Wednesday, October 22, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 93

since 1891

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

Financial aid ranks as students’ top priority in UCS poll

Squirrel entry into power station causes city blackout

Sexual assault policy reform, academic advising and off-campus safety rated as key issues

By CAROLINE KELLY

Thayer Street businesses, City Hall face two hours of disrupted electricity, U. buildings remain open

By MOLLY SCHULSON METRO EDITOR

A squirrel that climbed into a metal pipe and made contact with an electric current in the Manchester Street Power Station, located in the Jewelry District, caused more than 4,500 Providence National Grid customers to lose power for about two hours Tuesday morning.

Power outages usually occur in “bits and pieces,” but this one “knocked out the majority of downtown, which was unusual,” said Peter Gaynor, director of the Providence Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security.

At around 10:15 a.m., pedestrians heard what sounded like an explosion near Eddy and Point Streets, where the Manchester Street Power Station is located, the Providence Journal reported.

The Providence Fire Department arrived at the power station shortly thereafter and determined that at least two buildings in the power complex had damage to electrical equipment due to the incident, Deputy Assistant Fire Chief Joseph Desmarais said.

Public Safety Commissioner Steven Parelater denied explosions occurred, the Boston Globe reported.

The “loud noise” that witnesses reported sounded like an explosion, but was actually the result of a power » See POWER, page 3

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Financial aid emerged as the top priority for respondents to the Undergraduate Council of Students’ fall poll for the second year in a row, with sexual assault policy reform claiming second place, said UCS President Maahika Srinivasan ’15. Advising and off-campus safety were also high-ranking issues of concern.

Forty-two percent of the student body — 2,715 undergraduates — completed the poll, marking an increase from the 33 percent of undergraduates who completed the poll last year.

UCS is set to release the poll results in a community-wide email in early November, Srinivasan said.

“The question that will drive a lot of our broad, issue-based work at UCS will be question one, which basically ask(ed) the way that students value hot-button issues that have come up in the last two years,” Srinivasan said.

The first question listed seven issues of interest in recent years: expanding mental health services, hiring more faculty of color, adding a student representative to the Corporation, divesting from fossil fuel companies, increasing opportunities for students to have conversations about controversial topics, reforming sexual assault policy and improving undergraduate financial aid.

“Financial aid came out on top, it always has, and it probably always will,” Srinivasan said of the first question’s results. “We just need to have more engaged conversations about financial aid.”

Respondents ranked reforming sexual assault policy as the second most important issue. “It validated a » See UCS, page 3

Average importance of issues to students In its fall poll, UCS asked students to rate the importance of prevalent campus issues on a scale of extremely unimportant (-3) to extremely important (3).

0.79

Brown divesting from fossil fuel companies

0.89

Hiring more faculty of color Increasing opportunities for students to have conversations about controversial topics

1.32

Having student representation on the Brown Corporation

1.40

Expanding mental health services available to Brown students

1.51

Reforming University policies and procedures for sexual assault and misconduct

1.92 2.18

Improving undergraduate financial aid

0

1

2

3

*Data collected from 2,715 respondents Source: Undergraduate Council of Students Fall Poll 2014 AVERY CRITS-CHRISTOPH / HERALD

Incoming prof. explores refugee camp dynamics Social workers experience safety concerns, trouble connecting refugees with aid, according to new study

By GRACE YOON STAFF WRITER

Accommodations, security and policing stood out as major concerns in refugee camps in Jordan, according to a recent research article

by Sarah Tobin, the incoming associate director of the Middle East Studies program.

Published Oct. 14 in the journal the Middle East Research and Information Project, the article illustrates the different conceptions of power and power structures within Jordanian refugee camps, the resulting tension

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

among refugees and social workers and its effect on the maintenance and security of the camps.

The article focuses on the camp Zaatari, located in the north of Jordan. The camp, which opened on July 28, 2012, has been home to about 100,000 refugees, according to the article. More than 80 percent of the camp’s refugees belong to “vulnerable” groups — 56 percent of residents are children and 25 percent are adult women.

Various United Nations agencies and national and international nongovernmental organizations made abundant efforts to supervise camp administration and management, the

article noted. But there is “confusion over who among the Syrian refugees are ‘in charge,’” the article explained.

External agencies are unsure whom among the refugees they should contact. For these reasons, the agencies and social workers have had difficulty figuring out how best to provide accommodations.

Though previous research has addressed refugee conditions in and around Syria, Denis Sullivan, coauthor of the article and professor of political science at Northeastern University, said his and Tobin’s research is unique because it “tackles the issues of security and camp management.”

The article highlights the necessity to secure the lives of the social workers and NGO members, in addition to those of the refugees in the camp.

Though Jordan is a relatively secure country with a professional military and police, it is important to think beyond the safety of the refugees and consider the “security of the Jordanians in the neighborhoods and (the security of) humanitarian workers,” Sullivan said.

“Tobin’s work in Zaatari camp, along with that of her colleagues, has highlighted not only the complexities of the Syrian refugee crisis, but also described the local effects of reconstituting society in a space of great physical, material and emotional insecurity,” said Ian Straughn, an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology who was not involved in the study.

Sullivan, who has visited Jordan for the past four summers and » See TOBIN, page 2

Gubernatorial candidates debate 38 Studios loan repayment

By CAMILLA BRANDFIELD-HARVEY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Repayment of the 38 Studios loan and reproductive rights dominated discussion Tuesday night at Rhode Island’s first televised gubernatorial debate since the early September primaries. Democratic candidate and General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, Republican candidate and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung and Moderate Party

inside

METRO

candidate Robert Healey faced off in front of a live audience at the Providence Performing Arts Center.

“Leadership means doing the right thing, even when it’s difficult politics,” Raimondo said about the need to repay bondholders associated with the 38 Studios loan.

Debate over Curt Schilling’s defunct video game company 38 Studios, which declared bankruptcy and defaulted on its $75 million loan from the state in 2012, was a centerpiece of last night’s debate and a central means of attack between the candidates, constituting a quarter of the discussion.

Moderator Tim White, Eyewitness News investigative reporter, addressed Fung first, questioning the use of 38

Studios as a “campaign prop.” White asked Fung whether he was “playing politics with the state’s bond rating.” Fung has publically opposed Raimondo’s desire to repay the 38 Studios bondholders.

Though Fung said he would never play politics with the bond rating, he never directly suggested the state should default on its loan, evading White’s question.

“We have not done our due dilligence in launching a full investigation,” Fung said, adding that, “all the voters in Rhode Island deserve to know the truth before we make any commitment one way or the other.”

While rebutting Fung’s attacks, Raimondo said her position on repaying the » See DEBATE, page 4

Commentary

CAMILLA BRANDFIELD-HARVEY / HERALD

Both Democratic candidate Gina Raimondo and Republican candidate Allan Fung emphasized their support for women’s reproductive rights.

Science & Research

Ingber ’15: College campus dialogue on anti-Semitism is “nonexistent”

Hillestad ’15: 257 Thayer will foster a culture of privilege as “ivory tower on College Hill”

Findings suggest an extinct family of kangaroos used to walk on two feet

Noah Fields ’17 uses theater as a mechanism for teaching philosophy to children

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weather

At general election’s first televised debate, Raimondo, Fung rebuff personal attacks

t o d ay

tomorrow

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62 / 52

2 science & research

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

» TOBIN, from page 1 witnessed the Syrian crisis worsening, has attempted visiting the Zaatari refugee camp several times. He was successful in spring 2013, by which time he had hired Tobin as a research assistant. Over the course of the summer, they visited refugee camps in and around Syria, including Zaatari.

Sullivan and Tobin expressed agreement that the most surprising part of their research was seeing the gravity of the refugees’ situations.

Tobin cited the example of a Palestinian woman in a refugee camp, whose family was starving to death prior to arriving at the camp. The mother had to send her youngest and smallest child out of their house to retrieve food, making the necessary calculations to ensure he could avoid the snipers.

“Everybody that I spoke with had stories about this utter brutality that they had to escape,” Tobin said.

“Life goes on at the refugee camp … but that life is so desperate,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said he and Tobin will continue to focus their research on refugee issues in Jordan. They will hold a workshop Oct. 31 at Northeastern, bringing together an array of U.N. representatives, policy makers and academics. They hope to discuss what steps to take to improve the situations in these refugee camps, Sullivan said.

Tobin said she has been working on a few other projects related to the refugee camps in and around Syria, including one about early marriage. She hopes to speak at Brown this spring

COURTESY OF SARAH TOBIN

Sarah Tobin, incoming associate director of the Middle East Studies program, traveled to Jordan to study the over 100,000 Syrian refugees living in the refugee camp Zaatari. After fleeing war in their homeland, many refugees face frustrating conditions in disorganized camps. about this topic, she said.

Tobin currently serves as a visiting scholar and assistant director of the Boston Consortium for Arab Region Studies at Northeastern, and will assume her post as associate director

of the Middle East Studies program in January.

Tobin said she is excited to join the Brown community. She believes she can “deepen the kind of offering we have” at Brown, as she has conducted

“a very contemporary active research on a timely topic,” she said.

Tobin will teach a class on Islamic economics this spring, she said. She is “excited that Brown is trying out this new course,” since the topic has never

been offered previously, she said.

“I’m very sad to lose (Tobin) working for me as my assistant, but am happy for her and her folks at Brown,” Sullivan said. “She is a perfect fit for the Middle East Studies program.”

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

» POWER, from page 1 surge that was caused by the squirrel becoming entangled with the electrical pipe and an insulator, said National Grid spokesperson David Graves.

“The animal making the contact becomes the conductor and will carry the electricity,” Graves said.

Customers whose electricity relies on the Dyer Street and Franklin Square substations also lost power as a result of the incident, Graves said, because once the Manchester station’s electrical system recognized an imbalance, it caused a surge of power that affected the substations.

“Once we determined what the problem was, we were able to begin the process of restoration,” Graves said, adding that “a good chunk” of power returned by 11:40 am. Power was completely restored by around 1 p.m., he said.

“Everything was handled well, and there was nothing to report as far as injuries, so it was a good day,” Desmarais said. “Unfortunately, for the squirrel it wasn’t.”

The squirrel’s remains were found at the scene of the incident, the Journal reported.

While most equipment in the power stations is protected against wildlife, it is “very difficult to prevent” every squirrel from squeezing

» UCS, from page 1 lot of the work that we had already been doing and was a great indicator for how much the University needs to pick up momentum on this particular issue,” Srinivasan said.

First-year advising surfaced as another key issue. First-year and sophomore respondents expressed a higher level of satisfaction with first-year advising than respondents who were upperclassmen. Overall, respondents indicated they believed that having a more responsive, initiative-taking academic advisor or Meiklejohn would be the best way to improve the first-year advising experience.

Sophomore advising received rankings that followed a similar trend, with underclassmen expressing more satisfaction. “Sophomore advising is something huge — an issue that we clearly need some targeted improvement on,”

into small areas, Graves told the Journal.

Various College Hill businesses and some students’ off-campus houses lost power. The Starbucks on Thayer Street closed for about two hours, multiple sources reported.

City Hall, the Providence Biltmore Hotel and several federal and state courthouses and businesses were affected by the widespread outage, the Journal reported.

Eileen Ly ’15 said she didn’t notice the power in her off-campus house was off until she looked at the clock and saw it was no longer on. “I thought there was something wrong with our apartment, so I texted my roommate who said (the outage) was all over Providence.”

The rest of Ly’s day was not affected by the outage, as all of the University buildings she went to had power, she said.

The Brown Bookstore, which ran on a backup generator, did not experience any problems, Customer Service Associate Barry Dejasu said.

He added that he only knew about the power outage because people came into the store and told him about it.

“I got really lucky,” said Amanda Weaver, the assistant manager at City Sports, who added that she had just exited an elevator when the power went out. “We are really pretty far

behind for the day, as far as our sales goal goes,” Weaver said Tuesday afternoon.

Lisa Paquette, manager of Spectrum India, also said the outage affected the store’s revenue. When the power went out, Paquette “couldn’t see anything at all,” she said, adding that she had to tell customers to be careful while shopping in the dark.

Paquette said she tried to remove curtains from the windows to

Srinivasan said.

Concentration advising faired better among upperclassmen respondents, with a satisfaction ranking of threequarters among juniors and approximately one-half among seniors.

Poll questions regarding campus safety assessed how safe students felt on or off campus during the day or night. Most respondents chose “somewhat safe” or “very safe” for all four questions, with the exception of more than 35 percent of respondents indicating they felt “somewhat unsafe” off campus at night. Most respondents indicated that they thought increasing the number of “yellowjacket” safety officers would be the most effective method of increasing their feelings of safety.

Srinivasan said this statistic is “motivating,” adding that “there’s a lot more work to do, especially on streets and street corners that are considered off

campus.”

The “community care” section of the poll asked respondents to rank their comfort with supportive actions such as speaking up when someone makes an inappropriate comment about sexual assault, interrupting and escaping a situation that looks or feels wrong, calling Emergency Medical Services when an intoxicated friend needs care, knowing where to refer a friend who needs help with academic issues and knowing where to refer a friend who needs help with personal issues.

Out of the five options, the referring a friend struggling with academic issues option ranked last.

“The question about community care situations is a good indicator that we need to revamp how we … educate students on campus resources,” such as the Office of Student Life, the dean of the College office and Counseling and Psychological Services, Srinivasan said.

Providence power outages Power outages swept through Providence neighborhoods, including College Hill and the downtown area, yesterday.

4000 outages 3000 2000 1000 0 2 a.m.

4 a.m.

6 a.m.

8 a.m.

12:00 p.m.

4 p.m.

10 a.m.

2 p.m.

Source: Providence Journal/National Grid EMMA JERZYK / HERALD

www.browndailyherald.com

improve visibility for the customers, but it was still too dark to see.

During the outage, PEMA sent police officers to traffic light intersections without power and told residents via Twitter to be cautious, Gaynor said.

“Once the lights went down, everyone slowed down,” Desmarais said.

“I think everyone was taking extra precautions … and they seemed extra polite.”

The fire department also had to respond to alarms going off around the downtown area, as well as incidents where people were stuck in elevators, Desmarais said.

Gaynor said one of his acquaintances was in an elevator for about an hour and a half before being rescued.

— Additional reporting by Kiki Barnes and Emma Jerzyk

4 metro

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

» DEBATE, from page 1

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bonds stems from the financial necessity.

“I don’t want to repay it,” she said, “but we have to repay it, because the experts have told us if we don’t repay it, it’s going to cost twice as much.”

“The bondholders, they’re going to be okay, either way. They have insurance,” Raimondo said. “I care about the people of Rhode Island, and they’re going to be stuck holding the bag.”

Panelist and WPRI reporter Ted Nesi then turned the debate’s attention to Raimondo’s proposed Innovation Institute and the plan’s cost to taxpayers.

The Innovation Institute, a center Raimondo said is “designed to take the great ideas coming out of (the state’s) colleges and universities and turn them into products that we make here” would be funded through a partnership between universities and local businesses and would utilize the empty I-195 land.

“For too long in Rhode Island we’ve been short-sighted,” Raimondo said. “We need to invest in growth.”

Nesi also prompted the candidates to discuss reproductive rights in light of recent backlash from the Catholic community following Raimondo’s Planned

Parenthood endorsement.

Despite an endorsement from Rhode Island Right to Life, Fung said he has always identified as pro-choice, “with common sense limitations and restrictions that many Rhode Islanders also support.”

Fung said he supports neither lateterm abortions nor partial-birth abortions. “I respect both sides of the issue, and as governor I will not do anything to stand in the way of a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions,” Fung said.

Whereas Raimondo said she respects and accepts the Catholic church’s position in her private life, as governor, she would represent “all the people of Rhode Island, including those who have different religious views” than she does.

The debate moderators engaged Healey during the debate largely as a sidenote with additional input until panelist and Providence Journal political columnist Ed Fitzpatrick asked Healey about a contentious claim in his platform, which Healey recently released to the press.

Fitzpatrick questioned Healey about his “provacative” belief that “the largescale entry of women into the American

workforce has caused (a) detriment to society that may be beyond repair.”

“It sounds misogynist on the surface,” Healey said, but he explained that he believes women’s dilution of the workforce has essentially driven down the cost of labor.

“If you read the document, you would know that it’s clearly not any statement against the woman entering into the workplace. I think they’re far more superior,” he said.

Healey said steps should have been taken to better merge the workforce and prepare for an influx of working women in order to keep labor costs high and keep the parent “best able to take care of the children” at home. Both parents are now forced to enter the workplace in many families, and Rhode Island has risked losing its “homelife.”

Apart from this divisive statement, Healey esentially served as a fourth moderator in a debate dominated by Raimondo and Fung.

“We’re not talking about the future of Rhode Island,” Healey said toward the end of the debate. “We’re bickering between people who have problems with each other over a certain management style.”

today 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

menu

m a k e way f o r d u c k l i n g s

SATELLITE DINING JOSIAH’S Gourmet Tacos BLUE ROOM Mediterranean Pockets Soups: Hearty Country Vegetable, Tomato Florentine and Baked Potato ANDREWS COMMONS Pasta: Tortellini Carbonara

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Artichoke Pepper Calzone, Beef Fenway Franks, Soft Pretzels and Popcorn, Red Flannel Hash

Beet and Kale Vegan Patty, Ginger Sugar Snap Peas and Garlic, Herb Crusted Salmon

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Pulled Pork Sandwich, Vegan Quinoa Stuffed Portobella, Mediterranean Eggplant Saute

Artichoke and Red Pepper Frittata, Shepards Pie, Cous Cous, Whole Green Beans

sudoku

crossword COURTESY OF MARGOT HARRIS

Students cuddled their midterm stress away with ducklings, bunnies and pigs Tuesday, taking advantage of Super Heavy Petting sponsored by the 2016 Class Board in the Kasper Multipurpose Room.

comic Mind Grapes | Willa Tracy ’17

calendar TODAY 10 A.M. MAKE YOUR OWN STRESS BALL

Active Minds, a student group dedicated to raising awareness of mental health issues and decreasing stigma on campus, will provide all materials needed to make a stress ball.

Main Green

TOMORROW 12 P.M. EMINEM, BIGGIE SMALLS AND THE MORALITY OF ART

The Philosophy DUG hosts this ethical inquiry lunch that explores the immorality of themes and lyrics in rap music.

The discussion will focus on the acceptability of rap music and standards of morality. Wilson Hall, Room 101

5:30 P.M. HIV TESTING

Nonprofit organization AIDS Project Rhode Island will be on campus to provide free and anonymous HIV testing to all students interested in participating. Faunce House 321 9 P.M. CANDLELIGHT VIGIL FOR VICTIMS OF EBOLA

6 P.M. DIWALI PUJA CEREMONY

All are invited to learn about the Hindi festival Diwali and participate in the puja ceremony. The “festival of lights” will include diya painting and rangoli making, followed by a prayer. Manning Chapel

EPIDEMIC

In commemoration of the over 4,500 lives that have been lost due to the Ebola epidemic that began in March, organizers will hold a candlelight vigil. Main Green

7 P.M. AN EVENING WITH GEORGE R. R. MARTIN

Author of the acclaimed “Game of Thrones” series, George R. R. Martin is joined by his publisher, Tom Doherty, for an awards ceremony and talk. Salomon 101

6 commentary EDITORIAL

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

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

Transforming dialogues into action As student-led movements like fossil fuel divestment, sexual assault reform and student representation on the Corporation gain momentum and capture administrative attention, there exists a clear and growing desire for institutional change at Brown.

As students, the type of change we envision as possible and at times deem necessary should be determined by a question we do not ask enough: “What role does this University play in society?” As individuals, how we answer this question guides and shapes our conversations about what needs to be changed. Therefore, conversations that aim to transform dialogue into action require students to reflect on their own relationships to Brown — relationships students must continuously reference as they work together to cultivate change.

Brown can be described in a variety of ways: It is an institution of higher learning and a generator of knowledge. It fosters opportunity for social mobility and serves as a gateway to power and privilege. As much as Brown is an ivory tower, it is also a political agent with the power to promote scholarship, push policy forward and support or challenge systemic inequality.

What Brown personally means to each one of us — ­ how we each conceptualize Brown — guides how we believe the University as an institution should act. We value Brown differently based on the pathways that we took to get here, the opportunities college has afforded us and, broadly, our own social ranks. For students who are the first in their families to attend college, Brown can very well be the largest opportunity in their families’ lives for socioeconomic advancement. For students who have personally faced structural inequality, Brown can offer a platform to create substantive social change. Brown can also be a means to attain or maintain a high standard of living — to land a high-paying job or to satisfy outstanding loans.

When we envision engaging in “transformative conversations” — as the University has promoted through the Transformative Conversations@ Brown Project — around white privilege, social inequity and institutional change,we should delve into our own underlying definitions of Brown’s role in society, shaped by the personal experiences we bring to Brown, to create various viewpoints that can cause tension during discussions about institutional change.

While contemplating how our experiences shape our values can be both introspective and incredibly fulfilling, this mindset is only the beginning of a constructive conversation. Transformative conversations require that these differences in our very conceptions of what Brown is to each of us serve as a cornerstone of the process of crafting change. This process is difficult and often frustrating. It is not easy, but if we incorporate the complexities and contradictions that exist within the student body into our conversations rather than aiming to immediately mitigate or move beyond them, the institutional changes we make will transform Brown into an institution that thoughtfully reflects the changing needs of our student body.

“Life goes on at the refugee camp … but that life is so desperate.”

— Sarah Tobin

See tobin on page 1.

CORRECTIONS An article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Unplugged: Students opt out of social media,” Oct. 21) incorrectly stated the social media account Pia Brar ’15.5 deactivated. It was her Facebook, not Twitter, account. The article also incorrectly stated that Brar is a visual arts concentrator with a focus in photography. In fact, she just has an extracurricular interest in photography.

The Herald regrets the error.

Another article in Tuesday’s Herald (“U.’s student loan default rate drops 35 percent,” Oct. 21) incorrectly stated that Penn has an all-grant loan program. In fact, it has an all-grant, no-loan policy. The Herald regrets the error.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editors, Alexander Kaplan ’15 and James Rattner ’15 , and its members, Natasha Bluth ’15, Manuel Contreras ’16, Manuel Monti-Nussbaum ’15, Katherine Pollock ’16 and Himani Sood ’15. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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commentary 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

The oldest hatred in new and old forms ZACH INGBER opinions columnist

Anti-Semitism is not something we talk about on college campuses.

While we may discuss anti-Semitism abstractly in academic conversations, it is something we believe we are beyond, something reminiscent of backward 20th century totalitarian regimes. But this ancient hatred of Jews persists around the world. From the depths of Saudi madrassas to the halls of the United Nations in Geneva, anti-Semitic tropes continue.

This past May, a gunman of Algerian descent murdered four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels. A few years earlier, Mohammed Merah, a French national, murdered many people — including an 8-year-old girl — at a Jewish school in Toulouse.

But this summer, following the Israeli operation in the Gaza strip, anti-Semitism was not isolated to rogue actors perpetrating violence. While many protests expressed clear messages objecting to the actions of the Israeli government, others contained thousands of protesters — many in Germany, alarmingly — chanting “gas the Jews.” And most striking was an incident in Sarcelles, France, a suburb of Paris. Jewish businesses were looted and ransacked by mobs in an incident resembling something from 1930s Germany. Synagogues were attacked and Jewish sites were vandalized in the suburb of what many consider to be the cultural cap-

ital of Europe.

While it is important to note that European governments have been exceptionally swift in condemning this anti-Semitism and mobilizing broad political support to stop its spread, the populist nature of these events signifies the extant nature of European anti-Semitism.

But it is no surprise that there has been virtually no discussion on this topic of campus. Perhaps it is academically passe to examine anti-Semitism in most circles. But I think most

ber that persecution weighs heavily on the Jewish historical memory.

And so, it is alarming that somebody drew swastikas on the facade of Emory University’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi, the school’s oldest historically Jewish fraternity. While some might say that Emory is in Atlanta, and the South has more anti-Semitism than other parts of the country, a similar expression of prejudice occurred recently at Yale. Swastikas were chalked on the sidewalk outside a freshman dorm just a short time af-

Let me be nothing short of absolutely clear: It is perfectly acceptable and appropriate to criticize the actions of Israel without venturing into anti-Semitic territory. But when criticism of Israel uses language historically associated with anti-Semitic canards, we have to be careful. Calling Israelis or the Israeli government “bloodthirsty” for Palestinian children is simply a new variation on historic uses of blood libel — the untrue and offensive notion that Jews seek the blood of non-Jewish children for

The more nefarious instances of anti-Semitism manifest in language, not images. students at Brown, and in the United States more broadly, do not believe they are exposed to anti-Semitism. I write this column not to suggest that Brown’s campus is brimming with anti-Semitism — not in the slightest. But I would like to highlight certain things that have appeared across institutions of higher education that give cause for concern.

It is first crucial to remember that Jews still constitute a minority with a long history of persecution prior to a recent history of safety and security.

It was not long ago that Henry Ford regularly distributed “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s State Department routinely rejected requests to accept Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. While the triumph of the Jewish people vis-a-vis thousands of years of historical threats is nothing short of astonishing, we must remem-

ter they were found on a whiteboard inside an academic building. Scary.

But never at Brown, right? That could not possibly happen here. But it did. Last year, surrounding the now infamous Ray Kelly affair, a number of posters with Ray Kelly’s face were adorned with swastikas. Should I have to enter my dorm and look at a swastika on the door? Do we have such a short memory of 20th century events that we forget how traumatizing these symbols are for Jews, many of whom had family live through or perish in the Holocaust?

But it is easy to condemn a swastika. The more nefarious instances of anti-Semitism manifest in language, not images. They appear in language speciously germane to a conversation but actually coded in historical anti-Semitism tropes. And it is in conversations regarding Israel that these tropes come to life.

religious ritual.

Just a few weeks ago, I attended a student panel on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When asked about the United States-Israel relationship, one panelist remarked that congress gives so much foreign aid to Israel because Jewish donors control elections. I could not believe his comments were real.

More common, however, are comments equating Israeli actions with those of the Nazis. Gaza is often described as a modern-day concentration camp, and political cartoons frequently depict Israeli soldiers as Gestapo agents. The conditions in Gaza are admittedly awful, but in no way does that legitimize the appropriation of language from the Holocaust.

Why, when discussing other minority groups, — whether they be ethnic, religious or based on some other characteristic — are we hyper-

sensitive to language, but people freely use Holocaust imagery to describe the actions of Jews? Why do articles discussing certain communities begin with trigger warnings, something I ardently oppose due to the chilling effect they have on speech, but articles about Israel freely compare the state to Nazi Germany? This is not necessarily to suggest that campus discourse is rife with anti-Semitism, but we have to be aware of the effect some of this language has on Jewish students.

Despite my frustration, we are undoubtedly lucky that Brown, and most American campuses, are safe places for Jews in 2014. We have come a long way from Jewish quotas and mainstream anti-Semitism, but that success often clouds the still lingering presence of what is often understood as the oldest hatred.

Swastikas might appear ever so often, but we have to be aware of language’s power in conveying anti-Semitism. Comparing Israel’s actions to that of Nazi Germany not only conflates starkly disparate conflicts but also disparages the memory of those who suffered through the Holocaust.

Natan Sharansky, an Israeli political activist who was jailed in the Soviet Union as a political dissident, warns that the comparison of the Jewish state to Nazi Germany is the ultimate form of demonization. Let us be aware that this sort of language and distortion of history is nothing short of anti-Semitism.

Zach Ingber ’15 can be reached at zachary_ingber@brown.edu.

257 Thayer: elitist enclave SAM HILLESTAD opinions columnist

257 Thayer: sophisticated and sustainable college living. No doubt, that’s a catchy slogan. I understand why that’s appealing to a lot of Brown students. After all, I like to consider myself sophisticated and environmentally conscious. And I wouldn’t want to feel guilty about my fancy new digs, so at least the building uses clean energy, right? It seems like a great motto on all accounts.

But I have a few other ideas that are more representative of the culture 257 Thayer will cultivate. 257 Thayer: privileged and pretentious. 257 Thayer: the ivory tower on College Hill. 257 Thayer: where ultra-rich students can network with other ultra-rich students. 257 Thayer: elitist enclave.

There are no apartments at 257 Thayer that cost under $1,000 a month. And the most expensive apartments cost a small fortune at $1,350 a month. That’s more than double what an upscale off-campus house typically costs here.

There are only a select few Brown students — or should I say parents of Brown students — who can afford that rent on top of a $46,408 tuition fee. These are the upper-class members of Brown society, which is already an elitist and privileged community. But just being a part of an Ivy League institution is not enough for them. They want to be the patricians of Brown,

and like all patricians, they seek to separate themselves from the plebeians.

The 257 Thayer complex is the physical embodiment of that class division. It will stand as stark reminder of the inherent inequality that plagues Brown’s campus.

More than half of the class of 2018 — 56 percent, to be exact — receives no financial aid.

They don’t need it. The $62,694 price tag of a Brown education is easily payable. It’s just an-

heated garage. We don’t even have cars. Bikes will do for us.

Defenders of 257 Thayer will be quick to point out that the building is LEED certified, meaning that it is energy-efficient. While this rating is commendable, I get the feeling that LEED certification was tacked on to make the building seem more progressive. With the certification, the owners got more leases signed and jacked up the rent a few ticks. They don’t care

The 257 Thayer complex will perpetuate the myth that Brown is just another Ivy: a bastion for inequality and privilege. other investment for them.

And for the ones who really want to flaunt their wealth, 257 Thayer is the perfect symbol of their privilege. It’s a quick and easy indicator that they come from deep pockets. Brown socialites thrive on status symbols like that. It lets them recognize one another and glom together into exclusive cliques.

The rest of us don’t want the kind of decadence that 257 Thayer offers. We don’t need it like they do. We’re content with just being Ivy League students — a status most Americans only dream of. We don’t need an HBO subscription. We can find a “Game of Thrones” stream online. We don’t need free laundry. We can find a way to jimmy the machines. We don’t need a

about the environment. They care about your money.

And issues of class and inequality aside, the construction of 257 Thayer has been a nightmare. Construction workers start their jackhammers and steamrollers at unreasonably early hours with complete disregard for nearby residents, who have frequently cited the construction as a public nuisance. And Thayer Street pedestrians are inconvenienced daily, unable to walk down the street or hold a conversation in peace. The construction isn’t slated to end until January at the earliest. We have months and months of more raucous construction to endure, and all for the indulgence of the rich kids.

The sound aside, all this construction has

turned Thayer Street into an eyesore. The building’s chain link fences, muddy surroundings and unfinished facade have ruined Thayer Street for me. And if renderings of the building are accurate, it won’t get much better. The stale, cookie-cutter exterior of 257 Thayer looks like it could be plopped down on any street of any college campus. But this is Thayer Street and Brown that we’re talking about. Especially for such a bloated price, I expected better.

More than anything else, I resent that the building will be at such a central location — right at the heart of the famous Thayer Street.

I can only hope visitors will recognize that the people who live there are not indicative of the typical Brown student. Most Brown students are down-to-earth. Most Brown students seek to bridge the class divide, not further widen it.

257 Thayer will perpetuate the myth that Brown is just another Ivy: a bastion for inequality and privilege.

My only solace is that I’ll be long gone by the time people start to live in 257 Thayer. I’m forever grateful that I’m a member of the last class who can remember both the real Keeney Quadrangle and the real Thayer Street. It’s a shame that future classes won’t question the existence of 257 Thayer. They’ll look up at its high walls and think they’ve always stood there. I only hope they’ll look on with pity in their eyes and not envy.

Sam Hillestad ’15 proudly considers himself a plebeian of Brown. He can be reached at samuel_hillestad@brown.edu.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD science & research ‘Giant kangaroos’ may have walked New study by U. researchers suggests extinct family of kangaroos may not have hopped

By ANDREW JONES SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Though hopping is the kangaroo’s trademark feature, a prehistoric family of kangaroos may have once walked on two feet, according to a new study by Professor of Biology Christine Janis.

Janis has been looking at bones all her life. Growing up, she was always picking them up and playing with them — an early hobby that developed into a profound love.

“You get an eye for seeing bones,” Janis said.

When she came across the bones of an extinct family of large kangaroos, she was puzzled, she said.

After gathering more data and examining the bone structure further, Janis and her colleagues came to the surprising conclusion: This extinct family of big kangaroos, named sthenurine, walked on two feet. Whereas

today’s kangaroos use a pentapedal gait, with the tail acting as a fifth limb, these large creatures moved in a bipedal fashion, Janis said.

“We realized that there is no living analog for this creature, and it falls into its own group,” she said, adding that most other kangaroos hopped even in prehistoric times and no descendants of this type of kangaroo exist.

Sthenurines, sometimes called “giant kangaroos,” were roughly twice the size of a normal kangaroo and are thought to have existed in the Pleistocene epoch, according to the study.

The scientists inspected bones and fossils and analyzed the biomechanical makeup of the family in

order to determine its style of gait, according to the article, which was published Oct. 15 in the journal PLOS ONE. The researchers collected fossils from a variety of museums and institutes, including several locations in Australia, said Karalyn Buttrill ’06, a coauthor on the paper. Buttrill worked on the project as an

undergraduate student and traveled to Australia for a semester to collect data for her thesis, she said.

The researchers used the bone measurements to make a map of the animal’s whole body, which allowed them to postulate about the bones’ functions, Buttrill said.

“In order to go from structure to function, you need to have a good sense of anatomy,” Butrill said.

Two features of the sthenurine makeup clued the biologists into the odd nature of its movement, Janis said. First, analysis of bones revealed that the animals had stiff torsos, which would make it difficult to hop. Second, the animal could bear its weight on one leg at a time, an unusual feature for kangaroos, she added.

Snethurines’ walking may have resulted as an adaptation to their eating behavior, Janis said. Since the big kangaroo often gathered food with its arms, it

ANGELIA WANG / HERALD

would have been less efficient to use all four limbs to move around.

But though bipedal movement may have provided some benefits, it also forced the animal to move at a much lower speed than the kangaroos that hopped, she added.

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT

Fields ’17: Philosophy through theater

BY SARAH PERELMAN SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

This profile is part of a new series focused on Brown faculty and students engaged in science and research, with the purpose of highlighting and making more accessible the work being pursued at all levels across disciplines.

Noah Fields ’17 is out to test a hypothesis: “I think that children can learn philosophy,” he said. “I want to create an educational program which is a different form of a musical theater project.”

To begin examining this, Fields spent the summer writing WONDERWORLD, a musical in which characters including Edgar the Existential Elephant, Lonely Sue and Socrates dance across the stage and sing songs that convey philosophical musings.

“People think children aren’t mature enough for philosophy,” but if philosophical concepts are reframed in less technical terms, children are able to examine and internalize them, he said, adding that musical theater can be “a

way in” for students.

Though philosophy is not emphasized in public schools, research suggests that teaching philosophy to students can improve their standardized test scores, he added.

“What I wanted to go for was to create something zany, something very ‘Alice in Wonderland’-like,” he said.

“I really like the idea of framing philosophy in a way that it’s an adventure that people can go on,” entering into an alternate world of knowledge and curiosities, he added.

One of Field’s favorite scenes of WONDERWORLD explores the tension between consequentialism and utilitarianism. In this scene, a village has the choice: Either all of the residents will be unhappy or only one person will feel distress. The village decides one person, Lonely Sue, should bear the burden, while everyone else is happy.

The villagers play outside and belt an upbeat song with the same chords as the sad melody that Lonely Sue sings alone in a basement.

Eventually, Lonely Sue helps the villagers decide that each person will spend a day feeling unhappy and share the burden, creating a “slightly feminist twist on a damsel in distress,” Fields said.

The scene has a greater ability than a direct lesson or textbook to explain the underlying philosophical question

about consequentialism versus utilitarianism, words that “go right over kids’ heads,” Fields said. “But when you have Lonely Sue versus all the rest of the town with toys … they can feel the tension.”

The biggest challenge in Fields’ endeavor was inexperience, he said.

Having never written a musical before, Fields had to learn the form and the differences between composing a musical score and pure songwriting. Guided by his advisor, Nancy Rosenberg, a teaching associate in the Department of Music, he poured over texts examining how to create musical theater and even wrote a short practice musical.

Now that his work is complete, he is in the process of talking to local theater companies about producing it. He also hopes that Brown students will workshop his play, he said.

When Fields is not writing bars about how “a question is a quest,” he enjoys participating in as many music and musical theater extracurricular activities he can. He is also a member of the St. Anthony Hall literary society and serves as vice chair of the Queer Alliance.

Though Fields is passionate about philosophy and music, he is not sure where these interests will take him in the future, he said. “My perspective in general is one step at a time, one project at a time. … Let your dreams follow you.”

This Week in Higher Ed

BY TONYA RILEY, UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

Harvard law school professors criticize new sexual harassment policy A group of 28 current and former Harvard law school professors wrote a letter published in the Boston Globe Oct. 14 lambasting the university’s new sexual harassment policy.

The criticism comes as Harvard is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for Title IX violations, multiple outlets reported.

The letter cited concerns over representation for the accused, absence of adequate evidence and a broader “definition of sexual harassment that goes significantly beyond Title IX and Title VII law.”

The policy, released in July, adopted a “preponderance of evidence” as Harvard’s conduct standard for judging whether an act constituted sexual assault or harassment, as opposed to the often harder-to-prove “clear and convincing” standard used by some other institutions, the Globe reported. The university also established an Office for Sexual and Gender-Based Dispute Resolution.

“As teachers responsible for educating our students about due process of law, the substantive law governing discrimination and violence, appropriate administrative decision-making and the rule of law generally, we find the new sexual harassment policy inconsistent with many of the most basic principles we teach,” the letter’s authors wrote.

Harvard “appreciates that not every member of the community will agree with every aspect of the new approach,” Harvard spokesperson Jeff Neal wrote to the Harvard Crimson, adding that there is room for debate on whether the new policies go too far or are insufficient.

Federal court rules Georgia State’s online course materials violated copyright laws A federal appellate court ruled Friday that Georgia State University infringed on copyright laws in making materials available to students for free on their online course reserves, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. The ruling was a reversal of a federal district court’s previous opinion in 2012 that the university’s action did not violate copyright laws.

The original suit was filed in 2008 by three publishers — Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and SAGE Publications — and alleged “systematic, widespread and unauthorized copying and distribution of a vast amount of copyrighted works,” the Chronicle reported at the time.

The suit centered around the question of whether Georgia State had violated fair use standards for copyrighted materials for educational use by making certain works available online for free to students.

“We are pleased that a unanimous panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today agreed to reverse the District Court’s judgment,” the American Association of Publishers wrote in a statement on its website. “AAP believes that today’s decision will help to protect the intellectual property rights of authors and publishers who are providing students with high-quality educational materials.”

The reversal means that the publishers who filed the suit will be compensated for the $3 million in legal fees that they were instructed to pay Georgia State after the original ruling, Publishers’ Weekly reported.

Dartmouth newspaper editorial calls for abolition of Greek life The Dartmouth published a front-page editorial Friday calling for the university to cut off formal recognition of Greek organizations on campus.

“Abolishing Greek life, though not a be-all, end-all solution, would offer Dartmouth a chance to rebuild its social life from the ground up,” the Dartmouth’s editorial board wrote. The editorial cited previous efforts to reform the system that saw little success as evidence for the need to abolish the university’s fraternities and sororities.

The editorial spurred further campus-wide debate on the costs and benefits of Dartmouth’s Greek system, with critics of the editorial questioning the authors’ descriptions of several Greek organizations’ initiation practices. The Dartmouth has since removed several of the references that were called into question. Numerous counter-opinions have been written defending the university’s Greek life.

The editorial comes as the university’s “Moving Dartmouth Forward” steering committee develops a plan for the university’s administrative priorities for the coming years. Dartmouth has been under national media scrutiny in recent years after several reported incidents of hazing and sexual assault linked to several Greek organizations at the university.

Lindsay Ellis, editor-in-chief of the Dartmouth, defended the decision in an editor’s note published the same day. “Printing the Dartmouth’s editorial on the front page over Homecoming weekend — when hundreds of alumni flood back to campus — aims to show our readership how much is at stake,” Ellis wrote.