Tuesday, September 9, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 63

1vyG aims to improve first-gen experience

English department revamps requirements

Brown-based startup seeks to facilitate connections among firstgeneration students

Curricular changes will affect students filing concentrations starting this year

By SHAVON BELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER HERALD FILE PHOTO

Brown Democrats have already registered almost 200 students to vote using TurboVote, an online technology that speeds up voter registration.

STAFF WRITER

The College Curriculum Council approved the English department’s revised concentration course requirements, the department announced Sept. 2. The new curriculum will apply to students who declare the English concentration this year and after, with students in the class of 2015 following previous course guidelines and the class of 2016 choosing between the two models.

According to the new guidelines, concentrators will no longer be required to take six courses to fulfill the historical part of the curriculum. Rather, one course focusing on the period prior to and one on the period after 1700 will fulfill the historical branch of the new concentration model.

“Many English departments at other universities have more stringent historical requirements for taking a course in Shakespeare or taking three or four courses in designated historical areas,” Keach said. “Now we’ve moved in the direction of relaxing the historical distribution requirement, and we’ll see how that goes.”

The English concentration has also added two new course categories called “How Literature Matters” and “Literature Across Borders.”

“How Literature Matters” was created in response to students’ demand for a gateway introductory course, Gould said.

Undergraduates believed “they would have been drawn to a class that focused on literary form and methods and acted as a kind of transition between high school English classes and the critical methods that are germane to academic study for undergraduates,” he said.

“How Literature Matters” courses will be the recommended first step for prospective concentrators. “The current map of the curriculum makes you go all over the place to find different ways into the curriculum,” Foley said. As a preliminary course, “How Literature Matters” will provide more pathways into the English concentration, he said.

New courses under this rubric, which will be listed as ENGL 0100, will be offered for the first time next year, but the department has indicated courses that have been taught in previous years that will fill the requirement.

“Literature Across Borders” courses will focus on “literary study across conventional borders, national and » See ENGLISH, page 2

U. works with TurboVote to expedite voter registration Students can register to vote in R.I. or home states through website’s fiveminute process

By ZACH FREDERICKS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A year after the Undergraduate Council of Students announced its intention to revamp the voter registration process on campus, the University entered into a contract with TurboVote, an online tool that facilitates voter registration, this summer.

TurboVote now allows students to register to vote in any state in under five minutes on the University’s own TurboVote website, said Elena Saltzman ’16, chair of academic and administrative affairs for UCS. Students, who interned with the website in 2013, approached UCS with the idea of adopting TurboVote, said Maahika Srinivasan, president of UCS. After verifying with the Student Activities Office, the University decided to

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invest in TubroVote using UCS’s budget, Srinivasan said.

Before the University’s contract with TurboVote, only students from Rhode Island could register on campus and had to pick up paper forms from the Secretary of State’s office, which then had to be mailed back to the office.

“Before, we could only register students in Rhode Island, because we couldn’t carry 50 state registration forms,” Saltzman said.

Students who wanted to register as absentee voters for their home states previously had to request absentee ballot forms from their states, fill these forms out and mail them back to the states. Students then waited to receive their ballot, which they ultimately sent back to their respective states with their vote.

The implementation of TurboVote also allows student organizations, including the Brown Democrats, Brown Republicans and Common Sense Action, to better reach their registration goals.

“TurboVote is really exciting for » See VOTERS, page 2

Being first-generation is an “invisible identity,” said Stanley Stewart ’16.

1vyG, a University-based startup aimed at improving the first-generation college experience, is seeking to change that. Stewart, Manuel Contreras ’16 and Jessica Brown ’16 founded the group to create a lasting network of firstgeneration students who can continue to press their school administrations to implement policies benefiting similarlypositioned students.

Universities have a responsibility to facilitate connections among firstgeneration students, Stewart said.

“You can’t look at someone and be able to tell their family’s educational history,” he explained. “You’d be amazed at how many times we talk to administrators and faculty, and we find out that they are also first-gen,” Contreras added.

The team looks to discover ways that administrators and university leaders can ease the academic and social transition for first-generation students. As a minority recruitment intern, Contreras directly witnesses University attempts to attract first-generation students. He framed the question as one of responsibility and commitment. “If universities are specifically recruiting first-generation college students to their campuses, how are they creating supports and opportunities that provide equitable access to these opportunities?” he asked.

1vyG’s founders, themselves firstgeneration college students, cited their personal experiences as the key

motivation in pursuing the project.

When Contreras arrived at Brown, he encountered plentiful academic resources for the first time but was unable to truly explain the University to his parents over the phone. He felt “between two worlds,” he said.

“To get here, there’s very much an ‘I did it on my own’ mentality, which you’re used to because it’s always worked,” Contreras said. Upon exposure to Brown’s abundant resources “it takes an entire rethink into how you approach education for you to even think about using these resources,” he added.

It took Brown until the end of her first year, when she had a conversation with other first-generation friends about struggles with adjusting to the resources and social life at the University, to realize that her experience was a shared one.

The 1vyG team has outlined a strategy to help first-generation students better succeed at elite universities. The strategy focuses on connecting firstgeneration students to one another so they can explore their own identities and become more motivated to affect change.

Discussing shared experiences will better equip first-generation students to handle feelings of isolation, embarrassment or confusion, Stewart said.

1vyG wants “to frame being first-gen, not as so much an issue, but as a holistic identity which brings hardship, it brings pains, but it also brings experiences, power and beauty,” Contreras said.

The team’s initial aspiration was to host a conference of first-generation students. Soon after, their efforts expanded to advocating for policy change and launching a network of first-generation student groups at the eight Ivy League schools.

In January, Brown, Contreras and » See 1VYG, page 2

Rockefeller Library celebrates 50 years To commemorate, library plans 50th-anniversary bash with free food, live music

By GABRIELLE DEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

On November 16, 1964, the Rockefeller Library opened its doors, featuring signs of the times like smoking rooms and a pneumatic tube messaging system. In honor of the half-century anniversary of this cornerstone of the University, the Rock 50 Committee has developed a series of events, exhibits and commemorative paraphernalia to publicize and celebrate this milestone of the library’s rich and fabled past.

50 Rock The Rock 50 Committee has launched a branding campaign with calendars, bookmarks, brochures and banners, said Daniel O’Mahony, director of library planning and assessment for the Rock, adding that the library will host a campus-wide event featuring music, food and performances Nov. 14. In tandem with these festivities, an exhibit in the Rock’s lobby throughout the fall semester honors the library’s history with photos and documents.

The committee also took its publicity efforts online with the Rock 50 website, which highlights key events in the library’s history, scans of news clippings from The Herald about the Rock and pictures of study spaces as they appear today.

RYAN WALSH / HERALD

As e-resources gain popularity over traditional hard-copy books, the Rockefeller Library has shifted its focus from stacks to study spaces.

The website also includes “Rock Memories,” a compilation of testaments from students, alumni and staff who have utilized the Rock demonstrating

Arts & Culture

Commentary Bhatia ’15: “Voluntourism” abroad does little to create positive change

Anonymous ’14: Need-aware intl. admission builds on unequal Chinese education system

The fourth annual Rhode Island Seafood Festival celebrates local vendors, art and high spirits

The RISD Museum renovates sixth floor to exhibit textiles, East Asian artifacts

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weather

By BRITTANY NIEVES

inside

since 1891

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

how the space has been perceived and occupied over the years, said Sarah Bordac, head of instructional design » See THE ROCK, page 3 t o d ay

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2 university news » 1VYG, from page 1 Stewart received the Swearer Center for Public Service’s Social Innovation Fellowship. Established for students with a creative, entrepreneurial idea for affecting social change, the fellowship provided the team with a year of funding and mentorship. Energized by the fellowship, the group spent this past summer bolstering its online presence.

Offline, the team worked to broaden its vision, developing fundraising skills and making contact with all the other Ivy League schools.

In addition to providing guidance, Swearer Center mentors helped 1vyG connect to organizations with similar goals, such as Michelle Obama’s Reach

Higher, an initiative that seeks to encourage all students to complete an education past the high school level.

1vyG is also planning to host the 1vyG Conference at Brown in February.

Results of 1vyG’s work are visible.

Already, the University is changing the way it advises first-generation students.

Recently, the first-generation program was moved from the Third World Center into the offices of Student Life and the Dean of the College, Contreras said.

This was an important move because one’s identity as an ethnic minority cannot be conflated with one’s identity as a first-generation college student, he continued, and because there is so much racial and economic diversity within the first-generation community.

In addition to relocating first-generation programming, the University will sponsor a dinner for first-generation students and various faculty members at the end of the month. The team hopes this event will enable students to find mentors and speak about their common experiences.

A group called “First-Gens at Brown” will also take shape in the coming weeks, with the student executive board solidifying soon.

Brown expressed gratitude for the understanding and support the University has shown 1vyG thus far.

The 1vyG founders also encouraged administrators to consider the systematic inadequacies in the education system that lead to the academic struggles

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

many first-generation students face at their educational institutions.

“We often hold up a lot of first-generation students who’ve gone through a lot of struggles to make it to a place like this as an accomplishment, and it definitely is an accomplishment, but it’s a personal accomplishment,” Stewart said. “The other side of that coin is that it’s a systematic failure that that student had to struggle that much to get to a place like this.”

While the group has yet to expand outside the Ivy League, the fact that 89 percent of low-income, first-generation students nationwide do not graduate college within six years remains a motivation to reexamine and improve the American education system as a whole, they said.

“I don’t think that 89 percent is an accident, or is the result of mismanaged

time or any sort of personal failures.

There’s something larger going on that we have to think about in education,” Stewart said.

Amelia Friedman ’14, Stewart’s mentor and former teaching assistant in PPAI 1701Q: “Leading Social Ventures: Social Entrepreneurship in Action,” marvels at the progress the group has made in six months. She “found the project to be incredibly confusing” when she first heard of it, she said. “Now if you ask them where they’re going to be in five, 10 years, the story that they’re going to tell … is a lot different than what they would’ve told you a few months ago,” she added.

“The team is incredibly impressive and committed in improving the experience of first-gens,” said Alan Harlam, director of innovation and social entrepreneurship at the Swearer Center.

» ENGLISH, from page 1

process of devising, expanding and creating innovative classes that connect with first- and second-year Brown students interested in English,” he said.

“There are many courses that immediately fit (the new model), but this provides a new rubric for faculty to invent new classes.”

“I think the new requirements have way more flexibility for what you want to learn while also providing a wide range of literature,” said Alexandra Cerda ’16, who has chosen to pursue the new requirement model. The previous model “forces you to get an overview of all literature, but I think it does it in a way that isn’t the best.”

But for students who do not have as firm of a grasp on what areas of literature they prefer, the new requirements lack the more guided historical outline of the previous ones, said Crystal Kim ’16.

“The old requirements were kind of nice, because they were a rough outline of ‘Hey, you should read these from each time period, to kind of get a handle on the history of literature and what’s offered in each time period,’” Kim said, adding that the new model is a better fit for students who already have a grasp on their preferences.

“For literature or book nerds, the new requirements are a dream because you get so much freedom.”

The department is “trying to give you more freedom, but I think, because there is already so much freedom here, that it’s good to be forced to take courses from very different time periods,” said Jonathan West ’16, who is leaning toward choosing the previous concentration model.

The English DUG will be holding open hours for discussion and questions regarding the new concentration requirements Sept. 10.

otherwise,” Gould said, adding that the category will help supplement the concentration’s elective courses. Undergraduates will be able to take five electives under the new model, compared to three in the previous model.

“We thought it was important to maintain some requirements that focused on historical periods, but we thought that the students in effect would be taking those classes as electives,” Gould said, explaining that the department’s 1000-level curriculum is organized according to historical period.

The concentration will still require a course that incorporates literary theory.

The process of reforming the English concentration began a year ago and was spearheaded by a committee of four English faculty members, including Philip Gould ’83, professor of English and chair of the department, Stephen Foley ’74 P’04 P’07, associate professor of English and director of undergraduate studies, Jim Egan, professor of English, and Daniel Kim, associate professor of English.

During the revision process, the committee reviewed student feedback and English department requirements at peer institutions, Foley said.

“We wanted to be in line with the field nationwide, and I think we’ve achieved that goal.”

Members of the English Departmental Undergraduate Group and other concentrators helped shape the new concentration model, said William Keach, professor of English. Modifications to the requirements stemmed from student requests for “greater flexibility” and more “direct communication,” he said.

The department is currently modifying its course selections to fit the recent changes, Gould said. “We’re in the

» VOTERS, from page 1 those of us who do voter registration on campus because it makes it a onestop shop,” said Meghan Holloway ’16, president of the Brown Democrats.

Voter registration is an important “bipartisan cause,” said Justin Braga ’16, president of Brown Republicans, adding that he’s hopeful the new system will allow more students on campus “to participate in the democratic process.”

TurboVote not only expedites the registration process but also helps students in the voting process itself, Salzman said. The TurboVote website mails students a paper ballot and sends reminders to students about the deadlines for absentee voting through its alerts feature, which incorporates text messages and emails, she added.

One additional perk is that Brown pays for all the ballot delivery fees, Saltzman said.

Campus organizations have been working to register students to vote since orientation. Though the deadline for the Rhode Island primaries was Aug. 9, these groups said they hope to have as many students as possible ready to vote in the general elections.

The deadline for registering for the November elections is Oct. 5.

“UCS sent unique links to all the groups using TurboVote so they can track their own progress in terms of voter registration,” Srinivasan said.

Since orientation, the Brown Democrats have registered almost 200 students to vote, Salzman said. Forty percent of these students registered to vote in Rhode Island, she added.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

Ladd Observatory nominated to be historical landmark

Nineteenth-century building tapped for inclusion in Providence’s Landmarks District

By PIA CERES CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Walking into Brown’s Ladd Observatory on a clear night is like stepping back to a time when the stars were new.

In August, Ladd Observatory was nominated for inclusion in Providence’s new Landmarks District, an official collection of historic sites created to integrate historic properties not located in existing historical districts.

Ladd, first opened in 1891, is one of few fully-functional observatories featuring preserved 19th-century technology, said David Targan, director of the observatory and associate dean of the college for science.

“It’s a real rarity in the world of astronomical observatories,” he added.

The Landmarks District was created

» THE ROCK, from page 1 at the Rock.

In recent years, many Rock staff members have retired, said Karen Bouchard, scholarly resources librarian for art and architecture. The video component of “Rock Memories” aims to preserve the oral histories of these longtime staffers.

“There’s a 50-year history that is something that alums and students alike can come together and celebrate,” Bordac said. “It’s such a core part of the campus.”

Classic Rock Before the age of the Rock, the University Grammar School sat on the familiar peak on College Hill. The school was an appendage of the University and served as an all-boys prep school that readied its students for college, according to the exhibit. In 1902, the University Grammar School was razed to make way for a University administration building.

When these administration functions moved to University Hall in 1940, the English department took over the space, rechristening it Van Wickle Hall. The whole edifice was demolished in 1962 when plans for the Rockefeller Library were set in motion.

According to O’Mahony, University administration felt the need for another library because the main library at the time, the John Hay Library, was overcrowded with students and resources.

Students were excited to forsake “the dingy, dark, decrepit Hay for this brand new, sparkling Rockefeller Library,” he said.

Decades ago, the Rock stood out not only because of its prime location at the top of College Hill, but also because of

as part of the city’s zoning ordinance revision, wrote Jason Martin, principal planner for the Department of Planning and Development and member of the Providence Historic District Commission, in an email to The Herald. The commission was tasked with determining which properties would be included in the new district.

In 2000, Ladd was added to the National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service’s list of the country’s historic landmarks requiring preservation. This distinction allows Ladd to receive federal tax credits to support preservation efforts, according to the National Park Service’s website.

If selected as a Providence landmark, Ladd will gain protection under existing city regulations for historic properties. Any proposals for renovating or its modern, Brutalist architecture, which was completely alien to the ivy-andbrick structures that colonized campus, O’Mahony said. The library was also equipped with the age’s most cuttingedge technology.

A pneumatic tube messaging system brought call numbers to student workers in the stacks who would subsequently find the requested book, according to Bouchard. State-of-the-art typewriters featured “delete” buttons, a source of much excitement for the library staff, she added.

But while the systems may have been innovative at the time, “it may not always feel like that” to today’s library users, Bordac said.

Out of the Stone Age The advent of electronic resources dictated major changes for libraries worldwide, including the Rock, said Howard Stone, catalogue librarian in technical services.

Libraries of the ’60s aimed to maximize space for book storage rather than for people, according to David Banush, associate university librarian for access services and collection management.

As library users transitioned from hard-copy books to e-resources, study space, rather than book storage, became the Rock’s priority, Bouchard said.

This shift in research methods resulted in a drop in library material circulation numbers, Banush said.

Library acquisitions today focus more on electronic materials than print materials, and the University currently uses the Library Collection Annex, a high-density storage area four miles off campus, to store surplus books, particularly those the staff members deem rarely used.

demolishing an officially designated historical structure in Providence must be reviewed by the Historic District Commission, according to an application form for eligible structures provided by the commission.

There are currently eight local historic districts in Providence — the Armory, Broadway, College Hill, the Industrial and Commericial Building District, Jewelry District, North Elmwood, South Elmwood and Stimson Avenue. The new Landmarks District stands out from its peers because it is not a continguous area, but a series of individual properties with historic architectural significance.

“Recognizing (and) protecting landmarks like the Ladd Observatory” is part of preserving the city’s identity, Martin wrote.

The Olneyville New York System wiener shop and the Zachariah Allen House are also proposed structures for

the Landmarks District, the Providence Journal reported. The Big Blue Bug, a statue of a giant, pale blue termite that looms beside the I-95 as the mascot for a pest extermination company, is also being considered for inclusion, Targan said.

Over its 123-year history, the observatory developed a unique relationship with the city. From 1893 until 1971, Ladd transit observations sent time signals via telegraph wire to a central distribution center in Providence, providing an officially-measured accurate time across the state, Targan said.

Targan noted that Ladd has maintained its original 12-inch Brashear refractor telescope. A hand-wound clock drive operates the instrument, rotating the telescope contrary to the direction of the earth’s rotation and focusing the telescope’s gaze on a particular point, Targan said.

Martin wrote that he hopes the

Alternative Rock The culture and spaces the Rock offers have made it a destination of students and staff, who discover and inhabit their own nooks within the library.

Bouchard said she enjoys working at the Rock because of the variety of people that she encounters, especially while at the reference desk.

Rachael Meade GS said she usually studies in the graduate student lounge on the second floor, citing the big windows as the space’s primary appeal.

Marques Love ’17 said he gravitates towards the Rock, rather than

the Sciences Library, because the study rooms on the fourth floor help him concentrate, adding that the Naked Donut Run is one of his favorite Rock traditions.

But feedback isn’t all positive. According to the Rock 50 website, students have been complaining about the lack of electric outlets, the 10 p.m. closing time on Saturdays and a paucity of vending machines since 1964.

Stepping stones: What’s next for the Rock?

The Rock’s future includes the

ASHLEY SO / HERALD

The observatory is already on the National Register of Historic Places. establishment of the new district will “start a larger conversation” about the cultural and economic contributions of historical preservation to Providence. current expansion of study spaces, according to Bordac. The reference area on the first floor is undergoing renovation, and seating and computer desks will replace the looming stacks, leaving an unobstructed view from the windows out to downtown Providence.

Preservation and documentation efforts will also continue, Bordac said, especially in light of the Rock’s upcoming anniversary. “By celebrating (the) history of (the) building, we’re also charting how the building has been used consistently and also differently over the past 50 years,” she said.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

today 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

fish fest VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH Grilled Turkey Burgers, Red Potatoes, Pasta Bean Bake, Roasted Vegetable Melange, Smores Bars

Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich, Vegetarian Pot Pie with Biscuits, Beets in Orange Sauce, Smores Bars

DINNER Swiss Steak, Manicotti Piedmontese, Parsley Potatoes, Garlic Bread, Apple Streudel Pie

Swiss Steak, Vegan Siena Roasted Couscous, Vegan Brown Rice Pilaf, Apple Streudel Pie

JOSIAH’S

THREE BURNERS Gourmet Tacos

QUESADILLA OR GRILLED CHEESE Make-Your-Own Quesadilla

sudoku TOM SULLIVAN / HERALD

At the fourth annual Rhode Island Seafood Festival this weekend, Shuckin’ Truck supplied fresh oysters, which sold three for five dollars. Festival-goers enjoyed sunny, clear skies and live music with their seafood.

crossword

TOM SULLIVAN / HERALD

The kettle corn tent was one of a few vendors at the festival that offered free samples. Besides kettle corn, vendors sold a cariety of seafood, sweets and local crafts.

comic Cat Ears | Najatee’ McNeil ’17

calendar TODAY

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 organization’s website. Brown/RISD Hillel 5:30 P.M. FERGUSON TEACH-IN

The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions and the Watson Institute for International Studies present a teach-in on the events surrounding the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Salomon 101

TOMORROW

SEPTEMBER 10

5 P.M. WHY GAZA MATTERS: THE WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

Brown faculty members Beshara Doumani, Omer Bartov, Nina Tannenwald, Melani Cammett and Sa’ed Adel Atshan will host a teach-in on the conflict in Gaza. MacMillan 117 7 P.M. COMMUNITY SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES FAIR

Local nonprofits and Swearer Center community programs will offer information for and recruit student volunteers.

Swearer Center for Public Service

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

EDITORIAL

Stop charging for books While shopping courses, many students are aware that they are also shopping for textbooks. In addition to the $59,428 that we pay in tuition, professors request that students shell out what can often add up to thousands of dollars for reading materials. We urge the University to address the ever-pressing concern of the rising cost of college, on the grounds of not just tuition, but the associated costs of necessary academic materials.

As denoted by the University’s cost of attendance, students should reasonably expect to spend $1,420 on books over the course of an academic year. The costs inevitably vary across courses and departments and differ on a vendor-by-vendor basis, creating a dynamic wherein particular students face an inequitable burden. While seemingly convenient modes of purchase, the Brown Bookstore and Allegra hold a monopoly on the proverbial Brown book market and force students to buy their materials at heightened levels for the invaluable price of convenience and sheer product “availability.” Internet book retailers such as Amazon do allow students to explore a broader range of book options; however, the issue of cost — at its core — is under the purview of the University and should be addressed as such.

The cost of textbooks is of concern not just for the large sum, but also because it is effectively a flat tax levied across all students. Most fees, including group activities and athletics, are rolled into tuition and appropriately scaled depending on a student’s economic situation. But, except in the case of certain scholarships, all students — whether they are paying full tuition or no tuition — are subject to the $1,420 expenditure. Like a sales tax, this places an unfair burden on those with less disposable income.

The cost of materials is not a problem without solutions. In Sunday’s Boston Globe, former Herald editor-in-chief Ben Schreckinger ’12 penned an op-ed urging universities to embrace open textbooks for their lower costs and arguably greater academic value. But students are unlikely to see such reforms unless the University is forced to confront the costs.

The administration would either have to raise tuition at a time of historic hikes or rein in spending. Under this pressure, it would hopefully use its buying power to either negotiate more economical contracts with publishers and Allegra or search for alternatives such as open textbooks. The University should include the cost of materials in tuition both to more fairly spread the burden across students and to force the administration and professors to search for more sustainable solutions.

A N G E L IA WA N G

C L A R I F I C AT I O N The lede and summary deck of an article in Monday’s Herald (“Students stay at U. after lack of indictment,” Sept. 8) incorrectly described three Brown undergraduates as having been investigated this year for an alleged sexual assault last November. In fact, two were investigated, and the third was connected to the alleged crime in police records.

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

“It’s a real rarity in the world of astronomical observatories.”

— David Targan, director of the Ladd Observatory

See ladd on page 3.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board, led by James Rattner ’15 and Alexander Kaplan ’15. The editorial page is currently seeking applications for students who would like to contribute. Please contact Rattner or Kaplan if you are interested in joining the board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

Good intentions, harmful impacts DIVYA BHATIA opinions columnist

According to the Association of International Educators, about 70 percent of American college students who study abroad choose to study in Europe, with only about 4 percent studying in Africa, 8 percent in Asia and 10 percent in South America. When it comes to searching online for volunteer opportunities abroad, India, South Africa, Haiti, Peru and Nepal are among the most popular destinations.

Like those at many other American universities, Brown student groups including MEDLIFE, Medical Brigades and the Foundation for the International Medical Relief of Children, organize and plan service trips to help underprivileged people through fundraising and by traveling to various clinics abroad. Though the members of these organizations — many of them my friends and classmates — have the best intentions, they are gravely mistaken about the impact of their work abroad. With a two-week service trip, are they really helping the communities they visit?

Often, these groups do not even consistently visit the same communities. The image of a brigade of unquali-

fied, inexperienced college students touring to help the world’s poorest and sickest communities —­and no single community in particular — comes to mind. It is viscerally troubling.

In going abroad with the intention to “help” rather than to learn and understand as outsiders, such groups prevent volunteers from building genuine relationships with the communities they’re trying to serve. The innocent arrogance in assuming that children “need” to be taught or treated by a young westerner is a failure to understand the problems themselves.

It seems to me like these are just volunteer vacations that fail to recognize the complex root causes of health and social inequality, and how these complexities can’t just be distilled to “poverty” in each community. Their projects are inevitably unsustainable — what happens to the communities that volunteers visit once they leave?

“Voluntourism,” taken in the name of goodwill, often has immensely negative consequences on both the community receiving aid and the volunteers themselves. Even when voluntourism does no harm, it is not the solution to the world’s problems. Today’s social problems, including poverty and health inequalities, have roots that run deeper than a lack of available resources or able-bodied volunteers.

In India, for example, the combination of government- and non-govern-

mental organization-provided health care resources are so available that any pregnant woman treated in public facilities has access to health care. This is a remarkable feat.

So why are maternal and child mortality rates in India some of the highest in the world? Volunteer programs that allow foreign students to provide prenatal counseling or primary care for new moms do just that — provide.

This is important, but these Band-Aid solutions don’t evaluate whether women seek out these resources in the first place. These programs cannot fix the immense gender inequality that prevents too many women and mothers from seeking health care, even if it is accessible. And even if students get to learn from the experience of counseling women on healthful eating habits, how can this address the reality that many women serve their husbands and sons several helpings of food before they eat the tiny portions that remain?

By studying in developing nations instead of volunteering, students can appreciate the complexity and vastness of the problems they are trying to solve. They learn experientially: by talking to people, by physically being in the place they are learning about.

And in doing so, they’re critically aware of their role in these communities. Both Brown and Brown-approved study abroad programs allow students

to study in developing nations. Rural stays that were part of my study abroad program in India, Vietnam and South Africa were challenging, but incredibly insightful. Living with homestay families can be uncomfortable when these families do not have enough to provide for you, but still do. But the intention to just learn enables conversations on a much more equal footing.

As American outsiders, we faced no expectation that we would solve anything during our stay. We saw a lot — some things upsetting, others very hopeful. The key for college students is to understand why problems we hope to mitigate exist and persist, before we try to right any wrongs abroad.

It is only through immersion and sharing daily life with families in communities that we can understand community perspectives on the problems they face. This doesn’t happen in a two-week service trip. In South Africa, for example, many international aid organizations, such as the Africa Development Corps, provide HIV counseling to women, since more women than men are infected with HIV. Yet in reality, women have no sexual power to follow the helpful advice provided by these well-intentioned foreigners.

Domestic violence in black South African communities — a major factor perpetuating the HIV epidemic — has complex roots in the oppression suffered during apartheid.

Without living and studying in developing communities, we’ll still be blind to historically rooted, asymmetric distributions of power that manifest in the form of health inequity to which too many developing communities have become numb. How can we as college students help reduce HIV infections if we haven’t even begun to understand why they persist?

In this way, American volunteers going abroad are doing more harm than good, creating rewarding experiences for the volunteer that are not ultimately impactful for the community.

I’m not saying don’t go abroad. Go — to observe and learn experientially.

But do no more, because we are not equipped to solve the medical and social inequalities facing the world and will probably cause more harm than good by volunteering. We need to understand the systemically rooted inequalities we care so deeply about so we can address them in more sustainable ways, instead of covering them up.

Until we experience life in these developing communities, we won’t understand what those sustainable solutions can be.

Divya Bhatia ’15 had the greatest and most challenging study abroad experience in the world and can be reached at divya_bhatia@brown.edu.

The unrepresented ANONYMOUS guest columnist

Editors’ note: This column was written by a 2014 alum. Due to its politically sensitive nature and the author’s Chinese citizenship, we decided to run it anonymously.

At a 2010 G20 summit press conference, Rui Chenggang, a journalist from China Central Television, pushed a question on President Obama, who wanted to reserve the final question for Korean media. “I’m actually Chinese, but I think I get to represent the entire Asia,” he said. No one at that time expected Rui — the Western face for the “entire” continent — to see his downfall this July, as a result of a highly praised anti-corruption movement waged by the new General Secretary Xi Jinping.

As I faced Brown’s Admission Office as a high school graduate, I was to remember that distant morning when my father took me to attend the entrance exam of an “elite” high school in Nanjing, China: the onset of my journey.

At that time educational reform was taking place — in 2003, candidates had to first attend a “lottery”: Half of the candidates would be randomly sifted out, and one-eighth of the remaining students would pass the entrance exam.

Luckily, I managed to get in. The exam was the watershed of the lives of many people of my generation. It also heralded the gradual formation of a new double-track educational system.

We matriculated. We, as students within this system, were truly benefiting. We were able to circumvent “gaokao,” the National Higher Education Entrance Examination. In 2009, approximately one third of the students in my grade were recommended to China’s top colleges for immediate admission. Half of the students went abroad for undergraduate programs. Only one of the 54 students in my class ended up taking gaokao. Due to these stunning figures, our school is sometimes referred to as a “super school” in China.

Thus, we were proud of ourselves. We claimed

that our success was due to our encyclopedic knowledge and “elite” education. Someone said we were a paragon in educational reform. But was it true?

In January 2009, I visited my former middle school teacher. She told me that a former classmate’s parents had just sent her a message confirming their daughter’s admission to Tsinghua University and expressing their gratitude.

I interrupted, “Tsinghua’s final-round interview has not been held yet. How could they confirm the result?” I remembered the gossip four years before: This girl’s mother had been in charge of a state-owned communication company’s business in our province and had resided in a “seven-star” hotel when she had attended a conference in Dubai.

Gaokao at least ensures some equality between rivals. Its partial revocation would only breed rent-seeking: Those in power would monopolize the best educational resources for their offspring by making exchanges with the secondary schools with immediate access to those resources.

But what happened to the people sifted out in the lottery? Some exceptional students were sifted out not because of their ability, but because of their “bad luck.” Nevertheless, who could ensure that this “lottery” was truly determined by the hand of God, while so many corrupt officials under probe today were still in office in the early 2000s? For those sifted-out students, their only way out was to excel in the extraordinarily difficult gaokao. As a result, the intensive and repetitive schoolwork prevented them from doing anything else other than preparing for the exam — including applying to U.S. colleges.

Thus, when U.S. colleges hosted China summits, and when admission officers visited China to introduce their schools, those students’ voices could never be heard. They were the unrepresented.

Overall, in this double-track system, gaokao was made extremely difficult to block students from rural areas and urban working-class families from entering top colleges. Meanwhile, most students from “super schools” were “indepen-

dently” admitted without taking gaokao. A striking result is that the proportion of rural students at Peking University decreased from roughly 30 percent to 10 percent in the past decade, while 82 percent of vocational college students in 2012 were from rural areas, according to a column in Nature.

Rui Chenggang distinguished himself among those exam-takers. In the 1995 gaokao, he ranked first among the tens of thousands of students in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province. Later, during his brief but brilliant career at CCTV, he directed and anchored several programs in English and interviewed hundreds of elites of world renown: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, George Soros, etc. From the western intellectuals’ point of view, Rui acted as bridge of Sino-American communications and represented China’s new generation, despite his staunch chauvinism and skepticism toward Western politics.

Indeed, Rui is not the voice of the voiceless that westerners might think he is. On July 11, he evaporated just before airtime, leaving an empty seat and his co-anchor alone on live television. It was reported that he was detained due to his close link with the corruption in CCTV, allegedly related to a disreputed former Politburo member.

If Rui supposedly represented “the entire Asia,” the western intelligentsia should focus on the “unrepresented.” Suffering from China’s unequal educational system, they are the salt of the earth and the real future of the nation. Today, I am telling my story about some of these people I knew. It was mainly because of those “representatives,” hypocrite mouthpieces like Rui, that the western observers could rarely hear the voices of those unrepresented and witness the reality of their dreams behind the Bamboo Curtain. Not until Xi’s widely acclaimed anti-corruption campaign, which has already caused the investigations of two former Politburo members, was the western world fully aware of those mouthpieces’ moral decadence.

No one can ensure that similar situations do not exist at Brown. It is beyond question that Brown strives to promote China’s development

by admitting more Chinese students. In addition, many elite students today are playing the role Rui once assumed, acting as agents promoting China’s communication with the West. Nonetheless, are the potentially corrupt activities Rui once privately engaged in, which caused his abrupt downfall, uncommon among those elite “representatives” from China nowadays? Do we agree with such activities?

Furthermore, is Brown’s admission process truly fair, so that only the intellectually exceptional foreign students are chosen? By making needaware admission decisions, to what extent are we contributing to the unequal allocation of educational resources in China discussed above, and therefore the overall social inequality, whether inadvertently and indirectly? Those are the serious problems that Brown and other elite colleges will soon face as international academic communications deepen.

To close, I would like to tell another true story that I experienced.

In May, June and October, flights from Nanjing to Hong Kong are filled with students from my school taking the SAT. In May 2008, one of my classmates waited in the first-class lounge with her parents. Her father boasted to the parent of another student: “I am a member of the Harvard Board of Trustees!”

One year later, this girl got offers from nearly 30 top U.S. colleges. However, having watched her interview on CCTV, my former chemistry teacher commented: “Who is she? I never knew this girl in our grade.”

In 2011, another interview of this girl and her friends, by Rui — incidentally, their fellow Yale alum — was broadcasted on CCTV Financial Channel.

The author graduated from Brown in 2014 with a degree in computer science-economics and is starting his career in Menlo Park, California, this fall. To contact him, email herald@browndailyherald.com.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD arts & culture R.I. Seafood Festival attracts students, locals JCB Library Two-day festival offers fresh seafood, local art and music in India Point Park

By KATHARINE GROETZINGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The enticing aroma of freshly-caught seafood mingled with the refreshing breeze blowing off the Providence River and the mellow sounds of live bands to establish the laidback atmosphere at India Point Park, where over 20,000 people gathered over two days for the fourth annual Rhode Island Seafood Festival.

“It’s about music, art and food, which we view as art,” festival founder Dan MacKinnon said, adding that 90 percent of the festival’s vendors are local to Rhode Island.

MacKinnon and TJ McNulty cofounded the festival in 2011 as a passion project generated by their shared love of seafood and the good times that often accompany the cuisine.

“It’s not just about the seafood. It’s about having that peace of mind that this is what life is about,” MacKinnon

REVIEW

said.

The pair originally hoped the festival would provide people with a way to enjoy themselves without blowing the bank. With such a high student population, the Providence community seemed like it would be particularly responsive to the idea, MacKinnon said.

“You’ve got a bunch of students who may not have much money. If they’ve got two dollars in their pocket, we want them to come down,” he added.

And come they did, following many Thayer Street food trucks down to the park. Mijos Tacos and Plouf Plouf parked at the festival, hawking special marine-inspired menus including lobster mole tacos and locally sourced calamari, respectively. Though the prices at Mijos were notably higher than those of their typical tacos, the tender lobster and balanced mole made the extra bucks well worth it.

Other Rhode Island vendors included the Shuckin’ Truck and Matunuck Oyster Bar, offering ever-popular lobster rolls and oysters for a steal. The seafood was complemented by the gratis ocean view, briny breeze and upbeat music. On Satuday Clyde Lawrence ’15 and his band brought the crowd to its feet by the end of their set.

“It’s better than a frat house, and

opens new exhibit on higher ed

Historical documents are on display, emphasizing components of higher education worldwide

By ALEKSANDRA LIFSHITS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

TOM SULLIVAN / HERALD

Food trucks, students and locals all traveled to India Point Park for the fourth annual Rhode Island Seafood Festival this weekend. it’s sunny,” Jordan Beard ’15 said. A steady supply of booze quenched the festival, with the beer and liquor tent functioning as both the geographic and economic center of the festival. According to McNulty, Saturday’s liquor sales outweighed food sales. On tap were local favorites including Narragansett and Newport Storm, with dark and stormies made with Newport Distilling Company’s Thomas Tew rum. Wine by Rhode Island-based winery ShelaLara

rounded out the alcoholic offerings.

Though MacKinnon and McNulty have spent their own money on the event each year, they said they can no longer lose money in the name of fun and plan to charge for admission at next year’s festival.

“There’ll probably be a hurricane blowing in next year when we do that,” McNulty said, flashing a smile at the clear, blue sky that made this year’s festival such a sunny success.

RISD galleries undergo renovations

Sixth floor’s makeover completes seven-year-long restoration project at RISD Museum

By EMILY PASSARELLI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Restoration of the nearly 10-foot-tall Dainichi Nyorai Buddha and the newly displayed interior of Egyptian priest Nesmin’s coffin are just two of the many changes visitors will notice in the renovated section of the sixth floor of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

The museum opened its restored ancient Egyptian and Asian art galleries, as well as new costume and textile galleries, to the public June 13.

The completion of these renovations marks the end of the seven-year-long Radeke Restoration Project — a project that comprises the renovation of three floors of the museum’s historic Eliza G. Radeke Building. Work done on these sixth-floor galleries cost $2.7 million of the project’s $8.4 million dollar budget.

The project was developed to not

only restore the historical character of the Eliza G. Radeke Building but also to revitalize, rearrange and re-present the art collections on each floor. The seven-year-long project occured in three phases. Third floor renovations began in 2008, work on the fifth floor in 2010 and remodeling of the sixth floor in May 2013. Renovations of the sixth floor include new climate-controlled and adaptable display cases, a study center that allows more personal access to textiles and costumes, paneled walls for the display of prints, new lighting and Wi-Fi access.

“Throughout this project, our goal has been not only restoring the original architectural integrity of the Radeke building, but to ensure the RISD Museum’s relevance as a vital center for art and design for 21st-century audiences,” said John Smith, director of the RISD Museum, according to a press release.

COURTESY OF RISD MUSEUM

The Radeke Restoration Project, which renovated three floors of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, cost $8.4 million in total.

Between the ancient and the modern, “there’s a play — we like to play,” said Gina Borromeo, curator of ancient art.

She and the other curators, along with members of the education department and the former director of planning, originally met and discussed how to best arrange the floor in a cohesive way. Borromeo said they settled on the theme of materials — how objects are made, what objects are made of and the techniques used to create objects.

Each curator then worked individually to select the pieces they wanted to display in their exhibits. Some pieces were purchased and some were gifted, but most were in the old galleries or pulled from storage, Borromeo said.

“What I brought out is what best fit into the story” of each gallery, she said, adding that she also considered the quality of the pieces. An in-house conservator cleaned and stabilized the pieces she selected.

“People always want to know how (the Egyptians) could possibly have done this given the materials they had,” she said. The pieces on display, which are grouped by material and in cases that allow visitors to see unfinished areas, reveal the artistic process and the cultural significance of the materials.

The Asian art gallery places pieces made in different Asian cultures, but from similar materials, in adjacent displays.

Mixing pieces from various Asian cultures allows viewers to see the range of cultural uses for one material, Borromeo said, adding that it also permits the museum to highlight the strengths of the smaller art collections.

While the Asian and ancient Egyptian art collections were reorganized and reinterpreted, it is the first time that a selection of the museum’s 26,000-piece collection of textiles and costumes will

have their own display, Smith wrote in an email to The Herald. The pieces on exhibit in the new Angelo Donghia Costume and Textiles Gallery will change semi-annually and currently demonstrate the cross-cultural uses of the floral motif.

“I wanted to fully embrace the opportunity that this new space gives us to highlight not only the riches but also geographic and chronological breadth, of our departmental holdings,” Kate Irvin, curator of costumes and textiles wrote in an email to The Herald.

A study center adjacent to the costume and textile gallery was also established as part of the renovation. The new study room displays costumes and textiles in glass-covered drawers and features iPads that present the information about each piece on display.

The museum renovations were completed with RISD students in mind, Borromeo said. The study room holds classes for them, and pieces on display change with the needs of the class. A central case with glass-covered pullout drawers allows students to “directly interact with objects that will inspire them, or not,” she added. “The collection is very much alive for them.”

The restoration project compiled an interactive section of the museum’s website that displays an image of the piece, and provides both the artist’s interpretation and the critique of a scholar or historian. This juxtaposition of viewpoints melds with the theme of the new galleries, presenting the ideas of both the maker and the scholar, Borromeo said.

“The Radeke building is in many ways the RISD Museum’s core, and it is where we exhibit the most significant works from our permanent collection,” Smith wrote. “It had been several decades since the Radeke building’s galleries had been upgraded, so the project was long overdue.”

Crumbling and aging pages from institutions around the globe draw visitors to the John Carter Brown Library’s exhibit, “Off to College: Higher Education in the Americas, 1551-1825.” While the documents are written in various languages across different historical eras, they collectively initiate a conversation about the role and goals of education.

The exhibit follows the theme of the University’s 250th anniversary and “puts Brown into a larger context, gives it a place within the western hemisphere as a whole,” said Jeremy Ravi Mumford, lecturer in the department of History, who guest curated the exhibit.

Written documents, such as books and charters, dominate the collection, but diagrams, maps and other visual representations are also present. The items are organized to compare and contrast different aspects of higher education in North America, Latin America and Western Europe.

The exhibit’s structure allows the viewer to infer that views towards higher education in North and South America had much more in common with each other during the colonial period than today, Mumford said. Recently, North America has focused on small private colleges and Latin America on large public ones, but early institutions in these two regions both emphasized religion and the traditional seven liberal arts, he said.

The exhibit most closely examines the link between education and religion, demonstrating the ways in which early institutions struggled to strike a balance between the two.

Exemplifying these tensions is a translated text from the University of Guatemala, which questions secularity versus sanctity. According to the exhibit’s website, the document interrogates whether the university was “royal for (the university’s) many good services to the Commonwealth, or Pontificial, for the noble deeds for the church?”

Meanwhile, a charter published from the College of Rhode Island, which later became Brown, shows that though the University was one of the first to shed its religious affiliation, it originally required the college’s board to have 22 Baptists, five Anglicans, five Quakers and four Congregationalists as representatives.

The exhibit similarly investigates the exclusivity of colleges and education as a right. An essay by James Ramsay, an 18th century abolitionist, promotes literacy classes for African slaves in the Caribbean. Mary Wollstonecraft, a women’s rights advocate of the same period, reasons that women have the same capabilities as men and thus should have equal access to education.

The exhibit will be up on display at the JCB through October.