Friday, November 22, 2013

Daily

Herald

THE BROWN

vol. cxlviii, no. 117

U. likely to renovate GeoChem building Given the budget deficit, gift funding could determine the project’s tentative timeline

By KIKI BARNES SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The GeoChem Building will likely undergo a renovation in the next few years, Steven Maiorisi, vice president for Facilities Management, told The Herald.

“In general, the age of certain buildings on campus” leaves much to be desired about the state of the facilities, Maiorisi said. “GeoChem is in need of a major overhaul.”

The University keeps data on which buildings most need renovations, said Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Beppie Huidekoper. Buildings like GeoChem and the Sharpe Refectory are at the

top of the list, she said.

But the University has to be wary of jumping into large renovation plans, Huidekoper said.

Since the University is operating on a budget deficit and has had to issue debt to finance projects like the current $14 million renovation of Barus and Holley, gift funding will be extremely important in determining when renovations can take place, she said.

If laboratories are conducting federally sponsored research, the federal government can sometimes help fund renovations of the necessary facilities, Huidekoper said.

But generally, it is difficult to get donations to “fix up old buildings,” she added.

“The budgeting exercise is one big trade-off,” said Provost Mark Schlissel P’15.

The University has to prioritize from year to year, and “not all of our

buildings are perfect,” he said.

But professors and administrators have been vocal about the state of GeoChem for 15 years, said Gerald Diebold, professor of chemistry.

Diebold and building managers have conducted many meetings with various University administrators — to little effect, he said.

Dirty air in the laboratories was a particularly large problem in the past, Diebold said. A few years ago, an air filter began to spew dust and dirt into the laser laboratories. Though the University has addressed that issue, other problems persist, he said.

Maiorisi said Facilities Management’s Service Response Center works around the clock to address any immediate problems.

He added that Facilities Management workers meet with building representatives monthly to address and track persistent issues. The systemic problems in GeoChem prompted the

planning of a possible renovation, he said.

But “What we really need is general cleaning,” Diebold said.

He added that cobwebs, peeling plaster and grime buildup on walls and doorways are particular problems and act as deterrents when departments try to recruit faculty members and graduate students.

“We shouldn’t have to complain about dirt,” Diebold said.

Though he has filed many reports with the building manager, Diebold said he has not appealed directly to Facilities Management.

Facilities Management staff members “work very hard to keep our buildings clean,” Schlissel said. “I wouldn’t infer a major problem from one building.”

After many years of efforts, Diebold said, “I’m not optimistic” about any improvements in GeoChem’s upkeep.

Gilbert and Sullivan hits high note with ‘Iolanthe’

MCM at Brown: decoding an abstract concentration

The comic opera focuses on forbidden love between a fairy and the halfmortal Strephon

MCM courses have long polarized students with their obscure and theoretical concepts

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Opera may seem like a genre of the past, but Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Iolanthe, or, The Peer and the Peri” transcends the bygone era from which it came.

Directed by Meghan Kelleher ’12 and presented by Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan, the opera will enchant a modern audience with its comic plot, unique interpretations of characters and talented acting.

Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan pays homage to the 19th-century theatrical partnership between librettist

ARTS & CULTURE

W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, whose comic operas famously satirized the fusty conventions of Victorian England.

Gilbert caricatured these 19th-century social and political trappings to convey their stuffy absurdity — his antagonists are often bumbling and bombastic figures of power, with plots frequently revolving around the inanity of a bureaucratic loophole. Sullivan’s music provides dramatic scaffolding for Gilbert’s scripts, emphasizing the humor of satirical ditties or evoking pathos for characters thwarted by insufferable institutions of power.

Though “The Pirates of Penzance,” “H.M.S. Pinafore” and “The Mikado” are their best-known works, Gilbert and Sullivan produced 14 comic operas between 1871 and 1896. “Iolanthe” is the seventh of these productions.

The play opens with a troupe of immortal fairies reuniting with Iolanthe, a fairy returning from banishment » See OPERA, page 3

By SABRINA IMBLER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Welcome to Alaska: March 1 to 7, 2006. Shadowy conifers mottle the snow-powdered meadows. The graceful crags of white-capped mountains behind the village inject the quintessential, everyday majesty one expects of

FEATURE

The Russian expedition will travel to Phobos in hopes of collecting deepspace material

By KHIN SU

A recent study by University geologists will help inform a Russian mission to the Martian moon Phobos. The mission, planned to launch mid2020, will be the first to return with deep-space material, including material from Mars, and will potentially answer questions about Phobos’ origin.

The Russian space agency’s first attempt to collect samples from Phobos in 2011 was unsuccessful due to a

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

RYAN WALSH / HERALD

inside

Janus Forum holds student conversation on protest Organizers said they aimed to spark productive discussion about free speech at Brown

By KATE KIERNAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Students gathered yesterday at a talk organized by the Janus Forum to discuss the issues of free speech raised by the protest and eventual cancellation of a planned lecture by New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly Oct. 29.

Supporters and organizers of the protest, who hosted the event with the Janus Forum, shared their views of the protest over the first 20 minutes, followed by nearly two hours of discussion among audience members.

The event was organized for students to talk without the influence of the administration, as well as to give the protest’s supporters an opportunity to talk without being put on the defensive, said Alexander Friedland ’15, director of the Janus Fellows.

The tone of the event was meant to be “constructive and respectful,” said Dana Schwartz ’15, a Janus fellow and the event’s moderator. No chanting, applauding or booing was permitted, though students were allowed to snap their fingers, Friedland told the audience at the beginning of the talk.

Immediately after the protest, members of the Janus Forum felt the group should put out a statement condemning the protesters’ actions as a violation of free speech, Friedland said. After » See FORUM, page 2

Study preps mission to Martian moon

STAFF WRITER

“Iolanthe,” currently staged by Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan, is the seventh of the duo’s comedic operas produced between 1871 and 1896.

this northern state. But save for a single plume of smoke billowing from a mustard-tinged ranch house, nothing moves.

Suddenly, a voice crackles — liltingly robotic but distinctly female.

“How to sleep with snoring husband.”

“How to kill mockingbirds.”

“How to flirt with a man.”

This is user No. 711391, one of over 650,000 AOL users whose private search histories — containing three months’ worth of keywords — were accidentally published on » See MCM, page 4

spacecraft engine failure before it left Earth’s orbit, said James Head, professor of geological sciences and lead author of the study.

The study, published last month in the journal Planetary and Space Science, provided an estimate of the number and location of Mars fragments scientists could expect to find on Phobos so mission planners can pick the right landing spot. The concentration of Mars fragments in the outer layer of Phobos’ crust is about 250 parts per million and can be found right at the surface, according to the study.

“Half of the material that came from Mars is probably within the first meter so you don’t have to dig a lot to find it,” said Ken Ramsley, co-author of the study and a visiting investigator in the School of Engineering. The Mars fragments are concentrated at the surface

Graphic info

Unequal care

D&C

Journalist Gareth Cook ’91 discussed the benefits and pitfalls of infographics in the digital age

A study found minorities were less likely to get adequate anxiety treatment

We gave Andy Warhol a diamond — find out why!

ARTS & CULTURE, 3

SCIENCE & RESEARCH, 5

COMMENTARY, 6

weather

By EMMAJEAN HOLLEY

since 1891

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013

because Phobos’ orbit is gradually spiraling closer to Mars over millions of years, meaning older, deeper layers will have a lower concentration of Mars material than the newer layers at the surface, Ramsley said.

Phobos has almost no gravity, so ejected pieces from Mars that collide with it will simply bounce back off and later re-intersect with the moon on the opposite hemisphere with less force, Ramsley said. This explains why there is an even distribution of Mars fragments on the surface of Phobos, which means a spacecraft can land almost anywhere to be able to collect a sample.

“That’s a big relief,” Ramsley said.

“We have a really hard time getting within a few miles of where we want to get to in space.”

Though the concentration of Mars » See MARS, page 5 t o d ay

tomorrow

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2 university news

In talk, writer defends free market principles

calendar TODAY

NOVEMBER 22

1 P.M.

TOMORROW

NOVEMBER 23

10 A.M.

Social Change on Film Workshop

Hegel Breakfast Seminar

Swearer Center 8 P.M.

190 Hope Street

Wall Street Journal writer Stephen Moore endorsed fracking and condemned federal health reform

5 P.M. Wind Symphony Concert

Women of Color Discussion Group

Salomon 101

Sarah Doyle Women’s Center

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH Pasta with Eggplant and Olives, Cheesy Zucchini Casserole, Quinoa with Kale and Olives, Hummus Bar

Lobster Bisque, Breaded Chicken Fingers, Sticky Rice, Asian Vegetables, Curried Chickpeas and Ginger

DINNER Stuffed Shells Florentine, Parsnips, Slow Roast Pork Loin with Herbs, Chicken Broccoli Salad

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013

Cajun Baked Fish, Texas Cole Slaw, Curried Chickpeas, Stir Fry Chicken Pasta, Rosemary Focaccia

sudoku

By JOSEPH ZAPPA STAFF WRITER

“To be against fracking is like being against a cure for cancer,” said Stephen Moore, a Wall Street Journal columnist and economist, who argued in favor of fracking and free market principles in a talk Thursday.

Moore, who founded the fiscally conservative Club for Growth and serves on the Journal’s editorial board, addressed a full Martinos Auditorium in the Perry and Marty Center for the Creative Arts Thursday evening as part of the Political Theory Project’s Odyssey Lecture Series.

One of the goals of an Odyssey lecture is “to bring someone to campus who will bring ideas that will challenge you and who you will be able to challenge in return,” said John Tomasi, professor of political science and philosophy and director of the Political Theory Project, in his introductory remarks for Moore.

Moore, who labeled himself as both a conservative and a Republican, lauded the free market as “the goose that lays the golden eggs” and the system has “made the United States the richest country in the world.”

» FORUM, from page 1

crossword

speaking with John Tomasi, director of the Political Theory Project and professor of political science and philosophy, and among themselves, the group reconsidered. After more discussion, members decided it was not such a “cut-and-dry issue” and agreed not to issue any statement, Friedland said.

The design of the event was unconventional for the Janus Forum, which usually arranges for two speakers on different sides of an issue to share their arguments and then respond to audience members’ questions. The protest’s supporters were allowed to speak without an opposing speaker, both because there was no organized opposition to the protest and because the forum hoped to draw a variety of viewpoints from audience members, Friedland said.

It was a coincidence that the event was held in List Art Center, the same room where the Kelly lecture was shut down, Schwartz said.

Irene Rojas-Carroll ’15, Sean Luna McAdams ’14 and Floripa Olguin ’16, who all identified as supporters of the protest, spoke about the context behind the protesters’ actions and explained their perspectives on issues of race and free speech.

In the week before Kelly’s lecture, protesters sent a petition to the administration requesting that the lecture be canceled, that the money from the honorarium be donated to organizations committed to combating racially biased police actions — though group members do not know the dollar amount of the endowed lecture — and that the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, which invited Kelly, become more transparent about its selection of speakers, Rojas-Carroll said.

There was an “unwillingness to understand” on the part of the administration, McAdams said during the talk.

Though he admitted the students had violated the Code of Student Conduct by interrupting the lecture, McAdams

He decried the Affordable Care Act as one of recent history’s greatest economic failures and a critical impediment to economic growth. He predicted that the law will be repealed within the next six months.

“Obamacare is a mess and it’s not fixable,” Moore said, adding that it “denies people choices” and will lead to healthy Americans paying two to three times more for excessive health care packages that will help only the country’s sickest and oldest residents.

Moore then turned his focus to touting the growth of the domestic oil and natural gas industries as “what’s right” with the U.S. economy and emphasized the importance of technological innovations such as horizontal drilling and fracking.

“Because of these practices, there is more oil in North Dakota than there is in Saudi Arabia,” Moore said, predicting that by 2020, the United States will undergo a “seismic change” and become a net exporter of gas and oil.

For those concerned about global warming, fracking offers a solution to environmental problems by switching the country’s source of electric energy from coal to natural gas, Moore said.

After the lecture, audience members challenged Moore on whether the free market system allows for upward mobility both domestically and abroad.

Any countries with widespread

poverty must “move towards a system of economy that promotes growth,” Moore said.

“Why is Mexico poor and why is America rich?” Moore asked rhetorically, pointing to the U.S. free market economy as the answer.

The question-and-answer session ended after four questions, though many audience members had their hands raised with more inquiries. Twenty students in Tomasi’s first-year seminar, POLS 0820D: “Freedom,” had the chance to pose questions to Moore during a dinner after the lecture.

Tomasi said he regretted the brevity of the question-and-answer session but looked forward to the dialogue between Moore and his students after the event.

“We bring in these speakers in part to educate” the speakers themselves, Tomasi said, adding that lecturers can learn from students’ questions.

“I think a well-educated person in the area of politics is a responsible ideologue,” Tomasi said, which he defined as a person who can “act on their views with a special power — they have listened to someone with whom they disagree.”

Some audience members said they appreciated Moore’s willingness to challenge majority opinions held on campus.

A Political Theory Project lecture like Moore’s talk is a “safe space to explore uncomfortable ideas,” said Noah Fitzgerel ’17.

added that protesters’ concerns were not viewed as valid by the administration and protesters were told “to sit down and shut up” during the event.

Olguin spoke at the Janus event about the University’s role within the Providence community, saying “we are only visitors” in the area and need to respect the community members who participated in the protest.

“This is not a bubble. We are an example,” Olguin said.

In the discussion period that followed the supporters’ opening remarks, audience members questioned the validity of shutting down the protest, the appropriateness of inviting Kelly as an endowed speaker, whether students of color can be heard at Brown and the efficacy of the protesters’ actions.

Kelly has “a platform all day every day,” said Rojas-Carroll when asked by an audience member why the protesters did not believe an opportunity had been missed. There were many snaps from audience members in response.

Many students also asked the protesters to clarify how people felt unsafe due to Kelly’s presence on campus.

Students did feel “physically unsafe”

by Kelly’s presence, which demonstrates “the disconnect” between people who have and those who have not experienced racial profiling, said Justice Gaines ’16, an audience member who supported the protest.

When asked by an audience member to respond to the swastikas drawn on posters condemning Kelly’s lecture, McAdams said he had no part of that action and did not approve of it.

Anthony Bogues, professor of Africana studies and chair of the Committee on the Events of October 29, told The Herald that the committee has met once to begin the first part of its work, which is to assess the circumstances surrounding the protest and “give an account of what happened.”

Though no members of the committee planned to attend the Janus talk, it is important for the committee to allow

students to have their own conversation, Bogues said.

The committee anticipates releasing its first report — on both the events leading up to the lecture and the talk itself — by the end of winter break, Bogues said. He added that students will not be named in the report and that during this portion of the committee’s work, it will not “gather evidence for any action” on the part of the administration.

The Janus Forum is considering hosting an event to debate the stop-and-frisk policy, which would be separate from the conversation surrounding the Kelly lecture, Friedland said. The controversy about the protest diverted the conversation away from the policy and focused it on free speech, he said. But, the policy discussion remains important, he added.

Gaines said he was pleased people came to the forum and felt that more such events should happen on campus.

He added that he thought more should be done to examine what role the administration played in “polarizing the campus” following the lecture.

Josue Crowther ’15, who participated in the protest, said he hopes the conversations about “perspectives of oppression” and discussions about race on campus continue to happen. The University needs to continue to have “an equal exchange of ideas,” and there were people in the audience who did not fully understand how to talk about these issues, Crowther said.

Camila Bustos ’16, an audience member, thought the Janus event was “a productive conversation,” but she was disappointed because there was no reconciliation between the “two dialogues.”

She said she was also disappointed by the students who coughed when speakers expressed viewpoints they disagreed with.

But she appreciated the event was held “by students, for students,” she added.

The intention of the event was not to come to a“consensus” but rather to allow students to encounter a “wide range of opinions” and probably leave “more confused,” Friedland said.

arts & culture 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013

Talk explores origins and uses of infographics Gareth Cook ’91 encouraged readers to question potential bias behind infographics

By CAROLYNN CONG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Human perceptions of the world are dramatically changing, Gareth Cook ’91 argued in a lecture Wednesday night.

The cause, he posited, is a blend of text and images with origins tracing back over 10,000 years: the infographic.

Cook’s talk, “Infographics: The Origins and Future of Visual Thinking,” took place in a packed MacMillan 115 and was sponsored by the Science Center as part of its Science Communication Series. A Pulitzer Prize-winning magazine journalist, Cook has written for the Boston Globe, and his work appears regularly in the New Yorker. He is also the editor of Scientific American’s neuroscience blog “Mind Matters” and the series editor of The Best American Infographics.

Cook began by discussing his original foray into the world of infographics. As a science writer for the Boston Globe, he struggled to explain esoteric scientific topics, Cook said, but “suddenly, with infographics, everyone would understand it.”

As technology advances, new problems arise, Cook said. “We live in an age of information overload.”

Infographics allow us to “make sense of overwhelming information,” he said. “Half of the brain is involved in processing visual information,” and

infographics are a “new visual language.”

Cook presented examples of infographics throughout his lecture, including an 1861 map of the Union used by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, a palette of the five most common colors used by Claude Monet in 1903 and a modern portrait of New York City’s twitter traffic.

To explore the origins of infographics, Cook presented the audience with a picture of the first known map — a Paleolithic stone map from 14,000 years ago — which sparked the “idea that you can represent the whole world around you in one place,” Cook said.

Cook credited William Playfair, inventor of the bar chart and the pie chart, with having “greatly expanded the whole idea of mapmaking” by applying the coordinate system used in maps to new areas.

“What you see here is the moment that cartography transcended geography,” Cook said. “Playfair managed, almost by accident, to tap into an incredibly powerful machine — the human mind.”

Cook proceeded to demonstrate the different ways infographics “make sense of very complicated information.”

Though he said “the goal of most infographics is clarity,” Cook warned the audience to be wary of artists’ motivations.

“With the rise of great infographics, we’ve also seen the rise of terrible infographics,” Cook said, citing a “nightmarish” infographic of the Affordable Care Act that the law’s opponents created to distort the effects of President Obama’s healthcare overhaul.

“We need to learn how to be critical of infographics” and remind ourselves that “behind every infographic, there is an artist who has motivation and is making choices,” Cook said. The enormous effort put into creating these images is a “reminder of how powerful infographics have become,” he added.

Cook said he expects infographics to continue to expand in the future, adding he is hopeful for “a more integrated approach to storytelling” where infographics are used in tandem with other forms of media.

“Photography and video and infographics — they each have their own powers, and if you put them together thoughtfully, you can tell stories in new ways,” Cook said.

Jackie Ferrentina, a student from the Rhode Island School of Design, said she was struck by Cook’s argument that “blending infographics with other forms of media (may be) the future of journalism.” She added that she enjoyed learning about the history of infographics.

“It was really interesting to put a name to something I’ve been seeing for a while but wasn’t quite sure how to articulate,” said Alexander Podolsky ’17, adding that “as technology continues to develop, it’ll be interesting to see what infographics will be like in the future.”

“If there’s one thing I want you to remember,” Cook told the audience, it’s that everyone should be wary of taking infographics as a given truth. “We need to be critical of them. We need to think about what choices the person has made in putting them together, the same way as (we would) with a piece of writing.”

RYAN WALSH / HERALD

Despite generally strong cast performances, it can be difficult for audience members, at times, to keep up with the opera’s rapid-fire rhetoric.

» OPERA, from page 1 — having been pardoned by the Fairy Queen — for committing the high crime of marrying a mortal.

Iolanthe introduces the fairies to her grown son, Strephon, who laments that he is a fairy only from the waist up. He does not initially reveal this genetic anomaly to Phyllis, a ward of the court, to whom he is betrothed. When the Lord High Chancellor forbids the marriage, the central action of the play unfolds, as Phyllis spies Strephon seeking solace in the arms of his eternally 17-year-old mother.

Reluctantly, Phyllis resigns herself to marry one of the members of the House of Peers — a chorus of dim-witted nobles who fawn on her as shamelessly as on the Lord High Chancellor.

Anna Stacy ’17, who plays Phyllis, demonstrates a broad range of expression with her clear, bright soprano, which lilts with glee as easily as it thunders with jealous rage. Even as she sings, her nuanced body language and refreshingly modern facial expressions make her the life force of the play.

Phyllis’ open contempt for the dull and dreary members of the House of Peers

is enhanced by Stacy’s gags of disgust and “can-you-believe-this-guy” eye rolls, a comic juxtaposition between the spunky and sycophantic.

But the scenes she shares with Strephon, played by Buck Greenwald ’14, are the ones that endear her the most to the audience. Their onstage chemistry feels real and unscripted — they tease each other with a natural, easy rhythm, and their faces noticeably light up when gazing into each other’s eyes.

Most actors manage to infuse their roles with distinct personality. Paul Martino ’17, who plays the Lord High Chancellor, performs with an understated, self-conscious irony, lending his character a sympathetic humanity, despite his pompous exterior. Thomas Chavez ’16 shines as the stuffy guard Private Willis, slipping in flamboyant gestures and fluid comic timing before resuming a stiff upper lip.

But there are a few moments when clarity is sacrificed for comic effect.

Some of Gilbert’s most caustic satire is articulated through a rapid-fire succession of lyrical absurdities and multi-syllabic rhymes. Because it can be difficult for the audience to keep up

with this convoluted rhetoric, nuggets of satirical brilliance are sometimes lost when actors fail to enunciate the lyrics clearly.

The pit orchestra, directed by Alec Kacew ’14 and Solomon Goldstein-Rose ’16, adds sprightliness to playful fairy scenes, grandiosity to scenes in the House of Peers and dramatic tension as these two worlds collide. Though the live music generally enhances the performance, cohesion between actors and the orchestra could be tighter, especially during faster songs in which even a slight mismatch in tempo can throw off the next few measures.

Aside from exposing the ineptitude of the British Parliament of Gilbert and Sullivan’s era, the play also takes a remarkably progressive approach toward conventional gender roles. In contrast to a traditional damsel in distress, Phyllis is unapologetically irreverent — a force to be reckoned with — and most of the heroic action comes from such pivotal female roles as Iolanthe and the Fairy Queen.

The show opens tonight in Alumnae Hall Auditorium at 8 p.m. It will run Saturday at 2 p.m and 8 p.m and Sunday at 3 p.m. Admission is free.

Famed photographer gives snapshot of career Crewdson, known for images of small town American, discussed staged studio technique

By EMILY DUPUIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Gregory Crewdson, a photographer whose work has been widely exhibited in top art museums, presented some of his artistic creations in a talk Wednesday.

Crewdson spoke to a sold-out Martinos Auditorium in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts as part of an ongoing lecture series by the Student Creative Arts Council.

After an introduction by History of Art and Architecture Professor Douglas Nickel, Crewdson presented a slideshow of photographs and videos documenting his work throughout the years.

The slides began with photographs from his thesis show at Yale, where he received an MFA. “I was very much preoccupied with very similar concerns that I still work with today,” Crewdson said. He took the photographs in small towns using specific colors and lighting to tell a story that “hovers between documentary picturemaking and cinematic effect,” he added.

Next, he showed his series “Natural Wonder,” a compilation of photographs of dioramas in a studio. This body of work “deals with the interrelationship between nature and domesticity,” Crewdson said, displaying images of various birds and bugs in front of suburban homes.

The series “became increasingly hyperbolic and fantastical, increasingly involved with death and decay,” Crewdson said, emphasizing his point with images of a seagull drinking polluted water and a decaying leg surrounded by thorny vines and worms.

After finishing “Natural Wonder,” “I decided to move out of New York and make a series of pictures returning back to a small town,” Crewdson said. This second series, “Hover,” consists of blackand-white photographs taken from the elevated perspective of a crane. Its subjects include a woman planting flowers along a road and a man using sod to close his street, which Crewdson noted was intended to show the man’s desire to connect with his neighbors.

Crewdson also showed a small series of photographs focusing on fireflies. “I always thought the light of fireflies was so beautiful, since it’s a mating call. I love the idea of light as desire, of light as a narrative code,” Crewdson said, adding that he initially disliked the pictures but was able to appreciate them 15 years later.

“I realized they were exactly right and beautiful in all their flaws. They were elemental, simple,” Crewdson said.

After completing “Hover,” Crewdson said, he realized he “wanted to return to color but use lighting in a more articulate way.”

This desire led to his next series, “Twilight,” which uses artificial lighting

and the light of a setting sun “to create a psychological effect,” Crewdson said. He was interested in exploring the “idea of being between here and there, day and night,” he added.

Crewdson said he began taking interior photographs on a soundstage for “Twilight,” because he wanted “more control in terms of lighting and the color of the wallpaper — every detail.”

The use of a soundstage allowed Crewdson to “start from nothing” and create pictures directly from his imagination, he said, adding that he looks to movies as references when creating the scenes.

At the event, Crewdson next exhibited “Beneath the Roses.” It was the largest-scale production Crewdson had ever done, he said, but the narrative moments of the pictures became smaller despite the growth in production.

“The pictures revolved around very small details,” Crewdson said.

He frequently used cars with open doors in the series to highlight the central themes of “rootlessness” and travel, he said.

Crewdson also presented behindthe-scenes shots of his lighting, rain machines, soundstage and picture concepts, as well as documentary footage showing how the pictures were set up.

He ended the lecture displaying recent black-and-white photographs of empty movie lots in Rome, calling this final series “a love letter to documentary photography.”

Crewdson also discussed his creative process and motivation with the audience.

“I’m interested in trying to find uncanny sensations, in looking into the familiar or ordinary and finding something that’s unexpectedly wondrous or terrifying,” Crewdson said, adding that his central interest is “an exploration of my own psychological anxieties and fears.”

Separation from his subjects is also important to Crewdson. “The act of making a picture is an act of separating yourself from your surroundings, an idea that fascinates my work,” Crewdson said.

“It’s the feeling of being there but not there — of peering in on a world you feel alienated from.”

“In all of these domestic spaces, I never have any real intimate contact with the subjects,” he added. “It’s like a stage set.”

The art of Crewdson’s photographs comes “from the collision (of) the need to make a perfect world and the impossibility of doing so,” he said. “I’m thankful for the moment when the picture comes together, when everything becomes silent and still.”

Olivia Fialkow ’14, an organizer of the event, said she and the rest of the Student Creative Arts Council — including Clara Zevi ’15, who largely spearheaded the lecture’s organization — felt “incredibly proud to have him here at Brown” and lauded his “incredibly relevant” work as representative of “a more contemporary vision” than other artists the Council has brought to campus.

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4 feature » MCM, from page 1 the search engine’s website. The 13part minimovie “I Love Alaska,” — told through her AOL searches and voiced over images of Alaska — tracks three months in the life of an obese, menopausal woman, known as user No. 711391, as she has an affair and her lover promptly leaves her.

“I Love Alaska” is a staple of the introductory course MCM 0110: Introduction to the Theory and Analysis of Modern Culture and Media.

“Apparently it’s critically acclaimed,” said Eddie Mansius ’17, who is currently enrolled in the course. “But I want that hour of my life back.”

Gus Longer ’15, an MCM concentrator, said he fondly remembers watching the film in another introductory class. “It’s amazing the way that some people use the Internet!” he exclaimed.

“Watching it was an incredible, humanizing experience,” said Edward Brown ’17, also currently enrolled in the course. “It teaches us how the things we do and actions we take define us.”

The strange, evocative “I Love Alaska” epitomizes the polarizing effects of Brown’s MCM department — inspiring curiosity and passion on one end and confusion or even vehemence on the other. MCM is often considered Brown’s most enigmatic, parodied and misunderstood department.

Unclarity The department evolved out of two insurgent programs in the 1970s — semiotics and modern literature and society, said Phil Rosen, professor of modern culture and media.

It emerged at a time of growing interest in critical and cultural theory in academia, said Lynne Joyrich, graduate studies director of MCM. The University was one of the first colleges in the nation to offer a program that analyzed the intersections and operations of multiple media forms, she added.

“We were a leader,” Rosen said.

“There was nothing like us.”

Rosen admits the MCM department is not as distinctive as it once

was, as many colleges across America either have already developed or are currently developing similar programs.

But Brown’s department continues to innovate, he said.

MCM offers two tracks: Track I, which is grounded in theory, and Track II, which is grounded in production.

“There’s a misperception that theory is pie in the sky, airy verbiage, just making up words or changing what old words do,” Rosen said. “But a lot of what we teach is very crude, very practical.”

Many students at Brown either dismiss or do not entirely understand the MCM department, said Blake Beaver ’14, an MCM concentrator.

“They probably study stuff about culture,” guessed Alfie SubiottoMarques ’16, a computer science concentrator. When asked to elaborate on the kind of culture the department studies, he responded, “modern culture ... and media.”

The MCM department is difficult to define in part because of its amorphous sets of objects and texts, Longer said.

Last semester, the MCM department released a commencement video featuring students answering the question, “How do you explain your MCM concentration to family and friends?”

Longer said he has gone through different phases in his attempts to explain MCM to his family and friends outside of Brown, from cultural theory to film and literature. He now explains the department like this: “You have to be very careful about the way you think about things.”

Originary MCM 0110 has earned its reputation for its difficult, abstract coursework, Joyrich said.

Formerly divided into a two-semester-long introductory sequence, the new, condensed class is ambitious in scope, Beaver said.

Joyrich said MCM coursework in the introductory classes may seem simple at first. “It’s like the air you breathe.

If you study air in chemistry, it’s a whole lot harder,” she said. “It’s a whole new way of seeing.”

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013

This engagement with the larger cultural implications, perspectives and frameworks of the fully mediated world can overwhelm students.

“At times we go into theoretical freefall,” Beaver said.

While some students enjoy the challenge, others feel deluged by the unfamiliar, a phenomenon Longer attributes to the “steep learning curve” of MCM. He said he remembers sitting in his introductory class’s conference section, mostly composed of first-years.

“We’d all sit there and say, ‘Man, I don’t even know.’”

Mansius described the current iteration of the class as comprising “athletes, intellectuals, hipsters and people who fall in between the stereotypes.” The class’s diversity defied his preconceived expectation that the class would only attract “artsy” students, he said.

Brown said the class was surprisingly cerebral and abstract.

“It asks a lot of a person for an intro course,” he said. “But it challenges everything you believe about the universe.”

Mansius said he sees the theory he has learned in MCM as concretely applicable to everyday life.

“The signification of the phallus comes up a lot in conversation now,” he said.

Reastheticizes A widespread antagonism toward MCM seems to exist at Brown, Beaver said. While his family and friends outside of the University are rarely informed about the department, they are always open to his explanation — a mindset he attributes to their lack of exposure to cultural and media theory.

“But people here fundamentally don’t understand it and don’t want to hear about it,” Beaver said.

When Mansius talks about MCM with his friends, he said they either tune him out or dismiss him for being pretentious. “They don’t think I’m a real student,” he said.

At times, Mansius himself questions the discipline, most recently when he read Donna Haraway’s ‘A Cyborg

Manifesto,’ which uses cyborgs as a metaphor for social feminism.

“I wondered what possessed someone to write this bizarre thing,” he said.

“But then I’ll go to lecture, and they’ll explain it.”

When Beaver would reveal his intended MCM concentration during his first year, “people would completely dismiss me, saying, ‘Oh, that’s too classic,’ or ‘Oh, the hipster major,’” he said.

Beaver added that students often assumed his choice of concentration was linked to his family’s income level.

These assumptions came from across the board — especially from humanities majors, he said.

Some students devalue MCM as a “useful” concentration, more so than they do the rest of the humanities.

“You mean how the state and the ideological state apparatuses are only trying to valorize some disciplines over others so that we can regain world dominance and American exceptionalism?” Longer said. “It’s not something I think about.”

Longer entered Brown intending to concentrate in classics but chose MCM at the end of his first year. He still has friends who vehemently hate MCM, he said. “I came out to my parents with my proclivities toward the theoretical and mediated,” he said. “But they still love me.”

Longer paused, smiling. “But my father does occasionally look at me and say…‘have you thought about accounting?’”

Overinterpretation Infamous for its tendency to play fast and loose with lexicography, the MCM department has inspired some degree of mockery from students both within and outside the concentration.

The fluidity of MCM’s relationship with language prompted Emma Steele ’15, a student in the introductory course and an MCM concentrator, to create the twitter handle @mcmwords.

From “words made up by mcm,” the handle’s official title, Steele tweets words found nowhere in dictionaries but heard in the introductory MCM

course, including but not limited to: unclarity, reastheticizes and representament.

“We sometimes need to be better about poking fun at ourselves,” Steele wrote in an email to The Herald.

Mansius said he and his friends check @mcmwords during class to see if anything from the esoteric lecture was added during class.

“When we’re typing up notes, half the page is underlined in red because none of the words the professor uses are real,” he added.

But Mansius acknowledged what he sees as the necessity of these invented words.

“The theory is so dense and difficult to communicate that we have to create our own words to create these ideas,” he said.

“It’s easy to parody, but it’s always been easy to parody advanced intellectual work,” Rosen said.

Joyrich said she found the Twitter funny but noted that many cultural theory departments in colleges across the nation take similar liberties with coining words for their purposes.

“All of us, as people and thinkers, are mediating through language,” Beaver said. “When people create neologisms, (the Twitter) is actually showing how language is constructed.” He added that he believes the author is unaware of the Twitter’s instructional function, it is nonetheless valid.

“It’s a Twitter trying to be witty, but what it really shows it that nothing means anything,” he said.

Indeed, many students find it hard to articulate what draws them to MCM. For Longer and Mansius, it’s film. For Brown, it’s deconstructing social constructs. For Beaver, it’s one short film he saw in an MCM course — cobbled together from found, damaged film, the movie depicted schoolchildren following a nun around a corner in extreme slow-motion, the image warped “like someone was spilling acid on it.”

“Nowhere else in the world are people so actively engaged with silly and weird and haunting things,” Beaver said. “I knew I had to be a part of it.”

COURTESY OF SOPHIE PURDOM

Brown’s Climate and Development lab, which serves as an on-campus think tank, sent undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members to the climate conference.

» CLIMATE, from page 8 states. “You were in the conference the entire time.”

Students from several other universities, including Duke University, the University of Waterloo, Washington University in St. Louis and Yale were all interested in hearing about CDL’s projects, publications and relationships with NGOs, Purdom said.

Founded in 2010 by Timmons Roberts, professor of environmental studies and sociology, the CDL serves as an on-campus think tank, offering Brown students “transformational learning experiences through the production of

cutting-edge research and participation in the annual U.N. climate change negotiations,” according to the CDL website.

“I saw a couple other university professors bringing students to the U.N. climate negotiations, and I thought Brown students would be eager to have the experience of attending and being there with a purpose,” Timmons wrote in an email to The Herald. “The response from the students has been overwhelming, and the support we have received from across the University has made it possible. We are now the largest student group at the negotiations.”

The CDL specifically researches how climate change is impacting the 48 least

developed countries as defined by the U.N. and Latin America. The lab also examines the relationship of the U.S. to international carbon reduction efforts, Purdom said. Students involved in the lab also approach climate change from business, justice, policy and science perspectives.

Some members of the CDL are still at the COP, which is set to conclude at the end of the week.

“It was really valuable getting these insights about how these international political processes work and also being able to talk with different people within this sphere of international climate policy,” Madden said.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013

science & research 5

Study finds minorities receive subpar anxiety care Ethnic minorities are less likely to receive adequate treatment, regardless of socioeconomic status

By ELAINA WANG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Ethnic minorities are less likely to receive adequate treatment for anxiety disorders than non-minorities, according to the results of a new study from University researchers.

The researchers evaluated a number of different factors, such as the income and education level of patients receiving treatment for anxiety, concluding that minority patients received worse anxiety treatment than non-minority patients even after controlling for other related variables.

“Minority status was a unique factor. It wasn’t about income. It wasn’t about educational level. It wasn’t insurance,” said Risa Weisberg, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior and one of the study’s lead authors.

In fact, patients in the lower income brackets actually got better treatment for their anxiety, she added.

“Being a minority member made you less likely to get good therapy, but being in low income made you more likely to get good therapy,” Weisberg said.

The disparity in adequate treatment along ethno-racial lines is a phenomenon “I would think health care policymakers would want to attend to without delay,” wrote David Barlow, a Boston University professor of psychology and psychiatry who was not involved with the study, in an email to The Herald.

“Community attitude is part of it, trust of the system is part of it,” Ethan Moitra, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Alpert Medical School and one of the paper’s co-authors, said of the disparities in treatment.

Research has also shown that mental health care providers often approach decision-making differently depending on the patient’s background, he added.

Over the course of the study, the researchers observed an increase in the overall number of patients receiving adequate treatment for anxiety.

But this increase is deceiving, Weisberg said, adding that it does not reflect a true rise in the level of adequate treatment but is instead due to a large number of patients trying treatment for a short period of time.

Defining adequate treatment was a major challenge in the research, due to the lack of material available on these standards.

“For the most part, people in the

field really haven’t taken the time to define these treatments,” Moitra said.

“Ultimately, the priority for treatments may vary depending on the individual and the severity of their needs.”

The study based treatment adequacy on two factors: medication and therapy.

Patients had to be taking a medication known to be effective for an anxiety disorder, Weisberg said. This drug had to be taken “at a dose that experts in the field would consider adequate” and “consecutively for at least eight weeks.”

In addition to medication, the quality of patients’ therapy sessions was also taken into account. “Just because somebody’s doing some sort of behavioral or cognitive technique doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be quality treatment,” Moitra said.

“We really got very specific as to what was going on inside of these treatment sessions.”

“The good news of the study is that most patients eventually received potentially adequate treatment for their disorders,” wrote Boston University Professor of Psychology Stefan Hofmann, who was not involved in the study, in an email to The Herald.

“The bad news is that cognitive behavioral therapy, the most costeffective treatment — especially in the long term — was rarely provided,” Hofmann wrote.

Cognitive behavioral therapy employs talk therapy sessions, rather than drug regimens, to address behavior and mood disorders like anxiety.

The study was a “naturalistic, observational study where we collected information about patients’ anxiety symptoms, treatment and functioning, without us intervening on any of those factors,” Weisberg said. Unlike many other observational studies performed in a medical context, this study looks “at people longitudinally, and that’s rarely been done in these naturalistic treatment studies before,” she added.

Because the study’s results come from “a sample of convenience” — with respondents surveyed exclusively in New England and in a self-selecting manner — it is unclear if these results could be generalized to the entire population of primary-care patients, Weisberg added.

“Clearly, disseminating adequate care, especially cognitive behavioral therapy, should be one of the most important priorities of any initiative to improve access to mental health care,” Hofmann wrote. “This not only reduces the suffering of millions of Americans but also saves the taxpayers an enormous amount of money through the reduction of indirect cost.”

Lecture links biotechnology to capitalism The talk by Hallam Stevens is the first in a series engaging science with capitalist concepts

By EMILY WOOLDRIDGE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Understanding biotechnology is impossible without considering capitalism, said Hallam Stevens, an assistant professor at Nanyang Technical University in Singapore, during a lecture Wednesday night.

A small group of students and faculty members gathered in Barus and Holley 190 to hear his talk, part of the Science and Capitalism speaker series sponsored by the Program in Science and Technology Studies.

During the lecture, Stevens drew from his book on bioinformatics — the use of computer science tools to analyze biological data — published two weeks ago.

Stevens explored the development of bioinformatics and its relationship with computers, focusing on the story of Intelligenetics, a start-up company founded by Stanford University researchers. Intelligenetics created

» MARS, from page 1 fragments — 250 parts per million — is not particularly dense, it is enough to be able to differentiate Mars fragments from the Phobos sample, Ramsley said.

Mars and Phobos are in “the same shooting gallery,” which means they both get hit by about the same number of asteroids and projectiles, he added.

Phobos gets hit directly from external projectiles about 200 times more often than it gets hit indirectly from Mars ejecta. Based on a model of Earth’s own moon, Ramsley was able to calculate that about 3 percent of Phobos’ outer surface will contain projectiles from parts of the solar system beyond Mars.

He then used these data to figure out the amount of Mars material on the surface of its moon.

Calculations from this study matched ones from other studies that used different methods to estimate the concentration of Mars material on

software for computing nucleotide sequences of DNA that helped biologists plan experiments, increasing their productivity.

Since computers started as business machines primarily used to track accounts and payroll, some capitalist concepts — such as productivity and acceleration — carried over when computers were applied to biology, Stevens said.

Almost all the students and faculty members who attended the event asked Stevens questions, engaging in a conversation that lasted almost as long as the lecture itself.

Facilitating such discussions is one of the lecture series’ primary goals, said Assistant Professor of History Lukas Rieppel, who organized the series. “It’s a way to bring different people from campus into a shared conversation around ideas that a lot of people are interested in,” he added.

“Now I have something to talk to my sister about over Thanksgiving,” Rachel Knecht GS told The Herald after the lecture. “She’s studying biophysics and I’m a historian — sometimes I feel like we are speaking different languages.”

Rieppel said he organized the series

after arriving on campus this fall. He is currently working on a book that uses dinosaurs as a tool to talk about the cultural history of capitalism, an expansion of his dissertation, he added.

The lecture series will bring in three more speakers next semester who will engage with a range of topics that fit with the science and capitalism theme, Rieppel said.

He said he believes the intersection of science and capitalism is an important area to study because it offers a different perspective on the economy that goes beyond the theories people usually use to describe it, such as supply and demand, he said. Taking into account that “science is shaped by cultural forces” gives new insight, Rieppel said.

The study of science and capitalism is also applicable to current times because “so much of modern capitalism is dependent on science (and) technical innovation,” Rieppel said, adding that he believes the field has become especially popular in the past five years because of the financial crisis.

“Once the system stops working, you realize it’s there,” Rieppel said. “It’s like your body — ­ when something doesn’t work, you become very aware of everything.”

Phobos, Ramsley said. “That almost never happens.”

The study and the future mission are “going to really help us answer the question of where Phobos came from,” Head said. “It’s a big deal.”

Scientists are not sure whether Phobos is an asteroid that has been captured in Mars’ orbit or a piece of Mars itself that got blown off in an impact, Head said.

If Phobos was originally an asteroid from outside the Martian system, it is far likelier to have water, Ramsley said.

But if it formed as a result of “a giant impact very early in Mars’ history,” then the probability of finding water on Phobos is very slim, because the heat from the impact would have dried out any water that may have been there.

“It really comes down to where it came from,” he said. “I happen to subscribe to the hypothesis that it originated from a giant impact.”

The mission has been a “long-term

quest” that will be a “two-for-one” because it will return samples of both Phobos and Mars, Head said.

The project “has been the result of a long history of interaction” between the U.S. and Russian space agencies, he said. Head first became involved with the Soviet space program in the early 1970s with the help of former University President Howard Swearer and Director Emeritus of the Center for Foreign Policy Development Mark Garrison.

“Our cooperation has grown out of those early days,” he said.

Head is currently working closely with his Russian colleagues to ensure the success of their second attempt to land on Phobos. The engine failure during the first attempt was a major setback.

“There’s a queue,” Head said. The mission “got bumped out and had to go to the back of the line.” But he is confident that the mission will take place in mid-2020, he added.

comics School Daze | Christina Tapiero

A & B | MJ Esquivel

6 commentary

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013

DIAMONDS & COAL A diamond to Baxter, the new robot the Department of Computer Science acquired, who is learning to help bake pies. Somebody get Pixar on the phone — this screams “Wall-E 2: Wall-E Does Thanksgiving.”

A diamond to Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73, who said of the Common App site glitches early applicants faced, “Ultimately, people were able to apply, and that’s good news.” Good news indeed. Without first-years, who would we eat in the event of another Winter Storm Nemo?

Coal to the student who praised the Undergraduate Finance Board’s decision to provide funding to student groups for food, noting that her group paid $500 to roast a lamb on a spit during its Easter celebration. We don’t want to lamb-poon a cultural tradition, but that makes our hearts bleat.

A diamond to the first-year who said, “Every time I get one of those emails that says we’re working on the Wi-Fi in your building, I smile inside.” Aw. We love that youthful optimism.

Coal to the first-year who said of the older men at the Whiskey Republic, “I was slightly wary of them creeping up on us, but then I realized they seem so lost. I felt bad for them.” Be careful — pity and alcohol is a dangerous combination. That’s how we ended up taking home a wounded raccoon last Friday night.

A N G E L IA WA N G

A diamond to Ken Ramsley, a visiting investigator in the School of Engineering, who said, “We have a really hard time getting within a few miles of where we want to get to in space.” #SandraBullockProblems.

Coal to the student in a Modern Culture and Media course who said, “When we’re typing up notes, half the page is underlined in red because none of the words the professor uses are real.” What is “real” anyway? Isn’t it kind of normative to assume that red symbolizes the unclarity of linguistic representament of the scientificity of structuration?

A diamond to Andy Warhol, who once said his series of silent films that are currently on display at the Rhode Island School of Design museum “help the audiences get more acquainted with themselves.” Who knew his work had so much in common with Nudity in the Upspace?

Coal to David Graves, the National Grid spokesperson who said of the explosions in the Jewelry District caused by excess carbon dioxide, “The force of this gas dislodged the manhole covers.” LOL. The ground basically farted.

EDITORS’ NOTE

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

UCS referendum offers students a voice To the Editor: Zach Ingber’s ’15 recent opinions piece (“UCS should stay focused on Brown,” Nov. 18) was well-meaning but regrettably misguided. The piece makes a strong argument against a “UCS dictum” related to Citizens United, and the author correctly states that such a unilateral stand would be beyond the Undergraduate Council of Students’ authority.

But what Ingber fails to understand is that both the proposal and the ongoing debate surrounding UCS action are pushing for a referendum, which is far from a unilateral dictum.

This referendum would be a tool for students to express their opinions as individuals, using UCS as a platform, to tell the Council whether to take a stand against Citizens United.

It would be a direct expression of opinions on campus and

more representative of student opinion than any decision made within UCS — if anything, a decision to not allow a referendum seems to be the more unilateral form of action.

It seems a convenient side-step that Ingber would choose to criticize the referendum and disregard simple facts. Ingber regrettably missed the open event that discussed the referendum and would not have misread its objective had he attended.

National politics has campus relevance, and even if one argues that it doesn’t, the students that UCS represents have opted to make it so — just ask members of Brown Divest Coal.

UCS is a forum for student representation, and a referendum is just one tool for making student voices heard.

Uday Shriram ’15 Vice president, Brown Political Forum

An article in Monday’s Herald (“Fish Co. to WhisCo: Local bar upgrades weeknight thrills,” Nov. 17) contained quotes attributed to anonymous sources obtained in a manner that did not adhere to The Herald’s ethical standards.

The quotes have been removed from the online version of the story.

Q U O T E O F T H E D AY

Steps have been taken to ensure that both the writer and editor involved fully understand The Herald’s ethical standards and to prevent any similar violations from arising in the future. We apologize to our readers.

“The signification of the phallus comes up a lot in conversation now.” ­— Eddie Mansius ’17

Editors’ notes are written by The Herald’s editors-in-chief.

See mcm, page 1.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013

commentary 7

Should the University punish the students who interrupted the Ray Kelly lecture?

No: Protesters were Yes: Protesters must be standing for racial justice held accountable free speech, racism and the ethics of modern society.

It seems to me that through the protesters’ passion and experiences, they communicated opinions columnist something that many of us had not yet discovered for ourselves — stop and frisk is unconstitutional On Oct. 29, student activists and members of and harmful to communities. the local community stood up and spoke over Beyond this fulfillment of the Brown mission New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s statement, their bold actions resulted in wide meplanned lecture. Their personal narratives and dia coverage of Kelly’s planned speech that amquotes eventually resulted in the speech’s cancel- plified this lesson. The New York Times, CNN, lation. the Huffington Post, Fox News and dozens of mePeople who support the punishment of these dia outlets carried stories about the protest and student activists highlight the therefore brought this essential fact that the students violated discussion to the nation.

“An essential the “free inquiry” clause set Recently, when Melissa requirement to forth in the University’s Code Harris-Perry of MSNBC disof Student Conduct and in our cussed the actions of the prothe ‘spirit of free mission statement. I see where testers, she launched into a inquiry’ in any those people come from. lengthy debate about the ethcommunity is that ics behind stop and frisk. LookWhen I heard that the lecture was canceled, I was angry and ing at statistics from the New every individual disappointed that a few stuYork Attorney General’s office, feels safe enough Harris-Perry concluded that on dents could ruin a chance for others to form opinions about top of the policy being unconto venture into Kelly. That was until I realized stitutional, “stop and frisk does that community, the issues tied to this event are not stop crime” and is “harmful larger than just listening to a both physically and to black communities.” Maybe single speaker — they are unmore people felt empathy for intellectually.” avoidably tied to our fellow the victims of stop and frisk as students. Because of the activists’ personal expe- a result of the news coverage. Harris-Perry’s nariences, their positive intentions and the fact that tional discussion is so much more important to they actually facilitated greater intellectual inqui- the health of our nation and the millions of peory, it would be entirely misguided for the Univer- ple who have been unjustly treated in New York sity to punish those who stood up. than 200 people sitting quietly, doing the “safe” In the days after the talk, I spoke to black thing and keeping our university out of the naand Latino students who lived in Harlem or the tional spotlight.

Bronx, and I saw them relive memories of their Not only did the protesters spark a national teenage siblings walking the city streets. They re- discussion, they also sent a clear message to the counted how Kelly’s policies encouraged the po- local community. At Kelly’s talk, there were a sizlice to treat them like criminals solely based on able number of white male police officers seated their race and age. I heard someone describe prominently in the front two rows. Among those having siblings with strong opinions on what is officers was Providence Commissioner of Pubright and wrong in society — who may burst at lic Safety Steven Pare. The presence of the comthe injustice of being patted down for the alleged missioner and his officers was threatening to the crime of having dark skin and walking home community protesters, who feared that the Unifrom school. versity was elevating both Kelly and his controI had a visceral reaction to their anecdotes, in versial policies. By standing up, they sent a clear which I imagined my friends walking back from message to Providence law enforcement that our class and a police officer pulling them aside, ask- local community would not support the impleing them to identify themselves, patting them mentation of similar policies. down, going through their pockets and rifling An essential requirement to the “spirit of free through their bags. I realized that my protected inquiry” in any community is that every individsuburban life never exposed me to the experi- ual feels safe enough to venture into that comences of my minority friends and their families in munity, both physically and intellectually. Those New York living in constant fear of our govern- members of our community — our friends, coment. Only when I saw their bodies shrink with workers and neighbors — who protested Kelly shame as they talked about the police in their acted non-violently in the interest of their safety neighborhoods did I really understand what I and the safety of others. They promoted a discusthought I already knew. If Kelly had calmly lec- sion that was inevitably more effective than Ray tured to that tiny auditorium, I would not have Kelly’s speech. They should not be punished. been able to have the impassioned conversation Many people in our generation, myself inthat led me to that realization. cluded, are often too disillusioned to make their Brown’s mission statement declares, “The voices heard. They believe that they cannot mission of Brown University is to serve the com- change anything and that the powers that be will munity, the nation and the world by discovering, not respect their opinion. Punishing these indicommunicating and preserving knowledge and viduals for standing up for New York’s commuunderstanding in a spirit of free inquiry.” nities only feeds this disillusionment and deepFor the thousands of students, faculty mem- ens the divide between the establishment and the bers and administrators in our community who leaders of tomorrow. Let these brave people go. were not in the auditorium as Kelly spoke, the actions of the protesters called attention to an issue that many of us would have otherwise brushed Nico Enriquez ’16 is thankful to those in aside. Their defiance spurred our campus into our community who stood up. He can be weeks of discussion about “proactive policing,” reached at nenriquez3@gmail.com.

NICO ENRIQUEZ

the future. It is possible that these speakers will be hesitant to come to Brown after hearing about the way Kelly was treated.

If the University does nothing, it will effecopinions columnist tively condone the protesters’ behavior, which would be unacceptable for the administration to Over the past several weeks, Brown has been im- do. Nobody is forcing any Brown student to agree mersed in a discussion centered on the Ray Kelly with, or attend, any lecture on campus. But for incident that has brought to light many impor- many students, these events are one of the great tant tenets of the University, including freedom benefits of attending a university that can host of speech, social justice and the free exchange of such high-profile speakers. The suppression of ideas. The Herald has printed columns and let- intellectual diffusion must never be tolerated. ters from students, alums and faculty members Finally, aside from what Paxson referred to with a multitude of viewpoints and ideas regard- in her email as “the extraordinary nature of these ing the matter. events,” the actions of the students were a clear The most important point violation of the Code of Stuthat has consistently been made “The ends do not dent Conduct. In the section is that this is not a discussion of on “Protest and Demonstraalways justify the tion Guidelines,” unacceptthe validity of stop and frisk. It is a discussion of how members able forms of protest include means, and the of Brown’s student body acted interrupting or halting a lecUniversity must in response to their opinions of ture, a debate or any public hold the protesters forum. All Brown students Kelly and his policies. Therefore, the question of punishment agreed to abide by this code accountable.” should be derived from examinprior to matriculating, and ing the actions taken by the protesters, indepen- they must be held accountable for violating it. dent of what they were protesting.

The extraordinary nature of these events does not First of all, the actions of the protesters were provide sufficient cause for violating the code. an unacceptable form of discourse. As many One of the arguments in support of the prohave already pointed out, the disruptive protests testers’ actions is that the context of the situation silenced the voices of many students who wanted required a more extreme form of action and justo challenge Kelly with questions they had pre- tified what happened. Many people at the forum, pared. It is not acceptable for some students to including a professor, supported the protesters feel that their voices are more important than on this basis. those of their peers, especially in the context of But the emotions and opinions of this small a university. group of people do not warrant impeding the Furthermore, the forum that was held the flow of ideas, silencing the voices of other stufollowing day continued this unacceptable form dents and violating the code of conduct. And as of discourse. Several students made highly caus- demonstrated by a recent Herald poll, 73 percent tic remarks toward faculty members and peers, of the student body agrees with me (“Poll shows with one student accusing a Brown police officer mixed opinions on Ray Kelly, coal divestment,” of being a racist and another directly referring to Nov. 6).

President Christina Paxson as a terrorist. This is The majority of the student body also agrees not an appropriate way to express grievances and that stop and frisk is an unacceptable policy, one underscores a lack of respect toward the student with repercussions to which many of us cannot body and the University that should not be tol- fully relate. But the protesters crossed the line. erated.

The ends do not always justify the means, and the Second, as many have pointed out, the stu- University must hold the protesters accountable. dents’ actions were a clear violation of Brown’s Finally, I think Brown should consider invitmission: to foster the free exchange of ideas. It is ing Kelly back to speak. I understand that some entirely acceptable that students protested out- students have visceral reactions toward the man side the lecture hall — they have the right to voice and his ideology. But this is a step the University their opinions through protest. But it is not ac- could take to reinforce its mission to support the ceptable that they proceeded to disrupt and ulti- free exchange of ideas, even if — or perhaps esmately force the cancellation of the lecture. pecially when — they are controversial or upsetSpeakers, especially controversial ones, are ting. an important medium of discourse and are crucial to both the exchange of ideas on campus and the promotion of students’ intellectual curiosity.

It is unacceptable that the group not only shut Daniel Delaney ’15 can be reached for down the lecture but also potentially jeopardized comment at Brown’s ability to host controversial speakers in daniel_delaney@brown.edu.

DANIEL DELANEY

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daily herald sports friday THE BROWN

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Bikofsky ’15 scorches the nets in victories The guard has poured in 10 of 13 three-pointers this season, a league-best percentage

By ALEXANDRA CONWAY SPORTS STAFF WRITER

EMILY GILBERT / HERALD

Led by defensive ends Michael Yules ’14 and John Bumpus ’14, the Bruno football defense has sacked opposing quarterbacks 31 times this year, the second-most in the Ivy League.

FOOTBALL

Bears head to Big Apple for season finale John Spooney ’14 and company look to salvage a winning season against a winless Columbia team

By CALEB MILLER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Coming off two close conference losses, the football team travels to Columbia this weekend for its final game of 2013.

The team’s 26 seniors will put their pads on for the last time Saturday, looking to secure Bruno (5-4, Ivy 2-4) its sixth consecutive winning season.

Head Coach Phil Estes said the team has not specifically talked about this contest’s status as the season’s last game, but defensive end Michael Yules ’14 said the end of the year is on all the players’ minds.

“Everyone’s thinking about it,” he said. “We love playing with each other, and it will be a really fun and special day to put the pads on one last time.”

It has been a roller coaster of a year for the Bears. After a strong 3-1 start, Bruno gave away a 17-point lead in a loss to Ivy-leading Princeton (8-1, 6-0).

Wins over Cornell (2-7, 1-5) and Penn (4-5, 3-3) propelled the squad back into the Ancient Eight mix, but the last two weeks have seen Bruno lose heartbreakers to Yale (5-4, 3-3) and Dartmouth (5-4, 4-2), putting Estes’ 12th winning

season in jeopardy.

Running back John Spooney ’14 has been the offensive spark plug this year, leading the Ivy League in rushing yards per game. Spooney has rushed 100 yards in each of the past four games and needs just 16 yards to break the 1,000yard mark for the year. Performances such as his 232-yard outing against Penn showed Spooney can be a gamechanger, but Estes said he cannot carry the whole load.

“We’ve learned that when you’ve got a guy that’s talented like Spooney, you can’t throw the whole team on his shoulders,” he said. “It takes a team to get it done.”

If the team’s passing comes together, it could be a long game for the Columbia defense. Quarterback Patrick Donnelly ’14 ranks among the league’s top quarterbacks — second in completion percentage and third in yards per game — but has had some troubles the last two weeks. Donnelly’s numbers against Yale and Dartmouth were still impressive, but he overthrew receivers in some big spots.

“He needs to stay in the pocket and trust his protection,” Estes said of his signal-caller after referring to him as “antsy” following last weekend’s loss to Dartmouth. “He needs to trust himself that he is good enough to throw the ball downfield.”

Fans of big-hitting, hard-nose

football should keep their eyes locked on the Lions’ backfield. Columbia has surrendered more sacks than any other team in the Ivy League, and Bruno features one of the conference’s stingiest defensive fronts, bookended by sack machines. Rushing one side is Yules, who ranks second in the Ivies in sacks, and rushing the other is John Bumpus ’14, who ranks fourth in the same category. If that doesn’t scare Columbia ballcarriers, linebacker Adewole Oyalowo ’14 has become known for his vicious hits and has the eighth-most tackles for loss in the conference.

All this leads to a Bruno defense that is “licking their chops,” Yules said. He added that the Bears expect to pin their ears back and pressure the quarterback in hopes of getting an early lead.

But a winless Columbia team could be dangerous if overlooked. Two years ago, the Lions did not win any of their first nine games but upended Bruno in New York in the last weekend of the season. Estes said that infamous loss to Columbia plays no factor this year, because the Bears have a completely new team.

And Spooney expressed little fear that history would repeat itself.

“We’ve learned … to take teams seriously,” he said. “We will go into Columbia with wisdom from a team full of seniors and a healthy respect for this Columbia team.”

Sophie Bikofsky ’15 has been a leader on the women’s basketball team since day one. Last weekend, she scored a careerhigh 23 points as she led the Bears to a 64-52 win over Saint Peter’s College, a performance that earned her the title Ivy League Co-Player of the Week.

The junior guard, who hails from Newton, Mass., has started all three games so far this season and is the team’s leading scorer. Bikofsky’s ability to net shots from behind the arc has been impressive, and she currently holds a conference-best 10-for-17 for threepointers.

For her sharp shooting skills in leading the Bears, Bikofsky has been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

Herald: When did you start playing basketball?

Bikofsky: Ever since I was really little. I always played a bunch of sports through my elementary years, like soccer and lacrosse, and then I started to really focus on basketball in seventh grade.

Why did you choose Brown?

I fell in love with the girls and the coaching staff, and the school is amazing. … I’m also close to home, and I’m really close with my family so that was a big factor.

What are you concentrating in and why?

Community health — I’m not really sure exactly what I want to do with it, but I am really interested in the field,

and my mom is a nurse.

Do you find balancing academics with athletics challenging?

I definitely think you have to find that balance, but once you find it, you know you only have certain amounts of time to do your work because you have practice or a game or you have to sleep.

I definitely have it down by now, but at the beginning it was definitely hard.

How was the game against Saint Peter’s, scoring so many points and leading the team to the win?

It was really cool and fun. It was great that we won. … It was our first team win, so that was huge. We played well as a team, and we won last night, too, so it’s been a really fun season so far and hopefully it will just keep going.

Would you want to continue playing basketball after college?

I played in the Maccabiah Games this summer, which is in Israel. A few of my former teammates play overseas now in Israel professionally so that seems like a cool opportunity. … I love the country. It would be a cool option if it presented itself.

Do you have any pre-game rituals?

Yes, we have a ton of team ones. We chant certain things at certain periods of our warm-up and in the locker room.

And I always take a nap in between pregame meal, which is always four hours before our game, and the game.

What are your interests off the court?

I ... volunteer at Hasbro’s Children Hospital once a week in the pediatric oncology clinic, so that’s been really fun.

I love hanging out with my friends, baking, being with my family, shopping and just relaxing.

Students attend U.N. climate conference The University sent two delegations to the U.N.’s annual climate change meeting in Warsaw

By ADAM HOFFMAN STAFF WRITER

The University sent two student delegations over the past two weeks to the 19th Convention of Parties, an annual meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which serves as a platform for negotiations and assessments of international progress in reducing carbon emissions.

The meeting, which was held this year in Warsaw, Poland, drew various stakeholders in the discussion over climate change, including representatives from 194 countries,

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

non-governmental organizations and coal companies.

The Climate and Development Lab, an on-campus research group, sent undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty members who are all involved in research projects related to climate change to the meeting. Students gathered data for their projects through interviews with international delegates and attended supplementary presentations on topics ranging from deforestation to coal divestment.

The convention was formed in 1992 as a global effort to combat global warming. The first COP meeting took place three years later, and the Kyoto Protocols, which hold developed countries legally accountable to emission reduction targets, were passed by COP in 1997. With the protocols set to expire in 2020, this year’s COP discussions focused on the need to develop and ratify a new agreement by 2015, said Keith Madden ’14, a delegate and double concentrator in environmental

studies and international relations.

“It was not a vacation. We didn’t sleep at all,” said Sophie Purdom ’16, who is investigating carbon reduction from the perspective of corporate sustainability and social responsibility.

“We would wake up at 6, take the bus to negotiations, meet with people, go to presentations, schmooze, forget to eat, pitch the CDL and share the cool stuff we are doing at Brown all day with no breaks.”

It was fascinating “to see how other countries think and talk about climate change,” Madden said. He said his project focuses on Latin America’s role in the climate negotiations and the extent to which “indigenous peoples’ voices are manifested in the government’s negotiating.”

“Yes, I was in Poland, but I honestly could have been anywhere in the entire world,” said Olivia Santiago ’16, whose research project investigates climate refugees in small-island developing » See CLIMATE, page 4

KATIE LIEBOWITZ / HERALD

Sophie Bikofsky ’15, the women’s basketball team’s leading scorer, has shot a remarkable three-point percentage this season.