October 9, 2013

Daily

Herald

THE BROWN

vol. cxlviii, no. 86

since 1891

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

Yellen ’67 to be nominated to Fed Chair post Lecturer If confirmed by the Senate, Yellen would be the first woman to head the Federal Reserve

By BRITTANY NIEVES SENIOR STAFF WRITER

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Prior to her position as vice chair of the Federal Reserve, Yellen was chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

President Obama will nominate Janet Yellen ’67, current vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, for the Federal Reserve Chair position today, the White House announced Tuesday.

If confirmed, Yellen would be the first woman to lead the bank in its 100year history. Ben Bernanke, current chairman of the Federal Reserve, will retire January 2014.

Yellen’s confirmation would also make her one of two Brown alums to

lead major economic institutions — Jim Yong Kim ’82 currently leads the World Bank.

Yellen’s confirmation process will be in front of a majority Democratic Senate. Barring a filibuster, she is expected to have enough support to be confirmed.

Prior to her position as vice chair, Yellen served as chairwoman of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers and as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She has also taught at universities including Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley.

“I noticed when she was appointed vice chair several years ago. I had looked her up to make sure she was the same person I went to school with,” » See YELLEN, page 4

Survey suggests employment on rise for recent grads The most popular employers include Google, the University and Morgan Stanley

By GABRIELLE DEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The number of students entering employment immediately after graduation increased from 56 percent in 2009 to 65 percent in 2012, according to a survey conducted by CareerLAB. Of the 1,321 members of the class of 2012 who responded to the survey, 24 percent alternatively pursued fulltime graduate or professional study immediately following graduation, 11 percent pursued “other endeavors”

including volunteering, fellowships and additional courses, and 36 graduates reported that they were still “seeking employment” as of March this year.

Data for the survey was collected between May 2012 and March 2013.

Medicine, law, and teaching and education were the three most popular professional degrees pursued by alums, while education, finance and banking, and science and research were the three most common post-employment industries.

The five most popular employers were Teach for America, Brown, Google, Morgan Stanley and Epic Systems.

CareerLAB Director Andrew Simmons said he assumed the spike in employment is a result of a better

economy.

Education might be the most popular sector due to the vast opportunities it offers, while the low number of students working in the government and public policy sector is due to the amount of specialization needed to go into these fields — students need to gain “frontline experience” first, Simmons said.

Simmons added that the survey might underestimate the numbers pursuing graduate and professional study as many students work for a few years before entering graduate school. The number of students entering medical school is also boosted by the students in the Program in Liberal Medical Education class, he said.

Clearer trends might be evident

once CareerLAB gathers data over a longer period of time, Simmons added, and if CareerLAB examines how alums have changed their career tracks 10 years after graduating.

CareerLAB also sorted its postgraduate data by concentration on its website and linked it to Focal Point, indicating the diversity of career opportunities that exist within each discipline, Simmons said.

“What alumni do is all over the place. This is consistent with the kind of place that Brown is,” he added.

Because students from the class of 2013 have not yet had enough time to solidify their plans after Brown, CareerLAB plans to release data indicating their post-employment paths in the » See EMPLOYMENT, page 3

elucidates Mars missions Grotzinger discussed previous rover missions and the possibility of life on the ‘Red Planet’

By EMMA JERZYK CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Mars may have once been a habitable place for life, said John Grotzinger, a project scientist for the Curiosity Rover and a professor of geology at the California Institute of Technology, in a lecture he delivered yesterday in nearly full MacMillan 117.

The rover Curiosity landed on Mars after missions by three previous rovers, Sojourner, which was launched in 1996, and Spirit and Opportunity, which were launched in 2003. Pathfinder served as a guinea pig for landing vehicles on Mars, and Spirit and Opportunity landed in search of water.

But Curiosity was launched to look more closely at the chemistry of Mars to see if the planet could support life, Grotzinger said.

Curiosity landed in the Gale Crater, which has a large mountain — Mount Sharp — in the middle of it. This mission marks the first in which landing in Gale Crater was possible. In previous missions, landing technology was not » See MARS, page 2

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

At forum, BCA outlines Spring Weekend act selection

By EMMA HARRIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

inside

Brown Concert Agency held its first of many open forums to inform the student body of the Spring Weekend planning process and solicit student opinions yesterday at 6 p.m. in Salomon 101.

“We want to reach out to the student body, and we want them to understand the process of the concert planning and how it works,” said Micah Greenberg ’14, booking chair BCA plans on holding more open forums, setting up a table on the College Green in the months leading up

to Spring Weekend and taking into account the preferences students express in the ongoing Undergraduate Council of Students poll, she said.

BCA’s primary purpose is to “provide students with the best acts possible,” said Cameron Johnson ’14, administrative chair. BCA reaches out to the student body for their foundation of information, he said.

The meeting consisted of a discussion of BCA’s timeline for the year, their selection of performers, ticketing issues and a question-and-answer session on what groups BCA can afford. About 14 students attended, including four non-BCA members.

Instead of having a Fall Concert, Greenberg said BCA requested a “super-sized budget” to make this year’s Spring Weekend “truly memorable.”

“We try to predict what will be popular in the spring,” Johnson said.

Last year, BCA was able to book Kendrick Lamar at an affordable price by acting early.

Within 24 hours of his album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” leaking in February, all BCA members listened to it online and contacted their middle agent to book him, Johnson said.

Due to budget constraints, artists such as Beyonce and Taylor Swift are out of reach. In his hit song “Started from the Bottom,” when Drake raps, “now I’m on the road, half a million for a show,” he’s not kidding, Johnson said.

But booking artists like Lorde is possible, Greenberg said.

“This year isn’t quite like the others,” Greenberg said. “It’s the 250th anniversary of Brown, and Spring Weekend is really the only event that brings the whole undergraduate body » See BCA, page 5

EMILY GILBERT / HERALD

BCA members said reaching out to their middle agent as soon as Kendrick Lamar’s album first leaked helped them book the artist. Herald file photo.

What stinks?

Mind on fire

Drone wars

Students report seeing a larger number of skunks on campus this year

Assistant professor explores the stories of the psychiatric patients she treats

Robyn Sundlee ’16 calls for more transparency and certainty in drone strikes

UNIVERSITY NEWS, 2

SCIENCE & RESEARCH, 5

COMMENTARY, 7

weather

BCA will have a larger budget than in years past for the U.’s 250th anniversary

t o d ay

tomorrow

64 / 48

66 / 52

2 university news calendar TODAY

OCTOBER 9

12:30 P.M.

TOMORROW

OCTOBER 10

12 P.M.

Lunchtime Meditation Sit

Perception Action Seminar Series

Manning Chapel 2 P.M.

Metcalf, Room 305 8 P.M.

Consent Day Fair

Concert of Modern Jazz

Main Green

Grant Recital Hall

Students report skunk sightings Administrators express little concern over a potential increase in the campus’ skunk population

By WING SZE HO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH Polynesian Chicken Wings, Organic Red Rice with Papaya and Pineapple, Vegetables in Honey and Ginger Sauce

Roasted Corn Chowder with Bacon, Vegan Six Bean Soup, Tacos, Vegan Roasted Veggie Burrito

DINNER Mediterranean Orzo, Quinoa with Kale and Olives, Vegan Quinoa Stuffed Portobello, Salmon with Provencale

Turkey Cutlet with Veloute Sauce, Vegan Paella, Roasted Corn Chowder with Bacon, Six Bean Soup

sudoku

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

Skunks have been frequently sighted by students around residence halls and campus eateries this year, but University administrators said they have not dealt with any skunk incidents.

Students said they have seen the animals on various campus quads and outside multiple buildings in recent weeks, and some expressed surprise at the seemingly high number of skunks on campus.

Isabella Amram ’17 said she saw three skunks in one night about two weeks ago near the Sharpe Refectory, in front of the Sciences Library and near the Gate.

Amram said she also saw a skunk under the arch covering the entrance

to Morriss Hall and Champlin Hall last Thursday evening. “It was really scared” and running away from onlookers, Amram said.

“There seems to be an increase in skunks and other small animals all over the state,” said Stephen Morin, director of the Office of Environmental Health and Safety. But staffers from the office have not responded to any reports from Brown community members about skunks because such reports fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Facilities Management, Morin added.

The Pembroke campus has been a hotspot for skunk sightings this semester, some students said. Asya Igmen ’17 said she saw a skunk on Pembroke Green three weeks ago and Katie Liu ’17 said she saw one outside the Gate a couple of weeks ago.

But skunks have also been prevalent on south campus, students said.

Marileni Benopoulou ’17 and Tamsin Rankine-Fourdraine ’17 said they saw a skunk outside Josiah’s last Thursday evening. None of the students

interviewed by The Herald said they were sprayed or attacked by the skunks.

Though students noted the increased presence of skunks on campus, administrators did not express concern about the animals.

“We are not aware of any situations involving skunks on campus; I have worked here over 20 years, and cannot recall any visits to Health Services due to skunk spraying or injury,” Health Services Associate Director Lynn Dupont wrote in an email to The Herald Monday. “A few times per year we have students who come in with a dog bite or cat scratch, but (that’s) the extent of it.”

Michelle Nuey, manager of the community relations and outreach bureau for the Department of Public Safety, wrote in an email to The Herald that DPS has not received any recent reports about skunks. Nuey wrote that she “could not speculate” about the locations of skunk sightings.

Facilities Management could not be reached for comment about the reported skunk sightings.

crossword

JUSTINA LEE / HERALD

During his lecture, John Grotzinger addressed the possibility of someday reaching the mountain that sits within Mars’ Gale Crater, an area that has been of interest for several of NASA’s past missions.

» MARS, from page 1 advanced enough to allow vehicles to land in a precise location, but NASA scientists made technological advances which enabled Curiosity to target a much smaller landing site.

The team chose this location because it provided interesting terrains for Curiosity to examine within a small radius. That way, if Curiosity was not fully functional after landing, there would still be interesting materials available for analysis. Because it is a crater with a mountain, Gale exhibits large differences in altitudes, exposing many different types of “geologies,” Grotzinger said, including clay, sand and dust. Curiosity’s landing site was also positioned near an area in which many “canals” converged, leaving behind exposed terrain, Grotzinger said.

Gale Crater has been an area of interest for several of NASA’s past

missions. “Maybe someday we’ll get up there,” Grotzinger said of the mountain.

Curiosity used two different tools for its chemical analyses, Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer and ChemCam. One of the Curiosity mission’s aims was to compare the data from APXS, which is “tried and true,” with data from ChemCam, which is a much newer technology. ChemCam uses a laser to drill into rock samples, creating plasma and passes the light from the plasma through a spectrometer, a device that determines the elements of a sample.

APXS refines a rock sample by finely sifting it and then passes it through another tool called CheMin, which provides a mineralogy analysis. It also passes it through a group of three instruments called Sample Analysis at Mars, which Grotzinger claims “is its own spacecraft.” SAM is composed of three instruments that determine the molecular components of atmospheric

samples, Grotzinger said.

The Curiosity team used these and other tools to analyze samples from the Rocknest sand shadow Deposit, a specific location within the Gale Crater. The team chose the Rocknest sand shadow Deposit because it provided local samples from the sand ­as well as global samples from the dust that settled there, which could have originated from anywhere on the planet.

From this data, the team was able to determine that, had there been a biosphere, Mars could have supported life, Grotzinger said.

“We really did find a quite habitable environment on Mars,” he added.

Audience members said they enjoyed the talk.

“He was very clear in every statement and he explained it very well,” said Margaret Lengerich MS’13. “I’m not familiar with these terms, but I could understand almost everything.”

www.browndailyherald.com

university news 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

A closer look at the class of 2012’s post-graduate plans Each year, CareerLAB surveys graduating seniors to find out their post-graduate plans. Presented here are the class of 2012’s survey responses.

Top employers and employment sectors The top employer was Teach for America, with other leading companies and organizations falling in the technology, education, finance, consulting and health sectors.

Education Finance and Banking

32

Brown University

15

Google, Inc.

13

15%

Morgan Stanley

12

15

Epic Systems

11

National Institutes of Health

11

AmeriCorps

10

Microsoft Corporation

10

Bain & Company

9

Citigroup

9

Massachusetts General Hospital

8

Goldman Sachs

7

Match Education

7

Boston Consulting Group

6

EF Education First

5

Federal Reserve Bank

5

Harvard University

5

9

Consulting 8

Technology 6

Sports and Entertainment Communications and Media

5

Health Care and Public Health

5

Arts and Arts Administration

4

Law and Legal Services

4

Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

4

Construction, Manufacturing and Retail

3

Community Activism and Organizing

3

Engineering

3

Grads hired

Teach for America

11

Science and Research

Employer

8% Government/public

1% Not reported

60% For-profit 31% Nonprofit

Other

2

Environment and Sustainability

2

McKinsey & Company

5

Government

2

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

5

TripAdvisor

5

Public Policy and Public Affairs

1

Top graduate and professional degrees

Evolving post-graduate plans

A total of 143 students reported attending professional schools and 170 reported attending graduate schools. (Note: Thirty of the students attending graduate schools did not report their degree type.)

From 2009 to 2012, the percentage of seniors reporting a post-graduate plan of employment increased, while the percentage saying they were pursuing graduate school, professional school or other endeavours decreased.

Degree

Students

Medicine (MD, MD/PhD, MD/MA)

84

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, PhD/MS)

66

Master of Science (MS)

53

Law (JD)

23

Master of Arts (MA)

20

Teaching and Education (MAT, M.Ed, Ed.M)

11

Fine Arts

7

Architecture and Landscape Architecture (MArch, LAN)

4

Business (MBA)

4

Public Health (MPH)

4

City and Regional Planning (MCRP)

1

Dentistry (DMD)

1

Ministry (MDiv)

1

Pharmacy (PharmD)

1

Master of Philosophy (MPhil)

1

Public Administration (MPA)

1

Public Policy (MPP)

1

65% employment 60% 56% 50 40 30 20

27%

24% graduate/professional school

17% 11% other endeavours

10 0

2009

2010

2011

2012 GREG JORDAN-DETAMORE / HERALD

» EMPLOYMENT, from page 1 spring, Simmons said.

From campus to career Marvin Li ’13, who studied chemical engineering, currently works for Epic, a company he said creates software for medical use.

Despite Epic’s attempts to create a college vibe in the workplace, “there’s less of a sense of unified community” outside Brown, Li said. “It’s harder to make friends.”

Li said his time at Brown, especially in his engineering classes, taught him to figure out concepts on his own. He is able to apply this to software generation because he is constantly “doing something that no one knows how to do,” he added.

“I think that there’s nothing to totally prepare you for your first year of teaching,” said Kyra Mungia, a Teach for America corps member. She added that she worked closely with Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron to prepare for her interviews.

Alejandra Lindstrom Peralta ’12,

who concentrated in visual arts, went to New Mexico to become a beekeeper, moved to Montana to become a goat herder and currently works at an oyster farm in Providence, she said.

“My time working with animals and being in these different places has basically just given me materials for artwork that I’m currently working on,” Peralta said. She hopes to apply to an MFA program at a graduate school next year, she said.

Lei Ma ’13 said that Brown Taekwondo, rather than her academic experiences, wielded the most influence over her interests — and this has carried over to her work at the University of Texas at Austin’s evolutionary biology ecolab.

In Taekwondo, students learn to “just do one thing and try not to think of anything else,” Ma said. “That applies to everything else you’re doing.”

Ma said she found this applicable to her studies at Brown, as well as her current job as a lab technician.

Hitting the books (again) Kimberly Wachtler ’13, who double concentrated in anthropology and

gender and sexuality studies, currently attends Yale Law School. Wachtler said a different kind of diversity exists in grad school. Wachtler’s colleagues at Yale vary in age, experience and route to law school, she said.

Watchler chose to go to grad school because of the multitude of opportunities that law school opens up, as well as the enjoyment she derives from learning, she said.

“It’s not that it takes a certain type of person (to go straight into to grad school), but I think that it’s a choice,” she said.

Wachtler said Brown prepared her for graduate studies by teaching her to analyze course material well and apply it through her own perspective.

“I think that regardless of what you study at Brown, you learn how to think,” she said.

PLME students Julius Ho ’12 and Jovian Yu ’12, who currently attend Alpert Medical school, said the biggest difference between their undergraduate and graduate studies at Brown is that the schedule for graduate school is more structured.

“Everybody takes the same classes,” Ho said. “There’s just one curriculum.”

Yu said above academics, he appreciated the teamwork and people skills that Brown taught him.

Michael Goldberg ’13, who concentrated in biology and music, is currently on a Fulbright Fellowship in France to help create a database for diseases, he said.

“It provides a great platform to be able to look at diseases over space and time,” he said.

Brown prepares its students in ways that they do not necessarily realize during their time there, Goldberg said, adding that it taught him to constantly question his surroundings.

Brown lent him “academic independence” that he uses in his workplace today, he said.

“You have to spend a lot of time stepping back and thinking about the entire situation,” he said.

Liberal arts in motion Life after graduating is like a “breath of fresh air,” Ma said, referring to the pressure in college to fill up every

moment with activities. She enjoys the “distinction between work and nonwork that really doesn’t exist in college,” she added.

Peralta said she misses her peers, who are currently dispersed all over the world. “I feel like I’ve lost a community that’s really important to me,” she said.

But she said she appreciates the fact that many alums still live in Providence and that she is able to reconnect with many of them.

While Watchler said she found CareerLAB helpful because its law school info sessions allowed her to envision life at a certain school without having to leave campus, Ma said she found CareerLAB unhelpful in finding a job as a research biologist, because the resources she needed, such as connections and contacts, were department-specific.

“For someone who knows what they want to do, CareerLAB is not that helpful,” she said.

When searching for employment, students should apply to as many jobs as they can, no matter how unqualified they may feel, Li said.

“It’s a numbers game,” he added.

4 university news

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

BDS, students dispute whether to-go meal policy has changed Despite student reports, the Dining Services take-out policy has not changed, officials said

By TYLER DAELEMANS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Brown Dining Services officials said the program’s policy for to-go meals remains unchanged this year, despite some students’ perception that the office has recently implemented a stricter approach to take-out meals.

Students taking to-go meals from University eateries must inform Dining Services employees upon entering an eatery that they would like a to-go box and cup, a policy officials said has not changed despite reports

from some students that this policy is not uniformly enforced.

Cecilia Cerrilla ’16, who wrote in an email to The Herald that she visits the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall multiple times a week, wrote that she recently noticed a difference in the V-Dub’s takeout policy.

“Last Thursday, when I asked the swiper if I could have a cup, he told me that if he gave me a cup, he had to give me a take-out box too,” Cerrilla wrote.

“He said it was a new policy because too many people were using the cups to steal milk and other items from the

V-Dub.” But Dining Services Director of Administration Ann Hoffman wrote in an email to The Herald that Dining Services employees still operate under the current to-go policy, which permits students to turn down a cup if they choose.

“There has been no change in policy, nor is the policy at the (V-Dub) different from that of the Sharpe Refectory,” Hoffman wrote.

Though the to-go policy remains unchanged, student theft from campus eateries occasionally occurs, Dining Services Associate Director Peter Rossi wrote in an email that Hoffman forwarded to The Herald.

Rossi wrote that he could not provide an exact amount of money that Dining Services loses to theft annually, adding that Dining Services does not have any way to calculate losses from theft. Rossi said staffers play an important role in mitigating theft and preventing losses.

“Our staff is trained to manage these situations as they occur by following appropriate policy guidelines,” he wrote.

Some students said they believed theft from campus eateries was a problem but not an urgent issue. “I think it happens pretty often, especially little things like fruit, but people don’t steal large amounts of food,” said Dipal Nagda ’17.

“I know people who have stolen food before, but I don’t think it’s an incredibly prevalent issue,” said Chester Kilfoyle ’16. But Kilfoyle added that he believed Dining Services has been stricter about its to-go policy this year, which he said has helped reduce theft.

The high cost of meal plans motivates much of the theft of food in campus eateries, some students said.

Nagda said many students think they have a right to steal food because they are already paying high costs for the food offered by meal plan choices.

“There’s a high perceived cost of meal plans,” Kilfoyle said. “People just feel like they’re trying to make the best of it.”

Prof receives $1.6 million grant to study smoking The research will focus on weaning smokers with depression off their preferred cigarette brands

By MANDI CAI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A new experiment conducted by Jennifer Tidey, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior, will examine the effects of different nicotine levels in the cigarettes of depressed smokers.

Tidey’s research is part of a new federally funded project to research methods of lessening tobacco use. The

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

» YELLEN, from page 1 William Fink ’67 said. “When I found out who it was, I wasn’t surprised.”

The other top contender for the position, Larry Summers, withdrew his name from consideration Sept. 15.

Summers, who was formerly president of Harvard, had received significant opposition from Democrats who expressed preference for Yellen. Progressives and women’s groups also endorsed

U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health awarded $19.5 million to the University of Vermont as part of their new Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science Program.

Stacey Sigmon, research associate professor of psychology at the University of Vermont, said Brown researchers will receive $1.6 million to conduct their study, functioning as one of the project sites contributing to the larger federal research project.

Though the research at Brown focuses specifically on depressed smokers,

other sites will evaluate the effect of low nicotine content in women of childbearing age and smokers with multisubstance dependence.

Tidey’s study aims to find a nicotine level that will “reduce cigarette use without increasing puff intensity, worsening psychiatric symptoms or causing people to go back to their usual brand of cigarettes,” Tidey said in a University press release. If a person becomes accustomed to smoking cigarettes with smaller amounts of nicotine, he or she may find it easier to decrease dependency on the substance.

The FDA does not have the authority to ban the sale of nicotine products, but

it can “regulate, among other things, the amount of nicotine in tobacco,” Tidey said. “There have been a handful of studies showing that if you do that, people will gradually reduce their smoking over a period of weeks to months,” she added.

To conduct their study, Tidey’s team, along with researchers at the University of Vermont, will test experimental cigarettes on a group of around 400 participants who identify as smokers.

The testing will take place over a course of 12 weeks.

First, study participants will smoke their usual brand of cigarettes for a week, and then researchers will switch

the smokers to cigarettes with different nicotine levels manufactured by The National Institute of Drug Abuse. Neither the participants nor the researchers will know what level of nicotine participants are receiving in their cigarettes until after the experiment concludes, Tidey said.

Over the course of the experiment, researchers will collect a range of data including biological measures of toxicity and participants’ levels of craving.

“Tobacco already costs the U.S. about $190 billion in health care costs and lost productivity,” Tidey said. “This study is really fascinating — it has the potential to make a huge impact.”

Yellen for the chair position.

Jeff Koshel MA’67 said he was not surprised that Yellen became the frontrunner following Summers’ withdrawal from the race.

“I think it’s actually a very fitting, very appropriate and very wise appointment,” Koshel said. “She doesn’t seem to be somebody who’s in it for the glamor of the appointments.”

Brown professors and students who overlapped with Yellen recalled her as

a student with significant drive and academic potential, The Herald previously reported.

Yellen has over 10 years of experience as a top official at the Fed, compared to Bernanke’s three years as a Fed governor.

According to a July 2013 Wall Street Journal article that “examined more than 700 predictions made between 2009 and 2012” by 14 Federal Reserve policy makers, Yellen’s financial

predictions were most accurate overall, The Herald previously reported.

“She is the best choice and would be regardless of who else might be under consideration,” said John Kwoka ’67, professor of economics at Northeastern University. “Her nomination is particularly welcome since her expertise is on the very issues facing the U.S. and global economies — employment and growth.”

According to NBC News, Obama’s

nomination announcement is set for 3 p.m today.

“Once in a while, good things happen to good people,” said Koshel. “I think in this case, that’s what happened to Janet Yellen.”

In a statement emailed to The Herald, President Christina Paxson said she was “delighted” by the appointment.

“I commend President Obama for this inspired choice,” Paxson said in the statement.

L E A R N I N G CO M E S N AT U R A L LY

DAVID DECKEY / HERALD

Students and professors took advantage of Tuesday’s warm weather by holding their classes outdoors on the Main Green.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

science & research 5

Psychiatrist’s book seeks to demarginalize mentally ill ‘Falling into the Fire’ explores unusual cases of patients’ self-injurious behavior

By ANDREW JIANG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A woman who swallows steak knives, a mother who constantly imagines injuring her child and a tunic-clad young man who fixates on the love radiating from his surroundings are all psychiatric patients featured in a new book written

by Christine Montross, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Alpert Medical School and a staff psychiatrist at Butler Hospital.

The book, “Falling into the Fire,” is a humanistic account of Montross’ encounters with psychiatric patients.

“There’s a tendency for people to marginalize the mentally ill or cast (them) as a population that is all very different from us,” Montross said. “It’s important to me to write about patients in a way that emphasizes their humanity, so that readers won’t view them as strange or peripheral.”

When selecting which stories to include in “Falling into the Fire,” Montross said she chose those she “could not stop thinking about.” Though the general public may know of psychiatric patients who inflict self-harm by cutting or burning themselves, Montross said the cases she describes in her book are more esoteric.

The case that has sparked the most public interest involves a woman who swallows dangerous objects again and again, Montross said. The patient — also featured in an earlier New York Times op-ed piece by Montross — makes frequent trips to the emergency room but cannot afford regular psychiatric care.

The chapter that contains the patient’s case focuses on the complex emotions the woman evokes in the people who care for her, Monstross added.

Holding both a masters in poetry and a medical degree, Montross bridges the gap between the two often disparate fields of mental health and creative nonfiction.

In order to balance writing with her medical career and personal life, Montross said she has a very specific

» BCA, from page 1 together.”

Once acts are picked, BCA cosigns a contract with the artists specifying concert details including when the line-up can be publicly announced. If these terms are violated, artists have the right to drop out, Greenberg said, making confidentiality of utmost importance.

The BCA starts planning for Spring Weekend over the preceding summer, Johnson said. In the fall, members meet weekly, interview potential new members and book “as many artists as we can.” In the spring, they finalize the booking process, looking for groups that are

schedule that she “created by design.”

She works weekends at the Butler Hospital and spends one to two half-days at the Med School. During the rest of the week, she can focus on being a mother and on writing.

Montross first became interested in psychiatry as a graduate student at the University of Michigan, when she encountered portrayals and themes of madness in her study of poetry. As she interacted with troubled teenagers during a stint as a high school English teacher, her interest intensified. After considering becoming a social worker or a clinical psychologist, Montross decided to go to medical school. Her first book, “Body of Work,” documents her experience as a student at the Med School.

During her psychiatry residency, Montross “was a keen observer, definitely extremely bright and focused,” said Steve Rasmussen ’74 MMS’77 MD’77 P’13 MD’17, chair of the psychiatry and human behavior department at Alpert and former medical director of Butler Hospital.

Though she writes nonfiction, Montross’ prose style has a lyrical quality, owing to her Master of Fine Arts in poetry, she said.

She said her poetry background has been helpful to her practice as a physician as well. “Poetry is looking closely at things and drawing conclusions — medicine is like that, also,” said Montross.

The book has been well-received, Montross and her colleagues said. She said both laypeople and other professionals in the psychiatric field have contacted Montross about “Falling into the Fire.”

Montross’ writing prompts readers to reflect on “familiar situations (they’ve)encountered in (their) lives that maybe (they) haven’t understood,” said Professor Emeritus Ted Goslow, who instructed Montross in anatomy at the Med School.

Montross said she hopes her book “gives people an appreciation for the vast capacity of the mind and the many ways that it can derail.”

She said she is in the beginning stages of a new book about mental health in prisons and “the confluence of mental health and the judicial system.”

relevant in the music world, popular with students, good live performers and fit well together “creating a complete puzzle,” Johnson added.

Brown Student Agencies is also working in collaboration with the BCA to fix ticketing issues. Because payment verification must go through a contracted service called TouchNet, ticketing must happen on TouchNet’s servers, said Connor Shinn ’14, BSA executive director. “We’re confident that this year it’s in their best interest, as well as ours, to have this go well,” he said.

“They seemed to know what they are doing, and I’m looking forward to when the lineup gets revealed,” said Dani Dichter ’17.

BRITTANY COMUNALE / HERALD

Montross’ book was inspired in part by her experience with troubled adolescents when she worked as a high school English teacher. After earning her MFA in poetry, Montross went on to receive a medical degree.

comics Culture Shock | Chloe Hequet

6 commentary

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

EDITORIAL

Construction must reflect community needs The face of Thayer Street has changed significantly this semester, with storefronts previously situated around Meeting Street moving further down the street or shutting down completely. Construction on new luxury apartments is underway, and community organizations seek to revitalize the area around Thayer.

Construction around campus is necessary and important to maintain the University’s facilities. But when it comes to undertaking new projects, we hope any endeavors are used to benefit as many students and members of the local community as possible.

Looking onto Meeting Street — the location where Ben and Jerry’s, Sahara Hookah and Squires Salon previously stood— one will now find a wasteland of construction. The area’s developer, Gilbane Development Company, has begun to construct units of luxury apartments for students, a project offering questionable benefit. The original plans met criticism from both students and community members, who said the project did not necessarily reflect the area’s needs.

We agree: The luxury apartment complex, like other projects on Thayer Street, strikes us as inconsistent with the interests of the Brown community. Only a small number of students will actually benefit from the construction and live in the apartments upon their completion. Most others will likely find the apartments prohibitively expensive — indeed, the apartments could strengthen divides between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Meanwhile, those who live or work near the zone must deal with the constant sounds of construction and the problems that often accompany that work. If construction continues in such a central community area, it should go toward projects that will directly benefit the area and the students and local community members who use it.

Instead of luxury apartments, we believe the area could benefit from other additions — for instance, students have professed the need for a grocery store within walking distance from campus, something wholly absent from Thayer Street. The addition of Gourmet Heaven has somewhat alleviated the need for a nearby grocery vendor, but students who do not have access to a car on campus are limited in their abilities to shop for reasonably priced groceries. The vacancy created by Tedeschi Food Shop could be used to fill this gap, if, for instance, a grocery vendor occupied the space.

Change is necessary, and construction projects and transformations around Thayer Street are inevitable. But we hope future endeavors address concerns relevant to the needs of the Brown community, rather than creating or exacerbating existing problems.

Z H E N G YA N G G AO

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Rachel Occhiogrosso, and its members, Dan Jeon, Hannah Loewentheil and Thomas Nath. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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commentary 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

Freedom to choose is a right for Rhode Island parents SCOTT LLOYD guest columnist

Personal choice is one of the hallmarks of a Brown undergraduate education. Our young scholars have the choice of following their own passions amid a wide selection of disciplines and potential experiences. This liberty is cherished by virtually every student who passes through the Van Wickle Gates. In the coming years, Brown graduates will continue to follow their dreams, and for many, this will include starting families. Some will choose to settle down right here in Rhode Island. Those newly minted Brown alums will want the same education choices available for their children that they have today for themselves.

What they will find is that our public school system is an overly bureaucratic, financial mess that demands uniformity and conformity from both teachers and students. They will quickly learn that teachers can’t teach properly because of the state-mandated curricula and contradictory expectations. A parent trying to get help for a child who has trouble learning, or who has advanced beyond the other children in his grade, will encounter a wall of resignation or indifference from teachers and administrators.

In a recent Herald opinions column, Daniel Carrigg GS argues

that education reforms in Rhode Island and elsewhere “have largely ignored long-term statewide planning, land use and municipal development.” Carrigg calls Rhode Island “New England’s public education laggard” because, historically, we have not had enough community planning around schools.

He argues that, “With a long-term plan, consistent long-term investment and constructive input from the community, we could atone for some of the sins of the past.”

This seemingly innocuous solution is actually a call to institute a statewide school board with the power to redefine and override local school districts and confiscate private lands for state use. In effect, this would give a tremendous amount of power to a few and limit the choices that exist for parents in our public education system.

I want to make the alternate case. The only chance for parental choice and educational freedom is the elimination of compulsory, government-run schools in Rhode Island.

There is no collective moral “sin” for which we have to atone. Parents are responsible for educating their own children. The taxpayers in Barrington and Newport have no moral obligation to pay for government schools in Central Falls and North Providence. And Rhode Island is not “lagging” in its spending. According to the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, we spent an average of $13,707 per student in 2009, roughly com-

parable to levels in Massachusetts anny. and Connecticut, and considerably Today, we face a similar tyranny more than in Maine or New Hamp- by a new set of ideologues in our shire. own government. Who shall run But placing our decentralized this statewide school board which public school system under a cen- can use the full force of government tral planning authority is immor- to mandate values and virtues? al. The first compulsory education John Dewey’s pronouncement law in colonial America was en- that “education is the fundamental acted by Massachusetts in 1642, re- method of social progress and requiring that parents and guardians form” may resonate with some, but “make certain that their charges it is the same dictatorial mindset as could read and unthe Puritans who derstand the prinpersecuted com“Any scheme of ciples of religion peting religions education reform and non-believers. and the laws of the Commonwealth.”

When your child that includes Rhode Island goes through the compulsory never established doors of a governeducation at a a similar system of ment-run school, common schools he is no longer government– not out of ignoyours to control run school will rance, but rather or educate accordout of fear. Roger ing to your wishes. fail because Williams, an eduyou choose bureaucrats always Should cator and religious a different path for treat your child’s your children, the reformer, and a host of other “hermind as theirs to state can, under etics” and non-bethe legal doctrine mold as they see lievers realized that of parens patriae the rulers of Mas— which literally fit.” sachusetts were means the state as trying to use the compulsory edu- parent — take your children from cation laws to convert the children you and forcibly indoctrinate them of Catholics to Puritan Protestant- with ideas that are contrary to your ism. Rather than accept this assault values and beliefs. on their intellectual and religious Exercise and defend your right freedom, they fled the Massachu- to choose. We must reclaim our setts authorities. The early Rhode legacy of intellectual and religious Islanders knew centrally controlled freedom and push the government schools would empower the politi- out of the school business instead cal clergy and lead to the imposi- of following the collectivist path of tion of an unacceptable social tyr- “long-term planning,” “long-term

investment,” “community input” and reallocating other people’s resources. Any scheme of education reform that includes compulsory education at a government-run school will fail because bureaucrats always treat your child’s mind as theirs to mold as they see fit. Your children, especially the brightest and most independent thinkers among them, will be treated as expendable.

On the other hand, parents who make individual educational choices for their children — through private and home schools — can and will provide their children with the best education they can afford, following a curriculum that reflects their own personal values and beliefs.

The traditional arguments against private schools focus on the inability of some parents to pay for private schools. But this is only valid in a high tax, anti-individualist culture. As free people, we can support other parents with the costs of private education in numerous charitable ways. To that end, we need to foster a small government, low-tax culture that respects individual rights and allows people to keep more of the money they make.

Scott Lloyd, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, is a Brown staff member and resident of Rhode Island who sends his son to private school. He reads The Herald daily and believes Brown students can still be saved.

Minimizing drone casualties ROBYN SUNDLEE opinions columnist

Drones are here to stay. There is no going back, now that they have proven so tactically effective in foreign combat. The U.S. government estimates that 75 percent of al Qaeda leadership has been decimated by lethal aerial strikes in the last five years. Drones are now being built, tested and deployed to potential combat areas by nations all over the world. The New York Times reported earlier this month that China is currently in the midst of pursuing the largest campaign in drone technology advancement ever seen. Regardless of the legal and moral implications, states’ investments in drone technology have made the future clear. A spyassassin that requires no risk of human life is simply too seductive for governments to pass up.

We are commencing an entirely new generation of warfare.

To assume these machines will be retired in the near future for any reason, technological or ethical, is naive. That being said, current methods of drone warfare are morally dubious to say the least. Historically, there’s been far too much room for error when conducting

lethal strikes. In a war of ideology, vary wildly, and even the military non-crucial civilian casualties are cannot know with certainty just unacceptable. There is a dearth of how many innocents have been transparency from the government shot down. When a U.S. predator regarding both the criteria for le- drone fires hellfire missiles, it is dothal strikes and the number and ing so in the name of the American type of casualties. This in turn rais- people. Americans have a right to es a question: How can the govern- know who is being killed and why ment ensure this new kill-and-run — especially considering the effects warfare is conducted in a way that drone strikes have had on opinminimizes civilian ions of the United deaths?

States among pop“How can the The first step is ulations near heavgreater transpar- government ensure ily targeted areas. ency. Last May, this new kill-and- If our government President Obama is determined to run warfare is released the polcommit acts as seicy guidelines for conducted in a way rious as assassinadeploying lethal tions, those acts that minimizes strikes. But those need to be subject civilian deaths?” guidelines overto public scrutiny. looked the pracThe next imtice of “signature perative is to enstrikes” — when sure intelligence the United States kills people gathered before a strike is rock whose identities aren’t confirmed. solid. The United States has been These strikes, which have nev- notoriously inept at conducting er been publicly addressed by the foreign covert operations involvadministration, are based on cer- ing terrorist organizations, and the tain behavioral patterns that are blunders show — particularly in deemed characteristic of terrorist the death tolls of innocents. Drone activity. This precedent is vague, surveillance alone cannot deterand the policy surrounding it mine who is a civilian and who is opaque. There is also a significant not. This deficit of essential inforlack of clarity regarding the num- mation is due partly to streamlinber of civilians killed surrounding ing issues in the intelligence comthese strikes. munity. It is the classic case of mulReports on the number killed tiple agencies doing the same work

with poor communication.

Joshua Foust, a former contractor with the Defense Intelligence agency, wrote in a column published by PBS that, “there is simply not enough granular, local-level intelligence being generated, either for the kill missions or even more generally for the broad knowledge required for appropriate analysis and advice to policymakers”. The information provided to the killor-don’t-kill decisionmakers is largely based on the work of human intelligence. This means that we cannot afford to be generating anything but the most thorough, accurate information possible.

The United States has tried to make up for this intelligence gap through technology, but those efforts have boasted only limited success. Reports are emerging of technological intelligence endeavors being compromised by Edward Snowden’s leaks of national security information. Terrorist organizations are responding to the leaked information by devising new means of communication or reverting to old-fashioned methods like couriers. Other nations are adopting new strategies to combat drone strikes and surveillance.

These events underscore the importance of on-the-ground intelligence gathered by humans. The United States needs to emphasize

this not only for tactical advantage, but also to ensure no more extraneous lives are wasted.

This is a familiar argument. We have been demanding efficiency and transparency from our government for centuries. It is true that issues of national security often must remain largely classified and that the American public can never be completely informed.

But maximizing the efficacy of our foreign engagements is most definitely a public concern. Here, the stakes are exceptionally high.

When drones are involved, international reputation, security and innocent lives are all on the line.

The military predicts it is only in the early stages of realizing the potential of unmanned aerial vehicles, known as UAVs. The Air Force estimates a third of its attack and fighter planes will be UAVs within the decade. Some military strategists posit that with the right surveillance and intelligence, drones could actually prove to be the most humane form of warfare ever. We must do everything we can in order to ensure we embark on this uncharted territory with the lives of innocents as our highest priority.

Robyn Sundlee ’16 is very scared of drones.

daily herald science & research THE BROWN

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

SCIENCE & RESEARCH ROUNDUP

BY JENNIFER KAPLAN, FEATURES EDITOR

Study reveals lasting events of smoking during pregnancy

JAE KIM / HERALD

Yoga has helped students develop greater flexibilty and range, said Eliza Brine ‘14, co-leader of the student group Yoga and Mindfulness.

Yoga may offer physical benefits, studies find As scientists probe yoga’s physiological effects, students report feeling its mental benefits

By RILEY DAVIS STAFF WRITER

When yoga instructors tell you to take a “healing breath,” they aren’t just using a metaphor. Recent studies show that practicing yoga may actually have a significant effect on a person’s physiological well-being.

Researchers have studied the effects of yoga on fitness for years. “(Yoga) engages a lot of muscles at one time” said Andrea Soberaij, physiology courses manager. “It does a lot of lengthening. That’s one thing conventional workouts — like doing the machines at the gym — don’t do. They just shorten the muscle.”

The effects of yoga on hypertension, or high blood pressure, are currently being studied by Debbie Cohen-Stein, associate professor of medicine at Penn.

“A lot of people are interested in an alternative to medication, especially with mild hypertension,” she said.

“The preliminary data does appear to show that yoga has a modest effect on lowering blood pressure.”

According to Cohen-Stein, most forms of yoga can contribute to lowering blood pressure.

“Any type of yoga that incorporates breathing and movement and a component of meditation will do,” she said.

MRIs taken of participants in her current blood pressure study suggest yoga activates the same part of the brain responsible for impulse control, Cohen-Stein said. She said she hopes to study next the effects of yoga on people attempting to quit smoking.

Patricia Gerbarg ’71 has spent years studying the effects of yoga on different disorders and afflictions of the body.

“We have found that the most effective practices are certain breathing practices,” Gerbarg said.

She and her husband, Richard Brown, developed these practices using breathing techniques that were safe and easy for almost everyone.

They use these breathing practices to work with several different groups of people including victims of the Sept.

11 attacks, people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and

recently-liberated slaves in South Sudan, Gerbarg said.

One of the most recent studies on which Gerbarg has worked examines the effects of yoga on people with inflammatory bowel disease, or Crohn’s Disease.

“We know that it is very much affected by stress,” Gerbarg said.

Because inflammatory bowel disease is very difficult to treat, studies are currently being conducted to see if breathing practices can help control symptoms.

While researchers are exploring the physiological effects of yoga practice, others are simply experiencing its benefits directly.

“When I started practicing (yoga), there were so many parts of my body that I wasn’t even aware of,” said Eliza Brine ’14, co-leader of the student group Yoga and Mindfulness. “Yoga involves awareness of all the parts of your body.”

Brine said that while teaching yoga classes, she has observed students develop greater flexibility and range of motion. Her favorite part of her yoga classes is listening to people afterward talk about how much better they feel, she added.

A 40-year study found that female children of women who smoked or had higher levels of stress hormones while pregnant were more likely to develop nicotine addictions in adulthood, according to a Lifespan press release.

The study, which was published online last month, more broadly supports the idea that prenatal conditions faced by children can determine illnesses or conditions in adulthood. More than 1,000 pairs of women and their adult children were studied over a 40-year period following the initial Collaborative Perinatal Project at Brown from 195966, according to Providence Business News.

“While maternal smoking during pregnancy has been shown to be an independent risk factor for nicotine dependence, we didn’t really know — until now — which pathways or mechanisms were responsible,” said Laura Stroud, lead author of the study and associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Alpert Medical School, in the press release.

“Because mothers who smoke are often more stressed and living in adverse conditions — these findings represent a public health concern and highlight the need to help smoking moms quit and reduce stress levels,” she added. The study’s findings show a vicious cycle of increased likeliness of nicotine addiction passing from mother to daughters, she said.

Nearly one in five pregnant women continue smoking during pregnancy in the U.S., according to the release.

Prof wins hospice award Professor of Medical Science Vincent Mor received the Distinguished Researcher Award from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization last month, according to a University press release. Mor was honored for three decades of researching and teaching about long-term care.

A highlight of his research was Mor’s involvement in a Medicare study that caused the national implementation of a hospice system, according to the release. The study, which Mor helped run early in his career, showed that family members of terminal cancer patients living in hospice were significantly more satisfied with the care their relatives were receiving than family members of patients living elsewhere.

“Hospice patients’ use of impatient care was much lower, and hospice cost less than usual care, as long as the patients didn’t enter hospice ‘too early’ relative to their date of death,” Mor said in the release.

The study was integral to Congress’ enactment of hospice legislation in 1982, which still stands over 30 years later, according to the release.

Books boost the brain Neuroscience and English are not so different after all, argues a book by Professor of English Paul Armstrong. In his new book, “How Literature Plays with the Brain,” Armstrong compares the experiences of reading literature to other neurological functions, according to a Johns Hopkins press release. The book was published in August.

“Literature matters for what it reveals about human experience, and the very different perspective of neuroscience on how the brain works is part of that story,” Armstrong said in the press release. “(Armstrong) makes explicit some of the most vital, yet heretofore overlooked, connections between the aims of literary criticism and cognitive neuroscience,” said G. Gabrielle Starr, dean of the college of arts and science and professor of English at New York University, in the release.

Armstrong taught ENGL 1900Z: “Neuroaesthetics and Reading” last semester.

Study suggests police treatment could reduce deaths by drug overdose Researchers suggest training police officers to administer a life-saving drug on site

By VI MAI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Police officers’ response can greatly affect whether a person survives a drug overdose, a new study led by University researchers found.

The research was published online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence at the end of the summer.

“Overdose is the leading cause of unintentional death among adults,

and opioid pain relievers cause more than half of these unintentional overdoses,” said Traci Green, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology and the study’s lead author.

Opioid pain relievers can be dangerous because they “bind to the brain’s receptors, cut off the flow of oxygen and then cause respiratory failure” in the case of overdose, said Nickolas Zaller, assistant professor of medicine and one of the study’s co-authors.

To treat overdoses, Naloxone is often administered by Emergency Medical Services, Zaller said. The drug blocks opioids from reaching key neuroreceptors, so that oxygen

can continue to flow, he said.

Police officers are often the first people on the scene of drug overdoses, but they very often do not know how to medically treat them, according to the study. Law enforcement officials are also not allowed to administer Naloxone, Green said.

The researchers focused their study in suburban and rural areas of Rhode Island and Connecticut, where there have been significant numbers of fatal drug overdoses.

They interviewed and surveyed different populations in these regions, including drug users and police officers, to try to determine the cause of the high overdose mortality rates.

The researchers determined that the lack of overdose response options, as well as the lack of addiction treatment facilities, the perpetuation of drug addiction and the easy accessibility to prescription drugs, exacerbate law enforcement officials’ frustration with their inability to prevent fatal overdoses.

In its analysis, the study suggests that law enforcement officials should be allowed to administer Naloxone because they are often the first ones to respond to overdoses.

But there have been some problems implementing the less-restricted administration of Naloxone due to the drug’s high cost.

The study recommends the implementation of Good Samaritan laws, which give people legal protection when they call medical services to respond to drug overdoses.

By implementing these laws, Zaller said, more lives would be saved.

Given the persistent stigma against drug users, law enforcement officers also need to have more training so they can approach overdose situations with sensitivity, Green said.

If public health and public safety merge, awareness about how to respond will increase, as will prevention of drug overdoses, Green said.