Thursday, March 22, 2012

Daily

Herald

the Brown

vol. cxxii, no. 40

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Since 1891

Gambino, the Glitch Mob to headline Spring Weekend Paxson meets

By Katherine Long Senior Staff Writer

In response to student demand for up-tempo electronic artists, the Brown Concert Agency announced a Spring Weekend lineup heavy on dance music today. Providence brass band What Cheer? Brigade and understated electronic duo Sepalcure will join Childish Gambino at the Friday performance April 20, while new wave synth outfit Twin Shadow and hip-hop golden child Cam’ron will open for the Glitch Mob Saturday.

Courtesy of the Windish Agency

DPS bill pulled prior to hearing

By Sona mkrttchian Senior Staff Writer

“I know we always say this, but this year more than ever we were just trying to make students happy,” said BCA Co-Chair Gillian Brassil ’12. “All the feedback we were hearing from students was, ‘We’re just down to dance.’’’

Childish Gambino was named one of seven acts students most wanted to see in a January poll conducted by BCA and the Undergraduate Council of Students.

Because he is performing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival the same weekend, many believed he would be unable to perform at Spring Weekend. He is still scheduled to perform at Coachella Sunday.

Three of the acts in the lineup — Sepalcure, Twin Shadow and the Glitch Mob — perform electronic music, reflecting “tons of student continued on page 4

continued on page 5

inside

continued on page 3

news....................2-6 CITY & State........7 A&C...................8-9 editorial............10 Opinions.............11

Students protest bookstore’s affiliations

By Adam Toobin Senior Staff Writer

A rare sight befell students and tour groups wandering the Main Green just after noon Thursday — 70 students lying head-to-foot protesting the Brown Bookstore’s alleged ties to vendors that use sweatshop labor. The students, whose bodies formed a line that almost spanned the length of the Green, said they were lying down to stand up for the rights of workers.

Chanting, “What’s disgusting?

Union busting. What’s outrageous?

Unfair wages,” and holding signs exhorting the University to “honor your promise” and “take sweatshops out of our bookstore,” the protest, affiliated with the Student Labor Alliance, drew the attention of students enjoying the day’s unseasonably warm weather.

The protesters called on the University to join the Designated

Editor’s Note

Suppliers Program, which would require vendors that sell to Brown to ensure their factories allow workers to unionize, pay living wages and, for at least three years, commit to operating factories that fit the first two stipulations, according to a handout.

“We’re standing in solidarity with the workers who make clothing for our bookstore here,” said Miriam Rollock ’15. “We benefit from their labor, and, if they’re being treated unfairly, we should do something about it.”

The University promised to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program as soon as it was certified by the Department of Justice, Mariela Martinez ’14 said.

In December, the program passed the review, “so we wanted to remind the University of its promise,” said Stephanie Medina ’14.

The Herald reported in 2009 that continued on page 3

The Herald will not be publishing Friday, March 23. Check browndailyherald.com for breaking news and look for the next issue on Monday, April 2.

Jenny Bloom / Herald

Students protest sweatshop labor during a lie-in on the Main Green.

Post-

knows secrets, shops drunk Post, Inside

weather

A bill that could have forced the Department of Public Safety to release names and personal information of students involved in campus crimes was withdrawn this month. Just one week before it was set to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. John Carnevale, D-Providence, withdrew the legislation after having tried twice to pass it. Most recently, the bill was passed by the Rhode Island House of Representatives last summer but never made it to a vote in the state Senate.

The legislation targeted private police forces in the state ­— like the one the University employs — in an attempt to subject these forces to the existing law on “access to public records.” Public records, as defined by the bill, include many kinds of written and recorded evidence relevant to criminal activity. If bound to comply with the established law, DPS would have been required to release such information pertaining to individuals, including students, associated with reported crimes on campus.

By Shefali Luthra News Editor

President-elect Christina Paxson made her first visit to the University this week since the announcement of her selection as the University’s 19th president March 2.

The visit, during which Paxson met with senior administrators and faculty members, marked her first step in learning more about the University, said Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, senior vice president for Corporation affairs and governance.

Paxson’s visit, which lasted from Saturday to Wednesday, consisted mostly of one-on-one meetings with senior staff, Carey said. Paxson also toured the John D. Rockefeller Library, the Sciences Library and the John Hay Library and visited the School of Engineering.

Paxson said she will likely visit one more time before Commencement, though the dates for a subsequent visit have not yet been finalized. On her next visit, she said, she hopes to meet more with student leaders on campus.

“It’s really part of an ongoing

Arts & Culture

BCA announced its Spring Weekend lineup today with Sepalcure (above) setting up Childish Gambino (right) Friday and the Glitch Mob (below) to headline Saturday.

with admins, faculty in first visit since selection

t o d ay

tomorrow

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2 Campus News

Online evaluations elicit mixed reactions

calendar Today

MARCH 22

5:30 P.m.

ToMORROW

MARCH 23

6 p.m.

“The Mindful Carnivore” Reading

MCM Cinematheque Screenings

Brown Bookstore

Modern Culture and Media 101

7 p.m.

6:30 p.m.

“No Woman No Cry” Film Screening

Spanish Reading by Joserra Ortiz

Wilson 101

John Hay Library

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Zucchini and Parmesan Sandwich, Garlic and Butter Infused Rice, Green Peas, Falafel in Pita Bread

Cavatini, Marinated Cucumbers, Vegan Italian White Beans, Cucumber Chickpea Salad

DINNER Cheese Tomato Strata, Oven Browned Potatoes, Beef Strips Shish Kabob, Fried Tortillas, Broccoli

Bourbon BBQ Chicken Quarters, Saffron Rice Pilaf, Cheese Souffle, Cajun Chicken Pasta

Sudoku

The Brown Daily Herald Thursday, March 22, 2012

By james williams Contributing Writer

The University has implemented several changes to its course evaluation system in the past few years, standardizing evaluation forms in 2006 and moving the system online in 2008. But students and professors remain conflicted about the accuracy and the efficiency of the current system.

Under the online system, evaluations are released during the last two weeks of the semester and can be filled out until final grades are released. The College Curriculum Council saw an 89 percent return rate last fall for online evaluations, which students have to fill out before they can see their final grades.

Compared to the old system — in which students filled out evaluation forms during their class periods — many students and professors see improvements in the new system.

Online evaluations are better in terms of efficiency and accuracy since the completion of the evaluation does not use class time, said Alon Galor ’15, adding that they give students more time and privacy to respond to each question.

But Jerome de Nijs ’15 said he preferred paper evaluations because they were distributed during class time, giving students incentive to fill them out because they did not

have to do it on their own time.

He added that the online system might cause a decrease in accuracy, since students may rush through the form in an effort to get to their final grades. He pointed out that students can submit the evaluation form without filling it out and still see their grades.

While Mehrdad Kiani ’15 said most students are as honest as possible, he said he feels it can be difficult to objectively evaluate the performance of the professor without taking into account factors such as grades, difficulty of recent exams and general feelings about the course material. For example, if a student found a recent exam particularly hard, that student might be more inclined to give the professor a harsher evaluation.

Professors generally approved of online evaluations, but some still hold some qualms about the efficacy and accuracy of responses.

Rachel Friedberg, senior lecturer in economics, said online evaluations are practical because there is no danger of losing them. But she voiced concerns that the evaluations’ length might encourage less thoughtful answers.

David Sobel, associate professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, said he likes the fact that the online evaluations do not take up class time, since that

time can instead be used for instruction. But he added that filling out the evaluations during class time might make them more accurate, since it is easier for students to recall details about the class in the same setting. The best method may be to use the online system but have students do it at the end of class, he said.

Online evaluations save time in the office that was formerly spent calculating and tabulating results, said Roberto Serrano, professor of economics and chair of the department. The online system has yielded comparable evaluations for professors as the former system did — professors who received high ratings previously are still receiving high ratings, he said. Serrano added that students provide longer and more thoughtful comments on the online system.

With improved feedback from students, professors have more constructive criticism available to them and are better able to address repeated concerns, Serrano said.

Improved responses are also important, as they present departments with a more comprehensive view of their professors. While having professors who are top researchers and leaders in their fields is important, Serrano said, so is having people who can competently explain things to students.

Lecturer teaches UCS how to communicate Crossword

By Margaret Nickens Senior Staff Writer

Barbara Tannenbaum, senior lecturer in theatre arts and performance studies, discussed effective communication skills with council members at Wednesday’s general body meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students.

She emphasized the balance between understanding one’s goal and audience, learning “how to specifically motivate (the audience), manipulate them, excite them.”

“Corporations pay me huge amounts of money to tell them this,” she said.

She also discussed each person’s “latitude of acceptance” and “latitude of rejection” using a rubber band analogy. This communication strategy involves determining how

Daily

the Brown

far you can push or “stretch” your audience, she said. People are generally less flexible when it comes to topics such as politics or religion, she added.

“What you need to do is move people gradually,” she said.

She also encouraged council members not to personalize opposition.

“People can disagree with our ideas,” she said. “It doesn’t mean they don’t like us.”

After her lecture, Michael Schneider ’13, chair of the campus life committee, announced a new project to improve heating in the Sciences Library.

“It’s been a constant problem the entire time I’ve been at Brown,” he said.

The council also submitted a statement to Provost Mark Schlissel

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P’15 calling for increased student representation on the University Resources Committee, said Todd Harris ’14, chair of the academic and administrative affairs committee.

Holly Hunt ’13, a member of the admissions and student services committee, announced upcoming changes to Morning Mail. The changes, which will be implemented over the summer, will include linking event titles to their descriptions as well as organizing events and announcements according to type.

President Ruth Simmons will be attending the April 11 council meeting. Katherine Bergeron, dean of the college, and Andrew Simmons, director of the CareerLAB, will be attending the April 25 meeting, said UCS President Ralanda Nelson ’12.

Campus News 3

The Brown Daily Herald Thursday, March 22, 2012

DPS in compliance with federal standards continued from page 1

But DPS already releases extensive information to both the Brown community and Providence about crimes that occur under its jurisdiction, said Mark Porter, chief of police and director of public safety.

Carnevale declined to comment on the bill and could not be reached for comment on why he chose to withdraw it.

The University opposed the bill each time it was introduced.

“We think current law and practice are sufficient to ensure our goal of public safety, so we think this legislation is unwarranted,” said Albert Dahlberg, director of state and community relations.

Porter said DPS functions in accordance with the Clery Act, a federal law that requires colleges and universities that receive or distribute federal financial aid to disclose information about crime on their campuses.

Under the act, schools must release annual security reports, maintain crime logs, issue crime alerts and compile crime statistics. DPS fulfills all these requirements, Porter said. The department maintains a system of alerts for when the campus faces “continuous threats,” such as this semester’s wave of robberies, he said. DPS emails crime alerts to students and also posts them on the department website for the wider community to see, he said. He added that the website includes much of the information mandated by the Clery Act, including incidents up to a year old.

DPS works closely with the Providence Police Department, Porter said. “Our command staff meets with their command staff on a weekly basis,” he said. “They could request information at any time.”

Currently, there is certain information DPS does not release to the public — most notably, the names and personal information of reported

Bookstore-FLA ties prompt student lie-in continued from page 1

Herald file photo

The bill took aim at DPS’ right not to release the names of reported criminals.

criminals. There is no federal or state mandate in place requiring DPS to release such information, Porter said.

Releasing police reports with such information in compliance with Carnevale’s legislation could have interfered with DPS’ investigative procedures, he said.

“I can’t think of any colleges that release names,” he added.

The department must consider the privacy issues that could arise if the policy were changed, he said.

State Rep. Raymond Hull, DProvidence, a co-sponsor of the bill, said he recognizes the University’s need to keep certain information private but advocated greater transparency.

The bill did not have the support of some local legislators, such as state Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence, who represents the district that includes the University. Ajello said she thought the bill was unlikely to pass because Carnevale had previously

struggled to gain support for it on the Senate side.

State Sen. Rhoda Perry P’91, DProvidence, whom Carnevale approached two years ago when he first introduced the bill, told The Herald last semester she did not see a reason for the bill. When Carnevale asked if she was interested in supporting it, “I told him absolutely no, until I talk to the Brown community,” said Perry, who represents Brown’s district on the Senate side. “He didn’t find anyone on this side,” she said.

Ajello pointed out that Carnevale does not represent constituents who would be directly affected by criminal activity at Brown.

“There could be a logic for me, as a representative for the district that includes Brown, to introduce this legislation,” Ajello said. “But none of my constituents have asked me to do so.”

— With additional reporting by Lucy Feldman

the University had taken steps toward adopting the program.

The University reportedly expressed keen interest in joining the Designated Suppliers Program in a meeting between protest organizers and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Beppie Huidekoper. University officials have spoken with the Workers Rights Consortium and are working with vendors as well as the Designated Suppliers Program.

Medina said the University has often positioned itself as a leader among its peer institutions in prioritizing the rights of workers and should not stop now.

“The protest wasn’t antagonistic towards Brown,” she said. “It was just another way to engage the community.”

Currently, the Brown Bookstore employs the Fair Labor Association to monitor the factories that produce the store’s wares.

Protesters criticized the association, calling it complicit in permitting sweatshop labor. “Many of those who run the (association) also preside on the boards of the companies they claim to monitor,” the group’s handout read.

While Martinez was visiting factories in Honduras and El

Salvador, one of the workers she spoke to called the association “a mass facade,” she said.

The Fair Labor Association has not done enough to confront the Chinese electronics manufacturer FoxConn, which runs facilities where many Apple products are produced, for their failure to confront “mass worker suicides,” Medina said. Calling the relationship between the University and the association “unsavory,” the group advocated disaffiliating with the association.

Director of the Brown Bookstore Steven Souza defended the store’s affiliation with the Fair Labor Association in a letter to The Herald Monday. “The Brown Bookstore has received no complaints of unfair labor practices from the Fair Labor Association, Worker Rights Consortium or Licensing Resource Group regarding any vendors who furnish Brown-licensed apparel,” Souza wrote.

Souza also wrote that the bookstore maintains strict regulations through its Vendor Code of Conduct, with which all of the store’s vendors must comply. “The Brown Bookstore has refused to carry merchandise from suppliers who insist on exemptions from provisions of the University’s Vendor Code of Conduct,” he wrote.

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4 Campus News

The Brown Daily Herald Thursday, March 22, 2012

Conflict of interest policy Security app undergoes ‘cosmetic change’ shifts responsibility to U.

By Alison Silver Senior Staff Writer

The University recently revised its policy for faculty reporting research funding in conjunction with an updated National Institutes of Health conflict of interest regulations. The NIH rule revisions are in response to past problems involving researchers using federal funds for work that impacted companies they were personally involved in, said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15.

The NIH now requires researchers to report all significant financial interests relating to their institutional responsibilities, according to the NIH website. The revised rules now define significant financial interest as $5,000, down from $10,000.

“People do have conflicts of interest, and it’s not the end of the world,” said Janet Blume, associate dean of the faculty. All Brown professors are required to file a conflict of interest form with the University every year, now listing potential conflicts of interest amounting to $5,000 or more.

“The University is obligated to look at these potential conflicts and work with the faculty to figure out if they’re real conflicts,” Schlissel said. The main effect of the change is the new rules now place the burden on the University to ask faculty whether a conflict of interest may exist, whereas under the old NIH rules, reporting potential conflicts was the faculty’s obligation, he said.

The University’s new rules were explained at the last meeting of the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, in February, though Brown’s current conflict of interest policy will remain in effect until Aug. 24.

“The faculty realize that it’s very important that we maintain trustworthiness in the eyes of the public,” Schlissel said.

The changed rules should not affect research at Brown, wrote Clyde Briant, vice president for research, in an email to The Herald.

Professor of Economics Ross Levine offered an example of the complexities of conflict of interest in research funding. Levine received a $30,000 grant from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation for research he is conducting on changes in competitive banking policies in 2009.

The Koch brothers, founders of a group of charities that have given hundreds of millions of dollars to conservative organizations and causes, contacted Levine around 2006 after visiting campus, Levine said. They expressed interest in his research, which seeks to understand implications of increased competition among banks in the 1970s and 80s in terms of eco-

nomic growth, distribution of income and racial discrimination, he said.

Levine said he was not familiar with the Koch brothers or their foundation when he accepted the grant money. He said he only learned about their political affiliations after reading an article in the New Yorker about them that caused him concern. “To me, the most important thing about research is that I just answer a question to the best of my abilities,” he said. “I’m very wary of accepting money that might put into question that objectivity.”

The grant was offered under terms that stated there would be no “quid pro quo” expected from Levine, he said.

None of the money from the Koch brothers is personally benefiting Levine, he said. The money has been allocated to hiring research assistants through an account Brown set up for Levine’s research. Levine has also used funding from several other sources to hire graduate and undergraduate students to assist on the same research, he said.

The Koch brothers have invited Levine to give presentations for their foundation. But “I would never accept to go talk to them or accept an honorarium if I thought it was going to question the objectivity of my research,” he said.

Levine said he is “uncomfortable” with the fact he did not know about the Koch brothers’ politics before accepting their grant. “I wish this wasn’t the case,” he said.

He said he acknowledges the Koch brothers as a funding source on all papers related to the research, because “it’s the reality.”

At the same time, he said he recognizes the complexity of questions surrounding the ethics of accepting funds from outside sources. “I can’t be responsible for screening all of the money that comes to Brown that somehow affects my research, because it comes from such a huge number of sources,” he said.

Levine added that the American Economic Association also recently adopted new guidelines about disclosing funding sources that pose a potential conflict of interest, which he finds to be helpful.

Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences Steven Sloman, who received a couple hundred thousand dollars from a consumer goods company for his causal reasoning research, said he supports the University’s new conflict of interest guidelines.

“My sense is that the most important thing to the University is that we’re very public and open about where our funding comes from and also about what research we’re doing.”

www.browndailyherald.com

By Kris Kelkar Contributing Writer

The Department of Public Safety recently renamed Rave Guardian, a mobile phone security application, to Brown Guardian. The change, which did not include any updates or new features, was intended to “personalize the service” for users within the Brown community, said Mark Porter, chief of police and director of public safety.

The renaming “really was just a simple cosmetic change,” said Michelle Nuey, the community relations and outreach manager of public safety.

The application currently has more than 1,000 registered users, Nuey said, adding that the application can be useful for both its users and DPS officers. If users walk home alone at night, they just need to pull out their phones, plug in the start and end points of the journey and allot a reasonable amount of time to reach their destinations, she said. Upon arriving, users can turn off the alarm before the time runs out. If the user arrives safely, DPS will not know the application was used.

If the timer runs out, an alert is sent to DPS, along with a profile filled out by the user including information volunteered such as a picture, an address and medical information that DPS officers should be aware of in the case of an emergency. Nuey said users need not worry DPS can always access this information.

“Alarms are rare and most often come in due to users simply forgetting to deactivate,” Nuey said. Sarah Hosokawa ’15 is a registered user of the application who stopped using it after her first trial. “I was glad I did it, but it felt really inconvenient, especially turning it off once I got back,” she said. Hosokawa said she would prefer to simply make sure she does not walk alone.

While Jared Burgess ’14, who

Rachel A. Kaplan / Herald

DPS’ smartphone security application changed its name to Brown Guardian.

works the closing shift at the Gate and crosses campus after 2 a.m., said he would not use the application himself, he speculated that for students who would be comforted by the application, other safety services like Safewalk and SafeRide are more effective.

Unlike other safety services on campus, Brown Guardian “doesn’t have the added benefit of deterrence,” Jerrica Rodrgiuez ’13 said.

Nuey said the app’s service extends to areas outside of campus to the greater Providence area. Suzan Scavone ’12 said she thought the app would be useful to those who live far off campus. But though she lives in off-campus

housing, she has not ever considered using the application.

Providence College does not provide its students with such an application.

Many students said they believed that while they would not take the time to use the application, it would be useful in a lifeor-death situation.

The software is also used at American University, Penn and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, among others.

To register for Brown Guardian, students can go to the DPS website, where they can click a link to register and fill out a profile.

BCA lineup focuses on dance music continued from page 1 demand for a big, well-known DJ,” Brassil said.

But such DJs “can pull hundreds of thousands of dollars performing at clubs in Europe,” Brassil said. BCA’s budget was slashed by 17 percent this year from $180,000 to $150,000.

Brassil said the budget cut had unintended positive consequences.

“There’s a whole range of artists we couldn’t even look at, who, if we’d had $20,000 to $30,000 more, would have been real possibilities,” she said. “But this forced us to look for really solid main acts, rather than go after potentially alienating big names.”

As always, timing posed problems for the concert agency, which is forced to hold Spring Weekend on the same weekend as Coachella due to the proximity of spring break, final exams and Passover. “(Coachella’s) lineup is always

amazing, but it almost became funny how many times we were talking to an artist and they were like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m going to be at Coachella,’” Brassil said. They were able to book Childish Gambino to play Friday night only because he is scheduled to perform at Coachella Sunday.

The concert agency is also taking extra precautions this year to ensure that the shows are held outdoors on the Green if at all possible.

Concerns about lightning prevent them from erecting large tents, but agency members have found other solutions to the problem of inclement weather.

“We’re literally ordering 6,000 plastic ponchos,” Brassil said.

One major difference between this year and last year’s lineups is the absence of a student band. Since the agency now organizes Speakeasy Sessions — small concerts featuring student bands — it did not feel the need to feature a student group at Spring Weekend this year, said BCA

Co-Chair Sandy Ryza ’12.

The agency is also experimenting with making its decision process more transparent to students who have had “no institutionalized way to respond to the lineup” in the past, Ryza said. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, members of BCA will man a table on the Green to respond to student comments about the lineup and other questions about Spring Weekend.

“We’re trying to be more human … more transparent, more accessible,” said Public Relations Chair Emma Ramadan ’13. “The goal is to have people understand what’s behind the lineup.”

BCA will release 1,500 tickets for each concert on April 4 and 5 on the Brown Student Agencies website.

Weather permitting, both concerts will be held on the Green, and BCA will sell 2,500 more tickets either when the first batch sells out or on April 10, whichever comes first.

Campus News 5

The Brown Daily Herald Thursday, March 22, 2012

Library workers unhappy with payroll shift

By ROBERT WEBBER Contributing Writer

The union of library workers may file a grievance against the University, citing its failure to negotiate upcoming payroll changes, said Karen McAninch ’74, business agent for the United Service and Allied Workers union, which represents custodial and library employees of the University.

The University will change the way it pays 700 of its employees in mid-July, converting its semimonthly pay schedule into a biweekly pay schedule. Instead of receiving their checks on the 15th and the last working day of each month, workers will receive pay every other Friday. This biweekly system means that workers are not guaranteed to be paid by the last day of the month, when rent and utilities are typically due, McAninch said.

For example, when the changes go into effect in July, employees will receive one check instead of two, due to the lag created by the change.

“I already (have) a dangerously low balance,” said Marie Malchodi, a library technical assistant. “I’m married to a musician with two children.”

McAninch and other representatives of the library workers’ union met with the administration Tues-

day to protest the payroll changes.

They requested two weeks extra pay to ease workers through the payroll transition. This would add up to $1 million in University costs, McAninch said.

The administration has offered one week’s advance to help staff with the payroll transition.

The new biweekly system “provides the University with an opportunity to improve our payroll practices,” wrote Karen Davis, vice president for human resources, in an email to The Herald. “Our current practice of paying these employees for time ‘projected’ to be worked through the end of a pay period may not provide an accurate reflection of total hours worked, including overtime hours, that the University may owe to an employee, or time not worked, which can then result in an overpayment.”

The University is changing its payroll schedule because the old schedule cannot be supported by Payroll, the new administrative software, according to the University’s workday project website.

The software will provide several benefits — workers will be able to view their financial information electronically, and administrators can electronically log the number of hours individuals work, eliminating the need for paper timesheets,

according to the website.

“They don’t even have the desire to negotiate,” said Patricia Dumin, senior library specialist for digital technologies, who attended the meeting Tuesday. Currently, the union is deciding whether to file a grievance or an unfair labor practice against the University, legal actions that could force the administration to come to the bargaining table.

The change to biweekly pay will affect library workers, secretaries, graduate students and other general staff.

While the union has protested the upcoming payroll changes, non-union workers have remained silent. “I don’t think the other nonunionized staff who are going to be affected by this are necessarily aware,” Malchodi said.

The library workers’ union has a history of conflicts with the University. Employees went two years without a contract in 2002, and students marched in support of library workers when the University proposed a hike in health care premiums in 2010.

Union membership has declined 30 percent in recent years, McAninch said. The University has been hiring non-union staff, who receive their checks on a monthly basis and do not receive overtime pay, she added.

Lotta, Loury debate economic systems

By Sinclair Target Contributing Writer

Socialism and capitalism — the two major economic systems pitted against each other during the Cold War — returned to center stage in a Janus Forum debate last night. An audience of about 80 people gathered to listen as Raymond Lotta, political economist and writer for the journal, Revolution, the self-described voice of the U.S. communist party, advocated socialism, while Glenn Loury, professor of economics, made the case for capitalism.

Speaking first, Lotta characterized “our current capitalist world” as one of unjust wars, imperial conflicts, discrimination and environmental degradation. He said capitalism has three rules — commodify everything, expand or die and achieve global dominance. “It’s an anarchic system that lunges us into crisis,” he said.

“We need a revolution to break the stranglehold,” Lotta said. “Never before has the potential existed for change as much as now.”

Lotta had with him a draft constitution for a “New Socialist Republic in North America,” put forward by the Revolutionary Communist Party. He said the revolution should be based on the “new synthesis of communism” advocated by RCP Chairman Bob Avakian, adding he wanted the audience to see past their preconceptions.

“Okay, I said it, the word ‘communism,’” Lotta said. “Many of you are thinking, ‘robotification and tyranny,’ but people think that because they’ve been lied to.” He

Rachel A. Kaplan / Herald

Economist Raymond Lotta advocated socialist revolution at last night’s debate.

said a new socialist state would be better able to overcome divisions of class and ethnicity and protect the planet’s ecosystems.

“The kind of society I’m talking about is not a utopia,” Lotta said, concluding his argument.

Loury criticized Lotta’s argument for its numerous “non sequiturs.” He argued that though Lotta identified several flaws with capitalism, socialism is not necessarily the solution. “He has a problem, and that problem is history,” Loury said.

“You have to think about the eradication of poverty, the massive expansion in standards of living, which billions of people on this planet have been able to enjoy,” Loury said. People who have left socialist countries for capitalist countries have “voted with their feet,” he said. “Let’s just say the socialist societies never had an illegal immigration problem.”

Loury also argued that central planning on a large scale is not

practical. “Coordinating the actions of hundreds of millions of individuals, each with their own agendas and idiosyncratic information, is a massive coordination problem,” he said. “It is solved by markets, private property and selfinterest. All (Lotta) has to offer us is a dream.”

The debate was followed by a question and answer session that lasted over an hour. Members of the audience asked Lotta and Loury about prison overcrowding, criminal trials, human psychology and communist history.

When asked about the financial crisis of 2008, Loury called it a “very bad show all around.” The finance sector should not have been able to extort money from the rest of the country, he said. Lotta said the housing market typified capitalist irrationalism, arguing that basic human needs such as houses should not be commodified and “made the object of investment and speculation.”

Frank Mullin / Brown University

Christina Paxson’s campus visit included a stop at the School of Engineering.

Paxson’s visit marks start of ‘ongoing process’ continued from page 1 process,” said Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations.

Meeting with senior administrative staff and academic administrators was “a very important part of the visit,” Paxson said, adding that she was not able to do so fully when she was named.

“These are people whom I’m going to be working with on a dayto-day basis,” she said.

During her visit, Paxson also had dinner with the Faculty Executive Committee, the steering committee for faculty issues, which she called “a really important group.”

“Brown is a campus where the faculty are quite engaged, and they have a large role in governance, so it’s important for me to learn about that and understand and appreciate it,” she said.

Paxson said she also had a chance to discuss general academic priorities with the administrative staff, though “nothing concrete” was established.

“These are the very first conversations you have with people that are going to continue and deepen over a period of time,” she said.

The conversations involved the ongoing initiative to establish a school of public health, Paxson said. Though she said the Corporation has not made a decision on the impending proposal, the discussion was a “good chance” to catch up on ongoing discussions.

Paxson also expressed interest in engineering, noting that “it’s clear they’ve had a lot of growth, but they’re very tight on space.”

While visiting, Paxson spoke with Steven King ’91, senior vice president for University advancement, about potential fundraising campaigns in the context of the

University’s upcoming 250th anniversary.

“These were very general first conversations,” Paxson said.

“When I start in July, it will really be time to start in earnest to see what are the main priorities for the coming year.”

Loan-free aid ­— an area Paxson has previously discussed — was not a specific topic, but Paxson said that “doesn’t mean it wasn’t really important.”

After meeting with senior administrators, Paxson said it is “too early to tell” whether she will bring in new staff or in any way revise the administrative structure. But she said she was impressed by the quality of the administrators she met.

“I’m not prepared to make large or swift changes until I really see a need to do that,” she said.

The visit was also a chance for Paxson and her 14-year-old son to become better acquainted with the University, she said. Paxson’s son came with her for the first two days of the trip so he could learn about Brown as a campus and a community.

“We walked all over campus, and he really liked it,” she said.

Carey said Paxson and President Ruth Simmons are “spending a lot of time together,” which he said is important in facilitating a smooth transition. During Paxson’s visit, the University briefed Paxson on ongoing projects at Brown, and Simmons hosted a reception for Paxson with members of the University senior staff.

Carey’s office is coordinating the logistics of the presidential transition, which Quinn said helps the University “provide an initial perspective” while other administrators look to Paxson’s longerterm plans.

6 Campus News

The Brown Daily Herald Thursday, March 22, 2012

Proposed executive master’s program would diversify revenue streams

By Alexandra Macfarlane Senior Staff Writer

Faculty members are either undecided or in support of a proposal to implement an executive master’s program in public health by fall 2012, according to multiple faculty members. They will vote on the proposal at the April 3 faculty meeting, said Peter Shank, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee and professor of medical science.

The program up for vote looks to teach mid-career professionals about the changing United States health care system, uniting both current faculty members and professionals from the health care field.

Faculty members have voiced no strong objections to the program, though the potential for debate at the meeting is difficult to forecast, Shank said.

Despite the lack of strong challenges to the program, it has been

discussed vigorously among faculty members, said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15. In the year since the program was first proposed, the administration has listened to faculty debate the issue in a number of different venues, he said, adding that most faculty members are concerned the program may present distractions from the regular responsibilities of teaching.

“It is important that the quality of the program be up to the standards of Brown,” Schlissel said. “The quality and caliber of students must be just as high.”

Joan Richards, professor of history, who served on the graduate council that discussed the program, called it “a leap into the dark for Brown.” She added that the experimental nature of the program will decide the future of this and other possible master’s programs.

Because the program is an experiment, the University will

establish a group to review the program after three years, Richards said, adding that even if the program is approved by faculty it is not a “done deal.”

Richards described the program as an effort to reach a group of professionals out there who may be searching for this kind of program.

The proposed executive master’s program is “a great way to complement what’s already going on at Brown,” said Thomas Doeppner, associate professor of computer science who served on the committee that first investigated the master’s programs.

Despite this, Doeppner said the program will only work if it is a first-rate program. “We don’t want to tarnish the Brown name,” he said.

As a leader in his department, Doeppner said he has not heard any strong objections to the proposed program from computer

science faculty members. Based on the consensus following previous faculty forums on the issue, Doeppner said he does not think the vote on the program in April “will be that hotly contested.”

“Change is always hard,” said Barrett Hazeltine, professor emeritus of engineering. This program will not take away from the current undergraduate education, but will “open new directions and areas,” he said.

The university-college model — a cornerstone of the University’s mission statement — is supposed to include professors who teach both undergraduate and graduate students, Hazeltine said. “I think it’s a good idea,” he said of the program. “This is an area of intellectual work that is interesting and attractive to many students.”

Other institutions such as Harvard have top-notch programs similar to the proposed execu-

tive master’s program, said Harold Roth, professor of religious studies. “I think it has the potential to bring new revenue streams into Brown,” he said. It is important to diversify revenue sources from time to time, but new revenue streams must be complemented by high academic standards, he added. The program “looks promising,” Roth said, though he is suspending full judgment until he hears all the facts in the faculty meeting in April.

“My view is, ‘Let’s try it,’” wrote James Baird, professor emeritus of chemistry, in an email to The Herald. The program would help recruit graduate students “in a better way and be aimed at a different cohort” than existing programs target, he wrote. Students in Ph.D. programs are paid to participate in their programs, while master’s students pay the University and benefit from academic services, he wrote.

Legislation would decriminalize marijuana in R.I. By kate nussenbaum Senior Staff Writer

Around 15 supporters and one lone dissenter provided testimony on two bills regarding the legality of marijuana possession at a House Committee on Judiciary hearing last night. The first bill, introduced

by Rep. John Edwards, D-Tiverton and Portsmouth, would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of cannabis. The second bill, introduced by Rep. Edith Ajello, DProvidence, would make marijuana a legal drug that could be “taxed and regulated.” This is the third year in a row the decriminalization bill has been brought before the committee.

Edwards said decriminalizing marijuana would save the state between $4 million and $11 million, remove the social stigma of being arrested for what many consider a minor offense and provide regional consistency across New England.

Marijuana is currently decriminalized in every New England state except Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont, which also have decriminalization bills pending.

If the decriminalization legislation passes, adults found with one ounce or less of the drug would incur a $150 fine but would no longer face jail time. Fourteen states have passed similar legislation, and “none have imploded,” Edwards said.

Casey O’Dea ’14 and Jared Moffat ’13, members of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, attended the hearing to testify in favor of the bill.

Moffat is a Herald opinions editor.

Current laws regarding marijuana are ineffective, O’Dea told The Herald. There is no evidence that suggests decriminalization leads

to higher use rates, and half the revenue generated from the new fines would help fund programs to educate minors about drug use, he said.

Kathleen Sullivan, director of the BAY Team, Barrington’s drug prevention coalition, was the sole opponent of the proposed legislation to testify at the hearing. She said she was concerned about the drug’s short- and long-term risks, especially for young people. Decriminalizing marijuana may alter how young people perceive it, she said. “When their perception of harm goes down, over time, use rates go up,” she said.

Not enough time has passed to accurately measure the effects of the drug’s decriminalization in other states, Sullivan said. Marijuana may “diminish” students’ academic potential, she added. “What is our workforce going to look like in the future?”

Both Sullivan and Rep. Doreen Costa, D-Exeter and North Kingstown, said they were concerned that decriminalization could lead to increased cases of driving under the influence.

Many Rhode Island residents — including students, parents and law enforcement workers — testified in favor of the bill. The current law is “perceived as a tremendous waste of time and resources,” said Bev Commery, who has been a patrol officer in Providence since 1976.

The time police spent enforcing marijuana prohibition in 2007 was equivalent to nearly 1,000 eighthour shifts, said Jack Cole, a retired Rhode Island police lieutenant.

More than 40 percent of the court’s time is spent dealing with marijuana charges, despite the fact that “most people incarcerated for

marijuana are generally not associated with violent crime,” said Becky Marin, a representative from OpenDoors, a Rhode Island organization that offers support to those who have been incarcerated.

Proponents of the bill also asserted that the current law is discriminatory. College students and people who live in affluent communities are never targeted, Commery said.

Minority communities are currently “hit the hardest” by the state’s marijuana policy, said Robert Capecchi, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group for marijuana policy reform. Blacks and Hispanics are 1.6 times more likely to face arrest and 8 times more likely to be sent to jail for the same act as their white counterparts. Those with criminal records cannot receive financial aid and student loans, live in public housing or hold publicsector jobs, he said.

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Herald that public officials, including President Obama, have admitted to smoking marijuana and violating this law. “Its time has come,” he said.

Many of the same supporters testified in favor of Ajello’s legalization bill, though they were less hopeful that it would pass this year.

Capecchi said regulating and taxing the sale of marijuana could be an “incredible financial boon” for the state.

Peter Hammond, a Rhode Island resident, said, “If you ask the people in Woonsocket right now if they want to raise taxes or sell a little marijuana, what would they want to do?”

Herald file photo

At a hearing last night, a bill to decriminalize marijuana was introduced.

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City & State 7

The Brown Daily Herald Thursday, March 22, 2012

Recovery program seeks to revamp local businesses

By Adam toobin Senior Staff Writer

One committed Rhode Islander has been working for the past two years to help small businesses combat difficult economic times.

The Rhode Island Small Business Recovery Program, an organization founded in 2011 to provide mentorship and advice to small businesses rebounding from the recent recession, is continuing its support this month by offering such businesses 15 free educational seminars in Warwick. As a Rhode Island native, founder David Nash said he wants to help the state by ensuring entrepreneurs have the tools they need to keep up in a competitive market.

Funded by a few private sector companies, the program reached 2,400 budding entrepreneurs last year by organizing seminars held by local business owners. This month’s seminars have attracted a total of 347 attendees.

The seminars include “Pricing for Profits,” a class designed to teach entrepreneurs how to maximize profits by determining the most appropriate prices for their services. The program will also host an event entitled “Speed Mentoring,” where eight participants have a chance to spend eight minutes with eight business consultants.

Stephanie Osborn, a founder of Tech Smart Friend, a company that advises clients on how to use social media, has been a consultant in previous speed mentoring events. Her expertise gives the participants an opportunity to ask about uses of social media, as well as general advice on starting a small business, she said.

Osborn attended the free seminars before she became a teacher, and she attended a seminar that Nash led before he began the recovery program, she said. Her relationship with Nash and the free seminars have influenced her to

Higher ed ne ws roundup

help out now, she added.

Nash retired from the Central Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce in 2001 and said he uses the connections and expertise he developed during his tenure there to build effective seminars. This month’s seminars are being held in conjunction with the Warwick Chamber of Commerce. Nash has worked with the Washington County Chamber of Commerce as well as the East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce to organize seminars.

Now that the program has been around for a few years, cities and towns throughout Rhode Island have started to request seminars in their towns, Nash said. The recovery program usually meets all the requests they receive, he said. Nash said he usually requires a town’s chamber of commerce to mail information about the seminars to every local commercial entity.

Nash said seminar leaders volunteering their time to his orga-

by K ate Nussenbaum senior staff writer

nization show their commitment to furthering entrepreneurship in the state. “We all have a role, and we’re playing our role in helping new and existing entrepreneurs grow and thrive,” he said.

Bob Salvas, who runs a small business that advises companies on how to spend their advertising dollars wisely, has run two seminars over the past two years for the program. “Rhode Island has had a reputation of being a tough place to do business — whether from its tax structure or all the regulations,” Salvas said. “We want Rhode Islanders to stay in the state. We want to help them be more successful.”

“I volunteer because I want to see small businesses succeed. It’s a tough economy here in Rhode Island. It’s very difficult for small businesses to thrive,” Osborn said.

Nash said he is confident the seminars are having a positive effect on the Rhode Island economy.

“Rhode Island created 6,000 new

businesses last year, according to the secretary of state. We contributed to that,” he added.

The program also sponsors a Mastermind group — a collection of individuals working on startups who gather every month to ask for help and give each other advice.

The program attracts those who are “just starting out or had been in business but hadn’t gotten off the ground,” said Osborn, who also facilitates the project. Though the group has only met once, Osborn said she was excited to see a diverse range of age and experience in the people attending the session.

Dwight McDonald, a former small business owner, said he hopes to use the advice of people in the group to jump-start his second shot at entrepreneurship.

“There is such diversity of people, we can’t help but learn from each other,” he said. “I want them to tell me what I can do better, tell me if I’m on track or tell me if my idea won’t work.”

Today in University History: March 22

by Sona Mkrttchian senior staff writer

Army SROTC returns to Harvard Harvard will financially support student participation in the army Senior Reserve Officer Training Corps program, the university announced yesterday, according to the Harvard Crimson. Harvard allowed the Naval ROTC back on its campus six months ago.

The repeal of the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy catalyzed the decision, the Crimson reported. Harvard has not allowed SROTC to have a “formal presence on campus” since the Vietnam War, according to Boston.com.

“This is a welcome step in the long and distinguished history of military service by members of the Harvard community,” Harvard President Drew Faust said in a statement.

Harvard students will still participate in the program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but Harvard will give them access to classrooms and fields on their campus, Boston.com reported.

“The Army welcomes the opportunity to expand its presence on the Harvard campus,” Major General Mark McDonald, commander of the US Army Cadet Command, said in a statement.

Number of LSAT-takers drops The number of LSAT exams taken dropped over 16 percent this year, according to the Law School Admission Council. The decrease is the largest in over 10 years.

The number of tests administered reflects a 24 percent drop since its peak in popularity in the 2009-10 school year, according to the Council.

The drop in exam-takers reflects a general loss of interest in law school, according to the Atlantic. Last year’s incoming law school class was the smallest since 2002, the Atlantic reported.

The smaller number of students interested in law school is due to the grim prospects for young lawyers entering the work force, according to an article published in the New York Times. Graduating law school is no longer a guarantee of financial security, and many students are realizing the high cost of law school tuition may not be worth it, the Times reported.

“The idea that law school is an easy ticket to financial security is finally breaking down,” Kyle McEntee of Law School Transparency, a legal education policy organization, told the New York Times.

Lawmakers review X-rated Films In 1973, Providence was criticized as “the only city in the state actively censoring films independently” after legislators proposed a $40 fee for each day an X-rated film was shown at a theater. The fee was suggested to fund “the expense of viewing films and deciding whether they should be shown.” Critics — like John Berberian, manager of the Columbus Theater and Studio Cinema — suggested that the proposed legislation was in violation of the 1965 Supreme Court decision prohibiting film censorship.

Wriston basements closed off In 1991, following Wriston dorm inspections by the Providence Fire Marshal, “basement social areas in fraternities, sororities and social dorms” were determined to be unsafe for parties. The Fire Marshal said the basements did not comply with fire safety codes and recommended that student organizations use them as storage space instead. Many of the fraternities had bars in their basement spaces and were caught off guard by the decision, as it came immediately after students had returned from spring break. The Office of Residential Life locked the areas off to prevent students from accessing the areas unlawfully.

Christian student groups fail to win appeal

Banner introduced

A Christian fraternity and sorority at San Diego State University lost their Supreme Court appeal for official recognition by the university, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The student groups would only accept members with Christian beliefs, violating the school’s policy against such membership restrictions, the Chronicle reported.

The fraternity and sorority are not eligible for university funding and cannot use the school name or mascot to advertise their groups, according to the Washington Post.

The groups believed their first amendment rights were being violated, but the Supreme Court refused to change the decision it made in 2010 that stated schools could refuse to recognize organizations that were exclusive on religious grounds.

“The university did not tell the Democratic club it must be led by a Republican, or the vegetarian club it must be led by a meat-eater, but it did tell Christian groups that they must allow themselves to be led by atheists,” David Cortman, a lawyer for the religious groups, said Monday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“They’re perfectly free to express their views and associate” with each other in campus buildings, said David Blair-Loy, an attorney who supported the University in the lower courts, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “They just don’t have the right to get government money to do it.”

In 2006, The University prepared the student body for the implementation of a new online registration service, which reportedly cost more than $20 million to develop. At the time, Brown was the only Ivy League institution that was not offering a “form of online registration.” With the transition to Banner, Brown followed in the footsteps of its peers, Yale and Dartmouth. Banner replaced a system that was 20 years old at the time and consolidated many other University services along with registration.

8 Arts & Culture Mythic plays leave audiences spellbound By katherine long Senior Staff Writer

The Techno-Mythologies Project — two plays written and directed by Ioana Jucan ’11 GS and Robert Snyderman GS — is overwhelmingly dense with meaning. To break through the plays’ idiosyncrasies and begin to comprehend what Jucan and Snyderman are trying to evoke, you might want to do a little preplay research.

Despite, or perhaps because of this complexity, both pieces possess remarkable staying power.

They stick in the mind, recalling themselves in the days and hours after a showing.

“I’m still trying to grasp whatever I can,” said Alexandra Papoutsaki GS in the shell-shocked silence as audience members emptied from Tuesday’s showing of Jucan’s “The Deaths of Pan.” “What I really liked was that two people were the same person at the same time … or were they?”

“We’re trying to understand,” interrupted Paul Berg, laughing.

“The play evoked this ephemeral feeling, like you can never be sure if what you’re feeling is what you’re supposed to be feeling or if it’s just going to be snatched away,” Yuri Malitsky GS added.

“Scenes were inconclusive. … It was about trying to connect with the individual while not being able to. … It was a whirlwind.”

A whirlwind — or maybe a panic, a word whose namesake is Pan, the satyr god of the wilderness, shepherds and hunting in Greek mythology. In one myth, after the nymph Echo refused Pan’s advances, he created a panic among the world’s shepherds. They tore Echo into pieces, leaving only her voice intact. That myth forms the crux of the play, which follows various aspects of Pan and Echo across a disjointed tumult of times and places.

“The Pan and Echo myth is an amazing metaphor for network society,” Jucan said. “Echo’s body is torn into pieces and all over

the place, and all that remains is her voice. This is similar in many ways to how I perceive the impact of network technology, which lets these people from all corners of the earth speak together, to let their voices be heard.”

Jucan’s work in the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies focuses on the intersection between nature and technology. She said she comprehends nature not as something unspoiled to be preserved, but as an active force that shapes the lives of humans whether they are aware of it or not. Technology, she said, is a way for people to feel as though they are able to control that ultimately overwhelming force.

“How do we represent nature?”

Jucan said. “That’s how I got to myth. I use myth, which was initially concerned with creation, with the creation of the world, as a kind of link between technology and nature.” Integral to “The Deaths of Pan,” the final show of which is 8 p.m. tonight in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for Creative Arts, are soundscapes and projected images. Jucan, who is a graduate of the modern culture and media department and incorporates multimedia elements into her plays, embraces both the positive and negative aspects of technology.

“For me, technology both reduces distance and creates distance,” she said. “For example, I’m able to speak to my family in Romania over Skype, a sevenhour time difference … but the fact that I know my world is so accessible makes me invest less in my relationships.”

Snyderman could not be more different. He tries to use only absolutely necessary technology, limiting his cell phone and email use to essential communication with students, family and his girlfriend. His play, “Voice Graffiti,” is an effort to capture the psyche of the living city. He said he perceives the city as a living organism plagued by abandoned

buildings, parking lots and boarded-up houses, but he considers his theater a possible cure.

“I’ve been talking about graffiti in the class that I’m teaching.

Whether (the graffiti) is a tag or a sentence, the sentence is going to be itself, and it’s going to be influenced by where it is, and where it is is going to be influenced by the sentence,” he said in an interview on the Techno-Mythologies website. He said he tries to bring that same spatial tension to “Voice Graffiti,” a rhythmic, frustratingly languid piece incorporating the work of close to 20 Providence residents and Brown students.

Snyderman said in the interview he was influenced by Providence’s urban farmers, who “use what they have even though the elements and the red tape, just the city itself as an organism, is sort of against what they’re doing.” He also cited the chants of Mexican healer Maria Sabina and the experiences of America’s homeless as starting points for the play.

“The Deaths of Pan” and “Voice Graffiti” feed off each other’s ideas and energy much in the same way their writers have fed off each other’s ideas and energy since they met last semester in a playwriting class.

In conversations posted on the project’s website, Jucan and Snyderman spur each other on, probe levels of complexity and catalyze ideas. These conversations are intimate and in many cases amazingly insightful. But that is perhaps one reason the plays are relatively inaccessible to a firsttime audience — they are built on months of shared experiences and discussion, the inner workings of theatrical theory as expounded by two theater junkies.

The good thing is that Jucan and Snyderman have documented their creative process. The keys to their plays are there if you look for them. The difficult thing is that, for those who take Snyderman’s advice and “come to it as a wilderness,” the works are rendered overcast, if not opaque.

The Brown Daily Herald Thursday, March 22, 2012

Crime Log The following summary includes a selection of major incidents reported to the Department of Public Safety between Feb. 28 and March 15. It does not include general service and alarm calls. The Providence Police Department also responds to incidents occurring off campus. DPS does not divulge information on cases that are currently under investigation by the department, PPD or the Office of Student Life. DPS maintains a daily log of all shift activity and general service calls, which can be viewed during business hours at its headquarters at 75 Charlesfield St. March 4 12:36 a.m. Brown police officers were dispatched to meet with Providence police in response to a complaint of a large, loud house party at 97 Benevolent Street. The party was broken up, and everyone was dispersed. A Brown student was issued a citation for violating the city noise ordinance.

March 6 7:09 p.m. A student reported his bike stolen from the basement bike room in Perkins Hall. He locked it to the rack March 1 and noticed it missing March 5.

March 7 8:42 p.m. Complainant stated her iPhone was stolen. She had it with her at a table at the Gate and then realized it was gone a short time later.

March 8 4:13 p.m. A student reported she had given her cell phone to her boyfriend while he worked his shift at the Gate March 2. He reported that he began his shift at 10 p.m. and placed the phone on a shelf in the kitchen designated for the staff’s personal belongings. He stated that when he went to retrieve the phone at 2 a.m. March 3, at the end of his shift, the phone was missing.

March 9 5:10 p.m. A student stated that at 2 a.m., she observed her bike locked to the rack outside Grad Center Tower A. When she returned at 2 p.m., the bike was missing. It had been secured with a cable lock. She pointed out debris that consisted of plastic portions of the lock.

March 15 7:37 p.m. A student stated that she entered the Sciences Library at 2:20 p.m. She left without her laptop computer and returned at 7 p.m. to locate it. She asked at the front desk if the computer had been turned in and found that it had not been.

Arts & Culture 9

The Brown Daily Herald Thursday, March 22, 2012

Hockey

Garbutt ’09 becomes a Star By sam wickham Sports Staff Writer

Though Brown alums enter many diverse fields after graduation, professional hockey may not be the first to come to mind. But for Ryan Garbutt ’09, the dream of playing in the NHL has become a reality after a few years in the making.

Garbutt started down the road to the NHL on the 2009-10 roster of the Corpus Christi Icerays in the Central Hockey League, where he racked up 22 goals and 28 assists in 64 games. From there, he spent most of the 2010-2011 season playing for the Chicago Wolves in the AHL but also played for the Gwinnett Gladiators in the East Coast Hockey League for 10 games, where he tallied 17 points.

Before the 2011-2012 season, Garbutt signed a two-way contract with the Dallas Stars and played 50 games with the franchise’s AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars. After three seasons making his way through the minors, the former Bear got called up to the

Dallas Stars last month.

Garbutt joins Aaron Volpatti ’10 of the Vancouver Canucks, Harry Zolnierczyk ’11 of the Philadelphia Flyers and Jack Maclellan ’12 of the Nashville Predators as the fourth Brown player in four years to make it to the league.

“Sometimes you get the chance to look around and just enjoy the fact that you’re playing in the NHL,” Garbutt said. “You don’t want to leave once you’re there.

Once you get a taste of it, you want to make sure you stay up there.”

Garbutt’s debut for the Stars came Feb. 18 against the Phoenix Coyotes, and he scored his first career goal just three days later, netting the game-winner against the Montreal Canadiens. “(The NHL) is quite a bit different from college,” Garbutt said.

“Everyone is better skaters, better goalies, better with the puck. Everything moves faster. And you’re not just playing two games on the weekends, but every second day at some points, so you have to be able to manage the grind.”

But the former Bears forward and All-Ivy honoree credits the Brown hockey program for his success at the next level.

“I had really great teammates — not just in my 2009 class, but everyone I played with at Brown,” Garbutt said. “It was just a step up from where I was coming from.

Every time you move up a level, you have to adapt to the players around you, and Brown allowed me to do that.”

Having already played 13 games for the Stars, Garbutt is well on his way to establishing an NHL career. But as he looks to make an impact in stadiums around the country, some of his best hockey memories will remain in the confines of Meehan Auditorium.

“For myself, my first collegiate goal was a big highlight,” Garbutt said. “But as a team, it was our playoff victory against Harvard.

We had a big goal from Harry Zolnierczyk, and Michael Clemente (’12) stood on his head. We upset Harvard, and it was pretty exciting for everyone.”

Prof’s book depicts changed New Orleans By caroline saine Contributing Writer

Reading from her new book “BREATHTAKEN,” Carolyn Wright, professor of literary arts, invoked the violence of post-Katrina New Orleans when she recited, “Can you pass a day without rancor / can you pick yourself up again?”

“BREATHTAKEN” is a collaboration between Wright and Walter Feldman, professor emeritus of art, who contributed visual etchings to the text.

The reading and question-andanswer session were held for a crowd of about 30 in the John Hay Library Wednesday and was sponsored by Brown/Ziggurat Press, a company founded by Feldman.

Wright, a former state poet of Rhode Island, is the author of more than a dozen books including “One With Others,” “40 Watts” and “Rising, Falling, Hovering” — for which she was awarded the International Griffin Poetry Prize in 2009. She is the recipient of several other awards including a National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, and she was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2004.

Wright said she was thankful to work on this project at Brown with Feldman. “The resources here are

tremendous,” she said.

The poem addresses the corruption, lawlessness and unchecked violence of the post-Katrina New Orleans. The city, Wright said, is a “parade every day, party all night, but everybody’s armed.”

When asked why she chose to write about New Orleans, Wright discussed her personal connection to photographer Deborah Luster.

Wright collaborated with Luster, who lost her mother as a result of the violence, on the poem “One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana.”

Wright also noted the vibrancy and magnetism of what she described as a once “breathtaking” and now “breathtaken” city. The allure of New Orleans pulls people to continue to return after having lost everything, she said.

“No one can go to that city without being affected by it,” Wright said.

“BREATHTAKEN,” which Wright acknowledged as a dark poem, reflects both the violence and the majesty of New Orleans. She described the work as a “reductive look” into the violence of the city.

The richness and affecting connotations of the imagery juxtapose with what Wright describes as “austere” diction, demonstrated in lines such as “lying in the street / fac-

ing a deflated basketball / under a parked car.”

The book, priced at $150, is rectangular and composed of heavy, inter-folding paper. Lines of poetry are written in gray, and red text used sporadically for numerals and for the beginning of the title, “BREATH,” on the first page.

Feldman said his first interaction with the work was physically looking at the poem. “I heard a soprano on one side and a tenor on the other,” he said, describing the difference in formatting between sides of the page.

Interspersed throughout the book are etchings that depict, among other things, scenes of the violence in the poem. Feldman described his physical accompaniments as providing “a feeling, a taste of what she was talking about.”

Alum’s novel revives Homer’s Patroclus

By Alexandra Macfarlane Senior Staff Writer

With poise, articulation and dramatic passion, Madeline Miller ’00 MA ’01 read from her breakout novel, “The Song of Achilles,” Monday night at an event presented by the Brown Bookstore. Miller read two passages to a small but engaged audience, answered several questions and then stayed to sign copies of her book and speak to students, faculty and staff on a more intimate level.

Miller’s book tells the story of Patroclus, a young exiled prince who eventually builds a strong connection to Achilles, the famed Greek hero of the Trojan War. Patroclus is a small part of the classic story of “The Iliad” and a friend to Achilles. His death drives the fearless fighter into a passionate rage on the battlefield of Troy.

In the short excerpts Miller shared with the audience, Miller read about the early life of Patroclus, her novel building the young man’s story into the epic myth as a foil to Achilles. Miller told the audience that her goal was to “(sew) him into the Achilles legend,” adding that from the time she realized she wanted to write about “The Iliad,” the narrator she imagined was always Patroclus.

“Who could be ashamed to lose to such beauty?” Patroclus narrates.

Miller read some of the moments when the young prince develops his deep love for Achilles. As the young boys play, Patroclus is filled with feelings that he cannot understand.

It is young love at its finest.

“My tongue ran away from me,” Miller read. In the excerpt, Patroclus feels completely devoid of worry when with Achilles.

Miller’s sense of voice for the relatively unknown classic character is clear and flowing, showing a keen sense for the full story of her narrator. Miller was a classics concentrator during her time at Brown and also earned a master’s degree in

classics from the University.

As an academic in classics, Miller said she was always drawn to Patroclus’ death in “The Iliad” and wondered why Achilles was so passionately devastated at the loss of a little-known character. Achilles reacted to the death “at a whole other level,” she said.

Though her background in classics certainly influenced the discovery of her topic, what she has done is all original, said Joseph Pucci, associate professor of classics, who was Miller’s mentor during her time at Brown. The voice and imagination of the life of Patroclus “is really all her,” he said.

Pucci said that if students want to write like Miller, they should just write every day in order to be true to their topic and to discover their passion.

Miller’s own process writing the book was “very messy” and took 10 years, she said. After five years of writing, she threw away a complete draft and started from scratch, she said. Miller said at first she felt she could not find Patroclus’ voice. It was epic poetry, but not with the lyricism that she wanted.

Despite the length of Miller’s process, the author still feels drawn to the myths. People keep returning to these stories because “they really speak to the human experience,” she said. They capture the “love, pain, loss, ambition and joy. … All the world is in Homer.”

Miller’s time at Brown was an “expansive experience” that gave her the confidence to try Patroclus’ story, she said. While at Brown, Miller directed the Shakespeare play “Troilus and Cressida,” which centers on Homer’s myths. Though she had never directed a play before, Miller said she always wanted “to participate in these legends in a more active way.”

Even after 10 years with classic stories, Miller is still interested in other characters, and she said she would “love to stay in Homer’s world for another book.”

comics

Dreadful Cosmology | Dario Mitchell

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

10 Editorial & Letter Editorial Don’t bet on it, Rhode Island

Editorial cartoon

On March 5, an 81-year-old Newport woman embraced her son and daughter-in-law in sheer, uncontrollable delight. In her frail but resolute hand, she grasped the winning ticket for the Powerball jackpot, valued at $336.4 million. Louise White, now a millionaire, is in the midst of reformulating her plans for the future, much to the chagrin of the Rhode Island Lottery. It is heartwarming stories like these that preclude many from seeing the less publicized, damaging consequences of the state’s obsession with gambling. A recent analysis by the Tax Foundation shows that Rhode Island boasts the highest per-capita lottery spending in the country by far. This figure is extremely troubling, and Rhode Island needs to reassess how gambling is hurting working-class citizens.

The Tax Foundation asserts that the lottery, especially in Rhode Island, acts as a form of regressive tax — the poorer citizens of Rhode Island spend, in real terms, considerably more on the lottery than the middle-class and upper-class players. In a previous editorial, we mentioned that Rhode Island consistently ranks in the top 10 for its proportional homeless population, exacerbating the woes of being a low-income Rhode Islander.

The lottery is, quite simply, an attractive sell — invest a dollar or two and win a fortune. The investment, in the minds of many, is a no-brainer. It is unsurprising that so many lower-income Rhode Islanders place a tangible proportion of their income into the lottery.

With the unfavorable conditions that they may already face, including finding affordable housing and employment, lower-income Rhode Islanders view the lottery as an embodiment of a real yet ultimately unsustainable hope.

We cannot simply do away with the lottery — it serves as a huge component of Rhode Island’s entertainment sector, which we cannot ignore. In addition, buying a lottery ticket is a daily, necessary routine for some, similar to smoking a cigarette. We wonder what the consequences would be if the state implemented higher casino buyins, or a hefty excise tax on the purchase of lottery tickets, just like it does with cigarettes. Though it may be unfair to compare the two goods, both do represent the epitomes of addictive behavior. While we are not fully convinced that the pros of an excise tax would, in a holistic sense, outweigh its cons, we urge the government to take a second look at the lottery. The state needs to find a way to make the lottery a less widespread source of revenue, and educate citizens more on the problems of gambling and addiction, especially in context with the struggles of low-income Providence residents. A state that fosters such pervasive gambling hurts its citizens and probably does itself a long-term economic disservice by furthering addiction and this kind of regressive tax.

The lottery and gambling will always exist as long as people are willing to engage in them. Rhode Island, no thanks to Louise White, will continue to thrive from the service. However, we advise Rhode Island to reiterate its ethical values and take its own big risk by promoting a conscious awareness of the lottery’s positives and negatives, instead of highlighting it as the false savior to do all and end all.

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 Chasing mugger was ‘foolhardy’ To the Editor: After reading an article in Monday’s Herald (“After Brook St. attack, senior chases down, catches mugger,” March 19), I couldn’t shake the feeling that Aristides Nakos, the senior featured in the piece, took a grave, unnecessary risk.

After graduating from Brown, I spent a year as a fellow investigator for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where I learned how relatively minor crime can quickly become a violent felony because things don’t go according to plan. One case I investigated could have been just another minor property theft, but it escalated to gunshots after the thief was pursued.

Any act of theft or robbery is a volatile situation, with high stakes for everyone involved, including the perpetrators. The student who was robbed told The Herald, “the

suspects were just as nervous as I was ... and trying to get out of there as quickly as possible.” Small wonder — the Rhode Island criminal code calls for imprisonment of 10 years or more for “robbery where a victim is injured.”

The Herald identified the man Nakos chased down as Carlos Falcon, age 20, who was later found to have a knife, according to Nakos. Put yourself in Falcon’s shoes. Fearing you might spend the next decade behind bars, what might you do in the heat of that moment to get away?

I admire Nakos’ selflessness, but his actions were foolhardy, needlessly prolonging a dangerous situation.

I hope anyone who read his story will think twice before emulating them.

Michael Skocpol ’10 Former Herald Deputy Managing Editor

Correction An article in Wednesday’s Herald (“Facilities, students reflect on second-warmest winter,” March 21) incorrectly attributed a series of quotes on the Department of Facilities Management’s snow removal budget to Carlos Fernandez, assistant vice president of facilities, operations and engineering. In fact, those quotes should have been attributed to Stephen Maiorisi, vice president of Facilities. The article also quoted Fernandez as saying that Facilities saved $20,000 on heating this winter. In fact, Facilities saved $200,000 on heating. The article also stated that in 2010, Facilities spent $289,000 on snow removal. In fact, it spent $189,000 in that year. The Herald regrets the errors.

quote of the day “If you ask the people in Woonsocket right now if they want to raise taxes or sell a little marijuana, what would they want to do?”

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The Brown Daily Herald Thursday, March 22, 2012

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— Peter Hammond, Rhode Island resident See Marijuana on page 6.

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Taking Sides 11

The Brown Daily Herald Thursday, March 22, 2012

Should Brown have required classes?

Yes No am, to an extent, in favor of the individualespoused by the New Curriculum, but

By Rebecca McGoldrick ism I believe that some communal ground that Opinions Columnist required courses provide is beneficial if we are to become global citizens.

The first required course I suggest would Brown’s New Curriculum — poorly named be an interdisciplinary survey course that since it is nearly half a century old — is a examines history, historical construction point of pride for many Brunonians, and and sociology with an aim to create apprerightfully so: It’s a manifesto for creativi- ciation for both qualitative and quantitative ty, self-definition and personal motivation. inquiry. This course would be designed to These are certainly noble values we should give students some perspective on current embrace. But a large and historical events, portion of people at It would be foolish to as well as situate the Brown tend to define United States in a largthe New Curriculum dogmatically insist that er context. If Brown by a single feature — to be a global we should never consider strives no required classes. university, every recipWhile this is a crucial ient of a Brown degree amending Brown’s element of the origishould be required to nal vision, it would be educational structure... critically think about foolish to dogmatiwhat it means to be a cally insist that we should never consider global citizen in today’s complex and interamending Brown’s educational structure. connected world.

That would be antithetical to the liberal arts My second required class would be a philosophy. crash course on Brown itself. The objective In fact, I believe the values that original- of this course would be to familiarize stuly motivated the New Curriculum would dents with the history, philosophy and rebe bolstered if we did have a few — two to sources of the University. It would also aim three — required courses. I have two class- to foster more inter-student awareness and es in mind that I will mention, but these are connection via conversations about gender, merely suggestions, and I invite others to drug use, community life and so on. further develop what courses and content Together, these courses would help orimight be required. ent students within their macro- and microThe motivation for my classes stems environments, better preparing them to be from a worry similar to the one expressed global citizens. While I do think it is imporin Lucas Husted’s column (“Individualism tant to retain a high level of freedom, we at Brown,” March 7). Like Husted, I too am should ensure that no student fails to recogconcerned that Brown’s emphasis on indi- nize that all individual decisions and actions vidualism can alienate students from one take place within and have effects on a larger another. Brown is committed to becoming community. a global university, and I’m concerned that individualism does not adequately meet the Rebecca McGoldrick ’12 can be reached needs of an increasingly connected world. I at rebecca_mcgoldrick@brown.edu.

Tobias’ rebuttal I can sympathize with Rebecca McGoldrick for thinking that two or three required courses might enhance a Brown education.

Certainly, her example courses would be very valuable for some first-years. However, the question at stake is whether Brown should award degrees to students who have not completed certain required coursework. The courses McGoldrick recommends — as noble as their intentions are — are not so invaluable that any student who failed to take them would not deserve to graduate from Brown. Let’s consider each one individually.

McGoldrick describes her proposed interdisciplinary survey course as introducing students to a wide range of fields including history and sociology as well as an appreciation for qualitative and quantitative methods. First of all, this course is unfeasible, as the thought of condensing all of world history alone down to a semester with any kind of depth is mind-boggling.

Combining such a course with introductions to a wide range of other fields will inevitably mean that this course will either oversimplify important concepts or skip them altogether. And, as I warned in my opening, such a course is not necessary for many students, especially those with very strong backgrounds in some of these fields, who will be left feeling bored and unchal-

lenged by coursework they mostly completed in high school.

A crash course on Brown is certainly much more workable, but has deficits of its own. Just living, learning and getting involved at Brown can teach one much more about the school than a textbook. And, no one but a student who has no prior experience with the University would ever consider taking it.

But there is a logistical reason why these requirements are troubling. If they are not first-year only, then the thought of upperclassmen taking them after having spent time living at Brown and taking advanced classes is laughable. If they are only for first-years, then it would severely cut into the available course slots that some firstyears have — most notably engineers, who often have six required courses freshman year, meaning that adding two more will leave them with zero electives to explore topics that actually interest them.

There is no conceivable course that will benefit everyone without exception, and mandating that students take certain courses would destroy the academic freedom and creativity that are essential parts of the New Curriculum. Instituting required courses threatens to undermine the University’s values and should be avoided at all costs.

reading on their own or took Advanced Placement classes in high school, the class

By Ethan Tobias would be redundant. We only get to take Opinions Columnist four or five courses a semester, and wasting one on a topic that you already know seems like a colossal misuse of time, if not “The various courses should be so ar- tuition. ranged that, in so far as it is practicable, One of the great things about having every student might study what he chose, no required courses is that many students all that he chose, and nothing but what ultimately end up taking what would rehe chose.” These words, stated in 1850 ally count as distribution requirements

by Francis Wayland, at another school, Brown’s fourth pres- If the University began but they do so freely. ident, have been the Choice is a very powfoundation for aca- requiring students to take erful psychological demics at Brown for weapon. Tell a child to more than 150 years, certain courses, it would clean his room, and he and they are at the tear at the fabric of the will probably refuse or heart of the Univerdo so grudgingly, but University’s identity. let him decide what sity’s core mission.

Brown’s curricuto do about the mess, lum, which allows and he might devise students to take whatever courses they his own path. Yes, there is the possibilichoose without any required courses, is ty that he still might not clean it, just as one of the main assets of the University there are undoubtedly many Brunonians that sets it apart from its peer institutions. who have graduated without ever studyIf the University began requiring stu- ing literature. However, if he does ultidents to take certain courses, it would mately clean his room, it will be on his tear at the fabric of the University’s iden- terms and with much greater enthusiasm. tity. Part of the beauty of Brown is that the At the end of the day, Brown’s decision students are free to explore their interests not to have requirements is vindicated by without the burden of requirements. Re- the professional and academic success quirements eat into a student’s schedule of many of its graduates. If nothing else, and black out spaces that could have been Brown alums have learned what truly inallotted for topics more aligned with their terests them, and that may be the most academic interests. important lesson of all.

Furthermore, requirements might be wasted on many students, forced to sit Ethan Tobias ’12 doesn’t believe in rethrough a class on a topic that they either quired courses, but if there were rehave no interest in or are already highly quirements, he would recommend familiar with. Say that Brown decided a BIOL0200.What could be more global class on English literature were importhan the “Foundations of Living Systant enough to be required. For many tems?” He can reached at students who had a strong penchant for ethan_tobias@brown.edu

McGoldrick’s rebuttal First, I concede Ethan Tobias’ point that free choice can be a powerful psychological tool for creating positive motivation and a sense of ownership over one’s education. Brown should be applauded for treating its students as mature adults. That was a significant factor in my decision to enroll here.

However, it is a mistake to dogmatically pledge allegiance to the 150-yearold ideas of Brown’s fourth president. I admit that the lack of required classes is a distinguishing feature of Brown’s open curriculum and that there are valid reasons to think this is a successful educational model. But Brown is an evolving institution, and we should not lock ourselves into rigid systems just for tradition’s sake. We should reflect upon and critically assess whether the current curriculum is the best it could be.

We also live in an evolving world.

We should be open to amendments and periodically evaluate whether our institution is producing students equipped with the resources to make a positive contribution to society. If Brown is to be a “global university,” then we must be global citizens.

Tobias is correct to point out that requiring students to take a course might reduce their interest in the subject. But

there might be classes that Brown students need to take whether they want to or not — I think my suggested classes, or something like them, fit that bill.

Math students may not enjoy taking every required course to fulfill their concentration, but it’s still necessary that they take them. I am making a similar suggestion. In order to successfully navigate Brown and the world beyond, we need to make sure that each student is challenged in certain ways.

The courses I propose are not designed to limit students’ freedom. The first course, involving the study of recent history and global society, would be designed to expand students’ horizons and open their minds to the infinite number of ways their academic career can make a difference in the world.

The second course, a crash course on the University, would help students see their possible trajectories at Brown, which will better prepare them to utilize the resources available.

The ability to forge our own academic path is a valuable opportunity we have as Brown students. But we need a starting point from which to depart. Before we go our separate ways, let’s make sure everyone is prepared for the journey.

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Thursday, March 22, 2012