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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 81

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U. accused of violating Animal Welfare Act National Institutes of Health investigations find U. ‘in compliance’ with public health standards By HATTIE XU SENIOR STAFF WRITER

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

Students file into the Granoff Center to watch “The Birth of a Nation,” which depicts Nat Turner’s slave rebellion. The film’s reception has been shaped by controversy over allegations of sexual assault against its director.

IFF screens ‘The Birth of a Nation’ Past allegations of sexual assault against director, star, producer of film cloud its reception By MELISSA CRUZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Ivy Film Festival held an advance screening Wednesday night of “The Birth of a Nation,” which tells the story of Nat Turner’s 48-hour slave rebellion of 1831 in Virginia. Nate Parker,

the star, producer, screenplay writer and director of the film, has come under scrutiny in recent months after charges of sexual assault against him came to light. In 1999, when Parker was a sophomore at Pennsylvania State University, he was accused of raping a freshman woman but was later acquitted. Jean McGianni Celestin, a co-writer of the screenplay, was accused and convicted of sexual assault for the same incident. The victim’s clothing, sobriety and previous consensual sexual encounter

with Parker were brought up in court in defense of Parker’s innocence. During the legal processes, the victim cited several incidents of harassment by Parker and Celestin. After these incidents had been reported to Penn State, the university failed to discipline the two men. When Celestin was convicted of sexual assault, Penn State agreed to delay his sentencing until after he graduated. In 2012, the victim died by suicide. This violent history sets the » See FILM, page 2

Animal rights organization Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! filed an official complaint against the University with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Oct. 2. SAEN reviewed internal records sent from a University administrator to the National Institutes of Health after submitting a public request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, said Michael Budkie, executive director of SAEN. The records documented two incidents that SAEN identifies as violations of the Animal Welfare Act, according to the official complaint. In an incident reported June 23 to the NIH’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare — a division that reviews protocol violations by NIH-funded institutions — a titanium mesh implant was placed in a rhesus macaque even though an amendment to the procedure was “still under review and not yet approved by the (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee),” according to the submitted document. During the procedure, anesthesia was

administered, and the animal recovered well. A corrective action plan was later developed in which the “(principal investigator) agreed to not conduct (any procedures) without prior IACUC approval,” according to the document. The University’s Animal Care Facility is required to record surgery statuses as “tentative” until receiving IACUC approval. The procedure used in the incident was later approved by the IACUC, wrote Brian Clark, director of news and editorial development, in an email to The Herald. A second incident was reported to OLAW Aug. 9. This case involved “traumatic injuries” to the right pinky finger of a rhesus macaque that eventually necessitated amputation of the finger, as well as a small tongue injury, according to the incident report. The injuries were caused by the improper latching of a cage door by an animal care technician, which allowed the primate to escape. The rhesus macaque was injured during its “interactions with other monkeys housed in the room,” wrote Director of Animal Care Lara Helwig in an email to The Herald. Corrective actions included disciplinary actions against the technician involved and additional cage-changing training for animal care staff, according to the document. OLAW investigations into the two » See ANIMALS, page 4

Brown Republicans split DPS report reveals decrease in crime on this year’s nominee Rape, drug abuse Group strengthens presence, navigates liberal campus, controversial presidential candidate By KYLE BOROWSKI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In an unusual election year, many College Republican clubs at universities across the country are hesitating or outright declining to endorse Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The Brown College Republicans find themselves divided as well. At a group meeting held Oct. 4, a poll of gathered members revealed only a third had decided to pull the lever for Trump. The student group is not particularly large to begin with. “Last year we consistently had eight to 15 people come to our meetings,” said Ethan

INSIDE

Shire ’19, v ice president of the Brown Republicans. Still, the club’s first meeting this semester drew over 60 attendees. “Midterms are picking up now. But at the beginning of the semester we had ridiculous numbers of people come in,” he said. “We’re becoming much more active this year because we’re larger, and the (executive) board is more fleshed out,” said Austin Rose ’19, one of the group’s co-presidents. “Independent members also do a lot of work on their own on different political races,” he said, adding that he’s personally been involved with half a dozen campaigns in varying capacities. Discussion over Trump was far from one-sided in the Oct. 4 meeting. A number of members voiced concern over Trump’s temperament and ability to appeal to independents. Many also considered Trump’s » See REPUBLICAN, page 3

numbers drop by 71, 64 percent respectively, stalking increases By EDUARD MUÑOZ-SUÑÉ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

An annual security report released by the Department of Public Safety last week charted several notable trends in campus crime from the last three years, including a decrease in reported drug violations, burglaries, robberies and rape. The figures of reported drug violations plummeted by 71 percent in the last year. The document reports 22 drug violations in 2015, a stark decrease from the 76 reported drug violations in 2014. But the 2014 figure was an anomaly, as the number of reported drug violations has not strayed above 30 in each of the last five years excluding that year. DPS Chief Mark Porter praised the Office of Residential Life for “doing a good job with the health and safety of

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

The Department of Public Safety’s annual report praised ResLife’s checks throughout residence halls for keeping reported drug violations low. residence halls.” Their checks throughout the residence halls and the residential community consistently keep the num-

ber of reported drug violations low, he said. » See DPS, page 2

WEATHER

FRIDAY, OC TOBER 7, 2016

NEWS After departures of Residential Life administrators, University looks for new head of office

NEWS Wilson, OMAC, Watson, Geo-Chemistry building to be updated, made accessible

COMMENTARY Steinman ’19: Requiring hour lists on syllabi clarifies course expectations, prompts dialogue

COMMENTARY Kumar ’17: In wake of fatal shooting, income, education gaps evident in Charlotte

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» DPS, from page 1 According to the report, incidents of burglary continue to fall on Brown’s campus, from 63 reported incidents in 2013, to 21 in 2014 and 13 in 2015. Porter attributes the 2013 peak of burglaries to the tendency of students to leave their doors unlocked, leading to a high number of burglaries. He attributed the drop in burglaries to certain DPS initiatives, noting that “DPS has been doing a good job in getting theft prevention information out, working with Residential Life staff (and) working with others to promote securing of property, rooms and offices. And that’s been paying off for us the

» FILM, from page 1 backdrop for the release of “The Birth of a Nation,” which touches on several subjects including slavery, racism, torture and sexual violence. The Ivy Film Festival, aware of the sensitive nature of the film and its director’s history, provided support resources including a room with Sexual Harassment and Assault Resources and Education advocates and a separate space for one-on-one conversations with representatives from Counseling and Psychological Services. The resources were placed directly outside of the screening room. “We did not want to inflict harm on any members of the community,” IFF wrote in an email to The Herald. IFF “also did not want to perpetrate the erasure of Nat Turner’s and enslaved peoples’ contribution to the founding of this nation, as well as the omission of legacies of institutionalized antiblack violence that (persists) today.” The film followed Nat Turner’s life as an enslaved preacher. Throughout the film, Turner gets increasingly zealous as he travels to preach to fellow

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last few years.” Deputy Chief of DPS Paul Shanley attributed the fall of burglary reports partly to the success of Operation ID, a DPS-run initiative in which students, faculty members and staff members place a sticker on their cellphone or laptop. Operation ID “had very strong participation in 2014 and 2015 and really brought an awareness to laptop thefts,” he said. Reports of robbery fell from 12 incidents in 2013 to four in 2014, and they remained at four in 2015. Porter attributed the decrease of robberies to a variety of factors, including the increase of yellow jacket security officers from six to 10 in 2014, as recommended by the

Campus Safety Task Force. “I think it’s a combination of all these things: officers out in high-visibility patrolling … (and) a partnership with the Providence Police to help patrol the campus area and surrounding area,” Porter said. “Also, students are really taking responsibility and utilizing the services that Brown has to offer, like the shuttle and the escort services.” Reports of stalking more than tripled in the last year, rising from four reported incidents in 2014 to 13 in 2015. The sudden rise could be partially explained by an increase in cyber-stalking, Shanley said. In the past year, community members have received threatening and harassing emails over the internet,

he added. Though reports of rape more than doubled from 21 in 2013 to 44 in 2014, figures fell sharply in the 2015 year to 16 reported incidents. The decrease is partially due to a change in terms as mandated by the Clery Center for Security on Campus, the organization that oversees the enforcement of the Jeanne Clery Act, which requires the security report. In 2015, it introduced the category of fondling, leading to eight reported incidents of fondling. In last year’s report, some incidents now categorized as fondling would have been classified as rape. Amanda Walsh, the Title IX program officer, said the spike in reports of rape

in 2014 can also be explained by the surge in conversation about rape and rape culture that followed the creation of Brown’s task force on sexual assault in 2014. “With the increase in conversation, I suppose we would expect an increase in reporting, both for incidents that were in that year and also students who might not have reported incidents that occurred in years earlier,” she said. Despite a surge in certain categories of crimes from 2014 to 2015, the surge in reported incidents does not necessarily reflect the same pattern in actual crimes, Porter, Shanley and Walsh said. Instead, it might just indicate an increase in how comfortable people are in reporting them.

slaves. He witnesses gruesome violence on other plantations and by the end of the film realizes that for every Bible passage white slaveowners use to justify slavery, there is another urging slaves to rise against their oppressors. Following the film, a panel of professors, including the moderator Françoise Hamlin, an associate professor of history and Africana studies, discussed the film. The other panelists included Brian Meeks, professor and chair of Africana Studies, Emily Owens, assistant professor of history and Andre Willis, professor of religious studies. Willis was “disappointed with the flattening of (Nat’s) character,” which portrayed him as a one-dimensional heroic, masculine figure, he said. In the movie, Nat Turner claimed God was speaking to him, which led to the rebellion. But in reality, “rebellions were rooted in African-American understanding of Christianity as it was taught to them,” Willis said, adding that in the film, “Turner’s impetus for change was the sexual assault of female figures. The plot twists were at

the expense of women being violated or hurt.” Willis said he would rather have seen Parker stay within one of the rebellion’s and the film’s core messages: that “religion is both dangerous and beautiful. It’s capable of beauty and great joy but also terror,” he said. “This film relies on recognizable tropes on slavery in North America that (trouble) me,” Owens said. There was an absence of labor and a portrayal of violence as extraordinary — instead of as an everyday occurrence perpetrated by slave owners — she added. The film was very masculine, Hamlin said. “History shows that women and children were part of this (slave rebellion) movement, but you’d never know that from watching this movie.” “Women were cast as supporting roles for the central male figure. There’s a near utter silence of most of the female characters, especially those who were victims of sexual assault. Violence against women became a useful prop for men to talk to each other and make decisions,” Owens said.

The film intermingled fiction with nonfiction. For example, there is no historical record that Turner’s wife was beaten and sexually assaulted, though Parker chose to include that scene. Secondly, after the rebellion when slave owners are searching for Turner and his rebels, the film shows Turner giving himself up so that the deaths of others will cease. But the historical understanding of Turner’s Rebellion suggests he was caught. This contributed to the perception of Turner as a “martyr or Messiah image,” Hamlin said. When an audience member asked the panelists if viewers should read the film differently because of Parker’s actions, Willis said he did not have a definitive answer but encouraged the audience to “keep raising the question. The problem is so fraught given the history of sexual violence in America.” IFF saw the screening and panel as “an opportunity to engage in a series of crucial yet difficult discussions around intersectionality and how we can reconcile the relationship between the art and the artist,” according to

the statement IFF emailed to The Herald. “We also wanted to provide avenues for (the) audience to critique ‘The Birth of a Nation.’ This emerged in the talk-back panel, as the panelists and audience members addressed the ways in which the film … did and did not succeed to provide accurate, or equitable, representation of the event and era.” “All I know is I probably wouldn’t have paid to see this movie. Paying for this trauma is not something I do lightly. I work with this stuff for a living,” Owens said in response to an audience member’s question on if it was possible to separate the art from the artist. Several panelists commented on Parker’s evasive and seemingly apathetic responses when media outlets question him on his sexual assault charges. Parker has publicly denied an apology to the victim’s family. He has attempted to bring the focus away from his charges and back to the film. But “to talk about the history of slavery is to talk about the history of sexual violence. The two are not separable,” Owens said.

U. to look for new head of ResLife after Bova, Basil depart Assistant VP for Campus Life Marylou McMillan currently serving as interim head of ResLife By JACKSON CHAIKEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Assistant Vice President for Campus Life Marylou McMillan has taken charge of the Office of Residential Life as interim head of the office this semester. The administrative shift follows the summer departures of both former Senior Associate Dean of Residential Life Richard Bova and former Director of Residential Experience Natalie Basil. The Herald confirmed Bova’s departure with Director of News and Editorial Development Brian Clark Sept. 27, and Basil’s departure was later confirmed by McMillan after both of their names were removed from the University’s directory. Bova left Brown after 13 years as director of ResLife to “engage in consulting work and continue his education,” according to an email sent out to faculty and staff members announcing Bova’s departure in June that Clark provided to The Herald. Bova “really did start us on a new path of yearly attention to renovation and renewal,” McMillan said. While leading the office, Bova improved many aspects of ResLife,

including the introduction of Community Directors, and oversaw the major renovations of Keeney Quadrangle, residential halls on Pembroke campus and 315 Thayer Street, according to the email. Along with overseeing residential life, Bova was also in charge of Dining Services and was “actively involved” in a wide range of projects during his tenure, including the creation of Andrews Commons, according to the email. The University will be conducting a national search for the next head of ResLife, McMillan said, adding that it has not yet been posted. “I would love (a new director) for next semester, but you never know how quickly the searches are going to work,” McMillan said. Under McMillan, staff at ResLife are “trying new things,” including new programming ideas from Community Directors and changes to Residential Peer Leader training, she said. There was also a change to the off-campus lottery process, she added. “In this particular year, one of the things I have said to people is ‘let’s try some stuff,’” McMillan said. “If it works, great — and if it does not, we will try something different.” McMillan added that ResLife has been trying to listen to what students are asking about and see how their suggestions match up with current office priorities and goals, she said.

MAXWELL SIMEON / HERALD

Due to the departures of both former Senior Associate Dean of Residential Life Richard Bova and former Director of Residential Experience Natalie Basil, the University will begin searching for a new head of the office. She is also emphasizing transparency while at the helm of ResLife, she said. “I really enjoy the department,”

she added. “I know that students do not get to see often the camaraderie and commitment to the experience

of students. … But it really is a group of people committed to the student experience here at Brown.”

NEWS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016 • PAGE 3

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» REPUBLICAN, from page 1 performance in the first presidential debate lacking, said Kelly Conway ’18, one of the club’s presidents. “We have all ends of the spectrum in the club,” Conway added. There are a number of members in the club who support Trump, and quite a few who view him as preferable to other candidates but are still on the fence about whether or not to back his run. “And then we have some people whose hearts are breaking because of this election,” she said. Trump’s penchant for inflammatory remarks and total lack of experience in elected office have left Republican students at peer institutions ambivalent as well. The Harvard Republican Club made headlines in August for refusing to endorse Trump, citing his rhetoric as not only “bad politics,” but also “absurdly cruel.” Following the Harvard decision, the Yale College Republicans released an endorsement of Trump, though they declined to list any concrete reasons for their support.

“It’s definitely been an ongoing discussion since the Harvard Republicans released their statement,” Conway said. “We’re going in a bunch of different directions, so we’re waiting till we have a concrete understanding of how our members feel before we act upon anything,” she added. “Because there’s such underwhelming support of the Republican candidate, we’ve focused our efforts on other races,” Shire said. Shire had spent the previous weekend with other Brown Republicans volunteering in New Hampshire for Kelly Ayotte’s senatorial campaign. The club makes a point of directing members toward political and campaign opportunities at the beginning of each weekly meeting, though the bulk of meeting time is spent on political and philosophical debate, Conway said. In the Oct. 4 meeting, this included discussion of the future of social security, the economics of toll roads and what social programs government should afford its citizens. “First and foremost, our club

functions as a space for everyone to express their ideas and have these discussions without being criticized or have stereotypes being thrown around,” Conway said. “People can get comfortable and really hash out their ideas without any fear of retribution,” she added. A number of Brown students said the space offered by the College Republicans is a novel and welcome one, especially on a campus that some perceive to be exclusive of Republican discourse. “In most rooms I go into, I can be sure of the fact that I’m the only Republican present,” Rose said, adding that it’s easy to feel alone in expressing ideals shared by the Republican Party. “A lot of the way I interact with other people is influenced by the fact that I’m essentially going against what most others think on campus,” he added. “There are definitely members of the club who have reservations with identifying as Republican, which I completely understand,” Conway said, explaining that the title can come with a number of attached stereotypes. “But we can’t be afraid to

NAOMY PEDROZA / HERALD

Like similar groups across the United States, the Brown chapter of College Republicans is confronting discord over Donald Trump’s candidacy. identify as Republicans because that hurts everyone in limiting dialogue.” Streator Bates ’19, a transfer student, acknowledged the liberal reputation Brown has acquired over time but maintained that it didn’t deter him from applying. “If you’re afraid to transfer somewhere because you think you might be shut down for

your views, then you clearly don’t believe in your views very strongly,” he said. “Out there in the real world, there are people who identify as Republicans proudly and aren’t afraid to do so,” Conway said. “This campus should be a microcosm of the greater society and country.”

Watson, Wilson to be renovated for space, accessibility OMAC also to be revamped, including locker rooms, training, laundry facilities By JACKSON CHAIKEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

As part of the University’s ongoing efforts to maintain buildings across campus, Wilson Hall, the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and the Geology-Chemistry Research Building have been slated to receive significant upgrades, said Vice President for Facilities Management Stephen Maiorisi. Watson’s renovations will increase the physical space the institute commands, permitting it to accommodate a rapidly growing academic program. The renovation includes “a 20,000-square-foot new building in addition to the existing 10,000 square foot building,” Maiorisi said. Construction on Watson will start June 2017 and should be completed by the end of 2018, said Michael Guglielmo, director of design and construction. Wilson received a full exterior renovation five years ago, Guglielmo said. Yet it finds itself at the top of the renovations list now due to the need for interior renovations to make the building more accessible. “We have a list of priority buildings (with accessibility issues) we have been compiling over the years with Wilson being one of them,” said Catherine Axe, assistant dean for student life and director of accessibility services. Wilson’s renovation is particularly urgent given the number of classes that it hosts, Axe said.

“We currently move classes out of the building when people get injured mid-semester or people need wheelchair access,” she said. “This will allow for everyone to have a more seamless experience with their classes.” The renovations to Wilson will also include a $2.5 million steam-hub conversion in addition to the renovation, Maiorisi added. Wilson will be “offline” — meaning it will not be in use — from June 2017 to August 2018, he added. A “working group” that includes the registrar and the dean of the College is developing a contingency plan for classroom spaces and meeting spaces while Wilson is under construction, Maiorisi said. The OMAC renovations will include a new football locker room, new training facilities, additional equipment storage and laundry facilities, Guglielmo said. “There have been very few enhancements or upgrades to the OMAC since it was built in 1981,” wrote Director of Athletics and Recreation Jack Hayes in an email to The Herald. “The renovation to the football locker room and the medical training room are needed in order to remain competitive with the other programs in the Ivy League.” Hayes added that the current training room serves approximately 75 percent of student-athletes, and “providing them with a state-of-theart facility for injury prevention and rehabilitation is a priority.” The upgrades to the locker rooms in the OMAC are part of a series of locker room renovations, as some locker rooms in the Paul Bailey Pizzitola Memorial Sports Center were done over the summer, Maiorisi said. Work on the OMAC will begin in November after the football season

ANITA SHEIH / HERALD

Though Wilson received a full exterior renovation five years ago, the new update will make the interior more accessible, which is particularly urgent given the high volume of foot traffic in the building. ends, with a completion date of August 2017, Guglielmo said. Construction on the OMAC will take a “hybrid approach,” Guglielmo said. Some locker rooms within the footprint of the renovation will be permanently relocated to the second floor, while the football locker room and training room will be temporarily relocated while under construction, he added. The GeoChem Building has proven difficult to upgrade over the years due to its configuration, Maiorisi said, adding that many upgrades have been deferred in order to do all of them at once. Because it is such a large space, “we really cannot relocate people … while we are doing the work,” he said. This will require work to be done in the building while people are still there,

he added. Built in the 1980s, the building has several systems that need to be replaced, such as bathrooms and lab spaces, multiple sources said. “The biggest issue for us is rather prosaic: air handling!” wrote Greg Hirth, chair of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences, in an email to The Herald. “Many of our lab experiments are influenced by temperature and humidity. The air handling for fume hoods also needs to be improved. There are also updates to fire safety that need to be made,” he added. Designs for the GeoChem Building will start to take shape this fall, with construction slated to begin next summer, Guglielmo said. There is no “hard finish” for the GeoChem building, as the project is expected to take a couple of years,

and construction will have to “start and stop” to coordinate with ongoing research in the building, Maiorisi said. “That will be the art of the deal on that particular project,” Guglielmo said. “One of the things we’re really good at is completing work around research and coordinating their activities so there is no — or minimal — downtime.” The budget for the OMAC renovation is $8 million, Wilson will receive $18 million for its revamp in addition to the $2.5 million allocated for the utilities upgrade, and Watson and GeoChem will each have a budget of $25 million, Maiorisi said. The OMAC and Watson renovations are both “100 percent donor funded,” while Wilson’s renovation will likely be donor funded and Geochem’s is “not fundraised,” Maiorisi said.

SPORTS

PAGE 4 • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016

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ELI WHITE / HERALD

Will Cross ’17 dribbles through contact with a Providence defender near the opponent’s goal. Despite many opportunities throughout the game, especially a free kick by Nico Lozada ’18, which deflected off the crossbar, Brown was unable to find the back of the net. Providence took the win with an overtime goal.

Brown falls to cross-town rival Providence in overtime Missed scoring opportunities trouble men’s soccer as Friars take home 1-0 victory By NICHOLAS WEY SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Just a few days before its second Ivy League game against Princeton this weekend, the men’s soccer team faced local rival Providence Wednesday in a matchup that truly went the distance. After a scoreless 90 minutes, Brown (5-4-1, 0-0-1 Ivy) entered the first overtime ready to dig deep in hopes of securing the win. But the Friars (65-0) found the back of the net first and held on to take the game, 1-0. This game marks the fourth

» ANIMALS, from page 1 incidents have been closed, a representative of the Office wrote in an email to The Herald, adding that the University is “in compliance with the (Public Health Service) Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.” Both incidents were also reported to the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International, the University’s accreditation agency, Clark wrote. While OLAW investigations have ceased, SAEN has requested a USDA investigation into the University’s research procedures in addition to a

consecutive meeting between Brown and Providence that has gone into overtime. In last year’s matchup, defender Jack Hagstrom ’19 lifted the Bears to the 2-1 victory. But this time, the Bears had major difficulties finishing their chances on goal, which was the main factor in their defeat. Additionally, with an extremely important game looming against Princeton, Head Coach Patrick Laughlin seemed to prefer keeping the starters fresh and played them sparingly. “Today we rested a lot of players since we have an Ivy League game on Saturday,” said Matthew Chow ’19. “We used many guys today, so I guess that was a different approach. But our mindset was still the same: to win the game and win every battle.” Given the teams’ history, playing

Providence remains a meaningful game for the Bears. And this reality showed, with each team gunning from the starting whistle. Just in the first half alone, Brown recorded 10 shots on goal. Over the same period, Providence goalie Ben Saguljic allowed zero goals and denied two Brown corner kicks. In the second half, Providence responded with five shots on goal and three corner kick opportunities. Each of these chances required solid defensive efforts by both goalkeeper Erik Hanson ’17 — who tallied three saves on the day — and the Bears’ defensive line in order to clear the ball away. While the defense remained unyielding, the biggest issue Brown faced was finishing. “I thought the team played pretty

well, especially against a tough opponent like Providence,” Chow said. “We battled hard, and we had many chances. Again, we just needed to finish our chances, and that has been a deciding factor and pattern over the last couple of games.” Specifically, in the 53rd minute, a free kick from outside the 18-yard box taken by veteran Nico Lozada ’18 pinged off the crossbar. Lozada had another shot in the contest, but it, too, missed its mark, going wide of the goal. In another missed opportunity, Chow could not finish a quality chance in the first half after Lozada headed on a through-ball after some nice combination play. Chow’s resulting shot could not clear a charging Providence keeper, who successfully cut off all the

angles, leaving Chow with little room to aim. The ball deflected off the goalie and out of bounds. Next, the team will travel to Princeton and face the Tigers at 7 p.m. in a pivotal Ivy League matchup for Bruno. The Bears will hope to secure their first Ivy win after their conference opener versus Columbia this past weekend ended in a 1-1 draw. The following Saturday, Brown will host the Crimson in the first stretch this season without a mid-week matchup. The team hopes the down time will provide a valuable opportunity to practice, plan and — most importantly — sharpen up mentally and physically. “There’s a lot of guys (who are) unhealthy and injured at the moment,” Chow said. “It’s just part of the grind I guess.”

mandate that the University pay the maximum penalty of $10,000 per incident per animal, according to the complaint. “The University staff has demonstrated that they are sufficiently incompetent (and) should not be trusted to use non-human primates,” Budkie said. “If we’re talking about University staff that are not even capable of making sure the enclosures are locked down properly to prevent a monkey from escaping, why should we believe they can do science?” SAEN ultimately hopes to see the University terminate both research projects, Budkie said. The organization

filed an official complaint against the University in 2014, as well. In general, SAEN advocates the permanent discontinuation of using animals in all laboratories, according to its website. It monitors over 1,100 research facilities and has helped launch 14 active USDA investigations into other laboratories, Budkie said. The University is reasserting its commitment to animal welfare through putting a “thorough system in place to guide and monitor animal care and use in research,” Vice President for Research David Savitz, who originally reported the incidents to

OLAW, wrote in an email to The Herald. Procedures are often reviewed by veterinary staff before they are submitted to the IACUC, which is a team of scientists and non-scientists both affiliated and not affiliated with the University that evaluates procedures and qualifications of the personnel involved in given cases, he added. All staff members employed by the animal care department are trained in “animal health, animal husbandry and other relevant topics throughout the year,” Savitz wrote. He added that many are also certified technicians by the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science and that there

are three full-time veterinarians on the staff. The University plans to cooperate with any possible investigations, as well as to “be responsive to the agencies that oversee animal care and use and implement any corrective actions necessary to prevent future occurrence,” Savitz wrote. “As the institutional official responsible for overseeing these activities, I can assure you that I take that duty very seriously,” Savitz wrote, “and (I) am quite confident that staff at Brown are doing all they possibly can to ensure we adhere to the high standards we are obligated to uphold.”

TODAY

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016 • PAGE 5

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african descent in the americas

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Bacon and Feta, Harvest, Buffalo Chicken Sushi Night JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Make-Your-Own Quesadillas

Minestrone, Chicken Tortilla Build-Your-Own Burrito Bowl

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Sesame Beef and Ham with Vegetables, Tomato Basil Pie, Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

Breaded Chick’n Parmesan, Macaroni and Cheese, BBQ Navy Beans, Frosted Brownies

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Breaded Chicken Fingers, Potato Skins Bar, Cranberry Chocolate Blondie Bar

Sweet and Sour Shrimp Saute, Stir Fried Tofu, Chicken Marsala, Pound Cake,

sudoku ANITA SHEIH / HERALD

A talk titled “Afro-Politics and Civil Society in Brazil” in the Watson Institute Thursday used Salvador de Bahia in Brazil as a case study for discussing the democratic challenges of peoples of African descent in the Americas.

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

“History shows that women and children were part of this (slave rebellion) movement, but you’d never know that from watching this movie.

”

— Françoise Hamlin, associate professor of history and Africana studies

See film on page 1.

crossword

calendar FRIDAY

OCTOBER

Coffee with a Cop Day 8:30 A.M. Brown Bookstore

Nailing the Interview 9:30 A.M. Watson Institute

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SATURDAY Apple Picking 12:45 P.M. Off-Campus Location

People of the Archive 1:30 P.M. Maddock Alumni Center

SUNDAY Catholic Mass 10:30 A.M. Manning Chapel

Meet Vera Stark 2:00 P.M. Leeds Theater

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

EDITORIAL

Brown Bites Nobel gases J. Michael Kosterlitz, professor of physics, was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics this week. Kosterlitz shared the award with two other physics professors, Frederick Haldane from Princeton and David Thouless from the University of Washington. Haldane and Kosterlitz worked on phase transitions between substances so thin they were regarded as twodimensional. Kosterlitz and Haldane revealed “the secrets of matter in exotic worlds,” according to the press release — and now they can finally say that they have something Bill Nye doesn’t. No more cupboards under the stairs Provost Richard Locke P’17 announced historic changes, including freezing undergraduate admission and expanding the graduate school, Tuesday at the faculty meeting. The number of admitted students will be capped at 1,650 per year — so for those of you currently living in converted storage closets, you can rejoice in being the last of an era, whether you like it or not. Locke also stressed cutting costs in an effort to augment the University’s economic sustainability while also altering the current financial aid budget to serve more middle-class applicants. En-down-ment Brown, like six of its Ivy League compatriots, reported a loss in its endowment, as it fell 1.1 percent to $3.2 billion after record highs last year. But the return was good enough for fourth place among Ivy League schools, after last year’s 5.7 percent return was second-to-worst. Navigating mediocrity among our Ivy League peers — that sounds just like our sports teams. Body cameras for ProPo The city of Providence won a $375,000 federal matching grant for body cameras for its police force but still needs enough funds to match the grant and outfit the entirety of the police force. The police officers are “open to the body cameras, and for the most part the members of the force want the cameras,” said Lindsey Lague, Providence Police Department public information officer. The city applied because of the well-documented success of body camera programs around the United States. SWANA Heritage Series The Brown Center for Students of Color hosted a welcome-back dinner for Southwest Asian and North African students this week and will also host the inaugural SWANA Heritage Series this year. Though people from many parts of the region are racialized similarly in the United States, SWANA students identify with a diverse set of ethnicities.

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COMMENTARY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

A case for hours on syllabi tion, it’s not hard to understand why professors made rough estimates or felt obliged to “(scramble) to come up with a time scheme that would reach 180 hours,” as Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science Ross Cheit explained in the Oct. 4 Herald article. But despite the complications associated with the 180-hour requirement, assessing a class based on hours per week is nothing new. The Criti-

CLARE STEINMAN staff columnist

Two recent articles in The Herald have taken note of a new requirement for this year’s syllabi: the delineation of hours to be spent on work outside of class. The reaction to these new criteria has been mixed. Herald columnist Ameer Malik ’18 wrote a column Friday criticizing the new measurements as “inaccurate and lazy.” The requirements spring from rules implemented by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in 2010 that define three hours of work per week as one “credit hour.” A four-credit class over a 15-week semester therefore requires 180 hours of work. This year is the first time since the implementation of the new rules that Brown is being reaccredited by NEASC, a process described by Deputy Provost Joe Meisel as a “kind of peer review system,” hence the change in the syllabi. One problem that many, including Malik, have raised with the requirement is that the hours seem contrived to meet the 180-hour baseline set by the federal government and NEASC. I couldn’t find the reasoning behind the 180 hours in NEASC’s “Policy on Credits and Degrees.” It may well be an arbitrary federal requirement. Given this seemingly top-down regula-

believe the flaw is not systemic and can be fixed relatively easily. When I first looked at the syllabi for my classes at the beginning of the semester, I didn’t know about NEASC or the reaccreditation process. My gut reaction was to see the hours requirement as a positive change, particularly for incoming first-years. Homework in college is vastly different from homework in high school, both in terms of the time invested and in

fast is unproductive. But there is another way to view the hours listed on the syllabus: as part of an ongoing conversation between professor and student about how to achieve class goals. A general guideline, perhaps a range, for time to spend on an assignment can help both sides understand how much work is expected. If both students and professors are somewhat in the dark about how to value work, it is because both sides

There is another way to view the hours listed on the syllabus: as part of an ongoing conversation between professor and student about how to achieve class goals.

cal Review, which releases reviews of undergraduate courses at Brown, includes in its assessments the number of hours students say they spent on the course in a typical week and at a maximum. I’ve often wondered how accurate these self-assessments end up being; I know personally that I tend to have no idea how many hours I’ve spent over the course of the semester. Clearly, basing a class’ workload off a metric of hours spent is flawed, but I

what is expected by professors. Thinking back to my freshman fall, I would have found it reassuring to know that it’s normal to spend two, even three hours on reading for a single lecture in a humanities class. Of course, everyone works at their own pace, and that varies day to day as well. Weekly assignments that took half an hour last week might take an hour and a half this week. Interpreting these requirements as hard and

are attempting to do so independently when this process should be nothing but collaborative. Now that the syllabus has hourly guidelines, professors should request feedback on how well the guidelines — which should always be treated as suggestions — reflect the actual course load. By seeking responses from students at the end of a unit or assignment on the amount of time they spent on work, professors can gain a greater understanding of

the impact and difficulty of their curricula. This would shed more light upon both the estimates currently in the syllabi and the broad metric in the Critical Review. From there, the syllabus can be refined for the next semester, furthering future students’ understanding of how the class will function. The point is not to make students feel that they don’t work quickly enough, but to ensure that the work they do and the time they spend is valued and accounted for. Both professors and students will get more out of a class when both sides are made more fully aware of the effort required to thrive in a course. Some of my most frustrating moments in college have been when I’ve felt unable to understand what a professor is asking for. I’m sure that professors feel similarly when their expectations go unheeded. Being open when it comes to these expectations would benefit both professors and students, and noting the hours to spend on an assignment on the syllabus is a good way to start. Nothing in college is more limited than time. If allotted in a way that involves input from both professors and students, the time that we spend on our work and in our lives will be enriched for it.

Clare Steinman ’19 can be reached at clare_steinman@brown.edu.

The Queen City loses its crown NIKHIL KUMAR staff columnist I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina when I was two years old and lived there until coming to Brown three years ago. I thought I knew it well: the medium-sized “Queen City” leading the way for the New South with its big banks, beautiful trees and outsize airport. Over the past two decades, I’ve borne witness to its population explosion and the accompanying transformation of its downtown — referred to as “Uptown” for obscure reasons — glittering neighborhoods and painfully congested roads. “Growth” and “change” are the buzzwords on the tip of every Charlottean’s tongue. In April I wrote a column (“Kumar ’17: Notes from North Carolina,” April 12) about the recently passed HB2, which garnered wrathful attention from the entire country for its efforts to regulate bathroom use. But that was a state law that reflected poorly on North Carolina, while Charlotte emerged from the debacle as a beacon of progress. Gov. Pat McCrory and the leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly have also yet to repeal the law. It was Charlotte’s recently passed anti-discrimination ordinance, after all, that had provoked the passage of HB2 in the first place. My consternation over North Carolina’s fall from grace was assuaged by the seemingly unbreakable success of its largest city. Recently, though, I have been rediscovering — and reevaluating — my home city in a different light. Charlotte became the latest battleground in today’s civil rights movement after the Sept. 20 fatal shooting of Keith Lamont

Scott by a police officer. Protesters clashed with police for several nights following the shooting in demonstrations that turned to rioting. McCrory declared a state of emergency, and Facebook controversially turned on Safety Check. A dramatic photograph of a line of police officers in front of a local bus with the destination “NOT IN SERVICE” circulated widely. Charlotte was no longer immune to the racial tensions that have roiled the country in the past few years, and no one could deny it. At first, my reaction to the situation in Charlotte was muted as I worked through it in my head. What did it say about my home city that

Earlier this week I read a New Yorker article, “The Desegregation and Resegregation of Charlotte’s Schools” by Clint Smith, that helped me to reconceptualize the city and better understand its problems. In the article, Smith argues that Scott’s shooting did not occur in a vacuum, but in a deeply segregated city where the public school system has gradually resegregated over the past 20 years. Beginning in the late 1960s, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools introduced an exemplary mandatory busing program to integrate schools, but a series of decisions since the turn of the millennium has erased that progress. Smith points out the multiple benefits of inte-

The signs of Charlotte’s divisions have been there all along, whether or not we chose to admit it.

black Charlotteans and their allies felt compelled to demonstrate against injustice on multiple nights? The business-centric Charlotte with which I was familiar had never been particularly political compared to the capital, Raleigh, and the rest of the Research Triangle, home to Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Many of my Charlotte friends who rarely post on Facebook shared impassioned statuses about their personal reactions to the unfolding events and the need to make a change. I realized that I had to wake up to the reality of the situation — a city far more complicated and troubled than the Queen City I had idealized.

grated schools — including a closer community, stronger economy and less crime — before concluding on the point that maintaining schools sharply divided along racial lines is a conscious, collective choice implemented via the legal system and housing policy. Indeed, the resegregation of Charlotte schools is symptomatic of broader racial and socioeconomic divisions in the city. A New York Times map from May 2015 identifies Mecklenburg County — where Charlotte is located — as “extremely bad for income mobility for children in poor families.” A 2013 Washington Post study of “Super Zips” — zip codes with high levels of income and education — identifies a zip code

in Charlotte that ranks in the 99th percentile of all zip codes in the country. Mere minutes away are two zip codes positioned at the fourth and seventh percentiles, respectively. In the context of such stunning inequality in such close geographic proximity, it’s no wonder that tensions boiled over in the wake of Scott’s shooting. Growing up in Charlotte, hints of this disparity were always present. Once, when driving home from the airport, my sister and I took a wrong turn and were shocked by the dilapidation we saw. How could such extreme poverty exist in the same city as the shining new skyscrapers of Uptown or the rapidly growing suburbs to the South? I always attended public school, and my schools were among the more diverse in the city. But even my high school became more racially homogeneous during my time there, and visits to other high schools in the system revealed even greater levels of resegregation. The signs of Charlotte’s divisions have been there all along, whether or not we chose to admit it. At Brown, it’s easy to feel removed from the struggles of a midsize southern city like Charlotte — even for a longtime Charlottean like me. But it’s important to keep in mind that Charlotte’s problems, like segregation and inequality, are common to cities all across the country (Providence included). Rather than wait for these problems to culminate in crisis, we should all take steps to bring our communities together now, whether through government policy like school desegregation or individual action. As Smith points out in his article, we are all responsible for the society we create.

Nikhil Kumar ’17 can be reached at nikhil_kumar@brown.edu.

SPORTS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2016

Major League Baseball postseason gets wild JAMES SCHAPIRO sports columnist MLB’s ordinary postseason has begun: The wild-card games are over, which means that fans of both losing teams are understandably upset. And while some will complain that one single wild-card game is not enough, and that baseball, statistically speaking, was never meant to be a single-elimination sport, you’ll hear no objection from me. The wild-card game is perfect just the way it is. First, some history: Starting in 1969, when the National and American Leagues each expanded from one division to two, the winners of each division met their league’s other division winner in the division series. That series determined the pennant winner, who went on to the World Series to face the pennant winner from the opposing league. The system could not have been more straightforward. But MLB expanded from two divisions in each league to three in 1994.

While football, for example, can give top teams bye weeks due to the long periods of rest in the football schedule, sitting two baseball teams down for a week or more is simply implausible. Baseball is played almost daily for 162 games, and a team suddenly given a week or more off will almost certainly become rusty. First-round byes are not an option in MLB — which means a six-team tournament, the logical conclusion of two three-division leagues, is not possible. So the wild card was introduced. It’s a fairly simple concept: Outside of the three division winners, the nextbest team also makes the playoffs, giving each league a tidy, four-team postseason. But the wild card was not without its problems. The most common complaint was that the existence of the wild card removed the incentive for a team to win its division. Obviously, winning one’s division is superior to finishing second, but under the original wildcard system, division winners and the wild-card team both had a chance to advance in a five-game series. In 2012, a new system was introduced: the one-game wild-card play-in.

One wild-card team would enter the normal postseason format. But that one team would not be the team behind the division leaders, at least not by default. The lone true postseason entrant would be determined by a one-game playoff between the two teams atop the wildcard standings. Upon the new format’s implementation in 2012, a sharp divide appeared between those who believed it worked perfectly and those who believed the one-game playoff was not enough. At least play a three-game series, they advocated. One game is too small a sample size. One game doesn’t show anything. While I understand the latter group’s argument, you can count me squarely among the former. And what’s more, I don’t even believe the second group’s argument makes conceptual sense. The whole point of the new format was to incentivize teams to win their divisions rather than rest in the security of the wild card. The play-in game clearly does that by making the wild card a less certain means of entry to the postseason and removing the equivalency that formerly existed between wild-card and division winners.

By being only one game, with the largest amount of uncertainty possible, the one-game playoff makes the incentive to win one’s division even greater — in other words, it does what the wild card was intended to do even better. For the other side, the argument remains that the postseason should be open only to the best teams, and an inferior team should not make the playoffs just because it beat a superior team once. But this is barely an argument. The two wild-card teams almost always have nearly or exactly identical records. This season, both wild-card teams in each league had identical records. Last year, each league saw a difference between its first and second wild card of merely one game. In 2014, the American League teams had a one-game gap, and the National League teams were tied. Since the current format was instituted in 2012, only one second wildcard team with a significantly inferior record — a 6.0-game gap —won the wild-card game: the 2012 Cardinals. Those same Cardinals went on to win the division series and take the league championship series to seven games, proving that even though they hadn’t been the first wild card, they certainly

were not out of place in the postseason. I can’t help but think that a lot of the anxiety over a single, winner-take-all game comes from the nature of baseball itself. A postseason series is meant to play out over multiple games, with wins and losses and opportunities for comebacks. But here’s the thing: so is the regular season. That’s what the second wild card does: It makes regular season games that would otherwise be meaningless mean everything, often down to the last game of the season. It’s not perfect: perfect would be four divisions, a single playoff team from each. But with 30 MLB teams, that’s just not practical. Three divisions is the system we have, and within that framework, the current wild-card format is as good as it can be. Baseball fans should accept this. We should put aside our hesitance over the legitimacy of the format and enjoy the extra excitement that it offers.

Now that the Mets have lost, James Schapiro ’19 is hibernating for the winter. He can be reached at james_schapiro@brown.edu.

Four weeks without Tom Brady CHARLIE BLASBERG sports columnist One last title change and one last update before the greatest quarterback of this generation returns to the field. I’m glad the Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills last week. I’m glad they were humiliated by a bad team at home. The Patriots needed to be humbled. The indicator of a good team, in any sport, is the way it responds to defeat. Historically, the Patriots have a tendency to take potentially demoralizing losses and turn them into positives. Every season the Patriots have won the Super Bowl, they lost one defining game during the regular season that served as a turning point. Going back 15 years, the 2001 Patriots lost their second game of the season and saw Tom Brady first take leadership of the team after Drew Bledsoe was injured. After that loss, the tenor of the season shifted. The

team started proving its grit and opportunistic savvy on the field, which materialized in a blowout win over the mighty Indianapolis Colts the week after Bledsoe’s injury. For the rest of the season, Brady rolled with the momentum and confidence the victory against the Colts created. In the Patriots’ second Super Bowl season, their defining loss came on opening day in Buffalo, where they were shut out 31-0. The Patriots released fan and player favorite Lawyer Milloy just five days prior to this game, and he was promptly picked up by the opposing Bills. Milloy proceeded to mercilessly thrash his former team in a game that left everyone questioning the judgment of Head Coach Bill Belichick. But the team came together after the loss and played with a chip on its shoulder for the rest of the season, winning 14 of the remaining 15 regular season games. They met up with the Bills at home for the season finale and returned the favor, handing them a 31-0 beatdown and getting the last laugh as the Bills fell from playoff contention and the Patriots went on to

win their second Super Bowl. In 2004, the team had recently set the record for consecutive regular season wins and started to feel — and act — invincible. They marched into Heinz Field an infallible super-team but walked out with their tails between their legs after falling to the Steelers. This loss brought the Patriots back down to earth, and the humility that it instilled inspired a new work ethic and sense of professionalism that carried over into the playoffs, where the Patriots met the Steelers again. The outcome of this rematch was a lopsided Patriots victory, showing that the regular season loss to the Steelers had forced the Patriots to mature and progress as a team, whereas the Steelers had stayed static. More recently, the 2014 Patriots ran into a buzz saw when they met the Kansas City Chiefs in week four, after which Belichick uttered his famous “We’re on to Cincinnati” line. At that point in the season, the Patriots were 2-2 and could have just as easily played an entire season of mediocre football, but the media’s repeated doubts and

criticism added fuel to the players’ fire and motivated them, especially Brady. After that loss, the Patriots won 10 of their next 11 games en route to their fourth Super Bowl win. The Patriots are unique in that they have a propensity to take adversity and use it to their advantage. That is a huge part of what makes them so successful. The one time they didn’t come together through adversity is during the 2007 season when they didn’t encounter any adversity, going 16-0 in the regular season. And when hard times finally came that season in the form of a smug Eli Manning driving down the field in the closing minutes of the Super Bowl, the Patriots were unprepared. Last week’s shutout loss to the Bills highlighted a number of flaws that can’t be ignored. Had the Patriots been able to continue winning, their small mistakes could have flown under the radar, but this recent loss has illuminated deficiencies — kick returns, ball security and defending against mobile quarterbacks and the option — that the ever-meticulous Patriots coaching staff will undoubtedly remedy before

Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns. The Patriots are special in that their most successful seasons have been defined by key losses rather than wins. Last week’s loss to Buffalo is a fitting spark to drive the team. It was ugly enough and embarrassing enough to get the players fired up, but the notch in the L column did not jeopardize the Patriots’ good standing in the AFC East. Moreover, they have an easy game in Cleveland this weekend to bounce back, giving the Patriots the opportunity to dismantle a bad team and regain their confidence. The Patriots’ response to the Buffalo loss will define this season. If they play with toughness and professionalism in Cleveland Sunday, the team will likely make a convincing Super Bowl run. If their sloppy play from last week carries over, I wouldn’t count on the Patriots to be playing in February.

Charlie Blasberg ’18 can be reached at charles_blasberg@brown.edu.

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