Monday, April 23, 2012

Daily

Herald

the Brown

Monday, April 23, 2012

vol. cxxii, no. 55

Since 1891

How diverse are we?

As the University has become less uniform, socioeconomic status still acts as a barrier to Brown

By Margaret Nickens and Kate Nussenbaum Senior Staff Writers

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Childish Gambino headlined Friday’s Spring Weekend concert. See pages 8-9.

In the 2004 Plan for Academic Enrichment, the University declared its goal to increase socioeconomic diversity and has since continued to promote an image of accessibility for students of all income levels.

“It’s important to know that diversity in its myriad forms is a guiding value in the admission process, socioeconomic diversity included,” wrote Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 in an email to The Herald. “It’s also important to know that we are seeking diversity not just for the sake of diversity, but because talent

and excellence come from across the nation and the world and from all different strata of society.”

With a need-blind admission process implemented in 2003 and a financial aid office that states it is committed to meeting 100 percent of demonstrated need, Brown educates students from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds.

Still, under 50 percent of students receive financial aid, and a majority of students pay full tuition — $53,136 in the current academic year — which itself is more than the median U.S. household income.

Over the past 250 years, colleges, continued on page 12

Facing shortfall, Taveras continues calls for U. contributions

By Elizabeth Carr and Kat Thornton City & State Editors

At a February press conference announcing the city’s potential looming bankruptcy, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras’ staff gave reporters a packet that included a page specifically devoted to explaining the contributions the University needed to make to help avert financial disaster.

This emphasis underscored Brown’s strategic importance to the city’s attempts to close its budget gap. After cutting public services

and jobs, closing schools and reducing some salaries in city government, the most recent budget hole today stands at $22 million — $7.1 million of which Taveras hopes will come from Providence’s major nonprofits. As the city’s larg-

city & state est property owner and the manager of a budget that dwarfs that of Providence, the University is a high-profile target in the Taveras administration’s effort to raise the funds.

The University and the city were

publicly at odds following Taveras’ announcement that the city could declare bankruptcy in June if the budget deficit is not closed. The two parties have since engaged in weeks of negotiations behind closed doors — with the mayor and his staff negotiating opposite a University team comprising President Ruth Simmons and her staff, led by Beppie Huidekopper, executive vice president for finance and administration, and Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president.

Many on the outside — Provi-

dence residents and Brown students alike — have called for the University to open its coffers to aid the city.

The University’s tax exemption is based in its 1764 charter, issued by King George III of England. Nonprofits nationwide are exempt from paying property taxes because they offer services that local governments may not be able to provide. But most of the country’s major nonprofits make voluntary payments in lieu of taxes. Brown currently pays more than $4 milcontinued on page 4

Spring Weekend sees sunny skies, few accidents

inside

The weather did not hold back Spring Weekend this year. Students celebrated performances and sunny skies as headliners Childish Gambino and the Glitch Mob took the stage — outside — for concerts Friday and Saturday on the Main Green.

Performances were met with a range of responses from students, but the sun was declared the hero of the weekend — last year, torrential rain forced both concerts indoors. Students danced and cheered — though they didn’t necessarily sing — during Friday openers Sepalcure and What Cheer? Brigade and Saturday’s Cam’ron, the Walkmen and Twin Shadow.

“Everyone was really pleased,” said Sandy Ryza ’12, administrative chair for the Brown Concert Agen-

arts....................2-3 CITY & State........4 Sports................5 Concert.............7-9 news................10-11 series...............12-13

cy. “We wanted to have the concert outside at all costs.” The BCA purchased 6,000 rain ponchos in case of bad weather, some of which were distributed Sunday during the downpour that met Dave Binder’s annual acoustic performance on Wriston Quadrangle.

Thanks to weekly safety meetings and crowd control at the concerts, the concert proceedings generally ran smoothly, Ryza said. “There were no crimes,” he said — only isolated incidents of fence jumping.

“The biggest problem was the tickets on Friday night,” he said, referencing long lines of students waiting to get into the concert.

Entry into the Main Green was delayed for 30 minutes Friday due to Childish Gambino’s late arrival into Providence. The wait was exacerbated because Green Horn continued on page 7

Fiancees

“Boeing-Boeing” is a farcical delight Arts & Culture, 3

By MARGARET NICKENS Senior Staff Writer

Anthony White ’13 defeated David Rattner ’13 and Robert Bentlyewski ’13 to win the presidency of the Undergraduate Council of Students, current UCS president Ralanda Nelson announced Thursday at 11:59 p.m. White garnered 51.3 percent of the votes following an instant runoff against Rattner, Nelson said.

Under the instant runoff system implemented last year, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, the votes for the candidate who received the fewest first-choice votes are reallocated based on the voter’s second choice.

The voting period lasted from 12 p.m. Tuesday to 12 p.m. Thursday, during which time 1,723 undergraduates cast ballots.

“All I could think about was that it was good people were really receptive to my ideas,” White said. “I will be able to make the kind of change that I was talking about while I was campaigning.”

White said he thought his emphasis on improving financial aid and helping student groups contributed to his win.

“I see this not as a win for me

Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

continued on page 2

Students went wild over the weekend, the last one before reading period.

Occupy sexism Good job Feminists call attention to “war on women”

city & state, 6

Anders ’14 defends social entrepreneurship opinions, 15

weather

By caroline saine Staff Writer

White ’13 wins runoff for UCS presidency

t o d ay

tomorrow

62 / 47

58 / 44

2 Arts & Culture

Tomasso ’13 wins UCS vice presidency

calendar Today

April 23

4 P.m.

ToMORROW

April 24

continued from page 1

10:30 p.m.

Ibsen Through Chinese Opera

Envisioning Obelisks at Brown

Lyman Hall 005

Main Green

7 p.m.

12 p.m.

Kony 2012 Movie Screening

From Brown to Chinese Medicine

Hunter Lab Auditorium

Science Center

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Savory Chicken Stew, Parslied Rice, Broccoli Spears, Vegetarian Chinese Stir Fry, Vegetable Egg Rolls

Cavatini, Vegan Stuffed Red Pepper, Zucchini and Onions Saute, Coconut Cookies

DINNER Stir Fried Beef and Pasta Medley, Baked Potatoes, Peas with Pearl Onions, Carrots in Parsley Sauce

Chicken Teriyaki, Sweet and Sour Tofu, Chinese Fried Rice, Greek Style Asparagus

Sudoku

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

but a win for moving Brown forward and making sure that the student body will finally be represented in a way that really features student interests,” he added.

Brandon Tomasso ’13 defeated Michael Schneider ’13 for the position of UCS vice president with 51.6 percent of the votes.

“I was so surprised to hear it,” Tomasso said about the moment he learned he had won. “I was ready to hear the worst.”

“They’re going to be awesome.

I think it’s an interesting combination,” said Maahika Srinivasan ’15, chair of the elections board.

“Anthony is the median between the three presidential candidates, and Brandon brings a lot of outsider knowledge.”

Bentlyewski said he thinks White and Tomasso will help improve the council and the council’s relationship with the student body.

“They’ll be able to move (the council) in a positive direction,” he said, adding that he might consider joining the council next year depending on the available positions.

Nelson said she would make herself available as a resource to White and Tomasso in the coming year. “I wish them the best of

luck,” Nelson said.

“We’re going to do big things, and it’s going to be great,” White said.

Tomasso was also elected to serve as co-president of the class of 2013 for the Class Coordinating Board. He has been president of the board for the past three years and will serve alongside Kelsey Tripp ’13.

Andrew Silverman ’14 will lead the class of 2014, and Jon Vu ’15 will serve as president of the class of 2015.

Zak Fischer ’13, who ran unopposed, was elected chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board.

No candidate officially ran for the position of vice chair of UFB. The position will be filled during an internal election at the first council meeting next semester, Srinivasan said. Prospective candidates for the position will speak briefly at the meeting and then the general body of the council will appoint people to the vacant UFB positions.

Fischer said he thinks he will work well with Tomasso and White and plans to meet with them weekly next semester to keep the lines of communication open.

Tomasso also said he looks forward to working with White and Fischer, adding that the three

share many common goals.

Six students — Leila Veerasamy ’15, Fredrick Rhine ’15, Oyeleye Odewunmi ’14, Stephanie Hennings ’15, Alex Sherry ’15 and Alex Drechsler ’15 — were elected to serve as UFB at-large representatives.

Manya Jean-Gitter ’13 defeated Charlene Flores ’15 to become chair of the academic and administrative affairs committee, and Afia Kwawkwa ’14 defeated Kimberly Wachtler ’13 to serve as chair of the campus life committee. Alexander Kaplan ’14, a Herald staff writer, and Abby Braiman ’15 were elected unopposed to serve as chair of the student activities committee and chair of the admissions and student services committee, respectively. Sam Gilman ’15 defeated Shannon Whittaker ’14 to serve as treasurer of the council.

“I think we have a good mix of people who have experience on (the executive board)… and then people who are in the general body and are coming up, bringing fresh ideas,” Braiman said.

“Especially under the leadership of Brandon and Anthony, I think UCS has the potential to do a lot of great things next year.”

— With additional reporting

by Eli Okun

Spotlight cast on Nigerian cinema at festival Crossword

By ju myoung kim Staff Writer

Nollywood, the digital film industry of Nigeria, is not just about new technology in filmmaking — it is about documenting and preserving the country’s culture, said filmmaker Tunde Kelani in a discussion panel Friday as part of this year’s Africana Film Festival, entitled “Nollywood and Beyond.” Kelani was joined by filmmaker Andy Amadi Okoroafor and Africana film scholars Jonathan Haynes, professor at Long Island University, and postdoctoral fellow Nduka Otiono.

The discussion, hosted by the Africana Studies department and the Department of Modern Culture and Media, answered questions about defining Nollywood and its impact on the broader cinematic scene in Nigeria and the world.

Nollywood was chosen as this

Daily

the Brown

year’s topic for the festival because it marks a break from traditional Nigerian filmmaking, said Karen Baxter, managing director of the Africana studies department’s Rites and Reason Theatre. The industry is “ground-breaking” not only because of its revolutionary use of technology but also for its response to political and cultural issues that Africans face every day, she added.

Nollywood provides an answer to the traditional distribution problems in African cinema, Haynes said. Filmmaking began in the 1960s in Africa, but it was difficult to reach the domestic audience because of financial cost and censorship issues in the distribution process, he added. But Haynes said Nollywood films “changed everything” for the Nigerian film industry, giving rise to a new commercial culture for a popular audience, both domestically and internationally. Nigeria became the “Mecca of successful

Herald

www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I.

Claire Peracchio, President Rebecca Ballhaus, Vice President

Danielle Marshak, Treasurer Siena DeLisser, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement and once during Orientation by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community.

POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906.

Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily.

Copyright 2011 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved. editorial

(401) 351-3372 herald@browndailyherald.com

Business

(401) 351-3260 gm@browndailyherald.com

industry,” he added.

The two films shown on Thursday and Friday — “Maami” and “Relentless” — portray some of these issues on screen.

“Maami” traces Nigeria’s soccer player Kashimawo’s trip to his hometown after gaining international success. In the film, he recounts his childhood of poverty and his parents’ death, but the dark themes are accompanied by humor, warmth and love, especially in the relationship between Kashimawo and his mother. “Maami,” which means “mother,” is a “very specific, yet universal character,” with values of love and parenthood that anyone can relate to, one audience member said during a question-and-answer session after the screening.

Another audience member commented on the portrayal of poverty from the “inside” perspective and how the film’s approach differs from the image portrayed by films outside of Africa.

“Relentless” also raises issues about war, child soldiers and prostitution, but the main character’s love and loneliness extend beyond Nigeria.

The Africana Film Festival started as a collaboration between MCM studies and Africana studies. This year’s goal was to bring important films, filmmakers and scholars to Brown and provide a space for a discussion about their work and the changes in African cinema, said Philip Rosen, professor of modern culture and media.

African artists have fought since the time of colonialism to develop African culture, and film has been central in that effort, he added.

Arts & Culture 3

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

Alissa Haddaji / Herald

Remy Fernandez-O’Brien ’12 choreographed the “deeply personal” show.

Courtesy of the Trinity Repertory Company

Rebecca Gibel MFA’10 as the sultry New Yorker Gloria and Stephen Thorne as the folksy Robert star in Trinity Rep’s staging of “Boeing-Boeing,” a farce about the perils of entertaining multiple paramours at the same time.

Student dance show Fiancees wreak havoc in comic revival a ‘giant lovefest’ By alissa haddaji Staff Writer

Mixing dance, lights and piano, Remy Fernandez-O’Brien ’12 put the public in the center of an innovative and inspired performance in “Bursting at the Seams: A Seamless Dance Show.” The show — created and choreographed by FernandezO’Brien — was performed in the Production Workshop Upspace Wednesday and Thursday night.

The show started by placing all audience members at the center of the theater. Fernandez-O’Brien appeared in a giant robot costume, stepped down out of his disproportionately large metallic shoes, took off his space helmet and taught a short choreography to the audience.

While the public was left alone practicing the choreography to pop/funk music, some dancers took the audience members’ seats and observed their performance.

The dancers performed a pop choreography on the chairs before mixing with the public and escorting them one by one back to their chairs.

“What I enjoyed the most was probably the audience interaction and the way Remy used sound, lighting and space. What he was able to create was about the joy of movement,” said Alison Murphy ’14.

“It was really reflective of the Brown spirit,” said Abby Moses ’14. “I liked the interaction. It was really outside of the box of usual theater productions.”

The second piece featured Nathan Weinberger ’13 and Nicole Parma ’14 performing a piano piece accompanied by choreographed elegant gestures.

“It was a giant lovefest,” said Nicolas Baird ’14, a dancer in the show. “Remy makes sure when he teaches his choreography that there is no right or wrong, that you are always right if you put everything into it.”

“It is a really incredible experience,” said Tori Wilson ’14, the main dancer in the third dance piece. “Remy works from a large piece to get us to an intimate place. He also makes sure that everybody is part of the process.

And this is what he does during his performance, too, by involving the public as part of the process.

His work is truly incredible.”

The process of creating this show started with auditions in February and ended Thursday night after four presentations packed the PW Upspace theater.

“It was a very personal show.

He drew inspiration from his life,” said Adam Frees ’13.

Structured as a shared moment with a compelled, enthusiastic audience, Fernandez-O’Brien chased the cycle of passion, inspiration and personal expression through dance. The piece ended with the troupe sitting in a circle taking deep breaths, a moment of grace and reflection which invited the audience to share a meditative and peaceful moment.

“It was most of all an art piece,” said Laura Curlin ’13.

By Sinclair Target Staff Writer

How many fiancees can you juggle at once? In “Boeing-Boeing,” Trinity Repertory Company’s hysterical new spring comedy, a Parisian playboy attempts to juggle three ­— with predictably farcical results.

The show, by French playwright Marc Camoletti, is set in the 1960s. Bernard (Joe Wilson Jr.) is a wealthy, self-enamored American architect living in Paris.

He has devised what he thinks is a brilliant system — by carefully keeping track of flight schedules, he manages to get himself engaged to three different air stewardesses at once. Each woman has no idea the others exist, as whenever one is home with Bernard, the other two are up in the air.

“Boeing-Boeing” was unpopular when it first opened in 1965, but it was brought back to Broadway in 2008 with a Tony Award-winning revival. Trinity Rep director Fred Sullivan Jr. said he had seen it in New York and decided it would be perfect for the company. “It’s perfect for the community, it’s perfect for spring and it’s perfect for the performers,” he said.

Between visits from his fiancees, Bernard’s surly French housekeeper, Bertha (Nance Williamson), rearranges the apartment to suit the woman arriving next, swapping out flowers and photographs. She also prepares different meals so that the three fiancees ­— an American, an Italian and a German — each find

the food to their liking.

As Bernard explains to his visiting high school pal, Robert (Stephen Thorne), his system is “so precise as to be almost poetic.”

Unfortunately for Bernard, a series of coincidences and the invention of a speedier plane conspire to make his juggling act more difficult. The play kicks into higher gear as his fiancees come and go faster and faster.

Bernard, with the help of Robert, tries desperately to keep his game from being discovered, but Bertha becomes increasingly uncooperative, and soon he finds himself having to deal with more than just one fiancee in his apartment simultaneously. Things get ever more ridiculous from there.

The stewardesses, though little more than stereotypes of their nationalities, are outrageously funny.

Gloria (Rebecca Gibel MFA’10) is a sultry, vivacious New Yorker with a penchant for pet names such as “lava-lips” and “bananaboat.” Gretchen (Amanda Dolan GS) is a domineering German subject to extreme fits of passion, while Gabriella (Liz Morgan GS) is an impatient Italian who at least twice in the play threatens to hit another character with her highheels. The three excellent actresses are all part of the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Program.

The audience favorite appeared to be Williamson as Bertha, whose regular sarcastic quips proved irresistible. Thorne’s naive, folksy Robert — “I come from Wisconsin,” he explains — ­­ is also immensely entertaining as the play’s

fish out of water.

Sullivan’s production is a vibrant, colorful affair. Each stewardess is matched with a different primary color. Gretchen, for example, works for Lufthansa, so her uniform is bright yellow. When she comes to stay at Bernard’s apartment, which is otherwise mostly white, Bertha swaps out the red flowers for yellow ones and does the same with the red pillow on the couch. Once Gretchen leaves, Bertha likewise switches everything to blue for the arriving Gabriella. It is a clever trick that helps the audience keep track of who’s coming and who’s going.

This is more helpful than it might sound, as there is a lot of coming and going. The set represents Bernard’s living room but has no fewer than seven doors upstage. As things get more hectic, Bernard is forced to hide his fiancees in different rooms, and the play grows hysterically similar to a game of whack-a-mole. The kitchen door is also on a swinging hinge, which allows Bertha to pop out and deliver her scathing punchlines every now and again, like a sardonic cuckoo clock.

Sullivan called the play “a really fun offering targeted at the funny bone.” Indeed, while a straightforward and unsurprising comedy, “Boeing-Boeing” is sure to keep you laughing from start to finish.

The play runs until May 13 at the Trinity Repertory Theater. As Robert says, quite rightly, “It’s nothing like Wisconsin, but it sure is exciting.”

4 City & State

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

Taveras to announce that city negotiations are ongoing continued from page 1 lion to the city annually — $1.2 million in voluntary payments, $1.25 million in taxes on recently acquired or converted properties that should now be tax-exempt but the University has kept on the tax rolls voluntarily and $1.6 million in taxes on properties not used for educational purposes.

The University has an operating budget of $663 million and a $2.5 billion endowment. Payments to the city represent 0.6 percent of the University’s operating budget for fiscal year 2012, and the $4 million increase that Taveras is looking for would consume another

cover existing costs due to increasing pension payments and limited property tax revenue, said David Ortiz, the mayor’s press secretary.

While nonprofits contribute to Providence in many ways, the fact that 40 percent of city property is untaxed creates a revenue dilemma, Ortiz said, adding that the city has fewer legal tools to remedy this problem, like the ability to tax properties not directly related to institutional use.

“The mayor is not looking to Brown University to solve the city’s problems, but the mayor is expecting Brown to be part of the solution,” Ortiz said.

He said negotiations have im-

“The mayor is not looking to Brown University to solve the city’s problems, but the mayor is expecting Brown to be part of the solution.”

David Ortiz Press Secretary for Mayor Angel Taveras

0.6 percent of the budget. Faced with these numbers, the University must decide if it can and should pay more.

Today, Taveras will make his annual budget announcement for the city council, which will include news that Brown and Providence have not come to an agreement on future contributions to the city. Negotiations are ongoing, but neither side will comment on the specifics of how they have progressed and when a deal might be reached.

‘Part of the solution’

Providence’s economic challenges are nothing new. Confronting a budget crisis in 2003, thenMayor David Cicilline ’83 struck an agreement with the city’s four major colleges and universities worth $50 million over 20 years. The deal pegged the University’s annual voluntary payments at $1.2 million and established a 15-year period following property purchases by nonprofits during which property taxes levied incrementally decrease.

Under this policy, colleges and universities agreed to pay full taxes on new properties for the first five years after purchasing them, twothirds of full taxes for the next five years and one-third of full taxes for the last five years before transitioning to full tax exemption.

Since his inauguration, Taveras has attempted to close an initial $122 million budget deficit. Taveras has called on the city’s seven major nonprofit schools and hospitals — Brown, Johnson and Wales University, Providence College, Rhode Island School of Design, Lifespan, Care New England and CharterCARE Health Partners — to increase their contributions to the city.

The city’s long-term economic problems reflect structural issues with its municipal finance system.

Despite extensive cuts to city expenses, including 10 percent of the mayor’s and city councilmen’s salaries, Providence structurally cannot earn enough revenue to

proved since January, when Brown’s initial rejection of the city’s demands became public. The city alleged that Brown reneged on a deal to increase payments by $4 million, while the University maintained that such an agreement had not actually been reached. While Ortiz refused to comment on how exactly negotiations have shifted, he said, “since that press conference, negotiations have gotten much better.”

Providence relies heavily on property taxes — state aid and property taxes are the city’s two main sources of revenue.

“What we really need to do is make sure that Providence has a tax climate and a business climate and a lifestyle that will attract people to come in and invest,” said Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, explaining that the current above-average tax rates are hostile to economic development, a problem at the heart of the city’s fiscal woes.

University-provided jobs generate income and sales tax revenue that goes to the state, meaning Brown’s tax benefits accrue to the state, while the city incurs the costs, noted Ward 2 City Councilman Sam Zurier. To compensate, the state pays the city about 20 percent of taxes received from the city, a sum that totaled $23 million in 2011. “The state grant has been less generous than it needs to be,” Zurier said.

Rhode Island is one of two states with similar revenue-sharing programs. Connecticut pays its cities — like New Haven — 53 percent of that city’s income tax revenue.

Brown’s educational mission and research contributions have far-reaching positive effects, Spies said. “Because the benefits are spread so widely, the costs should be, too,” he added, advocating that the public sector more actively defrays the opportunity costs of hosting nonprofits like Brown.

“In these difficult economic circumstances, there is a ten-

dency to look for easy solutions to really difficult problems,” said Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations. “Providence has very limited streams of revenue, and that’s part of where this burden has come from.”

Efforts to spur the University to increase its contributions have not just come from the mayor. Rep. John Carnevale, D-Providence and Johnston, has introduced legislation currently pending in the House Committee on Finance that would tax state nonprofits at 25 percent of their assessed tax rates to compensate for their consumption of city services. Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio, DProvidence and North Providence, and Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin, D-Providence, have introduced similar legislation to require nonprofits to reimburse municipalities for services. Carnevale introduced a comparable bill last year, but it was never put to a House vote.

The Providence City Council Revenue Study Commission issued a report recommending Taveras ask nonprofits to pay $13 million to $18 million — two to three times the amount he is currently looking to raise. The commission examined the cost of providing services like police and fire rescue to nonprofits and deducted the amount the city receives from the state to cover these costs to arrive at this large deficit, Zurier explained. These funds could be raised by taxing the city’s nonprofits at 16 percent to 22 percent of their assessed rate.

But Quinn noted that the University provides its own public safety officers and emergency medical services, and the University compensates the city for false fire alarms. The University also invests in infrastructure projects, like the current repaving of Lloyd Street.

Budget constraints

Brown administrators argue that allocating more money to Providence is a zero-sum game — that money must be diverted from funding University priorities.

Spies expressed concern that redirecting University funds to help the city could also be detrimental to the local community.

“If we compromise the mission, if we adversely affected our ability to serve that mission, the whole community would lose much more than it’s ever going to gain from direct dollar payments,” he said.

The University is familiar with the problem posed by funding constraints. Following the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Brown trimmed $65 million from its annual budget — more than 16 times the increased payments proposed by Taveras. “You ask people who were around here then — everyone felt it,” Spies said.

The city argues that the University’s $2.5 billion endowment, the largest of the city’s higher education institutions yet the smallest in the Ivy League, indicates the University’s ability to pay more.

“Right now, if you take the dif-

ference between what Brown wants to give to the city and what the city wants from them, it’s $2 million per year,” Zurier said. “So we’re talking about one half of 1 percent. I don’t think the size of the endowment is a major factor when you’re talking about one half of 1 percent of your operating budget.”

The University’s endowment is an investment fund that contributes to its operating budget through the earnings it generates, though its principal cannot be touched to fund operating expenses or capital projects. Donors may direct contributions to the endowment toward a specific purpose, meaning that parts of the University’s budget legally cannot be used for contributions to the city.

Comparing contributions

Since payments in lieu of taxes are negotiated on a case-by-case basis, there is a wide spectrum for universities’ voluntary payments to their communities. While Yale contributes nearly $8 million, the University of Pennsylvania contributed nothing to Philadelphia this year after their payment agreement with the city expired. Yale and Princeton both contribute generously to their respective municipalities, but their endowments and operating budgets notably exceed Brown’s.

Johns Hopkins University, which

but rather mutual understanding of difficult economic realities, said Michael Morand, Yale’s director of communications. “I think most independent universities in the 20th century had some level of difficulty with their hometowns,” he said.

In negotiations thus far, Brown’s representatives have stressed the need for an increase in payments to align with the University’s mission.

But there are “not strings attached to the voluntary payments” from Yale to New Haven, Morand said.

Princeton, like Yale, touts a relatively amicable financial relationship with its community. And like Yale, Princeton boasts a much larger endowment — $17.1 billion, with an operating budget of $1.5 billion.

“The relationship is much more collegial at the moment at Princeton than it is in Providence,” said Robert Durkee, vice president and secretary at Princeton.

Princeton contributes to two separate municipalities — Princeton Township and Princeton Borough — both through taxes and voluntary payments. The university pays $4.1 million to the borough and $3.5 million to the township in property and sewer taxes, Durkee said. In addition to paying taxes on properties used for non-educational purposes as mandated by New Jersey law, Princeton also pays

“If we compromise the mission, if we adversely affected our ability to serve that mission, the whole community would lose much more than it’s ever going to gain from direct dollar payments.”

Richard Spies Executive Vice President for Planning

has an endowment of roughly $2.5 billion, reached an agreement with Baltimore in 2010 to pay the city $6.8 million over six years as part of a $20.4 million deal the city struck with its nonprofits.

Yale is the peer institution many point to as a model for town-gown relations. “Yale is the example we use as the most generous university,” said Adam Langley, co-author of a 2010 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy report on payments in lieu of taxes. With an operating budget of $2.7 billion and an endowment of $19.4 billion — more than seven times the size of Brown’s — Yale contributed $8.1 million annually in voluntary payments this year.

With voluntary and required payments, Yale is New Haven’s biggest taxpayer. It is also New Haven’s largest employer.

Yale has increased its payments to New Haven several times since it first established a voluntary payment plan in 1990. Most recently, Yale increased its voluntary payments from $5 million to $7.5 million in 2009.

While Taveras’ requests from Brown have been very public, Yale’s decisions to increase payments were not the result of public pressure from New Haven officials,

voluntary taxes on some of its other properties, like graduate housing.

Last year, the university made a $1.2 million voluntary contribution to the borough based on a six-year progressive agreement that automatically increased the university’s payments to avoid annual renegotiations, Durkee said. The agreement expired last year, but the university voluntarily increased its payments to the borough to $1.7 million this year anyway, he said.

“Both the borough and the township have very good bond ratings because of the presence of the university,” Durkee said, adding that this translates to lower borrowing costs for the municipalities.

In March, Fitch Ratings downgraded Providence to two levels above junk bond status, and Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the city’s bond status to three levels above junk bond status.

Princeton has generously contributed to the Princeton Public Library and the Princeton schools, and it owns and subsidizes the town’s only movie theater, he noted.

And in response to the small size of the local volunteer fire department, the university began a program to continued on page 5

Sports Monday 5

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

City, U. strapped for cash, clash on payments continued from page 4 allow employees to be on-call during the day in case of a fire, Durkee added.

“There are lots of people in Princeton that believe that the university has made an appropriate contribution to the community,” Durkee said, but “there are probably lots of people in town that would like us to do more.”

What Brown can do

Some of Brown’s contributions to the city are hard to quantify.

“Research has a lot of benefits for the world, and it might not be immediate,” said Langley, the author of the report.

Roughly 1,600 students serve the community through Swearer

payments from colleges, a sector that he said has consistently contributed to Providence’s well-being.

“What happens in a lot of places and what’s happened in Rhode Island is those ideas bubble up, but at the point where they begin to reach the next stage they have to go someplace else because that’s where the lab techs are or that’s where the venture capitalists are,” Spies said.

“The idea of creating a knowledge economy is trying to bring enough pieces of the spectrum at all ends of the pipeline where people want to do this stuff, so their ideas come together and aren’t starved or drowned.”

Spies said that the discussion of Providence’s economy should be focused on “value creation” of knowledge capital instead of the

“I don’t think the size of the endowment is a major factor when you’re talking about one half of 1 percent of your operating budget.

Sam Zurier City Councilman

Center programs, said Roger Nozaki MAT’89, director of the Swearer Center for Public Service, and an additional 1,700 students serve the community through other student groups. Overall, 55 percent of students volunteer in Providence at some point in their academic careers, Quinn said.

Nozaki noted that Brown professors also give back to the city — 22 faculty from 17 disciplines participate in the Engaged Scholars Initiative, a Swearer Center program that provides resources and support for faculty teaching and research that benefits the local community.

And while the net contribution Brown students and faculty make through community service is not measurable, statistics hint at the impact. For example, students in schools served by the National College Advising Corps program at the Swearer Center are 14.4 percent more likely to attend college, Nozaki noted.

But most of Brown’s positive impact is less centered on Providence. “The benefits are accruing to the whole nation, not just the city,” Langley said.

Brown plays a central role in the development of the desired Knowledge District, a hub of research and technology startups the city and investors hope to foster, said White.

Opponents of increasing payments from the University have pointed to its role in the emergence of a knowledge economy.

Dan Egan, president of the Rhode Island chapter of National American Independent Colleges and Universities, said the city should pursue increased taxes on properties Brown plans to purchase in the Jewelry District instead of looking to raise voluntary payments.

Brown paid taxes on all but one of its properties in the Jewelry District in 2012.

He said he finds it troubling that the city is focusing on increased

redistribution of existing capital through payments. “Whatever we might be able to and be willing to contribute in dollars, it’s dwarfed by the contributions we made doing what we do at a really high level,” he said.

Split opinion

In a recent Herald poll, 37 percent of respondents reported that they do not think the University should contribute more money to the city. Thirty percent believe Brown should contribute more, and 33 percent are unsure. The near-even division of the student body’s beliefs reflects uncertainty on the issue.

“Brown definitely brings good things to the community and doesn’t deserve to be attacked,” said Wendy Rogers ’14, a Pawtucket native, noting that her position on the relationship between Brown and the community has evolved since she began attending the University.

Ben Noble ’13, a representative for the University Resources Committee, criticized the city and mayor for publicly singling out the University when Brown already gives millions of dollars each year.

“That is not right,” he said, suggesting the city “take what it can get.”

“Brown does not have enough money,” Noble said. “There are so many projections, initiatives and renovations, and the University doesn’t have the resources.”

“I know that Brown budgeting is tight,” said Beth Caldwell ’12, a homeless rights activist with Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere. This winter she saw more than 200 people sleeping in the streets due to lack of shelter space, reflecting contracting government budgets. “That’s really hard for me to see and not say that Brown doesn’t have a certain commitment to make some sacrifices,” Caldwell said.

For Cranston native Gabriella Corvese ’15, the issue of the Uni-

versity’s contributions to the city hits close to home. “It’s weird picking between my home state and my university,” she said. Like many Rhode Islanders, Corvese said she thinks the University needs to do more for the city. “But it’s difficult for me to say that because I’m on financial aid,” she added.

“Every dollar we give to Providence is less that we can spend on Brown students,” Noble said.

It boils down to a choice between funding public sector pensions or Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards and financial aid, he added.

Caldwell suggested the University put on hold investments in projects aimed at advancing the University, like development, to instead meet the more pressing needs of the city’s financial crisis.

“I always want to push against the idea that it’s either financial aid or it’s Providence doesn’t go bankrupt,” she said.

Can Brown afford to pay more?

The answer to this question does not lie strictly in the University’s budget, but rather in the implications of the decision. Providence’s fiscal reality may call for sacrifices on all sides. But if Brown increases its payments now, it could set an unfavorable precedent for future requests.

If the city is in an “extraordinary situation,” like the one Providence finds itself in today, perhaps an “extraordinary solution” is needed from Brown, Langley said. But if the University steps up payments in response to the mayor’s request, it could create an expectation under which Brown would be called upon to rescue the city in times of need.

“If the city views Brown as some mechanism (to close its budget gaps), that may be what is making the negotiations between the city and the University difficult, because I would suspect the University would not want to be viewed in that fashion,” said Marion Orr, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions. “I don’t think the University wants to put itself in the position of being viewed by the city as an institution that can bail it out.”

The University has stated that an agreement must be mutually beneficial and align with its mission. “I don’t think it’s reasonable for the city, having made mistakes and having become insolvent because of those mistakes, to turn to institutions that are successful and to demand that they pay for those mistakes,” Simmons told the Undergraduate Council of Students two weeks ago.

“We sought to reduce expenditures as much as is possible without reducing city services to such an extent that the city is not recognizable,” Ortiz said. But until the city can manage increasing pension liability and create a sustainable system of property tax revenue, Providence will continually be “on the brink,” he said.

— With additional reporting by Austin Cole

Baseball

After three losses, Bears’ playoff hopes dashed By lewis pollis Sports Staff Writer

The baseball team’s chances of finishing with a winning conference record and winning the Red Rolfe division were squelched this weekend as the Bears dropped three of four games in an away series Friday and Saturday at Harvard.

“The theme this year … has just been inconsistency,” said Head Coach Marek Drabinski. “You never know what you’re going to get from game to game.”

Bruno (8-29, 5-11 Ivy) got out to an early lead over the Crimson (11-27, 7-9) in game one. Shortstop Graham Tyler ’12 put the Bears on the board with an RBI single in the second inning before crossing the plate himself on center fielder Matt DeRenzi’s ’14 groundout. First baseman Cody Slaughter ’13 followed with a two-run homer in the third to give the Bears a 4-1 lead.

But Harvard came back to score six runs in its last three at-bats to give the Crimson a 7-4 victory.

The Bears struck early again in game two. Right fielder Will Marcal ’15 led off the second inning with a double and scored when second baseman JJ Franco ’14 grounded into a double play. Harvard took a 2-1 lead in the third, but Bruno tied it in the sixth as catcher Wes Van Boom ’14 tripled and scored on Marcal’s RBI single. The Crimson rallied for two runs in the eighth and Bruno fell, 4-2.

Drabinski said both of Friday’s contests were “pretty good games,” but the Bears lost because the team made too many mistakes, from dropping fly balls to not getting in position for cutoff throws. “It’s a matter of focus and concentration,” he said. “I don’t mind if you make a physical mistake … but when you make mental errors, that really hurts the coach.”

Game three was the closest of the weekend. The Bears’ bats got hot early as they struck for two runs in the second and added three more in the fourth, but the Crimson kept pace and after four innings the score was 5-5.

Both teams’ offenses were quiet after that, until Harvard designated hitter Marcus Way connected for a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the seventh to give the Crimson a 6-5 win.

But the Bears got their revenge in game four. Bruno jumped out for six runs in the top of the first in a rally capped by Franco’s RBI double and designated hitter Mike DiBiase’s ’12 two-run homer, then added another in the second on Van Boom’s RBI single for a 7-1 lead.

The Bears added two more unearned runs in the fourth before exploding for eight runs in the top of the fifth. The rally featured DiBiase’s second home run of the game, a two-run single for Slaughter and errors by four different Crimson fielders as Bruno sent 12 men to the plate. When the inning was over, Bruno had a commanding

17-5 lead.

But the Bears were not done.

Three more runs crossed the plate in the seventh via DiBiase’s two-run double and third baseman Nick Fornaca’s ’15 RBI single. Slaughter hit a leadoff home run and DiBiase drew an RBI walk in the eighth as Bruno held on for a lopsided 22-9 victory.

The 22 runs scored tied a season-high for the Bears. Bruno’s 22 points and the teams’ combined 31 runs were the highest in an Ivy conference game this year. It was also the first time in more than two years the Bears won a game in which they allowed more than seven runs.

“I guess that’s a good accomplishment,” Drabinski said, adding that he was impressed that the team played so well at the end of a frustrating weekend. “They easily could have packed it in.”

Drabinski said hitting has not been the Bears’ problem this year — rather, their struggles stemmed from inconsistent pitching. Before the season Drabinski said he was hoping to set a stable rotation for conference play, but that never materialized. “We didn’t really have a go-to guy this year,” he said. After Anthony Galan ’14 and Heath Mayo ’13, the rotation was “like (flipping) a coin,” he said.

Drabinski cited Cornell (27-111, 13-3) and Dartmouth (17-15, 11-5), who lead their respective divisions, as examples of strong defensive teams that play with consistency. “You’ve got to bring it every weekend,” he said. “They just don’t make mistakes, they don’t beat themselves … and that’s what it takes.”

“I don’t like to use youth as an excuse,” Drabinski said, but he acknowledged the Bears’ young roster might factor into their inconsistency. Injuries have also taken their toll, specifically the loss of center fielder John Sheridan ’13. Drabinski called Sheridan — who dislocated his shoulder in a game against Cornell April 7 — “probably the best center fielder in the league.”

Drabinski is optimistic about next year, when the Bears’ young players will start the season with another year of experience under their belts. “I really think the future looks very bright,” he said.

He also cited a proposal, to be decided next month, that could expand the Ivy League playoffs from two teams to four as something that will bring more excitement next year. “It makes pretty much every weekend meaningful for everybody,” he said, as opposed to the current system, in which a team is “pretty much done” after a single bad weekend.

The Bears’ next games are at University of Rhode Island (2416) Tuesday and at Bryant (25-15) Wednesday. The conference season ends this weekend with a fourgame series against Yale (9-30-1, 2-14), and the Bears’ final games of the season will be a doubleheader at home versus Marist (15-20) May 1.

6 City & State

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

Adam Toobin / Herald

A number of anti-sexism organizations turned out in the rain to rally against the “war on women.”

Diverse group of feminists ‘occupy sexism’

By Adam Toobin Seniior Staff Writer

Braving rain and cold, roughly 50 people joined the Rhode Island Anti-Sexism League to “Occupy Sexism” next to Burnside Park yesterday afternoon. The rally, which featured speakers from a broad range of organizations, tackled reproductive health care, the media’s negative effect on body image and the Republican Party’s “war on women.” Unlike last year’s Slut Walk movement — the impetus for the founding of the Anti-Sexism League — yesterday’s meeting confronted sexism directed at members of the LGBTQ community as well as at women.

After listening to speakers, protesters headed up College Hill for a reception featuring discussion workshops and food at the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center. Chanting “right to life, your name’s a lie, you don’t care if women die,” “whatever we do, wherever we go, yes means yes, and no means no” and the slogan of the Occupy movement — “the people, united, will never be defeated” — on the march up the hill, the group received vocal support from passers-by.

Featuring speakers and poets, including some from Universityaffiliated organizations, the rally addressed a broad swath of issues relating to sexism. Malcolm Shanks ’12, a former opinions columnist for The Herald, spoke about his experience confronting two forms of discrimination as a queer black man.

“Whether it’s because my jeans are too tight, or because I’m wearing a hoodie, both of those are now — as they’ve always been — things for which I might be murdered for at any moment,” Shanks said.

Paul Hubbard, a representative of the International Socialist Organization, condemned sexism as a biproduct of a broader capitalist system. The nuclear family, with its subordination of the wife as an unpaid servant, is sexist, Hubbard said.

Hubbard focused his criticism on Ann Romney — the wife of presumptive Republican presi-

dential candidate Mitt Romney — who rebuffed a Democratic strategist who said Ann Romney had never “worked a day in her life.” Ann Romney did not face the difficulties confronted by most mothers, who cannot afford to pay for nannies and cooks, and universalizing her experience demeans the struggle of those working class mothers to balance a job and responsibilities at home, Hubbard said.

Lindsey Goss GS provided several examples indicating that “law enforcement is not a girl’s best friend,” including the incident that inspired the Slut Walk movement — a Toronto police officer saying that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.” The example of the Toronto officer “clarified the fact that we cannot, and therefore should not, expect the police to offer any protection against the sexism women face on a daily basis in any of its forms, because the law enforcement system … is fully part of the problem,” Goss said.

The culture of victim-blaming, pervasive in law enforcement, can interfere with a woman’s decision to report sexual assault and her expectation of justice once the case goes to trial, Goss said.

“Questions like what were you wearing and were you drinking are standard accusations,” she added.

The police also mistreat and ignore sex workers’ claims of sexual assault, Goss said. “To gather evidence of a crime (committed) against a sex worker, the cops first have to take it seriously,” Goss said, paraphrasing an anonymous sex worker. “If we go to the police, we’re made fun of, and we’re told you deserve it,” Goss said of the prevailing attitude among sex workers.

Goss also lambasted a New York Police Department policy that allowed officers to infer that a woman is a sex worker if she had condoms in her possession.

This kind of assumption not only disincentivizes sex workers’ use of contraception but creates further distrust of the police, Goss said, adding that it is no surprise that no women came forward to help police in their search for a Long

Island serial killer.

Chris Murphy condemned the U.S. armed forces’ treatment of women. Though representatives of the military claimed that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would liberate the women of those countries, “the military that fights for imperialism and occupies countries does not liberate women,” Murphy said. The military still backs tribal warlords who “are responsible for the rape and murder of women,” he added.

“Sexual assault in the military is not a new problem, it is a systemic problem — soldiers rape civilians, and soldiers rape soldiers,” Murphy said. The Pentagon estimates that though 3,000 assaults are reported every year, between 80 to 90 percent of attacks are never reported, he added, pointing to a statistic stating that a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.

Not only is rape pervasive, but the military also does not do enough to punish assailants when incidents are reported, Murphy said. “According to the Department of Defense’s own statistics, 74 to 85 percent of soldiers convicted of sexual assault leave the military with honorable discharges,” he added.

Nancy Sant-Germain attacked the Republican Party for propagating a “war on women,” citing Arizona legislation requiring women to have trans-vaginal ultrasounds if they want an abortion. “This legislation is a model for other states,” she added.

Nicole Parrish ’12 performed a spoken word poem opposing a culture that tells women who have been victims of sexual assault to be ashamed for having experienced an attack. A speaker also addressed the presence of HIV/ AIDS in Rhode Island.

Some Brown students opted to skip the tail end of the Spring Weekend festivities for the rally.

Ian Georgianna ’15, a member of the Rhode Island Anti-Sexism League, said defeating sexism is not just a women’s fight. “An injury towards one group … is an injury to all groups,” Georgianna said. “I don’t see being pro-woman as being anti-man.”

Pathikrit Bhattacharyya / Herald

Faculty are less than excited about the monthly $20 usage fee for new facilities.

Students rave about new athletic facility

By Elizabeth Koh Senior Staff Writer

The new fitness and aquatics center has met praise from students and mixed reactions — due to the supplementary usage fee — from faculty and staff since its opening last week.

The facility rang in its opening with scheduled activities from April 16-20, which drew “steady” attendance, according to Assistant Director of Athletics and Physical Education Matthew Tsimikas.

Athletes and non-athletes alike have been positive about the new opportunities the facility affords.

“The lobby looks like you’re at a hotel or something, everything’s really nice when you walk in,” Gabrielle Grandchamp ’13 said.

“Hopefully it will help more people go support sporting events.”

“The pool’s beautiful, it’s really really nice, the air quality is awesome compared to the bubble,” said Sarah Presant ’14, a women’s water polo athlete. “It was hard at times (in the old facility),” she said. “At the end it was kind of falling apart.”

Jeff Izon ’13, who helped organize the opening events, noted that the center will draw the entire student body.

“From what I’ve heard, I think people (non-athletes) really appreciate it,” he said. “I think the feeling was beforehand that it would really just be another varsity facility. The fact that it’s open to everyone is really great.”

Of the events held, Izon highlighted Tuesday’s screening of “Finding Nemo” in the facility, which about a hundred students attended.

“People kept showing up and leaving, so it was a great circle, fresh people in the pool,” he said.

“We were just blowing up air tubes

for forever.”

Grandchamp attended the movie night and said the event was a draw to the fitness and aquatics center. “There was cotton candy, popcorn­— it was fun,” she said. “Everyone was pretty excited about having a pool party.”

Izon also noted the long-term potential of the facility.

“It probably cost a lot, but I think that a lot of people will definitely use it,” he said. Izon said the facility would “definitely pay for itself in the future” by drawing teams to Brown and putting the University “on the map” for its athletics.

Faculty and staff, on the other hand, had mixed reactions. Despite the state-of-the-art qualities of the facility, the $20 monthly usage fee that will be charged to faculty and staff starting May 1 has tempered enthusiasm.

Leslie Crossley, an administrative assistant for the Department of Athletics and Physical Education, said she doubted she would pay the fee just to use the facilities.

But Tori Smith, a senior lecturer in Hispanic Studies, said the pool’s low level of chemicals would tempt her to pay the fee.

She called the pool “awe-inspiring” and “gorgeous.”

“It has been a long time, but it looks like it was worth the wait,” said Donna Fanion, senior administrative secretary for the Department of Athletics and Physical Education.

The facility’s staff have high hopes for the future.

“The expectation is that we use this building and put it to the test and use the $50 million dollars worth of facilities that we built,” Tsimikas said. “We don’t want it to be idle — we want it to be used for the entire Brown University community.”

Spring Weekend 7

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Childish Gambino wowed many with both well-known songs and freestyling at the Spring Weekend concert Friday.

Gambino only glitch in strong lineup

By Katherine Long Senior Staff Writer

Emily Gilbert / Herald

The synth-heavy four-piece band Twin Shadow opened Saturday’s concert.

Number of EMS calls up from last Spring Weekend continued from page 1 Management officials were not experienced with the new ticket system, with which students could have their tickets scanned directly from their smartphones, Ryza said.

The BCA decided to stop scanning tickets until the line began moving.

Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services, said the number of Emergency Medical Service calls was slightly higher this year than last — 16 individuals were transported to hospitals downtown from campus over Friday and Saturday.

But according to the EMS director, “nobody was in very bad shape,” Klawunn said.

Klawunn said coordination between EMS and the Department of Public Safety was effective this year. This Spring Weekend was the second time administrators stationed EMS command posts on-site at the concerts.

Spring Weekend is “a tradition that the students value because it’s a time in the semester where they’re about to head into finals,” Klawunn said. She said that the concern is ensuring students enjoy the concert but also remain safe.

Many students said they were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the performances due to the obscurity of the acts.

Kathryn Hawrot ’14 said she enjoyed the music despite not being familiar with many of the bands.

“Childish Gambino was good, but I felt like it was a little too long,” she said. “I would have liked it better if I had known more of the songs.”

Though Jane Chen ’13 was also unfamiliar with the artists, she said she enjoyed the general atmosphere of Spring Weekend.

“It was much better than last year,” she said, “mostly because it was outside.”

Citing MGMT and Snoop Dogg — the Spring Weekend headliners in 2010 — as her favorite acts, Chen said she “paid very little attention to the music” this year.

Students who recognized some of bands — particularly fans of Donald Glover, the name of “Childish Gambino,” from NBC’s television show Community — said they were especially impressed.

Spring Weekend this year was the first for transfer student Deivid Ribeiro ’13, who was familiar with both Childish Gambino and the Walkmen. As an incoming student, the experience was overwhelming but “totally worth it,” he said, adding that “the music was great.”

Yongha Kim ’15 said the biggest disappointment was Sepalcure’s performance Friday. Kim said he enjoys Sepalcure’s music but thought that the band was out of place at Spring Weekend. Between the rousing in-crowd performance from What Cheer? Brigade and the headliner performance from Childish Gambino, “it was oddly timed,” he said.

“I liked Saturday a lot more,” Kim said. “My favorite was the Glitch Mob.” Nia Campinha-Bacote ’15 and Russyan Mabeza ’15 said they did not attend performances on either day because they were not familiar with the acts.

“But I did love Fratty in the Ratty,” Campinha-Bacote said of the event organized by the Greek Council and Greek community, which opened the doors of the Sharpe Refectory to all students to offer free food and loud music.

On a very summery Main Green, Spring Weekend laid forth its mottled bounty. Friday’s concert, featuring What Cheer? Brigade, Sepalcure and Childish Gambino, was characterized by tough crowds straining to catch a glimpse of Gambino’s altogether bland performance. But Saturday’s musicians — Twin Shadow, the Walkmen, Cam’ron and the Glitch Mob — put on a raucous, memorable show.

“It’s about the experience, not the music.” — The mantra of Friday concertgoers

It is rarely, if ever, acceptable to blame the audience for a bad concert. But an exception might have to be made for the audience at Friday night’s show, which so utterly resisted participating it was almost laughable. Concertgoers said they were seeking an experience, but that came at the cost of not experiencing the music to its fullest potential.

Early highlight What Cheer?

Brigade lived up to its funkadelic reputation. The genre-crossing brass band made a surprise entrance on the Main Green between Wilson Hall and the John Carter Brown Library, bringing early concertgoers flocking to dance.

But following them, Sepalcure proved to be more introspective than engaging. The two-piece electro-dub outfit’s uninspired performance was perhaps partially a function of the open-air, twilit venue — their music is suited more to indulgent headphone listening or dark, crowded clubs.

But the crowd, jam-packed in anticipation of Childish Gambino and, as a result, more or less peevish and bored, was in no mood to make allowances.

You gotta do a show so we can come and molest you. / This rap stuff is magic ...

Childish Gambino ­­– “Fire Fly”

A deafening roar went up when Gambino entered, but the comedian, rapper, writer and producer had a rocky start. Sound issues,

which were pervasive throughout the weekend, were especially noticeable during his first two songs.

He certainly brought energy to the performance, but his frenetic leaps and twists were not enough to draw the crowd into the music.

Despite the hype leading up to the concert, the audience seemed unwilling to meet Gambino halfway. Only in the second half of the show — after Gambino broke out “Freaks and Geeks,” “Rolling in the Deep” and “Bonfire” — did his energy wash into the crowd.

His closing freestyle left the audience reeling.

Was his performance good?

Sure. Was it “tear-jerking,” as one student’s Facebook status proclaimed?

Far from it. That was left to Saturday’s concerts.

I cannot wait for summer / I cannot wait for June... / I never felt so wild at all ...

Twin Shadow – “I Can’t Wait”

Under glimmering blue skies, Saturday opener Twin Shadow wooed a tragically small crowd with strung-out, refulgent ’80sstyle synth pop rock — yeah, they’re riding that wave. But it’s hard to fault them — they do it so transcendently, evoking at times New Order, David Bowie and even, in some guitar riffs, Guns N’ Roses. Alas that so many concertgoers missed the opportunity to bask in their crystalline, beachy noise.

I was the only one left at the right time ...

The Walkmen – “Canadian Girl”

Five-piece alt-rock band the Walkmen stepped in for a very late Cam’ron with good grace.

These guys are professionals. They know what they’re about — they have been touring for more than a decade. They gave a nice, sterile show. That is all there is to say about them.

They all comical, Killa Killa phenomenal / Honored the honesty mommy illage villa I promise you ...

Cam’ron – “Wet Wipes”

Entourage in tow, Killa Cam fought his way out of the dark recesses of awkward middle school dances to deliver a truly entertaining — if sadly truncated — ­ show.

Childish Gambino could take a few leaves out of the master’s book — Cam’ron worked the crowd like he was born to do it and performed without needing to prove anything. Halfway through one song, he told his DJ to stop the record and chastised the crowd for not “giving me enough.” His laid-back set was a testament to the decade and a half he’s spent as de facto hip-hop royalty. Snitches get stitches.

“Brown ... we love you. That is all.”

Tweet from the Glitch Mob – April 22, 4 p.m.

The Glitch Mob, despite having released only one LP, despite being saddled with the unenviable task of performing electronic music in full daylight, despite their relative East Coast anonymity, despite their gimmicky matching shirts and ties — the Glitch Mob were unquestionably the highlight of the weekend and possibly the best act since the legendary Spring Weekend 2010.

The high-energy show culminated in an encore featuring a mix of the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” but aural goodies were scattered throughout the set, from the uptempo, grinding “Drive it Like You Stole It” to the anthemic “Bad Wings.”

Sound quality was again an issue. The entire show could have been louder, but bass was given almost comically short shrift. By tilting their midi controllers and touch screens towards the crowd, the Glitch Mob has developed a potent cure to the stiffness endemic in live electronic music. But the daylight rendered that technique — and, regrettably, the concert’s light show — void. Still, the Glitch Mob delivered, well and truly. It is obvious that band members Edward Ma, Justin Boreta and Josh Mayer take pure joy in making music and — thank the gods of gritty electronica — they have the desire and the ability to share that joy with their audience. The Glitch Mob ... we love you. That is all.

Spring

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Rachel Kaplan / Herald

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

2012 Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Rachel Kaplan / Herald

Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

Rachel Kaplan / Herald

Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

Rachel Kaplan / Herald

Weekend Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

Rachel Kaplan / Herald

Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

10 Campus News

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

Twentieth anniversary of need-blind protest

M. Lacrosse

By Dan Alexander Staff Writer

On April 21, 1992, 253 students were arrested after taking over University Hall in protest of the University’s need-aware admissions policy for all students. Now, 20 years later, a new campus group, Brown For Financial Aid, has formed to protest the University’s need-aware policy for international and transfer students. It is in this context that The Herald decided to revisit those original protesters and administrators to hear their stories.

Jesse Schwimmer / Herald

Sam Hurster ’14 netted the winning goal to stun number three Cornell 10-9.

Lacrosse wins by one, keeps title dream alive By sam wickham Sports Staff Writer

The men’s lacrosse team pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the program’s recent memory Saturday, defeating No. 3 Cornell 10-9 in Ithaca. A goal from Sam Hurster ’14 with four seconds remaining handed the Big Red (9-2, 4-1 Ivy) its first conference loss this season and snapped Cornell’s six-game winning streak. The victory keeps the Bears (6-7, 2-3) in contention for the final Ivy League playoff spot.

“The team just keeps getting better,” said Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90. “We keep playing better and better lacrosse just about every time we step out onto the field, and for a coach, that’s a genuinely rewarding feeling.”

The Big Red got on the scoreboard first, netting two unassisted goals in the first eight minutes to grab a 2-0 lead. But the Bears fought back, scoring four unanswered goals from four different players to take a 4-2 lead midway through the second quarter.

Cornell responded with a goal of its own six minutes before halftime, but the strike was offset by Nick Piroli’s ’15 second goal of the game. Going into the break, the scoreboard read 5-3 in Bruno’s favor.

“We told our men, ‘Cornell is going to score goals. You’re going to hear the band fired up. There will be a lot of momentum going their way,’” Tiffany said. “We told them to be focused and stay together, and they did a great job.”

Bruno’s lead began to dwindle

at the start of the second half after the Big Red’s Connor English scored four minutes in. Goals from Shane McHugh ’13 and Hurster sandwiched two more Cornell strikes, giving the Bears a slim 7-6 lead.

The two sides swapped goals throughout the final 15 minutes of play that led up to Hurster’s heroics. The Big Red scored 30 seconds into the fourth quarter to tie the game, only to fall behind once again after a goal from Hurster two minutes later. Two more Cornell tallies and a score from Steven Chmil ’14 tied the score at 9-9 with only a minute left.

With 20 seconds remaining, Parker Brown ’12 wove back and forth behind the Big Red goal, looking for a path to the goal. Seeing an opening, Parker Brown cut up from behind the left post and found Hurster, who faked a shot and then fired home the gamewinner.

“It’s an incredible emotion to win by one,” Tiffany said. “What I really feel great about is how we stepped up late in the game. Our responsibility is to win games, not just keep it close.”

Bruno will host Dartmouth (38, 1-4) Saturday in the final game of the season at Stevenson Field.

The Bears need a win against the Big Green, as well as a loss from Harvard, to snatch the last conference playoff spot. “(This win) keeps our goal of winning an Ivy League title alive,” Tiffany said. “We really just enjoy competing as a team and being together, and we don’t want that to end.”

www.browndailyherald.com

More than 250 tired, hungry students sat in University Hall as administrators handed out papers saying they were about to begin arresting everyone. The students, who were protesting Brown’s need-aware admissions policy, had been in the building since 8:30 a.m., and administrators had begun telling them they had to leave at 5 p.m., when the building typically closed. The administrators had handed down similar warnings earlier in the day. But so far, the threats had been empty.

The latest papers seemed more ominous. “I remember reading the damn thing. It had my name on it,” said Johanna Fernandez ’93, one of the leaders of the protest. “It said that you had to leave this building. And if you don’t leave, it’s going to be hell to pay — in legal language.”

At approximately 9 p.m. on April 21, 1992, two Providence police buses pulled up.

The details of what happened that day are disputed. Administrators accuse students of violence.

Students accuse administrators of lying and policemen of brutality.

Twenty years later, the students who were inside University Hall that day have graduated, the administrators have moved on, and their story lingers only in fragments on a campus populated by students who have a four-year memory span and adults who would rather forget some moments.

“There’s a lot of stories about that day that I don’t think were ever told,” Libero Della Piana ’93, one of the student organizers, said in a recent interview.

This is an attempt to recount those stories and reconstruct what happened the day administrators and students clashed in the University’s most famous building.

The times listed are approximate, and many of the details are drawn from the 20-year-old memories of eight people who were there.

The Main Green, 12:30 p.m.

It began as a peaceful sit-in.

A small fraction of the eventual protesters — 20 to 100 students, depending on whose numbers you believe — filed into University Hall at 8:30 a.m. and sat down on the floor, lining the halls connecting the offices of the University’s top officials. Administrators made sure the students stayed pressed back against the walls so that there was still a pathway for people to walk. They didn’t want

Herald file photo

Over 250 students were arrested during a 1992 protest for need-blind admission.

any fire hazards.

The protesters demanded a meeting with the provost to discuss their proposal for needblind admissions. The provost, to the surprise of the students who had researched his schedule beforehand, was out of town. And President Vartan Gregorian was at a funeral in New York. In recent interviews, former students said the provost skipped town when he got word of the protest. Administrators denied the charge.

At noon, Della Piana led a protest outside, in support of the people in the building, just as the leaders had planned it. He got on the bullhorn, the crowd began to grow and Della Piana sent messengers to run through campus spreading the word — social networking before Facebook or Twitter. Della Piana had no idea what was going on inside.

By 12:30 p.m., the crowd had swelled to more than 100 people.

Someone inside opened a window and called the protesters to circle around. A woman inside began giving a speech. As she explained that the administrators would not meet with them, the crowd continued to swell.

“I forget who was speaking, but she basically cried,” Della Piana recalled. “She said we came to have a conversation and be heard, and they refused. They treated us poorly, and they don’t want to hear from us.”

University Hall, 12:30 p.m.

As Fernandez sat inside, she could hear Della Piana’s voice booming over the bullhorn outside. The administrators told the students that if anyone left the building, they would not be allowed to come back in. So Fernandez asked to go to the bathroom.

When she got there, she lifted a window and called the protesters over to her. They circled around, and she gave the impassioned speech Della Piana remembered years later. Fernandez could not recall the words she said, just the feeling she had. “The emotion was about feeling that we were

betrayed, that we were lied to and that the ideals that the University holds dear in public discourse are not ideals that they’re truly committed to on principle,” Fernandez recalled. “It’s shocking. It’s disenchanting. It’s radicalizing.”

When Fernandez was done speaking, she told the protesters outside to come join the movement inside. Policemen were stationed at the doors, and there was only one way to get inside — through the window. Della Piana began hoisting students up and passing them through the high window to Fernandez. It was not part of the plan. The plan was for the protest to go on outside, the administrators to agree to a meeting and a discussion to begin. But at that moment, the plan went out the window. A photographer captured the moment, and Della Piana’s mother saw it in the newspaper a few days later.

A policeman came over to stop the people from pouring in. Tensions rose, and another student tried to climb through the window. That’s when the alleged brutality happened. “They grabbed him and slammed him down onto the ground,” Della Piana said. “People just erupted.”

The doorways, 1 p.m.

Tommy Lee Woon, then director of the Third World Center, remembered the story differently. He heard that a student had slipped outside, and students had incorrectly thought he had been thrown down. He did not see what happened because he was inside, but he did see what happened next.

The doors began shaking, and then a rush of students busted through, launching Dean of Student Life Robin Rose into Lee Woon, who caught the dean and stopped her from being trampled.

Hundreds of students stormed into the building and ran through the maroon-carpeted corridors and up the stairs. Within minutes, over 300 students had entered the building. No more work was gocontinued on page 11

Campus News 11

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

Students arrested for U. hall takeover in ’92 continued from page 10 ing to get done at University Hall that day.

With the president and provost both out of town, Sheila Blumstein, dean of the college, was left in charge. When the students came pouring inside, she was in a downstairs office, and she heard the commotion from the halls.

“There was a rush of people,” Blumstein recalled. “That was the start of, you know, ‘This is serious, and we’re not going to be nice about this.’”

Blumstein heard that staff members upstairs felt threatened, and she decided to escort them out of the building. When she was done, the few administrators remaining gathered in the downstairs office where Blumstein had been, leaving the rest of the building in the students’ control.

“They evacuated the building as if we were al-Qaeda,” Fernandez said.

Over the next few hours, a community of protesters formed in University Hall. People who had never met each other danced on the tables of the Corporation room and shared pizza donated by a local parlor. When the national news crew came in and turned its camera light on, the students burst into cheers.

“It was a festival,” Fernandez said. “People were having a great time. In many ways, community was built in U. Hall because this really wedded us together, and we were connected, students of different classes and races, by this higher mission. And it was an incredible thing.”

A community was formed in the administrators’ office, too.

The chaplain of the college delivered spaghetti and meatballs through an open window, and the leaders of the University discussed how to get their most important building back.

“We’re having conversations with Gregorian, who had been in New York,” Blumstein said. “‘What do we do? What do we do?’”

The administrators were not going to stay there all night. They did not want to turn the building, which housed confidential materials including all student records, over to the protesters. They decided to bring in the police.

At 5 p.m., the party ended. The building closed. Everyone inside was liable to be arrested.

Corporation Room. 8 p.m.

As administrators handed out the papers to over 250 tired, hungry students, the reality of arrests dawned on most of the protest-

Herald file photo

Need-blind admission continues to be an issue of student concern for groups like Brown for Financial Aid even 20 years after a University Hall sit-in that resulted in the arrest of over 250 students in April 1992.

ers. Some people, including Della Piana, wanted to leave and come back to protest again the next day.

Others, like Fernandez, wanted to submit to arrest.

“I felt I had nothing to lose but my chains,” she said.

Ultimately, they agreed to allow people to choose whether to leave or stay and be arrested.

About 50 people, including Della Piana, who had been selected to be on the legal team before the day began, walked out, and 253 students remained.

The stairway, 10 p.m.

Jed Lippard ’95, a freshman, was one of those left. He was not a leader in the movement. He was just one more student in a protest where numbers mattered.

Lippard had been recruited to the cause by a radical graduate student who was teaching one of Lippard’s classes.

“It was a bit of mind control, in retrospect,” Lippard recalled.

“As a 19-year-old kid, I was so impressionable. And I had this really cool, smart, passionate radical who was, I think now from a more mature perspective, perhaps preying on young first-year, secondyear students.”

The recruiting worked, and Lippard sat in University Hall at 10 p.m. with 252 others.

Blumstein came upstairs and announced that all of them would be arrested — and that she, along with a few other deans, would escort them to the police buses.

The administrators had decided to arrest the students themselves rather than have outside police-

men storm the building.

Over the next two or three hours, Blumstein and other deans escorted students from the third floor of University Hall, down the stately wooden staircase and out the door.

Some of the students seemed to not understand the seriousness of the situation. Blumstein remembered one student asking her as she was walking the student down the staircase how they would get back to campus from the police station and whether the University would provide buses.

“We had no intention of bringing them back up,” Blumstein said.

This was not a field trip.

When they got to the police station, the reality of what was going on struck some students.

“Some of them said they didn’t realize it was real until they got fingerprinted,” said Beverly Ledbetter, the University’s general counsel. “It wasn’t until they got down to the courthouse that they realized this was no longer a University issue.”

The police station, 1 a.m.

All 253 students were charged with five criminal counts: disturbing a public assembly general, disorderly conduct, two counts of willful trespassing and prevention from carrying on employment, according to a 1992 Herald story.

Administrators said when people practice civil disobedience, they often get arrested. They should accept the consequences if it is a cause they believe in, they said.

“They behaved like angry par-

ents and threw us in prison and threw the book at us,” Fernandez said. “And in many ways, we were derailed because we had before us some pretty serious charges.”

The movement never recovered. There were a few more rallies and protests, but the groups spent much of their time handling the charges. The two sides ultimately reached a settlement in which the students’ records would be cleared if they admitted their guilt and accepted a one-year University probation, meaning they could not get in trouble with the school again in the year.

But the issue remained. For the next 11 years, Brown continued to admit students on a need-aware basis.

“Everybody wanted need-blind admissions,” Blumstein said.

“People think we’re rich. We’re not rich. And the issue is that you’ve got to have the money to be able to support it. And if you are going to do it on the same budget, something else is not going to be done. And the question is what is that going to be. Or you step up and bring in more money, which is what the students actually had asked us to do.”

But Fernandez contended that need-blind admission just was not a priority for the administration, and it was as simple as that.

When Ruth Simmons finally made Brown need-blind in 2003, Fernandez, by then a professor at the City University of New York, heard the news while she was eating a dinner in New York City.

She rolled her eyes and had one thought. About time.

News in brief ‘Chuck’ Colson ’53 died Saturday Charles Colson ’53, who was incarcerated in 1974 after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in one of the controversial events that brought down thenPresident Richard Nixon, died on Saturday at the age of 80, according to the New York Times. Serving as special counsel to Nixon from 1969 to 1973, Colson has been implicated in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal but was never charged.

Colson was convicted for his response to Daniel Ellsberg’s leaking of the Pentagon Papers — confidential documents that revealed that several presidential administrations had lied to the American public about U.S. involvement in South Vietnam. Colson, seeking material to discredit Ellsberg, approved a plan to break into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office and steal his medical records.

While serving seven months in prison, Colson was “born again” and committed himself to evangelical Christianity. After his own religious awakening in prison, Colson started Prison Fellowship Ministries, which connected prisoners with Christianity.

As an author and radio host, Colson worked to increase the clout of the evangelical Christians, who have today become a major part of political discourse. In 2000, then-Florida Governor Jeb Bush returned Colson’s right to vote, serve on a jury and practice law.

At Brown, Colson made his name in the Cammarian Club, a predecessor to the Undergraduate Council of Students. Colson served as secretary of the organization.

— Adam Toobin

Thanks for reading!

12 Money Matters

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

G.I. bill, evolving economy changes U.’s student composition continued from page 1 including elite four-year institutions like Brown, have grown more diverse. For the majority of its history, the University primarily enrolled white students from New England, said University Historian Jane Lancaster MA’93 PhD’98. Now, about 20

Brown and other schools like it “were never just for rich white males,” said Luther Spoehr, senior lecturer in education who teaches EDUC 1730: “American Higher Education in Historical Context.”

“It was not uncommon for poor boys from the hinterlands to be funded by people who took a lik-

“The least academically talented students in the upper income quartile go to college at the same rates as the most academically talented students in the lowest income quartile.”

Jim Miller ’73 Dean of Admission

percent of students come from New England, and 54 percent of undergraduates in the 2010-11 academic year indicated a racial status other than white.

But despite these increases in other areas of diversity, universities like Brown are still less accessible to students from lower-class backgrounds, said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, who authored studies highlighting this discrepancy in 2004 and 2010.

“There’s still very little socioeconomic diversity in selective colleges.

In the top 200 colleges, which includes Brown, the share of people from the bottom 25 percent of the income distribution was about 3 or 4 percent in 1992 and 3 or 4 percent now,” he said.

“The least academically talented students in the upper income quartile go to college at the same rates as the most academically talented students in the lowest income quartile, and students from the lowest income quartile have been underrepresented at Brown, and other places like Brown, for much of our history,” Miller wrote.

As the value of a college education has increased, higher education has become disproportionately more expensive.

The current state of income diversity at Brown cannot be determined solely by examining the number of students on financial aid — about 47 percent in the class of 2015 — or the average grant of about $37,800. A broad range of other factors nationwide, such as discrepancies in secondary education and the national rise in college education costs, influence who applies to Brown, whom the University accepts and who ultimately chooses to attend.

The early years

The University was founded in 1764 under a charter proclaiming the school’s aim to “educate young men to take their place in society,” Lancaster said.

Though there were always wealthy students at the college, the University in the 18th and 19th centuries was composed primarily of white students from New England cities and farms who represented a wide range of family incomes.

ing to them,” Spoehr said.

Though a college education could help students become physicians and lawyers, economic success did not depend as heavily on college as it does today. In 1900, less than 4 percent of the eligible population went to college, Spoehr said. A college degree was not expected for most careers, and the path to financial success did not depend as heavily on an elite education as many believe it does now. Today, close to 70 percent of the eligible population enrolls in college, though only about half of the students who enter college graduate, Spoehr added.

Attending college grew in importance around 1930 when the Great Depression rendered jobs difficult to find, in turn making a college degree more desirable. With tuition set at $400, Brown was “quite a good deal,” Lancaster said. “Many people could scrape by.”

The University also worked throughout the 1930s to expand its applicant pool’s geographic diversity, in part because of competition from the University of Rhode Island and Providence College, Lancaster said.

By increasing its applicant base, the University hoped to improve the caliber of its student body. In 1934, President Clarence Barbour 1888 instructed alums to find applicants with scholastic and leadership potential who came from all parts of the country and had “different economic and social backgrounds,” according to Encyclopedia Brunoniana. They were also instructed to find “a number of applicants able to meet their college expenses without financial aid from the University.”

College became even more important after World War II, as the economy shifted away from producing goods toward human services that required “symbol manipulators,” Spoehr said.

The G.I. Bill, which provided funding for veterans to attend college, caused an “explosion of enrollment on college campuses,” he added.

Additionally, growing concern in the Cold War about the superiority of Russian scientists caused a “huge expansion in education,” Lancaster said. “The federal government started investing very heavily in higher education,” she added.

Wealthy students continued to attend college, but the growing size

of higher education institutions, as well as increases in federal grant and loan programs, allowed students from a broader range of income levels to attend, Lancaster said.

The increase in enrollment in the late ’50s and ’60s led to greater emphasis on standardized tests, specifically the SAT. That shift affected the prestige of schools like Brown, Spoehr said, which began to focus more on getting the best students.

The adoption of the SAT initially helped admission offices become ­— or at least seem — more objective. “It’s not who your parents are.

It’s how you do on the SAT,” Spoehr said.

Racial diversity

But despite this increase in enrollment, especially of middle-class students, the majority of students were white until the late 1960s.

Professor of Biology Ken Miller ’70 P’02 said there were about four black seniors at the University in 1967.

This homogeneity changed dramatically in 1968, a high point for civil rights activism, he said.

That year, the 25 to 30 black students at the University staged a walkout. When the class of 1973 entered the University the following year, “all of a sudden, for the first time, you see a significant number of African American faces,” he said, estimating that the class of 1973 had around 60 to 70 black students.

Racial diversity and class diversity are often linked, but Miller said while he thinks the influx of black students changed Brown’s socioeconomic makeup, he is not sure of its exact effects.

Affirmative action and pro-

Courtesy of Tom Mortenson

National trends show that while college enrollment has increased over the last 40 years, large gaps persist between different income groups.

degree, Carnevale said.

The economy shifted toward one that valued “higher levels of cognitive skills,” said John Tyler, a professor of education who teaches the course EDUC 1130: “Economics of Education.”

Colleges were able to increase their tuition rates as people became more willing to invest more in their education. “One of the main things that supports increasing tuition is

“You can go need-blind, but if everyone’s got a 1200 SAT, you’re not going to get any lowincome kids.”

Anthony Carvenale Director, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

grams that aim to increase racial diversity often do not increase economic diversity, because they target people from the middle class, said Sherry Linkon, co-director of the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University.

“You might get African-American students or Chicano students who are actually coming from a pretty advantaged place who could get in anywhere, anyway,” she said.

Miller said both racial diversity and socioeconomic diversity, whether related or not, have grown since he was an undergraduate.

A turning point

The University shifted closer toward its current state of financial aid in the ’80s, as both the value of a college degree and tuition continued to increase. College tuition rose astronomically throughout the decade, surpassing the rate of inflation. And after the 1981 nationwide recession, more jobs began to require a college

that people are willing to pay it. And they’re willing to pay it because the market is willing to pay them,” he said.

Ken Miller said his tuition in the late 1960s would have been about half of his father’s $6,800 annual salary when he attended Brown.

Now, such a ratio would suggest “coming from a family where the salary of the primary breadwinner is like $110,000.”

But Miller said his family was in a much lower socioeconomic group than someone whose family income was around $110,000 today. “Certainly even the elite schools, even the Ivy League schools, were more affordable then,” he said.

As the value of a college degree rises, the number of lower-income students attending four-year institutions is decreasing. These simultaneous trends have made higher education “part of the inequality mechanism in America,” Carnevale said. Lower-income students tend to

attend two-year and community colleges, going on to earn less than their peers at four-year institutions. As a result, their children will likely grow up in lower income brackets, consequently having a smaller chance of attending a four-year college and achieving subsequent upward economic mobility.

Over the past 20 years, the University has worked to combat the cycle, instituting measures to recruit and enroll a more socioeconomically diverse student body. Still, while measures like the institution of a need-blind admission process in 2003 have changed perceptions of the University’s accessibility, their actual effects on enrollment have not been as dramatic.

“Things are very slow and subtle the way they move in places like this,” said Michael Goldberger, current director of athletics and dean of admission from 1995 to 2005.

The ‘luxury’ of need-blind

Simmons announced a proposal in 2001 to make admission needblind for domestic first-years. Two years later, the class of 2007 was the first to be admitted under the needblind policy.

Prior to implementing needblind admission for first-year domestic applicants, the University attempted to be need-blind for around 90 percent of applicants, Goldberger said. The remaining 10 percent of applicants were categorized “under advisement” and consisted of students deemed weaker candidates, he said.

“At that time, we would know how much money we spent, we would know what the need was for each of the group UAD or ‘under advisement’ category, and then we became very need-aware,” Goldberger said. continued on page 13

Money Matters 13

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

Since need-blind admission, socioeconomic diversity steady continued from page 12 Before the 2003 need-blind transition, around 36 percent of students received financial aid, according to a 2008-09 status report by the Office of Institutional Diversity. In recent years, that number has fluctuated between 38 and 44 percent, said Jim Tilton, director of financial aid.

The number of undergraduates applying for financial aid has not changed significantly in the past 10 years, Tilton said. Around 50 percent of students apply for financial aid each year, he said, and though the percentage fluctuates from year to year, application increases likely reflect rising tuition prices as well as possible shifts in the demographics of the applicant pool.

Over the past 20 years, Goldberger said the diversity within both the applicant pool and the group of students admitted to the University has grown, though not drastically.

Going need-blind for domestic first-years “wasn’t as big a deal as you might have thought in terms of the impact that it would have on the applicant pool,” Goldberger said.

Despite only moderate increases in the number of students on financial aid, Goldberger said the switch to a need-blind process for first-year domestic applicants was the right decision. “To be need-blind is such a luxury,” he said.

He also noted that Simmons and the Corporation made the decision to go need-blind before the University received a $100 million gift in 2004 from Sidney Frank ’42 that provided funds for the additional costs. “(Simmons’) feeling was it’s the right thing to do and we should do it and still meet 100 percent of need,” Goldberger said.

Going need-blind “sends a compelling message to prospective applicants and their parents that merit alone determines admission, that there are no back doors or side

doors into Brown because you can pay (and) someone else cannot,” Jim Miller wrote.

During the 2008-09 academic year, the University also eliminated the expected family contributions of students whose parents earned less than $60,000 combined, Tilton said.

While this change did not significantly affect the number of students applying for and receiving financial aid, it did increase the average financial aid package, Tilton said.

The recession, which hit the same year, did not dramatically affect the number of enrolled students applying for financial aid, Tilton said. While around two-thirds of enrolled undergraduates still applied as in previous years, the number of students seeking financial aid counseling and the number of applicants asking for financial aid increased,

price,” Tyler said, even though most students in that income bracket would receive significant financial aid that could make college affordable.

“You’re repeating the ‘Gee, it wouldn’t even occur to me to apply to that school’ phenomena that you would have had 100 years ago,” Spoehr said. “Except 100 years ago, you didn’t need to go to college.”

Advantages of wealth

When lower-income students do apply to the University, they are often disadvantaged compared to their wealthier peers.

Due to better access to material resources and cultural capital, more affluent children tend to go to higher-quality secondary schools, better preparing them for college, Goldberger said.

“Students come from much wealthier families now than they used to.”

George Borts Professor of Economics

he said. The number of applicants seeking financial aid has increased 25 percent since 2007-08, Tilton wrote in an email to The Herald.

The recession also caused many school districts to reduce their number of college counselors, Goldberger said, making it harder to educate students in lower-income areas about the University’s financial aid and admissions policies. Without this information, some students are deterred from applying to the University because they think they will not be able to afford Brown, Spoehr said.

“We know that this is a problem now — that if you’re from a low-income family that’s first-generation, you’re often deterred by the sticker

“I think the biggest issue is really the country,” he said, adding that lower-income communities cannot afford high property taxes, making it difficult to improve public education in these areas.

“Through much of American history, we have tried to avoid talking about class and to try to pretend that working-class people don’t actually have any disadvantages, that they could be just like everybody else if only they would try hard enough,” Linkon said. “And we’re beginning to understand that there are some structural obstacles — things like the quality of public schools — that make it significantly harder.”

Students without the appropriate

high school background are often turned down “even though they’re perfectly bright and they’d do just fine” if they had the courses they needed, Goldberger said. “It is very hard to make that leap to say that this is someone that I am confident can be successful at Brown.”

It was much easier 20 years ago to find students who had low test scores and attended poor public high schools but still stood out as someone “who’s got it,” he said.

Then, he said, his admission team had to read about half the number of applications that the current office deals with, despite the staff being roughly the same size. “When you have got 30,000 applications to go through in a very short amount of time, it’s hard to find those pearls,” he said.

Despite increases in the number of students on Pell Grants and needblind admission, Goldberger said he does not think the socioeconomic diversity of the University has increased significantly in recent years.

One issue may be that need-blind prevents admissions officers from considering advantages afforded to wealthier applicants.

When colleges began emphasizing SAT scores, they did so to make the admissions process more objective. But today, the test is often criticized for favoring wealthier students, who can afford preparatory classes and tutors.

“I don’t think (need-blind admission does) any good. Because in the end, it’s the distribution of test scores,” Carnevale said. “You can go need-blind, but if everyone’s got a 1200 SAT, you’re not going to get any low-income kids.”

By focusing more exclusively on lower-income applicants, the University may have also become less attractive to middle-income students, Goldberger said. In its financial aid options for students with a family income between $80,000

and $175,000 per year, the University still lags behind the other Ivies, which may drive some students to peer institutions, he said.

“Families that consider themselves middle-income are finding that the amount of the parent contribution from institutions like Brown that award need-based aid is sometimes different than what they themselves have determined that they can contribute,” Tilton wrote.

But this is also a problem at many of the University’s peer institutions, he wrote.

The University “must continue to make a compelling case to middle-income families of the value proposition of a Brown education,” especially as those families experience the financial challenges of the current economy, Jim Miller wrote.

“Students come from much wealthier families now than they used to,” said George Borts, a professor of economics who has taught at Brown since 1950.

In a recent Herald poll, a plurality of students listed financial aid as the most important issue for the next University president to emphasize. The issue of the student body’s socioeconomic diversity will become increasingly relevant in the coming years as the University evaluates its priorities under President-elect Christina Paxson.

The rest of this series reviews different facets of socioeconomic diversity at the University. The series will explore the University’s financial aid offerings compared to those at its peer institutions, how socioeconomic diversity impacts student interactions on campus and how students’ socioeconomic backgrounds affect their career choices after college. In exploring these different elements of diversity, The Herald hopes to shed light on how socioeconomic status may influence a student’s journey from application to the University to life after Brown.

Chinese environmentalist decries spread of desert By caroline saine Staff Writer

China is under attack — from dust storms. In a talk Thursday, Patrick Lui discussed the far-reaching implications of sand spreading and desertification in China, speaking to about 20 undergraduates and faculty members as part of the Year of China series. The talk was held in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, where Lui’s corresponding exhibition, “Green Dragon,” is currently on display.

arts & culture “Nearly six years ago, we started this internationalization effort at Brown,” said Chung-I Tan, professor of physics and director of the Year of China. By exploring various socioeconomic, cultural, geographic and historical aspects of the country through lectures and exhibitions such as Lui’s, the program has sought to “introduce our community to Chinese culture,” Tan said.

Lui is an acclaimed filmmaker,

artist and environmentalist. He is the founder of the Green Great Wall Foundation, an environmental advocacy initiative that aims to build a “green belt” throughout China in the hopes of halting desertification and containing damages already caused by dust storms.

“The encroaching desert — it’s eating up our land,” Lui said. Affecting 3,436 square kilometers of land per year, the speed of sand erosion has reached a monumental and unsustainable pace, he said.

Prefacing his discussion of the Green Great Wall Foundation, Lui presented a slideshow of images depicting the majesty and the destruction of green China — most of which are also featured in his photo exhibition.

“It was beautiful,” Lui said of what he called “green China.” He lamented that elements of the lush, green landscape seen in the photographs have been burned, washed away in the torrents or eaten away because of overgrazing.

The exhibition itself presents a sobering image of the contemporary

world. Photographs celebrating nature depict birds by a stream, blocks of green forest and clouds illuminated by sunlight, but the dissonance between these photos and surrounding images — which depict Chinese industrialization and desertification — is jarring. Factories and clouds of steam take the foreground, covering the mountains behind them.

The photographs are portraits of change. But the juxtaposition of Green China and Yellow Sand, Lui’s name for desertified China, do not

suggest an inevitable progression from one to the other. Lui said reversing the conversion is possible, and hope remains. “Some birds fly away while some birds still stay,” he said.

“We have to educate a new generation,” he said, noting that in order to prevent more damage, future generations must ensure that a balance is struck between development and environment.

Efforts to curb the spread of desertification have included sowing

by plane, attempting to prevent overgrazing, re-routing rivers from South to North and developing wind solar and biodiesel energy, Lui said. He noted that success has been found in several provinces in China — conversions of as much as 70 percent sand to 70 percent green have occurred through extensive fencing and control of sheep, he said.

Despite these efforts, there is still much more to be done. “China is a big country,” Lui said, “and it’s still not enough.”

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

14 Editorial & Letter Editorial

Curbing student debt Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., has just introduced the Student Loan Affordability Act, which would freeze interest rates on Stafford Loans at its current number, 3.4 percent. This measure is intended to combat the doubling of student loan interest rates — from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent — that would otherwise occur on July 1.

The burden of student debt is a serious issue, and we are grateful that our senator is taking action, not just a passive interest, in the problem. We strongly support this bill, as the current cost of education has crippling effects not just on current college students, but also on society at large.

The cost of a college education has increased by a staggering 559 percent since 1985, and last month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that student debt has surpassed $1 trillion, with more than 37 million graduates and dropouts in debt due to their loans. If this act does not pass and Stafford Loan rates double, it will cost the average borrower another $2,800 over the next decade, “while someone who maxed out the available subsidized loans would owe an additional $5,000,” according to Rich Williams, the higher education advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. It is estimated that this change would affect more than 7 million low- and middle-income college students across the nation. And crippling student debt haunts many graduates for a lifetime — the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that borrowers over 50 years old still owe $135 billion in student loans.

Considering the scope and intensity of this problem, we find it perplexing why so little has been done to address it. Some Democratic politicians have expressed outrage that student loans are barely on the radar while the “Federal Reserve is basically giving banks money for free, Treasury bonds are being sold at 2 percent and mortgage rates are 3.8 percent,” Politico reported.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has said during his campaign that he is “not going to promise” that his administration would increase federal loans and grants and that students shouldn’t “expect the government to forgive the debt that you take on.” This blase attitude toward student debt is worrisome and reflects a lack of awareness of the importance of this issue.

As the cost of higher education continues to skyrocket, a 3.4 percent difference in the student loan interest rate could easily mean the difference between a college degree and a missed opportunity. Education is not just as an opportunity that everyone deserves — it is also a necessity in this day and age for people to successfully participate in the market and the public sphere.

The planned 100 percent increase in student loan rates is unacceptable, and we hope that other members of Congress will join with Reed in taking action before it takes effect. Preventing student loan interest rates from increasing is the bare minimum that our government can do to prevent education from becoming more of a privilege than it already is.

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

t h e b r ow n da i ly h e r a l d Editor-in-Chief

Managing Editors

Senior Editors

Claire Peracchio

Rebecca Ballhaus Nicole Boucher

Tony Bakshi Natalie Villacorta

editorial

Business

Arts & Culture Editor Sarah Mancone Arts & Culture Editor Emma Wohl City & State Editor Elizabeth Carr City & State Editor Kat Thornton Features Editor Aparna Bansal Assistant Features Editor Jordan Hendricks News Editor David Chung News Editor Lucy Feldman News Editor Greg Jordan-Detamore News Editor Shefali Luthra Science Editor Sahil Luthra Sports Editor Ethan McCoy Sports Editor Ashley McDonnell Assistant Sports Editor Sam Rubinroit Editorial Page Editor Jonathan Topaz Opinions Editor Charles Lebovitz Opinions Editor Jared Moffat Graphics & Photos Eva Chen Emily Gilbert Rachel Kaplan Jesse Schwimmer

Graphics Editor Photo Editor Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

Copy Desk Chief Design Editor Design Editor Web Producer

Office Manager Shawn Reilly

Julia Kuwahara Samuel Plotner Nikita Khadloya Angel Lee

Editorial cartoon

by r ac h e l h a b e r s t r o h

letter to the editor Column unfairly judges women’s bodies To the Editor: While I appreciate the attempt by Cara Dorris ’15 to discuss the media’s portrayal of women’s bodies (“Heroin chic is back,” April 19), I do not appreciate the highly critical tone she takes up when discussing women with smaller figures.

Dorris is forgetting that women’s bodies come in many different shapes and sizes and that it is nearly impossible

to determine whether someone is “healthy” just by judging their size. Some women are naturally thin and not very curvy, and it’s quite insulting for her to suggest that women who are “curveless” or “hipless” are somehow not “real women.” To suggest that all women who are thin must be starving themselves in order to emulate Andrej Pejic and other models is inaccurate and offensive.

Anna Boughtwood ’15

Sun rises, sun sets Herald inbox waits for you Your letters, your love. quote of the day

“They evacuated the building as if we were al-Qaeda.”

— Johanna Fernandez ‘93

Directors Sales Finance Alumni Relations Business Development

See protest on page 11.

Managers Justin Lee Kaivan Shroff Gregory Chatzinoff Mahima Chawla Luka Ursic Alison Pruzan Elizabeth Gordon David Winer

Human Resources Research & Development Collections Collections Finance Operations Alumni Engagement Fundraising Marketing

Post- magazine Sam Knowles

Production Olivia Conetta Kyle McNamara Julia Shube Neal Poole

General Managers Siena DeLisser Danielle Marshak

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

Editor-in-Chief

BLOG DAILY HERALD Jennifer Bloom Matt Klimerman

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor

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

C ommentary P O L I C Y The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

L etters to the E ditor P olicy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. advertising P olicy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

Opinions 15

The Brown Daily Herald Monday, April 23, 2012

Why social entrepreneurship matters

By Brett Anders Guest Columnist

The idea and practice of social entrepreneurship are becoming increasingly popular, affecting sectors from finance to farming, including nonprofits, for-profits and everything in between. In early April, Ian Eppler ’13 argued that “it is high time for us to retire social entrepreneurship from our lexicon” (“Rethinking social entrepreneurship,” April 9). He writes that “social entrepreneurship” is a term without a clear meaning and is therefore useless. My experience with the subject of social entrepreneurship in courses, extracurricular work and interactions with a number of actual social entrepreneurs, however, suggests otherwise. Social entrepreneurship is a rapidly developing field that is advancing sustainable solutions to society’s persistent problems. As such, it represents a useful method for addressing problems and is a concept worth studying.

I define social entrepreneurship as the pursuit of innovative, transformative, sustainable and market-driven solutions to social problems. While many social change endeavors possess certain qualities of social entrepreneurship, the two concepts are not identical. Social entrepreneurship is about specific ways of creating social change. This idea is best illustrated through real-world examples.

Consider an organization that wants to supply HIV/AIDS drugs to patients in Africa and the Caribbean. A traditional social service provision model would consist of raising funds, purchasing drugs and distributing the drugs through a clinic. Ten years ago, the Clinton Foundation identified a market failure in this situation — pharmaceutical companies were focusing exclusively on selling high-margin drugs and were failing to realize potential large-scale demand for less expensive drugs. The Clinton Foundation led

ing and employment opportunities for Amos House’s clients. Together, they account for 15 percent of Amos House’s annual revenue.

These are just a few examples of social entrepreneurship in action, and I could name countless others. Last semester, I took ENGN 1930Q: “Social Entrepreneurship,” a course built around articles, case studies, regular guest speakers — many of whom were Brown alums — and a final project that partnered students with organizations. Outside class, my involvement with A Better World

The term “social entrepreneurship” may be somewhat unclear and overused, but that does not mean it should be ignored or retired. an effort spearheaded by Ira Magaziner ’69 P’06 P’07 P’10 to organize the market. Pharmaceutical companies began producing drugs for the larger-scale, less volatile market provided by governments in Africa and the Caribbean. Economies of scale led to lower drug prices. This solution fundamentally changed the way HIV/AIDS drugs are supplied to poorer markets.

In Providence alone, there are many examples of “social enterprises,” or businesses with a social mission. Amos House, an organization that works to address hunger, homelessness and poverty, contains a business arm called Amos House Works, which includes a catering service, a cafe and a home renovation and repair business. These programs, which are self-sustaining, provide job train-

by Design — which explores the use of design and technology for social impact — has exposed me to many more examples of social entrepreneurship. Beyond this, I am friends with a number of students who are social entrepreneurs. Many of them run their own organizations, and many of them are Starr Fellows, who receive support from the Swearer Center for Public Service’s initiative for social entrepreneurship. Brown’s student body has a thriving culture of social entrepreneurship.

Acknowledge it or not, the field of social entrepreneurship definitely exists. More importantly, the concept and field are changing the way that people think about social action.

The rigor of financial analysis and savvy of business acumen are now being applied to social interventions. Furthermore, there is

a strong and growing community that seeks to support social entrepreneurs. Ashoka and Acumen Fund are two of many organizations that identify and invest in social entrepreneurs. These institutions aspire to support certain types of solutions to social problems — namely, those that are innovative, transformative and sustainable. In doing so, they set new standards for social impact, affecting the way that traditional nonprofits, social enterprises, for-profit businesses and even governments operate.

The term “social entrepreneurship” may be somewhat unclear and overused, but that does not mean it should be ignored or retired. Rather, as a rapidly developing field with exciting frontiers, it should be explored, challenged, pushed. Social entrepreneurship is creating lasting solutions to social problems in a way that has never been done before, and Brown students can play a key role in advancing this field. Some will lead research in impact measurement and assessment. Others will create new legal frameworks that support mixed financial and social returns on investment. Still others will create change in ways not yet imagined.

Brown’s culture of creativity, nonconformity and social consciousness means that students here are uniquely well-positioned to contribute to the field of social entrepreneurship — indeed, we already are.

Brett Anders ’14 tries to help others change the world and is currently in the process of proposing an independent concentration in Social Innovation.

Too busy to care?

Ethan Tobias Opinions Columnist

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the apparent lack of activism at Brown. Helen McDonald ’14 accused the University of not caring about racism (“Who cares about Trayvon Martin?” April 12) in trying to explain the apparent lack of rallies and meetings in response to the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer.

These sentiments have been echoed on other issues. In October, when the Occupy movement was at its peak, only about 30 people attended the Occupy College Hill assembly meeting, suggesting to organizers a lack of campus engagement to fight privilege and inequality. Closer to home, when it came to the debate for the next Undergraduate Council of Students president, only about 65 percent of the new Metcalf Auditorium was filled, according to Chip Lebovitz’s ’14 column (“Response to the UCS/UFB candidate debate,” April 13).

There just seems to be a lack of enthusiasm from the student body about fighting racism and inequality or concerning themselves with the major issues facing the University. Why don’t more Brown students care?

One answer is pretty obvious: Brown students are extremely busy. Most are in-

volved in some kind of sport or student group and spend hours each week in meetings, internships and practice sessions. On top of that, students are constantly striving for academic excellence. An editorial in The Herald (“Allergic to B’s,” April 9) pointed out that there is greater and greater pressure on students to get As, especially since grade changes are particularly dramatic due to the lack of pluses or minuses.

I can attest to the fact that students’ plates are very filled. As a senior writing an honors thesis, I have spent an unbeliev-

active is that a lot of these issues aren’t so black and white. Yes, Trayvon Martin’s death is an unfortunate loss and the lackluster response of the local police department should be investigated. Yet, by the time the case blew up nationally, Florida’s governor had already placed a special prosecutor on the case and the Department of Justice had already launched a civil rights investigation. We could have protested all we wanted to demonstrate how upset we were, but the country’s leadership was already of a similar mindset. The process

Because current issues are somewhat more ambiguous, the result is that there just isn’t one cause celebre uniting students of this generation.

able amount of time working on my project, and I am surrounded by others whose time commitments dwarf mine by an order of magnitude.

But despite being overly scheduled and busy, Brown students still manage to find time to enjoy Spring Weekend or go to the Graduate Center Bar. If they wanted to spend their time protesting outside University Hall, they could find time for it.

Except that at its essence, perhaps the reason that Brown students are not more

worked, and Zimmerman was finally arrested and charged.

Even Occupy Wall Street, despite good intentions, was not clearly a right or wrong issue. The idea that there is a 99 percent versus a top 1 percent creates unnatural divisions and lumps people from broad spectrums together. A pair of married doctors whose incomes just barely meet the one percent threshold — $380,000 — and are trying to raise a family in Manhattan have little in common with billionaires. Fur-

thermore, the top Democratic leadership has heard the call and is now pushing for the “Buffett Rule” to increase taxes on the highest earners.

Because current issues are somewhat more ambiguous, the result is that there just isn’t one cause celebre uniting students of this generation. In the ’60s, there were serious civil rights abuses. A rogue neighborhood watch volunteer claiming self-defense would barely have made the cut of crimes to focus on when there were lynch mobs. In the ’70s, students had the universally vilified Vietnam War to rally against.

Today, our leadership has already ended the war in Iraq and is scrambling to get us out of Afghanistan, just as soon as it can figure out how to do so without leaving the country in chaos. Perhaps there would be more rallies against the war if there was a draft, but we don’t really have a better exit strategy to advocate than the current leadership.

As a result of lacking a single cause, we are a student body divided. Some focus on marriage equality, some on increasing the University’s financial contributions to Providence, some on peace in the Middle East — the list goes on and on. While many lament the apparent lack of campus engagement, the truth is that it is incredible how active students can be about their pet issues, despite their overloaded schedules.

Ethan Tobias ’12 thanks the readers for taking the time to consider his opinions and think about which issues should unite our generation. He can be reached at ethan_tobias@brown.edu.

Daily Herald Arts & Culture the Brown

Monday, April 23, 2012

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet recounts tales of sex, death

By Elizabeth Koh Senior Staff Writer

“There are two kinds of inspirations,” Pulitzer Prize-winning poet C.K. Williams told a crowd of about 50 students Thursday afternoon.

“There’s the kind of inspiration that captures you, and there’s the kind of inspiration you capture.”

“I’m a firm believer in both sorts,” he added.

Williams, who has been internationally lauded for his prolific prose-like poetry, read from his latest collection of poems, “Wait,” as well as from a forthcoming collection, “Writers Writing Dying,” in the second-to-last installment of the Writers on Writing series, sponsored by the literary arts department.

The reading, punctuated by Williams’ dry humor, featured poetry about love and sex — “for those of you who are getting sleepy” — and Williams’ usual topics of politics, death and writing.

One of his poems, “Whacked,” began with the familiar narrative voice of the poet. “Every morning of my life I sit at my desk getting whacked by some great poet or other,” Williams — who is in his 70s — read, to laughter from the audience. “Some Yeats, some Auden, some Herbert or Larkin and lately a whole tribe of others — oy! — younger than me.”

Other poems, like “The Day Continues Lovely,” dealt with more expansive topics. “Meanwhile cosmos roars on with so many voices we can’t hear ourselves think. Galaxy on.

Galaxy off. Universe on, but another just behind this one,” Williams read.

After the reading, Williams took a few questions from the audience about the craft of poetry.

“Lucidity, lucidity — I realize that’s really what I’ve been after,” he said in response to a question about the clarity of his work. “I’m a bit of a Freudian, and I experience mind as a rather chaotic place and consciousness as a chaotic entity.”

Students walked away impressed by the reading. “I’ve admired C.K. Williams for a while, so it was exciting to have him on campus,” said Lucy Kissel ’13. Kissel, a double concentrator in American studies and literary arts who is taking LITR 1200: “Writers on Writing,” called Williams “the reason I took this class.”

“He’s a very good reader,” she said. “It’s always interesting to see how a writer presents his or her work.”

Williams’ reading was “rejuvenating,” said Tuong Vy Nguyen GS, who is studying literary arts.

“You never thought someone who is older than most people (would) have so much energy for poetry,” she said. “You think poetry

Courtesy of Jesse Nemerofsky

Williams, whose “Repair” won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, gave a “rejuvenating” reading of some of his latest works.

must have disappeared from their lips.”

Students unfamiliar with the poet

also enjoyed his reading.

Gargi Harithakam GS, also studying literary arts, described

Williams’ poetry as “very clear and not clear, in a way that comes with maturity or age.”