Friday, March 17, 2017

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 35

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Study reveals people’s inflated senses of their own knowledge U. research highlights individual ignorance, points to society’s reliance on group knowledge

By ELENA RENKEN SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

COURTESY OF STEVEN SLOMAN

Steven Sloman recently co-wrote ”The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone,” a book discussing his research on shared knowledge.

We may not know as much as we think we do, University research suggests. Our own knowledge may be riddled with holes, but the information contained in many people’s minds forms a vast web of communal understanding, according to Steven Sloman, professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences. The shared knowledge effect described by Sloman reveals our ignorance as individuals and points to the intellectual strength of groups.

“The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone” — a book cowritten by Sloman and released this week — delves into the workings of shared knowledge and its applications in areas like technology, education and definitions of intelligence.

Sloman’s recent research involved experiments that presented people with information about a concept, including a statement about how well experts understood it. When scientists asked participants how well they understood the concept, they gave higher ratings to

their own comprehension when they were told that experts have explained it. “People were confusing what other people know with what they know,” Sloman said. “They think knowledge in other people’s heads is in their heads.”

This confusion happens much more commonly than we expect. People will report that they understand the functioning of a simple device, like a ballpoint pen, but when asked to explain how it works, they often fall silent, Sloman said.

The same holds true in the realm of politics: People tend to have strong opinions about Obamacare, but they typically cannot explain the legislation when asked. “I strongly suspect that even Obama doesn’t really understand Obamacare,” Sloman said.

President Trump provides an “extreme example” of the shared knowledge effect, Sloman said. His “knowledge is almost completely illusory. He talks as if he knows everything. …

When he’s pressed, he seems to have little or nothing to say.”

The shared knowledge effect is present in all of us to some degree. Humans are collaborative by nature — even kids collaborate more than other primates.

“This is a fundamental property of the human mind,” Sloman said. “The mind is a shared entity, and that’s true » See KNOWLEDGE, page 2

W. BASKETBALL

Mehta ’19 powers Bears to win in WBI opener Bruno triumphs in first postseason appearance since 1994, advances to face UNC Greensboro

By CAL BARASH-DAVID SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Last Monday, just two days after the women’s basketball team thought its season was ended by Penn in the Ivy League Tournament, the Bears (17-12, 7-7 Ivy) were selected to take part in the annual Women’s Basketball Invitational. The 16-team tournament marks Brown’s second appearance in a national postseason tournament in program history. Bruno opened tournament play against the University of Maryland at Baltimore County (15-15, 10-6 America East) in Baltimore and earned a spot in the second round with an 81-75 win after several unsuccessful comeback bids by the Retrievers. » See W. BBALL, page 3

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Natalie Pearl ’17 leads Bruno with back-to-back finishes at Nationals In last race of her career, Pearl notches Bears’ top finish in Slalom, earns ninth in Giant Slalom

By NICHOLAS WEY

Pearl: I was very excited to be going to Nationals and to see what the team could do, but at the same time it was sad knowing it was going to be my last competitive ski race. The weather this winter has been challenging, so getting any training we could was key.

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The women’s ski team ended its season Saturday at the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association National Championships, finishing third as a team in the Giant Slalom and taking third place overall in the competition. Leading Brown was veteran racer Natalie Pearl ’17, who took home a ninth place finish in the Giant Slalom with a time of 2:18.51, good for first-team All-American honors in the event.

Pearl also added the Bears’ top finish in the Slalom, coming in fifth place with a time of 2:12.99. Pearl was also recognized as a first-team AllAmerican for Slalom. For her leadership on the slopes and performance at nationals, Pearl has been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

Herald: What was it like leading up to your final collegiate race?

INSIDE

Are you happy with your finish?

I am thrilled to garner first-team All-American honors and am very happy with my finish. I am so glad that I was able to contribute to the team’s accomplishments. I had a few runs that I am very proud of and a few that I feel I could have pushed harder in, but all in all it was solid skiing and I had two strong finishes for the team.

Can you reflect a little bit on the overall season?

This year has been challenging with the transition of coaches. We ran all of our own offseason fitness practices and only hired a coach weeks before our season began. Once we had (Head Coach Alex Norden), things felt much more natural. Additionally, the weather did not provide excellent snow for ski racing this season. That said, we did our best to make every run and training opportunity count,

which overall allowed the team to be grateful of every opportunity. By the end of the season, it is safe to say we felt we could ski any snow conditions.

More generally, how has your career on the ski team been at Brown?

My career on the Brown ski team has been an amazing journey. I consider each teammate that I have had a close friend.

How much of ski racing is mental, and how much is physical?

I won’t say that ski racing doesn’t require a lot of strength, but it is definitely a mental sport. We have one minute to show what we have spent hours upon hours of training on. Being in the zone, and focus are key to a successful race. As far as strength, during our offseason we are unable to ski, therefore we spend our time lifting and exercising so that we are in optimal condition for when our season hits.

What are some of your favorite memories from your time skiing on the Brown team?

Nationals my sophomore year was » See PEARL, page 2

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

Natalie Pearl ’17 closed out her career with Brown’s ski team last weekend, earning All-American honors in the Giant Slalom and Slalom events.

WEATHER

FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

NEWS Thayer Street’s Nice Slice pizzeria to relocate to Providence’s West End due to increased rent

SPORTS Blasberg ’18: After head coach Julien fired, Bruins respond with increased offensive pressure

COMMENTARY Pather ’18, Aung ’19: US global health funding essential to HIV/ AIDS research, prevention

COMMENTARY Steinman ’19: Free speech not threatened on campuses, students exposed to it in political discourse

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PAGE 2 • FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» KNOWLEDGE, from page 1 of everybody.”

Shared knowledge is both a strength and a weakness of the way we think.

“It’s a weakness if you overestimate your own knowledge, which is very easy to do,” said Nathaniel Rabb ’15, co-author on one of Sloman’s papers and lab manager at Boston College’s Arts and Mind Lab. Relying on others for information can create an “echo chamber” in which no one has a thorough understanding, Rabb said.

This type of “vicarious” knowledge sets up an “ignorance arrangement” in modern societies, wrote Michael Smithson, professor at Australian National University’s Research School of Psychology, in an email to The Herald.

For most of our knowledge, “we don’t need to know what the expert knows, but only which expert to turn to for our purposes.” But this arrangement raises concerns about the power of authorities and our ability to identify valid expertise, Smithson wrote.

We are dependent on our own judgments about the reliability of

» PEARL, from page 1 a week I will never forget. It was probably my best performing season, and that nationals had some of the biggest accomplishments and heartbreak of my skiing career. It takes two runs to finish a race, and things can change in the blink of an eye.

Taking a step back, what got you into skiing?

I love it. It is part of the lifestyle

information. “Think about your reasons for believing someone else who says they understand,” Rabb said. “Maybe they don’t. Take it with a grain of salt.”

The novel part of Sloman’s recent research is that even just knowing that an expert understands a topic inflates people’s sense of their own understanding, wrote Frank Keil, professor of psychology and linguistics at Yale, in an email to The Herald. The expert’s explanation itself is not necessary.

Keil has investigated similar concepts in his own laboratory and found similar effects. “People confuse information stored in their own minds with information they can search for on the internet,” he said. Even the act of using a search engine makes us feel like we understand more than we do, he added.

Sloman’s research “adds another charge to the rap sheet of human cognition,” wrote Ryan McKay, reader in the department of psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London, in an email to The Herald.

But the shared knowledge effect can also be hugely beneficial. “It is a strength if you respect it, as long as you

assess the source of information,” Rabb said, offering the example of a physics paper written by many authors.

“Not a single one of them knows what the paper is saying, and they did this based on their trust in each other’s knowledge,” he said.

Sloman is currently pursuing research on how we can “improve public discourse by getting people to think outside themselves,” he said. Politicians often focus on treasured values, but directing debate toward the effects of policy may be more productive, he added.

This area of research has an “ever increasing importance in our interconnected world,” Keil said.

Our power comes from other people, Sloman said, and we need to recognize that.

“The practical goal of the research is to reduce hubris, to make people more humble about their level of knowledge,” Sloman said. He hopes the research will encourage people to “be more open and accepting of others’ ideas and feel a greater need to justify their own.”

where I grew up … I started skiing when I was two, and it was a natural transition into ski racing. It has been my passion for as long as I can remember.

next year?

Next year will be hard after graduating four seniors, but that said, our coach has been extremely active in preparing the team for the transition and seeking qualified applicants to join the team next year.

What do you love about the sport?

I love being outside with the sun shining and the snow sparkling.

You have a really large graduating class — what does this mean for the remaining members of the team

Do you have any plans to ski competitively after college?

I am done with competitive racing, but you can be sure to find me on the slopes every chance I get.

Got something to say? Leave a comment online!

Visit www.browndailyherald.com to comment on opinion and editorial content.

SPORTS

FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

Justine Gaziano ’20 made two of Brown’s school-record 15 three-pointers in a 81-75 win over UMBC Thursday in the opening round of the Women’s Basketball Invitational.

» W. BBALL, from page 1 Though Brown only had two days of practice before having to square off against the unfamiliar foes, it took an early lead in the contest. A steal and precision pass by Megan Reilly ’18 to Justine Gaziano ’20 for a layup stretched the lead to 24-17 — where the first quarter ended.

Brown held onto the lead throughout the half with superior shooting.

The Bears shot 57.1 percent from the

field, including 9-19 from three after one half.

Bruno went into halftime leading 43-32.

Erika Steeves ’19 led the way with 11 points at the half, and Gaziano was close behind with 10.

“We knew that we were playing well on offense — we were shooting the ball pretty well, but we weren’t playing our best defense,” Reilly said.

As a result of Brown’s defensive lapses, the Retrievers closed the gap

in the second half.

The end of the third quarter was scrappy, with players sliding across the floor or jumping into the stands to save a loose ball. As a result, the Bears spilled a considerable number of turnovers.

UMBC narrowed the advantage to eight going into the final quarter and cut the lead to 60-58 by scoring on three straight possessions to start the fourth stanza.

While Brown grabbed a doubledigit advantage again on a three from

Shayna Mehta ’19 , the Retrievers continued to come back, knotting the game at 75 with 1:31 to play.

But Mehta splashed yet another three-pointer to give Brown a lead that it never relinquished. A few trips to the free-throw line slightly inflated Brown’s advantage, and the Bears snuck away with the 81-75 win.

“It got a little too close for comfort there at the end, but Shayna hit a huge three, and … we’re just happy we pulled out the win,” Reilly said.

Brown shot 50 percent from the field as a team and tied a school record with 15 threes. Mehta recorded a double-double with 22 points — fifteen of which came from beyond the arc — and 10 rebounds. Steeves and Gaziano added 22 and 15 points of their own.

The Bears will catch a flight to North Carolina Friday to face the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the second round Sunday. The Spartans defeated CSU 45-37 Thursday.

NEWS

PAGE 4 • FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

KATE TALERICO / HERALD

Nice Slice owner Al Read attributed a recent loss of business to the building’s increased rent. Competition with nearby companies and the presence of parking meters have also contributed.

Nice Slice to close its Thayer Street location Pizza joint to open new location in Providence West End, cited increased rent as reason for closure

By BELLA ROBERTS AND GALEN HALL SENIOR STAFF WRITERS

Local pizzeria Nice Slice on Thayer Street will permanently close its doors April 15, according to owner Al Read.

The independent business made the announcement in a Facebook post the day of its 12th anniversary Tuesday.

Nice Slice will turn what was supposed to be a second location at 767 Westminster on the West Side into its main store.

The company had been struggling to come to an agreement with their landlord, who wanted to raise the price on the property, Read said. “A week ago we were moving upstairs,” Read said. Instead, on Tuesday he signed over the lease. A different business will take over the space, though Read does not know what business that will be.

The property is owned by Angell Alley Associates LLC with Capstone

Properties. Capstone owns the building that houses Chipotle and the empty building next to it as well.

Empty nearby storefronts, constant construction and the new Thayer Street parking meters have meant a loss of business, Read said.

“We’ve never recovered from this construction project. Our business has declined over the past five years.”

But Antonio’s Pizza manager Ed Ramos said that Thayer Street has constantly cycled through businesses, and that empty storefronts are common along the street.

Read also cited the parking meters

as a problem — while they were intended to promote businesses, they instead halted commerce, he said.

“People aren’t coming to the street to shop at multiple locations. The functions of the community are off,” he added.

Parking on Thayer Street has never been good, even before the implementation of the meters, Ramos said.

Competition with nearby businesses has caused an additional loss of foot traffic. It is difficult to stand up to large international companies with powerful marketing teams, such as Starbucks, Chipotle and Flatbread Company, Read

said. “They come in and they pose as being local and independent-minded, but they’ve got big advertising budgets, and it’s hard to compete with that.”

“We wanted to be here for graduation and Brown’s Spring Weekend, but we weren’t allowed to,” Read said. “They told us we had to leave.”

Read, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate and Rhode Island local, regrets having to move away from the University. “I just want to say thank you to the Brown community. We’ll miss being here — and who knows, maybe someday we’ll come back,” Read said.

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TODAY

FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

w hy s o b lu e ?

menu SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Bacon Alfredo, Harvest, Pepperoni JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

The Isabella Burger, Jambalaya, BBQ Chicken Burrito Bowls

Build-Your-Own Burrito Bowls, Minestrone Soup

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

BBQ Beef Sandwich, Portuguese Style Paella, Herbed Turnips, Oh My Goodness Cupcakes

Citrus Balsamic Glazed Roast Beef, Colcannon Potatoes, Irish Cream Cheesecake

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Breaded Chicken Fingers, Baked Potatoes, Zucchini and Onion Saute, Sugar Cookies

Spanish Rice Bowls, Spinach Pie Casserole, Parsley Potatoes, My Goodness My Cupcakes

sudoku

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

Blueno rests, defeated by the not-so-raging storm. On Tuesday, students celebrated a break from classes while Providence faced a March snowfall. Blueno will be happy to know the first day of spring is just around the corner.

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

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“I strongly suspect that even Obama doesn’t really understand Obamacare.”

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c r o s s w o rD d

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Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Outlying expanse 4 Fay Wray in “King Kong,” to movie buffs 15 The Giants retired his #4 16 The Bucharest Buffoon of ’70s’80s tennis 17 Unit whose symbol is an omega 18 Military communications branch 19 Site of Cretan ruins 21 Shine, in ads 22 Blofeld’s constant companion, in Bond films 23 Goes unhurriedly 24 Joel Chandler Harris’s brother?

25 Tennis score word 26 Take __ at 27 Dock bloc, briefly 28 Ford from Tennessee 30 Big party bottles 33 River through Hesse 34 Calls the game 37 Some saints 39 Mates 40 Doesn’t come through 42 Glide 44 Proof abbr.

45 El __: Peruvian volcano 49 Ahem relative 50 Curt turndown 52 “You’ve done enough” 53 Bar order, initally 54 Cologne “never” 55 Took a vacation 56 Colonialism 59 Manual transmissions?: Abbr.

60 Garb for Columbo and Clouseau 61 Coalesce 62 It’s highly classified 63 Sounds omitted in transcription

DOWN 1 Showing-off expression 2 Cultural group 3 Tops 4 Bike passenger’s support, facetiously 5 Campaign rewards 6 Fixes 7 Gloaming, in verse 8 Made 60-Across for technocrats?

9 “Atlantic City” director 10 Familiarity/appeal measurement used in marketing 11 __-Aztecan languages 12 Sweet pop music 13 Trellis for training fruit trees 14 Sleeping kittens, e.g.

20 Marine layer 24 __-ray Discs 27 Ordered 29 Wine flavored by pine resin-sealed barrels 31 North Sea country: Abbr.

32 Give a little 34 Goes from second to third, say 35 Arrive after a long sail 36 Tot lot 38 Most aloof 41 Bk. after Ezra 43 Joseph Kennedy’s middle daughter

ANSW R

O

46 Underground waste 47 News opening, often 48 Rustic poems 51 Weather forecast components 52 “Tropic Thunder” actor 55 __ gum: food thickener 57 Tolkien creature 58 Bird in a fable

R

— Steven Sloman, professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences

See knowledge on page 1.

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St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Buffet 5:00 P.M. Brown Faculty Club

BOP: The Who’s Tommy 7:30 P.M. Alumnae Hall

SATURDAY Le Salon Francais 12:00 P.M. Sciences Library

Open Mic Night 7:30 P.M. The Underground

SUNDAY Brown Brain Fair 2017 10:00 A.M. Sayles Hall

The Same Difference 3:00 P.M. Salomon Center, 001

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

BROWN BITES

Brown Bites: March 12 - March 17 Administrative DDIAPs released Administrative diversity and inclusion action plans mandated by the University were released by the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion March 9. Each administrative unit created plans to achieve their own set of goals involving the promotion of diversity within their individual unit. These plans were released several months after the University’s planned release date in Nov. 2016. In the creation of the plans, administrative units analyzed their staff demographics to determine the needs of their communities. Many plans include concerted efforts to recruit staff from historically underrepresented groups and improve the work climate. Each administrative unit is required to annually review their progress on their plans, though they are not required to compile a yearly report.

On the same day, the University published its first report detailing progress made on the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan. The report showed increased hiring of faculty members from HUGs, with a net increase of 11 in the 2015-16 academic year and seven in the current academic year. Additionally, 13 percent of early decision acceptances went to first-generation students, half of which belong to HUGs. But the graduate school has made little progress in doubling the number of students from HUGs by 2022, a goal outlined in the DIAP. Members of the Diversity and Inclusion Oversight Board wrote a memo for President Christina Paxson ’19 and Provost Richard Locke suggesting the collection of more complete data, expansion of Counseling and Psychological Services and providing more resources for community members from HUGs. A calm election season Out of five main positions on the Undergraduate Student Council, four will be seated by a candidate running unopposed. Chelse-Amoy Steele ’18 runs uncontested for president, as do William Zhou ’20 for chair of student activities, Sharon Zeldin ’20 for chair of student wellness and Camila Pelsinger ’20 for chair of campus life. Meanwhile, Naveen Srinivasan ’19 and Alex Volpicello ’18 compete for vice president, Yuzuka Akasaka ’18 and Aryan Chhabria ’18 run for chair of the Undergraduate Finance Board and Julian De Georgia ’20 and Drew To ’19 contend for vice-chair of the UFB. Candidates range in their prior experience working with UCS. Those running for executive positions will participate in a debate Mar. 19. Voting starts on March 21 and ends on March 23, with the winning candidates announced that day.

Margot Lee Shetterly delivers keynote Hosted by the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center and the Science Center, Margot Lee Shetterly, author of the book that inspired the Academy Award-nominated film “Hidden Figures,” delivered a keynote address March 13 that discussed the intersectionality of race, gender and science. Shetterly said she told the story of African-American female mathematicians who worked at NASA during the Space Race to challenge norms surrounding preconceptions of what “scientists” look like. In writing the book, Shetterly also wanted to highlight these women as important figures of history, not just “black history” or “women’s history,” she said.

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COMMENTARY FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Free speech is not the problem on campuses CLARE STEINMAN opinions editor

The debate over free speech on college campuses and in academia fits into a neat, tightly woven narrative that goes something like this: Rather than inherit the mantle of their student-activist predecessors, the free speech advocates of the 1960s, college students today choose to remain in their safe spaces and repress viewpoints counter to their own. This characterization is enormously misleading. Yet it seems to have been taken up by those on the left who may have been a part of those original student movements, as well as by those on the right who probably view those movements far more favorably now than they might have at the time.

Middlebury College, a small liberal arts school in Vermont, is ground zero for the debate this month. The American Enterprise Institute’s chapter there, with a cosponsorship from the political science department, invited Charles Murray, a conservative sociologist and author, to give a talk. Murray is the author of a 1994 book, “The Bell Curve,” which posited that differences in IQ among races were genetic and were to blame for social problems like crime and poverty, a claim that was emphatically debunked over 20 years ago. The last time he spoke at Middlebury eight years ago, Murray “insulted the black students in the audience, telling them they would be better off going to a

state university rather than being over their heads at an ‘elite’ institution that they did not really earn the right to attend,” Middlebury Associate Professor of Sociology Linus Owens wrote in a piece on Medium. This time around, as was widely documented by the national press, student protesters shut down the planned public lecture and attempted to disrupt a private webcast frantically arranged as a replacement. Once the webcast concluded, a confrontation occurred between the protesters and Murray, who was accompanied by Middlebury Professor of Political Science Allison Stanger. In the ensuing violence, Stanger suffered

ions that people on each side of the political spectrum are exposed to — were eroding not just our political discourse but also our sense of reality. It’s been a year of alternative facts, fake news and a wider spread of hateful rhetoric than I could have imagined in March 2016. The murmured dissent in President Trump supporters’ echo chambers a year ago, unheard by the rest of us, is now in White House press reports and on CNN. There is no more hiding — which is why I don’t understand the oft-repeated maxim, particularly in recent months, that today’s college students are coddled. The pejorative

news outlets and a repressive political climate. But that is no longer the case. Far from being coddled, today’s students are spending their intellectually formative years being exposed to the most extreme rhetoric — from all sides of the political spectrum — ever espoused in American politics.

For immigrants, Muslims, women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people and any number of other marginalized groups, engaging with news is not an impersonal activity. The average person today spends eight hours a day consuming media, and I imagine that figure is considerably higher for Americans. These eight hours are

Far from being coddled, today’s students are spending their intellectually formative years being exposed to the most extreme rhetoric — from all sides of the political spectrum — ever espoused in American politics. a neck injury and eventually was diagnosed with a concussion. Obviously, violence of this kind is deplorable in its own right and pulls the nation’s attention away from the message of the protest. The validity of protesting Murray was twisted and lost; coming so soon after a similar protest at the University of California at Berkeley, the events at Middlebury were easily shaped to fit the narrative that college students are too emotionally sensitive to handle even mildly dissenting viewpoints.

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a column expressing my fear that echo chambers — the widening gap between the news and opin-

descriptor is generally applied to us in articles and columns about the oncampus spread of trigger warnings, safe spaces, checking one’s privilege and other omens of the imminent destruction of free speech everywhere.

Something is obviously wrong. Political dialogue in America is acutely, if not terminally, ill. But free speech, the availability of platforms to spread any and all ideas, regardless of merit, ideology or highbrow magnitude, has never been freer. Ideas — well-formulated and ignorant, hateful and kind — are being shared faster and wider than ever before. Free speech and expression in the 1960s was truly threatened, thanks to a limited number of

filled with messages from the most powerful platform in the nation, and perhaps in the world — the White House — telling them that they are subhuman. There is no discourse to be had there, no lofty, idealistic, objective exchange of ideas. And while it’s true that the First Amendment doesn’t specify that speech has to be good to be free, it also doesn’t specify that all speech deserves the legitimacy of a college podium and an introduction from a university president, as was the case at Middlebury. Listening to a speaker tell my classmates of color that they don’t belong here doesn’t make me more of an intellectual or introduce me to “bold inquiry

and fearless debate,” as Frank Bruni yearned for in a New York Times column this week.

Inquiry and debate are surely needed. Conservative speakers are invited to speak on campuses every day, and their talks generally go off without a hitch. Just last week here at Brown, two Republican political analysts, a Fox News contributor and a former advisor to Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, discussed the future of the Republican Party with the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones.

This evidently peaceful event was not picked up by any national news outlets, and I would imagine most panels and guest lectures hosted daily at American colleges and universities follow a similar pattern. We students confront dissenting and, yes, offensive ideas every day and react to them privately and publicly — probably more often than adults do. But when the decision comes to defend the humanity and worth of our marginalized classmates or to yield passively to the erosion of decency and acceptance, it is strikingly obvious which path is the bold and fearless one.

In their editorial covering the events at Middlebury, the New York Times opened with the same John Stuart Mill quote a student used to introduce Murray regarding all dissenters, “Truth would lose something by their silence.” In this age, with so much at risk, the world would lose something by ours.

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

Let’s not forget about global health funding ARIANA PATHER & TAING NANDI AUNG op-ed contributors Last month, President Trump belligerently stated, “We have to start winning wars again.” Yet his administration has clearly forgotten a key war that the United States is already engaged in, both abroad and at home.

Since the peak of the HIV epidemic, the federal government has led the fight against this deadly and complex disease. Despite the United States’ critical role in decreasing the burden of the disease and making treatment more accessible around the world, the Trump administration is planning to slash the foreign aid budget — which includes global health funding. As the administration pushes to shift almost $54 billion in funding toward defense and security spending, the world is faced with the disastrous prospect of losing a key ally in the battle against HIV/AIDS. Since 2000, the United States has been the impetus for enormous change in the HIV/AIDS fight.

Among children, the number of new HIV infections has declined by 50 percent, and the U.S. government has contributed heavily to this effort.

Furthermore, the United States has worked with other governments and

organizations to reduce the cost of HIV antiretroviral medication to just 1 percent of its initial price, making treatment more accessible. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, established by former President George W. Bush, has been a critical government fund, decreasing the burden of HIV/AIDS worldwide.

from governments around the world.

Though these funds clearly have had a substantial global impact, this contribution only amounts to 1 percent of the federal budget .

Despite the progress made in terms of prevention and treatment, there is still a global HIV prevalence of 0.8 percent. While that may not

crease, or at least maintain, global health funding for the 2018 fiscal year. PIH is asking for an annual increase of $667 million for PEPFAR funding to put it on track to meet its goal of $2 billion in increased funding by 2020; the overall budget for the Global Fund to remain at $1.475 billion (only a portion of which is fed-

We call upon fellow students and other Rhode Island community members to contact our elected representatives; constituent phone calls and letters can be important tools to remind them that the world cannot afford to lose U.S. participation on the global health stage.

Currently, PEPFAR supports approximately 11.5 million people on lifesaving antiretroviral therapy. Other programs that are largely funded by the United States — such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — provide eight million people access to antiretroviral therapy and combat the infectious diseases and comorbidities that afflict underresourced nations. The United States has been a champion for global health funding, accounting for over a third of global health funding that comes

seem like a large figure, in reality 36.7 million people are living with HIV/ AIDS worldwide, of which 20 million are currently without treatment. For sustained progress, the United States — along with other governments — must continue their active involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

To ensure that the U.S. government maintains its commitments to global health and HIV/AIDS, chapters across the Partners in Health Engage network are working to in-

erally funded) and the provision of $450 million for bilateral tuberculosis funding. These increases in funding are vital to improving health indicators around the world.

Here in Rhode Island, we call upon U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, U.S. Rep. David Cicilline ’83, D-RI and U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, D-RI to incorporate these three asks onto their wish lists and sign onto our Dear Colleague letter. This letter, which is being circulated among elected repre-

sentatives by U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-CA, calls for bipartisan support for this scaled-up funding. Some of our local representatives have yet to take a public position on this year’s letter, but we encourage them to sign on to this well-intentioned and progressive letter. In addition, we call upon fellow students and other Rhode Island community members to contact our elected representatives; constituent phone calls and letters can be important tools to remind them that the world cannot afford to lose U.S. participation on the global health stage.

In the same speech, Trump went on to say, “We never lost a war.” But this might soon change if the Trump administration follows through on its ill-advised plans. It is essential that we hold the current government accountable to its international commitments and ensure that the health needs of the global community are not sidelined. The fight against HIV/ AIDS is not over — we have not yet won the war.

Ariana Pather ’18 and Taing Nandi Aung ’19 are advocacy co-leads for Partners in Health Engage at Brown.

They can be reached at ariana_pather@brown.edu and taingnandi_aung@brown.edu, respectively.

SPORTS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2017

Firing Julien sparks flame CHARLIE BLASBERG sports columnist

On Feb. 7, the Boston Bruins fired Head Coach Claude Julien halfway into his tenth season at the helm.

Players and fans were shocked and saddened as the skipper that brought Boston its first Stanley Cup in 39 years packed his bags. Julien emerged a hometown favorite as his arrival lifted the Bruins from nearly two decades of mediocrity. The team won the cup in 2011 and made another run to the Finals in 2012.

His arrival brought the Bruins back into relevancy in Boston, but after two consecutive seasons of missing

the playoffs and a half season of just over .500 hockey, the Bruins’ front office decided it was time to mix things up. Since hiring Bruce Cassidy as head coach, the Bruins are 12-3-0 and playing exciting, offensive hockey in the hopes of locking down a playoff bid.

The firing caught many players by surprise, but to fans and onlookers, the move did not come out of the blue. His defense-first mantra had become less effective as the Bruins’ best defensemen grew old or left. To accentuate their defensive issues, the Bruins lacked a variety of offensive assets who could put the puck in the net. A typical Bruins game at the end of Julien’s tenure generally featured the Bruins dominating puck time but failing to score, while defensive miscues

would lead to fluke goals for the opposing team. The front office got rid of Julien to spark the squad as well as a desire for a different coaching mentality.

The Bruins, though, are in good company. Last season, the Pittsburgh Penguins were disappointed with a 15-10-3 start to the season and fired their head coach Mike Johnston. This change was a major catalyst for the Penguins, as they went on to finish with the second most points in the Eastern Conference en route to a Stanley Cup title.

Midseason coaching changes are high-risk, high-reward, but they often cause the affected players to play with more urgency and passion. The Red Sox’ 2015 campaign saw John Farrell miss the last month and a half of the season for chemo-

therapy treatment. Torey Lovullo stepped in as interim manager, and the team instantly responded, finishing the season with particularly inspired baseball highlighted by its two longest-winning streaks of the year.

Right now, the Bruins are playing with the Penguins’ urgency and the Sox’ emotional grip. The players had an especially close relationship with Julien, and many have stated that he has been in their minds during the second half of the season.

The team’s recent results show a major difference between pre- and post-Julien hockey: offensive production. Since Cassidy took over Feb. 9, the Bruins have netted four or more goals ten times. It took the Bruins four and a half months to do so 14 times under Julien. Both Brad

Marchand and David Pastrnak have emerged as serious goal-scoring threats.

The Bruins recent winning habits have gone a long way in solidifying its playoff spot. For most of the season, the team was either on the playoff bubble or on the outside looking in. Now, they have a fivepoint cushion over the Tampa Bay Lightning for the third bid from the Atlantic Division. The nature of hockey makes any playoff series competitive, so if the Bruins enter the playoffs as hot as they are now, they have a good chance of upsetting a higher-seeded team.

Charlie Blasberg ’18 can be reached at charles_blasberg@brown.edu.

The designated hitter is overdue for retirement JAMES SCHAPIRO sports columnist

There is perhaps no subject that divides baseball fans more sharply than the existence of the designated hitter. Since 1973 when the idea was first implemented, it has created a bitter divide between supporters and critics. But while each side of the debate is loud, they are not equally compelling. The DH should never have been introduced, and now that it does exist, it should disappear as quickly as possible — or, at least, should never expand beyond its current existence.

Supporters of the DH have various arguments, which boil down to two main themes: pitcher safety and the flow of the game. The pitcher safety argument says that pitchers should not hit — or run the bases — because they traditionally devote little or no practice time to offensive skills, which increases the risk of injury when pitchers attempt to do so.

The other argument invokes game movement and excitement: it’s simply not fun, supporters will claim, to watch the pitcher strike out every time.

Both arguments come down to the same basic principle: Because pitchers are not good enough — or safe enough, experienced enough, etc. — to hit major league pitching, they should not have to. Pitchers, in short, should not hit.

The problem with this argument should be immediately clear. It’s not an argument about pitchers, but one about bad hitters, regardless of position. There is no reason any of the arguments given could not apply equally to a left fielder who hits as poorly as a pitcher.

Take the argument of pitcher safety. Supporters of the DH will argue that it should only apply to pitchers because they face a greater risk of injury than better hitters.

This is true, but so what? All players face certain injury risks when they

hit; why not let the defenders work on defense, and replace them on offense with players who train exclusively for hitting and running, and thus have smaller risks of injury?

If injury risk is accepted as a valid reason to exempt a player from hit-

This is undoubtedly true, but it does not solve the problem. Anyone who advocates using the DH is advocating allowing players not to hit because they are not good enough.

There is no logical reason that this should be restricted to the worst

play both offense and defense — a conclusion that is simply ridiculous.

All arguments for the DH face the same problem. Any player that plays the field must devote time to learning defense, which means less time to spend becoming a better hitter.

DOROTHY WINDHAM / HERALD

ting — as it is by DH supporters — it should extend to all players. And clearly, no one wants that to happen.

Other supporters of the DH will claim that pitchers, on average, are by far the worst hitters in baseball.

hitters in the game; indeed, anyone who truly believes in the DH should believe that the same system can be applied to every player in the game.

Any argument for the DH carried to its logical conclusion will suggest that no player should be forced to

Logically speaking, if one supports this argument for the DH, why not have separate players for offense and defense? The defensive players could spend all day doing fielding drills, and the offensive players could spend every waking hour in the batting

cages. Better offense, better defense — problems solved! We made the game more exciting and cut down on risk of injury due to inexperience!

How could this ever be wrong?

Baseball traditionalists, of course, will recognize immediately why this is wrong: it is not how baseball works. Baseball players must play offense, and they must play defense.

That’s the sport. Even supporters of the DH, it seems, would agree almost unanimously that having two separate lineups for offense and defense would be a bad thing. But they can’t make that case with any legitimacy; By supporting the DH, they’re actually contradicting themselves.

Many people are unaware of the history of the DH. It was introduced to help the American League compete with the National League for fans, sponsors and money. While the idea had been debated since the early 1900s, it wasn’t adopted by the American League until 1973, after heavy lobbying from Charlie Finley, eccentric owner of the Oakland Athletics.

Somehow, it’s fitting. Besides the DH, Charlie Finley’s other groundbreaking innovations include gold uniforms, orange baseballs and an air jet that brushed home plate automatically. To increase ticket sales and turn his team into a national spectacle, he gave his players nicknames and had them grow mustaches. In Kansas City, he installed a mechanical rabbit to deliver baseballs to the umpires. Besides all this, throughout nearly his entire tenure as owner of the A’s, Charlie Finley was almost universally reviled.

Sure, it’s fun to watch giant, hulking men blast home runs, and less fun to watch a pitcher strike out without having much of a chance.

But that’s baseball. You field, and then you hit, whether you can hit or not. The designated hitter should go the way of mechanical rabbits and gold uniforms and become a failed relic of history.

James Schapiro ’19 can be reached at james_schapiro@brown.edu.