Tuesday, November 13, 2012

daily herald the Brown

vol. cxxii, no. 104

INSIDE

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RISD reigns Majority of special students at Brown go to RISD Page 4

Put it in park

Providence to lease 250 parking spaces to University

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Anti-Adidas SLA petitions U. to reconsider contract with Adidas today

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tomorrow

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Poll: Four in five undergrads support abortion rights

By Eli Okun Senior Staff Writer

More than 80 percent of Brown students believe abortion should be legal in at least the first trimester of a woman’s pregnancy, according to a poll conducted by The Herald last month. About 42 percent of students polled said abortion should always be legal, while a combined 8.9 percent said it should always be illegal or only be legal in special circumstances.

Many students said the poll results were in line with the generally liberal atmosphere on campus — nearly two-thirds of students polled said they planned to vote for President Obama in the election, compared to 7.1 percent who supported former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Students who supported Romney were almost evenly distributed across the spectrum of views on the legality of abortion, but more than 75 percent of Obama supporters said abortion should be legal at least in the first two trimesters. Fewer than 1 percent of Obama supporters thought

abortion should always be illegal.

Students who were not planning to vote were more than twice as likely as respondents who planned to vote to say abortion should be illegal always or except in special cases.

Cassandra Pestana ’15 said she is in favor of legalizing abortion as a matter of freedom over one’s own body. “It should be legal just because it’s a choice that no one should be able to take away,” she said.

“What it means for me to be prochoice is the idea that regardless of my own relationship with abortion, I believe that people should have the right to their own relationship with it,” said Gopika Krishna ’13, who works at the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health in Pawtucket.

Some students said they were surprised that a plurality of their peers wanted to legalize third-trimester abortions, one of the most controversial types of abortions. Macon McLean ’14, who said he supports legalizing first- and secondtrimester abortions, expressed discomfort with the idea.

“You re/ / Abortion page 4

What is your stance on abortion?

No opinion 1.6% Should always be illegal 3.3%

Should be illegal, except in special cases like rape 5.6%

Unsure 8.3%

Should be legal in the first trimester only 13.5%

Senior Staff WRiter

The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation filed a lawsuit last week against 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling, as well as other top officials at the company and former EDC leaders Keith Stokes and Michael Saul. The suit comes almost five months after 38 Studios — the taxpayer-funded video game development firm founded by Schilling, a former Red Sox pitcher — declared bankruptcy and defaulted on its $75 million loan from the EDC. The suit, which was filed in Providence, claims the defendants deliberately misled and withheld pertinent information about the loan from the EDC Board in 2010, which led the

board to unknowingly lend millions to a company destined to fail.

38 Studios received the $75 million loan from the EDC as part of the Job Creation Guarantee Program, an initiative created through legislation passed in the Rhode Island General Assembly only weeks prior. The program was intended to bring jobs and economic growth to the state by offering loans for start-up companies as incentives.

The program would eventually fund only two other loans, neither of which exceeded $5 million.

Rhode Island currently owes more than $100 million on the 38 Studios loan, a sum that will most likely burden the state’s taxpayers. In a video statement, Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 said his administration is dedicated to

reducing this burden.

“I know that you work hard for your paychecks, and for your tax dollars to be squandered is unacceptable,” Chafee said in the video. “The board’s legal action was taken to rectify a grave injustice put upon the people of Rhode Island.”

According to the suit, the board — composed of prominent state business leaders — did not have the requisite expertise to objectively analyze the loan and based its understanding of the company’s finances “upon information provided by a number of individuals and companies who acted as advisors.”

The EDC and its legal representation, led by Max Wistow of Wistow Barylick, Inc., in Providence, conducted an investigation into the loan

Kyle mcnamara / Herald

Females and students on financial aid were more likely to support a minority view on campus that abortion should always be illegal.

agreement after 38 Studios declared bankruptcy to determine fraudulent advisers to the board. Along with the top officials at 38 Studios and the EDC, the suit names two law firms, one of the state’s financial advisers and an insurance company for 38 Studios, as well as both Wells Fargo Securities and Barclays Capital — investment banks brought in by the EDC to guide the bond process.

The suit alleges that these advisors had explicit knowledge indicating that 38 Studios was a financially struggling firm that was “undercapitalized by many millions of dollars.” According to the EDC’s investigation, at the time of the loan, financial projections showed that even $75 million would / / Lawsuit page 4 not be enough

Veterans Day ceremony honors U.’s military history

By Gabrielle Dee Contributing Writer

Emily Gilbert / herald

The Brown Student Veterans Society, which organized Monday’s ceremony, was founded four years ago to recognize student and alumni veterans.

The sound of bagpipes filled the Main Green as a solemn procession made its way to the Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle for yesterday afternoon’s Veterans Day ceremony. The hour-long event featured speeches from student and alumni veterans, as well as Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron.

“Every year we do something different,” said Chris Baker ’09, one of the event’s organizers. Despite being short-handed in terms of managing staff, the event was a success, several attendees said. Kristen Soul ’99, who has attended every Veterans Day ceremony for the past four years, especially appreciated this year’s focus on “taking care of the veterans,” she said.

This year’s ceremony honored Charlie Kenney ’10, a former captain of the lacrosse team who died two weeks prior to being deployed to Afghanistan as part of the Seventh Marine Regi-

Should always be legal 42.1%

Should be legal in the first and second trimesters 25.6%

EDC suit targets 38 Studios executives

By Sona mkrttchian

since 1891

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

ment.

“Love. That is the ultimate word that fills my heart when I think of Charlie, for his family, his team and his country,” said Lars Tiffany ’90, Kenney’s former coach. At the end of the ceremony, Kenney’s parents accepted a plaque in his honor.

The Student Veterans Society has erected an Honor Wall on Simmons Quad, which includes details about the University’s military service history, as well as pictures of and information about Brown veterans.

“This coming together came from students at Brown,” Reed said, referring to the four founding members of the Veterans Society who started the Veterans Day program four years ago. Many of the speakers noted that Brown has worked to embrace military culture.

“Brown is now a military-friendly campus,” said Lieutenant Commander James Gardner ’65.

“Seeing a veteran standing in the rain outside Miller Hall helped me transition / / Veterans page 2

Med School to implement new primary care program

By Sarah Perelman Staff Writer

Alpert Medical School faculty members are planning to pioneer a program in 2015 that will attempt to address a shortage of primary care physicians in the United States. The program will have a separate admission process from the rest of the Med School.

Approximately 70 percent of doctors in the country are specialists — and with the continuation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health care legislation, the number of healthinsured citizens in need of primary care doctors will likely increase, said Paul George, assistant professor of family medicine.

Jeffrey Borkan, professor of family medicine and a head developer of the program, said he hopes to enroll the first class of 24 students in the fall of 2015.

The program will emphasize skills involved in providing general care including primary care, general surgery and general psychology, Borkan said. He added that courses in the new program will emphasize health initiatives to benefit large populations, a change from the general Med School curriculum, which focuses on care for individuals.

The University will also examine the possibility of incorporating a masters program into the four-year curriculum, said Ira Wilson, professor of health services policy and practice, who will oversee that project. Such a program would allow students to graduate the program with dual degrees. The masters component is / / Medicine page 3

2 campus news c alendar Today

nov. 13

5:30 P.m.

ToMORROW

Nov. 14

4 p.m.

Robert Reynolds ’90 Artist Talk

Pembroke Hall, Room 305

List Art Building, Room 110 8 p.m.

Telescope Observing Night

Queering Anti-Imperialism

Ladd Observatory

MacMillan Hall, Room 115

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH Vegan Burrito, Bacon Ranch Chicken Sandwich, Baked Potato Bar with Toppings, Swiss Fudge Cookies

Zucchini Parmesan Sandwich, Buffalo Wings, Sourkraut, Nacho Bar, Swiss Fudge Cookies

DINNER Spinach Stuffed Acorn Squash, Beef Teriyaki, Pan Seared Salmon in Cider, Boston Cream Pie

Math society honors 15 U. professors

By Kiki Barnes Contributing Writer

“Mandela’s Mortality” Lecture 7 p.m.

the brown daily herald Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Roasted Honey Chili Chicken, Vegan Stuffed Acorn Squash, Thai Basil Pork Stirfry, Boston Cream Pie

Sudoku

Fifteen Brown faculty members were named to the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Nov. 1, placing the University 18th out of 327 institutions on the list and fourth in the Ivy League. The University of California at Berkeley had the most members named, with 33 fellows out of 1,142.

“The Fellows of the American Mathematical Society program recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics,” according to the American Mathematical Society’s website.

The AMS Council used three initial criteria to assess candidates for the class of fellows, said Joseph Silverman, professor of mathematics, who is both a member of the AMS Council and an inaugural AMS fellow. The council chose researchers who have delivered AMS lectures in the past, been awarded AMS research prizes or delivered addresses at the International Congress of Mathematics or International Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematics in the last two years, he said.

/ / NCAA page 8

Crossword

from our performance at Heps and with our team ability, I think we could have placed higher if everything had fallen into place.”

Iona College won the men’s race with 45 points, and five Ivy League schools finished in the top 10. The Bruno men fell six places and 227 points from last year’s finish when Dan Lowry ’12 captured third place overall.

Given that the men have not had a strong season, finishing last at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, the men “executed pretty well” at the regional meet and took a “positive step forward,” said Tim Springfield, head coach of men’s cross country.

“I think it was an improvement,” Springfield said. “It’s not something any of us were particularly satisfied with, but it was a nice way to cap the season.”

Conor Grogan ’13 led the way for Bruno on the 10K course and finished in 31:09. Springfield said he thought

// Veterans page 1 into civilian life” after military service, said David Salsone ’12.5, president of the Student Veterans Society.

This year’s ceremony yielded a

Many other professional institutions have fellows programs, such as the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, which named its inaugural class of fellows in 2009.

“The AMS has very few very prestigious prizes every year,” Silverman said. “This was a way to recognize a larger group of mathematicians around the world.”

He said the program aims to have around 2,000 fellows, adding that the AMS will induct 50 to 75 fellows per year after the inaugural class.

Silverman’s primary focus of research is arithmetic geometry, concentrating in the distribution of integral and rational points on elliptical curves and on higher dimension abelian varieties, according to his research page.

“It’s a delight to be honored,” said Stuart Geman, professor of applied mathematics and an inaugural AMS fellow.

Geman is conducting research in building mathematical models for complicated patterns motivated by an effort to understand how the brain interprets and understands complicated images, he said.

“It’s a very nice recognition and really an acknowledgement,” said Thomas Banchoff, professor of mathematics and

another inaugural fellow.

Banchoff gave a lecture for the International Congress of Mathematics about computer animation and the geometry of surfaces in 1978. It was the first major public lecture on computer animation, he said. Banchoff is currently conducting research on smooth and polyhedral surfaces.

The responsibilities of the AMS fellows are to help elect new fellows, to present a “public face of excellence” in mathematics and to advise the president and council of the AMS when asked, according to the AMS website.

Banchoff said the mathematical community today is experiencing “an era of good feeling.”

“It’s a great honor for those faculty members and for the (Applied Mathematics and Mathematics) departments,” said Bjorn Sandstede, chair of the applied mathematics department.

“It is very good to know that the faculty gets acknowledged and their research gets acknowledged,” Sandstede said, adding that this recognition helps the University to recruit undergraduate and graduate students.

There will be a reception for the new fellows at the joint meeting of the AMS and Mathematical Association of America in San Diego Jan. 11.

Grogan performed “extremely well” and significantly better than at the Ivy League Championship where he finished 31st.

“At Heps I got in a little over my head,” Grogan said. “Yesterday, I went out pretty slow and was passing people the entire way. I narrowly missed being all-region, which is the top 25.”

Brendan Boyle ’14 finished 79th overall in 32:04 and Austin Snyder ’13 finished a second later in 81st place. Jeff Bush ’14 and Kevin Cooper ’13 were the last two runners to score for Bruno and finished in 32:34 and 32:38, respectively.

In preparing for the meet, Grogan said the men “went back to square one” to try and eliminate some of the “performance issues” they have had throughout the season.

“So the plan was pretty different. The six guys were going to race as a pack and stay together through 5k,” Grogan said.

Looking back on the season as a whole, Springfield said the big challenge was that this year’s team had many talented track athletes who were

working to “develop that cross country aspect.” Though they tried to translate track success into cross country success, Springfield admitted that they “struggled a little bit.”

“It certainly wasn’t a fun season for most of us but it wasn’t for lack of effort,” Grogan said. “It will make those times when we race well that much sweeter.”

Connelly will travel to Louisville, Kentucky for the national championship Saturday. Though she said she has not set specific goals, Connelly said she hopes to be competitive and have a “smooth and relaxed” race.

“The goal is to celebrate that you’re there and treat it like any other race that you’ve been to,” Baker said. “Go out there and focus on what’s in front of you.”

The rest of the team will have some time off before training starts for the indoor track and field season, which officially begins Dec. 1, when Bruno will host the Alden Invitational.

“Luckily we don’t have an entire year to dwell on this season,” Grogan said.

“So we’re excited for that.”

lower turnout than last year’s event, Baker said.

“Generally, everyone’s time is limited, and I understand that (the Veterans Day event) may not be what people want to do, but it’s important

to recognize the people who serve the country,” Salsone said.

The decreasing number of people currently enlisted in the army and the dwindling number of surviving World War II veterans have led to a decrease in general awareness of veterans’ issues, he said. Essentially, civilians no longer feel the direct effects of war, he said.

But Baker noted the campus ceremony has developed significantly since its initial 10-person gathering four years ago. Brown student veterans will participate in an open community dinner Thursday, and Saturday’s football game will include a ceremony in honor of current and former service members, according to a Veterans Day flyer.

“We can’t send men and women off to war, then forget about them,” Reed said. “Because of these men and women, we have the freedom to live with a sense of hope.”

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campus news 3

Lecturer talks human rights prosecution U.’s Sandy precautions stir

By Sonia Phene staff writer

“Samuel Huntington said ‘Justice comes quickly, or it doesn’t come at all’, and what we’ve discovered is he’s wrong,” said Kathryn Sikkink, a University of Minnesota professor, addressing a packed hall at the Joukowsky Forum in the Watson Institute Monday night to discuss human rights prosecution and her recent book, “The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics.”

Sikkink discussed the implications of modern human rights prosecutions such as the conviction of criminals long after they commit their crimes.

She pointed to Juan Maria Bordaberry, president of Uruguay in the 1970s, who was convicted for his crimes in 2010 as an example.

The case piqued Sikkink’s interest in the area of research that became the topic for her 2011 book, she said.

As an undergraduate, Sikkink traveled to Uruguay and learned about Bordaberry’s rule from first-hand accounts, she said.

“I had the opportunity to meet many young students, some of whom had been tortured and gone to jail,” she said. “As many of you know, you have conversations over red wine and cigarettes, and you talk about everything.”

But no one talked about holding Bordaberry accountable for his

crimes, she said. “We have moved from something being unimaginable in 1976 to a practice that is commonplace in many parts of the world,” a shift that is extremely important, she told The Herald at the reception following the talk.

“A change has been occurring contrary to the efforts of powerful leaders,” she said. In her talk, Sikkink discussed how countries transitioning to democracies are more likely to be successful if they are “ruptured,” meaning that previous regimes neither control the transition nor forge deals to avoid prosecution.

Two theories underscore the positive implications of increased human rights prosecutions, she said.

The compliance theory states that an increase in enforcement leads to an increase in compliance, and the deterrence theory states that an increase in punishment leads to a decrease in crime, she said.

But the democratization theory suggests trials can destabilize new democracies. “The threat of trials might cause insurgents to be unwilling to come to the peace table,” she said.

Sikkink presented to an audience including many students and several faculty members listening attentively.

Sikkink will also participate in seminars with faculty members and graduate students and visit an undergraduate course, according to a statement released by Peter Evans, senior fellow in international studies.

Students in the course LAST 1510K: “Human Rights in TwentyFirst Century Latin America” read Sikkink’s book in class and will participate in a discussion with her Tuesday, said Annie Sholar ’14, who attended the talk because of the class.

The talk was a “nice synthesis” of Sikkink’s book, she said, adding that she also enjoyed seeing data that had been released since the book was published.

Rafael Contreras ’15 also attended the talk because similar topics were discussed in one of his classes — INTL 1700: “International Law.” “I thought she had ideas that reflected a lot of the cases we studied in class,” he said, noting that his professor encouraged students to attend the talk because of the implications of human rights prosecutions for the course.

The 40-minute talk was followed by a question-and-answer session of equal length during which Sikkink defended her ideas.

“It’s very difficult to measure the thought process of the military dictator,” she said in response to a question about how the increase in prosecution affects today’s dictators, noting how her research looks at actual events that happen as a measure of the likelihood of punishment.

When asked whether unfair trials also impact human rights, Sikkink qualified that her data is only based on trials that “have guarantees of minimal due process.”

More RISD students enroll in Brown courses

By Alison Silver Senior Staff Writer

The number of special students — non-degree-seeking students enrolled in Brown courses — has increased over the last decade from 339 to 439, according to an October report released by the Office of Institutional Research. Special students include groups such as University employees, post-baccalaureates, visiting students from other colleges, exchange students and students enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design.

RISD students made up 82 percent of undergraduate special students between 2011 and 2012, said Robert Fitzgerald, university registrar. Last semester, 153 RISD students took Brown classes, whereas only 85 Brown students enrolled in courses at RISD, according to the 2012 RISD Office of Institutional Research Fact Book. These numbers do not include dual degree students, who are considered to be enrolled full-time at both

/ / Medicine page 1 still in planning stages, Wilson said.

The curriculum will include small group work and case studies rather than lectures, Borkan said. For their residencies, students will devote half a day per week to each medical department for over a year, rather than spending the typical six weeks in a row in each, said George, who heads the group of faculty members developing the curriculum.

The curriculum will allow students to “develop relationships with patients and with mentors” over a longer period

Brown and RISD. RISD students, along with Brown employees and students at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, have cross-registration benefits that exempt them from paying the regular course tuition of around $5,000 per class, Fitzgerald said.

The majority of RISD students who enroll in Brown courses seek the variety of a liberal arts curriculum they “simply cannot find down there,” Fitzgerald said.

Taking classes at Brown is becoming more popular as it grows more difficult for RISD students to get into the classes they want, said Sofaya Philemon, a junior at RISD, adding that the student population has grown in recent years. “When you can’t get into the classes you want at RISD, there’s an entire course catalog open to you at Brown,” she said.

Philemon said she thinks foreign languages and economics are two of the most popular subjects that attract RISD students to Brown. She is cur-

rently taking a French class at Brown and said she thinks her peers should take advantage of University course offerings more frequently.

RISD does not offer language classes, said Adriana Gallo, a sophomore at RISD majoring in illustration, who is taking an advanced Spanish class at Brown this semester. “It’s been nice to meet students up at Brown,” she said. “We’re benefitting from the Brown classes, but we’re also contributing as much as we’re getting out (of them),” she added.

RISD students face less “culture shock” taking Brown classes than Brown students who are not used to five-hour studio courses like those offered at RISD, Philemon said.

In contrast to an increase in RISD students taking Brown classes, the number of Brown students enrolled in RISD courses has recently declined, Fitzgerald said. One possible reason for the decrease in Brown students taking RISD courses is the work / / RISD page 4 of the Creative

of time, Borkan added.

The Med School has provided the funding for this project so far, said Philip Gruppuso, associate dean for medical education and professor of pediatrics. He said there is enough space in the building to accommodate the extra students, but added that the Med School plans to hire additional faculty members for the program.

Before students can be enrolled in 2015, the faculty members involved will need to develop a more complete plan, Borkan said. The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, an outside body,

must accredit the program before the University can officially institute it. The provost and the president must provide approval, he said.

“I think (this program) is a spectacular idea. It meets a need in society for not just primary care physicians, but ones who are trained in a scholarly way,” said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15.

“This is the perfect time to expand and transform how we teach in this area,” said President Christina Paxson, adding that she hopes the program will fill a local need for primary care physicians in Rhode Island.

few complaints in aftermath By bruno zuccolo contributing writer

When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast two weeks ago, the University canceled all classes Oct. 29 and Oct. 30 as a precautionary measure. The decision to cancel classes was mostly met with supportive responses from students and faculty members, but several faculty members reported a “disruption involved in canceling classes,” Provost Mark Schlissel P’15 said.

In Providence, the storm caused less damage relative to other coastal areas like New Jersey and New York.

More than 1,600 Providence residents were left without power during the storm, but the city suffered little flooding.

The University reported in an email to the Brown community that the worst of the storm was “some downed trees and only minor damage to a small number of facilities.”

And while many students celebrated the unexpected holiday, some professors said rearranging their plans for the semester was problematic.

“I didn’t appreciate ‘abundance of caution’ as a good motto for Brown,” wrote Associate Professor of Engineering Jerry Daniels in an email to The Herald, referring to a University email sent to faculty apologizing for the added difficulty of changing course plans mid-semester.

Daniels also wrote that this decision was especially frustrating because “predictions and actual weather were not that bad” near campus compared to other East Coast areas.

As a possible solution to professors concerned about losing those two days, Schlissel said he offered the first two days of reading period for faculty members to make up classes.

But Schlissel said many professors also praised the administration

for its decision. “Most faculty who did write to us, to the President and me, thanked us for this abundance of caution, saying that it’s never bad to make a mistake and err on the side of caution,” he said.

“The idea that we take safety very seriously is something that the members of our community appreciate,” President Christina Paxson said.

The decision to cancel classes that Monday was made around 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, with the decision to cancel class Tuesday announced around the same time Monday. Brown’s risk management team — led by Stephen Morin, director of the office of environmental health and safety — made the decision based on several factors.

“That group monitored many things, including weather forecasts, but also a recommendation by our state government,” said Schlissel, who met with the risk management team before it made its final decision.

Paxson also said the group considered multiple factors before canceling classes. The group tried to “get a good sense of how safe it would be for the faculty, staff and students,” Paxson said, citing Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s ’75 P’14 declaration of a state of emergency the Sunday prior as well as Providence Mayor Angel Taveras’ decision to close the city.

Though classes have been similarly canceled in the past, usually following snowstorms, the University has not canceled classes for two consecutive days in recent memory. According to the University’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety’s website, because “most students live on or near the campus and the fact that changes to the academic schedule are substantively disruptive to faculty and students, all efforts will be made to avoid cancellation or delay of classes” due to weather.

4 campus news / / Lawsuit page 1 to fund the relocation of the company and the completion of Project Copernicus — a Massively Multiplayer Online game that was Schilling’s central focus and thought to be the key to the company’s eventual success.

In his video, Chafee told residents that while the litigation process for this suit may last many months, his office and the EDC will not be commenting on the case as it progresses.

“I know therefore there still will be many unanswered questions as the legal process continues, and if and when other information comes to light it will be appropriately addressed,” Chafee added.

Wistow told The Herald that the case is currently on the Providence County court schedule, but that the plaintiff is waiting for the judge to determine how to proceed with such a public case involving a large number of defendants.

Speaker of the House Gordon Fox has also announced the General Assembly will hold its own legislative hearings to investigate the 38 Studios saga during its next session, which is set to begin Jan. 1.

Larry Berman, Fox’s press secretary, told The Herald that no plans have been made for the hearings yet. Details will be finalized at the beginning of 2013, following the induction of newly elected public officials, he added.

/ / RISD page 3 Arts Council in expanding Brown’s creative and fine arts course offerings, he said.

But some Brown students still seek the different experience of studying at RISD. “There’s something about taking a class at a school that is an art school and that has such an art focus” that makes studying at RISD “really refreshing,” said Stephanie Maldonado ’15, who is currently taking “Introduction to Photography for Non-majors” at RISD. She said she would like to take more RISD courses in the future.

With the exception of the rising population of RISD students taking Brown courses, the number of special students in other categories has remained fairly steady or declined over the past decade, according to the report.

The number of special students entering through the Office of Continuing Education — who have historically been local residents — has recently declined, said Jodi Devine, associate director for executive education and adult programs. The number of University employees taking Brown courses has dropped from 43 in 2002 to 22 in 2012, and the number of post-baccalaureates declined from 47 to 10 between those years, according to the OIR report. Employees are exempt from tuition fees for passing courses related to their work on campus, Devine said.

The cost of tuition, in conjunction with Rhode Island’s struggling economy, might be an explanation for the decline, she added.

@the_herald

the brown daily herald Tuesday, November 13, 2012

City to lease parking spots for faculty, staff

By Will Fesperman Contributing Writer

Providence will lease 250 parking spaces to the University beginning July 1, as part of a broader attempt by the city, the University and local businesses to increase the availability of parking on College Hill.

As determined in negotiations with the city last spring, Brown faculty and staff members will have exclusive access to the 250 spaces from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., Monday through Friday, with the option of remaining parked there until 6 p.m., said Beth Gentry, chair of the University parking committee. After noon, faculty and staff members can remain in those spots, but the spaces will also be open to the general public for two-hour parking.

The goal is that fewer Brown employees will have to move their cars during the day to comply with two-hour parking signs, a phenomenon Gentry calls “the two-hour shuffle.”

Parking is a perennial issue for the University, Gentry said. In 2008, the University joined with local businesses and residents to form the College Hill Parking Task Force. The task force reported that enough parking spaces existed to accom-

/ / Abortion page 1 ally shouldn’t do that unless the life of the mother’s in danger,” he said. “I’m not okay with that.”

Other students said they opposed legalizing abortion on moral or religious grounds. Phil Trammell ’15 said his Catholic faith has in part informed his views. Trammell said he thinks even though the moment when a fetus gains its soul remains undetermined, the right to life is predicated on that “ensoulment.”

“If I didn’t believe in a soul, I’d be pro-choice,” he said. “In the event of uncertainty it seems that without question you’d value the possibility of not killing someone. … To allow abortion in that state of uncertainty seems really wrong.”

Sex ed first Many sources emphasized the importance of better sex education to prevent unwanted pregnancies before abortion becomes an issue. “Obviously we should be encouraging people to not make that choice, but not through law — more through culture and education,” Pestana said.

Debates about abortion do not focus enough on the issue of education, said Nicole Hasslinger ’15, who works at the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center and is involved with feminist groups on campus.

“If people were aware about how the availability of sex education and birth control prevents abortion, they’d be much more in favor of helping inform people ahead of time, as opposed to punishing people after the fact,” she said. Hasslinger added that access to abortion often falls along socioeconomic lines, disadvantaging poorer women.

The University provides resources related to pregnancy and abortion through Health Services. There are free pregnancy tests at Health Services if students make appointments, as well as tests available at reduced prices at the pharmacy. The Health Services website offers information about local abortion clinics, said Naomi Ninneman, health educator. Students can meet with providers at Health Services and are referred to Psychological Services for more extensive conversations,

modate the neighborhood’s needs. The problem was how to use those spaces efficiently, they said in a report published in 2008.

“It’s not about the creation of new parking spaces,” said Leo Perrotta, city parking administrator. “It’s about the management of existing spaces.”

But the city has yet to fully act upon the task force’s recommendations, which included installing parking meters and marking areas for short- and long-term parking. Perrotta said the city hopes to install block parking meters on College Hill but it does not “have the resources to do it currently.”

John Gianfrancesco, owner of Loui’s Restaurant on Brook Street, expressed frustration with this approach. “There’s never going to be enough parking on the East Side,” he said. “Why doesn’t Brown build a big parking garage? They have the money.”

The University has no plans to build a parking garage, Gentry said. “Parking garages are generally not a cost-effective use of land,” she said, adding that College Hill residents oppose an expansion of the Power Street garage.

University construction projects have reduced the amount of parking near

she added.

Ninneman said students are often surprised when she tells them some statistics about abortion: Roughly half of pregnancies in the nation are unintended, and about one-third of American women have an abortion at some point in their lives.

“I think people think it happens less than it does,” she said.

Cultural influences Both at the University and beyond, a number of other factors play significant roles in influencing perceptions of abortion, including religion, gender, race and class.

In the Herald poll, women were more likely than men to fall at the extreme ends of the spectrum, with higher proportions saying abortion should be always legal or always illegal. Men were nearly twice as likely as women to say abortion should be illegal except in special cases.

Hasslinger attributed these results to males’ discomfort with abortion and reluctance to take an extreme position about others’ bodies. “I think it’s men taking the hard line but then not wanting to be the asshole that was like, ‘Illegal always,’” she said.

The poll also found that students on financial aid were more than twice as likely to say that abortion should always be illegal, compared to those not on aid.

Though many students said in interviews that they were unsure why that disparity might arise, some suggested that students from low-income backgrounds are more likely to be religious.

In his time at Brown, Rabbi Mordechai Rackover, associate University chaplain for the Jewish community and Brown-RISD Hillel, said abortion has rarely come up in conversation with students, as less religious young Jews are not as concerned with the theological implications of abortion. Rackover has been at the University since the 2008-09 academic year.

“I think the vast majority of young Americans don’t take religious values into account on many choices,” he said.

“For Jews who don’t grow up with people talking about abortion as being an issue, it’s probably not something that crosses

Dave deckey / herald

Faculty and staff members will have exclusive access to 250 parking spaces from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Monday through Friday starting this July. campus. Construction of the Nelson Fitness Center on Hope Street removed 250 parking spots for students and faculty members when it began construction in summer 2010. As part of the recent deal with the city, Brown will take possession of three streets — including Brown Street from George Street to Charlesfield Street

— which will be lined for parking spots in January but will eventually be turned into closed walkways. The University has organized a parking committee — which includes faculty members and administrators — to determine the future of parking spaces of those three streets and renting those spots to faculty members.

their mind in those terms,” though some may have questions or regrets after the fact, he said.

Judaism lacks a single clear authority or teaching on the issue, Rackover said. But “the rabbis understood that a fetus, up until its 40th day, is considered water, as it were, so it doesn’t exist,” he said. “So until a certain point the soul isn’t invested in the baby, and the baby’s status isn’t that of a person in the same way as (it is) later.”

Catholicism takes the “ontological” approach to determining human life, said Reverend Henry Bodah, associate University chaplain for the Roman Catholic community. The Catholic faith teaches that “the being in the cradle and the being in the womb are the same human being, and therefore it has to be afforded the rights of a human being.”

Bodah said some Catholics believe abortion should be illegal not just on religious grounds, but “because it’s an offense against the dignity of human nature.”

In today’s political environment, though, Bodah said many Catholics are uneasy with the idea of mandates that affect individuals’ bodies. “Most Catholics would agree that there’s something wrong with abortion, but many would not be willing to say that it should be made illegal, because they’re squeamish about feeling as though they’re imposing something on others,” he said. “Nobody likes to believe they’re doing that.”

The history of abortion has often been intertwined with elements of race and religiosity in the United States, said Francoise Hamlin, assistant professor of history and Africana studies. The legacy of slavery, as well as a history of forced sterilization of black women and high levels of religiosity, left many black women particularly sensitive to any attempts by white men to control their bodies, she said. In the black power movement of the 1960s and ’70s, Hamlin said controversial leaders denounced any efforts to prevent childbirth in the black community, “so abortion and contraception were seen from this sort of more radical line as another attempt at racial genocide.”

At Brown, abortion does not often arise as a controversial source of debate, in part because many students tend to associate with people who hold similar views, Hasslinger said. “You can self-select into groups here and you don’t hear other people’s opinions as often as you would like to, and you don’t necessarily get thrown into conversations with people who are totally on the opposite side,” she said.

At the same time, there is a diversity of opinions, and the quality of dialogues is elevated by the analytical eye and scholarship students bring to discussions, she said.

“You’re getting people who are thinking very critically about this. Because you’re around people who are studying public health, who are studying religious history … you know that when you’re engaging in this conversation you can’t just rely on rhetoric. You have to be informed,” she said.

But Hasslinger said there is also widespread ignorance about the prevalence of abortion even in the Brown community.

“People at Brown get pregnant, and they deal with it,” she said.

Krishna said she thinks the more liberal atmosphere in the Providence area means students less actively debate issues like abortion than do students on some other campuses. “I think that could stop some of the discussion,” she said. “Even if people are all pro-choice, well, it’s still useful to talk about it.”

Campus dialogue

Methodology Written questionnaires were administered to 959 undergraduates Oct. 17-18 in the lobby of J. Walter Wilson and the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center during the day and the Sciences Library at night.

The poll has a 2.9 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. The margin of error is 4.4 percent for the subset of males, 3.9 percent for females, 5.7 percent for firstyears, 5.5 percent for sophomores, 5.9 percent for juniors, 6.4 percent for seniors, 4.3 percent for students receiving financial aid and 4.0 percent for students not receiving financial aid.

Find results of previous polls at thebdh. org/poll.

city & state 5

the brown daily herald Tuesday, November 13, 2012

SLA protests U. contract with Adidas Diossa, Moran face off in

Central Falls mayoral race

By Kate Nussenbaum Senior Staff Writer

“We can’t have justice at Brown’s leisure — we need it now,” said Stoni Tomson ’15, student labor alliance member, in a speech urging administrators to threaten to end the University’s contract with Adidas, which currently supplies apparel for varsity sports teams. Tomson addressed a crowd of about 15 SLA members and supporters Monday at noon.

In April 2011, the PT Kizone garment factory in Indonesia that supplied companies including Adidas with college apparel shut down, leaving 2,800 workers without jobs, according to a website run by the SLA. Unlike the Dallas Cowboys and Nike, which also licensed apparel from the factory, Adidas refused to pay $1.8 million in severance to these workers, nearly half a year’s salaries, Tomson said. This directly violates the University’s code of conduct, which states that all entities who have a written licensing agreement with the University must ensure its suppliers follow “domestic legal mandates,” according to the website.

Carrying signs with messages like “Brown take Adidas down” and “Honor your promise,” the protesters walked quietly from Wayland Arch to the office of Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services, and then to University Hall to deliver their message to President Christina Paxson.

Neither Klawunn nor Paxson was present at the time, but the protesters spoke to MaryLou Macmillan, senior director for planning and projects, and Geneva Ferrell, special assistant to the president. Each said she would pass along the message to administrators.

In Paxson’s office, SLA member Beilul Naizghi ’16 read aloud a prepared statement. “We ask that (Paxson) stands in support of the workers in the PT Kizone and around the world who are fighting against Adidas for justice,” she said.

Group members left a signed beach ball in Klawunn’s office to signify the

By Morgan Johnson Senior Staff WRiter

ball is in the University’s court. They also left 18 balloons in Paxson’s office — each stood for $100,000 that Adidas owes the factory workers.

This is not an isolated incident for Adidas, Tomson told The Herald. The company has failed to pay severance to workers in the past, and health and safety law violations have been reported in several of their factories.

Workers have been illegally fired and some have even suffered death threats, she said.

For about seven months, members of the SLA have been meeting with administrators, urging them to put Adidas “on notice” until it pays the factory workers the money it owes them. Though Tomson said she thinks administrators have emailed Adidas to encourage them to pay the workers their severance, she said they have not threatened to end the University’s

contract.

Last week, administrators told SLA members that if Adidas did not take action within the week, they would put it on notice, SLA member Bryan Payton ’15 said.

“I think that they’re hoping that Adidas will give the severance pay without extra pressure to do so,” Payton said. “As we’ve seen, that’s not going to happen.”

“The stalling needs to stop,” Tomson told the crowd of SLA members and allies Monday. Brown needs to put Adidas on notice immediately, she said.

Over the past two months, Cornell, Oberlin College and the University of Washington have all ended their contracts with Adidas.

As of press time, 260 students, alums and parents had signed the petition on the website.

A primary last Tuesday for a special election to determine the next mayor of Central Falls eliminated three of five candidates from the race. The two remaining candidates — both Democrats — will face off in the general election Dec. 11.

Previous Mayor Charles Moreau officially resigned in late September in the wake of corruption charges.

The city has technically been in state-appointed receivership for over two years since declaring financial insolvency in 2010, later filing for bankruptcy in 2011.

Current City Councilman James Diossa won the primary with a significant lead of almost 60 percent of the vote, and he gained an additional 111 mail-in votes counted two days after the election. He will now face the second-highest finisher, former police chief James Moran, in next month’s election. Moran received 18 percent of the vote, securing his place in the general election over former mayor Thomas Lazieh by 3 percent or roughly 100 votes.

To catch up with Diossa’s primary lead, Moran would need to win all of the votes cast for each of the eliminated candidates, plus over 600 additional votes.

“I have a lot of work to do,” Moran said at his post-election party, adding that the special election’s place on the ballot along with the presidential race drew larger voter turnout than can be expected for December’s election.

Diossa’s success in the primary followed endorsements from U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, state Rep. Gus Silva, D-Central Falls, and state Sen. Betty Crowley, D-Central Falls, who defeated Moran in a primary election to maintain control of her seat in September.

“I have walked the streets of Central Falls with (Diossa), and I trust that he will be a strong advocate for

scorer two years ago before missing last season due to illness. Halpern’s return, the timing of which remains uncertain, would add a valuable scoring threat to the Bears line-up.

“I’m just trying to get into good enough shape that I can be out there the whole game,” Halpern said. “Depth is a big problem, but I think we can be pretty good if everyone, including myself, is in shape and stays healthy.”

Martin will be relying heavily on the three players who contributed substantial minutes for the Bears last season.

Much of the burden will fall on point guard Sean McGonagill ’14, a second team All-Ivy selection last season. McGonagill led the team with 13.5 points per game en route to dishing out a school record of 157 assists.

McGonagill also averaged 36 minutes per game during the season — 37 in conference play — and Martin said he expects a lot from his point guard again this year.

“We’ll ask him to do everything — sell popcorn, mop the floors, even clean the locker room,” Martin joked.

“He’s obviously got a lot of experience, and he’s earned the right to be a leader on this team.”

Matt Sullivan ’12, the squad’s second leading scorer last season, Tyler Ponticelli ’12 and McGonagill have been named the team’s tri-captains.

The Bears have their work cut out for them as they continue their non-conference schedule that features away matchups at Notre Dame and Northwestern and a nationally televised home game against Providence

College that will be the two teams’ first match-up since 1962.

“It’s going to be tough, but we go into every game knowing that if we play to our best ability, we can win any game,” McGonagill said.

The Bears will also be competing in an unpredictable Ivy League conference. Last season, four teams easily racked up over 19 victories while the remaining four failed to top 15. This year, the landscape has been greatly altered due to graduating players and

campus news

/ / Basketball page 8 bles in the wake of the departure of former head coach Jesse Agel. Stephen Albrecht ’13 has been sidelined by a potentially seasonending back injury, Andrew McCarthy withdrew from Brown for academic considerations and Dockery Walker left the team after sustaining a knee injury.

Only three players who averaged more than 10 minutes per game last season were in the line-up as the Bears opened their season on the road Sunday with a 58-49 victory over Binghampton.

“We have limited bodies on our roster,” Martin said. “We’ve worked to be in the best physical condition we can be … and hopefully they’ve worked hard enough all summer to handle it.”

But not all hope is lost for the Bears. The team eagerly awaits the return of Tucker Halpern, who averaged 14.3 points per game in conference play and was the team’s second-leading

sports

Sam kase / herald

The Student Labor Alliance petitioned administrators to reevaluate the U.’s contract with Adidas, claiming it violates the University’s code of conduct.

comic Class Notes |Philip Trammell

the people of his city,” Reed said in his statement of support.

Diossa unveiled a press release about two weeks before the election outlining his plans for a comprehensive ethics reform package to be implemented as one of his first major initiatives in office. The proposed reforms follow charges filed against Moreau, who is expected to plead guilty later this month on charges of accepting gifts and large discounts on items in exchange for political favors.

“I will never take donations from Central Falls employees or city vendors,” Diossa said. He also promised to avoid nepotism in hiring and government position appointment.

Diossa’s proposed reforms include establishing a Central Falls code of ethics that “goes beyond” the official code of the state. He also plans to commission a cost-neutral ethics board of volunteer members and add responsibilities for the city solicitor that include ethics education and advisement and producing written and online materials covering the subject.

Diossa also suggested measures modeled on the ethics policies of cities like New York and Los Angeles, specifically a mandatory registry of all lobbyists and persons requesting contracts from the city and a restriction on campaign contributions from donors with interests in city contracts. He suggested pursuing legislation that would give the city the right to lower or withdraw pension payments from public officials and employees found guilty of ethical misconduct.

“Those who violate the public trust should not be rewarded,” Diossa wrote.

Diossa started his career in the City Council two years ago at age 24 after defeating the incumbent for Ward 4. He played a central leadership role in organizing efforts to preserve Central Falls’ post office and public library in the midst of the city’s financial crisis.

an academic scandal that sidelined Harvard’s two co-captains.

A power vacuum has developed in the league, leaving every team in contention for the Ivy title.

“I think it’s impossible to predict this year in the Ivy League,” Halpern said. “It’s so open that anyone can be right there, and that definitely could be us.”

— With additional reporting by Bruno Zuccolo

6 editorial Editorial

Jane and Jill: The other winners of the 2012 election Election Day was a momentous date for proponents of same-sex marriage — a “red-letter day in the history of the gay rights movement,” according to Michael Klarman, Harvard historian and law professor. In Maryland, 52 percent of voters voted for Question 6, which enacted the Civil Marriages Protection Act, allowing same-sex marriage in the state. Meanwhile, 54 percent of voters in Maine voted down a proposition to ban same-sex marriage, 52 percent of Washington voters supported a law that legalized same-sex marriage in the state, and 50 percent of Minnesota residents rejected an amendment to the state constitution that would have prevented same-sex marriage. Prior to Tuesday, same-sex marriage was permitted in six states and the District of Columbia, while being banned in 39 other states. We see this change as a major step toward a nation-wide push for marriage equality, though we recognize much remains to be done.

This was the first instance of same-sex marriage being passed through voter initiative — the prospect had previously failed in 30 other ballot initiatives nationwide, with the exception of Arizona in 2006 (though Arizona then banned same-sex marriage in 2008). These initiatives signal a changing tide in voter opinion. Court rulings and state legislatures have previously been responsible for allowing same-sex marriage in individual states and districts, so the rise of citizen-based decisions attests to the increasing awareness and sensitivity of same-sex marriage amongst the general public. This election also saw Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin elected as the first openly gay U.S. Senator, and Iowa residents re-elected State Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins, who raised the ire of state Republicans with his 2009 court ruling allowing same-sex marriage.

While these victories speak toward an encouraging trend, much remains to be addressed. The Defense of Marriage Act, or DoMA, ensures that the federal government will not recognize same-sex marriage, even in states and districts where it is legal. Thus, same-sex couples do not receive the same immigration consideration, cannot file joint returns for federal taxes and do not have the same estate taxes as heterosexual couples. Furthermore, if one homosexual partner works for the federal government, the other will not receive survivor benefits or a pension.

With the Maine results, Rhode Island is the only state in New England left to legalize gay marriage, though the state will recognize marriages that were performed where legal. But this measure is due to a laudable executive order by Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 and would be more lasting if recognized by the state legislature.

Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence, told the Associated Press, “This election shows there’s been a real change on this issue,” and he has expressed hope about calling for a vote to legalize same-sex marriage this January. Several new state senators are expected to favor such legislation, which has historically been unsuccessful in the state senate. But Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed opposes gay marriage and has described calls for a vote as premature.

While Tuesday’s results are heartening, the rights of the minority should not depend on the whims of the majority. This year, the Supreme Court will consider 10 requests regarding gay marriage and is expected to make a decision this June, perhaps about the constitutionality of DoMA. It is likely recent voter results will influence the justices, who occasionally consider public opinion. We hope future rulings expand marriage equality and eliminate federal obstructions. But until then we hope Rhode Island recognizes the changing public opinion and votes to legalize same-sex marriage.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editors, Daniel Jeon and Annika Lichtenbaum, and its members, Georgia Angell, Sam Choi and Rachel Occhiogrosso. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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the brown daily herald Tuesday, November 13, 2012

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

Correc tion An article in Wednesday’s Herald (“Average debt burden highest of Ivies, lowest in R.I.,” Nov. 7) incorrectly stated that a financial aid policy instituted in 2008 eliminated loans for families with expected contributions of under $100,000. In fact, the policy eliminated loans for families with incomes below that amount. The Herald regrets the error.

quote of the day

“Before I even ever stepped on the field there, I had about a hundred Facebook friend requests.”

— Alex Tounkara ‘11.5, football alum See football on page 8.

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opinions 7

the brown daily herald Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Universal suffrage is immoral Oliver Hudson Opinions Columnist In the United States, any citizen who is at least 18 years old and not a convicted felon has the right to vote. Most of us accept and celebrate our universal suffrage. But is it a good idea? In my view, no. Not every adult U.S. citizen should have the right to vote. Instead, only those who pay taxes to a government should be eligible to vote in that government’s elections. So, for example, under this system, an adult paying sales tax in Rhode Island but no federal taxes would qualify to vote in Rhode Island state elections but not in federal elections. Restricting the right to vote to taxpayers is moral and practical.

After all, what is a vote? A vote is a piece of control over how the government spends taxpayer money. Every government program, every enforced law and every action taken by the government is funded from tax “revenue.” This includes government debt, since it must eventually be repaid, and inflation, since it is a tax on the purchasing power of the dollar. Thus, to function, government takes money from group A and distributes money — in the form of benefits and programs — to group B. Membership in group A and group B may or may not overlap.

It follows that universal suffrage is immoral. Is it right that someone who pays

nothing to a government should be able to vote to decide how that government spends other people’s money? Most would agree that controlling how your neighbor or friend spends his or her money is morally wrong. Why, then, do we accept that it is right when government is the middleman between you and your neighbor or you and your friend?

Many will say this comparison is not fair because the government taxes not to steal, but for the good of the public. So

er the old adage “nobody spends someone else’s money as carefully as his own.”

If only those contributing voted, money would be spent less freely, since voters would begin to treat the public tax dollars more like their own money. This increase in fiscal responsibility in the government would be a great measure today, when the U.S. government is $16 trillion in debt, not adjusting for unfunded liabilities.

In general, universal suffrage encourages high spending and deficits. When ev-

It is in the interests of the economic health of the United States to restrict access to the ballot.

if you went to your friend and told him you’re taking his money to donate to charitable causes “for the good of the public” that would be fine? It is noteworthy that we call one case stealing and the other taxation, but they are effectively the same.

Your neighbor’s money is his money.

Therefore, only he gets to “vote” what he does with it. The case ought to be no different for the government. Only those contributing to the public treasury ought to have a vote in how it is spent.

Apart from being moral, a tax qualification for voting is practical. Consid-

eryone votes, but only a small fraction pay most of the taxes — the top 20 percent pay 94 percent of all income taxes in the United States — there is incentive for those not paying to vote for greater spending and deficits since they won’t have to worry about picking up the tab. We morph into a society of producers and free riders.

Practical reasons then suggest it is in the interests of the country’s economic health to restrict access to the ballot.

While my proposal would do a lot of good, it must be taken a step further to be complete.

The weight of a person’s vote should be proportional to the fraction of total revenue he contributes to the government.

This, however, presents problems with certain taxes — such as the sales tax — in determining how much a person has paid to the government.

But it could be applied quite easily to certain taxes, such as the income tax.

Thus, if person A contributes 100 times more than person B in income taxes, person A should have 100 times more voting power than person B. This is the logical extension of the earlier case.

What I am proposing is not a radical, backward idea from a time when voting restrictions were used to exclude certain groups from voting on the basis of gender or race. In fact, what I am proposing is the practice of many societal institutions.

Consider the business world. If you own stock in a company, your shareholder’s vote is in proportion to your ownership of the company.

The U.S. government should be no different. We all own a portion of the government. We ought to elect our representatives, just as stockholders elect their boards of directors, in proportion to our ownership.

A vote is a right, but it should be a privilege.

Oliver Hudson ’14 thinks the 53 percent should move to Galt’s Gultch.

He may be contacted at oliver_hudson@brown.edu.

System change not climate change Luke Lattanzi-Silveus Opinions Columnist We’ve had two “once in a century” hurricanes in the last two years. When Hurricane Irene hit last year, it was supposed to be an extraordinary event. But this year Hurricane Sandy far surpassed it. It killed at least 113 people and cut power to 8.5 million buildings. And, as is always the case with environmental disasters, people in poor and working-class communities were most affected and the last to receive government help.

So yes, climate change is real. It also affects people today, not just in the future. Hurricanes have become more frequent, and so have droughts. Pollution personally affects the working class through chemicals from nearby factories and incinerators that cause cancer and respiratory illness or through heat waves that kill more than 400 people every year.

But let’s take a step back for a moment.

Why are we even at this point? Why are we releasing deadly chemicals into the environment? Why don’t we have a real system of public transportation? Why do we recycle so little? Why do we not only use tons of oil and coal to produce power, but also give huge government subsidies to oil and coal producers?

It is not because a cleaner reality is unfeasible. There are plenty of very viable ways to produce electricity without emitting greenhouse gases. For example, there’s solar energy. We would only need to cover 1 percent

of the Sahara with solar panels to power the entire world.

And it’s not because of choices made by ordinary people either. Municipal waste — the waste that you and I produce — accounts for as little as 2 percent of total waste.

The Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t offer estimates of how much of the rest of the waste is recycled.

The problem is systemic. The problem is the profit motive and capitalism itself. It is simply not profitable to produce in an ecologically friendly way. It costs much less to produce without having to worry about pol-

sands of bright people are wasted in careers spent persuading us to scrap what we have and buy their shiny new product. This packaging, and the products that we are convinced to replace, become trash. The people in the advertising industry are spending time selling us products we don’t need when they could be figuring out how to avoid destroying our planet.

Responsible consumption is not the answer. It cannot work as a strategy to tackle such a global problem. Most people do not have the luxury of paying that much more to consume something that is “green” or “or-

The problem is systemic. The problem is the profit motive and capitalism itself.

lution controls or the effects that you might be having on people nearby or on the planet. The Darwinian process of the market tends to bankrupt any firm that might produce sustainably in favor of those who can sell more cheaply at the expense of sustainability. As a result, we are left with firms that focus on short-term profitability at the expense of our collective long-term interests.

But capitalism is wasteful in other ways.

Tons of packaging and hundreds of thou-

ganic.” Besides, the best market strategy for firms wanting to appeal to “green consumers” is to do the least amount necessary to be “green.” They might curb their emissions a little, but it’s far too little to really slow climate change.

We can and should fight for meaningful regulations and reforms, like the creation of the EPA and the Clean Air Act in 1970.

But this is not something we can regulate away, either. As soon as the mass movement

that created these rules and institutions dies down, they will slowly be weakened by the corporations. Those corporations will lobby, buy elections, fund huge media campaigns and threaten to move money and jobs abroad to make sure the political system slowly repeals the gains we have made, as they have over the past 40 years. Without a popular movement to back it, the EPA has become a shadow of what it once was. And large corporations have learned to avoid the rules of the Clean Air Act. The problem is systemic, caused by the relentless pursuit of short-term profit upon which our economic system is founded.

This means the answer is system change.

Green technology is out there, but it is simply less profitable than pollution. In order to use it, we need a society where workers control production, and the goal is meeting our needs, not making a profit. We need a society in which we can democratically plan our economic priorities and not leave them up to the shortsighted chaos of the market.

In short, we need socialism. In capitalism, those who choose how we produce have a vested interest in polluting. In socialism, we would collectively choose how we produce.

And it is in our collective interest not to pollute.

Estimates say that environmental collapse could occur as soon as 40 years from now. Within our lifetime. Time is short — we need socialism now!

Luke Lattanzi-Silveus ’14 believes that we still have time to save the planet and can be contacted at luke_lattanzi-silveus@brown.edu.

daily herald sports tuesday the Brown

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Football

Football alums pursue pro careers on international fields

By Nikhil Parasher Sports sTaff Writer

Alex Tounkara ’11.5 and Stephen Peyton ’12, former football players for Bruno, brought their love for the game overseas, continuing to play football for teams across the Atlantic after graduating. Both played professional football in Europe earlier this year, with Tounkara competing in the German Football League and Peyton in Vaahteraliiga, also known as the Maple League, of Finland.

Each player took a different path overseas. Tounkara said he was invited to join the Buffalo Bills’ Rookie MiniCamp in May, but the Belgium native was not allowed to attend because his student visa expired. He returned home to Belgium and was contacted by the New Yorker Lions, a Division I team of the GFL. When the Lions contacted Tounkara in June, midway through their most recent season, Tounkara said they hoped he could give their struggling offense a hand.

Peyton, on the other hand, never had the opportunity to join a National Football League squad. He was contacted six games into the 10-game Maple League season by the Division I Helsinki Roosters after an injury to one of their players. Less than a week later, he had signed a contract and arrived in Helsinki.

Once they arrived in Europe, Tounkara and Peyton had very different experiences. Though Peyton was a safety for the Bears, in Finland, he said he returned kicks and played linebacker and wide receiver, positions he had not played since high school. “(The switch) took a little longer getting used to,” Peyton said. But he adapted quickly enough, scoring the game-winning touchdown in the final

seconds of the Roosters’ national championship victory in August.

Tounkara, a receiver for Bruno, stuck with that position in Germany.

But he said his German team relied on him more because he was an “import,” or a non-European player. Each team in the GFL is allowed four imports, who are typically more skilled by virtue of their foreign training.

“Each team has four guys who are very good and then a group of German players who, competitively, let’s just say they would be ... more like Ivy League backups,” Tounkara said. “The imports would pretty much control the game.

If the imports played well, you would win. If they did not, you would lose.”

Because of that greater responsibility, Tounkara felt that though he played the same position as in college, he had a “completely different role.”

“At Brown, my job as a receiver was to be selfish,” Tounkara said. “My job was to run my route, be open and go from there. If I get the ball, great. If I don’t get the ball, fine. In Germany, my job was to elevate everyone else. Even when I’m not open, I’m expected to make plays.”

Each player also had a different cultural experience. Tounkara did not speak any German when he arrived, and most of his teammates did not speak proficient English. But most of the coaches spoke English, and the offensive playbook was in English. Peyton said he did not face this language barrier as his teammates spoke English.

Many even subscribed to English television channels to watch the NFL, he said.

But there was at least one similarity between Tounkara’s and Peyton’s experiences — both said they saw how passionate the European fans and players are about American football.

The Finnish players “all love the

courtesy of alex tounkara

Former football players Alex Tounkara ’11.5 and Stephen Peyton ’12 both played professional football in Europe after graduation, for the New Yorker Lions and the National Football League squad, respectively. sport just as much as any young American that you’d find,” Peyton said.

Tounkara joked he didn’t even know there was football in Europe, but was surprised at how enthusiastic the fans were.

“Before I even ever stepped on the field there, I had about a hundred Facebook friend requests from people around the city,” Tounkara said. “Over there, the people are just more friendly.

They message you just to see how you are ... The fans are just so much more connected to the team than over here.”

Both Tounkara and Peyton said they enjoyed their time overseas and are considering returning for second seasons in Europe. But they both still have NFL dreams, and Peyton said it is “tough to use Europe as a stepping stone” to join the NFL.

m. basketball

Bears Head Coach Phil Estes also said he is skeptical of how much weight NFL teams give to European play, and that a player would have to be sensational overseas to impress NFL scouts.

“I don’t know much stock the NFL puts in these foreign teams, but it can help them if they dominate in a league over there,” Estes said.

If they cannot make it to the NFL, both Tounkara and Peyton said they would like to return to Europe, though neither wants to make a career out of it. Assuming he does not join an NFL team, Tounkara said he would only want to spend one additional year playing overseas. After that, he said he plans to use his economics and international relations concentrations to pursue financial services consulting. If Peyton does not join the NFL, he said he will

probably return to Finland for another year before putting his human biology concentration to use.

No matter for how long, in which league or on what continent Tounkara and Peyton end up playing football, they said they will look fondly on their experiences in Europe.

For Peyton, who said he wished he had studied abroad, the time in Finland was an “awesome opportunity” to experience another culture.

“This was in such close proximity to my graduation from Brown, it almost felt like a study abroad at times,” he said.

“It was maybe once-in-a-lifetime,” Tounkara said. “It’s one of those things where you look back on it and I’ll have stories from that trip for the rest of my life, no matter what happens … I would do it all again in a heartbeat.”

cross country

Bears look to shape up under new coach Runner qualifies for nationals, teams fall short

By Sam Rubinroit

Assistant Sports Editor

By James Blum

The men’s basketball team underwent a major transformation in the offseason, but several aspects of the program remain strangely familiar.

The Bears are under new leadership with the arrival of Mike Martin ’04, a first-year head coach who launched his coaching career at Brown less than a decade ago. As a player for the Bears, Martin helped lead the basketball team to a University-record four consecutive winning seasons and was part of the winningest class in Brown basketball history.

Shortly after graduation, Martin returned to Brown to begin his coaching career as an assistant on Glenn Miller’s staff in 2005-06. For the past six seasons, Martin served as an assistant coach at Penn under Jerome Allen. At just 30 years old, Martin is the fourth-youngest head coach in Division I basketball.

“I’m in a position to lead these guys, but it wasn’t that long ago that I was in their shoes as a student-athlete and player at Brown,” Martin said.

The young coach inherits a roster in sham/ / Basketball page 5

Sports Staff Writer

Sam rubinroit / herald

The men’s basketball team is under new leadership this season with new head coach Mike Martin ‘04, a former player for the Bears.

The men’s cross country team finished 11th among 34 total teams, while the women’s team captured eighth place in a 37 team field at Friday’s NCAA Northeast Regional Championship in Madison, Connecticut. Though neither squad qualified for the NCAA Championship, bringing both seasons to an end, Margaret Connelly ’14 earned an individual bid to the meet.

The women finished with 223 points, besting last year’s 11th place team, which finished with 241 points. Providence College, with 46 points, was the top team to finish the six-kilometer course. The Ivy League had a strong showing with six schools, including Bruno, finishing in the top 10.

Connelly led the Bears, finishing seventh overall with a personal best time of 20 minutes, 11 seconds. She was the second woman to finish from the Ivy League, following only the overall champion, Dartmouth’s Abbey D’Agostino.

Connelly said she is excited to have the opportunity to compete at the national meet, though her ultimate goal was to

see the whole team qualify.

“It’s a very big highlight to have her qualify for the national meet,” said Mitchell Baker, head coach of women’s cross country. “You really can’t describe how challenging that is to pull it off individually.”

Connelly said her strategy was to stay “poised and relaxed” while working her way up to the top group of girls. Since the course was relatively flat, Baker said he wanted the women to start the race in a good position but not “feel like they had to sprint the first mile to be there.”

Heidi Caldwell ’14 finished 21st overall in 20:38 and was followed 19 seconds later by Olivia Mickle ’13, who claimed 40th overall. Baker said both women usually run alongside Connelly, but Caldwell had a “little bit of inflammation in her leg this past week” and Mickle was “not quite her normal self at the beginning.”

The last two women to score for Bruno were Leah Eickhoff ’15 and Elaine Kuckertz ’13, who finished in 21:30 and 21:48, respectively.

“I think we did well. It was an improvement over last year,” Connelly said.

“But judging / / NCAA page 2