Wednesday, February 13, 2019

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019

VOLUME CLIII, ISSUE #15

English, Lit. Arts face high course demand Departments have attempted to add courses to meet interest, cite budget constraints

Student attendance to the spring 2019 English course“Introduction to Creative Nonfiction� offered at Brown University decreased in each instructor’s section over the first three days of class.

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Report shows discrimination against housing voucher recipients SouthCoast Fair Housing reveals housing limits during State House event Tuesday

By SOPHIE CULPEPPER

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During the first few days of shopping period, it’s not unusual to find students crammed into a small classroom, leaning against the walls and windows, sitting on the floor and even waiting in the hallway outside.

In many cases, these students are shoppers trying to claim spots in an introductory writing course.

Students have struggled to enroll in English and Literary Arts Department courses, such as ENGL 0930: “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction� and LITR 0110A: “Fiction I.� These courses are typically capped at 17 spots, which tend to fill up during the pre-registration period.

But this does not deter students from shopping writing courses. According to Lawrence Stanley, codirector of the Nonfiction Writing Program in the English Department, it is typical to see 40 students attend each section of introductory nonfiction classes in the first few days. In

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By AURIA ZHANG SENIOR STAFF WRITER

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some extreme cases, 70 or 80 students may shop a section, he said. “The University needs to take seriously the fact that we don’t begin to meet the demand,� Stanley said.

According to the four professors interviewed by The Herald, both departments are unable to offer more courses due to budget limitations.

But Senior Associate Dean of the

Faculty Janet Blume said the budgets for the English and Literary Arts departments are “not insignificant.â€? “We’re very aware of providing support to those departments and making sure the resources are used well,â€? she said. “We want to make sure people are getting access to ‌ every course that they want to take. Âť See WRITING, page 3

SouthCoast Fair Housing released a report entitled “It’s About the Voucher: Source of Income Discrimination in Rhode Island� just before the State House received a dusting of snow Tuesday morning.

Research for the report focused on participants in the largest federally subsidized rental assistance program in the country, the Housing Choice Voucher Program. In Rhode Island, the voucher program makes 34 percent of rental options affordable to recipients. But income-based discrimination against voucher recipients reduces their options to seven percent of houses on the market, according to the SCFH report. “Vouchers are meant to allow tenants to rent a safe, decent apartment in a neighborhood of their choice,� said SCFH Legal Fellow Claudia Wack. But in practice, “program participants are often turned away from housing precisely

because they receive this subsidy.�

About 9,300 Rhode Islanders rely on housing choice vouchers to subsidize their rent payments, according to the report. While community advocates had observed income discrimination locally, none had assembled these observations into this scale of statewide data-based documentation prior to this report, Wack said.

Rhode Island law does not currently prevent landlords from discriminating on the basis of income. In contrast with states including Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine and Connecticut, Rhode Island landlords may include language in advertisements that bars voucher recipients from applying for tenancy, or they may refuse them during the application process, according to the Providence Journal.

SCFH began conducting research about income-based discrimination in February 2018, after bill H7528 passed the R.I. Senate before dying in the House. Last November, SCFH continued their research by investigating a set of online rental advertisements, first looking for evidence of discrimination and then conducting phone calls to housing providers selected from the online Âť See HOUSING, page 2

CAAC U. Beekeeping Society creates buzz on campus Student group plans increases to run introductory beekeeping courses, student partners with RISD involvement

By PEDER SCHAEFER

Campus Access Advisory Committee works to increase accessibility, inclusion on campus

By TRISHA THACKER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Following the release of the 2018 Annual Report on the University’s Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, the Campus Access Advisory Committee has taken steps to restructure itself to increase student and faculty representation within the group.

The CAAC is charged with the responsibility to “review general issues of disability and make recommendations for the continuing education and awareness regarding these issues in the Brown community,â€? according to the committee’s website. Âť See CAAC, BACK

INSIDE

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Where would you put a beehive?

The top of the Sciences Library? The tunnels under Keeney? How about in one of the old abandoned common spaces across campus that have been turned into boiler rooms?

All of these options were mentioned, in jest, and then dismissed last Friday at the inaugural meeting of the Brown Beekeeping Society in Sayles Hall.

Approved last semester by the Undergraduate Council of Students as a Category I student group, the club plans to run introductory beekeeping courses to train new beekeepers at Brown, said Scott Huson ’21, the “Queen Bee,� or president, of the Brown Beekeeping Society and one of its founders. The group will also partner with the Rhode Island School of Design by borrowing their equipment and using their hives.

Huson also pointed to the opportunity for possible partnership with

other organizations in Rhode Island, such as the Rhode Island Beekeepers Association.

Tďťżhe club was initially organized by a group of students brought together by an interest in roof and tunnel hacking.

Tďťżheir inaugural meeting, which drew an audience of around 50 interested students and faculty, highlighted an increase in beekeeping interest not only at the University, but also down the hill at RISD. “It started off as a joke, but now that everything is falling into place there’s just a lot of promise,â€? said Aakash Setty ’21, the “Vice Queen Beeâ€? of the club and one of the organizers of last Friday’s event. “We’re all in it for the bees.â€? “Tďťżhe bee problem in the world is a very pressing one that hasn’t gotten much exposure because there isn’t much people can do about it,â€? Huson said. An experienced beekeeper himself, he believes that “getting involved with bees and pollinating insects is (doing) a service to the society.â€? There was a 40 percent decrease in commercial honey beehives in the United States between 2006 and 2013, according to GreenPeace. “Having some hives, having some interest and a big group that’s organized, I think we have the potential

GRACE LI / HERALD

to be here for a while,� Huson added.

Jack Wrenn, a PhD candidate, delivered the keynote address on “The Challenges of Collegiate Beekeeping.�

While the Brown Beekeeping Society doesn’t have any hives yet, they plan to work with RISD Beekeeping and acquire their own hives next year.

RISD Beekeeping is led by Wynn

Geary, a senior majoring in Industrial Design at RISD with a concentration in nature-culture-sustainability. The RISD beekeepers currently operate two apiaries: one on the grounds of the RISD President’s House and another at the Southside Community Land Trust in Providence. They have plans to move  See BEEKEEPING, page 3

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019

NEWS BrainChain offers platform for efficient group study planning, promotes team building

COMMENTARY Mulligan ’19: U. should increase disciplinary transparency in light of Buxton suspension

COMMENTARY Simshauser ’20: Democratic Party should learn from Sen. Sherrod Brown’s focus on ‘dignity of work’

NEWS Computational study suggests that repetition plays an important role in habit formation

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PAGE 2 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Lecturer highlights transcontinental indigenous activism Tracy Guzmán discusses threats to indigenous land, water rights in various countries

By CELIA HACK METRO EDITOR

The construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam caused extreme flooding near the Narmada River in India, compelling many thousands of people to move out of their homes. But some remained close to the river instead of following the resettlement program, choosing to stay on the land “considered to be sacred for them,” explained Tracy Guzmán, associate professor of Latin American studies at the University of Miami, during a lecture Tuesday afternoon. Dozens of dam projects like this were constructed along the Narmada River, which ultimately displaced indigenous peoples and the Dalit population, the lowest Hindu caste.

In her lecture “Transcontinental Indigeneity: Linking the Americas and the Global South,” part of the Sawyer Seminars series, Guzmán discussed indigenous activists from India, Peru, Brazil and the United States who have struggled and fought to maintain their relationships with bodies of water and land. Throughout her talk, Guzmán emphasized that “the current debates regarding the ecological price of capitalist modernization were foregrounded long ago by native communities.”

The people displaced by the

CELIA HACK / HERALD

Tracy Guzmán, associate professor of Latin American studies at the University of Miami, talked about indigenous activism in countries across the world in a lecture Tuesday afternoon. flooding along the Narmada River do not “analyze and quantify the natural world exclusively in the world of productivity and profit,” she added.

The lecture was sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Pembroke Center and the Sawyer Seminar on Race and Indigeneity in the Americas. In it, Guzmán discussed the concept of indigeneity, which she said has evolved to not be confined to a specific set of qualities or qualifications to allow “people across

the world to self-identify as indigenous.” According to Guzmán, this notion has taken on a political meaning.

“We have witnessed the rapid growth of a social, political, cultural and philosophical movement around the notion of indigeneity itself,” she said.

She discussed a protest by Jeguaká Mirim, an indigenous Brazilian teenager, who walked on the World Cup field in Sao Paulo as a representative of indigenous peoples in Brazil. While on the field, he unexpectedly held up a red

banner reading “Demarcation Now!” — a request to define the boundaries of indigenous lands. He was promptly escorted off the field, Guzmán said.

“Indigenous citizens, like Mirim … are expected to stand in for all native populations, especially during celebrated remembrances of conquest, like Thanksgiving,” she added. “They are not called upon to represent native peoples in the present, but to perform a ‘fetishized notion’ of what mainstream society thinks being native means.

» HOUSING, from page 1

— the team found that 63 percent of those landlords refused to accept an application from a tenant with a voucher.

“Zooming out, what those combined numbers mean is that of all those original listings we observed online, a Rhode Island tenant (with a voucher) will ultimately be shut out of 93 percent of units,” Wack said.

“It’s really crushing to people to have all these doors slammed in their faces, oftentimes in a moment that should represent a new leaf, a new opportunity,” Wack said. SCFH collaborated with students involved in Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere and an Urban Studies Departmental Independent Reading and Research Project from last semester to conduct their

research. Sarah Conlisk ’20, Annelise Ernst ’21, Lucas Fried ’21 and Nathaniel Pettit ’20 — who formed one of five research groups of the DISP — spoke about the report at the event . Over a dozen University students attended the event.

“HOPE students played a critical role in scanning online listings for discrimination for a two-week period, significantly contributing to the report’s findings,” Ernst said.

Oscar Dupuy D’Angeac ’17, a cofounder of the media advocacy nonprofit Signs of Providence, helped organize the DISP at Brown. “It’s time for academia and the resources that that world entails to get on board with these efforts, because there’s space for really

sample. The team found that 34 percent of houses available for rent across five websites “should have been affordable to a tenant with a voucher.” But “more than six percent explicitly discouraged applications from voucher recipients, usually with statements like ‘no government programs’ or ‘I don’t take vouchers of any type,’” Wack explained.

SCFH also conducted a phone audit because they suspected that the remaining 27 percent availability of houses still “likely didn’t tell the entire story.” After following up on these listings — which, from their online advertisements, appeared to be affordable and free of discriminatory language or standards

SOPHIE CULPEPPER / HERALD

Urban Studies students involved in Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere assisted SouthCoast Fair Housing by analyzing online housing listings for instances of income-based discrimination.

Guzmán also addressed a plan to build dozens of hydroelectric dams along the Marañon River in Peru, which, if built, “would have proven lethal to local ecosystems, aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity and the indigenous communities with whom they coexisted,” she said.

Only two of these dams are now being built, which Guzmán says is largely due to the advocacy of local people with the support of civil society groups, environmental law firms and global water activists. Many of the government leaders and industry executives are now in jail or charged with corruption, she added.

Guzmán also made an effort to call attention to the relationship between the University’s land and various indigeneous groups.

“I’d first wish to acknowledge that this meeting takes place on the ancestral lands” of people like the Narragansett and Wampanoag, she said.

“And I wish to pay my respects to the members of those communities, past and present.”

Anthony Pratcher, postdoctoral research associate in race and ethnicity, attended the lecture to understand indigeneity and how it could influence his research and teaching.

“When we start thinking through indigeneity, we can start thinking through different ways society is organized, different ways that we can create community, different ways that we should relate to the land and to people around us,” Pratcher said.

valuable collaboration, as we’ve seen with this class,” he told The Herald. Pettit, who is also a Site Leader for HOPE, echoed this sentiment. “A lot of things that our community partners need is just bandwidth, and that’s something that HOPE can provide in a lot of instances,” he told The Herald.

Students and SCFH representatives were joined by two state legislators who are sponsoring legislation that would codify prevention of income-based discrimination.

Rep. Anastasia Williams (D-Providence) introduced H5137 Jan. 17 to “prohibit discrimination in housing against those persons who have a lawful source of income.” The bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee the same day. Sen. Harold Metts (D-Providence) planned to introduce a companion bill yesterday, but snowy weather delayed State House activity.

Wack also noted that the present legality of income-based discrimination can effectively permit other forms of discrimination, including racial discrimination. “Passing this law will actually strengthen … our ability to enforce existing fair housing laws,” she said.

Wack was “encouraged” that Gov. Gina Raimondo recently expressed support for legislation preventing income discrimination.

“For years and years we’ve been trying to pass this legislation. … It’s really, really cool to finally have these numbers and to be able to present it this way because it makes our case for including source-of-income protections even stronger,” Dupuy-D’Angeac said.

The event at the State House was also hosted by HOPE and Homes RI Income Discrimination.

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Online student startup promotes collaborative studying BrainChain allows students to create study groups, hopes to spread to other universities

By CHRIS SCHUTTE SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

A new online startup called BrainChain, created by Chuck Isgar ’20.5, is redefining the ability of students to study together.

The platform, launched on the first day of classes this spring, allows users to quickly set up times to meet and study across all types of classes, with users creating study sessions or joining already-formed groups. The sessions are listed by course name on BrainChain’s website and include the time, date and location of the meeting, as well as the specific material that will be covered.

When creating an account, students list their classes and can elect to receive email updates for new sessions related to their courses.

While Isgar is “not sharing specific user numbers,” he has seen the most interest from students in Economics, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, Physics and Neurology classes, he wrote in an email to The Herald.

Isgar first noticed the need for a streamlined way to promote group collaboration when he transferred to the University last spring. As a new student, he struggled to find partners or groups to study with — an experience he believes is common at the University. “It can be 8:30 on a Thursday night … and within 15 minutes you could have a group of six, two, four. To me that’s really exciting,” he said.

Even though student-to-student interaction is what drives the platform, BrainChain may also be used by teaching assistants and faculty as a way to supplement teaching. Jullian Vallyeason ’20 is a TA for ENGN 40, an introductory engineering course. The class covers a wide variety of material, and due to its comprehensive nature, at times leaves students overwhelmed,

» WRITING, from page 1 … It’s not always attainable, but that’s absolutely the goal.”

Blume referenced a recent gift made to the Literary Arts Department by David Bonderman and Laurie Michaels, which allowed for two new faculty hires. Additionally, the University is trying to give more of those in “visiting faculty ranks” full time jobs, Blume said.

A few years ago, the Literary Arts Department tried to address demand for their courses by doubling the number of classes offered. But “the bottom line is this: there is more demand than we can meet,” said John Cayley, chair of the Literary Arts Department.

The English Department is currently trying to address the influx of student interest by conducting a national search for a new director for the Nonfiction Writing Program, said Richard Rambuss, chair of the English Department. The current directors have held their positions since the beginning of the program. “(We are)

DAPHNE ZHAO / HERALD

Vallyeason said.

Vallyeason plans to use the BrainChain platform to create study and review sessions once labs begin in about two weeks. He added that he often receives a number of questions and emails during both his TA hours and during the week, and so holding a review session created by BrainChain to answer all of the questions at once could prove very efficient.

BrainChain has garnered attention and recognition from a number of professors in the STEM fields. In some of his classes, Professor of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine finishes the semester with group projects and papers, encouraging students to come together. He has made comments and announcements about BrainChain on

Canvas for his courses.

Hazeltine said he appreciates the value of collaboration that BrainChain promotes, adding that he did not recognize the importance of group work until graduate school.

“I all of a sudden found out that getting together with four or five people and really discussing it … helped in really understanding the subtleties of the material,” he added.

Beyond the academic sphere, Hazeltine feels that BrainChain, with a few tweaks, could find success in business or workplace settings. “It’s important to realize that groups are useful to, first, help people get through the course but also to develop skills to work effectively within a group. The people who succeed in a company are people who can

work in a group and across disciplines,” he added.

Although the project has only recently started, both Isgar and David Targan ’79, associate dean of the College for science education, see it eventually spreading and being used by a number of other universities.

Targan said he is focused on better ways to teach and advise students in the sciences, and believes that BrainChain study groups would be more effective with the presence of a faculty member, TA or someone with more subject knowledge to supplement the sessions. “In general, my belief is that anything bottom-up like that … where students themselves are generating it, that’s going to be more successful than anything (the administration) creates,”

he added.

Targan hopes to see BrainChain grow and improve at the University before presenting it and pushing it out to other universities through the Association for American Universities, a group of 62 universities who collaborate on the advancement of research and education.

He added that it is possible to see BrainChain find real success at institutions that have many commuter students, such as the University of Minnesota — where Targan received his PhD — or even, more locally, Rhode Island Community College.

“Any mechanism that really facilitates getting students together to study — this is what we want to be promoting,” Targan said.

bringing in someone from outside with a different set of experiences and different ideas to take a look at the program,” he said. “That person from their own experience would then start to review, re-evaluate, innovate, strengthen (and) modify” the program.

“What I hope is that the University might listen to this new person,” Stanley said. When interviewing candidates, “one of our questions will be — what do we do about this demand?”

The English Department has already tried to respond to the high demand for these small classes by capping the number of students in each writing seminar at 17, which is larger than the optimal class size, Stanley said. According to the National Council of Teachers of English, 15 students is the ideal amount to enable thorough feedback and effective individual help.

“We feel very strongly — and I don’t think any student will disagree with that — that writing courses should be really small,” Rambuss said.

“We want them to be even closer, more intimate, more intensive” than lecture courses.

English and Literary Arts professors interviewed by The Herald emphasized the importance of keeping the number of students in a writing class low. “We want to be able to accommodate as many people as possible,” said Jonathan Readey, codirector of the Nonfiction Writing Program with Stanley. But “we still want students to be able to have a small class experience.”

If classes were larger, students would receive less feedback on their writing samples from professors, and the courses would be less close-knit, Readey said. Professors would also have less time to meet with students, he added.

Ultimately, Rambuss said complaints about the courses’ accessibility show a “passionate, sustained undergraduate interest in writing.”

“Students very quickly pick up that writing is part of the very ethos of this school,” Rambuss added.

» BEEKEEPING, from page 1

visiting Providence to audition for Brown’s Masters of Fine Arts program.

“I’m a huge gardener as well. If bees went extinct, all plants would go extinct too,” he said.

But other members of the audience were less sure of the club’s direction.

“Honestly, I think it’s a little odd,” said Payton Netherland ’22. “I don’t even know if there are going to be hives to be honest.”

The society leaders stressed that no experience was required to get involved with beekeeping and that they were excited to make the group a social experience to complement beekeeping for members.

“Way more people know about the beekeeping society than we thought,” Huson said.

“I’m interested in beekeeping,” Setty said. “I know very little about bees, in fact I’m terrified of bees, but I’m very excited to learn more and meet other people involved with bees too.”

The society aims to continue holding events throughout the semester, with aims to elect leadership and begin organizing trainings soon.

their hive at Southside to RISD’s campus this spring, according to Geary.

Geary got involved with beekeeping after he read “Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer” by Novella Carpenter in high school. He started his own hive and became a board member of the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild, and he later founded RISD Beekeeping during his sophomore year of college.

“What an impressive space, what a really great turnout,” Geary said of the event last Friday. “Jack’s presentation was really accurate, … a great synopsis of the history of beekeeping.”

Potential initial hive sites for the Brown Beekeeping Society include the house of President Paxson P’19, emulating the RISD model, or possibly farther from campus in Bristol, where the University owns 372 acres of land.

Audience members were excited about the chance to try their hands at beekeeping on the University’s campus.

Matthew Carlson, a Connecticut resident, stopped by the event while

NEWS

PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Snow blankets College Hill

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 • PAGE 5

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A row of globes sits on the windowsill in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences.

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

“It’s really crushing to people to have all these doors slammed in their faces, oftentimes in a moment that

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should represent a new leaf, a new opportunity.

— Claudia Wack, SCFH legal fellow.

See HOUSING on page 1.

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COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

For Democrats, a return to labor DEREK SIMSHAUSER opinions editor As the crowded field of Democratic presidential hopefuls grows ever larger, and candidates attempt to distinguish themselves, their decisions inevitably augur the ideologies that will be prominent during the primaries. Certainly, the reactions to the Green New Deal, among other ambitious left-wing proposals, foreshadow a further and perhaps perpetual elevation of progressive values. The scope of these packages is vast; they attempt nothing short of remedying economic inequality and promoting an enduring form of social justice. But as Democratic candidates attempt to articulate a vision for the future, it may be instructive to incorporate ideologies from the past. A more explicit focus on labor and the dignity of workers is appropriate during a time of broad economic anxiety — and importantly, does not contradict progressive ideals of social justice.

Fighting for the working class — the archetypal Trump voter — can thus be woven into the broader fabric of progressive rhetoric.

In Ohio, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown captures the spirit of both pro-labor Democrats of the past and the progressive wing of today. Brown is a throwback; he fights for economic justice from the perspective of labor, hoping to reassert his party as the true champion of the middle class. He takes immense pride in expanding workers’ rights, perhaps best exemplified by the pin of a yellow canary that adorns his lapel every day. In the years before strong collective bargaining and adequate safety measures, coal miners used canaries in

the mines to monitor for dangerous levels of gas — miners knew they had to evacuate if the canary died. “The canary pin is an important symbol for me,” Brown said on the 2018 Senate campaign trail. “Protecting workers’ rights isn’t a battle that’s behind us — not by a longshot.”

Further burnishing his pro-labor image, Brown fights for unions, which have seen plummeting membership in recent decades.

Waning union activity has paralleled a stagnation in real wages, which have actually declined since 1970. Brown fights not only for collective bargaining, but for workers’ digni-

Unlike the false dichotomy depicted in the 2016 presidential election, Brown shows how one can simultaneously fight for workers and social justice.

ty. In a time of anxiety about job stability — a 2017 Pew poll found that 72 percent of respondents were worried about losing their job to automation — politicians too often speak of jobs purely in terms of existence. By stressing “the dignity of work” — a refrain of his 2018 re-election bid — Brown shows that the quality of employment should not be forgotten amidst the rush to add jobs to the economy. Wages, benefits and self-agency matter — all of which would reduce anxiety and economic inequality. As President Trump continues to betray the Rust-Belt workers who voted for him in 2016 by passing corporate tax cuts, a middle-class warrior like Brown could supplant him in the

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influence, it’s taking on privilege.”

Brown’s meld of economic populism with social progressivism has been rewarded with robust electoral success. As the GOP’s influence grows in the Buckeye state, Brown has held firm. In the same election that sent Republican Mike DeWine to the governor’s mansion, Brown nonetheless secured re-election by 7 percentage points — accruing 10 extra points from Clinton’s 2016 mark.

Most importantly, Brown has survived as a red-state Democrat without capitulating on social issues. He is for abortion rights in a culturally conservative state. As a second-term congressman in 1996, he voted against the Defense

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And while he shares the same distaste for free trade deals that Trump frequently invoked in his 2016 campaign — Brown has opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement since its inception — his brand of economic populism has little in common with the nativist, racist demagoguery of the Trump campaign. Instead, Brown articulates an inclusive vision of the ideology: “Populism isn’t racist; it’s not anti-Semitic; it doesn’t divide people,” he said in a recent interview. “That’s what real populism is. It’s taking on money, it’s taking on

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of Marriage Act, which a majority of congressional Democrats voted for. And he has carried an F-rating from the National Rifle Association for over a decade. Unlike the false dichotomy depicted in the 2016 presidential election, Brown shows how one can simultaneously fight for workers’ rights and social justice.

There are certainly concerns about Brown’s electability. His bland gruffness and lack of fiery rhetoric are unlikely to excite a bloodthirsty Democratic base in the primaries. But the significance of Brown’s message extends beyond his individual political arc. His proworker message could precipitate a larger shift toward labor in the Democratic Party, which has somehow lost the vote of the working class, despite advocating policies that support labor far more than those of the tax-cutting Republicans. Of course, Brown is not the only candidate who communicates such a message of progressive populism. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) — who announced her candidacy on Sunday — has a similar brand of politics with even stronger electoral results, though less explicitly populist. As the primary process begins to accelerate, it seems that the onus will be on the candidate’s ability to prove their progressive loyalties. But Brown shows that regardless of the candidate, these admirable ideals of social justice need not exist in a zero-sum relationship with pro-labor policies.

Derek Simshauser ’20 can be reached at derek_simshauser@brown.edu, or followed on Instagram @dsimshauser.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 • PAGE 7

University should increase transparency on its punitive decisions CAROLINE MULLIGAN staff columnist As a domestic student and a very infrequent party-goer, I neither knew nor cared all that much about Buxton International House. I recognized it only from the flags that hung from its windows, showing off the home countries of its residents. I had heard unpalatable rumors, and those I found concerning, but with no way of verifying them, I couldn’t exactly do much. I had to trust Brown’s official channels to take care of any actual problem.

Those official channels suspended Buxton last month, but I still feel that I know little about the situation. Per Brown policies, all hearings are closed. As a result, the specifics of Buxton’s violations — or the violations of any student group — are kept from the general student body.

This policy prevents non-affiliated students from both knowing what an organization has done and fully understanding the judgment that Brown has officially passed on the organization. The University should change its policies to make the records from all student organization hearings available to the Brown community.

The suspension of a student orga-

nization does not just affect the students presently involved with that group. What about former members, who may have left for reasons that are related to why the group is being punished? What about alums who once ran the group? Or what about students who just generally want to know why a once-popular group is now suspended? Transpar-

al knowledge to members who join after a violation. If new members witness behavior that makes them uncomfortable, they will have records to affirm that this behavior is part of a consistent pattern, helping to confirm that they are not alone in their discomfort and potentially motivating them to report inappropriate activity. Further, the composition

able to the public would help with University accountability. Students currently have no way to ensure that disciplinary policies are being consistently enforced. As members of the Brown community, I believe that we have a right to know that Brown’s administration holds all student groups to the same standards. It is troubling that there is currently no

The composition of a group may change every four years, but students have a right to know about an organization’s history so that they may make an informed decision about whether they want to join.

ency makes it possible for everyone impacted to inform themselves.

This openness would quell rumors by making exact information readily available, creating a less hostile climate in which students can go straight to the evidence instead of relying on hearsay to try to figure out the details of what happened.

This policy change would also ensure that groups are held accountable in the future, if they are reinstated after a suspension. Having documents available provides institution-

of a group may change every four years, but students have a right to know about an organization’s history so that they may make an informed decision about whether they want to join. Depending on the nature of the violation, some students might prefer to avoid a group altogether. Making disciplinary records available to the student body adds another layer of accountability to the groups themselves by keeping them from hiding any blemishes that lie in their past.

Finally, having documents avail-

way for students to see if there appear to be any biases against specific groups or types of groups.

I understand the need to withhold information such as the names of specific students involved. However, the specific violations, evidence, counterevidence and the reasoning that is ultimately presented for a disciplinary decision should be made public in order to allow the Brown community to be fully informed. If official notes from the hearings are not released, then the very least that

Brown could do is inform its student body about penalties passed again student groups, potentially through announcement services like Today@ Brown, which is already utilized for serious University announcements such as Corporation meetings.

Ultimately, this isn’t really about Buxton at all. As I said at the beginning, I neither know nor care about them all that much. But if a group I was in faced a disciplinary hearing, I would want the student body to know why and to make their own judgments. As a student leader myself, I should be held accountable both by the University and by my peers if I caused harm through the violation of Brown policies. Brown currently refuses to offer the evidence that enables the critical thinking necessary for informed judgments, a policy contrary to the goals of building an engaged and informed student body.

Caroline Mulligan ’19 can be reached at caroline_mulligan@brown.edu.

Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019

Study suggests habits formed by repetition, not reward Study, co-authored by U. Assistant Prof. Shenhav, tests hypothesis using computer simulated brain

By ZACHARY LEVIN STAFF WRITER

A new computational study of habit formation co-authored by a University professor suggests that habits may be formed primarily out of repetition and are not necessarily based on the habit’s goal.

Researchers set out to test whether a model of habit formation solely based on repetition could function as well as previous models that are goal-oriented, and they found convincing evidence that it could. Rather than testing this question on living creatures, the researchers used a computer simulation that they designed to behave like a living brain.

The study was conducted by Assistant Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences Amitai Shenhav, Professor of Biology Kevin Miller, who contributed to the study while he was a PhD student at Princeton University, and Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Warwick Elliot Ludvig.

The paper proposes a shift in thinking when it comes to habit formation, Ludvig said. “A basic implication (of the paper) is that … repeating an action will lead you to do that more,” Shenhav said. If habits are seen primarily as value-based, then relearning the value of a certain outcome should be sufficient

to change the habit; however, if they are value-free, then it is not sufficient to adjust the outcome, and instead the behaviors themselves have to be relearned, Shenhav explained.

Modern theories of habit formation generally follow the principle that actions are reinforced by positive outcomes, Ludvig said. These ideas stem from 20th century psychologist Edward Thorndike’s “law of effect,” which Ludvig summarized as “the idea that things that are rewarded are more likely to be repeated.”

But Thorndike also had another theory called the “law of exercise,” which is the idea that “things that were exercised, things that were done, were more likely to be repeated,” Ludvig said. While Thorndike’s law of effect has become a widely disseminated concept in psychology, his law of exercise never received the same amount of attention, Ludvig added. “I didn’t hear about (the law of exercise) until I was a post-doc … I went to undergrad, to graduate school— I had a PhD in psychology — and had never heard of the law of exercise.”

While many models have explored habit formation with this theory of goal-oriented behavior in mind, no models had previously been created to test if repetition alone could produce habit phenomena, Shenhav said.

“How can we model … habits in the same sort of environment that valuebased habits have been explored?” he asked.

Miller explained that creating a computational model also provides potential insight into the neuroscience of habit formation. “The model

is a little software agent that can perform different tasks, and it’s got different mechanisms that live inside of it.” If the model performs in the same way that human beings would behave under the same applied circumstances, then the mechanisms within the model are likely a direct simulation of the mechanisms inside the brain, he said.

“A computational model gives you a real, precise, testable expression of a hypothesis that you can use to make predictions for new experiments and … to build bridges between different pieces of (academic) literature,” Miller said.

The researchers applied a number of scenarios often used in testing habit formation to the model. For example, the researchers tested goal devaluation, which are habits that are maintained despite new negative outcomes. The concept of goal devaluation is best exemplified by a scenario in which someone instinctively turns on a light when entering a room even when they did not actually intend to flip the switch, Ludvig said. They also tested contingency degradation, which are habits that last even when the action is disconnected from the expected outcome. Contingency degradation would be analogous to flipping the switch even when the light is broken, Ludvig explained.

In each of these two scenarios, the simulation reacted to imposed circumstances in a way that illustrates that habits are a result of repetition, regardless of outcome, he added.

“Many researchers assume that all habits start as goal-directed actions,

TALIA MERMIN / HERALD

whereas this article suggests that we can learn habits just from repeating actions, even when those actions don’t meet a goal,” wrote Wendy Wood, provost professor of psychology and business at the University of Southern California, in an email to The Herald. “This is a fascinating article that opens up our understanding of habit formation and habit performance,” she added.

“That said, the research outlines a computational model and shows us what is possible … The challenge for research is now to show how this works in daily life,” Wood wrote.

The next step is to take this type of value-free thinking and apply it to higher cognitive habits beyond simple motor tasks, such as habits of skills and complex actions, Shenhav said.

Similarly, designing experiments in

» CAAC, from page 1 Since last semester, the CAAC has expanded the number of students participating in the committee to include “an undergrad, two graduate students and a medical student,” wrote Catherine Axe ’87, associate dean and director of Student and Employee Accessibility Services, in an email to The Herald. Axe, who cofounded the committee in 2004, is now a co-leader.

The addition of these members helps to ensure more consistent student attendance at the committee’s monthly meetings. “It helps for (students) to be attending consistently because there is a learning curve” to understanding ongoing accessibility projects, and “this way (students) know more about what’s going on and they can see projects over time,” Axe said.

Given that the University strives to serve students and construct a positive learning environment, student representation on the CAAC is essential to accomplish such goals, said Alex Parker-Guerrero GS, a student member of the committee. “The CAAC … (thinks) about how different spaces around campus can better serve students,” he added. “Students have a different understanding about how these spaces work and how they use (them) than the faculty do.”

The CAAC has also adjusted its methods to find new members by formalizing its recruitment process. For instance, the committee has worked to increase faculty representation by

SARA RUNKEL / HERALD

The Campus Access Advisory Committee is working to ensure accessibility in the University’s new performing arts center as well as evaluating the safety risk posed by leaving JUMP bikes on sidewalks. creating a “new faculty liaison group … to identify faculty that would be interested in the role,” Axe said. Previously, the CAAC invited faculty members who were known to be strong advocates for campus accessibility or had brought certain issues to the committee’s attention, she added.

In addition, the committee worked with the Graduate Student Council to create an official CAAC role for which students could be nominated, Axe said.

Besides internal changes, the CAAC has increased its interactions with individuals leading campus construction projects through formalized presentations and meetings. Now, the designers and managers for large University renovations “hear about accessibility concerns early in the design process and again as they approach the final details,” wrote Leah VanWey, associate provost for academic space, in an email to The Herald.

For instance, the CAAC recently

met with the architect working on the University’s new performing arts center, Parker-Guerrero said. “We posed questions and feedback about how things could be more accessible for people who are on wheelchairs or who are hearing impaired,” he added.

Simultaneously, the CAAC continues to work on “day-to-day projects,” Parker-Guerrero said. “In one meeting we spoke to (Campus Safety) … about the issue of JUMP bikes and bird scooters being left on sidewalks,”

biological systems would be needed to test the model’s theoretical predictions, Ludvig said.

Although this paper may not directly change researchers’ understanding of obsessive-compulsive disorder and other related conditions, it provides a new way of thinking about them, Miller said. “Computational models of how the brain works are really important for understanding psychiatric disorders, and, as our models improve, we will be better able to understand those things,” he explained. Since computational models provide insight into brain mechanisms, it can be useful to have a model that can predict where the brain malfunctions, such as with habit formation in OCD, Miller said.

which presents an accessibility hazard, he added.

The structural changes made to the CAAC follow a review mentioned in the 2018 DIAP annual report. The review sought to ensure that “disabilityrelated progress is promoted among our community and that structures are in place to provide oversight, guidance and expertise on this process.”

The review examined the committee’s “composition, charge, process and reporting structure,” according to the annual report.

The holistic nature of the DIAP’s goals allows committees like the CAAC to have the “most significant impact in a thoughtful way,” Axe said.

“I read the central DIAP and from it took the initiative to work on changes” to the CAAC, she added. “This is all part of our efforts as a group to be thinking about how we can … reinforce the DIAP and support it.”

With the new changes, the CAAC has drafted a mission and vision statement to offer clarity in their ongoing work. “When we drafted it, we were looking at being very targeted and focused in our efforts and making sure we were not spreading ourselves among too many things,” Axe said.

The vision statement now articulates the CAAC’s goal that “all members and guests of the Brown community have equitable physical and technological access, enabling them to fully engage and participate with all the campus has to offer,” according to a draft of the mission statement reviewed by The Herald.