Daily
Herald
the Brown
vol. cxxii, no. 15
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Since 1891
Pulitzer Prize winner discusses future of journalism By Shefali Luthra News Editor
Rachel A. Kaplan / Herald
Rohde advised students interested in a career in journalism to “keep writing.”
W. BBAll
By sona mrkttchian Senior Staff Writer
The women’s basketball team bounced back from halftime deficits against Columbia and Cornell this weekend to grab two key conference victories. Despite struggling offensively both nights at the Pizzitola Center, Bruno (14-8, 5-3 Ivy) utilized an aggressive defense to defeat the Lions (2-19, 0-7) 7263 Friday and the Big Red (9-12, 3-4) 60-49 the following day. Brown 72, Columbia 63
Entering the first game of the Ivy weekend, the Bears held a .500 Ivy record at 3-3 and were looking for a weekend sweep to move up in the Ivy standings. But in the first half, the Bears struggled to find the basket. They shot just 32 percent from the field and 33 percent from behind the arc, while the Lions shot 41 percent from the field and 50 percent at the three-point line. This difference put Columbia in the lead heading into the locker room 31-29 and just 20 minutes away from its first Ivy win of the season. “On Friday, Coach (Jean Marie) Burr said that we were ‘waiting to continued on page 5
Mayor Angel Taveras stressed the importance of making sacrifices as the city faces the looming threat of bankruptcy during his annual State of the City address last night. In an unprecedented gesture, Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 attended the speech, standing behind Taveras as he spoke. “Providence is in peril, and we must work together to save our great
city,” Taveras said, addressing the city’s budget crisis.
city & state Taveras compared the city’s financial situation to a black hole. “We stare into that black hole because some have yet to sacrifice,” he said, noting the role tax-exempt institutions play in the city’s financial crisis. In total, such establishments — the University included — own
$3 billion worth of city property, preventing Providence from collecting a potential $105 million of property tax revenue each year. “No one is exempt from the sacrifices that need to be made to save our city,” Taveras said. “Tax-exempts must be part of the solution, not the problem.” Taveras announced that an agreement with Johnson and Wales University for additional contributions continued on page 5
Job board restored yesterday Students can now access the CareerLAB Student Job and Internship Board after an outage that lasted from Thursday afternoon to Monday afternoon. The failure was caused by a “critical hardware outage on the part of the vendor” Symplicity Corporation, said Andrew Simmons, director of the CareerLAB. CareerLAB staff worked with employers to ensure students would not miss application deadlines or interviews they had scheduled, Simmons said. “I want to emphasize that our staff has been working very, very hard to mitigate any potential impacts on students,” he said. Approximately 1,000 other colleges and universities that use the system were also affected, Simmons wrote in an email to the student body Monday. It took slightly longer for the University to repair its job board because of its password authentication system, Simmons told The Herald. “It was just annoying,” Scott Freitag ’14 said. “There was no information about why it was down” on the webpage, he said. “These things do happen,” Simmons said. “These are large databases that are subject to occasional failure.” — Kate Nussenbaum
Amorous alums play matchmakers By jordan hendricks Senior Staff Writer
Some Ivy League students may be single this Valentine’s Day, but they don’t have to be. Two dating websites started by alums in the past two years are helping Brown students and others find love.
Feature For those who hope to meet “people who value creativity, intellectual curiosity and drive” from dozens of cities around the world, IvyDate, a selective dating site cofounded by Beri Meric ’06, is here to help. Membership to the site requires an extensive application, including questions about users’ favorite philosophers, things they like to spend money on and what they would do if they were president. If approved by IvyDate’s member-
Co-Occupy
Student protesters across the state join the movement campus news, 4
ship committee, users receive five matches per week, based on an algorithm that analyzes their preferences on location, age, religion and ethnicity, Meric said. For students seeking love locally, Kai Huang ’11 and Arune Gulati ’11 have left their legacy on campus with Prospect and Meeting, a site on which users list their “prospects”— people in whom they are romantically interested. If two people list each other as “prospects,” their names are exchanged, prompting a “meeting.” ‘High-end’ dating
IvyDate now has more than 17,000 approved members internationally whose ages range from 18 to about 35. The site states that it is not exclusively for Ivy League alums, but rather is “the Ivy League of dating.” The membership committee seeks “intelcontinued on page 5
Courtesy of IvyDate
The new online dating service, IvyDate, offers matches for selective singles.
Security
Lauren Scheimer ’12 trusts MCAT takers opinions, 7
weather
MADELEINE Wenstrup Sports Staff Writer
inside
continued on page 3
Taveras declares Providence ‘in peril’
Bears net two league victories
news..............2-3 CITY & State........4 Sport s............5 editorial...........6 Opinions.............7
“You’re going to feel hopeless,” Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Rohde ’90 told a room of almost 50 students and community members last night. “You’re going to feel there’s no future in journalism. Breaks will come.” Rohde, adjunct professor of English, shared his experiences pursuing a career as a journalist and seeking “ground truth” — on-the-scene news reporting — in a lecture in the Brown/RISD Hillel’s Winnick Chapel. The talk was the third in a lecture series hosted by the Nonfiction Writing Program. One of the founding editors of the College Hill Independent, Rohde said he was inspired to pursue journalism because of a nonfiction writing course he took his senior year. But the road to reporting was not easy. After
graduating, Rohde pursued a “series of unpaid internships” at newspapers and TV stations. As a secretary at ABC News, Rohde picked up drycleaning and helped his boss’ seventh grade son write a book report. Rohde then decided to teach English in Lithuania. A coup broke out in the Soviet Union that year, and Rohde spent his time stringing for the Associated Press and the New York Times. Upon returning, he covered local news at the Philadelphia Inquirer and later moved to the Christian Science Monitor, where a position eventually opened up in foreign correspondence. He jumped at the chance. Two Pulitzers, one kidnapping and two books later, he left the Times — where he worked as a night reporter and then as South Asia bureau chief — after 15 years to become a
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2 Campus News
Allen ’12 receives prestigious scholarship
calendar Today
february 14
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The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 14, 2012
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This fall, William Allen ’12 will study at the University of Cambridge as one of 14 U.S. college graduates awarded the Churchill Scholarship. The prestigious scholarship gives awardees the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree in the sciences, engineering or mathematics at Cambridge. “It’s a chance to be part of a very rich scientific community,” said Linda Dunleavy, associate dean of the college for fellowships. The scholarship covers school fees, living expenses and transportation. Participating colleges can nominate up to two candidates each year for the scholarship. A University committee nominated Allen and “another outstanding student” who applied to be considered, Dunleavy wrote in an email to The Herald. Allen stood out for his “self-taught” nature, independently pursuing “wide-ranging intellectual interests,” Dunleavy wrote. She worked with Allen on applying for scholarships, and he impressed her and the committee “as someone who really has the potential to go far,” she wrote. An applied mathematics-biology concentrator, Allen came to Brown considering philosophy as a potential concentration. He took humanities classes almost exclusively in his first year, he said. But a summer of
synthetic biology research with the University’s International Genetically Engineered Machines team sparked his decision to focus on the sciences. Allen was exposed to science at an early age growing up in Berkeley, CA., he said. In high school, he took advantage of opportunities to see speakers, go to seminars, take classes and use the libraries at the University of California at Berkeley. Gilad Barnea, assistant professor of neuroscience, and his collaborator Stavros Lomvardas, assistant professor of anatomy at University of California at San Francisco, welcomed Allen into their research labs. An unusual amount of freedom in the lab and on the iGEM team kindled Allen’s excitement for research, he said. “He was not a passenger in the project. He was a driver,” Barnea said. “And that is very unique I think — to be so young, yet to be so mature and knowledgeable and capable. I have no doubt that he will be a fantastic scientist.” Barnea challenged Allen’s ideas, demolishing some but embracing others. “The special thing about him is how creative he is and how fearless he is with respect to research,” Barnea said. The Churchill Foundation does not seek well-rounded applicants, but those with “jagged edges,” ac-
cording to the website. Allen said his “jagged edges” include his focus on very specific research that is “pretty technical” and “harder to relate to, maybe.” In Barnea’s lab, Allen studied the mechanisms behind expression of olfactory receptor genes in the neurons of mice. Gene regulation, turning genes on and off, is a fundamental aspect of development, Allen said. While much of his research remains theoretical, a future application might involve re-growing neurons for people with degenerative diseases, Allen said. Allen contributed to a paper on this research that was published in Cell, a science journal, in 2011. He is also a co-author with Barnea and their collaborators of two papers that are currently undergoing peer review. Allen said he believes some people may perceive science and research negatively, thinking it is narrowly focused and too technical. But it is actually creative, he said. “Being a scientist, I think, can be sort of self-expressive,” he said. Research has a “game aspect or a problem-solving aspect,” he said. “There’s always more to be learned. You always realize how little you know and how much there is.” Allen said he is looking forward to conducting research in Cambridge in the fall.
Initiative to hire new humanities faculty By Alexandra Macfarlane Senior Staff Writer
RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Los AngelesCr Times Daily Crossword Puzzle ossword Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Place for family game night 4 Book of poems partly by King David 10 Farm grazer 13 Egg cells 14 Communicating regularly 16 Fat Tire product 17 Ballplayer’s hat 18 Woos, minstrelstyle 19 N.J. neighbor 20 Dismiss an occult doll-making practice? 23 Hanukkah money 24 Govt.-issued ID 25 Donahue and Collins 26 Double Stuf cookies 28 With 57-Down, wealthy people 31 Hair removal brand 32 “What’s that chocolate beverage you’re drinking, Yogi?” answer? 36 Raggedy doll 37 Debate side 38 PC component 39 Studio whose films get off to a roaring start 42 Model train expert? 45 Speed-of-sound name 48 Wee, like bairns 49 Sarandon of “Bull Durham” 50 Snow-block home 52 Hippie’s home 55 When Romeo meets Juliet 56 Frilly Hawaiian dress? 60 Small amount 61 Temps 62 Fib, e.g. 64 Dark time for a poet 65 Kind of fiction 66 Recreational transport, briefly 67 Driller’s deg. 68 More sexy 69 Manhattan liquor
45 Offended 34 Rapid economic DOWN 1 Bespectacled 46 Signed a pact, say expansion dwarf 47 Circus performers 35 Plains tribesmen 2 Role for Patti 51 Slays, mob-style 39 Powerfully built LuPone or 53 “Care for __?”: 40 Tip on a table Madonna after-dinner offer 41 City bond, 3 Layered pastry 54 Numbskull informally 4 “Hogwash!” 57 See 28-Across 42 Dynasty during 5 Scissors cuts 58 Hodgepodge Confucius’ time 6 Periodic table 59 Mouse 43 Juliet’s family figs. manipulator name 7 Access with a 44 American territory 63 Night of password anticipation in the Pacific 8 “Faster, huskies!” ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 9 John Candy skit show 10 Golf bag carrier 11 World Cup chant 12 Runner-up’s news 15 Earring style 21 Texter’s “From a different aspect ...” 22 “Say it isn’t so!” 23 “La maja desnuda” painter 27 Second-year student 29 High, in Hamburg 30 Spanish river 33 Top Olympic 02/14/12 medals, in Madrid xwordeditor@aol.com
The Office of the Dean of the Faculty described the next phase of the Humanities Initiative in a report released yesterday. The initiative was launched in 2010 to promote teaching and research across humanities departments. This next phase will include a different method of nominating professors for the available teaching slots and will use an endowed fund to promote interdepartmental collaboration, said Kevin McLaughlin P ’12, dean of the faculty. The nomination process for hiring new professors through the initiative will change this semester, McLaughlin said. Potential professorships will require nominations from two faculty members in different departments within the humanities. When selecting new professors to fill the endowed positions, the Humanities Initiative Advisory Board “will place a premium on candidates’ ideas for galvanizing collaborative
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projects among faculty and students across departments,” the report stated. Candidates will be evaluated on their ability to draw connections between the study of humanities and real-world applications. “It is important for us to think about how the humanities has a critical role to play,” McLaughlin said. Candidates will be asked about their plans to engage with other departments and stimulate further dialogue among their students and peers, according to the report. Six new faculty members will eventually be added under the initiative. McLaughlin said the University is currently in the final stages of evaluating a particular candidate for one of the positions, though no decision has yet been made. The candidate will be subject to the approval of the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, in May. The initiative also includes a Humanities Research and Teaching Fund, which McLaughlin hopes will create an atmosphere that encourages
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current faculty members and their students to engage in “interesting projects that renew their teaching,” he said. The funds will be available on a competitive basis each semester. The fund will target projects that “explore critical questions from a diverse set of perspectives across the humanities or between the humanities and other disciplinary fields with some preference for undergraduate courses designed to address a question of broad social and intellectual import,” according to the report. The projects will also be selected for their ability to use campus collaborative spaces such as the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, the report stated. “Though projects must have humanists and humanistic objectives at their core … there is no limit on collaborations that reach beyond the humanities to the arts, social sciences, natural sciences, medicine, policy and other fields,” according to the report. McLaughlin said the University emphasizes science, technology, engineering and medicine, a trend mirrored by other peer institutions. This is an “appropriate focus” he said, but it raises questions about the future of other disciplines. This conflict is age-old, McLaughlin added, tracing the tensions between scientific disciplines and humanities to the writings of 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. While science and technology-based disciplines highlight practical aspects of research, the humanities are a way of “reflecting on the appropriate way to live,” he said. Highlighting the humanities is a way to build one of the traditional strengths of Brown, McLaughlin said.
The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Campus News 3
Mars rover to explore largest crater yet Rohde ’90 affirms value By Kate Nussenbaum Senior Staff Writer
Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rover, is on the edge of a great endeavor, literally. The rover, launched in July 2003, is now positioned to begin exploring the 14-mile diameter Endeavour Crater as soon as Mars’ winter ends, said John Callas ScM ’83 PhD ’87, project manager of the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Project. A crowd of about 50 people congregated in Metcalf Auditorium last night to hear him speak. Callas took his audience through the eight-year history of the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, giving them a glimpse of what he described as the “exciting adventure that still continues.” In his introduction, Professor of Geological Sciences Jim Head recalled sitting with astronomer and author Carl Sagan and examining pictures from the 1976 Viking missions to Mars. Unlike the Mars rovers, the Viking was stationary and frustratingly tantalizing, Head said. “It enticed us to think about what was over the horizon,” he said. “We were just fundamentally itching to see what Mars had in store for us.” Callas said he felt that same
itch, especially after the 1996 Mars Global Surveyor provided a map detailing the topography of the planet and revealed a “very low and smooth northern hemisphere,” he said. “Did Mars have an ocean? Did Mars have an abundance of water? If so, what happened to it, where did it go?” Those questions led to even more exciting inquiries. “Is Mars habitable? Was it habitable? What does it mean for our own planet if Mars could change drastically?” Callas asked. He then showed the audience photographs of the rovers— each with six independent wheels, nine cameras, a robotic arm with four unique tools and solar panels to provide power— that would begin to answer those questions. “This is a robotic geologist,” Callas said. The mission was initially designed to last for ninety days. Callas said when Spirit landed on Jan. 4, 2004, scientists could see hills in the distance through its cameras. At the time, Callas and his colleagues did not know that Spirit would eventually climb those hills in the first ever “martian mountaineering” attempt and that Opportunity would travel over 34 kilometers, exploring three craters and sending back evidence
that liquid water once existed on the planet. Spirit eventually became stuck in loose material and lost power in 2010. But before it stopped communicating with Earth , the rover discovered water-altered rocks and evidence of a hydrothermal system — a hot aqueous environment that may once have been a source of liquid water, energy and potentially even a thriving ecosystem, Callas said. Spirit’s sister, Opportunity, has also sent evidence of water to Earth, including images of sedimentary rocks, Callas said. Opportunity was also able to drive into craters, he said, revealing older parts of rock and giving scientists a “powerful set of measurements.” Opportunity is now poised to enter its largest crater yet, and a new nuclear-powered rover, Curiosity, is slated to join it on Mars this August. The new rover, which cost between $2.4 and $2.5 billion, is five times the size of Spirit and Opportunity and is equipped with an analytical chemistry lab to detect the presence of organic molecules, Callas said. “There’s an ongoing armada of surface exploration on the planet Mars,” Callas said. “We are trying to answer great questions about the planet.”
Q&A with David Rohde ’90 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Rohde ’90, adjunct professor of English, spoke about investigative reporting and the future of online journalism last night. After the talk, he sat down with The Herald. The Herald: What has it been like teaching? How has the transition been from working full-time to also teaching students? David Rohde: Oh, I’m very impressed with the students and the creativity and vision of their stories. And it’s a learning process. I hope my teaching becomes as good as their ideas. And this semester — working here as well as being a journalist — how is that different from your experiences working in the field? It’s nice to be able to hear what young journalists are interested in and concerned about. And to have time to reflect on the state of journalism. Have you learned anything from those reflections? That there’s — I mean, I’ll just be honest, I learned a lot tonight. The talk and the questions were all about the viability of journalism as a business. And I wished I had prepared a lecture more focused on that, to be honest. Because I think some organizations like ProPublica and the Atlantic and Reuters are doing interesting things. You know, expanding online in different ways, looking at different funding models. And I think there’s — no one has an answer yet, but many more organizations are trying.
How does working as a full-time journalist influence your take on your job at Brown? It helps me give students very practical advice. But I want to make sure that I encourage them also, and they should use this time to experiment with their writing and their reporting. I want to strike the right balance between their last semester as students and the real world that awaits them. I took only seniors — and there’s two graduate students. I’m trying to strike a balance, because there’s a creativity here, and that’s a very special thing. It should be relished in academia. Is there any favorite part you have about being an instructor? Oh, reading the students’ stories. The quality is wonderful — the ideas are wonderful. The creativity is wonderful. You touched a lot upon the idea of ground truth and going out into the field and really reporting and talking to people. If you can summarize in a few words — why do you think ground truth matters today? There’s a danger that technology lets us pontificate without going out and finding out facts first. There’s a danger of less face-to-face human interaction that helps us bridge political divides. How do you think that kind of reporting fits into modern journalism? I believe people will be drawn to original and compelling quality of reporting. The sea of information on the web will hopefully drive people to look for filters — reliable
filters. In a way, journalists are more important than ever. People have so much information hurtling at them. And your own experiences — how do you think those have influenced your feelings about reporting or ground truth? When you meet people in red states or blue states, on the ground they’re not red and they’re not blue. And if we don’t end these divisions, I really worry we won’t overcome our problems. And what kind of role do you think reporting will have in shaping that kind of unity? I think that fact-based reporting plays a vital role in sorting out the false claims from extremists on both sides of the political debate. Now, it’s more important than ever. If students took away one thing from tonight, what would you want it to be? That great storytelling will be needed no matter what technological changes happen. That great ground reporting and storytelling will be needed no matter what. Do you have any advice for Brown students — maybe who are pursuing journalism? Write. You may have to take jobs that aren’t the ones you dreamed of. You may end up in places you didn’t expect, but you may achieve more after a very rough start. You will be just fine in the end. You’ll find your way. -Shefali Luthra
of ‘basic reporting’ continued from page 1 columnist at Reuters. And this spring, he took up a teaching position at Brown. Rohde, who won one Pulitzer at the Monitor and one at the Times, recounted his experience working on stories for which finding “ground truth” proved invaluable. In Bosnia, he saw the importance of ground truth in a “very visceral way,” he said, and when he was later held hostage by Taliban members for seven months, he used the experience to “understand the Taliban.” “The more familiar you are with the place, the more you speak the language, the more you understand where people are coming from, the more people will trust you,” he said. In the modern world, Internet-based research is helpful to reporters, but “basic reporting” remains invaluable, he added. Rohde, who is now a foreign affairs columnist at Reuters, cited an example where he traveled to Raleigh to research a column about universities promoting development in surrounding communities. When he arrived, Rohde discovered the center he was writing about — the Raleigh High Tech Incubator — was situated in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and was teaching residents employment skills. He took a tour of the area, talked to locals and overheard conversations between administrators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He discovered a different story than the one he came for. In his reporting, he heard about the struggling local middle class and about dissent within the university, where one faculty member referred to its chancellor as a kind of “Darth Vader.” “What was supposed to be a
staged interview (with the UNC chancellor) sort of fell apart because I was there, because I was able to meet people,” Rohde said. Though journalism is changing, Rohde said, “The key thing is going out and meeting people.” He encouraged students to be “reporters, not curators” and to write, edit and rewrite. Rohde shared one of his own old college papers — one where his professor had written “rewrite.” Rohde had spelled “wit” with an “h” in the middle and included a statement that had caused his professor to write, “this adds nothing.” “He urged us to keep at it, to keep writing our papers,” Rohde said. During the question-and-answer session, Rohde spoke about the value of fact-based reporting, especially with the proliferation of online news sources and politically charged cable news. As people turn to more biased outlets, he said, ground truth and talking to people become more valuable than ever. “Once you get out there and meet people, you break through those barriers,” he said. Rohde offered the example of a pastor he met when covering a story in New Orleans who asked him why the Times had not covered claims that President Barack Obama was Muslim. Rohde stayed the night with the man. By the time he left, he had convinced the pastor that Obama was a Christian — because, he argued, if Obama were a Muslim, then-Senator Hillary Clinton would have addressed that in the primaries. One audience member asked what advice he had for aspiring journalists. Rohde said adapting to the changing media climate is key. “You’ll find your way,” he said. “I don’t think human storytelling will ever go away.”
4 City & State Campuses collaborate in R.I. Occupy By Sona mkrttchian Senior Staff Writer
Emerging from a long winter lull, the student Occupy movement in Rhode Island is looking forward to a spring of cooperation athrough Occupy Rhode Island Campuses, a new collaborative effort bringing together student protesters across the state. Students from the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, Providence College, the Community College of Rhode Island and Brown are coming together to “unify the cause,” said Professor Peter Nightingale, professor of physics at URI. The group aims to model itself after the national Occupy Colleges movement, which targets higher education reform, “the common thread” between the institutions, according to Nightingale. The group was founded after Occupy RIC members held a protest last November that attracted students from across the state. “It brought people from other schools to RIC, and we connected from there,” said Servio Gomez, a student at RIC. But higher education reform is defined differently at each of the schools involved in Occupy Rhode Island Campuses. State-funded institutions in Rhode Island have all seen tuition hikes in the past
few years. Nightingale said many students have trouble managing schoolwork while financing their education. “Education is the best thing for society to improve itself, but money that goes to education keeps on declining every single year,” Gomez said. Members of Occupy Rhode Island Campuses support increased state aid to public institutions. A student recently emailed Nightingale explaining that he had taken and failed a course Nightingale teaches multiple times because working 25 hour per week prevented him from fully grasping the course material. “One of the main problems at the state schools is the increase of tuition and the cost of education as a whole,” Nightingale said. “We want to act on this together. The private schools like Brown and Providence College share a lot of concerns about social inequality, which has grown at the same time the tuition is rising.” Luke Lattanzi-Silveus ’14 said Occupy College Hill is exploring how to “emphasize the ways in which higher education serves to perpetuate the class structures in society and what we could do to change these things.” Though Occupy College Hill does not have an official list of demands, it has expressed interest in ex-
ploring increased transparency for University admissions and investments while approaching the “broad question of changing the University and the way it operates by perpetuating inequalities,” Lattanzi-Silveus said. But Occupy Rhode Island Campuses is about more than just education reform. Nightingale pointed out that each college is seeking to achieve different goals, but they are united by the fact that “there is something fundamentally wrong with a society that treats people as disposable commodities.” Though Occupy protestors nationwide also have not presented a unified agenda, the movement has made a huge impact on the United States, said William Keach, professor of English. He said the protests influenced President Barack Obama to address economic inequality in his State of the Union. Keach said he would like to see more transparency from the University when it makes decisions. The institutions involved in Occupy Rhode Island Campuses are planning separate teach-ins at their respective campuses next week, according to Gomez and Lattanzi-Silveus. Occupy Rhode Island Campuses is also organizing an event for March 1 in solidarity with Occupy Colleges, but plans have not yet been finalized.
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The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Festival connects art and technology By caroline saine Contributing Writer
Over two dozen performers and literary theorists came together this weekend to showcase their talents in Interrupt II, a three-day multimedia art studio that highlighted the impact of writing and performing on digital media.
Arts & Culture The festival featured readings, performances and discussion panels aimed at developing questions about multimedia in the modern world. Interrupt II was held in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts Feb. 9-12. The first Interrupt, hosted by Brown and Rhode Island School of Design, took place in 2008. The studio was headlined by Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans of JODI, a Netherlandsbased digital art collective which aims to “interrupt conventions” through multimedia art, said Clement Valla, professor of digital and media and foundation studies at RISD and website developer for Interrupt II. JODI began its performance by screening a four-frame video composed of YouTube clips in which children and young adults destroy GameBoys, cell phones, keyboards, computer monitors and other technology. The video is both viscerally intense and intellectually provocative, artfully subverting expectation about how we use technology and provoking the question of how we can make a distinction between destruction and deconstruction of the digital medium. To a chorus of “Smash the phone!” and “Break it!” from the audience, JODI ended its performance with a group demonstration of an iPhone application the collective had developed. Four volunteers followed instructions from their individual phones, creating performance art through a combination of dance and exercise movements dictated by the app. Heemskerk described her inspiration for the iPhone app as coming from the device itself, adding that it is more than just a telephone. Roberto Simanowski, assistant professor of German Studies, took the stage Friday to speak about digital media as a form of “warfare against conventionality.” His talk dealt with a discussion of Facade, an interactive video game based on artificial intelligence in which
the user inputs text to interact with characters in the game. Simanowski said he recognizes the seduction of absurdity that attracts users to interactive, computer-generated discussions. Players of Facade are not drawn to dialogues about work, hobbies or interior design — when given the chance to provoke any conversation, free of real-world constraints, players consistently move to “test the system” through socially inappropriate discussion, he said. There is a contradiction implicit to the genre, Simanowski said. The concept of human and computer interaction is so avant-garde that the style of the game must be “as conventional as possible” in order to fool the player, he said. Simanowski made observations about the need for digital media to appeal to popular culture if the ultimate goal of programming is to be achieved — to get the player to believe the scenario and to “forget” the machine. Vanessa Place, co-director of Les Figues Press, a literary press in Los Angeles, performed fiction based almost entirely around provocative, and often uncomfortable, social trends and subjects. Among them were frank discussions about alcoholism, child abuse, racism, homosexuality, 9/11 and self-identity, framed in viscerally unpleasant but captivating narrative. Many of Place’s spoken pieces included a key word or phrase, which was repeated in almost every sentence and occasionally between every other word — for example, in a piece about an alcoholic man accused of child abuse, she continually repeated the phrase, “I don’t remember.” This element of subliminal influence added another dimension to her performance of otherwise traditional fiction. Only towards the end of the 45-minute reading did sparing laughter begin to surface from the audience. For the majority of the performance, the drama of the pieces was further intensified by Place’s delivery — a deadpan and monotone reading with the sporadic ‘swish’ of paper falling to the floor, as Place paced around the stage, dropping the pages as she finished reading them. Interrupt II showcased diverse talents in fiction, poetry, digital performance and literary critique, each with themes surrounding the role of multimedia art in modern society. The festival as a whole addressed the question of how art will continue to evolve in an increasingly technology-oriented world.
Sports Tuesday 5
The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Dating site calls itself Despite wins, Bears struggle to score ‘the Ivy League of dating’ continued from page 1
continued from page 1 lectually curious, open-minded, interesting people,” Meric said. The selection process is “similar to how Brown admits its students,” Meric said. The committee does not just look at credentials, but evaluates the applicant as a whole. They consider, “is this somebody that would make for a great relationship?” he said. The idea for the site came out of Meric and his co-founder Philipp Triebel’s experiences at Harvard Business School, where they conducted a study on young professionals and dating. “Accomplished individuals often have much less time for the bar scene,” Meric said. “We wanted to come up with an effective way for extraordinary people to connect with each other.” After discovering there was a market for a site such as IvyDate, the business duo launched DateHarvard, a pilot project for what would evolve into IvyDate, in August 2010. The site catered to students and graduates of Harvard, but it accepted applications from members who attended other schools as well. “The general feedback was that there was a high level demand for a premium approach to dating,” Meric said. Meric and Triebel then embraced the “Ivy League heritage” to expand the site’s target audience, Meric said. IvyDate went live in February 2011 and started matching users last summer. The site currently accepts approximately 70 percent of its applicants. Meric said the high acceptance rate reflects the abundance of “compelling” profiles— a result of the word-of-mouth publicity in Ivy League circles. Unlike other online dating sites, the site does not allow members to browse a database of profiles, a distinction Meric said is in place to protect their members’ privacy and make the experience “more meaningful.” Crossroads of love
In 2010, Huang and Gulati created the dating site Prospect and Meeting for Brown students curious about their crushes. Prospect and Meeting peaked at around 2,000 members, but has had stagnant growth since then, Huang said. Once he and
the founders graduated, it became difficult to maintain the site. Huang said he started Prospect and Meeting to encourage Brown students to make themselves more vulnerable. Much of Huang’s personal motivation to create the site came from a desire to see if a romantic interest of his was also interested in him, he said. But he said he dropped off a love letter in her mailbox before the site was even fully running. This modern love
While online dating sites are a new method of finding love, Meric said the goal of IvyDate is to use “technology to get back to an older way of connecting.” “Just like old-fashioned matchmakers would connect individuals with each other, we like to think we do that in a more efficient way,” he said. For Huang, dating sites such as Prospect and Meeting are all tools that college-aged individuals have to help find love in “our generation’s hookup culture.” “I think people are still out there looking for the ... real thing,” Huang said. “But everyone’s afraid to take the first step because suddenly you’re in a position of weakness.” “You have to be vulnerable,” Huang added. “It’s you. It’s me. We’re at each other’s mercy.” Huang said he would consider using a site such as IvyDate in the future, but for now, his responsibilities as a medical school student have kept him too busy for love. “If I fall in love right now, it’s only going to be a distraction,” he said. But some undergraduates express doubts about sites such as IvyDate. Elisa Glubok ’14 said the exclusivity of the site turned her off. “I feel like I wouldn’t be attracted to someone who would be attracted to this idea,” Glubok said. But Meric said he is confident that users of the site will be happy with their experiences, even if a romantic relationship does not result. “If there’s chemistry, then it’s very likely that people meeting are going to hit it off,” he said. “Even if there isn’t chemistry, it’s a great way to meet new people.”
win,’” said guard Lindsay Nickel ’13. “We didn’t have the same aggressiveness, the same focus that we’ve had previous weekends.” But Brown remained resilient, and for the next 20 minutes, the Bears and Lions were neck-andneck, trading baskets and steals. The two teams were still deadlocked at the end of the half, and Bruno headed into overtime for the second consecutive weekend. Last week, the Bears came away with a 59-55 overtime win against Penn. This week, Bruno again stepped up in extra time, led by its defense. Two steals from guard Sheila Dixon ’13 and one from co-captain Hannah Passafuime ’12 in the final minute and a half allowed the Bears to pull ahead comfortably, and at the buzzer, the Bears had wrapped up a 72-63 victory. “We’ve had a lot of experience with playing overtime this season,” Nickel said. “I don’t think that
playing overtime makes us nervous. We kind of embrace it now.” Dixon led Brown with 20 points — including eight of Bruno’s 15 overtime points — and added eight rebounds and five steals. Nickel and Passafuime contributed 11 points apiece. Brown 60, Cornell 49
The Bears again struggled offensively in the first half Saturday night. But unlike the night before, both squads suffered from poor shooting. Both Cornell and Brown hovered around a dismal 25 percent shooting percentage in the first 20 minutes, which resulted in a low-scoring half, ending 20-14 in Cornell’s advantage. But the second half was a whole new game for Bruno. The Bears found their stroke, pouring in 46 points in the second half and improving their shooting percentage to 44 percent. “At halftime, we knew that it was a poor showing and that we’d better get it together quickly,”
Nickel said. “We do trust each other as teammates, and I don’t think there was ever sense of panic, but we knew we had to play with more urgency.” Though the Bears’ offense came alive, the Big Red also hung around for most of the second half. The score was deadlocked six times, including with 4:30 left in the game. It was then that guard Lauren Clarke ’14 took the reins and hit a trey to spark a 17-9 run that propelled Brown to victory. Dixon led the Bears again Saturday night with 16 points. The Bears are hosts again this weekend, taking on Harvard (12-9, 5-2) and Dartmouth (3-18, 1-6) Friday and Saturday evening, respectively, at the Pizzitola Center. Currently, the Bears are in fourth place in the standings, and a pair of wins could potentially propel them into second place. Saturday’s game against the Big Green is Brown’s annual “Pink Zone” game, supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Taveras puts pressure on tax-exempts continued from page 1 to the city should be finalized by the end of the week and prompted the city’s other tax-exempts — including private universities and hospitals — to rise to the challenge because “they cannot be successful in a failed city.” In his speech, Taveras noted that the city recently reduced a $110 million structural deficit to about $22 million through cuts, layoffs and negotiations with local unions. “Providence is doing more with less,” Taveras said, emphasizing the “sacrifices” made by the city’s fire fighters, police officers, teachers and city workers. Taveras also discussed the negotiations surrounding cost-of-living-adjustments for retirees, urging them to make concessions similar to those city workers have already made. “It is time to suspend COLAs for all our retirees,” he said, a comment that was received by boos from
the crowd. “Without structural reform, in the next 10 years our annual pension payment will grow from $58.9 million to $98.7 million — a nearly 70 percent increase,” Taveras said. Taveras denounced the R.I. Supreme Court’s decision to deny the city’s appeal against a recent ruling that prohibited Taveras from moving all retirees onto federally-funded Medicare health insurance. “The unsustainable promise of free health care for life continues, the burden on the taxpayer increases and the window of opportunity to pull our city out of the black hole grows increasingly smaller,” he said. But Taveras attempted to instill hope in residents, urging them to be optimistic about the city’s attempts to “stimulate high-tech entrepreneurship.” He also focused on his administration’s accomplishments, such as revamping the Westminster Street
area and extending hours at City Hall. “We’ve begun the hard work of reinventing city government — making City Hall more transparent, more efficient and more responsive — in spite of the ongoing crisis we face in stabilizing our city’s finances,” he said. As Taveras closed his speech, he acknowledged the grim situation that may become a reality for Providence if it fails to achieve “permanent, meaningful and difficult structural change.” Describing streets overfilled with garbage, public facilities decaying due to lack of maintenance, deteriorated infrastructure and an increase in violent crimes, Taveras said, “We will be living in a city that is barely recognizable.” “On the other side of this painful and agonizing work is the promise of a new day and a new future for our children,” Taveras said.
comics Dreadful Cosmology | Dario Mitchell
Fraternity of Evil | Eshan Mitra, Brendan Hainline and Hector Ramirez
6 Editorial & Letter Editorial
Editorial cartoon
Remnants of Jim Crow One of the top two candidates for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination has called the nation’s first black president the “food stamp president.” The other supports an immigration policy of “self-deportation,” a strategy that effectively aims to make the lives of illegal immigrants so difficult in the United States that they go back home. But such instances of racism in our national politics ought not to blind us to less overt but equally invidious racism here in Rhode Island. This election cycle, Rhode Island will implement its freshly minted voter identification law, a racially discriminatory law with potentially devastating consequences. We ask the General Assembly and Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 to repeal it. Last summer, the General Assembly passed a bill, later signed into law by Chafee, that requires all voters to provide governmentissued identification at election locations. The policy took effect at the beginning of 2012, and will be first implemented at the Rhode Island Republican primary April 24. Starting in 2014, all voters will be required to show photo identification. After condemnations from the NAACP and ACLU, Rep. Charlene Lima, D-Cranston, has proposed a bill to eliminate the voter identification law. We applaud her courage and support her effort to eradicate an antidemocratic law before it becomes entrenched in Rhode Island political life. There have been few substantiated reports of voter fraud in Rhode Island. On the other hand, racial minorities, the elderly and the poor are least likely to have photo identification. Voter identification laws are therefore tools of disenfranchisement under the false pretense of maintaining free and fair elections. Systematic disenfranchisement, through strategies such as literacy tests and poll taxes, were central to excluding blacks from voting in the Jim Crow South. It is distressing to see attitudes we thought were rejected after the Civil Rights movement reappear today, and it is especially puzzling to see a voter identification law passed in a state controlled by Democrats, historically the party more inclined to oppose these forms of racial discrimination. Some recent articles, particularly one written by Simon van ZuylenWood ’11 in the New Republic, suggest that legislators garnered support for the voter identification law by capitalizing on fears of Rhode Island’s growing Hispanic population. We agree with this claim, and believe that this anxiety has been accentuated by the state’s unemployment problem. Hispanics have become an easy scapegoat for individuals mired in tough economic times, and we are disappointed in the many interest groups, legislators and citizens who have exploited them for political gain. Lima has pointed out that the bill will likely cost the state anywhere “between $1.6 million and $4.9 million.” Yet, this is not a matter of economics — this is a civil rights issue. This is about a government that needs to follow through on its mandate to help the most vulnerable members of its constituency, not alienate or systematically disenfranchise them. And this is about Rhode Island setting an example for the rest of the country that we will not accept thinly veiled bigotry. We urge state lawmakers to act urgently and repeal this law. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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le tter to the editor The Perkins experience To the Editor: While I applaud the Corporation’s decision to go ahead with dorm renovations (“Campus housing to be renovated, transformed,” Feb. 13), I take issue with the statement by Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services, which says that first-years currently dislike living in Perkins because it’s too far away from the center of campus. While this assessment of our travel time might be accurate, I would hardly qualify this as an overarching reason for first-years to dislike living in Perkins. True, it would be nice to be closer to the Main Green and to be able to wake up a little bit later for morning classes. But the costs of living so incredibly far away (a mere four- or five-block walk) are undeniably outweighed by the wonderful community created by our distance. Perkinites can often be found in
the lounge studying, playing Super Smash Bros. or even partying. Our doors are almost always open, and many of us will share at least one meal a day together. We are not the shut-ins in the hinterlands of Providence that we are made out to be. (Also, our bathrooms are considerably cleaner than those in our larger, more centralized counterparts.) While Perkins’ transformation into upperclassmen housing seems inevitable, I hope that ResLife will work to create a similar, communal experience like I and so many of my fellow Perkinites have found. I have been incredibly lucky to live in Perkins. So next time you see one of us walking to our isolated retreat (again, a mere five-minute walk), think about how lucky we are that we get to live in a place where you can know everyone and find a home. Samuel Davidoff-Gore ’15
quote of the day
“You’re going to feel hopeless.”
— David Rohde ’90, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter
Directors Julia Kuwahara Samuel Plotner Nikita Khadloya Angel Lee
The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 14, 2012
See Rohde on page 1.
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Opinions 7
The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Every entrepreneur is a social entrepreneur By Daniel Prada Guest Columnist “Harvard and Yale graduates go on to rule the world — Brown students try to save it.” This, in many ways, defines stereotypical Brown students and their attitude towards themselves, capitalism and the world around them. Meet such a student, and you will encounter an inexplicable hatred of the terms “corporation,” “profit,” “globalization” and “free-market capitalism.” Given the tremendous opportunities these students receive and the privilege that they are endowed, students guilt themselves into a mentality and feel the need to “give back” as social entrepreneurs later in their lives — after a period during which they undergo the vile slime of working for profit. A social entrepreneur, a term developed by the Ashoka Foundation founder Bill Drayton, is a person who utilizes the mentality of the entrepreneur to focus on explicitly social, charitable ends, unlike other methods of entrepreneurship. These social entrepreneurs think to maximize social and environmental value in order to solve the world’s toughest issues. Such a term sounds empowering and allows one to turn the myriad vices of “self-interest” into something selfless, humanitarian, just and caring. I believe, however, that this term and ideology are misleading to everyone, since they fundamentally misunderstand the nature of capitalism, subjective demands, the role
of profit and the entrepreneur within a freemarket society. Now you will probably read that first paragraph and assume that you know what I am about to say, so that you can file my ideas under the category “ignoramus.” If so, I ask that you use some of the charity that you plan to use in the future to read on. Capitalism is a system whereby people’s subjective wants are satisfied through trade on a massive scale in a peaceful, voluntary, interdependent and cooperative manner.
and the Newton Apple fail spectacularly, it’s because ordinary human beings did not want those companies to produce those goods. So where is the entrepreneur, and how does he fit into all this? The entrepreneur is the person who predicts the uncertain future and, in the pursuit of profit, thinks, develops and innovates products and services that customers want. This person dedicates his brilliance and his enterprise to finding ways to make ordinary people better off and spends his entire life taking enormous risks trying to
In reality, profit is a signal to businesses that they are creating social value to human beings. Businesses thrive and die every day trying to find ways to make people’s lives easier, more enjoyable or more productive. If they cannot satisfy a customer’s fickle desires or expectations, they liquidate. But, if they can create more value for human beings than it costs them to mix the land, labor and capital, they remain profitable. In reality, profit is a signal to businesses that they are creating social value to human beings. We often talk about Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Bill Gates, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and a whole host of other business leaders as owning an “empire.” This term is highly misleading, since it totally reverses our understanding of who really is in power — the consumer. When Google Buzz, the HP Tablet, Betamax, the Ford Edsel, Windows Vista
create value. Take, for example, Michael O’Leary, CEO of the Irish airliner Ryanair. He is one of Ireland’s wealthiest business people. What did he do? He totally revolutionized the airline industry by doing one thing — serving the customer. Before Ryanair, companies like Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways dominated the landscape and charged $1,000 for flights, providing free checked bags, luxury dining inside aircraft and lots of faceto-face customer service. These companies made weekend getaways to Spain, Italy, Paris, Rome and so on a luxury for the upper crust. Ryanair totally changed this paradigm and offered flights at a fraction of the cost, turning a luxury into something within the means of an average family. He and his company have done much to
serve Europeans, and his company’s current profits are a testament to the success of its ability to give people the flights that they actually want. To say, however, that some entrepreneurship is social is just an incorrect assessment of how we serve one another via the market and how critical entrepreneurs are in creating new value for society. The knee-jerk reaction to such an argument is, “What about hunger, indigence, disease, filth, pollution, lack of transportation, lack of clothing and ignorance? Capitalism has not and cannot serve those populations, and therefore the state should provide help for those who need help.” The natural condition of human history has been this. But thanks to capitalism, thanks to entrepreneurs, innovators, thinkers and geniuses in pursuit of profit — also known as serving the customer better than the alternative — we have developed incredibly creative solutions to these issues. Our frustration at the misery felt throughout the rest of the world is the exact result of our prosperity. We have become so wealthy, so accustomed to the benefits of this massive interdependence, that we forget the engine that helped us achieve these goals. To those who want to be social entrepreneurs, all I say is the following: If you want to really help the world, if you really want to help the lives of ordinary people, then be an actual entrepreneur. Daniel Prada ’12 would gladly welcome debate at daniel_prada@brown.edu.
Enforcing integrity on the MCAT By Lauren Schleimer Opinions Columnist As the security guard at the Prometric test center emptied my pockets and confiscated my wristwatch, it occurred to me that the procedure for entering the Medical College Admission Test testing room was not so different from incarceration. You will be videotaped at all times, including breaks, and a fingerprint scan, signature and ID card are required in order to leave and re-enter the testing room. Nothing is allowed on your desk except the two pencils and four sheets of bright red scratch paper provided by the test center. Jewelry, eyeglasses and articles of clothing must be worn at all times and if you remove so much as a hairclip, it has to be stored in your locker outside. At first shaken, then indignant, I took the heightened security measures as a personal affront. The MCAT is a stressful experience, to say the least, and the TSA-level security screening put everyone just a little more on edge. Sure, the middle-aged proctor smiled sympathetically when she called my name, but then she had me spread my legs, pull out all my pockets, empty my hood and keep my hands above my head while she scanned me with a metal detector. In an open letter to 2012 examinees, the Association of American Medical Colleges offered this explanation: “The MCAT exam has been a key entry point for medical and other health-related professions for more than 80 years. Members of those pro-
fessions must adhere to the highest level of ethics, earning and keeping the public’s trust each and every day. Following the rules of the MCAT exam is an essential step in demonstrating a lifelong commitment to professionalism.” I don’t know about the rest of my fellow examinees, but “trust” and “professionalism” were the last words I would use to describe the way I was treated on exam day. There’s nothing honorable about not cheating when the test center’s security guard makes doing so a virtual impossibility. The security measures were shocking, but, as it turns out, they’re not entirely un-
the 1920s, high attrition rates were taking a toll on universities, wasting precious time, energy and resources as up to 50 percent of students dropped out in the first two years. Combined with overall GPA, the test was and remains a remarkably accurate predictor of academic success in medical school. But as the AAMC pointed out, the MCAT is the gateway to the medical profession. The values that are prioritized at this stage of the game dictate the qualities of character that will be prized in medical professionals. In content and execution, the MCAT exam teaches conformity and acquiescence to the
When I walked out of the MCAT exam I realized that what nagged at my conscience was not the questions I couldn’t answer, but the pervasive air of mistrust.
warranted. Last year, two Canadian students coordinated a high-tech plot to transmit exam questions via a wireless pinhole camera. The only reason the scam was unsuccessful is that the conspirators — one taking the test, the other figuring out the answers — were also trying to dupe a crew of MCAT tutors into answering the questions live. When the tutors wised up, the police were called and the perpetrators arrested. Standardized tests are imperfect measures and easy to criticize. But much like the heightened security was needed to eliminate the cheaters, the MCAT was originally instituted to weed out the academically unfit. In
rules with an iron fist. Ability to perform well on the exam requires accepting a certain premise: that subjective interpretations can and should be reduced to objectively “correct” answers. Even if I could converse fluently on the topic a question posed, my expertise was useless if I could not oversimplify to their standard of “correctness.” In the same way that the “highest standards of moral and ethical conduct” are guaranteed on the MCAT by tyrannical proctors, the looming threat of malpractice attorneys enforce a strictly by-the-book standard of care in the industry. An estimated 75 to 99 percent of physicians will at some point
in their career be sued for medical malpractice, and the cost of insurance premiums is becoming dangerously high. There are consequences for mistrusting people, and in the vast majority of malpractice lawsuits, the accusations are vindictive and unwarranted. Lawsuits cause physician burnout, but they also change the way doctors practice medicine. Physicians are less likely to take on high risk cases and more likely to reduce their workload after they’ve been sued. The looming threat of a lawsuit leads doctors to practice the sort of “defensive medicine” that — combined with the exorbitant price of malpractice insurance — has driven up health care costs through unnecessary procedures. For all of the “trust” placed in medical professionals, there is little room for honor and professionalism when persecution is a near certainty. When I walked out of the MCAT exam, I realized that what nagged at my conscience was not the questions I couldn’t answer, but the pervasive air of mistrust. The security measures took away my coffee and probably cost a few points in the added stress, but the real insult was to my dignity. There’s nothing honorable about not cheating when the system makes it a virtual impossibility. We’ve institutionalized suspicion in the medical profession, persecuting the majority to prevent the misdeeds of a few. In the end, whether it is $240 for the MCAT to offset the costs of fingerprinting or $70,000 a year for medical malpractice insurance, if I want to be a doctor, I’ll have to pay the price. Lauren Schleimer ’12 is still waiting for her MCAT score.
Daily Herald Sports Tuesday the Brown
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
W. Hockey
M. Hockey
Bears keep playoff push alive Bruno hits bottom
of ECAC standings
By nate huether Contributing Writer
After losing four straight games, the women’s ice hockey team needed to perform well at home against No. 3 Cornell and Colgate over the weekend to maintain hopes of claiming the final spot in the ECAC playoffs. Despite losing 5-0 Friday against Cornell, the Bears bounced back the following afternoon with a 3-2 victory over the Raiders. With the win, the Bears are now tied with Rensselaer for the eighth and final playoff spot with only two games remaining on the schedule. Cornell 5, Brown 0
Friday night, Brown (8-12-7, 5-11-4 ECAC) hosted a streaking Cornell (24-3, 18-2) squad that had routed the Bears 9-0 in Ithaca Oct. 29. The Big Red kicked off the scoring midway through the first period. Despite stopping the first eight shots of the game, goalkeeper Katie Jamieson ’13 could not prevent Cornell’s Erin Barley-Maloney from slotting home the puck. Not long after, with less than two minutes remaining in the first period, the Big Red got its second goal from Laura Fortino. Though Cornell outscored and outshot (16-7) Brown in the first period, Head Coach Amy Bourbeau said she was pleased with her team’s performance in the early going. “We played probably one of our best first periods of the season,” Bourbeau said. “I thought we did a decent job.” It did not take long for Cornell to increase its lead in the second period. After just 28 seconds, the Big Red’s Rebecca Johnston scored off a midrange shot that Jamieson failed to control. Despite conceding their third goal, the Bears did well to increase offensive pressure in the second period, outshooting Cornell 14-9. But even with more attacking, the Bears could not find a way past Cornell netminder Lauren Slebodnick. The Big Red re-established its control of the game and dominated Brown in the third period. In addi-
By connor grealy Sports Staff Writer
Jonathan Bateman / Herald
Sarah Robson ’15 was instrumental in keeping the women’s hockey team in the ECAC playoff hunt.
tion to limiting the Bears to just two shots, Cornell built a commanding five-goal lead after Barley-Maloney and Johnston each scored their second goals of the game. Notwithstanding the five goals, Jamieson managed 44 saves, half of which came in the third period. “They’re quick, and they’re strong,” Bourbeau said of Cornell, which clinched its third consecutive ECAC title with a 6-1 win over Yale the following night. “They start to just tire you out over time.” Brown 3, Colgate 2
The Bears looked to end their losing streak Saturday afternoon against Colgate (10-19-2, 5-13-2) — a team also vying for the final ECAC playoff spot — on Senior Day at Meehan Auditorium. But after just 20 seconds into the first period, such an outcome seemed unlikely. Making the most of a poor defensive rotation and a bouncing puck, Colgate forward Melissa Kueber managed to poke one past Brown goalkeeper Aubree Moore ’14 for the first goal of the game, putting the Raiders up before there was even a line change. “The start of it was not the way we wanted it to go,” Bourbeau said. “I don’t think we were quite ready to play.” Despite the early sloppiness, Bruno bounced back. Forward Sarah Robson ’15 scored the equalizer off a rebound with less than two minutes remaining in the first period. During the second period, Brown
and Colgate looked evenly matched, firing 13 shots apiece. But the Bears were the next ones to find the back of the net, as Jessica Hoyle ’14 broke the scoring deadlock in the 11th minute. The Raiders quickly increased pressure on the offensive end, forcing Moore to make several remarkable stops. At one point, midway through the second period, Moore’s glove was knocked off, but she still pulled off a gutsy, barehanded save on the goal line. “(Moore)’s always excellent,” Bourbeau said. “It’s hard to say anything other than that.” But Colgate’s Brittany Phillips snuck one over Moore’s glove on a breakaway and evened the score 2-2. The tie lasted only 30 seconds. Robson came to the Bears’ rescue once again, smashing in a rebound for what proved to be the game-winning goal and her 10th score of the season. The Raiders outshot Bruno in the third period and pressed for the tying goal, but could not get the puck past Moore, who Bourbeau called the team’s “backbone.” “It wasn’t our best effort,” Bourbeau said. “But they wanted it so bad, and they were so happy to get this done for the senior class.” The win turned around the Bears’ fortunes, but the tasks ahead of the team will not be easy. This weekend, the Bears will go on the road for a pair of tough matchups with secondplace Harvard and fifth-place Dartmouth, needing points to keep their season alive.
The men’s ice hockey team — now mired in a six-game losing streak — sustained tough road losses to No. 12 Cornell and Colgate this weekend. The team has also fallen into last place in the Eastern College Athletic Conference after failing to compile a point since its win over then-No. 12 Union Jan. 21. “We have four regular season games left,” said Jeff Buvinow ’12. “The only thing you can do is try to stop the bleeding — take it one game at a time.” The Bears (8-14-3, 5-11-12 ECAC) knew they would be facing rough road tests playing against the top ECAC competition in Cornell (13-6-6, 10-5-3) and Colgate (17-10-3, 11-6-1), and both games showed Bruno’s resilience. Cornell 5, Brown 2
In the hostile environment at Cornell’s Lynah Rink, Brown was able to shake off its recent problems with early goal scoring by notching the first two goals of the game. Matt Lorito ’15 closed out the first period with an unassisted goal off an offensive zone faceoff. The team came out strong in the second period — Ryan Jacobson ’15 scored on the deflected shot of Dennis Robertson ’14. But after the good start, in a scene reminiscent of Bruno’s previous game against St. Lawrence (12-15-3, 8-9-1), Brown allowed five unanswered goals. “We were up 2-0, then they scored and took it from us,” said assistant captain Bobby Farnham ’12. “I thought our work ethic was good this weekend. At the same time, we had too many lapses that cost us in crucial situations.” Colgate 7, Brown 6
The usually low-scoring Bears followed up with a high-octane affair against Colgate in which 13 different players scored. The game started off with five goals in a first period that resulted in a 3-2 Colgate lead. Captain Jack Maclellan ’12 — who leads the team with 14 goals — and Richie Crowley ’13 scored the two Bruno goals. Garnet Hathaway ’14 and Massimo Lamacchia ’15 also added goals in the second period. Farnham, who leads the team with 12 assists, set up Lamacchia’s goal. “When we’re at our best — when our fundamentals are at our best — it’s when our team wins,” Farnham said. Brown, strong all game, mounted a comeback in the third period but fell short at the final buzzer. Goals from Matt Harlow ’15, Buvinow and Robertson put the team right within reach of forcing extra time. Despite the team’s recent struggles, players said they have not given up hope and continue to push every day. “Our goal is still getting home ice,” Farnham said. “Being fundamentally sound as a team, we’re going to take care of business heading into the playoffs.” “We just need some momentum going into the playoffs and get a few wins under our belt,” Buvinow said. Brown faces its last home series of the season Feb. 17 and 18 against Ivy foes Harvard (8-7-10, 6-4-8) and Dartmouth (9-12-4, 6-9-3). The series represents the last home games the current senior class will play at Meehan Auditorium. “We always notice when we have Harvard and Dartmouth on our schedule,” Buvinow said. “They’re always competitive teams. We’re excited for this home series and Senior Weekend.”
Squash
Squads fall to top teams, gear up for championships By maria acabado Contributing Writer
Both squash teams took on top10 ranked opponents this weekend. The women lost 8-1 to No. 8 Dartmouth in the last home game of the season. Meanwhile, the No. 16 men defeated No. 26 Tufts with a resounding 9-0 victory, but fell 9-0 to No. 4 Harvard and 8-1 to No. 7 Dartmouth. The Bears kept busy, playing multiple matches and preparing for the College Squash Association Team Championships, which are this upcoming weekend in Princeton for the men and in two weeks’ time at Harvard for the women. Sarah Crosky ’13 was the lone Bear to win her Dartmouth match for the women, though Sarah Beres-
ford ’13 and Dori Rahbar ’14 fought hard to push their matches to close five-game thrillers. “The overall score doesn’t reflect how close the games were. Most matches went to multiple games with close scores in each game,” Rahbar said. “We can really see how much everyone’s improved their game in a few short months. It sets us up for a great run at nationals.” Co-captain Brooke Dalury ’12 said she was proud of the team’s performance. “Everyone really played their hearts out,” Dalury said. “We were in a great mindset of positivity for the match, and I think it showed on court. Sarah Crosky had an unbelievable win in three games.” For the captains, Dalury and Erika Kohnen ’12, the match was
the last home competition of their Brown careers. “Senior Day was really great, and Erika and I felt really appreciated and emotional,” Dalury said. “The girls have been unbelievable this year, and we’ve felt so lucky to be their captains. They make it easy.” The men’s team faced Tufts first, where a loss likely would have meant a drop in the national rankings, said Chris Holter ’13 Sunday. “We were able to beat Tufts without dropping a match,” said Tucker Bryan ’12. “It was a good boost of confidence for the team and gave us an opportunity to rest some of our injured guys.” After the win over Tufts, the squad faced off Saturday against powerhouse Harvard. Though the team lost every match, Bryan
credited co-captain Blake Reinson ’14 for a particularly strong performance, which he said impressed both teams. “We knew we were outmatched going into Harvard,” said co-captain Brad Thompson ’12. “Those guys are a strong contender for the title this year. We took it as a learning experience and enjoyed testing ourselves against such a strong team. We definitely kept nationals in the back of our minds and used the matches to prepare ourselves for this coming weekend.” Though the men’s team ultimately lost Sunday to the Big Green, the Bears were happy to see Tod Holberton ’14 back on the courts after a speedy recovery from a hip injury. Despite the loss, Thompson said he was pleased with the last
home game of his Brown career. “For my last home match against Dartmouth, we had a great crowd and tons of support,” Thompson said. “Personally, I played some of the best squash I’ve played in my life at the number one position against a very strong Dartmouth number one.” Reinson was the lone Bear to win his Dartmouth match, while Bryan and Holter pressured their opponents before both falling 3-1. “On Sunday, we put up a strong fight against Dartmouth, taking the number two match and having close battles at three and four,” Thompson said. “If we play as tough as we did against Dartmouth at nationals this weekend, we’ll have a strong shot at climbing the rankings.”