Friday, February 1, 2019

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2019

VOLUME CLIII, ISSUE 7

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Paxson addresses proposed Title IX regulations U. announces plan to offset

all campus electricity use

Federal Title IX changes clash with U. processes, Paxson concurs with AAU recommendations

Initiative to create solar power facility in North Kingstown, wind power facility in Texas

By SPENCER SCHULTZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER

President Christina Paxson P ’19 submitted a public comment to the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of the University to recommend changes to the Department’s proposed Title IX regulations, according to a community-wide email sent by Paxson Jan. 29.

Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972, “prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program or activity that receives federal funding.”

In the email, Paxson wrote that the University supports three recommendations issued by the Association of American Universities Jan. 24 — namely, requests that the DOE “remove requirements that institutions permit

By DANIEL GOLDBERG SENIOR STAFF WRITER

SUMMER ZHANG

live cross-examination and appoint aligned advisors,” who may be professional attorneys. The third endorsed recommendation involves “remov(ing) the requirement that universities apply the same standard of evidence and process across all disciplinary processes.”

U.-affliated residency program accused of violating federal act Use of live pigs in research breaches Animal Welfare Act, advocacy group alleges

By CATE RYAN SCIENCE AND RESEARCH EDITOR

An advocacy group has accused the University of violating federal regulations by using live pigs in its affiliated residency program for emergency medicine, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine called for federal regulators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to look into animal use at the Warren Alpert Medical School and Rhode Island Hospital. The PCRM is composed of physicians, dieticians and scientists advocating against animal use in scientific research and in favor of plant-based diets.

The residency program is based at Rhode Island Hospital, and the attending physicians who mentor and train residents are University faculty. The University and Rhode Island Hospital have issued a joint statement that denies any breach of the federal regulation.

“In its review of any use of animals, Rhode Island Hospital abides by all federal regulations and follows a strict set of institutional policies, procedures

INSIDE

and protocol. This includes training in advanced lifesaving procedures for the emergency medicine residency program affiliated with Brown’s Warren Alpert School of Medicine,” read the joint statement sent to The Herald by Director of News and Editorial Development Brian Clark.

John Pippin, the PCRM’s director of academic affairs, told the Associated Press he is confident that the University violated the Animal Welfare Act. The Animal Welfare Act includes a clause stating that research involving animals must involve consideration of “alternatives to any procedure likely to produce pain to or distress in an experimental animal.”

According to Pippin, the University’s use of live pigs in training is unnecessary given modern simulation technologies that can substitute for living animals.

Animal research within the program is regulated by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees at the University and Rhode Island Hospital. Pippin believes these IACUCs have not adequately regulated training methods, the Associated Press reported, while the University and Rhode Island Hospital contend otherwise.

“The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees at Brown and Rhode Island Hospital carefully consider the use of non-animal model alternatives in » See ANIMALS, page 9

The University also endorsed the AAU’s suggestion that the DOE clarify whether it intends to limit the “circumstances an institution may forbid and investigate behavior that falls outside the Department’s definition of ‘sexual » See TITLE IX, page 9

The University has launched its sponsorship of two renewable energy projects, which should collectively offset 100 percent of on-campus electricity use.

Announced Jan. 17, the first project will create a solar power facility in North Kingstown, which should offset 70 percent of the campus’s electricity use by supplying 40 megawatts of clean energy to the electrical grid. An 8 MW wind power facility in Texas should offset the remaining 30 percent.

The University has partnered with Energy Development Partners, a

Providence-based company, to design and locate a site for the solar facility as well as handle all permitting for the site and the facility’s connection to the electrical grid, said Frank Epps, chief executive officer of EDP. The facility will be built on a 240-acre former sand and gravel mining site in North Kingstown, making it the highest-capacity contiguous solar power facility in R.I., according to the University’s announcement.

Construction will begin on the site once EDP has finalized the development’s interconnection service agreement with National Grid — which would connect the solar panels to the electrical grid, Epps said. Constellation, a national energy provider and subsidiary of Exelon, will be responsible for the physical construction and operation of the project, he added. The University has negotiated a 25-year power purchase agreement » See ENERGY, page 9

Lukawski ’22 powers Bears to victory First-year wins 100, 200 breaststroke events, helps 200 medley to close second-place finish

By JAMES SCHAPIRO STAFF WRITER

The women’s swimming and diving team hosted Cornell Saturday in its last non-playoff meet of the season, and after honoring Bruno’s graduating class in a ceremony, the teams took to the pool. But the star of the day wasn’t a senior: It was Audrey Lukawski ’22, who won two individual events.

Lukawksi’s relay team first swam to a second-place finish in the 200 medley, finishing 0.13 seconds behind the winning team, another Brown squad.

Lukawksi then went on to win both the 100 and 200 breaststroke, and helped the Bears to an overwhelming 230-72 victory over the Big Red. Outside the pool, Lukawksi enjoys steak-frites, sea salt ‘n’ vinegar chips and rock climbing, according to her profile on BrownBears.com. She is from San Francisco and loves the Golden State Warriors, and her favorite nonaquatic activity is doing crossword puzzles. But Lukawksi’s competitive mentality is perhaps best summed up by her favorite quote: “You know what they say: ‘Fool me once, strike one; but fool me twice … strike three.’”

For her impressive performance en » See AOTW, page 10

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

San Francisco native Audrey Lukawski ‘22 pulled off two individual victories during the women’s swimming and diving meet against Cornell.

WEATHER

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2019

NEWS Ashley Farmer speaks on influence of black women in advancing political movements

SCIENCE AND RESEARCH ICERM hosts workshop to discuss scientific machine learning, potential applications

NEWS U. finds architectural firm to design health and wellness center, residence halls on 450 Brook St.

COMMENTARY Klein ’20: Super bowl looks to be close game, but New England Patriots will take title

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

ICERM hosts conference on scientific machine learning Attendees present, facilitate conversations on physics-informed neural networks

By EMILIJA SAGAITYTE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

From Jan. 28-30, professors, researchers and students from around the world gathered at the University to present and discuss scientific machine learning. The conference — held through the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics — focused on facilitating conversations on scientific machine learning and its application to problems in science and engineering using “physics-informed neural networks,” Professor of Applied Mathematics and event organizer George Karniadakis said. The event also aimed to “build a community in a field which is really just beginning to emerge,” said Jan Hesthaven, dean of the School of the Basic Sciences at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and another organizer of the event.

Karniadakis defined a neural network as a system that interprets input data and yields an output within a greater dimension. While neural networks were developed decades ago, “now, we are getting very, very good at collecting data,” Hesthaven said.

“We have now enough computing power that we can build neural networks, artificial neural networks, that are sufficiently advanced (so) we can start actually doing big things with them,” he added.

The conference brought together

people across different ages with a passion for artificial intelligence and machine learning in relation to problem solving in science and engineering, Hesthaven said. These individuals included mathematicians, computer scientists and natural scientists, who all are either creators or users of machine learning, he added.

Hesthaven also emphasized the various fields represented at the event, adding that developments in science occur when people from different backgrounds and disciplines work together.

Ultimately, the workshop convened 150 researchers, professors and students, some of whom presented on concepts such as mathematical optimization, approximation of values, the quantity of data needed for machine learning to work well and the potential use or ineffectiveness of current methods, Karniadakis said.

ICERM workshops usually host 50 to 75 attendees, Hesthaven said, adding that the larger attendance was “a testament to the opportunities that people see” in scientific machine learning.

Scientific machine learning has been a popular point of discussion within the research community because it bridges together topics such as physics and neural networks, Karniadakis said.

The math used in scientific machine learning is “behind lots of physical and biological (phenomena), so the impact on application would be tremendous because we seamlessly model data and mathematical models and physical models,” he added.

One example of an application of machine learning is materials

LEON JIANG / HERALD

The ICERM held a three-day conference on scientific machine learning. Speakers presented on various topics such as mathematical optimization and approximation of values. discovery, whereby individuals can work backward to find an appropriate building material given desired properties, Hesthaven said. He also added that the workshop involved discussions about machine learning’s validity, current state and knowledge and future developments.

Lu Lu GS, a student speaker at the workshop, gave a presentation called “Collapse of Deep and Narrow Neural Sets,” where he examined a scenario in which a neural network does not work correctly.

Lu said he was originally looking forward to the event because

he believed it would help him learn from the other renowned individuals whose studies are associated with his research, and he hoped the resulting conversations could prompt new ideas. After the event concluded, he added that he thought the workshop was unique in comparison to others that he’s attended because “for most machine learning workshops, … the main focus is for computer science, but in this workshop, it’s for machine learning in science, especially in … physics and in mathematics.”

Looking back on the event, Hesthaven said the workshop provided

others with knowledge and exposure about scientific machine learning and fostered dialogue. “The number one goal is to get these people together, and I think we succeeded at that,” he said.

Hesthaven anticipates holding another event, perhaps in a year, to continue the conversations that were started this week. “There will be a community formed around the topic of machine learning in science, and perhaps this will be the biggest legacy — that we’re helping to start that,” he said.

U. talk explores influence of black women in political movements Contemporary art, literature show central role of black women in Black Panther Party

By HENRY DAWSON SENIOR STAFF WRITER

“When you’re thinking about blackness, or black women or other underrepresented groups, you’ve got to think about how ideas come into public in different ways — alternative, creative, and really empowering and powerful modes of … galvanizing people,” said Assistant Professor of History Emily Owens Thursday afternoon.

In her introductory speech, Owens spotlighted the strategies that Ashley Farmer, assistant professor of history at University of Texas-Austin, used to analyze the role black women played in the Black Panther party.

During a Thursday talk hosted by the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, titled “The Black Women Intellectuals and Activists Who Revolutionized Black Power,” Farmer spoke about the influence of black women in political movements, a role often overlooked by historians.

“Black women used … literature and artwork to push the (Black Panther) party to formulate and endorse gender inclusive ideology and organizational culture. And their success at reshaping the party’s gender dynamic shows that

the Panther’s record on gender roles was more progressive and complex than we previously acknowledged,” Farmer said.

Throughout the talk, Farmer demonstrated how black women used intellectual products to challenge gender roles and cast a broader conception of being a revolutionary. In doing so, these women expanded their roles in American society, she added.

For instance, through her analysis of Linda Greene’s lyric essay “The Black Revolutionary Woman,” Farmer contended that the traditionally masculine and militant image of the Black Panther party isn’t the “only axis by which we have to measure black women’s ability to be panthers and revolutionaries. … I see Greene, here, as offering a holistic vision of the female revolutionary persona instead of fitting black women into masculine constructs and challenging the idea of the revolutionary itself — that the revolutionary had to be a man.”

Farmer’s talk also included analysis of several different works produced by activists such as Gayle Dickson and Tarika Lewis. The works, which were primarily published in the Black Panther — the party’s namesake newspaper — ranged from drawings and mixed media pieces to poems and literature.

To conduct the research underlying her broader theory, Farmer interviewed various women involved with

VICTORIA YIN / HERALD

At a talk hosted by the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Ashley Farmer, an assistant professor of history at UT-Austin, underscored the significant contributions of black women to advance black power. the Black Panther party, and examined the artwork and poetry that they and their contemporaries have produced.

We get a different story when “we not only center black women, but also focus on their writing and their intellectual production. Indeed the very same periodicals, as you see here with the Black Panther newspaper — that scholars often used to frame black power as male dominated or sexist — are actually brimming with information about black women’s thoughts, actions and philosophical leanings,” Farmer said.

Reflecting on Farmer’s novel

techniques, Owen said Farmer showcased “what good history is. That’s how we find stuff. (These women) pointed her in directions other historians have just missed.”

“She’s really shown us that women were there, and that they were transformative within the Black Panther party,” she added.

Magalis Santana, a Cranston resident and recent Rhode Island College graduate, attended the talk because she wrote a thesis on the “intersectionality of feminism, and (the event) piqued my interest.”

Santana liked how Farmer’s analysis

of art broke the “cookie cutter” sensibility of history study by not relying on traditional sources of information such as books and other texts.

“I really hope this event will solidify the importance of Black women through the Civil Rights movement and other activist events as black women are often left out of the picture,” said Kimberly Collins ’22, who also attended the event. “Helping put the frame and the work of black women into a greater, larger context will help not only inspire me but make clear the role women have throughout these movements.”

Issue

In This Naomi Kim 4

3

Abbie Hui

Caroline Ribet

2

Dear Nicole

A Winter Break Told Through Food

My Year of Adulting Julian Towers 5

What's Coming After That?

Danielle Emerson

Reservation

Young Adult 6

postCover by Rémy Poisson

FEB 1

VOL 23 —

ISSUE 13

FEATURE

My Year of Adulting

Gerunds and the Journey of Growing Up

By Caroline Ribet

M

Illustrated by katya labowe-stoll

y year of "adulting" began when I moved into my off-campus apartment in June, and I realized I needed wifi. When I signed the lease, I was thinking about affordability, proximity to campus, and whether or not the rooms had natural light—not so much about how I would check my email, access Canvas, or stream Netflix.

When I texted a previous tenant to ask him about the wifi, he sheepishly responded that he had been logged into the downstairs apartment’s network all year. I called up the landlord, wondering what tenants normally did in my situation. “Tenants figure it out themselves,” he said and hung up the phone.

My parents were in China, my roommate was somewhere else, and no one was going to bail me out. I didn’t even really know what wifi was,

but I refreshed Brown Buying and Selling (on my mobile network) and purchased a router from some graduating seniors. I called Verizon, and they put me on hold. I gave my account number to an electronic voice and talked to a customer service representative who had a heavy Southern accent.

It took several hours of navigating a complicated phone tree, being asked again and again if I wanted the premium package with cable and landline and wifi and me insisting over and over again that, please, I really just need a wireless network, please, can you come install it soon?

The top description of "adulting" on Urban Dictionary includes the phrase: “to carry out one or more of the duties and responsibilities expected of fully developed individuals.” I figured that being

on hold with Verizon definitely counted. Another definition says the word is used exclusively by “immature 20-somethings who are proud of themselves for paying a bill.” My favorite describes "adulting" as “[post] adolescence when the light in your eyes fade[s] away and dies.”

Urban Dictionary suggests many millennials share the privilege of being sheltered from responsibilities as children. Our parents take care of us, and then if we are lucky, the university takes over.

At Brown, my full-time job is to be a student and to learn as much as I can.

In fact, I found out that my difficulties were rather widespread. Many articles point out that privileged millennials go through so-called "life stages" later than the previous generations. One

Letter from the Editor Dear Readers, Welcome back to another semester of post- magazine!

To the staff, both returning and new members, thank you for your hard work in producing our first issue of the semester. An especially warm welcome goes out to Feature section editor Sara Shapiro ’20, Arts & Culture editors Griffin Plaag ’20 and Emily Teng ’22, and social media staffers Caleigh Aviv ’21 and Camila Pavon ’21! We are all so excited to see how our publication will grow with the help, perspective, and expertise of our new members.

Things Colder than the Polar Vortex

To the reader, in this issue, you will find stories about growing up, letters, food, and rap—all things we hope you enjoy reading about. We on post- wish you some warmth in this time of wild schedules and frigid weather.

Please, make some tea, take a seat, and have a glance through our magazine. We hope you find something you like.

Anita

editor in chief of post-

1.

The HR reps who rejected me

2.

The SciLi basement

3.

My heart

4.

My ex’s heart

5.

As Albert Camus would no doubt agree, man is an alien to himself.

6.

Blue Room water

7.

All of Smitty B

8.

Your feet—like, wow, are you a lizard?

9.

Bud Light®

10.

My professor who would not give me that override code

2!post–

NARRATIVE Medium blog post about "adulting" cited the statistic that more than 32 percent of millennials live at home. Researchers report that the average age for grown-up activities, like purchasing a house, getting married, or experiencing financial independence, is trending higher; and cultural, social, and financial developments are often pointed to as the cause of these changes. To give one example, young people increasingly value educational success above, say, starting a family—a cultural shift that has numerous implications.

The Urban Dictionary page also reveals the politics of the word "adulting." Its definitions mock millenials for thinking of normal responsibilities as major milestones. If you search the word online, you’ll come across a number of articles that echo these sentiments. One WordPress blog by mom Lisa Sugarmen suggests, “The very nature of the word "adulting" implies pretty heavily that growing up is a conscious choice rather than just a natural evolution.” Her comment reflects the inherent privileges of those who, like me, have been able to not partake in "adulting" up until this point in my life. "Adulting," it seems, is not everyone’s favorite concept.

Those who participate in "adulting" often find themselves frustrated. (I don’t get irritated that easily, but the Verizon phone tree definitely tested the limits of my patience.) And Haruki Murakami, one of my favorite writers, points out in his memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, “When I was younger, it wasn’t as if I had as much free time as I wanted, but I didn’t have as many miscellaneous chores as I do now. I don’t know why, but the older you get, the busier you become.” When I first read this passage, it didn’t make much sense to me. Now, I find I can relate more easily.

Critics of the word "adulting" argue that the gerund-ification (adding -ing to a verb to make a noun) of the term adult makes growing up seem like a hobby. Only the very privileged, some argue, could have survived more than 20 years having never done anything without help. Even those who use the noun are shamed by the media. I’m tempted to shame them too; when I see articles entitled “Why ‘Adulting’ Is Hard And Millennial Burnout is Actually a Thing,” I feel like rolling my eyes.

But despite the critique (that I occasionally participate in), I actually like "adulting" as a term. I appreciate the way it reveals politics and privilege. It suggests that daunting responsibilities can be faced with good humor. At least in my experience, phone trees and travel delays become less frustrating when I make fun of Delta airlines for never leaving the airport. As gainful employment and independence materialize, I try to keep on laughing.

The "adulting" continued for the rest of the summer. My job required that I wear business casual, so I played dress-up in ballet flats and a pencil skirt.

My apartment presented all kinds of problems that needed to be sorted out, and I had a subletter to deal with and a landlord to call. In doing so, "adulting" grew more and more complicated. I wondered, is "adulting" going to the bank and picking up quarters for laundry? Is it writing budgets and packing lunches? Washing sheets, scrubbing bathrooms, and

vacuuming once a week? Going to the dry cleaners and using a drying rack for clothing because the $1.75-per-load dryer doesn’t work very well?

Little by little, I realized that I was growing from my experiences, even in small ways. At the end of August, I went on a trip to Burlington, Vermont, with a close friend from school. An old classmate of hers kindly let us stay at their apartment for a night, and I slept on the floor between a rug and some blankets.

After a lousy night of sleep, I felt like I might be getting too old to crash on a friend of a friend’s floor.

In high school or my early years of college, I would not have blinked at the opportunity to save a few dollars, even at the cost of discomfort. Now that I’ve held my first jobs, choices that were once easy have led me to experience more mixed feelings.

Taking on these normal responsibilities have been the markers of my transition out of college.

After all, I’m graduating in a few months; I will need employment, a place to live, access to transportation, and appointments with local doctors and dentists.

When I think about managing an adult life, I’m forced to admit that my parents and Brown have sheltered me. Even though I like to take pride in my ability to cook well-balanced meals, my parents still handle my taxes and insurance. They deal with my cell phone company. They are in charge of my healthcare.

With only one semester left at Brown and the future looming over me, I have spent hours and days putting together applications with lists of references and writing samples and cover letters and resumes (my parents still edit every draft). I cold-email the employees of interesting companies that I have no connection to, and I chat on the phone with family friends and Brown alums who generously agree to talk to me about their career paths. I put together search queries with cities I might like to live in and job titles that sound good. I check listings on Glassdoor, Handshake and Indeed. I write sentences like “Thank you for your consideration.” I narrate the experiences in which I was an effective problem solver. I sigh when I come upon positions that seem perfect, but require fluency in Spanish or three to five years of relevant work experience.

When I’m in my more optimistic moods, I tell myself how qualified and accomplished I am. After all, I am about to receive a degree from the one and only Brown University. I can do these jobs, I think, as I scroll through my spreadsheet of employment opportunities and application deadlines. Other days, I’m amazed that anyone writes me back. What am I qualified to do? Think critically? Promote diversity and inclusion? Write lengthy papers about the liberal arts?

When I think of "adulting," what I really think of is figuring things out without help. My friends at Brown have become a second family. Together, we get groceries, call insurance companies, and "adult."

With graduation on the horizon, I secretly worry for the day when we scatter all over the world to follow the exciting opportunities that we are all finding now. Will some of us end up in the same place, or will I build a new community in a city by myself? When things go wrong, as they always do, who will be there to help me? Are these fears a kind of "adulting," or are they childish? Am I ever going to grow up?

A Winter Break Told through Food Exploring Hong Kong's Food Scene

By Abbie Hui Illustrated by Stephanie Wu

W

inter break may be over, but the fond memories of the food I ate during it remain.

Nearly every winter break, I travel to Hong Kong to visit family and friends, recover from my mental exhaustion, and recuperate with a variety of authentic, delicious foods.

My family lives close to a fresh seafood market (imagine a fresh-out-of-the-ocean smell and many stalls of fish laying on ice beds, shrimp swimming around in their tanks, abalone sitting on small metal plates, and many more seasonal creatures I rarely see). After my dad gets off work, we go there and pick up ingredients to cook dinner at home. We pay for our food at each stall as if each were a miniature grocery store. There are also fresh meat and vegetable stalls in the market, and the convenience and affordability of purchasing quality ingredients from them make eating at home so appealing. However, sometimes we want to treat ourselves to restaurant food or entertain family and friends outside of our home; so this break, I got the opportunity to revisit some of my favorite places to eat and explore new ones, too!

One of my favorite dim sum places in Hong Kong is called Choi Fook Royal Banquet. I am a fan of two of its dishes in particular—the tender chicken feet with abalone sauce and the XO sauce rice noodle rolls, which come in a hot stone pot. I start drooling when I imagine reliving this complete experience: I ate the delicate skin of the chicken feet first and then dipped the sizzling rice noodle rolls in the deliciously sweet and salty abalone sauce, realizing that the two dishes complemented each other perfectly. We also ordered other dim sums, and every dish somehow felt more delicate and flavorful when paired with the restaurant’s bustling energy and lively atmosphere.

I also explored more traditional cuisine, namely Shantou and Beijing dishes, during my first week there. Whenever I go to restaurants that serve Shantou food, I unfailingly order the deepfried yams for dessert. I always end up burning my tongue, too eager to take a bite into the crispy-yetfragile sugar crust coating the hot, soft steamed yam. This time was no exception. I savored each sweet, powdery bite and sipped bold Chinese tea in between, treasuring this indulgent way to end the meal. The next night, I decided to try China House Tai Po and its Peking duck wrap dish. I made and easily devoured a couple of these wraps—perfectly crispy-yet-tender slices of duck with just the right amount of fat, dipped in a sugary, thick soy sauce with sliced scallion, all wrapped in an extremely thin pancake. I took a bite, and my senses immediately

“I’m here at Brown…the armpit of the Ivies.”

“He seems soft...like a soft-shelled tortoise.”

Febryary 1, 2018&3

NARRATIVE

Dear Nicole On Writing Letters

By Naomi Kim Illustrated by Molly Young

went into overdrive from the sweet and savory flavors, crunchy and tender textures, and overall perfection of this finger-licking moment.

When I wanted some Canto-Western cuisine and drinks, I ventured out to the Hong Kongstyle cafes. My go-to order became the Hong Kong-style milk tea; I could happily sip and relish its smoothness and strong aroma every day. Sometimes, I had it with condensed milk for a sweeter experience or got a mixture of tea and coffee for a hard-to-resist caffeine boost.

This was the perfect afternoon pick-me-up along with a plate of mouthwatering Hong Kong-style French toast. Imagine peanut butter sandwiched between two pieces of toast, fried, and served with condensed milk and butter—trust me, this is French toast on another level. Cha chaan tengs, or Hong Kong-style cafes, are really the places to go when you want authentic comfort food and fast, efficient service that reflects Hong Kong’s hectic lifestyle.

In the midst of this industrialized city with endless cultural cuisine offerings, I do not have to worry about finding appealing food choices—take, for example, the velvety smooth matcha ice cream!

My favorite place for matcha dessert is called Sweets House Cha Cha, and I made time with my mom to go there three times during the break. I can never decide whether to have just the strong matcha ice cream in a cone, the half-and-half with Hokkaido milk ice cream for a lighter matcha experience, or the dark chocolate for a super rich ride. Choosing between these flavors is nearly impossible because they are all so delicious!

Daydreaming about matcha dessert got me thinking about the variety of French desserts I shared with my family and friends after our amazing French dinner at Scarlett Cafe & Wine Bar. For an appetizer, I tried beef tartare for the first time ever and found the taste of the buttery raw meat not as strong as when it’s cooked, rendering me awestruck. I wouldn’t have minded trying a bigger portion. The soft sourdough bread and crispy potato wedges were great to nibble on before we moved on to the main courses of perfectly roasted prime rib and creamy mashed potatoes, creamy lobster spaghetti, and the unique, tasty egg white ravioli filled with crab meat. We thought we couldn’t stuff ourselves with more delectable food, but somehow, we still managed to order desserts—a tangy lemon meringue tart, hazelnut tart, cream puffs drizzled with smooth chocolate sauce, and chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream. This was one of the best meals I had in Hong Kong: full of fantastic food, wonderful company, and interesting conversations.

For me, winter break was a time spent over tasty food, both at home and in restaurants with friends and family. I want to bottle the revitalizing energy I experienced in Hong Kong to help propel me through this semester. My fellow peers, I hope your break was a period of rest, love, adventures, laughter, and food. Spring semester, we are ready for you!

4!post–

Dear Nicole, Every time I drop by the mail room to pick up one of your letters sent all the way from Ohio, I finish reading it before I get back to my dorm. I blaze through your words, eating them up too quickly.

I walk out of the building tearing the flap of the envelope open, gloves shoved into my pockets and hands exposed to the cold. The wind tries to wrestle the pages from me, making the papers flap and flutter. I read as I make my way down Waterman Street, side-stepping people on their way to and from class, and always end up grinning like a fool over the simplest, smallest things—your classes or your lab work or the movies you saw. Your roommate or your swimming or the Stephen King book you’re working your way through. I’m eager to hear all your little news. The last time I saw you was well over a year ago, when you and your mom flew back down to Georgia to watch my high-school graduation. It was your first time back since you moved away to Virginia our sophomore year. (Remember sixth grade, when we first met? I named my lunchbox Tootsie for its shape, and you named yours Blueberry for its color.)

I finish reading your letter before I reach Ruth Simmons Quad. I fold the stapled pages back up the way they always come, in thirds, and tuck them and the envelope under my arm as I head to my dorm. I think of you while I climb the stairs up to the fourth floor. I think of you riding your bike to the store and bringing your pumpkin back to campus. I think of your contraband candle with its cozy autumnal fragrance. *** Dear Nicole, I have to confess that I have not kept up with all your letters as well as I should have —some of them are in a shoebox in my closet, others stashed into folders and desk drawers. There are a handful of letters from high school, after you moved, and piles of pages from freshman year of college up until now.

I should line them up in chronological order and slide them carefully into a folder. A single folder, in a single drawer. That way I will be able to file through them later and piece together what our lives were like. I will kneel on my bedroom floor, reading letter by letter, remembering my walk down Waterman, smiling.

Sometimes I think about famous letters.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from Birmingham Jail; letters sent between Abigail Adams and her husband, John; “letters” Anne Frank wrote to her diary, Kitty; epistles of the Bible. In museums

and online, I pore over pictures of old, thin paper scrawled with spidery cursive that is impossible to read. I can hardly imagine the whole world reading through a postcard I sent ages ago, searching for clues about my personal life—all the ups and downs, joys and sorrows—in an attempt to figure out the kind of person I was.

I suppose anyone who saw the letters I sent you would first notice how much time elapsed between each response (I confess that I sometimes put off replying for so long, I'd have to reread your letter when I finally sat down to write back). Anyone would notice that I write with a hurried, messy hand (although you assure me you have had no trouble deciphering it) and that I write mostly about books and classes. I suppose no one would find my letters to you all that fascinating or useful as artifacts of the early 21st century. Who are these two college students sending letters back and forth like 18th century spinsters? Maybe we’ll confuse the historians and anthropologists of the future.

I read as I make my way down Waterman Street, sidestepping people on their way to and from class, and always end up grinning like a fool over the simplest, smallest things.

Dear Nicole, I take that back, actually. I do think people—I mean people nowadays, our peers—might find our letters fascinating, if only because people don’t write these kinds of letters much anymore. They write open letters on Facebook, emails, and ultra-long texts, but not letters with pen and paper, envelopes and stamps. Letters that get driven or flown across state lines and sometimes across national borders and oceans to be dropped finally, safely into a mailbox, somewhere.

Everything is so digital these days. Maybe that’s why I feel like there’s something special about a tangible, physical thing to hold and feel: the creases in the paper, the envelope you can lick or glue shut and rip open. The familiar handwriting and ache in your forearm when you’ve been writing for a while.

The stamps you peel off the slippery backing. There’s something about sliding your stamped envelope down the mailroom chute, picking up a letter you’ve been waiting for, walking down the street with the wind in your face while you read and grin.

ARTS&CULTURE

What's Coming After That?

Future Hndrxx and His Misery

By Julian Towers Illustrated by Gaby trevino Because we live in a malicious free market economy and I have decided to make my living in print media, I find it therapeutic to imagine that all rich people are secretly miserable. If Gossip Girl taught me anything, it’s that you can’t locate happiness in the diamond section of Vera Wang (or whatever they sell—I don’t actually know).

Essentially, if I see you strolling down Thayer with Sperrys and a Fitbit, I‘m going to assume that you’re basically Jay Gatsby—dying a slow souldeath in search of something money cannot buy.

Sure, it’d be nice to own notebooks and a seventh pair of socks—nice for a little bit—but I’m thinking about my soul here.

As I’ve spent much of my life starving myself and not bathing, perhaps it’s surprising that I’m also a longtime fan of hip-hop sensation Future Hndrxx (net worth: $30 million). In all fairness, most pop-rappers are more relatable than Wall Street assholes. They’re prosperous, upwardly mobile citizens who’ve worked diligently to escape some truly depressing backgrounds. Though I may look at, say, Quavo, and find his 250-karat diamond grillz indulgent, I can’t deny that it’s his right—and perhaps even socially necessary—for him to broadcast his success. But Super Future’s different: he’s about the only guy making music about the moral cost of a high lifestyle. And I mean that two ways… because drugs.

Now, this is not to suggest the mind behind “I ain't got no manners for no sl*ts/I’ma put my thumb in her butt” is some kind of moral conscience; like those of his peers, Future’s songs describe a life of luxury hedonism mostly by way of absurd braggadocio. “I just f***ed your bitch in some Gucci flip-flops” is perhaps his most quoted line. No, what makes Future special is

that his music just kinda sounds…miserable. Like he can’t help it. His slurry sob of a voice will set even the most basic hip-hop scenarios wild with melodramatic intensity. Consider the outro of “Monster”: “I don’t be trusting these hoes/I just be smashing these hoes.” That’s basically just hooking up, right? Essentially describes my experience. But Future yelps the line over and over like an SOS—he really wants to trust somebody. And when he’s not screaming, his voice sounds drained—numb and monotone. In the occasion he runs out of stuff to say, he’ll sometimes just list the expensive things he owns; often, they sound like all he has.

Nothing

about

the

Future

experience

seems like fun: Wealth and status bring only paranoia, promiscuous sex is emptily athletic gamesmanship, and drugs are the only love of his life, with cough syrup especially receiving more romantic attention than any actual human. The song “Fresh Air” would suggest he takes his shots of codeine straight, no chaser. Speaking in my official capacity as a magazine editor, that is weird and sad.

It’s likely that this description obscures the reasons for Future’s broader popularity. In simple terms, the songs are catchy and the beats bang.

He’s not Adele. The sadness emanating from his best work is faint, even doubtful—like a teardrop in the rain. For a true emotional response, you have to bring Future’s tragic backstory to his

music. Indeed, children—the rapper wasn’t always so miserable, though that can be difficult to hear.

His voice has always sounded like a walrus holding back tears.

So, here’s your history: After coming up through the Atlanta scene as a blatant, if quite skillful, Gucci Mane wannabe, Future gets scooped up by a major label who inexplicably hears something romantic in his Auto-Tuned drug narratives. They stock his 2012 debut album full of awkward, corny love songs to position him as trap music’s answer to T-Pain, and (supposedly) score him an engagement to R&B superstar Ciara to position him as trap culture’s answer to Jay-Z. But Honest, the crucial sophomore album, stalls at 50,000 units; as it’s full of Ciara love songs, this is embarrassing, though less embarrassing than when Ciara gets fed up with Future’s infidelity and splits, taking their baby with her. Cornered, he rushes back into the studio to refocus on his old lyrical themes: success, drug use, and mid-Manhattan fashion houses.

But his voice can’t lie; it’s become a hollowed-out, dried-up croak. Though the subject matter hasn’t changed, Future’s life no longer sounds like an enviable place to be.

Miraculously, in bottoming out, Future hit his artistic high. The three-mixtape run from 2014’s Monster to 2015’s 56 Nights is easily the most definitive, iconic music of his career. An entire sub-genre was born from Monster’s hazy warble, though the critical catch-all used to underplay its hip-hop innovations—“mumble rap”—is a disgrace. It’s Future’s excess of passion, if anything, that blurs his words together. And if his flow— lifted by heartbreak, slowed by over-the-counter medication—falls off beat, it never lets go of a catchy hook.

That this dude sounded so far gone during his creative peak added a curiously relatable layer of sadness to what was, already, kind of sad music. Though people listening to these songs to find literal versions of themselves are probably sociopaths, there’s stuff in the subtext that I think Brown students could relate to. Even when every aspect of our lifestyle is superficially on fleek, many of us still find gathering self-esteem to be a difficult proposition. Though it frustrates and

upsets our parents, we simply cannot count up our grades and exchange them for happiness. So Future—a guy who literally has it all and still feels nothing—is good to have around when you want to feel less abnormal. For best usage, I’d recommend taking 2015’s Beast Mode each morning, like a Percocet.

Unfortunately, Future’s best (i.e. worst) days are behind him. Like a bizarre reverse-victim of his own anti-success, the dude’s just kinda happy now.

His kids are growing up, he has been thoroughly canonized as a genius, and Ciara hasn’t had a hit in years. Though still rapping primarily about drugs, around 2016 he began admitting that he wasn’t actually using them anymore. This, of course, raises conceptual issues as old as hip-hop. If we argued that the greatness of his old stuff came from its gritty synthesis of real life, logic would dictate his new, fake music must be bad bourgeoise swill. But that’s just untrue; on the level of pop presentation, Future hasn’t lost a step. Last month’s The Wzzard is surely one of his catchiest, most polished efforts. When I say it’s not as good as Monster, am I really saying that Future should get back to being miserable on drugs? That’s… not so ethical.

Still, his newest music is not as good as Monster.

As early as 2015’s DS2, Future was already getting self-conscious and cute about his unglamorous lifestyle—you could tell he wasn’t actually living it anymore. Not to fetishize drug abuse, but no actual addict writes punchlines about peeing codeine. By Wzzard’s “Overdose,” he’s chirping about how his “wrist on drugs!” his “chain on drugs!” which is either deliberate self-parody, deeply pandering, or both.

Sometimes I wonder if there’s a new kind of sadness in this work—the happy artist struggling to pretend he’s sad. But if anything, it’s screwed with the old sadness. Monster’s “I’m living this life of sin, what’s coming after that?” used to be one of the most chilling lines I’d ever heard, whereas now I just listen to it and flash-forward to Future performing on Ellen. He’s just an exceptionally catchy rapper now; there’s no meaning left.

Me, though? I’ll always be authentic. I haven’t showered in three weeks—seven, if you think shampoo’s important.

Febryary 1, 2018&5

ARTS&CULTURE

Young Adult Reservation

Why We Need More Native American Writers

By Danielle Emerson illustrated by Ashley Hernandez A member of the Navajo tribe, I grew up hearing the traditional tales of my people. In these stories were people like me who spoke my language. There were stories of our deities, such as Changing Woman, The Twin Warriors, and the mischievous Coyote, stories of horse riding and sheep butchering, of the stars and the animals—stories of my culture told from the perspectives of those who had lived it.

As I entered the public school system, I became more adept at reading print books. But the people in these stories neither looked like me nor lived like me. Though upset, I decided not to say anything to my teachers, opting to avoid confrontation. Instead, I assumed that my own cultural tales were less important than those in the books being presented to me.

Curiosity drove me to creative writing. I played with the pen, testing out the sounds of words, running them over my tongue. But the Americans in my stories did not look like me. They had green eyes and blond hair. They were white-skinned and welldressed. Little girls with ruffles on their shirts and bright bows in their hair. Fathers who played catch with their sons, always calling them by endearing names like "sport" or "kiddo." Mothers who sang lullabies to their children at bedtime.

I strayed from topics I’d experienced in my own life and focused on the picture-perfect families I’d read about in books. These were families I felt my own could never compare to. These were people I could never compare to. Young adult books made me an “other” in my reading experiences, so I became an “other” in my own writing. In college, I looked back at all of my previous short stories and realized I didn’t recognize any of my characters.

They read like fillers, dull and uninteresting. I had never felt so different—or so alone.

But experiences like this are not uncommon.

All young children are impressionable. The types of stories we read in our youth leave lasting impressions. They reinforce majorities while obscuring traditional minorities. Many creative writers of color have suffered under this influence.

Novelist Chimamanda Adichie, for example, shared her experience with this so-called “perpetuation of

the norm” in her TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story.”

"I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading,” she said. “All my characters were white and blue-eyed. They played in the snow. They ate apples. And talked about the weather."

In high school, I accepted the curriculum I was taught as fact. I read books like Harry Potter, Mary Poppins, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Tom Sawyer. These books are childhood classics. I won’t deny that, and I don’t regret that I read them.

But I wish these weren’t the only children’s books available, because early literary experiences are extremely impactful. I had little access to books reflecting my experiences. It was only after high school that I had the opportunity to read some.

We need more voices.

Allow me to recommend some favorites— The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie, Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith, Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend by Erika T. Wurth, If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth, and Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson.

These are books written by Native authors telling

“Now, I know there are plenty of young upstarts in the world who paint a masterpiece at age four or compose a symphony in utero, but I’d always seen them as exceptions to the norm.”

Bianca Stelian, "I’m Too Old for Spider-Man" 2.2.1

“We’re brave and we’re young and we only have so many free pizzas left.” post- Editorial Staff, "we asked 42 posteditors what the meaning of life is" 2.4.16

6!post–

their stories. These are books I wish I had been given access to while growing up, for they would have taught me that my experiences are nothing to be ashamed of.

According to an analysis by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, of the 3,200 books received from US publishers in 2016, Native American authors only wrote 0.8 percent—that’s a total of eight books. African Americans wrote 2.8 percent, Latinx Americans wrote 2.9 percent, and Asian Pacific Americans wrote 6.1 percent of books. Compare that to the majority: 87.9 percent of books were written by white American authors.

This lack of representation hurts the traditionally marginalized. Though there may be fewer Native Americans than white Americans, our stories are no less important.

We need more Native writers writing about Native matters. We need more diverse life experiences in literature. We need more voices.

I write about my own experiences proudly now. I revel in my voice as it comes alive on the page, expressing without boundaries, rushing the horizon. But there are still hundreds of voices waiting to be heard, waiting for their chances at roping the moon.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Anita Sheih a FEATURE Managing Editor Sydney Lo Section Editors Kathy Luo Sara Shapiro Staff Writers Sarah Lettes Caroline Ribet

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SOCIAL MEDIA Caleigh Aviv Camila Pavon

ARTS & CULTURE Managing Editor Julian Towers Section Editors Griffin Plaag Emily Teng Staff Writers Rob Capron Kaela Hines Pia Mileaf-Patel

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Email: post@browndailyherald.com!

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NEWS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2019 • PAGE 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» ANIMALS, from page 1 the approval of all animal use protocols on their respective campuses and employ them in cases when they support scientific and/or academic goals,” the joint statement read.

The University has been fully accredited by the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International, a private and nonprofit organization that assesses research institutions for human treatment of animals in accordance with the law, according to the AAALAC website.

The PCRM tracks animal use in allopathic and osteopathic emergency medicine residency programs throughout the United States and Canada.

Sixteen programs are listed as using

» TITLE IX, from page 1 harassment,’” Paxson wrote.

The Department’s proposed regulations, which were introduced by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in November 2018, could significantly alter how schools address and investigate cases of sexual and gender-based harassment and violence, she wrote.

Under the proposed regulations, students facing accusations of sexual misconduct would have greater protections, and a school’s legal responsibility to investigate sexual misconduct cases would be limited to incidents that occur on campus or within a schoolsponsored event, according to an article by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Previously, the guidelines allowed

animals — including DartmouthHitchock Medical Center and the Med School. 251 programs are listed as “using only nonanimal methods,” according to the website.

Pippin told the Associated Press he hoped the University would take action on the group’s claims.

The statement from the University and Rhode Island Hospital holds that the institutions will continue to meet legal and ethical standards.

“As partners in biomedical research, teaching and clinical programs, Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital are committed to ensuring the highest ethical standards in the responsible use of animals in the instances they are used for research or for teaching and training current and future medical professionals,” the statement read.

The University’s affiliated residency program for emergency medicine has been accused of violating the Animal Welfare Act. The University has denied any violations of federal regulations.

universities to use a “preponderance of evidence” standard, which created a lower threshold for investigation.

The proposed regulations would also allow institutions to use a higher standard of proof in sexual misconduct cases and would narrow the legal definition of sexual misconduct upon which academic institutions are required to act. Under the Obama administration, sexual harassment was defined as “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.” If implemented, the new regulations would define it as “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the recipient’s education program or activity,” according to the Chronicle of

Higher Education.

These proposed changes would impose “potentially damaging ‘onesize-fits-all’ restrictions,” which would be at odds with the University’s current policies and procedures, Paxson wrote.

Instead, the DOE should provide institutions with “maximum flexibility” to follow the Title IX requirements in a way that “reflects their unique values and distinctive educational missions,” she wrote. “Brown’s current policies and procedures governing sexual misconduct came out of an open process that incorporated substantial input from students, faculty and staff and, as such, they reflect our norms, values and approach to education.”

Additionally, the proposed requirement allowing advisors, who may be

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

professional attorneys, to conduct live cross-examinations during hearings would introduce inequity to the investigation process because students may be “unable to afford legal representation,” Paxson wrote. Furthermore, “a shift to a more adversarial ‘courtroom’ environment” could discourage some students from reporting cases of sexual misconduct, she wrote. “This would be especially unfortunate, given clear empirical evidence that sexual misconduct is already vastly underreported.”

In an email to The Herald, Paxson wrote that “it is critically important that institutions of higher education not become substitutes for criminal courts. … I am troubled by efforts to introduce to campus disciplinary proceedings aspects of the legal system

that characterize courts of law.”

As it now stands, the University uses paper cross-examinations in Title IX cases, directly conflicting with this proposed requirement, The Herald previously reported.

The DOE issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to revise the Title IX regulations Nov. 16, The Herald previously reported. Following this notice, interested parties could express their thoughts and concerns about the changes during a 60-day period for public comment.

Should the proposed regulations go into effect, Paxson also reiterated the AAU’s request that universities be given appropriate time to implement any required changes.

» ENERGY, from page 1 with Constellation, according to the announcement.

Once the solar facility is operational and integrated into the electrical grid, the University will receive credits from National Grid — the University’s energy provider — thanks to R.I. legislation that promotes renewable energy investment, wrote Leah VanWey, associate provost for academic space and professor of environment and society and sociology, in an email to The Herald. These credits should offset the payments made by the University to Constellation as part of the contract between the two entities.

The creation of the solar facility should lower the emissions per unit of electricity produced by the electrical grid, wrote Stephen Porder, University assistant provost for sustainability and chair of the projects’ selection committee, in an email to the Herald. “Adding clean energy reduces the amount of dirtier energy you need to feed into the grid,” he added.

Past solar projects in North Kingstown have faced objections from residents because one of them involved the clearing of trees to make way for solar panels. But the University and EDP have taken care to ensure that their solar development will not involve clear-cutting trees, Porder wrote.

EDP also contacted those whose property abuts the development’s land and held a meeting September 2018 for their questions and feedback.

Epps, the project’s civil engineer and EDP staff all attended the meeting, and the group presented the project and the physical plans to all present

COURTESY OF STEPHEN CROCKER

The University has sponsored two renewable energy projects, which should offset 100 percent of electricity use on campus. A solar power facility in North Kingstown should account for 70 percent of the electricity use, and a wind power facility in Texas should offset the other 30 percent. at the meeting, Epps said. While the abutters had many questions during the meeting, none attended the presentation of the development’s final plans to the town’s Planning Commission. “There (don’t) seem to be any objections,” Epps added.

T h e i n it i at i ve’s s e l e c t i on

committee was composed of university faculty, facilities staff and representatives from the provost’s office and the office of the vice president for finance, Porder wrote. The committee partnered with consulting firm Customer First Renewables to assess the “environmental impact,

economics (and) risks … (of) hundreds of project configurations from over 30 developers” before settling on the Texas and North Kingstown developments, Porder added.

Administrators and the press release did not provide details about the planned Texas wind project, but

the University expects both projects will be operational by the end of 2020, VanWey said.

“Climate change represents an existential threat to human well-being. … Buying from renewables is critical if Brown is going to lead in the fight,” Porder wrote.

NEWS

PAGE 10 • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2019

» AOTW, from page 1 route to a dominant win over an Ivy League rival, Lukawski has been named The Herald’s Athlete of the Week.

Herald: You had a fantastic performance against Cornell last weekend — you won your two individual races and finished a close second in your relay by less than two tenths of a second. Going in, how did you feel? Did you expect to swim so well?

Lukawski: It was really exciting for me, because this was our last home meet of the season, and it was our senior meet to honor these incredible

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

ladies who had four amazing years. I was really excited to be able to close out the season on top.

Let’s go back a little: How did you first get into swimming?

I started swimming when I was pretty young, just because my mom wanted me to be drown-proof. I started swimming competitively on a club team when I was seven, and that pretty quickly became my main activity — it’s been a while.

You talked about how your big win over Cornell came on senior day. Talk about how your senior class has been

— and going forward, now that you’ve only got a few meets left this year, how you feel about losing the seniors and transitioning into next season.

It’s really crazy how some people that I just met four months ago can have such a big impact on my entire experience at Brown. They were so helpful, especially at the beginning of the first semester when we were first transitioning to life at college and college swimming. Their determination and drive and the positivity that they bring every single day is really unmatched, and I’m going to be so sad to not be able to be on a team with them next year.

Moving in a different direction: You’re from San Francisco, and you’re a Warriors fan. So, true or false: Klay Thompson, when he’s really feeling it and has the touch, is literally the best offensive player in history.

I’m going to go true on that one. I saw his history-making game, where he scored the most three-pointers in the third quarter, so that was really, really, really exciting. That pretty much cemented my loyalty to the Warriors two or three years ago.

I also saw that your favorite quote comes from The Office, so my question is, besides Pam and Erin, who is

the best Dunder Mifflin receptionist?

Ronnie.

Yes! Because all she does is plop herself down. … Okay, finally, what’s your favorite Brown on-campus meal?

Ooh, this is really tough. … I’m probably going to have to go with burrito bowls at the Blue Room on Wednesday nights.

The Bears will return to action Feb. 20 in the Ivy League Championships at Princeton.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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COMMENTARY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2019 • PAGE 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Super Bowl preview GEORGE KLEIN SPORTS COLUMNIST

The Los Angeles Rams will take on the mighty New England Patriots in the Super Bowl this Sunday. This marks the third consecutive Super Bowl appearance for the Pats, who continue to dominate the AFC, maintaining their powerhouse status. The Rams, however, will play in the season’s final game for the first time since the 2001-2002 season, when they were the St. Louis Rams. Considering that Los Angeles barely snuck past the New Orleans Saints thanks to favorable refereeing, it would be easy to project a blowout Patriots victory. But as Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles proved last season, anything can happen in a championship game. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the Super Bowl matchup and see how these two teams stack up against one another.

New England’s offense received criticism during the second half of the regular season, but has dominated throughout the playoffs. The Patriots love to set the tone early with their opening drives, chewing up time with the run game and converting on third downs with quick passes (often to James White). If New England marches down the field for half of the first quarter, the Rams will most likely be doomed. But in the fourth quarter of a

close game, Brady will feed Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski in important moments. While Gronk does not have much of his former explosiveness left, he is still as strong as anyone in the league and can muscle his way into receptions. Sony Michel, meanwhile, rushed for five touchdowns and 242 yards in his first two playoff games. The one weakness for New England? The long, vertical passing game. New England does not have a Brandin Cooks or a Randy Moss for deep, momentum-changing receptions. On the off

trash-talk New England’s quarterback — Robey-Coleman said that “age has definitely taken a toll” on Brady. This won’t end well. Of course, Los Angeles does boast the best defensive player in the NFL with Aaron Donald. If Donald and Suh can pressure Brady and hinder the running game, neutralizing New England’s strong offensive line, then New England will have trouble putting enough points on the board. But the Pats dominated against Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa in the Divisional Round.

It’s hard to say that anything different

performance. Hopefully, his no-show was just a case of playoff jitters, as he dropped a couple of easy catches two weeks ago. The Rams need a dangerous Gurley to compete with New England.

C.J. Anderson is a useful third down back in short yardage situations, but shouldn’t be relied on for every snap.

We know that the receiving game will show up though. Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods have been consistently terrific, and Cooks should be hungry in a revenge game against his former team. But which version of Jared

In the end, the Patriots look like the stronger team on paper. But that was also true last year — I expect the game to be reasonably close.

chance that the Pats fall behind early, that could prove troublesome.

The Rams’ defense, on the other hand, hasn’t met expectations. Offseason acquisitions disappointed: Marcus Peters struggled in coverage and Ndamukong Suh disappeared in a lot of games. Someone also should have told Nickell Robey-Coleman not to

will happen on Sunday. The advantage between the New England offense and Los Angeles defense goes to the Pats.

The Rams’ offense, meanwhile, performed admirably this year, though some questions do remain. Is Todd Gurley healthy? The superstar barely touched the ball against the Saints and his left knee might be limiting his

Goff will we see on Sunday? The firsthalf MVP candidate, or the Goff who looked terrible against the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles in December? He must be more careful with the football.

You have to expect that Bill Belichick will create a strong gameplan against that offense. Cornerback Stephon

Gilmore could be at the center of it — Gilmore has successfully guarded a variety of different offensive threats over the year and will be a tough obstacle for Jared Goff to overcome. Watch out for linebacker Kyle Van Noy as well. Van Noy was all over Kansas City’s offense and pressured Patrick Mahomes time and time again. Goff can sometimes lose his composure when in trouble, so the Patriots can rack up turnovers if the Rams’ offensive line can’t hold them back. This is a big moment for defensive end Trey Flowers, who could dominate if he plays his best football.

Overall, the Rams’ offense has a slight advantage against the Pats’ defense, but if Goff fumbles and throws interceptions, that could quickly change.

Both New England and Los Angeles feature dangerous special teams.

For the Patriots, Cordarrelle Patterson is a threat to break off a long return at any moment. The Rams, meanwhile, can change games with their trick plays as punter Johnny Hekker has a strong arm and can throw for first downs. The two teams are even here.

In the end, the Patriots look like the stronger team on paper. But that was also true last year — I expect the game to be reasonably close.

Prediction: Pats win 31-24.

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.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Brown Spectator revival should embrace spirit of open-mindedness, intellectual rigor To the Editor: As the former Editor of The Brown Spectator who revived the publication as an undergraduate student, I read with interest Anuj Krishnamurthy’s op-ed, “Bring Back the Brown Spectator.”

With the benefit of hindsight, I

agree with Mr. Krishnamurthy that the last iteration of The Brown Spectator at times “derived far too much pleasure from deliberate provocation.” But were Mr. Krishnamurthy or others to track down issues of The Spectator in the John Hay Library archives, they would also find many

examples of “clear-eyed conservative commentary” and “assertive, reasoned polemicizing” — the kind Mr. Krishnamurthy presumably hopes will return to Brown’s community.

If any students do heed Mr. Krishnamurthy’s call to revive The Brown Spectator — and I hope they

do — I would offer the same advice to the publication’s editors as I would to its critics: Engage in a spirit of open-mindedness, intellectual rigor and kindness that is all too missing in today’s political discourse. Nourishing a civic culture based on deep understanding

and mutual respect is a cause more important than the fleeting issues that divide us today.

Pratik Chougule ’07.5 Former editor of The Brown Spectator and law school admissions consultant at TopLawAdmissions.com.

NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2019

U. selects architecture firm for health, wellness center, residential hall Complex to include new spaces for health programming, wellnesscentered living

By SPENCER SCHULTZ SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Corporation’s Committee on Facilities and Campus Planning has selected architectural firm William Rawn Associates to design a new integrated health and wellness center and residence hall at 450 Brook St., said University Architect Collette Creppell.

T h e s i t e , l o c at e d o n a 96,000-square-foot plot of land near the Nelson Fitness Center, will integrate Health Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, Brown Emergency Medical Services and BWell into one collaborative center, said Vanessa Britto, assistant vice president for campus life and executive director of health and wellness.

Architectural design, which began Jan. 4, is slated to end in December, Creppell said. Construction is anticipated to begin in October with the intent to finish the project by August 2021. The project will be delivered in a “design-build” format so construction will begin concurrently as the architect completes the design.

“It’s a completely collaborative design process where the contractor and the architect are working together from day one … which allows the construction to begin at an earlier date because there is so much understanding of what is involved,” Creppell said.

The new building will include a wellness-focused residence hall, which will fit between 145 and 170 beds, Creppell said. As the first residence hall to be built on Brown’s campus in 30 years, the project aims

to increase the number of students who live in on-campus housing, she added. “We’re hoping that (the residence hall) will increase the number of students who are fully participating in on-campus residential life.”

The residence hall will be a combination of both suite-style housing and a co-housing model, which consists of smaller single rooms with more shared amenities, Creppell said.

Day-to-day life will be built around a living-learning community that integrates wellness into the living experience. “It will be a place where students who are interested in wellness have the opportunity to participate and engage in (wellness) in so many different forms of programming,” she added.

In addition to the new space for health programs, “early discussions about the center have also considered possibilities for health and wellness-focused amenities such as a test kitchen, a garden and spaces for activities such as meditation, yoga and Tai Chi,” according to a University press release.

The new health and wellness center “will be helpful because all the services will be concentrated and centralized in one area,” Britto said. As a result, students will be able to engage with all of the University’s health resources, even if they’re not sure which one will best serve their needs, she added. “Overall, it will make for much more efficiency for students.”

The new health and wellness center will “allow for more seamless contact between all of the University’s services,” which are currently scattered across campus, said Will Meek, director of CAPS. “There are a lot of people who use (CAPS) and Health Services for their total amount of care.

Now they can walk through one door.”

The new office space also allows

BENJI TORUÑO / HERALD

Construction for the health and wellness center and residence hall is slated to begin in October.

CAPS to expand its programs, Meek From March to July 2018, the pre- of faculty office space and the waiting said. “We’re basically out of office design phase of the project, the Uni- room. “We were really involved in the space for our team, so we can’t grow versity received student input on the process — more than I expected to anymore. There’s other staff we want to new wellness and residential center, be — which felt really good,” he said. bring in, but there’s not a location for Creppell said. During this period, the “Our waiting room could be imus to put them. (The new center) will University worked with architectural proved. It’s a challenge for people who definitely deliver more office space so firm perkins + will to both “plan this want more privacy, so my hope is that we can expand our programs,” he said. new wellness center in the context our new waiting space might be more Yema Yang ’19, a leader of Project of updating (the University’s) over- conducive to people who might want LETS and a co-founder of Disability all housing master plan” and include to be more anonymous,” he added.

Justice at Brown, expressed concerns student input in the process, she said.

Donations from the family of the that moving health services to the “Students participated in meetings, late Duncan MacMillan ’53 and a finorth part of campus could present which explored perceptions of student nancial gift from Barry Sternlicht ’82 a “physical barrier to accessibility” life,” to determine what features they P’16 and Mimi Reichert Sternlicht ’83 because of the new center’s distance would value in this space, Creppell P’16 have allowed the University “to from the main campus. “The new lo- said. The University intends to “bring advance the project from a vision into cation is generally out of the way. It’s students back into the conversation an active project,” wrote Brian Clark, not in the center of campus,” she said. now that we’re in the design phase director of news and editorial develThe University might consider … through (Residential Life) and opment, in an email to The Herald. adding the new wellness center and through representatives of Health Additional fundraising for the project residence hall to the University shut- Services and BWell,” she added. will continue from here, he said. tle’s route to ensure complete accesMeek said that he made suggessibility, Britto said. tions on how to improve the design

CORRECTION A previous version of the article “City Council dismisses student housing ordinance” stated that Robert Azar, deputy director of the City Plan Commission, advised that the amendment is “superfluous” due to the ordinance currently awaiting hearing in the Rhode Island Supreme Court. In fact, Azar advised that the amendment is “superfluous” due to a third ordinance that has yet to be heard by the Committee. The Herald regrets the error.

MEAL PLAN

Are you a student in recovery or struggling with an addiction?

Want to connect with other students in recovery from a substance use disorder?

changes

STEP ONE:

Choose a Meal Plan.

VIEW OPTIONS AT BROWN.EDU/FOOD

REMINDER:

T DAY THE LASEA L PLAN

TO MAKE M EDNESDAY, CHANGES IS W

FEB. 6!

• You can ADD a new Meal Plan at any time during the year • You can make one CHANGE per semester. The deadline for spring semester changes is Wednesday, Feb. 6.

• Meal Plan CANCELLATIONS are not available during the spring

STEP TWO:

Let us help!

EMAIL DINING_SERVICES@BROWN.EDU OR CALL 863-3343 WITH QUESTIONS

Contact: Dean Shannon O'Neill shannon_oneill1@brown.edu or 401-863-1367 Bruce E. Donovan '59 Dean for Recovery and Substance-Free Initiatives

• Changes may be made in person weekdays from 9:00AM to 4:00PM at the main Brown Dining office located at 144 Thayer Street (Sharpe Refectory).