Monday, March 9, 2015

Page 1

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

VOLUME CL, ISSUE 32

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Debate intensifies over U.’s handling of GHB, sexual assault cases

JILLIAN LANNEY / HERALD

In light of recent activism surrounding his father’s service on the Corporation’s Board of Trustees, the student accused of administering GHB to two female students has been harassed and left campus for the weekend.

Corporation conflict of interest, conflation of cases fall under scrutiny as activism erupts By EMMA HARRIS UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

Many students have reacted with frustration and anger toward the University following new revelations in the date-rape drug and sexual assault cases. Several people expressed concern

that the Phi Kappa Psi member accused of administering GHB to two female students Oct. 17 may have benefitted from his father’s status as a Corporation trustee. Others criticized what they called disturbing reasoning behind the Student Conduct Board’s finding that a different student was not responsible for sexually assaulting one of the two women later that evening. The hashtags #MoneyTalksAtBrown and #GHBGetOutOfRapeFree have appeared on social media in recent days, catalyzed by a protest Thursday and the

creation of the Facebook page “Act4RJ - #moneytalksatbrown,” which has garnered over 900 likes in three days. But others have expressed frustration with this campaign and what they described as conflation of the two cases — some students believe the student who was accused of spiking a drink with GHB is the same individual who was accused of sexually assaulting one of the women. #MoneyTalksAtBrown “just makes no sense and is counterproductive to the actual issues going on,” said a student who wished to remain anonymous

out of fear of backlash from peers, who added that community members are “incorrectly connecting dots, forming connections between things that aren’t really there.” Several students with knowledge of the situation, who also asked for anonymity, said the Phi Psi member who faced charges for spiking a drink with GHB has recently been harassed on campus. The accused student spent the weekend away from Brown because he felt campus was no longer a safe environment for him, they said. Some students, including Undergraduate Council of Students President Maahika Srinivasan ’15, have spoken out against the University for its handling of the cases. Srinivasan, who is one of several students whose profile picture now bears the “MoneyTalksAtBrown” slogan, questioned the relationship between the accused student, his father and University governance. Regardless of whether the trustee swayed the case in any way, she said, “It’s too murky to say it has absolutely nothing to do with him.” “I don’t necessarily think there was any intervention on the side of the family to be able to say that he should be exonerated,” Srinivasan said. “I do think that as an individual he

had far, far more resources, and there, money had a huge role,” she said. “He had two lawyers. (One of the women) doesn’t even have a lawyer.” But other students criticized this line of thinking. “There’s no evidence at all that his dad having money is even connected to the charges being dropped,” one of the anonymous students said. “So it’s really people taking two things, sticking them together and creating a sexy hashtag out of that. And there you have a movement.” The role of evidence in the case has also emerged as a point of contention. Srinivasan said requiring physical evidence for a hearing “doesn’t make sense.” The student’s hearing was canceled due to the lack of physical evidence in the case, The Herald reported Wednesday The standard of evidence to hold a hearing should be student testimony, said Sadhana Bala ’17. “The fact that there was no drug potentially present in the urine sample … is too high a standard that needs to be met, so the trial should not have been dismissed.” Sexual assault is “absolutely not okay,” but neither is convicting someone with no evidence, one of the anonymous students said. In regard to the sexual assault hearing, several students criticized the SCB’s » See REACTION, page 2

M. HOCKEY

Sweep in Cambridge ends postseason hopes Defense fails to keep up as Bruno allows 10 total goals to Harvard’s explosive offense By MATT BROWNSWORD SENIOR STAFF WRITER

After splitting the season series with Harvard and winning three of its last four games against the Crimson, the men’s hockey team had high hopes heading into its best-of-three series against the No. 21 team in the country. But it wasn’t the weekend Brown (8-20-3, 5-14-3 ECAC) had hoped for: In two games emblematic of its entire season, Bruno fell to Harvard (17-113, 11-8-3) 6-2 and 4-3, crashing out of the first round of the ECAC playoffs. After coming out strong in the first game, Brown’s Achilles heel — its special teams — proved fatal. The Bears got a power play after 50 seconds but were unable to convert. When Sam Lafferty ’18 was whistled for interference, the man advantage led to Harvard’s first goal of the game. Alexander Kerfoot got the puck down to superstar Jimmy Vesey right behind Tim Ernst’s ’17 goal, and from

INSIDE

there the Crimson star found Kyle Criscuolo, who tapped into an empty net. “They’re a very gifted hockey team, and I thought we started off the game pretty strong,” said Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94. “Then the play of our special teams bit us … I thought our (defensive) core got overwhelmed a little bit.” “I thought we got off to a good start,” said Harvard Head Coach Ted Donato. “I thought our power play was pretty crisp, and we didn’t make any major mistakes early.” Josh McArdle ’18 was called for an interference penalty about nine minutes later, and Harvard took advantage. One second after the power play expired, Colin Blackwell netted Harvard’s second goal. Blackwell has been sidelined for much of the last two years with symptoms from a bad concussion, but he was able to make his way back last weekend and added another dimension to an already dangerous Harvard team. “He’s got a lot of good energy — I mean he’s a kid that we recruited,” Whittet said. “He’s a nice boy with a nice family, and he’s gone through a

lot of trials and tribulations. I don’t feel happy that he scored two on us, but you feel good for a kid that can overcome some of those scary concussions.” Kerfoot went down later in the first period with a shoulder injury, and he did not return for the rest of the series. Five minutes into the second period, Brown found itself down 4-0 and basically out of the game. Vesey — whose name appeared frequently in the box score, as it has all season — got his first of the night, courtesy of a wicked wrister that beat Ernst glove-side . “He’s one of the best players in the country, and he’s been remarkably consistent,” Donato said. Jake Horton earned one shortly after courtesy of a bouncing, deflected puck that just squeezed past Ernst. The sophomore was pulled after the fourth goal for Tyler Steel ’17, who had not played in a little over a month. “Timmy’s been lights out for us,” Whittet said. “I don’t think the fourth goal was a very good goal to let up, but I pulled him because I wanted » See HOCKEY, page 3

ELI WHITE / HERALD

President Christina Paxson P’19 spoke of personal experiences with gender inequality during her keynote address at the closing ceremony Sunday.

FLAME Conference ignites discussions on feminism High schoolers explore issues of gender inequality, sexuality with Brown students, faculty By ELIZABETH CONWAY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Hundreds of students from 22 Rhode Island high schools conversed with Brown community members on College Hill Sunday and grappled with issues of

feminism, gender identity and sexuality at the first annual Feminist Leadership and Mentorship for Equality Conference. The event was coordinated by Feminists at Brown and coincided with International Women’s Day. The purpose of the conference was to provide a safe space for open conversation on feminist issues. The day was filled with guest lectures, workshops and a final gathering that featured closing remarks by President Christina Paxson » See FLAME, page 2

WEATHER

MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015

SPORTS Women’s lacrosse battles back from five-goal deficit but fails to clinch win over Quakers

SPORTS Harvard and Dartmouth hand women’s basketball pair of losses to end Bruno’s season

COMMENTARY Malik ’18: Digital classrooms in which professors lecture on video are more interactive for students

COMMENTARY Ford ’10: There must be greater emphasis on addressing educational inequality

PAGE 4

PAGE 4

PAGE 7

PAGE 7

TODAY

TOMORROW

44 / 26

45 /28


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.