SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016
VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 79
WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
Michael Kosterlitz wins Nobel Prize Endowment falls to $3.2 Physics professor honored billion from record high for research in topological Annual return within top quartile of 144 peer institutions, top half of Ivy League despite losses
phase transitions, states of matter, superconductivity By ELENA RENKEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
J. Michael Kosterlitz, professor of physics, was named a winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics Tuesday morning. Kosterlitz shares his half of the prize with Frederick Haldane, professor of physics at Princeton. The other half of the prize was awarded to David Thouless, professor of physics at the University of Washington. This year’s prize was given for the physicists’ “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter,” according to the press release from Nobelprize. org. Kosterlitz is specifically recognized for his work, conducted with Thouless in Great Britain during the early 1970s, that explored the physics of substances so thin that they were viewed as two dimensional. They showed that superconductivity is possible at low temperatures and described the change that makes it vanish as temperatures rise. Examining an extremely thin layer of matter as it was warmed from very low temperatures, Kosterlitz and Thouless observed that the tight pairs
By KASTURI PANANJADY SENIOR STAFF WRITER
COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY
J. Michael Kosterlitz was announced a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for foundational research conducted in the 1970s with David Thouless. of vortices formed in the cold suddenly split at the temperature of the phase transition. The scientists used topology, or mathematics that involve changes occurring in steps, to explain
this alteration, according to the background information published with the press release. The discover y of the » See NOBEL, page 2
The University’s endowment fell by 1.1 percent to $3.2 billion over the 2016 fiscal year, according to a University press release. This is a marked departure from the previous fiscal year, when the endowment reached a record high of $3.3 billion after a 5.7 percent return, as The Herald previously reported. “The opportunity set this year was very narrow, and it was a challenging environment,” wrote Managing Director Jane Dietze in an email to The Herald. “We did a good job of protecting capital.” Global markets were weaker than in the previous year, as the S&P 500 posted a gain of just 4 percent in comparison to 7.4 percent last year. The University invested 24 percent of the endowment in public equity, 20 percent in private equity, 5 percent in real assets, 7 percent in fixed-income instruments and 7 percent in cash, according to a release from the Investments Office.
“The only bright spots in terms of performance were bonds, gold and global real estate,” the release stated. A loss of 1.1 percent still means that the University beat its aggregate benchmark of -2.2 percent. The number represents the point-of-reference expected returns for each asset class weighted by their share of the University’s investments. “Beating the benchmark suggests that our active management adds value,” Dietze wrote. That percentage loss also places Brown in the top quartile of 144 peer institutions by endowment returns as defined by Cambridge Associates, according to the Investments Office release. The University’s returns also exceeded those of half of its Ivy League peers. While Yale and Princeton earned returns of 3.4 percent and 0.7 percent on their respective funds, Harvard and Cornell lost 2 percent and 3.3 percent of their respective endowments. “It’s a long-term race, and we have been laying the foundation to be highly competitive during the last three years,” Dietze wrote of Brown’s performance relative to its Ivy League peers. “We want to be highly competitive, but only with a high-quality return » See ENDOWMENT, page 2
‘By The Way, Meet Vera Locke outlines new financial plan for U. Stark’ cuts deep with humor Plan for financial Play uses comedy to deftly address racial issues, resonates in contemporary social landscape By ZACHARY BARNES CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Sock and Buskin’s “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark” employs screwball comedy as a means of social critique, and the results are funny and insightful in nearly equal measure. The play, written by Lynn Nottage ’86, tells the story of fictional AfricanAmerican actress Vera Stark and focuses on the beginning and end of her career. The first act is set in the 1930s, when Vera works as a servant to the movie star Gloria Mitchell, desperate to make the leap from the sidelines to the screen. Eleonora Saravalle ’18, who plays Gloria, acts the part with brio, using grand gestures and dramatic screeching to command our attention. Sienna
ARTS & CULTURE
INSIDE
Vann ’17, as Vera, performs the quieter part admirably, demonstrating a careful balance between being Gloria’s servant and friend. Tensions between the two emerge in the first scene, when Gloria casually delivers to Vera a stinging reminder of her class and race. Director Kym Moore, associate professor of theatre arts and performance studies, said that “the hardest thing was to get the actors to be mean to each other.” Here, they succeed. Race comes boldly to the foreground in the next scene, where we are introduced to two of Vera’s friends, Lottie (Maya Blake ’19) and Anna Mae (Stella Akua Mensah ’17, a lively comedic presence), both of whom also aspire to be actresses. Vera tells Lottie about a new Southern epic film, “The Belle of New Orleans,” that she wants to audition for, and in which she would play a slave. Lottie responds with wry excitement, “Slaves? With lines?” She then bends down and sings a low, mournful spiritual. As performed by Blake, it’s a sly, cutting parody of Hollywood’s » See VERA STARK, page 2
stability includes freeze on undergrad admission, investment in grad school By JULIANNE CENTER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Provost Richard Locke P’17 announced historic changes to the University’s budget and business model at the faculty meeting Tuesday in Salomon 001. The plan outlined a significant shift in the structure of the University, freezing undergraduate admission and growing the University’s graduate programs. This change will require that the University invest further in lab facilities and basic infrastructure while cutting costs to accommodate shifting revenues. Due to the brevity of the faculty meeting, little discussion by faculty members followed Locke’s financial presentation. The new financial model is the result of over a year of work, with involvement from the Office of the Dean of the College, the Office of College Admission, the Office of
GUS REED / HERALD
Provost Richard Locke P’17 addressed faculty members during a meeting about decreasing the University deficit and securing financial stability. Financial Aid and the Investment Office, Locke said. Locke also noted that it is “highly unusual to share this kind of information (with) the community.”
“In the same way that we are being extremely transparent about diversity and inclusion, … we’re trying to be incredibly transparent and engage the » See PLAN, page 2
WEATHER
WEDNESDAY, OC TOBER 5, 2016
ARTS & CULTURE ‘Ivy League Rumba’ documentary details film festival, burgeoning popularity of Afro-Cuban music
ARTS & CULTURE ‘Memories of the Wind’ paints raw, emotionally enriching history of Turkey during war
COMMENTARY Meyer ’17: Non-votes not merely rebellious, but downright dangerous in current election
COMMENTARY Reyes ’18: UCS needs safe spaces to diversify representative voices, have difficult conversations
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» PLAN, from page 1 community,” Locke added. Graduate emphasis This new budget plan comes in light of the financial pressure the University has experienced in past decades. While the undergraduate population has grown drastically, past financial models overestimated the growth of the endowment and underestimated costs such as those associated with refurbishing facilities, Locke said. The combination of these two trends has resulted in stress points, such as lack of undergraduate housing, insufficient academic support systems and out-of-date infrastructure, he added. Additionally, the University relies more heavily on tuition and fees more than its peers, Locke said. Subsequently, the University will freeze undergraduate admission at 1,650 admitted students each year — a departure from the trend of growth since the 1960s and 70s. When accounting for transfer students, Rhode Island School of Design students and Resumed Undergraduate Education students, the undergraduate student body will be solidified at 6,848 students, he added. The decision is partly informed by the fact that the University now has a larger undergraduate enrollment than its peers, including Dartmouth, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while offering fewer
research operations and professional schools, Locke said. Rather than growing the undergraduate population, the University plans to “grow graduate student programs in a targeted and incremental way” until they reach a total of 120 master’s students and 95 PhD students, Locke said. According to the University’s fall 2015 census, Brown serves about 2,200 graduate students in total. By transitioning growth to the graduate schools, the University hopes to further its emergence as an international research university. In order to accommodate this growth in the graduate schools, the University has allocated new funding to support research, invest in core facilities and draw graduate researchers, Locke said. This will allow the University to contend with its peers, he added. The University has also put aside more money for infrastructure upkeep and updates, as well as technology such as wireless internet that must be continuously upgraded, Locke said. Another added expense is the new engineering building that will be completed in January 2018. The University must budget for its heat, electricity, staff and maintenance, which adds several million dollars into the expense budget, Locke added. ‘Tightening the belt’ While the University aims to make strategic investments in certain parts
COURTESY OF SOCK AND BUSKIN
Sock and Buskin’s “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark” about the early and late stages of a fictional actress’ career offers social crticism through humor.
» VERA STARK, from page 1 romantic conception of slavery. The comedy remains similarly potent as the act progresses. The director of “The Belle of New Orleans,” Maxmillian Von Oster (Xavier Markey-Smith ’19, bursting with pomp and overblown genius), proclaims that he wants to see the “hundred years of oppression in the hunch of their shoulders.” Lottie and Vera in turn try to appeal to the director’s fantasy, with Vera spinning a yarn of her hardscrabble childhood on the Mississippi Delta. It’s one moment among many that feels strikingly contemporary. Von
Oster’s vision of African-American life as one of only horror and oppression is reminiscent of Donald Trump’s depiction of African-American communities today as violent, decaying urban hellscapes. Lottie’s mocking of Hollywood’s slavery obsession also remains poignant; the last African-American actor to win an Oscar was Lupita Nyong’o in 2013, who won for playing a slave in “12 Years A Slave.” The second act opens with a filmed excerpt from “The Belle of New Orleans,” starring Vera and Gloria as slave and mistress, respectively. Onscreen, Vann powerfully evokes the film stars of the past. The camera lights up her eyes — deep wells of sympathy that make
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD of campus, others will see smaller budgets. Continuing the work of the Deficit Reduction Working Group, the University will cut costs by using more integrated construction practices for new buildings and renovations, using more strategic office supply sourcing and temporarily slowing the rate of faculty growth, Locke said. The University will also propose an admission and financial aid plan to the University Resources Committee to transition some of the financial aid budget to serve “a broader spectrum of students,” especially those from middle-class families, Locke said. Under the existing financial aid policy, the University loses many middle-class students to peer universities that offer more competitive financial aid packages, Locke said. By focusing financial aid on these students, the University can align the growth of the financial aid budget with the growth of tuition and fees while remaining need-blind, maintaining the same number of students on financial aid and becoming “attractive to all families, whether needy, wealthy or middle class,” Locke said. “We think that if we do these things — spend a couple years tightening the belt — that we’ll be able to balance us and make us sustainable,” Locke said. Shifting revenue streams The budget plan also aims to change the balance of the University’s revenue streams. While the University has Vera’s stardom plausible. The excerpt was shot in a historic Warwick home, where slaves were buried in the backyard, according to Moore. The students were somewhat “freaked out” by this, but “I felt proud of us that we had that connection with them,” she said. This experience speaks to the play’s own thematic underpinnings, which demand a reckoning with our culture’s complex racial history. Some of that reckoning is made explicit in the second act, where, after the brief film screening, a panel of academics convene decades later to discuss Vera’s legacy. They focus on “The Belle of New Orleans” as well as an infamous 1973 talk-show interview with Vera and Gloria, which is not filmed but performed live. Andrew Ganem ’16.5 plays the show’s host with a goofy assurance. In playing an older version of Vera Stark, Vann has a daunting challenge — to convey recognizable traits of her character’s younger self from decades past, while also showing the inevitable transformation from the strains of an unsympathetic, oppressive industry. She does not quite rise to the challenge, leaving the wig and the new flashy dress to do most of the work. When Vera has a withering line to Gloria, who remains obtuse to Vera’s past and present struggles, we hear little of the anguished, bitter history behind it. But all told, the production delivers its message and its comedy very well — more importantly, it sees the connection between the two. The play laughs at the absurdity of the assumptions that motivate injustice. According to Moore, an actor came up to her after rehearsing a scene and said it was ridiculous, that they had gone too far. Her response? “Precisely. That’s the point.” “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark” plays again next weekend at the Leeds Theater from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Oct. 6-8 and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 9.
typically withdrawn about 5 percent of the endowment on an annual basis, Locke said the University will only withdraw 4.5 percent going forward “to protect the long-term health of the University.” Due to the turbulence of current markets, universities have received returns lower than projected. In fact, this year most Ivy League universities showed negative returns on their endowments, and Brown saw a -1.1 percent return. Though the University typically budgets for a 7.5 percent return, markets have been churning out less than a 6 percent return rate, Locke said. Locke also said the University anticipates that the $3 billion BrownTogether capital campaign will increase the size of the endowment to compensate for the smaller percentage payouts, as the campaign has already reached over $1.2 billion. While the current endowment is only $3.2 billion — a fraction of the size of peer universities’ — BrownTogether aims to increase its value to $5 billion, he added. This could allow for a larger proportion of the University’s annual budget to be supported by endowment withdrawals, meaning that the University will rely less on tuition and fees, he added. Locke also said the University plans to propose another admission and financial aid motion to the URC to raise the cost of tuition and fees by 5 percent one year — rather than the
typical annual increase of 4 percent. “This would give us a shot of cash when we need it,” Locke added. “But it’s something we still have to talk about.” The University also projects to grow its annual fund, which is for used directly to help pay operating expenses. This year, the annual fund raised $36 million, and the next several years it expects to raise $50 million each year, Locke said. Managing the deficit The financial shortage caused by these shifts in revenues and costs will “be a bucket of cold water,” Locke said, adding, “We can handle it.” With this collective loss of revenue and projected increase in costs, University models show the expected deficit peaking at $32 million before beginning to decrease, Locke said. “The deficit will actually be greater than we thought, but we think we have levers available to us — some that we can already exercise and others that we have to get permission and engage with the community to do,” Locke said. Keeping in mind the planned cost-cutting and revenue increases, the University aims to lower the potential $32 million peak deficit to $7 million, with an end goal of a $1 million deficit, Locke said. “But a million-dollar deficit in the scheme of a billion-dollar budget is balanced,” he added.
ANDREW FLAX / HERALD
» ENDOWMENT, from page 1 and doing what is right for Brown in terms of risk and liquidity.” Between 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent of the endowment’s value is contributed annually to the University. The endowment funded 18 percent of the University’s operating budget
» NOBEL, from page 1 Kosterlitz-Thouless transition revolutionized knowledge about phase transitions. Previously, the scientific community assumed that ordered phases of matter — like gas, liquid and solid in the world of three dimensions — do not exist in flat materials, so transitions between phases could not exist either. The Kosterlitz-Thouless transition
this year, distributing $166 million, or $18,500 per student, according to the Investments Office release. Thirtyone percent of the endowment goes to scholarships and fellowships, 20 percent to professorships, 4 percent to libraries, 6 percent to instructional programs, 16 percent to general academic support and 23 percent is not earmarked for any specific purpose. applies to many substances, and has proved useful in studying condensed matter, atomic physics, statistical mechanics and other areas. The information appended to the press release noted the potential of topological materials to aid the development of electronics, superconductors or quantum computers. “Current research is revealing the secrets of matter in the exotic worlds discovered by this year’s Nobel Laureates,” the press release stated.
TODAY
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016 • PAGE 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
ge t ’em while they’re hot
menu SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS
Pizza: Mushroom’s Revenge, Spicy Sausage and Garlic, Honey Boo Boo Po’ Boys JOSIAH’S
BLUE ROOM
Monte Cristo Panini Lasagna Bowls
Beef Chili, Hearty Country Vegetable, Broccoli and Cheddar
DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH
DINNER
Hot Roast Beef, Reuben Sandwiches, Orange Chipotle Glazed Tofu, Pumpkin Pie
Bourbon BBQ Chicken, Braised Leek Provencale, Cream Cheese Brownies
VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH
DINNER
Mac and Cheese Bar, Falafel, Sloppy Joe Sandwiches, Rice Krispie Treats
Penne Pasta, Cilantro Grilled Chicken, Spinach Stuffed Tomatoes, Pumpkin Pie
sudoku
ANITA SHEIH / HERALD
Students work the assembly line at a dry-erase board making event sponsored by the Stephen Roberts ’62 Campus Center Tuesday afternoon. Participants took photos with friends that were turned into white boards.
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
crossword
“Leslie sings the hell out of everything, and they bang those drums like no one’s business.” — Joe Cardona, co-director of “Ivy League Rumba”
See rumba on page 5.
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Brown Dining’s Farmer’s Market 11:00 A.M. Sciences Park
Campus Safety Resource Fair 11:00 A.M. Main Green
Black Power and Critical Oral History Lunch Talk 12:00 P.M. 94 Waterman Street
Screening of “What the Fields Remember” 6:00 P.M. Joukowsky Forum
TOMORROW Underground Coffee Co. Free Espresso Tasting 12:00 P.M. The Underground
Financial Inclusion in Urban India 4:00 P.M. Watson Institute
Eugenics and the Ethics of Human Engineering 7:00 P.M. Friedman Auditorium
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark 8:00 P.M. Leeds Theatre
A Note from the Margin: The Unsafe Spaces of Democracy Jelani Cobb Professor of Journalism, Columbia University School of Journalism, and staff writer for The New Yorker
Tuesday, October 11, 2016 4:00 p.m. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. Martinos Auditorium The Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts 154 Angell Street Providence, Rhode Island
REAFFIRMING UNIVERSITY VALUES: Campus Dialogue and Discourse Co-Sponsored by the Office of the President and the Office of the Provost
To request special services, accommodations or assistant for this event, please contact the University Event and Conference Services Office at UniversityEvents@brown.edu.
ARTS & CULTURE WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016 • PAGE 5
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
‘Ivy League Rumba’ explores Afro-Cuban renaissance Documentary highlights 2015 Latin Jazz, Pop Festival, history of danceoriented music By STEPHANIE ZHANG CONTRIBUTING WRTIER
“Ivy League Rumba,” a documentary covering the Latin Jazz and Pop Festival held at Brown last fall, premiered Thursday at the Watson Institute for International Studies. The film explores contemporary Latin music in the United States, using performances from top Latin artists to showcase the fusion of modern music trends with traditional sounds and rhythms. The screening, hosted by Brown’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, was featured in the 24th annual Providence Latin American Film Festival. “The goal is to really bring great films to the area, but also to showcase local talent as much as possible and also to … ignite the creative passion of the local artist community,” said Ron Crosson, treasurer for the PLAFF. The screening marked the continuation of a long-standing collaboration between CLACS and PLAFF, with the University historically being heavily involved in the festival. The film revolved around the premise that most people do not understand rumba on a musical level — but they know they like it. “The rumba, the rumba is a feeling,” said a performer featured in the documentary. And it was a feeling that permeated the musicians
COURTESY OF WATSON INSTITUTE
Musicians captivated audiences at last fall’s Latin Jazz and Pop Festival. Brown’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies hosted a screening of “Ivy League Rumba,” a documentary about the festival, which focuses on the Afro-Cuban roots of the dance and its recent resurgence in popularity. onstage, their live audiences and the viewers in the room, many of whom sang along with the performers and matched every word. The documentary delves into the history of rumba, a dance-oriented musical style developed by Afro-Cuban workers. The film follows rumba’s arrival on the American music scene, prompted by a partnership between renowned Cuban jazz musician Chano Pozo and Dizzy Gillespie, who was heavily influenced by Pozo. Co-director Joe Cardona stressed the importance of knowing how the musical genre originated and evolved. “Knowing is half the battle,” co-director
Ralf Gonzalez added. Cardona connected the rich history of Latin musical traditions to the narrative of American identity. “I think we’re redefining America,” he said. “I’m a proud American — of Cuban descent, of Puerto Rican descent — and I think that we are an amazing country, and that’s what makes us strong.” To illustrate this point, the film contains a tasteful balance of musical exposition, narration and interview. There are several continuous minutes of powerful performance by Afro-Cuban funk band PALO! featuring vocals by Leslie Cartaya, one of several artists featured in
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the documentary. “What you heard is what you heard,” Cardona said. “Leslie sings the hell out of everything, and they bang those drums like no one’s business. There’s no doctoring, that’s the real deal.” While last year’s Latin Jazz and Pop Festival serves as the subject of the film, its focus reaches much further. The film described the recent resurgence in AfroCuban music as a kind of renaissance. Director of CLACS and Professor of Political Science Richard Snyder, who held a Q&A with the film’s directors after the screening, linked the movement to changing demographics. In Providence, roughly 40 percent of people are of
Hispanic or Latinx origin, Snyder said, adding that in a community containing so much Latinx culture, he found the process of organizing the music festival organic. Cardona attributed much of the movement to changes in the political climate, given the United States’ recent lift of its embargo on Cuba. For years, political tension had acted as a roadblock in the cultural dialogue between the two nations, he added. “When politics on both sides step out of the way, you’re going to see a boom like you’ve never seen,” Cardona said.
COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Arts & Culture Roundup BY REBECCA ELLIS, ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Luke’s Coffee Day
Vanuatu Coffee Roasters at 294 Atwells Avenue will turn itself into Luke’s Diner tomorrow in honor of “Gilmoreversary,” the 16th anniversary of the first airing of cult classic Gilmore Girls. Beginning at 7:30 a.m., the coffee shop will provide free coffee to customers.
‘What the Fields Remember’ documentary screening
Wednesday evening, the Watson Institute for International Affairs will screen “What the Fields Remember,” a documentary focused on the Nellie Massacre, which occurred in India in 1983 and resulted in the death of over 2,000 Muslims. Three decades later, the film follows two survivors of the massacre and uses their perspectives to reconstruct the event. The film’s director, Subasri Krishnan, will participate in a Q&A after the screening.
Providence HONK! Festival Oct. 10, Burnside Park will host Providence’s ninth HONK festival, an annual street parade featuring music from local bands like Extraordinary Rendition Band, What Cheer? Brigade and Kickin’ Brass. Over 200 musicians will take to the streets to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day amongst other artists and activists. The parade will begin in Burnside Park and make its way down to South Water Street throughout the afternoon. R O L A N D H IG H
‘Sons and Daughters of the Incarcerated’ documentary screening The John Nicholas Brown Center will host a screening of “Sons and Daughters of the Incarcerated,” a documentary focused on children whose parents are currently incarcerated, Oct. 11. The screening begins at 12:00 p.m. and will be held in the Nightingale-Brown House. The 22-minute film will be followed by a discussion with the film’s director, Denali Tiller, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate called one of Variety Magazine’s “filmmakers to watch.” Tiller will lead the audience in a discussion on how children are affected by America’s criminal justice system.
comic P-Branes and Bosons | Ricky Oliver
‘The Accountant’ screening Brown Motion Pictures will hold a free screening of “The Accountant” Oct. 12. The film, which stars Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick, tells the story of an accountant who specializes in criminal clients until the Treasury Department’s Crime Enforcement Division begins to catch on to him. The film will be screened in the Martinos Auditorium in the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts beginning at 7 p.m.
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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016 • PAGE 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Protest Trump, don’t protest vote DANIEL MEYER staff columnist
One of the most pervasive frameworks for discussing the presidential election is as a choice between two bad options. “Roughly four-in-ten voters say it is difficult to choose between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton because neither would make a good president — as high as at any point since 2000,” Pew Research found. The attitude is most common among college-age individuals. According to the polling outlet, only 23 percent of voters under 30 are satisfied with their choices. The cohort most likely to vote for a third party is men between 18 and 34. The protest vote is a product of this framing. Voting for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson might feel like a middle finger to a system that produced an uninspiring answer to Trump. It could feel like a rebuke to Clinton for her support of the 1994 crime bill and her foreign policy mishaps. To students and voters most concerned with racial justice, I sympathize. During the segment
of last week’s debate dedicated to race and policing reform, Clinton didn’t show that she was a strong advocate, just that Trump was a strong racist. Then there is the protest non-vote, the highest statement of disaffection — or sloth. If the protest vote is a middle finger, the non-vote is the middle schooler’s talk-to-the-hand comeback. It’s a
er Street than Clinton signs in dorm windows. Outside of a voter registration table in the Ratty, there hasn’t been much visible engagement with the election. Plenty of Facebook posts, maybe. But nothing like the groundswell of campus energy I remember surrounding other issues. The Brown Divest Coal movement had more vis-
work is a success of the Republican Party — possibly its only one during this election cycle. When fielding an unimpressive slate of mainstream-ish candidates and a crazy demagogue, tarnishing the Democratic nominee was the only way to be competitive. Even without a courtroom success, the Benghazi commission, email in-
If the protest vote is a middle finger, the non-vote is the middle schooler’s talk-to-the-hand comeback.
refusal to participate at all in a failing system. I’ve heard both options endorsed by Brown students in dining halls and on social media. Our generation’s dissatisfaction with its choices in November has been evident on campus. I’m surprised that there hasn’t been more anti-Trump activism at Brown. There are more Trump bumpers stickers on Thay-
ibility than any anti-Trump effort I’ve seen on campus. When Ray Kelly came to defend his unconstitutional stop-and-frisk policies, the outcry was tremendous. I remember the incident as the defining welcome-to-Brown moment of my freshman year. Not so when Trump called for a national stop-and-frisk policy. The reach of the two-evils frame-
vestigations and dogged opposition research on the Clinton Foundation have taken a toll. The problem is compounded by Clinton’s tendency to defend, not transcend. I doubt most Brown students are listening to right-wing talk radio or reading Breitbart. But the dominant conversations about a candidate can seep through Ivy walls. According to
Gallup, the first word most Americans associate with Clinton right now is “email.” “Lie”, “health” and “scandal” are also in the top five. I don’t think Brown students are susceptible to conspiracy theories or scandal-mongering. Still, the depressed energy toward her makes the election an unsexy activist cause. On campus, disaffection is more visible through memes and Saturday Night Live clips. Satire is supposed to have teeth, though. If we treat the debates as a chance to play drinking games and laugh at Kate McKinnon, our engagement with the election numbs us to its tremendous stakes. Though it might be emotionally satisfying, a protest vote or non-vote is incoherent. It protests to deaf ears. A silent action in a private voting booth is only heard if it engages with our real choices. To those who say that change isn’t possible within the system, I am inclined to agree. While you work on that, don’t make the system even worse by participating in a Trump victory.
Dan Meyer ’17 can be reached at daniel_meyer@brown.edu.
Leave safe spaces alone GABRIEL REYES op-ed contributor I remember the first time I heard the phrase “safe space.” I remember how my ignorance motivated me to research its meaning. Through my explorations, I discovered that a safe space was basically just that — a place to feel safe, a place where you didn’t have to maintain a facade of tranquility when your environment constantly induces unhealthy stress, a place where your very presence — your very humanity — could take a much-needed break, a place you could feel as free as you do in the privacy of your own home. As a low-income, first-generation student attending a school that has historically served the elite, I immediately sought such a designated space to get a break from my constant anxiety exacerbated by stressful academics, insensitive faculty members and the feeling of isolation. I felt a safe space was a perfect idea and could not imagine how anyone could be opposed to it. Recently, Matthew Shorter ’17 wrote an oped expressing his concerns with the Undergraduate Council of Students utilizing safe spaces, calling for all meetings to be inclusive in the name of fundamental transparency of student government. He writes, “If (UCS President Viet) Nguyen (’17) and other UCS members do not wish to deal with criticism of their views, then they should not have chosen a role in student government in an era where student activism and vibrant debate on college campuses are as prevalent as they have ever been.” Nonsense. What Shorter and others who share his sentiments fail to understand — what they do not attempt to understand — is that UCS’s adoption of safe spaces is not about alienating a community, but rather integrating it. When discussing certain triggering topics, confidentiality is paramount. Certain meetings must be closed to the public because students’ personal stories or unedited thoughts are, quite frankly, not open to ev-
eryone’s business. But Shorter notes that having confidential meetings “shamelessly disenfranchises community members who are unable to be present due to personal, professional or academic commitments.” He demands that UCS become transparent for fear that decisions without certain voices — particularly those that historically have always been heard — will not be included. The problem with this is that he views disenfranchisement through too narrow a lens. He fails to acknowledge the many voices on campus that do not contribute to these conversations not because their schedule makes it inconvenient, but because of the trauma such discussions can produce. Additionally, in this particular instance, no executive decisions were made at the meeting. The
nalize the pain of those who have experienced trauma. It’s easy for us to separate ourselves from adversity that we have not personally overcome. The kid who was never bullied does not understand why name-calling can be so hurtful; the man who never experienced sexual assault may not understand why a rape victim is triggered simply by hearing their attacker’s name; the white kids may never understand why the one black kid in their computer science class feels excluded. But our inability to empathize with pain does not make it any less real. This is why we need safe spaces. And UCS is no exception, regardless of its effect on students like Shorter. But claiming that safe spaces are a means to escape criticism indicates a fundamental misun-
This was not about making decisions without community involvement. This was not about reforming UCS to indoctrinate its members and brainwash its students in the name of social justice. It was about safety.
statement Nguyen released regarding the decision could not be more simply stated: He wanted students to speak about delicate topics without fear of being misheard, without their stories and experiences being publicly and inaccurately displayed. He wanted to encourage involvement from new members in order to ensure that public curiosity to experiences they do not own would not prohibit engagement. This was not about making decisions without community involvement. This was not about reforming UCS to indoctrinate its members and brainwash its students in the name of social justice. It was about safety. It was about recognizing the necessary narratives and perspectives in our student government because the current space that is available is genuinely agonizing for them. Safe spaces exist because many do not inter-
derstanding of what they are and who uses them. It isn’t unusual for people to dismiss safe spaces by arguing that they coddle students or protect them from criticism by claiming that safe spaces shield students from polarized viewpoints. But this perspective utilizes a rhetoric of privilege that alienates students who may be paralyzed by trauma to the extent that they cannot engage in these necessary conversations. Their privilege detaches them from recognizing UCS’s decision to incorporate a safe space by believing that only the resilient — only those who are capable in engaging in government — should be the ones in government. The ridiculousness in this perspective stems from the fallacy in the idea that “if we can do it, so can everyone else!” In other words: If I am comfortable talking about sexual assault and mental health, you can be comfortable! If I can listen to
a man advocate racial profiling, you can, too! If I can attend a UCS meeting and speak about troubling matters, you can also come! Sadly, this false dichotomy between the resilient and the sensitive is far more nuanced. When it comes to fragile topics such as sexual assault, we must remember that trauma affects each of us differently. Simply because one sexual assault victim can overcome their attack does not mean that others can have public discussions without reliving the trauma. Just because a person of color in a predominantly white classroom does not feel reminded of their tokenization and underrepresentation doesn’t mean others do not. Just because one woman may be able to confidently walk down Thayer Street at night without fear of being sexually victimized by a man does not mean that others can. We should not dictate how individuals overcome their brutalization; we cannot in any way micromanage the amelioration of their pain. If they want to rectify a broken system of sexual assault in confidence, so be it, because when we say that a request for privacy is infringing on fundamental transparency, what survivors hear is “my privilege is more important than your trauma.” The existence of safe spaces, especially in student government, is a vital asset in order to achieve a diverse representation of the issues that occur on our campus. We do not have safe spaces to coddle students; we have them because the space outside of them — a world that reminds some people of their oppression each and every day — is an unnecessary burden that takes a toll. Many may never understand why we need them and will openly repudiate them. To those people, I encourage you to ask why people use them. Ask yourself: What is occurring in our environment — the tangible and intangible — that makes people feel unsafe? But also respect that people — people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, victims of sexual assault and other marginalized groups — do not owe you any information.
Gabriel Reyes ’18 can be reached at gabriel_reyes@brown.edu.
ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016
‘Memories of the Wind’ depicts Turkish tragedy through poet Turkish film takes bold stance on 20th-century conflicts with strained silence, delicate cinematography By ETHEL RENIA STAFF WRITER
“Ruzgarin Hatiralari” (“Memories of the Wind)”, directed by Ozcan Alper, is a film marred by tragedy that draws the portrait of a pained society. The year is 1943 and Turkey is caught between two worlds — that of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Europe and Stalin’s impregnable U.S.S.R. The Turkish government perceives communism as a threat to its national security, but it is not under immediate control of the Nazis and battles with its political ideology. The main character is an artist and
poet named Aram who is forced to flee Istanbul because of his left-leaning political views. He finds refuge in the mountains of the Turkish-Georgian border, in the home of Mikahil, an informant for the Russians, and his younger Russian wife, Meryem. The majority of the film’s 122 minutes is spent in these mountains that seem to trap the main character as much as they protect him. Aram is not a very talkative poet, Mikahil is stoic and Meryem’s voice is first heard only half-way through the story — such that words in this film are as scarce as they are precious. A quiet love story
builds between Aram and Meryem, drawn in tacit moments and hidden longing. None of the characters are ever fully able to express and develop their feelings and thoughts. Each finds themselves turning to another, saying their name and then — “Nothing.” The simple phrase seems to imply the character wants to express complex emotions but is unable to find the right words in that particular moment. Each unspoken word amounts to a seemingly insurmountable disconnect between characters that is truly one of the most tragic aspects of the storyline. The characters are trapped in their solitude, unable to form the human connection that they long for.
Aram’s stay in the Turkish rural countryside as he waits to be smuggled into Russia mirrors his childhood trauma. He is a man tortured by his past and his present, as the narrative reveals that Aram is a survivor of the Armenian genocide of 1915. Through a series of flashbacks, he is slowly able to weave together the scattered pieces of his bloody childhood. He uses sketching in his notebook as a medium for coping with his trauma, remembering how he and his family fled from the Turkish military. His survival of that ordeal invigorates his life through the troubling times in which the movie is set. Alper’s choice to tackle both the universally troubling times in the Second World War and
the highly contested events of 1915 is incredibly bold. “Memories of the Wind” is an ambitious film that strives to depict and denounce Turkey’s checkered past during the two world wars. Aram, a fictional character created by Alper, is a man twice targeted by his society — once as an Armenian child and later as a political black sheep. The story is told in long shots and sober lighting that no doubt reflect the dreary if not anxious times the story is set in. Violence is implied in the last quarter of the movie, but it is never gruesome as it is never fully shown. While the story progression is slow, Alper spins a veri76948 table intrigue that ensures a viewer’s continued attention.
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