THE
BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 15
since 1891
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014
Taveras unveils plan to Snowe discusses bipartisanship Former senator lectures close gender wage gap on problems of legislative If elected governor, Taveras will attempt to resolve wage disparity with state regulation By EMMA JERZYK SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Mayor Angel Taveras unveiled a threepronged proposal last week to close the gender wage gap as part of his gubernatorial campaign. The plan includes stricter penalties for businesses that violate pay equity laws and state workers’ pay equity audits and features a continued effort to appoint women to at least half the openings on state boards and commissions, according to a press release from the Taveras campaign. In Rhode Island, women working full time earn a median weekly wage of $746, whereas men working full time earn a median weekly wage of $917, according to the release. The current Rhode Island wage discrimination statute is more than 50 years old, Taveras
METRO
said in his proposal, adding that “businesses found guilty of violating Rhode Island’s pay equity laws shall be responsible for … up to 300 percent of the total amount of unpaid wages.” “We believe that if you want to be able to recruit the best women … and retain the best workforce,” said Danny Kedem, Taveras’ gubernatorial campaign manager, “making sure that there are no loopholes … is a very relevant economic tool.” “This proposal isn’t in a vacuum,” Kedem added, pointing to other proposals Taveras has made — including plans for minimum wage increases and universal pre-kindergarten. Taveras discussed support for Providence’s women- and minority-business enterprise program — which aims to increase the number of government contracts available for women- and minority-owned companies — in a roundtable discussion last month with female business owners at the Center for Women and Enterprise, according to a press release from Taveras’ office. As mayor, Taveras has appointed 74 » See WAGE GAP, page 4
gridlock that prompted her resignation By ALON GALOR CONTRIBUTING WRITER
“Democrats and Republicans are like two ships passing in the night — one in the Atlantic and the other in the Pacific. They are separated by light-years on the cornerstones of the issues,” said former U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe while delivering the annual Noah Kreiger ’93 Memorial Lecture “Bridging the Divide: What hyper-partisanship means for 2014 ... And how we can fix Washington.” Sponsored by the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, the lecture took place Monday afternoon in MacMillan Hall. Snowe represented Maine in Congress for 34 years, first in the House as a representative for Maine’s Second Congressional District and later as a senator for 18 years before retiring in January. “She was the youngest Republican woman to serve and the first » See SNOWE, page 2
ALAN SHAN / HERALD
Former U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe spoke about her current work with Olympia’s List to enhance legislative collaboration in a speech Monday.
Public art project illuminates cemetery ‘SouthLight’ memorializes Providence residents as part of RISD Wintersession course By DREW WILLIAMS SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Classes with five or fewer students may offer students flexibility and opportunities to build close relationships with faculty members and peers.
Small classes offer unique experience With fewer than five students, opportunities for discussion and tailored curriculum By GABRIELLE DEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
inside
The few students who have taken a course with Dore Levy, professor of comparative literature and East Asian studies, might be easily identifiable around campus — they’re the ones enjoying Chinese literature under a flowering cherry tree. Levy usually teaches small classes that breed their own distinctive cultures.
In her instruction, she emphasizes the natural imagery within Chinese poetry, encouraging students to experience the language physically. “If you see someone lying under a tree and looking up, they’ve studied with me,” she said. Small courses may fly under the radar, but hundreds of classes at the University have five or fewer students each semester — or enrollments so low they get cancelled. Three-hundred seventy-three classes offered this semester landed at or below a five-student threshold, and 195 of these classes were cancelled, according to data from the University registrar. Those numbers are up from last semester, when 322
classes drew five students or fewer, and 153 of these classes were discontinued. The statistics encompass undergraduateand graduate-level courses, wrote Karey Majka, assistant registrar for operations management, in an email to The Herald. This semester, the departments of political science, history and biology had the highest number of courses eliciting five or fewer student registrations — 23, 22 and 19, respectively, according to the data. Laia Darder Estevez, teaching associate in language studies, said all the classes she has taught in Catalan comprised fewer than five students. The advantage of a small class lies » See CLASSES, page 2
Metro
ARTS & CULTURE
Commentary
Drug overdose deaths have spiked this year in Rhode Island, provoking widespread concern
I-195 Commission chooses broker to spearhead business development
Grapengeter-Rudnick ’17: Abortion rates are declining but not because of politics
Moraff ’14: Andrews Commons opening reflects misguided administrative priorities
METRO, 3
METRO, 4
COMMENTARY, 7
COMMENTARY, 7
weather
SANDRA LIFSHITS / HERALD
“Emma A. Ellis. 1860-1918. We miss you most who loved you best.” Tucked away in a back corner of Grace Church Cemetery, this epitaph is elusive by day and even more so by night. But last Friday night, the touching remembrance was activated once more in shining blue light for all of Providence to see. The occasion, a two-night environmental public art installation, “SouthLight,” was produced in a collaboration between the Rhode Island School of Design and Social Light Movement — “a philanthropic movement … founded in order to create a network for light designers … to collaborate on the issue of improving lighting for people,” according to the group’s website. The work was developed under the guidance of Social Light Movement cofounder Elettra Bordonaro and her students in “Light, the City and the Community,” a course offered during RISD’s Wintersession.
The result brought the graveyard to life. Music — mellow one moment and Linkin Park the next — coursed through the cemetery as pedestrians wandered the grounds, which were lit by a mixture of blue LED lights and candles. Pathways funneled community members through fresh snow toward the burial grounds. Trees were strewn with LEDs from root to branch, creating a dome — an alien shape among the usual rectangular and obelisk surroundings. Video footage projected onto the underbelly of these domes relayed the stories of Providence’s inhabitants through the centuries. The lighting project, like Wintersession in general, encouraged students to expand their horizons. Especially for those with very specific majors, “Wintersession is a good time to try something else,” said Kory Almryde, a RISD student and member of the class. Coming in, “none of us knew anything about lighting,” said Felicia Chiao, another RISD student and class member. The first three weeks of the sixweek course focused on design including “gathering community input (and) working on lighting,” Almryde said. Next, each member of the class “chose a field,” he said, adding that his responsibilities lay in light, sound and » See ART, page 3 t o d ay
tomorrow
25 / 6
27 / 21