Thursday, April 25th, 2024

THE BROWN DAILY HER ALD

AROUND EIGHTY STUDENTS BEGIN INDEFINITE ENCAMPMENT ON MAIN GREEN IN SUPPORT OF DIVESTMENT

Protesters also call on the University to drop charges against 41 arrested students

BY OWEN DAHLKAMP AND RYAN DOHERTY UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITORS

approximately 80 students began an indefinite encampment on the Main Green at around 6:20 a.m. Wednesday in a call for the university to divest from companies linked to the israeli government. The encampment follows similar developments across the u s. in the past week, most notably at Columbia, yale and New york university.

in a press release obtained by The herald, the protesters originally claimed that 80 students were participating. as of 8 a.m., 75 students were participating, according to encampment spokespeople.

The protesters demand that the university adhere

to a 2020 report compiled by the advisory Committee on Corporation responsibility in investment practices that recommends “divestment from companies that facilitate the israeli occupation of palestinian territory.”

activists are also calling on the university “to protect free speech on campus” and drop the charges of the 41 students arrested in a dec. 11 university hall sit-in, according to the press release.

“protest is an acceptable means of expression at Brown, but it becomes unacceptable when it violates university policies that are intended to ensure the safety of members of the Brown community and that there is no interference in the rights of others to engage in the regular operations of the university,” university spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The herald. “We have been troubled by reports of violence, harassment and intimidation at some encampments on other campuses, but we have not seen that kind of behavior at Brown. any such behavior would not be tolerated.”

This is the latest pro-palestinian protest at Brown

Encampment participants under student conduct violation review, BDC host ‘emergency rally’

Violation being processed by Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards

BY ANISHA KUMAR, AVANI GHOSH, OWEN DAHLKAMP AND RYAN DOHERTY

at 1:55 p.m., multiple students whose id information was recorded by the department of public safety officers during the encampment were notified that the Office of student Conduct and Community standards was processing a student conduct violation, according to an email shared with The herald.

The email alleged that students “were involved in an unauthorized encampment on the Main Green that was disruptive to the community and university activities … When approached about this and told to leave, you did not comply,” the email stated. it added that the Office of student Conduct is “currently processing this case” and students will “receive a separate communication about this incident soon.”

The herald could not confirm the number of students who received this email at this time.

provost Francis doyle wrote in a community-wide email yesterday that while an “encampment itself is not an arrestable offense, it is a violation of university policy” and may lead to disciplinary action “up to and including separation from the institution,” The herald previously reported.

at around 2:00 p.m., around 200 students gathered on the Main Green for an “emergency rally” organized by the Brown divest Coalition in solidarity with the indefinite encampment that began earlier today. participants chanted “From Columbia to Brown, we won’t let Gaza down” during the rally.

at the rally, lily Gardner ’26 told the crowd that students whose ids were scanned during the encampment were notified of forthcoming student conduct consequences.

“We are all ready to be id’d and we are all ready to publicly stand up and fight for palestine,” Gardner

since the beginning of the war between israel and hamas, at all of which protesters have made similar demands.

On april 17, Columbia students established a “Gaza solidarity Encampment” on the university’s south lawn. The next day, police arrested 108 protesters at Columbia. The encampment is now on its eighth day. after similar demonstrations broke out at yale and at New york university, 47 protesters from yale and 120 from Nyu were arrested on april 22. yale students who were arrested received Class a misdemeanors, the yale daily News reported. president Christina paxson p’19 p’Md’20 had previously refused to bring aCCrip’s recommendation to the Corporation — the university’s highest governing body — who makes the final decision on any divestment proposals. paxson wrote in a letter that “the recommendation did not adequately address the requirements for rigorous analysis and research as laid out in aCCrip’s charge, nor was there the requisite level of specificity in regard to divestment.”

Paxson

reaffirms

On Tuesday afternoon, provost Francis doyle sent an email to the Brown community stating that any encampments at Brown stand in violation of university policy and that any student participating could face disciplinary action from the university, “up to and including separation from the institution.” an encampment itself is not an arrestable offense, he wrote, but “any encampments or offenses violating the law — including any point at which escalating circumstances dictate the need for encampment removal — may include law enforcement response and arrest.” at approximately 6:50 a.m. members of the department of public safety began asking for student protestors’ school ids. Christian Manning, program director of military-affiliated students, reiterated the contents of doyle’s email and said students “should expect to hear from the Office of student Conduct and Community standards via email.” at around 12:35pm , Vice president for Campus life

“appropriate codes of conduct”

as

Brown’s response to encampment

Paxson also reiterated University support for freedom of expression

BY AVANI GHOSH AND KATIE JAIN NEWS EDITORS

On Wednesday evening, president Christina paxson p’19 p’Md’20 reaffirmed that the university’s response to the ongoing encampment would “rely on appropriate codes of conduct to address violations of policy” in a community-wide email.

The email also stated that Brown’s responses would not involve law enforcement unless “actions that may create a violent, intimidating, hostile or otherwise unsafe environment” arise.

paxson emphasized “Brown’s unwavering commitment to supporting academic freedom and freedom of expression within an open and respectful learning community,” writing that the university would not pursue “insidious suggestions in some national debates” about dismissing faculty and students based

on their viewpoints.

“Freedom of expression is a right that guarantees the ability of individual members of the community to express their views — period,” she wrote. “The only long-standing exception is when speech or behavior crosses the line into harassment, discrimination or intimidation.”

“i have seen no evidence of protest participants harassing or intimidating anyone up to this point, but community members are encouraged to report any incidents of bias,” paxson added.

she recognized protest as a long-standing “powerful form of expression at Brown,” but noted that it’s “unacceptable when it violates university policies that are intended to ensure the safety and security of members of the Brown community, or if it interferes with the rights of others to engage in the regular operations of the university.”

This is the second announcement issued by the university since student protestors at Columbia uni-

Estes declined to comment when asked by The herald.

in his email yesterday, doyle said that failure to present school ids “is a violation of policy.”

Brown’s Green space policy, which the university issued in October 2011, prohibits “events involving encampments on historical Greens or residential quadrangles.” historical greens include ruth

simmons, the Quiet Green and the Main Green. This portion of the policy was first established in October 2011, Clark wrote. Encampments have posed safety concerns for community leaders and administrators at other universities. at Columbia, multiple Jewish students reported antisemitic incidents over the past week, the Columbia daily spectator reported. Those concerns prompted Columbia’s rabbi Elie Buechler to recommend that Jewish students “return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved,” Buechler wrote in a sunday message to a group chat of more than 290 students.

On Monday, Columbia shifted all classes on its Morningside campus to a hybrid model until the semester ends. politicians, including New york Governor Kathy hochul and multiple members of the u s house, condemned the demonstrations and called on Columbia to improve campus safety.

in a recent Q& a published by the u niversity, Vice p resident and Chief investment Office Jane dietze said that “given today’s realities, it’s not possible to divest the way Brown did in south africa or sudan.”

dietze referred to increased reliance on external managers, which oversee 96% of Brown’s endowment, as barriers to di-

vestment. Of the 4% of the endowment the university directly invests, none are affiliated for “any of the companies discussed in the current divestment debates,” she said.

Brown’s encampment marks a continued call for divestment from companies affiliated with israel this academic year.

On Nov. 8, police arrested 20 students affiliated with Brown Jews for Ceasefire Now following a university hall sit-in; another 41 students with Brown d ivest Coalition were arrested during a dec. 11 sit-in and placed on university probation. The 41 students from the december sit-in continue to face criminal proceedings.

in February, a group of protesters partook in an eight-day hunger strike de-

manding that the Corporation “hears and considers a divestment resolution.” paxson refused to meet their demands, instead encouraging them to submit a divestment proposal to the advisory Committee on university resource Management — aCCrip’s successor. in response, the strikers argued that the aCurM proposal consideration process would take too long, saying that it could “take months — an untenable timeline given the urgency of the crisis in Gaza.”

i n an interview with The h erald, paxson said that she would “ask aCurM to fast track” divestment consideration, should a proposal be submitted.

Provost Doyle reaffirms protest policy amid encampments at peer institutions

Encampments not arrestable offenses but may face disciplinary action

BY OWEN DAHLKAMP AND RYAN DOHERTY UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITORS

p rovost Francis d oyle sent an email to community members about u niversity policy surrounding encampments on Tuesday afternoon. The email comes amid a series of national protests calling for a ceasefire in the war between i srael and h amas and on universities to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies affiliated with i srael.

d oyle wrote that while an “encampment itself is not an arrestable offense, it is a violation of u niversity policy” and may lead to disciplinary action “up to and including separation from the institution.”

“We have observed the unfortunate escalation of misconduct at encampments at other institutions,” d oyle

added, referring to protests over the ongoing war in i srael and palestine that have roiled us college campuses over the past few days. “The larger and the longer an encampment lasts, and the more disruptive it becomes, the more serious the outcomes of the conduct process will necessarily become.”

“a ny encampments or offenses violating the law — including any point at which escalating circumstances dictate the need for encampment removal — may include law enforcement response and arrest,” d oyle wrote.

On a pril 17, Columbia students established a “Gaza s olidarity Encampment” on the university’s s outh l awn. The next day, police arrested 108 protestors at Columbia. The encampment is now on its sixth day.

Faculty, student government representatives and members of the university’s executive committee condemned p resident’s Minouche s hafik decision to engage the New york police d epartment when dealing with the protest, according

to the Columbia s pectator.

Chief John Chell told the s pectator that s hafik identified the demonstration as a safety danger, not the N ypd a fter similar demonstrators broke out at yale and at New york u niversity, 47 protestors from yale and 120 from N yu were arrested on a pril 22. yale students who were arrested received Class a misdemeanors, the yale d aily News reported.

Brown’s Green s pace policy, issued in October 2011, prohibits “events involving encampments on h istorical Greens or residential quadrangles.” historical greens include ruth s immons, the Quiet Green and the Main Green.

The university’s protest policy states that “unauthorized entry and/or use of any u niversity space is prohibited,” including “occupation of any u niversity room, building, area of campus or other space controlled by the u niversity in a manner not permitted by the standard rules or policies governing operation for that space.”

The encampments have posed safety concerns for community leaders and administrators at other universities. a t Columbia, multiple Jewish students reported antisemitic incidents over the past week, the Columbia d aily s pectator reported. Those concerns prompted

Columbia’s r abbi Elie Buechler to recommend that Jewish students “return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved,” Buechler wrote in a s unday message to a group chat of more than 290 students.

On Monday, Columbia shifted all classes on its Morningside campus to a hybrid model until the semester ends.

p oliticians including New york Governor Kathy h ochul and multiple members of the u s h ouse condemned the demonstrations and called on Columbia to improve campus safety.

On a pril 19, multiple protestors at Brown held a demonstration in solidarity with the students arrested at

Columbia. The demonstration coincided with a d ay on College h ill, the u niversity’s admitted students’ day. This academic year, two u niversity h all sit-ins calling for divestment resulted in arrests and disciplinary actions.

On Nov. 8, police arrested 20 students affiliated with Brown Jews for Ceasefire Now; another 41 Brown d ivest Coalition-students were arrested and placed on u niversity probation during a second sit-in on d ec. 11. Both groups were charged under trespassing for remaining in a non-residential u niversity building after hours.

Following the shooting of h isham awartani ’25 and two other p alestinian students in Vermont, the charges against the students involved with JFCN were dropped. The 41 students arrested in d ecember still face criminal charges.

Eric Estes and several dps officers came to the main green, scanning the ids of the students participating in the encampment. Officers went around to tents, asking demonstrators to identify themselves.

said. “The risks shrink for every single (additional) person who does it.”

d uring the rally, a representative of Jews For Ceasefire Now reiterated student demands for the u niversity “to divest its endowment from all companies … enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza and the broader i sraeli occupation of palestinians as outlined by the 2019 aCC rip report and the 2024 critical edition of the a CC rip report.”

a t 6:50 a.m. and 12:35 p.m., dps officers scanned id s of students participating in the encampment.

B d C spokesperson s am s tewart ’24 wrote in a message to The h erald that

ple not participating in the encampment to offer their id s to administration to declare their support of the encampment.”

“The only response to Brown’s attempt to single out individual students encamping will be to flood them with hundreds of people willing to go on the record to student Conduct,” BdC shared in an instagram announcement.

d uring the rally, attendants were not asked to hand their id s to B d C. dps officers were not present at the rally.

i n the announcement, B d C asked students to consider their “visa status, length of time spent breaking policy, history of past conduct violations and number of policies broken” before partic-

approximately an hour after the rally concluded, organizers distributed a flier with a Qr code linking to a Google Form titled “Encampment s upport Form,” which asked students to enter their full name as appears on their Brown id card and Brown id number “to indicate support for the encampment,” according to the form obtained by The herald.

The form warns participants that by submitting their id number, they may be subject to the university’s conduct review process.

They claim that the more student id s they collect, the less likely the u niversity will “single out individual students encamping” as they believe the cause has “safety in numbers.”

versity began an encampment and the first since around 80 Brown students set up an encampment on the Main Green this morning.

provost Francis doyle sent an email Tuesday afternoon outlining student conduct policies amid increasing college campus protests calling for a ceasefire in the war between israel and hamas and on universities to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies affiliated with israel, The herald previously reported.

While an “encampment itself is not an arrestable offense, it is a violation of university policy” and may lead to disciplinary action “up to and including separation from the institution,” doyle wrote in the email announcement.

some students whose id information

was recorded by department of Campus safety officers at the encampment received an email the same afternoon from the Office of student Conduct and Community standards, notifying them of an ongoing conduct violation case, The herald previously reported.

The herald could not confirm the number of students who received this email at this time.

according to the email, students were alleged to be “involved in an unauthorized encampment on the Main Green that was disruptive to the community and university activities … When approached about this and told to leave, you did not comply,” the email stated.

The Brown divest Coalition hosted an ‘emergency rally’ at around 2 p.m., during which speakers announced the recipient of the student conduct email and reiter-

ated their demand for the university “to divest its endowment from all companies … enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza and the broader israeli occupation of palestinians as outlined by the 2019 aCCrip report and the 2024 critical edition of the aCCrip report.”

“We have not experienced the troubling incidents that have been reported on some campuses, but we also recognize that external actors have participated in encampment and protest activities on other campuses across the country, presenting significant challenges,” paxson wrote in her statement.

The university is “closely monitoring the situation” and that “unaffiliated individuals who come onto the campus to protest or counter-protest will be asked to leave, and escorted from campus if they refuse,” she wrote.

PAXSON FROM PAGE 1

100

rally to support

pro-Palestine students from Columbia during ADOCH

BSI installation pays tribute to 130 hostages in Gaza, assembled ahead of ADOCH

admitted students and their families toured campus.

While the installation was planned “weeks ago,” B si did not plan the display with ad OC h in mind, Zang said.

BY TOM LI AND AVANI GHOSH METRO EDITORS

Brown s tudents for i srael organized an installation on the Quiet Green to pay tribute to the approximately 130 hostages believed to be held in Gaza during the ongoing i srael- h amas war.

B si ’s installation features two long dinner tables set up with chairs and plates, each of which represents “an empty seat at a p assover s eder table that should be occupied by a hostage,” wrote Victoria Zang ’26, a member of B si ’s executive board, in a message to The h erald.

The installation coincided with a campus rally in support of pro- p alestine demonstrators arrested at Columbia. Organizers of both demonstrations said they had been unaware of the other’s activities. i t also coincided with a d ay on College h ill, during which

But she said B si was “happy it could coincide with ad OC h so that prospective students could join us in commemorating the hostages still brutally held in Gaza.” Chabad at Brown and Brown- risd h illel supported the event as well, Zang added.

i n the Jewish tradition, p assover celebrations are characterized by a seder on the first or second night of the holiday. s eder is a religious service set around a dinner table, where family members gather to eat and pray, among other activities.

Organizers taped pictures of individual hostages to each chair. The installation also featured teddy bears to “represent the children held hostage” and flowers as “persisting images of hope that (the hostages) will be brought home,” Zang wrote.

“Next week marks 200 days

Protest coincided with pro-Israel demonstration by BSI in support of hostages

BY TOM LI AND AVANI GHOSH METRO EDITORS

On Friday, around 100 students rallied in support of the 113 pro-palestinian demonstrators arrested at Columbia university on Thursday.

The protest intentionally coincided with a day on College hill, during which admitted students and their families toured campus. i t also coincided with an installation by Brown s tudents for israel which paid tribute to approximately 130 hostages believed to be held in Gaza during the ongoing israel- h amas war.

Organizers of both demonstrations said they had been unaware of the other’s activities. at around noon, the protesters gathered at the intersection of George and Brown s treets as ad OC h attendees passed by.

Organizers said that the demonstrations by the Brown d ivest Coalition and Jews for Ceasefire Now came as a response to the arrest of student activists who had been camping on Columbia’s campus and calling for divestment from israel.

a B d C statement shared with The herald described Columbia’s deployment of the New york police d epartment and Brown’s pursuit of criminal convictions as “instances of the rise in police presence and arrests in universities’ responses to student activism.

The statement also noted that many of Brown’s accomplishments, “including the establishment of the Open Curriculum, need-blind admissions, the Brown Center for s tudents of Color and divestment from south african apartheid,” came on the tail of student activist campaigns.

“incoming students ought to be aware of the true history of Brown’s response

to student activism,” the statement read.

The BdC also organized around a dozen people to chronicle nearly 251 years of activism on the u niversity’s campus on the sidewalks of the ruth J. simmons Quadrangle using chalk.

sam Theoharis ’24, one of the demonstration’s lead organizers, told The herald that BdC planned for their activities to coincide with adOCh programming. “This is a history that we’re really proud of,” he said. “We want to share this history with both current students and prospective students alike.”

Theoharis said he hoped visiting students would come away with the impression that “student activism in particular is inseparable from Brown.”

“protests are a lot of the reason why Brown has become the diverse community that it is,” said sarah Ogundare ’24, one of the other lead organizers of the demonstration. “part of acknowledging that history is also carrying that forward.”

Both Theoharis and Ogundare said that there has been “an escalation in university repression” towards activism on campus, referring to the 61 arrests over two sit-ins at university hall in 2023. The university has escalated consequences between the first group of 20 demonstrators and the second group of 41, The herald previously reported.

The u niversity did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

This is the second year in a row that activist demonstrations have coincided with ad OC h a t last year’s admitted students’ day, s unrise Brown and s tudents for Educational Equity hosted a rally calling for Brown to increase its voluntary payments to the city of providence, commonly known as payments in lieu of Taxes, or pilOT agreements. The city council approved additional payment agreements in October 2023.

Additional reporting by Ryan Doherty and Owen Dahlkamp

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 19, 2024

the hostages were taken captive,” Zang wrote. s he added that the official 200day mark falls on the Jewish holiday of p assover, so “in observance of the holiday,” B si chose to install the display a few days earlier. p assover begins

Monday and will last until a pril 30.

“B si always welcomes campus discourse,” Zang said. “We hope that our display faithfully represents the desperate need to bring home these innocent civilians.”

This is the second year in a row that activist demonstrations have coincided with ad OC h a t last year’s admitted students’ day, s unrise Brown and s tudents for Educational Equity hosted a rally calling for Brown to increase its voluntary payments to the city of p rovidence, commonly known as p ayments in l ieu of Taxes, or pil OT agreements.

The city council approved additional payment agreements in October 2023.

Additional reporting by Ryan Doherty and Owen Dahlkamp

This

Installation coincided with ADOCH demonstration by BDC, JFCN

UCS calls on Paxson to drop charges against 41 arrested students

ufacturers and companies affiliated with israel, The herald previously reported.

university spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The herald at the time.

BY JULIANNA CHANG UNIVRSITY NEWS EDITOR

The u ndergraduate Council of s tudents released a statement Tuesday evening calling on p resident paxson p’19 p’Md’20 to drop the criminal charges against the 41 Brown students who were arrested in a d ec. 11 sit-in or “to consider an alternative resolution pathway outside the criminal justice system,” according to an email sent to undergraduate students. The statement came on the same day as an email from provost Francis doyle to community members reaffirming university policy surrounding encampments. d oyle’s email is sent amidst a series of national protests calling for a ceasefire in the war between israel and hamas and on universities to divest from weapons man-

i n the d ec. 11 sit-in, students demanded that paxson call for a ceasefire in the war between israel and hamas and support divestment from “israeli military occupation,” The herald previously reported.

The uCs statement points to a Nov. 8 sit-in organized by Jews for Ceasefire Now, during which 20 students were arrested for trespassing. The students refused to leave university hall until paxson committed to “include and support a divestment resolution in the next meeting of the Brown Corporation,” the university’s highest governing body, The herald previously reported.

“after offering students every opportunity for a different outcome, Brown issued multiple trespass warnings and ultimately moved forward in arresting approximately 20 (students) who refused to leave a campus building where their presence after operating hours posed security concerns,”

On Nov. 27, the university requested that providence’s City solicitor’s Office dismiss the charges against the 20 students arrested in the Nov. 8 sit-in. The decision came two days after hisham awartani ’25 was injured in a shooting in Vermont, during which three palestinian college students were shot, The herald previously reported. The city approved the university’s request.

p axson hoped that dropping the charges would “help refocus attention on issues that are important to us as a community” instead of being “distracted by other things that are divisive,” she told The herald at the time. paxson emphasized that dropping the charges did not set a precedent.

“i do want to stress that university hall does not have 24-hour access, and we take trespass seriously and we will continue to do that in the future,” paxson told The herald at the time.

BUCC to vote today on student charges, divestment proposal recommendations

Vote to take place amid Main Green encampment, national protests

BY ANISHA KUMAR UNIVERSITY

The Brown u niversity Community Council is set to vote on two motions concerning student calls for divestment at a special meeting Thursday afternoon.

i f the first motion passes, B u CC would recommend to p resident Christina p axson p ’19 p ’M d ’20 that the u niversity drop charges against 41 students arrested in a d ec. 11 sit-in.

i f the second passes, B u CC would recommend that the Brown d ivest Coalition be allowed to present their case for divestment from “companies

which profit from human rights abuses in p alestine” to the Corporation, the u niversity’s highest governing body.

The vote will take place as students enter the second day of a Main Green encampment in support of divestment, mirroring similar protests on campuses across the country.

The B u CC is a 38-member u niversity advisory body made up of current undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, faculty, staff, trustees and administrators. The council is charged with the ability to “consider and advance questions of u niversity community policy, the governing of the u niversity … and to make recommendations regarding any such matters to the appropriate decision making bodies,” according to its website.

The vote was pushed from last Monday after p rovost Francis J. d oyle brought a motion to postpone it due to paxson’s absence. a t the time, paxson was in virtual attendance at the council meeting. s ince then, Thursday’s vote has been moved to Zoom.

The meeting was moved virtually “to maximize opportunities for attendance and ensure that voting can be done via online polls,” according to an internal email to B u CC members reviewed by The h erald.

unlike traditional B u CC meetings, which offer a half-hour public comment period at the end, the special meeting will be limited to one hour.

The special meeting will take place from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon and is open to all Brown community members.

The uCs statement noted that the 41 students arrested on dec. 11 “went forward with their protest knowing that the university would dole out consequences in accordance with past policies and accepted that as a premise of their protest.”

according to the statement, the 41 students and the university community were “not aware of key information relating to the university’s engagement” with the 20 students arrested in the first sit-in on Nov. 8.

according to the statement, before the Vermont shooting, a legal counsel emailed the 20 students about an offer the university made to “dismiss the charges upon some conditions, such as community service or a monetary contribution.”

“it is not presently clear why the university has not offered the second group of students — who mirrored the actions of the first in practically every way — the same possibility for alternative resolution it offered the first group,” uCs wrote in the statement.

“Offering an alternative resolution would demonstrate the university’s commitment to free speech, restorative justice, and fair treatment for students of diverse backgrounds,” the Council added.

But the university denied making any conditional offer to drop the charges. “it’s highly unfortunate that uCs did not seek to confirm this false statement with the university,” senior Vice president of Communications Cass Cliatt wrote in an email to The herald. “While we are not at liberty to speak on behalf of the solicitor, what we can say is that the university has no role in determining the outcomes allowable for violation of ri laws.”

“While the plaintiffs’ attorneys may have desired and advocated for certain outcomes, any proposals they made to the City cannot and should not be attributed to the u niversity,” Cliatt added. “Brown made no such offer.”

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 23, 2024.

Council claims unequal

U. treatment between arrested students in sit-ins

NaT hardy / hErald

According to the statement, the 41 students and the University community were “not aware of key information relating to the University’s engagement” with the 20 students arrested in the first sit-in.

UNIVERSITY NEWS

CAMPUS SPEAKER

Angela Davis speaks on social movements at BCSC’s ‘Heritage Series’

Event marked Davis’s seventh visit to the University

BY TALIA LEVINE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

h undreds of community members packed into s alomon d EC i auditorium Tuesday night to hear political activist a ngela d avis discuss social movements, history and palestine at an event hosted by the Brown Center for s tudents of Color. The talk, titled “No one is free until we are all free: discussion on Black r adicalism & Global s olidarity,” was the latest installment of BC s C’s “ h eritage s eries.”

a t the start of the event, BC s C student workers, many of whom wore keffiyehs, welcomed u niversity p rofessor of s ocial s cience l ina Fruzzetti, who then introduced a ngela d avis as a social activism “icon.” davis received a standing ovation from the audience.

d avis stated her excitement to be “on this campus at this moment” and said she has “come to really appreciate this campus and the contributions of students” over her many visits to campus in recent years.

Noting that pro- palestine advocacy is one of her greatest values, d avis shared that she “learned about the palestinian struggle from my progressive Jewish classmates” as an undergraduate at Brandeis u niversity in

UNIVERSITY INVESTMENT

the sixties.

d avis added that p alestine is a “moral litmus” test of the current time. i t’s important to “recognize (that) after all these years, vast numbers of people … are now standing up for p alestine,” she said.

d avis then discussed the importance of solidarity and the precedent the h aitian revolution set for abolishing slavery in the u nited s tates. s he then returned to the topic of the i sraeli state, sharing that many who criticize the existence of the Jewish ethnostate are, d avis believes, falsely labeled antisemitic.

“

i t’s so important to challenge antisemitism, to say no to antisemitism,” d avid added. “ i grew up in the south in a time when the Klu Klux Klan targeted Black churches, but also Jewish synagogues.” s he added that racism and antisemitism “deserve to be equally challenged.”

d avis ended her remarks by discussing systemic racism and the importance of institutions adapting to the needs of marginalized groups while dismantling practices that once marginalized these groups.

d avis then sat down across from Fruzzetti, who asked her about what activism looks like today compared to the civil rights movement.

The talk, titled “No one is free until we are all free: discussion on Black Radicalism & Global Solidarity,” was the latest installment of BCSC’s “Heritage Series.”

Then, d avis discussed sexism within the civil rights movement, saying that “women were not acknowledged” despite doing “practically all of the work.”

r egarding the Black l ives Matter movement and protests in 2020, d avis

“Nothing ever remains the same,” d avis said. “The reason why students and young people are always on the forefront of radical movements is because their ear is to the ground” and they know what is required to enact change when the moment comes, she said.

shared how institutions were being put under the microscope and “the largest mass uprising that has ever been experienced in this country” was calling for the abolishment or defunding of the police and other “repressive institutions.”

d avis ended by answering a question about the current violence in s udan, remarking that many of the world’s horrors were enabled by colonialism and that antiracist movements must be guided by the “continued struggle against colonialism.”

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 24, 2024.

Brown in talks to invest in Fortress Investment Group, Bloomberg reports

Brown is allegedly in “advanced talks” to invest in Fortress investment Group with abu d habi sovereign wealth fund

BY RYAN DOHERTY UNIVERSITY NEWS AND SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

Mubadala i nvestment Co. and BTG pactual, a Brazilian financial company, Bloomberg previously reported.

The reported deal comes at a time of increased scrutiny of Brown’s investments, including calls from stu -

dent activists to divest from companies affiliated with israel, as well as a continued push to distance the university from the fossil fuel industry.

Fortress investment Group has a majority holding in New Fortress Energy, a liquified natural gas transport company.

in 2020, p resident Christina paxson p’19 p’Md’20 wrote a letter stating the university had moved away from investing in fossil fuels, writing at the time that Brown had sold 90% of its investments in fossil fuel companies and would liquidate the remaining investments “as it becomes possible to do so.”

The decision to move away from investments in the fossil fuel industry “reflects the view that, as the world shifts to sustainable energy sources, investments in fossil fuels carry too much long-term financial risk,” she added.

“We do not plan to make new investments in fossil fuel companies unless and until they make significant progress in converting themselves into providers of sustainable energy,” paxson wrote.

The university did not respond to The herald’s request for comment.

The Brown i nvestment Office considers environmental, social and governance principles to assess a company’s societal impact. These include carbon emissions, “corporate political contributions” and “diversity issues,” according to its website. Of Brown’s endowment, 25% is managed by formal E s G policy.

The u niversity did not respond to The herald’s request for comment about Brown’s EsG policy regarding investments in companies with a significant stake in the fossil fuel industry.

Jane d ietze, Brown’s chief investment officer, previously served as a managing director at Fortress investment Group and is currently on the

company’s Board of d irectors.

d ietze did not respond to The herald’s request for comment on her affiliation to the company. s he also did not respond to questions about how the investment Office considers conflicts of interest in the investment process.

The u s . Committee on Foreign i nvestment is currently reviewing Mubadala’s acquisition of Fortress, and Mubadala has been seeking co-investors from u s . entities to pass security checks, Bloomberg also reported.

Mubadala is a sovereign wealth fund of the Emirate of a bu d habi founded after a merger between i nternational p etroleum i nvestment Company and Mubadala d evelopment Company.

i n May 2023, Mubadala agreed to buy 90% of the holdings in Fortress that were owned by s oftBank Group Corp., a Japanese company. s oftBank did not have control of day-to-day operations at Fortress.

Following the deal, Mubadala has sought u s . co-investors to pass regulations and review by the u s Committee on Foreign i nvestment. Mubadala currently holds a 10% stake in Fortress.

s pokespeople from Fortress and BTG declined Bloomberg’s request for comment. Mubadala also did not respond to Bloomberg’s request.

Group has majority holding in liquified natural gas transport company

Jane Dietze, Brown’s chief investment officer, previously served as a managing director at Fortress Investment Group and is currently on the company’s Board of Directors.

BCA addresses Spring Weekend funding, artist selection process

Concert Agency secured $405,000 budget for 2324 academic year

BY ANISHA KUMAR AND JULIANNA CHANG UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITORS

Earlier this month, the Brown Concert a gency received widespread criticism for its lineup selection and poster design for this year’s s pring Weekend, which is set to occur on s unday.

The backlash also raised questions about how BC a allocated funding it received from the u ndergraduate Finance Board and other u niversity offices. l ast year, u FB spent most of its $1.2 million surplus, leading to a funding crisis that has affected most student groups on campus.

The h erald spoke with BC a Coh eads Catherine yang ’24 and Brian Wang ’24 about the agency’s behindthe-scenes finances.

This year BC a’s total s pring Weekend budget amounted to $405,000. Beyond the budget initially allocated by u FB, the agency also secured supplementary funding and a $80,000 grant from the Office of i nstitutional Equity and d iversity.

a ccording to public u FB data, the concert agency received around $300,000 in funding from the board this academic year, compared to around $550,000 last year. Outgoing

u FB Chair a rjun Chopra ’25 told The h erald that u FB has “always treated (BC a) a little differently” when allocating funding due to the scope of s pring Weekend.

Chopra added that, due to nondisclosure agreements BC a signs with artists, u FB exercises less oversight over the Concert a gency’s finances than other groups. “ u FB’s only authority over BC a at this time is to decide upon a single-sum budget,” Chopra wrote in a message to The h erald.

l ike other student organizations, BC a is still required to provide u FB with a “very detailed breakdown of” their expenses, yang said.

Wang added that every expense must be approved by the s tudent a ctivities Office.

The concert agency uses u FB funding to pay for larger costs — such as the stage — and smaller budget items like merchandise, marketing, artist hospitality and catering.

h istorically, BC a has also aimed to allocate 10% of its total budget to an emergency fund every year, which allows the agency to prepare for any unpredictable circumstances like inclement weather or inaccurate financial estimates, yang said. The emergency fund amounted to around $55,000 last year.

Wang added that a “significant number of the costs that are involved with s pring Weekend are only calculated post- s pring Weekend” due to uncertainty in event planning. “We can’t really pay for a lot of the line items up front,” he said.

a ccording to Wang, the agency may face discrepancies of thousands of dollars after the event.

r emaining funds go to the BC a’s artist budget and to an external agency that helps the organization secure

contracts with artists, according to yang. l ast year, the artist budget amounted to around $350,000.

BC a leaders were also informed by u FB last spring that the concert agency would be responsible for covering emergency medical services and event support services costs, according to Wang.

l ast fall, u FB informed all student group leaders in an email that due to the funding crisis, there would be “limitations on what is automatically covered by u FB” for event operations, The h erald previously reported.

The email stated that groups would be required to use “approved u FB funds” or “raised funds” available in their accounts” to pay for services not covered by u FB.

a t the end of last school year, BC a worked with their sa O advisor — who left their position at the beginning of this year — to create a preliminary spending plan for their $300,000 funding.

yang said this initial plan allocated $20,000 to cover new EM s and E ss costs. a fter determining all other expenses, only $125,000 were left for the artist budget — a 65% decrease from last year.

But the plan underestimated the new safety costs. “When we actually started to dig up the receipts along with our faculty advisor, we found that the total we should expect to pay for EM s and E ss was (actually) around $67,000,” Wang said.

To cover these unaccounted expenses, BC a applied for and received $25,000 in supplemental funding from u FB in February.

The agency also secured an $80,000 grant from the Office of i nstitutional Equity and d iversity — amounting to its $405,000 in total funding for the year. a

ically provides funding opportunities for “identity-based groups” but “made an exception (for BC a) because (s pring Weekend) is for the entire campus, and the money was specifically for bringing more diversity to Brown.”

yang added that BC a felt their goals of “making sure that we support diversity in terms of identity, background and genre (among) the artists performing ‘’ align with O i E d ’s goals.

The O i E d did not immediately respond to The h erald’s request for comment.

This year, BC a was only able to allocate $25,000 to its emergency fund, approximately $15,500 less than their usual 10% threshold. a ccording to yang, other items “were more expensive than (they) anticipated.”

The emergency fund is “significantly less than it should be, but still enough to give us padding,” she added. “Our estimates are more accurate than they normally are, and we’ve been putting a lot of work and energy into making sure that they stay within budget.”

Before the COV id -19 pandemic, BC a charged students $50 to attend s pring Weekend, and ticket revenue accounted for 40% of their yearly funds, The h erald previously reported.

But in a decision proposed by u FB and sa O, BC a made 2022’s s pring Weekend free of charge for students, supplementing lost ticket revenue with additional funds from u FB’s budget surplus, according to a BC a statement to The h erald earlier this year.

While u FB hoped to sustain a free s pring Weekend “forever,” the board “made it very clear to BC a that (making s pring Weekend free in 2022 was) not precedent-setting,” Chopra said. “We could only support a free s pring

Weekend for as long as we had the money to do so.”

When notified of this year’s budget cuts, BC a considered returning to a ticketed model for s pring Weekend, yang said. But the agency is unable to predict its ticket revenue with enough certainty to book artists using those projections, she said.

a s a result, “all of the money we would have hypothetically made from ticketing would only be allocated towards next year’s s pring Weekend,” yang added.

a ccording to yang, BC a “tried working with different departments and organizations on campus to provide free tickets for people who qualify or need them.” But the number of free tickets that could be provided under these conditions would have been limited.

as maintaining spring Weekend’s “accessibility” was a “bigger priority” for BCa , the agency chose to stick with its fee-free model for this year’s festival, yang said.

according to the BCa co-heads, the agency is unlikely to return to ticketing as a source of revenue.

For this year, BC a was left with a final artist budget of $150,000 to $160,000, yang said. d ue to confidentiality agreements with artists and agencies, BCa was unable to share any further specifics of the allocation of those funds with The herald.

“The artists’ budget is the only place where we were able to cut corners and make sacrifices,” yang said. “Everything else regards safety and infrastructure.”

While BCa has attempted to make its artist selection process more transparent — this year the organization circulated a campus-wide survey which garnered 764 responses — the agency must abide by nondisclosure agreements signed with artists and their

managements as soon as price quotes are received.

The Ndas make it impossible for more “democratic” student input on the artist selection process, Wang said.

i f BC a breaks confidentiality to share potential artists and costs with the larger community, they risk damaging relationships with agents and artists or facing a breach of contract, where an artist can choose not to perform and still charge their full fee.

Community members suggested on social media that BCa use their funding to secure one more popular artist rather than multiple smaller musicians. But this year’s artist budget would not be enough to secure a very popular artist, yang said.

Both yang and Wang also noted that picking one artist could narrow the concert’s scope and appeal.

“Our goal, ultimately, is to represent diverse artists and showcase different genres and put on a really good performance and festival for everyone,” yang said.

For future spring Weekends, BCa aims to return to a two-day festival and increase transparency throughout its organizational process, the co-heads told The herald.

according to yang, the agency has created a communications team to “increase (their) communication with the student body.” BCa is also trying to work with the undergraduate Council of students to help make information about spring Weekend and future surveys on artist selection more accessible.

“We want to be a place where we feel that everyone is welcome and that everyone has access to,” yang said. spring Weekend “is one of the few events on campus that really, truly unifies everyone.”

Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

I’m writing this editor’s note inside a tent at the newly established Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the Main Green. Having had little experience with activism previously, I’ve had to think quite a bit about my decision to participate. Ultimately, I found myself contemplating what it means to be a senior. This is the last edition of post- I’ll be editing, after joining the team as a copyeditor back in the fall of 2020, before I was even on campus. As I’m getting ready to leave Brown, I’ve been thinking about the world I want to live in and the communities I want to help create. I suppose most seniors have similar thoughts: the combination of reflection on the past and anxiety toward the future seems to result in a fun blend of nostalgia, idealism, and plain cold fear.

Our writers this week are also considering their tentative place in an equally unpredictable world. Our Feature writer contemplates mortality upon visiting her aging grandmother in the hospital. One Narrative writer compares their current unsteady, intangible existence to their freshman year self, while the other reflects on her identity as a writer and her time writing for post-. In A&C, one writer uses a playlist to cope with the uncertainty that follows graduation. Our other A&C writer examines Beyoncé’s recent re-emergence into the music scene in Cowboy Carter. One Lifestyle writer considers lawns and the unpredictability of life, and the other encourages mindfulness by listening to our surroundings. If you need a break from the fraught existentialism, our crossword this week is bigger and better than ever.

A lot in the world is uncertain, and it can be challenging to navigate such an unknown landscape. Lately, I’ve been charting my course with the goal of working toward the world I want to see. Reader, whether you too are graduating, or are just concluding your first year at Brown—I hope you, me, all of us are able to build a better world with a place for everyone. In the meantime, sit down with a copy of post-. There’s some inspiration to be found in these pages.

Eleanor Peters

Copy Chief

“So instead I will run toward you, now and

UNIVERSITY NEWS

CAMPUS SPEAKER

House Speaker Shekarchi speaks at Taubman Center Politics and Policy Lunch

Shekarchi highlighted issues of climate change inequities, gun control

BY AMBER MARCUS-BLANK STAFF WRITER

r i h ouse s peaker Joseph s hekarchi ( d -Warwick) spoke at a politics and p olicy l unch hosted by the Taubman Center for a merican p olitics and policy in s tephen r obert ’62 h all on Monday.

s hekarchi, who served as the h ouse Majority l eader from 2016 to January 2021 before his appointment to the h ouse speakership four years ago, began his career as a lobbyist and organizer. i n 2012, s hekarchi ran and won a position in r hode i sland, starting his career in the state’s legislature.

“ i ’ve always liked to engage younger people and give them a chance at (getting involved in) government,” s hekarchi said in an interview with The h erald. “ i was always very hungry for political knowledge when i was 16 … and i want to pay it forward to someone else,” he added.

Wendy s chiller, the director of the Taubman Center and a professor of political science, told The h erald

GRADUATE STUDENTS

that she hoped to bring up pressing issues facing the state during the conversation. s hekarchi ended up discussing climate change equity and gun control.

s hekarchi outlined his accomplishments as s peaker of the h ouse, highlighting what he considers to be the “single most important thing we’ve done” — passing the a ct on Climate in 2021.

The act, which was passed in the r i . General a ssembly as h 5445 a and s 0078 a , stipulates that “the state will develop a plan to incrementally reduce climate emissions to net-zero by 2050,” according to a press release from the r i . General a ssembly.

The act calls for a process that enables populations most affected by “pollution, displacement, energy burden and cost” to provide their input for “an equitable transition to climate compliance.” The legislation also aims to identify areas of support for workers to help them transition into clean energy jobs.

s hekarchi also discussed the s afe s torage Bill — passed in the r i s enate as s 2202 — which focuses on providing stronger gun security in the state.

a ccording to a press release from

the r i . General a ssembly, the bill requires all firearms to “be stored in a locked container or equipped with a tamper-resistant mechanical lock or other safety device properly engaged” when not in use by an authorized person.

Violations of this would result in a $250 fine for the first offense and $1000 fine for the second offense. i ts companion bill, h 7373, was held for further review by the h ouse Judiciary Committee.

i sabel h ernandez ’26 reflected on her biggest takeaways from the event, which included learning about the uniqueness of r hode i sland politics and its focus on collaboration, given its smaller legislature.

The event was “really valuable be -

s hekarchi concluded the event by highlighting the importance of personal narratives in passing legislation, drawing upon the passage of the Marriage Equality a ct as an example. “The personalization of politics, for me, has always been an effective way of getting things done,” he said.

cause it allowed me to get some pretty big insights into the actual social dynamics of politics and what happens behind the scenes,” h ernandez said. s hekarchi said that one of his biggest hopes for the event was to inspire attendees to be more involved in r hode i sland politics, adding that college students “can play a role” in catalyzing change.

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 22, 2024.

PhD candidates, GLO discuss partial denials of COVID funding extension

Brown says some applications did not justify full funding

BY ETHAN SCHENKER AND GRACE HU SENIOR STAFF WRITERS

Following an uptick in sixth-year phd students reporting that their requests for a yearlong COVid-related funding extension had been partially denied by the university, Graduate labor Organization leaders are accusing the university of violating “the spirit” of a clause in a 2023 side letter to GlO’s second contract with the university. dean of the Graduate school Thomas lewis ’90 wrote in an email to The herald that 11 graduate students were not given the full COVid extension requested, but noted that these students may apply for appeals. according to lewis, the “vast majority of students who applied for extensions” were approved for the full length of their request, and “no one who applied was denied an extension,” emphasizing that all applicants received at least a portion of the extension length they requested.

The clause expanded on a similar side letter in GlO’s 2020 contract, enabling students who were in their first or second year of study in the spring of 2020 to apply for the university’s COVid appointment Extension program. The extension program provides “up to two semesters and one summer” of extended funding to graduate students whose degree progress was impacted by the pandemic. a typical phd program often lasts six years, though completion times can vary for individual students.

sixth-year phd students applying for an extension under the program submitted their requests in March and began receiving application decisions in early april. This year, according to GlO leaders and

program applicants, phd candidates have witnessed an “unprecedented” number of cases in which applicants were not granted the full length of the extensions they requested.

lewis wrote that the Graduate school did “see an uptick in the number of applications where the application materials initially submitted did not justify the length requested.” as a result, the university declined to grant full extensions to more students this year than in previous years.

But according to GlO leaders and several students who applied for the extension, doctoral students created long-term academic and financial plans based on a belief that all requests would be granted in full.

“The understanding has been, to date, that ‘up to one year’ means if you’re applying for a year, you know that’s what you’re going to receive,” GlO’s political director Michael Ziegler said. “We’re seemingly seeing a much more stringent process — one that really breaks significantly with this past precedent.”

GlO hosted an internal COVid Extension Emergency Meeting on Thursday night to determine how the union will proceed.

“We’re seeking greater transparency about the process and asking for a return to graduate inclusion in the decision-making process and a full year for all who requested it,” Ziegler wrote in a message to The herald after the meeting.

Ziegler added that some graduate students who applied for extensions still have not heard back from the university with a decision.

Goutam piduri Gs applied for an extension in March and was granted a full seventh year of funding. he said that based on historical precedent, he and his advisors believed that once an application was submitted with advisor support, applicants were effectively guaranteed the full extension they requested.

“i realized around the end of my fifth

and beginning of my sixth year that i would require seven (years) to bring my dissertation to a stage that i wanted and also do all these professional things like go to conferences,” he said. “When i got the (decision), i was obviously relieved and happy to know that my plans wouldn’t have to change on short notice.”

sixth-year phd student alessandro Moghrabi Gs, who wwwapplied for an extension through spring 2025 but was only granted funding for the summer and fall of 2024, was under the same impression. “(during) extensive interactions with the administration, they always made us understand that it was also in their plans and in their interest to grant these extensions liberally,” said Moghrabi, who formerly served on GlO’s bargaining committee and as its Vice president.

“Full-year extensions have never been automatically needed or granted,” lewis wrote. “While different cohorts have gone through the appointment extension application process, the principles used to evaluate applications have remained consistent.”

according to lewis, the original side letter limited eligibility for the extension to graduate students who were in their third, fourth or fifth year of study when the pandemic began “because they were the ones most likely to be engaged in research that would be delayed as a result of the pandemic.”

as a result, the increase in students who were only granted a partial extension “may reflect that as we move further from the height of the pandemic, we will see a diminishment in the impact, compared to earlier cohorts of students,” he wrote.

The original 2020 side letter established a committee charged with determining “the criteria for the awarding of a COVid-19 appointment Extension.”

The letter stipulated that the committee would comprise administrators and faculty

members appointed by the dean of the Graduate school, as well as four students appointed jointly by the Graduate student Council and GlO.

“Following the establishment of the criteria it will be the responsibility of the Graduate school to administer COVid-19 appointment Extensions, including responsibility for determining whether or not students requesting the extension meet the criteria,” the side letter continued.

But GsC and GlO also nominated students to the committee in 2022, which at that point “was charged with ensuring that appointment extensions are granted according to the criteria established previously by the committee,” GsC president Farha Mithila Gs wrote in an email to The herald.

The committee also “acted as an adjudicator when a graduate student appeals a denied extension,” she wrote.

Mithila wrote that after graduate students were partially denied their extensions, GsC inquired as to the status of the committee, to which the Graduate school informed them that “there was an internal policy change and the graduate students in the committees were no longer part of the current committee.”

a ccording to Mithila, G s C bylaws dictate that committees that include GsC-nominated graduate students are required to relate any policy changes to GsC. in this case, Mithila wrote that “there was no such communication.”

as a result, GsC has “no idea what prompted the policy changes, how the denial decisions were made and if the appeal process (will) have better graduate representation,” Mithila wrote.

“The COVid appointment Extension Committee that was established for extensions for those students who were in years 3, 4 or 5 in spring 2020 did not need to be convened this year, because all of the students from those cohorts who applied this

spring were approved for the entire period of time that they requested,” lewis wrote in an email to The herald. “That committee was never empowered to respond to requests for extensions by later cohorts.” in an email sent to GlO representatives and reviewed by The herald, Ethan Bernstein, the executive dean of administration and finance at the Graduate school, wrote that “the university did not commit to the same appeal process for the later cohorts who were not included in the earlier COVid appointment Extension process.”

a ccording to Ziegler, G l O intends to meet with lewis to discuss the composition of the COVid-19 appointment Extension Committee.

For Moghrabi, the transition to online teaching that COVid required was “very messy and taxing” and prevented him from making progress on the qualifying exams that would enable him to begin work on his dissertation. By the time he completed his required exams, he was nearly a full year behind, he said.

Moghrabi added that he and his advisor “were depending on (the full extension) in order to be able to finish the dissertation in a timely manner, as well as make sure that the dissertation would be a strong asset on the job market.”

The appointment extension program allows applicants to submit an appeal to request additional time. a ccording to lewis, students who were not awarded the length of time they requested “were informed that they could appeal the decision and provide additional information that would justify a longer extension.”

“We look forward to facilitating the appeals process for any student who wishes to use it,” he added.

Chris NGuy

Two Brown professors win Guggenheim Fellowship

Fellowship awarded to distinguished artists, scholars, visionaries

BY JAMES MA STAFF WRITER

Matthew Guterl, a professor of africana studies and american studies, and laird hunt, a professor of literary arts, were among the 188 individuals selected from around 3,000 applicants for a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Each year, the fellowship goes to “distinguished artists, scholars, scientists, writers and other cultural visionaries” and includes funding for recipients to take a sabbatical to pursue an independent project, according to a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation press release.

i n an email to The h erald, Guterl

ADMISSIONS

wrote that he was “shocked, thrilled and humbled all at once” when he received the news.

“i have long been inspired by the work of Christina sharpe, Elizabeth h inton, Christina s nyder, Tiya Miles and Ned Blackhawk,” all of whom are fellow 2024 recipients, he added. “it is an honor to be on the page with them.”

hunt told The herald that he was in a state of “shock” and “surprise” when he found out he won the fellowship.

“

i t’s one of those things that people hope to have happen and almost never does, so it was a wonderful surprise,” he said. “ i t comes with a certain amount of validation, and it’s an honor to receive it.”

The application consists of four letters of recommendation, a career narrative, a research plan and, in many categories, writing samples.

hunt, who has written multiple novels — including the National Book award Finalist “Zorrie” — and short stories, said that he is interested in using the fellowship to write another novel set in the past.

hunt said his works often “take up moments of challenging u s . history.”

But he wants to “try something new” this time — possibly by shifting his focus away from the united states.

“i’m still evolving the idea,” he said. “it will definitely require some on-site research, (for which) the fellowship offers support.”

Guterl also plans to write a new book, which is tentatively titled, “The Troubles: Civil rights in america and Northern ireland.”

he wrote that he was inspired by the story of Bernadette devlin, a political activist from Northern ireland who toured the u s. and met with angela davis while

davis was in jail. With this book, Guterl plans to investigate “the contradictions and consequences of an unusual and unexpected affiliation across the atlantic, as a part of a history of human rights and race-relations.” he said he also hopes to unsettle people’s “conventional understandings” of the struggles of african americans during the Civil rights Movement in the u s. and the irish Catholic minority in Northern ireland.

“Much of my scholarly work is about civil rights and human rights, broadly conceived, and about the way that race shapes the alignment or misalignment of movements. so there is a continuation there, for sure,” Guterl added.

Why do men fare better than women in the college admission process?

College admissions experts discuss male, female admissions process

BY KATE BUTTS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

in the fall of 2023, Brown’s acceptance rate for male applicants was 6.9%, and the acceptance rate for female applicants was 4.2%, according to the university’s Common data set.

despite an applicant pool of 19,666 men and 31,650 women, Brown still admitted a first-year class with an almost perfect 50/50 ratio of men to women. as a whole, the undergraduate population has a male-tofemale ratio of 46/54. Federal methodology requires institutions to report applicants’ sex assigned at birth.

Brown’s admissions data mirrors a nationwide pattern: since the 1980s, female enrollment has consistently surpassed male enrollment among institutions of higher education. Brown alum peg Tyre ’83, Vice president of the EGF accelerator — an accelerator for education nonprofits — provided some insight on the topic in book “The Trouble With Boys.”

in the book, which investigates why many young boys struggle in school, Tyre explains that while gender balancing is important for colleges in order to attract applicants, it poses a challenge during the admissions process.

“Most applicants want to go to college in an environment that has a gender balance … Except girls who apply are much more qualified than boys,” she told The herald. Colleges will “put a little finger on the scale so that the differential is not greater than 60/40, because once it gets to 70/30, not only are boys not applying, but then girls don’t apply,” she added.

Tyre, citing data from the National Center for Educational statistics, attributed these numbers to higher participation in extracurricular activities and advanced classes, as well as better grades, among girls.

in her opinion, this disparity is caused by inequity in early education: Boys are more likely to be expelled from preschool and diagnosed with behavioral disorders.

This “sets a precedent,” she argues, that “school is not for” boys. she also cited differences in literacy, as boys typically fall behind girls when learning how to read at

a young age.

Once in college, the trend continues. “Boys do less well in college. They get more Cs and ds. They do less homework,” she said.

But, Tyre claims, the academic success of young girls does not directly translate to professional success. Tyre attributes this partially to the social expectations placed on women, particularly with the societal expectation of motherhood.

she also outlines a counterintuitive link between the academic excellence of young women and their underperformance in the workforce. “i think that we raise girls to be rule followers … On the other hand, men are choosier about where they’re going to expend their energy, and i think that works for them in the workforce. Men are more comfortable breaking rules,” she said.

she sympathizes with the frustrations of girls who have a harder time getting accepted into college than their male counterparts, despite their academic excellence, and called the practice of gender balancing “unfair and exhausting.” For Tyre, solving this disparity goes hand-in-hand with improving educational opportunities for young boys.

Cathleen sheils, a college counselor for solomon admissions Consulting and a former admissions officer for Cornell university, explained how this plays into her work advising students.

sheils said that gender comes up with her clients “when we have the demographic conversation,” during which she gives students information on how their race, ethnicity, where they live and their gender could impact where they are admitted.

she explains that simply being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field is no longer enough to make an application stand out.

d uring her time as an admissions counselor at Cornell, she watched as more and more women began to apply to then-male-dominated fields.

as an example, shiels pointed to animal science as “a major that… in the early 2000s, was predominantly male. Then, in 2015, 2016, it became a predominantly female applicant pool, where we actually had to act affirmatively for male applicants.”

she attributes this to the efforts to empower women to go into sTEM fields and a lack of encouragement for male students to study the humanities. “humanities and social sciences, i think, have been seen as

female majors,” she said, and urged the education system to “support young men in those fields.”

i think we’ve empowered women to be like ‘i can be anything, i can do anything,’ and now it’s reality, right? … in some ways, i think men are stepping aside,” she said. “i think the next evolution is how do we do this collectively? One doesn’t have to displace the other.”

she also attributed the diminishing number of male applicants in humanities fields to a lack of representation in educational institutions, citing a paucity of male teachers in schools.

But during the admissions process, this disparity in male and female high school performance can be an advantage for male applicants. sheils used Brown as an example, saying that “female applicants know that they are a little disadvantaged in the Brown applicant pool.” as a result, “male applicants, especially in humanities and social science, might feel like maybe Brown is a good option,” and sheils might encourage them to apply.

despite questions of fairness, sheils sees the advantages to gender balancing. ideally, we want the classroom environment to be rich with diversity of opinion and experience,” sheils said, and she believes that gender is an important piece of that diversity. she emphasized that Cornell took a “holistic” approach towards evaluating gender during her time there.

sheils was careful, though, to clarify that she sees gender balancing as something that only exists at very selective schools.

sourav Guha, the executive director of the Consortium of high achievement and success and adjunct instructor of government at Connecticut College, agreed with this sentiment. Guha also served as assistant dean of admissions at Wesleyan — an institution with a heavily female applicant pool.

his experience at Wesleyan, when compared to Connecticut College, showed him that gender balancing is primarily a concern at more prestigious institutions whose larger applicant pool allows for greater selectivity during the admissions process.

“Girls, overall, are far more successful in high school than boys,” he explained, expanding that this results in the pool of boys who meet the academic standards of the school being smaller than the pool of qualified girls. This could lead to a prob-

lem for schools with limited applicants to begin with.

“The further down you go on the pecking order, you’re gonna start running out of options,” Guha said. “The top schools will have taken the top boys, and then it’s about how much you’re willing to compromise on the academics to get closer and closer to balance.”

he has observed this trend since he began working at Wesleyan in 2001, and has only seen it become more dramatic over time, saying that “in aggregate, girls are seemingly stronger and stronger relative to boys with each passing year.”

Guha attributes this to differences in cultural expectations for men and women. he explained that at Wesleyan, the academic standards for female recruited athletes were much higher than for male recruited athletes.

“Girls typically can’t use athletic excellence as an excuse to not be good at other things, whereas masculinity in the united states operates a little bit differently,” Guha said.

he thought that a culturally held “boys will be boys” mentality causes young men to be held to a lower standard. But because male academic underperformance does not seem to translate into their careers, young men feel little pressure to work harder in school.

in hiring and promotion, whether it’s in the professoriate or corporate america or anywhere else, there are clearly still various barriers and glass ceilings for women versus men … Women have to be great, and even if you are, you might not be recognized, but a man can be mediocre and get away with it.”

Guha also highlights the parallels between how race and gender are factored into admissions. “What’s striking to me is that we take for granted that it’s natural and desirable to have that 50/50 gender balance,” he said.

Guha also said that this gender balancing differs from racial balancing as people are less likely to question whether men are “‘deserving’ or ‘qualified.’” in comparison, racial balancing often carries a stigma that causes many to doubt the qualifications of applicants with racial minority identities. another difference between racial and gender balancing is legality: while the supreme Court ruled that race-based affirmative action is unconstitutional last year, they said nothing about gender.

in a message to The herald, Emily Martin, the chief program officer at the National Women’s law Center, shed some light on the legal questions at play.

“For private institutions, federal law actually has very little to say about gender balancing in college admissions — which is a surprise to most people. This is because Title iX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education, has an exemption for undergraduate admissions to private institutions,” she wrote. “Title iX otherwise applies to private colleges — but not in admissions.”

she also touched on the 14th amendment, saying that it only applies “to state actors—that is, public colleges and universities.” Though no major court case has cast a definitive decision on the matter. in the decision which banned affirmative action in college admissions, the supreme Court was interpreting the 14th amendment in conjunction with Title iV of the Civil rights act of 1964, so while their decision applied to all colleges and universities, the 14th amendment as it relates to gender balancing may only impact public schools.

Martin speculates that colleges engage in gender balancing to create diversity so that one gender will not feel “unwelcome or out of place.”

But she points out that putting women at a disadvantage in the admissions process “feels unfair,” and she finds it “hard to argue that boys and men face social and cultural obstacles in their education that women do not and that gender balancing corrects for.”

she worries that gender balancing “can feed a stereotyped expectation that we have higher standards for women and girls while men and boys are allowed to make mistakes. in the professional world, that shows up as rewarding women for their accomplishments and men for their potential. Gender balancing in admissions can perpetuate this sort of gender stereotyping,” she wrote.

she believes that if colleges were more open about their admissions process, they could facilitate a more productive conversation about gender in academics.

if colleges “don’t want to talk about that because they are sort of ashamed of imposing higher standards for women, that’s revealing too and suggests that maybe they should shift how they approach these issues,” she said.

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Brown-affiliated study offers model to understand ancient space objects

Kuiper Belt objects may retain their original compositions from the dawn

BY ELISE HAULUND SENIOR STAFF WRITER

s ince the solar system formed over 4.5 billion years ago, planets and other objects have been subject to constant change due to heating from the s un.

But a new model developed by researchers from Brown and the s ET i i nstitute in California estimates that objects in the Kuiper Belt, the region beyond Neptune that includes p luto, still possess their “primitive” ices. The researchers’ findings were published in the scientific journal i carus.

Ever since N asa’s New h orizons team discovered Kuiper Belt Object 486958, now called a rrokoth, papers within the astrophysics community have held that its ancient volatiles — substances that vaporize readily — would all have sublimated and outgassed by now. But such models did not account for the structure of these objects, according to s am Birch, assistant professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences.

Kuiper Belt Objects, the paper found, are actually in “kind of a cryo state from the very initial formation of the planets,” Birch said.

“ i magine you have (...) a sponge that has ice in all the pores, and it’s really cold, but as it sublimates a bit, that ice in the pores of the sponge will slowly retreat towards the interior,” Birch explained. “ s o what people have said before is all that ice is gone and you’re just left with the base sponge.”

“Our idea is that these Kuiper Belt objects are not devoid of all their primitive ancient ices, but they have a lot of it still in the core, and then in the structure above that, they should have a lot of gas that’s just slowly oozing out,” he added. “ s o, we kind of think of them as bloated porous sponges.”

Birch and co-author Orkan u murhan, who works at the N asa a mes r esearch Center alongside being a s ET i senior research scientist, accounted for how the gas moves through the porous structure of a rrokoth. a fter sublimating, instead of leaving the body, the gas lingers inside the spongey “matrix,” u murhan said, which causes the surface where the ice would evaporate to be in “vapor pressure equilibrium.”

“ you probably have experienced this in your day to day,” u murhan said. “ you take some wet clothes and hang them out to dry on a really humid day versus a very dry day, and of course, on a dry day, your wet t-shirt is going to dry pretty fast, but if it’s a super humid day, it takes much longer for it to dry.”

Because the porous matrix of a rrokoth slows the volatiles’ evaporation at the extremely low temperatures in the Kuiper Belt, those trapped gasses in the outer layers of the object create “feedback” that prevent internal volatiles from then sublimating, Birch explained.

“ i n order to keep sublimating, the key thing that we inputted into the model was that you need to first get the gas that you sublimate out, and in order to get gas out, it has to flow through the sponge structure,” Birch said. a s the gas keeps getting colder and slower, “eventually it just kind of stops partway down, and you’re slowly leaking out gas, but you still preserve most of the stuff on the inside.”

u C la astrophysicist d avid Jewitt, who led the team that discovered the Kuiper Belt in 1992, noted that this new paper is only one way to understand KBOs.

“ you have many free parameters for building a model, because we don’t have many constraints about the detailed physical structure of comparable material,” Jewitt said. h e added that this new model is “probably a good one,” but that “other people have models of the same thing, and they reached the opposite conclusion.”

The Kuiper Belt is almost 3 billion miles away from Earth; it is practically

sponge-like matrix of Kuiper Belt objects slows the sublimation and outgassing of their original volatiles, potentially providing insight into the

impossible to reach and sample KBOs, according to Birch. This is why scientists instead turn to comets, which are KBOs once they get knocked into the terrestrial planet region, and much more easily accessible, Jewitt explained.

The question then becomes, according to Birch, “ h ow representative of the Kuiper Belt is a comet today?”

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 22, 2024.

At Brown’s Space Horizons, participants explore sustainability beyond Earth

Student, faculty talk event goals, experiences with space engineering

BY RHEA RASQUINHA METRO EDITOR

Next month, researchers and industry experts will gather in the h azeltine Commons for Brown’s annual s pace h orizons conference, which spotlights discussions on sustainability in space.

This is Brown’s third annual conference exploring examining topics at the intersection of space and ecology, but this year’s event transitions away from addressing how space can solve problems on Earth to determining what people are doing to space, according to

r ick Fleeter ’76 p h d ’81, adjunct associate professor of engineering and faculty lead for the event.

s pace h orizons focuses on “over the horizon” topics that are not as widely discussed in the mainstream space world, Fleeter told The h erald. “There’s always a few people out there who are thinking similarly,” he said. Through the conference, he aims to bring those people together in dialogue with one another.

Fleeter started s pace h orizons when “trying to gain acceptability” for microsatellites, a hobby of his, during his time at Brown. While working in the space industry, he learned that these microsatellites were viewed as “toys,” so he decided to hold a conference to bring

people together and pose the question: “This seems like such a great thing and nobody’s doing it — why is that?”

While the event started as a much more traditional conference with lectures and formal gatherings, it has evolved to include “guest speakers and more casual round table discussions,” wrote a lex l iu, one of the student leads, in an email to The h erald.

l iu studies industrial design at the r hode island s chool of d esign and plans to pursue a career in the aerospace industry, he wrote. h e got involved with the conference when Fleeter reached out to him about designing graphics.

l iu has designed the logos, posters and other marketing materials, and is part of risd a stro, a club that designed

and produced a lunar rover that will be featured at the conference.

Experts from N asa , the Jet p ropulsion l aboratory, European space agencies and higher education institutions will be present at this year’s event, said Jessica Jacyno ’24, the other student lead. There will be two keynote speakers, and guests will be able to cycle through different discussions and come together to share ideas.

Expert attendees include a professor at the Colorado s chool of Mines whose work focuses on concerns about using terrestrial equipment on the moon, where abrasive lunar dust can cause significant damage, Fleeter said. a nother professor will be discussing the theological basis for human imperialism in space.

The conference hopes to explore the “societal and philosophical qualms of going to a place that is not really ours and essentially colonizing it in ways that we have other land masses on Earth,” Jacyno said.

a fter taking Fleeter’s course ENGN 1760: “ d esign of s pace s ystems” last spring, Jacyno “really fell in love” with the field and “found a place in that area and something (she) was really interested in.”

s he started working with Fleeter on several different projects, and when Fleeter and his colleague discussed focusing s pace h orizons on sustainability, he brought the idea to Jacyno.

The reality of space travel is probably not going to be like civilizations from sci-fi movies that move to new planets without carbon emissions or dust, according to Zach s tellato ’26, a student organizer for the event.

While “the whole idea of going to a different planet is a little far off,”

s tellato said, “how do we not make an Earth 2.0?”

s tellato’s interest in space engineering started with a second grade school project about Mars. Ever since a 10th birthday trip with his grandparents to the Jet p ropulsion l aboratory — where the Mars rovers were built — s tellato has been “completely obsessed” with Mars and space. he took Fleeter’s course ENGN 0120B: “Crossing the s pace Chasm Through Engineering d esign,” for which he later served as a teaching assistant when Fleeter asked him to help with the conference.

s tellato, a computer science concentrator, built the event’s website and, along with Jacyno and l iu, has been involved in connecting and coordinating with experts and advertising.

s pace h orizons is free and open to all, Fleeter highlighted. “ s pace is not just for engineers,” he added.

Fleeter emphasized that s pace h orizons is a multi-departmental event: the cornerstone sponsor is the Office of s ustainability and r esiliency — a wing of the i nstitute at Brown for Environment and s ociety — and the d epartment of Earth, Environmental and p lanetary s ciences has been involved since early in the process as well.

l iu hopes that attendees “gain an awareness of the future of space exploration and take steps in preventing pollution,” he wrote.

“We’re trying to make this a more accessible field, and i want everyone to feel like this is something they can contribute to” and have the opportunity to interact with people high up in the industry, Jacyno said. “This is a field that seems like rocket science, but it’s for everyone.”

Goncalves introduces ordinance requiring council approval for bike lane removals

Council approved sending ordinance to Committee

BY CIARA MEYER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

after the City announced plans to remove the south Water street bike lane in early april, City Councilor John Goncalves ’13 Ma ’15 (Ward-1) introduced an ordinance that would require the City Council to authorize the removal of any bike lanes within the city. at a City Council meeting this Thursday, the City Council voted to refer the ordinance to Committee with 14 in support and one abstention.

“The purpose of this ordinance is to safeguard our bike lanes in the city of providence and to ensure that City Council approval is required for the removal of bike lanes,” Goncalves said during the meeting.

The City announced the intended removal on a pril 3 as a measure to alleviate traffic congestion from the Washington Bridge closure, The herald previously reported. a ccording to a City press release, when the Washington Bridge closed unexpectedly in d ecember 2023, many drivers opted to travel along local roads rather than the state highway, which led to increased traffic.

“By removing the two-way protected bike path along s outh Water s treet, we are opening up that road to two lanes of travel which will significantly improve traffic congestion in this area,” City s pokesperson Josh

TRANSPORTATION

Ciara MEyEr / hErald

At Thursday’s press conference, several families shared their opposition to the bike lane’s removal, citing safety and noise concerns.

Estrella previously wrote in an email to The herald.

“No data or traffic study has been shared by the administration to support why the Washington Bridge closure necessitates the removal of the s outh Water s treet bike lane,” Goncalves said in a press conference before Thursday’s meeting.

i n an interview with The h erald, Founder of the p rovidence s treets Coalition l iza Burkin said that encouraging individuals to “mode-shift”

— or to switch to commuting by bike or bus — would better mitigate traffic congestion.

“Expanding (bus) route service back and forth between the Bridge is the main solution” to traffic issues, Burkin said.

a t Thursday’s press conference, several families shared their opposition to the bike lane’s removal, citing safety and noise concerns.

Warren a lpert Medical s chool p rofessor Naz Firoz has lived near s outh

Water s treet for about a decade. “ i can tell you 100% that the bike lane has made the intersection 1000 times safer than it was before,” Firoz said.

Burkin said that she was almost hit by a car on s outh Water s treet before the bike lane was introduced. s ince two-way protected bike lanes — like the one on s outh Water s treet — were installed in p rovidence, pedestrian injuries have decreased by over 50%.

Goncalves emphasized the importance of giving community members

a voice in decisions about the city’s infrastructure. “We’re not just fighting against removal, we’re fighting to uphold our values,” he said. “This law ensures that any changes to bike lanes in our city align with the views of our constituents.”

“The city has been listening to feedback from neighbors and local businesses about the impact the Washington Bridge closure has had on our community, particularly involving the dramatic increase in traffic on our local roads,” Estrella previously wrote to The herald. public feedback so far has overwhelmingly fallen in opposition to the removal of the bike lane.

Burkin also emphasized the financial impact associated with removing the bike lane. The City estimated the bikelane removal and installation of a raised crosswalk on south Water street would cost $750,000, The herald previously reported.

at the press conference, Goncalves expressed gratitude for the community’s support. “This is about us, this is about the city of p rovidence, this is about our neighborhoods. it’s not about the people that are trying to rush out of the city during rush hour,” he said. some of the bike lanes’ youngest advocates kept their support short and sweet. “it’s there for safety!” said Firoz’s six-year-old daughter, suraya salganik. “i want the bike lane to stay,” said Bill Thomas’ daughter, Eleanora Thomas.

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 18, 2024.

RIPTA to reduce formerly proposed service cuts, community members weigh in

At hearing, speakers cite concerns over decreased bus frequency, routes

BY SANAI RASHID SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Over the past few weeks, the rhode island public Transit authority has held public hearings across the state, giving community members the opportunity to comment on the association’s plan to reduce formerly proposed service cuts.

in February, 11 statewide public hearings took place, according to ripTa’s director of service planning and scheduling

Ed Brown. across those hearings, over 300 attendees voiced their concerns over ripTa’s original plan to eliminate and reduce weekday and weekend service on 33 regular bus routes, he said.

ripTa’s updated proposal includes a significant decrease in the number of routes to be eliminated.

But the decrease in bus frequencies and routes, as well as segment elimination along those routes, are still cause of concern amongst community members as they consider the reliability of public transportation in the state.

Over 52,600 passengers use ripTa every day, according to the agency. But only 8% of rhode island residents have access to a transit service that runs at least every 15 minutes, which frequently leads to long waiting times and unreliability for passengers who use public transportation as their main means of travel.

in January, ripTa announced a list of service changes, citing the reduction in statewide service as a consequence of a driver shortage.

initially, ripTa proposed the regular service elimination of 11 routes, including route Qx, which connects workers in providence to Quonset Business park, and route 76 and 80, which will now merge into a new route 70.

The other nine routes slated for elimination were the “lowest performing” routes in ripTa’s system since they carried “an average of 0.4 to 5.1 passengers per trip on weekdays,” according to ripTa’s presentation at the hearings.

RIPTA raises drivers’ wages and postpones cuts

amid the February public hearings, ripTa’s Board of directors reached an agreement with the amalgamated Transit union division 618 to raise the starting driver wage from $21.71 to $25.33 per hour, according to a press release.

On March 14, the agency announced that it would postpone service changes until June 15, which were initially planned for early april.

at an april 18 hearing at the pawtucket public library, Ed Brown explained that the postponement gives ripTa “additional time to monitor things, re-look at what we decided in February and try to do the best we can to preserve more service.”

since the wage increase, ripTa has received over 200 applications for drivers, ripTa’s director of Communications

Cristy raposo perry wrote in an email to The herald. according to raposo perry, ripTa would need to hire approximately 30 new drivers to maintain current service levels and avoid service changes.”

But, due to the eight-week period before hired drivers can begin driving for ripTa , the agency is “unable to provide a timeline for reinstatement of service changes,” she added.

“We still will have canceled service because we still don’t have enough drivers to run the service that is scheduled today,” said Ed Brown.

Lingering public concern at April hearings

a round 20 community members attended the meeting at the pawtucket public library last Thursday. Nearly every attendee spoke during the public comment period, voicing concerns that ripTa’s plan to make service cuts less severe would still have a large impact on their everyday lives.

rep. Jennifer stewart (d-pawtucket) attended the hearing because she is “interested in the well-being of pawtucket as a city” and believes “that the well-being of our residents here will be harmed and compromised by any of these cuts.”

s tewart also expressed skepticism over the state achieving the climate goals it has set out, especially if “the number of people driving has to grow because they can not rely on ripTa’s service.”

Numerous attendees also made comments stating that driving in the state has

recently become more difficult because of the demolition of the i-95 Washington Bridge, which has led to heavy congestion and traffic delays, The herald previously reported.

“if you don’t want to drive or you can’t drive, you shouldn’t be forced to drive,” said Timothy Jewett, who attended the hearing. he, his wife and toddler recently moved to the Oak hill area of pawtucket because they wanted greater access to bus lines in their neighborhood.

The bus service Jewett expected to use is now proposed to be cut. “ it is unacceptable, in my opinion, because not everyone can afford to own a car … my wife needs the bus to get to childcare appointments, and for general activities like going to the beach, or grocery shopping,” he said.

d iane lamarre, a worker at a packaging company in pawtucket, said she “doesn’t know what (ripTa) is thinking, starting buses later and eliminating all of Columbus,” off of route 80.

lamarre currently takes the bus at 6:50 a.m.. if the service changes are approved, the new route 70 will not begin weekday service until 7:10 a.m. — too late for her to get to work on time.

Though ripTa did not cite a lack of funding as a reason for service cuts, several community members suggested that to be the reason for the service changes, not the bus driver shortage.

rip Ta is currently dealing with a $18-million budget deficit for the coming fiscal year, according to The providence

Journal. in March, r hode island s tate house legislators introduced a $78 million bill to help ripTa get back on track and achieve many of the goals set out in its Transit Master plan, a detailed outline of the agency’s service and environmental goals passed by the state planning Council in 2020, The herald previously reported. randall rose, a transit activist for the Kennedy plaza resilience Coalition, expressed concern about ripTa’s budget during the meeting.

“This is not the cause of some driver shortage that came out of nowhere,” rose said. “state leaders are not willing to provide the funding for ripTa that reflects the benefit ripTa provides: allowing people around the state to get where they need to go and helping the environment.”

John Flaherty, the d eputy d irector for Grow smart ri, said that “The only way that ripTa is going to grow ridership among non-riders … is to increase convenience, frequency and trip times. We’re moving in exactly the opposite direction with these cuts,” he added.

some community members expressed hope about the potential of the hearings to effect change. “Things can change … even in bureaucracy. The wheels can (turn) toward our way when we are given a chance to speak,” attendee daniel Blanchette said at last Thursday’s hearing.

ripTa officials will bring the revised service changes to the authority’s board now that the public hearings have commenced. i f the board approves these changes, they will go into effect on June 15.

SPORTS

Meet BMo and Shiver, Brown’s Frisbee Powerhouses

“Most people on our team come in with some amount of experience,” Egan said. “But there’s always one or two guys that come in with no experience.”

BY COOPER HERMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

it’s not unusual for Brown’s varsity sports teams to draw attention from the wider student body from time to time. But one of Brown’s most successful programs is not a varsity team, and it’s one whose tremendous accomplishments tend to go unsung: club ultimate frisbee.

Bruno’s frisbee boasts two a squads that consistently compete at the national level: the men’s team, “BMo,” and the women’s and gender-expansive team, “shiver.” Both groups have achieved astounding success in recent years while building upon the program’s winning tradition and flying relatively under the radar.

Jason Tapper ’26, one of few BMo players who joined with no prior ultimate frisbee experience, said that he “always wanted to play organized ultimate” and that his past athletic experiences aided the transition. “i played lacrosse in high school, so a lot of the movements are similar, especially in cutting and field sense,” Tapper said.

For players who don’t make BMo and shiver — Brown’s a teams — they still have a shot at the university’s B teams, polyester Funkadelic (“pFunkFunk”) and Cosmic rays (or “Corays”), as well as C teams.

To maintain its national prestige and reputation, BMo participates in tournaments across the country against other nationally ranked opponents — but

“Our alumni network is fantastic,” Moran said. “This team only exists because of them. We have guys dating back to the team’s founding in 1975 that are still involved. They keep it financially accessible for all players.”

despite its exhausting travel sched-

BMo, short for Brownian Motion, has topped the national rankings, having advanced to national finals in 2022 after winning their third national championship in 2019. They’ve also excelled in talent development: the team has produced five winners of the Callahan, an award given to the country’s best frisbee player and widely considered the sport’s most prestigious award.

azeez adeyemi ’21 and John randolph ’22 claimed consecutive Callahan victories in 2021 and 2022. Today, BMo is ranked as the 10th best team in the nation, representing the sole ivy league school in the men’s division i top 25.

“There’s definitely a sense of culture on the team,” andy Burris ’25 said. “Everyone has bought into winning.”

Though the bulk of their season falls in mid-spring, BMo hits the ground early, running five-week tryouts starting in september. head Coach Jake smart — a former National Champion for Wisconsin — picked from over 100 prospective players to replace the team’s recent graduates, according to BMo co-captain Caleb Moran ’25.

“We have a lot less high-level experience than some of these other schools, but our coaching staff is really good at finding people’s strengths and helping them build on those to have a role on the team over a long period of time,” henry Egan ’25 told The herald.

not routinely against other ivy league schools, like most sports at Brown do. instead, Moran called the university of North Carolina BMo’s “fiercest” rival, having knocked Brown out of playoff contention in each of the past two seasons. The tournaments that BMo competes in require flights, lengthy drives and lodging — all of which cost far more than the annual stipend they receive as a club sport. This season alone, the team has traveled to Florida, Tennessee, south Carolina and Georgia.

Brown’s club sports receive a fund after submitting their estimated annual budget. But despite getting more money than most club sports — which the team is immensely thankful for, he added — the funding “is not enough to cover expenses at all,” Moran said.

BMo credits an outstanding alumni group, who cover roughly half of the team’s costs, for their financial generosity.

SPORTS

ule, BMo builds chemistry and tight-knit relationships on the trips. “at our last tournament, we had to drive back from North Carolina, and i was in a car with andy (Burris),” Tapper told The herald. “i had a great time and there were a lot of fun memories just being in that car.”

after finding success two weeks ago in sectionals against the university of Vermont and the university of Maine, BMo looks ahead to regionals, which will happen in Massachusetts during the first week of May. The team must finish in the top three of 16 teams in the Northeast region to advance to nationals.

“i think we’ll probably come into (regionals) as the third seed,” Egan said. “But we still need to play well enough to earn our way to nationals.”

shiver, Brown’s women’s and gender-expansive team, also boasts a rich history of success.

ranked the 24th-best women’s team

3

The number of points the softball team scored in the bottom of the sixth inning to earn a victory against Columbia.

in the country, shiver has found massive success this season. But, unlike BMo — which relies heavily on players with organized ultimate frisbee experience — shiver is more responsible for developing groups of predominantly rookie players, according to co-captain retta Karpinski ’24.

“i had never played ultimate (frisbee) before i got to campus,” Karpinski said. “i actually thought it was like hacky sack. (Eventually), i realized not only is it a real sport with super high levels of competition, especially in the region we’re in, but it’s also a huge community.”

“shiver recruits players in the fall by running tryouts where the captains make final decisions on a final roster,” Karpinski said. a fterward, the team works on developing their rookies in preparation for spring tournaments.

While their relative lack of experience provides some challenges in the off-season, Co-Captain rita Feder ’24 finds that it also brings memorable moments.

“The highlight (of the season) is usually going to a first or second tournament in the spring and seeing the skills that we’ve practiced gel together and for us to look like a fluid team,” Feder said. recently, shiver has looked nothing less than fluid, going the distance in some of the country’s most competitive tournaments.

in late February, the team traveled to Martinsville, Virginia, where they went undefeated and were crowned Commonwealth champions. Just weeks later, the squad flew to austin, TX to compete in “Centex” — an annual, ultra-competitive tournament — where they secured an unprecedented second-place finish. “it was unheard of,” said Karpinski. “We broke seed by a lot, which was really fun.”

Feder credits the sport’s “balance of

144

The total score of the women’s track team in the Mark Young Invitational, with individual wins in five events.

competitive intensity and funny goofiness” as a crucial part of the team’s success. “Our team is fiercely competitive and wants to win any game that we’re in,” she said. “But we’re also on the sidelines making funny jokes.”

Between this year’s trips to Texas and Virginia, shiver, like BMo, faced intense costs. The team relies on the u niversity’s club fund, player dues and alumni donations. “We have had a huge effort recently to decrease the cost of dues,” Karpinski told The herald. “We have also had some really big fundraising efforts, especially talking with alumni.”

Nevertheless, shiver collects significantly less funding than their men’s counterpart. BMo, in an email to their alumni, announced a pledge to help shiver fundraise an additional $5,000 for their season, writing that “our peers on s hiver deserve to have access to high-level competition like we do.”

last weekend, shiver competed in the sectionals hosted by Brown, where they qualified for regionals, which will take place on May 4 and 5 in south portland, Maine.

“For the past two years, we have been on the doorstep to nationals,” Feder said. “ usually, we have three (national) bids for our region. unfortunately, this year we only have two, so this regional tournament is going to be more competitive.” To claim a national bid at regionals, shiver will have to compete against the university of Vermont and Tufts university, both of whom are ranked in the top 10 nationally.

There is much to look forward to as both programs continue to establish themselves as national ultimate frisbee powerhouses.

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 23, 2024.

3

The amount of wins the women’s rugby team had finishing third in the 2024 Ivy 7s, beating Harvard and Princeton.

Brown’s ultimate frisbee teams ready for regional run next month

Shiver, left, puts up their signature “Shiver of Sharks” fins. BMo, right, huddles after sectional wins against UMass and Vermont.

COOpEr hErMaN / hErald

Softball takes series in 2-1 comeback against Columbia

Bruno reverses result on Columbia to claim backto-back series wins

BY DENNIS CAREY SPORTS EDITOR

The softball team (15-20, 7-8 ivy) took on Columbia (14-20, 8-7 ivy) this past weekend in a three-game series in providence. after dropping the first game to the lions, the Bears reversed the result, winning the next two and taking home their seventh win out of the last 10 games.

“This series was a big one,” pitcher alexis Guevara ’25 wrote in an email to The herald. “We want to win every game, but this weekend was a huge step for setting us up to make the ivy league tournament.”

The first game was slow for both teams offensively. Both were held to “three-up, three-down” innings in the first, unable to establish a base runner. But in the third, Guevara conceded a lead-off triple to give the lions a runner in scoring position.

Guevara rallied to strike out the next batter and pop up the second, earning two outs, but conceding a sac fly rBi in the process. after a ground-out to second ended Columbia’s second inning threat, the Bears were down 1-0 with five to play.

Bruno continued its slow offensive start, unable to get a hit during the first four innings. They managed three base-runners — all coming off walks — but the Bruno hitting unit left them stranded and unable to get on the scoreboard.

The Bears finally managed to open the game up in the bottom of the fifth, after leah Carey ’25 managed a single on an 0-2 count to get the Bears’ first hit of the game. Vanessa alexander ’25 made contact next and, though unable to reach first, she advanced Carey into scoring position.

With two outs against the Bears, laurel Moody ’25 launched a double to left center, scoring Carey for the Bears’ first — and only — run of the game.

“This weekend, i focused on sticking to my plan when i went up to the plate and

trusting all of the work i had put in,” Moody wrote in an email to The herald. “i knew that if i got on base my teammates would have my back and if i came up with runners in scoring position, i knew i needed to step up for the team.”

The score stayed locked up until the top of the seventh, when Guevara conceded a leadoff solo shot to give the lions the advantage. Guevara gave up one more single before getting the third batter on a pop-up. Just as the inning was turning around, the lions launched a two-run blast, taking the game out of the Bears’ hands and prompting Guevara’s removal from the mound. despite Jodie aguirre ’24 taking out the last two batters in the top of the seventh, Bruno was unable to strike back in the bottom of the seventh. They sent three batters to the plate and none reached base, closing the first game out with a Bruno loss. later that afternoon, the Bears and lions squared off on the diamond once again. after their first loss, the Bears would have to win the next two games to take the home series.

Bruno opened up the second game much stronger, with the top of the order notching two early base-runners in Moody and lily Berlinger ’26. and after Cameron Zytkewicz ray ’26 was hit by a pitch, Bruno had the bases loaded with one out.

dara English ’24 managed a single on a fielder’s choice, scoring Moody for Bruno’s first lead of the weekend. But Brianna rodrgiuez ’24 hit into a double play, ending the inning with only one run for Bruno, stranding two baserunners.

after a scoreless second, Columbia fought back, as aguirre allowed two runs before Bruno grabbed two late outs to shut down the Columbia attack.

Bruno was held behind for three innings, before they got their chance in the bottom of the fifth. after immediately giving up two outs, the Bears rallied to go on a scoring run to take the lead back from Columbia. Berlinger reached on a walk and then stole second to get into scoring position. Jasmine hsiao ’26 launched an rBi

single to score Berlinger and tie the game. hsiao stole second and English slammed another single to right-center to notch the go-ahead run.

“Even though we lost the first game, we gained momentum during the second game on saturday, where Jodie (aguirre) and Macy did a great job working to get us a win,” Guevara wrote.

Neither team managed to score again, giving Bruno the victory without having to play the bottom of the seventh.

in the third game, Bruno managed to reverse the first game’s result, coming from behind late to snatch the game from the lions’ grasp.

With Guevara back on the mound, the Bears were looking to close out the home series with a much-needed victory. Guevara let up two solo shots in the second and third innings to give Columbia a 2-0 advantage, but beyond those two at-bats pitched a complete game only conceding five hits total.

after saturday’s loss, i felt motivated.

i wanted the ball and wanted the chance to come back and attack Columbia’s hitters,” she wrote. “i felt like i learned from my performance on saturday, and used that to keep their offense down on sunday.”

it wasn’t until the bottom of the sixth when Bruno managed to get their bats going. after Moody launched a double on a 0-2 count to lead-off the inning, Berlinger walked to put runners on first and second with no outs.

“Going into the sixth inning, our team was determined and fired up to make a comeback in this game,” Moody wrote. leading off in this situation is stressful and pressurized, but as a player, i know that i have to be there for my team.”

h siao flew out, giving Columbia a breath, but was followed up by a Zytkewicz ray single to load the bases. English knocked a sac fly into play, advancing the runners and scoring Kaicee Klus ’27 — who was pitch-running for Moody — to bring the game within one. With two outs and two players on, rodriguez belted a

first pitch double to left center scoring alyssa Villarde ’27 — pitch-running for Zytkewicz ray — and Berlinger for the winning run.

Guevara let up two baserunners early in the top of the seventh, but managed to get three clutch outs late in the seventh to get Bruno the game and series win.

“it felt great to get that win and take the series,” Guevara wrote. “Our energy and drive were unmatched, so i did not doubt that we were going to do what was needed to win.”

Next weekend, Bruno heads to princeton for their penultimate ivy series. “We are intent on giving all we can at princeton this weekend and in our last weekend against penn,” Moody wrote. “These games are huge for us to go to the i vy league tournament and every person on our team is committed to that process.”

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 22, 2024.

Mia Mascone ’24 breaks single-season points record as Bears fall to Penn

Mascone now ranks first nationally in points per-game

BY GUS BAILEY

senior Mia Mascone ’24 shattered Brown’s long-standing record for points in a single season saturday with 88 points and tied her per-game career-high with 11 points. despite such achievements, No. 23 Bears’ (9-5, 2-4 ivy) 19-13 fell to No. 3 penn (11-3, 4-2).

trolled the final three quarters, outscoring the Bears 15-8 over that time span.

“penn has a really strong zone defense, but we came out hot and were able to put up five goals in the first quarter,” annie Burton ‘25 wrote in an email to The herald. “penn made some adjustments and definitely made it more challenging throughout the rest of the game than it was in the first quarter.”

Mascone’s performance was nothing short of sensational. scoring five goals and tallying six assists, she finished the day with a staggering 88-point season total, smashing the record for most points in a single season in school history. The previous 78-point record was previously set by lauren Becker ’87 in 1986.

Mascone’s 11 points tied her career-high for a single game while her 6.29 points per game tied her for first in average points in ivision i this year. she holds a considerable advantage over the league’s second-highest point scorer, harvard’s riley Campbell, who averages 5.38 points per game.

On Tuesday, Mascone was named ivy eague Offensive player of the Week for the fourth time this season — another conference lead.

Mascone first found the net seventeen

seconds into the first period, tying with Becker’s record. after Burton scored to make it 2-0, penn rattled off three consecutive goals and took the lead. With just over five minutes remaining in the quarter, Mascone assisted Greta Criqui ’25 to tie the game, cementing her place in the record books.

she “is an incredible player, teammate and leader,” Coach Katrina dowd wrote about Mascone. “she has elevated our team play and helps our offense be dangerous. she is a special player and is having a great season.”

Mascone credited her teammates and coaches for her success. “it’s a testament to what our staff has built offensively in just one year, and my teammates who create scoring opportunities for me,” she wrote.

While it was a big day for Mascone, Bruno struggled offensively at times, especially in the second half.

despite the unfavorable scoreline, dowd expressed her satisfaction with the team’s offensive performance against a strong penn squad. “They are a top 10 defense in the country … i’m proud that we were able to find our rhythm, be dangerous and put in 13 goals,” she wrote.

Brown has lost three of their last four

games as they face a particularly tough part of their schedule.

“The ivy league has really elevated over the last couple of years and it is especially good this year,” Burton wrote. “it’s so fun to be in such a competitive league and to be able to compete with the best of the best. Not only is it fun but it also makes us significantly better as a team and forces us to improve.”

Bruno will look to bounce back this coming saturday against Cornell. Both coaches and players emphasized the need for energy and preparation.

“We are looking forward to improving in practice with hard work and intelligence,” dowd wrote. “Cornell is a great opponent. We have to bring our best to practice (in order) to prepare for saturday’s game.”

“One thing that we will definitely bring to the Cornell game is the fight and spirit that we had against penn,” Burton wrote.

Brown will host Cornell at 1 p.m. on april 27. The game will be streamed on EspN+.

apOOrVa TalWalKar / hErald

After dropping the first game to the Lions, the Bears reversed the result, winning the next two and taking home a win.

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Brown came out strong, leading 5-4 at the end of the first period, but Penn controlled the final three quarters, outscoring the Bears 15-8 over that time span.

COMMENTARY

Sandhu ’25: ‘I’m just a girl,’ ‘You’re just a man’ — What’s happened to accountability?

“i’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

i n an instant, a nna s cott’s tear-jerking line from the 1999 film “Notting h ill” captured my heart. With a confession of love that is so simple yet profound, a nna strips away all of the details that complicate adult relationships to reveal, at its core, a pure connection between “just a girl” and a boy.

“Norman fucking r ockwell” by l ana d el r ey captures the disheartening experience of being let down by a man:

“’Cause you’re just a man

i t’s just what you do your head in your hands

a s you color me blue”

These lyrics represent how women are so often taught to expect less from men simply because they are men, perpetuating the idea that men shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions and that women simply have to be forgiving of any of their missteps.

“Just a Girl” (1995) by No d oubt lyricizes the relentless stream of misogyny, generalizations and objectification that women fight every day, despite being “just a girl”: “Oh, i ’m just a girl, all pretty and petite

s o don’t let me have any rights”

The song’s satirical message has eternalized “Just a Girl” as a feminist anthem.

i n today’s TikTok world, the “ i ’m just a girl” trend has brought the 90s rom-com trope and l ana and s tefani’s angsty lyrics back in mode, but with a twist. For many women, it has become trendy to minimize the difficulties of the feminine experience and claim that women cannot overcome challenges on their own due to their gender. h owever, the trend begs a follow-up question: i s it truly comedic to diminish feminine capability, or is it becoming real?

While the many videos might inspire an online community of shared experiences and solidarity, it can also send the wrong message. l eaning too much into the “ i ’m just a girl” phenomenon in 2024 might unwind progressive feminist values, rendering both women and men unaccountable for their actions and capabilities.

The TikTok trend is light-hearted at its core: Girls are saying “ i ’m just a girl” as an “oopsies” when they drive over a curb or impulsively drop a hundred dollars at s ephora. h owever, there is a fine line between saying

“ i ’m just a girl” and “don’t expect anything more from me.” When women fall short of their own expectations, they sometimes conclude that they are not capable and excuse the outcome as gender-expected. Belonging to a generation where women are raised to truly believe they can achieve their dreams, it can be a nice escape from pressure to revert to a childlike girliness. But, this can not come at the cost of labeling ambition as manly and undesirable, or that women can’t still expect more from themselves than what society tells them they can expect.

Why is gender taking the place of accountability? a t the end of the day, men have been using the excuse “boys will be boys” for generations. l ana d el r ey’s lyric “ you’re just a man” has brought to our attention how women make light of the immature behavior of men, as if their gender limits their ability to behave any differently and women must come to terms with that. Maybe it is time women retaliate by making the same excuse, and in some ways, it does push back against this systemic acceptance of poor male behavior. u ltimately, though, we all should reinforce a sentiment of achievement, excel -

lence and resilience instead of avoiding accountability, regardless of gender. This trend not only allows us to evade responsibility, but also further emphasizes binary gender norms that revert the progress we’ve been making for decades.

No d oubt’s “Just a Girl” showed us how this type of complacency and infantilization of gendered behaviors is harmful. The “ i ’m just a girl” trend has begun to undermine feminism. We want more from men, but we adopt this defeatist approach where we feel like they never will get better so there is no point in expecting more. We want more for women, but shy away from being treated like competent adults. These phrases we use may seem silly and inconsequential, but social media has the power to reinforce these regressive ways of thinking. you may just be a girl, but that doesn’t put a limit on what you’re capable of.

Meher Sandhu ’25 can be reached at meher_sandhu@brown.edu. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com

Letter: Response to the recent Spring Weekend editorial

To the Editor:

i n light of recent controversy, the Editorial p age Board encouraged the Brown student body to “enjoy s pring Weekend” and suggested measures to “reduce the misunderstanding over the concert’s purpose.”

i fundamentally disagree with this perspective. r ather than accepting the concert as it is, we should work together to make s pring Weekend better.

i ’m all about realistic solutions and know that Brown Concert a gency can’t go away — nor

should it. That being said, i believe there’s a space for BC a to be reformed — which is why i am proposing two feasible solutions to reimagine how we select artists for s pring Weekend.

The first option is for BC a to create a list of potential artists and have students vote on them. This would work by BC a talking to the prospective artists’ management to see who is available given time and budget constraints, and then sharing those names for a popular vote.

h owever, this strategy assumes that artists would accept waiting for confirmation from BC a

as to whether they would actually be booked. The second option is to hold an annual vote for BC a representatives at the same time that the Class Coordinating Board, u ndergraduate Finance Board and u ndergraduate Council of s tudents representatives are elected. The election process would increase the transparency of BC a by making the selection of its members more democratic. This option would also hopefully increase the turnout for student government elections, which was an alarmingly low 21% this year.

Both of these options would allow the entire student body to exercise more influence over the lineup selection and relieve some of the pressure on BC a d espite a reduced budget of $300,000, we can surely still get artists that a majority of students will enjoy.

l et’s end the secrecy behind BC a , work together as a school to bring artists we all know and love to campus, and make s pring Weekend better for future years.

d anny Greenberg ’25

Artis ’22: Brown’s reported Fortress investment is grossly misaligned with its sustainability goals

in a recently published article by Bloomberg, Brown university’s investment Office is reportedly in advanced talks to “invest in Fortress investment Group alongside Mubadala investment Co. as part of the abu dhabi sovereign wealth fund’s acquisition of a majority stake in the alternative asset manager.” an investment would be grossly misaligned with the university’s greenhouse gas emissions goals and the need to phase out fossil fuels globally.

Fortress i nvestment Group is the parent company of New Fortress Energy, which owns, operates and develops natural gas power plants and liquefied natural gas — or l NG — export infrastructure around the world, including an offshore l NG export terminal in a ltamira, Mexico and the controversial Wyalusing/Gibbstown l NG export facility stretching from p ennsylvania to New Jersey. l NG is composed primarily of methane, a greenhouse gas roughly 86 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a twenty year timescale. l eft unchecked, the buildout of new l NG facilities will have devastating implications for communities and our climate.

a lthough the industry has touted natural gas as a sustainable transition fuel, there is nothing clean about l NG. To begin, in the u s . the gas is primarily fracked, which pollutes local air, land and groundwater. This fracked gas is then transported via pipelines,

which leak methane along the way. One estimate suggests that u s . natural gas pipelines are leaking between 1.2 million and 2.6 million tons of methane per year. a t the end of its journey through a pipeline, it is chilled to negative 260 degrees Fahrenheit to be converted into liquid form for transport via tankers. This supercooled liquid is loaded onto massive diesel-powered tankers and shipped thousands of miles away. The liquid is re-gasified at import terminals and leaks even more methane there. a 2023 study found that a gas system leakage rate as low as 0.2% places emissions from gas on par with coal.

a n investment from Brown u niversity’s endowment would support expansion of New Fortress Energy’s highly polluting l NG operations. d uring my time at Brown, the u niversity announced its informal divestment from the fossil fuel industry. a letter from p resident Christina p axson in March 2020 announced that “90% of investments in companies that extract fossil fuels have been sold, and the remainder is being liquidated as it becomes possible to do so.” Today, the Brown u niversity s ustainable i nvestment Fund, or B usi F, a part of the endowment, is committed to being fossil fuel-free. B usi F has committed not to invest “in companies engaged in the extraction, exploration, production, manufacturing or refining of fossil

fuels.” Notably missing in p resident p axson’s announcement and the endowment’s policy on fossil fuels is the word “transport.” The transport of fossil fuels, l NG in particular, will have catastrophic consequences for local environments, human health and the global system if it is not stopped. Brown u niversity’s endowment should have no part in supporting the disastrous expansion of l NG exports and imports.

The environmental and health impacts of liquified natural gas have been felt throughout the Gulf s outh for years. i n 2022, Freeport l NG — the second largest l NG facility in the u s . — exploded. The air pollutants from the explosion can contribute to increased incidences of respiratory disease, heart disease and cancer. This past fall, i helped to deliver over 200,000 petitions to the d epartment of Energy calling for an end to l NG expansion because of the devastation it is wreaking on low-income and Black and Brown communities in the Gulf s outh.

i n January, the Biden- h arris a dministration announced that the d epartment of Energy would pause all new l NG export licensing pending a review of the economic and environmental analyses that underpin export authorizations. This pause is welcomed, but it should lead to the only scientifically sound conclusion: a complete rejection of all new l NG export permits.

d espite widespread support from the climate movement and communities living around l NG facilities, the fight to stop their expansion is far from over. Following the announcement, the pause was promptly attacked by the oil and gas lobby and members of Congress. Climate activists were arrested, disrupting s enator Joe Manchin’s Energy and Natural r esources Committee, which criticized the pause. New licensing is paused, but l NG companies are still receiving millions of dollars in financing to expand operations across the Gulf s outh.

Every single decision that we make matters at this juncture. The fossil fuel industry is fighting to expand fossil fuels when the science could not be more clear that we need a total fossil fuel phase out. i t is up to us to use all of the resources at our disposal to advance a just transition to a renewable energy economy. Brown u niversity and investors everywhere should reject investments with any ties to fossil fuels and liquified natural gas. i t is time to end the era of fossil fuels.

Zanagee Artis ’22 can be reached at zanagee_artis@ alumni.brown.edu. Artis is the co-founder and executive director of Zero Hour. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and a member of the Brown Alumni Association Board of Governors.

Valdes ’27: Behind Brown — Rose Silveira

Behind Brown is a series of vignettes about staff members of the University.

in the mornings, you can find Miss rose by her storage-room-turned-office on the ground floor between Morris and Champlin halls. The walls boast countless memorabilia: a vintage Christmas card; framed pictures from past commencements; dozens of thank-you notes; a yellowed newspaper clipping of outside linebacker for the los angeles rams Michael hoecht in their 2022 super Bowl win, with “lived in 2nd floor Champlin’’ carefully written in the margins above it in red marker— it’s the unofficial Champlin hall museum.

Brown’s custodial service, divided among eight supervisors, operates five days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Custodians typically clean bathrooms, vacuum hallways, wipe down common areas, and are responsible for maintaining the cleanliness of campus buildings. On extreme snow days, custodians in residence halls are expected to shovel snow and salt the pavement outside of their buildings. The job is taxing, but what makes matters worse is the unpredictable nature of management. Once you start to pay close attention, you’ll notice things like how janitorial staff aren’t allowed to sit in communal lounges or kitchens to rest. With so much that goes on behind the scenes that we don’t know about, the best way to show the utmost respect and advocate for the people who work tirelessly to make our campus a home is by getting to know them.

a custodian at Brown for the last 26 years, “Miss rose” silveira is an institution. donning a Joan Jett-esque coiffure and a discontinued Maybelline lipstick in 970 smoked silver, she’s responsible for Champlin’s unique tidiness. Miss rose is portuguese, though she came to the united states as a child. she commutes to Brown from her home in Bristol, braving rush hour traffic every day — especially since the

closure of the Washington Bridge.

“i come to work and i do everything for my kids,” Miss rose proudly stated. “i go above and beyond for these kids. and i was talking to Zach upstairs on the second floor. he told me he lived in andrews, Wayland, and Grad Center. and he said Champlin was the cleanest building he’s lived in.”

Brown’s students lie at the heart of why rose takes such pride in her job. standing outside of her office, i witnessed a Champlin resident familiarly greet her with a big hug. “let me

Over the years, Miss rose has perfected her routine: Grab the keys, do the trash, clean the mosque, basement floor, first-floor kitchen, and then check the bathrooms. s he often works overtime when she cleans other buildings.

“ i ’m always doing stuff. i like to go to rock concerts,” she said, scrolling through past photos of her two daughters and five grandchildren to show me a picture of her and her nephew on the ground floor of a Kiss concert. “ i love to see concerts. i saw Meat l oaf in con -

The best way to show the utmost respect and advocate for the people who work tirelessly to make our campus a home is by getting to know them.

know when i can come by and clean the bathroom today, honey,” rose said.

Miss rose knows each of her favorite residents and their rooms by name. h aving worked at Brown for so many years, she’s accumulated a number of stories about notable alumni, like Mitchell Moranis, son of actor r ick Moranis.

“One time, i was walking down the street and he gave me a hug and he said ‘Oh, you’re one of the nicest people i ever met.’ a nd i asked him where he was living, and he said he lived in a ndrews. he would come all the way over here just to talk to me,” she shared.

cert. i saw s tyx. i saw pat Benatar. i love music.”

Miss rose’s distinctive Joan Jett look is self-described: “ yeah, a lot of kids like it. a lot of students tell me, ‘Miss rose, i like the way you look.’ i used to have a mullet going on back in high school. it was crazy.”

rose’s impact on her residents is not lost on her. “ it means a lot because the kids, they know me. i ’m the first person they see when they’re freshmen,” she said.

Miss rose’s effect on students is the result of her personal dedication to doing her job and a certain protectiveness over Champlin in

particular. “Champlin’s been my home for 26 years. i ’ve never once been on temporary disability insurance). i ’ve never once been out sick. i had thyroid cancer. i don’t have a thyroid. But i came to work and i do everything for my kids,” she restated.

When asked about her relationship with former residents, she said: “a lot of students come for their reunions. There was a lady last year, she was in her 40s, and she wanted to come see me. s he lived here in 1999. a nd they all ask, is rose still here? is rose still here?”

in 2001, Miss rose was awarded the Gaspar a rzoomenian award for outstanding Facilities Management union employee.

d eeply kind and resilient with a heart for justice, it is no surprise that she strikes a chord with so many students here at Brown. a t the end of our interview, she asked me where i was living, so i told Miss rose i lived in a ndrews, to which she responded, “East or west?” i answered, and she immediately replied, “Oh, you’ve got Edgar. he’s good. he’s new.” a nd all i could think about was: i feel like i should already know that. Many of us have experienced how living in a communal space takes a good amount of time to adjust to. We rarely outwardly appreciate just how much having a clean space to live in facilitates this transition, and it’s all thanks to the work of the people behind Brown.

i f you see rose around campus — and you’ll know when you do — stop for a chat. i promise you’ll get more out of it than the five minutes you miss from your study session in Faunce. a nd yes, she cleans Faunce too.

Behind Brown is written by columnist Camila Valdes ’27, who can be reached at camila_valdes@brown. edu. Please send responses to this column to letters@ browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

Hudes ’27: Untying a political knot: My reflection as a liberal Jew on a discussion with Peter Beinart

a s protests erupt and discourse on i srael- p alestine once again takes center stage, it seems as though there are many more questions than correct answers. l ast week, i attended a discussion hosted by the Office of the Chaplains and r eligious l ife with a merican journalist peter Beinart — who’s written extensively in favor of a one-state solution with equal citizenship for i sraelis and p alestinians. i walked away from the talk still feeling as though there were far too many questions and not nearly enough right answers. But for the first time, despite a want for answers, i felt as though i had heard the right questions.

Beinart made the point to separate the i srael- p alestine debate into two parts: the discussion on what’s happening on the ground and the sociopolitical dynamics of how a merica is talking about the conflict. This distinction is why i think Mr. Beinart’s student discussion — which was attended by both B si and JFCN — was able to produce productive discourse; it didn’t confound a discussion on foreign affairs with the rift in a merican identity politics. That’s to say, even if i don’t fully agree with Beinart’s ideology, his discussion gave me the tools to untie the political knot that i ’ve found myself tied up in.

Following Oct. 7, a merican Jews found themselves without a political home, abandoned by the left but still too wary of the right. i n his New york Times guest essay “The Great r upture in a merican Jewish l ife,” Beinart articulates this as liberal Jews being forced to choose between liberalism and Zionism. s ome, more often those associated with larger traditionally Zionist institutions

such as the a nti d efamation l eague, have accepted the GO p and Fox News as their new home, finding refuge in their unconditional support for i srael. Others, mostly the younger generation, have been swept away by the humanitarian appeals of p alestinian solidarity. These two camps, on a local level, are generally what have populated Brown s tudents for i srael and Jews for Ceasefire Now respectively.

Then there are those who have clung onto

myself. i believe in the Jewish people’s right to a nation-state but at the same time take a staunchly liberal position when it comes to any other social issue. i t has become increasingly difficult to reconcile with the reality of my political home — feeling like the last one standing at the end of a game of musical chairs.

What Beinart has done for me is pull up a chair. a lthough what he offers is rather deterministic, giving me, and other Jews in my po -

It has become increasingly difficult to reconcile with the reality of my political home – feeling like the last one standing at the end of a game of musical chairs. “

the position which most of a merican Jewry enjoyed pre-Oct. 7, remaining both progressive and in support of a Jewish nation-state. But for this group of a merican Jews who are unwilling to compromise their liberal beliefs and find their place among the conservative party, the left feels equally inhabitable as protest to i srael becomes a normalized liberal imperative. This is where i have found

sition a narrow escape to our current predicament (a one-state solution), he is the first voice in mainstream liberal discourse to make me feel as though my thoughts are worth pitching in, despite my internal conflict. a s a l iberal Jew in limbo with an impressionable view, i have never felt quite enough confidence in either movement to join B si or JFCN. i have felt a major pull from both

sides to fall into one of these camps as a default, per my respective Judaism or liberalism. h owever, there has always been some fine print, some peripheral implication attached to the group that i never feel fully comfortable backing. For B si it’s obviously the humanitarian implications, and for JFCN it’s clearly the contradiction to a Jewish nation-state. i t has often seemed as though me — and others — joining one of these camps would be more accurately attributed to social dynamics than to ideological alignment — a symptom of groupthink overpowering critical thought.

a s a result, i find myself awkwardly wrestling, alone, with the need to perpetuate the one single Jewish nation-state, not willing to compromise my l iberalism to join B si but not trusting enough in the radical undertones of the p alestinian movement to join JFCN. This places me roughly in the middle of Mr. Beinart’s rupture. The question Beinart so eloquently poses is the question i face. a nd while Mr. Beinart and i disagree on the answers, i feel he’s asked the right questions; i accept the contradiction and discomfort of my current position and look to move towards what i hope will feel like the right answers.

Paul Hudes ’27 can be reached at paul_hudes@ brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

ARTS & CULTURE

‘I want to run so people can walk’: Elyanna on making music, sharing her culture

Spring Weekend 2024

artist talks about her performance

BY ISABEL HAHN AND RYA VALLABHANENI ARTS & CULTURE EDITORS

shrouded in fog and billowing white fabric, Elyanna took the stage for spring Weekend 2024 and mesmerized audience members with her captivating voice and alluring movement. her eyes cut straight through the Main Green; her stage presence was all-encompassing and infectious. she sang mostly in arabic, conveying a passion beyond language barriers through her performance.

as the second artist to perform in a language other than English in spring Weekend history, Elian Marjieh — known professionally as Elyanna — is a palestinian-Chilean singer-songwriter making a global name for herself at only 22. Following requests sent to interview each spring Weekend artist, Elyanna and her team did not hesitate to share some of her experiences.

The herald sat down with Elyanna after her spring Weekend set to discuss her creative inspirations and her background as an artist. she entered the Blue room still wearing her stage outfit, but is young enough to have been typing away at a paper in her sweatpants like any Brown student.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Herald: How did the performance go? What did you think of Brown students as an audience?

Elyanna: as my first university gig, i was really surprised at how many people came and watched. i’m just so happy to be here, and i really loved it. it’s such an honor being here at Brown university. i think the crowd was amazing and i had the best time with them. They were really vibing even though they didn’t understand everything i was saying. They were jamming and having a good time, which made me have a very good time. i love how everyone was wearing their

keffiyeh as well and their belly dance scarves. i saw lots of different cultures there, and that made me happy because they’re here to support and see a different kind of art, which i love. as you know, i’m also 22, so i can relate to how they act or feel, and that excites me a lot.

What’s it like to be so young and in the music industry?

it’s always been a dream for me to do this — to be a performer and an artist. i am a new artist, and i’m aware of that, but it feels like i’ve been doing it for so long. it’s not an easy thing to do, but at the end of the day, if you’re passionate and if you do it for the love of it, you’ll get what you want.

How did you first get into music?

i started singing when i was seven years old, and my brother was the one that discovered my talent. i always wanted to be a singer, and i still don’t know why … i just loved it. i’d perform around in my hometown Nazareth, in school, any opportunity i could get. When i moved to san diego at 15 years old, i was discovered by a producer named Nasri. i got into the studio for the first time when i was 15 and i think that’s when i started doing music

professionally.

How does your relationship with your family impact your music?

it’s funny because i feel like some things are just meant to be. Being a singer and having my family around me, i think each person has a role in my life and a role in anything we do. We’ve been doing this since we were super young. My brother has been my creative director since we were seven and nine. My sister has been styling me since we were that young. My mom has been writing since then as well. We’re just now on a bigger platform — nothing has changed. We’re just growing and we’re just learning.

i’m also grateful for the people i work with on my team. i care so much about the people around me and i care about energy a lot. i know they want me to be happy as well. That energy is what you need.

You recently released your first album, “Woledto” — how does that feel?

i’m excited and happy — i mean, this is my first album ever. so it was very special for me to create. it was a lot of work and detail and up-and-down emotions. We took our time

when it came to creating this album. i wanted it to feel timeless and different. i really wanted to create this whole new thing, a whole new genre, and it’s a vision that me and my brother had for a long time. i feel like creating it was such a process, but i learned so much from it.

When you talk about your own genre, what are you going for?

To be honest, there’s no name for my genre yet. it’s really a mix of my background and things that i was just inspired by growing up. i’m also part Chilean, so i’m very inspired by my Chilean side as well. i’m very inspired by my palestinian side and by the world in general. For now, we can call it the “Elyanna” genre. i’m excited to keep creating and trying things, even when i do my English records or hopefully one day my spanish records. i want to always make sure my music has this identity.

You were the first person at Coachella to sing a full set in Arabic, and I’m sure you did so at other places as well. What is it like to be the person breaking down some of these language barriers? sometimes it’s bigger than me. it’s bigger than being an artist. it’s more like a message

that tells me to do this. When i started doing music, i personally did not want to sing in arabic. i just found myself connecting to my roots more than ever when i came (to san diego) and was far away from home. i wanted to remember my inspirations like palestinian weddings and my grandpa and a lot of different things that inspired me growing up. i know my taste in music now and what i like. it’s because of what i grew up listening to and what i grew up around.

i’m honored to be the first and i want to make sure that i’m not the last. i want to run so people can walk.

After just finishing your first tour, do you have any favorite moments that stick out to you?

after every show, i would go outside and my fans would be waiting for me, and it was freezing. sometimes i would not have the best show. When i would have these days, to make myself feel better, i would just go outside and say hi to them, and nothing felt bad anymore. i was just happy to see them. Connecting with my fans is very special to me.

Do you have a preference between singing on stage or off?

i love being onstage. i really think of the live performance even before creating the song. i’m always grabbing inspirations and building on them until it’s showtime.

What are you most excited about right now, music or non-music-related?

i’m very happy that i dropped an album and that people are receiving it well. i’m also excited to perform my album at a lot of upcoming festivals like Governors Ball and lollapalooza.

if it’s not music-related, i’m excited to find myself slowly and find the things that i love because i’m still discovering — just like everyone else our age. i’m learning something new every day.

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 21, 2024.

‘Perfect Days’ captures the beauty in nature and mundane

BY GABRIELLA WRIGHTEN STAFF WRITER

Not much happens in Wim Wenders’s “perfect days.” The film follows hirayama (Kōji yakusho), a toilet cleaner in Tokyo living a largely solitary life. hirayama does very few things each day. all of them are simple, but that’s not to say they’re not important. running only on hirayama’s relaxed routine, “perfect days” avoids gimmicks and action, instead committing to its message: find the beauty and joy in the smallest, most natural parts of life.

yakusho’s performance of hirayama is just as mesmerizing as the beauty around him, even if his routine may seem mundane to most people. he wakes up, folds his blankets and gently sprays his plants before leaving for work. he meticulously cleans each public toilet, holding up mirrors to check the sparkle on the bathroom metals and porcelain. The owners of the restaurants he goes to know his order by heart. yakusho excels

in making each of these moments larger than they seem. Each morning, after the blankets and the plants, hirayama stands in his doorway and takes a deep breath, taking in the world he’s come to love. yakusho’s smile is slight yet hard to miss. his roaming gaze and slow focus all contribute to a rare form of positivity in today’s hypercritical era.

as the film builds to its climax, though, we can see the pain hirayama has tried to bury with his routine. his smiles gain a hint of pain; his eyes constantly glimmer with tears. as he watches his estranged sister ( yumi asō) and niece drive away and out of his life, hirayama fully breaks into tears. Through hirayama’s pain, Wenders delivers a familiar, yet important reminder: Keep going.

an essential part of his daily routine, hirayama chooses a different cassette tape to play on his drives to work (lou reed’s “perfect day” is where the film’s title comes from). some are quite sad (like patti smith’s “redondo Beach”), some are happier (Nina simone’s “Feeling Good,” Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl”), but most will evoke some sort of memory for those listening.

hirayama, like many of us, plays these songs to set the mood for his morning or recap his feelings at the end of it. Even as he cries to

COurTEsy OF NEON

Through touching moments and subtle acting, “Perfect Days” delivers a familiar, yet important reminder: Keep going.

the saddest of these songs, hirayama keeps driving. There’s no doubt he’ll be watering his plants and taking photos the next morning. Wenders is no stranger to the aesthetic, ethereal, poetic film (one of his most wellknown works is the 1987 film “Wings of desire”), a fact that’s clear from Wenders’s precision and dedication to slow moments. since the rise of TikTok and the subsequent “Gen Z has no attention span” discussions, many movies have struggled with how to balance practiced pacing and attracting younger au-

diences. it might be easy to say Wenders’s 2024 film was simply made for an older audience, but i find that hard to believe.

“perfect days” focuses on how we capture life’s joys just as much as it tells us what they may be. and, as antithetical phones are to the film’s premise, young adults and teenagers have grown up perfecting the art of capturing moments. you could even say we have the whole world, past and present, in our back pockets. Wenders capitalizes on this oppor-

tunity to speak to viewers of all generations. hirayama and his niece Niko (arisa Nakano) use the exact same film camera, hers being a gift from him. she watches him take photos of the trees, mirroring his actions. yet Niko takes videos with her phone as well, notably of her uncle cleaning, representing a modern form of the same appreciation. There’s something delightful about a physical form of memory in the film — a cassette tape or a printed photo, for example — but what’s most important is noticing everything around us, moving with life’s ebbs and flows rather than trying to shape it ourselves.

“perfect days” is innovative for its time. Very few words are spoken (many are sung), but Wenders’s intent is clear and well executed. if you were born in the 2000s, chances are you’ve been told to put the phone down and appreciate your life.

“perfect days” has the same message, but gentler. Wenders asks us to stop and smell the roses, for lack of a better phrase. Take a look around, snap a photo or two and sing along to the music of life.

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 21, 2024.

ClairE diEpENBrOCK / hErald

Elyanna, A Palestinian-Chilean artist whose songs are predominantly in Arabic, is the second artist to perform in a language other than English in Spring Weekend history.

Wim Wender’s feature reminds viewers to find positivity in their lives

ARTS & CULTURE

In ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ Taylor Swift loses steam

New record might interest diehard fans, offers little to everyone else

BY JOHN SEXTON STAFF WRITER

On april 19 at midnight, Taylor swift released 16 new songs. Two hours later, she released 15 more. such astonishing productivity has become synonymous with swift in recent years, with it seeming like that at any moment she could announce a brand new project on a whim.

swift’s new album, “The Tortured poets department,” and its second volume — subtitled “The anthology” — arrive at a surprising height in the singer-songwriter’s career. swift achieved great success with her 2022 album “Midnights” and embarked on her record-breaking Eras Tour a year later, all while continuing to add to her already impressive collection of Grammys.

STUDENT PUBLICATION

For hardcore fans — those who riddle through all of swift’s easter eggs, purchased the infamous “Midnights” vinyl clock and watched football for perhaps the first time in their lives — “The Tortured poets department” has much to offer. From a cultural standpoint, the album is an interesting record that guides listeners through the psyche and the vicissitudes of swift and her personal life over the past several years.

For those less invested in the lore surrounding Taylor swift, “The Tortured poets department” is musically monotonous and overstays its welcome. swift works with long-time collaborators Jack antonoff and aaron dessner, yet this time the trio rarely delivers — despite the success of their previous works.

Much of “The Tortured poets department” also feels clunky, likely due to its untrimmed bulk. On “i hate it here,” swift sings, “Tell me something awful / like you are a poet / Trapped inside the body of a finance guy.” swift’s occasion-

ally verbose and head-scratching lyrics markedly hold back many of her songs.

spite feeling miserable post-breakup, swift has had to masquerade as an ideal, agreeable and cheery pop star night after night on the Eras Tour. she sings, “all the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting ‘More!’” But, interesting moments like these are few and far between.

in the end, 31 tracks running the gamut from bland to blandish is a big ask for most listeners.

r est assured, some songs attempt to resuscitate the record. The opening track “Fortnight” featuring post Malone is a pretty tune. swift’s voice cooly glides over a punchy synth. “so long, london” bears a palpable emotional weight, given that it’s possibly about the end of a longterm relationship. The song is restless, an anxious sonic chase as she laments, “so long, london / had a good run.”

The track “i Can do it With a Broken heart” offers a rare moment of energy to the record along with surprising insights from swift. The song discusses how, de-

Back in 2020, swift mysteriously posted on social media, “Not a lot going on at the moment.” later that year, swift released her acclaimed album “Folklore.” it’s fair to speculate that the restfulness brought about by the pandemic helped engender swift’s best record to date. Though swift seems pressured to release prodigious quantities of music as fast as she can, for the sake of its quality, perhaps a break is needed. it’s certainly well-deserved.

This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on April 22, 2024.

Multilingual publication The Polyglot seeks to showcase cultural diversity

Most recent volume focuses on theme of tales, worldwide hero’s journey

BY MANAV MUSUNURU SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The polyglot, Brown’s multilingual student publication, is working to showcase cultural and linguistic diversity on campus and create space on campus for underrepresented languages.

Founded by selena Kiu ’24 and Olivia howe ’22 in 2022, the publication — which recently released its third volume — is supported by the Center for language studies. its latest issue follows a theme of tales, according to co-editor-in-chief isabella Collins ’26.

Co-editor-in-chief Markus Joerg ’26

hopes that the most recent volume showcases “worldwide themes of the hero’s journey,” adding that for many readers, the term “fairy tale” may have Eurocentric connotations.

“Every single culture has their own variation of these stories that have been passed down and cultivated through thousands of years,” Joerg said, describing the current volume of the polyglot as a “wealth of personal stories.”

Joerg explained that the polyglot aimed to represent each language possible once in the printed version of the publication, but all submissions to the publication by students were published online. submissions that take a more visual approach — rather than using a traditional written format — are accepted as well. Joerg noted that despite a debate concerning the inclusion of visual media in the poly-

glot, these submissions were ultimately included after a sign language professor inquired how submissions in a non-written language would be handled.

The inclusion of visual media also allows the publication to go beyond multilingualism and touch upon multiculturalism, Joerg said.

The current volume of the polyglot includes two watercolor paintings by Ciprian Buzila phd’22 titled “Flowers iii and iV.” Buzila chose to portray flowers in their artwork because each bouquet conveys emotions and a connection between humankind and nature.

Buzila first came to learn of the polyglot from a poster in the Writing Center and was drawn to the publication because of their background as an international student from romania and love for multiple languages. art is a universal language that … uni-

fies people and speaks to all of us,” Buzila said. “it is still (a) major way of expressing myself.”

ilektra Bampicha-Ninou ’26 submitted her work in a more traditional medium: a collection of poems written in Greek, her native language. her poems explore specific styles of writing, rather than forming a cohesive story. Bampicha-Ninou describes the poems as personal stories and observations that are “a summary of realizations” concerning identity.

Editor sunny Choi ’24, a former staff writer at The herald who previously submitted a German essay for the second volume of the polyglot, was contacted by the publication to edit a translation in the most recent volume. The text, originally written in English, was translated into Korean for the polyglot, according to Choi. during the editing process, Choi said she

checked if the translated piece followed the correct conventions and properly conveyed the meaning of the original piece but tried not to “overpower the translation that was originally given to (her).”

Collins said that serving as editor-in-chief of the polyglot was “a learning curve” for both her and Joerg, as neither of them had prior experience in magazine publishing. plus, the inflexibility of magazine layout software like adobe indesign made it hard to format languages that read right-to-left such as hebrew and arabic, Collins added.

“it’s really interesting … just to see how different languages were written” in designing the layout of the volume, Collins said. “in the publication, (there’s) such an interesting variety between all the languages and i think publishing (them) makes it look so gorgeous.”

girl in red returns to music on sophomore album “I’M DOING IT AGAIN BABY”

Despite shortcomings in lyricism, singer explores her unique sound

BY CAMPBELL LOI SENIOR STAFF WRITER

professionally known as girl in red, Norwegian singer-songwriter Marie ulven first arrived on the indie-pop scene with “i wanna be your girlfriend,” a single she released on soundCloud in 2016. When songs “we fell in love in october” and “girls” went viral on TikTok during the COVid-19 pandemic, girl in red cemented herself as a queer icon, becoming widely known for writing love songs about women. in addition to her popularity within the queer community, themes of mental health also made girl in red’s music particularly resonate with Gen-Z listeners. since the very beginning of her career, unabashed descriptions of her struggles with depression and anxiety have been quite commonplace throughout her discography. such displays of vulnerability are especially prevalent in her first album, “if i could make it go quiet.” Now, after nearly three years away from

Though she certainly has a long way to go to reach her full potential, the willingness girl in red has shown to experiment outside of her comfort zone is admirable.

the industry, girl in red has returned with a new sense of self on her highly-anticipated sophomore album, “i’M dOiNG iT aGaiN

BaBy!,” released april 12. While the album tackles similar storylines to previous releases — including unrequited love and the pains of fame and getting older — she now approaches them with a newfound sense of clarity, which stands in strong contrast to the spiraling anxieties and hopelessness

that plagued her throughout her debut album.

With “i’m Back,” girl in red sets the stage for the rest of the album to come. despite references to “serotonin,” which opened her previous project, this new song serves as its direct opposite. “i’m back, i feel like myself / i was gone for a minute

’cause i went to get help,” she sings on the track, later adding “i believe there’s hope

for me” — a strong yet gentle proclamation of her resurgence and growth since the intrusive thoughts and breakdowns she once wrote about on “serotonin.” such sentiments continue into the title track, this time even stronger than before. With a gritty guitar riff and explosive percussion, it seems that girl in red’s newfound hope has also brought her the confidence to feel “inflammable” and “like a rockstar.”

Though lacking a bit in both lyrical and melodic complexity, “i’m Back” and “dOiNG iT aGaiN BaBy” successfully establish an optimistic and self-assured tone, marking a clear shift in girl in red’s mindset.

Most of the eight remaining songs on the album show girl in red as her fans know her best, singing about the relationship woes that have become a staple of her music. This time, though, it is clear that production quality has dramatically increased. she brings a wide variety of emotions and instruments to the table — with experimental industrial sound effects driving “*****,” and even a full orchestral backing on “phantom pain” — making the album feel sonically diverse and well-balanced. But lyrical simplicity is what ultimately

holds girl in red back from greatness. While her song production has certainly taken a step toward excellence, the inconsistency of her songwriting throughout the album makes even the most promising songs feel awkward. despite boasting auspicious production quality, tracks such as “ugly side” and “a Night to remember” ultimately leave listeners unsatisfied due to unsophisticated rhymes and clunky phrasing. Even with high points on “Too Much” and “New love,” the album as a whole leaves much to be desired lyrically.

still, “i’M dOiNG iT aGaiN BaBy!” shows incredible promise. Though she certainly has a long way to go to reach her full potential, the willingness girl in red has shown to experiment outside of her comfort zone is admirable, especially so early in her career. her newfound peace and confidence in herself, as well as her renewed excitement for music, suggests that she is on track to solidify her sound and affirm herself as an artist to follow in the future.

Thirty-one tracks running the gamut from bland to blandish may be a big ask for the casual listener. REVIEW