SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2018
VOLUME CLII, ISSUE #81
WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
U. yield rate hits all-time high of 61 percent Students claim BuDS creates unfair working environment Employees raise concerns of understaffing, policy violations, pressure to prioritize job over school By ALLIE REED SENIOR STAFF WRITER
EMILY DAVIES / HERALD
Brown Promise, increased travel grant funding, new ADOCH could account for spike in yield rate By JACOB LOCKWOOD SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The University’s yield rate — the percentage of admitted students who chose to enroll — rose to 61 percent for the Class of 2022, the highest yield on re-
cord in the University’s history, according to Dean of Admission Logan Powell. Though not as high as yield rates at schools like Harvard and Stanford University — both of which enroll about 80 percent of admitted students, according to U.S. News and World Report — the University’s yield is much higher than most colleges and universities, said Sara Harberson, an independent college counselor. “Having a yield rate over 50 percent is pretty impressive for any institution,” she said. “Brown’s
yield rate is double, maybe even triple what most colleges across the country are dealing with.” The yield rate and volume of applications are the main factors that determine a college’s acceptance rate, Powell said. Since the University has a high yield rate and receives a large volume of applications, only a small percentage of applicants can be admitted, he explained. This is why the University’s acceptance rate, which fell » See YIELD, page 3
Due to alleged policy violations and understaffing, Brown Dining Services has reportedly created an unfair working environment that takes advantage of students, according to five current and former BuDS student employees. In response to these allegations, Director of Dining Services Peter Rossi wrote in an email to The Herald that “the program continues to thrive today. … The entire structure of (BuDS) is based on our appreciation for the fact that students at Brown are students first.” “We are fully committed to working actively with our students to ensure that the program allows them to effectively balance their roles as students and as workers,” he added. But according to multiple current and former BuDS employees who spoke to The Herald, BuDS supervisors and unit managers feel pressured to prioritize their jobs over schoolwork to ensure shifts are covered each day. In addition, BuDS employees claim that they consistently work more hours than they are obligated to,
receive noncompetitive wages and are not compensated properly for their oncall hours. Employee resignations On Sept. 22, former Carts Unit Manager Maxwell Kozlov ’20 resigned from his position in a public letter addressed to Ann Hoffman, the director of administration for Dining Services at the time, and other members of the BuDS community. Hoffman left her role in a mutual agreement with the University Sept. 28, according to Savanna Rilatos ’20, general manager of BuDS. Hoffman announced her plans to leave prior to receiving Kozlov’s letter, Rilatos added. The University declined to comment on Hoffman’s departure. In his letter, Kozlov hoped to ignite conversations about wages, working expectations and prioritizing academics. Kozlov criticized BuDS for advertising itself as the “HAPPIEST PLACE TO WORK ON EARTH.” His letter included a call to action for BuDS employees to evaluate the amount of hours students are working and whether or not these hours allow students to take advantage of “an absolutely one-of-a-kind opportunity to grow and learn,” at the University, Kozlov wrote. “I’ve received more than 15 responses from current supervisors and (unit) » See BUDS, page 3
Bouscaren ’19 helps water polo earn critical victories Travis Bouscaren ’19 powers Bears to three wins, awarded NWPC Player of the Week By ALEX SMOLAR SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The men’s water polo team earned three crucial victories last week, beating Harvard 11-9 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 11-10 in a double-header before defeating Princeton 11-10. Travis Bouscaren ’19 delivered an exceptional performance in the pool, recording six goals, three assists and three steals for the week. He also notched the overtime game-winner against MIT to help the Bears get their season back on track. Bouscaren, a senior from Cambridge, Massachusetts, plays center defender for Bruno and earned Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches All-Academic team honors in the past two seasons. For his outstanding play last week, Bouscaren was awarded Northeast Water Polo Conference Player of the Week and Brown
INSIDE
Student-Athlete of the Week honors and has been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week. Herald: Congratulations on the big wins against Harvard, MIT and Princeton last week. How does it feel to get those victories and earn NWPC and Brown honors? Bouscaren: Honestly, after our little rocky start to the season, it was really good (reassurance) that we’re the team that we know we can be, … so, it felt really good. We were all really desperate for a win, and the desperation for a win is what partially fueled our achievements. I’ve never gotten the Player of the Week from the (NWPC), so that was really cool to get. It was honestly an honor to get it from Brown too. While it doesn’t mean as much to me as the wins, because that’s not a team effort, it’s really cool to get recognized like that. When did you first start playing water polo? I first started playing water polo in my freshman year at high school. I went to Phillips (Academy) Andover, and I
was always a swimmer coming in. They made every person play three sports, so I decided that I would try water polo because all of the swimmers said it was really fun. Luckily, it was much more fun than swimming, so that’s how I ended up getting recruited to Brown. Why did you choose Brown? A main part was the environment and the atmosphere that I got from Brown. I came on an official visit, and I just had the greatest time with the team. Unfortunately, none of those guys that I first stepped on the team with are still here. But this season, I’m trying to play in their memory because they are what made Brown Brown to me, and I want to make that same experience for my freshmen now. Also, the coach, Felix Mercado, was definitely the best coach that recruited me — most personable, most funny and just seemed like the kind of guy that I wanted to play for. Then, just meeting with the team, it just seemed like the clear choice. There was really no other option. COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS
What has been your favorite » See AOTW, page 2
Travis Bouscaren ’19 recorded six goals, three assists and three steals last week and was named Brown’s Student-Athlete of the Week.
WEATHER
FRIDAY, OC TOBER 12, 2018
NEWS City approves tax stabilization agreement for student housing complex Edge College Hill II
COMMENTARY Soria ’19: U. should release timeline for need-blind international admission
COMMENTARY Calvelli ’19: University should change S/NC to Exploration/No Credit to promote free learning
NEWS Rhode2College funds highachieving low-to middle-income students to reward college prep
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PAGE 2 • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2018
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Student luxury housing developers to save $19 million over 20 years
City Council green lights Edge College Hill II, agreement draws community criticism By ALEX REICE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
On Oct. 4, the Providence City Council approved the use of a tax stabilization agreement for the construction of a new “mixed-use” apartment complex, Edge College Hill II. This agreement will save developers Steeple Street RI, LLC $19 million in taxes over the next 20 years, said Jacqlyn Blatteis ’19, co-director of the student group Housing Opportuni-
JULIE WANG / HERALD
ties for People Everywhere. The complex, located on Canal Street, will be next to student housing complex Edge College Hill and is advertised as “luxury student apartments,” according to the developers’ website. The building will include 163 studio and one-bedroom apartments, while the first floor will be dedicated to commercial use, according to the Providence Journal. Ben Smith, deputy director of communications for Mayor Jorge Elorza, noted several benefits of the new development and accompanying tax agreement in an email to The Herald. He wrote that tax stabilization agreements are a tool that the city uses to incentivize new development by phasing in taxes
“over a number of years, rather than all at once.” Even with the tax agreement, Edge College Hill II is a tax-paying development, and the complex concentrates student housing in high-density zones, which may “alleviate some of the issues associated with students living in lower-density residential areas,” Smith wrote. The city has seen strong growth in student-oriented housing development, “indicating a high demand,” he added. The development and tax agreement have prompted backlash from members of the Providence community. Direct Action for Rights and Equality, a local advocacy group, wrote a letter Oct. 4 to the Providence City Council voicing opposition to the tax agreement. The letter urged the City Council to return the proposed tax stabilization agreement to the finance committee for further review. Though the letter was signed by a sitting city councilor, two councilors-elect, the local carpenters union and community advocates and organizers, the Council ultimately approved the tax agreement. Malchus Mills, vice-chairperson of DARE, has been vocal about the lack of affordable housing in Providence and the city’s inability to address this problem. “Not only here in Rhode Island, but nationally, there is a housing crisis,” Mills said. “We just don’t have enough houses here in Rhode Island, … and we haven’t been building affordable houses for a while,” he added. According to Mills, with tax stabilization agreements, developers are
supposed to pay into a fund to assist low-income residents in the city, but they have failed to do so. “The city is just giving away money because they do not push these large developers to do something for the low-income folks,” he said. “More than 40 percent of Rhode Islanders are housing cost-burdened, meaning that they spend over 30 percent of their income on housing,” Blatteis said. The approval of the tax agreement for Edge College Hill developers “is really indicative of the city’s priorities.” Instead of investing in solutions to help solve the state’s housing crisis, the city is choosing to prioritize “increasing access to luxury student housing,” she added. Katherine Kerwin, who was recently elected to the Providence City Council in Ward 12, signed DARE’s letter. College Hill, which will host the new complex, does not fit the profile of a neighborhood requiring tax stabilization agreements, Kerwin said. Tax stabilization agreements are intended to boost economic development; however, the city is using them “not as tools for economic development in communities where we need to be boosting the economy,” but rather to attract “and appease developers in communities that frankly do not need the economic development,” she said. Kerwin said that these tax agreements basically allow developers to evade taxes, “even though our schools are falling apart, our streets need repairing and there are so many basic city-level services that we need to
be attending to.” Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design also play a role in the growth of these expensive developments, as many of the luxury apartments are geared toward their students. “Brown is one of the gentrifiers that has been happening to Providence,” Mills said. In neighborhoods like Fox Point, housing that caters to Brown students is increasingly unaffordable for people who used to live there, he added. Blatteis also emphasized the impact of the University on the Providence community. She noted that while “as students we might benefit individually from increased off-campus housing options, it’s really important to acknowledge that ultimately student housing displaces permanent Rhode Island residents.” Blatteis urged the University to try to expand off-campus housing options in a way that is transparent with the community as well as “mindful and intentional.” She also hoped students would “not only think about this stuff and be conscious of it,” but also “look for ways to hold Brown accountable,” she said. Blatteis and Mills urge action from the city as well. “The change has to be in the way these (tax stabilization agreements) are enforced. … They’re not adhering to the rules. If the City Council stays the same, I’m afraid it’s always going to be business as usual: The big developers get the tax breaks and the people that are homeless are in poverty,” Mills said.
» AOTW, from page 1
going to be (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges) Saturday morning. In terms of general team goals, we want to create a practice environment where everyone is excited to come play, brings energy, releases everything else that they had going on that day, comes to practice with a fresh mind and (is) ready to give it all for the team. That’s how we’re going to be better and win championships, and it’s hard to set a goal of winning championships when it’s a couple of months away, so you need to have a goal for each day. That’s coming to practice with a good attitude and making that practice as fun and competitive as it could possibly be.
moment of your time with the water polo team? Honestly, this past weekend was one of my highlights at Brown. Especially as a senior, when we’re leading the team — me, (Spencer Carroll ’19) and (Santiago Nunez ’19). It’s our responsibility to keep this team in check, and we’ve been struggling to win before. But this past weekend, we really came together as a team. Everyone had the goal of winning and being the strongest team out there. To see the team come together like that was something that I was hoping for for so long, and to see it come true was my favorite memory. Do you have any pre-game rituals? I think a pre-game ritual, especially (before) that first game away from Brown, is waking up with my roommates, (Carroll) and (Nunez), and going to get (Bagel Gourmet Olé), getting a coffee from them and always debating on how much to eat. You want to eat enough to have fuel but not enough to feel fat, so we usually end up eating half to three quarters of our bagels and debating on if we need more or not. What are some of the team’s goals moving forward for the rest of the season? Our main goal is to win every game we play. The next game is always the most important game, and for us, that’s
What are you concentrating in and what do you hope to do after graduating? I’m concentrating in neuroscience, and I hope to go to (medical) school. I plan on taking at least a gap year, or a year off, to study for the MCAT and maybe travel and explore the world a little bit — get away from studying and working out my brain so much before med school. The Bears will return to action in the Harvard Invitational Saturday and are slated to play Claremont-MuddScripps Colleges, the University of Toronto, No. 20 Wagner College and No. 17 Bucknell University. This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Issue
In This
Shiru
Rebecca Buxbaum 4
Strawberry Generation Makes Music
Anita Sheih 2
Rachel Landau 4
Opening at the Manege Abbie Hui 5
Warm Tastes James Feinberg 6
Heaven is a Place on Earth
postCover by Jonathan Muroya
OCT 12
VOL 22 —
ISSUE 5
FEATURE
Strawberry Generation Makes Music Sweet Tunes with “Millennial Snowflakes” By Anita Sheih Illustrated by Katya Labowe-Stoll
T
wo years ago, I remember going to the Underground for an event. How the event went and what friend I went with and what things I saw there, I can’t remember. But what I do remember is what I heard, from two people and a ukulele. Little did I know that I was witnessing the beginnings of Strawberry Generation, an indie pop band made up of four students, three EPs, and one strong passion— making good music. *** post-: Let's do intros.
Luk Yean (Luk): I'm Luk Yean. I'm one of the singers and the rhythm guitarist. I'm from Singapore. My majors are CS-econ and music. And my spirit animal…[sighing] What do you think? Alejandro Subiotto Marqués (Ale): A fox. Luk: Fox? Really? Like a lazy fox. Valerie Zhu (Val): No, no, no, like a sly fox. Ale: Like a snow fox. Luk: Oh, that's good, snow fox. Val: I'm Val. I am one of the vocalists, and I play keys, sax, and tambourine. I used to play ukulele also.
Letter from the Editor
Sometimes melodica. I study biology. My spirit animal is the tomato. Luk: ‘Cause you're vegetarian—or used to be [laughing]. Ale: I'm Alejandro. I'm the drummer in Strawberry Generation, and I'm from Brussels, Belgium...I'm a development studies major, I'm a senior, and my spirit animal is a lion mixed with a koala. Max Naftol (Max): Ok [laughing]. I'm Max. I'm a senior and a music concentrator. I play bass in the band. I guess my spirit animal would be an octopus.
Weird State Things 1. Maine’s state beverage—Moxie
When the weather is this nice in mid-October, it’s hard not to think of Brown as The Good Place. After a short break from the campus hustle and bustle, post- is returning this week with a local focus. We hope you enjoy our thoughts on the new ramen place on Thayer and the new face of Shiru Cafe; feel inspired to stop by Strawberry Generation’s EP release show (tonight) or Gigs on the Grass (tomorrow) and enjoy
3. Idaho’s state slogan—“Great Potatoes. Tasty Destinations.” 4. Missouri’s state nickname—“Show Me State” 5. New Mexico’s state question—“Red or Green?”
some student-produced music; and remember the strange
6. Utah’s state snack—Jell-O
and wonderful connections Brown brings, both at home and
7. Arizona’s state tie—bolo tie
abroad.
8. Maryland’s state exercise—walking Happy fallventures,
Jennifer editor-in-chief of post-
2!post–
2. Nebraska’s state soft drink—Kool-Aid*
9. )JQF\FWJLJX XYFYJ RFHWTNS[JWYJGWFYJDžXYTSJȀ^ 10. Rhode Island’s state song—“Rhode Island, It’s For Me” *Nebraska also has a state beverage. However, Kool-Aid (though it might deserve a special shout-out) is still not a soft drink.
Luk: Mmm interesting, that’s funky. post-: So how did you all meet? Val: Origin story? Wait, I don't know how origin we're talking here. Luk: So I was born in…[laughing]. Val: We met in the Ratty in freshman year, Luk and I. We met through our mutual friend Chris. Luk: I guess around the same time, I was recording some of my own stuff. And I made a song, called “Satellite,” and I had an idea that I wanted a saxophone solo at the end of the song. So I asked Chris, “Do you know anyone who plays the saxophone? He was like, “Oh yeah, my friend Valerie plays it.” And I was like, “Ok! I'll reach out.” Val: Then Luk said, “Hey, we should do a show together.” Me, Luk, and Chris. So we did. It was the B-Side Coffee Haus. Luk: It was the first ever acoustic show that B-Side Magazine organized, and my Meiklejohn happened to be the founder of B-Side. It was really fortuitous because he knew that I made music and asked if we wanted to play a short set. So I asked Chris and Valerie to play at that show. And at the end of the show, there was this really cool-looking fella who came up to us and said, “Hey, that was great! My name is Alejandro.” I was like, “Oh, cool, Alejandro! Nice to meet ya.” After that, it became the four of us, I guess. Val: And then Chris was like, “Sorry, man, I got CS.” Luk: Then we got a couple of extra new members, and then they left. And for a while, it was the three of us again, and now Max is joining us. post-: What is the story behind your name? Luk: Strawberry Generation is a Chinese phrase, and it’s the Chinese equivalent of saying “millennial snowflakes.” Strawberries spoil and become rotten really easily. It's the way that the older generation mocks young people. I guess we kind of wanted to reclaim it and turn it into something that's...not that. And also, strawberries are a distinctive visual image, so I kinda like it. Ale: So I think our music is very...sugary and happy and all that stuff, but if you listen for the lyrics, it's not as simple as it may seem when you're just listening for the music. post-: How do you come up with the lyrics? Val: LIFE. All: [laughing] Val: That's the question! Sometimes, you listen to a specific artist, and you're inspired by the stuff that they do, and you kind of feel like you wanna write. Sometimes, you're inspired by situations in your life. I guess like, for me, if I experience something very sad, or if I'm feeling moody, then I'll wanna write. post-: You've mentioned how everyone in the group comes from different places and has different tastes in music. So we wanted to talk about how you're different but what unites you in this group. Ale: Brockhampton. All: [laughing] post-: Is that a point of division or unity? Ale: Unity.
Luk: I feel like there are small intersections of the Venn diagrams of each of us. Ale: Yeah, they're really interesting intersections. Luk: Yeah, both Ale and I listen to rap, like Brockhampton and A Tribe Called Quest. Val and I like Carly Rae Jepsen…The bands that unify us are the ones that we identify with, possibly because we sound quite connected to them. We have quite a similar style and lineup as Alvvays, which is an indie pop band from Canada. So I guess we all converge and happen to like the band because that's what we want to see perfected in our own music. Val: That's Alvvays spelled with two v's instead of a w. All: [Holding up v’s in the first two fingers of each hand] All-v-vayz!
Strawberries spoil and become rotten really easily. It's the way that the older generation mocks young people. I guess we kind of wanted to reclaim it and turn it into something that's...not that. post-: What would you call your music? Val: Haha, sweats nervously, haha. Ale: Sugar pop. I say sugar pop, yeah. Val: We're kinda twee. Max: Pretty, like, saccharine, almost. Ale: Isn't it jungle something? Something jungly... no, jangly! All: Yes, jangly! post-: What's it like to be a student musician at Brown? 'Cause you mentioned Chris stopped because of CS, right? Luk: Yeah, I can go first because I slept at 5 a.m. last night doing CS homework. I feel like, first of all, I have to acknowledge that my parents are really supportive. They're coming to our release show, which is great. They're literally only coming to see us play. I think it's gotten a lot tougher, partially because, just personally, I kind of changed majors in my junior year. Although more like I added CS in addition to econ. So that’s been kind of tough. I guess being a student musician, I keep thinking about opportunity cost because I'm an econ major [laughing]. But you know, I don't think I'd be the same, I don't think my Brown experience would be the same if I wasn't part of the music scene and playing music with the people in this band. Val: I don't think that I ever considered not doing music at Brown. I do a lot of different things that are unrelated to each other, like in bio and with the music stuff. In my bio-related activities, people there don't really know a whole lot about my music life. And people
in my music life don't really know a whole lot about my bio-related activities. It's like Hannah-Montanastyle, [singing] get the beeest of both worlds! But it's good. It keeps you sane…Like Luk said—opportunity cost, gotta figure out what your priorities are. I think that's always the hardest question: What is important to you? And what are you willing to spend time on over the other things? Ale: That's why you gotta do the humanities, and not do the readings [laughing]. post-: How often do you guys try to meet or practice? Max: Scheduling all that stuff in and around classwork is quite difficult. It’s easier with Strawberry Generation though, because Luk is very militaristic in his planning and thinking, with organizational skills that I've never seen in an informal band before. Everything's on a Google Drive, everything's run through Slack, there's notifications, there's even, you know— Val: A shared Google Calendar. Max: A shared Google Calendar, everything is on military time... Luk: Sorry, I wish to clarify by saying it's 'cause I actually was from the military. Max: Yeah, it's just funny to see that applied to a musical setting because I've never experienced that before. It's efficient but also intimidating. Ale: I'm really grateful for how much effort Luk puts into all of it. Because it always feels like he's always helping further us in some way. Luk: The major thing that I'm kind of trying to enforce onto myself is that we want to finish an album by the time we all graduate next year. Which is tough because we have maybe, at most, 2.3 songs complete. And we probably need a few more to make an album. Val: We'll have more. Luk: Ale has always been like, “Hey, let's go to become a Brooklyn band and live in a small apartment…” Ale: Well, I said LA first... Luk: LA is tough...unless you're Brockhampton. All: [laughter] Luk: Well, 'cause Ale and I are international students, the future is fuzzy...We'll see about that. The fact that this is our last year and that we're international students is definitely fueling this urge for me to get things done, because...it reminds you that things are ephemeral. Part of me's always like, “Oh, you know, I'm a senior. I have to do senior-y things, and I still wanna make this album. This is crazy.” Ale: I feel like senior-y things is making music. *** Strawberry Generation’s new EP, Losing Our Way, comes out today—if you’ve never heard their music before, a perfect way to get a first taste would be to stop by their release show tonight, Friday, October 12, starting at 8 p.m. at North House (111 Brown St.). If you can’t make it, you can also find them online! After all, this is a band of, by, and for the millennial generation. This interview was edited for length and clarity.
“I’m a Ratty agnostic.” “Okay, everyone, plug your sex batteries in!” “What if I raised my kids on diet food?” “Bros don’t know how to hook up. They’re completely incompetent.” October 12, 2018'3
NARRATIVE
Shiru
Preview at the Manege
Meditations on Modernity By Rebecca Buxbaum illustrated by molly young I have been here fifty-three times since springtime I remember when the naïve baristas offered plastic cups for iced drinks only to watch them float beyond the caffeinated gates in the hands of summer swindlers when I signed up proudly declaring my career aspirations to be wine tasting animal husbandry do I know any languages? I laugh smugly but alas my multilingual education has not prepared me for the new vernacular java C++ python I am confronted by my illiteracy when I threw caution to the wind surrendered my email with the assurance that I am only useful in an aggregate O the anonymity of the crowd Behold! a long-STEM rose of anthropological contemplation a barrage of students searching for seats asking strangers is anyone sitting across from you? meet-cutes in the making will there ever be corporate sponsors? are we the conqueror or the conquered? have we submitted our will to the pull of the corporation or are we at last demanding compensation? it’s discourse, b*tch.
4!post–
An artist alum in Saint Petersburg
C
By Rachel Landau Illustrated by Lauren Marin
ool rains had been falling in Saint Petersburg all afternoon. They had been falling when a friend and I ate an early dinner of falafel and bottled water on Vasilievsky Island; they had been falling when we walked across the Blagoveshchensky Bridge, the Neva River underneath us still and gray. That morning, I chose to wear the only dress I brought to Russia: a conservatively cut cotton smock, turquoise and too casual, now thoroughly soaked. I had left Boston for Russia a week earlier. Within hours of my arrival, the World Cup began its summer reign on television screens around the country. Fans from every imaginable place paraded up and down Nevsky Prospekt in spirited ensembles, chanting and singing and speaking in languages unfamiliar to my ear, filling restaurants and hotels with their families and friends. Under an almost always present sun, Saint Petersburg refused to rest, and I found myself never sleeping, unable to block light from entering through my window. The empty streets and raindrops invited introspection otherwise difficult to attain. Walking across Saint Petersburg, my friend and I made our way to the Manege for an invitation-only preview of a major exhibition, “SPB 2103,” which was to open to the public the next morning. I had been offered the chance to attend through my writing residency at a different museum in the city, and it seemed like too cool an opportunity to refuse. A small crowd of young people in raincoats stood outside the enormous neoclassical building, smoking their long cigarettes. My friend and I entered the massive central hall. Pastel lights flashed on the ceiling and the wispy white curtains, and a table covered in champagne flutes, croissants, and cups of local beer hugged the left side of the room. Historic pictures and videos of Saint Petersburg cycled through in an elaborate PowerPoint projected over a stage. Everywhere, fashionably dressed artists mingled. I recognized another artist from the museum where I was doing my residency and greeted him, asking how his day had been. In a previous conversation, we had established ourselves as fellow Brunonians— indeed, he had attended Brown for a while, albeit 40 years before me. At the Manege, we made small talk for a few minutes before returning to our three major points of shared interest: art, Saint Petersburg, and Providence. Over champagne, we talked about how Providence is such an exciting place to be young—a daring and intellectual and creative world. The artist told stories about the music scene from his time as a student. He described old friends from the community who spent their lives making music and having a good time. As these stories went on, I found myself growing homesick for concerts I had attended at AS220 and cups of hot drinks over which I had written poems at the Coffee Exchange. It was impossible not to remember all the rainy days I had experienced at Brown—the endless sound of precipitation pelting my Grad Center window. At one point, the artist called Providence “the New Orleans of the north,” a name I’m not so sure resonates with my own experience of the city but nonetheless sparked a certain curiosity. Given the diverse opportunities afforded by the Open Curriculum, Brown students likely end up seeing everything so
differently, so uniquely—whether it be the entire city or just Brown’s way of operating within it. After a certain amount of schmoozing, the artist, my friend, and I entered the actual exhibition to see what we had come to celebrate. The premise of “SPB 2103” was thrilling, to say the least: The city of Saint Petersburg celebrates its 315th birthday in 2018, but how do we even begin to imagine how different it will be by its 400th birthday in 2103?
But there we were, thousands of miles from Rhode Island, thinking and dreaming of Providence, trying to switch out Russia’s cultural capital for the city surrounding our university campus. The first part of the exhibition featured a long timeline tracing various periods in the city’s construction. We walked through this part especially slowly, stopping often to read the details about architects and city politics. Next, a central room interpreted the city’s current ways of looking and operating. Finally, an upstairs section imagined how Saint Petersburg might look in just under a century, at its aforementioned milestone 85 years from now. Looking back, what was strangest is that we were a timeline of our own: My new artist friend proudly represented Brown’s past whereas my student friend and I eagerly represented Brown as it is now. Among ourselves, we could speculate about what lies ahead at Brown and what could come to be in the city around it, but all of it felt far away, making it difficult to construct any fantasy of Rhode Island even half a century from now. Already, so much on campus has surprised me— what can change in a summer never fails to astound me, and what each class brings to campus is lovely in its uncertainty, even if it is just a bizarre new name for the Ratty. But there we were, thousands of miles from Rhode Island, thinking and dreaming of Providence, trying to switch out Russia’s cultural capital for the city surrounding our university campus. After the exhibition, I walked around all night. The rain finally stopped, and all the sidewalks were glowing. Later, Russia won its soccer game in Saint Petersburg against Egypt, and fans left the stadium in hoards— people dancing and singing on Nevsky for hours and hours. The next day, it rained again.
ARTS&CULTURE
Warm Tastes
Introducing Ganko Ittetsu Ramen
C
by Abbie Hui Illustrated By Rémy Poisson
raving something more substantial and filling than instant ramen that you can find in a grocery store and whip up with a pot of hot water? My roommate and I were hungry for comfort food when we finished unpacking on move-in day. We did not have to venture far before we stumbled upon the newly opened restaurant next to Pokéworks on Thayer Street: Ganko Ittetsu Ramen. I was not prepared for the sensory overload when I walked in. Colors flashed before my eyes: black, white, grey, and a splash of red. The staff greeted us in Japanese, and we were quickly directed to a table. From there, I made more sense of the quaint surroundings. The spacious, clean, dark-grey details and repurposed wood tables sprinkle this modern ramen house with decor focused on traditional, intuitive, Japanese simplicity. A beautiful wall mural shows enthusiastic ramen lovers gulping down their ramen and savoring every drop of the broth—the restaurant is probably hoping for the same reactions from customers. Tables are arranged in twos and fours. Though tables sit close to one another, the proximity doesn’t feel too awkward— the ambiance is lively, full of conversation. You can even observe the chefs’ magic live if you grab a seat at the counter. Once seated, the staff hands you a menu featuring six ramen flavors. Since that first visit with my roommate, I have become a regular, shamelessly sampling every flavor, and on a recent visit, I had the opportunity to chat with head chef, Ken Iwaoka. By the restaurant’s bustling kitchen, he explained the intricate planning behind the ingredients and combinations that make up each Sapporo-style ramen dish. What makes Sapporo ramen special? The ramen’s base broth and sauce are mixed in the wok to create a richer flavor. The basic components of each dish are broth and noodles, with varying sauces that distinguish the six ramen options. Ganko Ittetsu’s broth is locally sourced and never frozen, made up of 70 percent chicken and 30 percent pork stocks. The
restaurant’s custom-made ramen—a bouncy, thick noodle—is found in four menu items while thinner noodles complement the lighter Shoyu and Shio ramens. Ganko Ittetsu’s uniquely thick soy sauce comes from a Japanese factory. The unpasteurized sauce is not fermented during transport, giving it a short shelf life, but it’s worth it. A variety of toppings help balance the flavors of each dish: For instance, onions and scallions neutralize the Gantetsu Shoyu’s oiliness. From corn to wakame (edible seaweed), every element is flavorful. And if you’re hungry for something extra, you can choose to add an extra serving of noodles or another protein: chashu (melting soft, mildly flavored sliced pork) or seasoned ground pork. Let’s untangle the mysteries of each ramen dish! Tan Tan, the restaurant’s signature sesame option, is slightly nutty and mildly spiced. The added spicy garlic oil enhances the depth of the buttery, silky, rich broth. This is a great rendition of China’s original soupless noodle dish, tantan! When you want some spiciness in your life, Gankara Miso is your go-to. Packed full of flavor, this dish is spicy but not overwhelming, with perfectly crunchy bites of corn and tender tan-tan pork. If you’re wary of spice, you can ask for the spicy paste on the side. This miso-based ramen is a house favorite! You cannot go wrong with Ganko Ittetsu’s “Signature Shoyu Ramen.” Shoyu is one of the most traditional kinds of ramen: basic and well-known. The soup’s dried fish stock and diced onions add character. Shio (translates to salt) is the “Hokkaidostyle shio ramen.” This clear broth tastes like a combination of chicken and pork. Ingredients like sea salt, fish stock, dried scallop, and kelp sauce complement each other to create a light but hearty broth. I drank all of it! Shio might sound simple, but like Shoyu, this ramen is difficult to perfect. Ganko Ittetsu’s heaviest, most filling dish is Gantetsu Shoyu. This ramen includes more oil and toppings—including bean sprouts, scallions, sliced and diced chashu—to balance out the dish. Dry fish powder and fried garlic bring out the ramen’s flavor, leaving me satisfied. Miso is “the origin of Sapporo style.” Sapporo is the largest city on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. According to the history section of
Ganko Ittetsu’s website, the famous miso ramen was invented in 1954 when a customer asked for a miso and pork soup with noodles. As miso was invented in Sapporo, this dish adapts the signature Sapporo recipe, with miso sauce giving the dish a mild flavor and a twist of chicken lightening the pork broth.
Once seated, the staff hands you a menu featuring six ramen flavors. Since that first visit with my roommate, I have become a regular, shamelessly sampling every flavor... Ganko Ittetsu’s ramen is authentic, delicious, and full of flavor. You can taste the love that goes into each and every bowl of heaven. Every noodle tastes fresh and bouncy, creating the perfect bite. Along with flavorful sauces, rich broth coats the noodles perfectly. Every ingredient in the bowl is expertly combined and prepared—down to each perfectly-cooked egg. Don’t hesitate to try the condiments found at each table: ground white pepper and shichimi (a spicy powdered seasoning). Though Ganko Ittetsu’s only protein is pork, vegetarian or seafood options may be available in the future. Moving forward, Ganko Ittetsu wants to stay focused on ramen—their speciality—but according to the head chef, they are open to adding appetizers, additional toppings, different ramen flavors, and more. This niche restaurant is a welcome addition to the Providence food scene, perfect for college students craving an authentic taste of Japanese ramen and good enough to rival Ken’s Ramen downtown. Not only does Ganko Ittetsu Ramen feature high-quality, flavorful ramen and generous portions sizes, but I also look forward to the ambiance every time I visit: the friendly, attentive staff, artwork, and decor. I am excited to return for more, especially as the weather gets colder and days get shorter this fall: Some days just call for a warm bowl of ramen.
October 12, 2018'5
ARTS&CULTURE
Heaven is a Place on Earth
show’s strong suit has always been its clearly delineated rules for fantastic landscapes; the Good and Bad Places were almost characters in themselves in their wild, magical-realist cruelty. I sense the writers miss it too. One of their favorite pastimes was giving the restaurants in Michael’s fake “Good Place” neighborhood outrageouslypunned names, and this carries over to the realworld setting of season three: for instance, Chidi visits a muffin stand in Sydney called “We Crumb
Watching The Good Place on NBC By James Feinberg illustrated by Cricket McNally
W
hen is The Good Place going to run out of room? Thus far (up to and including the current third season, which began September 27), Michael Schur’s afterlife-set opus has been a constantly funny Parks and Rec-like sitcom, sure. But it has also been, in season one, an existentialist, philosophical text about the nature of goodness, and, in season two, a sci-fi bliss-out. Now, in season three, the show has become slightly more conventional, a (literally) earthbound friendsin-a-bind situation comedy. But it remains as inventive as always. How long can it possibly last? For those who haven’t seen the show—and that demographic seems to be increasingly shrinking (like John Mulaney, The Good Place is rapidly becoming a mechanism of comedy hipness-signaling)—it follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), a trashy Arizona sales rep who’s hit by a truck and wakes up in the titular Good Place, apparently Heaven. A dizzying series of twists follows: Eleanor thinks she’s been placed in the Good Place by mistake; Eleanor is actually in the Bad Place (you-know-where) being tortured by a demon, Michael (Ted Danson), who is attempting a social experiment; Michael warms to Eleanor and convinces his fellow demons he’s continuing the experiment but actually isn’t; Michael helps Eleanor and the other three victims of the experiment escape from the Bad Place; Michael resurrects all four of them in an attempt to prove they can become good without otherworldly interference. If this seems like a lot of ground for a half-hour comedy to cover, consider that most of season two concerned Michael restarting the experiment over and over again in a sort of Groundhog Day/Heaven Can Wait crossover scenario. Yet, the show never became repetitive— actually, it just got better and better. Most of that is thanks to the writing, probably the second-best for a television comedy behind Veep. Certainly The Good Place is the reigning TV champion of making complexity seem breezily easy. (Attention, belabored writers of Westworld:
I’d suggest calling up Schur in the near future.) But the cast, perfect from the beginning, has relaxed into a comic familiarity that rivals the best of this century’s comedy ensembles. Eleanor and her fellow Great Beyond misfits, Jason (Manny Jacinto), Tahani (Jameela Jamil), and Chidi (William Jackson Harper), are re-introduced at the beginning of season three, back on Earth for a second chance—this time as the subjects of Chidi’s thesis study on victims of near-death experiences. They’re not meant to remember each other, yet they bounce off one another right away, full of chemistry. Danson, robbed of an Emmy this year, is the best thing about the show by far in his halfdeluded, half-naïve, newly-found enthusiasm for humanity. D’Arcy Carden is wonderful as Janet, his angelic assistant, and Jacinto, who is to stupid what Meryl Streep is to commanding, somehow manages to steal the episode every time. His somewhat reduced role this season is one of the only slightly sour notes in the show’s development. Our four human heroes have one foot in the Bad Place now; a cosmic psychopomp called the Judge (Maya Rudolph) has decreed that any screwups in this new life will condemn them to the down-below forever—really, we mean it this time. This lends the show a moral immediacy previously concealed by antic comedy, and Michael and Janet’s desperate (technically illegal) interference on their wards’ behalf in the human world has an earned urgency. Still, I miss the afterlife. The
“Rubbery, plastic-wrapped American cheese squares actually earn their shade of orange from nature.” Pia Mileaf-Patel, Unpacking Orange 10.12.17
The Good Place is a show about people trying to reinvent themselves, and the show itself is not to be outdone. It’s impossible to say how many times the team behind The Good Place can start over. But watching them try is exciting as hell. From the Land Down Under.” The real brilliance of the show lies in its very slow reveal of the fact that the whole posthumous procedure is basically unfair. Chidi, for example, is a strictly ethical thinker and pretty nice guy whose one crime was that he found it difficult to make decisions; if that’s a prescription for the Bad Place, most of the people ahead of me at Starbucks on an average day should start preparing for pitchforks. But this realization only comes with time. We start off thinking Eleanor’s the real criminal, a deviant who somehow slipped under the wire into a perfect eternity reserved for all of us decent people. Not so, it turns out, as the road to the Bad Place is paved with most folks’ good intentions. As Michael explains in season one, its denizens even include “every President except Lincoln.” In other words, Schur and his writing team revel in setting up their pins and then knocking them down, over and over again. The Good Place is a show about people trying to reinvent themselves, and the show itself is not to be outdone. It’s impossible to say how many times the team behind The Good Place can start over. But watching them try is exciting as hell.
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NEWS
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2018 • PAGE 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
» BUDS, from page 1 managers empathizing with the work conditions I describe in my letter,” Kozlov told The Herald. Benjamin Spiegel ’21, a BuDS employee, decided to pull his application for a supervisor position after he read Kozlov’s letter. But Kozlov’s call-to-action is not the first time a unit manager has pushed for policy changes, according to Katherine Jimenez ’20, a carts supervisor. Women and people of color have “spearheaded these movements,” she added. “Wage proposals, reduced on-call (hours) and even shift meals for Carts workers have been proposed since Tionne Pete ’17 was general manager in 2016-17,” Jimenez wrote in an email to The Herald. Pete could not be reached for comment. Understaffing Dining Services breaks up campus dining into eight different units: Andrews Commons, the Blue Room, carts such as the Rockefeller Library Cafe, cashiers, catering preparation, dining, the Ivy Room and Josiah’s, Kozlov said. “Each unit has a critical number of supervisors, where, if below that number, the unit ceases to function cohesively,” Kozlov wrote in his resignation letter. As of Sept. 24, all eight units were at or below their critical numbers, Kozlov told The Herald. Though “recruiting has been slower than usual this year,” Rossi said that “by early to mid-October, our staffing levels are typically in line with long-term needs of the program.” Because of understaffing, BuDS supervisors and unit managers have had to take on extra shifts to ensure their units continue to function, according to Kozlov and Jimenez. The University does not set a cap on the number of hours student employees are allowed to work during the school year, Rilatos said. Cornell, Penn, Yale and Harvard all either discourage or prohibit students from working more than 20 hours a week during the semester.
» YIELD, from page 1 to 7.2 percent for the Class of 2022, is so low, he added. While a low acceptance rate is a mark of a highly selective school, a high yield rate suggests that a college is desirable among high school students, Harberson said. But unlike acceptance rates, yield rates are not widely publicized by colleges or well-known among applicants, even though students “know that certain colleges are more desirable than others,” she added. Powell agreed that acceptance and yield rates are often seen as markers of a school’s reputation and demand among college applicants. “The indication is that the lower your acceptance rate” and the higher your yield rate, “the more people are interested in your institution,” he said. “It’s incomplete as a measure of an institution, but it’s a popular measure.” Many factors that influence yield, such as the state of the economy, are out of the University’s control, Powell said. Despite the uncertainty in yield, colleges and universities must predict what their yield will be based on historical data to determine the number of students to admit. “We did project that our yield would go up this year,” he said. “We got very, very close to what we thought our yield would be.” The University currently aims to admit 1,650 students every year, Powell
Supervisors generally work about 20 to 30 hours a week, according to multiple supervisors who spoke to The Herald. Five unit managers and supervisors told The Herald they have worked 40 hours in a week during shopping and reading periods — the University’s limit before mandating employees be paid an overtime salary to comply with federal guidelines, according to the Student Handbook. “It’s a lot as a full-time student,” Kozlov said. Pressure to prioritize work Despite many unit managers and supervisors not wanting to work more than the 15 to 20 hours written in their job descriptions, they feel as if they must for their units to function. “I’ve had to debate whether or not to write an essay or study for an exam or work a shift,” Jimenez said. “Supervisors and unit managers alike feel an intense obligation for the unit, working countless extra hours at the expense of personal health to ensure the unit continues running, afraid to quit because we would be somehow burdening the rest of the team,” Kozlov wrote in his resignation letter. While Dining Services doesn’t mandate students work extra hours, the administration “shames and talks down to people who don’t go above and beyond,” said Ben Bosis ’19, a former cashiers supervisor who resigned Sept. 15. But supervisors and unit managers are rarely fired “because BuDS needs them so badly,” Bosis added. “There (are) people that really, really care about their units, managers, supervisors and other workers, which creates a toxic culture where people have to work more than they would like to for the sake of their unit,” Rilatos said. Currently, Dining Services is investigating how to cap supervisor hours so that students don’t have to work more than they want to, she added. Some BuDS employees may not have the luxury of quitting because they rely on
said. Since all first-years live on campus, enrolling too many students would strain the University’s housing system. To avoid this, the University takes a conservative approach when admitting students and uses the waitlist to bring the class up to the target number of enrolled students, Powell explained. For the Class of 2022, 148 students were admitted off the waitlist, while 51 students deferred their admission to take a gap year. By convocation, there were 1,657 students in the incoming class, Powell said. Though colleges and universities cannot perfectly control enrollment, they can bolster their yield and build a significant portion of their freshman class through early decision admission, Harberson said. “If an institution has early decision, they have it for a reason: They need it,” she explained. “It increases the yield automatically because almost every student that gets admitted in early decision is going to enroll unless there’s a financial aid issue, and that’s pretty rare.” Compared to the incoming classes of Ivy League universities and other peer institutions that implement binding early decision admission, the University admits the smallest portion of its first-year class — about 43 percent — through early decision, Powell said. “We’re not moving in a direction that some of our peer institutions have been for some time where over half of their
the income to support themselves and, in some cases, their families. “BuDs ends up exploiting students (who) need to work,” who are usually “lower income,” said a current BuDS employee who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of professional repercussions. “I rely on this job to pay my rent and my food bills.” BuDS’ understaffing stems from the fact that the supervisor position is not competitive with other jobs on campus, Rilatos said. “Dining Services is work. You can’t get your homework done working the Wok line at Andrews,” Rilatos said, adding that other jobs on campus may pay higher salaries for positions that require less intensive labor. “Wages are being looked at, and myself and many others are sitting in meetings daily advocating for higher wages for workers of all levels,” Rilatos said. The starting wage for BuDS workers is $10.60, while the starting wage for junior and senior supervisors is $1.50 and $1.75 over the base wage, respectively, according to Rilatos. Because of the job’s unpopularity, Kozlov often felt the need to push workers to become supervisors. “I solely wanted people to become supervisors so I, and my team, could selfishly work fewer hours,” Kozlov wrote in his resignation letter. “I knew it was time to leave when I could no longer look fellow students in the eye and tell them how great it is to be a supervisor,” he added. “I can count on one hand the amount of supervisor applications that have been rejected in the last two years. We sign up anyone who is silly enough to apply,” Kozlov told The Herald.
SAM BERUBE / HERALD
On-call policy violations In addition to working and overseeing employees, supervisors and unit managers are required to sign up for on-call slots during which they could be asked to fill in for workers who miss their shifts. Depending on the unit, supervisors are either required to be 15 minutes away from campus or on campus during their
Multiple current and former BuDS supervisors who spoke with The Herald said they felt pressured to work extra hours. on-call shift, according to Jimenez and University considers the potential for Bosis. changes moving forward, Dining is workSome student employees allege that ing not just with the students directly, but BuDS is currently violating an adminis- with colleagues in Human Resources and trative policy that mandates workers be other departments to review the current paid for their time on call even if they structure in the context of this specific aren’t called in to work in that time, ac- policy and others.” cording to Kozlov, Bosis, Jimenez and the Members of the student management two sources who asked to remain anony- team of BuDS have brought this potenmous. When supervisors are on call, they tial policy violation to the attention of are “considered to be working and must Dining Services in the past, according be compensated,” the policy states. to Jimenez and a BuDS employee who “I know for a fact we were explicitly wishes to remain anonymous. Bosis said expected to be on campus (but) were not he plans to meet with Dining Services compensated in any way” for that time, about the violations and will consider Bosis wrote in an email to The Herald. “consulting with a labor rights agency” Furthermore, “if an employee is called or “filing a complaint with the U.S. Labor in to work, (they) must be paid for a Department’s Wage and Hour division” minimum of three hours or the actual if Dining Services refuses to consider hours worked, whichever is greater,” the compensation for on-call hours. Kozlov policy states. said he has been in touch with the Uni“If we did get called in, we absolutely versity’s Human Resources department were only paid for as long as we worked,” and spoke with the Rhode Island Labor which was usually only around 15 to 30 Standards Department, who encouraged minutes, Bosis wrote. him to file a formal complaint. In addition to discussing potential Looking ahead policy changes, Dining Services has also “Senior leaders in Dining Services are reduced “the number of late-night shifts actively working with the student man- students are working at two dining locaagement team on aspects related to work tions,” Rossi wrote in an email to The hours and compensation, and the details Herald. of the on-call system are certainly one Rilatos believes BuDS will see policy part of that conversation,” wrote Director changes within the next two weeks. “I of News and Editorial Development Brian think people will be pretty happy” about Clark in an email to The Herald. “As the the changes in store, she said.
first-year class” is admitted through early decision, he added. Penn, for example, enrolled 52 percent of the Class of 2022 through early decision admission, according to its class profile. Policy changes at the University can also have an impact on yield. Powell attributed the University’s increase in yield to three policy changes that went into effect during the admission cycle for the Class of 2022: Brown Promise, changes to the format of A Day On College Hill and increased travel grant funding for campus visits for low- and moderate-income students. Beginning this year, the Brown Promise replaced all loans in financial aid packages with grants, The Herald previously reported. Powell expressed certainty that the increased financial aid made many admitted students more likely to enroll. “For those students who would have received loans, to now have a financial aid award that was packaged without loans is really meaningful and, financially, has really life changing implications for families,” he said. Though Harberson sees this change as a positive development for the University, “Brown’s got some catching up to do,” she said. Many “Ivies eliminated loans ten years ago, and Brown’s doing it in 2018.” To make it easier for more admitted students to attend ADOCH, the program was shortened from three days
to two days, moved from the middle of the week to the weekend and offered twice in the month of April, Powell said. In addition, the increased travel grant funding allowed the University to invite domestic middle- and lowincome student admitted to the Class of 2022 to visit campus with an upfront grant to cover the cost of transportation to and from Providence, Powell added. Both the new ADOCH format and the increased travel grant funding aimed to help more admitted students come to College Hill before the enrollment deadline. These policies likely had a positive impact on yield because students who visit campus are twice as likely to matriculate as students who don’t visit campus, Powell said. Devin Ahearn ’21 and Isaiah Spencer ’21 both agreed that ADOCH encouraged them to enroll at the University. ADOCH “made my decision,” Spencer said. “Brown was not even in the scope of my colleges until I went to ADOCH.” “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to Brown” before attending ADOCH, Ahearn added. But when she came to campus for ADOCH, “I met lots of nice people that I loved, and I was like, ‘Okay, I definitely want to go here.’” Bryce Blinn ’21 did not attend ADOCH, but he visited the University while college hunting. He also felt that visiting campus made him more interested in enrolling. “I never really
had an idea of which schools I wanted to go to until I actually went there,” he said. “I saw Brown, and I really liked the area. People just seemed nice. That was one of the ways I could see myself coming here.” The University’s yield rate has risen over the past two admission cycles, but Powell does not expect to see a similar increase in yield this year. “With consistent policies, one might expect a leveling off at this higher yield rate at about 61 percent,” he said.
COMMENTARY PAGE 4 • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2018
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
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COMMENTARY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2018 • PAGE 5
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
It’s time for a timeline for international need-blind admission JOSÉ SORIA
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Back in 2013, President Christina Paxson P’19 outlined need-blind admission for all undergraduate students as one of her goals in the University’s strategic plan. Five years have passed since then, and both domestic transfer applicants and international students are still excluded from this promise. As stated by Patrick Wu ’19 in his Oct. 1 Herald op-ed, President Emerita Ruth Simmons referred to the implementation of need-blind financial aid for all students as a moral obligation. Yet the University has so far failed to extend this moral responsibility to international students. As an international student myself and as someone who has advocated on behalf of the international community in my time here, I consider this an issue that is particularly relevant. If the University is serious about its commitment to ensuring need-blind admission for all students, including international students, it is time to release a public timeline for when the international student community can expect to see these reforms. The University’s mission statement of serving “the world” requires the implementation of need-blind admission policies for international students, that is, those who are not American citizens. Peer schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Amherst College already implement need-blind international admission and commit to meeting 100 percent of every applicant’s demonstrated need. It must be said that Brown does meet 100 percent of demonstrated financial need for all applicants, which
is a commendable step. But current admission practices privilege a small portion of applicants, undermining Brown’s commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion on campus. Since admission is currently need-aware for international students, the policies in place favor the wealthy and discourage middle- and low-income students from seeking University support to
admitted through need-blind policies might look like, it becomes clear that there are perspectives that are currently missing on our campus. For instance, need-blind policies might increase the number and diversity of students from underrepresented geographic regions such as Latin America and Africa. That isn’t to say that Brown is solely populated with wealthy inter-
leads to significant financial insecurity for those students. Eventual changes in circumstances, such as unexpected unemployment in students’ families or economic crises that impact their home countries, may compromise their ability to afford Brown. At the very least, if need-blind admission for international students is currently a distant dream, the University should work to allow ad-
SUMMER ZHANG
fund their education. For the most part, wealthy international students attend international or American private high schools, which — like Brown — can also be prohibitively expensive for middle- and low-income students. This near-homogeneity in schooling and socioeconomic class limits Brown’s ability to deliver on its promise of fostering a truly diverse international student body. If we take a moment to imagine what an international student body
national students — the University has made strides in the expansion of financial aid available to international students in recent years. But admission policy can still adversely affect students’ time at Brown. Admitted international students also have their college experiences jeopardized by Brown’s needaware policy, as those who did not apply for financial aid originally cannot be granted aid at any other point in their Brown undergraduate education. That
mitted international students to receive financial assistance from the University if needed. When Paxson was approved to a second term in 2017, she did not commit to guaranteeing need-blind admission for international students in the following five years, citing financial constraints, The Herald previously reported. Implementing need-blind admission for international students will indeed be a hefty financial task, but in
Exploration/No Credit
AIDAN CALVELLI STAFF COLUMNIST
On Oct. 2, the Sastifactory/No Credit deadline passed without much fanfare. Forty-nine years after its inception, the S/NC option is so ingrained in the Brown experience that it doesn’t stand out as abnormal. That’s a problem. S/NC is truly unique; Brown is one of just a handful of schools that allows its students to take all of their classes without letter grades. By doing so, Brown is making the argument — simple, but radical to us students who got here in large part due to our transcripts — that a liberal education can be measured by more than letters. This noble possibility is often muddled amid the practical realities of being a student. It’s time we resuscitate an ideal of S/NC focused on encouraging students to learn freely and follow their academic passions without regard for how they’ll be graded. To promote the idea that S/NC lets us focus more on the learning journey than the end result, I propose we give it a new name: Exploration/ No Credit. The label attributed to success in S/NC courses — “Satisfactory” — invokes no high ideal of learning. But I want my education to be more than that! In an ideal world, I would be more motivated by the prospect of intellectual growth and discovery than by having someone tell me I did OK. Of course, S/NC has pragmatic value as well, allowing students to prioritize coursework and
stress less about assignments. Yet I think we miss out on S/NC’s important philosophical purpose when these pragmatic concerns form the dominant S/NC narrative. Sure, just changing the name won’t tangibly affect the grading option, and a new moniker won’t require students to take a new approach to their education. But that doesn’t mean we can’t help realize the ideals of S/NC by giving it a rhetorical update that explicitly promotes a non-grade-oriented approach to learning. Having “Satisfactory” as the current benchmark conveys that the goal of a class is to simply to perform adequately. “Satisfactory” does get out of the letter grade framework, but in reality, “S” is just a stand-in grade, a perfect substitute for an A, B or C. “Exploration,” however corny it may sound, instead conveys the idea that when freed from the shackles of grades, learning can be an exploratory, individualized and empowering endeavor. “Exploration” is an aspiration, a reminder that the personal growth from our classes is incommensurable with the information ingested while cramming for Midterm 2. An “E” on a transcript would signify more than just a milquetoast, satisfactory performance; it would gesture at how the course inspired you to think differently and reimagine your approach to learning. To be clear, changing the name to Exploration/ No Credit would not be intended to stigmatize or denigrate a more practical approach to E/NC. Students can legitimately use the option to, for example, prioritize certain classes, reduce their stress about grades, do assignments on their own time-
lines or free their schedules for important extracurricular pursuits. That’s the privilege of the freedom Brown’s curriculum offers; students are entrusted to make of their educations what they wish. However, it’s also consistent with Brown’s curriculum to try to inspire idealism in the way we think about grades and learning. Maybe calling it Exploration/No Credit won’t radically change our approach to education, but if reframing the option as E/NC inspires one person to work hard in a class for reasons unattached to A’s, I think it would be a success. I certainly would benefit from that nudge. When I chose to take BIOL 0030: “Principles of Nutrition” S/NC, I told myself I did so because I cared more about cultivating my interest in food than about getting any grade. But after failing the first test, my idealism for learning quickly transformed into a desperate rush for an S. Had the grade option instead been “Exploration,” I at least would have had a constant reminder to stay true to the reasons originally motivating my learning, rather than feeling like I had to meet a satisfactory threshold of memorization. The more we can do to normalize E/NC as a tool for intellectual growth and exploration, the better. When students get to Brown, they’ve just emerged from a pressure cooker high school in which a single bad grade seemed like the gap between themselves and the Ivy League. If we work early on to disentangle education from grading, we’ll remind students — who inevitably will receive some grades they’ve never seen before in college — that growth is a healthier goal than perfection.
many ways the University is in a good position to act now. Brown is currently in the midst of a historic $3 billion fundraising campaign known as BrownTogether, which surpassed its halfway point last January. Among other initiatives, the campaign fundraises for key Presidential initiatives like the diversity and inclusion action plans and Brown Promise, the University’s commitment to eliminating loans from undergraduate financial aid packages. A public timeline and an awareness campaign on the scale of the aforementioned initiatives that targets international alums keen to give back to their home countries would help drive fundraising efforts for need-blind international admission, which technically also falls under the campaign’s purview. According to the President’s Financial Report for FY17, “$27 million (has been) raised for undergraduate financial aid to meet increased need throughout the student population (and) Brown’s financial aid budget climbed to more than $120 million for the 2016-17 academic year. This amount encompasses aid for approximately 43 percent of undergraduates, including more than 180 international students.” Think of the impact a public and specific commitment from the University could have on these numbers and the futures of incoming international students. The University has already taken a moral position on this issue. What it needs now is a plan to execute its vision.
José Soria ’19 is on the International Student Advisory Board and can be reached at jose_soria@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
Though students here are independent, we are all shaped by the opinions and attitudes of those around us. Characterizing S/NC as a way to avoid bad grades is unproductive because that gives grades a power and importance that S/NC aspires to move beyond. When it’s standard practice for Meiklejohn Peer Advisors to tell first-years to take their hard classes S/NC, I’m worried that students’ first introduction to the option will crowd out its idealistic purpose and make it seem like just a value-neutral pass/fail option. Calling the successful completion of that option “Exploration” signals that E/NC can stand for more than a workloadmanagement tool. I remember how inspiring it was to hear former Dean of the College Maud Mandel tell our class during orientation about the possibilities the Open Curriculum afforded us and how S/ NC was one of the many tools at our disposal to shape our learning experience. We may not have Mandel anymore (side note: please come back. I miss you). But we can rename S/NC to Exploration/No Credit to remind us that despite the ubiquity of grades and the stress they induce, at Brown we have the privilege of learning beyond letters. Let’s not forget to explore that opportunity.
Aidan Calvelli ’19 can be reached at aidan_calvelli@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2018
Rhode2College rewards local high school students Program to offer middleto low-income public high schoolers up to $2,000 for college preparation By DYLAN MAJSIAK SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Low- and middle-income high schoolers in Rhode Island public schools can now earn up to $2,000 as they prepare for college with Rhode2College, a new statewide program that aims to incentivize students to pursue higher education. Over 1,100 students will have received their acceptance letters to Rhode2College from Gov. Gina Raimondo by the end of this week, said Public Information Officer of the Rhode Island Department of Education Meghan Geoghegan. “Rhode2College is really about … giving an added push, and sometimes that’s all it takes to get students to the next level to help them consider different possibilities for the future,” Geoghegan said. The new initiative uses students’ PSAT scores in the 10th grade to determine the top 25 percent of students in the Free and Reduced Lunch program across the state, wrote Professor of Economics and International Affairs Justine Hastings in an email to
The Herald. Her nonprofit, Research Improving People’s Lives, worked with Raimondo, the Rhode Island Department of Education, the College Board and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative over the past two years to develop Rhode2College. “Rhode2College is designed as a step-by-step, achievement-focused program that breaks down the process of getting to college from a large, daunting task into achievable milestones,” Hastings wrote. “Then it rewards students for achieving those milestones.” Rhode2College scholars receive an immediate payout of about $500 in the form of a gift card when they are first admitted to the program. They can get up to $1,500 more over their junior and senior years by taking proactive steps to prepare for college. For instance, students can take free courses to study for the SAT, complete an individualized college plan and submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to indicate progress toward their higher education goals, Geoghegan said. An interactive bot texts students with reminders, advice and updates about their earnings for each milestone, which could take the form of a gift card or added money to the scholars’ college savings accounts. “Even though they’re small incentives, … it can actually make a
pretty huge difference,” Geoghegan said, adding that the program’s dual approach of offering immediate and long-term payouts should be effective in keeping students on track. While developing the project, Rhode2College’s creators drew on research in economics and behavioral science that indicates that “individualized assistance and even low-cost incentives … can have comparable results to large-scale scholarship programs,” Hastings wrote. Chair of Education Kenneth Wong said that the initiative is aligned with the state’s “bipartisan commitment” to education and understanding of the phases of “cognitive and social development” of children. “I’m seeing a system of student support from early childhood all the way to career and college readiness,” Wong said. “This program is situated in that whole landscape of commitment.” He added that Raimondo is now turning her focus from early childhood to high school education through initiatives such as Rhode2College and the Rhode Island Promise Scholarship, which aims to make higher education more affordable. Wong did express concern regarding Rhode2College’s accessibility to students from Rhode Island’s urban school districts, which tend to have
ANNIE WANG
large immigrant and first-generation populations. Given the achievement gap that exists between English Language Learners and other students in the state, there’s a risk that low- and middle-income students in urban areas will be underrepresented in the program if they compete with native English speakers, he said. Of the 1,150 eligible students this year, 333 students were accepted from Providence, East Providence and Woonsocket alone — with more scholars from Providence than any other school district.
Currently funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Rhode2College could be implemented as a permanent state-funded program if it is successful in its two-year launch period, Geoghegan said. The state will be paying close attention to the number of participants enrolled in college in order to evaluate Rhode2College’s success. “It’s an exciting time to be a high school student in Rhode Island,” Geoghegan said. “There’s a lot of opportunities available that weren’t there five years ago.”
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