Daily
Herald
the Brown
vol. cxlvi, no. 31
Friday, March 11, 2011
Since 1891
U. planning residential overhaul
Housing to be renovated, expanded
By Shefali Luthra Senior Staff Writer
only one available, said Abby Schreiber ’11, BCA’s booking chair. “We were told that weekend or no weekend.” In an e-mail to The Herald, Schreiber wrote that the University chose the weekend a year in advance, while the dates of Coachella were announced only seven
Chancellor Emeritus Stephen Robert ’62 P’91 pledged $1 million to the student activities endowment yesterday and has promised to lead fundraising towards its $17 million goal. Robert called President Ruth Simmons yesterday morning to discuss the endowment, created by the Undergraduate Council of Students, after reading yesterday’s Herald editorial critiquing the lack of contributions to the fund, he said. The brainchild of Ryan Lester ’11, a former UCS student activities chair, the endowment was created two years ago in an effort to reduce the $178 student activities fee currently paid annually by undergraduates. Simmons provided the endowment’s first — and until now, only — donation, personally giving $100,000 soon after the endowment was established. “I thought, ‘this is ridiculous,’” Robert said of the fund’s stagnation. In particular, he cited concerns that with rising tuition and other auxiliary costs, the student activities fee might make it harder for students to “make ends meet.” “It’s just another little burden that it would be better if students didn’t have to carry,” Robert said. UCS President Diane Mokoro ’11 said she hoped Robert’s donation would jump-start the endow-
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By Greg Jordan-Detamore Senior Staff Writer
In an effort to increase both the amount and quality of undergraduate on-campus housing, the University is renovating the building at 315 Thayer St. and considering several possible spaces for new residence halls which, while still years away, would be part of a “larger plan” for revamping the housing system, according to Stephen Maiorisi, vice president for Facilities Management. The basic design for the renovated building at 315 Thayer is complete, though some design details still need to be finalized, Maiorisi said. “We’re getting ready to hire a design-build company,” he said. Construction will begin in August and should be completed by the summer of 2012 so continued on page 3
Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald
Proposed residential communities would center first-year students in Keeney and on Pemboke Campus.
Communities may consolidate first-years By Joseph Rosales Senior Staff Writer
The Office of Residential Life has initiated discussion about possible reorganization and expansion of campus residence and dining halls. The ideas proposed include moving all first-years to either Keeney Quandrangle or Pembroke Campus, expanding the Verney-Woolley
Dining Hall, renovating the Sharpe Refectory and constructing new residence halls for upperclassmen. ResLife staff and Residential Council members said they hope to have more concrete proposals in time for the Corporation meeting in May. “We have had on-going, larger discussions about what the makeup of the residential community will look like,” said Richard Bova, se-
nior associate dean of residential and dining services. “We are simply in the beginning stages of those discussions with ResCouncil and others.” One of the main proposals on the table is the creation of first-year communities. All first-years would live in either Keeney or Pembroke, continued on page 3
BCA: Spring Weekend lineup limited by Coachella Festival By Miriam Furst Staff Writer
Despite skepticism from students, members of the Brown Concert Agency remain confident in their selections for Spring Weekend 2011. BCA’s Monday night announcement that Diddy-Dirty Money and TV on the Radio will headline
Student activities endowment to get $1M
Spring Weekend sparked mixed emotions in students. Reports of excitement, disappointment and speculations about the influence of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival were heard around campus. The Spring Weekend concerts fall on the same weekend as Coachella, scheduled for April 15 and 16. Serin Seckin ’11, BCA’s ad-
ministrative chair, said in a March 7 Herald article that many of the bands students requested on the BCA website were not available because they were playing at Coachella. The University decides the dates of Spring Weekend without BCA’s input. Due to scheduling issues like spring break and Easter, the weekend chosen was the
PW drama draws the audience in ‘Closer’
Nick Sinnot-Armstrong / Herald
inside
PW’s “Closer” lets its audience examine the experience of a relationship.
news...................2-3 SPorts...................4 editorial..............6 Opinions...............7 Arts.........................8
15-minute fame Mini-musical festival features grizzly bears, political races arts, 4
The stage is softly aglow beneath deep red lights. Cigarette smoke wafts toward the audience. Viewers cannot help but feel like intruders as a scantily clad woman dances before an obviously emotional man. “Tell me something true,” he implores. “Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off — but it’s better if she is,” she cheekily replies. “Closer” — opening tonight at Production Workshop — begs the question: How well can people actually know their partner? Buried beneath the deceptions and secrets of relationships, one can never be sure who they are with and how far they are willing to go to discover the truth.
The exquisitely written play by Patrick Marber puts the intersecting lives of two couples under the audience’s scrutiny. There is the vivaciously vulnerable Alice (Nora Rothman ’13), sharp Anna (Madison Utendahl ’13), self-absorbed Dan (Justin Kuritzkes ’12) and insecure
Arts & Culture Larry (Sam Barasch ’12). Together, they experience extreme circumstances of love, lust, rejection and loss over the course of several years in London. “The exciting thing about theater,” said Director Sean Patrick McGowan ’12, “is that it shows you people at their darkest, most vulnerable … and yet shows you that that’s you
D&C
Alpert Medical School gets coal — find out why Diamonds & coal, 6
weather
By Kristina Fazzalaro Arts & Culture Editor
up there.” The play puts its characters in extreme situations, but they never lose their humanity — audience members are sucked into the plot as twists and turns arise after every dimming of the lights. The improbability of the characters’ actions only heightens the anticipation and involvement of the audience in the play itself. As McGowan aptly said, “you get lost” in the play’s captivating storyline. “Closer” opens with Dan and Alice meeting on the streets of London after Alice is struck by a cab. The two tease and flirt: “I noticed your leg was bleeding,” Dan says. “Did you notice my legs?” Alice replies. More than a year later, Anna is continued on page 5
t o d ay
tomorrow
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