Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Daily

the Brown

vol. cxlvi, no. 75

Herald

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Since 1891

Achebe joins Africana writers on historic panel Partnership

By Tonya Riley Contributing Writer

African music percolated with excited chatter as a crowd waited to hear Professor of Africana Studies Chinua Achebe kick off the Department of Africana Studies 2011-12 Conversations in Africana Writing Series Monday. Achebe and other authors were featured in a panel titled “Voice and Memory in the Poetic Imagination” at the George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space, which was filled to capacity with academics, students, writers and community members.

Along with Achebe, Brenda Marie Osbey, visiting professor of Africana studies, and poet Gabriel Okara spoke about the importance of Africana culture during a time when traditional African values

to fill shelves in bankrupt city’s school

are being forgotten amid cultural diffusion. Okara received the 1979 Commonwealth Poetry Prize. He flew to Providence from his native Nigeria for the event.

The event made history, as it was the first time Achebe, best known for his novel, “Things Fall Apart,” and Okara have spoken together in a discussion panel, said Corey Walker, associate professor and chair of the Africana studies department.

The poetry of both Achebe and Okara depicts Africa, while Osbey’s focuses on the African experience in colonial America.

Many of the poems had humanitarian implications. One of the poems Achebe read, “Refugee Mother and Child,” was inspired

Peiyu Wu / Herald

continued on page 2

Chinua Achebe, left, and prominent writers addressed Africana culture during a panel yesterday before a full-capacity crowd.

By alexandra macfarlane Staff Writer

The President’s Staff Advisory Council, in partnership with the Brown Bookstore, is launching a pilot program to collect book donations to put 500 books in the new library at a Central Falls middle school, the Segue Institute for Learning.

city & state

statement in support of the proposal Sunday. In his statement, the governor said he is “proud that, for young people across our state, the Board of Governors will soon be removing a needless roadblock to

The Brown Bookstore will offer customers the chance to donate books — either a personal preference or one chosen from the wish list provided by the Segue Institute — at a discount of 15 percent until Dec. 31, said Heather Hower, chair of the Staff Advisory Council. For each book purchased for the school, customers will receive 15 percent off their next purchase at the bookstore.

The Segue Institute is a charter school that opened in 2009. Its library is currently unfinished, said Angelo Garcia, co-founder and head of the school. This project will help fill the library and demonstrate the importance of reading and literacy to Segue students, he said. Central Falls, which filed for bankruptcy in July,

continued on page 4

continued on page 2

Former R.I. undocumented students’ tuition changed attended by advocates on both sides enacted the change through an exprofessor of the issue, took place at the Vin ecutive branch decision rather than Cullen Field House on the Com- through legislation. It joins 12 other warns of Following many hours of heated munity College of Rhode Island’s states that currently offer undocudebate Monday night, the Warwick campus. Supporters of mented students in-state tuition. technology’s public Rhode Island Board of Governors expanding in-state tuition for A committee of the board of for Higher Education voted unani- undocumented students argued governors recommended passing mously to allow undocumented that students should not bear the the measure last week, and Gov. dangers responsibility for circumstances Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 issued a

By Nicole Grabel Contributing Writer

city & state

The University honored its 150-year-old Federal Depository Library yesterday with a ceremony and a cautionary talk on technology by former political science professor Darrell West.

West taught political science from 1982 to 2008 and served as director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions from 2000 to 2008 before taking his current job as vice president and director of governance studies and director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institute.

Though West touched on the benefits of recent technological advances — notably the role of social media in the Arab Spring — his lecture focused on technology’s dangers, comparing public use of facial recognition software to “George Orwell’s vision” in “1984.”

Society faces “unprecedented challenges from the Internet,” West said. He explained that the Clinton White House, under the leadership of Chief Internet Policy Adviser Ira Magaziner ’69 P’06 P’07 P’10, applied a “libertarian policy” in 1997 and allowed the private sector to determine the development of

inside

continued on page 3

news....................2-3 CITY & State........4-5 editorial............6 Opinions.............7 SPORTS..................8

students in Rhode Island to pay in-state tuition to attend public colleges and universities. The change will go into effect for the 2012 fall semester.

The meeting, which was well-

out of their control and that non-citizens deserve a chance to get a college degree at an affordable price. Critics of the proposal contended that a legislative vote — rather than an unelected body — should decide the issue. Rhode Island is now the only state to have

Drive-in: More food trucks hit College Hill streets

By Sophia seawell Staff Writer

Students tired of eating dinner at the Sharpe Refectory or in need a late-night snack are more likely than ever to find a food truck nearby to fill their stomachs. In addition to staples such as Mama Kim’s, the campus now hosts a number of new trucks whose options are not limited to food.

city & state Mijos, which serves Mexican food, began frequenting campus around five weeks ago, said owner Pete Gobin. Gobin, who grew up in Pawtucket, was an executive chef in Los Angeles, Calif., where he “got acquainted with tacos and fell in love with Mexican food.”

When he returned to Providence, he found a gap in the market he

thought he could fill.

“I thought maybe there would be a lot of students from California who might miss real tacos,” he said.

Gobin said business has been fantastic. “It’s getting better every week,” he added.

Providence Coffee Roasters provides students with another on-wheels option. The truck, which serves fair trade and organic coffee and pastries, is an expansion of Providence Coffee Roasters Cafe in Riverside.

“We decided to go mobile due to the whole food truck craze,” said Jevon Chan, one of the owners of the business. “Brown is our first hit, and it’s been fun.”

Business in the truck’s first two weeks has been “just under expectations,” he said. But he “would

Dave Deckey / Herald

continued on page 5

Providence Coffee Roasters co-owner Jevon Chan set up shop on campus two weeks ago. The truck offers fair trade and organic coffee and pastries.

GoogleMinus Fight To Party Ten Years Brown Gmail accounts will not include Google+ access

Campus news, 2

Narragansett police crack down on college partying

City & State, 5

Ian Trupin ’12 honors worker rights

Opinions, 7

weather

By Izzy Rattner Contributing Writer

t o d ay

tomorrow

76 / 60

71 / 64

2 Campus News calendar Today

september 27

12 P.m.

ToMORROW

september 28

6 p.m.

Diversity Festival,

“300 Pages to Read by Tuesday,”

Andrews Dining Hall

Sharpe Refectory Annex

4 p.m.

10 p.m.

“From Brown to Hollywood,”

Jazz Jam at the Underground,

Petteruti Lounge

The Underground

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Fish and Chips, Stuffed Quahogs with Lemon Wedges, Clam Cakes, Corn on the Cob, Apple Pie

Chinese Chicken Wings, Vegan Stir Fried Vegetables, Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies

DINNER Grilled Turkey Burger with Bulkie Roll, Black Bean and Spinach Soft Taco, Vegan Brownies

Meat Tortellini with Sauce, Vegetable Frittata, Curry Chicken Saute, Vegan Brownies

Sudoku

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, September 27, 2011

No Google+ for Brown Gmail users

By Katherine Cusumano Contributing Writer

Google+ was not among the 10 Google Apps made available to Brown Gmail users by Computing and Information Services July 14. The social network is not yet available to Google Apps, the service through which Brown Gmail is run.

Even if Google does expand Google+ to Google Apps, the University may not activate it for Brown Gmail, said Stephanie Obodda, assistant manager for communication and computer education.

Students cannot use their Brown Gmail accounts to create Google+ profiles. They must either use a separate Gmail account or a completely distinct domain.

Google is “working to bring features in the Google+ project to

Google Apps users in the future,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email to The Herald.

The only apps currently available to Brown Gmail accounts are those deemed to be relevant to education, Obodda said, adding that the school would have to examine the implications of Google+ and, “most importantly, what control we would have.”

In its July statement, CIS restated that the University would maintain the ability to access all content created in Google under a Brown Gmail account. Still, the University cannot arbitrarily look into user accounts — “it’s not just someone who’s browsing through stuff for fun,” Obodda said.

There is a regulated system controlling access to any Brown Gmail account. Accounts are usually accessed in response to employee absence or legal action,

according to the CIS website. Access requires approval from senior University officials, such as the Department of Public Safety’s chief of police.

Originally available by invitation only, Google+ opened signups to the public Sept. 20.

Daniel Audette ’15 said he felt the design of the site is decent, though he does not use certain aspects of Google+, such as the separation of contacts into distinct groups. “I’m friends with everyone,” he said.

Google+ allows users to differentiate contacts into circles, or levels of friendship.

Roie Levin ’15 said “the whole idea of circles is much more intuitive.” In Google+, it is possible to restrict the information a user gives out to only certain groups, which Levin said he found advantageous.

Project promotes literacy in bankrupt city continued from page 1

Cr ossword

is the state’s smallest and poorest city.

The project is “an innovative way to help them meet their targeted needs,” said Tanitia Sello, director of budget and finance in the graduate school, who spearheaded the partnership.

The Department of Education contacted the advisory council in January to ask the council to take on the project, Sello said. The department viewed the initiative as a pilot program for a larger literacy project that will extend to other schools called “Building Rhode Island — Book by Book,” she said.

Reading specialists, teachers and librarians at the institute compiled the wish list, Garcia said. The list contains not only academic titles, but also books for “pleasure reading” to expand students’ horizons, Hower said.

The advisory council and the bookstore will use Morning Mail, posters and banners in the book-

brown.edu

Bookstore customers will be able to purchase books for a local school at a discounted rate.

store to advertise the initiative to students, faculty and community members.

A kick-off event in the book-

store, featuring readings and visits

by Segue Institute officials, teachers and students will take place Friday at 4 p.m.

Africana Writing Series kicks off with poetry continued from page 1 by a haunting vision he had of a refugee camp. Okara’s “Waiting for A Son” is about a mother who continues to wait after 20 years for a son who will never return from

Daily

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the Nigerian Civil War. Osbey, a Louisiana native, tackled the more contemporary subject of Hurricane Katrina in her poem “Litany of Our Lady,” which is reminiscent of a traditional Catholic prayer but addresses con-

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temporary black struggles. Osbey was the poet laureate of Louisiana in 2005 and won the American Book Award in 1998.

There were some lighter moments during the evening, such as when Achebe related a story about Queen Elizabeth II of England requesting his permission to quote from “Beware Soul Brother,” one of his poems, in a speech to the leaders of the Commonwealth. The audience laughed when Achebe said it “gave him an opportunity to name drop” and then he promised to quit telling the story.

Though Achebe was the most well-known of the speakers, the three poets shared time equally.

“I write poems as a way of observing and understanding the world around me,” said Osbey.

“We’re bearing the burden of our experience, and putting my poetry out there shares the burden.”

Campus News 3

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Program markets College Hill homes

By Kyle McNamara Staff Writer

Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

Former professor Darrell West compared public use of facial recognition software to “George Orwell’s vision” in “1984” in a talk yesterday.

Former professor warns of lax Internet security continued from page 1 the Internet. West said this policy decision created an unregulated environment that allowed spam email and online theft to emerge.

Going forward, West advises citizens to apply common sense when using the Internet. He said Internet users should be mindful of password security — West, for example, has 42 unique passwords.

He argued that further legal protections for Internet users are unlikely due to congressional gridlock, adding that the courts tend to intervene only in the case of extreme examples of aggressive online marketing.

“People just need to take security much more seriously than they do,” he said.

Discussion during the question and answer section shifted toward politics and the upcoming election season. West said he is not convinced President Obama could beat former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He compared the upcoming election to that of 1936, when national unemployment was significantly higher, but said the president lacks the communication skills of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won reelection that year.

The event was held in honor of Alice Bobb Brendel ’67, who served

as reference librarian, shared resources librarian and government documents coordinator from 1982 to 1991 when she died.

The majority of the roughly 60 attendees in Salomon 101 were library staffers. The event received mixed reactions. Calvin Oyer, clinical associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, said the lecture “didn’t stick to the topic.” A former member of the government library staff, Yvonne Marie Federowicz, currently senior library specialist for web services, was disappointed that the talk did not discuss technology’s impact on the dissemination of federal government documents.

But Aaron Weinstein GS, who said he came because he was interested in technology, said he enjoyed the talk. Daniel O’Mahony, director of library planning and assessment, who delivered the introduction, said West is “always fun.”

Vivian Spencer, who works for Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, presented an American flag that was flown at Whitehouse’s request above the Capitol in Washington, D.C., July 29 to mark the 150th anniversary of the University officially housing a Federal Depository Library.

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Brown plans to put more than 20 houses on the market to sell to faculty and staff at 80 percent of their assessed market value.

The Brown Ownership Program — launched in 2006 to renovate under-used Brown-owned houses on College Hill — will be a “good way to put houses back on tax roll and allow faculty to live near campus,” said Michael McCormick, assistant vice president for planning, design and construction.

The University has sold five houses so far, and currently has one more listed.

Buyers can only sell their houses back to the University and must then sell them for 80 percent of their current values. If multiple employees want to buy the same property from the University, a committee will choose the owner since the price is fixed.

McCormick said the University could buy back any of the houses from their original purchasers if

it gives owners eight years’ notice.

All subsequent residents would only receive three years’ notice before the University could buy back the house.

The houses are concentrated in the geographic areas of Brown Street and Bowen Street to create a better transition from Brown’s campus to the Providence neighborhoods, McCormick said.

Karen Newman, professor of comparative literature, purchased one of the first set of houses sold under the program. She used to live on the East Side, but moved to teach at New York University for five years. After returning to Brown, she said she did not want another large house now that she and her husband had finished raising their daughter.

It was at this point that Rajiv Vohra P’07, former dean of the faculty, introduced Newman to the program. Because she became involved in the program at an early stage, the smaller house, located at 117 Brown Street, was still “in a state of disrepair.” Nonetheless,

she found the house “intriguing.”

As she continued to scour the East Side for a home, she found the only listings were either for big houses or student rentals.

Much of the house was torn down and rebuilt according to the original placement of rooms. Newman was also “very interested in building a sustainable house” and worked with the University to conform energy efficient appliances to the renovation budget. Some of the energy efficiency costs, such as the LEED certification, fell into the lap of Newman. “It’s basically a new house now,” she said.

Though she has yet to undergo a winter in the newly refurbished house, Newman said she is happy she became involved with the program and enjoys the added benefits of being able to walk to her office and attend more events on campus.

McCormick joked that the goals of this program are to create neighborhoods of houses that Brown employees can buy as an alternative to lengthy commutes.

Keeping kosher, but not with meal plans

By Hannah Loewentheil Contributing Writer

Though the University offers two meal plans for students who keep kosher, the plans are on few students’ radars. Only 20 students are enrolled in the plans this year, a slight decrease from last year.

Brown Dining Services offers both a 14-meals-per-week kosher plan and a Flex 20 kosher plan, which was added three years ago to give students more options at campus eateries.

The Flex 20 plan costs about $300 more than the 14-meals-perweek plan, but the variations in the options are minimal. Of the 20 students on kosher plans, 18 are on the Flex 20 plan.

The University has been offering some form of kosher meal plan since 1994, said Gretchen Willis, director of dining services. Before that, students who kept kosher ate their meals through the Brown/ RISD Hillel. When students complained that their mealtimes felt

antisocial and removed from the Sharpe Refectory, Dining Services stepped in. “Dining Services made a meal plan so that students could observe the kosher laws and eat with friends,” Willis said.

Since the switch, students participating in the kosher plan eat catered meals from the Ratty on weekdays. On Saturdays, Sundays and Jewish holidays, the meal plan covers meals served at Hillel, Willis said. The kosher plan is more expensive than other meal plans because the University purchases rationed meals for each student on the plan. Kosher meals must be prepared in kosher kitchens, but the University does not have a kosher kitchen on campus. An off-campus chef prepares kosher meals, which students can then pick up in a separate room at the Ratty that requires a special key for access.

The Flex plan covers lunch and dinner in the Ratty, and then offers six Flex meals, which students can use in eateries including Josiah’s,

the Ivy Room, the Gate and the Blue Room. Willis acknowledged that students who are strict observers of kosher law would probably not benefit from this meal plan because most of these eateries do not have kosher options. The meals prepared at Hillel and the catered meals at the Ratty are the only strictly kosher meals on campus, she said.

Willis said dining services notified students who were already enrolled in the old kosher plan about the new Flex plan when it was created three years ago. Samuel Schmelzer GS, who was on the kosher plan last year, said he was unaware of the Flex option for kosher students.

Schmelzer said he is thankful the kosher option exists, but there is still “room for improvement,” he added — “especially if you are leaning towards stricter standards.”

Marshall Einhorn, executive director of Hillel, said he was unaware of the Flex kosher meal option.

4 City & State

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Board Average statewide SAT scores drop approves Test prep enrollment numbers remain the same tuition measure

By Elizabeth carr Senior Staff Writer

continued from page 1 a brighter future.”

To qualify, individuals must have attended a Rhode Island high school for a minimum of three years and have graduated from the school or received the equivalent of a diploma. Students must also sign an affidavit stating they have filed, or will file as soon as they are eligible, for citizenship. The policy will apply to students attending the Community College of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island.

Average SAT scores for public school seniors in Rhode Island — and across the country — dropped this year, but the lower scores are not a reflection of intelligence, experts are saying.

College-bound public school seniors’ average scores dropped by three points to 482 in critical reading, by six points to 482 in mathematics and by four points to 474 in writing from last year, according to the College Board’s website.

Average scores for seniors attending public, independent or religious high schools only dropped in one category — mathematics — by two points. In critical reading and writing, the average rose by one

point.

“It doesn’t mean the kids are getting stupider,” said Mark Greenstein, founder and principal instructor of Ivy Bound Test Prep. “They’re forcing more kids to take the tests, and those kids have no business taking the test because they’re not going to a four-year college or university.”

Of the 21 states where Ivy Bound Test Prep offers courses, Rhode Island has the lowest levels of enrollment, Greenstein said — but he does not know why. “I’ve heard either Rhode Islanders are cheap, and Rhode Islanders don’t push their students to go to college as much as people in Boston or New York,” he said.

“It’s true that families in Rhode Island aren’t as likely to succumb to the pressure” of putting their child

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through rigorous test preparation as parents in more metropolitan areas, said Ralph Wales, headmaster of the Gordon School, an independent school in East Providence. “There isn’t the same level of concern in Rhode Island, but there is still a level of concern.”

Score comparisons indicate that Rhode Islanders fared similar on the test to students in Massachusetts or New York. Instead, scores in midwestern states, such as Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, best New England states by margins of around 100 points in each section of the test, according to the College Board website. The higher scores correspond to low participation rates in the region, where the ACT is the more prevalent college-entrance exam.

Classical High School, a public school in West Providence, defies the nationwide and statewide trend — the school has seen its students’ scores rise over the past few years.

While many students at Classical enroll in SAT-prep courses through the Princeton Review and Kaplan, Louis Toro, the school’s director of counseling and guidance, said the high scores reflect the more rigorous classroom experience offered at the exam school — a special school focused on preparing students for college.

“It’s curriculum-driven, and I think it’s letting more and more kids take part in (Advanced Placement) courses,” Toro said.

Hope High School, a public school in East Providence, advocates SAT prep through mailings and assemblies, but Jimps Jean, a counselor at the school, noted that many students struggle to complete those courses. “Some of the students that start with the SAT prep — they

don’t finish because of the responsibilities they have outside of the school,” he said.

“Testing is something that you learn how to do,” he added. When students take the test without sufficient practice, “it’s like coming to a foreign language,” he said.

Students now have the option of only submitting their best scores to colleges, so they are more likely to retake the exam, said Maya Bretzius ’12, co-director of ReadySetLearn, a program that helps low-income students around the country prepare for college.

Before, students were more hesitant to take the test without proper preparation because they did not want colleges to see lower scores.

The option of only sending the best scores to colleges now allows some students, especially more affluent ones, to take the test multiple times until they get their desired score, she said.

Eighty-seven percent of students who take the SAT do so no more than twice, wrote Kathleen Steinberg, spokesperson for the College Board, in an email to The Herald.

Of the remaining 13 percent, the majority do not take it more than three times.

Students are also preparing for the test earlier, Greenstein said.

“We’re almost a full year earlier in the cycle for getting prepped than 20 years ago.”

Bretzius suggested that people keep low scores in perspective. “It’s not like it’s the end of education in the U.S.,” she said.

She added that rising participation rates are a good sign. “More people are thinking about college and considering going to college than ever before,” she said.

City & State 5

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Golf teams face tough competition continued from page 8 from Kyohei Itamura ’14 (237), Ardell (238) and Peter Callas ’14 (242). The team recognized that if it wants to stay competitive with top-tier programs, it is going to need to have more rounds like its record-setting day at the Navy Classic, Ardell said.

Despite the disappointing showing at the Adams Cup, Ardell said the team feels “pretty confident this week” as it heads into the Hartford Invitational Sept. 26 and 27 after a short week of practice.

“It’s a weaker field this week, no top-25 programs,” Ardell said. “It’s a field we can match up against well.”

Food trucks sizzle on campus continued from page 1 love to expand further” and add a “graveyard shift,” he said, for students studying late at night.

Ian Gray ’12 called the coffee truck his “favorite food truck addition” because of its convenience.

Chan said he and his coowner “scoped out Brown for a while” before deciding to expand.

“There’s good coffee on Thayer,” he said, but noted the lack of mobile options.

As the number of trucks expand, their owners are finding that they complement — rather than compete with — one another.

“Mama Kim’s and I get along really well,” Gobin said. He cited a study by Technomic that suggested that food trucks parking closer together receive more business. Seventy-five percent of consumers who come across multiple food trucks parked together will purchase items from two or more of the trucks, according to a July 18 press release by Technomic.

The popular Korean food truck plans to expand to meet increased demand — what co-owner Hyun Kim ’01 called a “crescendo of up

Police fight to contain partying students

By Inni youh Staff Writer

Over a dozen police officers and four ambulances arrived at a University of Rhode Island fraternity party in South Kingston Thursday night when 500 people surrounded a fight that spread into the street.

Four people were arrested, and several students were injured. One police officer sustained a sprained ankle while making an arrest.

The recent incident coincides with police efforts in neighboring Narragansett to crack down on college partying and highlights the challenges law enforcement faces in policing rowdy college students who, in extreme cases, confuse the right to party with the right to fight.

This year, Narragansett police added three officers to a patrol shift from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. in an area with many URI off-campus houses. Last spring, Narragan-

sett passed an open-container law, which prohibits the possession of an open container of alcohol in a public place.

Providence police have also worked to keep partying students in check.

“Providence has had an opencontainer ordinance for several years and has enforced these ordinances pretty regularly,” said Mark Porter, Brown’s chief of police and director of public safety.

This year, the department received complaints from neighbors of Brown students living off-campus about red cups that students had thrown in streets and in private gardens after parties. “I do think we have a problem this year,” said Providence Police Lt. John Ryan.

The open-container law is not primarily targeted at students and is used to regulate people walking at night with open containers in parks and in the streets, Ryan said.

An Aug. 15 town ordinance

allows Narragansett police to impose a $400 fine per leaseholder for noise levels exceeding 65 decibels from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and 55 decibels from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Providence has a similar ordinance that makes illegal noise levels above 50 decibels between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. and 55 decibels between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.

“We use it every week,” Ryan said, adding that he enforced the ordinance six times in the previous week.

“The first couple weeks are tough because everybody wants to have fun, and sometimes students don’t realize that they are next to neighbors and are disturbing them,” Porter said.

Brown students generally “live up to the expectation of being a good neighbor,” Porter said. “But at times, we have issues dealing with noise, and Providence and Brown have taken a proactive approach in dealing with noise and with students living off-campus.”

to 1,000 customers a day.”

Over the summer, Mama Kim’s began frequenting downtown Providence. After realizing business there was just as good as on campus, the owners decided to order a second “mobile kitchen,” Kim said.

The owners are also aiming to establish a restaurant by the end of the year. “The idea stays the same — affordable gourmet food,” Kim said.

Mama Kim’s success has turned Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman it into a role model not only for other food trucks, but also for students.

“Mijos reached out to me and asked for advice,” Kim said. Brown students have also emailed him to discuss food truck ideas, such as a fresh vegetable truck and an Indian food truck. “I try to provide all advice possible,” he said.

“I support student initiatives.”

Raaj Parekh ’13 is working on creating an iPhone application to map the locations of local food Fraternity of Evil | Eshan Mitra, Brendan Hainline and Hector Ramirez trucks. “All of them have Twitter,” Parekh said, and his app would gather the information provided by updates and locate them on a map.

comics

6 Editorial Editorial Alpert goes Apple

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Editorial comic

What one-and-a-half pound structure are anatomy students at the Alpert Medical School handling with care at this very minute? Hint: It is not a human organ we’re talking about.

The Med School’s recent adoption of Apple iPads as required technology for incoming students is part of a growing national trend.

Stanford, Yale and Georgetown are just a few of the other schools which are reconfiguring their medical curricula around the iPad and encouraging students to take advantage of its functionality in clinical settings.

There is no shortage of advocates for the use of technology in medical education. After all, in a field so heavily dependent on the visualization of anatomical structures and physiological processes that are difficult to see, having a digital textbook that allows for clear images and their manipulation is undoubtedly helpful. It is easier and much more convenient to reach for a consolidated reference when attempting to digest such enormous amounts of material, and having multiple educational tools available at a single gesture aids in making connections across learning modules.

And hospitals are increasingly relying on the use of technology in clinics, with electronic medical records becoming a standard of care.

Doctors themselves are using iPads to double-check diagnoses, send prescriptions and display images during surgery. Also, the Yale Daily News reported that the iPad, with its remote locking and erasure feature, offers more security for highly sensitive patient information than a laptop. It is not unreasonable for our digitally savvy generation to be on the cutting edge while preparing for professional environments.

Yet we would emphasize a measure of caution in implementing an iPad-centered curriculum. The most obvious, perhaps, is the financial implication for medical students already overwhelmed by tuition loans. True, the weight of their backpacks may be less, but the burden of cost involved for students buying iPads is nothing to take lightly. In starting its iPad requirement, Stanford’s medical school had students rent the devices from the university instead of purchasing them. This was a smart move, especially given that the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that medical students had ambivalent reactions to a sudden jump to digital learning materials.

There is also a fine line between incorporating technology in the classroom or clinic and becoming dependent on it. Though the iPad is a powerful tool, most of us can attest to its capability as a powerful distraction. We would hate to see the next batch of physicians so engrossed in researching symptoms in real-time that they neglect the patients to whom those symptoms belong.

We applaud the Med School’s commitment to providing means for students to learn in novel ways, and its conscientiousness in soliciting student feedback throughout the process. But trying to keep up with the tech sphere’s continuous stream of updates and innovations may likely prove difficult. Thus, having a flexible and perhaps more gradual system in place for iPad use — such as offering a rental option or compatibility with multiple tablet operating systems — is in the best interest of students and administrators alike.

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

by melanie friedrichs

quote of the day

“I’m friends with everyone.”

— Daniel Audette ’15 See Google+ on page 2.

Clarification Due to an editing error, an article in Monday’s Herald (“Canvas slated to replace MyCourses,” Sept. 26) stated that efforts were underway to integrate course syllabi and tools like Banner into Canvas. While steps are being taken to integrate syllabi, and the University does hope to see integration of other tools, active integration efforts for these other tools are not currently underway.

Correction t h e b r ow n da i ly h e r a l d Editors-in-Chief

Managing Editors

Senior Editors

Sydney Ember Ben Schreckinger

Brigitta Greene Anne Speyer

Dan Alexander Nicole Friedman Julien Ouellet

editorial Kristina Fazzalaro Rebecca Ballhaus Claire Peracchio Talia Kagan Amy Rasmussen Tony Bakshi Alex Bell Ethan McCoy Ashley McDonnell Sam Rubinroit Anita Mathews Sam Carter Hunter Fast

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Copy Desk Chief Design Editor Design Editor Assistant Design Editor Web Producer

Business General Managers Matthew Burrows Isha Gulati

Office Manager Shawn Reilly

Directors Aditi Bhatia Danielle Marshak Margot Grinberg Lisa Berlin

Sales Finance Alumni Relations Special Projects

A front page photograph accompanying an article about the Fall Concert in Monday’s Herald (“Empty seats and dubstep beats at free Fall Concert,” Sept. 26) should have been credited to Glenn Lutzky. The Herald regrets the error.

Letters, please! letters@browndailyherald.com

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Opinions 7

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Celebrating 10 years of the Worker Rights Consortium

By Ian Trupin Opinions Columnist

In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, Feb. 20, 2000, campus police entered Chancellor David Ward’s office at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, ordered a group of students within to get on their knees and put them in handcuffs. These students were part of a group of over 150 who had been occupying Bascom Hall for the previous four days. During that time, the students had put up banners, issued press releases and held rallies, all the while braving not only academic consequences, but also physical assault and pepper spray. Their demand was simple: They wanted a meeting with the president of their university.

This incident, which culminated in the arrests of 54 students, was one of many sitins and other actions at campuses across the country in which college students demanded that their schools set codes of conduct for the brands that made their apparel. The result of this movement was the establishment of the Worker Rights Consortium — an independent labor rights organization that monitors conditions in garment factories around the globe, ensuring the freedom to collectively bargain for better working conditions. Governed by a board divided equally among students, university administrators and labor experts, the organization has grown to include more than 180 American and Canadian universities, colleges and high schools.

It is hard to overstate the impact the consortiun has had on the global anti-sweatshop

movement. Through the national organization United Students Against Sweatshops, student activists in particular have used the consortium’s well-researched findings to win campaigns against global corporations.

For example, in 2009, when Russell Athletic closed one of its garment factories in Honduras to prevent the workers from unionizing, the consortium visited the factory and documented Russell’s worker rights violations. United Students Against Sweatshops activists were then able to use this in-

ances against their employers and following up worker complaints with extensive factory investigations, the Fair Labor Association simply certifies companies as having suitable standards based on annual investigations of only 5 percent of a company’s factories, which the company picks out. These visits are announced well in advance and only allow for interviews of workers under the watchful eyes of their managers. More fundamentally, six of the 19 board members of the Fair Labor Association at any given time are representa-

For the first time, many companies that once violated worker rights with impunity are facing consequences.

formation to run a national campaign, causing more than 100 universities and businesses to cut ties with Russell and eventually forcing the company to negotiate with the workers.

Similar successes have been repeated on multiple occasions, and for the first time, many companies that once violated worker rights with impunity are facing consequences.

But the story of the Worker Rights Consortium has not been one of unending successes. Numerous obstacles remain, even in the most seemingly innocuous forms.

The Fair Labor Association is one of these.

Though its name may suggest an organization similar to the Worker Rights Consortium, the two could not be more different. Whereas the consortium’s fundamental focus is on giving workers a safe means of expressing griev-

tives of the brands being monitored. Four of these six must approve of any major decision that the association makes, including the decision to release a report. In short, the Fair Labor Association is dominated by the brands it is supposed to monitor.

Far from protecting worker rights, the Fair Labor Association is actually a tool for brands to deflect criticism of their labor rights standards. As long as they can advertise their Fair Labor Association certification, notorious labor rights abusers such as Nike and Adidas can maintain a positive corporate image. In the case of Russell Athletic’s 2009 closing of a Honduran factory, the association produced a report that actually contradicted the findings of their own monitor, who had confirmed the Worker Rights Consortium’s find-

ing that the factory had been closed to prevent workers from unionizing.

In spite of its obvious conflicts of interest and its history of obstructionism, Brown remains affiliated with the Fair Labor Association. Perhaps the most surprising part of this is the fact that the University has recognized the associations problems, and even committed to disaffiliating from it if those problems were not addressed by October 1999 — which they were not. Twelve years later, the failure of the University to act on its promise is shameful.

As we mark the 10-year anniversary of the Wisconsin sit-ins and of the Worker rights Consortium, it is important to remember the roles that were played by students, and how they created change. When students asked for their universities to respect the rights of the people who made their apparel, administrators told them that they were naive and did not understand the workings of the world of adults. When students demanded that their voices be heard, administrators told them that they were disorderly and tried to silence them. As we all try to create change in the world, let us remember that there are many ways to go about it. One of the most important has always been using direct action, as those students did in Wisconsin. This year, whether we are finally getting Brown to disaffiliate from the Fair Labor Association or pursuing other causes, let us remember not only the courage of those who came before, but also how they achieved what they did.

Ian Trupin ’13 is a COE concentrator who seriously recommends that anyone interested in labor rights and direct action come get in contact with Brown Student Labor Alliance at brownsla@gmail.com.

These comics are not very good

By Daniel moraff Opinions Columnist

If I know Brown students, and I don’t, there’s nothing we enjoy more than cracking open a fresh Providence Journal. The Journal has one huge difference from the New York Times — the comics page. Every day, bright-eyed citizens across the state flip to the back of the paper and drink in the funnies, only to realize that they are terribly, unspeakably bad.

Take long-running, Viking-themed comic strip “Hagar the Horrible”. Hagar was started in 1973 by Dik Browne, whose name proved to be funnier than anything I’ve ever seen in the strip. Glancing at today’s Journal, we are treated to a priceless vignette in which our Viking hero muses to no one in particular, “Most dogs beg for food ... / But not my Snert (the comical name of Hagar’s dog)! I’ve trained him not to beg! / He just jumps on the table ... and takes what he wants!”

When you’ve finished shaking with helpless mirth, reflect on the fact that every day, on the one newspaper page completely devoted to art and laughter, we get this. We get a litany of jokes so awful that reading them can be physically excruciating. I’m sure that Vikings, in burning down peas-

ants’ homes and stealing their valuables, provided hundreds of solid punchlines. After 38 years, though, I’m not surprised that this fertile comedic ground is pretty much tapped.

This is not an aberration. A very unscientific survey of the 20 strips in the Journal reveals that the average strip age is 36.6 years. That’s 14 strips — 70 percent — over the quarter-century mark. Six are

terrible.

It’s a massive shame. Anyone who’s read “Calvin and Hobbes” or “Get Fuzzy” — the only consistently solid strip in the Journal, by the way — or “Monty” or “Cul de Sac” or the fantastic “The Boondocks” knows that the medium can be uniquely and superbly funny. Given three to four panels, you can build jokes and characters in an elegant, sharp way that doesn’t really have an equiv-

Every day, bright-eyed citizens across the state flip to the back of the paper and drink in the funnies, only to realize that they are terribly, unspeakably bad.

a half-century plus. “Blondie” started in the Hoover administration. “Dennis the Menace” is credited to an author who is, worryingly, dead.

This isn’t to say that young equals good.

The two strips from this millennium, “Red and Rover” (2000) and “The Pajama Diaries” (2006) have managed to suck intensely enough to make up for lost time. Regardless, when 70 percent of strips have lived through the original “A-Team”, there’s clearly a problem. Specifically, everything is

alent anywhere else.

It’s actually pretty tragic. There’s no room for new guys to squeeze in. Thanks to the hulking dinosaurs that dominate the comics page, the medium — as most Americans experience it — is basically dead. The comics section, which could provide so much joy to people across the state, has become a walking horror show that takes comedy out behind the dumpster and beats it to death with stilted wordplay and an unimaginative stylus. In the end, everybody loses.

How could this happen? How could an entire comedic form be so uniformly awful? Inexplicably, there are no comprehensive surveys on the subject. But we can guess. First, syndicates look for dependable staples with marketable characters and are therefore unlikely to take chances on anything too out there. Second, old people read newspapers, and old people give feedback to newspapers, and old people complain when their favorite strip gets canceled, no matter how objectively worthless said strip might be. In the end, market forces are pushing relentlessly toward the dreary, humorless situation we see in the Journal.

We don’t have to take this.

Newspapers respond to their readers.

Newspapers are in fact desperate for young readers, on account of their industry dying.

Here at Brown, the Journal has thousands of potential affluent lifetime customers.

That’s a significant chunk.

So I’m going to end this with an appeal. Call the Providence Journal. Email them. Let them know that you want better comics, that the comics page is an important piece of the cultural landscape that we should not allow to die. Maybe it won’t do anything. Probably it won’t do anything.

But it’s an easy, small way we can make the world a slightly brighter and happier place.

Maybe.

Daniel Moraff ’12 cannot draw.

Do not email him.

Daily Herald Sports Tuesday the Brown

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Field Hockey

Bears suffer two one-goal losses

By Ashley mcdonnell Sports Editor

Women fight amid Ivies, men fall to national powers

By Connor grealy Contributing Writer

The field hockey team was especially hungry for a win this weekend after falling in its Ivy opener 3-1 to Columbia (3-4, 2-0 Ivy) Sept. 17. But the Bears (1-7, 0-2) dropped the ball in front of their home fans against Dartmouth and Colgate University, losing by one goal in each game.

As the men’s and women’s golf teams play further into the fall, a mix of veteran leadership and great first-year play has emerged for both teams. Following strong play against top competition, both squads have high expectations as they move into the heart of their schedules.

Dartmouth 4, Brown 3 (OT)

Forward Meghan O’Donnell ’15 put the Bears on the board first against Dartmouth (6-2, 2-0) with help from tri-captain Bridget McNamara ’12. McNamara sent the ball down the field, and it deflected off a Big Green defender’s stick toward the left post, where O’Donnell was able to whack it in to give Bruno the 1-0 advantage, which held going into the half.

“We came out ready to attack,” said rookie goalkeeper Shannon McSweeney ’15. “We put one in during the first half, which was huge for our confidence. We knew Dartmouth would be riled up.”

But the Bears could not withstand Dartmouth’s second-half adrenaline rush. In the first six minutes of the half, the Big Green found the equalizer after drawing out three corners and taking four shots, and Bruno did not put a single shot on goal.

With the game tied 1-1, both teams traded a pair of goals. Less than two minutes after Dartmouth’s tying goal, tri-captain Leslie Springmeyer ’12 lifted the ball over Big Green goalie Meagan Vakiener on a rebound to put Brown ahead 2-1. But just a few minutes later, Dartmouth again evened the score 2-2.

O’Donnell then scored her second goal of the game to give the Bears a 3-2 lead, only to see Dartmouth answer once again with a goal of its own. At the end of regulation, the teams remained in a 3-3 deadlock, sending the game into overtime.

“Every time they scored, we put one right back up there,” McSweeney

Golf

Women place second at Princeton Invitational

Jesse Schwimmer / Herald

Avery Burns ’14 tallied a goal and an assist in the overtime loss to Colgate.

said. “We really hung in it the whole game and gave everything we had in our tanks.”

But in the end, leaving everything they had on the field was not enough for the Bears. With a goal eight minutes into overtime, the Big Green took the lead for the first time and sealed the win.

Though the Bears never trailed until the final buzzer, Dartmouth statistically held the upper hand throughout the game, with 17 corners compared to the Bears’ four, and 35 shots to Brown’s 13. All three of the game’s penalties were called against Bruno.

“I think that these guys are in such a learning and growing phase that they’re not able to accomplish the goal,” said Head Coach Jill Reeve.

“We’re focusing on improving our composure in the back, which means minimizing corners against us.”

Colgate 3, Brown 2

After the deflating loss to Dartmouth, the Bears only had a day’s rest before taking on the Raiders (4-6), who took advantage of the Bears’ fatigue and scored just over two minutes into the game.

“We didn’t come out hard enough at the start,” McSweeney said. “We needed to find the fire. We didn’t find

that spark. Tired legs got to us today.”

The rest of the half was quiet, and the Bears went into halftime trailing 1-0.

But Bruno wasted no time in the second half. Avery Burns ’14 scored just over a minute after the whistle, tying the game 1-1.

The Raiders then responded with two goals, putting them up 3-1 with only 15 minutes left in the game.

Springmeyer eventually found the back of the net with four minutes left to play. Fired up, the Bears launched five shots in the last two minutes alone, allowing Colgate no offensive opportunities. Bruno won a corner with 15 seconds left, but was unable to capitalize on the opportunity, losing the game 3-2.

“Our team, being down a goal, pulled together and played hard, and they’re learning how to play together as a unit,” Reeve said. “Once we do that consistently, the results will be to our liking.”

McSweeney said she believes the team will turn around its season soon.

“Our big breakthrough is coming,” she said. “We’re right there, it’s coming. We just need to hang in here and keep doing what we’re doing, and things will start falling into place.”

The women’s team has improved during the brief fall campaign. Opening its schedule at the Yale Intercollegiate, the squad came out swinging and placed sixth. Head Coach Danielle Griffiths said the mix of experience and youth on the team was a key to this season’s success.

“We have a good combination of veteran players and first-years,” she said.

Captain Megan Tuohy ’12 and Stephanie Hsieh ’15 topped scoring for Brown, both carding a 231 for the weekend.

“All four of our first-years have posted great rounds, and our seniors are playing very consistently,” Tuohy said. “We’ve been feeding off one another’s success.”

The success from the Yale Intercollegiate spilled over into the team’s play at the Princeton Invitational, where Brown placed second, falling short of Harvard by just four strokes.

“It’s the most consistent we’ve played,” Griffiths said. “The hard work we’ve put into this program is paying off, and our seniors deserve this.”

Heather Arison ’12 and Carly Arison ’12 also bring a wealth of tournament experience and consistency to the lineup. Both shot scores of 237. First-years Hsieh, who placed third individually at the tournament, and Michelle

Chen ’15 continued to make an impact at the collegiate level.

“Our first-years jumped right in and contributed immediately,” Griffiths said.

In a field of six Ivy League competitors at the Princeton Invitational, Brown outplayed every team but Harvard, a perennial powerhouse program. Yale, another consistently strong team, was not at the tournament.

“Our main goal is to keep improving our short game and our scores,” Griffiths said.

The team looks to continue its improvement at the Richmond Invitational Oct. 10 and 11.

Men face stiff competition at Adams Cup

The men’s team, in a minor letdown after their record-setting round at the Navy Fall Classic, placed 18th at the Adams Cup of Newport. The field was topped by the University of Central Florida, the University of Georgia and Yale.

“It’s a learning experience for such a young team, said captain J.D. Ardell ’13. “Preparing well for each and every tournament is difficult.”

Although the result was not what the team had hoped for, the young nucleus of the team once again showed its talent and potential.

First-year standout Justin Miller ’15 set the pace for the team with a 229, following a great showing at the Navy Fall Classic, his first tournament.

“I had a great summer but didn’t expect to come in and play so well,” Miller said. “Other guys were playing well, and we fed off one another.”

Fellow first-year Jon Greb ’15 also scored well with a 236.

Brown received consistent play continued on page 5

VolleyBall

URI, Yale capitalize on Brown’s ‘mental mistakes’

By Sam sheehan Sports Staff Writer

The volleyball team (4-8, 0-1 Ivy) dropped a pair of games on the road last week, losing to the University of Rhode Island (8-6) Wednesday and falling to Yale (7-4, 1-0) over the weekend.

“In volleyball, it’s really tough playing on the road,” said Head Coach Diane Short, who said her team made costly “mental mistakes.”

In a tightly contested four-set match in Kingston, the Bears went down to the wire with the Rams.

After taking the first set, the Rams jumped out to another early lead in the second, but Bruno rallied back to take the set. The rest of the match remained neck-and-neck, but Rhode Island took the last two sets by scores of 25-22 and 25-21,

respectively, to take the win.

“We were playing well, but they were playing better,” Short said.

It was a frustrating loss for the Bears, despite an impressive defensive day from libero and co-captain Annika Gliottone ’12. Gliottone registered 21 digs, while setter Alexandra Rieckhoff ’14 amassed 44 assists. Outside hitter Maddie Lord ’15 also had a big game, notching 17 kills. Lord has been a consistent source of offense for the Bears and currently leads the team in kills with 175 on the season.

“She’s one of the hardest hitters,” Short said of Lord.

The Bears got out to a slow start Saturday against the Bulldogs. Trouble passing the ball and a flurry of kills by Yale’s Mollie Rogers added up to defeats of 25-12 and 25-13 for the Bears in the first two sets.

Bruno bounced back in the third set, pulling within three points of the Bulldogs behind a kill by middle blocker Laurielle Hofer ’12 and a service ace by Gliottone that pushed the score to 20-17. But Yale’s attack did not relent, powering the Bulldogs to a 25-20 final set and match win. Despite the team’s loss, Short was particularly impressed with Hofer’s “stepping-up” as she collected a team-high seven kills.

Gliottone and Thea Derrough ’14 led the team’s defensive effort with 11 digs apiece.

The Bears will be back in action this weekend with their Ivy home opener against Columbia Friday, followed by another home game against Cornell Saturday.

“Columbia is one of the top teams in the league this year,” Short said. “It’ll be good to be home.”

Sam Rubinroit / Herald

Volleyball continued its up-and-down season with a 3-0 loss to Yale Saturday.