Wednesday, November 4, 2015

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

VOLUME CL, ISSUE 99

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

U. supports Paxson addresses campus climate initiatives with faculty UT Austin in Faculty discuss Winter Session forum, Title IX affirmative online training program at monthly meeting action case Brown joins 12 schools in filing amicus brief in support of using race in admission considerations

By KATE TALERICO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The University filed an amicus brief along with 12 other schools Monday in support of the University of Texas at Austin’s use of race in its admission decisions, which is to be challenged in an upcoming Supreme Court case.

Oral arguments for the case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, are set to begin in December, and a decision finding the school’s practices unconstitutional could significantly undercut affirmative action practices in the United States.

The conflict centers on Abigail Fisher, a white Texas resident, who » See SCOTUS, page 4

By DREW WILLIAMS

UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

The campus climate around freedom of speech featured prominently in remarks from both President Christina Paxson P’19 and Provost Richard Locke P’17 at a faculty meeting Tuesday. Paxson underscored Brown’s complementary roles as a place of open inquiry and a safe space for every student, and Locke unveiled a series of lectures and workshops around issues of race, gender and justice.

Attendees also discussed a potential Winter Session, the BrownTogether fundraising campaign, Title IX training requirements for faculty members, research grant procedures and departmental evaluation standards.

“A lot of issues around diversity, inclusion, racism and freedom of expression are really active at Brown right now,” Paxson said, adding that, as Brown’s student population continues to diversify, this discussion is “not

surprising, and in some sense welcome.”

Some Corporation members asked if she could make national headlines around campus issues go away, Paxson said, and she replied she could not.

Potentially turbulent conversations are a staple of college campuses, she said, adding that those conversations will be supported as long as Brown remains a welcome space for all students.

Locke announced a discussion series that will help frame campus conversations on race, gender identity, class and health care, to begin later this semester. Students and faculty members are meeting with the provost to develop these lectures, which will draw on both student and faculty expertise, as well as outside practitioners, wrote Marisa Quinn, chief of staff to the provost, in an email to The Herald.

The goal is to “show that we can support a diverse community and a diverse intellectual community,” Locke said.

A forum to allow faculty members to share their work with one another is also under way, with the hope that “providing these opportunities can help build community and perhaps inspire increased collaboration across disciplines,” Quinn wrote.

A Faculty Forum on Winter Session

HERALD FILE PHOTO

Winter Session was among the topics discussed at Tuesday’s faculty meeting. The proposal would not force a change in the academic calendar. will occur Nov. 17, Paxson said. She Session courses — though total tuition added that the latest proposal for the would remain the same. Finally, faculty possible January academic term has members would be able to approach three benefits. First, the session in teaching in a more flexible way, as its current iteration would not cause Winter Session offerings would fulfill a change in the school year calendar, regular faculty teaching requirements she said. Second, students would have and free up time for scholarship during the opportunity to graduate a semester the rest of the academic year. early through use of optional Winter » See FACULTY, page 3

ACLU criticizes school resource officer role Rhode Island ACLU sends letter to Pawtucket school district after apparent incident of excessive force

By MEI NOVAK STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF AMANDA SMITH

Alternative band Guster will take the stage at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel Thursday night for the debut performance of its ‘Evermotion’ tour.

Guster’s ‘Evermotion’ tour to kick off at Lupo’s Varied instrumentals, groovy sound characterize indie band Guster’s new experimental album

By JACLYN TORRES SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, Providence’s underground alternative artist mecca, will be the backdrop Thursday night for Guster, an indie band with a unique relationship to sound.

ARTS & CULTURE

INSIDE

Guster released its latest and most experimental album, “Evermotion,” in January, and Thursday’s show will kick off Guster’s Evermotion tour.

“Creating this album was a good experience, which is rare for us. We were not hung up on the minutiae. It’s a cool, raw, spacey album,” said drummer Brian Rosenworcel.

The band collaborated with Richard Swift, The Shins’ keyboardist and The Black Keys’ touring bassist, to produce its newest record. Working with Swift was a positive experience for each of the band members Rosenworcel said. » See GUSTER, page 3

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote a letter to the Pawtucket School District urging it to reconsider the presence of school resource officers in its schools, as well as the current Memorandum of Understanding between the school district and the police department.

The letter, addressed to Pawtucket School District Superintendent Patti DiCenso, came in response to what appeared to be excessive use of force by an SRO at Tolman High School in Pawtucket. A YouTube video from Oct. 14 shows SRO Jared Boudreault handcuffing a student, Ivander DeBurgo, then forcefully throwing the student’s 14-yearold brother, Tyler DeBurgo, to the floor.

Students held a protest the morning after the incident during which eight students and two adults were arrested.

Brown detailed a significant number of issues with the MOU in his letter, which he also forwarded to other school districts. His primary concerns include the amount of control that “school

METRO

officials cede when they allow SROs in their schools.” SROs are not required to attend any sort of training “in addressing behavioral issues or understanding the needs of the children they serve.” SROs can also remove students from the school without notifying the administration, Brown wrote in the letter.

He also addressed the portion of the MOU which states that if a student is charged with a crime by an SRO, the officer’s actions “will be supported by the principal … in court.” Brown cites this as a problem, writing that the policy operated “as if there would never be a circumstance when a school official might question the propriety of a criminal charge brought by an SRO against a student.”

Rico Vota, the communications and constituent affairs officer with Mayor of Pawtucket Donald Grebien’s administration, said Grebien has been working with the school department, police department and Tolman students to put together a new MOU. Vota said he is unsure when the new MOU will be released.

Brown noted that schools have no input in selecting SROs. In fact, Boudreault, the officer in Pawtucket, was under investigation a few months prior to becoming an SRO for “excessive force following a video-taped incident where (he) pepper-sprayed and repeatedly hit a man with his nightstick,” Brown wrote.

The RIACLU has previously had concerns regarding the use of SROs in

schools. Similar incidents have likely been occurring over the past several years, but have not been reported directly to the ACLU, said Hillary Davis, policy associate at the RIACLU. Social media has enabled increased communication between the community and the ACLU surrounding incidents such as the one in Pawtucket, Davis said.

Boudreault had “a history of ‘acting tough’ with (students), swearing at them on occasion and shoving one student up against a locker for taking a piece of pizza out of the cafeteria,” the Valley Breeze reported. Superintendent DiCenso told the Valley Breeze she had not “heard a complaint about Boudreault in the past” but believed the students’ claims that previous incidents had occurred.

Brown wrote in his letter to DiCenso that the presence of the SRO “only exacerbated the situation” and “led not only to the physical injury of two students, but the use of pepper spray on protesting students and the subsequent arrest of ten individuals.”

“We haven’t gotten a direct response (from the school district) that I’m aware of,” Davis said, adding, “We would hope school districts would be willing to talk to us.”

“We feel this is the school’s responsibility to ensure the safety of the students on their campus” Davis said.

The Pawtucket School Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

UNIVERSITY NEWS University to offer two-week social good internships in four major cities this winter

METRO Panelists discuss political tensions surrounding U.S. involvement in Syrian refugee crisis

COMMENTARY Rodriguez: Faculty should create a challenging but trusting space for academic dialogue

COMMENTARY Asker ’17: The media’s coverage of unimportant campaign theatrics is misguidedly swaying voters

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UNIVERSITY NEWS PAGE 2 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Winter internship program expands to four cities Innovate Winter Break offers students two-week internships in social enterprise fields

BY EMMA HARRIS, UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

Costumes and cultural appropriation

By AILEEN SEO STAFF WRITER

Innovate Winter Break, a program offering a two-week internship for students interested in working with social enterprises and nonprofit organizations, will expand this year to include opportunities in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. This year, about 60 employers — ­ including DoSomething.org, Kinvolved, the Center for Inspired Teaching, Real Food Challenge and Generation Citizen — in four cities are offering Brown students internships during winter break.

The program, now in its third year, originally launched in New York due to the large number of alumni employers who were interested in creating opportunities for Brown students. Last year, 23 students worked for 19 organizations in New York and Boston, said Jim Amspacher, a career advisor for Careers in the Common Good at CareerLAB. The Swearer Center for Public Service and CareerLAB staff expanded the programs to comprise more cities and employers in response to high student demand.

Ten employers in Boston, 15 in New York, 14 in Washington and 19 in San Francisco are accepting interns this winter, according to the CareerLAB’s website.

“Alumni see this is as a good

This Week in Higher Ed

COURTESY OF JEFFREY ZELDMAN

Employers in Boston, Washington, San Francisco and snowy New York, pictured above, will offer winter internship opportunities to students. opportunity to get some work done for Monica-Ann Mendoza ’17 interned the organization but also to give back to in Boston last winter with Generation Brown and to mentor students,” Ams- Citizen, an organization that aims to pacher said. increase civic action among middle and Students can apply to the program high school students. The organization through the Job and Internship Board. sends college students to teach younger Applicants can select their preferred em- students about government and the ployer and have the option of indicating democratic process, Mendoza said. a second-choice organization as well.

“It was really a great opportunity, Then, employers directly review appli- and I’m grateful that Brown offered it cants’ resumes and personal statements as an option,” Mendoza said. “I felt reand select the student interns, says Greg ally fulfilled and felt that I made a conSeiler, the CareerLAB’s international and siderable impact on the mission of the signature internships manager. organization.”

“Some employers have special reParticipating students are expected quirements they want included in the to complete a project for the employer applications,” Amspacher said. “We ask and a brief reflection at the conclusion that students tailor the personal statement of the internship. to address the specific internship they are “We want to have students provide applying for.” us with what they learned or what they Students receive a stipend of $350 to got out of the experience,” Seiler said. “It cover anything from local travel to meal helps us evaluate the internship for future expenses during the two weeks of their opportunities and gives us a better idea internship. The program is funded by the of what the student is doing as a part of Swearer Center’s Social Innovation Ini- their assignment.” tiative and CareerLAB’s BrownConnect The internships will run Jan. 4-15, signature internship programs. and applications are due today.

Controversy over cultural appropriation in Halloween costumes at Yale erupted over the weekend. Silliman College Associate Master Erika Christakis sent an email defending the exercise of free speech through donning possibly offensive costumes for the holiday, spurring community backlash, the Yale Daily News reported Monday.

Christakis’ Friday email was written in response to a Wednesday email from the Intercultural Affairs Council, which asked students to consider whether their costumes would possibly offend or diminish others on campus, citing turbans and blackface as examples of inappropriate costumes, the Yale Daily News reported.

Christakis’ email “asserted that imagination should be encouraged and not constrained,” the Yale Daily News reported. “Is there no room anymore for a child or young person to be a little bit obnoxious … a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive?” it read.

Students and faculty responded by signing an open letter rebuking Christakis’ email. The letter argues that her “email equates old traditions of using harmful stereotypes and tropes to further degrade marginalized people, to preschoolers playing make believe” and fails to acknowledge the harm of using culture as a costume. Over 740 people have signed the open letter, the Yale Daily News reported.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon party In a separate Halloween incident, Yale’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity was accused of admitting female students to a party on a “white girls only” basis, according to a Facebook post by sophomore Neema Githere.

Her viral post stated that a group of women of color were not admitted due to their race, the Yale Daily News reported. Members and leaders of the fraternity have denied these allegations, stating that party admission was not based on race, according to the Yale Daily News.

Other students have said they witnessed the alleged discrimination.

Dean of Student Engagement Burgwell Howard was in contact with a student waiting to get in the party, who wrote in an email to Howard that a friend heard a fraternity member say “white girls only” to a woman of color also waiting in line, the Yale Daily News reported.

Calhoun College renaming debate Deans at Yale have established that the dispute over the name of one of its 12 residential colleges, Calhoun College, will be resolved by the end of the academic year.

Yale has come under scrutiny and made headlines in recent months for the residential college, named after proslavery and white supremacy ideologue John Calhoun, who graduated from Yale in 1804, the Yale Daily News reported.

Calhoun College Master Julia Adams spoke on the issue for the first time last week, advocating the college be renamed Calhoun-Douglass College, after Frederick Douglass, a black abolitionist. “As the most important black American intellectual of the 19th century, Frederick Douglass is a formidable, indeed towering, complement to Calhoun,” Adams said, the Yale Daily News reported.

Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway supported the new name, adding that a decision would be made “this academic year,” the Yale Daily News reported.

Many students have suggested naming the college “CalhounBouchet, after Edward Bouchet, class of 1874, Yale’s first African-American graduate,” according to the Yale Daily News.

Free SAT in NYC New York City will begin offering free SAT tests to public school students next year, the New York Times reported Oct. 26. This is part of a larger initiative to enable more students to go to college, the Times reported. Not only will students not pay the $54.50 fee, but signing up will be easier, and the test will be taken during the school day.

This adds New York City to a short list of school districts and states that provide college admission testing as a way of encouraging students to apply to college. Kentucky, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Connecticut all require college admission tests as part of their high school curricula, the Times reported.

UNIVERSITY NEWS

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

»FACULTY, from page 1 Paxson also ran through a financial breakdown of the recently announced BrownTogether comprehensive campaign. Half of the $3 billion raised will enter the endowment with the goal of providing for Brown’s future. The University can only access a small portion of the endowment for current use, she said.

About $410 million from the campaign is allotted for faculty chairs, positions funded with endowments that cover salaries and some benefits.

Faculty chair positions currently support 16 to 17 percent of the faculty, a figure much lower than the 50 percent at some peer institutions, Paxson said.

The $600 million allocated for campus and community will include some new buildings but will largely focus on improvements to existing ones, she added.

Locke urged faculty members to complete the required Title IX online training program before next week’s deadline.

Released to faculty Oct. 1, currently only 33 percent of faculty members have completed the training, compared to 52 percent of staff members, he said.

It is the “bare minimum that we’re all trained,” so that “all of our students when they come here can truly be safe and learn,” he said.

Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee Thomas Roberts gave a report on resources for faculty members related to research, particularly grants given by the Office of Sponsored Projects.

Roberts said the University will

address “excessive risk aversion” relating to federal guidelines for grant allocation. Brown should not be stricter in its application of grants than the regulating organizations, he said. Instead of policing or gatekeeping, the administrative component should serve as a problem-solving partner when details or logistics of the research are in question, Roberts said. The University will then create focus groups to determine which research services are currently working and which need an overhaul, he added.

Dean of the Faculty Kevin McLaughlin P’12 led a discussion of departmental evaluation standards.

The administration asked departments which criteria should be evaluated in order to determine faculty promotions and tenure, among other departmental decisions.

Departments identified 56 different categories, McLaughlin said, with 10 categories appearing in a high consensus across departments polled. The categories included peer-reviewed articles, monographs, peer-reviewed book chapters, invited lectures, faculty awards and fellowships, research graphs, PhD placement, faculty diversity and grad student diversity.

The goal is to establish four or five consensus criteria and track them accordingly, McLaughlin said, adding that some departments will be more idiosyncratic in evaluation standards depending on their line of work.

The faculty also held a memorial minute for Lecturer Emeritus in Theatre, Speech and Dance John Lucas, who passed away Aug. 29.

» GUSTER, from page 1 All the band members got along well with Swift and were receptive to his feedback, he added.

In listening to Evermotion, Swift’s input is identifiable underneath the music. Rosenworcel said, “We focused on the keyboards to keep the groove.

This album is … less of a pop record and has deeper dimensions.”

Since its release, the album has achieved great success: It debuted at number one on the Independent Record Label Current Albums chart, number two on the Current Alternative Albums chart and number three on the Top Rock Albums chart the first week of its release. Major media sources have also taken notice, as the band has been featured in the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Relix Magazine, CBS This Morning, VH1’s “Big Morning Buzz”

and Family Guy, wrote Claire Julian, Guster’s junior publicist, in an email to The Herald. The band also had a front cover appearance on the February issue of Magnet Magazine.

Guster has relatively humble beginnings. In 1991, three Tufts University freshmen — Adam Gardner, Ryan Miller and Rosenworcel — were part of a Tufts Freshman Wilderness Orientation. The three immediately became friends and quickly learned of each other’s passion for music, according to Guster’s website. The band eventually emerged in 1992.

Guster released its first album, “Parachute,” in 1995 and has since released seven critically acclaimed albums over the last 20 years. Rosenworcel said, “every album is a whole new adventure. Every album has its own stamp in time.”

With its mounting success, the trio decided in 2010 to add Luke Reynolds

to the band’s roster — he offered talent on many instruments and had experience with alternative music. The production of Evermotion was the first time Reynolds had participated in the preproduction and writing process of a Guster album, according to the band’s website.

“We are really pleased with (the song) ‘Long Night.’ It’s a whole new thing, really groovy,” Rosenworcel said of the writing process and production.

The musicians said they have no qualms about being on tour. “We haven’t played Providence in a while.

This is the first performance of these songs in a few months, so it could be an excited version or a rusty version,” Rosenworcel said.

“Everyone has kids, so we don’t get to sleep at home. We’re looking forward to catching up on sleep. It’ll be the most fun we’ve had in a long time,” Rosenworcel said.

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PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Panelists discuss context of refugee crisis Event explores political tensions leading to crisis in Syria, global responses that have followed

By MELISSA CRUZ STAFF WRITER

Political posturing is responsible for the Syrian refugee crisis, said Stephen Kinzer, senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, beginning a discussion of the crisis with an overview of the tensions that led to the international sociopolitical turmoil.

The hour-long discussion covered the causes of the crisis, conditions of Syrian refugees in various countries and current global responses. The panel featured Kinzer, Sarah Tobin, professor of Middle East studies, and Westy Egmont, associate professor of macro practice at Boston College.

Kinzer said that before the scheduled 2014 United Nations conference in Geneva, U.S. leaders urged the UN SecretaryGeneral to retract Iran’s invitation. As a result, the conference never took place.

“Everything that has happened in the last two years, and every refugee that has had to flee, and every Syrian that has died is, in part, a result of that political decision,” Kinzer said.

“We are willing to put up with endless human suffering. It was more important for us to keep Iran out of the negotiating room for abstract political reasons than it was to save the lives of ordinary human beings,” he added.

Tobin touched on climate change, mentioning the deforestation and desertification of the region as a cause of the refugee crisis. “Southern Syria, what was considered the breadbasket of the nation, has largely been emptied because of climate change,” Tobin said. Over 1.5 million Syrians were displaced, died or lost their farms as a result of the upheaval Syria faced, she added.

The panelists criticized Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for providing no protection for his people. Neither ISIS nor economic troubles are driving Syrians out of their homeland, Tobin said. “Assad’s regime is committing really terrible acts against its own people,” she added.

Egmont said a quarter of a million people have been killed by the Syrian government. “When you begin to think about half of a population of a country having lost their home, it’s so massive it begins to defy reason or understanding of finding any easy solution,” he added.

Panelists noted that countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Germany have largely accepted Syrian refugees. They agreed that the United States has the capacity to take in at least 100,000 refugees.

Rep. David Ciciline, D-RI, pushed for that number in a letter he penned to President Obama, Ciciline told The Herald. This letter was signed by more than 70 members of Congress and urged Obama to “resettle a minimum of 200,000 refugees by the end of 2016, including 100,000 Syrian refugees.”

Egmont emphasized that any reluctance to accept refugees does not stem from economic or geographical limits.

The United States is capable of accepting a large influx of refugees, he said.

“We’re not prepared psychologically or politically for a large refugee inflow from the Middle East or anywhere,” Kinzer said. “We are an immigrant-resistant country despite the fact that we are a nation of immigrants.”

Egmont said, “I take a conservative view, which is that there are 59 million refugees in the world. There is a very long line of people that are coming through that pipe, and I don’t think Syrians get to the front of the line.” The United States must respect long-term commitments to other countries in need, such as Kenya, he said.

Both Tobin and Ciciline recently visited refugee camps in Jordan. During the panel, Tobin displayed images of the refugee camps, showing the difficult conditions refugees endure. Ciciline said his trip “underscored the enormity of the crisis. … Thousands of refugees want to return home and resume their lives.”

Tobin told The Herald that there is reluctance to accept as many refugees as the country is capable of because of “fear that they’re going to be a drain, fear that they’re going to be a security threat in particular. It’s fear-driven,” she said.

Ciciline is confident in the public’s readiness to accept refugees and has received no pushback in Congress or from his constituents. “We must be consistent with our values as a country,” he said.

Physicians for Human Rights, the Refugee Health Preclinical Elective and the Global Health Scholarly Concentration sponsored the event.

» SCOTUS, from page 1 claims she was discriminated against in the University of Texas’ admission process because of her race.

An amicus curiae brief is a document sent to the court by a third party, that outlines the party’s opinions and provides additional information on a case. The brief — signed by all Ivy League schools, excluding Harvard, and several other universities — explains that “a diverse student body adds significantly to the rigor and depth of students’ educational experience.”

The brief notes that the signing schools “recognized long ago that admissions by purely numerical factors such as grade point averages and standardized test scores would not effectively accomplish their broader educational missions.”

A history of appeals In 1997, Texas lawmakers passed a bill requiring the University of Texas to admit all high school seniors ranking in the top 10 percent of their high school classes. After the university saw significant differences between the racial and ethnic makeup of its undergraduate population and that of the state, they modified their race-neutral admission policy to allow consideration of race as a factor in admission.

In 2008, Fisher, not in the top ten percent of her class, competed for admission with other in-state applicants, also not in their high schools’ top ten percent, when she applied to the University of Texas. After she was denied admission, she filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging that the University of Texas’ use of race as a factor in admissions violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The university countered that its use of race was a way for them to pursue greater diversity.

After a federal district court decided in favor of the University of Texas, Fisher appealed the decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sustained the ruling. In 2012, she turned to the Supreme Court for an appeal.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case, Brown submitted a joint amicus brief to the Court, similar to the one filed Monday.

“This decision is so important it can affect the welfare of other institutions,” said Beverly Ledbetter, vice president and general counsel for the University, in an October 2012 Herald article. “We have a vested interest.”

Fisher’s 2012 appeal was met with a 7-1 decision to vacate the previous ruling and send the case back to the 5th Circuit.

In the Court’s majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, “The attainment of a diverse student body … serves values beyond race alone, including enhanced classroom dialogue

and the lessening of racial isolation and stereotypes.”

Two years later, the 5th Circuit once again decided in favor of the University of Texas. Fisher made a final appeal to the Supreme Court. In June, the Court announced it would examine the case a second time.

Policy of the present The signing schools “urge the Court to continue to affirm that a holistic review of individual student applications — with consideration of all their individual traits — is consistent with narrow tailoring,” according to the most recent amicus brief.

When Fisher applied to the University of Texas in 2008, 92 percent of the school’s in-state spots had been filled by students ranking in the top 10 percent of their classes, according to court documents. The remaining applicants were evaluated based upon their test scores, grades, leadership, activities, service and two required essays. Special circumstances were also taken into consideration, including the student’s socioeconomic status, language spoken in the home, family structure and race.

“Race is considered as part of the larger holistic review of every applicant regardless of race,” said the University of Texas’ Director of Admissions, Kedra Ishop, before the 5th Circuit.

“An applicant’s race, standing alone, is neither a benefit nor detriment to any applicant.”

Fisher, with a 3.59 grade-point average and 1180 SAT, perhaps did not stand out amongst the remaining instate applicants, a group for which the acceptance rate is lower than Harvard’s, the documents note.

The brief states that a holistic review is necessary in determining admission — high test scores may not be of much weight in a university’s admission decision.

One signing school received applications from over 7,000 individuals who were their high school’s valedictorians or had GPAs over 4.0, but only 7 percent of that group was admitted, the brief notes. That same institution — which was not named — admitted only 10 percent of the nearly 8,000 applicants who scored in the top 1 percent nationally on the SAT, the brief added.

The brief stressed the importance of a diverse student body, but it acknowledged the boundaries set forth in another Supreme Court case, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.

In that case, the Court ruled that a university may not define diversity as a specified percentage of its student body or effectively establish a quota system to meet such a percentage.

The responsibility of how to define academic diversity is a task that should be left to each individual institution, the brief asserted.

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TODAY

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 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

Shaved Steak Sandwich with Mushroom and Onion, Green Beans with Roasted Peppers

Orange Teriyaki Haddock, Fried Rice, Marinated Beef with Au Jus, Garlicky Green Beans

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Shaved Steak Sandwich, Falafel, Mediterranean Eggplant Saute, Malibu Blend Vegetables

Fiery Beef, Spinach Stuffed Squash, Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Fried Rice, Caesar Salad

sudoku

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comic A Horse of Any Other Name | Zach Silberberg ’18

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“A Future for Amazonia” 12:00 P.M. Watson Institute, McKinney Conference Room

LingLangLunch 1:00 P.M. Metcalf Research Building 305

English DUG Salon 6:00 P.M. Wilson Hall 106

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Grant Finding @ Brown and Beyond 12:00 P.M. The Rock, Hecker Room

Royce Fellowship Info Session 12:00 P.M. Swearer Center

Sign Language Society Coffee Slam 6:00 P.M. Brown Bookstore

Greek Dancing Class 7:00 P.M. Graduate Center, Graduate Lounge

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL

bright contrasts

The need for campus-wide social events When Brown holds campus-wide events such as the Annual Spring Gala or Spring Weekend, the atmosphere on College Hill is filled with excitement and a sense of camaraderie among students. The divides among students of different ages, concentrations and extracurricular interests melt away as they dance and mingle at these inclusive events. Yet it seems as though these types of activities are too few and far between at Brown. Especially during the fall semester, there are only a handful of events designed for all students, and none of them are as lively or exciting as those in the spring. During a season of cold, rainy weather combined with the increasing lack of sunlight, students would benefit from having such large-scale, campus-wide activities and events to look forward to.

Several dances planned by individual class boards are open to certain classes early and then only open their doors to the entire school at a later time. This unfortunately discourages students from attending or even considering attending these events. Therefore, they do not help foster a sense of community that is inclusive of the entire school. In addition, there is little to no intermingling between the separate grade levels at social events. This is troubling given that students of different ages have experiences worthy of sharing with each other.

The fall semester tends to be a more difficult one for students, as the weather gradually becomes more unpleasant, darkness hits at earlier times and midterms take over students’ lives. The Brown community needs fun, light-hearted events to which to look forward. Unfortunately, students cannot currently pinpoint any particularly enticing activities or events that the University puts on during the fall semester, and it is rather disappointing that Brown does not plan any large-scale, campus-wide events for Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas celebrations.

When it comes to the fun, campus-wide events that Brown is traditionally known for, only a Night on College Hill takes place during the fall semester, and this is disappointing — especially at a time when students probably need it most. In order to change this, Brown could plan a campus-wide masquerade ball for Halloween or a Thanksgiving feast.

While these are just suggestions, the sentiment remains the same: The University could use more campus-wide social events during the fall in order to help foster a stronger, more intertwined sense of community among all students.

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.

EDDIE MANSIUS / HERALD

A clear day in Providence highlights the city skyline against a backdrop of blue. The brightness of color provided a beautiful contrast between the natural and man-made elements of the city.

C L A R I F I C AT I O N Due to an editing error, an article in Tuesday’s Herald (“U. unveils Palestinian Studies fellowship,” Nov. 3) implied that Director of Middle East Studies Beshara Doumani said the fellowship focuses on scholarship on Palestine, rather than on current events in the region. In fact, the fellowship could be used to focus on current events in the region, though its creation was spurred by a desire to further scholarship on Palestine generally.

CORRECTION An article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Guidebook to assist first-gen students,” Nov. 3) misstated that Manuel Contreras ’16 is the founder of First-Gens@Brown. The Herald regrets the error.

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

On teaching, radical love and community RALPH RODRIGUEZ op-ed contributor

The teaching I do as a professor of American studies, ethnic studies and English finds me regularly engaged with matters at the core of whom we consider ourselves to be and how others consider us. This semester, for instance, I’m teaching an undergraduate course, ETHN 1890E: “Johnny, Are You Queer: Narratives of Race and Sexuality,” and a graduate seminar, AMST 2220I: “Skin Deep: Reading Race, Reading Form.” Both classes deal with cultural and theoretical works that take up, among other topics, race, gender, sexuality and class.

As with any course, I am introducing my students to an ever-evolving body of knowledge, hoping they will become more fluent with its objects of inquiry and its methodologies.

I tell my students on the first day of class that personal connections with the material can be a useful jumping-off point that generates enthusiasm and insights, but those insights will need to deepen with further critical analysis in order for students to succeed in the class and in the discipline more generally. They will need the ability to form arguments, tackle ideas and venture into new realms of thought that may include the personal but will need to exceed it as well.

My pedagogy is not an either/or proposition. It is a both/and approach.

As any rhetorician skilled in the art of argumentation will tell you, either/or thinking often (if not always) leads to fallacious reasoning. It takes a com-

plex situation, strips it of all nuances and then suggests that there is only one of two ways to approach the topic.

Tied to the rigor and professionalism with which I approach my teaching is also a recognition that across the seminar table or beyond the lectern are a group of people with feelings, vulnerabilities, complex personal histories and attachments to the course material. I want to bear their humanity in mind.

I see a robust humanistic approach to learning and teaching as invested in making the world a better, more equitable, more just place, one in which we help each other realize our fullest potential. Whether in

saccharine bromides. Rather the road to such teaching, the road to such engagement with one’s students, is built on what scholars such as Cornel West, bell hooks, David Kyuman Kim and George Lipsitz, among others, have called radical love.

This radical love fosters community and emerges through it. Radical love is a love that gives the benefit of the doubt, that affirms and questions, that holds its skepticism at bay to allow a raw thought to develop, that understands accountability not as a zero sum game, that doesn’t draw lines in the sand, that doesn’t believe in (to borrow a phrase from Edward Said) solidarity without criticism, that un-

then dissipates 15 weeks later.

Yet I want to encourage students and professors to treat it as a community, not as an assemblage of strangers.

Some of the students know each other and even know the professor; some may even come to the classroom with pre-existing baggage with one another; others are meeting for the first time. The benefits of treating a classroom as a community are tremendous, for in the community I imagine created out of radical love, we can really push each other to get the most out of our thoughts, to refine them, to rethink them and to get them into the most lapidary form possible. Ideally in such an environment, we could

I see a robust humanistic approach to learning and teaching as invested in making the world a better, more equitable, more just place, one in which we help each other realize our fullest potential. our mutual production of knowledge (a production that, at its best, charges the classroom with a vivifying energy) I agree or disagree with my students or whether they embrace or reject my ideas, I want them to feel considered and heard, just as I do. It would be naive to pretend that we are on the same footing with the material I teach. I have many more years of studying and writing than they, yet I recognize they have valuable contributions to make and that ideally I am helping them refine their ideas. In the classroom, we are engaged in a dialogue to which I lend my support and expertise to abet the students in seeing the shortcomings, merits and potential of our ideas.

The achievement of such a pedagogy and the production of such a world are not reducible to a series of

derstands that rifts can heal and that we need not divide ourselves from one another during that healing. It also understands that there may be moments when toxicity reaches such a level that, out of self-care and selflove, one has to pull back and find new alliances. A radical love can foster and enrich community.

I lack the space to discuss the large community of Brown, the one composed of the tens of thousands of people who work and study at the University, to say nothing of the innumerable alums, but I would like to say a word about the smaller communities in which we find ourselves at Brown, the community of the classroom in particular. It is a manufactured, ephemeral community that arbitrarily comes into being at the start of semester and

generate more and more rich, complex ideas.

In such a classroom, there is both agreement and disagreement, but the latter must be done in an environment of mutual respect. It is in disagreement that one is forced to consider, reconsider and sharpen one’s ideas. Students and professors can only work with one another in such an environment, however, if there is trust and class members tacitly agree to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Such a classroom mandates both a tremendous amount of emotional and intellectual maturity and students and professors who speak from a space of genuine belief.

This cannot be a space of posturing or purposeful antagonism.

One needs to think about how they formulate and articulate their ideas.

There are many ways to say any one thing, and one should measure one’s words for the most productive result possible. Even if I disagree with you, there are a variety of ways to voice that disagreement. They run the spectrum from outright hostile to genuinely engaging your thought from a different angle. Students and professors are going to misstep from time to time, perhaps even say something that doesn’t sit well with one another. We have to be able to acknowledge that misstep and realize it is part of the learning process and part of being human.

We cannot learn in an environment where fear precedes thought, where one is afraid of saying anything for fear of saying the wrong thing.

Similarly, we must also recognize that we speak from particular positionalities informed by our race, class, gender and sexuality, among other identity categories. In addition, we need to be conscious of the various privileges we bring to the table. Each of these recognitions is meant to raise awareness of our positionalities and the rhetorical situation in which we find ourselves. We want to create dialogue, not dismiss voices. Self-awareness and a cognizance of one’s interlocutors should lead to robust discussions.

This space of radical love and community building is what I strive for in my teaching, and I am sanguine that it is from this space that we can find ways to improve our selves, communities, classrooms and the world.

Ralph Rodriguez is an associate professor of American studies and English. He can be reached at ralph_rodriguez@brown.edu.

Perverting the 2016 presidential race NICHOLAS ASKER opinions columnist

The third Republican presidential debate received no shortage of media attention. Before, during and after the debate, the homepages of mainstream newspapers were rife with speculation: News analyses guessed at the possible implications of every little interaction and chose winners based, subjectively, on who was loudest, who was most successful at prevaricating and who launched or deflected the most criticism. Strangely, coverage of the 2016 presidential race resembles that of a spectator sport, swarming with so many insignificant details and so much speculation that it rivals even the fanaticism of fantasy football.

In particular, I have in mind superfluous analyses like Frank Bruni’s column “Ben Carson and Donald Trump Lack Electricity in a Charged Debate,” the New York Times article “The Disciple Strikes Back: Rubio Bests Bush in a Key Moment,” Politico’s “Bush walks into Rubio’s Trap: For Jeb’s supporters, it was a night of crushing disappointment” and the copious real-time analysis of the debate — leaving aside 24-hour news channels, which of course are much worse offenders. Besides being a waste of time to read, the articles listed epitomize the media’s overanalysis of the theatrics of the debate and the campaign trail to the detriment of the democratic process.

Who dissed whom and who spoke the most or the loudest or the least shouldn’t matter, yet the media focuses on these trivialities. Presumably, news companies focus on such things because they think they understand average Amer-

ican voters and believe that such trivialities will stick with them and in turn affect the polls. That is, what shouldn’t matter in fact does matter, so they think it’s newsworthy. But promulgating petty facts and naming winners and losers by consulting these facts risks influencing the field by laying the foundation all wrong.

Did Rubio get the better of Bush in their exchange regarding Rubio’s Senate attendance? Sure.

Rubio’s quick-witted comeback left Bush stunned.

At the end of the day, however, this altercation should be meaningless — none of the issues the

Rubio and Bush on that basis. They judge Bush less favorably and Rubio more positively, and the polls, along with ambivalent donors, shift accordingly.

So inadvertently, the media plants the idea that the encounter is significant and contains content relevant to evaluating presidential candidates by prominently displaying it on front pages, which are spaces that consumers associate with content that matters, with important things. The fact that we all know exactly what happened in the scrap points to how front-and-center coverage of it was

Coverage of the 2016 presidential race resembles that of a spectator sport, swarming with so many insignificant details and so much speculation that it rivals even the fanaticism of fantasy football.

United States faces were in play, and though Rubio’s laxness was in question, no serious character traits integral to the presidency were on the line. So Bush “losing” the silly argument shouldn’t translate into him actually losing, i.e. dropping in the polls or dropping out of the race. Yet the media has billed the interaction as a crushing blow to Bush and a triumph for Rubio and made a big deal out of nothing, out of something unsubstantial that certainly should not influence the race.

Bush isn’t a less qualified nominee because he lost the squabble, but the media has sure made it seem that way.

The trouble is that framing the exchange as a make-or-break moment turns it into precisely that. Voters see the headlines, see that Bush was bested and because of the encounter’s salience, become convinced that they’re supposed to judge

— it would have been hard to avoid learning of the kerfuffle if you read or watch the news regularly.

Some may think this is only speculation, that the relationship I’ve described between the media and the electorate is doubtful, tenuous at best.

But there is good evidence that the media actually affects voters through their coverage choices. According to John Sides, an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, Donald Trump’s poll numbers were so high and sturdy over the summer in large part because of the undue attention his candidacy received from mass media. As Sides put it in a data-driven piece for the Washington Post back in July, “Has this attention to Trump driven his poll numbers? Almost certainly. Think about it this way: Voters don’t change their minds without new information. No one wakes up on June 17 and randomly

decides on their own that Donald Trump should be the Republican nominee for president. People’s minds change because they are hearing information that they haven’t heard before. In this case, people are being bombarded with news stories about Trump.” Moreover, Sides points out that since Trump received a “larger-than-usual spate of media coverage,” his surge in the polls was larger and more long-lasting than usual.

Importantly, as he elaborates in another piece, Sides believes the media’s disproportionate coverage is the best explanation for Trump’s rise, in contrast with other explanations, like his unique appeal to angry Tea Partiers. And Sides dispels the notion of reverse causality by saying that media coverage increases before poll numbers do, so though there is some feedback loop, the coverage does more to drive the polls than vice versa.

This Trump tangent shows that the media can and does shape the primary through what it chooses to cover. Unfortunately, what it chooses to cover too much of the time is what sells, because after all, news companies are just that — companies. And a suspenseful narrative of cutthroat competition and celebrities clashing, with performance metrics to boot, sells quite well. But from what’s been said, it’s safe to say we’re better off leaving guilty-pleasure entertainment to E! News.

Republicans are right to be mad at the media after the debate, but not because of its alleged liberal bias or unfair questioning. Instead, they should be mad at the media for arbitrarily swaying public opinion and the presidential race in a manner that ignores candidates’ merit, all to get clicks.

Nicholas Asker ’17 can be reached at nicholas_asker@brown.edu.

ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015

Haunted house inspired by Japanese history enlivens Halloween Annual JCA event takes over Sayles Hall for Japanese cultural experience and fright

By MADISON RIVLIN STAFF WRITER

This year’s Halloween was filled with fright and amusement as the Brown Japanese Cultural Association hosted its annual haunted house reenactment, filling the basement of Sayles Hall with screams of terror Saturday night.

The haunted house functions as a reenactment of a short horror video that JCA produces each year.

The video itself often directly relates to some aspect of Japanese history, folklore or culture and is filmed by a student cinematographer, said Seito Yamamoto ’16, co-president of JCA. This year, Yohei Okada, a Wesleyan University student, created the video, said Martin Carlsen ’16, copresident of JCA. The reenactment night serves as a hands-on experience

of the film.

“It’s quite the spook-tacular night,” Carlsen added.

This year’s theme was “Feudal Japan,” and Japanese folklore inspired the reenactment, including “Kuchisake-onna,” also known as the “slit-mouthed woman,” and most importantly, the geisha. “A geisha is an entertainer, a feudal performance artist,” Yamamoto said. “Her appeal is the fact that there is a mystery behind her.”

Japanese history does not always serve as the subject matter for the theme — last year’s was “Doll Factory” — but the event itself is inspired by Japanese culture. “Getting spooked, knowing about the folklore, the spirits — it’s all a big part of our culture. It’s embedded in our history,” Yamamoto said.

The event itself is the one of the two biggest events hosted by JCA each year, the other being Matsuri, the Japanese spring festival, Carlsen said. The preparation for the haunted house reenactment began an entire

month prior to Halloween, Yamamoto said. JCA worked with a $150 budget, involved the efforts of 30 students and required many hours of preparation.

JCA organized the event across five rooms: The first was dedicated to the video that inspired the reenactment. Fright seekers then traveled down the stairs and into the basement, where they experienced three rooms of scares and squeals with spooky characters popping out of bathroom stalls. Participants stumbled through mazes and crawled through tunnels.

The reenactment culminated in a final spooky maze that left many students delightfully petrified.

Keith Radler ’19 said he thought the rooms provided a great build-up to the final maze, and the reenactment was a great start to his Halloween night.

The haunted house served as a “glimpse into Japanese culture,” Yamamoto said. “We want other students to partake in the cultural experience and learn about Japanese history and folklore.”

COURTESY OF HIROMI KOMORITA

RISD first-year Young-Eon Kim , Hiromi Komorita ’17 and Yuko Miyawaki ’19 dress up as spooky geishas for the JCA Haunted House Saturday.