Friday, December 7, 2012

daily herald the Brown

vol. cxxii, no. 118

INSIDE

Page 3

Four fellows

AAAS names four faculty members fellows

Page 4

Q&A: Nneka

Nigerian singer explains her music’s political message

Editor’s note

This is The Herald’s last issue of the semester. We will resume publication Jan. 23. Check thebdh.org for updates. Thank you for reading. today

tomorrow

48 / 40

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since 1891

Friday, December 7, 2012

Poll: Majority support race-blind faculty hires

By Adam Toobin Senior Staff Writer

About 56 percent of students oppose the University considering race when hiring faculty members, while 35 percent support the policy, according to a Herald poll conducted this fall.

The remaining 60 percent of students said the University should not consider demographic factors in faculty decisions. Of students who oppose the policy, about 38 percent believe the University should consider other aspects of diversity, like gender, when hiring faculty.

The University currently employs an affirmative action policy for hiring decisions that is designed to attract more women and racial minorities to the faculty. Last year, 80 percent of faculty members identified as white, and about 60 percent were men, The Herald reported.

Several students interviewed pointed out that racial discrepancies are obvious in every discipline

at the University and send the wrong message to students.

“When you see that the overwhelming percentage are white and are not people of color — when you see none of them look like you — it makes you question … why aren’t there more people of color on this staff?” said Bryan Payton ’15.

Payton added that promoting racial diversity among the faculty would help people of color overcome societal barriers. “The numbers are largely reflective of inequality in our society,” he said. “Ninety percent of (chief executive officers), lawyers, doctors are not people of color.”

Opponents of the use of race in hiring decisions said the University should hire applicants most able to provide a good education to students.

“Our number one goal needs to be how are they going to contribute to the overall University,” said Heath Mayo ’13, an opinions columnist for The Herald. The University needs / / Poll page 2 to ask “how are

Should Brown consider race when hiring professors?

9%

No opinion

15%

No, but it should consider other aspects of diversity, like gender

35% Yes

41% No

sandra yan / herald

U. lobbying spending ranks low in Ivy League Family

By Tonya Riley Senior Staff Writer

The University spent $36,253 on congressional lobbying in the first three quarters of 2012 on issues including higher education, biomedical research, science issues and health care issues, according to Senate lobbying disclosures. The University lobbied institutions including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Education and the Department of Energy along with both congressional chambers.

The University has also spent an estimated $520,000 in compensating lobbyists for Rhode Island-specific lobbying thus far in 2012, accord-

ing to the Rhode Island Office of the Secretary of State.

In 2011, the University spent a total of $209,256 on Congressional lobbying, an increase from the $182,050 expense reported in 2010.

Apart from Dartmouth, which has had no lobbying expenses in 2012, the University has spent the least in the Ivy League on congressional lobbying so far this year. Penn and Yale rank first and second in congressional lobbying spending this year, having each spent $525,246 and $440,000, respectively.

According to tax returns released this fall, the University spent $203,400 on total lobbying expenses in fiscal year 2010. About 15 per-

cent, $30,676, of those funds went to “direct contact with legislators, their staffs, government officials or a legislative body.” That year marked an almost 27 percent increase from the $148,850 the University spent on lobbying in 2009. It spent a greater amount, $69,600, on direct contact expenses in 2009.

The expenses specified in these tax returns extend beyond direct lobbying — they also account for other government relations expenses, including travel fees, said Amy Carroll, director of government relations and community affairs.

Carroll, who assumed her current position at the University in December 2010, declined to comment on

the increase in lobbying expenses from 2009 to 2010 evident in the most recent tax filings.

The total lobbying costs also includes membership fees in organizations such as the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

NAICU is a membership association that lobbies on issues affecting independent colleges, including student aid and tax and regulatory provisions, said Stephanie Giesecke, director for budget and appropriations at NAICU. The association employs five registered lobbyists, who base their lobbying focus on consensus decisions reached by presidents of mem/ / Lobby page 2 ber colleges

By Kate nussenbaum

In his 1966 inaugural address, Heffner said, “We must learn to think first, rather than last, of what we as free citizens of individual academic communities want, in our sober best judgment, for our own universities.”

But as the anti-war and civil rights movements prompted students and faculty to chart a new direction for the University, Heffner largely “withdrew into University Hall,” Miller said.

“When major events occur, Dr. Heffner is more likely to retire to his office to evaluate the situation than to stalk out of University Hall and do something about it,” The Herald wrote in 1969.

“He probably felt caught between a conservative Corporation and an increasingly radicalized student body,” said David Kertzer ’69 P’95 P’98, former provost and an activist on campus as an undergraduate. “I’m sure his heart was in the right place, but I think he was just overwhelmed by what was going on on campus at / / Heffner page 3 the time.”

Former U. president Ray Heffner dies at 87 senior staff writer

Herald File Photo

Ray Heffner, the University’s 13th president, is remembered for his kind yet reserved personality as he led the University with a cautious hand.

“The president has shown himself to be an administrator careful in his choice of words and slow in his choice of actions,” The Herald wrote May 9, 1969, the day Ray Heffner, the University’s 13th president, announced his resignation. Heffner, who died last week at the age of 87, presided over three of the most dynamic years in University history, but despite the turbulence of the era, he is remembered as a cautious and accommodating scholar — not a bold visionary.

“He struck everybody initially as a very, very nice guy,” said Professor of Biology Ken Miller ’70 P’02. At the time, first-years were given “Class of 1970” beanies to wear, Miller said.

Heffner wore a class of ’70 beanie during his first year as well to cultivate a relationship with the student body.

“His initial impression during my freshman year was highly positive,” Miller said.

antics amaze in ‘Next to Normal’

By Riley davis contributing writer

Musical Forum’s production of “Next to Normal” premieres tonight, and there is only one thing to do about it: go see it. It’s free, it’s filled with talent, and it’s this weekend only, so take the opportunity while you can and go see a musical that will make you laugh, cry and want to punch something all at the same time.

“Next to Normal” tells the story of Diana Goodman (Emily Kassie ’14), a bipolar and depressed mother, and her family, all of whom struggle to deal with the demons that plague Diana and poison her relationships with everyone else. As Diana begins to refuse her medication and eventually attempts suicide, the lives of her husband Dan (Will Peterson ’14) and her daughter Natalie (Sarah Gage ’15) begin to unravel nearly as quickly as Diana’s sanity. After trying several different drug combinations, undergoing hypnosis and visiting two different doctors, Diana is treated using electroconvulsive therapy. The therapy causes significant memory loss for Diana, giving her family what could be a chance at a fresh start with her — or another opportunity for heartbreak.

“Next to Normal” was a large Broadway success two years ago, and the rights to the show just came out in August, said Melissa Prusky ’13, the show’s assistant director and a board member of Musical Forum. “It deals with heavy themes,” Prusky said, / / Normal page 7 “and it’s not a

arts & culture

2 campus news c alendar Today

dec. 7

5 P.m.

ToMORROW

/ / Lobby page 1 dec. 8

7:30 p.m.

German Christmas Market

What’s on Tap? Holiday Show

190 Hope St.

Salomon Center 101

8 p.m.

8 p.m.

Brown Madrigal Singers Winter Concert

Beary Keys Holiday Concert

Manning Chapel

Salomon Center 001

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEy-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH Shaved Steak with Mushrooms and Onions, Tuna Noodle Casserole, Red Potatoes with Chive Sauce, Magic Bars

Breaded Chicken Fingers, Vegan Nuggets, German Sausage Chowder, Vegetarian Baked Beans, Magic Bars

DINNER Eggplant Parmesan, Grilled Cilantro Chicken, Corn Cobbetts, Pound Cake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream

Grilled Turkey Burger, Spinach Pie Casserole, Corn on the Cob, Roasted Vegetable Melange, Pound Cake

Sudoku

the brown daily herald Friday, December 7, 2012

and universities, who convene twice a year, she said.

Carroll said organizations like NAICU, the Association of American Universities and the Association of American Medical Colleges are not strictly lobbying organizations — only a portion of the dues paid to the organizations go to lobbying.

“In 2011, the percentage of our association dues that was used for those associations’ lobbying activities totaled $7,358,” Carroll wrote in an email to The Herald. “This is 2.5 to 13 percent of our total dues, depending on the organization.”

Legislation regarding teacher preparedness and accreditation account for some of NAICU’s lobbying focus this year, Giesecke said.

She added that NAICU lobbies on “behalf of the entire sector, not just individual schools.” It represents the interests of a diverse group of independent colleges, including Ivy League schools and small Catholic colleges in Texas, she said.

Despite this diversity of NAICU membership, they all tend to prioritize the same things, particularly financial aid, she said.

/ / Poll page 1

Crossword

(applicants) going to further the academic discourse,” a question “that’s completely separate from what race are you or what gender are you.”

Justin Braga ’16, a member of the Brown Republicans, agreed. “Brown should be trying to have the best professors,” he said. He added that this view does not neglect diversity, because “in the process, we’ll end up having a diverse staff.”

Andrew Powers ’15 said he supports the use of race in student admission decisions, noting that “if (a student has) achieved the same things as someone whose had more resources available, that should be taken into account,” while for professors, race is “not as important at that age.” Powers said if he saw evidence that a diverse faculty improved the effectiveness of an education, he would consider re-evaluating his opinion.

Lydia Bennett GS said a good education presupposes a diverse faculty.

She said a diverse faculty allows the student body to “get a more accurate picture of the way the world looks.”

“People bring understandings of the world based on how they move around in the world,” Bennett added.

Major universities must be conscious that the professors they hire shape discourse — a power that

Greg Jordan-Detamore / Herald

The University ranks second to last, ahead of only Dartmouth, in congressional lobbying expenses through the third quarter of 2012.

“Large and small, the principles are still the same,” Giesecke said.

“Brown agrees for that the same ways the nuns agree to that.”

But the University can contribute its specific experiences, “such as the value of particular research when advocating for NIH or National Science Foundation funding,” to bolster AAU and NAICU advocacy, Carroll wrote.

Under the Obama administration, independent colleges and universities have had to struggle to get federal funding, Giesecke said.

“It’s an uphill battle — community colleges are kind of the darling of the administration right now,” Giesecke said. “They don’t realize small private colleges serve similar groups of people.”

comes with as many risks as it does privileges, Bennett said.

“These are people who are creating knowledge about the world,” Bennett said. “When one group creates most of the history, there are a lot of groups that get left out.”

least and seniors the most. Fewer than 30 percent of first-years supported the University’s policy, compared to 35 percent of both sophomore and juniors and 42 percent of seniors.

Mayo said he thought the age difference in support for the policy represented a generational shift. He said these first-years are seeing a world where race no longer serves as a detriment because they have grown up in class next to minority students.

Bennett offered a different reason for the varying beliefs among the classes — that students who have been at Brown longer appreciate the benefits of a diverse faculty more, while first-years have not yet begun to understand how lucky they are.

Students who receive financial aid also support the policy more than their peers who do not receive aid.

Students who do not play a varsity sport support the use of race more often than their athlete peers.

Demographics Race played an important role in determining students’ opinions on the use of race in faculty hiring. While white students were no more or less likely than their peers to support the policy, 70 percent of black students said they agreed with the University’s decision to consider race — compared to 30 percent among the non-black population. Hispanic students also favored the use of race to a greater degree than the rest of the student body, with a near-majority supporting the policy. Asian students represent the only demographic that support the consideration of race in faculty hiring decisions to a lesser degree than the school as a whole — 18 percent said they agreed with the policy.

Students said they attributed the differences based on race to each group’s perceived benefit from the policy.

The percentage of students who support the consideration of race increased with every grade year, with first-years supporting the policy the

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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 5.7 percent for first-years, 5.5 percent for sophomores, 5.9 percent for juniors, 6.4 percent for seniors, 4.3 percent for students receiving financial aid, 4 percent for students not receiving financial aid, 9 percent for varsity athletes and 3.1 percent for non-athletes.

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

campus news 3

the brown daily herald Friday, December 7, 2012

A president’s legacy: The University under Ray Heffner May 20, 1969 University officially becomes affiliated with five partner hospitals

Dec. 5, 1968 Black student walk-out Jan. 30, 1968 Viet Cong launches Tet Offensive in Vietnam War

Oct. 15, 1966 Ray Heffner inaugurated as 13th president of Brown University

May 8, 1969 New Curriculum approved

Oct. 12, 1968 Graduate Center dedicated

/ / Heffner page 1 When Heffner resigned in 1969, two days after the faculty voted to approve the New Curriculum, Heffner said, “I have simply reached the conclusion that I do not enjoy being a university president and do not feel that in the long run I can make my most effective contribution to higher education in that role.”

Heffner arrived at Brown in the fall of 1966, replacing Barnaby Keeney, who resigned after leading the University for 11 years. Heffner earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale and then began teaching English at Indiana University in 1954, according to a University press release.

He eventually became vice president and dean of faculties at Indiana University, as well as provost at the University of Iowa, before coming to Brown.

Heffner’s tenure occurred during the most dramatic few years in the University’s history. Under his leadership, the University increased its commitment to diversify the student body’s racial composition, adopted a student proposal to end the presence of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps on campus and approved the New Curriculum that still defines its distinct academic character. Heffner also encouraged the development of what is now the Alpert Medical School.

Protesting for change During Heffner’s time in office, students at college campuses across the country staged protests against the Vietnam War. Miller said all male students had registered for the draft, and students knew that if they chose to take a semester off, they would be drafted.

Students at Brown protested to prevent the Central Intelligence Agency from recruiting on campus.

When the campus’ two ROTC chapters practiced in Meehan Auditorium, students who opposed the war would often show up to drills with picket signs, Miller said.

Kertzer said though Heffner responded to the events around him, “he certainly didn’t play any leadership role.”

When he attended Brown, Kertzer was one of two students appointed by the student government to the faculty committee on the future of ROTC. The committee was chaired by Lyman Kirkpatrick, a former professor of political science who had served as the executive director of the CIA. Though Kirkpatrick recommended

April 18, 1969 Faculty vote to phase out Reserve Officers’ Training Corps

continuing the campus ROTC program, Kertzer wrote a report that recommended removing ROTC from campus, he said.

After reviewing both reports, the faculty voted to approve Kertzer’s proposal. An ad hoc committee established to advise the president on ROTC matters also came to a similar conclusion, The Herald reported at the time. Heffner accepted the proposal of the committee and the faculty members and ROTC was phased out over a four-year period.

In 1969, Heffner told The Herald, “We have no desire to freeze a program that might be improved.

There must be some way in which the desires of the faculty and the military can be met at Brown.”

Heffner’s tenure was also marked by student pressure to increase the number of black students enrolled at the University.

There was a total of four black male students in the 1970 graduating class, Miller said.

One year before his resignation, Heffner agreed with the University’s African-American Society about the importance of recruiting more black students, The Herald reported in 1969. But he remained inactive for seven months, which prompted black students to stage a walk-off, during which they left campus for several days and slept at a church downtown.

In the year following the walk-off, the admission office did intensify its commitment to enroll black students, but Heffner “didn’t really last long enough to fully deal with the black student issues,” Kertzer said.

A new curriculum Many university presidents in the late 1960s faced similar challenges, as concerns about the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement swept the nation. But Heffner was also called upon to lead the University as students began to demand a complete overhaul of Brown’s traditional curriculum.

During the 1968-69 academic year, Ira Magaziner ’69 began to lobby the faculty to win approval for a new curriculum that he and Elliot Maxwell ’68 had been designing since the fall of 1966, Miller said.

Magaziner and Maxwell wanted to implement a curriculum that would make “the student be the center of the educational experience,” they wrote in a Herald guest column last year.

In the spring of 1968, Magaziner and Maxwell formed a group to focus on curricular reform, which 80 students and 15 professors joined,

Four faculty members named science fellows

By Brittany Nieves Staff Writer

May 9, 1969 Heffner resigns

The Herald reported in 2009.

Upon seeing the demand for evaluation of the curriculum, Heffner created a committee to formally recommend curricular changes to the faculty.

Many aspects of their curricular plan, which included the option to take all courses on a Satisfactory/No Credit basis with no formal distribution requirements, were approved by the faculty on May 7, 1969 after a seven-hour meeting, The Herald reported at the time. Five hundred students rallied on the Main Green in support of the report.

Though Heffner presided over these debates, he never voiced strong approval or disapproval of the curricular changes. His resignation came directly after the faculty adopted the New Curriculum, but Heffner said the timing was coincidental.

In 1969, The Herald noted Heffner’s commitment to establishing committees for all controversial issues, including curricular reform.

“Dr. Heffner’s attraction to the committee system of dealing with problems is part of his general concern for hearing all sides of an issue,” The Herald reported.

Miller said unlike presidents like Vartan Gregorian, Ruth Simmons and Christina Paxson, if Heffner had walked into a large class while he was president, he would not have inspired applause. But he left a legacy of relative peace in a turbulent era.

“We avoided the violent clashes that occurred at other places,” Miller said. “We avoided the very sharp and prolonged hostility — in part, that’s because Heffner was so accommodating to student concerns.”

Four faculty members were selected as 2012 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science last month. Provost Mark Schlissel P’15, Professor of Medical Science Julie Kauer, Professor of Computer Science Roberto Tamassia and writerin-residence Cornelia Dean ’69 will be recognized along with 697 other new fellows at the AAAS annual meeting in Boston this upcoming February.

Over the years, 45 members of the Brown community have been named fellows, according to Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations.

“I’ve been a member for many, many years,” Schlissel said, adding that members have not necessarily been nominated for fellowships.

“Each year, they pick out a small subset of their membership to recognize for career-long contributions to science, and that’s why I was honored.

I was very flattered.”

Schlissel is being awarded for his work in lymphocyte development.

“I have been running a research lab studying the developmental biology of the immune system for over 20 years,” Schlissel said. “I’ve trained over 20 PhD students who have gotten their degrees working on these projects and collaborations with me.”

Kauer received the AAAS fellowship in recognition of her contributions to neurophysiology. She said she began her work 25 years ago, fascinated by how the brain stores information. In the last 15 years, Kauer said her work has shifted, moving to synapses in the brain.

“My work, in the simplest form, is how synapses in the brain get stronger or weaker and persist that way,” Kauer said.

In particular, Kauer studies the reward and reinforcement part of the brain. There is strong evidence an animal that is given an addictive drug once experiences synapse changes the next day, she said. Her work examines the relationship of this synapse change to drug addiction.

Tamassia’s fellowship is in honor

of his contributions to algorithms and data structures in the computer science field, he said. Tamassia currently serves as the chair of the Department of Computer Science and is also the director of the Center for Geometric Computing.

“I was proud of the recognition,” Tamassia said. “Especially because the citation mentions my research work and my educational contributions as an author of textbooks.” According to Tamassia, his textbooks have been used by first-year courses in universities worldwide.

Prior to her work as a science writer and editor at the New York Times, Dean graduated from Brown and worked for the Providence Journal.

“I’ve written a couple of books and I’ve written articles for the newspaper and I’ve also, over the years, done a fair amount of teaching,” Dean said.

“I got the opportunity to come here as writer-in-residence, and I’m really enjoying it.”

The AAAS has awarded Dean for her work in journalism and teaching.

She said she will be presenting at the annual meeting in Boston and is an organizer for the meeting’s all-day program, “The Communication of Science to the Lay Public.” Dean has attended the annual meeting prior to having received the AAAS fellowship and is eager to hear this year’s research presentations.

“At the meeting, people from all different kinds of fields give presentations on their work,” Dean said. “And I always enjoy that meeting, because you can just go from room to room in a convention center and someone’s always talking about something interesting.”

The AAAS is a nonprofit organization that serves to advance the sciences on both a national and international level. Receiving the AAAS fellowship is a testament to one’s life’s work and research, many of this year’s honorees said.

“It means the respect of my peers,” Schlissel said. “And the fact that they’re recognizing me for my career-long set of accomplishments, which I take great pride in. It’s nice to be recognized.”

www.browndailyherald.com

4 campus news

the brown daily herald Friday, December 7, 2012

Q&A: Nigerian singer Nneka calls to ‘Vagabonds in Power’ The Herald sat down with Nigerian -German singer Nneka, who is visiting campus as part of this year’s Achebe Colloquium. The Colloquium, which will take place today and tomorrow, features panels and discussions centered on the theme “Governance, Security and Peace in Africa.” Nneka will perform 8:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts.

Herald: Are you excited about the concert?

Nneka: I am more excited about the conference, about what all these people want to talk about and how this will benefit us in Africa. This is so far away (from Africa). I want to see what impact this conference has on us and the students, the future leaders of tomorrow. What and where are we heading to? What is the intention? What do we get from all this talk? What are we really achieving from this? That’s my major concern.

Have you visited any other American universities?

I’ve performed at Berklee (College of Music) twice. It’s always very interesting and challenging. They all study music, and I’m like, ‘I never studied music!’ I learned guitar myself — I’m very not professional. A lot of eyes on you, watching you. But I guess that’s my head. If you’re too

self-conscious, things don’t work out.

Do you have a set ready for the concert?

It’s just me and the guitar. I still have to see. I’ll go with the flow.

Can you talk a little about your sound?

I think it’s very versatile. It’s a blend of African music influence and Western contemporary sound. It’s music with a conscious background — I merge different elements from different cultures into my music. I use my music as a platform to raise awareness on critical social issues.

Your second album, titled “No Longer At Ease,” is the name of a novel by Professor of Africana Studies Chinua Achebe. Can you talk about that connection?

I was at my sister’s house in Lagos. She (suggested) something like “Plight of the Delta” — I said that sounds too violent. I slept over one night, (and I thought of ) this title “No Longer at Ease.” I didn’t remember it was one of those books that I read in school.

The story of “No Longer at Ease” applies to my life story. Obi (the protagonist) is living abroad — supposed to study medicine. But he moves back to Nigeria, trying to fight against corruption. In the end of the day, he ends up not being able

to fight corruption without being corrupt himself.

This is like my own personal story. I tasted the apple of Eden — the European world, knowledge. I wouldn’t consider myself completely corrupt, but I have to be a little corrupt to understand what’s going on.

Every Nigerian has some element of corruption in him or herself. Without corruption, you cannot survive.

Coming back to Chinua Achebe’s works, it’s very rebellious. Rebellious in a positive way, and I think I am able to be the voice of the many who do not have the courage to speak out their minds or the opportunity to speak out their minds. We are taught to believe that respect is fear. Or we are taught that fear is respect. We have to live in fear to respect the system — we’re stuck. That’s exactly why we’re breaking through. That’s why I’m no longer at ease. Clearly, I’ve never been at ease. I hope the next album will be a bit lighter.

And you currently live in Lagos?

Most of the time I’m on the road, but that’s my base.

You said that you speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

I speak for those without power to speak out their minds.

They say (Nigeria is a) democracy, but you don’t really have that freedom to practice democracy. As

soon as you open your mouth, you speak your truth, there will always be turmoil. People who have spoken the truth — they’ve been hanged, like (Nigerian writer) Ken Saro-Wiwa.

There is always this trouble you get when you speak the truth — even on stage, you get harassed.

Can you speak about your own experiences with this kind of turmoil?

I’ve had my own personal problem with authorities. I was in Port Harcourt in Rivers State, a port town in the Niger Delta. I was there for a concert. They called it the “Niger Delta Peace Concert.” They had invited international and local artists to come and perform where there had been a lot of agitation and violence due to oil to calm things down. So I was there to go out with all the international acts. And I had the impression that no one was talking about the problem that we have. I wanted to make my set a different one. I, as a Nigerian, am able to connect with the audience, evoke them to understand what this whole concept and concert is about.

I have a song called V.I.P. — Vagabond in Power — inspired by Fela. I explained the intention of the song (to the audience), which was about the state of the Delta. The song could only be possible if the audience would interact with me.

I would respond in between saying “they are liars,” “we are liars,” “we have to change.” It was a call and response. It invoked a very heavy vibe on set — over 15,000 people singing along.

Then the authorities came on stage to arrest us. They had already arrested my manager in the back. They took the sticks from the drummer. They started on the guitar player, but I didn’t know what was happening. I saw the way the crowd was reacting (and I thought), “What’s going on?” I realized when I looked at the big screen.

We had to flee. It is not as funny as it sounds now.

Do you think the political quality of your music was influenced by your childhood in Nigeria?

I grew up in Warri — the oil city of the Delta. I was more concerned about my own problems. That’s how most of the Nigerians are. It was when I stepped out of Nigeria that I realized how important Nigeria was to me and how important I was to Nigeria. In Europe, I read, I see. I experience racism for the first time. It is when I traveled (that) I became more concerned. I was proud to speak English with an African accent. Proud to leave my hair, not have to stretch it. Not have to bleach my skin to be whiter than I am already.

Traveling really, really, really educates you. That’s when I had that urge to go back home and use my music as a means to educate myself and my fellow Africans. That’s when I decided to move back to Nigeria, five or six years ago.

Did you start your career with a political message?

I’ve always had a tendency — maybe it is because of the name I have. They say your name is your destiny. I could never be that easy.

I don’t feel like singing “love me, love me, baby, baby” would bring us anywhere. I came across people who enlightened me, fellow artists. (I was also influenced by) what I studied — archaeology and social anthropology.

(There is such a) Eurocentric way of analyzing history. It was hard as somebody who was born in Africa.

It’s good cause it educated me, too.

I was having discussions with fellow students. I met a lot of crazy activists. Some who were in exile.

Some of them were just too theoretical. Some just go crazy reading books — are you still living in reality or are you living in the book alone?

You have one love to your knowledge, one love to your references and quotations and all of that, but hey!

This is life! This is now!

You said you will always be political, but you also mentioned you want your next album to be lighter?

(Laughs) As in the title. At least let the title be lighter! Even if the content is heavy. Let’s camouflage the heaviness. Maybe it will be easier to embrace the devil, make the devil fall in love with you. If he hears the heavy song he doesn’t want to dance with you. So we lie, we lie to the devil.

Do you think Nigeria has made political or social gains in the recent years?

It’s not all negativity. We are understanding our own individual responsibility. Participating in elections, even if (with) the candidates that we have, we can’t really tell anything about them. (People) know how important it is to raise your voice. A lot of Nigerians in the diaspora are coming back home to invest their experiences, their knowledge — building institutions.

I’m glad I moved back. There was a while where I felt that there was a giant dark cloud over the continent of Africa. We have better roads now.

Electricity is still not very stable, (but it is) becoming stable.

I am not a professional analyst. I don’t like to be involved in politics. If people see you at a conference with the governor, they say he is financing your career. I want to make clear — everything that is happening here is out of love, passion, devotion. I’m not getting paid to be here.

What do you think Brown has to offer in terms of this conference?

I like the fact that they’re opening the door for a random artist like me, (so I) have a chance to share my music, my message. Combining the dry theory of academics with music is a good way to transfer knowledge to students. It’s a good way for them to be able to process information in a less rational way. It’s easier to digest.

I like that.

— Hannah Kerman

@the_herald

campus news 5

the brown daily herald Friday, December 7, 2012

Journalist recounts 30 Slavery and Justice Center finds footing years in Saudi Arabia

By Elizabeth Koh

Senior Staff Writer

By Will Fesperman Contributing Writer

Journalist Karen Elliott House spoke last night about her new book, “On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines — and Future,” in a lecture sponsored by the Watson Institute for International Studies and the Middle East studies department.

House, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former publisher of the Wall Street Journal, has spent 30 years covering Saudi Arabia. She filled her lecture with stories about her experiences in the country, recounting how one Saudi host welcomed her. One of the wives of the host family, knowing that House was from Texas, showed the writer a YouTube video of a Texan man who had converted to Islam.

House portrayed Saudi Arabia as an intensely religious nation where “there are rules for everything, from women’s menstruation to waging war,” she said in the lecture.

House said in the lecture that Saudi Arabia’s monarchy, the Al Saud family, faces an uncertain future. The religious establishment reinforces the monarchy, but can also pose an obstacle for King Abdullah, she said.

When he opened the King Abdullah University for Science and Technol-

ogy, he faced opposition from religious authorities for the University’s policy of admitting women.

House said there is political and religious discontent among some Saudis, particularly the youth, who make up over 60 percent of the country’s population. “They don’t have a lot of gratitude for the royal family because they see the country as declining,” she said.

But most Saudis don’t want democracy, she said.

In the lively Q&A section following the address, Nancy Khalek, professor of religious studies, objected to House’s depiction of Islam in Saudi Arabia, saying that the culture allows for more “debauched behavior” than House had suggested. “The picture is more complicated and nuanced than that,” Khalek said.

Max Easton ’16 said House’s talk heightened his interest in the Middle East. He also praised the way House encouraged the audience to challenge her arguments during the Q&A section.

“She was very judicious, very fair,” he said.

Parts of House’s talk “seemed a little one-dimensional,” said Belle Cushing ’13. “Imagining her walking around Saudi Arabia with her thick Texas accent was great,” she added.

Since its creation this fall, the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice has planned multiple outreach events to begin in the spring. But the center, established to further the study of the transatlantic slave trade, is still developing a mission to guide it past its inaugural year.

“The first thing was to find a place,” said Anthony Bogues, director of the center. “The second thing was to find a staff, so we did all of that right up until October.”

The center has also set up an external board and contacted different campus organizations “to know what we should be talking about,” Bogues said, adding that they hope to have a long term plan by the end of the academic year.

The Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, formed under former president Ruth Simmons’ tenure, released a report in 2006 analyzing the University’s relationship with the slave trade and proposing recommendations to preserve this part of the University’s institutional history. The creation of the center was among those recommendations.

“Right now we’re finding ways to spark dialogue and make the center

accessible to the campus,” said Brian Kundinger ’14, a member of a student advisory council established this semester to further the center’s outreach efforts. Five students are actively involved in planning upcoming events for the center, which include an open house Dec. 11, a film festival set to take place in late February or March and campus lectures to be hosted later next semester.

The council is also considering hosting an arts and writing contest to engage the student body and holding teach-ins that will address ways the center can connect with campus and Providence organizations, he said.

These events are intended to “get our name out there and produce hype,” Kundinger added. But plans are still developing as the council “is still kind of in its nascent form,” he said. Kundinger highlighted the center’s dual interests in research and public education as contributing to the development of upcoming events.

“It’s very much trying to link Brown with the community,” he said.

Bogues stressed that part of the outreach was also “reconnecting” the findings of the 2006 report to the Brown community.

“There’s a new crop of students who have not been part of the initial conversations around the report,” Bogues said.

“I wouldn’t want to say that people don’t know about the report, (but) we’re at a particular stage in the process where it is advisable to reconnect.”

In its recommendations for a research center, the 2006 report included suggestions that the center sponsor fellowships for postgraduate students and scholars, provide opportunities for students to research and conduct internships, develop “public programming aimed at both the University and the wider community” and include “a significant educational outreach component … to help teachers integrate topics related to slavery and justice into their classrooms,” some of which the center has begun to address. The center currently has an American Studies graduate student working as a research fellow, and Kundinger expressed hope that the center would develop research opportunities for undergraduates in the next few years.

The center is “really a place where serious intellectual and worldly discussions can take place,” Bogues said, adding that they hope to build public outreach as well.

The center should also become a forum for discussion on a national and international level, he said, and its future remains open to growth. “All of that we have to craft as we go along,” he said.

Thanks for reading!

6 arts & culture

the brown daily herald Friday, December 7, 2012

‘Machinal’ takes on prejudice, institutions Trinity Rep play explores female reproductive system

By Uday Shriram

contributing writer

A dark and compelling adaptation of one of the greatest Expressionist theater pieces of the 20th century, “Machinal” by Sophie Treadwell, opened Tuesday at the Trinity Repertory Company’s Pell Chafee Performance Center.

The play proffers varying themes of freedom, misogyny, adultery and the rat race, as well as commentary on family, particularly the motherdaughter relationship, the corporate system and the institution of marriage.

“For me, it was a story that I think a contemporary audience could identify with,” said director Aubrey Snowden MFA’13. “The play resonates with today’s financial climate within business and also what it means to be in this world, whether you’re a man or a woman,” Snowden said.

The audience enters the space to find the stage covered in what looks like a giant vertical painting frame with a white plastic sheet stretched across it. The action takes place on either side of the screen, with a lower “pit” area just in front of the audience.

The show opens with the ensemble in an office, with rhythmic movement patterns embellishing the riveting wordplay.

The premise might seem simplistic at first glance — a young woman

(Jaime Rosenstein MFA’13) is forced to marry her boss, George H. Jones, (Drew Ledbetter MFA ’13) while falling for a new man in her life (Alston Brown MFA’13). But once the story unfolds, it reveals a depth and clarity that can be attributed to fabulous, moment-to-moment acting and supreme direction.

Rosenstein shines as a versatile protagonist — while she begins the show with an ingenue-like appearance, her character takes on frightening emotions throughout the course of the show. The play takes us through the woman’s life, in which her tribulations reflect the universal rut, chauvinism and moral ambiguity that women face in the modern world.

“One of the bigger impetuses for me was Amanda Todd’s YouTube video,” Snowden said. The video is about a recent case of internet bullying and persecution, which led a teenager to take her own life.

Another highlight of the play is the prodigious performance by Amanda Dolan MFA’13, who plays Helen’s mother.

Characteristic of Trinity actors, the ensemble gives the audience their share of intense stares during monologues, surprising beats and changes in emotions, as well as a repertoire of character acting that makes each scene nuanced and thoughtprovoking.

Snowden’s interpretation adheres

to the play’s early 20th-century setting with interesting costume choices making the context easier to understand.

The set is relatively minimalist, but the sheer number of combinations that the few props are used for is laudable. The same couple of plain benches are transformed into couches, hotel rooms, tables, a speakeasy, a hospital room, a courtroom and much more in surprisingly lively scene changes that are sometimes musical.

Designed by Daniel Baker of “Broken Chord,” Trinity’s sound design and music production group, the music through the entire play is germane — hammering and mechanical — with the robotic pulse being maintained for the entirety of the show. Interspersed through most of the dialogue, the music adds a special quality to the ensemble scenes.

The word “machinal” combines “machine” and “bacchanalia,” which is a reference to the Greco-Roman festivals of the bacchanalia, dedicated to the god of wine. The name itself initiates the string of metaphors and tropes that make the performance very exciting to watch. The play combines movement, music and straight drama with a superlative cast that excels under Snowden’s careful direction.

“Machinal” runs through Dec. 16 in the Pell Chafee Performance Center at Trinity Rep.

By Andrew smyth arts & Culture Staff writer

Evolutionary biology and contemporary theater are not obvious bedfellows. Even for life science enthusiasts, the idea that two women should spend the entirety of a two-act play discussing the intricacies of the female reproductive system is, to say the least, unexpected. But it works in “The How and the Why,” the Trinity Repertory Company’s latest production.

The new play by Sara Treem seamlessly blends the intellectual and the emotional for a fast, witty and richly textured piece of theater. The work does for reproductive biology and human evolution what David Auburn’s “Proof ” did for mathematics, approaching academia with a liveliness and intensity that allows the actors to explore much larger meanings.

Trinity’s production of the new play, directed by Shana Gozansky MFA’12, is both challenging and thoughtprovoking.

The play is essentially an extended dialogue between two scientists whose theories and personalities collide in unexpected and revealing ways. Zelda Kahn (Anne Scurria) is a tenured professor and a legend in her field, and Rachel Hardeman (Barrie Kreinik MFA’13) is a young graduate student with a radical hypothesis and a tenacious personality.

They have each come up with a theory about the female role in evolution that shakes the scientific community. Zelda’s prize winning thesis, the so-called “Grandmother Hypothesis,” proposes that post-menopausal women ensured the survival of the human race by gathering food for their pregnant daughters and their families. Rachel’s theory suggests that menstruation evolved as a mechanism to protect against the toxicity of sperm and the viruses and bacteria they bring along for the ride. Treem spares no jargon, and the audience is expected to keep up.

“We wanted to make sure that the academic content did something personally for these two women, that it was working on them emotionally and not simply lecturing the audience about their ideas,” Gozansky said.

As the two characters volley ideas back and forth, they comment on the thrill of discovery, the phasing out of old ideas with new interpretations and the competitive and sometimes combative nature of research science.

Their two-hour sparring session is both verbal Ping-Pong and an intimate tete-a-tete between two women whose relationship runs much deeper than that of a mentor and mentee. Treem’s dialogue is sharp

and rhythmic, helped along by precise execution on the part of Scurria and Kreinik. A few wry gems are instantly quotable: “Basically love is the Stockholm Syndrome gussied up,” quips Zelda at one point.

“I think if it were just a play about meeting one’s biological mother or just a play about two scientists with conflicting theories it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting and complex,” Kreinik said. “The academic and personal content … bump up against each other in a very electric way.”

The pedagogical relationship between Kreinik and Scurria goes beyond the stage. Both Kreinik and Gozansky were Scurria’s students in the Brown/Trinity MFA program. Having this shared vocabulary enriched the rehearsal process, the actors said.

“It was really fascinating and terrific because when we first came in, obviously the only relationship we had was teacher-student, and so we had to work through to get to the place where we both trusted that we were reacting as peers, that there was not any teaching happening,” Scurria said.

Set design by Tilly Grimes and lighting design by Driscoll Otto help to provide some welcome visual variety between acts. The show opens on a no-frills office space, sparsely decorated and illuminated with clinical, fluorescent overheads, like a petri dish in a laboratory — everything, even Zelda’s pantsuit, is a different shade of grey. At intermission, the crew slides the far wall backward to enlarge the space, transforming a cramped office into a colorful, but strangely empty, bar.

“We decided to keep the office small, too small for the enormity of the emotional event so that they had to fight for space,” Gozansky said. “In act two, we wanted to strand them in an expanse but keep them stuck at a table — a space that is too big for the intimacy they are working towards.”

Deprived of many set, costume and lighting changes, the audience focuses their attention on two actors twisting language and the exploration of human relationships.

“There’s nowhere to hide on stage.

We don’t get breaks. It’s basically one long conversation and then another long conversation, so once it gets going, it’s going,” Kreinik said.

The audience cannot help but go along with them. What begins as a conversation about science and the body telescopes into a provocative meditation on age and wisdom, men and women, love and loss.

“The How and the Why” runs through Dec. 30 in Trinity’s Sarah and Joseph Dowling Jr. Theater.

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campus news 7

the brown daily herald Friday, December 7, 2012

UCS increases budget Amnesty joins UN gender rights campaign for New Initatives Fund

By Kate Kiernan

Contributing Writer

By Gabrielle Dee Staff Writer

The Undergraduate Council of Students doubled the budget for its recently-created New Initiatives Fund to $1,000 this semester. UCS started the grant last semester to support newer Category I groups that have “feasible, interesting” plans, said UCS Treasurer Stacy Bartlett ’14.

“We’re looking for groups that will benefit the community as a whole,” Bartlett said. “Hopefully, there’s a group with a really cool initiation they haven’t found funding for.”

There is an online application and interview process to apply for the fund. UCS retained leftover funding from the Undergraduate Finance Board last year, and this surplus was added to the grant, Bartlett said.

Under normal procedure, only Category II and III groups are eligible for funding from the UFB. This fund provides a mechanism for new groups to receive funding.

“New groups don’t have a lot of resources. This initiatives fund fills

the hole to get something off the ground,” said Timothy Shiner, director of Student Activities and the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center.

Applicants range from service groups that need funding for projects and trips to groups with specific equipment needs for their productions, Bartlett said.

Fashion@Brown and CareFree Clinic split the grant last semester.

YSPaniola, a group started this semester in support of improving education in the Dominican Republic, is among the groups applying for the grant. The money would be put toward funding a service trip to the Dominican Republican, going not only towards homestay and work in the literacy center there, but also to supporting the center itself, said Victoria Adewale ’13, co-leader of YSPaniola.

“I don’t think any Brown student should be not allowed to go for financial reasons,” Adewale said.

UCS plans to continue offering the grant to new groups in the semesters to come, Bartlett said.

Evan Thomas / Herald

Musical Forum’s production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning“Next to Normal” touches on issues like mental disorders and familial relationships.

/ / Normal page 1 show you’d usually see on a college campus.”

“Next to Normal” deals with topics such as the blurry line between using drugs for treatment and using them to cover up a problem, self-identity crises and the complexity of motherdaughter relationships. It explores the image of the modern-day functional family, and it tackles grief and the question of when grief is acceptable.

It’s not all doom and gloom — there are witty and sarcastic moments peppered throughout the play that mock subjects like modern-day housewifery and the image of perfection — but for every moment of laughter, there is a moment when you’ll bite back tears.

“This play just hits you,” said director Zach Rufa ’14. “It continually pushes you as an audience member.”

The musical isn’t weighed down with an intricately designed set or complicated blocking. Its strength comes from the simple yet unsolvable problems that the Goodman family deals with every day.

“It’s not just an explosive show,” Kassie said. “It also makes people think afterwards, and think about issues that everyone can relate to on one level or another.”

Online tickets have all already been reserved, but half the tickets for each show are still available at the ticket booth of the Production Workshop Downspace starting an hour before each show. Shows run Dec. 7-10 at 8 p.m and Dec. 9 at 2 p.m.

Amnesty International at Brown is participating in the national 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign from Nov. 25 to Dec. 10 to end violence against women across the world.

Sponsored by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, the U.N. branch dedicated to women’s rights issues, the campaign started in 1991 and now has more than 4,000 organizations in over 170 countries participating, according to the website Say No to Violence Against Women.

Amnesty International at Brown is participating in this year’s campaign by writing letters to leaders that focus on the central issue of women’s rights and militarism, said Stephanie Williams ’12.5, the president and regional coordinator of Amnesty at Brown. In the past, Amnesty at Brown has written letters to international heads of state in countries where there is a strong military presence contributing to violence against women, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Indonesia and Egypt, Williams said.

This year’s theme is “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women,” marking the third year that 16 Days has focused particularly on the influence a nation’s military or police force has on issues of women’s rights. The campaign focuses on sexual violence perpetrated by soldiers, domestic violence

and the negative impact of gun distribution on the safety of female populations.

Amnesty at Brown is also focusing on legislation in the United States. The group has written letters to Congress in support of reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, passing the Arms Trade Treaty to regulate gun distribution and ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of Forms of Discrimination Against Women, an international bill put out by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Williams said.

The group has held events on campus to raise awareness about human rights issues. Amnesty held a screening last

October of “Into the Abyss,” a film by documentarian Werner Herzog about Michael Perry, an inmate on death row in Texas for a triple homicide. The film chronicles the story of the murder through interviews with the inmate, his family, the victims’ families and people in the criminal justice system days before Perry was executed.

This February, Amnesty will host Kathryn Bolkovac, the investigator who uncovered a scandal at the United Nations that was the subject of the 2010 thriller “The Whistleblower.” Amnesty will show the film, and Bolkovac will discuss her story and the issue of human trafficking.

C l a ss i c C a r o l s

Evan Thomas / Herald

The annual Latin Carol Celebration on Monday featured holiday-themed readings and musical entertainment in Latin, Greek and Sanksrit.

8 science & research

the brown daily herald Friday, December 7, 2012

Collection puts African history on display By isobel heck staff writer

Starting today, collections of African artwork arranged by an archaeology department class are on display in the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. Rebecca Engmann, a postdoctoral fellow at the Joukowsky Institute, instructed a class this fall entitled ARCH 1615: “Art/Artifact: The Art and Material Culture of Africa,” in which her four students explored perceptions about African history and collected pieces of artwork.

For the last two months, Michael Becker ’13, Camila Pacheco-Fores ’14 and Jessica Sawadogo ’14 have worked on developing their projects with help from Engmann and curators at the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

“The task of trying to cover the art of an entire continent is an incredibly difficult one,” Becker said. “Engmann did so with nuance of sophistication.”

The class aims to “examine African objects’ pivotal role in Africa, as well as Europe and the United States,” according to the course description.

Using knowledge learned in class, the students were responsible for developing a display of about 10 objects, writing a 300-word introduction text and 100-word blurbs about each object. Both Becker and Pacheco-Fores said it was difficult to explain objects with such complicated meanings to people with little background in the subject, especially in so few words.

Pacheco-Fores, a concentrator in

history of art and architecture, had no prior experience with this discipline.

Her display, entitled “Akua’ba Speaks,” features the fertility dolls of the Asante people of central and southern Ghana. Pacheco-Fores explained the importance of the stories these dolls hold. “There’s the story of how they got their names, the ideals of beauty they hoped is passed on to the child, the story of the carvers,” she said.

She explained that women attempting to conceive would care for these dolls as though they were real children and added that each doll has its own unique characteristics.

Pacheco-Fores also discussed how the role of these dolls has changed over time. Today, these dolls are manufactured in Ghana and exported to places such as Pier 1 Imports.

“It’s interesting how they come out of their original context and feed into the global context,” she said.

“I found out (during the process) that learning with objects is so much more meaningful than just writing a research paper about something I have never seen before,” PachecoFlores said.

Becker, an Africana studies concentrator, developed a display based on the role of Christian missionaries in Africa. His display, “Appropriating Christianity: Colonial Missionaries, Contested Syncretism and Christianity in the Kingdom of the Kongo” explores the role of Christianity in the Kongo, first introduced in the late 1400s by Portuguese traders. The introduction to his exhibit reads, “This exhibit takes a distinctive approach to

Kongolese Christianity, discussing the ways missionaries attempted to replace, disrupt and eradicate Kongolese religious practices, and the ways in which Kongolese people appropriated Christianity towards their own ends.”

His exhibit, which will go on display in January in the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, features objects entitled “Sculpture of Franciscan Priest or St. Francis,” “Sculpture of Praying Figure,” “Sculpture of Nun” and “Pedestal Figure of Virgin Mary.”

These and other pieces were Becker’s way of “trying to look at the ways Christ operated in the Kingdom of the Kongo,” he said.

The students said they tried to represent African art in their displays differently than it is usually presented.

“We asked question after question (in discussion) about how we should represent African material and culture,” Pacheco-Flores said.

During the semester, the students visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design.

“Time after time, we’ve seen how (African) culture has been marginalized,” Pacheco-Flores said. She added that African artwork is less represented at these museums than art from other cultures.

Becker and Pacheco-Flores both said the class helped them effectively tackle issues of misrepresentation of Africa. “The class was full of really robust discussion,” Becker said. “(Engmann) was interested in letting us guide where we wanted the class to go.”

tom sullivan / herald

Crunchbutton, a new website that allows students to order popular items from local restaurants and Josiah’s, launched last week.

Crunchbutton delivers spicies with and more

By Katie lamb Staff writer

A new food-ordering website called Crunchbutton launched at Brown last week, allowing students to order takeout or receive deliveries from their favorite local restaurants and Josiah’s.

Crunchbutton offers the most popular items from each of the restaurants it features, said Judd Rosenblatt, its co-founder and CEO. “People think they want to choose from a whole lot of options, but they don’t really. They want to see the top stuff,” he said.

Sean Glass, a Crunchbutton investor, said the website works well because it reduces the burden of choice.

“When you’re really hungry and you start wandering through restaurants and you can’t pick one, you return to a favorite you have,” Glass said, adding that Crunchbutton makes quick decisions easy.

By offering a restaurant’s top items, Crunchbutton helps businesses sell more of its most popular products, he said.

Students can pay with cash or credit at restaurants and can use their meal plans at Jo’s, Rosenblatt said. Crunchbutton also offers one-click ordering, where a user’s favorite items and payment and delivery information are saved on the site.

Crunchbutton’s business model depends on taking a cut of restaurants’ profits from website orders, not on charging a user fee, Rosenblatt said.

There is no additional cost for students, he said.

Rosenblatt said he started the website at Yale in order to allow students to order the Wenzel, a famous local sandwich. The website has sold over $60,000 worth of Wenzel sandwiches, Rosenblatt said, adding that the business has grown by 10 percent each week since its launch.

Rosenblatt attended the Sept. 27 open house for Providence startup accelerator Betaspring, The Herald previously reported. Since then, he has expanded Crunchbutton to include restaurants in Cambridge, Mass., New Haven, Washington D.C. and Provi-

campus news

dence, according to Crunchbutton. com.

Jarrett Key ’13 said he used his meal plan on Crunchbutton Monday night to order a spicy with from Josiah’s. He said the website was easy to use and added that he was able to be very specific about what he wanted on his sandwich.

“I think it’s really foolproof, to be honest,” he said. “I was really hungry and too tired to leave my room.” Key said he plans to use Crunchbutton again when he has rehearsal until late at night.

Participation in Crunchbutton is meant to be an easy experience on the restaurant side of the operation as well, Rosenblatt said, adding that he gives restaurants the option to receive orders through telephone calls, text messages, emails or faxes.

But Natalia Foussekis, manager of the Better Burger Company, said her restaurant found it difficult to accommodate Crunchbutton orders. Instead of working with Crunchbutton, she plans to make the restaurant website easier to use, she said.

Owners of other local restaurants, such as Golden Crust Pizza and Angkor, said Crunchbutton has been beneficial to their businesses.

“It offered us new opportunities to introduce ourselves to new customers and new students and also gave us a lot of a late-night business,” said Gokhan Vural, owner of Golden Crust Pizza, which delivers until 4 a.m. “Most people didn’t even know we were open that late,” he said.

Chutema Am, owner of the Cambodian restaurant Angkor, said he originally decided to put his restaurant on Crunchbutton because he wanted to help the startup succeed.

Crunchbutton is helping Am raise awareness of Angkor’s recently added delivery services, which have been profitable for the restaurant, he said, adding that Angkor does not advertise on its own.

“We have a good word of mouth, but Crunchbutton has been a huge addition to our popularity,” he said.

Crunchbutton has continued to grow as more restaurants find out about the website and ask to participate, Rosenblatt said.

city & state 9

the brown daily herald Friday, December 7, 2012

‘Green Can’ cuts on trash to save cash

By Steven Michael contributing writer

In the two months since Providence implemented a single-stream recycling system, the city’s recycling rate has climbed from 15 percent to over 20 percent, said Sheila Dormody, Providence director of sustainability. The “Big Green Can Just Got Greener” initiative makes it simpler for Providence residents to recycle and helps the cash-strapped city save money, Dormody added.

Under the new program, residents put all of their recyclables in lidded bins formerly used for trash, instead of sorting paper from plastic, glass and metals. Over the past weeks, smaller gray bins have been delivered to homes throughout the city, and two-thirds of the city has already switched to the program. The rollout of the initiative is expected to be completed by the end of this month, Dormody said.

Once the entire city transitions, and “everyone is up to speed,” Dormody said she expects Providence’s recycling rate to reach 25 percent.

Increased recycling means less trash is sent to landfills. Because Providence pays $32 per ton for trash to be hauled away, Dormody said she anticipates savings of $250,000 from reduced trash output. Savings will be reinvested in the recycling program or used for sustainable initiatives such

/ / NBA page 12 heroes Jason Terry and Brandon Bass. (I’ll wait for everyone to pick their jaws up off the floor.) The Jet was brought in partially to assume Ray “Judas” Allen’s role of three-point specialist as well as the offensive creator to come off the bench. (Seriously, screw you Ray.) While he is clearly still adept at doing all of those things, I think that third-stringer and resident international Leandro “Not a Pirate” Barbosa can easily replace him. In Barbosa’s limited minutes, he’s been capable of carrying the offense and finding the rim at ease, and while he’s not known for his defense, Terry is not significantly better. Assuming the full recovery of Bradley and Lee’s return to above-average play, Boston would have a dynamic starting backcourt of Rondo and Bradley with Barbosa and Lee coming off the bench.

The case for bye-bye Bass is even more straightforward. With KG moving to the four, Bass is immediately pushed out of the starting lineup. Sullinger has proven he is the paint presence off the bench and, as a rookie, has an incredibly high ceiling for further development. (We don’t haze, we only “educate.”) This leaves Bass with nowhere really to go, other than Phoenix or to go smoke herbs with Ricky Williams. At the very least, Boston can get Channing Frye, so he and KG can play rochambeau together after practice.

as composting, Dormody said. Last year, Providence earned $203,000 from selling recyclables to be reused in new products, she added.

“The city has had financial troubles as of late so the recycling program helps the city get on sustainable financial footing,” Dormody said.

While acknowledging that there have been “growing pains,” Dormody said the program’s implementation is proceeding smoothly. Providence residents are enthusiastic to take part in the recycling process, she added.

Brown students living off-campus also voiced support for the new system.

Joseph Elkinton ’13 said he prefers the new recycling program to the former one. “Previously, we had to put everything in the right boxes.

Now you just put everything in the recycling. It’s much easier.”

The larger bin also encourages more recycling, said Cory Abbe ’13.

In the past, “if we had a ton of recycling, people would put things in the trash,” she said. “Now there’s seemingly unlimited space.”

Providence’s increased recycling rate is in line with those in other cities that switched to single-stream, said Dawn King, visiting assistant professor of environmental studies.

King pointed to the new program as evidence that the city is taking recycling seriously. Academic studies suggest that along with single-stream,

a smaller trash bin and a larger recycling bin increases a city’s recycling practices, she said.

“If you recycle everything, you will have more things in the recycling than in the trash,” King said.

Benefits of the new system aside, there is a high initial cost in making the switch, King said. Single-stream recycling requires an investment in infrastructure to sort the glass, paper and plastic for future use.

When Providence announced its new recycling plans, the University investigated whether to follow suit, said Kai Morrell ’11, outreach coordinator at the department of facilities management. The University switched to single-stream in residence halls this year but maintained dual-stream recycling in all public buildings, she said.

The switch in the residence halls will help prepare students for living off-campus, Morrell said. But the University earns money solely from its cardboard stream, and a single-stream system leads to contamination of the paper products by liquid in bottles, she added. Contaminated paper products have a lower resale value.

Morrell added that the main value in recycling comes from savings in trash collection.

If Brown could work out a deal to use the city’s recycling infrastructure, it would be a viable option for the entire University to consider a switch to single-stream recycling, King said.

Or Jermaine O’Neal. (Just kidding!

Wanted to make sure everyone’s still paying attention.)

Across the country, there’s a similar situation brewing. Without Phoenix’s talented Dr. Frankenstein in the training room, Steve Nash has already lost a leg in Los Angeles, and you’ll never win a championship with Chris Duhon as your starting point guard.

Pau Gasol, once one of the most gifted offensive forwards in the NBA, has also been playing abysmally. He also just went down with tendinitis in both knees. Still, Pau is the Lakers’ strongest trade chip since Kobe and Dwight are untouchable, and no one is going to take the craziest player in the NBA since Dennis Rodman (RIP Ron Artest). But what front office is dumb enough to take a big man clearly past his prime with bad knees?

Enter Cleveland. (Boston would also be in this conversation, but in my world, the Boston and Los Angeles front offices don’t even have each other’s phone numbers.) Cleveland just drafted Dion Waiters, a severely underachieving bench player at Syracuse, fourth overall, leaving great talent and positional needs on the table.

(It may be possible that the Cleveland management is still living in 2009 with Lebron sitting in their locker room.)

Using that logic, the Lakers fill their most glaring needs by tricking the Cavaliers into unloading guards Jeremy Pargo and Daniel Gibson, two

players that have been stellar so far in their limited roles. To make the numbers work, they take back Luke Walton and his ridiculous contract so that he can be pathetic in his native California again.

I actually think this trade could happen, but for competitive balance, I really hope it doesn’t. So if Cleveland GM Chris Grant is reading, Lebron left you two years ago for a prettier, more tax-free city! (His talents were also on that train carrying jobs out of Cleveland.) Grow up, go buy an iPad, make sure Kyrie Irving gets lots of money. And if you can’t do that, do what everyone else does and get the hell out of Cleveland. (At least you’re not Detroit.)

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Food stamp apps on the rise in R.I.

By Emily Boney Staff writer

The number of citizens seeking food aid in November was the highest recorded in state history, according to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank’s “2012 Status Report on Hunger in Rhode Island” released last month. The report showed approximately 24 percent of Rhode Island households are recipients of federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program food stamp benefits, approximately an 8 percent rise from June, when the rate was 16.6 percent.

Donations to the Community Food Bank have also declined in recent years, predominantly due to rising food prices and the economic downturn, according to the report.

The report covers food aid efforts and organizations, highlighting successful programs such as healthy cooking courses for low-income individuals, subsidized summer meals for school children in high-risk neighborhoods and increased standards for public school meals.

Fred Sneesby, the communications officer at the Rhode Island Department of Human Services, attributed the increase in requests for food aid to the slow state and national economy, compounded by high unemployment.

Rhode Island’s 10.4 percent unemployment rate is the second-highest in the country, according to the October report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Because a household receives SNAP benefits based on its size and income, underemployment is also a factor that led to the increase in requests, Sneesby said.

Individuals who work for minimum wage in Rhode Island, especially those with a family to support, usually qualify for federal food aid, noted Hilary Silver, associate professor of sociology. Continuing to provide food aid for those who need it, even if they have jobs, removes the incentive to live off welfare instead of finding a job, she said.

The view that food stamps are a sign of failing economy is misguided, Silver said. The SNAP program, which is designed for the “poor and the near-

comics Join the Club | Simon Henriques

Cashew Apples | Will Ruehle

poor,” she said, brings federal money into the local economy by subsidizing food prices. Because people spend food subsidies right away, it’s an immediate economic stimulus, Silver said.

“I’d like to see everyone not be afraid to enroll in food programs,” she said, “because it helps put a floor under the working poor.”

The Community Food Bank is not the only effort to combat hunger in Rhode Island, though it is one of the largest, Silver said. Many nonprofits, church groups and businesses also help feed the hungry. But donations are not the solution, she said. “It’s a great tragedy that we have to have charity for something that should be a citizenship right.”

Recent changes to the DHS have also loosened the eligibility requirements for food aid, Sneesby said. For example, Rhode Island started using “broadbased categorical probability” in 2009, which calculates eligibility based on income instead of resources, according to a DHS report. This change is targeted “particularly at the underemployment or unemployed that have assets but no job,” Sneesby said, allowing more people to qualify for aid. “The rules used to be much stricter,” he said.

There are not necessarily more people who need aid, but there are more people being helped, he said, meaning the gap between the number of people eligible for aid and the number receiving it is shrinking. Roughly 80 percent of those who qualify for aid receive it, up from 60 percent a few years ago, Sneesby said.

But an influx of new recipients also means a greater workload for the DHS. “There have been continuous changes over the last few years, because as numbers increase, our staff has not,” Sneesby said. The office recently began allowing phone interviews instead of requiring face-to-face meetings, employees work more overtime hours — which allows applicants to interview outside of normal business hours — and the applications were simplified. Switching to online processing has also helped the office handle a greater volume of applications, Sneesby said.

10 diamonds & coal diamonds & coal

the brown daily herald Friday, December 7, 2012

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

A diamond to Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, who broke into an unexpected but well-received beatbox jam session at the Midyear Completion Celebration last Saturday. We think there’s an untapped market for your vocal percussion skills. Do you do bar mitzvahs, too?

Coal to Nigerian-German singer Nneka, who told The Herald, “I don’t feel like singing ‘love me, love me, baby, baby’ would bring us anywhere.”

But we’ve had such success using that line at the GCB. Coal to David Washington ’07 MD’11, who said of his participation in the concert last Friday featuring Med School students and faculty members, “Medicine is my profession, but music is my mistress.” Rumor has it Dean Bergeron feels the same way about university administration and beatboxing.

Cubic zirconia to the University for promoting local shopping. The only thing better than a sweater set from Ann Taylor is the experience of purchasing it at the largest carpeted mall in New England.

A diamond to Stephen Lassonde, deputy dean of the College and chair of the Committee on Academic Standing, who said of helping students who need academic support, “Now we also meet in places like the (Nelson) Fitness Center and Third World Center so that students can feel more comfortable about seeking help.” We’ve heard the J. Walter Wilson bathroom also provides a lovely meeting space.

Coal to author Pamela Lu, who said at a reading, “These days, it’s all just noise or silence, silence or noise.” Clearly she hasn’t spent enough time around Brown students — we believe in spectrums, not binaries.

A diamond to Ian Russell, curator for the David Winton Bell Gallery, who suggested students play with the new “Circle Dance” sculpture by decorating it with “woolly hats” during the winter. We’re sure that’s exactly what the artist intended: to create a central lost-and-found for campus winter wear.

Coal to Golden Crust Pizza, which receives “foody calls” until 4 a.m. — that’s way too late to be introducing yourselves to “new customers and new students,” no matter how good the business.

A crown of pressurized carbon to the brilliant, talented, beautiful women of the 123rd Editorial Board. We know you’ll make us proud next year.

Shine bright like a diamond.

Correc tion An article in Thursday’s Herald (“U. students rise to top at elevator pitch contest,” Dec. 6) incorrectly stated that 50 participating teams competed for cash prizes totaling $2,000. In fact, the cash prizes totaled $1,000. The Herald regrets the error.

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

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le t ter

U. needs to reaffirm leadership on climate change To the Editor:

In 2006, a group of Brown students came together to form emPOWER, a campaign to push the administration to adopt strong carbon emissions reductions and limit our climate impact. At the time, the dangers of global warming and the need for strong leadership on climate were well understood. We were proud of our school when the Simmons administration unveiled in early 2008 one of the most ambitious climate commitments among its peer institutions. We, the former leaders of emPOWER, urge the Paxson administration to renew that commitment by divesting from the coal industry.

Coal is the single largest source of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, and coal is destructive to human health and the environment at every stage of its life cycle.

These devastating impacts are evident in the ecological, social and economic wastelands that surround Appalachian mountaintop coal-removal sites, in the thousands of asthma-related hospitalizations linked to coal plant emissions and in the coastal cities and towns threatened by rising seas. Coal is dirty and antiquated, and it should be left in the ground.

For Brown to maintain investments in the coal industry

is antithetical to the spirit of progress and leadership that we love about our alma mater. Now is the time for Brown to be a leader on climate once again. We therefore urge President Christina Paxson and the Brown Corporation to move to divest our endowment from coal immediately.

Paige Kirstein ’12 Executive Director 2011-12 Ari Rubenstein ’11 Executive Director 2010-11 Ryan Chan ’10 Executive Director 2009-10 Julia Beamesderfer ’09 Leadership Committee 2007-09 Tess Hart ’09 Leadership Committee 2007-09 Kirsten Howard ’09 Leadership Committee 2007-09 Aden Van Noppen ’09 Founding Leadership Committee 2006-09 Zindzi McCormick ’09 Founding Leadership Committee 2006-09 Nathan Wyeth ’08 Founding Leadership Committee 2006-08

Please check thebdh.org/opinions for letters that we could not fit in print.

quote of the day

“I don’t feel like singing ‘love me, love me, baby baby’ would bring us anywhere.”

— Nneka, Nigerian singer

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See nneka on page 4. facebook.com/browndailyherald

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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.

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taking sides 11

the brown daily herald Friday, December 7, 2012

Should The Herald publish opinions? yes

no

matic. But just look back over your Brown experience and think, “What would life been like without opinions in The HerJared Moffat have ald?” If Brown students had never read Steven Chizen’s ’14 investigative piece about opinions editor the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, they might never have burst out of the My opponent must secretly be a genocidal Brown bubble (“RIPTA’s educational value,” tyrant bent on the destruction of human- Feb. 24). If we hadn’t published Garret Johnkind. There’s simply no other explanation. son’s ’14 endorsement of President Obama, Supporting the dismantling of The Herald’s he might have been a one-term president opinions section is like advocating for the (“Barack Obama for President,” Nov. 6). torture of infants or promoting cannibal- And if you had never read Oliver Hudson’s ism. ’14 argument about reinstituting the poll To deprive you, the good readers, of tax, you might not have broken your hand your daily mental sustenance would be an when you punched that hole in your wall unspeakable crime with devastating conse- (“Universal suffrage is immoral,” Nov. 13). quences for generations to come. Can you Reading the news keeps us up to date, imagine? If Brown students were denied the but reading the opinions columns is like brilliant prose and insightful wisdom of the having a finger on the pulse of the student opinions section, body. It’s a window surely a deep culinto Brown’s soul. You tural malaise would may find some of the take hold of campus opinions you read — life. In just a year’s Supporting the dismantling like this one — in poor time, our great Uniof The Herald’s opinions taste. But reading bad versity would bearguments sharpens come an unrecog- section is like advocating your mind. After you nizable wasteland, find the weakest point where not even the for the torture of infants or in the reasoning, you faintest scent of promoting cannibalism. can post the column hope and innovaon Facebook, shred tion would remain. it to pieces and show Only the luckiest your friends how smart students — if they transferred immediately you are. And, of course, when you read an afterwards — would manage to escape the opinion you already agree with, you get that grip of despondency that would ensue from warm and fuzzy feeling inside that says, “I the lack of mental stimulation. love Brown and all the smart Brown people Without opinions and the gleaming here that think like me.” Only a despicable smiles of the columnists placed next to misanthrope like my opponent would want them, The Herald would become a hungry to take that away from us. shadow of its former self. The paper would need to fill the empty void somehow — which would probably mean more sports Jared Moffat ’13 hopes that all 8,454 and more comic strips, or worse, Diamonds Brown students apply to be opinions and Coal every single day. I get chills in my columnists next semester. For an spine just thinking about it. application, email Okay, maybe I’m being a little melodraopinions@browndailyherald.com.

— hatred, remember, is the place from which all good opinions come. so I — as all opinions writers Lucas Husted do And — decided to slap together a vomitsoaked piece of garbage so that The Heropinions editor ald wouldn’t go without its article for the day. Was I happy about it? Of course not.

Why is it that at a school of 8,454, we find How could I be? Afterwards, I looked at the need to publish two opinions a day? myself in the mirror with a level of disHow many things happen here each day gust I reserve for people who fart audithat are worthy of critical thought and bly in crowded elevators. But if I wasn’t analysis? Not many. How many times going to do it, then some other schmuck have you ever lost your way and needed was. the tender guidance of The Herald’s opinLittle did I know that this particular ions page to lead you true? I hope never. article would became the most popular To gain some insight, let me walk you column on The Herald’s website for nine through the typical process of writing an months — people still know me as the opinion for The Herald, using myself as guy who hates technology. Sadder still is an example. that informative Herald articles based on I joined The cutting-edge research Herald’s staff with like “Poll: Single stua couple of good dents have sex, seek ideas in my pockrelationships” (Nov. et. We’re talking 12) or “Poll: MajorNew York TimesIf this entire newspaper is ity have no opinion caliber material on Paxson” (Nov. 6) about investment like MTV, then the opinions don’t even get a quarbanks, Spring ter of the page views Weekend, you section is like Jersey Shore. that the drunkenly name it. But then written opinions colI wrote a column umns do. called “Why I hate For the sake of smar tphones” humanity, let’s recti(March 19). Do I fy this wrong. If this actually hate smartphones? Not really. So entire newspaper is like MTV, then the why did I write this nonsense? opinions section is like “Jersey Shore.”

At the time, columns were due every You hate yourself for loving it and come other Saturday, so my typical turnaround back every day to get your fix, but — like would be between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. the MTV — The Herald would be a credible day of. Like all Brown students, on Satur- news source without it. days I’m usually so hungover from binge drinking that my fingers shake. On this particular day, I could feel the pulse in Lucas Husted ’13 hopes that none of my temples as I stumbled over to the the 8,454 Brown students apply to be computer to deal with reality. In between opinions columnists next bursts of leaning over the trash can and semester. So don’t email vomiting out my insides, I thought about opinions@browndailyherald.com for things that I really hated, besides myself an application.

Husted’s Rebuttal

Moffat’s Rebuttal

On second thought, I agree wholeheartedly with Jared. Brown would be a desolate nightmare without the beacon of hope that is the opinions section, but based on his points, I think the current situation is not tenable either. What we really need is for The Herald to get rid of all of its normal content and make the newspaper a larger and more interactive editorial rag.

Think of it: We could have six opinions a day and 60 staff opinions writers.

We could have a “Taking Sides” every day — this is, of course, the most entertaining segment we run, because they allow our columnists to argue about things that have always interested them so you can read them and feel like you really gained some new insight. We could integrate Facebook with the newspaper too, so your new insights could fill our hearts with joy — in real time, of course.

Because the opinions section is more than just a club. Its writers are handselected by the opinions editors themselves, and they are experts in the fields

of study upon which they write — just like Paul Krugman — which is why their opinions are worth getting worked up about.

Brown is so small that with more opinions writers — or geniuses, as I like to call them — writing even more often than they do now, we, as a community, could delve deeper into the minutiae of life here, like particle physicists discovering the Higgs boson. It seems clear that we haven’t yet learned to take advantage of the core curriculum. We haven’t yet learned that athletes are people, too. Most importantly, we haven’t yet learned that corporations are bad, especially the Brown one. These are things that we need more opinions about, to serve our part in humanity’s unending quest for truth.

Dutiful reader, I ask you: How could we have ever even dreamt about getting rid of the opinions section? It seems to me that without writers telling us each day what we should care about, our lives would be nothing but shameful lies.

On second thought, I agree wholeheartedly with Lucas. The opinions page is a disgraceful blemish in an otherwise venerable newspaper. On the average day, a full eighth of The Herald is dedicated to nothing but Brown students complaining about something and sparking unnecessary feuds — I can see why GQ called us the douchiest school.

Think of how many trees we’re killing just to print this nonsense. I’m surprised there’s not a protest on the Main Green about it. Seriously. Look at what I’m writing right now. It’s straight bullshit. I haven’t thought about this at all. I just know that it’s due in an hour, and I have to write it or else The Herald’s editor-in-chief will personally kick my ass.

My friends try to console me by pointing out that the opinions section serves an important purpose. They say that civil discourse is “good for democracy,” that we need a space to debate the important issues of our time. That sounds great until you look at what actually gets printed. As Lucas pointed out, seeing how the sausage is actu-

ally made gives one a different perspective.

Opinions editors like Lucas and myself are real victims of this. We’re trapped in a vicious cycle. We only want to publish the best, most well-thought-out columns, but our corporate masters don’t care about quality. Like Bill O’Reilly and Chris Matthews, the market has driven college newspapers like The Herald to breed a new generation of pundits addicted to stoking the flames of controversy and discord.

Every day I wake up, I look at the man I’ve become and weep. I came to Brown with such high aspirations, and now I’m just another corporate sellout working for the almighty dollar. The rest of The Herald continues to fight for journalistic integrity, while opinions editors Lucas, Garret Johnson ’14 and I shamelessly exploit the discord and petty differences in our student body.

That’s why I’ve decided to protest the opinions section and not continue on as an editor next semester. I hope that my action will inspire others to do the right thing and not write opinions.

daily herald sports friday the Brown

M. soccer

Friday, December 7, 2012

w. rugby

Undefeated squad seeks varsity status to aid budget

By Nikhil Parasher Sports Staff Writer

courtesy of T.J. Popolizio

T.J. Popolizio ‘12 traded his Brown uniform for a Hoosiers jersey. Popolizio will take the field in the NCAA semifinals tonight.

Former Bear, now Hoosier, stands two wins from title

By Alexandra Conway Sports Staff Writer

The men’s soccer team was eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Division I tournament, but Bruno fans will still have someone to cheer for this evening in the semifinal match between Indiana University and Creighton University. T.J. Popolizio ’12, who played three seasons with the Bears, is using his one remaining year of eligibility to play for the Hoosiers.

“T.J. was a real success story … he came in as a walk-on and worked his way up to a vital player on the team,” said Bears’ Head Coach Patrick Laughlin. “What sets him apart from others is that he is so competitive and willing to push himself so hard in everything he does, and that has allowed him to be so successful.”

Popolizio was a two-sport varsity athlete at Brown, a varsity wrestler for four seasons and a forward on the soccer team for three seasons. In a triumphant end to his Bruno career, Popolizio was Bruno’s leading scorer last season, notching eight goals and three assists.

Since he still had one year of eligibility after graduation, his competitiveness and athleticism attracted prospective coaches. Todd Yeagley, the Indiana head coach, was immediately interested, according to Laughlin, and a new door opened for Popolizio.

“He is an excellent example of what we strive for in Brown men’s soccer — to work hard toward your goals and earn great new opportunities,” Laughlin said. “T.J. worked extremely hard to get to that level.”

“Brown was an unbelievable experience for me,” Popolizio said. “It was four of the most special years ever. Those were my best friends and I really miss them. It would be hard to compare my one year here to that.

Getting to play an extra year is just icing on the cake.”

Though it has been a rewarding experience to play with Indiana, the Hoosiers have had a “really up-anddown season,” according to Popolizio.

“We started off doing really well but lost a couple close games in the beginning of the season,” he said. “Into postseason play, we were really confident, but we got to a point that we started to question what we could do after coming up to the tournament with a stretch when we only won one game.”

Going into the tournament, the Hoosiers held the 16th seed, earning a first-round bye. Indiana defeated Xavier University 4-1 in the second round to move to the Sweet Sixteen for a battle against the top seed, the University of Notre Dame. Popolizio said the Hoosiers “dominated” the Irish, defeating them 2-1, and that win gave the team huge confidence for the remainder of the tournament.

Indiana went on to upset the No. 9 University of North Carolina squad 1-0 on the road. If Indiana tops No. 12 seed Creighton, they will advance to the national championship match against either No. 3 Georgetown or No. 2 Maryland.

“We were able to get to the Final Four by being hot at the right time,” Popolizio said. “But at the same time … part of me wishes I could’ve done it with the guys who I’ve been through so much with at Brown.”

Popolizio expressed mixed feelings about a hypothetical Bruno versus Indiana matchup. He said that he found himself constantly checking the Bears’ scores and rooting for them all season long.

“I wanted those guys to get as far as possible,” Popolizio said. “It was tough to see them go out, but definitely a part of me that was happy we didn’t have to play them, because I know how good and tough of a team they are. It would’ve been emotional being on the same field playing against them.”

Popolizio emphasized how important his four years at Brown were to him personally, both athletically and academically.

“Personally, this has been a great accomplishment, and I love the Indiana team,” Popolizio said. “But it was really my four years at Brown that opened this door.”

The women’s rugby squad, among the most successful teams on campus in recent years, has continued its campaign for varsity status this semester.

Women’s rugby has been a club sport at Brown for 35 years with stretches of great success. The team has advanced to the Final Four four times in the past five seasons and this fall, the Bears went undefeated in league play.

But since they do not have varsity standing, the team is responsible for raising roughly $80,000 each year for its budget. For more than a decade, the team has been fighting for varsity status, which would relieve that financial burden.

So far, their efforts have been unsuccessful — and Head Coach Kerri Heffernan says donors are getting tired.

“Donor fatigue is definitely an issue,” Heffernan said. “I feel it’s hard to explain to donors every year why we’re in the same predicament … Our winning record, the GPAs of the students, the amount of All-Americans we produce continues to grow and be a source of great pride. Our status doesn’t change at all at Brown.”

Until recently, none of the women’s rugby teams in the Ivy League were varsity. That changed in August when Harvard’s club team gained varsity status.

Heffernan said she hopes the change will provide a precedent for the Bears, but she said she wishes her team could have been the one to set the standard.

“I think what Harvard did was really bold,” Heffernan said. “I sure wish that Brown had done it first, but we’re all hoping that it provides an opportunity.”

Team members began meeting with University administrators in October this year. According to team president Lucy Fernandez ’14, who has been present at these meetings, administrators have cited budgetary concerns when they explain the difficulty in elevating Brown’s team to varsity status. Similar financial concerns led the University to consider cutting the wrestling, fencing and skiing teams in the fall of 2011.

“Brown does not have the funds to adequately cover the varsity programs it

has right now, so how can we possibly consider adding a team?” Fernandez wrote in an email to The Herald, summarizing an administrator’s viewpoint on the issue.

Heffernan said her team’s position “has gotten worse” since the University determined that the wrestling, fencing and skiing teams would not be cut.

Jessica Sawadogo ’14, one of the team’s social captains, has joined Fernandez at meetings with the administration this semester. She said that the lack of progress is frustrating for both the team and the administration.

“In general, when someone asks questions over and over again, with the same arguments, and you’re not seeing a result, I’m sure it’s frustrating for parties on both ends,” Sawadogo said.

Fernandez wrote that she finds hearing familiar arguments from the administration “frustrating.”

“We heard a lot of the same excuses, such as not enough locker spaces, not enough resources, not enough money,” Fernandez wrote, describing a meeting with new athletic director Jack Hayes. “(Hayes) is recycling the same arguments as the old (athletic director) did last year: we can’t be awarded varsity status without receiving all the resources that other varsity teams have. He also feels that more schools, particularly Ivies, need to elevate their club rugby teams to varsity before we can make such a change.”

Despite the challenges and frustration, some positives have resulted from the team’s efforts this semester. A meeting with Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Margaret Klawunn resulted in the team being granted access to the varsity weight room and to a trainer with rugby experience.

Despite these successes, Heffernan said she still feels there is an issue of fairness that has yet to be fully addressed.

“We are one of the oldest women’s teams at Brown,” Heffernan said.

“Women have demonstrated for 35 years an interest in playing a contact sport.

Rugby is the only contact sport offering for women. There’s a lot of contact sport offerings for men. A lot. There are none for women. So if women have to play a contact sport, they have to finance it themselves. I think that’s unfair.”

sw e e t s at i s fac t i o n

Sydney mondry / Herald

Students gathered last night to taste a variety of sweet treats at Candyland, an annual event hosted by Brown’s Special Events Committee.

Shaw ’13: Playing with the NBA

By Tom Shaw Sports Columnist

On Wednesday, I traveled to Boston to enjoy a full tilt between my beloved Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Typical of their play all year long, the Celtics jumped ahead at the start before slowly bleeding out until the Minnesota offense dried up late in the third quarter. The win became a blowout partially because Brandon Bass and Jason Terry caught on fire (like my wife’s top drawer, nothing but lace!) and Jared Sullinger played through the flu to contribute seven boards and two blocks. (Remember to get your shots and vitamins, kids.)

It was a satisfying win, but the Celtics are seriously underperforming their preseason expectations, even factoring in the expected absence of defensive wunderkind Avery “Hubert” Bradley (Watch “Best in Show.” Do it.) whose shoulders fell off at the end of last season. Kevin Love had a terrible shooting night and still managed to put up 19 and 9. (Imagine what he could do if he played with Uncle Drew.) I’m hoping that the team will follow last year’s pattern of emerging from hibernation by the All-Star break and then tearing through the regular season, but it’s never too early to toy with the trade machine.

If you’re a Celtics fan, you’ve heard this before: we need a center. The list of realistic trade targets at this point is not going to wow anyone, but there are some good big men that could be had for the right price. Phoenix’s Marcin Gortat has been talked about rabidly.

He’s only 28, is a borderline star and he knows how to rebound the ball, which coincidentally, is the Celtic’s biggest weakness. (I mean, rebounding is the first thing they teach to 5-year-olds.

Box out!) Adding Gortat would immediately bolster Boston’s frontcourt with a center that can protect the rim and fill up the paint on both sides of the ball, while also pushing Kevin Garnett back to his preferred power forward position.

But I’m going to disagree with the package most people would offer Phoenix. Most armchair GMs are looking to deal away newly-acquired Courtney Lee, due to a large drop-off in his offensive efficiency, as well as the much-maligned Jeff Green. But I think that Lee’s shooting percentage will pick up again, and his defense will keep him in green. Jeff Green, on the other hand, is the Truth’s only backup and, despite his bloated contract, he has quietly been putting up a lot of points for this team.

I’d rather offer up this past / / NBA page 9 Wednesday’s