Friday, October 14, 2011

Daily

Herald

the Brown

vol. cxlvi, no. 86

Friday, October 14, 2011

Campus eateries found selling expired food

In shift, Simmons says $2M could save ski teams

By Maddie Berg Contributing Writer

By Jake Comer Senior Staff Writer

continued on page 2

Alexandra Urban / Herald

Expired food and milk have been discovered in campus eateries such as the Ivy Room, Blue Room, Little Jo’s and Campus Market.

inside

The man who has been seen masturbating outside a John Street house has apparently returned at least once since his last official sighting Sept. 30.

Patrick Lec ’12, a John Street resident, said he noticed a black folding chair set up Saturday outside the house of his female neighbors, where the man has been previously spotted. Lec said the chair had likely come from his backyard.

Footprints were visible on the seat of the chair, indicating someone

Brown Dining S er vices switched milk distributors about three weeks ago, around the time reported problems began, said Aaron Fitzsenry, Dining Services’ culinary manager for retail operations. Dining Services experienced “bumps in the road” during the transition, he said.

Dining Services has strict procedures in place for ensuring only good food goes to eateries, said Ann Hoffman, director of administration for Dining Services.

“It is our protocol to check code dates every single day at the start of business hours, and everything out of code should be disposed of,” she said. “I can’t explain why that didn’t happen. It should have happened.”

Mathew Kelley ’14 said he has found food spoiled before its printed expiration date. “I’ve been continued on page 2

Engineering begins hiring push For Bears’

By Ben Kutner Senior Staff Writer

The School of Engineering plans to add 12 new faculty members to its ranks. The first two hires will probably begin work July 1, said Lawrence Larson, dean of the school.

“Brown wants to be a top-tier research university,” Larson said.

“We looked internally a couple of years ago and realized (the engineering program) needs to grow.”

The University may construct a new building for the engineer-

Masturbator returns to John Street, eluding cops

By Lucy Feldman and Kat thornton Senior Staff Writers

A Herald investigation, conducted in response to reports of spoiled food at campus eateries, found expired food for sale at Little Jo’s and Campus Market.

All the milk for sale at Little Jo’s Oct. 2 had a sell-by date of Sept. 30. On Oct. 3, every chickpea salad at Campus Market had a use-by date of Oct. 1, while all of the tabouli and black bean salads were labeled to be sold by Oct. 2.

Students have also told The Herald they have found expired food on the shelves of the Blue Room and the Ivy Room.

Gayatri Mehra ’14 said a friend who attempted to buy milk in the Ivy Room a few weeks ago found all of it expired. An Ivy Room staffer told the friend all of the milk in storage was also expired, Mehra said.

had been standing on it, he said.

Lec reported his observation to the Providence Police Department that day, but he said he has not heard back.

“It’s kind of speculation as to what happened,” Lec said, but “at this point we’re assuming the worst.”

The Department of Public Safety has created a specific response plan for potential future naked masturbator sightings, said DPS Detective James Massey at an informational meeting held for students last night.

“We’re going to tell our ofcontinued on page 5

Why not?

Occupy’s diffuse nature allows for a big tent Opinions, 11

ing school in the future, Larson said, which he envisions as a home for engineering and the applied sciences.

The School of Engineering currently has 39 tenure-track faculty members, as well as research faculty and lecturers, said Larson. All of the new hires would be tenure-track positions.

The University’s engineering program is relatively small compared to those of peer institutions, he said.

“If you look at Cornell, each department within (the College

of Engineering) will have 20 to 30 faculty,” said Associate Professor of Engineering Pedro Felzenszwalb, who previously taught as a visiting professor at Cornell.

The hiring process will pan out in two phases, Larson said.

The school plans to add three new faculty members in the next five years and nine in the five years after that.

The School of Engineering was founded July 2010. “We are basically following in the footsteps continued on page 5

f o r q u a k e s’ s a k e

Mike Cohea / Brown University

Professors Terry Tullis and David Goldsby study the intense heat created at tiny contact sites when rocks slide past each at near-earthquake speed.

See full coverage on page 8.

Spotlight Theater ignites hope in West Bank arts, 6

D&C

Safewalk gets coal — find out why Diamonds & Coal, 10

weather

With the Corporation set to decide the fate of Brown’s skiing, fencing and wrestling programs by the end of next week, the threatened teams are making final efforts to increase their likelihood of survival.

After the release of the Athletics Review Committee’s report in April, the three programs have organized fundraising campaigns in hopes of convincing administrators and Corporation officials of their viability.

Men’s and women’s skiing team captains Alex Salter ’12 and Kia Mosenthal ’12 met with President Ruth Simmons in midSeptember to better understand the prospects for their program’s future. The women’s skiing team competes at the varsity level and faces elimination. The men’s team is a club team that shares funds, a coach and other resources with the women’s team.

Simmons recommended the program raise $2 million to save itself from elimination. According to Salter, Simmons said it would be difficult to cut the program if it were financially self-sufficient.

Assuming a 5 percent annual re-

news....................2-5 ARTS..........................6 Science....................7 editorial............10 Opinions.............11 SPORTS..................12

Since 1891

black lax star, sport opens doors

By Ethan Mccoy Sports Editor

A Google search of Chazz Woodson ’05 yields videos of the lacrosse star and Brown alum flying through the air, scoring goals featured in game highlight reels.

Sports Woodson, a two-time team MVP at Brown, is considered to be one of the most electrifying players in professional lacrosse. But his greatest contributions to the sport may come off the field.

Woodson is currently involved in a number of initiatives aimed at bringing lacrosse to parts of the country that may not otherwise be exposed to the game. Whether by travelling around the United States to speak and teach, running his own youth program in Miami or reaching out to fellow black players to form the National Black Lacrosse Foundation, Woodson has emerged as a leader in the movement to diversify lacrosse geographically, racially and socioeconomically. continued on page 8

t o d ay

tomorrow

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2 Campus News calendar Today

October 14

4 P.m.

ToMORROW

October 15

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, October 14, 2011

Threatened teams seek funds continued from page 1

10:30 A.m.

Occupy This Mic,

Bike to Bristol!,

Main Green

Faunce Arch

9 p.m.

8 p.m.

Jazz Band Concert,

Wockin’ on s’tones: A Capella

Grant Recital Hall

Concert, Salomon 101

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Zucchini Frittata, Curried Tofu with Coconut Ginger Rice, Hot Pastrami Sandwich, Roasted herb Potatoes

Chicken Fingers, Baked Vegan Nuggets, Vegan Rice Pilaf, Sugar Snap Peas

DINNER Manicotti Piedmontese, Roasted Butternut Squash, Chicken Parmesan, Sustainable Tilapia

Grilled Turkey Burgers, Spinach Pie Casserole, Lemon Rice, Fresh Vegetable Melange

Sudoku

Crossword

turn, $2 million would be enough to cover the team’s operating cost of about $100,000 per year.

But the skiing teams are a long way from achieving that goal.

To date, the skiing program has raised approximately $140,000, Salter said. He said the fundraising campaign had a late start because team members were told in the spring that raising money would not help their chances for survival. The skiing team has only begun to receive donations in earnest in the past three weeks, Salter said.

The women’s team’s small size and relative youth has also posed a significant challenge to fundraising, said Head Coach Michael LeBlanc. “There isn’t much of a support network, an alumni base, out there,” he said. The money raised over the past few weeks shows the teams are not helpless, but it could take a few years for them to raise $2 million, Mosenthal said.

Salter said he thought it was “a little unfair” that the skiing teams were told in the spring it was futile to raise money, leaving them only a few weeks now to collect what funds they can. The April report did not set any monetary targets for teams to become self-sufficient or avoid elimination. It cited instead concerns about the safety of ski team members traveling out-of-state for practices and the University’s inability to provide

sufficient facilities.

The wrestling and fencing programs have had greater fundraising success. The wrestling team has raised $770,000 since last spring, Head Coach David Amato said. The team has another $1.5 million coming to them in the form of pledges from alumni and other supporters.

The review committee cited expenses as one of the reasons to cut the wrestling team, but Amato said he did not think it was about the money. The wrestling team’s budget amounts to $228,000 every year, but the team’s endowment and donations cover about $120,000 of those costs annually, he said.

The Athletics Review Committee is more concerned about admissions slots tucked away for wrestling recruits every year than about the money, he said. “I think they want the admissions spots back,” he said.

The fencing team has raised about $700,000, said men’s captain Andrew Pintea ’12. Brandon Tomasso ’13, a member of the men’s team, said the fencing teams have also been pledged additional support. But a number of those pledges will only be fulfilled if the fencing teams do not get cut, Tomasso said.

The Athletics Review Committee cited the fencing program’s lack of proper resources and facilities as weaknesses of the program. Tomasso said the teams plan to raise enough money to

be self-sustaining and are looking for a permanent practice and competition venue nearby. They are considering putting together an investment strategy to stretch the capital they receive from donors, he said.

In the meeting with skiing team captains, Simmons also mentioned a desire to make athletics in general more self-sufficient by instituting a collective fundraising campaign, Salter said.

But for now, the teams are on their own.

Salter said he does not understand why the University would make the decision “to cut a successful team that uses very little resources.” Mosenthal cited the women’s team’s third-place finish at Nationals in 2010 as an example of that success.

“I’m hoping they’ll recognize that skiing does have a place here,” Mosenthal said. “Just as much as any other sport.”

It does not appear that Title IX will play a role in the University’s decision regarding the women’s skiing team, LeBlanc said. The University can cut skiing and still be in compliance with Title IX, he said, even if it does not cut the wrestling or fencing teams.

Title IX is a federal law requiring athletic programs to provide equal opportunities to males and females. The University lost a Title IX lawsuit in 1995 after it cut four teams, including the women’s volleyball and gymnastics squads, in a series of budget cuts in 1992.

Expired food lurks in eateries continued from page 1 in the Blue Room on several occasions and Jo’s once or twice and gotten yogurt that was unfortunately moldy,” Kelley said. Kelley, who works as a supervisor at the Ivy Room, said he encountered these problems as a customer.

Dining Services’ supplier for Chobani yogurt dropped some cases, causing the seals on individual containers to break and allowing mold to grow, Fitzsenry said. “It was a couple of cases that we quickly identified, isolated and pulled out of rotation,” he said.

Each eatery relies on different people to check the products, Fitzsenry said. At all units, a professional is responsible for

Daily

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marking products with dates upon receipt to ensure they are properly put into stocking rotations. At larger units, such as the Gate, Josiah’s and the Blue Room, a professional is also responsible for stocking the shelves. “When he puts things on the shelf, he’s checking dates. So somebody has their hands on that product everyday — checking dates everyday,” Fitzsenry said.

Smaller, student-run retail units like Campus Market are more difficult to keep track of because students are responsible for stocking the shelves, Fitzsenry said.

Dining Services regularly passes random inspections by the Rhode Island Department of Health “with flying colors,”

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Hoffman said. The Department of Health did not return multiple requests for comment.

“We undertake a number of measures to ensure the health and safety of the food we are serving,” Hoffman said. “It is the most serious thing we do everyday.”

Hoffman encouraged students to report incidents to eatery managers. “Whenever this happens, we will refund the money and replace the product,” she said. “But we will also be on top of figuring out what’s going on so that other people don’t have the same unpleasant experience.”

“It’s hard to pin-point whether it is student-related or professional-related,” said Kelley, the student Ivy Room supervisor. “We are always checking dates though.”

No students interviewed for the article linked spoiled food to any illness they or friends had experienced. Health Services rarely treats students for food-borne illness, according to Edward Wheeler, director of Health Services.

Campus News 3

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, October 14, 2011

Professors opt for unorthodox schedules

By Corinne Cathcart Contributing Writer

Just as Brown students are able to tailor their academic experiences to suit their interests, professors have some freedom to structure their course meeting patterns.

Students know the schedule on Banner or Mocha isn’t necessarily the schedule a class will follow in practice. Professor of Comparative Literature Arnold Weinstein’s COLT 1420T: “The Fiction of Relationship” is listed to meet 10:3011:50 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.

He splits up the course into one 80-minute lecture on Tuesday, but on Thursday, students attend one of a handful of discussion sections offered by him or graduate teaching assistants.

Peter Andreas, professor of political science, lectures for POLS 1020: “Politics of the Illicit Global Economy” Mondays and Wednesdays and has teaching assistants run discussion sections during the scheduled Friday class periods.

“Professors certainly have latitude in the way they structure their courses,” said Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron — but within certain limits. Though these limits “aren’t necessarily spelled out” in guidelines like Brown’s Faculty Rules and Regulations, deans of departments are responsible for overseeing departmental instruction to make sure professors follow both written rules and “good practices.”

Class structure is especially important because the University follows the unitary system, meaning one credit is equivalent to one course, with the exception of a few half-credit courses. A science course with three hours of lecture and a four-hour lab counts for the same number of credits as Weinstein’s class, which only has one 80-minute lecture and one 80-minute section.

Brittany Katz ’12, a human biology concentrator in Weinstein’s comparative literature class, said

the discrepancy does not bother her because she values the freedom the unitary system allows. She likes how she can select her classes and not worry about their different credit weights, she said.

But Chad McAuliffe ’14 said he thinks the structure of Weinstein’s course puts a lot of emphasis on teaching assistants’ abilities, and though he enjoys his section’s discussions, he wishes Weinstein lectured more in the course.

When asked whether the University had given him any rules about his course structure, Weinstein said he wasn’t aware of any, and that administrators seemed to be “awfully flexible on that front.”

He said the unitary system is appropriate because he doesn’t think the number of hours in a class is necessarily the best way to measure its academic worth.

Barrett Hazeltine, professor emeritus of engineering, teaches three separate lectures for ENGN 0090: “Management of Industrial and Nonprofit Organizations.”

When one of his lectures was too full, he worked with the additional students to create a section of the class they could attend. His third lecture section on Tuesdays and Thursdays is only 50 minutes long, but he supplements it with detailed lecture summaries on MyCourses and additional office hours. Hazeltine said he has checked with the dean of his department in the past for clearance on the class structure, and the administration’s attitude has always been lenient.

Michele Narbonne ’15 said Hazeltine wastes no time in his fulllength lecture. Ana Rosenstein ’15 attended the 50-minute lecture once when she missed her own and said that though she preferred the longer lectures with Hazeltine, she knows classmates who prefer the shorter ones.

Andreas wrote in an email to The Herald that he could not return a request for comment on his class’ structure because he was traveling.

Herald file photo

In order to better communicate with students, Dining Services has hired an outside consultant.

Dining Services hires ‘pro’ consultant

By Kat Thornton Senior Staff Writer

Brown Dining Services has hired an outside consultant to lead student focus groups and make suggestions for a new communications strategy. The consultant, Tina Ilar, began work in September.

The number of meal plan subscribers has fallen this semester, but the decision to bring in a consultant is not related to the decrease, according to Ann Hoffman, director of administration for Dining Services.

“We typically capture a pretty consistent and a pretty high proportion of the students in residence,” Hoffman said. At least 95 percent of students living on campus are on meal plan every year, she added.

“It’s almost impossible to be off meal plan in Keeney,” said Jacqueline Wooley ’13.

Hoffman said the decline could be attributed to fewer students living on campus.

The idea of bringing in a com-

munications consultant has been under discussion for a long time, Hoffman said. Dining Services decided to hire the consultant, who has worked with other schools, such as Pennsylvania State University, to get a “fresh perspective” on what students don’t know about meal plan offerings, she said.

“We do a lot of things that I don’t think students are necessarily aware of,” she said.

The consultant led focus groups and asked students if expanding into social media through Twitter and Facebook would make BDS information more accessible to students, Hoffman said.

Ilar “seems like a pro,” said Aaron Fitzsenry, culinary manager of retail operations, who started a Twitter account for the Blue Room last year. Right now there are no marketing experts working on dining services communication, only staff and student employees, he said.

Hoffman said she hears “through the grapevine” that

many students don’t know about specials or events. She has heard that some people don’t know the Ivy Room exists, she said.

But perhaps more communication is not necessary. “I do the same thing every day anyway,” said Allison Bloom ’14, adding she was not aware of the Dining Services website until recently.

Other students who check the website for daily menus said increasing communication may not be as relevant as simply updating the existing channels. Laura Curlin ’13 suggested Dining Services make menus clearer and put daily options on its home page.

Some students also complained that logistical changes should be better communicated. “They really should have alerted people about the change in meal credit prices,” said Naveed Jooma ’13.

Meal credit values increased this semester from $6.15 to $6.40, along with the cost of meal plans.

— With additional reporting

by William Underwood

Occupiers see lack of campus engagement with movement By caitlin trujillo Senior Staff Writer

After Wednesday night’s teach-in explored the broader aims of the Occupy movement, about 30 people attended the Occupy College Hill assembly meeting yesterday, turning their attention inwards.

The assembly focused on anti-oppression efforts within the group and discussed how best to conduct meetings so that all involved felt comfortable voicing their opinions.

The deliberations were an attempt to acknowledge how oppression can work its way into even the safest of spaces. The discussion was placed on the agenda because combating oppression is a constant effort, and opposing injustice in one incarnation “doesn’t mean you’re an angel,” said Justin

Kuritzkes ’12, an Occupy College Hill participant and facilitator at the meeting.

Oppression is insidious, so actively working to ensure all voices that want to be heard have a chance to realize that desire is a necessary step for fighting oppression, said Eduarda de Araujo ’15.

Because students on College Hill enjoy a position of relative economic privilege, they must be cognizant of the struggles many in Providence face on account of that privilege, de Araujo said. There is a perception among Providence residents that students benefit from the city but do not give back to the community by getting involved and fighting for locals’ well-being, she said.

“I feel like that’s a responsibility you get with so much privilege,” she said.

De Araujo said she felt the campus at large is disengaged from the movement and that members of the Brown community do not identify with its goals. But she added she was optimistic that more people will latch onto the cause as it grows in the coming months.

Around 60 people attended Occupy College Hill’s first rally last week.

Though gauging interest in the cause is difficult, students are affected by the questions the group explores, such as a lackluster job market, Kuritzkes said.

Yesterday’s meeting came one day after Occupy Providence’s teach-in on the demonstrations Wednesday night, at which city activists and Brown professors offered context on the Occupy movement to more than 300 audience members. The movement began on

Wall Street two weeks ago in protest of perceived corporate greed and dominance of the wealthiest Americans over the rest of society.

The teach-in was a crucial event that is part of the “constant learning process” and dialogue of the movement, but it was not perfect, de Araujo said — Occupy Providence’s members spoke only after Brown professors, seemingly deemphasizing the prominence of movement participants. Instead, they should have spoken earlier in the evening to voice the diverse perspectives that College Hill denizens need to hear, she said.

“They have to say exactly what we don’t hear in the classroom,” de Araujo said.

Kuritzkes voiced disappointment that audience members began to leave once professors turned the stage over to Occupy

Providence members.

Some members of Occupy College Hill — which comprises Brown undergraduates and graduate students as well as community members and activists involved with other local movements — plan to march down the hill this Saturday to participate in Occupy Providence’s occupation of Burnside Park in Kennedy Plaza, part of a global show of support for the movement.

Occupy College Hill’s independence from the city-wide movement allows it to better address the specifics problems afflicting Brown and the neighborhood, de Araujo said.

Outreach efforts were also on the agenda, with some talk of looking to work with other groups on campus, such as the Sarah Doyle and Third World centers.

Campus News 5

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, October 14, 2011

Flasher remains at large

Across the city, art of the story abounds

By Nicole Grabel Contributing Writer

“I’ve never told anybody this before, but why don’t I tell a roomful of strangers?” joked Phil Goldman, host of Live Bait, as he relayed

FEATURE a story of his childhood weight struggles at the Oct. 7 Live Bait storytelling event at Perishable Theater.

Odd as Goldman’s approach may seem, he is not alone. The practice of storytelling is on the rise as clubs and organizations dedicated solely to the craft pop up around the country. Live Bait and Brown Storytellers are Providence’s contribution to the trend.

“Live Bait: True Stories from Real People,” has few hard and fast guidelines. The monthly event is open to storytellers and listeners alike. Participants put their names in a hat for a chance to tell a true, six-minute story relating to the night’s theme, and Goldman randomly picks the human storyteller “bait.” No notes are allowed and no experience is required.

Though most of the stories touched upon October’s “all you can eat” theme, their commonalities pretty much ended there.

Participants told stories about everyday incidents as well oncein-a-lifetime experiences as they reflected on childhood, adulthood and somewhere-in-between-hood.

The open-ended nature of the theme left lots of room for interpretation — experiences such

as burrito-eating contests, crazy trips to Tanzania and working at a candy store were all part of the eclectic mix.

Goldman, who started Live Bait about three years ago, told The Herald there are many benefits to storytelling, especially in a low-pressure setting. Live Bait’s informality encourages honesty, he said. If people felt more pressured — for instance, if the event were a competition — they might start to change their stories in an effort to be interesting, rather than true.

But “the things people respond to most are emotionally honest,” he said, and Live Bait lends itself to exactly that premise.

Storytelling is really about identifying with other people’s stories, Goldman said. When you hear certain stories, “something kind of sticks with you,” and “hits you emotionally,” he added. The common ground gained from the art of oral storytelling provides both teller and listeners a space in which to connect.

Tuesday evenings on College Hill find the Brown Storytellers striving to uncover these same connections. As with Live Bait, all are welcome and encouraged to participate, but members also place a high premium on refining their storytelling skills. The group focuses not only on story-telling, but also critique and analysis. In other efforts to round out its skills, the group also listens to professionals tell stories, play games and discuss different storytelling techniques.

By hearing professionals, stu-

continued from page 1

Nicole Grabel / Herald

Anyone with six minutes’ worth of true story to share can participate in Live Bait.

dents learn what good storytelling really is. “Everyone has a story, but they’re not necessarily great at communicating that story,” said Daniel Sobor ’15, a member of the club. “You need to listen to good stories to be able to tell your own,” he said.

Because critique better engages the audience, it helps to create a common experience. The increased emphasis on technique did not limit tellers in their range of topics at the group’s Tuesday night meeting. First-years to seniors from all different backgrounds participated, telling stories that included tales of backward family dynamics and traumatic experiences with toenails. “We know

each other because we know each other’s stories,” Sobor said.

The reason for this age-old art form’s rising popularity is unclear, but Goldman said he thinks humans yearn for something “primal and old-fashioned and real” as they become more obsessed with technology.

Whatever the reason may be, its effect appears positive. In coming years, storytelling will continue to showcase human difference, but also emphasize our unwavering desire to relate.

ficers, ‘This is how we want you to respond, this is where we want each individual car to go,’ so we can maximize our potential for catching this guy,” said DPS Lieutenant James Jackson.

DPS has not received reports of sightings anywhere besides the John Street area, Massey said. “The good side of it is he’s targeting one specific area, so we can zoom in on that area,” he said. Massey said he suspected the man has been operating in the John Street location because it offers many possible escape routes. There are four points of egress from John Street and two from Williams Street, he said.

DPS formulated the plan following the Sept. 30 sighting of the man, but has not yet had the opportunity to put it in action, Massey said.

Because the case falls under the jurisdiction of the Providence Police, DPS does not know if any persons of interest have been officially identified, Jackson said. Both the Providence Police and DPS have increased their presence in the area, Jackson said.

“As much as we want to catch this guy, our first priority is deterrence,” he said. “If we scare him out of the area, we’re fine with that.”

Engineering faculty to expand continued from page 1 of all the other Ivy schools,” said Alexander Zaslavsky, professor of engineering and physics.

“I think all science departments benefit from these efforts, even when targeted at a single department, as these efforts will improve our ability to recruit the best students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels,” wrote Professor of Physics Robert Pelcovits, who does not teach within the School of Engineering, in an email to The Herald.

The school will focus on expansion in nanoscience, bioengineering and energy — “all areas that benefit from interdisciplinary research” with other science departments — Pelcovits wrote.

The School of Engineering has begun extensive fundraising for the new faculty hires, Larson said.

“We have a development committee, and we’re working with the people in (University) development,” he said. The University will also provide funds for the new hires.

The engineering school is “currently quite constrained by laboratory space,” said Zaslavsky. The

laboratories in Barus and Holley are shared by multiple science departments.

Ramya Mahalingam ’14, who plans to concentrate in mechanical engineering, said she has not heard engineering students discuss the faculty hiring. “(We) just talk about how hard the midterms are and how hard

this problem set is,” she said.

Support for the faculty expansion is largely attributable to the engineering program’s status as an official school, Larson said.

“It really means that the Corporation has given us the opportunity to take charge of our future,” he said. “It’s up to us to create the change.”

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6 Arts & Culture

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, October 14, 2011

A practice theory of theory and practice

By Suzannah Weiss Arts & Culture Columnist

It is commonplace for academic disciplines to laud their own integration of theory and practice, as if such a move constituted bridging a gap. But one cannot combine two things that are always already together and which are not even two things.

When I see my peers cringe at the word “theory” — it’s so abstract! — I hesitate to rip them away from the comforting delusion that their studies are not theoretical or abstract but rather in direct contact with reality. But one must only take a look at the changing, disputable and ultimately inadequate definitions of reality to expose this delusion.

Scientists, scholars and artists alike have long been seen as treasure hunters, diving deep below the fog of illusions, lies and conflicting data to reach the reality of truth and beauty. But the supposed — one might say, theoretical — treasure will never present itself without the observer contributing to this presentation.

One may argue that theories come from observations. But Einstein himself — Einstein, people — argued the reverse, telling Heisenberg that “it is the theory which decides what can be observed.”

Then quantum physics came along to show us that the theory also determines what cannot be observed.

This is the case in the sciences — though, as an exception, theoretical math is known as pure math, as if application would contaminate it — but let’s examine the case of the arts.

We are accustomed to the belief that we live in a world of matter and mind, things and ideas. But things are ideas, and matter is mind. We think not about physical objects in the world, but about our conceptions of them, which are held together by our theories about the world and are invariably distant from the world itself.

Some are creative enough to alter these conceptions by representing them in novel ways, proving that theory is not merely applied to art, but can also be furthered by it.

The thought came to me as I browsed next semester’s course offerings that the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies does this better than others. Perhaps this is because the practice of stepping into someone’s shoes requires a theory about them. The performer’s body language, gestures and sounds have

to occur as if they are in a given situation.

This “as if ” is a defining part of theory. The French psychoanalyst Francoise Dolto once said in an interview, “What people call my ‘theory,’ I don’t believe is a theory, I believe ‘everything happens as if.’” Regardless of what is behind concrete sounds and images, the theory gets the vocal chords or pencil or paintbrush to behave “as if ” a believable and engaging idea is at stake.

Theater also fits nicely with the theoretical idea — first put forward by Judith Butler — of performativity, the assumption of an identity. It happens as much on the street as on the stage. This appears to be the idea behind both TAPS 1630: “Performativity and the Body: Staging Gender, Staging Race” and TAPS 1690: “Performance, Art and Everyday Life,” both offered next semester.

From my own experience, writing classes could use contemplation beyond the mere “what did you think of this book?” — the most interesting part to me is learning about the psychological reactions the author aimed to evoke in the reader — and visual arts professors could put more emphasis on teaching students to convey, or even discover, concepts through their work. Visual art lends itself to discussions of epistemology, culture and other profound topics. Illustration majors at the Rhode Island School of Design are required to take “concepts” courses to practice using their art to make statements, explore ideas or comment on social issues.

For any art form, theory is needed in representing people. If you want to write, play or draw a character demographically different from yourself, it is crucial to consider the influence of factors such as gender, race and socioeconomic class.

I know I’m getting into hot water with hipster-haters, so let me acknowledge that this is all theoretical drivel. But so is the theory-practice distinction. It’s never really one or the other. And revolutions can only start with new ideas.

If your parents come this weekend and worry that you’re not doing anything practical, tell them that instead of submitting to the confines of reality, you want to change what reality means. And if you can’t get a job, you’ll just have to make sure to live life “as if ” you have one.

Courtesy of Momin Switat

The troupe, whose theater was demolished in 2002, hails from the West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp.

Refugee camp theater troupe tours U.S. By kristina fazzalaro Arts & Culture Editor

Going to the theater is a privilege often taken for granted in the United States. On campus alone, students can pick and choose the type of show they wish to attend each weekend — musical or play, comedy or drama, original production or reinterpretation. But in Palestine’s Jenin refugee camp, this opportunity exists only through the aspirations of the Freedom Theatre.

Eric Ehn, professor of theatre arts and performance studies, welcomed members of the acting troupe to an intimate McCormack Family Theatre Wednesday evening to discuss their experience developing plays and educating students in the oppressive and turbulent atmosphere of the West Bank.

The Jenin refugee camp was established in 1953 in the West Bank to house displaced Palestinians. Approximately 16,000 registered refugees live in the camp today, but it was not until 1987 that these individuals saw the dimming of the house lights, the opening of the curtain and the eruption of actors taking to the stage.

It was then that Arna Mer Khamis first opened the Stone Theatre — Freedom Theatre’s predecessor — with her son, Juliano Mer Khamis.

“For the first time in our lives, we didn’t expect what to see,” said Mustafa Staiti, a photography instructor at the theater. “(We were) not going

to see guns and bullets anymore — (we were) going to see a play.”

Arna Mer Khamis came from a prominent Jewish family and held a job relocating Bedouins when she met Saliba Khamis, a Palestinian leader of the communist party in Israel, according to Staiti. He told Arna Mer Khamis she was not creating a free state for Jews but rather an oppressed state for Palestinians, Staiti said. The two married, and Arna Mer Khamis’ family disowned her as a result.

Arna Mer Khamis visited the Jenin refugee camp in 1987 during the First Intifada — a six-year uprising by Palestinians against the Israeli occupation of disputed territories.

Determined to aid the children of the camp in particular, Arna Mer Khamis established the program “In the Defence of Children under Occupation/Care and Learning,” an initiative that included the Stone Theatre as a production space and teaching venue.

A second and intensified Palestinian uprising began in 2000 and reached Jenin in April 2002. The Israeli army levelled the camp’s buildings, and of the 75 dead, seven were actors of the Stone Theatre, Staiti said.

“Not only people were killed, buildings destroyed, but minds were killed, culture was killed,” he said.

It was to this macabre scene that Juliano Mer Khamis returned after

spending time working away from the camp. The events inspired him to make the film “Arna’s Children” and, amid requests from residents, to open a second theater and school — the Freedom Theatre.

Since its opening in 2006, the theater has put on such shows as “Animal Farm,” “Fragments of Palestine” and “Alice in Wonderland” — plays dealing with occupation, revolution or individual freedom, said Momin Switat, a member of the troupe.

Video clips from “Arna’s Children” and recent productions show the children of the Jenin camp coming together to learn acting and other creative means of expression and forget their surroundings for a short part of their day. In the camp, after curfew — around 5 or 6 p.m.

— individuals are not able to leave their homes, Staiti said. The theater gives them a chance to escape that and hope for the future.

“A girl has to move from her father’s house to her husband’s kitchen,” said one of the young girls in the subtitled video. “I will not end up in a kitchen.”

One boy said he joined the theater “to enhance the reputation of our camp.”

“They want us illiterate,” he said of Israelis. “Since the theater opened, we have something to live for.”

The scenes shown were powerful, continued on page 8

Jazz group jams at Underground By marshall katheder Arts & Culture Staff Writer

There’s a rumble at the Underground. Upon approaching this Main Green venue, soft swung notes snake into your ears. You walk, and the bass takes a syncopate stroll. Its low grumble swings fluidly from plucked note to note, keeping pace with the soft clash of the drums.

“It’s a vibe that pushes you to grow,” said Matt Block ’13, who founded these weekly Jazz Jam sessions last fall. “For me, it’s about the camaraderie — it’s loose and open. And the music really gets cooking.”

Almost every Wednesday night, a cabal of cool cats assembles to form a liquidlike ensemble — smooth tunes and studied nonchalance. The cast of musicians changes with each song, bringing fresh, brash brass to rip and feed into the plush sound.

Block said he discussed starting the jam sessions with Matthew McGarrell, senior lecturer in music and director of the University’s official jazz band, and it took off from there. The group that meets now is fluid — members join in certain pieces and fade out in others. The jazz spirit of improvisation comes to life in the snare of a drum or wan of a

trumpet.

“It’s all about being open to creativity, sharing the spotlight, getting the experience,” said Block, a seasoned trumpet player who honed his sound in his hometown of Philadelphia at the famous Chris’ Jazz cafe.

The culture of jazz is both blaring and blase — passion is clear in the music, but the musicians, even after the sharpest numbers, slink off stage to join the head-bobbing sidelines. Their debonair sense hangs heavy, and a defined elegance pervades.

The Jazz Jam will perform at Buxton House Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 9:30 p.m.

Science 7

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, October 14, 2011

Black patients less likely to get flu shots

By Dan Jeon Staff Writer

Black nursing home patients are less likely to receive flu vaccinations than white patients, according to a study published Oct. 5. in the journal Health Affairs. The data, gathered between 2006 and 2009, encompass more than 14,000 nursing homes across the country.

While 83.5 percent of white nursing home patients received flu vaccinations in 2009, 77.8 percent of black patients received the vaccines. Neither subset satisfies the federal Center for Medicaid and Medicare’s goal of 90 percent vaccination.

The study’s lead author Shubing Cai, an investigator in health services, policy and practice at Brown’s Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research, speculates the disparity might exist because the administration of flu vaccines is optional, and black patients are more likely to refuse. Cai suggested black patients may have misconceptions and fears about flu vaccinations due to their educational and societal backgrounds.

But she maintained the difference was not caused by racial discrimination. Many nursing homes serving predominantly black patients have predominantly black staff as well. Thus, attributing the problem to racial discrimination presents a false solution.

Instead, Cai stressed the importance of improving nursing home facilities in poor neigh-

borhoods and providing more information on the benefits of flu vaccines. “Blacks are more likely to refuse the vaccine, but we did not have any information about why,” she said.

She outlined some strategies for reducing the disparity, including improving communication between nursing home workers and black patients. She stressed the need for more awareness of the benefits of vaccination and advocated more educational programs in nursing homes.

Nursing homes serving a higher proportion of blacks are likely to be in worse neighborhoods than those serving a predominantly white population, according to the study. “Those nursing homes have an overall worse quality of care,” Cai said.

“They are very likely to be in a poor community and have a lack of resources.”

The study proposes the idea of an incentive structure to motivate nursing home facilities to provide more vaccinations, but more research would be necessary for effective implementation.

There have been slight improvements in recent years in the percentage of flu vaccinations given to nursing home patients, especially blacks, the study reports. But Cai was not convinced the problem would subside. “In spite of the improvement, we can still see a racial disparity,” she said.

Though the data show improvement, disparity between races still hovers around 6 percent each year.

Study gives shape to Earth’s deep layers

By Hannah Kerman Contributing Writer

Professor of Geological Sciences Karen Fischer’s team has spent years analyzing layers of the Earth deep below our feet. In a study published in the journal Science Oct. 6, lead author and postdoctoral research assistant Vedran Lekic presents a new, detailed image of the lithosphere beneath Southern California.

The lithosphere, broken up into tectonic plates, is an ever-moving, ever-evolving layer. The new images present abrupt changes in depth across short distances, supporting theories about the layer’s physical characteristics.

Fischer’s team is mainly concerned with rifting, the process by which the tectonic plates shift and move apart. Rifting is most dramatic at active plate boundaries, such as those in Southern California where the researchers have concentrated most of their work.

Lekic could not keep himself from grinning when discussing the study. “We were trying to

image the bottom of the tectonic plate,” he explained.

The image was created by looking at changes in seismic waves.

In her bright, ground floor office, surrounded by images of erupting volcanoes interspersed with crayon drawings, Fischer explained that her team uses seismometers like doctors use CAT scans. Seismometers set up in Southern California record raw earthquake waves, and geologists can use the changes in these waves to visualize the shape of the lithosphere.

“Fischer’s lab has been pioneering this method,” explained Lekic. “There are groups in Germany, France and Russia that do this, but when Fischer started, it was not an often-used technology.

We had to prove that it worked.”

With Fischer’s body of work before him, Lekic analyzed 60,000 seismograms. Synthesizing these pictures with his knowledge of how waves change with certain textures and thicknesses of rock, he was able to create a precisely detailed picture of the lithosphere. continued on page 8

Art for the sake of science Program seeks new ways to visualize data

By Carol Kim Contributing Writer

Science and art may appear to be distinct, but collaboration between the two, often born of necessity, makes it clear they are not mutually exclusive. The membrane between them becomes permeable in the case of data visualization, an area in which various efforts are underway on College Hill.

Casey Dunn, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, has been exploring the evolution of the genomes of lessstudied organisms, such as deepsea jellyfish. After sequencing the genes, he and other members of the Dunn Lab identify the same genes in different organisms.

“It’s hard enough to look at one genome,” Dunn said. “But we’re trying to look at tens or hundreds at a time. The data is vastly larger than anything you could open in Excel.”

Through the support of the National Science Foundation’s Environmental Program to Stimulate Research, the Dunn Lab has laid the computational infrastructure for analyzing data sets that will eventually be used for visualizations.

Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design are two of nine partner schools in the Rhode Island chapter of the NSF program, called “EPSCoR” for short, which specializes in marine life, particularly the response of marine organisms to variations in climate.

Among other objectives, the program helps scientists visualize the huge, complex data sets they encounter and analyze in their work. Much of this work in visualization is conducted through RISD and its Innovation Studio, an interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists, designers and students.

Thomas Ockerse, professor of graphic design at RISD, teaches a course in which students visually

Courtesy of Casey Dunn

Members of the Dunn Lab use data visualization to compare genomes across species.

represent scientific information.

While the visual representation of complex data is not a new field, the interactive nature of more recent technological innovations makes complicated data more accessible to the public, according to Amanda Sim, a RISD graduate student.

“The thing that we’ve been focusing on is figuring out how the scientists can visualize their own data, because they’re dealing with millions of data points, and they have to look at it in a meaningful way,” said David Zacher, another RISD graduate student.

Zacher visually represents complex data sets through computer programming in his “Experimental Data Visualization” course. In the class, he analyzed and represented meteorological data from Hurricane Irene. This data set is considerably smaller than data sets usually analyzed through the NSF program. In the future, Zacher said the class will use larger, genetic data sets.

While the work in Zacher’s class is primarily screen-based, the visual representation of science can take many forms. The use of art to enhance the accessibility of science has long been a subject of interest for Courtney Mattison MA’11. Mattison first became involved with the NSF program through her master’s adviser, Heather Leslie, assistant professor of environmental studies and biology.

As a high school student, Mattison, who described herself as a visual learner, began sculpting the organisms she studied in her marine biology class.

Now, she applies her artistic skills to promote coral reef stewardship. Mattison’s sculpture of a dying coral reef was displayed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C. “It helps to have some artistic representation,” Mattison said, “in order to care about learning something abstract.”

8

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, October 14, 2011

Alum strives to diversify lacrosse continued from page 1

Mike Cohea / Brown University

David Goldsby holds a rock sample used to show how rocks rapidly slide past each other at tiny points, generating intense heat that may produce quakes.

Flash heat rocks earthquake physics

By David Rosen Contributing Writer

Rather than turning to broad-scale plate tectonics to investigate earthquakes, David Goldsby, associate professor of geological sciences, and Terry Tullis, professor emeritus of geological sciences, decided to take a closer look. Their study, published in this week’s issue of the journal Science, examines earthquake processes on a microscopic scale.

But their findings are anything but small — they shed new light on the physics behind earthquake production.

About 10 years ago, the two began to examine the relationship between the rate at which rock faces slide past one another and the strength of the frictional forces between them. According to their study, heat is generated almost exclusively at microscopic contact points when rock faces slide past each other.

Under normal speeds, the generated heat has time to spread across the entire rock. But as plates approach earthquake speeds, heat does not have time to escape the contact points, producing an effect called flash heating, Goldsby said. Flash heating can result in temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Celsius.

As the contact points get warmer, the heat decreases the frictional forces between the rocks and they

become weaker.

In a series of experiments designed to mimic earthquake speeds, the researchers tried to determine the point at which frictional forces begin to significantly diminish. To isolate the effects of flash heating without raising the overall rock surface temperature, the two took special pains to slide the rocks’ faces past one another at fast speeds and over short distances.

Once speeds reach 100 millimeters per second, rock strength plummets, Goldsby said. If their frictional-reducing model is correct, once rock faces reach that critical speed, a positive feedback loop is created. Weakened frictional forces allow the rocks to slip more quickly.

The concept of flash heating was first conceived in the 1930s, but Goldsby “was the really the first person who demonstrated (flash-heating) works for rocks,” Tullis said.

The most exciting part of their study was “plotting up the data and showing that (friction strength) has this exact dependence on velocity,” Goldsby said.

But it was not all smooth sailing — their efforts were complicated by the difficulty of proving that their results were not “flukey” and a result of the machines they used, said Tullis. “It was quite challenging to figure all that out.”

“I want to see lacrosse at a point where anybody that is interested in playing will not find a reason not to play,” Woodson said.

“I don’t want anybody to look at it and say, ‘Oh, that’s just a bunch of white kids playing, how am I going to play?’ or ‘I want to play, but I can’t afford all this equipment.’”

After seven seasons in Major League Lacrosse, Woodson is now a part of the LXM Pro Tour, a group consisting of some of lacrosse’s biggest names that travels to parts of the country that lack professional teams. The tour not only plays full games, but also involves local communities by hosting a concert and clinics for youth.

When not with the tour, Woodson is busy involving himself with the community in Miami, where lacrosse has not been prominent.

Woodson runs his own lacrosse camp, designed as a teaching clinic to bring lacrosse to the younger segment of the population. Woodson also started Dade Lacrosse Inc. in 2009, an organization that brings together coaches in the Miami area in an effort to focus on youth, notably in urban areas.

“We’ve made a conscious effort to get into the inner city,” Woodson said. “I think that’s where our efforts are really going to pay off.”

Dade has partnered with other non-profits in the area, including a Freedom Schools literacy and leadership program in a neighborhood of Miami with a 75 per-

cent black population and a median household income just over $13,000, Woodson said. Dade has recently been looking into implementing a permanent program in the neighborhood with the goal of putting together a team.

Woodson stressed that access is the biggest obstacle facing lacrosse’s growth.

“It doesn’t take much to get these kids excited about playing,” Woodson said. “Most of them have just never seen the game.”

But once youth become aware of the game, there can still be roadblocks. Often, both in public and club programs, the total costs of equipment, fees and travel can make the game inaccessible to many, according to Woodson.

Equipment alone can cost hundreds of dollars.

He said stereotypes surrounding the sport can also be a challenge. Less than 10 percent of collegiate lacrosse players, both men and women, are black, according to the 2009-2010 NCAA Student-Athlete Race/Ethnicity Report. “The sport is predominantly played right now by private school, often well-to-do, white kids,” Woodson said. “But there are a number of notable black players that kids can look up to.”

Former NCAA Player of the Year and Johns Hopkins alum Kyle Harrison, along with University of Virginia graduates John Christmas and Shamel and Rhamel Bratton, have emerged as high-profile black stars. Woodson has been working with Harrison

to found the National Black Lacrosse Foundation to connect the black lacrosse community across the country.

Woodson said he believes that while the game doesn’t offer the prospect for fame and fortune that basketball or football might, it fosters a unique and inclusive community that can lead to a different type of success. Since many top NCAA programs are at some of the best academic schools in the country, the sport can open up all sorts of opportunities, he said.

But this is a difficult idea to try to communicate to young people who are accustomed to seeing their NBA or NFL idols on commercials and billboards. “(Lacrosse) isn’t your ticket to making millions from signing a contract,” Woodson said.

“Lacrosse isn’t the same thing.

Lacrosse can be a ticket to college and a ticket to making money, but the avenues are different.”

It is this aspect of the sport that pushes him in his work to spread the game, and he views lacrosse’s growth as more than simply an influx of players from different backgrounds and communities. He pointed to one instance recently that demonstrated the power of lacrosse.

“I had a kid tell me the other day, ‘I want to go to Harvard or Yale,’ and this is a 10-year-old,” Woodson said. “You can tell from talking to this kid that an education is unbelievably important to him, and he sees that lacrosse might help him out.”

Images suggest rigid Palestinian nature of tectonic plates troupe tells ‘powerful’ narrative continued from page 7

The graphic displayed an “abrupt transition” from deeper lithosphere to a much shallower layer. Specifically, the lithosphere beneath Los Angeles is 80 km deep, but that beneath the nearby Salton Trough and areas close to the shoreline can be a very shallow 45 km deep. In comparison, the lithosphere beneath College Hill is about 100 km deep.

“There can be localized regions that are extremely weak, while the other parts remain strong,” Lekic explained. That is why only certain parts of the lithosphere are stretched and moved.

This observation allowed the

scientists to infer that this deep part of the lithosphere, made of mantle rocks, must be very strong.

“If the layer was warm and ductile and gushy there could not be such a sharp angle between the thicknesses,” Fischer said.

The picture also allowed scientists to test previously conceived models of plate tectonics. Fischer and her team have been able to analyze which models are possible and which “classes of models do not match reality.”

Finding the correct evolutionary model of plate tectonics brings scientists closer to understanding the basics of how the planet, a complicated and ever-changing system, evolves.

continued from page 6 illustrating that though one may not understand the words of a piece, the emotion can still be conveyed. The actors have a powerful message to spread, and they do so with ease.

The obvious excitement and technical skill of the students is a joy to see and speaks to the talent and dedication of Juliano Mer Khamis, who nurtured the first group of actors, who are now the current teachers.

Juliano Mer Khamis was leaving the theater April 4 with his one-yearold son in his arms when someone fired a gun at him, Staiti said. Juliano Mer Khamis immediately asked the shooter to stop, put his son down and said, “Kill me, not the son,” according to Staiti. He was shot five times in the chest. The killer remains unknown.

“We lost a father, a real true father,” Staiti said. “Man was there for a mission and for a reason, and we are continuing it.”

The troupe will continue its East Coast tour with a visit to Columbia for a Tuesday performance of “While Waiting.” The play is inspired by Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”

Sports Friday 9

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, October 14, 2011

NBA loses points for lockout Athlete of the Week continued from page 12 larger market teams and attract more players. But this isn’t feasible because teams like the Memphis Grizzlies don’t make as much money as teams like the Lakers.

Right now, in order to keep things fair, when a team spends more money than the “soft cap” of $58 million, they have to pay a one dollar “luxury tax” for every dollar they are over.

The problem is that this doesn’t serve its purpose of discouraging these large-market teams, and they just absorb the tax to get the best players. For that reason, unless you have a stellar general manager, your team doesn’t really have a chance, and therefore won’t get fans.

But you can’t have just six teams in the NBA, so the owners need to figure out a revenue sharing plan where the larger-market teams share their profits with the smaller-market teams in order to keep them afloat.

It only gets more infuriating when you start to look at the teams and how they are spending those player salaries. Take Eddy Curry, who never set foot on a court last year. He was paid over $11 million for this season.

You could also call that number 1/50th of the total losses. That’s one single player!

How was he paid so much? He was given a long-term contract by a team that was panicking and felt like they needed to spend their money. It would be like if a company lured bad employees to jobs by guaranteeing them five years of pay, then asking the good employees to take a pay cut because they gave all the money to the employees who no longer do any work. That leads me to my next point.

Point #2: The players are unionized and are forced to defend bad players.

Oh, you thought this was all on the owners, didn’t you? Too bad, players. You guys have a hand in this as well. The owners

are proposing certain safeguards to save themselves from their own stupidity. Shorter contracts and a lower “hard cap” — a salary total that teams can’t go over — would force teams to be more frugal and stop them from wasting money gambling on marginal players.

The problem is that half of the union is made up of below-average players, and they don’t want this to happen. They love it when teams overvalue them and pay them money that submarines the franchise for a couple of years. The better players have to honor this because, well, they are a union — solidarity is kind of the point. This gives the owners an opening to squawk about how much money they are losing, which brings us to the final point.

Point #3: The owners are treating their NBA teams like a business.

The fantastic author Malcolm Gladwell wrote a piece for Grantland.com two months ago debunking the theory that buying an NBA team is a business decision.

He claims it’s done for the owner’s egos, and I agree. If a man told you that he had bought a Matisse, but he was frustrated with the costs of keeping it in good condition and that he wanted it to start generating money for him, you would call him unreasonable. He bought the painting to look at and show to other people as a status symbol.

To pretend that he bought it as a money-generator is silly.

A man buys an NBA team because he loves basketball or because he wants to be recognized as a man who can make important decisions that will affect a lot of people. Outside of the business world, I don’t think many people care about Robert Kraft. But because he owns the Patriots, construction workers from the South End of Boston affectionately call him “Good Ol’ Bob.” So by all means, NBA owners, whine about your missing $370 million as though you didn’t expect to lose money. You are all some of the smartest businessmen

Bears ready to defend Tigers’ running game continued from page 12 game, Fay said. On the season, Bruno has 993 yards passing and 428 rushing.

The Tigers have a much more balanced offense, with 771 yards in the air and 723 yards on the ground this season. Stopping the Tigers’ rush attack will be one of Bruno’s top priorities, Peyton said. “(We need to) force them into situations they don’t want to be in, like third and long, and shut down their running game,” Peyton said. “If we shut down their running game, we can make them one-dimensional.”

Freshman running back Chuck Dibilio leads the Tigers’ rushing attack with 323 yards so far this season, averaging 80.8 yards per game. In comparison, Bears’ leading rusher Mark Kachmer ’13 has 232 yards total, averaging 58 yards per game.

The Bears will take on the Tigers in front of their fans, friends and family on Family Weekend.

“It’s always nice to have family and friends from back home cheering you on,” Peyton said. “I don’t know if it’ll make anyone play harder — it’ll be hard to get everyone more excited than they already are.”

Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m.

in the world, and you are going to claim that you didn’t know there would be risks? I think you did.

I think you knew you’d be able to feign incompetence until the existing collective bargaining agreement was up so you could have your metaphoric Matisse and get the artist to pay for it. All it’s going to take is putting a couple thousand people out of work for the foreseeable future.

I tried for so long to figure out what I wanted to say to you men.

With all the words I have at my disposal, I’ve chosen carefully.

“Go (expletive) yourselves.”

Seriously.

Sam Sheehan ’12 is really disappointing his eighth grade English teacher right now. Talk sports with him at sam_sheehan@brown.edu or follow him on Twitter @SamSheehan.

on tennis and twins continued from page 12

Yes, of course. In everything, not just tennis, because we are twins. On the court, all the time.

We played doubles together here the first weekend.

How did you get into tennis?

I am actually one of five girls. ... I have three older sisters — two of them were professional tennis players. So it runs in our family. I grew up with it. I started playing when I was three or four years old and have been full-time since then.

What’s your favorite thing about Brown so far?

I can’t choose. Just being here, living each day, it’s just amazing.

When I look back, I think, “Wow, I accomplished a lot today.” And I just love our team and the prac-

tice. We all get along so well. You couldn’t ask for better teammates and better coaches. At the end of the day, I feel like I am getting a great education and having fun while I’m at it.

Do you know what you want to study here?

I am really interested in environmental studies or science. I am taking such a variety of classes, I can never be really sure.

What are you most excited for this year?

I am just excited to get more matches in, because it has been really fun so far playing as a team.

I am looking forward to next spring, when everything comes down to it — the Ivy season. I was really looking forward to this past weekend’s tournament, and I was really happy with the results.

comics Cabernet Voltaire | Abe Pressman

Fraternity of Evil | Eshan Mitra, Brendan Hainline and Hector Ramirez

The Unicomic | Eva Chen and Dan Sack

10

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, October 14, 2011

Diamonds & Coal

Editorial cartoon

by lo r e n f u lto n

Coal to moldy and expired food at campus eateries. We know the Corporation has made it a priority to replace outdated housing, but that doesn’t mean the University has to stop replacing outdated food.

And coal to Ann Hoffman, Dining Services’ director of administration, who told The Herald this week, “We typically capture a pretty consistent and a pretty high proportion of the students in residence.”

How can we enjoy our Polynesian ratatouille now that we know what happened to that girl who disappeared from Buxton House?

A cubic zirconium to Rhode Island School of Design police officers, who are now eligible to receive full police powers. Unfortunately, they are still waiting for the power to shave ironic mustaches.

Coal to Associate Professor of History Vazira Zamindar, who compared the Occupy movement to Gandhi’s struggle against British colonial rule at Wednesday night’s Occupy College Hill teach-in.

It’s a bit unfair to compare British colonial overlords to Wall Street bankers: At least the British built things.

Coal to the Safewalk program, which is seeking increased funding in response to a surge in demand this semester. Put the money toward subsidizing Blue Room muffins: We prefer to walk dangerously.

A diamond to University negotiators and Facilities Management workers, who reached an agreement on a new five-year employment contract Wednesday. Facilities workers reportedly celebrated by breaking all the exit signs in Keeney Quadrangle.

A cubic zirconium to the men’s and women’s ski teams, which have raised less than one-tenth of the $2 million President Ruth Simmons said it would take to save them from elimination. Simmons must have assumed you were iced out. Snow long, suckers!

A diamond to the International Teaching Fellowship, which brings Brown doctoral degree recipients to the for-profit Spanish business school Instituto de Empresa to teach undergraduates. Given the state of Spain’s economy, bringing in a bunch of Modern Culture and Media PhDs is likely a step up from whatever they’ve been doing.

Coal to the naked masturbator, who reportedly returned to John Street, where he appears to have stood on a lawn chair below a window.

The low-level sexual crime isn’t great, but stepping on the furniture is downright insulting.

quote of the day

“We are basically following in the footsteps of all the other Ivy schools.”

— Alexander Zaslavsky, professor of engineering and physics See engineering on page 1.

A diamond to the Smith College students who, during President Ruth Simmons’ tenure at the institution, showed up naked at Simmons’ front door while she was entertaining guests. Simmons may be leaving, but it looks like they still have a kindred spirit on Brown’s campus.

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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Graphics & Photos Abe Pressman Emily Gilbert Rachel Kaplan Glenn Lutzky Jesse Schwimmer

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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

Managers Justin Lee Collections Collections Sam Plotner Nicky Robbins Invoice Staff Kevin Lynch Daniel Slutsky Analytics Jared Davis Sales and Communications Alumni Engagement Nikita Khadloya Emily Simmons Ad Relations Human Relations James Eng Angel Lee Business Development Owen Millard Business Development Gregory Chatzinoff Web Relations Post- magazine Editor-in-Chief Sam Knowles Editor-in-Chief Amelia Stanton BLOG DAILY HERALD David Winer Editor-in-Chief Matt Klimerman Managing Editor

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Opinions 11

The Brown Daily Herald Friday, October 14, 2011

Why not to not occupy

By Daniel Moraff Opinions Columnist

This Occupy Wall Street/College Hill/ Providence/Everywhere movement is big.

It is big in that it is the main large-scale challenge to the fundamental wackiness of our society. We all consequently have a pretty big decision to make when we choose whether or not we personally plan to participate. This is a massive question with huge implications for pretty much everything, and the only part of it that I am going to deal with right here is why Schoolhouse Rock lied to you.

“When I started,” says Schoolhouse Rock’s titular bill, “I wasn’t even a bill. I was just an idea. Some folks back home decided they wanted a law passed, so they called their local Congressman and he said, ‘You’re right, there oughta be a law.’

Then he sat down and wrote me out and introduced me to Congress. And I became a bill, and I’ll remain a bill until they decide to make me a law.”

So here’s Schoolhouse Rock’s Model for Social Change. Everyone has an idea. Everyone communicates this idea to extant dominant power structures. Extant dominant power structures do their thing. Finally: social change.

I do not actually think Schoolhouse Rock is a corporatist stooge, but I think we have been very well trained to think about things in a certain way. We are held hostage by a mindset extending way beyond Congressional procedure. This mindset pictures a social movement as a group of people who have an idea and come together in common cause, and they push and they push until they make their idea happen. It is neat and clean and gives us

ized list of demands and a new happy democratic constitution all ready to go. People were angry, they got into the streets, they talked and disagreed and agreed and acted.

Their demands and their message evolved.

The only single concrete thing you can say about the entire revolution was that power shifted outside the barricaded fortresses that contained it for so long.

You simply cannot start a social movement with a single piece of paper that ev-

I do not actually think Schoolhouse Rock is a corporatist stooge, but I think we have been very well trained to think about things in a certain way.

a world where we can all get together and tackle discrete problems, and it’s great except for being terribly, terribly wrong.

Take Tunisia. Early protests expressed anger at the government’s treatment of a flammable small business owner. Some began protesting hunger and poverty. Unions called for jobs. Educators called for an end to corruption. Lawyers called for the government to stop beating up all the lawyers.

In short: No one started out with a master plan to overthrow a dictator, with an item-

erybody is down with, something clean and concise. I mean, technically you can, if you build a movement that’s top-down and authoritarian, but that movement is going to suffer the same downfalls that other authoritarian, top-down structures do. The Tunisian Revolution was in no respect topdown, and that is a big reason both why it succeeded and why whatever follows it might actually be democratic. In our own past, civil rights, labor, women’s rights — these movements all had any number of

people with different ideas and goals and manifestos, and no one succeeded by waiting for the perfect thing.

Plenty of people look at the Occupy movement and do not engage precisely because it falls short of the Schoolhouse Rock standard. They are right. We did not spring fully-formed from the head of a think tank, clutching a 10-point plan. Here is what is going to happen. Over the next few weeks and far beyond that, we here at Brown are going to be putting together our own ideas and grievances. We are going to be talking to each other. “We” refers to every single person who cares enough to get involved.

Occupy Providence begins in Burnside Park this Saturday. You can find Occupy College Hill pretty much everywhere online. If you want to find a way to be a part of this movement, to learn more, to help plan, to contribute something, it is not hard.

We have a society where the wealthy and the powerful are essentially synonymous. You can point to a government where leading politicians freely admit that banks basically control Congress, or to a corporatized university or to an unfettered corporate elite. It is upside down, and we are figuring out what to do about it.

The more people this “we” covers, the better.

Daniel Moraff ’14 enjoys long walks on the beach. Continue not to email him.

A curriculum for a new era

By Ira Magaziner and Elliot Maxwell Guest Columnists In 1967, a group of Brown students and faculty set out with the goal of improving education at Brown. The group’s final report, authored primarily by Ira Magaziner ’69 and Elliot Maxwell ’68, led to the establishment of the New Curriculum at Brown. Today, the Open Jar Foundation is releasing a new edition of the report, which will be available at the Brown Bookstore and for free online. The following is a reprint of the new preface from Magaziner and Maxwell, to accompany the new edition.

It was more than 40 years ago that a group of students and faculty began the discussions that led to the report on Brown’s curriculum that is now being republished. We are relatively sure that no one who worked on that mimeographed document expected that it would someday be available electronically to people around the world. More important, the students who sought to change the curriculum, hoping to improve the educational experience for themselves and for others, had little reason to believe that a new curriculum would lead to the remarkable faculty and students that have since come to Brown, at least in part because of its adoption. And no one could have expected that Brown’s New Curriculum would remain relatively unchanged for 40 years or more.

We are pleased that the report is being made more broadly available, but not because we believe that it provides the right

blueprint for a curriculum for the 21st century. The report itself anticipated that the curriculum should and would change as the times changed. We hope instead that the report will spark discussions about the goals of higher education, the role of the curriculum, ways to evaluate students, the importance of a global perspective, the impact of the departmental organization of knowledge and governance and other core questions. Such discussions would be particularly valuable today, when knowledge is exploding. After all, the Internet is providing global access to high quality educa-

was based on our belief that the very fact of a review was energizing for an institution and would improve the educational experience. We find the absence of ongoing discussions in colleges and universities about the nature and purpose of higher education somewhat ironic.

Brown’s New Curriculum has itself been reviewed several times over the last 40 years without major change. We attribute its longevity to the strength of the core principle of the report — that the student be the center of the educational experience — which we still embrace. Perhaps anoth-

The report itself anticipated that the curriculum should and would change as the times changed.

tional materials and experiences, as well as massive amounts of both trustworthy and misleading information. New technologies are offering promising methods for teaching and learning and collaboration across borders. But all the while, fewer people are obtaining degrees and more people are challenging the value of a liberal education.

If this report helps initiate or facilitate these discussions, it would clearly justify the efforts that enabled its republication.

It would not disturb us if people reached quite different conclusions than we did.

The report’s suggestion of the need to reevaluate the curriculum at regular intervals

er reason for the Brown curriculum’s stability is that, unlike at many other colleges and universities, the students and faculty at Brown understand and agree with the centrality of this principle and view the curriculum as their own.

Placing students at the center of the educational experience is not a device for reducing their obligations. It places an enormous burden on them, making them responsible for their own choices and allowing them to learn from their mistakes in a supportive environment — something that we have come to see as a shared requirement for growth, whether it be in child-

hood, in adolescence or as a team member in the workplace. The quality of Brown graduates is testament to the value and rigor of the experience they had, even without distribution requirements, a fixed corpus of knowledge to be studied or letter grades with pluses and minuses for every course.

The report sought to encourage students to learn how to learn so that they could and would continue their education throughout their lifetimes. We think that here, too, Brown graduates provide evidence that the New Curriculum has been a success.

The late 1960s was a time of great ferment in the United States. The debate over the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement — all were contesting the prevailing views in our country. In a smaller way, the curricular reform movement was challenging the dominant model of higher education that had its roots in the general education movement of the 1940s and 1950s. The uncertainty about the future made it an opportune time to campaign for change. We were lucky to have been part of that debate and grateful to have had great colleagues in that effort.

Now is also a time of great ferment and uncertainty about the future. What better time than today to think together about how higher education can enable us to deal with the challenges of the coming years?

Ira Magaziner ’69 and Elliot Maxwell ’68 led the curricular reform movement that resulted in the establishment of the New Curriculum at Brown. The Open Jar Foundation is a not-forprofit organization dedicated to the performing arts and curricular freedom in higher education.

Daily Herald Sports Friday the Brown

Friday, October 14, 2011

Football

Bruno not looking past Tigers

By Ashley mcdonnell Sports Editor

After posting a perfect 3-0 nonconference record, the football team will resume Ivy League play tomorrow against Princeton at Brown Stadium. The Bears (3-1, 0-1 Ivy) will be looking for their first Ivy win after falling 24-7 in their conference opener against Harvard (3-1, 2-0), which is currently tied for first in the standings with Yale (3-1, 2-0).

The Bears came out on top in the past four matchups against Princeton (1-3, 1-0), so upperclassmen on the team have all experienced victory against the Tigers.

But wide receiver Jonah Fay ’12 — who scored his first career touchdown in last season’s Princeton game — said the Tigers have improved each year he has played against them. He cited last season’s game, in which Bruno trailed 13-0 going into halftime, as a tight match the Bears almost dropped. Though the Tigers are currently 1-3, Fay said the team cannot underestimate them.

“In some of their games (this

season), they had a good chance to win,” he said. “They’re athletic, so it always gives them a good chance to win any game.”

Safety Stephen Peyton ’12 also acknowledged the Tigers will be a tough opponent, particularly since Brown’s former offensive coordinator, James Perry ’00, is now a second-year coach at Princeton. Perry was also a quarterback at Brown and is the Ivy League’s all-time leading passer. “He’ll have their squad up to play us,” Peyton said.

Princeton will have to break through a staunch Brown defense, which Peyton leads with linebackers Matthew O’Donnell ’12 and Daniel Smithwick ’12. Peyton was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week for his play against Holy Cross last week. In the win, Peyton had 10 tackles and an interception and broke up two passes. O’Donnell and Smithwick each had nine tackles in the game. O’Donnell has averaged 9.8 tackles per game, which ranks him second in the league.

Bruno’s defense should be back at full strength with the return of co-captain defensive lineman

Kyle Rettig ’12. Rettig did not play against Holy Cross due to a “tweaked muscle,” according to Peyton, but he said Rettig has been practicing this week and should be ready to play.

On the offensive side, Fay said starting tight end Nicholas Faber ’12 is expected to return to the lineup. In the Governor’s Cup game against the University of Rhode Island Oct. 1, Faber was carted off the field on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance after being upturned and landing on his head. There were no fractures in his neck and he did not suffer a concussion.

Co-captain quarterback Kyle Newhall-Caballero ’11.5 has been the offensive anchor, averaging just short of 250 passing yards per game. Against Holy Cross, he threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns.

After being intercepted three times and fumbling twice in the Harvard game, the team has not surrendered any turnovers in the past two games.

“The turnover battle is always something Coach Estes preaches,” Peyton said. “I think the turnover

Athlete of the Week

Uberoi ’15 serves up a perfect weekend

By Madeleine Wenstrup Sports Staff Writer

Nikita Uberoi ’15 had a perfect weekend at the 2011 United States Tennis Association Women’s Collegiate Invitational, going 4-0 in both singles and doubles in her third-ever college tennis competition. She won the singles title and — along with teammate Carissa Aboubakare ’12 — claimed the doubles title as well. For her outstanding rookie performance this past weekend, The Herald has named her Athlete of the Week.

ratio we’ve got going right now is just a testament to how we’ve been growing as a team.”

In addition to Newhall-Caballero’s aerial power and ball

Courtesy of Mahesh Uberoi

Rookie Nikita Uberoi ’15 posted a perfect 4-0 record in both singles and doubles.

How did you decide on Brown?

Obviously I fell in love when I came to visit. But the team, the coach, the atmosphere — of course, happiest campus. Also, I have a twin sister who also plays tennis and we both wanted to go to school together, and we were both recruited for Brown tennis.

... I felt really comfortable in the atmosphere here and the curriculum here. It has a little more relaxed feeling than other college campuses. I love it so far.

Are you and your twin sister ever competitive with each other? continued on page 9

security, the team is looking to maintain a balance between rushing and passing during this week’s continued on page 9

Labor, lockouts and liars

By Sam sheehan Sports Columnist

The Herald: How have you been feeling going into your first matches of collegiate tennis?

Uberoi: I was really nervous at first playing my first match at Brown, but I have been really excited. Throughout my first two tournaments, I’ve really felt like I progressed a lot in the short time that we’ve been practicing.

What was the best moment of the weekend?

Probably the last day — it was a long weekend and I was the last match on. I was playing and then we were heading out back to Brown. So my best moment was my last singles match, because I actually won the first set 6-1 and then was up 3-love and then came down 5-3 and came back to win that 7-6. I was happy that I closed it out then and there. For our doubles final we got a default, so that wasn’t so glorious, but it was nice winning doubles with Carissa.

Tom Sullivan / Herald

The Kyle Newhall-Caballero ‘11.5 - Mohamed Tounkara-Kone ‘11.5 connection will play a crucial role against Princeton.

“Go (expletive) yourselves.”

I sat back in my chair and wrinkled my forehead at what I had just written. An Ivy League education in writing and this was the best I could muster. How did I get to this point? I thought back to last year, which featured the most entertaining NBA season in recent memory. It was then that the NBA solidified itself as my favorite sports league. Now here we are, no more than four months later, and labor disagreements have compounded into a fierce lockout. Just like that, all of those good feelings have been flushed down the toilet.

NBA commissioner David Stern cancelled the first two weeks of the regular season Monday after an 11th-hour deal for a new collective bargaining agreement fell through and I — like many other fans — stirred myself to write an impassioned letter. Two hours later, those three words were still all I could think of. The point of vocabulary is finding precisely the right way to express what you want to communicate. But with this NBA lockout, I don’t need a thesaurus or meticulous sentence

structure to voice my displeasure.

I don’t need to select my vocabulary with the measured delicacy that defined Jane Austen. I just need a verb, a crass slang term and a reflexive pronoun.

“Why, that seems a bit dramatic and overblown, don’t you think, Sam?” you might ask. Maybe, but there are only a few reasons that basketball isn’t being played right now and they are all things that a four-year-old could figure out.

The NBA employs thousands of people a year and stimulates the economies of participating cities, and that’s important to remember when discussing this. This is about more than just billionaires versus millionaires. This is about a significant number of jobs across the country. So why are these people missing two weeks of pay? Let’s find out.

Point #1: NBA teams are too poorly run.

The reason the owners are taking such a hard line on this lockout is because they claim they lost $370 million last season. They want a bigger slice of the profits by paying less to players. There has been speculation that the owners have been using some “creative accounting” to make their losses seem worse, but let’s assume that they are telling the truth.

The smaller market teams are losing money simply because they have to pay more to keep up with continued on page 9