Monday, September 15, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 67

since 1891

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Protesters condemn police Ground breaks on housing project developers, brutality, discrimination Community advocates for victims of Building on Ferguson rhetoric, activists stage ‘die-in’ to honor memory of victims

By JOSEPH ZAPPA SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Students from Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design came together with Providence community members Friday to protest police mistreatment of people of color.

Student leaders unanimously declared the demonstration a success, with over 100 people showing up to

protest at Market Square ­— a location significant for its ties to the slave trade, said Yelitsa Jean-Charles, president of the new RISD chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Several students delivered speeches regarding police brutality and militarization, racial profiling and rights when approached by police officers, said Armani Madison ’16, president of the new Brown chapter of the NAACP and a former Herald opinions columnist. Protesters then laid down, silent and motionless, while Madison read off names of people of color killed by » See PROTEST, page 2

COURTESY OF YELITSA JEAN-CHARLES

Brown and Rhode Island School of Design students lie still and silent as Armani Madison ’16 reads names of people of color killed by police.

domestic abuse team up to provide housing

By EMILY BONEY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In a ceremonial groundbreaking Friday, the Smith Hill Community Development C orporation and Sojourner House unveiled a plan for Rhode Island’s first supportive housing project for domestic abuse survivors.

The pilot program will house three families and is intended to be the first of many such projects, said Jean Lamb, acting executive director of the Smith Hill CDC. The event drew around 40 members of the community, including Democratic candidate for mayor Jorge Elorza, Attorney General Peter Kilmartin and Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare.

The Smith Hill CDC will own and manage the building, while Sojourner House manages cases and provides programming. The new development will offer residents services like counseling, but these programs are not mandatory, Volz said.

The project, which Lamb said will be ready for occupancy in the spring or summer of 2015, is funded by $150,000 from the Building Homes

METRO

EMILY BONEY / HERALD

Event organizers unveil affordable housing options at the announcement of a new supportive housing project for R.I. domestic abuse survivors.

Rhode Island Fund and $235,000 from Rhode Island Housing, with additional seed money from the United Way of Rhode Island.

Sojourner House, founded primarily by Brown alums and students in 1975, is an advocacy and resource center for domestic violence victims.

Current services include a 24-hour help line, temporary shelter and sexual health services.

By partnering together, the Smith Hill CDC and Sojourner House were able to get the project off the ground, said Vanessa Volz, executive director of Sojourner House.

The partnership between the

Smith Hill CDC and Sojourner House was fitting for this project, Lamb said, due to their similar goals. “We’re both in the neighborhood and both want to provide support and a service to our residents. Why not collaborate?”

In order to maintain and protect the privacy of residents, the ceremony was held at the Smith Hill CDC, rather than at the site of the future apartment complex.

Security is a priority for domestic abuse survivors, said Kathy McCormick, a domestic abuse survivor and member of Sisters Overcoming Abusive Relationships, who spoke first at » See REFUGE, page 2

SEASON PREVIEW

On both sides of ball, football retools for new season

By ANDREW FLAX SENIOR STAFF WRITER

With no returning offensive starters, the football team needs to adapt quickly this season.

But with talent all over the field, the Bears’ attack could make more noise than some people expect.

The Bears had a potent offense in 2013, ranking third in the Ivy League with an impressive 31.1 points per game. A huge part of the team’s effectiveness came from running back John Spooney ’14, who led the conference in rushing yards per game at 130. No other player had more than 106.4.

The passing game was impressive as well, with Patrick Donnelly ’14 coming in at second in the Ivy League with 236.4 passing yards per game. Donnelly’s favorite weapon, wide receiver Tellef Lundevall ’14, placed fourth in the league with 74.5 receiving yards per game. Both Spooney and Lundevall went to NFL tryouts after the season, though neither made a team.

The 2014 Bears have some large shoes to

inside

OFFENSE

fill, but Head Coach Phil Estes believes his offense can be an effective unit.

At the heart of the Bears’ attack is quarterback Marcus Fuller ’15. Estes compared him to Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel in a preseason interview but clarified his comments this week.

“He’s not flamboyant like Johnny Manziel,” Estes said. He instead noted that Fuller shares Manziel’s ability to “make some plays.

When everything breaks down, he seems to be at his best.”

“Marcus has a really good feel for the game,” Estes said.

Fuller credited these attributes to “a combination of my experience as a player and my instincts.” As for the Manziel comparisons, Fuller said, “I have the ability to make a guy miss. … If I can do half the things he did at Texas A&M, we’ll have a pretty good season.”

But with a new quarterback, Estes knows his team will have to rely on its running game.

“We’re going to have to have a run game to make them think that ‘I can’t concentrate on stopping Marcus, I’ve got to concentrate on stopping the run game,’ and let Marcus be able to distribute,” he said.

The running back stable may seem empty with the absence of Spooney, but the Bears still have plenty of tailback talent.

Brian Strachan ’15 should receive the lion’s » See OFFENSE, page 4

Science & Research

After allowing fewest yards per game in Ivy League last season, new starters have big shoes to fill in replacing four All-Ivy players

By CALEB MILLER SPORTS EDITOR

Moving the ball against the football team’s defense has been difficult for opponents in recent years, but this season’s unit will need to replace some key cogs on the line and in the backfield in order to keep the stout tradition alive.

Bruno’s defense held offenses to the fewest yards per game of any team in the Ivy League last season, thanks in large part to the man captaining the squad in 2014, Dan Giovacchini ’15. The All-Ivy inside linebacker contributed all over the field last year, racking up a team-high 66 tackles, two interceptions, a fumble recovery and a sack. His track record is impressive, but this season brings new challenges, Giovacchini said.

“Last year I was more focused on my individual production. This year I have to be more focused on the team and defense as a whole,” he said. “That’s going to involve communicating more.”

Alongside Giovacchini at inside linebacker will be another stalwart of the defense, returning starter Xavier Russo ’15. His 6-foot-5, 255-pound frame makes Russo a threatening presence for opposing

DEFENSE

Commentary

Researchers transplant tissue from human fetuses to mice, perhaps leading to study of obesity

High blood pressure might be linked to brain tissue damage and dementia, study shows

Dorris ’15: All universities are overrated, not just elite schools

Blake ’17: While not perfect, higher education offers opportunities for self-reflection

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ball-carriers, and he backed up his menacing stature with 46 tackles and three sacks in 2013.

The Giovacchini/Russo combination brings a lot more to the defense than just tackles, said Head Coach Phil Estes.

“Any time you have two guys that got a lot of snaps last year, it’s going to make a difference in their confidence individually, but more so the team,” he said. “With the other guys being so young around them, they look to them to be the mainstay of the defense.”

Two new faces flank the leading duo at the outside linebacker positions. Ryan MacDonald ’16 and Michael Walsh ’16 combined for only seven tackles in limited action last season, but Walsh endeared himself to the Bruno faithful in the contest against Princeton when he returned a block punt 18 yards for a touchdown.

After starting at safety and contributing the fourth-most tackles to last year’s team, Eric Armagost ’15 will transition to outside linebacker for his senior campaign. Armagost is likely to make a big impact with his nose for the ball and hard-hitting style, but he has battled back injuries through preseason, putting his status for the season opener in question.

After touting the best secondary in the Ancient Eight a year ago, the Bears will have their work cut out for them filling the holes left by the graduation of All-Ivy cornerback Emory Polley ’14 and the transition of Armagost. Despite the absences, the defensive backfield was the strongest aspect of the defense in » See DEFENSE, page 4

weather

With 11 new starters, offense will have to gel quickly to support, protect playmaking quarterback Marcus Fuller ’15

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

R.I. organizations align to offer safe, efficient housing Alliance of community groups, nonprofits brings attention to household environmental concerns .By EMMA JERZYK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A group of national and state politicians, bureaucrats, business leaders and community members gathered in the State Room at the Rhode Island Statehouse Friday afternoon to celebrate the press launch of the Rhode Island Alliance for Healthy Homes, a partnership of local agencies and organizations that aims to provide safe housing in the state.

RIAHH comprises nonprofit and private organizations throughout the state — including Green and Healthy Homes Initiative Rhode Island, Rhode Island Energy Efficiency Resource Management Council, Rhode Island Housing, Inc. and the Rhode Island Foundation — that play a role in providing housing and services to Rhode Island homeowners, according to a GHHI Rhode Island press release. RIAHH will work to “effectively align, braid and coordinate information, resources and services to improve health, safety and energy efficiency of all Rhode Island homes,” according to the press release.

GHHI Rhode Island, an initiative that originated in the Office of the Vice President, coordinated the RIAHH partnership, said Mark Kravatz, outcome broker for GHHI who organizes different agencies and businesses in the state, at the meeting. Kravatz, who presented along with Ruth Ann Norton, the president and CEO of GHHI and Elizabeth Tobin-Tyler, steering committee chairperson for RIAHH, announced the sites all around Rhode Island will be combined into GHHI’s first statewide site.

Due to the limited funding that is available to help people get access to more energy-efficient and environmentally safe homes, housing organizations in Rhode Island have to turn away clients or defer them to other programs.

RIAHH aims to combine the interests of multiple organizations in combatting environmental concerns like mold, asbestos, lead, pests, fire and carbon monoxide, as well as negative health impacts from tobacco smoke, asthma and household injuries by seeking joint funding from public and private businesses, Norton said.

“Unhealthy and inefficient housing” — including costs from lead poisoning, asthma and at-home injuries among the elderly — accounts for about 3 percent, or $82.4 billion, of national

COURTESY OF RHODE ISLAND ALLIANCE FOR HEALTHY HOMES

“Sometimes it’s the genius of just putting together these pieces,” said U.S. Rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-R.I., of the four nonprofit and private Rhode Island organizations that form the Rhode Island Alliance for Healthy Homes. health care costs, according to a GHHI brochure distributed at the launch.

RIAHH plans to synthesize these diverse interests by homogenizing data collection among RIAHH members, training and organizing the healthy housing workforce better and making measurements of progress accessible to the public, Norton said.

Rhode Island will experience an “energy crisis” given that energy costs have escalated by 12 percent, making RIAHH’s work especially critical for the coming year, said Marion Gold, commissioner of the Rhode Island Office of

Neil Steinberg, president and CEO of the foundation. The Rhode Island OAG has allocated over $550,000 to RIAHH, Norton said.

The funding from the Office of the Attorney General under former Attorney General U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., came from a lawsuit that the state of Rhode Island joined, along with several other state governments, against several American Electric Power plants in Midwestern states that were polluting New England air, said Attorney General Peter Kilmartin.

The OAG parceled out money won in

The American Electric Power Lawsuit The AEP lawsuit, the settlement from which helps fund the Rhode Island Alliance for Healthy Homes, spanned three different Rhode Island Attornies General.

1999: R.I. joins the AEP lawsuit

2007: AEP settles for $4.6 billion

2014: Part of AEP settlement used to fund RIAHH

Patrick Lynch

Peter Kilmartin

Sheldon Whitehouse

1999

2003

2011

2014

Source: Sheldon Whitehouse press release EMMA JERZYK / HERALD

Energy Resources. As a result, energy costs are expected to rise 14 percent over the next year. Heating inefficient homes will become even more expensive but weatherizing houses to combat this will help struggling, low-income homeowners.

The funding for RIAHH comes from two main sources: the RIF, an organization that provides scholarships, grants and funding for various nonprofits around the state and the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General.

The RIF has committed over $265,000 to RIAHH over the past five years, said

that lawsuit to other causes, including RIAHH, Kilmartin added.

AEP settled for $4.6 billion of payments and pollution cuts for all 16 of its powerplants in October 2007, according to a Whitehouse press release.

Rhode Island received a little under $2 million from the settlement. “We’ve really gotten a lot out of these funds, especially in saving taxpayer dollars,” Kilmartin said. Other projects funded by the settlement include windmills and solar panels at RIPTA. Whitehouse was in attendance for the press launch along with other

members of the congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and U.S. Rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-R.I. “We do good things in Rhode Island. We are small, but we can do very intensely forward-thinking things,” Whitehouse said at the launch.

In Rhode Island, “everyone knows everyone, so when we have a good idea, it really travels quickly,” Langevin said.

“Sometimes it’s the genius of just putting together these pieces,” Cicilline said, adding that “it requires this incredible partnership among many agencies, among many levels of government, all working together to produce better outcomes.”

Representatives from the OAG and RIF, the two major sources of funding for RIAHH, also spoke at the launch.

“When you can get a project like this to come into Rhode Island, it’s an honor and a pleasure and a no-brainer to fund it,” Kilmartin said.

Both Kilmartin and Steinberg also noted the new permanent supportive housing partnership between the Sojourner House and Smith Hill Community Development Corporation, which will provide apartments and services for victims of domestic violence.

RIAHH’s business plan was put together by three Brown University graduate students, Amber Ma GS, Kelsey Sherman GS and Mina Zhu GS. Brown undergraduates also contributed over 2,000 hours of work in creating a housing database for Rhode Island citizens to easily access, TobinTyler said. Jeremy Wortzel ’16 coordinated more than 55 students, who spent the past two summers researching different agencies and organizations aimed at helping low-income homeowners upgrade their homes to make them healthy and energy-efficient. Wortzel also created the Healthy Housing Hub under the emPOWER umbrella of student organizations.

Kravatz heavily praised the students’ work, and several students who attended the event, including Wortzel, received a round of applause for the work they did.

Wortzel said that after spending the summer of 2013 putting together a 700-page document full of information, he and Kravatz realized that the information needed to be more accessible and readable. They are now working with Code for America to produce a publicly accessible online database, wikihousing.org, to be released in coming months, Wortzel said.

» REFUGE, from page 1 the ceremony. McCormick said that even after she left an abusive relationship along with her three children, she was stalked and harassed by her abuser for years.

“I had to hide, moving from place to place and job to job,” she said, adding that all she wanted to do was “rebuild her life” after the ordeal.

“As a survivor, I know very well how important these services are,” McCormick said.

Richard Godfrey, executive director of Rhode Island Housing, also spoke at the event. Rhode Island Housing, a long-time partner with the Smith Hill CDC, works with nonprofits to provide homes for a variety of residents with special needs and was the main funding source for the construction of the supportive housing apartments.

The partnership of “domestic violence expertise with community development expertise was a natural marriage, and we were happy to fund it,” Godfrey said. “We would like to do more projects just like this.”

He said McCormick’s speech was a “sobering reminder of how much more we have to do,” adding that men, in particular, need to take a stand against domestic violence. “Too often, we leave it to women to say ‘enough’,” he said.

» PROTEST, from page 1 police officers.

Protesters fell silent to show respect for and solidarity with those who have lost their lives at the hands of police, Madison said.

Though discourse on police brutality and its impact on people of color has spread across the nation since the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a month ago, Madison said students should be aware that police brutality can happen anywhere, including in Providence. The number of names Madison read aloud highlighted that police victimization of people of color affects many people, most of whom do not receive media coverage, said Sarah Jackson ’16, vice president of the NAACP at Brown.

Since Brown’s murder, many individuals have taken to social media to raise awareness about the issues the protesters discussed. Jean-Charles was inspired to organize a protest by online conversations in the aftermath of Brown’s shooting, as well as a Philadelphia protest led by Keith Wallace, which sparked the #CallUsByOurNames trend on Twitter.

Friday’s demonstration “allowed students to actively express their opinions” rather than confine their sentiments to social media, Jean-Charles said.

Moriah Benton, a RISD student, recounted an experience she had as a witness to police discrimination directed at two young black men in New York, stressing the importance of spreading awareness and knowing one’s rights. The speech stood out, said Ifeoma Kamalu ’15, who called it “powerful.”

Organizers primarily used social media to spread the word about the event, Madison said. Students also handed out flyers, put up posters and enlisted the help of the Providence branch of the NAACP to draw more people to Market Square, Jean-Charles added.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

science & research 3 Study links hypertension and dementia High blood pressure can lower oxygen flow to the brain, leading to tissue atrophy, mental decline

By JASON NADBOY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF JENNIFER SANDERS

Brown endocrinologists transplanted human fetal fat tissue into mice, where the tissue’s rate and type of growth can be monitored over time.

New model allows for analysis of fetal fat tissue In vivo model of fat tissue growth could aid understanding of childhood obesity

By ANDREW JONES SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A new model in mice, developed by University researchers, could aid the understanding of human fat tissue growth in fetuses.

In the study, published in the Journal of Lipid Research Sept. 5, the researchers transplanted the living fat tissue of human fetuses into mice, where the tissue grew in vivo. They then monitored factors affecting the rate and type of the tissue growth, a process that could eventually aid the understanding of the development of obesity, said Jennifer Sanders, assistant professor of pediatrics and co-author of the paper.

The animal model the researchers created, using a method called xenotransplantation, is the first to sustain human fetal adipose tissue growth in vivo. Previously, only cell cultures outside of living bodies were used to study fat tissue growth. Now, the new model offers a much more realistic view of tissue growth, said co-author Philip Gruppuso, professor of pediatrics and molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry.

“This presented an opportunity to study human fetal tissue growth in vivo, and you can’t do that any other way,” Gruppuso said.

Future research could use this model to better understand the fetal basis of adult obesity and diseases such as diabetes, Sanders said. There

is epidemiological evidence showing that factors inside the womb affect the eventual outcome of obesity, she said.

The researchers plan to analyze the histology and cell types present in the model at several time points during the tissue’s growth, she added.

“We were taken back by how much this tissue grew,” much more than researchers initially expected, Gruppuso said. The tissue was taken from stillbirths at Women and Infants Hospital that were 18 to 22 weeks in gestation.

The most immediate applicability of this model is in the field of epigenetics, Gruppuso said. By changing the DNA transcription and translation in the tissue, researchers can gain an understanding of how fetal genes affect fat tissue growth throughout the human lifespan, he added.

The model provides “a new front for the community to investigate cell biology, differentiation and development of (fat tissue cells) in human(s) as well as in animals,” wrote Zhihua Jiang, an associate professor of animal sciences at Washington State University who was not involved with the study, in an email to The Herald.

The project was a “major collaborative effort,” involving several labs and institutions, Gruppuso said.

Though this model provides motivation for future pathology research, there are known limitations to using a non-human model, Gruppuso said.

A mouse model does not perfectly model human fat tissue growth, and an immune response cannot be seen or studied because the mice are immunocompromised.

But the experimental design still has much to offer, Sanders said. “Hopefully other labs will adopt this model.”

www.browndailyherald.com

High blood pressure — also known as hypertension — may have previously unforeseen implications for the brain that can even cause dementia in some older adults, according to a study published by a team of researchers including several from Brown.

“Hypertension can lead to vascular narrowing,” said Michael Alosco, a graduate student at Kent State University and lead author of the study. “The arteries become stiff. … They don’t function as they should.”

“This narrowing of vessels results in decreased oxygen flow to the brain, resulting in atrophy and thinning, and therefore can likely increase the risk for dementia,” Gretel Terrero MD’15 wrote in an email to The Herald.

“If you look at brain MRI images of patients with severe dementia, the most classic finding will be significant cortical thinning — even if you are just analyzing the image with your naked eye in the Emergency Room reading room,” she added.

The researchers observed the impact of hypertension on cerebral blood flow and cortical thickness in adults with cardiovascular diseases, Alosco said.

“The number of silent strokes on the

MRI scans should be noted because hypertension is known to cause strokes in distributions of small arteries deep within the brain,” Brian Silver, associate professor of neurology, who was not involved with the study, wrote in an email to The Herald.

“These small strokes can lead to severing of connections between different cortical regions, which might account for the reduction in thickness of the cortex,” he added.

The study was made up of 58 older adults with varying cardiovascular diseases, which they self-reported and researchers confirmed with medical records, Alosco added.

The researchers performed MRI tests once without follow-up, and thus gained information about a wide range of patients at a single time point, Alosco said.

The results can be found in the August issue of the Journal of the American Society of Hypertension.

But “causation cannot be determined from this study because subjects had a single MRI at one point in time,” Silver wrote.

“To better understand the meaning of this reduced cortical thickness and its relationship with dementia, longitudinal studies should be done,” Terrero wrote.

Longitudinal studies include repeated observations of the same test subjects over an extended period of time, Alosco said.

“It would be interesting to see changes over time, for example at one year and two years among the two groups,” Silver wrote.

Future studies can “follow people over two to five years and see how hypertension affects blood flow and brain structure,” Alosco said, adding that this future work is necessary to verify the results of their initial study.

“A solid link between dementia and high blood pressure could lead to changes in current blood pressure guidelines,” Terrero wrote.

“Perhaps we would treat blood pressure sooner,” she added, noting that some doctors do not prioritize treating slightly elevated blood pressure until it reaches a certain level.

Terrero noted that “dementia can be so debilitating, and knowing that potential prevention and/or delay of dementia could be pretty easy” is a reassuring prospect. Patients with high blood pressure can access medication at a palatable cost and without a large risk of other side effects, she added.

“These results point to a potential avenue toward primary prevention of degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease,” Brian Ott, professor of neurology, who was not involved with the study, wrote in an email to The Herald.

Patients can also make lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of hypertension, such as improving diet and increasing exercise, Terrero wrote — these suggestions are her “first line of treatment” when patients arrive at her office seeking treatment for high blood pressure. But while often successful, when these options fail, patients require prescriptions of additional medicine, she wrote.

4 sports

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

RUGBY

Bruno makes history by downing Harvard in opener

In Ivy League’s first varsity rugby match, Bears come out on top thanks to a strong second-half effort

By LAINIE ROWLAND SPORTS STAFF WRITER

In its breakout performance as a varsity squad, the women’s rugby team aimed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it is worthy of its status, defeating a historically strong Harvard team 24-15. The victory came at the expense of the reigning Ivy champions and places Brown at the head of Ivy competition for 2014.

In the first-ever matchup of two varsity Ivy rugby teams, the squad felt the pressure to be on “the right side of

Goretaya ’17 led the way for Bruno with the first points of the season, and Sofia Rudin ’17 earned two extra on the conversion.

Five minutes later, the Crimson responded with a try of its own. But they failed to convert, allowing the Bears to maintain a slim 7-5 lead.

With 10 minutes left in the half, Harvard notched another try to gain a 10-7 lead. But Saskia Morgan ’16 forced a try off a Crimson turnover to recover a narrow 12-10 advantage at the midpoint.

The second half initiated another lead change, as Harvard scored its last try of the game. But its inability to convert the two once again meant

history,” as its coaches, athletic director and captains reminded them. “It’s hard not to feel the pressure when it’s the first of anything,” said co-captain Tiara Mack ’16.

The Bears did not disappoint.

In front of a capacity crowd in Cambridge, the team battled the Crimson neck-and-neck for the majority of play. The Bears pulled ahead early, stealing the ball off a Harvard fumble 15 minutes into play. The squad scored three minutes later for the first try and conversion of the game to go up 7-0. Co-captain Oksana

Powering the offense

An entirely new starting lineup will look to guide Bruno to an Ivy League title this season. #17: Marcus Fuller ’15 (QB) Fuller, compared in some ways to Johnny Manziel, will propel the Bears’ offense with his playmaking skill and knowledge of opposing secondaries.

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#68: John Heile ’15 (C) Heile is the heart of the offensive line, calling out assignments and blocking schemes with such intelligence that Estes called him “another coach on the field.”

share of the touches as the starter. A wide receiver last season, he fits more in the mold of a speed back like Spooney, instead of a big bruiser. But he will share time with Andrew Coke ’16 and Jacob Hall ’18, whom Estes described as “unbelievable.”

But of all the Bears’ positional groups, Estes said, “the thing that I’m most happy about is the receivers.”

The Bears lost their top four receivers from last season, meaning they have little experience in their current corps, but that didn’t stop Estes from praising his players.

“I still think we’re better now, athletically and with speed, than we were last year,” he said.

Stian Romberg ’15 headlines this group, receiving specific compliments from his head coach. He is joined in the starting lineup by Reiley Higgins ’15, who had six catches last season, and Troy Doles ’16.

“We definitely have some speed out wide with Reiley and Troy,” Romberg said.

While Fuller has not played with any of these receivers before, he is familiar with them.

He said he has been practicing with them for “two or three years,” and has a certain “comfortability” with his wideouts.

“You can’t teach experience,” he said.

“That’s the only thing we’re lacking.”

A wild card in the receiving corps could be Alex Jette ’17. He was electric last season, being named first team All-Ivy as a kick returner and becoming the first first-year in school history to earn a first team All-Ivy spot.

He has struggled with injuries this offseason, and his status is currently unknown, but he has the talent to be a breakout wide receiver.

While Estes and Fuller both spoke highly of the skill position players, no one received

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as many compliments from both as center John Heile ’16.

“I think John Heile at center has been great.

He’s like another coach on the field,” Estes said. “He’s pointing and talking and telling everybody what they’re doing, and he’s been really really good. I think John Heile is going to be that mainstay in the center.”

Fuller had similarly glowing words. “He’s invaluable to have in the huddle,” he said.

“I have a pretty good understanding of how defenses work on the back end. … He knows what’s going on in the trenches.”

“We’re the co-conductors of this engine,” Fuller added.

The rest of the offensive line is somewhat more suspect, featuring untested tackles Dakota Girard ’17 on the left and Matt Girard ’17 on the right, who are not related.

“We’ve got to throw them to the fire a little bit,” Estes said.

Overall, Estes knows the offense is not a finished product.

“We’re a work in progress,” he said. “We’re going to dumb it down just a little bit to get our feet wet.”

But Fuller had no such reservations.

“My expectations for this team are very high,” he said. He added that he hopes to “prove some people wrong,” alluding to the preseason poll that predicted the Bears to finish sixth in the league.

Estes also noted that the Bears will be at a disadvantage when they open their season at Georgetown.

“We’ll be their fourth game,” he said.

“They’ll know who they are as a team and what they do, and we’re going to have to find out fast.”

The Bears may not know who they are yet, but if they play to their potential, their offense could be a pretty impressive group.

minutes,” Mack said. “At one point they were up, at one point we were up.”

Bruno was lucky in avoiding concussions Saturday, but Harvard suffered a few during the game. “It was nice to get out of the game with the win and know there were no serious injuries,” said Kathryn Graves ’15.

Bruno lost starting flanker May Siu ’15 to a concussion earlier this week, so flexibility was key.

The Bears did lose some ground during the game on penalties, which is a point they hope to improve on going forward.

Bruno will be on the road next weekend, facing Penn in Philadelphia on Saturday.

Powering the defense

With two studs in the middle, the defense looks to continue the unit’s storied history. #55: Chad Berry ’16 (DL) Giovacchini compared Berry’s size, speed and hair to Clay Matthews. If he builds on his sophomore year, Berry could end the season on an All-Ivy list and in QBs’ nightmares.

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#10: Stian Romberg ’15 (WR) Romberg has been the most impressive wide receiver this preseason, according to Head Coach Phil Estes, and will help Fuller burn up defensive backs.

Background image courtesy of Tomek Rakowski; Text by Andrew Flax / Herald

» OFFENSE, from page 1

#11: Brian Strachan ’15 (RB) Strachan spent the 2013 season as a wide receiver, but he will bring his speed to the backfield this fall as Fuller‘s and the Bears’ primary rushing option.

Brown trailed by only three.

In the last 10 minutes of play, Bruno pulled ahead for the final time and marked its place in the history books as the winner of the first varsity rugby contest in the Ivy League.

Amber Reano ’16 spearheaded the late campaign by making a run up the middle to score a try. Morgan followed with her own strike to widen Bruno’s lead to the largest margin of the game, 24-15, with five minutes left in regulation.

“Once (Reano) broke through and made that amazing try, … we said, ‘Whoa, we have this game, this is our game,’” Mack said.

“It was definitely a hard 80

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#52: Xavier Russo ’15 (LB) Estes described Russo as a “power linebacker.” The tall, bulky senior haunts backfields in his second year starting. The Gio-Russo combo could be the league’s best 1-2 punch.

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31 #48: Dan Giovacchini ’15 (LB) Look for last year’s leading tackler to power the defense on his way to another All-Ivy campaign. “Gio” will make a difference corralling interceptions and ball carriers.

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#15: Patrick O’Neill ’15 (CB) O’Neill steps into his role after two years of All-Ivy cornerbacks at Bruno, but the senior will be no slack. He leads a secondary that impressed Estes in preseason.

Background image courtesy of Tomek Rakowski; Text by Caleb Miller / Herald

» DEFENSE, from page 1 its scrimmage against Yale last week, Estes said.

Starting cornerbacks Patrick O’Neill ’15 and Jacob Supron ’15 are not new to varsity action and made valuable contributions last season, including over 50 tackles and five pass breakups combined.

Will Quigley ’16 saw time in all 10 games last year and looks to fill Armagost’s vacancy at safety.

“It’s interesting because we lost an All-American starter in Emory Polley and I’m the only returning starter, but I feel more comfortable with the guys I’m with this year,” O’Neill said. “We have a good, cohesive unit.”

The secondary will also get a boost from such prolific run-stoppers at the linebacker position, O’Neill said. “I’m not worried about the run at all. I can focus on my job outside.”

O’Neill added that he expects to play the same scheme as his All-Ivy predecessors Polley and A.J. Cruz ’13 — lockdown man-to-man. “Let them blitz and we’ll do our thing outside.”

The biggest question marks of the 2014 defense exist in Bruno’s front four. Last year’s All-Ivy defensive end and captain Michael Yules ’14 leaves some big shoes to fill, and the Bears will likely take the field with four new starters in the trenches.

Chad Berry ’16 used the summer to transition from linebacker to defensive end, and he may offer a replacement for some of Yules’ production. In a breakout sophomore season, Berry accumulated 3.4 tackles per game and stood out against Dartmouth late in the year with six tackles and a sack.

“Berry makes a big difference for us. He’s just a physical presence,” Estes said.

“For lack of a better word, he’s a freak,” Giovacchini said. “He looks like Clay Matthews and he practically plays like him too. He’s going to be really fun to watch.”

Jacob Walther ’16 will get the start on the defensive interior after standing out as much as anyone on the front line in preseason, Estes said.

AVERY CRITS-CHRISTOPH / HERALD

Zach Sparber ’15 will line up next to Walther to plug the middle. With the graduation of defensive end John Bumpus ’14, Estes did not have to look far for his replacement, settling on his younger brother Henry Bumpus ’16.

The loss of seniors on the line is mitigated by Bruno’s heavy-rotating style, which allows young players to see frequent reps at the varsity level. Six linemen return with at least seven tackles, and fans can expect to see a lot of new bodies again this year.

The second line will consist of D-tackles Ludovic Richardson ’16, Thomas Kutschke ’17 and John Simpson ’17 and ends Charles Barry ’16 and Robert Hughes ’17.

“Really where it starts is the interior D-linemen,” Giovacchini said, adding that Walther, Sparber and Richardson have put on 15 to 20 pounds each, have lifted more and look “really good” in preseason.

While the starting lineup is coming into place, a lot is yet to be determined about this year’s defense. Some schemes and gameplans won’t be sorted out until the Bears have seen the veterans and new contributors play together in real action, Estes said.

“They still have to play as a team and get used to each other,” the coach said. “What kind of pass rush will we put on? Do we have to be more of a blitz team, or can we sit back in a zone? Those are the things we’re going to find out.”

Giovacchini said he thought the Bears had more defensive packages than any team on the schedule, making the defense more versatile but presenting a challenge for new starters.

The flood of young players and inexperience may come with growing pains, but O’Neill and Giovacchini are optimistic this year’s unit will imitate the success of Brown’s stingiest defenses.

“The championship team in 2005 … had a really young defense,” O’Neill said. “So we have taken on that mantra, saying it doesn’t have to be a certain way in order to win.”

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sports 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

SPORTS ROUNDUP

BY CALEB MILLER, SPORTS EDITOR

Volleyball The volleyball team put last weekend’s winless opening San Diego tournament far in the rearview mirror with an impressive showing at the Brown Invitational in the Pizzitola Center this weekend. Bruno picked up victories over Central Connecticut State University and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell after falling in a tight match to Liberty University to open the tournament.

The 3-1 final score in the loss to Liberty did not reflect how close the Bears came to pulling out a win. Each squad picked up a definitive victory in the first two sets, with Bruno taking the first by a wide 25-16 margin and Liberty answering with 25-21 win. The Bears looked poised to gain the advantage after opening up a 24-21 lead in the third set, but five consecutive points went the way of the Flames, who used the momentum to take the fourth set and the match.

But the Bears did not let the disappointing loss spoil their weekend, and the squad dropped only one set the rest of the way.

While CCSU managed to win the second set of its match with the Bears, Bruno didn’t allow the Blue Devils to gain more than 20 points in any of the other three sets.

In the last match of the tournament, UMass-Lowell was no contest for the streaking Bears. Behind a breakout 13-kill effort from Casey Tierney ’18, the team rolled to a 3-0 win.

Consistent top contributor Maddie Lord ’15 put her power on display for fans at the Pizzitola, spiking home 39 kills on the weekend, with 18 coming against Liberty alone.

Men’s water polo

It was a busy weekend for the men’s water polo team, which battled six games in its home pool at the Bruno Fall Classic. Bruno was coming off an undefeated first weekend but ran into some quality competition on its way to a 3-3 tournament.

Brown’s home opener paired the Bears against California Baptist University. The teams played evenly in the game’s first and final quarters, but the middle of the contest belonged to Bruno. The Bears outscored the Lancers 7-4 through the middle two quarters, and the margin was enough to lift the squad to a 14-11 win. A balanced scoring attack propelled the offense, featuring two players with three goals, two players with two goals and four players with one goal.

Two California schools broke Bruno’s four-game winning streak to start the year. Santa Clara University topped the home team with a strong fourth period en route to a 12-7 victory and the University of California at Irvine followed suit with an 18-6 trouncing.

The Bears tried to get back on track against Navy, battling the Midshipmen into overtime but eventually falling in a 10-9 heartbreaker. Henry Fox ’15 tallied a pair of goals in each of Saturday’s games to lead the offense.

The bleeding stopped on Sunday when Brown trampled Connecticut College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In each contest, the Bears jumped to early leads and never let the competition mount a comeback. Bruno doubled up Connecticut College 16-8 and outdid itself with a 17-8 victory over MIT.

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M. SOCCER

Despite scoring, Bears split at home A late equalizer and OT tally put Providence past Bruno, but Bears rebound to beat Lehigh

By ALEX WAINGER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The men’s soccer team scored plenty of goals in its first two-game homestand of the season, but it could not come away with two wins. The Bears dropped the first game to Providence College in an extra-time thriller, but bounced back and took down Lehigh University in the second game of the weekend.

Friday: Providence 3, Brown 2 (extra time) The first game of the weekend started out slow but turned into a shootout in the second half. PC (4-2-0) struck first with just two minutes remaining in the first half. The Friars won a free kick near the left corner of the Bears’ box. Markus Naglestad, one of PC’s three talented strikers, curled the ball toward the far post, where it found its way through traffic and into the back of the net.

Not to be outdone, Jack Gorab ’16 lined up a free kick from almost an identical spot on the field 25 minutes later. The midfielder’s free kick was inadvertently flicked into PC’s net by a Friar defender, but Gorab received credit for the game-tying goal.

After another 13 minutes of game time, Jameson Lochhead ’16 swung a corner to the back post, where Nate Pomeroy ’17 was strategically positioned. Despite a defender being draped all over him, the forward kept his focus and headed the ball past PC’s goalie Keasel Broome to give Bruno the lead.

Pomeroy’s header represented Bruno’s fourth goal of the season and its third off of a set piece. Pomeroy, Ben Maurey ’15.5 and Tariq Akeel ’16 are all forces in the air and consistently beat their defenders to headers, allowing the Bears to score many goals off of set plays.

“We’ve done very well on set pieces so far,” Gorab said. “It’s something we know we can do. Teams are going to start looking out for it, but we’re going to keep playing the ball into the box whenever we get the opportunity.”

But the Bears could not enjoy their

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lead for very long. In the 83rd minute, Friar striker Mac Steeves collected the ball with his back to Brown’s goal, 35 yards out. The forward took one touch, gracefully turned past a Brown defender and launched a rocket over Mitch Kupstas’ ’14.5 reach to re-tie the game.

A winner could not be determined after 90 minutes, so the game went to extra time. Unfortunately for the Bears, just three minutes into the first extra period, the Friars capitalized on a misplayed back pass. Daniel Neustadter found himself in a one-on-one situation with Kupstas and slotted the ball past the diving keeper to give PC the win.

“I thought the guys played well,” said Head Coach Patrick Laughlin. “It’s unfortunate. The margins are so small in college soccer. You make one mistake at the wrong time and it’s over. That what happened tonight.”

Sunday: Brown 2, Lehigh 1 Less than 48 hours later, Bruno retook the field to face the Mountain Hawks (3-2-0) and their star midfielder James Luchini.

Lochhead’s name was called during the lineup announcements, replacing incumbent centerback Mike Leone ’17 in the starting 11. Laughlin cited both a need to rest Leone after a gruelling night against PC and a desire to give Lochhead a chance to play as the motives for the lineup switch. Leone entered the game at the start of the second half to replace Lochhead, who logged a solid 45 minutes of work.

The Bears came out flat to start the game, giving the ball away in the midfield and affording Lehigh with a number of chances to score. Just ten minutes into the game, a Lehigh forward had a one-on-one opportunity against Kupstas, but the senior keeper charged hard off his line and made a reflex save to keep the game scoreless.

Despite forcing Kupstas to make four saves in the half, Lehigh could not crack the Bears’ defense. When the halftime whistle blew, the game remained a scoreless draw.

Bruno changed the tempo of the game at the start of the second half. Just a minute in, Quinn English ’18 chucked one of his patented long throws into the box. The ball bounced around before Akeel nodded it past Lehigh keeper Ciaran Nugent to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.

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English’s throw-ins are “a big advantage for us,” Laughlin said. “But we haven’t really worked on a play for them. We know he has it in his arsenal, and we just kind of rely on the scramble in front of the box that it creates. The guys did a good job of keeping the ball alive.”

The Bears continued to pressure Lehigh’s backline, playing balls from a variety of locations into the box and looking for headers. Pomeroy missed two good opportunities in the 66th and 72nd minutes, pushing two headers just wide of the frame.

The team’s failure to capitalize on its chances came back to haunt it when Luchini corralled the ball at the top of Bruno’s box. The talented midfielder danced through a barrage of Brown defenders and slotted the ball through Kupstas’ legs and just inside the far post to level the score at one.

But just three minutes later, supersub Will Cross ’16 came through for Bruno. Pomeroy drove the ball to the touchline and was looking for Louis Zingas ’18, who was roaming around the box. The ball found its way to the top of the 18-yard box, where Cross met it with his right foot. The ball rang off the bottom of the crossbar and into the back of the net to give Bruno the lead once again.

“On a ball like that, (Cross) is the guy I want taking the shot,” Laughlin said. “He just strikes the ball so well.

I’m really happy with the way (Cross) played — his minutes were great, and it made a big difference for us because a lot of our guys were fatigued from the Providence game.”

“I didn’t think about it. It was instinctual,” Cross said of his goal. “That’s what you’re supposed to do on shots like that. If you think about it, you’re going to hit it over the bar. So I just ran on to it and hit it well.”

Luchini had one final chance with just 45 seconds left in the game, after Kupstas unintentionally touched the ball with his hands outside of the box.

Luchini skied the ensuing free kick over the bar, and the Bears escaped with their first home win of the season.

The squad’s next action will take place in Florida, where the team will compete against University of South Florida (2-2-0) and Florida Gulf Coast University (1-2-2) in the USF/FGCU Tournament, Sept. 18-20.

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6 today

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

sun’s out, drums out

menu SATELLITE DINING JOSIAH’S Gourmet Grilled Cheese BLUE ROOM Naked Burritos ANDREWS COMMONS Sesame Orange Chicken, Garlic Long Bean, Make-Your-Own Fried Rice

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Tomato Basil Pie, Fried Clams on a Roll, Sauteed Green Peppers, Snickerdoodles LUNCH

Fiery Beef, Butternut Squash, Grilled Cheese, Pineapple Upside Down Cake

VERNEY-WOOLLEY

Hot Roast Beef Au Jus Sandwich, Stuffed Shells with Meatless Sauce, Snickerdoodles

Grilled Boneless Porkchops, Vegetarian Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina, Moo Shu Tofu

sudoku

DAVID BRAUN / HERALD

Marley Kirton ‘17 of Gendo Taiko performs a drumming routine on the Main Green.

comics Bear With It | Dolan Bortner ’17

crossword

Bruno | Mandi Cai ’17

calendar TODAY

TOMORROW

12 P.M. LUNCH TALK WITH PROF. DIENKE HONDIUS

2:30 P.M. A READING BY POET PETER COVINO

Free Univerity Amsterdam contemporary history professor Dienke Hondius will discuss her book “Amsterdam Slavery Heritage Guide and Blackness in Western Europe.” Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, 94 Waterman St.

Peter Covino, an award-winning poet, editor and translator, will read selections from his works “The Right Place to Jump” and “Cut off the Ears of Winter.” McCormack Family Theater

6 P.M. FIELD DIRT: RESULTS AND STORIES FROM

6 P.M. MARC J. DUNKELMAN PRESENTS “THE

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SEASONS

VANISHING NEIGHBOR”

Learn about various professors’ archaeological fieldwork done this summer in Greece, Tunisia, France, Montserrat, Turkey and Italy. Rhode Island Hall 108

Marc Dunkelman, public policy fellow at the Taubman Center, will talk about his new book exploring the changing nature of the American community. Brown Bookstore

8 P.M. DISCUSSION: WHO OWNS YOUR SELFIES?

8 P.M. JEWQ LAUNCH PARTY

Brown Political Forum presents this discussion of individual privacy and content ownership in the age of the Internet and increased law enforcement. Pizza will be provided alongside these major policy issues. Salomon 203

LGBTQ Jewish students can come to this confidential space to discuss their identities, with pizza to celebrate the group’s first meeting. Faunce 229

DINNER

commentary 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

The Ivy League lament CARA DORRIS opinions columnist

I remember my first technology career fair. There was a girl who couldn’t stop laughing. As resumes were scattered and business cards compared, the artists were separated from the analysts, the social workers from the computer programmers.

Soon the laughter turned to tears.

Apparently not a single firm was interested in her humanities degree or her four months WWOOFing in the south of France. She lamented why she came to this school at all. Her friend asked her how she got in.

So the discussion turned to class.

Perhaps money can’t buy class, but it can probably buy admission into one of America’s most fetishized institutions. Especially if you’re a legacy student.

That’s what former Yale professor William Deresiewicz argues, in his recent viral New Republic article, “Don’t

send your kid to the Ivy League.”

With the subtitle, “The nation’s top colleges are turning our kids into zombies,” the article’s premise is nothing new — perhaps just another solipsistic example of a privileged insider drawing attention to his Ivy League degree by seemingly waving it off. A bizarre social practice New York Magazine’s Maureen O’Connor calls “elite populism.” But Deresiewicz is right in many respects — the Ivy League is no longer a meritocracy. And really, it never was. It’s a bastion of privilege and wealth, a place where the nation’s elite learn how to act rich by networking with other rich kids from 105 different countries, all under the fuzzword of “diversity.”

Brown itself is a place where the same Occupy College Hill first-years that once used sleeping bags to cradle handles of vodka now dust off their Prada for banking interviews on Wall Street.

But that type of latte liberalism has another name. And I’d call that youth.

I’d call that rich youth. Rich youth who have a lot of resources but are lost

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

in a culture where everything is devoured in analgesia but nothing goes away. It would be somewhat soothing if schools like Brown — which Deresiewicz calls careerist “machines” —

lem is vaguer than the Ivy League, and perhaps more sinister. The main anxiety of the essay reminds me of that movie “Speed”: We are moving very fast toward nothing in particular, only

Instead of recommending parents not send their children to the Ivy League, I’d argue that the better advice would be to not send your kid to college at all.

were completely to blame. Yet when it comes to writing about the Ivy League, the only truly vanguard move, from what I can tell, would be to show how unremarkably similar it is to other institutions of higher education: not a paroxysm of guilt, or pride, or denial, but a recognition that this place exacerbates income inequality by encouraging the creation of children who are trained to compete in the expensive college admission sport — no different than any other American university.

If you decide to skip the article, the most compelling part is Deresiewicz’s discussion on mental health: that a large-scale survey of college first-years found self-reports of emotional wellbeing have fallen to the lowest levels in 25 years. But if we just look at Brown — a place with fresh grass and courtyards, hammocks and tightropes and barefooted students that constellate around gardens and libraries — the fact that so much suffering can be sucked into a green screen of paradise suggests something else: that the prob-

fueled by the fear that if we drop below 50 miles-per-hour, our destinies will detonate.

It’s the essence of modernity. It’s the fact that even in a place with the world’s best resources, so many of us can be severely depressed. It’s the fact that so many of us escape to New York City only to end up working in coffee shops, that we learn to name-drop books like “Kafka on the Shore” in these coffee shops instead of actually reading them. In this culture of extracurriculars and LinkedIn profiles, we have become self-absorbed, self-destructive and, frankly, not productive.

But we can’t blame this on the Ivy League. Recent essays like “No time to think” or “The ‘busy’ trap” tell us that things are speeding up in a senseless way. Busyness is no longer a symptom of stress. It’s a cultural concern.

In a place like Brown’s Main Green, festooned with Georgian and churchlike buildings that seem archaic, ironic even, modernity should not be confused with modernism. It’s not a stylistic period, and it’s not going away. Just

look at other top-tier schools like Stanford, which is not in the Ivy League.

From a plane it looks like an incubator surrounded by playing fields — huge, efficient, irresistibly modern.

Perhaps Deresiewicz’s biggest lament is that no, Yale cannot save us from modernity. Neither can Harvard nor Princeton nor Brown. The Ivy League cannot force the modern world out. No university can.

Instead of recommending parents not send their children to the Ivy League, I’d argue that the better advice would be to not send your kid to college at all. There’s an entire genre of articles dedicated to the futility of higher education, how the worst kind of wasted mind is an Ivy League mind.

And four years can feel like a long time.

But I can’t stop thinking about the girl who couldn’t stop laughing.

Perhaps she realized the absurdity of higher education — that while she was reading Nietzsche, others were learning Python, and that four years is not a very long time at all. But like ivy, she could grow only where there was room for her. So she laughed at the world. She laughed at the world that thought the Van Wickle Gates kept her caged in, when she knew, at least for a little while, they kept the rest of the world out.

William Deresiewicz, author of the book “Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite,” will speak at the McCormack Family Theater Monday, Sept. 15 at 6 p.m.

Cara Dorris ’15 can be reached at cara_dorris@brown.edu or @caradorris.

Don’t believe the hype: The Ivy League’s not all bad SEAN BLAKE opinions columnist

During your summer months you have, no doubt, seen various postings and re-postings of the near-ubiquitous William Deresiewicz article in the New Republic, “Don’t send your kids to the Ivy League.” And you — as an Ivy League student yourself — almost certainly read it. And if you are like me, you were probably a little struck by what he had to say.

For the uninitiated, Deresiewicz offers a thesis that boils down to one simple fact: College admission is a categorically flawed system that inherently favors the admittance and creation of uninspired upper-class zombies. To him, the notion that a college education serves as an equalizing, uplifting or even educating force is lost somewhere in the translation from ideal to reality.

With that being said, Deresiewicz’s singling out of the Ivy League kind of misses the point.

The issue, in its most abstract form, has nothing to do with where you are educated and everything to do with how or what you choose to think. The issue is one of an innate sort of selfishness that is part of the fabric of what it means to be human and orient your world about yourself. And I’d like to say that that reality doesn’t mean we — here at Brown or at any college, really — are all completely pernicious and mindless, only mostly. But, I’d dare say, so is most of the world.

This evilness, this increased push for a preprofessional attitude toward education is not restricted to the Ivy League. The Ivy League does not hold exclusive dominion over the daunting prospects of our futures. The sobering realities of the world beyond the confines of a college campus are universal; we all have to fear the weak economy, increasing costs of living and rising costs of higher education. These truths make

wicz’s popularity is that his message very clearly benefits from the system of entitlement and intellectualism he is trying to denounce; we listen because he went to Yale and he is smart and learned in the one-dimensional way he needs to be to earn our attention.

Arguably, that is part of the point he is trying to make. He is trying to illustrate that our consumption of his word as canon is idiotic. Perhaps

A sense of self-awareness and the appreciation that some arbitrary set of rules propelled us to our place in college illustrates that maybe our educational system isn’t as broken as Deresiewicz claims.

financial security at the end of college — especially after four years of an expensive private university — that much more necessary. Ultimately external factors, not the structure of elite schools, push people into fields they don’t really care about.

In an ideal world we wouldn’t have to worry about jobs after our time here. But that isn’t our reality. And to me, Deresiewicz’s critique seems to deal entirely in the theoretical while eschewing reality. He seems like Holden Caulfield, willing to call everyone a phony and a fraud but unwilling to even begin to reconcile his ideals with reality. And of course the grand irony of Deresie-

he is trying to say that he is not any more wise or insightful because his diploma says “Yale.”

Or because he got a diploma at all. He was just someone who happened to be good at jumping through hoops. But I also think that is something most here would be more than willing to admit. I’d even wager that most people who head off to college — public or private, Ivy League or not — after high school would also say the same.

That sense of self-awareness and the appreciation that some arbitrary — sometimes disturbingly so — set of rules propelled us to our place in college illustrate that maybe our education system isn’t as broken as Deresiewicz claims. If,

ideally, our education should serve to remind us of our finiteness and our tiny place in the universe, then maybe it is succeeding. If, ideally, our education should serve to make us realize, much like David Foster Wallace did, that “the only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re going to try to see (life). …

You get to decide what to worship,” then maybe it isn’t entirely broken. If, ideally, our education should show us the serendipity layered into so much of what happens to us through the short course of our time here — in college or life as a whole — as I feel Deresiewicz would claim, then maybe we are learning something of substance somewhere between the lines.

Ultimately, the reality is not as stark as Deresiewicz claims. Yes, there are definite flaws with higher education, and these flaws tend to favor money over merit. And yes, there are ways of improving the system of higher education to make it more of a true meritocracy. But to place the blame for nationwide issues squarely on the shoulders of Ivy League institutions is to blatantly engage in the sort of selfish mindlessness our college educations are supposed to combat.

William Deresiewicz, author of the book “Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite,” will speak at the McCormack Family Theater Monday, Sept. 15 at 6 p.m.

Sean Blake ’17 is a self-confessed entitled snob and trying to be less of one every day. He can be reached at sean_blake@brown.edu.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD

sports

W. SOCCER

FIELD HOCKEY

Bears improve record to 3-0 Bruno falls on road in OT Bruno scores four second-half goals en route to best start in at least seven years

By ANDREW FLAX SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The field hockey team stretched its undefeated start to three games Sunday, as it defeated Georgetown (2-3) in Providence, 4-1.

The Bears (3-0) opened their season with wins over Bryant and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. They kept going Sunday, cruising past the Hoyas thanks to four second-half goals.

Despite a scoreless first half, Bruno dominated possession over the whole game, firing 20 shots, 12 of which were on goal.

Georgetown managed just eight

and four, respectively.

The Bears’ shots finally started finding twine at the opening of the second half, when they scored all four of their goals in 25 minutes. Four different players contributed to the scoring, with tallies from Clayton Christus ’15, Meghan O’Donnell ’15, Hannah Rogers ’16 and Alexis Miller ’16.

“Our goal-scoring opportunities were really good,” said Head Coach Jill Reeve, who also praised Bruno for getting “a lot of production from the front.”

“I was really pleased with the win,” Reeve said.

In addition to the goalscorers, two players stood out to Reeve. She said Lucy Green ’17 “came off the bench and jumped in and made an impact,” and she praised Anna Masini ’16 for “keeping the whole team

together and playing really well.”

With the win, the Bears move to 3-0 for the first time in Reeve’s head coaching tenure.

“I can’t lie, it feels good,” she said.

But these three games are much less important than Ivy League matches, the first of which Bruno will play against Columbia Sept. 20.

“I know that we have a lot to work on,” Reeve said. “I think they’re ready. Today was a good test for us.”

With three great games under their belt, the Bears are feeling confident as they prepare to face the Lions.

“I think we match up well with Columbia,” Reeve said.

“We’re going to attack the game just like the first three.”

The Lions (3-1) come to Providence Saturday.

To cap Bears’ loss, FAU limits Bruno to just two shots, one on goal

By GEORGE SANCHEZ SPORTS STAFF WRITER

The women’s soccer team suffered its second defeat of the season Sunday in Florida, losing 1-0 to Florida Atlantic University in an overtime game.

During the first half of the game, FAU (4-3-1) recorded a total of seven shots, while limiting Bruno to just one shot of its own.

The only shot on goal of the game for Bruno (2-2-0) came in the 18th minute of play, from Allie Reilly ’15.

The second half was much

the same as the first, as the Owls tallied another seven shots, while keeping Bruno to just one more shot during the half.

Katy Schmidt ’18 hit the lone shot of the half, with a header that sailed wide of the net.

“FAU was a quick team, and we weren’t connecting a lot of passes at first, which made it easier for them,” said Kirsten Belinsky ’15. “But we kept up our energy level and once we settled into a rhythm, we gained more momentum and were able to go at them more.”

Mallory Yant ’15 made two saves during each of the halves, coming to four overall.

But the Owls got the best of the goalkeeper during overtime, as FAU made the first

and only goal of the game.

The Owls’ strong defensive performance kept the Bears limited throughout the contest, as Bruno was unable to pick up any stride during the game.

FAU finished the game with a 6-0 advantage over the Bears in corner kicks, as well as a 15-2 advantage in total shots.

“I think the heat affected us more than the travel,” Belinsky said. “We got in on Friday so we were able to practice Saturday, but it was still hard for us to adjust to the heat and humidity. Overall we did a good job staying hydrated and trying not to let it affect us.”

Bruno will take on University of Massachusetts (2-4-2) Thursday at Stevenson Field.