Thursday, February 2, 2017

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 7

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SPS offers innovative master’s programs, seeks to expand SPS generates new revenue stream, grows alumni base, creates online courses

By ANNA KRAMER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Since the first executive master’s program was launched six years ago, the School of Professional Studies has grown in resources and contributed significantly to the University budget, said Karen Sibley, dean of the SPS and vice president for strategic initiatives.

The SPS, which is currently located at 200 Dyer St., will eventually move into a new 50,000 square foot space under development by Wexford Science and Technology in the Jewelry District, said Russell Carey, executive vice president for planning and policy.

The SPS only offers blended-learning programs based predominantly online with occasional intensive in-person sessions, Sibley said. Unlike traditional master’s programs, they occur over a period of sixteen months without summer breaks, usually beginning in August and finishing in December of the next year, she added.

Growth of the SPS Master’s students are a fairly new population for the University compared to peer institutions, Sibley said.

The executive master’s programs currently include executive master’s degrees in science and technology leadership, healthcare leadership and cybersecurity, in addition to the IE Brown Executive MBA program, which is a partnership with the IE Business School in Spain, Sibley said.

The “four current programs are still in their early years, and we’ve intentionally made sure that they are relatively small so we can pay careful attention to quality,” Sibley said. The SPS plans to create at least two more executive master’s programs in the coming years and also grow current class sizes, she added. About 170 executive master’s students are currently enrolled, she said, adding that she would like to see that number grow to 400 over the next few years.

The executive master’s programs are consistent in duration, quality and hours with traditional master’s programs, Sibley said. The SPS targets older students, typically those with families and full-time jobs, she said, adding that the SPS will continue to capitalize on attracting non-traditional students.

Dale Knecht, senior vice president of global information technology at TTM Technologies and a current student in the executive master’s program for cybersecurity, said the most appealing aspect of the program was » See SPS, page 3

ELI WHITE / HERALD

In his second annual State of the City address, Mayor Jorge Elorza spoke about education reform, the decline in Providence’s homicide rate and the expansion of the city’s role in providing childcare to residents.

Elorza gives State of the City address Mayor cites achievements of two years in office, weighs in on President Trump’s policies

By KYLE BOROWSKI METRO EDITOR

Heading into the third year of his first term, Mayor Jorge Elorza delivered his annual State of the City address Wednes-

U. aims to reduce burden of summer earnings Students question summer earning expectation, cite difficulties balancing work with outside interests

By SARAH WANG

Number of Summer Earnings Waivers awarded Between 2014 and 2016, BrownConnect increased the number of SEWs allocated to students by 137 grants.

250 waivers granted

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

224

200

The University’s Summer Earnings Expectation is a continuous topic of debate on campus. While the administration has tried to lessen the burden of the SEE through increased access to compensated summer programs, students still protest against its role in financial aid packages.

A student who receives need-based financial aid has an SEE as a part of their student contribution portion of their aid package to help pay for their education the following academic school year. The SEE is the same for every student, except for first-years, who have a slightly lower requirement. For the 2016-17 academic year, first-years were expected to contribute $2,650, while all other students receiving financial aid were expected to contribute $3,100.

The SEE is not unique to the

INSIDE

203

Bands Electric Kitty, Samurai Sword, She Keeps Bees featured in latest gig on Orchard St. SENIOR STAFF WRITER

157%

100

increase in SEWs from 2014 to 2016

87

50

0

2016

Source: Sarah Brown JEN SHOOK / HERALD

University, as all eight schools in the Ivy League and other peer institutions across the nation require similar contributions from their students, said Jim Tilton, dean of financial aid.

“The basic philosophy of financial

aid at Brown is a partnership between the University, families, students (and) the federal government,” Tilton said.

“Students are expected to participate by bringing back” summer earnings to » See AID, page 2

to the end of the 2016 fiscal year, for example, the city went from a $13 million deficit to the strongest flow of income it had seen in years, Elorza said. He added that for the first time since 2011, Providence will have a rainy day fund.

One symptom of these improvements is home sales in the city, which have increased rapidly, including a 24 percent increase in single family home sales, Elorza said. Thanking the governor » See ADDRESS, page 3

Sofar Sounds hosts underground concerts

By ELIZABETH TOLEDANO

150

2014 2015

day, making note of the various accomplishments and benchmarks reached during his time in office.

“I stand before you today … with the message that we are building for the long term,” Elorza said. “We are changing this narrative and writing a new script together.” One of the most identifiable ways in which that narrative has been altered is the city’s financial landscape, he said.

From the end of the 2015 fiscal year

Guided by the lights of their cell phones and an address revealed only the day before, a crowd arrived at an anonymous house on Orchard Street Sunday night. At first, there was a trickle of people coming in, a few individuals scattered on chairs — mostly Brown students dressed in Doc Martens, maroon sweaters and flannels.

A crowd of representatives from the women’s cross country team sat on the couch, a few upperclassmen crouched against the wall and, in the kitchen, a group of students stood in T-shirts that read “Be still and know.” There were also outliers, such as middle-aged Michael and Sue from Massachusetts

who had heard about the event on CBS. A mountain of belongings accumulated in the doorway — a Brown crew backpack, coats ranging from puffy-fur hybrids to well-worn jean jackets and the casual, but not pervasive, beer bottle or can. In the back rested a pile of sound equipment: drums, a microphone and various amps. As 8:30 p.m. approached, three bands remained disguised among the chattering onlookers.

Sofar Sounds is an elusive worldwide organization that sponsors gigs as far as Bombay, India and as close as Providence. The organization attempts to create an intimate space for purified music listening, which means no phones, no chatting during the set and no walking out halfway through the show. “Everyone is listening so intently, and there is so much respect for the artist” said Lindsay Sack ’19, media manager of Sofar Sounds Providence. To accomplish » See CONCERTS, page 2

WEATHER

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017

NEWS Special collections staff works to preserve artifacts, provide access, education at John Hay

NEWS U. researchers work to advance research on upper-limb prosthetics for veterans

COMMENTARY Johnson ’19: Students must plan for likely change in affordability, accessability of contraceptives

COMMENTARY Shemano ’19: Obama’s expansion of executive power enabled Trump’s overreach

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» CONCERTS, from page 1 this, Sofar Sounds requires each potential audience member to apply for a spot at the concert. From the applicant pool, local volunteer organizers select an inclusive mix, attempting to allot spots equally among genders, while also considering previous attendance to maintain a strong fan base.

“Every show is completely different — you go to a show, and you never know what you’re going to get,” said David Sasson ’17, co-founder of Sofar Sounds Providence. For their gigs, which occur once or twice a month, Sofar Sounds Providence often has twice as many applicants as it can feasibly fit. Each attendee has the option to bring a plus-one and pay a donation of a minimum of five dollars.

The shows feature three acts that are revealed the day before, along with the location. The bands receive a cut of the donations or an opportunity to appear on the widely-followed Sofar Sounds YouTube channel. Sunday’s show featured Electric Kitty from Brown, Samurai Sword from Connecticut and She Keeps Bees, a Brooklyn-based rock band.

When Electric Kitty took the stage ­— or what is more accurately described as a corner — the crowd settled into a comfortable, attentive silence. The lead singer, Aidan Cron ’19, started with a description of the band name, which is derived from an incorrect reference to a failed Cold War CIA project. According to Cron, the United States trained a coalition of

cats with listening devices implanted in their ears to spy on Soviet generals.

The name of the covert operation?

Acoustic Kitty.

The band’s energetic acoustic set featured songs with names like “Whiskey Mountain” and “Beach House” that recall a distinctive indie rock subgenre that relies heavily on history and myth. As most of the audience sat on the floor, dancing was limited to light head nodding, which gradually became more intense.

Samurai Sword was up next, and changed the tone entirely. Josh Pavel, the singer-guitarist bashfully thanked “the Sofar dudes, people and stuff ” before beginning to play with a brassy, full sound. After a few acoustic songs, Pavel began to sing with a tone at once empathetic, longing and jarring, his hands fluttering tenderly from chord to chord. A cellist dressed in black joined him, and their voices melded beautifully in the space Pavel described as a “really cool wooden room.” At the set’s conclusion, the Sofar organizers invited audience members to tell jokes. Only Pavel volunteered, offering several variants of a theme: “21 Jump Street? What? Were jump streets one through 20 already taken?” “Motel Six? What? Were Motels one through five already taken?” and “27 Dresses?

What? Were dresses one through 26 already taken?”

She Keeps Bees, featuring Jessica Larrabee on vocals and guitar alongside her husband, Andy LaPlant, on drums, took the stage last. LaPlant described the duo’s music as rock with

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

JULIANNE CENTER / HERALD

Last Sunday night, Sofar Sounds Providence put on a show at Orchard Street featuring Connecticut-based duo Samurai Sword, pictured above, Electric Kitty and She Keeps Bees. “a softness.” Larrabee saw the night as “trying to help with the insanity” of today’s political climate — a moment for “healing and community.”

Her stage presence first brought on a comical tone as she engaged in a rambling monologue of self-effacing jokes, cursing and excited encouragement.

“I grew my pimple all week for this,” she said. This created a stark contrast when her bubbly chatting abruptly transitioned into a powerful singing voice that struck the audience, filling the room with a soulful poetry.

In a timely feminist rock anthem that overwhelmed the audience, Larrabee

methodically chanted “Our bodies are our own!”

By the end of the show, there was a sense that something had been accomplished — Sofar Sounds had reached their goal of creating a show that was, as Sack put it, “just magic.” And this isn’t the first time, either. For Sack, Sofar Sounds provides “those few hours every month to connect to music and to connect to people.”

Since Sasson and Jaclyn Licht ’16 started Sofar Sounds Providence, shows have occurred everywhere from Dave’s Coffee and an overheated attic in the summer to a tiny room at

WBRU radio station’s headquarters.

Some have involved ten-person funk bands, acts like Busty and the Bass, Lawrence and Wild Rivers and, once, an impromptu second show when the band showed up four hours late. Once, a venue even loaned out Polaroids so audience members could take pictures.

While Sofar Sounds maintains an air of mystery, Brown community members are encouraged to get involved, whether as organizers or audience members. The events are generally close to campus, Sasson said, and they are always open to new volunteers, guests and venues.

» AID, from page 1

outside scholarships to cover their SEE, which is not typical for institutions outside the Ivy League, according to Tilton.

But the SEE still generates some student criticism.

Some students take issue with how the SEE is implemented. Camille di Bella ’19 believes the SEE is particularly unfair for humanities concentrators.

“I know that for a lot of people here on financial aid studying humanities, the decision of what to do over the summer often comes down to taking a job (unrelated to humanities) or taking an unpaid internship … since internships in the humanities are generally unpaid,” di Bella wrote in an email to The Herald.

As a humanities concentrator, di Bella was forced to work to fulfill her SEE on top of her unpaid internship doing legislative work at a nonprofit, she wrote.

“I ended up spending my summer interning at the office during the day and then turning around almost as soon as I got home to work at my ‘real’ job during evenings and weekends,” wrote di Bella.

Those who live in states with a lower minimum wage are similarly disadvantaged, said Edith Mares ’20. She lives in Georgia, where the minimum wage in 2016 was $5.15 — one of the lowest wages in the United States. To fulfill her SEE at home, Mares must work more hours.

Furthermore, Mares feels that her SEE forces her to choose between spending time with her family or paying the requirement. “I would have to work about 14 weeks (to pay the SEE), which is basically the whole summer,” Mares said. “I will not sacrifice time with family I never get to see for the summer earning expectations.”

In the face of these student criticisms, the administration will continue to work toward solutions, Tilton said. “It’s a topic that comes up regularly.”

school each year, he added.

Kalvin Lam ’20 believes the SEE violates the concept of financial aid by asking students to pay what the aid package is supposed to provide. The requirement is “just unfair and makes no sense,” Lam said.

“Having a summer earnings portion in the financial aid package is pretty much just telling us to pay for it ourselves,” Lam added. To him, this is the equivalent of the University saying “Here’s how much we’ll be giving you for the year, except a portion of how much we’ll be giving you is what you earn,” he said. “It’s a contradiction in and of itself.”

In an effort to make the SEE more manageable, students can apply for a variety of awards and programs — the Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award, the BrownConnect LINK Award Program, the Bruno Signature Program and more — which not only provide compensation, but also waive the SEE with a Summer Earnings Waiver, said Matthew Donato, director of CareerLAB. “We’re pretty committed to the idea that students should receive compensation for significant internship work that they’re doing over the summer,” Donato added.

The numbers reflect that dedication.

In 2016, 224 students received a SEW award, compared to 87 students in 2014, wrote Sarah Brown, CareerLAB internships manager, in an email to The Herald.

But students can only earn one SEW during their undergraduate studies through these programs unless an individual academic department and CareerLAB work to sponsor additional summer research opportunities, Donato said. Last summer, CareerLAB expanded its SEW offerings, giving additional SEWs to six other academic departments, he added.

Beyond CareerLAB, students can use

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» SPS, from page 1 the combination of a flexible online schedule and in-house sessions spread throughout the sixteen months.

Katelyn Tambellini, a security client executive at IBM and a student in the executive master’s program in cybersecurity, believes her degree might give her the opportunity to become a chief security officer or begin her own consulting business.

The SPS will continue to create programs in areas of particular strength for the University, Sibley said, adding that future programs may take advantage of Brown’s expertise in the fields of economics and neuroscience.

Executive master’s programs are born from a “combination of decisionmaking based on evidence” and “faculty capacity and interest,” Sibley said.

The SPS attracts University “faculty who have an interest in working with executive master’s students and who have expertise that aligns with the program design.”

For example, the creation of the executive master’s in cybersecurity program began with the computer science department’s strength in cybersecurity, Sibley said. Additionally, the program made use of faculty from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs , she said.

The SPS hopes to expand on the types of programs offered, Sibley said, including shorter certificate programs and intensive conference programs that offer certificates rather than credit.

In collaboration with Provost Richard Locke and the Provost’s Steering Committee on Digital Teaching and Learning, the SPS plans to partner with edX, an online course platform started by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sibley said. In a few months, the University will announce a BrownX set of course offerings, some of which will be free and some of which will offer certification or credit for a fee, Sibley said.

New revenue stream By increasing the population of graduate students, the University hopes to create revenue from SPS tuition without adding costs, Sibley said.

“The SPS is a completely selfsupporting enterprise; we do not get any funding from the University to run these programs,” she added. “We generate enough marginal revenue

» ADDRESS, from page 1 for her cooperation in attracting businesses to the city, Elorza lauded the new locations of several companies like General Electric and Johnson & Johnson as signs of Providence’s growth.

The mayor intends to build on these developments and has submitted a fiveyear capital improvement plan worth an estimated $120 million to the City Plan Commission. Speaking on the importance of maintaining the city’s roads, bridges and sewers, Elorza maintained that “we can afford these investments.

We can’t afford not to make them.”

A large portion of the address was related to educational reforms undertaken by the Elorza administration, including last year’s $2 million investment in 8,000 laptops for city students. Elorza said that $10 million would be spent to make repairs to school district buildings, a component of a recent announcement that the city would increase its contribution

from all of our programming that we can invest in compensation for faculty to design new programs.” She added that creating a new program can take up to two years and be costly.

Despite that cost, for the last several years, SPS contributed a significant amount to the Education and General Budget, the central budget that subsidizes University academic growth and programming, Sibley said.

In fiscal year 2016, the SPS contributed $6.5 million to the operating budget. The projected contribution for fiscal year 2017 is $8 million, according preliminary estimates provided to The Herald by the University.

The SPS learning experience Students and professors alike spoke of the two-way collaboration and learning environment; students learned from each other as well as the professors, while professors learned from students.

Jim Austin, a professor in management and marketing for healthcare transformation at the SPS, said that after his experience with the online learning environment, he will bring media and increased interaction into his face-to-face class planning.

Incentives for SPS faculty include the opportunity to interact with midcareer professionals, which enhances faculty research and understanding of current practice, Sibley said.

The diversity of the cohort’s backgrounds, industries and geographies contributes to the dynamic environment, Knecht said.

Jay Flanagan EMHL’15, a senior operator and general manager of the Flanagan Group, said he would often cover a topic in coursework and then apply it in his work environment the following week. “I have found a greatly expanded personal and professional network that I have been able to leverage,” he added.

Patrick McHugh, executive director of the IE Brown Executive MBA Program and professor of the practice in the School of Engineering, has taught undergraduates, traditional graduate students and executive master’s students. He has found the key differences between the three student groups to be age and method of delivery. In spite of these differences, McHugh said the University attracts the same types of engaged students across its graduate and undergraduate programs. to schools for the first time in six years.

This will factor into Elorza’s larger stated goal of “(creating) the greatest urban educational district in the country.”

Another likely factor in improving educational outcomes is an expansion of the city’s contribution to childcare for its residents. In expanding the number and quality of city recreational centers, Elorza has seen the number of meals served in those centers increase from 3,000 in 2015 to 100,000 in 2016. “No child should ever experience hunger, and no family should ever be short on food,” Elorza said.

Touching on the issue of crime in Providence, Elorza made note of the fact that the 2016 homicide rate was tied for the city’s lowest in 30 years. In addition, there was a 37 percent decline in the number of shootings recorded this year compared to the five-year average. Elorza attributed this decline to community cooperation with police and an overall doubling of crime watch groups in the

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

School of Professional Studies programs target older students who often have families and full-time jobs by combining largely online instruction with occassional intensive in-person sessions.

But undergraduates and SPS students rarely interact. Interaction and collaboration with SPS students and undergrads is “one of the areas that could be improved … There may be opportunities for lunch and learning, panel discussions and career development,” he said.

Unlike Austin, McHugh has experienced several instances of engagement with undergraduates. McHugh also works to coordinate summer internships for undergraduates in Madrid with the IE marketing team that partners with the IE Brown Executive MBA program.

“We haven’t had any interaction with undergraduates,” Tambellini said of the cybersecurity executive master’s program. “We have a dearth of talent in the field of cybersecurity … I would absolutely encourage involvement with undergraduates,” she added.

Engaging SPS alums The SPS wishes to ensure continuous learning opportunities for alums and extend the University’s alumni network, Sibley said.

“I want that network to serve the undergraduates and the doctorates at Brown,” she added.

Flanagan has donated to Brown in the past and will continue to do so in the future. He has noticed that the University’s alumni communications often fail to connect with the executive master’s alums who may have progressed far into their careers and possibly have college age children themselves. The University’s past two years.

Elorza spent the final five minutes of his speech addressing a figure with whom he has found himself more and more at odds in recent weeks: President Donald Trump. “It’s important to address the changed landscape in which we all now find ourselves,” Elorza said.

“It’s been two weeks since our president was inaugurated, and already we’ve seen attacks on the principles we hold most dear.”

Elorza, himself a child of immigrants, said he was “deeply proud and personally thankful of how inclusive and welcoming” the city has been both to his own family and to immigrants more broadly.

Elorza focused on that openheartedness, imploring city residents to invest themselves in the city and help improve it.

“We are the change we seek,” Elorza said, quoting former President Barack Obama. “Together, let’s build the one Providence we all know we have the potential to be.”

LAURA FELENSTEIN / HERALD

messaging tends to target 25- to 30-year-old alums, he noted.

The University needs to use “a different approach” in order to raise more funds from SPS alums by recognizing the difference between alums of the SPS and the College, Flanagan said.

Ivon Rodriguez ’00 EMBA ’16 has been active in alumni organizations since she was an undergraduate. As a

former president of her Miami alumni association, Rodriguez said “there’s opportunity to engage more mindfully with the alumni of the SPS,” which would benefit both alums and the University.

Tambellini noted that she also intends to donate to the University, given her experience in the cybersecurity executive master’s program.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

John Hay Library curators balance preservation, education Military collection consists of over 20,000 books, about 15,000 prints, 5,000 little toys

By ROSE SHEEHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection in the John Hay Library loaned two 16th-century books to the Art Institute of Chicago last week. The volumes will be displayed through March 2018 in the inaugural exhibit for the museum’s Deering Family Galleries of Medieval and Renaissance Art, Arms and Armor. The loan is one of many that the University’s special collections regularly makes to outside institutions. As superintendents of these collections, staff members of the University’s libraries must balance the role of artifacts as accessible educational tools with the desire to preserve the objects and their history.

Donated to the University in 1981, the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection “consists of over 20,000 books, about 15,000 prints, drawings, paintings, watercolors, 5,000 little toy soldiers … and several hundred portfolios, scrapbooks, sketchbooks and albums,” said Peter Harrington, curator of the collection. These objects were amassed by the collection’s namesake, and the entire collection reflects world military history from roughly 1500 to 1945, with its oldest book dating to 1472. Brown built most of the collection “in the decade after World War II, when most people had had enough of wars and armies,” Harrington said. “So she was buying stuff for next to nothing.”

The collection’s hallmark is its “international focus,” Harrington said. “Its strength is in its graphics,” he added.

“Mrs. Brown just loved pictures of men in uniform.” The collection’s distinctiveness also stems from the fact that close to 28,000 of its images are available online, making it “the only collection in the

library that has such a significant percentage of the material fully digitized,” added Christopher Geissler, director of the Hay and special collections.

Though not all artifacts in the collection are digitized, a large number of objects are “available to people around the world, students at Brown, students anywhere else.” Since the digitization of much of the collection, the number of “requests from all over the world for publications, exhibitions and personal use” has also increased, he added.

While institutions occasionally visit one of the University’s collections to scope out items of interest or ask curators to send them a selection of objects to look at, “in most cases, the requesting institutions know exactly what they want,” Harrington said. In the case of the loan to the Art Institute of Chicago, a curator at the museum who previously taught at the Rhode Island School of Design specifically requested the two books from the military collection, he added.

“There are several stages to approving the loan, and there are a lot of factors that go into it,” said Rachel Lapkin, library materials conservator. Lapkin makes recommendations for access to certain materials based on the suitability of the environment the loaned objects would be displayed in. For example, certain lighting can affect pigments — ­ especially watercolors — and potentially cause fading, she said.

If the Hay approves the artifacts for a loan, Lapkin must figure out how to make its display placement and lighting conform to her “very specific idea of how safely an object can be displayed” she said. How the object will be transported, where it will be stored, and who will install it must also be taken into consideration, she added.

“Long-term care and preservation of the collections” require monitoring how materials are handled in the reading room and conducting physical repairs, as well as ensuring that loans

ELI WHITE / HERALD

The Anne S.K. Brown military collection reflects world military history between roughly 1500 and 1945. Almost 28,000 of the collection’s images have been digitized, extending access to its resources beyond library walls. do not jeopardize the safety of an object, Lapkin said. Preservation of the “very rare, very unique” artifacts for “generations down the line” is a duty, Harrington said.

“We’re custodians,” he said. “We’ve succeeded custodians, and other custodians will succeed us to look after this material.”

But for library staff members, preserving materials and allowing viewers to access and learn from them are not mutually exclusive. “First of all … we are concerned with providing access,” Lapkin said. “A lot of these materials are going to be handled — we want them to be handled.” Making volumes accessible in the stacks rather than confining them to exhibition cases is crucial, she added. “Books are really dynamic, and it’s actually frustrating to see materials with so many possibilities of interpretation and information inside” open to only a certain page in a display case, Lapkin said.

Over the last decade, the library has

worked to incorporate special collections into teaching, Harrington said, adding that he will soon be teaching a class on camouflage to students from the Naval War College. “We regard ourselves as educators just like professors,” he said. “Our goal is to inform and educate.”

Special collections staff are also continually acquiring “contemporary material,” Geissler said. “Particularly with born-digital records, we actually have to collect it as it’s being created,” he added. These born-digital records­— including a recent acquisition of 85,000 emails — join the digitized materials that have revolutionized the way collections are accessed, Geissler said. With the majority of viewers taking advantage of electronic access, digitization has “transformed the way our work interacts outside of this building,” he added.

“It certainly wasn’t something I dreamed I would ever do,” Lapkin said of her career as a conservator. “I didn’t even know this type of work existed.”

But the variability of her position makes it challenging and fulfilling. “It’s a different job every day,” Lapkin said. “As repetitive as some of the physical work can be, it really is about viewing my work from different angles, trying to understand different people’s points of view and dealing with a static object that is going to transform no matter who is interacting with it.”

While Geissler also did not consider becoming a librarian until graduate school, he said that taking part in “the intellectual labor of academic institutions” feels “incredibly fitting.”

Harrington, who wrote a paper on the military collection in graduate school and was eventually offered the position of curator by the collection’s donor, said he has never viewed his work as a job. “I’ve been in the collection for many years, but … as we go through and barcode and catalogue stuff that hasn’t been cataloged in … 50 years, I’m finding stuff that I’ve never seen before,” he said.

U. researchers focus on needs of veteran amputees New research advances prosthetics for veterans with upper-limb amputations

By JULIA CHOI STAFF WRITER

University researchers are collaborating on a three-year study focused on the needs of veterans who have suffered severe upper-limb amputations. The study is being led by Linda Resnik, professor of health services, policy and practice and researcher at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Resnik and her team of researchers

aim to acquire data on veterans by evaluating their day-to-day functioning and learn more about their experiences with prosthetics, Resnik said.

Data collection will consist of surveys and performance tests, and subjects will be evaluated yearly, she said. The surveys are being developed in collaboration with Melissa Clark, adjunct professor of epidemiology at Brown as well as professor of quantitative health sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, she added.

Currently, “nationally representative data” about veterans with upper-limb amputations is lacking, Resnik said. Prior studies that have examined upper-limb amputees have targeted “small samples” or have not

been conducted in the United States, Resnik added. Her study is unique, as it draws upon a large sample base and utilizes medical data from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, she said.

Technological advances in upperlimb prosthetics have “lagged behind” those made in lower-limb prosthetics due to the complexity of replacing an upper limb and re-establishing its many functions. Those with upperlimb amputations abandon their prostheses more often than those with lower-limb amputations because they are unhappy with their devices, she added.

Because fewer individuals have upper-limb amputations than lower-limb amputations, there are fewer experts in the field who can provide quality care, Resnik added.

Most upper-limb amputations in veterans are caused by “blast injuries” that are sustained in combat, while lower-limb amputations are usually a result of a “disease process” like diabetes or poor blood circulation, said Joseph Webster, a collaborator on the project and medical director of the Veterans Health Administration Amputation System of Care.

DOROTHY WINDHAM / HERALD

Sarah Ekerholm, project coordinator, said she “will be providing oversight” in order to ensure that data collection is standardized across sites.

“There are lots of moving pieces and a lot of people we need to keep in the loop to ensure work is getting done,” Ekerholm said. “Developing relationships and having open communication (with the other sites) is really important.”

Resnik’s goal is for the study’s findings to be “used to improve the quality of care” for these amputees, she said.

The findings could also be used to improve prosthetic designs and rehabilitation programs, Webster said.

The study is funded by the United States Department of Defense’s Orthotics and Prosthetics Outcomes Research Program, according to the Providence Journal. To conduct the study, Resnik will be collaborating with the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio as well as Veterans Affairs medical centers in Florida, Virginia and Washington, according to the Journal.

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

w h at y o u m i s s w h e n y o u ’ r e n o t i n l i s t

menu SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Pepperoni, Spicy Five Cheese and Garlic, BBQ Bam Bam JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Three Cheese Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadilla

Soup: Turkey Chili, Chicken Artichoke Florentine

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Basmati Rice Pilaf, Jamaican Style Beef Patties, Thai Sweet Chicken Stir Fry

Beef Lo Mein, Root Vegetable Medley, Mashed Sweet and White Potatoes

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Chana Masala, Potato Skins Bar, Swiss Broccoli Pasta, Mashed Potatoes, Green Peas

Chicken Fried Steak, Stir Fried Carrots, Curried Apple Pumpkin Soup, Ziti Pasta

sudoku

SARA RUNKEL / HERALD

The interior of List Art Center defies any definition of listlessness: The art building becomes art as students transform the walls of the stairwell into a canvas for colorful creations.

Q U O T E O F T H E D AY

RELEASE DATE– Monday, February 27, 2012

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c r o s s w o r d Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Fight-stopping calls, briefly 5 Discourteous 9 Ireland patron, for short 14 10 million centuries 15 Soon, to the bard 16 Chicago airport 17 Backstage 20 The second story, vis-à-vis the first 21 Tough Japanese dogs 22 Coll. football’s Seminoles 23 Over, to Oskar 24 Got married 29 Wee lie 32 Forster’s “A Passage to __” 33 Off one’s rocker 34 Dashboard gadget prefix with meter 35 Robin’s Marian, for one 36 Market express lane units 38 Car 39 North Pole helper 40 Muscle pain 41 Desi who married 60-Across 42 Sneaky 43 Forefront, as of technology 46 USA or Mex., e.g.

47 “Do __ favor ...”

48 Blood deficiency that causes weakness 51 Embodiments 56 Returning to popularity, or what you’d have been doing if you followed the sequence formed by the first words of 17-, 24- and 43Across 58 Informal bridge bid 59 Activist Parks 60 Ball of Hollywood 61 Praise 62 Sheltered valley 63 Brown or cream bar orders

DOWN 1 “Forbidden” cologne brand 2 Hang on to 3 Partners of aahs 4 Fit of agitation 5 Pungent salad veggie 6 Fictitious 7 Cries from Homer Simpson 8 Opposite of WSW 9 Plugging-in places 10 “... all snug in __ beds” 11 Cool off, dog-style 12 Locale 13 “__ of the D’Urbervilles” 18 USA/Mex./Can. pact 19 Wooden shoes 23 E pluribus __ 24 Los Angeles daily 25 Counting everything 26 Spiritually enlighten 27 Completed 28 Kicked with a bent leg 29 No longer lost 30 Luggage attachment

31 Hooch 36 Swelling treatment 37 “__ she blows!”

38 Exist 40 White whales, e.g.

41 Colorful marble 44 Levy, as a tax 45 Upscale retailer __ Marcus 46 __ acid 48 Unrestrained way to run

49 Half of Mork’s sign-off 50 Barely made, with “out” 51 Environmental sci.

52 Beatles nonsense syllables 53 Manhandle 54 Caesar’s “Behold!”

55 “The __ the limit!”

57 Neighbor of Braz.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

“I grew my pimple all week for this.”

— Jessica Larrabee

See concerts on page 1.

CORRECTION A previous version of the article, “Insomnia Cookies to open on Thayer Street” said that Insomnia Cookies will deliver until 3 a.m.. In fact, it will only deliver until 2 a.m.. The Herald regrets the error.

A previous version of the letter to the editor, Response to Smith GS “Is graduate student unionization worthwhile?” said that Harpo Jaeger was in the class of 2014. Harpo Jaeger is actually in the class of 2014.5. The Herald regrets the error.

Due to an editing error, a previous version of the article, “Study illustrates U. class disparities,” stated that President Christina Paxson P’19 had said that “the schools that Friedman finds to create high mobility ‘are not research universities.’” In fact, she said that most of the schools Friedman finds to create high mobility “are not research universities.” The Herald regrets the error.

xwordeditor@aol.com

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Time Management: Myth or Reality?

12:00 P.M. Salomon Center, 003

Wellness@Brown!: Downsizing 12:00 P.M. Alpert Medical School, 280

Paul Taylor’s America: Songs of Innocence and Experience 12:00 P.M. Nightingale-Brown House

Queer Zine-making Workshop 7:00 P.M. Rockefeller Library

TOMORROW Music Now with Eric Nathan 1:00 P.M. Orwig Music Building

Free Speech on Campus 3:00 P.M. Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum

Special Seminar: Engineering Scientific Discovery 4:00 P.M. Barus & Holley, 190

Calling all Entrepeneurs: B-Lab Application Workshop 12:00 P.M. Petteruti Lounge

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017

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COMMENTARY THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Taking control of our birth control GRACE JOHNSON op-ed contributor When a personal health choice like birth control is placed in jeopardy, it is a sure sign that our nation is in retrogression. In addition to repealing portions of Affordable Care Act, including rolling back its provisions for free birth control, Congress is likely to defund Planned Parenthood and cut Medicaid funding. As many of us are painfully aware, Planned Parenthood offers crucial care and contraceptives, while Medicaid significantly aids lowincome women seeking birth control.

Yet President Donald Trump is vocal about his pro-life platform — he supports legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks — and Vice President Mike Pence predicts that Roe v.

Wade will eventually be overturned.

Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, has supported employers that have refused to insure birth control, including in the infamous Hobby Lobby case. Likewise, Planned Parenthood gave Trump’s choice for secretary of health and human services, U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-GA, a 0 percent rating for his opposition to reproductive health care.

Right now, our country is run by legislators who identify as pro-life while adamantly opposing contraceptives that prevent abortions and treatment

that can preserve the life of the mother. This shift should be concerning to all who support reproductive rights.

So far Trump is fulfilling his campaign promises. In the short period of time since he stepped into office, Trump has already damaged lives, most recently with the Jan. 27 executive order barring refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. His lax moral code, paired with reckless White House leaders and a Congress eager

acting, reversible contraceptives. But for students who are still using family insurance, fees and coverage depend on the provider’s policy. Most insurers cover contraceptives, but that coverage will likely be excluded in whatever new plan the Trump administration proposes. This will set a powerful and discriminatory example.

With the likelihood of imminent change in the accessibility and affordability of contraceptives, people across the country are now forced

of my friends began to think of those implications — so did I. There was only a short window of time before the inauguration, condensing what can be a lengthy decision-making and consulting process to identify and obtain birth control. Those who had not considered birth control before faced a difficult or perhaps loaded tasks: They had to organize appointments to assess which options were possible and then physically receive the birth control all in just a few months. Oth-

Right now, our country is run by legislators who identify as pro-life while adamantly opposing contraceptives that prevent abortions and treatment that can preserve the life of the mother. This shift should be concerning to all who support reproductive rights. to repeal the ACA, bodes ill for women’s health and women’s rights.

As college students, we are uniquely affected by the potential shift in birth control policies. For most college students, birth control is simply not affordable. Pills cost over $600 per year and intrauterine devices can cost up to $1,000 without insurance. Brown’s Student Health Insurance Plan covers contraceptives, counseling and gynecological services with only a $15 co-pay for long-

to consider how birth control policies will affect them. This is particularly troubling for those in college, who often rely on family insurance.

Four years or more under a Trump presidency, along with the long-term precedents of pro-life legislation and Supreme Court rulings, may have serious implications for any person who uses or may someday use birth control. This could mean a giant step backward in reproductive rights.

The day after the election, many

ers felt pressure to renew their pills or insert a new IUD to last the next four years.

Unfortunately, we do not live in a state that facilitates these difficult decisions. In 2016, NARAL Pro-Choice America gave Rhode Island an “F” for its policies regarding reproductive rights. In the Ocean State, public funds support abortion only in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. As of 2014, Rhode Island had just five facilities that provide

abortions. It is also worth keeping in mind that many of Rhode Island’s Democratic state legislators do not support Planned Parenthood funding. For a state that is famously blue, Rhode Island’s legislature is not progressive on women’s rights.

So now — more than ever — it is the time to donate to Planned Parenthood, volunteer at women’s health centers and campaign for reproductive rights. Here on campus, NARAL Pro-Choice Brown University is hosting a panel Feb. 9 centered on reproductive rights in Rhode Island. State Representative Edith Ajello, D-Providence and State Senator Gayle Goldin, D-Providence will also introduce bills to protect abortion rights that are not currently guaranteed if Roe v. Wade is overturned. If you feel strongly about this pressing issue, you can and should write to your Rhode Island representative to encourage them to vote for those future bills.

Building off the momentum of the Women’s March, we cannot let ourselves feel discouraged. Even though there may be little hope in our newly-elected government, we need to maintain the visibility of these issues to prevent a loss of access to birth control and reproductive rights.

Grace Johnson ’19 can be reached at grace_johnson@brown.edu.

The perils of executive overreach DANIEL SHEMANO op-ed contributor In the wake of President Donald Trump’s recent executive actions, it’s time to talk about the system and precedent that affords him the power to circumvent Congress and create policy unilaterally. You may be surprised to hear that when the legality of Trump’s executive orders goes to court, the Trump administration will not only cite U.S. code, but also cite former President Barack Obama’s policy and precedent.

The least talked about and arguably most important aspect of Obama’s legacy was his immense expansion of executive power. Undoubtedly, Obama has handed his successor a presidency even more powerful and dangerous than the one he inherited from former President George W. Bush.

I understand the inevitable criticism of this point: Blame over historical records is not as immediately important as surviving the crisis at hand and instituting reforms as soon as possible. But in order to survive this crisis and institute necessary reforms, we must understand the system in place that has provided the current president power that no president has ever held before. My purpose is not to make a pointed critique of Obama, but rather to start a conversation on the system that gave Trump the reach he has today. Unless we confront the system, rather than just our political opponents, nothing will change.

In 2010, few were outspoken about the potential consequences of the expansion in executive power. In fact, many might have even invited it as a progressive and useful tool. Faced

with unfair gridlock for years, Obama embraced executive orders as a means of creating law. For example, he expanded regulations in order to protect the environment and attempted to pass executive amnesty to protect millions of undocumented immigrants. To many of us, these policies represent positive change — a far cry from the executive actions we have seen emerge from the White House in the last 10 days.

Many of us at Brown are supporters of Obama and considered him as honorable a

The Trump administration will have access to the identities and information of all Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals participants who were required to submit their personal information to benefit from the program. This could be used by the administration to more efficiently execute a mass deportation. DACA, a well-intentioned executive order, could now be used to facilitate a humanitarian disaster — a truly terrifying prospect.

This reflects the fundamental shortsightedness of the political establishment. The Demo-

The danger with allowing the unchecked expansion of executive power is that somewhere down the line, someone with authoritative inclinations and an unclear moral code could take control.

president as we’ve ever had. I agree that Obama is an extremely intelligent, genuinely good person with a heart in the right place. But, just like all presidents before him, Obama was never going to stay in the White House forever. The danger with allowing the unchecked expansion of executive power is that somewhere down the line, someone with authoritative inclinations and an unclear moral code could take control.

For example, Obama’s executive unilateralism could very well end up providing the platform for Trump’s plan for mass deportations.

crats in power assumed that, after Obama, another leader who shared his philosophy would be elected to lead. With this mindset, they oversaw the immense expansion of presidential power. They expanded the surveillance state, allowed the president to go to war without congressional authorization and enacted secret deep state “terror lists” (which not only authorize indiscriminate surveillance of people under certain “categories,” but also do so without due process). Trump will also be in charge of the massively expanded drone program — a

lethal, targeted killing system. The list goes on and on.

It is true that Obama has signed fewer executive orders than many past presidents. Yet it is not the quantity, but the specifics of Obama’s executive orders that have set the stage for Trump’s current scope of power. Instead of signing executive orders to enact symbolic and administrative measures (their intended use), Obama used the executive order as a means of expanding executive power, overriding a Republican-majority Congress and creating policy. It is unquestionable that the size and scope of presidential power increased dramatically under Obama.

Trump’s election is now a wake up call to all those who supported Obama’s use of executive powers. For the next four years, Trump will enjoy a presidency far more powerful than it was ever intended to be. So long as the Republicans hold congressional majorities, it will be difficult to stop him.

But this doesn’t mean we can’t learn from the past. We should be vigilant in exposing the institutions and systems of government that gave him these powers. This means scrutinizing and voting out of office the establishment politicians from both parties who encouraged the expansion of executive power. It means lobbying for the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups who have consistently denounced the growth of executive power. Most importantly, it means holding a future president accountable if they attempt to increase executive power, even if we agree with the policies they create under that power.

Daniel Shemano ’19 can be reached at daniel_shemano@brown.edu.

NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2017

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Alumni letter on Brown’s response to the executive order on immigration To the Editor: We appreciate President Christina Paxson P’19 and Provost Richard Locke’s op-ed on Sunday. Unfortunately, articulating Brown’s values does little to “fully support members of our community” when some are now prohibited from traveling to their home countries and even stranded outside the United States.

To protect its community, Brown could issue a press statement forcefully condemning the recent Executive Order as both unjust and directly harmful to the University’s mission — the University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute Technology, Penn and others have published stronger statements. Brown could also follow the University of Michigan and New York University in announcing specific commitments to its students.

Even better, Brown could coordinate other prominent universities in presenting a united front against the travel and immigration ban.

As alumni, we call on the University to take concrete actions to live up to its values, defend its interests and make us proud of Brown — both now and in upcoming crises.

Sincerely, Moctar Aboubacar ’10 Salsa Ahmed ’11 Elena Albright ’11 Antonia Angress ’13 Evelyn Ansel ’11.5 Eduarda Araujo ’15 Philip Arevalo ’11 Emily Atwood ’11 Raisa Aziz ’11 Anita Badejo ’12 Rahul Banerjee ’10 MD’14 Lena Barsky ’14 Susan Beaty ’10 Sofia Bengoa ’09 Marissa Bergman ’14 Melanie Berkowitz ’12 Rachel Bloom ’13 Jeffrey Blum ’12.5 Baird Bream ’10 Ian Brownstein ’13

Anthony Bui ’13 Katie Byron ’15 Alex Campbell ’10 Jesse Castellanos ’13.5 Wendy Castillo ’15 Doug Cattie ’10 Kibwe Chase-Marshall ’10 James Chin ’10 ScM’11 Grace Chow ’11 Keally Cieslik ’13 Peter Cipparone ’09 Jose Samuel Clair ’14 Edward Cleofe ’15 Sarah Cocuzzo ’10 Kathryn Cohen ’13 Jesse Cohn ’10 Brandon Cook ’08 Devon Cupery ’11 Kyle Dacuyan ’11 Danielle Dahan ’11 Colette DeJong ’11 Shivang Desai ’14 Jennifer Desrosier ’11 Kelly Devlin ’11 Saskia DeVries ’09 Leah Douglas ’13 Elizabeth Duthinh ’12 Paola Eisner ’14 Jenzel Espares ’16 Sean Feiner ’11 Caroline Flanagan ’13 Leah Fraimow-Wong ’11 Henry Freedland ’08 Maria Fregoso ’10 Maria Fregoso ’10 Mara Freilich ’15 Jane Furey ’14.5 Levi Gadye ’10 Michael Galant ’14 Eleanor Gamalski ’16 Nikitha Gangasani ’14 Ry Garcia-Sampson ’12 GS Benjamin Gellman ’14 Natasha Go ’10 Benjamin Gold ’11 Jessica Goldschmidt ’10 Nicolas Gonzalez ’10 Lily Goodspeed ’13 Sharina Gordon ’13 Jenny Gorelick ’14 David Granberg ’13 Eliana Greenberg ’13

Ryan Greene ’16.5 Ryan Grubbs ’10 Deepali Gupta ’12 Nick Hagerty ’10 Nicole Halmi ’10 Jennifer Harlan ’12 Kevaughn Harvy MFA’12 Haruko Hashimoto ’14 Asad Hassan ’13 Masumi Hayashi-Smith ’10 Drew Heckman ’13 Ruth Heindel ’10 Marie Oliva Hennelly ’08 Steven Holman ’11 Jenna Horton ’09 Safiyah Hosein ’11 Dara Illowsky ’14 Johanna Jetton ’10.5 Rebecca Kagan ’13 Elizabeth Karin ’13 Alexandra Keegan ’12 Andrew Kim ’13 Emily Kirkland ’13 Paige Kirstein ’12 Caroline Kleeman ’10 Haley Kossek ’14.5 Meghan Koushik ’13 Akash Kumar ’10 Aparna Kumar ’10 Alina Kung ’12 Alia Lahlou ’10 Adrienne Langlois ’10 Taliya Lantsman ’14 Allison LaPlatney ’07 Christopher Laurie ’14 Andrew Leber ’12 Ben Leib ’12 Jonathan Leibovic ’12 Hannah Lennett ’11 Adriana Leshko ’97 Rachel Levenson ’10 Daniel Lim ’10 Tavish Lopez ’13 Scott Lowenstein ’10 Emilie Lygren ’10 Kirsten Lynch’10 Rafael Harpo Marchand Jaeger ’14.5 Nathan Margolin ’11 Christian Martell ’10 Maria Martinez Diaz ’07 Joe Maurer ’10 Rebecca Mazonson ’12

Emily McDaniel ’13 Lauren McShane ’10 Jessie Medofer ’13 Leila Meglio ’12 Daniel Mejia ’10 Robert Merritt ’13 Jonathan Migliori ’11 Alison Migliori ’12 Hannah Miller ’08 Jessica Mitter ’13 Folashade Modupe ’10 Damon Mok ’11 Genevieve Moss-Hawkins ’14 Christopher Mun ’08 Kelly Murguia ’10 Shruti Nagarajan ’14 Takeru Nagayoshi ’14 Blair Nelsen ’06 Daniel Newmark ’14 Tanya Nguyen ’13 Ahalya Nirmalan ’10 Elise Nuding ’11 Emily Oglesby ’13 Hannah Olson ’10 Kurt Ostow ’13 K. Sarah Ostrach ’10 Ileana Pacheco ’12 Grace Parker ’13 Tyler Parker ’11 Matt Patenaude ’13.5 Morgan Patrick ’16.5 Sofia Pellon ’10 Tho Phan ’11 Mindy Phillips ’10 Joanna Poceta ’12 Sara Powell ’11 Samantha Powell ’13 Abe Pressman ’12 Rosalyn Price-Waldman ’14 Evan Pulvers ’10.5 Elliot Quick ’07 Radhika Rajan ’15 Manjula Raman ’11 Loyola Rankin ’12 Rebecca Rast ’13.5 Joe Rim ’12 Adam Robbins ’09 Rémy Robert ’13 Laura Rodriguez ’07 Joshua Rodriguez-Srednicki ’12 Tyler Rogers ’12 Rahil Rojiani ’13

Miriam J. Rollock ’15 Sarah Rosenthal ’11 Alan Rosenwasser ’80 Ari Rubenstein ’11 Jehane Samaha ’13.5 Alex Sammon ’15 Kelly Sanford ’10 Soumya Sanyal ’10 Jordan Schulz ’16 Gabe Schwartz ’13 David Schwartz ’09.5 Riyad Seervai ’13 Sophie Shackleton ’09 Ellen Shadburn ’12 Daniel Sherrell ’13.5 Urmy Shukla ’04 Katherine Siegel ’13 Rachel Siemons ’06 Maya Sikand ’13 Julie Siwicki ’10 Sabrina Skau ’12 Jason Smoller ’09 Michelle Snyder ’10 Hayley Sparks ’14 Stephanie Spielman ’10 Lucy Stark ’10 Rachel Starr ’11 Jenna Steckel ’13 Armide Storey ’13 Rana Suliman ’16 Lee Taglin ’10 Marlene Tai ’12 Nicole Taykhman ’11 Robyn Thvedt ’10 Caleb Townsend ’11.5 Cherilyn Tran ’11 Joschka Tryba ’12 Robert Volgman ’14 Brady Waibel ’13 Dennis Walsh ’14 Thomas Weinreich ’12 Sara Weschler ’10 Bailey Willis ’14 Elisa Wing ’12 Becca Wolinsky ’14 Charlie Wood ’10 Adam Yarnell ’10 Leandro Zaneti ’12 Lu Zeng ’12 Brenda Zhang ’13 Allison Zimmer ’10 Amy Zimmermann’ 11

Foreign correspondent talks situation in Syria, Trump’s executive orders Reese Erlich, Middle East freelancer, dissects shift toward far right in West, U.S. response to Trump

By RHAIME KIM SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s immigration ban, Reese Erlich — a Peabody Award-winning journalist with over 40 years of freelance experience — spoke at the Watson Institute for International Studies about his on-the-ground experience in the Middle East. In his Wednesday talk, Erlich provided his insights on the Syrian civil war, the failure of U.S. foreign policy and Trump’s challenges ahead.

Erlich had a “very unusual path to journalism.” During his yearlong suspension for organizing “a very big and very successful anti (Vietnam) war” demonstration at University of California at Berkeley in the 1960s, Erlich was hired at the magazine Ramparts, where he worked as a journalist for the first time. He later began freelancing and has reported extensively on countries including Syria, Iran and Iraq.

As a reporter who worked on the ground in the Middle East, Erlich offered refreshing insight into the region in contrast with reporters who rely upon narratives coming out of Washington, said Stephen Kinzer, senior fellow in international and public affairs who reported for the New York Times for over 20 years. Erlich “not only masters the geopolitical complexities, but he (has) the human side of the story,” Kinzer added.

“Life is extremely difficult in Syria,” Erlich told The Herald. “Roughly half the population has been displaced … it’s a war-torn country, and the conditions are very rough” for those fighting in rebel groups and the Assad regime, he said.

Though he supports the United States using diplomatic, economic and political pressure, Erlich told The Herald he has always been against U.S. military intervention in Syria. “The (United States) trying to solve issues with military intervention always results in disaster” just as it did in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said. Syrians are not ignorant of these failures, he added.

While the United States is now spending $12 million a day on the war in Syria, it has supplied less than half of the U.N. dues it pledged to use to help the war-torn

country’s refugees, he told The Herald.

“If we’re supposedly so concerned about the people of Syria that we need to send in troops, why aren’t we fulfilling our pledges and ensuring that our allies are fulfilling their pledges? It’s part of the hypocrisy of U.S. foreign policy,” Erlich said.

But the U.S. intervention was not motivated by the humanitarian crisis and rather its interest in Syria’s geopolitical position, Erlich said. Syria borders Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, all countries with their own conflicts. Access to Syria would allow the United States to play a serious role in the region, he said.

“As difficult as it may sound, it’s better to pull out now before a major commitment has been made,” he told The Herald.

But in his talk, Erlich predicted that U.S. military involvement in Syria will increase under Trump given his contradictory campaign promises to defeat ISIS, revoke the Iran nuclear deal and also develop a stronger relationship with Russia, Erlich noted.

While Trump has shown signs of warming up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, he will not be able to negotiate with Russia without dealing with its ally, Iran, Erlich said. The problem: Trump’s

GUS ERLICH / HERALD

In an interview with The Herald, journalist Reese Erlich cited widespread protests in predicting that Trump’s policies will “be strongly opposed.” appointed “hawks … see Iran as the main enemy in the world.”

“Trump’s policy is a disaster,” Erlich told The Herald. “In the first week and a half, he’s already alienated Mexico, Britain, most of Europe and all of the Muslim world. So I can’t wait to see who he alienates next.”

Trump’s executive order has correctly been interpreted as a ban on Muslims, Erlich said. He predicted that the immigration ban will foster extremism within the Middle East and alienate Muslims in the United States.

But nationwide demonstrations in response to Trump’s policies indicate that the new president is “not considered

legitimate” by many and that “his policies are going to be strongly opposed,” Erlich told The Herald.

Trump’s win is reflective of an increasing shift toward the far right in Western politics, said Erlich, citing the trend as the result of liberal trading pacts like NAFTA, TPP and the European Union trading bloc and currency zone that promised prosperity to the working class but failed to meet those expectations.

While both the left and right wing have criticized these policies, the right wing has been more successful in mobilizing people, particularly by emphasizing race by blaming immigrants and minorities, he said.