Student activists make their case for divestment to Brown’s advisory committee
Committee head pressed BDC to “tighten up” their argument
BY RYAN DOHERTY UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
On Wednesday, six students affiliated with the brown divest Coalition made the case for divesting from 10 companies with ties to Israel to a university advisory committee.
The students presented a divestment proposal to the advisory Committee on university resources management, an advisory body that issues non-binding recommendations on how brown should allocate its resources. The proposal was written by members of bdC and identifies 10 companies which they claim “facilitate the Israeli occupation of palestinian territory.”
Following the presentation, committee chair James Kellner pressed the represen-
Brown
tatives to follow up with aCurm after the meeting to “tighten up” their argument that divestment would directly cause a reduction in social harm.
aCurm must issue their recommendation to president paxson p’19 p’md’20 by sept. 30.
brown divest Coalition representatives gave a presentation tailored to aCurm’s charge of determining whether brown’s allocation of resources is contributing to social harm.
The meeting was the first in a series of public forums in which community members will have the opportunity to meet with aCurm to discuss the divestment proposal. On sept. 9, a group of students who oppose the divestment proposal will publicly meet with the committee. Two open listening sessions will be held on sept. 10 and sept. 11.
For aCurm to recommend divestment, a majority of the 11 voting members
welcomes firstyears at Convocation
Divestment calls continue during one of Brown’s oldest traditions
BY HADLEY CARR SENIOR STAFF WRITER
On Tuesday afternoon, a pipe band harmonizing with the bell tower’s ring led incoming classes through the Van Wickle gates during brown’s 261st Convocation ceremony.
On the main Green, president Christina paxson p’19 p md’20 greeted thousands of new students, welcoming 1,727 undergraduates, 1,401 doctoral and masters students, 141 medical students, 10 resumed undergraduate education students and 157 transfer students.
The ceremony featured speeches from paxson as well as dean of the school of public health ashish Jha, who was the event’s keynote speaker. The school of
public health celebrated its tenth-anniversary last year, honoring the history of public health at brown and the field’s future following the COVId-19 pandemic. during the pandemic, Jha served as the White house’s COVId-19 response coordinator, The herald previously reported.
In her speech, paxson encouraged students to leave the “brown bubble” and get involved in the providence community. she listed “supporting immigrant communities, working on vaccination campaigns and conducting research that contributes to improving air quality in providence” as examples.
paxson referenced the letter she shared with the community on aug. 29, where she noted “challenges facing brown,” including “the ongoing Israel-hamas war, a polarizing u s. presidential election and threats to the sustainability and autonomy of institutions
must determine that divestment would positively impact a social harm issue or a brown investment contributes to a “social harm so grave that it would be inconsistent with the goals and principles of the university,” per the committee’s charge.
Throughout the presentation, the bdC members made arguments for both conditions of this two-pronged test, drawing from and expanding on arguments made in a precursor 2020 report which paxson previously declined to advance.
bdC representatives argued that occupation and settlements in the West bank and east Jerusalem, in addition to the separation wall through the West bank, constituted grave social harm. In 2020, aCurm’s predecessor shared this view.
They then moved to discuss Israel’s attacks in Gaza which have killed over 40,000 palestinians since the Oct. 7 hamas attacks that killed 1,200 in Israel.
aboud ashhab ’25, a bdC representa-
tive, claimed the current actions of the Israel governments were at odds with stated university values and aCurm’s charge.
“Is possibly being invested in an ongoing genocide and in an entrenched occupation and displacement of the palestinian people promoting human dignity?” he said.
“Is it promoting the values of inclusion, equity and justice?”
bdC representatives also laid out their belief that the continued investment in the companies they identified violate the university’s stated goals. They drew upon brown’s slavery and Justice report, which reads “the university has a special obligation to ensure that it does not profit from such practices,” referencing the “gross injustice” of slavery.
They also noted a 2019 undergraduate referendum where a majority of respondents supported divestment. They also
Professor warns against second Trump presidency
In new book, Brettschneider examines executive-branch power
BY TEDDY FISHER STAFF WRITER
In his new book, brown political science professor Corey brettschneider argues that a second donald Trump presidency is a danger to american politics itself.
brettschneider sat down with The herald to discuss his latest work: “The presidents and the people: Five Leaders Who Threatened democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to defend It.”
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
BDH: What was your motivation for writing this book?
Cb: I wanted to do a deep dive into the
question of whether or not we had ever seen a moment in history similar to Trump’s presidency. you often hear people say that what we’re seeing is unprecedented. but it’s not completely unprecedented. There are aspects of it that are new, but in some ways, the danger that Trump was really illustrating was part of a structural problem of the Constitution itself. I wanted a book that fully explored the dangers of the Constitution. I didn’t want to just illustrate the threat; I wanted to think about hope too.
by then, I realized hope was not going to come from the supreme Court. It has to be actions from the people, and that’s why this is a book not just written for lawyers or judges. It’s written for all americans to try to understand that the future of our nation is in our hands.
VICTOrIa yIN / heraLd
The proposal presented was written by members of BDC and identifies 10 companies which they claim “facilitate the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.”
FACULTY
WEEK IN ELECTIONS ELECTIONS
1
Harris maintains narrow lead in polls as debates approach
according to a report by FiveThirtyeight, Vice president Kamala harris holds a slim lead in the national polls — harris is polling at 47 percent, while former president donald Trump comes in just shy of 44 percent. These figures stand in sharp contrast to data from just two months earlier, and the percentage of americans who have a favorable opinion of harris has risen 10% since early July.
The first presidential debate between harris and Trump is set to take place on september 10 in philadelphia.
2
Harris set to propose tax breaks for start-ups in a speech next week
harris’s proposal would allow small business owners to deduct as much as $50,000 in expenses, The New york Times reported. This plan marks an attempt by the harris campaign to appeal to business owners and emphasize entrepreneurship. The plan, which favors small and new business owners, draws a contrast to Trump’s policies which support big corporations. however, voters continue to express more confidence in Trump’s ability to run the economy.
3
Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery provokes Army backlash
Former president donald Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony in arlington National Cemetery on aug. 26. Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser of the Trump campaign, posted pictures of Trump in the “restricted zone” of the cemetery, where photos are prohibited by federal law. according to the army’s public affairs office, a member of Trump’s staff pushed a cemetery official, but Trump denied the allegation, calling it a “made up story,” CNN reported.
BRETTSCHNEIDER FROM PAGE 1
BDH: Early in “The Presidents and the People,” you argue that, since its inception, America was vulnerable to authoritarianism because of a lack of judicial precedent. Does judicial precedent result in stability?
Cb: I wouldn’t say that it’s just tradition that can help create stability, but a history of democracy helps. The main argument of the book is that the traditional checks and balances don’t work, and that impeachment and the supreme Court have failed to check rogue presidents.
Our system of government is really an experiment that could have failed from the beginning. We’ve faced crises of democracy before, and we’ve recovered, but the way that we’ve done it is through this tradition of citizens actively reclaiming a democratic constitution.
It could be that we’re at the moment where american democracy doesn’t survive. unfortunately, that’s definitely a possibility.
BDH: You mentioned impeachment. Do you think that the impeachment process needs to be reformed?
C b : I think the process failed during Trump’s second impeachment. Obviously, he was impeached in the house, but the most important vote was the trial in the senate, which would have disqualified Trump from running again. We wouldn’t be facing the threat to democracy that we’re facing now had he been convicted in the senate.
The framers envisioned a process where we’d be nonpartisan enough to recognize when conviction was necessary. I’m open to reform within impeachment itself. but as you know, I do think the real check here is people reclaiming the constitution for themselves through elections.
bdh: are there any modern-day examples of citizens standing up against authoritarianism?
Cb: I’m often asked this. but that’s not for me to say or predict. It’s something that has to just happen. americans tuned in to the January 6 committee. They see Trump’s threat to democracy in the current moment. It’s not enough to just oppose Trump. It’s about reclaiming a right to dissent, to equal citizenship and the idea that no person — even a president — is above the law.
BDH: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s
decision extending broad immunity for presidential actions, President Biden laid out potential reforms for the court, one of which is an 18-year term limit. Would this help preserve or restore the integrity and independence of the court?
Cb: I see the point of it, but I don’t see how term limits are going to bring about a lot of change in the near future. The radical suggestions of adding justices who are going to restore some of our basic rights and get rid of some of the decisions that undermine democracy, like the immunity decision that you mentioned, are more direct reforms.
The immunity decision is what I really care about. I’m glad that biden’s putting a proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate immunity for current and former presidents on the agenda.
BDH: Before the ruling by the Court this summer, it was de facto DOJ policy not to indict a sitting president. Do you think that’s acceptable?
Cb: No. The biden administration could get rid of that policy tomorrow through an executive order. That dOJ policy can be wiped away. It’s really the legacy of the Nixon era. This has nothing to do with Trump. It’s biden’s own failure, and I’d love to see Vice president Kamala harris commit to the idea of removing that policy, were she to win in November.
BDH: The vice president is in charge of certifying the election per the 12th
Amendment. If former Vice President Mike Pence had been harmed on January 6, you write that a constitutional crisis would have ensued. Can you take our reader through a roadmap of what would happen if a vice president were to be killed while certifying an election?
Cb: January 6 wasn’t just a riot at the Capitol. It was an attempt to take advantage of the weakness of the electoral College. Now, how were they going to do that? The 12th amendment vaguely gives the power to the vice president to certify each state’s electoral votes.
John eastman, a (former) law professor and Trump aide, theorized that pence could use the 12th amendment to determine which states’ votes were valid and which weren’t. The plot concocted by eastman aimed to pressure pence to certify the votes. If this occurred, the election would have been thrown to the house of representatives under the rules of the electoral College, and they thought they had the votes to win. When you had a walking threat to democracy like donald Trump, it could have worked.
When you add in the possibility that pence himself could have been killed during the riot, that just throws the certification of the vote into chaos. I’ll repeat your point that the vice president, under the 12th amendment, is supposed to certify the votes. What if there is no vice president? There might have been a constitutional crisis, or the vote might have gone to the house, and Trump might have pulled off a win.
of higher education.”
The letter also mentions the divestment proposal submitted to the advisory Committee on university resources management. members of the brown divest Coalition, a pro-palestine student group, wrote and presented the proposal to members of the Corporation, the university’s highest governing body, in may, The herald previously reported. The proposal calls for brown to divest its endowment from 10 companies with ties to Israel.
Just after paxson was welcomed to the stage, approximately 15 students held up painted canvas banners calling upon brown to divest. some of the students held up banners at the front of the ceremony, while others stood on the side. The protest follows a spring semester packed with large-scale calls for divestment.
The Corporation is set to vote on the “brown divest Now” proposal in October. The proposal was released during a hunger strike in February and calls for the university to divest from “companies identified as facilitating human rights violations in palestine,” The herald previously reported.
some freshmen noted that they were grateful that the protest was able to coexist with the tradition of Convocation.
Jacob Grandchamps ’28 felt that the university is “a space for change.” he is excited that the university “is trying to
FROM PAGE 1
presented results from The herald’s spring 2024 poll, in which over two-thirds of respondents supported divestment.
bdC also explained to aCurm how they decided on the 10 companies listed in the report.
In 2020, aCurm’s predecessor recommended some criteria that should determine if brown should divest from a company, including if the company’s products and services contribute to violence,
UNIVERSITY NEWS
listen to student issues and allow different perspectives to be heard.”
When paxson introduced dean Jha, student protesters walked through the main Green towards the stephen robert ’62 Campus Center, silently lifting painted canvas signs.
Jha, whose speech was titled “Curiosity, Courage and Conviction: your brown
illegal settlements or the separation Wall. bdC used three international databases to determine if a company met at least two of these five criteria.
“The research conducted by these internationally recognized screening databases informed the selection of 10 companies as particularly egregious offenders,” said anila Lopez marks ’26, a bdC representative. representatives also harkened on past successful divestment initiatives, pointing
Journey to a healthier World” focused on the importance of ongoing scientific exploration.
“humans started asking different questions and we started using new ways to answer these questions,” Jha said, adding that this was a result of three main principles that he encouraged members of the incoming class to embody: curiosity,
to the university’s divestment from south africa and sudan. They noted how, following university divestment, Congress passed laws imposing sanctions on south africa and divestment from sudan.
after the presentation, bdC representatives answered questions from aCurm — most from Kellner, its chair — which were mainly focused on the feasibility and impact of divestment.
Kellner noted that there exist many barriers to divestment, including a letter
courage and conviction.
Listening to the speeches, ai Okura ’28 reflected on Jha’s words and the future ahead, adding that she enjoyed the peaceful nature of the ceremony. as she walked through the gates, she reflected that it was the “first step of four years.”
When Grandchamps walked through the Van Wickle gates, he reflected on his
signed by 24 state attorneys general that warned of potential legal consequences.
Kellner said divestment could lead to challenges in collaborating with universities in other states, potentially limiting brown scholars in their studies.
rafi ash ’26, a bdC representative, pushed back on the letter, calling it “unfounded” and “a fundamental threat (to) brown university’s mission and goals of academic freedom.” he argued that brown is not the institution limiting academic
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senior year in high school and his excitement for his time at brown. “I was thinking about both the past and the future at the same time,” he said. “The journey I have ahead and the journey I just completed.”
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on Sept. 3, 2024.
freedom if it chooses to divest. Instead, he placed the blame on any potential restrictions in inter-university collaboration on the attorneys general themselves.
Kellner also asked how bdC believes the university should view companies that may provide both social harm and social benefit, saying that divestment from such companies may detract from the potential social benefits they provide. The Corporation is set to vote on divestment in their meeting in October.
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The ceremony featured speeches from President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 and Dean of the School of Public Health Ashish Jha.
ACTIVISM
Brown students gear up for another semester of divestment protests
The Corporation will vote on divestment in October
BY SOPHIA WOTMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Looking at the lighter patches of grass left behind by the tents from last spring’s encampment for palestine, some might have thought that student activism on campus would start to lose its steam. but some key moments are still to come this fall semester, as activist groups and u niversity administrators prepare for the next stage of a years-long push for divestment.
In October, the Corporation, brown’s highest governing body, will vote on a proposal to divest from 10 companies with ties to Israel. The proposal was written by members of the activist group brown divest Coalition, who agreed to dismantle an encampment on the main Green in exchange for the vote.
here’s what’s happened since students went home last spring.
aCurm solicits community input in lead-up to divestment recommendation
The first step for brown to consider a divestment resolution is the completion of a review from the advisory Committee
on university resources management, or aCurm. The group comprises students, faculty, staff and alumni who review and escalate recommendations on how brown allocates its resources.
at the end of July, president Christina paxson p’19 p md’20 directed aCurm to review the proposal, known as the “brown divest Now” report, and issue a recommen-
dation by sept. 30.
aCurm will recommend divestment from the companies in the report if at least one of two criteria are fulfilled: the company causes a social harm that divesting could help correct, or the companies are causing social harm “so grave that it would be inconsistent with” the university’s values, paxson wrote to aCurm
“In gathering evidence to inform the committee’s recommendation, I expect aCurm to provide sufficient opportunities for input from brown community members with a variety of perspectives on the proposal,” paxson wrote.
On aug. 2, aCurm invited the brown community members to share written input on the proposal.
On Tuesday morning, aCurm also announced four digital forums to be held in early september for university community members to discuss divestment with the committee.
at the first meeting on Wednesday, members of brown divest Coalition are scheduled to present their proposal and answer questions from aCurm. In the second meeting on sept. 9, students opposed to divestment will also present.
While these first two meetings will only be open to invited community members, the second two will feature “open listening sessions” where attendees will be called on to ask questions or make comments about the divestment proposal.
The herald’s spring 2024 poll found that roughly two-third of students approve of a divestment resolution and around 14% oppose it.
brown divest Coalition prepares for aCurm presentation and semester ahead brown divest Coalition has been work-
ing over the summer to prepare its case for divestment before aCurm and the Corporation.
The group submitted an updated version of its “brown divest Now” proposal to aCurm this July, which included additional context on the may encampment and negotiations with the university, said anila Lopez marks ’26, a representative of the group.
In advance of its Wednesday presentation to aCurm, bdC members held a public preparatory session to go over their proposal and practice answering mock questions from aCurm members.
The group also called on brown to use a secret ballot process, allow student representatives at the October vote and to make a list of members who recused themselves from the vote available, among other demands. The university has not publicly agreed to these demands.
brown divest Coalition, which was born out of pro-divestment protests last winter, now serves as a coordinating body for various pro-palestinian activism groups on campus.
“We have a very clear shared mission of pushing towards the divestment vote,” Lopez marks said.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on Sept. 3, 2024
OCR resolves Title VI complaint, raises concerns over antisemitism
Brown has committed to improving its response to harrassment
BY ANISHA KUMAR AND RYAN DOHERTY UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITORS
On monday, the Office for Civil rights at the u s department of education resolved a Title VI shared ancestry complaint filed against the university in January that alleged an inadequate response to antisemitism on campus. The OCr’s investigation raised broader concerns on how the university responded to reports of antisemitic, anti-palestinian and anti-muslim harassment. as a part of the resolution, the university has agreed to a list of actions to improve its response to harassment and discrimination, including training for all students and employees, improved record maintenance and policy revisions.
Title VI of the Civil rights act of 1964 protects against discrimination based on race, color or national origin for programs that receive federal funding. The university denies that it violated Title VI, and the resolution is not an admission of liability.
according to the investigation, the university received around 75 reports of antisemitic, anti-palestinian and anti-muslim harassment between October and march.
“The university appears to have taken no or little action in response other than to acknowledge receipt of the reports, list support resources, and request to meet with the complainant, consistent with its policies then in effect,” reads an OCr press release.
“Once a university has notice of alleged discrimination, it has a Title IV obligation to assess whether a
hostile learning environment exists independent of whether a complainant does or does not respond to or meet with the university,” the press release continues.
earlier this year, the university revised some policies and procedures, holding training, workshops and lectures regarding antisemitism, which the OCr acknowledged. It also took steps to streamline reporting of discrimination and harassment. The university first announced they were considering “enhancing” its policies in december, later supporting programming centered on academic freedom, antisemitism and anti-muslim discrimination.
Following the investigation and voluntary resolution, the university has agreed to include information on how it may continue to investigate an alleged violation of the Nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policy even if the individual who made the complaint does not move forward with it. If the university does not proceed, it must document its rationale. updates to the policy will include additional information on reporting procedures, timelines and outcome notification.
The university will also update its protest and demonstration policy so that it’s “applied equitably and in a manner that complies with Title VI,” in addition to a list of university officials who can enforce the policy. brown will also conduct annual nondiscrimination training for all students in addition to continued training for staff that investigate discrimination complaints. The university has also committed to improve its record keeping, provide a copy of complaints for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years to OCr and analyze Title VI compliance assessments to
improve campus climate.
The agreement was signed by russell Carey, executive vice president for planning and policy, and interim vice president for campus life.
“The university is satisfied that the voluntary resolution with OCr enforces and reaffirms brown’s commitment to strengthening our policies, systems and operations to ensure a campus environment where students, faculty and staff are safe and supported,” Carey said in a university press release.
The complaint was originally filed by Zachary marschall, editor of conservative news site Campus reform. marschall has no affiliation with the university.
recently, the muslim Legal Fund of america, a civil rights nonprofit, filed a second Title VI complaint with the OCr according to the OCr’s website, it has not yet opened an investigation into the complaint.
In a public letter to brown, the OCr offered “illustrative examples’’ of reports of antisemitism, anti-palestinian and anti-muslim harassment. according to the OCr , a student
pointed at a Jewish classmate who was wearing a star of david jewelry and yelled “Zionist pig Jew.” additionally, a palestinian-american student was berated by their roommate for their identity for weeks. students also blocked a Jewish classmate from attending a rally, the reports alleged.
sidechat was also a common site of harassment, according to the letter. Nine reports were filed about harassment on the platform, including an incident where a person “wished death upon a pro-Israel student.” In december, the university released social media guidelines about online harassment and discussed harassment on sidechat in university communications in march. The brown university Community Council also discussed harassment on sidechat during its march meeting.
The letter also discussed “a number of reports’’ about a student group for writing signs in chalk that read “from the river to the sea, not in our names, Free palestine.” Other reports included “screening a movie and inviting a speaker that were allegedly an-
tisemitic; and stating in a poster that it held Israel and its allies ‘unequivocally responsible for all suffering and loss of life, both Israeli and palestinian.’”
The student activities Office met with the student group to discuss these concerns and chalking guidelines.
In 2023, a student reported that a speaker threatened a student potentially due to “their perceived association with palestinian students.” Various university offices met with the student who reported the incident. Nearly 100 emails were sent raising concerns with the speaker, stating that the event made palestinian students feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
Other allegations of harassment were levied against faculty and staff, including that a professor created an “openly hostile, antisemitic classroom environment.” The allegation is under investigation by the Office of equity Compliance and reporting.s in October 2023.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on July 11, 2024
At the first meeting on Wednesday, members of Brown Divest Coalition are scheduled to present their proposal and answer questions from ACURM.
UNIVERSITY HALL
BUSINESSES
Plant City spreads its roots with new Barrington location
New bike-friendly location brings plant-based eats to East Bay
BY MAYA KELLY SENIOR STAFF WRITER
p lant City has expanded from its original home in p rovidence, having recently opened a new location in b arrington.
Opened in 2019, the plant-based eatery is “the world’s first plantbased food hall and marketplace,”
according to their website. Owner Kim anderson describes the business as “a vehicle to share with people how they can eat sustainably, healthily and compassionately out in the world.”
This isn’t the first time p lant City attempted to expand. a fter the COVI d -19 pandemic, a nderson opened two drive-through “ p lant City X” locations, one in middletown and the other in Warwick. While a nderson said that the Warwick location is still a “huge success,” the m iddletown location did not garner
as much clientele and closed in February of this year.
The decision to close the location in m iddletown went hand in hand with the idea to open plant City b arrington. Located directly next to the e ast b ay b ike path, the newest branch of p lant City is “another test for how we can get more people eating and enjoying healthier food made from plants,” a nderson said.
a ccording to employee h ayley Gasbarro ’24, east bay residents “are responding really well” to the new location.
“We’ve been needing a place like this forever,” said Christine Lane, a barrington resident who has become a regular at the new location. h aving the restaurant closer to home has allowed Lane and her family to try out plant-based eating “without sacrificing taste.”
“We came in cautiously optimistic, and we’ve become fangirls,” Lane said.
The new location also solves many vegan-curious patrons’ Washington bridge woes. The Lane family had tried out the p rovidence location in the past, but “especially with the bridge, ( b arrington) is just so much more convenient,” Lane said.
Plant-based
grab-and-go
and
location to spread the word about how impactful eating plant-based food can be.
“ p lus, if it’s delicious, why not?” she said.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on Sept. 3, 2024.
a nderson wants the b arrington
Cheyenne Walmsley has worked at p lant City since its opening in 2019. While she “has always loved” p lant City she now prefers the “vibes” at the new location. according to her, p lant City b arrington is more casual. “I don’t even feel like I have to get dressed,” she said.
Japanese food festival welcomes students to new Asian grocery store
Maruichi Japanese Food and Deli is a new cultural hub for students
BY TOM LI METRO EDITOR
Colorful containers of snacks, condiments and grocery staples populate a downtown providence corner, as bright lights and bustling dishes usher in packs of passersby. This is maruichi Japanese Food and deli: a local market specializing in Japanese produce, pantry items and other goods.
Tuesday morning marked the beginning of the store’s six-day food festival, which welcomed students back to campus by offering common Japanese street fare. In-house cooks prepared staple items like okonomiyaki — a savory pancake adorned with condiments and bonito flakes — and kakigori — a Japanese shaved ice.
The festival runs until sept. 8 and hopes to draw in students at brown and nearby colleges, according to Josh Nakama, vice president of operations
and expansion at Fuji mart Corporation — the store’s parent company.
students can prepare many of the store’s sale items in their dorm rooms and without full kitchens, Nakama explained. “We have some instant yakisoba and things like that,” he added. “snacks and a lot of our drinks are also on sale.”
The event also hopes to highlight maruichi’s presence within the brown community and introduce Japanese culture to local residents, Nakama said.
“students are probably some of our more frequent clientele,” he added.
“We tend to look for locations that both have a growing or active asian community, as well as something that has also a vibrant student community, and providence has both of those.”
maruichi first opened in the state, on Washington street, in late april.
The grocery chain began in 1991 as a small business called Fuji mart in Greenwich, Connecticut. Fuji mart Corp has since expanded into New york, massachusetts and New Jersey megan Chang-Lee Gs and siddarth
Kannan phd ’23 live near North main street and came into the store to find mentaiko — or pollock roe — a popular ingredient in Japanese cuisine. They first learned of maruichi on monday, when they drove by its storefront.
The couple planned on making mentaiko pasta, and “were scared that when we went back to providence, we wouldn’t be able to find it,” Kannan said. Lucky for them, several mentaiko options lined the refrigerator section of maruichi.
“We found the mentaiko, so we’re sold,” Chang-Lee said, adding that the pair definitely planned to come back.
Nakama said that the store has formed many relationships with smaller companies and producers to source harder-to-find products. maruichi also maintains partnerships with various import-export companies for items traditionally found in most asian grocery stores.
Outside of its grocery offerings and its “welcome back” food festival, maruichi hopes to host more events highlighting traditional Japanese holidays like setsubun in early February
or Tanabata over the summer. “hopefully we can build a nice spot for not just students but everybody to come in and enjoy … learning about Japan,” Nakama said.
snacks,
meals
refrigerated goodies line the shelves of Plant City’s Barrington location, which is right next to the East Bay Bike path.
ARTS & CULTURE
STUDENT
ART
Silk, film, plexiglass: How one Brown student printed the Moon with sunlight
the print. Then, a brigade of helpers ferried the damp silk to a nearby clothesline.
Images of the surface of the moon fluttered in the breeze. meanwhile, the team prepared the next roll of film.
BY DANA RICHIE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Out on pembroke Field, a group of 20 students and community members gathered around with one mission in mind. With a ten second countdown, the group counted in unison, lifting a makeshift plastic pipe table draped in a tarp, exposing a 60-footlong sandwich of hardwood, green cyanotype-treated silk, Lunar Orbiter replication film and plexiglass to the sun.
exactly 12 minutes later, the group covered the project with the same contraption. Logan Tullai ’25, the project’s mastermind, gathered the blue silk and rushed it to a 57-gallon bin of cold water to remove the photoreactivity from the fabric, developing
On aug. 27, Tullai oversaw the creation of cyanotype prints of two rolls of Nasa Lunar Orbiter film. a few days later, Tullai and collaborators printed two more rolls. brown used to house the Northeast regional planetary Imaging facility — a repository for Nasa data, including the reproductions of the Lunar Orbiter film — explained ralph milliken, associate professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences while watching the printing process. as staff began to digitize those archives, many rolls of film were declassified, milliken said.
While scouting safe landing locations, each of the five Lunar Orbiter missions between 1966 and 1967 shot pictures of the moon’s surface on film, and then developed
and transmitted the scanned images down to earth, milliken said.
“They were saved from the dumpster decades ago,” milliken said, adding that he was glad to see them put to use.
but transforming the rolls of film took months of preparation. Tullai first acquired pieces of the Lunar Orbiter film last fall through the multimedia Lab’s moon design Challenge in which student artists were encouraged to experiment and engage with decommissioned film negatives, The herald previously reported.
The rolls that Tullai used came from Lunar Orbiter 2 in November 1966 and Lunar Orbiter 3 in February 1967.
Originally, Tullai wanted simply to take the negatives “into a darkroom and see what happens.” but as he started acquiring more rolls of film and learning about its history, he grew more interested. “The way the film came back to earth was so dramatic,” Tullai explained. he thought a project just as grand was necessary to present the images.
While thinking about how to tackle a project of this scale, Tullai was drawn to cyanotype printing, something he learned about in his photography classes at brown — his only formal photography training. This method uses non-toxic photoreactive chemicals and objects to create relief images.
“I thought it would be cool to use the sun’s uV to make pictures of the moon,” Tullai said.
as Tullai’s project grew in scale, so did his expenses. The project received a grant from the brown arts Institute which allowed him to acquire the necessary mate-
rials throughout the year, including silk and custom-made plexiglass, he said.
With all the planning, developing and shopping done, there was just one more challenge Tullai needed to overcome.
“as a practical matter, it was something I couldn’t do myself,” he said with a laugh.
a number of Tullai’s friends showed up, and so did members of the brown community.
The completed silk pieces will be displayed on campus later this fall. Tullai is
still figuring out the logistics, and he has also been in conversation with Nasa to exhibit the finished products in its headquarters in Washington, dC.
Currently, Tullai has 14 rolls of Lunar Orbiter film in his possession, and he is eager to continue printing and working with them.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on Sept. 3, 2024.
Ravyn Lenae
Sophomore album is the artist’s follow-up to her 2022 album “HYPNOS”
BY MANAV MUSUNURU SENIOR STAFF WRITER
On aug. 9, rising r&b star ravyn Lenae released her long-awaited sophomore album “bird’s eye.” The record delves into Lenae’s experiences in past relationships, while showcasing the singer’s versatility. Complete with her distinctive and delicate soprano vocals, the new album explores a variety of r&b subgenres and strays away from the more downtempo tunes of Lenae’s
suffers, reflects and moves on from love in “Bird’s
debut album “hypNOs.”
The album’s two collaborations appear in its first half — not long after its rock-inspired opener, “Genius,” on which Lenae emphasizes her willingness to stay in a troubled relationship. The first of these collaborations, “One Wish (feat. Childish Gambino),” focuses instead on Lenae’s turbulent dynamic with her father and the complex feelings of love, sadness and betrayal she faces in his absence. Childish Gambino flawlessly expands upon this complicated relationship by taking on the role of Lenae’s father, singing, “I hope that your one wish does come true / I miss you.”
In the subsequent track, “ d ream Girl ” featuring Ty d olla $ign, the two
singers play the role of lovers who are willing to “just give in to the temptation.” In the outro, Lenae speaks seductively about how much she wants her lover, encouraging them to just let go.
Lenae continues to express feelings of desire and showcases her artistic versatility over the reggae-style beat of “Candy,” which is followed by the tracks “Love Is blind” and “Love me Not.” The two songs, which were released jointly as the album’s first singles, exhibit Lenae’s talent in storytelling. On “Love Is blind,” Lenae describes being weighed down by a lover she continues to give second chances to against her best interests. she finally breaks free of
the relationship in the second half of the song, repeating “Got you out of my mind.”
The final tracks on the album introduce more positive themes of hope and recovery. On “From scratch,” over a somber-sounding guitar instrumental, Lenae affirms her commitment to her past lovers and their perseverance through difficulties. “1 of 1” features more electronic beats but continues the themes of commitment and perseverance with Lenae singing, “been with you for two years / and I’m always gonna ask for another one” at the end of the first verse.
Lenae emphasizes the story of her recovery following a breakup on the closing
song of the album, “days.” although Lenae lost meaningful relationships, she did not lose a piece of herself, as she asserts that she “only lost the days.” as the track — and album — come to an end, Lenae moves on from the traumas and struggles of her turbulent and complex relationships, realizing that she must focus on herself and her future: “Waking up, my eyes are open / The door to the past is closing.”
“bird’s eye” gives listeners a deep and intimate look into the tumultuous nature of Lenae’s past relationships. While Lenae isn’t shy about delving into the conflicts she’s had with her loved ones in the past, she ultimately prioritizes moving on from those emotional wounds.
The project used decommissioned Lunar Orbiter film
“Bird’s Eye” explores a variety of R&B subgenres and strays away from the more downtempo tunes of “HYPNOS.”
UNIVERSITY HALL
State attorneys general urge Corporation to reject divestment proposal
university spokesperson brian Clark wrote in an email to The herald that the university does not plan to comment as they “await formal receipt of the letter.”
BY SAM LEVINE UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
Twenty-four state attorneys general are urging brown to reject a proposal to divest from companies with ties to Israel, they wrote in a letter addressed to university officials monday.
The signatories were all republican attorneys general and did not include rhode Island’s attorney general. The letter was addressed to president Christina paxson p’19 md’20 and the Corporation, the university’s highest governing body, which is expected to vote on such a proposal in October.
brown and other universities have received significant national attention, especially from republican elected officials, since protests erupted on their campuses over the war in Gaza and divestment from Israel. This letter is an early indication of the national scrutiny that is likely to surround the Corporation’s vote on divestment in October.
arkansas attorney General Tim Griffin authored the letter, which described the divestment proposal put forth by the student group brown divest Coalition as “antisemitic and unlawful.” adopting the proposal, the letter says, may trigger anti-boycott laws that would prohibit the
states from doing business with brown. according to the Jewish Virtual Library, 38 u s. states have adopted some law that prohibits their state from awarding contracts, investing or doing business with companies engaged in a boycott of Israel.
The letter also warned that states are already reviewing their investments and contracts to determine if brown “has already violated state law” by agreeing to bring the proposal to a vote.
In april, the university agreed to bring a divestment resolution to a vote in October, provided it passes a review committee. In exchange for this commitment, student protestors agreed to disassemble an encampment they had erected on the main Green.
The following month, five representatives from the brown divest Coalition presented their proposal to five Corporation members during their may meeting.
Throughout the demonstrations, students called on brown to adopt their revised edition of a 2020 divestment recommendation that paxson originally declined to bring to the Corporation.
a spokesperson for the brown divest Coalition did not respond to The herald’s request for comment by press time. This article originally
Top U. diversity and equity official to step down
Sylvia Carey-Butler is leaving her position after three years
BY ANISHA KUMAR UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR
s ylvia Carey- b utler, b rown’s vice president for institutional equity and diversity, will step down from her post on Oct. 31 after three years with the university, according to a press release.
Carey-butler joined the u niversity in 2021. Throughout her tenure, she prioritized on-campus inclusion events and strengthened b rown’s relationships with historically b lack colleges and universities. s he leaves b rown as universities nationwide face scrutiny over diversity and equity initiatives in higher education.
h er successor has not yet been selected.
“I believe we were able to accomplish a great deal, particularly at a time when so many institutions are being compelled to scale back efforts” in diversity and equity, Carey-butler said in the press release.
d uring her time at b rown, the responsibilities of the Office of Institutional e quity and d iversity, which Carey-butler oversees, shrank significantly.
WELCOME BACK STUDENTS!
Fall 2024 Courses in or (adjacent to)
Carey- b utler’s office previously oversaw compliance with Title IX, the a mericans with d isabilities a ct and s ection 504, and several other laws related to accessibility, equity and anti-discrimination. Those programs were moved to a separate office in late January amid investigations into the university by the d epartment of education’s Office for Civil r ights. brown’s relationships with hbCus were a focus of Carey-butler’s tenure. In spring 2023, she appointed brown’s inaugural hb C u presidential fellow, e lfred a nthony p inkard, to expand collaboration with hb C us beyond an existing partnership with Tougaloo College. she also helped create an oral history project entitled “ b uilding a bridge back to brown,” which collected pembroke Center interviews with black alumni about their connection to their alma mater.
The u niversity said Carey- b utler will “pursue opportunities to ensure equity and inclusion across higher education.” her predecessor left b rown in 2021 for d artmouth.
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on Aug. 27, 2024.
COST/RELS 0120 - The Classical Chinese Philosophy of LifeLarson DiFiori
COST/RELS 0535 - Self-Transformation and Transcendence in Later Daoist Contemplative Traditions - Larson DiFiori
COST/RELS 0565 - The Sound of One Hand: Zen in Asia and the West - Harold D. Roth
COST 1082 - Me, Myself and I: Exploring Senses of Self from a Multidisciplinary Perspective - Nicholas Canby
PHP 1880 (COST 1080) - Meditation, Mindfulness and HealthEric Loucks
PHP 1890 (COST 1890) - The Craving Mind - Judson Brewer
RELS 2380A - Chinese Buddhist Texts - Harold D. Roth and Jason Protass. (Reading proficiency in Classical Chinese required and knowledge of Buddhism preferred.)
SOC1871Z - Martial Arts, Culture and Society - Michael Kennedy
TAPS 1280K - Mindfulness and Movement: Interoceptive Expressive Arts - Michelle Bach-Coulibaly
daNa rIChIe / heraLd
ADMISSIONS
Legacy admissions at Brown would end under this proposed bill
Advocates hope new version of bill will be considered this session
BY TALIA LEVINE SENIOR STAFF WRITER
student activists are taking the fight over legacy admissions to the s tate house.
The student group s tudents for educational equity plans to reintroduce a bill to ban legacy admissions statewide. a prior version of the bill died in committee during the last legislative session.
see and s tate r epresentative d avid morales ( d - p rovidence) introduced a first version of the bill in a pril to ban legacy preferences in university admissions statewide. s imilar measures are picking up across the country.
The bill was first introduced relatively late in the January to June legislative session, morales said — legislators typically introduce legislation before the end of February for full consideration. each legislator is allowed to introduce three bills after the deadline, but those bills are not guaranteed a committee hearing to be formally considered.
STUDENT RESEARCH
“Considering this is a conversation I had started with see during the spring, I wanted to make sure this was one of my post-deadline bills,” said morales, despite the lower chances of getting a hearing. The bill died in committee.
see and morales plan to reintroduce the bill at the beginning of the upcoming legislative session — and advocates are optimistic.
“This isn’t going to be a bill that dies this year,” said Nick Lee ’26, co-president of see and co-leader of the a dmissions and a ccess team.
“We are going to reintroduce it next year when we’re not working on a delayed, shortened timeline.”
u sing legislation to end legacy admissions isn’t an idea unique to b rown.
California lawmakers have passed a bill that would ban legacy admissions at public and private institutions. Virginia and Colorado passed legislation to ban legacy admissions at public institutions. p resident Joe b iden has also publicly criticized legacy preferences.
u niversity s pokesperson b rian
Clark did not respond to a request for comment
In m arch, p resident Christina p axson p ’19 p ’ md ’20 announced
that the u niversity will consider community input on the use of familial preferential treatment in the admissions process.
The university has yet to lay out a formal plan for collecting student input. paxson previously told The h erald that if the u niversity was
“concerned primarily with socioeconomic diversity, it would make sense to eliminate this practice,” referring to legacy admissions.
she has also highlighted the benefits of familial preferences, saying that well-connected applicants are as qualified to be admitted as other ap -
plicants with no family connection. paxson also said the practice “lets alumni know that we really want their students at brown” which helps “build a sense of community.”
This article originally appeared online at browndailyherald.com on Sept. 3, 2024.
The Brown students researching their summers away
Students remained on campus this summer for UTRAs
BY ELISE HAULUND SENIOR STAFF WRITER
e ach spring, many b rown students choose to make their time in p rovidence a year-long affair, staying over the summer to work with a professor on an undergraduate Teaching and research award.
Commonly known as uTras, these university grants allow students across disciplines to collaborate with faculty on research or course development. From investigating computational neuroscience to nanofluidics, brown students beat the summer heat in the lab.
The herald spoke with three students who recently completed their summer uTras to get a sense of what it is like to spend months trying to unearth scientific secrets.
Torsten Ullrich ’25: On recording the inside of the human brain
Torsten ullrich ’25 is no stranger to computational neuroscience.
This summer, he continued his work in the asaad Lab and the Lee Lab, investigating essential tremor — a neurological condition that causes rhythmic shaking — and its relationship to patients’ sense of timing.
When a patient undergoes an implant operation for essential tremor, the intention is deep brain stimulation (a therapeutic treatment to reduce the condition) or epilepsy monitoring. but this procedure also presents the “unique opportunity” to obtain data directly from the inside of their brain, according to
ullrich.
The a saad Lab, which operates in rhode Island hospital, is looking at new ways to leverage this dataset.
“because of the structures that are involved in this area and what they’re connected to,” — namely, the cerebellum — “we thought the timing could be something that we could see here,” ullrich explained.
The procedure is performed while the patient is awake, allowing the lab to collect data from the patient’s brain while they are performing a task that tests their timing. This helps researchers understand whether essential tremor patients have a sense of timing that is “typical” compared to control groups.
“While these patients are receiving a surgery, they are playing a game while we record from inside their head,” ullrich said. “In this case, ... they have to estimate a time interval. It’s a very simple task where they’re just trying to replicate a time that we give them, and then we want to see whether anything in the brain is reflecting that process,” ullrich said.
a significant portion of u llrich’s work consisted of processing the data from these experiments.
When he first arrived at brown, ullrich planned to study neuroscience or biology on a pre-med path, but exploring computer science and his research led him to an independent concentration in computational neuroscience.
This summer, ullrich has used his computational neuroscience foundation to process the data from inside the brain.
“I’ve been ... trying to convert the signal of the brainwaves into understanding when specific neurons — single units inside the brain — are firing,” ullrich said. “and so we’re hoping that maybe we
can see some sort of pattern in that that we wouldn’t see from just the raw data.”
Thor Burkhardt ’26: Nanopores — tiny but powerful Thor burkhardt ’26 has been thinking on the scale of “maybe 100 hydrogen atoms across.”
This summer in the Kuehne Lab, he investigated the physics of fluids as they move through nanopores, extremely small channels found in both cells and inorganic materials. burkhardt constructed and tested nanopore technology, with applications ranging from genome sequencing to energy conservation.
Nanopores are everywhere, such as selective ion channels in our cell membranes, but this summer b urkhardt synthetically built nanopores from graphene, a 2d carbon material.
“Looking through a microscope and playing with thermoplastic,” burkhardt was able to “sandwich” two layers of graphene together into a channel that fluid could run through.
after the nanopore is physically constructed, fluids can be run through it, usually including ions traveling via a concentration gradient to create electric currents. measuring this electric current can be used for genome-sequencing, for instance, by running a single strand of dNa through the nanopore.
using nanopore technology is the difference between genome-sequencing taking “a matter of weeks” compared to the 13 years that the process took the human Genome p roject. b ut there’s still room for “a lot of improvement,” according to burkhardt.
“We’re really curious about trying to make some of those sorts of devices more efficient,” burkhardt said.
another application for nanopores is harvesting energy from osmotic gradients — harnessing the energy from a salt’s tendency to flow from high to low concentrations.
“If you actually want to get some energy out of this, you can put (the nanopore) somewhere where there’s already a concentration gradient, like in a desalination plant,” burkhardt said. “desalination plants use a lot of energy, and they’re critical for a few 100 million people for their clean drinking water.”
Nanopores could help recover a percentage of this energy used by desalination plants, he explained.
burkhardt, who previously studied physics with a mainly theoretical perspective, enjoyed the opportunity to use his theoretical background this summer. but collaboration with fellow lab members taught him it is not always best to get caught up trying to find a nearly perfect theoretical model.
“Going into this, I was armed, maybe foolishly, with a lot of math and maybe not enough intuition.” burkhardt said. “sometimes simplicity, even if it’s not precise, can be better.”
Salena Zhu ’27: Uncovering the secrets of osteoarthritis pre-med hopeful salena Zhu ’27 completed an uTra with the Chen Lab at the Warren alpert medical school, working to discover the underlying genetic workings of sex differences in the onset of osteoarthritis (Oa). an age-related bone degenerative disease, Oa is more common in women than men, but as of yet, “no one really knows exactly why,” Zhu said.
Zhu’s work this summer focused on proinflammatory markers — substances such as cytokines that indicate inflammation in the body. To induce
an early onset of Oa model mice, the lab increased specific expression of a stress-responsive gene called microrNa-365.
so far, Zhu’s project compared mice with Oa versus control and male versus female, studying how Oa developed over the course of three to seven months.
Female mice tended to increase their expression of the proinflammatory markers interleukin six and matrix metalloproteinase 13, which are released by an inflamed joint.
Zhu’s lab also performed safranin staining, which measures the severity of Oa by evaluating the concentration of cartilage in the knee joint, on the mice’s knee tissue. They found a more “significant increase” in the severity of Oa in females at seven versus three months than their male counterparts.
as microrNa-365 is a stress-responsive gene, the sex dimorphism — that is, the differences between sexes within the same species — could come from how males and females physically and genetically respond to stress differently. understanding these differences, Zhu said, would allow medical professionals to develop more “sex-specific” treatments.
Zhu conducted microrNa research in high school, which nurtured her interest in microbiology. This summer, she continued to enjoy the consistency of her “pretty typical microrNa workflow,” which included homogenizing and extracting rNa from the mice samples and performing polymerase chain reactions, or pCr
For Zhu, the most rewarding part was “being able to really see the fruits of your work after you’ve been working on something for weeks, (when) you finally get the data, and there’s actually significant value and significant results.”