Monday, September 17, 2012

daily herald the Brown

vol. cxxii, no. 67

INSIDE

Page 4

Online learning CS professor debuts online option for intro course .

monday, september 17, 2012

Online class program draws mixed reactions

By Eli Okun Senior Staff Writer

Page 6

Career fair

The Herald previews Wednesday’s career fair

Page 8

Fall concert Indie and dubstep groups moshed on Simmons Quad today

tomorrow

76 / 56

76 / 65

Brown community members expressed a mixture of excitement and wariness in response to the University’s announcement that it will commence two online education pilot projects next year. Many lauded the decision, first announced Sept. 5 in an email from Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, as an appropriate modernization and expansion of access to higher education, but some voiced concern that the courses could represent shoddy imitations of the classroom experience.

Next summer, the University will offer a few for-credit courses online only for Brown summer session students. The University will also join the online course platform Coursera, which offers free, not-for-credit classes to hundreds of thousands of

people around the globe.

“I think it’s very much in line with the kind of philosophy that we had with the New Curriculum and that Brown has sort of been a leader in,” said Ira Magaziner ’69 P’06 P’07 P’10, an architect of the University’s distinctive curriculum. Expanding access would, he added, put “more educational control in the hands of students.”

Professor of Comparative Literature Arnold Weinstein, whose class COLT 1420T: “The Fiction of Relationship” will be one of the first three Brown classes offered on Coursera, considered the development in the context of the broader timeline of higher education, noting that in medieval universities, only professors were allowed access to libraries and books.

“This is part of that same trajectory or story / / Online page 5

since 1891

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Los Angeles-based artist TOKiMONSTA took the stage at BCA’s annual Fall Concert, which also featured music by Titus Andronicus and Area 6.

Nude art series addresses body image, sex Paterno ’50

By Katie cusumano Senior Staff Writer

Many of us have witnessed the Naked Donut Run, been invited to a naked party or seen the ubiquitous FemSex and MSex posters. Discussions about sexuality and the body are not hard to come by at Brown.

But “Nudity in the Upspace,” a series of workshops and performances designed by Becca Wolinsky ’14 and Camila Pacheco-Fores ’14, took this dialogue one step further. The series invited the audience to “normalize nudity” and remove the stigma in a safe, comfortable and collaborative space, Wolinsky said.

feature

The week featured an array of events including yoga, body painting and scenes from Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” all conducted entirely in the nude.

Naked manifesto At the beginning of each performance, Wolinsky and Pacheco-Fores explained the safe space guidelines for the event, all while disrobing.

“What is said here stays here, but what is learned here leaves here,” they repeated.

Cast members and coordinators then participated in a “talk-back” with the audience after the performance Thursday.

The performers discussed the power dynamics of being clothed

versus being naked. Though the cast all performed in the nude, audience members were not obligated to remove their clothes.

“We wanted to play with the idea of being hidden versus being exposed,” Pacheco-Fores said, referring to the selection of scenes from “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Props master Gabe Lozada ’15 said Friday night’s performance was the “linchpin” of the week, as it discussed “every facet of what it means to have a body.”

The devised performance piece featured cast members giving deeply personal testimonials about their bodies, adolescent experiences and sexual encounters. Some were comical — Vincent Tomasino ’14 demanded,

“God, why did you put hair in my asshole?” — though the repeated chorus, “How can anyone feel beautiful if they all carry such ugly scars?” was more profound.

While the topics involved sex, the performance itself was not at all sexual — instead, it was supposed to appreciate bodies and how they work, Lozada said. It was written and produced by the seven performers, said Gabrielle Sclafani ’14, a cast member.

“The piece on Friday night was basically our manifesto for the week,” Pacheco-Fores said.

Born without clothes Wolinsky entered the Production Workshop’s fall lottery last spring. / / Nudity page 2 Though she

‘Dr. Faustus’ revived under big-city lights

By Lee bernstein contributing writer

Original cast and crew members from last October’s production of “Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights” came together for a little summer fun in New York City, reviving the Production Workshop show at the 3LD Art and Technology Center for 10 performances in July.

The idea to bring a revamped version of Faustus to downtown Manhattan came to fruition through the efforts of Director Abby Colella ’12, composer Deepali Gupta ’12 and actor Ned Riseley ’12, who “had connections in New York theater,” said Jessie Medofer ’14, production manager for the show. Taking inspiration from an earlier PW production of “Hair” that traveled to the Empire State years earlier, the production team began raising funds in early June.

arts & culture

Courtesy of Jessie Medofer

Students adapted last year’s production of “Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights” to the New York City stage, adding new set and music elements.

The group used the online platform Kickstarter to raise money, stage manager Jenny Gorelick ’14 said. The initial goal of raising $3,000 was exceeded with the production raising a total of $4,541, according to the production’s Kickstarter page. The production also received help from the Somerled Charitable Foundation and Fractured Atlas, nonprofit organizations dedicated to assisting arts programs, said Alexis Aurigemma ’13, an actress in the show.

The show was the brainchild of Colella, Gupta and Zachary Segel ’13, who composed music for the show.

Gupta and Segel took an unfinished Gertrude Stein text and revamped it by writing original electronic music pieces to create a “part concert, part immersive funhouse, part light show, part dance party, part Stein slam,” according to their Kickstarter website.

With the addition of both the new 3LD white studio space as well as some new cast members, the production team / / Theater page 3 reworked the

will stay in U.’s Hall of Fame By austin cole staff writer

Joe Paterno ’50 will remain in the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame, according to a statement from the Hall’s Board of Directors released Sept. 13. The decision came about two months after the University announced Paterno’s place in the Hall was under review by the board following the release of a report examining Pennsylvania State University’s response to allegations of child abuse against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

In a statement to the press, independent investigator Louis Freeh said Paterno and three high-ranking Penn State administrators “never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky’s victims until after Sandusky’s arrest.”

The board wrote in its statement that in its choice “not to remove Paterno from the list of Brown’s Hall of Fame athletes, the Board of Directors did not intend to diminish the tragic events that occurred at Penn State toward the end of Coach Paterno’s career. It sought, rather, to acknowledge the recognition of the achievements for which it elected Paterno to the Hall of Fame nearly 35 years ago.”

Paterno was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978. Earlier this year, the athletics department removed his name from the first-year male athlete award.

The Howard D. Williams ’17/Joseph V. Paterno ’50 Football Coaching Chair was also renamed in the past year, though for reasons unrelated to the Penn State sexual abuse scandal.

2 campus news c alendar Today

Sept. 17

6:30 P.m.

ToMORROW

Sept. 18

12 p.m.

Constitution Day Lecture

Lecture by Prof. Xuefei Huang Geo-Chem Building, Room 351 2:30 p.m.

The Scientist As Source Granoff, Martinos Auditorium

Poet Martin Corless-Smith Reading McCormack Family Theater

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH Vegetarian Reuben Sandwich, Grilled Malibu Patties, Stir-Fried Scallops with Noodles, Stir-Fried Vegetables

Beef Noodle Soup, Macaroni and Cheese, Hot Roast Beef on French Bread

DINNER Carne Gizado, Vegetarian Lasagna, Grilled Cheese Sandwich on Wheat and White Bread

U. takes on cheating prevention By max ernst staff writer

Salomon Center, Room 101 7 p.m.

the brown daily herald monday, september 17, 2012

Beef Noodle Soup, Roast Pork Loin Calypso, South Pacific Coconut Rice, Tomato and Rice Soup

Sudoku

In the wake of a cheating scandal at Harvard allegedly involving 125 students, Brown continues to pilot-test a variety of methods to detect academic dishonesty. Last semester, the University offered a pilot test of Turnitin, a web-based service that allows professors to compare students’ written work with other submissions from the class as well as millions of other documents in the program’s database and online. The program was largely met with praise, but it will not be offered again this semester while administrators deliberate over whether to permanently adopt it as an optional service for faculty.

The pilot test arose from a recommendation by Tom Doeppner, associate professor of computer science and former chair of the Committee on the Academic Code, in a spring 2010 committee report to offer a trial of the technology, Doeppner said. “Turnitin can definitely spot a number of plagiarism cases, and it provides convincing evidence,” he said.

The University offered Turnitin last semester to any instructors who wanted to try it. Ultimately, 10 professors from an initial pool of 35 participated in the trial run.

“Among those who tried Turnitin,

/ / Nudity page 1

Crossword

arrived with the initial proposal, after she won the week-long spot, she joined with Pacheco-Fores to devise the final program.

“We were all born naked, so why not be naked sometimes?” Wolinsky asked. “Nudity in the Upspace” was designed to bring people into an “honest and open conversation” about nakedness, she said.

“My family has always been really naked,” Wolinsky said. She said she attributes her comfort with nudity to growing up in a strong, femaledominated, single-parent household.

But she said her comfort with nudity does not directly translate to comfort with her body.

Pacheco-Fores said after nude modeling for visual arts classes, she asked herself why she was uncomfortable with nudity, ultimately realizing that it was perhaps due to social taboos.

She and Wolinsky created the program to help themselves and others become more comfortable with their own bodies.

Sisa Mateo ’13, who acted in and

all but one felt it was successful,” said Deputy Dean of the College Stephen Lassonde. Faculty feedback, as well as the degree to which Turnitin can integrate with Canvas — the University’s new online learning management system — will be the main factors in the decision, he added.

While University officials and professors maintained that academic dishonesty remains an issue that should be addressed, they differed on the size of the problem.

“In a (2009 Herald) poll, 17 percent of Brown students admitted to violating the academic code at some point, but only 1 percent of students are reported and brought before the Code Committee,” Lassonde said. “It’s up to interpretation whether that constitutes a huge problem or not.”

More often than not, cases of academic dishonesty arise by accident or because expectations are not clearly communicated in the classroom, Lassonde said.

A particular problem arises in “large lecture classes where there are first-year students who don’t yet know the rules,” said David Sobel, associate professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences. Such scenarios are more frequent than situations where students are deliberately cheating, he added.

Sobel said he has caught a fair number of students cheating during the 11 years he has taught at the University and said he typically identifies about one case per semester. While cheating is not an overwhelming pattern, reinforcing academic honesty should be a goal, he said.

Sobel, who used Turnitin last semester, said the software was a positive supplement to other cheating detection methods he uses in his classes.

Last semester, he identified one case of cheating with Turnitin in addition to another case he caught himself. “Ideally, if Turnitin could be embedded into Canvas, I would be happy to use it again,” he said.

Though Turnitin could serve as a useful resource to professors in the future, it does not catch every form of cheating, Sobel said. The software is only designed to catch plagiarism in written work, and even then it cannot detect situations in which students simply rephrase ideas from a primary source, he added.

Non-writing courses have adopted their own technologies to enforce academic honesty. The computer science department uses the Measure of Software Similarity, a tool that detects cases of collaboration among students in writing computer programs, Doeppner / / Cheating page 7 said, adding

directed some of Thursday night’s theater performances, said she wants to promote healthy attitudes regarding the body, especially in relation to images valorized by the media.

“It will help to assuage people’s fears that there is one right body type,” she said.

Pacheco-Fores said “Nudity in the Upspace” was less about just being naked and more about accepting one’s self physically, mentally and emotionally. She is also a coordinator for Yoga and Mindfulness, and approached Riyad Seervai ’13 about the possibility of a nude yoga class.

Seervai said he has always expressed interest in getting people to become more aware of how their bodies function and feel during class, adding that being naked is the most natural form of doing something.

The concept of naturism, or “nudity in a desexualized context,” is not unique to Brown — there are places everywhere where nudity is permitted, Seervai said.

asked, voicing her concern about what the week could bring.

She said she hoped audience members would come away “feeling like they can own their bodies.”

“We can associate ourselves with some of these stories,” said Georgy Burkovskiy ’15 after the performance Friday.

Body positivity is something students could really use, Lozada said.

Beauty should not be defined in relation to others, he said.

Amid the huge diversity of bodies in the audience and performance, Gopika Krishna ’13 said she also wanted to represent her own identity as a woman of color.

Zachery Rufa ’14, an actor in Thursday’s performance of “The Red Balloon,” said his interest in the performance stemmed from the idea that nudity “repulses us and attracts us at the same time.”

Nudity in difficult situations is both subversive and empowering, Rufa said, which particularly appeals to Brown students. Wolinsky said the “shock value” also drew students.

“Brown students like to address issues that aren’t addressed in everyday life,” she said, adding that the University does a good job of making its students feel safe.

William Van Doren ’16, an audience member at Thursday’s plays, said he came away from the night “more comfortable with the concept of nudity.”

Wolinsky said she was astonished by the variety of people who attended — current and former students alike filled the audience on any given night.

She and Pacheco-Fores have already discussed repeating the program next year.

She added that other schools such as Wesleyan University, Oberlin College and the University of California at Berkeley have their own naked events.

Shock value “Are people just going to think this is crazy and weird?” Pacheco-Fores

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the brown daily herald monday, september 17, 2012

Alliance fosters DJ community By maddie berg senior staff writer

During the late hours of the first Friday back on campus, the Underground — usually a quiet space where students can study and chat — was unrecognizable. Transformed for Funk Nite, the space had become an intimate club complete with mood lighting, raucous dancing and blasting music. Manning the booth that produced freshly spun tracks were Area 6 (Ryan Glassman ’15) and DJ MELA (Nikos Melachrinos ’15), the founding members of the Brown DJ Alliance.

The Brown DJ Alliance was formed in the fall of 2011 after Glassman and Melachrinos DJed SexPowerGod. They subsequently worked together for other parties and soon realized that the Brown DJ community had no forum through which to network and share ideas, Melachrinos said. The duo started the alliance to fill that void.

“It’s a really clean way of making sure everyone’s needs are met,” Glassman said. The group provides DJs with opportunities to distribute and promote their new mash-ups and mixes via parties and Facebook and is a resource for finding DJs for parties, he said. In a cycle of reciprocity, people who host parties at an official Brown or downtown venue offer the DJs money, and if not, they offer promotion.

“The sum is more than the parts,” Melachrinos said. “We can share equipment, share music, make mixes together, and bringing all of this knowledge together creates more than individually every DJ by himself.”

According to its founders, the group came about at a fitting time.

As electronic music becomes more and more popular, more and more people are taking up DJing, they said.

And with the rise of artists like DJ and house music producer David Guetta, who fuses pop and hip-hop with electro music, this movement only seems to be getting stronger.

“Electronic music is skyrocketing here in the States … DJs are the new rock stars, and you see a lot of DJs coming out,” Melachrinos said. “This group is kind of the natural progression.”

The group meets this growing interest in the art of spinning and mixing by hosting lessons for aspiring DJs. “Last semester I had seven or eight people in my room,” Melachrinos said.

“We kind of had a little session and

/ / Theater page 1 show for its New York setting. The production team wrote a new song and made “significant” changes to two others, Colella said. The set was redesigned to fit their new space, which required changes to the choreography and some of Colella’s staging.

“About 30 percent of the show has changed since October,” Colella said.

“Having a different cast is naturally going to change the feel of things, in rehearsal and onstage,” Alex Ostroff ’14 said.

With these changes, the production achieved considerable success, he said.

learned some basics.”

The group — which now boasts around 15 active members who spin a variety of styles of music such as electro-progressive house, dubstep and hip-hop — also plans on creating a monthly mix featuring popular songs.

This not only provides the community with mash-ups, but also allows the DJs to work together on projects. “We record it live, and at a certain point we each sub out. It’s like four hours of doing this … which is always a lot of fun,” Glassman said.

The group will continue to DJ Funk Nites in the Underground, and they said they hope to update the events into something more appealing to the modern student body. “It’s a kind of long-standing tradition at Brown,” Melachrinos said of Funk Nite. “I think it is going to represent the new wave that is going on, much more electronic, house music and less pop.”

He promised the group was “going to make a lot of fun out of it.”

Sean Simonson ’15 said the group did just that at the first event. “I think everyone was having a great time. It was definitely really good dance music,” he said, adding that after seeing the DJs’ work at Funk Nite and SexPowerGod, “they would be (his) go-to people” if he were to host an event.

The DJs said Funk Nites will allow individuals to show off their music and get their name out. After the DJs become more well-known around campus, they said they hope to host their own parties. “We would find the space and, of course, provide the DJs and sick equipment and throw something really big,” Melachrinos said.

In the more distant future, the leaders have discussed hosting a festival at Pembroke Field featuring their own music. “If (Brown DJ Alliance) were to put on a festival, we really could do it in the context of DJ sets and dance music, so we wouldn’t have to worry about pleasing everyone,” Glassman said, comparing this potential event to Spring Weekend, which has to offer acts that appeal to the variety of tastes of the student body.

As time progresses, the leaders said they hope the group will continue to grow, and they encourage DJs around campus to join. “I feel we’ve done a good job in making sure you never have to sacrifice anything for Brown DJs,” Glassman said. “The real purpose of it is to build up the DJs on the campus individually.”

“We sold out all our 8 o’clock shows, and the crowd seemed to get into the music and atmosphere pretty quickly,” he said.

Medofer said though Faustus may seem like an unusual project, it was still able to attract a large and diverse audience from the surrounding area, going “beyond the Brown community.”

But Colella said producing this show in a professional venue made her more appreciative of the support system she had at Brown.

“The board, the physical resources and the ragtag mindset were all invaluable in the development and progression of the piece,” she said.

arts & culture 3

Dan Fethke / Herald

The new Angell Street store What Cheer? houses an extensive array of records, among other vintage treasures.

Vintage store relocates to Thayer By katherine james contributing writer

“RECORDS + VINTAGE + ANTIQUES” reads the sign outside — but the new Angell Street store What Cheer? is Aladdin’s cave, a collection of curiosities housed in a magical atmosphere.

Recently moved from Wayland Square to 180 Angell St., What Cheer? is a hidden treasure trove perched quietly above the hustle and bustle of Thayer. The walls display a delightful mix of oddities, including a book of drink mixology and palm reading from the 1960s, a row of antique sewing kits, a drawer of vintage pinups and a stack of travel brochures.

Love of collecting led owners Jennifer and Chris Daltry to open What Cheer? at its first home on Wayland Square in 1998. Their treasures come from all over — sometimes brought in by visitors looking to sell, sometimes found at yard and estate sales.

Some customers simply like history and peruse the shelves, leafing through a tome about Ireland or antique cookbooks, said Sarah Clover, who has been working at the shop for two years.

Others come for inspiration. Once, a Rhode Island School of Design summer student created a textile design and dress inspired by an old Playboy cover found at the shop, she said. Hidden in a far corner is a collection of vintage fabrics, a draw for textile producers

looking to reproduce fun patterns from the ’60s and ’70s.

“We have people who come in and collect Brown University postcards,” Clover said. She loves the museum feel — working at What Cheer? feels like “mini-curating,” she said — and chatting with visitors about Providence and music.

The record collection is the heart of the store and one of its most popular attractions, spanning from Joan Baez to Hank Williams Jr. to The Who. Listening to music all day is one of Clover’s favorite parts of the job, she said.

What Cheer? is open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

4 campus news

the brown daily herald monday, september 17, 2012

In first for U., prof offers online computer science class

By Kate Nussenbaum Senior STaff Writer

Two weeks ago, Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron announced via email that three Brown courses will soon be available online for free worldwide through the Coursera platform. But one computer science professor, Shriram Krishnamurthi, has already begun offering an online version of his course CSCI 1730: “Programming Languages.”

Krishnamurthi said his decision to offer the course both in-person and on the web was independent of the University’s move toward online education. By the time the University announced its plans to offer online courses, Programming Languages already had 600 sign-ups.

Online attraction Of the approximately 1,600 participants enrolled in Krishnamurthi’s course, most are professional programmers, clustered in the northeastern U.S., California, Western Europe and India. Others are high school students, and some are professors

nered with Coursera, which offers 124 courses in total.

Rather than using a platform like Coursera or Udacity, Krishnamurthi decided to create his course with pieces from multiple sites — using YouTube for posting videos and a tool called Piazza to run an online discussion board. He and his graduate student teaching assistant, Joe Politz, whom Krishnamurthi called the co-instructor of the online course, felt confident they could build any additional software as the course progressed, he said.

Roberto Tamassia, chair of the computer science department, said he likes to impress upon faculty members that “the teaching of an individual can have an impact on thousands of students” beyond their respective universities. Teaching an online course expands one’s influence similarly to how writing a textbook does, he said.

“Shriram (Krishnamurthi) is pretty well-known in the programming language community,” said Jason Shum ’14, a student taking CSCI 1730. “People are taking his

“If we don’t do this, we’re going to take a serious reputational hit.”

Greg Jordan-Detamore / HeraLd Data self-reported by participants, provided by Shriram Krishnamurthi

The inaugural rendition of one online course has attracted a wide of range of advanced programmers from around the world.

Shriram Krishnamurthi Professor of Computer Science

who know the material but are interested to see how Krishnamurthi runs his class.

Krishnamurthi anticipates that about 100 students will complete the course among those initially enrolled.

Between 400 and 500 students submitted the course’s first quiz.

Krishnamurthi said he intentionally made the first assignments difficult so students would know what they were in for — Programming Languages, he noted, is not an introductory course, and students across the country may not know what is expected in a Brown class.

The professor stressed the importance of keeping up with peers that are forging ahead with online learning.

“You either grow or ossify,” Krishnamurthi said. “If we don’t do this, we’re going to take a serious reputational hit. All the other major universities are doing it — students talk about the schools where other courses are being offered. Being too much of a shrinking violet and too cautious will actually be a bad thing.”

Currently, 16 universities are part-

class because they want to learn from him specifically.”

Online classes can also supplement in-person classes by providing a large amount of data for professors to analyze, Tamassia said. Tracking students’ progress in detail may help professors design better lectures and assignments.

A learning experience Krishnamurthi now films his Brown classes and posts the videos online for anyone to watch. Viewers can see Krishnamurthi respond to questions from Brown students, though the students themselves are out of sight.

One of the major challenges in online learning is grading assignments, especially when course enrollment balloons. But Krishnamurthi said he likes to assess his students via openended questions that require essays as answers, and he did not want to water down his course for the sake of easy grading.

He is making all the assignments he gives to Brown students public, but online participants will only receive

Kate Nussenbaum / herald

Professor of Computer Science Shriram Krishnamurthi offers a free online version of his “Programming Languages” course to students worldwide. Lectures are recorded and posted on YouTube. grades on assignments that can be computed automatically, like scores on a multiple choice quiz. The teaching assistants will run the programs that the online students submit to see if they work, but they will not actually examine the coding behind them, as they will for University students.

All students can ask questions and help each other on Piazza.

Aimee Lucido ’13, a student in the classroom version of CSCI 1730, said it is useful to have a joint forum for questions. Because so many students are in the online course, she said, “there are a lot of people who are answering questions. You’re more likely to get an answer quickly.”

Krishnamurthi spends between three and 10 hours a week monitor-

ing the forum, which he said is the major additional time commitment of the online course.

Though creating an online course required these changes, Krishnamurthi has always made his content available online for free. He said he avoids systems like Blackboard that prevent people from outside the University from accessing his course site.

For Krishnamurthi, the decision to create an online course stemmed from his desire to tackle a new challenge and learn whether he could use the web to improve his teaching, he said.

The Brown advantage Despite the work he has put in to his online course, Krishnamurthi said he does not think online learning can

match in-person classes.

“There’s a real value addition to being a Brown student,” Krishnamurthi said, citing the ability to ask questions in class, attend TA office hours and receive detailed feedback on open-ended assignments.

Lucido said one of the best parts of the Brown computer science department is the TA program, which the online students cannot access.

Tamassi echoed this sentiment, saying Brown students likely get a much richer experience than those who are enrolled online.

“Are the people in India getting my course? I don’t think they are,” Krishnamurthi said. “A central part is being there.”

campus news 5

the brown daily herald monday, september 17, 2012

/ / Online page 1 of increasingly empowered students,” Weinstein said.

The instantaneous public relations boost that accompanies a Coursera partnership will benefit the University, said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15.

“We can use the Coursera platform to, in effect, advertise the quality of Brown’s educational efforts to the broader world,” he said. “So we’re not thinking of Coursera as eventually becoming part of a Brown student’s education. We’re thinking of it as a way to show the broader world what a Brown education is like.”

out Coursera via a pilot program offers Brown the flexibility of investigating different methods of instruction, Bergeron told The Herald.

“What I think is interesting about the new forms of pedagogy that come around any kind of new teaching experience is that by doing it, you learn a lot,” she said. Joining Coursera, she added, is an opportunity to explore, rather than a definite long-term commitment.

Outside observers have also noted that massive, open online courses provide universities with the opportunity to create new revenue streams and increase name recogni-

“We’re thinking of it as a way to show the broader world what a Brown education is like.”

Mark Schlissel P’15 Provost

Others worried the resources necessary for such an endeavor would distract from the University’s mission of serving students on campus.

“I think it does distract away from those faculty members’ core involvement, if you will, with the curriculum at hand and with the students at hand,” said Stephen Nelson, higher education expert and senior scholar in the Leadership Alliance at Brown.

“There’s no free lunch.”

Not-for-credit courses To make time for Coursera preparations, each of the three involved faculty members will teach one fewer in-person class at Brown this year, though Schlissel said the University is providing each affected department with additional funding to compensate for the lost course. Weinstein said he would retire teaching “The Fiction of Relationship” after teaching it online.

But Professor of Computer Science Philip Klein, who will be transferring CSCI 0530: “Directions: The Matrix in Computer Science” to Coursera, said working with so many students on an online platform would help him identify teaching areas that require improvement more easily than if he were in a Brown classroom.

“We have a chance to collect data at a much greater scale than ever before, and that’s going to have a big impact on education,” Klein said. “That’s a really important thing for people to realize — that Brown education will be improved as a consequence of this.”

But not everyone is convinced that the education through Coursera will measure up to Brown standards.

Iman Jenkins ’14 said she is worried about the loss of “the student-teacher relationship in in-person lectures.”

Critics outside the University have previously raised concerns about Coursera’s system of peer-grading and about the platform’s retention rate — in many courses, fewer than half the students who sign up actually complete the class.

The University’s decision to try

tion abroad. The latter would boost the University’s globalization efforts, Schlissel said.

For-credit online courses The second pilot project, which will bring online courses directly to Brown students for credit, met more mixed reactions across campus.

Steven Sloman, professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, said he thought the approach would offer the opportunity to tailor instruction more individually to students in some courses. But Sloman, whose classes have ranged from the 250-person lecture CLPS 0220: “Making Decisions” to two-person seminars, worried that digital learning would eliminate the unique backand-forth of a physical classroom.

“Online settings make it harder or make it impossible to have real conversations,” he said. And though Coursera fits well with Brown’s emphasis on openness, the lack of discussion inherent in certain online classes would contradict the University’s philosophy, he added.

Grant Glovin ’16 said online courses could undercut the unique sense of engagement that Brown’s no-requirements model traditionally affords.

“It’s great to be in a class with people who all want to take that same class,” Glovin said, “and how does that work if you’re learning online?”

David Gonzalez ’14 said he was attracted to Brown as a high school student because students seemed so excited about what they had just learned that they wanted to continue the discussion outside of class. Online courses, which lack an in-person community, could compromise that, he said.

But some noted that online summer courses could be a major boon for students who lack the means to stay in Providence between academic years. “This could be a way for students to get things done over the summer at home,” said Tori Lee ’14.

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‘Alternative modes of instruction’ Bergeron said the Ad Hoc Committee on Online Education, whose recommendations led to the new pilot projects, warmed to the idea of online Brown courses when it considered the types of courses that such digital learning would replace — large, introductory lectures often viewed as impersonal.

“Interestingly, there was a kind of funny consensus that seemed to grow up around the idea that well, gee, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have some alternative modes of instruction for those kinds of classes,” Bergeron said.

Nelson said he appreciated the willingness to experiment with different kinds of teaching, but said his experience teaching online courses elsewhere made him skeptical, particularly for classes based more on discussion than data.

“I believe there’s not any comparison,” he said. “It’s a flat screen, and you’re typing words into a discussion board.” And he worried that online education advocates would take the trend too far, as he thinks they already have at other universities.

“Frankly, the adults in the room also have a responsibility to say enough is enough,” he added.

Some contended that the entire approach to online education is misguided. Former Stanford and Yale professor Roger Schank advocates wholesale reform of the online university system. Schank said the majority of schools — which he said are currently “not doing their job” — should offer specific degree programs

online, with elite research universities like Brown maintaining in-person, liberal arts curricula. “Brown is fine, okay? It’s fine,” Schank said. “They

technology — like “flipped” classes, in which students watch lectures at home and work together in class.

The ad hoc committee’s report also

“Online settings make it harder or make it impossible to have real conversations.”

Steven Sloman Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences

shouldn’t be doing anything online.”

The only reasons Brown wants to digitize, he added, are saving money and responding to alumni complaints.

Ultimately, no one interviewed for this article said they envisioned online education replacing residential four-year universities like Brown in the future, and many expressed excitement to see where the new ventures go. The pilot projects were widely seen as supplements or alternative ways of learning, though their merits were up for debate. Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford computer science professor who was a pioneer in massive open online courses and who leads Coursera rival Udacity, said his model would not supplant places like Brown, “just as much as a television hasn’t replaced radio, and movies haven’t replaced stage acting. … What it does is really a different function,” he said. “There are different characteristics, different advantages and disadvantages.”

The conversation around these pilot projects appears likely to continue throughout the year, as the University considers other ways of incorporating

advised that the University offer support services through places like the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning to assist professors in making the most of digitization.

Existing online course platform partnerships University

Program

Columbia

none

Cornell

none

Dartmouth

none

Duke

Coursera

Harvard

edX

MIT

edX

Penn

Coursera

Princeton

Coursera

Stanford

Coursera

Yale

none

Note: EdX is a competitor to Coursera that operates at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley. Unlike Coursera, edX is a nonprofit.

6 career fair

the brown daily herald monday, september 17, 2012

Teach for America draws 36 grads from class of ’12

By Caroline Saine Senior staff Writer

Thirty-six members of the class of 2012 joined the Teach for America corps, placing the University tenth in TFA job acceptance rankings among mid-sized schools, according to TFA’s recently released statistics.

Joining the teaching corps has long been one of the top career choices for University graduates. TFA was the top employer of graduating seniors in 2011, followed by Google and Goldman Sachs, according to an April 27 Herald article. This year, 36 graduates out of the 57 alums who received offers joined the organization, said Melanie Lazare, TFA recruiter for Brown.

“Brown students have a very

socially-oriented, altruistic nature,” Lazare said, adding that students are often drawn to the program because of their desire to effect change.

“They want to give back,” she said, and interest remains high — students swarmed the CareerLAB for a TFA information session and discussion panel held Sept. 11. The event was designed to introduce prospective corps members to TFA’s mission and impact.

“We have a lot of brand awareness but not a lot of mission awareness,” she said. Students are often “amazed and shocked” when they discover the inequities in education that TFA aims to rectify.

Panelist Chance Craig ’14 described how the dedication of a TFA corps member at his high school in Marvell, Ark. enriched his high school

experience and helped him through the Brown application process.

“No one in my entire school understood the magnitude of what I was trying to do,” Craig said, noting how his high school education was characterized by racial tensions and intrusive cameras in his classrooms.

“Automatically, from the jump, I was at a disadvantage.”

Craig said the support from his teacher went beyond the classroom — he helped pay for both the Brown application fee and a plane ticket to A Day on College Hill. “I would not be at Brown had it not been for TFA,” Craig said.

Drew Madden ’10, a TFA corps member in Rhode Island, concentrated in political science and had planned to go to law school before

discovering TFA, he said.

When applying for the program, “I had no idea how to teach,” he said, but he wanted to do something that “was going to make a difference.”

Now a seventh grade math teacher at Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy in Cumberland, Madden said he has found that the key to teaching is “really making it clear that you care” by establishing relationships with students and their families.

Madden said he had wanted to tackle education policy as a lawyer but realized after working for TFA that “you can’t make (education) policy if you’ve never been there.”

“I think any Brown student could do it,” Madden said of teaching for TFA. “Rhode Island needs Brown grads to make a difference.”

Career Fair: Wednesday 12-4 p.m.

Sayles Hall CareerLAB seeks new adviser As seniors return to campus to begin the full-time job recruitment process, the CareerLab is seeking a new adviser for the business, finance and consulting fields. Eric Nichols, who formerly held the position, left the University for a new position as director of admission at Saint Anselm College.

The job was “an opportunity he couldn’t refuse,” wrote Andrew Simmons, the center’s director, in an email to The Herald.

Karen Whittet, a former career adviser at Dartmouth, has joined CareerLAB’s staff and will temporarily serve as the coordinator for finance and consulting, Simmons wrote. Whittet also served as a career adviser at the University during the 200910 academic year.

The University is currently searching for a permanent replacement, Simmons wrote. “Our search is well underway and we look forward to announcing the new person soon,” he added.

Even without Nichols, “there are several helpful general advisors” to assist seniors, John Sullivan ’13 said.

— Miriam Furst

emily gilbert / herald

Students flocked to a Teach for America information session at the CareerLAB. TFA remains one of the top employers of Brown graduates.

Career Fair tips for students • Do your research. A list of the employers who will be in attendance can be found on the CareerLAB website. Prepare a 30-second introduction you can use at the fair to introduce yourself, express your interest in the company and convey your desire to learn more.

• Prepare questions ahead of time. Demonstrate that you have done your research and ask relevant and specific questions about the company.

• Dress appropriately. Business casual attire is recommended.

• Bring several copies of your resume. Not all companies will ask you for one, but many will.

• In many cases, companies have alums staffing the tables. Alums will be designated with a red ribbon on their name tag. Take advantage of this additional networking opportunity.

• Take business cards from the representatives you speak with. Follow up later with a thank you email.

• If a table is busy, get a business card from a representative and follow up by email with your questions.

• Companies from several industries, not just business, will be on hand.

• Thinking about internships? Many of the employers will be posting internships in the future. Now is a good time to inquire about these opportunities.

— Courtesy of CareerLAB CREDIT

Caption

the brown daily herald monday, september 17, 2012

sports monday 7

football

Bears surge to win in fourth quarter

By Lindor Qunaj Sports Editor

Out with a knee injury for the last two seasons, running back Spiro Theodhosi ’13 came out strong on Saturday, helping the Bears to a 24-21 victory over the Holy Cross Crusaders in the season opener.

Following a shaky first-half performance, the Bears found themselves down 7-3 at the half.

“We couldn’t hang our hat on a personnel grouping or series of plays Holy Cross 21 that we could ex- Brown 24 ecute with consistency” in the first two quarters, said Head Coach Phil Estes.

“I know we were trying different packages,” Theodhosi said. “We just really couldn’t find the right thing.”

Bruno fell further behind in the third quarter, and new starting quarterback Patrick Donnelly ’13 faced an 11-point deficit with 15 minutes remaining.

But what had been a mediocre offensive effort quickly turned into an inspirational comeback that Estes said displayed the team’s “never-give-up attitude.”

Early in the fourth, a short touchdown pass to wide receiver Jonah Fay ’13 successfully capped a 75-yard drive and narrowed the Crusaders’ lead to four points.

Holy Cross could not regain any

momentum on their next drive, moving the ball just 22 yards before Bruno recovered it with under eight minutes to go. Donnelly then orchestrated an impressive 84-yard scoring drive that took 6:22 off the clock, leaving the Crusaders with too little time to mount a comeback.

Theodhosi was instrumental in the fourth-quarter surge, accounting for 53 of the yards on the game-winning drive and finishing with a game-high 120 rushing yards. After being off the field for the past two years, Theodhosi said his teammates helped him adjust to the competition his first time back on the gridiron.

“The fact that (my teammates) were there helped me ease my way in,” he said. “I made a couple of mental errors but, in general, performed.”

Estes said he was pleased with Donnelly’s performance in his first start.

“I’m sure he would’ve liked to have a couple more (completions) — some balls were overthrown, some were underthrown — but all in all, for his first start, he played very well,” Estes said.

Despite some preseason concerns about the inexperience of their linebackers, the Bears were able to effectively contain the Crusaders’ running game, limiting their opponents to 92 rushing yards. Stephen Zambetti ’13 and Reed Watne ’13 led the strong defensive effort with a combined 21 tackles.

Still, Estes pointed out “there were times when we didn’t tackle great in

the open field.”

The Bears gave up 230 passing yards to the high-flying Crusader offense led by senior quarterback Kevin Watson.

“They’re a passing team,” Estes said. “A really good passing team.”

Because this was the Bears’ first game of the season, they had no film of this year’s squad to present to the Crusaders’ coaching staff, and so the teams could not exchange footage before Saturday’s game. This made it more difficult for the Bears to prepare for the match-up and anticipate the schemes Holy Cross would use, Estes said.

Regardless, Estes was satisfied with the Bears’ overall defensive performance. On the other side of the ball, the head coach stressed the importance of understanding his own team’s optimal style of offense as soon as possible.

“We’re going to have to get to know this team real quick,” Estes said. “What is our strength? Is it running the ball with Theodhosi? The strength of Patrick’s arm? We have to settle ourselves on offense.”

This first victory will certainly carry momentum into the Bears’ first Ivy League game next Saturday, when they will face Harvard under the lights at Brown Stadium.

Defeating the Crusaders “was a big confidence booster, but we can never be satisfied. We’re always looking to get more wins,” Theodhosi said. “We’ve put Holy Cross to bed, and now we’re on to Harvard.”

/ / Cheating page 2 that the software has been very successful.

Beyond using advanced technological tools, professors have still had to manually detect more subtle cases of plagiarism and collaboration, Sobel said. Intuition remains the most prevalent and effective detection method for faculty, he added.

“The giveaway is when the writing style is different from the rest of the text,” Lassonde added. “Faculty can Google the sentence, and something

pops up.”

While new tools are helpful in enforcing academic honesty, other structural changes are necessary to reduce cheating, Lassonde said. Publicizing particular cases of cheating and related punishments would help students be more cognizant of its consequences, he said.

“Students come to Brown with different expectations about cheating,” Lassonde said. “We need to better educate students about plagiarism, and faculty should set clear guidelines about what constitutes cheating.”

C u r r y i n g Fav o r

Emily Gilbert / Herald

Kabob and Curry gave out free samosas on the Main Green to celebrate its partnership with the Blue Room.

8 fall concert Indie artists draw small but enthusiastic crowd By marina hernandez contributing writer

As the sun went down on the Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle Saturday evening, students trickled in for a Fall Concert that featured a motley array of dubstep and upbeat indie jams from artists TOKiMONSTA and Titus Andronicus.

Many of the students in attendance had never heard of the performers, who were announced by the Brown Concert Agency in August, lending an uncertain atmosphere to the event.

Ryan Glassman ’15, performing under the stage name Area 6, was the opening act. Though Glassman provided a fast-paced and welcoming energy, only about 50 people were around the venue to hear his dubstep and mashups. Even fewer attendants were visibly excited — only two people were actively dancing throughout his performance.

Over the next hour, the bulk of the audience made its way onto the quad. Some purchased pre-show refreshments while others retreated to the back of the green to socialize and smoke cigarettes. Even with the booming electronic rhythms of Area 6, attendees seemed to be preoccupied with socializing.

That is, until TOKiMONSTA took the stage.

“We were really nervous that many people wouldn’t be into TOKiMONSTA because very few people have heard of her,” said Emma Ramadan ’13, BCA booking chair.

But these worries evaporated when attendees rushed forward to get a closer look at Jennifer Lee, the Los Angeles-born DJ otherwise known as TOKiMONSTA. Utilizing a wide range of music from “Hard in Da Paint” by Waka Flocka Flame to “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix, TOKiMONSTA electrified concertgoers, some of whom even started a small mosh pit toward the

back of the standing area.

“I’m gonna play some lovey-dovey stuff ... and then some scary stuff,” announced Lee as she proceeded to perform her musical creations. Using clips of live instruments and percussion combined with digital sounds, TOKiMONSTA provided a distinctly frenzied sound.

“I had never heard of her before, but she is fun and very dynamic,” said Rhode Island School of Design student Avenstensia Xirouxhakis. “She definitely brought life to the crowd.”

While the crowd was buzzing after Lee’s performance, it was the headliner, Titus Andronicus, that really ignited the audience’s enthusiasm.

Named after a notoriously violent Shakespeare play, the band expressed similar dark themes through song titles like “A Pot In Which to Piss” and “No Future,” the first of a trilogy of bitter songs.

Despite dispirited lyrics such as “all I want for Christmas is no feelings now and never again,” the band’s powerful onstage energy prompted jumping, dancing and even hula-hooping.

A few brave souls even managed to crowd-surf.

While turnout was relatively small with no more than a couple hundred people, it was fairly normal by Fall Concert standards, Ramadan said.

“Ticket sales were not ideal prior to the event, but we sold about 25 percent of the tickets at the door, and it turned out to be pretty successful,” Ramadan said. A small crowd can be seen as a plus because it “attracts the die-hard fans,” she said.

Many of those who had never heard of TOKiMONSTA or Titus Andronicus gave the concert positive reviews.

“This really isn’t my kind of music,” said Ilkania Paulino ’15. “But the vibe here tonight just makes me want to dance.”

the brown daily herald monday, september 17, 2012

Fall Concert

Photos taken by Emily Gilbert / Herald.

the brown daily herald monday, september 17, 2012

fall concert 9

comic Join the Club | Simon Henriques

10 editorial Editorial

Teach for America doesn’t work

Teach for America has long been an attractive option for college graduates who are still deciding, or trying to ease into, their career paths. The nonprofit organization places high-achieving graduates in low-income communities as novice teachers for two years with the ultimate goal of “closing the achievement gap” in education. Though this is an admirable mission, we question the impact of TFA on the education system, and we believe all undergraduates considering a future in education or nonprofits should be fully aware of that impact.

TFA has served as a hub for many graduates from top colleges across the country. In fact, all eight Ivy League institutions rank among the top 20 in contributing corps members. This past year, the 22-year-old nonprofit accepted 57 applicants from Brown, which ranks 10th in number of applicants in the mediumsized schools category (between 3,000-9,999 undergraduates). This statistic begs the question — what motivates so many high-achieving graduates to attend the same program? Do they all share a common love for nurturing young minds?

Ideally, TFA offers an opportunity for eager graduates to experience the public education system without the academic qualifications necessary for teachers.

Those uncertified at the beginning of the two-year contract receive an alternative certification through coursework taken during the program, and all corps members attend a mandatory five-week summer institute to prepare for their commitment. But this lack of focus on teaching experience is troubling when we consider the overall mission of TFA. To improve public education across the nation, there should instead be an increase in funding for fully credentialed teachers dedicated to a full career in the classroom. Similar programs commit to longer-term solutions — the New York City Teaching Fellows program offers recruits a subsidized master’s degree in education.

This is not to say that all TFA recruits are incapable. It isn’t a coincidence that TFA tends to hire more students from top universities, such as Brown. TFA ensures that those committed are, at the very least, intelligent and hard-working. Still, less than 10 percent continue for five years in these public schools. Temporary positions do little to sustain great teachers across the country. Thus, we must question how TFA can serve as a meaningful and substantive asset to improving education, especially in urban public schools.

What does it truly mean to teach for America? Young graduates from top universities like Brown may find it less than ideal to work in the nation’s poorest public schools for multiple years. Are they truly teaching for others, or for themselves? In addition, TFA’s model of a two-year commitment after a five-week training program can be seen as insulting, implying that suffering schools can universally benefit from teachers without actual teaching experience. Their low retention rate also means that after a two-year commitment, corps members are moving towards careers in other fields. Though this may be ideal for the corps members, it is not ideal for the many public school students whose only chance to find role models is through a committed relationship with their teachers.

We acknowledge that there are graduates who dedicate their lives to education and use TFA to enter the field. We commend those who do so, especially with the recent Chicago school strike bringing the issue of education to the forefront. But before making a two-year commitment to TFA or to any organization dedicated to the greater good, job seekers and soon-to-be graduates need to consider how an organization conducts its operations and pursues its goals. More importantly, however, they need to consider for whom they’re committing two years — the students, or themselves.

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

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

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editorial Sarah Mancone Arts & Culture Editor Joseph Rosales Arts & Culture Editor Elizabeth Carr City & State Editor Amy Rasmussen City & State Editor Aparna Bansal Features Editor Jordan Hendricks Features Editor Lucy Feldman News Editor Shefali Luthra News Editor Alexandra Macfarlane News Editor Sahil Luthra Science & Research Editor Jake Comer Sports Editor Lindor Qunaj Sports Editor Sam Rubinroit Assistant Sports Editor Dan Jeon Editorial Page Editor Annika Lichtenbaum Editorial Page Editor Lucas Husted Opinions Editor Garret Johnson Opinions Editor Jared Moffat Opinions Editor Greg Jordan-Detamore Special Projects Graphics & Photos Emily Gilbert Photo Editor Sam Kase Photo Editor Tom Sullivan Photo Editor Photo Training Manager Rachel Kaplan Jonathan Bateman Sports Photo Editor Olivia Conetta Kyle McNamara Julia Shube Brisa Bodell Einat Brenner Neal Poole

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Correc tions An article in Friday’s Herald (“Simmons’ compensation rose in 2010 after voluntary cut in 2009,” Sept. 14) stated that the Corporation determines salaries for employees that make more than $120,000. In fact, these considerations are for employees making more than $225,000. The article and an accompanying chart also stated that the 990 form lists the highest paid University employees. In fact, the 990 form lists officers, directors, trustees and key employees. The Herald regrets the errors.

An article in Friday’s Herald (“Fall concert to be held outdoors,” Sept. 14) incorrectly quoted BCA Booking Chair Emma Ramadan ’13 as calling Fall Concert opener TOKiMONSTA a “good balance between electrical and punk music.” In fact, Ramadan called the band a “good balance between electronic and punk music.” The Herald regrets the error.

quote of the day

“We were all born naked, so why not be naked sometimes?”

— Becca Wolinsky ‘14 See naked on page 1.

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opinions 11

the brown daily herald monday, september 17, 2012

Keeney: New dorm, new rules gabriella corvese Opinions Columnist The class of 2016 and its Residential Peer Leaders will be the first to live in the newly renovated Keeney Quadrangle dorm, which received a brand new makeover as part of a $67 million housing renovation project. Pictures of Keeney reveal retiled rooms, clean and luxurious lounges and kitchens that may as well be on an HGTV show. To put it simply, it’s beautiful.

This is a drastic change from the Keeney that hundreds of other Brown students, myself included, lived in before. On any given day, Keeney halls were littered with empty cans and bottles. Broken exit signs — most likely having just been repaired from a previous incident days prior — hung precariously by their wires from the ceiling. Walls and bathroom stalls were scribbled on with graffiti not even linguistics concentrators could decipher.

But despite the wreckage, we affectionately called it “K-Nasty,” and it was our home.

Without a doubt, Keeney was an excellent freshman community that promoted the forming of valuable friendships. Unfortunately, this bonding also involved navigating the debris scattered throughout the halls. I was often outraged by the wreckage that showed a clear lack of respect for our

home. Smashing an exit sign is not a rite of passage into the ranks of college debauchery, and there is no sense of valiant, anarchic rebellion in tagging a wall. Instead, these are examples of ignorant vandalism that disrespect both a historic building and an entire community.

It is too late to call for the respect that the building deserved from my class or any before it, but with the drastic changes being made to Keeney, I can only hope that the new look will convince residents to respect the building and realize the consequences

scrub writing off the wall. We should respect these people like we would respect any other Brown professor or faculty members. Without them, our dorms would be completely in shambles. Respecting the living community is not just a service to one’s self, hallmates and Brown’s finances, but a kind gesture to those who ensure we live in clean and safe buildings.

Rather than simply placing blind faith in Keeney’s residents not to damage the building, Brown could institute preventative measures to stop these problems before

Smashing an exit sign is not a rite of passage into the ranks of college debauchery, and there is no sense of valiant, anarchic rebellion in tagging a wall.

Instead, these are examples of ignorant vandalism that disrespect both a historic building and an entire community. of their more destructive actions.

In 2007, the University reported spending more than $10,000 on repairing damage in Keeney (“Keeney vandalism damage tops $10K this year,” March 15, 2007). That is a hefty sum of money. Imagine what other places and programs on campus could do with that money if it was not going to the “clean up after disrespectful drunk freshmen” fund.

It’s not just on a large scale that destruction affects Brown — it also affects the various workers who come to clean up after students’ messes. Or repair exit signs. Or

they happen.

Many other schools have taken numerous approaches to ending dormitory vandalism and promoting respect for living communities. Some have been proactive, such as Bridgewater State College, which developed a program that raises students’ awareness of vandalism and also gives resident assistants more communication with custodial workers. This program saw a 50 percent decrease in damage fees after one year. But others represent a serious breach of privacy, such as Binghamton University, which instituted police patrolling dormi-

tory halls after excessive damage was done.

Binghamton even suggested the possibility of installing surveillance cameras in dorms.

This approach promotes fear and misunderstanding rather than communication.

There are right and wrong ways to ensure dorm security and sanctity, and Brown could definitely take advice from other schools. Reducing vandalism in places such as Keeney requires cooperation and communication among students, RPLs and Brown faculty. As destructive as the Keeney freshmen may seem, we need to educate them rather than place them under 24/7 surveillance.

There is no harm in having a good time in Keeney. In fact, it is expected that those living there will be loud and have parties.

Accidents happen. Messes will be made.

But the procedure from this point forward should be for residents to take part in cleaning up after themselves rather than letting incidents fester. Someone who wants to study organic chemistry instead of playing beer pong does not to deserve to deal with the consequences of others’ actions.

The experience of living in a dorm is foreign to many entering Brown each year, and it will most likely involve wild and memorable times in that dorm. But please, put posters on your walls — not graffiti in the halls.

Gabriella Corvese ’15 loves her new, clean and quiet dorm. She can be reached at gabriella_corvese@brown.edu.

Who’s the happiest? cara dorris Opinions Columnist

I recently stumbled upon happiness in a seemingly unhappy place: the Sharpe Refectory salad bar. The very happy conversation went something like this: “Don’t you love this?”

“Literally, these garbanzo beans are like, so incredible.”

“Right? This salad is like, so great.”

I was surprised. Because somewhere down the line I realized that the Ratty salad bar is literally not so great. The tuna is dry and looks like my grandfather’s toupee.

Choosing a dressing reminds me of finding a dress — in one of those French boutiques where the clothes only fit chain-smoking 12-year-olds. And the word “incredible” should be reserved for that Olympian runner with two artificial legs. Not garbanzo beans.

I realized that either the Ratty salad bar had miraculously improved, or these girls were faking it. So has happiness become a competition?

Let’s face it. We live in a time where perfectionism is no longer a diagnosis. It’s a life skill.

We strive for maximum efficiency. We read magazine articles entitled, “Be Fitter, Faster, Sexier, Smarter.” And if we can be all of these things, shouldn’t we also be able to “Master the Secrets to Happiness” or “Find Happiness in 30 Simple Steps”?

It’s no surprise that feigning happiness

has become as common — and compulsory — as faking orgasms. In the past, discontent was a possibly endearing character trait.

Now Grumpy, the seventh dwarf, needs Prozac. His entire personality is suddenly invalid. And did you hear? Oscar the Grouch and I are seeing the same therapist.

We are constantly performing. We press each other to do things that are worthy of photographs and 140-character descriptions.

Because of social media, we’re all celebrities.

The problem is, we only use Facebook and Twitter to remind each other how interesting, confident and happy we are — not that

away from Brown. Suddenly “camp counselor” becomes “playground leader.” “Unpaid laboratory custodian” becomes “collaboration with a Princeton professor.” And living alone in an enormous city, working slave hours for no wages, becomes, “I had an amazing summer.”

Is all this “happiness” just making us miserable?

According to a study published in the Academy of Management Journal, bus drivers who engaged in fake smiling throughout the day actually experienced deteriorating moods. In other words, trying to mask nega-

Can someone who has a drawer full of Klonopin and visits his therapist more than his academic advisor ever fit into our romanticized image of Brown?

many experts call Generation Y the most depressed. According to a 2009 survey by the National Institute of Mental Health, almost a third of college students reported feeling “so depressed that it was difficult to function.”

Assuming we are not so different than any other college undergrads, there could be 2,000 severely depressed Brown students.

That’s not even including students with lowgrade depression or long-term anxiety.

But you would never know it listening to us talk to each other. We put positive spins on everything from our love lives to workloads. In hopes of appearing happy, we even go so far as to lie about our achievements

tive thoughts with positive ones may actually make us feel worse.

So why do we fake happiness? Is it because we’re afraid to open up — is it because we’re afraid we’ll be disliked? Can someone who has a drawer full of Klonopin and visits his therapist more than his academic adviser ever fit into our romanticized image of Brown?

When we do encounter unhappiness, we often expect an origin. We’ll say, “Oh, that’s right. You had abusive parents,” or “Is that a chemical imbalance?”

But what if there is no origin? Many of us are very lucky. We go to a prestigious school,

we are surrounded by an indulgent support system, we are confronted by remarkable opportunities everyday. Our problems and fears seem laughable in comparison to everything else.

It’s as if happiness has evolved into a social status symbol like money or body weight.

Because if all men really are created equal, and if we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, should we be denied the right to unhappiness?

Don’t misread this. I’m not saying we should all be unhappy. I’m saying that as a school, we not only minimize unhappiness, we are completely intolerant to it. We are constantly driving each other toward an ideal emotional state that is always out of reach.

We feel tremendous pressure to be enthusiastic, to be satisfied, to just shut up and smile.

But maybe all that shutting up is why antidepressants are the number one drug prescribed in the U.S., and according to a study by the New England Journal of Medicine, why up to 50 percent of college students who seek counseling use them. Maybe that is why we starve ourselves into negative jean sizes, drink ourselves into EMS trucks, worry ourselves into semesters away and medical leaves. Maybe that is why we keep our schedules so jam-packed, so that we never have time to stop and actually feel something.

Newsweek calls us the fourth happiest college in the nation, but maybe we should all just opt out. In the age where even emotion can be perfected, the pressure to be happy is just making us sad.

Cara Dorris ’15 can be reached at cara_dorris@brown.edu.

daily herald sports monday the Brown

monday, september 17, 2012

M. Soccer

Bruno adds another road shutout to record

By Alexandra Conway Sports Staff Writer

The men’s soccer team continued its winning ways this weekend, capturing two shutout victories on the road. The Bears spoiled Boston University’s (14-2) home opener on Thursday, win- BU 0 ning in the first Brown 1 minute of overtime to defeat the Terriers 1-0. And yesterday afternoon, Bruno traveled to Lehigh University (0-6-0) and won another hard-fought 1-0 matchup against the Mountain Hawks, marking their fifth shutout of the season to improve to a 5-1-0 record.

After coming off a loss to Fordham University (3-3-0) two weekends ago, the Bears placed a lot of emphasis on their tough match against the Terriers at Nickerson Field.

“BU is a good passing team that has been on the road for six games,” Head Coach Patrick Laughlin said. “Their record may not be great, but they have played some of the best teams in the country and have proven to be a tough team and always gives us a tough game.”

With only 14 total shots, most of the game was contested in the middle of the field.

“The game was back and forth in the first half where we had some good opportunities on goal and held them to one or two shots,” co-captain Eric Robertson ’13 said. “The second half opened up for us, and we started getting a lot of chances from our wide players: Kevin Gavey (’13), Voltaire

Escalona (’14) and Michele Comitis (’16). BU was able to counterattack us a few times, but they weren’t able to get successful attacks out of it.”

With no goals scored, the game was pushed into overtime, where rookie defender Tim Whalen ’16 became the star of the game, scoring just 40 seconds into overtime to secure the Bears’ 1-0 victory.

“It was the first time in my coaching career that the winner was decided off kickoff,” Laughlin said. “It was almost a shock how quickly it happened.”

It was a flawless play — after a hand ball was called right after the whistle, defender Dylan Remick ’13 sent the free kick into the box where Bobby Belair ’13 headed it to Whalen who put it into the net, scoring his first college goal in his first college start.

“It was one of the most meaningful goals I have scored in my soccer career,” Whalen said. “After the ball hit the back of the net, everything seemed to be in slow motion. Scoring the winning goal means a lot for me because, as a freshman, I want to play an important role on the team and continue to have a positive impact on Brown men’s soccer.”

With a solid win under their belts, the Bears went into yesterday’s game against Lehigh with positive energy. As in the game at BU, the first 15 minutes saw most of the battle being played in the middle of the field.

“We made the game a little more difficult than it had to be,” co-captain Ryan McDuff ’13 said.

“Lehigh gave us a tough match for the entire 90 minutes,” Belair said.

ta k i n g t h e f i e l d

jonathan bateman / herald

Ryan McDuff ‘13 and men’s soccer defense have been outstanding so far this year, leading Brown in two 1-0 victories over the weekend.

“We scored the goal halfway through the first half but were unable to finish them off after missing a couple of good opportunities to score in the Lehigh 0 second half.”

Brown 1 In the 28th minute, Belair tipped in a cross from Escalona, scoring the game’s only goal. The second half brought more scoring opportunities for both teams, but Brown’s dominant defense played

Bears finish first at Iona meet

By James Blum

While women’s field hockey’s weekend was not as successful as their previous homestand, they enjoyed the newly built field behind the OMAC.

belt, the men’s soccer team will be a challenging force when they travel across the country to the University of Washington Tournament. They will face the University of Washington and the University of Portland before returning home to kick off the conference slate.

“Going on the road and getting a win is difficult but critical when you want to define yourself as a competitive team in the NCAA,” Laughlin said.

M. Cross Country

Sports Staff Writer

annabel ruddle / herald

tough, earning Bruno’s fourth shutout.

“It was a short turnaround after a good win Thursday, but we’re real happy with the win,” McDuff said. “A lot of the freshmen played real well.”

Robertson also praised the new members of the team.

“It’s good to see some younger guys stepping up into big roles and coming through when we need them,” Robertson said.

With two more shutouts under its

The men’s cross country team competed at the Iona Meet of Champions in New York City’s Van Cortlandt Park this Saturday after the season opener two weekends ago at the Nassaney Invitational. The women, who only competed at Nassaney — a meet hosted by Bryant University — captured a fourth-place team finish, while the men were ineligible to score as a team as only four of five starting runners crossed the finish line. The men’s squad had a stronger performance at Iona, where they finished first among 14 teams.

“It was an opportunity for our developing athletes to compete and race against competition that lined up against their ability,” said women’s cross country Head Coach Mitchell Baker.

Elaine Kuckertz ’13 led the women at Nassaney and placed 10th overall in the 5-kilometer race with a time of 18 minutes, 36 seconds. Charlotte Walmsley ’16 finished two spots behind Kuckertz in 18 minutes 42 seconds. Finishing 18 seconds and nine spots later was Elizabeth Ryan ’13.

Strategically, the women planned to race conservatively in the first mile, sticking together in a pack during the second and kicking it into top gear during the final mile, Baker said. He added that this strategy was a relatively “simple one” and that “the style of the course and the level of the athlete” has an impact on racing.

The women did not plan to run at Iona, choosing to hold off “running our top group until Paul Short,” a meet Baker described as “the dry run” for the Adidas Invitational Oct. 12. Hosted by the University of Wisconsin, this meet will be the biggest challenge of the year, as the Bears will compete against the top 40 national programs.

At Nassaney, Ben Stephenson ’13 was the top finisher for the men, ninth overall, and covered the 8-kilometer course in 26 minutes 1 second. Will Sheeran ’16 was the next runner to finish for Bruno and captured 13th overall in 26 minutes 17 seconds. In what would have been a photo finish, Kyler Evitt ’14 beat Will Conway ’16 by a split second and the two finished 18th and 19th overall, respectively.

Stephenson did a good job of “leading the young group” that was composed of freshmen that had never before raced an 8k, said men’s cross country Head Coach Tim Springfield. In high school competition, men only participate in 5k races.

“The 5k and 8k are both hard races.

One is at a faster pace for shorter, and one is at a slower pace for longer,” Springfield said. “The bigger challenge is not physical — but to concentrate for that long.”

At Iona, a different group of runners competed for the men and were led by cocaptain Kevin Cooper ’13, who finished the 8k course in 25 minutes 36 seconds for sixth place overall. He was followed in quick succession by Erik Berg ’13 who

finished seventh in 25 minutes 40 seconds, Colin Savage ’14 who captured ninth in 25 minutes 48 seconds and cocaptain Conor Grogan ’13 who finished two seconds later in 10th. The final member of the team to score was Brendan Boyle ’14, who finished 17th overall with a time of 26 minutes 5 seconds.

The men all ran faster than in their previous efforts on the course. Savage also set a personal record and “raced where he has been training this year,” Springfield said.

“I wanted us to be successful in terms of positioning ourselves properly and keeping the pack together,” Springfield said. “When they added up the score, we won, but our focus was on our execution.”

A key part of the men’s strategy this year is to run in tight packs so the gap between the first and fifth finisher is small. The men took a step in the right direction as they posted a spread of 29 seconds at Iona, but it should be even lower, Springfield said.

Looking ahead where both the “number and quality” of competing teams “are going to go way up,” the challenge for the men will be to “execute the same kind of thing in a much more demanding environment,” Springfield said. “I told the guys afterwards that it was a nice start, but we aren’t where we need to be at the end of the season,” he said. “But, that’s okay because we’re not at the end of the season yet, and we have a lot of work to do.”