. “I had to wait 16 months for the rest of me to be born,” she began, expanding the poem to connect to all women, exclaiming, “sisters, let us share our love.” During the readings, students had an opportunity to show support for the cafe by purchasing meals, which were discounted by 15 percent. “This has been a great example of how you can combine nonprofits with models of business,” said Bridget McGinn ’11, another student organizer of the event. McGinn said she has learned a lot about Amos House in the course of the experience. McGeough agreed. “I am very interested in enterprises pertaining to social justice,” she said. (Disclosure: Herald Deputy Managing Editor Emmy Liss ’11 is one of the four students working on the Friendship Cafe project.)
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
C ampus N EWS
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“It surprised me how different they were.” — Ex-RPL Lauren Krumeich ’11, on roommate pairings in her dorm last year
Most happy with freshman roommate, despite differences continued from page 1 first name or from the same hometown are usually eliminated from being roommates, Basil said. In recent years, ResLife has had the system pair students who work in their rooms with those who plan to work in libraries, so as to provide a quiet study environment for both parties, Basil said. They also try to group together students who need music to fall asleep, she added. “Does that mean it always works?” Basil questioned. “No.” She explained that the questionnaire finds “your best match” within the pool of applicants and according to the programming of the system. It is especially difficult because students’ schedules change in college, Basil said, noting that a student may plan to wake up at 10 a.m. but then register for an 8 a.m. class. After a mandatory two-week period following move-in, freshmen who are not pleased with their roommate may apply for a room change, Basil said. During those two weeks, Residential Life counts the number of vacancies on campus. In past years, they have been able to simply move dissatisfied students into a new room because of students who opt not to attend Brown that semester. But once these vacancies are filled, students must participate in a one-to-one swap, she said. Students choose to switch rooms for a variety of reasons, usually citing compatibility issues or a desire to live with a friend either from Brown or from home. Zach Minster ’14 and Greg Jordan-Detamore ’14 live together as a result of such a room swap. “Our original roommates were best friends from high school,” Minster said. “For me, it was a good switch. We’re more compatible.”
Minster and Jordan-Detamore, a Herald contributing writer, met prior to coming to Brown through Facebook and at an alumni event in Philadelphia, and so were happy to make the switch requested by their roommates, they said. ‘Luck of the draw’ With nearly 70 percent of students reporting positively about their freshmen year experience, it was not surprising to find most people interviewed were pleased with their roommates. Mya Manning ’14 said she loves her roommate, with the only slight problem being differences in their schedules. “It seems to be luck of the draw, but I drew really well,” she said. Despite the randomness of the questionnaire assignments, it appears sometimes opposites do end up attracting. “We got along very well but had very different personalities,” said Emily Gould ’13, who is also a member of Residential Council, a body of students that makes recommendations to ResLife. Believing the student body to be very segregated according to extracurricular activities, Gould said she enjoyed having a roommate with different interests. Hyun Kim ’12 said that although he and his roommate were very different, it was an overall great experience, as the two were able to learn from each other. “We still live together,” said Danielle Dahan ’11 of her freshman roommate. “We lucked out, I think,” she added, citing that friends of hers often complain about their first-year experiences. About 26 percent of students reported being dissatisfied with their first-year housing assignment. Lauren Krumeich ’11, who served as a Residential Peer Leader in Kee-
ney Quadrangle last year, said of some pairings, “It surprised me how different they were.” Many of her freshmen were “complete opposites,” and she said that there were some instances of complete disrespect. “Sexiling” — when one roommate needed the room to him- or herself for an intimate moment — was a major problem as well, she said. Krumeich said she was surprised that the questionnaire was not more in-depth and said she believes in empowering people to make their own decision for housing. If people choose their own roommate, possibly through an online forum, they will be more willing to make the relationship work, she said. Other students, including Gould and Manning, said they believe an expanded survey might improve roommate compatibility if taken into account effectively. Krumeich also said the online questionnaires might not be effective because of parent involvement — parents might want their child to live with a certain type of individual and pressure their student to fill in the form a certain way. “I didn’t ask my parents because I knew they would try to influence it,” Minster said. Any changes to the current system have to come first from ResCouncil, Basil said. Recommendations, which must uphold ResLife’s
philosophy, would then be studied by Senior Associate Dean of Residential and Dining Services Richard Bova, Associate Director Thomas Forsberg and Basil herself. After making any necessary modifications, the recommendation would be implemented. According to Gould, ResCouncil is currently discussing some possible changes to the system in relation to recent residence hall renovations, but as of yet there are no concrete plans. Basil said she is pleased with the results of the poll and is open to changing the system upon recommendations from the student body. The Herald poll was conducted Nov. 1–2 and has a 3.0 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. A total of 915 students completed the poll, which The Herald distributed as a written questionnaire in the University Mail Room in J. Walter Wilson and the Stephen Robert ‘62 Campus Center during the day and the Sciences Library at night.
RIPTA looks at streetcar routes continued from page 1 All three proposed routes would travel up the Thayer Street tunnel, though engineers working with the project have expressed concern that a streetcar would not be able to pass through it, Pettine said. RIPTA has not yet decided to implement a streetcar system. Other options include systems of enhanced buses with better amenities or traditional buses with more frequent service. RIPTA officials will present the routes at a public forum Dec. 9, and a route will be finalized in January, Pettine said. But that decision, as well as the drafting of a financial plan to fund the new system, will be made this spring.
Metro The Brown Daily Herald
“The bridge creates a real opportunity.” — Bonnie Nickerson, director of long-range planning with Dept. of Planning and Development Tuesday, November 16, 2010 | Page 4
Pedestrian bridge design to be chosen by end of month By Tom Jarus Staff Writer
The 11 entries in the city’s pedestrian bridge design competition are on display at City Hall until the end of November. The pedestrian bridge will replace the old Interstate 195 roadbed that spans the Providence River, but will stand on the existing supports. The bridge will connect the Jewelry District to the College Hill and Fox Point neighborhoods. Bonnie Nickerson, director of long-range planning with the Department of Planning and Development, said increased mobility and beautification are two key factors in this project. “The bridge creates a real opportunity to create not just a path from one place to another, but a real place that enhances the Waterfront Park” she said. The so-called “Knowledge District,” including the Jewelry District
and surrounding areas, will be a hub of activity in the future — “a place where we really hope to develop the city’s economy,” Nickerson added. The 11 proposed bridges differ greatly from each other, but each design meets one criterion — the incorporation of the five existing piers. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation has budgeted two million dollars for the pedestrian bridge project, and sought an additional $2 million in federal funding. According to Nickerson, the state did not receive the federal grant. But, she said all proposed bridge designs were made “scalable,” allowing for uncertainty in the budget. Mike McCormick, assistant vice president for planning, design and construction in the University’s Department of Facilities Management, serves on the selection committee. continued on page 5
Glenn Lutsky / Herald
The building that previously housed Via Via IV will be opening under the name Cosa Nostra.
Via Via becomes Cosa Nostra BY Jamie Brew Contributing Writer
The Meeting Street building that
formerly housed Via Via IV is undergoing renovations and will eventually open under the name Cosa Nostra.
The new restaurant — bearing the same name as the Sicilian Mafia — features decorations related to The Godfather movies. The city has authorized construction of a new patio with new tiles and doors, according to a permit posted at the site. The building is owned by Mario Coletta, president of East Side Enterprises, which owns gas stations and convenience stores across the state, according to the company’s website. Coletta leased the building to Via Via pizza company, which closed earlier this year. Coletta still owns the building. Coletta was unavailable for comment, but his son-in-law Tom Breckel, who is vice president of operations at East Side Enterprises, said he expected the new pizza place to be “the same type of business” as Via Via. The University attempted to purchase the property in 2000, hoping to include the land in the footprint of Sydney Frank Hall, which was then being planned. But two years of negotiations proved fruitless, according to a 2006 Herald article. The LiSci building was completed in 2006. At that time, Via Via employees expressed frustration that construction of the building — about six feet from the restaurant’s walls — was cutting into business, according to the article.
Local Advertising Sales Representative Needed! The Brown Daily Herald is looking for two dedicated, business-minded individuals to work in local advertising sales. You will be paid $10.50 an hour plus commission for 10–15 hours per week. The job inclues renewing advertising contracts of current clients and pitching to new businesses in the greater Providence area. Contact gm@browndailyherald.com ASAP if interested!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
M etro
Students show off skills at benefit concert By Kenny McDowell Contributing Writer
The 2012 Coordinating Class Board held a Save the Children benefit concert Friday, bringing together talent from on and off campus. Members of the tae kwon do club demonstrated their skill, dueling with each other and kicking and punching various targets and wooden boards. The audience laughed as the targetholder staggered from the force of the kicks. Dance group Impulse showed off its dancing talents with fluid, wave-like movements and complex footwork to hip-hop, R&B and pop music. Other talents at the concert included the female a cappella group Ursa Minors, dressed in black attire, who beautifully harmonized on three songs. The dancing group Special Browniez Crew performed difficult breakdancing moves, including an impressive series of flips that drove the crowd crazy. Local spoken word artist Christopher Johnson gave a poetic inspirational talk, and Brown’s taiko group illustrated its skills through an ensemble performance with Japanese bass drums. Members of Badmaash and Atti-
tude performed dancing routines, and Brown Poler Bears demonstrated pole acrobatics and dancing, using upper body strength to hold their weight as they turned upside down. A pair of dancers from Mezcla displayed their ballroom dancing skills to Latin music. Two dancers of the group Modern Dance from Yale also performed a ballet-inspired routine at the concert. Stand-up comedy and mariachi music were performed as well. The concert was part of the “All Ivy Initiative” created by Cornell’s class of 2012. The Brown 2012 Class Board wanted to bring attention to the Save the Children Foundation and spread the word so students could “learn outside lectures and textbooks,” said 2012 Class Board Community Outreach Officer Yingsi Zhang ’12. The 2012 Class Board became part of All Ivy because the initiative brings together all eight schools for a common cause, Zhang said. The initial idea was to hold a dance marathon, but the board eventually decided to change the event to something shorter that would enable them to bring out talents on campus, Zhang said. The concert generated a turnout of more than 200 people attending despite the cold weather, allowing the board to raise several hundred dollars, Zhang said.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
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“If we’ve got this opportunity to build a bridge, let’s do something special.” — Dick Spies, U. executive VP for planning
Pedestrian bridge will provide ‘critical link’ continued from page 4 The pedestrian bridge is “a really critical link for Brown in the Jewelr y District,” he said. The Jewelry District will be home to University’s new Medical Education Building, set to open in 2012. Though only about a mile from main campus, the Jewelry District is more industrial, and currently lacks an adequate transportation system for the expected influx of medical students traveling to the neighborhood. Administrators envision the Jewelry District as “an extension of Brown’s campus, not a separate campus,” McCormick said, and the bridge will be key in making this connection. But he added that the construction of the pedestrian bridge would also benefit the city as a whole. “I think it can be transformative both for Brown and for Providence,” he said. Rhode Island Public Transit Authority has discussed implementing a park-and-ride system in conjunction with the bridge, where commuters could park on the East Side and walk across the river to offices downtown,
Nickerson said. The bridge will “enhance transit and make those connections more viable,” she added. Though Mayor David Cicilline ’83 will announce the winning design at the end of the month, he will base his decision on a recommendation from a selection committee. In addition to officials from the transportation department and the city, the selection committee includes representatives from the local community, a private business, a historical preser vation commission, Rhode Island School of Design and Brown. “It was basically trying to include a broad coalition of people,” Nickerson said. But the selection committee will also consider the public’s opinion when making its recommendation. In City Hall, members of the public can fill out comment cards about the different designs. Dick Spies, the University’s executive vice president for planning, said the construction of the pedestrian bridge would not affect the University’s basic goals. The University made the decision to relocate the Alpert Medical School “not knowing what was
nine
going to come out of the bridge discussion,” he said. “The first set of things that we decided to do, we’re going to do regardless,” he added. Spies said interest in the construction of a pedestrian bridge originated when people thought about moving the rivers and creating Waterplace Park. He said the idea of the pedestrian bridge comes out of the “bold” thinking that characterized Providence in the ‘90s. The competition will “get the best ideas on the table,” he said. “If we’ve got this opportunity to build a bridge, let’s do something special,” he added. He said the construction of the pedestrian bridge is part of a larger effort to make the Knowledge and Jewelry District more friendly, hospitable and lively. It is “not just for the medical students, but for everyone down there,” he said. The project serves as “a great example of a good collaboration among the many interested parties, including the state, the city, the various institutions that have an interest in the area and an involvement in the area and the business sector,” he added.
Editorial & Letters The Brown Daily Herald
Page 6 | Tuesday, November 16, 2010
erik stayton and evan donahue
Letters, please! letters@browndailyherald.com
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e d i to r i a l
Walk away An editorial in the Providence Journal recently called out students at Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design for being careless when crossing streets and riding bicycles. The Journal brings up a good point — one that we already made in an editorial last March. We asked students to take greater responsibility for their conduct on the sidewalks. We also highlighted a few problem areas where traffic was dangerous even for the most careful pedestrians. But the Journal took things a step further. They aren’t just upset that Brown students can be careless as pedestrians. They’re also angry that students act “as if they own everything around them.” The editorial pointed out that students should be aware that they’re on public roads, not “private estates” where “some of these students come from.” Shame on the Journal’s editorial board for clouding its valid and important point with a childish insult. First off, it’s sad that the Journal had to resort to a worn-out stereotype. In reality, 43 percent of Brown students receive some form of financial aid, Davida Ross, information specialist in the Office of Financial Aid, told the editorial page board. But even if that number were zero or 100 percent, could the Journal’s editorial board honestly believe that one’s pedestrian habits are a function of one’s socioeconomic background? It’s also worth noting that the University has formed a new committee to promote safer pedestrian habits and evaluate the efficacy of road signs on College Hill, The Herald reported in March. Already this year, many crosswalks across campus have been
repainted. The Journal laments the extra precautions motorists must take to avoid hitting students. To safely navigate the streets of College Hill, they say, drivers must “stay on constant alert” and refrain from using cell phones. Maybe driver’s ed is just a little fresher in our memories, but we don’t think that’s too much to ask at all. Moreover, eight other states have already banned handheld cell phone use while driving, according to the Governors’ Highway Safety Association website. Instead of using space in an editorial to insult us, perhaps the Journal’s editors could have weighed in on an important policy question and called for Rhode Island to also ban this dangerous practice. While we completely agree that pedestrians need to be more responsible, motorists in Providence are far from perfect. As we pointed out last March, there are several problem areas around campus where drivers are frequently careless and disregard road signs. One such example is the sign in front of the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center instructing drivers to yield to pedestrians. Although drivers are required to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk by Rhode Island law, in our experience this is rarely followed. We can’t have safe roads without cooperation from both pedestrians and drivers. Pedestrians — and Brown students of all backgrounds — must do more to keep the streets safe, particularly at night. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
Caleigh Forbes, Julien Ouellet, Katie Wilson, Chong Yang, Designers Corinne Cathcart, Abby Kerson, Claire Luchette, Sahil Luthra, Copy Editors Rebecca Ballhaus, Sarah Mancone, Mark Raymond, 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 Staff Writers Anna Andreeva, Anne Artley, Anita Badejo, Casey Bleho, Amy Chen, Alicia Dang, Sarah Forman, Miriam Furst, Max Godnick, Thomas Jarus, Abby Kerson, Julia Kim, Kristina Klara, Leonardo Moauro, Emily Rosen, Bradley Silverman, Anne Simons, Alexandra Ulmer, 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 Alex DePaoli, Emily Gilbert, Katie Green, Freddy Lu, Glenn Lutzky, Evan Thomas Copy Editors Ted Burke, Corinne Cathcart, David Chung, Olivia Conetta, Carrie Craven, Max Ernst, Jenny Kaplan, Abby Kerson, Juhee Kwon, Claire Luchette, Sahil Luthra, Shefali Luthra, Katie MacDougald, Alexandra Nuttbrown, Elizabeth Orr, Katrina Phillips, Amy Rasmussen, Winnie Wang, Emma Wohl Editorial Page Board Members Anita Mathews, Melissa Shube, Gaurie Tilak
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Opinions The Brown Daily Herald
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 | Page 7
What Brown, Inc. would actually look like BY William Tomasko Opinions Columnist Liz Lemon had a dilemma. She loved the jeans she had bought from “Brooklyn Without Limits,” a store she wanted to support because it was “all about fair trade and local artisans and staying green,” but then she discovered that the store was actually owned by Halliburton. She couldn’t decide if she should keep her beloved jeans or return them to protest the corporate behemoth. When I watched the drama unfold on last week’s episode of “30 Rock,” I was surprised to find myself reminded of The Herald’s Opinions section. Liz’s liberal existential crisis — whether it would be nobler in her mind to suffer the slings and arrows of corporate conglomeration or return a pair of jeans against that sea of troubles — made me think of this section’s recurring theme of whether Brown University has become too “corporate.” In his columns this semester, Simon Liebling ’12 has argued, forcefully and persistently, that Brown is increasingly “replacing public interest with profit interest” (“Brown, Inc.” Sept. 10) while pursuing “thoughtless emulation of Harvard and Yale” (“Kertzer’s Brown, Inc. legacy,” Nov. 12). According to Liebling, “the recession-era University budget has been balanced entirely on the backs of students and staff,” which he identifies as “the kind of behavior we would expect from a profit-maximizing corporation on a cost-cutting spree, not from a non-profit education institution operating in the public interest”
(“Brown, Inc.”). Right now, he argues, we at Brown are “in the middle of the fight over the University’s commercial future. We have only just arrived at the juncture between service and profit, between community and callousness” (“Brown, Inc.”). In reality, though, Brown’s situation is not nearly as precarious as those dichotomies would suggest. The Corporation did need to cut a $30 million deficit this year, resulting in layoffs and a 4.5 percent tuition increase, after the Great Recession took its toll on our endowment (“Corporation balances budget, raises tuition,” March 1).
known as a university-college.” If we want to evaluate Brown to see if it measures up to this mission of non-profit service, we can always compare it to the explicitly for-profit universities proliferating around the country. For example, there is the online, hugely lucrative Kaplan University, which raises 91.5 percent of its revenue from federal student aid. A recent New York Times article explained how “Kaplan and other for-profit education companies have come under intense scrutiny from Congress, amid growing concerns that the industry leaves too many students mired in debt, and with credentials that provide little help in finding jobs.”
The difference between for-profit universities’ practices and the behavior of Brown is not a difference of degree; it is a difference of kind.
However, the administration also increased financial aid funding for undergraduates by 6.5 percent and raised salaries for staff — hardly the actions of a heartless entity determined to hoard profit at the expense of the community. Furthermore, Brown’s mission statement, posted on our website, binds the University to service: “The mission of Brown University is to serve the community, the nation and the world” by fostering public knowledge and educating students “in a unified community
Several lawsuits and investigations against Kaplan and its ilk allege that for-profit colleges deliberately recruit economically distressed students. A leaked training manual for Kaplan’s recruitment in Pittsburgh encouraged recruiters to pursue applicants characterized by “low self-esteem, reliance on public assistance, being fired, laid off, incarcerated or physically or mentally abused” because they were “considered most likely to drop out before complet-
ing the program, leaving Kaplan with the aid money and no need to provide more services.” Even though for-profit universities only enroll roughly 11 percent of American college students, “their students account for 43 percent of those defaulting on student loans,” which contributes to the mounting cost of federal aid programs. Strayer Education, Inc., another for-profit university enterprise, paid its CEO $41.9 million in 2009, which is 26 times the highest salary for the president of a regular, non-profit university, according to a recent Bloomberg News report. The difference between for-profit universities’ practices and the behavior of Brown’s administration is not a difference of degree; it is a difference of kind. “Brown, Inc.” is a scarysounding boogeyman, but in reality, we do not see our University setting its students up to fail for the sake of gaining cash from them (or from taxpayers). Currently, the Department of Education is planning to adjust its regulations to deny federal aid to schools like Kaplan with high rates of loan defaults and low academic success. Kaplan alone has spent $350,000 in the past few months to lobby against the change. In the fight against profit-seeking universities, there are clearly defined defenders of the lucrative status quo, but they do not work on College Hill.
William Tomasko ’13 is a political science concentrator from Washington, D.C. He can be reached at william_tomasko@brown.edu.
Advising: Is less really more? BY deniz ilgen Opinions Columnist Advising at Brown is much more laid-back than I had initially expected it to be. Students are rarely required to meet with their advisors and don’t have to get involved with advising unless they choose to do so. Adam Davis ’13 believes that “the advising experience at Brown is largely student-initiated,” and that “unless you really have the drive to go out and initiate a conversation with an advisor, then you really aren’t going to have much experience with advising.” While Davis has met several times with his advisor to discuss concentration-related issues, he recalls minimal interaction with his Meiklejohn. He stated, “I think the Meiklejohn program could potentially use some revamping. There needs to be some kind of uniform standard for how often Meiklejohns meet with their advisees.” While I had a positive experience with my Meiklejohn, several of my peers often complained that theirs either never contacted them or had minimal interaction with them. Especially for new freshmen just entering college, multiple interactions with upperclassmen should be highly encouraged; in this way, incoming freshmen would benefit much more if the Meiklejohn program were slightly more structured. Despite the University’s minimal advising interactions with the students, however, some new programs are being established that have the potential to change the advis-
ing system for the better. Starting last year, new tools and systems have been created to make students’ lives much easier, such as MAPS and Focal Point. MAPS, the Matched Advising Program for Sophomores, is a system that could prove to be extremely beneficial to sophomores that are still undecided on which concentration to choose. This program involves matching up sophomores with seniors and
variety of advising systems present at Brown and was consequently reluctant to use them; with all the different academic deans, Randall advisors and Faculty Advising Fellows, she was often faced with indecision about which advisor with whom she should talk. With respect to advising office hours, she said, “I know it exists, but I just don’t know why I would go there over seeing someone else.” I have to agree with this statement;
Advising at Brown is preferable in that it allows students to have as much involvement as they want with the advising system.
having them meet regularly to discuss academic options and concentration choices. MAPS also sets up panels for students that discuss topics like study abroad, leave of absence, summer research opportunities and more. Additionally, it organizes focus groups among the students to talk to each other about class-related issues. Madeline Sall ’13 joined MAPS in order to gain new perspectives from people outside of her concentration department and gave highly positive feedback. “I’m excited because it gives the structured advising that I feel like I missed last year,” she said. As a freshman, Sall felt overwhelmed by the wide
with the large amount of resources available, it’s sometimes hard to find out which ones to use for specific advising needs. A recently created tool called Focal Point is another example of how Brown is adding to its already numerous advising resources. This search tool allows students to learn about the many concentrations the University has to offer. It lets them select their academic preferences and displays information about possible concentrations of interest as well as potential careers. Focal Point seems like it would be most beneficial to freshmen; Davis, a potential Modern Culture and Media concentrator, said, “it helps you de-
termine generalized fields but so many of these have people from all different concentrations that it didn’t help me pinpoint what MCM concentrators were doing.” Overall, this tool is helpful to those still choosing a major, which applies to a fair amount of Brown underclassmen, given Brown’s freedom with requirements and concentrations. Another advising instrument with which some students may be unfamiliar is ASK, the Advising Sidekick. This tool organizes students’ advising information by displaying the different events going on around the University as well as providing links to helpful websites. Advising at Brown is preferable in that it allows students to have as much involvement as they want with the advising system. It’s not too pushy, but at the same time, it’s not too laid-back. It lets the students take the initiative (should they choose to do so), and requires at least some involvement in freshman and sophomore years. While it requires overall minimal student interaction with professors and deans, the information is still out there if the students want it. Especially after the addition of the latest advising programs and instruments, there are copious amounts of faculty and office hours that are at your disposal.
Deniz Ilgen ’13 is a civil engineering concentrator from Los Gatos, California. She can be reached at deniz_ilgen@brown.edu.
Today The Brown Daily Herald
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Via Via replaced by similar restaurant
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comics
5 novemBER 16
5:00 p.m.
ToMORROW
The Misadventures of Blockhead | Adam Petchers and Co. novemBER 17
6:30 p.m.
Goldman Sachs Information
BISC Ambassadorship Program
Session, Faculty Club
Training, Wilson 309
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
Afghan Star Film Screening,
Remembering Fallujah, Barus and
Macmillan 115
Holley 168
menu SHARPE REFECTORY
VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL
Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman
LUNCH Green Chili Chicken Enchilada, Vegan Taco, Red Rice, Cranberry and White Chip Cookies
Chinese Chicken Wings, Linguini with Tomatoes and Basil, Cranberry and White Chip Cookies
DINNER Grilled Turkey Burger with Bulkie Roll, Acorn Squash with Curried Rice and Chickpeas, Raspberry Bars
57 / 49
61 / 42
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
BB & Z | Cole Pruitt, Andrew Seiden and Valerie Hsiung
Today
to m o r r o w
Benefit concert showcases student talent
t h e n e w s i n i m ag e s
c a l e n da r
to day
Meat Tortellini with Sauce, Artichoke and Red Pepper Frittata, Parsley Potatoes, Raspberry Bars
crossword Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline
Classic Deo | Daniel Perez
Classic But Seriously | Stephen Barlow & Charlie Custer
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