daily herald the Brown
vol. cxxii, no. 84
INSIDE
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Well-diversed UCS discusses campus diversity.efforts
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Stayin’ alive DPS police cruisers now equipped with defibrillators Page 8
Not-broke Pembroke Center launches $10,000 seed grant program today
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tomorrow
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Thursday, October 11, 2012
Programs seek to boost campus entrepreneurship By Claire Schlessinger Staff Writer
The University was named a Changemaker Campus last month by Ashoka U, an accelerator for social entrepreneurship at institutions of higher education. Nineteen colleges and universities were selected this year through a process that included interviews, a site visit and a selection panel that evaluated commitments to promoting entrepreneurship. This new designation is only one of several indicators pointing to the flourishing atmosphere of entrepreneurship on campus. The entrepreneurial attitude — which professors and students noted goes hand-inhand with Brown’s ethos of choice and risk-taking — has manifested itself across a broad range of programs and class projects. With the Ashoka U selection, the renaming of the former Commerce,
B e yo n d b o r d e r s
since 1891
Organizations and Entrepreneurship degree, the full launch of the Brown Entrepreneurship Program and a new University president, this is the year “when all the fragmented pieces come together,” said Elizabeth Weber ’14, president of the Brown Entrepreneurship Program. Startups in the classroom Possibilities for classroom entrepreneurship can be found “in every major,” not just in Business, Entrepreneurship and Organizations, Weber said. “You don’t need to be doing econ to be a business starter. It’s more of a mindset,” she added. Alan Harlam, director of social entrepreneurship at the Swearer Center for Public Service, noted that courses relevant to social entrepreneurship are also listed in the sociology, anthropology and public policy and American institutions departments. A d j u n c t / / Startups page 3
Herald File Photo
Former professor-at-large and writer Carlos Fuentes, who died in May, was honored by colleagues and former students earlier this week. See page 2.
2012 caps decade of international enrollment growth Voters to consider road repairs By Maddie Berg
Senior Staff Writer
The class of 2016 includes 221 international students from 57 countries. Though this distribution does not mark any dramatic shift from last year, the gradual shift in international student demographics over the past decade has been drastic — 10 years ago, the freshman class only included 127 international students from 37 nations. While the overall applicant pool has doubled in the last decade, the international applicant pool has tripled, said Jim Miller ’73, dean of admission. “The percentage of the class who are international passport holders has doubled — from about 6 percent 10 years ago, to 12 percent this year. That’s a big change, and it reflects the increase in breadth and quality of the international pool,” Miller said, adding that the quality
By hannah kerman and Sabrina Imbler senior staff writer and Contributing writer
Greg Jordan-Detamore / Herald (Data: Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73)
Of the top 10 most represented countries from the class of 2016, China, Brazil, South Korea and Singapore have spiked in students and applicants due to concentrated regional recruitment efforts in the last decade. of international applications is “remarkably high.” The overall growth in international applicants is not Brown-specific, but is rather a trend that has affected many American universities in recent years,
Miller said. “U.S. universities, particularly top U.S. universities, have become very attractive options and opportunities for the best students around the world,” he said. Ho Jun Yang ’16 was born in South
Korea but grew up and went to high school in Brazil. He chose a university in the United States because “there were more opportunities here,” he said, adding that “there is an element of prestige / / Growth page 5 that I do want
Poll finds broad support for R.I. gambling amendments By Adam toobin Senior Staff writer
Rhode Island voters seem to favor allowing state-operated casino gambling for the first time, with the results of a University poll released yesterday showing strong support for ballot questions one and two — constitutional amendments that would allow the state’s two casinos to allow full-scale gambling. The poll also found Rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-R.I., has a fiveand-a-half-point lead over Republican challenger Brendan Doherty in the race to represent Rhode Island’s first congressional district. The poll surveyed 496 voters between Sept. 26 and Oct. 5 and was conducted by the University’s Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions and the John Hazen White Public Opinion Laboratory. Its margin of error is 4.4 percent.
Casinos Question one, which would approve state-operated casino gambling, such as table games, at Twin River Casino in Lincoln is favored by 57.3 percent of likely voters, while slightly fewer — 55.6 percent of likely voters — support allowing the Newport Grand in Newport to offer full-scale gambling. Each question faced opposition from about 30 percent of likely voters. The state currently allows casinos to offer slot machines and other forms of electronic gambling but prevents them from offering the same games provided by Massachusetts casinos. Similar proposals have been defeated twice before — first in 1994 and again in 2006, when voters rejected a proposal to allow the Narragansett Indian tribe to construct a new casino. Advocates of the amendments argue that a ban on casino gambling in Rhode Island does not prevent gambling and only pushes gamblers and
their tax dollars to Massachusetts. Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy Wendy Schiller said any bill that “suggests it might improve the economy of Rhode Island is going to be pretty popular in November.” Supporters of the bill have released commercials specifically touting the casinos’ potential to bring jobs to Rhode Island. The same poll found that 93.4 percent of voters think Rhode Island’s economy is either “not so good” or “poor.” Congress The new poll found that though Cicilline can claim only a 29.7 percent approval rating among likely voters, it was more than double his 14.8 percent approval rating in the Taubman Center’s February poll. Yesterday’s results showed that 45.8 percent of the 236 likely voters surveyed from District 1 prefer him to Doherty, with 7.1 percent
undecided. Doherty is favored by 40.3 percent of those polled — within the 6.3 percent margin of error — while Independent candidate David Vogel received support from 6.8 percent. An Oct. 2 WPRI poll showed Cicilline with a six-point lead over Doherty. Despite the results from these two polls, Doherty’s campaign remains confident about their prospects for Election Day. The campaign labeled the votes to be cast Nov. 6 as the “only poll that counts,” according to the Providence Journal. Schiller said that with a change in focus, Doherty’s campaign could still pose a threat to Cicilline. Though the 45 percent who indicated a preference for Cicilline are probably safely in his corner, Doherty could still pull out a victory over the incumbent in November if he can convince the undecided voters and steal some support from Vogel, Schiller added. But Rhode Is- / / Poll page 4
Providence residents will vote Nov. 6 whether to approve a $40 million road bond that could create approximately 750 jobs and fix roads throughout the city, including streets in the Knowledge District and areas near the University. Approved by the Providence City Council in July, this ordinance affects roughly 65 miles of commercial and residential roads in Providence, 2.77 miles of which surround the University’s campus. Work would last from spring 2013 to fall 2015. Construction on College Hill — including sections of Thayer, Brook, Waterman, Pitman, College, Benefit, Meeting and Hope streets — would not begin until fall 2014. “We know that fixing Providence’s deteriorating roads now will not only save money in deferred maintenance later, but is also one of the most important things we can do to support our city’s existing businesses and institutions and attract new ones,” wrote David Ortiz, press secretary to Mayor Angel Taveras, in an email to the Herald. As the improvements are expected to be completed in fewer than three years, the 750 jobs — most of which would comprise construction work — would cycle out of the market when the repairs end. The bond is in part a reaction to feedback from residents in recent years. Several residents have filed lawsuits against the city to complain about roads. In 2008, the cost of road-related claims and lawsuits was less than $75,000, but it rose to more than $235,000 in 2011. “The condition of our roads is one of the most frequent complaints we / / Roads page 4 get from resi-
2 campus news
Grants to support interdisciplinary work
c alendar Today
Oct. 11
7 P.m.
ToMORROW
Oct. 12
6 p.m. “The Egyptian” Movie Night
Salomon 101
J. Walter Wilson 201 6:30 p.m.
Film Screening: “Happy Together”
Strong, Sexy Words
Kassar House, Foxboro Auditorium
Alumnae Hall Auditorium
menu SHARPE REFECTORY
VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL
LUNCH Vegetable Bean Stew, Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Hot Turkey Sandwich with Gravy, Mashed Mustard Potatoes
BBQ Beef Sandwich, Butternut Squash Ravioli, Sage Cream Sauce, Zucchini & Summer Squash
DINNER Red Potato Frittata, Mixed Baby Mesclun Greens with Honey Dijon Dressing, Pesto Tortellini Salad
By Maggie Livingstone COntributing Writer
Lecture Board: Nicholas Kristof 9 p.m.
the brown daily herald Thursday, October 11, 2012
Cajun Pasta with Chicken, Vegan Paella, Yellow Beets Roasted with Red Onion, Green Beans
Sudoku
A competitive seed grant program, which will fund faculty research through a grant of up to $10,000, was announced at the beginning of this month by the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women. The grants are intended to encourage research centered on gender, sexuality, race and class, though the grants could go to research in other fields, said Deborah Weinstein, assistant director of the Pembroke Center. “With the seed grants, we want to support Brown’s faculty doing their own research but also be able to take that and spark a discussion across fields — through the humanities, social sciences, health sciences and creative arts,” Weinstein said. The application process requires faculty members to have one other collaborator from another field, as well as a faculty project director, according to the Pembroke Center website. The proposal should describe how faculty members, visiting scholars, postdoctoral fellows and students can be included in the research process. Applications are due Nov. 12, and applicants must submit a budget as part of the proposal. The Pembroke Center does not have a definitive number of awards in mind, Weinstein said, adding that the number of grants will be determined depending on the budgets of the research projects approved. “We don’t have a preset number. We
Maggie LivingsTone / Herald
The Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women launched a grant competition this month to fund interdisciplinary research projects. can’t predict the mix of grant requests and topics at this point,” Weinstein said. “That’s part of the excitement of an open interdisciplinary grant competition.” The funds for the grant program were largely raised by the efforts of Elizabeth Munves Sherman ’77 P’06 P’09, who challenged the University community to raise $750,000 to fund research at the 30th Anniversary Dinner for the Pembroke Center in October 2010. If the goal was met, she said her family would donate $250,000. This initial objective of $1 million was quickly surpassed, Sherman said. In total $1.5 million was raised by Nov. 2011, 50 percent more than the original goal. Pembroke administrators — including Kay Warren, director of the Pembroke Center, and Christy Law Blanchard, director of program outreach and development — met with Sherman
prior to the fundraising challenge announcement. “We talked six months before that, figuring out how to generate some enthusiasm around raising endowment funds for the Pembroke Center,” Sherman said. “That’s where the idea for the challenge came from.” Though funds for research are raised campus-wide, the Pembroke Center is often forgotten, Sherman said. “Because it is a relatively small piece of the University, it wasn’t getting much attention,” Sherman said. “So we were trying to come up with a way to get people focused on the Pembroke Center.” Proposals will be judged by an interdisciplinary committee of faculty members in November. Grants will be awarded in December, and researchers will have a year to spend their allotted funds.
Colloquium honors Carlos Fuentes Crossword
By Berit Goetz Contributing Writer
Renowned Mexican writer and former professor-at-large Carlos Fuentes was remembered by former students and colleagues for uniting literary and political concerns in the public sphere at a bilingual colloquium earlier this week. Fuentes, an internationally celebrated novelist, died in May after an internal hemorrhage. “Carlos Fuentes Beyond Borders,” a series of talks and panels featuring former president of Chile Ricardo Lagos and Fuentes’ former students, was an opportunity to “reflect on Carlos Fuentes’ relationship to Brown and his legacy here,” said Julio Ortega, professor of Hispanic studies, who organized the colloquium. The Department of Hispanic Studies, the Transatlantic Project at Brown and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies hosted the two-day event at Rochambeau House and the Watson Institute for International Studies Monday
and Tuesday. Past colloquia hosted by the Department of Hispanic Studies covered various themes in Hispanic literature and history, but this colloquium was unique in its commemorative focus, Ortega said. Six former students who worked with Fuentes as PhD candidates while at Brown were invited to speak at the colloquium Monday afternoon. They hailed from various parts of the Spanishspeaking world, including Mexico, Spain, Peru and Venezuela, but all are now professors at American universities. Each drew on their personal relationship with Fuentes to illuminate their discussion of the renowned professor’s work, Ortega said. Topics included Fuentes’ “fantastic imagination,” his role as a social critic and his involvement as an intellectual who fostered U.S.-Latin American relations during the “boom” of politically engaged Latin American writers in the 1960s and 1970s. Tuesday featured further panel discussions and papers given by academics from New York University, Princeton,
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Dartmouth and the University of Guadalajara, among others. The colloquium closed with a talk given in Spanish by Lagos on Fuentes’ position as a public intellectual. Fuentes was a recipient not only of several prestigious literary awards but also of the Belisario Dominguez Medal of Honor, the highest honor conferred by the Mexican government. Fuentes was “an extremely impressive intellectual … a giant of literature,” Lagos told The Herald. Lagos was friends with Fuentes for over 20 years, he said. Both men straddled the divide between literature and politics. In 1998, Lagos, then a presidential candidate, was invited to the Julio Cortazar Latin American Chair at the University of Guadalajara, a lectureship established by Fuentes and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Two years later, Lagos was elected and has been a Brown professorat-large since 2002. Fuentes and Lagos had discussed speaking jointly in a session at this year’s colloquium about the book they co-authored last year, “El siglo que despierta.” Roughly translated as “The century that awakes,” the book is a “political testament” examining the relationship of the intellectual to political life, Ortega said. An air of remembrance was as much a part of the colloquium proceedings as academic discourse. “The most important thing to remember is that this is a memorial,” said attendee Zach Bleckner ’12.5. “This is a bittersweet, sad session,” said Professor of Political Science and CLACS director Richard Snyder. A highlight of Lagos’ talk for Snyder was his quip that to choose an academic career “means you won’t have an obituary.” The colloquium was a celebratory testament to the contrary.
campus news 3
the brown daily herald Thursday, October 11, 2012
/ / Startups page 1 Lecturer in Engineering Danny Warshay ’87 teaches ENGN 1010: “The Entrepreneurial Process: Innovation in Practice.” Warshay began his first entrepreneurial undertaking while studying at the University. The company he founded, Clearview Software, was later sold to Apple, and he has worked on numerous startups since then. The project was pioneered in his Wayland House dorm room and nurtured through independent study classes with Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine, then associate dean of the college, whom many students consult with when launching a startup. Warshay compared entrepreneurship to building a bridge, noting it is no coincidence that many entrepreneurship classes are offered through the engineering school. Though there is no “cookie-cutter approach” to starting a business, there is a sequential process, he said. In his class, students develop a business plan as if they were actually trying to launch an enterprise, and many of them end up doing just that. “Student projects are becoming real,” and venture capitalists, who originally stopped by the class as a kindness to Warshay, come willingly, he said. “You never know what’s going to come out of Brown.” Warshay said he objects to the widely-held idea that entrepreneurship cannot be taught. He said the premise behind the Business, Entrepreneurship and Organizations concentration is that there is a “structured way” in which one can give lessons in entrepreneurship. His course — which spawned the leak-resistant underwear maker Underbrella, the dance class 305 Fitness and the prenatal vitamin producer Premama — embraces the model Warshay learned while at the Harvard Business School. Dan Aziz ’11 co-founded Premama with William Do ’12 in Warshay’s class. Aziz said when he worked on the business proposal for the course, he did not see it just as a school project. “I wanted to make it real,” he said. Aziz said he knew he wanted to manufacture a product related to powdered nutrition, so he went to Whole Foods to ask consumers what product they wished existed. Pregnant women told him they wanted a way to get nutrients other than prenatal pills, so his team developed a vitamin powder that can be added to beverages. “I’m not totally sure what Peter Thiel is doing,” Harlam said, referring to the prestigious Thiel Fellowship that was recently awarded to Dylan Field, a former member of the class of 2013.5. Harlam added that he believes the recipients of the fellowship could harmonize their formal studies and projects in ways that reinforce the learning in both without having to abandon their studies. Where the magic happens When Harlam came to the Swearer Center five years ago, “the primary charge was to support student entrepreneurs who were starting social ventures,” he said. The Swearer Center’s Social Innovation Initiative sponsors the Starr Fellowship, a yearlong fellowship that funds about 15 social ventures a year and provides workshops to advance projects. Entrepreneurship funneled
through the Swearer Center tackles `social issues. “Everything that you know about entrepreneurship stays true, but your purpose is primarily around addressing an inequity (or) an injustice,” Harlam said. David Ellmann ’14 developed iFLIP4, a “social network for causes” that allows contributors to purchase T-shirts while funneling half the profits from these sales to select charities, through a Starr Fellowship. He said he is currently on leave to “give (himself) to it completely,” adding that the fellowship has allowed him to feel like he is still part of a community even while living at home in New Jersey. More than 70 students are involved in the approximately 35 to 37 ventures guided by the Brown Entrepreneurship Program, Weber said. The program has two divisions — Brown Idea Labs, for students who want to learn more about entrepreneurship but do not necessarily have a particular project to cultivate, and Brown Venture Labs, for students who are “concretely working on a company,” said Adrienne Tran ’14, a managing director of Brown Venture Labs. Brown Venture Labs, which was a pilot program last semester, interviews teams after they submit their proposals and matches each team with one of its seven student leaders. The major factor for judging a viable venture is whether Brown Venture Labs believes “they will make an impact in their community, in the world,” Weber said. Teams picked in the fall are currently being primed for the West Coast Accelerator, where groups will meet with investors in Silicon Valley. In the spring, teams prepare for a startup competition. Weber said the principle behind the entrepreneurship program is to gather “the brightest, the most likely to succeed in the same room, in the same community” and provide them needed “resources and support.” Max Song ’14, also a managing director of Brown Venture Labs, said the goal is to encourage students “to go one step beyond just talking or thinking about entrepreneurship but to try to implement it.” He listed three core values for this semester — coalescing “comrades in the cause” to help each other get through the hard-
ships of being a student entrepreneur, ensuring ventures are meaningful for the founders and could represent a viable career option for them upon graduation and giving students the knowledge to raise capital and manage teams. Brown in the bigger picture Weber said Brown students’ penchant for innovating comes from their “personal mantra or need to change the world.” Ventures defy classification as part of a specific industry but are united in their mission of “making a global impact,” she said. Shara Hegde ’05, an alumni interviewer for prospective undergraduates, said she was “really impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit (she) saw at Brown.” An entrepreneur herself, she lauded the alumni network as being supportive of Brown students and graduates who reach out to talk about their hopes and fears. Warshay said Brown “instills some kind of inherent entrepreneurial spirit in graduates,” regardless of whether they cultivate it in the classroom. He ascribed this spirit to something fundamental about Brown’s curriculum that encourages students to take chances and explore. Many aspects of entrepreneurship parallel the open curriculum. Tran said startup founders in Silicon Valley “are so much more passionate about their work and do a much better job at it because it’s something that they do because they like to do (it) and not because someone’s forcing them to do it.” The cooperative spirit promoted in the entrepreneurial community at Brown is indicative of the way students function in all facets of Brown, where “relationships are not a zero-sum game,” Tran said. Having taught all over the world, Warshay noted that Brown students have a certain “comfort with ambiguity” that enables the leap of faith required to invest in a startup, which he said exists at many liberal arts colleges. Warshay called Brown a “risksupportive environment,” adding that this may be one reason why startups, which are inherently unpredictable gambles, are so prevalent on campus. Harlam said that his position at Brown, created five years ago, made him “one of the first 10 or 15 people
in the country who had a title with the words ‘social entrepreneurship’ in it,” and made Brown “one of the first in the social entrepreneurship space.” Now, he added, “we are one of many.” But Weber said Brown is “very much behind” compared to the most successful campuses, such as Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. She attributed this lag to a paucity of “infrastructure, physical support and monetary support for entrepreneurship — it’s very low on the totem pole.” Weber added that there is “just as much, if not more” student demand for entrepreneurship support at other schools. That is where the Brown Entrepreneurship Program comes in. Weber said her goal is to demonstrate to the administration that there is an impassioned presence already active on campus so that entrepreneurship gets on the map of University priorities. The program meets in the basement of Sayles Hall, a significant shortcoming, Weber said, compared to schools like Cornell that have centers devoted to entrepreneurship. Harvard opened its innovation lab last winter, while MIT’s StartLabs was inaugurated two years ago, and Duke’s entrepreneurship club has a house, Song said.
Stepping out of the silos Weber said the leaders of the three major hubs of entrepreneurship on campus are united to take advantage of the momentum and energy of a new president. She said entrepreneurship has been happening in several different ways, but everyone is “doing it in silos.” The mission would be to integrate entrepreneurship in the Brown curriculum and to help projects developed in the classroom become realities, she said. Weber said she envisions a collaboration that would allow all groups to “keep our distinct identities but to find the synergies” to make entrepreneurship blossom campus-wide. Tran said she sees entrepreneurship and education as complementary in that students can “anchor their theoretical frameworks and what they learn in classrooms in a very concrete project.” She said Brown Venture Labs hopes to help students channel what they learn in the classroom into something real to “help students engage in their classwork.” The beginnings of such a collaboration are already visible. The Swearer Center has already partnered with faculty to create four new courses geared toward social entrepreneurship — two in sociology and two in public policy, Harlam said.
4 campus news / / Poll page 1 land’s consistent support for President Obama will hamper Doherty, Schiller said, as voters who turn out for Obama will be unlikely to switch parties to vote for a Republican for Congress. The poll indicated that 58.2 percent of voters would select Obama over challenger Republican Mitt Romney — who received support from 32.3 percent of likely voters — if the election were held tomorrow. In the second congressional district, Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., has a substantial lead over his Republican challenger Michael Riley. About half of the 235 voters polled from the district — 49.4 percent — indicated their preference for the incumbent, compared to 31.5 percent who favored Riley. But 14.4 percent remain undecided with a margin of error of 6.3 percent. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is holding his ground against Republican challenger Barry Hinckley Jr., with 58.6 percent support to Hinckley’s 29.7 percent. Nearly 12 percent of voters remain undecided in this race. Whitehouse has also received a bump in his approval rating since the Taubman Center’s poll in February, rising 15.8 percent to 45.4 percent. He remains less popular than his colleague Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who gained 12 points for an overall rating of 58.5 percent. Hinckley’s campaign seized on Whitehouse’s approval rating in a statement after the poll was released. “It is no surprise” that over half of voters disapprove of Whitehouse’s performance, they told the Journal.
DPS acquires two portable defibrillators By loren dowd contributing writer
The Department of Public Safety purchased two automated external defibrillators to dispatch in their police cruisers two months ago as part of an ongoing initiative to prepare officers for a broad range of emergencies. The move was not intended to take the place of the University’s Emergency Medical Services, said Paul Shanley, deputy chief of police for DPS. The department’s goal is to work with EMS to provide the best coverage and response possible to medical aid calls. Both of the defibrillators are deployed daily during two shifts in cruisers on the north and south side of campus. Because DPS officers tend to arrive at the scene of medical emergencies before EMS due to their proximity, it made sense to equip DPS cruisers with defibrillators, Shanley said. DPS officers have been trained in CPR and defibrillator use and would be able to administer emergency
/ / Roads page 1 dents,” Ortiz told The Herald. “It would be nice not to have my car suspension shaken to pieces every time I drive down Brook Street,” said Michael Danielewicz ’14. “Certainly there are a fair number of roads in Providence that are not in good repair,” said Richard Bungiro, lecturer in
the brown daily herald Thursday, October 11, 2012
P U P P Y LO V E
resuscitation as needed, he said. In such emergencies, the few seconds or minutes between the arrival of DPS and EMS officers can be crucial, he added. Before the purchase of the defibrillators, officers would perform CPR if needed until EMS arrived. There have been cases in the past when an officer has started chest compressions, Shanley said, adding that in one situation a few years ago, the responding officer was able to save the life of someone who had collapsed. The new defibrillators have not yet been used. The University has approximately 24 defibrillators scattered through campus, in classroom buildings and athletic complexes. EMS provides DPS officers with up-to-date maps of all the machines’ locations in case they are required in an emergency situation, Shanley said. As part of the ongoing initiative, the first aid kits in DPS police cars have been upgraded to include more extensive supplies, Shanley said.
Students relieve midterm stress by cozying up with dogs at a “Heavy Petting” event on the Main Green sponsored by Health Services.
biology. “Anything that would fix them would improve safety and accessibility for the city.” A 2009 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials report estimated that Providence spends about $200,000 fixing old roads each year, wrote Providence Director of Sustainability Sheila Dormody in an email to The Herald. Since the report averages all Rhode Island cities’ road expenditures, the maintenance cost for Providence is likely higher than the reported amount, she wrote. Sam Zurier, city councilman for Ward 2, which includes the University, said he believes Providence should spend approximately $600,000 maintaining roads. The current road bond, which does not factor in any increases in road main-
tenance costs, will add $3.2 million of debt to the city’s annual budget. Zurier estimated that the road improvements will last 10 to 20 years, but the city will take 20 years to pay off the additional debt incurred by the bond. “The bond money is a capital expense — it’s a big project with a long, useful life,” Zurier said. “The administration has made a case for the needy in that the roads are deteriorating so much that, if we wait to do this later, it will cost much more.” But he added that the city needs to improve its road maintenance program in concord with the improvements. “It would be very short-sighted to borrow $40 million and not invest the extra $400,000 a year to maintain the roads,” Zurier said. Will Touret, former president of the
CoriNne Szczesny / herald
College Hill Neighborhood Association, said he disagreed with the city’s decision to use the bond sale for large-scale road improvements. “If a street is one-third in bad shape, why do you repave the whole street? It’s a one-size fits all, and it’s a very expensive undertaking,” he said. The city should not prioritize the conditions of Providence’s roads over what he called “out-of-control” taxes, Touret added. “It’s like we maxed out the credit card, we paid a little bit of it down, and that means we should max it out again.” Providence currently has the second-highest commercial tax rate in the nation, according to the most recent 50-State Property Tax Comparison Study, published in 2011. Streets were chosen for improvement through a pavement management analysis administered by civil engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin. Each street in Providence was ranked according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Pavement Condition Index, which examined the pavement distress of each road. The firm also took into consideration the amount of traffic expected each day, the life expectancy of the repair and the cost of repair for each road. This marks a necessary analytical shift, Zurier said. In the past, elected officials selected streets for improvement, she said. At an Oct. 2 forum — the second of five meetings Taveras is holding to explain the bond — a representative from Providence’s financial department said that prospective residents would be more inclined to settle down in Providence when they saw the improved streets, Touret said. In response to this position, Touret told The Herald, “They might think that until they see what the tax rates are. They’re going to say, ‘Let’s get on these great roads and get out of town even faster and go to Massachusetts!’” At the most recent forum meeting, public support for the bond measure still appeared divided, Zurier said. — With additional reporting by Sona Mkrttchian
campus news 5
the brown daily herald Thursday, October 11, 2012
Admins discuss diversity at UCS meeting
Top foreign nations: applicants Class of 2006 1. Canada 2. China 3. South Korea 4. India 5. United Kingdom 5. Singapore 7. Turkey 8. Bulgaria 9. Pakistan
Class of 2016 235 130 100 96 85 85 63 55 51
1. China 2. Canada 3. South Korea 4. India 5. United Kingdom 6. Singapore 7. Pakistan 8. Turkey 9. Taiwan
By Kate Nussenbaum
1075 420 389 317 254 225 102 86 69
Top foreign nations: matriculants Class of 2006 1. Canada 2. United Kingdom 2. South Korea 2. Turkey 5. China 6. Greece 7. Japan 7. Switzerland 9. France 9. Pakistan 9. Saudi Arabia 9. United Arab Emirates
Class of 2016 24 11 11 11 9 8 4 4 3 3 3 3
/ / Growth page 1 to capitalize on.” Both Yang and Amia Oberai ’16, who hails from Singapore, said they wanted to learn in a new environment. “I lived (in Singapore) for so long, and it’s a really small country, so I wanted to explore something different,” Oberai said. Oberai also cited the flexibility of American universities as a reason for applying. Unlike in other countries, students in the United States do not have to enter college with a career track or even a fixed path of study in mind. In addition to a general growing international applicant pool, the past decade has seen a demographic shift in the nationalities of the international pool. Brown’s Admission Office has made a commitment to spend more time recruiting internationally — in part due to former president Ruth Simmons’ focus on internationalization — and has targeted China, Singapore, South Korea and Brazil in particular, Miller said. The focus on these regions has led to a significant increase in the number of students from these countries. Ten years ago, there were only nine students in the freshman class from China, and the class of 2016 has 36. The number of applications from China went from 130 to 1,075 in the past decade. Similarly, places like Brazil and Bulgaria were either minimally or not represented 10 years ago, while the class of 2016 has five students from Brazil and four from Bulgaria. In the last decade, Singapore rose from not having a place on the list of top 10 countries represented to now being sixth on that list. The admission office’s targeted efforts are due to the different style of recruitment necessary for international applications. While the office relies on emails, mailed pamphlets and large events for domestic recruiting, international recruiting requires a more individualized approach, Miller said.
1. China 2. Canada 3. United Kingdom 4. South Korea 5. India 6. Singapore 7. Japan 8. Brazil 9. Turkey 9. Bulgaria
36 27 22 18 14 8 6 5 4 4
The admission office must “pick and choose” where it will focus its energy and resources during the international recruitment process, and it chooses new countries every three to five years, Miller said. The office considers many factors when choosing these nations, he added. “Brazil is a place with a booming economy and a significant commitment to growth in education, so it’s a place where we hadn’t had much of a presence,” Miller said. “We are kind of going where the students are, where the interest is, where the resources are educationally to bring students here.” Brazil’s growing economy is also responsible for the country’s heightened interest in American universities, Yang said. Accompanying the surge of businesses is the desire to “send lots of students out so they can get a global education that they can bring back to Brazil to help improve infrastructure,” he said. To recruit students, admissions officers visit certain schools in the countries they have chosen to focus on, Miller said, and many international students also hear about Brown through word of mouth. “You get a couple of students, and they have a really good experience and go back and tell their schools and friends,” Miller said. Oberai said word of mouth is one of the reasons for the popularity of American universities in Singapore. “We get good feedback from people going to college in the U.S.,” she said. The admission office also sends faculty abroad to visit high schools and talk to students about applying to Brown, Miller said. This trend of international interest in U.S. universities will continue, he added. “U.S. universities, particularly top universities, have become very attractive options and opportunities for the best students around the word,” he said. “I think that is certainly to our benefit.”
Senior Staff Writer
Liza Cariaga-Lo, associate provost for academic development and diversity, and Mary Grace Almandrez, director of the Third World Center and assistant dean of the college, spoke about efforts to improve campus diversity at Wednesday night’s general body meeting of the Undergraduate Council of Students. Cariaga-Lo, who began at the University in July alongside President Christina Paxson, spoke mainly of the importance of increasing faculty diversity and of University plans to implement related initiatives. The University has made “remarkable progress” in diversifying its undergraduate population, Cariaga-Lo said, but it “has a lot of work to do with faculty diversity.” “We see diversity as the work of developing inclusive excellence,” she said. The University needs to develop a strategic plan to ensure that resources are best allocated to recruit, develop, retain and promote diverse scholars, she said. It needs to consider its role in the larger community of academia to help more diverse scholars enter the academic pipeline, she added. “There are great programs here … but we don’t think about them as a seamless, strategic plan to diversify the academy and diversify the University,” she said. After Cariaga-Lo discussed her role with UCS members, Almandrez spoke about the mission of the TWC and asked them for their thoughts on the center. The TWC is “an open space where students can deal with the transition of becoming a minority,” said Afia Kwakwa ’14, chair of the Campus Life Committee. “TWC is a great place — you can get involved in conversations there regardless of your ethnicity,” said Abigail
Tom sullivan / Herald
Undergraduate Council of Students members discussed the role of the Third World Center on campus at their Wednesday night meeting. Braiman ’15, chair of the Committee sue. Some people are attached to its for Admissions and Student Services. historical roots, while others find the The main objectives of the center name offensive, she said. include supporting students of color, TWC staff members are in the complementing classroom learning process of visiting similar centers at with programs that center on differ- peer institutions to learn how different ences across cultures and providing models function, Almandrez added. “We can’t be everything to everyopportunities for students to engage in social justice training and student lead- one,” Almandrez said. “We are here for ership development, Almandrez said. all students who need us.” After the two speakers presented, She said she does not like to refer to the center as a “safe space,” but rather Roxanne Alaghband ’15 was appointed as a “brave space” where students can as a student member to the College engage in “messy” conversations. Curriculum Council. She will replace This year, faculty members and Kathleen Hill ’14.5. administrators will perform a selfUCS Vice President Brandon Toevaluation of the center to determine masso ’13 said the CCC thought it was whether its mission is appropriate and important to maintain gender diversity, whether they are succeeding in carry- so Alaghband was chosen to fill the ing it out. A team of outside experts position over the already-appointed will also evaluate the center. alternate. Several UCS members said they He also told UCS members to know people who have been put off brainstorm a catchy name for a new by the center’s name. initiative the council is launching that Almandrez said the name is one will allow students to enter a lottery part of the center that will be consid- to eat meals with Paxson. The first of ered in the evaluation process, though these meals will be a breakfast at the she warned it could be a “divisive” is- Faculty Club.
D o g d ays
CORINNE SZCZESNY / HERALD
At the “Heavy Petting” event on the Main Green Wednesday, professors’ dogs provided a pleasant distraction for students studying for midterms.
comics Fly by Night | Adam Kopp
6 editorial & letter Editorial
Signs of immaturity For a student body that considers itself the coolest in the Ivy League, we sure have a warped idea of what is “cool.” Ever since we can remember, Brown students have been head-butting, karate chopping, punching or finding some other way to break the exit signs that hang in dorms around campus. It’s now considered somewhat of a school tradition — it would be an oddity to see more than two exit signs hanging intact in Keeney Quadrangle by the end of the weekend. At the risk of making the sign-breakers even more infamous, we want to draw attention to this issue. As students ourselves, we have a message for these culprits: You are immature, what you are doing is inconsiderate and we condemn your actions unreservedly. A particularly bad weekend last month in which 57 signs were destroyed in Keeney alone prompted an email from the Office of Residential Life to all on-campus residents, threatening a damage fee if the destruction persisted. As people who have never touched an exit sign in our lives — except maybe to pick up shattered pieces and place them deferentially against the wall — we were initially indignant at being reprimanded. After all, the vast majority of Brown students are respectful and mature and would never dream of causing such useless destruction. But what is ResLife supposed to do to combat this issue, in lieu of issuing a general warning? Though The Herald reported that exit sign violence decreased after the email was sent (“U. threatens fees after weekend vandalism in Keeney,” Oct. 4), we believe the most effective way to eliminate this despicable practice is for it to cease to be considered cool. That is the job of the student community, and that is why we are denouncing the ridiculous exit sign tradition and entreating other students to do the same. To start, exit signs that are vandalized by students must be replaced — and that costs money. Richard Bova, senior associate dean of residential life and dining services, recently told The Herald that the University spends more than $30,000 on exit signs per year. That’s more than the price of one semester’s tuition. Money that could be put toward renovating classrooms or hiring new faculty is being spent correcting these damages. Furthermore, breaking exit signs makes absolutely no sense. Taking furniture from common rooms, though we absolutely do not endorse it, is at least understandable — students want comfortable furniture with which to decorate their dorm rooms without buying it themselves. But breaking exit signs? This type of vandalism has no purpose, except perhaps to vent anger or to impress your friends. Moreover, people who break exit signs nearly always leave them for Facilities Management (or their Residential Counselors) to clean up. By breaking exit signs, students are merely making trouble for others for their own amusement, which is even more deplorable. Brown, we are better than this. We are adults. We are mature. We are educated. We will be voting in the upcoming election to determine the next president. But the practice of breaking exit signs does not reflect this — it is something a fourth-grader would do. The next time you are standing in a dorm hallway, contemplating breaking an exit sign, we beg you to reconsider. Because when you really think about it — or even if you just think about it for a second — smashing exit signs is just about the stupidest thing you could do with your time. Whether you’re in a drunken stupor, looking to impress upperclassmen friends or feeling aggressive, there are other things you can do instead. Act your age, and think about someone other than yourself — you’ve been giving all of us a bad name. Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
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Correc tions An article in Wednesday’s Herald (“Students dig up Spanish past while abroad,” Oct. 10) incorrectly stated that Matthew Gutmann P’14 is vice president of international affairs at the Watson Institute for International Studies. In fact, he is the University’s vice president for international affairs. The Herald regrets the error. Due to an editing error, an article in Wednesday’s Herald (“Rare book ‘petting zoo’ offers a special touch,” Oct. 10) incorrectly described an Aztec phrasebook as the third oldest book featuring printed music and gold print on the title page. In fact, the description refers to three separate items. The Herald regrets the error.
Editor’s note The version of the column entitled “The problem with a ‘bipartisan’ education” that appeared in Wednesday’s Herald was published without the author’s approval. The version published was based on a rough draft the author had composed that found its way into the paper due to an editing error. The correct version of the column can now be found on browndailyherald.com. The Herald would also like to clarify the column’s implication that Professor of Political Science John Tomasi is professionally connected to the National Review. In fact, the publication simply reviewed his new book.
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Empathy over egotism Kevin Carty Opinions Columnist White guilt: the assurance that your fair skin color pegs you as prejudiced. Privilege guilt: the conviction that the wealth you were born into makes you a greedy, morally inadequate person. Male guilt: the belief that you are a misogynist because you are biologically a man. When we use the word guilt, we are not always referring to one of the guilts listed above. Usually, we are describing conventional, after-the-fact guilt, the kind of feeling you got when you stole candy as a child or the pangs that come after upsetting a friend. According to some evolutionary psychologists, this guilt may even be a result of natural selection, a personal incentive that functions as a source of community cohesion. This guilt is ordinary, temporary and not a concern of this article. The other kind of guilt, the kind based upon identity, of which white, privilege and male guilt are just a few examples, is a relatively new phenomenon, a result of social evolution. In the last few decades, we’ve become a nation willing to acknowledge, rather than gloss over, our own historical faults. Today, we as a country are more aware of the damage wrought by whites, the wealthy and
males in American history than perhaps ever before. And some of us, particularly those who are the modern-day representatives of those same groups, also feel more guilty about that damage. This guilt of identity, attached to a personhood that you can neither choose nor change, doesn’t disappear with simple action like conventional guilt, and it doesn’t result in a cohesive community. It stays with you, potentially even guiding your behavior, and therein lies the problem.
ing those hungry or giving that man the comfort of kindness. It has everything to do with you and your feelings, but virtually nothing to do with them and their welfare. When this is the case, you lose the incentive to actually understand the systems of injustice that make those acts of kindness necessary in the first place and, accordingly, the ability to change those systems for good. Moreover, guilt-based giving lacks virtue. Through it, we remain in our
Identity-based guilt may serve as a successful incentive, but it is ultimately a selfish one that defeats the goals of social justice.
Identity-based guilt may serve as a successful incentive, but it is ultimately a selfish one that defeats the goals of social justice. For example, if you are motivated solely by this sort of guilt toward moral or charitable behavior, the whole enterprise of social justice becomes a source of relief for your guilt. Whether you volunteer for a struggling public high school, work the line at a soup kitchen or take a homeless guy out to lunch, not one portion of your motivation has anything to do with actually improving that high school, feed-
natural “default setting,” in the words of David Foster Wallace — when we go through our days focused on no one but ourselves. A guilt of identity doesn’t force us to step off this setting or confront the egocentric habits we grow accustomed to. Rather, it begins in self-conscious shame and ends in self-conscious satisfaction. In the case of moral behavior driven by compassion, the opposite is true. Social justice of this sort has little to do with you and your feelings and everything to do with the welfare of those you want to aid. And if you begin your action with
this genuine empathy for those you hope to help, a concern for the systems that oppress them will come naturally. Only with this concern do we have the hope of permanently transforming those systems. On top of that — and in contrast to guilt-based giving — charity built upon empathy instills virtue. As we care for others and step off our “default setting,” we engage with others and lose our own selfish concerns, for at least a moment. Empathy becomes a defense against selfcenteredness, and this is its virtue. Not only does moral behavior bring good to other people, it also brings out the good in each one of us. Sixty years ago, when Wounded Knee was written off as a battle, not a massacre, and race-based equality was out of sight and out of mind for so many Americans, our country was less than aware of its painful past. Today, things are different. We are more conscious of injustice, and some of us also feel more guilty about it. To a certain extent, that’s unavoidable, but it would be a sad state of affairs if this guilt, based upon identity, were to replace compassion and empathy as the feeling that drives us to justice and charity.
Kevin Carty ’15 is a political science concentrator from Washington, D.C. He would love to hear any responses and can be reached at kevin_carty@brown.edu.
Bloody, bloody Israel Adam Asher Opinions Columnist Down the street from each other in Jerusalem lived two families, both named Harel, both with sons named Yuval. Though both Yuvals were the same age, their families didn’t know each other, and as a result they didn’t know that both were fighting with the Israeli Defense Forces in the 1982 Lebanon War. One day, two military officers came to the door of one of the Harel families with the devastating news that their son had been killed in battle. However, the next day, during the shiva — the seven days of mourning customary under Jewish law — there was another knock on the door. It was the IDF again. They had made a mistake. Their son was still alive, and in actuality it was the other Yuval Harel who had been killed. After a day of grim relief, knowing that their son was, amazingly, still alive, the Harels were visited by the IDF once more. Their son — the first Yuval Harel — had also been killed in battle. Today, the two Yuval Harels are buried in the same row of graves in Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem. The Harel family’s story is the history of Israel. Its people know war and the tragedy it brings in its wake in a way we, as university students in the United States, don’t and hopefully never will. Few of us know any members of the Armed
Forces, and fewer still have lost someone close to them in war. Even within that small subset of people, most will never visit Iraq, Afghanistan or any place U.S. soldiers are or recently have been actively engaged in combat. Like the Malabar Front in George Orwell’s “1984,” our theaters of war exist only in the abstract and are shown — when they are shown to us at all — in nicely produced segments in between announcements about the new iPhone and Paul Ryan’s workout regimen. Not so for Israelis. For them, war is such a part of the fabric of regular life
to New York. When you live under a more or less constant threat of attack — from that close proximity — there’s nothing abstract about war. Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has extensive special forces experience, having taken part in raids along the Suez Canal and leading a commando team into Syrian territory during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Perhaps most importantly, though, is that in the same cemetery as the two Yuval Harels, a few plots away, lies his brother Yonatan “Johnny” Netanyahu, who was killed
It is often said that Israelis are oppressing the Palestinian people. But why can’t the converse be true as well?
that complete peace is a dream for them in the way an economy free of fossil fuels is a dream for many in the United States. Military conscription is mandatory for all Israeli citizens at the age of 18 — university comes after. From Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, to Beirut, a major center of Hezbollah activity, is approximately 80 miles. To put that in perspective, that’s about half the distance from Providence
in a special forces raid rescuing Israeli hostages at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Say what you will about his policies, but Prime Minister Netanyahu has no illusions about war and its costs. This is not a call for arms, but for empathy. Not to excuse unnecessary violence, but to try to help people understand why to many Israelis, it might not seem so unnecessary. If we ever want to
have a real shot at bringing about lasting peace in the region, it has to start from a place of true understanding of both sides. What we see is a wall being built between Israel and the West Bank — what we don’t see as often are the pictures of buses in Tel Aviv going up in flames with children on board that prompted such drastic action. It is often said that Israelis are oppressing the Palestinian people — for examples of this line of thinking I would refer you to a thoughtful piece written by Mika Zacks ’15 (“Suffering on the path to freedom,” Sept. 26). But why can’t the converse be true as well? And while innocent citizens affected by the violence in the Palestinian territories unequivocally deserve our attention, Israelis in cities like Sderot and Ashkelon live in constant fear of rocket barrages from Gaza. The Second Intifada and the threat of a third loom specter-like over Israeli communities near the border of the West Bank. Citizens of Haifa know they are one flare-up away from a repeat of the 2006 Lebanon War in which the city was hammered with Katyusha rockets. In Brown’s hyper-liberal political atmosphere, it is often overlooked that in Israel and the Palestinian territories, brutality is a twoway street. Our discourse needs to start treating it as such.
Adam Asher ’15 can be reached at adam_asher@brown.edu, followed on Twitter (@asheradams) and found on his laptop drinking coffee at various locations around campus.
daily herald city & state the Brown
Thursday, October 11, 2012
New federal funds target Radio station to host controversial dance R.I. unemployment rate By Billy Watterson Contributing writer
By Andy Jones Contributing Writer
Rhode Island will receive $17 million in federal funds aimed at strengthening the state’s unemployment insurance system, according to a Sept. 27 announcement from Rhode Island Democrats Sen. Jack Reed, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rep. Jim Langevin and Rep. David Cicilline, as well as Independent Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’16. About $10 million of this funding will be spent to “improve service levels and modernize state UI systems,” the joint announcement stated. An additional $537,000 will rehire 15 full-time Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training employees who were laid off earlier this year. Remaining funds will be spent to eliminate fraud in the unemployment insurance program and personalize the system by providing individual assessments to people experiencing financial hardship, the announcement said. This federal aid comes at a crucial time — Rhode Island’s unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation. According to the August report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Rhode Island has the second-highest rate in the United States at 10.7 percent, with only
Nevada ranking ahead. This statistic puts Rhode Island well above September’s national unemployment rate of 7.8 percent. Jonathon Dworkin, Langevin’s spokesman, attributed Rhode Island’s high unemployment partly to its “skills gap” in areas like health care and information technology. The workers’ skills do not match the skills that employers need, Dworkin said. Langevin and his fellow Rhode Island congressmen aim to use this federal funding to provide the training necessary for workers to close the skills gap and find jobs. This news also comes as incumbents Whitehouse, Langevin and Cicilline are facing reelection campaigns. Each has made jobs and the economy a major plank in his campaign platform, but the impact of this funding on the politicians’ reelection chances remains to be seen. Though the economy and job creation are his top priorities, Whitehouse said he is skeptical the funds will give his campaign a boost. “I don’t think it will help particularly,” he told The Herald, “except ... as it reflects we are a hardworking delegation that tries very hard to deliver for Rhode Island.” —With contributing reporting by Shefali Luthra
City aims to raise recycling with single-stream system By Emily Passarelli Contributing Writer
The first day of October marked the beginning of Providence Mayor Angel Taveras’ new recycling program, which aims to save time, money and the environment while increasing the city’s recycling rate. The initiative — “Your Big Green Can Just Got Bigger” — supports the switch from a recycling system that requires residents to sort paper into blue bins and metals, plastics and cans into green bins to a single-stream system that allows residents to place all recyclables in their lidded bin previously used for trash and all trash in a grey bin that will be delivered to homes. The main goal of this program is to increase Providence’s recycling rate from its current 17.8 percent to 25 percent by this time next year, said Sheila Dormody, Providence director of sustainability. Single-stream recycling programs have been successful in other New England cities, which informed Providence’s decision to switch systems, she added. Because the single-stream programs make it easier for residents to recycle by removing the middle step of sorting, people will be encouraged to recycle more, she said. She added that the initiative also provides a much bigger bin for recyclable materials, which should increase recycling. The program is also structured to save the city money. The city has to pay $32 for every ton of trash disposal, but recycling is free. On a larger scale, Rhode Island cities share profits from the sale of recyclables — with more recyclable material, these profits will increase. The lidded cans will prevent windblown recyclables from littering Provi-
dence’s streets, Dormody said, which will have long-term environmental benefits. And unlike the previous recycling bins, these “lidded carts protect the recycled material from the elements better,” allowing more of the waste to be effectively recycled, she said. Mary Reilly ’13, an environmental studies concentrator, said she agrees with the reform initiative and new recycling plan but is wary of touting long-term environmental benefits. Though the one-can system is more convenient, the efficiency may be countered by residents who place appropriate materials in the can in an improper state, Reilly said. For example, if a full bottle of juice is tossed in the bin and leaks, an entire can of recyclable materials could be ruined, she said. Residents said they would be more likely to recycle now that they did not have to sort their materials, but some were unaware of the policy change. “Taveras needs to find more ways to promote it. I haven’t heard anything about it,” said Le Akinsulire, a Northeastern University student and Rhode Island resident. “I’m willing to follow any reforms that are in place… but there are more issues in Providence than just recycling,” said Corey Pocket, a North Providence resident. The program’s success depends largely on Providence residents, Dormody said. “Recycling only works when everyone participates.” Early this summer, Tiverton also switched to single-stream recycling. While recycling in the area increased as a result of the new bins, a residentincentive program had a more significant effect on the rate increase, said Steven Rys, chairman of the Tiverton Landfill and Recycling Committee.
Cat Country 98.1, a local country radio station, will host a father-daughter dance Nov. 15 in lieu of Cranston Elementary School’s traditional “Me and My Guy” dance. The dance follows a controversial ban on gender-exclusive events by the Cranston school district this May. The station decided to provide a replacement for the dance because they “received an influx of emails from (their) listeners,” and “as a family-owned station,” they sympathized with the residents of Cranston, said Cat Country Promotions Director Briget D’Antonio. Cat Country decided that they “wanted to use their available resources to ease the frustration” and throw a father-daughter dance of their own to support “this time honored tradition,” D’Antonio said. The dance, open to Cranston students in kindergarten through sixth grade and their families, is a charity event whose proceeds will go to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island. The dance’s charitable nature has drawn big-name country artist and
American Idol winner Scotty McCreery, D’Antonio said. Last spring, Steve Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, sent a letter voicing objections to the father-daughter dance and a related mother-son baseball game to Judith Lundsten, then-assistant superintendent and now the current superintendent. Though Lundsten had previously expressed reservations about ending the events, telling CNN that she “truly believe(s) that no one intended to hurt anyone’s feelings with this, that they wanted to be inclusive, but they also liked these traditional-type activities,” she ultimately recommended that the district ban the gender-exclusive events. While Lundsten told CBS she did not believe the dance infringes upon Federal Title IX legislation, which exempts parent-child events from issues of gender-discrimination, she said she believed the school’s activities to be direct violations of Rhode Island law. According to the letter written by the ACLU, the dance came to their attention after a “single mother of a student” contacted the ACLU. They took issue with the event because
it “excludes not only all boys at the school, but also those female students who, like her child, do not have a close adult male in their life to take them … (and was) made even more problematic because of its promotion of gender stereotypes.” In a September statement, the ACLU said they believed the issue to have been “amicably resolved with school officials” this past May. But Cranston Mayor Allan Fung’s office offered a different view. Carlos Lopez, Fung’s chief of staff, said the mayor believes that these types of events “should not be banned from schools.” He does not think they are discriminatory “as long as no one is excluded,” Lopez said. Despite the gender exclusive name of the event, everyone is allowed to attend, Lopez said. Fung also disagrees that the event is a “promotion of gender stereotypes,” Lopez added. Since the ban, the mayor’s office has been flooded with calls from “angry parents,” Lopez said, but the “issue is not within the mayor’s purview legally.” Sean Gately, the Republican state senate candidate, has declared his intention to attempt to lift the restriction if he is elected in November.
Writing Fellows program narrows scope By EMMAJEAN HOLLEY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The structure of the Writing Fellows program has changed this semester so that only students in writing fellows-designated courses are paired with fellows. Students not enrolled in these courses can still access writing help through the Writing Center. In previous semesters, any student seeking help with their writing could be paired with a fellow through the Writing Center. This adjustment addresses the needs presented by “unexpectedly high course enrollment,” said Douglas Brown, director of Writing Support Programs. While this modification has been employed in the past by the Writing Fellows program, it is not common, Brown said. “It’s the first time since I’ve been working here that we’ve done this, so it’s a bit of an anomaly,” he said. “But it’s not a huge change in how we run the program.” Brown expects the overall impact of the class-based fellowships to be comparable with traditional pairings. “We have the same number of fellows working at capacity, and they’re still working with the same number of students, so the numbers shake out evenly,” he said. “I don’t think students are suffering or losing out in any way.” Even with this change in strategy, the general approach to writing assistance remains the same, said Anna Tifft ’13, who co-directs the program. “Just like with pairings, the first conference establishes a context (of) who we each are and how we’ll communicate. During the second conference, we more closely address what we noticed, but we’re not here to criticize or judge you for your writing.” Rather than criticism, the goal of
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Though the Writing Fellows program has limited its focus to fellowsdesignated courses, other students can still get help via the Writing Center. the writing fellowship is to help students improve the “quality of their presentation,” Tifft said. “We gauge the clarity of the concepts they discuss and look for ways they could be better conveyed.” Connor Flexman ’16 is currently enrolled in PHIL 0080: “Existentialism,” a course assigned to writing fellow Everett Epstein ’13. “I met with Everett just last week to talk about a paper, and he was really helpful,” Flexman said. “Talking to a peer was not only less intimidating
than approaching a professor, but it also gave me a lot of useful and personalized insight into how to better formulate my arguments.” Though the specific approach of the program has changed this semester, Tifft said it will not detract from the quality of the program. “It’s not so much about the individual pairings as it is about the face-to-face interactions,” she said, adding that “interpersonal connection is something that makes the Brown Writing Fellows program very unique.”