SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 43
WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
UCS, UFB announce candidates for executive positions
Garcia ’18, Nelkin ’17, Nguyen ’17 to vie for president as Ittner ’18 runs unopposed for VP By MATTHEW JARRELL STAFF WRITER
Kevin Garcia ’18, Zachary Nelkin ’17 and Viet Nguyen ’17 will contest the election for President of the Undergraduate Council of Students next week. Tim Ittner ’18 will run unopposed for the position of vice president. Jordan Ferguson ’17 and Adwa Habtu ’17 will run unopposed for Chair and Vice Chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board, respectively. These executive candidates and those running for other positions on UCS and the UFB submitted petitions of candidacy and reviewed campaign regulations at the candidates’ meeting Tuesday. Garcia, who currently serves as UCS Campus Life Chair, emphasized his background and experience as motivating factors for his run. “As both a local Rhode Islander and somebody who identifies as first-generation and low-income, I can approach UCS
issues with a lot of sensitivity (to) everyone’s experiences,” Garcia said. UCS should be a body accessible to all students and should “be a vehicle” for the needs of all, Garcia added. His platform will focus on student wellness and safety, specifically pushing for the abolition of the seven-session limit at Counseling and Psychological Services, he said. Nelkin would work to make UCS “a more effective forum for student voices,” he said. He will reconstitute UCS as a fully elected body and will hold periodic referenda among all undergraduates on the existence of UCS, according to his platform. Nelkin also emphasized a continued focus on mental health, a chief area of work for the current UCS executive board. “We need to be making sure that it gets treated in the same way as any other type of healthcare,” he said. Nguyen’s platform highlighted his role in the creation of the new FirstGeneration College Students Center to be opened this summer as well as his service on a University committee to increase travel aid for international students. He seeks to hold “Brown’s administration accountable to all of its students,” he stated in his platform.
EMMA JERZYK / HERALD
Nguyen will push to cut the summer earnings expectation for all students on aid and increase financial aid for middle-income students, according to his platform. He will also look to increase the number of off-campus
living permits for juniors and require trans and gender-nonconforming education in all Title IX training for faculty members. As vice president, Ittner would “push for the complete implementation
of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan,” he said. He stated a commitment to ensuring physical accessibility for all new construction on campus and articulated support for ongoing » See UCS, page 2
Lipscombe to direct Brain Institute Professor of neuroscience assumes executive director position after one-year stint as interim director By KYLE BOROWSKI SENIOR STAFF WRITER
RACHEL GOLD / HERALD
The forum, “Marijuana Regulatory Policy: Lessons from Western States,” held at the Warren Alpert Medical School, featured representatives from states that have already legalized recreational marijuana use.
Marijuana forum emphasizes caution
Policy experts from Colorado, Washington offer thoughts on legalization movement By RACHEL GOLD SENIOR STAFF WRITER
As marijuana sweeps to the center of public debate, protestors and progressives — like those who tried to inflate a 51-foot joint replica in front of the White House last week — have
INSIDE
been at the forefront of the legalization movement. During Tuesday’s forum at the Warren Alpert Medical School, government officials and public policy experts urged caution, making their case as to why research and regulation must lead the movement. The forum, titled “Marijuana Regulatory Policy: Lessons from Western States” was sponsored by the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, the Conference of Western Attorneys General and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin.
Speakers included representatives from Washington and Colorado — states that have already legalized recreational cannabis use — as well as Massachusetts, which is considering doing so. “The question of marijuana policy is not a simple yes-or-no question,” said Jason Lewis, Massachusetts state senator and chair of the state’s Special Senate Committee on Marijuana, addressing a packed lecture hall. “There are a whole host of complicated policy » See MARIJUANA, page 2
Professor of Neuroscience Diane Lipscombe has been named the executive director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science, according to a community-wide email from Provost Richard Locke P’17 April 5. Since Jan. 5, 2015 Lipscombe has served as interim director of the institute where she has “made measurable gains,” Locke wrote, drawing attention to the strategic plan for BIBS she and her colleagues drafted as well as the over $6 million in philanthropic donations she has attracted since becoming interim director. BIBS “serves an incredible purpose in facilitating interest, creativity and innovation around brain science,” Lipscombe said. “It brings together faculty (members) and students to really think about some of the most interesting and fascinating questions we ask today,” Lipscombe said.
To answer those complex questions, emphasizing interdisciplinary work and research should be a top priority, she added. As of now, about half of her lab’s research consists of collaborative work between teams from different disciplines, she said. “Lipscombe is an exceptional scientist, committed educator and proven effective, collaborative leader,” Locke wrote, adding that since her arrival at Brown in 1990, she has “won numerous teaching awards, directed graduate study in the neurosciences” and secured funding to conduct research on a variety of topics. Lipscombe will continue her research while director, something that she said was incredibly important for her to do. She added that her work has developed over the years, much like the institute, and her research has spanned from the calcium channels of neurons to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to migraines. For her work, Lipscombe has received the Joan Mott Prize Lecture from the UK Physiological Society and the President’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Governance in addition to several others. She is also a member of a number of committees and societies including the American Association for the Advancement of » See LIPSCOMBE, page 2
WEATHER
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
NEWS Academy Award-winning actor, director, producer Jodie Foster visits for Ivy Film Festival
NEWS University introduces new solar compactors for recycling, trash disposal to increase efficiency
COMMENTARY Malik ’18: Rather than rejecting media organizations, hold them to higher journalistic standards
COMMENTARY Al-Salem ’17: Painful friendship breakups should be taken as seriously as romantic ones
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» MARIJUANA, from page 1 issues that need to be addressed by legislators, regulators and industry stakeholders.” Though medical marijuana use was legalized in Rhode Island in 2006 and momentum is building toward recreational legalization, Kilmartin noted that there has been little serious policy consideration. “I think that this is the first time in the state of Rhode Island we have heard this dialogue,” he said. “So it’s a 100 percent increase from where we were, but 10 percent of where we need to go and what we need to do. We’re not here to answer all of the problems, but to ask the questions and begin the dialogue,” he added. Representatives from states where this dialogue has been translated into law, including the Deputy Attorney General of Washington and the Assistant Director of Prosecution for the city of Denver, were on hand to lend their expertise. Though it is too early to issue
» LIPSCOMBE, from page 1 Science, the Society for Neuroscience and the Board of Directors of the Care New England Health System, Locke wrote. Lipscombe received BSc and PhD degrees in the Department of Pharmacology from University College London. She then went on to complete postdoctoral research in the Cellular and Molecular Physiology Departments at the medical schools of both Yale and Stanford University before coming to Brown, according to her curriculum vitae. BIBS was founded in 1999 with the goal of promoting “multidisciplinary research, technology development and training in the brain sciences,” according
definite referendums on the impact of legalization on health, crime and other markers, it’s clear that “the sky is not falling down,” said Adam Darnell, researcher for the Washington State Institute for Public Policy and author of the institute’s preliminary report on legalization in Washington. Not only has the sky not fallen, but, on many fronts, conditions have improved since the legalization of recreational marijuana use — at least in the centennial state. Over 24,000 employees in Colorado are involved in the cannabis industry and are earning hourly wages of about $15, said Todd Mitchem of the Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Production. “This is opening up opportunities,” he said. “Many people can’t work at Dish Network because they’re users (of marijuana) and will fail the drug test there. Now they can have marijuana in their life without fear of losing their jobs. They can work in the economic system.” But optimistic views must be tempered with other realities. Driving to the institute’s website. It also serves to “establish Brown University as an internationally recognized leader in brain research.” To that end, the institute includes over 100 faculty members from a variety of disciplines and covers research that incorporates neuroscience, psychiatry and neurology, in addition to others, Locke wrote. In her position as executive director, Lipscombe will be responsible for leading “the development and implementation of the institute’s ongoing educational programs,” Locke wrote. She will represent the University both domestically and abroad in addition to overseeing the institute’s daily operations, he added.
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD under the influence is a major issue, as is the difficulty of regulating home growing and the impact legalization can have on youths’ perceptions of the harm marijuana can do. In response to these dangers, Colorado has channeled revenues from the 3.5 percent tax on retail marijuana to education. “We have been involved in programs about how to talk to youth about marijuana,” said Marley Bordovsky, assistant director of prosecution and code enforcement for the Denver City Attorney’s Office. In Rhode Island, Sen. Josh Miller, D-Cranston and Providence, and Rep. Scott Slater, D-Providence, introduced legislation in February that would establish a legal, regulated recreational marijuana market, but the proposals are far from becoming law. Just across the state’s northern border, the picture is different. As Massachusetts moves toward a statewide decision on legalization — likely to come via a ballot question during this year’s election — the Massachusetts Special Senate Committee
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“I look forward to continuing to collaborate with BIBS Director Diane Lipscombe,” Locke wrote, adding that he hopes to “realize the goals we have established to secure Brown’s leadership in brain science research and discovery.”
on Marijuana was asked to “list public health, fiscal health and public safety concerns” associated with the legalization, Lewis said. Chief among these concerns, according to the group’s findings, are risks to youth. “It is the conclusion of our special committee that evidence on youth consumption is unequivocal,” he said. Marijuana use impacts the cognitive health, IQ, behavioral health and mental health of young people, Lewis explained, adding that these effects are greater the younger an individual starts using the drug. Compounding these problems, he said, is the fact that research shows that perception of harm among young people has fallen. “Over the past two decades, the number of 12th graders (in Massachusetts) who think marijuana is harmful to health has fallen from 80 percent to 40 percent,” Lewis said. But some attendees found that the forum focused too much on harm to youths at the expense of discussing the positive effects of legalizing marijuana. “Unfortunately, the discussion was
fairly one-sided,” Jared Moffat, the director of Regulate Rhode Island, wrote in a statement after the event. “There was little mention of the positive impacts we’ve seen in Colorado and Washington: millions in tax revenue being used to build schools and fund health programs, many thousands of new jobs and a drastic reduction of the illicit marijuana market. The truth is that virtually all of the dire predictions from opponents of marijuana regulation have not materialized.” But all of the panelists took care to mention that it is too early to render full judgment. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy, for one, is analyzing these effects over a 20-year period, Darnell said. While changes — if any — in graduation rates, health and crime may materialize, it is essential that reflection and analysis continue, Kilmartin said. “Whether you are pro-expansion in this state, pro-retraction in this state or you’re pro-status quo, I’m sure each person ... can take something out of today.”
» UCS, from page 1
detailing UFB policies and changes. Austin Lessin ’19 and Charlotte Merzbacher ’19 will compete for the position of Academic Affairs Chair. The races for Campus Life Chair (Kudrat Wadhwa ’19), Student Activities Chair (Naveen Srinivasan ’19), Student Wellness Chair (Britt Edelen ’19) and UCS Treasurer (Yuzuka Akasaka ’18) will all take place uncontested. Aryan Chhabria ’18, Caleb Hersh ’17 and Drew To ’19 will also run for at-large seats on UFB. Candidates for UCS President and Vice President and UFB Chair and Vice Chair will take part in a debate sponsored by the UCS Elections Board Thursday at 8 p.m. in Salomon Hall.
efforts to eliminate socioeconomic barriers to success. While both races for UFB leadership positions will not be contested, the two candidates approach the election with full agendas. Ferguson would bring two years of UFB experience to the presidency and seek to reduce transportation- and facilityrelated costs for student groups as well as implement the release of end-ofsemester reports on UFB’s activities, according to his platform. Habtu stressed transparency of UFB policies, pledging in her platform to send out campus-wide emails
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016 • PAGE 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Jodie Foster reflects on career path in film industry Academy Award winner offers advice to students, shares experiences as female director, actor By BAYLOR KNOBLOCH MULTIMEDIA FEATURES EDITOR
Casually gracing the stage in a hoodie and motorcycle boots, Jodie Foster presents herself as anything but a blockbuster celebrity who has been in the national spotlight since childhood. Tuesday morning, the Academy Award winner sat down with Ivy Film Festival Managing Director Oakley Friedberg ’17 for the festival’s kickoff event. In response to questions crowdsourced online beforehand, Foster offered sage industry advice from her time as an actor, director and producer to a full Martinos Auditorium in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. “Leave the lenses and the cranes for later,” she said. “The equipment is the least important part of the process. The most important part is figuring out what you’re trying to say.” Foster talked about her time as an undergraduate at Yale, where she studied literature and didn’t take a single film class, she said. After her breakout role at age 12 in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” — which landed her an Oscar nomination for best actress in a supporting role — Foster approached college as a way to escape childhood stardom.“It’s really important to be more than just your job,” Foster said, adding that growing up in the spotlight can be “a slippery slope.” “My education was learning how to read and wanting to look deeper,” Foster said, adding that a liberal arts education is an “amazing foundation for filmmaking.” “There’s no reason why you have to be a film major in order to do film later on,” she said. After her time at Yale, Foster went
on to win two Oscars for best actress in a leading role for her work in “The Accused” and “The Silence of the Lambs.” Eventually, conversation veered toward her more recent experiences as a director, working on “Little Man Tate,” “Home for the Holidays” and “The Beaver.” In some ways, these three films, which center on characters of different ages, constitute “a personal trilogy” for Foster, she said, speaking of her own life as a child prodigy, 30-something searching for her identity and newly middleaged woman coming to terms with that descriptor. “I always say I make personal films,” she said, explaining that this does not mean that the films are autobiographical but rather that her life story “finds its way into the narrative.” Her current work directing “Money Monster,” starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, has required two years of production and two years of planning prior to production. “I still have another week of mixing left,” she said. The film is slated to premiere this May. The movie “is in the landscape of guns, bombs and SWAT guys,” but Foster maintained that it “has so much resonance” for her because of the omnipresent role that technology plays in the plot and production process. The shooting required both film and broadcast cameras to create a real-time narrative, which required “jigsaw-puzzle planning that would have been impossible 20 years ago,” she said. Never formally trained, Foster attributes her directing chops to on-thejob learning. “If you’ve been in the film industry long enough, there are some things that are just like water to you,” she said. In her time working as an actor with prominent directors, Foster always tried to “stand behind their shoulders” and ask them how and why they made certain decisions, she said. “Because I didn’t go to film school, my film school has been
ELI WHITE / HERALD
Ivy Film Festival Managing Director Oakley Friedberg ’17 read questions compiled through online crowd-sourcing to Jodie Foster. Crediting her success to on-the-job learning, Foster said she did not take film classes at Yale. making movies.” But she recognized that this is a rare path and advised students interested in film to “go to movies and talk about what was wrong with them, and then ask yourself what you would have done differently,” she said. “Re-writing films is the best film school you can have.” She also encouraged students to take risks in their work and use their time in school as an opportunity to try new approaches. “You can make a film on your iPhone,” she said. “Film is cheap right now, so there are lots of new voices doing exciting new things.”
As a woman in the film industry, Foster spoke of increasing gender equality in all positions except for directing. “There is a fear that somehow female films are less successful and women don’t know how to be leaders,” she said. But “women are just a different kind of leader because of how we were raised,” she said. “It’s gender psychology,” she said, adding that “you have to get to the root” of this gender disparity at the upper levels of film to really understand it. As a director, Foster tries to lead by being “straightforward” and strives to “include the actor in the filmmaking
experience,” she said. Foster credited another noteworthy guest coming to campus for IFF this year, Robert De Niro, with opening “my eyes to what acting can be.” Foster acted alongside De Niro in “Taxi Driver.” Before working with De Niro, Foster thought acting was “stupid.” She described her former understanding of the craft as “read(ing) something that somebody else wrote, and then you say it,” she said to laughter. “I owe a great debt to him.” De Niro will speak on a panel Thursday at 5:00 p.m. in Salomon Hall.
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PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Seven seniors score Venture for America fellowships
Backed by safety net of job security, health insurance, fellows to begin work at startups in emerging cities By KATHERINE LUO STAFF WRITER
Seven University students and one from the Rhode Island School of Design were accepted into the Venture for America Class of 2016. The two-year fellowship program places graduating seniors in startups with the goals of cultivating fellows’ aptitudes for entrepreneurship and jumpstarting the growth of emerging cities. During the two-year program, fellows are able to work and explore their interests with the assurance of job security, health insurance and other career resources like skills workshops. The admission process culminated
in March. The process includes an online application, a Skype interview and in-person meetings and activities on Selection Day. Fellows are evaluated on their intelligence, character and ability to thrive in a challenging environment, according to the VFA website. Jocelyn Caster ’16 heard about the program from a roommate and subsequently developed an interest in entrepreneurship and startups. Though she and other fellows are still waiting on their placements, Caster hopes to work in marketing and operations. “People think of our generation as one that starts rich companies,” Caster said. “But actually, we’re starting less companies than ever before.” She
attributed this trend to student debt, which discourages students from taking risks and pursuing their passions. “But right out of school is the best time to take risks,” Caster said. VFA encourages students to seize that immediate post-graduation opportunity by providing a safety net of 200 company partnerships and a network of fellows. “I like the idea of doing something different and risky, but not that risky,” Hannah Anokye ’16 said of her postBrown plans. With VFA, she said, “You have something to fall back on these two years.” Anokye was also attracted to VFA’s plan to place some of the nation’s brightest graduates in emerging cities. “When you mention them, they’re ‘dangerous’: Detroit, Baltimore, etc.,”
she said. “But it’s cool that we’re driving talented people to these places.” VFA’s mission is also important to Armani Madison ’16, who has prior experience with community organizing and nonprofit work. Ultimately, Madison would like to use the skills he learns from VFA to found his own nonprofit, which would focus on making college education more accessible to low-income students of color. For Madison, VFA is an opportunity to apply both his skills and passion, all while taking “a less prescribed career path.” “I would encourage like-minded, creative students to apply for VFA,” Madison said. “Don’t feel pressure to go into a prescribed career path. Don’t pigeonhole yourself — see what you’re really interested in.”
Yelitsa Jean-Charles, a student at RISD, sees VFA as “an appealing, amazing opportunity” to pursue her interest in startups. Jean-Charles has had significant exposure to this field already — she participated in Brown’s Social Innovation Fellowship, starting her own project, Healthy Roots, which aims to promote diversity in toy dolls. But Jean-Charles primarily considers herself a designer and artist — a background that she hopes will give her a “different perspective” as she approaches key business components like branding and marketing. In a few words, Jean-Charles said of her decision to apply to VFA, “I wanted to see the real world. I’m ready to work full-time and grow with a great community.”
New trash, recycling compactors make waste disposal greener Seventy Bigbelly solar compactors replace 117 trash, recycling bins around campus By JACKSON CHAIKEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Over spring break, the Department of Facilities Management updated how people on campus can get rid of their trash, installing 60 new BigBelly solar compactors across campus, said Grounds Superintendent Patrick Vetere. With traditional trash cans or recycling bins, the grounds crew responsible for picking up trash must regularly check bins to see if they are full, said Jessica Berry, sustainability program manager. The compactors, equipped with sensors, eliminate this inefficient step by sending signals to the grounds crew as soon as they can be emptied. Thirty of the 60 new compactors are designated for recyclable materials and 30 are for trash, Vetere said. In
addition, 10 existing solar compactors were upgraded, he added. The 70 compactors will replace 117 trash and recycling bins, said Vice President for Facilities Management Stephen Maiorisi. Replacing multiple bins with one compactor will make recycling simpler, increasing recycling rates, Maiorisi said. The addition of more compactors means the University is now 100 percent single-stream recycling, Vetere said. In other words, it is no longer necessary to figure out which bin a recyclable should go in. “The new single-stream system is much more efficient for students,” said Loren Dowd ’16, a former design editor for The Herald who worked on the project as a communications intern with the Office of Energy and Environment. “They no longer have
MATTEO MOBILIO / HERALD
Eliminating the need to check if bins are full, compactors added to campus last week send signals to a grounds crew when they reach capacity.
to figure out which recyclables go in the ‘mixed containers’ bin and which go in the ‘paper’ bin.” The new trash compactors must be physically opened, adding one step to the process of disposing of waste. “While opening the trash cans is one additional step, the hope is that by having students actively take part in throwing away their trash or recycling, they’ll have to stop and mentally register what they’re doing,” Dowd said. “I am sure there will be students who don’t like having to
open the bins, but it’s only a small change.” Dowd created posters that help decipher what to recycle and what to put in the trash, she said. They will also “call attention to the new bins and system,” she added. The extra step of opening the bins has other benefits, too. For example, there will no longer be overflowing barrels or rodent problems, Vetere said. The new compactors are also an aesthetically pleasing addition to
campus, Maiorisi said, noting that he has had his eye on the compactors for some time now. “Every time I would go anywhere I would take a picture and send it to (Berry) and say, ‘We should do this,’” he said. The University leased the compactors for a total price tag of $66,000 a year, Maiorisi said. Seventy-five percent of that sum has already been recouped through efficiencies, and Maiorisi estimates that all of the costs will be recovered in the long term, he said.
TODAY
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016 • PAGE 5
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menu
behind the white picket fence
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Pizza: Honey Boo Boo, Mushroom’s Revenge, Sausage and Spicy Garlic Po’ Boys / Rich Boys JOSIAH’S
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Gourmet Grilled Cheese
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Vegan Nuggets, Pork Lo Mein, Vegetable Medley Stir-Fry, Rice Krispie Treats
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sudoku
MATTEO MOBILIO / HERALD
As the housing lottery draws ever closer, upperclassmen living off campus are the envy of first-years and sophomores. What they don’t know is that living off campus means shoveling the remains of untimely snowstorms.
RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich ACROSS 1 Fabric mimicked by jeggings 6 Dallas NBA team 10 Indian mausoleum city 14 In the company of 15 __ bargain 16 Fountain contribution 17 Midler’s “Divine” nickname 18 Burn unit procedure 20 Allow to enter 22 Big name in auto racing 23 Kerfuffles 25 Advanced degs. 26 “Rogue Lawyer” novelist 31 Whiskas eater 34 Pulitzer winner Walker 35 Actor McGregor 36 Dance in a pit 37 Hull fastener 38 Group 39 Mazda MX-5, familiarly 40 Big nights 41 How-to component 42 Follow, as a hunch 43 __ Plaines 44 Rockefeller Center centerpiece 46 Farm enclosure 47 Bit of naughtiness 48 Doze 53 Disney character with a white tail 56 Quartet of Wagnerian operas, and a hint to the progression in this puzzle’s circled letters 58 Regal headpiece 60 Bordeaux brainstorm 61 Down-to-earth 62 2001 scandal subject 63 Boilermaker component 64 Prohibitionists 65 City near Florence
DOWN 1 Reservoir creator 2 German actor Jannings 3 Sommelier’s asset 4 Examples 5 Classic British two-seater 6 Base cops, briefly 7 __-Seltzer 8 Corpuscle conduit 9 Dreamy guy? 10 Lots of plots 11 Butter in a farmyard? 12 Africa’s Great __ Valley 13 Naysayer 19 Light weight 21 Hide-hair link 24 Afternoon break 26 Actor/singer Leto 27 Green hue 28 Homes with buzzers 29 “Ni-i-ice!” 30 Quaint headpiece accessory 31 Raccoon kin 32 __ Martin: 007’s car 33 Acknowledge in an Oscar speech, say
36 Barely-there dress 39 Powerful people 41 Rock band Lynyrd __ 44 Legato’s opp., in music 45 San Francisco’s __ Hill 46 “Like a Rock” rocker 48 Chicago paper, for short
49 __-de-camp 50 Bermuda shorts endpoint 51 One with an untouchable service 52 Word with fair or foul 54 Unadorned 55 Fairway choice 57 PGA star from South Africa 59 Santa __ Mountains
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
“There is a fear that somehow female films are less successful and women don’t know how to be leaders.
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— Jodie Foster, Academy Award-winning actor, director, producer
See ivy film festival on page 3.
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
CORRECTION An article and summary deck published in Tuesday’s Herald (“Ivy Film Festival reaches campuses nationwide,” April 5) stated that the number of submissions was 449 films. In fact, the number of submissions was about 500. The Herald regrets the error.
xwordeditor@aol.com
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Heavy Petting 11:45 A.M. Main Green
Facilitating Difficult Conversations 12:00 P.M. Sheridan Center
Women in STEM: A Trivia Competition 5:30 P.M. Applied Math Building, 108
Volunteer for RI’s Suicide Hotline 6:00 P.M. First Unitarian Church
TOMORROW Brown Bag Concert 12:00 P.M. Sayles Hall
Black Freedom in the White House 12:00 P.M. Nightingale-Brown House
Catholic Relief Services Bake Sale 12:00 P.M. Main Green
Terrorism: Fruit of American Intervention? 8:00 P.M. 68 Brown St.
COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Give DPS credit To the Editor: Regarding the opinion column, “DPS: the lesser of two evils” by Vaughn Campbell ’18, published Tuesday, I take exception with the title: DPS is not an evil, lesser, necessary or otherwise. I have consistently found in my experience that DPS, the Department of Public Safety, is professional, respectful and a positive influence on campus. Addressing a specific claim, Campbell wrote, “Following the incident at the Latinx Ivy League Conference, it is easy to claim that there is bias within DPS. And these claims are well-founded, but bias exists everywhere.” I agree, it is easy to make such a claim. The claim, however, is hardly well-founded. To the best of my knowledge, there is no documented pattern of bias in or by DPS, and there is substantial evidence to the contrary. In the fall of 2009, The Herald reported on data released by DPS and found that DPS stops tracked the student body in terms of race. In a more recent piece in the fall of 2014, The Herald alleged that DPS racially profiles students on the basis of a handful of anecdotes without providing any data to this effect. In general, not just with respect to DPS, it would be desirable to see fewer broad claims on the pages of this newspaper, especially disparaging ones that lack supporting evidence, much less fly in the face of it.
L IO R A M O R HAY I M
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Mark Fuller ’09, GS
P-Branes and Bosons | Ricky Oliver
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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016 • PAGE 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Don’t lose faith in the fourth estate AMEER MALIK staff columnist Over spring break, I watched “Spotlight” with my brother. It’s a powerful movie that displays how journalism, by exposing injustice, is vital to keeping those with power in check. I was moved by the film, but its impact clashed with my deep cynicism about the news today. I complained to my brother that journalism is in trouble because older and better outlets have lost their audiences to cable news networks, which have become entertainment channels. I said that cable news networks prioritize viewership and ad revenue because they serve their shareholders above the truth. With my words, I painted a bleak picture. I was shocked a few days later when cable news networks actually provided examples of good journalism, in both CNN’s and MSNBC’s town halls. I did not watch the events as they aired, but I read Callum Borchers’ insightful reactions in the Washington Post. Borchers commends Anderson Cooper for asking hard questions and following up when interviewing Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, and he explains how Chris Matthews was able to get Trump to answer a question about punishing women who have abortions. Borchers highlighted the successes of journalists working to get substantial information from presidential candi-
dates, which is necessary for voters to make informed decisions. This made me realize that different forms of journalism are valuable, and that my response to journalistic failures — a denouncement, really — was unproductive. Journalism seeks to convey and document important information to the public. Newspapers and other outlets serve as the record for major events. A truly free press is responsible to only its readers — not to politicians, not to
els of focus. When they co-exist, they document various levels of wrongdoing. Exposing injustice is not limited to people in well-known, lofty positions; newspapers can bring to light issues that plague every level of society. This brings the need for journalism closer to home: the college campus. College and university newspapers are crucial. Just as their regional and national counterparts do on a different scale, these publications can keep those in positions of power accountable. In
the surrounding society, such as racism and sexual violence, are all too present. Also present on college campuses, but not elsewhere, are multiple resources aimed at addressing such issues. These include knowledge gained in the classroom, guidance from faculty members and support from peers. These factors allow activism to develop on campus in ways that people outside of academia may not be able to access. Both injustices and responses to injustices have to be documented, the for-
College and university newspapers are crucial. Just as their regional and national counterparts do on a different scale, these publications can keep those in positions of power accountable.
business leaders and not to anyone else in a high position. A source of news, if independent from other interests, serves its readers by revealing what powerful and public people do, good or bad. A local newspaper is responsible for telling readers if a local business leader is implementing unsafe or unfair practices. A national news network should point out if a public figure is acting unjustly. Newspapers have a unique role in enforcing accountability. Different providers of news are required because they have different lev-
addition, they serve an important role in covering developments in higher education. According to the Brookings Institution, “just 1.4 percent of the space and airtime in the mainstream media is going toward education coverage.” If the typical news outlets only rarely cover what happens in schools overall, then college newspapers are especially necessary to document what happens on campuses. And we know that what happens on campuses has to be documented. On a college campus, the problems in
mer so that people can understand that societal problems persist, and the latter so that people can see how this generation is striving for justice. College newspapers are closest to the occurrences and are best able to accurately convey what takes place. Recent events prove that reporting done by campus newspapers can be crucial. In ABC News’ story about racist incidents at Yale and the following March of Resilience that took place last November, the network used the Yale Daily News as a source of information
about what took place. Unfortunately, news organizations fail too often. Cable news networks, for example, can sensationalize stories. The Herald, too, has had its own set of failures. But the response to failures of the fourth estate should not be rejection or denunciation. The way I rejected cable news networks when I was talking with my brother was unproductive. The better response would have been engagement. Demanding more accurate information and working toward that goal helps everyone more than complaints. Taking an active response can result in constructive changes. If people reject organizations, especially those that are essential to democratic societies, they are not invested in the organizations’ or societies’ successes. If they instead engage and demand the institutions to improve, people become invested in their accomplishments and can also help make necessary improvements. It is critical that we are all invested in the press, both on a national level and on campus. The times we live in are tumultuous; there are numerous crises around the world. We need records of what happens. We need to expose wrongs. We need to keep people in power accountable for their actions. We need the fourth estate.
Ameer Malik ’18 can be reached at ameer_malik@brown.edu.
Friends can break your heart, too SARA AL-SALEM staff columnist
When a couple breaks up, there are certain things that are allowed and accepted to happen. You have the obligatory ice-cream-andsob fests with your closest friends, your mutual friends use the significant other’s name lightly around you, and you’re allowed to be heartbroken about it. There are thousands of love songs and movies dedicated to the idea of heartbreak and lost loves, and there is solace in knowing you’re not alone. But when you break up with a platonic best friend, no matter how many years you have been friends, there is no space for all your heartbreak because you’re not expected to be that sad about it. I can’t talk about this breakup with a two-year best friend without someone asking me, “Were you guys in a relationship or something?” (For the sake of anonymity, this friend will be called Sally.) Even though we weren’t, the emotional impact of our falling out was at least comparable to that of a romantic breakup. That was in early November, and six months later I still feel like I’m trying to heal from it. What makes it difficult to heal is not being able to talk about it because mutual friends don’t want to be involved in, or even be aware of, falling outs. So you’re forced to just smile and nod when they say things like, “The two of you should watch this movie” or “Did
you know this happened to Sally?” It’s almost an unspoken rule that you can’t say, “No, actually, sorry, I am no longer friends with Sally.” On the contrary, if this had been a romantic breakup, you would have received sympathetic apologies had you acknowledged the breakup. But I want to say that breaking up with a best friend does hurt, and I will listen to love songs and watch sad romance movies and feel no shame in relating the emotions depicted to my own. Friendships don’t get enough
yourself around your best friend. I find that many yearn for romantic love like it’s the only thing that can complete us, but I have always felt that friendships can complete you in much fuller ways. Sally was the person I exposed myself most to in a way I don’t think I will ever be able to again. My friendship with Sally was the closest thing to a romantic relationship I have ever known, and though romantic relationships are given more weight and meaning, again I ask: Why is it so much more awkward
I want to ask that friendship breakups be acknowledged in the same vein as romantic breakups because heartbreak exists for both.
credit for the role they play in our emotional well-being and growth. You do everything from binge-watching TV shows for three days straight to crying about rejection together. You allow yourself to be totally, completely vulnerable and exposed — an aspect many believe is only experienced in a romantic relationship because of its sexual nature. But I believe the level of honesty between two good friends is rawer than that of a romantic relationship. You become blissfully unashamed and true to
and uncomfortable to talk about friendships falling out? I have a sneaking suspicion that most people believe “friend fights” are temporary and that it will all sort itself out. But that in itself undermines how heartbreaking it is when two parties of a friendship know it’s over. This lost connection became more pronounced to me when recently, in the midst of an emotional uproar of an experience, I thought that I could only be consoled by Sally,
even though it had been so long. So I called, and she answered, and in that moment I realized just how much space there was between us and that we could never recover from this. I hung up very quickly, and I called my best friend from back home instead. In her I found the love and concern I was looking for, but I was so torn up about the fact that I had allowed Sally to see just how much I needed her, and how she no longer needs me. The people Sally and I were when we first met no longer exist, and there is a loss that should be allowed to be articulated when friends experience this. I wanted to tell someone just how terrible and lonely this felt, but I couldn’t because, again, friendships aren’t in the same arena as romantic relationships — they shouldn’t be taken this seriously. So I’d like to take this space to wallow in the burnt ashes of this friendship, where neither of us intended to hurt the other, but we did anyway. I want to acknowledge just how much I did love this person, and how hard it will be to let go because of that love. I want to ask that friendship breakups be acknowledged in the same vein as romantic breakups because heartbreak exists for both. I want to take this space for anyone who has experienced a lost friendship, and I want to say you shouldn’t apologize for feeling like you’ve broken up with a significant other. Because as Aristotle once wrote, “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
Sara Al-Salem ’17 can be reached at sara_al-salem@brown.edu.
NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
Zadie Smith talks relationships, Justin Bieber, fame Author reads from essay on relationships, coming New Yorker story, ‘Two Men Arrive At A Village’ By JACLYN TORRES ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Justin Bieber and Zadie Smith have more in common than one might think. The critically acclaimed British author walked onto the stage in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts’ Martinos Auditorium Tuesday and announced that Bieber recently said he does not want to participate in any meet-and-greets. Prior to the event, Smith expressed a similar sentiment, saying she did not want any exclusive interviews with the press. As it turns out, Bieber and Smith both share a dislike for petty conversations that will be relegated to the past the instant they occur. Smith started the reading with a carefully crafted analytical essay of Bieber as a “love object” and Jewish philosophical figure Martin Buber’s concepts of “I-it” and “I-thou.” In her essay, Smith conveyed her interest in Bieber, as he is not a normal person but rather a “love object.” Any relationship Beliebers have with him is akin to an “Iit” relationship, a term defined by Buber as a relationship to an object or thing.
“Buber explains that with this ‘I-it’ attitude, we find ourselves in a relationship with things,” Smith said. She became dark and genuine when she expanded the idea of the “I-it” relationships to most aspects of our lives, saying that “most people don’t meet their best friends; mothers don’t always meet their children; husbands don’t always meet their wives.” Smith explained how the artificial meet-and-greet with Bieber applies to many relationships people have with those closest to them. She said that people do not truly know someone as well as they should because they treat the relationship as one with a thing rather than one with a person. “Other people project themselves as objects in our way,” she added. It is the genuine relationship with a human being, rather than one with a perceived object, that is the most pure, Smith said. She explained this as Buber’s concept of the “I-thou” relationship, saying that Bieber’s shallow conversations are “an extreme example of our experience with other people.” In these “I-thou” relationships, “you are uniquely attentive to the present time,” Smith read. The British author closed her essay by stating that while she is not a Belieber, she does not “want him deported to Canada.”
Smith abruptly changed gears into a short story she wrote recently, titled “Two Men Arrive at a Village.” The story will appear in The New Yorker this summer. “Two Men Arrive at a Village” is reminiscent of Italo Calvino’s novel “Invisible Cities,” in which Marco Polo tells Genghis Khan of his travels across Eurasia. In Smith’s story, two unnamed men, one “tall and handsome in a vulgar way” and one “small and weasly-faced” migrate from city to city with no destination in sight. The rationale for the duo’s migration is ambiguous, but “fear is always the greater part of what they want.” In each place, the men intrude upon locals, using their electronics, eating their food and inciting physical violence. The story culminates in an incident in which one of the men gruesomely takes a knife and “splits a child from his life.” The band of women surrounding the incident grows both infuriated and terrified. As Smith read, “once blood has been shed, a kind of wildness descends.” Smith finished reading the short story and concluded her talk with questions from the audience. In the discussion, Smith reiterated her unease with fame, saying that “the idea of having readers — that’s a strange concept.” The audience also learned more about Smith’s personality and her life. Since the age of 19, her
COURTESY OF DAVID SHANKBONE
Zadie Smith spoke at the Granoff Center Tuesday. The reading was part of the Literary Arts Department’s Writers on Writing series. days have been monotonous in that she goes alone to the library and writes all day, she said. She added that since she recently started a writing project with her husband on Fridays, it is “the one day in which I actually talk to someone during the daytime.” Smith also touched upon how her childhood has shaped her writing, saying, “I grew up in a radically atheist household, so I have this weird fetish of other people’s beliefs.” For example, in her novel “The Autograph Man,” Smith looks at Judaism, in “On Beauty” she explores Protestantism and in “White Teeth” she examines Islam. Smith’s interests and pursuits have drastically evolved since her first novel, “White Teeth,” which she wrote when she was only 21, she said. Smith admitted that she “honestly doesn’t remember
the characters” from “White Teeth.” Though Smith has changed since authoring her first novel, “White Teeth” has helped the author begin to attract readers. “White Teeth” first sparked the interest of Joanna Howard, professor of literary arts, back in 2000. Howard said that she was working in a bookstore when “White Teeth” came out and was immediately drawn to Smith’s work. Smith candidly remarked on the process behind writing fiction. “In fiction, I don’t always know what I want to elicit.” The author said, “I have to be doing something (all the time), and writing is doing.” When not writing, she enjoys spreading her passion of writing to her two young children. “It’s been really fun rereading Roald Dahl for the last six years,” she said.
University responds to Congressional endowment inquiry Letter details financial aid budget, defends endowment spending amid tax questions By MARIAH KENNEDY CUOMO STAFF WRITER
Brown issued a response April 1 to an inquiry on endowment spending issued by members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The inquiry was sent to schools with endowments above $1 billion and aimed to determine how universities spend their record-level endowments in light of the rising cost of education. U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-TX, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, R-IL, chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee signed the letter. The congressmen stated that the purpose of the letter was to learn about how the University uses its tax-exempt status to further its charitable and educational purposes. The universities and colleges were required to submit their responses by April 1. “Over the past 30 years, adjusted for inflation, the cost of attending a private, non-profit four-year school has increased 146 percent, from $12,716 (in 2014 dollars) in 1984-1985 to $31,231 in 20142015,” wrote David Pasch, communications director for Roskam, in an email to The Herald. “We are concerned by this rapid rise in the cost of higher education and are working to study the effects of tax law on college affordability in order to identify solutions to help make college more affordable for more families.” President Christina Paxson P’19 responded to the 13 questions — on topics
including endowment spending and resources dedicated to financial aid — in the form of an 11-page letter. In order to write the response, the University gathered a team of senior representatives from the Office of Government Relations and Community Affairs, the University’s General Counsel, the Office of Advancement, the Investment Office, the Budget Office, the Office of the Controller and University Communications. In the introduction to the letter, Paxson acknowledged that Congress was interested in the capacity of universities to address the cost of college education, writing that “being attentive to these concerns is a top priority for Brown.” The letter said that the cost of attendance for students who pay full cost has increased 25.6 percent since fiscal year 2008 but noted that financial aid is also rising rapidly. Paxson also included in her introduction that priorities for the University include making education “accessible and affordable” and highlighted past University efforts to promote financial aid. The letter includes many details on undergraduate financial aid, including that over the past eight years, the undergraduate financial aid budget increased by an average of 8.9 percent per year, and the portion of the student body receiving aid rose from 40 to 44 percent. The letter notes that “the average loan debt of Brown students who take out loans also was significantly below average — $23,967 at graduation for the class of 2015, compared to the national average of $33,000.” In 2014, Brown students graduated with the most debt of students at all Ivies, The Herald previously reported. Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, executive vice president for planning and policy, said that he appreciated the opportunity to write a response letter, as it allowed the University to explain the complexity
of financing itself with an endowment. The details of the University’s financing “can get pretty technical and are not necessarily intuitive, particularly around the endowment,” Carey said. He explained that the endowment is a gift base meant to be maintained in perpetuity, and a percentage of the endowment contributes to the University budget annually. Carey responded to the possibility of legislative action by saying that if there were a proposal to mandate that the University “spend a certain amount on something, that may not be possible given the way that gifts are made to universities and other nonprofit institutions.” The endowment contains restrictions “on how it can be used, and they can’t just be legislatively or otherwise overturned,” Carey said. While he said he remains aware of all proposals to alter endowment spending, he does not operate under the assumption that any particular plan will go through. By definition, endowments have restrictions, Carey said. If a gift is given to support a certain activity, “the intentions of that donor have to be respected.” Funds within the endowment fall into four categories: unrestricted, permanently restricted by donors, temporarily restricted by donors and quasiendowments, which are restricted by the University. The letter notes that the payout to the University budget is between 4.5 and 5.5 percent of the endowment’s average market value over the past three years. “The 5.5 percent spending rule is designed to maintain the principal of the endowment — allow it to continue to grow, but also to support the University budget,” Carey said. Carey maintains that the financial aid portion of the endowment is a top priority for the University. Twenty-seven percent of the University’s $3.3 billion
EMMA JERZYK / HERALD
endowment is restricted to financial aid for undergraduate and medical students, which, according to the letter, was $787 million in fiscal year 2016. Carey said that financial aid is structured as a budget and is approved within the operating budget process. “In setting the budget, there is a goal for how many students will be on financial aid.” He added that like other portions of the University’s budget, money for financial aid must be fundraised. Additionally, financial aid policies change to address a number of aspects, including how competitive the University’s financial aid packages are. The financial aid endowment covers 34 percent of the financial aid budget, contributing $38 million of the total $112.5 million financial aid budget in
fiscal year 2016. That $38 million represents 4.8 percent of the $787 million financial aid endowment. “The other two thirds (of the financial aid budget) come from tuition, fees, annual giving plus other types of support,” Carey said. In fiscal year 2016, the University’s endowment distributed $155 million to the operating budget, including the $38 million to the financial aid budget. “Raising the financial aid endowment is a high priority — certainly one of the highest priorities in the campaign, because it does have the benefit of permanently supporting financial aid,” Carey said. The letter notes that financial aid has been the fastest growing area of Brown’s budget over the past 25 years. Hatch, Brady and Roskam have not commented on the letter.