Wednesday, September 7, 2016

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 59

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Race, ethnicity no longer used in DPS crime alerts Shift in Department of Public Safety practice follows student calls for policy change

By KYLE BOROWSKI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

President Christina Paxson P’19 addresses a crowd of first-years, transfers, Alpert Medical School students and parents gathered on the Main Green at the University’s 253rd annual convocation.

Convocation speakers defend free expression University welcomes new students with procession, speeches responding to safe space controversy

By SHIRA BUCHSBAUM SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Under looming clouds, new students celebrated the opening of the University’s 253rd academic year on the Main Green Tuesday.

The convocation welcomed a

particularly large number of firstyear undergraduates: 1,682. The uptick marks a step forward in President Christina Paxson’s P’19 plan to grow the undergraduate student population.

After the traditional procession through the Van Wickle gates, Paxson addressed the collection of new students. In her remarks, Paxson expounded on her Washington Post op-ed, published Monday, challenging the media’s “muddled” idea that universities have encroached on freedom of speech and encouraged students

to hide from difficult and distressing issues.

Paxson sought to clarify how she perceives Brown’s place in the ongoing discussion of “the capacity of colleges and universities to truly prepare students for confronting” these issues, she said.

Noting that universities have been the “vanguard of very fierce debates” since the early history of the nation, Paxson encouraged students to recognize that Brown is a place to grapple » See SPEECHES, page 2

The Department of Public Safety has altered its policy on racial descriptions for crime alerts over the past year, excluding suspects’ race in every campus alert since October 2015.

In an email to The Herald, Chief of Police Mark Porter and Deputy Chief of Police Paul Shanley maintained that this does not constitute a policy change, though nearly all publicly available crime alerts before that date mention a suspect’s race to some degree.

“We have no formal Department of Public Safety policy in place that either prohibits the inclusion of race or mandates that race be included in suspect descriptions,” Porter and Shanley wrote. As a matter of practice, the department includes the categorization only when there is certainty with regard to race or if it “adds value as part of a complete and thorough description” of a suspect, they added.

With race excluded, notifications typically include a suspect’s gender, age, build and general appearance.

Using a suspect’s race in a crime

alert may be unnecessary for a number of reasons, including possible confusion in racial identification and the fact that “vague descriptions can reinforce stereotypes,” Porter and Shanley wrote.

These stereotypes can foster hostility toward some members of the community, they added.

Several students called for the exclusion of race in DPS reports during negotiations surrounding the Diversity Inclusion Action Plan last year. In addition, race has proven problematic as an identifier in several instances at schools across the country — most notably at Yale, where a black student was forced to the ground at gunpoint for “fit(ting) the description of a suspect” mentioned in a campus alert in January 2015, the Yale Daily News reported.

“When talking about active searches for suspects, then I think anyone would agree that any superficial categorization is necessary,” said Stefano Bloch, a presidential diversity research associate in urban studies. “But the fact is in most cases race is not a practical category of identification … long after a crime has occurred,” he added, noting studies showing that victims are often unable to completely identify suspects in situations of duress.

It is important to consider the department’s motivation in excluding race, Bloch said, as this shift could » See DPS, page 3

University launches STEM School of Public Health partners with RIDOH Rhode Island leadership master’s program Department of Health Program for young professionals to focus on leadership, strategy, global values, innovation

By ISABEL GENSLER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The School of Professional Studies launched the Executive Master in Science and Technology Leadership program this summer, a 16-month program designed to prepare professionals to take on leadership roles in engineering, science and technology. The master’s will focus on four themes: leadership, strategy, global values and innovation, and will first enroll students this coming March.

The program is “designed for those students who are already working in the industry and would like to get into a leadership position,” said Anubhav Tripathi, the program’s executive

INSIDE

academic director and professor of engineering. The students will likely have between five and 15 years of experience, he added.

The program is unique in that it allows students to keep a full-time job, Tripathi said. Students only need to spend three weeks in Providence and one week in South Korea, while the rest of the coursework can be completed online. This “blended learning” approach combines in-person and online engagement through lectures, workshops and assignments, said Program Director Sandra Smith.

“What sets this version of leadership study and training apart from others is sort of a Brown imprimatur on it, and part of that is to bring Brown faculty in … especially humanists, to historicize and contextualize leadership,” said Joseph Pucci, professor of classics and comparative literature as well as one of two professors set to teach the course » See STEM, page 8

to provide collaboration opportunities for students

By HATTIE XU SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Over the summer, the School of Public Health and the Rhode Island Department of Health established a formal academic partnership. Terrie Fox Wetle, dean of the School of Public Health, and Nicole Alexander-Scott MPH’11, director of RIDOH and assistant professor of health services, policy and practice, signed a memorandum of understanding recognizing the new relationship Aug. 15. The partnership will allow the two institutions to build on already existing projects and expand certain programs together, Wetle said.

“It’s a win-win situation to have the partnership,” Alexander-Scott said.

“This … is part of what we at the RIDOH Academic Center are looking

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Director of RIDOH Nicole Alexander-Scott MPH’11 and Dean of the School of Public Health Terrie Fox Wetle sign a memorandum of partnership. to emphasize in terms of integrating scholarly activities with public health practice.”

The RIDOH Academic Center was created under the direction of

Alexander-Scott and facilitates programs such as the Public Health Education Academy. This program aims to “strengthen collaborations » See RIDOH, page 4

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

NEWS After new partnership with Bon Appétit Management Company, dining halls see changes

COMMENTARY Editorial: Newspapers promote social justice through objective reporting, varied perspectives

COMMENTARY Hu ’18: U. Chicago demonstrates importance of discussing safe spaces, trigger warnings

COMMENTARY Liang ’19: Memes demand respect from older generations as form of self-expression, catalyst of change

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» SPEECHES, from page 1 with ideas different from their own.

The lived experiences of students, faculty members and staff members add “immediacy and urgency to these discussions,” Paxson said. But taking others’ lived experiences into account does not necessarily mean limiting freedom of expression, she argued.

Rather, it can mean the opposite, allowing people from different backgrounds to draw from their experiences and educate each other.

In regard to safe spaces, Paxson said Brown students will not stand

for “idea-free zones staffed by thought police where disagreement is prohibited.” Some media reports have given readers the impression that there are physical spaces on campus designated as “safe” or restricted to certain types of speech, which is not the case, she said.

In concluding her remarks, Paxson noted her “great confidence in the intellectual openness and integrity and goodness of the Brown community.”

Beka Yang ’20 said that Paxson’s address “was a really powerful response” to the ongoing national discourse regarding safe spaces and freedom of

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD speech. “She did a really good job of defining what we mean by safe spaces and that those spaces are available for students that need them … to feel like they belong and to feel accepted and that they can voice their opinions.”

Solana Huang ’20, who was concerned prior to coming to campus about the amount of censorship that safe spaces may impose, said she was pleased with Paxson’s affirmation that freedom of speech would be protected, especially for those “who can’t necessarily express their opinions.”

Following Paxson’s address, keynote speaker Andrew Campbell, dean

of the graduate school, spoke to the gathered students about the importance of self-actualization and taking advantage of the diverse resources available on campus.

Campbell asked the students to revel in their “link between Brown’s venerable history and our bright, unwritten future” and their ability to accomplish “remarkable things.”

“Your destination is determined by your imagination,” Campbell said.

“Make use of the supports provided to you by faculty and staff (members), but stand firmly rooted in your own guided curiosity, your imagination

and your courage to take risks.” These faculties can positively shape students’ diverse experiences at Brown, he said.

Campbell also drew upon multiple historical figures who exemplified the interdisciplinary spirit that he encouraged students to cultivate during their time at Brown.

Drawing from a George Bernard Shaw quote, Campbell reiterated throughout his address the mantra of “imagine, desire, will and create” — a four-pronged approach for students to use during their career on campus “to expose yourself to the new and the unfamiliar,” he said.

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» DPS, from page 1 either be seen as a heightened awareness of racial bias at an institutional level or “an attempt by an institution to appear colorblind regardless of the (racially biased) policies” that remain in place. “If removing racial identifiers is akin to the perpetuation of a colorblind society then it serves no purpose other than to pacify the Brown community,” he added.

While they stressed that crime alert practices have not been influenced by any specific instances, Porter and Shanley wrote that the department has “certainly heard from students over the years” who have raised concerns about the possibility of misplaced suspicion resulting from racial descriptions in community crime alerts.

Harjasleen Malvai ’17.5 said she supports the change because it shows a willingness on the part of DPS to listen to student demands. “If they have responded to this, there’s a lot more potential for them to be open to requests from Brown students in

the future,” she said.

Iván Hofman ’19 said he was also optimistic about the possibility of reform but added that DPS “should do all that is needed so that race and other factors that stigmatize specific communities are taken into consideration.”

Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, expressed uncertainty about the perceived policy change.

“Racial profiling is certainly a very legitimate issue for a campus to be concerned about,” Brown said. “But if the point of these reports is to help identify suspects, I’m not sure it makes much sense to exclude race from the description.”

Though race is now rarely included in crime alerts, DPS still makes note of racial categorizations internally, Shanley wrote. Due to this, Bloch said, withholding racial information from the community may not actually be as impactful because “it is the police in fact whose profiling has more deadly consequences than that of the general public.”

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

Following student protests, the Department of Public Safety has changed its practice of including the suspect’s race in crime alert emails.

NEWS

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» RIDOH, from page 1 with academic institutions” and place public health students in programs to work with professionals in the field, according to the Department of Health website. Formally partnering with the School of Public Health, the only accredited public health program in the state, was a natural step for the center, Alexander-Scott said.

RIDOH and the School of Public Health have outlined several goals that they hope to achieve through the Public Health Academic Working Group, which the institutions will co-lead, she said. These goals include streamlining the process of placing public health students in health department projects, promoting collaboration between faculty members and RIDOH in both research and appointment to positions and creating a centralized system that will allow the institutions to share data.

The University has worked with the Department of Health for many years to ensure that collected data is made readily available for researchers, Wetle said. The Public Health Academic Working Group will work to identify data sources that might be available “internally but not externally” in order to make them more accessible, she added.

Ira Wilson, professor of health services, policy and practice, has been involved with the strategy and implementation of similar data-sharing agreements around the state. Wilson said that part of the significance of the memorandum of agreement between RIDOH and the School of Public Health is that the state recognizes the University as a private institution, but their shared goal of improving public health motivates them to improve data flow.

A specific project that Wetle said she would like to see is research on health equity zones. RIDOH has identified certain geographical areas in the state as health equity zones, which are “communities with disparities in health outcomes that need to be closed, whether it is food access, education gaps, environmental challenges, racial or ethnic concerns

or behavioral health problems,” Alexander-Scott said. The agencies are coming together to develop specific standards and identify indicators of health equity, she added.

Alexander-Scott said she is also interested in partnering with the School of Public Health to combat health care-related infections and promote antimicrobial stewardship, a coordinated program that promotes the appropriate use of antimicrobials.

Public health encompasses a wide array of topics, ranging from prenatal care to smoking cessation to safe sex, Wetle said. With this new partnership, “we can develop short-term, long-term and mid-term partnerships to address these issues in a variety of ways,” she added.

Members of the faculty also see the benefits of the academic partnership.

Amy Nunn, associate professor of behavioral and social sciences, said she strongly supports the partnership because it combines the “best of research and the best of (programs)” and encourages collaboration on more projects. In the past, Nunn has worked with RIDOH to create an epidemiological profile on Hepatitis C. “Brown students at all levels will have the ability to benefit from this,” Wilson said, describing the “bidirectional flow” of positive outcomes from the new partnership. Students will have more opportunities to participate in research, and the state department gains access to the “expertise, skills (and) enthusiasm” of the University, he said.

Though Wetle said she anticipates the administrative challenges that come with any partnership between a state department and a private university, she is committed to working through any issues and is excited to have Alexander-Scott as a collaborative partner.

With the University as a “foundational connection,” RIDOH hopes to eventually forge academic partnerships with a number of other universities in the state, including the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and Johnson and Wales University, Alexander-Scott said.

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Dining services partnership supplies fresh, nutritious food Dining Services rolls out sustainable ingredients in collaboration with Bon Appétit Management Co.

By JACKSON CHAIKEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The University has launched a partnership with Bon Appétit Management Company to make dining services more sustainable and enticing, Brown University Dining Services announced on its website Sept. 1.

The “collaboration will focus on expanding menu offerings, enhancing food … at retail locations, augmenting our catering program and providing additional professional development opportunities for Dining Services staff,” said Peter Rossi, director of Dining Services.

Bon Appétit is an on-site restaurant company offering environmentally sound sourcing. All the company’s meals are prepared from scratch, and its website touts the sustainability of its food management strategies.

The company’s philosophy aligns with Dining Services’ goal to provide “flavorful, nutritious options” for students, Rossi said.

A committee of students and staff members selected Bon Appétit after reviewing proposals from multiple vendors, according to the Dining Services website. The process of choosing a partner started earlier this year, and formal interviews with potential vendors were held in late spring, said Christian Hanson ’17, a committee member.

“Bon Appétit recognized that taste is the foundation of great dining service,” Hanson told University communications. “They demonstrated a great attention to detail regarding the selection, sourcing and preparation of ingredients.”

In addition, Bon Appétit stressed partnership, Hanson added. “They

did not come with a strict formula for improvement but rather sought to understand what makes Brown dining unique and what changes will really make our students excited about oncampus dining.”

New menu offerings and a variety of options will “focus on fresh, fromscratch cooking techniques,” Rossi said.

Menu upgrades include house-made salad dressings and stock and vegan black bean and avocado quesadillas.

The new improvements to the menu come hand in hand with upgrades to the serving stations in the Sharpe Refectory and a new composting initiative, he said. The partnership will not change the cost of meal plans, he

added.

Still, for some students, the partnership went unnoticed as they ate their first meals of the year at the Refectory.

“I really did not notice a difference in food quality,” said Nirvaan Bharany ’19. “You could say it’s slightly better, but not a major upgrade,” he added.

The improvements will take time to be fully implemented, Hanson said, “but I know both Dining Services and Bon Appétit are focused on providing great taste in all their dishes, and I believe this partnership will be a strong step towards this goal.”

Hanson plans to stay on meal plan until he graduates, he said, adding: “That should say something!”

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

The Sharpe Refectory will feature expanded menu offerings, including new nutritious options, as well as upgraded service stations and design.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» STEM, from page 1

COURTESTY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

The School of Professional Studies now offers an Executive Master’s degree in Science and Technology Leadership. The 16-month program offers a unique curriculum that is geared toward young professionals with extensive experience and allows students to keep their full-time jobs.

“Developing Effective Leadership.”

Due to its unique curriculum, the EMSTL has difficulty attracting applications. Not only does it compete with MBA programs and master’s programs in engineering management, but it also costs $78,500, Smith said.

“The challenge is two-fold. It’s not like an MBA, (and) it requires more explanation,” Smith said, adding that there may not be enough demand for the program. Despite these challenges, the EMSTL has received 14 complete applications and has had a few hundred inquiries. The University hopes to enroll 30 students in the program, according to Smith.

Once the EMSTL is launched, it also has the potential to benefit the larger Brown community. Though the University has traditionally emphasized liberal arts, the new program encourages STEM-related companies to send in their young professionals for training in leadership roles, Tripathi said. In turn, “these employees are now connected to Brown and in time will hire our students, undergraduate or graduate, into their company,” he added.

Letters, please! letters@browndailyherald.com

TODAY

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 • PAGE 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

menu

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SATELLITE DINING JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Gourmet Grilled Cheese

Naked Burritos Beefy Chili, Hearty Veggie Soup

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Red Potato Frittata, Vegan Ginger Pasta, Corn on the Cob, Tater Tots, Brownies

Stir Fried Chicken with Noodles, Vegan Chili, Chocolate Marshmallow Cake Roll

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Sloppy Joe’s Sandwich, MakeYour-Own Mac ‘N’ Cheese Bar, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Mexican Cornbread Casserole, Anadama Bread, Washington Apple Cake SAM BERUBE / HERALD

sudoku

New artistic installations welcome students and faculty members back to campus this fall. Students will inevitably pass “Untitled (Lamp/Bear)” on Ruth B. Simmons Quad as well as “Idee di Pietra” on the Main Green.

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

“Your destination is determined by your imagination.”

— Andrew Campbell, dean of graduate school

See convocation speeches on page 1.

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich ACROSS 1 Bucks in the woods 6 Ratted out the bad guys 10 Dept. store stock 14 Condor’s condo?

15 Prefix with logical 16 Dry as a desert 17 Cold weather groundswell that can cause pavement damage 19 Go for the worm 20 Wind down or wind up 21 Name in Cold War news 22 Wright who wondered, “What’s another word for ‘thesaurus’?”

24 Ball catcher 25 Needing wheels 26 Ancient siege weapon 30 “Knock it off!”

31 Architectural curve 32 L.A. NFLer 35 Tax-free govt. bond 36 Good feller?

37 “One day only!” event 38 Boomer that no longer booms, briefly 39 __ Valley: Reagan Library locale 41 Warring factions 43 Manufacturer’s coming-out event 46 Woofer’s partner 48 Landed 49 Film boxer Rocky 50 Black, to a bard 51 Syst. for the deaf 54 Islamic branch 55 Reversions ... or what 17-, 26- and 43-Across all have?

58 Bard 59 Capital of Belgium 60 Good-sized wedding band 61 Kind of spot or loser 62 Cong. meeting 63 Lawn spoilers

DOWN 1 Heist target 2 Beach bird 3 Five-time A.L. home run champ, familiarly 4 APO mail addressees 5 Gem mount 6 Midday snooze 7 Some govt. lawyers 8 Calif. neighbor 9 Loses one’s cool 10 Pre-1985 communications nickname 11 Car’s engine-towheels connector 12 Surfers visit them 13 Paradises 18 Sub access 23 __-blue 24 View from Molokai’s south shore 25 Lab rat’s home 26 Radiation units 27 Taxing task 28 New England capital 29 Needing a skulland-crossbones label

33 Actor Baldwin 34 Screen door material 36 Russia-China border river 37 X-rated stuff 39 Explorer Hernando de __ 40 Conceptualizes 41 Permit 42 Post-shower display 44 Mail-in incentive

45 They’re off-limits 46 Recipe amts.

47 “Yippee!”

50 Gets an “I’m sorry” from Alex Trebek, say 51 Entr’__ 52 Short agenda?

53 Iwo Jima troop carriers: Abbr.

56 Tint 57 Blackjack component

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

xwordeditor@aol.com

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Brewed for Thought 10 A.M. Haffenreffer Museum

Brown Language Festival 3 P.M. Sayles Hall

Roll and Recover Yoga 12 P.M. 200 Dyer St, Room 101

Brown’s Amazing Race 6 P.M. Main Green

TOMORROW Orchestra Open House 5 P.M. Alumnae Hall Auditorium

2016 Fall Activities Fair 7 P.M. OMAC Indoor Track

Jazz Meeting and Jam 6 P.M. Fulton Rehearsal Hall

RUF Ice Cream S’mores 9 P.M. Wilson Hall, Room 102

COMMENTARY PAGE 10 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL

The media and social justice The relationship between conventional media outlets and organizations dedicated to social justice is a fraught one of late, especially on college campuses.

This is understandable. Mainstream media outlets, including The Herald, have published certain pieces both in recent memory and throughout their long histories that those campaigning for more diverse and inclusive American institutions today would find prejudiced at worst and antithetical to their causes at best. In addition, daily print newspapers, including The Herald, do not operate under any specific political mission. On the whole, they aim to please neither the left nor the right but to inform their readership of what is happening in the given areas they cover and to provide, especially when the news is political or related to social justice, a comprehensive take on current events coming as close as possible to what could be called objective.

But the fact that The Herald does not actively endeavor to promote any given political agenda does not mean its coverage should be neutral toward or detrimental to social justice. Ideally, newspapers can actually catalyze efforts to create a more just and equitable world by simply doing what they typically aim to do: publish material that alerts their readers to current events, weeds out factual inaccuracies and introduces readers to a broad range of perspectives on the day’s most important issues.

This link between mainstream media outlets and public awareness of issues pertaining to social justice can be observed on the national level. Take, for example, a May 2015 New York Times piece exploring the “rampant exploitation” of workers in the city’s nail salons. As the Columbia Journalism Review noted in December of that year, the article had wide-ranging ramifications for social justice, even prompting the passage of statewide legislation to protect salon workers. But for the workers interviewed and their colleagues, the piece served a more fundamental purpose: It “thrust people and communities who are normally invisible into the light.” For long-exploited workers, the “media attention was its own kind of force.”

To be sure, these goals are not always met and have not always been met in the past. But the nail salon expose is precisely the type of work that newspapers like The Herald aspire to publish. And when the press acts in this capacity, it serves an educational purpose, bolstering awareness in a way that should help readers develop informed opinions on their surroundings.

It also lends a voice to all people affected by a given issue, not just those who typically hold the power to expound on it in a public forum.

Authors of pieces like this do not need to take a partisan stand on issues, cherrypicking evidence that supports their positions and only citing those with whom they agree. They merely need to talk to all parties involved, publish only information that can be verified and, when analyzing or summarizing, offer conclusions supported by the evidence they have collected. This is not political advocacy work; it is an attempt to tell the truth.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial board: Emma Jerzyk ’17, Joseph Zappa ’17, Caroline Kelly ’17 and Andrew Flax ’17. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 • PAGE 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Safe spaces are necessary MARGARET HU opinions editor

Recently, the University of Chicago released a high-profile letter welcoming its incoming class of 2020.

Authored by Dean of Students John Ellison, the bold statement claimed that due to the university’s commitment to “freedom of inquiry and expression,” it would not tolerate “socalled ‘trigger warnings’” or “intellectual ‘safe spaces.’” It’s an ostensibly frank stance, resonating across a backdrop of campuses both worrying about whether they’ve become home to supposedly “coddled elites” and debating how freedom of expression and respect should play out together in university policies. But it doesn’t take long to realize that Ellison’s statements are anything but clear, and the reasoning behind his professed pledge to academic freedom is ignorant at best.

First, the letter never directly defines what safe spaces or trigger warnings are, glossing over the ambiguous nature of both phrases. That is a crucial oversight. “Safe spaces” in particular have been defined in various ways throughout history, so such

a lack of precision makes it rather hard to have productive discussion about them. Nevertheless, one can easily assume that by claiming the university does “not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial” and does “not condone … ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own,” Ellison is invoking the definition often adopted by popular media — one

hold. And that’s to be expected — as with any other abstract concept, such as justice or equality, interpretations of what trigger warnings and safe spaces are and how they should be implemented will vary from person to person. What is much more important is the motivation behind calls for safe spaces and trigger warnings.

And under many definitions, these concepts do not necessarily oppose intellectual freedom and can even fa-

way to support one another. Each one of us comes from a different background and has undergone different experiences, but what is always present and mutual is respect. And it is only through such respect — for each other’s traumas and difficulties, for differing opinions, for wanting a place to be ourselves without constantly having to explain and overanalyze — that our differences can ultimately be reconciled.

As students who support safe spaces and trigger warnings, we are not shying away from difficult discourse, nor are we asking to be shielded. We are simply finding a way to support one another.

where safe spaces and trigger warnings serve as excuses to shield delicate students from the discomfort of controversial topics. In this narrow sense, intellectual freedom is irreconcilably pitted against trigger warnings and safe spaces.

This isn’t necessarily the case. The reality is that a large part of the debate on these issues has boiled down to the varied definitions of trigger warnings and safe spaces that people

cilitate it in an efficient and responsible manner.

Because even if we can’t completely agree on an exact definition of trigger warnings and safe spaces, we can agree upon the need to discuss their role and the legitimate reasoning behind their existence. As students who support safe spaces and trigger warnings, we are not shying away from difficult discourse, nor are we asking to be shielded. We are simply finding a

This is the thought behind safe spaces and trigger warnings: Only open conversation and recognition of each other’s diversity can create a foundation of respect for critical and difficult conversation. And almost all universities have resources that invoke such ideals: specialized ethnic, religious and ideological organizations are staples of any college campus, as are groups for those who have experienced physical, mental

or sexual trauma. Yet for some reason, when people hear “safe space,” they immediately think of the extreme and eradicate any potential for productive conversation to progress further. It’s important to realize how these concepts — which emphasize recognizing each other’s differences rather than problematically denying their existence altogether — manifest in institutionalized respect. I’m more than proud to go to a school that recognizes the weight and complexity of this moral responsibility.

Yes, there have been cases where the concept of safe spaces has been used to cancel speakers or prevent certain expressions. But rejecting safe spaces and trigger warnings altogether falls prey to the same faulty reasoning by seeking to preempt discussion of entire concepts. And this is the ultimate irony of Ellison’s letter — he professes to support academic freedom by quashing the very intellectual discourse necessary for it. It demonstrates an incomplete understanding of the concept of safe spaces and an ignorance of the complexities involved in supporting academic freedom for students of all backgrounds.

Margaret Hu ’18 hates the word “coddled” and can be reached at margaret_hu@brown.edu.

Millennials and their memes: A defense MARK LIANG opinions columnist On a recent car ride with my family, I attempted to do the impossible. I tried to explain memes to my mother.

This quest was hampered by two things.

The first: My mom does not have any sort of social media, despite her well-guided attempts to spy on her good Asian children 24/7. The second: My sister spent a majority of the car ride telling me how stupid memes are as a column topic and that I should get back to school before I ruin the last shred of normalcy left in the family.

Ah, memes. From classics like Pepe to Doge all the way to new discoveries (this paragraph, by the way, is dedicated to my man Harambe), these cultural icons are embedded in the heart of 21st century online communication.

A seemingly humorous combination of words and pictures, memes permeate Facebook and Reddit, Twitter and 4chan, all on their way to cultural dominance of youthful discourse.

It’s funny; despite the fact that memes largely circulate around millennials, the word itself is much older. “Memes” was first coined in Richard Dawkins’ 1976 book “The Selfish Gene.” He describes memes as cultural ideas that spread through a social class with their own agency. Like viruses, memes evolve and undergo natural selection in the mind space of the human populace, with surviving ideas representing “dominant species.” There’s nothing as dystopian as referring to your own thoughts as crazed survivalists.

With the advent of social media and the In-

ternet, it became much easier for these ideas to emerge and grow on a more rapid scale. Today, an Internet meme is considered a concept that goes viral, usually for some ironic or inconsequential humor developed with pictures and words. Memes thrive and evolve, as they should, in communities with fast content turnaround and a cycle of anonymity. Anything on message boards can quickly be picked up and spread throughout the web.

Memes can be stupid (“Damn, Daniel, back at it again with the white Vans”) or annoying (does anyone here even remember “Nyan

reading this in a college newspaper. That includes you, Mom. While memes can discuss literally anything, the most popular ones are concepts dealing with issues very real to the average millennial. Existentialism and fatalism are the theme of the “This Is Fine” dog (personally one of my favorites), who sits quasi-contently in a house burning to the ground. The one percent and big government are also popular topics for this kind of content. Memes can also be used as instruments of trolling and abuse (such as the comparisons of the gorilla Ha-

Memes start dialogues, and oftentimes, fights. People use memes to push for #blacklivesmatter and #alllivesmatter, usually because of the content’s potential to reach users.

Memes can be reclaimed, destroyed and transformed.

Cat” anymore?). Content is pulled from stock images and pop culture, from SpongeBob to Lord of the Rings to the recently deceased Gene Wilder. Pull up a funny photo, slap on some funny words, and you’ve got yourself an idea. If people start re-tweeting and making their own content with the same concept, you’ve got yourself a meme. Memes thrive on creativity, a certain sense of irreverence and the act of handing nearly every prepubescent teen an iPhone.

But there’s one thing that memes are not.

Memes are never insignificant. I say this to anyone over the age of 35 who happens to be

rambe to actress Leslie Jones). There is literally a meme whose name is “Mr. TROLOLOLOLOL.” He has his own theme music. Look it up.

Memes start dialogues, and oftentimes, fights. People use memes to push for #blacklivesmatter and #alllivesmatter, usually because of the content’s potential to reach users. Memes can be reclaimed, destroyed and transformed. It’s an odd paradox; Reddit users, annoyed by the seriousness given to some of their original memes, have even repurposed content with a new “TRIGGERED” meme to make fun of the “neofeminists, social justice

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warriors, and alt-left” that can’t seem to take the joke of the original and who, consequently, use memes for their own agendas. It’s an endless cycle of frogs and block lettering.

If anything, memes point to the limitations current channels of communication impose on our generation. Our generation, like all generations before us, lives in a world with real, complex issues. But our choices for communicating rely heavily on small chunks of shock content and superficiality. In a world of Buzzfeed, anonymous Tumblr posts and 140 characters, how is it possible for us to develop real dialogue and critiques of the human experience? Well, largely with memes. Millennials have developed our own lexicons and linguistics to express ourselves in this field, even if that means pairing up a picture of a baby and a Stalin quote.

I end with two pieces of advice for my mother and sister­— two generations with more in common than they think. For the older generations: Please don’t disrespect our memes. Self-expression manifests itself in organic ways, and memes provide more fodder for introspection than you think. We KNOW the pictures of “Dat Boi” and cartoon figures look irrelevant and stupid; that’s why we love them. And to my Generation X or Y or Z or ABC or whatever the elders end up calling us ­— be careful the next time you share or retweet a meme, even the most inconsequential ones. You’d be surprised by how quickly carnivores can evolve.

Mark Liang ’19 doesn’t believe this is any of his business — sips Lipton tea — and can be reached at mark_liang@brown.edu.

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