Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Daily

Herald

the Brown

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

vol. cxxii, no. 57

Let’s (not) talk about class

Women’s squash team by high school type Private,

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By lucy feldman News Editor

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Percent of team Emily Polk / Herald

Sports like squash are often dominated by students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds due to limited accessibility before college.

Romney wins R.I. Republican primary

President Ruth Simmons will serve her last day in office June 30. With the semester drawing to a close, Simmons sat down with The Herald for one final interview to discuss her legacy, her post-office plans, her popularity among students and what the future may hold for Brown.

Herald: How has Brown changed over the last 11 years?

Simmons: (Sighs) Well, I think it hasn’t changed in any fundamental way, that’s for sure. The kinds of foci that Brown has had for decades remain. I would say we’ve spent a lot of time in the last

Former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney won the Rhode Island Republican primary last night with 63 percent of the vote. Rep. Ron Paul, R-T.X. finished second, netting 23 percent of the votes.

Romney will bring 13 delegates from Rhode Island to his party’s convention in August, and Paul

continued on page 4

11 years trying to strengthen various programs and initiatives that Brown has been known for for some time.

I think that I certainly believe that when I came to Brown, I came with a mandate from the campus to do certain things. For example, when I was being recruited, I was given to understand that the Graduate School was a singularly important strength that needed a lot of attention. So we’ve paid attention to the graduate school, but I would say it hasn’t been a change. It’s been something that the faculty had been concerned about for a long time, and the only question has been whether or not we’d spent

enough time and enough focus to address some of the concerns that the faculty and graduate students had.

Similarly, with the (Alpert Medical School), I remember the first, very first days at Brown, I heard from medical students. And they talked about — they, along with administrators at the time — talked about the need for a home for the medical school. And that had been certainly contemplated and sought for a very long time. The fact that there is a home for the medical school now is really not so much — I don’t regard it as a change.

I think it’s just the actualization of

Fashion Week celebrates student style and creativity

city & state will take three.

Nineteen delegates will represent Rhode Island at the Republican National Convention in August, three of which are unpledged.

Romney also won Republican primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York last night — each by substantial margins. He cast last night’s victories as a turning point in the nomination process in his victory speech in New Hampshire.

“After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and more than a few long nights, I can say with confidence and gratitude that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility, and together we are going to win on November 6,” Romney said to the crowd.

Former Speaker of the House

By MADDIE Berg Senior Staff Writer

While Brown students may be stereotyped as hippies who wear Birkenstocks and flowy skirts, this image tends to be far from the truth. There is no single uniform on campus, and there is no shortage of fashion awareness. Now that the second annual Fashion Week has arrived on campus — events started Tuesday — the members of Fashion at Brown hope students will tap into and appreciate this fashion consciousness.

Feature

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news....................2-7 CITY & State........8-9 editorial............10 Opinions.............11 Features............12

When Associate Professor of Anthropology Dan Smith asked students in his class ANTH 0300: “Culture and Health” to indicate if they thought they were lowerclass, very few students raised their hands. The same happened when he asked if students considered themselves upper-class. But when he asked students if they thought they were middle-class, nearly all the roughly 200 students shot their hands into the air.

“Talking about class, even raising the notion we’re anything but middle-class, is considered very socially unacceptable,” said Takeru Nagayoshi ’14.

“I feel like everyone says they’re middle-of-the-road,” said Ben Piepert ’13.

When President Ruth Simmons took office in 2001, she vowed to make financial aid a focus of her presidency. During her tenure, Simmons created a need-blind admission policy and championed

Exclusive Q & A: President Ruth Simmons’ parting words

By Adam toobin Senior Staff Writer

inside

Students attempt to bring socioeconomic status and underlying tensions out of the shadows

Inaugurated last year, Fashion Week consists of activities that celebrate the creativity of Brown students. The three-day-long festival culminates in a fashion show Thursday night.

Yesterday the group worked with the Vault, Brown’s student-run

Robin Hood

Costumed Occupy protesters support R.I. tax raises City & State, 9

the efforts of people over a very long period of time to bring it to fruition.

So I think in the last 12 years, I would say we’ve spent a lot of time trying to implement things that have been really in the works for a long time.

There are some new programs, it’s true, but compared to the core programs at Brown, I would say for most universities of our type, relatively few new programs in this period of time — just because we had so much to do in terms of implementing those ideas that had been on the books for a long time. continued on page 3

big dipper

consignment shop, to host a do-ityourself workshop, allowing people with little or no creative experience to make something of their own and familiarize themselves with the design and creation process. Attendees used old t-shirts to make unique and redesigned blouses.

Tonight there will be a business panel “for people who might not be fashion-world or style-oriented,” said Mia Zachary ’14, director of Fashion at Brown. The panel features designers — such as Jonathan Joseph Peters of the seventh season of “Project Runway” — as well as local store-owners and business founders.

A mixed closet

Fashion at Brown considers Fashion Week an outlet for Brown students to share both their talents and love for fashion, particularly “to celebrate and be aware of the fashion

Meia Geddes / Herald

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With 100 species of animals, the Roger Williams Park’s zoo is known for its conservation efforts. See page 12 for the full story.

Apathy

Moffat ’13 calls for student engagement opinions, 11

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The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Student fashion designers explore cultures

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april 26

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continued from page 1 that exists here on a daily basis,” said Eve Blazo ’12, the model coordinator and stylist.

“So many people who you would not expect to have a style, just from the stereotype you would apply to them, do have this very interesting, unique style,” said John White ’14, designer coordinator and former Herald copy editor.

It is this sense of personal style that Fashion Week hopes to highlight.

“Obviously people think about what they’re wearing and think about their social identity and how fashion contributes to that,” Blazo said. “But people (at Brown) generally know what’s going on in fashion and know what’s trendy.”

Because fashion and style affect everyone, the group tried to make the activities equally accessible to students from different social groups, which White said was one of the founding principles of the organization. “We don’t want it to be exclusive or isolating,” he said.

Strutting their style

Crossword

The group hopes the show draws a diverse crowd consisting of friends of the models and designers as well as students who have not explored the world of fashion at Brown before, White said. “I hope they not only get out of it that there is so much talent around them, but that they can do it too,” he added, pointing to the fact that two of the designers who will be displaying their works have not taken formal classes or created garments before.

The show, which last year only ran once and contained 18 looks by eight designers, will take place twice this year and has expanded to fea-

ture 14 Brown designers showcasing about 35 looks.

“It’s not about what is trendy for next spring or what’s hip at Brown, but more like ‘this is what inspires me,’” Blazo said, explaining how the designs represent the individual styles and influences that make the fashions at Brown so diverse.

“What’s going to be shown is not what’s on the pulse or on the pages of magazines or even Brown style, but it is extremely varied,” White said.

Some designers attempted to make their designs eco-friendly by using recycled materials such as zippers and metro-cards, while others looked for cultural inspirations.

Ramya Mahalingam’s ’14 collection was inspired by her attachment to multiple cultures — her parents are both from India, while she is American. Another designer, Sofia Ruiz ’14, is showing shirts made to spread awareness for her charity Hands for Latin America, exemplifying how fashion can be used for socially-conscious causes. She will provide information on how to purchase these shirts, and profits will go to the charity’s mission of improving the quality of life for children in Latin America.

The hair, makeup, lighting and sound are also completely studentrun. “They are really on top of their game,” said model Alisa Currimjee ’14 of the designers and coordinators of the show. “They know exactly what they want from each of us and are very professional.” As a model, Currimjee got fitted by her designer and attended two run-throughs to practice her walk.

The models also exhibit Brown’s diversity, with varying heights and ethnicities. One model, Genevieve Moss-Hawkins ’14, is only 5’4’’ — short compared to traditional mod-

Romney optimistic about wins despite low turnout continued from page 1 Newt Gingrich and Sen. Rick Santorum, R-P.A. — who suspended his campaign April 10 — each garnered 6 percent of the votes.

The turnout for Rhode Island’s contest was low — around 14,000 voters came out in favor of Republicans. The state’s 2008 primary was over a month earlier, which corresponded to a higher turnout — more than twice as many voters came to the polls four

Daily

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years ago.

President Obama did not face any challengers in last night’s Democratic primary.

Both Romney and Paul have paid visits to Rhode Island over the past two weeks. Rhode Island was the only state holding a primary yesterday that awarded its delegates proportionally. Such states are crucial for candidates like Paul, who are not expected to win any states outright but who are trying to secure delegates.

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“Modeling is the last thing my friends would expect me to do, which is why I’m so excited to do it,” she said. “It’s very empowering being one of the shortest people in the show because most girls are not super tall … it’s fun to represent that demographic and show that averagesized girls can still model clothes.”

Fashion forecast

While Fashion Week has grown and is much better organized this year, according to Blazo, the group still faced challenges in the planning process.

“We had really ambitious plans, and some fell through,” White said, discussing how they had hoped for more industry guests and wider news coverage. It was also difficult to mobilize everyone involved in the show for planning and rehearsals.

But despite these setbacks, the coordinators are generally pleased with the prospects for the week.

“It’s so awesome to work with a group of people that really care about this, are passionate about it and actually see it through,” Blazo said.

In the future the group hopes to grow in number, get more funding from the University, receive widespread news coverage and host a more diverse set of events to make the week even more accessible to all types of students.

“There are only so many people that can or are willing to design clothes, but there are a lot of people willing to get involved in the business aspect or the advertising aspect,” said Amy Kallman ’14, a coordinator.

“We can pull from different communities at Brown. People who may not be just directly interested in fashion design will be important in years to come.”

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Q&A with Simmons 3

Simmons reflects on her presidency, looks to the future continued from page 1 So with regard to financial aid specifically — tell me more about what it was like to go need-blind.

Why did you make that a priority?

First of all, in the lead-up to my joining Brown, I heard from many Brown alumni and members of the Corporation and others who were involved with Brown that for Brown to be virtually the only institution in the Ivy League that was not need-blind was very unsatisfactory to many. It was seen by many as a kind of a stain upon the profile and reputation of the University. But that was perhaps not even the most important element of it. The most important element of it was sort of a deep conviction among Brown alums and current students and others who just believed that need-blind was the only thing that Brown could do to ensure that it didn’t become merely the province of the wealthy. And as a protection against becoming that, the idea was that Brown needed to be able to offer sufficient financial aid to any student who needed it, so that a family’s economic ability was never the decisive element of a decision of whether to come to Brown or not. So mostly for those two reasons.

And I have to say that from a competitiveness standpoint, that was also very important. To be a university unlike our peers in our ability to offer financial assistance to the poorest students just seemed to set us apart in a very unfair way, because among our peers, Brown is probably the institution that cares most about matters of equity. Certainly if you look at our progressive claims — claims to being a progressive institution — it’s probably more important for Brown to be need-blind than probably any other institution, which doesn’t, for example, claim to care very much about that. So it was inconsistent with our identity, inconsistent with our goals for the future. And all of those reasons combined to make it seem like the most important initial decision for us to make.

Could you tell me a little bit about some of the advice that you got that you found useful?

Well the first advice I got, and this is mostly from the Corporation leadership and search committee, which is really — those are the first conversations I had about Brown — and that was that I needed to act quickly, that stasis had set in at Brown. There were lots of aspirations, many goals.

But there was some dissatisfaction with our recent history in getting those things done. So I was told not to take much time, to come up with a plan pretty quickly and enact that plan. So “move fast” is what they said.

Of course, if I had more knowledge about Brown, I definitely wouldn’t have done that. So thank goodness I didn’t know much about Brown because I acted on that, and probably some of the best things we did were the consequence of not having enough information about Brown.

Is there anything specific in mind that you think of?

That would have made it harder?

Well, take need-blind for example.

Let’s say that we had done that in the typical Brown way. We would have had endless debates within the community about whether or not needblind was the right thing to do. We would have had people poring over our financial statements and arguing that we couldn’t afford it. We would have people suggesting that it was not a good use of resources because, after all, we had other needs, and so instead of spending the money on financial aid, since there were enough students who could afford to come to Brown, just let the market solve the problem and let people pay what they could. There would have been hundreds of reasons for delaying the decision and probably hundreds of reasons for, in the end, not doing it. Because there would have been so many questions about it that it wouldn’t have been a clear decision as to whether to do it or not. And for some people today, it’s still not a clear decision. So that’s what I mean.

I think it would have taken us — we would have taken a good deal of time to debate it, we would have perhaps held open forums on it, we would have done all the manner of things, and in the end, ambiguity would have remained. And ambiguity is a kind of death sentence sometimes in these kinds of organizations because if you don’t think you have a mandate — often people are afraid to implement decisions without a mandate.

So probably if I had known at the time as much as I know now about such matters, there probably are lots of things I wouldn’t have done.

A recent Herald poll found that 81.1 percent of students said in some way you had contributed to their Brown experience in a positive way. Why do you think there has been such positive support for you over the years, and is there anything you’ve done to make yourself accessible to students?

I’m completely puzzled by that.

I have no idea. And I wouldn’t even speculate about it.

So as far as your cult status, with the Ruth T-shirts — (Shakes head) You know, I have no idea. I think that had I guessed what it would be, I definitely would not have made that call. And maybe I don’t — my own self-awareness is so low that I don’t have a way to understand it. But here’s what my self-awareness tells me. I’m a pretty plain person. I like to say what I mean and do what I say. I like to be fair, even-handed and honest. None of that recommends one to be popular, frankly. And you know, I’ve sort of lived with that throughout my career and never thought of it as something that recommended me in particular for pictures on T-shirts. So it’s a puzzle to me. I do have to say that I have enormous affection and regard for Brown students for the ways in which they contribute. And the fact that I do might make a difference.

There are some people who regard students as more a nuisance than anything else — I don’t.

There are ways in which I think whatever we have done over the past years has been — has represented an immense contribution from students. Because some of the

ideas that they have come up with, frankly, have been extraordinarily well-researched, extraordinarily wellconsidered and often their ideas are just — well, first of all, their ideas are bountiful, and secondly, they’re often excellent ideas. So I’ve regarded students in this process as partners in a very challenging and important endeavor. And perhaps partly my respect for students and the role that they play is understood. Perhaps. But otherwise, I can’t tell you.

After you leave, when do you expect to come back to Brown, and in what capacity? I know you’ve said you might like to — Teach. So I have a leave coming, and I actually have not had time to make all my plans about what I’ll be doing during my leave, but I have a couple of book projects that I’ll be working on and trying to make some progress on. So the main thing is really to get back to what I set out to do when I committed myself to this profession. And that is to thinking, to reflecting, to doing some research, to writing, to sharing my ideas. That’s what I want to spend some time doing, and having time to do that will be an amazing thing, frankly, given the years in which I’ve basically had every day filled and every evening virtually filled and every weekend filled and so forth. So I also hope during that time to think about what I want to teach, and that will also be a big part of it. …

You’ve talked about going to France as well. Is that still — Yeah. Not for the entire year because I have certain obligations for the fall that will keep me in the (United) States. But the most important thing for me, at least initially, is to completely disappear so that I’m not second-guessing the next president. One of the worst things in the world is to hang around and then every time something comes up, for The Herald to call me or for somebody else to call me and say, “What do you think of this?” That would be the most horrendous thing. I would never do that to the next president. So my first goal is to completely disappear and not put anybody in a position of asking me to second-guess or anything that a new president is doing.

No forwarding address will be left. (Laughs) There has been a lot of talk about internationalization and making Brown a more global university.

How do you think internationalization might be a good thing, how do you think Brown has become a more global university and how would you would want Paxson to promote that?

Well, I won’t give a message to her.

I can tell you unabashedly that my conviction that deeper and deeper international focus and foci at Brown is an absolute must for this institution to be competitive well into the future. There’s no question in my mind about that. The only question is how one does that. And there the policies and approaches undertaken by one president versus another can be different. I chose to focus on an office

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Simmons will step down from her position June 30.

that develops policy and to support initiatives of all kinds in the international area. But a new president could decide that there are several different things to do in this arena. …

There are well-educated people in this country who believe that if you speak with an accent that you have a problem, that you are less intelligent than other people. There are people who make decisions about hiring people based on whether they have an accent. Now the stupidity of that is so compelling because if you’ve studied a language, you will never believe that again. Because fundamentally you will understand that everybody has an accent.

But that very basic thing is something that I think underlies human relations to a significant degree and is something that is compelling enough for us to say that it should be a part of our education, that we learn that fundamental issue. But for somebody else, it could be, for example, that everyone has to learn about international finance and international economy. Some people might think that’s very important. So I’m less concerned about the institutional manifestation of the policy for an era than I am about whether or not it continues to be one of the most important things that we think of doing, provided that we continue to bring students from around the world to Brown and then we continue to send students from Brown around the world, provided that we support initiatives in the curriculum to teach about areas of the world that will play a very important part in our lives. If we do not have at Brown a very substantial offering on India, for example, or China, in my view, that’s a very big mistake. So this is an area I have very strong views about. …

Is there anything you want to add to a new president or our readers?

Well, one of the things I’ve tried not to do is to judge myself. But I’m perfectly comfortable with the way that other people feel free to do that.

But I do feel comfortable judging our university — its quality, its breadth, its relevance, its place on the interna-

tional stage. All of that I feel perfectly capable of doing. And I guess the main thing I would like, as I leave, for people to do is not to settle for some precious little place that serves our precious little needs — that Brown is important enough to be on the world stage. If we believe in what we do, then we also have to believe that it’s important for us to care about the child in Africa who might come to Brown and find something unique and take it back to their country.

If we care about what we do and believe in what we do, then we ought to be able to acknowledge that a new degree program is appropriate for us to do, that there are graduate degrees that are so important precisely because they are at Brown and they carry the Brown message. So for example, people have come to us repeatedly and said, “Why doesn’t Brown do at the graduate level what it did at the undergraduate level with regard to the open curriculum? No other university will do it. Only Brown can do that. Why wouldn’t Brown do that?” So I think that we have to continue to look ahead to what can preserve the best of Brown, but at the same time, not be afraid to embrace the fact that Brown could become a more and more important institution in the future. I think that’s what alumni seek, I think when you graduate from this place, that’s what you inevitably want.

And so if you happen to be from Turkey and you go back to Turkey and nobody knows what Brown is, that’s a problem for you. So visibility on the international stage is going to be important in the future. We don’t have to do it the way that others do it — I don’t think the idea of having a campus in some far-flung part of the world is vital to our interests at this juncture, but I think it is vital to our interests to be known around the world. And we have to get better and better at finding ways of doing that.

— Sahil Luthra See www.browndailyherald.com for the full interview.

4 Money Matters

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Only 50 percent say they stick with peers of the same class the Plan for Academic Enrichment, a road map for the University’s advancement that included increased investment in financial aid.

But Simmons’ work to make admission need-blind for domestic first-years and recent efforts by groups such as Brown for Financial Aid have not cracked the shell surrounding discussion of socioeconomic status on campus. Students said they experience a tension between the desire to act middleclass and the effects their financial realities have on conversations, relationships and demographics. At an institution one student deemed an “emblem of privilege,” class disparities present a social minefield Brunonians must navigate when making friends, finding love and engaging in academic and extracurricular life.

Dissecting demographics

Of the nearly 60 students The Herald interviewed, the majority agreed affluence is alive and well on Brown’s campus.

“It’s easy to think that you’re not that well-off when you’re at a place like this compared to some other people,” said Alex Fleming ’12. “But I think it’s very, very rare that you have a student at an Ivy League university that isn’t pretty comfortable financially.”

Despite financial aid programs designed to make the University affordable to lower-income applicants, many students pointed to various selection biases that influence access to the University.

“The least academically-talented students in the upper income quartile go to college at the same rates as the most academicallytalented students in the lowest income quartile, and students from the lowest income quartile have been underrepresented at Brown,” Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 previously wrote The Herald.

To combat inherent inequality, the University has embraced programs such as the Questbridge consortium, which helps the Admission Office recruit “low-income, primarily first-generation, college-bound students,” Miller wrote.

Even so, private schools are frequently billed as an avenue to the Ivy League. Many students were accepted to the University because they received a private high school education, often bankrolled by family wealth, or have a parent who attended Brown, which also suggests a more privileged upbringing, said Tyler Rice ’14, who attended a private high school in the Virgin Islands.

This bias can lead to tension when students arrive at Brown.

“When it comes to students from these lower economic backgrounds, they’re just not as prepared as students from these more prestigious high schools. I don’t blame Brown at all,” said Bryan Payton ’15, a Detroit public high school graduate.

Students who did not attend private schools can feel disadvantaged. Robert Bentlyewski ’13 said

he felt underprepared when he first arrived at the University. “I’d never been graded alongside someone who went to a $20,000-a-year private school who has been trained to be good at academics,” he said.

Bentlyewski also pointed to the SAT as an unfair entry barrier, calling it more a test of preparation than of ability. “My score was considered great at my school and one of the lowest that I’ve heard here,” he said, adding that he did not have access to SAT tutoring or classes.

Quiet on the green

Despite the perceived ubiquity of wealth, students offered mixed opinions about whether peers’ socioeconomic statuses are truly visible.

Chris Moynihan ’14, whose father is the chief executive officer of a leading U.S. bank and a Corporation trustee, said his upbringing in an monied Massachusetts town makes it difficult not to read into the material indicators of status.

“It’s hard not to come from a society like that and restrain those judgments,” he said.

“It’s not like people are walking around in sneakers, even guys,” said Katharine Grimes ’14.

Nestor Noyola ’14, who said he identifies as lower-class, sees Bear Bucks account balances with an average in the hundreds and up to $5,000 at his job behind the counter at the Campus Market. “It shocks me a little,” he said. “It’s a lot of money ... to just spend on food and snacks.”

Ryan Hoskins ’12.5 said though he hears about students who come

— I’m not like other students.’ She wasn’t very explicit, but she got the point across,” he said.

Grimes cited job opportunities as another subject students sidestep in conversation. “I’ve never heard anyone say they couldn’t do an unpaid internship — I’ve heard them say they want a paid internship,” Grimes said. Whether a person can afford to complete an unpaid internship or needs to earn money over the summer is one way to infer something about a peer’s status, she said.

Yancy Rodriguez ’14 said he is more open about his financial situation when speaking with students who are also on financial aid.

Students who perceive themselves as less wealthy are very hesitant to talk about it, said Alexander Mechanick ’15. “They just want to be like everyone else,” he said.

But some students perceive others as bragging about their financial aid, as if receiving aid is associated with an academic talent.

“It’s odd how some people I hear almost take pride in the amount of aid that they get,” Bentlyewski said, describing the attitude as “My parents don’t make much money ­— I’m here because of me.”

While some students who do not rely on financial aid said they share their status openly, others said they try to keep quiet about their wealth.

“It’s never something I would hide,” said Libby Stein ’15, who does not receive financial aid. “If somebody asked me, I would tell them in a heartbeat.”

But Stephanie Harris ’14 said

“I find myself sometimes questioning this environment where people of so much privilege can interact on this level.”

Bryan Payton ’15

from particularly wealthy backgrounds, he does not think status is obvious.

People can also act in a way that does not reflect their financial realities, Rice said. Regardless of how much money a student has, “if you’re the alpha male, you’ll get up to the bar and act like big moneybags,” he said.

Most students agreed that conversation surrounding socioeconomic class is uncomfortable, especially when brought up with people outside their own statuses.

“When you hear statements like, ‘Some of us actually have to pay for our education, Bryan,’ you think, are you upset because your parents can afford to have a stable life and pay for a Brown education?” said Payton, who receives financial aid. “I find myself sometimes questioning this environment where people of so much privilege can interact on this level.”

Noyola said he has noticed students from lower socioeconomic strata coding their language. “I was just talking to a girl about her plans about spring break, and she just said, ‘Oh, you know, I can’t do that

she thinks privilege comes with discomfort. Some students with more wealth can be made to feel bad for what they have, she said.

“They don’t want to come off as sounding like they’re spoiled or don’t understand having to struggle through life.”

“People who are on the wealthier end don’t want to believe they’re better-off,” Mechanick said.

Fleming said he has seen students treat their wealth in both extremes. Some students are incredibly wealthy and want to be seen as upper-class citizens, he said, while others try to separate themselves from the perception of wealth by pointing out others who are wealthier.

Who’s at the table

A recent Herald poll revealed the student population is split on whether they believe their friends are of their same socioeconomic status. Students who do not receive aid are more likely to say their friend groups include people of different statuses, according to the poll.

“I probably hang out with kids

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whose parents it might take them 30 years to make what my dad would make in two. But it doesn’t affect my relationship with them at all,” said Hoskins, who does not receive financial aid.

The international community is frequently considered to be wealthier due to the University’s need-aware admission policy for internationals, said Darien Rosa ’15. “In terms of socioeconomics, they’re just on a different plane than everyone else, and they end up staying together.”

But what a person can afford to participate in affects their social circle, said Noyola, who receives financial aid. “Because we end up staying on campus, we end up eating on campus, so we end up spending more time together,” he said.

“If I’m a (Resumed Undergraduate Education) student, chances are I’m on financial aid, and if I’m a veteran, chances are I’m on financial aid,” said David Salsone ’12.5, a veteran and a RUE student. “Those are the groups that are going to stick together,” he said.

Students can feel left out or hard-pressed to participate in the activities that seem easily affordable to friends.

Moore said her friends sometimes choose to go out to restaurants out of her price range. While they often choose another place so she can join, sometimes “they’ll say ‘Okay, well we’re still gonna go anyway and you’re just gonna miss out,’” she said.

“On the weekends my friends and I like to go out to eat, and sometimes people are more reticent and like, ‘Oh, I have a meal plan — why would I go out and spend money?’” Stein said.

Meal plans are financial burdens to some. Vanessa FloresMaldonado ’14, a member of the women’s rugby team, had to switch down to Flex 330 from Flex 460 because the price was too high and said she is not satisfied with the number of credits and points the new plan allots her. “Meal plan and I are not best friends right now,” she said.

“Sometimes I feel a little bit cheated,” Rosa said. “Like I could have gotten more food for the same amount of money somewhere else.”

For most, meal plan is the most cost-effective. “I use the Ratty for

all it’s worth whenever I can,” Bentlyewski said.

Living and loving

Freshman year includes a lot of experiences that highlight socioeconomic status, said Clay Thibodeaux, a Meiklejohn and co-founder of Social Classmates, a semester-long workshop that aims to provide a safe space for students to discuss class. When first-year advisers take their groups to the traditional Faculty Club lunch, social class becomes apparent, he said. “You can tell who’s really comfortable with eating out of other people’s paycheck, and people who use the different forks,” he said.

Freshman move-in is a time when there is a lot of consciousness around socioeconomic status because of the types of things people are bringing into their rooms, said Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services. “It’s one of the times when you’re really conscious of whether you’ve entered a world that feels immediately comfortable or one you’re going to have to figure out your place in,” she said.

When Kishan Patel ’15 arrived on campus in the fall, his roommate had already moved a sofa, a plasma TV, a video game console and an air-conditioning unit into their double. Socioeconomic status is “assumed, based on what people bring,” he said.

Even after freshman year, socioeconomic status can play an uncomfortable role in housing.

Noyola said he selected quiet housing to avoid the risk of being placed in on-campus housing with the $1,200 apartment fee in summer assignment. “Most of my friends chose quiet housing with me for the same reason,” he said.

But some students are left out of living with their friends when only some members of a housing group can afford to pay the apartment fee. Hannah Jones ’14 went into the lottery with four friends who all wanted to live in a suite, and the plan was for Jones to find a single away from the group. Her socioeconomic status became more noticeable during the process, she said. “I don’t know if my friends are indicative of Brown, but they’re continued on page 5

Money Matters 5

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Money on the mind in housing, social, extracurricular choices all like, ‘$1,200? Sure, that’s fine — I spent that over spring break,’” she said.

The Office of Residential Life only encounters a few requests for aid in paying the suite fee each year, and these are handled on a case-by-case basis, said Richard Bova, senior associate dean of residential and dining services.

Though many students said they have friends who do not share their status, most said they think people tend to date within their social class.

Moynihan said dating might be the biggest factor he perceives in how socioeconomic status affects relationships at Brown, adding that he typically dates within his socioeconomic class.

Jones is in a relationship with someone of a socioeconomic status higher than hers. “I’m kind of a free spirit hippie, and he’s like the one percent,” she said. Her boyfriend often ends up paying for things she wishes she could pay for herself, which makes her uncomfortable, she said. “Sometimes I wish I was dating someone that’s more on my level,” she added.

Harris, a Minority Peer Counselor, proposed “(S)he’s Out of My League,” a workshop on social class and dating at Brown. Around 20 students attended the workshop in February, she said, adding that there were few participants who identified as wealthy. Most people who had dated outside their socioeconomic class stated it had been a struggle to do so, she said, citing one student’s comment about the difficulty navigating paying for things in his same-sex relationships. “(S)he’s Out of My League” was just one of an increasing number of programs focusing on how students deal with issues surrounding socioeconomic diversity. The workshop Social Classmates has seen 51 total participants over four semesters, Thibodeaux said. The Third World Transition Program, First Generation College Students group and MPC events also provide opportunities for students to engage with these issues.

Work-study

When financial aid and scholarships are not enough to fund tuition, or when students want extra pocket money for personal spending, many seek on-campus employment. Roughly 1,500 students work jobs on campus, said James Tilton, director of financial aid, basing his statistic on the number of students who receive a paycheck through the Office of Student Employment each month.

“People with lower socioeconomic status will just take any job, but other people are more picky,” said Patricia Rojas ’15, who works for Brown University Dining Services to supplement her financial aid package.

“There might be a perception that people join Dining Services because they need money, and it’s not something they really want to do,” said Anthony Calcagni ’13,

BuDS general manager. BuDS currently employs 333 students, he said, adding that most workers continue working for BuDS from semester to semester.

But not all students can find the time for jobs. “I just figured I’d bite the $6,000 bullet for now and figure it out down the road,” said Bentlyewski, who relies heavily on loans for his living expenses.

Pressure to reconcile academics and extracurricular responsibilities with looming financial anxieties can take a serious toll on student life for those who cannot afford not to work.

“Whenever I do take on volunteer opportunities, I’m constantly cognizant of the fact that I could use this time to be making money to help support myself or raising money to help myself in future years when I need it,” said Destin Sisemore ’15. He said his financial situation does not allow him to participate in all the extracurriculars he would like to and that he has to think about which activities he will eventually need to drop in favor of making money.

Benjamins and brotherhood

Greek life often comes up in conversations about wealth and how students spend their time.

Membership in Greek organiza-

expenditure required of members, may contribute to perceptions of wealth, said a Sigma Chi brother who asked to remain anonymous because he did not wish to speak for the fraternity. He drew the comparison between dues and the amount students outside fraternities spend on social activities anyway, but he added that not everyone spends an amount comparable to dues demanded by Greek organizations.

“You want everyone to pay your dues. Otherwise you can’t party and have a good time and buy alcohol and fund events,” Moynihan said. “But at the same time, you can’t just go around calling people saying, ‘You should pay, you need to pay, you need to pay.’ Because some of these kids can’t pay. So we’ve been tiptoeing that line all semester.”

Many students perceive Delta Phi and Sigma Chi as having particularly wealthy members. Sigma Chi brothers pay roughly $1,000 per year in dues, said Peipert, a member of the fraternity. Delta Phi brothers pay around $700 per year, said Rice, a member of the fraternity, adding that the exact amount fluctuates.

Rice described the attitudes surrounding dues within Delta Phi as mostly cavalier. “They just

“You can tell who’s really comfortable with eating out of other people’s paycheck, and people who use the different forks.”

Clay Thibodeaux ’12

tions totals around 400 students, according to the Office of Residential Life’s website, which is less than 10 percent of the undergraduate population. The University is home to six all-male fraternities, two all-female sororities and two co-ed fraternities.

Many students pointed to fraternities, historically bastions of white male privilege, as comprising wealthier students.

Students who paid full tuition for their Brown education might be more willing to spend their time in a fraternity, contributing to Greek life’s reputation for including mostly wealthy students, said Moynihan, who is a member of Delta Tau. “I think the lurking variable there though is that it’s more likely that … if you worked your way in here and were on a financial aid package, then maybe you’d be advised against going into the frats,” Moynihan said.

Rahil Rojiani ’13, president of Phi Kappa Psi, said he thinks most fraternities at Brown can be described as “pretty upper-class, heterosexual, tend to be pretty privileged males,” basing his reasoning on the alcohol budgets and membership dues the brothers in other fraternities pay. In contrast, he said most of his brothers in Phi Psi come from “pretty underprivileged, marginalized backgrounds.”

Dues, as an institutionalized

say, ‘Hey dad, I’m part of DPhi, I need this amount of money right now,’ and they’re like, ‘Okay,’ and send you a check. That’s most of the kids,” he said. But the fraternity does not exclude or penalize brothers and prospective brothers who cannot pay. “They can help you out a little here and there and not make you pay all of it,” he said.

Most fraternities have programs that allow brothers not to pay their dues in full if their financial situation prevents them from doing so.

Phi Psi national — whose dues, Rojiani said, run between $750 and $800 a year — offers its members merit-based scholarships based on essays brothers submit about aspirations for the future, said Pierre Arreola ’13, a member of the fraternity.

Sigma Chi offers formalized financial aid through its alumni association, in which brothers pay dues relative to the financial aid package allotted to them by the University. Twelve out of around 100 Sigma brothers are currently on financial aid, said another member who asked to remain anonymous because he did not wish to speak on behalf of the organization.

The hurdle to access

Athletics can attract students who, without their sports backgrounds, may not have known about or gained admission to

Men’s crew team by high school type Private,

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Tuition > $25,000

Private,

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High School Type

continued from page 4

Private (Other)

2

Public,

2

Exam, magnet or audition

Public (Regular)

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14 0

10

20

30

40

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Percent of team Emily Polk / Herald

Brown, Klawunn said. A recent Herald poll found that athletes and non-athletes are equally likely to be on financial aid, though athletes are more likely to take out loans.

“Athletics is kind of like a great equalizer,” said wrestler Teodoro Popolizio ’12.

“There are people on the team who wouldn’t be in college if it wasn’t for wrestling,” Popolizio said, adding that most of the wrestlers at Brown come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. “That blue-collar attitude that wrestlers have is really special.”

But athletes also feel the effects of class disparity. Since the University does not offer athletic scholarships, athletes at Brown participate out of passion, not because they needed a scholarship to get here, Popolizio said.

Brown struggles to recruit middle-class athletes who cannot afford the amount of tuition not covered by financial aid, The Herald reported last April.

Many students pointed to specific sports teams as disproportionately wealthy, since certain sports are more frequently offered at private schools or clubs and therefore draw a more privileged demographic.

Fleming, a co-captain of the crew team, noted that several Ivy League crew teams would fit the sport’s elitist stereotype — “Where’s the money at? Right there,” he said. “But that’s not the Brown crew team.” Forty-six percent of the current crew team attended private schools with a tuition over $25,000, while 33 percent attended public school. These calculations do not take into account scholarships students might have received at their high schools.

People on the ice hockey team tend to be wealthier than those in other sports, said Aubree Moore ’14, a member of the women’s ice hockey team. “The equipment is so expensive and just to be able to afford that, you have to be able at least in the upper- or middle-end the spectrum,” she said, adding that she thinks the socioeconomic diversity of the hockey team might be slowly increasing. Sixty-three percent of the current women’s hockey team attended private

school before coming to Brown.

“Unfortunately, one of the best ways to be good at golf is to play a lot of golf, and if your parents are footing the bill for a private country club where you can play unlimitedly, you get a lot better,” said Hoskins, a member of the golf team. Out of the seven members on the men’s golf team, five attended private school.

Football, by contrast, is a more accessible sport that is offered at most high schools, said Donald Sproal ’14. Fourteen percent of the current football team attended private schools with tuition over $25,000, while 54 percent attended public school.

The University’s recruitment methods have also shifted to attempt to alleviate this problem.

Ten years ago, recruiters would find athletes from specific schools, said Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger. “In the past, where let’s say Harvard would go to (Phillips Academy) Andover and get the captain of their swim team, it tends not to work that way anymore,” he said. Instead, he said, camps and clubs have served as the focal point in recent years.

But recruiting out of camps and clubs players pay to participate in comes with its own selection problems. More and more high school lacrosse players have been joining club teams in the last decade, said Keely McDonald ’00, head coach for women’s lacrosse. “At this point, kids are basically paying for exposure,” she said.

Tensions surrounding class do not disappear when students leave College Hill. Graduation presents a looming obstacle: finding a job, a search that some worry places connections and credentials on equal footing. Many will strive to pay back loans and cope with the demand to achieve greater financial self-sufficiency as socioeconomic concerns persist, just on a larger playing field. The fourth and final part of The Herald’s series will discuss how class and privilege affect life after Brown.

— With additional reporting by David Chung, Elizabeth Koh, Kate Nussenbaum, Alison Silver and Kat Thornton

6 Campus News

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 25, 2012

BodyRox wins entrepreneurship competition

furry friends

By Lucas Morduchowicz Contributing Writer

Rachel Kaplan / Herald

Students flocked to the Main Green yesterday for the ever popular Heavy Petting.

BodyRox, a dance party fitness program, took home first place at Brown Entrepreneurship Program’s 15th Annual Startup Competition April 14. The BodyRox team won $12,000 and a number of in-kind services such as free meetings with lawyers, designers, venture capitalists and other professionals useful to startups.

Second place went to the Fund for America team, which won $5,000 and in-kind services, and third went to the NBA Math Hoops team, which won $3,000 and in-kind services.

A panel of judges made up of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and other experts from the Entrepreneurship Program’s wide alumni network and advisory board chose the winners from a pool of 24 applicants. In the first round, contestants submitted a three to five page summary of their business along with a PowerPoint presentation. From there, 10 finalists prepared an in-depth eight-minute pitch followed by a five-minute question and answer session.

The prize money is all raised by students, said Elizabeth Weber ’14, co-president of the Entrepreneurship Program. Members of the group reached out to over 600 alums as well as their advisory board to ask for donations. Though the contest has been called the 50K Startup Competition, this year there were $20,000 in cash prizes and $50,000 worth of

in-kind services at stake. Though the cash was given out in proportion to placement in the contest, the in-kind prizes were more equally distributed, according to Weber.

The winners are already using these prizes to help expand their businesses. Khalil Fuller ’14, chief executive officer of NBA Math Hoops, a nonprofit that develops math-based, sports board games, said he plans to use the money to help his business expand into 500 classrooms across the nation. Fund for America, the second place winner, is developing a crowd-funding model to enable anyone to fund startups, not just venture capitalists or qualified investors.

“The judging criteria simply put is about half size of opportunity and half likelihood to succeed, though a small portion is based on audience vote,” Weber said. Size of opportunity is the magnitude of the issue tackled by the venture and how well their solution fits the problem, according to the group’s website. The creation of the criteria, spearheaded by Joseph Hong ’15, included input from several alumni venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, members of the Entrepreneurship Program advisory board and written sources, such as books and articles about similar competitions.

A robust judging criterion was useful this year because this round of presenters was particularly impressive, Weber said. “Many of the judges and alumni said the group of

presenters, regardless of who won, were the most impressive that they had seen in many years.”

“The competition was tough,” said Sadie Kurzban ’12 of the BodyRox team. “The other teams were really prepared, and there were some great ideas out there. We felt very fortunate to win.” Another aspect of the competition that was better than previous years was attendance. About 125 people came to the competition, making this year one of the best attended contests yet. Weber was particularly pleased with the number of students who came to see the pitches and support their friends.

Though this year’s competition was a great success for the Entrepreneurship Program, the organization is already looking ahead to see what they can improve for next year’s competition. Weber and others at the program are looking to increase the size of the prizes in order to better compete with other startup competitions around the country, as well as work more on the criteria to give a better chance to companies that are still in the initial stages of their development.

Weber sees the increase in attendance and the greater caliber of the contestants this year as signs of a growing entrepreneurial community at the University and hopes that the Entrepreneurship Program can become more institutionalized by acquiring more faculty, space and presence on campus.

Campus News 7

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 25, 2012

U. offers unnamed candidate directorship of diversity office

By Ria Mirchandani Contributing Writer

The University has extended an offer to a candidate for the permanent position of director of the Office of Institutional Diversity, said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15.

The director bears the responsibility of ensuring that Brown continues to promote diversity on campus through faculty, students and staff, he said.

Professor of Anthropology Lina Fruzzetti became the interim director last fall following the departure of director Valerie Wilson, and a search committee was appointed to find a permanent director. The committee was chaired by Lundy Braun, professor of medical science, and included faculty, undergraduates and graduate students.

Schlissel originally told The Herald last fall that he hoped the position would be filled by January, but the process — organizing

a committee, interviewing candidates and deliberating — took time, he said.

“We needed to make sure we had a strong pool of candidates,” said Mary Grace Almandrez, director of the Third World Center and a member of the search committee. “There has been a lot of transition in general with senior leadership (at the University). We wanted to make sure we were thoughtful, gaining broad endorsement for candidates.”

The committee received almost 70 applications for the position, which was advertised broadly through the University’s networks, wrote Deputy Provost Joseph Meisel in an email to The Herald. The committee made recommendations to Schlissel and President Ruth Simmons last month, bringing its formal duties to an end, Almandrez said.

The top candidates were brought to campus and interviewed by senior leadership, in-

cluding Schlissel, who is currently at the stage of extending an offer.

“I’ve made a selection of the best qualified person, and I’m in the process of convincing them to join us,” Schlissel said.

The committee looked for candidates with experience in promoting a diverse university environment, he said, adding that they sought candidates who had university experience and expertise in writing grant proposals to help attract resources for various projects.

“We wanted to make sure candidates had experience recruiting and retaining faculty of color, as this is a high priority for the University,” Almandrez said. “We wanted someone who could build bridges across campus and departments and could help diversify our faculty in different ways.”

Having someone who understood Brown’s culture and who related well to faculty, students and staff were also important consider-

ations for the search committee.

The new director will face many challenges upon entering office.

“We have not done an adequate job making sure Brown’s faculty is as diverse as our society. We need to promote a learning environment where students can learn from many different points of view,” said Schlissel, who believes the biggest challenge for the new officer will be working with the administration to recruit diverse faculty. Almandrez said diversifying faculty is a national challenge.

“From the standpoint of the (Diversity Advisory Board), I expect the new (director) to provide leadership for long-range planning and an increase in (the board’s) involvement in University affairs relating to diversity,” said Anita Zimmerman, professor of medical science and vice chair of the advisory board. “The (board) gradually has been taking a more active role, and this

growth is expected to continue with leadership of the new OID director.” She said integrating different University efforts that focus on various aspects of diversity into a more cohesive approach will be one of the major challenges for the new director.

Almandrez said she will support the new officer fully in her capacity as director of the Third World Center, recognizing the work at hand is important and challenging. “There is some excitement in seeing someone step in full time,” she said.

President Ruth Simmons established the Office of Institutional Diversity in 2003 to create initiatives that enhance campus diversity. Some of the office’s most recent publications include a report on plans to increase women and minority presence through hiring decisions and a plan for extending outreach to disabled individuals and veterans, according to the office’s website.

Admins discuss Swearer Center, PAE progress at BUCC meeting

By MARK RAYMOND Senior Staff Writer

At its monthly meeting yesterday, the Brown University Community Council discussed the status of the Swearer Center for Public Service as well as the Plan for Academic Enrichment and reflected on the progress that has been made under President Ruth Simmons.

Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron gave a presentation about the future of the Swearer Center on behalf of Roger Nozaki MAT’89, the center’s director and associate dean of the College for community and global engagement. The presentation touched upon ways the center’s goals coincide with Brown’s mission, as well as goals for the center going forward.

“Universities are in a position to offer a wide range of solutions to social problems,” Bergeron said.

“Fostering this kind of engagement has never been more important than it is today.”

She highlighted the New Curriculum’s emphasis on community engagement and said students have embraced service through projects such as A Better World by Design, emPOWER and Education Without Borders.

Bergeron’s presentation also cited the University’s emphasis on “usefulness and reputation,” as mentioned in the University’s charter, and said this description is still central to defining a student’s role at Brown.

The presentation boasted the Swearer Center’s success in establishing 4,000 partnerships across the state.

Going forward, the center’s goals are to “strengthen and sustain long-term community partnerships, enhance curricular integration and research, advance University impact and build assessment capacity,” according to Bergeron’s presentation.

Ralanda Nelson ’12, president

of the Undergraduate Council of Students and member of the council, asked Bergeron whether the University is considering making service a requirement for undergraduates.

Bergeron said the University is not specifically planning any such measure, but stated her support for faculty encouragement of students to engage with the community through research and teaching. She cited a chemistry student working with a professor to construct syllabi for a local high school class as an example.

Following Bergeron’s presentation, Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior advisor to the president, delivered what he described as a retrospective on the Plan for Academic Enrichment.

The plan was initiated by both Spies and Simmons in February 2002 when Spies presented an eight-slide PowerPoint to the Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, detailing the University’s most pressing needs.

This outline later became the Plan for Academic Enrichment, which the Corporation approved in February 2004.

“The plan has really been a tremendous asset for us,” Simmons said.

But the plan was not always seen in such a positive light, according to Simmons. She said upon first presenting the plan to faculty, she was told by one faculty member that he did not believe a

word she was saying.

The difficulty in executing such a bold plan was the root of this skepticism, Simmons said. She said past plans had not fully come to fruition and that a sense of urgency was needed for the new plan to be successful.

Spies detailed the challenges the University faced when Simmons’ tenure began, which included a need for more faculty, a need-blind admissions process and increased support for graduate students.

“In 2001, Brown was a little bit stalled,” he said. “We were not as strong as we could be.”

Since the plan was approved in 2004, the University’s faculty has expanded, and graduate stipends have increased to be competitive with those at peer institutions, according to Spies.

The plan succeeded because it “addressed real issues with real resources in real time,” he said.

It was able to evolve as new challenges were presented, and it was aspirational in its nature.

Simmons said the University still faces challenges going forward but said the Plan for Academic Enrichment put in place a groundwork for the University that was not there when she came into office.

“There are many unmet needs, and there are many insufficiently funded items,” she said, adding that she hopes funds in the coming years can be directed towards strengthening existing programs

rather than simply investing in essentials such as faculty and infrastructure.

Simmons added that she believes the University can continue tapping into an “aspirational fervor” amongst alums and the Brown

community to continue making progress.

“Brown is a unique kind of place where people believe in its mission and believe it’s possible to do extraordinary things here,” she said.

8 City & State

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Two city committees approve freezing COLAs for retirees

By Sona mkrttchian Senior Staff Writer

Following Providence Mayor Angel Taveras’ proposed budget address Monday, two city council committees — the subcommittee on pension sustainability and the ordinance committee — unanimously recommended that the city council pass Taveras’ Providence Pension Protection Plan, which would suspend cost-of-living increases for all city retirees. The council is set to vote on the measure tomorrow night.

The plan would save $16 million in the next fiscal year, according to a press release from the mayor’s office. The savings from the measure are already incorporated into the proposed budget, which would reduce the city’s operating budget by almost $3 million, Taveras said at the address Monday.

The plan would incorporate a freeze on all COLAs for city retirees until the system is at least 70 percent funded. The current system is only funded at 32 percent, the Providence Journal reported yesterday.

The suspension would reduce the

city’s unfunded pension liability by more than $236 million, according to the Taveras administration.

“Our pension system is unsustainable and blocking our path to progress,” Taveras said in the press release.

Taveras’ plan also includes a measure to cap pensions at one and half times the average Rhode Island household income and a new mandate requiring workers to contribute to their pensions yearly until they choose to retire, the ProJo reported.

Paul Doughty, president of the Local 799, a chapter of the Inter-

national Firefighter’s Union, said he was astonished by how quickly the council is pushing the measure forward.

While the media has spotlighted the few high pensions that the city awards some retirees, Doughty said the average annual pension is around $25,000. He added that these families are especially dependent on the COLAs. “I will readily admit that the top tier needs to be addressed, but this is not a one-size-fits-all solution,” Doughty said. “I think we’re running headfirst into a disaster.”

The unions have been attempting to negotiate with the city on the issue but “the city is not giving us the chance (to negotiate).” Doughty said he wants to see a plan where retirees receiving the lowest pensions are able to maintain their COLAs. But if the current plan is passed Thursday, the unions will inevitably bring the city to court, Doughty said. “If (the plan) is overturned in court, it would almost guarantee the city is pushed into bankruptcy.”

Members of the city council were unavailable to comment on the issue.

Experts discuss solutions to R.I. homelessness

By Eunice Kim Contributing Writer

Experts from a variety of fields came together yesterday to discuss solutions to the problem of homelessness in Rhode Island.

University faculty, policymakers, community advocates and homelessness service providers participated in the event — a “Roundtable Luncheon on Research, Housing Policy and Homelessness in Rhode Island” — held at the Faculty Club.

On any given night, over 1,100 Rhode Islanders are homeless, according to the Rhode Island Housing Resources Commission. “The

goal is to make Rhode Island the first state to finish homelessness,” said Benjamin Eichert, coordinator of the event, eliciting loud applause among the guests.

The roundtable event was organized to provide a space for experts working in different areas to share their ideas and knowledge and to take the first steps toward collaboration, Eichert told The Herald.

The main event of the luncheon was a presentation of a new strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness, called Opening Doors Rhode Island.

The challenges Rhode Island

faces are the state’s poverty rate and its rent burden rate — ­ both the highest in New England — as well as national budget cuts on programs such as Community Development Block Grants, which give communities the resources to tackle issues they encounter.

But Opening Doors Rhode Island suggests that homelessness is solvable and preventable.

The current approach to solving homelessness, which focuses on putting people into shelters and transitional housing, is inefficient and overly costly because the cost actually surpasses the cost of putting people into apartments, said

Eric Hirsch, professor of sociology at Providence College.

Homelessness can be solved through providing immediate rehousing to people without homes and short-term help on rent or mortgage, Hirsch said. Statistics show that this strategy is less costly than putting the homeless into shelters, he said.

Hirsch also suggested that having job opportunities, job training and access to welfare programs will help prevent homelessness.

The plan also emphasizes the need to improve health and housing stability and increase access to stable and affordable housing,

economic security and civic collaboration.

Opportunities for receiving funding and support for homelessness-related research were later discussed by Vice President for Research Clyde Briant. Eichert said this demonstrates the University’s willingness to adjust its priorities as a research institution to meet community needs.

The roundtable event was sponsored by the Office of the President, the Swearer Center for Public Service and Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, a student group that addresses homelessness in Rhode Island.

City & State 9

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Occupiers march for tax hikes on rich Tour reveals Ratty’s efforts to reduce waste

By Elizabeth Koh Senior Staff Writer

continued from page 12 the quality is like in some butcher’s shop in Kansas City,” he said.

“This way I’ve seen it, stamped it, cut it — I can account for that meat until you get it yourself.”

Jonathan Sit ’15 said he was impressed the Ratty had its own butcher shop, but in the end he said he does not care where his meat comes from. “I mean, if you eat Burger King, you already have pretty low standards,” he said.

Most of the rest of the cooking happens in a central area filled with large machines for cooking food in bulk. Barboza pointed out nine steamers, eight convection ovens, one combination oven, eight 60-gallon steam kettles, one 100-gallon steam kettle, one tilt skillet and six frialators. “(The frialators) are for the chicken fingers,” Barboza said.

Serving and Disposal

Barboza said food is “cooked progressively” throughout the day.

Barboza referred to the central area of the Ratty as the “core,” which he further divided into the “inner core” and the “outer core.” Much like the refrigerators on the kitchen level, a series of hollow cabinets divide the inner core from the outer core, so that food can be put in at one end and taken out to serve at the other.

Barboza said extra trays of food are kept in the cabinets, which can act as either refrigerators or warmers.

Barboza said the kitchen tries to cook just enough food for each day. “It’s a good day when there are only a couple of potatoes left,” he said. By using statistical information gathered through card-swipes, he said they were able to predict with some accuracy how much food they need throughout a day.

Of the food that is thrown away, Barboza said most of it ends up as compost or is fed to the pigs at Two Village Farm. But he said sometimes plastic trash ends up in the food waste bin, which forces Dining Services to dispose the entire bag, as Two Village Farm won’t accept it. He pointed out that the food waste bags are transparent so they can be inspected for contamination.

Dave Thomas ’15 said he is usually careful to separate his trash properly, as he knows that food waste goes to a pig farm.

But he feels Dining Services does not make it clear enough how easy it is to contaminate the food waste bin.

“They should put up a sign, saying that if you put one piece of trash in there they can’t use it,” he said.

Even the food left on dirty plates is scraped off and made into compost after the plates are taken downstairs to the dishwashing line. As they are scraped clean, the food slides down a groove into a Somat machine,

which grinds the food and any paper waste into small bits, Barboza said. Though Dining Services currently hasn’t found anyone to buy this compost, Barboza said they are still looking.

Lillian Mirviss ’12, another sustainability intern for Dining Services, said composting is difficult in Providence. “It’s challenging to start our own (compost) network here because of the many barriers the city provides.”

But she said measures to decrease food waste in the first place — such as the switch to tray-less dining made in 2008 — have been very successful. According to the Dining Services website, tray-less dining usually reduces food waste by over 25 percent.

Barboza said if the kitchen makes too much food one day, the food that can be served later is stored. The food that will not last is put into a small, conventional refrigerator in the receiving bay. The food then goes to a charity called “We Share Hope” in Warren, R.I., which provides food to other organizations feeding the poor and homeless, Barboza said.

The tour concluded near the offices of Dining Services where pictures of the Ratty from the 1950s — the dining hall’s early years — line the walls. In one of them, groups of eight men sit at tables waiting patiently for their food to be brought to them. Waiters stand patiently, ready to serve the students once their food is ready. But waiters have not served food in the Ratty since 1966, Barboza said.

“The tables haven’t changed,” he said. “But we do things very differently now.”

About 10 members of Occupy Providence dressed in Robin Hood hats and tunics marched to the Rhode Island State House yesterday afternoon, joining a crowd of more than 80 who attended the House Finance Committee’s hearing on five bills that would raise taxes on the top 1 or 2 percent of earners in the state.

Members of Occupy Providence gathered to support the proposed tax increases, but many do not expect the bills to pass.

Richard Robison, a former social worker from Cranston, felt pessimistic about the bills’ chances of success.

“I think it has a chance, but I wouldn’t bet on it,” he said.

“There’s still so much to fight,” Occupier Mariah Burns said. “Today I just want to accomplish a little annoyance.”

“I like to do this,” Burns said, demonstrating her outstretched middle finger. “It’s better than sitting at home and not doing anything.”

Burns, from South Providence, said she feels jaded about changing anything politically. “(The bills) are not going to pass,” she said. “I wish they would. The least we can do is

just go in and tell them how we feel.”

Before the meeting began, the committee voted unanimously to hold all bills for further study. The collection of five bills prompted eight pages’ worth of witnesses who signed up to speak, not all of whom could give testimony.

“We were reducing taxes on the people that could afford to pay them, and we were placing that burden on the people we represent,” said state Rep. Scott Guthrie, DCoventry, co-sponsor on each of the bills, about state tax breaks that were passed in 2010. “We were led to believe if we don’t give breaks for the people that make the most money, the job creators, they’re going to leave.”

“The only people that are leaving Rhode Island are the people that are on fixed income, because they can no longer afford to live here,” he said, prompting audience members to hold up signs proclaiming, “Where are the jobs?” and “If tax cuts worked, Rhode Islanders would be working!”

“The lowest 20 percent of earners in our state pay about 11.9 percent of their income in taxes while the top 1 percent pay just 5.6 percent of their income in taxes,” said state Rep. Maria Cimini, DProvidence, co-sponsor of all five

bills, prompting slight gasps and boos from the audience. “We must raise revenue in a fair way.”

Occupy member Randall Rose said the bills attempt to solve a longstanding problem.

“Nobody thinks that we’re doing better now than 16 years ago,” he said. “Everyone agrees the economy is doing much worse.”

Rose attacked the argument that tax breaks would make Rhode Island more competitive.

Cutting taxes “makes (Rhode Island) a place where people don’t want to be,” he said. “That’s the real effect of cutting taxes — it harms our reputation.” He said people from other states think only of bankruptcy when they think of Rhode Island.

Rose also attacked the committee’s decision to hold the bills for further study. “It’s never going to leave the floor, and that’s just what happens to these tax bills all the time.”

But Rose said he expected change to be a long-term process.

“I didn’t come there expecting to change the committee’s mind,” Rose said. “I just came in there to show partly the politicians but also people in general that Occupy Providence realizes that there’s a lot of problems with the system.”

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

10 Editorial Editorial

A legacy deferred?

Her face adorns many of our t-shirts, and her strong but soft voice is instantly recognizable. She is an icon to Brown students, just like Gail is to Sharpe Refectory-goers and Loui’s is to insomniacs. President Ruth Simmons — or just “Ruth” to many — has had a pioneering tenure as the leader of Brown. Simmons has made great strides during her 11 years here, spearheading improvements in Brown’s physical and human capital.

However, there is still one obstacle to overcome before Simmons cedes her University Hall office to President-elect Christina Paxson.

In 2003, President Simmons created a steering committee dedicated to researching Brown’s historic association with slavery. In 2006, a report by the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice recommended that a center for research be instituted. Whether motivated by personal or academic passion, Simmons, along with the 17 members of the committee, has spent the past six years trying to bring this idea to fruition.

The biggest obstacle thus far has been the search for a director of the center. Over the past couple of years, several worthy candidates have either declined their offers or have been rejected. Thankfully, as The Herald reported last week, Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 has said he hopes a director will be appointed by the end of the semester. The establishment of this center will not only provide a perfect capstone to Simmons’ time as president, but its creation will ensure that even as Brown looks ever forward to the future, it remains able to learn from its past.

We hope that once a director is appointed, he or she will move forward to implement many of the other unfulfilled recommendations of the Committee on Slavery and Justice. Slavery’s implications and repercussions have not completely faded, even at Brown, which is why it is so crucial for the University to investigate and recognize its role in the slave trade. Racial awareness can be increasingly realized by implementing the committee’s proposal to develop classes that analyze racial issues.

Similarly, a renewed commitment to soliciting donations for the Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence — another committee proposal languishing too near to the bottom of the University’s priority list — could not only help remedy tensions between Brown and Providence, but also offer a strong recognition of the lasting legacy of slavery and discrimination on students today.

Brown is an institution that prides itself on its diversity, but it still struggles to realize the full promise of this diversity. And the racial and socioeconomic divisions on campus — never explicit but too often present nonetheless — have tragically deep historical roots. The center’s completion will allow the University to genuinely back up its commitment to awareness and sensitivity of these issues. We can be the groundbreaking institution dedicated to confronting head-on one of the most reprehensible aspects of our country’s past.

The establishment of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and officially naming a director may well be some of Simmons’s final acts as president. And, for a sharecropper’s daughter who became the first black president of an Ivy League school, it would be a fitting end to publicly recognize the institution that made her life story so tragically uncommon.

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

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Editorial cartoon

by s a m r o s e n f e l d

Tomorrow’s paper is the last issue of the semester.

Check www.browndailyherald.com for web updates over the summer. Thanks for reading!

quote of the day

“People who are on the wealthier end don’t want to believe they’re better off.”— Alexander Mechanick ‘15 See socioeconomic on page 1.

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

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Corrections A bar graph in Tuesday’s Herald (“Relative to peers, U.’s financial aid lags behind,” April 24) incorrectly stated that it documented the percentage of students that received financial aid in 2010-11. In fact, the numbers were from the 2011-12 academic year. The Herald regrets the error.

An article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Bill hopes to draw filmmakers to R.I.,” April 24) incorrectly reported that the budget for film tax credits would increase from $1.5 million to $4 million. In fact, the bill would increase the budget from $15 million to $40 million. The Herald regrets the error.

An article in a mid-April’s Herald (“Museum director promotes collaboration,” April 13) incorrectly stated that the Canada Science and Technology Museum is located in Toronto. In fact, it is in Ottawa, Ontario. The Herald regrets the error.

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

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

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Opinions 11

The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Fighting the good fight Jared Moffat Opinions Editor

May 1 is May Day, International Workers’ Day. You might already know that there will be a march next Tuesday in Providence as well as a teach-in here at Brown this Friday in solidarity with workers, immigrants and the 99 percent. I hope to see an encouraging turnout, but realistically I expect that fewer Brown students will show up to these two events than the several thousand that showed up on the Main Green for the 4/20 smokefest.

Last semester, when the Occupy Wall Street movement was a trendy concept, most students were distantly supportive, watching with hopeful curiosity. I got the sense that most felt that public outcry and civil disobedience were not only understandable but imperative. Yet by January, about the time the mainstream media stopped talking about it, Brown students had moved on from the Occupy fad.

Many folks had problems with Occupy from the beginning, but, by now, we’ve all come up with rationalizations for our nonparticipation: “They’re approaching the problem the wrong way,” “They’re too disorganized” or “Why don’t they do something besides hold signs?” For one reason or another, the movement of the 99 percent apparently isn’t relevant or intelligent enough

for the average Brown student.

Don’t get the wrong impression — I’m critical of the Occupy movement, too. For one, I completely disagree with its ostensible commitment to being leaderless. But supporting Occupy isn’t about agreeing on what’s right or how society ought to be restructured — it’s fundamentally about bringing attention to what’s wrong with the status quo. Homelessness, classism, sexism, student debt, bank bailouts, the prison population, racism, foreign wars, public education, envi-

done then, right?

Tobias’ sentiment captures the sort of hand-waving we do to defend ourselves from our moral conscience. We all know that the “Buffett Tax” — as the Republicans call it — is essentially an empty gesture, since it will do virtually nothing to mitigate the horrifying levels of social and economic inequality in this country. It won’t stop the wealthy from moving their money into capital markets or offshore investments, where they can insulate their money from these pesky tax-

Last semester, when the Occupy Wall Street movement was a trendy concept, most students were distantly supportive, watching with hopeful curiosity. ronmental destruction, the drug war, veterans welfare, tax reform, the loss of civil liberties and the list goes on — these are massive issues that deserve vastly more attention than they currently receive, and they lie at the core of the Occupy movement.

Ethan Tobias ’12 (“Too busy to care?”

April 23) tries to argue that Brown’s apparent apathy for the Occupy movement reflects the fact that many political issues are complex and ambiguous or are already on their way to being solved. As he points out with economic issues, “the top Democratic leadership has heard the call and is now pushing for the ‘Buffett Rule’ to increase taxes on the highest earners.”

Well that’s wonderful — the Democrats will save the day. I guess our work here is

es. It won’t stop home evictions. It won’t stop public schools from closing.

The truth is that the “Buffett Tax” is nothing but a populist campaign ploy. That Tobias thinks this is a justification for turning our backs on the Occupy movement is evidence that we’re doing mental gymnastics to avoid the sting of guilt and responsibility. What we need and must demand is a serious — perhaps uncomfortable — conversation about the values and vision of this country. That’s why people are taking to the streets, to speak for the suffering and demand that we have this conversation.

For the most part, the Brown community does a terrific job of making us aware of our privilege in society. But I want to challenge us to think about our privilege a little differ-

ently. Most of the time, we acknowledge our privilege only in order to qualify our opinions and contextualize our point of view.

When I reflect on how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to study here and to be of a privileged race, gender and economic status, I often feel undeserving — why is my life and my education more valuable than the billions of other people in the world?

I hope that we can move beyond feeling guilty and helpless. You will all remember that great line from Spider-Man: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Used virtuously, our privilege can inspire and generate hope. I say we celebrate and embrace our responsibility to make the world a better place.

Maybe camping outside in public spaces isn’t your scene — you can still support the essential revolutionary spirit. I challenge the Brown community — if you think the Occupy movement is inept and ill-equipped, when can we try out your solutions?

No doubt the grave problems facing our society are tough and complex. But Brown is a bastion of forward-thinking intellectuals, artists, leaders and scientists — who are we to back away from a challenge? I say we use our privilege and influence to put the future on a sustainable and dignified trajectory.

Come be a body in the march this Tuesday. Stand in solidarity with the oppressed and show the people of Providence, and the world, that Brown cares.

Jared Moffat ’13 is from Jackson, Miss.

He can be reached at jared_moffat@brown.edu.

When political nuance falls on deaf ears

By Shawn Patterson Guest Columnist

The Brown Democrats would like to respond to a column by Matt Brundage ’15 concerning our recent meeting with Mayor Angel Taveras (“Holding the Brown Democrats accountable,” April 17).

Unfortunately, we have to begin with a quick lesson on tax policy. Municipal governments control property tax, while state governments set sales taxes and other fees, and the federal government legislates income tax rates. Property tax is a particularly regressive tax. People of lower economic means have a higher proportion of their wealth tied to real estate, namely their homes. State tax increases can be structured more progressively so that those who can contribute more do, but this is an issue to bring up with state elected officials, not the Mayor, as Brundage implied in his article.

We need to start with the main factual inaccuracy within Brundage’s article. Two Brown Democrats did, in fact, speak up in contention with the points raised by the mayor. Vice President Taylor Daily ’13 questioned why Brown was being asked to contribute a disproportionate amount of this potential new revenue. College Democrats of Rhode Island President Jesse Towsen ’12 asked whether the mayor’s framing the debate around an issue of fairness was creating a wedge between the University and the city.

To describe the event as riddled with “ami-

ability” is misleading and inaccurate.

Taveras understands the financial plight of the city better than anyone. By raising property taxes you hurt those who are already hurting. Liberal Democrats elected him mayor not because he “would dramatically cut funding for public schools, fire all teachers in the area … and refuse to increase taxes on its more affluent constituents,” as Brundage suggests in his piece, but because he was an individual we knew would make the hard decisions to prevent the city from going bankrupt. Taveras and the Brown Democrats have worked to increase the University’s payments

question what “qualifies him as a Democrat.”

Brundage argues for increasing property taxes on the more affluent members of the city. I see no more affluent entity in Providence than Brown. The mayor is asking more of those who can afford it. Brundage rightly calls on us to demand higher taxes, but he misdirects his concern toward the mayor’s policies. The mayor and the Brown Democrats are seeking increased revenue to avoid further cuts to public services. We are just pursuing less regressive means of achieving them through statewide reforms that can alleviate municipalities across the state from

By painting the members of the Brown Democrats as self-interested, internship-seeking, controversyshirkers Brundage does a disservice to the countless hours of hard work this organization has poured behind progressive issues. to the city, adjust state funding toward the cities and cut costs where possible.

At the municipal level, I understand that the mayor cannot wait for state aid that might never come. He has two options: ask for greater payments in lieu of taxes from nonprofits or begin dramatically cutting public services. We as an organization have thought long and hard about the issues facing the city, and we understand how to change the status quo. We do not, however, believe that putting political officials on the defensive is a fruitful strategy, nor do we believe that the mayor’s position on this issue should cause one to

having to make future harsh cuts in health services and education. If Brundage is not referring to large nonprofits when he talks about affluent members, he should be reminded that the mayor’s authority ends at the city’s limits. Besides the tiny pockets of affluence on the East Side, I am unaware of what untapped revenue he could be referring to.

With those points made, I feel compelled to address the hints of hypocrisy contained in Brundage’s piece. Asking why a group failed to criticize a policy that you consider too conservative — a point we as an organization would contest — that you yourself were un-

willing to criticize is duplicitous at best. Our meetings have always been completely open to the public. Anyone who comes with a concern is willing and able to bring them to the attention of our speakers and our executive board. In this instance, however, the members acknowledged that the mayor’s plan was a legitimate proposal making the best of a terrible situation.

Brundage argued that the Brown Democrats need to be held accountable. I find it difficult to see any way in which this organization is not. Our meetings are open to the entire student body, regardless of political affiliation. Every student who attends is given full voting rights in elections, endorsements and policy decisions.

By painting the members of the Brown Democrats as self-interested internship-seeking controversy-shirkers, Brundage does a disservice to the countless hours of hard work this organization has poured behind progressive issues such as marriage equality, environmental protection and yes, a fair tax policy.

We have spent enough time involved in the political process to know that elected officials are not childish enough to consider spirited debate a sign of disrespect. Brown Democrats have turned down jobs running campaigns and interest groups because they conflicted with our principles — any accusation against these principles is simply wrong.

Our meetings continue to be open to the public.

Shawn Patterson ’12 is president emeritus of the Brown Democrats and enjoys baking. He can be reached at shawnpattersonjr@gmail.com.

Daily Herald Features the Brown

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Ratty tour tracks food’s journey from delivery to disposal By sinclair target Staff Writer

Down in the dimly-lit basement of the Sharpe Refectory, somewhere roughly two stories below the salad bar, Joe Barboza, facilities manager for Dining Services, points to a stack of white boxes piled up almost to the ceiling.

“This is this week’s supply of French fries,” he said. “You guys consume a lot of food.”

The Ratty serves thousands of Brunonians each day. About 123 people work there full-time, Barboza said, along with 300 or so part-time student employees.

Work starts at 4 a.m. and continues until late at night. Barboza offered The Herald a tour of the Ratty’s three levels — the basement, where food is stored, the kitchen level, where it is prepared and finally, the dining hall, where it is served.

Delivery

Food arrives at the Ratty from across the country. The receiving bay opens out onto Thayer Street and is connected directly to the kitchen. Deliveries begin at 6:30 a.m. and continue until noon, Barboza said.

Though some of the food comes from places such as Pennsylvania and Vermont, Dining Services is committed to buying

from local, fair-trade producers whenever it can. Anna Rotman ’14, a Dining Services sustainability intern, said currently 36 percent of the food Dining Services buys meets or partly meets criteria set by the “Real Food” initiative. “Real” food is food that is local, fair, ecologically sound and humane, she said.

Once it has arrived, the food is unloaded by a team of four — a lead receiver and three helpers, Barboza said. Dried and canned food is then brought downstairs to the basement via a large elevator in the receiving bay, while fruits, vegetables and perishables go straight into refrigerators on the kitchen level.

At one end of the basement there are two large walk-in freezers, which Barboza said were “probably larger than the square footage of your house.” In another corner is a fenced-off space full of shelves that Barboza called the “spice cage.”

A series of compressors also hum away in the darkness, chilling the 11 smaller refrigerators upstairs. Barboza said the compressors were once cooled with water that was then flushed straight into Narragansett Bay. But a year and a half ago, the Ratty was equipped with a new system that pumps the water up to a pool on the roof where it los-

Lydia Yamaguchi / Herald

At the Ratty, food is prepared in the kitchen, located directly beneath the main dining hall, throughout the day.

es heat and is then reused in the compressors. Barboza said that after Dining Services installed the new system, annual water usage fell by 16 million gallons.

“It has saved the University thousands of dollars,” Barboza said.

Up on the kitchen level, the refrigerators that store perishables resemble long hallways between the receiving bay and the kitchen. Barboza explained they are shaped this way because they function on a “first in, first out” rule. Deliveries come in at one end of the refrigerator and slowly move toward the other end as the

older food ahead of it gets used first, so that food doesn’t go bad before it is served, he said.

Preparation

The kitchen takes up the majority of the space immediately below the dining hall and is divided into several different areas.

Each morning cooks are given a production task based on their culinary skills, Barboza said.

The first to arrive each morning are the bakers, Barboza said, who start work at 4 a.m. They make all the bread, cookies and desserts served not only in the Ratty but also in other dining

halls. The dough for the pizza at the Gate, he said, is first made by bakers in the Ratty kitchen.

“The only thing we don’t make are bagels and croissants,” Barboza said. “They take far too long.”

The bakers have at their disposal a rotary oven, which can cook 64 trays of baked goods simultaneously, Barboza said.

The kitchen also has a small butcher shop. Barboza said Dining Services employees cut 90 percent of the meat served at Brown, which few colleges do anymore. “We don’t know what continued on page 9

Park offers respite, romance and exotic animals

By Adam Asher and Meia Geddes Staff Writers

With paths weaving through gardens, an award-winning zoo and historical structures such as the Temple to Music and an antiquestyle Bandstand, Roger Williams Park makes for a leisurely, whimsical day off of College Hill. A 15-minute drive from campus, the park is a 435-acre complex nestled in South Providence’s Elmwood neighborhood.

A pair of stately gates and the Victorian Rose Garden mark the park’s Elmwood Avenue entrance.

Here, it becomes evident that this park is no tranquil oasis. While there are plenty of gorgeous, green attractions to be found within its borders, the park is intersected by a number of roads, though some sections are blocked off to motor traffic.

Gardens and carousels

Down the hill past the colonial Betsey Williams Cottage, the park opens up and Roosevelt Lake comes into sight, as does the old-fashioned

Bandstand on its shore. Accessible by a short walking path, the Bandstand is a handsome structure with a nice view, though it appears in need of cleaning and repair.

A bit farther along is one of the park’s highlights — the Japanese Garden. Though small, the garden features a collection of wooden footbridges, stone pathways and ornamental ponds which add to a tranquil, distinctly Zen feeling. For old and young alike, the gardens offer one of the park’s most secluded and beautiful spots.

Past the Japanese Garden is a more kid-friendly area of the park: Carousel Village, featuring a Victorian-style carousel, snack bar and playground. But if playgrounds aren’t your thing, a short stroll away is the Tudor-style boathouse, featuring swan-shaped paddleboats for rent. Despite the chilly weather, families and couples were happily paddling away on the park’s waters underneath the various bridges and waiting in line for the carousel.

Up the hill from the boathouse is perhaps the park’s most striking attraction: the Temple to Music. On the shore of Cunliffe Lake, the structure — which looks a bit like the Lincoln Memorial in miniature — sparkles in the sunlight, surrounded by a small stone theater. Inside, the names of famous musical minds — including Pythagoras, Haydn and Brahms — are inscribed. Away from

the road, with the breeze blowing in from the lake, it provides a wonderful place to sit and relax — iPod optional.

Trouble in paradise

Still, this tranquil spot reflects the park’s major downside: on the wall, right next to the names of medieval composers, is a mass of black graffiti.

Everywhere, it seems, the park is in need of repair and some places, like the Bandstand, are on the verge of collapse. This is a shame — the land itself is gorgeous, as are the structures built upon it. Perhaps it is reflective of Providence’s current fiscal situation that authorities have not kept up with maintenance of the park.

This is not to say that the park is not worth visiting. With green vistas, shimmering lakes and brilliant architecture, the park provides a welcome retreat from the bustle of the Hill. Beyond the park itself, the complex contains an acclaimed zoo and botanical gardens — both expeditions in and of themselves.

Animal kingdom

On a rainy day, the zoo had an impressive number of visitors — mostly parents with their children — splashing through puddle-filled paths to peer at animals as exotic as African elephants, Masai giraffes, red pandas and Grant’s zebras. Supported by about 50 paid staff and

almost 300 volunteers — many of whom are college students — the zoo is home to approximately 100 species of animals, said Susannah Brooks, manager of volunteer resources at the zoo.

“We’re very well-known for our conservation efforts,” Brooks said, noting the zoo’s work with Karner blue butterflies, New England cottontail rabbits and timber rattlesnakes. The zoo provides a place to learn and find other “conservationminded” people, she said.

Jane Goodall, an advocate of conservation, lectured at the zoo and included its work on the American burying beetle in her recent book, “Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Animals Are Being Rescued from the Brink.”

For those who might not be as keen on conservation, the zoo offers respite to students and visitors from all over New England, with adult tickets priced at $14.95. Romantics might find privacy on a secluded stone bench near the zoo’s large pond, grab a bite to eat at one of the zoo’s eateries or rediscover the joys of a quaint farmyard — red barns, chickens and all. “I think it’s an underutilized place for college kids to go on dates,” Brooks said.

For those who want to see an elephant take a skinny dip, simply stop in to see Alice, Ginny and Kate, the zoo’s three female elephants. Alice, who likes to swim when it rains,

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drew a crowd of excited zoo volunteers as she splashed about and submerged herself in water just feet away from the enclosure.

For Ryan Olsen, who came from Connecticut with his daughter, the elephants and giraffes were the highlights. This was his first trip to a zoo — an “awesome” experience, he said.

Zoo visitors seem to have a shared passion for animals. “We are obsessed with animals,” said Diana Perry, who came with her son, Thomas Gomez, from Mass. Perry, who rescues animals, said the zoo is aesthetically appealing and also effectively keeps the animals’ well being in mind. She explained that seeing animals mating — which she has witnessed at the zoo — signals that the animals feel they are in a safe environment. The zoo also allows visitors to see elephants being bathed inside, and it is “nice to see the interaction between the handler and the animal,” Perry said.

For Charles Adams, who hails from Cranston, the zoo is a 15-minute drive away. Adams visits the zoo almost every weekend, usually for about three-hour visits, he said.

While some zoos’ enclosures are much smaller, Adams said the Roger Williams Park Zoo provides the animals with “a good atmosphere.”

“I love the zoo,” he said, holding a camera with a lens over a foot long.“The snow leopards are my favorite.”