Monday, November 25, 2013

Page 1

Daily

THE BROWN

vol. cxlviii, no. 118

U. carbon emissions down 30.6 percent The U. has exceeded its benchmark of a 22 percent drop, according to a recent report By HANNAH KERMAN

Herald

since 1891

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Brown students consider marriage

Greek Council may halve budget

Female students expect to wed earlier than their male counterparts do, while gay students expect to get married later than heterosexual students do. Question: “At what age do you expect to get married?” 18-24

25-29

30-34

I DON’T INTEND TO GET MARRIED NOT SURE 35-39

All students

Female

The proposal was in part a response to Delta Phi and Sigma Chi’s objections to old policies

Male

Heterosexual

By ZACH FREDERICKS

Gay

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

STAFF WRITER

Bisexual Note: Students who responded “I am already married” and “40 or older” were excluded from the graphic because they constituted less than 1.5 percent of respondents for each of the categories above. ADAM TOOBIN / HERALD

Poll unpacks marriage expectations Results revealed gaps in the expected age of marriage across genders and sexual orientations By MAGGIE LIVINGSTONE AND ANDREW SMYTH SENIOR STAFF WRITERS

By the time Ananya Bhatia-Lin ’16 reaches age 30, she hopes to be married with children. Getting hitched, she figures, is a means to creating a stable, environment for starting a family, and doing so at a younger age will make her an active, energetic mother, she said. And then there’s a simple biological fact. “I’m very afraid that all my good eggs are drying out,” she said. “I’m not going to have the energy to be a mother if I’m like 45 and slightly menopausal.”

Bhatia-Lin’s view demonstrates the variety of factors weighing on undergraduates’ marriage expectations. These concerns figured prominently in student responses to the question “At what age do you expect to get married?” in an undergraduate poll conducted by The Herald Sept. 30Oct. 1. According to the results, about 48 percent of students expect to marry between the ages of 25 and 29, and about 28 percent of students expect to marry between the ages of 30 and 34. Statistically significant differences in expected age of marriage were seen across gender and sexual orientation identities. These discrepancies may be tied to issues of child rearing, career viability and family history, according to both students and experts. Planning for marriage quickly becomes a conversation about cultural values, social expectations and a shifting political environment.

Gender gaps Fifty-nine percent of female undergraduates surveyed indicated they expect to be married before 29. Male undergraduates were less cohesive — 39 percent of males responded they expect to be married between the ages of 25 and 29 and 34 percent between the ages of 30 and 34. This age gap in marriage expectations between men and women has historic roots, said Carrie Spearin, visiting assistant professor in sociology. Because men traditionally had more opportunities to attend college and pursue careers than women, males tend to get married later in life, she added. “It doesn’t surprise me that much,” Spearin said. “The trend has been and continues to be that women get married at younger ages than men.” Biological reproduction concerns » See MARRIAGE, page 4

Greek Council Chair Michael Coates ’14 and Treasurer Alexander Sherry ’15 laid out a plan at a Sunday meeting of the Council to halve Greek Council’s budget — cutting it from about $7,000 to $3,300 a semester — and require houses with more than 30 members to pay a flat rate of $300 rather than $10 per dues-paying member. Coates and Sherry developed the proposal after Delta Phi and Sigma Chi threatened to withhold payments to the council this past Tuesday unless Greek Council reconsidered both its budget and how it determines the amount each house has to pay. “There were a number of things in the budget that were no longer necessary,” said Connor Grealy ’14, president of Sigma Chi and a Herald sports editor, who also proposed a budget to the council. The meeting centered around Greek Council’s current policy requiring all houses to pay $10 per member. Sigma Chi labeled this policy as problematic, since larger fraternities pay more than smaller ones, without receiving additional benefits. The new proposal sets a $300 maximum on the charge, preventing larger houses from incurring greater monetary burdens. » See GREEK, page 3

The Herald unveils 124th Editorial Board Following the 123rd Board’s announcement, the new leaders introduced their team By YVONNE DU TRIS LADY OF THE NIGHT

Against all odds and after much struggle, The Brown Daily Herald’s staff successfully infiltrated a heavily guarded CAV restaurant Friday night for an evening of high-class cheese and cracker consumption. The event also featured a vital announcement made by the members of the 123rd Editorial Board: the identities of their illustrious successors, who will officially take the

helm Jan. 1. University News Editor Eli Okun ’15, who will serve as editor-in-chief and president of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc., hails from Rockville, Md., and plans to produce a special first issue of The Herald focusing exclusively on the business transactions, court dealings and art preferences of Corporation Trustee Steven A. Cohen P’08 P’16. Okun has been known to spend many an evening crying over reruns of “Friday Night Lights,” and he may or may not complete his year on the editorial board, depending on whether he hears back about the video audition he submitted to be on “Survivor.” » See 124, page 2

APARNA BANSAL / HERALD

The 124th Editorial Board: Eli Okun ’15, Adam Toobin ’15, Maddie Berg ’15, Sona Mkrttchian ’15, Kate Nussenbaum ’15 and Mathias Heller ’15.

Fresh face

On thin ice

Drug debate

India’s former ambassador to the United States was named a Watson fellow

The men’s hockey team lost to both Cornell and Colgate University this weekend

Powers ’15 argues the war on drugs is more dangerous than are drugs themselves

UNIVERSITY NEWS, 3

SPORTS, 5

COMMENTARY, 7

weather

inside

The University has reduced its carbon emissions by 30.6 percent since 2007, putting it ahead of the schedule laid out in its 12-year plan, according to a sustainability progress report released earlier this semester. “We’re supposed to be at 22 percent — we’re at 30.6, so that’s the good news,” said Christopher Powell, director of the Office of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Initiatives at Facilities Management. But “as you get through a program like this, it gets harder and harder to make your goals — you’ve already uncovered the more obvious efficiency work.” The January 2008 sustainability plan calls on the University to reduce its carbon emissions by 42 percent by 2020. The University switched fuel sources at its main heat plant early in the implementation of its plan, moving from fuel oil to natural gas. The University has also upgraded the lighting in 91 buildings and refitted thermostats and steam valves across campus. These changes have helped Brown decrease carbon emissions, but Powell said the next steps are going to be “long-term investments,” using “deeper technologies.” Some of these potential technologies include processes that could reuse waste heat. A heat recovery chiller would take waste heat from a lab and convert it into thermal energy for the building, for example. Heating and cooling labs at Brown account for almost half the energy use of the entire campus, Powell said. “No matter how good we do at academic, administration buildings and dorms, if we don’t tackle the lab buildings we won’t get to that next level of greenhouse gas reduction,” Powell said. Another future project might include putting solar panels on the roof of the Rockefeller Library, Powell added. EmPOWER, Brown’s umbrella student environmental organization, has also been discussing the installation of solar panels on campus. The group is evaluating Young Orchard and Perkins Hall, said Jeff Baum » See CARBON, page 3

t o d ay

tomorrow

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47 / 38


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