Daily
Herald
the Brown
vol. cxxii, no. 48
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Since 1891
From dean to president, Paxson’s rapid ascent Only three By Aparaajit Sriram Senior Staff Writer
President-elect Christina Paxson’s resume shows a rapid advancement through the academic ranks. In the last five years, she has served as a dean at Princeton and chaired the university’s nationally renowned economics department, serving at one point as the department’s only tenured female professor. And starting July 1, she will begin her term as Brown’s 19th president. Paxson herself never forecasted that she would be at the helm of a university so soon. “I was not looking to be a university president,” she said. “I had expected to be at the Woodrow Wilson School for at least another four or five years, but Brown is such a special place, I couldn’t turn it down.” In 2008, Paxson was named
Paxson changed school’s selectivity, curriculum
ed, the Rhode Island School of Design’s 15 West dormitory being the nearest to the proposed construction. The Thayer project takes Gilbane’s idea of “the next level of student housing,” used on the RISD campus, to College Hill. The apartment-style living would have one entrance on Thayer street, an underground parking garage, four stories of suites, a lounge and study spac-
The University has narrowed its list of candidates for the directorship of the Watson Institute for International Studies to three contenders — Jeffrey Kopstein, acting director of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, Allison Stanger, chair of the political science department at Middlebury College and Celeste Wallander, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. A search committee submitted an unranked list of the three candidates to the provost after interviewing eight semifinalists, said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15. Schlissel and President Ruth Simmons will make the final decision. It is also possible they will choose none of the candidates, Schlissel said. The announcement could be made in the upcoming weeks, though a date has not yet been finalized. “It depends when and if we identify a candidate,” Schlissel said. Kopstein is a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, and his research emphasizes comparative politics, ethnic politics
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Jonathan Bateman / Herald
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By Mark Valdez Staff Writer
Christina Paxson will soon take her place as the University’s 19th president.
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Tuesday night’s public discussion held by the College Hill Neighborhood Association saw a heated debate between opponents of the proposed 257 Thayer Street student apartment complex and the few residents in favor of it. Robert Gilbane ’71 P’02 P’05, chief executive officer and chairman of Gilbane, Inc., gave a detailed presentation about his proposed student housing project
that would sit on the corner of Meeting and Thayer streets and eliminate nine to 10 houses on the block. The project was continually referred to as an “opportunity,”
city & state allowing for a stronger sense of community and new partnerships. But Gilbane met opposition from the College Hill community. Gilbane cited various projects that his company has complet-
Alex Morse ’11: 100 days as mayor of Holyoke By Sahil Luthra Science Editor
Less than five years after graduating from high school, Alex Morse ’11 again set foot in Holyoke High School Jan. 3 to start a very different chapter in his life. His campaign’s “I Love Holyoke” button pinned to his suit, the recently elected mayor faced a crowd of supporters to give his inaugural address.
Feature
Courtesy of brown.edu
Today is Alex Morse’s ’11 100th day as mayor of Holyoke, Mass.
Sublet site
JumpOffCampus simplifies subletting process Campus news, 2
He spoke of his vision for the bright economic future of the Massachusetts city and his plans to rebrand the Paper City as the Digital City. He spoke to the importance of public education in a city where nearly half of high school students do not graduate in four years. He thanked his supporters and reached out to those who had not voted for him.
Trayvon
Carty ’15 urges readers to reflect
Opinions, 11
weather
Amid the national economic recession in 2009 and only months after the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs settled a costly legal battle, Christina Paxson took the reigns of the school from her predecessor, Anne-Marie Slaughter. Paxson, who was named Brown’s 19th president last month, came to Woodrow Wilson after a year as chair of Princeton’s economics department. Previously, she served as assistant chair and taught in the department for almost 25 years. “When I first took over, we were smack in the middle of the economic downturn,” Paxson said. “I hadn’t expected to have to deal with the financial situation.” Her focus remained on students throughout the difficulties. The Woodrow Wilson School — which maintains its own private endowment — saw its endowment shrink considerably. Stanley Katz, professor of Public and International Affairs at Woodrow Wilson, said he estimates funds decreased by around 40 percent. “I think the most important thing to do when you have to deal
inside
By Sonia Phene Contributing Writer
Proposed Thayer housing draws criticism
By Sona MkrttChian Senior Staff Writer
news....................2-6 CITY & State........7 Features.........8-9 editorial............10 Opinions.............11
candidates remain to lead Watson
economics chair at Princeton after having served as associate chair of the department for a brief four years. Just one year later, she was appointed dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, a prestigious position within a renowned university. After serving as dean for three years, she was named Brown’s next president in March. The previous two permanent Woodrow Wilson School deans had both served for seven years. “I think people have just recognized that she’s really good. It’s not as though she pushed to have these things,” said Nannerl Keohane, visiting professor of public affairs at Princeton. “People came to her and said, ‘We want you to be dean. We want you to
But something he barely even hinted at — even though he had received national attention for it — was his age. Elected at the age of 22, Morse was the city’s youngest mayor and the nation’s youngest openly gay one. Though some questioned his age during his campaign, which he launched during his senior year at Brown, Morse said his age “hasn’t been a huge deal” since he took office. But as with a new mayor of any age, Morse said there has been a lot to learn in his first months, and he hit the ground running. He’s been running for a while — today marks Morse’s 100th day in office. ‘Everybody’s mayor’
No two days have been the same so far, Morse said. After an early start with his staff in his continued on page 9
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2 Campus News
Paxson known as strong leader, friendly voice
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6:30 p.m. Ivy Film Festival Screening
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with a financial crisis is to really think about what your values are,” Paxson said. Financial aid and student experience placed prominently at the top of her list. Paxson fought to ensure that students enrolled in the school’s three graduate programs had the same availability of financial aid and that undergraduates had the same resources available for summer research and internships. As her tenure progressed, Paxson’s focus shifted to the quality of the Woodrow Wilson School’s academic offerings. “I knew coming in that we were way overdue for taking a hard look at our teaching programs, and it was easy for me to know that because I had been here for a really long time,” she said. From an administrative position, curricular reform is one of the best decisions to pursue during a financial downturn because it does not take a toll on the endowment and also improves the institution, she added. Paxson hopes to visit Brown at least once more before assuming the presidency but said she needs to focus on Princeton responsibilities during April. She will officially take over as the University’s president July 1. Ending selectivity
Crossword
Paxson’s tenure marked two major changes to the school — the abolishment of selective admission to the school and curricular reforms to increase the interdisciplinary focus of the school. Before Paxson, the Woodrow Wilson School offered the University’s only selective degree program. Sophomores interested in majoring in public policy were required to apply to the school. Around half of the applicants were generally accepted to the 90-person class each year, Katz said. “I was always very much reassured that if you were serious about being a Woodrow Wilson School major and not just doing it for prestige, then you were going to get it,” said Andrew Lu, a senior in the school whose studies focus on public health. Paxson said she saw a problem with the school’s lack of prerequisites. Students were not required to complete any specific courses before applying to the school, a safeguard for students who would be rejected from the major. Paxson believed that
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this was a disadvantage to students who were accepted because they did not fully understand the school’s demands. “Princeton is a university that puts emphasis on public service,” Paxson said, referring to the University’s motto “in the nation’s service.” The Woodrow Wilson School specifically trains students for public service, and Paxson said it was wrong for students to be told they could not study it. “Every year, I would have terrific students who would come into my office and say I came to Princeton to go to the Woodrow Wilson School, and I just got rejected,” she added. When Paxson put the issue to a vote at a faculty meeting, there was almost unanimous support for the proposal. “I just think (the application process is) unfair … and in some ways an unfortunate source of unnecessary controversy at such an elite university on the basis of criteria that I don’t even fully understand,” said Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs. Oppenheimer praised Paxson’s leadership throughout the process, saying he was impressed with how she handled a contested issue. Katz said he disagrees with the decision because he said class size at the school needs to be controlled. He added that he is not completely sure about the decision’s implications, but that he believes there will now be a “large influx” of students interested in majoring in public policy. The decision to abolish selectivity “has made public policy more of an option for me,” Princeton freshman Jonathan Esposito said. “At first, when I came in, I wasn’t considering it because of the application process, but (Paxson’s decision) definitely opened the possibility up.” “As a freshman, it gives me certainty and allows me to start preparing for the department’s requirements without fearing that my time may go to waste,” freshman Alvaro Cuba said. Many echoed Esposito’s sentiment, but some pointed out that the elimination of the application process may even reduce the number of students who are interested in the major in the coming years. “The selectivity made people apply to the major who weren’t interested in public policy because they thought it was more competitive or prestigious,” said freshman Kitty Cook.
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The new curriculum
Paxson’s other major change will affect the junior year curriculum of the program. Previously, students accepted into the program would have to complete two policy task force seminars during their junior year. Paxson said “visiting faculty with practitioner backgrounds” often taught these seminars. “They weren’t learning the skills that they needed to tackle the senior thesis,” she added. “We learned from students that they loved their junior year, but they came into their senior year blindsided by what was expected of them.” Within the new curriculum, students will only have one policy task force seminar and have one semester of a policy research seminar. “The focus is more on how to do research on the policy area instead of learning how to practice making policy in the area,” Paxson said. Lu said that, having recently written his mandatory senior thesis, he thinks the changes will benefit students. “A lot of seniors were lost in the beginning because we hadn’t had the chance to do independent research by ourselves on such a big scale,” Lu said. He added that the thesis is often a daunting project for seniors because it may be their first major research project. But Katz opposes the changes, saying that the new curriculum will result in many more courses becoming cross-listed within departments. “It will certainly be a less distinctive major,” Katz said. “There will be less focus on public policy and more focus on methodology.” ‘Big shoes to fill’
Paxson said these changes represented one of the three major aspects of her Princeton tenure that make her most proud. She added that she would also like to be remembered for her work to “build the program in health policy” before becoming dean at the Woodrow Wilson School. “As a dean, one of the most important things you do is recruit and retain faculty members,” Paxson said. “When you bring in someone who gets tenure, you’re making a change to the university that will make an impact for years.” Though her time as dean was short, faculty and students who worked with Paxson consistently praised her leadership style and character. “She’s a terribly good person. That shines through,” Katz said. “I think they’re big shoes to fill because her personality is grand. She’s really warm,” said Lu, who worked with Paxson on his senior thesis, adding that he was very lucky to have gotten to work with her. And as her tenure winds down, her colleagues and students say she will leave behind a reputation of solid decision-making and friendly leadership. “She leaves a legacy of an institution that has been able to continually evolve and modernize itself in the face of the very rapidly changing world,” Oppenheimer said, “and at the same time do so with an emphasis on a central culture.”
Campus News 3
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Peers call Paxson adaptive, innovative and ‘cool’ continued from page 1 be president.’” “It was not surprising to me at all. I knew that she would be a college president sooner rather than later,” said Bo Honore, professor of economics at Princeton, who chaired the department before Paxson. A knack for being in the right place at the right time, coupled with a remarkable ability to translate ideas into solutions has catapulted Paxson onto an ascent that is “not unprecedented but certainly very quick,” Keohane said. Paxson has consistently been the most qualified candidate when positions have become available, she said. It is also hard to predict when top positions open up in higher education, she added. Paxson herself acknowledges the role chance has played in her career path. “I’ve been fortunate to have really good opportunities,” she said. “Some of my transitions from post to post haven’t really been planned but have been the consequence of positions opening up when they did.” Presidential potential
Brown was not the first university to vet Paxson as a potential president. In 2009, Paxson was one of two finalists in the running for the presidency at Swarthmore College, her alma mater. The college’s presidential search committee did not choose her because “she didn’t have prior presidential experience,” said Robinson Hollister, a professor of economics at Swarthmore who spoke with members of the committee at the time. The committee ultimately selected Rebecca Chopp, who previously served as Colgate University’s president.
“Remember that in 2009, we were just entering into a recession. We wanted someone who could handle a college in a time of recession,” said Alan Symonette, a member of the search committee who graduated from Swarthmore in 1976 and has served two terms on the college’s Board of Managers, its highest governing body. “Chopp was a prior president, and given where we were as a college, that experience was invaluable for us.” “But I don’t remember (Paxson) having too many, if there were any, shortcomings,” he added. Pieter Judson, a Swarthmore history professor and member of the search committee, believes Paxson will make a capable president. “I think Brown will be very lucky indeed with Christina Paxson as its new president,” he wrote in an email to The Herald. But a stellar resume can only go so far in predicting the magnetism and personality of an incoming university president, and it is hard to avoid comparisons to President Ruth Simmons, known for her ability to inspire and connect with students. “Certainly Christina Paxson brings a lot of verve and personality, as well as competence and great charm and humor. I think you’ll like her a lot if you take her on her own terms,” said Robert Keohane, professor of international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, warning not to bandy about comparisons between her and Simmons. “If you expect her to be Ruth Simmons, or if you expect Ruth Simmons to be Christina Paxson, of course you’ll always be disappointed.” “To set up a set of standards that are defined by one person
and to apply them to somebody else would be, I think, the height of unfairness,” he said. But Paxson’s peers said one thing is certain — she is “cool.” “She drives a BMW. She used to drive a Porsche. She’s even open to drinking a beer every now and then. So what I’m trying to say is, she’s not stuffy at all, and that can be rare in academia,” Honore said. An uncommon efficiency
Paxson was a faculty member in Princeton’s economics department for 26 years and was the first female tenured professor in that department. When running faculty meetings as the department chair, she displayed an uncanny ability to accommodate a variety of opinions, Honore said. She had an efficiency uncommon in the world of academia. “What she’s really good at is taking a vague idea and turning it into a concrete proposal and implementing it,” he said. “Most academics like to talk and not get stuff done.” Paxson ascribes a part of her success to a passion for academic administration. “I like to do this,” she said. Soon after assuming her position as dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, she created and charged two committees to review both the undergraduate programs and the master’s programs offered at the school. The undergraduate program review committee recommended the school modify one of its core policies, selective admission, among others. Navigating such a revision, as Paxson was attempting to do, promised to be a difficult path riddled with setbacks — it was hard to gauge how
faculty would look upon such a significant change, Nannerl Keohane said. Paxson displayed “strong leadership,” in guiding the committee’s proposal through a series of faculty meetings, by the end of which the proposal was “fairly heavily supported,” Nannerl Keohane said. “She clearly advocated a number of our recommendations, but she wasn’t going to force them down the throats of the faculty,” Nannerl Keohane said. “Some were controversial.” Paxson was willing to compromise on some of the recommendations, particularly those regarding prerequisites to enter the undergraduate program. But on others more central to her vision, such as abolishing the application process for undergraduate public policy majors, she held firm. Nannerl Keohane said Paxson’s ability to tackle “fundamental questions,” and update and streamline programs is one of her strongest assets and what she will likely be most remembered for from her time as dean. Stanley Katz, professor of public and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School and faculty chair of the undergraduate public policy program, was critical of Paxson’s reform of the program, stating that it would make it less distinctive and lead to curricular changes that would make it too akin to the social sciences. But disagreements aside, Katz believes that Paxson, with her record of advancing from one position to the next, has the makings of a successful university president. “I think experience matters, I think it helps, but there’s reason to believe that someone with just
a lot of talent could make that jump,” Katz said. Research that relates
During her time as chair in the economics department, and even prior to that, Paxson had cemented her reputation as an efficient, articulate and thoughtful administrator. In 2000, Paxson founded the Center for Health and Wellbeing, a center within the Woodrow Wilson School that focuses on health policy, according to the center’s website. Paxson served as director of the center until 2009, authoring several papers dealing with the socioeconomics of health, focusing mainly on children. One of her papers, published in 2004, focused on how childhood health impacts educational achievement, earnings, health and social status in adulthood. Another study published in 2004 investigated the economic causes of infant mortality in Peru, concluding that the “collapse of public and private expenditures on health played an important role.” “After she founded the center, I knew she would go on to do even bigger things,” Honore said. The center offers an example of Paxson’s ability not only to turn a vision into reality but also her tendency to pursue research with socially beneficial applications. She studied economics because it seemed the perfect balance of theory and practice, wrote Stephen O’Connell, a professor of economics at Swarthmore, in an email to The Herald when her selection was first announced. “Some people’s research is very abstract. Hers is tied to health, development,” Honore said. “Every human being can kind of relate to those questions.”
4 Campus News
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 11, 2012
BSA partners with Tufts startup to streamline sublet search By Lucas Morduchowicz Contributing Writer
Brown Student Agencies has partnered with Tufts University student startup JumpOffCampus to provide a website where users can search for and post subletting opportunities for places to rent near the University. Though the Brown portion of the website has only been online since April 2, there are already 70 subletting listings and many people looking for opportunities to rent on the site as the summer approaches. “We wanted to provide this service to help bring all the subletting options together in one place for students,” said Lingke Wang ’12, executive director emeritus at BSA.
“JumpOffCampus really opens up the (subletting) market.” BSA had received numerous complaints from students about difficulties finding subletters, according to Wang. In response, BSA partnered with JumpOffCampus, an off-campus housing site. BSA chose the site over other options partly because of their student foundation and specific goal of serving students and university administration, Wang said. Before this option, students often relied on less centralized advertising options like Facebook and Craigslist. “I started using the website a week ago. So far we’ve gotten about 10-15 people email us saying they are interested in subletting,” wrote Marley Pierce ’13 in an email to
The Herald. “(JumpOffCampus) has been so useful and successful for us that we haven’t had to use other media outlets.” JumpOffCampus was founded by Tuft graduates, Mark Abramowicz and Kyle Nichols-Schmolze, who are now the chief executive officer and chief technology officer for the service respectively. The two founders teamed up in their junior year and are participating in several startup incubators including Betaspring and Masschallenge, according to Abramowicz. In the past few months, JumpOffCampus has rapidly expanded from serving two to 10 colleges in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York, Abramowicz said. Their goal is to be partnered with 90 schools
by the end of the year. JumpOffCampus differs from other services that bring together subletters like Craigslist and Facebook. Helpful features include an intuitive Google Maps interface to plot listing locations, sorting parameters that allow ordering by price, number of rooms and date of availability. The site also gives users the ability to save listings and hide undesirable ones. Craigslist postings and Facebook events lack similar convenient features. “(JumpOffCampus) has a way better user interface than Craigslist as it’s customized specifically to housing and you can really search for and provide more details in a standardized way,” wrote Frieda Kay ’12 in an email to The Herald.
Additionally, the website has an edge over its competitors because it is specifically tailored for students and university administration by students. Because only students with a .edu email address may register to respond to subletting ads and the website is sponsored by the BSA, finding trustworthy subletters is much easier than with similar services, Abramowicz said. While the startup is currently only providing its subletting service to the Brown community, Abramowicz said JumpOffCampus offers additional off-campus housing services to other universities including actual apartment listings for people looking to lease, a roommate finder and a used-item marketplace.
Exclusive: Q&A with Actress Laura Linney ’86 Actress Laura Linney ’86 addressed a lively audience of students during an Ivy Film Festival event last night in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. The Herald sat down with Linney afterward to talk about her experience at Brown and changes in the movie industry. The Herald: You mentioned the Brown experience today is a version of what you went through. How do you think Brown has changed over the years? Laura Linney: I can certainly say from the time I was here, all of Providence has changed drastically. It is a different city — it looks fantastic, and the school looks better ... It has a vibrancy that was always there but seems unleashed now. It’s very positive here. It just seems like everyone’s very happy — but not in a saccharine happy way, but in a grounded satisfied way. And that’s just encouraging for anyone returning to their school to see. And I think the administration is more involved with the students themselves. When I was here, I had no contact or awareness of who the president was or what they were like ... I think just (the Granoff Center) is a perfect example of the change, of how everyone is encouraged to share knowledge and experience each other’s interests. It seems like it’s a much more open, fluid place than when I was here. But then the great stuff that makes it great is still here — the philosophy of education, the standards of admission, the wild, wonderful classes that you can take that you can’t take anywhere else, the appreciation of unique study. Were there any “wild and wonderful” classes in particular you remember taking and loving? I was a history of theater person, so all my history of the lyric stage, and theater history and theory. All of that stuff, which to me was the most fascinating stuff on the planet ... Maybe I shared
that with a few other people — not many, but it was there for me. You mentioned (in the lecture) you think curiosity is a really important thing to foster. Is there something either in the film industry or outside of it that you’re still really curious to explore or to know? As far as just the acting is concerned ... I still approach it like I’m still a student. There’s always something to work on. It’s sort of like a Chinese puzzle — you work and work and work and work, and then something will unlock ... And there’s another long corridor to go through ... I feel like there’s still so much to learn, and I’ll never be able to learn it in one lifetime. But I’ll have a good time while trying. Is there any advice you would give to your former self at Brown? I wouldn’t give myself such a hard time. I was so hard on myself ... I never felt like I did anything really right, and I was just fine, you know? I just wouldn’t have worried so much — I was a bit of a worrywart. I think I would have just told myself to breathe a little deeper. You speak from a very collected place — is there anything you do regularly to escape? I try and have the time that I work be that ... like the script work that I do quietly on my own. I try to use that as a time to center and to let my mind move — and not just function, but explore. People who have graduated from schools like Brown have said they feel the fashion industry is not a field where there’s a lot of intellectual stimulation, and it’s frustrating to them. Does that translate to the film industry? It can. If you isolate yourself, it can. Some of that is up to you to keep it going. I know how to go to the library. I know how to do research. I know if I have a thought that I’m curious and interested in, I know how to follow
through on that and not expect to have that come from someone else ... That’s part of what you learn how to do here. You learn how to think, and you learn how to take care of yourself. You learn how to take care of your thoughts and your mind and follow through an argument or pursue something that’s interesting, or question until you get to the answer. What do you think about the kinds of films that are being made now versus when you got started? I started making movies in the early ’90s, which was just the tail end of that ’80s boom of the big budget, where there was lots of money and big stars ... I very quickly got myself where I really belonged, which is in the independent film world. And then now, we’re in a very weird — it’s a very transitional time — and everyone’s going to T.V. The big budget movies are ... largely franchised films, you know, adventure franchise films. They’re not character-driven dramas being made — rarely. Independent movies are harder and harder to get done. They can still get done, but it’s a strange time right now. What is gained or lost in that transition? In order to do characterdriven movies, you need to have people who know how to make them and when they’re not put to work, skills aren’t encouraged. But people find a place to go. I’m just so grateful that I (can) just run back to the theater, and I’m perfectly happy there. But it’s a strange time ... the business and the quality of things are sort of at odds with each other. Maybe that’s something we see across industries? All over, everywhere. Not just in film. It’s what’s considered valuable. Good is not valuable unless it makes someone some money. It’s hard. Is there an intellectual experience or an adventure that was totally unexpected —
Oh, it all is! It all is. — that you never expected to have? Travel, more than anything else ... I never thought I would travel the way I did, the way I have. I really didn’t think I’d travel and I’ve been all over the world now, and that does ... it changes a person. Any particular place or trip that sticks out as especially meaningful? Argentina, Japan. I love London — I love being in London. Love Actually, which takes place in London, has topped my list. It’s a sweet, sweet movie. But your part was so sad. Yes, but I got the best kiss. I did. I got the best kiss. I love that movie. You mentioned that you’re still close with some friends you made at Brown. It will (happen), like it or not! Then there’ll be the obvious people you’ll stay in touch with, and then there’ll be the people who will surprise you, who maybe weren’t within your inner circle but somehow stay in your orbit — just over time, you become very close to them, just because of the power of time ... The friends who I made here — they’re family to me. They’re the people who I want to talk to first. They are — they’re the people who I miss the most, they’re the ones who I feel the safest around. Because they’ve known me so long, and because we’ve seen each other grow up. It’s amazing what will happen to people ... You’ll see people bloom, and you’ll see people struggle — the ones you didn’t think would struggle, you’ll see them really struggle ... It’s a big, long, vast life and a lot happens. A lot happens ... It’s unimaginable when you’re doing so much here ... It’s like trying to put a watermelon in your ear — it just doesn’t make any sense that life could be bigger or fuller or more exciting than it is here.
What is something that those best friends know about you that few other people know? That I now want to tell to the entire Brown population? Yes. They knew that I wore the geekiest purple glasses in college. Yeah, really geeky. And that I wore nothing but sweatpants and purple glasses for four years. Large purple glasses? Yes. The lenses changed, when you go inside and outside — transition lenses — I love them. They worked for me. It was weirdly cool in 1986. I bought them right on Thayer Street. Did you read The Herald during those days? Of course I did! Of course I did! You do a lot of interviews. What is the best question you’ve ever been asked? There’s sort of nothing about being interviewed that I enjoy. It has nothing to do with the people doing it. It’s hard not to feel awkward and silly, and I hear the sound of my own voice, and I just say, “Shut up, just be quiet.” “Just be quiet.” It’s an inherently awkward thing to do. I have no idea. What about the worst question? I was standing in the line for the opening of Kinsey ... a movie about sex education, the sexual revolution in the United States and gay rights and all sorts of stuff. And a woman — all she wanted to ask about was where did I get my pedicure ... You’re hit with that a lot. Do you have any advice for aspiring Brown actors and actresses? Don’t rush. I think more than anything, it’s don’t rush. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Don’t feel like you’re missing something that’s not here. It will be there, and this is precious time. It will only help you. But don’t rush. — Lucy Feldman and Alison Silver
Campus News 5
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Prep school administrators share Brunonian roots By ELIZABETH KOH Senior Staff Writer
Every May, some graduates walk out the Van Wickle Gates and leave their liberal arts education behind. Some pursue jobs in finance or consulting, while others seek out careers in medicine or law. But some alums never really leave school. Three of America’s most prestigious preparatory schools — Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H. and Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. — are currently led by Brown alums. Despite the different paths that each alum took to his or her current position, what they all share is a Brown education. Education’s building blocks
When he first arrived at Brown, Vincent Tompkins ’84 wasn’t sure he wanted to be a teacher. But “it grew as a potential interest,” he said. Tompkins concentrated in history, working a part-time job in the library to make ends meet. Though his job took up a “big part of what (he) did outside of class,” what consumed his attention was his education. The classes were “really challenging and intense” and were so engaging he would spend hours thinking about them even after class, he said. He credited faculty such as Richard Schmitt, now professor emeritus of philosophy, with inspiring him to go into education. “I could see myself devoting my life to that,” he said. After graduating, Tompkins went on to receive a doctorate in history from Harvard and began to teach in its history department. He served in multiple administrative positions at Harvard before becoming Brown’s deputy provost in 2005. In 2010, he left the University to become the headmaster at Saint Ann’s. “The philosophy of education at Saint Ann’s resonates with the philosophy represented by the open curriculum at Brown,” he said. He noted how both schools encourage students to be the “architect of (their) own education.” “It’s that sense of empowering students, of giving them a voice, of encouraging them to explore,” he said. Tompkins noted the differences he faced between his administrative duties at a university compared to a preparatory school. “One of the initial challenges was assuming leadership of a school as an outsider,” he said. “So much of leadership is enabled by establishing relationships of trust and mutual respect with everyone in the community.” But “for the most part, the surprises and challenges have been welcome ones,” he added. Tompkins was welcomed into the community when he was elected, said Anna Plumlee ’15, who was a junior when Tompkins was chosen for the position. Before he was selected, the
school’s search committee held a community-wide talk with each of the three finalists for the position to get feedback from the school community. The talks, which drew an “incredible” turnout including faculty and alums, featured Tompkins on the last day, she said. “Everyone walked out of the meeting going, ‘Vince Tompkins is awesome — that’s the way to go,’” she said. Tompkins also made an effort to connect with students by allowing them to sign up individually to meet and talk to him, she said. “That was really, really great and sort of epitomized the really strong faculty connection” at Saint Ann’s, she said. That faculty connection, Plumlee said, remains one of Saint Ann’s distinguishing factors, and is critical to its academic freedom and flexibility. “You just were allowed to pursue your passions in whatever way you wanted,” she said. “The teachers were there for you to do that.” “It’s a lot like Brown — you can pretty much take anything you want,” she added. That deep and broad liberal education is fundamental, Tompkins said. “It’s about developing a love for education that can last a lifetime.” A ‘24-hour experience’
For some, that love for education can be found early. Before Thomas Hassan ’78 P ’15 arrived on campus, he said he knew he wanted to teach. The connections he was able to forge with faculty was something missing from Hassan’s large public high school. “It opened my eyes to a world much, much bigger than where I came from,” said Hassan, a self-described “bluecollar kid.” He particularly enjoyed a course entitled “Functional Writing.” Hassan said “it was a wonderful course,” but his experience in high school had left him unprepared for the level of work it required. “Academically, I had to kick it up.” Despite the difficulty, Hassan began his teaching career by serving as a teaching assistant for the writing course his senior year. He also taught off-campus at Central High School in downtown Providence and at other schools in the city’s suburbs. After completing an independent concentration in math and English education, Hassan began working in the Admission Office. In his role as an admission officer, he visited schools across the country — including boarding schools, which he initially knew little about. Though the structure of boarding schools was “foreign” to him, “I got really intrigued by it,” he said. “It was a 24-hour experience.” Eventually, Hassan went on to Harvard for a master’s degree and a doctorate in education. But he could not forget the boarding schools he had visited during his
time as an admission officer. After Harvard, Hassan began teaching math at Exeter, drawn in by the school’s distinctive teaching style. Exeter employs a teaching philosophy called the Harkness method, which was developed at the school to encourage round-table discussion rather than the traditional lecture. “We work our way through problems,” he said. “I’m the guide — it’s a very, very interactive way of learning.” Three years ago, Hassan became the fourteenth principal in Exeter’s 231-year history. “This is the perfect place” for his motivated students, he said. “You get the intellectual challenge, but it’s still a high school with rules.” Kevin Jung ’15 said that Exeter has become “more relaxed” under Hassan’s tenure. “Every principal leaves a mark on an institution,” Jung said. Hassan was “very interested in the life of the students, the happiness level, the stress level,” and made small improvements to student lifestyles, from scheduling an extra half hour of sleep for students in the mornings to making sure sports practice did not interfere with academics, he said. Jung, who attended a Rhode Island public high school for two years before transferring to Exeter, also noted the value of its academic environment. “I had to be responsible for my work,” he said. “It’s very easy to go to English class pretending to do the reading. But when you’re on the Harkness table and you’re responsible for other students’ education, that’s a responsibility that every Exeter student is aware of.” “I learned three times, four times what I learned in public school,” Jung added. This mode of learning is at the heart of both a Brown and an Exeter education, Hassan said. “There’s a motivation to learn and push one another.” ‘Intellectual awakening’
For Barbara Chase ’67 P ’97, fellow students triggered her “intellectual awakening” at Brown. “The quality of the student
body, both intellectually and in terms of diversity, has always stuck with me,” she wrote in an email to The Herald. Chase attended public school before being admitted to Pembroke College, the women’s college that merged with Brown in 1971. She noted the vastly different education she received in college compared to high school. A history concentrator, Chase wrote that the history department was “a terrific department across every area.” Chase also sang in the Pembroke Double Quartet, her main extracurricular activity, and “loved that experience,” she wrote. After graduating, Chase moved directly to teaching, first at two Providence schools — Moses Brown School, then the Wheeler School, where she also served as director of admissions. She served as headmistress at the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore for 14 years before she finally moved to Andover in 1994. During her time at Andover, Chase became well known for her involvement with students and the community, hosting dinners for students at her home and staying connected with community members on campus. “She’s kind of like Ruth here, but at Andover,” said Faiyad Ahmad ’14, who served as student body president at Andover. “She was always checking up on us. Considering the responsibilities she had, that was pretty amazing.” When Ahmad was admitted to Brown, Chase shared anecdotes about “all the times she spent here and the things she learned here,” he said. “She told me there was some sort of secret handshake here that I haven’t learned yet,” he said jokingly, noting how special Brown was to her. “She told me to make the most of it.” Students at Andover have managed to do so, thanks to the University’s similarities to the prep school, Stephanie Teo ’12 said. “The liberal arts curriculum mirrored the open curriculum,” she said. “There was a lot of emphasis on learning for the sake of learning.” “I wanted to find a place that
was like Andover — but bigger,” she added. “And I definitely found it in Brown.” Moving forward
The three alums have varied plans for their futures. Chase, who is stepping down as head of school at Andover this summer, noted Brown’s role in her personal development. The experiences she shared with fellow students “made me work towards diversity and excellence in the student body of any school where I have taught or led,” she wrote. Tompkins, who assumed his post at Saint Ann’s in 2010, has further plans for the school. “I’m hoping to have a long stretch here, making this amazing school even more amazing,” he said. “One of the things that distinguishes Saint Ann’s from my perspective is our remarkable faculty,” he said. “The most important job I have over the coming years is sustaining that very high level of faculty and commitment.” Hassan, however, is looking more to the present. “I’m happy here and happy to be here,” he said. His enthusiasm was no surprise to his classmates at their 25th reunion, he said. “My classmates at Brown kind of laugh because they knew education was what I wanted to do,” Hassan said. ‘They said, ‘You followed your heart,’ and ‘you’re doing what you love.’”
6 Campus News
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 11, 2012
U. narrows Watson Institute director candidates down to three continued from page 1 and political economy, according to his faculty webpage. He has also served as director at the Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Toronto and director of the Central and East European Studies Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Stanger is a professor of international politics and economics at Middlebury College. She recently published a book, “One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy.” Previously, she has advised the policy planning staff for the secretary of state and helped write a 2010 review on diplomacy and development, according to her faculty webpage. Wallander previously worked as a visiting professor at Georgetown University, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a professor at Harvard. In their deliberations, the search committee members considered the depth of the candidates’ experiences. “We wanted somebody that has relevant expertise as an outstanding scholar or as an outstanding practitioner,” Schlissel said. “In keeping with its charge, the committee sought candidates with a record of institutional leadership who had both academic credentials
and at least some experience in the wider world of international affairs,” wrote Deputy Provost Joseph Meisel in an email to The Herald. The new director will collaborate with faculty members to determine the new direction for the Watson Institute, Schlissel said. “In general, Watson will be focusing on international security, but security can be so many things that it will be up to the new director to define what it means,” he said. The Watson Institute has struggled in recent years to identify its research focus areas, The Herald reported last April. “Working closely with the provost and our new president — whose own experience is highly germane to Watson — and in consultation with faculty in relevant fields, the next director will shape the institute’s intellectual and programmatic agenda going forward,” Meisel wrote. The firm Isaacson Miller was used in the search. “Their role was to deal with the administrative side of the search,” Schlissel said. After the search committee completed its work, the Office of the Provost assumed responsibility to choose a final candidate. Andrew White ’13, an international relations concentrator and co-president of the International Relations Department Undergraduate Group, said the ideal candidate
Sam Kase / Herald
Jeffrey Kopstein, Allison Stanger and Celeste Walander are the current contenders for directorship of the Watson Institute.
is someone who will remain in the position for several years. Four directors have stepped down from the position over the past six years, The Herald reported April of last year. “We want someone who will stick around for several years to come and clarify the relationship between Watson Institute and international relations,” he said. Many students expressed indifference about the search. “The director is pretty removed from the undergraduate experience,” said Caroline Sagalchik ’13, an international relations concentrator. “Watson is focused on research. That’s what (the) Watson Institute
is renowned for, and that’s what they want to see the new director promote.” Carolyn Aker ’12 said she did not interact with either director while at Brown, noting that it “didn’t make much of an impact on (her) IR tenure.” But she said she hopes the director will make the institute more accessible. “Having gone through the program, the undergraduate experience could be strengthened. Events that I’ve attended through the Watson Institute haven’t been highly accessible to students,” she said. After hearing about the can-
didates, students approved of the choices. “All of them have solid backgrounds, and I think having someone who understands how academic research ties into practice is important,” White said. “My interests are most in line with (Stanger’s), but I think all of them sound interesting, and there are many other variables to consider,” Aker said. The students said they believe the faculty of the Watson Institute and the administration will pick a satisfactory candidate. “I have faith in the people who are choosing the director to find someone good for the job,” Sagalchik said.
City & State 7
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Housing project ignites debate among College Hill residents continued from page 1 es. Gilbane noted that the community would see a decrease in traffic, as students who currently live off campus would not need to drive their vehicles to campus. In addition, he added that one of the main aspects of college life is socialization, which he feels would be fostered by this dormitory complex. After an hour of Gilbane’s presentation, the crowd of about 50 people began to get restless, and Gilbane was interrupted with questions and concerns. Most people expressed the opinion that the chosen location is wrong. One member of CHNA called the project “massive and intrusive.” After one member voiced his opinion that the project should be integrated with the neighborhood rather than closed off, the room was filled with applause. Applause also met the opinion that Gilbane had stepped on Brown’s toes by not speaking with them. “I do not speak for Brown,” Gilbane said. Marisa Quinn, vice president of public affairs and University relations, noted the recent longterm plan to increase the number of beds on campus as well renovations to current dormitories. This comment was met with a murmur from the back of the room sug-
gesting that “Brown should just stop growing.” Quinn previously wrote in an email to The Herald, “Brown welcomes projects and activities that strengthen the character and offerings of the Thayer Street district and that are consistent with what we understand to be in the interests of the College Hill Neighborhood Association and others with a stake in the success of the area.” Those in favor of the project felt that it would increase the density of the neighborhood, thereby increasing safety. In addition, supporters argued that the buildings that would need to be demolished are not vital to the neighborhood. The idea of the preservation of the neighborhood pervaded the discussion — with some arguing to keep the existing houses and others suggesting that the new complex could reflect the current architecture of the area. The proposal must be approved by the Providence City Council before work can begin. Gilbane hopes to begin construction by June 2013, The Herald previously reported, which would require approval by late April. Residents expressed concern over the fast approaching deadline, with one woman calling the project a “snowballing of development.”
Courtesy of Stephen Souls
Construction of the proposed housing project at the corner of Meeting and Thayer streets could start by August 2013.
Cicilline ’83 blasts Tea Party, stresses youth involvement By sona mrkttchian Senior Staff Writer
After almost two years in Congress, Rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-R.I., returned to his alma mater last night to address the Brown Democrats — an organization he co-founded almost 30 years ago with John F. Kennedy Jr. ’83. He stressed the importance of unifying the Democratic Party as the 2012 congressional elections present the opportunity to gain the 24 seats needed in the House of Representatives for progress on a liberal agenda. Cicilline began his speech by thanking students “for being Democrats” during a time when the Party “needs the passion and energy of young people.” The growing strength of the Tea Party movement has driven Democrats and Republicans in Congress further apart ideologically, he said. “The Republican Party was hijacked by the Tea Party.” After Republicans gained a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2010 congressional elections — widely due to the new, overwhelming support of the Tea Party among traditional Republicans — Democrats have struggled to be heard in the legislature, he said. “Everything we care about as Democrats — infrastructure, women’s rights, equality — all of those issues are under attack in this Republican Congress,” he added. Cicilline emphasized that ideological differences between the two parties have prevented Congress
from achieving the legislative change that most of America wants. “There are a lot of people who are disappointed,” he said. “For us to have a prosperous and vibrant economy, you need to have a middle class that can buy the goods and services we produce,” he said. “(The Republicans) have been advancing policies that undermine the middle class of this country.” During the question and answer session that followed his speech, students asked about Cicilline’s time in Washington. He said he struggles with his status as a freshman congressman in the minority party, where he has little voice in contributing to the legislative agenda. Regardless of his position, “it’s really important to be staking out priorities and pushing hard on the things you believe in.” He wants his fellow congressmen to know and understand his positions, even if he is not able to further his policy goals at the moment, he added. When asked about health care and environmental legislation, Cicilline said ultimately much of the Republican Party is not interested in addressing issues the Democrats find crucial. “There are folks who fundamentally don’t believe in government. They don’t believe in the role of government in protecting food safety, the environment and children’s health,” he said. “A lot of them don’t even believe in science.” Cicilline also addressed students’ concerns about the ongoing negotia-
tions between the University and Providence. The city is asking the University to increase its monetary contributions in lieu of taxes in an attempt to close the city’s large budget deficit, which some have attributed to Cicilline’s reckless financial decisions as mayor in the eight years prior to Taveras’ term. Cicilline said this issue is not specific to Providence but exists across the country. Taveras’ decision to address the issue was prudent in light of the massive amount of property taxexempt institutions have purchased over the year, he added. Cicilline said he attempted to solve the issue through a proposal that would give the city a portion of the state’s income tax revenue to compensate for revenue not earned from property taxes. He called it a “brilliant idea” and said he hopes “there might be some effort to do that again.” At the end of the night, Cicilline returned to his overarching message that the upcoming elections in November are crucial and the Tea Party must be defeated. “This is the most important election of our lifetime,” Cicilline said. “There has never been a time in our lifetimes when we have a new political movement on the ballot, but we do this time — the Tea Party.” The next two years in Congress will be significant, he added. Cicilline said he wants to see the “great bills” — which will not see a vote while Republicans are setting the agenda — out on the floor and
Sona Mkrttchian / Herald
Cicilline ‘83 called on the Brown Democrats to advance their party’s agenda.
passed into law. “We, as Democrats, need to keep the Senate, take over the House and reelect our president,” Cicilline said
to students before urging them to get involved in political campaigns to ensure the party achieves these goals.
8 Feature
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Group raises awareness, support for post-tsumani Japan By Phoebe Draper and Caroline Saine Senior Staff Writer and Staff Writer
When the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan last March, the Japanese Cultural Association immediately took action. Since the disaster, the members have devoted time and spirit to fundraising, spreading awareness and working to connect the Brown community with Japan. The group organized a concert to raise money for the victims and a panel on the subsequent nuclear disaster last year, and members have remained committed to the cause ever since. To commemorate the disaster, the JCA held a series of events over the last month both honoring victims and more deeply exploring the tsunami’s effects. They began by coordinating a vigil on the Main Green, during which students placed blue paper cranes on the grass in memory of those who died and those who are still missing. Most recently, the JCA organized the Rethink, Rebuild, Remember commemoration, a lecture presented at five different colleges on the East Coast featuring speakers who experienced the disaster or participated in relief efforts firsthand. Bridging oceans
The lecture series explored the ongoing relief efforts since last year’s earthquake. Nozomi Kanda, founder of Power of Japan, and Keiko Kiyama, the secretary general of the Japanese Emergency NGOs, flew from Japan to the United States to give their presentation at five colleges — Middlebury College, Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton and Brown. Each of the five universities contributed funds to finance their visit. Kanda and Kiyama spoke at all five colleges, but the third speaker varied by campus. “We wanted local voices, but at the same time we wanted leaders,”
said Jonathan Yanagawa ’12.5, member of JCA and co-organizer of the event. Tomonobu Kumahira ’14, a member of JCA, “literally traveled to the speakers’ offices in Japan and negotiated with them to come to the U.S.,” Yanagawa wrote in an email to The Herald. At Brown, Kanda, Kiyama and Jeffery Bayliss, professor of history at Trinity College, spoke in succession to a crowd of about 75 people. Kanda, whose family’s home was destroyed by the earthquake, provided the “human aspect” to the disaster, Yanagawa said. Kiyama contributed the “macro-organization” perspective and Bayliss added the “academic perspective,” he said. Three perspectives
A tearful Kanda began Sunday’s lecture by sharing her personal narrative. Kanda’s grandmother’s home was destroyed in the earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster, forcing her to relocate from Fukushima to Tokyo. “My grandmother said, ‘I want to die in my hometown,’” Kanda said. “But she couldn’t. She passed away before she got back home.” After taking in the scope of the destruction, Kanda, who lives in Tokyo, said she “couldn’t believe this is Japan.” “There was no food, no water, even no milk for babies,” she said. “I thought, ‘We have to help them as soon as possible … we have to save lives.’” Kanda established Power of Japan, a disaster-relief nonprofit, to collect and transport relief supplies along the affected coastline. “Please don’t forget this earthquake. And please don’t forget us,” Kanda said. Kanda’s narrative was followed by a presentation from Kiyama. Kiyama stressed the need for affected communities to develop self-reliance after the disaster. After providing initial emergency
support, NGO JEN focused on providing psychological support, building confidence and “supporting innovative visions of the future,” Kiyama said. In an area already “very much depopulated,” Japanese coastline communities may have difficulties returning to sustainable population levels, Kiyama said. “Everything is temporary,” she said. “We are not certain about the future.” Kiyama’s talk was followed by an address from Bayliss, who earned his master’s degree in Miyagi, Japan and had returned to the country as a relief-volunteer in mid-July 2011. “There’s a vastness to this destruction that no video or still image can ever convey,” Bayliss said. “It’s a nightmarish thing to behold — very daunting.” Bayliss commented on the “strong sense that there was always more to do.” The speakers were followed by a question and answer session in which Kerry Smith, chair of East Asian studies, asked about the benefit of volunteers who could not speak Japanese. “If you can use a shovel, they need you,” Bayliss said. An outpouring of support
The JCA has found support from within the University throughout the past year. When the earthquake struck Japan last year, former co-president of the JCA Rie Yamamoto ’11 scheduled a meeting with President Ruth Simmons, and the Brown University Committee on Japan Earthquake Relief was created. When the JCA held a relief concert to raise money for Japan, Simmons agreed to match every dollar raised, Yanagawa said. “I’m very thankful,” Furukawa said, noting that institutions comparable to Brown generally did not create university relief committees of the same scale. Furukawa credits the fund the University created for providing a framework for this year’s JCA events.
Due to the prior support of the community and the resources available from the University, “the entire JCA was very excited about creating this second series of events,” Yanagawa said. “The administration was there, this network was there and the students were already passionate.” Yanagawa said participating in the series opened his eyes to new possibilities for his future. “I had never really thought about a career in disaster relief,” he said. “But now that I think about it, it sounds pretty exciting.” Kohei Matsuo, one of the organizers of the lecture series, is an exchange student from Keio University. “I wanted to take part as a Japanese student,” Matsuo said. Matsuo traveled with the speakers to four of the five universities. Studying at Brown since September, “I did half of studying, half of this earthquake project,” he said. “I really felt that I did something that had to be done.” Aiming for personal impact
The series of lectures was not only intended to shed light on political or economic repercussions of the disaster, but to urge the community to empathize, said Chishio Furukawa ’13, another co-organizer of the series. The series was about “trying to appreciate the fact that you’re living safely and trying to put yourself in the position of the victims,” he said. Furukawa said the media portray the living conditions in Japan as much safer than before, but, in reality, many challenges still remain. “You never hear about voices from the local communities,” Yanagawa said. Kumahira said he hoped the lecture series would introduce a personal element to the disaster. Though inzitially shocked that people were crying at the events, “I realized that what we need to share is not only the information, but also the pain,” he said. Kumahira was in Tokyo during
the earthquake. “I felt the shake,” he said, but could not imagine the scale of suffering experienced by the people in harder-hit regions. The lecture series allowed people to transform sympathy into empathy, Yanagawa said. Lasting effects
“The affected areas still struggle to recover,” Furukawa said. Kumahira emphasized the continuing challenges of the disaster — those that the media have largely neglected. “The earthquake revealed a lot of structural problems the society faces,” Kumahira said. Kumahira said when he visited the Tohoku region over winter break, the local people despaired that even if they invested “five years and billions of dollars into rebuilding,” the community would still eventually collapse. “It’s the larger problems we need to solve,” Kumahira said. Some of these structural flaws come from a lack of selfreliance in rural areas. Last summer, Yanagawa received a $3,000 grant from a University professor to travel to Tohoku and distribute food and amenities. The experience was overwhelming, he said, because he came to realize that providing aid created newer and equally taxing problems for the community. “A lot of the victims had become dependent on others,” Yanagawa said. “We were constantly providing, but they weren’t really doing anything for themselves.” Ensuring that communities are able to recover independently of aid is one of the driving aims of JEN. Kiyama stressed to the audience at Sunday’s event that they should not pity the earthquake’s victims, but rather “respect the survivors as human beings.” Yanagawa also recognized the need for victims to rebuild their own lives. “For true reconstruction to take place, it has to be from within,” Yanagawa said.
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Feature 9
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Freshman mayor confronts obstacles facing troubled city continued from page 1 City Hall office, he might go from reading to students to working on a city budget, or from meeting with businesses to giving tours of the Holyoke High Performance Computing Center, a project currently under construction that Morse hopes will help aid in transitioning Holyoke to a strong digital-based economy. Despite keeping such a busy schedule, Morse said his new job has been “wonderful.” “I wouldn’t want to do anything else,” he said. “I’m in a position where I can work with everybody in the city.” The most meaningful part of the job has been connecting with constituents, Morse said. “You have to be everybody’s mayor.” Morse is the city’s first mayor to speak Spanish, something that has been particularly impactful in a city that is nearly 50 percent Spanish-speaking. Even after the campaign, Morse’s bilingualism has been useful, he said. “It’s helped send a message to residents and constituents that they’re welcome to city hall. It’s not as if they put up a sign ‘The mayor is bilingual’ — people know that,” Morse said, adding that he has often served as a translator in staff meetings when it was necessary to speak in Spanish. Morse has also pushed for making public documents and the city website bilingual. And though it is impossible to please everyone, Morse said he tries to weigh his decisions against what is best for the city’s future. “I was elected to use my judgment,” he said. “It’s a political city,” he added. “People have been around for many, many years. Some people
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are still trying to figure me out, but I’m pretty independent. I always have a stance, and I stand up for it.” Morse has vocally opposed the creation of a casino in Holyoke since his campaign, for instance, believing that Holyoke should rely on new technologies to bring in money rather than investing in a casino, which he says would take money from Holyoke citizens. Hands-on learning Holyoke residents often encounter Morse outside the office, and Morse said he makes it a point to be a very “hands-on” mayor. As a way to reinforce his message about the future of Holyoke’s downtown, Morse bought himself an apartment there and held an open house for the press last Friday. In order to better understand Holyoke firefighters and police officers, Morse has spent a few hours riding along with each department. “It’s one thing to do a job from behind a desk. It’s another thing to get out there,” said Holyoke Chief of Police James Neiswanger, adding that police officers were very appreciative of Morse’s efforts. Morse said each ride-along was a great learning experience, adding that he plans to shadow additional departments in the near future. “I got to know them at a more in-depth level,” Morse said of his experience shadowing Holyoke firefighters. “Eating dinner and talking and whatnot, going out on a few calls — I just think it’s important to build that sense of camaraderie between my office and people who have been working in the department.” Having a sense of the people working in each department is
helpful when it comes to making decisions that affect those departments, Morse said. Holyoke is a city with fairly high levels of poverty and drug dealing, Neiswanger said, and Morse, whose campaign focused heavily on public safety, has been helping the police department launch a community policing initiative, among other steps to improve public safety. Morse was able to emphasize this goal even when his older brother was arrested on drug charges last month. “For me, this is just another reminder as to why it’s so important to support individuals and families affected by substance abuse, as well as making sure treatment is available to those who need it,” Morse said in a statement after his brother’s arrest. “My brother’s experience has made me a better and stronger person, as it has made me more aware of the struggles of people right here in Holyoke and has better prepared me to address them. I ask Holyoke for their support and privacy for my family during this difficult time.” Another tenet of Morse’s campaign was promoting education. Morse has been “actively involved” in reshaping Holyoke, particularly focusing on redressing low literacy rates in elementary schools, said David Dupont, Holyoke superintendent of schools. “And I mean actively involved. He’s helping us lead the charge with regard to his end.” A return to his roots
Morse has been heavily involved in Holyoke from an early age, serving on the Holyoke School Committee, the Holyoke Youth Task Force and the Holyoke Youth Commission, among many
others. And at a young age, he knew he wanted to be the mayor of Holyoke — even in the sixth grade, “he was so serious about it,” Morse’s classmate Alexandra Zapata told Out Magazine. While at Brown, Morse regularly visited Holyoke to stay involved, and in his final semester, he took all his classes on Tuesdays to campaign in Holyoke during the rest of the week. “The thing about Holyoke is that you just are constantly attracted back to it,” Morse told students in List 120 when he visited campus in February. As an undergraduate concentrating in urban studies, Morse also stayed in touch with Dupont, who was Morse’s high school’s principal prior to becoming superintendent in 2009. “What I see is really a continuation of the interest and energy that he seemed to always have, not only with regards to his schoolwork and participation in school but also interest with regards to social change and social issues,” Dupont said. “He’s eager to learn, he certainly isn’t afraid to ask questions, and he’s very responsive, so I just hope he keeps going along that route.” Morse also was a mentee to former mayor and now congressman David Cicilline ’83, D-RI and said the two of them do occasionally keep in touch. “I know that David’s there if I need to call him,” Morse said, but he added that he mainly relies on his team of local advisers. Morse got on the mayoral ballot after winning the primary in September by just one vote, beating 67-year-old incumbent Elaine Pluta. Following his victory, Morse’s campaign printed shirts that read, “I was the one
vote.” Though both Morse and Pluta were effective mayors, there was a “generational” difference between the two, both in the primary and the general election, Neiswanger said. Morse’s “ability to reach a younger crowd” — often through social media tools like Facebook and YouTube — was key. Now, Morse is “probably one of the most recognizable faces” in the city, Neiswanger said. “He’s the face of the city, and he’s the future of the city.” Facing the future Morse has said he hopes to be mayor for eight to 10 years, but he told The Herald that he may be interested in staying longer than that, depending on what progress has been made at that point. “Change takes a long time. A lot of the issues that we’re working on are going to take years to see the results on,” Morse said, pointing specifically to education and efforts to grow Holyoke’s downtown. And while he knows he will not win over everyone, Morse said people have responded quite positively to him and his “multiple identities that are not traditional” for a mayor — young, openly gay, Spanish-speaking and the first in his family to graduate college, for starters. “We may not have the same identity as other people. People like knowing that they have a mayor that has that experience,” Morse said. Neiswanger agreed, saying that Morse serves as a great role model for Holyoke youth. “It’s kind of like, ‘Look what I’ve done so far, and I’m a young man,’” Neiswanger said. “It’s very inspirational.”
10 Editorial Editorial
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Editorial cartoon by s a m r o s e n f e l d
Pro-life political points This afternoon, the Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee will be hearing seven “pro-life” bills. We are unpleasantly surprised that Rhode Island’s representatives cannot find better uses of their time and energy than attempts to limit access to reproductive health care. Instead of addressing the economy, unemployment or homelessness, Rhode Island legislators will be considering bills like HB 7182, which “would authorize the division of motor vehicles to issue special license plates in recognition of ‘Choose Life.’” These efforts are not only a waste of time — they are also inappropriate, manipulative intrusions on a woman’s right to choose. HB 7009, which “would prohibit any woman from being forced to have an abortion against her will,” may seem intended to protect women, but that in itself assumes that women are not capable of making decisions independently. If HB 7009 passes, a woman would be made to wait an additional 24 hours “if it was determined that there was reason to suspect coercion.” This vague language is problematic — and a 24-hour waiting period can be a serious obstacle for women who do not live near the provider. Most do not: One study found that in 2008, 87 percent of all U.S. counties lacked an abortion provider, and 35 percent of women live in those counties. Most troubling, however, are the bills that seem constructed around “personhood,” a concept recently deployed by pro-life legislators attempting to have the fetus considered a person with full rights from the moment of fertilization. Several bills being considered in Rhode Island invoke this idea of fetal rights, such as HB 7006, which would “define and impose penalties for acts of violence upon an unborn child,” and HB 7010, which “would make assault on a pregnant woman which causes her to suffer a miscarriage or stillbirth punishable by up to thirty years imprisonment, and life imprisonment if the fetus is 12 weeks or older.” As the American Civil Liberties Union stated on its website, the editorial page board supports a “woman’s right to obtain redress under civil law for an injury to her fetus, and we support society’s right to punish criminal conduct.” But the implications of these bills could be used as precedent. That is, if these bills are passed, “personhood” for fetuses could be established next, which could be used to challenge the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade. The University recently announced that Gloria Steinem, a key player in the feminist movement in the 1960s and someone who remains active in the movement today, will be visiting Brown at the end of the month. In an online video to show support for the Obama campaign, Steinem pointed out that “whether or not a woman can determine when and whether to have children is the single biggest element in whether we’re healthy or not, whether we’re educated or not, how long our life expectancy is, whether we can be active in the world or not.” The stakes are high, which raises the question: Why are Rhode Island legislators willing to gamble with women’s lives to score political points? Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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Opinions 11
The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Complicating the moral of the Trayvon Martin tragedy Kevin Carty Opinions Columnist Approximately five months ago, two men robbed me. On Meeting Street at 2:30 p.m., one pulled a cord over my head, dragged it taut across my open mouth and held it in place while he spun me around and had his partner relieve me of my possessions. I did not see the man holding me, but the one who faced me, taking my wallet and phone, was African-American. Aside from some mild cuts on my mouth, I was not injured, and an insurance policy held by my parents covered the cost of my lost belongings. But there was one incredibly unexpected side-effect. Four nights ago, after reading a few articles about the death of Trayvon Martin, I went to bed and experienced one of the strangest dreams of my life. In it I faced the man who, I was sure, had mugged me five months ago. Unconsciously acting in my dream, I felt threatened and killed him out of apparent self-defense. But at the close of my dream, I realized that the nowdead man was not a man at all. In fact, he was a familiar-looking teenaged boy — he was Trayvon Martin. In my dream, I had become George Zimmerman. I’m not making this up. It should be noted that I am not a violent person and that none of us has control over his dreams. It should also be noted that I — in
no way, shape or form — want to defend or ameliorate Zimmerman’s behavior. Being Zimmerman, albeit unconsciously, was frightening. But, more frightening is the thought my dream inspired, the thought of how easy, in real life, it is to be a George Zimmerman. How’s that? Well, he was somewhat angry, muttering about the “f---ing punks” that “always get away” in the 911 call he placed before the shooting. One would be hard-pressed to argue that this irritation did not con-
thing to do. All that this behavior requires is passivity of thought and an unwillingness to interrogate your own biases. And lastly, Zimmerman empowered himself to kill another. It goes without saying that Martin would probably be alive if Zimmerman had not been armed. But reaching the potential to take a life does not require a 9mm handgun. David Buss, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, once conducted a study that found that 91 percent of men and 84 percent
If we want actual personal and societal improvement after the Trayvon Martin shooting, we’re called to do more than denounce George Zimmerman and selfrighteously demand justice. tribute to his willingness to needlessly follow Martin. And anger is easy to develop, whether one is a militant neighborhood watchmen or a white-collar office worker. Secondly, though it may be difficult to determine the inner psychology of Zimmerman, it does seem that he appraised Martin according to his race. On the call, Zimmerman implied that the 17-yearold was casing houses and that he looked “like he’s up to no good, or on drugs or something.” Such testimony, devoid of real evidence that Martin was high or behaving criminally, does appear to be racially charged. And racial profiling isn’t a hard
of women have personally had vivid, detailed fantasies of murdering another person. If Zimmerman, or someone like him, had maintained a homicidal fantasy, it is conceivable that he would not even need a weapon to carry out that vision in the heat of the moment. This is precisely because, as is the case with other things in life, imagining an activity beforehand makes it easier to do that action. Envisioning murder, something many of us do, can bring murder closer to reality. In the wake of Martin’s death, an enormous amount of moral outrage has been directed at Zimmerman. Factually, this
makes sense. Seeming to have been acting on his stereotyped perception of Martin, Zimmerman pursued him, an act of unnecessary aggression that brought an instance of unnecessary death. This deserves outrage. However, Zimmerman has also been raised up as some rogue and racist other, as completely different from the rest of us. Psychologically, such a reaction is understandable for socially unacceptable crimes. It is easier to believe ourselves moral and deem our society good when we isolate our criminals by labeling them deviant and calling their crimes anomalous. But doing these things does not make us moral — it only makes us feel better. If we want actual personal and societal improvement after Martin’s shooting, we’re called to do more than denounce Zimmerman and self-righteously demand justice. We’re called to face the difficult truths of human similarity by remembering that it’s not that hard to be Zimmerman. We’re called to calm our frustration, check our stereotyping and become more peaceful-minded. If we accept some of our inner flaws and do these things to address them, we’ll be better, more responsible people. That is a fundamentally good thing and an excellent way to move on from a tragedy. Kevin Carty ’15 is a 19-year-old from Washington, D.C. He would love to hear any responses and can be reached at kevin_carty@brown.edu.
The Unbearable Lightness of Brown? Nikhil Kalyanpur Opinions Columnist “YOLO! YOLO!” has been echoing at every party you go to, and the hashtag is dominating the Twitterverse. “You Only Live Once” is a great excuse to get down and dirty, but it has also historically been the subject of plenty of philosophical debates. Milan Kundera in his elegant and eloquent work, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” argues that this belief system leaves us lacking purpose, as we are uncertain of what difference any of our actions can make in the long run. This is the crux of many a Brown students’ existential crises. The author writes that this notion of insignificance makes our efforts seem “light” and leads to many being frustrated and overwhelmed. However, I want to argue that we should be reveling in the lightness the Brown system affords us and utilizing it to make educated decisions on the heaviness that will eventually define us. One of the fundamental aspects of the New Curriculum is to encourage exploration. As the phrase goes, we should aim to enter Brown with an empty mind and leave with an open mind. But how can this be achieved? Ira Magaziner ’69 and Elliot Maxwell ’68, the authors of the New Curriculum, and many after them have recognized that crafting one’s own education is the means to this end, but it can only be
effective if a student has the prerogative to experiment. Our requirement-free system gives us this opportunity, but we must approach it with lightness. We need not fear the workload of a class, the sleepless nights we may incur or, most importantly, the way they may make us think. We need to embrace the naive curiosity that we were chosen for. If we only live once, we need to embrace the potential for intellectual indulgence. Yet we often see students taking, in Kundera’s terms, a “heavy” approach to education. This is the reason we have so
indulge in the vastness of the academic ocean here at Brown. Heaviness need not be a hindrance so long as it is preceded by exploration. As Kundera writes, “The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.” The means to achieve this needs to come through experimentation in different fields. If you take classes from only a couple of departments in your time here, and you have found some form of passion, is that truly meaningful? I would argue no, because it means you’ve made a relatively
If you take classes from only a couple of departments in your time here, yet you have found some form of passion, is that truly meaningful? I would argue no, because it means you’ve made a relatively uneducated final decision.
many economics concentrators — we view this path as the way to achieving more in the future. It is the reason why easy-A classes like ENGN0090: “Management of Industrial and Nonprofit Organizations” have such absurdly high enrollments. We spend too much time fixating on GPAs, despite their theoretical nonexistence. Heaviness acts as a tide pushing us toward choosing convenience and safety, but we cannot settle, and we must
uneducated final decision. Herein lies the wonder of liberal arts education that only lightness can allow us to take advantage of. This approach can act as a transition to an educated, more authentic form of heaviness that we will need in the future. Nonetheless, lightness can become overwhelming, especially when you consider our plethora of course choices. But in Kunderan logic, what’s to fear? We should all be willing to try something dif-
ferent, particularly when we remember this is only a four-year journey. When this is translated to the social sphere, there can be mixed results. Of course, one should try to have new life experiences, but in college we easily get stuck in a collective rut. There is clearly a problem when the most overheard conversations on the Main Green are those regarding “how shitfaced” you were last night. Lightness does not imply we must strive for decadence. And it is not just the partying — think about the state of the Green following a nice day. The repulsive amount of trash that covers our grass is another tell-tale sign of misplaced lightness. In Kundera’s novel, the characters who live lightly become trapped in a vacuum void of meaning. As we go through these four years and become more exposed, our eyes will hopefully be opened to how little we actually do know — this should be the purpose of liberal arts education. In some ways this can be a burden, but instead it should be utilized as a means to achieve a valuable end. We use heaviness in its conventional sense to approach our academics, but it is only through Kundera’s notion of lightness that we can fully take advantage of our education. With fall registration looming, we need to keep this attitude in mind. If this makes no sense to you, please, just read the book. Nikhil Kalyanpur ’13 is a philosophy, politics and economics concentrator. He likes little talks and can be reached at nik.kalyanpur@gmail.com.
Daily Herald Science the Brown
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Lecture Ancient form of justice survives in baseball dispels vaccine myths By Lauren Pope Staff Writer
By Alyssa Self Contributing Writer
Students gathered to learn more about the science behind vaccines and the importance of vaccination for public health and society in Smith-Buonanno 106 yesterday. “Vaccination Fascination: a Mythbuster Seminar,” featured Richard Bungiro, lecturer in biology, molecular microbiology and immunology and Monica Kunkel, infirmary coordinator at Brown Health Services, and was organized by Brown MEDLIFE and the Community Health Departmental Undergraduate Group. “Millions of people have been saved by vaccines. When an infectious disease doesn’t kill you, it can leave you crippled for life,” Bungiro, who spoke first, said. Bungiro gave students an overview of the history and public health benefits of vaccination, as well as information on the basic scientific principles underlying vaccines. “I’m the one actually sticking the needle in your arm,” Kunkel began her portion of the talk. She proceeded to discuss vaccine policy at Brown and in Rhode Island. At Brown, students are required to receive vaccines for a number of illnesses and will face consequences such as a $100 fine or a dean’s letter for noncompliance. Health Services provides students with free flu vaccines each year, and Kunkel encourages students to take advantage of the service. Shivang Desai ’14, a member of MEDLIFE, organized the event after realizing that “lots of people had scientifically inaccurate ideas about vaccines” keeping them from getting the flu vaccine. As Kunkel mentioned the availability of flu vaccines at Brown, Bungiro raised his arms above his head in a silent sign of victory. Ending the talk, Kunkel said, “We love vaccines at Health Services.” Bungiro and Kunkel both also spoke about the anti-vaccine movement, a topic that several students cited as a primary reason for attending the event. Jasmina Suko ’14, said she was “interested in the anti-vaccine frenzy.” Kevin Nguyen ’14 said he attended the event to “hear Brown Health Services take on vaccine protocols and to see a more clear delineation on the vaccine controversy in recent years.” Bungiro used his “favorite celebrity” Jenny McCarthy as an example of an anti-vaccine advocate who lacks scientific backing, and Kunkel systematically dispelled several vaccine myths.
What do ninth century Iceland and Boston Red Sox games have in common? According to a recent study by Fiery Cushman, assistant professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the two have more in common than one might think. The cultures of both ancient Iceland and baseball exhibit vicarious punishment, a form of revenge in which the victim is not personally responsible for the transgression. “In many cultures, historically, if someone kills your brother, it is legitimate for you to kill their brother,” Cushman said. “It was taken as an acceptable practice to kill the brother if you couldn’t get at the original killer.” Vicarious punishment exists today in baseball through the phenomenon of beanballs. A beanball is when a player intentionally throws the ball at a player on the opposing team. Often, the first beanball may be an accident or an attempt to put an arrogant player in his place, but the second beanball is what Cushman and his team are interested in. The second, or retaliatory, beanball is interesting because it is punishing players for something that they did not do, Cushman said. Cushman worked with A.J. Durwin from Hofstra University and Chaz Lively from Boston University, according to a University press release. The three spent last summer trying to understand vicarious punishment. But since vicarious punishment is no longer acceptable in the majority of Western cultures, the researchers decided to examine the microcosm of baseball. “The hope is there is enough of an analogy there to learn something useful,” Cushman said.
The three went to various baseball stadiums to survey fans about their views on revenge in baseball. They ran four different studies with approximately 250300 people total, Cushman said. When fans were asked two questions, one after the other— first, is the retaliatory beanball morally acceptable? And second, is the target responsible for the original crime? — the consensus was that beanballs are acceptable but their targets are not responsible. “This is the fascinating phenomenon,” Cushman said. “There is good evidence from this study that the endorsement of vicarious punishment increases with the degree to which you are baseball fan. Bigger fans endorse vicarious punishment.” Adam Hoffman ’14, a pitcher for the men’s varsity baseball team, gave an explanation for why fans tolerate this kind of revenge. “Being a fan, you are subscribing to that community and the team. You suffer from the failures and rejoice in the successes of the team and when a player of a team that you are a fan of is hit, you feel part of that group,” he said. “It’s an eye for an eye type thing.” But despite the prevalence of revenge and beanballs at the professional level, Hoffman said retaliation is extremely rare at the college level. “In my two years, I haven’t seen any retaliation. The (National Collegiate Athletic Association) really makes an effort to talk about sportsmanlike conduct.” But why would vicarious punishment be acceptable in baseball when it is not acceptable in today’s culture? “We are lucky enough, living in a well-regulated society with a government, and we don’t have to worry about seeking our own justice,” Cushman said. But in baseball, there is a culture that endorses vicarious
Courtesy of Joel Van Boom
Adam Hoffman ’14 said vengeful actions are rare in college baseball.
punishment. So even if it does not coincide with one’s morals, “if you don’t do it, you’re out of luck,” he said. Cushman acknowledges that studying vicarious punishment in
sports and games may be limited and said he would like to do follow-up studies of gang and mafia culture. “Vicarious punishment is integral to the sense of justice that operates in gangs,” he said.
Conference fosters innovation of materials By Alissa Haddaji Contributing Writer
The School of Engineering hosted a conference over spring break that brought together academics, professionals and representatives from the federal government to discuss the future of new materials technologies and the Materials Genome Initiative. The MGI, announced by President Obama last June, aims to assist American institutions and companies in the development of cheaper and more effective new materials. Though the conference was originally called “Material by Design,” the University was contacted the night before the conference by a company claiming to own the name, said Vice President for Research Clyde Briant, so the conference remained unnamed. “The president calls for an expansion of opportunities for
American workers,” said Cyrus Wadia, assistant director for clean energy and materials research and development in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “Materials are going to be at the heart of all new technologies.” Wadia said he was impressed by the broad range of departments working together on material design, specifically citing the mechanical, biomaterial, applied math and physics departments. These researchers rely on computational tools, experimental tools and digital data to create new materials, Wadia said. “Labs at Brown are working on very important materials, but then you have to put them out there,” Wadia said. After the initial discovery and development of new materials at a university, the government’s duty is to support academic researchers in the manufacture and deployment of the product, he said. The goal is
to make technologies “two times faster, two times cheaper,” Wadia added. To illustrate one of the recent American successes, Wadia used the case study of the new airplane Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This airplane is 20 percent more fuel efficient than other airplanes because it uses 50 percent carbonfire composites, an alternative to aluminum. The project has created 11,000 jobs in the U.S. and is the number one U.S. export by dollar value today, Wadia said. But generally, the transition between academic work and product deployment is not very smooth, Wadia added. The strategy for bringing people together is to promote the development of new materials, to provide a link between academics and stakeholders and, most importantly, to foster a culture of innovation through education, he said. “Material innovations will
serve for national security, the next generation workforce, clean energy and human welfare,” he said. Wadia underlined the importance of interagency coordination with groups like NASA. “The more coordinated you are, the more leverage you can get from the federal community,” he said. The White House prioritizes developing academic research on new materials, Wadia said. “We are in constant communication with Brown,” he said. “We are constantly in search of new partners, and we want you to become diplomats of this initiative.” After the event, Wadia addressed the importance of involving students in the MGI. “The Materials Genome Initiative is an opportunity for the entire materials community to shape our next generation of materials discovery and deployment,” Wadia wrote in an email to The Herald.