Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Page 1

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 43

since 1891

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2014

Controversial Paxil paper still under fire 13 years later

Undergraduate Council of Students: presidential candidates’ priorities Asia Nelson ’15

Maahika Srinivasan ’15

Administrator accessibility UCS transparency Mental health resources Dining experiences Residential experiences

Sexual assault policy reform Campus safety Mental health resources Advising Job and internship counseling

Jonathan Vu ’15 Financial aid -Increase aid for domestic students -Implement universal need-blind admission Mental health resources Dining experiences

Some say former U. professor Martin Keller’s paper was ghostwritten and should be retracted JILLIAN LANNEY / HERALD

UCS and UFB hopefuls announce candidacies

Drechsler ’15 and Gourley ’16 square off for UCS vice president, while top UFB candidates run unopposed By CAROLINE KELLY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The race for president of the Undergraduate Council of Students will be a three-way contest between Asia Nelson ’15, Maahika Srinivasan ’15 and Jonathan Vu ’15, while the race for UCS vice president will feature Alex Drechsler ’15 and Sazzy Gourley ’16. After gathering signatures this week, candidates submitted their official applications at a UCS Elections Board meeting Tuesday night. Several UCS presidential candidates told The Herald that if elected, they would prioritize bridging the gap between students and administrators and improving student wellness, including mental health resources, campus safety and dining services. Nelson, a UCS general body member, said her campaign centers around improving aspects of students’ daily

lives that administrators may not glimpse. If elected, Nelson’s main project would be implementing a “See It Say It” campaign, a hashtag on social media that would let UCS get direct student feedback on issues such as safety, dining, campus life and residential housing, she said. The Council would then report those concerns to administrators, she added. “I’ve had my eyes set on the UCS president since I entered freshman year,” Nelson said, adding that she was inspired by hearing former UCS president Ralanda Nelson ’12 talk at UCS general body meetings and former President Ruth Simmons speak during her first year orientation. Srinivasan, chair of the UCS Academics and Administrative Affairs Committee, said she will seek to reduce the gap between students, administrators and the Council, and to make UCS general body meetings

a place where students could discuss “their plans and what they want to take” from their Brown experiences. She described her plans to improve mental health resources, reform sexual assault policy and reassess the effectiveness of campus safety measures. Advising will also be a key topic in Srinivasan’s campaign, with her platform calling for assessments of concentration advising quality as well as improved job counseling. Vu, the class of 2015 president and a former UCS alumni relations liaison, wants to bolster financial aid for domestic low-income students and extend need-blind admission to international students and Resumed Undergraduate Education applicants. He aims to resolve students’ dining issues by making different plans more equitable and flexible. He also seeks to expand mental health services. “We should treat mental health services like the other health services Brown offers,” he said. “When students need them, they should be

available no matter how many times students are looking for care.” Vice presidential candidates touted campus life issues and increasing students’ voice in University governance. Gourley will campaign on a platform centered on maintaining student wellness, including reforming mental health and sexual assault policies. He will also aim to make University governance more transparent by improving the relationship between students and administrators, the Corporation and UCS, and to streamline students’ experiences using resources such as Brown-Secure and the official Brown online alumni database. Gourley said he hoped to build on his work with students and administrators as UCS Appointments Committee chair last year and UCS Admissions and Student Services Committee chair this year. “I’m running for vice president because I want to continue to build those relationships,” he said. “I want to extend the » See UCS, page 2

U. to change dept. names, expand professional programs By WING SZE HO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

inside

Faculty members unanimously passed a motion to rename the Department of Geological Sciences the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at a faculty meeting Tuesday. Faculty members and administrators also voted to rename the Department of Slavic Languages, adopt the new title “professor of the practice,” establish an Institute for the Study of Environment and Society and reschedule the annual Convocation ceremony starting this September. Expansion of the Office of Continuing Education also emerged as a key point of discussion. The faculty of the geological sciences department includes academics trained in a wide variety of disciplines,

such as physics, mathematics and Earth sciences, which “should not be grouped under one name,” said Timothy Herbert, professor of geological sciences. The new name more accurately describes the department’s course offerings, faculty members’ research focuses and partnerships with other groups on campus, Herbert said. Some faculty members expressed concerns that the new name of the department is too long and complex. Herbert responded that the new name is longer, but it is more representative of the work of the department. Most of the Earth science departments at peer institutions have compound names, he added. One faculty member voiced concern about whether the name of the geological sciences concentration will also be

changed. Herbert said the department is unsure of whether the concentration name will change, but the possibility is currently under investigation. Department members do not think students will confuse the new name with other environmental activities on campus, Herbert said. The name change will hopefully “make students more aware of the department, even before they come to Brown.” A motion to rename the Slavic languages department the Department of Slavic Studies was also passed unanimously. Svetlana Evdokimova, professor of Slavic Languages and chair of the department, said the department’s current name does not accurately represent its work. Both undergraduate and graduate degrees granted by the department are already named “Slavic studies,” Evdokimova said. The new name acknowledges the

Commentary

department’s depth and brings its work in line with other departments at Brown that focus on a specific geographiccultural area, including East Asian studies, French studies, German studies, Hispanic studies, Italian studies and Portuguese and Brazilian studies, Evdokimova added. President Christina Paxson led a discussion on the Office of Continuing Education and a potential change to its name. The office currently offers online and on-campus programs for high school students, summer sessions for undergraduate students and executive programs such as the IE Brown Executive MBA and the Executive Master of Healthcare Leadership. The department’s current name “sounds like education for retired people … it does not sound like a Brown degree,” Paxson said. The administration considered new names such as “Professional Studies,” » See FACULTY, page 2

Science and Research

Hillestad ’15: Keep the Leung Family Gallery quiet and celebrate introverts

Sexual Assault Task Force founders: U. should step up efforts to break silence on assault

U. researchers discuss the future of space travel and humans’ role in space in March conference

BELL Hawaii program teaches high school students about leadership and the environment

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weather

Faculty members adopt new professional title, establish new environmental center

By ISOBEL HECK SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

Two weeks ago, Edmund Levin and George Stewart, members of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, sent a letter to the editor of the Academy’s journal, requesting an explanation as to why a controversial study led by former Brown Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Martin Keller has not been retracted. The paper — which details the findings of Study 329 and focuses on the effects of the drug Paxil on adolescent depression — has been continually criticized since its publication in 2001. While Levin and Stewart have worked to get the paper retracted, Jon Jureidini, a professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia and a member of the nonprofit Healthy Skepticism, has been working with his team to reanalyze the original data and republish the results.

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

A controversial history Since its publication, Keller’s paper, which suggests that Paxil is an effective treatment for adolescent depression, has been criticized for being ghostwritten by associates of GlaxoSmithKline — the drug company that makes Paxil. In 2006, Keller publicly acknowledged that GSK had given him tens of thousands of dollars during and after the time the study was conducted. Keller did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article. A Senate investigation in response to a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit confirmed the presence of ghostwriting in the paper, said Paul Thacker, a fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard who participated in the Senate inquiry. But Rachel Klein, one of the 22 cited authors on the Keller paper and a professor at New York University, said while she thinks GSK played a role in writing the paper, it was not ghostwritten. Continued research in the years after the article’s publication has suggested Paxil is linked with an increase in suicidal ideation in adolescents, The Herald previously reported. The study is continually cited in » See PAXIL, page 4 t o d ay

tomorrow

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