SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
VOLUME CLV, ISSUE 3
UNIVERSITY NEWS
Campbell to serve as 2021 UGS Chair
BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
Research thrives at Mindfulness Center U. mindfulness researchers innovate, collaborate, publish November study
BY EMILIJA SAGAITYTE SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR
COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY
Nominated by fellow UGS board members, Dean Andrew Campbell will lead the Council of Graduate Schools, an organization of nearly 500 colleges and universities across North America.
Dean Campbell to lead national board’s work in improving graduate education BY JACK WALKER SENIOR STAFF WRITER The board of directors of the Council of Graduate Schools elected Graduate School Dean Andrew Campbell as its chair for 2021. As chair, Campbell will lead the
board’s programmatic work surrounding the evaluation and improvement of graduate education. Campbell is entering his fourth year leading the Graduate School, and leads the Brown Initiative to Maximize Student Development — a National Institutes of Health-funded initiative dedicated to supporting and improving doctoral programs’ recruitment of students from historically underrepresented groups. Campbell was nominated by fellow CGS board members during the organization’s annual December meeting. The
SPORTS
Labuda ’22 breaks diving record in victory Diver breaks 31-yearold program record in 186-114 win against Columbia BY AMELIA SPALTER STAFF WRITER Trevor Labuda ’22 led the men’s swimming and diving team to victory against Columbia this weekend with a record-breaking 3-meter dive. Labuda’s 354.00 points broke the program best of 351.05 that was set in 1989. Before coming to Brown from Los Altos, California, Labuda dove for the Stanford JOA Diving Club and Los Altos High School. Last season, he placed eighth in the 3M dive at the Ivy League Championships and also competed in the 1-meter dive. This season, the sophomore helped his team defeat the University of Connecticut and led Bruno in the 3M dive at the Big Al Open. For his historic efforts against Columbia,
Labuda has been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week. Herald: How did you first become involved in diving? Labuda: When my brother and I were younger, we’d go to a community pool with diving boards. But my mom wouldn’t let us jump off of them unless we took diving lessons, because she didn’t want us to get hurt. We both enjoyed the lessons so much that we participated in a “learn to dive” program at Stanford, and I joined their diving club. We started competing when we were around ten years old, and the rest is history. What are you thinking about just before you jump off the board? Honestly, nothing. I go into autopilot, because we do these dives so much. Diving is all about consistency. It takes a lot of effort, but so little, all at the same time. You go on autopilot, but
SEE AOTW PAGE 2
CGS includes nearly 500 colleges and universities in North America engaged in graduate education and research. Throughout this year, Campbell will serve as chair-elect, learning under current Chair Dr. Sally Pratt of the University of Southern California. Campbell’s term as chair-elect will include learning about the board activities directed by the chair as well as the annual meeting that the chair oversees. Katherine Hazelrigg, CGS assistant director of communications, said “CGS
SEE CAMPBELL PAGE 4
As students take a step into another year and another semester, exams and busy schedules, the Mindfulness Center at Brown continues to connect University researchers from diverse areas of study. The Mindfulness Center’s mission is to “develop research and provide evidence-based mindfulness programs that are inspiring and accessible to communities worldwide,” said Eric Loucks, director of the Mindfulness Center and associate professor of epidemiology, behavioral and social sciences and medicine. Its principal aims are in research, mindfulness programs, training experts in the field and collaborating with other organizations to produce system-wide impacts, he added. Mindfulness involves increasing people’s awareness of their emotions and bodily reactions so that they may alter their behavior as needed, said Jud
Brewer, the director of research and innovation at the Mindfulness Center and associate professor of behavioral and social sciences at the School of Public Health. “Mindfulness training is there to help people live better lives, and that involves changing both physical behavior, … (and)also mental behaviors, like judging ourselves or worrying.” Since the Center opened in the Jewelry District in 2017, it has connected investigators who incorporate mindfulness into their research, The Herald previously reported. These researchers come from various Brown-affiliated institutions, including the School of Public Health, Warren Alpert Medical School and neighboring hospitals. A study on the effects of mindfulness on blood pressure was published in November. The results from the clinical trial were part of a larger project funded by a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2015, The Herald previously reported. The project team, consisting of researchers from multiple disciplines and universities, conducted systematic reviews on how mindfulness in-
SEE MINDFULNESS PAGE 4
METRO
U. alum Chafee enters presidential race
Former governor, senator Lincoln Chafee ’75 P ’14 P ’17 embraces Libertarian platform BY BEN POLLARD SENIOR STAFF WRITER During his four years on College Hill preceding his political career, former governor and senator Lincoln Chafee ’75 P ’14 P ’17 spent his time in a different arena: the wrestling ring. The “sense of perseverance through the ups and downs” provided by his wrestling experience has remained “valuable” throughout Chafee’s political career, the presidential hopeful told The Herald. This career spans three decades and four political parties. Today, he is wrestling for a new title: President of the United States. Chafee — Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat — announced his candidacy for president Jan. 5, this time as a libertarian. His announcement marks the second University alum vying for the
Metro
Commentary
Commentary
City to increase e-mobility options, implements new safety measures Page 2
Ren ’23: Resolutions, goals shouldn’t be limited to New Year’s Day Page 6
Hall ’20: Democrats should focus on long-term instead of electability politics Page 7
COURTESY OF LINCOLN CHAFEE
Chafee is the second University graduate to join the 2020 presidential race, alongside businessman Andrew Yang ’96. nation’s highest office, along with entrepreneur Andrew Yang ’96. Chafee comes from a long line of Rhode Island politicians. His greatgreat grandfather was Henry Lippitt, the 33rd governor of Rhode Island; his great-great uncle Charles Warren Lippitt ’1865 was the 44th governor. His father, John Chafee, served as the 66th governor and served in the U.S.
Senate, while his great-great uncle, Henry Frederick Lippitt ’1878 also served as a U.S. senator. Lincoln Chafee served as mayor of Warwick as a Republican for seven years following his election in 1992. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate — again, as a Republican —
SEE CHAFEE PAGE 4
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
METRO
City looks to strengthen e-mobility options, increase safety JUMP bikes could return this spring, VeoRide scooters may expand further in Providence BY JULIA GROSSMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER On Jan. 9, WPRI reported that a car struck and injured a Providence man riding an e-scooter on a highway ramp. While this accident involved a personal e-scooter — not one from any of Providence’s vendors — scooter company VeoRide, along with Mayor Jorge Elorza’s office, is committed to addressing safety concerns. Elorza’s office has “worked with our providers to continue increasing user safety precautions,” Patricia Socarras, the mayor’s press secretary, wrote in an email to The Herald. VeoRide electric scooters were introduced to Providence in late November following the departure of several other electric ride-sharing companies this past year. Spin, another e-scooter sharing company, also recently launched in Providence but did not respond to request for comment on this story by press time. VeoRide is committed to producing safer scooters and promoting safe riding practices, especially in light of recent accidents, according to VeoRide Regional General Manager Matt Briggs. “Safety is obviously a top concern for everyone in this industry,” said Briggs. “Where it starts with us is our hardware.” VeoRide scooters are heavier, have larger vacuum-sealed tires and a wider base than most brands of scooters, which contribute to their increased stability, according to Briggs. Additionally, front lights, tail lights and underneath track lights “make (the rider) very visible,” said Briggs. Briggs also stated that most of VeoRide’s public messaging promotes safe riding practices, including staying off sidewalks whenever possible, being aware of pedestrians and wearing a helmet at all times. Elorza’s office is also working to
AOTW FROM PAGE 1 you do that because you’re thinking of a million small things you’ll need to do at once. However, you’re not really thinking about it. You’re just going through the motions of it because it’s something you’ve done a thousand times before. Had you been expecting to break the 3M record, or was it a surprise? One of my biggest goals was to get up on the record board. I didn’t expect it to come at this dive — I had no idea how long it would take, but it’s great that it happened now. It’s an awesome feeling that will allow me to focus on continuing to get even better.
promote safe usage of e-bikes and e-scooters. “The City is engaging residents in pedestrian safety improvements, traffic calming measures and the installation of bike lanes,” Socarras wrote. Additionally, to prevent incidents similar to the Jan. 9 accident, Socarras wrote that Providence’s e-scooter vendors geofence the ramps that lead to interstates and highways. Geofencing uses GPS technology to create a bounded virtual area that restricts scooter mobility. If a scooter crosses the geofenced perimeter, it will slow down and eventually come to a stop. The mayor’s office aims to bring more scooters back to Providence after Lime Scooters and Bird stopped operating in the city, The Herald previously reported. The office is “committed to increasing transportation options for all residents,” wrote Katherine Hypolite, Elorza’s director of communications, in an email to The Herald. “For many residents and visitors, e-mobility provides a sustainable, low-cost way to live, work and play around the city,” she wrote. VeoRide marks the second e-scooter company to come to Providence this fall after Spin launched 300 scooters in October. Despite December generally not being “ideal scooter-riding conditions,” said Briggs, “we’ve gotten a lot of interest, both from customers and the media. The city’s been happy with us so far.” While vandalism and crime have not been issues for VeoRide in Providence, according to Briggs, misuse of e-bikes caused JUMP to stop operations last August, The Herald previously reported. JUMP bikes have not yet been redeployed in Providence, but “the City is actively working with the JUMP team to finalize a relaunch plan,” Hypolite wrote. “We anticipate bikes will return in the spring.” In addition to the reappearance of JUMP bikes, the city might also see the expansion of VeoRide. “If the client base and the ridership support a larger fleet,” said Briggs, “we’ll certainly make our case to the city and look to increase the number of permits we hold.”
Do you have any other major goals for your college diving career? I would love to compete against my brother at the NCAA Championships. He dives at Northwestern University, which puts us in different zones, so we’d both have to reach the National Championships to compete against one another. Other than that, (I want) to always bring it for the team. I’d like to see us move up a few spots in the Ivy League. What can fans look forward to at a diving event? The energy — the atmosphere is electric. There is no better way to get close to the action and feel a part of things. Which is your favorite place to compete on the road? Princeton’s pool has a full tower and really nice boards, so going there was super fun. But I also know a decent number of Harvard’s divers from my club team, so it’s always nice to go up there and hang out with people I’ve known for a long time. How have you been adapting to the cold weather since moving here from California?
VICTORIA YIN/ HERALD
Following departures of e-scooter and e-bike companies, the city plans to promote safe riding practices in order to increase the number of transportation options for all Providence residents.
Luckily we dive indoors, (so) we’re not cutting holes out of ice or anything … But pools changing has never been a huge deal. It’s the team and the coach that really matters. What do you like to do outside of practice? I’m pretty involved with Camp Kesem at Brown. Kesem National is a non-profit organization, (and) their mission is to “support children through and beyond their parent’s cancer.” I was a counselor last year and I’m on the coordinating board this year, so I’m helping put together the camp and fundraise. They have chapters all around the country, and we provide support to families whose parents are battling, in remission or unfortunately sometimes have passed away from cancer. It culminates in a free summer camp for the children of those families. It’s a real blast to be involved with their chapter here on campus. The Bears will take on Cornell on the road this weekend in their final meet before the Ivy League Championships. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS
Pictured: Diver Trevor Labuda ’22. The Bears have started the season with a 3-4 record, and will face Cornell on the road this weekend.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
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ARTS & CULTURE
Brown/RISD dual degree students explore time, memory in annual exhibit
VICTORIA YIN / HERALD
At the opening of the 12th annual Brown/RISD Dual Degree Exhibition Thursday night, visitors to the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts viewed student works responding to the theme “Many Years Later.” The works spanned many mediums, including paper cutting, stop-motion animation, textiles and sculpture.
Responding to theme “Many Years Later,” students exhibit diverse array of work BY ALEX VALENTI STAFF WRITER The 12th annual Brown/RISD Dual Degree Exhibition welcomed the public Thursday night with a lively opening reception at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts. Students in the Dual Degree Program were invited to submit work that
responded to the theme “Many Years Later.” Their pieces spoke to concepts of time, memory, routine and change using a diverse array of media, from sculpture to stop-motion animation. At the reception, members of the Brown and Rhode Island School of Design communities viewed works spread out across four floors of the Granoff Center to the tune of live music. The artists confronted the theme on both global and personal scales. A sculpture by Kate Reed ’21 titled “What would our Moon say to Earth” consists of a metallic moon spitting out a receipt from its mouth, on which algorithmically-generated poems based on
pre-composed stanzas are printed. The poems imagine how the moon might respond to a changing Earth, afflicted by rising temperatures and human devastation. Nearby sits a multicolored woven chair by Laura Jaramillo ’20, fashioned from pieces of old clothing she stripped from her closet every day for a month. In an accompanying statement, Jaramillo writes that she sees “a younger version of (herself)” in the chair. The Dual Degree Program, launched in 2008, allows students to earn a degree from both institutions within five years and aims to foster interdisciplinary and collaborative work, according
to the program’s website. Some artists in the exhibition drew from their work at Brown in addition to their studio experience at RISD. Susie Zhu ’23, who studies Printmaking at RISD and Literary Arts at Brown, displayed “Unfold: A love poem to Mars,” a small book made of wood with cloudlike cotton pages unfolding out of it, with a poem she wrote burned into the cotton. She said that as she has progressed through the Dual Degree Program, she has come to feel that her art “is (her) poetry,” and that the two mediums are “intimately connected.” Visitor Olivia McClain ’22 was intrigued by artworks which “made space
to own and talk about privilege.” She and others were drawn to one of the largest pieces in the exhibit, “Brown University Alumni Walkway: The Unsaid History,” by Javier Syquia ’21, in collaboration with RISD students Labelle Chang and Ryan Kang. Captured in floor-spanning photographs, the artists added messages to empty bricks among those engraved with Brown alumni names outside the Maddock Alumni Center, offering glimpses of Brown’s unrepresented histories with statements such as “This Land Belongs to the Narragansett Tribe.” The exhibition will be on display in the Granoff Center until Feb. 13.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
CHAFEE FROM PAGE 1
COURTESY OF MINDFULNESS CENTER
A study published by researchers based at the Mindfulness Center, in collaboration with others, revealed how mindfulness techniques can reduce blood pressure when they are applied to medical regimens.
MINDFULNESS FROM PAGE 1 fluences self-regulation and self-awareness, Loucks said. He was one of the principal investigators of the study. If hypertension, or high blood pressure, is not properly controlled — as is the case in about half of people with the condition — it can cause stroke and heart disease, which are “the biggest killers in the world,” Loucks said. The study sought to determine whether mindfulness skills like self-awareness, emotional regulation and meditation could reduce hypertension when applied to medical regimens that affect blood pressure, such as exercise and eating, he added. Participants of the study, who had been unable to regulate their blood pressure through physical activity, diet or medications alone, underwent nine weeks of mindfulness training. Afterwards, they were asked to incorporate the techniques into other daily behaviors of their choosing, Loucks said. Prior research on the reduction of blood pressure through mindfulness without the application to other behaviors yielded inconsistent, and less significant, findings, Loucks said. But this clinical trial resulted in a significant drop in average blood pressure among the participants, and these decreases were noticeable as early as three months following the program. Whereas the intention of this first trial was geared towards determining the acceptability and efficacy of the mindfulness interventions, the research team is currently finishing a second, randomly controlled clinical trial for which Loucks hopes to have results by this summer. This study includes a control group that did not undergo mindfulness training — a component that was absent from the first trial. If this subsequent study confirms the results of the November study, the next steps may include improving the efficacy and efficiency of the studied mindfulness techniques, and offering this kind of program to the public, he added. Director of Integrative Cardiology and Prevention and Associate Professor Monica Aggarwal at the University of Florida, who was not involved in the study, researches the effects of nutrition and lifestyle on cardiovascular health. “Seeing more studies showing … an integrative approach to managing cardiovascular risk factors is excellent,” Aggarwal wrote in an email to The Herald. “I believe we will be seeing more and more studies showing that an integrative approach works in the coming years.” But “seeing more metabolic pa-
rameters of stress and more clinical parameters would have been great,” Aggarwal wrote. Another principal investigator of this project, Willoughby Britton, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior and of behavioral and social sciences, has also researched meditation. Britton directs the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory with Visiting Professor of Religious Studies Jared Lindahl. After Britton came across a “counterintuitive and surprising” finding in a previous study — that meditation reduced sleep — she has further investigated potential consequences of mindfulness. As part of the Varieties of Contemplative Experience project — the largest study ever conducted on negative meditation experiences — Britton studied meditation teachers and 60 meditators who were experiencing difficulties resulting from meditation, she said. Britton has also been investigating the bodily and mental effects associated with various meditation practices and how outcomes may differ among people with varying personalities or conditions, she added. From a clinical perspective, Brandon Gaudiano, a psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior and of behavioral and social sciences, conducts research at Butler Hospital. His work involves the application of acceptance and commitment therapy — an approach that alters people’s behavior using their values — in those with psychotic disorders and depression, Gaudiano said. He has partnered with Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Psychiatry and Human Behavior David Williams on an ongoing investigation using mindfulness to help increase physical activity in those who have depression, Loucks said. The Center has been innovative in its incorporation of technologies such as digital therapeutics and functional MRI — an imaging technique that can be used to show how meditation affects brain activity, Brewer said. In his own lab, Brewer investigates meditation’s impact on the brain and mindfulness apps’ effects on health. For example, the Unwinding Anxiety program used a mindfulness application targeting anxiety, and the results revealed significant reductions in anxiety after a couple of months, he added. The findings illustrate how mindfulness training reduces people’s susceptibility to their emotions, which alleviates anxiety, Brewer said. Amidst the stresses of college, the
free Mindfulness-Based College program at the Mindfulness Center has showed positive results in a clinical trial, Loucks said. In its research, the Mindfulness Center has also addressed diversity. After expanding to the west from eastern cultures, wealthy communities have become the primary beneficiary of mindfulness programming, said Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences and of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Jeffrey Proulx. But Proulx, who joined the Mindfulness Center Sept. 2019, works to bring mindfulness research to underserved populations. Proulx came to the University “because the Mindfulness Center here is one of the premier locations of people who guide the policies of mindfulness around the world,” he said. Proulx, who is Native American, has focused on bringing mindfulness to Native American communities to alleviate prevailing distress and intergenerational trauma, he added. Stress can elevate heart rate, reduce brain volume and negatively impact the immune system, Proulx said. Unlike other researchers studying mindfulness in Native American communities, Proulx is creating unique interventions for them, he said. His current projects include studies of mindfulness programs with Native American communities in Oregon and California, the Eastern Band Cherokee in North Carolina, and the Narragansett Tribe in Rhode Island. Proulx receives feedback from communities in attempt to find parallels between Native American traditions — like berry picking, dancing and meditation — and mindfulness practices, he said. Proulx “focuses his work on bringing mindfulness interventions in really respectful ways to Native American communities … His ability to navigate through diversity and inclusion is inspiring,” Loucks said. “I’m just excited that I’m at Brown and at the Mindfulness Center, especially because of their commitment to diversity,” Proulx said. The “Mindfulness Center is filled with people that have such an open focus on the future and on being inclusive.” Although the researchers affiliated with the Mindfulness Center are based in many different locations, the establishment has enabled collaboration amongst the researchers and between them and mindfulness educators, Loucks said. “We have very strong mindfulness research, but then we also have very strong mindfulness teacher training programs ... so there’s a lot of synergies between those two.”
following his father’s death in 1999, before being elected to serve a full term in 2000. During this seven-year term, his relationship with the Republican Party soured as he noticed a growing rift between his own policy objectives and those his colleagues advocated. “I left the Republican party back in 2007 because of the changes the Republicans were making,” Chafee said, criticizing the party for aggressive foreign policy, facilitating an increase in the deficit and “their obsession with social issues.” He was, for example, the only Republican senator to vote against authorizing the Iraq War in 2002. “That’s not my traditional Republican Party,” he added. Following Chafee’s tenure in the Senate, he joined the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, where he was a visiting fellow until his successful election to the office of governor in 2010 as an independent. Navigating the political landscape as an independent was challenging: “(I) didn’t have a political party to have my back,” he admitted. So in 2013, Chafee made his third party shift to the Democratic Party, then running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. He ended his campaign within a few months, after failing to garner significant support. By the end of his campaign, Chafee had become frustrated with his new party, characterizing the Democratic nomination process as “biased against Hillary Clinton’s opponents.” Following his Democratic presidential bid, he moved to Wyoming in search of “a new adventure,” and switched his party affiliation a fourth time to libertarian. Stressing the importance of avoiding “foreign entanglements” and “endless wars,” the Libertarian Party’s anti-war platform was a big
CAMPBELL FROM PAGE 1 is the only national organization dedicated solely to the advancement of graduate education and research. Our mission is to improve and advance graduate education, and we do that through advocacy and federal policy research.” In his new role, Campbell will meet and work with leaders from a broad array of universities across the nation and the world. Moreover, Campbell believes that learning about other schools’ successes and challenges will enhance his role at Brown, he wrote
draw for Chafee. He views contemporary public distrust in government as a consequence of the actions of the Bush administration in Iraq. Chafee is unlikely to face opposition from libertarians on his anti-war stances, which have remained more or less constant throughout his entire career. But there are other policy areas where members of Chafee’s newly adopted party may push back on his views. One such issue is gun control. “We are very pro-Second Amendment,” said Pat Ford, Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Rhode Island. Chafee, on the other hand, “has a history of being very pro-gun control,” Ford added. Ford also pointed to public education as a possible point of contention given the dissonance in views between Chafee’s past and current party platform. “I look forward to his evolution on issues,” he added. Though news of Chafee’s Libertarian presidential bid first came as a slight shock to Ford, he said that he is not surprised that the current political climate is prompting people to turn from the two major parties in search of another solution. “People are looking for answers,” Ford said. “I welcome Lincoln to the race.” This does not mean that Chafee’s path will be devoid of obstacles, Ford added. “There is no coronation for our candidates. He will have to travel to every single state convention to convince our delegates that he can give voice to the Libertarian Party.” The presidential hopeful is doing just that, said Christopher Thrasher, Chafee’s campaign manager. “Each weekend, from now until the first weekend in May, Governor Chafee will be traveling to Libertarian Party state conventions (as many as three per weekend),” Thrasher said. Delegates of the U.S. Libertarian Party will choose the party’s nominee at the Libertarian National Convention in Austin, Texas May 21.
in an email to The Herald.“Being a part of the CGS helps contextualize [graduate student] experiences with other schools across the country to promote change when it’s needed,” he added. “The needs and expectations of graduate students continue to evolve,” Campbell wrote. “As part of the CGS board, we want to be instrumental in the development of graduate students as future leaders, educators and researchers in diverse fields. I hope to help lead continuous improvements in graduate education here at Brown and across the country.”
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | TODAY
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Men’s Basketball vs. Yale 7:00 P.M. Pizzitola Sports Center
OMAS Luncheon 11:30 A.M. VGA-A
Anthropology Colloquium 12:00 P.M. Giddings, 212
Computation Seminar Series 3:00 P.M. 164 Angell St., 4th floor
TOMORROW Women’s Basketball vs. Yale 12:00 P.M. Pizzitola Sports Center
Elements Dance Workshop 2:00 P.M. T.F. Green, 205
Volunteer with SAC 2:00 P.M. St. Stephens Church
Women’s Hockey vs. Saint Anselm 3:00 P.M. Meehan Auditorium
Q U OTE OF T H E DAY
“Diving is all about consistency. It takes a lot of effort, but so little, all at the same time.”
—Trevor Labuda ’22 SEE AOTW PAGE 1
SPR O UTI N G P ERI OD CR O S SWO R D
VICTORIA YIN / HERALD
As students embark on their stressful shopping periods, the remaining snow of winter break thaws slowly, unveiling the greenery of warmer seasons.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
No more New Year’s resolutions for me JOHNNY REN ’23 STAFF COLUMNIST
For the past few years, I have made New Year’s resolutions. For the past few years, I have also failed my New Year’s resolutions. This pattern is unsurprising. As someone who enjoys reading self-help books without actually doing any self-helping, I have always had a penchant for fruitless proclamations of personal development. A particularly damning case of my delusion comes in the form of a journal from high school. The first page simply reads: “Jan. 1, 2017: be more calm.” The following pages of angst, however, quickly contradict the clarity of mind I possessed only weeks before. One might even find an angry haiku laced within the pages, which I wrote after being benched from junior varsity soccer. Clearly, I was not getting any more calm. Of course, I am not alone. Some studies have estimated that around 80 percent of Americans fail their own New Year’s resolutions by the following month. A lack of willpower may be to blame. But some psychologists have proposed that the very way we construct our resolutions might set us up for failure. They suggest setting smaller or more well-defined goals, something along the lines of “no more indignant poetry.” If that had been my resolution, maybe I would have succeeded. And yet, while many analyses of New Year’s resolutions provide ways for us to improve
them, few address a more fundamental question: Why do they exist at all? To be clear, I am not against self-improvement, nor do I think that there is anything inherently wrong with making New Year’s resolutions. I simply think that it might be good for us to examine why January is a better month for introspection than May or October. At their best, New Year’s resolutions can be
At their worst, however, New Year’s resolutions can allow people to defer their motivations, only to fail them at a later date. And all people, even those who succeed on their annual goals, may be procrastinating when they choose to start their resolutions on New Year’s Day. After all, the goals we want to achieve probably don’t appear suddenly when the ball drops in Times Square. We think up new ways to im-
“New Year’s resolutions can give the illusion of a starting line, when really a starting line has been there all along.”
a wonderful opportunity for growth. There is a performative aspect at work whenever we outwardly proclaim all the ways we want to start being healthier and happier on Jan. 1. For some people, sharing their desire to “go keto” on Facebook could provide an added social pressure to continually wolf down high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate foods. Others who keep their goals private can also use the New Year as a springboard for personal betterment.
prove our health, character and happiness all the time, at unexpected places and during unexpected hours. The ideal solution, then, is to pursue these improvements as soon as we can. However, many of us tend to forget, stuffing our issues into some dusty, old cabinet in the back of our brains, waiting for some external sign — maybe a holiday — to provide impetus for action. The appeal of a fresh start is obvious. New
Year’s resolutions provide clear, discernible opportunities for people to figure out all their flaws and fix them. But in truth, holidays — whether New Year’s, Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day — should simply remind us of our values rather than being their main source. The most important principles in life are the ones that we should reflect on continually, beyond the discrete acknowledgment granted by a special date on the calendar. New Year’s resolutions can give the illusion of a starting line, when really a starting line has been there all along. If New Year’s resolutions work for you, by all means keep making them. Any attempt at self-improvement is admirable and should be encouraged. Yet I also think it is worth considering how the tradition can shape our own motivations. What goals are we putting off for some seemingly better moment? For the past few years, I have failed my New Year’s resolutions. For the past few years, I have also started doing something else. I have made smaller goals over the days and weeks and months, ones that I didn’t think of as “resolutions,” which frankly carried more conviction and clarity than any aspiration I ever held on New Year’s Day. I now know that if I fail, there is no better time to try again than the present.
Johnny Ren ’23 can be reached at jiawei_ren@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY
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Liberals need to think beyond horse race politics GALEN HALL ’20 STAFF COLUMNIST Watching liberal political commentators talk about the 2020 presidential election, one starts to wonder whether the world will even continue to exist should Democrats lose. Trump’s victory four years ago was already hailed by European populists as an “apocalypse” for the centrist-liberal political mainstream; this time, headlines cry that four more years of Trump may just be apocalyptic, period. How exactly the world might end doesn’t seem to matter. It could come from tensions with Iran erupting into a nuclear war, from the accelerating climate crisis or (less plausibly) from the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Each picture of the slippery slope to doom guides us toward the same conclusion: The left needs to win, badly. Nothing matters more than getting our candidate into office. But if the left wants to actually address very serious crises such as climate change and escalating inequality, we need to move beyond this short-term perspective. This victory imperative manifests itself differently in different parts of the left — most obviously in the leftist Twitterverse. On the one hand, the 2020 Twitter news cycle is more preoccupied than ever with electability politics. Each camp argues that its candidate stands the only chance of winning against Trump in a general election. Of course, a Democratic president will not be very useful if they cannot accomplish anything in office, so all sides argue over this point as well. Those further left claim that any president from the right or left other than Bernie Sanders will fail to fix the underlying and ultimately existential crises that Trump has so gleefully exacerbated. Sanders himself recently sparred with the New York Times editorial staff over whether his political movement could overcome Mitch McConnell’s opposition in the Senate, and the news reported days later that he was derided by Hillary Clinton in a documentary as an unlikable and rigid ideologue. Clinton’s comments were met with further hand-wringing about party unity and electability. Media experts seem unified in believing that horse race coverage is wiping our democratic process of all substance, even as most newspapers and TV channels continue engaging in it. They are at least partly right, although a Politico
writer had a point when he wrote in a rejoinder to horse race critics that, without such coverage, election news “would come to resemble an endless series of policy white papers that nobody reads.” But the problems with our current panicked electability obsession run deeper than this. The first problem with this season’s electability politics is that the televised, tweeted, forecasted election bears little resemblance to the real election — the one where actual people with real lives, who spend more time working or looking at cat memes than weighing poll forecasts, submit their real-life votes. Not only will online discussions likely have little direct bearing on voting outcomes, the polling statistics that feature centrally in those discussions offer notoriously poor predictions. More importantly, differences between the candidates on issues ranging from foreign affairs to bipartisanship to grouchiness will probably matter to precious few voters. That’s because most people, being by far more rational than I am, spend little time worrying about national politics. Why spend time thinking about a process whose outcome you’re so phenomenally unlikely to affect? Large chunks of the electorate know next-to-nothing about the Federal Government, much less those vying for leadership over it. (Only 26 percent of Americans could name all three branches of government according to a 2017 survey.) One of the few reliable predictors of a presidential election (other than candidates’ height) is the economy. Historically, incumbent presidents tend to lose votes during economic downturns, and they are rewarded for upswings, especially in the few months before an election — and this often holds regardless of who is responsible for those changing fortunes and how the benefits of growth are distributed. In the words of a potential swing voter from Michigan: Voters “might say there are these other things, but once the curtain closes and they have to vote, then it’s the economy.” This brings me to the first major reason that political writers, organizers and leaders on the left need to broaden their focus beyond the 2020 election: There’s a real chance that despite our best efforts, Trump will win. That’s because Trump benefits from a strong economy, and he, or his advisors, clearly understand this — notwithstanding that the benefits of recent growth have accrued mostly to the upper class. Not only
did he just sign a trade deal with China, softening the impacts of the trade war just in time for election season, but he has also been putting constant pressure on the Federal Reserve to boost growth. Combined with other recent maneuvers such as the dangerous but largely politically beneficial strike against Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, Trump looks to be in a strong position going into November. Strategic thinking on the left entails having a plan for the possibility that Trump wins four more years in office, and yet barely anyone is talking about it. A Trump victory is not inevitable. Some Democratic contenders still lead him in the polls, unreliable as those polls are. And four more years of Trump would certainly be catastrophic — not only for the thousands of people enduring systematic oppression at the Mexican border, or the indigenous people facing further expropriation and pollution of their land, but also for all young people. Trump’s entire administration is essentially one long yard sale of the natural world to massive corporations, whether it be his dismantling of the Environmental
“Strategic thinking on the left entails having a plan for the possibility that Trump wins four more years in office, and yet barely anyone is talking about it.”
Protection Agency or his Department of Justice teaming up with oil companies to stave off lawsuits. Add to this the Republican strategies that deepen inequality and undermine democratic institutions and norms, and our generation and those after us are not facing rosy futures. These threats personally terrify me. But the second reason we should focus beyond the 2020 election is that, while getting Trump out of office may be a necessary condition for dealing
with these crises in the near future, it is certainly not the only necessary condition. Even if the Democratic candidate wins in November, they will almost certainly lack the broad and deep grassroots support necessary to successfully undertake the economic and infrastructural transformations needed to deal with inequality and climate change. Firstly, passing moderate legislation will be about as hard as passing more ambitious acts, even under the most optimistic assumptions about Senate and House electoral outcomes. That, paired with the fact that we are in a climate emergency, gives good reason to focus on transformational efforts like the Green New Deal. But, as Assistant Professor of Environment and Society Myles Lennon wrote last April in Jacobin, passing ambitious legislation is not a “silver bullet.” Policies on the scale of recent Green New Deal proposals will not be implemented without widespread support from both elites and everyday people. Building the necessary coalitions is a longterm project that will involve organizing on every level, from rebuilding unions, to countering the apparatus of conservative academic departments and think tanks, to ending the budding relationships between tech behemoths and right-wing climate deniers. Sympathetic officials need to be elected and appointed at all levels of government. This project to undo and reverse right-wing gains made over decades of strategic campaigning will become even more important if Trump wins re-election, but it is necessary either way. Yes, everyone who can should contribute time or money to the Democratic nominee. (This goes especially for the two billionaires spending tens of millions of dollars on their own useless primary attempts.) But beyond that, we should consider how we can play an active role regardless of that campaign’s outcome. Short-term engagement in electoral politics will not address our long-term problems. The real work will go on no matter the presidential outcome, and it will require all of us to engage in changing the structures we occupy throughout society.
Galen Hall ’20 can be reached at galen_hall@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS
LITERARY ARTS COURSES, SPRING 2020 For First Year Seminars: LITR 0100 workshops (Introduction to Fiction, Introduction to Poetry) and LITR 0710 seminars: spaces were filled by the Dean of the Collegeʼs office. Attend the first class to see if space has become available; the instructor will also create a wait list at the first session (not before). These courses are open to First Year undergraduate students only. For LITR 0110 workshops (Fiction I, Poetry I. Digital Language Arts I & Screenwriting I): spaces were filled during the registration period. No wait lists are created before the first class meeting; attend the first class to see if space has become available. For LITR 0210 (Fiction II, Poetry II), LITR 1010 (Advanced Fiction, Advanced Poetry) & LITR 0310 (Special Topics) workshops: writing samples are due in the front hallway of the Literary Arts Building, 68.5 Brown Street, between 10 am and 4 pm on Wednesday, 22 January. Most sections will accept samples through early afternoon, Friday, 24 January. For LITR 1150/1/2 workshop/seminars: attend the first class session; bring a literary writing sample with you. For LITR 0999, LITR 1200 & LITR 1230/1 literature course: register through Banner during the registration period; and/or attend the first class. LITR 0310N – Machine Learning and Language Arts ~ LITR 0999 – Graphic Novels and Comic Masterworks ~ LITR 1152C – Writers-in-the-Community Training ~ LITR 1152G – Rebuilding the Book ~ LITR 1152I – Poetʼs Tour of the Essay ~ LITR 1152J – Hybrid Writing Workshop: The Long Engagement ~ LITR 1200 – Writers on Writing ~ LITR 1230V – Why Donʼt We Fall in Love? ~ LITR 1230Y – Structuring (and De-Structuring) Novels ~ LITR 1231J – Histories
For details, see https://www.brown.edu/cw or visit “courses at brown”
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2020