SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016
VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 46
WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
Latinx Conference promotes NSF director, Reed tour science facilities Officials view ICERM, storytelling, solidarity Delegates explore intersectionality in Latinx community after 2015 assault by DPS officer By RACHEL GOLD SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Over 200 students came to College Hill this weekend for the Latinx Conference, representing two different umbrella organizations, over 18 East Coast schools and the many Latinx groups — Afro and queer, multiracial and Spanish-speaking, Indigenous and trans* — to which they belong. The merging of the two organizations, the Ivy League Latinx Conference and East Coast Chicano Student Forum, was the product — “somewhat by accident, somewhat by purpose,” according to planning committee member Kevin Melendez ’16 — of a convergence of factors. Last fall, the students of the ECCSF, a 14-school organization of Chicanx students, decided to give the bid for the group’s spring 2016 convention to Brown. Just a week later, at the Ivy League Latinx Conference held at Brown, a Dartmouth delegate to the conference was assaulted by a DPS officer. In response, President
Christina Paxson P’19 offered to fund another Latinx conference, Melendez said. Despite the differences between the Mexican-focused ECCSF and the Ivy-focused Latinx Conference, student organizers decided to combine the two gatherings into a first-ever collaboration of the like-minded but distinct groups. “Based on how things went last semester, people came in a little skeptical,” Melendez said. “But the energy was really good the first night, and that has carried through. I think there is a real wish to make change at people’s respective campuses based on what they’ve learned here.” The DPS assault was on students’ minds but did not dictate the tone of the conference, said Julia Montejo, a student from Cornell. “This shit happens at our school too. It could have happened anywhere,” Montejo said. “If anything, it changed our perspective of Brown because the administration actually did something instead of scooping it under the rug.” Montejo added that the incident was a reminder that there is always more work for student advocates to do. The participants built foundations for this work over the course of a packed » See LATINX, page 2
IES, School of Engineering, YURT to view results of funding By ALEX SKIDMORE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
France Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation, and U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, came to campus Friday to tour several of the University’s science facilities supported by grants from the Foundation. The NSF has granted $221 million to Rhode Island in the past five years, according to a University press release. The resulting research bolsters the economy, as it employs Rhode Islanders and attracts investments, Reed said. The pair first met with Jill Pipher, professor of mathematics and director of the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics, to discuss the Institute’s goal of approaching societal challenges from new perspectives, according to the press release. The ICERM was created with support from a $15.5 million grant from the NSF in 2010 and just received a new $17.5 million dollar grant “to
COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY
France Córdova and U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, wear 3D glasses as they visit the YURT Ultimate Reality Theater during their tour of research facilities. continue and expand its mission to by a $2 million NSF grant, Laidlaw explore the intersection of mathemat- said. Córdova and Reed stepped into ics and computation,” according to the 360-degree virtual reality chamthe press release. ber where Laidlaw and some of his The tour then stopped by the In- colleagues manipulated the display stitute at Brown for Environment and screen to showcase the YURT’s viSociety and the School of Engineering sualization capabilities. to meet with faculty members and The YURT “allows you to use your discuss their research. body’s natural navigational skills,” As a final stop, the tour met with Laidlaw said as Reed and Córdova David Laidlaw, professor of computer took turns controlling the chamber science, at the YURT Ultimate Reality with their body movements. The two Theater, which was funded in part » See NSF, page 3
M. LACROSSE
No. 2 Bears suffer first loss before defeating Penn After scoring once versus Bryant, Molloy ’17 tallies season-best eight goals in 17-6 win over Quakers By NIKKO PASANEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
JULIANNA LEE MARINO / HERALD
Stand Up! demonstrators pause in front of Faunce as they march across campus Saturday. Participants chanted “respect, equality, that’s the way it’s gotta be” among other slogans.
Students march for sexual assault awareness Stand Up! begins Sexual Assault Awareness Month, keynote speaker urges inclusive advocacy By KYLE BOROWSKI SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Stand Up! sponsored a march against sexual assault and a keynote address by Sandra Kim, founder of Everyday Feminism, Saturday to mark the beginning
INSIDE
of Sexual Assault Awareness Month on campus. Stand Up! is a student group that seeks to combat sexual assault at Brown and will be hosting a series of events including workshops and a letter-writing campaign throughout April. When the march began at 1 p.m. on the Main Green, participants wove around campus chanting “respect, equality, that’s the way it’s gotta be,” and “yes means yes, no means no, however we dress, wherever we go,” in response to the number of sexual assaults that occur
on college campuses around the country each year. The procession stopped occasionally for a few minutes to demonstrate at specific locations on their route, including University Hall, a stop that Stand Up! founder Emily Schell ’16 told demonstrators was symbolically meaningful. “It’s important to take some time to rest and reflect, especially in front of University Hall,” Schell said as the group stopped. “People who have been at Brown a little » See STAND UP, page 2
It was an up-and-down week for the No. 2 men’s lacrosse team. After dropping a game against in-state rivals Bryant for its first loss of the season, Bruno got back on track by cruising past Ivy League foe Penn Saturday. The Bears are still undefeated in conference play with a huge matchup against No. 3 Yale on the docket Saturday. Bryant 11, Brown 10 It was a humbling Tuesday night for the Bears. Sitting with a perfect record of 8-0 and the program’s highest ranking since 1991, the Bears stumbled against the Bulldogs in a heart-stopping 11-10 overtime loss. Bruno held a three-goal advantage with under three minutes remaining in the game, but Bryant pulled off the unlikely comeback bid to give
the Bears their first loss of the season. “I’ll never say losing a game can be good for a team — I don’t believe that,” said Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90. “But I would say losing can sharpen the sword.” On a frigid night at StevensonPincince Field, it was not a typical start to a Brown lacrosse game. Instead of a back-and-forth high-scoring affair, fans were greeted with a slugfest that didn’t see its first goal until over halfway through the first quarter. It was Henry Blynn ’16 who kicked things off, but the Bulldogs quickly responded within the minute to notch the score at one. The short burst of goals continued 40 seconds later when Dylan Molloy ’17 sent a beautiful pass to Matt Graham ’16, who tallied to help the Bears regain the lead. But at the quarter’s end, Bryant scored again to tie the game. Momentum continued in the Bulldogs’ favor in the second period, as they quickly scored to take a 3-2 lead. The goal marked the first time the Bears had been trailing in a game since the opening minutes of their very first contest against Quinnipiac. But Bruno was unfazed and » See M. LAX, page 2
WEATHER
MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016
SPORTS Women’s lacrosse struggles on offensive end against Harvard, remains winless in Ivy play
SPORTS Baseball sweeps Cornell for first time since 2010, drops pair to Princeton due to poor pitching
COMMENTARY Rose ’19, Braga ’16: University faculty shows concerning lack of political diversity
COMMENTARY Reynolds ’17: Voters must consider $19 trillion debt before embracing ambitious policies
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NEWS
PAGE 2 • MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Scientists, scholars explore resilience in Syrian refugee children Following trip to Jordanian refugee camps, scholars propose interdisciplinary approach to global crisis By ELI BINDER STAFF WRITER
Scientists, humanitarian aid experts and scholars gathered to discuss stress and resilience in Syrian refugee children at this weekend’s fourth annual Engaged Scholarship Conference. The conference is hosted every year by Middle East Studies and was co-sponsored this year by the Brown Institute for Brain Science and the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences. The conference centered around understanding the long-term effects of the stress Syrian refugee children face because of displacement during critical periods of brain development and how to mitigate these effects by teaching children strategies of resilience. These skills, if adopted by children during this sensitive period of neurological development, could potentially mitigate some of the negative effects of stress. The conference follows a trip taken
»M. LAX, from page 1 tied the contest within 40 seconds when national points leader Molloy found the back of the net. Three minutes later, Blynn scored his second of the day to give his team a 4-3 advantage. The rest of the period saw little offensive action and the scoreline remained when the halftime whistle blew. The opening of the second half picked up right where things left off, as both teams struggled to generate scoring opportunities. Bryant broke the ice over six minutes into the quarter, leveling the score yet again. After conceding the goal, Bruno showed its first signs of playing like the team fans have seen all season. Kylor Bellistri ’16 sparked a 3-0 run after scoring from a nice feed from Molloy, and all of the sudden, Bryant’s upset hopes started to look bleak. After trading goals, the Bears carried a threegoal lead into the final frame. While fans might have expected the lead to be enough, the Bulldogs had other ideas. Down 9-7 with just 2:36 remaining, Bryant went on its own 2-0 scoring spree to even the game with a minute left. It looked like the Bears saved themselves when Larken Kemp ’17 tallied at the 53-second mark, but the Bulldogs found the back of the net with 27 seconds remaining to shock Bruno and send the contest into overtime.
» LATINX, from page 1 three-day schedule, which included a panel on solidarity with Afro-Latinx activists, a teach-in from the Students Against the Prison-Industrial Complex and a workshop on self-care. These events balanced the pragmatic — like learning to write op-eds — with the reflective. “Expect and accept a lack of closure — we are not solving anything,” said Carlos Andrés Gómez, workshop leader, award-winning poet, actor, speaker and Latinx activist. “If we solve anything today, we should probably be concerned. We should be suspicious of that. We should kick up dirt and connect.” Gómez, who brought memories of his own family members into the room, shared a few stories for his kicked-up dirt to resonate with participants’ experiences
a particular context, which is regional, cultural and socioeconomic,” said Carl Saab, associate professor at Brown and Rhode Island Hospital, in the departments of neuroscience and neurosurgery. The MES researchers added “the importance of cultural context to the discussion,” Tobin said. “We’re hoping to really localize the discussion.” Researchers from MES were able to add a scholarly perspective, critical to understanding the scope and context of the stressors that affect children and their families, Amso said. The group went to Jordan without preconceptions. “We were completely passive, open to ideas and completely observing. … No matter how much you read, what you see on the ground is just transformative,” Saab said. Tala Doumani ’17, who was the trip’s lone undergraduate, noted the importance of experiencing the “human dimension” of the refugee crisis. “One does not get a full idea of what life is like on a daily level until they go there,” said Beshara Doumani P’17, professor of history and modern Middle East studies and director of
MES. He added that his team is “very aware that there are a lot of problems in just parachuting in and out and saying ‘We’re going to help the other.’ But we have no intention of doing that at all.” Doumani said that while the trip served as a “fact-finding mission,” the conference could serve as a platform for identifying ways in which different organizations might collaborate to help Syrian refugee children develop strategies of resilience. Tobin said that the solutions to society’s most pressing problems often requires an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together people from disparate fields. The conference panelists spoke on a wide variety of topics, including the role of adversity in childhood, which President Christina Paxson P’19 focused on in her presentation. Paxson discussed methods of resilience and a study she contributed to on the recovery of people affected by Hurricane Katrina. Other notable talks included one by Frank Roni, a child protection specialist for camps at UNICEF Jordan, who spoke about the response of
UNICEF Jordan to the refugee crisis as it pertains to displaced children. Additionally, Megan Gunnar, director of the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, discussed the role that relationships can play in aiding stress regulation. The talks on Saturday included an overview of Save the Children’s response in the region by Marcia Brophy of Save the Children International. Assistant Professor of CLPS Kevin Bath illustrated how best to translate his work on early life stress and brain development to practical recommendations on the ground. Many of the conference’s participants emphasized the role that students and community members can play in helping displaced Syrians. The Syrian refugee crisis is no longer a problem that exists solely in the Middle East or Europe, Tobin said, but one that has begun to affect Rhode Island and the greater United States. “Students need to be involved, and the best way they can be involved is to find refugees in Rhode Island, in Providence, and work to make them feel at home,” she added.
» STAND UP, from page 1
Brown 17, Penn 6 By the time Saturday rolled around, Bruno certainly did look like a better unit. The Bears’ swords were as sharp as ever in a 17-6 demolition of the Quakers. The team was led by Molloy, who after scoring only once against Bryant, erupted for eight goals to get the offense back on track. Unlike Tuesday’s game, the scoring came early and often against Penn. Despite conceding the first goal of the game, the Bears quickly turned things in their favor and rattled off seven goals in a row to build a 7-1 lead heading into the second quarter. The attack was well-rounded, as five different players found the back of the net, including underclassmen Stephen Hudak ’18 and Carson Song ’19.
The second period was more of the same for Bruno, as it extended its lead to 11-1 after two goals from Bellistri and a tally each from Molloy and Blynn. While the offense was clicking, the star of the day was goalie Jack Kelly ’16, who blocked 15 of 19 shots and repeatedly denied the Quakers from scoring at close range. The senior leads the nation in save percentage at an impressive 61.2 percent. “What he does for our program cannot be (overstated),” Tiffany said. “His teammates draw confidence and inspiration from his preparation, his play and his character.” In the third quarter, Kelly continued to make things difficult for Penn as he helped the team build a 16-3 advantage heading into the fourth quarter. By that time, the final period became merely a formality with the scoreline settling at 17-6. The dominant win was just what the Bears needed to right the ship after losing earlier in the week. With Saturday’s contest against Yale around the corner, Bruno now has all the confidence it needs to try to take down the Elis for the first time since 2009. “While we recognize that the Yale game is not just another game, we will approach our next opponent as we have all year,” Tiffany said. “We believe in our system and we will continue with it.”
and identities. One story about growing up in the machismo of Colombian culture triggered a cascade of similar vignettes: a father who wouldn’t let a participant sweep because only girls clean; a mother who let a participant and his brothers play outside while the girls had to come inside. “I’m not an expert; I’m just your boy Carlitos,” Gómez said. “But I have this belief system that the way we can meaningfully deal with these issues and build community and solidarity with each other is by sharing stories. I believe courageous dialogue and personal narrative are the two most powerful forces in the universe.” Storytelling was the most common vehicle of exploration at the conference. Tanya Hernandez ’86 P’20 told her stories through the personal lens of an
Afro-Latina Brown graduate and the professional lens of a lawyer. In a workshop titled “Racial Diversity and the Latinx Voice,” she challenged the notion that the Latinx community is free of racial prejudice, eliciting stories from participants who grew up in Mexican villages where status was predicated on skin color. Some workshops offered storytelling in its classic form, most notably during a session led by Maria Hinojosa, the host of the long-running weekly National Public Radio show “Latino USA.” “She is incredible and a personal hero of mine,” Montejo said. “We cried together — literally. I actually came out as undocumented because of her podcast. … It’s really changed my life to be able to talk about my story.” In some ways, participants hope this exchange of experiences and ideas will
while know that there’s a lot of meaning in this,” she added. “Stand Up! is about getting people into conversations about what we can do personally,” Schell said to participants, adding that when she started Stand Up!, “this was the kind of campus conversation and community that (she) was hoping to create.” The march lasted for half an hour, after which Kim delivered the keynote address for the month’s events at Salomon Hall. Kim spoke at length about how the dialogue around sexual assault has shifted in the years since she has been involved in advocacy. “Despite the growing level of conversation in the media and on college campuses, there is still such a deep level of shame and miseducation about what sexual assault and intimate partner violence is,” Kim said. The issue of assault on campus is particularly meaningful for Kim, who was a trained sexual assault survivor advocate in college. Though that position gave her a great familiarity with the issue, she was unable to recognize the reality of her own assault until years afterwards due to the normalization of sexual crimes both on and beyond college campuses, she said. “The status quo in our society is systemic oppression,” Kim said. “We’ve been raised on these lies of what is and isn’t sexual assault and we need to shift our understanding of what assault really is,” she added. But Kim cautioned that in unpacking the nuances of sexual assault, it is important to consider all voices to prevent erasure within activist groups, which already occurs far too often. “Despite the level of great work that’s being done,
it’s often also very exclusionary for many people,” Kim said. She added that too often, movements — including those concerned with sexual assault awareness — ignore a number of groups “including people of color, queer and trans people, people with disabilities and undocumented individuals.” “We need to really proactively create an environment where survivors feel like they’ll be believed and supported,” Kim said. She added that the pervasiveness of assault on campus necessitates this environment, especially considering that according to some estimates, one in four women and one in 16 men are targeted for attempted or completed sexual assault in college alone. “Thanks to the patriarchy, men have been taught that women should be sexually available to them,” Kim said, adding that all of society has been made to endorse this problematic idea, making life difficult for survivors who cannot come to terms with their assaults. This should not mean that male survivors of assault should be ignored, she said, because “if you don’t fall under a dominant narrative, it can only be that much harder for you as a survivor.” Kim closed her address by re-emphasizing that systemic oppression is prevalent because it erases the experiences of marginalized people. Considering this, it is critical that people commit to acknowledging the experiences of survivors from all backgrounds, especially when they don’t fit within normalized narratives of assault. “It’s important that we’re all inclusive and intersectional everyday and in every situation,” Kim said. “If we do that, we can create a more loving and more just world around us right now.”
translate into action. For example, representatives from Mount Holyoke shared their experiences opening a new undocumented students resource center. “That’s something we are working towards at Cornell, so it was really interesting to hear their perspectives,” Montejo said. But perhaps more important was the community built and confidence gained. “I have realized how important it is to be able to have a community of people that you really are able to identify with,”
said Stephanie Sanchez ’17, adding that she hopes to bring her skills back to her predominantly Spanish-speaking, lowincome neighborhood in Los Angeles. Having woven together their differences with the common thread of their Latinx experiences, Montejo said, the participants will return to their campuses with the knowledge that activism is necessary in all its forms — protests, conferences, storytelling and simply showing up.
by a team of four professors and one undergraduate to refugee camps in January 2016. The team began studying the issue intensely and conducting interviews with nongovernmental organization experts in fall 2015. In Jordan, they visited the Za‘atari and Cyber City refugee camps. The former houses approximately 70,000 Syrian refugees and the latter around 400 Palestinian refugees who were formerly living in Syria, said Sarah Tobin, associate director of MES. She has conducted research in the camps for the past several years. The January trip was not about conducting research or implementing a project, said Dima Amso, associate professor of CLPS. “What we’re doing is linking the existing scientific research on brain development with the currently existing humanitarian aid on the ground and trying to see if the science can offer a service to the NGOs and UNICEF,” she added. The scientists on the trip felt that “this issue should be placed in The Bears had their chances in the extra period, but after a shot from Molloy was saved, Bryant ran an impressive counter-attack that resulted in the gamewinning goal. Tiffany wasn’t pleased with the loss, but he was happy with the way that the team handled the result. It was “a good next step for Brown lacrosse to come together and really analyze what we’ve done,” he said. “We got to talk to each other, hear each others’ opinions and feelings about how we can become a better unit.”
NEWS
MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016 • PAGE 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
W. LACROSSE
Bears extend losing streak to five after loss to Harvard Bruno’s unrelenting efforts not enough to secure first Ivy League win, playoff berth remains uncertain By NICHOLAS WEY STAFF WRITER
Coming off losses to Louisville and Sacred Heart, the women’s lacrosse team traveled to Cambridge this weekend for its fourth Ivy League matchup against Harvard. The Bears (4-7, 0-4 Ivy) hoped to secure their first conference win against the Crimson (7-3, 3-1) and snap a four-game losing streak, but they would have no such success. Bruno outshot the Crimson and dominated in draw controls but fell short in an 8-2 loss. Despite keeping the pressure on and the score close throughout the first half, Brown was outscored by Harvard 6-2 in the second half. “It was a tough league game to lose for sure,” said co-captain and attacker Lauren Toy ’16, the team’s leading scorer.
» NSF, from page 1 also experimented with manipulating detailed images of a human brain as well as Mars’ surface. At one point, the screen flipped to a visualization of a footprint, and Professor of Biology Stephen Gatesy
“Our shots weren’t falling, and Harvard’s were.” In the first half, Bruno was executing the game plan: staying aggressive on offense and playing a strong, focused set on defense, said Head Coach Keely McDonald ’00. During this period, Brown not only outshot Harvard 12-10 but also won every single draw control and held the Crimson to just two goals. But Bruno let an aggressive and athletic Harvard team take control and assert itself offensively as the second half progressed. Despite goals by talented rookie Hafsa Moinuddin ’19 — her ninth of the season — and midfielder Jillian Lee ’17, Harvard went up 5-2 as the second half wound down. Adding insult to injury, Harvard scored three goals in the final five minutes. “What we have been continuously working on these past couple of weeks is generating more shots,” said co-captain Dianne Vitkus ’16. “During the first half we succeeded in doing that, getting 12 shots off. Going forward we need to put those shots away and not let up on going
hard to the cage during the second half.” “Harvard is a top team in the country with some nice athletic players,” McDonald said. “I was really pleased with the effort but disappointed with the outcome.” One of the team’s main goals this season has been for each athlete to grow individually and for the team as a whole to grow collectively, McDonald said. This year’s team has been “one of the most cohesive and improving teams” that she has ever worked with in her career at Brown. Moving forward, the Bears will have a quick turnaround. The team plays UMass-Lowell Tuesday at 6 p.m. and hosts Columbia Saturday at 1 p.m. in their fifth of seven Ivy League matchups this year. Brown will likely have to win out in its final conference games versus Columbia, Dartmouth and No. 11 Princeton — all teams that have “different strengths and weaknesses,” according to McDonald — in order to claim an Ivy League playoff berth, given to the top four teams in the Ivy League. The winner of the Ivy League playoff, crowned Ivy
stepped in to explain that he is using the YURT as part of a project to connect the movements of a guinea fowl’s foot to the movement of dinosaurs. After finishing the tour of the facilities, Córdova and Reed emphasized the importance of the scientific research conducted at the University.
The NSF has a “focus on collaborative and translational research,” and the University consistently sees faculty members apply for NSF grants with those goals in mind, Córdova said. As a signal of the high-quality research conducted on campus, the
Ivy Film Festival discusses diversity in filmmaking Female filmmakers, television executives tackle underrepresentation, #OscarsSoWhite By KASTURI PANANJADY SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Martinos Auditorium at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts hosted the “The Audience in Revolt: Gender, Race and Representation in Hollywood,” a panel discussion Friday about diversity in Hollywood sponsored by the Ivy Film Festival and the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women. The panel featured Mia Mask, an associate professor of film at Vassar College; Michelle Materre, an independent media consultant and Lydia Dean Pilcher P’17, a film and television producer. The panel was moderated by Lauren Zalaznick ’84 P’17 P’19, a former NBCUniversal executive. The panel spoke from personal experience on topics ranging from identity politics to Hollywood marketing. Zalaznick opened the discussion referencing the #OscarsSoWhite controversy this year, asking her panelists to comment on why they thought the movement gained as much momentum as it did. The #OscarsSoWhite movement built off the national debate surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and widespread student protests on campuses across the country, Mask said. She also pointed to social media as a way that the movement captured the public imagination. Pilcher also highlighted the advent of
big data as a game-changer, explaining how statistics allowed people to debunk myths about diversity propagated by executives who greenlight films. “The numbers don’t lie,” Zalaznick agreed, pointing out that diversity in Hollywood has been trending downwards since the 1970s. She then asked her panelists how they discuss underrepresentation within the film industry in their respective classes. Mask said that millennial viewers do not seek to have their tastes validated by Hollywood and are happy to look elsewhere. Television is generally more accessible in terms of diversity than Hollywood, Pilcher said, adding that “diverse content can be profitable” in that field. During the question-and-answer portion of the event, a student in film school pointed out that student film festivals also encounter the same challenges to diversity that Hollywood does. In light of the fact that the majority of studentproduced film “is directed by white men,” she asked the panelists how she could affect change within the Brown bubble. “As a student, you have a lot more power than you think you have,” Materre replied, adding that students could advocate for training against subconscious bias on an institutional level. “People are having these conversations, but that is not always informing practice,” Mask said. On an individual level, she encouraged students to break out of traditional film school curricula and explore diverse storytelling and cinematographic styles. “You need to go out and develop an aesthetic that is countercultural,” Mask added.
ELI WHITE / HERALD
Kerianne Hunt ’17 brings the ball upfield in Saturday’s contest against Harvard. The Bears struggled to generate offense against the Crimson. League Champion, will compete for the NCAA Championship to compete for a national title. “This group is really hitting their groove right now, and they really want to finish out the rest of the season and Ivy League matchups with the same focus and composure that they approached
Harvard,” McDonald said. UMass “will be a great test for us to respond aggressively to things that we need to work on, and so I am pretty excited that the players have this kind of opportunity. It’s really just about finishing out the season like we know we can and doing everything we can do to get those wins.”
University has produced multiple NSF CAREER Award recipients — the Foundation’s highest honor for junior faculty — Córdova added. While praising the scholarly impact of scientific research, Reed also stressed the economic effects of large-scale research projects. Rhode
Island needs to work on converting the state’s research potential into production and more investment, he added. Compared to other areas of the country, “we have equal or more talent,” but the state needs to build up the infrastructure to support its imagination, he added.
SPORTS
PAGE 4 • MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
BASEBALL
Bears sweep Cornell, falter against Princeton in Ivy home openers Henry ’17 leads Bruno in late-inning comeback versus Big Red, pitching struggles against Tigers By BEN SHUMATE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The baseball team continued nondivision play against Cornell and Princeton at home over the weekend, sweeping the Big Red (8-12, 2-3) but suffering a pair of defeats to the Tigers (13-13, 6-2). Brown 4, Cornell 2 As usual, Brown (9-15, 3-5 Ivy) started the weekend off by sending Christian Taugner ’17 to the mound, this time to duel against Cornell starter Paul Balestrieri. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the third inning, where the Bears took the lead thanks to three base hits. Jake Levine ’16 drove in Marc Sredojevic ’17 with a two-out single to right field to snap the tie. Taugner continued to baffle Cornell hitters as the game progressed, with the exception of a home run that tied the game up at one. But Taugner would not be phased, striking out five of the next six batters and four on three pitches. Rob Henry ’17 scored on a Sam Grigo ’18 squeeze bunt, facilitated in part by Balestrieri bobbling a Levine bunt. To make matters worse for the Big Red, Balestrieri misplayed the throw to first
once again, allowing Grigo to move up to second. The team works on similar situations in practice, said Head Coach Grant Achilles. “Their pitcher was a tough arm and someone who induces a lot of ground balls,” he added. “We wanted to give ourselves the best chance to cause some havoc, and Sam did a great job with it.” Brown added two insurance runs in the sixth on a double from Henry. Taugner needed just three outs in the seventh with a three-run lead, but the team put a scare into the Bruno faithful in attendance. Cornell was down to its last out but countered with two singles. The following at bat, a ground ball to Brian Ginsberg ’18 at third base, was handled with no problem, but the throw to first skipped in the dirt and away from Kevin Guthrie ’16, allowing a run to score and the potentially tying run to advance to second. But Taugner didn’t let things go any further than that, inducing a pop-out to end the game. The junior struck out 10 in his complete game to bring his record to 4-1 with a 2.20 earned run average. Brown 7, Cornell 6 Game two saw much more scoring right away, as the Big Red put up three runs on four hits in the first inning off Brown starter Reid Anderson ’18. Anderson eventually settled in and Bruno began to climb its way back in the game, pulling within 3-2 after three
innings. But Anderson got into more trouble in the fourth inning, giving up a run off a pair of singles and two walks. Matt Beyer ’19 entered the game in relief in the fifth, but didn’t last long after walking the bases loaded with no outs. Dante Bosnic ’18 replaced Beyer and eventually worked out of the inning, but not before allowing two of the runners to score on a sacrifice fly and a single, which brought Cornell’s lead to 6-2. The next two innings were scoreless for both teams. But the tides turned as Cornell starter Tim Willittes was pulled after allowing the first two batters to reach in the eighth. Josh Huntley ’17 drove in the first run with a single to left. Sredojevic loaded the bases for Tim McKeithan ’16. The moment wasn’t too big for the Bears’ ninth hitter, as he cashed in his second double of the afternoon to drive in two runs and bring Bruno within one. Henry came to bat with the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second. With the infield drawn in, he roped a soft line drive right over second base, scoring both runners and putting Brown ahead with the team’s fifth base hit of the inning. With the one-run lead, Henry came in from center field to pitch for the save opportunity in the top of the ninth. The stunned Big Red had no answer for Henry on the mound either, as he drew three groundouts to end the game. The team believes it can hit its way back into any game, Achilles said.
“All it takes is a couple of quality atbats to get things going,” he added. “And it’s contagious.” Princeton 11, Brown 9 Brown welcomed Princeton Sunday to complete play against the Lou Gehrig Division. Princeton got out to a hot start, putting up four runs in both of the first two innings. Austin French ’16 got the start for Bruno and struggled with his command, walking the bases loaded in the first inning. The Bears clawed their way back in the second inning by scoring three runs, capitalizing off an error by Princeton’s centerfielder. A stiff wind blew out to right field, causing problems for outfielders of both teams and contributing to several home runs, including a monster shot from Grigo the next inning to put the Bears within two. The scoring settled down until the sixth when Brown answered two Princeton runs with an RBI double from Huntley. Bruno entered the final inning trailing 11-7 but pushed across two runs on singles from Sredojevic and McKeithan. The Bears had the bases loaded and the tying run on second with two outs when a pitch got behind Princeton catcher Andrew Christie. Noah Shulman ’16 took off for home but was tagged out by the pitcher for the final out of the game. Princeton 25, Brown 7
The weekend’s final game could not have gone much worse for the Bears, as Princeton unloaded 25 hits and put the game well out of reach early. JJ Sliepka ’19 got the start for Brown but lasted only 1.1 innings. The Tigers used a monster second inning to go up 11-2, batting around and scoring eight runs off seven hits and two errors. With strain on the pitching staff, Grigo and Henry were both put in to throw and eat up innings later in the game. Grigo went 2.2 innings, striking out three and giving up three runs, all unearned. With five errors, including two in the outfield, just 11 of Princeton’s runs were earned. Shulman and Grigo had solo home runs in the eighth, but Princeton scored nine runs in the final two innings to bring its total to 25. Brown moves into division play next weekend, facing Dartmouth in a pair of doubleheaders. The Bears will need to finish ahead of the Big Green, Harvard and Yale in the standings to make the conference championship series. Without a single team with a winning record, the league still remains wide open for the taking. Either through solid pitching or outslugging other teams, the Bears have been able to win in many different ways so far this season, which should provide valuable experience later, Achilles said. “The confidence that we’ve shown at times and the great energy we’ve had, if we can keep that consistent, I think we’ve got as good a chance as anybody of taking our side of the division,” he added.
TODAY
MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016 • PAGE 5
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
r o w , r o w , r o w y o u r b o at
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sudoku
ELI WHITE / HERALD
The men’s JV boat rows against Harvard on the Seekonk River Saturday. The Bears lost the race by three seconds. The varsity boat also came up short, allowing the Crimson to retain the Stein Cup for another year.
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
“I’ll never say losing a game can be good for a team — I don’t believe that. But I would say losing can sharpen the
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sword.
RELEASE DATE– Monday, April 11, 2016
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich ACROSS 1 Spaghetti or ziti 6 In different places 11 What a steamroller steamrolls 14 Moral standard 15 Capital of Yemen 16 Thrilla in Manila winner 17 Understand, finally 19 Caboodle go-with 20 Bill at the bar 21 Tehran native 22 German auto engineer Karl 23 Zone out 27 Mined rock 28 Ticklish Muppet 29 Boom’s opposite 32 ID card feature 35 Point de __: opinion, in Paris 38 Revival leader’s query ... and hint to the starts of 17-, 23-, 49- and 60-Across 42 Corp. ladder leader 43 En __: as a group 44 Spoken 45 WWII female enlistee 47 Org. with a “100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time” list 49 Photographer’s instruction 56 Had a bawl 57 Track jockey, e.g. 58 Building wing 59 Swiss peak 60 “Didn’t think I could do it, did ya?!” 63 Under the weather 64 Speck in the ocean 65 Beethoven’s “Für __” 66 Lao-__: Taoism founder 67 Heart rate 68 Thin coins DOWN 1 Ones who won’t leave you alone 2 Really bugged 3 Biblical queen’s land
4 Little songbird 5 More sore 6 Lion of Narnia 7 Sherwin-Williams product 8 Cardio procedure 9 Word of support 10 Skin art, briefly 11 Seek shelter 12 Flared skirt 13 Big name in hotels and crackers 18 Buffalo’s lake 22 Emeril catchword 24 __ de boeuf: French roast 25 Alien-seeking org. 26 Underhanded plan 29 Secretly keep in the email loop, briefly 30 Abu Dhabi’s fed. 31 Suspected McIntosh relative with pure white flesh 32 TD’s six 33 Gives birth to 34 What borrowers do 36 __ Today 37 Subj. for some green-card holders
39 Former auto financing co. 40 A pop 41 Roulette color 46 Verizon rival 47 Aid in a felony 48 Solidified, as plans, with “up” 49 H.G. who wrote “The War of the Worlds” 50 Internet forum troublemaker
51 Backpacking outings 52 Online social appointment 53 Jeans material 54 Admission of defeat 55 Cary of “Glory” 56 Cool one’s heels 60 One of a kissing pair 61 Buckeyes’ sch. 62 Yale Blue wearer
— Lars Tiffany ’90, men’s lacrosse head coach
See m. lax on page 1. CORRECTION An article in Friday’s Herald (“Robert De Niro shares his father’s story,” April 8) stated that Robert De Niro starred in “Taxi Cab.” In fact, he starred in the movie “Taxi Driver.” The Herald regrets the error.
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Clifford Stoll: Stalking the Wily Hacker 3:00 P.M. CIT, Room 368
Common Ground: A Short History of Earth 4:00 P.M. John Carter Brown Library
Flint to PVD: A Panel on Lead’s Toxic Consequences 6:30 P.M. Friedman Auditorium
Hebrew Language Week: Israeli Folk Dancing 7:00 P.M. Alumnae Hall, Crystal Room
TOMORROW Ivy Film Festival Presents the Pneuhaus Steam Bubble 2:00 P.M. Main Green
Wolfram Technologies in Education and Research 4:00 P.M. Barus and Holley, Room 168
Providence is Not Our Playground 6:30 P.M. BERT, Room 015
Transvisibility: An Evening with Mara Keisling 7:00 P.M. Salomon Center, Room 001
COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Sports Roundup BY MATT BROWNSWORD AND BAYLOR KNOBLOCH, SPORTS EDITOR AND MULTIMEDIA FEATURES EDITOR
Women’s Water Polo The women’s water polo team played two games Saturday at George Washington, first defeating the host Colonials 17-12 before falling to Bucknell 13-9. Marisa Kolokotronis ’17 led the pack with a weekend total of seven goals, eight assists and six steals. Two first-years contributed to the win over GW, as Carmen Rosas ’19 and McKenna Miller ’19 scored three and two goals, respectively. Goalie Marisol Dakan ’18 managed to make 12 saves in the first game of the day, limiting the Colonials to 12 goals. Going into the second game with confidence from their first win, the Bears struggled in the first quarter against Bucknell, which ended in a 4-0 deficit for Bruno. But Brown bounced back to match the pace of the Bison: Both teams scored nine goals in the last three quarters. But the Bears couldn’t make up for their slow start, and Bucknell’s 4-0 lead proved the difference in a defeat for Bruno. Next weekend, the team will play two games at Princeton, one against the host No. 16 Tigers and another against No. 8 Michigan.
R O L A N D H IG H
Softball
comic
Brown finished a four-game weekend with a 3-1 record, sweeping Cornell for the first time since 2000 and splitting against Princeton. Katie Orona ’18 pitched a shutout in the first game against the Big Red, an 8-0 victory. Yeram Park ’18 finished the day 7-for-8, including a home run on a day when the Brown offense scored 16 total runs. Gina Chieffallo ’17 got the second win against the Big Red, with Leah Nakashima ’17 finishing the game in relief. Princeton was no match for Orona and the Brown bats in the first game. Christina Andrews ’17 hit a three-run home run to solidify a 9-1 win for the Bears behind a one-run performance from Orona. The second game against the Tigers was the Bears’ lone loss of the weekend. Julia Schoenewald ’17 drove in the lone run for Brown in the 3-1 defeat.
The Daily Life of Alfonse | Patrick Huang
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COMMENTARY MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2016 • PAGE 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Faculty should be more politically diverse AUSTIN ROSE AND JUSTIN BRAGA op-ed contributors Earlier this year, The Herald investigated the 2016 presidential election campaign donations made by students and faculty members and found that faculty members unanimously supported Democratic candidates. This year’s donations are not an anomaly. During the 2012 election cycle, Brown faculty donated over $126,000 to candidates for public office. Of that money, less than 0.5 percent went to Republican candidates. Two years later in 2014, Brown’s record was even more abysmal. Of $12,000, not a dime went to a Republican. These statistics raise an important question regarding political diversity on campus: What is Brown doing to provide its students with the kind of diversity of thought that would challenge and strengthen the minds of everyone in the school? Though Brown has historically led efforts in revolutionizing academia, it not only conforms to national trends when it comes to political and ideological diversity on campus, but also consistently underperforms in a wide variety of metrics measuring diversity of thought.
In the “real” world, 42 percent of Americans identify as Republican while 47 percent identify as Democratic. According to the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the ratio of Democrats to Republicans amongst Brown faculty members was 30-to-1, a rough 3 percent. This substandard percentage falls significantly below that of U.S. colleges overall, in which only about 10 percent of faculty members are Republican.
tive or centrist on fiscal issues. Socially, while our campus was more liberal overall, 13 percent still labelled themselves as very conservative, conservative or centrist. But even though a significant number of students don’t identify as liberal at all, for many it does not feel that way. Hard numbers about this sort of thing are hard to come by, but that feeling is at least partially legitimate according to a small sample from the
their political leanings. At Dartmouth College, for example, 27 percent of faculty donations went to Republican candidates in 2014. In 2012, 58 percent of the donations given by individuals affiliated with Dartmouth went to Republicans. As of March 20, according to Niche, only 37 percent of students perceive Dartmouth as liberal or very liberal. These findings indicate that campaign contributions are likely a good indicator of the fac-
Insufficient efforts to diversify the political climate on campus do a disservice to students who would otherwise be challenged and enriched by a broader range of perspectives.
If, as Nelson Mandela said, “We can use education to change the world,” how is Brown serving students when its faculty is not representative of the diverse ideologies of the world? Brown’s faculty is not even representative of the opinions in its own student body. According to a 2015 Herald poll, 58.5 percent of students identified themselves as somewhat liberal or very liberal, while 30.9 percent of students identified as very conservative, somewhat conserva-
college ranking site Niche. The majority of students — 91 percent — feel that the political environment on our campus as a whole is liberal or very liberal. We must ask ourselves where this discrepancy comes from. Could it be that the campus narrative is steered by faculty members? Do political ideologies of professors dominate or mediate the direction of campus-wide discourse? To answer these questions, we must study other institutions and
ulty’s political makeup and that the political makeup of the faculty is correlated with students’ perceptions of campus. At least in this example, it seems that a more balanced faculty has a moderating effect on campus political climate. Our University should be equipped with faculty members who represent various identities and who create an atmosphere in which all students feel comfortable expressing their opinions and engaging in con-
structive discussions with both their peers and professors. Insufficient efforts to diversify the political climate on campus do a disservice to students who would otherwise be challenged and enriched by a broader range of perspectives. College is not a time when students should be exposed to limited viewpoints. As President Barack Obama said, “I don’t agree that you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of view.” Obama added, “Sometimes I realized maybe I’ve been too narrow-minded, maybe I didn’t take this into account, maybe I should see this person’s perspective. … That’s what college, in part, is all about.” A more ideologically diverse faculty at Brown would encourage more balanced political discourse and create an environment of inclusion for students of all political affiliations. We, the College Republicans of Brown University, look forward to a dialogue about this issue and a search for potential solutions.
Austin Rose ’19 and Justin Braga ’16 write on behalf of the Brown Republicans Club. They can be reached at austin_rose@brown.edu and justin_braga@brown.edu.
Debt and destruction GEORGE REYNOLDS staff columnist From border walls to military intervention to free college tuition, many ambitious policy plans come from the current presidential nominees. This comes with much ideological debate about whether or not these things are “right.” But I do not particularly care about whether or not these ideas are righteous and moral. Before that discussion, there needs to be one about feasibility and practicality because right now is not the right time for any of these big ideas. It is not the right time because of the muchdiscussed but never solved problem of American debt. For those who do not know, we owe more than $19 trillion, which is clearly a lot of money. This number, though, probably does not matter that much. The United States will never actually pay off this full amount. But we will have to make interest payments. And these are the payments that worry me. To begin in 2013, we paid interest at about 2.43 percent (very, very low). If you apply this number by our nearly $20 trillion principle, you get a result that is a bit less than $486 billion in taxes paid yearly on nothing but interest. No matter where citizens fall on the political spectrum, they should not endorse this spending habit. At least one Forbes columnist projects interest payments to increase to “3.5 percent (of the United States’ gross domestic product) in 2020, 4.5 percent in 2030 and 10 percent in 2050. At that point half of all federal taxes will be going just to pay interest on the debt.” To be clear, this is a projection, and
we may never reach that point. But the projection is from 2010, and the same columnist predicted debt as a percentage of GDP to reach 77 percent by 2020. We have already exceeded that today — the debt has reached over 100 percent of GDP, so it seems more likely to be a conservative projection. If we reach that 50 percent threshold — or anywhere remotely close to it — we will have a serious problem. I can only see three solutions to it at that point: huge tax raises, huge spending cuts or defaulting on the debt. The uncertainty involved in a default like this (and the desire of so many politicians to
Take U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, who has been a fairly vocal supporter of a large military. If you are a fan of this line of thinking (I am generally not), please remember that it costs a lot of money. (Military spending accounts for more than half of discretionary spending.) Further, while the idea of leaving the country vulnerable may be scary, a country is indisputably more vulnerable to both foreign and domestic threats in times of economic distress. If you are a fan of presidential plans for military strength, you should consider the potential increase in vulnerability you may create for our future. On the other end of the political spectrum,
The possibility of half of every dollar you give to Uncle Sam going to interest payments sounds really, really shitty in theory. Duh.
avoid one) makes the first two solutions much more likely. Given how severe these changes could be, we need to discuss this now. The simplest solution is to avoid spending expansion, make spending cuts and raise taxes right now on much smaller scales than future crises could demand. Hopefully this would lower the principle (and therefore our interest payments), reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio and increase the reliability of our tax base to fund payments. I strongly urge readers to consider this when contemplating the ramifications of potential presidential policies.
we have U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT. If you are a fan of his planned expansion of entitlement programs (I am generally not), remember that this also comes with astronomical costs. And while there has been much discussion that his proposed tax plan would cover every dollar of these costs, I am dubious of these claims. According to the aforementioned Forbes columnist, taxes would likely have to increase by about one-third just to cover the Treasury Department’s projected costs to fund Social Security and Medicare benefits that have already been promised. In short, it will likely
be difficult to keep entitlement programs as large as they currently are, let alone expand them. And make no mistake about it: Entitlement programs will be the first things to go if cuts are needed. The military is going nowhere, and basic programs like fire and sanitation departments will get priority. If you believe that working-class Americans do not receive the help they need today, you should consider how much worse off they will be if Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and other programs are cut. I get it: This sucks. A strong military, social safety nets and low taxes all sound really, really nice in theory. Everyone enjoys the ideas of feeling safe and secure and having more money to spend. Duh. But if the idea of stopping the growth of programs or raising taxes upsets you, remember that things can get a lot worse. The possibility of half of every dollar you give to Uncle Sam going to interest payments sounds really, really shitty in theory. Duh. So we should instead focus on smart solutions to our greatest challenges rather than throwing money at them. Instead of expanding the military, we should make sure that its decisions are not creating more enemies than it defeats. Instead of expanding the size of domestic programs, we should focus on increasing their efficiency. In short, we should remember that there are variables that determine the success of government programs other than money. These are the ones that deserve the majority of our focus.
George Reynolds ’17 can be reached at george_reynolds@brown.edu.
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