Thursday, November 3, 2016

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

VOLUME CLI, ISSUE 99

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Off-campus Comfort speaking in class varies with gender, ethnicity Fall poll reveals student class participation among residence discrepancies undergraduates catches fire

By SARAH WANG

Three of eight inhabitants attend Brown, none injured in second offcampus fire of semester

By JACKSON CHAIKEN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A fire broke out at an off-campus home with eight residents on Waterman Street around 11 p.m. Tuesday, according to ABC News. None of the house’s residents were harmed, NBC News reported.

Police said three of the occupants of the house are Brown students, and one of the eight attends the University of Rhode Island, according to ABC. “Officers found a makeshift ashtray, and one student said he was smoking before taking a shower,” ABC News reported, adding that police believed the cause of the fire was cigarette related.

The fire took less than 15 minutes to put out, but the “first floor suffered » See FIRE, page 4

STAFF WRITER

For many students, speaking up in class can prove an uncomfortable task, despite the fact that most classes at Brown — and nearly all that have section requirements — factor participation into final grades.

According to The Herald’s 2016 fall poll data, just over 14 percent of students responded that they feel somewhat uncomfortable or very uncomfortable speaking up in class or section.

Specifically, 40 percent of men reported feeling very comfortable speaking up, and only 11 percent of men indicated they feel somewhat or very uncomfortable doing so. By contrast, only 29 percent of women feel very comfortable, while 18 percent of women responded that they feel somewhat or very uncomfortable.

In terms of race and ethnicity, 86 percent of white students indicated that they feel somewhat or very comfortable speaking up in class, while less than 80 percent of Hispanic, Asian and black students feel the same way. Twelve percent of white students feel somewhat or very uncomfortable speaking up in

MATT BROWNSWORD / HERALD

class while 17 percent, 15 percent and 22 percent of Hispanic, Asian and black students, respectively, feel that way.

A host of reasons contribute to feeling anxious in class, including fear of being wrong, fear of criticism, fear of being invalidated and fear of being inadequate, wrote Jackie Twitchell, interim co-director of Counseling and Psychological Services in an email to The Herald. These feelings can apply to everyone, but some reasons specific to race and gender may help explain why women and people of color feel

less comfortable speaking up in class.

“Being part of a majority group decreases threat, while being part of a minority group increases feelings of threat,” Twitchell wrote. “Stereotype threat can lead to increased anxiety and difficulty reaching one’s peak performance level.”

Katrina Jacinto ’20, who is Filipina, said she feels the stereotypes associated with being a woman and a person of color affect the way others perceive her, making her more conscious of herself in a classroom setting. “When I started speaking up more (in class), I was very

conscious of being perceived like the teacher’s pet or a smartass or trying way too hard to appear a certain way,” Jacinto said. “And that’s something boys don’t have to worry about because they’re just sort of awarded for being assertive and for being intellectually dominant, whereas for girls, there (is) a bit more pressure on us to really think about what we (are) going to say.”

Jacinto added that a fear of invalidation is more heightened for her as a woman. “(Male) experiences are immediately taken as valid,” Jacinto said.

“I’ve had people tell me that I sounded too emotional, or that I was getting too caught up in what I was saying — and somehow that invalidates what I say.”

The way people perceive the statements of people of color is also affected by their identities as people of color, Jacinto said.

Jimena Terrazas Lozano ’19, a Mexican woman, also said she feels as though others invalidate her input in class. “(Men) sometimes make me feel like my input is not valid,” Terrazas Lozano said. “I’m speaking, and I raise a point, and they totally don’t even respond to what I’m saying. … Or if I say something, they repeat my own words in their own accent” in an effort to explain their understanding, even when it is obvious that they understand the comment.

Another possible reason for people » See PARTICIPATE, page 2

TAPS stages response to Orlando shooting Students receive accolades Play compilation ‘After Orlando’ stimulates conversation following Pulse Nightclub massacre

for research on bioballoon Experimentation with synthetic biology may aid planetary scientists in future research

By OLIVIA KATCHER STAFF WRITER

The Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies collaborated with the Wilbury Theater Group Tuesday night to perform “After Orlando,” a staged reading of new plays created in response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. The Pulse massacre took place June 12 and resulted in the deaths of 49 people, with 53 others wounded.

“After Orlando” is a coordinated international theater action initiated

by Missing Bolt Productions and NoPassport Theater in New York and includes a collection of over 50 participating play readings which have been staged in theaters across the nation. The reading Tuesday was also in association with Brown/ Trinity Consortium and Rites and Reasons Theater and featured musical

By GALEN HALL STAFF WRITER

ARTS & CULTURE

INSIDE

SARA RUNKEL / HERALD

The Providence Gay Men’s Chorus performed a song written in the wake of the Pulse Nightclub shooting for the first time ever Tuesday. performances and a never-before performed song from the Providence Gay Men’s Chorus. Youth Pride Rhode Island received the donations from Tuesday night’s event.

“We selected nine of the plays from the collection,” said Assistant Professor of TAPS Sarah D’Angelo, adding that it was difficult to choose which would be performed because the “writing in all of the pieces (was) amazing.”

D’Angelo said there were many reasons she felt compelled to put

on “After Orlando.” “It bothered me that this event sort of came and went in the media,” she said. “Clearly the families of victims are still trying to heal from this.” D’Angelo said she does not want the Orlando massacre to fade. Due to the prevalence of violence against diverse communities, D’Angelo said “we need to keep having these conversations about it.”

D’Angelo and the Wilbury Theater Group were separately approached by Caridad Svich of Missing Bolt about » See ORLANDO, page 3

At this year’s International Genetically Engineered Machine competition held over the weekend, a team of Brown and Stanford University students joined over 300 groups presenting new research in the field of synthetic biology. The Stanford-Brown team presented the fruits of a summer spent at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Research Center creating the components of a bioballoon — a high-atmosphere balloon made entirely out of biological material — which garnered one medal and two category nominations.

“The concept (of iGEM) is to make it easy to take genetic components, screw them together and make something new,” said Lynn Rothschild, adjunct professor of molecular biology, cell biology and

biochemistry, the team’s primary advisor and a researcher at Ames.

Teams are given access to standardized pieces of genetic code, called BioBricks, and they put them together in different ways to modify organisms, Rothschild said.

Each iGEM team publishes the results of its research and adds to the growing library of BioBricks, contributing to a biological equivalent of open-source code, and each team uses results of research from previous years. This year’s Stanford-Brown team used genetic code compiled by a team from last year’s competition “to make an mRNA circularization device,” said Charles Gleason ’17, a member of the team.

At a practice presentation Oct. 27, the team explained the reasoning behind its investigation. “We wanted to develop a tool to help planetary scientists,” said Amy Weissenbach, a Stanford student and the team’s human practices and outreach coordinator. The team met with planetary scientists to understand what applications of synthetic biology would » See BALLOON, page 2

WEATHER

THURSDAY, OC TOBER 3, 2016

ARTS & CULTURE Writings of Yoss critique Cuban society, explore colonial legacy through trope of alien invasion

ARTS & CULTURE ‘Other People’s Things’ exhibit brings unexpected representations of mundane objects to Granoff

COMMENTARY Friedman ’19: Voters should not base electoral decisions solely off of comedy television shows

COMMENTARY Steinman ’19: Internet can serve to democratize, improve information about college choices

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NEWS

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» PARTICIPATE, from page 1 of color and women’s discomfort participating in class is the resurgence of negative memories that may accompany certain class discussions for them as people of historically marginalized identities.

“Students report distress in classrooms that address oppression and inequality because the classroom content brings up painful lived experiences and requires a great deal of emotional processing in addition to learning classroom content,” Twitchell wrote.

But despite all the fears and worries students experience with participating in class, speaking up in class still remains an important component of education.

Emily Owens, an assistant professor of history who currently teaches HIST 0557B: “Slavery, Race and Racism,” a first-year seminar that requires participation as part of the grade, believes speaking up is a life skill that translates beyond the classroom.

“A major part of what the liberal arts project is helping students learn how to think. To be able to communicate what you’re thinking verbally (is) a really important skill set,” she said. “College environments are … a really safe way to practice learning how to talk to your peers. It’s really important for my students to be practicing that now, so when they go out into the working world or wherever they end up, they’re prepared to have those kinds of intellectual conversations.”

Classroom conversations can also help students understand the content of

MATT BROWNSWORD / HERALD

a class more deeply, said Professor and Chair of Anthropology Daniel Smith.

“To be in dialogue with someone, to be listening to each other — it is a big part of how students learn,” he added.

Stephen Parman, associate professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences, noticed that in his courses, classroom discussions often become very stale and silent. But during online discussions, the conversation elicits innovative ideas, he said.

The anonymity of online conversation helps people overcome their “social anxieties that have sort of been programmed in when they were young,” Parman said. People have this idea that

“this is how women should act; this is how men should act, … (but) you yourself at your computer, somehow those buttons aren’t pressed, and people seem freer to come out of their shells.”

To feel more prepared and confident in classroom discussions, faculty members, students and experts suggest a variety of methods. Jacinto advised students to write down their thoughts before speaking, adding that it also helps participants compose themselves before taking action.

Owens recommended similar preparation; in her own course, she requires students to come to class with a question prepared to bring up in discussion.

Twitchell stressed the importance of confronting anxiety, whether it be through talking to faculty members, practicing talking with peers or learning relaxation techniques. “Addressing the problem head on — rather than avoiding it — can make all of the difference in feeling engaged in the education experience,” Twitchell wrote.

Terrazas Lozano said she believes students benefit from being brave and raising their hands. “You’ve taken the time to listen, so what you’re thinking is probably thoughtful,” Terrazas Lozano said, adding that thoughtful commentary is always insightful, “in contrast with the people who are just speaking for the sake of speaking.”

COURTESY OF LYNN ROTHSCHILD

A team of Brown and Stanford students presented their model for a bioballoon at the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition.

» BALLOON, from page 1 be most useful for space exploration and eventually settled on the idea of a balloon.

Organizations like NASA can deploy orbital vehicles such as satellites high above the surface of a planet and can place rovers on the ground, but “the space in between (orbiters and rovers) has a huge amount going on” and is often left unexplored, said James Head III, professor of geological sciences. The balloon could explore the atmosphere and take measurements of key characteristics.

In order to best survey this space, a bioballoon “should be able to traverse a planet’s atmosphere,” as well as “monitor temperature and sense small molecules,” Weissenbach said. At the same time, Weissenbach added that

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the bioballoon would “minimize the risk of contaminating any environment (it explores).” In order to avoid the possibility of contamination, none of the material in the final balloon could be living.

“By considering these design goals, we were able to identify three main categories for (our research),” said Taylor Pullinger ’18. The students had to figure out “how to produce a biomembrane,” as well as gas for the balloon and biosensors, she added.

The team did not actually create a balloon out of biological material but made significant progress in each of these areas of investigation.

By the end of a summer of research, the team’s members genetically engineered E. coli to produce latex, embedded temperature-sensitive chromoproteins in a cellulose membrane to act as a temperature-sensitive ink and produced biosensors that fluoresce with green light when they contact certain molecules.

“Synthetic biology is so much the wave of the future,” Head said. “In the space program, it’s going to be a key to success.” The team’s webpage states that synthetic biology could be used to reduce the mass — and therefore cost — of materials sent into space.

“Instead of sending bulky materials, we could send microbes engineered to grow the components required to build various tools and structures.”

Despite these successes, for the students working on these projects, “the drive has to come from you being interested in the problem,” said Erica Jawin GS, a fourth-year graduate student in the planetary science department who helped advise the team.

“Einstein is reported to have said, at the advent of the nuclear age, ‘everything has changed but our way of thinking,’” Head said. “And that’s exactly what’s happening here. We do not have a clue what this is going to do, but these students are the ones that are going to be doing it.”

NEWS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Science & Research Roundup Yoss discusses ‘A Planet for Rent’ in lecture

BY LAUREN ARATANI, NEWS EDITOR

Validating readmission rate as a metric for quality care A comprehensive statistical study in the Health Services Research journal led by Momoatzur Rahman, assistant professor of health services, policy and practice at the School of Public Health, validates the U.S. government’s inclusion of hospital readmission as a measure to evaluate the effectiveness of skilled nursing facilities. Recently, the federal government has included a “historical track record of 30-day hospital readmissions in its ratings of care quality” for every facility featured on its website, according to a University press release.

For the study, researchers aimed to pinpoint correlations between low hospital readmission rates and lower future readmission rates to assess quality of care and eliminate other variables such as a hospital’s receiving healthier patients. Four years of Medicare data were used to determine the readmission rate for over 14,000 facilities and compare treatment at lowreadmission facilities and high-readmission facilities. The researchers found that factors such as distance between the skilled nursing facilities and the patient’s home and the number of available beds were “strong predictors” of hospital readmission, according to the press release.

According to the study, the chances of readmission increase by 8 percentage points if a patient goes to a facility with a readmission rate of 25 percent versus a facility with a 15 percent readmission rate. Ultimately, the authors concluded that readmission has nothing to do with the health of patients who go to certain skilled nursing facilities but instead relates to the quality of facilities themselves.

The rebirth of China’s medical education Nan Du MD’16 and Eli Adashi, professor of medical science, coauthored an extensive review of the past 100 years of China’s medical education system, according to a University press release.

The researchers reviewed 794 records and health and education surveillance systems, such as the National Bureau of Statistics of China and the World Health Organization, to study the rapid rebuilding of the medical education system after the Cultural Revolution and its effect on the future of medical education in the country.

Though medical education in China had grown since the country’s first medical school opened in 1886, progress was stifled and destroyed during the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976 when nearly all medical schools were shut down. After the Cultural Revolution, the country began to rebuild its medical education system, which has been a relative success.

Now, there are more than 2.1 million practicing physicians and 167 civilian medical schools in the country.

“They had to go from zero to 60 in three seconds,” Adashi said in the press release.

Today, China is struggling with creating consistency in its residency programs. The standard of evaluation for residents varies by region as there is no nationwide standard, according to the review. With the country’s growing and aging population, medical education will “remain a prominent national policy topic in China” for many years to come, the authors wrote in the review.

The story behind the Moon’s bullseye A team of researchers has revealed how the rings on the moon, known as the Moon’s Orientale basin, formed 3.8 billion years ago in a study published in the journal Science. The team, headed by Maria Zuber ScM’83 PhD’86 ScD’08, used data from the National Aeronautic and Space Administration’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission to create the first computer model of the rings. The researchers found that once the crater hit, “warm and ductile rocks in the subsurface flowed inward toward the impact point,” creating the ripples, according to a University press release.

Scientists hope studying the impact can offer scientists a better understanding of the early development of Earth, the Moon and Mars.

“Big impacts like the one that formed Orientale were the most important drivers of change on planetary crusts in the early solar system,” said Brandon Johnson, assistant professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences.

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Famed Cuban science fiction writer compares ‘tourist invasion’ with history of colonization

By BELLA ROBERTS STAFF WRITER

During Cuban science fiction author Yoss’ lecture, students and faculty members alike got a taste of Cuban government, history and life through the lens of science fiction.

Yoss, né José Miguel Sánchez Gómez, is “one of Cuba’s most celebrated science fiction authors,” said Jennifer Lambe, assistant professor of history and the organizer of the lecture. Yoss has won several awards, including Cuba’s prestigious David Award in science fiction.

ARTS & CULTURE

» ORLANDO, from page 1 performing the staged reading. When the Wilbury Theater Group’s Founding Artistic Director Josh Short heard that TAPS was also exploring the idea of putting on an “After Orlando” performance, he reached out to D’Angelo.

Short said it was important for the cast and the entire artistic team to be a “diverse group of artists.”

“It was important for the LGBT community to be represented in the work itself,” he added.

“These works are all unique,” Short said. “They don’t directly address the shooting itself, but it’s more of a greater problem of diversity and acceptance, and I think that conversation is something that’s important.”

Wednesday afternoon, Yoss read from his novel “A Planet for Rent,” which describes a future of alien colonization while subtextually analyzing Cuba’s colonial past and likely neoliberal future.

“In my novel, ‘A Planet for Rent,’ I tried to write an allegory related to the 21st century where Cuba is colonized with a tourist invasion. They have a lot of money and a lot of technology,” Yoss said. “It’s comparable to this decade with what happened in Cuba.”

One of the stories in the novel focuses on a character named Buca, who chooses to live her life as a prostitute.

Buca does so happily for roughly 20 years until one day insectoid eggs incubating in her womb hatch and kill her.

Yoss said he was drawn to the genre of science fiction as a viable means to express his critiques of the Cuban government. “For many years in Cuba, science fiction has been a very smart way of

avoiding censorship (and) talking about (the) 21st century and dictatorship by Fidel” Castro, Yoss said. “No one can say ‘oh, I know what you are thinking,’ because I can say, ‘you have the problem, not me.’”

Though “A Planet for Rent” has been published in several countries including the United States, the novel has not yet been published in Cuba. But recently, a Cuban organization reached out to Yoss about publication. “Only 23 years after I’ve finished this book, maybe in 2018 the book will arrive to readers in Cuba,” Yoss said.

Yoss writes science fiction not only to critique Cuban society but also to challenge and influence power hierarchies. “If I write about human or natural disaster, the people who are in power will read (these) novels and avoid that future becoming real,” Yoss said. “Life has no filters. You are the only fighter.”

“One of the things that is so powerful about theater is the healing power of it and the application beyond just entertainment,” D’Angelo said.

“The performance in response to (the shooting) offers an opportunity for the community to have dialogue and to begin the healing process from it.”

Kim Kuda, the director of the Providence Gay Men’s Chorus, also believes in the healing powers of art.

After the shooting, Kuda did the only thing she could think of: She turned to her piano. The never-beforeperformed song she wrote was the closing performance Tuesday night and was “directly in response to what happened that day” in Orlando.

The Providence Gay Men’s Chorus’ mission statement is to “harmonize

diversity through song,” Kuda said, adding that because the chorus is a nonprofit organization, “we are very limited to what we can say, … but there are certain things where our voice needs to be heard.”

The shooting “directly affects the members of my chorus,” Kuda said.

The song is “our belated way of paying our respects. … We were together right after the shooting, and we had a moment of silence, but this is very special to us.”

“There are places the members of the chorus are still not welcome to sing. There is still hate in this world that is so unnecessary,” Kuda said, adding that the chorus hopes to do “anything we can do to open one more person’s eyes.”

ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 4 • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

‘Other People’s Things’ gives life to ordinary objects Granoff exhibit showcases Erbacher, Erlanger, Grabner works, celebrates quotidian experiences

By ETHEL RENIA STAFF WRITER

The Granoff Center for the Creative Arts’ Cohen Gallery opened its latest exhibition, “Other People’s Things,” Wednesday night. The exhibition features three artists: Sandra Erbacher, Olivia Erlanger and Michelle Grabner.

The trio’s work harmonizes in “Other People’s Things,” shedding new light on everyday objects and directing the viewer’s gaze toward daily — if not domestic — life. “‘Other People’s Things’ is an exhibition that examines the way in which contemporary artists engage in a critical discourse by denaturalizing the language of everyday objects,” wrote Eddie Villanueva, professor of visual arts and curator of the exhibit, in the event flyer.

Each artist in the exhibition uses different methods and media to give new meaning to seemingly mundane subjects. One of Erbacher’s works, “Home Office,” is a hanging rug-like tapestry of different monochrome rectangles of various shades of gray. Without directly representing any single object one would find in an office, Erbacher’s work is redolent of an office atmosphere, recalling the rectangular shape of a cubicle, the dull colors of bureaucratic decor and the texture of carpeted floors.

Erlanger’s work resembles a physical collage. Her “Rafts” are set on the floor and look like makeshift boxes filled with

» FIRE, from page 1 smoke and fire damage,” NBC News reported.

This is the second fire to occur in an off-campus house occupied by students this semester. A fire caused minor damage to an apartment at 284 Ives Street in September, The Herald previously reported.

When fires break out in student residences, the University will first seek to ensure the health and safety

lost objects set in precise and poetic ways. She makes the everyday lost object seem precious, safeguarded by the “raft” she built. Her previous works have also included an array of material such as cast shea butter, urchin, silk, porcelain honeycombs, steel, tea, receipts, cut leather envelopes and wax. By working on objects so often dismissed as common or trash, she manages to showcase the vibrancy of things society deems vapid.

Grabner’s work pays particular attention to pattern. Her work consists of two “indexical-pattern paintings,” she said during a talk before the exhibition’s opening. Grabner began to focus on indexical painting when she graduated from graduate school.

“I was trying to find daycare for my children and fighting for time in the studio,” she said. She became increasingly interested in the concept of order and its artistic representation. Her subjects were crocheted blankets or paper towels. These everyday objects are associated with the realm of domesticity, and Grabner’s work reflects the regular pattern and daily routine symbolized by her subjects. “She has suggested that her work yields a state of boredom,” Villanueva wrote. As such, Grabner’s work showcases boredom and repetition as a natural part of daily life.

“I think it’s really beautiful,” said Wendy Cohen ’19. “She has these cool paintings that are made by filling in the holes with paint where blankets were stretched over the canvas.” Indeed, while Grabner’s work seems to vaunt boredom as a quality, it also surprises the viewer by showcasing domestic objects such as a crocheted blanket in unusual ways. of those affected, said Director of News and Editorial Development Brian Clark in a previous article. The University will provide “any necessary support services for the students, covering basic needs such as clothing, housing and food and providing items integral to student life like laptops, cell phones and textbooks,” a previous Herald article stated.

The University also provides counseling support to students affected by fires, Clark said at that time.

LILLY NGUYEN / HERALD

Michelle Grabner discussed her creative process and approach to curation in a talk at the Granoff Center Wednesday. Grabner’s art is currently on display in the “Other People’s Things” exhibit also held at the Granoff.

Grabner discusses approach to art, curation Artist talks invoking boredom, repetition as aesthetic themes, replying to harsh criticism

By KAYLI WREN STAFF WRITER

In her talk Wednesday night, artist and curator Michelle Grabner described her art as a way to address patterns, repetition and boredom. She also described her curating style as a way to create opportunities for artists.

Grabner used Eugene Von Bruenchenhein to describe an artist completely opposite from herself.

Bruenchenhein was “horrified of the ordinary” and “spent all of his time in the spectacular,” creating thrones and towers from chicken and turkey bones, Grabner said.

Grabner prefers patterns and order.

At the start of her career, Grabner was fresh out of graduate school, loaded with student debt and struggling to get studio time. She needed to examine the order and repetition in her own life, so she looked to patterns and simple backdrops such as window curtains for inspiration, she said.

Grabner created indexical pieces, stretching blankets over a panel and using paint to fill in the spaces created by the figure beneath. Grabner “sees the drama” in these pieces, and it “gets her giddy,” she said. Grabner moved away from indexes and toward archimedes spirals around 2003, but her work was still focused on order and patterns.

Years later, Grabner took her “crusty, old paintings” from her work

with indexes, and she cast them in bronze to monumentalize them. “Here I have this body, this material thing … in relationship to something that I’m after — this abstraction,” Grabner said, referring to the abstractions of boredom and time. The bronze pieces look like holey quilts solidified in metal and hung up to dry. They reflect the idea that within boredom, someone can stretch time, play with time and make it elastic, Grabner said.

Grabner has recently been thinking about criticality, saying, “I have been very fed up with the suspicious critique,” which Grabner describes as the idea that it is up to critics to unearth the meaning of an art piece. There are so many options for interpreting works of art, Grabner added.

As a visual arts concentrator, Nadya Kim ’17 was inspired by how Grabner dealt with one extremely harsh review in the New York Times that called Grabner a “soccer mom” in 2014. In response to the label, Grabner created a series of pieces using soccer balls as materials. “My work and how people would perceive it is always a concern to me,” Kim said, adding that it was inspiring to see how Grabner recovered from the review.

“The Suburban” is an artistic exhibition space that Grabner co-created in the Oak Park neighborhood in Chicago in 2009. “The Suburban” attracts the work of artists from all over the world and all different stages of recognition, “some people that you know, these fancy-ass artists, but also artists from New Zealand that you’ve never heard of, or St. Louis or from Madison, Wisconsin,” Grabner said.

Grabner approaches curating from

an artist-centric position, which Minae Choi ’19 said she appreciated hearing in the talk. Grabner thinks exhibitions are less about the institution or the audiences involved and more about the artists themselves, she said.

Grabner tries to present artists with sites for their work that will allow them to grow artistically and stretch how they think about the world, she said.

She gave Jessica Jackson Hutchins an abandoned Christian science reading room in Pendleton, Oregon to install her work for the 2016 Portland Biennial. Grabner described the experience as a chance for the artist to stretch her relationship to materials and to think about the site and context of her art in a new way.

Exhibitions such as the Whitney Biennial were once considered the best place to go if someone wanted to learn the current trends in the nation’s art, Grabner said. She co-curated the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2014.

“I was not afraid to organize the bigger galleries of the Whitney Biennial around these bigger cliches, one of which is affect and materiality, one of which is appropriation,” Grabner said. She organized and presented her portion of the building’s gallery as a reflection of what artists were currently thinking about in their lives and world, she said.

The process of co-curating the exhibition showed Grabner that when it comes to art, “the facts are not the truth.” Grabner explained that art is about interpretation. Someone can understand a piece of art differently from someone else and reshape its meaning, she said.

TODAY

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

ode ‘to autumn’

menu SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Na’cho Pizza, Spicy Five Cheese and Garlic, BBQ Bam Bam Make-Your-Own Pasta Station JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Quesadillas

Turkey Chili, Fire Roasted Veggie Saag Paneer

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Falafel, Wisconsin Four Cheese Baked Ziti, Roasted Vegetable Melange, Frosted Brownies

Beef Noodle Soup, Beef Stew, Root Vegetable Medley, Pound Cake With Strawberries

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Cream of Mushroom Soup, Nacho Bar, Saturday Night Jambalaya, Sugar Cookies

Roast Turkey with Sauce, Bread Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Pound Cake with Strawberries

sudoku

RELEASE DATE– Monday, March 11, 2013

Los Angeles Times Puzzle c r o sDaily s w oCrossword rd Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Money under a mattress, e.g.

6 Poses a question 10 Hired rides 14 Singer Lena 15 Apt name for a windstorm?

16 Hollywood celeb 17 Cyclone center 20 Spotted 21 Pitcher’s mistake 22 Feral no more 23 Adds highlights at the salon 25 Sources of storage chest wood 26 Roy Orbison hit featured in a Gere/Roberts film 31 By surface area, second-largest Great Lake 32 Rent-a-car choice 33 Apply daintily 36 Ladder rung 37 Taj __ 39 Gospel singer Winans 40 Needing no Rx 41 Late-night Jay 42 Coffees, in slang 43 Exerciser’s motto 47 Shipping container 49 Inaugural pledge 50 Sarandon of “Thelma & Louise” 51 Channel for business types 53 Magna __ laude 56 Debtors’ documents suggested by the sequence of the first words of 17-, 26- and 43Across 60 50-and-over org.

61 1,000 meters, briefly 62 Hindu guru 63 Loch of legend 64 “By Jove!”

65 Extremely pale DOWN 1 Her, subjectively 2 Hot Wheels and hula hoops 3 Region

4 Flower that usually blooms in winter 5 Playboy founder, for short 6 Thunderstruck 7 Bellow in a library?

8 Spock’s captain 9 Photog’s camera choice 10 Large, noisy insect 11 Starters of the first race?

12 Silly mistake 13 Winter coasters 18 Help illegally 19 List components 24 Japanese money 25 Spiral shape 26 Too-too 27 Sci-fi’s Jabba the __ 28 Forerunners 29 Search engine name 30 Appalachian state: Abbr.

34 Berry in modern diet supplements 35 Oscar category word 37 Chow __ 38 Picnic pest

39 Reliable moneymakers 41 Téa of “Tower Heist” 42 Scribble (down) 44 Postal purchases 45 Drink named for a Scottish hero 46 Like some nighties 47 Channel for political types 48 Psychic glows

51 Forensics team members: Abbr.

52 The Big Easy acronym 54 The Beehive State 55 Kid’s enthusiastic “I do!”

57 Compete in a slalom 58 Clandestine govt. org.

59 Admission in a confessional

ANITA SHEIH / HERALD

Morris Professor of Rhetoric at Williams College Karen Swann visited Brown to speak on the history of John Keats Wednesday. Swann explored Keats’ early works.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

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

“Life has no filters. You are the only fighter.”

— Yoss, Cuban novelist

See yoss on page 3. xwordeditor@aol.com

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Assertive Speaking 9:00 A.M. Brown Office Building, Fourth Floor Conference

Fly Club 12:00 P.M. Biomed Center, 291

American Post-Judaism?

7:00 P.M. Brown/RISD Hillel, and Darcy Weiner Center

The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer 8:00 P.M. Stuart Theatre

TOMORROW The Dialectic of Latin American Democracy 12:00 P.M. Watson Institute

Writing Race and Education History on the Web 1:00 P.M. Rockefeller Library

Scott Healy Speaks about the Music Business 4:00 P.M. Orwig Music Building, 315

Friday Community Dance Series with Gierre Godly 5:00 P.M. Ashamu Dance Studio

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

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COMMENTARY THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Comedy shows do not an informed voter make ANDREW FRIEDMAN staff columnist Few comedy shows are more popular right now than John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight,” which airs weekly on HBO to an average of 4.7 million viewers. The show’s success isn’t surprising since episodes are relatively short, funny and informative, and John Oliver is brutally — and often satisfyingly — unfiltered and brash in his criticism of public figures and current events. For these reasons (and because watching the show helps me go to sleep), I make a point of watching every week, and I assume many of my peers at Brown do, too.

Oliver’s meteoric success has also transcended the realm of TV ratings and entered the political sphere.

Though a self-labeled comedian, he has also become one of the country’s most powerful and conspicuous social critics and a de-facto lobbyist, a phenomenon that Fabiana Vilsan ’19 noted in her most recent column (“Vilsan ’19: News with a punch line,” Oct. 25).

For example, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio “announced that the city would relax bail requirements for people charged with nonviolent crimes and misdemeanors” just a month after Oliver’s segment on unfair bail requirements for poor defendants, ac-

cording to TIME Magazine. The Federal Communications Commission “voted to adopt net neutrality regulations” eight months after Oliver’s corresponding segment caused the FCC’s servers to crash because of the number of angry comments on its site. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he would enact major limitations on civil forfeiture laws after Oliver’s

er perspective on American democracy in a way that Trump, in his attempt to be an “outsider candidate,” never could. “Donald Trump” is Last Week Tonight’s most viewed episode to date, with 30 million YouTube views. Oliver eviscerates Trump by walking through every inaccuracy and contradiction in the candidate’s personal history, from Trump University to faux lawsuits to

ford that amount of political influence to a comedian who denies his significant role in the political process?

When asked to describe his show, Oliver said, “(Last Week Tonight is) not journalism, it’s comedy — it’s comedy first, and it’s comedy second.” Perhaps Trump deserves a more responsible, principled critic than he gets in John Oliver.

Perhaps Trump deserves a more responsible, principled critic than he gets in John Oliver.

segment shed light on the shortcomings of laws that allowed police to confiscate “cash and property from people who have not been charged with a crime.”

In light of his political influence, Oliver’s recent criticism of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump seems especially incisive because, to many of his viewers, Oliver presents a genuine, pseudo-Tocquevillian outsid-

inaccurate statements of net worth.

The episode is replete with its own viral hashtag (#MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain), web domain name and 35,000 hats (which sold out within a month).

Given the amount of political change Oliver has already effected, his criticism of Trump should not be taken lightly, and there is no doubt that his choice words influenced public opinion about Trump. But should we af-

If you’re a fan of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Oliver’s denouncement of Trump could be a good thing. But Oliver’s choice to include his voice in the presidential election has adulterated the altruistic purity that had previously characterized his brand of entertainment journalism. As Vilsan argued, the rise of comedy as political entertainment threatens objective journalism. While

I think Oliver is extremely entertaining to watch and appreciate his show’s role in the realm of comedy, we have to remind ourselves that he is subject to the same motive of profit and pursuit of fame as Trump. Ultimately, they follow the same rules but choose to preach to different choirs.

After the success of his Trump episode, Oliver made five additional episodes, each of which analyzed Trump in more depth. It is now clear that he no longer chooses topics based on their urgency or relevance but rather on potential viewership. As critical viewers and potential voters, we have to understand that “Last Week Tonight” is a show that, first and foremost, generates revenue by maximizing viewership; though Oliver’s altruistic causes sometimes seem too genuine to be motivated by such shallow objectives, this assumption may be naive.

I encourage my fellow Brown students who inform themselves about the upcoming election via “Last Week Tonight” and other satirical outlets to find a reason other than John Oliver’s criticism to vote for Clinton. Grounding one’s political opinions in a comedy show is a practice that is as flawed on principle as the act of voting for Trump.

Andrew Friedman ’19 can be reached at andrew_friedman@brown.edu.

The Internet democratizes college admission CLARE STEINMAN staff columnist A recent article in the Atlantic delves into the messy world of online college applications, focusing on the dramatic growth of the Common Application. The article particularly resonated with me because Tuesday marked the two-year anniversary of the day that I — along with many of my classmates — logged onto the Common App website and submitted my early application to Brown. I can’t dissociate the process of applying to college from the transactional experience that the Common App provided: Enter all your data on one page, and then try to make yourself seem like a person on the next. The transactional experience encourages people to apply to more and more schools, regardless of their fit, resulting in a phenomenon that the Atlantic calls “congestion.”

This process through which applicants can feasibly apply to 20 or 30 schools without considering the differences among them amplifies inequalities in the admission process including: the presence or lack of college counselors and educational consultants, the ability to visit campuses to demonstrate interest, the privilege to apply early without worrying about the need to compare financial aid packages, the privilege to apply to lots of schools without worrying about the application fee — I could go on. With colleges focused on driving up the number of applications in order to increase their selectivity and their rankings, a topic I’ve written about before, less privileged students are left caught in the middle of a cut-

throat numbers game.

I agree with the Atlantic’s premise, that the college admission process is out of control on both ends — student and college. Applying to 20 schools, each only marginally different from the others, is time-consuming and expensive, not to mention ultimately unproductive — you can only go to one college. At the same time, the ruthless pursuit of new appli-

admission that are as old as education itself, then the rising role of the Internet is not necessarily a bad thing. On the whole, the internet — and the Common Application in particular — strike down more barriers than they prop up.

While applying to colleges, I was fortunate enough to have excellent mentors and advisors and to live close to many of the schools

In much the same way that social media has brought people in opposite corners of the world closer together, the Internet can transport college information from an inaccessible trove to just a click away.

cants through innumerable marketing emails and pamphlets just to drive down acceptance rates only serves to make it harder to find the students who truly belong at a college, the ultimate purpose of college admission offices.

These are clearly problems that need to be solved. But if the alternative to the congestion that the article describes is exclusion and a perpetuation of the traditional barriers to

I was interested in, making visiting them relatively simple. These opportunities are not available to everyone, whether for reasons of class, geography, ability or anything else. But a world made smaller by the Internet could deliver these opportunities in new ways, which the Atlantic piece fails to consider. Rather than fly across the country to take a campus tour, students can now sign up online to watch

guided virtual tours or listen to recorded information sessions. Forums like FYBU taught me more about life at Brown than the campus tour that I took, and similar ask-a-student models could be replicated by admission departments across the country, democratically opening the traditional question-and-answer period at the end of an information session to all interested applicants. And while the lack of effective, personalized college counseling in too many schools remains a disgrace, the online proliferation of advice and guidance on the eternally confusing process is an improvement.

The Internet is not to blame for making a bad problem worse; rather, it is opening up a system that has been gated for too long. In much the same way that social media has brought people in opposite corners of the world closer together, the Internet can transport college information from an inaccessible trove to just a click away. This is not just idealism or speculation: Over 30 percent of applicants using the Common App in 2015-2016 were first-generation college students. This is significant.

There are many more steps colleges and high schools can take to further the good that the Internet can do to remove barriers and diversify admission pools, from providing more ways to demonstrate interest to collecting useful information on how to navigate the admission process. The Internet can and should be a facilitator, not an obstructor, of the muchneeded paradigm shifts in the world of college admission.

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

ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

Yoga studio chain Barre and Soul comes to Wayland Square Barre and Soul to open fifth studio in December, combines physical, mental wellness training

By JENNIFER SHOOK STAFF WRITER

This December, students looking for an alternative to the typical Nelson Fitness Center grind will have the opportunity to take a quick trip down to Wayland Square to check out Barre and Soul.

The barre and yoga studio in Providence is the fifth in a chain of outlets founded and owned by Andrea Isabelle Lucas. The facilities are unique in that they combine barre — a low-impact, endurance based strength

training activity — with yoga.

While the studios also offer regular yoga, the Barre and Soul classes Lucas teaches combine the intensity and strength of barre with more stretchand relaxation-based yoga influences.

In Barre and Soul classes, students use interval training to focus on individual isolated muscle groups for short bursts of time followed by a period of stretching. Because barre focuses on using body weight to fatigue the muscle groups, it’s a low-impact and sustainable form of exercise, Lucas said.

This typically intense barre workout is combined with elements borrowed from yoga, such as an endof-session shavasana and yoga arm balances.

“It’s safe for the body, and yet it’s

incredibly challenging, and it’s very results oriented,” Lucas said. She added that people feel rejuvenation in their bodies after attending class at least three times a week for two weeks and witness change in their bodies after a month.

Barre and Soul is also committed to ensuring clients receive both the physical and psychological benefits of exercise.

Lucas herself became involved with barre as a way to cope while undergoing a divorce and recovering from domestic violence.

“Barre was a source of healing for me because I was building physical strength, but I was also getting the therapeutic benefits as well,” Lucas said.

After falling in love with the

method, Lucas became a barre teacher as a way to work her way through a women’s studies degree at Lesley University. She had originally planned to work as a teacher temporarily before receiving her PhD and becoming a women’s studies professor, but after completing her bachelor’s degree, she found herself deeply attached to barre.

She saw the barre studio as a place for her to pair her passions for fitness and feminist values.

“I realized I could really bring women’s studies to bear on the students that I reach as a barre teacher,” Lucas said.

At her own Barre and Soul studios, Lucas works to blend not only her love for yoga with her love for barre but also this physical form of female empowerment with her commitment

to feminism. Each instructor is encouraged to provide inspiration and support through reading motivational quotes and sharing their personal experiences with the class. None of Lucas’ studios have mirrors, which Lucas says helps to foster a community focused on “positive body image” rather than an “environment of comparison or body shaming.”

“When you have the students there for an hour, you can give them a workout, but you can give them so much more than that,” Lucas said. “You can give them a feeling of belonging to a community. You can give them validation.”

While the Providence facility is still undergoing construction, Lucas said she plans to open it sometime in December.