Monday, January 31, 2011

Daily

the Brown

vol. cxlvi, no. 4

Herald

Monday, January 31, 2011

Since 1891

DPS: No plans to halt Naked Donut Run

McCormick witness files police report

By Alex Bell News Editor

inside

continued on page 2

news...................1-6 Arts .......................7 editorial.............10 Opinions.............11 SPORTS..................12

gram, given the continued volatility of the situation in Egypt, according to another statement released Saturday by Michael Geisler, vice president for language schools, schools abroad and graduate programs at Middlebury.

Michael Dawkins ’12 and Amanda Labora ’12 — the Brown students studying in Egypt this semester — could not be contacted due to the virtual blackout of the internet

Despite interference with the Naked Donut Run last December, there is no indication the tradition will be put to a permanent end.

Sciences Library security guards interfered with one run this past semester, but University officials say there is currently no intention of shutting down the run.

Runners successfully completed runs in the Rockefeller Library and the Center for Information Technology during the most recent finals period, but encountered an obstacle at the SciLi when security guards demanded their names, campus addresses and Brown identification cards. BlogDailyHerald originally reported the incident Dec. 14.

After the encounter with security guards, the runners — by then clothed — decided to complete the run, in which participants deliver donuts to students studying for final exams. No University or le-

continued on page 3

continued on page 6

Courtesy of Sydney Silverstein

A more peaceful Tahrir Square, as seen from the lens of Sydney Silverstein ’12, who studied abroad in Cairo, Egypt last semester.

This weekend, the square was the site of violent demonstrations demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s rule.

Students evacuate Egypt By nicole boucher News Editor

Two Brown students studying abroad in Alexandria, Egypt through a Middlebury College program are being evacuated today from the country by plane in light of the ongoing violent protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

“All 22 students studying with Middlebury’s program in Alexandria, Egypt, have made it safely to the Alexandria airport, which is

secure and guarded by the army,” wrote Middlebury’s Dean of International Programs Jeff Cason Sunday, in a statement on Middlebury’s website. “We expect that the students will be leaving the Alexandria airport tomorrow, and that their first stop outside Egypt will be Athens, from where students will travel back to the United States.”

The Middlebury program — a Brown-approved alternate studyabroad option — decided to evacuate the students and stop the pro-

At the RISD Museum, you control the show

By EMMA WOHL Senior Staff Writer

A family with three small children enters a room at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. The youngest child, Karis, 3, sees a bright red button on the wall and squeals, “Can I touch it?”

Arts & Culture The children amuse themselves for several minutes running from one wall to another, seeing how they can make the pictures on the walls move faster, grow larger or spin in circles.

In this particular exhibit, Brian Knep’s ’90 GS’92 “Exempla,” such behavior is encouraged. The exhibit is made up of four installations projected onto the walls of the Anne, Michael and Amelia Spalter New Media Gallery. It is interactive — by pressing a button, stepping down on a pedal or

For rent

Bookstore launches lending service CAMPUS NEWS, 4

turning a dial, guests can make the images come to life. The drawings themselves are strikingly simple, childish stick figure cartoons.

Knep’s work “is not like anything else I’ve seen,” said Judith Tannenbaum, Richard Brown Baker curator of contemporary art at the RISD Museum. That may be because Knep’s background is in science and technology, and he was “a science guy” before he ever considered pursuing a career in visual art, she added.

In “Escape,” the most surprising and dynamic of Knep’s installations, two big red buttons activate the drawings within two separate pools of light, causing them to explode out and invade each other’s space. “Escape” packs Knep’s signature egg-shaped stick figures so tightly together that they are hard to identify individually. Rather, they resemble continued on page 7

T o u g h S h ot

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Lindsay Nickel ’13 hits a three over Princeton’s Alex Rodgers. Nickel and the Bears lost twice this weekend.

See full coverage on page 12.

Thin is in

America becomes weightobsessed opinions, 11

weather

Michael Burch, a former assistant wrestling coach, filed a criminal complaint for alleged harassing phone calls Tuesday against the father of the female alum who accused William McCormick of rape in 2006. In connection with the same incident, Burch was denied a civil restraining order against the father, also an alum, in Rhode Island Superior Court on Friday.

The complaint, filed with the Pawtucket Police Department and under investigation by Detective Charles Devine, accuses the father of the female alum of harassing phone calls, a misdemeanor. Although the female alum’s father is named as the suspect, the calls were allegedly made by a private investigator at his behest. Burch — who was appointed an adviser to McCormick by the University after McCormick was accused of rape in 2006 ­— is a witness in McCormick’s suit in federal court against the University and the two alums.

He said he expects the criminal investigation to be transferred to the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office in the next few days.

He complained of “numerous phone calls from blocked phone numbers harassing him about his involvement in the case,” according to the police report. Documents filed in the federal civil suit show one of the numbers belongs to Manhattan-based private investigator Patrick Brosnan, who had been hired by the female alum’s father to investigate Burch.

The calls came after a package was anonymously hand-delivered to the house of Burch’s girlfriend in Cranston, the report states. The package contained flowers and a card inviting him to a free dinner at the Downcity Diner in Providence.

Burch turned over to the Pawtucket Police copies of Brosnan’s notes, which had been subpoenaed by McCormick’s lawyer, Scott Kilpatrick, after Kilpatrick filed a motion for default judgement in McCormick’s suit that cited the alleged witness intimidation. That motion has since been withdrawn.

According to the notes and a deposition taken from Brosnan, the female alum’s father paid sev-

By Jake comer Senior Staff Writer

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McCormick witness alleges intimidation continued from page 1

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The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

eral thousand dollars in 2009 to have Burch followed. In the deposition, Brosnan says the purpose of the surveillance was to ensure that Burch did not interact with the female alum, then a senior.

Anna Cordasco, a friend of the alums’ family authorized to speak on its behalf, said “the family was really concerned about the victim’s safety on campus, and that’s the reason that (Brosnan) was retained.”

Brosnan did not return a request for comment.

The Herald is withholding the names of the female alum and her father because she is the possible victim of a sex crime.

The civil restraining order

Burch said he was advised to file the criminal complaint by Rhode Island Superior Court Associate Justice Sarah Taft-Carter when she granted a temporary restraining order Jan. 19, the week before denying Burch’s request for a permanent restraining order.

Taft-Carter denied Burch the permanent restraining order against the female alum’s father because he has already raised the issue in federal court, where McCormick’s suit is being heard.

Burch told Taft-Carter he would represent himself because he hoped not to incur exorbitant legal fees as a witness in the McCormick case.

He testified that he believed Brosnan made attempts to “threaten and intimidate” him, and that he believed the investigator’s goal was to “impart knowledge” to him that he and his girlfriend were being followed.

He called the investigator’s purported plan of taking a photograph of him “far-fetched” because — according to a deposition taken of Brosnan and obtained by The Herald — no picture was ever taken and because photos of Burch are available online through his past employment at Brown. Brosnan’s notes, which were subpoenaed by Kilpatrick in the federal civil suit,

Daily

the Brown

From court records

The above note was allegedly sent to intimidate former assistant wrestling coach Michael Burch and convey the message that he is being watched.

include a picture of Burch taken from the Internet.

“I don’t object to the clients’ trying to investigate me,” Burch told the judge. “But this was an attempt to intimidate me.”

Burch testified that he has never attempted to speak to the female alum.

Joe Cavanagh, a lawyer for the female alum’s father, called Burch “self-absorbed” and a “self-proclaimed victim” seeking publicity.

“To come over here and get a restraining order from you would fit right into his plan,” Cavanagh told the judge. “The last thing in the world (the investigators) ever wanted was to have Mr. Burch even know they were there.”

Cavanagh noted that Burch had previously raised the issue of intimidation before a federal judge and federal magistrate Dec. 10 and Jan. 7, respectively, arguing Burch has means of protection under law other than a restraining order from the Superior Court.

“This court should just not be involved in this,” he said.

Taft-Carter said she was not aware that Burch had raised the issue in the federal suit when she issued the temporary restraining order, and was “a bit taken aback” that Burch did not reveal it earlier.

Burch maintained that, though he had mentioned his concerns over intimidation to the federal judge and magistrate, he never

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formally petitioned them for a restraining order.

“I’m just seeking to be a witness and feel protected,” Burch told Taft-Carter.

“In a federal court,” the judge responded.

Taft-Carter ruled against Burch’s request for a restraining order because he failed to meet the burden of proof that he had no adequate remedy at law other than the restraining order.

“Because of that, you won’t suffer any harm,” she told Burch. “You have a remedy available to you.”

Burch told The Herald he raised his concerns in federal court “in desperation” during a hearing in which he pleaded for an extension of time to respond to a subpoena issued to him. He said he believed he was out-maneuvered Friday by the alum’s lawyers.

Judge’s recusal explained

Rhode Island District Federal Court Judge William Smith recused himself from William McCormick’s case against the University and two alums earlier this month because his daughter is applying to Brown, according to Joe Cavanagh, a lawyer for the alums named as defendants in the case.

Cavanagh revealed this information during a hearing Friday in Rhode Island Superior Court in which Michael Burch, McCormick’s advisor during the disciplinary hearing and a former wrestling coach, was denied a restraining order against one of the alums named as a defendant.

Smith recused himself Jan. 6 after presiding in the case for more than a year. It is highly unusual for judges to recuse themselves in the middle of ongoing litigation, and Smith provided no explanation with his order of recusal.

— Alex Bell

Campus News 3

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

Apps Students studying in Egypt to leave today from U.K. increase continued from page 1

By Brielle Friedman Staff Writer

Undergraduate applications to Brown from citizens of the United Kingdom have risen nearly 40 percent in the past two years, almost twice the rate of increase in total applications to the University.

This year, Brown received 160 applications from U.K. citizens, 14 more applications than in 2010, and 44 more than in 2009, wrote Panetha Theodosia Nychis Ott, director of international admission, in an e-mail to The Herald.

The total number of undergraduate applications this year came out to about 31,000, as compared to 30,136 the year before, and 25,000 in 2009.

The increase in U.K. applicants may be a result of the University’s increased international presence and international alumni networking, according to Ott. The rising costs of higher education in the U.K. could also have contributed to the increase in applicants, she wrote.

Brown is not the only institution that has experienced an increase in U.K. applicants in the past several years. According to a press release from the Institute of International Education, the United Kingdom was the thirteenth most common place of origin for students studying in the United States in 2010, a 2 percent increase since 2009. The report also stated a 3 percent total increase in the number of international students at colleges and universities in the U.S. during the previous academic year.

Cheno Pinter ’14, a citizen of both the U.S. and the U.K., said she believes the recent increase in tuition has encouraged more U.K. students to consider attending university in the U.S. “Financial aid basically doesn’t exist in England like it does in America, and people are starting to realize that,” Pinter said, adding that students who cannot afford to attend university in the U.K. are often offered financial aid at big American universities.

A decision last month in the British Parliament amid student protests increased the cap on university fees from $4,800 to $14,500 a year. The new fees, especially coupled with the expensive living costs associated with some U.K. cities, have diminished the cost differential between the countries’ university systems, Ott wrote, which could further increase applications in the future.

Rhianna Shaw ’11, another U.K. student, said even though some American universities like Brown do not offer need-blind financial aid to international students, U.K. students may still be able to get more support in the U.S. While it is possible to take out student continued on page 6

and cell phones. Landline usage has been at least partly restored, allowing communication with the United States.

The program has been in contact with parents of the students and in touch with the program in Egypt through limited landline use.

Protests against Mubarak’s 30year rule began last Tuesday, largely spurred on by social networking sites and coverage from Al-Jazeera, an international news station located in the Middle East. The protests escalated Friday in Cairo’s Tahrir Square as civilians continued to retaliate against police forces.

Protests at this level are “virtually nonexistent” in the Middle East due to the enforcement of the police state in the region, said Melani Cammett, director of Brown’s Middle East studies program and associate professor of political science. “The military is the backbone of the state,” she added.

The protests are grounded in frustration over the economic conditions in Egypt, where about 50 percent of people live on less than $2 a day under a corrupt government system, Cammett said. But the current economic conditions alone did not cause the eruption of protests 30 years after Mubarak took office, she added. A combination of factors — including the recent overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and the influence of social media and Al-Jazeera — all fueled the intensity of the protests.

The overthrow of the government in Tunisia was “utterly shocking,” Cammett said, since Tunisia is an even stronger police state than Egypt. Cammett, who has spent years living in countries throughout the Middle East, said she was less surprised when the protests broke out in Egypt due to the success in Tunisia and the response of the police who eventually backed down, rather than stomping out resistance. While there were localized protests in Tunisia covered by the Human Rights Watch in 2008, protests “on a national scale with this much energy and violence” are largely unprecedented, she added.

Social networking energized protesters until the government shutdown of the internet. Sydney Silverstein ’12, who studied at the American University in Cairo last semester, said she started to see hints that something might happen through her Egyptian Facebook friends about a week ago.

“There was a lot of activity from people I still know in Egypt,” Silverstein said, including initial postings about the protests.

Silverstein lived only 10 minutes away from Tahrir Square by car last year, taking the 6th of October Bridge — one of the epicenters of this week’s turmoil — to get to classes in the city.

“We literally were just there,” Silverstein said, adding that it is shocking to “see the bridges we crossed, the buildings we were in.” She said she witnessed resentment against the government, particularly after parliamentary elections appeared rigged against the opposition party,

Courtesy of Sydney Silverstein

Brown students studying in Alexandria, Egypt are being evacuated as Egyptian President Hosnia Mubarak’s authoritarian regime teeters on the bring of collapse.

but she did not expect the protests to happen.

Andrew Leber ’12, who studied in Alexandria through the same program as the two Brown students currently there, said “people thought things would change someday, but no one knew how.”

But last week, he said Facebook friends began writing about “some type of revolution.” He added that this all occurred before “everyone cut out on Facebook” due to government blackout of social networking sites.

On Sunday, the Al-Jazeera office in Cairo was also shut down by the government, although Al-Jazeera correspondent Dan Nolan tweeted that they would continue to find ways to give updates, according to the Huffington Post.

Leber has been coordinating with students involved in the program last semester to send e-mails

with their thoughts and prayers to the students currently in Alexandria.

Middlebury did not immediately decide to evacuate the students.

On Friday, Middlebury released a statement saying Saturday’s classes were cancelled with the potential to resume the following week. But when Saturday came, Middlebury announced the evacuation. The safety protocol is carried out by the school sponsoring the program, wrote Kendall Brostuen, director of international programs at Brown and associate dean of the College, in an e-mail to The Herald. He added that Brown has been in close contact with both Middlebury and the families of the students in Egypt.

The U.S. Embassy recently released an advisory recommending Americans leave Egypt, according to the Associated Press.

Mubarak still holds power in

Egypt, though he has fired other government officials and replaced them with new leadership. Cammett said this is a “standard” move by the government, meant as an attempt to “pick a scapegoat and continue with business as usual.” But she said it appears that the Egyptian people are not buying it this time.

The protest does not appear to have been started by the opposition parties in Egypt, though notable resistance leaders, such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, have expressed their support.

“This is clearly a youth protest,” she said, noting that “at a certain point you have nothing left to lose” as many Egyptians cannot even afford to get married.

Cammett said she could not predict the outcome, but added, “Each moment that it continues and each confrontation is another step in what seems like a tipping point.”

4 Campus News

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

Bookstore debuts rental service Research team draws ‘portrait’ of America

By Caitlin Trujillo Senior Staff Writer

Following the lead of other universities — and responding to frequent requests from students — the Brown Bookstore has implemented a new textbook rental service this semester.

Select new textbooks are available to rent at prices marked down from their posted sale prices in the store, Steven Souza, director of bookstore administration, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. He explained that under the new system, students renting textbooks pay the rental price in full upon checkout and must return any rented books to the store by the last day of finals at the end of the semester.

All of the textbooks available for rental are new books, though their rental prices are marked below both new and used prices. Bookstore administrators decided which books would be rentable based on markdown possibility, edition and “the likelihood that a student would not retain the book” at semester’s end, Souza wrote. The popularity of textbook rentals at other institutions and businesses helped spur the program’s birth, he added.

Students who wish to rent textbooks must sign a rental agreement that stipulates the service’s rules. The book must be returned in its original or saleable condition, though a limited amount of highlighting and notes are allowed, according to the agreement’s provisions. The store has “been advising students to please return the book in a condition that they would buy it in,” Souza wrote.

Students will incur a late charge of $5 per day if a textbook is not returned to the store by the time it closes on the last day of finals, with a maximum charge of $25.

If the book is not returned within five days of the last day of finals, the bookstore will charge the student’s

By Margaret Yi Staff Writer

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

For the first time, students can rent, rather than buy, from the bookstore.

account the difference between the rental price and the sale price of a new copy, plus an additional 10 percent handling fee.

So far, the service is proving more popular than the bookstore had anticipated, Souza wrote.

Rentable textbooks are leaving the shelves quickly, and students have asked about expanding the list of rentable texts, Souza added.

In the past, students have used the library as a temporary but free source of course materials. Jose Rodriguez ’12 said instead of renting textbooks, he has checked them out at the library or bought them from students who have already taken the course.

“We have a borrow system internal to our friends,” he said.

Melissa Bowe ’11 has also bought books from friends for a

lower price and borrowed from the library. She said the rental service will be useful.

Another rental service on campus, Sheep Textbooks, is working to capitalize on steep book prices. Jaap Ruoff ’13, who started the business venture three semesters ago, said the high cost of books surprised him when he first came to Brown.

Ruoff said he wanted to make textbook renting more popular on campus if it would save students money.

Because Ruoff ’s stock is limited in part to what he can buy from students, the stocks of the two rental services do not overlap much at the present time. But that could change if both ventures expand in the future, Ruoff said. He added that he tries to go below the bookstore’s prices when overlap between rentable books does occur.

Though the bookstore’s new service might take transactions away from Sheep Textbooks, which rented around 50 books last semester, Ruoff said he was pleased to see that students now have more options for obtaining cheaper textbooks.

“We’re only happy that the Brown Bookstore is responding to that,” he said.

Professor of Sociology John Logan and the Russell Sage Foundation have teamed up to create the US2010 project, a research initiative that aims to study demographic changes in the United States in the past decade using information from the 2010 census and the American Community Survey.

Logan’s part of the US2010 project, titled “Separate and Unequal,” studies trends in segregation. Logan said his study — one of 14 under the US2010 project — has found that desegregation of blacks and whites has come to a standstill. In the case of Asians and whites, segregation has substantially increased since 2000.

Segregation between Hispanics and whites has also increased, though not as significantly. “Segregation is not fixing itself,” Logan said.

Logan is using data at the neighborhood level, which will show where different groups of people are living, he said. His work also focuses on inequalities among racial groups, immigration and the advantages and disadvantages of where people choose to live.

The US2010 project was partly inspired by Logan’s research on the 2000 Census. Three years ago, he said he had the idea to expand on that project for the 2010 Census. His goals for the 2010 project were to analyze information and be able to provide data as quickly as possible to the public, thereby “shaping the public discussion of the issues,” Logan said.

Logan approached his former student from the University of Albany, Brian Stults, now an assistant professor at Florida State University, with the idea of organizing a project that would paint a portrait of the United States in 2010, Logan said. They obtained a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation, which has a history of supporting social science research.

With new information being released regularly, the research

team — which began its research last January after an advisory committee was set up to oversee the project’s organization — is working quickly to analyze the data and make its findings available online, Logan said. Every month, researchers will release “census briefs” — short, early reports from each project. Logan said he hopes that by 2013, the researchers will be able to publish a final set of reports detailing all their data, findings and analysis.

Because the findings of US2010 will be available to the public, each project will have different impacts on many areas of public policy and individual interests, Logan said. Certain projects, such as one that studies the effects of the recession on joblessness, will have significant effects on federal and state policies, he said. Other projects, such as Logan’s own on racial segregation, may influence advocacy groups focusing on specific community issues and “help guide them in understanding what the important issues are,” Stults said.

A number of characteristics set this project apart from others, Logan said.

The project — which emphasizes “getting results out fairly quickly and in the public eye,” he said — involves collaboration among many researchers, a characteristic that has created a slight challenge for the organizers because many of the researchers are used to working independently, Stults said.

This semester, Logan is bringing the project to undergraduates through a sociology course called SOC 0871V: “Update on American Society: Social Trends in the Last Decade,” which will draw heavily upon materials and research from the US2010 project.

Students will deal with one topic from the project each week, Logan said. Logan also said he plans to have the students create their own projects that will track specific trends in national statistics.

“It’s a whole lot of fun to actually find something yourself — that’s what sociology really is,” Logan said.

Campus News 5

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

Jobzle looks to expand beyond Rhode Island bounds

By Morgan Johnson Contributing Writer

Nick Sinnott-Armstrong / Herald

Kevin Durfee ’11 and Walker Williams ’11 plan to expand their job search site.

The founders of Jobzle, a job search website designed to help Rhode Island students find jobs while still in college, said they plan to expand the website’s reach to other New England locations this summer.

Kevin Durfee ’11 and Walker Williams ’11 founded Jobzle in 2009 to serve as “the butler of job services” by connecting local employers and students looking for jobs, Williams said.

Though Jobzle’s growth was initially slow, it surged in popularity last September, Williams said. They said their goal is now to reach 25,000 users by the end of 2011, as they expand the website to other locations. After graduating in the spring, they plan to move Jobzle’s headquarters to Boston and bring Jobzle’s services to the rest of New England.

In addition to overhauling the

website last September, Durfee and Williams — along with three other head staffers — have worked to expand the site’s popularity through social networking and innovative features. Jobzle uses Facebook and Twitter to help promote its services.

Social networking “is probably our most useful tool in acquiring college students,” Durfee said.

Jobzle — which provides a simple yet comprehensive way to link students to jobs — acts somewhat like an online adviser for students with specific job interests. For example, the site has a recommendation feature that accounts for a student’s interests and then suggests jobs that might appeal to that student.

Students can opt to receive periodic e-mails from Jobzle with new job listings, Durfee said.

Jobzle also allows employers a personalized experience by offering “gold accounts,” a premium service which allows companies faster com-

munication and access to statistics about students who viewed their pages. These features allow employers to find the most qualified students more easily, Durfee and Williams said.

In addition to helping top finance and consulting firms, Jobzle also makes it affordable for start-up companies to post internship jobs, and even allows families looking to hire a babysitter the ability to create a listing.

To attract employers, Jobzle maintains partnerships with the Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and the Rhode Island Tech Collective. Durfee and Williams said they also plan to introduce a campus representative program to promote Jobzle, along with small viral marketing events.

Andrew Simmons, director of the Career Development Center, said he is familiar with Jobzle and believes it is a useful tool for students, especially those searching for jobs in the Rhode Island area.

Katz ’14 tells family tale in anthology By elizabeth carr Contributing Writer

Many students aspire to be published in the future, but after only one semester at Brown, Jaclyn Katz ’14 already has her story in a book. Or at least she will when Andrea Buchanan’s anthology “Live and Let Love” — which includes Katz’s short story about her family tragedy — is released Feb. 1.

“My chapter of the book, entitled ‘Fragmented Pieces,’ is an autobiographical essay that centers on the loss of most of my immediate family and my journey to finding peace and stability in the aftermath with a new family,” Katz wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “The story is really about how I learned that families are not bound by blood, but by love.”

Originally, it was a story no one else was supposed to read.

“I’m a little apprehensive about people around me reading the story,” Katz said. “I don’t want people to treat me with pity.”

The story happened when Katz was eight years old, and Buchan-

an said it is the most intense story published in the book.

“At first, I wrote down my story as a way to express my emotions and sort of let things that were stirring inside me come out in a healthy way, as opposed to acting out or rebelling,” Katz said. “It was a good outlet for my emotions.”

This was when Katz was 15.

Then Buchanan began working on “Live and Let Love,” and a friend said she knew a young girl with an amazing family story.

“At first, it didn’t seem like what I had could fit the book,” Katz said. But she spent the summer of 2010 working with Buchanan and her editors to make it fit.

“I had to part with some paragraphs that I think should be in the story. But I know this is not my book, this is an anthology, so I had to be cooperative. And I was, I think,” Katz said. “It was hard for me to see all of the red on my papers, but I know that this is what happens in the publishing industry, so I tried to just go with it and take their suggestions but keep things in that they cut

because I knew they were vital.”

Now the story has a completely different structure. “I actually wrote this when I was 15, and because I had to go through an extensive editing process, the story is completely different,” Katz said. “I think my writing skills have improved since my sophomore year of high school.”

Katz was “incredibly professional and very quick,” Buchanan said. “She was the fastest writer I’ve ever worked with.”

And Buchanan thinks the story remains close to Katz’s original intentions.

When first approaching “Live and Let Love,” “my vision was that it was going to be love stories,” Buchanan said. “But it turns out that love comes in all shapes and sizes and forms.”

“The love story for her is recreating a family from a tragic loss,” Buchanan said.

“My family’s really supportive, and everyone’s really excited about the book,” Katz said. “It’s 10 years since the tragedy, so it’s sort of a milestone in a sense. The book is a good way to put what happened behind us.”

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6 Campus News

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

No DPS intervention in Academic freedom a plus for Brits December donut runs continued from page 3

continued from page 1 gal action has been taken against any of the runners or the group as a whole, Dylan ’13, a participant in the run, told The Herald.

Dylan requested that The Herald refrain from printing his last name because the Naked Donut Run involves public nudity and because he feels the anonymity of the runners adds to the “magic” of the run.

Although several runners reported interference from the SciLi guards, the Department of Public Safety did not participate in that interference.

“Brown police were not involved with any efforts to inhibit this activity,” wrote Marisa Quinn, vice president of public affairs and University relations, in an e-mail to The Herald.

According to Dylan, the runners completed their circuits around the Rock and the CIT building before proceeding to the SciLi. The runners were in the process of removing their clothes in one of the rooms when SciLi security guards arrived and demanded the runners’ personal information, he said.

The guards informed the runners that, with this information,

they would be able to identify the students by monitoring the closedcircuit video system in the SciLi, Dylan said. But, he said, “They didn’t stop us from doing it.”

Dylan added that the officers did threaten to inform the police, but, “that was more a response to people being smart-asses.”

Mark Porter, chief of public safety, said DPS did respond to a call from the SciLi about the run but found nothing to report by the time officers arrived.

“We’re not looking to stop the tradition,” Porter said, adding that DPS did not have a report on the incident.

Dylan expressed concern over what the incident in December might mean for the run and how people perceive the tradition.“If there are people really complaining, that’s something to take into account,” he said. But, he said, “We’re not handing out drugs — we’re handing out donuts.”

Scout Willis ’13, who participated in last spring’s Naked Donut Run, called it “a long-standing Brown tradition.” Because the run takes place in private University buildings, she said she felt it was “for the Brown authorities to decide what’s appropriate regarding nudity.”

loans or receive special academic grants, she said the idea of direct financial assistance does not exist in the same way.

Pinter said another consideration for U.K. students is what type of college experience they want to have.

“My friends that are in school in the States are much happier than my friends who are in school in England,” Pinter said, adding that U.K. colleges have fewer hours of

class, and the first year is taken completely pass/fail. “It’s just so much more of any experience,” she said.

Pinter also said university students in the U.K. have to choose their field of study in the middle of their senior year of high school.

“I wasn’t ready to do that,” she said.

Shaw said her decision to apply to Brown was based on the open curriculum and the appeal of a liberal arts education.

“I just loved the fact that I could

take all these different classes,” she said. “I’ve done theater to history to environmental science, economics, dance, photography.”

She said she thinks U.K. applications will continue to increase.

“Comparatively, American university isn’t that much more expensive,” she said, adding that though Oxford is “really the creme de la creme of the U.K.,” the reputation of many American universities probably has had just as much of an effect on the increase in applications.

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Arts & Culture 7

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

a&C in brief This Friday: Hinder at Lupo’s This Friday, the ’80s metal flashback group Hinder will throw “a big old party” at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, said Mark King, the group’s guitarist.

“We try to give it our all. We try to make every song sound like the album recording,” King said.

With a lineup that features a mix of songs from all of its albums, Hinder plans to rock its first concert in Rhode Island.

The group will play its most notable hits, “Get Stoned” and “Lips of an Angel,” the second of which reached the number one spot in New Zealand and number three in the United States in 2005.

Critics have described Hinder as “dude rock” reminiscent of Guns N’ Roses and Motley Crue. King said the group’s biggest influences include these bands as well as Aerosmith.

“We love rock and roll,” King said. Hinder aims to be like bands “from the ’80s when rock and roll was at the top of the world,” he added.

Strong, raspy male vocals and heavy guitar riffs dominate most of Hinder’s songs, with the exception of the occasional light rock love song.

Booze, tattoos and highenergy rock are featured in “Up All Night,” a music video, which the band members filmed.

King said college students are Hinder’s largest target audience, but he has seen people from all across the age spectrum at the group’s concerts.

“We’ve seen a 45-year-old mother bring her 15-year-old daughter,” King said. “We like to have a good time — it’s basically like one big party.”

The show, which starts at 8:30 p.m., will include special guests Saving Abel, My Darkest Days and Kopek. Tickets cost $25 in advance and $30 on the day of the concert.

— Katherine Thornton

‘Gerrymandering’ film premieres at Cable Car

By AMY CHEN Staff Writer

Jeff Reichert’s ’00 film “Gerrymandering,” which explores what he considers a significant flaw of the American democratic system, will be screened at the Cable Car Cinema Feb. 2. Inspired by a 2003 electoral debacle in Texas, Reichert decided to create a documentary to make his audience wonder “why Washington doesn’t work as well as it should,” he said.

The film explores the history — and many dimensions — of ethical, moral and racial problems raised by redistricting. It draws on perspectives from different individuals, reporters and distinguished politicians including

Howard Dean and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It analyzes redistricting problems including the 2003 elections in Texas and the passing of Proposition 11 in California in 2008, which dealt with the state’s electoral boundaries.

Matthew Sawh ’08 assisted in the making of “Gerrymandering” and researched the topics relevant to the film.

“A lot of it was finding the right visuals,” he said.

To do so, he searched materials in library archives and reached out to politicians. Like Reichert, Sawh believes that there was “a lot at stake” in the 2003 elections in Texas.

“If people knew what was go-

ing on, they could do something to change it,” Sawh said.

But creating a political documentary is not without its challenges. In the process, Reichert learned different strategies in showing how redistricting works, such as using maps to clearly portray the shift of boundaries during political battles. He also said he learned to find just the right kind of stories to bring home the issue of redistricting to the audience.

“As a filmmaker, the best thing you can do is to create a real political change,” Reichert said. “It’s a good example of how people — regular people — can end up taking actions in a way that has an impact.”

According to Daniel Kamil,

owner of the Cable Car Cinema, this film will bring “a better understanding of how politicians from both parties manipulate census data to retain power.” With the support of Common Cause, an organization that lobbies for congressional reforms, Kamil was able to invite Reichert to the screening.

“I think (the film) gives a wellbalanced, nuanced view of a very complicated subject that people might not necessarily understand but affects our democracy in a fundamental way,” Kamil wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. “It is an important film to see to better understand how our political system works, and the fact that Jeff will be here to answer questions will make it a very special event.”

Museumgoers control stick figures at RISD continued from page 1 the contents of a giant Petri dish.

In “Embark,” composed of two cylinders of light filled with figures, the movement of the drawings is more leisurely and depends on the length of time the viewer presses the button. Every viewer’s experience is unique.

“Excel” speeds up gradually when guests step on a pedal embedded in the floor. The images simply spin faster within a circle of light, constantly drawn towards the center of a vortex.

“Expand” may not look like much when left to its own devices, but when the viewers turn the dial below the installation, the stick figures swarm and scatter as excitedly as the rest.

But the dial looks more like a device to control the room’s temperature than a part of the piece — the only technical difficulty with this work. Guests can be forgiven for leaving the piece alone, or staring in confusion while wondering what their role should be.

While influenced by Knep’s scientific background and including digital technology in its execution, “Exempla” is by no means inaccessible to the casual viewer. “The great thing about this exhibition

is that it can appeal to an adult or a child,” Donna Desrochers, the museum’s director of marketing, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

“We didn’t market it that way, it’s the nature of the artist’s work.

You can look at it, ponder it, interact with it,” she added.

“We can tell when children are down here. Even from upstairs, we can hear them squealing,” said Francine Ferrante, assistant

supervisor in security for the museum.

Knep’s pieces are thoughtprovoking, but they also have a sense of whimsy. “Identifying with and laughing at the creatures’ behaviors allows me to accept and laugh at my own, similar, behaviors, which can lead to change and a more mindful experience of life,” Knep said in the museum’s press release.

The pieces are simple, joyful fun for children or the older viewer’s inner child.

This exhibit is definitely worth checking out if you are already at the museum, but it’s too small to make the trek for just one room.

“Exempla” will be at the RISD Museum through March 6.

8 World & Nation

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

U.S. hardens position on Egyptian ‘transition’ Freshmen

By Erika Bolstad, Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday called for a “peaceful, orderly transition to greater democracy” in Egypt that includes the military, the ruling party and the Egyptians who have taken to the streets to call for an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s leadership.

Yet even as she was careful to say the U.S. was not advocating any specific outcome, Clinton and the White House made it clear that support is dwindling for Mubarak’s authoritarian regime.

Their use of the word “transition” appeared to signal a hardening of U.S. policy toward Mubarak in the course of just 48 hours. On Friday, neither Clinton nor President Barack Obama used the word when they publicly called on the Egyptian leader to initiate “concrete steps that advance political reforms.”

That changed over the weekend, as protests continued across Egypt, and as those demonstrating as well as opposition leaders called on the U.S. to drop its support for the 82-year-old president who shut down Internet access and limited cell-phone service for the country of more than 80 million.

In conversations over the weekend with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the prime ministers of Turkey, Israel and Britain, the White House said the president called for “supporting an orderly transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people.”

“I want the Egyptian people to have the chance to chart a new future. It needs to be an orderly,

peaceful transition to real democracy,” Clinton said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Not faux democracy, like the elections we saw in Iran two years ago, where you have one election 30 years ago and then the people just keep staying in power and become less and less responsive to their people.”

Clinton emphasized during several appearances on Sunday morning talk shows that Egyptians have a timetable in place for reform, with elections scheduled for September. At one point, she suggested the orderly transition should include Mubarak, who dismissed his cabinet and this weekend appointed a vice president for the first time in his 30-year term.

“We want to see a real democracy that reflects the vibrancy of Egyptian society,” Clinton said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And we believe that President Mubarak, his government, civil society, political activists need to be part of a national dialogue to bring that about.”

She also acknowledged that the White House walks a fine line with Mubarak, who has supported U.S.-led efforts to make Middle East peace, fight Islamic radicals and contain Iran. They are also concerned about the ideology of future regimes.

“We do not want to see a change toward a regime that would actually continue to foment violence or chaos, either because it didn’t exist or because it had a different view that it wished to impose on the Egyptian people,” Clinton said Sunday afternoon in Haiti. “This is a very complex situation, and we want to be clear about what we expect. And I think that both President Obama and I have done so numerous times”.

Although successive U.S.

administrations have pressed Mubarak to adopt reforms, that pressure has mostly been rhetorical and has wavered over time.

Mubarak’s government is scheduled to receive about $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid and more than $200 million in economic assistance in the current fiscal year. It was not until the tenure of President George W. Bush that the United States publicly upbraided Egypt over its lack of political and personal freedoms.

That “name and shame” approach largely backfired, causing Mubarak and his associates to dig in their heels. The U.S. did little but complained when the regime imprisoned opposition politician Ayman Nour in 2005 after a disputed presidential election. Nour was released in 2009.

The administration’s tougher language came as a leading opposition figure, Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, said on U.S. television programs that Mubarak “absolutely has to leave,” and called on the U.S. to “side with the people,” not a dictator, as Egypt enters a new era.

ElBaradei left house arrest to speak at a demonstration at Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where protesters held signs in English, aimed at American eyes. They included “America: Support the people, not the tyrant” and “Mubarak: You go away, I go home. The End.” The language about a peaceful transition toward new elections shows the Obama administration understands that Mubarak’s days are numbered and the decision on a successor government lies with the Egyptian people, said Nader Hashemi of the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

“There seems to be a shift in

U.S. policy where the Egyptian people are given respect and their right to determine their future is finally being acknowledged by the American government,” he said “There is going to be a period of contestation and internal debate.

But that is what Egyptians are legitimately entitled to.”

Mubarak’s political future is up to the Egyptian people, Clinton said, but she also acknowledged on Fox News that the U.S. is concerned that any transition be orderly to avoid a fear of some in Washington, particularly on the right: a takeover by Muslim radicals.

The administration, Hashemi said, must be prepared to accept the inclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organized opposition party, in any new government, and resist any efforts

by Israel and its U.S. supporters to cast it as a radical Islamic movement.

The brotherhood is banned in Egypt and its leaders have been targeted by frequent crackdowns, but members have been elected to the country’s parliament as independents.

Hashemi said there’s significant popular support in Egypt for the brotherhood, which espouses democracy based on a moderate interpretation of Islamic law — including women’s right to work and hold elective offices except the presidency — runs social service networks and denounces al Qaida and violent Islamic extremism.

Any U.S. approach that doesn’t include the Muslim Brotherhood would be a misreading of the fundamental reality of the situation in Egypt, Hashemi said, pointing out that the U.S. is working closely with an Iraqi government comprising Islamic religious parties.

under pressure

By Larry Gordon Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — This year’s college freshmen report feeling higher levels of emotional and financial stress than their predecessors did, according to a national survey conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The annual “American Freshman” report, released Thursday, showed that only about half of current first-year students, 51.9 percent, rated their emotional health above average or higher, down from 55.3 percent last year and the lowest since the question was first asked 25 years ago. Just 45.9 percent of women in the class described themselves as emotionally strong, compared with 59.1 percent of the men.

In addition, nearly two-thirds of this year’s freshmen, 62.1 percent, said the recession had affected their choice of college, and 73.4 percent, up from 70 percent last year, are depending on grants and scholarships to help them through.

The young people, interviewed just before they started classes in the fall, also reported relatively high rates of parental unemployment.

“What it means is that going into college, students are already feeling more stress and feeling more overwhelmed and have lower emotional reserves to deal with that stress,” said John H. Pryor, lead author of the report and managing director of UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, which continued on page 9

World & Nation 9

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

Popular anger sweeps north of Sudan

By Alan Boswell McClatchy Newspapers

JUBA, Sudan — Sudan will split into two countries later this year, officials announced Sunday, marking the climax of a decade-long peace process meant to end 50 years of conflict in Africa’s largest country. But political protests raised questions about the north’s stability.

Southerners celebrated their upcoming independence with dancing, but anti-government protesters in the north clashed with police, reflecting a wave of popular anger that has swept across the Arab world in recent weeks.

Student-led demonstrations against Omar al Bashir’s regime in Sudan’s northern capital, Khartoum, are the latest protests against authoritarian governments that began with Tunisia and has since spread to Egypt and Yemen.

Southern Sudan voted 99.57 percent for separation in the Jan. 9-15 referendum on independence, poll officials announced on Sunday in Juba, the southern capital. Added to a smaller pool of Southern Sudanese voters living in the northern region and across the globe, the final tally for separation is 98.83 percent, according to the referendum commission’s website.

“These results lead to a change of situation, that’s the emergence of two states instead of one state,” Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil, the head of the Southern Sudan Referendum

Commission, announced in Juba.

Upon hearing the final results, the Southern Sudanese attendees jumped up from their chairs, cheering and waving their arms into the air, until a moderator urged them over the microphone to let the proceedings continue.

“People have been struggling for so long. Everything was death,” said Reec Agok, a 27-year old businessman. “Now I’m so happy, the words won’t even come out.”

The referendum was the core provision of a U.S.-brokered 2005 peace deal that ended the second of two long civil wars fought between Sudan’s mostly Muslim Arab-ruled north, and its non-Muslim and ethnic African south. More than 2 million people died in the wars, mostly southerners, and more than twice that number were displaced.

With the referendum nearing, tension had remained high between Sudan’s northern government under Bashir and the former rebels in the south. World leaders feared that the vote could bring the country back to civil war.

These concerns have subsided as Bashir, under heavy international pressure, promised to recognize the result and the referendum began on time with few incidents.

“What is left (is) just formalities,” said Salva Kiir, leader of southern Sudan, speaking after the announcement of the results in Juba, congratulating his people for choosing independence. “You have already

said it and done it.”

Northern rule had treated southerners as “subhumans,” Kiir said.

According to the 2005 deal, the formal division of Sudan will take effect on July 9. Kiir urged southerners to stay patient and refrain from over-celebrations until the date of full independence.

“We are still moving forward,” he said. “The struggle continues.”

Meanwhile, as southerners celebrated, northern Sudanese police beat back student-led protests against rising food prices and Bashir’s regime, which some blame for the country’s partition and economic difficulties. The youthful crowds, which gathered in pockets of hundreds in several locations in Khartoum and in other university towns outside the capital, aimed to replicate the ongoing popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

A website created for the demonstrations mapped the site of the protests and published on-site reports of police actions.

The crowds in Khartoum eventually dispersed Sunday after police fired tear gas into crowds and surrounded a number of universities to prevent further unrest.

Entering students feel stress to excel continued from page 8 operates the survey.

First given in 1966, the annual survey is considered the nation’s most comprehensive assessment of college students’ attitudes. This year’s report was based on the responses of more than 201,000 incoming freshmen at 279 four-year colleges and universities around the United States.

Pryor said he was struck this year by the gap between young men and young women in discussing whether they frequently felt overwhelmed by all they had to do at school, home and jobs as high school seniors. Nearly 39 percent of women said they were often overwhelmed, more than twice the share of the men. Overall, more than 29 percent said they had felt such stress, up two percentage points from the year before.

The gender gap, Pryor speculated, may be attributed to what young people do at home. “The guys are spending more time in

stress-relieving activities, like watching TV and playing video games. The girls are more likely to be helping out with chores at home,” he said, citing responses to other questions in the survey.

But on the positive side, recordhigh proportions of the freshmen said they expected to participate in clubs and community service in college and to receive good grades.

A strong majority, 57.6 percent, said there was a “very good chance” they would be satisfied with their college experience, the highest share since 1982.

The report also looks at political attitudes of students, finding that 46.4 percent describe themselves as middle-of-the-road, 30.2 percent liberal or far left and 23.5 percent conservative or far right. Researchers say that shows a modest shift from the liberal and left side of the spectrum to the middle, and may indicate a slight waning of the enthusiastic youth activism surrounding President Barack Obama’s election in 2008.

comics BB & Z | Cole Pruitt, Andrew Seiden, Valerie Hsiung and Dan Ricker

Bat & Gaz | Sofia Ortiz

Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

10 Editorial & Letter Editorial

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

Editorial comic

by julia streuli

Does college actually teach us anything?

Last week, sociology professors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa made national news with a provocative op-ed in the Chronicle of Higher Education, entitled “Are Undergraduates Actually Learning Anything?”

The article previewed their book documenting some unsettling studies on undergraduate education. In the book, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” Arum and Roksa claim that colleges might not be the havens for academic development and civic engagement that they seem.

Arum and Roksa surveyed over 2,000 students at 24 four-year colleges of considerable geographic and academic diversity. The authors examined results from the College Learning Assessment, a standardized essay examination that tests writing and reading proficiency. An alarming 36 percent of survey respondents showed no improvement in their performance on the assessment between their freshmen and senior years.

That said, we have significant reservations about this study’s applicability to Brown students. First, we are skeptical of the yardstick. While standardized tests are useful in creating a somewhat even metric, they should certainly not be taken as gospel. Arum and Roksa’s dependence on just one standardized test is troublesome, and overlooks all university-wide assessments that would invariably test their conclusion. Some students do not test well, some essay examinations are subjective regardless of grading format and some days are just better than others for different students. Given this, producing conclusive findings based on a few hours of student testing is reckless and misleading.

Further, Arum and Roksa report a dearth of undergraduate readingand-writing-intensive courses, both of which have a positive correlation with the assessment’s results. But Brown has taken drastic measures to explicitly offer writing-intensive courses and create online writing portfolios that can be shared with advisers, among other developments that we applauded last Spring. Further, Arum and Roksa’s definition of “reading-intensive” courses is at least 40 pages a week, an amount that the average Brown class almost certainly requires.

One overlooked aspect of the study is Arum and Roksa’s dismal statistic on civic engagement on college campuses. Thirty percent of recent graduates polled reported reading a newspaper “monthly or never.” Though, in this information age, young people in particular get their news fix from various other sources, this statistic is distressing.

Colleges and universities have an obligation to teach students that being educated citizens is crucial to becoming responsible members of society.

Given this statistic, we would like to emphasize again the importance of continuing to offer the Providence Journal and the New York Times in the Ratty, even in this period of fiscal belt-tightening. As Arum asked in an interview with the Chronicle, “How do you sustain a democratic society when large numbers of the most educationally elite sector of your population are not seeing it as a normal part of their everyday experience to keep up with the world around them?”

Given the less-than-conclusive and limited findings of the study, we would encourage the Chronicle of Higher Education to perhaps be a bit more tactful. The headline that made it to the New York Times — “Are Undergraduates Really Learning Anything?” — is both hyperbolic and irresponsible. We are certain that Brown students will continue to prove that undergraduates — at least on College Hill — are engaged and learning quite a lot.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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Column overstates privileges of the academic elite To the Editor: Herald opinion writers tend to broadcast sharp criticisms of Brown, and while these are valuable, it’s also nice to see the occasional upbeat perspective. It was with pleasure, then, that I read the recent column

by Oliver Doren ’14 (“The myth of Brunonian progressivism,” Jan. 27). To Doren, not only do we attend an

institution whose “iconoclastic roots … predate the nation itself,” but one whose students will go on to “serve as the leaders of our generation.” Well! Here I was thinking that it would be tough to get a job in this economy, but it’ll be awfully nice to have the “control” of “modern industrial society” to fall back on.

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Opinions 11

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

A weighty issue

By Lorraine Nicholson Opinions Columnist I went to Disneyland this winter break and was shocked by what I saw. Sure, there were plenty of obese children, deep-fried dough and Mickeys made in China. But of course that was to be expected. The real shocker of the evening: an organic food stand. Pineapple skewers at the happiest place on earth? Certainly a sign of an impending apocalypse. Sure, there was only one healthy stand to every 50 selling churros. But even on my onehour drive home, I counted more than 10 “get thin fast” billboards. Is the selfproclaimed “fast food nation” changing its ways?

What gives, America? Am I the only one who watched the Golden Globes and couldn’t help but question stick-thin Megan Fox’s status as a “sex symbol” of our time? Just this morning, I read a very clever article on NYMag.com calling out the alien population in blockbusters for its ever-shrinking waistlines. The Ivy Room sells health food and there is a farmers’ market on Wriston Quadrangle.

The once-spiritual practice of yoga has become an exercise regime for hot moms, and Glenn Beck is on a diet. It’s official: America has become weight-obsessed.

All this comes within a week of Walmart’s announcement last Thursday of its commitment to “provide its customers with healthier and more affordable food choices.” By reducing the cost of fresh food and packaged healthy

for taking a step in the right direction.

Walmart’s promotion of healthy lifestyles indicates one thing for sure: Thin is in.

It’s been roughly five years since “Super Size Me” and Us Weekly’s obsession with Nicole Richie’s waistline. It’s been almost twenty years since Kate Moss modeled for Calvin Klein, thirty since Jane Fonda’s exercise tape made it big, forty since the late, great Jack LaLanne invent-

The once spiritual practice of yoga has become an exercise regime for hot moms, and Glenn Beck is on a diet. It’s official: America has become weight-obsessed.

snacks, the corporation hopes to inspire other multinational companies to follow its lead. Of course, Walmart’s pledge to promote healthy eating has been met with mixed reviews. Many question its effectiveness and subsequent consequences for farmers. Some, on the other hand, including First Lady Michelle Obama, commend the much-vilified corporation

ed his Power Juicer and more than a halfcentury since Lord Northbourne first applied the word “organic” to food. All this time has passed, and only today has corporate America begun to respond. What was once considered a niche market has become the status quo. Americans have spoken, and they want healthier options.

Since the financial crisis, these big

businesses have been vilified for being opportunistic. Today, however, corporations are becoming increasingly healthconscious. Coca-Cola has announced a plan to begin selling “healthy soda.” Even McDonald’s has begun selling apples and oatmeal.

Nevertheless, one cannot help but question the authenticity of the corporate trend towards promoting healthy lifestyles. Sure, it’s only timely that these large companies begin to do their part, but perhaps there is more to the story. Perhaps the movement has gotten big enough for corporations to take notice. Perhaps the health craze has gained enough critical mass that these large companies can’t afford not to tweak their products. Perhaps these humanityfriendly initiatives are just another market angle to get us to buy the same products over again, but with a twist. Perhaps organic food, green products and the like are just another way to get people to consume at the same levels as before and not feel guilty about it… Or perhaps not.

Lorraine Nicholson ’12.5 is a literary arts concentrator from Los Angeles, Calif. She can be contacted at lorraine_nicholson@brown.edu.

The ROTC answer

By Heath Mayo Opinions Columnist This past December, as the “lame duck” session of Congress rolled back the Clintonera “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding the service of gays and lesbians in the military, elite universities were encouraged to rethink campus bans on Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs that resulted from reaction to the Vietnam War. Leading the pack, Harvard’s President Drew Faust declared her support for “Harvard’s full and formal recognition of ROTC.” While Harvard and many other schools have seized the moment to correct a problematic and insensible political statement to affirm their support for our armed forces, Brown has failed to follow suit. The delay to recognize ROTC on our campus suggests to the rest of the nation that Brown continues to place its impractical standard of political correctness above patriotic support for our military.

As the University and Undergraduate Council of Students begin to consider revising their ban on ROTC, it is imperative they understand the connotations of continuing the ban after the recent repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Without question, failing to support students who wish to serve our nation in combat after their education will represent an inexcusable aversion to the honorable institution that protects and defends us on a daily basis. Moreover, it effectively bars academically capable students from pursuing a route that would allow them to satisfy the financial requirements of an Ivy League education while serving our nation.

Now that the military lacks any type of

official and concrete discriminatory policy, it is difficult to see why opponents of the ROTC program continue to reject its reinstatement. Indeed, when asked why they thought Brown refused to reinstate the ROTC program after the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, many of my friends were hard-pressed to come up with a compelling reason. This is absolutely unacceptable and will continue to plague Brown’s image throughout the nation if we do not alter our course soon.

ness on others and snub those who support the overarching purpose and goals of the U.S. military.

Instead, support for our armed forces should transcend our ideological differences and unite us. While individual citizens and, in this case, students of Brown University might disagree with some of the military’s policies, our academic institutions should not be serving as a mouthpiece for dissidents. Rather, as major institutions within the most prosperous and free na-

Support for our armed forces should transcend our ideological differences and unite us.

Prior to repeal, many opponents of ROTC rejected it on the grounds that acceptance of the program would connote endorsement of what many considered offensive discrimination against select sexual orientations. Others noted alleged “crimes against humanity” that somehow criminalize our armed forces more than those of other nations. Even then, the University was missing the point. Support for our armed forces is not a political statement. It is not the result or product of certain ideologies, or an all-encompassing endorsement of every decision the military makes. Most importantly, it is not an avenue by which a collection of the most respected academic institutions in our nation should seek to impose their standard of political correct-

tion in the world, elite universities should save their political statements for other arenas and unite in a gesture of full support for our nation’s primary functional muscle abroad.

To those who hold deep-seated concerns over current wars the United States is fighting and supporting abroad, Brown’s acceptance of an ROTC program on campus will not be offensive and should be seen as nothing more than patriotic support for the defense of our nation. Indeed, the contention that opponents use to attack the proposal, which suggests that an ROTC program runs counter to campus culture, seems to contradict the sacred concept of diversity that Brown routinely heralds. Just as any conservative Protestant

should respect groups on campus that promote lifestyles that run counter to her faith, so should an anti-war student be expected to respect her peers who wish to serve the military. By this analysis, the only choice that is consistent with Brown’s culture and celebration of diversity is to allow students who wish to serve our country the opportunity to do so.

It should be noted that this will require a certain level of intellectual maturity to realize where and when we should appropriately assert our opinions, and moreover, when, if ever, we should impose them on others. Unfortunately, there will always be those who lack the capability of making such a leap, but I have confidence that, in keeping with their own tradition of providing an impartial acceptance of all appropriate student pursuits, members of the University and the UCS have the fortitude to do what is right.

Brown’s recognition of ROTC and its consequent support for the United States’ military is not an appropriate arena in which to assert a certain political ideology at the expense of someone else’s ability to freely serve. As has only been made more evident after the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the persistence of elite universities like Brown in keeping ROTC programs off campus suggests a close-minded and selfserving approach to an issue that asks only what our school and its students can do for our country. In the spirit of patriotism and diversity, and for lack of any justifiable reason to do otherwise, Brown should reinstate the ROTC program on campus with all haste.

Heath Mayo ’13 is a political science and economics concentrator from Whitehouse, Texas. He can be reached at james_mayo@brown.edu.

12 Sports Weekend

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, January 31, 2011

M. Basketball

Still without a league victory, hoops drops two more By sam rubinroit Sports Staff Writer

The men’s basketball team endured a grueling road trip, falling to 0-4 in Ivy League play with a 78-60 loss to Princeton Friday night and an 80-78 loss to Penn the next day.

Princeton 78, Brown 60

Despite taking an early 21-13 lead, the Bears (7-11, 0-4 Ivy) saw it slip away as Princeton (14-4, Ivy 2-0) went on a 24-2 run.

“They made shots, and we didn’t,” said Head Coach Jesse Agel. “It’s pretty much as simple as that. Princeton is a very good team, and they were just clicking on all cylinders.”

The Bears offense missed cocaptain Peter Sullivan ’11, Brown’s 11th all-time career scorer, who sustained an injury during the game and played only 18 minutes, compared to his average 28.5 minutes per game. In Sullivan’s absence, his brother, guard Matt Sullivan ’13, stepped up for the Bears and scored a career-high 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting .

“He did a phenomenal job,” Agel said. “It was the first chance he’s had to play extended minutes off the ball with the injury to Peter, and he has the ability to score a

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Even Adrian Williams‘ ’11 season-high 22 points weren’t enough as the Bears fell at Penn in overtime on Saturday.

lot of points.”

Penn 80, Brown 78

After the loss to Princeton, Brown traveled to Philadelphia to face the Penn Quakers (8-8, Ivy 2-0). The Bears looked like they were headed for their first Ivy victory with just two minutes remaining in regulation and a 73-67 lead, but

Penn rallied back with a six-point run to send the game into overtime.

With the Bears trailing by two points with under a minute left in overtime, co-captain Adrian Williams ’11 missed a contested threepoint shot and, despite getting the rebound and calling a timeout, the team was unable to convert.

“I thought we played great the

M. Hockey

whole way,” Agel said. “I thought we played well enough to earn the win, but unfortunately we didn’t get the W.” With the absence of Peter Sullivan still looming, Bruno had to find points from new sources. Williams, who has been averaging less than 20 minutes per game, exploded off the bench, finishing with 22 points

in 41 minutes. He shot 60 percent from the field and 6-of-8 from beyond the arc, with 19 of his points coming in the first half.

“He had a spectacular first half,” Agel said. “He hit shots like I’ve seen him do before, and it was a thrill to just be able to watch him.

Our guys did a tremendous job to make the extra pass to find him.”

Another recent standout for the Bears is rookie forward Dockery Walker ’14, who made his first collegiate start for Bruno against Princeton. He finished the game against the Tigers with eight points and seven rebounds and was two points shy of a double-double against Penn with eight points and 10 rebounds.

“He’s been playing well,” Agel said. “He’s doing a great job on the glass and scoring with his back to the basket.”

After a tough road trip, the Bears return to the Pizzitola Center for two home matchups. They will face Columbia on Friday at 7 p.m. and a struggling Cornell team the following night at 6 p.m.

“In our first four league games, three have been on the road,” Agel said. “Obviously we’ll be happy to come back and play in front of our home fans in our familiar confines, but we still have to play well to win.”

W. BasketBall

Bruno winless on weekend trip Offense struggles,

Bears blown out twice

By garret johnson Sports Staff Writer

The men’s hockey team went winless on a New York road trip this weekend, falling to No. 10 Rensselaer, 3-0, and No. 12 Union, 4-2.

By madeleine wenstrup Sports Staff Writer

The women’s basketball team was clearly missing something on offense in its weekend games against Princeton and Penn. With point guard Lauren Clarke ’14, the thirdhighest scorer on the team, out with an injury, the Bears’ offense struggled, and they handed easy wins to both opponents.

RPI 3, Brown 0

Bruno (7-10-4, 5-8-1 ECAC) began the game strong, leading the Engineers 8-5 in shots after 12 minutes, but RPI (17-6-3, 9-5-0) goalie Allen York was a force in net, stopping every puck sent his way. Brown gained a man advantage late in the first period, but gave it back when captain Harry Zolnierczyk ’11 was sent to the box for charging the goalie. Only 15 seconds later, assistant captain Jack Maclellan ’12 was charged with a slashing penalty, giving RPI a 4-3 man advantage. The Engineers were able to capitalize on the penalties when Chase Polacek blasted one by Bears’ goalie Mike Clemente ’12 at 14:23 in the first.

Only four minutes later, RPI doubled its lead with a power-play goal by Bryan Brutlag. Over the next two periods, Brown pounded the RPI net, totaling 36 shots to the Engineers’ 16, but York did not give in. The Engineers added an empty-net goal with 2:15 remaining, securing the shutout win.

Union 4, Brown 2

At the outset on Saturday night, the Bears seemed poised to grab an early lead with eight shots on net in the first 13 minutes. But,

Princeton 70, Brown 48

Jonathan Bateman / Herald

Jack Maclellan ‘12 has powered the Brown offense this year and tallied his 14th goal of the year in Saturday’s loss at Union.

in what has become a recurring theme for the Brown squad, the opponent capitalized on a power-play opportunity. After Bruno defenseman Marc-Antoine Carrier ’14 was sent to the box for tripping midway through the first period, Union (18-7-3, 10-3-1) forward John Simpson beat Brown goalie Marco De Filippo ’14 to grab the early lead. Maclellan tied the game, 1-1, early in the sec-

ond period, but the Dutchmen responded with a goal just over four minutes later.

Union went on to score two more throughout the game, while the Bears answered with only one of their own.

The loss to Union was Bruno’s third-straight defeat. They hope to regain momentum with a home game against Harvard (4-16-0, 3-12-0) Wednesday night.

The Bears started off strong, using the combined shooting skills of guard Lindsay Nickel ’13 and co-captain Hannah Passafuime ’12 to capture their only lead of the game, 12-11, in the first ten minutes.

But the Tigers stormed back.

They went on a 12-2 streak to take a 26-14 lead and went into the half ahead 13 points.

Princeton came out of the locker room and increased the tempo, taking a 13-2 run to establish a safe lead, 48-24.

“We lost track of their shooters and transitions,” said co-captain Aileen Daniels ’12. “What got us was that we had to work harder for our shots.”

Daniels stepped up to start a 9-2 streak with a jumper at 14:29, but the Bears’ attempt was too little and too late, and the Tigers reestablished their power, eventually winning comfortably, 70-48.

Bruno shot only 30 percent

from the field and were led offensively by Nickel with 11 points.

Daniels added seven points.

Penn 52, Brown 32

The Bears kept up with Penn early on, trailing by only two points, 11-9, after seven minutes.

The Quakers then ran away after a 10-2 streak that was left unmatched by the Bears. Penn ended the half with a 30-17 lead.

Bruno pulled it together in the second half with ferocious defense that limited the Quakers’ scoring.

But Brown did not have the offense to match, and the Bears were only able to bring the deficit down to 10.

“We played really great defense,” Daniels said. “They didn’t score for nine straight minutes, but our shots just weren’t falling.”

The Bears shot just 27 percent from the field on Saturday night and only 22 percent in the second half. In contrast, the Quakers ended the game shooting 36 percent from the field.

Penn was able to overcome Bruno’s tough defense and take a 25-point lead with six minutes on the clock. Brown made one last attempt in the final minutes, cutting the lead to 17, but the Quakers had already secured the win.

The Bears will go on the road to face more Ivy challengers next weekend. They take on Columbia Friday night before heading to Cornell for a 7 p.m. tip-off Saturday.