Thursday, September 21, 2017

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 70

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UCS leaders plan for upcoming semester U. aims to eliminate

loans with new initiative If $30 million raised by December, loans to be taken out of aid packages by 2018-19 academic year

By SARAH WANG SENIOR STAFF WRITER

KAITLYN LEW / HERALD

New leaders of the Undergraduate Council of Students, President Chelse Steele ’18 and Vice President Naveen Srinivasan ’19 lead their first UCS meeting, proposing potential plans for the upcoming semester.

Steele ’18, Srinivasan ’19 aim to develop projects such as increasing access to wellness resources

By EDUARD MUÑOZ-SUÑÉ SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Undergraduate Council of Students gathered for the group’s first general body meeting of the 2017-18 academic year Wednesday night. The meeting, which lasted for over an hour, was focused on introductions and ice breakers, mostly directed toward new

first-year members, and included brief updates on prior UCS initiatives and future goals.

After the introductions and ice breakers, UCS President Chelse-Amoy Steele ’18 and Vice President Naveen Srinivasan ’19 gave a brief outline to first-years about initiatives UCS had enacted in prior years and future projects that the pair hope to implement.

The two gave an overview of last year’s UCS initiatives such as the initiative to put tampons in University bathrooms; the Campus of Consent bill, a project aimed at promoting sexual assault prevention training and the No

Apologies initiative, a public letter to universities calling for an end to college application fees.

Looking forward, Steele and Srinivasan hope to expand prior initiatives.

Building on the tampon project, Steele would like to push the University to facilitate the project instead of having individual members distribute the tampons.

“This year, we’re pushing for it to be done under the University — the same way that (it) provides toilet paper and soap in bathrooms,” Steele said.

They would also like to implement » See UCS, page 2

The University launched a $120 million initiative with the ultimate goal of eliminating loans from all undergraduate financial aid packages, President Christina Paxson P’19 announced in a community-wide email Wednesday.

If $30 million of the initiative, called “The Brown Promise: The Future of Financial Aid at Brown,” is raised by this December, grants will replace loans in aid packages for incoming and current students for the 2018-19 academic year, Paxson wrote. The change will apply to both domestic and international students.

The campaign aims to help middle income students who do not qualify for no-loan financial aid but still need aid, according to a University press release.

Such students often graduate with debt.

For the 2017-18 school year, 1138 students who receive University needbased aid had loans in their initial packages, Dean of Financial Aid Jim Tilton wrote in an email to The Herald.

Of these students, 883 are not seniors, meaning they will be eligible for the no-loan policy in the 2018-19 school year.

“It’s clear that debt is a deterrent to students to coming to Brown,” Paxson said. “It hurts us because we’re not getting the students that we want, and it hurts them because they’re not getting to go to the school that they want to attend. Student debt is something that is really at odds with everything we value as part of the Brown curriculum.”

The University has seen fewer applicants and lower yields among students who need loans in their packages, causing “an issue of diversity,” Paxson said. “We need to make sure that all economic groups (and) social groups are represented at Brown.”

Dean of Admission Logan Powell believes the Brown Promise initiative will be “transformative” in this aspect by making the University “more attractive (for) students from moderate income backgrounds.” Offering the no-loan policy will ultimately give students the opportunity to choose schools “based on fit” rather than cost, Powell said.

If implemented, Brown will join the majority of the Ivy League in using a no-loan policy as part of undergraduate financial aid.

“Factually speaking, when students apply to Brown they also to apply to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Columbia and Penn for the most part,” Powell said. “All of those institutions have gone to a no-loan policy so in that group of schools — we are the » See BROWN PROMISE, page 2

U. mishandled retirement U. changes student health insurance option UnitedHealthcare Student funds, lawsuit claims Resources replaces Four current, former employees sue U. for violating fiduciary responsibilities

By EMILY DAVIES SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The University has joined a list of elite institutions under legal fire for the management of retirement plans for employees. Four former and current University employees, represented by the Law Offices of Sonja L. Deyoe, Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky Wotkyns LLP and Berger & Montague P.C., filed a class action complaint July 6 on behalf of the more than 12,000 University employees that are participants and beneficiaries of the Deferred Vesting Retirement Plan or of the Legacy Retirement Plan.

The complaint alleged that the Uni-

INSIDE

versity breached its fiduciary duties to its employees under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act by choosing plans that require excessively high administrative fees and an unreasonable array of fund choices not vetted to ensure high performance.

Universities across the country are facing similar cases, including Yale, Northwestern University and Columbia. Most suits are awaiting responses from the universities. Complaints filed earlier this year, such as one at Duke University, have heard motions to dismiss. In May, a federal court judge denied Duke’s motion to dismiss in the case.

The University has not yet issued a legal response.

“At Brown, we are deeply committed to the well-being of our employees and approach our fiduciary » See RETIREMENT, page 2

Consolidated Health Plans as provider

By SHAYNA TOH STAFF WRITER

In April, the University switched its health insurance provider, forcing some students who previously qualified to waive the plan and use their own insurance to enroll in the new $3,615 plan.

Facing a price increase, the Insurance Office switched from Consolidated Health Plans to Gallagher Student Health to administer the Brown University Student Health Insurance Plan.

The plan is underwritten by United Healthcare, which pays the claim. Gallagher Student Health assists with issues regarding enrollments and waivers.

When students pay their annual tuition, the University automatically enrolls them in its Student Health Insurance Plan. Students can apply for a

ISABEL GENSLER / HERALD

waiver by filling out information about their current health plan and opt out of the University insurance plan.

The Insurance Office website notes that, this year, all waiver requests were » See , INSURANCE page 3

WEATHER

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

NEWS To combat ongoing opioid epidemic, Alpert Medical School adds to its curriculum

COMMENTARY Liang ’19: Media should make moves to improve representation of minority journalists

COMMENTARY Mulligan ’19: Loneliness should be viewed as first step to life at college, not as defeat

SCIENCE & RESEARCH A recent study attempts to analyze institutional corruption, what can be done to stop it

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TOMORROW

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NEWS

PAGE 2 • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

» BROWN PROMISE, from page 1 only one without a no-loan policy.”

Paxson hopes this will make the University more competitive against peer institutions. Without the no-loan policy, accepted students are “choosing away from Brown because they can’t afford it, and they’re getting better offers elsewhere,” Paxson said.

The $120 million campaign is part of a larger $500 million campaign effort for undergraduate financial aid within the $3 billion BrownTogether campaign that was launched in 2015, according to the press release.

Though Paxson acknowledged the $30 million goal is “an ambitious goal for a short period of time,” she is “confident the Brown community is going to step up.”

At The Corporation’s last meeting in February, the University accepted over $62 million in gifts and pledges made since October 2016, according to a University website. The Corporation’s next meeting is October.

So far, the University has around $5 million in documented pledges,

» UCS, from page 1 the campus of consent bill, which was proposed last year but not fully implemented.

In addition to growing past projects, the pair want to develop their own initiatives. According to a presentation they delivered at the meeting, potential new initiatives include “improving financial aid for low-income students,” “streamlining climate- and bias-related incident reporting,” “increasing access to health and wellness resources” and

» RETIREMENT, from page 1 responsibilities in sponsoring retirement plans with the utmost attentiveness,” said Brian Clark, director of news and editorial development. “We have a strong case to make and will respond as appropriate through the legal process,” he said.

The case against the University exists in reference to two 403(b) plans that allow employees of the University

Director of News and Editorial Development Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald. “There are also many other conversations underway with potential donors,” Clark added.

“We’re going to get some big endowed gifts, I hope, from very generous people who have a lot of capacity to give,” Paxson said. She also added that she hopes the campaign “will attract the interest of a very broad, broad segment of the Brown community” to meet “this goal with many, many people supporting it at small levels.”

The Brown Promise requires approximately $4.5 million more funds added to the yearly financial aid budget, Powell said. The $120 million goal will go toward these additional funds, $100 million of which are endowed funds and $20 million of which are “current-use” funds, according to a University press release. The $20 million “current-use” funds will cover four years worth of the no-loan policy, while the $100 million will go towards covering the costs in perpetuity, Powell said.

Though currently operating under a budget deficit, the University continues

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

The University is planning on offering financial aid packages without loans to those applying for the 2018-19 academic year if it raises $30 million by the end of 2017 to fulfill this goal. to pursue “continued investment in academic priorities” while also trying to sustain “long-term fiscal stability,”

Clark wrote. “By contributing to initiatives such as the Brown Promise, donors to Brown play a critical role

in supporting the University in this effort,” Clark added.

“expanding (internship) opportunities for humanities students,” Steele said.

Six university administrators came to the meeting to introduce themselves to new and returning members. In attendance were Eric Estes, vice president for campus life and student services; Rene Davis, title IX program officer; Tanya Purdy, director of B’Well health promotions; Marisa Quinn, chief of staff to the Provost; Lynn Hernandez, director of University inclusion programs; Marc Peters, health educator and Vernicia

Elie, assistant dean of the college for financial advising.

General body members of UCS usually serve in committees that are focused on different aspects of the University. Chairs of various committees, including Chair of Student Activities William Zhou ’20, Chair of Student Wellness Sharon Zeldin ’20 and Chair of Campus Life Camila Pelsinger ’20, introduced themselves to new members and described their committees in an effort to aid new members in deciding which to join.

The meeting ended with Steele and Srinivasan calling on new members to apply to over ten currently vacant UCS positions, including the chair of academics affairs, chair of appointments, chair of alumni relations and the position of UCS treasurer.

Any student can join UCS by collecting the requisite 100 signatures.

New UCS members interviewed by The Herald, such as Claire Heiden ’21 and Henry Drewes ’21, said they primarily collected signatures at dining halls and in dorm lounges.

“I’m really passionate about making Brown a better community for everyone and representing my class and also the student body as a whole in policy decisions,” Heiden said. “It’s really cool that Brown empowers their students to serve as leaders in the community and to have a say in administrative actions. That really appealed to me.”

“You all are just as much a part of this as we are,” Steele said to new members.

to pool their money and invest in funds for the purpose of collecting earnings and safeguarding them for retirement. The University’s two plans together have more than $1.2 billion in assets. Fidelity Investments and TIAA-CREF serve as the University’s outside investment managers.

The plaintiffs allege that the University should have used the size of its assets to negotiate lower fees for fund management and administrative

services. Instead, the University hired multiple recordkeepers, which were each compensated based on a revenue sharing system, the complaint stated. The complaint cited a 2013 survey of 403(b) plans which stated that 90 percent of plans use a single recordkeeper. As a result of this alleged negligence, managers of the funds receive a percentage of the asset as a fee in exchange for services that other retirement plans offer at a fixed

cost, the complaint asserted.

It also alleges that the plans include too many investment options.

As of Dec. 31, 2014, employees through the Deferred Vesting Retirement Plan could choose from 177 investment options through Fidelity Investments and 26 through TIAACREF, some of which were duplicative. Plaintiffs allege that this array of investment options is “bewildering,” according to the complaint.

According to a study cited in the complaint, “Higher Education’s Response to a New Defined Contribution Environment,” plans with too many choices confuse investors, and those with too many recordkeepers are inefficient.

“Such designs typically are expensive and fail to leverage plan size.

They can also be confusing to the

average plan participant, who is likely to fall short of achieving retirement readiness and would benefit from more guidance,” the study stated.

Additionally, the University did not adequately vet the funds to ensure high performance, the plaintiffs allege. The CREF Stock Account, which is available to University employees, has been performing poorly compared to other similarly risky investment choices, such as the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund and the Vanguard Institutional Index, the complaint stated.

“For each comparison, the CREF Stock Account dramatically underperformed the benchmark and index alternatives,” the complaint stated.

The complaint also alleges that the CREF Stock Account has underperformed actively managed alternatives.

COURTESY OF THE LAW OFFICES OF SONJA L. DEYOE, SCHNEIDER WALLACE COTTRELL KONECKY WOTKYNS LLP AND BERGER & MONTAGUE PC

TINA WANG / HERALD

NEWS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

New Med School program educates students on opioid addiction Curriculum qualifies students to prescribe buprenorphine, a restricted drug

By ELI BINDER STAFF WRITER

Amid the statewide and nationwide opioid epidemic, the Alpert Medical School is shaping its curriculum to prepare students to treat opioid misuse disorder. Recently, it worked with the Rhode Island Department of Health to guarantee its graduates the ability to prescribe buprenorphine and medications that contain it, including Suboxone, which are used to treat opioid dependence.

Around 30 students in the Med School’s class of 2018 participated in the approved curriculum, and the curriculum is being taught to all students in the class of 2019, said Paul George, assistant dean of medical education.

Compared to medication-assisted therapy that involves methadone, which requires treatment in a clinic, “suboxone is less regimented,” said Aaron Shapiro MD ’19. “You go to a pharmacy to fill your prescription, and you take it like you would take other medications. But it has the same kind of effect (as methadone),” he added.

But most doctors cannot prescribe medications containing buprenorphine. Under the Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000, doctors may only prescribe buprenorphine after completing an eight-hour training course that usually requires a cost of around $200 to $400 to receive a DATA waiver, George said. Spending eight hours away from work presents a significant barrier to practicing physicians, said Rachel Ellenbogen ’11 MD ’18.

In response to these issues, the Med School sought to prepare all students

»INSURANCE, from page 1 subject to “a new and more robust verification.”

The University requires comparable coverage, which includes plans based in the United States with healthcare providers in Providence and covering services that go beyond emergency care such as pharmacy visits, surgery, mental health and preventive services.

Insurance plans that do not cover nonemergency care within Rhode Island, such as out-of-state Medicaid plans, are not accepted under the waiver program.

Some students were initially denied waivers because Gallagher did not recognize their insurance plan.

Max Mines ’20, who is on his father’s Traditional Indemnity plan under Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, said that when he tried to waive Gallagher’s plan, the waiver application did not provide his plan as an option.

ALEX WESTFALL / HERALD

to treat opioid misuse disorders before graduation and developed a “robust curriculum around pain management,” George said. The curriculum, which is 23 hours long over the course of four years, covers the physiology of pain, pain management, the pharmacology of opioids and field work involving opioids. The Med School’s curriculum approaches opioid misuse in a way that is “longitudinal and in many ways more comprehensive” than the typical eight-hour training, he added.

Alpert Medical School successfully received the DATA waiver training by applying to the Rhode Island Department of Health’s program. It is “the first school in the country that has had its curriculum approved by

a state medical board,” as sufficient to warrant a DATA waiver, said James McDonald, chief administrative officer of the Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline.

“It’s really great that we have the exposure to treating addiction in medical school. … It exposes a lot of people who maybe wouldn’t think about treating addiction or addiction as a medical issue to thinking about what you can do as a physician to help your patients with addiction,” added Ellenbogen, who went through the curriculum.

For now, Med School graduates are only licensed to prescribe buprenorphine in Rhode Island. But George said that the Med School has been in conversation with other state

health departments about establishing reciprocity for DATA waivers. The Department of Health would work with other states to show the process doctors at the Med School go through to get DATA waivers if requested, McDonald said.

As the nation comes to terms with the opioid epidemic, approaches to treatment are changing on both a legal and social level. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which administers DATA waivers, recently raised the maximum number of patients to which a doctor with a DATA waiver can prescribe buprenorphine to 275 after at least two years with the waiver.

Attitudes about opioid misuse

disorder are also changing as programs like the one at the Med School approach this disorder as they would treat any chronic illness, McDonald said. “How physicians look at pain, even though pain is subjective, is important. And how physicians and the patient look at people who suffer from substance misuse disorder is important, too,” he added. McDonald noted that stigma surrounding substance misuse disorder, like the label “junkie,” is unproductive. “People who suffer from a chronic disease really need help,” he said. What helps “people who are suffering from (substance misuse disorder) is getting medicationassisted treatment and getting into recovery.”

Thus, Gallagher initially deemed him ineligible for a waiver. After approaching the Insurance Office multiple times, they relayed his situation to Gallagher and Mines said he received a waiver.

“It’s problematic when the institution that decides if you’re eligible is also the one profiting from the decision,” Mines said.

The Insurance Office, which consulted other departments such as Campus Life and Health Services, decided to make the switch as University Health Plans gave a renewal quote with pricing that was too costly, while UnitedHealthcare Student Resources offered to provide a similar program at a much lower cost, wrote Jeanne Hebert, director of insurance and purchasing services, in an email to The Herald.

“Had we remained with our previous insurance carrier and claims processor, the cost of the plan would have increased by 12 percent instead of the

1.9 percent increase when changing to UnitedHealthcare Student Resources,” Hebert wrote.

She added that UnitedHealthcare Student Resources is a division of UnitedHealthcare, which offers a national network of providers. This network provides students with coverage even when they are not at the University.

But students do receive some health services from the University already.

Annual tuition also includes a $950

fee charged for Health Services, which covers services such as physician visits, EMS ambulance services and mental health counselling at University facilities.

The University is also taking steps to ensure that students can receive affordable coverage. A new initiative started in the 2016-2017 academic year ensures that the provider switch will not impact students on financial aid. The initiative allows students who are on financial

aid and denied a wavier to contact the Office of Financial Aid to get funding for the entirety of the $3,615 fee.

Previously, a student on financial aid who did not have comparable insurance would have to borrow a loan or come up with their own resources to cover this fee, said Jim Tilton, dean of financial aid.

“This was really difficult for our lowincome students, and the University said that we wanted to make sure our students were taken care of,” he added.

SCIENCE & RESEARCH PAGE 4 • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Alzheimer’s study may provide methods of prevention, economical diagnosis Study finds possibility of cost-accessible, early detection of memory loss through retinal scans

By MIA PATTILLO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A trial currently being conducted by University professors at Butler and Rhode Island Hospital may be key to diagnosing Alzheimer’s at an accessible cost before the symptoms appear.

The trial has two main focuses: to test whether the drug Solanezumab can delay memory loss and to determine whether a retinal scan can detect the plaque buildup.

The implications of this study could be huge — ­ scientists may be able to not only delay or prevent memory loss, but also potentially diagnose it before it manifests using a simple retinal scan at the eye doctor, said Stephen Salloway, professor of neurology, who is leading the study.

Because the retina contains nervous system tissue just like the brain, the amyloid plaque buildup that causes Alzheimer’s may be reflected in the retina, said to Peter Snyder, professor of neurology and surgery. Snyder’s research, which largely inspired this trial, was the first to look at the correlation between the eye and the brain in potential Alzheimer’s patients before they started showing symptoms.

“My hope is to ultimately intervene as early as possible,” Synder said.

“Currently, by the time we’re able to diagnose the disease, it’s quite possible that too much damage has already taken place.”

PIA MILEAF-PATEL / HERALD

While there are genetic markers for Alzheimer’s, they don’t necessarily guarantee having or not having the disease, Snyder said. In pushing the diagnosis window earlier, to people who may get the disease in five, 10 or 15 years, Alzheimer’s medications that currently fail could be more effective.

The study also carries a public health implication. PET scans, which predict a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s,

cost roughly $4,500 dollars and are not available to most of the world.

But if retinal imaging, which costs around $50 per subject, were able to accurately predict Alzheimer’s risks, it would offer “an inexpensive and available way of identifying diagnostics for many areas of the world that don’t have access to highly sophisticated neural imaging,” Snyder said. It uses the same simple technology that

an optometrist would use to detect glaucoma or macular degeneration, he added.

The parent trial testing the drug Solanezumab, which draws from the community of people who currently have normal memory, mandates at least four and a half years of treatment, according to Salloway. The sub-study examining the retina to test its ability to predict Alzheimer’s risk, which

began just a few months ago, will last at least as long.

“Alzheimer’s is one of the most important clinical problems we face given that the number of people likely to be affected over the next 20, 30 years will increase,” Salloway said. With the resources and researchers at Brown, a leading center in imaging the eye for Alzheimer’s disease, he hopes to detect Alzheimer’s in an economical way.

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TODAY

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

m e e t a n d g r e e t , wa l k a n d ta l k

menu SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: BBQ Bam Bam, Mary Jane Pizza Mac and Cheese Bar, Make Your Own Pasta JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Chicken Wings Bar, Quesadilla Station, Bacon Burger

Soup: Chicken Artichoke Florentine, Turkey Chili

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Sliced Turkey and Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Cabbage Potato Bengali, Sugar Cookies

Pork Loin, Cheese Tortellini Provencal, Baked Acorn Squah, Coconut Lime Cupcakes

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Shredded Pepper Chicken, Colorado Pork Chili, Nachos, Sugar Cookies

Bean Chili, Pot Roast Jardiniere, Orange Chipotle Glazed Tofu, Coconut Lime Cupcakes

sudoku

JASMINE RUIZ / HERALD

Students gather in Sayles Hall at the 2017 Latinx Welcome Back event hosted by the Latino Heritage Series.

Attendees were able to take part in a raffle, watch performances and enjoy a variety of foods.

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

“It’s problematic when the institution that decides if you’re eligible is also the one profiting from the crossword

”

decision.

— Max Mines ‘20

See INSURANCE on page 3.

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Rosh Hashanah Morning Services and Lunch 9:00 A.M. Brown-RISD Hillel

Teach-in on the Current Situation in Venezuela 12:00 P.M. Rhode Island Hall, Room 108

SWANA Heritage Series: Welcome Back 5:30 P.M. Petteruti Lounge

Sundaes with Alpha Chi’s 7:00 P.M. Sears House

TOMORROW Engineering Activities Fair 5:00 P.M. Barus & Holly Lobby

Black Heritage Series Welcome Back Dinner 5:30 P.M. Campus Center

CineBrasil 2017 6:00 P.M. List Art, 120

PW Presents: 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche 8:00 P.M. TF Green, Downspace

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

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MEAL PLAN

changes

STEP ONE:

Choose a Meal Plan.

REMINDER:

T DAY THE LASEA L PLAN

TO MAKE M EDNESDAY, CHANGES IS W

SEPT. 27!

VIEW OPTIONS AT BROWN.EDU/FOOD

• You can ADD a new Meal Plan at any time during the year • You can make one CHANGE per semester. Fall deadline is 9/27 • Meal Plan CANCELLATIONS for the whole year are due by 9/27

STEP TWO:

Let us assist you!

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

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

P IA M I L E A F- PAT E L brown.edu/food

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COMMENTARY THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Re-orientating our attitude toward loneliness CAROLINE MULLIGAN staff columnist Recalling first-year orientation brings back little besides the sensation of immense loneliness. Watching as my peers made fast friends with each other, feeling like an outsider observing social rituals conducted in a foreign tongue. I didn’t connect to anyone that first week at Brown, or the second. As my first semester slogged on and I still had trouble “connecting with the community of (my) peers and the larger campus and local communities” — one of the explicit goals of Brown’s orientation — I felt as though I had failed. I wasn’t a Brown student, just some imposter hiding out in the firstyear complex called Keeney Quad.

No one told me that the process of orienting yourself to the Brown life doesn’t end with orientation. Orientation provides a crash course introduction to all things Brown: the campus, the classes, the traditions.

But no matter how carefully planned, a few days of introduction will never be enough to ease the paths of many first-years.

To be sure, there are students who arrive to Brown’s campus and immediately thrive. Traditions like the new student ice cream social and the annual orientation dance wouldn’t

be such mainstays if no one enjoyed them. The Orientation Welcoming Committee works hard to facilitate activities that leave a lasting impact on first-year students.

These experiences, while valid, are not representative of what all students go through. A number of recent posts on a Facebook page where Brown students anonymously submit crushes and confessions offers a

After all, it’s been less than a month since school began. Of course not everyone can find their place in such a short amount of time.

But in a recent article titled, “The Real Campus Scourge,” New York Times op-ed writer Frank Bruni points to the immense consequences of loneliness among new college students. Bruni argues that the sense of not belonging “can be a gateway

whom they belong. Events like yoga or the annual LGBTQ welcome dinner offer students the chance to connect with others in a smaller setting, one less chaotic than the new student ice cream social or the post-convocation barbeque.

For an introverted student like myself, I’m not sure that there are any events the Orientation Welcoming Committee could have planned

For an introverted student like myself, I’m not sure that there are any events the Orientation Welcoming Committee could have planned that would have made it easier to adapt to my overwhelming new life at Brown. Adjusting to campus will always be harder for some folks than it is for others.

look into how many first-years finish orientation without finding a sense of belonging. One begins by asking, “Can someone please tell me when I’m supposed to start liking Brown?”

Another first-year admits, “I don’t even feel like I’m happy to be here.”

It would be easy to dismiss posts like these as outliers, or to call students who feel disconnected from the campus overdramatic or impatient.

to binge drinking and other self-destructive behavior.” He suggests that students who feel out of place are more likely to end up dropping out.

Bruni points to “extended, elaborate freshmen orientation schedules” as being “another intended prophylactic against loneliness.” And yes, the more orientation options are offered to students, the more likely it is that they’ll find friend groups with

that would have made it easier to adapt to my overwhelming new life at Brown. Adjusting to campus will always be harder for some folks than it is for others.

What’s needed to combat student loneliness isn’t a more extensive orientation, but rather a disclaimer given during mandatory events, like unit meetings or panels: You may not immediately find your place at

Brown. You may not make friends right away. It’s not wrong to feel like you don’t belong, or to reach out to resources like Counseling and Psychological Services.

We need to make it explicitly clear to first-years that the students who come to Brown and immediately feel a sense of belonging are the lucky ones, not the norm. Perhaps they came to A Day On College Hill when they were first accepted and formed lasting friendships there; perhaps they networked in their class’s Facebook groups and arrived ready to bring virtual friendships to life. For all of those students who come in to an instant sense of community, there are those students — of which I am one — ­­ who still sometimes struggle to feel like they have a place here.

There are seniors who graduate feeling ambivalent about their time at Brown, unsure if they ever belonged.

Orientation isn’t a week-long process, but rather a journey to belonging that takes days for some and years for others. When we acknowledge that becoming part of Brown’s campus is a process without a time limit, perhaps we can begin having conversations about loneliness that aren’t limited to anonymous online forums.

Caroline Mulligan ’19 can be reached at caroline_mulligan@brown.edu.

#JournalismSoWhite MARK LIANG staff columnist Joel Stein and Nancy Gibbs. Gene Roberts. Anderson Cooper. The team from Spotlight. When I think of journalists who inspire me, these are the men and women who immediately come to mind. It is saddening that, off the top of my head, I can’t think of a single print journalist or columnist of color. For my birthday a few years back, my aunt and uncle gave me a copy of “The Race Beat,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning chronicle of black journalists who risked everything to publish news about the Civil Rights era. I didn’t recognize a single one.

This is symptomatic of the industry as a whole. According to the Atlantic, minority groups make up less than 14 percent of journalists at daily newspapers nationwide. This figure doesn’t represent a single minority group; it represents all of them. The statistic is pitiful — but, honestly, not surprising. The media industry, like other historically white fields (including government and medicine, to name two), thrives on unpaid internships and connections that a lot of underrepresented and low-income journalists simply do not have. Freelancing, career sabbaticals and living in our parents’ garages sometimes are not options. The assumption that writing will carry one’s career is rooted in privilege because good writing requires experience and often generates a smaller payout than other jobs, disadvantaging lower socioeconomic groups. Even studying journalism in schools can be daunting: When I shopped ENGL 1050H: “Journalistic Writing” and was told I’d have to find my own transportation across the city for

interviews, not to mention allot more than 15 hours a week for one mandatory S/NC class, I balked. Nevertheless, English and modern culture and media concentrators try to do it anyway, and I applaud the bravery and dedication of those who have managed to stay in these departments. In the last decade, two-thirds of white graduates in journalism and communications found jobs out of college. Less than half of minority journalism graduates could say the same.

This lack of representation permeates written word and is a real issue for all kinds of journalism. We end up with tone-deaf articles like

years. BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post are taking up a greater market share of digital readers, and they represent an increasingly diverse public group. These organizations succeed (and are often scoffed at by the establishment) because they operate more on submissions, have wider pipelines for authors and democratize the writing process out of the hands of mostly old white men. Anyone can contribute to these sites; indeed, the articles that seem to thrive on these platforms often talk about taboo issues that other sources do not cover. There are issues with quality and accountability, of course, but these

As Brown doubles down on its commitment to diversity and inclusivity, the print organizations that represent it should do the same.

the infamous New York Times piece this summer that called boba, or bubble tea, “exotic,” “a new trend” and “so 2002.” Never mind that the drink exists all over Asian street corners and major American urban hubs. It’s the reason why crime headlines often feature mug shots of black and Latino men, but then post nice, professional class photos of white suspects (I’m looking at you, Brock Turner). These are not isolated incidents — they are consequences of an institutionalized system (one from which, if I may say, The Herald is not exempt).

I can’t help but compare this trend to the broader decline of print media over the last few

sites legitimize themselves because they have the ability to reach a wider audience.

Nevertheless, there is still a need to supplement these online resources with diverse viewpoints in ink and paper. Who would have thought that one of the most progressive media organizations to come out of this decade would be Teen Vogue? Young people are still reading print, and research shows that this form of media is more engaging than its online counterpart. In a world full of iPhones and PDFs, humans still find more legitimacy in paper and ink. Blogs and tumblrs might popularize ideas, but the written word physically cements these

concepts for posterity. Print still holds a valuable place in our society.

As Brown doubles down on its commitment to diversity and inclusivity, the print organizations that represent it should do the same. They have a responsibility to present a diverse range of voices and recognize the structural barriers that impede that goal. At The Herald, the organization is working toward this, though there is still enormous room for improvement. But that improvement cannot materialize without help to shed light on stories that matter and have been brushed under the rug. So don’t take the tongue-in-cheek advice of Atlantic Editor-inChief Jeffrey Goldberg, who visited the University on Tuesday and discouraged others from exploring the field of journalism. If you have even a smidgen of interest in the many topics that this organization and others fail to cover and feel comfortable with sharing your ideas, try writing about them. The Herald, to take just one example, prints enough daily copies of the newspaper to build a paper-mache house and then some. Readership is practically guaranteed.

And for better or for worse, it is a direct pipeline to alums, administrators and the institutional record of the University.

I speak from my own experience. When The Herald published racist and hurtful pieces in my freshman year, I decided to join the team because I believed that fixing white journalism began with me. You can do the same. You don’t have to consider yourself a career journalist (I sure don’t). Heck, if you want, you can even take my bi-monthly spot on this page. I’m just counting on you to make your words count.

Mark Liang ’19 can be reached mark_liang@brown.edu.

SCIENCE & RESEARCH THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Study analyzes, raises questions on institutional corruption Researchers attempt to define institutional corruption, analyze its causes, symptoms

By JACKSON WELLS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Though institutional corruption may seem like something of the past, researchers from Edward J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard examined how corruption remains prevalent today in a study published in the Southern California Institutional Law Journal.

The study outlined the various aspects of corruption among institutions, including defining institutional corruption, tracing the different ways it arises and analyzing possible ways to remedy the issue.

Jonathan Koralnik, a student at

Washington University in St. Louis and one of the study’s lead authors, said he was driven to write this paper because institutional corruption is widespread and damaging to society, though many are unaware of it.

The paper was meant to raise certain questions in regard to institutional corruption, and subsequently elicit academic feedback and bring in a number of insights that would tackle the issue, he added.

The study initially cites a definition of institutional corruption by Dennis Thompson: “political gain or benefit by a public official under conditions that in general tend to promote private interests.”

Lawrence Lessig, professor of leadership at Harvard and a co-author of the study, expounds upon this in the paper, explaining that institutional corruption exists when something

legally influences an institution to undermine its purpose.

Institutional corruption is different from other types of corruption, such as personal corruption, in that it requires institutional actors, according to Seamus Miller, one of the directors of the Center for Applied Ethics and Public Ethics. There are some acts that are “quintessentially corrupt,” such as bribery, nepotism and abuse of authority, he added.

Koralnik shared these sentiments, emphasizing that institutional corruption necessitates the involvement of a network of people to make the corruption possible. If a congressman accepts donations that sway legislative decisions, though there is one person at the focus, there are many people that take part.

But the issue of how institutional corruption arises is complex, Koralnik

said. It begins when external funding causes institutions to depart from their original purposes; for this reason, it is difficult to stop, Koralnik said.

Miriam Müthel, chair of organizational behavior at the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management and one of the authors of the study, said that institutional corruption causes a loss of trust, which is evident in increasingly negative public perceptions of institutions. Better understanding of institutional corruption would allow for better means to fight it and an increase in public trust, she added.

There are methods to potentially prevent institutional corruption, Koralnik said. For example, blind funding in the medical field allows those who conduct research to not be influenced by those who fund the research.

Marianna Fotaki, professor of

business ethics at Warwick Business School and former network fellow at the Safra Center, said that the paper gives a good overview of institutional corruption and its unique features.

But it was largely centered around the United States, she said, and ignores many aspects of institutional corruption that are prevalent in the international sphere, such as globalization and deregulation.

Philip Nichols, professor of social responsibility in business at the Wharton School, said that the paper attempted to use a definition of institutional corruption that was too broad to be able to find solutions or explain some specific instances. He also wished that the researchers had better explained some elements, like the paper’s particular use of trust regarding institutions, and had addressed more of the existing research.

After Identity Liberalism Featuring

Mark Lilla

Professor of Humanities, Columbia University Essayist for The New York Review of Books

Discussants

Charles Larmore

W. Duncan MacMillan Family Professor of the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Brown University

Prerna Singh

Mahatma Gandhi Assistant Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, Brown University

Thursday, September 28 5 p.m.

Smith-Buonanno Hall, Room 106

REAFFIRMING UNIVERSITY VALUES: Campus Dialogue and Discourse Sponsored by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost and the Department of Philosophy

To request special services, accommodations or assistance for this event, please contact the University Event and Conference Services Office at universityevents@brown.edu.