Friday, October 19, 2018

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 84

U. develops plan to spur state economic innovation Initiative outlines plan to encourage economic growth, entrepreneurship, industry engagement

By ALEX REICE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In an effort to strengthen ties to the Rhode Island community and promote dynamic economic growth, the University partnered with the government, industry and other universities to launch the Brown and the Innovation Economy initiative June 28. Through this program, the University will work with state actors to fulfill goals outlined in the strategic plan, such as talent development and retention, industry engagement, building the capacity for innovation, fostering entrepreneurship and building regional networks.

“The goal of this team was to figure out how Brown could play the most productive role in innovation and job creation in Rhode Island,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology PhD candidate Benjamin Armstrong, who worked on the initiative. Brown “has a lot of projects that have direct

implications for the local economy, … but we wanted to figure out what the larger narrative was around those programs,” he added.

A team led by Provost Richard Locke P’18 put together a strategic plan that built on some of the University’s previous work on the economy and entrepreneurship. Increased work with Rhode Island’s economy expands on Building on Distinction: A New Plan for Brown, a 10-year strategy launched in 2014. However, though the University had several new initiatives and is the state’s second largest private employer, Locke wanted to find a way to “have a more coordinated approach to all this activity, so it could have a higher impact on the local economy in a way that would promote innovation, job creation (and) entrepreneurship,” he said.

The strategic plan outlines the initiative’s five major focuses in an effort to address economic challenges in the state.

These include Brown Biomedical Initiatives Inc., Brown Venture Founders, » See ECONOMY, page 6

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Research reveals Providence socioeconomic divisions ‘Opportunity Atlas’ details disparities linked to race, ethnicity, economic history

By SOPHIE CULPEPPER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

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YILAN GAO

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Whether by confirming visible disparities or exposing new ones, a new databased map titled “Opportunity Atlas” uses decades of income data on residents to illustrate the difference a neighborhood can make on a child’s future income — in Providence and throughout the nation.

Researchers investigated how a lowincome child’s neighborhood — isolated from parental income, education or other factors — can predict their average annual household earning as an adult, The Herald previously reported.

Over the course of 18 months, Associate Professor of Economics John Friedman co-led a team of researchers from the

University, Harvard and the U.S. Census Bureau that broke down income predictions on the level of a tract, geographic areas that contain an average of 4,000 people as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to Opportunity Atlas’ data set, Providence exemplifies national trends in urban inequality.

Professor of Sociology John Logan said the study “reinforces patterns that we were familiar with” but adds a new perspective by focusing on the mobility of children over time — and doing so with an extensive dataset from the Internal Revenue Service.

Inequality in Providence has a long history: Its manufacturing industry began to deteriorate in the 1950s, which burdened the city’s economy, Logan said.

The city then “became a magnet for immigration because of the high vacancies and the low rent,” he added. Over time, these economic and demographic changes have compounded so that Providence’s poverty center has “deepened.”

Altogether, “Providence, despite this progressive political base, is among the most unequal cities in the country,” Logan said. While many other cities have also » See DISPARITIES, page 2

Jeffers ’19 leads cross country to strong finish RISD Museum exhibit Senior places 10th individually, team places 7th at Penn State National Open

to lose so we were kind of just going to see how we stacked up against our competition. I think as a team, and for a lot of us as individuals, we surprised ourselves with what we were able to accomplish.

You also posted a top-20 time at a race last month in Boston.

Do you feel like you’re finding a groove? » See AOTW, page 3

By PATRICK NUGENT STAFF WRITER

Carleen Jeffers ’19 led women’s cross country to a seventh place team finish out of 28 squads last weekend at the Penn State National Open. A senior from Ridgewood, New Jersey, Jeffers finished tenth individually in a field of 289 runners in the six-kilometer dash with a time of 20 minutes, 53 seconds. Building on her strong finish as well as a 17th place effort at last month’s Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown, she looks to lead the Bears to success in conference competition at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championship Oct. 27. For her standout performances on the course, she has been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

Herald: You finished tenth overall and led the team at the Penn State Open. How did it feel to place so highly?

Jeffers: It felt really good. It was one of those races where we had nothing

INSIDE

delves into repair, renewal Artists reintroduce lost, torn, mended textiles into museum space in ninemonth exhibition

By ELISE RYAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

NICOLE KIM / HERALD

Carleen Jeffers ’19 posted a 20 minute, 53 second six-kilometer run at the Penn State National Open last weekend.

The Rhode Island School of Design Museum’s latest exhibition, “Repair and Design Futures,” opened its nine-month run Oct. 5. The exhibition focuses on the theme of repair as a “material intervention, metaphor and call to action,” wrote Kate Irvin, RISD Museum curator of costumes and textiles in the installation’s opening wall text.

The exhibit comprises clothing and textiles, quilts and appliqués, embroidery pieces and assemblages, each of which contains tears and repairs of varying size. Each piece quietly contributes to the exhibition’s wider theme, featuring concealed stitches or carefully placed patches.

Irvin thought about the theme of repair — both the literal act and its metaphorical value — for many years before bringing this exhibition to fruition, she explained. The exhibition connects

pieces from the RISD Museum’s permanent collection with a selection from the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

“It was important to me to really have a wide geographic as well as chronological range of objects,” Irvin said.

Irvin highlighted “Work Coat (Noragi),” a cotton, indigo-dyed, patched and repaired Japanese coat by an unknown maker. She emphasized that she started thinking more carefully about repair after witnessing the interaction between the coat and current RISD students “who are making things in a world where we actually … already have too many things,” she said. She found this conjunction especially intriguing within the context of the “world today — which is a … very fragmented world, environmentally and socially,” she added.

The exhibition extends into the Museum’s Café Pearl, where “Lessons from Jacob Lawrence” — a collaboration between artist and designer Christina Kim, improvisational quilter Laverne Brackens and artisans at the Shuktara Trust, an Indian charity benefiting homeless children with disabilities — hangs on the large wall facing the Benefit Street entrance. The final product of a project » See EXHIBIT, page 5

WEATHER

FRIDAY, OC TOBER 19, 2018

NEWS U. researchers study worm models to examine ALS, neuronal degeneration

NEWS Panel discusses prison reform, value of providing educational opportunities for prisoners

COMMENTARY Kent-Daggett ’19: Edge College Hill II caters to wealthy students rather than local families

COMMENTARY Klein ’20: Some struggling NFL teams have hope for the future, if they can fix their weaknesses

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» DISPARITIES, from page 1 seen declines in manufacturing industries and increases in immigration over the last decades, Providence is one of the few to

have simultaneously experienced growth concentrated in prosperous areas — such as College Hill and the East Side, he added.

The data show that very few children from low-income families live on College

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Hill at all — just 12 out of 207 children are from low-income families in the tract west of Thayer Street, and about 21 out of 152 reside in the tract to the east. These numbers are too low for conclusive income

predictions to be made for low-income children inhabiting these tracts.

For children from middle-income families on College Hill, where they grew up with respect to Thayer Street makes a difference to their economic prospects.

While students from middle-income families west of Thayer Street are predicted to make $68,000 in annual household income, the prediction stands at just $42,000 immediately to the east.

Data on income predictions from families at all socioeconomic levels capture the division between the peak affluence on College Hill and the bleaker prospects of the rest of the city. In the tract that includes many of the University’s and Rhode Island School of Design’s academic buildings, children are predicted to make $72,000 in annual household income. In the neighboring tract, on the other side of North Main Street that includes Providence Place Mall, the Rhode Island State House and Kennedy Plaza, chances are that children will grow up to make $41,000 (though this estimate is based on only 60 children).

The dataset “doesn’t allow us to identify the causal effects of university mobility,” said Harvard predoctoral fellow and Opportunity Atlas researcher Jack Hoyle.

He added that this could be an area for “future research.”

The University “can be perceived as a progressive force, helping to revitalize the city, or it can be seen as participating in a kind of growth whose benefits will be reaped by some kinds of people and not others,” Logan said.

Providence’s downtown neighborhoods offer children the worst chances for future incomes in the city, especially further south, according to Opportunity Atlas. The lowest estimate corresponds to a tract in downtown Providence, just south of Federal Hill, where 758 children from low-income families, defined as at or below the 25th percentile for income, are predicted to have $23,000 annual household salaries as adults. In an adjacent tract, just single street south, that prediction rises to $29,000, based on data from about 2,100 children. Many adjacent tracts have disparities of about $2,000, which is approximately the margin of

error of Opportunity Atlas general income estimates. Predictions tend to stay below $30,000 throughout downtown Providence tracts.

The starkest disparities can be found northwest of the city, where hard lines between tracts trace divisions as great as $10,000 between some affluent suburbs and the rest of the city.

Divisions between tracts and minimum predicted income become more stark when accounting for differences in ethnic groups, both locally and nationally. In Providence city center, black low-income residents of Smith Hill are projected to make $28,000, compared to just $12,000 in adjacent Federal Hill. Lowincome Hispanic children in Elmhurst have a predicted household income of $69,000, whereas in Wanskuck the prediction for Hispanic children amounts to less than a third of this at $22,000.

Nationally and locally, no single explanation exists for divisions between neighborhoods. While some suggest that schools are determining factors, Hoyle stressed that they “don’t explain everything.” He noted that Providence has a school choice system which means neighborhoods do not necessarily directly correspond with specific schools.

Logan hypothesized that neighborhood disparities are influenced by “our usual measures of advantage and resources, which are the quality of the elementary school the children who live there go to, the crime rate in the very local neighborhood, the poverty rate, the percent of residents who have a college degree or a high school degree, the racial composition, the percent who are immigrants (and) the percent who speak English well,” he said.

The interests of those who control public policy could complicate attempts to unite behind the new data for progressive change, Logan explained. “Those who are advantaged in the current system have no incentive to change it, and those who are disadvantaged have no influence over policy. So there’s a lot of talk about it, but not very much action,” he said.

“You may change the neighborhood and get rid of some poor people and replace them with more affluent people, but it’s not exactly attacking poverty,” he added.

Hoyle said academics and municipal leaders have expressed interest in the study and its implications for concrete policy action.

“Mayors throughout the country will tell you that there is a growing concern about income and wealth inequality in cities throughout America, but for too long we have been lacking the tools to meaningfully measure how our cities fare in terms of mobility,” wrote Deputy Director of Communications for Mayor Jorge Elorza Ben Smith in an email to The Herald. He added that the new available data will help inform Elorza’s team when making decisions regarding “deeper investments in initiatives that promote social and economic mobility here in Providence.”

The responsibility for disparities belongs to “all levels of government,” Logan said. He cited housing vouchers, an increase in construction of affordable housing, combating discrimination in housing and investment in schools as starting points for improving poor neighborhoods.

Moving people to better neighborhoods should supplement these strategies, he added.

This study “increases the pressure; the more visibility it gets, the better,” Logan said. “I’m so glad they did this study; I’m so glad it got reported in the New York Times. There should be more.”

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

New worm models offer insight into ALS degeneration U. researchers discover neurons affected by ALS degenerate through different mechanisms

By ZACHARY LEVIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Brown researchers studying the degeneration of neurons in worm models with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis recently found that different types of neurons undergo different mechanisms of decay.

Their paper focused on developing models to study how the SOD1 gene, which is associated with ALS, affects neurons and their degeneration. The findings contest the commonly accepted idea that all neurons affected by ALS degenerate in the same way, according to Saba Baskoylu, the lead author of the project. Previous worm models were not able to examine how this single gene affects the nervous system of C. elegans, a species of roundworm, she said.

For the past six years, a team of researchers led by Anne Hart, professor of neuroscience, has been developing C. elegans models to study neurodegeneration caused by ALS. “Why use worms? Because they are much less expensive to work with than cell or larger animal models — and neuron(s) act pretty much

» AOTW, from page 1 Definitely. I felt like Boston was kind of a rust-buster, in a sense. It had been like seven or eight months since I had last raced because I was injured in the spring. I thought that Boston was solid, but I definitely felt like at Penn State both myself and our team as a whole took a big step forward, which is really great because we have our conference meet coming up in two weeks.

The team has gotten some big contributions from freshmen so far. Does that give you more confidence going into future meets?

Yeah. I think the biggest thing is that we’re so deep right now and that our spread is really tight. Meaning that from our first runner all the way back to like eight or nine we have a really, really tight spread, which is great for cross country. I think that’s the biggest, most important thing for our team right now.

The team is hosting the Rothenburg Run on Friday.

Entering the meet, what are you looking forward to?

I’m not actually racing in that, but that meet serves two purposes. One is like, for people trying to make the conference roster to kind of see what they can do and prove themselves in that way. Then, the second thing is people who are on the comeback train right now coming back from injury or illness or whatever it is, still building their way into cross country … they’re able to get a race opportunity that way.

the same way in all animals,” Hart wrote in an email to The Herald. The worm models are also much faster and simpler to use than those of other organisms, she added.

The project began with the goal of developing more accurate C. elegans models to study ALS progression but led to the discovery that neurons undergo different pathways of degeneration. “Our aim was to create a model in C. elegans that could shed light on why specific neurons die in ALS — and to more accurately represent the human disease in a small invertebrate model,” Hart said.

Using a genetic engineering technique to modify the SOD1 gene, the researchers were able to create animal models to study the disease in a simpler organism, Baskoylu said.

The researchers labeled the worm’s neurons with fluorescence and used the visible color to detect the presence of specific neurons, looking for signs of degeneration.

“When we first generated (the modified worms), they looked quite okay, and we didn’t see any of these defects … until we exposed the animals to stress,” which led to neurodegeneration, Baskoylu said.

One of the study’s key findings provides evidence that the two different types of neurons affected by ALS — glutamatergic and cholinergic neurons — might decay through different mechanisms, Baskoylu said.

Last month, the team climbed to second in the Northeast rankings. How do you feel about the rest of the season?

I’d be lying if I said we weren’t really excited about that, but at the same time I think our entire season’s motto has just been even keel, don’t get too high, don’t get too low. And at the end of the day, those regional rankings don’t really matter — what matters is what we do on the day. So, I think we’re more excited for that and we’re more excited for what we actually will do than (how excited) we are for what people think we can do. But it’s definitely motivating and it’s something that’s on all of our minds for sure.

As a senior, how do you feel about this being your last season at Brown?

It’s definitely been a time of reflection, especially like you said with all the freshman contributions that we’ve been having. It’s been reminding me of kind of where my mind was freshman year and just what a different athlete, what a different person I am. And I’m just so, so grateful to the coaches and the team that I’ve had here at Brown for these four years because the team culture that we’ve cultivated is unique, definitely, among all other NCAA Division I teams. … I just really appreciate that and have been able to see it for what it is as a senior.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

University researchers used worm models to challenge the idea that all ALS-affected neurons decay the same way.

When the naturally-occurring, unaltered gene was put back into the glutamatergic neurons, the neurodegeneration stopped and the cells were “rescued,” but when this gene was put back into the cholinergic neurons, the damage could not be stopped.

In the future, new projects could look at ways to combat this degeneration, Baskoylu said. “Now that we have neurodegeneration in these two types of neurons, we can attempt to

rescue these degeneration defects,” she said.

These “models for ALS — and other diseases — will provide unique insights into why neurons die and help us find ways to stop this. We are working with our collaborators at Brown and elsewhere to harness these models to understand this devastating, incurable disease,” Hart wrote.

The study succeeded at developing a simple system to study ALS and

was “a very well done, impressive piece of work,” said Kenneth Fischbeck, a neurologist at the National Institutes of Health.

“It’s surprising that the loss and gain (of gene function) work on different neurotransmitter systems separately. That’s new to me, and I think maybe to the field,” he said.

This research could be helpful for the development of new ALS treatments by potentially using the worms to test out new therapies, he noted.

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PAGE 4 • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Study aims to prevent intentional opioid overdoses among former prisoners Researchers study link between recently released prisoners’ higher risks of suicide, substance abuse

By EUGENE HRABARCHUK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A new $1 million grant was added to a $6.8 million study from 2015 attempting to determine intentionality of opioid overdoses in people recently released from prison. Former prisoners are at high risk for mental illness and drug relapse, making them highly susceptible to suicide, said Jennifer Johnson, professor of public health at Michigan State University.

The ongoing study aims to determine interventions to reduce suicide, Johnson said. If the research is effective, this would reduce 5 to 9 percent of all U.S. suicides, she said. “The goal with the new million-dollar project is to better inform emergency departments and emergency responders” of what kind of treatment may be effective, she said.

“This study was designed specifically to address suicide risk in individuals who were transitioning from jail detention back to their community,” said Lauren Weinstock, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior. “With additional funding, we can start looking a little bit more at how opioid addiction and drug addiction affects suicide behaviors.”

The study, which orginally intended to research suicide prevention for society in general, found that those at a higher risk were recently released prisoners, Johnson said. The study “shows how suicide and substance use co-occur in our population,” she added. More than half of incarcerated people have substance abuse problems, she said.

“Ten percent of all suicides with known causes occurred in the context of a recent criminal or legal stressor,” Johnson said. Studying people in jail “was a way to identify people at risk for suicide in the community … who are not in contact with formal treatment services.”

“Risk of death soon after discharge

from prison due to overdose is very high,” said Stephen Buka, professor of epidemiology.

However, the “proportion of the opioid overdose deaths that we’ve seen can be attributed to suicide rather than drug overdose,” Weinstock said. The researchers followed the former prisoners for up to a year after they were released and observed that many of them had considered using opioids for suicidal purposes, Weinstock said.

These “people have contemplated that (overdose) would appear accidental so that their loved ones wouldn’t necessarily know that they’ve committed suicide,” she added.

“There are people who get into drugs to self-medicate their problems,” said Josiah Rich, professor of medicine and epidemiology. “We see some folks who are suicidal because they feel they can’t recover from substance abuse.”

Further, many people go to the emergency department either from intentional or unintentional overdose, but they decline future treatment, Weinstock said. The researchers spoke to health care providers across the country who had seen overdose patients and found that these providers assumed the overdoses were accidental, Johnson said.

When someone is going through withdrawal from opioids, they are less likely to tell health care providers they were suicidal so that the hospital does not hold them, Rich said. Since people do not want to experience the symptoms of withdrawal, they do not seek further treatment, Johnson said.

But researchers are interested in finding more effective treatments. “It doesn’t surprise me that (the former prisoners) are candid with researchers (who) are all about the mental health needs of the ex-prisoners and are there in the context of help,” Buka said.

Researchers are also looking at intervention methods already being implemented in prisons.

Whereas European nations work to treat addiction in prisoners, the United States does not have a treatment plan, Rich said. “Rhode Island prisons are way ahead of the curve in providing treatment and counseling to those who

COURTESY OF MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Jennifer Johnson (pictured), professor of public health at Michigan State University, and Lauren Weinstock, associate professor psychiatry and human behavior, are leading a study researching suicide prevention methods. are addicted to opioids while they are consideration is minimizing access to said. “Now is the most dangerous time in prison,” Buka said. opioids as a means for someone hav- ever to use opioids because they are Access to opioids is extremely dan- ing access for an overdose,” she added. contaminated. When you relapse and gerous for someone who is at risk for Ninety percent of people who detox you’ve lost your tolerance, you’re set suicide, Johnson said. “One important from addiction end up relapsing, Rich up for an overdose,” he added.

Find Post- magazine on Facebook! facebook.com/postmagazinebdh

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018 • PAGE 5

»EXHIBIT, from page 1 which began in 2004, the exhibit comprises 12 quilts — an expanse of color and stitches. The quilt parses together scraps of old saris and textile from Kim’s clothing and houseware company, using improvisational quilting techniques from several generations of black American quilt-makers.

“Christina Kim has always been … very committed to sustainability and ethical practice,” Irvin said, adding that “Lessons from Jacob Lawrence” focused on “keeping some traditions that are beginning to fall away, alive,” she added.

In the Donghia Costumes and Textiles Study Center down the hall in the Museum, “Repair and Design Futures” continues with “Lost in the Museum,” an exhibit curated by Anna Rose Keefe, the costume and textiles department conservation assistant. “Lost in the Museum” displays a series of textiles and clothing pieces that were unlabeled and forgotten in the RISD Museum’s inventory boxes for years, rendering them inaccessible, Keefe explained.

Keefe pulled out every object that had no established provenance, comparing the physical objects to the inventory records. “Certainly the pieces that are there — they are kind of flashy, there is a lot of metallic thread, there’s a lot of embroidery techniques, things that are really distinctive,” she said. “I was able to do some research, identify the techniques, and then cross-reference” the inventory, she added.

This process is what grounds “Lost in the Museum” in the practice of creating

MARIANNA MCMURDOCK / HERALD

“Repair and Design Futures” highlights the theme of repair and renewal, both literally and metaphorically through pieces from the Rhode Island School of Design’s permanent collection as well as the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. objects, Keefe said. “All of the rectifiThe exhibition came together during forward, to conceptualize solutions, meant to be a space for interdisciplincations that I did were made possible the months following the 2016 presiden- because right now it feels like we have ary programs,” Irvin said, adding, “The by understanding how objects come tial election, Keefe said. “I do think in a lot of problems.” whole idea is that these are objects that together,” she said, emphasizing that a lot of ways people are sort of feeling A series of lectures, programs and will, I hope, touch on conversation that this exhibition is well-suited to RISD broken right now, and we are confront- workshops will accompany the exhibi- will lead to thought and practice in many students, who are inspired by pieces ing those feelings,” she said, adding, “I tion throughout the academic year. “It’s disciplines beyond the … apparel and like those displayed. think it’s good to think about a path also not just an exhibition — it’s really textile medium,” Irvin added.

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PAGE 6 • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Petey Greene curates prison reform discussion ‘Tales from Within’ panel discusses prison education reform, University’s involvement, allyship

By KAELA HINES CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A roar of applause erupted in Kassar Auditorium in response to panelist Andres Idarraga’s ’08 comment that Brown must “get its act together” in providing education to Rhode Island prisoners. Idarraga helped lead a discussion on prison reform during an event curated by the Petey Greene Program Monday night.

Idarraga and two of the other panelists at the event — Cherie Cruz GS and James Monteiro — work with the nonprofit Transcending Through Education Foundation, which provides scholarships and mentorship to prisoners obtaining college degrees.

» ECONOMY, from page 1 industry engagement, the Rhode Island Innovation Hub and commercializationfriendly policies and trainings.

The University’s umbrella program, the Innovation Economy initiative, utilizes Armstrong’s research on the role of universities on their regional economies to find useful models for the University’s place in Rhode Island. “I’ve studied a number of regions in the United States … that have recovered from economic decline and industrialization successfully” while some have had a tougher time, he said. From this work, Armstrong found examples of regions that were able to combat decline and adapt to changing industries, which provide a model for the University.

“What we thought was most important is not to try to replicate or copy someone else’s model,” Locke said, “but to develop our own by learning from the others what worked and what didn’t.”

The initiative invited guests from institutions like Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University and MIT to talk about their ideas and experiences, he added.

One of the five focuses of the strategic plan, Brown Venture Founders, is a program started by the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship. It is designed to

The group spoke about the power of education in transforming lives.

Michelle Jones, another panelist, serves as the chairwoman of Constructing our Future, an organization dedicated to securing economic stability for female prisoners in Indiana by giving them opportunities to work in construction. Jones discussed the importance of shelter for released female prisoners.

The panel also touched on the ways that allies can work with prison reform. Jones explained how stigmatized language can affect a person who has been incarcerated.

Terrence McTier, a graduate research assistant at Arizona State University, discussed his upcoming workshops, which center around language and are geared toward universities focused on allyship in prison reform. “Check your stigma, check your discrimination,” McTier said, echoing the need to erase the stigma

ex-prisoners face daily.

Spurred by Montiero’s acknowledgement of Brown faculty’s work with Adult Correctional Institutions, Professor of History Sarah Remensnyder talked about how Brown’s prison education committee has worked to offer institutionalized education at ACI. Various panelists discussed their educational journeys during and after imprisonment. Cruz spoke about her connection to Brown, where her father worked as a janitor for 10 years until he was fired for his jail record, as well as her and her brother’s past employment at the Sharpe Refectory and Verney-Woolley Dining Hall.

Cruz said attending Brown allowed her to work on prison reform “from the inside.” Monteiro, founder of the ReEntry Campus Program, discussed the school-to-prison pipeline that played out in his life, as he grew up on Hope Street without parental

motivate an individual or team graduating from the University “to commit to working on their startup by putting roots down here in Providence and launching and growing their startup here locally,” said Executive Director Daniel Warshay ’87 .

“Startups, when they become bigger, and even from the beginning, need to hire people, and they’re a source of job creation in this economy,” Warshay said.

“That’s what Rhode Island in general is trying to do, to attract employers to launch here, to move here, to be here, to grow here, and so it’s really important for us to support those efforts.” One way the University can do that is by encouraging student startups to stay and work in Rhode Island.

While it may not make sense for all companies to stay in the state since they may be serving a broader or different community, the first Venture Founders prize went to the student-created software company TextUp, which has chosen to stay in Rhode Island. “They’re getting a lot of attention from local resources besides us, and they’re putting down roots here, like we anticipated they would,” Warshay said.

Executive Director of Industry Engagement and Commercial Venturing Daniel Behr plays a major role in almost all of the initiatives set forth by the

University. Behr’s office “helps to move innovations that are coming out of the research labs into the real world,” he said, “so it’s a lab-to-market transition.”

Sections of the plan are not solely focused on the University and its students, but also on how to support R.I. citizens in becoming entrepreneurs and having increased job opportunities. The Rhode Island Innovation Hub tackles this goal. “The Innovation Hub is not intended to be a Brown initiative, it is a Rhode Island initiative,” Behr said. “We just want to create a space for startups and projects like that to be housed here locally,” he added.

The University is also working with other local universities and politicians to support the economy. Among the institutions the University is working with is Rhode Island College. President Christina Paxson P’19 and RIC President Frank Sanchez teamed up on the Anchor Institution Working Group, an initiative formed by Mayor Jorge Elorza to promote an innovation-based economy and review the Mayor’s Urban Innovation District Strategy, according to the strategic plan.

President Sanchez shares many of the University’s goals for Rhode Island’s economy. “Over 70 percent of our graduates stay in Rhode Island to live, work and raise their families. We are a powerful pipeline for the state’s economy,” he wrote in an email to The Herald. Sanchez added that RIC’s role is “to prepare more Rhode Islanders for tomorrow’s economy by developing comprehensive skills in written and oral communications, analytical thinking, team work and, just as importantly, being able to thrive in diverse settings,” he wrote.

Locke hopes that this initiative will encourage Brown students to be more involved and conscientious within their community. He hopes students will be “thinking about how they could translate the work that they’re doing into positive change in the local community” in various sectors and research programs, he said.

The initiative is a joint effort between Locke, his chief of staff Marisa Quinn, Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey, Assistant Vice President, Government and Community Relations Albert Dahlberg, Armstrong and Warshay.

PIA MILEAF-PATEL / HERALD

figures nearby during the height of the crack epidemic. He dropped out of school not because it was academically challenging for him, but because he “did not see what school could do for him” until his imprisonment, he said. “All you do in prison is read,” Monteiro said.

McTier talked about his experience working as a correction officer in a juvenile detention center, wherein the deterioration of young boys of color resonated with him. He talked about the complex dynamics of relating to the prisoners knowing “what it was like to be in chains, what it was like to be strip searched” while being viewed as a uniformed authority who handcuffed them. McTier went on to describe the stories of boys of color isolated in segregated units as well as the connections to students of color that he forged.

These stories of the panelists’ encounters with education sparked

a shared idea that curriculum in schools that primarily serve students of color should represent their students.

The panelists also focused on the barriers prisoners face with respect to access to higher education — including a lack of funding for educational programs, high expense of classes, censorship of educational materials, background checks and the “box” on an application that confirms if one was convicted of a crime. “Collateral consequences must end, or the logic for incarceration breaks down,” McTier said.“When do the chains come off?”

After the event, Gabriela Castillo ’18 reflected on these discriminatory actions, highlighting her realization of the harsh reality of the prison system and all of the barriers she had been unaware of. “The fact that (Petey Greene) wanted (the panel) there was powerful,” Castillo said.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018 • PAGE 7

NEWS

PAGE 8 • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Office of Sustainability’s twice-weekly tours spotlight U. initiatives Tours offer insight into U. green infrastructure, energy practices, sustainable food practices

By LI GOLDSTEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Students walking through 85 Waterman might be surprised to learn that the building uses recycled rainwater on a daily basis. That’s just one example of an environmental initiative of the University that the Office of Sustainability hopes to highlight through its weekly tours.

Every Tuesday and Wednesday, the office aims to show the Brown community, Providence residents and prospective students “sustainability efforts at Brown as well as to communicate ways in which they can make a difference and get involved,” Sustainability Programs Manager Erin Royal wrote in an email to The Herald.

The tour helps inform attendees about the University’s recent initiatives since many sustainability efforts on campus are not visible, said tour guide Devyn Collado ’20. “Being aXAble to learn about all the green infrastructure that goes on around campus and all the efficiency programs and what Brown is really doing to reach their net zero goals” is important, Collado said.

The tours are led by paid undergraduate interns at the Office of

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Sustainability tours start at 85 Waterman Street, which collects and recycles rainwater as part of its sustainability efforts.

Sustainability, and the tour program Environment and Society had been a formal tour that was publicized and conception, but tour guides are “conitself is led by Agnes Cheng ’20 and informally leading tours of a similar regularly updated,” she added. stantly making changes to the tour Nina Wolff Landau ’20 . Though the nature for many years along with a few Prospective students make up the to be able to provide the most infortours officially began fall 2017, a pro- students, Royal wrote. “We decided majority of attendees, however “every- mation,” Collado said. The content is fessor from the Institute at Brown for that it would be a good idea to create one is welcome,” Royal wrote. heavily influenced by the input of both Staff and faculty “want to know the student interns and feedback from about the campus that they work for, attendees, Nguyen said. and even current students outside of The content of tours also changes as the environmental studies want to the University provides updates on its learn how to get involved in environ- environmental sustainability, Collado mental causes or what goes on with said. For example, tour guides used to compost and sustainable food practic- reference a 24 percent reduction in es,” said tour guide Karena Nguyen ’19. greenhouse emissions since 2007, but The tour begins at 85 Waterman they recently learned that the statistic Street, which houses IBES as well as has improved to a 28 percent reducmany of the environmental science tion, Collado said. classes offered at the University, and While three people attend each makes stops at the Urban Environ- tour on average, there are “ongoing mental Lab, West House, Andrews efforts” to increase advertisement Commons and the Granoff Center. for the tour, Royal wrote. The tour is The Herald attended one such sus- currently only advertised through the tainability tour earlier this week. On Admission Office and Today@Brown, the tour, Collado and Nguyen pointed Nguyen said. out the multiple University buildings President Christina Paxson P’19 that are gold or silver certified in Lead- made a recent appearance at one of the ership in Energy and Environmental tours, Collado said. “We are kind of Design. The University currently re- bombarded with this green ethic here quires all new buildings to be at least at Brown consistently, so being able to LEED silver certified. see what Brown is actually doing, and The basic format of the tour has the fact that we had Christina Paxson remained largely the same since its last week, really shows that.”

TODAY

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018 • PAGE 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

menu

pay at t e n t i o n t o p r o n o u n s

SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Buffalo Chicken, Spicy 5 Cheese and Garlic, Italian Sausage Banh Mi Sandwiches JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Fish and Chips, Mac and Cheese Bacon Burger, Quesadilla Station

Chunky Beef Chili, Organic Lentil and Chickpea Soup

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Spiced Chicken Thigh with Golden Raisin Salad, Sushi Style Grain Bowl, Blondie Bars

Braised Beef Kebab Stew, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Apricot Balsamic Glazed Salmon

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Breaded Chicken Fingers, Soy Chik’n Nuggets, French Fried Potatoes, Blondie Bars

Sweet Tea Brined Fried Chicken, Cavatelli Primavera, Spicy Sweet Roasted Yams, Frosted Brownies

sudoku VICTORIA YIN / HERALD

A student volunteer braves the cold to pose proudly at their rainbow-colored stand on the Main Green in an effort to celebrate International Pronoun Day Oct. 17.

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

“Collateral consequences must end, or the logic for incarceration breaks down. ... When do the chains come

”

off?

RELEASE DATE– Friday, January 25, 2013

— Terrence McTier, graduate research assistant at Arizona State University

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c r o s s w o r d Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Fair share, maybe 5 Polite denial 11 Pro-__ 14 Arch type 15 Commensurate (with) 16 Soaked 17 Cry from a duped investor?

19 Brother 20 “I” strain?

21 Where to find Ducks and Penguins: Abbr.

22 Eyes 24 Cry just before dozing off?

28 Eschewed the backup group 31 Mrs. Gorbachev 32 Influence 33 Took in 37 Lab medium 38 Thinking out loud, in a way 40 Farm father 41 Anthem fortifications 43 Cupid’s boss 44 Free 45 Dog named for the bird it hunted, familiarly 46 Cry from a superfan?

50 Hose 51 Dig in 52 John, Paul and George, but not Ringo: Abbr.

55 Electees 56 Cry from a Jeddah native?

61 Iron __ 62 Troubled state 63 Vronsky’s lover, in Tolstoy 64 “Balderdash!”

65 Some aces 66 Kid DOWN 1 Clinton’s birthplace 2 Bug-eyed 3 Jay related to a peacock?

4 Casbah headgear 5 Had a little something 6 Frère de la mère 7 Dent, say 8 Big lug 9 Travel org. since 1902 10 “Captain Kangaroo” character who told knock-knock jokes 11 Really bad 12 Haggard of country music 13 Flight part 18 Ocean-bay connector 23 Someone to admire 24 Grouch 25 Sung approval?

26 Prison area 27 Bring on board 28 Injury reminder 29 ’70s Olympics name 30 Good earth 34 Pixie dust leaver, to Peter 35 Deco designer

36 Beloved 38 Uffizi hangings 39 Hubbub 42 Pays to play 43 Into a state of decline 45 Ocean borders 46 Patch plant 47 Rock’s __ Boingo 48 Start 49 One may follow a casing

See prison on page 6.

52 Trig function 53 XXX, at times 54 Three-handed game 57 Singer DiFranco 58 Bookmarked item nowadays 59 “Gloria in Excelsis __” 60 British rule in colonial India

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

xwordeditor@aol.com

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By Kurt Krauss (c)2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

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Matcha Cookie Sale 12:00 P.M. Main Green

Food on the Move Fruit and Vegetable Market 12:00 P.M. 121 S. Main St., 241

Health and Wellness Away from Home 2:00 P.M. Andrews House

Harmonic Motion and Brown’s Tones 5:30 P.M. MacMillan Hall

TOMORROW Swearer Center Open House Breakfast 9:30 A.M. 25 George St.

BrownConnect: Why Do Internships Matter?

10:00 A.M. MacMillan Hall

Slavery and Legacy Walking Tour 10:00 A.M. Ruth J. Simmons Quadrangle

Family Weekend Brunch Recital 10:15 A.M. Grant Recital Hall

COMMENTARY PAGE 10 • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

ProJo subscriptions would reiterate U. commitment to community To the Editor: I read with great interest your Oct. 10 editorial proposing that Brown support the local news effort and purchase subscriptions to the Providence Journal, making the newspaper available to all students, faculty and staff. As a Brown alum, a long-time Rhode Islander and the head of the Rhode Island Foundation (a philanthropic organization that aims to be a proactive civic leader dedicated to

meeting the needs of all Rhode Islanders), I believe this would advance Brown’s mission and, as you note, “lend credence to its self-image as a benevolent force for local economic and civic good.” Thank you for calling this out and being a champion of local news. This is an opportunity for Brown to further demonstrate a real commitment to the Rhode Island community.

Neil Steinberg ’75

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COMMENTARY FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018 • PAGE 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

City should prioritize low-income residents COLIN KENT-DAGGETT op-ed contributor In an Oct. 15 column, Andrew Friedman ’19 made a simplistic and offensively ahistorical argument for Edge College Hill II — the new luxury student housing development on Canal Street. Positioning himself opposite “multiple prominent local advocacy groups, two city councilors-elect and an incumbent city councilwoman,” Friedman suggested that the new tower is a pragmatic investment for the city because, in his words, “why have less money when you can have more?”

Friedman’s analysis doesn’t dredge much deeper than this facile line. In reality, debates about public investment in private real estate developments are worthy of more nuanced consideration beyond the city’s tax ledger, and a serious analysis of wealth and development in Providence illuminates why Edge College Hill II (and projects like it) are, in fact, “morally degenerate.”

Wealthy students who can afford to live in Edge College Hill should be the City of Providence’s lowest investment priority. The history of urban planning and development in Providence — and the United States as a whole — is one long story of promoting the comfort of the elite over the

most basic well-being and stability of low-income communities and communities of color. After World War II, these communities were pinballed by redlining, urban renewal, “slum clearance” and freeway construction — almost always in the name of the public good and all in the span of a single lifetime. Ignoring this history of segregation and displacement is more than naive; it is willfully and negligently ignorant. While one could argue that the City can invest in public and luxury housing, a brief histori-

programs.

The straightforward finances tell a similar story: According to the New York Times, the median family income of Brown’s student body was $204,000. In comparison, Providence’s median family income is $43,000. Housing is deemed affordable if it comprises no more than 30 percent of a family’s monthly income.

For a single person in Providence, affordable means rent no higher than $925 per month — significantly less than a $1,700 studio, $2,200 one-bed-

an income bracket that doesn’t need any more help? While Friedman argues that “students want a nice place to live that doesn’t break the bank,” Providence residents with objectively higher needs have been demanding the same thing for decades. If the anti-luxury argument were in need of a pithy reduction, it would be this: There is no better public investment than affordable housing.

It is also worth interrogating Friedman’s discussion of Direct Action for Rights and Equality. DARE

If the anti-luxury argument were in need of a pithy reduction, it would be this: There is no better public investment than affordable housing. cal survey shows that development in Providence has largely been a zerosum game. Time and again, desperate city and state officials have subsidized luxury condominiums, outof-state developers and failed private ventures while half of all Rhode Island renters are cost-burdened. In practice, public investment in a building like Edge College Hill has negated the possibility of a public housing project or a shelter — basic needs that have been systematically denied or physically destroyed in the communities most in need. In addition, the accompanying $19 million tax stabilization agreement means that the development does not contribute to public

room, $1,350 two-bedroom or $1,085 three-bedroom at 257 Thayer. (Prices were unavailable for Edge College Hill II.) For a Brown student, a median family income of $204,000 means that an apartment at 257 Thayer and a three-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan would be considered affordable. While I don’t pretend to know the financial circumstances of individual students (regardless of their economic background), developments like Edge College Hill cater to the wealthy on college campuses who don’t require state-subsidized housing more than the people of Providence. Why bother introducing “competitive new supply” to

has been fighting for the rights of poor and working class families, people of color, immigrants, women, youth and LGBTQ+ community members since 1986 and is in the midst of multiple campaigns for fair housing legislation.

But Friedman shrugs off the organization’s letter to city officials, citing the political and financial impracticality of rent control and affordable housing. While the city’s history of handouts to wealthy developers is “simply the going rate” of development, any challenge to regressive tax breaks is met with a shrug and a cry of “pragmatism.”

While I do credit Friedman for offering an unabashed defense of rich

students’ housing preferences, students would all benefit from heeding the words of local experts and elected officials. That isn’t to say Brown students should never contradict organizations like DARE, but we should give their claims more credit than Friedman’s. For Friedman — who, like most Brown students, will likely leave Providence after graduation this May — to dismiss DARE as “nearsighted” illustrates a worldview so small-minded as to be preemptively disqualifying from writing about local problems.

Ultimately, Friedman’s position is just another manifestation of a much larger problem. As detailed in my Sept. 24 article in the College Hill Independent, entire neighborhoods are being remade with the same deference to wealthy residents and their desired amenities. While the merits of Edge College Hill as a publicly subsidized luxury development could be debated endlessly, a more inclusive analysis of Providence real estate and the city’s long history of segregation and displacement under the guise of pragmatism takes the convenient shine off of Friedman’s slick math.

Colin Kent-Daggett ’19 can be reached at colin_kent-dagett@ brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

There’s hope yet for some of the NFL’s floundering franchises GEORGE KLEIN sports columnist We’re steadily nearing the halfway point of the NFL regular season, and the first part of the year has featured some surprisingly successful teams.

The Miami Dolphins currently stand with a 4-2 record, coming off a stirring victory against Khalil Mack and the Chicago Bears. The Kansas City Chiefs went from a solid, low-ceiling playoff team to an absolute juggernaut, boasting the league’s best offense. The Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens look ready to battle the Pittsburgh Steelers for the AFC North’s top spot all season long. But on the other side, some franchises that expected to compete this year might be in big trouble, namely the Atlanta Falcons (2-4), San Francisco 49ers (1-5) and New York Giants (1-5). Do any of these teams have hope for a turnaround?

The Falcons were supposed to contend again in the NFC South, fighting for position with the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers.

Unfortunately, their roster has been absolutely shredded by injuries. Atlanta lost Pro Bowl safety Keanu Neal and linebacker Deion Jones at the very beginning of the year — Neal to a knee injury and Jones to a foot injury. While Jones may return by season’s end, for now both remain on injured reserve. To make matters worse, safety Ricardo Allen tore his Achilles in late September, and he too is out for the season. There simply is not much talent left on the defensive side of the football for Atlanta, and the Falcons have struggled to stop anyone as a result. They’ve given up 32 points per game, the second-worst in

the entire league.

Atlanta must be saved by its offense, and I still do believe that the Falcons can resurrect their season. Fantasy owners may complain about wide receiver Julio Jones’ lack of touchdowns, but he’s on pace for over 1,800 receiving yards and gives rookie wide receiver Calvin Ridley lots of room to operate and succeed in.

Running back Devonta Freeman is headed to IR with groin surgery, but considering the state of the NFL — how pass-heavy the league is now

wild card spot at season’s end.

Speaking of those Giants, the situation in New York is looking rough. WR Odell Beckham Jr. has not shied away from vocalizing his issues with the team, and owner John Mara spoke out strongly in response, saying OBJ should do “a little less talking.” A lot of discussion concerning the franchise has centered on the decision to draft running back Saquon Barkley instead of a quarterback like Sam Darnold with the second overall pick. The argument goes that while Bark-

Some franchises that expected to compete this year might be in big trouble, namely the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants.

— the Falcons can still succeed on offense with Jones, Ridley and quarterback Matt Ryan. Lots of fans worried about Ryan’s health and ability after his struggles against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 1, but he looks as good as ever, on pace for 37 touchdowns and only five interceptions. The Falcons host the Giants this Monday night. A win will move them to 3-4, and they play the Redskins, Browns and Cowboys afterwards. Not exactly a fearsome bunch. If they can tighten up the defense only a modest degree, this team can still hang around and try to grab a

ley may be taking the league by storm and looking like the best running back in the game, his position’s value is miniscule compared to quarterback, meaning that Barkley can’t help the Giants in the way Darnold would have. And many of the Giants’ problems on offense do come from quarterback Eli Manning. The two-timeSuper Bowl Champion looks washed up, and can barely throw the ball 20 yards at this point.

However, how much could Darnold help if he had to spend his rookie season running for his life? Manning barely has any time to throw

the football; the Giants’ offensive line has been porous. New York could be in a far better position if it continues on with Barkley and Beckham, then either drafts a quarterback next year or finds one in free agency — and of course, shores up its line. With so much talent on offense, New York can’t be held in check forever.

So though they may not have any hope for this season, next year has potential for the Giants.

The 49ers face a lot of obstacles in their path back to respectability. The enthusiasm felt in San Francisco at the start of the season is gone thanks to Jimmy Garoppolo’s torn ACL. C.J. Beathard has done an admirable job of filling in, but Garoppolo is the face of the franchise, and the team must start back at square one next year.

Jimmy G will need time to recover his form on the field, and even longer to show signs of his sky-high potential. Add in running back Jerick McKinnon’s torn ACL and you’ve lost two key pieces on offense to disastrous injuries.

It’s really the worst case scenario for San Francisco, but there have been flashes of good news. Running back Matt Breida has rushed for a ridiculous 6.8 yards per carry thus far. If he stays healthy, Breida can be the future at running back for the 49ers. Tight end George Kittle is on pace for over 1,100 receiving yards and will be a real weapon for Garoppolo once he returns.

Yet in the end, it’s a rough year to be a 49er fan.

Hopefully the condition of the team looks a lot brighter in 2020.

George Klein ’20 can be reached at george_klein@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@ browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018