Monday, September 8, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 62

since 1891

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Students Remodeled John Hay Library opens to public Changes to reading room stay at U. and extended hours to make space after lack of intend more inviting indictment

By GRACE YOON STAFF WRITER

Two of three students accused of November sexual assault continue to be enrolled in classes

The John Hay Library reopened Sept. 2 after being closed for renovations during the 2013-14 academic year.

Several changes, including a complete overhaul of the main reading room, were made primarily to make the space more inviting for students, visitors and staff members, said University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi.

Hemmasi said the library did not previously seem welcoming to visitors, functioning more as an atmosphere for scholarly work. “It is true that the work being done in the library is important, but the space has to be decent, comfortable and functional for users,” she said.

One of the most significant changes — consistent with the renovation’s original plan — was alteration to the

By MICHAEL DUBIN UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

GRACE YOON / HERALD

After being closed for a year, the John Hay Library has reopened with new exhibit spaces and a revamped reading room. “It’s become a much more coherent and private space,” said University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi. main reading room on the first floor.

Previously divided into three sections, the room is now an open space for general reading that students can use

The library also eliminated the process of checking in backpacks. Rachel Ossip ’15, who frequented the library » See HAY, page 3

Waitlist acceptances see sharp rise In vacant Admission Office accepted spaces, a 42 students off this year’s waitlist, up from two students last year wealth of possibility

By STEVEN MICHAEL SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In a significant uptick over the past two admission cycles, 42 students were admitted off the waitlist to the Brown class of 2018, Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 wrote in an email to The Herald.

Two students were admitted off the waitlist for the class of 2017, while the

B AT T L E F I E L D B O N D I N G

Admission Office did not take any students off the waitlist for the class of 2016, Miller wrote. But 62 students were admitted off the waitlist for the class of 2015, he added.

The rise in students admitted off the waitlist comes on the heels of an admission cycle in which the University recorded the lowest acceptance rate in its history at 8.6 percent. Students admitted off the waitlist are not included as part of the class’s officially reported acceptance rate.

“We didn’t approach the waitlist any differently this year, although we were particularly conscious of not overcrowding the first-year residence halls,

By ISOBEL HECK SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

Universities experience a constant turnover of faculty members and students, so ideas are frequently lost, said John Donoghue, professor of neuroscience and director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science. Students become experts in certain skills and techniques, but then they move on, and many of their ideas either stay within

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

TOM SULLIVAN / HERALD

First-year units face off during the annual Unit Wars, held by the Orientation Welcoming Committee on Pembroke Field Sunday.

so we were more conservative in the number of admission offers we made in our initial mailing in late March,” Miller wrote.

President Christina Paxson’s strategic plan, adopted last October by the Corporation, calls for a 1 percent annual increase in the size of the student body. But Miller wrote that the strategic plan’s growth strategy does not influence use of the waitlist, as the Admission Office accounts for the desired class size and expected yield when determining original admission decisions.

Steven Goodman, an admission » See WAITLIST, page 3

Donoghue to launch Swiss neuroengineering center Newly created Wyss Center aims to spur innovative projects, collaboration to meet real-world needs

inside

as they want to.

“We think of it as quiet study, but it will be interesting to see how it will be used,” Hemmasi said.

Sports

the confines of academia or get lost as they transition to new places, he added.

The new Geneva, Switzerland-based Wyss Center for Bio- and Neuro-Engineering — which Donoghue will take a year-long sabbatical beginning this January to launch — aims to alleviate this problem. The center will tackle “high-risk, high-reward” ideas and seek to release them as real-world products, Donoghue said.

A repurposing of space In 2012, the European pharmaceutical company Merck Serono moved its headquarters from Geneva to Darmstadt, Germany, leaving its nearly 40,000-square-meter building empty.

Patrick Aebischer, former associate » See WYSS, page 4

Commentary

Akeel ’16 provides late-game heroics to lift men’s soccer over No. 23 Boston University

Cohan ’17: The NFL is a machine churning out revenue and media attention — does it make sense?

Grapengeter-Rudnick ’17: Ice cream social fails to connect first-years

Makhlouf ’16: Students should think twice before embarking on Birthright trips

PAGE S1

PAGE S4

PAGE 7

PAGE 7

weather

Two of the three Brown undergraduates investigated for allegedly committing a sexual assault of a female Providence College student last November remain enrolled at Brown and are on campus this semester, while the third has decided to withdraw from the University, Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations, told the Providence Journal last week.

A grand jury chose not to indict two of the students last month after hearing the case, so they will not face criminal charges, The Herald previously reported.

The third student, who is still a member of the football team, was not included in the grand jury investigation. The other two were on the football team but are no longer on the roster.

The three students exchanged a series of text messages that Providence police discovered after obtaining the students’ cellphone records through a search warrant. The messages revealed the involvement of the third Brown undergraduate. One message mentioned him “raping” the » See ASSAULT, page 2

In urban exploration on and off campus, students find artistic inspiration, build relationships

By GRACE YOON STAFF WRITER

Urban exploration has recently become a trend in abandoned or more vacant cities around the country.

It’s a phenomenon that seems to reflect the tension between nostalgia for “the old, the grand, the industrially or architecturally powerful” and wonder at “watching these things fall,” said Ariana Martinez ’17, an urban studies concentrator.

Providence, with its history of industrialization and old mill buildings, has become a hub for such exploration and appreciation of what Martinez called “old decay.”

And indeed, some college students in the city participate in this trend of exploring the city’s unoccupied spaces, whether for the thrill, for the appreciation of the architectural beauty, or as a way to find new friendship and even love. » See EXPLORE, page 2

FEATURE

t o d ay

tomorrow

74 / 59

72 / 60

2 university news » ASSAULT, from page 1

» EXPLORE, from page 1

Providence College student.

The University is now undertaking its own investigation into the alleged incident as part of its responsibilities under federal Title IX legislation, the Journal reported.

The U.S. Department of Education initiated an investigation of the University in July for possible Title IX violations related to sexual assault, making Brown one of 68 colleges and universities currently facing a federal inquiry of this nature.

“We take seriously any allegation of sexual assault, and have fair and equitable policies and procedures in place that provide for taking action on the best information available to ensure the safety of all students and visitors,” Quinn wrote in an email to The Herald.

“We are working to ensure that Brown is a leader in adopting recommended best practices to address often very difficult and complex situations when they happen.”

The University does not have access to records from the grand jury investigation, Quinn added.

“It bothers me that after the grand jury has spoken that any further inquiry is necessary,” Artin Coloian, a lawyer for one of the Brown students, told the Journal.

“Any parent whose son or daughter is accused of something like this or is the alleged victim of something like this I’m sure would much rather have it adjudicated by the courts and law enforcement than an academic body.”

For the thrill Though Alex, a senior, has always been interested in urban construction, he did not do any urban exploration before attending Brown. In his sophomore year, however, he met Tim, a senior, through a mutual friend. Within 10 minutes of striking up a conversation, the two discovered their shared interest in the activity. Like other students interviewed for this story, their names have been changed because some of their activities are illegal.

Alex and Tim have entered and explored several areas of Brown’s campus, including the roof and maintenance rooms of the Sciences Library and the tunnels under Andrews Commons.

They have focused primarily on exploring campus, and their adventures have offered both plenty of surprises and an opportunity to appreciate the campus more fully, they said.

They enjoy the thrill of discovering new spaces and the challenges they face in finding their way to the unknown areas, they said. They tend to avoid returning to places they have already visited. Even among more serious exploration communities, Tim said, “you are not allowed to publish how you got to certain places because then you ruin the surprise.”

Tim said their favorite spot is the SciLi roof, which offers an expansive view of Providence.

Entering Dynamo House, a former power plant in the Jewelry District that is slated to become a cross-campus medical and nursing hub within the next several years, was a memorable

challenge. “We came up with the coolest way to get into the building,” Alex said.

Tim added that it was one of the few times they had to plan ahead and use equipment.

For art’s sake Annie, a Rhode Island School of Design senior, has searched for unoccupied spaces in Providence since her first year in the city. That year, she often visited the Dynamo House to draw.

“There’s a real push and pull between the pleasure of discovery and the harsher realities that surround the existence of these buildings.”

Annie

A RISD SENIOR She was attracted to the place since it was left unused yet “still maintained a degree of majesty,” she explained.

Likewise, Carmen Ng, a 2014 RISD graduate, who started going to abandoned buildings and sites years before attending RISD, continued seeking places that were “rich with stories” when she arrived on College Hill.

Though Ng has visited various unoccupied spaces in Providence, she has returned continually to one particular abandoned warehouse near Eddy Street. Over the years, she has worked

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

on several projects there, including a photography series during her first year and an oil painting series during RISD’s Wintersession in her sophomore year. For each project, she highlighted different aspects of the warehouse: For her photography series, she wanted to capture the vastness and towering structures of the buildings, and for her oil painting series she focused more on the lighting.

“The neat thing about those kinds of spaces is that they always seem a little different each time even though nothing’s changed,” Ng said.

Annie emphasized that while she does not intend to aestheticize these structures, her work process serves as a reminder that they are “results of miscalculations or of larger economic failures or of city planning mishaps.”

“There’s a real push and pull between the pleasure of discovery and the harsher realities that surround the existence of these buildings,” she said.

Ng also expressed a deeper appreciation for the lack of human presence in unoccupied spaces. The intent behind her photography series, she said, “was to show the disappearance of human presence in the man-made environment.”

Though Ng hasn’t visited abandoned places in a while, she hasn’t stopped thinking about them. “I draw a lot of inspiration from my memories and pictures of the abandoned spaces, … and they make their way into my work one way or another.”

For friendship and love For Todd, a senior, an adventure one night helped him establish and

solidify his friendships with four other students. A night of exploration in the first semester of his sophomore year ended with his fracturing his hand in an attempt to jump over a fence.

Though at the time he and his friends were scared, he said, looking back, they are proud of having this “crazy story to tell.”

More importantly, Todd said it is those kinds of adventures “where you see (your friends’) best side. If you’re with people who can do adventures, you’ve hit the jackpot.” He lived in a suite with the same four friends last year.

For Gemma, a 2014 graduate, what started as a mutual interest between her and her now-spouse ultimately led to squeezing 50 people into a big, fully decorated wedding in an unoccupied apartment.

Their marriage at the apartment commemorated the couple’s shared interest in exploring, which was the foundation of their relationship — they fell in love at the top of Carrie Tower in 2013.

Though the space was technically considered unoccupied, the ceremony itself was the opposite, replete with copies of “My Best Friend’s Wedding” playing on VHS players and 4,000 flower petals, Gemma recalled. The wedding cake was the volume of about 18 standard wedding cakes, she said.

The ceremony ended on a bittersweet note: They had to return the space back to its original condition. “It was this bizarre experience to (expletive) this up back to normal after having created something so beautiful,” Gemma said.

university news 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Seminars extended to meet federal guidelines

» HAY, from page 1 prior to its closing, described the process of storing belongings in a separate room while working with library materials as “restrictive” and “laborious.”

Expanded exhibition space and new secure display cases in the reading room are intended to make the library’s collection more visible and appreciated by students and visitors, Hemmasi said. A student lounge has been added to the first floor, as has a small seminar room.

The University created another room specifically for special collections reading. Though the renovation’s original design entailed changing only the reading room, “we realized we can’t change the reading room without shifting the special collection someplace else,” Hemmasi said.

“It’s become a much more coherent and private space. It’s quiet and built for reading special collections,” she added.

In accordance with the changes made to the physical space, the library has extended its hours into the evening. The library is now open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Additional adjustments provide library staff with a more functional working environment. Previously, the first-floor space was used by both students and staff members, a condition that Hemmasi characterized as “a mix of two functions” that did not seem beneficial to either party. Now, staff members have moved to the third floor and have their own office space.

The library also boasts a new, advanced security system, and a sprinkler system has been added throughout the stacks, providing the library with better

» WAITLIST, from page 1 strategist at the college consulting firm Top Colleges, said the number of students accepted off waitlists fluctuates from year to year, but “there’s been a dramatic jump in the number of students put on waitlists because it’s an insurance policy for colleges and universities.”

While being admitted off the waitlist “takes the sting out of not being accepted,” Goodman said, colleges should consider the psychological burden placed on affected students.

If a student who applies to college via an early decision program is subsequently deferred and then waitlisted, the admission cycle lasts from fall to

University adds 10 minutes to seminars to bring courses in line with credit requirements

By ELAINA WANG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

GRACE YOON / HERALD

Following remodeling, the John Hay Library is now open later at night and offers new study space, aiming for a more welcoming atmosphere. fire protection and increased control of humidity and temperature.

What was previously a courtyard on the north side of the library is now a second entrance to the building. This more convenient path into the building makes the library more accessible to those with physical disabilities, Hemmasi said.

The millions of volumes that were transported to an off-site shelving facility in Cranston during renovations will remain there, but students can request books online and have them delivered within 24 hours, Hemmasi said. Staff members also have access to the Cranston site, where they can process collections.

Hemmasi expressed hope that students and visitors will find the library more accessible and take advantage of

the resources available to them.

Ossip said the library was difficult to navigate before the renovations, possibly discouraging some students from exploring it. “Having a study space that anyone could use is a major change,” she said, adding that it might help attract visitors.

Jessi Haddad ’16 called the renovations “impressive” and said she can see herself studying in the Hay often this semester.

Since the reopening of the library, Hemmasi has seen a steady increase in students and visitors entering each day.

“Yesterday, there was a couple of families visiting the campus and had high school students with them. And there was a Brown student guide,” she said. “I’ve never seen a Brown guide take a tour group to John Hay.”

the following summer, which makes it more difficult for students to find “closure” to the process, Goodman said.

“It’s hard to get excited about school number two if you’re on the waitlist for school number one,” he said.

Bev Taylor, founder and president of the Ivy Coach, a New York-based college consulting firm, said she has also seen an increase in the number of students waitlisted over the past five years, though there has not necessarily been a corresponding rise in acceptances off the waitlist.

While universities primarily admit students off waitlists when they face lower-than-expected yield rates from their original pools of admitted students, Taylor said the waitlist also

may be used to lower the reported acceptance rate — a commonly used metric of an institution’s prestige — or to deal with highly qualified applicants who may not be as likely to commit to attending a college.

Brown’s yield has remained consistent over the past three years, with approximately 60 percent of admitted students accepting their offers of admission.

Taylor said she advises applicants placed on a waitlist that “doing nothing will never get you admitted.” Waitlisted students should send a “more detailed” version of the “Why Brown?” essay to their regional admission officer to show their continued interest in the school, she said.

Students shopping courses may notice that some seminars are a bit longer this year.

The Office of the Registrar has extended most late-afternoon seminar classes by 10 minutes this semester, so many courses that used to end at 5:20 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. now go until 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., respectively.

The change was made to bring the University in line with federal credit hour regulations enforced through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, wrote Robert Fitzgerald, University registrar, in an email to The Herald.

“A few years ago, the U.S. Department of Education came down with a federal definition of a credit hour,” Fitzgerald wrote. According to the Department of Education’s website, institutions’ definitions of a credit hour should “reasonably (approximate) not less than one hour of class and two hours of out-of-class student work per week over a semester.”

Out-of-class assignments, such as research or “supplemental meetings,” can also contribute toward course hours, but students must spend at least double the amount of time on out-of-class work to gain the same number of credit hours, Fitzgerald wrote.

Brown uses a system in which one course credit equates to four credit hours. The federal definition mandates that one credit hour should correspond to at least 50 minutes spent in the classroom. For example, under federal regulations, a course that meets three times a week for 50 minutes and requires six hours of out-of-class work should count as three credit hours. To count as four credit hours — or one Brown credit — the course would need to assign an additional four hours of homework.

The College Curriculum Council determined that most of Brown’s

courses were meeting these guidelines, Fitzgerald wrote. “The one meeting pattern where it was noticed that Brown was falling short was that of our seminar periods,” he added.

The class time in seminars, which were previously two hours and 20 minutes, would only count as two credit hours and would thus require about 12 hours of homework to make up for the deficiency. By extending the seminar time by 10 minutes, the courses’ class time could count as three credit hours using the 50-minute definition of a credit hour and, like other Brown courses, only require about 10 hours of out-of-class work.

“Simply adding 10 minutes to the existing five seminar patterns brings that out-of-class expectation more in line with what the College Curriculum Council and the provost’s office felt was the standard used here at Brown,” Fitzgerald wrote. “The additional 10 minutes seemed to make sense given that it fell more in line with our other two meeting patterns in terms of total class time,” he added.

“Most of my classes tend to be seminars, and I am under the impression that many of the discussions can be a bit rushed due to time constraints,” said Sarah Van Cleave ’17.

“So I think this change may help in that regard.”

But other students were unsure. “It makes scheduling classes a little harder if your schedule is more cramped,” said Hank Winton ’18.

“I don’t imagine that this change will have a large impact on me, the students or my seminar classes; 10 extra minutes of discussion time is nice but not enough of an addition to change my plans for each class,” wrote Tracy Steffes, associate professor of education, in an email to The Herald.

Despite the Office of the Registrar’s recent reflection and implementation of the change, Fitzgerald wrote that the office did not take on issues of credit hours as they relate to science courses with labs, which some students think should count as additional credits. The issue “did not come up in this cycle as this was merely to address an immediate deficiency, not to open and dissect the entire curriculum structure,” Fitzgerald wrote.

4 science & research » WYSS, from page 1 professor of medical sciences and current president of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, had an idea for a different use of the newly vacant building — a biotechnical center, Donoghue said.

Following the news of Merck Serono’s move, a group of universities and philanthopists formed Campus Biotech. According to its website, the organization’s mission is to ensure that the empty building could “be utilized as a focal point for scientists and entrepreneurs in the life sciences sector, rather than be purchased for property development.”

Merck Serono announced in May 2013 that Campus Biotech had successfully acquired the space, which would house faculty members from the Swiss universities, the Human Brain Project and the Wyss Center.

Still in need of someone to launch the center, Aebischer turned to Donoghue for suggestions, Donoghue said.

Immediately drawn to the idea, Donoghue flew to Switzerland, where the center’s board asked Donoghue if he would want to lead the center himself — an offer he accepted.

Permanent experts As the new center’s director,

Donoghue will be responsible for forming a plan to get the center off the ground, he said.

“It’s not like he’s walking into a welloiled machine,” said Barry Connors, professor of neuroscience and chair of the department. “There is no machine.”

Donoghue “has to create the vision, he has to create the plan, he has to hire the people, he has to organize them. That’ll fill a year right there,” Connors added.

Donoghue was a smart choice for the job, said Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Jack Elias, since he is a “proven high-level program builder.” For example, Donoghue founded Brown’s Department of Neuroscience in 1991 and served as its chair until 2006.

Donoghue’s vision is to fill the Wyss Center with permanently stationed experts and the tools necessary to launch promising neuro- and bio-technical ideas, he said. These experts will be organized into seven different platforms, tackling various areas of product design and release, including safety testing and business.

The center will act as an “accelerator” and provide people in academia with the resources they need to turn their ideas into products capable of helping real people, Donoghue said.

Scientists often develop inventions that

never turn into functional products, he added.

The center will choose to develop ideas based on their potential to meet “unmet need,” Donoghue said. The center’s funding is specifically intended to support risky ideas that, if successful, could do immense good for others.

“It’s not like he’s

walking into a welloiled machine. ...

There is no machine.”

Barry Connors

PROFESSOR AND CHAIR OF NEUROSCIENCE This is a “unique” opportunity for Donoghue, Connors said, noting that many people never get the chance to act on their ideas. As the director of the new center, Donoghue will be the biggest voice in determining its direction, he said.

But the plan is still under works, Donoghue said, adding that in the next few months, he will rely on others to critique his vision. Hiring experts and developing the center’s platforms will be a long process, Donoghue said,

adding that while he hopes to launch the center during the year he is in Switzerland, it will likely take 10 years for the center to be “fully rolling.”

The ‘essence’ of neuroscience The Wyss Center exemplifies a trend toward “team science,” Elias said. In recent years, scientists have fully realized the power of cooperation, recognizing that technological progress benefits from communication and combining “the power of all the tools we have,” he added.

Collaboration, which is the “very essence” of neuroscience, represents nothing new in the field, but the specific groups working together change over time, Connors said.

Neuroengineering has seen particular growth over the past few years, he added. While there have always been many neuroscientists trained in engineering, now many engineers are trained in neuroscience so they can solve problems of the brain with their skill sets, Connors said.

The Wyss Center will seek to replicate the “creative spirit” that is “built into the Brown enterprise,” but on a much “bigger scale,” said David Borton PhD’12, assistant professor of engineering, who recently completed a postdoctoral position at EPFL. Donoghue said he hopes to bring

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

parts of Brown’s “special identity” overseas, adding that he foresees ample opportunity for collaboration between Brown, EPFL and the University of Geneva.

The creation of the center will link “powerful groups” together, Elias said, which will lend itself toward new opportunities for students and faculty members from both sides.

‘Big shoes to fill’ Donoghue’s year-long sabbatical in Geneva will leave his positions empty at the University. While away, Donoghue will no longer act as the director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science and will not hold his usual department responsibilities, Connors said.

But Donoghue said he will remain involved in BrainGate research, which he currently leads, during his year away.

Administrators currently in the process of selecting an interim director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science and will announce their decision within the next two weeks, Elias said. After his year-long sabbatical, Donoghue said he plans to resume his roles at Brown.

Donoghue will work with the new director to ensure a smooth transition, he said.

“Any time someone tries to step in, even if temporarily, they are big shoes to fill,” Elias said.

Follow The Herald on Twitter! @the_herald

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS BULLETIN

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

W. SOCCER

Bears complete two comebacks, kick off season with perfect weekend Brown holds last season’s top national scorer to one goal, takes down powerhouse St. John’s

By ANDREW FLAX SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Despite fielding eight new starters, the women’s soccer team pulled off 2-1 wins over St. John’s University (3-2-0) and the University of Delaware (2-3-0), kicking off the season with a 2-0-0 record.

The Bears’ campaign began Friday night with a stiff test on the road against St. John’s. The Red Storm were a force in 2013, featuring the country’s leading goal-scorer in Rachel Daly, and making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. They crushed Bruno in their meeting last season, riding a hat trick from Daly to a 4-0 romp.

But in this year’s rematch, the Bears limited Daly to just one goal. Captain Chloe Cross ’15 scored a first-half goal to tie the game, while Mikela Waldman ’18 came up clutch in the 88th minute to shock St. John’s and pull off the upset.

Goalie Mallory Yant ’15 was another key performer, saving six of the seven St. John’s shots she faced to keep Bruno level until Waldman’s strike.

“That was big,” said Head Coach Phil Pincince. He noted how good St. John’s had been the previous year and spoke about what an accomplishment it was to snap the Red Storm’s 15-game home winning streak, which had stretched back to 2012.

It took another comeback Sunday for Bruno to continue its winning ways, but the players had it in them. Another goal from Cross, who led the Bears in scoring last season with seven tallies,

tied the game, and a goal from Carly Gould ’17 gave Bruno its final lead in the 73rd minute.

Pincince had an explanation for the team’s slow start Sunday after its big Friday win. “We had expended so much energy in the St. John’s game. …

We felt it in our legs,” he said, but added that the team “found a little bit more energy” in the second half, enabling the rally.

After a 10-6-1 season last year that included their first winning Ivy campaign in seven years, the Bears have high expectations for 2014. Their early returns are great, but the team must maintain its high level of play if it hopes to finish in the upper levels of the Ivy League.

Pincince was happy with the outcomes, but even more satisfied with what he saw out of his players. With so many new starters, Pincince commented that getting those players experience was “probably more important than the results right now.”

“I always believe there’s room for someone new to step in and be productive, and we’re seeing that,” he added.

The first-years who appeared in this weekend’s games made an impression on Pincince, as he singled out Waldman, Sarah Cobb ’18, Maclaine Lehan ’18 and Katy Schmidt ’18 for their efforts. He was also taken by the play of Cross and Yant, adding that “we think we have a good mix of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors.”

Pincince was encouraged by his team’s play, but he was far from satisfied. “We have a lot of work to do.”

Bruno will look to extend its win streak to four next weekend, when it travels to Providence College (1-3-2) and Florida Atlantic University (3-2-1).

TOM SULLIVAN / HERALD

Midfielder Allie Reilly ’15 swings a corner kick into the box from the left corner. Reilly has established herself as a consistent starter for a Bears midfield that has produced a goal and an assist in two games this season.

M. SOCCER

FIELD HOCKEY

Offense takes reins in opening split First-years, defense Brown outshoots two

impress in 2-0 start

opponents 30-16, shuts out BU, but loses to Siena on missed opportunities

O’Donnell ’15 notches three of five team goals, while defense surrenders only single tally

By ALEX WAINGER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The men’s soccer team split its opening weekend action, falling to Siena College (3-0-0) at home before taking down No. 23 Boston University (2-2-0) on the road.

The Bears outclassed both of their opponents on the offensive end of the field and were unlucky to come away with just one win this weekend, said co-captain Ben Maurey ’15.5.

Friday: Brown 1, Siena 2 More than 1,600 fans surrounded Stevenson Field for the Bears’ first game of the season. The Saints came into the game riding a two-game winning streak, but Bruno threatened to hand them their first loss of the season throughout the night.

The first half was filled with duels in the midfield, chippy fouls and stagnant offenses. Bruno controlled the majority of the half, moving the ball around the backline and up the flanks » See M. SOCCER, page S2

By ANDREW FLAX SENIOR STAFF WRITER

DAVID DECKEY / HERALD

Jack Gorab ’16 anchored the Bears’ midfield and served up a free kick cross that created the game-winning goal against No. 23 Boston University.

After a disappointing 2013 campaign, the field hockey team opened 2014 with a bang, defeating Bryant University (0-4) at home and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell (2-2) on the road.

The Bears (2-0) inaugurated their year Saturday with a strong showing against the Bulldogs. Bruno opened last season against Bryant as well, and it bode poorly for the rest of the year when it dropped the game 4-3. But the Bears claimed their revenge this weekend, riding a goal and an assist from forward Meghan O’Donnell ’15 and six saves from goalie Shannon McSweeney ’15 to a 3-0 victory.

Head Coach Jill Reeve said she felt the Bears could have performed even better than they showed. “It took us about a half to settle in,” she said,

adding that her squad “played beautifully” in the second half.

Sunday’s matchup was a bit of a closer scrape, but another pair of goals from O’Donnell helped the Bears to a 2-1 victory. The Riverhawks entered the game having already matched their win total from 2013, a season in which they went 2-16, but Bruno was able to dispatch them in a comeback win.

Reeve said she felt the Riverhawks “were giving us everything they had,” but praised her team’s “tremendous effort.”

In a weekend of great performances, Reeve singled out McSweeney and defender Katarina Angus ’17 for their efforts. She complimented Angus’ “poise and calmness” at the back of the defense and said McSweeney played like “an all-star” and “really kept us in the game.”

Reflecting on the weekend as a whole, Reeve said she was happy with the outcomes but expects to see even more from Bruno.

“They were really tough wins, and I’m glad for that,” she said. “I think » See HOCKEY, page S3

S2 m. water polo Bruno continues dominance into new year Bears build on last season’s successes, knock off three teams in weekend tournament play

By LAINIE ROWLAND SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The men’s water polo team started off its 2014-15 campaign in a rewarding fashion, collecting a well-earned 1311 win over Diablo Valley College at the Princeton Invitational Saturday.

Though menacing weather prevented Bruno (3-0) from competing in its two other scheduled matches that day, the second day’s matches against Bucknell University (0-2) and Johns Hopkins University (1-2) were equally successful, resulting in 11-6 and 20-18 wins for the Bears.

Men’s water polo has been historically dominant, most recently finishing with a 23-13 (8-5 CWPA) record. The squad’s banner year came in 2012, when it went undefeated in conference play, a level of competition the players will be looking to emulate this year. The team graduated five seniors last year — four on attack and one goalkeeper — but seem to be

» M. SOCCER, from page S1 effectively. Co-captain Daniel Taylor ’15 and James Myall ’18 connected on a number of combination plays on the right side, but for the most part, the two teams just surveyed each other, searching for an opening in the first 45 minutes.

“A big part of our success is communication,” Myall said. Taylor “is really great to work with. He tells me where I should be, and I tell him where he should be when we can’t see the ball. For the first couple weeks, we’ve been jelling really well out there.”

In contrast, the second half was marked by scoring opportunities for both teams. Three minutes into the half, Siena’s Alexander Tejera received a pass on the left corner of Bruno’s 18yard box. Tejera turned, opened his hips and curled a shot over the outstretched arm of Bruno goalie Mitch Kupstas ’14.5 into the side netting.

Just two minutes later, Saints midfielder Nathan Olukanmi was taken down in the box by Kupstas. No cards were given out, but Siena was awarded a penalty kick. Nick Theobald slotted the spot kick past a diving Kupstas to open a two-goal lead.

“We were talking about that call a bit after the game,” Myall said. “From (Kupstas’) point of view, after the Siena player shot it, he ran into (Kupstas) and (Kupstas) was just holding his ground. So, we didn’t think it was the best call, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it.”

The Bears were not discouraged by the deficit, and played their best soccer in the final third of the game.

At the 65-minute mark, Myall drove a cross to the back post, where Maurey was waiting. The striker coolly deflected the ball in the bottom corner, cutting the Saints’ lead to one.

Bruno continued to pour on the pressure, pushing higher and higher up the field. The team took 15 shots in the second half, peppering Siena keeper Josh Weiss and forcing him to make six saves. With 20 minutes

reloading instead of rebuilding this year, especially with an impressive rookie class. Henry Fox ’15 returns after a standout last season in which he earned All-American and CWPA Northern Divison First Team honors.

Against the Vikings of Diablo Valley, the Bears traded a slim lead back and forth with their opponents. After leading by a one-goal margin in the first period, Bruno lost the advantage in the second, allowing the Vikings to tie it up at five. Brown responded by rallying in the third, producing five goals to give them a lead they would maintain until the final buzzer. Will Klein ’16 led the crusade against the Vikings, netting a total of four goals in the victory.

“After two weeks of tough preseason training, it was great to play a few legitimate teams and see our team play together for the first time,” said Nick Deaver ’15, who said he remembers the undefeated 2012 team well.

Looking to avenge last season’s 9-8 loss to Bucknell in the CWPA Eastern Championships, the Bears faced the Bisons with revenge in mind.

Bruno proved its merits in the pool, beating Bucknell by a sizable fivegoal margin. Klein put his offensive

prowess on display yet again, notching a hat trick for Bruno. The Bears stayed neck and neck with the Bisons throughout the early stages of play, but outpaced Bucknell by netting three more goals in the second half to seal the win.

The Blue Jays were a tougher opponent, but the Bears still managed to come out on top. Neither team could gain an advantage in the high-scoring regulation, trading blows on their way to a 17-17 score at the end of the fourth. But the Bears pulled ahead in overtime as Fox scored his sixth goal of the game, and Deaver completed a hat trick in the extra time.

Warren Smith ’17 also contributed to the overtime campaign, and Yahel Murvitz-Lahav ’17 earned his own hat trick during regular play. Klein continued his hot run at the tournament against the Bisons, adding four goals to his total.

“Although we won the three games we played, we still have a lot of work to do,” Deaver said. “I’m excited to see how far we can go this year.”

The Bears will host the Bruno Fall Classic next weekend, during which the team will play six games, including one against conference foe MIT.

THE SPORTS BULLETIN MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Sports Roundup

BY CALEB MILLER, SPORTS EDITOR

Volleyball

The volleyball team returns many of the key pieces of last year’s much-improved, Ivy third-place team. But high-caliber competition in its opening weekend tournament in San Diego sent the squad home with four losses and zero wins. The University of San Diego, San Diego State University, Northwestern University and California State University at Fullerton manhandled the Bears, allowing Bruno to win just one set in the tournament.

Getting swept at San Diego was obviously not how the team envisioned starting the year, but it is far from panic time for Bruno volleyball fans.

The past weekend’s competition from conferences like the Big Ten and Mountain West represent a higher talent tier than the Bears will see when they begin Ivy League play later in the season.

Maddie Lord ’15 and Payton Smith ’17 racked up 33 and 29 kills, respectively, returning to last year’s form as two of the team’s top hitters. The stars got back in the swing of things against some of the best teams in the country, so the volleyball team should still be a force when it returns home.

Men’s Golf In the men’s golf team’s return to the course this weekend, Justin Miller ’15 captained the young squad to a total score of 592 and a ninth-place finish at the 10-team Navy Invitational.

Miller posted a 146 for the 36-hole invite, a finish that placed him 16th in the individual competition. Jack Wilson ’16 backed Miller with the team’s second-lowest posting, at 148.

The weekend tournament also provided a stage for the collegiate debuts of Kevin Li ’18 and Ben Warner ’18, with Li shooting a 150 and Warner posting a 152.

remaining, Jack Gorab ’16 fired a volley at Weiss, who parried the shot to the side with his fingertips. Eight minutes later, Weiss charged a ball that had been played over the top, but failed to properly clear it. With the goalie off his line and the net completely empty, Quinn English ’18 narrowly missed tying the game, as his shot sailed just over the crossbar.

The Saints kept the Bears at bay and escaped with a 2-1 win. Bruno finished the game with a 20-8 advantage in shots and 9-2 advantage in corners.

In future games, “we need to finish our chances,” Myall said. “We switched off for the first couple minutes of the second half and that’s what hurt us. We just need to stay focused for the full 90 minutes.”

Brown 1, BU 0 Following their narrow loss to Siena, the Bears travelled to Nickerson Field to take on the Terriers. BU was also looking to bounce back from a loss to the Saints earier in the week.

Bruno dominated the first half, letting five shots fly at BU’s goal and forcing goalie Nick Thomson to make three saves. Taylor took one shot in the half and led the team with three shots by the end of the game.

The Bears’ backline also tightened up, holding BU shotless in the first half. The Terriers managed to fire eight shots in the second half, but missed the target on all of them.

Kupstas did not have to make a save the entire night.

“We kept our defensive integrity for the full 90 minutes,” Maurey said.

“We were blocking shots, kept the shutout going and didn’t have a defensive lapse like we did against Siena.”

Despite Bruno’s offensive onslaught, the first half ended in a scoreless draw. It took another 40 minutes of soccer for somebody to break the deadlock.

That somebody was last year’s leading scorer Tariq Akeel ’16. In the 85th minute, Maurey was fouled 35 yards from the goal. Gorab swung the

DAVID DECKEY / HERALD

Tariq Akeel ’16 came up with a big goal in the 85th minute against No. 23 Boston University, heading a cross into the net for the decisive tally in Bruno’s 1-0 victory. free kick into the box, where Akeel met it with his head. The flick-on sailed into the upper 90, where Thomson “had no chance of saving it,” Maurey said.

“Set pieces are a real strength of ours,” Maurey said. “We’ve got a lot of tall guys on this team, and we took advantage of that today.”

The Bears’ offense was on a roll all weekend, with the team outshooting their opponents by a combined 30-16 margin.

They were also more accurate than their opponents, putting 13 of their 30 shots on target, compared to five of 16 for Siena and BU together.

“The offense has been playing

great. We’ve had a ton of chances, we just need to make sure to finish them,” Maurey said. “A goal a game will take us real far if we keep up our defensive effort.”

Bruno’s next test will be against cross-town rival Providence College (3-1-0) on Friday back home at Stevenson Field.

THE SPORTS BULLETIN MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

field hockey S3

» HOCKEY, from page S1 that’s something we can build off of.”

Haley Alvarez ’15, a former Herald staff writer, said the Bears “really just outhustled both teams.”

The Bears are now 2-0 for the first time under Reeve’s leadership, a feat Alvarez described as “very important.”

A strong start is certainly great for the Bears, but they opened last season 2-1 before dropping 10 of their last 14 games. Maintaining their good form as they enter Ivy League play — which begins Sept. 20 against Columbia — will be key.

Reeve acknowledged that her team has areas in need of improvement.

“We did well, but I think there are some things we can build on.”

The Bears return to action Sunday, when they host Georgetown University.

DAVID DECKEY / HERALD

Midfielder Liza Green ’15 slaps a shot on frame. Green and the women’s field hockey team have started the season off on the right foot with a two-win opening weekend. The Bears followed a 3-0 rout of Bryant University with a tight 2-1 win over the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

www.browndailyherald.com

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

SPORTS BULLETIN

THE SPORTS BULLETIN MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

It’s baaack: an NFL preview

BY MIKE FIRN sports columnist

As of last Thursday’s clash between the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers, real football is officially back. And for the next fiveplus months, it’s here to stay. The hits, the highlights, Al Michaels’ voice. … Is it Sunday yet?

With the start of a new NFL season comes the end of another tumultuous off-season, and the games couldn’t come quickly enough.

We needed real football to remind us why we keep patronizing an enterprise that cares more about appearances and legal deniability than player safety. We needed to forget about our ambivalence toward a regime that has presided over both fantastic growth and latent hypocrisy.

Yes, the NFL has its issues. But come Sunday, the electrifying competition is enough to outshine them all. When Aaron Rodgers stared down the Legion of Boom on Thursday, we all forgot about Ray Rice, Josh Gordon and Jim Irsay. Despite its flaws, the NFL is not going away. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Without further ado, my 2014 NFL picks:

AFC East: 1) New England Patriots (12-4) 2) Miami Dolphins (8-8) 3) New York Jets (8-8) 4) Buffalo Bills (6-10) This one’s easy. The Patriots have incredibly won this division 10 times in the past 11 years, and there’s no reason to expect anything different in 2014. An improved secondary highlighted by Darrelle Revis will bulk up the defense, and a healthy Rob Gronkowski should help Tom Brady and the offense bounce back in a major way. Maybe one day, Buffalo.

AFC North: 1) Pittsburgh Steelers (9-7) 2) Cincinnati Bengals (9-7, wildcard) 3) Baltimore Ravens (6-10) 4) Cleveland Browns (5-11)

After a horrendous 0-4 start last year, Pittsburgh’s offense rounded into form and finished with eight wins in its final 12 games.

If the offensive line can keep Ben Roethlisberger on his feet, the Steelers should rise again to the top of these standings.

Cincinnati rode an easy schedule to a division title last year, but Andy Dalton’s propensity for shrinking in big moments has prevented this team from joining the ranks of the elite. Still, dynamic offensive weapons A.J. Green and Gio Bernard complement a stout defense that should keep the Bengals in the playoff mix.

AFC South: 1) Indianapolis Colts (11-5) 2) Houston Texans (9-7, wildcard) 3) Tennessee Titans (6-10) 4) Jacksonville Jaguars (5-11) The Colts’ unsustainable record in close games last year might portend a reversal of fortune, but this young team’s arrow is still definitely pointed upward. If the Colts can generate some semblance of a rushing attack, the squad’s offense is poised to explode.

After a stellar 12-4 campaign in 2012, Houston fell flat on its face in 2013. Ravaged by injuries and disadvantaged with a brutal schedule, the Texans won their first two games before sputtering to a 2-14 finish. But if Jadeveon Clowney lives up to the bill as a once-in-a-generation pass rusher, he and J.J. Watt will terrorize opposing quarterbacks all year long. If Arian Foster stays healthy and Andre Johnson continues to stave off his career clock, the offense will pack a punch. If Ryan Fitzpatrick can limit turnovers, the team should see improved quarterback play. These are a lot of “ifs,” but the Texans are as good a sleeper pick as any.

AFC West: 1) Denver Broncos (13-3) 2) San Diego Chargers (8-8) 3) Kansas City Chiefs (6-10) 4) Oakland Raiders (4-12) Any way you slice it, Denver enters the season as the AFC’s team to beat. Peyton Manning and the offense shredded opponents

all year en route to record-breaking output.

Aqib Talib and Demarcus Ware will help bolster the defense. Expect some regression, but the Broncos are still the most dangerous team in the conference.

NFC East: 1) Philadelphia Eagles (9-7) 2) Dallas Cowboys (8-8) 3) Washington Redskins (6-10) 4) New York Giants (6-10) Year one of the Chip Kelly experiment in Philadelphia proved one thing: The Eagles’ offense is fun to watch. Kelly will design creative schemes to utilize new toys Jeremy Maclin and Darren Sproles, and the offense will once again exploit the mismatches that Kelly manufactures.

NFC North: 1) Green Bay Packers (11-5) 2) Chicago Bears (9-7) 3) Detroit Lions (7-9) 4) Minnesota Vikings (6-10) Led by a healthy Aaron Rodgers, the Packers will once again mount a challenge for supremacy in the NFC. Despite being stymied in the opener, the Green Bay offense will ignite fireworks. A full year of Jay Cutler is a lot to ask, but if the often-injured and mercurial QB stays healthy, a wildcard berth may be in reach for Chicago.

NFC South: 1) New Orleans Saints (11-5) 2) Atlanta Falcons (9-7, wildcard) 3) Carolina Panthers (7-9) 4) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-10) As always, Drew Brees and the Saints will score points in bunches. The bigger surprises here are Atlanta and Carolina. After a disappointing 4-12 campaign last year, the Falcons will be buoyed by the return to health of wide receivers Julio Jones and Roddy White. Don’t be shocked if this team makes a strong playoff push. The Panthers, on the other hand, should take a step back this season. Their front seven will again excel, but the offense is too devoid of playmakers to win games.

NFC West: 1) Seattle Seahawks (13-3) 2) San Francisco 49ers (11-5, wildcard) 3) Arizona Cardinals (7-9) 4) St. Louis Rams (5-11) The cream of the NFC crop, Seattle and San Francisco are both legitimate Super Bowl contenders that employ similar hardnosed brands of football. In its thrashing of the Packers on Thursday, Seattle’s stifling defense looked every bit primed to defend its title. This rivalry should continue to entertain in 2014. In the end, Seattle claims the division while San Francisco settles for a wildcard spot.

AFC Champion: New England Patriots Okay, maybe I’m biased. On paper, Denver is the more talented team. But it takes more than talent to win big playoff games, and it’s fair to start wondering if Manning has the playoff gene. The 2013 Patriots were less imposing than any other version in the Brady/ Belichick era, and they still caught a whiff of the Super Bowl. This year, rebuilt and reloaded, the Patriots find a way to get it done versus the Broncos.

NFC Champion: Seattle Seahawks I’m cheating a little bit here, since I had Green Bay as my official pick before the season started. … The Seahawks just looked THAT good last Thursday. Seattle’s defense is far and away the best I’ve ever seen. Even in today’s pass-happy NFL, the Seahawks are here to remind everyone that a tough, physical defense trumps a prolific offense in the postseason. At home, this team looks close to unbeatable.

Super Bowl Champion: New England Patriots Fine, I’m definitely biased. Welcome back, NFL. We’ve missed you. Let the games begin.

Mike Firn ’16 can’t contain his excitement. Calm him down at michael_firn@brown.edu.

Footballism: America’s great obsession

BY JAMES COHAN sports columnist

The slow trickle of trunks and suitcases onto campus is complete.

Classes have officially begun.

Back into our lives are lectures, homework, projects, labs, exams and grades — all the stuff we pay frightening amounts of money to stress out over and complain about.

Luckily, we can take solace in one thing. (Other than being fortunate enough to receive an education. And hot water and cooked food and medicine and the Internet and airplanes and probably one or two other things.) The end of summer means the start of a new season.

Football season.

The NFL is back. There will be nonstop video of oversized, sweaty men running into each other on TV every Sunday from 1 p.m. until midnight. Any angle you might conceivably care about one day will be covered: from advanced statistical studies on whether it’s better to run left or right on kick returns, to three-minute videos of men in suits

discussing which 20-somethingyear-old wide receiver is going to earn you an extra 2.5 fantasy points, to breaking reports on obscure team blogs detailing which practice squad player unlikely to ever play a snap in the NFL was just waived.

insists on taking over your TV every Sunday. Throw in Monday and Thursday nights, too, because it’s not enough to own one of every seven days. And still, it’s not done.

Every free moment is a perfect time for the action to be dissected, until

So, why? Why all of this? Why any of this?

It’s not something I think about very often. It’s always just been that way. But take a step back, and there’s really only one word to describe it.

Absurd.

The end of summer means the start of a new season. Football season.

Thank the Lord: The NFL is back.

If the NFL is Kanye, the NBA, MLB and NHL are French Montana, Schoolboy Q and YG. They’re big.

But they do not exist in the same stratosphere as Kanye.

Maybe you check your baseball team’s box score in the paper most mornings. Maybe you tune in to watch the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on ABC. Maybe you watch a few NHL playoff games if your team makes the cut.

Football’s not consumed like that, because football is all-consuming. Football is not content to exist as background noise. Football

there’s nothing left but a heap of exhausted storylines. Finally the next Sunday arrives, and the process can begin again.

Do you know what the projected revenue for the NFL is this year?

About $9 billion. Do you know what the over/under for number of minutes I will devote to some NFL-related activity per week this year is?

Between setting my fantasy lineup, making my Pick’Em picks, choosing my Survivor team, reading some articles, viewing a couple of videos, listening to a few podcasts and, oh yeah, watching the games… the over/under is disturbingly high.

Completely, utterly absurd.

Does it make sense that a massive industry is built on watching grown men jump on each other?

Does it make sense that fans actually feel bad when teams comprising a bunch of guys they don’t know lose a game?

Does it make sense that the media covers all of this in firm, objective, humorless journalist voices that would be appropriate for a reporter on the ground in Iraq?

No, no and no. And while these things are true of other sports, none comes close to the height of absurdity reached by the all-powerful Na-

tional Football League.

That, really, is the elephant in the living room every Sunday. No one wants to feel like what he’s doing is absurd. Because absurd means pointless, and pointless means wasteful.

It’s probably true. If I didn’t spend so much time consuming football, maybe I could be making the world a better place. I could volunteer at a soup kitchen or do homework or read novels.

Then again, don’t I already spend enough time taking myself seriously? Isn’t there some value in telling the rational little dictator inside of me to shut up every once in a while?

And really, what isn’t ridiculous, when you think about it for long enough?

It’s absurd. A distraction. But at least it’s an enjoyable distraction. It lightens people up. And what’s so dumb about that?

James Cohan ’17 wishes he had an elephant in his living room.

If you can somehow make this happen, email him at james_cohan@brown.edu.

today 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

l o b s ta h VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH BBQ Pork Spare Ribs, BBQ Beef Sandwich, Vegetarian Sub, Vegan Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Tomato Basil Pie, Zucchini and Onion Saute, Cavatini, Vegan Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

DINNER Grilled Cheese, Grilled Chicken Cilantro, Vegan Stuffed Acorn Squash, Carrot Cake

Chicken Pot Pie, Vegan Ratatouille, Sauteed Spinach with Cherry Tomatoes, Portuguese Sweet Bread

JOSIAH’S Grilled Cheese

BLUE ROOM

SOUPS

DINNER ENTREES

Chicken Noodle, Spinach Feta, Beef with Bean Chili

Naked Burritos

sudoku

TOM SULLIVAN / HERALD

Students flocked to India Point Park this weekend to take part in the state’s fourth annual Seafood Festival, at which they listened to live music and sampled seafood from local food trucks.

comics Against the Fence | Lauren Stone ’17

crossword

Bruno | Mandi Cai ’17

calendar TODAY

SEPTEMBER 8

7 P.M. AUDITION FOR SHAKESPEARE ON THE GREEN’S OTHELLO

Shakespeare on the Green will hold auditions for its Oct. 23-26 production of Othello. No experience or preparation is necessary. New Dorm, Room 116B 9:30 P.M. BROWN TAE KWON DOE DEMONSTRATION AND INFORMATION SESSION

The four-time reigning National Collegiate Tae Kwon Doe champions will demonstrate their prowess and explain how to get involved with the group this year. Kasper Multipurpose Room

TOMORROW

SEPTEMBER 9

12 P.M. SAVE A LIFE! 3-DAY BLOOD/MARROW DRIVE

The Rhode Island Blood Center is holding a blood and marrow drive Tuesday through Thursday. Donations can be scheduled between 12 P.M. and 6 P.M. through a link found on the the organization’s website. Brown/RISD Hillel 5:30 P.M. FERGUSON TEACH-IN

Six speakers will discuss the events surrounding the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, providing an open space to learn about and discuss the historical context and national impact of the event. Salomon 101

6 commentary

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

EDITORIAL

Ra ra Brunonia?

This past week, members of the class of 2018, following in the footsteps of thousands before them, walked through the Van Wickle Gates carrying with them the long-standing history and traditions of the University. They come with a profound sense of pride in their admission to Brown and, despite their diverse backgrounds, share a common tie to the institution where most of them will spend four years. But Brown students, touted for their individualism, lack a definitive sense of school spirit. We urge the University — both the administration and the student body — to sustain and foster this unifying bond through these students’ four years and beyond.

While undergraduates do indeed display a distinct sense of academic passion and vigor, pride in our shared culture of curiosity and creativity — particularly surrounding athletics — visibly fails to match our enthusiasm for the classroom. Though Brown has the third-highest number of varsity teams in the NCAA, student attendance at sporting events, which we see to be the purest form of school pride, warrants a pause for concern, from both an institutional and financial perspective.

Alum donations are an often-used metric for comparing attachment to an alma mater. By this measure, Brown fails. According to U.S. News and World Report, just 35 percent of alums donated between 2008 and 2010.

This compares with 61 percent at Princeton and 49 percent at Dartmouth.

It should alarm all community members that the energy of Fall Convocation does not endure through Commencement.

As the University develops plans to spend the large sums raised through its 250th anniversary events, it should direct funds toward the reorganization of the campus in a way that cultivates a tighter and more integrated student body. President Ruth Simmons’ negotiations with the city for the property rights to many of the streets on College Hill present the opportunity to create a more centralized and cohesive campus which we see as crucial to the sense of community developed by many of our peers, including Princeton and Dartmouth.

We also propose increasing the number and scale of University-wide events.

For many, Campus Dance represents the pinnacle of Brown’s deep-rooted history, as both undergrads and those celebrating their 70th reunions come together under the elms. It is the moment when many individuals realize the scope of the shared Brunonian experience. Unfortunately, at other events, the University does not sufficiently capture the significance of institutional identity — a shortcoming that impacts both the mindset and awareness of the student body.

The celebration of Brown’s 250th anniversary has exposed many students to the University’s impressive history. While the undergrad experience accounts for only a short four-year segment, we must find a way to remind students that this institution lives long after our narrow and somewhat ephemeral window closes. We hope that key reforms can reinvigorate a discernable sense of school spirit characterized by firm connections to peers, the institution and its storied past. The University, along with students, must work to actively cultivate and maintain this ever-important relationship.

C A R A D O R R I S A N D C E C I L IA B E R R I Z

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

U. should install geothermal heat pump To the Editor:

Our engineering students would gain much knowledge and experience from studying the performance of such a system as well as determining the percent reduction of its carbon footprint vs. a conventional system.

Other colleges have implemented standard geothermal heat pump systems as well as hybrid systems; it’s time for us to consider incorporating such a system as part of a new building design for our campus.

With the planned construction of a new School of Engineering and a new Division of Applied Mathematics building (“School of Engineering to erect new building by 2018,” Sept. 5), it is my hope that consideration be given to determine the feasibility of utilizing geothermal heat pump technology.

Geothermal heat pumps have proven themselves to be reliable and efficient systems that take advantage of the constant temperature of the ground to provide heating/ cooling from a renewable energy source.

Robert Midura HVAC Refrigeration Mechanic Facilities Management

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

“I’ve never seen a Brown guide take a tour group to John Hay.” — Hariette Hemassi, University librarian

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Adam Toobin ’15, and its members, Alexander Kaplan ’15 and James Rattner ’15. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

See hay on page 1.

Letters, please! letters@browndailyherald.com Editorial Leadership

Sections

Visuals & Production

Business

Editor-in-Chief Eli Okun

Arts & Culture Editor EmmaJean Holley

Managing Editors Mathias Heller Sona Mkrttchian

Features Editors Phoebe Draper Sabrina Imbler

Design Editors Brisa Bodell Einat Brenner Mie Morikubo Assistant: Carlie Peters

General Managers Jennifer Aitken Nicole Shimer

Senior Editors Maddie Berg Katherine Cusumano Kate Nussenbaum

Metro Editors Mariya Bashkatova Kate Kiernan Molly Schulson

BLOG DAILY HERALD Editor-in-Chief Georgia Tollin

Science & Research Editors Isobel Heck Sarah Perelman

Managing Editors Charlotte Bilski David Oyer

Sports Editors Caleb Miller Dante O’Connell

POST- MAGAZINE Editor-in-Chief Adam Asher

University News Editors Kiki Barnes Michael Dubin Maxine Joselow Tonya Riley

COMMENTARY Editorial Page Editor Adam Toobin Opinions Editors Gabbie Corvese Robyn Sundlee Maggie Tennis

Photo Editors Head: David Deckey Brittany Comunale Samuel Kase Sydney Mondry Arjun Narayen Tom Sullivan Video Editor Henry Chaisson Graphics Editor Avery Crits-Christoph Web Producers Harsha Yeddanapudy Abdullah Yousufi Copy Desk Chief Claire Postman Assistant: Madeline DiGiovanni Illustrations Editor Angelia Wang

Directors Sales: Winnie Shao Finance: Sarah Levine Finance: Sameer Sarkar Alumni Relations: Alison Pruzan Business Dev.: Melody Cao

facebook.com/browndailyherald

Location: 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. www.browndailyherald.com

@the_herald

Editorial contact: 401-351-3372 herald@browndailyherald.com

browndailyherald.com

Business contact: 401-351-3260 gm@browndailyherald.com

Office Manager Shawn Reilly

Corrections: The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

Sales Managers Regional: Edward Clifford Regional: Sarah Pariser Regional: Ananya Shukla Regional: Jessica Urrutia Student Group: Moniyka Sachar

Commentary: The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

Finance Managers Collections: Jacqueline Finkelsztein Collections: Joshua Tartell Operations: Jessica O’Dell Alumni Relations Manager Engagement: Sarah Park Business Dev. Manager Project Leader: Kaden Lee

Letters to the Editor: Send letters to letters@browndailyherald.com. Include a telephone number with all letters. The Herald reserves the right to edit all letters for length and clarity and cannot assure the publication of any letter. Please limit letters to 250 words. Under special circumstances writers may request anonymity, but no letter will be printed if the author’s identity is unknown to the editors. Announcements of events will not be printed.

Advertising: The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement and once during Orientation by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. Subscription prices: $280 one year daily, $140 one semester daily.

Copyright 2014 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Postmaster: Please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906.

commentary 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Ice cream anti-social MEGAN GRAPENGETERRUDNICK opinions columnist

Sorry to burst your bubbles, first-years, but the ice cream social that you attended just a few nights ago during orientation? Utterly pointless. How is it that a function designed to plunge you into the social scene at Brown and make you feel less alone manages to achieve neither of these goals? First-years who don’t know a soul are forced to choose possible friends out of hundreds of equals after talking for a lackluster few minutes, while other schools are sending their first-years off on trips where they can bond over a shared experience.

The ice cream social is a meaningless and unsuccessful effort to acclimate first-years.

What I found particularly disheartening was that all the Meiklejohns prefaced the evening by saying, “I met my best friends at our freshman ice cream social.” The result? When I walked home that evening last year not remembering anyone in particular that I met, my only thought was that I was screwed. Instead of making me feel like I escaped loneliness by surrounding myself with a plethora of new friends, it made me feel like loneliness punched me in the face because I’d failed the featured social event of orientation.

I’ve never put much thought into the aesthetics-versus-function aspect of social events, but on the night of the ice cream social, I found the ambience working against me.

The late hour left all of us 1,500 teenagers in a messy, moonless throng. The sheer darkness

of the night put me in a similar darkness — I couldn’t for the life of me make out the faces of the people I was supposedly getting to know. Forget the advantages of judging people by their character and not their appearance; I wouldn’t have been able to recognize a single person the next day even if I could write her biography.

As if making friends with a shadowy face isn’t hard enough, I found it near impossible to distinguish my future best friends when each student was following the same script. Where are you from? What dorm are you living in?

dinner run away.

First-years are encouraged to entertain this expectation that they need to find their friends in one single hour. In the dark. From a broad sea of peers. Not happening.

There are more effective ways of acclimatizing the lonesome, lost first-years. Right now, Brown is trying to squeeze the socializing into one hour-long box — “speed-friending,” as the organizers appropriately call it. Other schools are making the box bigger.

Take Bowdoin College as the other end of the spectrum. Bowdoin first-years spend

We had nothing over which to bond or unite; melting ice cream doesn’t quite kindle the same bond as having your dinner run away.

What’s your concentration? Once the script runs its course, you move on to the next faceless person.

With the only conceivable common ground in such a massive crowd being that we all were first-years at Brown, it wasn’t exactly easy to find fast friends. We had nothing over which to bond or unite; melting ice cream doesn’t quite kindle the same bond as having your

four days on various bonding-oriented trips; the excursions serve as the common interest over which to unite. While the ice cream social prompts rash judgments, multiple days of team bonding through interactive activities yield an environment where all students can truly display character.

Rather than being forced to give elevator speeches, these first-years can make friends at

their leisure in a natural setting. It is important that Brown caters to the widest variety of personalities; though some individuals may thrive in the larger ice cream social setting, others blossom only in smaller groups.

In my Connecticut high school, the firstyears took a three-day trip to Boston. Instead of visiting the standard educational this and educational that, we did social, group-bonding activities. Despite our immature complaints that we weren’t with our friends and we didn’t know our group members, we were required to branch out and spend time getting to know new people while performing tasks.

So why can’t we add a day or two into Brown’s orientation where students are split into groups and shipped off for a day of bonding? It would resemble BOLT, the Brown Outdoor Leadership Training program, except it would be for incoming first-years. Students could head to Newport or Boston to spend time isolated with other Brown students they may not have met otherwise. The script-andmove-on spiel would be rightfully replaced with a day of genuinely getting to know a smaller group.

On the way home from a trip during orientation, an incoming first-year would have a smaller base group of friends on which to build. On the way home from the ice cream social, an incoming first-year has a mental word bank of tens of names that barely scratch the surface of an indistinguishable face.

Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick ’17 pretended to be a first-year named Phyllis at the ice cream social and no one has noticed.

Where is my Birthright?

BY PETER MAKHLOUF guest columnist

On Thursday, as I manned my post at the Activities Fair, I was interested to see students walking around with placards reading, “Ask me about a free trip to Israel.” Immediately I knew they were referencing Birthright, a 10-day, all-expenses-paid trip to Israel, run annually through Brown/RISD Hillel and offered to anyone able to demonstrate Jewish heritage. The entire Birthright program, exemplified by its name, is an attempt to engender strong connections between Americans and Israel based on the notion that the land is theirs by right.

On my end, I have no such privilege. In fact, demonstrating Palestinian heritage has radically different implications. When I arrive in Tel Aviv at the airport, I am not greeted by a welcoming committee who shuttles me by customs and chants with joy at my arrival. Rather, I am often detained for a few hours by gruff officials, interrogating my family and me as to the possible reasons why we would want to visit a country that my aunts and uncles and grandparents and their aunts and uncles and grandparents have been living in since long before the name Israel could be found on a map. The trek to my grandmother’s home in the occu-

pied West Bank is complete with several military checkpoints — a reality that potential Birthright-ers need not fret over, as their route is strategically planned to bypass any road that meets a checkpoint.

That is a trivial example, a pinprick hole into the chasm of delight that the 10-day trip is supposed to provide. The sanitized, spoon-fed tour of the country is complete with

scot-free with its apartheid policies, war crimes and racial segregation.

After all, the young students who today are full of potential are going to be tomorrow’s congressmen, lawyers, academics and businessmen.

Ensuring that the present generation has pro-Israel sentiment ingrained into its political DNA is necessary to maintain the status quo both in Israel and here in the United States, Israel’s

bold vision to make an educational trip to Israel an integral part of the life of every young Jew, in an effort to generate a profound transformation in contemporary Jewish culture and a connection between Israelis and their peers in the Diaspora.”

This claim is misleading at best, insidious at worst and, crucially, simply wrong. Birthright-ers cannot claim to be apolitical when participating

Perhaps it is time to awaken to the irony of sending bright, curious, insightful college students to a program that is tantamount to brainwash.

beach outings, wine tastings and nightlife. The carefully planned itinerary hardly leaves any room for criticism, no entranceway for any skepticism that perhaps the situation might not be as glorious as it seems.

The hope is to foster continued relations between elite American Jews — Birthright is overwhelmingly attended by university students — and Israel. If generations of young Americans can continue to support Israel and legislate for military aid to the tune of $10 million a day, then the Israeli state can continue to get off

greatest and most complicit ally.

Of course, Birthright-ers are oblivious to any of these happenings, in part because of the close relationship they form with the Israeli soldiers who lead them around the country — the same Israeli soldiers who gave 2,100 Gazans the right to a cold grave this past summer. At times, such discomfiting truth is avoided by maintaining that the trip is apolitical, simply a cultural experience. The Birthright website itself makes this eminently clear: “Taglit-Birthright Israel was born of a

in trips that a religious center is fostering with a state 6,000 miles away.

And more importantly, it is most certainly a political trip when their right to experience Israel comes at the cost of 66 years of ethnic cleansing and sociocide.

Also, since when is being Jewish synonymous with supporting Israel?

As much as Birthright would hope to present that case, it is again an easily undercut falsehood. Some of the most powerful voices against Israel’s colonial endeavor have been Jewish, including Noam Chomsky, Judith

Butler and Hannah Arendt. Groups of Jewish-Americans have started groups such as Renounce Birthright, a coalition that was founded, according to its website, “because (Jews) have no right to racism.”

So to those thinking about Birthright, perhaps it is time to think again. Perhaps it is time to awaken to the irony of sending bright, curious, insightful college students to a program that is tantamount to brainwash. Perhaps it is time to look at other options, at anti-occupation organizations such as Ta’ayush and Breaking the Silence that offer tours and more information about the country.

Remember, this free trip has costs: grave ones. Your ability to call Israel your “right” came at the expense of millions of Palestinian refugees; it came at the expense of lives and homes and villages and stories and memories. You have classmates at Brown who can never enter a land to which they have deep intrinsic ties.

Others can enter only as guests, outsiders and foreigners, and we cannot forget one central question: Where is our Birthright?

Peter Makhlouf ’16 is a junior and insists that the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement be supported until Israel’s unjust regime changes. He can be reached at peter_makhlouf@brown.edu.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALDscience & research

UTRA projects pursue eclectic research From drones to depression, students grapple with independent scholarship

By RILEY DAVIS AND ANDREW JONES SENIOR STAFF WRITERS

This summer, the Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards program sponsored projects ranging from perfecting the flight of drones to mentoring local high school students and even exploring the meaning of time.

Message motivation

Since the 1980s, the UTRA program has fostered intellectual development and creativity by providing funding to students for summer research and scholarship.

This summer, the University added two new features to the UTRA program as part of an initiative to engage students more broadly with their UTRA experiences.

Categorizing conflict

Shubh Agrawal ’15 assisted in the development and test of a new text message-based intervention system

Camera Ford ’16 worked to create a comprehensive database detailing native Australian knowledge

Preventing depression, one text message at a time, was the motive behind the summer UTRA undertaken by Shubh Agrawal ’15. Agrawal helped create and implement a text messaging system called iDove aimed to prevent depression in high-risk adolescents in hospital emergency rooms.

The project, led by Megan Ranney, assistant professor of emergency medicine, was based on the concept of cognitive behavioral therapy — an approach designed to assist people with defining their thoughts and feelings to correct negative thoughts and behavior, Agrawal said.

The adolescents enrolled in the project’s related study receive daily interventional text messages for eight weeks.

Each day, the teens rank their thoughts and feelings on a five-point scale, and based on their responses, they receive specific advice and motivational messages to mediate their feelings and actions.

Text messaging is a good medium for intervention in teens because of its privacy and prevalence, Agrawal said. Previous studies have supported the efficacy of text message-based interventional programs, but little research has been done concerning its use to fight depression, she added.

During the summer, Agrawal helped code the system and recruit eligible participants who were admitted to hospital emergency departments, she said. In order to qualify for the current study, the teens must meet certain criteria on depression scales and have a history of violence, she added.

As a geology concentrator, Camera Ford ’16 is interested in the social and political aspects of geology. Her summer UTRA project allowed her to explore these nuances in greater depth.

Ford worked with Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Amanda Lynch, studying climate change’s impact on Australian agriculture and the subsequent conflict between the Australian government and an indigenous people — the Yorta Yorta.

“We’re trying to bridge the gap between the indigenous knowledge of the area and the strategies the Australian government is trying to use to restore the land,” Ford said.

“Right now there’s a real disconnect.”

The Yorta Yorta see it as their obligation to take care of their land and everyone who lives there, Ford said. When the Australian government tries to restore land impacted by climate change, this creates conflict.

Yorta Yorta tribe information is highly confidential, Ford added, and not easily accessible to outsiders. By building a database for the Yorta Yorta people to access, Ford said the tribe will have a more efficient and organized way of helping the Australian government correctly restore their native land, while keeping generations of information within the confines of their tribe.

Ford said on top of being an interesting experience, her summer UTRA gave her an idea of different directions her concentration could lead her later in life. “I was really honored that I was allowed to work on this project,” she added.

A new “UTRA elevator pitch” allows students to describe their work to other students and faculty in a concise manner. The elevator pitch forces students to focus on the most important parts of their work and presents an opportunity for scientific communication, an essential skill for real-world researchers, said Associate Dean of the College and Director

Teaching time

Alex Meehan ’15 outlined a new course on the nature of time

Does time exist? At first glance, the question may appear absurd, but it is one Alex Meehan ’15 explored extensively through his UTRA. Working with Nina Emery, assistant professor of philosophy, Meehan helped prepare the course syllabus for PHIL1670: “Time.”

“The course is loosely geared around the question ‘Is time an illusion?’” Meehan said.

The intersection of philosophy and physics has been one of Meehan’s primary academic interests since he arrived at Brown, he said. The newly designed course will offer a prime opportunity to explore this intellectual crossover further. Covering disciplines ranging from the fictional depiction of time travel to the contribution made by quantum physics, the course will not limit itself in the ways that it investigates the concept of time.

Meehan’s primary responsibility this summer was shaping the syllabus, as he organized class periods into subsections and chose each meeting’s readings. For every article chosen for the class, he read about five additional ones, he said.

Increasing the number of writers from demographic groups typically underrepresented in philosophy was a primary goal and challenge in creating the syllabus, since “philosophy is an area with gender and racial disparities,” Meehan said.

In addition to compiling the roadmap of the course, Meehan will continue his involvement in the course as a teaching assistant and guest lecturer this semester.

He will also manage an online blog about the class.

Meehan said the UTRA project provided good experience in both philosophy and physics, as he plans to apply to graduate programs in philosophy next year, an amount of time that seems like anything but an illusion.

of Science Center Outreach Oludurotimi Adetunji, the UTRA program’s director.

Through a partnership with University libraries, UTRA students can also now publish their UTRA posters in a digital repository in the Center for Digital Scholarship’s database.

Putting their posters in the repository makes their work more accessible to

Work hard, play hard

Briana Garcia ’16 taught the nuances of science through camp activities

Briana Garcia ’16 used her UTRA funding to help run the annual Spira Engineering Camp for girls. Each summer, Spira Engineering Camp counselors teach 15 rising sophomore girls from the Providence area about engineering while connecting them to the Providence and Brown communities, Garcia said.

The camp covers a wide array of engineering topics, but with a slightly different twist than what is taught from textbooks. “We deal with more ethics and feminism” to help the girls learn about the nuances of the science, Garcia said.

Each day, the girls split their time between a short lesson and a field trip. Garcia said one of her favorite experiences was watching the girls participate in a “physics field day” where they went around the University campus and acted out different scientific concepts.

The campers did activities such as push-ups and stair climbing to calculate concepts like power and work and used a swing set to learn about energy and the pendulum equation, Garcia said. “It was nice to have an activity that connected them to physics concepts but also made sure they had fun.”

The activity reinforced for the girls that science “really is something that you do see in everyday life,” she said. The hardest part of the project, she added, was finding a balance between work and play for the girls.

other researchers, which benefits the students when applying to graduate schools and jobs, Adetunji said.

Though digitally publishing posters was optional for each of the 270 UTRA students, administrators encouraged them to do so, he added.

“This will make these students’ work more visible beyond the walls of Brown,” Adetunji said.

Droning on and on

Adam Gosselin ’16 helped design and launch an autonomously flying drone Avoiding major obstacles was one of the primary goals of the summer for Adam Gosselin ’16. Working in a computer engineering lab, he helped create a drone that can fly autonomously by recognizing and avoiding objects in its environment.

Along with his faculty mentor, Iris Bahar, professor of engineering, Gosselin attached a camera onto a quad-rotor drone, which maps features in its surroundings. When the drone flies close to an object, it changes its trajectory to move out of the way, Gosselin said.

The overarching goal of the project was to increase autonomy in drone flight.

Though programming the on-board computer’s flight algorithms provided its own set of difficulties, the primary challenge the research team encountered was implementing the project’s hardware, Gosselin said. The drone crashed once and broke, but the team reassembled it and had it back up and flying around campus again by the end of the summer.

The cross-disciplinary nature of the research project was one of the most appealing features of Bahar’s work, Gosselin said. Working in a laboratory this summer gave him indisposable research skills that he will carry with him throughout the rest of his schooling and his career, he added.

Like us on Facebook!

www.facebook.com/browndailyherald

Leafing through leaves

Eric KalosaKenyon ’15 constructed a mathematical model to map leaf evolution Eric Kalosa-Kenyon ’15 spent his summer attempting to answer the question of how leaves get their shapes.

Kalosa-Kenyon said he happened upon his project by accident. As a double concentrator in applied math and biology, he was asked by Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Erika Edwards to use applied math to calculate how leaves, particularly those in the genus viburnum, got their shapes.

Kalosa-Kenyon was given a stack of micro CT scans, upon which were the images of horizontal slices of a leaf buds. Kalosa-Kenyon was tasked with looking at venation in order to transform these images into unfolded leaves.

“The hypothesis is important because we will know whether viburnum actually moved from a tropical region to a temperate region,” he said, constructing 3-D models of leaf venation out of notebook paper as he spoke.

Kalosa-Kenyon said his results show that the venation of the deciduous leaves he was looking at matched those found in a more tropical climate. The hardest part of his research, he added, was the pages of calculations he had to make correctly for each leaf every time.