The September 20, 2018 issue of The Brown Daily Herald

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 66

Memorial Exhibit honors U. professor

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UCS holds elections for internal positions Six UCS positions filled, though one remains vacant, five UFB members also appointed

By MELANIE PINCUS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

“In the Name of King Phillip of Spain,” painted by Professor of Visual Arts Walter Feldman in 1979, hangs in the David Winton Bell Gallery as part of a memorial exhibition.

Feldman’s six decade career, 2000 works remembered by family, honored in exhibit

By ELISE RYAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A memorial exhibition for artist and Professor Emeritus of Visual Arts Walter Feldman opened at the David Winton Bell Gallery last Friday. The opening — an emotional, heartfelt tribute to Feldman — included remembrances from his family and a critical discussion of Feldman’s work by esteemed art historian Donald Kuspit.

Feldman taught at the University for 54 years — beginning in 1953 and retiring in 2007. Feldman passed away at the age of 92 in May 2017.

The event began with an introduction from President Christina Paxson P’19. Paxson reflected on Feldman’s effect on students at the University.

A particularly poignant example was that of a student from the class of 1959 who credited his late professor with changing the trajectory of his studies and easing his path to architecture in his senior year. This anecdote spoke to Feldman’s sensitivity as a teacher, his talent as an artist and his down-to-earth demeanor as a friend, Paxson said.

Feldman’s nephew and godson, author

Raimondo proposes universal pre-K If elected to second term, governor would expand pre-K program from 1080 to about 6000 more seats

By SOPHIE CULPEPPER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gov. Gina Raimondo has announced that she will realize an initiative to fund universal state pre-kindergarten if she is elected for a second term. The announcement was made in a preschool classroom in Pawtucket’s Heritage Park YMCA Sept.

10, two days before Raimondo defeated Matt Brown and Spencer Dickinson in the primary.

“Investing in pre-K is about improving K-12 education in Rhode Island. PreK is the most cost effective way to make significant improvements in K-12 outcomes,” wrote Communications Director

INSIDE

of the Rhode Island Democratic Party Emily Samsel in an email to The Herald.

Raimondo’s plan would add approximately 70 state pre-K classrooms per year over a five-year period, totaling about 6,000 additional seats for four-year-olds, according to a video of the announcement. Expansion on this scale would mean nearly a 600 percent increase in the number of seats available.

As of September 2018, Rhode Island offers 1,080 state-sponsored pre-K spots, which are distributed across the 11 of Rhode Island’s 47 school districts with the highest rates of low-income students: Central Falls, Cranston, East Providence, Johnston, Newport, North Providence, Pawtucket, Providence, Warwick, West Warwick and Woonsocket. Among eligible students, there was a state pre-K waitlist of approximately 750 students this year, wrote Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary » See PRE-K, page 4

Daniel Asa Rose ’71, celebrated Feldman by speaking to Feldman’s fatherly presence in his life. He read a poem titled “Shifting the Sun” by Diana DerHovanessian and reflected on Feldman’s contributions to the world through the lens of the famous Walt Whitman verse from “O Me! O Life!”: “That you are here — that life exists, and identity, / That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse,” he recited.

“As evidence(d) by the peerless art in these rooms, and enough art to fill a hundred more gallery rooms, we can rest assured that Walter Feldman did indeed contribute a verse, a mighty verse, and we will love him for » See FELDMAN, page 3

The Undergraduate Council of Students filled six of seven open positions through internal elections at its meeting Wednesday night.

Voting members of the body, including new members who had collected at least ten petition signatures from their peers prior to last night’s meeting, participated in the elections.The body chose Sam Caplan ’22 as UCS Historian, Vanessa Garcia ’20 as Secretary, Jason Carroll ’21 as Appointments Chair, Shelby Love ’22 as Parliamentarian, Chiaka Ibe ’21 as Alumni Liaison and Kathryn Stack ’19 as Undergraduate Finance Board Liaison.

Three candidates vied for the positions of secretary and UFB liaison, while two ran to be the alumni liaison. All other races were uncontested, and the position of webmaster, who is responsible for updating the UCS website, was not filled.

The Council also voted to appoint five at-large members to UFB to fill open slots. Twelve candidates ran for

the available positions.

The elected representatives were Jeewon Shin ’21, Gianna DeVincenzo ’22, Fatoumata Kabba ’22, Vedraman Narayan ’21 and Peter Deegan ’21.

UFB Chair Lisa Schold ’19 attended the general body meeting and asked questions to several candidates.

In the contested race for UCS secretary, Garcia highlighted reliability, competence and listening skills in her pitch to the general body. “You can count on me to be here, most times even ten minutes early because that’s how I like to do things,” she said.

To make her case for alumni liaison, Ibe discussed her experience as the UCS Chair of Alumni Relations in fall 2017 and Chief of Staff in spring 2018. According to Ibe, one project she has worked to develop through UCS is “one where we’re going to have all the alumni being able to directly donate to clubs,” she said, following precedents at schools like Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Stack ran for UFB liaison and cited her experience of three years on UCS and two years as the co-chair of the council’s elections board. She advocated incorporating “simple infographics” and advising student groups with “tips and tricks” for navigating the budgeting process, she said. » See UCS, back

Artist's music responds to police brutality Courtney Bryan’s composition ‘Sanctum’ moves audience members in live performance

By GRAYSON LEE STAFF WRITER

On Monday afternoon, the room fell silent as composer and performer Courtney Bryan played a recording of “Sanctum,” which she composed as a response to police brutality. Some attendees of Bryan’s performance at Orwig Music Library closed their eyes in attentiveness as they listened to the 12-minute-long musical composition.

Bryan, an assistant professor of music at Tulane University, was invited to participate in “Music Now,” an informal series created by the Department of Music that brings composers, sound artists and performers to the University to discuss their music. Bryan is “known for » See SANCTUM, page 2

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Courtney Bryan played a recording of "Sanctum," which was originally performed by the American Composers Orchestra in Lincoln Center.

WEATHER

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

SCIENCE & RESEARCH U. professors find older women more likely to birth multiple babies from one pregnancy

NEWS Center for Reconciliation responds to R.I.'s participation in the slave trade

NEWS North Smithfield will vote on reversing nonbinding municipal ban on Nike products

COMMENTARY Cardoso ’19: Students should see value in Michael Steele’s and Tom Perez’s fellowships

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U. professors find link between age, multiple births Women who become pregnant later in life are more likely to have multiple births

By EUGENE I. HRABARCHUK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A new study by University professors shows older women are more likely to give birth to more than one baby at a time due to the aging reproductive system.

The researchers compared reproductively active white and black women ages 15 to 19 and reproductively active white and black women ages 35 to 39 and found that the older population experienced an increase of multiple births — having twins, triplets and so on, according to the study. While ten out of 1,000 women in the younger population had multiple births, 30 out of 1,000 women in the older population had multiple births, said Roee Gutman, associate professor of biostatistics.

“As women approach their midthirties and beyond, the incidence of (multiple births) increases threefold in the context of Caucasian women and fourfold in the context of AfricanAmerican women,” said Eli Adashi, professor of medical science. “We know that in some communities in Africa that have been studied there seems to be a higher incidence of multiples which may well be genetically determined but has not been fully elucidated.”

Thirty-five to 39 years old “is about the time when the reproductive system in women is getting closer to the point where reproduction is no longer operational,” Adashi said. “There are probably subtle imperfections in the way that ovulation is controlled, so instead of ovulating a single egg, women in these age groups are increasingly ovulating more eggs,” he added.

“Since women’s fertility declines starting at a surprisingly early age,

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Study shows older women are more likely to have multiple births and experience increased risk of premature labor. The incidence of multiple births increases threefold in white women and fourfold in black women with age. around 30, the shift towards delaying “I think we need to focus on reThere are other factors related to childbearing results in more challenges ducing this possibility (of multiple age that could cause multiple births in conceiving, more use of assisted births). This is a very unhealthy state to occur, including previous pregnanreproductive technologies and more for the fetus and pregnant women,” cies and obesity, but these need further multiple births,” wrote David Savitz, said Sangshin Park, assistant professor research, Gutman said. associate dean for research, professor of of pediatrics.

“Many couples want to round out obstetrics and gynecology, professor of Prior to the study, medical research- the family, having another girl or anpediatrics and professor of epidemiol- ers already knew that childbearing at other boy,” Adashi said. “That deciogy, in an email to The Herald. later ages was linked to multiple births, sion could lead to much more than “Today women, for good reasons, but it was not recognized as a main one bargained for.” delay starting a family, and this phe- factor, Adashi said.

“Because the reasons for delaying nomenon is bound to increase,” Adashi In the past, the occurrence of mul- childbearing are personal and take said. “The biggest problem with mul- tiple births was attributed to drugs that many factors into consideration, I don’t tiple pregnancy is premature labor. increase ovulation, Gutman said. Be- think this suggests women be discourWhen you get to twins and triplets and fore ovulation-inducing drugs were ap- aged about the consequences of delay beyond, the capacity to accommodate proved, there was a parabolic relation- but rather be informed to make the best them throughout gestation is increas- ship between age and producing twins. judgment for themselves,” Savitz wrote. ingly compromised. The babies rarely This shows that age has been a factor “This is an interesting, unusual reach term simply because humans even without the in-vitro fertilization perspective on an unintended consewere not designed to carry multiples,” practices currently, he added. quence of delayed childbearing,” Savitz he added.

“Our study shows these fertility- added. “On a national level, this has “Ninety-eight to 99 percent of all promoting therapies should not be implications for reproductive health births in the United States are single- the only one to shoulder the blame,” services to meet the needs of older tons,” Adashi said.

Adashi said. mothers and more multiple births.”

» SANCTUM, from page 1 collaborating across genres with a whole range of artists, so I think, especially given the interdisciplinary focus of Brown, it’s really interesting to our students and faculty to see her approach to making music,” said Eric Nathan, assistant professor of music composition-theory and one of the founders of “Music Now.” Bryan began her lecture by explaining that her recent work has been a series of responses to police brutality, beginning with “saved” in 2013. Inspired by the IMPACT Repertory Theatre, an arts and activism group for young people, Bryan worked with three different church choirs to create a piece based on tradition and improvisation. With each choir, Bryan discussed the lynchings of Laura and L.D. Nelson in 1911, which had prompted her to create “Saved.” She and the respective choirs then followed a basic musical structure to improvise a response to that history. “It was the first piece I did that had a direct theme of racial violence. It had a really big impact on me,” Bryan said. She related how some of the choir members “went to another place spiritually” during the recording. One young choir member had a vision of a man with a machete while performing, she said.

“Saved” led to “Sanctum,” which was originally performed by the American Composers Orchestra at the Lincoln Center in 2015. In her talk on Monday, Bryan broke down different influences in the composition, from the “whooping” of the holiness-preaching tradition to modern protests chants, she explained.

In “Sanctum,” she also incorporated recordings pertaining to situations and victims of police brutality, such as an interview with Marlene Pinnock, a woman who was beaten by a police officer on a highway in 2014.

When the ethics of the use of such recordings were questioned by a student, Bryan assured them that such creative practices were legal and that she intended to share her music with the people whose voices she had used.

After explaining the themes and influences present in “Sanctum,” Bryan played a recording of the entire piece. She then briefly spoke about one of her recent compositions “Yet Unheard,” which she helped write in honor of Sandra Bland, a young black woman who was found dead in her prison cell in Texas three days after her arrest at a traffic stop.

Attendees of the event were most struck by Bryan’s live performance.

“When composers are giving lectures in that room, they rarely perform live. She also spoke the prayer at the start and the names of unarmed black victims of police brutality at the end.

That kind of live experience is not something that we get that much in these lectures, at least not yet,” said Seamus Hubbard Flynn ’21.

Deven Carmichael ’21 also commented on the live performance, saying, “It’s powerful music, both recorded and live, but it’s just so completely moving to see someone actively playing that music. It’s really physical during some parts — she’s smashing notes. Seeing the kineticness and actions and motions that she’s using to create these sounds was really engaging.”

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 • PAGE 3

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Center for Reconciliation addresses legacy of slavery in R.I. Founded by Episcopal Church of R.I., center aims to confront Diocese’s, state’s ties to slavery

By TRISHA THACKER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Visitors to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum’s ongoing exhibition, “The Art of Race,” might notice that the series of lectures and decorative art installations credits the work of the Center for Reconciliation, a local faith-based nonprofit. Founded by the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island in 2014, CFR is an expression of the Episcopal Church of Rhode Island’s commitment to racial reconciliation, according to the center’s website. “It is a response by the Diocese of Rhode Island to our historic participation in the slave industry and the way we have profited from that trade,” said Bishop Nicholas Knisely, the chair and president of CFR’s board of directors.

CFR took its cue from the University’s Center for Slavery and Justice, which aims to examine the University’s role in the Rhode Island slave trade.“Without Brown University’s first steps to deal with its own history, the diocese would not have been inspired as much or at all to deal with its version of its history,” Knisely said.

Professor Anthony Bogues, director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and professor of humanities and political theory, played a role in the formation of CFR and now serves on its board of directors. Bogues said that racial

» FELDMAN, from page 1 it forever,” Rose said.

The exhibit includes work spanning 68 years of Feldman’s life. As Kuspit pointed out, he completed more than 2,000 works throughout his career, including paintings in oil, gouache, watercolor, acrylic and stencils as well as collages of handmade paper and wodcut prints. The Bell Gallery’s selected works, curated by Director Jo-Ann Conklin, reflect this range, as paintings and collages are shown alongside glass cases displaying examples of the letter-press books he produced.

“Walter’s work evolved both stylistically and technically over his long career, and always in the service of the yin and yang of subjects that he cared about — those being family, nature, music and poetry, religion and the cruelty of war,” Conklin said.

One of the first pieces displayed in the exhibition is the only realistic self-portrait ever created by Feldman,

reconciliation for CFR involved “trying to think about the past and the present and the way in which anti-black racism works and anti-black racism can be gotten rid of,” adding that “the basis of reconciliation is the removal of structures of antiblack racism.”

CFR offers a range of workshops, programs and events related to racial reconciliation. The center is also planning

a museum dedicated to exhibiting legacies of the slave trade in New England at the Cathedral of St. John, according to Elon Cook MA’14, program director and museum curator. One of the center’s more popular programs is the walking tour on the history of slavery and race on College Hill, Cook said. “We do a two-hour, one-mile urban hike and it all takes place in the neighborhood of

finished in the late 1940s shortly after his return from World War II. In the portrait, Feldman’s figure is shaded, fading into a muted gray background. His eyes look down behind wide-framed glasses. In an interview with Kathryn de Boer that appeared in “Points in Time: Walter Feldman Selected Works,” published by Ziggurat Press, Feldman said of the portrait, “I think that was how I must have felt inside — gray.”

Barbara Feldman, Feldman’s wife of almost 67 years, reminded the audience that this exhibition “was not meant to be a memorial exhibition, it was conceived of simply as an exhibition,” she said. Feldman had intended to be in attendance, she reminded the audience. “However, I do not wish to imply that he is not with us at this time,” she added, “because the very nature and being of this man — his visual and textual manifestations — are apparent and boldly looking over our shoulders and calling to our sensibilities.”

“The Final Agony,” which hangs

on the opposite wall of “Self-Portrait,” was the first woodcut print created by Feldman. According to the piece’s informational plaque, Feldman decided to enter the piece into a competition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on a whim — and went on to win the print prize.

Kuspit discussed a selection of Feldman’s work, emphasizing its range and thematic focuses, while offering his interpretation of some of Feldman’s abstract works. Kuspit touched on “The Final Agony” and another print titled “Expulsion” in his lecture. These were “unequivocal masterpieces, brilliantly conveying the trauma of war and the traumatic effect it had on Feldman,” he said.

Paxson closed her introduction by emphasizing, “Everybody at Brown … is grateful for Walter, for the gifts that he gave to this University over so many years and for the marvelous, marvelous legacy that he leaves to the world and to this community,” she said.

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College Hill, around Brown and RISD,” she added. According to CFR’s website, the tour examines how “College Hill created its wealth and stability and helped lay the foundation for race relations in the state via human trafficking and forced labor.”

Workshops are an integral part of CFR’s work, offering “a deeper

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understanding of the history of race in the United States” and “an improved vocabulary,” according to Cook. “One of the challenges that many Americans have when it comes to talking about race is not knowing or having confidence about what words to use,” Cook explained. “We talk about everything from the various racial categories and where these categories originated and how they changed over time, to more modern, newer words like micro-aggression.” Knisely said that CFR aims to help people “find a forum to talk about their experiences of racism and its consequences, in a way that is honest, open, correct and, most importantly, safe.”

CFR aims to confront the state’s reliance on the slave trade and its implications in a present-day context. “If you know the history of Rhode Island, it was a state that was very involved in the slave trade and therefore any contemporary movement or attempt to think about that history and its implications for today is something that is very, very important,” Bogues said.

Rhode Island also built an entire economy on the slave trade, from rum distilleries to slave ship insurance companies, Knisely said. “At its core, the Rhode Island economy (was) completely supported in the early days of the state in one way or another in the enslavement industry,” Knisley added. “I think the early experience of the United States created an economic landscape of people who prospered and people who suffered under that kind of industry that we are still dealing with today.”

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» PRE-K, from page 1 Education Communications Director Meg Geoghegan in an email to The Herald.

Raimondo estimated that, though expansion would cost $15 million per year, the initiative would “(save) a lot of money down the road,” she said in the announcement. In her email to The Herald, Samsel also cited a study suggesting universal pre-K might save $126 million in pre-K through grade 12 education funding by 2030.

Rhode Island’s expanded state preK program would continue to follow a “blended model” that allows community centers and early childcare centers to compete with public schools for grants to fund pre-K classrooms, wherein grants for setting up pre-K classrooms are awarded to the programs that best demonstrate their ability to meet the state’s quality requirements.

Rhode Island first created a statefunded pre-K program in 2009, which served 126 students, according to the Rhode Island Department of Education website. In 2014, Rhode Island received a $19 million federal grant to expand state pre-K over the course of four years from 17 classrooms serving 306 children to 60 classrooms accomodating 1,080 students. “We knew that this would be the final year of scaleup” funded by the federal grant, Geoghegan said.

Whereas the existing state pre-K program received both federal and state funding, Raimondo’s proposed pre-K expansion would be solely funded by the state budget, Geoghegan wrote.

The Rhode Island pre-K program ranks among the best in the country.

“There are three times more four-yearolds from low income communities participating in Rhode Island’s public pre-K program today than when the Governor first took office,” Samsel wrote. Rhode Island was ranked 19th for state spending and fourth for overall spending on pre-K education, according to the State Preschool Yearbook 2017 published by the National Institute for Early Education Research. The report also shows

DUNCAN GALLAGHER / HERALD

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gov. Gina Raimondo said her proposition for universal pre-K would cost $15 million per year and would be solely funded by the state budget. that Rhode Island is one of only three states whose pre-K program meets every NIEER benchmark, earning it a 10/10 quality ranking.

Expanding the pre-K program “is a policy that makes a lot of sense from both an economic and a policy perspective,” said Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of the educational non-profit Rhode Island KIDS COUNT. While R.I. KIDS COUNT does not endorse candidates, the non-profit would strongly favor implementing Raimondo’s proposal. “Rhode Island KIDS COUNT has been a strong supporter of state preK for a number of years because we know what a difference it makes in leveling the playing field,” Burke Bryant said.

In explaining the longstanding

consistency of her commitment to early childhood education, Raimondo referenced her focus on expanding access to all-day kindergarten during her first term: “The first thing I did as governor is bring about all-day kindergarten, for every student in every public school in Rhode Island.” Prior to her initiative, “about 25 percent of kids in Rhode Island didn’t have access to all-day kindergarten,” she added. If the program were realized, Raimondo would expect approximately 70 percent of eligible students to take advantage of it.

Raimondo is “sure there will be resistance” to the proposal, especially from those who would consider it too expensive. Both Geoghegan and Burke Bryant suggested space might also pose a challenge to the initiative. It will be necessary

to “ensure that there are adequate facilities available,” Burke Bryant said.

Raimondo’s opponents’ perspectives on universal pre-K vary.

Cranston mayor and Republican gubernatorial candidate Allan Fung disagreed with the initiative and called it a “political Hail Mary,” according to the Providence Journal.

Independent gubernatorial candidate Joe Trillo expressed support for the idea of universal pre-K but took issue with Raimondo’s budgeting. “The Governor’s claim this will cost $15,000,000 annually is un-evidenced and comes at a time when government spending is already out of control,” he wrote in an email to The Herald.

Compassion Party gubernatorial candidate Anne Armstrong expressed

Just UnDo It: North Smithfield considers reversing Nike ban North Smithfield wavers on municipal ban of Nike products following Kaepernick ad campaign

By JACK BROOK STAFF WRITER

Following public outcry, the Town Council of North Smithfield in Providence Country, Rhode Island, will vote Sept.

24 on whether or not to recall a recent municipal nonbinding ban of Nike products, according to a press release issued Wednesday by Council President John Beauregard. Beauregard proposed the “Nike Resolution” — passed 3 to 2 Sept. 17 — as a response against the company’s advertising campaign featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality against people of color.

“Nike’s decision … is an insult and slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers throughout this country,” the

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resolution stated, while citing the 102 police officers killed on duty in the United States so far this year. The resolution requests that the municipality — including schools and police departments — refrain from purchasing Nike products. North Smithfield has no active orders with Nike, according to Town Administrator Gary Ezovski.

The vote Monday could fully repeal the resolution.

“I am not doing this because my views on the subject have changed,” wrote Beauregard, who worked as a state trooper for 25 years. “I am only doing this because of the backlash to my town, the businesses in my town, the schools and all the residents. I don’t want to drag anyone into my fight that did not choose to be in it.”

He added that “this resolution had nothing to do with race.”

Public condemnation began Monday at the Town Council meeting, where many attendees accused Beauregard and the Town Council of racial insensitivity. The R.I. American Civil Liberties Union and the Providence Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People also issued statements rebuking the

resolution.

“The message that is sent is that the town of North Smithfield does not care about police brutality and racial inequality,” NAACP Providence Branch President Jim Vincent told The Herald. “They do not care about issues that affect people of color.”

“It’s also political grandstanding,” Vincent added. “Using a town council to express your personal views is just an abuse of power and a waste of taxpayers time and money.”

“We have so many prominent issues to deal with. … Frankly, spending time on this (Nike Resolution) is asinine,” said North Smithfield School Committee Member Arthur Bassett during the Town Council meeting Monday.

“We have worked too hard to let anything compromise our community values or to let anything distract us from working towards what’s best for our students, and that’s what we as a School Committee will continue to do,” wrote School Committee Member Jean Meo in an email to The Herald.

North Smithfield is not the first place to ban Nike products — the town of Kenner, Louisiana and the

Mississippi police force have also passed similar resolutions.

“We can only hope that a town as far away from the Mason-Dixon line as North Smithfield, Rhode Island will not be the third,” R.I. ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown wrote in an open letter to the Town Council in the lead-up to passing the Nike Resolution.

The R.I. ACLU has since commended Beauregard for reconsidering the decision.

“If rescinded, this will be a major victory for those who spoke out in favor of freedom of speech!” the R.I. ACLU tweeted.

Recalling the resolution will allow the Town Council to move past the issue and reaffirm its community values, according to School Committee Member Paul Jones.

“We believe in freedom of speech and we believe in being an all-inclusive community,” Jones told The Herald. “This resolution doesn’t define us and it never should have.”

Neither Beauregard nor North Smithfield Superintendent of Schools Michael St. Jean could not be reached for comment.

concern with how “our public schools are failing older students in so many ways right now,” she wrote in an email to The Herald. Rather than expanding public pre-K, she would “give each family the ($12,000) per child this would cost and allow them to choose high-quality private pre-schools such as Montessori or Suzuki,” she wrote.

Moderate Party gubernatorial candidate Bill Gilbert pointed out in an email to The Herald that universal pre-K had been part of his party’s platform since July. “An early start is essential. We are glad that (Raimondo) now agrees with us even if it is for political expedience.”

Gubernatorial candidates Allan Fung, Rebecca McLaughlin and LuisDaniel Muñoz did not respond to requests for comment.

TODAY

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 • PAGE 5

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The view from the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts offers beautiful visages of students enjoying the start of fall weather and the bones of a future performing arts center.

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

“I think the early experience of the United States created an economic landscape of people who

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prospered and people who suffered.

— Bishop Nicholas Knisely, President of CFR Board of Directors

See article on page 3.

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Biology of Aging Seminar 12:00 P.M. Biomedical Center, 202

Innovation at Goldman Sachs Lunch 12:00 P.M. Barus and Holley, 751

Applied Micro SeminarPeter Blair 4:00 P.M. Robinson Hall 301

emPOWER Pizza Party 6:00 P.M. Petteruti Lounge

TOMORROW Anthropology Talk by Asli Zengin 12:00 P.M. Giddings House, 212

Concert Pianist Benjamin Nacar’12 12:30 P.M. Pembroke Hall, 305

Deloitte Interviewing Workshop 2:00 P.M. Petteruti Lounge

Brown University Football vs Harvard 7:00 P.M. Brown Stadium

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

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COMMENTARY THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 • PAGE 7

Steele’s appointment still has value CONNOR CARDOSO opinions editor In her Sept. 16 letter to The Herald, Julia Rock ’19 rightly noted that it would be reductive to treat the faculty fellowships of Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez ’83 P’18 and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele as an adequate sampling of the full spectrum of U.S. politics, and she recognized that there exists a vibrant, and increasingly popular, discourse outside the bounds of what our traditional party system embraces. But Rock’s argument, in reducing the complexity of disagreements between the traditional U.S. parties in contemporary politics to essentially nothing, neglects the significance of the many substantive policy differences that separate Perez and Steele. In Rock’s estimation, disagreements over abortion, taxation, gun control and education, among many other issues, all seem to be unsubstantial, or at the very least, fuse together in a cloud of neoliberalism.

What’s more, Rock argues that right-wing politicians, by their nature, are frequently divisive, and so we should be wary of inviting them to serve in any capacity on our campus. While I have argued in the past, and continue to believe, that campuses have a responsibility to ensure they do not give a platform to speakers whose views pose a direct threat to the safety and dignity of its students, it is important to recognize the limitations of this argument. Steele might be wrong about most things, but by identifying him and his views as an example of unacceptable divisiveness, we mini-

mize the gravity of truly dangerous speakers and thinkers and give extremist critics the evidence they need to show that their caricatures of political discourse on college campuses might not be so wrong after all.

To begin, we must recognize that Perez and Steele do, in fact, disagree

abortion. But it’s not surprising that Perez and Steele share many fundamental opinions about, say, the role of capitalism in American society or the merit of free trade, purely by virtue of the fact that they were politically socialized in the same mainstream society that prioritizes these things. But it is not con-

would not provide us with an acceptable diversity of opinions either on account of the fact that they both share certain fundamental opinions about capitalism or protectionism.

Perez and Steele, then, still provide us with a reasonable — though by no means complete — diversity of opinions that we can engage with

While we should be mindful of the need for even greater intellectual diversity among our faculty fellows, we should also celebrate additions like Steele.

quite sharply on a number of policies. Rock seems to overlook these by instead focusing on their similarities. But while no one will dispute that the two agree on many issues, that is insufficient to establish that the two don’t disagree over anything substantial. What one believes about free trade is largely independent of what one thinks about

vincing to dismiss the substantive policy differences between Perez and Steele by merely pointing out their similarities. If the only test we need to prove that two individuals do not meaningfully disagree with one another on major policy issues is pointing to substantial areas of agreement, we may conclude that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders

critically.

There is also danger in writing off most right-wing speakers as equally dangerous. Conflating Michael Steele with speakers like Milo Yiannopoulos (which Rock does implicitly suggest by referring generally to the divisiveness of “rightwing speakers” and “conservative figures”) for instance, is not only

intellectually disingenuous, but also neglects that dangerous views exist in various degrees. When we dismiss out of hand all right-wing views equally, we minimize, or at the very least, are less inclined to assess with nuance, the severity of the more extreme views. Rock’s argument, at least as it’s written, leaves no room for nuance in engaging with different views on the right.

While many of those arguing for greater conservative representation on college campuses are not debating in good faith — often, their goal is not actually to increase the diversity of political opinion on campus but to paint colleges as ideologically rigid and hostile toward those that don’t toe the supposed line — we merely fulfill the caricature that many on the right use as the basis for this argument in the first place.

Rather than dying on this particular hill, our time is more productively spent resisting more offensive and dangerous speakers than Michael Steele.

While Rock is right that we should not content ourselves with Perez and Steele as the bookends of our political discourse, the real, substantive disagreements between them are highly relevant to contemporary political discourse. And while we should be mindful of the need for even greater intellectual diversity among our faculty fellows, we should also celebrate additions like Steele, who for better or worse, represent a significant strain of political thought in American society.

Connor Cardoso ’19 can be reached at connor_cardoso@ brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Laboratory strives to develop vaccine against malaria Lab studies malarial resistance in children in Kenya, Tanzania to identify antibodies

By CATE RYAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Jonathan Kurtis ’89 PhD’95 MD’96, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, did not first develop an interest in malaria behind a lab bench or as a training physician in a clinical setting.

Instead, Kurtis’ bout with the disease during his junior year abroad in Kenya gave him a first-hand look at one of the world’s deadliest diseases and began his research aspirations to prevent it.

His story began on a night train from Nairobi to Mombasa, where his project on coral reef ecology was set to begin. Far from home and with no way to contact his family, he met Americans in the dining car and stayed up all night talking and drinking with them, bonding over their shared nationality.

After waking up sick in the morning, Kurtis arrived in Mombasa. “I actually paid a guy to carry my rucksack, which was insane because I was broke,” he recalled. Finally, he reached the mud hut that he had rented for the project, took the malaria pills he had brought with him and passed out. Three days later, he awoke with no recollection of what had happened since his arrival.

He didn’t even remember taking the pills, but fortunately, he had — he later found out that they saved his life. It was clear that what he had contracted was cerebral malaria.

After recovering from the harsh disease, Kurtis was able to carry on his coral reef project and thoroughly enjoyed it. At the same time, however, he grew witness and subject to the reality of what “an important thumb malaria is pressing down on the world’s populations.”

Upon graduating with a bachelor’s degrees in Geology and Biology from the University, Kurtis entered Alpert Medical School. He often met with the travel physician w ho had prescribed the medication that he took abroad, G. Richard Olds, who served as professor of medicine, pediatrics, molecular, cell and development biology at the time. Olds had become a mentor to Kurtis in the time since he had returned from Kenya. At one point during his tenure as a medical student, Kur tis considered dropping out of medical school.

As Kurtis remembers, Olds inspired him to instead pursue research in conjunction with medicine, pushing him toward a doctoral program in his laboratory. Under Olds’s direction, Kurtis completed his PhD on schistosomiasis, a tropical disease caused by parasitic worms.

Jennifer Friedman ’92 MD’96, director of clinical studies for Lifespan’s Center for International Health Research and a professor of epidemiology and pediatrics at the Med School, similarly developed an interest in the disease upon working in Kenya. She was a Fulbright scholar there in between completing medical school and starting

residency. “I was inspired by the enormous burden of disease despite good drugs and, as later identified as part of work I was involved that year with CDC, insecticide-treated bed nets,” she wrote in an email to The Herald. Alongside Kurtis, she has researched malaria

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and other parasitic diseases for years, pulling upon her expertise in pediatrics to advance their work.

Now, Kurtis serves as the director of Lifespan’s Center for International Health Research, which has a team of twenty investigators studying not only malaria, but other diseases including helminth infections, a soil-transmitted infection and Friedman’s current research focus. Many of the current investigators started as graduate students or postdoctoral researchers at the center

before rising through the ranks to their current positions.

In concept, a malaria vaccine has existed in a lab setting for nearly five decades. “No mouse need live in fear; we can protect rodents without any challenge at all. The problem is (the vaccination method) hasn’t generalized into humans,” Kurtis said. Mice are often used in scientific research as an earlier step before moving into more advanced models or human trials. But “in malaria, mice l i e,” Kurtis said — the form of malaria the mice develop does not simulate the human form well.

As a result, Kurtis’ team has taken a different approach. They spend time in Kenya and Tan zania, and study malaria resistance in children there. In the lab, the group tries to identify antibodies that occur naturally in people who are malariaresistant.

The team aims to detect the target of these antibodies and then, through a vaccine, expose children to this target so they make the antibodies against it.

Currently, their vaccine work is being tested on monkeys since the animals can actually contract the same type of malaria as humans do. “Before we (begin trials on) children, we’ve got to make sure (the vaccine) is safe

and effective, and the only way to do that at the moment is in non-human primates,” Kurtis said, highlighting the current necessity of research on animals in the field. With additional studies and sufficient funding, their hope is to start a phase one clinical trial in humans within two to three years.

Other researchers at the University are enthralled in understanding and potentially vaccinating against malaria as well. Dipak Raj, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Med School, has worked with Kurtis in the past to develop a malaria vaccine candidate. He started looking at possible vaccine mechanisms for malaria during his doctoral program in India, he said, before leaving for the United States and working at the National Institutes of Health before moving to the University.

At the NIH, he helped identify a drug, Ketotifen, that has possible applications for malaria treatment.

In tandem with his research, Kurtis has worked directly with malaria patients. Currently, he is involved in a study of children living in Kisumu, a city near Lake Victoria in Western Kenya. The region is plagued with malaria and has one of the highest rates of transmission of the disease in the world, said Kurtis. He added that in Kisumu every child, every day, gets an infected mosquito bite; one out of four children don’t make it to their fifth birthday. Kids between the ages of two and seven were enrolled in the study, and within a month, half had developed clinical episodes of malaria. The team has done extensive follow-ups on these kids, and six months into the study, zero fatalities have occurred, Kurtis said. He added that despite medical care and this intense follow-up, the heart-wrenching truth is that they expect five percent of the children to die within the four years of the study. “How does it feel? It sucks.

It absolutely sucks,” Kurtis reflected.

JASMINE RUIZ / HERALD

UCS President Shanzé Tahir ’19 also announced that a new committee formed to address harm in the community, the Community Accountability Focus Group, will have its first meeting next Wednesday.

» UCS, from page 1 Candidates in uncontested races also gave short speeches and took questions from the general body.

The general body members cast their ballots through a blind hand

raise for the contested UCS positions and a vote of confidence for the uncontested positions. The UFB members were elected through a ranked ballot.

UCS President Shanzé Tahir ’19 said the Community Accountability

Focus Group, a recently formed body meant to address harm in the Brown community, will meet next Wednesday. Prospective members of the Student Activities Committee met briefly after the general body meeting concluded.