Friday, April 21st, 2023

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Remembering Prof. George Morgan

BY SOFIA BARNETT UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

George Morgan, an accomplished professor emerita at the University and a pioneer of Brown’s renowned open curriculum, died Feb. 4 at age 98.

Morgan, born in Vienna, Austria, is survived by his daughter Alexandra Morgan ’84, his grandchildren Benjamin and Madelin and his step-grandson Raymond. George Morgan, an Austrian Jew, fled Vienna at age 14, weeks before Kristallnacht. George Morgan went on to join the University as an applied mathematics professor in 1950.

During his time at Brown, George Morgan earned a reputation as an innovative, kind and trailblazing professor who introduced the idea of interdisciplinary study to a University that would come to be defined by the concept. His work inspired student and faculty leaders who advocated for a more flexible curriculum in the late 1960s.

Two of his students, Elliot Maxwell ’68 and Ira Magaziner ’69, successfully executed a Group Independent Study project that proved vital to breathing life into the celebrated open curriculum.

George Morgan was eventually named a “University professor” untethered to a singular department, according to a Brown Alumni Magazine article. He also made key contributions to fields beyond applied mathematics, including medicine, physics and hydraulic engineering, his daughter Alexandra Morgan said.

A 1970 article in The Herald put it sim-

Commission discusses project on Brown, I-195 land

the I-195 Redevelopment District.

BY RHEA RASQUINHA METRO EDITOR

ply: “In the beginning, there was George Morgan.”

Morgan’s courses, the article said, attempted to provide students with the “chance to integrate (their) understanding of the various intellectual disciplines and to establish meaningful relations among the diverse forms of human intellectual experience.”

“One year ago this spring,” the article reads, discussing the open curriculum’s implementation, “Brown University rec-

Representatives from developer CV properties presented their proposal for a project combining I-195 Redevelopment District parcels 14 and 15 and the adjacent University property at 198-200 Dyer St. at the I-195 Commission’s meeting Wednesday.

The proposal was first announced in an April 12 University press release, The Herald previously reported. “It‘s the very beginning of the process, but I think it’s something we should all feel pretty good about,” said Commission Chairman Marc Crisafulli.

parcels 14 and 15 are subject to I-195

Development plan zoning, which includes a building height limit of 130 feet and no parking minimum, according to Caroline Skuncik, executive director of

The adjacent land included in CV properties’ proposal is subject to city zoning, with a height limit of 100 feet and a potential 30-foot bonus if “public benefits” such as active ground uses, publicly accessible open space and structured parking are provided, Skuncik explained. The downtown city zoning area also has no parking minimum.

According to Skuncik, discussions have begun with the developer and the city regarding the review process, which would be overseen by both the Downtown Design Review Committee and the Commission.

The proposal, which was due in February, followed a request for proposals issued in early October. The proposal includes a purchase price of $600,000 for the two parcels, and CV properties is seeking a tax stabilization agreement, which has been granted to other projects in the district, said Alexandra phillips, vice president of development at CV properties. Though the proposal includes land currently owned by the

Community groups build Providence’s urban forest

METRO Local planting organizations, advocates aim to improve tree equity

BY JULIANNA CHANG STAFF WRITER

“Say, ‘Trees!’”

A group of 10 volunteers gathered around a freshly planted 3-foot-tall oak tree along a Mt. Hope street Saturday afternoon. After watching leaders from the providence Neighborhood planting program demonstrate how to plant the oak tree, the 10 volunteers posed for a quick photo, grabbed worn pairs of rubber gloves and set off to plant another 13 trees.

Saturday’s tree planting, led by pNpp Executive Director Cassie Tharinger, was the first of the season. According to Tharinger, pNpp is a community-led organization engaging local residents in planting and maintaining trees on city property to create a larger and more equitable urban forest. Each season, the organization — the city’s “largest force behind new tree plantings,” according to Alexander J. Elton, city forester and director of providence’s Forestry Division — hosts anywhere from 15 to 25

ARTS & CULTURE

‘Electric Hour’ hosts student musicians

plantings.

Since its founding, pNpp has planted over 14,000 street trees — around half of the city’s 27,000 street trees. The cost of each planting is split equally between the endowment and the city, Tharinger said.

When the city’s urban forest was first inventoried 15 years ago, Tharinger and other local organizations realized that low-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods of color have far fewer trees — a concept known as tree inequity, which results in elevated asthma rates and hotter temperatures in those areas.

“The fact that these communities have fewer trees, hotter summers, higher asthma rates and lower environmental privilege isn’t a coincidence — it’s the result of systemic disinvestment and racist policy, from ‘redlining policies’ that denied loans to those in ‘high-risk’ neighborhoods to ‘urban renewal’ projects that marked entire communities of color as ‘blighted’ and in need of clearance,” according to the pVD Tree plan’s “Mapping Tree Equity” Zine released in 2022.

Two years ago, pNpp formed a coalition with other local organizations — including Movement Education Out-

BY ISABEL HAHN STAFF WRITER

Every Monday evening this month, Brown students and members of the providence community have trickled into the Music Mansion at 88 Meeting St. to watch live performances by student musicians.

Dubbed “an artist showcase for busy people” by co-founder Chance Emerson ’23.5, the Electric Hour music series offers artists from Brown a casual platform to share their music with peers, all while donating the proceeds made from each event to local arts charities.

Monday’s Electric Hour show featured songs from a variety of genres performed by Leo Major ’24 and Gabriel Toth ’24.5, Spencer Barnett ’24 and the string band Cat Jones & The Rest of ’Em, led by Catherine Jones ’23.

Emerson and Karim Zohdy ’25 started organizing Electric Hour after coming across the Music Mansion, an old house on Meeting Street that had been converted into a concert venue. They aimed to make it a space for the

community members to congregate over a shared love for music and held the first Electric Hour show in March.

“One of the most difficult parts of starting out my music career was the initial step from on campus to off campus,” Emerson said. “I didn’t feel like there were many avenues to do that.”

“I wanted to use my platform and knowledge of how to put on shows, contract linguistics and my music network to spotlight artists I like and help the community that let me do what I love,” Emerson said.

Along with providing a stage for student musicians, Electric Hour donates to local charities by asking attendees to pay whatever they are able to. Supporting the Avenue Concept, a public art organization in Rhode Island, and community arts center AS220, Electric Hour has been able to donate the entirety of contributions made by attendees after receiving a grant from the Brown Arts Institute that covers the cost of booking space.

Morgan helped create U.’s interdisciplinary reputation, passed away in February

METRO

public comment includes mixed sentiments, suggestions for future

Events nurture shared love of music, create dialogue between musicians, audience

ELSA CHOI-HAUSMAN / HERALD Co-founder Chance Emerson ’23.5 said Electric Hour is as “an artist showcase for busy people” dedicated to showcasing student talent.

COURTESY OF ALEXANDRA MORGAN

Friends and family remembered Professor Emeritus George Morgan for his academic trailblazing and strong moral compass.

SEE MORGAN PAGE 5

SEE I-195 PAGE 8

Letter: Remembering John Owen Habib ’24

John Owen Habib, 21, died on April 11, 2023 following a fall while hiking in Morocco. He was pursuing one of his greatest passions — traveling and exploring the world. For John Owen, the world was a place of extraordinary wonder: The more he could meet, talk and learn from people, the richer his life was. He was an indefatigably curious, yet humble, force of nature.

John Owen was born on March 11, 2002 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the second child of Cressida Bainton-Habib and Khalil Habib and younger brother of Jordan. John Owen grew up in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, attended Quest Montessori Elementary and Middle School, and portsmouth Abbey School, where he was editor-in-chief of its student newspaper, The Beacon, and created its first online platform for newscasts, podcasts and other digital content. He co-founded the Mind and Market Club to serve his peers and engage them in discussions that fostered interest in business, economics and business psychology. At portsmouth Abbey, he also developed a love of classical Russian writers like Tolstoy, and literary visionaries including Dante and Milton. It was through literature that he first explored his own spirituality and was proudly involved in Catholic spiritual life and the Maronite church of Rhode Island. At the time of his passing, John Owen was a junior at Brown University studying Chinese, philosophy and Economics. He was a co-founder of the Brown private Equity Club, participated in the Brown Journal of philosophy, politics and Economics, the Brown/RISD Arab Society, the Economics De-

partmental Undergraduate Group and the chess club. The day after his accident, the family received word that John had been accepted into a prestigious summer banking internship program, the Barclays Financial Sponsors group in New York City.

In his brother Jordan’s words, “John Owen was joy and curiosity personified. He celebrated his friends, challenged and encouraged them to be better people; to dare more, try harder and treat themselves and others with grace and respect. He loved to laugh, was an exceptional chef, an extraordinary conversationalist and gave the most thoughtful gifts. He was never afraid of doing the impossible and challenged others to do the same. He was lucky enough to spend his 21st birthday with over 100 of his closest friends at Brown, which we have learned was just the tip of the iceberg.” John Owen was also a talented selftaught guitar player who was thrilled to have recently taken several guitar lessons with one of his favorite jazz fusion players, Alex Hutchings. Last summer, he was able to realize his dream of living and working in New York City.

John Owen held a singular talent to connect with people born in vastly different circumstances, from the deserts of Morocco and the lush hills of Lebanon, to the streets of China and the hallowed halls of Brown University. He walked through life humbly, actively seeking a shared human experience, befriending those in need, driven to improve their lives and know their stories. During his most recent trip to Morocco, he met a young boy who was desperate to start a

website, so John Owen offered to create it for him for free to help him realize his dreams. In a call to his father, he reflected on the randomness of life, the hope of those living in poverty and the stark difference between this boy and the circumstances of his own birth. “It’s on us,” he said, “to do better and be better.” And he did, founding the Island Time Company, a nonprofit clothing company whose proceeds are donated to the Bahamas Hurricane Restoration Fund.

Stories of John Owen’s impact on others have poured in from every corner. His family has learned about his contributions as treasurer of the Brown University Arab Society that stabilized the organization (and he drove an hour to deliver authentic Lebanese pastries for a World Cup match), to helping review the college essays of victims of the Syrian Civil War so they could access higher education. One friend wrote, “Two of my favorite qualities about John are that he was both caring and curious. John was one of the special few who are both, the perfect mix to make the world a better place.”

John’s magnetism, charm and love for his fellow human beings led people from all walks of life to readily share their lives with him. From taxi drivers to CEOs, they found John Owen engaging, and he found them endlessly interesting. Even animals gravitated toward John Owen, letting him befriend them and become their “animal whisperer.” He was deeply proud of his Lebanese heritage and his family connection to the Bahamas. He loved his summers in Amagansett, New York. For John Owen, it was all more history to

explore, more of the world to see and more people to know.

In a recent letter to his parents, president Christina paxson p’19 p’MD’20 wrote: “Your son led a truly remarkable life, and has left behind an extraordinary legacy. We know the measure of a person is most often found in the difference they make in people’s lives, and John Owen has certainly made a difference. From being involved in many Brown student organizations and activities, to his selfless passion to help others, John Owen was driven and passionate and a true inspiration to us all. His loss will be felt very deeply.”

For those of us left behind, when faced with a challenging decision, when we need courage to reach for the thing we most want, the hand we feel at our back will be John Owen, encouraging us to dare. Because life, after all, is short. And this is how his legacy lives on through us.

The blessings and love that John Owen left us will live forever. We will honor him with services on Monday, April 24 at noon at St. Mary’s, Western Avenue, Augusta, Maine, with burial to follow. John Owen often expressed the desire to establish a fund or foundation to help others have access to the opportunities that he had himself at Brown. We will establish that fund in his name. In lieu of flowers contributions can be made on the GoFundMe page: Fundraiser by Jordan Habib : Bring John Owen Home (gofundme.com).

Deborah Chiaravalloti is John Owen Habib’s aunt and can be reached at spikegeema@ gmail.com.

Editorial: Some advice for the class of 2027

Dear Class of 2027, Congratulations on your acceptance to Brown — we can’t wait to see you on campus! As you prepare to start your college adventure, it’s natural to have certain expectations about what college life will look like. But we want to set the record straight about the Brown experience, to give you a more realistic picture of what to expect in your next four years on College Hill. Here are a few things that we’d like to clear up:

The open curriculum doesn’t mean that we’re all here to spend four years taking finger painting classes Satisfactory/No Credit, which is what Brown calls pass/fail. It can be tempting to misuse the academic freedom at Brown only to take easy classes or ones in your intended concentration. But the open curriculum was designed to challenge you to leave your comfort zone and experiment with fields you may otherwise have never encountered. Shop classes that

sound outlandish to you — you will be surprised at how many of them end up in your schedule. And shop classes that seem challenging — you will be surprised at how well you rise to the occasion.

Some call Brown the “Happy Ivy,” but life on College Hill can’t always be sunshine and rainbows — even if the weather during A Day on College Hill always is. Sure, the Main Green looks like a photo from a brochure on some days. But there will also be days on campus with cloudy, 30-degree forecasts where everyone is buried in the stacks studying for midterms. At times, you might feel overwhelmed trying to juggle the stress of classes, friendships and extracurriculars, especially as a first-year acclimating to a new environment and lifestyle. It’s normal not to always feel blissfully happy, even at the “Happy Ivy.”

Brown has a reputation for ‘pot-smoking liberals.’ But while the politics of the student body are left-wing — and, for many, April 20 is a de

facto holiday — that doesn’t mean that there’s just one kind of Brunonian. There are so many kinds of people at Brown, many of whom don’t neatly fit the stereotypes you might be imagining. Just keep looking and you’ll find your people.

It doesn’t hurt to keep in mind that real-life college doesn’t always look like TV shows, movies and social media, where undergraduates are constantly surrounded by a posse of friends. Of course you will make life-long friendships at Brown, but you will also learn how to build your own schedule and be alone a lot of the time. Sometimes you’ll need to grab a meal when no one else is free, and sometimes you’ll need to ditch your friends to focus on a major assignment due the next day. So be comfortable eating at dining halls alone, working in the library stacks alone and going to the gym alone — we promise, no one is judging you.

With all of that cleared up, you’ll be more than ready to take on life at Brown in all of its

complicated glory come this fall. This advice is merely meant to help temper your expectations — allow you to walk through the Van Wickle Gates during orientation with an open mind. It’s best not to put too much pressure on yourself to have the perfect college experience. After all, no college is perfect — Brown is just pretty close.

Congratulations, again, and see you soon!

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board and aim to contribute informed opinions to campus debates while remaining mindful of the group’s past stances. The editorial page board and its views are separate from The Herald’s newsroom and the 133rd Editorial Board, which leads the paper. This editorial was written by the editorial page board’s editor Kate Waisel ’24 and members Yasmeen Gaber ’23, Tom Li ’26, Jackson McGough ’23, Alissa Simon ’25 and Yael Wellisch ’26.

Zazenkai with Rev./Dr. Masaki

METRO

House introduces bill promoting non-custodial sentencing for caregivers

Brown

BY MAHIN ASHFAQ SENIOR STAFF WRITER

When Jazzmin Andrade was incarcerated for the first time, she was separated from her eldest son, who was less than a year old at the time.

“My heart was broken, I was at the point where I wanted to give up on life,” Andrade said. “My baby on his first birthday was in a shelter. I’m sure that’s affected him.”

“I felt like our bond was broken when I got incarcerated,” she added. “He used to act out. ... Of course he did. … He was ripped from his mother.”

Eleven years later, Andrade was incarcerated again. She had three kids at the time, who were all separated from one another, and she still has not been reconnected with her youngest son, who was 2 years old at the time of separation.

On Feb. 17, a bill advocating for community-based, non-custodial sentencing for primary caregivers in Rhode Island was introduced in the state House of Representatives and referred to the Judiciary Committee. Rhode Island community members,

including Brown students and alumni, testified in support of the bill during an April 4 hearing.

According to the bill’s text, it would mandate non-custodial sentences when “the defendant is the parent of a child or infant or caregiver of an elderly, disabled or terminally ill family member whose well-being will be negatively affected by the parent’s or caregiver’s absence,” so long as the defendant does not pose an undue risk to the community.

“The carceral state is class-based,” said Adjunct Assistant professor of Health Services, policy and practice Bradley Brockmann ’76. “It disproportionately hits races but almost exclusively hits low-income individuals.”

Nearly one in 100 Rhode Island

children had an incarcerated parent in 2021, according to a 2022 factbook from Rhode Island KIDS COUNT. For Black children in Rhode Island, that number was closer to one in 20.

In previous semesters, Brockmann has taught pHp 1820: “Designing Education for Better prisoner and Community Health,” where students developed materials and testimonies supporting the bill that were a “direct result of needs expressed by the community,” Brockmann said.

“Incarceration is not going to solve those problems when the issue is a lack of resources,” said Breyanna Watson ’22, who worked with Brockmann through his class.

people are forced to “make choices

to survive that are based on poverty,” according to State Rep. Cherie Cruz ’09 MA’10 (D-pawtucket), one of the primary sponsors of the bill. “The community I represent, that is what we’re facing.”

“Putting people in confinement is not just impacting one individual but has really collateral consequences,” said Emily Ma ’21 MpH’23, who previously took the course with Brockmann.

Separation from a parent through imprisonment was found to be “more detrimental to a child’s well-being than divorce or the death of a parent,” according to a 2014 study.

According to Brockmann, “incarcerated women have a history of sexual, emotional and/or physical abuse that often started from childhood” that frequently manifests in the form of addiction and emotional issues. The vast majority of women who end up incarcerated “are there for relatively minor non-violent crimes,” he explained.

“If the goal of incarceration is to make communities safer, it’s having a counterproductive effect,” said Tyler Melwani ’24, who also took Brockmann’s class. Ma, Watson and Melwani all testified at the April 4 hearing for the bill.

By focusing on community-based solutions, supporters of the legislation also hope to “reduce the need to incarcerate,” Cruz said.

“The community response when

we talk about families and parents is overwhelming,” Cruz said. Organizations in support of the bill include Rhode Island KIDS COUNT and the American Civil Liberties Union of RI.

“The biggest opposition was the current judiciary,” she added.

Kathleen Kelly, the R.I. Supreme Court’s general counsel, wrote in testimony submitted to the Judiciary Committee that the legislation was “redundant” given existing policies. According to Kelly’s testimony, these judges already receive and consider “sentencing memos from defense counsel, letters from family and friends of the defendant and a pre-sentence report outlining the defendant’s family history, upbringings (and) current obligations,” among other records.

But Cruz said that these procedures are followed on a “subjective basis” and are “not a requirement.”

Kelly did not respond to a request for comment from The Herald at the time of publication.

The bill is currently being held for further study as the committee reviews testimony.

“If it comes back (from being held), I’m optimistic that it’ll be passed,” Cruz said.

“There’s a big potential for change,” Watson said.

Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity seeks to hire Title IX case manager

OIED

BY SOFIA BARNETT UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

This February, the University’s Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity began the search for a Title IX Case Manager, a new position within the Title IX Office. OIED has yet to make a hire from a national search, according to Title IX Coordinator Ebony Manning.

Manning emphasized that a top priority for the Title IX Case Manager will be to “respond to questions as appropriate (and) actively foster and maintain a climate that is supportive of Brown University community members.”

“We’ve asked campus partners to participate in the search committee (and) the candidates will participate in three rounds of interviews,” Manning said.

According to Vice president for Institutional Equity and Diversity Sylvia Carey-Butler, the new position emerged in light of a recent opening for OIED’s

administrative coordinator position.

“We had our administrative coordinator position in Title IX, and she took a position across the campus in another area,” she said. That administrative coordinator was responsible for overseeing Title IX casework.

“That was an absolutely wonderful time for us to think about, ‘What are the needs of the office that could support the work of Title IX?’”

Carey-Butler noted that the position’s development did not result from

an increase in Title IX cases, but rather the culmination of conversations regarding how OIED can best implement its goals on campus. Formalizing a case worker position, she explained, offered an opportunity for OIED to enhance the services it provides through the Title IX Office.

“It’s not new money,” she said. “It’s just reimagining the position.”

Manning explained that the case manager will “serve as one of several entry points at which community members

and guests of the University can report or seek information on … Title IX policies and procedures.”

“This person will work closely, on a case-by-case basis, with campus partners and the Title IX coordinator to develop and implement training programs and informational materials for faculty, staff and students,” she said.

The case manager will be a resource for the University community to understand the reporting and adjudication processes related to “equal opportunity, non-discrimination, Title IX and other related topics,” Manning added.

“The responsibilities in that role will be very similar to the Administrative Coordinator in helping our Title IX Coordinator with the intake process (and) helping to assist with education, which will expand our bandwidth because it’s also now a professional-level position,” she said — as opposed to the coordinator role’s previous setup as an hourly position.

“What it really does is give more support, and that person would come with some expertise” to supplement the department’s current work, Carey-Butler added.

“Everyone in OIED is excited about this addition to the team and the campus community,” Manning said.

In a statement to The Herald, members of the student organization End Sexual Violence at Brown wrote that “a case manager will be helpful for students looking to engage in the Title IX Office’s processes to fully understand all their options and the implications of each stage and step taken.”

Members of the group compared the role to that of “Sexual Harm Acute Response and Empowerment advocates” in BWell — with more of a focus on the “administrative end of things.”

“Students have had very positive relationships and outcomes working closely with SHARE advocates,” ESV’s statement said. “And more support of that kind is always very welcome and extremely needed.”

Members of ESV also expressed in the statement their desire that the University “channel more resources into survivor-specific support,” writing that the Title IX Office should take measures such as expanding the number of “trained (and) available advisors to assist students throughout processes.”

In addition to its charitable component, Electric Hour often includes an interactive artists’ panel after performances. Noting how in typical music shows audiences usually have a “limited series of responses” to emotionally-charged performances, Emerson said that he wanted to increase audience engagement.

He added that “some of the coolest interactions that have happened through this program have been the audience asking questions in response” to songs.

The panel-style format of the show also allows performers to share pieces of their creative processes and artistic backgrounds. At an attendee’s request, Toth showed Monday’s audience a string of seashells that he shook while playing the drums during his and Major’s improvised jazz set.

Electric Hour’s characteristic Q&A sessions and active audience participation add to its mission of providing a welcoming atmosphere for music lovers, according to Emerson and Zohdy.

“It’s a place where musicians are encouraged to play music they’ve just

come up with and things they’re (still) working on,” Zohdy said. “It encourages experimentation in that way.”

Jones, who performed the final act of Monday’s show with her band, appreciated the low-stakes environment at Electric Hour. “It offers a nice space for people who want to play and (those) whose music might not (necessarily) be their career path,” she said.

The most recent Electric Hour show was the first time Major and Toth had played on a stage together, and Major expressed gratitude at being able to showcase their collaboration.

“The big thing about the concert was (how it brought) all these people together,” he said. Inspired by Electric Hour, Major hopes to organize a series of “portable outdoor concerts” next semester to promote building connections with nature and the greater providence area.

Attendees said they enjoyed being able to celebrate their peers’ achievements and connect with others who are just as passionate about music. “It’s so cool that Chance has created this space because it’s really hard to find places to perform, especially if you’re an in-

dependent songwriter,” said Mia Humphrey ’25.

Stella Biase ’25.5 said she similarly enjoyed “getting all the information about where the songs are from,” whether it was an original piece or a cover.

Emerson and Zohdy plan to continue hosting Electric Hour moving forward, with more shows and larger events in the works for the fall semester.

“It’s cool to have a casual space like this,” Emerson said. “The process of songwriting can be really mystifying, but I think having the ability to ask people and artists questions is special too.”

addresses vacancy of administrative coordinator position with reimagined role

DANA RICHIE / HERALD

The case manager position was described as having an “elevated” level of responsibility compared to the administrative coordinator.

community members provide testimony, bill held for further study

JULIA GROSSMAN / HERALD

ELECTRIC HOUR FROM PAGE 1

According to Adjunct Assistant Professor Bradley Brockmann ’76, the carceral state “almost exclusively hits low-income individuals.”

How Mike Martin ’04 became men’s basketball’s winningest coach

for our current students.”

BY ABE WYETT STAFF WRITER

Despite falling short of qualifying for the Ivy League Tournament, Brown men’s basketball enjoyed a historic milestone this season: Head Coach Mike Martin ’04 became the winningest coach in Bears basketball history, breaking a 54-year-old record previously held by Stanley Ward, who coached from 1954 to 1969. Martin achieved this feat with a Feb. 11 victory over Cornell, notching his 134th win. Martin, who was named Ivy League Coach of the Year in 2019 after leading Bruno to a program-best 20 wins, currently holds a 135-153 career record.

Born in Agawam, Massachusetts, Martin attended Cathedral High School, where he was a standout basketball player, a member of their 1998 state championship squad and winner of the 2000 John Lahovich Award, given to the best high school basketball player in Western Massachusetts. In 2000, Brown recruited Martin to play under Glen Miller, to whom Martin credited much of his career.

“Without him, I (wouldn’t be) coaching here,” Martin said. “I wouldn’t have been a student at Brown. I wouldn’t have played here. I wouldn’t have met my wife.”

“The great lessons I was taught and all the great things I learned schematically from Coach Miller and his staff (and) the relationships with my coaches impact how I try to build relationships with our student-athletes,” he added. “The time spent with my best friends who were my teammates — I want to create those opportunities and those memories

Martin graduated from Brown with a degree in economics in 2004. During his senior season, he averaged 11.0 points per game on 42.5% shooting from behind the arc. Martin’s graduating class posted the winningest four years in Bruno’s basketball history, earning a 63-45 record and going 39-17 in Ivy League play. Martin’s 143 three-pointers made sits third in Bears history.

After graduating, Martin played professionally in Ireland for a year before becoming an assistant coach at penn.

In 2012, Brown hired Martin to take over as head coach. In his debut coaching season, he was named a finalist for the Joe B. Hall Award for best NCAA Division I first-year head coach.

Martin said that leading the same program he once played for provides extra motivation: “When it’s your alma mater, and you have all those relationships and you have all those memories, … it makes you that much hungrier to bring a championship to this program.”

Today, Martin coaches alongside former Amateur Athletic Union teammate T.J. Sorrentine.

According to Associate Head Coach Sorrentine, Martin’s playstyle “was tough, fiery, competitive — super competitive.”

“That’s the word that stands out the most, and you can see it when he coaches,” Sorrentine added. “He wants to win.”

For Sorrentine, becoming a coach seemed like a natural part of Martin’s career trajectory. “He always wanted to lead by example, but also wasn’t afraid to use his voice … and correct his teammates,” Sorrentine explained.

Martin is “very detailed, very smart,” he added. “We always joke around in the office that his memory is off the charts. He’ll recite a stat or

SINCE 1891

COURTESY OF CHIP DELORENZO / BROWN ATHLETICS

For Associate Head Coach T.J. Sorrentine, becoming a coach seemed like a natural part of Martin’s career trajectory. “He always wanted to lead by example, but also wasn’t afraid to use his voice,” Sorrentine said.

a play in a game from 10 years ago.”

Sorrentine described Martin’s loyalty as his most prominent trait. “I always know that he will have our back,” he said. “Family’s important to him, and that’s how he runs his program.”

As a coach, Martin has sought to foster a tight-knit environment. “This season, … we had a good balance of leadership coming from both the coaching staff and from within the team, and so that allowed us to have a really good winning culture,” said p axson Wojcik ’23, men’s basketball co-captain this past season.

On Dec. 2, Brown upset rival Bryant University with a 72-60 win. Before the game, Wojcik recalled that “Coach went around the locker room and looked at every guy, went down

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

133rd Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief Will Kubzansky

Managing Editors Katy Pickens

Alex Nadirashvili

Senior Editors Augustus Bayard

Caleb Lazar

Peter Swope

Kaitlyn Torres

Post- Magazine

Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Liu

News Metro Editors Emma Gardner

Rhea Rasquinha

Jacob Smollen

Julia Vaz

Science & Research Editor

Haley Sandlow

Senior Science & Research Editor

Gabriella Vulakh

Arts & Culture Editors

Aalia Jagwani

Finn Kirkpatrick

Rya Vallabhaneni

Sports Editor Linus Lawrence

University News Editors

Sofia Barnett

Charlie Clynes

Emily Faulhaber

Grace Holleb

Sam Levine

Neil Mehta

Haley Sandlow

Kathy Wang

Digital News Director of Technology

Swetabh Changkakoti

Opinions

Editorial Page Editor

Head Opinions Editor

Alissa Simon

Opinions Editors

Anika Bahl

Bliss Han

Melissa Liu

Jackson McGough

Multimedia

Illustration Chief

Ashley Choi

Photo Chiefs Elsa Choi-Hausman

Dana Richie

Photo Editors Mathieu Greco

Claire Diepenbrock

Lilly Nguyen

Kaiolena Tacazon

Social Media Chief Sahil Balani

Social Media Editors

Julian Beaudry

the line and gave a brief story in front of everyone to the time that he first saw the individual recruit in high school and realized that he wanted them to be a Brown Bear.”

During that game, Bruno “came out with a lot of emotion and played together,” Wojcik said.

Martin “encourages us to play with a lot of freedom and share the ball,” Aaron Cooley ’25 wrote in a message to The Herald. “When you can get that level of trust from your coach, it gives you confidence in yourself, something that can easily be lost throughout a season.”

“Once (players) know you love them and care about them … you can challenge them in a way that helps them be more confident in themself,” Martin said.

Sorrentine said that he knows Martin will “cherish” his recent accomplishment, but “knowing him and his competitiveness and who he is, (eventually) getting to the NCAA Tournament will be way more important than this honor.”

This season, Bruno fell short of their goal of making the Ivy League Tournament, losing to Yale in a game that would have guaranteed them a spot.

But this disappointing conclusion “doesn’t take away from the progress we made as a program,” Martin said. “I’m very much process-oriented, and I think that we took another step forward.”

Next season, Martin aims to bring Bruno to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1986.

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Co-workers, players reflect on coach’s career, loyalty to Brown, impact on team

ognized that George Morgan was right.”

In the months following his passing, The Herald spoke with several of George Morgan’s former students, friends and family members, who said he left behind both a transformative career that allowed students to pave new paths to success, but also a lasting memory of intimate personability, intellectual curiosity and warm acceptance of all.

Interdisciplinary studies and academic mentorship

In 1958, George Morgan proposed a course titled “Modes of Experience: Science, History, philosophy and the Arts” to University president Barnaby Keeney — one of the first “University Courses in Interdisciplinary Studies.” The courses offered students the chance to explore academics from different angles — creating the ethos that characterizes Brown today.

But the connections he drew impacted more than the University’s learning environment — they shaped lives, former students and colleagues said.

Janet Cooper Nelson, chaplain of the University and George Morgan’s longtime colleague, said he made students feel seen and valued.

Cooper Nelson said that for Kate Frank ’60, George Morgan was the “first person who made her feel like what she had to say was important.”

“He looked at her and said, ‘I don’t know if you understand just how important your ideas are, and I really want to hear more of them,’” she said.

“Kate said that no one had ever welcomed her in that way,” Cooper Nelson added.

Frank, who met George Morgan in her sophomore spring while interviewing for a spot in his class, said that his teaching convinced her she could succeed in math and unlocked a new way of viewing mathematical inquiry.

“I’ve never known someone with such a depth of listening,” she said. “I didn’t have to hide my serious side. And I developed ideas and had experiences, even with scientific material, that I would not have ordinarily engaged with because I had

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already decided that I couldn’t.”

Another student of George Morgan, Fred Marchant ’68, remembers going through the same selection process as Frank in order to earn a seat in one of his renowned classes.

“I really loved talking with him,” Marchant said. “I don’t remember what we said, but I remember it being a meaningful conversation …which I always found with George.”

Through George Morgan, Marchant was introduced to what it meant to be an interdisciplinary academic.

“Here was a man who was an applied mathematician, raising ethical questions about 20th-century literature and art, as well as philosophy and social sciences,” he said. “George conveyed over the course of a couple years that there were these profound human questions that didn’t fall neatly into disciplinary categories.”

That type of big-picture thinking later became a principle of Marchant’s life’s work as a teacher “across disciplines … in a variety of contexts,” he said, citing the interdisciplinary graduate program he was a part of while studying at the University of Chicago and his penchant for teaching English courses that incorporated history and philosophy.

Moral compass and core values

Marchant also shared that George Morgan’s teachings influenced the development of his own moral compass, recounting an experience he had as a lieu-

tenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1968.

“I was in a position on Okinawa to be sent to Vietnam,” he said. “And that was the same time as the My Lai Massacre … where 500 civilians were slaughtered. And the revelations of that came about and I said to myself ‘I’m not staying. I did not join to commit atrocities.’”

This led Marchant on a months-long journey that concluded with him becoming honorably discharged as a conscientious objector.

“Every step along the way,” Marchant said, “George Morgan was with me.”

“George Morgan had a more significant positive influence on Brown as an institution than any other professor in Brown’s history,” said Jeff Bercuvitz ’84, who similarly felt that George Morgan played a key role in shaping his values.

“professor Morgan was clear that at least a critical part of a university education is to humanize us — to help us feel, to connect, to make meaning, to grow as a person,” Bercuvitz explained. “And at the same time, do the essential and often dangerous work to create a more just, peaceful world.”

Family memories and unconditional love

According to Bercuvitz, who maintained a close relationship with Morgan and his wife, Barbara, post-graduation, “you can’t understand or appreciate George Morgan without understanding George and Barbara Morgan.”

Through George and Barbara Morgan’s relationship, Bercuvitz could see love as something gentle and unconditional.

Bercuvitz recounted George and Barbara Morgan scouting out their burial plots while still in good health. “They’re walking on Blackstone Boulevard — they were big walkers, they knew everyone in the neighborhood those days — and they lay down together, holding hands and looking up to try and imagine their perspective from their graves,” he said.

“After Barbara passed (in 2009), George was never really able to experience quite the same level of joy,” Bercuvitz added. “It showed me what it meant to really love your partner.”

Bercuvitz noted that the Morgans’ relationship also reached George Morgan’s students: “They always had people over in their home, and we would have these amazing conversations,” he said. “And it really meant something to those generations of students … (who) came out only to George and Barbara as gay and lesbian, and found some of the only people on campus who could affirm them as who they were.”

Alexandra Morgan told The Herald that her childhood was framed by these close relationships her family developed with Brown students. Born an only child, she remembers her father’s students as “these big brothers and big sisters.”

Alexandra Morgan was grateful her parents “never excluded” her from those lively environments: Years of “grownup talk” taught her “academic concepts and the ideas and names of authors and thinkers.”

Alexandra Morgan recalled her father often playing the grand piano during these gatherings. “I would come in with my blankets and pillows and curl up under the piano to listen as they spoke,” she shared. “If my mother told me I really had to go up and go to bed, I’d sometimes sneak back down and sit on the landing next to the living room so I could still hear their music and their voices.”

She remembered her father as a wonderful piano player, a thoughtful art consumer and an endearingly hapless chef: She didn’t realize her father “couldn’t cook until after my mother died because he was always in the kitchen, helping her.”

Advocacy and ‘doing the right thing’

After a meal, Alexandra Morgan remembers how her father would always accompany her mother to the kitchen, arms stacked with dishes, while the rest of the men sat in the living room, drinking and smoking cigars.

“people would say ‘no, no, no, that’s okay, the women will do it,’ and he said, ‘I ate the food off of these plates. Why shouldn’t I help?’”

Alexandra Morgan also recalled her father joining in on various forms of student advocacy during his time on campus.

One day in the early 1960s, University students were rallying to take a bus to march with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement.

Alexandra Morgan said that several of her father’s students planned to join in on the protests, but that it was shaping up to be “a very dangerous march.”

While George Morgan was unable to attend the march, he was there to see his students off at 3 a.m. “They were just so shocked,” Alexandra Morgan said. “And my father shook hands with his students and said, ‘You’re doing the right thing.’”

Today, George Morgan’s legacy is carried on by dozens of former students, friends and colleagues. Through weekly Zoom meetings, affectionately referred to as “Morgan Salons,” the group — self-labeled “Morganizers” — ensure that George Morgan’s legacy endures through discussions of life, poetry and memories of the man who brought them all together.

Bercuvitz urged students to contact Cooper Nelson if they wish to learn more about George Morgan and connect with a wide alumni network “of the Morgan community.”

professor Morgan certainly had a greater influence on my thinking and my life than any other person,” said Bercuvitz, who noted that at Morgan’s 95th birthday celebration — a gathering of almost 100 people — dozens of attendees echoed the same sentiment.

“He changed not only the lives of a lot of individuals,” Bercuvitz said, “but many of George’s students went forward to create or transform fields of their own and have made meaningful differences in the lives of thousands of others.”

Bill aims to create $50 million revolving housing fund in Rhode Island

First-in-the-nation state-level fund would be used to create mixed-income housing

BY ABIGAIL DONOVAN STAFF WRITER

On March 17, State Rep. June Speakman (D-Bristol) introduced a bill in the Rhode Island House of Representatives that would create a $50 million revolving fund for the construction of mixed-income public housing.

“The purpose of the bill is to provide a large standing funding stream for housing production,” Speakman said.

The bill has not yet been heard in committee.

Rather than dedicating the proposed fund exclusively to low-income housing, a mixed-income format will allow the fund to regenerate over time.

“You could charge market-rate rents for some of the units and then below-market rents for the families that can’t afford market rents,” Speak-

man explained. This would allow the higher-rent units to indirectly funnel money back into the fund as developers pay off loans from the fund, making it revolving.

Speakman noted that, while the United States faces a national housing crisis, Rhode Island has had the lowest housing unit production per capita of any state in recent years.

Daniel Denvir, co-chair of the progressive advocacy group Reclaim R.I., explained that low-income residents are left with few options when it comes to housing.

“For us, it’s pretty clear that the for-profit private sector has failed

to solve this housing crisis,” he said. Denvir noted that although nonprofits help provide housing, they rely on often-limited tax credits to do so.

In the past year, Reclaim R.I. has been focused on housing justice and supporting a revolving housing fund in the Ocean State, Denvir said. Denvir cited the group’s “experience organizing some of the poorest working-class tenants in the state.” The group has previously supported legislation allowing the state to directly fund the development of housing.

For Denvir, this bill “is part of a nationwide push for public developers and for social housing.”

The biggest barrier to producing low-income housing is funding, explained p aul Williams, founder and executive director of the Center for p ublic Enterprise, a nonprofit that works with stakeholders to support successful public goods programs, according to its website.

Construction requires expensive loans, which developers traditionally expect to pay back by charging market-rate rent.

“The issue that affordable housing faces is that the rents that are affordable to low-income people that we want to serve are not high enough to cover the cost of building,” Williams said.

To cover the costs of construction, mixed-income housing offers part of the solution. But, according to Williams, a revolving fund can cut costs further by providing a no-interest loan option to developers. That option, he said, would replace the high-interest loans developers are often forced to take for a portion of their funding and provide an incentive for builders to invest in mixed-income housing.

To explain the “innovative” character of the revolving fund, Williams referenced the housing model used

by Montgomery County, Maryland, a revolving pool for loans that “allowed Montgomery County to really ramp up its development.”

Speakman also highlighted the Montgomery County model as an influence for the proposed bill. “The revolving fund would allow developers, either state-owned public housing authorities or nonprofits, to pull money out of the fund and then replenish the fund with the rents from the units that they’re building,” she said.

Although similar funds have been established at the county level, no state has done so yet.

While the bill is still in the early stages, Speakman said she is optimistic about the support it has received from community members.

Speakman emphasized that putting money into public housing should be a priority. While public money is readily used for education, nutrition and healthcare, public housing is often seen as more controversial.

“For some reason, we really hesitate to put public money into housing,” she said. “In my view, housing is a fundamental human need from which many of these other needs sprang.”

EMILY SUONG / HERALD

COURTESY OF ALEXANDRA MORGAN

Professor Emeritus George Morgan fled Vienna, Austria at age 14 to come to the United States and became a university professor in 1950.

looking back to move forward

by audrey wijono

illustrated by Lucid Clairvoyant IG: @l.u.cid

One year, my mother committed herself to scrapbooking my oma’s life. For weeks, she scoured the depths of old boxes and dusty albums, until she’d found records of every pivotal moment of my oma that she could. Sepia, water-stained photos adorned the pages, accompanied by careful captions, dates.

When presented with the gift, my oma pointed at her own wedding photo—at herself, in that charming white gown—and asked who the lovely woman was.

In some ways, I envied it. We age our entire lives, grow bigger, wiser, stronger—and then, inevitably, we return to infantility. Returning, finally, to that peace known only in youth.

Often, I crave that innocence, but the trade-off is too much to bear.

* During one dementia-fueled haze, my greatgrandmother started speaking to us in Dutch.

It had been well over seventy years since the Dutch occupation. Indonesian had been her everyday language for decades. But as my oma inched past 90, the Dutch words rolled off her tongue. Foreign, but ingrained.

in pursuit of awe

a list of wonderful things

by MAck Ford

To wonder is to admire the inexplicable, to notice a rare delight; it is to allow one’s curiosity to take a meander and prod at something surprising. Lately, I have begun to collect small moments of wonder. I pluck them from this soft world as if I was born to do it—to look and listen and be filled with light.

On the corner of the street I love is a tree, beside which is a small tuft of grass. It sprouted from a sliver in the concrete, and now it overflows from that small patch of dirt. It is insistent on its own existence. It’s a prideful little bush, shockingly green even when most other plants have gone gray with cold. Some days a snail can be found in the small mossy patch, sheltered by the weeds. I have named him Terrace, and I am quite fond of him.

It is a practice that must be learned, to notice things which are awe-inspiring. Some come naturally, the sorts of wonders which our minds are primed to soak up like a great ocean sponge.

As in, someone places a baby in my arms. She is warm and heavier than she looks. She is blinking up at me with those enormous eyes. When the initial nerves subside, and it is clear that the child is not going to leap from my arms or burst into tears, my mind wraps around the baby ...

Unable to engage, my family simply let the episode pass.

Modern medicine is one of life’s greatest blessings. I have no doubt that, without it, natural selection would have weeded my family out long, long ago. Knobby knees, the worst spines, a myriad of cancers—but, of everything that runs in my family, whatever brought on my oma’s dementia is certainly the worst.

Aging is cruel enough in good health. To love, be loved, to lose. To grieve yourself before you are even gone. Crueler, though, is to lose yourself, and not even realize.

In her last days, my oma did not know how to love; she had forgotten everything she needed to know to be able to. Names, feelings, words. Still, we stroked her hair, washed her back, and watched her fall apart before us, whispering gibberish, speaking in tongues. We loved her so dearly—and she could not know it or return it, seeing us only as strangers.

I don’t think her dementia was ever explained to me. Would it have hurt less if it was? If I understood why she had forgotten me, after all the love she’d shown me?

I grieved her with every breath she took.

*

I cannot bear the thought of forgetting. ...

“You notice the changing of the seasons, the dissipation of the morning mist and the couple walking hand in hand down the street. You take it all in as if those were versions of yourself.”

“I am thrust into my own indie film, the kind that my mom hates because there’s no obvious happy ending but I love because, mom, it’s just good art.”

a river flowing endlessly

running over pebbles, stones, boulders

by Ellie Barksdale

1. The tiny European car parked outside the window of Babu’s cafe in Zürich has a few droplets of water on the rear windshield. The people come and go around me, on and off like the intermittent rain. They move, and I sit. A few of them are coming into the cafe, maybe even to sit by the window with me. Regardless, they’re on the move. Me? I have nowhere to be. I could stay here all day if they’d let me. I’m merely existing, completely untethered to anybody or anything in this city. It’s exhilarating and terrifying. And lonely. It’s the perfect amount of rain for forming those disconcertingly large rain droplets that stick to the empty tables and chairs outside but never coalesce.

2. I wonder how many people think that water is blue. I wonder why I can’t not think that water is blue, despite the fact that I know it absorbs color from elsewhere. Do we all do that? Start with a blank slate, colorless, and construct an identity from there?

3. My electric kettle has a blue light on the bottom to convince me that the rolling boil it produces is neon blue as opposed to the unappealing colorlessness reflected by the outer surface of the gray machine. ...

—Julia Vaz, “You’ve Got Mail”

—Kaitlan Bui, “By Ourselves, with Each Other” 4.2.21

chappell roan – ear-candy for the soul

music for dreamers, lovers, and feelers

by Alaire Kanes

I’m on the car ride home with my best friends. We’re piled in, with five in the middle seat and two curled up in the trunk. Don’t tell my mom! The sun roof is open, the windows are down, and the velvety summer air is funneling through our hair, blonde and brown and black waves weaving into each other. I can feel Isla’s hair fluttering on my ears, and her arms are squeezed next to mine. In that moment, I’m reminded of the many levels of connection she and I are making—physical, emotional, and something that feels almost spiritual. We’re driving down windy roads, and we’re practically levitating, we’re so full of glee. This is the kind of moment I will remember forever. It’s inexplicable, really. The depth of friendship created by young women in their early 20s is a force to be reckoned with.

Ella makes a left turn, onto the street we’ve driven down a million times, and the song changes. A beautiful piano scale begins to play, and seconds later, I hear the voice of teenage girlhood in Chappell Roan’s rich, haunting cadence.

“I know you wanted me to stay, but I can’t

ignore the crazy visions of me in L.A.”

It’s as if time stops. We all freeze. No one’s singing, or laughing anymore.

“Who is this? What song is this?” someone whispers.

“Chappelle Roan, ‘Pink Pony Club,’” Ella whispers back. “I just found the song this morning on Spotify.”

Ella makes a right, and we’re by the beach now. There is so much love flowing through this vehicle. The darkness is so thick, but the moon is so bright that I can see the magnitude of life’s possibilities in front of me and all of a sudden Roan is belting “God, what have you done! / You’re a pink pony girl, / and you dance at the club/ Oh mama.”

The synth pulses. The electric guitar wails, glorious. Roan sings, and we sit, in silence, as the wind passes through the windows and the houses in our small suburban town pass by in a blur. I’m in the middle seat, feeling the allure of the sirenesque voice I hear. Amber’s hand is out the window, floating in the warm breeze. Isla is basking in the sheer sonic beauty ...

romanticization and its consequences

corecore, matcha lattes, and the salt circle around reality

by Eleanor Dushin

I sat in my dorm’s communal kitchen painting my friend’s nails. It was mid-first semester and the heat hadn’t turned on yet, so it was uncomfortable to wear anything less than a sweatshirt. Every time I finished a nail, my friend would lift his hand close to his eyes to examine the quality of my application, then, once satisfied, continue scrolling on TikTok with his fingers fanned out in fear of smearing nail polish across the screen. Between his fingers I caught glimpses of random clips and the words “#fyp #corecore #nichetok.” Piano music and the ambient sounds of Beach House and Aphex Twin reverberated through the tiled walls.

Over the last five years, adding -core to words has gained popularity to denote a certain style or aesthetic. Cottagecore, fairycore, glitchcore, and a bottomless pit of other -cores provide niche descriptions of clothing, music, and Pinterest photos. Out of the fire of -cores rose a phoenix: corecore. ...

1. Lorde released Pure Heroine

2. Birth of Vine

3. Alice met Taylor Swift

4. The Red Wedding

5. Teen dystopias & Twilight

6. Sam Nevins’ Bar Mitzvah (Mazel Tov!)

7. “I got my ticket for the long way round”

8. Dumb Ways to Die

9. Grand Theft Auto V

10. Mustaches Everything

LIFESTYLE

spring swing

post- mini crossword 10

by AJ WU

the society man an analysis of the old

money style

by sean toomey

From the days of the broad-shouldered financiers who peddled an English drape to the dependable flannels of the power suit, Ivy League campuses have always been hotbeds of the styles associated with the upper class. Originating in Princeton and Yale (sorry guys—we can’t take credit for this one), high society fashion has managed to sneak its way into every decade since the height of its popularity in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Somehow, we forget all about it just in time for the next Nantucket Red-clad man to start the whole damn cycle over again. Here I will be focusing on the newest iteration of the preppy look—the old money style.

Its legacy originates in the collegiate look of the 1930s, which evolved into the Ivy look of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Ralph Lauren carried the style in the ‘80s into the business casual look of the nineties. Think navy blazers with gold buttons, cricket sweaters, gray flannel trousers, Oxford shirting with button down collars, bass weejun penny loafers, and lots and lots of tweed—all of which are style points that have been consistent in every decade of the style.

Even with this legacy, now is a strange time for prep to reemerge. ...

“I just get the aesthetic, not so much the science.”

doors, Youth in Action and the parks Department Forestry Division — to begin work on the pVD Tree plan. According to Jordan Schmolka, the pVD Tree plan co-coordinator at pNpp, the pVD Tree plan is a “community-led planning process to establish a vision and roadmap for achieving tree equity in providence and building an urban forest that is really robust and resilient.”

The pVD Tree plan, tentatively set for release in June according to Elton and Schmolka, will include recommendations, goals and initiatives created by a steering committee of urban forestry professionals, members of local organizations and community representatives from low-canopy areas. The plan’s primary goal is to achieve a “tree equity score” of at least 80 trees in every neighborhood in 10 years. Reaching that goal would require over 30,000 new trees, Elton said — a goal that will require pNpp to begin planting on private property.

Tree equity scores are calculated by American Forests’s Tree Equity Score Analyzer and evaluate tree canopy, demographics, surface temperatures, income and health, among other factors. While the areas surrounding Brown have equity scores ranging from 88 to 100 — with 100 representing the ideal — some neighborhoods on the city’s south side have scores in the 60s.

Since 2022, the steering committee has conducted surveys and outreach to collect opinions on providence’s urban forest. For Dwayne Keys, the volunteer chairperson of the South providence

Neighborhood Association, South providence’s low tree equity score was not surprising. “When this information was presented to the neighborhood, … it aded to our already existing feelings and challenges of inequity on the south side,” Keys said.

The plan, Schmolka said, emphasizes urban forestry in “communities that have historically been excluded from experiencing the benefits of the urban forest, particularly neighborhoods of color that have been redlined and experienced decades of neglect and disinvestment.”

“No matter where you live in a city, you should be able to enjoy the benefits that trees provide,” Tharinger said.

Street trees offer wide-ranging benefits, according to the Tree Equity Maps Zine. In addition to reducing carbon emissions, trees provide shade and cool their surroundings. Neighborhoods in providence with fewer trees can see temperatures of up to 20º F higher than their shadier counterparts, Schmolka said.

Higher concentrations of trees also improve mental health, according to Elton. Trees also increase property value by making neighborhoods cooler and more pleasant, Schmolka noted.

But increases in property value aren’t always welcome. One of the main concerns surrounding the pVD Tree plan, according to Schmolka, is the possibility of “creating a highway for gentrifiers.”

“A really critical part of this work is accompanying it with really strong anti-displacement strategies and policies and making sure that at all levels, the work of urban forestry is communi-

square feet dedicated to commercial uses, he added.

ty-controlled on a neighborhood level,” Schmolka said.

One of the main pillars of both the pVD Tree plan and pNpp, Tharinger said, is community engagement when “deciding where they want to plant trees.”

“If someone doesn’t want a tree in front of their house, then it’s not going to survive,” she said.

Many pNpp tree plantings, like Saturday’s, come from requests: Residents can ask for trees to be planted in front of their houses or in their neighborhoods. Others are organized through school and organizational events, Tharinger said.

And not everyone has the time or

money to take care of a tree — even if they need or want one, Schmolka said.

“part of what the pVD Tree plan steering committee is focusing on and discussing is providing avenues for people that don’t have the resources … to care for the trees,” Elton said.

While many South providence residents support the Tree plan, Keys noted that very few have the time or energy to devote to achieving tree equity. “The issue is that there are so many other things that are priorities to the neighborhood,” Keys said. “It’s hard to have a conversation about tree equity when we’re having a conversation about peo-

ple trying to stay in the neighborhood.”

To alleviate residents’ concerns and ensure that newly planted trees are properly cared for, the plan will contain multiple recommendations on developing the forestry workforce — everywhere from local tree watering to city urban foresters, according to Schmolka. Maintaining trees “is work, and that work deserves compensation,” she said.

“We’re excited about the Tree plan and about sharing it with the community,” Elton said. “We’re optimistic that it will be embraced throughout the community, but it’s going to be decades of work.”

University, the full development will be commercialized and added to the tax roll, she added.

The next steps in the selection process include the presentation of a financial analysis by RES Group and an urban design analysis by consultancy Utile at the May Commission meeting, along with fielding further public comment, Skuncik said.

After these hearings, the Commission “will vote on whether to select (CV properties) … for the parcel and then a purchase and sale agreement will be drafted,” wrote Cara Cromwell, a spokesperson for the Commission, in an email to The Herald.

phillips and Al Spagnolo, chairman of the architecture firm SGA, presented the proposal at the meeting. Chris Maury, Rhode Island senior regional director at Shawmut Design and Construction, along with the University’s Executive Vice president for planning and policy Russell Carey ’91 MA’06 and Vice President of Real Estate and Strategic Initiatives John Luipold EMBA’13, were also present.

“We’re very excited about the collaboration with Brown to create a fully commercial project,” phillips said.

phase One of the development will include a residential building close to the river, and the full master plan includes two additional buildings to support research and commercial uses, Spagnolo added. The residential building complies with all as-of-right limits, including resiliency requirements with an elevated platform around the base of the building. phase One would not affect existing Brown properties.

According to Spagnolo, the planned 11-story structure currently calls for 149 residential units, with 10% dedicated to workforce housing. “There is a nice mix of apartments here” that meets providence’s market demands, ranging from studios to three-bedrooms, along with about 8,000

CV properties is also planning to build underground parking in this phase and future phases, Spagnolo said. Additional public benefits provided by the project include improvements to the pedestrian experience and a mix of ground and upper-level floor uses, he added.

Spagnolo emphasized the importance of the area between the three proposed buildings in the master plan, which provides space for community programming and functions as a transition to the park.

At the meeting, Carey said that the University’s “interest in this is to further improve opportunities for economic activity in the city” through a project that adds jobs, increases tax revenue and supports neighborhood density.

CV properties’ presentation was followed by public comments. Sharon Steele, president of the Jewelry District Association, shared remarks on behalf of architect Lorenzo Apicella.

Steele noted that several Jewelry District developments have empty spaces within their first floors and emphasized preventing that in this project. The JDA also hopes to discuss reducing building height from 130 feet to 100 feet and potentially setting back the top floors to “lighten the presence over the adjacent park and river,” she added.

In spite of these concerns, “we are extraordinarily excited about this project,” Steele said.

Mike Lusi, a landscape architect and resident of the Greater providence area, praised some of CV properties’ previous projects in the city — such as River House — but still expressed concerns about the proposal.

Lusi questioned the fact that specifics on the materials for the project have not yet been presented: “There’s no differentiation (in material) from the first floor to the last … it breaks a lot of the rules, architecturally, that make providence wonderful.”

Written comments from the public on the proposed design can be submitted until April 26.

Skuncik also gave an update on projects in the larger district. There are two upcoming groundbreakings in parcel 3 and parcel 9, and the Commission is working with the respective teams on design and due diligence in parcels 2 and 8/8a, she said.

Now that the parcel previously reserved for the Fane Tower is open again, the Commission is “thinking about potentially re-orienting the (parcel’s) lot lines … to maximize the flexibility of that site for future development,” Skuncik explained.

For the remaining parcels, the Commission has recently engaged HR&A Advisors — an economic development and planning firm — to help develop a strategy to achieve the I-195 Innovation District’s goals, Skuncik said. According to Skuncik, work is also underway in the Innovation District park on upgrades to electrical infrastructure on the East Side and the River Walk.

ELSA CHOI-HAUSMAN / HERALD

In addition to reducing carbon emissions, trees provide shade and cool surroundings for pedestrians, one of the many benefits of street trees, which advocates say are distributed inequitably through

Providence.

VICTORIA YIN / HERALD

CV Properties could exceed Providence’s 100-foot height limit by 30 feet if they meet certain “public benefits” requirements.

I-195