Monday, March 14, 2011

Page 1

Daily

Herald

the Brown

Monday, March 14, 2011

vol. cxlvi, no. 32

Students, prof safe in Japan

Since 1891

Transfer class to grow by 50

I m m i g r at i o n s a lu tat i o n

By Nicole Boucher News Editor

By Katherine Long Staff Writer

A professor and three students studying abroad in Kyoto, Japan, are safe after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake Friday triggered a tsunami that hit Japan’s northeastern coast. While the students studying abroad were more than 450 miles from the epicenter, 18 current undergraduates list Japan as their home residence, according to a March 11 University press release. Most of their relatives live near Tokyo, which was moderately affected by the earthquake, but several undergrads also have non-immediate family members who live in the devastated Tohoku region, said Rie Yamamoto ’11, co-president of the Japanese Cultural Association. Yamamoto said the cultural association contacted its members this weekend, and most students have been able to reach family members who said they were safe and unaffected by the earthquake. “Tokyo is for the most part up and running already, so our family members are fine, but what other Japanese citizens are going through right now is beyond our imagination,” Yamamoto wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. continued on page 5

bered as “one of the most talented football classes to ever graduate from Brown,” four former Bear standouts — Sewall, James Develin ’10, David Howard ’09.5 and Buddy Farnham ’10 — are all getting shots in the big leagues. “Making that team was the best moment of my life,” said Develin, a member of the Cincinnati Bengals’ practice squad. “It was pouring down rain, I was sleepy, tired and sore, but I’ve never felt better.” “It really was a great feeling,” said Sewall, a practice squad wide receiver on the Tennessee Titans. “I was honestly just excited to get a call and show them what I could do.” But their transitions to the NFL have been far from smooth. After signing with the Titans, Sewall, a former first team All-Ivy receiver, was released by the club during final cuts before the season began. Since then, he has been working out with several teams,

Herald file photo

The Corporation approved an increase of about 50 to the number of admitted transfer students for the 2011-12 school year at its Feb. 12 meeting. The increase is designed to stabilize the number of enrolled undergraduates at 6,000 without sapping any first-year-specific resources, according to Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98. Those resources include firstyear dormitories, space in first-year seminars and first-year advisers. The number of admitted first-years will increase slightly from 1,485 to 1,500, according to a Feb. 25 Herald article. Kertzer said the prospect of additional revenue was a deciding factor in the University’s decision to increase the number of transfer students. Transfer students are admitted need-aware, not needblind, so increasing the number of transfer students could increase the University’s revenue from tuition, he said. While tuition will rise 3.5 percent to $53,136, the total revenue from undergraduate tuition is expected to increase 4.8 percent next year — from $235,376,000 to $246,576,000 — according to the annual budget report of the University Resources Committee. Other financial aid restrictions mean that increasing the number of transfer students is cost-effective for the University. Transfer students who request financial aid are automatically placed in the highest loan bracket regardless of their parents’ income levels, meaning they get fewer scholarships and more loans, according to a Sept. 25, 2007, Herald article. If they do not apply for financial aid in their first year at the University, they are not eligible to apply in subsequent years. “The University has a set amount of financial aid dollars available for transfer students. If admissions officers admit students whose financial situation requires them to use up all that aid before deciding on all the transfer students they want to admit, then they can only admit transfer students who have no demonstrated need,” Kertzer said. Last spring, the Office of Admission planned to increase this year’s transfer class by 50 students, but administrators decided not to do so when fewer students studied abroad

continued on page 7

Buddy Farnham ’10, the 2010 Ivy League player of the year, is on the practice squad of the New England Patriots, the team he has rooted for since childhood.

continued on page 2

Anna Gaissert / Herald

President Simmons welcomed participants Saturday morning to a symposium on immigration, five days after the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions released a poll on immigration issues. See full coverage on page 3.

Hitchner ’10 survived by network of friends By Jake Comer Senior Staff Writer

Jason Hitchner ’10 died in his sleep late Wednesday. An advocate for social causes during his time at Brown, Hitchner was described by those who knew him as a friendly and passionate young man. Hitchner’s friends and family celebrated his remarkable ability to look at the world from diverse and profound perspectives. They remembered his creativity, his intellect and his wonderful sense of humor. They admired his openness to the world and his courage and confidence in exploring it. They treasured his gift of making those

around him feel comfortable and appreciated and the habit he had of bringing the people he loved closer together. Hitchner’s friends alluded frequently to his extraordinary friendliness. He never had trouble making friends, they said, no matter where he was or what he was doing there. “I don’t think there was ever anyone that ever had any problems with him,” said Gregory Anderson ’10, who lived with Hitchner on Keeney Quadrangle during their first year. This friendliness took Hitchner far — he spent the first semester of his junior year abroad in Melbourne and decided to stay

second semester as well. He spent three months after graduation touring Europe and visiting the friends he had made in Australia. Hitchner participated in Brown’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Students for a Democratic Society and Students for Sensible Drug Policy. “He was very committed to progressive social issues,” Anderson said. “He was a very excited person” no matter what he was doing, he added. “He would make pop culture sound really intelligent when we would watch Lady Gaga videos,” continued on page 3

By Azar Kheraj Contributing Writer

It’s fourth-and-goal. You’re down by five with just 10 seconds left on the clock. Eleven enormous and entirely imaginary men stand between you and the freshly raked pile of leaves signifying your makeshift end zone. Super Bowl glory is yours for the taking.

Sports

inside

It is a childhood dream common in this football-crazed country. From city streets to suburban backyards, rural farms to vacated lots, children dream of one day donning an NFL uniform. Most never get the chance — they are too clumsy, too small or too slow to make the leap from backyard believer to weekend warrior. But for four members of Brown’s 2010 team, the dream hasn’t died. As members of what Bobby Sewall ’10 hopes will be remem-

news...................2-5 Arts........................6 editorial.............10 Opinions.............11 SPORTS..................12

FYS-zle

Go unhemmed

Saving Sarah

Surge in first-year seminars fizzles at 74

Student-run magazine lets fashionistas shine

Brown students play into Palin’s hands

Campus news, 3

arts & CULTURE, 6

opinions, 11

weather

Four alums fight their way onto NFL practice squads

t o d ay

tomorrow

43 / 19

48 / 34


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Monday, March 14, 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald - Issuu