SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
VOLUME CLIV, ISSUE 40
SPORTS
Men’s hockey to open season against Yale
BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
METRO
Providence Ramen sets up at The Shop Scott LaChapelle brings bowls of ramen, crowds to Wickenden Saturday night
BY HENRY DAWSON SENIOR STAFF WRITER
COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS
The men’s hockey team will open its 29-game schedule at Yale Friday, before returning home to host the Bulldogs the next night. The team hopes that this season will build on last year’s successes.
Team captains emphasize identity, discipline ahead of 2019-20 campaign BY ALEXANDRA RUSSELL SPORTS EDITOR Right now, Meehan Auditorium, a dome-shaped arena located at the north of campus, is quiet. The ice lays freshly made under the glow of the lamps, punctuated by bright
blue and red lines. Levels of empty stadium-style seats line the edges of the rink, and two scoreboards, one at each end of the building, are blank. In three days, the rink will be filled with the sounds of blades scratching the ice, sticks clacking together and the brassy ringing of pucks hitting the crossbar as the men’s hockey team laces up its skates for the first time in game action at home since March. The Bears will visit their travel partner Yale to open the 2019-20 season Friday before returning to Meehan to host the Bulldogs the following night.
Bruno’s first outing takes place after nearly two months of preparation. The team initially took to the ice in early September before commencing official practices during the second week of October. Among this season’s squad is a core group of 19 returning players, which include four of last year’s top five points scorers. Bruno is led by captain Zach Giuttari ’20, who also served as an assistant captain during the team’s 2018-19 campaign, and
SEE M.HOCKEY PAGE 3
Inside the coffee shop, slices of braised pork belly sizzle under the flame of a blowtorch; plump soft-boiled eggs soak in a sweet shoyu marinade; slivers of fermented bamboo shoots curl in tupperware. Saturday night saw lattes and cappuccinos make way for ramen during a special event called Ramen Night at The Shop, a small cafe on Wickenden Street. This past weekend, Scott LaChapelle’s Providence Ramen had its third pop-up event at the local coffee shop. The event sold over 125 bowls and fielded a line that stretched out past the small, red paper lantern hung next to The Shop’s usual wooden sign. LaChapelle, a Providence resident, has been making ramen for nearly three years. He got hooked by a bowl from a shop outside a train station in Kyoto in 2017 and has been working towards perfecting his craft since then. “You have to be willing to let yourself fail and produce something bad
over and over again,” LaChapelle said. He’s been tinkering with all the aspects of the dish since he started his journey — from bowl temperature to the blend of soy sauces that season the broth to the braised pork on top. For the event on Saturday, LaChapelle served a $16 shoyu bowl with chicken and dashi soup for a lighter, cleaner flavor as well as a $17 miso bowl with a heartier, thicker broth packing a spicy kick. The special of the evening was a $20 Tonkotsu Gyokai, pork bone broth and dashi double soup base topped with pork shoulder. The bowls were decorated with soft-boiled eggs, menma, scallions, ginger, nori and bean sprouts. Ramen is a complex dish. The soup, seasoning (tare), noodles and toppings have near infinite permutations. Each element must be balanced for taste, prepped on time for service and laid-out and ready for constructing a piping-hot bowl within minutes of a customer’s order. Prep time for the bowls, with simmering soups, resting dough and marinating eggs, can reach up to 30 hours, according to LaChapelle. Shops tinker for years to get the combinations right and guard them jealously. LaChapelle is similarly protective of his secrets; he only specified
SEE RAMEN PAGE 4
UNIVERSITY NEWS
UNIVERSITY NEWS
Former President of Kosovo lectures at Watson
New podcast highlights faculty research, stories Series hosted by provost features discussion with Professor Tricia Rose BY SPENCER SCHULTZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER
VICTORIA YIN / HERALD
Jahjaga spoke about shattering glass ceilings as a female leader in Kosovo in a Watson Distinguished Speaker Series lecture.
Atifete Jahjaga spoke about breaking gender barriers, traumas of Kosovo war BY ALLIE REED UNIVERSITY NEWS For as long as she can remember, former President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga has
fought against people and institutions that have excluded her because of her gender. In a lecture as part of the Watson Distinguished Speaker Series — jointly presented by the Brown Journal of World Affairs and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs — Jahjaga spoke about her work cracking the glass ceiling as a Deputy General
SEE JAHJAGA PAGE 2
The University’s Office of the Provost debuted “Faculty in Focus” Oct. 6, a new podcast featuring conversations between the University’s most distinguished faculty members and Provost Richard Locke P ’18. The podcast is intended “to strengthen awareness of our faculty and the consequential work that they do across fields and disciplines,” Locke wrote in an email to The Herald. While the podcast’s primary audience is the campus community and University alums, Locke hopes the podcast will reach the general public, including policymakers. Marisa Quinn, chief of staff to the provost, hopes the podcast will serve as more than a discussion of academ-
ic research. “We wanted to make it about their research but also about what makes them tick,” she said. In one-on-one interviews with Locke, faculty members have the opportunity to offer personal insights on their research and its origins through a convenient, engaging medium. In the inaugural episode, Locke sat down for a conversation with Tricia Rose MA’87 Ph.D’93 P’14, Chancellor’s professor of Africana Studies, associate dean of the faculty for special initiatives and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. Quinn invited Rose to be the podcast’s inaugural guest after she spoke at a “Faculty in Focus” lecture. Rose was “very happy to participate” in the podcast because “it’s a great community-building tool.” “For students and even other faculty, we don’t often have the opportunity to learn about each other in ways that connect our research to who we are as people,” she added. The episode began with a discussion of Rose’s path from her upbringing in the Bronx and Harlem to her
News
Science & Research Commentary
Science & Research
University kicks off two initiatives to combat food insecurity on campus Page 3
Zappa ’17: U. graduates should use power of Brown education to effect change Page 6
University researchers create computer model to help craft drugs for sickle cell disease Page 7
SSDP alums: University must reinstate SSDP free drug testing service Page 7
studies at Yale and Brown, and she later delved into how her interest in researching hip-hop culture got started. Rose also discussed how she transitioned to other research endeavors, including her work on sexuality and intimacy among black women, as well as her research on structural racism. The new podcast is part of a broader initiative to make faculty research more accessible through multiple channels, Locke wrote, including the staff-oriented lecture series Rose spoke at as well as the faculty-oriented lecture series “By Faculty for Faculty.” The faculty-oriented podcast in particular allows the work and interests of faculty members to reach a larger and more diverse audience, Quinn said. “Especially among young people, … podcasts have really become a popular way to get the news and entertainment.” Quinn said that Locke is “really intent on making sure people have an understanding of the research …
SEE PODCAST PAGE 3
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
UNIVERSITY NEWS
University to expand OnCall shuttle, offer Peapod discount Working group prompts two new initiatives to combat food insecurity on campus
BY SAMANTHA MOLINA CONTRIBUTING WRITER The University launched two initiatives to bolster food security on campus, according to an Oct. 8 email to undergraduates from the Undergraduate Council of Students. First, the Brown OnCall shuttle will now drop off and pick up students at the East Side Marketplace, Savers, Stop & Shop and Walmart locations closest to campus. The second initiative allows students to receive $5 off grocery orders over $60 through grocery delivery service Peapod, as well as free delivery for 90 days with the code “AMSBrown.” “Walmart and Stop & Shop and Savers are all kind of clustered in a fairly close area,” said Elizabeth Gentry, assistant vice president of business and financial services. Though Savers does not sell groceries, it was within the route’s expanded area. The University’s Ad Hoc Working Group on Food Security evaluated food insecurity among University students in the spring 2019 semester and produced a series of recommendations to the University, which included the shuttle and Peapod initiatives. The working group, which is no longer active, defined food security as “equitable access to healthy, safe, nutritious foods, so that students can thrive and take full advantage of their educational experience,” said Marisa Quinn, chief of staff to the Provost. Their work was informed by a March 2019 survey, in which about 30 percent of undergraduate respondents said they were experiencing some form of food insecurity, according to Quinn. A meal plan requirement for sophomores, which drew backlash from members of the student body, is also among the University’s recent efforts to address food insecurity as a result of the Working Group’s recommendations, The Herald previously reported. Other changes implemented after the Working Group’s feedback include
JAHJAGA FROM PAGE 1 Director of the Police of Kosovo and ultimately breaking it as the youngest female world leader elected to the highest office. In 1989, a violent war broke out between Kosovo and Serbia that involved “ethnic cleansing, massive killings, imprisonment, beating and rape” by police, who were “used as a tool of war,” Jahjaga told The Herald. The war “left very deep consequences and very open wounds” for Kosovo, even 20 years after its conclusion. In 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, although Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state. Shortly before Jahjaga’s election in 2011, after former head of state Behgjet Pacolli’s appointment to the presidency was ruled unconstitutional, the country “was almost in the age of civil war,” she told The Herald. Her talk at the University was arranged as part of the BJWA’s plan to cover the Kosovo War in its upcoming issue, wrote co-Editors-in-Chief Jonah Shrock ’20 and Isabel Alexiades ’20 in an email to
HANNA RASHIDI / HERALD
commitment to providing meals over spring break at no extra cost to all students on meal plans and a newly developed meal gap program that increases accessibility to dining halls for undergraduate, graduate and Med School students. The OnCall shuttle expansion grew out of the survey’s report that 70 percent of undergraduates consider time a significant factor in accessing food, Quinn said. The Transportation Office coordinates the expanded shuttle route and will evaluate the success of the program by tracking the number of visits to the newly added facilities. “I
think we’ve done a great thing in terms of providing other opportunities for our students, and we’ll see if they actually take advantage of it,” Gentry said. If they do, the program will transition from a pilot program to a more permanent service, Gentry added. The Peapod discount was made possible by collaboration with The Warren Alpert Medical School, which had previously been in discussions with Peapod, Quinn said. “We checked and said, ‘can we expand this to the whole Brown community?,’ and they were more than open to that,” Quinn said. With these two initiatives, Quinn
said she hopes students “will have more time that they can devote to their curricular and co-curricular activities, because they’re spending less time thinking about how to get food or how to get to a grocery store to get food.” “Having access to more affordable grocery stores can really change the game,”said Kobi Weinberg ’20. “It’s really something the University should be facilitating a little bit more, and I think the shuttle program is a great way of doing that.” “Personally speaking, trying to access stores like Savers, East Side (Marketplace and) Walmart has been
difficult in the past,” said UCS President William Zhou ’20. “It’s either a very far walk or … a ride on the RIPTA, which can be very slow, so I think having now the expanded OnCall shuttle program makes it a lot easier to reach these destinations.” UCS will also continue working to further reduce food insecurity, Zhou said. For instance, in a partnership with Brown Dining Services, the Council hopes to run workshops to help students who are off meal plan understand ways that they can prepare meals. The Council is also advocating for a potential grocery store on campus.
The Herald. Jahjaga’s interest in politics began when she studied law at the University of Pristina. As a young lawyer who graduated in 2000, a year after the end of the Kosovo war, she decided to join the police organization in an effort to change the people’s fear of law enforcement at the time. She wanted to help the people of Kosovo see the police as “there to serve them and protect them.” As one of the few women in the police force, Jahjaga also sought to change the perception of the role of women within the organization. In the past, policing was “not deemed an appropriate job for the women,” Jahjaga told the audience. In her lecture, Jahjaga said that she was expected to prove herself in the police force by “playing by the rules of man and acting masculine.” But unlike some of her peers, Jahjaga was not ready to change her behavior, personality or appearance to adjust to a “masculine workplace.” In one of her first initiatives, Jahjaga suggested that the Kosovo police force should allow its officers to wear skirts if they please, “to make them
feel comfortable in their own skin.” Jahjaga felt this change was one of her first cracks in the glass ceiling. Based on her service and integrity in the police force, Jahjaga was nominated for the Kosovo presidency in 2011. Within 24 hours of her nomination, she was elected. While she was initially hesitant about taking on the role, she decided to accept the nomination. “I was used to throwing punches at the glass ceiling and cracking it, but this was my opportunity to crack it all the way.” Jahjaga told The Herald that she finds power by repeating the same sentence to herself: “There is nothing in this world that cannot be done.” As a child, Jahjaga would have never pictured herself becoming president because of the patriarchal nature of her society. But despite Kosovo’s male-dominated culture during her upbringing, Jahjaga found courage from her family to fight against gender norms. She told The Herald that she was lucky to have a father who did not raise her and her brother differently because of their gen-
ders. “He maybe even empowered me more than my brother,” Jahjaga said. “I’m forever grateful for the way he trusted me.” She later used her platform as president to empower women and support survivors of the rampant sexual violence that was used as a weapon during the Kosovo war. 20,000 women and men were raped during wartime, a strategy that was meant to “emasculate the men of Kosovo and shame the women,” Jahjaga said at the lecture. “While we’re enjoying liberty, freedom (and) independence” from Serbia, “in the hearts and minds of survivors of sexual violence, war is still among themselves.” During her time as president, she devoted her energy to challenging the stigma that still remained around trauma from sexual violence. She believes that formal prosecution is the only way for the region to recover from that trauma, but it has been impossible to make Serbia cooperate in legal proceedings. “We need a legally binding resolution that will keep countries accountable and responsible for everything that has
been done,” she said. When asked if she had advice for University students looking to get into politics, Jahjaga said, “Don’t hesitate. Do it.” But she also emphasized the importance of never compromising “the values you stand for, because then you don’t know what you stand for.” At the end of her lecture, Jahjaga asked Erza Ajeti ’22, a student from Kosovo, to stand up. Ajeti teared up as Jahjaga told the audience that the next president of Kosovo may be among them. To Ajeti, Jahjaga’s lecture about breaking the glass ceiling mattered because “that’s exactly what she did for me.” “A big reason why I’m studying International Relations at Brown is because I had a female role model as president when I was growing up. I never grew up thinking that was not something I could do,” Ajeti said. “She’s definitely one of the most remarkable women not only in Kosovo but worldwide. Her work continues to be an inspiration, not just for me, but for every single girl in Kosovo.”
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
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COURTESY OF NICK DENTAMARO
“Faculty in Focus” is hosted by University Provost Richard Locke P’18, who spoke withTricia Rose MA’87 Ph.D’93 P’14, Chancellor’s professor of Africana Studies, about her upbringing in the Bronx and Harlem, her studies at Yale and the University and her interest in hip-hop culture.
PODCAST FROM PAGE 1 to demonstrate the excellence of the work that’s done here, but also the
M.HOCKEY FROM PAGE 1 assistant captains Jack Gessert ’20 and Brent Beaudoin ’20. “For the most part what we’ve always done even when we weren’t seniors was lead by example,” Beaudoin said. “If we want guys to be doing the right things … then we’ve got to make sure we’re doing the right things all the time so that they see that and that becomes the culture we have.” “The guys that were chosen (as captains) are naturally inclined to lead — they lead by example, they do the right thing all the time and they understand exactly what I want out of them as players, as people,” said Head Coach Brendan Whittet ’94. “That’s disseminated through their actions throughout the team.” Bruno welcomes a freshman class of 10, comprised of six forwards and four defensemen. The first-year players have added depth to the roster and integrated smoothly into the team during the preseason, Gessert said. “Our first goal coming to school this semester was just making sure (the first-years) are up to speed and part of the group, and I think we’ve done a good job of that,” Gessert said. At one end of Bruno’s home rink, several brown rectangular banners hang from the rafters, displaying the years of previous tournament appearances and championship titles. This year, there is a new addition to one list: 2019. The Bears made it to the semifinals of the ECAC Tournament for the first time since 2013 last spring, and the team now seeks to build on its successes and earn another ticket to Lake Placid at the end of the upcoming season.
impact it has had on the world.” Because Locke already engages with faculty members about their research over the course of his day, recording
the podcast was a natural transition. “Talking about their work is always so interesting and inspiring. I wanted to bring this experience to others,”
“We got a taste of going to Lake Placid for the Final Four tournament last year, which was incredible. … I think that sour taste of losing that first game is still in our mouths and we want to go back there,” Gessert said. “Our goal is to win the tournament and not just get there this year. With the culture we have, the people we have, the freshmen we have, the returners, we have the pieces in place to do that, so we’re really excited.” Other highlights from last year’s campaign included a 6-5 triple overtime playoff victory over Princeton, which, at 103 minutes and 30 seconds, was the longest game in program history and the 18th longest in NCAA Division I men’s hockey records. After the winter break, Bruno gained momentum, earning six victories in the second half of the regular season. The team also swept fifth-ranked Quinnipiac University in the quarterfinals of the ECAC playoffs in a pair of contests in Hamden, Connecticut. A key element of these successes was the establishment and awareness of a team identity, Giuttari said. The current squad seeks to retain and reinforce the qualities of tenacity and discipline instilled by its 2019 graduating class. “In the second half of the season last year when we started to do well, it was when we’d really figured out who we were as a team — we’re hardworking, we keep a really simple game and just stick to the systems that we know,” Giuttari said. “The returners, having been through that and knowing that that is how we have to play and who we have to be if we want to be successful, will really help at the start of this year.” Whittet further emphasized the
importance of playing with grit and vigor, and said that the coaching staff stresses these values to the team on a daily basis. “There’s philosophically a way that I want our guys to play every time they step on the ice whether it be in practices or in the games. They have to play with a tremendous amount of energy, a tremendous amount of grit, a tremendous amount of heart,” Whittet said. “We want to play fast, and we want to play with a chip on our shoulder and you need the players to buy into that.” While the Bears look to the first few months of 2019 as a blueprint for future success, they also seek to improve some of their previous habits. Historically, Bruno has had slow starts to seasons, games and practices, and the team looks to break this pattern in the upcoming year, the three captains said. “We’ve really been focusing on having that high start instead of that low start in everything we do, in practices, in games, this weekend and in the season in general,” Gessert said. The Bears will have ample opportunity to do this with a slate of 29 games, including 14 at home, before ECAC playoff competition opens in March. In addition to conference opponents, Brown will also face off against non-conference teams throughout the season, including Boston University, Arizona State University and No. 8 Providence College. “Having a good start will propel the season way better than even last year,” Gessert said. “We’re excited to get right into it.” The Bears open the season at Yale Friday, Nov. 1 before hosting the Bulldogs at home Saturday, Nov. 2. Face-off is at 7 p.m. both nights.
he wrote. The production team features the talents of University alums Megan Hall ’04 and Tom Van Buskirk ’04. Episodes
of “Faculty in Focus” are available online via Spotify, Soundcloud and the Stitcher app, according to the Office of the Provost’s website.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
HENRY DAWSON / HERALD
Providence Ramen’s pop-up at The Shop this Saturday — the venue’s third so far — sold 125 bowls to eager customers. LaChapelle discovered his passion for ramen after tasting a bowl from a shop outside a train station in Kyoto in 2017, and has since been perfecting his own creations.
RAMEN FROM PAGE 1 that he uses a mixture of light and dark shoyu in his six-sauce tare blend and wouldn’t reveal the spices providing the kick in the miso ramen served at The Shop. “Dashi is something that’s really personal,” LaChapelle said. Part of the soup, dashi is traditionally made by simmering kombu seaweed, bonito and water, but variations can be made with everything from tomato to squash to pumpkin. “If you want to bring warmth to it, if you want to bring acidity to it, it’s all personal feel,” LaChapelle said. At least 11 different vessels sat be-
fore LaChapelle at his station in The Shop, from simmering soup to menma to chashu lined up and waiting for the torch. Managing ingredients is key to mastering ramen. LaChapelle estimates that a single bowl of noodles can use 25 different ingredients, many of which he often makes from scratch. Complicating this, LaChapelle has to order some crucial ingredients like bonito flakes — dried tuna flakes widespread in Japanese cooking — from Japan. But as a resident of the Ocean State, LaChapelle strives to source local ingredients whenever possible. He gets greens, like the crystal-green sliced
scallions piled above the noodles, from Wishing Stone Farm in Little Compton, Rhode Island. LaChapelle uses local littleneck clams to flavor some of his soups and gets his miso from South River Miso across the border in Conway, Massachusetts. The chicken in the soup comes from Baffoni’s Poultry Farm in Johnston, Rhode Island. Paul Baffoni, one of the owners of Baffoni Poultry Farms, said the farm delivers its chicken the day after processing. “It’s as fresh as it could possibly be,” Baffoni said. At the moment, LaChapelle’s ramen is only available at pop-ups, but he would someday enjoy owning his
own place. Since Ken’s Ramen closed in late December 2018, ramen options in Providence have been limited. “I’ve been missing a diversity of ramen. I was really excited to see a new place,” said Alexander Benjamin ’22. Benjamin has business cards from his favorite NYC ramen shops strung up along his dorm room wall. He praised the quality of the soup and said he enjoyed watching the blowtorch flame the chashu right before service. Daniel Wang ’22 said he found the dishes underwhelming, especially given what he described as high price points and a long wait outside the shop.
At the last pop-up, LaChapelle integrated a component of his Portugese identity by using marinade from Mello’s Chourico and Linguica in Fall River, Massachusetts. He plans to keep developing his craft, incorporating nods to his identity and the locale while maintaining the integrity of the dish’s heritage. “I love repetition. I love working at something every day and getting better and better at it day by day,” LaChapelle said. “What I’m doing today is, after this, I’m going to go home and grab them all and make a new mix and see what happens.”
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | TODAY
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Teaching with Objects 101 12:00 P.M. Haffenreffer Museum
Keep the Memories, Not the Stuff 12:30 P.M. South Street Landing
Liz Deschenes | Artist Talk 5:00 P.M. List Art Center
Foreign Flicks: The Tribe 7:00 P.M. Metcalf Research Building
TOMORROW Does Cybersecurity Scare You? 12:00 P.M. Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center
Study Abroad 101 Info Session 4:00 P.M. Page-Robinson Hall
Halloween Movie Night 10:00 P.M. Sayles Hall
Midnight Halloween Organ Recital 11:30 P.M. Sayles Hall
Q U OTE OF TH E DAY
S U D O KU
“You have to be willing to let yourself fail and produce something bad over and over again.” — Scott LaChapelle, owner of Providence Ramen SEE RAMEN PAGE 1
C L A RI F I CAT I ON The Oct. 29 article “Today@Brown celebrates two-year anniversary” stated that “in the summer of 2016, Cliatt assembled a team that included Pattison and Clark” that led to Today@Brown. It is more accurate to say that Cliatt and then-CIO Ravi Pendse assembled that team, which included Pattison, Deputy CIO John Spadaro and Associate Director of Integration and Identity Services Chris Keith of CIS.” The article has been updated to reflect that change.
RELEASE DATE– Monday, March 18, 2013
CR O SDaily SWOCrossword RD Los Angeles Times Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Discoverers’ shouts 5 Dictation takers 11 “Every kiss begins with __”: jeweler’s slogan 14 Red salad veggie 15 Clear the fustiness from 16 Grand __ Opry 17 2012 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee 19 Not too bright 20 Volume of maps 21 Versailles ruler 22 Plucky movie pig 23 Michelle, to Barack 24 Best Supporting Actor nominee for “Argo” 27 Patio furniture repairman 28 Expressive music subgenre 29 Report card figs. 30 Hopi home 34 Kind 37 Modern, in Munich 38 Relatives, and an apt title for this puzzle 39 “__ do not!” 40 Hee-hawing critter 41 Watchdogs from Japan 42 Get snippy with 43 Unrefined find 44 Superhero duds 45 Iowa senator since 1985 51 Elevator innovator 52 “Can I get a word in?” 53 D-backs, on scoreboards 54 Formal decrees 56 Party coffeemaker 57 Al Pacino’s “Sea of Love” co-star 60 Statistical data: Abbr. 61 City known for its Boys’ Choir 62 Giggly Muppet 63 “Schedule uncertain at press time” abbr.
34 Up the creek 47 Brainy bunch 64 Passages 48 Superman, on between buildings 35 Runs too slowly, as a watch Krypton 65 Gets the point 36 X, in valentines 49 Dancer 38 Former “Idol” Castle DOWN judge DioGuardi 50 Simpleton 1 “Fernando” band 42 Ironic sketches 55 Years in 2 Stretches in the 43 Resistance España high 90s, say measure 57 One of the 3 Flier with a 44 Musical wrap-up Gabors shamrock logo 45 Talk trash to 58 Small, in 4 Fires on from 46 “The Dick Van Dogpatch above Dyke Show” 59 History majors’ 5 “My gal” of song catchphrase degs. 6 Sparkling topper 7 Flamboyant Flynn ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: 8 Cellphone giant 9 “I’d love to, Yvette!” 10 MTA stop 11 Camera name since 1888 12 Suspect’s excuse 13 Aden’s country 18 Belgian river 22 Dude 25 Actress Carter and “little” Dickens character Trent 26 Hog-wild 27 Water-to-wine village 30 Penny pincher 31 Prefix with cycle 32 Wee newt 03/18/13 xwordeditor@aol.com 33 Showy wrap
C O RRECT I ON The Oct. 29 article “D’Abate, Swearer partnership praised for success” referenced Dilania Inoa as assistant dean of the college and senior program manager for Student Development. In fact, Inoa is not an assistant dean of the college. The article has been updated to reflect that change. The Herald regrets the error.
SP O OKY SEAS ON
AREEZ KHAN / HERALD
By C.C. Burnikel (c)2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
03/18/13
Pumpkins and gourds populate various steps on College Hill as students and locals prepare for Halloween this Thursday. As crisp fall weather rolls in, students anticipate Thanksgiving with festive flora.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
Responsibility and power after Brown JOE ZAPPA ’17 OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Admission to Brown is among the greatest gifts one can receive in the United States, which fancies itself a meritocracy in which a college degree is among the most prized credentials. It is a gift that will never be repaid. The gift is power — the ability to do or ability tout court. This immense power comes with commensurate responsibility. It is the responsibility to work toward a world in which some are not granted so much more power than others because they are born to a favored class or even because they ascend into one by graduating from a university on the east side of Providence, Rhode Island. More than two years after graduating from Brown, I write to share the above words in The Herald because I wish I had heard them as an undergraduate, especially as a first-year. I also choose to write for a university audience because a long-form meditation on responsibility and power at Yale deeply influenced my thinking. In that essay, Yale alum Natalia Dashan critiques the perceived excesses of student protests in order to articulate a contrast between the ability to critique power (a talent widely cultivated at Yale and Brown) and the ability to use power to curb its broader, pernicious ramifications. When the powerful decline to recognize and make good on their power, Dashan writes, “The rich and powerful actually start believing that they are neither of those things. They actually start believing that there is not much difference in status and resources between themselves and the upper-middle class, the middle class — and eventually, between themselves and the actual poor. They forget that they have certain privileges and duties that others do not.” Dashan’s piece offers a lengthy and complex argument to which I cannot fully do justice in this column. In the quote above, she is referring specifically to the one-percenters who, as of the writing of a New York Times column in 2017, were more common at Brown and Yale than students from the bottom 60 percent of the Amer-
ican income scale. Her argument, then, does not completely elide the differences in power between Yale students from wealthy and poor backgrounds. She also does not draw an unqualified contrast between critiquing power and using it to mitigate inequality on a broader scale. Still, I would like to reframe the tension Dashan identifies between using the power of an Ivy League education to critique a dean’s prejudiced Yelp reviews or the slavery-linked name of a college, and using that power to “productively replace” the deeply unequal social system students study, critique and inherit when they leave top universities. My contention is that these goals and impulses are, if not
“For all of us, handling the power inherent to a Brown degree means admitting we wield that power and the power of whatever knowledge Brown gives us.”
always in practice, in fact more complementary than contradictory. The ability and propensity for students at universities like Brown and Yale to critique unequal distributions of power are two of the precise reasons they are also responsible for recognizing and using the power those educations afford. I title this essay “Responsibility and power after Brown” because two years of distance from my time here allows me to consider the purported excesses of which Dashan writes with greater understanding. College is the place and time to learn about inequality and power and to learn how to critique them. Occasional excess as well as a potential lack of generosity and nuance are part of the learning process. The key is that students who learn to identify and critique power’s insidious manifestations along lines of class and other facets of identity must graduate and act on Dashan’s lesson.
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It is incumbent upon Brown students to recognize the power they do have and to use that power — that of an educated class and of education itself — to root out the broader inequality Brown teaches us to contest. It is incumbent upon alums to rise to that task with the generosity toward others and sense of scale that years and eventually decades of experience afford. Most students’ time at Brown lasts just four years. The time after will offer decades to do better — not just to check one’s privilege but to pay back the social debt it accrues — by leveling the vastly different outcomes privilege systematically produces. No one postgraduate path fully captures
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what it means to be a responsible steward of the power imparted by a Brown education. It would be unimaginative to claim that there are not greater possibilities beyond local organizing or professional politics. Likewise, while perennial campus recruitment for consulting, finance and tech firms sparks a justified conversation on the shortcomings of corporate work, sanctimonious screeds against whole professions obscure the possibility of pursuing justice even and especially in contexts where it seems most unlikely. A student’s choice of career is among the most essential considerations concerning how they will repay their debt to a society that has given them an invaluable gift after Commencement. But career choices need not last a lifetime, and even those who appear to sacrifice or take up the most selfless jobs should not assume to have traversed the gap between good and evil. On the contrary, responsibility entails re-
lentless self-questioning. It is a call — and not one that enjoins us to make judgments about whether we have decisively fulfilled our own responsibility by propping ourselves up in relation to the choices of others. Rather, it is an injunction to strive more ardently toward a justice we will never fully realize. For wealthy alums, responsibility may mean playing by the rules rather than seeking loopholes, deploying their resources to fight for stronger and fairer standards of justice and never falling for the illusion that hard work excuses a society in which many suffer while a powerful few thrive. For all of us, handling the power inherent to a Brown degree means admitting we wield that power and the power of whatever knowledge Brown gives us. It means rejecting self-satisfaction and complacency. It means admitting that we never do quite enough and working, at however small a scale, to better both the institutions in which we are implicated and the lives of those around us. This call is intentionally open-ended. Rather than prescribing a path toward justice or shaming those who would seem to have failed to take it, I hope to have gestured toward the social justice so many Brown students treasure as an asymptotic goal. We will never achieve the total justice that eludes us. It is essential to urge, though, that the next class of first-year students and generations of students to come as well as the alums still living and benefiting from the gift of a Brown education try to seek that justice. Recognizing the rare power we have as Brown students and alums to do better — to do almost anything, as first-years may imagine when they first walk through the Van Wickle Gates — is the first step toward responsible stewardship of our immeasurable, if never fully equal, power and privilege. It is the first step toward taking seriously the greatest gift most of us can hope to have received. Joe Zappa ’17 can be reached at joezappa614@gmail.com. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
Submissions: The Brown Daily Herald publishes submissions in the form of op-eds and letters to the editor. Op-eds are typically between 750 and 1000 words, though we will consider submissions between 500 and 1200 words. Letters to the editor should be around 250 words. While letters to the editor respond to an article or column that has appeared in The Herald, op-eds usually prompt new discussions on campus or frame new arguments about current discourse. All submissions to The Herald cannot have been previously published elsewhere (in print or online — including personal blogs and social media), and they must be exclusive to The Herald. Submissions must include no more than two individual authors. If there are more than two original authors, The Herald can acknowledge the authors in a statement at the end of the letter or op-ed, but the byline can only include up to two names. The Herald will not publish submissions authored by groups. The Herald does not publish anonymous submissions. If you feel your circumstances prevent you from submitting an op-ed or letter with your name, please email herald@browndailyherald.com to explain your situation. You can submit op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com and letters to letters@browndailyherald. com. When you email your submission, please include (1) your full name, (2) an evening or mobile phone number in case your submission is chosen for publication and (3) any affiliation with Brown University or any institution or organization relevant to the content of your submission. Please send in submissions at least 24 hours in advance of your desired publication date. The Herald only publishes submissions while it is in print. The Herald reserves the right to edit all submissions. If your piece is considered for publication, an editor will contact you to discuss potential changes to your submission. Commentary: The editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial page board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only. Corrections: The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Postmaster: Please send corrections to P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Advertising: The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. reserves the right to accept or decline any advertisement at its discretion.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY
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Drug checking services must be reinstated on Brown’s campus to protect students ELIZABETH KINNARD ’14, NATALIE VAN HOUTEN ’14, JARED MOFFAT ’13, MUKI BARKAN ’17, REBECCA MCGOLDRICK ’12 OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS
Roughly a decade ago, members of Brown’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter began offering a free harm reduction service to fellow students in the form of drug checking kits. The program involved lending a set of chemical reagents to students who wanted to check whether the substance they planned on consuming — usually a recreational drug such as ecstasy — was the substance they believed it to be. With just a small portion of a pill or powder, the tests could detect the presence of MDMA, methamphetamine, opioids and a long list of other substances with a high degree of accuracy. About ten years later, Brown has eliminated the program and determined its existence violates the revised student code of conduct. As SSDP alums who have gone on to work in fields directly related to health care, harm reduction and drug policy reform, we are deeply concerned to see that our alma mater profoundly misunderstands the importance of harm reduction. SSDP began the service to address a critical need on campus for drug checking. There have been cases at many universities of students taking a drug and subsequently having a bad reaction, or overdosing, because they mistakenly thought they were taking one substance and ended up with something else. For example, this was the case at Wesleyan University in 2015, when 12 students were hospitalized for drug overdoses. Studies have found that, of ecstasy tablets submitted anonymously, 39 percent were comprised of pure MDMA, 46 percent contained no MDMA and 15 percent were mixtures of MDMA and other substances. Over the past decade, we Brown SSDP alums witnessed the drug-testing program become more widely known, and as a result more effective. We witnessed cases in which students who checked
their drugs actually discovered that they were adulterated and therefore opted not to take them, averting a potentially life-risking experience. Further, the program allowed us to interact with students in a non-judgmental, health-focused setting. This setting offered us the unique opportunity to educate our peers about other ways of reducing risk when they consumed drugs. These include recognizing signs of overdose, staying hydrated, taking smaller dosages and not consuming the drugs alone. Importantly, in these interactions, we could inform them of campus policy that protects students from disciplinary action if they call for help when someone overdoses — a policy that is vital for students to
bling to every student whether or not they have used the program. For context, Rhode Island is one of the few states that has passed a law explicitly making it legal to conduct drug checking. The administration notes, correctly, that possessing illegal drugs and “knowingly or recklessly aiding” another individual in doing so are violations of the Code of Student Conduct. But SSDP’s proposed revisions to the program would not entail violations of the Code of Student Conduct. SSDP members would not possess any drugs — they would just be lending kits — and they would not be recklessly aiding in drug use, because the students who used SSDP’s services would already have plans to consume drugs.
“We are deeply concerned to see that our alma mater profoundly misunderstands the importance of harm reduction.”
know about. There’s no question that this program made students safer. Having knowledge about what a drug contains is always better than not. We were therefore shocked and disappointed to learn that Brown administrators demanded last spring that the program be discontinued. Leaders of the group obliged, halted the program and submitted a thoughtful proposal for how to amend it to address concerns raised by the administration. This fall, however, SSDP leaders were informed by the Student Activities Office that, despite their efforts, they still had to shut down the program. A representative from the office claimed that even with the proposed revisions to the program, it violated Brown’s Code of Student Conduct. The University’s rationale should be trou-
Rather, trained students would lend a set of perfectly legal chemical reagents to a fellow student and teach them how to use them. The student is not “aided” in using drugs. The drug checking service only reduces harm that may be caused by those drugs. To be clear: banning drug use and possession will not make drugs go away. Providing information that reduces drug-related harm will not encourage drug use. The decision is particularly disappointing because the University has adopted a medical amnesty policy under which individuals who seek or are in need of medical assistance because of drug or alcohol overdose will not be subject to disciplinary action. It’s a sad irony that at Brown — where faculty from the School of Public Health and Alpert Medical School, such as Associate Professor of
Epidemiology Brandon Marshall and Adjunct Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine Traci Green are nationally recognized for championing harm reduction practices — school administrators have shut down a lifesaving initiative on their own campus. The intention of the drug-checking program is not to encourage illegal substance use. Just as naloxone training and distribution do not encourage opioid use and dispensing free condoms on campus does not make students engage in riskier sexual behaviors, this program does not make students more likely to use substances. It simply allows people to be safer and more informed in the choices they’re already making. Whether University officials prefer to acknowledge it or not, Brown students consume illicit drugs. Frankly, drug checking should be a service the school offers itself. At the very least, administrators should recognize the benefit and importance of these drug checking kits and applaud Brown SSDP for making them available. We still have a long way to go toward reforming our senseless drug laws and undoing the harms caused by the disastrous war on drugs across the world. We shouldn’t need to return to the pages of The Herald to explain why Brown should not take the regressive step of disbanding a program that represents a more enlightened and rational approach to drug use. We call on students, faculty and other members of the Brown community to urge the Brown administration to reconsider its position and work with Brown SSDP to maintain this vital program.
Elizabeth Kinnard ’14 can be reached at ekinnard@berkeley.edu. Natalie Van Houten ’14 can be reached at nataliejvanhouten@ gmail.com. Jared Moffat ’13 can be reached at jared.e.moffat@gmail.com. Muki Barkan ’17 can be reached at muki.barkan@gmail. com. Rebecca McGoldrick ’12 can be reached rebecca.e.mcgoldrick@gmail.com. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@ browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
CIS integral in Today@Brown and digital transformation To the Editor: It can be rare for a student newspaper to recognize in its reporting the tools and systems that a university puts in place to benefit the day-today lives of members of its community, so it’s noteworthy that The Herald chose to mark the two-year anniversary of Today@Brown with a recent article. But there are two important points that did not get included in the published story, “Today@Brown celebrates twoyear anniversary,” that actually make Today@ Brown more significant than serving as the daily digest of priority messages, announcements and events that students, faculty and staff wake up to every morning.
First, the project is foundational to the ongoing Digital Transformation Project launched at Brown by President Christina Paxson to improve Brown’s fragmented digital ecosystem and ease access to digital resources and information. And just as important, Today@Brown has been a joint collaboration between the Office of University Communications and extraordinary partners in Computing and Information Services. While technological complexities may not be a likely subject of exciting reporting, what continues to attract other universities across the country is the work that developers in CIS did with the tech firm Originate to develop the backbone for a platform that is helping Brown customize information delivery via a
range of other apps and tools. Today@Brown is a foundation to allow other systems at Brown to distribute information that is specifically relevant to 18 identified audience segments, and according to their self-selected interests. Today@Brown is the community’s platform, and colleagues in CIS must be recognized for their ongoing expertise and agility in advancing technology that has been informed by the direct feedback of our campus. In addition to the efforts of Director of Web and Digital Communications Strategy Joel Pattison and Assistant Vice President Brian Clark of the Office of University Communications, which are recognized in the recent article, Deputy CIO John Spadaro and Associate Director of Integration and
Identity Services Christopher Keith of CIS have worked tirelessly with other members of their teams to bring these innovations to Brown. First under then-CIO Ravi Pendse and now under Chief Digital Officer and CIO Bill Thirsk, the creativity of the team in CIS is fueling development of experiences for students, faculty and staff to fulfill an exciting vision for digital at Brown. Cass Cliatt Vice President for Communications
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
U. researchers develop computer model to design drugs for sickle cell Team of University researchers collaborates with MIT, Mass General Hospital BY RAHMA IBRAHIM STAFF WRITER A University research team has developed an innovative computer model that could help researchers design drugs to treat sickle cell disease, which is currently incurable and lacks abundant or effective treatment options. The team, which primarily focuses on fluid mechanics but was able to apply the same principles to blood, modeled the sickling process of red blood cells. Sickle cell disease causes a mutation in the oxygen-carrying proteins located in red blood cells, called hemoglobin. The sickling process leads to red blood cells developing a stiff, crescent moon shape, which makes it harder for red blood cells to go through blood vessels throughout the body and causes recurrent pain in individuals with the disorder. The team of researchers included George Karniadakis, professor of applied mathematics and senior author of the research, Peter Vekilov, physical chemist and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Houston, Lu Lu GS, a PhD student in Karniadakis’ lab and co-author of the research, and He Li, an assistant research professor of applied mathematics. The team also collaborated with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts General Hospital. The model built on a proposed theory of the way red blood cells are affected by the mutation that accompanies sickle cell disease. This process of sickling follows a two-step nucleation mechanism, which was proposed in earlier research by Vekilov as an expansion to the original 1876 classical theory of nucleation. The two-step nucleation mechanism explains that the nuclei of hemoglobin in red blood cells come together in a disorganized state and in high concentrations. Previous chemical and physical studies have shown that if you have a few hemoglobin molecules, they will form elongated fibers in a process known as
COURTESY OF GEORGE KARNIADAKIS
The computer model successfully replicated a majority of previously collected clinical data, allowing researchers to avoid additional timeconsuming clinical drug trials. The group may work with HemaNext, a company which provides healthy red blood cells to transfusion patients. nucleation. These fibers push the red blood cell membrane out of its traditional circular shape and eventually lead to the sickle cell shape. There are currently only two Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs that are aimed at managing pain for sickle-cell disease, though both are not effective at reducing pain episodes for many individuals with the disease. “The most important thing is to develop a model that looks at the physical and chemical characteristics in red blood cells,” Vekilov said. This makes the group’s model more reliable than one produced in 2017 by another group that did not take into account these differences. This model explicitly
accounted for differences that exist within different parts of the body, such as hemoglobin concentrations. Massachusetts General Hospital provided the team with blood from a number of patients. Hemoglobin was then isolated from the patients’ blood, and MIT researchers observed the hemoglobin elongation process in a controlled oxygen environment. The team’s model attempted to understand the factors and conditions that influence this sickling process. The group tested their model in four conditions, altering factors like temperature, oxygen, pressure and hemoglobin concentrations. They also tested their model in four drugs that targeted
the amount of energy needed to make one cell nucleus and thus result in nucleation. After observing differences based on these conditions, the model analyzed which of the factors was most significant. “The model helps researchers decide if we design new drugs, which factors we should target,” Lu said. The group’s computer model was successfully able to replicate a majority of previously collected clinical data, which could allow researchers to avoid costly, time-consuming and often unsuccessful clinical drug trials. Because the National Institutes of Health funded this research, it has taken charge of sharing the group’s
research with the scientific community. Recently, the group has been approached by a company called HemaNext, which provides healthy red blood cells to people for transfusions. HemaNext hopes to incorporate the model in their current testing to ensure that transfusions are safe in all types of conditions. The group plans to expand the sickle cell project and is currently putting together an application to the NIH. They hope to find ways to better simulate clinical data and find ways to make the model more individualized, since different patients exhibit unique health factors that may influence their sickle cell disease.