Tuesday, March 20, 2012

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Herald

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vol. cxxii, no. 38

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Since 1891

Following review, COE concentration to be renamed

By Sonia phene Contributing Writer

Sam Kase / Herald

Maria Carkovic said the COE name change “captures the concentration better.”

The Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship concentration will be renamed Business, Entrepreneurship and Organizations.

Concentrators graduating in 2013 will be the first to earn degrees under the new name, said Maria Carkovic, administrative director of the program and lecturer in economics. Though the change officially will take place July 1, the new title has already been updated on Focal Point, the University’s concentration website.

The name change was part of a COE curriculum review last fall conducted by a committee chaired

by Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and Professor of Sociology Mary Fennell. The committee, which had a student representative from each of the three COE concentration tracks, met regularly

“to review the curricular objectives, foundation courses, strength of quantitative courses and senior year experience,” Carkovic said.

The committee decided on the name change and also made adjustments to the concentration’s foundation courses and capstone program in response to student feedback.

Cory Abbe ’13 said she brought the idea of the name change to the committee. “I’m a tour guide, and the COE concentration is the only concentration that I have to explain what it is,” she said.

“Commerce was an old-fashioned word, and (business) captures the concentration better,” Carkovic said. She noted that the title flipped the order of the words “organization” and “entrepreneurship” because BOE was already taken as a concentration acronym.

The General Assembly passed legislation last summer legalizing civil unions between same-sex couples in the state. But lobbyists for marriage equality point out that less than 50 couples have chosen to take advantage of the option.

“Civil unions try to establish a separate-but-equal status, though they actually create second-class citizenry for gay and lesbian couples,” said Ray Sullivan, campaign continued on page 3

continued on page 2

continued on page 4

By Emily Hartman Contributing Writer

Emily Martin, vice president and general counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, painted a grim picture of current gender pay inequalities Monday night to a small, female-dominated audience in Petteruti Lounge.

Regardless of age, race, education level, industry and other demographic factors, women earn less than men, Martin said. One year out of college, women earn about 80 percent as much as their male counterparts, and the gap only widens with time. New female doctors earn nearly $17,000 less than new male doctors, a disparity that has risen over the past decade.

Even when controlling for all external factors, there is still a significant wage disparity, Martin said.

“In the last 50 years since the Equal Pay Act (of 1963) passed, we’ve made it less than halfway to equality,” Martin said. “The wage gap continues to be, unfortunately, a very important presence in women’s lives.”

The gap persists because of many factors, Martin said. Though discrimination is a significant in-

inside

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

riage in the state every year since 1997.

A poll conducted last year by Public Policy Polling, a national polling company focused on politics, shows that a majority of Rhode

Softball

Bruno drops three of four games in tournament By alexandra conway Contributing Writer

The women’s softball team came away with only one win from the University of Maryland Baltimore County Spring Classic, a four game tournament held in Baltimore this weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, Bruno fell to Robert Morris 4-2 and came up short again to Coppin State 4-0. On Sunday afternoon, the Bears rebounded to edge Mount St. Mary’s 5-4, but then fell to UMBC 7-1 in their final game of the weekend.

In the first game against Robert Morris, Kelsey Hom ’15 and Stephanie Thompson ’13 were key in leading the offense. The Bears were able to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth, but

(Dis)colored A proposed bill would combat racial profiling

City & State, 5

Civil unions

BAM Breaks it down

the Colonials regained the lead in the top of the fifth and added an insurance run in the sixth to secure the win. Later in the afternoon, Coppin State shut out the Bears, as Kate Strobel ’12 and Avery Silverstein ’13 tallied the Bears’ only two hits of the game.

But Bruno came back Sunday and won a close game against Mount St. Mary’s that “showed how effective our offense can be,” said Kelsey Williams ’14. The Mountaineers took an early lead by tallying two runs in the first inning and then adding another run in the fourth to gain a 3-0 lead.

Thompson launched a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, bringing the Bears within two. After Mount St. Mary’s reestablished continued on page 3

Tom Sullivan / Herald

FroyoWorld donated a portion of its proceeds to the Brown Arts Mentoring group during the group’s fundraiser, which featured live music and breakdancing.

Bye bias

Johnson’s ’14 faith in politics renewed Opinions, 7

weather

Lawmakers in the Rhode Island General Assembly have proposed legislation to legalize same-sex mar-

Island voters support same-sex marriage, and Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 has previously said he would sign such legislation into law.

But the bill faces opposition from a Catholic voter base and conservative legislators.

While some same-sex marriage advocates believe the Ocean State will eventually follow the lead of its New England neighbors and legalize same-sex marriage, re-election campaigns and religion are likely to prove barriers to passage in 2012.

By Aparaajit Sriram Senior Staff Writer

Fourth-year medical students found out their residency program placements for next year at the annual Match Day event Friday. The class of 79 students, which is smaller than in recent years, “did as well as I’ve seen any class do,” said Edward Wing, dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences.

The number of students entering primary care disciplines, particularly obstetrics and family medicine, seems to have increased this year, said Philip Gruppuso, associate dean of Medical Education, adding that this rise may have been prompted by recent health care reform. Many students will also enter internal medicine programs, which have been consistently popular, Gruppuso said.

Where students perform these specialty-specific residencies often determines where they choose to live and work, Wing said. Ten graduates will remain in Providence at hospitals affiliated with the Alpert Medical School.

This year’s national match rate was the highest in 30 years, with

Prospects uncertain for same-sex marriage Lecture confronts gender pay inequality city & state

By Sona Mrkttchian Senior Staff Writer

Students celebrate residency matches

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2 Campus News calendar Today

March 20

12:30 P.m.

ToMORROW

March 21

American Indian Exhibit and Talk

Brazilian Drumming Workshop

Haffenreffer Museum

Fulton Rehearsal Hall 4 p.m.

“Orphaned by the Waves” Lecture

“Historicizing the Left in Pakistan”

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menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Tomato and Feta Quiche, Reuben Sandwich, Sweet Potato Fries, Chocolate Chip Cookies

Shaved Steak Sandwich, Krinkle Cut Fries, Enchilada Bar, Greek Salad Bar, French Green Beans

DINNER Sesame Chicken with Mustard Sauce, Vegan Chow Mein, Chinese Fried Rice, Vegetarian Burrito Bar

Turkey Pot Pie, Tortellini Provencale, Roasted Beets, Cheese Zudur Bread, Baked Potatoes, Magic Bars

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Faculty praise med students’ success continued from page 1

12 p.m.

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The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, March 20, 2012

more than 95 percent of graduates nationally matching to residencies, according to the Association of American Medical College’s website. Approximately 16,000 U.S. medical students were matched through the National Resident Matching Program Friday, the website said.

“Our students have done well matching in prestigious programs,” Gruppuso wrote in an email to The Herald.

“Students did excellent this year,” Wing said. “And by ‘excellent,’ I mean the very best — Harvard, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford.”

Successful placement of the Med School’s students in these programs is partly due to the caliber of past graduates who have “done very well as residents” at these hospitals, Gruppuso wrote.

The class is smaller than average because many students took a “year or two off,” Gruppuso said. Next year’s graduating class is expected to be approximately 120 students.

Students found out their matches at noon Friday. Unlike many other medical schools, the Med School “makes a celebration out

of it,” Wing said, formally declaring the day “Match Day” and inviting students, parents and faculty to attend a celebration of the students’ achievement. “I don’t think a lot of schools do it quite the way we do,” he said.

The Match Day event was hosted for the first time at the new medical school building in the Jewelry District. Students waited anxiously for the noontime “all-go,” when they were allowed to open their respective envelopes and find out where they will be living for at least three to seven years.

Exactly on the hour, almost all students, from dextrous future surgeons to precise future radiologists, tore their envelopes open. Within seconds, some let loose yells, others embraced their fellow students, while others grasped for their cell phones to call loved ones.

“I told my family that if they could make it up here for one event, it should be this, not graduation,” said Florida-native Kumar Vasudevan ’08 MD ’12, who will be joining the neurological surgery residency program at the Emory University School of Medicine. Vasudevan, a student in the Program in Liberal Medical Education, said he will find it hard to leave Brown after being

here for the past eight years. “When you spend one third of your life in one place, it’s always tough to leave,” he said.

“This year’s class is very close,” Wing said.

Match Day was also a celebration for parents, many of whom flew long distances to be present at the event. Al and Florence Cheung, parents of Edward Cheung ’08 MD ’12, said they will be grateful to have their son close to home on the West Coast, where he will be a resident in orthopedic surgery at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center.

“We told him he should go where he will get the best training,” Cheung’s mother said. “We are so happy that he is coming home for that.”

For two students, Match Day was particularly special. Joseph Grossman MD ’12 and Sarah Housman MD ’12 found out they will both be entering residency programs in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which is affiliated with Harvard. The two married their first year of medical school and now have a baby girl.

They entered the match as a couple.

“We couldn’t have seen it any other way,” Housman said.

New policies could reduce gender wage gap continued from page 1

Crossword

fluence, some policies currently in place contribute to the disparity and could be changed, she said.

For example, corporate pay secrecy policies designate the discussion of pay as a punishable, sometimes fireable, offense. Women may therefore not even know they are being discriminated against. Fear of retaliation and lack of legal representation also play a role, Martin said.

Pay discrimination occurs most frequently when an employee is either offered a raise or a new job,

Daily

the Brown

“not the moments where you are wary (of discrimination),” Martin added.

“Pay discrimination is very difficult to see when it’s happening to you,” she said.

To fight this disparity, legislative changes are needed to prevent systemic discrimination against women, she said. Martin added that she has worked to install these changes at the National Women’s Law Center, where she helped develop the Paycheck Fairness Act. This act, which failed to get through the Senate by two votes in November 2011, sought to enact

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small policy changes that could make a significant improvement in the wage gap, Martin said. If passed, it would have worked to prohibit employee retaliation and would have allowed the government to collect better information on pay rates.

Martin also spoke at length about two recent legal battles that varied in success in the fight to narrow the wage gap.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first act President Barack Obama signed into law, ensures that a woman’s statute of limitations begins anew each time a woman receives a discriminatory paycheck.

Martin used this as an example to show how a small, technical policy change can successfully have a lasting effect on women’s ability to file pay discrimination suits.

She then spoke about the Supreme Court decision in the 2011 WalMart v. Dukes case, which was brought by more than 1.5 million female employees against WalMart.

The court rejected the case because the class was “too big to sue,” Martin said. A decision in their favor would have helped the women stand together as a group rather than “go up against Goliath” alone, she said.

Ali Wolfson ’12 said she appreciated the legal perspective Martin provided.

“She did a really great job of showing the different mechanisms for change,” Wolfson said, adding that “understanding what is going on is the first step towards building a movement around it.”

“Legal change … can’t be an entire social movement, but it’s a crucial part of any social movement for justice and equality,” Martin said.

City & State 3

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Bruno pitching improves Religious affiliates contest proposed bill sterile, it would be wrong operate outside the law,” Sullivan despite offensive letdowns continued from page 1 percent for the state to grant it the same said. continued from page 1 a three-run cushion, Silverstein drove in Williams with an RBI single in the fifth inning. Hom then won the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, cracking a three-run walk-off homer to give Brown the 5-4 victory over the Mountaineers.

In their final game, the Bears challenged host UMBC but lost the momentum they had found in the day’s first game. Strobel tallied Bruno’s sole run of the game on a solo home run, and the UMBC offense provided more than enough run support, winning 7-1.

Head Coach DeeDee Enabenter-Omidiji said she thought the first-year pitching staff kept the Bears close in every game.

“There were some misplays behind them, and we didn’t get a lot of offensive support,” she said.

“The pitchers had a much better tournament than in the first week of play. They were definitely more consistent around the plate.”

After this weekend’s results, Enabenter-Omidiji said the players are even more aware they need to learn how to refocus and be more consistent.

“If we can learn how to focus on the task at hand, we will be more successful,” she said.

“We haven’t been playing to our full potential, which is causing us to lose to teams that we should be beating,” Williams said.

“Our pitching staff made a huge improvement from our El Paso showings, which was good to see, but our offense struggled. Now, we just need to get all aspects of our game to click together for the rest of the season.”

Enabenter-Omidiji said the team is still working “to connect on all aspects of the game.”

“At times, the offense has been clicking, but the pitching has not, or the defense has faltered, and the offense has suffered also,” she said. “We have to work through some things until we get more games under our belt.”

Enabenter-Omidiji said she is hopeful the team’s overall performance will improve.

“It will eventually all come together … and hopefully it won’t take too long,” she said.

The Bears will hit the road over spring break, travelling to Riverside, Calif., this coming weekend to play host University of California at Riverside, Santa Clara University and Colorado State at the UC Riverside Tournament. The start of their Ivy campaign then follows March 30 at Penn and March 31 at Columbia.

director of Marriage Equality Rhode Island.

But some opponents argue the civil union law has already gone too far.

“Because the civil union status is most often used as a stepping stone … it makes the redefinition of marriage somewhat easier,” wrote John Ritchie, director of student activities at the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, in an email to The Herald.

Sullivan said Rhode Island’s same-sex couples have shown “dramatically less interest” in the civil union option when compared to couples in other states — like Hawaii and Delaware — that have passed the same legislation. This pattern suggests the local LGBTQ community is dedicated to realizing full marriage equality, he said.

Sullivan added that Rhode Island’s proximity to states where same-sex marriage is legal — like bordering states Massachusetts and Connecticut — offers an accessible alternative to civil unions.

“Marriage is the gold standard,” Sullivan said. “It comes with instant recognition and instant acknowledgement of what the institution means.”

Ritchie also argued that terminology is key. “Since homosexual behavior is reversible, not natural, not genetic, unhealthy and 100

legal rights and privileges that married couples deserve and enjoy,” he wrote.

Corvese amendment

Last year’s civil union legislation included an amendment by Rep. Arthur Corvese, D-North Providence, which led the LGBTQ community to vehemently oppose the bill.

The Corvese Amendment allows religiously affiliated organizations, like hospitals, to deny recognition of the civil unions outlined in the legislation.

Sullivan said the amendment could allow religiously affiliated hospitals to discriminate against same-sex couples by preventing a partner in a civil union from viewing his or her partner in the intensive care unit.

Ritchie said the amendment protects the rights of religious institutions that do not approve of same-sex relationships.

“If tolerance is what they believe and promote, they should tolerate the rights of Rhode Island Catholics who follow the Ten Commandments,” Ritchie wrote. “They should tolerate every American who cherishes natural law based marriage.”

MERI believes in the rights of religious institutions, but “the state should not give a religiously affiliated organization the authority to

Lobbyist groups have been working with legislators to repeal the amendment since it was signed into law.

“What was put into the civil unions bill overstepped what we think of as a normal request,” said Sen. Rhoda Perry P’91, D-Providence.

Religious opposition

Rhode Island is the most Catholic state in the nation, and the majority of the state’s voters identify as Democrats.

Catholic majorities among constituents may keep certain legislators from supporting the marriage equality bill. “It’s kept some of the folks who represent those districts from supporting it to the degree you would need to ensure passage,” said Brett Broesder, a former policy and legislative director for the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General.

“The Church has always taught that homosexual behavior is a sin and violates … divine law based on the Ten Commandments,” Ritchie said.

“Same-sex marriage legislation is about distorting a venerable institution,” said Thomas Tobin, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Providence in a press release. continued on page 4

4 City & State

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, March 20, 2012

State elections may hamper progress on marriage bill continued from page 3 More than 60 percent of Rhode Islanders are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, according to recent statistics, Sullivan said.

But Sullivan does not think Catholic constituents will prevent the legislation from passing.

“There is a significant disconnect between the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and the people who are attending Mass on Sunday,” Sullivan said. Many Catholics in Rhode Island support samesex marriage despite the Church’s

stance on the issue, he added.

Sullivan noted that Massachusetts also has a large Catholic population but was able to pass same-sex marriage legislation.

Election-year pressures

The upcoming state elections will also play into the discussion this year. Many legislators are up for re-election in November and may be hesitant to vote on contentious issues, Perry said.

Legislators in more conservative districts will attempt to keep the issue from dominating the State

House agenda, while proponents will attempt to be “vocal about the issue,” Broesder said. Re-election campaigns in conservative districts could be a major factor in preventing the bill’s passage, he added.

“Our leaders and elected officials have an interest and duty to protect and foster true, stable marriages,” Ritchie said.

But Perry pointed to poll results that indicate most Rhode Islanders would favor the bill. “The beauty of it all is that if they looked at the numbers that support marriage equality, they might reconsider,”

she said.

MERI is focusing on making sure the constituents who support marriage equality in the polls are voicing their concerns with their legislators.

“At some point, those legislators who continue to ignore the will of their constituents — it’s going to catch up with them at the ballot box,” Sullivan said.

National trends

The national sentiment from the Democratic Party suggests that same-sex marriage legislation is gaining support and popularity, Broesder said.

Similar legislation passed recently in Maryland and New York.

Governors from both states were “staunch proponents” of same-sex marriage and are considered potential candidates for the Democratic ticket in the 2016 presidential race, Broesder said.

Getting the Rhode Island movement in line with the national trends could help garner support from national lobbyists who “want to put money into it,” Broesder said.

Their support would only further the cause and make passage in Rhode Island more probable, he added.

But not everyone is convinced that these trends can predict Rhode Island’s future.

“Rhode Island has a long history of being independent, and the fact that other states have adopted this ill-advised social experiment

doesn’t sway me at all,” Tobin said in the press release.

Political players

Perry was quick to caution that passage may still be a long-term goal.

Before either of the chambers can vote on the legislation, the bills will have to pass through their respective judiciary committees. “The Senate Judiciary Committee — as a body — is conservative,” Perry said. “When you have a conservative body, no matter what is offered in exchange, you’re not going to see too much bend, if any at all.”

Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Jamestown and Newport, has been vocal in her opposition to same-sex marriage. Perry said Paiva Weed would not bring the bill to the Senate floor unless she absolutely knew there would be enough votes for passage.

But the upcoming elections, which may prevent passage this year, could add Democratic support in the General Assembly to ease passage in the coming years, she said.

“The beauty of an election year is that you’re going to get a whole new freight of people coming in,” Perry said.

When Perry was first elected to the Senate, she said she was unable to find a single co-sponsor for the marriage equality legislation she proposed at the time, she said. Now, she said she was able to find eight supporters in the Senate, “easy.”

U. revises COE capstones, requirements continued from page 1 Abbe said both students and faculty members approved of the change. “I’m a lot more proud of my concentration now,” Abbe said, calling the new name less confusing.

Other students echoed Abbe’s sentiment. “It is very hard to communicate what the COE concentration is,” said Daniel Prada ’12, another student on the committee.

Prada said he had to explain the concentration to potential employers in job interviews.

Neil Parikh ’11, executive advisor for WaterWalla, said he wished he had graduated under the BEO title. The change is a “good direction to head in the future. The problem is that not many people know what commerce is,” he said.

Kenya Wright ’15, a potential concentrator, also expressed enthusiasm about the change. “If anything, it makes it sound more like what I do, what I’m interested in,” she said. She said the name change will not have any bearing on her decision to concentrate in the subject.

Though current juniors will be the first to graduate with degrees in BEO, current sophomores will be the first to complete the new curriculum, which includes required capstone projects and

slightly altered foundation courses.

Currently, there is an optional start-up venture capstone concentrators from all tracks can work on during their final year.

The concentration will now require capstones in all three tracks, Carkovic said. In addition to the start-up project, BEO will offer social entrepreneurship and business problem-solving capstones, she said.

“Everybody who was on the committee was very excited about the idea,” Abbe said.

The committee also decided to offer the concentration’s foundation courses more frequently and to adjust the content of some of those courses in response to student demand, Carkovic said.

For example, ENGN 0020: “Transforming Society-Technology and Choices for the Future” will be called “Business and Technology,” and its syllabus will be altered, Carkovic said. The exact changes to ENGN 0020’s and other courses’ syllabi are still under review, Abbe said.

“Having new capstones and redesigning ENGN 0020 are more important changes for me than the name,” Prada said, explaining that he thinks the changes reach beyond the name and enhance the entire concentration.

City & State 5

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Proposed R.I. bill intended to combat racial profiling

By Dana Reilly Contributing Writer

Hope High School senior Stephen Dy said he is frequently stopped by the police in his neighborhood due to his tattoos and Cambodian heritage. “Most people assume that gangs out here (in Providence) are majority South East Asian,” he said, “so when they see a Cambodian, or a Laotian or a Vietnamese kid, they assume he’s in a gang.”

Rep. Grace Diaz, D-Providence, introduced a bill to fight racial profiling at the beginning of the year. Diaz introduced a similar bill last year that passed the House Judiciary Committee but died on the House floor.

Diaz said she made some changes to the previous bill, adding restrictions to police questioning of pedestrians and passengers at traffic stops.

Police patrolling a neighborhood are not likely to have probable cause for searching or questioning people on the street, she said. Police are already prohibited by state statute from racial profiling, but a person must produce identification if police present justification for stopping them.

Dy has served as a youth coordinator at Providence Youth Student Movement for three years. He said when police stop him, they ask, “What are you doing? Why are you in this neighborhood? What set you roll with? Do you have any guns on you?”

Diaz also included a provision that does not allow “consent searches” of juveniles without cause or reason as a protective measure. Consent searches are only permitted if the individual gives permission.

Dy said he feels he does not have an option when he is searched. “They wouldn’t even ask. They just tell you get on the wall, put your hands on the car or lay down on the floor,” he said. “If I try to come off as defensive,

it ends up coming off as offensive.”

Racial profiling has been a contentious issue for a decade, said Steve Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Rhode Island. “African-Americans and Latinos feel that they’re being discriminated against, that they’re being pulled over for no reason other than the color of their skin.”

In 2001, state law enforcement officers began collecting data on every traffic stop in their jurisdiction in accordance with the Rhode Island Traffic Stop Statistics Act, which was enacted in 2000 to monitor racial profiling. In most communities in the state, non-white drivers are stopped at rates disproportionate to their presence in the driving population, according to a report summarizing the data released by Northeastern University. The first year the project began, the Rhode Island ACLU sued the Providence Police Department for failing to comply with the law and reporting inaccurate data.

Brown called the police’s response “very disappointing.” Many departments have issued statements denying the existence of racial profiling based on an absence of recorded complaints.

Latino and African-American advocacy groups in Rhode Island, as well as Providence Youth Student Movement, complained to the ACLU about racial profiling, Steve Brown said.

But Anthony Pesare, chief of Middletown Police Department and president of the Rhode Island Police Chiefs’ Association, said Diaz’s bill will “handcuff ” the police by eliminating some of the tools police officers need to protect communities.

It is important to engage in “simple conversation” with suspicious characters, said Charles Swenson, deputy chief major of East Providence Police

Department.

“We are all very much in favor of participation and data collection and very much against racial profiling,” Pesare said, but he said he believes the bill would challenge Supreme Court rulings that allow police to obtain identification.

Swenson said he is skeptical of

racial profiling data like that found in Northeastern University’s report.

“It’s not as accurate as (the victims of racial profiling) would have you believe,” he said. “I have heard some people speak of a humiliating story (of being patted down by police), when in fact if you talk to the retaining officer, the real facts are exposed.”

Diaz expressed her appreciation for the difficult job facing police officers but said she wants to set some new limits.

Dy said he intends to testify at the State House in favor of this legislation for the second time. “I feel like if we have to follow rules, they should have to follow rules, too,” he said.

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6 Editorial & Letter

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Editorial cartoon Editorial Pricing us out at the Providence Journal If you’ve perused the Providence Journal’s website recently, you may have noticed that the articles seem shorter than they used to be. Links on the front page often lead to articles of just one or two paragraphs, many reprinted from the Associated Press. In-depth analysis, multipage exposes and regular columnists are nowhere to be found. We all know the Journal is bleeding money — its advertising revenue has dropped 61 percent in the past six years — but has it really gotten so bad that it has had to cut almost all of its substantive news coverage?

Luckily, no. All of that content is still there — it’s just hiding behind a paywall, available to subscribers to download as an e-edition for $4 per week. Though we respect the dire situation of local newspapers across America — many of whom have instituted similar paywall systems — the Journal’s efforts seem fundamentally misguided and ill-adapted for the realities of the media world within which it operates. Many specifics of their subscription model compare poorly with those of other newspapers, and we worry that the limitations of the Journal’s paywall will only further drive readers away.

First, the entirety of the Journal’s full-length reporting is inaccessible to non-subscribers. This offers no way to entice potential readers, many of whom may be skeptical of the quality of the Journal’s reporting.

On the New York Times’ website, readers can view a set amount of full-length articles per month before being asked to subscribe. As a result, people are drawn in, convinced the product they will be paying for is worth their money. Potential Journal readers have no way to “try before they buy.”

Even worse, the Journal’s model fails to highlight the paper’s most intriguing features. New readers who go to the ProJo’s website and overlook the e-edition button may be misled into thinking that the news summaries on the front page are all the newspaper has to offer. Again, compare this to the New York Times, which prominently features in-depth analyses on its website. Visitors to their website are drawn in, while visitors to the ProJo’s are too easily turned away at the door.

Further, the Journal’s decision to offer its full articles as a glorified PDF seems wrongheaded. It is both inconvenient for readers and sharply reduces the means by which Journal articles can be shared. The proliferation of political blogs across the state offers a constant stream of links to news articles. But with the Journal’s top articles stuck in the e-edition, there is no way to link to them — even for subscribers.

Here’s the kicker: All this will cost you more than a subscription to the New York Times, despite an inferior quality both in reporting and in reader experience. The Times’ paywall has been widely praised, resulting in increased subscribers and bringing the Times into the black. If the Journal wants to see the same results, it needs to reorient its own subscription model towards the future. Rather than shut off its highest quality content and let the readers trickle in, it needs to put its best foot forward and aggressively work to compete in the digital age.

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

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by lo r e n f u lto n

letter to the editor

Ultrasound bill is a chance for compromise To the Editor:

This Monday’s Herald editorial (“War on women arrives in Rhode Island,” March 19) overstates the socalled “war on women” launched by requiring physicians to display and describe an ultrasound’s images prior to an abortion — a mandate currently being considered by the Rhode Island General Assembly.

If doctors review ultrasound results with patients during other medical examinations, such as for cancer, then it seems reasonable also to review results associated with the formation of a living child within a woman’s body. Indeed, an abortion demands an emotional decision-making process. At the same time, though medical issues often evoke negative reactions, these feelings do not exempt one from the personal responsibility of acknowledging the very basic reality of a medical procedure to be conducted, which in this case would be identifying an embryo or fetus to be aborted.

Many women, in fact, would want to view ultra-

sound images, and doing so could be reassuring, according to a Canadian study reported in the New York Times in which 73 percent of women wanted to see their ultrasound results when given the opportunity.

While The Herald cites another study that concludes that ultrasound viewing typically has little or no impact on a woman’s decision, the former observation suggests that viewing allows a woman to make her choice more confidently.

Rather than hasten to create a deeper rift between pro-choice and pro-life supporters with this bill, I urge The Herald and Rhode Island citizens from both sides to consider viewing this bill as an opportunity for compromise and cooperation. We need to respect women by giving them all the medical information related to their bodies and the procedures they are considering. Data and medical information and the freedom to make independent, informed health decisions go hand-in-hand.

Irene Nemesio ’12

Correction

An article in Monday’s Herald (“Soviet battleship becomes R.I. museum,” March 19) incorrectly reported that the parents of Caroline Sagalchik ’13 emigrated from Belarus in 1981. In fact, her parents emigrated in 1991. The Herald regrets the error.

quote of the day

“Marriage is the gold standard. ”

— Ray Sullivan, director of Marriage Equality R.I. See marriage on page 1.

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Opinions 7

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Why commit to a concentration?

By Nikhil kalyanpur Opinions Columnist

As the concentration declaration deadline nears, there is a familiar buzz surrounding the sophomore class. With only two weeks to go, many students are scurrying about looking for an adviser to casually sign off on their forms. Unfortunately, convenience frequently trumps serious reflection. Our declaration process, with its generic questions and lack of permanence, has practically become a farce. As students, we view it as a superficial requirement rather than as the opportunity for introspection it should be. Few realize we are not simply choosing a set of classes but are actually committing to a mode of thought that will fundamentally change our approach to problem-solving.

Many of us meander in our first year, experimenting and trying to sample everything that piques our interests. What results is uncertainty and anxiety, which often plagues our second year as the “sophomore slump” starts to take hold.

Under this pressure, we are prone to make decisions we will regret later.

A Brown student’s declared concentration can often end up being one with few requirements. This leaves our options open and allows us to put off that final decision even longer. Or else, we choose

a concentration that satisfies our parents and lessens the pressure of joining the working world — I’m thinking of economics in particular here. Though all this may fit with the mechanics of our system, it highlights a failure to understand the University’s educational philosophy.

The University mission statement is vague to say the least. While we often throw out ambiguous terms like “critical thinking” as the end goals of our academic experiences, what we frequently fail to recognize is that our classes and concen-

to apply those theories to the world. Engineers study physical systems by following a stringent and logical methodology.

These are oversimplified descriptions, but you get the idea.

I have ranted before about our need to improve advising (“The advising fallacies,” Feb. 27), and there is no doubt that some of the blame needs to be placed on faculty. Many concentration advisers approach the process with the same listless attitude of most students — “let’s get this out of the way.”

When selecting a concentration, you are not just choosing a set of classes. You are adopting a perspective that will influence your life long after you have walked out of those Van Wickle gates. tration are not designed to merely provide us with facts and figures. Rather, they aim to develop a framework of analysis in which to synthesize that knowledge. In other words, a concentration shapes how we will think.

Though there are definitely some overlaps, most concentrations strive to embed students within a particular school of thought. Philosophy tends to hone one’s ability to think abstractly and focus on the subtle implications of arguments. Economics involves creating idealized models of human behavior and asks its students

But at the same time, it’s not only the professors’ fault. A recent Herald editorial (“Concentrating on the declaration process,” March 12) rightly critiqued the declaration application itself, citing its failure to prompt more self-reflection. Both these issues are only just starting points. For our student body to get the most out of their academic experiences, the whole process needs to be rethought from the bottom up.

Having recently written an Independent Concentration application, I can vouch for the fact that the questions the Curricular Resource Center pose act as

catalysts for genuine reflection. It is a process I would encourage any confused student to attempt. Even if you do not want to pursue an IC, thinking through the process will make you consolidate your interests and help you recognize the values of the standard concentrations you are considering.

If we do not see any substantial reforms to the amount of thought required to declare or choose a concentration under the current system, students will continue to diminish the potential worth of their education. The convenience and futility that characterize the process are disrespectful to the New Curriculum. There is nothing wrong with following an established path as long as you actually take the time to assess its merits.

It goes without saying that these four years end up shaping what we do for and with the rest of our lives. The people we meet and the classes we take all have a substantial impact. But there are only a few conversations or lectures that we will distinctly be able to recall. However, a concentration has a much more profound effect on our future lives. When selecting a concentration, you are not just choosing a set of classes. You are adopting a perspective that will influence your life long after you have walked out of those Van Wickle gates.

Nikhil Kalyanpur ’13 is a junior who likes Little Talks. He can be reached at nik.kalyanpur@gmail.com

Hope in POLS 1130

By Garret Johnson Opinions Columnist

Watching the news these days tends to fill me with pure, unadulterated cynicism. Nobody in government agrees on anything, except for the fact that the system in Washington, and Providence, is broken. In a country where Occupiers scream, Rush Limbaugh calls law students sluts and Angel Taveras makes it his life goal to suck the money out of Brown, it’s hard to stay hopeful.

I certainly feel the hopelessness, as anyone who read my columns knows (“Super PACs bring out the worst in politicians,” Feb. 23). But one morning in POLS 1130: “The American Presidency,” taught by Associate Professor of Political Science Wendy Schiller, I got a new burst of hope from my fellow Brown students.

In the previous week’s section, we had been assigned the unenviable task of solving the nation’s fiscal and economic crisis in 50 minutes. In class, several of the sections sent representatives up to the front of Salomon 101 to present their solutions.

As a thoroughly beaten down political observer, I expected partisan dribble from the left about the rich not paying enough in taxes and partisan dribble from the right about how ObamaCare is going to kill your grandma. I figured that the dreaded C-word — “compromise” — would never even make an appearance.

But I was wrong.

Rather than presenting doctrinaire party platforms and regurgitated Obamaisms, the liberals on stage were willing to concede that, yes, the deficit is a problem and that our current levels of spending are unsustainable. They were willing to look at serious cuts, something that can’t be said of the elected liberals in Washington.

In my section, we had several fairly conservative students who also seemed to understand the value of compromise.

They acknowledged that defense budget

has nearly ground to a halt due to radical partisanship. Perhaps it is because we have seen a congressional candidate compare President Obama to Osama Bin Laden — that happened in my Massachusetts congressional district. Our generation has seen how partisanship can cripple the government, and we’ve seen what intransigence and lack of cooperation can do.

Professor Schiller even took a moment to note that our pragmatic, ideologically balanced solutions to the nation’s problems were “a good sign” for the future. I wholeheartedly agree.

Why is it that a group of 20 college students can understand the importance of compromise and civil discourse while a group of 535 politicians in Washington continue to scream at each other?

cuts must be part of an overall plan to scale back spending. They gave Medicare the credit it deserves for having protected millions of American seniors.

Why is it that a group of 20 college students can understand the importance of compromise and civil discourse while a group of 535 politicians in Washington continue to scream at each other?

Perhaps it is that our formative years have been those in which our government

Despite what many, including myself, have said about liberalism’s monopoly on Brown students, this moment in class was one of great hope. It was nothing more than an ungraded section assignment, but it showed that our generation understands the great burdens that the current generation of leaders has left to us. We understand how grim the future could be and that some problems are too big for partisanship.

The sad truth that underlies my brief moment of hope is that it will be some time before the students in POLS 1130 have a chance to lead the country. For now, we remain under a dark cloud of ideological division and extremist control. Good people, those who understand the value of civility and respect, are leaving government in flocks. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, has indicated that she will retire. So will Sen. Joe Lieberman, IConn.

There are some glimmers of hope in today’s government. Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 dared to run as an independent and won. A former Republican senator, Chafee understands that today’s partisanship is toxic and unproductive.

Fortunately, there is hope. There is the hope of a new generation of Americans who, repulsed by the conduct of their elected officials, desire to change how things are done. We’re sick of being told that certain ideas are conservative and that certain ideas are liberal, when all we really care about is if they are good ideas.

That morning I saw that something was building in POLS 1130. The good news is that it is probably building on college campuses around the country. While Tea Partiers and leftists scream and accomplish nothing, a new generation of Americans is preparing to take the helm and work towards an era of civility and effective government.

Garret Johnson ’14 has never really written a positive column before. It feels great.

Daily Herald Sports Tuesday the Brown

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

M. Lacrosse

Bears suffer ‘heartbreaking’ loss to Crimson in Ivy opener

By Ethan McCoy Sports Editor

The men’s lacrosse team traded goals all night in a back-and-forth contest with Harvard in Harvard 10 Cambridge Brown 9 Saturday.

But in the end, the Crimson (3-3, 1-0 Ivy) found the deciding goal when Jeff Cohen fired the game-winner past goalie Will Round ’14 two minutes into overtime, giving Harvard the 10-9 win in both teams’ Ivy opener.

“It was tight as a guitar string,” said Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90.

“We put everything into it, and we played well. It was an exciting backand-forth game — two teams slugging it out and not letting each other pull away. It was two teams playing each other at a high level, and they matched each other blow for blow.”

Tiffany said though the loss was “heartbreaking,” he was happy with the effort his team put forward in an intense atmosphere against an Ivy rival.

“We certainly played with a tremendous amount of tenacity and focus that I don’t think we’ve seen yet this year,” Tiffany said. “It was certainly exciting, and I thought our tenacious play matched the atmosphere.”

The Bears’ (2-3, 0-1) attack was effective throughout, and the team scored the first goal of every period.

The offense was paced by hat tricks from John DePeters ’13 and Nick Piroli ’15. Piroli’s three goals matched his opening day hat trick in the win over Quinnipiac, while midfielder DePeters, who Tiffany said “stepped up big in a big atmosphere,” tallied his first career three-goal performance.

On the defensive end, Round made nine saves, and defenseman Philip Pierce ’14 forced seven turnovers and scooped up four groundballs.

The first goal of the game did not come until 10 minutes in, when DePeters drew first blood. Only two minutes later, Cohen answered back for the Crimson, forcing the first of six tie scores on the day.

In the second quarter, both offenses started to warm their engines.

Piroli reclaimed the lead for Brown with his first goal of the day only 13 seconds into the period, but Harvard tied it up 2-2 a minute later. Brown scored twice with goals from George Sherman ’13 and Co-captain Parker Brown ’12, but Harvard trimmed the deficit back to one before the half.

“We were a little sloppy in the first half offensively,” Tiffany said. “But we were scrappy, and we hustled, and we created some scoring opportunities, not in the prettiest way, but made some things happen.”

Out of the intermission, Brown struck first again as Piroli stretched the lead to 5-3. But Harvard responded quickly, scoring twice in two minutes to tie the game again.

DePeters then traded goals with the Crimson’s Terry White, before the junior completed his hat trick and gave Brown the lead heading into the fourth quarter after beating the Harvard goalie on the quarter’s final possession.

In the fourth quarter, Harvard found its first lead of the day. Brown struck quickly out of the gate with a score from Sam Hurster ’14 to extend its lead to 8-6, but the Crimson scored three consecutive goals in the next five minutes to take a 9-8 lead with just under eight minutes remaining in the game. Finding themselves in a hole for the first time all day, the Bears kept their cool, and Piroli found the equalizer with 5:40 to play. In the final five minutes, the Bears got off two shots, but Hurster’s attempt was saved, and DePeters missed wide.

In the overtime period, Round made an early save, but on the Bears’ next possession, Parker Brown’s shot was turned away as well. Harvard then took a timeout, and the play drawn up in the huddle led to the game-winner. With 2:19 to play in OT, Cohen was freed up by a screen and beat Round before being mobbed by his coaches and teammates in celebration of the win.

Tiffany said the loss hurts, but he stressed that the players cannot allow any doubt to enter their minds after losing a game in which “minutiae separated the two teams.”

Baseball

Bears washed to sea by Green Wave

By Lewis pollis Sports Staff Writer

It was a rough weekend in the Big Easy for the baseball team, as the winless Bears (0-7) were swept in a three-game away series against Tulane (14-6). The first game was the closest of the weekend as the Green Wave prevailed in the bottom of the ninth, but Bruno was outscored 34-8 in lopsided defeats in the final two games of the series.

The Bears scored early in game one when right fielder Will Marcal ’15 hit a solo home run to start the second inning and tie the game 1-1.

Bruno added four more runs before the sixth inning on RBI singles from first baseman Cody Slaughter ’13 and designated hitter Mike DiBiase ’12, as well as RBI groundouts from left fielder Matt DeRenzi ’14 and Marcal, to take a 5-1 lead.

But Tulane answered with five runs in the sixth inning and, after two scoreless frames, the Bears found themselves trailing 6-5 in the ninth inning. Down to their last out, Bruno loaded the bases and Marcal came through. Just two strikes away from defeat, the first-year hit a two-run single to give Bruno a 7-6 lead. But the lead did not last. In the bottom of the frame, Tulane tied the game with an RBI single before a basesloaded walk gave the Green Wave an 8-7 victory.

Head Coach Marek Drabinski said it was “an unbelievable game” despite some poor umpiring. Drab-

inski said both teams’ coaches agreed that the home plate umpire made a number of questionable calls on balls and strikes. After reviewing video from the game, Drabinski estimated that the umpire got “probably 40” pitch calls wrong.

Bruno got on the board early again in game two as Slaughter drove in center fielder John Sheridan ’13 in the first inning. But Tulane responded with a 10-run onslaught in the bottom of the first to bust the game open in the early going. The Bears scored again on Sheridan’s fifth-inning solo home run but could not keep up with the Green Wave, who won 20-2.

The Bears started strong in game three, scoring five runs in the first inning. Slaughter’s RBI single put Bruno on the board before catcher Wes Van Boom’s ’14 grand slam cleared the bases for a 5-0 lead. Tulane starting pitcher Alex Massey exited the game without recording an out.

But the Green Wave rallied and took the lead in the third inning 10-5.

The Bears scored again when second baseman J.J. Franco ’14 drove in a run in the fourth inning, but Tulane pitching kept Bruno’s bats quiet the rest of the way and the Bears fell 14-6.

“Saturday and Sunday were just bad games,” Drabinski said. “We just got very bad pitching.”

Despite being swept in the series, Drabinski said he was pleased with his team’s hitting. “I thought we swung the bats very well the whole

weekend,” he said, calling the series “a complete reversal” from the team’s set against Florida International University March 2-4. In that series, Drabinski said he was happy with the Bears’ pitching, but the offense failed to provide enough run support, averaging less than four runs a game.

Drabinski said he is making progress in setting his lineup for the conference season. Before the Bears’ first game, he had identified left field and right field as the two biggest non-pitching position battles, but DeRenzi and Marcal have likely earned the starting jobs as corner outfielders, he said.

The starting rotation is still unknown. Drabinski said Heath Mayo ’13 and Marcal have earned spots in the Bears’ conference rotation, but there are still five pitchers vying for the two remaining spots.

Drabinski said the mood of the team is still positive after the rough weekend, and the locker room is not discouraged about the slow start.

“Everybody on the team knows … we have a pretty good chance of being good,” he said.

The Bears will host the University of Maine Thursday before embarking on a lengthy road trip over spring break. Bruno will fly to the West Coast to take on Pacific University, Santa Clara University and San Jose State University before kicking off its conference schedule with Ivy doubleheaders at Penn March 31 and Columbia April 1.

Jesse Schwimmer / Herald

Nick Piroli ’15 moves to score in Bruno’s close loss to Harvard Saturday.

The Bears will have a busy spring break, travelling to Vermont (1-6) and No. 15 Duke (3-3) for a pair of non-conference bouts before returning home March 31 to take on No. 16 Princeton (4-2, 1-0) in an attempt to keep themselves in the Ivy hunt early in the season.

The biggest challenge for the team

will now be to recreate the intensity from Saturday’s Ivy game and bring it into the two upcoming non-conference matchups, Tiffany said.

“I challenged the men with this,” Tiffany said. “The intensity that we brought, the tenacity that we brought Saturday night — bring it to Burlington, Vermont Saturday at one o’clock.”

Early grad tracks confuse students By gadi cohen Staff Writer

Confusion persists among students about the two early graduation tracks the University offers, said Stephen Lassonde, deputy dean of the College. Almost all

campus news students who ask about the early graduation option are unaware that there are two different options, he said.

The accelerated graduation option has several marked differences from the advanced standing option, though both offer students the chance to graduate before their eighth semester.

Accelerated graduation requires students to pay the last semester’s worth of tuition to the University, whereas advanced standing does not.

Eligibility requirements for the two are also entirely different. To qualify for accelerated graduation, students need to demonstrate a strong academic record, curricular breadth and depth of study. Students who graduate early through advanced standing need to have earned three to six course credits of college-level

work before their first year at the University for every semester that they plan not to take.

“Many (Program in Liberal Medical Education) students take time off between graduation and the first year of medical school for a variety of reasons,” said Austin Ha ’11.5. “Taking advanced standing seemed like the perfect way to take advantage of the IB credits I accrued in high school and to free up some time for fun and my interests in entrepreneurship and research.”

Lassonde works with students who apply to the accelerated graduation track, but he refers students interested in advanced standing to Maitrayee Bhattacharyya, the associate dean of the college for diversity programs, who is also in charge of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate credits. Only one or two students seek the accelerated graduation option every year, according to Lassonde.

But Lassonde said students who apply for accelerated graduation often have similar reasons to graduate early. Students who want to start medical school in the spring term but lack the course credits, for example, often use the accelerated graduation option.