Wednesday, April 27, 2016

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 57

Chancellor, vice chancellor reflect on terms Tisch ’76 P’18, Vascellaro ’74 P’07 talk Corporation governance structure, University mission NEWS EDITOR

The role of the Corporation

Sanders, Trump sweep R.I. primaries Sanders, Clinton win 55, 43 percent, respectively, Trump wins 64 percent of Republican votes

By LAUREN ARATANI

After nine years, two presidents and dozens of corporation meetings, Chancellor Thomas Tisch ’76 P’18 and Vice Chancellor Jerome Vascellaro ’74 P’07 will end their third and final terms as leaders of the University’s Corporation in May. Outside of being leaders of the Corporation, Tisch serves as a managing partner in the New York City investment firm Four Partners. Vascellaro is a partner, chief operating officer and member of the executive committee of TPG Capital, a private equity investment firm.

Tisch and Vascellaro joined the University’s Corporation in 2002 and 1999, respectively. The pair were chosen to serve as chancellor and vice chancellor in 2007, in the midst of former President Ruth Simmons’ leadership. During their tenure, both men have served as the “moderators” of the corporation, as defined by the University’s charter from 1776.

“It’s a privilege to play these roles,” Vascellaro said. “Just being a trustee, I think, is a great privilege and enormously satisfying both because of the institution and the people you get to work with.”

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By KYLE BOROWSKI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

COURTESTY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Thomas Tisch ’76 P’18, managing partner of New York City investment firm Four Partners, will finish his term as Chancellor in May. The Corporation’s overall purpose is one of shared governance that takes into consideration the long-term goals and perspectives of the University, Tisch said.

The University’s mission, as defined by the charter, guides the Corporation, he added. The mission articulates a few different purposes: serving both the national and international community, preserving and discovering knowledge with a spirit of free inquiry and blending “the University and college” together, Tisch said.

Something that is not very visible to many community members is the difference between the role of the Corporation and the role of the University’s administration, Vascellaro said. While

the Corporation governs, the University’s senior administration manages and leads the University.

For example, the senior administration hires faculty members and sets tuition rates, though tuition rates are approved by the Corporation, he said.

While Tisch and Vascellaro, along with their predecessors, have tried to maintain a clear definition of the two bodies, “the interrelationship … makes it magical,” Vascellaro said.

The University’s 54-member body consists of 42 trustees and 12 fellows. The Corporation is not a representative body, but instead is “a self-sustaining body as » See CHANCELLOR, page 3

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT, and Donald Trump emerged victorious in Rhode Island’s presidential primary Tuesday, winning 13 and nine delegates in the state’s Democratic and Republican races, respectively. Sanders won 55 percent of the vote compared to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 43 percent, while Trump, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, won 64, 24 and 10 percent respectively.

While a win was expected for Trump — who also swept the other four Tuesday races — Sanders’ victory was somewhat of a surprise, especially in a state primary whose results had been virtually unpredictable. A poll released by the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy predicted that Clinton would lead Sanders by 10 percent, The Herald previously reported.

“It’s certainly an impressive victory for Sanders,” said Richard Arenberg, adjunct lecturer in international and public affairs. “If he was going to win anywhere tonight it would be Rhode

Island or Connecticut, but he’s definitely won in an impressive fashion,” he added.

Sanders’ win was likely aided by Rhode Island’s working-class voters, a pillar of his grassroots campaign, Arenberg said. He added that Rhode Island’s was the only open primary of Tuesday, meaning independent voters, another mainstay of Sanders’ campaign, could vote in the Democratic race. “He’s done very well with independent voters across the country, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that helped him tonight,” Arenberg said.

While less unexpected, Trump’s performance in Rhode Island’s Republican primary was still as impressive. “This is just a smashing victory for Trump,” Arenberg said. “We haven’t seen all the votes, but it certainly looks like he’ll take away the lion’s share of delegates.”

“It puts him in a very strong position going into Indiana,” Arenberg said, adding that “after tonight’s results it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine the Republican convention denying Trump the nomination.” In order to do that, Trump would have to first win a large majority of California’s delegates June 7, something that’s “certainly a doable thing,” he said.

The primary results come after some voters had difficulty finding their polling locations.

“Nobody in my neighborhood knew where to vote,” said Hillary Salmons, a » See R.I. PRIMARY, page 4

Unsuccessful teams reflect Undocumented students call for U. support institutional athletic changes Undocumented students Recruiting spots, budget, facilities, high academic standards hurt Bruno relative to Ivy competitors

By BEN SHUMATE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

This story is the second in a three-part series about Brown athletics.

BRUNO’S WOES The ’90s were arguably the most successful era for Brown athletics, as its teams won 47 Ivy League titles in the decade.

Since 2010, Brown teams have won five, placing them last in the conference by a large margin. Harvard won 14 in the 2013-2014 academic year alone. In the fall and winter seasons this year, only three of 12 Brown team sports — men’s soccer, men’s water polo and women’s rugby — had winning records.

So what happened?

In 2011, Brown’s Athletics Review

INSIDE

Committee released its report recommending a wide array of changes to the Athletics Department. The final report recommended that Brown pay coaches a more competitive salary, increase investment in improvement of athletic facilities, reduce the number of admission spots for recruited athletes by 13 percent and cut four varsity teams: wrestling, men’s and women’s fencing and women’s skiing. The men’s skiing team is a club sport and was therefore not under consideration to be cut.

Two criteria that the ARC focused on when making its recommendations stuck out as significant, especially when looking at Brown athletics today: “Is a given sport important to Brown’s sense of community in terms of active and broad-based interest?” and “Does the sport provide adequate opportunities for achieving excellence at the Ivy or national level?”

Attendance numbers in 2015 put into question the “broad-based interest” in Brown sports as a whole, and the » See ATHLETICS, page 2

left out of DIAP policies demand improved resources, programs

By MELISSA CRUZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Though the University is starting to see significant changes on campus following the release of the revised Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan in February, the 67-page plan contains the word “undocumented” three times.

Some students have been discontent with the exclusion of undocumented students, as expressed in the collective student demands on the Day of Reclamation demonstration in December 2015 .

That day, demands from students were read aloud to an audience of students, faculty members and administration.

Some of the demands concerning undocumented students, which were drafted by a group of Latinx students, focused on legal services. They called for the hiring of a legal counselor to “guide and direct undocumented students to

MARIANNA MCMURDOCK / HERALD

Last semester, students of color gathered in the Leung Gallery to compile a list of demands to improve the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan draft. civil rights attorneys and local resources” and the establishment of a fund to supply undocumented students with free legal services.

Students also called for the hiring of staff of color in the financial aid and admission offices who would be responsible for the recruitment and retention of low-income, undocumented and first-generation college students and the creation of positions within the Office

of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, for those who have experience working with LGBTQ+, first-gen, minority, lowincome or undocumented communities, the Latinx demands read.

University policies Even though the DIAP didn’t meet the students’ demands, “the recruitment of first-generation students — whether » See DIAP, page 3

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016

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COMMENTARY Rock ’18: Banning bags during Spring Weekend encourages unhealthier drug, alcohol use

COMMENTARY Yu ’19: Liberal students should vote for Green party candidate Jill Stein rather than Bernie Sanders

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» ATHLETICS, from page 1 records of the overwhelming majority of Brown teams puts the latter criteria into similar doubt.

In response to the ARC in 2011, former President Ruth Simmons called for an effort to streamline the athletics department without sacrificing the success of the teams.

But a question remains: How have the changes under Simmons truly affected Brown teams, and is Brown bound to see any change in the future?

The numbers game In Simmons’ response, she announced that the proposed team cuts would not be adopted. But a reduction in admission spots for recruited athletes from 225 to 205 was approved, representing a 9 percent cut. Without four teams being eliminated and with the adoption of women’s rugby as a varsity sport for the 2014 season, Brown’s athletic department actually grew. Brown boasts 36 varsity sports now, making it one of the largest departments in the country.

“It’s an expensive operation to manage,” said Director of Athletics Jack Hayes.

With 205 admission spots divided among 36 sports, the impact of teams’ limited recruiting ability becomes clear when looking at the roster size of Brown teams.

The women’s hockey team had 21 players for the 2015-2016 season, making it the second-smallest women’s ice hockey team in the Ivy League. The team finished 3-23-3 this past season

and has not finished with double-digit wins since 2007. The roster’s size has steadily decreased since the 2000s, when the team was a national powerhouse under former Head Coach Digit Murphy.

The 2001-2002 team, which finished as national runners-up, had a roster of 27 players.

“I never shied away from a big roster.

Because you know what a big roster means? It means more opportunity,” Murphy said. “You need four lines to practice with, and you need reserves.”

Because of injuries on this year’s team, the Bears were often unable to practice with a full team and had only one reserve spot on game days.

The trend certainly is not confined to women’s hockey; the baseball team, which has not had a winning season in the past five years, is also the secondsmallest in the Ivy League at 28 players.

Harvard has a roster of 35 players.

Based on the increasing undergraduate population, the number of admission spots for recruits will increase to 215 starting fall 2017, Hayes said. Having 36 sports with various needs and roster sizes may present another challenge when delegating these new spots going forward, and only time will tell what criteria will be used to determine where those spots will go.

“You’ve got to look at everything from what sports have been successful, what sports are supported throughout the league — some sports that don’t have as many (spots),” Hayes said. “It’s important for us to see outcomes and to see productivity in the places where we put these spots.”

Women’s rugby, Brown’s newest

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD team, currently has no spots but has managed to remain an outlier among Brown teams in terms of its Ivy success. Under Hall of Fame coach Kathy Flores, the team transitioned from club to varsity with an Ivy League championship in its first season, followed by a second-place finish in 2015. But as other Ivy League teams enjoy more recruitment spots, the team could struggle to continue its success, said co-captain Oksana Goretaya ’17.

“Give it a year or two, and we won’t be able to compete anymore because other teams have a full side of recruited players, and we’ll have walk-ons,” she said, noting that new rugby teams at Harvard and Dartmouth were given recruiting spots immediately after becoming varsity sports.

But what is perhaps the most crucial aspect to recruiting may also be the simplest: dollars spent.

Brown has consistently found itself in the basement of the Ivy League in recruiting spending over the past decade.

Brown spent $749,571 on recruiting in the 2014-2015 academic year, ahead of only Penn, while four other Ivy League schools spent more than $1,000,000.

Hayes said that the department doesn’t act based on a goal to rank in a particular spot within the league on recruiting spending.

“You get better by being able to cast a wider net on prospective students,” he said. “Casting a wider net means traveling to more places, going to more events, sending more coaches on the road.”

But Brown coaches have felt the pinch when it comes time to hit the road looking for future talent.

Recruiting spending per team among Ivy League schools, 2014-2015 $20,821

Brown

$39,662

Columbia $27,532

Cornell

$30,095

Dartmouth

$27,432

Harvard $21,448

Penn Princeton

$32,333

Yale

$27,752

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

$40,000

Source: U.S. Department of Education

EMMA JERZYK / HERALD

“To me, the outlay into recruiting is absolutely a must,” said men’s lacrosse Head Coach Lars Tiffany ’90. “Can our coaches find these athletes without having to fly as much? Can we find these athletes without being on the road as much? Sure you could, but if your competition isn’t holding back, if they’re not cutting corners — they’re on the road more, and they’re seeing more people.”

“Let’s just treat the whole thing like sales in a business. If you spend less money into going out and having less salespeople on the road with less money, are you going to sell your product?”

Murphy said. “The answer is no. Times have changed, you can’t just say ‘Ivy League’ anymore.”

Academically speaking Another recommendation from Simmons’ response was that Brown raise its target academic index for recruited athletes. The academic index is a score given to all prospective Ivy League recruits and is calculated using high school grade point average and standardized test scores. The Ivy League requires that a class of recruited athletes have an average academic index no lower than one standard deviation below the average of the school’s last four enrolling classes.

But Simmons recommended that Brown raise its average above the Ivy minimum in an effort “to increase the representativeness of athletes at Brown.”

The positive impact of Brown’s AI standards for athletes shows itself in the classroom, as 21 teams met the NCAA’s measure of “academic progress rate” in the 2015-2016 school year, the most of any school in the country.

But raising the standards can have repercussions for recruiting and competitiveness, especially within the Ivy League.

“Sometimes the frustrating part for coaches is when a student-athlete they have been recruiting for a year or two isn’t admitted and they end up getting into a Harvard, Yale or Princeton,” said women’s ice hockey Head Coach Bob Kenneally ’90. “Especially if that student-athlete wants to come to Brown.”

Fields and facilities For prospective athletes, the facilities where they will spend four years practicing and playing become a huge deciding factor, especially among Ivy League schools that all provide top-tier academics. The decision by the ARC and Simmons to invest in facilities has resulted in increasing returns for the teams who reaped the benefits of that investment.

The renovated Stevenson-Pincince Field, home to Brown’s soccer and lacrosse teams, has undoubtedly played a

part in the men’s lacrosse team’s explosion onto the national scene.

“I’ve been here during an era where it didn’t feel like there was much support for facility enhancements,” said Tiffany, who has been at Brown for 10 years. “It’s wonderful to know that the administration is behind us coaches, providing us with the very best that they can, so that we can compete at the highest level.”

“The facility improvement process — it’s never-ending,” Hayes said. “It’s never-ending because you want to make sure that your facilities help attract the best student-athletes.”

Future projects on the docket include a new turf baseball and softball complex, as well as renovations to the boat house, Olney-Margolies Athletics Center and locker rooms in the Paul Bailey Pizzitola Memorial Sports Center.

“A brand new facility is going to be incredible, not only for our current players and staff, but for recruiting and showing around prospective players,” said baseball Head Coach Grant Achilles.

But 36 teams cannot all enjoy new facilities, and those sports which have not yet seen their spaces upgraded are some of the same ones struggling to compete every year. Take the men’s and women’s hockey teams, which won a combined eight games this year.

“That’s certainly another facility that we need to look at,” Hayes said of Meehan Auditorium, the home of both teams. “There’s work that needs to be done in there.”

“Facility upgrades (make) a huge difference, and for us, the ice rink is quite old and a bit run down,” Kenneally said.

“It definitely needs an upgrade.”

The rink has presented hockey teams with an extra recruiting challenge, as other schools in the league and in the region boast newer, larger facilities.

“If they come into our building, they may say, ‘well, maybe hockey is not as important here because they’re letting their rink get run down,’” Kenneally said.

“When you’re in our position — second to last in the league — it’s hard to get these kids to commit if you don’t have the facilities,” said women’s hockey captain Alli Rolandelli ’16. “Coming through Brown … it’s like, ‘Here’s our carpet with a B, but that’s all we’ve got.’”

With a lack of focus on closing the gap in recruiting spending, it remains to be seen whether Brown teams will find more success in the wake of the changes instituted by Simmons. But new teams and less successful teams may continue to suffer, as an athletic department that fields the second-most teams in the country must subsist on a budget that pales in comparison to its Ivy League counterparts.

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016 • PAGE 3

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» DIAP, from page 1 undocumented or not — should be a fundamental responsibility of the entire staff and a major focus of our outreach efforts,” wrote Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 in an email to The Herald.

Specifically, the Office of Admission has prioritized the “recruitment of lowincome and first-generation students of all kinds, including undocumented students” even before he started his position, Miller wrote.

“The University implicitly supports undocumented students by accepting them and providing private funding for students,” said Mateus Baptista ’14 MA’15.

Baptista, who was undocumented when he was a student, sought out the on-campus attorney, available twice a month for office hours and several other dates for phone calls. But he was redirected to off-campus resources for issues pertaining to immigration and legal status.

While undocumented students are ineligible for federal aid, Brown fills the financial gaps for the undocumented students it accepts, a policy that was clarified in 2013, The Herald previously reported. Baptista said that undocumented students are not need-blind when applying to Brown. They are considered international students, but if accepted, are financially supported.

The Office of Admission is clearly aware of undocumented students’ status when they go through the admission process, “but when they enroll, they are reported and tracked in the non-U.S. citizen category,” Miller wrote.

Student discontents During his time at Brown, Baptista met three or four undocumented students. “I walked away from Brown saying I had an amazing experience … but only because I was lucky to meet another undocumented student,” he said, referring

» CHANCELLOR, from page 1 defined by the charter,” Tisch said.

Of the 42 trustees, 14 are elected by alums — three of which must be the current and past two chairs of the University’s Alumni Association, according to the Corporation’s website. The remaining members of the Board of Trustees are referred to as “term trustees” and are nominated by the Corporation’s Committee on Trustee Vacancies.

The chancellor and vice chancellor preside over the trustees, while the president, who is considered a fellow, presides over the fellows, according to the website.

While members of the Corporation are not executives or managers of the University, they have the power to assess the University to make sure its course is consistent with its “highest aspiration and deepest values,” while also serving as consultants for the president, Tisch said.

Issues that come to the Corporation come with input from students, faculty members or alums through a network of committees and structures within the Corporation, Tisch said. The only power that is reserved solely to the Corporation is choosing the president of the University, he added.

The last nine years One of the most daunting tasks the chancellor and vice chancellor took on during their tenures is the selection of President Christina Paxson P’19 as leader of the University, Tisch said.

The presidential selection committee,

to a close friend he made who was also an undocumented transfer student. “Students shouldn’t rely on luck,” he said.

The University has “not articulated a clear and strong message that they support undocumented students,” Baptista added. “They’re not explicitly saying they support and validate us.”

In supporting undocumented students, the University “should be audacious, be more bold,” Baptista said.

“Brown can and should be that leader.”

Undocumented students would benefit from an affirmation that they are “not just lucky to be here but … deserve to be here,” he said.

Kenneth Cruz ’18, president of the Latin American Student Organization, also said that there is still progress to be made.

“If a person is undocumented, of course you’re always fearful of the political sphere, and there’s always that worry in one’s life that they might get either deported or their loved ones will,” Cruz said, adding that this distracts them from their studies.

Undocumented students “are in a very specific and tight circumstance, and there’s no infrastructure or advising to deal with this,” said Roxana Sanchez ’18, president of La Alianza Latinx, a student group focused on strengthening the Latinx community within and outside Brown. Sanchez added that undocumented students and those with undocumented parents experience instability that takes a toll on their mental and emotional health.

“I feel like undocumented students are just glanced over,” she said. “There’s so much fear surrounding the issue (of legal status). I praise students on campus who come out. It’s not an easy thing to do.” She added that many undocumented students, for legal or personal reasons, may not have the liberty of speaking out about their legal status.

Sanchez, whose parents are living in the United States as undocumented

residents, believes that there should be structural support for undocumented students and for students who have undocumented parents.

Though the University is diversifying its student body and recruiting lowincome and first-gen students, the concept of undocumented students is still a “taboo topic” at many colleges, including Brown, Cruz said. “Something important for undocumented students is (that) they definitely need legal counseling,” she said, adding that the University “should have that resource and have someone willing to defend their rights and how to professionally defend their rights.”

Baptista would like to see resources for undocumented students be more visible, suggesting that the University hire a staff member who is aware of undocumented students and the legal hurdles they face and expand upon alumni relations, especially for first-gen and undocumented students.

chaired by the chancellor, consisted of two committees: one made up of 16 members of the Corporation and another “campus committee” chosen by representative groups on campus and made up of 13 undergraduate and graduate students, staff members and faculty members, Tisch said.

Before Simmons came to Brown, there was a sense that the University was on “hiatus” during the presidency of E. Gordon Gee, who served for just two years before he left the University to become chancellor of Vanderbilt University, Tisch said.

When Simmons came to Brown, she challenged the community to aspire to more, he said. For example, Simmons worked to integrate Pembroke campus and main campus, which used to be “poles apart” — the only way to get there was through “dumpster ally,” Tisch said.

In addition, the University was also one of the first to study its historical relationship with the slave trade through the Slavery and Justice Report released in 2006, Tisch said. Other universities such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton are just starting to engage with their own relationships with the slave trade, he added.

especially its fall poll. The poll can be very helpful because “oftentimes it’s really easy to hear very loud voices, and it’s not easy to feel that one’s naturally hearing all the voices,” Tisch said.

The Corporation also receives input from faculty and staff members who shape the community, Tisch said. Some members of the Corporation are also parents of students, Tisch said, allowing them to have closer connections to the community.

In addition, the Corporation’s young alumni trustee, currently Kayla Rosen ’14, helps the governing body keep in touch with students, Tisch said.

For the first time last spring, the young alumni trustee was selected with input from a student committee, made up of three undergrad and two graduate students, The Herald previously reported.

“It’s a really difficult balance because the fact is that we don’t want to be so completely visible that we’re seen in a managerial way,” Tisch said. “We want to make sure that the biggest issues are getting to us in a way we can assess and consult as desired and required.”

Tuned in The shared governance between the Corporation and senior administration allows the Corporation to be receptive to the community, Tisch said.

Members of the Corporation pay attention to campus publications and the Undergraduate Council of Students,

Student activism “We as students are very limited in what we can do,” though many of the goals that student groups have are achieved through student activism, Sanchez said, adding that student activists show the University what students need.

Student activism and the DIAP have sparked a new conversation among students and brought attention to how the University supports undocumented students, she said.

The rise of student interest in learning and discussing immigration in the United States show that students care about these issues, Sanchez said.

For example, the Brown Immigration Rights Coalition was revived this semester after a period of inactivity. BIRC consists of “community-based activists,” said Alexis Rodriguez-Camacho ’18, member of BIRC. BIRC has been active on and off campus. For example, earlier this semester, BIRC rallied for undocumented Rhode

Brown today Once Paxson stepped up as president, she carried on the same deep commitment Simmons had toward teaching and research and finding ways the two can work together, Tisch said.

“In many communities, those are seen as a dichotomy,” he added. “Brown has always strived for the idea that they can exist together.” Tisch cited Undergraduate

Island residents to receive driving privilege licenses. As co-president of FirstGens@Brown, Rodriguez-Camacho said he seeks to address the needs of undocumented students as First-Gens@ Brown progresses to recognize the common intersectionality between the two identities.

Minority Peer Counselors also hosted a workshop titled “Homeland (In)security” April 18. The workshop aimed to discuss how immigrants are received both within and out of borderlands, acknowledge both Southeast Asian and African immigrants beyond the stereotypical Latinx immigrant and analyze historical and current political policies concerning immigration.

The workshop’s facilitators also referenced Angie Ocampo’s ’15 website “Undocumented at Brown,” which was created as a part of her senior capstone project in the Sociology department.

The website offers support and resources for navigating campus as an undocumented student and clarifies acceptance and financial aid policies for prospective students.

“The resources at Brown are lacking,” Ocampo said. During the research for her thesis, Ocampo reached out to students from other universities and found that at institutions where undocumented students were more organized and formed a support group, undocumented students were felt morally and practically supported as their peers helped the navigate on-campus resources.

“People will only divulge that they’re undocumented if they can assess that the people they’re talking to will understand what that means,” she said.

Ocampo created the website to offer “something applicable” to the community of undocumented students and prospective students.

While conducting her research, Ocampo tried asking various offices for the data on how many undocumented students were on campus, but was not

able to ascertain the number, she added.

Students have also been left disappointed with regard to the language and speech around undocumented students.

“It feels like the terms (undocumented and low-income) are used interchangeably” in the DIAP, Sanchez said.

The DIAP grouped undocumented students with other underrepresented groups on campus rather than provide sufficient attention to them and the challenges they face, Sanchez said, adding that the plan didn’t specify what category undocumented students fall under, even though transparency in data and numbers is essential for student activists’ and administrators’ efforts.

The University’s administration has addressed aspects of the struggles that undocumented students face by increasing mentorship for various minorities on campus and providing more help for high-need students, but the legal aid and counseling described in the student demands leaves the document lacking, Sanchez said.

Rodriguez-Camacho helped draft the Latinx demands last semester, shortly after the alleged assault of a Dartmouth student by a Department of Public Safety officer at the fall Latinx Ivy League Conference. He recalls the day following the student’s alleged assault when students addressed President Christina Paxson P’19 in Salomon Hall. After a stressful and emotional conversation, Mary Grace Almandrez, interim assistant vice president for campus life and student services, stepped up to address the audience to express her understanding and care for the students’ concerns with the University.

“She reassured us and showed that she cared for us. For a quick moment, we forgot what it meant to be cared for and for administration to support us,” Rodriguez-Camacho said, adding that for him, the moment was a “realization that finding someone at this institution who cared about me was not going to happen often.”

Teaching and Research Awards and the opportunity to participate in classes typically reserved for graduate students as examples of the two working together.

The University has a relatively compact administrative structure, he said.

While some Universities have separate colleges with their own deans and endowments, collaboration among fields and departments comes naturally at Brown.

The aspiration is to live up to the ability to operate in the spaces between fields, he added.

Many people at larger Universities with more rigid managerial structures would give up large portions of their endowments to have elements of an administration like Brown’s, Tisch said, comparing the structure of the University to “a Silicon Valley startup.”

Even though the University has a school of medicine, public health and soon a school of engineering, the administrative, financial and fundraising operatives of the University are cohesive.

changed; 20,000 families have been changed. I always admit that I cry at most graduations,” Vascellaro said. “Part of what this institution is about is those 20,000 graduates and the 20,000 that will come in the next nine years, and making sure that they’ve had the kind of experiences we’ve had and they deserve. I never take my eye off of that in terms of why we’re doing this.”

While Tisch and Vascellaro will end their time on the Corporation, both look to continue being “very involved in Brown,” Tisch said.

“What makes Brown ‘Brown’ is the people who teach, discover, live, study and work here, and (Tisch and Vascellaro) really have the sensitivity and the knowledge to understand that,” Paxson wrote in an email to The Herald. “I think it really comes from what each of them brought to their respective roles.”

Though Tisch has told Paxson that he didn’t agree with all the choices the University was making years ago, he has moved to take some ownership over the priorities of the University, Paxson wrote.

Both Tisch and Vascellaro have been fully dedicated to the University’s success, she added.

Vascellaro echoed that sentiment, saying that both he and Tisch have been “unequivocally, unambiguously committed to the University’s success.”

Vascellaro recalled the words of his senior orator, Charles Tansey ’74, during his commencement: “We are never going to miss Brown because we are taking a piece of it with us.”

Saying goodbye “From the minute I walked onto this campus, Brown has always been a special place,” Tisch said. “It’s been interesting over the years to parse out what makes Brown so special.”

The students of the University have always been on Vascellaro’s mind while serving as vice chancellor, he said, adding that about 20,000 students have graduated from Brown during their nine-year terms.

“Twenty-thousand lives have been

NEWS

PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Architect Moshe Safdie discusses work, inspiration

STAFF WRITER

Moshe Safdie, one of the most prominent architects in the world, gave a lecture on his work in Salomon 101 Monday night.

Safdie began his lecture by saying there are “two central themes that I think generate my work. The first is a kind of passion for trying to do everything I know to humanize ‘megascale,’” which is the “extraordinary density” of modern cities. “The process of densification is a dramatic erosion of the public realm,” he added.

Most, if not all, of the urban projects he discussed feature comfortable and beautiful public spaces that are intended to make his buildings “permeable.”

The second theme is resisting “the equalizing force of globalization,” he said. “No matter where I seem to be,

» R.I. PRIMARY, from page 1 voter who spent over an hour visiting polling stations before she found the correct one. Salmons found fault with the Secretary of State’s office, which she said failed to properly notify voters on where to find their designated polling stations.

stacked clusters of prefabricated housing units, each with a small garden space. While it failed to launch a new trend of similar developments as Safdie had hoped, it was successful in its own right and certainly succeeded in launching his career.

“It’s now designated a heritage building. They won’t even let me renovate my own apartment,” Safdie joked.

The rest of the lecture covered his more recent projects, including those that are still in the works.

The largest structures Safdie has designed are in Asia. For example, Safdie is perhaps the most prominent architect in Singapore, having designed the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort — the most striking building in the city-state’s skyline — with three towers topped by a cantilevered SkyPark. He has also designed a structure at the planned Jewel Changi Airport, which will feature a biosphere paradise with a central waterfall to collect rainwater.

He is also designing an enormous complex for the city of Chongqing, China on the tip of a peninsula at the

“What is wrong with our democracy if we can’t even get a notice on where to vote?” she said.

One possible explanation for the mixup is that the Rhode Island Board of Elections only opened 144 out of the state’s 419 polling stations this primary cycle, causing possible confusion for voters

who were unable to use stations typically open for general elections, WPRI reported.

“Polling stations for the past 16 years at least have been reduced for presidential primaries,” said Miguel Nunez, a planning and program development specialist at the Board of Elections. The cutbacks

BRITTANY COMUNALE / HERALD

Acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie spoke to contemporary architecture students about themes in his work Tuesday night in Salomon auditorium. confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers. It will feature six curved towers, four of which will also hold a cantilevered park area.

“I’m often asked, ‘what inspires you as an architect?’” Safdie said.

“The answer expected is this building or that building, but what really inspires me as an architect most is studying and understanding the causality of design in nature.”

In response to one of the many questions asked by audience members, Safdie said, “the poor are

excluded because they’re not spenders,” and so public spaces are especially important symbols of democracy because “everyone has access to them.”

“What we need to achieve, … possibly by laws and regulations, is that when you create a place for a public, it must be open.”

Safdie’s lecture was presented by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage and the Department of the History of Art and Architecture.

were made to save costs as far fewer voters participate in primary as opposed to general elections, he added. The Board of Elections predicted a turnout rate of at least 30 percent for this year’s primary, in line with the 32 percent that voted in the 2008 primary where “there were no issues in voting,” Nunez said.

“The Board of Canvassers gave me the wrong location, and it took me almost an hour to find where to go today,” said Violet Falk, adding that “it’s honestly like they didn’t want us to vote.” Falk explained that she had to visit three different polling locations before finding the correct one, but emphasized that she wasn’t going to give up as long as it meant supporting her ideal candidate: Trump.

“I need change, a change in everything,” Falk said. “I like that he has his own money because when you have your own money, you can afford to think how you like,” she added. While Trump is her ideal candidate, Falk said she “wouldn’t cry” if he doesn’t win the nomination, as the other Republican candidates are just as appealing to her.

But a Trump ticket is becoming increasingly likely, as is the chance of him winning the nomination before the Republican National Convention in July, Arenberg said.

“To the extent that there’s unbound delegates there’ll be a lot of pressure on them to support Trump,” Arenberg said.

“If he goes into the convention with upwards of 1,100 or 1,200 delegates, … I think he might very well win it outright,” he added.

“It’s just a regular guy versus some politicians,” said Gerald Price about Trump, his favored choice. “I don’t agree with 100 percent of what he says, but I believe that he really has a plan to make America great again.”

But Laura Rodzinak, a supporter of Sanders, had a different view: “Trump would be the worst-case scenario,” she said, adding, “he’s a horribly racist, misogynistic person.”

The rhetoric of the Republican party was off-putting to Caroline Beal, who considered the debates of that party “akin to an episode of the Jerry Springer Show.”

She instead voted for Sanders, whom she said “needs all the votes he can get to achieve the vision of what he wants for America.”

While he believed that “Bernie’s heart is in the right place,” Glenn Fontecchio doubted whether his ideas were electable and instead voted for Clinton. “I think that Hillary is tenacious enough to get stuff done,” he added.

Arenberg was similarly doubtful of whether or not Sanders would be able to win the nomination. “I’m very skeptical about that,” he said. “Obviously the door is never closed until it’s closed, but I think the climb for him is pretty steep.”

Still, Sanders’ progressive campaign has done a great deal to shift the Democratic party left and will likely impact the general election, Arenberg said. “Sanders has played a positive role even if he’s not the nominee,” he said. “If Hillary Clinton is the democratic nominee, he’s certainly played a big role in strengthening her.”

2016 Rhode Island primaries Republican

10.3%

Cruz

24.3%

Kasich

64.1%

Trump

Democrat

Sanders 42.9%

By ROLAND HIGH

there is a degree of sameness that is oppressive.”

Safdie also said many architects are forgetting that “architecture is material (that) can only be experienced physically, in three dimensions.” He also said architects should “let the building be what it wants to be,” as his early mentor, the celebrated architect Louis Kahn, said.

On a scholarship to study public housing in the United States, he realized that neither urban sprawl nor monolithic blocks of affordable housing were good solutions to the problem of growing populations.

Safdie also said that he found the housing projects of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, two of the most important pioneers of modern architecture, inadequate because they failed to incorporate garden spaces and “bring back the quality of life of the single-family house,” he added.

These beliefs gave rise to his first building, he said, a housing complex called “Habitat” that was built for Expo 67, the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal, Canada.

The project consists of impossibly

55.4%

International architect emphasizes public spaces, nature, resistance of sameness in design

Clinton

Source: Associated Press EMMA JERZYK / HERALD

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The bars of the Rockefeller Library create a cell-like view of the picturesque city below, providing a reminder that there is more to life than finals week and the endless studying that leads up to it.

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

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich ACROSS 1 Bumper car, at times 7 Cookbook author Rombauer 11 Smoke 14 Lancelot’s unrequited lover 15 Assam products 16 Barcelona bear 17 Equipment for picnic competitions 19 Grabbed a chair 20 Melee 21 Ballet bend 22 State with five national parks 23 Embryo development sites 26 Priestly vestment 29 Right Guard rival 30 Old anesthetic 31 Willy Loman, in a 1949 play 34 Architect Jones 37 McDonald’s founder 38 Make really happy 41 Nobel Prize subj.

42 “Cheers!”

44 Connections traced on ancestry.com 46 Tiny amounts 49 Chill in the air 50 Denials 51 Big name on Wall Street 55 French friends 56 Elevator option 57 Horseshoeshaped letter 61 Tried to get into an office 62 Lisa Simpson’s instrument 64 With 43-Down, what a criminal might be on 65 Augusta National’s __ Corner 66 British Invasion star 67 Doesn’t lack 68 Nothing more than 69 Its flag features a six-pointed star

DOWN 1 Weight room count 2 Burn soother 3 Damon of “The Martian” 4 Mazda roadster 5 Inters 6 Classic auto 7 Novelist Calvino 8 Deliver from memory 9 Succeed 10 In the Gospels, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on one 11 San José denizen 12 First name in gravity 13 Some black-clad teens 18 “This Is __ Tap” 22 Early Web forum 24 Title 25 City with two MLB teams 26 More than wonders 27 Carefree adventure 28 Connections traced on ancestry.com 32 Modern birthday greetings

33 “Can’t help ya” 35 Disco adjective 36 Tip jar fillers 39 Lease signer 40 “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” writer Carle 43 See 64-Across 45 Galaxy alternatives 47 Title for Bovary 48 Distracting bedmate

51 “Party on, Wayne” speaker 52 City on the Missouri 53 Sty denizens 54 Ugly campaign tactic 58 “¿Cómo __?”

59 “The Wizard of Oz” family name 60 Skater’s maneuver 62 Impact sound 63 Geisha’s sash

“No matter where I seem to be, there is a degree of sameness that is oppressive.”

— Moshe Safdie, architect

See architecture on page 4.

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Heavy Petting 11:45 P.M. Main Green

Wellness at Brown!: Metabolism 101 12:30 P.M. Petteruti Lounge

Visual Art BBQ 4:00 P.M. List Art Building, 2nd floor

Tasteberries!

6:00 P.M. 3rd floor, Sciences Library

TOMORROW Race and Class, Crime and Punishment in Providence 12:00 P.M. Nightingale-Brown House

An East-West Divide on Europe’s Migrant Crisis 2:00 P.M. Watson Institute

Graduating with Student Loans 3:30 P.M. List Art 110

Book Launch: Birders in Africa, by Nancy Jacobs 6:30 P.M. 85 Waterman St.

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Spring Weekend bag policy encourages bingeing AVERY ROCK staff columnist

In a column published yesterday, one of my fellow columnists applauded the University’s non-punitive approach to substance use during Spring Weekend.

While I agree that Brown’s general lack of severity in addressing drug and alcohol use is commendable, Spring Weekend in particular has two policies that are counterproductive and encourage unhealthy behavior: the prohibition on bringing bags into most events and the categorical ban on open containers of alcohol in public. In theory, both of these policies should help to reduce alcohol consumption and keep students safer. But in reality, they simply encourage people to swap somewhat unhealthy choices for much worse ones.

At the most basic level, the bag policy is a nuisance. The concerts are long, and it would be great to be able to bring in jackets, sunglasses, sunscreen, blankets and food without having to carry them all around with you. But the most important result of the bag policy and its clear motivation is that it prevents people from easily carrying alcohol into Spring Weekend with them. This would

work well if people didn’t want so badly to be drunk during Spring Weekend.

The concert is branded as a release from the stresses of college life, and it would be silly to pretend that alcohol use can be prevented during such an event. Alcohol use is fairly ubiquitous on college campuses on normal days and is bound to be particularly prevalent on special occasions.

By outlawing bags and open containers, concert organizers do not prevent alcohol consumption. They merely prevent overt, gradual alcohol con-

gates. Brown seems to have come to terms with the fact that there is no reasonable set of policies that could prevent pot smoking during Spring Weekend. I don’t have a particular problem with this, but do think that being surrounded by people who were gradually drinking would be far more pleasant than having smoke continually blown in my face. While allowing people to bring alcohol into Spring Weekend wouldn’t make everyone stop smoking, I think it would go a long way toward decreasing the number of people light-

gates. Many people try to drink enough immediately before leaving their rooms to keep them buzzed through several hours of performances. This is, clearly, a terrible idea. I saw multiple people get carried home by their friends before even making it through the entrance line on Saturday due to overzealous pre-gaming.

Public service announcement: Having large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time is the most dangerous way to drink, as it leaves the body almost no time to metabolize the alco-

By selectively targeting only a relatively safe practice, Spring Weekend policies actually encourage heavier substance use and more dangerous drinking habits. sumption over the course of an evening and, quite possibly, the afternoon as well. In response to the difficulty of bringing alcohol inside the gates, people resort to a variety of alternatives including pre-gaming and switching to more compact drugs.

The bag policy does nothing to reduce the amount of more easily hidden substances that get brought into Spring Weekend. Anyone attempting to get close to the stage during either concert can bear witness to the apparent ease of getting weed and a lighter through the

ing up in the crowd.

Most importantly, the bag and beverage policy fails to account for the fact that, in order to bring alcohol into an event, a potential drinker would already have access to alcohol beforehand. One can get around the bag policy by drinking this alcohol somewhere else. Furthermore, the stated policy of turning away visibly intoxicated concert-goers exacerbates this problem by encouraging people to drink a large amount just before going to the concert so that the intoxication hits after they enter the

hol. Additionally, the slight time delay between drinking and feeling drunk allows people to exceed their limits without realizing it when they drink rapidly. Allowing people to bring bags and beverages into Spring Weekend would, without overtly approving of drinking, give students the ability to pace themselves.

Brown generally has a very healthy approach to regulating alcohol and drugs, focusing on educating students about how to experiment safely while taking care of students who make mis-

takes. This set of policies acknowledges the fact that alcohol is an intractable part of college culture and focuses on improving student safety and curtailing the most dangerous practices rather than attempting to set up a blanket ban.

The current policy on bags coming into Spring Weekend events is at odds with this realistic attitude and encourages students to engage in some of the highrisk behaviors they are taught to avoid.

Prohibiting bags and bottles during Spring Weekend only prevents the relatively minor problem of gradual drinking. Many people respond to this not by attending Spring Weekend sober but by binge drinking before entry or by finding more potent substitutes for alcohol.

People who want to be intoxicated during Spring Weekend are going to find ways around any feasible enforcement methods. By selectively targeting only a relatively safe practice, Spring Weekend policies actually encourage heavier substance use and more dangerous drinking habits. The current rules are naive and accomplish the exact opposite of their goal. Spring Weekend would be safer if people were able to bring alcohol with them in their backpacks instead of their stomachs.

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

Scylla and Charybdis: the case for Jill Stein GLENN YU staff columnist

“If you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you will always have evil, and you will always have less.” — Ralph Nader In his time as a consumer advocate, Ralph Nader probably saved more American lives than any soldier or doctor in history. He is the reason why our highways have guardrails, our cars have shatterproof windshields, our meat is regulated heavily against contamination, our government enforces its own transparency, our air is safe to breathe and our workplaces are sanitary. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration he helped create has reduced the rate of deaths per mile driven by 80 percent, saving more than 3.5 million lives over the past 50 years. Nader was and is a true American hero. In 2000, Nader ran for president. As a candidate, he offered a platform similar to that of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT, today, arguing that there was “too much power and wealth in too few hands.”

But Nader’s campaign differed significantly from Sanders’: Nader ran as a Green party candidate. Nader did not have the support of the political machine. Throughout the election, Nader was marginalized by critics who argued that a vote for Nader was a vote wasted. When election day came, Nader received just 3 percent of the popular vote.

But when he lost the election, he also lost the support of liberal America. Nader was vilified and ridiculed, accused of “spoiling the vote” by siphoning crucial votes away from Al Gore and ushering George W. Bush into office (something which has since been proven untrue). The Great Joe Biden said “Nader cost us the election.” A New York Times piece shortly after the election reported “Other Democrats argued that if Mr. Bush won the election, Mr. Nader should be held responsible for jeopardizing the wellbeing of gays and lesbians, minorities and the poor, women and organized labor.” Because of

his party affiliation, Nader became a pariah, a scapegoat for the incompetence of Gore — a man who couldn’t even win his own state — on the campaign trail.

The true progressive, Nader understood, had no place in a Democratic Party that gave the appearance of “change” as it simultaneously rigged its own elections with superdelegates and subsisted on corporate financing. The true progressive, Nader understood, needed a third party outside of an establishment that proved itself immune to reform and unable to stymie its insatiable love affair with the war industry, big oil, Wall Street and free trade agreements. No, Nader would never consider becoming a cog in the machine.

Sanders’ appeal is that he isn’t an establishment Democrat, that he is outside of the bought-

would not run as an Independent, he responded “I don’t want to end up like Ralph Nader.”

Sanders wants revolution but only the type that keeps his job security safe and his legacy intact. Sanders is not Nader; he is ignorant to the fact that revolution can only come when corporate politics are disemboweled, when Democratic and Republican parties are left to rot.

Revolution does not simply mean vapid rhetoric about the indictment of a few Wall Street executives; it must mean the destruction of a political system funded by the fossil fuel industry and an end to the Espionage Act; it must mean severe cuts to the military and its surveillance apparatus and punishment for war criminals like Dick Cheney.

At the end of the day, Sanders is a pawn of the Democratic party. He will not win. When he

The difference between voting for a Democrat and a Republican is the difference between driving off of a cliff at 45 miles per hour and driving off of a cliff at 75 miles per hour. out corporate party. But Sanders, despite being elected to Congress as an Independent, sold his soul to the Democratic Party long ago. Despite the Eugene Debs poster in his office, he has strayed from socialism on many occasions.

He backed economic sanctions that killed more than a million Iraqi civilians; voted for the racist 1994 Federal Crime Bill (which he ironically denounces today) and supported Bill Clinton’s presidential run in 1992 and then again in 1996 after he eviscerated welfare, deregulated Wall Street, passed NAFTA and doubled the number of federal prisoners. In 2005, Sanders was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, meaning that no Democrat running against Sanders would receive financial help from the Democratic National Committee.

Sanders talks a big talk, a looming rhetoric of “political revolution,” but when asked why he

loses to Hillary Clinton in the primary, he will endorse her, and he will have done his role: legitimizing the Democratic party as progressive, uncorrupted and unbeholden to corporate interests.

The two main parties are two sides of the same coin, institutions overseen carefully by elites fraudulently promising fictions of democracy and peddling neoliberalism, imperialism and ecocidal unfettered growth as the answer to our woes. The difference between voting for a Democrat and a Republican is the difference between driving off of a cliff at 45 miles per hour and driving off of a cliff at 75 miles per hour. We need a third party (and probably a fourth one, too). I understand that the Green party is not an appealing option. It has been debilitated by firstpast-the post, its inability to enter into political debates and the fact that it is kept off of the ballot in many states.

When the general election comes, Sanders will be gone, and again we will be forced to choose between two evils. We will have to cast ballots not for the candidate who represents our values, but for the candidate who demonstrates the most sanity. For this reason that I urge you to vote for Jill Stein, the Green party candidate, in the general election. Her campaign platform calls for many of the same things that Sanders calls for in his own campaign. In fact, the Green party has called for these things for years but has not received mainstream media attention because money and the establishment control politics. Stein presents an alternative from the D’s and the R’s, Charybdis and Scylla.

Stein differs from Sanders mainly in that she is not working to win the presidency necessarily but to meaningfully check the power of the two existing parties. She is working toward revolution and a system that values viewpoints and ideas over party affiliations and corporate donors. Stein sees a political system that “is extremely corrupt. It serves the interests of oligarchy. It subjugates (people, planet and peace) to profit.”

I know many of you are still unconvinced; many of you might argue that voting for Stein will spoil the election and give it to Trump or U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX. But for most of you, your vote probably doesn’t count anyways if you vote for an establishment candidate. If you live in a state that is strongly Democrat or strongly Republican, your vote is wasted because the electoral college system is winner-take-all. Clinton (or Sanders, I guess) will win Rhode Island even if 75,000 Democrats vote Green in the general election. If you see the need for a third party or your views are more in line with Stein than Clinton in an uncontested state, there is no need to vote for Clinton to keep the Republican out.

You ought to vote for Stein! The cliff is imminent, especially considering that Trump might take the wheel.

Glenn Yu ’19 can be reached at glenn_yu@brown.edu.

NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016

Senior orators to deliver commencement speeches on activism, social justice Sabrina Imbler ’16, Jamelle Watson-Daniels ’16 to speak on shared experiences with racism

By HATTIE XU STAFF WRITER

Each year, the University chooses two seniors as the commencement speakers for the graduating class, rather than inviting outside orators who may not completely understand the Brown experience. Sabrina Imbler ’16, a former Herald features editor, and Jamelle Watson-Daniels ’16 have been chosen to deliver this year’s speeches, both of which will focus on the importance of social justice, during the University’s 248th commencement ceremony.

Though Imbler and Watson-Daniels come from cities over 2,000 miles apart and had not previously met, they share similar experiences in discovering the necessity of speaking out after entering Brown.

Imbler grew up in Hillsborough, California ­— a city that is 66.3 percent white, according to the 2010 Census — and went to a school that was mostly white and Asian American, she said.

When she stepped onto Brown’s campus, Imbler found herself surrounded by important conversations that people were having daily, hearing discussions of poverty and race as she was simply walking to class, she said. Becoming friends with people who faced overt racism and felt unsafe on campus was also crucial in sparking her interest in activism and social justice, she added.

As a queer, Asian American woman, Imbler has also been on the receiving end of microaggressions, such as being exoticized, particularly on the dating scene, she said.

After a hectic and “distressing” fall semester last year — especially for

students of color who were constantly working to defend their own rights and humanity — Imbler sat down to record all of her thoughts. What started as writing for emotional release eventually became the first draft of her speech, Imbler said.

Drawing from her experiences, Imbler’s speech, titled “How Do We Want to Become?” examines the way that students become “fully-formed” as they progress through their years at Brown and discover who they are, Imbler said. The speech also highlights the value of student activism and the way it has shaped Brown as a university and community, she added.

Though she regrets not being involved with activism earlier, Imbler is “grateful that Brown fostered this space where a lot of students demand that you learn and teach yourself about the structures of oppression that students of color face,” she said.

Imbler is graduating with a degree in English nonfiction and plans to pursue a career in journalism. She is especially interested in analyzing the connection between climate change and colonialism — for example, how the areas most affected by climate change have historically been victims of colonialism, Imbler said.

Meanwhile, Watson-Daniels grew up in Collinsville, Illinois — a city that is 85.3 percent white, according to the 2010 Census — and also went to a school that was mostly white. Though she was always one of the few black students in her classes, she never felt an obvious divide between her and her classmates because she had grown up with them, Watson-Daniels said. In college, especially as a black woman physicist, Watson-Daniels was “forced into the conversation (because she needed to) advocate for (herself) in order to navigate Brown,” she said.

Watson-Daniels recalled times

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Sabrina Imbler ’16 and Jamelle Watson-Daniels ’16 will speak at the 2016 commencement. Their speeches will touch on activism and the experiences of people of color at the University. when she or other black students were treated differently. When students struggled with a particularly challenging concept, her classmates were affirmed by faculty members that it was a genuinely difficult idea to grasp. But black students may receive the suggestion that perhaps the field was not the right one for them and that they should reconsider their academic choices, Watson-Daniels said.

But she was also motivated to pursue physics by her love for the field.

“Fundamentally, I have a real passion for problem solving, which is what physics is,” Watson-Daniels said.

Though these obstacles were “very distracting,” Watson-Daniels dealt with them with support and mentorship from the department of Africana studies, and she eventually decided to double-concentrate in physics and Africana studies. The mentorship helped her resist internalizing negative attitudes, she said.

To help combat these racial issues, Watson-Daniels founded the “Inertia: Investment in Scientists of Color” initiative to support black students in science and served as a student representative on the Brown Diversity

Advisory Board.

In her speech, titled “Storytelling,” Watson-Daniels discusses the ways in which the stories of individuals and the community can be told, as well as the importance of not erasing or rewriting people’s experiences. “We can tell honest and true stories and still be celebratory about our time at Brown,” Watson-Daniels said.

After graduation, Watson-Daniels will work for Boeing as an electronic design engineer. She is also deferring enrollment in the applied physics doctoral program at Harvard.

Both Imbler and Watson-Daniels said that some of the memories they will cherish most are the moments spent with friends. The relationships they have formed with some of their classmates are unforgettable and invaluable, they said.

As Imbler and Watson-Daniels prepare to leave Brown with the Class of 2016, they share words of advice with the incoming freshman class.

“Know that you can never understand anyone’s experience but your own, but you can empathize with others,” Imbler said. “You should be made uncomfortable and question

your privilege.”

Watson-Daniels reminds victims of racism that “the problem is external.”

“It’s okay to be angry with Brown as an institution — it can be a part of what the Brown experience means to you,” she said.

The two seniors were chosen to speak after a rigorous selection process, which began with a nomination by a faculty member or a fellow senior.

Imbler and Watson-Daniels, along with several other candidates, then submitted multiple drafts of their proposed speeches and delivered them in front of a committee of 11 faculty members and administrators, Imbler said.

The committee looked specifically for “speeches that are able to convey powerful personal experiences,” wrote Zachary Sng, associate professor of German studies and comparative literature and chair of the commencement speaker committee, in an email to The Herald.

Imbler and Watson-Daniels “have wonderful stories to share about their time at Brown and compelling reflections on how they might draw on their Brown experience in the years to come,” Sng wrote.

U.S. colleges provide alternative to China’s rigid education system Students compare higher education models of U.S., China, discuss international transition

By JULIA CHOI STAFF WRITER

Students from China constitute the largest portion of Brown’s international undergraduate body. In 2007, 144 students from China applied to Brown, comprising less than one percent of all applicants. Last year, that number jumped to 1,146 applicants and quadrupled that percentage, wrote Jim Miller ’73, dean of admission, in an email to The Herald.

Given that China has eight to nine million high school graduates annually, “it stands to reason that it would produce the largest number of nonU.S. applicants,” Miller wrote. But many Chinese students come to Brown to escape the Chinese higher education system.

Arrya Luo ’18 said she came to the United States because she would have greater flexibility in choosing her major than in China. Students who want to attend college domestically take the Gaokao, the mandatory college entrance exam. Higher scores on the Gaokao force students to major in the

sciences, Luo said. For students whose Gaokao performance is less than stellar, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics major is out of the question. “You have no choices,” she said.

Amy Xu ’19 voiced similar sentiments. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study while I was in high school,” she said. She knew she wouldn’t have the option to explore her interests in China.

Elaine Wen ’18 left China even earlier. Right after middle school, Wen flew to Pennsylvania to attend a private boarding school. She explained that most Chinese high schools make students choose between a science or humanities track that dictates their high school curriculum. Wen disliked how the system forced her to choose, as she was interested in both fields.

America’s education system might seem like a liberating alternative, but by applying to study abroad, Chinese students forfeit their ability to apply to national colleges. “Your high school asks you to sign a contract that says you have no regrets,” Luo said. “There’s no turning back.”

As one might expect, the application processes for Chinese and American universities differ widely. “Chinese colleges do not care about extracurriculars,” Xu said.

Only grades and the Gaokao score matter in China, Wen said.

Chinese universities also don’t require personal statements, Luo said.

Luo said she knew Brown was her top choice after attending a Brown summer program in her sophomore year.

For Xu, Brown had accepted several graduates of her high school in the past, so she knew she had an increased probability of admission. Brown also appealed to her because of its open curriculum, she said.

Wenjie Zheng ’17 said that as an international student, he lacked resources and information about many colleges. “I applied to as many schools as possible,” he said. “I let the college choose me.”

Adjusting to Brown and American culture was “surprising at first,” Zheng said. He was initially astonished by students’ awareness of sexual assault, sexuality and gender on campus. Sex is not even “talked about in China,” he said. “It’s considered embarrassing.”

Zheng also observed that time between semesters is spent differently.

Chinese students focus on academics, but American students are encouraged to intern and gain work experience, he said. American students have “more exposure to real society” while they are in college, he said.

Xu said that due to the one-child policy, her parents “always protected” her and helped make decisions for her.

Applicants to Brown from China The proportion of applicants to Brown from China has increased significantly, as they were less than 1 percent of applicants to the Class of 2011 and more than 3 percent of applicants to the Class of 2019.

30,396 total

30,000 applicants 25,000 20,000

19,044 total

15,000 10,000 5,000 0

144 from China Class of 2011

1,146 from China Class of 2019 Source: Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73 EMMA JERZYK / HERALD

After coming to Brown, she quickly realized that she needed to take more ownership of her choices, she said.

In spite of the relatively liberal environment of American universities, as well as Brown’s open curriculum, students voiced the pressures they feel to study in the STEM fields. “China is a developing country, … so students are encouraged to take STEM classes,” Zheng said. “Traditional parents push their kids to take STEM-field” courses because they believe they will help kids secure a job, he added.

Chinese students “rarely major in

the humanities,” Wen said.

Even in high school, most students choose the science track over the humanities track, Xu said.

In general, students from China are “driven, goal-oriented (and) serious about academics,” Wen said.

“They’re very practical,” Zheng said.

Brown enrolled six students from China in 2005, compared to 29 last year, Miller wrote. While “it’s hard to predict … what will happen,” Miller wrote that “the growth in applicants and matriculants” from China will likely “continue to grow for the forseeable future.”