Wednesday, October 14, 2015

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015

VOLUME CL, ISSUE 84

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

St. Laurent GS remembered for life of curiosity U. misses emission target,

COURTESY OF WILLIAM ST. LAURENT

St. Laurent, a PhD candidate in molecular biology, graduated from Yale in 1982 and worked across the globe before passing away last month.

Family and peers reflect on grad student’s life of intellectual enthusiasm, work in molecular biology

By LAUREN ARATANI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Peers and family members remember Georges St. Laurent III GS as intellectually curious and extremely passionate about his life’s work in molecular biology.

“He was a multifaceted person, extremely intelligent. No challenges were too big for him to undertake,” said his brother, William St. Laurent P’16, adding that his enthusiasm for science started at an early age.

St. Laurent, a PhD candidate in molecular and cellular biology, passed away Sept. 25 in Miami at age 54.

St. Laurent graduated from Yale in 1982 with a degree in molecular biology.

After graduation, he worked at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for a few years.

He left the exchange after losing his voice due to the loud shouting of interest rates and currencies required by his working in “the pits,” his brother said. Once he lost his voice, he traveled all over the United States searching for treatment options, which sparked his renewed interest in science, his brother added.

Starting in the late 1990s, St. Laurent and his brother managed Vitech America, which was the largest direct seller of personal computers in Latin America at the time, his brother said.

While St. Laurent was good at managing the business, he found it a “means to an end,” whereas he found science a true passion and an end in itself.

In 2005, after working in Brazil for Vitech, St. Laurent established the St. Laurent Institute, a medical research organization that he used to publish his research, his brother said, adding that St. Laurent published over 40 papers within the last five years.

Through his work, St. Laurent made a lot of friends and intellectual connections during his lifetime.

“He cultivated these relationships with highly intellectual people around the world … people who were colleagues in the molecular biology area, people in medicine, and it extended beyond just his research. These were people who were enjoying his life with him,” his brother said.

St. Laurent studied under Robert Reenan, professor of biology, during his time at the University as a graduate » See ST. LAURENT, page 3

sets new green initiatives Annual Sustainability Report highlights waste diversion, local food initiatives

By ANICA GREEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

For the first time in eight years, Brown’s campus saw an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, according to the fiscal year 2015 Sustainability Progress Report released Oct. 9 by the Office of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Initiatives.

The report outlines green initiatives at the University, describing progress toward Facilities Management’s environmental goals as well as eco-friendly movements supported by student groups.

In January 2008, former President Ruth Simmons accepted proposed guidelines for a 42 percent reduction in 2007’s GHG emissions by 2020. This year’s levels were 22 percent below the 2007 figure — less than the desired 28 percent.

This year’s GHG emissions increase can be attributed to the combination of a record-breakingly cold winter last year and a shortage of gas pipeline in the New England region. Chris Powell, assistant vice president for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Initiatives, wrote in an email to The Herald that the University has its own central heating plant, which

several years ago converted from fuel oil to natural gas, the less carbon-intensive alternative. This plant is the source of most of the heat on campus.

But the electricity comes from the New England regional power grid, which depends on energy from multiple power plants and utilizes different fuel sources.

During the winter, there is often a shortage of natural gas because people are heating their homes and businesses in addition to using their typical amount of power. The gaps are filled with less efficient fuel sources, which “primarily” accounts for the increase noted in the report.

“These tend to be short duration problems, as pipeline capacity is expanded. This, along with the continued investments in renewable energy in New England, will decrease these carbon emissions in the future,” Powell wrote.

This year, plans to further decrease emissions have begun to form. It is likely that there will be fewer beef options on the dining menu, as beef is not environmentally friendly to produce. Instead, additional chicken and vegetarian protein options will be made available to students.

“As (the software) pertains to food systems … 78 percent of Brown’s nitrogen footprint comes from food systems,” said Robert Chase, facilities and sustainability manager, speaking of the Nitrogen » See GREEN, page 2

Admins narrow locations for new performing arts venue New arts initiatives include Brown in Berlin, dual-degree architecture program

By JULIANNE CENTER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The University’s arts programs are experiencing a season of expansion, with new initiatives such as a new performing arts venue, a potential study abroad program in Berlin and a six-year joint degree program in architecture with the Rhode Island School of Design on the agenda, said Michael Steinberg, vice provost for the arts.

Though not finalized, the University is currently narrowing down locations for the new performing arts venue, Steinberg said. “I’m pretty sure it will be in a very prominent location that will be not only accessible to people but will demonstrate the importance of arts to Brown,” he said. The new space will include a multifunction performance hall with excellent acoustics, proper

INSIDE

seating, dance space and acting studios, Steinberg said.

The venue will serve “first and foremost as a concert hall for the orchestra” but will also “encourage unpredictable and multidisciplinary art performance that will involve singing and dance and theater,” Steinberg said.

In addition, existing arts spaces that are “desperate for help” will be renovated. The administration will vote on a budget for a list of spaces and a renovation plan at the end of the month, Steinberg said.

“My hope is that the new building will be more than a building. I would like to see that we have both an interesting and innovative performing arts space that will allow us to do some work in theater, dance and music that we haven’t been able to do up to this point because of the limitations of the spaces that currently exist,” said Patricia Ybarra, associate professor of theatre arts and performance studies and member of the Creative Arts Council. The University is currently “really short on spaces” for » See ARTS, page 2

MATTEO MOBILIO / HERALD

The photo series was launched in the wake of Donald Trump’s generalizations of Latinx people. Trumps comments failed to reflect the diversity of Latinx individuals, said Lehidy Frias ’17, an organizer of the exhibition.

Latinx photo series unpacks cultural identities Exhibition celebrates diversity of Latinx individuals within Brown, Providence

By SHIRA BUCHSBAUM STAFF WRITER

In celebration of Latino Heritage Month, a photo campaign of Latinx individuals is currently hanging in the downstairs

lobby of the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center.

Latinx — a gender-neutral term referring to those of Latin American decent — was launched by the Latino Heritage Series and aims to celebrate different types of diversity. Lehidy Frias ’17 and Christina Tapiero ’17 spearheaded the photo series, working with two other photographers and an array of students, faculty members and Providence residents to create and compile the photos.

Each portrait features a Latinx individual holding a white board with the phrase “I am Latinx, and …” on it, along with a phrase they felt best described them.

While Frias and Tapiero were planning the event, many Latinx students were angry with the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s generalizations about Latinx individuals, Frias said. The oft-used phrase, “all Latinos are,” fails to encompass the breadth of diversity » See LATINX, page 3

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, OC TOBER 14, 2015

ARTS & CULTURE Poet, essayist and editor Jane Hirshfield reads selections of her latest book, “The Beauty”

METRO Gov. Raimondo’s plans to provide driver’s licenses to undocumented workers stall

COMMENTARY Dichter ’17 & Gulati ’17: A commitment to the free exchange of ideas must be absolute

COMMENTARY Horowitz ’16: Vegans often adopt the diet for health reasons, not purely ethical ones

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UNIVERSITY NEWS PAGE 2 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Studying by sunset: Students on night classes Night classes may limit flexibility for extracurriculars, increase time for homework

By KATHERINE DAJANI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Most students fill their shopping carts and schedules with courses that meet during the morning and afternoon.

But for a smaller group of students, classes continue after the sun sets.

This semester, the University is offering nine courses that meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:408 p.m. These courses span a variety of subjects, including anthropology, comparative literature, computer science, economics and engineering.

These later class times have been “on the books for a long time,” said Dean of the College Maud Mandel, adding that they were originally introduced to give faculty members and students some additional flexibility by not having “courses consolidated all at the same time.”

Student reviews of classes in late time slots are mixed, and some students expressed concern that they conflict with other commitments or extracurriculars.

“On Mondays I have class until 7:20 p.m., but I have a weekly meeting for the film festival I’m involved with starting at 7 p.m.,” said Blake Nosratian ’17. “It puts me in an awkward situation where I either have to leave class early or miss part of my meeting.”

Bebe Bischoff ’18 is currently enrolled in ANTH 1720: “The Human Skeleton,” which meets at 6:40 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. “My overall

experience with the class has been amazing, but that is only because the course would be worth any time period,” she said. “I think the time itself is horrible.”

“I frequently cannot go to things like lectures and review sessions and film screenings because of the timing conflict,” Bischoff added. “It is definitely not ideal, but in my opinion my class is worth it, and I make it work.”

But other students said the late class time allows them a full day to prepare for class.

“It helps with the preparatory work you need to do for the classes,” said Alessandro Borghese ’19, who is taking the first-year seminar HIST 0522N: “Reason, Revolution and Reaction in Europe” at 6:40 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. “You have a full day, or at least a part of it, to do the work for the class, which is often preparatory reading. This way of approaching work makes the information more fresh in your mind when you come to discuss it.”

Andrew Scherer, assistant professor of anthropology and archeology, is currently teaching “The Human Skeleton.”

“I picked this time for my class in part to accommodate my schedule and in part to ensure that the anthropology department was offering courses at a diversity of times,” Scherer said.

“This was also a bit of an experiment to see how students would react to having it taught at this time.”

Since the course was introduced in fall 2011, it has been taught “at pretty much any time” throughout the morning and afternoon in different years, he said. He added that while he has taught graduate classes later in the day before, this marks the first semester

he has done so for undergraduate students.

Scherer said he has not noticed any drop in student enrollment. The course is capped at 20 students and remains “popular,” he said, adding, “I always end up with around 25 students in the target register, and there’s also a waitlist of around 40 other students.”

But Joan Richards, professor of history, said the late time slot of “Reason, Revolution and Reaction in Europe” conflicts with her personal commitments.

“It’s horrible because I can’t go home for dinner,” Richards said. “I’m happiest teaching in the afternoon.

One to 2:30 p.m. is perfect, but if I can’t get that time, then I’m willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to my family and say, ‘Okay, I won’t have dinner with you twice a week.’”

Richards said her first priority is classroom space. “I could see that if I were in a regular time, I’d be fighting for space in ways that I am tired of,” she said. Though the later time slot did not aid her search for a larger classroom, she has observed that students are more alert during the evening.

Neither Richards nor Scherer saw the time slot as an issue for studentathletes, as their practice times are dispersed throughout the day.

“The last time I taught at this time two years ago, I had several athletes who came right from practice with dinner, and that was fine,” Richards said.

Ultimately, Scherer said it is less difficult to engage students late at night than right before the upcoming weekend. “The one block of time I try to avoid is Friday afternoons, because no one likes being in a classroom on a Friday afternoon,” he said.

» ARTS, from page 1 dance and other rehearsals, she said.

Emma Dickson ’16, president of performing arts group Brown University Gilbert and Sullivan, also spoke about the lack of performance space. BUGS produces its shows in the Alumnae Hall Auditorium, which is often too busy to allow the group to rehearse in the space before the performances. Instead, the group rehearses in classrooms around campus before receiving access to the crowded space for the actual event.

“It’s really great that the new venue will be open and accessible to student groups,” Dickson said.

Other new initiatives include a new joint degree program with RISD in architecture, which is launching later this year. The six-year degree will comprise a Brown bachelor of arts degree combined with a master of fine arts degree from RISD. Brown will pursue “much more collaboration between” President Christina Paxson P’19 and RISD President Roseanne Somerson in the future, Steinberg said.

A new arts program in Berlin is also pending approval for the Spring 2016 semester. If approved, Brown will collaborate with Berlin’s Bard College to offer a course on German architecture and politics and another course taught

by Steinberg on music, religion and politics. Both courses will be taught on campus and include trips to Berlin during spring recess. There is also a pending option to take courses while spending an entire semester in Berlin, Steinberg said.

“We are exploring strategic and global locations for the arts,” Steinberg said, adding that he hopes the program will grow to include other global “hubs” for the arts.

Other expansions to arts education include new faculty appointments, as well as new types of programs, including a “fairly extensive visiting artist

» GREEN, from page 1 Footprint Tool — a new technology the University uses to chart emissions.

Through advanced computer modeling, a team of scientists developed a program that currently allows five universities, including Brown, to track wasteful nitrogen production. Those using the software can also input values specific to potential operational changes in order to predict policy outcomes for the University.

The Nitrogen Footprint Tool is just one technological innovation that pushes the school toward further sustainability.

SkySpark software helps monitor energy use levels in specific buildings to identify and monitor unnecessary expenditure.

Similarly, Lucid’s Building Dashboard allows students to gauge their own energy usage and trends during the annual three-week energy saving competition, Brown Unplugged.

While the University may have fallen behind its GHG emission goals, it continues to be on the cutting edge in other fields, according to the report. In the past 10 years, Brown has initiated a slew of programs that work to “support local farmers, reduce waste output and purchase fairly traded, sustainably sourced and environmentally friendly foods,” the report states.

The Community Harvest program, which was targeted at purchasing sustainable local food and now comprises over 50 farms, and the After the Harvest initiative, which helps distribute student’s leftover food to hunger relief programs,

program,” Steinberg said.

The Fall Festival of the Arts, which includes programs from many visiting artists this semester, is a “huge repertoire of exhibitions in theater, dance, art, new media, music and visual arts,” he said. The festival began Oct. 1 and will continue through Nov. 9.

The difference between the Fall Festival and other past arts exhibitions lies in new financial support for arts programs from the University. Visiting artists are able to stay longer, do workshops in classes, conduct public talks and provide internships for students, Ybarra said.

The festival is designed to showcase “the artistic and critical intersections that we find valuable as faculty and students,” and includes over 40 events, all arranged by the CAC, Ybarra said. There are 26 visiting artist lectures included in the festival’s schedule, according to the University’s website.

“Brown is continuing to be flexible and creative in the arts in new, different and exciting ways,” Dickson said.

She believes that new initiatives like the Fall Festival will foster collaboration between students and professional artists and groups.

The CAC, which is composed of arts-related departments as well as key partners in the city, including the Trinity Repertory Company, Community MusicWorks and the RISD Museum, is responsible for driving these recent advancements in the arts, Steinberg said. It meets weekly to discuss new artistic developments, including the above projects.

“Everything is collaborative,” and is especially focused on integrating the Brown arts culture with the rest of the city of Providence, Steinberg said.

The CAC’s new website, Arts@ Brown, was created this semester and will eventually display a virtual gallery for students to exhibit their work, Steinberg said. demonstrate Brown’s continued commitment to making campus dining ecologically friendly, according to the report.

The University has turned 22,509 gallons of oil and grease into fuel since 2010, and every year it diverts an estimated 275,000 pounds of food from the landfill by sending it to a local pig farmer, avoiding potentially hazardous emissions, the report states.

Recently two vehicle charging ports were positioned on campus, and the University developed Market Mobile software in 2008 to allow farmers simpler online operation. With this application, farmers can post their prices online and gain access to grocery store pricing data in order to remain competitive. “It’s a tool that’s used by Farm Fresh Rhode Island … and it’s really a way to leverage the internet … to update the supply chain of the food system,” Chase said.

The campus has also made measurable strides in waste diversion. This year, a pilot composting program was executed as the first step toward a campus-wide composting plan.

Currently, the compost processing facilities in Rhode Island are not equipped to handle the extent of the University’s organic waste, and students lack education on the process of composting, which requires the separation of organic and inorganic waste. But in the coming years, the University will implement a full-scale plan for composting waste, with the projected 420 tons of organic waste representing a 15.5 percent decrease in the amount of landfill waste.

METRO

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» ST. LAURENT, from page 1 student. St. Laurent could get anyone “engaged and riled up” about scientific ideas, Reenan said. “It was always great to bounce ideas off of him because he was like an idea factory. Basically, he could take any idea and run with it and explode it out into possibilities that you haven’t even thought of.”

Reenan met St. Laurent while giving a presentation on RNA editing with other scientists, Reenan said. Initially, Reenan expected the people watching the presentation “to be asleep before five minutes” because they found the subject matter less interesting than topics like aging or cancer, he said. But St. Laurent remained “totally animated” throughout the course of the presentation and asked several questions. “Pretty soon, it was actually like a love fest in terms of RNA editing, and everyone was like ‘Hey, what are these weirdos talking about all this stuff for?’” Reenan said.

St. Laurent’s thesis focused on finding RNA editing sites using single-molecule DNA sequencing — a unique research approach, Reenan said. St. Laurent was able to find the largest set of new RNA editing sites — about 4,000 — with his approach. Together, St. Laurent and Reenan published a paper titled “Genome-wide analysis of A-to-I RNA editing by singlemolecule sequencing in Drosophilia,” Reenan said.

Through his thesis, St. Laurent was able to determine the two core purposes of RNA editing, Reenan said. One is the rewriting of “recipes” for proteins that work toward the fine-tuning of the brain, while the second is the process of allowing an organism to determine “self” from “non-self,” which has connections to neurodegenerative diseases, he said.

Reenan expressed regret that St. Laurent was really close to completing his degree before he got sick.

“Initially, he thought it was a respiratory thing or something, days before his defense. The thesis committee had his thesis, and we were all set to get together and have a great public seminar and private defense of his thesis, and then

» SANTÉ, from page 8 Meeting states’ health regulations and obtaining licenses and permits to sell in towns and at festivals was a challenge, Gilman said.

“Licensing and permits have been the toughest process so far,” he said. “Every time we find a new venue or go into a new city, it’s a very tedious process and a very political process. A lot of these towns have very strong pushes from the restaurants to limit where food trucks can operate. There’s also clean inspections to pass, background checks and letters of recommendation from the police department.”

Santé’s first event was chaotic and new, but enjoyable, Haviland said. “The first day was all about trying to get a feel for the trailer in such a tight space.”

“It was also really chaotic. We made 300 smoothies in just over three hours,” he added. But smoothies are not the most popular item on the menu: “The Sweet Harvest Salad is definitely the favorite,” Gilman said. According to Santé’s website, the $7 salad is made with roasted sweet potato, candied pecans, black currants, tomato, organic goat cheese, organic baby kale and arugula.

“The Kale and Quinoa Salad is popular with the office crowd,” Gilman added.

Ever since the Santé food truck has shown up at festivals and in towns in

he got sick,” Reenan said, adding that he had been looking forward to working with St. Laurent on new research after obtaining his degree.

Reenan said he never thought singlemolecule sequencing could be used to find RNA editing sites before St. Laurent researched the approach.

St. Laurent was “very well-read” and would read several academic papers at once on topics that interested him, Reenan said. “He was basically a force of nature. He didn’t care what anyone else said in terms of getting what he wanted to get.”

Yiannis Savva, a postdoctoral research associate in molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry, collaborated on ideas and published four reviews with St. Laurent.

“I will remember when he first started here, his dream was to identify every RNA editing site,” Savva said.

When St. Laurent first started pursuing his PhD, he and Savva both went to Washington to obtain RNA out of fruit flies using a sequencing machine.

“In the car (to Washington), and I remember this vividly, was the first time he was trying to open himself, and just say things like, ‘Oh, what type of music do you like?’ And he would tell me some stories, like when he was in Brazil for a long time,” Savva said.

Savva gave St. Laurent advice on the written and oral part of his thesis just as he was finishing up his research. But when Savva found out that St. Laurent was sick and had postponed his thesis defense, he did not know about the severity of St. Laurent’s illness.

“I kept saying … that I hope everything goes well because I want him to go through the finish line because we’re so close. Everything was in place,” Savva said. “To me that was the saddest part.

To me, he was so close to presenting his work, and it never happened.”

The Office of the Chaplain and Religious Life held an informal memorial gathering for St. Laurent Sept. 29, and plans for a formal memorial are in progress, wrote Associate Dean of Biology Edward Hawrot in an email to The Herald.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island, hungry food-lovers have flocked to taste the creative, healthy meals, and lines can reach 15-20 people deep.

Moving forward to the winter months, Gilman and Haviland plan to focus on catering more events, as they predict that cold weather will impede food truck sales.

“As the cold weather is coming and the logistics of operating the truck becomes an issue, people don’t want to stand around outside,” Gilman said. He mentioned that the company is currently working to achieve a profitable plan for winter and will keep the trailer maintained so that when spring emerges, it can seamlessly transition back to the road.

By the end of the 2016 fiscal year, the founders aim to have multiple trucks and to create a consortium of food trucks to hit more festivals and venues. Another major goal is to purchase their own facility with a larger office.

Since its initial event in August, Santé has taken off, seeing higher demand from venues and now partnering with companies to cater lunches and dinners.

“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” Gilman said. With higher demand, the Santé food truck goes out four to six days a week and sells to customers all around Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

MARC BELA / HERALD

The task of boosting Rhode Island’s tourism industry has been assigned to Milton Glaser, Havas PR and Epic Decade. The state has allocated $4.5 million to the tourism budget, $4 million more than was allocated in 2015.

Three firms team up to rebrand Rhode Island Efforts to include winter advertising strategy, new state license plates debuting next summer

By KYLE BOROWSKI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

After months of reviewing applications and negotiating contracts, the three firms tasked with rebranding Rhode Island and boosting tourism in the Ocean State will begin their efforts. The various responsibilities of the project will be split between Milton Glaser, Havas PR and Epic Decade.

Milton Glaser — the same group responsible for the “I Love New York” campaign of 1977 — was tapped to lead the design and branding effort, while Havas PR will handle its implementation. Epic Decade will “execute events to engage residents in telling an authentic Rhode Island story,” according to a press release from the office of Gov. Gina Raimondo.

To cover the campaign, $4.5 million has been set aside in the Ocean State’s 2016 budget, compared to the $470,000 that was allocated for the 2015 fiscal year.

In the past, Rhode Island has consistently ranked as one of the country’s least ambitious states with respect to tourism promotion. This year’s larger budget remains far below that of many states, especially

» LATINX, from page 1 within the community, she added.

This generalization made her feel “reduced,” Frias said, because the Latinx community is not a “monolith.”

“I wanted us to say, as a Latino community, ‘We are Latino,’ and list all of the things we also are,” she said.

The photo series was a “productive way to channel that anger,” Tapiero said.

Tapiero added that support for the exhibition came from the Brown University Latino Alumni Council and the Brown Center for Students of Color.

Tapiero and Frias are programmers for the Latino Heritage Series at the BCSC, and their responsibilities include planning and hosting monthly events.

Though this photo series is a first for the Latino Heritage Series, the different Heritage Series for the Black, Multiracial, Asian-American and Pacific Islander and Native American students have shown interest in continuing the campaign. Tapiero said she is unsure if the campaign will be annual, but she added that it encompasses what the Latino Heritage Series wants to do overall:

Florida and Hawaii, which spent nearly $69.5 million and $82 million in 2015, respectively, CNBC reported.

Seth Goldenberg, founder and CEO of Epic Decade, said Rhode Island’s campaign will be less about “plastering advertising in every format possible” and more about generating a campaign that “has a significant impact” while working with “limited resources.”

“You’ll start to feel the impact of our work in December,” said Marian Salzman ’81, CEO of Havas PR North America, adding that these efforts will primarily consist of “more press coverage both locally and nationally.”

Milton Glaser’s creative work in design and branding will come later in early 2016, Salzman said. Though these target deadlines are months away, executives of the three firms have already begun to meet and collaborate as a team, she said.

In addition to attracting new businesses and tourists, the team will try to increase resident pride and emphasize local culture, executives of the three firms said.

For Salzman, success looks like “people having more pride that they live here” and creating “a renewed interest in being part of a Rhode Island community for people who have been here previously,” she said.

Goldenberg said the “storytelling” aspect of his proposal consists of getting

“artists, designers and media makers who have ties to Rhode Island to come back to … work with communities to make new works that tell the story of the state.”

Another aspect of the statewide campaign to build pride and enthusiasm will be the introduction of new license plates after more than 10 years of the current “wave design.” The Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles unveiled an allblue plate with a sailboat silhouette under former Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 in fall 2014, but the design never became available to the public.

Raimondo has directed the team to produce and release an alternative plate design as part of the larger tourism campaign, Goldenberg said. This will be part of the portfolio developed by Milton Glaser’s team, Marie Aberger, spokeswoman for Raimondo, told WPRO News, adding that the portfolio should be unveiled in summer 2016.

“People don’t put Rhode Island at the top of their vacation list. … When you get to five weeks out in planning a vacation, people then decide to add Rhode Island back to the list,” Salzman said. To improve the state’s tourism industry, people need to “come more frequently, stay a little longer, enjoy a little more and stay beyond the summer season,” she said.

The team members remain hopeful that if they “get this right, you have the next ‘I love New York,’” she added.

“bring the Latino community together and celebrate our identities, even though we’ve been put under one umbrella.”

For the campaign, Frias and Tapiero reached out to the Brown and Providence community for participants. They invited students in Faunce to participate, and Frias knocked on doors in her own South Side Providence neighborhood.

Many individuals were keen on helping because they also believed in the idea of intersectionality, Frias said.

Tapiero said she was surprised at most students’ hesitation and doubt while writing a self-description on the white board.

Multiple students considered describing themselves as first-generation college students but were worried they were reclassifying themselves in yet another stereotype, Tapeiro said.

The range of statements on the wall is large — a testament to Frias and Tapiero’s goal. Many students and faculty members wrote about their multiracial identities, their first-generation identities and their interests, studies and personal goals.

Amalia Perez ’18 participated in

the exhibition as a way of “personally vindicating” others’ impressions of her, she said. Her white board reads “I am Latinx and (pero) parezco gringa,” which translates to “but I look white.”

Perez said she is frustrated that people do not recognize her Dominican identity, but the exhibition and range of responses represent the “microcosm” of diversity at Brown.

Natalie Zeif ’18 said the exhibition provided a good space to discuss the diversity within the Latinx community on Brown’s campus and beyond. Too often people “take people’s identities for granted,” and it is “cool to see how people choose to describe themselves,” she added.

The overwhelming sentiment in the portraits is one of pride, and the exhibit provides a lasting impression of the intersectionality of identity.

“It’s important to say, ‘Yes, I’m part of this community, but I’m also so much more than that,’” Tapiero said. “You do belong to these different groups, and that’s part of developing your identity.”

The photo exhibition opened Oct. 7 and will run until Nov. 7.

METRO

PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

States that issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants

Twelve states and the District of Columbia issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants if the applicant provides proof of residency in addition to some form of identification.

Washington

Vermont

Connecticut Nevada

Illinois Utah

Colorado

Delaware Maryland D.C.

California

New Mexico

Hawaii

Source: GoLocalProv COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

EMMA JERZYK / HERALD

License plan for undocumented workers stalled Governor’s campaign promise to grant licenses faces State House opposition

By SHAWN YOUNG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Gov. Gina Raimondo promised on the campaign trail that she would support giving driver’s licenses to undocumented workers. She also promised that if legislation enacting this policy did not pass, she would issue an executive order to do so. But as of Oct. 13, no official plan has been put out by Raimondo’s office.

Raimondo reaffirmed her commitment to the initiative in an interview with NBC 10 News Sept. 17, saying that she considers the issue a matter of public safety.

But there is controversy over whether the issue should be settled via legislative or executive action. Speaker of the House Nicholas Matiello, D-Cranston, expressed his concern through interviews with multiple news outlets.

“I have not seen a proposal the Governor may have regarding driver’s licenses. However, I strongly believe this

is a legislative matter and should not be done through an executive order,” Matiello told GoLocalProv.

“There should be a clear legislative channel for the state to discuss” the issue of driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants, said Justin Katz, a writer for the Ocean State Current. The government should follow a predictable path so that Rhode Islanders are able to keep track of and control it, Katz said. Right now, there is no state law that “prevents the interpretation that driver’s licenses can go to non-citizens,” Katz said.

Even though it would not be illegal for Raimondo to issue an executive order, Katz does not think she will take this route because there is not enough support for the issue.

Issuing driver’s licenses would make the state more attractive to undocumented workers, Katz said, additionally citing a study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform that found undocumented immigrants cost the state $278 million every year, as of 2009.

But Vermont issues driver’s licenses to undocumented workers, and undocumented workers are not flocking

to that state, said Heiny Maldonado, executive director of Fuerza Laboral, an organization that fights for worker’s rights. Data shows that undocumented workers do not move to states that issue driver’s licenses to them at disproportionate rates, Maldonado, who speaks Spanish, said through a translator.

Undocumented workers also pay into Social Security but do not receive any benefits, Maldonado said.

Other political figures are flocking to support Raimondo’s plan, including Mayor Jorge Elorza and James Diossa, mayor of Central Falls. Elorza expressed his support for Raimondo’s plan in a publicly released letter.

“I was pleased to hear that your administration is considering making driver’s licenses available to undocumented immigrants in Rhode Island. I write to you today to offer my full support on this issue,” Elorza wrote. Elorza agreed with Raimondo that the issue is one of public safety. He also wrote that the “additional fee income” from the licenses would outweigh the costs associated with them, and that allowing undocumented immigrants to receive driver’s licenses would allow them to more fully engage with the community.

Poet speaks on science, the self Jane Hirshfield captivates audience reading diverse selections of poetry from new book, ‘The Beauty’

By JESSICA MURPHY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Students and guests gathered last night in the McCormack Family Theater to hear poet Jane Hirshfield read a collection of poems from her latest book, “The Beauty.”

Tuesday’s event opened with an introduction from Forrest Gander, professor of literary arts and comparative literature, who called Hirshfield “generous and ebullient.” Hirshfield is the author of eight collections of poetry and two books of essays. She is an “essayist, editor and translator,” as well as a poet, Gander said. In Hirshfield’s work, “the world and consciousness constantly come in flush with each other,” he said.

After the introduction, Hirshfield read a selection of her poems, which

ARTS & CULTURE

varied in subject and length. Some spanned several pages, while others were a mere sentence or two. In between her works, Hirshfield made several asides and explained her poetic choices. She said that at some point in her creative process, all of the poems’ titles included the word “my” and that they all touched upon her “lifelong bemusement of the idea of the self and the other,” exploring “inseparability and interconnectedness.”

Following the reading, the audience had the opportunity to ask Hirshfield questions. After a moment of silence in appreciation of her performance, students and guests asked a variety of questions. Fielding one about her incorporation of kitchen terminology in her poetry, Hirshfield said with a laugh, “I draw from physical experience and from what I do. … I’m a household cleaner poet.”

Another audience member asked about the recurring themes of science in her poems. “I love the particularity of science,” Hirshfield responed, adding, “A poet doesn’t know where a metaphor that will do the necessary work

will come from.”

Cole Adams ’19 said he was especially struck by Hirshfield’s broad range of subjects. “I really appreciated her incorporation of science and history, and her shorter poems were particularly impactful,” he said.

One final question touched upon Hirshfield’s use of meter in her poetry and the difference between reading versus hearing a poem. Hirshfield said both are important and likened the written form of a poem to the sheet music for a musical score. She added, “My poems come to me by ear. … Sound is indispensably essential and a great part of the meaning of a poem.”

Hannah Smith ’16 expressed appreciation of the auditory nature of the reading. She said she had read Hirshfield’s work in high school and was “surprised by the musicality of her voice.” In all, Smith said it was a “soul-filling way to spend a Tuesday evening.”

The Departments of Literary Arts, Contemplative Studies, East Asian Studies and Comparative Literature and a grant from Brown’s Arts Initiative sponsored the event.

The announcement of Lifespan’s budget cuts follows the company’s purchase of $7.75 million worth of land in the Jewelry District.

Hospitals face cuts as parent company expands 200 staff likely to be reemployed elsewhere in Lifespan system, hospital spokeswoman says

By ROSE SHEEHAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Anticipating a budget deficit this fiscal year, the Lifespan health care system will eliminate 200 full- and part-time positions at Rhode Island Hospital and will close the Hasbro Children’s Hospital’s early intervention program, which targets children under three years of age with developmental challenges.

The Sept. 29 announcement came shortly after Lifespan’s $7.75 million purchase of a Jewelry District land plot. In light of the company’s budget restrictions, the possibility that Lifespan might sell the land has rekindled dialogue about a potential baseball stadium in Providence.

Early intervention programs such as the one at HCH “provide support systems that allow children to form positive social relationships, acquire knowledge and skills and take appropriate action to meet their own needs,” wrote Joseph Wendelken, an acting public information officer for the Rhode Island Department of Health, in an email to The Herald.

HCH’s program has experienced decreased revenues in recent years.

These programs are essential to building strong, inclusive communities in which children with developmental challenges can grow, Wendelken wrote. The state and the HCH team are working to find places in Rhode Island’s nine other early intervention programs for the 235 children currently enrolled in HCH’s program, he added.

Leading up to the personnel cuts, RIH purposely left vacant positions unfilled in recent months, so that fewer employees would ultimately lose their jobs, wrote Beth Bailey, a senior media relations officer for RIH, in an email to The Herald. It is very likely that the 200 staff members now without employment will be able to obtain other positions within the

Lifespan healthcare system, Bailey added.

Lifespan’s Jewelry District land purchase was completed with the help of Richard Gudoian, Jr., a principal of JAG Investment Realty, according to a statement from Bailey.

Arthur Salisbury, president of the Jewelry District Association, said RIH appears to have bought the plot with the intention of leaving it undeveloped, at least for the present time.

“They have absolutely no plans for building anything anytime soon,” Salisbury said.

Joseph Paolino, Jr. P’17, managing partner for Paolino Properties, proposed that Lifespan trade the land it purchased with the city in exchange for another Jewelry District plot currently reserved for a public park, adding that the Pawtucket Red Sox could then purchase the land that Lifespan exchanged with the city to construct a ballpark. The baseball team’s attempts over the past few months to purchase a plot of land were unsuccessful, The Herald previously reported. The exchange proposed by Paolino involves a different plot of land.

“The great poetry of a city is when you have theater, when you have sports, when you have art … that’s all part of making a city sing,” Paolino said in support of a stadium.

Salisbury said Paolino’s exchange would not be favorable for Lifespan, because the land it would receive in exchange for its current plot has a gas main and sewage overflow reserve underneath it, and these would have to be removed — at a cost of at least $8 million — if a building were to be constructed. This infrastructure would not need to be removed if a park was built on the land, as currently planned. Another issue with the stadium proposal, Salisbury said, is that problems with water runoff would need to be addressed.

Paolino said he has no idea if his suggestion is feasible given the many different factors at play in a possible land trade.

“Lifespan may not even want to do it,” he said. “I don’t know — I haven’t had any official conversations with anybody from Lifespan.”

TODAY

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

menu SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Stir Fry and Curries, Po’Boy Sandwiches Pizzas: Honey Boo Boo, Pizza Bianco, Polynesian Teriyaki JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Gourmet Grilled Cheese

Soups: Baked Potato, Hearty Country Vegetable

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Popcorn Chicken, Fresh Whole Green Beans, Eggplant Parmesan Grinder, Vegan Nuggets

Red Thai Chicken, South Pacific Coconut Rice, Spicy Cuban Stir Fry with Beef, Sweet Potato Fries

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Roasted Corn Chowder with Bacon, Vegan Roasted Veggie Burrito, Snickerdoodle Cookie

Vegan Escarole and Bean Soup, Vegan Paella, Roasted Baby Carrots with Red Onions

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comics P-Branes and Bosons | Ricky Oliver ’17

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People of Color Support Group 1:00 P.M. J. Walter Wilson, Room 516

Steve Jobs Free Screening 6:30 P.M. Avon Cinema

Passport Day 1:00 P.M. J. Walter Wilson, Room 411

Production Workshop Schmooze 11:15 P.M. Production Workshop, Upspace

TOMORROW How to Find and Fund an Internship 12:00 P.M. Salomon Center, Room 001

PASS Illustrator 6:00 P.M. CIT, Room 269

Visiting Artist Lecture: Neil Goldberg 4:00 P.M. List Art Center, Room 110

Pixar Animation Studios Recruiting 8:00 P.M. Barus and Holley, Room 168

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL

High school is not a means to an end Brown is one of the over 80 institutions to have joined the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success. The coalition presents itself as an alternative to the Common Application and, according to the organization’s press release, its “goal is to recast admission process, broaden access and encourage college­‐going mindset for all students.” To do this, the coalition has created an online platform with tools to help students start planning and applying to colleges earlier. The coalition, according to Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73, aspires to lengthen the college application from a “one-time transaction” to a more interactive process and is especially concerned with helping first-generation, underrepresented and low-income students navigate the college application process.

These are commendable goals, and an alternative to the Common Application will surely be well-received. There are definitely problems with the Common Application: It is hard to try to package yourself up neatly in an essay, a few short-answer questions, grade point average and standardized test scores. It is even harder to hand that application off and have schools evaluate it and deem you fit or unfit for acceptance. The concept of expanding this “one-time transaction” into a more detailed, ongoing process that represents how students grow and evolve during high school seems like a good idea.

But we worry about unintended consequences that might accompany efforts to get students thinking about college earlier. In voicing his excitement about the new application tool, Seth Allen, vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid at Pomona College, said, “Starting to think about college earlier reduces some of the pressure of the application process, but more importantly, it sets the expectation that students should aspire to attend college.” While we applaud efforts to make college a goal (and reality) for all students, we have reservations about the possibility that the proposed system could encourage students to see high school as merely a means to an end.

Too often, high school is viewed as four years to prepare for applying to college and a time when many students feel pressure to sign up for all the extracurriculars that will get them into the “right” schools and spend hours in SAT tutoring. When the focus is put so heavily on college applications, it can be easy to forget that high school is an opportunity to learn and grow, too. Focusing so much on college admission can detract from high school students’ ability to learn for the sake of learning. At Brown, where we pride ourselves on having a curriculum that encourages exploration and personal development through education, we understand the importance of such values.

We are wary of any change to the college application that will intensify the already strong propensity for students to get caught up in applying to college and forget to enjoy high school for what it is. So far, the coalition’s plans are fairly vague, so it is difficult to judge whether and to what extent, they will have this effect. Ideally, the coalition will present a tool that will just make the college application process easier and less stressful for high school students. But a plan that encourages high school students to focus on college applications earlier and even more intensely than they do now is misguided.

I VA N A L C A N TA R A

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Column offensive, but not worth censoring To the Editor: I sincerely hope The Herald reconsiders the removal of M. Dzhali Maier’s ’17 column “Columbian Exchange Day” from its website after it was published in the print edition last Tuesday, Oct. 6. While I agree the piece was ill-conceived and offensive, I believe the lesson you are conveying about censorship is far more damaging.

Views like those expressed by Maier, who I am shocked to learn is a science and society concentrator, need to be part of the dialogue if we are to correct the errors of the past.

I’m not sure where she got the idea that Columbus Day was established or even evolved to celebrate the Columbian Exchange, but there is no evidence to back that claim other than her own personal experience.

Meanwhile, her column completely ignores the personal experience of the millions of Arawak wiped out as a result

“He was basically a force of nature.”

— Robert Reenan, professor of biology

See st. laurent on page 1.

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of the practices established by Christopher Columbus, who would be tried for war crimes if he were alive today.

The atrocities committed by Columbus are well documented, and I feel no need to repeat them here. I am, however, grateful to have been among the hundreds who took part in yesterday’s protest hosted by Native Americans at Brown on the Main Green. I also signed the group’s online petition to rename the Fall Weekend holiday “Indigenous People’s Day.” As of Tuesday morning, that petition has nearly 900 signatures. As a socially, culturally and politically active member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, it is my sincere hope that by next year the University becomes like so many other cities and universities by correcting this longstanding indignity to Native people and officially celebrating Indigenous People’s Day.

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Some speech hurts — and that’s okay DANIELLA DICHTER AND ROHAN GULATI op-ed contributors

Last week’s controversy over two opinions columns published in The Herald demonstrated the misconceptions and misgivings many members of the Brown community have toward the principle of free speech. Luckily, Brown’s mission statement provides a strong affirmation of this principle.

It states, “The mission of Brown University is to serve the community, the nation and the world by discovering, communicating and preserving knowledge and understanding in a spirit of free inquiry, and by educating and preparing students to discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation.”

This statement highlights the purpose of institutions of higher learning: to teach students how to think, not what to think. Universities need to produce students capable of asking hard questions, engaging in difficult conversations and refuting ideas they may find abhorrent. Judging by the reactions from students, The Herald and the administration to the articles published last week, it is clear that Brown is not living up to this mission.

In the face of controversial or offensive speech, many students at Brown respond with calls for censorship. Last week, multiple student groups pub-

lished statements demanding The Herald’s editorial board uphold an “obligation to ensure that the pieces it publishes are … not racist, classist, cissexist, heterosexist, sexist or ableist.” They argue that lecture series, debate societies and student newspapers should not provide a platform for opinions that are offensive. Disregarding the fact that such a standard would be impossible to determine objectively, the more pressing issue is how students deal with speech that offends them. As Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

stand is that freedom of speech is one of the most fundamental tools for promoting social change. It was only with the protection of free speech that civil rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s were able to protest injustice and bring about powerful changes in society. Censorship is a tool of oppressors; those who strive to overcome oppression should not adopt the same tactics of the institutions they criticize.

The Herald certainly deserves some blame for the way it has handled this situation. We recognize that The Her-

misunderstanding the principles of free expression when the administration has had such a mixed record on the matter. This administration had a chance to respond to this controversy by unequivocally affirming the value of free discourse, no matter how objectionable the subject matter. They didn’t even have to look very hard to find an example of such a statement. President Michael Roth of Wesleyan University responded to students’ calls to censor and defund the school’s newspaper after it published an opinions column

A commitment to the free exchange of ideas must be unqualified; in order to truly embrace the ideal of free inquiry, the entire campus community must be willing to engage with all ideas, especially ones they oppose. put it, when confronted with opposing viewpoints, “the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”

Open dialogue forces us to critically examine our own beliefs and leads to the discovery of knowledge. Ultimately, students are well within their rights to ask for censorship, and The Herald is well within its rights to censor material it deems inappropriate for publication.

Nevertheless, when students ask for insulation from unpopular, controversial or offensive ideas, they cheapen their own educational experience and fail to live up to the goals of higher education.

Many of the individuals calling for censorship are motivated by a bona fide commitment to social justice.

What these individuals fail to under-

ald has the right to editorial discretion.

It can publish articles, retract columns and offer apologies as it sees fit. But as Brown’s oldest and most-circulated newspaper, The Herald is in a unique position to foster the marketplace of ideas on campus. It should not shy away from publishing ideas that inflame, provoke and offend, nor should it bow to the pressure of student outrage and apologize for publishing contentious opinions. The opinions section provides a forum for any member of the community to be heard. By publishing opinions, The Herald is solely a conduit for conversation and should not apologize for being such.

It is unfair to place blame solely on the student body and The Herald for

critical of the Black Lives Matter movement by saying, “Debates can raise intense emotions, but that doesn’t mean that we should demand ideological conformity because people are made uncomfortable. As members of a university community, we always have the right to respond with our own opinions, but there is no right not to be offended. … Censorship diminishes true diversity of thinking; vigorous debate enlivens and instructs.”

In contrast, the recent op-ed written by President Christina Paxson P’19, Provost Richard Locke P’17 and Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 is a tepid endorsement of free expression.

Their open letter to students states,

“We can do all that we can to benefit from listening to, learning from and feeling the experiences of others, as well as bringing to bear the wealth of scholarly resources in our community to teach and learn about these issues.

This is the commitment from those of us in the University leadership — a commitment we hope our entire community will share.”

But Paxson and the other administrators undermine this commitment in a previous paragraph by saying that “the current leadership of The Herald has forthrightly owned that they caused harm and did not live up to the expectations of the Brown community.” The latter statement seems to contradict the former. If there is an expectation in the Brown community of lively discourse and free inquiry, how exactly did The Herald fail to live up to that expectation by publishing last week’s columns?

Is Paxson implying that ideas that offend people are outside the bounds of acceptable discourse at Brown?

A commitment to the free exchange of ideas must be unqualified; in order to truly embrace the ideal of free inquiry, the entire campus community must be willing to engage with all ideas, especially ones they oppose.

Daniella Dichter ’17 can be reached at daniella_dichter@brown.edu, and Rohan Gulati ’17 can be reached at rohan_gulati@brown.edu.

The FAQs of veganism: Part II ADAM HOROWITZ opinions columnist

I received several interesting responses to my article, and since half of them were positive and the other half posed questions, it seemed appropriate for me to write a continuation of my first to provide further insight.

Question one: What about B12?

Answer: As some of you may have seen, an Oct. 8 letter to the editor, “Veganism has deficiencies,” addressed the fact that vitamin B12 cannot be obtained from a plant-based diet.

First of all, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “the body typically has sufficient vitamin B12 stores to last 3-5 years,” meaning that anyone looking to try a vegan diet or simply wishing to eat fewer animal products does not have to worry about immediately becoming B12 deficient. Moreover, 40 percent of the American population has low levels of B12, so it’s not as if eating the standard American diet will provide you with the B12 you need. Plus, all it takes to maintain one’s B12 levels is a simple daily multivitamin.

Question two: What would happen to all the animals if we all went vegan?

Answer: This was actually one of my first questions when considering a plant-based diet, so I understand where people are coming from when they ask this. There is no way to know what would happen if everyone went vegan because such a situation seems entirely implausible. But every person who switches to a plant-based diet theoretically decreases the overall demand for animal products which

means fewer animals are bred. It seems counterintuitive at first to think that veganism works by preventing the existence of a certain number of factory-farmed animals, but the fact of the matter is that these animals are kept in such terrible conditions that boycotting the industry is one of the most viable options.

Question three: What happens if you accidentally eat meat or dairy after going vegan?

Answer: Luckily, the vegan police are not going to break down your door if you accidentally eat Nutella without realizing it contains milk. Since the human body is not designed to digest dairy products after infan-

Answer: Believe it or not, this is the one of the most common questions that I am asked.

People often think that vegans value animals over humans, but many vegans advocate the switch to a plant-based diet from a human health perspective. The focus of ethical veganism is to avoid speciesism, or discrimination against animals simply because they are not humans. If convicts were kept in small cells with no legroom and given no exposure to sunlight, there would be a massive public outcry. Most vegans simply believe that animals should be afforded the same protections.

Conversely, if you think it is ethical to kill a

Question six: I tried to be vegan, and I couldn’t do it.

Answer: That’s not a question.

cy, many people report feeling ill when consuming milk after going vegan. Besides that, it does not have to be a big deal. Our society is obsessed with eating animal products, and it is easy to accidentally eat something that is not vegan without realizing it. Nobody is perfect. All you can do is avoid making the same error twice and try to move on. Also, if you mistakenly eat a non-vegan food while dining out, one option is to speak to the restaurant staff and ask them to more clearly indicate which foods are vegan in the future. And yes, I too have accidentally eaten cheese that looked exactly like tofu.

Question four: Would you kill a bear if it attacked your family?

human who tried to harm your family, there is no reason that it would not also be ethical to kill a bear.

Question five: Do you eat honey?

Answer: I don’t, but many vegans do. A larger takeaway is that all vegans do not necessarily share the same exact values. It ultimately comes down to whatever you feel comfortable with. You may think insects are very different from mammals, so it’s okay to eat honey. Or, you may believe that it is okay to eat eggs, which differ from milk because hens do not have to bear offspring to produce eggs, if the chickens are treated properly. As long as you recognize the benefits of a plant-based diet and live in a way that promotes these

changes to the best of your ability, you can probably call yourself a “vegan.”

Question six: I tried to be vegan, and I couldn’t do it.

Answer: That’s not a question.

Question seven: Umm, okay. What tips can you give me so I can stick with it?

Answer: I had the privilege of making the transition with my whole family while I was still in high school (including my four dogs, who now eat vegan dog food), which made the switch so much easier. Truthfully, without a strong support system, it can be very difficult to maintain a specialty diet, especially at college where a lot of one’s social interactions involve eating with friends. That is why we have the Brown Vegetarian Society, where you can message any questions you may have to our Facebook page and receive a reply within 24 hours. There are also many great resources and communities online. Veganism can be a little isolating at first, but Brown has many vegans who can help you learn to be one at any eatery on campus.

Question eight: What is your favorite vegan food on campus?

Answer: After a lot of hard work, the Brown Veg Society was able to get Gardein products in the Ratty. These products include vegan versions of fish filets, meatballs and chicken tenders. But be careful because the Ratty still puts real cheese on the Gardein chicken parmesan. We also have delicious mock cheese quesadillas thanks to another company called Daiya Foods.

Adam Horowitz ’16 is starting to wonder how many of these columns he is going to get to write.

ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015

Santé Mobile Farmhouse Cafe offers fresh take on cuisine Gilman and Haviland launch healthy food truck, garnering high demand and positive reviews

By JACLYN TORRES SENIOR STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF STEVE GILMAN

Diners mill around the Santé Mobile Farmhouse Cafe, ordering and enjoying vegan- and vegetarian-friendly salads, wraps and smoothies.

Cousins Steve Gilman and Scott Haviland did not know what to expect when they founded Santé Mobile Farmhouse Cafe, their food truck business, this past August.

“It was a lot of work getting started,” Gilman said. “We had to get together finances, and I had to take a credit on my house.”

Haviland, the executive chef, was looking to expand his culinary art from catering to a wider audience and to work within a different framework. Gilman, an entrepreneur, noticed the trends in demand for food trucks and jumped on the opportunity to launch a startup.

“We both knew that restaurants have an astronomically high failure

rate,” Gilman said. “We decided to try something different.”

After forming the idea for the food truck last spring, Gilman and Haviland said they spent the majority of this summer seeking the perfect food truck on which to brand the image of their business.

There was only one problem: The truck was parked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Gilman and Haviland spent four to six weeks contacting the owners and planning the logistics of the truck’s roughly 1,500-mile trip to Santé headquarters. Ultimately, Haviland drove down to Florida and towed the truck all the way back to Needham, Massachusetts, where Gilman and Haviland have based their operations.

With the truck procured, the only other major remaining component of the business was the food.

“Scott came up with the menu,” Gilman said. “He has 20 years of restaurant experience.”

The menu offers a wide array of healthy options, including salads, wraps

and smoothies, and the truck caters to all types of diets, including vegetarian and vegan. When asked where they found the inspiration for these meals, Haviland said that family influence went into creating each offering — even “the salads I’d made my wife for lunches” are featured on the menu.

The focus of Santé is to create meals that are colorful, fresh and satisfying, Haviland said. “I want to make a healthy, fresh, tasty and cost-effective menu.”

All items on the menu can be altered based on dietary restrictions and allergies. If diners are interested in an organic or vegan meal, organic produce can be added, and cheese can be omitted. Meals can also be made gluten-free.

Elena Joukowsky ’17 lauded the company for its dietary flexibility. “As a vegan, it’s challenging to find food, especially in the food truck form. I love how the smoothies offered here allow me to eat what I want and fully enjoy it.”

By the end of August, Santé hit the road but not without logistical issues. » See SANTÉ, page 3