Friday, January 25, 2019 by The Brown Daily Herald

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019

VOLUME CLIII, ISSUE 3

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Govt. shutdown impacts R.I. Coast Guard families Historian discusses segregation,

urban development

Families struggle to keep up economically, but work to support each other amid longest shutdown

Economic Policy Institute’s Richard Rothstein shares reflections from new book during U. event

By MAIA ROSENFELD SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Today marks the 35th day of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and the second missed paycheck for Coast Guard workers in Rhode Island, who are required to show up to work despite their lack of compensation. The Coast Guard has approximately 332 active duty and reserve personnel in Rhode Island, according to Petty Officer Andrew Barresi. While some civilian employees are furloughed during the government shutdown, active duty and reserve members are not. The Coast Guard will continue to provide essential services, including “search and rescue, port and homeland safety and security, law enforcement and environmental response,” Barresi wrote in an email to The Herald. Despite these continued operations, “they will likely not have the full support that they need in order to maintain mission readiness,” Barresi

Former CNN/US President to lead seminar Jonathan Klein’s ’80 study group to explore media accountability By AURIA ZHANG SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Former President of CNN/U.S. Jonathan Klein ’80 will return to the University to lead a non-credit seminar called “News vs. Truth” at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs this semester, according to the Watson Institute’s website. The seminar will explore topics such as distrust of mainstream media and what the truth is, Klein said. “Growing up, we always assumed that the news was reporting the truth to us,” Klein added. “But the big debate today is among sizable numbers of Americans who feel that the news does not tell the truth.” The seminar will be broken into four two-hour sessions that will take » See SEMINAR, page 4

INSIDE

By TYLER JACOBSON STAFF WRITER

SUMMER ZHANG / HERALD

wrote, adding “as far as water safety goes, Coast Guard units in Rhode Island will continue to perform missions that protect life and property.” Many of the Rhode Island Coast Guard members who are working to keep the coast safe are struggling to make ends meet. Mariah Battermann is a Coast Guard spouse and stay-athome mother of two young children in Middletown. She is also, like many of her peers, facing the ramifications

of the shutdown. “It’s definitely got us making some different choices,” Battermann said. “I’m not used to really having to pay much attention to when I go grocery shopping. If I want to get something, I usually just get it … so now that has changed a little bit for us, and we’ve had to make some big cut backs like (not) going out to eat, no stopping at McDonald’s for the kids.” » See SHUTDOWN, page 8

Richard Rothstein, a Distinguished Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, discussed the idea that federal, state and local government policies have segregated metropolitan areas into racially homogeneous neighborhoods and potential government remedies during a talk at the University Thursday. Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, the event was part of a larger series called “Segregated: Structural Racism and the Shaping of American Cities.” Rothstein centered the lecture around his new book, “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.” Rothstein spoke about his perspective on the ramifications of the Housing Act of 1949, passed by

Congress after World War II, which led to segregated residential communities. During the war, the Public Works Department built integrated public housing for middle-class families within walking distance of factories. But as veterans returned from the conflict, the nation faced a housing shortage, requiring Congress to take action, Rothstein said. The 1949 legislation facilitated the separate construction of low-income housing for black and white communities. White homeowners eventually found middle-class jobs and “fled to the suburbs,” while black homeowners remained in public housing, which fell into a state of disrepair, Rothstein said. “People couldn’t understand why white public housing units were vacant, yet black public housing had long waiting lists,” he added. As the value of suburban homes rose, black working-class individuals could rarely afford to move to the suburbs, Rothstein said. The few who could were often denied home ownership by the white developers. » See LAW, page 7

Dannis ’22 wins slalom race at Crotched Mountain First-year paces Bears in stellar start to women’s skiing season, finishes topfive in two races By RYAN HANDEL SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Though Alexa Dannis ’22 began her collegiate skiing career only two weeks ago, she has wasted no time in finding success. In her first race at Okemo Mountain in Ludlow, Vermont on Jan. 10, Dannis led Brown by finishing fifth in the slalom. Then, Saturday she won the slalom race at Crotched Mountain in Francestown, New Hampshire with an exceptional time of 1:30.90, leading Bruno to fourth place overall. For these standout performances in her first two college-level races, Dannis has been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week. Herald: What got you started in skiing, and when did you become competitive? Dannis: I started skiing when I was about three. (National Standard Race) is a public course that’s up on the mountain, so I did that a couple times with my family. My parents don’t ski which is actually kind of weird for a

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

First-year Alexa Dannis ’22 earned a time of 1:30.90 in the slalom race at Crotched Mountain to pull off the victory, improving on a fifth-place finish from the week before at Okemo Mountain. skier. I just did the NASTAR over and over again and forced my parents to let me ski race. I grew up in New York, so it wasn’t the best skiing, and then I moved to New Hampshire and went to (the Holderness School), which is one of the only schools that’s a real school but also has a good ski team. It was either that or a ski academy but I opted for (Holderness).

You led the team in both slalom races so far this season. What do you attribute your early success to? I took a gap year last year so I was just in Aspen, just skiing the whole year, … which is pretty helpful. You picked up your first win in a college-level race at Crotched Mountain. What does that mean to you? It was really awesome. College racing

is a lot different from individual racing, … because you have to race for the team, so it’s more about finishing. In the past I’ve sometimes done really well in a race and then crashed in the next race, but in college you have to finish so that the team can do well. So that was a little bit different for me. But I just skied conservatively and smoothly. I’m really excited for how the season’s going to go. » See SKIING, page 4

WEATHER

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019

NEWS University researchers conduct analysis of cfDNA, find link to biological age of an individual

NEWS Grad School updates grievance procedures, focuses on documentation, timeline

COMMENTARY Schapiro ’19: Should Baseball Hall of Fame honor legends or act as historical museum?

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NEWS

PAGE 2 • FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019

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Joint study on cfDNA provides insight into aging cfDNA reveals similarities between elderly, young, indicates potential use as biomarker By EMILIJA SAGAITYTE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Many say age is just a number, but a recent research study involving short pieces of cell-free DNA has added some scientific truth to this common cliché. University researchers, in tandem with researchers in Bologna, Italy and Belo Horizonte, Brazil, published a study in December proposing a link between cfDNA, which circulates in the blood outside of cells, and biological age, the age of humans’s bodies, which can differ from their chronological age, said Assistant Professor of Biology and coauthor of the study Nicola Neretti. The study suggests that hundred-year-old, healthy individuals show similarities in their genetic structure to those about 75 years younger, he added. If further developed, these findings could help scientists better understand the health implications of aging and possibly determine the efficacy of related drugs. Through sequencing, the researchers examined the nucleotides — the coding components of DNA — comprising the cfDNA taken from the blood of 12 individuals divided into four age groups: approximately 25-year-old “young” individuals, 70-year-old “old” individuals, “healthy” centenarians and “unhealthy,” bedridden centenarians who failed a mental score exam, said Yee Voan Teo GS, the first author of the study. All the subjects were residents of Bologna, according to Neretti.

As people age, the spacing between their nucleosomes becomes less optimal, Teo said. Nucleosomes are components of chromatin, a substance which consists of DNA wrapped around proteins. After analysis of the cfDNA, the results of the experiment indicated that a healthy centenarian’s nucleosome profile most closely resembled the profiles of the young age group, while the unhealthy centenarians and old age group had nucleosome arrangements that were consistent with a greater biological age, she added. The distinction between more “open” euchromatin, which includes the DNA of genes that are transcribed and expressed, and more “compact” heterochromatin, which is denser and contains DNA that does not code for proteins, decreases with age, Neretti said. He added that such changes define the epigenome, which includes all chemical DNA modifiers of a person. “Most, if not all, the old individuals studied did not have an epigenome that was as young as the (healthy) centenarians’,” Neretti said. Healthy “centenarians tend to have a level of distribution of compactness versus openness that is more similar to the young individuals than the old individuals,” he added. These “centenarians appear to have a healthier epigenome,” Neretti said. To arrive at these results, the teams in Bologna, Belo Horizonte and at the University had to apply their respective knowledge in longevity, immunology and computational biology and epigenomics, Neretti said. Those from Bologna, led by Professor Claudio Franceschi at the University of Bologna, and those from Brazil helped obtain the cfDNA. Afterwards, researchers at the University undertook the analysis

of the data, Neretti said. Neretti’s team was tasked with identifying the agerelated alterations in various regions of the genome, he said. The small size of cfDNA makes it especially suitable for analysis, Neretti explained, and facilitates visualization of a nucleosome’s location. Teo believes that observing the correlation between biological age and the cfDNA results in samples taken from people rather than from cells grown in culture is an “important step forward in understanding how (this process) actually happens in humans.” Better identifying the cells that the cfDNA came from is a possible future step, Neretti said. To accomplish this goal, the researchers hope to improve the procedure for studying cfDNA from non-cancerous tissues, which release less cfDNA than cancer tissues, Teo said. In the past, most studies on cfDNA have focused on cancer research, Teo added. Another future goal for the project includes expanding the number of study subjects, Teo said. Teo hopes later experiments will examine gradual changes in cfDNA through more age groups. “We also want to get individuals from real different backgrounds, not just from that region of Italy. We would have to expand to other regions,” Neretti said. Looking ahead, the study may contribute to multiple advances within science and medicine, especially if cfDNA can serve as a biomarker, the authors of the study said. The data “provides a glimpse into how (cfDNA) can be used to predict the health status” and “potentially predict the biological age” of an individual, Teo said.

YILAN GAO / HERALD

Similarly, Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna Miriam Capri, another co-author, wrote that the “results pave the way to identify predictors of unhealthy conditions and mortality.” The experiment also indicates that cfDNA could be analyzed to test a drug’s or process’s effectiveness in slowing down aging, Neretti said. “Potentially, if we could fine tune the predictive power in terms of cell-free DNA versus biological age, then we could use this cell-free DNA biomarker to help in those studies,” he added. Treatments for illnesses afflicting the elderly could be developed with additional studies on the connection between age and chromatin structure, Teo said. Professor Peter Adams, who works

at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and was not involved in the study, was interested by “the suggestion that by looking at this DNA … there are potentially molecular markers on that DNA which can predict healthy versus unhealthy aging.” He has undertaken research on changes in DNA and biomarkers that could help reveal more about the health effects that await an aging individual. He added that analyzing data from more individuals is necessary to substantiate what was found. These predictions could help “treat diseases earlier and maybe prevent diseases, which is good for the individuals, but it’s also good in terms of probably allocating health care resources,” Adams said.

NEWS

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019 • PAGE 3

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Graduate school updates grievance procedures New processes establish clearer requirements, timelines, include graduate student voices By KAMRAN KING SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Graduate School updated its academic grievance procedures last fall for the first time since 1973. The updated procedures establish timeline and documentation requirements, allow graduate students to participate in proceedings, provide multiple opportunities for appeals and create a clearer distinction between formal and informal grievance procedures. Academic grievance procedures are used to mediate problems and cases that do not fall under the purview of other University processes, such as the Title IX process or the Discrimination and Harassment Policy Incident Reporting Process. “My colleagues and I in the Graduate School, together with administrators in other offices, had found certain sections (of the grievance procedures) unclear,” Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Thomas Lewis wrote in an email to The Herald. “The Graduate Student Council had also expressed that some graduate students found the procedures unclear and asked that it be updated.” GSC President Alastair Tulloch GS also cited concerns about the efficacy of the old procedures. The GSC “had

DAPHNE ZHAO / HERALD

heard from people who had navigated the old procedures that it would go on and on and on,” he said. In addition, the length of procedures could delay “the careers and the lives of graduate students if they had to navigate (these) before moving through their graduate program,” Tulloch said. A working group of four graduate students and four faculty members met several times over the summer to draft the new rules. The group reviewed academic grievance procedures at other universities, such as New York University and the University of California, Berkeley, said Brittany Baxter GS, a member of the working group. Lewis then presented the draft at the second GSC meeting of the fall semester and asked graduate students for

their feedback, much of which was later incorporated into the procedures, The Herald previously reported. Compared to the procedures of other universities, “so much of our wording was vague, along the lines of ‘as expeditiously as possible,’” Baxter said. The update also gives graduate students more of a voice in the procedures, as there will now be a place for a graduate student on each committee that hears academic grievance cases. These students’ voices “will be weighed just as other members’ voices are,” Lewis wrote, “unless the matter involves the evaluation of the quality of academic work,” or a student “prefers not to release the relevant academic records.” The graduate students in the working group “thought it was important to

have the graduate student body more involved in these kinds of processes, but understood that required great responsibility and confidentiality,” Baxter said. Clarifying the distinction between formal and informal resolution processes was also key, Lewis said. “It is important that everyone understand(s) when the formal procedures are being invoked and need to be followed.” Under the old grievance procedures, graduate students were required to first attempt to resolve complaints informally with the other person or people involved, Tulloch said. As graduate students often work closely with their advisors, Tulloch added, an initial informal approach, even about the department as a whole, could leave students in fear of retaliation from their advisors or the directors of their programs. As a result, the new procedures “stress that the informal procedures are only optional,” Tulloch said. Baxter also noted that these changes are long-overdue initial steps, which are open to future improvement and amendment. Since Lewis became a dean of the Graduate School in 2016, “the grievance procedure has, as far as I know been used very rarely,” he wrote. “I do not yet know whether the new procedure will now be used more frequently.” Moving forward, “we’re waiting to address whatever feedback may come up” regarding the new procedures, Tulloch said.

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NEWS

PAGE 4 • FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019

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» SEMINAR, from page 1 place throughout the spring semester, Klein said. It will also feature guest speakers, including CNN television journalist Anderson Cooper and Kay Madati, head of global content at Twitter, Klein added. Director of the Watson Institute Edward Steinfeld said Klein’s study group would also focus on public consumption of the news, the difference between news and opinion, manipulation of public opinion and “what can be done about it.” These topics are “very important today because the media itself has become a point of political debate,” Steinfeld added. “There’s so many new channels for people to participate in the media — to generate their own content — that the boundaries around what the media is have become so blurred.” But the seminar will not only focus on the media. The group will also examine the psychology behind why people hold certain beliefs and cling to them, Klein said. “No one has looked at this whole issue of fake news or alternative facts from the perspective of the human creature,” he added. “We think of it as a communications problem, or we think of it as a political problem, but it all starts with us as biological entities. We process information in certain ways.” Steven Sloman, professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, helped to develop the seminar, Klein said, adding that Sloman is also scheduled to lead one session of the study group. “Politics is mostly the art of changing, or trying to change, people’s beliefs and actions. So politicians make use of psychological facts all the time,” Sloman said. “The news is read by people, and people make political decisions, so . . . understanding psychology is essential to understanding the role of the news in society.” Klein’s study group will be offered alongside two other non-credit seminars at the Watson Institute — one led by Chair of the Democratic National Committee Tom Perez ’83 P’18, and another led by Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National

COURTESY OF JONATHAN KLEIN

Students in Jonathan Klein’s non-credit seminar at the Watson Institute will discuss the widespread mistrust Americans feels toward the media. Klein is the former president of CNN/US. Committee. “We’ve been interested in expanding the number of (study) groups that we’ve been doing,” Steinfeld said. These groups have tended to fluctuate between 30 and 50 participating students. Students of the seminars interviewed by The Herald shared largely positive feedback about the study groups. “Sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in the bubble of academics, and this is an opportunity to interact with the real world in a really, really powerful way,” said Fabrice Guyot-Sionnest ’20, who participated in study groups with both Perez and Steele. Viknesh Kasthuri ’21 said he was

drawn to Perez and Steele’s study groups because he felt they were relevant to his public policy concentration. “The reason I was attending these study groups was to get the perspective of experienced figures in policy and politics,” Kasthuri said. “We’ve gotten the political perspective from both sides of the aisle with Mr. Steele and Mr. Perez. And it’ll be great to hear the media perspective from Mr. Klein.” Elana Confino-Pinzon ’20, who took Perez’s seminar, said she especially appreciates that the Watson Institute’s study groups are not for credit. “It’s great because it really takes the pressure off of it, especially for students taking five classes or just really big courses,”

» SKIING, from page 1

up an entire day and have to go home because you’re one inch to the left instead of to the right and you straddle a gate and you fall, or you just mess up and get off your line. So the toughest part is that it could all be over within a split-second decision.

Brown finished fourth place in the first slalom race at Crotched Mountain. How do you feel about the overall success of the team? I think we’re definitely on the up. We have a couple of people injured right now but they’ll be back soon, so I think we’re going to do even better in the upcoming races.

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What do you consider the keys to a good race, including pre-race preparation? Visualization, and just being in the right mindset. Just treating it like training and not giving it anything extra, but being prepared and having your equipment ready. What’s the most difficult part of skiing for you? The most difficult part is definitely the amount of time you have to put into skiing. It takes hours to tune your skis and to drive all the way to the mountain. You have to inspect the course, and take some free runs and warm up, and then all of it boils down to one minute on the course. You can mess

What do you enjoy most about skiing? I like the competition and the feeling of your skis slicing the snow and going fast… Also, I like when your teammates are supporting you in competition and (that the entire ski community knows) each other. What are your goals for the rest of your freshman season? We definitely want to make Nationals this year, which seems pretty attainable when we get the rest of the team back. A personal goal would be to keep doing well in the races. The women’s skiing team will return to the slopes this weekend at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, New York. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

said Confino-Pinzon. “They don’t have to worry about papers or grades.” Student discussion was central to the seminar Confino-Pinzon took with Perez, she said. “Every discussion ran two hours,” she added. “They always ran late because there were so many student questions.” Klein hopes his study group will foster discussion among participating students as well. “I’m hoping that we have students who care about this issue and bring their own thoughts to the table because no one has all the answers to this,” he said. “This is a new phenomenon, and long-time media professionals are wrestling with it as much as ordinary news consumers.”

TODAY

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019 • PAGE 5

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TIFFANY DING / HERALD

Torrential rain wipes away snowy footprints throughout College Hill. The once-picturesque winter campus has transitioned into something that resembles a kiddie swimming pool. Here’s to a week of better weather.

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

“When you get lost in the negativity like on the news, you forget that there are people (whose) hearts are in the crossword

right place.

”

—Rachel Malcom Brown See SHUTDOWN on page 1.

C L A R I F I C AT I O N A previous version of the Jan. 24 Herald article, “U. suspends Buxton House,” stated that President Christina Paxson P’19 wrote a letter Jan. 18 addressed to the parents of Buxton House students. In fact, the letter was addressed to a group of parents of Buxton House students in response to a letter they sent to her. The article now reads “The University has suspended the housing privileges of Buxton International House until fall 2020 after finding the program house had ‘again violated the student code of conduct while on deferred suspension from a previous violation,’ wrote President Christina Paxson P’19 in a Jan. 18 letter addressed to a group of parents of Buxton House students in response to a letter they had sent her.” The Herald regrets the error.

CORRECTION The Jan. 24 Herald article, “University program teaches ASL, Deaf culture, history” misspelled Contributing Writer Mia Pattillo’s ’20 name as Mia Patillo. The Herald regrets the error.

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COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019

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In the baseball’s hall: heroes or history? JAMES SCHAPIRO Sports Columnist The Baseball Writers’ Association of America released its Hall of Fame balloting results earlier this week, and the vote did the institution proud. Four players were inducted, all of whom were deserving; it was, in essence, a nice, happy Hall of Fame class. But beneath the bubbly exterior, there are questions that need to be answered if the BBWAA hopes to maintain credibility among baseball fans and wants the Hall of Fame to maintain its clout. Curt Schilling remained on the ballot, unelected; should the Hall of Fame induct someone who has spouted inflammatory and often nonsensical rhetoric? Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, of course, saw their vote totals increase slightly, but remain far from induction: Do two players who are undoubtedly the best of their generation, but also sullied the integrity of the game, deserve enshrinement in Cooperstown? Other performance-enhancing drug users have slipped further down the ballot. If Bonds and Clemens are inducted, do the voters need to induct these players — Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield — too? But it seems that these questions are really just versions of the only important question: What exactly is the point of all this? What is the point of the Hall of Fame? For the most part, there are two possible answers. On the one hand, there are those who believe that the

Hall of Fame is meant to celebrate the best of baseball, that being inducted to the Hall of Fame should mostly be about honoring the game’s finest. On the other hand, a sizeable camp believes that the Hall should be a museum of baseball: It should capture as much of baseball history as possible, and the induction process should be based on whether or not players on the ballot have made enough of an impact to deserve a spot in baseball history. So which is it? And what does

the issue: If it is an honor, then Hall of Fame inductees are being lauded, and voting should reflect that. So, the Hall of Fame can dispense with honorific elements entirely — it can stop allowing induction speeches, stop celebrating its inhabitants and turn into a true museum, providing an important narrative of baseball history. Or it can take the opposite tack: It can continue celebrating its inductees as it currently does. Speeches, plaques, celebrations of Hall of Famers and

The Baseball Hall of Fame must remain an institution to reward and recognize the greatest athletes in baseball, which means the vetting process for inductees must be thorough.

the answer mean for the future of Hall of Fame voting? The answer seems clear to me: the Baseball Hall of Fame must remain an institution to reward and recognize the greatest athletes in baseball, which means the vetting process for inductees must be thorough. If the Hall is just a baseball museum, then many of its current traditions make little sense. There are induction speeches every year, for instance; people often give speeches when they’re being honored, but if the Hall is about history rather than honor, induction speeches seem out of place. One could argue that becoming part of history is itself an act of praise, but that’s just avoiding

their accomplishments … the Hall can continue functioning as a celebration of baseball and induction will remain an honor, rather than simple codification of history. But if induction is an honor, we need to think carefully about the names on the ballot, and whether they deserve to be celebrated. Take Schilling, for instance. The day after the Hall of Fame results were announced, Schilling tweeted at an account with 181 followers, “Let me get this straight. Your dumb ass is trolling me on twitter because a majority of voters thought I should be in Major League Baseballs HOF? That’s another level of stupid right there. #idiot.” Is this someone we

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Hall wants induction to remain an act of praise rather than a mere expression of what voters believe constitutes history, then we have to ask: Do Bonds and Clemens deserve to be praised? Should they be cheered on stage by thousands, then enshrined on glowing, laudatory metal plaques for posterity, if we are fully aware that they used performance enhancing drugs? Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens certainly deserve to be remembered in baseball history, but celebrating them is a step too far. Both approaches to the Hall have supporters, but those who advocate for the museum approach need to answer some questions.

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want to honor? The person who in 2016 tweeted a racially inflammatory and threatening image toward journalists — should he be inducted into the Hall, if induction means he is being celebrated, honored and given a stage from which to speak in front of thousands of people? There’s a similar question to be asked for Bonds and Clemens. If the Hall takes the museum approach, then of course they belong: They are some of the most important figures in recent baseball history. But if the

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For one, if the Hall is nothing more than a museum of baseball history, why support only Bonds and Clemens for induction? What about Manny Ramirez, Rafael Palmeiro, Pete Rose, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez? If the Hall is going to be a home for all figures important to baseball history, regardless of doping or other character scandals, don’t we need to induct all players with historic-level numbers? And for another, if all the honor is removed from Hall of Fame enshrinement … well, do we really want that? Do we want to see players treated like museum exhibits rather than honored as heroes of the sport? Induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame is baseball’s highest honor, and should continue to be so. And as long as induction is an honor, potential inductees need to be thoroughly deserving of celebration before they join the ranks. That means no Bonds, no Clemens, no Pete Rose, no Schilling … These people are being considered for the highest praise in the great American game. If there’s any need for asterisks, clarifications or statements that “he was a great player BUT…,” then that honor is more than they deserve.

James Schapiro ’19 can be reached at james_schapiro@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

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NEWS

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019 • PAGE 7

» LAW, from page 1 Ultimately, government practices reinforced this “de facto segregation” by building affordable housing in areas already occupied by black communities with low property values, he added. Furthermore, “thousands of instances of mob violence, protected by police, (drove) African Americans out of white (suburban) neighborhoods” such as Levittown, PA, Rothstein said. “It’s a lot harder to (end) segregation in neighborhoods than segregation on water fountains” through legal measures, Rothstein said. Residential segregation occurs because of private individuals, homeowners and citizens who feel more comfortable living near others with a similar racial and socioeconomic background, he added. In order to resolve segregation, the government should “subsidize African Americans to move into integrated neighborhoods,” Rothstein said. In addition, Rothstein warned against the implementation of “temporary reparations” in place of “permanent remedies.” Outside of government action, universities should “give a bonus

TIFFANY DING / HERALD

University fellow Richard Rothstein spoke about the complicated and long-lasting effects of local, state and federal government policies in segregating residential communities throughout the United States. to individuals applying from inteRothstein first became interest- Americans through “accountabilgrated neighborhoods,” which would ed in government segregation after ity policies.” These policies did not “benefit both (black communities) studying the efficacy of American work and he “began to worry about and (white communities) and would education policy in the 1990s, which the concentration of disadvantages incentivize people to move” to inte- focused on reducing the achieve- in school” across racial lines, he grated areas, he added. ment gap between black and white said. Schools have become “more

segregated than ever before” as urban residential neighborhoods became segregated, he added. By attending the lecture, Annelise Ernst ’21 said she learned that “it’s not just individual prejudice that resulted in segregation in terms of housing. … A lot of it is rooted in deliberate government action.” Rothstein’s proposal to offer admission incentives for people living in integrated neighborhoods was particularly interesting, she said. Incentivizing people to move into less homogeneous areas was “something that I hadn’t thought about before,” she added. Frances Imarhia’22 said that Rothstein made her “think about solutions to these housing and discrimination (problems) and (how) it affects us in modern times. Typically we say racism and segregation just exist, but the fact that he offered solutions was good.” “Segregation today has so many consequences for the problems we face today,” Rothstein said. It fosters an environment in which citizens “have no ability to empathize with one another.”

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NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019

» SHUTDOWN, from page 1 Brown University’s Contemplative Studies Program Announces Spring 2019 Classes

COST 0032 Music and Meditation Srinivas Reddy Class: TTH, 9:00 - 10:20 am Friedman Hall, Rm. 101 COST 0034/RELS 0034/SAST 0034 Dharma: A History of Classical Indian Civilization Finnian Moore-Gerety Class: TTH, 1:00 - 2:20 pm Smith-Buonanno, Rm. G12 COST 0100 Introduction to Contemplative Studies Harold Roth Class: W, 3 - 5:30 pm Friedman Hall, Rm. 202 Meditation Lab: MWF, 9:00 - 9:50 am Ashamu Dance Studio COST 0425/RELS 0525/SAST 0525 History and the Practice of Yoga in India and Beyond Finnian Moore-Gerety Class: T, 4:00 - 6:30 pm Salomon Center, Rm. 202 COST 0520 Tai Chi, Qigong and Traditions of Energy Cultivation in China Larson DiFiori Class: TH, 4 - 6:30 pm Friedman Hall, Rm 101 Meditation Lab: TTH, 12:00 - 12:50 pm Winnick Chapel, Brown/RISD Hillel

COST 1020 Cognitive Neuroscience of Meditation Sara Lazar Class: T, 4:00 - 6:30 pm Smith_Buonanno, Rm. G18 RELS 0045 Buddhism and Death Jason Protass Class: TTH, 10:30 - 11:50 am Friedman Hall, Rm. 208 COST 1090/PHP 1890 The Craving Mind Judson Brewer Class: TH, 9 - 11:30 am 121 South Main St., Rm. 247 For more information please go to our website: www.brown.edu/academics/contemplativestudies/ or contact anne_heyrman-hart@brown.edu

According to Battermann, a lot of other Coast Guard families in the area have also been forced to make hard choices in light of the shutdown —which has no clear end in sight. Rachel Malcom Brown, another Rhode Island Coast Guard spouse and stayat-home mother of four girls, faces similar difficulties. To weather the financial burdens of the shutdown, Malcom Brown and her family have cut down on groceries and called bill collectors in order to defer payments. “(We’re) making sure that we’re utilizing the food that we have here – trying to make everything last as long as we can,” Malcom Brown said. This is the first time a government shutdown has affected Battermann and Malcom Brown’s families, they said. Some families affected by the shutdown have come together to support each other as their financial security is threatened. Malcom Brown reached out on Facebook to others in her position to offer what she could: “a warm meal, or a friend.” After receiving an overwhelming response from families in need and those eager to help, Malcom Brown called her friend, Battermann.

Together, the two launched the Be The Light Drive of Rhode Island, an initiative to provide food and other necessities to families affected by the shutdown. On Sunday, Be The Light Drive hosted a potluck dinner at OceanPointe Church in Middletown. The group provided food donated by local restaurants, household goods and pantry items to families impacted by the partial shutdown. They also handed out brochures listing local organizations that can provide assistance to those directly affected by the shutdown and created a sign-up sheet for specific needs. According to Battermann, this event served 61 families. “The community really chipped in and we all came together,” Malcom Brown said. “I started getting messages from everyone in the community, saying, ‘What donations do you need? What can I bring? What can I do?’” “It was 100 percent a community effort,” Battermann agreed. “It was touching and heartwarming and just overwhelming.” According to Battermann, some community members who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits approached the organizers asking what they could buy to donate to the drive.

“The only word for that is ‘wow,’” Battermann said, “because you’re looking at people who don’t know where their next meal’s gonna come from, and they’re willing to help us.” Even Malcom Brown’s six-yearold daughter pitched in, spending her birthday preparing for the potluck dinner. “We had that conversation with her about what we were doing and how we were gonna help people like us.” Malcolm Brown said. “I think that she enjoyed giving back.” Battermann and Malcom Brown are now working to secure a building for a pop-up pantry. They hope to have it up and running before this weekend, and plan to keep it open as long as the shutdown continues. Both of the community organizers remain uncertain but “hopeful” that legislatures will “find a solution soon,” but they are “in the meantime, … just trying to trudge ahead,” Batterman said. For now, Battermann and Malcom Brown are focused on the support of their community. “When you get lost in the negativity like on the news, you forget that there are people (whose) hearts are in the right place,” Malcom Brown said.

B R OW N U N I V E R S I T Y ON CAMPUS and ONLINE

JUNE 24 AUGUST 9

PRE-REGISTRATION OPENS APRIL 1

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