Wednesday, February 24, 2016

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 19

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U. hosts diversity, inclusion workshops

As part of DIAP, faculty, staff workshops focus on racism, ablesim, LGBTQ, Islamophopia, classism

By KASTURI PANANJADY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

KATE TALERICO / THE HERALD

As Americans for Peace and Tolerance gathered to demand that Gov. Gina Raimondo deny entry to Syrian refugees, students and community members met them at the State House to counter-protest. The United States has admitted 2,234 Syrian refugees since October 2010 amidst controversy.

Students, community members protest anti-refugee efforts Students face off against non-profit group demanding repeal of welcome to refugees

By KATE TALERICO NEWS EDITOR

This story is the first in a three-part series about Syrians in Providence and at Brown University.

SYRIANS IN PROVIDENCE Students and community members gathered at the State House Monday to protest the non-profit organization Americans for Peace and Tolerance, which assembled to ask Gov. Gina

Raimondo to rescind her welcome to Syrian refugees.

Rhode Island welcomed its first refugees Feb. 13. The family, with children aged six, seven and eight, spent several years in Turkey after fleeing the civil war in Syria. They number among the 2,234 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States since October 2010.

“Rhode Island resettles hundreds of refugees every year, and most of them are resettled without problem,” said Rick Salamé ’16, co-director of the Brown-RISD Arab Society and a Rhode Island resident. “But because of anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia, the Syrian refugee crisis has become politicized, and people are upset about these particular refugees.”

Members of Americans for Peace

and Tolerance said that by admitting Syrian refugees, Rhode Island may be posing a serious threat to its Jewish population. Charles Jacobs, the group’s founder, asserted during his group’s protest that Syrian schools teach the country’s children a hatred of the West — “especially of Jews.” Jacobs cited one study that found that Syrian schoolbooks portray Jews as enemies of Islam.

Sterk Zaza, who immigrated to Rhode Island from Syria in 1979, told The Herald that Jacobs’ claims are unfounded.

“I went to school in Syria. I was not taught to hate Jews. I was not taught to hate Christians,” she said. She visited Syria in 2010 and said she did not witness any of the blatant anti-Semitism feared by Americans for Peace and

Tolerance.

Jacobs called for the state to stop admitting Syrian refugees to prevent tragedies like the string of sexual assaults that happened in Cologne, Germany from occurring in the United States.

“We will not bow to tyranny and evil,” said former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-MI, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who joined Americans for Peace and Tolerance at the State House. “There will be no more Boston massacres, no more San Bernardinos.”

“The people responsible for our national security can’t tell you if (refugees) are from Syria or Iraq,” Jacobs said.

“It doesn’t matter,” pro-refugee protesters responded. » See REFUGEES, page 2

Judge rules Title IX lawsuit against U. to proceed Former member of the Class of 2017 alleges he was discriminated against in disciplinary hearing

By KATE TALERICO NEWS EDITOR

The University will review a lawsuit filed against it in April after a judge ruled Monday to allow the case to proceed.

A former member of the Class of 2017 filed the case against the University and alleges that he was discriminated against due to his gender

INSIDE

in a sexual assault case heard by the Student Conduct Board in fall 2014.

In December, the University filed a motion to dismiss the hearing.

Judge William Smith ruled that on the charges that Brown violated the student’s due process rights and discriminated against him because of his gender, the hearing meets legal standards to proceed. He decided to dismiss the prosecution’s claims of

erroneous outcome under Title IX — that the University misapplied its standards or that the Student Conduct Board misconstrued the facts — and claims of breach of contract. He allowed the claims of negligence — that the University acted under deliberate indifference to gender discrimination under Title IX — to proceed forward.

“The decision appears to reflect the court’s interest in hearing the arguments of the parties, which is understandable in light of the national discussions regarding these issues,”

wrote Cass Cliatt, vice president for communications, in an email to The Herald.

“We believe that Brown has a strong case to present to the court when this matter goes to trial,” she added.

The plaintiff, known as John Doe, is also suing his complainant, referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, for slandering his name by falsely accusing him of sexual misconduct, which led to his eventual suspension from the University.

Following the release of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, the University hosted its first series of diversity training workshops Tuesday titled “Unpacking Diversity and Inclusion in the Academy.”

The event was aimed at individuals responsible for undergraduate instruction and co-curricular support.

It featured workshops led by faculty members and graduate students that focused on racism, ableism, LGBTQ support, Islamophobia, classism and historically underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

The series kicked off with a plenary panel discussion on the DIAP where President Christina Paxson P’19 recounted her own experiences as both a victim and a perpetrator of discrimination. She described encountering daily prejudice as a female president of a University. She also described having nearly mistaken an African-American colleague for a caterer during a Faculty Club mixer at Princeton University.

“Implicit biases are alive and well in the academy,” she said, explaining why she saw the DIAP as critical to the progress of the University. She said she saw the plan as the culmination of a two-year effort to increase diversity on campus, which originated with her “Building on Distinction” initiative.

The DIAP allowed the administration to flesh out actionable goals in greater detail than ever before, Paxson said.

“We would not be where we are without the activism of our students,” said Provost Richard Locke P’17. Locke also said that the diversity training was not mandatory as such tactics tended to “backfire.”

Diversity training programs do not often work without willing participants, Vice President for Academic Development, Diversity and Inclusion Liza Cariaga-Lo told The Herald, citing research published in the Harvard Business Review. Making the training mandatory goes against the culture created by Brown’s open curriculum, she added. » See DIVERSITY, page 3

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

NEWS Weekend-long conference focuses on how to construct International City on Moon

SPORTS Men’s hockey ends 11-game winless streak with win, tie during weekend home games

COMMENTARY Reynolds ’17: Listening to people who do not agree with you is key to changing their perspectives

COMMENTARY Malik ’18: Rothfels professorship debate highlights human moral complexity

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NEWS

PAGE 2 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

KATE TALERICO / HERALD

KATE TALERICO / HERALD

Protesters from the University and the Providence community came together Monday to show support and love for Syrian refugees pursuing immigration to Rhode Island, said Rick Salamé ’16.

In December, students stood on the Main Green in a vigil to mourn the deaths of those lost to the refugee crisis and civil war in Syria.

» REFUGEES, from page 1

possibility of terrorism,” Rep. Robert Nardolillo, R-Coventry, told The Herald before the protest. If those officials who secure the process don’t feel comfortable at this time, then Rhode Island should not risk the safety of its residents, he added.

“Yes, we need to be humanitarians,” he said. “But take public safety into account. … You can’t do a background check on those who don’t have background information.”

Omar Bah, a refugee from Gambia and founder of the Refugee Dream Center, disagreed. The process to be admitted to the United States is far more expansive than state representatives assume, he said.

“Refugees are more vetted than any other person entering this country,” Bah said. “It takes an average of two years before an investigation is complete.”

“They haven’t met these people,” said Zaza, who helps refugees transition to their new home. “They don’t know how grueling the process is to get here or the humiliation they go through.”

As representatives from Americans for Peace and Tolerance spoke, students interrupted their assertions with chants of, “Don’t give in to racist fear. Refugees are welcome here!” and “Shame on you!”

In response to their protests, Jacobs paused in the middle of his statement to address the crowd. “Is this a trigger warning?” he asked.

“What are you doing about the genocide in Palestine?” shouted one student protester.

“What Palestine?” responded a photographer for the group of anti-refugee

protesters.

Pro-Syrian refugee protesters, like Umberto Crenca, founder of AS220, pointed out the irony of preventing refugees from coming to America, despite the fact that he, like many of the protesters on both sides of the issue, is descended from families who immigrated to America for their own reasons years earlier.

In his speech, Hoekstra defended his arguments by referencing his own background. “I’m an immigrant,” Hoekstra said to protesters.

“Are you better than me?” Zaza yelled.

The rhetoric against admitting refugees to Rhode Island involves not only Islamophobic arguments, but also antiArab sentiments, said Marc Boucai, a protester and Syrian Jew whose family immigrated to the United States in the

1990s.

“The lines between xenophobia and Islamophobia are very close,” he said.

The “machine of xenophobia” in the United States creates a perception of the Middle East as a “monolith” and does not “acknowledge the complexities or the histories” of the region, he said.

In a conference following the event, leaders from the Refugee Dream Center and local churches and synagogues were joined by Rep. Aaron Regunberg ’12, D-Providence to speak out against the arguments used by the anti-refugee group.

Yet some representatives fear that the vetting process for Syrian refugees is not thorough enough.

“The director of the (Federal Bureau of Investigation) stated that he doesn’t have the utmost certainty that the (vetting) process will prevent any

Refugees throughout history After a vigil held on campus in December honoring those who have died in the Syrian civil war, Ben Gladstone ’18, a member of the Brown/RISD Hillel Community, said the issue strikes a particular chord for him.

“It was just a couple of decades ago that the U.S. government was associating Jews with a political ideology — communism — and using that as justification to condemn us to death,” Gladstone said. “To see that same U.S. government blocking another group from entering is a reminder that this country as a whole has not learned from the Holocaust.”

Regunberg also drew the comparison between the Syrian refugee crisis and how Jews — including his own grandfather — faced stigma as refugees entering the United States in the 1940s.

He said that growing up, he could not understand how the United States could refuse those families and children.

The events of the past show the United States’ history of “callousness and bigotry,” Regunberg said. “I’ll be damned if we let that happen again.”

“That ugly xenophobia has no place in the lively experience that is our Rhode Island,” he added.

Nardolillo said the comparison between the refugee crisis and the Holocaust is not “apples-to-apples.”

“On a humanitarian outlook, there definitely is a comparison,” he said. “But what we’re talking about is in terms of terrorism, and the Holocaust isn’t connected with that.”

Zaza pointed to the recent family that arrived from Syria as an example of the kind of people the United States is considering taking in as a part of its resettlement efforts. “If you look at the faces of the mom and dad, of the children — you tell me that those are

terrorists,” she said.

Activism’s reaches Student activism among Brown students in support of admitting Syrian refugees dates further back than Monday’s event. Across campus, other individuals and student groups have also confronted the refugee crisis in Syria. In December, students from the Interfaith Coalition for Syria — which comprises members from Hillel, the Catholic community and Ba’hai Club — held a vigil for Syrian refugees who had lost their lives in the conflict. The event was followed with a teach-in by Julia Gettle GS and Sarah Tobin, associate director of the Middle East studies department.

“The kinds of circumstances that the Syrians are overcoming every day to show their resilience and survive and even to thrive are remarkable,” Tobin said at the event. She spoke with many refugees while working in Jordan in the past several years. “I continue to go back because I believe in them.”

Throughout the week prior to the event, the Interfaith Coalition organized a raffle to raise money to fund the White Helmets, a group of volunteers that works to rescue Syrians from rubble following barrel bombs and clashes in civilian areas.

Funds raised by the men’s lacrosse team’s 36-hour run — in which the team’s members continuously jogged around the Main Green for a day and a half — were donated to the Rumie Initiative. The non-profit delivers free educational content to children in Syria by sending $50 tablets with a “library’s worth of content” to low-income areas, said Todd Stewart ’16, a member of the lacrosse team, at the vigil.

Between raffle tickets and the group’s sponsorships, the Interfaith Coalition raised $1,350 in December.

The cost to put up one of the White Helmets in the hospital for a day is $150. “That’s a lot of hospital days we can fund,” Gladstone said.

The teach-in’s main priority was to lobby senators to vote against the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, which would expand background checks on Syrian and Iraqi refugees entering the United States.

“Previously we assumed that liberal Democrats of Rhode Island would represent us and vote against the bill,” Gladstone said. The state’s delegation in the House was divided, with U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, D-RI, voting against the bill and U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-RI, voting for it.

But in January, the Senate voted against it 55-43. President Barack Obama threatened to veto the bill had it come to pass.

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» DIVERSITY, from page 1 Despite the event being optional, it still received a large turnout. Within 90 minutes of when the invitation was sent out to administrators, faculty members and staff members, the event was full, Cariaga-Lo said. Many people who were waitlisted came to the presentations anyway and sat on the floor when there was no seating available, she added. “It just shows how eager people are to have these conversations.”

To accommodate the high demand for the event, the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion offered each workshop twice over the course of the afternoon, she added.

In the question-and-answer session that followed the initial panel, an attendee asked whether the administration would consider different, non-datadriven metrics for measuring intangible goals like inclusion. In response, Locke stressed the importance of listening and bearing witness to the many experiences Brown students, faculty members and staff members had to share.

“Unpacking Diversity and Inclusion in the Academy” is the first step in making an active effort to listen to historically underrepresented groups. Speakers for these workshops were chosen from the pool of individuals who offered feedback during the drafting of the DIAP in the fall. Speakers were given a lot of autonomy in how to structure their workshops, Cariaga-Lo told The Herald.

‘African-American Collective Identity and Activism’ Karida Johnson GS and Shamara Wyllie Alhassan GS opened their workshop with a clarification of its title.

“We’ve railed against the term ‘collective identity’ because it is too essentializing,” Johnson said, explaining that she preferred their workshop be retitled “African-American Experiences and Activism.”

Johnson and Alhassan chose to use the workshop as an opportunity to provide their audience with historical context about black activism. They

also used the platform to direct faculty members’ attention toward curricular resources on campus concerning race relations, such as the Slavery and Justice Report or the slave shackle exhibit at the John Hay Library.

Alhassan said that the main objective of their workshop was to unpack the terms surrounding race discourse in the United States so that all attendees felt equipped to participate in the conversation. Alhassan quoted Audre Lorde, an African-American writer and civil rights activist, saying “I am not free as long as one person of color remains chained. Nor is any one of you.”

Johnson emphasized that the African-American struggle was, at heart, an American struggle and that passivity was not an acceptable response to racial hatred. Referring to a video by the Guardian titled “Are you racist? ‘No.’ isn’t a good enough answer,” Johnson and Alhassan drew a distinction between being non-racist and anti-racist. “It’s not enough to be non-racist,” Alhassan said, explaining that people who do not see themselves as racist can still be complicit in racism by virtue of their inaction.

When Alhassan was invited to lead the workshop on the African-American experience, she was excited but reserved, she told The Herald. While she saw the DIAP as a big step in the right direction, she emphasized that the success of the plan depends on everyone embracing this call for change. “Everyone says that we’re a community, but we are not — not yet,” Alhassan said.

‘Islam, Race and American Political Discourse’ Nancy Khalek, associate professor of religious studies, opened her workshop with an anecdote about how she once confessed to a student that she did not know what the term “cis” — short for “cisgender” — meant. “But it’s okay to err; it’s okay to not know when there’s trust,” she said, emphasizing that Brown as a campus needs to cultivate the same trust in discussions around diversity.

Khalek chose to focus on personal narratives within her workshop. She

MARIANNA MCMURDOCK / THE HERALD

Faculty and staff members participate in a diversity and inclusion workshop. Despite being optional, the training program received a large turnout, with some audience members sitting on the floor. described being congratulated on her lack of an accent and always qualifying her Islamic heritage with, “I’m Muslim, but ….” She said a “discerning colleague” made her realize that she was attempting to distance herself from the dominant perception of Muslims in the United States as ISIS supporters.

She also described walking into class after the Paris attacks and using class time to offer her students the opportunity to ask her anonymous questions. While members of the audience appreciated her willingness to engage with her students during class time, faculty from STEM fields pointed out that their disciplines do not offer the opportunity to incorporate discourses on race during class as easily.

In response to an attendee’s comment that some people are attracted to STEM fields because they do not

have to deal with issues relating to race, religion and politics, Khalek said, “We are dealing with this whether we want to or not.”

Muslim students are not the only ones who feel marginalized because of their faith, Khalek said. She described the experiences of a white female student who felt alienated on campus because of her strict observance of Catholicism. Students can feel marginalized in ways that are not always obvious, she added.

Takeaways from the series “The main lesson here is not to make assumptions,” Cariaga-Lo told The Herald. “Everyone here brings valuable experiences, and everyone has something to learn.”

Susan Vieira, program coordinator of international and transfer support,

said that she chose to attend the “Islam, Race and American Political Discourse” workshop to understand the perspectives of the students she meets every day as a part of her job. “I couldn’t imagine having the everyday pressures that these students do,” she said. The talk had given her a better idea of how to start discussions on Islamophobia with her students, Vieira added.

Materials from these workshops will be made available online, Cariaga-Lo told The Herald. The OIDI will also compile data regarding the makeup of the audience in terms of department affiliation.

Though many of the participants found the workshops useful, one suggestion was to integrate more undergraduate student voices. “I wish there were more opportunities to listen to students themselves,” Vieira said.

NEWS

PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

For Space Horizons participants, next stop is Moon Workshop brings together students, professional mentors in interdisciplinary manner to plan space city

By RACHEL GOLD SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The image of a city on the Moon is, in many circles, still the stuff of science fiction. But at this weekend’s Space Horizons workshop, participants were interested in talking about when it should be built and what it should look like.

The School of Engineering has hosted the Space Horizons workshop annually since 2008, focusing on a theme that represents an “exciting and highly beneficial space capability that for some reason is not being realized,” according to the workshop’s website. This year was dedicated to a city on the Moon.

Held in various locations on campus between Friday and Sunday and attended by an international cohort of 71 students and 10 professional mentors, the workshop aimed to reinforce “the idea that the lunar city can happen,” said Rick Fleeter, adjunct associate professor of engineering and an organizer of the event. “We aren’t building a blueprint for (the National Aeronautic and Space Administration) but putting meat on the idea,” he said.

The lunar city theme was the brainchild of Fleeter and student organizer Tomoya Mori ’16. “After designing a lunar base for the class, I saw the potential in the idea,” Mori said. “If we can prove on the Moon that humans can live under intense radiation and in a one-sixth gravity environment, then we can apply that knowledge to Mars. The Moon isn’t the

ultimate destination. It’s a testing ground for Mars and a stepping stone for the future of humanity.”

Mori was also interested in the theme’s ability to bring different disciplines together, he said. In 2014, he and Sujay Natson ’16, another workshop organizer, founded Metaplaneta, a think tank that seeks to diversify the community of people interested in space.

Mori and Fleeter worked closely with Professor of Geological Sciences Jim Head to develop the “science-engineering synergism” that must characterize space exploration, Head said. Head offered a talk on the lunar environment and geology to open the conference, establishing the scientific context for participants whose backgrounds ranged from astrophysics to visual art — the same range that will be necessary on the lunar colony.

“Metaplaneta is trying to democratize space,” said Arun Varma ’16, an organizer of the event. “We want to make space available for everyone, not just people who are rocket scientists.”

“You can’t have a city with just aerospace engineers and geologists. You need doctors, entertainment and a maintenance crew,” Fleeter said, adding that space missions have only included scientists. “The opposite of a mission is infrastructure. We want something that becomes a part of daily life. Every part of society has to become part of space.”

Mori and Natson brought this conception of the lunar city to the Swearer

Center’s Social Innovation program, which awarded them a grant to conduct research on the topic last summer. The pair planned a two-week trip to Austria, Germany, Sweden and Holland, during which they met with space professionals, were invited to join a United Nations delegation on outer space and were named the best presenters at the Global Space Innovation Conference, Mori said.

They learned that the lunar city is highly anticipated in Europe, unlike in the United States. “When we went to the European Space Agency center in the Netherlands, the chief technology officer said they are planning a bunch of missions to the Moon,” Natson said.

“I realized that what we were thinking of was actually realistic.”

Knowing that Mori, Natson and Varun were invested in Metaplaneta and the lunar concept, Fleeter asked them to lead the 2016 Space Horizons event. The conference was typically led by faculty members and geared towards professionals, but the student organizers chose to develop this year’s iteration for students, Varma said.

When planning began in September, the team decided to adopt an integrated design approach, Mori said. The approach “brings all the elements involved in a project from the very beginning to reduce potential conflicts and ultimately come up with the most efficient and effective” solution, he added.

The organizers split the workshop into four areas: science, infrastructure, policy and business. “We thought about the fundamental aspects of culture and

society on Earth, and we concluded that these are the four that would be most fundamentally changed in the lunar environment,” Varma said.

Student participants and professional mentors were each assigned to one of the groups, which conducted brainstorming sessions Saturday. The sessions were punctuated by “integrative meetings,” during which each group heard updates from the other three arenas.

The science group focused on the potential of conducting scientific research on the Moon. “There are lots of things which being on a lunar surface helps you with,” said Ian Dell’Antonio, professor of physics and one of the event mentors. “On the Moon — relative to being in space — there is something to build upon. Relative to the Earth, there is no radio interference on the far side. Putting telescopes on the Moon could be very advantageous,” he said.

While students discussing politics threw around questions ranging from how Earthlings would see lunar citizens to whether the Moon would become its own political entity, the infrastructure group asked what the city should look like. “You have to then start dealing with important human attributes,” said Michael Lye, Rhode Island School of Design professor of industrial design and another professional mentor. “Are they going stir crazy? What is it like to live your entire life without going outside and feeling the breeze? The infrastructure has to address all that — people can’t live in trash cans.”

Though the groups worked toward presentations that the organizers hope

to publish in a written report, the workshop’s main goal was “to get people excited,” Fleeter said.

To that end, all participants had the opportunity to experience the lunar surface in the University’s YURT Ultimate Reality Theater and participate in a workshop on astrotheology led by Michael Waltemathe, professor at the University of Bochum in Germany.

Waltemathe was not the only participant to travel from abroad. Mohammad Yezdani, a student at the Institute of Space Technology in Islamabad, Pakistan, gave a talk to the group about the Pakistani space program, explaining how despite religious conservatism and national skepticism towards space, he is leading an effort to provide space classes in elementary schools. “I need to get the entire population in Pakistan to start dreaming about space,” he said.

The business group discussed the obstacles facing the lunar program, most notably the incredibly high costs involved. “This is not going to make money,” Fleeter said. “Maybe we can recoup some of it — selling ‘Made on the Moon’ tourism and real estate. But this stuff won’t pay a trillion dollars.” In a talk titled “Show Me the Money,” Alden Richards suggested the improbability of progress in the foreseeable future.

But most of the room was undeterred.

“The question isn’t what we want to do to get there, it is what we want to do once we’re there. It’s organic: The young people own it, and by god, they’re going to do it,” Head said. “We need to get off this planet.”

TODAY

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

menu

the lax life

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

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

BLUE ROOM

Gourmet Grilled Cheese

Beef Chili, Hearty Country Vegetable Soup, Naked Burrito

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Shaved Steak Sandwich, Green Beans with Roasted Peppers, Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cider-Glazed Turkey, Fresh Hoisin Sugar Snap Peas and Carrots, Chocolate Cake

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Saturday Night Jambalaya, Stuffed Red Peppers with Brown Rice, Chocolate Chip Cookies

Vegan Split Pea Soup, Roast Beef Au Jus, Mashed Potatoes, Panettone Bread Pudding

sudoku

ELI WHITE / THE HERALD

Players from the women’s lacrosse team vie for the ball in the first game of the season Saturday. The team snagged a win against Iona College by a two-point margin after its opponents began the game with three goals.

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c r o s s w o r d Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Lobsters’ sense organs 6 Celebs 10 Flight from the law 13 Poker declaration 14 “__ my guard down” 15 Famille patriarch 16 Form by combining elements 18 One-piece garments, slangily 19 Rome-based carrier 20 Toll road timesaver 22 “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” singer 24 Performer’s supporters 28 Guacamole, e.g.

29 Twisty letter 30 Diva delivery 31 Snoozed 33 Fictional voyager 40 Retired New York senator Al D’__ 41 Rational 42 DDE rival 45 Esteemed league member 46 N, in Morse code 49 Sparkle 52 Currencies 53 Irrationality 58 Bravo preceder 59 Host of the 2015 MLB All-Star Game 61 Not masc. or fem.

62 Prod 63 Gold brick 64 Fashion monogram 65 Jury member 66 Fluff, as hair

6 Brand that “gets the red out” 7 Epic with a very big horse 8 Refillable candy 9 Metal playing marbles 10 Delaware Valley tribe 11 Comes into view 12 Salutation abbreviation 15 Bite-size Chinese appetizer 17 Tarzan portrayer Ron et al.

21 Mothers of Invention musician 23 Empty, as threats 24 Fourth notes 25 “Entourage” agent Gold 26 Diarist Anaïs 27 Rum-soaked cake 31 “The Affair” airer, briefly 32 Morticia, to Gomez 34 Peaceful relations 35 Annual tennis team event 36 Texting farewell

37 Chap 38 Lennon partner 39 On Soc. Sec. 42 The same number 43 Places where élèves study 44 Wicked ... and, homophonically, like five long puzzle answers 46 One of the reindeer

47 “The Bell of __”: Longfellow 48 “Don’t need to watch that movie again” 50 Spiffy 51 Fencing attack 54 Celebrity chef Burrell 55 Lengthy story 56 Nebraska natives 57 Evening, in ads 60 Anger

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

xwordeditor@aol.com

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Inside Negroland by Margo Jefferson 7:00 P.M. Granoff Center

Film Screening of ‘Oscar’ 7:00 P.M. Watson Institute, Joukowsy Forum

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Pixar Animation Studios Info Session 8:00 P.M. CareerLAB

LaTeX Tutorial 5:00 P.M. CIT, Room 201

Brown/RISD Teach-In: University and Dissent 12:00 P.M. Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL

Rethinking RIPTA The good news is that we Brown students get to take full advantage of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus system for free. The less good news is that this privilege does not mean much. While there are students who would argue that the RIPTA is very convenient once you know how to navigate it, most of us never bother learning. To the majority of the Brown community, RIPTA is a service that sounds great in theory, but ultimately ends up being more of a hassle than an effective mode of transportation.

The main problem is that — due to the lack of convenient routes stopping through College Hill and the unpredictability of when the buses will actually show up — taking the RIPTA often becomes too time-consuming to be practical. Lately, more and more students elect to split the cost of a 10-minute Uber ride rather than spend 45 minutes making the same journey for free via RIPTA. The convenience of Uber easily trumps any financial advantage RIPTA might have.

Even beyond College Hill, RIPTA does not seem to be particularly efficient. Commuters who need to get to their jobs in Providence do not have much flexibility, as many routes only have one stop per town, if any at all. This means that before they can even get on a bus, commuters have to find a way to the nearest stop. Additionally, many lines only operate at hourly intervals, which can complicate transfers and make the journey slow.

We propose that RIPTA increase both the number of stops and the number of routes it operates. But we also recognize the financial difficulties of doing so. RIPTA’s financial struggles were especially evident in December when the company voted to raise the prices of weekly and monthly passes and begin charging elderly and disabled riders, who previously rode for free. There is no way to guarantee that adding lines would also increase the number of riders.

This makes these potential changes a huge financial gamble.

At the same time, the risk may be worth it. Considering that the decision to charge elderly and disabled customers only served to alienate the demographic that needs simple, accessible public transportation the most, RIPTA should request feedback from and listening to the residents it supposedly serves.

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.

L IO R A M O R HAY I M

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

“The moon isn’t the ultimate destination. It’s a testing ground for Mars and a stepping stone for the future of

”

humanity.

— Tomoya Mori ’16

See space horizons on page 2. comic P-Branes and Bosons | Ricky Oliver

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

The difficulties of historical legacy AMEER MALIK staff columnist

A recent Herald article (“Professorship name stirs polarizing views,” Feb. 17) has lingered in my mind and has made me ponder how we view and judge people. The article explains how an “endowed history assistant professorship is named after Hans Rothfels, who served as a substitute lecturer at Brown during and after World War II.” The article describes Rothfels as a very vocal supporter of German nationalism between the two World Wars who held racist views and expressed beliefs that paved the way for the rise of Nazi ideology in Germany. The article further explains that Rothfels supported the Nazis, voted for Hitler in the 1932 election and tried twice to become an honorary Aryan.

But the article also explains, “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.”

The donor who named the professorship after Rothfels thought of him as a great teacher who was funny, helpful and accessible to students, and that, according to Associate Professor of History and Judaic Studies Adam Teller, Rothfels was important in develop-

ing German contemporary history.

The question boils down to: Should the University rename the professorship?

I’m not going to answer this question. Instead, I will focus on the end of the article, which really struck me: “The study of history can help ‘create a different society,’ (Teller) 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 pres-

gel, we ignore his or her negative qualities and faults, and this can allow us to excuse terrible behavior. Consider Franklin D. Roosevelt, the U.S. president beloved by many for his leadership during the Great Depression and World War II. His actions helped this country persevere through numerous crises. But he passed an executive order that sent all Japanese Americans to internment camps. If I think of him as an “angel,” I run the risk of excusing that terrible, immoral action of his. I fail to learn an important lesson:

accurate. This person was a human.

This person probably had at least a few friends or family members who loved him. This person might have once done something helpful for another human being. Again, this person’s actions should not at all be excused, and judgment should not be mitigated by the mere fact of common humanity.

But if we fail to think of the “demons” as human beings, we fail to learn another important lesson: The people who have done the most atrocious things are still human beings and

When we think of people as simply “good” and “bad,” we ignore their complexity as human beings and make angels and demons out of mortals. ent,’ Teller said.” Often times, it is easy to categorize figures from the past by saying that they were either “good” or “bad.” I understand that it would be easier for all of us on a psychological level to view historical figures in such a simple way. But doing so is problematic because it ignores the complexity of humanity and prevents us from learning important lessons.

When we think of people as simply “good” and “bad,” we ignore their complexity as human beings and make angels and demons out of mortals. When we make someone an an-

Human beings who have done great things are capable of and often commit terrible actions, too.

Now let’s discuss the “demons” of history. For this thought experiment, I kindly ask readers to pick whatever historical figure comes to mind when they think of the word “demon.” Whoever this demon is, he probably destroyed and ruined the lives of many, many people and caused immense damage that has left a mark to this day. This is all despicable. This is all completely inexcusable. But to call this person a “demon” would be in-

therefore similar to us in an essential way. This harsh truth is important because it allows us to understand that human beings like us are capable of committing horrendous actions, and this knowledge allows us to be more aware of our own beliefs, behavior and potential to do terrible things.

People are complex, and every person has the capacity to do both great good and immense evil. This awareness is useful in our lives. It prevents us from seeing the people around us too simply, from being shocked when someone we admire does something

terrible, from being taken off guard when someone we detest does something nice. I’m not saying that we cannot judge people, but that when casting a final verdict, a person’s good and bad qualities have to be weighed against each other. It’s obvious that none of the “demons” of history should be honored. But it’s also true that a few negative traits are not enough to deny someone an honor.

After all, no person is perfect.

Should Rothfels be honored with a professorship? I don’t know. I don’t know enough about his connections to the Nazi party and ideologies, about the impact of his research, about the relationship (if any) between his scholarship and his reprehensible beliefs or about the effect he had on the person who endowed a professorship in his name. I lack the depth of knowledge about Rothfels to judge his good qualities against his negative ones.

I believe it is up to those who could know these things — the professors and other scholars at the University — to decide if the professorship should be renamed. But I personally think that it would be appropriate for a history professorship — which would be for a field of study that focuses on the complexity of past events and figures — to be named after an individual with a complicated life.

Ameer Malik ’18 can be reached at ameer_malik@brown.edu.

Listen up GEORGE REYNOLDS staff columnist Brown encourages its students to challenge others, question what a professor tells us in class, critique theories of our peers and inspire other students to rethink their positions. While this community — one in which we constantly challenge each other and progress towards truths — sounds very nice, it is simply nonexistent. Unfortunately, these challenges have become impolite and ineffective. At times they actually encourage us to fight against rethinking our positions and developing new theories. It would be much more effective for everyone to listen, understand the other point of view and question his or her own positions instead.

Besides appreciating the greater civility that comes with listening, one should consider this: It is a more effective way of changing minds.

I have never changed someone’s mind by lecturing or yelling at them; I have never had my mind changed by being patronized or ignored.

This would likely prove true for many anecdotally. Further, from Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” to Jonathan Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion,” there is a

bevy of works on the benefits of listening and being friendly during a discussion if one’s goal is to persuade. Becoming belligerent offers no such benefits. Listening, avoiding bickering and understanding someone’s point of view make individuals more likely to change the minds of others.

Listening to someone and questioning our own point of view facilitates growth on both sides of a discussion and makes us more likely to actu-

name calling, this rarely accomplishes anything.

Too often we listen with the intention of poking holes in people’s arguments rather than understand their points of view. Most people have probably been guilty of this. I definitely have. We should stop.

Admittedly, it can be very difficult to look for the pros rather than the cons of someone else’s opinion, especially when it leads us to rethink

Too often we listen with the intention of poking holes in people’s arguments rather than understand their points of view.

ally make progress. This is smart, and we should do it more.

While listening can help us change minds, it also leads to personal growth. As things stand, disagreement among students too often leads to yelling and belittlement rather than actual discussion of issues. Someone gets frustrated that the other person disagrees, then — rather than listen — sits there thinking of a counterpoint.

Even when it does not end with raised voices or

our own. It is always scary to admit we may be wrong about beliefs we have held for a long time.

But we should be brave, and we should try to truly understand someone’s point of view before questioning it. Aggressively arguing with someone does not help ideas move forward and can instead further ingrain listeners in the beliefs that one is ostensibly trying to change. Trying to make people feel silly about their beliefs puts the aggressor in a negative light. We tend not to listen

to or agree with people we see negatively. Only the speaker becomes convinced of his or her argument. It is always easy to convince ourselves that we are right.

This is dumb and slows down progress. We are too smart as a community to do this. I write about this because it scares the hell out of me. I see posts on Facebook about Congress never achieving anything; I hear people speak about the dangers of partisanship. Yet at Brown — a campus filled with fewer than 10,000 students who possess some of the most brilliant minds on the planet — we fall into the same traps. This behavior drives people to extreme ends of spectrums (Donald Trump’s popularity demonstrates this pattern on a national level) and creates resentment on both sides. There are serious problems that we face as a community, both on campus and on the national level, and we will not solve any of them acting this way. I have been as guilty of this behavior as anyone, but I am no longer okay with it. Starting right now, I will make a concerted effort to listen to someone’s entire opinion on an issue and understand it fully before questioning it.

I encourage everyone else to do the same.

George Reynolds ’17 can be reached at george_reynolds@brown.edu, but if you are not civil and polite, your email will be deleted.

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SPORTS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2016

M. HOCKEY

Win, tie against ranked opponents halt 11-game skid Four-goal period propels Bears past No. 20 Clarkson before draw with No. 18 St. Lawrence

By MATTHEW BROWNSWORD SPORTS EDITOR

Tommy Marchin ’19 intercepted a pass at the Clarkson blue line and fed a sublime pass to Nick Lappin ’16, who deposited a wicked backhand past Steve Perry for the men’s hockey team’s fourth goal of the first period. After losing games in which it had one-goal, two-goal and three-goal leads, Brown (5-16-6, 3-15-2 ECAC) finally broke its 11-game winless streak against conference opponents with a convincing 5-2 win over the No. 20 Golden Knights (16-13-3, 8-9-3).

“It was a really good weekend for us,” said captain Mark Naclerio ’16. “We’ve been going through every week of practice and working hard, so it’s nice to get some results with playoffs right around the corner.”

Lappin’s goal was the 49th of his career and his 15th this season, eclipsing his goal total from last year with three games left in the regular season. Right on the senior’s heels is the standout firstyear Marchin, who scored the second

goal of the game — his 14th. Naclerio — the third member of Brown’s vaunted first line — is third on the team in points with 21.

“We’ve been playing together basically all year,” Naclerio said. “It’s been working out really well for us. We’ve been able to put a lot of pucks in the back of the net.”

Zack Pryzbek ’17 scored his third goal in four games and Bruno’s third of the period to chase starting netminder Greg Lewis, who gave up a goal in the opening two minutes to Tyler Bird ’18 before ceding another to Marchin.

The first-period explosion was by far the Bears’ best frame of the season, burying a nationally ranked team with four unanswered goals while goalie Tim Ernst ’17 was only forced to make four saves.

Clarkson came back with a two-goal second period, but Alex Brink ’19 slingshotted around a Golden Knight defender to score his fourth goal of the season and restore a three-goal lead for Bruno in the third period.

“He’s been playing some real solid hockey,” Marchin said. “He had two really good games. He’s a good power forward and uses his body really well offensively.”

Brink added his fifth goal of the season — tying him for third on the team in goals — in a draw against No. 18 St.

ELI WHITE / THE HERALD

Andrew Doane ’17 plows through defenders while skating his way to the goal. Bruno broke its 11-game streak of losses last weekend with a victory that will position it to compete in the first round of the playoffs.

Lawrence a day later.

After losing Buffalo Sabres draft pick Max Willman ’18 for the season to a broken hand just over a week ago and Dane Cooper ’18 to an appendix injury, Brown overcame some adversity to emerge undefeated from a weekend in which it faced two nationally ranked teams.

“We know that we have to have different guys in the lineup,” Marchin said.

“But we know that everyone’s going to be working hard because we all have the same goals in mind.”

Lappin got the 50th goal of his career

against the Saints (16-12-4, 10-7-3) on senior night, establishing a one-goal lead that was quickly erased by a Gavin Bayreuther rocket that left Ernst helpless.

After no scoring in the third period and overtime, Brown escaped a conference weekend with three points for the first time since early November.

Those three points were enough to catapult the Bears above Princeton and Colgate at the bottom of the ECAC standings, putting them in a position to face Clarkson, Rensselaer, Dartmouth or Cornell in the first round of the playoffs.

Brown earned at least a point against each of these opponents this year except for Dartmouth, which is on a five-game winning streak against the Bears.

Brown wraps up its regular season with tilts against league leader No. 1 Quinnipiac and cellar dweller Princeton, which both defeated Brown earlier this season.

“Right now, we’re just focused on playing our best hockey,” Naclerio said.

“We’re not focused on the playoffs or who we’re going to play. But when the first round comes, we’ll come ready to play.”

WRESTLING

Bears notch landslide victory on senior day against Hofstra Bears give performance to remember as captain Marker ’16 wins final career bout at Pizzitola Center

By NICHOLAS WEY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In the final dual meet of the regular season Saturday, the wrestling team found its form in a dominating 37-6 rout of EIWA opponent Hofstra. Despite the many emotions of senior day, which began with a ceremony honoring the Bears’ (5-10, 3-8 EIWA) sole senior, captain Gus Marker ’16, the team never lost sight of its main focus: a conference win. Bruno honored the day with victories in all eight bouts.

Marker “is a great leader on the team,” said Charlie Banaszak ’17. “I was happy to go out and get the win for him.”

Head Coach Todd Beckerman was similarly pleased with the result.

“This is the best we have wrestled all year,” Beckerman said. “This is exactly what we need heading into the postseason.”

Mike Russo ’18 set the tone early on with a tight, hard-fought victory in the 125-pound division.

“We have a little history,” Russo said

about his Hofstra opponent, Bryan Damon. “We’re both from New Jersey and I wrestled him in high school a lot, so I knew his style going into the match.”

Russo’s victory set the tone for the rest of the day. In the second match of the meet, Banaszak followed with a decisive 17-1 victory at the 141-pound weight class. He made quick work of his opponent, winning via technical fall — mercy rule — half way through the second period and putting Brown up 9-0.

Next up, Stephen Galiardo ’17 at 149 pounds and All-American hopeful Justin Staudenmayer ’17 at 157 pounds both achieved commanding victories by major decision with 17-5 and 10-1 wins, respectively, putting Brown up 22-0 after four bouts.

Staudenmayer notched his 13th straight win this season, a streak dating back to the team’s Jan. 16 dual meet versus Cornell.

Twin brothers Christian and Andrew LaBrie ’18, as well as Austin Pfarr ’18 also tallied commanding wins, bringing the

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

Captain Gus Marker ’16 faces an opponent during the last home match of his career. The senior finished 8-0, receiving a standing ovation.

team score to 33-0.

The highlight of the day came as Marker took to the Pizzitola mats for the last time in a Brown uniform.

“Obviously on senior day you want to go out there and win,” Marker said.

“You don’t want to walk out of the mat the last time in your home gym with a loss.”

But Marker also emphasized that his ultimate goal was a Brown victory, saying, “Home or away, senior day or not, we’re out here trying to contribute wins to the team.”

Marker followed his own words to a T. In the 197-pound division, he easily handled his Hofstra opponent. A takedown 45 seconds into the first period set

the tone for the entire match, as shouts of encouragement echoed throughout the stadium from teammates and fans alike.

Through two periods, the captain had amassed a 6-0 lead, and he ended the match 8-0. At the buzzer, Marker received a standing ovation from the crowd and his teammates, as well as some hugs from coaches.

“He’s been a leader from day one,” Beckerman said. “He has done everything that we needed as a captain. I’m exited to see what the future holds for him.”

But by no means is the wrestling season over. The Bears now enter postseason play, which begins with the EIWA Championships at Princeton March 5.

Success in postseason conference play will advance Bruno to the NCAA Championships March 17, which take place this year on the biggest of stages: Madison Square Garden.

Coming off such a dominant victory, the team seems excited for its shot at NCAAs. “I’ve been waiting for the postseason for a long time now,” Andrew LaBrie said. “I feel like I hit a rut in the middle of the season, but I’m ready to finish strong in the conference and NCAAs.” “I think we have a lot of guys that are clicking at the right time,” Beckerman said. “Hopefully they will be able to punch their tickets to Madison Square Garden.”