Friday, November 20, 2015

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015

VOLUME CL, ISSUE 111

U. to allow students to join two new military programs Partnerships to let students participate in ROTC for Naval and Air Force Reserves

By LAUREN ARATANI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The University has formed two new partnerships that will allow students to participate in the Naval and Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps starting next semester, said Karen McNeil, program director of the Office of Student Veterans and Commissioning Programs. In addition to these programs — at the College of the Holy Cross for the Navy and at Worcester Polytechnic Institute for the Air Force — students also have the option to train through the existing Army ROTC partnership with Providence College.

Students have already shown interest in participating in the new ROTC programs, McNeil said, adding that students seem particularly interested in the Holy Cross Naval ROTC program, which encompasses both the Navy and the Marine Corps.

“For many years, there were people who were advocating for an expanded presence for ROTC on campus,” she said, adding that the repeal of “Don’t

Ask, Don’t Tell” in 2011 spurred many peer institutions to begin expanding their ROTC programs.

A contentious history After “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed in 2011, the Committee on the ROTC released a report reexamining the University’s relationship with ROTC. Brown and many of its peer institutions needed to look at whether they were “offering the best opportunities to their students,” McNeil said.

The report, published in 2012, and affirmed the 1969 faculty resolution that banned ROTC during the midst of the Vietnam War. Under this resolution, the University must designate ROTC programs as extracurricular activities, with program instructors unable to obtain faculty status, according to the report.

When the committee wrote its report, few Brown students were participating in ROTC through the partnership with Providence College, but many students and alums advocated for ROTC to have a larger presence on campus, McNeil said. As many as 60 percent of alums were “strongly in favor” of Brown becoming a host for an ROTC program, according to a poll » See ROTC, page 2

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Historically underrepresented groups at Brown

The cohort with the lowest percentage of individuals from HUGs is the faculty, while those with the highest percentages are medical students and undergrads.

25 percent Medical students

20 Undergrads

15 Staff

10

Graduate students Faculty

5 ’04-’05

’09-’10

Source: Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion draft EMMA JERZYK / HERALD

Paxson releases diversity, inclusion plan draft Plan includes proposal for new first-gen center and dean for first-gen, lowincome students

By BAYLOR KNOBLOCH SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A working draft of the University’s action plan for diversity and inclusion released

Thursday night outlines investments totaling more than $100 million over the coming decade that will “promote diversity and inclusion and confront the issues of racism, power, privilege, inequity and injustice that are part of the Brown experience for so many members of our campus,” the action plan states.

The document, titled “Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University,” was originally set

Contemporary writers Danticat MFA’93, Ward explore roles of race, memory in writing

By JACLYN TORRES SENIOR STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

Megan Reilly ’18 drives past a Providence defender. The Bears have jumped out to a 3-0 nonconference start thanks to contributions from first-years Erika Steeves ’19 and Shayna Mehta ’19.

First-half surge propels Bears over Friars

By JAMES SCHAPIRO STAFF WRITER

The women’s basketball team continued its strong start Tuesday, defeating

INSIDE

to be released at the end of the month in its final form. But after the alleged assault of a visiting Dartmouth student who was a delegate to the Latinx Ivy League Conference by a Department of Public Safety officer Saturday, administrators opted to share a working draft of the document this week and field community input.

An online feedback form will be available until Dec. 4, at which point » See DIVERSITY, page 2

Writers confront oppression, grief

W. BASKETBALL

Clutch play of Mehta ’19, Alexander ’16 buoys Bruno in late stages of win over Providence

’14-’15

Providence College 57-47 for its second win of the season.

In their home opener, the Bears (3-0) started off somewhat sluggish. At the end of the first quarter, Providence, which defeated Brown for one of its six wins last year, led 14-12. But the Bears’ defense came alive in the second quarter. After Providence’s Aliyah Miller scored to put her team ahead 18-14 with 7:36 remaining in the half,

the Bears outscored the Friars 10-1 for the rest of the quarter, finishing the first half with a 24-19 lead.

“As a team, we got together between the first and second quarter, and we knew that we could take them,” said Erika Steeves ’19. “We were just waiting for something to click, something to happen. In the second quarter, we put people on the court that started to » See W. BBALL, page 4

“These writers work to humanize black lives,” said Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice Anthony Bogues at a “Writing for a Broken World” event Thursday night.

Just moments later, the writers he referenced — Jesmyn Ward and Edwidge Danticat MFA’93 — walked out on the Martinos Auditorium stage.

Ward, an associate professor of English at Tulane University, is famous for her award-winning novel “Salvage the Bones.” After earning her MFA in creative writing, in 1994, Danticat published the novel “Breath, Eyes, Memory,” which was an Oprah’s Book

ARTS & CULTURE

Club selection in 1998. Both have focused their writing on their experiences as women of color and their everyday lives.

The two writers began the discussion with thoughts on their racial identities. Ward is originally from Mississippi, where she said she constantly felt dehumanized. “Cultures have constantly told me that I was less,” Ward said in her opening remarks. “I wanted to speak against it with the hopes that my work would make people see us as human beings.”

She added that as an artist, she has the power to humanize and create social change.

Growing up in Haiti during a dictatorship and immigrating to New York at the age of 12, Danticat said she experienced similar treatment.

As a result, she used her pain as fuel to write about the truth.

“I grew up in a time where they wanted to silence the writers,” Danticat said. “It reinforced the power of writing that there was a need to » See WRITERS, page 4

WEATHER

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015

ARTS & CULTURE Workshop aims to increase visibility of students with disabilities, highlight difficulties

SPORTS After registering first win against Holy Cross, men’s basketball falls to Niagara

COMMENTARY Sieffert GS: France must reconcile its history of colonial oppression, and violence is not the answer

SPORTS COMMENTARY Diehl ’18: Students can find some of their closest friends through participation in intramural sports

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UNIVERSITY NEWS PAGE 2 • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015

» ROTC, from page 1

this past summer, McNeil said.

placed in Brown’s alumni magazine, the report said.

With conflicting desires to increase opportunities to participate in ROTC on campus while still upholding the 1969 resolution, “the conclusion of the ROTC report was that the most feasible way (to bring ROTC back on campus) is to work with other schools with partnerships,” McNeil said.

After the report was published, then-President Ruth Simmons made a statement to the campus recommending the University continue to uphold the 1969 resolution and its ban on hosting a ROTC program, according to a letter she sent to the Brown community in October 2011. Simmons cited continued discrimination against transgender individuals and “opposition to recent wars undertaken by the country” as grounds for upholding the ban.

In addition, Simmons wrote that students should be able to participate in off-campus Naval and Air Force ROTC programs that were not offered at the time.

The University then began talks with potential partner schools to make these programs possible, but “any changes in the status of ROTC (had) to be approved by a vote of faculty,” McNeil said.

At its February 2015 meeting, the faculty endorsed new partnerships for Naval and Air Force ROTC by a 3529 vote after much debate, giving the University the go-ahead to finalize the partnerships with Holy Cross and WPI

Military perspectives on campus For Brown students in the Army ROTC at Providence College, the program is an extracurricular activity that can come with a large time commitment.

Four Brown students currently participate in ROTC — a low number relative to the size of the student population, McNeil said. As the program director for the SVCP, McNeil said she does not recruit or “sell” ROTC to students, but she does hope that more students will become interested in participating in ROTC to bring a different perspective to campus, she added.

“We’d like knowledge of the military to be a part of the culture at Brown,” McNeil said. “Even just sitting next to a veteran or an ROTC student in class, seeing them as a person and knowing that people who go into the military are normal people, having that kind of interaction is very important.”

Having more students in the program will also create an atmosphere where ROTC students do not feel “singled out” among their peers, she said.

Johnathan Davis ’16, student coordinator for the SVCP, is currently in his fourth year of ROTC. Davis fully committed to ROTC the fall of his sophomore year, he said, adding that it was a difficult transition knowing that he was “taking a different path” than most Brown students.

“I had to understand and accept that,” Davis said. “From there, things were a lot better,” especially because of friendships with non-Brown students who also

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD participate in the program.

While on campus and in uniform, Davis said students tend to approach him with curiosity. “At most, I’ll get surprised looks that somebody in military uniform is walking around campus, and I get a lot of questions.”

Of the four students who participate in ROTC, two have previous exposure to the military.

Kaela Lynch ’19 grew up in a military family and knew that she wanted to commit to ROTC when she came to college.

“I figured having the balance of ROTC — having that military presence in my life — but also going to college and getting a good education was important,” Lynch said.

Similarly, William Summers ’19 came to Brown with prior military exposure through his high school’s Junior ROTC program.

Hosting ROTC at Brown Though ROTC participation rates among Brown students are low, if the rate ever increases to the point where Brown students are “straining the resources of partner schools,” then the University would probably host its own program, McNeil said.

Aside from low numbers, other constraints also contribute to the University’s preference for partner programs over one of its own, McNeil said. The two major factors are the costs involved for the military in establishing a new program and the need for faculty approval of any changes related to the military on campus, she added.

Given that ROTC is subsidized by the

» DIVERSITY, from page 1

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the University will review the submitted comments, modify the plan and release a final version by the end of the semester, Paxson wrote.

The University committed to creating a center for first-generation college students by fall 2016 and hiring a new dean “dedicated to working with and supporting first-generation and lowincome students,” according to the plan.

Additionally, the plan states the University will increase funding for low-income students to access needed goods and services such as health insurance, textbooks and laptops.

The Office of Campus Life and Student Services will double the money available through its Emergency Fund.

The plan also states the University will increase access to housing and dining services during breaks.

The plan details efforts to increase diversity in hiring, bolster support services on campus for students from historically underrepresented groups, implement faculty and staff diversity and sensitivity training and foster research, teaching and discussion on issues of diversity.

The document reiterates the University’s commitment to hiring 55 to 60 faculty members from historically underrepresented groups by the 2024-25 academic year, which would double the current number of such faculty members. It will do this through more cluster hiring, continued support for the presidential postdoctoral fellows program and a new program aimed at attracting visiting senior scholars from historically underrepresented groups.

The plan also commits to doubling the number of graduate students from historically underrepresented groups within the same period of time. To

U.S. military, it is preferable that schools form partnerships to keep costs down than create a new program entirely, she said.

And while the faculty did endorse the partnerships with Holy Cross and WPI, allowing Brown to host its own ROTC program would mandate changing the 1969 resolution, which would require flexibility from both the military and faculty members, some of whom are stark opponents of ROTC. Professor of English William Keach said programs like ROTC infringe on the independence that colleges and universities should have from entities such as the U.S. government. Keach said he has a lot of questions about military policies in general — beyond ROTC. “Colleges and universities make an important contribution to society generally in providing critical analysis of things like public policy and military policy,” Keach said. “Having that be independent of the formal structures and authority of something like the United States military is extremely important for something like academic independence.”

Keach is especially opposed to the “curricular role” that ROTC can have on some campuses, especially schools that host ROTC programs, he said. While Brown still treats ROTC like an extracurricular, Keach believes that partnerships are not “the real solution to the difficulty” that comes with having ROTC be part of a student’s curriculum, he added.

Currently, courses taken as part of the ROTC program appear on students’ transcripts but are not credit-bearing.

“Can we think of another analogous

program where a government entity offers coursework on a university’s campus in a systematic way?” Keach said.

With the new partnerships, Brown leaves Dartmouth as the only school in the Ivy League to not offer its students an option to participate in Navy and Air Force ROTC programs, McNeil wrote in a follow-up email to The Herald.

McNeil said allowing Brown students to choose to take courses specific to the careers they want to pursue is an educational opportunity, adding that they still “take their full complement of Brown courses.”

ROTC is especially important in training students to be leaders within the military, Davis said, adding that participants in the program are “given a lot of responsibility.”

“In the real world in the military, as an officer, you’re leading 40-plus individuals,” Davis said. “And with that, a lot has to go into leadership and effectively leading those individuals, especially in battle.”

Lynch similarly praised her experience with the Army ROTC program.

When she first came to Brown, she was thinking about pursuing medical school after graduating in active duty with ROTC, she said. But because she has enjoyed participating in ROTC so much, Lynch said she foresees herself interested in a job in the military after graduation.

“ROTC is one of the many opportunities (that students have), and if a student is interested in military service for whatever reason. I don’t see any benefit in trying to block their path,” McNeil said.

further this goal, the Graduate School and Alpert Medical School are currently looking to fill administrative positions to oversee targeted diversity recruitment efforts.

Additionally, the plan states that the University will add two or three staff positions in the 2016-17 academic year that will work with the Brown Center for Students of Color, the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center and the LGBTQ center.

The plan also recommends creating a Native American and Indigenous Peoples Initiative to help recruit faculty members and postdoctoral fellows who do work in this area.

The document mentions the piloting of several professional development workshops related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and identity this January for faculty members, staff members, graduate students and administrators.

The development of these workshops will draw on faculty members and compensated grad students with relevant expertise.

The plan does not explicitly state whether such workshops, once finalized, will be mandatory for faculty or staff members.

The University is also developing an orientation program for new faculty and staff members that looks at those topics and their intersectionalities.

Beyond these measures, individual departments will be responsible for developing and implementing specific training programs and professional development opportunities suited to their specific needs.

The document also states that the University will “examine the need for additional diversity and sensitivity training for all officers in the Department of Public safety,” but it does not commit to any changes in relation to campus police.

The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice will both be expanded in order to provide additional resources for and strengthen “interdisciplinary scholarship on issues related to structural racism and social justice,” according to the plan.

The BrownTogether comprehensive campaign identified the two centers as fundraising priorities, the plan states, and the University is seeking $10 million in gifts for each.

With support from the Provost’s Office, CSREA will launch a series of events on “How Structural Racism Works,” with the first taking place in December. This project will be one of several efforts to spark University-wide discussion on power, privilege, identity and structural racism, with the goal of making “Brown a leader on understanding and addressing structural racism in our society,” the plan states.

The plan also proposes doubling the number of sophomore seminars centered on power, privilege, inequality and social justice.

Going forward, the University will develop a call for proposals next month to start the process of finding an external firm to design a campus climate survey to gauge bias and discrimination more effectively.

The Office of Institutional Diversity will release an annual public report that will track the success of initiatives laid out in the action plan, and a Diversity Inclusion and Oversight Committee will form this spring to coordinate these efforts.

Administrators could not be reached for comment by press time Thursday evening, and students who have been vocal in calling for change declined to comment on the plan.

ARTS & CULTURE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

‘Navigating Spaces’: Exploring the experience of disability Workshop to simulate visual, auditory, physical impairments to increase disability awareness

By KASTURI PANANJADY STAFF WRITER

Navigating Spaces is the second of four final projects for PHP 1680I: “Pathology to Power: Disability, Health and Community.” This article is the second in a series that covers students’ attempts to increase the visibility of disability on campus.

PATHOLOGY TO POWER Today at 3:30 p.m., Alumnae Hall will host “Navigating Spaces: A Disability Interaction Workshop.” The workshop will feature stations on screen reader accessibility, campus building accessibility, auditory hallucinations and American Sign Language, said event coordinator Reid Secondo ’16. Attendees will navigate electronic, communicative, physical and psychological spaces while working with simulated hearing, vision and mobility impairments, Secondo said.

Stalling stigma The “Screen Readers and Website Accessibility” booth will allow students to experience visual impairment

by placing gauze pads over their eyes, Secondo said. Participants will then be taught to use an application called “ChromeVox” which reads text out loud to the user, he said. “We want them to navigate Facebook or Amazon and other high-profile sites to see what their experience is,” he added.

Lindsey Hassinger ’16, also a coordinator of the event, will facilitate an auditory hallucination station titled “Do You Hear What I Hear?: Working with Auditory Hallucinations.”

Participants will be challenged to maintain conversations while listening to a compilation of voices heard by people who experience auditory hallucinations on a daily basis. “The voices are often malicious and atonal.

They can tell people to do harmful things to themselves and to others,” Hassinger said.

Intrigued by Tim Riker, visiting lecturer in language studies, Claire Chin Foo ’17, another of the event’s coordinators created, a “Communicating with ASL” booth at Navigating Spaces. Participants will be taught basic American Sign Language and then be given a series of quotidian phrases to communicate to each other,

Chin Foo said.

The fourth and final booth, titled “Navigating Places with Mobility Issues,” will involve trying to get in and out of Alumnae Hall using a wheelchair and the existing accommodations for people with mobility issues.

“Most people don’t even know that there is a lift in Alumnae. To even find the lift or the elevator sometimes can be challenging in 10 minutes,” Chin Foo said.

Participants will have the opportunity to discuss their responses with the facilitators after completing each activity, Secondo said.

“We understand that we’re getting into reading period and people won’t be staying very long, so we didn’t want to take up a two-hour chunk,” Chin Foo said.

“This way, people can come and go as they please,” Hassinger added.

The event will also feature a raffle for free Avon tickets and a $25 gift card to Flatbread, according to the event’s Facebook page.

Secondo said the intent of the event was to go beyond pity or admiration for people with disabilities.

“The purpose isn’t to show people that because they have tried it for five minutes, they know what it is like,” Chin Foo said. “It’s to start a

conversation.”

Hassinger said that the event was primarily “educational,” adding that each booth would have a pamphlet about the activity and information about the disability being simulated.

Beyond the classroom Navigating Spaces could be seen as an extension of a similar exercise the students completed during class, Hassinger and Chin Foo said. Sarah Skeels, teaching associate in behavioral and social sciences, and Bruce Becker, professor of emergency medicine and behavioral and social sciences, challenged them to navigate Brown’s campus as if they had visual and auditory impairments.

During the exercise, students divided into pairs: One student from each pair taped gauze pads to their eyes and wore ear plugs, while the other student guided their partner down Thayer Street and inside various establishments, Hassinger said.

The class then reconvened to recount their experiences, she added.

The debriefing session was the most important component of the exercise, as it “guided the discussion to a place of reflection,” Skeels said.

The exercise made her realize that people on campus were unaware of

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how to deal with disability, Chin Foo said. Curious passersby addressed their questions and remarks to the guides, ignoring the students who appeared to have disabilities entirely.

“It was as if they didn’t exist. It was so rude,” she said.

Skeels said that pairs of female students reported incidents of sexual harassment and groping while participating in the exercise. “You would be shocked at the number of students who got catcalled,” she said. The exercise added a new dimension to students’ understanding of the “lived experiences” of people with disabilities, she said, stating that simulation was a useful tool if used responsibly.

“I used to have students use my spare wheelchair for a day to get around campus which, as you might realize, is on a hill,” Skeels said, adding that the experience resonated strongly with her students, many of whom have gone on to work in medicine, public policy and education. “Ten years later, they still tell me: ‘I can be with my patients or my kids with disabilities because I remember.’”

Skeels said she hoped Navigating Spaces would stimulate the bigger conversations conducted in the course so far.

SPORTS

PAGE 4 • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015

All-League Awards Roundup

BY ALEX WAINGER, SPORTS EDITOR As leaves litter the streets and campus prepares for the inevitable first signs of snow, fall sports are coming to a close. And with the last games of the season come end-of-year awards. A number of Bears were chosen for a variety of honors in their respective sports’ conferences.

Men’s Soccer Five members of the men’s soccer team received All-Ivy recognition, marking the second straight year that nearly half the starting lineup earned a regular season award.

The honoree list was headlined by rookie Jack Hagstrom ’19, who earned both the Co-Rookie of the Year award and a spot on the First Team — the only spot given to a rookie. The Wisconsin native led the Bears in both goals and points, with five and 11, respectively, all while anchoring the defense from his starting spot on the back line.

Fellow first-year Matthew Chow ’19 also made the list, sliding into one of the three forward spots on the All-Ivy Second Team. Chow started 15 of the team’s 17 games, posted the third-most points and led the squad in shots, shots on goal and game-winners. His skill and speed on the wing stretched opposing defenses and opened up scoring opportunities for his teammates.

In stark contrast, the other three All-League Bears played their final collegiate games last weekend. Tariq Akeel ’16 joined Chow on the Second Team, while co-captains Jack Gorab ’16 and Tim Whalen ’16 earned All-Ivy Honorable Mentions.

The three seniors were responsible for eight of the team’s 22 goals. Akeel and Gorab took up their usual spots in the attacking midfield, while Whalen moved from left back to defensive midfield to shore up the center of the pitch.

The Bears finished the season in style, knocking off top-seated Dartmouth for the first time since 2010. Bruno finished third in the Ivy League but did not receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Volleyball Despite a turbulent conference schedule, the volleyball team placed two members of the front row on All-Ivy squads. Right-side hitter Sabrina Stillwell ’19 earned Second Team honors, and middle blocker Payton Smith ’17 made the Honorable Mentions list.

Stillwell was a revelation in her first season in a Brown uniform. The rookie led the team in matches, sets, kills, total attacks and points, easily ranking as Bruno’s most valuable offensive player. She nearly set a school record against Columbia when she notched 32 kills — the second-highest total in program history.

Coming off a Second Team selection last year, Smith posted another solid season, ranking second in kills and blocks behind Stillwell and Courtney Palm ’19. She dominated the Central Connecticut State University Invitational, where she logged a .900 hit percentage — the second-highest percentage in team history — and took home MVP honors.

Smith and Stillwell will both return to the team next season looking to turn the program’s fortunes around.

Men’s Water Polo While the No. 10 men’s water polo team still has Collegiate Water Polo Association Championship matches on its schedule, five players earned All-CWPA Northern Division honors this week. Will Klein ’16 took home the biggest award — the CWPA Northern Division Player of the Year — and three of the seven First Team players are from Brown.

Klein lived up to his position — utility player — as he did a little bit of everything this season. The senior ranked first on the team in ejections earned, second in shots and third in goals and field blocks.

Goalie Luke Weiser ’17 and attacker Matty Gallas ’16 joined Klein on the CWPA First Team. Weiser put together a record-setting streak of seven straight Defensive Player of the Week awards, dating back to last season.

He anchored Bruno’s defense, logging 205 saves and a 55.1 save percentage.

Gallas provided the Bears with scoring and passing, posting 30 goals on 80 shots to go along with 39 assists.

Yahel Murvitz-Lahav ’17 and Jake Wyatt ’17 rounded out the AllDivision team members, as they both earned spots on the Second Team.

The two juniors tied for the team lead with 46 assists this season, and they contributed 39 and 26 goals, respectively.

Bruno’s lengthy list of accomplishments this season includes an Ivy Championship, a Northern Division regular season crown and a Northern Division tournament title. The team hopes to complete the quadruple crown at the CWPA Championships this weekend at MIT.

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» W. BBALL, from page 1 get into the flow of the game, and it all worked out for us.”

“We decided that we were going to lock it down on defense,” said Ellise Sharpe ’16. “We held them to five points in the second quarter, and that gave us the momentum going into halftime.”

The Bears pulled away after their dominant second quarter, stretching their lead to as many as 13 points. They led by nine after the third, and though Providence cut the deficit to four with less than four minutes remaining in the game, Shayna Mehta ’19 immediately put the Bears back in control with a three, and Steeves extended the lead with a jump shot of her own.

Co-captain Jordin Alexander ’16 proved a key contributor as well, recording assists on both shots and adding a layup of her own to push the lead to 11. Alexander finished with 15 points and five assists.

When the Friars got close, the team did not panic, Sharpe said. “I wouldn’t say we were worried, but it was like, ‘Okay, now we’ve got to really put it away,’” she said.

“It did obviously get a little stressful, but all along, in my mind, I was saying, ‘I know we can win this,’” Steeves said. “Everyone on the court felt the same way. Everyone on the sideline felt that too. We just had to

» WRITERS, from page 1 silence them.”

Dandicat said race has always been a subject of contention in the United States. Before the discussion started, Danticat shared her support for the Brown Coalition for Graduate Students of Color. Her backing of the group met with thunderous applause.

Ralph Rodriguez, associate professor of American studies and English, moderated the conversation, seamlessly weaving the topics of discussion to create a cohesive and easy-to-follow dialogue. “There are these consistent themes of destruction, devastation and survival in both of your works.

Where do these themes come from?”

Rodriguez asked both writers.

Both Danticat and Ward pointed to their personal experiences of grief as extremely influential in their work. Danticat said grief is a powerful emotion with a compounding effect.

Writing her novel in the wake of her father’s death, she found that every

keep it together, and we did, and we ended up coming out on top.”

Mehta and Steeves emerged as the Bears’ two young stars. Mehta, who led the Bears with 17 points in the opener versus Bethune-Cookman, scored 11 more against Providence. Steeves, who came within one point of a doubledouble in the opener, was even better against Providence, scoring 14 points and adding 12 rebounds.

“I’ve always been pretty active with rebounds and points in the paint,” Steeves said. “I knew that my role coming in would be coming off the bench, getting as many boards as I could. Our coach always told me, ‘If you’re getting rebounds, you’ll stay in.’

That’s been one of my objectives, and it’s been working out for me so far.”

Mehta and Steeves “did really well in preseason,” Sharpe said. “It’s great to see them not getting nervous in games and just playing basketball.”

Bruno will now continue its fourgame home stand, taking on Morgan State and Vermont all by next Tuesday,before traveling to Manhattan College the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. Last season, the Bears defeated both Morgan State and Vermont.

“We played (Morgan State) last year, and we beat them by a small margin,” Steeves said. “Hopefully we can do the same this year but win by a little more.”

“They’re all very close together, but

we have a good shot in all of them,” Sharpe said. “If we continue to do what we’ve been doing, we have a chance to be 5-0 after Monday.”

With a 3-0 record following Thursday night’s 114-28 drubbing of Mount Ida, the Bears are already in position for a successful season: Last year, only two Ivy League teams played better than .500 overall. With their strong start, the Bears are one of only three unbeaten Ivies. Though Ivy play does not begin until January, the Bears are already anticipating the challenge.

“We’re thinking about the Ivies,” Steeves said. “We’re thinking about winning as many as we can — hopefully all of them.”

“We’re not as focused on any one team yet,” Steeves added. “We know that every single game’s going to be a challenge, because everyone’s catching up to each other — the bottom is meeting the top. It’s going to be a battle.”

“You never know what’s going to happen on any given Ivy night. Anything can happen,” Sharpe said. “We want to prove to them that we’re not seventh.” The Bears were voted to finish seventh in the conference in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll.

Twelve games remain before Ivy League competition begins, and the season, which comprises 29 games, has barely begun. But with three wins to start the year, the Bears have their sights set on a successful season.

writing session felt like she was visiting her father. “Grief is just something you’re learning as you go,” she said.

Ward also spoke candidly about her grief, which grew into a major depression. “After my brother died, I was very despondent. The depression enlarged and bore down on the entire world,” she said.

But Ward was determined to stay above suicidal thoughts out of respect for her family and her community. To help accomplish this goal, she got a tattoo on her left wrist of her brother’s signature. A year later, she got a tattoo of some of her brother’s last parting words: love, brother.

Depression “is something we struggle with, but we don’t talk about it,” Ward said. “We don’t ask for help. People think that you should be strong enough to deal with it, but we need to talk about mental health issues.”

About midway through the event, Danticat and Ward paused to internalize the weight of their sentiments.

Rodriguez quickly turned the conversation to the issue of race in the United States — a topic that impassioned both women.

“Right now, we are too emotionally invested in these myths we have about our history and our culture,” Ward said. “There’s been this push to deny and forget. There’s also a desire to write against it.”

“Having a black president has silenced the conversation about race,” Danticat said. But she also pointed out the recent major contributions millennials have made in pushing to bring forth the issue of race. “Young people, because of ‘Black Lives Matter,’ have revived the notion that we need to have these conversations,” she said.

To close the conversation, Rodriguez left the writers with one question: “How do we give voice to the silenced?”

“There is power in speaking and raising our voices,” Ward said. “We are important to this country.”

TODAY

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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Pizzas: Bacon Cheeseburger, Buffalo Chicken, Harvest JOSIAH’S

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DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

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Italian Chicken Parmesan, Macaroni and Cheese, Roasted Baby Carrots and Red Onion

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sudoku

ELI WHITE / HERALD

Excavators continued their construction Thursday outside Barus and Holley for the new $88-million, 80,000-square-foot engineering building, which is expected to be completed in early 2018.

RELEASE DATE– Friday, November 20, 2015

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich ACROSS 1 Traditional Islamic garment 6 Big fish 10 Literary group?

14 On the bad side (of) 15 Brazos River city 16 Skin malady 17 Primus or Helena, in a classic play 18 Tan relative 19 Cord for Ford, perhaps 20 One keeping tabs on the best man?

23 Preserve, in a way 26 Strict 27 Feed, but not food 28 Ready to pick 32 Court period: Abbr.

33 Abbr. in a footnote 34 Of a battery terminal 36 Portrait artist at a gym?

41 Tank type 42 Optimist’s words 44 Frequent fliers 47 Where to see decorative nails 48 Defense choice 49 Biblical prophet 51 Roma’s home 53 Coach for a newspaper employee?

57 Jamaican fruit 58 Bucks’ pursuits 59 Augment 63 Off 64 Impedes, with “up” 65 Haunted house sound 66 Start of a run, maybe 67 Big show 68 Sources of shots DOWN 1 Shut out 2 Mars rover?

3 Fleece 4 Like Twain and Wilde, e.g.

5 Chorus section 6 Is short 7 Agreement 8 One of 640 in a square mile 9 Quite a while 10 Prone to heavy market trading 11 Poet’s stock-intrade 12 Narrows 13 Fern seed 21 Gas up?

22 Palo Alto-based automotive company 23 First lady?

24 Has left to spend 25 Dad or fish preceder 29 Clumsy 30 City south of Lisboa 31 Murphy who voices Donkey in “Shrek” 35 Inverse trig function 37 Plus

38 Potter’s specialty 39 Earth sci.

40 Indian royal 43 “Great Public Schools for Every Student” gp.

44 Tongue 45 Victim of Iago 46 What some forks are used for

49 Taters 50 Overhang 52 Show 54 Béchamel base 55 Sub 56 Bone, to Benito 60 Bank statement abbr.

61 Lao Tzu principle 62 Sanctions

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Student Office Hours with President Paxson 11:00 A.M. University Hall

CAPS Drop-in Support 1:00 P.M. Brown Center for Students of Color

SATURDAY OKTOBERFEST 7:30 P.M. Alumnae Hall

Fall Dance Concert 8:00 P.M. Ashamu Dance Studio

SUNDAY Gamelan Concert 4:00 P.M. Grant Recital Hall

Diwali Festival Celebrations 6:00 P.M. Graduate Student Lounge

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Brown Bites: Nov. 14-20

BY MARCY HUANG

Students of color demand change Campus was shaken yet again this week with reports that Geovanni Cuevas, a Dartmouth student and senior delegate to the Latinx Ivy League Conference, was assaulted by a Department of Public Safety officer. Cuevas said he confronted the officers because they were acting “inappropriately” with a Brown student attending a party at Machado House. According to Cuevas, the officers told him not to come back to Machado, but Cuevas’ host was a Machado resident. When Cuevas re-entered the dorm through a back entrance, an officer found him. “The next thing I know, when I enter the laundry room of Machado, I’m slammed against the wall and then thrown to the ground and told that I was going to be pepper sprayed. … I was also told that I was resisting, and I was obviously not.” President Paxson is investigating the situation and has vowed both to reschedule the conference with all costs covered and send an apology letter to the presidents of the delegates’ home institutions. She also took part in an open forum, where many students voiced frustrations about the administration’s lack of action regarding racist and white supremacist structures affecting people of color on campus. Many students noted how emotionally draining the forum was, with Justice Gaines ’16 saying, “You keep saying this shit, but you’re ignoring us. We’ve been screaming at you.” Paxson continued to take heat from students this week at her talk on racial health disparities, attended by around 200 undergrads, grad students and faculty members. In the talk, she addressed health and wealth disparities between races, concluding by saying that these problems will not be solved until “we dismantle structural barriers to economic and social opportunities” for people of color. Students took the Q&A after her lecture as an opportunity to ask questions and voice concerns about institutional racism — namely, issues with the cost of Brown’s health insurance and its contributions to racial health disparities on campus. The event ran 30 minutes longer than expected, and as it concluded, there were boos and shouts from the audience of, “Let black students speak!” Paxson released a working draft of the University’s Diversity Action plan Thursday night.

Junot Díaz fields questions on student activism Junot Díaz — an MIT professor, Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow — came to Brown Nov. 14 to talk to students about social justice in academia. Díaz chose not to speak from the lectern, instead insisting that students lead the discussion in a Q&A format because of the “resurgence of student activism” on college campuses. Students asked Díaz a number of questions including how black women could reassert themselves as thinkers in the world of academia. Díaz called for students to remain honest about their privilege and said his main goal is to help students of color graduate. “You must recognize that we are in an educational system of deep scarcity. You survived growing up black, brown, yellow and indigenous. No one is more prepared.”

Reconciling faith with treatment Synergies and conflicts between clinical mental health treatment and faith-based treatment was the subject of the second article in The Herald’s “Mind the Gaps” series about mental health at Brown. While some students turn to Counseling and Psychological Services for help battling mental health concerns, others rely on the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life. According to Janet Cooper Nelson, University chaplain, the line between religious and clinical treatments is “pretty seamless.” But Cooper Nelson noted that she believed religion is not a replacement for medicine, saying, “Religion isn’t some capsule you can put in your mouth and instantly feel good. To me, that’s a very demeaning notion of God.” Yet counseling may sometimes be at odds with religious beliefs. According to Adrian Wood-Smith, associate University chaplain for the Muslim community, “Practicing students may feel that mental health professionals, without a background or knowledge of the traditions of the religion, are deconstructing their personal faith.”

Locke and load at the Watson Since now-Provost Richard Locke arrived as director of the Watson Institute in 2013, it has gained 13 new faculty members, established postdoctoral and faculty fellows programs, integrated with the Taubman Center and increased its endowment by $30 million. Locke started his revamp of the Watson by making weekly visits to campus before taking on his post with the ultimate goal of getting “Watson back on the map because it wasn’t on the map at all.” According to Stephen Kinzer, senior fellow in international and public affairs, “Locke lit a fire under this place. This is the most exciting intellectual environment I have ever been in.” Edward Steinfield, professor of political science and China studies and director of the China Initiative, is set to take over as director Jan. 1.

A N G E L IA WA N G

CORRECTION An article in Thursday’s paper (“Women, minorities face implicit biases in CS,” Nov. 19) misstated that an undergraduate teaching assistant sent an email to advertise the course CSCI 0160: “Introduction to Algorithms and Data Structures.” In fact, the course was CSCI 1660: “Introduction to Computer Systems Security.” The Herald regrets the error.

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

“Grief is just something you’re learning as you go.”

—Edwidge Danticat MFA’93

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COMMENTARY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Not in my name

ANNE-CAROLINE SIEFFERT op-ed contributor

I was just 11 years old when we got our first color TV. I snuck by the doorway of our living room as my parents watched a French reporter standing, a foot deep in blood, sobbing as he described the streets of Srebrenica, a small Muslim city a “Christian” army had just emptied of its Muslim population.

I was just a few years older when the first bomb exploded in the subway in Paris, in a series of attacks meant to bring the Algerian Civil War to French soil — ­ but had it ever left it, with its wake of colonial racism and religious and state-promoted violence?

I was 16 years old when we won our first soccer World Cup in 1998.

The million-strong crowd on the Champs-Elysees sang the Marseillaise deliriously, as the faces of its team leaders were projected on the Arc de Triomphe, along with the words that would become France ’98’s unofficial motto: black-blanc-beur.

Zinedine Zidane’s smiling face rejoiced millions of French of Maghreban descendance, while Lilian Thuram’s unflappable force inspired thousands of young, black French citizens. They were the new heroes of a generation that was too young to remember Africa’s fight for independence, the negritude movement that reclaimed the African roots of French blacks or the massive and peaceful demonstrations of the 1980s that gave birth to the NGO SOS Racisme.

The United States had its midnight basketball program; we had soccer. For a blessed second, all of

us forgot all the violence that had steeped the post-war period in France, as my country steadfastly refused to deal with its colonial past and present, and we aspired to the dream of a diverse and inclusive France.

For one blessed minute, this new generation really believed that France’s colors weren’t blue-whitered any longer, but rather blackwhite-brown.

I mull these events that happened over the course of my lifetime today,

ple are afraid and die just because of their skin color, their religion or irrational hatred spawned by the fear of others who are different.

Paris has lived through two fascists governments: one in the 1790s and one in 1940-1945. It has survived three revolutions, including one that left deep scars as it marred the walls of the city in blood in 1871.

But it endured, and it thrived.

Paris will survive, just as New York did, and just as Beirut painfully and slowly survived its almost-

ally and wishes to thank allies of my community, I want to borrow that hashtag that our Muslim brothers and sisters shouldn’t be pressured to use to distinguish themselves from fanatics and say #NotInMyName.

It is not in my name that my government closes its borders or discriminates against people of color.

It is not in my name that European countries will build camps to “house” refugees of whom they are scared. It is not in my name that people insult Muslims today, calling for the eradi-

It is not in my name that people insult Muslims today, calling for the eradication of Islam to avenge Paris.

as I just learned that my roommate lost a high school friend in the Friday attacks. I think this over as I read superficial reactions on Facebook: angry anti-French posts and antiMuslim rants. I brood over this — safely hidden behind my iPad — as I read the painful accounts of deaths in Lebanon and Kenya and look at the expectant faces of University of Missouri students who have decided to take their fate in their hands and debate freedom of speech. All of these events are linked, like all of us are.

Paris’ motto is fluctuat nec mergitur. It sways but it doesn’t sink.

Paris, the racially divided and yet multicultural city, will survive. It stands today, as it stood 70 years ago, bloodied, battered, but free. It stands with its brothers and sisters in Lebanon, Syria, the United States, Iraq, Kenya and other places where peo-

destruction after many years of civil war. I have no doubt that human life endures, and that eventually, we start laughing again, smiling and singing — but what I question is how we stop this cycle of violence that links issues of race and religion. How do we go on tomorrow?

Yes, my home country doesn’t have a good track record with our Muslim brothers and sisters — just as it doesn’t have one with our Jewish population or our black community. And it is not likely to get better, as I have little hope that we won’t respond to violence with more hate rained upon the Muslims of France, as the extreme right wing stands to benefit from a wave of Islamophobia.

But violence calls on violence, and I want to reiterate here what I said this weekend.

Whether it is now or yesterday, as someone who strives to be an

cation of Islam to avenge Paris.

I cannot stand idly and say nothing. I am not afraid of Muslims, just as I am not afraid of any other people of color. I don’t need to be told that America will fight for us — I don’t need to be told that I should be afraid because I am not. I refuse to be.

Whether it is the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, or any Christian fanatic, they might try to tell you that you should be scared of anyone who prays to Allah or anyone whose skin color isn’t yours. They might attempt to convince you that you should punish the many for the crime of one; that the many shouldn’t be allowed the same rights as “us;” that they shouldn’t be left to live their lives; that they shouldn’t be let in. Fanatics might try to reduce this issue into one of “us” against “them.”

But I am here to tell you, as a

French person who scrambled to learn the whereabouts of my family and friends on Friday, that in the pitch black darkness of this gripping panic, not once did I think that further discrimination, hate and violence were the answer.

I am here to tell you, whether it is sectarian, racial, private or statepromoted violence, that I am not afraid, that I stand with all of you, from Beirut to Syria, from Ferguson to Missouri. Even as here domestically our students of color are denouncing hundreds of years of statepromoted violence, and after we lost precious lives to a white supremacist in Charleston, and even as Kenya, France and Lebanon are still reeling from religious violence, I am proud of those who stand up to better the peace between people of all creed, color and gender.

You all are my heroes, and it is your cause I wish to further, not that of those who wish to silence peace or solve the many problems of mankind through more bombs and more policing.

There is one thing in my president’s declarations that I agree with: This is not a war of civilizations or races. It has never been, and in the name of democracy we should stop thinking of it this way.

A democracy that propagates cycles of injustice and uses power and punishment rather than reason and education isn’t worth fighting for. It isn’t one I recognize myself in, especially when it discriminates against my fellow human beings for their skin color or religious beliefs. #NotInMyName

Anne-Caroline Sieffert GS can be reached at anne-caroline_ sieffert@brown.edu.

A tribute to my intramural soccer team

BY JOE DIEHL sports columnist

Last year, our team’s formation started out in a curious way when our original founder went down with a torn ACL before the season started. Two weeks earlier, I poached club soccer tryouts with him for some talent to add to the team. He had a few people interested, but with his torn ACL went many of the people who were originally signed up on the team with us. So he delegated the rest of the recruitment to me and a couple other people, and we attempted to put together a last-minute soccer team. After careful deliberation, we put our Ivy League minds to use and

settled on the name “Squad” for our team.

Our first game involved an interesting mix of people I didn’t know at all and people from my floor (shout out to Everett House third floor), most of whom I had gotten to know pretty well. Half of the team was from Metcalf Hall — on the other side of campus — and we played like we didn’t know each other. After some awkward goodbyes, the team split in two when heading back home from the match.

We gained two people from the Keeney side of campus and lost three from Metcalf. Over the next few games, these numbers became more and more skewed until we had only one person from Metcalf left.

As our play improved, I got to know the people on our team better, as we

sometimes grabbed dinner after the games.

Pretty soon, these loosely affiliated teammates of mine became genuine friends, and we began to jokingly hype up our lowly intramural team to the rest of our friends in Keeney. I started going out with everyone on the team, and we even hosted an informal “Squad pregame” by the end of the season. And before I knew it, I was in the playoffs not just with some random soccer team, but also with my friends.

Though we lacked skill as a unit, we were relatively athletic and actually cared a little bit. These traits got us through the opening playoff match against an opponent who was ranked much higher than us and had beaten us earlier in the year. Our next game was also tightly contested, but we

wound up on the right side of things, just as we’d managed to do all season.

Due to people having midterms (damn you, midterm gods!), we suited up a man short in our semi-final game.

It was a night game and absolutely freezing, but our spirits were high.

And we battled hard. Their goalie was a wall of Irish mass, and it was impossible to score. A few bounces didn’t go our way, and we walked out with a 1-0 loss.

Over the course of the year, almost every single person on that team became a friend, and most became good friends. Some of my greatest friends at Brown came from Squad — whether I met them for the first time on the field or whether I furthered my existing friendships through our battles on the pitch.

To those of you who haven’t tried an intramural sport yet: Try one! If you’re worried about lacking any athletic ability whatsoever, there’s always inner tube water polo. No matter what sport you do, you’ll never know if your goofy teammates wind up visiting you to ski over winter break.

Personal apology to my teammates and advice to the general public: I’m sorry for kicking the heel of Ian’s boot; it was a lot harder than I anticipated.

We’ll get ’em next year.

Joe Diehl ’18 stays on his feet about as well as a puppy trying to grab a treat on its hind legs.

Send him advice on how to balance at joseph_diehl@brown.edu.

SPORTS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Sam Donovan ’18 lifts Bears to first win with hat trick First three-goal effort from team since 2012 propels Brown to 6-1 victory over Sacred Heart

By JAMES SCHAPIRO STAFF WRITER

When the women’s hockey team lost its first six games by a combined score of 24-2, team morale was low. But Sam Donovan ’18 would have none of it. Saturday against Sacred Heart, Donovan dominated, recording a hat trick and helping the Bears to a 6-1 win — their first of the season.

Donovan’s scoring breakout is hardly surprising: She led the team in goals last year with 12 and finished third in points with 17. She also led the team in shooting percentage and even recorded 20 blocked shots. To end the year, she earned ECAC All-Academic Team honors.

Donovan opened the scoring for the Bears Saturday at the 9:52 mark of the first period, when, after a Bears takeaway in the offensive zone, she flicked a backhand past Sacred Heart goalie Nicole Magee. Donovan was dormant in the second period but came roaring back late in the third. With the Bears on the power play at 17:11,

Maddie Woo ’17 took a slap shot from near the blue line, and Donovan dove around her defender to deflect it into the net. With only 11 seconds remaining in the game, Donovan received the puck in the corner and skated it in, firing a wrist shot past the keeper.

For her superb ice awareness, lethal wrist shot and gutsy play, Donovan has been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

Herald: When did you start playing hockey?

Donovan: When I was little — probably four or five.

Is high school hockey really big in Minnesota, where you’re from?

Yeah, it’s a pretty big thing. It’s kind of different from out East.

What have you thought of your time with the Brown program so far?

I’ve loved it so far. We have a new coach this year, Bob Kenneally ’90, and I love him. He’s great. He loves all of us, and it’s a really good experience.

For your second goal on Saturday, you dove around a defender and deflected it up into the corner of the net.

What was that process like?

Well, it was all because of Woo. She

ripped a shot from the point, and I was just standing there, and I didn’t really have to do anything. It was pretty much all Woo. She has such a hard shot.

What have you thought of the season so far?

It’s been good. We have three seniors, but we’re pretty young, and we’re still learning the game and figuring out different things. Our coach has been trying to teach us new things.

Did you feel like it all came together against Sacred Heart?

Yeah, a lot of people had more confidence in themselves, which was really good. Cynthia Kyin ’18, our defenseman, was taking rushes like I’ve never seen before. It was amazing.

Woo is obviously unstoppable.

She’s a great, really solid player. Erin Conway’s ’17 confidence was a lot better. The twins (Katie Swanstrom ’18 and Samantha Swanstrom ’18) scored their first two goals of the season, which was awesome — snipes, of course.

Everyone played really well. The goalies were great. They’ve been playing very well this year.

Do you think this could start to turn things around?

JOSH STERN / HERALD

Sam Donovan ’18 helped Brown to its first win of the season Saturday against Sacred Heart. She led the team in shooting percentage last year.

I hope so. I think we can do it. We have two away games this weekend against RIT. Hopefully we can get some wins out of that, and then we play Union coming up. Hopefully, this turns things around.

I played lacrosse and soccer in high school, but besides that, I don’t even know. I can’t play basketball; I’m too short for that. Rugby would be kind of cool, but I don’t know anything about it.

If you could play any other sport, what would it be?

— This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

M. BASKETBALL

Spieth ’17, Hobbie ’17 jump-start impressive offense in first win Captain Kuakumensah ’16 notches third consecutive double-double in 71-55 loss to Niagara

By BEN SHUMATE STAFF WRITER

The men’s basketball team topped Holy Cross Monday for its first win of the season, but fell to Niagara Wednesday to end the week with an even 1-1 mark.

After a season-opening road loss against St. Peter’s, Bruno (1-2) opened its home slate Monday night, cruising to a 71-55 win against the Crusaders (1-1).

Strong performances from veterans Cedric Kuakumensah ’16 and Steven Spieth ’17 drove the Bears’ offense.

Kuakumensah broke double-digits in scoring in the first half alone, putting up 11 points, while Spieth added nine on 4-of-4 shooting from the field, including a make on his only attempt from beyond the arc. JR Hobbie ’17 contributed off the bench with two threes in the first 20 minutes. Bruno carried a slim 35-32 lead into halftime following a back and forth opening frame.

But then Brown squandered the halftime lead, letting up a 7-1 Holy Cross run to begin the half before the Crusaders went cold from the field, leading to a 14-2 swing in Bruno’s favor.

In the end, key contributions from the bench and Holy Cross’ tough

shooting night made the difference.

The Crusaders shot just 26 percent from the field and went 0-for-7 from behind the arc in the second half.

Hobbie continued his hot night from three, knocking down another pair of big shots in the second half.

He finished with 16 points for the night, leading all Brown scorers. Also coming up big was newcomer Corey Daugherty ’19, whose 13 points added to the total of 31 from the Bruno bench.

Tavon Blackmon ’17 emphasized how a robust bench will be crucial for the team going forward.

“We have a lot of depth at the guard position especially,” Blackmon said. “Guys like (Hobbie), (Daugherty) and Travis (Fuller ’19) can really help us off the bench and give us a spark.”

Spieth and Kuakumensah were key for the Brown defense as well, as both brought down double-digit rebounds. Both would finish with double-doubles: Spieth had 11 points and a career-high 14 rebounds, while Kuakumensah added 14 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. Blackmon dished out a team-high eight assists.

Unfortunately for the Bears, they found themselves on the other end of a bad shooting night when they squared off with Niagara (1-2) on the road Wednesday night.

Brown trailed by eight at the half and relied on Kuakumensah and Hobbie heavily again. Niagara’s Matt Scott, who led the Purple Eagles offensively all night, put up 10 in the first half.

Despite pulling within one possession with 13 minutes remaining, Brown’s shooting woes proved to be too much to overcome. Bruno hit only 30 percent of its shots from the field and went 8-for-29 from three on the night.

But Blackmon believed factors beyond their offensive struggles contributed to the loss. “We shot the ball poorly, but we just didn’t defend,” he said. “Not shooting a great percentage plays a huge part in our loss, but there’s other things we could have done that could have helped us.”

Scott’s 13 second-half points gave Niagara the needed boost to close out Brown in the final minutes, lifting his team to a 75-66 win.

Kuakumensah and Spieth both turned in solid performances despite the loss. Kuakumensah had 10 points and 11 rebounds, posting his third double-double in as many games. His three blocks put him just nine short of the all-time Ivy League career record of 252. Spieth contributed with 15 points and nine rebounds.

Bruno will now turn its attention to cross-town rival Providence, an NCAA tournament qualifier for the past two seasons. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center Saturday. In an upset, the Bears defeated the Friars last season.

Blackmon said the team is maintaining its normal routine in preparation for the Friars. “We’re treating it like it’s a regular game. We’re not putting too much into it,” he said.

ALEX WAINGER / HERALD

Corey Daughtery ’19 shoots over an outstretched Holy Cross defender. The first-year has been a consistent contributor in Bruno’s inconsistent start.

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