Tuesday, November 3, 2015

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015

VOLUME CL, ISSUE 98

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Watson Institute receives $50 million gift Joint gift from three donors to fund new 20,000-square-foot building, new faculty

By LAUREN ARATANI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

ARJUN NARAYEN / HERALD

President Christina Paxson P’19 sat among students in a seminar held by Hack@Brown Monday night and successfully decoded a URL given by the presenters. The seminar aimed to promote technological literacy.

Paxson joins Hack@Brown coding night ‘Python Month’ seminar introduces Paxson, students to beginner coding concepts

By MARK LIANG STAFF WRITER

Students joined President Christina Paxson P’19 for a night of programming fun Monday, learning vital computational skills in an informal setting as part of “Python Month.”

Approximately 50 students attended the event, which took place in MacMillan Hill and was taught entirely

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

by leaders of Hack@Brown, a student organization dedicated to teaching programming and computer science skills.

Within an hour, the students learned the basic programming language Python and developed a working computational program, all while munching on cookies. Aimed at those with no previous knowledge or experience, the seminar was part of a series designed to increase technological literacy amongst students.

Flanked on either side by students, Paxson worked on her own program, which successfully decoded a URL given by the presenters. The URL directed successful coders to a site that offered congratulations and displayed a picture of Paxson’s face.

Paxson said she had previously

Guidebook to assist first-gen students First-Gens@Brown, student contributors team up to offer tips on topics including office hours

By JULIA CHOI STAFF WRITER

The student group First-Gens@Brown will release a guidebook by the end of winter break aimed at helping first-generation students navigate some challenges of college.

“We wanted to support all first-gen college students on campus,” said Brandon Le ’18, a leader of the project. Manuel Contreras ’16, founder of First-Gens@ Brown and a Herald editorial page board editor, originally proposed the project but eventually transferred leadership to Le and Stephanie Sanchez ’17, Le said.

First-Gens@Brown board members and recruited student contributors will work together to write the guidebook,

INSIDE

Le said.

First-generation students often experience difficulty since “no one in their family has done (college) before,” he said.

“Why are we expecting (first-generation students) to know how college works?” he asked.

The guidebook will be “written by first-gens and for first-gens” and “tailored toward their needs,” Sanchez said. It will cover a broad range of topics that could pertain to first-generation students, including office hours, scholarship programs such as the Sidney E. Frank Scholars program, Minority Peer Counselor advising and meal plan, she said.

For first-generation students, going off meal plan may be more financially feasible and allow for greater flexibility, as the first-generation status is often linked with a lower income, Sanchez said.

The guidebook will also aim to spread awareness of summer opportunities.

While many students obtain internships, » See GUIDEBOOK, page 4

used programming in statistics and encouraged students to take advantage of available programing opportunities.

“There’s a big initiative in data science and data fluency … learning code is great to help at that,” she said. Paxson’s recently released operational plan calls for the creation of a Data Sciences Initiative, which would foster the University’s growth in the emerging field of data sciences through a new research program, undergraduate and master’s programs, a PhD training program, a physical center and data fluency courses for all students.

Alex Karim ’17 led the workshop, giving a step-by-step presentation for participants to create their own » See HACK, page 4

The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs has received a $50 million gift from three donors, the University announced Monday evening.

The joint gift, which is part of the BrownTogether comprehensive campaign’s $3 billion early fundraising efforts, was awarded by Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76 and his wife, Alice Tisch; the Thomas J. and Olive C. Watson Jr. Foundation administered

by David McKinney; and Chancellor Emeritus Stephen Robert ’62, said Provost Richard Locke. With the recent gift, the Watson Institute has accrued $80 million in under three years, Locke said.

About $25 million of the gift will fund the construction of a new 20,000-square-foot building, according to a University press release Monday.

Separately, a building at 59 Charlesfield St. is currently under renovation to house staff from the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, which integrated with the Watson Institute earlier this year.

The rest of the gift will go toward

increasing the number of faculty members at the institute and supporting ongoing programs, Locke said. The University is already in the process of hiring additional faculty members, and the new building will provide muchneeded room for expansion because the institute is “running out of space,” Locke said.

When President Christina Paxson P’19 first assumed her position at the University, she saw that the Watson Institute was an “underutilized resource” and “could play a bigger role both on campus and in the country,” Locke said.

As a result, Paxson hired Locke to serve as the institute’s director in 2013, Locke said. The University announced Oct. 20 that Edward Steinfeld, director of the China Initiative, will become director of the institute in January, as Locke was appointed provost in June.

Donors were impressed by the rapid growth of the Watson Institute since the beginning of its strategic plan in 2013, Locke said. Before the plan’s implementation, the institute had a small number of faculty and “had promise, but wasn’t fulfilling that promise,” he added.

“When (Paxson and Locke) came to Brown and began to expand Watson and move it to being one of the top institutes in the country, contributing to that — as part of my service to Brown » See WATSON, page 2

U. unveils Palestinian Studies fellowship Postdoctoral fellow to focus on scholarship on Palestine, not IsraeliPalestinian conflict

By ALEX SKIDMORE STAFF WRITER

The Department of Middle East Studies has introduced a new postdoctoral fellowship in Palestinian Studies as part of the new initiative “New Directions in Palestinian Studies.” The initiative seeks to “take stock of the scholarship produced on the Palestinians over the past generation,” said Beshara Doumani, director of Middle East Studies.

Doumani stressed that the new fellowship focuses on the scholarship of Palestine, rather than current events in the region such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“There has reached a critical mass of knowledge in terms of quality and quantity in a way that’s never existed before, and this is the first initiative ever in this country that attempts to

in a way build infrastructure for professionalization of this field,” he said.

A key priority in the University’s recently announced BrownTogether comprehensive campaign is investments in people, including postdoctoral fellows, particularly those from historically underrepresented groups.

The new fellowship will advance the department’s goal of joining “established and emerging scholars” to evaluate Palestine in the hopes of “shaping future studies on this topic,” Doumani said.

The fellow’s responsibilities will mirror those of postdoctoral fellows in other departments. The fellow will teach one course, work on research and have the option of transforming his or her dissertation into a monograph — a combination of a dissertation and a book.

As another part of the initiative, the fellow will help organize the University’s annual symposium on Palestinian studies and bring another perspective to the event. The Department of Middle East Studies has already held two conferences affiliated

with “New Directions in Palestinian Studies” on campus.

In 2014, the conference “Political Economy and Economy of the Political” sought to examine “studies of Palestine that operate from the framework of political economy,” Doumani said. More recently, the 2015 conference “Political Cultures and the Cultures of Politics” aimed to “push the political beyond its conventional boundaries through both materialist and discursive analyses of political culture and the culture of politics,” according to the conference’s website.

This area is a “flourishing field of study” that the department wants to explore in greater depth, said Adi Ophir, visiting professor of humanities and Middle East studies.

The department expects 70 to 100 applications for the position, Doumani said. Successful applicants will apply their research on Palestine to “a larger set of issues that are both comparative and global,” he said.

The department welcomes applicants from a range of disciplines and perspectives, Ophir said.

WEATHER

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015

METRO New Amazon fulfillment center could combat high unemployment rate in Fall River, Massachusetts

METRO Gov. Gina Raimondo helps launch website aimed at providing support to Latino entrepreneurs

COMMENTARY Esemplare ’18: Billionaires not to blame for problem of wealth inequality in the United States

COMMENTARY Secondo ’16: Our identity and existence are what we shape them to be through learning

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UNIVERSITY NEWS PAGE 2 • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

HERALD FILE PHOTO

The $50 million gift donated by Chancellor Thomas Tisch ‘72, Alice Tisch and Thomas J. and Olive C. Watson Jr. Foundation will be used to fund the construction of a new building, hire more faculty members and support ongoing programs at the Watson Institute. The gift is part of the fundraising efforts of the University’s $3 billion BrownTogether campaign.

» WATSON, from page 1 — became very appealing,” Robert said in a University press release Monday.

While creating the goals of the strategic plan, Locke was committed to seeing the Watson Institute used as a resource to “enrich the experience of Brown students” and to “enhance Brown’s visibility and impact on the world,” Locke said. The plan required “benchmarking” the Watson Institute with other “leading centers of

international and public affairs,” and was completed in spring 2013, he said.

Over the past two-and-a-half years, the plan has been implemented by making the Watson Institute command a larger presence on campus through holding an “incredible amount of activities” for students, faculty and community members, Locke said.

The plan was able to use resources to strengthen the departments housed within the institute, including the Department of International Relations

and the Department of Development Studies, as well as areas of study that are “quintessentially Brown,” he said.

“This gift will significantly enhance our ability to influence world affairs on such topics as food and water security, health care and cross-cultural conflict,” Paxson said in the press release.

The faculty at the Watson Institute has nearly quadrupled in size since 2013, with around 20 faculty members currently working for the institute, Locke said, adding that with “every

single offer we’ve made, people have come.” With the recent gift, the Watson Institute anticipates adding about 10 new faculty members to its current roster, he added.

A new postdoctoral program called for in the institute’s strategic plan has been successful since its implementation, Locke said. The program receives about 500 applications a year to fill around five or six slots for postdoctoral fellows who do research with the Watson Institute and teach an

undergraduate course, he said.

Brown students value being “engaged,” he said, adding that the Watson Institute helps students “translate rigorous research in the social sciences into policy that’s going to make a difference in the world.”

Locke said he hopes students see a “world-class resource” in the Watson Institute, adding that the new gift “will be able to give us the kind of scale that we need to compete with the very best programs in the country.”

Letters, please! letters@browndailyherald.com

UNIVERSITY NEWS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Science & Research Roundup

BY STEVEN MICHAEL, SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

One small step for man, one giant leap for Martian kind

In response to requests from the NASA for potential landing sites for human exploration of Mars, University researchers have made suggestions based on their research, according to an Oct. 28 University press release.

Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Jim Head has suggested a spot called Deuteronilus Mensae, which has geological formations similar to those with glacial ice on Earth and contains buried ice.

Any site chosen by NASA needs to be hospitable for human habitation and have access to potential scientific discoveries, according to the press release.

Early in his scientific career, Head worked with NASA to help determine landing locations for the Apollo missions.

“We learned a lot about selecting sites of high scientific interest, planning traverses across those landing sites and using scientific approaches to solving complex problems,” Head said in the press release. “We can do likewise for Mars.”

BCM theory better supported

A paper published in the journal Nature Neuroscience provides new support for a theory of neuron plasticity called the BCM theory, which was developed at Brown, according to a Nov. 2 University press release.

The BCM theory — created by Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics and Neuroscience Elie Bienenstock, Professor of Physics and Nobel laureate Leon Cooper and Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh Paul Munro — explains the thresholds at which groups of neurons fire.

The paper relies on a different approach to support the BCM theory, using math to examine how learning occurs at the neuron synapses of primate cortexes when exposed to various stimuli.

Professor of Neuroscience David Sheinberg is an author of the study, along with researchers at the University of Chicago.

“This is a very interesting paper,” Cooper said in the press release.

“It confirms the basic assumptions of BCM synaptic modification by a method very different from those usually employed.”

Engineering future collaboration

The University broke ground on a new engineering building Oct. 22, which will supplement the existing facility and have room for 15 faculty members, 20 research associates and 15 graduate students, as well as undergraduates, according to a University press release.

Founded in 1847, the University’s engineering program is the oldest in the Ivy League.

As the number of undergraduate engineering concentrators is projected to double from 71 in 2007 to 140 in 2017, the University expects to add 10 faculty members, according to the press release.

The building, located on Manning Walk, will cost $88 million to build, according to the press release. An aim of the new building is to promote collaboration among faculty members and students, Dean of Engineering Larry Larson said in the press release.

Profs offer opinions on presidential race Breadth of Republican field, demonization of opponents define this year’s election

By ELENA RENKEN STAFF WRITER

With municipal elections Tuesday and the race for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations gaining steam with a series of debates in recent weeks, faculty members in public policy weighed in on this year’s election cycle. There are three candidates seeking the Democratic nomination and 15 candidates vying for the Republican nomination — an unusually large field and one of several characteristics that distinguishes this race from those of previous years.

The Democratic field “was restrained by the sense of almost inevitability that surrounded Hillary Clinton early in the campaign and seems to be returning now,” said Richard Arenberg, adjunct lecturer in international and public affairs. “But the Republican field is wide open.”

“The Republican primary is now undergoing a very rare event: a battle to define the party in a fundamental way,” wrote James Morone, professor of public policy, political science and urban studies and director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, in an email to the Herald. “The Republican Party is torn apart between the politics of inclusion and the politics of exclusion, rejection and fear,” Morone wrote.

The percentage of the voting population comprised of non-Hispanic whites

fell from 82.5 percent in 1996 to 73.7 percent in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of the voting population comprised of Asians, blacks and Hispanics rose from 1.7 percent, 10.8 percent and 4.7 percent in 1996 to 2.9 percent, 13.4 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively, in 2012.

“We are slowly but surely on the way to a majority-minority nation,” Morone wrote. “This divide in the Republican party — between inclusion and rejection — will determine the outcome of this election cycle and perhaps the future of the party itself.”

Money will have greater influence in this presidential race than ever before, Arenberg said. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission allowed corporations to donate unlimited amounts of money to so-called super PACs that can run advertisements to support or attack a political candidate.

“We see an evolution, cycle after cycle, every four years in the presidential contest where the sums get larger, and I think that the money that flows into the races becomes more and more influential,” Arenberg said.

Also unique to this year’s race, credibility and prior political experience do not appear to be significantly affecting public opinion, Arenberg said. “The electorate, interestingly enough, seems to have a great interest in electing someone without any political experience.”

The Republican Party “has latched onto Donald Trump and Ben Carson with Ted Cruz in the wings,” Morone wrote. Trump is “tapping into great dissatisfaction and, in doing so, casually casting aside items of absolute faith of

the Republican establishment,” Morone wrote.

Trump’s continued popularity was a surprise to most, Arenberg said, adding that, increasingly, analysts predict his enduring presence in the race. According to the most recent poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, Trump has the support of 23 percent of Republican primary voters, placing him second to Carson, who commands 29 percent.

Arenberg, who was a pollster himself when he worked on Capitol Hill, puts a lot of trust in polling on the condition that it is done well, he said.

He cited objectivity, sample size and question phraseology as important factors in determining poll quality. But he describes polls as “largely meaningless” at this point in the race, besides the fact that campaign donors consider them when deciding who to support financially.

Like the increasing power of campaign donors and corporations, the attacks on politicians from the opposing party are becoming more vicious in nature, Arenberg said. “One of the distressing aspects of how polarizing our political culture has gotten is that there is a tendency to demonize the figures leading the opposing party,” Arenberg said. “It’s almost becoming a feature of presidential politics, which is somewhat alarming.”

Back in the 1960s, political scientists used to worry that the parties were ... too much like each other,” Arenberg said. “That’s pretty quaint in 2015. No one would look at the parties and say they’re too much like each other. If nothing else, there’s a clear choice.”

METRO

PAGE 4 • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015

New Amazon center to open by fall 2016 18 miles from Providence, fulfillment center anticipated to introduce over 1,000 new jobs

By ISABELLE DOYLE STAFF WRITER

Amazon.com, Inc. is building a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Fall River, Massachusetts, that will open in roughly one year.

Workers broke ground on the center — which will receive, process and fill incoming orders from Amazon — on Oct. 19. Amazon hopes to accomplish as much construction as possible before winter weather makes labor too difficult, said Rob Bentlyewski ’14, special assistant to Fall River Mayor Sam Sutter ’76.

The company has established the goal of operating a functioning fulfillment center next fall in order to meet the demands of the 2016 holiday season, he said.

The mayor’s office obtained permits for the land prior to making the deal with Amazon so that the company could “set up shop quickly,” Bentlyewski said.

The center, which will be located approximately 18 miles from Providence, will introduce 1,000 full-time jobs and several hundred part-time jobs in the region, Bentlyewski said.

“Most jobs will be well-paying fulltime and part-time jobs with a generous fringe benefit package,” wrote Paul Vigeant, vice president of the Center for Workforce and Community Education

at Bristol Community College in Fall River, in an email to The Herald.

The average annual salary for employees at the center is expected to be $35,000, Bentlyewski said, adding that the center is introducing “entry-level jobs for the most part, so this should have a pretty positive effect on Fall River and the surrounding area.”

Fall River has a notoriously high 11.1 percent unemployment rate compared to the 6.3 percent national average. Unemployment in Fall River has also dropped 30 percent in the last year, Bentlyewski said. Officials in Fall River hope the center will boost the town’s economy, he added.

The fulfillment center could also bring significant benefits to Amazon by providing geographical, temporal and energy-based advantages.

The fulfillment center will lie on the border of Fall River and Freetown, Massachusetts, allowing Amazon to access energy from both towns. There is a low risk of power outage, because if one town loses power, the other town’s power supply will kick in, Bentlyeski said.

The center will also be close to Route 24, which will make ground transportation of the packages easier, he said. “The location was pretty good for them,” he added.

“This is a huge investment by a significant international corporation,” Vigeant wrote, adding that Amazon’s “investment is an important signal to other large companies that might also be looking for a site.”

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» GUIDEBOOK, from page 1 part-time jobs and research positions for the summer, “navigating that as a firstgen can be very intimidating,” Le said.

As a first-generation student, Le said at first he “didn’t know how that system worked” and was “shocked that it was normal” to feel that way.

“Sometimes just knowing what’s out there is helpful,” said Vananh Tran ’16, a member of First-Gens@Brown.

First-generation students can also have difficulties when applying to college, as no one in their family has undergone the process, said Gabrielle Alcala ’19, another First-Gens@Brown member.

“The college application process was a lonely experience,” she said.

While the board is still recruiting

» HACK, from page 1 programs. Using the online editor repl. it on their laptops, students were taught basic programming concepts and guided through checkpoints.

Following each short presentation, audience members were given a short break to add to and debug their codes.

Mentors and experienced programmers waited in the aisles to offer help and moral support; participants were also encouraged to work through their problems with others nearby.

The final project was a fully functional Caesar cipher capable of taking in words and encrypting them. With 22 lines of code, students could shift whole sentences into gibberish and back again, much to their satisfaction.

According to a quick survey conducted at the beginning of the workshop,

student contributors, the creation of the guidebook is already underway, Sanchez said. Many students have shown interest and begun writing, editing and graphic designing, and several pages of the guidebook are complete, she said.

Sanchez said many of the contributors have also been positing new topics to cover, including managing homesickness for those who cannot return home during breaks, practicing self-care, discussing the college experience with family members, transitioning from home to college and facing the academic challenges of college.

Some first-generation students may have attended underserved high schools that did not provide them with adequate preparation for the rigors of Brown academics, Le said.

The board is also planning on creating a website on which the guidebook could be uploaded and accessible to all current and prospective students in PDF format, Le said. The board hopes to include narratives from first-generation students and professors on the website, he said.

Several board members stressed the fact that the guidebook will inevitably continue to change.

The guidebook is a “living, breathing document,” Le said.

Alcala said she is particularly “interested to see how (the guidebook) impacts current and prospective students.”

Ultimately, the underlying purpose of the guidebook is to let first-generation students know that “their identity is being acknowledged,” Tran said.

approximately 30 percent of students came in with no knowledge of programming languages.

“This is a good introduction to programming and a very useful skill,” said Kenji Hayashi ’18, who had no such prior knowledge. Hayashi, a biology concentrator, hopes to take computer science courses and learn more about the field.

Even students with prior programming knowledge said they found the seminar useful.

Avinash Subramanian ’18 said he had previously participated in a Javascript workshop hosted by Hack@Brown, but this event was his first experience with Python. As a geology-biology concentrator, Subramanian said he was interested in the variations of programming applicable to his own field of study.

Nomin Khishigsuren ’17, who

studies engineering, knew a bit of the language coming into the event. She said she was excited to learn more and was especially interested in seeing Paxson program, noting that her presence had the potential to make the seminar more interactive.

Karim said all workshops were designed specifically with novice, noncomputer science concentrators in mind. She encouraged those who enjoyed the seminar to consider CS0150: “Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming and Computer Science” in the spring. “It’s never too late to learn something, especially programming,” she said.

“Python with Paxson” was the fourth seminar offered by Hack@Brown this semester. Future seminars in Python will be held Nov. 11 and 23 as part of “Python Month,” Karim said.

TODAY

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

menu

fa l l i n g away

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizzas: Bacon Chicken Ranch, Spicy Five Cheese with Garlic, Pepperoni and Meatball JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Made-to-Order Quesadillas

Chicken Kadhai Aloo Gobhi Masala

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Baked Potato Bar, Turkey Tacos, Corn Mexicane, Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ratatouille with Cheese, Italian Beef Noodle Casserole, Apple Washington Cake

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Chicken Gumbo Soup, Macaroni and Cheese, Vegan Veggie Soup, Brownies

Mexican Cornbread Casserole, Honey Citrus Pork Saute, Chocolate Sundae Cake

sudoku

SADIE HOPE-GUND / HERALD

The red, orange and yellow leaves that decorated the Main Green throughout October have been gradually falling and floating through the air as students have begun bracing themselves for another Providence winter.

comic A Campus Fairytale | Kimberly Saltz ‘17

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QUEER AND ASIAN MEETING 7:00 P.M. Faunce 321

ENGLISH DUG SALON 6:00 P.M. Wilson Hall 106

TECHNOLOGY IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS 6:00 P.M. Watson Institute, McKinney Conference Room

REFUGEES AND REBELLION: SYRIAN CIVIL WAR 7:00 P.M. List Art 110

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LGBTQ SAFE ZONE TRAINING 8:45 A.M. Faunce, Petteruti Lounge

A FUTURE FOR AMAZONIA 12:00 P.M. Watson Institute, McKinney Conference Room

ALUMNI-IN-RESIDENCE WITH JEWELNEL DAVIS ’79 2:00 P.M. J. Walter Wilson 411

LEARNING TO LEARN 7:00 P.M. J. Walter Wilson 203

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL

Grades do not define us Now that midterms are mostly over — though it sometimes seems they never truly end until reading period — many of us are starting to see which final grades are likely or within reach for each of our classes.

These realizations are daunting for everyone, but especially first-years, who will soon begin preparing for their first-ever round of college finals.

While it is important to stay motivated and work hard in order to perform as well as possible on finals, it is also important to breathe and remember that B’s, C’s and even no-credit grades are not the end of the world. Our grades do not define us; each one only describes how well we demonstrated our understanding of concepts taught in one particular class.

There are many ways to excel in college, and few of them can be quantified with grades. Elliot Maxwell ’68 and Ira Magaziner ’69 P’06 P’07 P’10 issued the report that led to the creation of the New Curriculum with the idea that grades “only measure a very narrow range of developments.”

While most of us are aware on an intellectual level that it is impossible for everyone to maintain perfect grades at a school as competitive as Brown, most of us ended up here because that is what we are used to doing. Most students accepted to Brown were in the top percentiles of their high school classes. We were some of the biggest fish in the tiny ponds of our high schools, but now we are all swimming together.

We know it is unrealistic to expect to continue being the biggest fish in the pond, but we are not used to anything else. Not receiving the highest grade in the class or ending the semester with few A’s can feel like a failure, especially to first-years who just six months ago were giving valedictorian speeches. It is not.

As cliched as it might sound, college is about developing as a person just as much as it is about quantifying one’s learning with grades. Brown does not calculate GPAs for a reason: Focusing on grades too much can detract from the passion of learning. If you decide to take a challenging class that falls outside of your comfort zone, learn to think in different ways, gain exposure to new ideas and ultimately walk away with a C, is that a failure? Certainly not.

Much more is gained through that process than lost. If you end up with a B in a class you otherwise would have aced because you spent hours every day passionately directing a play, was that a misappropriation of your time? Not necessarily, if the experience of directing was meaningful to you.

We are not writing to you from a fantasy world; we know that having good grades can be very important to post-graduate plans. But we also know that you already know that; we all managed to get into Brown because we are motivated people used to working hard to meet our goals. So take this editorial as a reminder that it’s perfectly fine if sometimes we don’t.

A N G E L IA WA N G

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

“It’s never too late to learn something, especially programming.”

— Nomin Khishigsuren ’17

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editors, Manuel Contreras ’16 and Meghan Holloway ’16, and its members, Emma Axelrod ’18, Noah Fitzgerel ’17 and Aranshi Kumar ’17. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

See hack on page 1.

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COMMENTARY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

The maldistribution of blame NICHOLAS ESEMPLARE OPINIONS COLUMNIST

Undoubtedly one of the most pressing issues in American politics today is wealth distribution. The divide between the haves and the have-nots in this country has grown, and many across the nation are clamoring for a change. While such a change is likely necessary, I find the way in which this issue is discussed to be discomfiting.

In political debates and talk shows, the story of wealth inequality is all too often depicted in the language of class conflict: the fat cat billionaires lounging in castles while the hardworking common man struggles to get by. No doubt steps must be taken to solve the major problem of income inequality. I take significant issue, however, with how the problem is framed. This language distorts the root of the problem and directs blame — sometimes to the point of villainization, and often on the basis of financial success.

First, consider this: Salaries are not arbitrary. Yes, high-ranking executives at large firms often receive massive salaries, which from the outside can appear exorbitant. But large paychecks do not imply wastefulness.

Top executives are sought after and highly paid for good reason: They help businesses succeed. In strictly

economic terms, employees should be paid based on the profit they generate.

To be clear, governments could help rebalance wealth through tax policies and welfare programs. Focus on raising the minimum wage and making college more affordable is relevant and necessary; many agree that all employees should be paid a livable wage, and that college should be more accessible.

But businesses have no incen-

tract higher quality employees and thus benefit society as a whole. Increasing the pay of teachers is an investment in the country’s future, and I do not object to this argument because it is an economic one. On the whole, however, I find the idea that more honest professions deserve higher pay checks a preposterous notion because it completely ignores the actual reasons behind why and how people are paid.

Let’s start with an obvious point:

discriminatory metric that measures your value as a profit generator, not as a person.

That brings us to athletes — the classic example, in many eyes, of overpaid employees. It can seem absurd, on the surface, to hand out millions of dollars to people who play games for a living. But the reality of American sports is that professional athletes are drastically underpaid.

Professional sports leagues like the NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL operate

The reality is that a salary is a detached and non-discriminatory metric that measures your value as a profit generator, not as a person. tive to overpay their CEOs. For the profit-maximizing firm, large salaries compensate large revenue producers.

There is no evil scheme, no top-down conspiracy — this is business. The idea that someone must always be to blame is immature; the world is not made up of heroes and villains.

Another argument I often hear about income inequality is based on the fact that people working in certain professions like professional athletes are vastly overpaid, while other, more “honorable” workers like nurses deserve more than they get. With some workers, such as teachers, I can understand that higher pay would at-

No one ever said you would be paid based on how virtuous your job was.

There are benefits to such jobs, like fulfillment and a sense of purpose — just not financial ones. That’s why we have starving artists and poor monks.

The argument for increasing the compensation of “honorable” professions utterly ignores the fact that there are other measures of value in the world than money. The size of a bank account doesn’t determine a person’s worth, so why should a person’s paycheck reward his or her good-heartedness? This may sound cold and calculated, but the reality is that a salary is a detached and non-

essentially as monopolies, artificially driving down the salaries of athletes through maximum contracts, salary caps and luxury taxes (paid by those teams who exceed the salary cap to teams that do not).

A 2013 Bleacher Report article, for example, estimated what the value of NBA star Lebron James would be on a true “open-market.” The article concluded that he would command over $65.7 million — a far cry from the $17.5 million he was being paid at the time.

The same argument is also made of movie stars, and the same counterargument exists. For his role in

“Avengers,” Robert Downey Jr. reportedly earned $50 million — a salary that many would call extravagant.

But when you consider the fact that the movie surpassed $1 billion in global earnings, such numbers make sense. Leisure is a valuable commodity for which there will always be a market. People will always watch movies and go to baseball games, and while these products may not seem as valuable to society as teachers or nurses, the reality of how we spend our money suggests otherwise.

All in all, the point is not that income inequality should be allowed to persist, or that baseball players are more valuable to society than school teachers. The point, rather, is that these discrepancies exist not because villainous and corrupt billionaires want them to. Economic principles guide economic activity, and economic self-interest guides all economic interactions. Steps can and must be taken to eliminate the worst of economic inequality and to ensure equality of opportunity. The reality is, however, that the world is not run on virtue, and that money is the cold, detached arbiter of value in an economic system.

Nicholas Esemplare ’18 is an economics and English double concentrator. He can be reached at nicholas_esemplare@brown.edu.

Let live, let learn REID SECONDO OPINIONS COLUMNIST

In light of the ongoing campus discussion of free expression, responsibility and identity, who are you? What do you stand for? We find ourselves in unsettled times here at Brown where people, places and paradigms are under incessant scrutiny in the quest for what?

Resolution? Blame? Healing? Regardless of beliefs and identities, we have all been thrown into the fire, and we still cannot find a way to extinguish the flames together. At this moment, who you are and what you stand for is nothing in the face of what we as a community need to become and what we need to stand for.

You are nothing. Yes, nothing. This hollowing mantra was a part of a recent exercise in PHP1680I: “Pathology to Power: Disability, Health and Community” — a class that challenges how we see the world and the people within it. The question troubled me as I wrote out and thought of everything I considered myself to be, despite being confident in knowing exactly who I am. After etching out all aspects of my identity I could think of, it turns out my unsettled intuition was right.

One of the class’ instructors professed that all the titles, activities and relationships we used to describe ourselves are irrelevant to our real identities. Channeling the Buddhist wisdom of emptiness, he explained that the self is not

defined by the labels we give ourselves. It is ultimately nothing, allowing a person to transcend a falsely manufactured barrier to do and become anything. Immediate questioning and debate ensued as we all tried to grasp this concept that naturally bothered our Cartesian thought processes and trust in Western individualism. Hearing that my existence is nothing is confusing; thinking that my existence is nothing is unsettling.

But this uncertainty in the self is exactly where we find ourselves amidst the scorching flames of our heated campus climate. If

without hearing, listening to and learning about things that fundamentally challenge my beliefs and perspectives. The above snapshot had recently resonated with me, where now I have a new understanding of an alternative philosophical system, and I have grown my intellectual arsenal with new knowledge to apply this concept. I am now more informed and versed in an opposing viewpoint to my own beliefs and personal identity and am grateful to have such knowledge to make deeper connections and thoughts on the subject. The multitude of ideas and positions that

So who are you? Are you a compliant bystander or an active believer of every person’s right to feel safe and freely engage in a positive, productive educational experience? we strip away the infinite constructions of identity that society, history and our neuropsychological hardwiring have manufactured and perpetuated, then what lays bare before us? Just your average Homo sapiens, nothing more, nothing less. As “wise beings” in this cleansing fire, we are capable of removing the clutter that has negatively manifested narratives and stereotyped identities by protecting what has brought all of us to Brown in the first place: learning.

My Brown experience would be nothing

have forced me to question and reassess my beliefs has been instrumental in my education as a curious scholar and conscious citizen.

From classroom discussions to late night debates, we need to be challenged to learn.

“We need not be let alone,” writes Ray Bradbury in “Fahrenheit 451,” “we need to be really bothered once in awhile.” Choosing to dwell in unquestioned thought and protective groupthink is debilitating. A healthy learning environment flourishes where discourse and discussion freely flow.

Open-minded dynamism is the lifeblood of education. Allowing one’s self, beliefs and ideas to be poked and prodded by external factors is not meant to be easy or immediately enlightening. The difficulty through learning this way is accepting vulnerability. Exposing ourselves to oncoming waves of contractions, questions and disagreements is wearying and intimidating. Therefore we rely on the respect and decency of our fellow beings to foster a mutually constructive environment where everyone can openly but safely engage. Responsibility and civility must go hand in hand.

When such freedom and trust is hijacked to disseminate harm, the once-active sphere of discursive learning becomes both a victim and an accused accomplice of this unacceptable exploitation of the educational space and transgression against all within it. This ruins real learning in the most uniquely vibrant and authentic community of intellectually curious minds that all of us — students, educators, administrators — have worked so hard to create and hone here at Brown. It is time to leave the false barriers in the fire and rise together to resume our support for our community’s quest for scholarship.

So who are you? Are you a compliant bystander or an active believer of every person’s right to feel safe and freely engage in a positive, productive educational experience?

Feel free to continue the conversation with Reid Secondo ’16 at reid_secondo@brown.edu.

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015

Forum addresses Haitian deportation crisis Website supports Latino Haitians, DominicanAmericans, community leaders discuss Hispaniola human rights concerns

By KYLE BOROWSKI STAFF WRITER

In an effort to raise local awareness of the challenges that Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian ancestry face in the Dominican Republic, Bernard Georges, founder of the nonprofit New Bridges for Haitian Success Inc., hopes to involve the University in future discussions.

An Oct. 23 forum, New Bridges’ third such event since July, was attended by representatives from the offices of both Mayor Jorge Elorza and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI. “In Providence, we have significant numbers of Haitians and Dominicans, so I organized the event(s) because I think there should be more outrage towards the issue,” Georges said. “There’s been silence in Rhode Island, and you don’t hear people talking about it.”

Held on the Community College of Rhode Island’s Providence campus, last month’s forum was attended by members of both the Dominican and Haitian diasporas and aimed to address “barbaric acts being carried out against Haitians and more importantly against human beings in the Dominican Republic,” Georges said.

The issue is a central concern for Haitian-American communities, Georges said, adding that he is working to

create a dialogue about these issues and to engage elected officials to address the concerns of the community on a larger scale. “I think the U.S. has the ability to lead and secure the peace,” he said.

“So I’m asking elected officials to put pressure on the leaders back home to exercise civility to stop this harassment.”

Ernesto Sagás, associate professor of ethnic studies at Colorado State University, said that “antihaitianismo” — a phenomenon primarily characterized by racially charged attitudes toward Haitians in the Dominican Republic ­— has been perpetuated for decades but has grown lately as a result of changes to citizenship laws. Specifically, recent legislation stripped some 250,000 persons — many of them Dominicans of Haitian ancestry — of their Dominican citizenship.

“You have three, four generations of people of Haitian ancestry born in the Dominican Republic who have now been retroactively stripped of a nationality,” Sagás said. He explained that in 2013, the Dominican Supreme Court decided that descendants of undocumented migrants born after 1929 would be stripped of their citizenship, leaving thousands stateless. “Some of them were born, raised, had children and died as Dominican citizens and now they are something else.”

Timothy Empkie, clinical associate professor of family medicine, said that deportations could significantly affect the Haitian deportees, because “their knowledge of the language isn’t that great, they might have no family

connections and they might find difficulty getting access to health care, housing and social insurance.”

Georges said that the crisis is dire and that Dominicans of Haitian ancestry are subject to “torture, rape, beatings and arbitrary arrests” and even “lynching.”

“A lot of the people leaving (the Dominican Republic for Haiti) do not have formal deportation orders,” said Brian Concannon, Jr., executive director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, a human rights advocacy group, “but because of the arrests, beatings and threat of lynching, people are afraid enough that if the police tell them to go they’ll go, even if there’s no legal requirement to do so.” The crisis reached a climax in June, when several thousand people were deported from the Dominican Republic each week, though that number has now fallen to the hundreds or low thousands.

At the Oct. 23 forum, Rep. Grace Diaz, D-Providence, said Elorza is hoping that community members and elected officials can work together to raise awareness of the issue. “It’s not just a Haitian issue,” she added.

Though there is not yet a date for the next forum, Georges said he would like to involve Brown, because “there is a significant population of Haitians there, and it’s a great opportunity to involve the university community.”

“My focus is on the morality of these barbaric acts,” Georges said. “This should not be party politics. This is a humanitarian crisis, and it requires global attention and American leadership,” he added.

entrepreneurship Four success stories, business advice, resource directory among state website’s features

By ISABELA KARIBJANIAN STAFF WRITER

As part of a statewide economic development strategy, Gov. Gina Raimondo and the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation launched a website specifically aimed at empowering Latino entrepreneurs, according to an October press release.

The website features a resource directory with information on Latino-run small businesses, how to procure loans and other tools to help new businesses establish themselves, as well as four case studies of entrepreneurs in the local community. By connecting potential Latino business owners with established members of the Rhode Island Latino entrepreneur community, the site aims to foster collaboration and to encourage new economic growth, the press release said.

Part of the Commerce Corporation’s motivation for establishing the website was to respond to Providence’s rapidly-growing Latino business-owner community, which quadrupled in size to nearly 3,000 between 1997 and 2007, according to the corporation’s website.

The Latino community is the “fastest-growing population of entrepreneurs and small businesses,” Raimondo said at the website’s launch event, the Providence Journal reported Oct. 14 in an article.

The launch of this site is also related to the governor’s goal to increase business activity in the state.

“My number one priority is to make it easier for companies to do business in Rhode Island,” Raimondo said in the October press release. “Our economy is energized by entrepreneurs from all backgrounds. I am excited to launch this initiative and website to help Latino businesses flourish in our state.”

The site has a more personal and targeted focus than the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation site, with the explicit goal of inspiring potential entrepreneurs in the Latino community.

One way the site aims to accomplish this goal is by featuring successful Rhode Island Latino entrepreneurs in a variety of fields­— including

architecture, cuisine and dentistry — in short videos. Each entrepreneur will tell his or her personal story and provide recommendations for specific business tactics, share inspirations and identify the greatest difficulties they have faced as Latino entrepreneurs.

Luis Torrado, owner and president of Torrado Architects, is one of the four “faces of Latino success” highlighted on the site. An active member in Providence’s Hispanic community, Torrado said he feels that he has achieved his own American dream and wants to help other members of the community achieve theirs.

His office is active in local community issues, Torrado said, and often provides visits for students from minority or disadvantaged backgrounds, aiming to expose them to the many opportunities available in the construction and architecture fields.

Though Torrado has not noticed any immediate impact of the website, he said that he imagines the site will give rising entrepreneurs “a sense of hope.”

“Starting a new business seems like such an impossible task. … (It’s) good to see that Latino entrepreneurs have done it and have been successful at it,” Torrado added.

A commonality Torrado said he has found among all of the featured success stories on the website is the passion and enthusiasm each entrepreneur has for what he or she does.

“If you go forward with what you’re passionate about, the likelihood of you being successful is extremely (high),” Torrado said.

By providing potential entrepreneurs with access to mentors and information on business skills training, Rhode Island Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor said he thinks the Latino Commerce Corporation website will provide Latino businesses with the support and access they need to succeed, according to the press release.

Rhode Island is one of the first states in the region to provide a statewide resource geared toward encouraging Latino business growth.

The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation and the Rhode Island Latino Commerce Corporation did not respond to multiple interview requests, and Chef Cesin Curi of Los Andes restaurant — another featured individual on the website — was unavailable for comment by press time.