Monday, February 13, 2012

Daily

the Brown

vol. cxxii, no. 14

Herald

Monday, February 13, 2012

Since 1891

Corporation ups tuition by 3.5 percent

Protesters ask Corp. to boost contributions to Providence

By shefali luthra News Editor

By ADAM TOOBIN Senior Staff Writer

About 20 students gathered Friday at the Van Wickle Gates to pressure the University to pay its “fair share” to the city of Providence. The press conference called on the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, to increase Brown’s voluntary contributions to the city. President

city & state Ruth Simmons announced that the University will continue discussions with the city in an email to the Brown community Saturday.

“Brown likes to position itself as the social justice leader amongst the Ivies. But if we want that branding, we have to take responsibility for what those values mean,” said Aaron Regunberg ’12 at the press conference.

The inability to find money in the University’s budget for the city stems from misplaced priorities, Regunberg said. “In 2009, Brown paid its 14 highest-compensated employees $7,734,758. That’s just a little under twice as much as the entirety of the deal the city is currently asking for,” Regunbeg said.

“If we can afford to give out that many six- and seven-figure salaries, continued on page 3

The Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, approved an $865.2 million budget for the coming fiscal year — raising tuition by 3.5 percent — at its meeting this past weekend.

The budget reflected a 3.2 percent increase from last year, attributed to rising salaries for faculty and staff as well as growth in the University’s public health and biological and medical sciences programs, said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration. Financial aid funding will also increase by 2.1 percent.

The budget will call for more expenditures than projected revenues, causing the University to draw more than $9 million from its reserve funds. Though the University has “set aside reserves” for exactly such a situation, Huidekoper said it must work in future years to “close this gap.”

“This is a constant question in all of higher education,” she said. “I don’t think Brown’s alone in that revenues are slow, and expenses aren’t.”

Huidekoper added that the University will look to expand its revenues by implementing programs in coming years like professional continued on page 3

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76 and other Corporation members approved a budget that will require taking more than $9 million from reserve funds next year.

‘Dudes’ explore cultures in food blog

By Elizabeth Carr City & State Editor

Most of us know “The Dude” as Jeff Bridges’ character in “The Big Lebowski.” But two first-years who call themselves the “Dudes of Food” are putting a more intellectual, cultured and savory spin on what it means to be a dude.

Feature The Dudes — Aron Lesser ’15 and Gab Lesser ’15 — brought their popular college-town food blog, the Dudes of Food, to Providence last semester. Though the twin brothers hail most recently from Atlanta — where they began the blog three years

ago — they previously lived in Brazil and Providence. They base their blog on a concept they call “FSFW” — full stomach, full wallet — which they think is particularly palatable to college towns.

Gearing their blog toward college youth, the Dudes aim to change the way Brown undergraduates interact with Providence. “Tons of Brown students never even think about leaving campus, but Providence is so small,” Aron said. “It’s so accessible by foot,” he added, calling it “a shame” that students don’t take advantage of it.

Aron said foodies at Brown don’t think of going to other neighborhoods for cheap, tasty meals. “They think ‘Oh, I know the best restaurant in Federal Hill,’” he added.

But Gab said Brown’s diversity lends itself to some unique cultural eating experiences. “It’s fun to see somebody so excited to try a bowl of homemade pasta, and then for them it’s totally commonplace to have tongue tacos.”

The plan, which calls for all firstyears to be housed in “exclusively first-year areas,” will require significant changes to Pembroke campus, Klawunn said.

Miller, Metcalf, Andrews, Emery, Woolley, Morriss and Champlin Halls will all be renovated, though the levels of renovation will vary continued on page 5

— Alexandra Macfarlane

Food for thought

The cultural experience is a large part of the Dudes’ blog. “You can be transient between these various cultures, and that’s what keeps it interesting,” Aron explained. “A lot of people think you’re offending someone when you go in not knowing about their culture, what they eat. But it’s a huge compliment.” He continued on page 5

inside

news....................2-3 Sports................4 Feature............5 Editorial.............6 Opinions................7 Arts.................8

formed into a student commons.

Administrators hope to be able to build a new residence hall in the near future.

Both dorm renovations and firstyear and sophomore communities were deemed necessary, said Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services. “A lot of the plans were really shaped by concerns we were hearing from students.”

‘A distinctive first-year experience’

Ribbon cutting One percent

Big bucks

Administrators celebrate newly renovated Metcalf

Endowment grows at greater rate

news, 2

Carty ’15 critiques U.’s ties to the banking industry OPINIONs, 7

news, 3

weather

Jesse Schwimmer / Herald

In Boston this weekend, John Spooney ’14 set the school record for the 200m dash. Above, Heidi Caldwell ’14 runs the 5,000m. See page 4 for full story.

The Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, approved a $56 million overhaul of campus housing at its meeting this weekend, bringing to fruition a plan administrators have been developing for years. Most dorms will be renovated or improved by fall 2013.

According to the plan, all firstyears will be clustered in Keeney Quadrangle — which will be split into three buildings — and on the Pembroke campus in renovated residence halls. Sophomores, a major focus of the plans, will be clustered in the central area of campus, largely in double rooms. Most juniors and seniors will live in suites and apartments.

The Verney-Woolley Dining Hall will be open on weekends, and Andrews Dining Hall will be trans-

Job board failure causes stress Students have been unable to access the Center for Careers and Life After Brown Student Job and Internship Board since Thursday afternoon and could not apply for jobs or schedule interviews on the site over the weekend — a critical weekend for juniors applying to summer internships.

Zach Long ’13 discovered the site had stopped working Thursday night. The site displayed a page saying the site no longer existed, a problem that persisted until Friday afternoon, he said.

CareerLAB’s Twitter announced the site was fixed Friday afternoon.

But when Long tried to log on to the board, a software error said the server was not hosting the page, he said, adding that the problem persisted until Sunday. CareerLAB tweeted Sunday morning that the site was still down.

Last night, the board allowed students to log on but prompted them to create a new profile, which is not possible for students who have already created a profile with their Brown email addresses.

Long said he has missed deadlines, and chances to schedule interviews at various companies may be gone since the site has been down. “It is unacceptable for the site to go down” and not provide another way to see approaching deadlines, Long said.

Betsy Odland ’13, a former Herald business staffer, said the board has an impressive selection of jobs, but “Brown’s end of the deal has not been great.”

Because CareerLAB is closed on weekends, no representatives were available for comment.

Campus housing to be renovated, transformed

By Greg Jordan-Detamore News Editor

Ne ws in brief

t o d ay

tomorrow

40 / 25

45 / 30

2 Campus News calendar Today

February 13

12 P.M.

ToMORROW

Ne ws in brief February 14

12 P.M. Med School Info Session,

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse ‘11,

CareerLab

List 1200

6:30 P.M.

5 p.M. David Rohde ’90 Lecture,

Valentine’s Dinner,

Hillel

Faculty Club

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Chicken Fajitas, Gnocchi alla Sorentina, Italian Vegetable Saute, Spicy Fries

Enchilada Bar, Macaroni and Cheese, Bacon Ranch Chicken Sandwich, Snickerdoodle Cookie

DINNER Vegan Oven Roasted Tofu, Sustainable Seafood Cavatelli, Cream Cheese Brownies

General Tso Vegetable and Chicken Stirfry, Pizza Rustica with Spinach, S’mores Bars

Sudoku

Cr ossword

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, February 13, 2012

Pipe burst sends crowds to Ratty A pipe burst in the VerneyWoolley Dining Hall Friday, closing the facility before lunchtime for the rest of the day. The cause of the leak was still unclear as of Sunday, but the V-Dub will reopen today, wrote Ann Hoffman, director of administration and human resources for Brown Dining Services in an email to The Herald.

The University did not underestimate the importance of Chicken Finger Friday, and measures were taken to transport chicken fingers from the V-Dub to the Sharpe Refectory. Ratty cashier Gail McCarthy said extra hands were brought from the V-Dub to the Ratty to transport the chicken fingers and help with the increased student traffic.

“I am not a frequent V-Dub chicken finger goer, but I thought it was nice for the Ratty to replicate the V-Dub experience,” said Amelia GrantAlfieri ’15.

But some devoted chicken finger consumers were more affected.

“It was a roller coaster of emotions,” said Angela Ramponi ’15. “Initial disappointment that Chicken Finger Friday was off, then joy when Gail said there were three lines serving chicken fingers, and then disappointment again when the chicken fingers really weren’t up to their normal V-Dub standard.”

Other students viewed the situation as a chance to expand the usual chicken finger offerings. “They should always have Chicken Finger Friday at the Ratty!” said Yongha Kim ’15.

— Hannah Kerman

Daily

the Brown

Emily Gilbert / Herald

President Ruth Simmons spoke at the Metcalf rededication ceremony Friday.

New Metcalf dedicated as space for collaboration

By Sahil Luthra Science Editor

Members of the Brown community gathered Friday evening to rededicate the Metcalf Chemistry and Research Laboratory, the new home of the department of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, which underwent a $42 million renovation over the past year and a half.

Corporation Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76 opened the event by formally rededicating the building and thanking the donors, architects and University supporters behind the renovation. “It’s just an absolutely magnificent and brilliant piece of work,” he said.

The University had originally planned to build a new brain science building but, in the wake of the recent recession, decided instead to renovate the Metcalf complex. The CLPS department was relocated to Wayland Square during the renovation and moved back into Metcalf last October. The renovated building opened for classes in January.

“It’s hard to believe that it was just a few years ago that this space

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was considered to be the worst classroom on campus,” said CLPS department chair William Heindel, speaking to an audience of Corporation officials, donors and department members in the Metcalf Auditorium.

Heindel also spoke about the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in the CLPS department, which was formed in 2010 as a merger between the department of cognitive and linguistic sciences and the department of psychology.

By placing faculty offices arbitrarily throughout the building, for instance, the department hopes to encourage collaboration.

The ceremony included video footage of Metcalf prior to the renovation, which some faculty members said had changed little since the building’s construction in the 1920s. Labs in the basement, for instance, used to flood several times per year. The video also highlighted features of the renovated building, such as the virtual reality lab, the MacDougald Family Library and the glass “dome room” used for department meetings.

Following the video presentation, Associate Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences Michael Frank presented an example of interdisciplinary research being done in the department. Frank’s current research examines uncertainty in decisionmaking and is an example of neurogenocomputomics — ­ the intersection of neuroscience, genetics, computer science and behavioral economics.

President Ruth Simmons called the new building’s emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration “a perfect example of the Plan for Academic Enrichment in action.”

“Brown is entering a new era of achievement in mind, brain and behavioral sciences, and this state-of-the-art facility will play a dynamic role in nurturing that success,” she said.

Simmons also thanked donors who supported the renovation. “We can so easily forget what it takes to build a university,” Simmons said.

“This is evidence of what we need to do over and over again to keep this place flourishing.”

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, February 13, 2012

Campus News 3

Corp. dips into reserves Endowment increases by 19 percent in 2011 continued from page 1 master’s degrees, which target professionals seeking to change careers and are meant to turn a profit for the University.

While Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 said the University is “not in a position where there’s extra money floating around,” he expressed concern about raising tuition each year.

Last year, tuition increased by 3.5 percent after increasing by 4.5 percent the previous year.

“I don’t think that tuition can keep going up for several percent a year forever,” he said. “It may reach a point where we can’t as an institution afford to keep increasing tuition.”

But Schlissel and Huidekoper both said the financial aid increase would minimize the tuition hike’s impact on the composition of the student body.

The University will rely on an endowment payout of about $104.9 million — a payout larger than the Corporation usually approves.

“The board is saying, ‘We know it’s tough times, so we know we’re paying out a little higher than we’d like to, but given everyone’s facing tough times, we think this is a time we might want to use it,’” Huidekoper said. A higher endowment payout will mitigate the University’s reliance on tuition, she added.

Corporation members also discussed the ongoing dialogue between the University and the city, establishing its commitment to “working with the mayor, the governor and the other universities and nonprofits in Providence to try to help the city fix its chronic budget problems,” Schlissel said.

But especially given the revenue shortage, Schlissel noted the importance of finding a solution that does not place “undue financial strain on Brown itself.”

“We want to help the city, but we have to do it in the context of what our budget will allow, along with other nonprofits, including the other colleges in Providence,” he said.

The budget also marked the end of federal stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided more than $40 million to the University for research, said Vice President for Research Clyde Briant.

“We’ll struggle to make up for that decrease in research funding,” Schlissel said.

Projects funded by the act will “come to an end,” Briant said, though he and Schlissel both said they hoped faculty members would look for new external funding.

The Corporation approved the creation of two new research-related positions — one in the Technology Ventures office and the other in the Center for Computation and Visualization. The former position will emphasize helping faculty members develop research that can be patented for business ventures, while the latter will look to help faculty members in social sciences and humanities use the University supercomputer for data-based research. Both positions should be filled by fall, Briant said.

The Technology Ventures position will work primarily with en-

gineering faculty members, Briant said. He added that he hopes the position will emphasize more profitable research discoveries for the University.

Increasing patentable discoveries could also help supplement University revenues, Schlissel said, potentially “diminishing our reliance on tuition.”

The Corporation also approved $28.6 million in gifts. The School of Engineering received a total of $19.5 million in gifts, including $9 million to fund three endowed professorships.

The engineering gifts will allow the school to start planning physical expansions, said Dean of Engineering Lawrence Larson, though he said further funding is necessary before any projects can actually get underway. Physical expansions could take the form of renovations to existing space or the construction of new buildings.

Depending on how fundraising goes, these projects could begin in the next three to five years, Larson said.

The Corporation-approved budget also includes additional funding to the School of Engineering for lab space renovation and expansion of the engineering faculty. These appropriations should increase the variety of engineering disciplines available and allow more students the opportunity to conduct research in the field, Larson said.

During the weekend, Schlissel also updated the Corporation on the athletics discussion and on continuing work related to the Brown Institute for Brain Science.

Schlissel said the University plans to cut 20 recruiting spots from sports teams over the next three years and will encourage coaches and admissions to keep the average athlete Academic Index — a measure based on SAT scores and GPAs — above the league minimum. Schlissel added that the University intends to raise coaches’ salaries by $1.1 million over two years. Half of the increase was included in this year’s budget, and the other half will be in next year’s.

The Corporation also approved renovation of athletic facilities, a project Schlissel said will particularly benefit the field hockey team. The renovations should be completed by the next academic year, Schlissel said, though the University has not yet finished raising the funds for the renovations.

The University intends to add seven faculty positions to the Institute for Brain Science over the next three to four years, Schlissel said, as well as funding further research equipment for the Institute.

The Corporation’s Committee on Facilities and Design agreed to have a Slavery and Justice memorial constructed on campus. The memorial will be designed by Martin Puryear, a black sculptor whose work has been displayed in the Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago and the New York Museum of Modern Art. The Corporation also approved $56 million to go to undergraduate housing renovations. It did not make public any new information regarding the ongoing presidential search.

By Nora McDonnell Contributing Writer

The University’s endowment grew approximately 16 percent over the past fiscal year, according to the 2011 Study of Endowments released last month by the National Association of College and University Business Officers. College endowments included in the study experienced an average growth of about 19 percent, an increase from the previous year’s average of 12 percent.

The study takes investment gains, gifts to the University and money withdrawn into consideration but disregards rates of return on the investments.

But to University administrators, the numbers released in the study were nothing new.

“You look at (the study) as an after-the-fact,” said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration. “That’s how we did relative to others.”

“By the time it comes out, we’ve absorbed all the information,” she added. According to the University’s own calculations, the endowment grew by about 19 percent last fiscal year.

“It wasn’t the top, and it wasn’t the bottom,” Huidekoper said of the total endowment return. “It was a good year.”

When compared to other Ivy League institutions, the University employs a relatively conservative endowment investment approach, said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15.

Emily Gilbert / Herald

The University’s endowment is the smallest in the Ivy League at $2.5 billion.

“It’s more important to us to protect from risk of the endowment taking a big hit than it is to squeeze out every percentage point of growth,” Schlissel said.

At approximately $2.5 billion, Brown’s endowment is the smallest in the Ivy League, but according to the study, its total growth surpassed Harvard’s, Dartmouth’s and Cornell’s in 2011.

Both Huidekoper and Schlissel said with the current economic state both globally and domestically, it is unlikely this year’s endowment growth will exceed last year’s.

Payments to city remain stable after Corp. review continued from page 1 then I think we can throw down a bit more to keep additional Providence children from losing their schools,” he added, referencing Providence’s closure of four schools last year.

Despite an often critical tone, the speakers stressed that the goal of the protest was not to condemn the University. Nicole Hasslinger ’15 said she believes “the way in which Brown has been vilified throughout the tax discussions is unfair.”

The Corporation did not agree on a new payment plan by the conclusion of its meeting this past weekend.

The University’s level of contribution to the city has come under fire in recent months because of Providence’s precarious financial outlook.

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras announced earlier this month that the city may face bankruptcy in June if an approximately $22 million budget hole is not addressed. Taveras and President Simmons renewed discussions regarding the University’s payments earlier this month.

Last year, the University paid the city $4 million in taxes and voluntary contributions. The protesters said they hoped to see Brown double that number in the coming years.

The University has signaled its willingness to increase support in ways that align with its mission, but

the city’s demand comes as Brown faces its own financial difficulties.

“We’re not in a position where there’s extra money floating around,” Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 told The Herald.

The University is focused on ensuring that “whatever we do doesn’t complicate or place undue financial strain on Brown itself,” Schlissel said.

The protesters said they did not see this position as a reason to neglect Brown’s duty to the city. At a time when nearly all Providence residents have sacrificed, Brown can do more than it does now, Regunberg said.

— With additional reporting by Shefali Luthra

Ne ws in brief UCS extends vote, plans forum The Undergraduate Council of Students has extended the deadline for students to vote on its proposed constitutional change to 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The original deadline was last night. The proposed amendment would allow UCS to draw its budget directly from the Student Activities Fund rather than procuring funding through the Undergraduate Finance Board.

UCS President Ralanda Nelson ’12 said the deadline was extended “after (the council heard) meeting members saying they think students would want more time.” Until voting closes Wednesday night, UCS will not know how many students voted on MyCourses due to the website’s interface, she said.

According to a campus-wide email sent Friday, the council will host an open forum to discuss the proposed amendment Feb. 15 at 5:30 p.m. in Salomon 001.

UCS hopes the forum will “clear up some inconsistencies with the messaging” surrounding the amendment, Nelson said.

Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services, will also attend the forum, Nelson said.

— Margaret Nickens

4 Sports Monday NYT writer reviews state of music news trends continued from page 8 nally beginning to change. “That’s where I can have an impact,” he said. “Institutions are listening.”

In addition to tales of his past, Tommasini looked to the future and what it holds for journalism.

“Today, the issue that roils journalism … is the Internet,” he said.

Though he said he believes other publications will be fast to follow the Times in its implementation of a pay wall, he stated definitively that the print edition is not going to disappear anytime soon.

“The web is a complement, not a substitution.”

He said he was more dismayed for the future of music sections like his own. Though the Times’ fine arts section is doing extremely well — full page ads in the section gross the most income for the Times — local papers cannot say the same. “It’s crazy that smaller publications cut local reviewers,” he said, calling such a decision a “dumb editorial call” as he shook his head.

Still, Tommasini is quick to encourage young writers to pursue careers as critics. His advice on how to make it to the Times — “Write anywhere, just do it.”

Thanks for reading!

M. BASKETBALL

Squad struggles against Columbia By sam rubinroit Assistant Sports Editor

The men’s basketball team hit a roadblock when it travelled to New York over the weekend, stalling in a 86-60 loss to Columbia Friday and then falling 72-63 to Cornell the next day.

The pair of losses stretch Bruno’s losing streak to five, stranding them in seventh place in the Ivy standings ahead of only Dartmouth, which has yet to win a conference game.

Columbia 86, Brown 60

Bruno’s visit to the Big Apple was the squad’s first road trip in months.

The Bears’ ( 7 - 1 8 , Columbia 86 60 1-7 Ivy) Brown schedule this year includes a program record 15 home games, and the team has played its last five conference games at the Pizzitola Center.

“It was a little different, because we haven’t had a full road trip since right after Christmas,” co-captain guard Matt Sullivan ’13 said. “We’ve had a couple of away games, but not really any road trips, so we had to get back in the swing of things.”

Adding to the difficulty of playing on the road was the recent loss of point guard Sean McGonagill ’14, the Bears’ leading scorer, who sustained an injury a week earlier against Penn.

“It really hurt not having Sean,” Sullivan said. “He’s our leading scorer, but he also sets everybody else up.

When he goes out, it really puts a lot of pressure on other people to step up and fill the scoring he usually provides.”

This pressure manifested itself right from the tip-off. The Bears had difficulty finding any offense against

Columbia (14-10, 3-5), allowing the Lions to build a 23-point lead at halftime. Columbia never lost the hot hand and sank an astounding 16 three-pointers on only 29 attempts, easily sealing the 26-point victory.

“It’s hard to see three after three going in,” Sullivan said. “Sometimes it’s your team that makes those shots and it’s the best feeling in the world, but you just need to give them credit for making shots as a team.”

Four Bears finished in double figures. Sullivan led the team with 17 points while Jean Harris ’12 contributed 14. Tellef Lundevall ’13 put in a career-high 12 points, and Dockery Walker ’14 another 10.

Cornell 72, Brown 63

The Bears opened with a better showing the following night against Cornell (10-12, 5-3), sticking with the Big Red 72 and enter- Cornell ing the half Brown 63 only down two points. But Cornell unleashed a 15-1 run in the second half and held on late for the nine-point victory.

“It was definitely a tough weekend for us, but we played much better against Cornell than Columbia,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan again led the squad with 21 points, 17 of which came in the first half. Stephen Albrecht ’12.5 was the only other Bear in double figures with 11 points, and Tyler Ponticelli ’13 led the team with a career-high 10 rebounds.

The Bears hit the road again this weekend as they travel to Cambridge Friday to face No. 25 Harvard (21-3, 7-1) before battling Dartmouth (420, 0-8) the following night. In the first matchup with the Crimson, the Bears caught Harvard off guard and kept the game close before eventually falling 68-59 before a sellout crowd at the Pizzitola. Harvard slipped four places in the top 25 after suffering its first Ivy loss to Princeton (14-10, 4-3) Saturday — the Tigers’ 24th consecutive home victory over the Crimson. Against Dartmouth, the Bears will look to sweep the season series — Bruno took down the Big Green 66-59 Jan. 27.

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, February 13, 2012

track & Field

Spooney ’14 sets school record in 200 m By james blum Sports Staff Writer

The men’s and women’s indoor track squads competed this weekend at the Valentine Invitational hosted by Boston University, one of the final testing grounds before the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships in two week’s time. Though the meet was not scored, Brown had top individual performances on both teams, both on the track and off.

“We wanted to get a good read on where the team is going into Heps, and we got that,” said Michelle Eisenreich, director of men’s and women’s track and field. “Everybody competed with the championship attitude and did very well.”

John Spooney ’14 had standout performances — one record-setting — in both the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash. His time of 21.35 seconds in the 200m set a new school record for the event and earned him third place in the race. He also placed second in the 60m with a time of 6.85 seconds, giving him the fifth-fastest time ever run by a Brown athlete in the event.

Nathan Elder ’13 also ran well and finished third in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1 minute, 4.68 seconds.

“It was about 90 percent of what I wanted from the race, but I definitely think I have to improve over the next two weeks,” Elder said. “My focus yesterday was getting out hard and fast and I did that, but I think I let myself get too relaxed in the middle of the race.”

Erik Berg ’13 had a strong performance in the 1000-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 23.39 seconds, placing second overall and just shy of breaking Trinity Gray’s ’00 record in the 1000m, according to Eisenreich.

“Trinity still has one of the top five times in NCAA history in the (800-meter run),” Eisenreich said.

“So to come close to breaking one of his records is pretty awesome.”

Off the track, Kenneth Thomp-

son ’13 earned second in the triple jump with a leap of 14.58 meters.

Matthew Miller ’15 threw 14.88 meters in the shot put to finish fifth. “(Miller has) improved every week, so he’s doing a really great job, and hopefully he’ll continue to improve and be a factor for us,” Eisenreich said.

On the women’s side, Lauren Waterbury ’15 earned seventh in the 200m and fourth in the 400-meter dash, with times of 25.05 and 54.62 seconds, respectively. Her 400m dash time was the third-fastest in Brown history.

Heidi Caldwell ’14, who competed in the 5,000-meter run, finished fourth with a time of 16 minutes, 37.66 seconds. Susan Scavone ’12 ran the 60-meter hurdles in 8.80 seconds to finish seventh overall. The women’s 4x400-meter relay team consisting of Michele Narbonne ’15, Colby Lubman ’14, Alexandra Stanton ’15 and Waterbury finished in 3 minutes, 48.24 seconds and earned second place.

Jara Crear ’12 led Bruno on the field, leaping 5.47 meters to finish first in the long jump. Lacey Craker ’13 finished seventh in the weight throw with a heave of 16.35 meters.

“I was really exited with how Lacey Craker threw in the weight,” Eisenreich said. “Her technique is coming together, and with more speed work over the next couple of days, she is going to do very well at Heps.”

The teams will compete at the USATF New England Championships Feb. 19 in the final competition before the Ivy League Championships at the end of the month.

With the championships only two weeks away, Eisenreich said she is optimistic that both teams will be competitive at a meet the team has been preparing for all season.

“I think the men are going to do really well,” Eisenreich said.

“The women are going to be a little down as we graduated a couple key scorers, but the people we do bring are going to do very, very well.”

Feature 5

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, February 13, 2012

Food and family Overhaul planned for dorms inspire twins’ blog continued from page 1

continued from page 1 explained that the blog has evolved into a forum for cultural learning.

While the blog originally just talked about food, Gab said they’ve tried to make their content “smarter.”

“When we eat duck with a cinnamon spice, we try to think about why a Chinese food has cinnamon, which is an American spice,” he explained.

In one blog post about the Taqueria El Taconazo, the Dudes noted though “Providence is known as an Italian city,” there are a surprising number of Latin American restaurants in town and several Rhode Island politicians have been of Latin American descent. “Food is a means by which you can understand culture,” Gab said, particularly immigration patterns.

“We try to simplify some more complex ideas into the food,” Aron said. “We talk about cultural hegemony and what it means to be a Latino in the United States, but we did it through a burrito.”

The cultural element transformed their blog into an intellectual endeavor. Professors at Emory University have requested the twins’ permission to use the food blog in their courses.

“I guess we’re a part of modern Southern culture,” Gab said.

Professors at Brown have also joined the blog’s readership. Aron recalled receiving a teasingly angry email from his professor, Lecturer in Italian Studies Cristina AbbonaSneider, one night. “‘I got home at 8:45 p.m. and my husband made me go get duck in the ghetto,’” he said she wrote.

Tongue in cheek

The blog has expanded dramatically since it began. “It used to be just our friends that would read it,” Aron said. “But then one week we got mentioned in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and then we got real people to start reading.”

The twins now boast an international following, including readers in Norway, Iceland and Taiwan.

But they wonder whether their descriptions of adventures to fish markets and hole-in-the-wall taquerias are the main draw for their readership. “I’m not even sure a food blog is about food,” Aron said. “It’s more about the cultures that surround the food blog .”

“For some people, it’s about going to get a 50-cent taco, and for some people, it’s about Mexican immigration,” Gab said.

“And for some people, it’s just funny,” Aron added — to which Gab jokingly responded, “and for some people, it’s not.” The twins said their posts are not always as humorous as they would like for them to be.

“This is the hip new way of doing things,” Gab explained. “It’s convenient for us that we got into it at a time when things are starting to blossom.”

Made from scratch

The blog and their shared foodie heritage have kept Gab and Aron connected despite their differences.

“This is a good thing that brings us together and brings our friends together too,” Gab said.

The twins’ parents both came from big cooking families, and their marriage began with competition for rights to the kitchen.

“Our family dinners are like eating food while talking about food,” Aron said.

“We have a good relationship with our family, and that’s the experience we recreate when we go out with our friends. I can’t imagine eating alone,” he said.

This eating culture largely inspired the Dudes to begin their food blog.

“It was a good excuse for our parents to wonder why we were going out to eat with their money every weekend,” Gab said, laughing.

Coming back to Providence, where they grew up, has added a new familial element to their blog.

The twins try to track down some of the restaurants where they ate with their parents as children, Gab said.

“The multicultural household we grew up in really impacted us in that we like to try different things,” Aron noted.

“We like tongue a lot. We don’t think that’s weird, but I guess that’s weird,” Gab said, adding that he and his brother like to push their friends to try foods out of their comfort zones that they often end up liking.

The one thing the Dudes tried and did not like was grasshopper. “It was disgusting,” Gab said. But the twins generally avoid writing about such experiences, he added. “We never say bad things about restaurants,” he said. “People don’t want to hear about where not to go.”

“Even if the food is bad, it can even be a good experience,” Aron added.

What’s cooking?

The Dudes have big plans for the future. The blog began light-hearted, but “ended up becoming something legitimate, so we’re thinking that if we keep transforming, something cool can come of it someday,” Gab said.

The twins spent the past summer backpacking around Europe, documenting their culinary experiences in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain and more. They released a sample of their travel writing on a Tumblr site, hoping to attract investors to sponsor a trip around Southeast Asia this summer that would be the basis for a Dudes of Food-style travel manual.

But a business model was never really a part of the twins’ plan.

“You have to do what you enjoy, and if you find something you really love doing, you need to follow through with it,” Aron said.

As their blog grows into a bigger project, the Dudes will face the prospect of losing their anonymity. “We don’t like that people know who the Dudes of Food are,” Gab explained, because it limits the “Dude” concept the twins try to embody to just the two of them.

“Everyone should be a dude,” Aron said. “It’s not about a blog, it’s not about the food — it’s about the inner dude.”

among the buildings, she said. Miller and Metcalf will be completely renovated — including converting single rooms to doubles — beginning this summer and continuing through fall semester. The other projects will take place over the summer of 2013.

“If we’re saying this is the Pembroke area transformation, we want the whole thing to look sparkling,” Klawunn said. Pembroke will house about 900 first-years.

Andrews Dining Hall — a space currently used for events — will be transformed into a student commons. While plans have not yet been finalized, the renovated dining hall will include spaces for studying, socializing and eating, Klawunn said.

It will be “sort of like a small campus center,” she said.

The first floor of Andrews will be study space, and the outer terrace will have tables. The ground floor will have lounge space, including a game room and pool tables, as well as a new dining facility that would replace the Gate. The study space will be created this summer, while the other work is slated for summer 2013. Though a computer cluster with printing facilities is not part of the current plan, Klawunn said printing would be helpful in creating “an effective study space.”

The V-Dub will likely be open on weekends to foster a sense of community. “I lived on Pembroke freshman year, and it sucked having to come down to the (Sharpe Refectory) on weekends,” said Sam Barney ’12, Residential Council chair.

“They want to really turn Pembroke into a more self-sustaining hub,” she added.

Keeney Quad will be renovated and split into three separate buildings, each with an elevator. Entrances to the building will be through Keeney’s courtyards, which are also slated for a facelift, and “will become enlivened green spaces that people will actually be on and be using,” Klawunn said.

The proposal splits Keeney into three buildings because it “feels too big and impersonal,” Barney said.

“People just don’t like that you can run around the whole thing.”

“Maybe people will get to know the people on their floor more if it’s smaller,” she said.

The proposal to split Keeney into three buildings was a “controversial one,” Barney said. “We kind of gave our approval, hesitantly.”

The University also plans to expand Keeney lounge space, both by renovating lounges on the top floors

and adding them to each unit of the dorm.

Keeney room renovations will occur this summer, while the rest will be completed summer 2013. All rooms, except those of Residential Peer Leaders, will be doubles for first-years. It will hold around 600 students.

“By the time we get it done, every first-year student will be in a renovated area,” Klawunn said. “We want a distinctive first-year experience.”

Building sophomore communities

The plan calls for clustering sophomores in Slater, Littlefield, Hegeman and Caswell Halls, Hope College and Wriston Quadrangle.

Most students will live in doubles, and Hope College and Hegeman will be renovated.

The first floor of Wayland House will also house students once the Office of Residential Life moves to Graduate Center.

“We wanted to make intentional sophomore communities to extend that cohesiveness from freshman year,” Barney said. The focus on the sophomore experience “really came out of ResCouncil.”

Currently, there is a “feeling that your sophomore year, you get leftover housing,” Klawunn said.

By creating housing options that are more similar and renovating dorms where necessary, ResCouncil and the University hope to alleviate the stress many freshmen may feel going into the housing lottery, Barney said.

Under the plan, there should be enough beds available for sophomores so that “no freshman will have to be in the summer assignment process,” Barney said.

The New Pembroke dorms may be a mix of first-years and sophomores, “depending on numbers,” Klawunn said.

The clustering of most sophomores into sophomore-only dorms in the center of campus “will allow students to have a more flexible social experience sophomore year,” Barney said, helping students meet and socialize with new people living near them.

ResCouncil will also review Greek and program housing this semester because of student complaints.

Moving up

Most juniors and seniors will live in suites or apartments, Barney said.

Perkins Hall will be renovated next summer and will be turned into single rooms. Individual students will live in rooms currently occupied by two students. “By the time you’re a junior or senior, you don’t mind being in Perkins because you know it’s not that far away,” Klawunn said.

First-years currently dislike living in Perkins because it’s “too far from the center of campus,” she added.

A new dorm at 315 Thayer St. will be available for upperclassmen starting this fall, with roughly 60 beds, mostly in suites. Vartan Gregorian Quad will undergo minor improvements next summer, Klawunn said.

Minden Hall is slated for full renovation in the future but was not included as part of the plan approved by the Corporation. “We know it needs work, and it will be one of the things that comes up” after the planned renovations, she said.

Students have expressed concern about paying extra fees for suites and apartments, a complaint the University is looking into, Klawunn said.

Though proposals have called for larger windows and common rooms for Grad Center suites, the University is “debating what level of renovation” is necessary before approving any changes.

The University hopes to build a new residence hall with about 220 beds for juniors and seniors in suite or apartment style, Klawunn said.

It has not yet chosen a site for the building, but the administration hopes to start it soon, as a new dorm would need three years between approval and completion. Klawunn said she hopes it will be discussed at the May Corporation meeting.

The University hopes to finance the renovations with gifts.

RPLs were briefed about the plans about two weeks ago, Klawunn said, and ResCouncil has been consulted throughout the process.

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

6 Editorial & Letter Editorial

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, February 13, 2012

Editorial cartoon

by lo r e n f u lto n

No special treatment for UCS Last Thursday, the Undergraduate Council of Students announced that it would hold a campus-wide referendum to “clarify” the relationship between itself and the Undergraduate Finance Board. If approved by a two-thirds majority of undergraduates on a poll on MyCourses that closes on Wednesday, UCS will no longer need UFB approval for its funding requests and will instead be able to appropriate itself money directly from the Student Activities Fund. We urge students to vote against UCS’s proposed referendum.

In dueling opinions columns published last week in The Herald, UCS first argued that this change is necessary for it to adequately fund initiatives it believes will have positive, campus-wide effects. UFB responded that the change would lessen the available money for other already underfunded student organizations.

As a student governance body, UCS has an understandably broader mandate than other interest-specific student groups. Its mission, which includes “represent(ing) students and the interests of students in all matters of university life” and “addressing each aspect of University operations which affects students,” is uniquely expansive and publicly oriented. It would be a dereliction of duty for them not to dream big and aim for broad-scale, meaningful projects that affect all undergraduate students. Such projects, understandably, cost money, and there is perhaps a legitimate argument to be made that printing clusters on Pembroke ought not to compete for funding with pizza at a recruitment meeting.

But UCS is not arguing merely to increase its baseline funding or to separate a “student government fee” out of the student activities fee — both ideas would merit serious consideration, especially if UCS were to ensure that the increased funds would be well spent. Instead, the proposed referendum constitutionally restructures the relationship between UCS and every other student group in a way that would essentially grant UCS unlimited funding. On the short end of the stick would be other student groups — many of them seeking funds for lectures, socials or projects with equally valuable impacts on student life — who would receive no such special treatment and would be competing over an even smaller amount of money.

UCS President Ralanda Nelson ’12 claimed in an article in last Friday’s Herald that UFB’s reduced oversight over UCS’s funding was of no concern, since — in the article’s words — “students opposed to the council’s decisions may join (UCS) and vote against the measures.” But students should not have to be members of UCS to ensure oversight over UCS’s use of their money. Indeed, we already have a dedicated organization ensuring that student activities funding is well spent — the UFB. Perhaps equally concerning has been UCS’s attempt to pass this referendum without serious opportunity for discussion. Initially, students were given just four days to vote on the amendment, but after the backlash, UCS scheduled a campus forum for this Wednesday, extending the deadline only to that same evening. A proposal such as this deserves a more tempered examination, and perhaps with more time a more equitable way of increasing UCS’s funds could be found.

As it stands, this proposal would give UCS a blank check we are not convinced it deserves.

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

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Article misinterprets lecture’s message To the Editor: I write this letter with great appreciation for The Herald for covering my talk last Thursday. While much of that article clearly presents the points made that evening, the following statement is inaccurate: “‘There’s a lack of truth’ about the role Western governments played in the earthquake relief process, Moynihan said. By impeding the autonomy of the Haitian government, international powers interfere with the Haitian people’s homegrown efforts to improve their situation, he said.”

First, the term Western, especially when used in the case of Haiti, is anachronistic — maybe even misleading.

It certainly ignores Haiti’s importance as the birthplace of what is classically referred to as the New World. It is my hope that the dialogue around Haiti will one day be less dominated by its unfortunate health issues and economic status and more focused on this great nation’s importance in our hemisphere and our own history. Haiti and its people have been and continue to be important contributors to the culture of freedom in the Western hemisphere. This is the first thing I would like to come

to mind when discussing Haiti.

Second, Haiti would only benefit from more stateto-state interaction. The very point of my talk is to encourage that Haiti be interacted with as a nation. At a presentation of this same talk in Birmingham, Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell, D-AL, asked me who I would most like to discuss Haiti’s situation with. I responded, “Secretary Clinton, in order to encourage a more consistent interaction with Haiti.”

Finally, it is in fact the large international non-governmental organizations which, to use the author’s words, “(impede) the autonomy of the Haitian government” and the “Haitian people’s homegrown efforts to improve their situation.” These organizations are neither equipped, nor do they have the expertise, to help Haiti develop the social institutions that are necessary for Haiti to advance as a nation. Unfortunately, they were repositories of the lion’s share of money given by individuals from around the world to help Haiti.

Deacon Patrick Moynihan ’87 President of the Haitian Project

Corrections An article in Friday’s Herald (“Alum reflects on education reform efforts in Haiti,” Feb. 10) incorrectly stated that Deacon Patrick Moynihan ’87 said Western governments interfere with Haiti’s efforts to improve its situation.

In fact, Moynihan’s criticism was directed at non-governmental organizations, rather than at the government.

Moynihan said he supports increased state-to-state interactions between Haiti and the United States government.

The Herald regrets the error.

An article in Friday’s Herald (“Bears look to rebound before heading to playoffs,” Feb. 10) incorrectly stated that the men’s hockey team would be playing Union in a game this past weekend. The team actually had a game scheduled against Colgate. The Herald regrets the error.

quote of the day

“We got that doodoo.”

— George Clinton, on the experience of funk music

Managers Justin Lee Kaivan Shroff Gregory Chatzinoff Mahima Chawla Matthew Hill Alison Pruzan Elizabeth Gordon David Winer

le tter to the editor

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor

See Funk on page 8.

C O R R E C T I O N S P olicy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

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Opinions 7

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, February 13, 2012

How hip-flipped

By Adam bouche Opinions Columnist

“Hipster” — I’d never encountered the term before entering this community in fall 2010, and I’ve always wondered why. When my graduating class returned for the first break, it was as if this concept had been directly injected into the language center of our brains.

Once used to describe “On the Road” beatniks — the disillusioned, jazz-snapping poetry slingers who rejected 1950s conformity — the expression has swollen and burst.

From moods to music, everything now has one label: hipster. Oh, how it is feared.

Flash forward, and College Hill is rampant with Kreayshawn carbon copies, acoustic guitars and flannel-clad folks sporting chunky glasses and over-moussed hair. To gauge campus sentiment, just ask around.

The word on the street is that if someone owns clothes from Urban Outfitters or American Eagle, has a superiority complex, loses himself in poetry and proclaims himself a culture connoisseur attending fancypants art exhibits, that dude’s a hipster. Hipsters are also found perusing thrift stores or making their own clothing. They’re “environmental” and eat organic. And don’t forget about their indie music.

Ouch, I thought. I’ve never once been called a hipster, but man do I love sustainable farming and saving seals. Before devel-

oping an identity crisis and suiting up with the best of ’em, I actually thought about the issue. How does one reconcile the fact that hipsters shop where T-shirts have three styles, six colors and cost $40 with their affinities for vintage and used clothing?

These days, anything remotely associated with the hipster fad is under fire. The problem is that many supposedly hipster characteristics, like visiting thrift shops and making instead of buying, are not solely pursued to be “in.” If that was the case, we’d all be paying $5 for a shirt and $35 for the brand name like most other Americans. In reality, crafting wardrobes from second-hand threads is

major record labels and production companies that are in the biz solely for the cash. If you scoff at indie music because “it’s so hipster,” you are simultaneously rejecting upand-coming waves of pop, rock, folk, rap, electro and every other genre.

Urban Dictionary says it best. Hipster is “a subculture of men and women typically in their 20s and 30s that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indierock, creativity, intelligence and witty banter.” Give or take a few points, that sounds like the average Brown student, hipster and non-hipster alike. Yet, for some reason, we

Why is “hipster” the go-to description of everything bad?

something we do because it’s fun, economical and self-sufficient. Besides, pieces of clothing outnumber Americans themselves, and we might as well use what is already there, right? I see retro as history, a work of art rather than something that is “cool” just because it fell out of style. How can we condemn people for appreciating how weird and funky material culture was when folks were getting down with their bad selves? And environmentalism criticized at this school?

This “hipster” label has gotten out of control.

Worst is the attack against indie. People seem to have forgotten what “indie” means: independent — as in the stuff ignored by

still use the term as an adjective to describe almost anything that earns our disapproval.

The question becomes why is “hipster” the go-to description of everything bad?

Without a doubt, the reasons we despise hipsters are the airs of pretentious sophistication they bring to all they do and the many who adopt the attitude and dress to be “in” without believing in the movement’s central tenets. The truth is these forms of insecurity are not just restricted to this subculture.

They are aspects of human nature, present in every ethnic, socioeconomic and cultural group.

By putting these stigmas on every hip-

ster and then blasting all they are associated with, we end up characterizing entire fields of study, ideas, music genres and art itself as the toys and tools of hipsterism. Do we want to reach the point where fear of perceived elitism is so strong that when a friend suggests seeing a new exhibit, people laugh in his face? Instead of tackling our true target, our unexamined hatred of everything labeled “hipster” undermines the most cherished aspect of humanity: its diversity of interests. It snatches credibility from social movements like Occupy Wall Street, which, good or bad, have undoubtedly raised awareness of tensions and problems within society. It hurts the cause of progressives and nonprofit workers who toil to improve opportunity and security for all citizens. It even weakens the appeal of environmentalism, urban farming and sustainability.

Letting something that is consistently hated and attacked control what we view as “cool” is the most illogical approach to the situation. By avoiding what is currently popular — or being perceived as doing so — we adopt a core ideology of hipsterism. Getting sucked into this drama makes us become what we truly hate about hipsters. We must free ourselves from labels and aim our criticism at pretentiousness and conformity. As long as we do what we like and like what we do, the critical others won’t have any clue.

Adam Bouche ’14 is a geology and archaeology concentrator from Ipswich, Mass. He can be contacted at adam_bouche@brown.edu.

Is Brown a tool of the 1 percent?

By kevin carty Opinions Columnist

As reported in The Herald a couple of weeks ago (“Occupy shifts focus to tax status,” Jan. 26), Occupy Providence has recently focused criticism on the University for its tax-exempt status amidst the public feud currently playing out between President Ruth Simmons and Mayor Angel Taveras over the same issue. Their criticism is a specific one: The University should pay more money to the city to make up for what it does not contribute in property taxes. It’s an interesting issue but suggestive of an even more interesting question. To use the language of the movement, is Brown a tool of the 1 percent?

As it stands, Brown’s financial aid department is less than perfect. Every year, middle- and lower-income students with fantastic applications are forced to forget Brown, while other students, arbitrarily lucky enough to do so, pay full tuition to attend the University.

We can’t hide the ties between Brown and the investment banking industry, as the Center for Careers and Life After Brown regularly hosts internship events that feature financial groups as giant as Barclays, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase.

Brian Moynihan ’81, the Bank of America CEO who was the public face of his bank’s heavily protested plan to charge debit card holders $5 a month, is a Brown alum.

Moreover, these financial institutions indiscriminately open their doors to graduates of Ivy League universities. Lauren Rivera, assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, demonstrated this after taking several years to speak with employers at elite firms in law, consulting and investment banking. She found that the primary reason for hiring, above all else — including grades — was whether the applicant had attended an ultra-elite university. Attendance at Yale or Brown, for example, was enough to gain entry.

It might be possible to answer the central question of this article on the strength

power of Brown’s name. And Simmons, like numerous Brown students, received a massive salary through her job. So is it fair to criticize her? Or, accordingly, is it fair to criticize the many Brown students who are in a similar situation?

Well, Simmons has worked hard at increasing the amount of financial aid that Brown gives each year, helping to guarantee that those without high incomes have the opportunity to go to Brown. And I would hazard a guess that most Brown students would agree that this is a good and moral thing to do.

Likewise, I doubt that Simmons, or any Brown student, truly believes that it is ethical for elite service firms to base their hir-

Simmons and the many students who work in the financial industry should be judged by how they act, not by whether they are part of the industry in the first place. of these preceding statements alone, but it is better answered through a controversy that came to Brown in 2010. That year, Simmons was publicly found to have been on the board of Goldman Sachs for a number of years. Her penultimate yearly salary was $323,539, and she left the job with a total of $4.3 million in company stock.

Simmons, like a number of Brown students, is a member of the 1 percent. Simmons, like many Brown students, most likely maintained her position on Goldman’s board, at least partially, through the

ing decisions solely on what college the applicant graduated from. How many of us were but a few SAT points away from going to our second choice schools? We’re not so different from the students of other good universities, and I don’t think we should receive special treatment based on minuscule high school grade differences.

As for the millions in compensation that Simmons received for her services, that relates to a more general problem of the financial industry. Wall Street produces, among other things, high salaries. I could

write on the moral issue of paying anyone more than $250,000, but I am more concerned with the functional problems of this system. Such high wages can drain talent from other fields that contribute to the economy. Substantial numbers of smart, science- and math-oriented students have been channelled into the field of finance to the detriment of various other industries in America. The result has been a weaker, less diversified economy whose human capital is over-involved in the area of investment banking. But during Simmons’ tenure, Brown did create a new school of engineering, and the diversity of talents and passions at Brown lends itself to creating an economy that is as dynamic as it is strong.

I hope to have shown that, in each of these areas, Brown, its presidents and its students believe in and pursue initiatives that contribute to a more equitable economy. However, we still have immense involvement in investment banking, a powerful branch of the economy that, for better or for worse, will always exist. Because of this, I contend that Simmons and the many students who work in the financial industry should be judged by how they act, not by whether they are part of the industry in the first place. I believe this because I don’t think we need zero investment bankers in America­— I just think we need moral ones.

Kevin Carty ’15 is a political science concentrator from Washington D.C. He would love to hear any responses and can be reached at kevin_carty@brown.edu.

Daily Herald Arts & Culture the Brown

Monday, February 13, 2012

Puppets illuminate stories of genocide

By Brette Ragland Contributing Writer

“Las Voces” is a show about monsters. But though the play presents a fantastical space where a yellow jackal-dog and three-headed puppets interact on stage, the true monsters of the production are the people currently inflicting violence in Colombia.

The play tells the story of a man kidnapped by the FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who use kidnapping ransoms to fund their revolutionary agenda.

His daughter, played both by Sophie Netanel ’12 and Emily Oliveira, a junior at the Rhode Island School of Design, can do nothing but record messages to her missing father to then be broadcast on the radio show “Las Voces del Secuestro.”

The penetrating and poetic language written by Oliveira allows the more mystical elements of the play to seem natural. The set, constructed of textured fabric draped on a wooden table, sits in front of a large mural painted by Oliveira and provides the perfect space for the puppets she also created.

Beyond making nearly every

aspect of the piece, Oliveira also taught the actors the intricacies of working with puppets.

“There is something about a puppet that is a little bit like a burn victim,” said Erik Ehn, head of playwriting and professor of theater arts and performance studies, who held a puppet summit earlier this semester. “They require constant care. You’ve got to be so careful with a puppet.”

TAPS Assistant Professor Kym Moore, who directed one of the shows for the summit, similarly pointed out the importance of the actor’s willingness to listen and trust the puppet.

But Oliveira was already well aware of these challenges, as she puppeteered for Ehn’s puppet summit and interned with a puppet theater over the summer.

“I definitely chose people who are very present and are very good at sitting back and being a witness to what the puppet is doing,” Oliveira said. This was clear while watching the puppeteers’ performances.

The astounding level of attention and care administered by the puppeteers made the violence of the play more palpable.

Lupo’s feels the funk Friday night

By Samuel Feldblum Contributing Writer

You thought you knew music? Funk what you heard.

Bedecked in alien heads and tophats, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic took the stage at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel Friday night in downtown Providence. The venue was packed with at least three generations, from hip college kids to local tough guys — don’t try to squeeze past them — to mustachioed old folks who have been grooving with P Funk for who knows how long.

The band came onstage and quickly started playing the bouncy bass-y riffs that can’t help but make a listener sway. The songs’ refrains were largely repeated call-and-response — “Yank my doodle,” Clinton demanded, and the audience gleefully demanded the same. “Yank my doodle, be a dandy!”

Each song broke down into long jam sessions, distorted guitar riffs and deep synthesizers that rhythmically washed over the crowd as it undulated obediently. The jamming seemed somewhat self-indulgent, though — four-minute songs took five times that long to play. But, based on the atmosphere of the venue, it is likely many of the audience members were not paying such close attention to the passage of time.

More than anything, the show was incredibly bizarre. In a particularly memorable exchange between Clinton and the audience, the singer boasted, “We got that doodoo.” The crowd, judging by its response, did, too.

But it was more than words —

a man came onstage with a poop helmet on, looking like his face was peeking out of a giant pile of chocolate soft-serve ice cream. He danced around, took a stage break and then came back for more. Point taken.

Later, aliens came onstage, and a shirtless man sported an enormous feathery sombrero. A man in a dog costume broke it down during “Atomic Dog,” a huge fan favorite.

Clinton was not the only member of the group singing. At times, he would take a seat onstage and let other members of the group take over.

A woman 30 years younger than the rest of the group — dressed as a nurse on roller blades — screeched into the microphone when she got the chance. A balding man waxed poetic about the secrets of the universe.

Clinton’s grandchildren came onstage to rap. His granddaughter “smelled some stank,” and she wanted some. She got some. The hip-hop layered seamlessly over the funk rhythms and made for a nice change of pace.

We wanted the funk — we got the funk. Unfortunately, the funk did not age as well as it might have.

The high points of the show were wonderful — the call-and-response was a pleasure, and the entire affair was eminently boogie-able.

But the music, to this listener, could have been tighter than it was.

The long jams at the tail end of every song meant the concert dragged more than it ought to have. The three hours of music really felt like three hours.

Then again, P Funk wouldn’t be P Funk if they didn’t do things just the way they wanted to.

By mixing performances by live actors with puppetry, the show was able to more effectively illustrate the inexpressible horrors of the trauma inflicted by the political kidnappings. In the first scene, the father is played by live actor Zach Segel ’13, but after his kidnapping he is only seen in puppet form, articulating the dehumanization process in a more tangible way. The puppet is also, at times, puppeteered by members of the FARC, which more concretely conveys the lack of agency a victim experiences.

Somehow the puppets’ distance from reality actually makes the heinous acts seem more real. Oliveira said she believes because the audience is so aware that the actor goes home at the end of the day, the violence inflicted during the play is less powerful.

But Ehn said, “We as audience and puppeteers as operators endow these objects with life.” The extent of the puppets’ existence is only this violence, this trauma.

“The puppets do create a world of their own,” Moore wrote in an email to The Herald. They “allow us to suspend disbelief in a way that (makes) the subject matter more

palatable and harder to reject out of turn because ‘we can’t relate’ to that person’s experience.”

But while Oliveira likewise finds puppets to be a useful way to communicate the reality of these unspeakable acts, she admitted, “We’ll never understand. And that’s the thing we have to resign ourselves to: that we will absolutely never understand what it was like to be in Rwanda during genocide and things like that.”

The dynamic between people living in first-world countries who are watching violence happen around the world and the victims of said violence connected Oliveira to the subject matter of “Las Voces,” she said. This relationship mirrors that of the kidnapped victims and the families who can do nothing more than “send these messages out into the ether,” she added.

“I think monsters are how we separate ourselves from violence and separate ourselves from the idea that we are also capable of violence,” Oliveira said. “It’s scary to own that. To own that we are a part of a world that creates violence and genocide and all of these terrible, violent things.”

Times music critic chronicles career path By kristina fazzalaro Staff Writer

Anthony Tommasini still thinks of himself as a teacher, a fact made evident by his ability to relate with ease detailed and funny stories of his role as the New York Times chief music critic to a packed Grant Recital Hall Friday afternoon.

Tommasini’s talk spanned his illustrious career, drifting in a seamless autobiographical manner through his time as an undergrad at Yale, as a professor at Emerson College and as a writer for the Boston Globe and the New York Times.

Before Tommasini was a music critic, he was — and still is — a musician himself. A classically trained pianist, Tommasini received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale in 1970, a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University. He then went on to teach at Emerson College, but when he didn’t get tenure, he made the switch to journalism, he said.

Since he knew music so well and considered himself to be a good writer, Tommasini contacted his friend Richard Dyer at the Boston Globe and began working as a freelancer. “Everything I learned about journalism … I learned on the job,” he said, citing the New York Herald Tribune critic Virgil Thomson as an invaluable source of knowledge during his early career.

The biggest challenge he faced

was finding a way to write about music in everyday language instead of using a musicologist’s jargon. “Ninety-eight percent — wait, Times readers” — he paused, looking around the room — “okay, 95 percent don’t know what I’m talking about,” Tommasini joked with the audience.

This problem of jargon occasionally crept into Tommasini’s talk as well. Most audience members seemed to have a working knowledge of the classical music realm and its key players, asking Tommasini to elaborate on his interactions with the who’s who of the fine arts world. But for those without this background, some of Tommasini’s anecdotes may have fallen flat.

Tommasini went on to discuss his role as critic, a position he said combined both news reporting and opinions. “If I have a strong opinion, I voice it,” he said, but some stories require more of a news slant. Finding the balance between the two is key, he said.

As chief critic for the Times, Tommasini is “expected to cover the big things” and also has final call on what stories the section runs. His selections may surprise you, as he often chooses to highlight modern pieces over traditional performances.

“Classical music has been the most conservative of the performing arts,” Tommasini said.

It would be “radical” for a company to devote just a third of their schedule to playing modern pieces, he said, but that balance is ficontinued on page 4

Lecture turns back time on Chinese art By corinne cathcart Contributing Writer

The importance of temporal context in the creation and observation of traditional Chinese art was emphasized in a lecture given by Jan Stuart, keeper of the department of Asia at the British Museum, Thursday night.

The lecture, entitled “Timely Images: Chinese Art and Festival” and part of the “Innovation/Adaptation: 5,000 Years of Making Art in China” series of the University’s Year of China initiative, attracted a mature audience to the List Art Center of primarily Providence community members.

Stuart’s lecture, though rich with art history, also offered a cultural lesson on the importance of festivals in China. She organized her lecture — and the art pieces she included — in chronological order of the festivals that take place throughout the year, emphasizing how, from ancient times to the present, there has been a “significant bond between temporal context and Chinese art, especially because of the significant number of festivals and holidays during the year.”

Stuart’s main point was made clear by her first two slides — the first of which was a painting of a Christmas tree, and the second a painting of a small bouquet of pomegranate flowers. Stuart said she knew everyone in the audience recognized the Christmas tree and its cultural implications. But the average American viewer would have no idea that the pomegranate flower detailed in the second slide was representative of the Tianzhong Festival, which takes place the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in China.

“Time eats away at all things,” she said, but the way to understand traditional art more fully is to recognize that works are shaped by their temporal context.

Elsie Morse, a community member and volunteer docent for the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, said she came to the lecture because of the RISD Museum’s partnership with the Year of China initiative. Currently, the museum has an exhibit titled “From the Land of the Immortals: Chinese Taoist Robes and Textiles,” displaying ancient Chinese garments. The delicacy of the robes allows them to only be displayed for three months every five years, she said, so the exhibit is incredibly special.

Professor of History of Art and Architecture Maggie Bickford, who introduced Stuart for the lecture, said she felt there was so much stress on the modern state of China and its place in the global arena that traditional and ancient art does not gain proper recognition. This lecture, she said, was an opportunity to dig into that history.

There will be about half a dozen speakers in the Innovation/Adaptation series over the course of the semester, Bickford said.