Wednesday, February 17, 2016

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 16

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Writing requirement changes for first-years, sophomores Students must now submit writing sample related to topic within concentration

By ELI BINDER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Dean of the College Maud Mandel announced a slight change to the writing requirement, effective for the Class of 2018 and beyond, in an email to all first-years and sophomores Feb. 10.

Students could previously submit a piece of written work to satisfy the second writing requirement, but that option is now subject to the approval of each concentration’s director, and the work must be on a topic in a student’s concentration.

Otherwise, students must take a WRIT-designated course between their fifth and seventh semesters, which is unchanged from the previous requirement. The changes also include more stringent enforcement of the previously existing rule that the writing requirement be completed before an undergraduate’s eighth semester.

Instituted as part of the universal writing requirement created after a 2008 review by the Task Force on

Undergraduate Education, the option to submit a writing sample is known informally as the “upload option” and was taken by only 214 students in the last academic year. Submitted work had to be 7,000 words or more, could be on any subject and would be reviewed through the Writing Center.

But the previous version of the upload option faced some issues. Grant Glovin ’16, an undergraduate representative on the College Curriculum Council, said that the CCC began to review the writing requirement due to the “realization that as seniors were submitting pieces of writing to fulfill the second part of the writing requirement, there wasn’t a mechanism in place to evaluate them.”

Additionally, Glovin said the rule that students had to complete the requirement between their fifth and seventh semesters was not strictly enforced — many students were permitted to do so in their eight semester. Problems arose concerning graduation when students failed their WRIT-designated course or the writing they submitted was low quality, he added.

The CCC “made the narrow change to enforce what was already on the books, namely that the second » See WRITING, page 2

MATTEO MOBILIO / HERALD

Researchers claim the namesake of a professorship — Hans Rothfels — was an early Hitler supporter. Rothfels worked as a substitute lecturer in Brown’s history department during and after World War II.

Professorship name stirs polarizing views Cited by one researcher as a Hitler supporter, Rothfels’ political beliefs are not so clear

By SHIRA BUCHSBAUM SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Student activists at Princeton have called for the reconsideration of the

name of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in light of Wilson’s anti-civil rights, prosegregation and racist views. Brown, too, has honored complicated figures through endowed positions — one of which has recently garnered attention over accusations that the namesake of the professorship was a Hitler supporter.

The endowed history assistant

professorship is named after Hans Rothfels, who served as a substitute lecturer at Brown during and after World War II. In August, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a piece on the research by John L. Harvey, a professor of history at St. Cloud State University, which paints Rothfels as an “early supporter of Hitler.”

Harvey first encountered Rothfels » See ROTHFELS, page 3

Med school requirements reflect modern medicine Trend shows biochem course seen as equivalent to second orgo course in med school admission

By ELENA RENKEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

MATTEO MOBILIO / HERALD

Dozens of companies packed into Sayles Hall for Tuesday’s Spring Career Fair. Students were able to speak with representatives from a wide variety of companies and use a new app to navigate through the hall.

Career fair aids student job, internship hunt CareerLAB director encourages networking, exploring career options from Microsoft to CVS

By ROLAND HIGH STAFF WRITER

Over 40 company booths filled Sayles Hall for the Spring Career Fair Wednesday, as corporate giants from Microsoft to CVS set up shop next to

INSIDE

smaller companies to attract potential interns and employees.

CareerLAB Director Matthew Donato advised students to consider the fair as “an exercise in relationship-building” and an opportunity to gather information. “It’s a great way to meet employers, to practice your networking skills and to practice having a conversation with an employer,” he said.

This is the first year that CareerLAB is using an app for the Career

Fair that allows students to navigate the fair without it being too “paperintensive,” Donato said. Students can also plan which companies they want to talk to in advance with the app, he added.

Depending on where a student is in the job-seeking process, Donato recommended that students “have a game plan when you go in … to know what employers are going to be there. Have some questions that » See CAREER FAIR, page 2

In the last decade, many medical schools have removed the requirement for a second semester of organic chemistry and added a semester of biochemistry, said Joanne McEvoy, director of admission at the Warren Alpert Medical School.

With recent changes to the MCAT adding material on biochemistry and behavioral science, medical schools face a period of transition in defining their requirements for applicants.

Like many of its peers, the Med School only requires one semester of organic chemistry. Of the Ivy League medical schools, only Columbia requires two semesters of organic chemistry. Some demand a more complex set of requirements — Penn calls for competency in specific topics, and Harvard requires two semesters covering

organic chemistry and biochemistry.

The changes to the 2015 MCAT prompted a “national conversation” about pre-medical requirements, McEvoy said. “The things you’re expected to arrive knowing have changed somewhat because medicine changes,” she said.

“There are things that are important about organic chemistry. It not only teaches concepts that are relevant for understanding medicine, but it also teaches a way of critical thinking and a way of approaching biological problems,” McEvoy added.

Brown’s Health Careers Advising page states that most professional health schools require a full year of organic chemistry. Brown students are generally advised to take two semesters, an idea that is ingrained in pre-medical students, said Helen Ding ’18.

McEvoy noted that the majority of applicants lack pre-medical advisors, and thus the requirements clearly outline how these students should prepare themselves appropriately, no matter what advising their undergraduate school offers. » See ORGO, page 2

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

NEWS Dean of Admission endorses emphasis on civic engagement in college admission

NEWS Students for Hillary and Students for Bernie convene to discuss presidential election

COMMENTARY Meyer ’17: Presidential candidates will not have power to enact policies autonomously

COMMENTARY Zabat ’18: Show support during National Eating Disorder Awareness week

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KATE TALERICO / HERALD

»ORGO, from page 1 “That helps us to bring a really diverse group of people into medicine,” she said. “We want to be transparent about what you really need to have on your transcript in order to be competitive.”

Most Brown students still take both semesters of organic chemistry, said Claire Rhee ’16, who is currently applying to medical school. The rigor of the courses and critical thinking involved make the full year a valuable requirement, she said, adding that she also

enjoyed the classes.

“You have to be able to really apply what you learn” in the second semester of organic chemistry, Rhee said.

Organic Chemistry I “is more of an introduction to general critical thinking skills that you learn.”

Ding is preparing to go to medical school and has always planned on taking organic chemistry because it is a requirement. “Professors have told me it’s really helpful in terms of how you think as a doctor,” she said, adding that the course material may not be “directly applicable.”

But not all students follow the suggested path. Jesse Siegel ’16 took his first semester of organic chemistry during the spring of his sophomore year and planned to take the second semester the following fall. While researching medical school requirements over the summer, he noticed a school that accepted biochemistry instead of a second organic chemistry course.

“That sort of surprised me because I had always assumed that (Organic Chemistry II) was required, and I was planning on taking (Biochemistry) anyway,” he said. “Once I found that, I

looked at the requirements for a bunch of other med schools — pretty much any med school I could find — and it seemed like almost all of them said that the second orgo requirement could be fulfilled by biochem.”

Siegel ended up taking immunology instead. He added that there was almost no organic chemistry on the MCAT he took, and he does not expect to feel underprepared in medical school. “I feel like I made the right choice,” Siegel said. “A class like that is only very tangentially related to actually going into medicine.”

As a student in Brown’s Program in Liberal Medical Education, Noah Lupica ’16 has fewer requirements to fulfill than most pre-medical students.

He has only taken one semester of organic chemistry.

“More than anything, I feel like a lot of the pre-med requirements are sort of an endurance test,” he said. He hopes pre-med students can use their undergraduate years to study “the skills required to relate to human experience — have empathy and understand where someone else is coming from and be able to meet them there.”

» WRITING, from page 1 part of the writing requirement has to be completed by the seventh semester,” Glovin said, adding that the change was also instituted to bring “a little bit of structure to these writing submission options.”

Glovin said he did not think these changes would become an issue, given that most underclassmen have not yet considered how to complete the second part of their writing requirement. “I don’t think people think that far ahead, generally,” he said.

Michelle Xiong ’18, a biology concentrator, said that the change in the writing requirement policy was not likely to be a problem. She said that she did not know about the upload option until reading Mandel’s email. “I’m sure I can find (a WRITdesignated course) that I can enjoy,” she added.

Rodriguez and Glovin both said the goal of the change to the writing requirement was to make sure that students who choose to upload work are able to do so in a structured way that allows them to learn about writing within their concentration.

Many students resort to the upload option only after failing to find WRIT-designated courses in their concentrations, but “there seemed

» CAREER FAIR, from page 1 you want to get answered,” adding that he encourages Brown students of all ages to consider coming to the career fair in the future.

He also noted that the University might be moving away from general fairs toward smaller, field-focused events in the future. The decision could hinge on the “tradeoff between having a big event that attracts a lot of students versus having smaller events that might attract smaller

MATTEO MOBILIO / HERALD

Students must now take two WRIT-designated courses or submit work related to their concentrations as a graduation requirement. to be courses that aren’t WRIT that should be,” Rodriguez said. “One of the things we are working with faculty

on is making sure there is consistency in the way the WRIT designation is applied.”

groups,” he said. “We welcome student input … on how we can make our fairs better.”

Jeannie Le ’16, one of the students who attended the fair, said she has felt mounting pressure to find a job quickly and was not particularly concerned about her career path.

“It’s spring. I need a job,” she said. “I’m getting desperate at this point.” Le also said she found some of the businesses represented at the fair, such as a construction company, surprising.

Darius Chyou ’16, who was looking at jobs in healthcare, consulting and education said he is also anxious for employment.

Chyou found the fair helpful, and added that he was happy to have spoken with several companies.

If students are unsure about what careers they are interested in pursuing, the fair is a good place to “learn something about a specific job or a professional path that you didn’t know about already” and “see what’s out there,” Donato said.

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» ROTHFELS, from page 1 in writing his dissertation on modern European historians; Harvey’s work focuses on “transatlantic intellectual history,” or the study of scholars and ideas, he said.

Conversation over Rothfels’ legacy built during the early 2000s as part of a “wider international discussion” about German scholars and nationalism, Harvey said. The reason it has been inaccessible to and largely ignored by American audiences is because Rothfels’ work is mostly in German, and the issue of his scholarship is tied to German nationalism, Harvey added.

In October, Harvey authored another piece in Perspectives on History, the online news magazine of the American Historical Association, with Georg Iggers, a professor at the State University of New York, Buffalo and a German refugee. Iggers knew Rothfels personally during his time as a doctoral student at the University of Chicago and wrote “The German Conception of History,” a critical analysis of historism, a type of historiographical theory.

Both pieces call on the University to acknowledge the controversy of the naming and criticize the administration for accepting money with the contingency that the endowment honor a polarizing figure with radical perspectives.

Rothfels’ research Rothfels was born Jewish in 1891 and converted to Lutheranism at age 19. In the years between World War I and World War II, he became a loud supporter of German nationalism: He despised the Weimar Republic and “espoused nationalist and radical views,” said Adam Teller, associate professor of history and Judaic studies. Rothfels also envisioned using the ethnic Slavs as slaves, he added.

As a highly regarded historian and professor at the University of Königsberg, Rothfels’ philosophy developed and gained traction during a difficult time in Germany — his “teachings overlapped very much” with what would become Nazi ideology, Teller said.

“Rothfels was a representative of the nationalist right that made the accommodation of National Socialism possible,” Harvey said. He voted for Hitler in the 1932 election and made it “no secret” that he supported Nazi stances, trying twice to become an honorary Aryan, he added.

During his time at Königsberg, Rothfels became “the center of a group of young historians who … later on played a very important role in the Nazi period,” Iggers added.

But Teller said Rothfels wasn’t a Nazi. Though an ultra-right-wing conservative and an “unsavory character,” Rothfels was abhorred by the Nazis for his Jewish ancestry. In the 1930s, as Hitler turned on conservative elites, Rothfels, too, was attacked, his home was ransacked, and he was forced to flee the country as a refugee.

Rothfels taught at multiple universities during and after the war: St. John’s College at Oxford, Brown for

six years from 1940 to 1946 and the University of Chicago.

Though Rothfels was a good and interesting teacher, Iggers recalls a very “awkward” yet “open” discussion with Rothfels about the professor’s ideology. As a man claiming to be a refugee in a democratic country where many refugees were persecuted for their religions and political ideologies, Rothfels continued to purport nationalistic socialistic beliefs. Rothfels subsequently discouraged Iggers from pursuing his PhD, Iggers said.

But Rothfels was in good company among American historians, “a large number” of whom “had ties to the far right in the 1930s and 1940s,” Harvey said.

“Rothfels slipped in with the ethno-ideological view of the time. A lot of people ignored it or turned their nose up to it or even agreed with it.”

Harvey added.

Following the war, Rothfels returned to his homeland, and, with the help of his students, began to “reconstruct historical research in Germany,” Teller said.

Still a deep-rooted German nationalist, Rothfels proceeded to “glorify the right-wing opposition to Hitler” in attempts to distance his type of nationalism from Nazism, Teller added. His book, “The German Opposition To Hitler,” focused on the 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler. Surrounded by colleagues who actively avoided in-depth study of the Second World War, Rothfels was “key” in developing a “new type of history research — (German) contemporary history,” Teller said.

But Harvey argues that “every single German after World War II wanted to say” they abhorred Nazism and Hitler. But given his prominence in the intellectual spheres, criticizing Rothfels implicitly criticized all German academia, Harvey said.

Contrarily, Rothfels’ contributions to historical research “are not inconsiderable,” Teller said, “which means the question of naming the chair is complicated.”

Endowing a professorship After Harvey learned of the Rothfels chair, he contacted the University about the process of establishing the chair and was disturbed that the history department was not consulted, he said.

But contact with the department is not usually part of the University’s establishment process.

Donors “interested in recognizing faculty scholarship through the establishment of a chair” work with staff in the Office of Advancement, “sometimes over many years,” wrote Elizabeth Doherty, senior associate dean, in an email to The Herald.

The process culminates in a legally binding gift agreement between the University and the donor after consultation with a senior administrator “to ensure that the terms of the gift align with and support Brown’s academic priorities,” Doherty wrote.

“Gift agreements are typically not public” because philanthropic donors prefer to maintain anonymity, wrote Cass Cliatt, vice president for

www.browndailyherald.com

communications, in an email to The Herald. But after Harvey published the articles about the chair over the summer, the University released “non-confidential excerpts” of the gift agreement, she wrote.

The donation of the Rothfels chair was made in 2005, likely during former President Ruth Simmons’ capital campaign, Cliatt wrote. The gift numbered among nearly 60 other endowed professorship chairs that were funded through that campaign, she added.

The anonymous donor of the endowment “recalls fondly Professor Rothfels’ excellent teaching and scholarship, his accessibility to students, his good advising and his sense of humor,” according to the gift agreement.

The Rothfels chair was not established until 2009, after the release of the Slavery and Justice Report in 2007. In the report, the University vowed to uphold “high ethical standards” in considering donations.

“As an observer, the values and the heritage of the legacy of Hans Rothfels is not consistent with the liberal basic core values of Brown University in higher education today,” Harvey said.

“On the one hand, this man has appalling racist views that clearly facilitated Nazis taking power,” Teller said. “On the other hand, he paid a price for that. He lost everything.”

Rothfels’ legacy “From time to time we have changed the names or terms of an endowment,” Doherty wrote in her

email. “But doing so requires either working with a living donor to seek approval for the change or seeking a change to the terms of the endowment through legal action.”

Harvey said it was “not his place” to make any recommendations to the University about how to approach the controversy of the chair. “We wanted to just make sure that people were aware of it,” he said.

Iggers said that he and Harvey were “surprised” that no one at Brown investigated the namesake of the chair, adding that, “We felt that it wasn’t right for an honorary chair to be established for someone who was so involved with the Nazis.”

Further, when Harvey first contacted the American Historical Association, the organization found that the University had not listed the position under Rothfels’ name, meaning that scholars applying for the position would not know the chair was in Rothfels’ name, Harvey said.

The Herald could not independently verify this allegation.

Jason Nadboy ’17, a former senior staff writer for The Herald and a leader in the Holocaust Initiative at Brown University, found it “a little strange” that a professor who served for only a few years would receive “such an honor as getting a chair named after him.”

If the University decides to reevaluate the name of the chair, communities of all backgrounds, including Hillel, should be included in that decision, he said.

But Ben Gladstone ’18 said that

the University community has decided that “we do care about people after whom professorships are named.” He pointed to the renaming of Fall Weekend to Indigenous People’s Day as a primary example, noting that it “made a tremendous and very important statement about the values of this University.”

In general, the efficacy of renaming any chair begs the question of whether it creates a more just campus atmosphere, Teller said.

Naming a chair is indicative of two things: It honors the namesake, but it also encourages new research and allows progress to be made, Teller said.

The University could acknowledge that “this is a complicated endowment,” Teller said. “One thing we could do is ensure the chair is used to right some of the wrongs he did.”

Jo Guldi, assistant professor of history, who has held the Rothfels chair since 2012, is a historian focusing on “capitalism, land use and the design of computational tools for visualizing large numbers of texts,” according to her website.

Guldi’s work is interesting and forward-thinking, Teller said.

The study of history can help “create a different society,” he said, adding that the Rothfels issue will not be resolved simply by siphoning his legacy into the good and the bad.

“If we start reducing the past to black and white then we’ll never understand the present,” Teller said.

Guldi is currently on leave from the University and did not respond to requests for comment.

NEWS

PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

New report suggests admission changes Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 endorses emphasis on common good, civic engagement

By GWEN EVERETT SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In March, the high school class of 2016 will receive word from the universities and colleges to which they submitted regular decision applications, and yet another year of what Frank Bruni of the New York Times has dubbed “college admissions mania” will come to a close.

Meanwhile, a new report — “Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good through College Admissions” — created by the Making Caring Common project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education urges colleges to consider the way in which their admission practices contribute to a “culture emphasizing individual achievement.”

The report was endorsed by Jim Miller ’73, dean of admission.

“We have been worried for a number of years about a mad rush to credentialing,” Miller said. He said pressure on college applicants has risen over the years, adding that he witnessed this pressure first-hand when his daughter applied to college.

Colleges occupy a uniquely influential position in the consciousness of adolescents, and institutions should use this power to “send different

messages that help young people become more generous and humane,” the report reads.

The report calls on colleges to reform their practices in a three-pronged approach. First, colleges should judge extracurricular activities on the basis of their significance rather than their volume; second, they should reward students who are ethically engaged in their communities and take into account the way that class, race and culture influence their various engagements; and third, they should “level the playing field for economically diverse students and reduce excessive achievement pressure.”

This is the approach to admission that Brown has taken for a while, Miller said. Endorsing the report was a matter of affirming Brown’s intention to continue prioritizing “students who have joy in what they’re doing,” over those who pad their resumes, he said.

But there are “inconsistencies” between the admission values and practices that colleges purport, said Steven Goodman, higher education expert at Top Colleges, an independent college advising firm. Behind the rhetoric of moving to a more humane process, “universities are recruiting more and more students and not increasing the number of slots,” in an effort to boost selectivity, Goodman said. Colleges are disdainful of resume stuffing, but given the hyper-selective climate that colleges foster, Goodman asked: “what do you expect high school students

to do?”

The report attempts to solve this conundrum by calling on admission officers and college advisors to “challenge the misconception that there are only a handful of excellent colleges.”

But top colleges have a vested interest in communicating a certain charmed image of their institutions, said Stephen Nelson, senior scholar in the Leadership Alliance at Brown.

Admission officers at elite schools say “this isn’t the only place,” while simultaneously fostering an institutional mythology that an education from their particular school is uniquely “transformative,” Nelson said.

Simply changing the criteria by which colleges select students is not enough, Nelson said. “The problem is all they’ve done is reinvent resume stuffing,” he said, adding that so long as the K-12 American education system remains economically stratified, students in wealthy areas will find ways to master the new standards, while less privileged students remain disadvantaged.

Though there is concern that adopting new standards will merely become “prescriptive,” with students engaging in civic activities for the sake of college admission, the values set forth by the report hold great significance, Miller said. “At the end of the day, we hope you’ll be a better person.”

Moreover, it remains unclear whether colleges really have as much social power as the report assumes they have, Nelson said. Much of the stress in the college process stems not from colleges themselves but from pressures imposed by the adults in students’ lives and the backgrounds from which they come, he said.

Additionally, the report fails to distinguish between elite and non-elite colleges, and the reforms it sets forth may not apply to the admission process at many non-selective universities, he said.

“Not all of it will be applicable to all schools,” Miller said. But college admission “is a very ‘I’ focused process,” across the board, and many schools would do well to reevaluate the messages they send to students, he said.

Spotlight on the Statehouse

BY AGNES CHAN, NEWS EDITOR

Providence ‘resurgence’ “We are ready for our resurgence, and that resurgence begins now,” said Mayor Jorge Elorza at his State of the City address last week. Though Providence currently faces a $13.44 million budget deficit, new sources of revenue appear to be emerging to help revamp the city’s economy.

Of the cumulative budget deficit, $4.77 million is from last year and $8.67 million is from previous years. Among other plans intended to cut costs, the city intends to buy all streetlights from National Grid and then hire a private company to maintain them. Overall, this would save Providence an estimated $2.4 million annually.

Elorza said that his administration hopes to pay off the deficit by 2021.

No jail time for young offenders Initiated by Chief U.S. District Judge William Smith, a new program will replace jail time for young offenders with a period of high-level supervision by court and probation staff, the Providence Journal reported.

To determine whether or not defendants should be placed in the program, the sitting judge will assess the individuals and consider their criminal histories. The supervision period will last between six months and one year and may include drug and alcohol treatment, counseling and community service.

Defendants must sign a contract stating that they are aware of the program’s requirements. If defendants fail to complete the requirements of the program, they will be sentenced. There are currently four offenders participating in the program.

Push to legalize marijuana Supporters of legalizing recreational marijuana argued there is no evidence that marijuana use increases when it is legalized, the Providence Journal reported.

A proposed law would permit adults over the age of 21 to possess less than one ounce of marijuana. It would also allow licensed businesses to grow and sell marijuana. Proponents argue that if the Ocean State does not legalize marijuana soon, it will lose out on the economic benefits that marijuana sales can bring.

The first two states to legalize recreational marijuana were Colorado and Washington in 2012. Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia then did the same in 2014. Supporters of the Rhode Island bill urge state leaders to follow suit before Massachusetts does.

TODAY

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016 • PAGE 5

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Pizza: Honey Boo Boo, Mushroom’s Revenge, Sausage and Spicy Garlic Po’ Boys/Rich Boys JOSIAH’S

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Overcast skies hang ominously over English department buildings on Brown Street. Bleak weather continues to linger after Providence experienced its coldest morning in 32 years this past Valentine’s Day.

comic Grad Life | Nathan Amin

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Pattern Theory Seminar 12:00 P.M. 182 George Street, Room 110

Brown/RISD Common Good Job Fair 12:00 P.M. Sayles Hall Auditorium

Wellness in a Cup: The Art of Tea Blending 12:00 P.M. Petteruti Lounge

Argentine Tango Classes 5:00 P.M. Graduate Center Lounge

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Biology of Aging Seminar 12:00 P.M. Biomed Center, Room 291

Recovering Diplomatic Agility 4:00 P.M. Watson Institute

Syrian Revolution and Palestinian Liberation Panel 4:00 P.M. Wilson Hall, Room 102

ExHOTic Girls Wanted: An MPC Workshop 6:30 P.M. BERT 130

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL

Proud of Brown’s role in Bootstrap We are proud that Brown faculty had a role in developing the Bootstrap curriculum. Bootstrap is a computer science literacy curriculum currently being taught to 10,000 middle school students in 17 states and five countries outside of the United States.

The program is a part of President Barack Obama’s Computer Science for All initiative and was designed in part by Shriram Krishnamurthi, a computer science professor, and Kathryn Fisler, an adjunct computer science professor. We are pleased with Brown’s role in this initiative as we expect that it will be instrumental in opening access to computer science to more middle schoolers and hopefully diversifying the field of computer science, in which women and people of color are severely underrepresented.

Currently, women receive only 18.2 percent of computer science degrees awarded in the United States. This number is a lower percentage than what it was in 1999 — 29.6 percent. The number is even worse for women of color: Of the women who earn these degrees, only 17 percent are African-American, and 9 percent are Latina. Women make up 25 percent of computer science professionals, and of that 25 percent, only 3 percent are African-American, and 2 percent are Latina.

The field of computer science is facing a diversity problem — in regard to both gender and race — that is not found in other STEM fields. While women and people of color are underrepresented in most STEM fields, the disparity has been decreasing, not increasing, over the years. As this does not hold true for computer science, it seems likely that the root of the problem is different.

Many attribute the gap to a cultural problem. Computer science is depicted as a field for men, especially white men, in shows like “Silicon Valley.” By the time students get to college, many women find maledominated classes intimidating and feel as though they missed their chance to get into computer science already. Mostly white, male faculty also contribute to this problem. Last year, Brown’s computer science faculty of 33 members included only five women. This means students who are not white and male have a harder time finding role models and mentors to whom they can easily relate, which is an important part of feeling comfortable in any field.

But curricula like Bootstrap have the potential to have a hand in changing all of this. By exposing middle school students of various identities to computer science at an earlier age, the curriculum gives them the chance to fall in love with the field before cultural barriers can take effect. Brown has recently started an initiative to improve diversity and accessibility within Brown, and we are happy to see that Brown faculty members have helped do that outside of Brown, as well.

K I M B E R LY S A LT Z

CORRECTION An article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Brown’s online education progress slow but steady,” Feb. 15) stated that Elizabeth Taylor, professor of English, is not currently teaching. In fact, she is teaching one course while preparing her online course for the fall. The Herald regrets the error.

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

“If we start reducing the past to black and white then we’ll never understand the present.”

—Adam Teller, associate professor of history and Judaic studies

See rothfels on page 3.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editors, Emma Axelrod ’18 and Emma Jerzyk ’17, and its members, Eben Blake ’17 and Leeron Lempel ’19. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

In light of NEDA week MICHELLE ZABAT op-ed contributor As a college student, I find that I have to introduce myself a lot. Usually I say the same things: My name is Michelle, and I am a Michigander.

I am a chef, an athlete and a musician. I spend my free time doing yoga, playing sports and singing. I am an older sister. I am a foodie. I am a scientist.

But what I don’t usually say is that, for over two years now, I have struggled with an eating disorder.

This is something I wasn’t able to admit to myself until a few months ago. It was even longer before I was able to tell someone else for the first time. It’s something I never thought I would have to say, and I wish I didn’t have to. But I do, and if there is one thing that I want to take from this ordeal, it is the chance to prevent someone else from going through what I have experienced.

My eating disorder has taken multiple forms over the years. What began as a harmless health kick before college quickly devolved into orthorexia nervosa and borderline

anorexia nervosa. Since starting school, I have struggled with everything from binging and purging (through obsessive exercise) to the effects of the intense anxiety and incapacitation that accompany eating disorders.

I am scared to make these things public. I am terrified that people will

ing disorder not otherwise specified — but, I still haven’t been able to bring myself to reach out for professional help. Though a doctor might not have signed off on my diagnosis, that doesn’t make the things I’ve gone through any less real — and that is something incredibly important that I don’t think enough people

to the fact that I had never heard or talked about them before. I internalized all the anxiety, desperation and self-loathing that eating disorders breed, and I blamed myself.

For both my sake and the sake of others, I want to try to be the voice that could have helped me two years ago. I want to start a conversation

For both my sake and the sake of others, I want to try to be the voice that could have helped me two years ago.

start to perceive me the way that I perceive myself every single day — as “fat,” “undesirable” and “ugly.” I am embarrassed to admit my experiences, but I feel that I have to. If I don’t, nobody will, and the silence and suffering will continue.

To this day, I’m not sure how typical (or atypical) my experience with disordered eating has been. Through extensive research and reading, I’ve lumped my symptoms together into self-diagnosed EDNOS — eat-

realize.

Eating disorders do not discriminate. They affect people of every race, ethnicity, age, gender and socioeconomic level. They are much more prevalent than people realize and consequently often go undiagnosed and untreated.

One of the reasons this happens is because we don’t talk about disordered eating enough. It took me a year and a half to realize that I had an eating disorder, due in large part

about disordered eating because it’s so easy to forget that you are not alone. Other people are struggling with the same things you are, no matter how much it might seem otherwise. And there are always other people who love you and believe in you unconditionally.

Reaching out to other people isn’t easy, and I learned the hard way that it might not always help. The first person at Brown to whom I admitted my struggles ended up con-

tributing to a bad relapse over winter break. It made the holidays difficult and the start of the semester even harder, but it also provided a welcome opportunity to remind myself of the overwhelming support I have both here and at home.

You are not alone. I am not alone. Our society doesn’t stress this enough, and I hope that I can change that, even on the smallest scale. This year, National Eating Disorder Awareness Week is Feb. 21-27. I am thankful for the opportunity to work with a variety of resources across campus, such as the BWell Health Promotion Office, Project LETS at Brown and, most importantly, incredible fellow students who also have lived experience with disordered eating. We’ll be hosting events throughout the week, including student-led panels and body-positive activities. I am so thankful for the opportunity to work with such beautiful, strong and courageous people, and I can only hope that my words — quiet and uncertain as they may be — might reach someone who needs them.

Michelle Zabat ’18 can be reached at michelle_zabat@brown.edu.

Opting out of campaign season narcissism DANIEL MEYER staff columnist This presidential campaign has taken place under the collective illusion that the winner will be able to do what he or she says. During election season, mass amnesia blocks out the importance of the other two branches of government. Every candidate goes through the ritual of releasing a series of detailed policy plans as though the winner will get to enact his or her scheme. That never happens.

Even when a president manages to deliver on a campaign promise, the legislative process usually alters it far beyond its embryonic form.

Take Obamacare: In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama attacked Hillary Clinton for including an individual mandate in her plan. But after running the gauntlet of bill-to-law politics, things changed.

The fixation on the White House has been momentarily interrupted by Justice Antonin Scalia’s passing. But the effects of the conservative jurist’s replacement will be one of many ways that the policies of the next four years will hinge on activities on Capitol Hill and at the Supreme Court. Voters should evaluate presidential candidates based on their likely relationships with their judicial and legislative colleagues and opt out of the illusion that the winner will be able to deliver autonomously on most of his or her promises.

The Supreme Court already draws the boundaries of the President’s power. In Scalia’s final announced vote, the Justices blocked sweeping ex-

ecutive actions on climate change. Regardless of whether Scalia is replaced by January, the next president will probably have to replace some combination of the aging trio of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer. The next president’s selection will shape the bench for a long time, possibly ending four decades of a conservative majority.

In the meantime, the biggest beneficiary of Scalia’s death will be Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX. After the news broke, he quickly tweeted a promise to obstruct any nominee and is well-positioned to take up that cause in the Senate. Cruz is happiest when tilting at liberal windmills like defunding

old status quo.

The new president’s relationship with Congress will be complex. Both Houses will almost certainly stay in GOP control, though the Democrats will probably pick up a couple of seats to make a more moderate Senate. The insurgencies of Bernie Sanders, D-VT, Donald Trump and Cruz have scared Congressional leaders away from catering to extremes. Congress would probably be willing to work with a moderate President of either party.

Since becoming Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, R-WI, has pushed his party to return to normal governing procedures, most recently en-

During election season, mass amnesia blocks out the importance of the other two branches of government.

Planned Parenthood or repealing Obamacare.

By taking up long-shot or obstructionist causes, Cruz can enjoy the status of a conservative martyr without dealing with the consequences of real change.

If he and his Senate colleagues succeed in deferring an appointment, and he manages to get elected, Cruz would inevitably appoint another doctrinaire conservative, restoring Kennedy’s status as the all-important swing vote on major rulings. It would be hard to select someone more conservative than Scalia, so as far as the Court is impacted, a vote for Cruz would be a vote for the

couraging them to follow the conventional budget process and avoid another stalemate. Under a so-called establishment Republican like John Kasich, R-OH, or Gov. Jeb Bush, the two branches would work together to shed the GOP’s obstructionist mantle.

But the results of electing an outsider candidate would be wild. Though Trump and Cruz are of the party, both are extremely unpopular within the GOP. Voters considering either candidate should expect a White House-Capitol Hill dynamic that is caustic and unpredictable. Representatives fearing a midterm backlash against

such radical figures would be tempted to break ranks to protect their seats. Then again, unpredictability doesn’t seem to bother Trump supporters.

As many observers have argued, the radical possibilities of a Sanders administration would be neutered by Republican opposition. “Those areas in which a Democratic Executive branch has no power are those in which Sanders demands aggressive action, and the areas in which the Executive branch still has power now are precisely those in which Sanders has the least to say,” the influential liberal columnist Jonathan Chait argues. Single-payer health care and free college would require an extraordinarily friendly Congress. Sanders asserts that his election would be accompanied by a grassroots revolution that would uproot the GOP’s grip on Congress, but the advantages of incumbency and safe seats throw shade on that grass-will-be-greener promise.

The winner of this interminable election will have far less control over the outcomes of the next four years than it feels like. Wall-to-wall coverage of the presidential campaign drowns out exposure for the other two branches except in extreme events like Scalia’s death, exaggerating the power of the executive branch. Voters should resist this trick as they decide who to support during the primary season and in November, instead maintaining a holistic view of our government that imagines an interdependent presidency, not an autonomous one.

Daniel Meyer ’17 can be reached at daniel_meyer@brown.edu.

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NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2016

LAUREN SHIN / HERALD

Hillary Clinton speaks to her supporters. As president, she said she would raise minimum wage to $12 and work on sexual assault prevention programs. Clinton agrees with Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT, that community college should be free. Brown Students for Hillary discussed these policies and her background at the political forum.

Brown Democrats convene in political forum to discuss candidates Students represent Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders to discuss policies each would enact as president

By MELISSA CRUZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Last night in a room of about thirty students, the Brown Democrats hosted its “Candidate Political Forum” in Wilson Hall to present the Democratic Party’s presidential candidates — Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — and the stances they take on various issues.

The Brown Democrats do not endorse a particular candidate and

thought it was important to hear both sides of the Democratic race, said Jeffrey Salvadore, president of Brown Democrats, in his introduction.

Brown Students for Hillary leaders Elena Saltzman ’16 and Emma Dickson ’16 presented their candidate first, followed by the leaders of Students for Bernie, Aidan Calvelli ’19, Roro Oshobe ’19 and Abhishek Sharma ’17.

The leaders of each group gave a brief biographical background of their respective candidates and the policies each would enact as president.

Clinton was born into a middleclass conservative household in a Chicago suburb. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1969 and Yale Law School in 1973. By this time, Clinton

had switched from the Republican party to the Democratic party, a decision that was influenced by the Civil Rights Movement.

Sanders was born into a Polish and Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York.

He attended Brooklyn College for a year before transferring to the University of Chicago and graduating in 1964. At UChicago, Sanders led one of the first sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement.

Both student groups discussed their respective candidates’ stances on healthcare, Wall Street regulation and foreign policy. For the most part, the candidates agree on what realms of the country must change and require the most assistance, but they differ in

execution. For example, Clinton would aim to make community college free and four-year public universities debt-free for students. In comparison, Sanders would strive to make all public institutions of higher education free.

On minimum wage, Sanders wants to push the current $7.25 wage to $15 by 2020. Clinton wants to raise it to $12 while pushing for $15 in some areas, “understanding that minimum wage in New York means something different than in rural Minnesota,” Saltzman said.

Sanders wants to remedy the 29 million Americans who remain without healthcare coverage and “really implement universal healthcare,” Calvelli said.

“It would cost a lot of money in the

short run, but ultimately Bernie believes that is the work that is necessary and will pay huge dividends down the line,” he said.

Both candidates are strong supporters of reproductive rights, the group leaders said. Clinton hopes to implement new federal support for sexual assault prevention programs in secondary schools and higher education.

Both groups also included quirky facts about their respective candidates.

For example, Sanders contributed to a folk album called “We Shall Overcome,” on which “thankfully he does not sing,” Calvelli said.

Clinton, on the other hand, describes herself as a “pantsuit aficionado,” Saltzman said.

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