Tuesday, September 16, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD VOL. CXLIX, NO. 68

since 1891

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

Taubman to integrate with Watson Institute University’s public policy hub will continue to operate within expanding Watson Institute

By MICHAEL DUBIN UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

ORLANDO PARDO / HERALD

Writer and former Yale professor William Deresiewicz addresses students in McCormack Family Theater.

Deresiewicz lauds U.’s liberal arts tradition ‘Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League’ author discusses the value of humanities in education

By STEVEN MICHAEL SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Writer William Deresiewicz stoked controversy with his criticisms of elite education published in his book “Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life” and excerpted in the New Republic under the title “Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League” this summer. But in his lecture to a packed McCormack Family Theater Monday night, Deresiewicz spoke

instead about the value of a liberal arts education.

Though the excerpted polemic from “Excellent Sheep” has received considerable attention, Deresiewicz said “half of the book is a positive message about what college can be.”

The book’s title is based on a comment made by one of his students at Yale, where Deresiewicz formerly worked as an English professor.

At the lecture, Deresiewicz read from the latter portion of his book, adding commentary as he went along.

There is a “false dichotomy” between practical skills and a liberal arts education, Deresiewicz said. “Work that gives you a sense of purpose is the most practical thing in the world,” he said, adding that a liberal arts

education allows students to find jobs.

Throughout his talk, Deresiewicz referred frequently to giants of literature — from Kafka to Dostoevsky to Austen — with the air of a former English professor.

“I don’t care if you read the Great Books. I care if you read great books.”

The sciences and the humanities look at similar issues from opposite perspectives, Deresiewicz said: While a scientist looks at the world objectively, a humanities scholar views the world through the lens of personal experience. He also discussed the intersection of sciences and humanities, explaining that both physicists » See DERESIEWICZ, page 2

See page 7 for Q&A

The Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions will become a part of the Watson Institute for International Studies, administrators announced Monday.

The integration of the two institutions will not take place immediately, but administrators and faculty members affiliated with each have begun the year-long process of working out the details of the merger, Watson Institute Director Richard Locke told The Herald.

Locke announced the change in an email Monday afternoon.

Though Locke expressed confidence that the merger would move forward, he cautioned that the proposal must still clear several administrative hurdles.

Taubman will continue to exist as a distinct center under the umbrella of the Watson Institute, which also houses the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the BrownIndia Initiative and the China Initiative, among others, Locke said.

“We already have a kind of tradition of having country- or regional-based centers where people do research or programming within Watson,” he said.

The recognition that globalization has rendered national borders

less relevant in studying policy issues spurred the change, Locke said. “It just doesn’t make sense to have one center focused on domestic issues and one policy center focused on global issues when in fact the issues blur across boundaries.”

Much of the best current policy scholarship takes a comparative perspective, he added.

James Morone, who became director of the Taubman Center in July, named expanding the center’s focus on international policy issues as one of his priorities earlier this month.

“The idea of separating domestic public policy and international public policy made sense in the 1980s when these centers were set up, but today it just doesn’t make sense anymore,” Morone said Monday. “Combining our focus, combining the two centers and thinking across domestic and international public policy is just much more powerful, and it’s much more contemporary.”

Morone said he and Locke have discussed their mutual desire to put Brown’s “stamp on the study of public policy.”

The Taubman Center will continue to conduct public opinion polling in Rhode Island. It will also still offer both undergraduate and master’s degrees in public policy, Locke said.

But neither program will maintain the same structure, Morone said.

Though changes are still in the preliminary planning stages, the undergraduate concentration will feature new tracks, including one in conjunction with the Swearer Center for Public » See TAUBMAN, page 6

Admins urge ‘transformative Fall theater lineup pushes genre limits conversations’ across campus Sock and Buskin, PW

By SOPHIE YAN STAFF WRITER

inside

As the semester kicks off, the University is promoting “Transformative Conversations@Brown,” a project launched by administrators in February and sponsored by the Office of Institutional Diversity.

The project “strives to provide opportunities and spaces to engage respectfully and thoughtfully with each other across our differences,” according to a Sept. 2 email sent to all students, staff members and faculty members.

“Transformative Conversations” currently comprises a website that will serve as a platform to list any course,

performance, conversation or event that the organizer considers a transformative conversation.

The website currently features several listings of courses and events happening on campus, including the Gaza teach-in that occurred last week, two courses — AFRI 0090: “Introduction to Africana Studies” and MES 0155: “Cultures of the Contemporary Middle East” — and a Theater Arts and Performance Studies series titled “Shapeshifting: Conflicts and Conversations in Play.”

“Through the umbrella of ‘Transformative Conversations,’ we hope to be able to get the word out in a broader way about these opportunities for engagement,” said Liza Cariaga-Lo, associate provost for academic development and diversity and head of the Office of Institutional Diversity. She added that in the future, the Office of Institutional » See TRANSFORM, page 3

shows exhibit new works, classic shows with contemporary twists

By GABRIELLE DEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Drawing from both the canonical and the avant-garde, this season’s theater lineup will explore the transcendental power of relationships and art’s ability to grapple with timeless issues of identity.

Sock and Buskin will begin the season with a twisted, Occupy Wall Streetesque version of the classic musical horror “Sweeney Todd.” Directed by Curt Columbus, artistic director of Trinity Repertory Company, this rendition of the play reveals the debauchery of the upper class as narrated through political protesters, said cast member and PW

ARTS & CULTURE

University News

Commentary

Yolanda Rome is the new asst. dean of the College for first-years and sophomores

Brown Dining Services expands offerings to include more veggie options and trendy new dishes

Lewis GS: Criticism of the Birthright trip taps into antiSemitic sentiment

Ingber ’15: The NFL must ensure players set good examples for its fans

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Hoping to open lines of discourse throughout Brown, project includes online platform

board member Skylar Fox ’15. Driven by a combination of fear and humor, “Sweeney Todd” promises to resonate with audiences’ most basic emotions, Fox said. The show will run Sept. 25 to 26 and Oct. 2 to 5 in Leeds Theater.

Also from Sock and Buskin, “Hype Hero” will play in Stuart Theater Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 and Nov. 6 to 9. Written by Dominic Taylor MFA’95, “Hype Hero” imagines a world in which corporations eradicate debt — with the small condition of lifelong servitude. “It’s a wild, absurd comedic play that looks at the intersections of race and class,” Fox said.

Sock and Buskin will round off the semester with a final deviation from convention in “Heist Play,” written and directed by Fox and scheduled to run Dec. 4 to 7. The play depicts the lives of characters in heist movies outside the context of the heist, and examines the relationship between the creative self and its work, Fox said. “It’s like ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ continued for another three years after the story ended and got really, really

tragic.”

Production Workshop is taking this semester’s audiences on sojourns to small-town suburbia, the searing lights of a game show stage and a party in a futuristic world.

Isabel Diawara ’17 kicked off PW’s season with “Going Somewhere: A Game Show,” which ran from Sept. 10 to 13.

Diawara wrote, directed and acted in the show, seeking to highlight “escapism as a coping mechanism,” she said.

PW will continue its repertoire with “Almost, Maine,” directed by Marli Scharlin ’16. Set against a quaint backdrop, the play relays neither groundbreaking epiphanies nor revolutionary theories but rather the simple relationships that define life, Scharlin said. Currently in the thick of the audition process, Scharlin said she aims to make audiences see past the play’s magical realism. “Almost, Maine” will run from Sept. 19 to 22, and “may or may not contain a strip scene,” Scharlin said. » See THEATER, page 3 t o d ay

tomorrow

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2 university news » DERESIEWICZ, from page 1 and literary critics think about the concepts of time and space.

The final excerpt Deresiewicz read was a passage from Jeffrey Eugenides’ ’83 novel “The Marriage Plot,” in which one of the characters, Mitchell, finds meaning in a final paper for a religious studies course at Brown.

“Education,” Deresiewicz read, “had finally led Mitchell out into life.”

Deresiewicz then opened the floor for an extended question and answer session, during which the conversation shifted to the more controversial aspects of his book.

Asked whether he supported the classic literary canon, Deresiewicz said he has taught “the Great Books” and that they serve as a “basic grammar for society.” But he added that students should not be “forced” to read canonical literature.

When asked why he critiqued the Ivy League, Deresiewicz said he believes liberal arts colleges offer a better education, in general. To support this, he pointed to the high percentage of graduating students who pursue Ph.D.s and the practice of awarding professors tenure based on teaching.

Students at liberal arts schools are less competitive and professors are more available to students, he said, adding that he believes Brown is similar to a liberal arts college in certain ways.

In response to a question about why students should not choose a concentration simply because of its relation to a future job, Deresiewicz said students should not choose a career for high compensation or select a popular career by default.

“Surrender the need to have a clear career path,” he said. “It’s okay to leave college confused.”

Audience members agreed with many of Deresiewicz’s points and seemed to enjoy the discussion spurred by the question and answer session.

“I know exactly what he means when he said take advantage of the liberal arts and what it can offer,” said Yen Tran ’14. Though he graduated with a degree in ethnic studies, Tran said he now works in a neuroscience lab.

Min Jung Han ’16, a chemistry and science and society double concentrator, said “the reason (she) came to the (United States) is the liberal arts philosophy.” In other countries, like her native South Korea, students do not have the opportunity to take courses outside of their chosen area of study, she said.

Chris Luo ’18 said he thought students misunderstood the lecturer’s argument as an attack on the sciences, noting Deresiewicz’s criticism was directed more specifically at the study of “purely practical” disciplines.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

U. names new assistant dean of College Yolanda Rome replaces Ann Gaylin in leading advising efforts for underclassmen

By MARINA RENTON SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Yolanda Rome assumed the role of assistant dean of the College for first-year and sophomore studies last Thursday. She is replacing Ann Gaylin, former associate dean of the College for first-year and sophomore studies, who left Brown Aug. 1 to become associate dean of undergraduate education for academic support at Harvard.

The new position is “a natural progression from what I’ve been doing,” Rome said.

She has worked at Brown for six years, during which time she has consistently been involved with first-year and sophomore studies. “I’ve always been open and amenable to helping out in whatever the office needs,” she said.

At Brown, Gaylin coordinated the First Readings program, firstyear and sophomore advising, the Meiklejohn Peer Advising Program, the Curricular Advising Program and pre-law advising, according to the dean of the College website.

Until Rome’s previous position — assistant dean for academic support and transfer — is filled, she will continue in that role as she simultaneously takes on the new responsibilities,

said Dean of the College Maud Mandel.

Gaylin’s former responsibilities will also be reconfigured, Mandel added, noting that the First Readings program may become the responsibility of a different member of the dean of the College office.

“I have a tremendous respect for (Gaylin),” Mandel said. “I think she did a great job in that position, and so I was very sorry to hear about her departure when she decided to go, and I think that was universally felt here in the dean of the College office.”

Gaylin spearheaded a “real renewed focus on how to make the first-year advising experience more productive,” Mandel added. “I think she called the University’s attention to (the first-year experience) in a way we hadn’t focused on it before. That is going to survive her absence now.”

Gaylin left shortly after Mandel was named dean of the College, so the two did not have an opportunity to work together, which is one of her “biggest regrets,” Gaylin said.

The position at Harvard was “an opportunity that I just couldn’t afford to pass up. … This was an opportunity for me to think about the issues I care deeply about, but from a different perspective,” Gaylin said. The job is newly created, has no equivalent at Brown and is more of a coordinating position, she said.

She is responsible for making sure “all the academic support services are coordinated and well-aligned” for Harvard undergraduates, Gaylin said.

“I’ll be spending a fair bit of my time thinking how we can make a system that’s transparent for students.”

Gaylin’s new position requires her to think “more broadly about our policies, systems and structures” in order to support students, but it involves less face time with students themselves, she said, adding that she will miss the regular contact with Brown students.

Gaylin left Brown several weeks before first-year orientation, in which she played a large role, notably in the First Readings program. As a result, the dean of the College office had to “figure out how we were going to make sure incoming students didn’t notice that we didn’t have a dean in that capacity initially,” Mandel said.

Rome stepped in to coordinate orientation, while Deputy Dean of the College Chris Dennis took over the First Readings program.

“I’m going to look forward to hearing about all the great things that are happening at Brown from afar. …

I hope to continue to be connected to the Brown community that I care deeply about,” Gaylin said. “I think the advising team that’s in place is a really wonderful one.”

“We wish (Gaylin) the best and we’re sad to see her go,” Mandel said.

“We’re really pleased and proud of her and hope she succeeds.”

“I just want to keep satisfaction levels high” when it comes to advising, Rome said. “I really like my job, so I’m just happy that I can help these students.”

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

» TRANSFORM, from page 1 Diversity is looking into possibly sponsoring or co-sponsoring events.

“Transformative Conversations” first took place as a series of workshops geared toward staff and faculty members at the start of the spring semester, said Margaret Klawunn, vice president of campus life and student services, who also played a major role in the project’s development.

It was originally launched “as an opportunity to build capacity for our communities to have difficult conversations across our many differences,” Cariaga-Lo said. “The idea of having a transformative conversation is not simply to hear somebody out but also to be able to listen and truly understand another’s perspective and learn from that perspective.”

“We wanted to have opportunities for a range of different conversations and spaces and opportunities for dialogue,” Klawunn said.

“There’s no question that everybody will say (the project was inspired by) the Ray Kelly event,” said Dean of the College Maud Mandel, referring to the controversial Ray Kelly lecture that was canceled last fall due to protests. “But we were talking about it before that.”

“The Ray Kelly incident particularly made us recognize certain kinds of conversations were harder than others,” said Janet Cooper-Nelson, University chaplain, adding that this doesn’t mean certain ideas and conversations are right or wrong. “Many of us didn’t want to put a value judgment on it.”

“We saw a lot of hurt, and we saw a lot of misunderstanding last year,” Cooper-Nelson said. “Transformative Conversations could do something to help us give each other the benefit of the doubt and truly try to weigh into things that are hard.”

“The idea behind Transformative Conversations is the notion that on a

» THEATER, from page 1 In “Song for a Future Generation,” running Oct. 17 to 20, PW will host a “dance party on a space ship orbiting an exploding sun,” said director Grant Glovin ’16. Though the otherworldly futurism may seem alien, the play focuses on issues that hit close to home, raising questions surrounding technology’s rapid advancement and the implications of science from a philosophical standpoint, Glovin added.

Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan injects gothic undertones into the comic opera “Ruddigore,” which will run Nov. 14 to 16. According to director Jonathan West ’16, the plot of “Ruddigore” revolves around a man avoiding a curse that requires him to commit one evil deed a day. Though Gilbert and Sullivan plays traditionally veer toward the comical side, West said he wants “to play around with bringing out the darkness” of the piece, grounding it in modernity through the accessible themes of love and rejection.

Brown Opera Productions will keep

college campus … people come from all kinds of backgrounds,” Mandel said.

“These groups of people learn best by engaging in conversation with each other about (their differences).”

There are no explicit requirements for a “transformative conversation,” Mandel said. “We are in no way trying to control campus conversations,” she added. “We are serving as a platform.”

Cooper-Nelson compared the project to “a big wooden spoon in the pot of Brown’s student life.”

“We’re trying to stir a little bit,” she added. “Instead of waiting for people to be upset at each other, (we want to) get some of these ideas in our circulation, as things we can take on proactively.”

The project neither has a particular end goal or end date, nor a specific timeline. Cariaga-Lo said administrators are in the process of meeting with student leaders, student organizations, faculty groups and administrative groups regarding the project.

“The website is a work in progress. … We’re working on making it more robust and figuring out ways different constituencies can get information about other activities going on on campus,” she said. “It’s been great to hear some of the work that other people are doing in spaces that we don’t normally think about,” she added.

“There are lots of difficult conversations that happen every day,” Mandel said. “A university is the best place for those to take place because we are dedicated to the idea of unpacking simplicities, understanding complexities behind problems and challenging assumptions we all have that we’ve never thought about.”

“It’s only going to work if people in the community are interested in it,” she said. “We want to demonstrate that we’re interested in this, and we want to demonstrate that we know we can do a better job than we did as a campus last year.” its fall performance short and sweet with “A Hand of Bridge,” an eight-minute production that BOP co-chair Mo Akande ’16 said is the “shortest opera ever written.” Performed in English, the opera signifies a transition into a more relatable form of presentation for the genre.

“Opera used to be the pinnacle of entertainment back in the day,” Akande said. “It’s really important for the everyday person to understand where all their forms of entertainment have evolved from.”

“Othello” will invade campus greens Oct. 22 to 26 as Shakespeare on the Green’s fall production. According to director Eleni Mentekidou ’16.5, the ageold play is especially relevant to dialogues many Brown students are raising about gender, relationships and race today.

The outdoor set will interact with its surroundings through the jarring image of an ever-present bed on the turf, Mentekidou said, adding that she aims to make the infamously difficult language of Shakespeare “come to life and connect to every audience.”

CareerLAB hosts two career fairs Tuesday’s event to focus on tech, while Wednesday will feature varied line-up of employers

By TONYA RILEY UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

A career fair hosted Wednesday by the Center for Careers and Life After Brown will bring over 90 employers to campus, while the Department of Computer Science has partnered with CareerLAB to host a separate technology career fair Tuesday.

The stand-alone technology session marks the first time CareerLAB has organized a separate fall career fair for technology employers.

“The goal was to accommodate more employers,” said Jim Amspacher, interim director of career services, adding that 42 employers will participate in the technology fair and that some employers will attend both Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s sessions.

A total of 113 unique employers will come to campus between the two fairs,

an uptick from last year’s count of 94.

The general career fair includes employers from fields including education, marketing and advertising, social activism, government and public health.

“The organizations that (choose) to come to career fairs have the resources for large-scale recruitment and an interest in Brown students,” Amspacher said. “You can see the strong interest in hiring Brown students.”

To help students interested in sectors that recruit less heavily through career fairs, CareerLAB will host a series of more than a dozen “Alumni Career Pathways Programs” with alums who work in the arts, education, international development and public interest fields, headed.

Wednesday’s fair will also have a complimentary photobooth, where students can have their photos taken for professional purposes, he said.

Students will also have the chance to visit the professional school fair in Kasper Multipurpose Room Wednesday to meet with admission representatives from law schools and careers in

the health sector.

Hannah Begley ’15 said she is frustrated that the career fair does not bring more legal employers for students like herself who do not plan on going directly to law school after graduation.

She will attend Wednesday’s career fair despite the feeling that her path has been largely ignored throughout her time at Brown, she added.

“CareerLAB and (the) career fair really try to herd students toward finance and consulting,” she said, adding that she does not believe the University bears full responsibility for the popularity of certain fields. “It’s not the school’s fault — those are just the employers who reach out the most.”

Some students said they approved of the creation of a separate technology career fair as a way to help differentiate options for job seekers.

“I think it’s a great idea: It makes it less intimidating,” said Emily Reif ’16, who concentrates in computer science and plans on attending both fairs. She added that she thinks the separate technology fair will feature a “good mix” of big companies and startups.

BDS innovates for new semester With more vegetablecentric options, trendy dishes attempt to cater to student demand

By ASHWINI NATARAJAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The start of the semester inherently brings about changes: new roomates, new classes and new activities. Perhaps most important to students — a group infamous for thinking with their stomachs — are the new offerings in dining halls and eateries brought about due to student demand and the creative efforts of the Brown Dining Staff, said Aaron Fitzsenry, culinary manager of retail dining.

“We always keep an eye out for new things happening in our industry,” he said. “It’s one of the things we spend some time on every summer, where we see what’s new, what’s fun, what’s interesting, what else we can provide.”

“They’re out and about, seeing what’s out there in current restaurant trends and different trends in colleges and universities,” Janet Parris, VerneyWooley dining operations manager, said of BDS, adding that the staff then works to bring these innovations to campus.

The Blue Room, which regularly experiments with new offerings, has introduced savory scones and a variety of baked goods, including yogurtcherry danishes and parmesan-leek pastries. The eatery will also offer new

soups reflective of gastronomic trends: Fitzsenry mentioned a chicken, kale and sweet potato soup as one of his favorite new additions.

Josiah’s is also embracing the present popularity of vegetable-centric cuisine, bringing in new ingredients to the salad bar, including a local veggie burger crumble made with sweet potatoes, black beans and chipotle spices that is both vegan and wheat-free. The dumpling station is also making a comeback at Jo’s Two Burners, due to popular demand, Fitzsenry said.

Southern comfort food, another fad taking over the culinary world, is entering the kitchens of Andrews Commons, which now offers a chicken-waffle pizza. “It’s fun, it’s trendy, it’s a little weird,” Fitzhenry said. Other new items will include pepper beef and general tso’s chicken at the wok station and breakfast burritos during weekend brunch.

“I think when [Andrews] first opened last year, it really didn’t have a lot of options. … I was getting bored going every single day there,” said Hannah Pullen-Blasnik ’16, adding that she appreciates the new variety.

On the other side of campus, the Ivy Room is “going to be a bit more high end,” Fitzenry said. The vegetarian eatery will now host a veggie burger bar, featuring flavors such as samosa and mediterraneanstyle chickpea-olive, Fitzsenry said.

He added that these burgers can be topped with fashionable add-ons, such as fried eggs, guacamole and fried

onion rings.

“The response to veggie burgers has been phenomenal,” he said. “The sales numbers are comparable to Kabob and Curry sales.”

The mac and cheese station, an old favorite with Ivy Room customers, is also seeing changes: The dish is being served baked this semester, allowing for faster service time, Fitzsenry said.

The dining halls have not been left out of the semester’s epicurean revamp. They will serve more whole grains — particularly the popular four “ancient grains” wheat berry, red quinoa, farro and spelt, Fitzenry said, adding that they will be featured in dishes such as grain salads.

Assistant Manager for Residential Dining Bob Machado said students inspired most dining hall changes.

“Ultimately we try to base what we do on students,” he said. “We want to keep the students here on meal plan.”

“Brunch is kind of a big deal,” Machado said, citing the addition of white tablecloths during the Sharpe Refectory’s weekend brunch as a way to make it more appealing.

And it worked: “I think the tablecloths make me feel like I’m dining with elegance,” said Marie RaglowDeFranco ’15.

Though “elegance” may not have come to the mind of every dining hall visitor, students interviewed were generally pleased with the changes. Miles Slack ’18 said he is happy with his campus dining experience so far, adding that the food is “probably like 100 percent better than other colleges.”

4 university news

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

metro 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

Vaccinations to be required for students and toddlers

HERALD FILE PHOTO

New immunization mandates will likely not affect Brown students because Health Services’ standards already meet the state’s new requirements.

Flu vaccine mandatory for children six to 59 months, HPV vaccine for middle schoolers

By ALEXANDER BLUM SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Rhode Island will expand its vaccination requirements for students and child care workers beginning next August, though the changes will likely not affect Brown students, since Health Services’ current standards already meet the state’s new criteria.

Rhode Island children will be affected by the changes, which include a mandatory influenza vaccine for children aged six to 59 months who are attending a licensed daycare facility and a mandatory requirement that students receive the first dose of a three-part series to protect against human papillomavirus in seventh grade, according to a document from the R.I. Department of Health. The subsequent two doses of the HPV vaccine will be required for entry into grades eight and nine, respectively.

“The new requirements are just reflecting the changes in the advance of medicine,” said James McDonald, chief administrative officer of the RIDOH, adding that the vaccines being mandated “are not new vaccines. … These are very safe vaccines.” One primary reason for mandating the influenza vaccine for young children — albeit only those

aged six to 59 months and enrolled in a licensed daycare center — is because “children are very efficient at spreading the flu,” McDonald said, adding that it is “a public health principle.”

Vaccinating children could very well reduce the transmissibility of influenza, said Richard Bungiro, lecturer in biology, molecular microbiology and immunology, adding that “the flu vaccine is actually more effective in children than in older people.” Targeting the vaccine to younger children is a good move, Bungiro said, noting that there is a false perception that vaccines might overwhelm a young child’s immune system. In fact, he said, young children have immune systems that are “much more robust” than those of older people.

“I would trade my immune system for the immune system of a six-year-old in a heartbeat,” Bungiro said. Both of his children have received all their scheduled vaccines, he added.

Parents can still exempt their children from the required vaccinations on the basis of religious beliefs or conscientious objections. Pre-existing medical conditions that might preclude children from receiving vaccines are rare, but permissible, exemptions.

But not everyone supports the new requirements. Hillary Davis, policy associate for the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said “it’s really sort of an exploding trend we have seen, where people didn’t want to get the (influenza) vaccine, so now

Influenza vaccination coverage for 2012-2013 season Rhode Island 82%

6 mon - 17 yr 17 yr +

50%

National 57%

6 mon - 17 yr 17 yr +

42%

Source: State of Rhode Island Department of Health AVERY CRITS-CHRISTOPH / HERALD

they’re forcing it.”

Davis cited a 2012 mandate that required health care workers to receive the flu vaccine, noting that opposition is partly rooted in the belief that the vaccine “is not regularly highly effective.” Davis added that she was concerned about the consequences for unvaccinated children, who would be prohibited from attending

school during flu outbreaks.

Getting a flu vaccine reduced the risk of needing to see a doctor for the flu by 60 percent for both children and adults last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s February 2014 mid-season vaccine effectiveness estimates. The report added, “Even with moderate effectiveness of about 60 percent, flu vaccination can reduce flurelated illness, antibiotic use, time lost from work, hospitalizations and deaths.”

Bungiro acknowledged that the flu vaccine does not offer perfect protection against infection. He noted that the vaccine’s efficacy depends on a variety of factors, but added that “it sure is better than nothing.”

Both Bungiro and McDonald emphasized that vaccinating children can help many others who could contract the illness from children to stay healthy.

Davis also raised concern over the HPV vaccine requirement. “HPV is not being transmitted in school … so we don’t feel that it is an appropriate school requirement.”

“I think once people understand that it’s about preventing cancer, they’re going to want to get it,” McDonald said of the HPV vaccine. “It’s tragic when a young woman dies because of a preventable disease.”

Bungiro said he thought that even if the transmission of HPV is not happening in schools — an assumption to which there might be exceptions — it nonetheless makes sense to add the vaccine as a requirement for school, which has become the standard method for

improving a population’s vaccine coverage. Commenting on the students’ relatively young age, Bungiro said “it is better to establish the protection very early,” before the ages when most people usually become sexually active.

Though the University does not require students to be vaccinated against HPV, Bungiro said he thinks that it should be a requirement. Statistically, most people will have sex in college, he said, adding that because it is such an effective method of risk reduction, “we shouldn’t have to tell people to get the vaccine.”

“I think that mandating any vaccine is a two-way road,” said Julia Dodenhoff ’17, adding that though “vaccines are important and the common good sometimes needs to override personal preferences, … you can’t just approach it from a scientific basis.”

Health care providers and policymakers should always be mindful of cultural context, Dodenhoff said.

Monica Kunkel, nursing coordinator of Health Services, said the HPV vaccine is available to students from Health Services. “I support vaccination — I think it was probably one of the greatest public health advancements in the last 100 years,” Kunkel said.

“I know college students are busy,” McDonald said, but “this is one vaccine you can get that can protect you for your entire life.”

“I would hope that Brown students would intellectually consider the risks and benefits” of vaccination, McDonald said.

6 arts & culture » TAUBMAN, from page 1 Service for students interested in direct work with social policy in Rhode Island, he said.

An intensive 12-month master’s program that will incorporate classroom and online learning, an internship and a two-and-a-half-week policymaking experience abroad is also in the works, Morone said. Whether this will be an additional option for students seeking a master’s degree in public policy or a replacement for the existing two-year Masters in Public Administration and Masters in Public Policy programs has not been decided, he added.

Neither the public policy concentration nor the master’s programs will continue to operate exclusively within Taubman, drawing instead on the breadth of the University’s departments, Morone said.

Ross Cheit, professor of political science and public policy and director of undergraduate studies at Taubman, wrote in an email to The Herald that the integration could bolster both Taubman and Watson by capitalizing on the “many possible synergies between the two units.” He added that Locke’s leadership could “bring Brown into the forefront of policy studies,

broadly conceived.”

Cheit said he has no concern that Taubman will be less attentive to domestic policy by joining with the growing international studies institute.

“We don’t want to lose what Taubman has done so well, which is be a premier voice in Rhode Island politics,” Morone said. “That absolutely will remain.”

Taubman will add to its existing strength in state politics and policy by bolstering its national work and adding an international component, Morone said.

Locke said conversations about integrating the two bodies predate his July 2013 arrival at the University.

The idea gathered momentum over the course of the last year, as Watson and Taubman faculty members discussed the possibility of integration and the Academic Priorities Committee addressed it at a meeting last year.

Andrew Foster, professor of economics and director of the Population Studies and Training Center, said the idea of joining the two institutions has been simmering for the past decade.

“The general sense was that Taubman was kind of too small in terms of number of (full-time equivalents) to really successfully carry out its mission, so joining it with something

I think made sense,” Foster said. “I certainly agree with the idea that it’s hard to sort of divide up the world into domestic public policy and international public policy.”

Professor of Public Policy, Political Science and Urban Studies Marion Orr, who preceded Morone as Taubman director, said the integration will provide Taubman “with the faculty resources it so desperately needs.”

In a follow-up email to The Herald, Orr added that every external review of Taubman in the past 15 years has stated that the center lacks sufficient tenure and tenure-track public policy faculty members.

Orr said merging with the Watson Institute, with its large endowment, has long been seen as a possible remedy to the center’s understaffing.

Peter Andreas, associate director of the Watson Institute and professor of political science and international studies, referred to the integration as “a smart and long overdue move” and a “win-win for all” in an email to The Herald.

Foster said the proposed integration’s effect on various departments remains unclear, adding that working out the details of those relationships will be crucial to the plan’s long-term success.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

RYAN WALSH / HERALD

SnoTea Caffe’s offerings include various teas, such as iced earl grey milk tea with boba, and other refreshments, including green tea macarons.

SnoTea Caffe serves up frozen treats Young tea house looks to compete with handful of cafes scattered throughout College Hill

By MARGARET NICKENS STAFF WRITER

SnoTea Caffe fosters a chic yet homey interior reminiscent of your favorite aunt’s living room. Lilac, deep purple and forest green mix along the walls, complementing the cushy black leather seats. Classic board games from Sorry to Mad Gab line one side of the cafe, and if only more students were to venture into the Waterman Street eatery, it would be the perfect place to sip on warm tea and dive into a boisterous game of Pictionary.

The atmosphere suffers slightly from a sense of emptiness and a seemingly hastily designed menu, though hopefully time will allow the tea house to gain its footing, because the new eatery — which opened in May — offers a number of options rarely found in Providence.

A West Coast staple, snow ice — alight dish prepared when an ice block is shaved down into delicate and creamy ribbons — provides a flavor absent from other College Hill favorites. SnoTea boasts a strong array of flavors, including green tea, dark roast coffee and mango, all of which can be paired with a variety of sauces — such as condensed milk or brown sugar sauce — and over 20 different toppings, such as boba and red beans.

The green tea ice paired with red beans features an exciting combination of melty and chewy textures. While the red beans were slightly undercooked on one visit, the ribbons of green tea offered a soothing escape from the muggy

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sidewalk. The dish comes beautifully presented, appearing almost like a head of lettuce in its green magnificence, and the green tea flavor pops even more with a slight drizzle of condensed milk.

For visitors with a strong sweet tooth, the restaurant also serves honey toast, crepes and macarons. Though macarons are another rare delicacy on College Hill, SnoTea’s version leaves something to be desired: A green tea macaron is too dense and buttery. The thick and overly sweet paste overwhelms any green tea flavor present.

Similarly, the iced earl grey milk tea with boba disappoints. Despite the drink’s beautiful hourglass cup and luxurious milk foam, it was too watery to benefit from the richness of the earl grey spices. Unfortunately, with so many other tea options on Thayer Street, SnoTea will have to step up its game to compete.

While mostly focusing on teas and desserts, the menu offers a few substantive entree options, including steamed dumplings and a variety of cold noodles.

The yakisoba dish is a deliciously colorful spectacle, with juicy strips of crabmeat, a light sprinkling of seaweed, chunks of pink fish cake and a few slices of delicate green celery. Each of the ingredients complements rather than overpowers the others, and the dish doesn’t suffer from the overbearing saltiness of many local soba options.

When catering to a campus of those who shun the mainstream, SnoTea Caffe might want to consider scrapping the Papyrus font disgracing its logo. Overall, the new cafe could certainly benefit from a little polishing, though with attentive and cheerful service, it may soon be on the right track.

university news 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

IN CONVERSATION

‘Learning is something you pursue regardless of where it’s leading you’ Controversial author William Deresiewicz sits down with The Herald to discuss ‘Excellent Sheep’

By STEVEN MICHAEL SENIOR STAFF WRITER

William Deresiewicz, a writer and former Yale professor, visited Brown Monday to promote his new book, “Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life.” He sat down with The Herald to discuss his book and the surrounding controversy.

So you went to school at Columbia.

You taught at Yale. How did you come to be disillusioned with the Ivy League?

It was a gradual accumulation of observation based on what I saw in my students. And there are a lot of things I loved about my students and that I’m sure I’d love about students at Brown, and it’s great to teach smart students who are, for the most part, willing to engage the material, although not necessarily at the level I was hoping. But I saw that there were problems. There wasn’t like an “aha moment.” It was really only in retrospect that I realized to what extent I had been part of the same system at an earlier stage in its development towards insanity.

Why did you decide to leave the Ivy League and then write about it?

I didn’t decide to leave the Ivy League.

I didn’t get tenure at Yale, which I actually didn’t expect to get because they rarely tenure there. So it wasn’t like I decided, the hell with the Ivy League,

and now I’m going to leave and, like, throw a bomb. I had actually given that essay as a talk almost a year earlier at Yale to a student group. And honestly, I thought that would be the end of it. In many ways, this book came to me and not the other way around. And it came to me from you guys — from students reading this article. A lot of you guys have a sense that maybe there’s something missing. If nothing else, what’s missing is an opportunity to talk about what this whole college thing is supposed to be for.

You wrote in your book that the system forces students to “choose between learning and success.” Can you elaborate on exactly what you mean by that?

That came directly out of things I’ve heard students say to me. You have to get an A in everything, so you don’t have time to immerse yourself in any one thing. You have to do a million extracurriculars. Or once you get to college, you feel like you want to or you should or you’re competing. That’s not conducive to learning. Student after student has said to me, “Coming to school isn’t about learning. Learning at my high school, fancy prep school, was like a game, like a video game where you need to get to the next level. It was a code to crack.” I think you guys are extremely good at being students, which today means getting the grade. You’re extremely good at

knowing what you need to do to get the grade, which often means the minimum you need to do, and that’s not learning.

Learning is something you pursue regardless of where it’s leading you, and it’s about immersion, not about skating over the surface.

What was your own experience like as a student? And how does that inform what you’ve written?

It was not great. I never thought about what I was doing in college or why I wanted to go. I went because you go. I did think that I was studying what I loved. I was a biopsychology major because I loved biology in high school, and I was always interested in psychology. It was one of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever made. I never gave myself a chance to explore what college might have offered, which really meant what might have been inside me. And the truth is that I already knew that I loved literature.

The fire had been lit by my 12th-grade English teacher. It never occurred to me to be an English major.

Brown has an open curriculum with no distribution requirements. You can take any class satisfactory/no credit.

So do you think Brown belongs in the same category with the other Ivies in terms of your critique?

Without trying to sound like I’m trying to mollify the audience, it does seem that Brown is at the good end of the spectrum, and it’s almost a liberal arts college masquerading as a university. For

one thing, you have very few professional programs. And it also seems that there is a culture — maybe encouraged by the curricular lack of structure — a culture of exploration. So maybe things are a little better here. Although after that session a couple of people came up to me and said, “Listen. Most of the people here are going to be the exceptions. And there are a lot of the kinds of kids you described here too.” So much of it has to do with the admissions process and what it forces you to become in high school and college.

But I’m certainly happy to entertain the possibility or even acknowledge the reality that things are a little better at Brown.

You talk about the meritocracy in your book, and how the Ivy League started as a training ground for the future elites. How would you incorporate more low-income students into the Ivy League?

All of this stuff, all of these admissions criteria, they’re all enabled by parental wealth. That’s the problem. It takes a lot of money to help your kid do all this stuff. So it’s the admissions criteria themselves that are part of the problem.

People have talked about weighting SAT scores by socioeconomic status, or just affirmative action for low-income kids could be a direct way of doing this. But ultimately I think that these schools are only going to go so far because they need to tend to their donor base. And that’s ultimately the problem with this system is that we have an elite, the training of which is in the hands of a set of private

institutions that are always going to need to worry about their budgets.

What is your view on public education? Is that your ideal type of college?

I understand that you’re not arguing students shouldn’t go to college.

I’m kind of operating under the assumption that people are going anyway.

And there’s certainly big practical advantages to going. It’s not that big public universities are my ideal. I think they’re not necessarily great places to go to school now, but I think some of them might be. But mainly if they’re not as good as they could be, it’s because we’ve been systematically defunding them. We’ve been killing them for like 30, 40 years.

You know how China talks about 100 Harvards? They have this slogan: 100 Harvards. They want to build 100 Harvards. My slogan is 100 Berkeleys, and not Berkeley as it exists now, but Berkeley as it existed before the early 1980s, when it started to charge tuition.

It doesn’t have to be a small liberal arts college, certainly not a small private institution. What matters is that it doesn’t cost a lot of money, that class sizes are small, that professors are well-compensated.

That’s what I want to see. A real education that’s really accessible to everybody.

And I think a diversity of institutional models is always going to be a good thing because different people are going to want different things, for good reasons.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

8 sports day

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

today 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

menu

p o o l p l ay

SATELLITE DINING JOSIAH’S Tacos BLUE ROOM South Indian Chicken Curry ANDREWS COMMONS Italian Meat Sandwiches

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

BBQ Chicken Sandwich, Cheese Ravioli Salad with Lemon, Sweet Potato Fries, Baked Potato Bar

Curried Chicken Divan, Beef and Broccoli Szechuan, Vegan Dal Cali, Chocolate Sundae Cake

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Zucchini Parmesan Sandwich, Buffalo Wings, Curley Fries, Nacho Bar, Beef Noodle Soup

Chopped Sirloin with Mushroom Sauce, Thai Basil Pork Stir-fry, Braised Raindow Chard

sudoku

DAVID DECKEY / HERALD

Nick Deaver ‘15 makes a strike on goal in men’s water polo’s win against Connecticut College Sept. 14.

comics Against the Fence | Lauren Stone ’17

crossword

Cat Ears | Najatee’ McNeil ’17

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

Peter Covino, award-winning poet, translator, editor and author of “The Right Place To Jump,” will read excerpts from his works in the Writers On Writing Reading Series.

McCormack Family Theater

TOMORROW 12 P.M. THE LAW AND ECONOMICS OF UNFREE LABOR IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Suresh Naidu, Columbia University assistant professor in economics and international and public affairs, will discuss historical aspects of labor in a seminar-style forum.

Watson Institute, Birkelund Board Room

4:30 P.M. PHILIPPE BUC LECTURE

Philippe Buc, professor of history, will discuss medieval exegesis and current issues surrounding holy warfare.

Annmary Brown Memorial 7:30 P.M. SOUNDS OF MUSIC FROM NORTH KOREA

Professor Cheol Woong Kim, pianist and North Korean Refugee, will discuss his life experiences and perform. Kim has performed at Carnegie Hall and in front of George W. Bush during the former president’s visit to North Korea.

Salomon 101

5:30 P.M. PHOTOGRAPHING GTMO AND THE PRETEND VILLAGES OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

Former U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum photo archivist Christopher Sims will present his photographic works.

Nightingale-Brown House 6 P.M. COLLOQUIUM: NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL

Michael Silvers, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Illinois, will discuss Brazilian pop culture.

Orwig Music Building, Room 109

10 commentary

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

EDITORIAL

Make sciences and humanities equally difficult The University should seek to minimize the discrepancy in difficulty among its various departments and concentrations. In general, courses offered in the sciences require significantly more effort and time. Though we acknowledge the recent conversation regarding grade inflation, we firmly believe the University must work to implement a more standardized grading framework to account for discrepancies across departments.

While the gross quantity of A-level grades awarded has risen over the past few years — a trend consistent across the various academic spheres — the current system does not address the blatant inequalities in the associated workload and benchmarks.

According to the Critical Review, humanities courses require roughly six hours of work per week, with some demanding as few as three. CSCI 0150: “Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming and Computer Science” and CHEM 0350: “Organic Chemistry,” on the other hand, report maximum hours of 21 and 26 per week respectively, with averages above 10 hours. In addition, many of these courses include a three-hour weekly lab section, and bachelor of science degrees require sometimes twice as many courses as bachelor of arts.

While the added difficulty of the sciences may better prepare undergraduates for graduate programs and medical school, it also deters many students from concentrating in science, technology, engineering and mathemetics. When choosing concentrations, first-years and sophomores choosing concentrations may consider whether they want to work twice as much as friends studying humanities and social sciences.

But in addition to deterring students from concentrating in these challenging fields, these greater demands also push humanities students away from STEM electives. While many physics and biology undergraduates use electives to try courses in political science and history, this trend is in no way mirrored by students concentrating in the latter — a definite weakness in the framework of the open curriculum.

Certainly one of the hurdles is that humanities courses often do not require prerequisites while science departments offer few courses that do not require some prerequisites. Still, more students might continue math or biology where they left off in high school if they did not view the subjects as twice as much work as an economics course.

Science courses must limit how much they ask of students. While this change might reduce the breadth of courses and thoroughness of a class’s understanding, it would also produce a more well-rounded student body with more undergraduates pursuing degrees in STEM and other concentrators exploring the hard sciences.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board, led by Alexander Kaplan ’15 and James Rattner ’15. Send comments to editorials@ browndailyherald.com.

A N G E L IA WA N G

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Brown should bring back Rhody Fresh To the Editor: I was disappointed this weekend to discover that Brown’s tradition of providing Rhody Fresh milk, and only Rhody Fresh milk, to its students had ended. On what I expected to be a normal evening’s trip to Josiah’s for some milk and a snack, I was surprised to find a fridge stocked with milk from Hood Farms in lieu of the beloved offerings from Rhody Fresh. Even such a forward-thinking institution as Brown, one well-used to pushing the boundaries, should also seek

to maintain some tradition, especially one as wholesome as that of providing a locally produced, home-grown brand of milk. Especially when Rhode Island, in particular, is facing such a tough recovery from the recent economic crisis, it is shameful to farm out our milk supply to Massachusetts-based dairy producers like Hood Farms rather than supporting local, family-owned business. I can only hope that this was an isolated incident caused by some unforeseen circumstances.

Spencer Caplan ’15

CORRECTION An article in Monday’s Herald (“R.I. organizations align to offer safe, efficient housing,” Sept. 15) incorrectly stated that the Rhode Island Foundation contributed $265,000 to the Rhode Island Alliance for Healthy Homes over the past five years. In fact, the money went to Green and Healthy Homes Initiative Rhode Island, a member of the alliance. The Herald regrets the error.

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

“I would trade my immune system for the immune system of a six-year-old in a heartbeat.”

— Richard Bungiro, lecturer in immunology

See IMMUNIZATION on page 6.

Editorial Leadership

Sections

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Managing Editors Mathias Heller Sona Mkrttchian

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

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BLOG DAILY HERALD Editor-in-Chief Georgia Tollin Managing Editors Charlotte Bilski David Oyer POST- MAGAZINE Editor-in-Chief Adam Asher COMMENTARY Editorial Page Editors Alexander Kaplan James Rattner Opinions Editors Gabriella Corvese Robyn Sundlee Maggie Tennis

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

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commentary 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

Hatred lives on

ALANA LEWIS guest opinions columnist

Before diving into my response to Peter Makhlouf ’s ’16 column in last Monday’s Herald, “Where is my Birthright?” I’d like to address certain things. Firstly, as we are all products of Brown’s environment, I think it is within our culture to try and understand various different arguments. Innate biases are almost impossible to completely banish, but it is essential to do our best to ignore them when discussing important issues, specifically involving human welfare. It is honorable and essential to have the ability to critique something you support (Brown/RISD Hillel advertises the Birthright program way too much, in my opinion) in order to keep you grounded in the fact that not all subjects are on the extreme spectrum of black/white.

With that, I began reading “Where is my Birthright?” with genuine openness, and not just for the “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” component. My mindset quickly transformed from non-judgmental to deciding that the author’s viewpoint was a product of extreme bias and perhaps a form of hatred or anti-Semitism.

Let me state, I truly do empathize that the author’s family a target of unjust scrutiny in its rightful home.

But this is not a single-sided issue.

As far back as historical documents

date, almost every single racial or religious group or nationality has faced some form of discrimination — Catholics, African-Americans, Muslims, Japanese, Roma, Germans and so on.

In particular, Jewish individuals have been the target of such radical and unjust hatred that they have become practically accustomed to these feelings. From the Holocaust’s “Final Solution” of simply lining concentration camp victims up for a firing squad or shoving them into

ceased to exist, and I stand firmly against it. But it is telling how people voice their passionate stances and try to further manipulate the public opinion. For example, Makhlouf commented on America’s financial support for Israel, but failed to mention that since the 1990s, the American government has supported Palestinians with about $5 billion in assistance.

Additionally, he makes Israel seem like a Nazi regime that exterminates humans just for kicks by de-

demonstrate that anti-Semitism is alive and well.

Perhaps what I found most disgruntling about the column was the characterization of Israel as having “apartheid policies.” It is challenging for me to restrain multiple responses to this, but I will simply state some facts. Whenever Israel plans to bomb Gaza, it sends a warning to the people, which is far from blatant, murdering apartheid policy.

It is true that during the recent war, Palestinian deaths greatly out-

These protests against Israel and this latest column about Birthright demonstrate that anti-Semitism is alive and well.

ovens to present-day vandalism of synagogues with Swastika signs, Jewish individuals have faced extreme persecution. Within the past month, there have been anti-Jewish/Israel protests in Germany, with some screaming “Gas the Jews!” and other chants in London including “Heil Hitler” and “Oh Jew, you will die.”

Correct me if I am wrong, but I have failed to discover any protests against the Hamas violence in Europe during this outbreak. I am not oblivious enough to believe that racism against Arab Palestinians has

scribing “the same Israeli soldiers who gave 2,100 Gazans the right to a cold grave this summer.” This statement, without comment on the plethora of rockets that Hamas launched into Israeli civilian areas, paints an image of unilateral brutality and immorality. In fact, during the height of Palestinian rocket launches into Israel, Israel tried to maintain humanitarian efforts by allowing the transport of supplies and food to the Gaza people.

These protests against Israel and this latest column about Birthright

numbered Israeli deaths. But this is not due to overly aggressive Israeli military action. The Iron Dome system protects Israel’s people from incoming rockets launched at the nation and therefore saves countless Israeli lives that would have otherwise been taken. The Iron Dome is not infallible or even sustainable. But since the latest outbreak of violence began, Hamas has launched about 4,500 rockets in Israel, proving the Iron Dome’s necessity.

What does the world expect Israel to do during all of these rock-

et attacks? Just sit back and watch?

Throughout the violence, there have been several cease-fires, which Hamas has almost immediately broken.

With these facts, it should be easy to understand why Israel has to be on constant alert, as well as why it wants to establish a sense of support throughout the Jewish community through Birthright programs. Every single individual I have met who has gone on Birthright said there was no “brainwashing,” but simply open discussion, spiritual connection and education.

No country practices 100 percent ethical and moral ways of conduct.

Israel is not perfect, but it is a democratic state geographically surrounded by groups that only wish for its demise. I want to end by stating that I do sympathize with those unaffiliated with Hamas that are affected by this tragedy. It is important that we not tie all Palestinian individuals to the evil doings of Hamas. We must study the most inhumane historical genocides, from the Holocaust to the displacement of Native Americans to Bosnia to Rwanda to the Irish potato famine, and hope that hatred will eventually subside. Still, the call to “gas the Jews” shows that history is always bound to repeat itself, and hatred may never die.

Alana Lewis GS just wants everyone to love each other and can be reached at alana_levine@brown.edu.

Unsportsmanlike conduct for Rice and the NFL ZACH INGBER opinions columnist

I love football. There is nothing better than grabbing a bunch of friends and watching a close NFL game on a Sunday afternoon in the fall. Rivalries are intense, traditions loom large, and the Super Bowl never ceases to disappoint.

But the recent events surrounding Ray Rice’s battering of his fiancee have been especially troubling for me. I am usually not one to consider the personal lives of professionals when enjoying their actions within their professional realms, but this incident was so egregious that it has made me think a lot about the role of the league in addressing such behavior. This isn’t a conversation about an offensive team name — though that is an important conversation for another column. This is a conversation about the responsibility a league has to demand certain levels of decency from its players.

Surely the league has no legal responsibility to punish Rice. It could completely defer to local authorities to carry out investigations and exact punishment through the judicial system.

But as a private organization, the NFL should strive to create a culture in which certain values are promoted and certain actions are not tolerated. In fact, sports are often key building blocks of character for many Americans — why should the NFL not reflect that on the professional level?

Professional sports leagues have done well to commit themselves to values off the field that move into the realm of players’ personal lives.

The NFL promoted a culture of acceptance sur-

rounding Michael Sam, the first openly gay NFL player. FIFA, the international soccer governing body, has consistently conveyed antiracism messages throughout its tournaments and international games. Why should domestic violence be any different? Domestic violence does not carry a direct link to the function of sports leagues themselves — that is, to provide a platform for professional sports — but that should not prevent a certain ethical expectation of its players.

There are absolutely racial dimensions to the Rice incident as well. My gut instinct is

African-American women experience domestic violence at a 35 percent higher rate than white women of the same age bracket. I am not an expert on this subject, but I’d like to hope that a strong rebuke of domestic violence by professional athletes and athletic leagues could help to reduce that tragic statistic.

The league needs to realize that athletes are more than just professional human specimens — they are role models to almost every kid in America. The same way we emulate touchdown dances on the playground is how we subtly accept the behavior of our favorite athletes. And

The league needs to realize that athletes are more than just professional human specimens — they are role models to almost every kid in America. The same way we emulate touchdown dances on the playground is how we subtly accept the behavior of our favorite athletes. that the majority of America has normalized the image of an African-American professional athlete abusing his wife or partner. We need to fight this image and constantly reject it. The acceptance of domestic violence in this situation because of who Rice is represents a surreptitious form of racism that is no less pernicious than something more overt.

What does it say about society’s response to domestic violence that we need a video to prompt a serious suspension from the NFL? According to the American Bar Association,

in realizing this, the league should accept its heightened responsibility to promote ethical and acceptable behavior among its athletes.

And then there are questions about the twisted procedural justice the NFL followed with Rice. After the NFL issued a flimsy twogame suspension, public outcry forced the league to levy an indefinite suspension. The NFL cannot both pander to public outcry and claim to have its own authority to exact punishment a priori.

It’s hard for me to sit here and suggest an ex-

act punishment that the NFL should have doled out to Rice. At the end of the day, I respect that the NFL is a business venture and seeks to make money — and that is perfectly acceptable. But businesses can function, even thrive, while holding their employees to a certain ethical standard. And while I don’t know what punishment should have been levied, I do know that the league should have sent a more coherent message from the get-go that domestic violence is unacceptable. Why should we need a viral video to prompt the league to act accordingly?

The problem certainly arises that the NFL should not turn into a proxy for the justice system and law enforcement. And I agree with that sentiment. But certain behaviors are either so egregious or so antithetical to the hard work and character development organized sports are meant to promote that they can, and should, be addressed by the league.

Allegations recently surfaced that the NFL had received the video of Rice punching his fiancee way back in April. If that’s the case, we can suspect either a major cover-up or major incompetence on the part of Commissioner Roger Goodell. Either way, I hope the league will send a clear message to its players that this type of behavior will not be tolerated. If there is a standardized and procedurally sound protocol to address performance-enhancing drugs and excessive celebration, surely one can be implemented to address abuse in which there is an actual human victim.

Zach Ingber’s ’15 football career peaked on the elementary school playground.

He can be reached at zachary_ingber@brown.edu.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

THE

career fair

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20

26 47

46

25

21 24

23

22

1. The Advisory Board Company 2. Clearview Healthcare Partners 3. Arcadia Solutions 4. Navigant Consulting 5. Capital One - Strategy Group 6. Bain & Company 7. Communications Media Advisors 8. Cornerstone Research 9. Exeter Group 10. Market Metrics, a FactSet Company 11. Altman Vilandrie & Company 12. Carlisle & Company 13. Axia Ltd. 14. McKinsey & Company 15. Teach for America (TFA) 16. Teach for China (TFC) 17. Urban Teacher Center 18. The Greenwich Country Day School 19. SpineHope 20. One Acre Fund 21. Cultural Vistas 22. U.S. Marine Corps 23. Hill Holliday 24. DigitasLBi 25. Bloomingdales 26. Venture for America 27. Cambridge Associates 28. Federal Reserve Bank of New York 29. Putnam Investments 30. DC Energy 31. Green Corps 32. Environment America 33. CleanWater Action 34. The Research Board 35. Newton Strategy Group 36. NERA Economic Consulting 37. AlphaSights 38. Carney Sandoe & Associates 39. Boston Teacher Residency 40. EF Education First 41. Match Education 42. Blueprint Schools Network 43. Monterey Institute of International Studies 44. The Groden Network 45. Camphill Communities of No. America 46. U.S. Peace Corps 47. Irish Dairy Board 48. TBD 49. CognoLink 50. Global Atlantic Financial Group 51. Fidelity Investments - Boston 52. The Student PIRGs

SAYLES HALL 10

9

11

27

8

12

13

28

14

29

26

15

7 30

25 6

16 31

24 5

17 32

23 4

22

18

33

3

19 ENTRANCE 2

1

21

20

1. Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, LLC 2. Dropbox 3. AppNexus 4. Turn 5. Two Sigma Investments 6. ICONICS, Inc. 7. Cloudera 8. Raytheon 9. U.S. Navy Officer Programs 10. Jana 11. AthenaHealth 12. IXL Learning 13. RetailMeNot, Inc. 14. Jane Street Capital 15. Elemental Technologies, Inc. 16. D.E. Shaw Research 17. AstroZeneca 18. Altisource Labs 19. Utilidata 20. Citrix Systems, Inc. 21. Dassault Systemes SIMULIA 22. Analog Devices, Inc. 23. TravelClick 24. Kyruus 25. Google 26. Susquehanna International Group (SIG) 27. Intersystems Corporation 28. Birchbox 29. TBD 30. Mozilla 31. Vistaprint 32. Microsoft 33. DPR Construction