Tuesday, September 20, 2016

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 68

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Rhode Island files suit against oil companies Oxygenating chemical MTBE, discovered in water, makes supply undrinkable

By KYLE BOROWSKI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

In her lecture, Her Excellency Joyce Banda, former president of Malawi, argued that public officials should prioritize “moral leadership,” or putting the well-being of their citizens first. She also stressed the importance of women’s education and lowering infant and maternal mortality.

Banda talks moral leadership, development in Africa Former president of Malawi argues that leaders who serve people will promote economic growth, peace

By ELI BINDER STAFF WRITER

On a rainy Monday evening, Her Excellency Joyce Banda, president of Malawi from 2012 to 2014, delivered

the 93rd Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture on International Affairs to a crowded DeCiccio Family Auditorium. Banda’s lecture, titled “Moral Leadership: The Prerequisite for Economic Growth, Development

U. bolsters anti-flu programs with FluWeb Health Services supplies flu vaccines to Brown community members for free to prevent flu

By AILEEN SEO STAFF WRITER

As students get vaccinated at Health Services’ seventh annual flu vaccine clinic, Health Services is now piloting a new program called FluWeb, through which students with flu-like symptoms and illnesses can report missed class time to professors and have food delivered to their rooms, said Unab Khan, director of Health Services.

“FluWeb is a collaborative initiative between multiple campus life departments and faculty (members),” Khan said. “Students are asked about their needs when they are ill. They can also

INSIDE

get in conversation with faculty members or dining help so that ill students can avoid areas that are crowded.”

The flu season is appearing earlier than it did in previous years, and Health Services received the vaccine supply earlier than it did in prior years, said Monica Kunkel, director of nursing. Because of this, depending on how many students are vaccinated in the clinics in September, clinics may be set up in October as well.

The clinics will take place in the Kasper Multipurpose Room Sept. 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and at Josiah’s Sept. 28 during the same time frame.

Health Services also held a clinic yesterday. Any student with a Brown ID can receive a flu shot at no cost.

Vaccines are administered by registered nurses, emergency medical technicians and medical assistants » See FLU SHOTS, page 2

and Peace in Africa,” was a resounding call for a new ethos of governance across Africa and the world.

Banda anchored her analysis in personal experience. She described herself as a “typical African woman who has also had (the) privilege of serving (her) people as head of state.” She said that while serving as

president of Malawi, her focus was always on helping the people. “For me, leadership is a love affair: You fall in love with the people, and the people must fall in love with you,” she said.

“I have learned that when you engage the people, they will stand with you and by you,” she added. » See BANDA, page 3

The state of Rhode Island filed suit against 34 oil-producing companies Sept. 6, arguing that the entities contributed to extensive contamination of the chemical MTBE — methyl tertiary butyl ether — in groundwater across the state.

MTBE is distinguished by its unpleasant taste and odor as well as its ability to render water sources undrinkable even at low levels of contamination.

At high concentrations, the chemical is a possible human carcinogen and has been known to cause cancerous developments in animals at very high levels, according to the American Cancer Society.

Soluble in water, MTBE has been known to leak from underground storage tanks after which it “spreads very far and wide very quickly,” making it “very difficult to remove,” said Lint Barrage, assistant professor of economics and environmental studies.

The chemical was manufactured to oxygenate gasoline to a level that » See MTBE, page 2

Bloch’s graffiti research inspired by childhood Urban studies professor examines subcultural identities, gangenhancement legislation

By JULIE CENTER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Where Postdoctoral Senior Research Associate in Urban Studies Stefano Bloch comes from, a Brown University sweatshirt means something else.

It doesn’t mean the university where Bloch does groundbreaking urban studies research on subcultural identities, crime legislation or the lives of graffiti writers.

Growing up in the gang-ridden neighborhoods of Los Angeles, a Brown sweatshirt was a commodity, an emblem of “Rasa,” or pride in one’s Latino ethnicity. It was the sweatshirt that Bloch’s best friend and co-graffiti writer, Efren Barbosa, wore before being » See BLOCH, page 3

ANITA SHEIH / HERALD

Stefano Bloch theorizes that graffiti is linked to economic disenfranchisment, lack of education and proper housing — not violent crime.

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NEWS UMich physics professor Freese delivers talk on dark matter, composition of the universe

NEWS U. continues to provide voluntary diversity, cultural trainings to faculty, staff members

COMMENTARY Reynolds ’17: Students should take action to promote change in areas they find toublesome

COMMENTARY Rowland ’17: Critics of new needblind policy for undocumented students lack empathy

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SAM BERUBE / HERALD

Due to the collaboration of several campus life departments, students with flu-like symptoms will be able to report missed class time and have food delivered to their rooms through a new site, FluWeb. Free flu shots will be available to anyone with a Brown ID Sept. 28 at Josiah’s.

» FLU SHOTS, from page 1 licensed by the state of Rhode Island and trained by the nurses on site to give intermuscular shots.

Per recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the clinics carry inactivated vaccines, Khan said. Unlike previous years, the clinics are no longer offering

» MTBE, from page 1 passed Clean Air Act requirements and was widely used in the early 1990s. But MTBE fell out of favor after only a few years when people noticed it was contaminating water sources and sickening those who came into contact with high doses of the chemical. By 2005, it had been banned in half of all American states, and Rhode Island outlawed the chemical in 2007.

“There was never a rule that everyone had to use MTBE,” Barrage said, adding that MTBE was not the sole option for cities to oxygenate their gasoline if it did not meet air quality standards.

She explained that many Midwestern

nasal vaccines due to inadequate immunity, Khan added.

“There are very few people who should not be getting the shot,” Khan said. “This includes those with a very severe allergy to eggs or anybody who has had a severe reaction to the flu vaccine before.” Khan added that any students falling into these categories should consult a nurse or doctor at

Health Services before being vaccinated.

Kunkel added that anybody with a chronic medical illness or on medications that suppress immunity are strongly encouraged to receive the flu shot because their “chance of having complications from the flu are higher” if they do not.

The flu clinics kicked into high gear

during the H1N1 virus epidemic in 2009, when Brown had the highest percentage of vaccinated students among colleges in Rhode Island, Kunkel said.

Last year, 3,616 students were vaccinated at the clinics, said Kunkel.

“Students get vaccinated at these clinics because it’s pragmatic,” said Ki On You ’20. “It’s so easy to transfer germs to other people because you’re

constantly surrounded.”

Luke Sullivan ’19 prioritizes vaccinations: “I am a strong believer in preventative health, and I understand and respect that receiving the flu vaccine is the first and most important way to avoid getting the flu, or at least reduce flu symptoms,” he said. “With my busy class schedule, avoiding sick days is a top priority for me.”

states chose to explore ethanol as a solution for oxygenating their gasoline, while most states in New England chose MTBE, the cheaper alternative.

“Ironically, all of this came out of an air quality regulation,” Barrage said, adding that “some companies chose to meet those standards by using a chemical that negatively affects water quality.”

Considering this, it is vital that entities like the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are funded consistently to ensure that research on chemical alternatives, pollutants and additives is ongoing, Barrage said.

Considering most contaminations began to occur years ago, the state

has already remediated a number of previously polluted sites, said Amy Kempe, public information officer for Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin.“There have been numerous contaminations throughout Rhode Island, some small and some larger, like in Pascoag,” she added, referencing one of the most well-known cases in the state.

The Pascoag episode began with the discovery of MTBE in public drinking water in September 2001. It was determined that the chemical had been leeching from a singular gas station, necessitating a remediation effort that would last for more than a decade and remove 3,100 gallons of gasoline from groundwater reserves. A class action

suit brought against ExxonMobil in that instance resulted in a $7 million settlement for residents affected by the contamination.

In filing suit, the state argued that oil companies were liable for violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act by not taking all necessary precautions when handling underground storage tanks of the chemical, resulting in contamination. In addition, the companies are held liable for marketing and manufacturing a deficient product that they knew would contaminate groundwater resources.

The state hopes to recover compensatory damages equal to the cost of investigation, cleanup and prevention

of MTBE contamination. The state is seeking punitive damages in the suit, reflective of the circumstances caused by oil producers’ “willful, wanton, malicious, oppressive, fraudulent … and outrageously reprehensible conduct,” according to the text of the lawsuit.

While the attorney general maintains control over the lawsuit, the state is joined by Baron and Budd, P.C. and Weitz and Luxenberg, P.C., two law firms familiar with environmental lawsuits specifically dealing with MTBE contamination. The two firms together also facilitated a $423 million settlement between oil-producing companies and 153 public water providers in 20 states in 2008.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 • PAGE 3

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» BLOCH, from page 1 murdered by rival gang members. Now, it’s a sweatshirt he sees on the almost 400 students taking his course URBN 1230: “Crime and the City.”

Bloch is full of surprises. You wouldn’t expect that his blue eyes had seen bullets whiz past him to take the lives of his friends. You wouldn’t expect a prolific graffiti writer, known all throughout L.A. for his work, to be sitting in front of you — wearing khaki slacks and a button-up shirt with a Brown University faculty badge, no less.

You wouldn’t expect that by the age of 11, three separate fathers had come and gone from his life­— one stabbed 18 times by a rival gang, one an Italian rock musician who died of AIDS and one in and out of prison, “the most wonderful man you could ever meet.”

You wouldn’t expect that the man living with his partner and three children in a Pawtucket home had spent his childhood being evicted every four months with his undocumented and heroine-addicted mother, cycling through homelessness and the toughest neighborhoods of L.A. And yet, he’s a self-declared optimist. He’s an empathizer with the oppressed. He’s a researcher, an author and, foremost, a student.

Ever since the day he wandered onto the Los Angeles Valley College campus, he’s felt safe from the childhood that follows him around on his sleeve, inspires his research and shapes his ethnographic composition of the world.

“Where I come from, nobody went to college. (College) was a place where you went to become doctors, lawyers and football players,” Bloch said. But he went anyway, first to LAVC for his associate’s degree, then to the University of California at Santa Cruz for his bachelor’s in literature.

It was in Santa Cruz where Bloch had his first mattress all to himself. It was there that he first told someone — Professor Christopher Connery, he recalls — about his background and identity in the “cryptic and guarded subculture” of graffiti writing. He walked into the professor’s office hours with shaking hands and revealed his secret: that the work of graffiti writers in urban spaces and theories of spatial consciousness taught in class were describing his lived reality, he said.

“Great. Write about that,” the professor said. And Bloch did.

“I felt like my experience and identity mattered. And that validates you as a human being,” Bloch said.

Bloch entered a University of California undergraduate research contest and won. With that validation, he found the self-belief necessary to apply to the University of California at Los Angeles Department of Urban Planning to receive his master’s and eventually the University of Minnesota for his PhD in cultural geography.

A year after completing his PhD, Bloch ended up on a plane to Providence, Rhode Island, where the first thing he did was buy a Brown University sweatshirt.

Informed by his personal experiences with identity, Bloch’s research in Providence answers the question, “Why don’t I speak to that which I know? Why don’t we all?”

As a former graffiti writer, Bloch’s biggest research project centers on the possible correlation between violent

crime and graffiti in Providence. With the help of over 100 undergraduate students and an app developed by fellow researcher, Yesim Sungu-Eryilmaz, visiting lecturer of urban studies, Bloch has documented graffiti all over the city to understand the relationship between violent crime and graffiti. If his theories prove to be true, graffiti and disorder would no longer be linked to violent crime but rather factors such as lack of educational funding and proper housing as well as economic disenfranchisement.

Bloch cites his insider status within this “cryptic, illicitly elusive subculture” as what has afforded him the trust and respect of the communities he studies, allowing him better access to their lives and communities. Graffiti writing, for Bloch, was an “opportunity to fight against those who were otherwise already challenging my belonging, my ethnicity (and) my intersectional identity,” likening his reasoning to what he believes attracts others to the subculture.

Two of Bloch’s newest research projects investigate the ways anti-gang legislation disproportionately affects people of color. For example, civil gang injunctions, or orders that aim to prevent those who are identified as members of gangs from sitting, standing, walking or gathering in public spaces of neighborhoods, largely exclude people of color from their right to the city, because they are more likely to be identified as gang members.

Similarly, Bloch studies gangenhancement legislation, or laws that add 10 years to felony convictions for people who are believed to be gang members whether or not the crime was at all related to gang activity. His research shows that this legislation disproportionately affects people of color due to databases that largely identify people of color as gang members.

Like everything else for Bloch, this research is personal. “Gang members are complex. They are not 24-hoursof-the-day unholy gang members,” but can be friends, brothers, adoptive fathers, neighbors and genuinely good people, Bloch said.

Now, Bloch has finished a book, “Going All City,” which is forthcoming with the University of Chicago Press. Using methods such as autoethnography to investigate identity and belonging, the book explores “the ways in which members of transgressive subcultures navigate the city,” Bloch said.

From graffiti writer with a troubled past to researcher, professor, presidential diversity postdoctoral fellow, husband and father, Bloch has always maintained two constants.

Perhaps the more important of the two is his optimism, something that defines his personal life as well as his research.

“I have a hard time seeing the bad in things — it’s a problem. I want to talk about how I’ve had my face slammed to the ground by cops, had my fingers crushed, been taken to jail and brutally beaten by gang members, been dragged from my house and seen my friends and acquaintances and neighbors shot in the face in front of me,” Bloch said.

“But one of the ways to survive an environment like the one I come from is you have to be ridiculously optimistic,” he added.

The other constant? The Brown University sweatshirt.

» BANDA, from page 1 At the core of Banda’s lecture was the notion of moral governance. In a conversation with The Herald, Banda said, “What Africa needs — what the world needs — is moral leadership.”

She described a moral leader as someone who “focuses on how they can best serve the people that give them the mandate. Moral leadership means acknowledging the fact that, one, you serve the people, but also recognizing that you serve at their pleasure.”

“The people come first,” she added.

Banda argued that moral leadership is composed of three main pillars: good governance; accountability and transparency; and inclusivity.

Good governance is defined by ethical leadership and respect for human rights and civil liberties. Transparency and accountability, Banda said, “have direct bearing on economic development, growth, peace and unity.”

Inclusivity can end divisions and foster national unity, Banda said.

She added that when she took office, Malawi was polarized by tribalism, regionalism, cronyism and nepotism.

Most government offices were run by a single tribe. By establishing an inclusive government and seeing that all were represented across government, Banda said that she was able to heal divides and unify the Malawian people.

She also tied some of her initiatives as president — for which she continues to advocate — to personal experience. Banda’s mission to “build as many schools as possible, send as many girls to school as possible” has in large part been motivated by her close childhood friend, a very bright student who dropped out of one of the nation’s best secondary schools because she was unable to raise the tuition of six pounds.

As president, Banda, who almost

died giving birth, also placed great emphasis on lowering infant and maternal mortality rates. She spoke about the difficulty she faced leaving an abusive marriage, an action that was extremely uncommon in Malawi, and her following efforts to empower women and promote female leadership.

Banda also focused on the fight against corruption. “I feel very proud that on the continent of Africa now, there’s a whole crop of leaders that are saying ‘no’ to corruption, that are observing good governance and the rule of law, that are accountable and transparent and that are inclusive,” she told The Herald. She held up Tanzania, Ghana and Botswana as examples of countries leading Africa into an era of moral leadership and noted that moral leadership in these countries has allowed for great economic growth.

But this is not the case for many African nations.“Lack of moral leadership remains a missing link in Africa’s development trajectory,” Banda said. “It is the genesis of underdevelopment.” Banda added that it “doesn’t make sense that Botswana has diamonds and is prospering” while some of its neighbors with the same natural resources have very low standards of living.

“The current state of affairs in most African countries is simply not acceptable,” Banda said. “People of Africa expect governments to change their situations because governments simply have that obligation. The people of Africa know how much wealth God has given them, and they want that wealth to benefit them.” She said that the first cry for freedom among Africans was from colonial rule, and the second was from military dictatorships. The call is now for freedom from corruption and the poverty it causes.

Citing the Panama Papers, Banda said, “The issue of corruption is now a global problem, and we must fight it together — the developed world and the developing world. … I ask the Western world not to be the enablers” by turning a blind eye to ill-gotten money coming into their countries.

Banda argued that good governance is the key to development. She said, “what Africa really needs is not aid but trade.” She noted, “it is only when people are free to open businesses and make money that we will be able to realize economic growth.”

Malawi is currently the recipient of foreign aid, and while Banda said that Malawi may not need foreign aid after a few years, it is important now. She praised U.S. government programs that provide nutrition and support education and civil society.

She added that it is imperative that development organizations form “smart partnerships” with local nongovernmental organizations in order to realize meaningful and effective development.

“I worry about those international NGOs and other people who come to Africa and think they can do (development) for us. Being poor is not being stupid. We know exactly what we should do to change our situation,” Banda told The Herald. She urged students in America to “get to know Africa” through in-depth study.

Daniel Smith, professor of anthropology and chair of the department, said that Banda “has a long history of working in a lot of areas that Brown cares about: women’s rights, reproductive health, development, social change.” He noted that her lecture coincided with this year’s launch of the Watson Institute Africa Initiative.

“The new Africa Initiative is eager to have the whole Brown community, especially undergraduates, get involved,” he added.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

University of Michigan professor delves into dark matter Katherine Freese discusses dark matter research since Einstein, challenges for women in STEM

By ELENA RENKEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Katherine Freese, professor of physics at the University of Michigan, described the state of research on dark matter in her lecture “The Dark Side of the Universe” Friday evening. She outlined the history of scientific inquiry into dark matter, starting with Einstein’s general theory of relativity and the Big Bang before progressing to ongoing research around the world.

“Starting a hundred years ago with the work of Albert Einstein, we have a creation myth,” Freese said. “And guess what? It’s right.”

Pointing out misconceptions about physics and space as she went along, Freese distilled physics concepts to their simplest essences. She presented the components of our universe like ingredients in a recipe: 69 percent dark energy, 26 percent dark matter and 5 percent ordinary matter.

“I didn’t know anything about the subject going into it,” said Emily Siff ’19. “She did a good job of going over the basics but not in a way that was so expansive that she lost track of her own research.”

The lecture went on to address the question of what particles make up the dark matter that constitutes so much of our universe. Freese characterized the different suspects, including massive compact halo objects, or MACHOs — a category that includes faint stars, stellar remnants and white dwarfs. But she focused

JULIANNA LEE MARINO / HERALD

Katherine Freese gave an overview of the composition of the universe and discussed her research on dark matter. She also spoke about her experience as one of the first female physics majors at Princeton, encouraging audience members to remain confident in themselves. on the concept of weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, which have procured the attention of many research labs worldwide.

“There was a battle between the MACHOs and the WIMPs,” Freese said. But now, many researchers are focused on WIMP detection, using different tactics to find evidence of their role in the universe. “We need

compatible signals in different experiments with different materials to know what dark matter is,” Freese said.

From the coining of the term “dunkle matiere” to the progress of underground WIMP detectors, Freese noted the major contributions to the continuing study of dark matter. Her book, “The Cosmic Cocktail: Three Parts Dark Matter,” takes a similar

approach to the history of dark matter research, painting a colorful portrait of the field from the inside.

As one of the first women to major in physics at Princeton, Freese also spoke about being a woman in science, a dynamic that attracted some audience members. “I came here because I’m in the physics department, and I want to be an astrophysicist,”

Marlene Ortega ’18 said. “I wanted to be a little bit inspired by a woman speaker.”

In response to a request for advice from a female student in the audience, Freese suggested finding a “supportive, powerful advisor” and resisting feelings of inadequacy. “It’s easy to convince yourself, ‘I’m not that good,’” she said. “We all feel that.”

University trains faculty, staff members on diversity, inclusion Professional development workshops, departmental DIAPs aim to foster intersectional understanding

By JULIE CENTER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion kicked off a series of voluntary faculty and staff trainings last spring.

The professional development trainings were informed by student feedback on the working draft of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan. Upon the working plan’s release last fall, students called for “programs to promote cultural competency and foster a safe learning environment for all students, staff, faculty and administrators at Brown,” according to the plan.

The lineup for the professional development workshops began with the introductory workshop “Unpacking Diversity and Inclusion in the Academy” Feb. 23, which over 650 faculty and staff members attended, said Liza Cariaga-Lo, vice president for academic development, diversity and inclusion.

Immediately following were two large lectures by leaders in issues of diversity and inclusion, each attended by over 200 people, which respectively focused on inclusive classrooms and implicit bias inside and outside of the classroom, she added.

A December series on structural racism, a January series on social justice education and a summer series on understanding culture, race and difference also took place so community members could “have every opportunity to take advantage of these sessions,” CariagaLo said.

Though the trainings are voluntary, they were all very well attended, as some people were even turned away, CariagaLo said. Students initially petitioned to make the trainings mandatory, but the University cited leading research from Harvard suggesting that mandatory training programs surrounding diversity and inclusion are less effective

­­ and can even backfire — because — they force people to “check off boxes” rather than engage with the material of their own volition, Cariaga-Lo said.

“It’s a little bit like the open curriculum. When you can study something you want to study, you’re likely to get more out of it than when you have to study it,” said Dean of the College Maud Mandel. “It’s the philosophy of the University, but it’s also grounded in evidence from people who have studied these mandatory training programs,” she added.

James Valles, professor of physics, who attended the spring workshops, said they had an immediate impact on how he teaches and approaches the student body. Specifically, the training on implicit bias “makes you reflect on how your experiences can differ from the students’ experiences,” Valles said.

But the professional development trainings are just “the first of many” initiatives intended to help faculty members “understand fully the experiences of our students who bring

multiple intersectional identities to the table,” Cariaga-Lo said.

In addition to the broad trainings for all faculty and staff members, the OIDI has collaborated with the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning to provide as-needed departmental sessions on inclusive pedagogy, CariagaLo said. Departments such as history have taken advantage of these opportunities to provide classroom training for their teaching assistants and faculty members, she added.

Mandel pointed to the individual departmental DIAPs as an additional framework for professional training on cultivating inclusive curricula, pedagogical and hiring practices and departmental culture. Because each department is responsible for creating its own plan to foster inclusivity from the perspective of its own discipline, “there are lots of different ways faculty (members) will be teaching with these practices,” Mandel said.

The OIDI will also continue to offer professional development training

sessions in the future, with a series of eight lunch sessions this semester.

Topics for discussion will include everything from understanding LGBTQ, transfer and first-generation college student experiences to thinking about exclusive pedagogy and intersectionality of identities and their relation to classrooms and advising situations, Cariaga-Lo said.

Valles is confident the trainings will generate many potentially uncomfortable but necessary conversations about issues of power and privilege in the coming years.

“I’ve enjoyed — and (have) been made uncomfortable by as well — the trainings and other things associated with diversity and inclusion,” Valles said.

“I hope folks understand that the DIAP process wasn’t a moment in time, but an ongoing commitment of the University,” Mandel said, adding, “If there were a few trainings last year, it was just the beginning of a University commitment on all fronts.”

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menu

r o b o t s l a n d at s c i l i

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Bacon Chicken Ranch, Spinach and Feta Chipotle Chicken Tacos JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Make-Your-Own Quesadillas

Chicken Tikka Masala Butternut Squash Soup

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Green Chile and Chicken Enchiladas, Spicy Jalepeno Rice, Rasberry Crumble Bar

Lentil Soup, Cajun Baked Pollock, Broccoli Rabe, Butternut Squash, Apple Crisp

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Beef Noodle Soup, Nacho Bar, Buffalo Wings, Curly French Fries, Green Peas

Thai Basil Pork Stir Fry, Cajun Corn Salad, Oven Roasted Tofu, Oatmeal Stout Bread

sudoku

ANITA SHEIH / HERALD

Students and faculty members were given the opportunity Monday to explore the redesigned Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at the Sciences Library, which has been in the works since 2011.

RELEASE DATE– Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c r o s s w o r d Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Pilothouse wheels 6 Sphere in a library 11 Cheering syllable 14 Use a broom 15 Lubricate again 16 Touchdown approx.

17 Adjusted sales figure on which some royalties are based 19 Bus. get-together 20 Gentle touch 21 Letter that opens with a click 23 Headache treatment 26 Concerning, on memos 27 Seasonal bug 28 Wood-finishing tool 33 Tennessee senator __ Alexander 36 Zoo critter with striped legs 37 Brass instrument played like a trumpet 42 “Sure, I’ll give you a ride” 43 Sleep audibly 45 Long, narrow mollusks 50 Hotel divs.

51 Poet Khayyám 52 Place for meditation 55 Intense personality 57 Response to a clever put-down 59 Actress Hagen 60 Motto for the cautious ... or a hint to the starts of 17-, 28-, 37and 45-Across 65 Washington MLBer 66 Mount in Exodus 67 Lucky break 68 Genetic info letters 69 Seagoing mil. training group 70 Spine-tingling DOWN 1 QVC rival 2 Baaing mom 3 Tennis do-over

4 Gracias, across the Pyrenees 5 Hurled weapon 6 “The Heart of the Matter” novelist Graham 7 Hawaiian floral rings 8 “Uh-oh!”

9 Stand-up routine 10 Besides 11 Send back, as to a lower court 12 Clothing 13 “Marvelous” Marvin of boxing 18 Bed with high sides 22 Yellow “Despicable Me” character 23 CIO partner 24 Balkan native 25 Shoe company with a cat in its logo 29 Doone of Exmoor 30 Ref’s ruling 31 Retired newsman Donaldson 32 LAPD alerts 34 1990s veep 35 Camper driver, for short 38 And so on: Abbr.

39 Shop __ you drop 40 Par 41 Clever Bombeck 44 Contractor’s fig.

45 Portly 46 “The Joy Luck Club” novelist 47 Mexican revolutionary played by Brando 48 Word before “Pizza” or “River,” in film

49 PlayStation maker 53 Social faux pas 54 Lots and lots 56 Part of AAA: Abbr.

57 Point __ return 58 Qualifying race 61 __ conditioner 62 Capek’s robot play 63 Slide down the slopes 64 Collarless shirt

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

“I felt like my experience and identity mattered. And that validates you as a human being.”

— Stefano Bloch, postdoctoral senior research associate in urban studies

See bloch on page 1.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

CORRECTION A column in Friday’s Herald (“Papendorp ’17: Unpaid research excludes low-income students,” Sept. 16) stated that students receiving UTRA awards are also responsible for a $2,600 summer earnings requirement. In fact, the summer earnings requirement is waived for students with UTRAs. The Herald regrets the error.

xwordeditor@aol.com

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Umbrella Movements: Youth & Activism 9 AM Nightingale-Brown House

Wintersession Information Session 12 PM Petteruti Lounge

ANTISOCIAL by Bogdan Georgescu 8 P.M. Granoff Center

Screening: Defying the Nazis: The Sharps War 8 P.M. Rockefeller Library

TOMORROW Black Heritage Series Welcome Back 5:30 P.M. Multipurpose Room

fashion@brown Info Session 6 P.M. Wilson Hall, Room 102

PASS Class: Introduction to Photoshop 6 P.M. List Art Building, Room 315

Lecture: Dante and the Mind that is Catholic 7 P.M. Smith-Buonanno, Room 201

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CS works to serve lowincome students To the Editor: The financial pressures faced by low-income undergraduate researchers are real, and the Department of Computer Science is working to mitigate them. When we spoke with our low-income students last semester, they mentioned the challenges on Carin Papendorp’s ’17 list (“Papendorp ’17: Unpaid research excludes low-income students,” Sept. 16) and shared others as well: interview transportation and accommodation costs, which may only be reimbursed weeks later, or the expense of interview clothing.

Brown CS doesn’t mandate research for undergraduates, and we realize that $3,500 for a summer isn’t enough, so we supplement Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards to provide a living wage. Additionally, CS internships

pay quite well, so our faculty members frequently readjust their research schedules to help low-income students take advantage of them. But more needs to be done. Students have told us that short-term loans would help them get through temporary financial shortfalls, so we’re looking into these and other solutions that provide additional support and guidance for these students on navigating job opportunities. Computer science is fortunate to occupy a prominent position among the science, technology, engineering and math fields, and Brown CS will continue to explore and try to find ways to use the advantages of that position to benefit low-income students.

Ugur Cetintemel Professor of computer science and chair of the department

Tisch ’76 misses the mark To the Editor: Former Chancellor Thomas Tisch’s ’76 P’18 P’20 shamelessly moneyminded and utilitarian letter in response to Daniel Meyer’s ’17 column ought to inspire fear and outrage from students and faculty members of this “liberal” institution alike. The real rub of Meyer’s piece is not, as Tisch claims, that the value of the bear statue should go to financial aid (a nice point — how to balance these competing demands), but rather that we ought to think critically about why the Brown administration accepts certain gifts and the murky moral questions to which such gifts give rise. Tisch’s response is not to ameliorate Meyer’s worry, but rather to prove that it is justified: Tisch proudly makes clear that riches enable one to put one’s mark on Brown however one pleases — ­ so long as one has given

enough money first. The public claim that we should take the good with the bad, the financial aid with the insider training and lousy artworks, becomes less surprising when one recalls that Tisch is himself a businessman. It is perhaps not surprising that a former member of the Sears Holding Corporation, a managing partner of Four Partners and a member of one of the richest families in the United States would not only support but publicly defend a moral system in which the left hand, busy imposing art on strollersby, studiously ignores what the right is doing. The university is primarily an academic institution, not a financial one, and the mores of the marketplace have no place even in the decision of what art to display. We deserve better from our administrators.

Margaret Shea ’19

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COMMENTARY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Do it yourself GEORGE REYNOLDS staff columnist Brown students like to complain.

Sometimes this can be a really good thing, as bringing attention to otherwise silenced issues is step one toward fixing them. Unfortunately, as a community, we often complain about things without trying to fix them. Instead, we expect others to make the change. This is an ineffective way of changing things. We should stop.

This seems especially true with regard to outcomes that depend on many people taking collective action. For example, last year, a couple of friends were describing to me what they considered to be terrible working conditions at Amazon. After we had spoken about the workplace at length, I asked them if they still ordered from Amazon. They did. I asked them why they would continue to support a company they found so deplorable. They did not really have an answer other than that they, as a handful of people, could not really move the needle in an entire market. In their view, they

could not be held responsible for societal problems because they were few in number.

I have seen this attitude — that anything dependent on the masses, like a company’s or politician’s success, is out of our hands — countless times at Brown and elsewhere. I have been guilty of feeling this way

(pays low wages, outsources jobs, whatever), you can help stop it by taking two easy steps. Step one: Stop buying things from the company.

Step two: Get other people to stop buying. If something does not bother you enough to prompt these basic actions, then I doubt it bothers you much at all.

how regulators use their power. If we all stayed legitimately informed and committed to increasing civic engagement, then a lot of that corruption would disappear. Politicians are like companies in that they need the support of the public to survive.

If we were more active in giving support to (only) the right people, then

I have seen this attitude — that anything dependent on the masses, like a company’s or politician’s success, is out of our hands — countless times at Brown and elsewhere.

myself just as many times. We need to stop, though, because we have the ability to change things.

Let’s run with the example of a bad company. If a company does something that you personally hate

The other realm in which it is easy to fall into this feeling of helplessness is politics. Instead of complaining about corruption, we should pay more attention to local elections, what our state legislatures do and

things could change.

Some may respond that one person does not have the market power to actually make a difference. This is wholly untrue. In effect, this issue is a large-scale prisoner’s di-

lemma: Things would be better if we all did the right thing, but if we cannot trust others to do so as well, then why sacrifice for nothing? But, unlike the classic prisoner’s dilemma, we can observe others’ behavior. It only takes a handful of people to make a leap of faith to start getting people on the same page. This is especially true in the 21st century, when coordination and information dissemination are easier than ever.

Make a Facebook post. Tweet. Go on Instagram and do a #TBT post to the last time you ever shopped somewhere. If this seems too small, then write an op-ed for The Herald or the Providence Journal. Just get a few people to pay attention, and then people will know that they, too, can make a difference.

There are bad people in the world, and unfortunately, a decent number of them have a lot of power. But they are dependent on us.

Changing purchase patterns and paying more attention to political details are not large burdens. If we cannot handle them, then we should stop complaining.

George Reynolds ’17 can be reached at george_reynolds@brown.edu.

Refuting Fox News’s take on undocumented admission policy LAINIE ROWLAND opinions editor Last week, The Herald reported Brown’s announcement that it will consider undocumented applicants and applicants who qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program as domestic applicants in the admission process. By placing these applicants under the need-blind admission policy, Brown has become a more inclusive and accessible institution than it was before, though by no means perfect. At the risk of sounding cliched, it’s a step in the right direction.

While the announcement was unsurprisingly met with approval on campus, some reporters at Fox News disagreed. In the “Campus Craziness” segment of “On the Record with Brit Hume,” Hume disputes the rationality of the decision. In the same bit that disparages a Michigan Board of Education’s policy allowing students to choose a bathroom matching their gender identity, he critiques Brown for granting aid to illegal immigrants “but not foreign students in the country legally.” Both are cited as examples of “P.C. run amok in our nation’s schools,” according to the video’s description on Fox News’s website.

Normally, I wouldn’t advocate responding to every offensive sound bite you happen to overhear ­­— I would never get any work done and my patience reserves would be fully depleted at this point. Fox News has a long and storied history of critiquing Brown (hi, Jesse

Watters), so perhaps this was unsurprising and relatively minute in the scheme of things. But in this case, I was proud of the decision Brown made. It’s rare that an institution like Brown takes an action that is so unambiguously “good” — refer to the controversy around the release of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan if you’re not convinced. Unfortunately, this is a very real debate in the sphere of higher education — Alabama and South Carolina expressly prohibit undocumented students from attending public postsecondary institutions, for an extreme example. Rationale that sup-

a quintessentially American ideal (though not one we regularly meet). Financial aid is one mechanism among many meant to equalize an otherwise uneven playing field. Criticizing the admission policy for giving an “advantage” to undocumented students is akin to criticizing the new First-Generation College and Low-Income Student Center for supporting only this particularly marginalized group.

In an ideal world, Brown would be needblind for all applicants. But, to draw from my ECON0110: “Principles of Economics” experience, the size of the pie of aid available is lim-

If the purpose of aid is to open doors to educational opportunity, the effect on undocumented and DACA-status students is unparalleled.

ports such bans and undergirds the Fox News “craziness” argument is dangerous. It misconstrues the purpose of providing aid and totally flubs the real meaning of political correctness.

Financial aid is a normative tool. We’ve decided as a society that access to education should not be solely decided by market powers — some sort of intervention is required. Accordingly, access to educational opportunity is

ited for now. Thus, setting the criteria by which we allocate it requires tradeoffs. If the purpose of aid is to open doors to educational opportunity, the effect on undocumented and DACAstatus students is unparalleled. Just to apply to college (not necessarily even to a school like Brown), undocumented students overcome challenges beyond their control and with no satisfactory solution. For example, merely fill-

ing out the FAFSA requires a social security number, for which students who don’t qualify for DACA are ineligible (not that the bureaucratic hoops are easy for those who do). In addition to the regular obstacles and fear everyday life may pose to undocumented students, the already-difficult tasks of applying to and paying for college are exacerbated by their status.

The factors affecting undocumented and DACA-status students are beyond their control, and options for postsecondary education are extremely limited. This is less true for international students, for whom higher education in the United States is often an option among many. When we talk about access to K-12 education, Americans often assert that zip code shouldn’t affect the quality of a kid’s schooling.

Somehow we’re much less sympathetic when it comes to undocumented students. This issue is not about political correctness — it is about exercising empathy and reason to understand the difficult circumstances facing undocumented students and the fact that the vast majority of them are undocumented not because of some selfish choice on their part or their parents’ but because political and economic inequities drove them to our country. This is not about political correctness, as Hume claims, but it is about politics, as some with nativist and nationalist inclinations cast the specter of PC culture like a veil over the American ideals behind Brown’s new progressive policy.

Lainie Rowland ’17 can be reached at lainie_rowland@brown.edu.

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ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

COURTESY OF SHARP FAMILY ARCHIVES

Martha and Waitstill Sharp, pictured here in 1947 with their children Hastings Sharp and Martha Content Sharp, volunteered to help save refugees in Czechoslovakia during World War II.

New exhibit explores heroism of Brown alums in WWII Sharp, Joukowsky families dedicate decades to social justice work abroad, administrative service on campus

By ROLAND HIGH SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Today, the John Hay Library will open the exhibit “A Hymn for the Brave: The Sharps and Humanitarian Work in World War II,” which will feature the heroic intervention of Waitstill and Martha Sharp in Nazi-occupied Europe. Martha’s studies at Brown marked the genesis of her family’s ties to the University, where her descendents have attended college and served as chancellor, faculty members and benefactors.

Waitstill P’58 GP’87 and Martha Sharp ’26 P’58 GP’87 are two of only five Americans honored as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. Their induction, which occurred in a ceremony in June 2006, signifies their recognition by the State of Israel as part of a small minority who, “in a world of total moral collapse,” demonstrated extraordinary courage in risking their own lives to save those of people fleeing extermination by the Nazis.

The honor conferred on the Sharps was later underscored by a U.S. Senate resolution recognizing them as “genuine American heroes” and once again

with an inscription on the Rescuers’ Wall at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The honor was accepted on their behalf by their daughter, Professor Emerita of Archaeology and the Ancient World Martha Joukowsky ’58 PhB’82 LHD’85 P’87 GP’13 GP’14 GP’17, whose husband, Artemis Joukowsky II ’55 LLD’85 P’87 GP’13 GP’14 GP’17, served as chancellor.

The Sharps were “modest and ordinary people who responded to the suffering and needs around them … as they would have expected everyone to do in a similar situation,” said Professor Joukowsky at the Yad Vashem induction ceremony.

When the Sharps were asked by the Unitarian Church to travel to Czechoslovakia to aid refugees, they learned that 17 couples had already refused. They were the first to take up the gauntlet. Less than four years old when her parents left for Europe, Professor Joukowsky recalls that she “resented her parents for having been away.”

Waitstill was a Massachusetts Unitarian minister and Harvard graduate with a deeply felt objection to fascism, while Professor Joukowsky’s mother, Martha, was an active social worker who trained at Hull House after

graduating from Pembroke College.

Waitstill “knew human frailty very well; he could see when people were in pain,” Professor Joukowsky said.

When the Sharps arrived in Prague, thousands were fleeing in the opposite direction. Throughout their mission in Czechoslovakia, the Sharps provided refugees with vital documents and money and helped them search for jobs overseas, acquire visas and secure transportation. The Sharps would also personally smuggle some of the most prominent anti-Nazis to safety through the heart of Germany, a crime that would have been punished severely by the Reich.

But the Sharps’ work, however fervent and heroic, was often heartwrenchingly inadequate. Martha Sharp watched children leave for England on “Kindertransport” planes as their parents waved with forced smiles.

After Martha Sharp fled the Gestapo at the end of August 1939 to join her husband and return home, she began to lobby, unsuccessfully, the Alaskan governor to relocate 10,000 refugees to the remote, underpopulated land. The Sharps would soon depart for France and take up similar work, smuggling refugees from Vichy France over the Spanish border.

The history of the Sharps was researched, and, in many ways,

discovered, by Artemis Joukowsky III, Professor Joukowsky’s son and Martha Sharp’s grandson.

Joukowsky III says the roots of this decades-long project took hold in a school assignment he was given as a boy, for which he was told to interview a person with moral courage.

His mother suggested he speak to his grandmother.

Professor Joukowsky explained that her parents were reticent regarding their time in World War II, and the grandchildren were largely unaware of their grandparents’ bravery. “When your parents are heroic in any way, they don’t talk about it. … It took something out of them to put (it) into words,” she said.

Joukowsky III has since conducted thorough research and numerous interviews to document his grandparents’ endeavors. This work has culminated in the release of a new movie by PBS, “Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War,” which was co-directed by fellow Hampshire College graduate and leading documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and features the voice of Tom Hanks.

By the end of 1940, the Sharps had returned to America. They worked with the Dexters — a fellow Brown alum and his wife who also helped European refugees — to found the Unitarian Universalist Service

Committee, a nonprofit, nonsectarian human rights organization. UUSC went on to rescue an estimated total of 2,000 refugees during World War II. That “was a drop in the bucket,” said Matthew Justus, producer of “Defying the Nazis.” “But … that’s 130 people who can have great lives and be great Americans,” Justus said, referring to an estimate of the refugees directly rescued by the Sharps.

Justus explained that the many interviews with the now-adult children rescued by the Sharps serve not only to testify to the heroism of the Sharps, but also to underscore the significance and potential of each human life saved from genocide.

On Sept. 12, the Joukowsky family and the surviving refugees aided by the Sharps gathered at the White House and screened the film before holding a discussion with several senior White House policy makers.

The discussion highlighted the role of the United States in countering (or failing to counter) genocide today, a subject to which many at the event drew parallels.

“That kind of selflessness is something that I don’t think we see that much of nowadays … and I think we should notice it and celebrate it,” said Holly Snyder, curator of the University’s American historical collections as well as of the exhibit.