Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Daily

Herald

the Brown

vol. cxxii, no. 56

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Since 1891

Relative to peers, U.’s financial aid lags behind Aid policies influence student body breakdown

By ELI OKUN and ALEXA PUGH Senior Staff Writer and Staff Writer

Rebecca Steinberg and Julia Shube / Herald

By Caitlin Trujillo Staff Writer

A majority of students believe the University should offer genderneutral housing for first-year students, according to a Herald poll conducted last month. Roughly 60 percent of students polled said they either strongly or somewhat agreed with a gender-neutral option, with one-third of total respondents strongly agreeing, and about one-quarter indicating that they somewhat agreed with expanding gender-neutral housing.

Nearly one-quarter of surveyed students said they had no opinion on the issue, and about 18 percent said they either strongly or somewhat disagreed that the option be available.

Yen Tran ’14 said he supported the initiative to expand genderneutral housing to first-years.

Though he doubts the option will be popular among first-years, it will be appreciated by those who want it, he said. Because genderneutral housing is optional, nobody who feels uncomfortable with it would have to utilize it, he said.

GenderAction, a subgroup of the Queer Alliance at Brown, originated a proposal and signature campaign last semester to expand gender-neutral housing to first-years. The proposal is due to be submitted to the Corporation in May. Members of GenderAc-

inside

continued on page 2

news....................2 CITY & State........3 money...........4-5 athlete.............6-7 SPORTS..................8 editorial.............10

continued on page 4

Taveras proposes $638 million budget

By Sona mkrttchian Senior Staff Writer

At the annual city budget address last night, Mayor Angel Taveras presented the Providence City Council with a $638.4 million budget proposal that prioritizes education, economic development and public safety. Taveras reiterated his calls for municipal pension reform and increased contributions from the city’s nonprofits. Though a deal between Providence and the University has yet to be reached, parts of the budget rely on the outcome of the negotiations.

Taveras pointed to projec-

tions in his proposed budget — including reductions in the costs of retiree health care for the city — that depend on $7.1 million in payments from local nonprofits and city pension system reform.

Taveras urged the council to pass his Providence Pension Protection Plan, which he said would save the city $19 million after suspending promised annual cost-of-living increases.

city & state Though the proposed budget represents a nearly $5 million increase from last year’s plan, Taveras said that the operating budget

will actually decrease because $7.7 million will be incorporated into the city’s reserve fund.

Taveras said pension reform is integral to the city’s economic revival, though dialogue with retirees is difficult because municipal workers are no longer represented by a union once they leave their jobs. Conversations with the University and the large tax-exempt organizations in the city will continue this week, as Taveras seeks to increase voluntary contributions from the institutions.

During his address, Taveras said he is hopeful the city “will reach a deal with most, if not all, of our tax-exempts before the end

of this fiscal year.” And while the Taveras administration will not release any details of the meetings between the administration and University negotiators, he is optimistic “the city and Brown University will reach an agreement that will help both parties,” David Ortiz, the mayor’s press secretary, told The Herald.

But Taveras warned that if agreements are not reached with the tax-exempts, the city is prepared to work with the General Assembly to create laws that would allow the city to mandate payments. The suggestion drew continued on page 9

Sports fans on campus, but not in the stands

By Ethan McCoy and Joseph rosales Sports Editor and Senior Staff Writer

Across the country, the phrase “college sports” conjures images of parking lots full of tailgaters as far as the eye can see and waves of students dressed in the same color screaming as a member of the opposing team lines up for a foul shot.

see Pages 6-7 Brown students are generally an athletic bunch that rally around their home teams and sometimes foreign leagues — as evidenced by the presence of NFL jerseys on a fall Sunday in the Ratty. But there appears to be a disconnect between non-athletes and the Bears.

Though Brown has 37 teams competing in Division I of the NCAA with recent alums who have

Incentive

Bill would provide tax credits to filmmakers in R.I. city & state, 3

won Super Bowl rings and Olympic medals, attendance at games can be spotty, and only a select few students might be likely to know the records of any of the teams. Brunonians are proud of their institution, but passion for University sports rarely figures into that pride.

A unified student body

“We just don’t have a sports culture here — and I wish we did,” said Mariah Gonzales ’13, who said she considered going to the University of Notre Dame because of the school spirit and camaraderie centered on its athletics.

At Brown sporting events, the student fans in attendance are most often members of other athletic teams who come out to support their peers or other friends of athletes.

“If you’re not on a team or dating continued on page 6

‘Dumb jock’ Student-athlete stereotypes persist on campus

athlete experience, 7

Emily Gilbert / Herald

On campus, University pride rarely translates into athletic event attendance.

Busyness

Karshenboym ’12 urges productivity

opinions, 11

weather

Poll finds support for new housing option

When high school senior Vananh Tran was admitted to Brown last month, she was floored.

“It was my dream school. And I honestly never expected to get in,” she said. Tran loves Brown’s “individualized attention” and its emphasis on learning over competition.

But the decision-making process has not been so clear-cut. For Tran, who comes from a family of five living below the poverty line in Anaheim, Calif., finances are a major concern — and the University of California at Berkeley has

offered her a full ride with no loans or work-study. Penn, the other school she is considering, gave her a package similar to that of Brown, but requiring thousands less from her student summer earnings and including more spending and travel money.

Tran attended Third World Welcome and A Day on College Hill, but before attending those events, she told The Herald she wished the choice was easier.

“Honestly, if Brown had given me better financial aid, it would be no problem deciding it right now,”

t o d ay

tomorrow

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2 Campus News

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2012

calendar Today

April 24

6 P.m.

ToMORROW

April 25

5:30 p.m.

C.P. Cavafy in Music

Racial Justice Panel

Martinos Auditorium

Salomon 001

7 p.m.

7 p.m.

Habana Station Film Screening

Senator Russ Feingold Lecture

Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum

Salomon 101

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL LUNCH

Artichoke Pepper Calzone, BBQ Chicken Pizza, Beef and Adouille Burgers, Butterscotch Cookies

Tacos, Vegan Burritos, Corn and Sweet Pepper Saute, BBQ Navy Beans, Butterscotch Cookies

DINNER Apricot Beef with Sesame Noodles, Vegan Chana Masala, Chicken Curry, Raspberry Crumble Bars

Pizza Rustica with Spinach, Rotisserie Style Chicken, Steak Fries, Tortellini Italiano

Sudoku

Brisa Bodell / Herald

Gender-neutral proposal to be reviewed continued from page 1

Crossword

tion are meeting this week with Natalie Basil, associate director of residential life, and Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services. They will review the proposal in light of recent feedback from student groups around campus, Basil said.

Other colleges have genderneutral housing for first-years, Tran said. The University should work to be as accommodating as other schools, especially for prospective transgender students who feel they need gender-neutral housing, he added.

Arisa Lohmeier ’14 said she supported expanding genderneutral housing on campus for upperclassman so students are not limited by which dormitories have designated gender-neutral status.

Though she said she is not familiar with the issues transgender students might have with housing, the University should ensure it

Daily

the Brown

provides an open and welcome environment.

“If we say we’re a really liberal school, we shouldn’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk,” Lohmeier said. “It seems like it should just be something we do.”

Emily Corsini, a prospective member of the class of 2016, told The Herald she would support a measure to expand gender-neutral housing, but that she would not personally be interested.

Blanca Garcia, another prospective student, called genderneutral housing for first-years “a good idea,” but said she did not think it would be implemented.

A poll conducted by the Undergraduate Council of Students last fall found that 79.6 percent of respondents approved of genderneutral first-year housing. GenderAction Co-President Maddy Jennewein ’14 said most students she speaks to about the proposal are supportive, but she often needs to explain that the proposed

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option would be opt-in, she said.

GenderAction has made a few changes to the proposal as the group has presented it to campus committees. The biggest change was a modification to how the opt-in process would work on the housing forms first-years fill out, Jennewein said. GenderAction changed the proposal to say three options should be listed — one for students who feel they need to live in gender-neutral housing, one for students who feel they would like to but do not need it for their personal safety and one for students who do not want it, she said.

Though students appear to support first-year gender-neutral housing, it is harder to tell how the Corporation will view the current proposal, Jennewein said. Since the University often relies on precedent set by peer institutions — such as Penn, which approved gender-neutral housing for first-years last summer — GenderAction’s proposal might succeed, she said.

“This isn’t the hugest step to take,” Jennewein said.

— With additional reporting by Caroline Saine Written questionnaires were administered to 1,530 undergraduates March 12–14 in the lobby of J. Walter Wilson and the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center during the day and the Sciences Library at night. The poll has a 2.2 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence.

Find results of previous polls at thebdh.org/poll.

City & State 3

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Bill hopes to draw filmmakers to R.I.

By Katherine Cusumano Staff Writer

In an effort to bring more drama to the economically stagnant Ocean State, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, Warwick, introduced legislation Feb. 1 that would repeal existing film production tax credits and create a new system of incentives to attract filmmakers to the state.

The act will alter current tax law by making more tax credits available to smaller film productions and requiring companies to employ Rhode Islanders, said Steven Feinberg, director of the Rhode Island Film and Television Office. It will “stimulate people to establish roots in Rhode Island,” he said, adding that the bill would improve infrastructure and provide jobs for Rhode Islanders in a “lucrative and ground-breaking business that thrives in all economic seasons.”

The plan will also introduce new tax credits to help independent filmmakers working in the state. The minimum budget for a film to receive tax credits would be lowered from $300,000 to

$100,000, and state funding for these incentives would increase from $1.5 million to $4 million.

Credits would also be available to theater and video game productions. To qualify for credit, 5 percent of a production’s payroll must be allocated to Rhode Island residents.

Productions have been known to move out of the state because of more generous tax credits available elsewhere, Feinberg said. ABC’s crime series “Body of Proof ” was formerly filmed in Rhode Island. But when the governor proposed suspending the film credit last summer, the production moved to Los Angeles. While the proposal was never enacted into law, the production team moved because they were not sure the credit would exist when they began filming again, Feinberg said, adding that “consistent policy stimulates investment.”

According to mathematical modeling done by Ed Mazze, professor of marketing and supply chain management at the University of Rhode Island, every $1 spent on film production stimu-

lates $8 in economic activity.

But the cash influx from attracting productions to Rhode Island is not instantaneous, Mazze said, which may deter lawmakers from supporting the legislation.

Mazze’s study did not take into account tourism attracted by filming done in Rhode Island.

“People come and want to watch a film being made,” Mazze said.

Local productions “are spending an infusion of money on small businesses,” Feinberg said.

He said he rejected the concern that the state cannot afford new tax credits given the current economic climate.

Stimulating the film industry can also provide opportunities to students enrolled in film programs at state schools. Several students at the University of Rhode Island who had taken a course on Wes Anderson later had the opportunity to intern on a film Anderson produced in Rhode Island, Feinberg said.

“Culture for our state is so important,” Feinberg said. “The state of Rhode Island needs jobs badly, and we need to feel good about ourselves.”

Despite recent downpour, rain deficit persists By emily hartman Contributing Writer

This year’s mild winter and warm, dry spring has put Rhode Island at risk for a meteorological drought.

This March was the warmest and one of the driest on record, and Rhode Island had experienced very little rainfall since February prior to Sunday’s record-setting rainstorm. Though the weekend’s storm set a daily rainfall record of 1.59 inches, total precipitation for 2012 is still about seven inches lower than normal.

The Rhode Island Drought Management Steering Committee convened April 12 for the first time in four years to discuss whether to issue a drought advisory for the state. The committee uses four different metrics to determine whether a drought advisory should be issued, said Kenneth Burke, general manager at Rhode Island Water Resources Board and member of the committee.

Precipitation levels and the area’s status based on the Palmer Drought Index — a numerical representation of long-term dryness computed using data like rainfall and temperature — met the drought criteria. But deficits in groundwater and streamflow

were not yet severe enough to warrant the advisory. Three of these four “triggers” must meet minimum drought conditions to issue a drought advisory, Burke said.

“If we get a bunch of rain, it could really turn things around quickly,” Burke said.

Rhode Island is currently in “normal drought conditions,” but the committee plans to reconvene in early May to determine whether the situation has worsened enough to warrant a drought advisory, Burke added.

“We believe in all likelihood that at least one of the other triggers will be met by the end of April,” he said, because some conditions that have only been present for two months must extend for at least another month to meet the drought advisory criteria.

“There’s not too much in the long range for any substantial rain after this weekend,” said Lenny Giuliano, Rhode Island’s state meteorologist. “Dry, windy days just seem to dry up the soil even more.”

Giuliano added that there are currently a number of warning signs that may indicate a longer drought. Water reservoirs, which are currently still full, could become depleted in the summer months. Only one of 38 ground-

water wells is currently within normal range, and streamflows are running at about 20 percent of normal levels for this time of year, said Roy Socolow, hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

In Rhode Island, drought can have a significant impact on water-dwelling creatures including aquatic insects, amphibians, reptiles and fish, said Christine Dudley, supervising biologist in the Freshwater and Anadromous Fisheries Section of the Department of Environmental Management. Shallow streams and rivers tend to be warmer than deeper ones, and warmer streams normally have lower oxygen levels than colder streams. This means fish may be unable to meet their basic oxygen needs.

While Burke said he would hesitate to call this weather “global warming,” unpredictable weather patterns are likely a result of climate change — “the new, improved word for global warming.” Last spring, Rhode Island experienced “epic floods,” in stark contrast to this spring, he noted.

“You’re seeing warmer warm spells and drier dry spells and rainier rain events,” Burke said.

“It swings in both directions, and those peaks and valleys tend to be more pronounced.”

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4 Money Matters

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Need-aware policies weed out int’l, transfer applicants continued from page 1 she said.

The University’s commitment to ensuring a diverse student body got a boost in 2003, when admissions for domestic first-year applicants became need-blind, and again in 2008, when Brown eliminated parent contributions from families with incomes under $60,000. Over the past decade, Brown has tripled its annual financial aid budget to $90 million, making it a budgetary priority second only to salaries in total amount, as well as the fastestgrowing item in the budget, said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration.

Yet Brown, hamstrung by an endowment smaller than those of its peers, lags behind its competitors in financial aid offerings.

Among some of the institutions Brown calls its peers — other members of the Ivy League, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Brown ranks at the bottom in percentage of undergraduates receiving financial aid, with roughly 2,700 of 6,100 students, or 44.1 percent, awarded aid this school year.

According to the 2011-12 Common Data Sets, 64.1 percent of students at MIT received aid this year, and the figure fell between 50 and 60 percent at most other schools.

Columbia did not release this information to the public.

package — at $38,490 — is closer to the norm, as is its proportion of enrolled students who receive aid after applying for it, at 86.9 percent.

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s financial aid calculator, Brown ranks the highest in the Ivy League in terms of potential loan debt. Graduates will face average monthly payments of $1,391 over 10 years in order to pay off borrowed funds, as opposed to $984 at Harvard. Both Williams College and Amherst College fit at the lower end of the scale, with an estimated $1,005 and $821 in monthly payments, respectively.

Universities have different methods of calculating demonstrated need and expected parent contribution. The College Scholarship Service, a part of the College Board, provides schools with the Institutional Needs Analysis System, a computer model that offers detailed information on factors like cost of living and asset protection, Director of Financial Aid James Tilton said. Brown uses this model, while Harvard, Yale and Princeton do not.

Parameters that can significantly affect the estimated amount of aid include parents’ marital status, number of siblings in college and even a family’s state of residence.

Because this system allows schools to effectively adopt their own definition of meeting demonstrated need, schools can claim to meet 100 percent of their students’ demonstrated need even while de-

“If there was anything to happen to my family, it would be very difficult to support me going through the rest of college.”

Jonathan Poon ‘15 International student

The Office of Institutional Diversity cites “socioeconomic background” as one of several dimensions of diversity the University strives to achieve, and Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 said such diversity is fundamental to the University’s mission.

Brown expanded its aid offerings under President Ruth Simmons, with the size of the average aid package jumping 55 percent in the past seven years. While it may lag behind certain peers, the University’s aid packages still outstrip those at many universities around the country.

But with top competitors aggressively courting high-achieving, lowincome students, and with Brown’s financial resources comparatively smaller, some worry the University is falling behind in its efforts to be accessible to all qualified applicants.

And at the administrative level, dueling priorities — making international and transfer admissions need-blind, eliminating loans in aid packages, expanding the financial aid budget, stemming tuition increases — strain the budget.

Meeting need

Though Brown is at the bottom among its peers in percentage of total students applying for and receiving University aid, its average aid

voting vastly different amounts to aid. This year, Brown and all its identified peers, save Penn and Stanford, satisfied their respective standards for meeting all demonstrated need.

Harvard, Yale and Princeton examine similar financial factors as Brown does when calculating demonstrated need, but because of larger operating budgets, decided in 2008 and 2009 to switch to independent models that provide more generous aid packages, Tilton added.

The effects of the University’s aid offerings may be partially reflected in the student body’s socioeconomic makeup. Federal Pell Grants, which serve as one indicator of low socioeconomic status, reached 15.2 percent of undergraduates this year — a number up from 12.3 percent four years ago but far from representative of the national income distribution.

In contrast, 40 percent of students in the public University of California system received Pell Grants last school year, according to a press release from the university system. Though Brown ranks ahead of Yale and Princeton on this measure, it remains far behind Columbia, where more than a quarter of students receive Pell Grants, according to data published by U.S.

Julia Shube / Herald

News and World Report.

Cash constraints

Financial aid offerings are predicated on a university’s endowment and budget.

“It may have to do with availability of scholarship funds — ability of the school to target more of their endowment funds towards scholarships,” said Caesar Storlazzi, director of financial aid at Yale. “Each school has to make its own decisions based on its own economy.”

But universities must consider larger economic trends as well, said Tom Keane, director of financial aid at Cornell. Dealing with yearly fluctuations in the number of students who qualify for aid “is definitely a challenge,” he said.

The recent financial crisis also caused concern for financial aid administrators. “We were actively worried about it four years ago, but we didn’t see a huge spike (in financial aid needed) because of the economy,” he said. Keane added he could not explain why no substantial shift occurred but cited the fact that students looking at Cornell tend to come from wealthier families.

Harvard, on the other hand, has increased the income cap that defines which families are not expected to contribute to tuition costs. The cap rose from $60,000 to $65,000 for the class of 2016, despite the turbulent state of the country’s economy.

“Within the Ivy League, there’s Harvard, Princeton and Yale, and there’s the other five,” Keane said.

Harvard’s financial aid budget will be $172 million next year, according to the Harvard Gazette — a figure nearly double that of Brown.

“It just comes down to resources,” Tilton said.

Strains on students

But the University’s financial aid policies affect students long before they even apply to Brown.

The need-aware admissions policy for international and trans-

fer students was a crucial factor for Jonathan Poon ’15 in deciding not to apply for financial aid. Poon, who is from Hong Kong, said his family chose to accept the economic strain because they feared applying for aid “might affect my chances of getting in,” Poon said.

Now that he is on campus and paying full tuition, Poon said he must “be frugal about everything,” whether buying textbooks or eating off campus.

Other policies have placed an undue burden on his family, Poon said. International students may not reapply for aid if they do not receive it their first year, regardless of changes in families’ financial situations.

“It would be nicer if there was a safety net,” he said. “If there was anything to happen to my family, it would be very difficult to support me going through the rest of college.”

Harvard, Princeton and Yale practice need-blind admissions for both international and transfer students and agree to meet 100 percent of their demonstrated need, while Brown does neither. While Cornell has need-blind admissions policies for these groups, the university will only meet the demonstrated need of transfer students. Though there is some pressure to use international students as a source of revenue, their income does not factor into admissions decisions, Keane said.

For many students, Brown’s relatively restricted financial aid offerings can be a factor in the decision to matriculate — especially when they have been offered more generous financial aid packages elsewhere.

Mariana Carvalho ’15, who is from Portugal, applied early decision and was awarded full financial aid at Brown. But she said several of her peers who would have preferred to attend Brown had to turn down regular decision acceptances at the University, opting for schools like Princeton that offered more generous financial aid.

Brown’s financial aid policy for international students helps create a highly affluent contingent of international attendees, Carvalho said, adding that she would rather see Brown accept fewer international students and award more aid per person to attract a more diverse international population.

Alex Edquist, a high school senior from Alpharetta, Georgia, was admitted to the University last month. But though she was accepted to both Brown and Cornell, she had to factor in the future costs of law school in her final decision.

Coming from a “pretty well-off ” family, Edquist received financial aid from Brown but said her package “didn’t come anywhere close to covering everything.”

In a recent poll conducted by The Herald, 42 percent of students said their financial aid package does not adequately meet their financial need, though only 20.3 percent of students said they have taken out external loans. Meanwhile, 57.5 percent of students reported they either receive enough or do not require any aid.

Edquist, who got into eight schools, ultimately chose to attend the University of Georgia on a full ride. “If I had begged and pleaded, I’m sure my parents would have let me go to Brown or Cornell,” she said, “but I didn’t really want to ask them to do that.”

There is a disparity between the socioeconomic makeup of the admitted and enrolled student bodies.

In each of the past several years, roughly two-thirds of admitted first-years applied for financial aid, according to University press releases. But this school year, only 58.9 percent of enrolled first-years and 50.8 percent of all full-time undergraduates applied for aid, a drop suggesting that many students who seek financial aid do not ultimately matriculate to Brown.

But it would be wrong to assume that shift necessarily arises from continued on page 5

Money Matters 5

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Financial aid offerings constrained by limited budget continued from page 4 smaller aid packages or rejected aid appeals, Tilton said.

“It is true that there are students who come to us, we give them what we can do for them, and they may choose not to come back to Brown, but I don’t want to equate the two,” he said. “These are individual decisions. It’s a very difficult situation.”

The University tries to consider every situation qualitatively, Tilton said. The financial aid office focuses on looking at families’ financial situations comprehensively when considering appeals. “When they filled out the application, they just gave us numbers, and now we’re starting to learn their stories,” Tilton said.

happen like that,” he said.

Brown approached reaching 100 percent of demonstrated need even before its 2003 decision to make domestic first-year admissions need-blind, Tilton said.

Need-blind admission offices can use techniques to gauge students’ financial status — for instance, looking at parents’ occupations — and include it as a consideration in crafting a diverse class, Storlazzi said. Admission offices simultaneously pursue recruitment programs to attract students from areas where their universities may not be well-publicized or wellrepresented.

But a study of 1995 admissions data from 19 top colleges and universities — not including Brown

“If you’re teaching beginning economics and your class consists 80 percent of students from well-off families, it’s difficult to have the conversation about unemployment and poverty.”

William Bowen Former President of Princeton

And for all students, financial counseling services have been significantly expanded since the recession to help families find more creative ways to fund a Brown education. This year, the Office of Financial Aid added another threequarters-time aid counselor to augment individual counseling with families, Tilton wrote in an email to The Herald.

“Our counseling sessions are longer and more detailed,” Tilton said. “Our email communication and telephone communication with students and families are much more geared to ‘Just don’t answer this question — help me understand how that’s going to impact me.’”

Crafting the class

Under its previous need-aware policy, admission staff at Brown felt it fairer to reject students rather than accept them and not meet all of their demonstrated need, said Michael Goldberger, director of athletics and former dean of admission. On this point, the University was at odds with the National Association for College Admission Council, the “moral voice of college admissions,” Goldberger said.

But Brown stood behind the policy, based on admissions officers’ experience admitting students who could not completely afford the University and did not have their need fully met. In a temporary experiment with Resumed Undergraduate Education students, administrators saw bad results when they combined need-blind admissions with a failure to meet 100 percent of demonstrated need.

“We just saw horror stories of people who said, ‘I’m going to come, I’m going to find a way to afford it,’ and all of a sudden they are not doing well in school because of financial problems, they are in tremendous debt because of being here and they just sort of assumed we would do something, and it didn’t

— found socioeconomic status did not matter in the admission process, with neither poorer nor wealthier students receiving a boost.

“The function of the more selective institutions in promoting social mobility has been reduced by the effects of family circumstances on qualifications, principally,” said William Bowen, a former Princeton president who led the study. “You can say all you want to about wanting to help with social mobility. ...

It takes a conscious, determined effort to do something about that.”

Bowen said diversity is crucial to students’ academic experience.

“If you’re teaching beginning economics and your class consists 80 percent of students from well-off families, it’s difficult to have the conversation about unemployment and poverty,” he said.

Some top colleges have actively worked to draw students from less conventional backgrounds. Under then-President Anthony Marx, Amherst sought over the last decade to boost socioeconomic diversity by recruiting its transfer class heavily from top-performing community college students. Marx told the New York Times last year that this was part of a comprehensive effort to do “everything we can think of ” to improve diversity and financial aid.

Last academic year, 62 percent of transfers to Amherst were from community colleges, and the school’s share of students receiving Pell Grants nearly doubled between 2005 to 2010.

In contrast, need-aware admission at Brown for transfer students generally makes the University less socioeconomically diverse — only 28 transfers are currently on financial aid, Tilton said, though roughly 135 enrolled this year alone.

Brown has drawn more in recent years from the community college pool, though the University has taken no specific actions to effect the change. Over the past several years, the number of students being

admitted as transfers from community colleges has incidentally risen, said Jim Miller ’73, dean of admission. In the most recently admitted transfer class, 9 percent of transfer students came from community colleges, he said, compared to just 3 or 4 percent “a few years ago.”

Still, the decision to increase the size of last year’s transfer class by 50 was motivated in part by “budgetary considerations,” then-Provost David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98 told The Herald in Feb. 2010. Miller added that the move would help “to alleviate some financial pressure” because it would provide extra tuition revenue with less of an emphasis on financial aid.

The University’s admission policies for transfers force heavy loan burdens on many students, wrote Stephen Olsen ’13.5, who transferred from Santa Monica College, a community college in California, in an email to The Herald.

“Because the admissions process is very much need-aware, I’m sure (fewer) apply or apply without aid and take on an unreasonable amount of debt,” he wrote.

Picking priorities

As the University welcomes a new president, a variety of goals and groups are lobbying for a finite pool of resources. One advocated change would be to eliminate loans in all aid packages, which Princeton and several other schools have done, and which President-elect Christina Paxson has called something she “would love to be able to do.”

Brown for Financial Aid, a student group recently created to kickstart campus dialogue about financial aid policies at Brown, hopes Paxson will become a partner in achieving some of the group’s goals for financial aid reform, which include the possibility of loan-free aid.

The transition between presidents provides an opportunity for advocacy, as the University will be looking to reassess programs and priorities, said group Co-Founder and incoming Undergraduate Council of Students President Anthony White ’13.

The group has drafted a petition urging Paxson to prioritize financial aid and hopes to gather

Brisa Bodell / Herald

top priority.

But though Paxson will be able to set new priorities and spearhead fundraising drives for financial aid, much of the University’s endowment is restricted for certain donor purposes, Huidekoper said. And many of the University’s top commitments for the next few years have already been set — including housing renovations, expanding the engineering program, maintaining the current level of financial aid and promoting the brain science initiative. The University also projects a budgetary deficit for the next two years.

Despite the debt Brown graduates face, going loan-free remains one of several priorities fighting for administrators’ attention, and not everyone is on board.

Schlissel said he believes some loans are not a bad thing to motivate students. “I actually think it’s important for students not to be burdened by loans but for students to be investing in their own future,” he said, adding that he wants to reduce loans somewhat to ensure that every student has the opportunity to pursue low-income passions like teaching. “Maybe for competitive reasons, it’s good to say that we want

“A lot of schools are struggling just to maintain what they’re doing now, and the issue is really just sustainability.”

Paul Boyer Director of Financial Aid at Williams

2,000 signatures to present at May’s Corporation meeting, White said.

In a poll conducted by The Herald last month, 57 percent of students agreed that making admission need-blind for transfer and international students should be a higher priority for the University.

When asked to choose the most important issue for Paxson to focus on, 37.8 percent of students chose increasing financial aid, making it the most popular answer by a margin of nearly 20 percent.

Meanwhile, all presidential candidates for UCS this year identified improving financial aid as a

to be loan-free, but I don’t embrace it as such an important goal.”

Cornell administrators likewise see merit in requiring some loans for students on financial aid. “If your parents won’t make you invest, we’ll make you invest,” Keane said.

Brown for Financial Aid advocates hiring a staff member who would advise students, matching them with appropriate jobs to help students navigate loans and workstudy options.

“If (Schlissel’s) suggestion is that students have a responsibility in financing their education through work-study, it should be” facilitated

by the University, White said.

But loan-free programs can constitute a significant financial burden for a university. The desire to remain competitive was a motivating factor for Williams’ decision to go loan-free in 2008.

“Many of the other schools like Williams were moving in that direction, and at the time it seemed like the right thing to do, particularly because our endowment at that time could support it,” said Paul Boyer, Williams’ director of financial aid. But the high-profile move collapsed three years later, when the college rolled back the policy in the wake of the recession.

Boyer said effects of the economic downturn linger for colleges across the nation. “A lot of schools are struggling just to maintain what they’re doing now, and the issue is really just sustainability,” he said, adding that not many universities can afford to eliminate loans.

“Can their endowment support that? And if going loan-free is a priority on your campus, what other things might you have to give up in order to achieve that?” Boyer said.

At Brown, other possible priorities include slowing the rate of tuition increases. Recent hikes have been coupled with expansions of the financial aid budget, Schlissel said, so they are “largely invisible to students” on aid. But they have placed an undue burden on students not receiving aid, he said.

“There are equity issues involved here,” Schlissel said, adding that halting tuition increases is one of his personal top two financial aid priorities.

The other, he said, is expanding the financial aid budget to help middle-class students on the margins who neither receive aid nor have enough money to pay for Brown.

“It’s not to make us competitive with other schools,” he said. “It’s to make us accessible to students who are qualified.”

Schlissel also emphasized the value of socioeconomic diversity in students’ academic experiences. “It’s continued on page 9

6 Athlete Experience

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Attrition, apathy and the athlete experience Non-athletes find sport culture far removed continued from page 1 someone on the team, you are not part of the culture,” Gonzales said.

Dan Stump ’14 said he does not feel a connection to any of the sports teams because he does not have many friends in the athletic community and is therefore not as interested in attending games.

“I’m not rooting for my team,” Stump said. “I’m rooting for people that won’t let me into their parties,” he said, adding that seating at the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall is clearly divided between athletes and nonathletes, furthering the disconnect.

Ana Olson ’14 said she feels people like herself who are “on the fence” about attending sporting events can be persuaded by personal investment.

If a basketball player personally came up to her and asked her to attend that night’s game, she would go, she said.

Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger said during his time at Brown, he has seen a shift in the sports culture at the University, which he attributes to the increase in number of teams and non-athletic opportunities.

“I think it was more part of the University culture back in the ’70s,” Goldberger said. “Homecoming would always be centered around the football game. There would always be

improving student-athlete presence at performances and campus events organized by other student groups.

Making time for the trek north

The distance from most athletic buildings to main campus is a major deterrent for students — the Brown football stadium is nearly one and a half miles from the Main Green.

Many students don’t even know where the stadium is, Gonzales said.

Olson said her mother’s dorm at Brigham Young University was right next to the football stadium, which allowed for easier access to sporting events, a convenience lacking at the University.

“It’s tough for students to want to make that walk,” McDuff said. “It’s easier to just stay in your room and hang out with your friends.”

He also said the popularity of fall sports is related to the “try everything” attitude of freshmen in their first semesters, but that this can die down in the winter and spring.

“In the fall, it’s a little bit different because the freshmen are very active and they do their best in attending various games,” he said. But eventually, students become comfortable in certain areas of campus, and “it can be hard to break out,” he said.

The University attempts to use a shuttle system to and from games, but

“How can I make a two-hour sports game if I can’t make a 15-minute reading?”

Dan Stump ‘14

a sense of, ‘let’s play the soccer game before the football game so everybody can go to both.’ Now, you have ten events going on in a fall weekend and not two.”

Ryan McDuff ’13, co-captain of the men’s soccer team and co-president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, said athletes sometimes develop a distance from their nonathletic peers, which can be natural given their practice schedules.

“I think student-athletes haven’t done a great job of reaching out and befriending a wide variety of students here,” McDuff said. “But I think how we resolve that and get past the facilities being at the far north of campus is you engage with other students at a friend basis. I think student-athletes just have a ways to go in being more friendly and meeting people outside of their sport, and they’re starting to do that.”

McDuff added that better integrating athletics with the rest of campus life is a two-way street.

“I’m wondering how many student-athletes you’ll see if you go to a theater production or a musical or an economics lecture,” McDuff said.

“You might not see student-athletes there.” McDuff said he and SAAC co-president Erika Mueller ’13, a former Herald sports staff writer, are working toward not just increasing attendance at athletic events, but also

Mia Zachary ’13 said it sometimes arrives late or not at all. Zachary also said the times of games — usually around noon — often conflict with other activities and are not conducive to a student-fan friendly atmosphere.

“Tailgating for a football game is not fun at 10 a.m.,” Zachary said.

When a lot of students choose to attend a football game — the homecoming game against Harvard last year, for example — students drunkenly follow the crowds rather than trekking to the stadium themselves, she said. This is a sports atmosphere that appealed to Stump.

More students might turn out to games “if we acted less like the Ivy League and more like drunk, belligerent dads,” he said.

Stump added that he would go to Brown games “if it was a really undignified, boozy affair, where we took great pride in antagonizing (the opponent).”

Oliver Doren ’14 said that for the sports fans on campus, it is easier to follow hometown teams than the Bears. For instance, he said he can watch a professional game online in his dorm room, which is not possible for Brown sports, he said. Brown athletics offers free audio broadcasts of select games, but live streaming video feed can cost $8 for a single gameor $75 for a season pass for hockey, basketball, soccer and lacrosse.

Emily Gilbert / Herald

The crowd for football games can grow large at night matches, but students often do not attend games otherwise.

Simply having time to attend games is also a challenge. As Ivy League students, days are “economized by the hour in terms of scheduling,” Stump said. Because of the need to fit everything into neat blocks of time, many students cannot take the time out of their days to attend a sporting event, he said.

He added that it is hard to make time for any of the various events on campus, so there’s less motivation to attend something with no personal investment. “How can I make a twohour sports games if I can’t make a 15-minute reading?” Stump said.

Reaching out to Providence

While generating more student interest in Brown athletics is one concern, engaging the Providence community is another. Goldberger and McDuff said they hope to strengthen partnerships between Brown athletics and the local community. At many games, a local youth sports team with their coach or families with children out to enjoy the competition are a common sight.

Teams have reached out to the surrounding areas by hosting clinics, inviting groups to games and performing community service. Goldberger specifically pointed to related SAAC-coordinated activities, such as the Providence Plays event held April 15 at the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, in which local students had the opportunity to try various sports with Brown athletes. He said he believes this type of work will not only benefit community members but also “build some name recognition, and hopefully those benefits would come in increased attendance at Brown events and increased interest in following Brown.”

McDuff also acknowledged the work of several teams in particular, but said that on the whole he believes branching out to the community is something all student-athletes at Brown should prioritize. McDuff, who was on the search committee for the newly hired director of athletics, said community involvement is one of the priorities for incoming Jack Hayes, who will replace Goldberger in June.

“It’s actually one of the initia-

tives he was very keen on,” McDuff said. “He’s going to come in and partner Brown athletics with local high school athletics. So I think next year and in the years going forward, you’re going to see more Providence families coming out to games.”

A look forward

In the past two years, a number of Brown athletic events have generated a large student turnout, and for at least four quarters at a time, one might have confused the Brown student section with that of a Big 10 school.

Two such occasions were the night football games at Brown Stadium for which the athletic department brought in temporary lights.

At the 6 p.m. kickoff against Ivy rival Harvard two years ago, 17,360 fans turned out to celebrate the Bears’ 2914 win. Last fall, 10,231 fans watched Brown defeat University of Rhode Island under the lights to capture the Governor’s Cup. “We tried the initiative to do a night football game a couple of years ago, and it was a great success,” Goldberger said. “Harvard is always a special team for Brown, but with URI, we still had four times the attendance we would usually have because we played it at night.” Goldberger credited the “event-type atmosphere” as a reason behind the games’ popularity.

The success of the men’s soccer team the past two seasons — reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament both years — has also generated large student turnout and pregame tailgates. This fall, the average attendance at games at Stevenson Field was 989, while the average at Brown games elsewhere was 713 fans.

“For men’s soccer, we have the best fans in the Ivy League,” McDuff said. “It’s incredible.”

“We’re very apathetic until it matters,” Gonzales said, pointing to students’ excitement over the team’s run in the NCAA tournament last year.

But Doren said the idea that a winning team draws larger crowds is not “profound” — in order to truly see a rise in popularity, there needs to be “collective interest.”

“There’s no fun in watching your team get beat by everyone,” said Alex

Bernson ’12.

The men’s basketball team has suffered down seasons in one of the league’s most exciting eras in recent memory, finishing 2-12 in Ivy play this past season. Two years ago, Cornell reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tourney, and this year, Harvard cracked the national Top 25 rankings at the same time Crimson alum Jeremy Lin was captivating national audiences in the NBA and making a name for Ivy League basketball.

Meanwhile, attendance at the Pizzitola Center for men’s home games averaged half as many fans as the squad saw on the road. Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan, in a piece describing his experiences visiting most New England Division I basketball programs’ home floors, called the game at the Pizzitola Center “sparsely attended.”

But when Harvard came to town, the Pizzitola Center sold out, bolstered by an enthusiastic student section behind the south basket.

Goldberger is confident the young basketball squad, riddled with injuries this year, will undergo a transformation next year and get in on the recent Ivy excitement.

“I think it’s right on the verge,” Goldberger said. “I think our team is going to be fabulous next year. I think we’ll be one of the top teams in the league for sure, and I think we’re going to generate that excitement around here too.”

McDuff also noted the upward trend in recent student support of Brown athletics. He said the decision of the Athletic Review Committee this past fall to retain the four teams up for elimination sent a message that athletics is an important part of the University experience. Now, McDuff said the onus is on student-athletes to do their part.

“I think there is a positive vibe going right now, and I think studentathletes now have to take advantage of this,” McDuff said. “They have to be more competitive on the field, they have to be more engaging off the field, they have to succeed in the classroom … I think you’re going to see athletics be more integrated with the rest of campus life.”

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Athlete Experience 7

What it means to be an athlete at Brown

What happens when athletes quit

By Ashley McDonnell Sports Editor

Paige Gilley / Herald

In the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall, varsity athletes often sit apart from others.

Athletes struggle against ‘dumb jock’ stereotype

By ASHLEY MCDONNELL and ALEXANDRA MACFARLANE Sports Editor and Senior Staff Writer

From a Verney-Woolley Dining Hall segregated between athletes and non-athletes to rumors of athletes gaining a leg up over their nonathlete peers in admissions — certain attitudes and stereotypes persist surrounding student-athletes on campus. Some athletes report that these claims have elements of truth, while others maintain that they are unfounded. While individual varsity athletes have different college experiences, all athletes face unique challenges that help define their time at Brown.

Debunking stereotypes

There are certain stereotypes surrounding athletic culture that many smaller student groups do not have to endure. Brown has 37 varsity teams supporting over 900 athletes.

The most common misconception is that athletes “get easy breaks” in the admissions process for selective schools like Brown, said Leslie Springmeyer ’12, tri-captain of the field hockey team last season. But she said these accusations are unfounded. “There should be more respect for us — we’re doing all the academic work on top of an extra commitment.”

The “dumb jock is totally a stereotype,” said Allyson Schumacher ’12, member of the swimming and diving team.

Robert Kenneally ’90, associate athletic director for student services and the liaison between the athletics department and the admissions office, said the athletes are just as academically successful as the rest of their peers.

“Our athletes are valedictorians and have high test scores and are very comparable to the rest of the student body,” he said.

The University will increase the minimum Academic Index ­— a measurement based on grade point average and standardized test scores — for admitted athletes for the fall of 2012, according to President Ruth Simmons’ response to

the Report of the Athletics Committee last fall. Seven varsity teams have averaged AIs of less than 200 in the past four years, according to Simmons’ response.

“No groups should be stigmatized by their overrepresentation in the bottom range of the AIs of a matriculating class,” Simmons wrote.

A March 1 Herald article reported that the average AI was 217, but recruited athletes from the class of 2015 had an average ten points lower.

“It is really easy to get lost in your sport.”

Kia Mosenthal ‘12 Skier

Another stereotype is that athletes take the same classes and concentrations because they can help each other get through them, which Ryan McDuff ’13, co-captain of the men’s soccer team and co-president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, said is not true. Older teammates pass along advice to rookies to try to help them during their transition from high school to college, not to help each other cheat, he said.

To combat athletes taking the same classes, Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger initiated a program entitled “One For Me,” currently in its second year, that encourages first-year athletes to broaden their course load by taking classes that none of their teammates have taken. Currently, four teams participate in the program — men’s lacrosse, women’s soccer and the men’s and women’s swimming and diving squads.

Many athletes do cluster in the same concentration ­— particularly Business, Entrepreneurship and Organizations, McDuff said. But he said this is not necessarily due to their teammates’ influence. “I also think it’s because athletes are very competitive and can express continued on page 8

Recruited athletes at Brown have a choice — since the University does not offer athletic scholarships, athletes can relinquish their commitment to their sport without affecting their financial aid, just like students participating in any other extracurricular activity. But this decision may lead to a difficult transition from student-athlete to student.

Of the recruited athletes in the class of 2011, nearly one-third dropped their sport by November 2010, according to a report submitted to the provost by the Compliance Office. This figure is relatively consistent from year to year, The Herald reported last semester.

The reasons for quitting vary, but a large percentage of athletes who drop their sport do so due to a career-ending injury, said Robert Kenneally ’90, associate athletic director for student services. Other athletes choose to quit due to lack of playing time, he said.

But some athletes simply do not want to or cannot keep up with the time commitment anymore, said Paige Simmons ’13, a former volleyball player.

“I wanted to know what it was like just being a regular student,” Simmons said. “And I wasn’t getting that much out of my experience …

I just had to weigh what was more important to me at this time in my life.”

Lauren Kessler ’13, a goalkeeper for the field hockey team, quit at the end of her sophomore year but is set to rejoin the squad in the fall.

The team’s poor performance was one of her reasons for leaving, she wrote in an email to The Herald.

Because she felt Brown does not provide adequate financial support for athletics, she thought her team had little room for improvement, Kessler wrote.

But former hammer thrower for the track and field team Alex Lipinsky ’13 said he does not believe the high attrition rate in athletics is unique to varsity sports at Brown.

“I don’t know if any group gets people to join freshman year” and keeps those members for all four years, Lipinsky said. “Just after sophomore year, that’s when people start getting interested in their academics, and it’s just time to move on.”

Female attrition

Though all teams have trouble retaining members from year to year, female athletes both nationally and at Brown are more likely to drop their sports than males. Female athletes are six times more likely to drop their sports than male athletes through high school, according to the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Though the gap is not so wide in college, female athletes are still more likely to quit their sport in college than male athletes, said Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger.

Just like there are many reasons athletes quit their sports, there are many theories about why this gender

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Injuries prove to be one of the leading causes of athlete attrition.

discrepancy exists.

“I definitely think (women quit more) because the opportunities for women pursuing a career in sports is a lot slimmer than guys,” Simmons said. “It definitely depends on where you are,” she said. A female basketball star at a state school may be drafted by the WNBA, but “if you go to Brown, that’s not going to happen,” she said.

Kenneally, a former hockey player at Brown, pointed out that many athletes come to the University for academics and do not intend to pursue playing professionally. Because the athletes who quit typically were not getting much playing time, he said he does not believe that the lack of future prospects for female players compared to men is the main reason for this discrepancy.

Rather, women may quit more often because they have less attachment to their sports, he said. Males tend to start playing sports earlier, and when they are in college, “even if they’re not an active participant on the team, they still tend to stay on the team … because that’s what they know,” Kenneally said.

Females tend to start sports later in life, “so maybe there’s not that sense of history and staying as part of the team,” he added.

Kenneally also said he thinks female athletes are able to find other passions to pursue on campus more easily than male athletes.

“The male athletes feel like the sport is their connection,” he said.

“And if they were to leave a team by choice, I feel like they’re not sure what else they could do at Brown — where the female athletes tend to be more apt to get involved in other aspects of the community.”

Volleyball Head Coach Diane Short shared a similar point of view.

“I think with men, there’s a little less drama around (seeing less playing time),” Short said. “They don’t take it so personally — they just want to be part of the team.”

Short cited her two sons, who both play hockey. If they did not receive much playing time, “they’d just be like, ‘I’m not good enough,’” she said. “Women are a little bit different. They’re like, ‘I have better things to do.’”

Career-ending injuries

Though many student-athletes leave their sports by choice, students who have to leave because of a career-ending injury have the most trouble transitioning out of the collegiate athlete life, said Stephen Lassonde, deputy dean of the College who serves as a liaison to the athletics department. “The routines they have, the people they socialize with, the courses they take — everything is changed by that event,” Lassonde said. “And they can face a kind of a crisis.”

Lassonde said he reaches out to injured student-athletes to offer guidance. But often they do not respond, which he believes may be a good sign indicating that they do not feel they need help, he said.

Former ice hockey player Trevor Smyth ’13, who left the team after having surgery he had needed for years, said he is still heavily involved with the team. He still travels, helps to recruit for the team, assists the coaching staff when needed and watches video breakdowns with the team. Smyth also said his social circle hardly changed.

He added that he “always wanted to coach hockey, so I thought working with the coaching staff might be a good jump on that.”

Former volleyball player Christina Berry ’13 had a similar experience. During her first year, Berry sustained a shoulder injury. After surgery and rehab, she said she realized her shoulder was not strong enough to continue playing at the varsity level. She cried when she told the team she had to stop playing, but she maintains a close friendship with her teammates, she said.

“The best thing about the aftermath of leaving is that the team has been so supportive,” Berry said.

Berry also said she has had more time to pursue other opportunities on campus. But like Smyth, her social group has not changed, and many of her classmates did not know she had stopped playing volleyball, she said.

“Obviously I’m still in that world,” Berry said. “It’s like once you’re on the team, you’re always a part of it, on and off the court.”

8 Sports Tuesday track

Squads divide and conquer East Coast By james blum Sports Staff Writer

While most students were stumbling through Spring Weekend debauchery, the men and women of track and field were busy running, jumping and throwing at three different meets. Though none of the meets were scored, both teams performed well at the competitions.

A group of mostly sprinters and throwers traveled the farthest to compete at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational hosted by the University of Florida. Despite the high caliber of competition at the meet, where the men’s Florida Gators 4x100 meter relay team ran the fastest collegiate time in the nation this season, the Bears managed to have a successful day.

“Some of the sprinters had Olympians in their heats,” said Nathan Elder ’13. “So they got to face some extremely strong performances.”

Lacey Craker ’13, who won the hammer throw with a heave of 178 feet, 2 inches, led the charge for the Bears. Bruno was dominant in the javelin as Niina Al-Hassan ’14 earned second in the women’s competition and Michael Bieszard ’13 claimed third place for the men, with respective distances of 137-03 and 183-07. Colby Lubman ’14 set a personal record in the 400-meter dash at 54.46 seconds and finished sixth overall in the event.

Farther up the East Coast, the Bears faced the Tigers at Princeton’s Larry Ellis Memorial Invitational.

Elder finished the 800-meter run fourth overall with a personal best time of 1 minute, 52 seconds. Elder said he was excited about running so fast only two weeks away from

the Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

“It was a very good day for me,” Elder said. “It was a bit of a breakthrough performance for me. It was a good race to run fast and be competitive.”

Rosie Fleming ’12 also had a good day competing in the 800 as she ran a time of 2:13 and finished fifth overall.

The Bears competing closest to home at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Spring Invitational engineered a strong showing as numerous individuals claimed top spots. Elder explained that the teams were split ­— the coaches wanted everyone to compete over the weekend, but there was not enough space at Princeton.

Courtland Clavette ’15 and Brienna Crimmins ’14 were champions in field events with Clavette heaving the discus 165-00 and Crimmins flying 17-04 ¾ in the long jump.

In the pole vault, Hannah Wallace ’13 earned second place, clearing a height of 11-11 ¾. On the track, Peter Rhodes ’15 won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.93.

Next week, Bruno will send a small contingent of athletes to the historic Penn Relays, while the rest of the team will remain behind in Providence to host and compete at the Brown Springtime Open. In two week’s time, the Bears will enter the final portion of their season, competing at the Ivy League championships hosted by Princeton.

“The next two weeks are just about staying consistent,” Elder said. “Right now we’re on track to perform very well, and there’s no reason for us to go off at the very end.”

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Athletes work to diversify friend groups continued from page 7 that in business,” he said, adding that he has four teammates who are biology concentrators and one who is concentrating in engineering.

A tenuous balance

As a swimmer, there is a smaller window of time to do schoolwork, Schumacher said, adding that she has balanced athletics with academics throughout her life.

Schumacher chose to concentrate in psychology and said her athletic commitment did not affect her course selection. Still, swimming takes a lot of time, and it can

he said.

For recruited athletes, the transition to academic life at Brown can be difficult, Thompson said, adding that “generally they are not as good at school” as non-athletes.

With the added stress of navigating a new social scene, some athletes are also torn between academics and social pursuits.

Going dry

The squash team has “a culture of going out and drinking, which is tough in the beginning” coming in as a first-year, Thompson said.

Some join fraternities like Sigma Chi and Delta Phi and take easier

“We’re doing all the academic work on top of an extra commitment.”

Leslie Springmeyer ’12 Tri-captain of the field hockey team, 2011 be difficult for athletes to handle a more demanding concentration, she said.

“I find (balancing athletics and academics) easier than most people would,” said Dan Lowry ’12, a member of the cross country team. Running “is a release from the stress of school,” and he said he is always motivated to go to practice and to train.

Despite his continued enthusiasm for running, Lowry said he discovered that “the training was a lot tougher” at Brown than in high school. Most athletes are top dogs at their sport in high school, and once they come to Brown, they start at the bottom of the totem pole, he said.

For skier Kia Mosenthal ’12, there is always a toss up between sleep and work, she said. “Something’s always got to give,” and athletes have to learn to get things done as soon as possible, she said.

The women’s ski team skips a week of school each year for a big winter meet, and Mosenthal said most skiers talk to professors at the start of the semester to warn them about this commitment. For the most part, professors have been very supportive, she said, adding that as long as she shows motivation, professors are receptive to her athletic commitments.

“We have some really smart people” on our team, Mosenthal said. The AI for the women’s ski team is very high, she said, adding that this high standard turns away skiing recruits who might be less academically motivated.

Since the beginning of his firstyear orientation, Brad Thompson ’12 said he has had to make choices between playing squash and academics. “You make trade-offs” between grades and the team, and sometimes “you don’t really have a choice” between the two, he said.

Thompson found his new teammates to be an important resource in finding his academic niche. An English and applied mathematicseconomics double concentrator, Thompson discovered his love for math from players on the team, he said. That exposure helped him be the best he could academically,

classes because most of their time goes into training and participating in fraternity activities, he said.

Others, like Thompson, focus on athletics and the demands of schoolwork, he said, adding that he does not drink to “the same degree as other guys.”

Like other teams, the squash team has a 48-hour rule, which requires that players stay sober for the two days leading up to any competitive play. Yet drinking is “a big part of the athletic culture,” he said.

Thompson said he would prefer if athletics moved away from this heavy drinking culture. The “number of times some guys spend drinking during the week is not good for the athletic experience,” he said.

The women’s ski team stays dry for the entire competitive period of the season, from early January to late March, Mosenthal said.

Though ski team members are required to stay dry for the most competitive period of their season, cross country runners do not have the same requirement. Lowry said members of the cross country team know what they need to do to stay in the best physical shape.

“We are not the type of team to tell people what they can and can’t do,” he said.

The swim team goes dry for a month before their conference meet, and there “is definitely not any kind of peer pressure” during the off-season, Schumacher said.

“We go out together,” said soccer player Kirsten Belinsky ’15. It is an important aspect of teammates getting to know each other outside of practice, which helps them to work better together on the field, she said.

The best part of playing on a varsity team is “the sense of community you get,” she said. Because the soccer team begins practice before the fall semester starts, first-year players start the school year with a group of friends and a sense of belonging to the school, she said.

Living separately

Varsity athletes are separated from their peers by more than

just physical demands. Because athletes are constantly moving between practices and workouts, many choose to live on the north end of campus. Though closer to the athletic facilities, this may geographically isolate athletes from students who live on other parts of campus.

This separation partly results from the tight-knit community athletes form with their teammates.

Upperclassmen on the cross country team live together, Lowry said.

With the lifestyle that comes from playing a year-round sport, living with students that do not understand those pressures would be difficult, he said.

Almost all of Schumacher’s roommates are on the swim team, she said.

Though the women’s ski team needs to be able to relate to each other, particularly with the small size of their team at around eight members, it is better for teammates to live separate from one another, Mosenthal said. “We all need to take some time off ” from each other, she said, adding that bonding between female skiers comes from the time they spend at a training camp over break each winter.

“My friends respect what I do,” Mosenthal said, adding that it is always a challenge to maintain friendships with people outside of skiing. “It is really easy to get lost in your sport,” she said.

Though he understands that teammates living together brings them closer, Lars Tiffany ’90, head coach of men’s lacrosse, said he does not fully support athletes isolating themselves from the rest of the student body more than necessary.

“Every year, the second semester freshmen come and talk to me about housing for the coming year.

And I’m constantly pushing them to live in a situation that’s similar to their freshman year,” he said.

“I try to tell them they segregated themselves once by being part of the men’s lacrosse program — now you’re going to separate yourself again by living with just lacrosse players in a fraternity?”

McDuff said athletes don’t necessarily isolate themselves — sometimes it is just a habit. Because only one section of the V-Dub is open during fall preseason, athletes end up eating there throughout the year, McDuff said, adding that he was completely unaware of this divide his first year.

But only teams that compete in the fall come to campus early, which may lead to increased isolation for those squads, said Cory Abbe ’13, tri-captain of the fencing team. Since fencing is a spring sport, Abbe said she arrived on campus at the same time as the rest of the class of 2013, which let her make “a lot of close friends with lots of people in my hall.” Most of her friends are not athletes, she said.

McDuff also said many of his friends are not athletes, because he participates in many clubs and organizations, and he said he thinks “student-athletes are starting to make more of an effort to diversify their friend groups.”

Campus News 9

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Loan-free aid competes 104 seniors elected to Phi Beta Kappa to be budgetary priority

By Maddie Berg Senior Staff Writer

continued from page 5 voices around the table. The more heterogeneous, the more diverse those voices are, the better learning you do,” he said. “If we can’t provide that kind of environment, then you’re not getting the best education we can provide.”

When Brown for Financial Aid raised its concerns at a Brown University Community Council meeting earlier this semester, one of the administration’s responses was to convene a research project to compile data on the specific costs of various financial aid priorities and possibilities. Tilton and Huidekoper, who are leading the project, will start the research toward the end of the year, Huidekoper said, adding that she was unsure when they would have results.

Meanwhile, for high school senior Tran, the decision to matriculate was still up in the air Monday night, though she told The Herald

she was “98 percent set on Brown.”

Though the University nearly eliminated her expected family contribution, her package still rang up more than $3,000 from her family and her summer earnings. “I don’t really consider that a full ride,” Tran said.

And the prospect of graduating loan-free from Berkeley remained tempting, making the final commitment difficult to make.

“I have these two other packages,” she said, “sitting there staring at me.”

While the University struggles to expand aid and compete with its peers, income continues to influence how students interact and perceive each other. The third part of this series will examine how students tackle the issues of class and financial aid on a campus so marked by privilege.

— With additional reporting by Mark Raymond

Taveras warns of looming budget woes continued from page 1 cheers from the audience, with one resident commenting, “It’s about time.”

Taveras praised the city for its achievements over the past few months — such as the $90 million decrease in the structural deficit — and focused on the uphill battle that remains. The mayor has previously said that if the city is unable to close the remaining $20 million deficit, Providence may face bankruptcy in June.

Taveras said solutions to both the tax-exempts and pension problems need to be reached before the city can “win the promise of a brighter future.”

Despite the net decrease in the operating budget, the city will be investing more heavily in education — an additional $19.7 million dollars — due to increased aid promised by Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 and incorporated into the state’s budget for the coming year, he added.

“Education is the most important economic development investment we can make,” Taveras said. But increased education

funds must be coupled with higher expectations of students, parents, educators and administrators, he added.

Taveras, who campaigned heavily on his promise to improve the public school system, said he would soon be announcing a plan to “ensure all Providence students are reading on grade level by third-grade.”

The mayor also emphasized the importance of reinvigorating the city economy — Providence’s unemployment rate stands just above the state average of 11 percent, the second highest rate in the nation. He hopes that by stabilizing the city’s economy and creating a welcoming tax climate, companies will be interested in expanding to Providence.

The economic improvement is not possible without a heightened emphasis on public safety, Taveras said.

Due to an expansion of the tax base, Providence will be gaining additional revenue this coming fiscal year, but Taveras reiterated the importance of resisting further burdening the city’s residents with tax increases to close the deficit.

This year, 104 seniors were elected to be members of the Rhode Island Alpha of Phi Beta Kappa.

Established in Williamsburg, Va., in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest undergraduate academic honors society.

Brown’s chapter, one of only 270 in the nation, was founded in 1830, making it the seventh oldest chapter in the nation.

Members who are elected their junior year anonymously select the new senior members from a list of qualifying students provided by the Registrar. To qualify, a senior has to complete a minimum of 28 courses in their first seven semesters and earn a minimum of A or S with Distinction in a minimum of 23 of those classes, according to the Dean of the College’s website.

The list of senior inductees fol-

lows: Jeremy Ader • Carolyn Aker • James Amen II • Jessica Bendit • Lisa Berlin • Hannah Boettcher • Saskia Brechenmacher • Raymond Bressler • Elizabeth Caldwell • Michael Caron • Meera Chappidi • Catherine Chiu • Fiona Condon • Danielle Crumley • Michael DiIorio • Brianna Doherty • Chongwu Du • Nathan Einstein • Natalia Fadul • Lauren Fedor • Gabriella Ferrari • Annika Finne • Nicola Fleischer • Tiberiu Florea • Andrew Freidah • Nicole Friedman • Chishio Furukawa • Robert Gordon-Fogelson • Daniel Greenwald • Brendan Hainline • Marisa Hobbs • Fuyi Huang • Rachel Hunter • Robert Hunter • Eugene Hwang • Sameer Iyer • Aaron Jacobs • Amit Jain • Anna Jouravleva • Sophie Kainen • Jonathan Kang • Julia Kantor • Jason Kaye • Boyoung Kim • Hyun Kim • Yukiko Kunitomo • Sadie Kurzban • Andrew Leber • Hannah LeBlanc • Pamela Lee • Matthew

Lifson • Olivia Linden • Kerstin Lindstrom • Colleen McDonald • Anna Matejcek • Rebecca Mazonson • Rachael Mazzella • Jennie Mazzucco • Venkat Mendu • Jyotsna Mullur • Emily Murphy • Aaron Nam • Nicole Noronha • Ha Park • Joshua Parker • Ngoc Pham • Charles Pletcher II • David Poritz • Julia Potter • Kirstin Purtich • Lloyd Rajoo • Hector Ramirez • Kelsey Ripp • Emma Roth • Sanford Ryza • Jasleen Salwan • Anna Samel • Benjamin Schreckinger • Lindsey Schupp • Andrew Singer • Deborah Smith • Chaolun Song • Elizabeth Soucy • Risa Stein • Stephanie Swart • Alexander Tabloff • Kening Tan • Matthew Tay • Stephanie Teo • Ethan Tobias • Ivan Tomic • Megan Tuohy • Emily Viggiano • Sanna Vohra • Michael Wagman • Tianshu Wang • Liza Weisberg • Zoe Wheeler • Ashlie Williams • Rebecca Willner • Alexandra Wolfson • Mark Wu • Chelsea Xu • Kathleen Yan

Kony screening draws few attendees

By Marina hernandez Contributing Writer

Invisible Children, the organization behind the video Kony 2012, visited Brown last night to screen the sequel to the film — “Kony 2012: Part 2 - Beyond Famous” — but students expressed doubt as to what the future of the movement holds.

The original video went viral in March and currently has over 88 million views on YouTube. It explains the notoriously inhumane practices of Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army — abducting children from African villages and forcing them to serve in his army.

“Part 2” begins with clips citing widespread criticism of the original video that claimed the movement would fail to attract support outside of Facebook and Twitter.

The film counters the criticism by announcing concrete action organized by Invisible Children, such as a publicity event that took place April 20 and a gathering at the United Nations this upcoming June. The film also explained the progress the organization has made in Uganda, such as rebuilding infrastructure and constructing schools.

The screening, which took place in Hunter Auditorium, also featured speaker Adonga Quinto, a native Ugandan who survived Kony’s

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

forces. He described his accounts of being captured and beaten by the Lord’s Resistance Army, as well as his eventual escape. Quinto now travels with Invisible Children to share his experience and encourage support.

Despite the popularity of the first video, Invisible Children has struggled to attract supporters to its events. “Cover the Night,” the April 20 publicity event cited in the second film, failed to garner the support it had anticipated.

Caleb Riddle, a representative for Invisible Children, addressed criticisms of the event, which aimed to plaster cities nationwide with posters, stickers and murals, by adding, “there were still committed people that participated, and that is what matters.”

Fewer than 15 people came to the screening. “I am very disappointed by the turnout this evening,” said King John Pascual ’14, a Herald business staffer. He attributed the low attendance in part to “the short attention span we have.”

Cassidy Bennett ’15, the student who brought Invisible Children

to the University, echoed Pascual’s sentiment. “I was definitely bummed,” she said, adding that she wished the screening could have taken place before “Cover the Night” so students would have been more aware of the event.

Total views of the videos also suggest decreasing interest in the movement. Though posted two weeks ago, “Part 2” has received a little under two million views — far fewer than the 88 million the first video has received.

The Kony videos evoke sympathy from many viewers, but others believe they oversimplify the deeprooted issues in Uganda and other countries affected by the LRA. “I was definitely very skeptical about the strong appeal to emotion,” said Ben Chowdhury ’15. “It didn’t explain everything well enough.”

Some remain hopeful for the future of Invisible Children and termination of the LRA. “Invisible Children has succeeded in its goal to bring attention to the case,” said Josue Crowther ’15. “Raising awareness is what is important right now.”

10 Editorial Editorial

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Editorial cartoon

by lo r e n f u lto n

Grading the Electoral College Today, Rhode Island Republicans will go to the polls to cast their vote in their party’s presidential primaries. Yet, with Mitt Romney all but assured the nomination, many are looking to the November general election — as is the General Assembly. Next week, the state legislature will vote on a bill that would add Rhode Island to the list of eight states and the District of Columbia that pledge to award the state’s electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The compact would only take effect once states with enough electoral votes to control the election outcome have passed similar legislation. If Rhode Island passes the legislation, it would add four delegate votes to bring the total pledged electoral votes to 136, approximately half of the necessary 270. Though we understand the appeal of this bill in increasing Rhode Island’s relevance in presidential elections, we are skeptical of its national effects.

Rhode Island has not voted for a Republican candidate since 1984 and is commensurately ignored in presidential campaigns. In 2008, neither Barack Obama nor John McCain spent much time in Rhode Island, while our more electorally volatile cousins to the north in New Hampshire were lavished with attention: four visits from Obama and five from McCain.

Proponents of this bill suggest that if the allocation of electors were such that the president would be selected by a national popular vote, elections would be fairer. The Florida debacle in 2000 would never have happened under a national popular vote plan. The votes of Rhode Island Republicans and Louisiana Democrats would suddenly become important. Candidates would compete nationwide for every voter they could get, and we would see candidates talking about our concerns and spending their time — and their money — in our state.

But such an intensely nationwide election could have its pitfalls. First, the cost of presidential elections would skyrocket as candidates would run advertisements in every media market across the country. The role of money in politics — already made salient in this election with the rise of Super PACs — would grow tremendously, with wealthy donors and special interests increasing their already-powerful influence.

Furthermore, while candidates might spend more time in heavily urban Rhode Island under this plan, other states would see their position on the presidential radar screen decrease to almost nothing. Candidates would go to places with a high concentration of votes. Rural states like New Hampshire, New Mexico and Missouri could be completely passed over.

The United States operates under a federal system, and no matter how national many of the issues that face us today, states have particular interests and identities that cannot be entirely swept under the rug. The current Electoral College system does not ensure that candidates go to every state, it is true — but it ensures that they go to a mix of states: urban and rural, large and small. We heartily encourage discussion about potential reform now, and are intrigued by many creative solutions such as allocating electors proportionally or by congressional district within individual states. That said, the national popular vote plan seems deceptively simple — and threatens to erode the importance of state identities in our national politics while increasing the role of money in presidential elections. We urge caution before the legislature embraces this plan head-on.

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

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letters@browndailyherald.com

Corrections An article in Monday’s Herald (“As the University has become less uniform, socioeconomic status still acts as a barrier to Brown,” April 23) incorrectly stated that two-thirds of enrolled students applied for financial aid. In fact, two-thirds of admitted students applied and only about 50 percent of enrolled students applied for aid. The Herald regrets the error.

An article in Monday’s Herald (“Student dance show a ‘giant lovefest,’” April 23) said there were four performances of “Bursting at the Seams: A Seamless Dance Show.” In fact, there were three performances. The Herald regrets the error.

An article in Monday’s Herald (“Facing shortfall, Taveras continues calls for U. contributions,” April 23) incorrectly reported that Ben Noble ’13 said the University had many “projections.” In fact, he said the University had many “projects.” The Herald regrets the error.

quote of the day

“Honestly, if Brown had given me better financial aid, it would be no problem deciding it right now.”

— Vananh Tran, prospective student See aid on page 1.

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Letters, please!

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Opinions 11

The Brown Daily Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Big Bear and the Little Bear Suzanne Enzerink Opinions Columnist With only a few weeks left before Commencement, it is time to review the year — what went well and what can be improved.

This year has brought a lot of excitement and enrichment, both academically and socially. As Ruth Simmons said in her opening speech for this academic year, at Brown everyone is a star among stars.

But the Big Bear and the Little Bear — that is, the graduate students and the undergraduates — have not always had an easy relationship, as they sometimes perceive themselves in competition rather than cooperation. While the Graduate Student Council has actively sought improvement on these issues, work remains to be done in two somewhat related areas: transparency and integration of the student bodies.

The graduate community actively strives to be included more in undergraduate life and should absolutely expect cooperation and clarity from the undergrad organizations, but it has to be a two-way street. When Seth Meyers did a quick survey to establish the demographic makeup of his audience a few weeks ago when he visited Brown — “who here is a freshman?” — my friend and I were the only graduate students in attendance. This was not the first time we found ourselves in this situation. From comedy shows to social clubs to academic commit-

tees, integration between graduate and undergraduate students is something of an anomaly. The GSC should do a better job of encouraging grad students to interact with undergraduate peers.

Additionally, establishing a relationship of mutual respect and trust is a responsibility of individual graduate students. More than once I have read complete sentences or even paragraphs from undergraduate essays on Facebook posted there by teaching assistants to demonstrate the dire state of

late, there have been some dissenting voices about election procedures. To name a recent example, students suggested that an external committee to select the Commencement speaker would have been wise. The exact reasoning — or rather the lack thereof — behind the GSC’s decision was named as one concern. Was the deciding factor rhetorical skill, departmental background, service to the community or what? Similarly problematic is the fact that they selected the former GSC vice-president, who is leaving his PhD

While the Graduate Student Council has actively sought improvement on these issues, work remains to be done in two somewhat related areas: transparency and integration of the student bodies. composition or knowledge they had to plow through to ensure their funding. While I do not assume that TAs are friends with their students on Facebook, and I’m sure undergrads complain about their TAs, too, where I come from it is considered bad form to post anything written by someone else. Without attribution, it’s plagiarism — without context, it’s ridicule.

The second issue is transparency. I’ll be completely open: I think the GSC is doing truly excellent work for all graduate students, a lot of which goes unnoticed, but without which the grad community would not be nearly as healthy as it is today. The GSC’s work has helped make this year at Brown an experience I will cherish. I also have friends who serve as its officers.

But I will play devil’s advocate — as of

position at Brown and is now representing hundreds as a tribute to the University. The graduate community at Brown is small, and the number of active members in the GSC is even smaller. Naturally, the most likely candidates for Commencement speaker are those who take graduate concerns to heart, and therefore the selection committee often knows the candidates personally. But their selection still raises eyebrows.

When Christina Paxson was selected as the University’s president-elect, Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76 informed the gathered audience and press not only about her qualifications, but also about her brother’s link to the University and the recommendation letter he received from the head of the Corporation. “I don’t know if I should say this because somebody might think there’s a con-

flict” were his exact words.

Had Chancellor Tisch not been straightforward and had the link been discovered in retrospect, then people would truly think there was a conflict. The administration’s careful handling of the situation underscores that transparency is of the utmost importance in a university.

It is logical that the GSC should select a candidate that has actively labored to improve the graduate experience, and I have no doubts that the decision was deliberative and the speaker worthy. A personal connection is by no means indicative of partiality per se, but the fact that it has become a topic of conversation at all could have been prevented with more transparency.

Last Saturday, I was once again reminded what great things can spring from collaboration across levels and why I like Brown so much. A friend and I attended “A Perfect Wedding” and were absolutely blown away by the performances. It was new, yet old — a very modern adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” — and all performers excelled. This play embodied the University in its ideal form: a perfectly integrated effort of grads, undergrads and faculty, along with a keen eye for tradition and a commitment to innovation. It has been a privilege to work within a University that not only values creativity and innovation in all facets of academic and social life, but also actively fosters it. I hope the GSC keeps this in mind as it makes plans for the next academic year.

Suzanne Enzerink GS can be reached at suzanne_enzerink@brown.edu.

Being the busiest

By Sam Karshenboym Guest Columnist

My many words of praise for Brown as a tour guide in the past three years have not been false or even exaggerated. When camera-toting parents ask about the sense of community on campus, I always remark that students are collaborative, willing to help each other and not competitive. Truly, Brown students are not competitive in the traditional sense. I have never witnessed backstabbing behavior for the sake of an A. Yet competition on campus still exists.

It is more subtle, appearing sporadically, often just on the street. For example, an acquaintance walks by. You smile and ask, “How are you?” to which they first sigh and say, “Insane. Crazy week. I had two exams this morning, and I have a 10page paper due tomorrow, which I haven’t started, an eight-page paper due Friday and rehearsal every night. Oh, and my parents are coming up this weekend and expect me to entertain them.” You make a concerned face. “You’ll get through it,” you say, to which they retort, “Bahhhh, I’m so busy.” Herein lies the competition: Who is the busiest Brown student?

It’s hardly worth saying that Brown students are busy. But some students feel the need to assert their busy schedules publicly, to stop you on the street and count exactly how many hours they’ve spent in

the SciLi basement this week. Facebook statuses detail each assignment and the student’s progress. These statuses have 20 likes and 30 comments that read “life sucks” and “I’m in the same boat.” Here’s my suggestion: Stop talking about your work, and start doing it.

When someone bombards me with their laundry list of assignments and errands, I become frustrated because, guess what, I’m busy, too! We all are! We all have commitments and homework and meetings and strive to do everything on time and well. The frazzled monologue

What reproduces this phenomenon is the fact that students, even while “working,” often aren’t. I’m not impressed when I hear someone has spent 15 straight hours in the library. If you’re spending that many hours in the library, something isn’t right. Something needs to change.

You don’t necessarily need to drop a class.

Instead, maybe spend less time on Facebook and Tumblr. Maybe choose not to go to WhisCo this week — it’ll still be there next week. On days when there are seven assignments to complete, don’t spend an hour chatting with friends in the Blue

Some students feel the need to assert their busy schedules publicly, to stop you on the street and count exactly how many hours they’ve spent in the SciLi basement this week.

in which students describe each responsibility and its respective imminent deadline — a conversation they not only have with me at that moment but also with many others throughout the day — is not productive. I don’t mind giving people a moment to complain. What I do mind is when their words carry a competitive edge.

Room. It happens — I’ve seen it. And just because it’s suddenly warmer out, don’t encourage each other to blow off work — or at least put it off — simply to enjoy the sun. Because, wait, aren’t we all super, super busy?

This tendency to put off work or to only talk about it signals a larger problem on campus: poor work ethic. Brown stu-

dents are definitely passionate and smart and diverse and all those other great things, but sometimes, when it comes to work, I wonder if it’s all for show. I once heard that 90 percent of Brown seniors write their theses within a week of its due date. Yet this 90 percent begin talking about the thesis well in advance. A month before the deadline, students halfcomplain, half-brag that they are already behind, then shrug, oh well, and take another sip of their beer. And suddenly it’s a week before the deadline, and they’ve become a nut job, hastily climbing the ranks of the busiest Brown students.

I have seen similar talk with extracurricular activities. I’m proud to see so many student-led organizations on campus. But it’s a shame to see students talk about their responsibilities and not see them through. In several groups I’ve worked with, I’ve not only seen members consistently miss meetings but even leaders not pull their weight. When I was a freshman, I looked up to these people. When one wouldn’t show up, I’d think, “Wow, they’re so cool and busy.” Now as a senior, I wonder if some like the idea of responsibility rather than the responsibility itself.

I realize I’m certainly guilty of venting from time to time, but there’s a problem when more time is spent talking about work than on doing it. We all have to do a ton. Awesome! Now let’s just do it.

Sam Karshenboym ‘12 didn’t complain about writing this column.

He can be reached at samuel_karshenboym@brown.edu.

Daily Herald Sports Tuesday the Brown

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

W. lacrosse

W. lax falls to Penn, out of contention for playoffs By nathaniel huether Sports Staff Writer

The women’s lacrosse team dropped its fifth straight conference matchup Saturday, losing to first-place Penn 15-6 in Philadelphia.

The Quaker offense was on fire to start the game. Almost seven minutes into the first half, Penn (7-5, 5-1 Ivy) put four goals past goalkeeper Penn 15 I s a b e l Brown 6 Harvey ’12. Despite a one-goal retaliation from Bre Hudgins ’14, the Quakers went on a second goal-scoring run that left the Bears (6-7, 1-5) with an 8-1 deficit with less than 10 minutes remaining in the first half.

“We weren’t really taking care of the ball,” Hudgins said. “We really hurt ourselves in that respect.”

Shortly thereafter, Kaela McGilloway ’12 scored Brown’s second goal of the game. But Penn

continued to demonstrate its offensive prowess, adding another tally before going into halftime with a 9-2 lead.

During the break, Brown’s coaching staff made a few adjustments, such as substituting Kellie Roddy ’15 for Harvey in goal. Still, the Quakers managed to score two consecutive goals to start the second half.

But the Bears answered with their best stretch of play. Hudgins and Julia Keller ’12 led a threegoal run from 23:33 to 16:49 to cut the deficit to 11-5.

Hudgins, Brown’s leading goalscorer on the day, said the run should have come earlier in the game, and it was too little, too late.

“We just got off to a late start,” she said.

With seven minutes left in the game, Penn and Brown traded scores. The Bears’ goal, put in by Alexandra Crerend ’15, would be their final one of the day.

The Quakers proceeded to go on a 3-0 run to round out the lop-

Jesse Schwimmer / Herald

Bre Hudgins ’14 netted three goals in the Bears’ loss to Penn.

sided victory.

The Bears now sit in seventh place in the Ivy League standings

softball

Harvard sweeps weekend doubleheaders By alexandra Conway Sports Staff Writer

The women’s softball team (8-24, 5-11 Ivy) dropped two doubleheaders to first-place Harvard (2611, 15-1) this weekend at Soldiers Field in Cambridge, Mass.

The Bears were defeated by one run, 2-1, in both games Friday afternoon. In the first game, Bruno got on the board in the top of the first after shortstop Stephanie Thompson ’13 hit a home run.

After a series of scoreless innings, Harvard tallied a run in the sixth inning to even the score, sending the game into extra innings. The Crimson finally topped the Bears in the bottom of the 10th.

In the following game, Harvard gained a 2-0 lead over the Bears by the third inning. At the top of the sixth, Bruno tallied a run after Misa Wong ’15 hit an RBI single, scoring Thompson. But the Bears could not manage to find the equalizer and the Crimson were again victorious.

The Crimson secured the series sweep by earning 5-0 and 5-2 wins over the Bears Saturday. With these two victories, Harvard also clinched the North Division title for the Ivy League.

“They were definitely tough losses this weekend,” said designated hitter Alyssa Caplan ’13.

“Jessica Cherness (’15) and Denise van der Goot (’15) pitched really well this weekend. They kept us close, but we just didn’t put together the hits that we needed.”

In the first game Friday, the Crimson’s staunch defense shut out the Bears, and Harvard slowly added to its lead, scoring once in each of the first five innings to win.

and have been eliminated from conference playoff contention.

Still, the Bears will have a chance

crew

Ranked Bruno squads sink Ivy rivals

By Sam rubinroit Assistant Sports Editor

Dave Silverman / Herald

Stephanie Thompson ’13 contributed a hit and a run to the Bears’ loss to Harvard.

In the second game, Harvard scored first, but the Bears evened the score 1-1 after rookie Trista Chavez ’15 hit an RBI single. The Crimson then earned two more runs in the fifth inning. Bruno came within two runs in the sixth after Chavez hit an RBI double, but it was not enough. The Crimson tallied a run in the bottom of the sixth to best the Bears by three runs.

The Bears return to action April 24 against Bryant and then close their season with doubleheaders at Ivy rival Yale April 27 and 28.

“I really can’t believe the season is almost over,” Caplan said.

“Hopefully, we will end the season on a positive note this weekend against Yale, and that can give us momentum going into next season.”

to close out their season on a high note when they battle Cornell (94, 4-2) at home April 28.

Bruno’s crew programs both enjoyed victories over Ivy League opponents this weekend as the men swept No. 15 Dartmouth at home and the women toppled No. 16 Cornell and No. 18 Columbia in Ithaca, N.Y. Brown, the No. 4 men’s team, had an impressive weekend on its home course on the Seekonk River, sweeping Dartmouth in all four races.

The Varsity Eight earned its first victory April 14 against No. 9 Northeastern, and with the Ivy and NCAA Championships just around the corner, Head Coach Paul Cooke decided to ramp up the squad’s training last week.

“We recognize that the championships are just three weeks away,” Cooke said. “Now we have to do the things we need to do to get ready.”

The extra training paid off over the weekend as the Bears’ Varsity Eight came away with a decisive victory. Though Dartmouth jumped out to a quick lead, Bruno finished an astounding 17 seconds ahead of the Big Green with a time of 5:58.1.

“Dartmouth came out aggressively in the varsity race, and some of the guys were kind of shocked,” said captain Alex Fleming ’12. “But after a while, Dartmouth kind of paid for going out so fast. By the thousand (meter mark) we had made up the difference, and in the second half we had built a significant lead.”

Both Bruno’s Second and Third Varsity Eight boats came in ahead of Dartmouth’s Second Varsity Eight, clinching 19- and 13-second victories, respectively. The Bears’ Fresh-

man Eight and Varsity Four also finished ahead of their Big Green counterparts.

Earning back-to-back victories has built momentum that will help carry the team into the championships, Cooke said.

“We came into the season knowing that there were a lot of things that this team could accomplish, and I think they’re in a position to do that,” Cooke said. “I’m very impressed with the way they are coming together as a group and exceeding the expectations they set for themselves.”

The Bears will hit the road and travel to Lake Carnegie in Princeton to face the Tigers this weekend.

With the championships just a few short weeks away, the team is excited for the opportunity to show what they are capable of.

“I think we’re up there with the top boats in the country,” Fleming said. “I expect it to be a good race to the metal stand.”

Meanwhile, the No. 10 women’s team clinched the Dunn Bowl with a victory over Columbia and Cornell in the Varsity Eight. The Bears finished in 6:58.6, two seconds ahead of Cornell and more than 10 seconds faster than Columbia. Bruno also earned a victory in the Second Varsity Eight with a time of 7:07.6, defeating the Lions and the Big Red by 2.2 and 3.4 seconds, respectively.

Despite a second-place finish in the Varsity Four race, the Bears were able to edge out Cornell in the Third Varsity Eight, finishing with a time of 7:27.0.

The women host their final home meet of the season Saturday against No. 15 Yale.