Thursday, October 17, 2019

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019

VOLUME CLIV, ISSUE 1

BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

UNIVERSITY NEWS

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Survey finds widespread sexual violence on campus

John Kasich talks bipartisanship, impeachment Former Ohio governor highlights new book, young activists during Wed. night event

1 in 4 undergrad women, 1 in 3 TGQN students report non-consensual sexual contact

BY OLIVIA GEORGE SENIOR STAFF WRITER To hundreds of students on a rainy Wednesday night, former Governor of Ohio John Kasich made the case for individuals across the country to take action on issues that matter to them, rather than waiting for politicians in Washington to affect change.

“I don’t care that much about politics,” Kasich, 67, said, who spent four years as a member of the Ohio Senate, 18 years as a Representative for Ohio’s 12th district and eight years as Governor of Ohio. “What I care about is what’s happening in my community.”

Kasich’s address, titled “It’s Up to Us: Ten Little Ways We Can All Bring About Big Change,” came weeks after he released his latest book of the same name. The event was part of the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions’ John Hazen White Sr. lecture series.

Kasich has been an outspoken conservative voice against President Trump ever since he vied for the Republican nomination in 2016. At Wednesday’s event, Kasich turned his attention

BY CELIA HACK UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

COURTESY OF GAGE SKIDMORE

Former Governor of Ohio John Kasich delivered a lecture before hundreds of students Wednesday night. toward advocating for bipartisanship “We do not need to be fighting and as the 2020 presidential race heats up. bickering with each other,” he said. “I “The Republican party has been don’t think that most people want to my vehicle, not my master,” Kasich live in conflict.” said. “But I am grateful to the party Kasich compelled students to infor giving me the chance to serve,” teract with people who hold differing he affirmed before quickly adding, “I points of view. “Open your minds,” he am still a Republican.” said, “and don’t belittle people that Kasich told the audience about his don’t agree with you.” experiences as a young college gradDuring the event, Kasich also uate, when he spent time working in spoke at length about the importance offices of both Democratic and Repub- of young activists across the country lican party members. He said those and around the globe. jobs helped equip him with skills to listen to those with whom he disagrees.

SEE KASICH PAGE 4

UNIVERSITY NEWS

UCS discusses dining services, food security Students voice concerns about meal plan accommodations process

BY KAYLA GUO SENIOR STAFF WRITER Students expressed concerns to Brown Dining Services administrators about how the University has handled meal plan accommodation requests at the Undergraduate Council of Students’ general body meeting Wednesday evening.

The number of requests for meal plan accommodations increased after the University announced in May that sophomores would be required to enroll, said Assistant Director of Health and Wellness Jessie Curran at the meeting.

Accommodations can range from access to an allergy-friendly pantry to exemption from the meal plan entirely.

The 2019 Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct found that 24.5 percent of undergraduate women reported experiencing non-consensual sexual contact since arriving at Brown, according to survey results released Tuesday.

The survey, which the Association of American Universities conducted in April, also showed that roughly 30 percent of students identifying as TGQN — transgender, genderqueer, gender non-conforming, questioning or non-listed — reported the same experience, an increase of about five percent since similar data was collected in 2015.

After creating a sexual assault task force in 2015, the University will be able to use the 2019 survey results to evaluate the effectiveness of the task force’s recommendations for the first time. Recommendations included the creation of a Title IX office, a unified policy on prohibited forms of sexual and

“We have a lot of accommodations that we make available to people,” Curran said.

Curran also gave an overview of the meal plan accommodation process for arrangements that would violate University policy, such as meal plan exemptions for first-years or sophomores.

These types of requests are directed to a committee with representatives from Health Services, Dining Services, Student and Employee Accessibility Services, the Chaplain’s Office and Student Support Services, Curran said. The committee also includes a board-certified primary care physician, said Vanessa Britto, associate vice president for campus life and executive director for health and wellness. All members review requests along with any accompanying information or documentation to decide whether the student should remain on meal plan.

Students at the meeting raised concerns about transparency around the

SEE UCS PAGE 2

gender-based violence and mandatory sexual-assault prevention training for all members in the University community, The Herald previously reported.

Brown was one of 33 institutions that took part in the campus climate survey. All undergraduate, graduate and medical students were eligible to take the survey, which generated a response rate of 31.5 percent, or nearly 3,100 answers.

U. continues to grapple with prevalence of sexual assault The Campus Climate survey broke down non-consensual sexual contact into three categories: any sexual contact by force or inability to consent, penetration by force or inability to consent and sexual touching by force or inability to consent.

The survey findings revealed that 11.6 percent of undergraduate women and 17.6 percent of TGQN-identifying students have experienced non-consensual penetration since arriving at Brown. Despite the difference in the percentages, there was not a “statistical difference” between the two groups, according to the report.

“The numbers around victimization by physical force or incapacitation for

SEE SURVEY PAGE 4

UNIVERSITY NEWS

PhD programs eliminate GRE requirement Twenty-four departments make subject-specific GRE optional

BY KAMRAN KING SENIOR STAFF WRITER The University will no longer require general Graduate Record Examinations scores for its doctoral programs, and 24 departments have made the subject-specific GRE optional.

“This is not a dramatic shift, as those programs who dropped the requirement had been de-emphasizing use of GRE scores in the admission process for some time,” wrote Dean of the Graduate School Andrew Campbell in an email to The Herald.

After the policy change earlier this month, each of the 54 departments that offer doctorates could decide whether to keep the subject-specific requirement. Departments across disciplines — including Religious Studies, Chemistry and American Studies —

chose to eliminate the requirement.

“The Graduate School seeks to ensure that programs have the opportunity to attract the strongest applicants to their pool,” Campbell wrote. As a result, “individual programs should make this decision on whether or not to require the GRE.” The Department of Italian Studies chose to make the GRE optional in part because it enrolls international students who may be less familiar with American standardized testing, said Massimo Riva, the department’s interim director of graduate studies. “We noticed excellent students had not done particularly well on the test … so we didn’t think it was particularly useful for our purposes,” he said.

The department was interested in continuing to require the GRE for American students because it served as a useful test for students’ Italian skills, but they were not able to do so due to logistical concerns, Riva added.

The Department of Mathematics will also no longer require the GRE. Thomas Goodwillie, the department’s

Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture

News

Commentary

RISD Craft, annual juried sale, features handmade works by students and alums Page 2

Ivy Film Festival hosts documentary screening, discusses sexual abuse in sports Page 3

Watson Institute expands student advisory committee, increases student input Page 3

Ruzicka ’21: Commenting on Dear Blueno posts connects campus community Page 7

SUMMER ZHANG / HERALD

director of graduate studies, said that success on the GRE is “not highly correlated with success in graduate school,” though “it is highly correlated to some other things.” For example, members of underrepresented minorities tend to do worse on the GRE, he said.

Thus, the department decided to eliminate the requirement “partly for diversity reasons and partly because

SEE GRE PAGE 3

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE

Annual RISD Craft supports over 100 RISD alums, student artists Student artists selected by lottery, alums chosen by committee of RISD graduates

BY EMILY TENG SENIOR STAFF WRITER RISD Craft, the juried art sale organized by the Rhode Island School of Design every fall, showcased the artisan talents of RISD alums and student artists last Saturday on Benefit Street. Despite gloomy weather, the sale attracted a large crowd of students and local residents eager to engage with the multimedia artworks displayed.

The sale featured handmade crafts and design works created by 90 alumni artists and 25 student artists, according to RISD Craft’s official website.

The craft sale has become an increasingly popular way for student artists to showcase their work. “There’s a lot more self-driven student participants in it,” said Rebecca Claire Ford, recent RISD graduate who sold her art Saturday. Alumni participants in RISD Craft are selected by an anonymous alumni committee, and student artists are chosen to host tables displaying

their artwork through a lottery process.

Lucy Freedman, a student artist featured in the craft sale this year, suggested that the “high visibility” and alumni presence at the craft sale makes it a great opportunity to showcase artwork and receive constructive feedback. She added that, after the results of the lottery are made public, those whom have not been selected often ask the chosen ones to share their tables.

Some student participants have expressed concerns about the fairness of this process: “They say it’s a lottery, but I’m not totally convinced. It doesn’t feel like a lottery, it feels very handpicked,” Freedman said. “The students who seem the most marketable for RISD seem like the ones who get chosen to sell.”

Meanwhile, the alumni application process is designed to be competitive.

“They give you a lot more supportive attention if you’re coming in as an alumnus,” said Sarah Lee, a 2016 RISD graduate who participated in RISD Crafts as a student artist her junior year. She added that the RISD Alumni Association helps with promotion and exposure leading up to the sale — even curating a website, “RISD Crafts,” to spotlight all the alumni artists and their works.

Up until a few years ago, alumni artists were selected through a blind lottery.

Now, there is a juried selection process to decide who is featured, said Lois Harada, an alum, former coordinator of RISD Craft and artist who hosted a table Saturday. “Jurying helps keep things balanced, now it’s kind of a scattered mix of people depending on the year,” she added.

Harada explained that coordinating the sale comes with a number of challenges: “It is a huge staffing commitment,” she said. “It’s not making any money for the school, (but) it’s providing alums a place to come back to. I think there’s a hard balance between what alumni think they should be getting and what’s actually possible.”

Up until two years ago, the RISD Alumni Association organized a winter holiday sale to complement RISD Craft, which was held in the Convention Center to make room for vendors from the greater community to sell their artwork.

But RISD has since decided to host only fall and spring craft sales. Ford said she missed the winter fair and hopes to see it return.

Still, the participants remain enthusiastic: “I love seeing people that I went to school with and other alumni that I know through being an artist,” said Ashley Schwebel, an alumni artist who has participated in the sale for the past five years.

ANNIE GE / HERALD

RISD Craft, an annual juried art sale, featured works from student artists and alums this past weekend.

Students expressed concerns about the meal plan accommodation process at the Undergraduate Council of Students general body meeting.

UCS FROM PAGE 1 process and whether the offices involved have adequate expertise to decide on cases outside their typical purviews, with several wearing yellow to indicate their support for students they allege were not granted appropriate accommodations.

Many students tied their questions to how the committee considers eating disorders.

“Because eating disorders are classified as a disability under the (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990), why isn’t this process of getting an accommodation handled directly by SEAS, as that’s what it was created to do?” a student asked at the meeting.

“Dining knows our services best (and) knows what we can make available to

somebody,” Curran said in response.

Tracy Bergeron, a nutrition and eating disorder expert, was consulted on certain cases that the committee handled, Curran added. Bergeron did not sit on the committee because she does not work over the summer, which is when the committee primarily handled accommodations requests.

In addition, if students wanted to register their needs with SEAS, “they absolutely had that option,” Britto said.

BDS and SEAS take on a “collaborative approach” to determine appropriate accommodations for students who approach SEAS instead of BDS, she added.

The accommodations process outlined by BDS on their website does not mention that students with eating disor-

ders could have approached SEAS instead of BDS — a concern brought up by UCS Chair of Student Wellness Shivani Nishar ’20 at the meeting.

In response to criticism of the accommodation process, Curran defended how the University handles meal plan related requests.

“There is maybe a misunderstanding that not all individuals were getting accommodations,” Curran said. All students who made requests received “some level of accommodation or an opportunity to access resources. … At no point were people, at least from what we felt, left high and dry.”

Nishar said that student frustration stems from “students whose health (is) impacted, who are feeling as though their

mental health and their wellness is in jeopardy and in danger because of the results of this accommodations process.”

UCS Chief of Staff Melissa Lee ’20 asked why the sophomore meal plan requirement had to be implemented over the summer.

“We all agree that the timing was not the best,” said Director of Dining Programs George Barboza. “I don’t think if ever there was a mandate again it would happen in the same way.”

Curran also presented on recent updates in dining services, including making the nutritional facts and ingredients of meals available online for all dining halls and working with student groups to improve the halal and kosher meal plan options.

LEON JIANG / HERALD

Director of Dining Services Human Resources Sheila Coleman also discussed student employment, noting that BuDS is still hiring new student employees.

Student coalition Save BuDS has recently raised concerns about the status of student employees, The Herald previously reported.

Also at the meeting, Chief of Staff to the Provost Marisa Quinn presented on the expanded on-call shuttle route, which now encompasses East Side Marketplace, Walmart and Savers, and a new student discount available for Peapod, a grocery delivery service.

At the start of the meeting, the Council elected Mukul Khanna ’23 as an Undergraduate Finance Board at-large representative.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

3

ARTS & CULTURE

IFF spotlights survivors of USA Gymnastics scandal in documentary screening IFF-hosted screening, panel raises awareness on sexual abuse in competitive sports

BY NAYA LEE CHANG CONTRIBUTING WRITER or decades, young gymnasts sought treatment and support from former sports doctor Larry Nassar. But after years of allegations and lawsuits, Nassar was convicted of child pornography charges and multiple sex crimes against athletes under his care.

On Tuesday night, Ivy Film Festival hosted a screening of HBO’s “At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal,” released in April, which

film brings a lot of (questions) to mind.”

During the panel, Ungerleider and Ulich discussed how the project aims to educate and raise awareness about sexual abuse in youth sports. “Through this film, we can do our small part in increasing awareness,” Ungerleider said, adding that they plan to continue touring the film to further this outreach.

The documentary culminates in Nassar’s trial, during which over 150 women delivered emotional and pointed statements to a packed courtroom.

The film makes a point to focus on the survivors rather than their abuser, Ungerleider said. “We wanted to keep the film full of hope because gymnastics is such a beautiful sport,” he added.

Smith, who previously trained as a dancer and sought medical treatment from Nassar, was one of the 12 survi-

examines the environment that allowed these actions to go unpunished for so many years while also sharing the stories of survivors.

A panel featuring the film’s producers Steven Ungerleider and David Ulich, activist and survivor Jessica Ann Smith and Visiting Assistant Professor of Education Hillary Levey Friedman followed the screening.

The documentary begins with footage of various gymnasts performing impressive flips and tricks, accompanied by voice-over statements describing the grueling nature of competitive gymnastics. The rigorous culture depicted in the film’s opening has led many young athletes to turn to figures like Nassar, who previously worked at Michigan State University and as a USA Gymnastics team doctor, as a source of support.

Throughout the film, featured survivors explain how they were compelled to view the always-smiling Nassar favorably in such an environment.

The documentary emphasizes the failure of individuals and institutions to protect young women and girls from Nassar, who touched patients inappropriately under the guise of treatment.

“So many cases were reported before anything was done or anyone was really listened to,” said Grace Attanasio ’21, a director of Ivy Film Festival. “We’re taught to trust the system … and this

vors featured in the film and one of the hundreds who delivered courtroom statements. “My first intention was to read it to (Judge Rosemarie Aquilina); my second intention was to read it to (Nassar),” she said during the panel.

“And I realized that the person who really needed to hear it most was myself, and the feeling of standing there … was the start of something therapeutic.”

Smith described how she was initially nervous to see the documentary.

But she ultimately appreciated how it highlights the scope of abuse, while maintaining that the institutions surrounding gymnastics can move forward with increased transparency. The film “was therapeutic in itself,” she said.

“One of the most healing things you can have as a survivor is (the feeling that) there’s change happening,” Smith added.

Because of the documentary’s sensitive nature, Ivy Film Festival took care to ensure audience members felt safe before, during and after watching the film, Attanasio said. SHARE advocates were present at the event, and flyers listing campus resources were handed out at the door. “We shouldn’t shy away from giving (this documentary) its airtime and space, but because this is a difficult subject matter, we need to take care of our audience,” Attanasio said.

GRE FROM PAGE 1

undergraduate math courses.

However, the test doesn’t include “proof-based mathematics, which is a lot of what we do in the PhD program,” Baeza said.

The 27 departments that retained the subject-specific requirement “use these scores as diagnostic tools to aid student graduate training rather than use them as predictors of student success in graduate school,” Campbell wrote.

I was convinced that the GRE wasn’t a very good predictor of success in graduate school,” Goodwillie said.

Milen Ivanov GS and Luis Baeza GS, doctoral candidates in mathematics, agreed that the GRE does not correlate with their graduate course work. Ivanov said the exam was only useful for testing English ability and reviewing math content for grad students who teach

COURTESY OF KATRINA WARDHANA

Ivy Film Festival hosted a screening and panel for HBO’s “At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal” Tuesday night. Because of the film’s sensitive nature, SHARE advocates were present.

4

SURVEY FROM PAGE 1 undergraduate women are still really high, and that’s deeply distressing,” said Payton Gannon ’20, co-president of Brown’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. She added that she has noticed greater awareness on campus around the issue as a whole. The LGBTQ Center and Queer Alliance could not be reached for comment as of press time.

The percentage of students who reported an experience of non-consensual sexual contact increased with class year.

For instance, 14 percent of undergraduate women in their first year reported at least one incident of victimization, but the number increased steadily to 32.4 percent of women in their fourth year or higher.

The frequency of non-consensual sexual contact that students experienced since their arrival at Brown increased for three other demographics between 2015 and 2019: 8 percent to 9.5 percent among graduate women, 2.7 percent to 3.1 percent among graduate men and 6.8 percent to 8 percent among undergraduate men.

Non-heterosexual students also experienced non-consensual contact more frequently than heterosexual students: 23.8 percent compared to 11.1 percent, respectively, according to the data.

In the 2019 survey, over 75 percent of offenders were current Brown students in 2019, as compared to about 88 percent in 2015.

“We are in a really special moment, because we are able to look over a four year span, and look at our progress and talk about where we have opportunities to grow,” said Rene Davis, Title IX program officer.

Prevalence of sexual harassment Around 48 percent of students reported experiencing “at least one type of offensive or inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature,” since their arrival to

KASICH FROM PAGE 1 “The Parkland students changed everything,” Kasich said of the gun-control advocacy group Never Again MSD led by survivors of the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He credited the student-led group with improving gun control policy in the state of Florida. “They were marching, and they were not going to take no for an answer,” Kasich added.

Kasich also celebrated the work of Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old from Sweden who founded the Youth Strike for Climate movement and who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in March for her work on environmental justice.

“She started a global movement,” he said.

Kasich denounced those who have slung criticism and “viciously attacked” the likes of Thunberg and the Parkland Students for their activism.

During an audience question and answer, Kasich addressed the topic of impeachment.

“What the president did on that call was horrific,” Kasich said of Trump’s call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. “I don’t understand Republicans who are not even willing to say that what Trump did was wrong.”

Kasich affirmed that he wanted all the facts in front of him before commenting further on the topic of impeachment. “I want a full, complete, open inquiry,” he said.

Kasich remains optimistic about the future. “I believe that every single person is special,” he said. “We’ll join together and fix this country.”

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019

campus, according to the survey. TGQN students experienced harassment that affected their “academic or professional performance” at statistically significant higher rates than undergraduate women, with 47.5 percent reporting that they experienced an incident.

“There’s certain types of behaviors where different community members might be more vulnerable,” Davis said, “because our society hasn’t grappled with the fact that gender sits on a continuum, and for some people there is no continuum, there is no gender.”

The results also indicated a significant difference in the positions of perpetrators of sexual harassment, depending on whether the reporting student was a graduate or undergraduate. Among women who reported harassment, about one-third of those in graduate or professional school reported that faculty or an instructor was the offender, as opposed to only 5.3 percent for undergraduates.

University progress in tackling gender-based violence The survey results will allow the University to assess the effectiveness of recommendations made by its 2015 sexual assault task force for the first time.

The percentage of students who believe that it is “very or extremely likely” that campus officials would fairly investigate a report of non-consensual sexual contact almost doubled, jumping from about 25 percent to just under 50 percent from 2015 to 2019. Similarly, 66.4 percent of students believe that it is “very or extremely likely that campus officials would take a report seriously,” compared to 50.5 percent in 2015. Women were less likely than men to hold these beliefs.

Over 40 percent of students who reported an incident of non-consensual penetration contacted a University program or resource about their experience; 18.9 percent of students who

JACK WALKER / HERALD

reported sexual touching did so as well.

These numbers cannot be compared directly to results from the 2015 survey, due to a change in data collection.

“We’ve emphasized that reporting equals support,” Davis said. “Many students come forward not because they want to talk about the experience, but because they need an academic note, they need help in changing their housing and so (focusing) on outreach and support … has really enabled more students to come forward.”

To Davis, the support of the Office of Title IX and Gender Equity and the University has manifested in decisions such as expanding the Sexual Harassment & Assault Resources & Education program.

“Having the SHARE advocates has been a huge component to increasing the amount of reporting because students might talk with a confidential

resource first, understand the role of the Title IX office, and then I will often have individuals come with a SHARE advocate to make a report to my office,” she said. “Bolstering our confidential spaces and how they can connect students to resources is really important.”

Students also indicated increased knowledge of the resources available to them to help with issues related to sexual misconduct. About 30 percent of students are “very or extremely knowledgeable about where to make a report,” a 10 percent increase since 2015.

But even as knowledge of some resources and policies have grown, Gannon noted that only 16.7 percent of students are “very or extremely knowledgeable about what happens after an incident is reported.”

“The ACLU is trying to do some work around that this semester, in clarifying and publicizing the processes of the

Title IX office,” she said. “But I found that pretty disheartening.”

Going forward, Davis hopes to use the results from the 2019 survey to further refine the University’s work with sexual assault prevention and education. She also intends to share the results with community members through public presentations, which will occur next Monday and Wednesday.

Next, Davis will sit down with various student organizations, such as the Undergraduate Council of Students, the Graduate Student Council and Brown ACLU, as well as campus identity centers like the LGBTQ+ Center, to identify areas for improvement. Her office also plans to create a working group to further analyze the data and identify changes that the University can make.

Davis hopes to publicize the working group’s recommendations from studying the survey results by next spring.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | TODAY

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#BrownTweetUp 10:00 A.M. Center for Information Technology

“National Pasta Day” Community Buffet Luncheon 11:30 A.M. Faculty Club

Brown Bag Concert 12:00 P.M. Sayles Hall

Coco Fusco: In Conversation 5:30 P.M. Granoff Center for the Creative Arts

TOMORROW Family Weekend Welcome 12:00 P.M. Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center

Family Weekend Open House 2:00 P.M. Page-Robinson Hall

“Exploration” SciArt Exhibit Opening 3:00 P.M. Sciences Library

Family Weekend Dance Concert 8:00 P.M. Ashamu Dance Studio

Q U OTE OF TH E DAY

“We emphasize that reporting equals support.”

—Rene Davis, program officer for Title IX

SEE SURVEY PAGE 4

P L AN T CI T Y CR O S SWO R D

REBECCA HO / HERALD

College Hill is home to a wide variety of plants, including the one pictured above. Students should enjoy the abundance of plant life before winter weather kicks in.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019

Why I comment on Dear Blueno posts

Recently, there has been much discourse on Dear Blueno, a public Facebook page that pub-

ther a variety of perspectives or corroboration of a single answer. I tended to ignore the bait posts — those designed just to get a rise out of others — and focused my attention on the genuine inquiries of my peers.

I have learned an enormous amount by reading Dear Blueno posts and, after being at

lishes anonymous posts submitted by members of the Brown student body, about the role that frequent commenters play in the online forum.

Many of the posts have been negative, contending that frequent commenters take up too much space without making space for others to contribute. Some even say frequent commenters are entitled and should stop commenting so often. As a frequent commenter myself, these posts have made me think more deeply about why I choose to add my voice to the many others that populate Dear Blueno’s comments section.

When I encountered Dear Blueno my first year on campus, I saw it as a community where Brown students could consult their peers for advice of any kind. Questions individuals might otherwise be too embarrassed to ask could be answered candidly without the awkwardness of a non-anonymous social interaction. What’s more, those questions could be answered by multiple people, giving the original poster ei-

Brown for about a year, came to see the comments section as a way to give back to a community that had helped me navigate my transition into Brown and collegiate life as a whole.

Whenever I felt I had relevant experience, I started putting in my two cents. From my perspective, if even one person found a single one of my comments helpful, then the few minutes I took out of my day to link a resource or give my opinion would be worth it.

As I’ve continued to have new experiences — taking difficult classes; struggling academically; dealing with relationships, friendships, imposter syndrome and more — I’ve given advice to my peers who describe similar situations through Dear Blueno. I imagine being the student who cannot decide between APMA 1650: “Statistical Inference I” and the more advanced APMA 1655: “Statistical Inference I,” the one who doesn’t know how to ask a professor for an extension or who is struggling to find their place on this campus. I try to be the helping

EMILIA RUZICKA ’21 OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

hand that I looked for when I dealt with the very same issues. I am by no means the definitive authority on any of these topics, but my hope is to, at the very least, provide a sense of validation for those struggling so they know they’re not alone.

“For me, Dear Blueno isn’t just a silly public forum named after a beloved blue bear.”

At the end of nearly every one of my comments, I write something along the lines of, “Feel free to message me if you want to talk about this more!” More and more often, my peers actually take me up on my offer to chat about their situation, even if they were not the original poster. I’ve both made friends and fielded criticism by answering messages that I receive, and I’m grateful for all of it. I know that

commenting on a post on Facebook does not make me infallible and I much prefer to be corrected than to continue disseminating incorrect information.

In the end, any hatred I receive for being a frequent commenter on Dear Blueno will not stop me from doing what I can to pay forward the help I’ve received from the online community. As long as there is someone out there who genuinely wants their questions answered, I will be around, doing my best to support them in whatever way I can. For me, Dear Blueno isn’t just a silly public forum named after a beloved blue bear. It’s a way to start conversations that some may be too afraid or nervous to have outside of the veil of anonymity. Of course, I am but one person and cannot speak for anyone beyond myself, but I know that as much as Dear Blueno commenters were always there for me when I submitted my burning questions, I will always be there for those who choose to inquire.

Emilia Ruzicka ’21 wants you to know you can always message her if you want to chat at emilia_ruzicka@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

Want daily headlines or weekly Brown Bites in your inbox? linktr.ee/browndailyherald

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

7

Administration should reverse ban of drug checking program LAUREL MCINTYRE’22 AND NOAH MLYN ’20 OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS

For years, Brown University Students for Sensible Drug Policy was known on campus primarily for its free and discreet drug checking program.

This program allowed Brown students who decided to use recreational drugs to contact an SSDP member, who would use a drug checking kit to evaluate the contents of the substances.

It was grounded in principles of harm reduction, and reflected SSDP’s belief that the job of the Brown community is to prioritize the safety and well-being of all students, including those who will inevitably use drugs. Over the years, we would guess that hundreds, if not thousands, of Brown students have taken advantage of the opportunity to be better informed about the substances they were using. This all came to an end when, two days before Spring Weekend in April 2019, the Student Activities Office abruptly shut down the program.

We at SSDP believe that the University was wrong to disband the drug checking program.

Far from discouraging students from using drugs, this decision endangers those who will inevitably use them. The University has proven unwilling to find solutions that will keep Brown students informed about the contents of their substances, and its reasons for disbanding the program are misguided. We therefore implore the University to reconsider its ban of SSDP’s drug checking program.

Drug checking is essential to reducing the risk to which Brown students who consume recreational drugs are subject. Our program provided students access to drug checking kits, which were purchased with funds allocated by the Undergraduate Finance Board. These kits contained reagents that test the chemical makeup of many legal and illegal substances. It is essential for drug users to use these kits because recreational drugs are often mixed with adulterants. Many of these adulterants have dangerous effects, including an increased risk of overdose. Using a drug without knowing its contents or potency is like drinking alcohol without knowing whether it is beer, vodka or rubbing alcohol —the consequences of lacking this information are likely to be severe.

Although our kits did not provide a perfectly

accurate reading of a substance’s contents, any kind of drug checking is still drastically better than complete guesswork. The extremely powerful opioid fentanyl was found in 7 percent of the cocaine seized in New England in 2017, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.. Because a lethal dose of fentanyl is only about three milligrams, drug users are significantly more likely to overdose if they do not know that their drug is contaminated with fentanyl. Meanwhile, one study found that of the over 1,000 tablets collected in the United States between 1999 and 2005 which users thought were MDMA (or “Molly,” as it is often called), 46 percent contained no MDMA at all, and another 15 percent contained a blend of MDMA and an-

SSDP made. We fully acknowledge these mistakes. For example, our advertisement for the program last year read “Make sure your drugs are safe.” The kits we used were not perfectly accurate, and even if they were, it was our mistake to imply that drug use can ever be considered risk-free. SAO also expressed concern that, in providing in-person assistance to people using the kits, SSDP members could be considered to be in possession of illegal substances. After hearing SAO’s concerns, we readily acknowledged the flaws in the program and provided a lengthy proposal which we believe remedied these issues and redesigned the program. We proposed that SSDP members would not actually handle drugs; they instead would observe

“Banning a program that addresses the existence of drug use is an exercise in denial, and one that could come with serious harm to students.”

other psychoactive substance. That is why technologies such as fentanyl test strips and drug checking kits are so important — and why their use was explicitly legalized by the Rhode Island State Legislature in 2018.

Although it may be true that people can best ensure their safety by abstaining from drug use altogether, to expect every college student to do so is unrealistic. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, data from 2011 to 2014 showed that 22.2 percent of full-time college students in the United States had used an illicit drug in the month before the survey was conducted. This makes it clear that college students are using drugs in extremely high proportions. Harm reduction programs recognize this fact and seek to reduce the risks associated with the inevitable student drug use.

When opting to disband the program, SAO gave us fair criticism of some mistakes that

as students checked their own substances with proper kits we would provide. And we proposed re-wording our advertisements to make clear that we could not guarantee the complete accuracy of our kits.

But some of SAO’s criticism was misguided.

SAO also worried that students who are on the fence about doing drugs might be encouraged to do so when our drug checking kits found their substance to be free of adulterants. But this worry shows that SAO misunderstands the point of harm reduction — their attitude mirrors national arguments used to defend criminalization and oppose the establishment of harm-reduction programs for fear that they will encourage illicit behavior. Brown students have been taking drugs long before the existence of SSDP, and they will continue to do so long after it is gone. Instead of encouraging students to use drugs, SSDP’s program actually served as a reminder to students of the very real risks as-

sociated with drug use. In fact, it is likely that the program actually decreased drug use on campus, such as in cases when students learned that their drugs were contaminated and therefore decided to abstain.

Despite our attempts to work together with SAO to come up with a solution, SAO ignored our proposal for months after the initial halt to the program. Finally, a meeting was held — without any SSDP representation — between SAO, the Office of General Council, Environmental Health and Safety and the Department of Public Safety. Afterwards, SSDP leadership was informed that the program had been definitively and permanently banned for violating the Student Code of Conduct by aiding in the use of illegal drugs.

It is a deeply problematic decision for the University to shut down this harm reduction program. For one thing, it is inconsistent with the University’s recognition of the value of harm reduction in other contexts. For example, the alcohol orientation for incoming first-year students rightly acknowledges the fact that many Brown students will drink before they are 21, and it actually provides advice for these students on how to do so responsibly. On the academic front, the School of Public Health is home to national leaders in harm reduction research, such as Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine Geoffrey Capraro, who invented the NaloxBox, a technology designed to increase access to the overdose reversal drug Naloxone. Clearly researchers at Brown understand the importance of harm reduction, so why doesn’t the administration?

Banning a program that addresses the existence of drug use is an exercise in denial, and one that could come with serious harm to students.

Laurel McIntyre ’22 and Noah Mlyn ’20 can be reached at laurel_mcintyre@brown.edu and noah_mlyn@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

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8

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Watson Institute expands size, scope of Student Advisory Committee Reforms intend to increase student involvement, Institute’s campus presence

BY MICHAEL SEOANE CONTRIBUTING WRITER The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs has expanded the size and scope of its Student Advisory Committee, which will organize events, provide student input on changes at the Watson Institute and build the Institute’s presence on campus.

This semester’s expansion “is part of the natural evolution of the Institute to be more integrated with campus and student life at Brown,” said Director of the Watson Institute Edward Steinfeld P’20. “We want students to feel that they can physically spend their time here, with the new building, and that they have a voice. … We want student input to decide what speakers to bring in, but also to develop some new activities, including career advice.”

With the expansion from seven members last year to 24 this year, the committee is now more representative of students across different class years and concentrations, said Kathryn Dunkelman, director of communications and outreach at the Watson Institute.

“The breakdown is pretty even across all four years, with concentrators and non-concentrators, which is excellent.”

In addition to its event-planning role, the committee is structured to

HUAYU OUYANG / HERALD

The Watson Institute expanded the Student Advisory Committee, which now has 24 students compared to seven last year. involve students in decision-making that students are actually interested at the Watson Institute. “Now that in and will go to,” she said. students have a voice through this The committee’s first meeting last committee, they can be more actively Thursday “was laying the groundwork involved in life here, not just an au- for the near future,” said committee dience,” Steinfeld said. “Our expecta- member Alexandra Martinez ’22. “There tion is that the life of the Watson will is still a lot of flexibility” in what the increasingly meet the expectations of committee will do. the student body.”

To solicit applications for memberShantal Hernandez ’23, a member of ship, “forms were put out campus-wide, the committee, agreed that it will give open to any student who had an interstudents a greater voice in the Watson est” in joining the committee, DunInstitute. “Our role is to let directors kelman said. “The review process was know what we want from the Institute conducted by our Diversity and Incluand help decide future changes,” she sion Committee, which went through said. “The goal is to get as much student all the applications.” input as possible so that professors can Though the committee is only in its learn from our opinion regarding the af- second year, Associate Director of the fairs that are going on in the Institute.” Watson Institute Steven Bloomfield Hernandez also hopes that the said he hopes the group will continue committee will be able to engage more to operate in the long term. “I would be students in activities at the Watson disappointed if, say 20 years from now, Institute. “We want to create events a similar organization didn’t exist.”

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019