Tuesday, October 16, 2012

daily herald the Brown

vol. cxxii, no. 85

INSIDE

Page 2

Peace petition

J Street U seeks fix to IsraeliPalenstinian conflict

Page 4

Match maker Startup helps voters find like-minded candidates Page 8

Model magic ModelBots on campus create 3D models from 2D images today

tomorrow

37 / 56

47/ 62

since 1891

tuesday, october 16, 2012

BDS employees vote to switch union representation

By Sona MkrtTchian Senior Staff Writer

Following the lead of University library and janitorial workers, Brown Dining Services employees voted Thursday to switch their union representation from Service Employees International Union Local 615 to the United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island.

USAW won by a 34-point margin in the run-off election, which was held following a close race at the end of August that resulted in a 76-73 vote for USAW. Because neither party received the required number of votes needed to win in August, the run-off was necessary.

On Sept. 28 — weeks before the run-off vote — the SEIU filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against the University for unfair labor practices following a series of deductions from employee paychecks at the beginning of the semester. The SEIU contends that these over-deductions, marked as union dues, created a skewed atmosphere for the election.

Mike Sylvester, deputy director of higher educationfor SEIU Local 615, said they informed the University of the error after the first set of paychecks was issued, but the University continued the deductions. Though they said they do not believe the University was “nefarious” in its actions, Local 615 believes Human Resources was negligent in not catching the problem earlier and reimbursing all employees before it became a larger issue, he added.

This error “poisoned the election and created an atmosphere that unfairly benefited the other union,” the SEIU wrote in a recent press release.

Many of the employees affected are nine-month employees of the University, meaning that Brown does not employ them during the summer season.

Nelson Lopes, who works at the Blue Room on this nine-month contract, said when he returned to campus in September, he realized the University had drawn union dues from his paycheck for the three months during which he was not employed and thereby exempt / / Union page 2

Tom Sullivan / Herald

Brown Dining Services employees voted to switch their union representation to United Service and Allied Workers by a 34-point margin.

Undocumented immigrant journalist calls for reform Gambling

By Tonya Riley Senior Staff Writer

Jose Antonio Vargas, a journalist who had been working in the U.S. for more than 10 years when he published an essay in the New York Times Magazine revealing his status as an undocumented immigrant, spoke to a full crowd in Metcalf Auditorium Monday night. Vargas discussed the oversimplification of the dialogue surrounding the immigration debate, expressing his confusion at how “one human being (can) call another human being illegal.”

“Actions are illegal, but people are never illegal,” Vargas said, noting that being undocumented is a civil offense not a criminal one.

Vargas’ essay, entitled “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” was published in 2011, launching him squarely into the spotlight as a immigration rights activist.

Vargas moved to California from the Philipines in 1993, when he was 12. When he tried to get his driver’s license four years later, he discovered his green card was fake, he said.

Vargas also spoke to the audience about coming out as gay and his grandfather consequently kicking him out of the house. “I came out of one closet because I couldn’t handle being in two at once,” he said. But this meant his best shot at citizenship — marrying a U.S. citizen — was crushed.

“My whole life I have felt and internalized being / / Vargas page 3

legislation may bolster R.I. economy

By Corinne Sejourne Contributing writer

city & state

Tom sullivan / herald

Jose Antonio Vargas, an award-winning journalist and undocumented immigrant, spoke at Brown Monday. Above, with Zachary Hammer ’16.

m. golf

Bruno travels to Philly for Big 5 Championship

By Connor Grealy Sports Staff Writer

The men’s golf team had a strong conference showing at this weekend’s Big 5 Championship in Philadelphia, beating three of the seven Ivy League teams that participated. The team’s weekend score of 637 earned them 14th place in the field of 19 teams playing at the par-70 Philmont Country Club.

“It was nice to be in contention after the first day,” said co-captain JD Ardell ’13 ­— the Bears were in a three-way tie for 10th place after their first round.

“It’s too bad it didn’t pan out, but the silver lining is that we beat three Ivy League teams.”

Bruno finished ahead of Ivy League foes Dartmouth, Penn and Cornell, all of whom finished ahead of the Bears in last spring’s Ivy League Golf Championship.

“I’m very encouraged by our finish ahead of three other Ivy League teams,”

said Head Coach Michael Hughes.

Bruno’s scores were higher compared to many of their earlier rounds this season, but this was true for much of the field. High winds and difficult pin placements made the course more challenging than most the Bears have seen this fall.

“The average score on Saturday was around an 81,” Hughes said. “It was very windy and the greens got pretty quick.

At the same time, everybody had the same conditions.”

Nelson Hargrove ’13.5 ably combated the tough conditions and finished first among the Bears for the second consecutive tournament. Hargrove started his second round tied for 16th in the tournament. He finished 29th individually with a 156, shooting 77 on Saturday and 79 on Sunday.

Peter Callas ’14 was within striking distance of the top of the leaderboard after a strong round of 78 on Saturday.

Rhode Island voters will cast ballots Nov. 6 on a measure that would open state-operated full-scale casino gambling in Rhode Island’s two casinos — Twin River Casino in Lincoln and the Newport Grand in Newport.

The upcoming 2012 Rhode Island ballot measure will feature two separate questions for each casino. Question one would enable full-table gambling for Twin River Casino in Lincoln, and question two would enable the same for Newport Grand in Newport.

The implementation of this legislation would be critical for the Newport Grand to remain competitive with casinos in nearby Massachusetts, where Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation to permit the opening of three casinos and one slot facility last November, said Diane Hurley, CEO and co-owner of Newport Grand. None of these facilities have yet opened full-scale gambling.

In addition to providing important revenue for the city and state, the measure would be critical to maintaining and bolstering the facility’s current stream of customers, 50 percent of whom currently come from Massachusetts, said Patti Doyle, spokesperson for Twin River Casino.

Doyle and Hurley both said the transition to full tables would not require any expansion of facilities. The Newport Grand expects to add about 50 employees, which would translate to a 25 percent payroll increase, Hur/ / Casinos page 4 ley said. Twin

He finished one stroke behind Hargrove to finish 34th individually in the tournament.

“Peter and Nelson were in the top of the event for pars made,” Hughes said. “They were a few shots away from breaking out.”

Ardell and Jack Wilson ’16 both shot 162 for the weekend, while Justin Miller ’15 ended the tournament with a scorecard of 170.

The Bears will finish their fall campaign this weekend with the Oct. 20-21 Ivy Match Play Championship at Jasna Polana Golf Club in Princeton, NJ. The tournament will differ from Bruno’s other tournaments in that the team will play the other participating teams in head-to-head matches, as opposed to competing against the entire field via stroke play.

“I feel a little more confident about match play,” Hughes said. “We keep playing 14-15 holes well and a few

poorly, which in match play can mean a win.”

Their finish in the Big 5 gave the Bears some perspective on their current position in the Ivy League rankings and helped indicate which teams are poised to make a strong showing in the upcoming match play.

“As long as I’ve been here, that’s the best we’ve done relative to other teams,” Ardell said. “(The Big 5 results) gave us a barometer as to which the best Ivy League teams are and what they’re doing.”

He added that the Bears have been consistently among the tournament leaders in pars made this season, but that strength may lose importance in stroke play.

“With match play, it’s one hole at a time. You may have had a bad hole, but it’s one hole,” he said. “If we can beat these teams head-to-head in match play, it will only give us more confidence.”

2 campus news c alendar Today

Oct. 16

11 a.m.

ToMORROW

oct. 17

6 p.m.

ArtShow Screening

Ship Street Square

Nightingale-Brown House 8 p.m.

Presidential Debate Screening

Four Cello Sonatas

Metcalf 101

Grant Recital Hall

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH Buffalo Ranch Chicken Sandwich, Fresh Corn on the Cob, Baked Potato Bar with Toppings, Seasoned Fries

Chicken Rice Soup, Buffalo Wings, Krinkle Cut Fries, Nacho Bar, Sauerkraut, Swiss Fudge Cookies

DINNER Beef Tips w/Curry, Cider Glazed Turkey, Basmati Rice Pilaf, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Vegan Malibu Patty

J Street U promotes two-state solution By rachel margolis contributing writer

Farmer’s Market 9 p.m.

the brown daily herald tuesday, october 16, 2012

Spinach and Mushroom Soup, Roasted Honey Chili Chicken, Rosemary Polenta, Boston Cream Pie

Sudoku

Crossword

About 40 students and community members gathered in Hillel’s Chapel Thursday night to hear a series of speakers address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to celebrate the launch of J Street U Brown, an official chapter of J Street U, the student branch of a national movement dedicated to shifting the American political dynamic in favor of a two-state solution.

A group to support J Street’s principles at Brown was first founded in 2008 and called M’kol HaKivunim, which translates in Hebrew to “from all directions.” In 2010, by then under the name of Puzzle Peace, it became an affiliate of the national J Street U movement.

Postcards with a one-sentence petition reading, “We support vigorous U.S. diplomatic leadership to achieve a twostate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” were placed on every seat at the launch. The postcards, which have space on the back for individuals to supply their contact information, are being collected and will be presented to Congress in its first session following the election.

The first speaker, Harry Samuels ’13, emphasized the importance of having the group belong to a national movement. The connection will help J Street U Brown mobilize grassroots supporters.

Closer ties to J Street’s base in Washington, D.C. will also open up more resources like a congressional intern program, in which several Brown students have already participated, Samuels said. The collaboration also allows members of the group to be part of a national community, he said.

Matt Duss, policy analyst and direc-

/ / Union page 1 from dues. He said he still has not been reimbursed for the deductions.

The University said this error is one of the many difficulties Human Resources experienced at the beginning of the semester when it implemented its new financial management system called “Workday.” Students employed

by Brown University Dining Services also experienced shortfalls in their paychecks during the first few weeks of the semester.

“There was an administrative error in the implementation of Workday. … It has since been remedied,” said Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations. “We regret very much that this transpired.”

The NLRB is currently investigating the charges and will determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant a full investigation in the com-

Courtesy of Harpo Jaeger

J Street Brown U, which officially launched last week, is a group that supports U.S. policy calling for a two-state solution. tor of Middle East progress at the Center for American Progress, has extensive experience covering the Middle East and has written for a variety of news publications. “There is no voice for Palestinians who can claim credibly to speak for all Palestinians,” Duss said. But there is a growing movement among Palestinian youth who are “done arguing about land” and only demand the rights that Israel has denied them, he said. Meanwhile, among Israelis, “settler sentiment is very strong” as more and more Israelis settle illegally in the occupied territories, he added. The window of opportunity for a two-state solution is closing rapidly, Duss said, emphasizing that a sense of

urgency is needed to achieve it.

Ilyse Hogue, a writer at the Nation, spoke about the challenges American Jews face in “coming out” in support of J Street, whose stances may contradict those of the Israeli government. She said more and more politicians — including Ann Kuster, a congressional candidate in New Hampshire, and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. — are accepting J Street endorsements without facing significant outcry from constituents.

“That’s progress,” Hogue said. “And that’s progress that you guys can take credit for. … You are the ones that made it safe for people like me to say, ‘It’s time / /J Street page 4 my voice was

ing days, said Robert Redbord, deputy regional attorney for the NLRB in Boston. If sufficient cause is determined before the seven-day grace period, the board will not certify the election of USAW. Karen McAninch, a business agent for USAW, said there has been strong support for USAW within Dining Services for months.

Gloria Fraielli, a first cook who works in Dining Services, approached McAninch with a series of complaints about the SEIU during the summer.

Fraielli told The Herald that many of the workers were dissatisfied with the lack of SEIU representatives present on campus to hear their concerns.

“They have a local office here, but there is never anybody there in the office. So if you place a call there, you would be lucky to get a call back,” she said. “We sort of got forgotten about.”

Fraielli also said many of the work-

ers were impressed with how USAW had managed the negotiations between the janitorial staff and the University earlier this year. Dining workers want USAW representing them in the next set of collective bargaining negotiations, she added.

“I was there when they counted out the votes and the people who were there were excited. They were chanting USAW, USAW,” Fraielli said. “I know there are some people in the main dining room that wanted to stay with SEIU, but I didn’t hear anything negative being said because, when it comes down to it, we’re … brothers and sister(s), and we’re going to continue to fight a strong fight during negotiations.”

If USAW is certified, McAninch said they will immediately begin working on a new contract for Dining Services employees that will improve wages, health care benefits and pension plans.

She said USAW is in a better position to meet the needs of Dining Services workers because its membership is much smaller, which means that more time and energy can be directed towards workers’ needs.

“We have a track record for being there when we’re needed,” McAninch added.

But Sylvester said SEIU is not ready to give up because they sense a strong support base among the workers despite the results of the run-off.

“We definitely plan on pushing (the charges) forward,” Sylvester said. “We will do whatever the board needs in order to overturn this election.”

daily herald the Brown

www.browndailyherald.com 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I.

Claire Peracchio, President Rebecca Ballhaus, Vice President

Danielle Marshak, Treasurer Siena DeLisser, Secretary

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement and once during Orientation by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community.

POSTMASTER please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906.

Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily.

Copyright 2012 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved. editorial

(401) 351-3372 herald@browndailyherald.com

Business

(401) 351-3260 gm@browndailyherald.com

campus news 3

the brown daily herald tuesday, october 16, 2012

Website startup matches voters, candidates By sophie yan

/ / Vargas page 1 an outsider,” Vargas said.

During his formative teenage years, a teacher encouraged Vargas to pursue journalism, he told the audience, and in many ways he used the legitimacy of seeing his name in bylines to document his undocumented existence, he said.

Throughout his early career, Vargas depended on a license he got from Washington, where undocumented citizens can legally apply for licenses.

“That driver’s license was my life for eight years,” he said. “It was the only proof of my identity I had.”

Vargas emphasized that support from those who know undocumented immigrants is an important part of elevating discussion about immigration in the United States. Contradictory knowledge or lack of knowledge plagues the debate over immigration, he noted. For example, most people do not realize that undocumented workers paid $28 million in Rhode Island state taxes in 2010, he said.

Ceasing to frame the debate in simplistic us-versus-them language like “illegal immigrants” will move the debate toward solutions, he added, noting that mixed-status families and millions of undocumented students complicate the debate.

“They can’t all just babysit your kids and mow your lawns and serve you drinks,” Vargas said.

By Adam Toobin Senior staff Writer

U.S. President

contributing writer

Inspired by the Occupy movement and Arab Spring, a Brown student and an alum launched the Providence-based startup LoveGov this spring with the goal of revolutionizing the political world.

LoveGov CEO Joschka Tryba ’12 said he devised a plan for an online network to promote meaningful discussion about politics and unite people with similar political opinions.

When Tryba first started work on the business plan while still at the University, the idea of implementing it in real life seemed out of reach, he said.

But after Tryba entered LoveGov in the University’s Annual Startup Competition, it attracted considerable attention, including that of Tom Pincince ’86, who became the organization’s first investor. Assisted by Pincince, Tryba began to raise money and recruit a team for the startup, including Max Fowler ’15, co-founder and lead developer of the organization, who is currently on leave from the University to work on the business.

LoveGov takes a bottom-up approach, matching users based not only on political ideologies, but also on geographical location, Tryba said, adding that the website aims to promote involvement in local politics.

The website is user-friendly, with clean graphics and a tutorial for new users. Users are presented with a series of questions on topics ranging from health care to environmental issues to sex education. After answering the questions, the user is directed to a page listing presidential and vice presidential candidates that shows how their opinions match up to the user’s. The website prompts the user

Elec tion Roundup

President Obama retains a slight lead in the polls against Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Romney saw a surge of support last week following a strong performance in the candidates’ first debate two weeks ago. Some analysts credit Vice President Joe Biden’s strong performance last week in his debate against Romney’s running mate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. for stemming the tide of falling poll numbers.

Obama and Romney will meet again at Hofstra University in New York for the second presidential debate tonight. The debate, which will address foreign and domestic policy in a town hall format, will be broadcast on all cable and network news channels from 9 to 10:30 p.m. Candy Crowley, CNN’s chief political correspondent, will be the first woman to moderate a presidential debate since 1992.

U.S. Senate – Rhode Island Courtesy of LoveGov.com

LoveGov, a startup founded by a Brown student and an alum, seeks to foster political activism and help voters discover like-minded candidates. for his or her address, and then shows local politicians with similar political viewpoints. The site also displays online communities of like-minded individuals that the user can join.

“It’s like the closer to home you get, the further away from you (the political world) feels,” Tryba said. But the basic premise of LoveGov is that through local politics, people can get involved in the legislative process more easily and more directly see their effect on their immediate political spheres, he said.

LoveGov, which launched its beta version over the summer and is coming out of testing this month, already has around 800 users and is still expanding.

“When you begin to construct a profile on LoveGov, you also learn quite a bit more about yourself,” said Pincince, who is also an active user on the website. “When you begin to answer more and more questions about

your political beliefs, you also begin to have an understanding about who you are as an active citizen.”

“We have plans for new features we want to build — lists on lists of things we want to add to the website,” Fowler said.

LoveGov is now focusing on attracting more users, adding tools to track campaign finance and research legislative data and continuing to expand its information database.

Barrett Hazeltine, professor emeritus and adjunct professor of engineering and entrepreneurship, said he is optimistic about the startup’s future.

“There are a lot of people who really would like to be involved in government, to know how the government works, to be better voters, but really don’t know how to get into the business,” he said. “What I hope (LoveGov) is going to end up doing is helping people be involved in civic decisions all the time.”

He applauded Rhode Island for being one of the few states to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students.

Rooted in the global economy and foreign policy, immigration will be a defining topic of the 21st century. But discussions of these underlying issues will not happen until we reframe the debate in less “pejorative and dehumanizing” terms, Vargas said.

Vargas showed the audience a clip of civil rights movement leader James Baldwin, who he said made him realize that despite the differences in separate rights movements, “we’re all in this together.”

When pressed by audience members about border control and national security, Vargas said he is concerned that the U.S. government has a limited understanding of the scope of illegal immigration. “All we have is political football, political theater,” he said.

Undocumented workers are stereotyped as only coming from Mexico, and little structure exists to deal with the large diversity in the undocumented population, he added.

Vargas said “citizenship is something that has to be earned” and promotes increasing access to Englishlearning programs for immigrants.

“I’ve paid so much in taxes, I should be a Republican,” said Vargas, who frequently speaks to conservative groups. He believes that the immi-

gration debate needs to address the “white working class anxiety” that fuels anti-immigrant feelings.

Vargas visited Brown three days before he is set to appear in court after being arrested for driving without a valid license in Minnesota, according to the Twin Cities Daily Planet.

His arrest falls under “Secure Communities,” a Bush-era program that, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, encourages local law enforcement to report arrests of undocumented immigrants who have broken criminal laws to the ICE. Legislation like “Secure Communities” results from the overly simplistic terms of the discussion on immigration, Vargas told The Herald after the lecture.

“Life has not been secure and safe in immigrant communities under (the legislation),” he added. The Obama administration, which has continued the program, needs to reconsider it, he said.

Vargas said he could not comment on his current court case, but added that he is grateful he was released.

Vargas’ interest in speaking at Ivy League schools stems from student activism such as the Ivy League Immigrants’ Rights Coalition Summit, he said, adding, “College campuses and among young people are where we actually can have an honest discussion.”

Republican Barry Hinckley Jr. has a lot of ground to make up as the race for Senate enters its final phases. Polls from WPRI and the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions last week found Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., leading Hinckley by about 30 points. The candidates will meet for two debates this campaign Oct. 23 and Nov. 3.

U.S. House – Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-R.I., will face off today against Republican challenger Brendan Doherty in the second debate of the campaign to represent the first congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. The debate comes on the heels of two polls last week that each put Cicilline in front of his opponent by six points. The debate — jointly hosted by the Providence Journal and Eyewitness News — will air on Eyewitness News and stream online from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Independent candidate David Vogel, who has continued to receive around six percent of likely voter support in polls, will miss today’s debate, but will attend the debate Nov. 1.

Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., encountered Republican challenger Michael Riley last week in the first debate of the campaign to represent the second congressional district in the U.S. House. The two clashed over taxes as Langevin tried to connect Riley to the Republican leadership in Congress, which he said puts the needs of the rich over the middle class. Riley disagreed and argued that lower taxes across the board would create economic growth without adding to the deficit. A Taubman Center poll last week gave Langevin an 18-point lead over Riley among likely voters. The candidates will debate again Nov. 2.

4 city & state / / Casinos page 1 River predicts the legislation would bring 350 new jobs and protect 900 existing jobs, Doyle said.

Newport currently receives $900,000 in tax revenue from the Newport Grand and would garner an additional $300,000 annually were full tables added, said Newport Mayor Henry Winthrop. The additional revenue combined with the job opportunities would be “just great” for Newport, he added.

In a Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions poll of Rhode Island residents conducted Sept. 26 through Oct. 5, over 57 percent of respondents favored expanding gambling at the Newport Grand, and 55.6 percent supported the expansion at Twin River.

A number of state officials have also come out in support of the measures.

If the legislation does not pass, the casino, the town and the state would suffer economic losses, putting extra pressure on taxpayers, said Keith Macksoud, president of the Lincoln Town Council.

The benefits of the measure, as well as potential costs — like increased traffic — have been analyzed in comprehensive studies carried out by the state, which have formed the basis for public support from Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14, said Christine Hunsinger, Chafee’s press secretary.

Bringing in revenues of upwards of $300 million per year, casinos are the third largest source of income for the state, behind income and sales taxes,

she said.

These revenues would benefit education, transportation and infrastructure, wrote Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Jamestown and Newport, in an email to The Herald.

Paiva Weed has recently come out alongside Chafee in support of the measure, which she formerly opposed.

But the potential expansion of gambling could have negative effects.

Providence College professors Patrick Kelly and Carol Hartley investigated the nation’s two largest casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, as part of a 2010 study that highlights the increasing frequency of problem and pathological gambling in southeastern Connecticut since the opening of the casinos.

Kelly and Hartley found that the treatment rate of problem gamblers has increased from about 60 to 500 cases per year. The study included a sampling of cases detailing the fraudulent behaviors of a tax collector, staff accountant, paralegal and auto dealer general manager. When all components of the fraud triangle — opportunity, pressure and rationalization — are present, “trust violations” can and will occur. The pressure corner of this triangle would be exacerbated by the implementation of expanded and tempting casinos, the researchers argue in the paper.

“Many individuals have the propensity for a gambling addiction, but don’t realize it,” Hartley said, since they think they can get away with the behavior for a time and go back and fix it later.

Neither Hartley nor Kelly said

they are anti-gambling — both said they recognize the economic benefits that the legislation promises the state.

But Kelly said that if the risks are not accounted for and resources are not properly allocated, issues associated with problem and pathological gambling — which increase nearly twofold for individuals within a 50-mile radius of a casino — will present a challenge to the state.

Wendy Schiller, associate professor of political science and public policy, said that it is generally the poor who have the tendency to gamble, so the state would be making money off of those who have the least to lose, giving rise to moral questions like “how do you want to make your money?” she said.

But deciding not to implement full-table gambling does not mean these individuals would stop feeding their addiction, perhaps through online gaming or in neighboring states, Schiller said, adding that most Rhode Islanders would prefer that the revenue benefit the state.

There has been some provision for problem gambling, said Larry Berman, spokesperson for House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence. Adding games of chance increases the instances of problem gambling, Berman said.

If the measure passed, the state would improve funding for treatment of these issues with proceeds coming from the casinos. But Fox still supports the questions as a measure for “revenue protection.”

The legislation, if passed, would permit table games starting July 1, 2013.

Equestrian

Bears rope in in fourth-place finish

By Caleb Miller Contributing Writer

The equestrian team rode its way to fourth place in Saturday’s Roger Williams Show, its first of the season.

The Bears’ scoring was jump-started by tri-captains Lindsay Wong ’13 and Allison Dungey ’13, who finished in first and second place, respectively, in the Open Fences division. Bruno went on to capture top honors in two other divisions as well, with Amanda Picciotto ’15 winning the Open Flat and Liz Mahoney ’15 topping the Intermediate Flat.

The Bears were tied atop the leaderboard after the sixth division, but some poor horses in the final two divisions caused Bruno to fall to fourth by the end of the tournament. Wong said she was impressed with the team

despite the late setbacks.

“We had some unfortunate draws with horses at the end of the day, but only so much of that is in our control, and the girls handled it to the best of their abilities,” Wong said. “For the first show of the year, it went really well.”

Bruno’s weekend lineup featured three riders making their collegiate debuts. Though they drew bad horses, according to Wong and Dungey, Head Coach Michaela Scanlon said the rookies “rose to the occasion.”

Those new competitors were just a few of a big crop of incoming riders for the Bears, whose roster swelled to 41 women this season. Dungey said a strong group of upperclassmen is helping the promising young riders develop.

“We took a lot of great, great riders this year, but it always takes a while for new people to adjust to riding in college,” Dungey said. She added that the returning team members “are all very strong leaders, and they’re all able and willing to help out the new girls.”

The Bears will compete in four more shows this fall. Dungey said the fall season will prepare the team for an intense spring season in which the Bears will show at their Zone Championships and, if they qualify, in regional and national championships.

Wong said the team’s goals for the year are to repeat the successes of last year’s team, which took third place at national championships. Scanlon echoed those hopes, specifically mentioning the Bears’ aim “to be regional champions.”

the brown daily herald tuesday, october 16, 2012

CDC survey shows highest rates of immunization in R.I. By uday shriram contributing writer

The National Immunization Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently recognized Rhode Island for having one of the highest rates of child immunization in the country. The state places highest for immunizing children aged 19-35 months with the measlesmumps-rubella vaccine, which covers 96.6 percent of the sample size, and Haemophilus influenzae type B, covering 97.3 percent.

Polio vaccination rates in the state were third in the nation at 97.4 percent.

The Ocean State also had one of the highest percentages for the Hepatitis B, Varicella and Pneumococcal conjugate vaccinations. Hib immunizations trended upwards from 2010 by over 10 percent.

The survey tested a total sample size of about 30,000 children, which was quantified with a 95 percent confidence interval. Data was collected from random households across the state through telephone inquiries to landlines and mobile phones, marking a change from previous years. The Rhode

/ / J Street page 2 heard.’”

J.J. Goldberg, editor-at-large and former editor in chief of the Jewish Daily Forward, explained the “structural imbalance in American Jewish opinion” and its consequences for J Street.

“The weakness of J Street is that conservatives will vote for Democrats or Republicans, depending on who’s better on Israel,” he said. “The right-wing Jew will switch votes.” On the other hand, liberal voters, who are more likely to align themselves with J Street’s cause, are less likely to view U.S.-Israeli policy as an important enough issue to base their votes on it.

In the question-and-answer session that followed the speeches, Duss, Hogue and Goldberg offered further advice to J Street U Brown, noting the risks of becoming associated with a particular political party or focusing too much on human rights.

“It’s hard for me to imagine a better group of people,” said J Street U Brown’s director, Harpo Jaeger ’14, who had been planning the event since last March.

“Their perspectives complement each other really well.”

Jaeger, who has been involved with the national movement since its founding in 2005 and with the on-campus group since 2009, was “struck by the pragmatism” of its methods. While Brown has several other groups dedicated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said he would like J Street to be more of a “game-changer” by directly influencing U.S. policy toward Israel.

Hannah Glickman ’15, chair of Hillel’s Israeli Committee, said she enjoyed the event, adding that she was especially impressed with Goldberg. “He was great and interesting and engaging, and he helped clarify my positions on things by making really lucid arguments that I agree with.”

“I thought it was very good,” said Zachary Ingber ’15, president of Brown Students for Israel. “I thought the three

Island Department of Health website states that the health care “providers are then contacted by mail to verify each child’s vaccinations.”

The new survey style achieved better coverage and a more objective demographic, as well as results that are more accurate than previous years, according to the CDC website. The same survey also covered adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 years, with Rhode Island claiming the top spot for Human Papillomavirus vaccination rates, at 76.1 percent for one or more doses in females.

Immunization statistics for children living below the poverty line in Rhode Island were also high, at 98.1 percent for measles-mumps-rubella, and 98.3 percent for Hib. Vaccinations are provided to physicians by the state, and are administered free of charge to children 19 years and younger, according to the Department of Health’s website.

The Flu Immunization Campaign, launched Oct. 1, promoted healthy immunization practices by having Rhode Island first lady and qualified nurse Stephanie Chafee P’14 administer the inaugural flu shot to Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.

speakers were sincere, honest and committed. I didn’t agree with a good amount that was said, but it showed me that there are a lot of similarities between J Street and Brown Students for Israel.”

Similarities between the two groups include a belief in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish homeland and the conviction that a two-state solution is the best way to move forward. But the two groups have fundamental differences as well.

“J Street has prescriptive ideas of what U.S. policy toward Israel should be,” Ingber said. “We don’t deal directly with what Israel should do.” Instead, BSI seeks to educate the Brown community by bringing experts to campus and letting students come to their own conclusions. While BSI does endorse “two states for two peoples” as the most effective course of action, “what this means to individual members is up to the individual members.”

In this way, BSI is similar to Common Ground, an on-campus group that is primarily concerned with bringing certain injustices of the conflict to light rather than touting a particular political agenda. For Common Ground, not even the two-state solution is set in stone as the most effective course of action.

“We support justice for the Palestinians,” said Eric Axelman ’13, one of Common Ground’s leaders. “That may include a two-state solution, but that’s not the only way the Palestinians can find justice.”

But Axelman commended J Street for its sincerity in following through with its stated mission. While other organizations merely say they support a two-state solution in an effort to be “politically savvy,” J Street is actively pushing for change.

“We think J Street is an excellent group,” he said. “We have collaborated extensively with them, and we plan to collaborate extensively with them in the future.”

city & state 5

the brown daily herald tuesday, october 16, 2012

R.I. House Speaker faces challenge from Independent candidate

By Brittany Nieves Contributing Writer

Independent candidate Mark Binder is challenging Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence, in the Nov. 6 election to represent District 4. This past month, House Majority Whip Patrick O’Neil has resigned from Fox’s leadership team, and Fox’s former consultant Jeff Britt is now running Binder’s campaign.

Meanwhile, policy issues — including the 38 Studios controversy and failure to pass marriage equality legislation — have made Fox susceptible.

“This may well be the first time that the speaker has had a serious challenge,” said Victor Profughi, Rhode Island College professor emeritus of political science. “If Binder was to win this race, it certainly would be the first time in recent history that the Speaker of the House has been defeated in an election bid, so it would be precedent-setting.”

The visibility of the race — including publicized debates — has created a “highly unusual situation,” said Maureen Moakley, a political science professor at the University of Rhode Island. “Usually the leadership in the General Assembly does not have a lot of visibility when it comes to elections.”

The most recent debate was held Oct. 11. “(Fox) is a lawyer and a trained prosecutor, and he’s been there for 20 years, and I’m the new guy on the block,” Binder said. “I think I did pretty well considering.”

At the core of Fox’s troubles is his role in the passage of a bill that lent millions to video-game company 38 Studios, which later fell into bankruptcy and defaulted on its loans to the state government. “The bill passed, loans were made, and Curt Shilling opened the door,” Binder said.

“They kept hiring people, and somewhere along the line oversight was lost and the company collapsed.”

But the effect of 38 Studios on the race is hard to pinpoint, Profughi said.

“At the very least, it would appear to be a catalyzing agent that the people can rally around. At the very least, it’s helped to magnify opposition to the speaker and his leadership,” he said.

While Fox acknowledged the negative effects of 38 Studios and agreed that

/ / Running page 8 how many people were around us and running really fast,” Caldwell said. “It was a good experience and I think it will help us in the future.”

The top three women did well running as a pack and working together at this weekend’s meet, Baker said. He added the same was true for the four women who finished farther back. Continuing to pull together during a race will make it easier for any two runners to “step up on a given day,” he added.

Clocking 21:28 and 21:29, Leah Eickhoff ’15 and Bree Shugarts ’13 were the two runners who stepped up to finish fourth and fifth at Wisconsin.

“It was a solid race, but I know that we have a couple of notches higher that we can run,” Baker said. “I can say that no one ran badly, but no one ran the best race that I’ve seen them run either.”

In such a competitive environment, it is easy to be intimidated by the other nationally ranked teams, Baker said. But the women “handled the intensity pretty

there is a need for increased oversight, he defended the loan program from which the scandal emerged. “From a legislative point of view, I think the program as it was designed is a viable program. I know there are a few other companies that benefited from it,” he said. The problem specifically lies in how 38 Studios benefited from the program, he added. “The way this company was vetted, the way this application was designed and the loan guarantees given, leaves a lot of questions and a lot of doubts. Quite frankly, I’m angry about the way it happened.”

Fox, the first openly gay House speaker in the United States, is also facing opposition due to his failure to act on marriage equality legislation. “There’s disappointment in his not pushing samesex marriage,” said Wendy Schiller, associate professor of political science and public policy.

But Moakley said Fox was wise not to push the legislation in his past term. “I think you will see that measure passed in the next session,” she said. “It was unrealistic to bring that question to a vote when the Senate was not going to hear the bill.”

Though Fox has not yet passed legislation on marriage equality, he said it is his top priority. “If I’m fortunate enough to be reelected as District 4 representative and speaker of the House, my first goal is going to be to bring a vote before the house on same-sex marriage,” he said.

Fox said that O’Neill’s departure from his leadership team — the most high-profile of several recent resignations — has had little to no impact on his campaign. Schiller attributed the partings to Fox’s failures to keep campaign matters separate from those of the speaker’s office.

If Fox lost, the ramifications to the Democratic Party would not be significant, Profughi said. “But it would indicate that the so-called progressive wing of the party has considerable clout.”

Despite some questionable decisions, Fox “(has) been, on balance, good for the state,” Schiller said.

But Fox has become disconnected from the people of the district, said Providence College Professor of Political Science Tony Affigne ’76 PhD’92. “In recent years, he’s grown somewhat distant from his constituency even as his power has grown, while the community he once knew very well has changed a great deal,”

well,” and were confident they could race with top teams, he said. He added that their performance leaves room for the team to grow in the remaining weeks of the regular season.

“I think in a month from now we can beat a few more teams that are in our region,” Baker said.

The Bears will next compete Friday at their only home meet of the season, the Rothenberg Run. Some of the developing athletes will get an opportunity to compete at this meet, Baker said. This will be the last regular meet of the season, after which the Bears will go on to compete at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, hosted by Princeton Oct. 27.

“It wasn’t a very pleasant learning experience. This is the level we want to compete at, so we need to stick our nose in there,” Springfield said. “We got slapped around a little bit, so it was good in that sense, learning what this level feels like, giving us a very challenging experience that will help us down the road.”

Courtesy of gordon fox

Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence, will be facing Independent opponent Mark Binder in the Nov. 6 election. he said. “There’s very little residents can point to and say, ‘Speaker Fox did that.’”

Fox said his position as Speaker of the House is a major selling point for his campaign because it enables him to do more for his district. Specifically, Fox touted his recent accomplishments in education reform. For the first time in decades, he and his team were able to increase support for a predictable education funding formula, benefiting such schools as Nathan Bishop Middle School, Doctor Martin Luther King School and Hope High School, Fox said.

“That’s what a state representative’s greatest ability is to do in terms of the allocation of where we put our budgeting funds,” he said. “It’s a reflection of our priorities, and education is my largest priority, because I think ultimately the state will succeed or fail by the equality of our public education institutions.”

“I’m really most proud of education

and really enhancing the quality of life for people in District 4 and the state of Rhode Island,” said Fox. “I’m really about building the opportunities for people to succeed.”

Fox also pointed to other legislative accomplishments, such as bills passed to protect those with mental illnesses, to prevent smoking in public places and to provide equal opportunity programs, as well as his efforts to protect a woman’s freedom of choice.

Binder said that despite these accomplishments, Fox has been an ineffective leader. Though Binder himself once voted for Fox, he said the speaker has left behind his district. “He didn’t bring to a vote marriage equality, which is something he’s been promising to do for years. He didn’t pass the bill to reform payday lending. At the same time, he did pass the 38 Studios bill.”

Binder said that if elected, he would

comic Class Notes | Philip Trammell

pursue education reform, specifically to change the current state exam methods. He said he is also looking to effect change within the legislature. “There’s a long history of the legislator being dominated by the leadership, and I would like to find a way to open it up so that the individual legislators have more say in what happens.”

Fox is “theoretically vulnerable,” Schiller said. A Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions poll of Rhode Island residents conducted Sept. 26 through Oct. 5 showed Fox’s statewide approval rating is low at 18.3 percent.

“The odds are with the incumbent in this race as in most races,” Affigne said.

“But Fox’s connection to the 38 Studios debacle and his limited visibility in the district are giving Binder a better chance of winning than anyone would have predicted just a few months ago.”

6 editorial & letter Editorial

Alums, athletes and affirmative action

Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas, a case that many experts believe could transform the practice of affirmative action across the country. Brown, along with the other Ivy League institutions and a few other elite universities, submitted an amicus curiae brief to the court in support of the University of Texas’ affirmative action policies. A significant portion of many elite universities consists of recruited athletes, children of alums, minority groups and children of donors. These groups, aside from minority groups, are disproportionately white and from upper socioeconomic classes. We believe that if admission offices at these universities plan to retain preferential admissions for a section of students that is often disproportionately privileged, affirmative action should be given similar treatment.

Children of alums are favored disproportionately in the admission process at many universities. In 2003, a series of Wall Street Journal articles highlighted legacy admissions. At the time, legacy students made up to 10-15 percent of the overall student body of Ivy League schools. At Harvard, where the overall acceptance rate was 11 percent at the time, 40 percent of legacy students were admitted. Similarly, the Penn admitted 41 percent of legacy students, as opposed to 21 percent of the overall applicant pool. In 2003, Gary Orfield, a professor of education and social policy at Harvard, stated, “If the Supreme Court were to end affirmative action, colleges would be under tremendous pressure to reconsider whether they give preference to alumni children, of whom the vast majority are white and privileged.” The policy of allowing a parent’s alma mater to influence his or her child’s chances of admission is merely a different type of affirmative action and one that should be called into question if the legislation is changed.

There is a similarly biased practice in place for athletes. Ivy League universities each admit roughly 200 athletes per year under a special admissions process. Just last year, former president Ruth Simmons noted that it is “necessary to ensure that all students with special talents who are admitted to Brown, including athletes, meet the ‘representativeness’ standard.”

Accordingly, she recommended that “Brown can and should reduce its number of athletic recruitment slots … to appropriately rebalance academic goals and athletic interests.” This year, there will be 20 fewer recruitment slots. Undoubtedly, athletic recruits commit large amounts of time in high school and in college to their sport, and they contribute to an athletic culture that has played an important role in university history. Brown fields many sports teams for programs that may not exist at most public high schools.

Many varsity teams, such as squash and water polo, are composed mainly of students from elite private high schools, prompting considerations about how balanced the admissions process is for students from less economically privileged backgrounds.

Alum preferences, athletic recruiting and affirmative action have all provoked controversy on campus and nationwide. However, only the last group preferences students who are not disproportionately white or wealthy, and it is also the program that has been most disputed. Elite institutions have maintained that all of these preferences are needed to create diverse and well-balanced student bodies. This may be the case — but that is a debate for a different day. The truth is that it is grossly unfair to only remove one form of preference and keep the others. If we are reconsidering preferential admissions, it is only just to consider all of them.

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

Managing Editors

Senior Editors

Claire Peracchio

Rebecca Ballhaus Nicole Boucher

Tony Bakshi Natalie Villacorta

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 Jonathan Bateman Sports Photo Editor Olivia Conetta Kyle McNamara Julia Shube Brisa Bodell Einat Brenner Neal Poole

Production

Copy Desk Chief Design Editor Design Editor Assistant Design Editor Assistant Design Editor Web Producer

Business General Managers Siena DeLisser Danielle Marshak

Office Manager Shawn Reilly

Editorial cartoon b y a n g e l i a wa n g

le t ter Eng’n school still committed to civil engineering To the Editor: We write regarding the article on the civil engineering track (“Civil engineering track to be discontinued,” Oct. 12). The article misstates that “the track itself will be gone by next year.” In fact, civil engineering will continue as a standalone accredited concentration option for all students currently enrolled at Brown. For students entering with the class of 2017 and beyond, there will be a new structural mechanics track within mechanical engineering that will accommodate students with interest in structural engineering.

In this track as it is proposed to the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, students will be able to complete almost the same set of courses used now

for the current civil structures track, although there will be more flexibility in course selection. Among the options available for students interested in engineering and the environment is the existing ABET-accredited chemical/ biochemical engineering track and its program options in energy production and conversion and environmental issues and pollution prevention.

In any event, it is important to note that the School of Engineering is fully committed to providing an absolutely outstanding accredited program in civil engineering to all students currently enrolled at Brown.

Larry Larson and Janet Blume Dean of the School of Engineering and Associate Dean of the Faculty

quote of the day

“We’re … brothers and sister(s), and we’re going to

”

continue fighting a strong fight during negotiations.

— Gloria Fraielli, BDS cook

Directors Julia Kuwahara Samuel Plotner Nikita Khadloya Angel Lee

the brown daily herald tuesday, october 16, 2012

Sales Finance Alumni Relations Business Development

See BDS on page 1

Managers Justin Lee Kaivan Shroff Gregory Chatzinoff Luka Ursic Alison Pruzan Elizabeth Gordon David Winer

Human Resources Research & Development Collections Finance Operations Alumni Engagement Fundraising Marketing

Post- magazine Clay Aldern Jenny Carr

Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief

BLOG DAILY HERALD Matt Klimerman Meredith Bilski

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor

facebook.com/browndailyherald

@the_herald

thebdh.org

C ORRE C T I ON S P o licy The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

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

L e t t e r s t o t h e Edi t o r P o licy Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed. adv e r t isi n g P o licy The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

opinions 7

the brown daily herald tuesday, october 16, 2012

Lectures and lactating Cara Newlon Opinions Columnist Assistant Professor Adrienne Pine ’94 had a problem. The American University professor woke up the morning of Aug. 28 ready to teach her class, “Sex, Gender and Culture” — only to discover her infant daughter had a fever. Pine felt she had no viable childcare options as a single parent.

So she brought the child to her 75-minute lecture. A teaching assistant watched the baby and let her wander around the lecture hall. All was going well — until the baby became hungry. Pine proceeded to whip out her breast and feed her child as she lectured.

Her 40 students perhaps did not expect such an active example of the intersection between sex, gender and culture on their first day of class.

The incident made national headlines, prompting an intense debate between the “lactivists” — fierce supporters of public breast-feeding — and their more conservative critics. But neither mothers’ rights nor public decency is the pertinent issue here. Why didn’t Pine have a viable care alternative?

My fellow opinions columnist Maggie Tennis wrote an article about childcare at Brown last week (“Take care of day care,” Sept. 25), pointing out the appalling lack of practical childcare options for Brown faculty. She pointed out major discrep-

ancies between the childcare offered by American employers and our European counterparts — discrepancies that tend to disproportionately affect women, who are still often the primary caretakers of their children. But I want to address a more relevant question for us, the students. Frankly, why should we, as childless young adults, give a crap? How exactly does this directly affect us?

It may be hard for us to accept, but our professors will always care more about

rent survey in response to the Taft Avenue Daycare Center closing. Despite these efforts, however, Brown-affiliated childcare remains disorganized and inadequate.

As of now, three childcare services are affiliated with Brown: the East Side/ Mt. Hope YMCA Child Care Center, Brown/Fox Point Early Childhood Education Center and Meeting Street Early Childhood Education. In terms of backup emergency care, the University offers a service through Bright Horizons Family

We, as a student body, should be more concerned about childcare because the inadequacies of Brown’s childcare options affect our education and Brown’s reputation as a leading academic institution. their children than about us. Consequently, it is in our best interest to alleviate our professors’ concerns with childcare so they can focus on something more important: us. How many office hours have been lost due to kinks in childcare?

How much better would professors’ class preparation be? How much more research could they do? The easier our professors’ lives are, the better our education is.

Brown has a reputation for shoddy day care. The limited offerings have left Brown faculty, in the words of former associate professor Pauline Luong, at “the mercy of the market” (“Staff hope for increased child care,” April 16, 2009). Administrators have formed committees and conducted surveys to address the problem — one in 2007 and now a cur-

Solutions, a 24/7 care emergency service.

Faculty must first register with Bright Horizons to receive the benefit.

While these are genuine efforts toward providing affordable and convenient childcare for faculty, they still do not offer adequate support to parents. The day care centers are overcrowded and offer childcare only for a specified age range. For parents with children of differing ages, it is inconvenient to have children in multiple day care centers.

The back-up service, which might have proved helpful for Professor Pine, also creates concerns among faculty. The website about the service is confusing and difficult to locate, discretely tucked away in Brown’s Human Resources page. Many staff members at Brown are unaware of

the service, finding it only when they need emergency care. Even in an emergency, a responsible parent will not leave a child with a strange and untried childcare service.

Brown’s reputation for inferior childcare harms the quality of our teachers.

The best and brightest young academics may have children or be planning to start a family. The quality of available childcare could be an important consideration for them in deciding whether to take a job at Brown, or instead go to another prestigious academic institution. Brown probably loses highly qualified, intelligent individuals to competitors that offer better childcare options. As Tennis pointed out in her article, other liberal arts colleges offer affordable day care. Cornell, for example, boasts an on-campus day care center that charges rates below the national average in larger cities.

Professor Pine and Breastfeedinggate 2012 is a perfect example of the kinds of parent-professor dilemmas faculty encounter here at Brown. We, as a student body, should be more concerned about childcare because the inadequacies of Brown’s childcare options affect our education and our school’s reputation as a leading academic institution.

I guess what I’m saying is: If universities want to avoid further rogue in-class lactation, they better improve childcare options.

Cara Newlon ’14.5 is not just writing this column to suck up to her professors.

Leave those teachers alone Mika zacks Opinions Columnist Last week, the editorial page board struck once more. Having shown the lazy, spoiled high school teachers of Chicago what’s what, the board turned its attention closer to home. Rhode Island educators, this must be your lucky day. Brown students, forever cognizant of the “financial and social worth of being educated,” are here to save your state’s brain (“Save Rhode Island’s brain,” Oct. 8).

Why are we at Brown? Maybe because we were waitlisted at Yale, maybe because our parents went here, maybe because we went on the tour and someone told us about the anti-apartheid protests in the ’80s. We all have our reasons, ranging from the open curriculum to the new fitness center. But to say that we are here — and other people are not — because our mentors instilled in us a deep appreciation for knowledge is simply disrespectful to all other lovers of learning who could not afford to take an SAT prep course, or had no one to edit their personal statements.

Whether at Brown, in Chicago or in the public schools of Rhode Island, the editorial board is consistent in its individual-based analysis of social realities.

Instead of examining the structural problems behind the crisis of public education in cities like Providence and Chi-

cago, the authors choose to focus on the teachers themselves, as if they ought to bear responsibility for the failings of a system entirely beyond their control. By this logic, we Brunonians are attending an Ivy League university thanks to our hard work and personal drive.

Indeed, by this logic 40 percent of Chicago public school students do not graduate because teachers are out there demanding improvements rather than acting like Michelle Pfeiffer in “Dangerous Minds” in class, and Rhode Island schools are failing because teachers just “aren’t fit to inspire.” Preferring to avoid a more

administration’s No Child Left Behind, is absolutely loyal to the status quo; it is but another tool for the privatization and corporatization of public education. Its suggested reforms aim to weaken rather than strengthen public education. We could call it incentive, but considering the emphasis on standardized testing it is impossible to see in it anything but a fierce attack on public education. To subject young children from poor families — often immigrant families — to standardized tests is to ensure the persistence of social inequality.

The new teacher evaluation system

Rhode Island educators, this must be your lucky day.

Brown students, forever cognizant of the “financial and social worth of being educated,” are here to save your state’s brain. comprehensive discussion of unpleasant sounding concepts like “race” and “poverty,” they opt for an analysis committed to preserving the status quo. Blame is placed with the individual teachers while the system that negatively impacts them as well as their students escapes unscathed.

Coming from this particular analytical mode, it makes perfect sense for the board to enthusiastically embrace the Race to the Top program, a federal competitive grant that promotes educational reforms and standardized testing. Race to the Top, the Obama sequel to the Bush

that the editorial celebrates as an overall positive development means that students’ scores will determine teachers’ livelihoods. This is a complete distortion of the supposedly invaluable “appreciation of education” Rhode Island students need in order to one day become Brown students. Perhaps the authors trust “the honorable, self-sacrificing” character that their piece on the Chicago teachers evokes (“Have your apple and eat it, too?”

Sept. 18). But if we remember teachers are just as human as engineers and bartenders, pay the same rent and buy the same

goods, it makes little sense to me why we should apply a different moral standard to them and demand that they be selfless and devoted.

Sure, a teacher can be a life-changing figure in a student’s life. I do not doubt that many Brown students have had unforgettable teachers, mentors who have shaped who we are and what we do. However, the teacher as such is not the key source of under performance in state schools. To claim so is to fail to appreciate much greater structures that determine who will develop “a deep passion for learning” and who will have to drop out at 16. It is unfair to the teacher and unhelpful to the students.

The solution to the public education crisis in Rhode Island does not lie in grants like Race to the Top that encourage competition between teachers, schools and states. It does not lie in evaluating teachers with measuring tape. If Rhode Island is to fight for its knowledge economy, it needs to rethink the meaning of education and search for alternatives that can challenge and replace current notions of assessing performance and achievements. And if Brown students want to help save our state’s brain, I think paying taxes would be a better way to go about it than remarking on Rhode Island’s poor academic performance.

Mika Zacks ’15 hopes the board begins to address the deeper problems in the American education system.

She can be reached at mika_zacks@brown.edu.

daily herald city & state the Brown

tuesday, october 16, 2012

MakerBot printer transforms 2-D images into plastic models

By Maxine Joselow contributing writer

Ever wish you could print a three-dimensional object? MakerBot works with software to print 3-D plastic models of 2-D images. There is one MakerBot at AS220 Labs in Providence, two at the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts and one in the Dunn Lab, a biology lab at the University.

Plastic progeny AS220 Labs is a 15-minute walk from College Hill. The lab itself is a humming hive of machinery — the first floor houses the ShopBot, a wood-carving machine, and the laser cutter, the vinyl cutter and the MakerBot can be found one flight up.

The MakerBot is “kind of like a robotic hot glue gun,” said Labs Manager James Rutter, because a spool of colored plastic feeds into its “extruder,” or nozzle and oozes out in molten form.

“It’s a pretty easy machine to use. The real hard part is the software,” he said, noting that the MakerBot works with the free software program SketchUp. “It’s easy to print out a book — you just press a button,” Rutter noted. “The hard part is writing it.”

The machine is “expensive for an individual but affordable for a community like AS220,” Rutter said. He bought it last year for $2,000, one-tenth the cost of the laser cutter.

The upstairs smells subtly of cooking corn oil, because the MakerBot uses polylactic acid, acorn-based and biodegradable plastic. The shelves lining the walls are stocked with the MakerBot’s plastic progeny — an owl, a frog, a Darth Vader figurine, busts of real people and even a squirrel the size of a thumb.

Following the scent of corn oil and the trail of plastic models into a side room, visitors can find Lindsay Selin bent over her latest project, sporting a pair of sleek, almond-shaped wooden earrings she made on the ShopBot. Selin is a monitor at AS220 Labs — she volunteers there a

couple of hours a week and helps people use the machines in exchange for a lower membership cost.

“To have a studio like this that’s available twelve hours a day is fantastic,” Selin said. “There’s a whole range of things you can do.”

AS220 Labs held a workshop Sept. 27 called “Intro to the 3-D Printer (MakerBot Thing-o-Matic).” The class cost $40 and was capped at five people. The second and final workshop will be held Nov. 29 from 7 to 10 p.m.

‘The next Steve Jobs’ Meanwhile, at the multimedia lab in the Granoff Center, five Brown students hunch over computer screens. The lab acquired two MakerBots this summer, and the students are learning to use the associated software. The machines can print in almost any color, but the first has one nozzle and currently prints in neon red. The second has two nozzles and prints in blue.

The students are in ENGN 0930: “DesignStudio,” a class taught by Ian Gonsher, adjunct lecturer at the School of Engineering. Andrew Goodman, instructural multimedia coordinator for Computing and Information Services, helps the students download and use the software.

Students in this class use tools such as the laser cutter, table saw and MakerBot to make “projects that relate to their own curiosities and interests and things they want to address,” Gonsher said. “The students have freedom to interpret the assignments,” he added.

Griffin Thompson ’16 is using that autonomy to design a building. Not just any building, but the Burj Khalifa — ­ the tallest building in the world. When the Burj Khalifa comes out of the MakerBot, it will have shrunk from almost 3,000 feet to less than five inches tall.

“3-D printing is absolutely the future,” Thompson said. “The person who personalizes the MakerBot will be the next Steve Jobs.”

Track & Field

brittany Comunale / herald

The MakerBot, a machine that is becoming increasingly popular in Providence and at Brown, makes 3-D plastic models from 2-D images.

Wendy Ginsberg ’15, who used the machine to make a frog, also has visions of the MakerBot in the future. “There’s nothing like it,” Ginsberg said. “Imagine years from now being in your kitchen, drinking from a plastic cup, melting the cup back down, and making something else — all in your home. The MakerBot changes the nature of recycling.”

But Nic Schumann ’14.5 was less enthusiastic. “I don’t think it’s that useful.

The time is so limiting. It’s restricting,” he said, referencing the 50 minutes the machine takes to make one object. “In terms of actually producing something, it just takes too long. Maybe in a few years it’ll take less time, but now, it’s not ready,” Schumann added.

Kerri Horvay ’14 also expressed doubts about the MakerBot, but for a darker reason. Horvay mentioned an Oct. 7 New York Times article about a law student in Texas who is using a MakerBot to manufacture gun parts. The article scared her into thinking the MakerBot’s “benefits would not outweigh the costs,” she said Gonsher’s view of the MakerBot is more nuanced — while he recognizes that its technology is currently limited, he said that it has great potential for the

future.

“I think it’s very similar to how personal computers were in the ’70s and ’80s.

They were very much a hobbyist kind of thing, and you had to know a little to tinker with them, but now everyone has one. I definitely think that’s the direction we’re going in,” he said. “Think about what that does to supply and demand.

I don’t need to make a million iPhones and put them in the warehouse and hope someone buys them — I can just print them out as I need them!”

Print-off!

Across campus, in the Dunn Lab, students in BIOL 0410: “Invertebrate Zoology” are using a MakerBot to make life — specifically marine organisms.

Casey Dunn, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, who teaches the course, said students have the choice of making a video, writing a paper or using the MakerBot for their final project. Dunn said this is the first year the MakerBot is an option. He bought it in December using funds from his Manning Professorship.

“The anatomy of an organism is a 3-D problem. There’s only so much you can do with 2-D diagrams,” Dunn said.

“What’s fun about 3-D printers is that you can make a design of an organism that’s only three millimeters long and blow it up. It really lets you zoom in,” he added.

Sophia Diaz ’14 said she plans on using the MakerBot to design a class of organisms called radiolarians, and Alison Pruzan ’15 said she wants to make starfish and sea urchins. The students’ projects will be published on CreatureCast, a blog devoted to observations by members of the Dunn Lab. Dunn said a representative from the Brooklyn-based MakerBot company visited his lab last spring. He did a photo shoot with Dunn for a compilation he was putting together about MakerBots in the Northeast. The compilation has yet to be released.

The MakerBot offers an “extraordinary teaching opportunity” even though its technology is still somewhat limited, Dunn said. When asked whether he will continue to offer the MakerBot option for the project, he said, “Absolutely. We’ll run it into the ground!”

And with so many MakerBots popping up around Providence, there may even be a plastic show-down in their future.“It would be fun to have a printoff,” Dunn said.

Cross country

Bears find new asst. coach Bruno faces hurdles at national meet to fill recent vacancies

By James Blum

Sports Staff Writer

By James Blum Sports Staff Writer

J.J. Riese joined the Bears last week as an assistant coach of track and field.

Coming from Syracuse University, he will work specifically with sprinters and hurdlers. His arrival comes on the heels of a six-week span that saw three track and field coaches leave Brown, making Riese the first of their replacements.

Riese guided several athletes to success during his time at Syracuse, including hurdler Jarret Eaton, who won the 60-meter hurdle race at the 2012 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. He was the first Syracuse athlete ever to win an individual event in an NCAA championship.

“The level of his recommendations first got him on our radar,” said Tim Springfield, interim director of track and field. “The head coach of Syracuse called me and said, ‘You should hire this guy.’”

Springfield said Riese’s “high lev-

el of energy and excitement” shone through when Riese was interviewed.

He added that he was impressed with Riese’s technical knowledge and that the new assistant coach is “extremely organized and hard-working.”

“He’s young and energetic, so I feel like he’s going to be a good fit,” said Nathan Elder ’13, a captain of indoor track and field. “From the little bit I’ve seen, he definitely brings a willingness and desire for us all to be 100 percent.”

More coaches will likely be brought in to help with the jumps and throws squads, Springfield said. Riese’s experience working with jumpers may also be helpful until a new jumps coach is selected.

Riese’s first day of work was Tuesday, and Springfield acknowledged that Riese had to “hit the ground running” because of the recent changes to the coaching staff.

“I think he is going to bring a consistency for the team,” Elder said.

“Especially for sprints, where being intense is usually a beneficial thing.”

The cross country team struggled in a nationally competitive field at the Adidas Invitational last Friday, as the men finished second to last in a field of 45 and the women 26th of 49. At the meet, hosted by the University of Wisconsin, perennial cross country powerhouse Stanford University won the men’s race, and Iowa State University dominated on the women’s side.

“Any team that is putting any real effort into the sport is at one of the two big meets this weekend,” said Mitchell Baker, head coach of the women’s cross country team. “If we want to be a national level team, we have to be at one of these meets every year.”

Conor Grogan ’13 led the men and finished the eight-kilometer course in 23 minutes, 33 seconds, placing 164th overall.

“It was kind of pretty bitter just crossing the line,” Grogan said. “I felt like I gave a pretty decent performance individually, but it didn’t necessarily result in the kind of finish I wanted for the team.”

The next two runners to finish for

Bruno were Jeff Bush ’14 and Brendan Boyle ’14, who finished 260th and 273rd with times of 25:22 and 25:30, respectively. The last two competitors to score for the Bears were Austin Snyder ’13 and Colin Savage ’14, who crossed the line with respective times of 25:37 and 25:43.

“It wasn’t a successful race for us. I think that we just didn’t respond to the challenging racing situation that was presented to us,” said Tim Springfield, head coach of the men’s cross country team. “The quality of this field is very close to the championships — 20 of the top teams in the field were there.”

Springfield added that the field was very large, with 316 runners competing in the race. Grogan explained that the size of the field “buried” them, with most of the team behind at least 200 other runners at the mile mark.

“It’s hard to crawl past people,” Grogan said. “It really hinders your ability to run the second half of the race.”

The size of the field contributed to the large split, nearly 1:10, between the first and fifth runners to finish for Bruno. The time gap between a team’s first runner to finish and the team’s fifth is a common metric of success in cross

country, and Springfield has said that keeping a low split is the key to success for the team.

“It is very difficult to maintain a level of relaxation when the field is that thick and dense,” Springfield said. “It’s very rough — you can’t position yourself where you want to be positioned.”

The championship meets at the end of the cross country season are the most important in determining whether teams will qualify for nationals. The Bears are usually a team that performs well towards the end of the season, Grogan said, and he cautioned against “counting us out.”

“The meet was not at all a reflection of our level of fitness,” Springfield said.

“This meet is far and away the most difficult meet that we will face.”

The women fared better than the men, led by Heidi Caldwell ’14, who covered the 6k course in 20:33 to finish 57th overall. Olivia Mickle ’13 and Margaret Connelly ’14 finished soon after in quick succession, with respective times of 20:40 and 20:41.

“We knew it was going to be a really big race, but once the gun went off it was amazing / / Running page 5