Friday, March 25, 2016

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 40

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Committee attempts to find home for Syrian scholars U. brings master’s student, scholar to Brown after displacement caused by civil war in Syria

By ELI BINDER STAFF WRITER

CHRISTINE KIM / HERALD

According to a strategic plan draft released March 2, the Swearer Center is undergoing changes under new leadership. Plans to change several programs have been met with student opposition.

Changes to Swearer draw mixed reactions Strategic plan met with administrative support, frustration from some students active in center

By KYLE BOROWSKI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Swearer Center for Public Service is set to experience a number of changes to its practical goals and policies, according to the strategic plan draft released by the center March 2. The plan is the first to be released by the Swearer Center in over 10 years and

was announced months after Mathew Johnson, director of the Swearer Center and associate dean for engaged scholarship, assumed his office.

The plan includes a number of proposed alterations to existing center practices, including an expansion of the Engaged Scholars Program and the introduction of the Bonner Fellows Program. Founded in 2015, the Engaged Scholars Program mixes curricular studies and community engagement to benefit students’ academic and service work, Johnson said.

The Bonner Fellows Program will allow incoming freshmen and

a number of current undergraduates to participate in extended community engagement and academic opportunities. Johnson said that 75 percent of Bonner Fellows will be low-income or first-generation students, and the program will gradually be expanded in the coming years.

“There’s pretty wide positive support from University leadership, faculty (members) and from community partners,” Johnson said. “But there is a difference of opinion among a smaller group of students who are very concerned about the directions of » See SWEARER, page 4

Over the past year, the Brown University Response Committee to Host Displaced Scholars and Students has brought one scholar and accepted one master’s student displaced by the crisis in Syria. The committee is working with partners to identify more students and scholars from Syria and possibly others from war-torn nations like Iraq and Yemen who could be brought to Brown.

Provost Richard Locke P’17 said that as he watched the Syrian refugee crisis dominate the news cycle over summer 2015, he began to think about what kind of project the administration could take on to provide support to displaced scholars and students. He formed the committee, which is now comprised of administrators, faculty members and students, in order to inform and guide the University’s work to bring displaced scholars and students to Brown so that they can continue their research, teaching and education.

“We know that Brown University can’t solve this problem,” Locke said.

“But if we can show that there is something that we can actually do, then it would be my great hope that the other Ivy League schools would do it, that the other schools in Rhode Island would do it, and if we all start having this kind of ripple effect, we could make a difference.”

Brown “is uniquely positioned to help” scholars and students, said Adam Levine, assistant professor of emergency medicine, who was chosen to join the committee because of his work in addressing humanitarian crises. “I think it’s a brilliant idea for how Brown can actually have a meaningful response,” he added.

The committee works with the Institute of International Education to find and fund scholars and students. The IIE has a program for displaced scholars worldwide called the Scholar Rescue Fund and a program for displaced Syrian university students called the Syria Consortium for Higher Education in Crisis. Both programs match applicants with universities outside of Syria. When scholars and students are placed at universities through the SRF, the IIE contributes an award of up to $25,000, which the University is expected to match, said Marisa Quinn, chief of staff to the provost and a member of the committee.

“There are more displaced academics now than at any point in human » See SYRIA, page 2

U. grads among most likely Nationwide e-sports craze arrives at Brown e-sports to pursue nonprofit work Brown club brings together ‘Save the world’ attitude, Swearer Center for Public Service drive students toward nonprofit industry

By SHIRA BUCHSBAUM SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Brown graduates enter the nonprofit sector at higher rates than graduates from peer institutions, according to data from the CareerLAB. Twentynine percent of 2015 graduates entering the workforce joined the nonprofit sector upon leaving Brown, and another 5 percent entered positions in government and public service.

According to 2013 data from the Office of Institutional Research, which conducts an alumni survey every five years, those percentages spike among graduates from certain concentrations: 39 percent of life and medical science and 33 percent of independent concentrators from the Class of 2003 held positions in the nonprofit sector. CareerLAB has found that the

INSIDE

percentages of graduates in nonprofits hold steady over the years.

Just last month, Business Insider ranked Brown seventh in “The 25 best colleges for students who want to change the world,” highlighting the Swearer Center for Public Service and programs such as A Better World by Design as support systems and opportunities for students to involve themselves in public service work.

No other Ivies appeared on the list.

Alums agreed that Brown’s campus atmosphere and academic opportunities are conducive to student interest in nonprofit work.

“The stereotype is right that there’s an attitude about wanting to save the world,” said Barrett Hazeltine, professor emeritus of engineering.

Socially conscious As an undergraduate, Juan Carranza ’12 UEP’15 was unsure how to transform his academic interests into a career. Upon graduation, he joined the College Advising Corps, an » See NONPROFIT, page 3

competitive gamers, aims to compete region-wide

By BEN SHUMATE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Willy Lee ’18 and Joshua Lu ’18 both had a simple goal, familiar to any college student: Find and bring together others with similar interests to their own.

For some students at Brown, that means politics, advocacy or intramural sports teams. But for Lee and Lu, it was e-sports.

Lee initially wanted to start a club for League of Legends, a popular online multiplayer video game, but found that other clubs with the same mission had failed to gain traction at Brown. Lu gained interest in Super Smash Bros.

Melee during his freshman year at Brown but found only a Facebook group with some casually interested students rather than anything structured.

The two joined together last September after Lee found an article written

by Lu about the lack of gaming clubs at Brown. Thus, the Brown e-sports

COURTESY OF BROWN E-SPORTS TEAM

In its first year, the Brown e-sports team has drawn interest from over 100 students. The club held its second “game-a-thon” two weekends ago. team was born.

Nationwide, the popularity of esports is surging, especially in the collegiate circuit. Hundreds of schools now boast competitive teams that compete in events watched both online and in

person by thousands. Like other sports, doing well pays off: Prize money at competitions is routinely in the thousands of dollars. In 2014, Robert Morris University became the first university in » See E-SPORTS, page 2

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history,” said James King, a senior research and program officer at the IIE SRF. It is very important for universities around the world to “step up and say that ‘we’re ready to support our colleagues in this difficult time,’” he said. King applauded Brown’s role in this effort, saying “Brown has been a leader in terms of its response to the Syria higher education emergency.”

Currently, one displaced scholar is hosted at Brown: Tarek — who was the subject of a recent Herald article and whose name has been changed to protect his anonymity. Tarek came to Brown in January. While he was educated in Europe, this is his first time in the United States. He expressed immense happiness and gratitude about his current living conditions, saying, “Brown is a very nice place to be, really. I have everything. I have nothing to complain about.”

Before he found the SRF, Tarek had not considered the possibility of coming to the United States. “I was basically searching for a job in Europe,” he said, adding, “You know about the relationship between Syria and (the United

» E-SPORTS, from page 1 the country to offer scholarships for gaming, covering as much as 50 percent of tuition and room and board for qualified gamers. The national sports media is taking notice as well, as ESPN recently launched an e-sports section on its website.

In its first year, Brown’s e-sports

States), the immigration problem, the terrorism, all these things.”

“I didn’t imagine that an American university would be welcoming,” he said.

But after being here for only a few months, he is happy to have been placed at Brown. “Here, I feel I’m lucky. I’m lucky to be placed (at) Brown because, in Europe, they don’t offer housing, the salary is very small (and) they don’t offer health insurance.” In addition to housing and health insurance, Tarek has access to Brown’s library, which he said is the most important thing for him. He added, “I have friends already — it’s been less than three months, and I have friends that call me.”

King and Locke both emphasized that the purpose of this project is to provide displaced students and scholars with the opportunity to continue their academic work. “These are academics.

They do academic work, … and they are not meant to be treated as victims.

They’re empowered professors,” King said about participants in the SRF. Locke said that it is important to allow scholars and students “to be able to come back into an academic environment” where they are able to continue their scholarship. “Having these people

in our communities I think makes us a richer community,” he added.

King said that SRF scholars, “as a general rule, are extremely productive on fellowships — often times because this may be the first period in a long time where they can continue their work safely and in security. So they tend to be fruitful periods for both the scholar and the host.” Tarek’s first few months at Brown certainly have been productive: He has presented a paper, finished a translation that has been published and is now in talks with his department — which cannot be named to protect his anonymity — about teaching a course next semester.

During the past few years of war in Syria, Tarek was unable to do research.

He mentioned that in summer 2015, he wanted to buy a new important book in his field, which cost approximately $25. But this was a quarter of his salary, which was cut because of the war.

Tarek is at Brown on a year-long fellowship from the IIE as a visiting professor. He will have the opportunity to apply to extend the fellowship another year, but after that, he will have to find a job without IIE funding. Though he just recently arrived in the United States,

he is already thinking about his next step and is nervous that the transition to his next job might be more difficult than his transition to Brown. “I have this year, and I want to make the maximum of it. It’s crucial for my future,” he said.

King noted that the most important part of matching scholars with universities is finding “the right fit.” Quinn said that fit is “really about (scholars) being able to continue to contribute to the field, which is very much aligned with our mission. They want to come and be engaged; they don’t want to come and not have a place in the academic life of the University.”

Locke and King both noted that hosting displaced scholars and students is a difficult task. “There are budget realities. There are only so many places that we can put people. And then there’s bureaucracy,” Locke said.

There have also been cases where Brown has invited scholars, but they have been unable to get a visa or unwilling to be placed outside of the Middle East and North Africa region or Europe, Quinn said.

King said that some universities, both inside and outside the United States, consistently host more than one

scholar per year through the SRF. But “there may be a bit of a learning curve in terms of hosting,” he said, adding that the University could build upon its first experience of hosting a displaced scholar to better host future scholars.

Locke emphasized that bringing displaced scholars and students to campus was only one of the many ways that the Brown administration and community are involved in helping those affected by the Syria crisis. He said that faculty members work on humanitarian projects, do research about them and educate the community about the crisis, among other contributions.

“The committee does not claim to do everything that Brown University is responsible for. It’s meant to be supplemental. It’s meant to contribute whatever the administration can, on top of all of the various efforts that students and faculty (members) undertake, and are expected to undertake,” said Ben Gladstone ’18, who was selected to serve on the committee because he founded the Brown University Coalition for Syria.

Levine added, “This is a first step forward, and I really hope that people do continue this work and also expand it in other ways.”

team is far from established in the collegiate scene. Lu put it simply: “It’s basically just a space for people to come together and play video games.”

The club garnered interest from over 100 students and sees anywhere from 20 to 50 people at its biweekly meetings.

The team currently supports five games: Super Smash Bros. Melee, League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global

Offensive and Hearthstone.

The meetings ­­— the team’s equivalent to practices — are held in the Underground and have mostly focused on Super Smash Bros. so far. The team uses old televisions stored in Faunce to play the game because of the game’s antique nature.

The big events for the team this year were two “game-a-thons,” the second of

which was held two weekends ago. The competitions were open to the public and drew 20 to 30 people.

The team also competed in a 10v10 tournament against teams from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and traveled to Connecticut College to compete as well. “We destroyed them,” Lu said, grinning.

The two captains don’t give much merit to the skepticism that e-sports is not a true sport. “To get super philosophical: What do we define as a sport?”

Lu said. “E-sports is different. It’s super un-physical, but it’s a very big mental game, and it’s a very big technical game.”

Lee, who is also a member of the men’s swimming and diving team, defined sports as anything that requires practice and effort to improve. “All sports are just like a game,” he said.

“Nobody can just jump in and be a master at it.”

Lee and Lu hope to exploit the

growing popularity of e-sports to grow the team at Brown. “At the very least, it helps people who are kind of interested but aren’t sure where to start,” Lee said.

“It’s kind of cool to contribute to that growing popularity.”

Going forward, Lee and Lu want to increase the popularity of all five games at Brown and opportunities to compete against other colleges. The two have been in contact with other Ivy League schools and nearby colleges such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in an effort to set up a “circuit” between the schools. They hope to set up events to compete against these schools and have gotten interest from every Ivy except Princeton so far.

“It would be really cool to bring all of them together and bring them to Brown where people who haven’t been exposed or who have judgment about e-sports can see how big e-sports is,” Lee said.

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» SYRIA, from page 1

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» NONPROFIT, from page 1 AmeriCorps program run in partnership with the Swearer Center. Through the program, he worked at Central High School in Providence for two years.

Currently, as a program manager for the Swearer Center, Carranza oversees BRYTE, Brown’s refugee tutoring program, and Health Leads in a partnership with LifeSpan, a healthcare system that is partnered with the Alpert Medical School.

While at Brown, Carranza was very involved with the Latinx community. “That work in and of itself wasn’t service-related, but the thread I saw throughout that was an aspect of mentorship,” he said.

In receiving guidance as an underclassman, then passing that advice on as an upperclassman, Carranza and other students “recognized the opportunity and privilege we were afforded by being here,” Carranza said. The feeling of obligation to share insight also emerged during his time in the Advising Corps, where he found his passion for education, he said.

Thea Aguiar ’13, who currently works for Bridgespan, a nonprofit consulting firm, felt that same pull toward service. Though she entered Brown with an interest in social inequality, her academic work across the social sciences and her business courses developed her ability to address those issues, she said.

“Brown nurtured and equipped me to have a career in the nonprofit sector. I think I always cared and was always interested in creating a positive impact on the world,” Aguiar said.

“Brown helped affirm that.”

Her junior year, Aguiar worked on a global independent study project in India. That, combined with her work as a teaching assistant for Alan Harlam’s Social Entrepreneurship course and her work in the SEEED Summit, gave her a more concrete idea of how she could work in the nonprofit sector, Aguiar said. “The ethos of the Brown community has at the center of it a spark of contributing positively to the world around you,” she added.

The emphasis on social innovation in academics as well as co-curriculars allows students to apply their learning in an “actionable way,” said Matt Donato, director of CareerLAB. Brown’s investment in social innovation and nonprofit work is not a new development. As a graduate student, Amy Kantrowitz MAT’92 worked in the Swearer Center on programs teaching English as a second language.

“Brown allows students to integrate what interests them in actual work with their studies,” Kantrowitz said. At other schools, student-run independent nonprofits are treated as extracurriculars rather than part of their core learning, she added.

The Swearer Center Jim Amspacher, a career counselor at CareerLAB, similarly finds that the combination of public interest research groups, highly active student groups and the Swearer Center encourages students to pursue public service work in and around campus.

No peer institution has a center that is “as big or effective” as Swearer, Amspacher added.

Amspacher, who worked at the Public Interest Network for 18 years and interacted with 25 to 30 schools as

Class of 2015 employment sectors Government, public: 5%

Not specified: 2%

Nonprofit: 29% For-profit: 64%

Source: CareerLAB a campus recruiter before coming to Brown, said, “Brown is just different.”

In his own work at PIN, “I don’t know if we changed the debate or got to the core of the problem. I see Brown students doing that,” Amspacher added.

Kantrowitz said that Brown’s “institutional investment in making this a core part of people’s education and a legitimate career path” contributes a great deal to the high student persistence in nonprofit work.

CareerLAB hosted a Careers in the Common Good Job fair midFebruary, featuring 45 employers, Amspacher said. Four hundred students attended.

Though students have consistently demonstrated interest in building relationships with nonprofit programs and employers, it is “much more labor-intensive” to do so, Donato said.

He added that smaller nonprofit organizations cannot always spare staff to go recruit on campuses, whereas large banks and consulting firms have systems in place and regular recruiting seasons.

It’s “really hard to go through that process without having those connections,” said Lauren Suiter ’15, who worked with the Center for New York City Neighborhoods through a Swearer Center program the summer after her junior year and was hired there after graduation.

“There is no road map in nonprofit,” Donato said, adding that it is “unclear when nonprofit recruiters will be on campus, or if they’ve ever been to campus.”

University funding Because many nonprofit internships are unpaid, CareerLAB provides resources for undergraduate students to interact with nonprofit employers and experience nonprofit work by offering subsidized internships.

Each summer, CareerLAB runs

the Careers for the Common Good internship program in New York City.

Though the program began with six positions, partly funded by CareerLAB and the employers, last year a donor came forward and funded 20 positions at $4,000 per participant for the next five years, Amspacher said.

The donation opened more doors for the program, as nonprofits may lack the funds to support large internship programs, Amspacher said.

It can be difficult to find an internship that pays and is in a field that you wanted to work in, Suiter said. “CCG gave me the opportunity to work for a nonprofit and get that experience and get paid.”

CareerLAB is working on expanding the program to Washington, D.C., to begin in the summer of 2017.

Alongside CCG, CareerLAB offers Innovate Winter Break, a twoweek internship experience over winter break at nonprofit and social entrepreneurship employers in New York, Boston, D.C. and San Francisco.

CareerLAB also partners with the Swearer Center for iProv, a summer internship program in Providence that focuses on social justice work.

The opportunities provided through CareerLAB and the Swearer Center are unique to Brown, Kantrowitz said. This is “not just an internship program — it’s a real networking development,” she added.

The Swearer Center provides grants for some 200 students total, said Lizzie Pollock, assistant director of social entrepreneurship at the Swearer Center. The Swearer Center further offers funding to students to start their own social innovation ventures, she added.

The Social Innovation Fellowship provides students funding to work on a project full-time over the summer and offers year-round workshops, resources and mentoring, Pollock said.

Currently in its eighth cohort, the

fellowship supports 10 to 20 fellows each year.

The Swearer Center also recently launched the Embark Fellowship, which offers funding to students who want to work on their ventures full-time after Brown, moving social innovation beyond the campus sphere and into the real world, Pollock said.

“Usually the (students) who were able to do that had resources from their families. This is a way to level the playing field,” Pollock said.

Post-grad prospects Upon considering post-graduation plans, financial concerns do play into students’ decisions to enter the nonprofit sector, Donato said.

When counseling students, Amspacher emphasizes the importance of taking financial feasibility into account, he said.

After receiving encouragement from a friend to apply for the Advising Corps position, Carranza did not have any hesitations about the program, but he did have questions — mostly about money.

“It’s an AmeriCorps job, so the stipend is not lucrative at all,” Carranza said. He notes that he was lucky because he was able to rely on his parents for some support.

In general, Carranza advises students to be very transparent about what is and is not feasible for them.

After graduation, Carranza shared an apartment with two close friends who

EMMA JERZYK / HERALD

were also in AmeriCorps programs, and “that experience with two very good friends in the same boat — that made the difference,” he said.

Though Carranza had a personal connection with the AmeriCorps work, what graduates do immediately after Brown does not determine the rest of their career paths, he said.

Donato also noted that students’ first jobs after graduation are likely to change anyway, and it is “okay to fulfill your needs as long as you get to your passion” in the long run.

Financial concerns should ultimately not dissuade students from pursuing a job in the nonprofit sector, Pollock said. “There are a lot of jobs that don’t pay very well, but there are actually a lot that do.”

“I don’t think that doing well and doing good are mutually exclusive,” Pollock said.

NEWS

PAGE 4 • FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Local high schoolers work for dining services through selective program Students see college from behind Ratty, V-Dub counters, but none apply to Brown this year

By BAYLOR KNOBLOCH MULTIMEDIA FEATURES EDITOR

In the coming weeks, high school students across the country will receive college acceptance or rejection letters.

Among this mass of expectant young scholars is a handful of University employees.

Through a partnership with the Providence charter school Academy for Career Exploration — located just two miles from the University — Brown Dining Services currently employs 20 high school juniors and seniors in the Sharpe Refectory and Verney-Woolley dining halls during evenings and weekends.

In order to land this competitive job — fewer than half of the ACE students who apply are offered a position — the students must submit a resume and teacher recommendation to Vanessa Toledo-Vickers, director of operations at ACE. Students must be in good academic and behavioral standing to be considered, Toledo-Vickers said. “It’s part of (incentivizing) them to have the right behavior at school.”

Toledo-Vickers sends selected students’ resumes to BDS, whose human resources department then completes its standard hiring process.

“They go through an actual hiring process that a large organization uses,” Toledo-Vickers said, adding that the entire experience serves as a lesson in how the job market works.

Keilen Candelier, a senior at ACE, began working with BDS in the fall of her junior year. “I just needed the money,” she said. “It’s minimum wage, (but) I think it’s pretty good pay for what we do,” she said.

Like Candelier, many students from ACE have part-time jobs. “A lot of our kids work to support households,” Toledo-Vickers said. “About 90 to 95 percent of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch, which means that they are under the federal poverty line.”

» SWEARER, from page 1 the center moving forward,” he added.

Indeed, some students expressed qualms with the changes Johnson is proposing.

“The heart of the issue of why we are frustrated is that decisions were made that were not inclusive of us as coordinators, tutors and community members,” said Maria Isabel Diaz ’17, a Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment community fellow.

Specifically, students were not made aware of changes to the center until the end of the formulation process, she said, adding that in her case, that was at the end of January at a community fellows retreat.

“We were told in a 15-minute announcement that our leadership would be cut from six to four,” said Ricardo Jaramillo ’18, a BRYTE coordinator. Uncertainty and alarm about the future of the BRYTE program led student coordinators to meet with members of the Swearer Center the next day, he said, adding

Delaney Vargas, a junior at ACE, began working with BDS in the fall of 2015. “I just really wanted to get a job,” she said.

Vargas and fellow ACE junior Adamary Liranzo share the same class schedule as well as the same afterschool shifts at the Ratty, so the two often spend the whole day together.

The job “is easy money,” Liranzo said.

The standard after-school shift runs from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., during which time the students on duty restock plates and utensils, refill napkin dispensers and salt and pepper shakers, clean tables, tidy food lines and pitch in with the start of dinner cleanup.

A benefit of working for BDS is that “the hours are easy,” said Jaimy Escobedo, a senior at ACE. After school, “other people work until 10 (p.m.), and I only work until 8 (p.m.),” she said.

“We have a friend who works at Burger King, and she gets home after closing at 11 (p.m.) or 12 (a.m.),” Vargas said.

While Escobedo was initially interested in attending Brown, she didn’t end up applying due to financial reasons. In the fall, she plans on attending the University of New Haven, where she hopes to study music business, she said.

The students at ACE “cannot afford a school like Brown unless they go on a full scholarship, and those are extremely competitive,” Toledo-Vickers said, adding that no ACE graduate has attended Brown since she started working at the school in 2012.

“I think our kids tend not to apply because it’s hard to get the financial aid they would need to actually go,” she said.

Brown states that it is committed to a need-blind admission process. The University fully meets each student’s demonstrated financial need.

While 95 percent of ACE graduates enroll in college, most of them go to the Community College of Rhode Island, said Donna McKenna, the school counselor at ACE. Many of them are firstgeneration college students, she said.

If offered a full-ride scholarship to Brown, Escobedo said she would come “in a heartbeat.”

“To get to be here for free, and my that the group also met with Dean of the College Maud Mandel to discuss members’ concerns.

Those concerns were multifaceted.

For one, coordinators raised concerns over the uncertainty of future funding. Administrators have agreed to continue funding BRYTE at its current level over the next academic year, but the organization will be under evaluation during that time, Diaz said.

This financial situation is a great deal better than the alternative for some other groups. BRYTE is “taking one of the lowest cuts,” Diaz said.

“There are programs that are not sure if they’ll even exist in the fall,” she added.

Students also raised concerns about the future of student-based groups that have historically operated out of the Swearer Center, as the strategic plan lays out plans to connect many student groups with organizations outside of the University.

The plan also aims to change the center’s relationships with community agencies by putting students in

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

Local high school students work after school and on weekends at the Sharpe Refectory, the University’s main dining hall on Wriston Quadrangle. Students also work at the Verney Woolley dining hall on Pembroke campus. house is down the street? I could have my Spanish food, and then I could get to take art classes,” she said. Escobedo, like approximately 75 percent of ACE students, comes from a Latinx family.

But for V-Dub worker and ACE senior Miguel Medrano, attending Brown felt out of reach. “I’ve always wanted to come here, (but) I knew I wouldn’t get in,” he said. Medrano didn’t apply to Brown because he thought that “there was no point,” he said. In the fall, Medrano plans to study nursing at CCRI. In addition to financial and academic barriers, diversity plays a role in dissuading students from applying to the school where they come to work every single week.

ACE senior Jessica Polanco works at the V-Dub, where “the diversity rate … is concerning,” she said. “I don’t see anyone that’s like me.”

Polanco, the daughter of Dominican immigrants, is thinking of attending Providence College in the fall, where she would study political science.

She was interested in applying to Brown but missed the deadline, she said. “I feel like I would never get in because it’s too expensive, and also it’s the Ivy League,” she added.

But even if working for BDS doesn’t motivate students to apply to Brown, it may affect how they think about

college in general, Toledo-Vickers said. “It makes (college) a reality for them,” she said. “It exposes them to that environment.”

In addition to allowing students to see life on a college campus, the job also serves as motivation, a number of ACE students said.

“Working here made me realize that you should do something with your life, so you don’t end up working at a place like this,” Liranzo said. “This is okay for now, … (but) if 16-year-olds can do the job that you’re doing, then it doesn’t really require a lot,” she said.

ACE students work alongside fulltime BDS employees, whom they refer to as “red shirts” because of the red polos that serve as their uniform.

“I see some of the red shirts that are here, and I don’t want to be that when I’m older,” Candelier said.

For others, the job simply reinforces what they already knew. “You see your parents with dead-end jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, and you know you don’t want to live like that,” Escobedo said.

Escobedo’s father worked as a Providence laborer but is now unemployed.

Her mother works as a clerk, and various other family members work in factories, she said.

“The adults at Brown are very much

mentors to these kids,” Toledo-Vickers said, adding that the red shirts will often say things to them like, “You don’t want to do this for the rest of your life?

Make sure you graduate high school.

Make sure you get an education and have a profession.”

Along with the red shirts, ACE students interact with Brown students who dine in the facilities, though there is not a lot of conversation that occurs between these two similarly aged groups.

Students seem to be in dining halls “with one motive — to eat — and everyone else is just invisible unless (they) need help,” Polanco said.

Oftentimes, people don’t realize that they are high school students but assume they are older, full-time employees like the red shirts, Liranzo said.

Next month, Toledo-Vickers will begin the process of promoting the job program at ACE and accepting applications for next year’s BDS workers.

“I promote the program widely so the kids who don’t get it know what they have to do to turn it around for the next year,” she said.

September will bring around 20 students from ACE to Brown as BDS workers, but no ACE students will join the University as college students. Of the 38 current seniors at ACE, not one applied to Brown, McKenna said.

closer contact with them, Johnson said. Johnson advocates this model because the agencies are ultimately better equipped to deal with the specific problems that students aim to address with their work. He added that no one in the Swearer Center has “the expertise to appropriately and ethically support students” in projects where there is an alternative available in a community organization.

But involving community agencies may also create problems of its own.

“It’s very clear that someone made this plan without having a standing relationship and familiarity with organizations in Providence,” Jaramillo said.

“A lot of times, these organizations are underfunded and can’t handle taking on another arm of their program.”

Changes to the center have also put a strain on student coordinators as they navigate working within a transitioning organization.

“These have been the hardest two weeks of my life,” Jaramillo said.

Responses to changes to the BRYTE program have included long planning

meetings with community partners to ensure that information had been appropriately disseminated across groups and that there is a cohesive plan for the organization moving forward, he added. The struggle of balancing community service commitments and schoolwork led Jaramillo to request a dean’s note for missed work.

“I’m behind in work for half of my classes because of the announcement of changes to our program,” Diaz said, adding that she also received a dean’s note explaining to professors the work she had done to address the changes presented in the strategic plan and requesting appropriate accommodations. “I know a lot of people who don’t like Mathew Johnson very much right now,” she added.

The Brown Elementary Afterschool Mentoring program experienced an overhaul three years ago that was “at many times scary and nervewracking,” said Emma Schrager ’16, a community fellow for BEAM. Amid substantial changes, it was difficult to take part in leading an organization

that looked fundamentally different than it had the year before.

But the work of strategic plans is ultimately necessary, Schrager said, adding that in BEAM’s case, “it really benefitted the program.” Considering this, she said that “changes to the community program are going to be really good for the community and the students’ experiences.”

Johnson stressed that the current plan is a rough draft and is by no means in its final form. Though some community members were initially disheartened by the proposals of the strategic plan, they have indicated that they will continue to cooperate with the Swearer Center to draft a more widely agreeable document in the future. Already, it seems as if “things are mobilizing in a positive direction,” Diaz said.

“It’s a community service center, so everyone should be on the same side,” Jaramillo said. “We just want to make sure these changes don’t negatively affect anyone who’s on the receiving end of services from the center,” he added.

TODAY

FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

menu

prospective pupils

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizzas: Bacon and Feta, Harvest, Buffalo Chicken BBQ Chicken Sandwich JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Quesadillas

Clam Chowder, Italian Wedding Naked Burritos

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Falafel, Parslied Rice, Summer Squash, Slow-braised Tomatoes, Cream Cheese Brownies

Salmon Teriyaki, Vegan Lemon Rice, Baked Chicken, Swiss Broccoli Pasta, Cajun Apple Cake

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Breaded Chicken Fingers, Vegan Nuggets, Sticky Rice, Baked Potatoes, Vegan Brownies

Blackened Catfish, Garlic- and Butter-Infused Rice, Whipped Cream Peach Cake

sudoku

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

As the weather warms and admission season approaches, the number of prospective students touring campus seems to have spiked. Regular admission decisions will be released March 31.

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

“To get super philosophical: What do we define as a sport? E-sports is different. ” — Joshua Lu ’18, co-founder of Brown E-Sports Club

See e-sports on page 1.

CORRECTION An article in Thursday’s Herald (“‘Men’s Story’ explores masculinity, gender, race,” March 24) stated that Ricardo Jaramillo ’18 and Tariq Cannonier ’16 shared how race has played into their experiences with masculinity. In fact, Latinx is an ethnicity. Also, the article stated that Colombia is Jaramillo’s home country. In fact, he was born in the United States.

The Herald regrets the errors.

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Mesa de Conversacion 12:00 P.M. Sharpe Refectory, Room Six

Cognition Seminar Series 3:00 P.M. Metcalf Research Building 305

SATURDAY American Feast Exhibition 8:00 A.M. Sarah Doyle Women’s Center

Scientific Storytelling 1:00 P.M. Sciences Library Floor Three

SUNDAY Harmonizing Grace Rehearsal 5:00 P.M. Manning Chapel

Roman Catholic Mass 8:30 P.M. Manning Chapel

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Brown Bites Vandalism in Marcy House Students on campus were shaken by anti-Semitic and homophobic graffiti found on the walls of Marcy House, home to Jewish frat Beta Rho Pi and coed, predominantly LGBTQ frat Zeta Delta Xi. The vandalism read “Gay will die” and “Holocaust 2.0.” Beta Rho and Zete released a joint-statement saying, “We are devastated and outraged that this anti-Semitic and homophobic hate crime — and to be clear, this is a hate crime — occurred in our home.”

President Christina Paxson P’19 also voiced her condemnation of the graffiti, saying, “Acts of bias such as this, which attempt to demean and threaten people based on religion, sexual orientation, race or other characteristics, harm not only their most immediate victims but are antithetical to the most deeply held values of this University.”

Project LETS Students going through difficult times can reach out to a peer mental health support counseling group called Project Let’s Erase the Stigma. The national nonprofit organization was started by Stefanie Kaufman ’17, who said she aimed to fill “this gap we see between mental health providers and professionals and typical awareness organizations.” Brown’s Project LETS chapter was established in early 2015 and consists of 30 peer mental health advocates who each specialize in areas such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders. The program works independently from the University’s Counseling and Psychological Services.

Building on concentration Indecisive underclassmen have been getting excited about a new history of art and architecture concentration simply called “architecture.” Though an architectural studies concentration has been previously available within the HIAA department, the new concentration will focus on architectural design.

Concentrators will be required to take 14 courses across disciplines including engineering, urban politics and environmental studies, and students must take two design studio courses at RISD. After graduation, some concentrators will also have the opportunity to enter a two-year master’s program at RISD or other architecture schools. According to Isabela Muci ’16, the concentration is “more hands-on and prepares students better for architecture school.” Awesome, yet another concentration cooler than ours.

R O L A N D H IG H

comic Cat Ears | Najataee’ McNeil

And you thought Machado was far News that faculty members have lives far, far beyond Brown also struck newsstands this week, making students everywhere feel awkward about how frequently they miss their 9 a.m. in Smitty B. Though professors teach in Providence, many live outside Rhode Island to accommodate their spouses, many of whom are also professors, or for a better local school system. But the commute has its downsides: As Associate Professor of English Deak Nabers noted, “The length of your commute is inversely proportional to the amount of happiness you have in your life.” Nabers spends about 16 hours a week on Amtrak commuting from Providence to New York. The self-proclaimed “vibrant member of the Amtrak community” doesn’t just teach Brown students — “I serve humanity by being a total dick-face on the train. I’ve yelled at old women and at people who might have been children. I’m unapologetically an asshole about that.” Sounds like our kind of professor.

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COMMENTARY FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Ignorance in the face of terror

NICHOLAS ESEMPLARE staff columnist Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels are a tragic reminder of the world’s vulnerability to acts of terror. Despite investments aimed at preventing terrorism, the nature of such attacks makes them difficult to completely eliminate. Their continued presence in the world’s consciousness is a testament to the resilience of terrorist organizations. In the modern era, it is difficult to have a dispassionate conversation about terrorism for obvious reasons. Senseless violence induces fear, and fear demands action. Such is the cycle that drives American counter-terrorism.

Logically, you already know that terrorism induces fear disproportionate to the threat it poses. In a world governed by rational, statistical reasoning, terrorism would not exist in its current state — terrorism isn’t effective because it kills people; it’s effective be-

cause it scares them.

There’s no question that terrorist attacks are scary. But it’s important and helpful to ask exactly how scared of them we should be, statistically speaking. The death of 31 innocent people is always tragic, but so are the deaths of the 3,287 people that die each day in car accidents worldwide. Before you

sue. Shortly after the attack, Donald Trump tweeted opposition to what he saw as Hillary Clinton’s willingness to “let the Muslims flow in.”

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, called for increased “patrols” of Muslim areas in the United States.

Somewhere, I’d imagine, a terrorist smiled.

much more than kill people. Time and again, we as Americans have been tragically ready to abandon our values, our morals and our humanity in the face of terror, and our politicians have been all too eager to play on the fears of their constituents. What should be solidarity and mourning is replaced by finger-pointing and violent backlash,

The reaction of the American political system perpetuates terrorism.

let terrorism disrupt your travel plans, consider that you are a lot more likely to die on your way to the airport. Since 2002, terrorist attacks have been the cause of fewer than five deaths per year in the United States.

But this fact hasn’t stopped the terrorist attacks in Brussels from becoming a polarizing political is-

These suggestions are frighteningly reminiscent of past American embarrassments of fear-mongering and human rights abuses, like Japanese internment and, to go back further, the Salem witch hunts. Replace “Muslim” with “Jew,” and you’re hearing echoes of Adolf Hitler.

In America, terrorism has done

and as such, the death of a small number of civilians disproportionately alters political discourse.

But excessive responses to acts of terror don’t just highlight the incompetence of many American politicians; they also provide the only realistic framework in which terrorism is effective. The reaction of the

American political system perpetuates terrorism.

It is sometimes difficult to take a logical viewpoint on the issue of terrorism, but doing so is of utmost importance. In an ideal world, the United States could effectively crack down on terrorism and eliminate the relatively minor physical and tangible threat it poses to American citizens. But everything in this world has a cost. The costs of counter-terrorism efforts in this country are quickly exceeding the benefits.

From increasingly invasive surveillance to enhanced interrogation to outright discrimination, efforts in the United States to stop acts of terror have taken a toll on the values and freedoms that we claim to be protecting. The adage “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself ” has never been more true.

It is fear — and fear alone — that turns 30 deaths into discrimination against millions.

Nicholas Esemplare ’18 can be reached at nicholas_esemplare@ brown.edu.

Dorm price range should match quality range AVERY ROCK staff columnist This year, Brown’s housing fees have seen a surprising change — and it’s not the price increase, silly; I said “surprising.” Next year, many rooms in Vartan Gregorian Quad will no longer require the infamous suite fee. While lovely for the future residents of New Dorm, this shift points out a simple but upsetting fact: Despite offering vastly different amenities, all dorms are divided into only two price categories. As the changes in New Dorm’s fees demonstrate, the suite-or-standard binary does not account for the range of existing facilities.

Setting aside the issue of deciding precisely what constitutes a suite, each price category encompasses vastly different living arrangements.

Some dorms are farther away from campus resources than others. Some have been renovated recently while others have been ignored for years. Some are places people look forward to living and others are legendary sources of dread. In short, some dorms have less value than others. When it comes to on-campus housing, some of us are not getting what we’re paying for (if, indeed, any one of us is). In an ideal world, the University would be able to ensure that all dorms are equally maintained and create an egalitarian residential utopia. This is unrealistic. Fortunately, there is a much more practical alternative: creating a more nuanced pricing system that better accounts for the disparities in on-campus housing.

Despite my earlier grousing about the housing price hike for next year, I understand that the University needs to raise a certain amount of money from housing fees each year. I want the University to continue existing and understand that fees are a critical part of the balanc-

ing act this requires. My complaint is that this financial burden is currently distributed indiscriminately.

Imagine if, instead of being Universityowned, all residence halls were private properties. It would be a logistical nightmare, of course, but there is no way that a room in Perkins would cost as much as one in 315 Thayer.

The difference would be on the order of several hundred dollars per semester. While I don’t

torical housing lottery data: Rooms that consistently fill up toward the end of the lottery should be cheaper than those that get snapped up immediately. This would give an objective method for comparing different dorms without needing to account for the individual factors that make some dorms better than others.

The current pricing system does have one major strength: simplicity. If you’re living on campus, you only have to make one price-de-

The two-category system is so straightforward because it disregards important qualities that should be factored into dorm prices. We are sacrificing effectiveness for ease.

think that the housing situation would be better in a hypothetical capitalist wet dream, this thought experiment points to a critical flaw with the current billing scheme. In a fairer system, above-average rooms would command higher prices while less desirable ones would be cheaper. The occupants of Brown’s shadier residence halls are currently getting a far worse deal than their better-situated classmates.

While not devoid of problems, a more complicated system based on interest in various rooms would create prices that better reflect the quality of life provided by University housing.

Even having four tiers (A, B, C, NC?) ranging from tricked-out apartments at one end to isolated, neglected husks like Perkins at the bottom, would reduce the unfairness of the current system. Rooms could be sorted based on his-

pendent choice: whether you and your three friends think having a private kitchen and a living room for a year is worth a 2005 Ford Focus with an iPhone 6s and $132 in the glove compartment (according to the most recent available data, suite fee for 4: $4,832. Ford focus: $4,500. iPhone 6s: $200 with an AT&T contract). Giving students only two price options streamlines the selection process, makes ResLife’s job easier and helps us not to think about the amount of money we’re spending on housing.

This simplicity comes at a price. The twocategory system is so straightforward because it disregards important qualities that should be factored into dorm prices. It would also be simple to have a flat tax system, but I believe that this simplicity would result in an unfair distribution of financial burden. The housing price

system is similar: We are sacrificing effectiveness for ease. But having all rooms priced individually would be too much of a shift in the other direction. Such a system would be highly impractical. I think that there is a sweet spot between having two price categories and having complete price mobility where we achieve the best balance between fairness and simplicity. I think the optimal number of categories would be around four.

Another problem with adding price categories is the potential to create socioeconomic stratification in campus housing. Many people would consciously choose to live in less desirable dorms if it would save them a significant amount of money, while others could use their financial advantages to secure better housing.

Such dynamics are already a part of housing assignments. The current suite fee is prohibitively expensive for some people but not for others, allowing wealthier people to pay more for better housing. Extending the current housing price system to include more categories would not fundamentally change this. If anything, it would blur the boundary by adding intermediate options. Most importantly, it would give people better control over their personal finances.

The two-category housing fee system imposes an unfairly high rate on the residents of less desirable dorms and completely ignores many factors that influence the value of a particular room. A more nuanced approach would allow people more control over their housing fees and improve the overall fairness of the housing lottery by adding a silver lining to second-rate dorms. The University should add more price categories to account for the variation in oncampus housing quality and allow students a greater degree of financial choice.

Avery Rock ’18 can be reached at avery_rock@brown.edu.

NEWS

FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016 • PAGE 8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

City to spend $13 million to construct enhanced transit corridor

STAFF WRITER

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Rhode Island will use a $13 million federal grant to finance a new Enhanced Transit Corridor in downtown Providence, announced Gov. Gina Raimondo, Mayor Jorge Elorza, the congressional delegation and Rhode Island Public Transit Authority March 14. The corridor will provide buses every five minutes along a 1.4-mile stretch that runs from the Providence Amtrak Station to Rhode Island Hospital.

“This project is an example of the mutually beneficial outcomes that are possible when all levels of government work creatively and collaboratively,” Elorza said in a March 14 press release. “Together with partners at the state and federal level, we are building a tool that will encourage economic activity and help strengthen Providence’s resurgence.”

Raimondo also spoke in favor of the project in the release. “Fast, convenient public transit will help make Rhode Island a more attractive place to live and work.”

The funding for the corridor was originally awarded to the City of Providence for the construction of the Providence Streetcar Project.

RIPTA, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and the City of Providence worked together over the past several months to develop the corridor as an alternative project at a lower cost.

Stefano Bloch, presidential diversity postdoctoral fellow in Urban

make connections to other existing lines. The corridor “will hopefully create more traffic for our existing service, feeding more ridership,” Polichetti said.

According to Polichetti, construction will begin in the spring of 2018. The first step for the project is completing paperwork for the Federal Transit Administration and convening all project partners. Before construction can begin, preliminary engineering work must be done in the fall of 2016, followed by a final design phase in the spring of 2017.

Polichetti explained that “we haven’t even gotten into the design phase,” but the planning for the corridor will look into what road modifications can be made and determine the possibility of adding a bus lane, enhanced stop amenities, Wi-Fi at stops and even traffic signal prioritization.

Polichetti explained that RIPTA can work with the city and state “to install software where the bus line can communicate with the traffic signals.”

RIPTA buses “can hold a yellow or hold a green, (but) they won’t actually change a light” for the sake of “reducing travel time.”

t. eS ng ha

By ISABEL GENSLER

Studies, said that “a 1.4 mile corridor is more symbolic than anything else.”

Bloch believes that the corridor is an attempt by city planners to show that “hypermobility is important to us as a city.”

But in reality, the corridor will not “change the built environment drastically. It’s not going to ameliorate the negative effects of traffic or lack of transit services, and it’s not going to provide much in the way of allowing people to get to or from school or work any easier than they do now,” Bloch said.

But Bloch does favor the transit corridor over the original Providence Streetcar Project.

“Streetcars are an aesthetic attempt to fix structural problems, and it’s more about appearances than it is about function,” Bloch said. “All that matters is that transit is functional. … You need not appeal to the past.”

Rep. David Cicilline, D-RI, a former advocate for the streetcar project, now supports the new plans for the ETC. “The Enhanced Transit Corridor will help improve transportation in Providence, connect neighborhoods to downtown, promote greater economic development and bring new residents to Rhode Island,” Cicilline said. He successfully advocated allocating the $13 million grant that will fund the corridor, securing 75 percent of the funding for this project through federal money.

Barbara Polichetti, director of public affairs for RIPTA, said she believes the transit corridor serves several purposes. “The city was looking for a frequent service in the downtown corridor that would connect some key economic areas,” she said. Furthermore, the corridor will increase RIPTA’s presence at the Providence Amtrak Station, as well as

Exc

Corridor to run from Amtrak station to hospital, add bus stops with enhanced features

Hospital District KATE TALERICO / HERALD

ELI WHITE / HERALD

A $13 million grant will fund the Enhanced Transit Corridor project, which aims to connect key areas of Downtown Providence. The project will replace the original Providence Streetcar project.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Kylor Bellistri ’16 powers men’s lacrosse past Harvard Bellistri ’16 scores two clutch goals in final five minutes to lead Brown over 14th-ranked Crimson

has been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

Bellistri scored two goals in the final five minutes, giving the Bears an 11-8 win. This season, he has already scored 23 goals in six games, good for second in the nation in goals per game. In his final year as a Bear, Bellistri is second on the team with 29 points. If he continues at his current pace, he will equal his 2015 scoring output by the tenth game of the 2016 season — and likely help keep the Bears undefeated.

For his increased scoring pace and three goals against Harvard, Bellistri

Herald: The team is 6-0 and ranked No. 4 nationally. How far do you think the team can go?

Bellistri: Currently, we’re just trying to think about it one game at a time.

We’ve got a really, really good opponent in Villanova, who’s (eighth) in the nation right now, so we’re just working on that, looking more short term and just being able to build each week. We’ve got a great team, we’ve got a confident team and we’re all having fun, which has been a huge driving factor. If we just keep doing what we’re doing and control what we control, we’re going to have a great season.

By JAMES SCHAPIRO STAFF WRITER

The men’s lacrosse team has started its season with a bang: The team is 6-0 and ranked No. 4 nationally. Saturday’s game against Harvard brought the Bears’ toughest test of the season so far. Bruno pulled ahead early, but the Crimson did not fade, pulling to within one goal with five minutes remaining. Then, attacker Kylor Bellistri ’16 took the game into his own hands.

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

Kylor Bellistri ’16 is just one of the key pieces of Bruno’s high-powered offense this season, leading the team with 23 goals and adding 6 assists.

Last year you had 35 goals in 17 games. This year, you’re on pace to score 65 in 17 games. What improvements have you made?

We’ve worked together more as a team this year. I wouldn’t say that I’ve done anything crazy different. (Dylan Molloy ’17), who’s great, has done a lot better (of a) job this year at being able to move the ball off a dodge when he draws a double. Our team, in general — we’re scoring a lot more goals, and we’re playing really well together, so everyone’s been prospering from our

continued development as a team.

With Villanova coming up next Tuesday, No. 8 in the country — what do you expect from that game?

We expect them to play a fast game with us. They love shooting the ball and getting up and down just like we do. They’ve got a great face-off guy, so that’ll be a good match and a good fight for our wing guys. It’ll be a fun game.

It’s tough sometimes traveling down to Pennsylvania, but we’ll be going down there a day early and getting used to it. … So we expect a great matchup with a great team, and I know both teams are looking forward to it.

Shifting gears, what drew you to lacrosse, and how long have you played it?

I’ve been playing lacrosse since about second or third grade. My dad is actually a lacrosse coach and coached me throughout middle school and high school. He’s the head coach now at my high school, where my younger brother goes as well. That’s been a part of my life — he played in college, my mom played in high school, and it’s just been a part of me growing up. Also, with my brother as well, I’ve been able to play with him, and he’s on the sideline at a bunch of the games with some of the

other younger brothers. So that’s always great, to have that family atmosphere on top of the family we have at Brown — the team and everything.

With your big start, how’s the mood around the team?

We’re feeling good. We understand that, although we’ve gotten off to a 6-0 start, we still haven’t really done anything. We’ve had one league game — we have a long road ahead of us — so we’re just trying to control what we can control in the short term. Practicing hard each day, and just preparing for the next game, and hopefully from there, we can make some great things happen.

The question everyone’s wondering about — how have you guys done it so far, and can you keep it up?

Honestly, we’ve just been having a great time, and it’s a testament to the other captains, Jack Kelly ’16 and Brendan Caputo ’16, just getting the guys up for each day of practice. Weather-wise, we’ve been lucky, which always helps with that, but we’re a confident team, and we’re having a fun time. That’s really helped us and will continue to help us throughout the year.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.