Wednesday, March 16, 2016

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 33

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Hispanic, Latino political scholars discuss election Watson roundtable discusses Latino voting trends, turnout in context of Trump’s campaign

By ROLAND HIGH STAFF WRITER

MATTEO MOBILIO / HERALD

President Christina Paxson P’19 fields questions from concerned students on the recently released Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan in her State of Brown address hosted by the Undergraduate Council of Students Tuesday.

Paxson discusses DIAP in State of Brown Students express concerns about implementation, logistics of DIAP to admins in annual forum

By MATTHEW JARRELL STAFF WRITER

President Christina Paxson P’19 and other University administrators emphasized the progress made in the fields of diversity and inclusion at the annual State of Brown address and public forum hosted by the Undergraduate Council of Students Tuesday.

UCS President Sazzy Gourley ’16 welcomed Paxson to the forum, held in a half-full lecture hall in the Building for Environmental Teaching and Research. “We’re grappling with how to build a community where all students, faculty and staff feel they

belong,” Gourley said in his introduction.

Paxson opened her remarks by citing Brown’s mission statement, which “guides almost everything we do,” she said. “This is an academic institution,” Paxson said. “We’re here to learn, but in ways that make the world better.”

As the implementation of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan continues, individual departments and centers are beginning to develop their own plans in accordance with the policy, Paxson said. These departmental teams are “thinking hard about ways in which they can increase the diversity of their faculty,” she added.

Other actions in line with the DIAP include the hiring of a dean for diversity issues in the Graduate School and a new staff member for the LGBTQ Center and the creation of a task force focusing on diversity across

curriculums. “The goal is to create a more inclusive learning environment,” Paxson said.

Paxson also announced the creation of the First Generation College Student Center, to open in the Sciences Library this summer. This initiative arose directly from student advocacy efforts, she added.

After the introduction, Paxson opened up the floor for questions from students. Administrators including Provost Richard Locke P’17, Dean of the College Maud Mandel, Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey ‘91 MA’06 and Vice President for Academic Development, Diversity and Inclusion Liza Cariaga-Lo answered questions along with Paxson.

Candice Ellis ’16 expressed concerns that the Office of Institutional » See PAXSON, page 2

The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs hosted a discussion Tuesday titled “The 2016 Presidential Election and the Hispanic Vote” on the growing importance of Hispanics and Latinos in U.S. politics. While speakers addressed most of the questions in the context of the current elections and the critical March 15 primaries, they also drew from larger trends among Hispanics and Latinos, who combined constitute the second largest demographic behind whites in the United States, according to U.S. census data.

The Latino population has often been considered a “sleeping giant,” said Heather Silber Mohamed, assistant professor of political science at Clark University. The voter turnout of registered Latino voters has always been consistently lower than nonHispanic white and black voters, she noted. In 2008, the turnout for Latino, non-Hispanic white and black voters was 50, 66 and 65 percent respectively, according to a Brookings Institution chart featured in her presentation.

Moderator Felipe Martínez-Pinzón, assistant professor of Hispanic studies, noted in his introduction that Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s antagonizing rhetoric is adding new vigor to the mobilization of Hispanic and Latino communities and driving a

surge in registration that will hopefully translate into increased voter turnout.

Silber Mohamed said that Democratic-leaning Latinos indeed appeared to be “positioning themselves” for a strong showing, but added that the political inclinations of the Latino demographic are notoriously difficult to predict. “All bets are off,” she said.

Domingo Morel MA’11 PhD’14, visiting lecturer in political science at Wellesley College, said that in North Carolina, registered Latino voters have boomed from 10,000 voters in 2004 to 114,000 in 2012. But he is more interested in the “power of Latino people beyond turnout (and) beyond voter registration,” he added.

Morel said that because the Latino population has grown to 55 million — up from 9.6 million in 1970 — greater emphasis should be placed on “how they have been able to influence and shape our discourse.”

Showing an image of a two protestors of color celebrating after Trump canceled a speech in Chicago Friday due to protest efforts made by a coalition of minority student groups, he noted the significant political impact that can be made outside the voting booth.

In advance of the upcoming primary results coming out of Florida, which has a high Cuban population, Morel concluded by citing figures showing a steady change in the political leanings of Cuban-Americans, a longstanding GOP bastion within the Latino demographic now shifting towards the Democratic Party.

He agreed with Martínez-Pinzón » See WATSON, page 3

NYU professor questions U. records largest applicant pool in history Percentage of financial big data collection aid applicants, students Nissenbaum’s lecture argues that private commercial motives harm public interest, liberty

By RACHEL GOLD SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The phrase “big data” — and the vast, daunting numbers it implies — is thrown around a lot these days. To illustrate the concept, Helen Nissenbaum, professor of media, culture and communication and computer science at New York University, turned to something much more familiar: the emoji.

In a lecture titled “Must Privacy Give Way to Use Regulation?” Nissenbaum

INSIDE

discussed the incongruity between consumers’ expectations and companies’ practices when it comes to data collection. To illustrate cases where business interests align with the public’s interests, Nissenbaum used two smiley emojis.

Where consumers saw no benefit, she selected a neutral face; where data use was contrary to the public interest, she used a frown.

“We are given the story that we should not resist (big data) collection because we benefit so much from data machinations,” Nissenbaum said. “But the reality is that business imperatives often don’t match the public interest.”

This reality becomes problematic in light of what Nissenbaum termed “big » See BIG DATA, page 2

of color comparable to previous years

By ALEX SKIDMORE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A total of 32,280 students applied for admission to the University for the Class of 2020, according to data sent to The Herald by Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73. This is the highest number of applications in the University’s history, Miller wrote in an email to The Herald.

The data encompasses applicants from both the early decision and regular decision pools.

The demographics of the applicant pool are “pretty consistent” with previous years, Miller wrote.

Like last year, 41 percent of applicants identify as students of color and 67 percent applied for financial aid.

Additionally, 17 percent of applicants identified as first-generation students.

The University continued to attract students from all 50 states. California accounted for the most applicants, followed by New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas.

More international students applied than ever before, with 5,432 applicants from abroad. Most of the international applicants hailed from China, India, Korea, Canada and the United Kingdom.

In this year’s applicant pool, Engineering overtook Biology as the most popular intended concentration. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Business, Entrepreneurship

and Organizations, Computer Science and Economics followed in popularity, respectively.

Twenty-eight percent of students indicated they want to concentrate in the physical sciences, which now surpass social sciences as the most popular category of intended concentrations.

Fourteen percent of students selected concentrations in the humanities — up from 12 percent last year. Six percent of applicants were undecided, which is consistent with previous years.

Prospective students frequently cited the open curriculum as a major reason to apply to the University.

“I can balance my passions,” said Catherine Napolitano ’20 of Lincoln, Nebraska, who was accepted early decision into the Program in Liberal » See APPLICANTS, page 3

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016

NEWS Bias, insufficient representation may fuel gender disparity plaguing some STEM fields

NEWS Q&A: Hillary Clinton’s Senior Policy Advisor Jennifer Klein ’87 discusses women’s rights

COMMENTARY Steinman ’19: Refusal to follow narrative norm takes courage, creates heros of us all

COMMENTARY Reynolds ’17: Students should work towards political consensus, discuss ideologies on campus

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» PAXSON, from page 1 Diversity and Inclusion is shouldering a disproportionate share of the burden when it comes to oversight and education on diversity issues.

Paxson responded by highlighting the importance of the DIAP functioning as a community-wide effort. “If it’s coming only from (Cariaga-Lo’s) office, it’s going to fail,” she said.

“We don’t want this plan to fail because we’re putting too much burden on people who already have too much work,” Locke added.

Ellis and Alexandra Sepolen ’16 brought up the issue of expenses associated with Senior Week, such as graduation attire and transportation for family members.

“There isn’t a consolidated list of

commencement-related expenses for seniors,” Sepolen said.

Efforts are being made to deal with this lack of information, Mandel said. The University is hiring an Assistant Dean for Financial Advising that will, among other duties, provide details about commencement expenses to seniors, she added.

“It’s critical that we communicate that at the beginning of the year,” Ellis responded. While some graduation expenses are technically optional, she warned against seeing them as such.

“We’re not going to walk through the gates in our jeans,” she added.

Olivia Veira ’17 asked how administrators will ensure that voices in the Providence community are being heard in the process of implementing the DIAP. The Swearer Center

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD “collected community input while the plan was being put together, and I expect that will continue,” Paxson said in response.

“There is a lot of community outreach,” Carey said. There will be Providence community representation on the Public Safety Oversight Committee, he added.

Training for the Department of Public Safety is also a primary action area of the DIAP. The curriculum for officer training is “rigorous,” Carey said, but the OIDI is helping to institute additional training. “We’re committed to doing quite a bit more,” he added.

Tim Ittner ’18 asked for an update on the state of the arts at Brown. The strategic plan includes the creation of a new performing arts center, Paxson

said. It will take shape as “an innovative performance space that can be used for orchestra as well as various forms of music, multimedia and dance,” she added. “We have strong programs in theater, dance and visual art, but we also have many students that aren’t majoring in the arts that are extremely engaged.”

Administrators also discussed facilities renovations, particularly those associated with accessibility. The issue of Wilson Hall, a building virtually off-limits to students requiring handicapped access, was emphasized.

“We are planning to move forward” with renovations to Wilson, Mandel said. Perkins Hall and Barbour Hall, both primarily sophomore dormitories, will be renovated this summer, Paxson added.

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» BIG DATA, from page 1 data supremacy,” the notion that data collection — internet companies recording clicks, hospitals testing medical samples and credit card companies tracking purchases — simply cannot be stopped.

According to the “big data supremacy” argument, because data collection is hard to regulate, only data use should be subject to regulation. But if entities are permitted to collect as much data as they wish, the data will not always be used in ways that benefit the public, she said.

To prove this point, she offered Google’s Street View image capture as an example. “In 2010, it was discovered that Google Street View vans were not only photographing exteriors, but were also picking up all unencrypted Wi-Fi signals,” she said. If one believes in big data exceptionalism, then Google’s data collection is not an issue, so “that’s why this thesis is something we need to worry and care about.”

Regulators have yet to find success controlling companies’ use of data, Nissenbaum added. “The European Union, which is incredibly motivated to curtail some of these activities, does not seem to have had a big impact,” she said. “It seems like Facebook and Google just allow it to win a few times to make it feel okay.”

Nissenbaum believes that too often, regulators concede that Facebook and Google simply cannot be stopped. “I would like to push back on ‘cannot,’” she said. “Difficult does not mean impossible. Ending the narcotics trade and financial fraud is difficult, but it doesn’t mean we throw up our hands and say we can’t do it.”

And even if companies or governments never use data to exploit the public, simply possessing data confers an unethical advantage, she said.

“The problem at hand is one of domination,” Nissenbaum said. “Not the fact that a government is curtailing your freedom but that the government has the power to curtail your freedom. Simply having the data gives actors the power, even if they don’t exercise it.”

Nissenbaum, who received a PhD in philosophy at Stanford University, believes basic notions of liberty are at stake.

“To be free, we need to free ourselves of others having the power to act in relation to us in an arbitrary way,” she said.

She also recognized that conversations held in academia need to be transferred to technical and regulatory settings to have the greatest impact. “As a philospher, you can wave your hands and have big ideas,” she told The Herald. “But you have to deal with the contingencies of material reality. I like doing that. I like being hands on and practical when you have great partners to work with.”

Lucy Van Kleunen ’17 found the private-public dynamic especially important. “I study computer science and public policy so I really like to look at technology from a social science perspective,” she said. “It’s important to think about ways that technology has both become a tool and also has become something that might be dictating our lives.”

Nissenbaum had answers for most questions — offering biblical examples of privacy to counter the notion that privacy is a new phenomenon, for example — but not all, recognizing that the philosophical and legal frameworks have not completely kept pace with technology. When asked about what can be classified as “big data,” Nissenbaum laughed. “We’re going to be here until seven (o’clock) because my head is breaking thinking about when data comes into existence.”

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016 • PAGE 3

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» APPLICANTS, from page 1 Medical Education. While completing pre-med classes as part of the PLME program, “I won’t have to choose between taking science requirements and liberal arts classes,” she added.

Michael Chen of Honolulu, Hawaii, who applied to PLME, said that he applied to Brown so that he can double concentrate “in different areas, which is great because I’m not a very decisive person,” he said.

Applicants also connected with the atmosphere on campus and the reputation of the student body.

Brown students are progressive, open-minded and like “learning for the sake of learning,” said regular decision applicant Ellis Feldman of New York City, who intends to concentrate in Modern Culture and Media or English.

In her decision to apply, she considered the University’s academic curriculum and her perception of the student body equally.

Brown has already admitted 669 students from a pool of 3,030 early applications, The Herald previously reported.

Students who applied regular decision will be notified of their admittance status March 31.

Top 10 states from which students applied regular decision

#3 Massachusetts: 2,343 #2 New York: 3,405

#1 California: 5,253

#9 Pennsylvania: 870 #8 Illinois: 999

#10 Maryland: 757

#7 Connecticut: 1,006 #4 New Jersey: 1,739

#5 Texas: 1,346 #6 Florida: 1,307

Source: Jim Miller ’73, dean of admission EMMA JERZYK / HERALD

ELI WHITE / HERALD

Domingo Morel MA’11 PhD’14 said that Latinos, the second largest racial group in the United States, should have greater political recognition.

» WATSON, from page 1 that Trump’s rhetoric is helping to mobilize Latinos for the Democratic cause, adding that “Donald Trump may really be problematic beyond 2016” for Republicans.

Daniel Denvir, a Providence-based contributing writer at Salon, assessed the forces behind the Trump groundswell. His campaign is “about a fortress America that’s safe economically and physically,” Denvir said.

“A lot of the condemnation and protesting of him seems a little bit insincere, especially from the right,” Denvir said. Trump is just “saying with a megaphone what they had always been whispering.”

He described how the perceived threat of immigrants crossing the Mexican border was reinforced by the murder of Kathryn Steinle by an undocumented immigrant in San Francisco, serving as a lightning rod for criticism of so-called “sanctuary cities,” he said.

Republican leaders aside, Denvir also found fault in the Obama administration’s implementation of the Secure Communities program, which made it so that “undocumented immigrants picked up for any sort of crime could then be deported from our country.”

This policy is partially responsible for “linking immigration and criminal threat together,” he added.

From the audience, Nnamdi Jogwe ’19 asked if U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, “necessarily even want the Latino vote?”

“No,” Morel answered flatly. To Rubio and Cruz, gaining Latino votes are not as important as “the white voter,” he said. “It’s a tradeoff you have to make” in calculating the votes needed to win.

Denvir said this lack of commitment is “why we have Marco Rubio flirting with comprehensive immigration reform in 2013” before pulling back. Rubio suspended his campaign late last night after losing the Republican primary in his home state of Florida to Trump.

Silvina Hernandez ’17 asked the speakers to comment “on the effects of Donald Trump on voters.”

Martínez-Pinzón decried the lack of diversity, discussion and nuance in recent American politics that Trump has capitalized on. Latin Americans, he added, “are very used to that sort of political speech” that marries violence with political allegiance, referring to the language used by the region’s many political dictators throughout history.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

MARIANA MCMURDOCK, KATE TALERICO, ELI WHITE / HERALD

Jill Pipher, professor of mathematics, Beth Clifton ’18, Bethany Dubois ’18, Katherine Smith, associate dean of biology undergraduate education, Alyssa Mcgillvery ’19, Katelyn Weingart ’18, Devanshi Nishar ’18, Cristina Medrano ’18, Yasmine Haseen ’17.5, Sarah Hsu ’17, Raphae Posner ’18 and Edith Mathiowitz, professor of medical science and engineering, navigate various science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Women in science tend to gravitate toward biology, cognitive sciences Biases, differences in genders may discourage women from pursuing certain sciences while excelling in others

By ELENA RENKEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Women are no longer a minority in some fields of science. Within certain University biology departments, women make up nearly half of the faculty, and within the department of behavioral and social sciences, 70 percent of faculty members are women.

But disparities still exist within science, technology, engineering and math fields. In the applied math, mathematics and physics departments, women represent under 20 percent of faculty members, according to faculty lists on each department’s website. One department head within the STEM fields is a woman.

Nationally, the fields of engineering, computer science and physics retain the lowest percentages of women, and female representation is also low in mathematics and statistics, according to the National Science Foundation.

Debunking gender myths In a 2005 speech, Larry Summers — then-president of Harvard — discussed the difference between men and women pursuing STEM in terms of willingness to take on “high-powered, intense work” and the greater variability of talent within the male population compared to the female population. He suggested that women’s disinterest in the greater time

commitment required of STEM fields and larger numbers of extraordinarily talented men contributed more to the gender disparity in STEM fields than “different socialization and patterns of discrimination.”

Jeffrey Brock, chair of the mathematics department and professor of mathematics, disagrees with the lingering stereotype that women and men have different abilities in math. But it does come up, he said, adding that the idea is “kind of like whack-a-mole — you have to stomp it out when you see it.”

Andrei Cimpian, associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, noted the misconception that women are not as capable in the sciences is not supported by his research.

Cimpian was part of a study published last year that surveyed 1,820 faculty members, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students from 30 disciplines.

These subjects rated their agreement with different statements about what is required for success in their respective fields, and these numbers were used to calculate scores representing how much a field is perceived to demand inherent ability. “The fields in which this belief is most prevalent are also the fields in which there are both fewer women and also fewer African-Americans,” Cimpian said. He added that both groups are stereotyped as “less intellectually

competent,” but noted that these perceptions are not drawn from reality.

“Even though people think that men and women sort themselves into fields depending on the workload required by these fields, we didn’t really find any evidence of that,” Cimpian said.

He also noted that his research found no support for the greater variability hypothesis referenced by Summers, which would suggest there are more male geniuses than female ones.

Differences between genders?

Some sources pointed to differences between the genders to account for the disparity between various STEM fields.

“Many women are simply raised to believe that they’re supposed to be caretakers, supposed to prefer biology to, say, chemistry or physics,” wrote Eileen Pollack, author of “The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys’ Club,” in an email to The Herald. “I remember being told — repeatedly — that I shouldn’t want to major in physics because studying people and living creatures would make me happier. But I didn’t feel that way on my own.”

“Women have a real tendency to be drawn towards career paths where they can see that they are making a positive impact in other individuals’ lives or in society at large,” said Katherine Smith, associate dean of biology undergraduate education and assistant research professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

“Perhaps the biological sciences offer women the opportunity to do that in a

more clear way than some of our physical science analogues do.”

Amara Berry ’17 said she was discouraged from an initial interest in physics throughout high school and pushed to study a subject in the humanities.

Now, her interests have shifted, and she decided to concentrate in Gender and Sexuality Studies.

“Any kind of penchant towards caretaking is socially constructed — not natural,” Berry said.

“I always have thought that biology and (cognitive science) are very relevant to the life someone lives,” said Adrianna Wenz ’18, who switched her concentration from English to neuroscience.

“That’s very relevant to when you see someone dying. You can help them in real time.”

“In biomedical engineering, you’re creating something that no one has created before, and you actually have the power to directly transform a life,” said Tanaya Puranik ’19.

Bethany Dubois ’18 said she felt unaware of the gender disparity in math and science until she arrived at Brown.

Now a physics concentrator and premedical student, Dubois noted that the same skills she liked using in physics, like problem solving and applying knowledge, also drew her toward medicine.

Dorit Rein ’18, a computer science concentrator, said that women may need social interaction to be successful, more so than men. Because social interaction is integrated more heavily into certain fields like medicine and psychology and

is emphasized less in fields like computer science, women may be deterred from entering those fields.

Devanshi Nishar ’18, a computer science concentrator, pointed out the increased severity of collaboration rules for computer science introductory courses this year as a drawback for women in the department.

“I made such great friendships in (my introductory courses), and that was partially because we could talk about things,” Nishar said. “How can you build up a support network for yourself if you can’t talk about the things you’re working on?”

“At Brown, specifically with computer science, the first two years are so difficult, and it really pushes away a lot of people from continuing to concentrate,” Rein said. “The people that hurts the most are women, people of color and underrepresented minorities in general.”

Björn Sandstede, chair of the applied mathematics department, noted his department has begun replacing some recitations with problem-solving sessions.

Students “can form teams in a way that helps them form a community,” which has seemed to help female students so far, he added.

In a 2011 study by Sadan KulturelKonak at Pennsylvania State University, Berks, indicated that women and men benefit from different teaching styles.

Her study showed that men appreciate a more analytical approach — the style in which many STEM classes are taught » See STEM WOMEN, page 8

TODAY

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016 • PAGE 5

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menu

up in the air

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 Veggie Soup Naked Burritos

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Meatball Grinder, Chicken Broccoli Pasta Alfredo, Zucchini and Onion Saute, Brownies

Sweet and Sour Pork, Vegetable Strudel, Veracruz Haddock, Washington Apple Cake

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Chicken Fajitas, Vegan Three Bean Casserole, Mexican Succotash, Polynesian Cookies

Eggplant Parmesan, Cheddar Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes, Boston Cream Pie

sudoku

MATTEO MOBILIO / HERALD

Cloudy skies obscure the horizon from a rooftop view on Waterman Street. The stormy skies rained on the parade of students who welcomed what appeared to be spring’s long-awaited arrival earlier this week.

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

“No one is even sure what makes a genius a genius.

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich ACROSS 1 Latte option 6 Difficult position 10 It’s cut and dried 13 Loud, as a crowd 14 African city where pounds are spent 15 Tree feller 16 Venue that keeps you up-to-date 18 __ Tin Tin 19 Hunk 20 Really bother 21 Bus terminal 23 “Beaches” actress Midler 25 Canadian stadium renamed Rogers Centre in 2005 27 Tropical cocktail whose color comes from curaçao liqueur 30 First name in game shows 31 Work-wk. start 32 Basic Latin conjugation word 36 “Got it, man?”

37 This puzzle’s theme, as suggested by the ends of 16-, 27-, 47- and 61Across 41 Big heart?

42 Ladies of Sp. 44 Chicago’s __ Center 45 Elena of the Supreme Court 47 Chaste priestess of ancient Rome 51 Record covers 54 “__ a stinker?”: Bugs Bunny 55 Upright, e.g.

56 Bow (out) 57 Disaster relief org.

60 Longtime football commentator Cross 61 Biblical wise man 65 Actress Charlotte 66 Where to learn une leçon 67 Practical joke 68 CIA forerunner 69 “Man, you are not serious!”

70 Rocker Patty married to John McEnroe

DOWN 1 24 Hours of Le __: auto race 2 Hurler Hershiser 3 Ninja Turtle’s “Awesome!”

4 Faded star 5 Curved part 6 Went under 7 Alley target 8 Load from a lode 9 “Shoulda listened to me!”

10 Silent Marx 11 Assumed truth 12 “Fiddler on the Roof” matchmaker 14 Hall of Fame infielder Rod 17 Words before homer or brick wall 22 Novelist Ferber 24 Takeout option 25 “The Da Vinci Code” priory 26 Warm-hearted 27 Some undies 28 Lion’s den 29 Range maker 33 Rod Stewart classic with the line “You stole my heart but I love you anyway”

34 Trendy berry 35 Ky. neighbor 38 Postage-paid enc.

39 Gobs 40 Banana peel 43 Kristoff’s reindeer in “Frozen” 46 Sculpture or ballet 48 Brought forth 49 Run out 50 Corleone patriarch

51 Veep between Hubert and Gerald 52 Turkish coins 53 Some nest sites 56 Give the eye 58 __ Blanc: tallest Alp 59 Egyptian cross 62 Post-ER area 63 Sign of approval 64 Old DJ’s records

Intuition and confidence might be as important as raw

”

IQ.

— Eileen Pollack, author of “The Only Woman in the Room”

See women in stem on page 4.

CORRECTIONS

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

An article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Brown fills two communications positions,” March 15) stated that Albert Dahlberg worked with Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17. In fact, he worked with John Chafee P’75 GP’14 GP’17. The Herald regrets the error.

An article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Politicians, colleges aim to reduce student debt,” March 15) stated that Jaime Marland, director of public relations at RISD, wrote in an email to The Herald that the Rhode Island School of Design tuition will remain flat in the upcoming school year. In fact, Marland wrote that the rate of increase will remain flat for the upcoming school year. The Herald regrets the error.

xwordeditor@aol.com

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HUGs + STEM Lunchtime Conversation 12:00 P.M. Hillel Meeting Room

How to Start a Revolution with Paper 4:00 P.M. John Carter Brown Library

Black Feminism 5:30 P.M. Pembroke Hall, Room 305

Screening of “Le Petit Prince” 6 P.M. Wilson Hall, Room 102

TOMORROW Reading: Poet M. NourbeSe Philip 2:30 P.M. McCormack Family Theater

“Unsettled: The Refugee in the Hyperghetto” 4:00 P.M. Petteruti Lounge

“Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo” 5:30 P.M. Brown Bookstore

Ritrovato Film Festival of Rare and Restored Films 7:00 P.M. Granoff Center

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016

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comic P-Branes and Bosons | Ricky Oliver

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

How to get away with telling your own story CLARE STEINMAN staff columnist It’s been over two weeks since Viola Davis spoke at Brown, and I have yet to stop thinking about her opening line and message about the power of storytelling. It’s something we should all still be thinking about.

She pronounced, “My name is Viola Davis, and I am a hero” before using the narrative of the hero’s journey — an idea often attributed to Joseph Campbell — to tell her life’s story. It was hard not to agree that the powerful and confident woman on stage was a hero.

Best of all, she had applied the term to herself. She wasn’t bragging — or, at least, not doing so without justification — but rather, placing herself and her story in a narrative tradition.

Moses, Jesus and the Buddha all follow the hero’s journey, to take a few ancient examples. But while the story she told was personal, the message has much broader implications about what it means to defy stereotypes and common narratives.

In the face of discrimination and erasure, the most powerful thing a person can do is to tell his or her story.

When people overcome adversity and share their tales, it is a call to action for people listening who feel that their voices are not heard.

The formula for hero stories, begins with a call to adventure, away from the ordinary world. Often, heroes respond with some measure of reluctance, unable or unwilling to take

her most powerful statements through storytelling. Her character in “How to Get Away with Murder” Annalise Keating, a defense lawyer, does the same thing, using a combination of methodical rigor and impassioned appeals to free her clients and make the world a more just place (with some notable exceptions). Both are heroes who use their narratives — not superpowers or capes — to live lives bigger than themselves.

on race, nationality, sexual orientation or some other identifier. They play the nanny, the cop, the sassy best friend — never the hero.

Meanwhile, white people are seen as the default. There were outcries when characters whose races were unspecified in writing — like Rue in “The Hunger Games” and Hermoine in a stage production of “Harry Potter” — were played by African-Americans.

The concept of the single story is so

In a world where so much of our lives is on display, refusal to be defined by the dominant narrative takes courage.

on the challenge presented. But soon enough, they embark on the journey, overcoming various trials to eventually return with their ultimate reward — a personal elixir.

Davis’s elixir was learning to live outside the self: “If you are not living a life bigger than yourself, then you’re not living a life at all,” she said. As a case study in heroic tales, Davis makes

In her 2009 TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie speaks about the dominance of white, middleclass characters in literature and movies, while everyone else is confined to minor, stereotypical roles. These latter characters are victims of the single story; they exist to prove a point and reinforce a preconceived notion based

pervasive that we’ve come to assume that all stories are told by white people, unless race is explicitly mentioned as a defining feature.

Annalise Keating does not go along with the single story; Viola Davis refuses to. In my view, both the actress and the character are at their most heroic when they take control of their own image, a source of power that

women — and black women in particular — have long been denied. The importance of having the agency to speak for oneself helps explain the term “mansplaining” and is just one of many differences between the phrases “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter.” In a world where so much of our lives is on display, refusal to be defined by the dominant narrative takes courage.

In the opening line of Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield,” the titular character wonders if he “shall turn out to be the hero of (his) own life.” Everyone has heroes, but not everyone has the ability to take control of his or her own story — or, to be more dramatic, destiny — and become the hero of his or her own life. These story-shapers end up changing more than their own lives; their stories touch and inspire us, reminding us to go after our own elixir. In doing so, we do more than share our personal truths: We begin to break down tired, formulaic conventions, and, in that way, become heroes.

Clare Steinman ’19 can be reached at clare_steinman@brown.edu.

Towards a united public opinion GEORGE REYNOLDS staff columnist Recently, I have begun to think more deeply about what I believe politically. This year I will be voting in my second presidential election, and I have changed a lot as a person since the last. I hope that any student planning on voting gives their political beliefs similar thought. Some might not find this all that important, especially given how out-oftouch most politicians seem. (I believe this has helped lead to the respective successes of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT, and Donald Trump.) But one of the most crucial things people can do is understand what they personally believe good policy choices are and would be because then they can start to find patterns in these opinions and realize their core values and beliefs.

Many people agree on much more than they would think. This is partly why I am trying so hard to be a better listener this semester. When we all feel encouraged to say what we really think, understand and discuss rather than argue and disregard and build on ideas rather than tear them down, we can find our common core beliefs.

That sounds a little “kumbaya, everyone should love each other,” and some people

probably doubt that we all agree on much. But there is no harm in trying it out, and if we can come to a common ground, the rewards could be astronomical. As Timothy Walker once said, “public opinion is the opinion of millions. This is the power which creates a usage and the only power which can overthrow it.” In other words, we the people probably cannot change something unless we come to

ure out how to reconcile both of our beliefs and hopefully find a better idea that satisfies us both. If you agree with something I write, please let me know, and please tell other people; they may agree as well. Either way, we will all be helping to create public opinion. If we get lucky, some idea may get a lot of momentum and spread to other places as well.

For the most part, I lean libertarian. I be-

I want to start a discussion about what we believe our society — and by extension our government — should be like.

a common public opinion. And because some things need to change, it’s important that we come to a consensus.

For this reason, I want to use this column as a platform to try to create a common public opinion. To be clear, I do not want everyone to agree with me and move on; rather, I want to start a discussion about what we believe our society — and by extension our government — should be like. If you disagree, please respond telling me why, and we can try to fig-

lieve that if a truly libertarian society played out in the right way, then society would be perfect. Everyone would find what they are best at, find a place that needs their skills and use it in their work. Markets would reach equilibrium.

But at our core, most people want this kind of society — a society where everyone gets what they need by pulling their own weight.

I personally envision this happening without a lot of government interference, but even a

believer in big government probably agrees with the central idea about the kind of world we seek. After all, most people like the idea of everyone earning what they need through hard, honest work; this is essentially wanting everyone to see success without taking advantage of others.

So let’s figure out how we can push this common goal. One way that comes to mind is to simply push for better government.

At times we have a dialogue that turns into one side scrambling to gain any government growth possible and the other trying to stop it all costs. This compromise would require small government-minded people like me to stop thinking of all government expansion as evil. It also requires proponents of a larger government to stop thinking of all additional government services as good. This will be difficult, but if we agree to expand the government, but only when fully convinced that it will run efficiently and controllably, then I think both sides of this issue can be happy.

Most importantly, this hard to do, so we all have to create public opinion that supports and creates well-run programs. If we do this, hopefully two opposing sides can come together to level the playing field without burning money or promoting tyranny.

George Reynolds ’17 can be reached at george_reynolds@brown.edu.

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NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Push factors While some factors might pull women toward fields like psychology and biology, other factors push women out of fields like applied math and physics, sources said.

Pollack earned a degree in physics from Yale, but she ultimately abandoned the field to pursue writing. Her book investigates the confluence of factors that keep women out of STEM fields like physics.

“Most people tend to think that only a genius can succeed in a field such as physics or math, especially the more abstract, theoretical branches of those fields,” Pollack wrote.

Expectations of brilliance likely affect mathematics specifically, said Jill Pipher, director of the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics. She added that people may assume some fields are more accessible than others based on how difficult to learn or innate the required skills are.

“It’s true that there’s a little bit of a mystique associated (with) doing math,” said Melody Chan, assistant professor of

Proportion of women in STEM faculty The Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences is the only department where women make up the majority of the faculty members.

80 percent 70 60 50 40 30 20 10

Ph ys ics

0 M at Ne h ur os cie nc e

­ while women prefer a more hands-on — technique. Kulturel-Konak’s research concluded that because more STEM classes are taught in an analytical style, women have begun to lose interest in STEM courses.

But studies about learning differences amongst the sexes have varied greatly since the topic began to gather interest in the 1980s. In Diane Halpern’s 2012 book, “Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities,” she explained that differences in learning are generally unsupported by research.

Instead of considering societal and historical forces, individuals tend to assume the inherent abilities of men and women influence their success, Cimpian said.

mathematics. She added that there is a “premium placed on this mysterious quality of genius.”

“Physics definitely has this association where people tend to think you’re just good at it, or you’re not,” said Källan Berglund ’16, a physics concentrator.

Berglund added that she feels sad to hear people say they are bad at math.

“They say it like it’s part of their identity,” she added. “A lot of them say it proudly.”

Echoing this sentiment, Shipra Vaishnava, assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology, noted that society condones a lack of math skills in girls. “It should not be okay. You should always be trying to get better at math if you’re not.”

Across disciplines, there are many factors that influence success, ranging from hard work to fearlessness in the face of inhospitable environments. “Geniuses come in all races and genders,” Pollack wrote. “No one is even sure what makes a genius a genius. Intuition and confidence might be as important as raw IQ.” A lack of representation may also cause a vicious cycle in certain STEM departments, as students who see other women at work within their fields may feel more at ease within those spaces.

Raphae Posner ’18, a student in the Program in Liberal Medical Education, said that she has valued working in a lab of mostly women. “I have had really great role models who appreciate the importance of young women in science,” she said.

Departments with lower proportions of female faculty members have expanded their efforts to retain female students. The lack of representation can discourage women from considering those fields, Berry said.

“Physics can have a much colder environment,” Dubois said, citing the lack of visibility of underrepresented minorities in teaching assistants. “Nearly everyone that I’ve interacted with has been

B so eha cia vi l s ora cie l a n n Bi ces d os ta tis tic s Ch em ist m Co ol m ry an ec p d u u ps C la ta yc og r b tio ho ni io n lo tiv log al gi e, ca lin y Co l sc gu m ien ist pu c ic te es an E rs cie d art pl h, nc an e e et nv ar iro ys n ev m c ol ut E ienc ent io co e na lo s ry g b ya Ep iolo nd id gy em io po H lo ce gy lic ea ll b lth y io an s lo M d er gy o p v a le ra ice M nd cul ctic s, ol bi ar ec oc b e ul he iol ar ph m o ys Mo and mi ist gy, io le c lo c imm rob ry gy ul i an ar p uno olog d ha lo y bi rm gy ot a ec c hn olo ol gy og , y

» STEM WOMEN, from page 4

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016

Source: Brown University website EMMA JERZYK / HERALD

male or a well-represented minority.”

Brock said that within the math department “there’s a high point of attrition around sophomore-level courses — this is where you’re first exposed to abstract mathematics and proofs.” The department is working with a group of undergraduates to redesign the curriculum in an effort to increase retention.

People often turn to the few women in the department with their questions.

“I feel like this is taking an immense amount of time and energy from my studies,” Berglund said.

Chan recently started a mentorship program to connect undergraduate women with female graduate students in the math department, describing it as “a low-key way to build community.”

Though the math department currently has two tenure-track female faculty members, Brock said, female

representation in the department is greater than that found in many math departments at other universities.

“I do feel really positive about what I’ve seen from the department,” Chan said.

Intersectionalities of race and gender “Most of us picture geniuses as looking like Albert Einstein — that is, as white men with crazy hair,” Pollack wrote.

“Implicit biases make us think that people of color aren’t as competent in the sciences,” Berry said. “You’ve got this system that produces the same kind of thinkers over and over again.”

As a black woman in engineering, Yasmine Hassan ’17 feels that different expectations are placed on her. Others have “mansplained” concepts to her, taken tools out of her hands and doubted

her answers. “I can’t extract specifically my gender or race.”

Professors, more than other students, have made Hassan feel as though she doesn’t belong.

Hassan is a member of the National Society of Black Engineers, but she is not involved in the Society for Women Engineers or the group Women in Science and Engineering.

“I don’t know how comfortable I feel in those spaces,” she said, adding she sometimes feels that “the STEM feminist agenda is very much colorblind.”

Nishar pointed out that tech companies are quick to highlight their diversity initiatives, but focus more on gender balance in the workplace, rather than diversity of race or sexuality. “If they can just hone in on this one aspect — being a woman — then do they really care about diversity in the first place?” she asked.

Q&A: Jennifer Klein ’87 talks Clinton, women’s issues

Senior Policy Advisor to Hillary Clinton discusses potential for another Clinton Administration

By KYLE BOROWSKI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Broaching subjects like health policy and women’s issues, Jennifer Klein ’87 has been an advisor to the Clinton family since President Bill Clinton’s first administration. Klein’s career has been multifaceted and at times “accidental,” she said.

Klein sat down with The Herald to discuss the developments on women’s rights she has witnessed over the span of her career, which has included a long collaboration with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The Herald: How did your time at Brown prepare you for your career?

Brown actually was a huge factor because it was really a Brown connection that got me to where I am today.

When the Clintons announced they were doing healthcare reform early on in the administration they appointed Ira Magaziner ’69 to be the leader of their effort, so I said “Okay, I’m going to find my way to Ira Magaziner.”

I found my way to him through a friend from Brown, and he hired me as a volunteer to work on the reform.

Maybe six or seven months into that I got a call from the First Lady’s office

asking if I’d be interested in working with Hillary Clinton. Initially, I worked with her predominantly on healthcare, but immediately after the reform effort died in September 1993, I evolved with her to work on other issues including women’s issues.

Based on your experiences working with Clinton, what are some of the policies regarding women’s issues you’d expect her to enact if she wins the election?

Some items I’ve worked with Secretary Clinton on were things like paid family and medical leave, equal pay, minimum wage and childcare. So those are at the top of my list of things that I think are really important, and I would imagine that a Hillary Clinton administration would take those on fairly quickly.

It’s easy to see what she’s passionate about based on her record. So on the domestic side, I think it’s a lot of the issues that she cared about as First Lady, and if you look at the positions she took on the foreign side as Secretary of State, I think you can see the roadmap of what she would do if she was president.

How do you think the other candidates stack up against Secretary

Clinton when it comes to addressing women’s issues?

The difference between Secretary Clinton and (U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT), is he hasn’t been a leader like she has. These are issues that have motivated her (for) her entire career, and I don’t think they’ve motivated him.

But at the same time he’s voted right on all of them. I’d say he’s strong, but she’s stronger.

Don’t even ask me to weigh in on the Republican side. I worry deeply about some of these issues, and I obviously have my own opinions on each of the candidates. I worry that any single one of them left in the race would be harmful on every single one of these issues.

It’s been over 20 years since Clinton’s landmark speech on women’s issues in Beijing, China. How have women’s rights developed in that time and have they developed fast enough?

Never fast enough for me. Still, there’s been huge developments in areas like legal change where there are more constitutions and laws that actually protect women’s rights than there were in 1995. Also, if you look at particular issues like health and gender gaps in education, there’s been huge progress.

At the same time, progress can be uneven. In some places, for example, there are laws on paper, but there’s still a problem with implementation and

enforcement of those laws. If you look at health on certain scales, maternal mortality has gone way down, but there are other really significant health issues.

If you look at those issues generally, there’s been huge progress, but then there are people who are really lagging behind.

If you look particularly at the more marginalized women — women who have lower socioeconomic status and who live in places where they can’t access healthcare — they’re dying at levels that are too high. My highlight would be “progress, but …”

How do you think the United States stacks up against other countries when it comes to addressing these broader issues?

Of course, it depends on which issue you talk about. If you take paid leave, the (United States) is one of nine countries total and the only industrial country in the world that has no paid parental leave of any kind. If you look at childcare and even healthcare, we are often behind, especially if you narrow the list to high-income countries.

That said, if you look at the status of women in the (United States) as compared to others around the world, there are women and girls who are in dire circumstances that obviously most women in the (United States) aren’t facing. With things like child marriage and honor

killings, there is a huge gap between what we face versus some of the issues they face, so I certainly wouldn’t want to gloss over that.

Do you have any advice for students who might be interested in joining careers in politics or public service?

I know this sounds corny, but the first thing I would say is, “follow your passion.” Something I learned not only from my own personal experience but also from watching people who make a difference is that they are most often doing what they feel most strongly about. You’ll figure out how to implement that as the time comes.

On the other hand, I’d say be flexible. Take opportunities as they come and take risks. I probably was not the smartest to leave a good job at a big law firm where I was getting paid a lot of money to come to Washington, (D.C.), but I felt it was worth the risk.

Brown is probably the most obvious example of a place where you should just explore, and you’ll be prepared for whatever career you end up choosing, within reason. Be someone who is willing to question and think hard, and you’ll be prepared to do any job in public service. Keep doing what you do in college, which is develop your intellectual curiosity and follow your passions. It sounds silly, but it’s true.