Monday, April 18th, 2022

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SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2022

VOLUME CLVII, ISSUE 32

BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

METRO

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Suit plaintiffs to respond to U.’s motion to dismiss

How urban renewal helped displace one of the city’s largest Black neighborhoods

U.’s motion cited statute of limitations, “implausibly held” claims in Title IX suit

Lippitt Hill neighborhood was razed starting in 1959 by city of Providence

BY WILL KUBZANSKY UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR After the University filed a motion in March to dismiss Soenen et al. v. Brown — the class-action lawsuit filed August 2021 that claims that the University fails to protect students from sexual violence — plaintiffs in the case expect to file their response in early May, lawyers for the plaintiffs told The Herald. The suit, which was amended in January, claimed that the University both neglected to protect students from sexual harrassment and abuse while attending Brown, including unsolicited recording, abusive relationships, assault and rape, as well as abusive professor-student relationships, The Herald previously reported. It additionally stated the University

“actively prevented the reporting of such harm.” By the time the amended complaint reached the Rhode Island District Court on Jan. 28, it included four named plaintiffs: Chloe Burns ’19, Taja Hirata-Epstein ’20, Katiana Soenen ’24 and Emma Dennis-Knieriem ’21. It also included an undergraduate and PhD student both under the pseudonym “Jane Doe.” They received anonymity due to the “sensitive nature of the acts perpetrated upon them,” according to court documents. On March 4, the University filed a motion asking Rhode Island District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ’80 to dismiss the case, accusing the plaintiffs of raising “implausible claims.” “This putative class action lawsuit should end at its beginning for many reasons,” the motion reads, offering three arguments in support of dismissing the case. The first argument notes that Hirata-Epstein, Burns and Dennis-Kn-

BY KATY PICKENS & RHEA RASQUINHA METRO EDITOR & SENIOR STAFF WRITER This article is part of a series on gentrification and development on the East Side of Providence. The shopping center near the University Heights apartments just south of the Mount Hope neighborhood of Providence looks like any other. A Whole Foods, McDonald’s, Petco and Staples make for a somewhat unremarkable shopping strip that University students sometimes visit to run errands or buy groceries. But while students frequent the area around the University Heights complex, the vibrant community which used to reside there is barely known, said

HERALD ARCHIVES

In 1959, the Providence Redevelopment Agency sent residents of Lippitt Hill pamphlets explaining that they had to vacate their homes. Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Dannie Ritchie MPH’03. Over 60 years ago, residential homes filled those same streets around the complex. “A predominantly African American and Cape Verdean population lived harmoniously with Jewish, Polish and Italian residents in a neighborhood that dates back to the freed slaves of the Brown family,” according to the website

for Stages of Freedom, a local nonprofit which documented the history of the neighborhood in 2017. “In this idyllic setting, families flourished, block parties brought people together, vigilant parents kept an eye on each other’s children, lively retail shops bustled and life-long friendships were formed.” This neighborhood was roughly 30 acres and was called Lippitt Hill, but residents called it by a different name.

SEE SUIT PAGE 3

SEE LIPPITT PAGE 5

SPORTS

No. 20 men’s lacrosse overcomes No. 5 Yale Offensive explosion helps Bears to 2013 win as part of postseason push

The No. 20 men’s lacrosse team (7-4, 2-2 Ivy League) upset No. 5 Yale (7-3, 3-2) by a score of 20-13 Saturday at Stevenson-Pincince Field. The matchup marked the latest installment of the Ivy League lacrosse free-for-all that features six teams ranked in the top 20 nationally. After the Bears dropped their first two conference matchups of the season to then-No. 15 Harvard and No. 9 Princeton, the win over Yale marked the Bears’ second consecutive victory against a top-10 opponent, having beaten No. 8 Penn 12-10 on April 9. Brown has now recovered to sit in a tie with Harvard for fourth place in the conference, with only the top four teams making the Ivy League tournament. There are two games left in the regular season for the Bears. “(I’m) really proud of our players,”

Briahna Joy Gray debates Glenn Loury on racism, 2020 election Page 2

MPH program applications double since pandemic

MPH program has expanded enrollment, hired new staff in response to demand

BY NICHOLAS MILLER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

U. News

UNIVERSITY NEWS

BY STELLA OLKEN-HUNT SENIOR STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

The team’s win over Yale marked the Bears’ second consecutive victory against a top-10 opponent after beating No. 8 Penn April 9. said Head Coach Mike Daly. “(It was) unbelievable for our seniors to keep the team focused even after last week’s game and they just kept grinding today.” In front of crowded bleachers and a lively crowd on the program’s Alumni Day, the Bears overwhelmed the Bulldogs with an aggressive defense and repeated attacking onslaughts for their first win over Yale since April 2016. Although they were missing injured second-leading scorer Darian Cook ’22, the Brown offense recorded a season-high 60 shots and committed

U. News Over 150 students, employees report positive COVID-19 rest results Page 3

a season-low ten turnovers. Midfielder Ryan Aughavin GS was at the forefront of nearly every Bruno attack, taking a career-high 18 shots, four of which found the back of the net. Attackers Devon McLane ’23 and Brian Antonelli ’22 each scored four goals of their own, while Cook’s replacement in the starting lineup, attacker Trevor Glavin ’23, supplied two goals and two assists in his first career start. Glavin, midfielder Jack Kelly ’24 and

SEE LACROSSE PAGE 6

Commentary Slusarewicz ’23: Dental care should be covered by all health insurance Page 4

In the two years since the onset of the pandemic, the number of applicants to Brown’s Master of Public Health programs have more than doubled. The number of applicants rose from 437 in the 2020–2021 academic year to 948 applicants this 2021-2022 academic year and 889 for the 20222023 academic year, according to a March 10, 2021 press release and an email from Terry Snook, senior data analyst at the Graduate School. Between the 2020-2021 and 20212022 academic years, the school saw an even larger increase of applications among students of color, with a 187% increase in students who identify as Black or African American and a 137% increase in applicants who identify

U. News Global Brown Center, Storytellers@Brown host festival Page 8

as Latinx. This increase exceeds national trends, which saw an increase in MPH applications of 20-30% in 2021, according to the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. The number of students enrolled in the MPH program has been slowly expanding for the past several years, according to the Brown Office of Institutional Research. Between the fall of 2012 and fall of 2020, the number of students in the public health program increased from 70 students to 96 students. In response to the increase in applications, the MPH program increased their class size to 155 students in the 2021-2022 academic year, marking an increase of about 62%. The School of Public Health does not anticipate increasing class size further for the 2022-2023 academic year, according to Megan Ranney MPH ’10, emergency physician and academic dean of Brown’s School of Public Health. “We want to maintain the quality of faculty-student interac-

SEE MPH PAGE 7

TODAY TOMORROW

DESIGNED BY MADDY CHERR ’23 DESIGNER

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ANNA RYU ’25 DESIGN EDITOR


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