Tuesday, September 4, 2012

daily herald the Brown

vol. cxxii, no. 59

INSIDE

Page 2

tuesday, september 4, 2012

Labor groups rally for workers’ rights on Main Green

Page turner

By Adam toobin Senior Staff Writer

Summer reading “Sons of Providence” reveals U.’s past

First-years meandering through the Main Green at noon yesterday were treated to an unorthodox orientation event as 200 workers, union members and their advocates rallied to support unions and fair labor policies in honor of Labor Day. “I’m sure we’d all rather be grilling right now, but we have to make the world a better place,” said Chas Walker ’00, an organizer at the Service Employees International Union District 1199.

The rally, which brought together labor advocates from around the state, featured speakers from the Rhode Island chapter of the AFL-CIO, the General Assembly, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and SEIU. Other groups represented included the Rhode Island Unemployment Council, the People’s Assembly, Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Fuerza Labora, Jobs with Justice,

city & state

Page 4

Tech crash Tax-supported gaming firm files for bankruptcy Page 6

Weed out State relaxes penalties for marijuana possession today

tomorrow

Tom Sullivan / Herald

76 / 69

77 / 66

since 1891

As contract expirations approach, labor union members rallied on the Main Green in honor of Labor Day, chanting in both English and Spanish.

Occupy Providence, Black Political Action Committee and We Are All Arizona Coalition — a group that fights for immigration reform.

Gathering around the flagpole on the Main Green holding signs bearing slogans such as “La lucha para prosperar” (The fight to prosper) and “Criar a nuestras familias” (To raise our families), the group celebrated the holiday with speeches and cheers supporting a variety of labor groups’ attempts to secure higher wages, improved working conditions and the chance to work “with dignity.” Though the speakers focused on celebrating labor in a broad sense, two groups currently involved in labor negotiations — the University’s Dining Service workers and New England janitors — received extra attention, though no University employees participated in the rally.

The janitors’ contracts expire Sept.

30, and they are currently engaged in negotiations with their employers.

Laura Caceres, a contracted janitor in Providence / / Labor page 13

U. raises payments to city in budget deal Paxson By elizAbeth carr city & state editor

After months of tense negotiations, thenpresident Ruth Simmons and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras joined state and local leaders May 1 to announce an agreement on the University’s payments to the city. Under the new agreement, which was spurred by Providence’s fiscal crisis, the University will pay the city an additional $31.5 million over 11 years, a payment plan that amounted to an increase of $3.9 million for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

This brings the University’s total annual contributions to about $7.9 million until 2016, since it has been paying $4 million in voluntary payments and

city & state

property taxes every year under a 2003 agreement signed between the city and its institutions of higher education.

The University will pay an additional $3.9 million over the next four years and an additional $2 million annually over the subsequent six years until 2022.

The negotiations between the city and the University were first made public in January and intensified a month later, when Taveras announced his intent to seek $7.1 million in increased payments from the city’s nonprofits for the 2013 fiscal year. Prior to reaching the deal, Taveras had already finalized agreements amounting to $1.45 million with two nonprofits, Lifespan and Johnson and Wales University.

After Brown pledged an additional $3.9 million, / / Deal page 7

stresses consensus, action

By Sahil Luthra Science Editor

Emily Gilbert / Herald

The mood was upbeat when former president Ruth Simmons announced a deal to up payments to the city alongside Providence Mayor Angel Taveras.

Daycare for U. community shuts doors

Elizabeth Koh / Herald

Taft Avenue Daycare, which has provided child care at a reduced rate to University staff, faculty and students for 22 years, closed Aug. 31.

By Elizabeth Koh

‘Not the right building’

Senior Staff Writer

When the building at 48 Taft Ave. was constructed in 1982, few imagined the temporary environmental research lab would remain standing after research concluded six years later. But when a nonprofit organization approached the University about creating a child care facility, the University offered the building with administrative and financial assistance on one condition.

“It was, ‘We’ll give you some space to do (child care) as long as you provide it primarily to Brown faculty, staff and graduate students,’” said Beppie Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration. Taft began operating in 1990.

“But that was not the right building,” Huidekoper added, noting the building was never intended for long-term use.

“We (had) to shut down that building at some point.”

Taft did / / Daycare page 10

Taft Avenue Daycare Center, the only full-time child care center exclusively for the young children of University faculty, staff and graduate students, shut down last Friday after 22 years of service despite a parent-run petition against the closure that garnered over 1,700 signatures. Taft, which employed 12 staff members to care for about 20 infants and toddlers aged zero to three, cited facility issues and recently changed crib regulations as reasons for the decision to close the center. But the closing itself, which many members of the center have complained was mismanaged by the University, has sparked a larger discussion about child care options at Brown. Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 has appointed a 10-person committee to report on the issue before the end of the fall semester.

Christina Paxson was officially sworn in as the University’s 19th president July 2, but she said she did not feel her job had truly begun at the time.

“I won’t feel that my job has really started until the day when I welcome students back to campus,” Paxson told The Herald in July.

She will do just that tomorrow when she welcomes Brown’s 249th class with a Convocation speech entitled “Constructive Irreverence.”

Paxson, who was named president in March after serving as dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, will be officially inaugurated Oct. 27.

Paxson has been preparing for her new role for months, and she began meeting with faculty, members of the Corporation and Rhode Island officials even before she was sworn in.

“We don’t want to pause,” she said.

“There are so many wonderful initiatives in the pipeline, and there are things we know we want to do. And so we don’t have the luxury or the need to sit back for a year.”

Paxson spent much of the summer individually meeting with department chairs and program directors in their offices. She said she was struck by the collaboration across disciplines.

“It’s not as if each department is a little self-contained unit — people work across areas,” Paxson told The Herald in July. “Learning about these layers of connections is just incredibly useful.” / / Paxson page 6

2 campus news

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012

c alendar Tuesday

Sept. 4

12 P.m.

WEDNESDAY

Sept. 5

12 p.m.

Organic Chemistry Seminar

JCB Fellows Lunch

Geo-Chem 351

Hillel

5 p.m.

6 p.m.

Twitter for Beginners

Sophomore Dessert Reception

CareerLAB

Kasper Multipurpose Room

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH Grilled Reuben Sandwich, Grilled Sausage, Salmon Salad, Grilled Malibu Patties

Shaved Steak Sandwich, Chicken Gumbo Soup, Sauteed Mushrooms, Falafel

DINNER Stir-Fried Chicken with Noodles, Vegan Chow Mein with Tofu, Vegetable Egg Rolls

Roast Pork Loin au Jus, General Tso Chicken Stir-Fry, Broccoli Quiche, Brussel Sprouts

Sudoku

rachel a. kaplan / herald

First-years’ summer reading assignment, “Sons of Providence,” confronts controversial aspects of the University’s history like its involvement in the slave trade.

Reading highlights U.’s past with slavery

By Joseph Rosales Arts & Culture Editor

Crossword

First-year students learned about the University’s connection to the slave trade in this year’s summer reading choice, “Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade and the American Revolution.” The selection came in concurrence with the appointment of Anthony Bogues, professor of Africana studies, as the inaugural director for the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice in May. The University selects first-year summer reading books based on faculty recommendations, said Katherine Bergeron, dean of the College. After the University initially considered a science-based book, the history department suggested “Sons of Providence.”

“They recommended this one, and it really was very resonant with the announcement for the Slavery and Justice Center that was about to happen,” Bergeron said. “It seemed like a good moment.” In May, the University announced that Bogues would serve as inaugural director for the center after years of external and internal searches. Plans for the center were originally announced in 2006 as part of the Slavery and Justice report, a document written after years of research analyzing the University’s relationship with slavery.

“Few pieces of writing better capture the kinds of conversations around slavery and its legacy in the United States than (the report),” said Seth Rockman, associate professor

of history. But the time gap between the publishing of the report and the recent official creation of the center deadened excitement about the center throughout the student body, he said.

“We have graduated an entire class from beginning to end between the publishing of the report and the start of the center,” Rockman said. “Pretty much all of memory on campus has disappeared.”

Bogues’ appointment and the transition in the University’s top leadership “offer us the opportunity to reflect more deeply on the complicated histories that shape Brown’s past, present, and future as an institution,” wrote Ann Gaylin, associate dean of the College for first-year and sophomore studies, in an email to The Herald. “‘Sons of Providence’ will, we hope, help engage first-year students, their advisors and other faculty in this crucial conversation.”

Bergeron also said the transition of leadership within the University administration was a factor in choosing the book.

“It’s a time that does make you begin to think about, or think again about, the origins or the history of leadership in the University,” Bergeron said.

She said the forthcoming 250th anniversary of the University’s founding also spurred the decision.

“All of these things kind of converged together to make it seem like this was the right book,” she said.

Rockman said he is not surprised by the lack of knowledge among students regarding the University’s

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relationship with slavery. He said he has dealt with mainly uninformed first-years in his first-year seminar, HIST 0970: “Slavery and Historical Memory in the United States.” As part of the course’s curriculum, students read the Slavery and Justice report.

“Not one of those students knew that Brown had studied its own relationship to slavery,” Rockman said.

“Not one of them had chosen to come to Brown because they thought this was an important part of the school’s identity, so they were all surprised that here was this document about their own institution, buildings on their own campus.”

But by the end of the class, Rockman’s students were adamant on spreading the word throughout campus, he said.

“They were captivated by it and quite insisting that this should be part of every freshmen orientation here on out, that the Slavery and Justice report itself should be assigned reading for incoming students, and that in fact the university should reclaim this as part of their identity,” Rockman said.

Grace Adler ’16 said she had no knowledge of the University’s connection to slavery before attending, but “Sons of Providence” did not negatively affect her perspective of Brown.

“For me, it changed the way I think of Brown, but not in a destructive way because of the way the book handled the material,” Adler said. “It was very humanizing. They didn’t let anyone become purely good or purely evil.

Even though I was learning things that were new about the school, it still tied in to what I already knew, so it wasn’t the biggest shock of my life.”

“It gave a history to the school, and it embodied the relationship between the two brothers,” said Cassie Sutten Coats ’16. “The history gives the school something new. It makes it feel real.”

Bergeron said the ability to allow students to see the University in its historical context is valuable.

“We tend to think we love our school, and we think of ourselves as progressive and it’s a little unsettling to have history laid out in ways that are uncomfortable, but that’s what history is,” Bergeron said. “And that’s what education is ­to confront things that we didn’t expect.”

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012

campus news 3

Carey ’91 MA’06 takes top U. planning post By elizabeth koh senior staff writer

Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, former senior vice president for corporation affairs and governance, took over for Richard Spies, former executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president, after Spies stepped down July 1. Carey now holds the modified title of executive vice president for planning and policy, former president Ruth Simmons wrote in an email to the community June 6.

“Russell will work closely with President-elect Christina Paxson, the provost, the executive vice president for finance and administration, the Corporation and members of the community to ensure effective University-wide efforts in planning and policy, in keeping with the University’s overall mission,” Simmons wrote.

Though the title has changed, Spies told The Herald his successor would handle similar responsibilities in a June interview.

The addition to the title is a “recognition that we’re just at a different stage,” he said, citing new projects like the upcoming expansion of the School of Engineering.

“I think it reflects a different sense of how to organize planning, a different sense of where Brown is in its needs,” Spies said. “It reflects (Paxson) putting together a leadership team in a somewhat different way, based on what she thinks will be most effective for the next decade.”

Carey stressed the importance of having a plan when Paxson first takes office.

Paxson has “talked about undertaking a planning process in the first year,” he said in June, highlighting issues like furthering the University’s relationship with Providence. Carey added that the plan would “unfold” as Paxson navigates the coming months.

Spies announced in February his intention to step down at the end of the calendar year, five months after Simmons said she would not be returning for a 12th year as University president. Spies completed his primary duties and left office in July, though he remains on campus to fulfill other responsibilities until December.

Carey will continue to oversee the Corporation office while in the executive vice president position, though he will primarily serve Paxson’s presidency.

“When you’re in these positions, you work closely with the president and closely with other senior officers and other members of the team,” Carey said. “My expectation is that I’ll continue to have a part in that team.”

Carey said his work over the summer mainly consisted of preparing for the planning process that will take place during the academic year.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time this summer getting to know people, some of whom I knew, some of whom I didn’t, and who are leaders in the community that Brown has connections to,” he said. “(Getting) involved in those relationships,” he added, is key to fulfilling the responsibilities of the new position.

Carey has held several positions in Simmons’ administration, including student life officer, assistant to the provost and assistant to the president. Named to his current position in 2008, he “led the University’s comprehensive enterprise risk assessment and planning function, which has been cited as a national model,” staffed the presidential search committee and has been a key figure in Paxson’s transition process, Simmons wrote in her email.

Spies expressed enthusiasm for Carey’s selection.

“He doesn’t have to get up to speed,” Spies said. “He doesn’t have

to question the basic goals that have been set — he was part of setting them.”

“Brown will be a better place because of the work he does and because of the team he is a part of,” Spies added.

Carey said he looks forward to contributing further to the University.

“I’ve had a great experience at Brown, both as an undergraduate and in the administration,” he said.

“I’m very pleased and grateful to have the opportunity to continue that.”

4 city & state

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012

Tax-funded tech venture plummets to bankruptcy By sona mkrttchian senior staff writer

At its peak, former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling’s video game development firm 38 Studios boasted two East Coast offices with roughly 400 employees. With the help of a $75 million loan from the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, it was on its way to developing Project Copernicus, intended to be a breakthrough massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Schilling had high hopes for Copernicus, which was poised to join the ranks of MMORPG classics like World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Schilling personally invested $5 million to start 38 Studios in 2006 in Maynard, Mass. The company struggled to attract interest in Copernicus — particularly from investors — until July 2010, when RIEDC approved a $75 million loan made possible by the Job Creation Guarantee Program, which was passed just weeks before by the General Assembly.

At the start of 2012, after six years of development, reports surfaced that Copernicus was still months away from official release. The company missed a $1.125 million loan payment to RIEDC May 1. Schilling laid off all employees May 24, and as a string of financial documents was released, it became apparent the company had been siphoning money for weeks. Public records revealed the company was $151 million in debt, and 38 Studios declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy June 14. As bankruptcy proceedings continue, any and all assets remaining in possession of the defunct company are being sold in an attempt to pay creditors. The company is most deeply indebted to RIEDC, which it owes $120 million on the 2010 loan. The most recent estimates place the company’s assets at a valuation of $22 million.

Strife in the Statehouse

Rhode Island’s unemployment rate exceeded the national average by almost 2 percent in 2010, according to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. With approximately 60,000 residents out of work, legislators passed the Job Creation Guarantee Program almost unanimously in May 2010. Introduced by former House Finance Committee Chair Steven Constantino, the program was designed to “promote the retention and expansion of businesses and the creation of jobs in Rhode Island.” After a series of revisions, the legislation granted RIEDC $125 million to fund the program.

Only one of the 118 lawmakers in the General Assembly voted against the measure.

“This program was created to take advantage of the burgeoning knowledge economy that has so much potential, particularly involving graduates of Brown and (the Rhode Island School of Design),” said Larry Berman, press secretary for House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence.

“The way it was packaged was that it would enable small entrepreneurs to share in the ability to create new companies that would help to employ unemployed Rhode Islanders,” said Senator Rhoda Perry P’91, DProvidence. “Why wouldn’t someone vote for that?”

In August, two months after the loan program was passed, 38 Studios received $75 million of the $125 million allotted to the program. Only two other companies — the Corporate Marketplace and NuLabel — received loans, totaling $5.5 million, stemming from the Job Creation Guarantee Program.

Had she known that the majority of the funds from the loan program would go to one company, Perry said she most likely would not have voted for the legislation.

Rep. Robert Watson, R-East Greenwich and West Greenwich, was the only legislator who opposed the loan

program. The program was too loosely concocted to gain his support, he said.

He added that it seemed there were details and dealings being held from the general public.

“Democratic leadership in the legislature conspired with the governor’s office to withhold information from the rank-and-file legislators when they sought approval for this deal,” Watson said. “Had the full facts been put before the legislature before the vote, I probably would have had more company in opposition.”

Fox has repeatedly defended the loan program, despite the failure of 38 Studios. In a press conference, he stated he would support similar legislation again.

Berman emphasized that the General Assembly was not involved in the 38 Studios deal, which was approved

by RIEDC. “As Speaker Fox has said, the General Assembly provided the tools, but it was the EDC that built the house,” he said.

RIEDC and the executives

RIEDC aims to support the state economy and facilitate the business community in achieving all possible success, according to its website.

Meant to serve as a mediator between residents, the state government and the private sector, RIEDC is chaired by the governor and an appointed board.

In 2010, then-Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65 appointed Keith Stokes, a strong proponent of the 38 Studios deal, as director of the board. That March, both Carcieri and Stokes met with Schilling to begin investment procedures.

“Leaders and businesspeople were desperate for the win,” said Maureen Moakley, professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island. “Even though this was a risky investment, they were willing to take this risk because the payoff would be great. It would have been a big win.”

And a big win was just what Carcieri was seeking, Watson said. “Don

Carcieri had a meager legacy to brag about, and he wanted a quick-fix solution to that dilemma,” he noted. “He saw in this one risky move a chance to brag about bringing jobs and business to Rhode Island — something he hadn’t done in his previous seven years.” The deal with 38 Studios came at the very end of Carcieri’s second term in office.

Carcieri had held a reputation as the “CEO Governor,” which stemmed from his past experience working in the private sector as a high-ranking executive at Old Stone Bank and Cookson Group.

“These were sophisticated and accomplished businessmen,” Moakley said. “I would assume they understood the risk. It’s not like you had four legislators from Johnston saying ‘Gee! What a good idea!’”

The loan agreement was structured with the main purpose of bringing jobs to the state and set a variety of benchmarks for the company. In order to receive the full loan, the company was required to bring approximately 400 new jobs into the state. By November 2011, WPRI reported, the company had received almost $50 million for the relocation of the company to its new Providence headquarters and for the addition of 250 jobs with annual average salaries of $67,500 or greater.

But the loan was not awarded without opposition. In August 2010, RIEDC and 38 Studios received harsh criticism from then-gubernatorial candidate Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14.

“The state was putting a lot of eggs in one basket,” said Christine Hunsinger, Chafee’s press secretary. “It was not being fiscally disciplined or fiscally smart.”

The probability of Chafee suceeding Carcieri as governor was fairly strong in August 2010, which put pressure on Carcieri and RIEDC to push through the loan without carefully reviewing the company’s finances, Moakley said.

That month, Chafee requested a meeting with the RIEDC board to express his concerns about the 38 Studios loan. Carcieri blocked the request, assuring Chafee that the “loan guarantee was carefully considered over several months with extensive due diligence by the board,” which was composed of “12 of this state’s most successful business leaders,” according to a public letter.

In April 2011, four months into Chafee’s first term, the loan program was revised to include a cap on all future loans of $10 million.

RIEDC has denied all requests to comment on the 38 Studios loan scandal.

Take the money and run

After 38 Studios moved to Providence in April 2011, the company continued its aggressive hiring initiative, bringing in hundreds of new employees to meet RIEDC guidelines.

Financial records show the company was spending tens of millions of dollars each month, despite a lack of product revenue.

That same year NuLabel — a startup tech firm manufacturing self-adhesive labeling founded by Brown alums Ben Lux ’09, Max Winograd ’09 and Mike Woods ’09 — received a $1.5 million loan from the RIEDC as a part of the Job Creation Guarantee Program. NuLabel committed to bringing 49 new jobs to the state as it grew in Providence in return for the money.

The loan has helped the company plan for the future, Winograd said.

But a year after the loan was awarded, NuLabel has not needed to tap into any of the funds it received from the state, he added.

When 38 Studios turned to RIEDC for a loan, the company had been turned down by numerous investors, including the state of Massachusetts.

But NuLabel was required gain private capital before receiving a loan guarantee from the state, Winograd said. “This provides an added assurance to the state that there is other money from other investors coming into the company.”

Winograd said that NuLabel’s founders also put up “personal guarantees” for the loan to ensure RIEDC that “people’s dollars were committed to turning into more dollars.”

The Corporate Marketplace received the third and last loan from the Job Creation Guarantee Program.

RIEDC describes the company as a “success story” on their website, and CEO Chris Crawford told WPRI that the company is growing at a rate of 40 percent each month and is expecting tens of millions in revenue this year thanks to the assistance it received from RIEDC. “By promoting the knowledge economy, it is helping the overall state of employment in Rhode Island,” Winograd said. “The more people we can attract into the knowledge economy, the greater the effect onto the larger economy.”

State politicians have been pushing the Knowledge Economy initiative for years, and RIEDC had been loaning funds to small businesses for even longer.

Charlie Kroll ’01, founder and CEO of Andera — an online account-opening tool for banks that has grown to / / 38 Studios page 5 serve over

city & state 5

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012 May 2010:

August 2010:

May 1, 2012:

May 24, 2012:

General Assembly passes Job

Lincoln Chafee vocalizes opposition

Misses $1.125 million payment

38 Studios lays off all employees

Creation Guarantee Program

on campaign trail

July 2010:

February 2012:

May 16, 2012:

June 2012:

RIEDC establishes a $75 million loan

“Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning”

Keith Stokes, director of the RIEDC,

38 Studios files for bankruptcy

with 38 Studios

released

resigns

/ / 38 Studios page 4 500 financial institutions — received a startup loan from RIEDC in the early 2000s.

Andera could not be where it is today without assistance from sources like RIEDC, Kroll said.

Kroll described the 38 Studios scandal as an aberration, noting that most companies that receive assistance from RIEDC maintain financial stability.

“It was surprising that they allowed themselves to run out of cash without cutting any expenses beforehand,” Kroll said. “You would expect that if the company is running out of money, they would cut costs before that happens.”

End of the Line

38 Studios released its first and only game — “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning” — in February to mixed reviews. The company never set an official release date for Copernicus.

The company’s bankruptcy filing was moved from Delaware — where

it was originally incorporated — to Rhode Island last month at the request of RIEDC, the company’s largest creditor, where it is likely to reach a more favorable settlement.

The studio owes contractors and employees millions in payroll, but the taxpayers in Rhode Island will be responsible for the majority of the company’s $150 million of debt, as reports suggest that the 2010 loan has ballooned to $120 million of value due to interest taken out on bonds.

Moakley said that while taxpayers will be paying a significant portion of the company’s debt, it is likely that negotiations will reduce the strain on taxpayers.

The scandal is expected to increase voter confidence in Chafee, Moakley said. Rhode Islanders understand the role that Carcieri, Fox and others played in the misuse of taxpayer funds, but they also understand that Chafee foresaw the company’s failure, she added.

Chafee accepted Stokes’ resigna-

tion in May during the initial backlash from the scandal. The governor’s office has now requested an outside analysis of RIEDC and is looking to move forward from the scandal, Hunsinger said.

“Clearly, we won’t have any big blockbusters for a long time,” Kroll said. “It could end up being a good thing, though, if it influences policymakers to make a lot of smaller investments into startups instead of a few big investments in riskier companies.”

As companies like the Corporate Marketplace and NuLabel grow, Winograd said he hopes they will send a ripple effect through the community.

Initiatives like Betaspring are working to help start-ups find their footing in the state, hinting at the larger trend toward small tech firms in the state’s business climate.

“Everyone gets that we’re not going to just be able to weather the storm.

We’re going to need to change the rules of the game and really try to change the economy here,” Winograd said.

If you’re interested in joining the business staff, sign up at bit.ly/bdhbusiness for more information.

6 city & state Paxson / / Paxson page 1 also met with local officials, including Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14. In May, the University agreed to contribute an additional $31.5 million to the city over 11 years, a deal that followed months of tense discussions. Paxson said she is grateful the negotiations were completed prior to her tenure.

“What it’s done is given me the opportunity to start with a very clean slate,” she said. “The mayor is very positively inclined to collaborating with Brown, and instead of talking about money flows from Brown to the city, we can really start to talk about true collaboration, things that are of mutual interest.”

Paxson said she hopes to be involved in continuing discussions with the city about potential ways to join forces, including developing the Knowledge District.

“We’re just in the very early stages, so I cannot predict where we will end

up,” Paxson said. She stressed the importance of moving quickly, adding that the University will have to make some important decisions in the first months of her presidency.

The University is currently in early planning stages for a major strategic initiative, Paxson said, adding that she hopes to have a detailed plan by the end of her first year.

As part of the planning process, the University will start discussing a new capital campaign, Paxson said.

The University’s most recent major fundraising initiative — ­ the Campaign for Academic Enrichment — ended in Dec. 2010 and raised $1.6 billion.

While Paxson’s campaign will likely provide resources for some ongoing efforts — like renovations to residence halls, plans to build a new School of Engineering and increased funding for financial aid and athletics — Paxson said it will also include other projects.

She added that fundraising efforts will continue outside of a capital campaign.

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012

Paxson said she looks forward to the growth of Brown’s research profile, emphasizing that Brown’s strength comes from its focus on unifying teaching and scholarship.

“What excites me the most is the idea of developing programs that engage both students and faculty in scholarship on common themes,” Paxson said. “So it’s a very integrated approach. It’s not ‘Are we going to be a research university or are we going to be a teaching university?’”

Paxson said she imagines much of the research will be collaborative across departments and will often tackle global issues. Building a network of international collaborators with complementary interests will be vital, she said.

“We have more good ideas than we have resources, and I’d rather be in that position than the reverse,” Paxson said.

An earlier version of this article appeared online July 3.

Herald file photo

Starting April 1, 2013, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana will be considered a civil violation, though federal prohibition still applies.

R.I. to decriminalize small amounts of pot

By Adam toobin Senior Staff writer

mike cohea / brown university

About 20 current and emeriti members of the Corporation witnessed the formal swearing in of Brown’s 19th president, Christina Paxson, July 2.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 signed into law a bill decriminalizing the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana June 13, making Rhode Island the 15th state to lessen the punishment for individuals found possessing small quantities of the drug. Starting April 1, 2013, individuals caught with small amounts of marijuana will face fines of $150 and have their contraband confiscated, but the incident will not appear on the individual’s criminal record.

Under current law, possession — a misdemeanor offense — could result in the offender’s incarceration for up to one year, as well as a $200 to $500 fine. The state will use half of the money gathered through fines to fund drug treatment and education programs.

Though the new law relaxes the punishment for possession, it includes a three-strike rule, whereby if an offender

is caught with the drug three times in an 18-month period, the individual will be subject to the original penalty. If the individual is under the age of 18, the new law requires that the police notify his or her parents.

Rep. John Edwards, D-Tiverton and Portsmouth, who proposed the original legislation in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, said the new legislation allows an individual to avoid a criminal record for “something that could be a youthful indiscretion.”

A conviction for possession of marijuana would almost certainly prevent someone from being able to work as a teacher or a fireman or in any state job, Edwards said.

Chafee’s approval of marijuana decriminalization came on the heels of a revision to the state’s medical marijuana law, which is slated to bring three dispensaries to Rhode Island as early as this month.

The Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Agency still classify marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning the federal government can continue to punish anyone possessing any quantity of the drug with up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Ratty or V-Dub? We decide so you don’t have to! blogdailyherald.com

city & state 7

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012 / / Deal page 1 less than $2 million remained to reach Taveras’ goal. The mayor subsequently cut deals with nonprofits CharterCARE Health Partners, Care New England and the Rhode Island School of Design early in the summer, leaving him more than $1 million short of his goal.

The city requested additional contributions from the University, which does not pay taxes on the property it uses for educational purposes, because about 40 percent of the city’s land is held by tax-exempt nonprofits. The University already paid taxes on land not used for educational purposes, such as parking lots, prior to the May agreement.

Taveras and Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 applauded the University for its contribution. “I felt that there was a catch.

And there was no catch,” Taveras said at the press conference. “It was one of my most pleasant days as mayor of the city of Providence.”

As part of the agreement, the University received four blocks of streets that currently run through campus — Brown Street between George and Charlesfield streets, Olive Street between Brown and Thayer streets and Benevolent Street between Brown and Magee streets. The University can use the land as it wishes, though no plans have been determined yet, said Richard Spies, former executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president.

The city will also give the University 250 new parking spaces to lease over the next 20 years to its employees and students, allowing them to park for longer near campus, with the option to renew the license for two additional 10-year periods.

Finding the money

The Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, voted to approve the measure in the days immediately preceding the May 1 press conference, Simmons told The Herald.

The University Resources Committee, the entity that makes recommendations for the University’s budget, had allotted $2 million for increased contributions to the city, but the committee will now need to adjust the budget to fit the higher contribution amount, Spies said.

The $3.9 million increase resulted in a budget deficit for the 2011-12 fiscal year, wrote Executive Vice President for Policy and Planning Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 in an email to The Herald. The University was forced to draw $9 million from its reserves to cover some of the increased payments, and the rest of the deficit will be spread out over the coming years.

The University’s budget plan moving forward remains vague, Spies said, but “it’s going to work its way through the system.” He said he could not pinpoint the source of the funds now going to the city, but added that all University priorities — including professor compensation and recruitment, as well as sustained investment in capital projects — have the potential to be affected by the new expenditure.

The University will not be forced to lay off faculty members or take other similarly severe measures, Simmons said, but the payments will require the University to think about certain trade-offs.

Prior to the May announcement, some critics of the city’s demands expressed concern that increased payments could strain the University’s financial aid budget. But Simmons pointed out that when the University had to significantly reduce its expenditures in 2008, the University’s financial aid allowance was not touched. The budget allotment for

financial aid relies mostly on donations rather than tuition, she added.

“It’s not taking away from anything that’s already been committed,” Carey told The Herald. “Student access and support has always been an ongoing priority.”

A rough start

The negotiation process began with a myriad of misunderstandings and less-than-friendly relations. In January, Taveras publicly called on Brown to pay more, saying the University had reneged on a plan to increase payments by $4 million annually. The University maintained it had not agreed to a $4 million increase, which would have required Corporation approval.

At the May 1 press conference, Simmons recalled a moment early in her presidency that set a tone for future relations with the city. She said when she first arrived, then-mayor David Cicilline ’83 threatened to hold a press conference in front of the Van Wickle Gates to pressure Brown to pay more. She said if it were not for this “introduction to the city of Providence,” the University and its host city would be farther along with tax agreements.

Considering her own experience, Simmons noted the University and the city must ensure her successor, President Christina Paxson, has a better working knowledge of city government. “Let it not be 11 years before she can understand what’s transpiring here,” she said at the press conference.

Simmons told The Herald both her and the Corporation’s understandings of the University’s role in Providence have evolved since negotiations began.

While initially the University’s primary question was, “How do we respond to this impossible request from the mayor, which is not at all reasonable?” she said the guiding question later became, “How do we respond in a time that requires that we step up?”

“And once we started talking about that, the Corporation felt that it was important to make a statement beyond what the city was trying to negotiate,” she said.

“I think we will have a tough time explaining that to our constituencies,” Simmons said at the press conference, adding that the University will benefit from being located in a city that is in good financial standing.

Simmons told the Undergraduate Council of Students April 11, “I don’t think it’s reasonable for the city, having made mistakes and having become insolvent because of those mistakes, to turn to institutions that are successful and to demand that they pay for those mistakes.”

At the press conference, Taveras said her perspective pointing to the mistakes made by the city may be correct, but added that the city has shown it is taking steps to correct its failures. “We have made mistakes,” Taveras said. “We’re trying to address this structurally.”

‘A long way forward’

Addressing the concern that the new payment plan would set a precedent for incoming mayors to seek a bailout from the University if the city is in a precarious financial position, Taveras and Simmons said they do not anticipate the need for further negotiations in the near future.

“We have a very satisfactory solution that we hope will take us a long way forward,” Simmons said.

A bill that would tax nonprofits at 25 percent of their assessed value was slated to be heard by the Rhode Island Senate Finance Committee the afternoon of the

press conference. The bill has not been touched since.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. John Carnevale, D-Providence and Johnston, told The Herald that Brown’s increased payments are “a move in the right direction,” but he added he would like to see nonprofit payment plans in law eventually so that the city and its tax-exempt institutions could avoid revisiting the issue.

“The wind is out of the sail,” said House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence, of the legislation, adding that a “blanket solution” is not optimal when considering the resources of the city’s various nonprofit institutions. The city must continue to negotiate payments with its nonprofits, he said.

While the increased contributions represent a move toward greater financial stability, the deal with Brown also coincided with Standard and Poor’s credit downgrade for the city. The company moved its rating from BBB+ to BBB the day the deal with Brown was announced, following in the footsteps of other major credit ratings agencies that have given the city near-junk bond status.

In a statement, Taveras said the downgrade “is not surprising given the city’s fiscal crisis this past year.” But he added that the ratings agency failed to take into account increased payments from Lifespan and Brown, as well as the mayor’s pension reform approved by the Providence City Council a week earlier — projected to trim $19 million in costs on the $422.8 million pension system through the suspension of costof-living increases.

The city reached an agreement with

Emily gilbert / herald

Simmons addressed lawmakers and city representatives at the announcement of a deal between the University and Providence in May. the city’s policemen, firefighters and retirees over the summer. The deal will save the city $18.5 million this fiscal year and reduce the city’s unfunded pension liability by $170 million. The agreement — pending approval by the police and firefighter unions in the coming weeks— will save the city over $40 million over the next decade.

This February, Taveras said Providence could face bankruptcy in June if it did not secure increased payments from the city’s nonprofits and reduce its unfunded pension liability. June has come and gone, and the city remains solvent.

The prospect of increased contributions allowed Taveras to propose a balanced budget to the City Council in April.

“The work that the Taveras adminis-

tration has done in the past almost two years to pull the city back from the brink would not have been possible without every stakeholder in the city stepping up and doing more,” said David Ortiz, Taveras’ press secretary. “Brown University’s commitment to Providence has been a big piece in the puzzle.”

“Brown made that commitment under President Simmons, and we give the University and President Simmons all the credit they deserve,” he said, adding that the Taveras administration is now looking forward to working with Paxson.

“The idea of this fairly long-term 11year agreement allows the city to work with the University in a constructive way,” said Marisa Quinn, vice president of public affairs and University relations.

8 sports tuesday

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012

Bears start season strong in home pool

By Maria Acabado Sports Staff Writer

jesse schwimmer / herald

The men’s water polo team established dominance in its new home pool this weekend by going undefeated at the Brown Labor Day Weekend Tournament.

The men’s water polo team christened the new Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center during last week- Fordham 5 end’s Brown La- Brown 13 bor Day Weekend Tournament, finishing undefeated in seven matches. On Saturday, the No. 20 Bears took down Fordham University 13-5, the Chicago Masters 12-8, Metro Boston 16-6 and No. 18 St. Francis College 9-8. On Sunday, they secured wins over Diablo Valley College 17-8, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 13-1 and the Florida All-Stars 15-10.

“This is the first time we’re playing at the home pool,” said captain Svetozar Stefanovic ’13.“Having home U. Chicago 8 advantage is great Brown 12 for us, and we hope our fans will keep coming and supporting us.”

The victory over rival St. Francis was particularly sweet — ­ the Bears had

not beaten the Terriers since 2008. Ryan Gladych ’13 tied the score with 1:25 left in the match, and Henry Fox ’15 Metro 6 scored the winBrown 16 ning goal with 18 seconds remaining.

The Bears’ strong start matches their high expectations for the season. Stefanovic said he has full confidence the team’s balance of new and veteran players will help it reach its season goals.

“This year, we have five seniors, which not many teams have, and we also have three freshmen who have proved to be really good players,” St. Francis 9 Stefanovic said. Brown 8 “That combination will definitely contribute to our achievements this season.”

The team has prepared diligently for the upcoming season, hoping to build on last season’s 20-11 record. The Bears have clocked as many as nine hours of training per day, Stefanovic said.

“It’s been really hard, but we’ve all been enjoying it, and we know it’s necessary if we want to win every game,” Stefanovic said.

Besides shooting for an undefeated record, Stefanovic said he hopes the team will reach the NCAA Final Four.

“Our motto this season is ‘be hungry,’ so that’s what we’re trying to do — strive to be hungry and beat every opponent,” Stefanovic said.

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10 campus news not age well, / / Daycare page 1 plagued with numerous facilities issues from frequent leaks to peeling floors. The already-small building suffered from a lack of space — tables lining the walls and cribs stacked back-to-back to accommodate the few children who made it through the center’s highly competitive application cycle. Unexpected damages also derailed the center — two years ago, part of the roof peeled off during a snowstorm, closing Taft for a week.

The Taft building has seen no significant renovations since the day care center began operating.

Brown has reviewed the status of the facility multiple times since Taft’s opening, and in 2007 it conducted an internal survey to examine the child care needs of faculty and staff. The results showed full-day child care, like the kind Taft provides, represented the most significant demand.

The report also indicated that faculty and graduate students had a larger need for full-time child care than staff because staff members already had local networks they could rely on for care, Huidekoper said. Some faculty and staff have also complained that increased stipends for graduate students, which could be used to defray child care costs, unfairly privilege one group.

“There are those who do not have children, and saying, ‘Oh, there are more resources going to people who choose to have children,’” Huidekoper said.

Following the 2008 survey, the University began seeking alternatives to Taft in an effort to transition away from the old building, forging new affiliations with organizations such as the center at YMCA Providence’s East Side branch, Huidekoper said. The move became necessary when new crib regulations from the Department of Children, Youth and Families were released last year, she added.

“Once we knew the regulations were changing, we’ve been trying to say, ‘Is there another space on campus that we could provide to the program?’” she said.

“There just wasn’t anything.”

Huidekoper also pointed to the University’s limited finances, which prevent

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012

it from providing a full range of child care services.

The Herald faculty poll conducted last year found a 22 percent dissatisfaction rate among female faculty with the University’s child care options, with about 14 percent of male faculty polled expressing strong dissatisfaction. Fiftynine percent of polled faculty indicated they had no opinion or were not familiar enough with child care options at Brown.

‘No one saw it coming’

Vice President for Human Resources Karen Davis sent an email to Taft parents in May announcing that the center would close Aug. 31. The reason she gave for the closure was the facility’s inability to comply with new crib regulations from the Department of Children, Youth and Families without an “expansion of the center or a reduction in the number of infants in the center,” according to the email.

But the closing was a surprise to both parents and staff, said Taft parent Beth Moloney, an academic assistant in the Department of Theater Arts and Performance Studies. Parents had just been asked by the center’s staff to raise $2,000 for new cribs to meet the new regulations.

“We were stunned,” she said. “No one saw it coming.”

At a parent meeting the day following the announcement, tensions ran high. Davis, who attended the meeting with an outside child care consultant, said the center was being closed, not only due to new regulations but also because of the risk posed by Taft’s poor condition.

At the meeting, Davis discussed other childcare options, such as the YMCA center and the Bright Futures Early Learning Center at the Meeting Street School, where she said spots were being “secured” for Brown families.

“I was definitely outraged,” said Taft parent Trina Vithayathil GS. “Everything about that conversation communicated to me this person doesn’t understand what this community is about.”

Vithayathil added that administrators should have consulted parents instead of treating the closing like “a

elizabeth koh / herald

Despite a petition signed by 1,700 members of the Brown community, the Taft Avenue Daycare Center closed.

University officials cited facility issues and changed regulations as reasons for the closure. facilities issue.”

“This is a decision that should have engaged more people,” she said.

In response to the announcement, parents suggested starting a petition to stop the closing, and the idea “took off,” Moloney said.

Parents created Twitter and WordPress accounts to spread the word, quickly gaining traction with alums and current students during Commencement. Parents hand-delivered the petition — which called for a reversal of the decision to close Taft and for a renovation of the facility — to then-President Ruth Simmons, Schlissel, President Christina Paxson and other administrators, with more than 1,700 signatures at the end of the month. The petition included comments from prominent members of the Brown community, including some University trustees and major donors.

‘It’s not just a car or some utility’

Taft parents said the short notice for

the closing exemplified the University’s disconnect with the realities of working parents.

“When people talk about child care options around here, you don’t have a lot of options, and you don’t have a lot of affordable options,” Moloney said.

“People have to get on waiting lists while you’re pregnant — that’s the level of need there is.”

Though Davis highlighted other care options at the May 16 meeting, parents said they felt the solutions presented were insufficient. At the meeting, Davis was unable to answer “basic questions” about the costs of care at centers like the YMCA, Vithayathil said.

Confusion about available spots followed the closing announcement.

“Parents started contacting the Y right away ... then it became apparent that the positions were actually preferentially being given to faculty and staff at the expense of grad students,” said Taft parent Heather Ford GS. Though more positions have opened up, many

parents have opted to send their children to other day cares instead.

Cost has also been an issue for parents. Because Taft provided cheaper care, the University offered to cover the difference between Taft’s cost and that of any other child care center until August 2013 or until the enrolled child is three, whichever came first. But that was only a temporary solution for parents who will have to pay the higher fees at other day cares because their child care needs extend past August 2013. Parents have lobbied the University to extend the stipend with limited success.

Taft staff were also surprised by the short notice. Informed about the closing a day before parents were told, many staff members were stunned by the news.

“I was devastated. I said, ‘I have no questions to ask right now. I’ve been here so many years. This is my life,’” said Paula Moran, who had been the lead infant teacher.

Taft employees had always considered themselves Brown employees, Moran said. Though Taft only relies on the University for financial and administrative assistance, Taft was unique in the level of assistance it received from the University — unlike other affiliated centers like Brown/Fox Point, only Taft used the University’s payroll processing system.

Staff also expressed frustration that the University’s communication had been limited to discussions with the center’s director, Mary Castrignano.

“We’ve been here for a long time. It’s hurtful that they’re not at least trying to talk to us, solely,” Taft teacher Kristan Scofield said. Staff members said they also felt their conversations with Castrignano were limited, forcing them to glean information from parents.

But the most significant complaint parents and staff had with the University was its lack of concern for the value of child care at Brown.

“It’s not just a car or some utility that you need to get something done - it’s more than that,” Ford said. “You’re trusting them with your child’s life and to know that you have to search and search and search and search, and the University doesn’t support you in that — I almost tear up when I think about it.”

‘I don’t think there ever is a good time’

Davis acknowledged the uproar over the closing in an interview with The Herald in June, / / Daycare page 11

campus news 11

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012 / / Daycare page 10 attributing it to the close connection between Taft parents and staff.

“They’re like family,” said Davis, whose two children have been enrolled in full-time child care. She stressed that administrators had made other solutions available and that most Taft families had found alternative child care centers for their children.

Davis said she was in discussions with Castrignano to help move Taft’s displaced employees to other organizations and “made a lot of resources available ... in terms of resume writing, interviewing skills, looking for jobs at Brown and so on.”

The announcement was timed for mid-May to give parents time to search for alternative options over the summer, Davis said.

“Maybe we should have done it earlier,” Huidekoper said. “(But) we had just finally secured the other spaces, within about a month, so we really had spaces for them to transition to.”

Huidekoper also acknowledged the perceived lack of communication between parents and the administration, saying that not including parents in the decision to close the center was an attempt to be “benevolent.”

“There are those who said we should have involved the parents, and we were really just trying to take care of them,” Huidekoper said. “Maybe it wasn’t — either way, it’s where we are now.”

Simmons reportedly apologized in a June faculty meeting for how communication over the Taft closing was handled, though Huidekoper and Davis said they were unsure of what they could have changed to avoid the situation.

“We did our best to balance the timing and the communication,” Davis said. “(But) I can’t imagine what a good time it would be to tell people their day care center is closing — I don’t think there ever is a good time.”

A ‘timely’ discussion

Following the petition, Schlissel convened a 10-person committee — five men and five women drawn from faculty, staff, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows — to “(develop) a set of recommendations to the provost and president regarding child care at Brown,” according to a letter to Taft parents. The committee, which began meeting at the end of June, hopes to have a report delivered to both Schlissel and Paxson before the end of the fall semester.

Though both Davis and Huidekoper expressed enthusiasm for the committee’s work, they disagreed with the idea that the committee was formed primarily to respond to the Taft parents’ petition.

“I don’t think it’s the petition. I think it’s just the concern (for child care),” Huidekoper said of the committee’s formation, calling discussion of the topic “timely.”

“Literally hundreds of people signed the petition who don’t know where Taft Avenue is,” Davis added. “I just think it’s very easy to do electronic petitions these days.”

Davis also emphasized that though the committee sought to address Taft parents’ concerns, the committee’s scope is broader than that of the facility itself.

The committee’s purview is still being developed, said Elizabeth Doherty, senior associate dean of the faculty. The committee, which has met twice, has begun by investigating child care options at peer institutions, including the other Ivies, Stanford University, the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Doherty said.

Starting the discussion about child care has the potential to improve child care at Brown, said Scott Thacher, director of information technology in the Office of Campus Life and Student Services and a member of the child care committee.

“The challenge is always competing priorities,” he said. “For initiatives like this to pop up, something’s gone wrong.”

Thacher acknowledged Taft was a “catalyst for this moving forward” and examining larger solutions to address the University’s child care needs.

‘Keep people talking about it’

Most Taft families have now enrolled their children at other child care centers throughout Providence. Nine of Taft’s 16 children are starting at the Cozy Corner Child Care Center, a day care center near North Main Street that has also hired three of Taft’s teachers in an effort to keep the community together.

Ford, a graduate student who will be completing her PhD in geological sciences at the end of the fall semester, said she chose the Cozy Corner to keep her son, David, with other children he knew. David will remain enrolled until she and her family move to New Haven in January for her postdoctoral position at Yale.

Ford expressed dismay at the loss of the Taft community.

“I feel so secure dropping him off every day, so I’m going to miss that,” she said. “I can trust the staff (at Taft) 100 percent.”

Ford is already beginning to plan child care options when her family moves up to Yale, though she is also looking at other options in the New Haven community. Looking at Yale’s child care choices inevitably sparks a comparison, Ford said.

“Within our department, we try to compare ourselves favorably to a lot of the larger Ivy League institutions in New England in addition to places like MIT because we are a physical sciences (department),” Ford said. “When I look at this, it looks like Brown is lagging behind.”

Ford acknowledged that some peer institutions were older than Brown and might have had more time to develop their child care options, but added that it was an incomplete explanation.

“If (those schools) went through the same thing, it had to have been more than a decade or so ago,” Ford said.

“By closing their only child care center, (Brown) is moving backwards, so it looks like we’re 20 years behind at this point.”

Despite the closing, parents are

still committed to keeping Taft in the conversation. Moloney, who sits on the child care committee, said she sees it as an opportunity to “keep people talking about it.”

“The time for serious upsetness has come and gone,” Moloney said, adding that parents were “resigned” and moving forward.

‘What can you do?’

Many parents, however, insisted on staying for Taft’s last day. On Aug. 31, nine children signed in for day care, and the sign-in sheet, sitting by the door, bore multiple well wishes from parents.

“Goodbye! We’ll miss everyone!” read one. “Best wishes to all!” was another.

And at the very bottom of the page, in

large cursive and accompanied by stars: “Thank you, Taft!”

Inside, Moran was signing leftover cardboard picture books as parting gifts for the remaining children to take home, signed with hearts from “Miss Paula.”

The furniture remained in its normal places and children still played cheerfully on the floor.

Neither parents nor staff know what is happening to the Taft facility, though technicians recently visited the building to check out the roof. Some staff speculate the building may be torn down for use as a parking lot for football games, though Davis said in an email no plans have been made for the building at the time of printing. Other staff are taking pieces of furniture with them, and Mo-

ran said the rest will be collected by other day care facilities in the area.

Staff are also uncertain about their own futures. Though three of Taft’s teachers have been hired to join the Cozy Corner staff, others are still looking for jobs.

“It’s been stressful,” Moran said of the job searching while signing books. “It’s been tough.” Moran, who is one of the three that has been hired at Cozy Corner, said all staff members were disappointed nonetheless by the closing.

“You can go on and on and on, what can you do? The place is closing now,” she said.

She closed the last book and capped her Sharpie with a sense of finality.

“That’s Brown for you,” she said.

sports tuesday 13

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012

W. Soccer

/ / Labor page 1 and a member of the SEIU Local 615 contract bargaining committee, spoke in Spanish at the event about the difficulties of supporting her family with only a parttime job cleaning One Financial Plaza.

“I have three children, and they’re always on the computer, and they think that everything is within their reach, but the truth is that what we earn doesn’t cover it,” Caceres said through a translator.

George Nee, president of the Rhode Island chapter of the AFLCIO, a union that represents more than 80,000 individuals throughout the state, criticized the Republican Party, which recently held its convention in Tampa Bay, Fla. He lambasted

the party’s opposition to unions and perceived commitment to business leaders at the expense of workers.

Nee mocked a skit performed by actor Clint Eastwood at the convention, in which the film star conversed with an empty chair where he pretended the president was seated. “At their convention, not only was there an empty chair, there were empty minds. There were empty hearts. There were empty thoughts. And they have an empty organization,” he said to the crowd.

Mike Sylvester, the deputy director of the higher education division at the SEIU Local 615, criticized the University in his remarks. He said the University has begun to function as a for-profit institution and is betraying

comics Class Notes | Philip Trammel Jesse Schwimmer / Herald

The women’s soccer team stayed ahead of its opponents in the first two games of the season.

Bruno nets pair of wins to start soccer season

By Alexandra Conway Sports Staff Writer

The women’s soccer team kicked off its 2012 season in dominating fashion with two wins in three days following a preseason of solid training sessions. The Bears (2-0, 0-0 Ivy) are off to a perfect start after traveling to St. John’s University (2-3-0) Friday and defeating the St. John’s 0 Red Storm 3-0, Brown 3 and then returning home to secure a 1-0 win over the University of New Hampshire (1-3-0) in Sunday’s home opener.

“It was an exciting opening weekend … a 2-0 record doesn’t get any better,” said Head Coach Phil Pincince. “Our 2012 team is a group of elite studentathletes. I look forward to the upcoming games and the start of Ivy League play.”

This season, the women’s soccer team has its sights set on an Ivy League title after finishing fourth last season with a 0 3-3-1 conference UNH record and a 10- Brown 1 5-2 overall mark.

With the return of many strong and experienced players, including their top three scorers from last season, the Bears are looking poised to move up in the conference standings. Bruno entered the top half of the rankings after two consecutive seventh-place finishes.

“Preseason was very strong,” Pincince said. “It was a chance to put players on the same page as we take on a new look for 2012.”

“It’s a new year altogether,” said defender Ali Mullin ’14. “We have a new assistant coach, and we’re really off to a fresh start.”

New assistant coach Erica Marshall will join Pincince and Luis Faria, who begins his ninth season with the Bears, on the sidelines. Erica Marshall comes

from Towson University, where she was the fourth leading scorer in school history and then served as a student assistant for three seasons.

The new coach watched her squad triumph over the weekend.

Two first-half goals just over two minutes apart propelled Brown to a 3-0 victory over St. John’s at Belson Stadium Friday.

“We expect to have a lot more offensive opportunities this year, so it was great to score three goals in our opening game against a tough opponent,” said captain Eliza Marshall ’13.

“We played well on defense and offense after we won the ball in more creative ways than last year,” Mullin said.

The Bears earned their second shutout of the weekend against New Hampshire Sunday afternoon. After a scoreless first period, the Bears picked up their play in the second half. Mika Siegelman ’14 scored the lone goal in the 53rd minute with assists from Kirsten Belinsky ’15 and Kiersten Berg ’14.

“It was our second game in three days, so that was a challenge we didn’t have to face on Friday, and we weren’t quite as fresh,” Marshall said. “UNH came out really hard and put a lot of pressure on us in the first half, which made the game choppy, and it was difficult for us to get our rhythm.”

“We have a fair amount of work to do,” Mullin added. “But we are a new team and have a lot to be excited about for the upcoming season.”

With two shutout victories under their belts to start the season, the Bears are looking forward to building up to crucial conference games.

“It’s definitely exciting to come out of opening weekend undefeated,” Marshall said. “We still have a lot to learn before we face our Ivy opponents and will continue to use these games as opportunities to do that.”

the cause of educating young people, though that mission is what allows it to operate without taxation. “Higher education has fallen into the same trap of the wealthy getting wealthier while the poor and working people get further and further behind,” Sylvester told the crowd.

“Here’s the deal we made with these universities. You can be nonprofit, but you have to provide a public good. You have to provide an affordable education that children can go to and you have to provide good jobs in the community,” he added.

After the final speech, the group marched off campus down to One Financial Plaza, chanting in both English and Spanish, to continue the rally.

14 editorial Editorial Welcome, class of 2016!

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012

Editorial cartoon b y lo r e n f u lto n

Dear Class of 2016, Welcome to College Hill. Lucky for you, Keeney looks better than it has in decades, and the new fitness and aquatics center makes everyone feel like a varsity athlete when they work out.

For you first-years, the possibilities are endless. So leave your door ajar.

Shop classes outside of your comfort zone. Go to a naked party. At Brown, you’ll meet friends you’ll cherish for the rest of your life, learn eye-opening lessons and find yourself where you never expected to be. By the end of your senior year, you might not recognize the person you are today. Embrace that uncertainty and take advantage of every opportunity Brown has to offer.

We’re here to help you achieve this by keeping you informed of what’s going on around campus and nearby. In our pages, you can find sports, arts and culture, city and state, features and science stories — and so much more.

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opinions 15

the brown daily herald tuesday, september 4, 2012

A modest proposal lucas husted Opinions Editor

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great school or travel through Providence, when they see the streets, the roads and cabin doors, crowded with freshmen, followed by three, four or six additional freshmen, all in new clothes and importuning every passenger for directions to Wriston. Their furtive gazes of insecurity haunt all those who pass them by. These freshmen, instead of being warmly embraced into our noble association, are forced to employ all their time figuring out how to hold their liquor, shop classes, cut their own food and do laundry.

I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of freshmen walking around like packs of rabid dogs is a great additional grievance to the aristocracy of the University; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap and easy method of welcoming them into our sophisticated and venerable institution of higher learning, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of all Brunonia.

Given my limited space in this article, I shall now humbly propose my thoughts, which I hope will not be found at all objectable.

I have been assured by a very knowing

friend from Dartmouth that a young, wellnursed freshman is able to “swim in a kiddie pool of vomit, urine, fecal matter, semen and rotten food products; eat omelets made of vomit; chug cups of vinegar … [and] drink beer poured down fellow pledges’ ass cracks.”

I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that instead of a simple ice cream social, we fill a giant inflatable pool in Keeney quad and do something along the lines of the aforementioned. I promise

quote from an article that appeared in Rolling Stone this March about hazing at Dartmouth, our esteemed rival Ivy. Sadly, the idea that freshmen should be welcomed through demeaning ritual initiations is pervasive.

Andrew Lohse, who detailed his experience with Dartmouth fraternities, claims to have lived that experience, a tale that you might expect to see written about Guantanamo Bay or a North Korean prison camp.

While I would like to condemn Dartmouth

I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of freshman walking around like packs of rabid dogs is a great additional grievance to the aristocracy of the University. it would not be inhumane in the slightest, as we would make sure to give them a few granola bars and organic kale first. This is Brown, after all, and we would hardly want a young freshman to swim in puddles of his own feces without a healthy green snack first.

Enough Jonathan Swift. Hopefully, the satire has done its job in helping to introduce a grave topic. While Swift may have been joking as he proposed eating most of the children of destitute mothers in Ireland, I confess that the disturbing suggestion regarding the “kiddie pool” above is a direct

and rationalize this horror as an isolated incident, a quick Google search of “college hazing” makes this impossible. In fact, even the typical suspects — fraternities — are not the only ones making headlines for hazing these days. Just last week, a Florida A&M University marching band member, Dante Martin, faced felony charges for the death of a bandmate who was ritually beaten as part of band initiation.

Though we may not worry that the innocuous Brown Band is going to make national news for anything other than wearing cheeky buttons, we have good reason

to worry each and every new school year, as a group of young and impressionable 18-year-olds walk into a new school eager to “fit in.” To think that people have a choice in the matter of whether or not they “want” to be hazed is to ignore basic human nature. When a healthy dose of willing young men and women enter an environment of peer pressure and drunken groupthink, bad things happen.

When you see posters or letters that warn of the dangers of hazing, the advice is about as useful as hearing your mom say “be safe” as you leave the house. This is because most people think that avoiding hazing is common sense, as if remembering not to drink vomit is logically equivalent to remembering to walk on the sidewalk. In reality, however, hazing is hard to avoid simply because those getting hazed trust those who haze them.

People are willing to suffer temporary shame and discomfort for a worthy reward, and in many cases, student groups seem capable of offering them that coveted prize: friendship or social status.

So upperclassmen: Please realize that these new freshmen trust you to have their best interests in mind, and therefore, you hold a lot of power over them. If you want to initiate them into a group, do it as frighteningly as you like, but please keep it safe.

Freshmen: If wasted Adam tells you to drink his urine, find some new friends.

Lucas Husted ’13 is happy that Jo’s doesn’t serve vomit-withs, unlike Dartmouth.

He can be reached at lucas_husted@brown.edu.

United we stand, divided we fall jared Moffat Opinions Editor More tribal than ever, the mainstream political scene recently has devolved into utter superficiality. Pundits, politicians and their SuperPACs, increasingly rely on fingerpointing, identifying “the other” as the cause of America’s economic, cultural and political problems. Hatred and fear seem to have become the predominant political emotions.

Andrew Kohut, director of a recent Pew public opinion study, found that political identity has surpassed race, gender, and class as the source of most division among Americans. Though I lament this state of affairs, I must admit that I have personally instigated many heated political conversations myself — and they sometimes leave me feeling disappointed in my ability to guide the discussion in a non-confrontational, non-threatening way. We need to find a better way to talk to one another about the grave problems that face our country.

I tend to identify myself as a passionate liberal, but I find much to respect in conservative thought — when you remove the Republican Party. I think both liberal and conservative worldviews can respond to each other in the context of meaningful, respectful debate. Both philosophies, as expounded by the best thinkers on each side, represent coherent systems of thought rooted in foundational moral convictions. Both have played a profound role in shaping the American psyche, and recent work in psychology even

shows that most people think liberally about some issues and conservatively about others.

Yet we see that often liberals and conservatives feel threatened by each other and fail to understand the opposing point of view.

Political identity can be a major source of tension at our university, too. Many conservatives at Brown feel that their liberal peers and professors censor, or are intolerant, of them. It deeply troubles me that my fellow students and colleagues feel discriminated against. If there are serious allegations of inappropriate behavior in a classroom, there should be an investigation.

dational moral concepts — care/harm, fairness/cheating, liberty/oppression, loyalty/ betrayal, authority/subversion and sanctity/ degradation. Having collected data from over 30,000 participants, Haidt found that liberals tend to be highly sensitive to care/ harm, fairness/cheating and liberty/oppression, but not necessarily to the other three.

Conservatives, on the other hand, resonate at a mediocre level with all six moral foundations more or less equally.

Every person responds to each of these moral categories to some degree, so in essence, we all share a universal moral palette.

The anger and frustration we direct at one another should instead be directed at the political theater that distracts us from the important issues around which we should all be united.

But it is very tempting to think at the same time: Shouldn’t political opinions be treated differently, since you choose them rather than inherit them?

Brown would abandon its designed purpose if we demurred the development of intellectual and moral passion — and vigorous debate — which we need to run the engines of culture and politics. But at the same time, we learn little from bitter, self-righteous arguments that end only in reinforced antagonism.

Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, studies people’s core moral, political and religious convictions, and a portion of his research illustrates that liberals and conservatives possess different “sensitivities” towards a range of six foun-

There are many individuals who are highly sensitive to all six concepts. There is such bitter conflict between people with different moral profiles because these moral foundations often collide in very messy ways in the real world. When a conservative’s respect for the sanctity of life is pitted against a liberal’s conviction that a woman’s body belongs only to her, the stage is set for a dramatic and embittered argument. That’s probably why these issues occupy most of the attention of our political pundits and cable news shows, since their careers depend on controversy.

I think, however, that in times of great national strife and hardship, we ought to celebrate that we all share the same moral taste buds, rather than focusing on the moral dilemmas where our intuitions conflict. Over-

all, society tends to reach consensus on most issue of right and wrong.

But if we aren’t conscious of it, our divisiveness can blind us to the most egregious moral failings of our society. What if someone has an interest in aggrandizing these gray-area issues in order to distract us from the more serious political issues about which both liberals and conservatives ought to be outraged? I’m talking of course about the two permanent wars — the War on Terror and the War on Drugs — the dismantling of the First and Fourth amendments, our ridiculously inscrutable tax code and the role of money in politics, just to name a few forms of bipartisan political corruption.

I believe much of the anger and frustration we direct at one another should instead be directed at the political theater that distracts us from the important issues around which we should all be united. Our basic institutions of American democracy are broken. Liberals and conservatives have to work together to rebuild them.

My hope is that the dialogue at Brown can exist above the shallow standards of debate our current political leaders have set for us. I firmly believe conservatives and liberals can learn from each other and communicate more productively when they respect the intent and goodwill of one another. At Brown, if nowhere else, we have an obligation to uphold and respect the tenets of democratic discourse, and duty calls now more than ever.

Jared Moffat ’13 is from Jackson, Miss. He can be reached at jared_moffat@brown.edu.