Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Daily

Herald

the Brown

vol. cxlvi, no. 15

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Since 1891

IR, DS changes earn mixed reactions

News in brief McCormick motions for second recusal

of the consortium’s “Energy and Environment Collaboratory” that spawned the pilot project.

The project’s directors have already selected 70 Ship St., a University laboratory for molecular medicine, as the first building to study, said Christopher Bull ’79 MS’86 PhD’06, a senior research engineer and one of the leaders of the initiative.

The researchers will collect data on the buildings’ natural gas usage, electricity and other resources, and will also consider sustainability factors like employees’ commuting distances and amount of waste, Bull said.

Some of the data collection has already begun, and many institutions in the Jewelry District have made their buildings’ energy use statistics public, Moran said. Other organizations might also be willing to share the data they have collected,

A month after the original presiding judge in William McCormick’s suit against the University and two alums recused himself from the case, McCormick’s lawyer motioned yesterday for the new presiding judge, Ronald Lagueux, to recuse himself as well.

According to the motion, Joseph Cavanagh, a lawyer for the two alums, represented Lagueux before the Judicial Council of the First Circuit, a body charged with disciplining federal judges.

According to the motion, when the original presiding judge, William Smith, recused himself last month, he informed McCormick’s lawyer that the case would be transferred to New Hampshire.

The Rhode Island District Federal Court’s chief judge, Mary Lisi, is married to the alums’ other lawyer, Stephen Reid. The third seat on the court has been left vacant by Senate Republicans’ opposition to President Obama’s nominee.

The motion states that Cavanagh wrote a letter to Smith requesting that Lagueux, who is semi-retired, hear the case instead.

Smith assigned Lagueux, but McCormick’s lawyer subsequently learned of Cavanagh’s connection to the semi-retired judge.

Lagueux was called before the Judicial Council of the First Circuit in 1988 after he banned famed Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz from his courtroom. In a book, Dershowitz had alleged that the state’s judicial system was corrupt.

In secret documents obtained by the New York Times in 1989, the council called the banning “glaringly injudicious.”

The motion acknowledges that under normal circumstances, Cavanagh’s representation would not be sufficient grounds for recusal because it occurred over 20 years ago. But it cites the circumstances by which Lagueux came to preside over the case, as well as the University’s and the alums’ influence in the state, as extenuating factors.

Smith recused himself without explanation Jan. 7 after hearing the case for over 15 months.

Cavanagh has since said in court that Smith’s daughter is applying to Brown. It is exceedingly rare for judges to recuse themselves while a case is in progress.

continued on page 4

— Herald Staff

By Greg Jordan-Detamore Senior Staff Writer

continued on page 2

Katie Green / Herald

Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 has continued to delay articulating the agenda for his term in office.

Chafee ’75 P’14 delays agenda, loses confidence By amy rasmussen Senior Staff Writer

When the word “plantations” was spelled incorrectly in the inaugural program for Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14, state workers had to come in early to reprint it. The morning after his inauguration, Chafee stopped by to thank them.

While Chafee’s action spoke volumes, he has been inconsistent in articulating an agenda as governor.

His public relations track record has been spotty, even as Rhode Is-

a b e r r y s p e c i a l va l e n t i n e

land struggles with a gaping budget deficit and a simmering controversy over the state’s education policy.

“Chafee’s biggest problem is he’s not a great communicator — it’s

city & State never been part of his skill set,” said Jennifer Duffy, a Rhode Island native and a senior editor for the Cook Political Report.

He has to act decisively “if he’s not going to be the oratorical master,” she said, citing his thank-you

Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

inside

news...................2-3 Sports....................4 editorial..............6 Opinions...............7 CITY & State.........8

1 For 2

Basketball sees a win and a lose over the weekend

Sports, 4

continued on page 5

Study reviews Jewelry District sustainability

By Caitlin Trujillo Senior Staff Writer

Ratty Executive Chef John O’Shea whips up some fruit-filled crepes Monday morning as a Valentine’s Day treat for the breakfast crowd.

visit to the state Department of Health, where the printing error was corrected. “Sometimes actions mean just as much.”

But defining his priorities as governor is crucial, said Wendy Schiller, associate professor of political science. The newly inaugurated governor ran his campaign on a “Trust Chafee” slogan. Every day he delays in outlining his agenda, “he loses a little bit of that confidence,” she said.

Researchers from Brown and the University of Rhode Island are gearing up for an initiative to study the sustainability of the Jewelry District with the hope that the city of Providence can use the collected data to further the area’s economic development.

The study, called “Green the Knowledge District,” was launched by the Ocean State Consortium of Advanced Resources in tandem with the city to gauge energy use in the district. The city has begun calling the Jewelry District the “Knowledge District” as part of its effort to brand the area as the center of a new knowledge economy.

Researchers will focus on auditing the buildings in the area that are expected to have the largest environmental and economic impact, said Bradley Moran, professor of oceanography at URI and co-chair

iLove

Is love different in the electronic age?

Opinions, 7

weather

Major changes to the international relations concentration requirements were posted on the concentration’s website Feb. 11, with smaller changes to the development studies concentration announced yesterday.

Sophomores who have not yet declared their IR concentrations were outraged that they will be required to conform to a new set of requirements halfway through their Brown careers. The new requirements themselves garnered mixed reactions, and DS concentrators in particular were mostly upbeat about the changes to their concentration.

“The Dean of the College convened a committee of contributing departments, the director of the Watson Institute (for International Studies) and critical members of the Brown academic community, including student representatives, to enhance the intellectual quality and coherence of these important interdisciplinary concentrations,” wrote Mark Blyth, professor of political science and director of undergradu-

t o d ay

tomorrow

27 / 14

42 / 31

2 Campus News

Concentration changes stir controversy

calendar Today

February 15

4 P.m.

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 15, 2011

ToMORROW

february 15

continued from page 1

5:30 p.m.

Watson Student Summer Fellows

“The Language of Pain”

Presentation, Watson Institute

Pembroke Hall, Room 305

7 P.M.

7:30 p.m.

Israeli Film Festival Screening of

A Reading by Novelist Bradford

“The Secrets,” MacMillan 117

Morrow, McCormack Family Theater

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Green Chili Chicken Enchilada, Black Bean and Spinach Soft Taco, Spanish Potatoes

French Bread Pepperoni Pizza, Artichoke and Red Pepper Frittata, Cranberry White Chip Cookies

DINNER Acorn Squash with Curried Rice and Chickpeas, Grilled Turkey Burger with Bulkie Roll, Herbed Turnips

Meatloaf with Mushroom Sauce, Cheese and Corn Strata, Oatmeal Bread, Raspberry Bars

Sudoku

Crossword

ate studies for IR and DS, in a Feb. 11 letter to the IR community.

Explaining the changes

The core of required courses was expanded from four courses to five, according to the IR website. Both the old and new core requirements include introductory courses in economics and international politics.

But while the other two classes for the old core were a modern history course and a “culture and society” course of the student’s choosing, the new core mandates HIST 1900: “American Empire Since 1900,” SOC 1620: “Globalization and Social Conflict” and ANTH 0400: “Anthropology and Global Social Problems,” a new course.

The track system was also changed. Concentrators are required to choose a topical track to further focus their studies. One of the tracks — “politics, culture and identity” — has been eliminated, while the other two — “global security” and “political economy and development” — have been adjusted to become “security and society” and “political economy and society,” according to Blyth’s letter. The number of courses needed to meet the new track requirements has been increased from three to five, according to the website.

The “politics, culture and identity” track was eliminated because it “lacks a clear theoretical rationale and has become a hodgepodge of courses ranging from regional studies to anything containing the word ‘culture,’” according to the report of the committee studying the IR and DS programs.

The new requirements will also include two courses with the same regional focus, whereas previously only one regional course was required.

Students will still be required to reach sixth-semester proficiency in a foreign language.

The old curriculum will remain in effect for students graduating in December 2012 or sooner, according to the IR website. Additionally, sophomores who declared their concentration in the fall will be allowed to use the old requirements, Blyth wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.

The Watson Institute will hold a “town meeting” tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Watson Institute’s Joukowsky Forum, according to Blyth’s letter.

Claudia Elliott MA’91 PhD’99, associate director of the IR program

Daily

the Brown

and its sole concentration adviser, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that she did not want to be interviewed until after Wednesday’s meeting. It “is only fair that the IR directorship … first hold a public conversation about the changes with sophomores and the rest of the IR community,” she wrote.

‘Logistically impossible’

Undeclared sophomores expressed dismay about the new requirements. Some have formed a Facebook group called “IR students against the new IR Program,” which counted 83 members at press time.

It is “not fair to spring significant changes” on sophomores who are in their fourth semester, Jasmyn Samaroo ’13 said. “If I have to take a ninth semester, it will be a financial hardship.”

It will be “logistically impossible for a lot of people in my grade to fulfill the requirements,” Ian Slater ’13 said. “A lot of people are switching to (the political science concentration’s) international (and comparative politics) track.” He said he would have to “give up the rest of liberal learning at Brown” to satisfy the new requirements.

Claire Schlessinger ’13 tried to declare her concentration last semester but was told she could not because a committee was working on changes to the requirements. “I thought I was over halfway done with my concentration requirements,” she said, but the concentration changes ended up being much larger than she expected. “It literally wouldn’t be possible for me to double concentrate or study abroad” with the added requirements, she said.

But first years are not as concerned about meeting the new requirements. “I’m not too worried about fitting anything in since I’m a freshman,” Margaret Tennis ’14 said.

Students had mixed opinions on the IR requirement changes themselves, with many offering positive comments.

Samaroo said she thinks “the changes strengthen the program and are positive.”

“It’s a better set of requirements, a better program,” said Michael Ewart ’11, an IR concentrator and member of the committee that recommended the changes. “Under the old system, you and I could both be IR concentrators and have no more than one or two classes in common,” he said.

Several students questioned the rationale behind requiring HIST 1900, and the eliminated track upset

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some students. “I was really disappointed because the track I intended to follow” was eliminated, Tennis said. She said the “politics, culture and identity” track was perfect for her interests and was one of the reasons she was attracted to IR. Developing development studies

Changes to the DS concentration requirements appeared on the concentration’s website yesterday.

Students had mostly good things to say about them, though many were unaware of the changes.

“These changes have been made with the intent of offering more choice and guidance to concentrators while strengthening their methodological and language skills,” according to a Feb. 14 letter from Blyth and Cornel Ban, visiting fellow and deputy director of the DS program.

“I thought that (the changes) were overwhelmingly positive,” Ayane Ezaki ’13 said. The changes make DS “a lot more structured” but give concentrators “a lot more choice,” she said.

Perhaps the largest change is the addition of a sixth-semester proficiency foreign language requirement, which would match that of IR. “I think the language requirement is a really great thing,” Sarah Grimm ’12 said.

Samuel Kinsman ’13 said he thinks the language requirement is not a bad idea, but it would be unfair to apply it to current sophomores.

All students will now be required to take DEVL 1500: “Research Methods and Design.” Previously, students chose from among several methods courses. Only about half of DS concentrators took DEVL 1500 in the past because it was not required, and they later ran into problems when trying to write their theses, said Christina Kovacs ’11, a DS concentrator and member of the committee that recommended changes to the IR and DS programs.

“I think it’s really important to have that course,” Grimm said.

The new DS requirements posted on the website also feature an expanded list of “disciplinary courses,” from which students must select two.

There are now 15 choices, compared to seven in the past.

Students praised this move. “It will make it a lot easier to do what I was already intending on doing,” Grimm said.

For the senior capstone project, students will now have more options, such as creating a documentary, Ban said. If students choose to do a documentary, they will need to take two modern culture and media courses, he said. The capstone project must also incorporate each student’s foreign language skills, according to the website.

“I think that the idea to extend the options for the capstone is definitely a very good idea,” Kinsman said.

The DS program is underfunded, Kinsman said. There is only one adviser for the concentration, who is subsequently very busy, he said. “It’s really important that development studies majors get more opportunities to talk with advisers.” He added that DS would be improved if more courses were offered for concentrators.

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Campus News 3 Marketing drive leads to increase in GISPs

By Max ernst Contributing Writer

Freddy Lu / Herald

Sara Powell ‘11 shows off her reusable take-out container, part of a program that could reduce waste on campus.

Take-out program looks outside the box

By Crystal Vance Guerra Contributing Writer

It’s Spring Weekend and no one has gone to class. The green is littered with picnicking students. But the idyllic expanse of the Main Green is also littered with something else: litter.

Black trash bins overflow with white boxes. Biodegradable cardboard stacks form leaning towers.

“It’s disgusting,” Lillian Mirviss ’12 said. Mirviss is a sustainability intern at Brown Dining Services and a member of emPOWER, the University’s environmental umbrella organization. She is currently working for Dining Services and emPOWER on a pilot program testing a reusable container takeout program.

“The reason we decided to do it is that we are using biodegradable containers, which is great,” said Mirviss. “But we don’t have a compost program on campus.

So all that just goes to the landfill.

By implementing this program we hope to divert some of that waste.”

Waste is the central concern of both students and the Dining Services staff involved in the program.

“We wish to make our dining

program greener,” Claire Sidla, director of residential dining, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. The reusable take-out container “takes sustainability to the next level. It will give students who are looking for a meal on the run a clean and sanitary container option while reducing the number of disposables that go to the landfill,” she wrote.

For now, only the 50 listed participants may “check out” the light green containers. They return the containers to a collection bin behind the regular take-out station.

The containers, which are slightly smaller than the large biodegradable boxes at the Sharpe Refectory, are washed downstairs before being made available for another use.

“A relatively small number of meal plan participants are a part of the pilot program, which has helped make it manageable,” Sidla wrote.

Jean Couto, a residential dining supervisor, spearheaded the project, according to Sidla.

Dining Services began to work on the program last summer, Mirviss said, adding that this semester marks the beginning of a smallscale version of the program “to figure out the kinks.”

The program faces two challenges — managing the supply of containers and cultivating student interest.

“We are having it start small because a lot of schools started full force, and they have lost hundreds of dollars,” Mirviss said.

“The greatest challenge in our opinion is to get students excited and on board with using the ecocontainer,” Sidla wrote. “The more we can educate students about why this is a move in the right direction, the more successful it will be.”

The Rhode Island School of Design — where a campus-wide to-go container program is already in place — approached these issues by operating its program on a coin system. When students return used containers, they receive a token, which they can exchange for a new container.

“Let’s join the eco-to-go movement,” states a YouTube video made by RISD students promoting the program. “And save the world, one meal at a time.”

The Dining Services planning group is also considering the coin system to replace the current system of tracking the container on paper, Mirviss said.

The Curricular Resource Center approved 22 Group Independent Study Projects this semester, more than twice the number offered in the fall.

The rise is a result of the center’s push to renew student interest in GISPs — which provide the opportunity for students to collaboratively design and lead a class — by increasing outreach to students.

“A lot of it has to do with our student coordinators,” said Peggy Chang ’91, director of the center.

“Initially, planning a GISP is fairly intimidating, but they have modeled for their peers by showing them it is a worthwhile and fun thing to do.”

The center organized networking events to promote the GISP application, including a formal dinner with presentations from students in past GISPs and a pitch session, where about 90 students shared ideas for new GISPs, according to Chang.

The center also published announcements in Morning Mail “more heavily than in the past,” said Arthur Matuszewski ’11, cocoordinator for independent studies at the center. “Another good method has simply been word of mouth from successful GISP members from last semester.”

Matuszewski and co-coordinator Roman Gonzalez ’11 have led the GISP marketing drive by utilizing Internet-based resources like Facebook and a blog where students can brainstorm course ideas, instead of relying on foot traffic to the center office.

This semester, 29 GISPs were proposed and 22 were approved, a significant increase from the approximately 10 GISPs approved last semester, Matuszewski said. But Gonzalez said there are always more GISP proposals in the second semester of the year due to the increased awareness of first-years in the spring.

Center administrators still expressed the feeling that their work has brought about revived campus interest in the projects.

“We have made some changes in the way we do things,” Gonzalez said. “We have made the GISPs more

relatable.”

The guidelines for GISP approval “tend to be somewhat fluid,” Gonzalez said. The committee that examines the application forms is comprised of five to six individuals, most of whom have their own subjective standards for evaluating the proposals.

At the same time, there are several standards to which every GISP must adhere. Committee members inspect each proposal to evaluate the academic nature of the course, determine whether there is enough content to fill a 14-week semester and consider the background of the faculty sponsor, Chang said. During the application process, students must create a syllabus, arrange to meet for at least three and a half hours per week, provide a minimum of 200 pages of reading for the group per week and find a professor who is willing to attend the course meetings at least five times during the semester.

“Once GISPs come up for approval, most of them go back to the students for revisions,” said Matuszewski.

Despite the extra work that proposing and coordinating a unique course entails, students remain interested in GISPs because “part of college is learning to learn on your own,” said Michael Desai ’12, who helped create the GISP “Modern Strategic Thought.”

“The GISP is an extension of independent learning,” said Desai.

“People who are interested in a specific subject can do research on it and study it, and that’s why it’s so popular.”

GISPs will remain an integral part of the New Curriculum because they allow students to engage in the independent academic discovery that is fundamental to the University’s philosophy, Gonzalez said. The projects allow students not only to participate in the course but also to have maximum flexibility in creating an interesting program.

“GISPs foster a community of collective passion,” he added. “The one key difference from a normal class is that with a GISP you can really focus in on your interests.”

Coalition combats unfair wages, harvesting conditions

By Sophia Seawell Contributing Writer

Romeo Ramirez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Meghan Cohorst of the Student/ Farmworker Alliance shared the coalition’s next steps in the Campaign for Fair Food with a large audience in MacMillan 117 Saturday.

The coalition is a grassroots organization founded in 1993 in response to the hardships workers endured when harvesting tomatoes, including violence, dangerous working conditions and sub-poverty wages. Through strikes and protests, the coalition has already convinced nine major

companies — including Subway, Taco Bell and Whole Foods — to pay one cent more per pound of tomatoes and to ensure that their tomato suppliers treat workers humanely. In addition, many growers and suppliers have agreed to a code of conduct for worker treatment.

In nine extreme cases, tomato suppliers have been federally prosecuted for enslavement. The coalition was directly involved in helping to “uncover, investigate and prosecute” six of these cases, Ramirez said in his presentation.

In one case, a family hired several dozen workers to harvest tomatoes during the day and would chain them in a locked truck at

night. While the workers did receive a meager wage, they were also charged for food. This was a case of “not just physical captivity, but also economic exploitation,” Ramirez said.

But Ramirez said, despite being “on the road to creating a new and more modern agricultural industry,” there is still work to be done.

The next step for the coalition is to implement changes in supermarkets. The Campaign for Fair Food’s next target is Stop and Shop, one of the nation’s biggest supermarket chains.

Members from student groups such as the Student Labor Alliance, the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the Sustainable

Food Initiative are supporting the campaign.

Cohorst and Ramirez invited students “to get involved and take action” by attending the “March to Stop Sweatshops” Feb. 27 in Boston.

This would not be the first time students participated in such an event. Jonathan Leibovic ’12 became involved with the Sustainable Food Initiative when he attended the Farmworker Freedom March in Tampa, Fla., last year with six other Brown students.

Leibovic, who had been actively involved in problems concerning the environment, public health and poverty, said he found that “food is the issue that all of

those issues are connected to” and that becoming involved in farmworkers’ rights helps form “as complete a picture as possible of the food industry.”

The coalition, which has about 5,000 members, also works with over 1,000 students. Student involvement began with the coalition’s first protest, a boycott of Taco Bell, a major consumer of one supplier’s tomatoes. Students organized a campaign called “Boot the Bell” to kick Taco Bell off campuses across the nation.

“This is their struggle, too,” Cohorst said. “These companies are exploiting students with advertisements. It’s common exploitation.”

4 Sports Tuesday

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Team splits weekend, picks up second Ivy win Squad

By Sam Rubinroit Sports Staff Writer

The men’s basketball team split the two games on its road trip last weekend, defeating Dartmouth, 75-66, on Friday before letting a 22-point halftime lead slip away in a 85-78 defeat to Harvard the following night.

Brown 75, Dartmouth 66

The Bears (9-13, 2-6 Ivy League) picked up their second Ivy League victory with a win against a struggling Dartmouth side, dropping the Big Green to 5-16 on the season and 1-6 in league play. After taking a fivepoint lead at halftime, Bruno pulled ahead by as many as 12 points in the second half. Though Dartmouth drew within four points with just over six minutes left in the game, point guard Sean McGonagill ’14 connected on six of six free throws late in the contest to put the game out of reach.

The Bears have often relied on their ability to convert from the free throw line late in games — they rank second in the Ivy League with a .740 shooting percentage.

“It’s important to hit free throws down the stretch because you can easily lose a game or blow a lead,” Adrian Williams ’11 said.

“It’s good that this team has been able to focus and concentrate at the line. We have a lot of great shooters, so there’s really no reason we shouldn’t be knocking down free throws.”

As McGonagill barely missed a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds, forward Tucker Halpern ’13 continued to be a driving force for the Bears.

After tying his career-high with 26 points against Cornell Feb. 5,

Sam Rubinroit / Herald

Tucker Halpern ‘13, seen here against Columbia, led men’s basketball past Dartmouth on Friday night with 25 points and seven rebounds.

Halpern led Bruno on Friday with 25 points in addition to seven rebounds.

“He’s really starting to string together some very, very good performances,” said Head Coach Jesse Agel. “As a freshman and sophomore, if you’re pretty good, you’re going to have ups and downs. It’s hard to put up consistent numbers, and he’s starting to do that with regularity.”

Harvard 85, Brown 78

With the momentum from the win the night before, the Bears shot out of the gate against the Crimson (18-4, 7-1 Ivy League).

Bruno took a 53-31 lead at the half after an impressive shooting display, connecting on 19 of 30 field goals and eight of 12 shots from beyond the arc.

But Bruno was unable to continue its domination and could do little more than watch as Harvard exploded in the second half. The Crimson outscored the Bears by a 34-11 margin and took their first lead of the game, 65-64. The

Crimson went on to lead by as many as 11 points, shooting 68 percent from the field and 72.7 percent from three-point range, compared to 44.8 percent and 14.3 percent in the first half, respectively.

“They shot the daylights out of it in the second half,” Agel said.

“They just made some deep threes early on in possessions. They’re a really talented team, and in the first half, I think they tried to play inside more. We didn’t share the ball and make shots as well as we did in the first half.”

McGonagill led the Bears with 18 points and seven assists, and Garrett Leffelman ’11 had an impressive outing with 14 points.

Halpern and Williams added 12 points apiece.

“I think we kind of had a mixed weekend,” Williams said.

“We played three halves of really good basketball, and one half of not so good basketball. It’s kind of bittersweet. It shows that we have the ability to play very well but we’ve just got to be able to stay there.”

Bruno returns home this weekend for the first two match-ups of a four-game home stand, facing Penn Friday at 7 p.m. and topranked Princeton the following night at 6 p.m. The Bears hope to avenge two losses from earlier in the season, though the status of forward Peter Sullivan ’11, who injured his shoulder in the team’s Jan. 28 match-up against Princeton, remains uncertain.

“Penn we lost to in overtime a couple weeks ago, and that was a really tough loss for us,” Williams said. “It was our first game playing without Peter, so hopefully he’ll be back and be able to help us out. Princeton will be a really tough game as well. They’re the best team in the league, but I think if we play well, and we play our game, we have a good chance this weekend.”

District assesses environmental impact continued from page 1 said Clyde Briant, the University’s vice president for research and a co-chair of the consortium. National Grid has agreed to work with the

campus news project, and the directors have met with a number of institutions and organizations — including the Environmental Protection Agency and the city’s hospitals — to collaborate on data collection, Briant said.

Some of the project’s researchers will be drawn from the student body, Bull said. Brown and URI will each contribute a small pool of students to help aid the process,

with somewhere between six and 10 students coming from Brown, he said.

Two graduate students who are enrolled in a qualitative field methods course and one undergraduate have expressed interest in the initiative, Bull said. Jamie McPike GS, a sociology student, said the initiative “seems like a really innovative project” and that it is “worth keeping an eye on.”

Bull said he is looking to recruit the remaining students from his class on sustainable energy.

The project is long-term, and an end date has not yet been set, Moran said. Data analysis will not likely start until the summer of 2014 or 2015, Bull said.

www.browndailyherald.com

flounders, Hawrot prevails

By Alex Mittman Contributing Writer

The men’s and women’s fencing squads faced stiff competition in the annual Ivy League Championships at Princeton Feb. 12 and 13.

Both teams finished in fifth place, winning one match-up each.

The men’s team bested last-place Columbia with 15 five-touch bouts to the Lions’ 12, and the women’s squad defeated the winless Yale Bulldogs, 15-12.

Kathryn Hawrot ’14 of the foil team won 11 of her 15 bouts, giving her the third-best result in the women’s foil category and positioning her for selection to the All-Ivy team.

Her style of in-fighting, in which the fencer comes within a foot or two of an opponent and tries to approach from a different angle than usual, served her well in a bout against Lucile Jarry of Princeton. Throughout the match, Jarry tried to launch swift attacks and reprises from a distance, leaving herself open to Hawrot’s close-range approach.

Despite Hawrot’s impressive 5-2 win — the foil squad’s first victory in its first round of the round-robin tournament — the squad was unable to pull out a win against Princeton, going 3-6 for the round.

“We were disappointed,” Hawrot said. “I think this is the hardest tournament.”

Princeton’s women’s team dominated the competition, coming in first place overall and defeating three schools by a margin of at least 13 bouts.

Brown’s women’s epee squad’s 6-3 victory propelled the whole team to victory over Yale — the squad’s only win. “We were really into it,” Hawrot said.

“We need to work on being able to clench the victory,” Laney Caldwell ’14 said, referring to the epee team’s sizeable number of onetouch losses. Caldwell placed 13th in the competition with an even result of 7-7, right behind her sister, Phoebe, of the Princeton epee squad, who went 8-8. If it had not been for a last-minute substitution

by Princeton’s coach, the two would have fenced — which Caldwell said she wanted to do.

“Fencing Princeton was fun,” Laney said.

All of the Ivies presented a challenge for the Bears.

“There are … no breaks,” Hawrot said, explaining the women’s team’s loss to Cornell in the last round. The foil squad went 3-6 against Cornell, saber went 1-8 — with Caitlin Taylor ’13 winning the only bout — and epee won four out of nine, within one bout of a victory.

The Bears will be going to New York University for the National Squad Championships Feb. 27.

City & State 5

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Chafee faces budget, education challenges continued from page 1 No talk until a budget

The governor requested a delay in releasing his proposed budget — a common practice for new administrations — until March 10.

“The governor is holding several budget meetings a week with members of his cabinet and senior staff to address various opportunities, as well as to examine the revenue side of the equation,” said Mike Trainor, Chafee’s spokesman.

“No governor has it easy right now,” Duffy said, pointing to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s recent decision to raise the state’s income tax about 60 percent. “Everybody has a deficit. Some are bigger than others.”

Rhode Island is facing a deficit of nearly $300 million next fiscal year — a dire financial situation the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council is projecting will continue to deteriorate.

“My proposal is to have a twotier sales tax that other states also have,” Chafee told The Herald in an Oct. 2010 interview. “The lower rate on the exempt items in my proposal is 1 percent, and that would generate $100 million.”

The governor is currently working with officials to move forward on the issue of the tiered-tax system, Trainor said. Chafee is planning to give a combined State of the State and budget address at around the same time the budget is filed.

Although Chafee’s proposed sales tax drew criticism during the campaign, Schiller said Rhode Islanders knew Chafee and the tax were a package deal when they elected him.

“The budget’s going to set the tone,” Duffy said. “My question is — how does he sell it?”

Betty Galligan, the director of Newberry Public Relations and Marketing, said she was particularly put off by Chafee’s decision to bar all state officials from appearing on talk radio.

Chafee’s administration announced the policy Jan. 10. Following a statewide uproar, the governor’s office issued a statement clarifying that the policy will not apply in emergency situations.

Though she said she understands Chafee’s concerns that talk radio is more entertaining than informative, Galligan said she still thinks it is a “bonehead policy.”

In the public relations world, “There must be a flow of information” to the press, which Chafee’s decision prevented, she said.

Chafee “threw an opportunity away,” Duffy said. Talk radio is “a vehicle to get your message out — it is a vehicle to listen to voters and what they have to say.”

According to Trainor, the media regulations are a temporary measure.

“Once the budget is prepared and filed, he will begin to ease off the talk show regulations,” he said.

For now, “he wants to keep everyone focused.”

renominated. The day before the nominations were announced, he “withdrew on sudden notice,” Trainor said.

Moffit did not return requests for comment.

Lawrence Purtill, president of the National Education Association Rhode Island, one of the state’s

two largest teachers’ unions and a key Chafee supporter during his campaign, said he was pleased with Chafee’s additions to the board.

Most important, he added, is for the new board to take the time to really listen to students, parents and educators from the community.

Though there are a great number

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

Controversy over education

Chafee’s recent nominations to the Rhode Island Board of Regents also spotlighted public relations shortcomings.

Two of the four regents who were not reappointed, Anna CanoMorales and Angus Davis, were not notified of the decision prior to Chafee’s Feb. 1 press conference announcing new board appointments. Both learned of their dismissal from the board by reading it in the Providence Journal.

Cano-Morales and Davis did not respond to requests for comment.

Although Trainor said Chafee took note of the oversight, he said he did not know if any formal apology had been extended to the pair.

According to Schiller, the majority of Rhode Islanders do not care about Chafee’s failure to notify the board members.

“He ran with the support of the teachers’ union,” she said. “Most voters are waiting to see how independent the governor will be.”

Andrew Moffit, an education consultant who was nominated to the board by former governor Donald Carcieri ’65 and is married to General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, withdrew his name from consideration for a board nomination after meeting with Chafee.

According to Trainor, Moffit — who was never confirmed by the Senate after Carcieri nominated him — approached Chafee to be

of issues to be addressed within the budget, Purtill said he is hopeful Chafee will continue to view education as a top priority.

“You can’t spend time with him for very long without realizing he cares,” he said. “Education is the most important thing to spend money on right now.”

Dot Comic | Eshan Mitra and Brendan Hainline

6 Editorial & Letter Editorial

Editorial comic

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 15, 2011

by franny choi

‘Trafficking in stereotype’ National newspapers have been giving Brown a few backhanded compliments these past few weeks. The Associated Press released an article Feb. 5, later printed by the Washington Post and other national outlets, on the new Group Independent Study Project this semester called “Modern Conservatism in America.” Steven Calabresi, visiting professor of political science from Northwestern Law School, is the faculty adviser and main lecturer for the GISP. Columnists Joan Vennochi of the Boston Globe and Ed Fitzpatrick of the Providence Journal subsequently took notice. Both wrote columns commending the University for finally abandoning its single-minded liberal agenda and, in an unprecedented act of academic tolerance, allowing, as Vennochi put it, “a tiny beachhead in a sea of academic liberalism.”

First, we would like to clarify the situation for the AP and newspapers that have their facts wrong. This course is not offered by the University, as their articles suggest, but instead is a GISP — a collaborative effort by a group of students and Calabresi. We hope that national newspapers and media outlets will not be too alarmed that the GISP on conservatism is a product of the liberal freedoms enabled by our hippie New Curriculum.

Both columns give Brown a slap on the back for finally deeming conservative philosophy “worthy of academic debate” in a portrait of Brown as an uncritically liberal environment. Professor of Economics Glenn Loury, whose political views have traversed the political spectrum throughout his career, wrote in an e-mail to the editorial page board that, while Brown is certainly liberal-leaning, “there is a robust representation of conservative thought on campus and among faculty.” These articles, Loury continued, are merely “trafficking in stereotype,” embracing the familiar and easy narrative that Brown is hostile to political conservatism and academic disagreement.

The reading list for the GISP is comprehensive but by no means dissimilar to academic life at Brown. To label these readings and course content as an innovation in Brown’s curriculum is seriously misguided. Any political science or economics concentrator will recognize Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom,” Milton Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” and von Mises’s “Capitalism versus Socialism,” among many other familiar works on the syllabus. This is no indictment of the GISP, which we find quite intriguing. Yet, we take issue with the statement of the GISP’s co-founder, Terrence George, that “the history of intellectual conservatism at Brown is a history denied.”

We are proud of the intellectual and political diversity of many of Brown’s academic institutions. The Political Theory Project and its student group, the Janus Forum, offer courses, lecture series, debates and discussions on important issues of contemporary political philosophy from all sides of the spectrum. Two years ago, for example, Janus featured a discussion with controversial Bush administration official John Yoo, and the Lecture Board hosted former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a conservative political figure with whom Brown students interacted respectfully and amiably. The Herald has consistently offered a platform for columnists who represent a more conservative political stance to bring balance to the opinions page.

Social sciences students must become experts on economic liberals Adam Smith and John Locke, as well as many of the thinkers in the GISP’s syllabus.

True, Brown is a hotbed of social liberalism and, to an extent, we can laugh at the stereotype of our institution as a liberal paradise. Ultimately, though, these crude and untrue stereotypes hurt the University — they portray a false image of us as intellectually incurious and self-righteous students disinterested in legitimate academic debate or tolerance.

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

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quote of the day

“We don’t have a compost program on

campus. So all that just goes to the landfill.”

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Opinions 7

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Modern love, revisited

By LORRAINE NICHOLSON Opinions Columnist Valentine’s Day was yesterday. You, reader, are probably aware, as you spent the time either whining about it with friends or dressed in a cheeky outfit in the presence of your loved one. While we may be too affected to dress up for Saint Patrick’s Day and too ungrateful to remember Mother’s Day, it is difficult to let Valentine’s Day pass by unnoticed. Valentine’s Day has always given us an excuse for self-loathing and chocolate consumption, a miserable pairing to which we look forward each and every year.

This year, however, I greeted the holiday with not only a sense of impending doom, but also a deadline. A few days ago, as a literary arts concentrator, I received an email announcing a literary contest. Usually, upon receiving these e-mails, my eyes widen. I always find it interesting to see what is being called for — what subjects merit exploration in this increasingly pluralistic literary world.

The contest for the New York Times Style Section called for essays on “Modern Love” written by college students. The press release mused, “In this age of Facebook, texting, new attitudes about sex and dating, evolving gender roles and 24/7 communication, what is love now?” As if Valentine’s Day were not enough, my e-mail just sent

me back to CVS for another package of Dove chocolate bars.

I protested the contest on principle.

With a prompt like that, we, as a literary voice, were bound to fail. We were bound to fulfill the stereotype mandated of us, of schizophrenic lovers and disconnected soul mates. We were bound to write about booty calls and boy toys. When asked the question, “What is love now?” we were bound to answer, “irrelevant.”

I felt denied something that, as a human, is part of my birthright. I felt that finally, spelled out before my eyes, is the

we so stratified from prior generations that they need a translator to understand our existence?

Enter Marguerite Fields, winner of the New York Times’ “Modern Love” contest.

Her column, “Want to Be My Boyfriend?

Please Define,” details what she describes as “many, many encounters” with creatures of the opposite sex. To say the least, Marguerite has had bad luck. She has met every walk of crazy and seems to have had a mild flirtation with them all.

The piece is peppered with wit and quips, essential in creating the kind of voice

In the eyes of our elder contemporaries, we are an emotionally bankrupt, disconnected people.

reality of my existence — that the world is changing and that people are changing along with it. My worst fear has been realized — love is dead. What once defined the species is now inconsequential to the massive power of the Internet and new ways of communication.

For past generations, our love lives have become a spectacle. Whole talk shows dedicated to Internet romance? Scientific journals preaching the negative effects of texting? A New York Times column dedicated to modern love? In the modern age, are

expected of our generation. With classics such as “I don’t want her to be mine, and I don’t want to be anybody’s,” Marguerite retains her positive outlook on the world of BlackBerry Messenger and “The Bachelor.”

And yet, for generations past, love has become virtually unrecognizable. In the eyes of our elder contemporaries, we are an emotionally bankrupt, disconnected people. They require essay contests and reality television to understand our existence, finding themselves infatuated with what the dating world has become. And yet, they

miss the point. While we all have depressed girlfriends and chocolate-crazed professors and care package-sending mothers, we do not have a unanimous experience. Modern love cannot be defined by a Drew Barrymore movie or a column in a newspaper.

For this reason, I feel the New York Times did our generation a great dishonor.

When choosing an essay to speak for our time, the paper chose that of a mistreated female. Their choice failed to depict the heart flutter when reading a text message from a crush, or the heartbreak of finding a naughty picture of an ex on Facebook. It failed to mention long-distance relationships that flourish because of Google Voice and all the marriages that have come out of Match.com.

Modern love is synonymous with the love that preceded it, expressed in a different medium. Heartbreak feels the same.

Connection feels the same. The New York Times asked, “What is love now?” When put that way, I have to say “everything.” Just because we live in the age of “Facebook, texting [and] new attitudes about sex and dating” does not mean that the essential character of love has been altered. In fact, I would like to argue that love is even more important. Love is the only way to transcend the bounds of this techno-culture and find true human bonds. We must love each other, perhaps more so now than ever before.

Lorraine Nicholson ’12.5 is a literary arts concentrator from Los Angeles, Calif.

When we corrupt ourselves

By HECTOR NAJERA Opinions Columnist Over 70 years ago, the great educator Robert Hutchins warned a graduating class about corruption. “I am not worried about your economic future,” he told them. “I am worried about your morals…Time will corrupt you. Your friends, your wives or husbands, your business or professional associates will corrupt you. Your social, political and financial ambitions will corrupt you. The worst thing about life is that it is demoralizing.”

In an unforgiving world, where the ecstasy of intellectual wonder slams into the concrete and practical necessities of life, we constantly need to hold on to that innocence. I bring up this issue because I am in classes with you, dear reader, where we struggle to reconcile the theories and ideas with everyday practices. The beggars on Thayer St., a drive downtown, the failing schools — they all charge against our idealism and threaten to make pessimists out of all of us.

I was in fifth grade when I first went camping with schoolmates. All the other children had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and I was stuck with fried taquitos my mother made. Worse still, I brought them in a “Food4Less” plastic bag instead of a lunch box. When it was time to eat, I was ashamed of my tacos. During this instance, the urge to conform was visible. I

could easily compare my tacos to the “normal” peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

But the corruption is most egregious when it is invisible.

I found myself recently in a meeting about students’ progress for the semester.

The conversation centered around the students’ home lives and their failure to stay during detention. A list was developed of who would stay after school and whose parents would be called. Then the group

all you can see. For this reason, he injected a cosmological constant into his theory of general relativity. Sure, we are not all Einsteins, but like him, we make fundamental assumptions and build on those assumptions.

If I come to believe that I am powerless to teach children, then I will confirm this by pointing to all the student failures.

This is how we corrupt ourselves — by embracing faulty assumptions and developing

That is our challenge, dear reader — to withstand the corruption of our morals and to resist the temptation to give up on our ideals for practicality’s sake.

turned to setting up calendars with each other. I thought it went very well.

When I later tried to brag about how involved the group was, someone asked a simple question — did you guys talk about your own teaching? I was dumbfounded.

No — the conversation was about the students’ “Fs” and the punitive consequences of their failure. It never crossed my mind to confront the fact that my own teaching led to that failure.

Albert Einstein held that the theory decides what you can observe. In other words, once you know what you should see, that is

habits out of them. If, on the other hand, I believe that any child can learn, then I will focus on their successes.

As Michel de Montaigne put it, we are held captive by the authority of our teachers. A teacher, for now, is anyone who controls your access to knowledge. Sometimes teachers are assigned to us, and at other times we choose them by admiring them.

When we respect someone’s intelligence, we are prone to second-guess ourselves before we second-guess them. The assumption here is that they know more than we do and that we must defer.

I admit, I am held captive by the minds of many people. But, dear reader, we are captives by choice. When the teacher’s insight ceases to be sufficient, we can and should abandon it in favor of another. The trouble is that this can happen in a negative direction. Through peer pressure, we can be held captive by bad teachers and bad habits. Our bosses, our colleagues, our husbands — their opinion holds authority in our eyes. Because of this, they can corrupt us. And we can corrupt them.

Hutchins was right in being worried.

The traits he emphasized — courage, temperance, liberality, honor, justice, wisdom, reason and understanding — are hard to come by through our social networks. That is our challenge, dear reader — to withstand the corruption of our morals and to resist the temptation to give up on our ideals for practicality’s sake. I failed the other day in that meeting. To help me get my spirits up, I recall what Chet Newland, who teaches at the University of Southern California, told me once — that there is no distinction between the best theory and the best practice. They are one and the same.

It is something I hold on to for when the acidity of the “real world” most threatens my ideals. But when I am really dragged down, I put on Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares.” Nothing does the job as well as 30 minutes of Ramsay demanding, “Where is the fire in your belly?!”

Hector Najera is a graduate student studying education.

Daily Herald City & State the Brown

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Jitney service at URI comes under fire

By KAT THORNTON Senior Staff Writer

The Rogue Island Jitney — a newly proposed shuttle service that would take University of Rhode Island students back and forth from their campus to Narragansett hot spots — is currently facing opposition from the Narragansett Town Council and the university.

The service, if permitted to operate, would bring students to three Narragansett bars and restaurants.

The Public Utilities Commission approved the service in January, but URI appealed the action Feb. 1. The appeal will now go to the Providence Superior Court. Adam Combies, the jitney’s creator, said he will not start operating the service until the court decides the appeal.

Jason Pina, dean of students and assistant vice president of student affairs at URI, said the school testified against the Rogue Island Jitney because it would encourage underage drinking and create an unsafe environment for students.

Pina said the university appealed the decision on the basis that “access to (university) property had not been approved.”

The Narragansett Town Council passed a resolution denouncing the jitney Feb. 7.

Combies said he came up with the idea after friends at URI consistently brought up the issue of “how to go out.” He said he does

not intend for his proposed service to be “adversarial,” adding that he wants to work with URI and the surrounding community to find a “happy medium.”

State Sen. James Sheehan, DNarragansett and North Kingstown — who wrote a letter denouncing the jitney to the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education — said it is “dancing awful close” to an illegal pub crawl.

But, according to Combies, the service does not fit that definition because it only transports 15 people at a time — not the 50 that would constitute a pub crawl by law.

Sheehan said taking the bus might encourage students to drink more than they should, leading to “rowdy behavior” and assault issues.

Sheehan also criticized the jitney’s 15-person capacity as too low.

“If this is supposed to be a humanitarian effort, why would he leave people in the cold?” Sheehan asked.

But the idea is popular with students at URI. David Coates, student senate president, said the senate will discuss the issue this week.

The “opposition is really offbase on this one,” Coates said. “No one has pointed their fingers at the establishments,” he said, referring to the bars and restaurants that he said allow students to buy excessive amounts of alcohol and are responsible for checking identification.

Coates rejected the opposition’s concern about binge drinking,

which he said does not only concern students.

“If we can take 45 people off the road every weekend, I think it’s a great thing,” Coates said.

Combie said preventing drunk driving is the service’s purpose. He added that the town council and URI have brought up valid points, but he does not think the jitney will contribute to a “culture of excessive alcohol consumption.”

Combie said he will work with the Public Utilities Commission to work out the “kinks” and alleviate concerns. “It’s certainly feasible that everyone that wants a ride home can get a ride home,” he said. “I don’t want to leave anyone out in the cold.”

Jane Tracy ’14 said she did not see a need for a similar service at Brown. “I don’t think there’s a club scene here at Brown, at least not that I’ve been exposed to,” she said.

She added that she would not be opposed to a shuttle like the jitney, but that she does not know if she would use it.

But a shuttle between campus and downtown would be useful because students sometimes have difficulty finding cabs, Sarah Levy ’12 said.

Emma Thorne ’12 said that for new students, first-years and transfers, it is easy to get lost on the way back to campus from downtown and a shuttle could help alleviate those issues.

UCS considers permanent e-mail accounts

By Anna Lillkung Staff Writer

The Undergraduate Council of Students is trying to institute a policy in which student e-mail accounts could remain active after their owners have graduated. The idea was suggested by Jake Heimark ’11, who said he was tired of having to keep in contact by phone with friends who had graduated.

After students graduate, their brown.edu accounts are deactivated and cannot be accessed. Alums can set up e-mail accounts with alumni.brown.edu, but doing so requires a certain amount of effort and fewer people choose to do it, Heimark said.

Heimark met last semester with Christopher Collins ’11, chair of the UCS Admissions and Student Services Committee, to determine if and how they should keep working on the project. “It is nothing but good for Brown if people continue using their Brown accounts after graduation,” Heimark said, because future leaders would continue to be associated with the University later on in life. Many students have already expressed

support for the proposal, Heimark said.

Logistically, there have not appeared to be many “technical barriers,” Heimark said. Computing and Information Services has already implemented “e-mail for life,” Collins said, which means exact e-mail addresses can never be repeated in the Brown Gmail domain.

campus news Northwestern University has started using this new system and appears to have been successful, according to both Heimark and Collins. Northwestern students are able to choose whether or not they want to keep their university e-mail accounts, set up alumni accounts or do both. Heimark said it would be optimal if these options were available to students in time for the upcoming graduation in May. The project has received some opposition because it would not be possible to know which e-mail addresses belong to current students and employees and which do not, Collins said. But by keep-

ing their student e-mail addresses, alums can stay connected to the University, which Collins said is “important to feel.”

The University’s current Electronic Mail Policy also poses an obstacle to the project, Heimark said, adding that it was instated before student e-mail accounts were hosted by Google. The next step of the project is to change this policy in collaboration with the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel, Heimark said.

The planning group has also informed the Office of Alumni Relations about the project but has not received a response, Collins said.

More universities are interested in the possibility of keeping their school e-mail accounts activated, Collins said, noting that along with Northwestern, Columbia also maintains university email addresses for the purpose of forwarding incoming e-mails to alumni accounts. Dartmouth is working on a similar project, and students have been “enthusiastic” about this possibility, said Susan Zaslaw, Dartmouth’s associate director of administrative computing.

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Twin River Casino seeks more games, revenue

By ELIZABETH CARR Staff Writer

Twin River Casino, a slot parlor in Lincoln, R.I., is considering expanding to add table games such as blackjack and poker to its repertoire.

A study commissioned by the casino found that the addition of 125 tables would result in a $69 million revenue increase and 660 new jobs on site and in the surrounding community, not including temporary construction jobs, according to Patti Doyle, a Twin River spokeswoman.

With economic benefits in mind, 57 percent of members of the Rhode Island chapter of the Smaller Business Association of New England voted in favor of supporting the effort of Twin River to become a full-fledged casino.

Members “feel that there is a lot of money lost (to) other states, particularly Connecticut, by not having a full-fledged casino in the state,” said Phil Papoojian, vice-chairman of the chapter.

On its website, Twin River advertises itself as “a great alternative to Connecticut casinos.”

In 2010 the Massachusetts state legislature rejected a proposal to authorize the creation of three fullblown casinos, but the proposal is now under consideration again.

“Were there to be full casinos in Massachusetts, Twin Rivers should become a full casino as well to remain competitive,” said Michael Trainor, director of communications for Governor Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14.

Trainor said the expansion would also benefit the state by increasing tax revenue. “The state receives 60 cents for every dollar paid out to Twin River,” Trainor said. Last year that revenue amounted to $260 million, he added.

With these benefits in mind, Chafee would be expected to support the measure, Trainor said, though “he has no official position on this yet because there has been no legislation

filed.” He added that Chafee “does not see much difference between what already exists at Twin River and what a casino would be.”

But the Narragansett Indian tribe — which currently receives compensation because they have been prevented from building their own casino — should be “at the table in discussions” if gambling does indeed expand in Rhode Island and should receive additional revenue, Trainor said.

He also said the conversion to a full casino would set a precedent.

“The other slot parlor in Rhode Island is in Newport — it’s called the Newport Grand — and it, too, could ask for table games to be added to its facility,” said Trainor. But he added that Newport Grand has not indicated any interest in such an expansion.

Trainor said the residents of Lincoln might be opposed to the expansion for fear of increased traffic and the potential for crime, such as prostitution, that can accompany casinos.

But according to Doyle, the Lincoln Town Council supported putting the expansion to a state-wide ballot question last year. The question — which would have overridden a veto by then-governor Donald Carcieri ’65 of a bill allowing table games at the casino — never made it to the ballot last year.

Doyle said many residents had been concerned about traffic when Twin River began operating 24 hours a day last year, but the casino has not received significant traffic complaints. She said prostitution is “absolutely not” an issue.

“It’s a very well-regulated facility,” Doyle said, adding that the casino employs its own security force in addition to receiving support from the Lincoln Police Department.

Despite a favorable political climate, the expansion could potentially be years away. “There’s no timetable attached to the conversation,” she said.