Tuesday, November 28, 2017

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 113

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

HOPE membership, influence grows in Rhode Island Housing Opporunities for People Everywhere redesigns, distributes survey to homeless

By ANNA KRAMER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Loud conversation and the smell of meatloaf baking filled the entryway of All Saints Memorial Church in downtown Providence Nov. 14. At the church every Tuesday, the hungry and homeless can find a free and freshly cooked dinner provided by nonprofit City Meal Site. On that Tuesday night, the short, graying and flannel-clad Reverend Maryalice Sullivan greeted homeless and formerly homeless individuals. On their way out, the constituents were stopped by a few University students, who asked to discuss political advocacy for the homeless.

These students — members of the advocacy and outreach group Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere — were conducting the 2017 Government Relations Survey, which is used to determine high-priority legislative goals for homeless individuals. The GR survey has been used in past years to gather data for nonprofit groups that lobby for legislative action in the Rhode Island State

House, said Gabriel Zimmerman ’18, co-director of HOPE. The survey was formerly administered by the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, but reduced funding limited RICH’s capacity to conduct the survey this year, he added. As a result, HOPE volunteered to redesign and conduct the GR survey in order to ensure its continued existence.

Redesigned survey tries to ask the right questions “We’ve decided there are some changes we wanted to make to” the GR survey, Zimmerman said.

In redesigning the survey, the group changed the types of questions presented, said Morgan Talbot ’18, advocacy director for HOPE. Surveys in previous years have asked participants to identify the largest and most pressing issues facing homeless individuals, according to the 2016 survey. Access to affordable housing was the most pressing issue for almost half of those surveyed in 2016.

That pattern repeated itself in previous years, Talbot said, adding that it made the survey increasingly less useful in providing new information.

“Part of the criticism of the survey in the past was that we tend to get some of the same responses every year,” he said.

“This year, we’re focusing much

COURTESY OF HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE EVERYWHERE

Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, an advocacy and outreach group, redesigned the Government Relations Survey to focus on more concrete legislative actions to help homeless individuals. more on concrete legislative actions that have been discussed previously by advocacy groups,” Talbot added.

At All Saints Church Nov. 14, Talbot asked homeless individuals to choose three out of 10 possible legislative actions and prioritize them. Proposals on the list included making “it illegal for landlords to

Exhibit reflects historical, industrial themes Artists Melvin Edwards, Tony Ramos engage in conversation about Edwards’ work, influences

By ELISE RYAN

INSIDE

By JACK BROOK CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ELISE RYAN / HERALD

This stark sculpture, a part of Melvin Edward’s exhibition “Festivals, Funerals and New Life,” evokes the exhibit’s bleak, industrial aesthetic.

Zimmerman and other HOPE volunteers had collected roughly 20 surveys.

HOPE has made several other changes to the survey collection method this year. For example, the group now conducts data collection in Spanish, as well as other languages » See HOPE, page 4

Neuroscience TAs face unclear expectations with hourly based pay Undergraduate teaching assistants cite confusing expectations with cap for billable hours

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Students, faculty and community members were treated to a conversation Nov. 14 between artists Melvin Edwards and Tony Ramos to mark the opening of Edwards’ exhibition, “Festivals, Funerals and New Life,” at the List Art Center’s David Winton Bell Gallery.

Edwards is a renowned contemporary sculpture artist with a career spanning five decades. He first showed in a solo exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1965. In 1970, he was the first black sculptor to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York.

While first trained as a painter, Edwards was taught the basics of welding by graduate students near the end of his formal education, which changed the direction of his artistic endeavors.

“Evolution had taken place and more » See SCULPTURE, page 2

deny housing to someone based on source of income or having a Housing Choice (Section 8) Voucher” and funding “free child care for homeless families with children.” Other survey questions asked for ideas and opportunities not listed, as well as basic demographic information.

By the end of the night, Talbot,

Undergraduate teaching assistants in the neuroscience department are not allowed to work more than 84 hours during the semester, which averages to six hours per week. But in order to complete the job’s expectations, neuroscience UTAs are working more than the average hourly cap, five neuroscience UTAs told The Herald. On Nov. 14, Michael Paradiso, professor of ophthalmology and visual science and one of the professors for NEUR 0010: “The Brain: An Introduction to Neuroscience,” informed the class’ UTAs that some of them had already hit the 84 hour limit and instructed those UTAs to stop billing hours, according to multiple UTAs. Paradiso declined to comment on whether these students were expected

to continue working for the class despite hitting their maximum billed hours.

According to David Berson, chair of the neuroscience department, professor of ophthalmology and visual science and professor of medical science, UTAs cannot be required to work more than the 84 hour cap. “TAs who have already reached their semester cap can’t bill any more hours and can’t continue to work as TAs,” Berson wrote in an email to The Herald. “The department certainly does not expect TAs to put in a month of unpaid work.”

The neuroscience department receives its funding from the University’s Division of Biology and Medicine.

While the department declined to release its total budget, Berson wrote in his email that the department allotted $20,319 last years for its 22 TAs, who earn between $10 and $12 an hour.

University policy and federal law mandate that UTAs are paid hourly for their work, regardless of whether it exceeds any cap created by a department. In June 2011, the Office of the » See TA, page 2

WEATHER

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017

ARTS & CULTURE Month-long exhibition highlights triumphs of eight women despite gender-based violence

ARTS & CULTURE StorySlam features true stories of seven students, attracts over 100 audience members

COMMENTARY Maier-Katkin ’18: Selling WBRU’s FM license, restructuring organization not easy way out

COMMENTARY Thomas ’21: Americans must understand perspectives of veterans to express gratitude

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TODAY

TOMORROW

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NEWS

PAGE 2 • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017

» SCULPTURE, from page 1 took place through the years,” Edwards said. In 1963, Edwards created “Some Bright Morning,” the first sculpture in his ongoing and well-known “Lynch Fragment” series. “Some Bright Morning” was “really the first body of work that I thought was mine, independent of the influence of anybody else that I had learned from,” Edwards said.

Throughout his work, Edwards has been committed to the themes of African diaspora and black nationalism, as well as industrialization and exploited

» TA, from page 1 Provost sent out a memo to the faculty reminding them that any duties students performed for a department were subject to compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the U.S. Department of Labor, according to the memo. Undergraduate student workers are legally considered non-exempt and must be paid an hourly rate.

The Brown student employer handbook currently stipulates that “students must be paid for actual hours worked each pay period including overtime when applicable.”

The experience of a NEUR 0010 UTA “It’s almost impossible to fit in your hours and be an effective TA with the cap that the department is putting on,” said Risako Kimura ’18, an undergraduate TA for NEUR 0010.

When Kimura worked for the first time as a UTA for NEUR 0010 last fall, she received an email from the department’s financial coordinator explaining that she had submitted over 68 hours as of Nov. 12. She was told that she couldn’t bill more than 16 hours total through Dec. 17.

The official TA obligations for each week — two hours and 40 minutes attending lectures, a 30-minute TA meeting and two one-hour sections — already put Kimura over five hours per week. But she consistently needed to work around 10 hours a week: primarily preparing slides and presentations for section while also meeting with students and responding to their questions via Piazza and emails, she said.

After receiving the department’s email last November, “I put a fake hour amount in for the remaining weeks,” Kimura said. “Even though I was working more than I was recording.”

Though this semester Kimura has learned to be more efficient — especially because she can reuse her slides from last year — she acknowledges that most of her co-UTAs, the majority of whom have not TA’d for the class before, do not have that option.

“It’s admirable that students are enthusiastic and feel so strongly about performing this work, but there do have to be caps for budgetary and academic reasons,” said Chief of Staff to the Provost Marisa Quinn. “Part of the cap — it’s not just budgetary — it’s about making sure the student who may be very enthusiastic about this work (is) not overburdening themselves.

But the majority of NEUR 0010 UTAs interviewed said that in order to do their job to the best of their abilities, they felt responsibility to take on additional work and needed to spend more than the allotted time to prepare for section.

labor. Much of the exhibition, made from sharp and industrial materials such as barbed wire, chains and pieces of steel, seems to hold tension and frustration. Even absent of titles and the stories behind the pieces’ inspiration, the historical undertones are obvious.

“The work doesn’t shy away from … the ugliness of some of the ways in which we’ve structured our society,” said Ian Russell, curator of the exhibition at the Bell Gallery.

Tony Ramos, an artist and filmmaker from East Providence, was chosen to moderate Edwards’ talk because they

Lack of communication fosters uncertainty Berson said that since he took over as department chair in January, he has not heard of TA compensation concerns. UTAs are responsible for managing their own hours under the cap they are given, he said “We think the hours specified are reasonable,” said John Stein, senior lecturer in neuroscience and a professor for NEUR 0010.

UTAs can use their time in lectures to review material and update their slides, he said. According to Stein, UTAs for his class might be taking on extra work they are not formally required to do, and which the departmental budget can’t afford to compensate for, such as holding office hours for students or responding to questions through emails.

“We tell them that they shouldn’t be meeting with students, that they should be careful of their time,” Stein said.

Instead, Stein said that he asks UTAs to post student questions sent via email to Piazza or else forward them directly to him. Rather than having to individually meet with students, he asks UTAs to direct these students to come to his office hours.

All five of the NEUR 0010 UTAs interviewed said that they are often unable to complete their slides during lectures and frequently need to spend at least one to two hours outside of class to prepare for their sections.

Berson said that the department makes clear to UTAs that they “can’t continue to work as UTAs” if they have already reached their semester cap.

But communication between the department and the UTAs about the logistics of the hourly cap was poor, according to multiple UTAs. “They didn’t tell me anything about the pay or the cap of hours before I committed,” said one NEUR 0010 UTA, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of professional repercussions. Two other NEUR 0010 UTAs also said they did not know the exact cap or hourly pay before they committed.

Rather, UTAs for NEUR 0010 received emails in early September from the department’s financial coordinator — after the start of the semester — explaining that “this position carries a maximum of 84 hours for the semester.”

“They did not tell us we should not respond to emails or meet with them,” said the second NEUR 0010 UTA, who also wished to remain anonymous for fear of professional repercussions. “It’s the culture of the class for us to do it.

The professors haven’t said we are not supposed to do that. I get … dozens of emails in the week before each exam

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD “have been friends and comrades in the arts for over four decades,” Russell said. Ramos and Edwards were both influenced by political movements in Africa in the 1970s. Ramos is “very attuned to storytelling and how one presents or interrogates historical or contemporary narrative,” Russell said.

“He knows how to help elicit a strong thread within conversation and dialogue.”

The title of the exhibition, “Festivals, Funerals and New Life,” is an extension of the title of a book of poetry by Jayne Cortez, Edwards’s late

wife. “He’s very much gesturing to her presence and their collaborative relationship,” Russell said. Before her passing in 2012, Cortez’s last public appearance was at Brown as a participant in the 2011 Chinua Achebe Colloquium on Africa.

Following the talk, audience members were welcomed into the gallery space. In one corner, barbed wire hung in long dramatic loops from the ceiling, the loops thinning as they moved out from the corner. The piece is named for a line of poetry by Cortez: “Look through minds mirror distance and

measure time.”

This combination speaks to another of Edwards’s primary focuses: language.

Ramos described Edwards’s work as its own language. “Serious artists create their own language. You are having these experiences and each experience adds to the vocabulary,” he said.

The film “Some Bright Morning: The Art of Melvin Edwards” will be shown in the List Art Center Auditorium Dec. 5, followed by a conversation with the film’s director, Lydie Diakhaté.

“Festivals, Funerals and New Life” will show until Feb. 11 in the Bell Gallery.

— am I really supposed to refer all of those to the professors?”

In addition, several of the NEUR 0010 UTAs said they were not told what would happen if they went over the 84-hour cap.

“We were told to think of it as a stipend, which seems to be implying we will be working more than 84 hours. … ‘Just don’t bill more than 84 hours’ is the only message we got from them,” said the second anonymous NEUR 0010 UTA. Marilyn Bravo ’18, a NEUR 0010 UTA, said she was also told to think of the cap as a “stipend.”

All the neuroscience UTAs interviewed — along with the department chair and NEUR 0010 professors — explained that they believed a stipend system would be better for everyone.

“A stipend system would be more up front and fairer, because when you have to log things by the hour it feels like you should be able to charge,” said the first anonymous NEUR 0010 UTAs. They are also unable to offer a stipend in place of hourly compensation due to University policy. “The system of compensation might be simpler and clearer to the UTAs if a stipend system was used instead of hourly pay, but the hourly system was mandated by the University years ago,” Berson said.

But the lack of full compensation for all the hours worked could be a deterrent for students with heightened financial burdens.

Being a neuroscience UTA “is not a viable option if you need to do work study,” the third anonymous NEUR 0010 TA said.

While almost all NEUR 0010 UTAs expressed frustration with the departmental policy and wished for more transparency and an expanded cap, they acknowledged that their professors were forced to work within the confines of department and University policy.

“I think this is on the University and the TA culture as a whole,” said the first anonymous NEUR 0010 TA. “The university says being a TA looks good on your resume — ergo ‘You should be grateful that we are paying you at all.’ But that doesn’t mean (UTAs) are not putting in real work.”

and while the University contributes “a couple hundred thousand,” most of the money comes from a departmental endowment fund that has over $8 million pledged to it, he said.

In the CS department’s four introductory courses, UTAs are mandated to receive academic credit as compensation for attending lectures and holding office hours each week.

They are also paid hourly for their work related to grading assignments, Doeppner said.

He added that students identified by the University as low-income have the opportunity to drop the academic credit mandate and bill for attending class and holding office hours.

The neuroscience department does not offer the option of academic credit for UTAs. Stein said that the neuroscience UTA responsibilities were “not rigorous enough” to be set up as academic credit.

Hourly caps stir inner and crossdepartmental disputes Other departments, such as economics and computer science, do not allow limits to be imposed on UTA hours. But an hourly cap is not unique to the neuroscience department.

Sheila Quigley, academic department manager for the chemistry department, said that the chemistry department does not have an hourly cap policy for its 66 UTAs. However, UTAs for CHEM 0360: “Organic Chemistry” are subject to a five-hour cap, wrote Professor of Chemistry Matthew Zimmt, who teaches the course, in an email to The Herald.

UTAs from CHEM 0360 disagreed on whether the cap was consistent with the amount of time they needed to spend for their position. One UTA, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of professional repercussions, told The Herald they consistently worked more than five hours a week to meet the minimum requirements of their job. However, two other UTAs in the class, who wished to remain anonymous for the same reasons, said any additional time spent — like meeting outside of class with students — comes from their personal choice.

“An hourly cap is morally and legally wrong,” said Vice Chair and Associate Professor of Computer Science Tom Doeppner, who oversees the undergraduate UTA program for the CS department. “We have goals for budget purposes, but students have to be paid for the hours they work. It is also illegal for students to volunteer their time.”

Doeppner said that the CS department — which has over 270 UTAs — pays each student for all the hours that they bill. The department allots approximately $800,000 for its UTAs,

University responds to neuroscience UTAs’ concerns Mandel affirmed the need to pay students for every hour they work, but also stressed the need for better communication between the departments, faculty and their UTAs. She encouraged students who have worked more hours than they have been paid for to approach the department manager or chair with their concerns. She was uncertain about whether students, like Kimura, who had worked more than their billed hours could be retroactively compensated.

For this academic term, “if students have worked over 84 hours, the University will ensure that they get paid, but students need to come forward and report their hours,” Mandel said.

“They can’t get paid if they don’t come forward.”

She added that the department — while obligated to pay students for their work — can tell students not to work anymore if they have fulfilled the hour cap obligations in their contract.

“It’s also the department’s right and responsibility to specify the expectation for the number of hours the work should take,” Mandel said.

But the second anonymous NEUR 0010 TA was not willing to approach the department.

“We were told we have this cap by an administrator in the department and, personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable approaching a professor and refuting it,” they said.

“I think the bare minimum work is what we get paid for, but obviously that’s not the only reason we do the job,” said the first anonymous NEUR 0010 TA. “Only working six hours a week is not being a good TA, it means presenting the material at its barest level and not making any extra effort to make class easier for students.”

An educational experience vs. a paid position “When considering the issue of TA paid compensation, it is worth remembering that the benefits of the undergrad TA program extend beyond the monetary,” Berson said. “We view these UTAships as an integral part of the professional growth of the undergraduates who participate, complementary to their academics and research work in the department.”

“You always learn from teaching, but people should be paid for the work they do,” said Dean of the College Maud Mandel. “These are separate points for undergraduate cases.”

Unlike undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows can receive stipends because they are being explicitly trained as educators, and working as a TA is part of their educational experience, Mandel said.

While every student interviewed said their primary motivation for working as a neuroscience UTA was not monetary, the majority explained that they still felt they deserved to receive full monetary compensation for their time on the job.

“Those other benefits are some of the reasons we become UTAs,” the second anonymous NEUR 0010 TA said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we should be paid for all the hours that we work.”

NEWS

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Exhibit tells stories of gender-based violence, personal triumphs

GUS REED / HERALD

Ann Weiner’s exhibition, “When Caged Birds Sing,” features the sculptures pictured above. The exhibit, which details the experiences of famous women who suffered abuse, opened Thursday and will remain open for a month in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts’ Cohen Gallery.

Themes in artist Ann Weiner’s ‘When Caged Birds Sing’ include child marriage, sex trafficking

By BONNEE NIE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In Ann Weiner’s creations, personal experiences become shared battles, stories are told in a way words cannot match and generations of women see a part of themselves in the fine details.

On Thursday, at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts’ Cohen Gallery showcased these creations with the opening of its month-long

exhibition, Weiner’s “When Caged Birds Sing.” The installation focuses on telling eight women’s personal stories regarding gender-based violence and their triumphs despite adversity.

Weiner said she was inspired by the influence that Judy Chicago’s famous exhibition, “The Dinner Party,” had on the writings of feminist author Sue Monk Kidd. “That connection of one artist to the next, honoring women who may not have gotten into the spotlight … triggered me to want to do that for living women who suffered abuse because of their gender and went on to do significant work,” Weiner added.

The artwork itself is presented as eight individual sculptures, partitioned

by walls bearing each woman’s name and her story. Every sculpture incorporates the image of a woman or the female figure, with materials such as weaponry, caging, wires and netting representing her suffering and metaphorical bondage. Each piece presents a certain grotesqueness that is telling of the urgency of the situations these women faced.

Honor violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation and sex trafficking all play roles in Weiner’s exhibition. The installation also goes into concise detail about the experiences of famous women such as Laverne Cox, American actress and trans rights activist; Maria de Penha,

Brazilian domestic violence survivor and advocate; Grace Akallo, a Ugandan escapee of the Lord’s Resistance Army; and Malala Yousafzai, an equal education champion from Pakistan.

In her artwork, Weiner attentively adds attributes significant to each woman’s story — toy dolls for Cox, a wedding dress for de Penha, a rifle for Akallo and a red flag for Yousafzai.

“I tell the stories of these incredible women in the hope that their voices will be heard, their suffering will be seen and that more of the world will rise up to prevent the abuses they have endured, which are still inflicted on their mothers, sisters and daughters,” Weiner wrote

on her website.

Weiner said she hopes “(her) work will be … seen by many of the millennia, that the young people will listen to these stories and be moved to do something significant to help women globally and will develop compassion and caring and action.”

This sentiment clearly resonated with the audience. One attendee at the opening, Nancy Moore Hulnick, commented that she felt the exhibit helped to “shape … and magnify (her own) voice.”

Weiner “picked survivors of abuse, and yet we are all, as women, resonating with this in our own way, big and small,” Moore Hulnick said.

ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 4 • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

StorySlam features seven diverse, captivating tales Engaging Storytellers’ event features seven storytellers, draws over 100 students

By CELIA HACK STAFF WRITER

When Emerson Wells ’18 picked a turtle off the street one Fourth of July weekend several summers ago, he knew little of the turtle’s true potential. It was not until his family entered him into the town’s local turtle race that it became clear that this turtle was exceptional.

This story and six others received claps, not snaps, at this year’s StorySlam Nov. 17. Not just any claps, either — loud, clamorous applause after every story, punctuated with hoots and hollers of appreciation for each storyteller.

Practically each moment in a story that had even a hint of humor was met with an onslaught of laughter from the audience.

Needless to say, StorySlam is not an

event that goes unnoticed or unappreciated in the Brown community. Held in Kassar Fox House, the crowd was pouring in 15 minutes before, and the venue was packed 10 minutes later. Hosted about twice a year by the Storytellers’ club, the event gives seven storytellers the opportunity to present a true story to a large audience — this year’s Friday crowd was around 100 to 125 people.

From turtle races to cross-country train rides, the stories did not fall under any one category. Sam Reidt ’19 chronicled a particularly engaging tale of being a gay “seven-year veteran of St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Greenville, South Carolina.” After searching for friendship as an insecure middle schooler, he eventually became friends with the “biggest, baddest religion teacher of them all” — before realizing

his place after classes was in the “cool liberal teacher clique.”

Audience member Katie Matora ’19 said she appreciated the visual element of storytelling that one can’t get from reading a story, as well as the bravery of the storytellers.

“Seeing the expressions on people’s faces when they tell their stories, you can’t fake that. You can’t read that,” she said. “It takes so much courage to speak in front of a crowd and to share something that is important to you or something that you thought is exciting, and I really admire that.”

Besides Wells and Reidt, Isabelle Doyle’s ’19 story focused on her family’s obsession with telling her that she was born in a Dunkin’ Donuts. Adam Janik ’19.5 relayed the story of his halffinished marathon and Delaney Williams ’19 talked about understanding her relationship with her father. Meanwhile, Julia Tompkins ’18 accidentally

obtained “dirty sex money” — her words — and Madison White ’18 went to Disney World, where her mom went to the hospital and a nurse attempted to exact revenge.

The seven stories this year ranged from humorous to more serious. In the past, comedic stories have typically prevailed.

“In the past few years, we’ve definitely expanded the range of stories that people will try out with and tell,” said Leah Steans-Gail ’18, an organizer of the event. “We had our first content warning … two years ago.”

Abby Neill ’19 and Steans-Gail run the Storytellers’ club and the StorySlam.

They offer auditions two to three weeks before the event — 20 to 25 auditioned this year, according to Steans-Gail — where anyone with a story or idea can come tell it. Once Neill and Steans-Gail choose the storytellers, they meet with them one-on-one to give feedback. For

a full week before the slam, they practice the stories as a group for two hours each night.

“The stories you see, they’ve changed a lot from the ones most people audition with,” Neill said.

“A big part of it is time,” Steans-Gail said. “We try to keep it short, because people will leave early and that’s not fair for the storytellers at the end.”

The storytellers also work on comedic timing and how to get past nervousness, Neill added.

The StorySlam wrapped up in about an hour and twenty minutes, and the crowd left in high spirits. Though Kassar Fox House is small, as everyone stood up to leave, it was clear how many had packed into the room to listen to the stories.

And, by the way, Wells’ turtle won the turtle race — out of over 1,000 turtles.

Activist Amir Sulaiman performs faith-based poetry Sulaiman’s poetic presentation highlights spirituality in contemporary cultural context

By ELIZABETH TOLEDANO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life brought artist and activist Amir Sulaiman to campus Monday night for the annual K. Brooke Anderson Lecture. Sulaiman, a Harvard Fellow who has performed around the world alongside artists including Kanye West and Stevie Wonder, shared “True + Living,” a combined poetry recitation and lecture, with members of the Brown community. His presentation centered on faith and love in the face of contemporary social issues.

“Whether it’s something in nature, or something in built culture, or some work of art, I find in all of those settings

» HOPE, from page 1 if possible.

In addition, surveys have been collected in other parts of Providence as well as Pawtucket, Cranston, Westerly and Woonsocket, and group members will travel to Newport and Middletown later this week, Zimmerman said.

By expanding the survey’s geographical range, HOPE has given advocacy groups a new asset in lobbying reluctant State House representatives.

Non-profit groups and student activists hope to present representatives with data from their own districts and constituents, which should make lobbying more effective, said Will Gomberg ’20, one of two outreach coordinators for HOPE. Legislative lobbying finds success The group will analyze the data and present it to a meeting of nonprofit groups at RICH’s headquarters in the coming weeks, Talbot said. The State House session begins in January and ends in June, and HOPE and other Rhode Island nonprofits will base their lobbying campaigns off of the results of the survey, Zimmerman

intimations of the sacred, and I also find a lot of spaciousness for people who find dogma or doctrine or tradition too narrow,” said University Chaplain Janet Cooper Nelson. When the multifaith team came together to name the lecturer for this year’s K. Brooke Anderson Lecture, Sulaiman stood out as a speaker whose work at the intersection of art and religion would offer students a spiritual take on the difficult circumstances of today’s cultural climate. Sulaiman takes Muslim theology and applies to it a contemporary and unconventional interpretation, Cooper Nelson added.

A central role that the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life plays is to aid students in facing the difficult

said.

“We’re aiming to get about 150 to 200 surveys” before Dec. 5, Gomberg said. But HOPE, with the assistance of teams from other student and offcampus groups, has far surpassed that number. As of Monday, the group had collected about 250 surveys and aims to have 300 by the end of the week, Zimmerman said.

HOPE has participated in several effective lobbying campaigns in the past. In spring 2017, HOPE students were active lobbyists and participants in the successful movement to restore the no-fare bus pass for low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities. The group also canvassed for an affordable housing bond initiative in 2016 and lobbied successfully for a homeless bill of rights in 2012, The Herald previously reported.

“We always partner with existing community organizations if they’re already doing the work,” Zimmerman said.

Student outreach tackles case management Students are often limited in their lobbying abilities by their academic time commitments, both Zimmerman and Gomberg said. In spite of those

circumstances of the world, said Adnan Adrian Wood-Smith, the University’s associate chaplain for the Muslim community. He finds in Sulaiman’s work a powerful ability to “address the darkness in the world and yet be helpful and bring in light, in spite of that,” he said.

“I’m a poet, so I’m going to recite poems. That’s why they brought me here,” Sulaiman began. For a moment, he stood in his dark clothing on a dimly lit stage, facing a nearly silent audience.

“You being here is the only thing that’s making this special for me.” Here, Sulaiman’s warm presence brought the auditorium to life. With his statement, he began a conversation. Throughout the night, audience members interrupted his speech to pose their own questions or commentary.

Sulaiman, who has been Muslim

his whole life, included imagery from the Bible and the Quran in the poetry he recited. With a dynamic cadence, he spoke passionately about his spiritual insights, bringing in lines like “miraculous things are happening if you’re awake,” “tell your mind to never mind the unknown” and “the truth is hidden everywhere.”

In one of his poems, Sulaiman talked about a vanilla sky, a chocolate earth and a caramel girl. He explained the metaphor in that poem, which discussed loving two women, as the challenge he finds in balancing the duality of the physical world and the spiritual realm.

In addition to reciting poetry, Sulaiman talked about his life as an artist. He spoke about the inspiration he found in hip-hop as a child. He also talked about how his first child, who depended on

him in a dangerous world, affected his perspective. “I love you, so therefore I’m afraid,” he said. Sulaiman focused the discussion of his personal life on the act of loving. “Loving is everything, it’s the reason for existence,” he told the audience.

Sulaiman introduced his last poem as a piece that breaks his heart. In its lines, he addressed what he described as the “tragedy of being black and male and Muslim” and coming to terms with an “America that made me but rejects me at the same time.”

He finished his presentation with lines that summarized his powerful message, tying together the harsh aspects of the human condition with a spiritual message of hope and possibility. “Through all the battery and all the abuse, we are still so beautiful,” Sulaiman said.

commitments, both outreach and advocacy have continued to grow. The HOPE outreach staff travels in teams of four or five, six nights a week on three different routes. Those routes travel through downtown Providence, the south side of Providence and Pawtucket.

HOPE works through two primary avenues — direct service, called outreach, and political action, called advocacy. The group has expanded in recent years, growing from 45 members in spring 2017 to 75 members this semester. That has increased HOPE’s capacity for both direct service and advocacy, Zimmerman said.

Some students are also beginning to build “case management” skills, Gomberg said. For example, a group of HOPE students recently received a training on how to help homeless individuals obtain various forms of identification in order to successfully navigate the application process for housing vouchers.

HOPE’s growth into case management, expanded outreach and new survey leadership all stem from a central motivating mission, Zimmerman said. “HOPE’s goal is to eradicate homelessness. … We believe that direct service isn’t enough by itself.

There has to be a structural aspect to make change in the community,” he said.

At the meal site Nov. 14, Zimmerman spoke with Reverend Sullivan at the doorway during a pause in the collection of surveys. Systemic change to the problem of homelessness “would be my dream,” Sullivan said. “Society as a whole needs to grasp that there are those who have literally nothing.”

A few days before the trip to the City Meal Site, Zimmerman explained his dedication to HOPE while rain lashed against the window. “Once a week, you take two hours … and you have conversations with people who are literally in this weather living on the street,” Zimmerman said. It “reinforces how much more we have to do on behalf of the Providence community.”

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017 • PAGE 5

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BLUE ROOM

Rodeo Burger, Chicken Dinner Bowl, Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Soup: Organic Black Bean Soup, Turkey Sausage and Kale Soup

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

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

“Through all the battery and all the abuse, we are still so beautiful.”

— Amir Sulaiman, artist and activist

See SULAIMAN on page 4. calendar TODAY NOVEMBER MARCH

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Giving Tuesday 11:00 A.M. Sayles Hall

Summer Study Abroad 101 Info Session 12:00 P.M. J. Walter Wilson, 440

Tink Knit Anniversary Party 6:00 P.M. Petteruti Lounge

Gamelan Concert 8:00 P.M. Grant Recital Hall

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Quaker Meeting for Worship 12:00 P.M. J. Walter Wilson, 409

MURA 2nd Annual Research Open House 3:00 P.M. CIT, 3rd floor

Archaeological Illustration Club 3:30 P.M. Rhode Island Hall, 109

Sophomore Slump Open Forum 6:30 P.M. Smith-Buonanno, 106

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Brown University Community Council Tuesday, November 28, 2017 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

Update and Discussion on Higher Education Provisions in Tax Reform Legislation Updates from the President Meetings are open to members of the Brown Community.

Meeting will be held in the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, Kasper Multipurpose Room To learn more about the Community Council visit: www.brown.edu/about/administration/community-council

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COMMENTARY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

A reflection on the sale of WBRU-FM HANNAH MAIER-KATKIN op-ed contributor “Strategic Options” was the title of a document I was given by my predecessor shortly after being elected general manager of 95.5 WBRU-FM in 2015, the fall of my sophomore year.

The document laid out a narrative of the station’s steady decline, a few possibilities for moving forward and the strong suggestion that it was time to sell our license to broadcast on the frequency 95.5. I joined WBRU the previous spring as a struggling firstyear looking for a place to carve out as my own on a campus that had been both overwhelming and unwelcoming. I hadn’t been at the station long enough to have fully earned the position to which I’d been elected. At the beginning of my term, I didn’t understand how dire our situation was or why station members who had been around longer than I had refused to take a leadership position. Student leaders spent the entirety of 2016 working to maintain WBRU on radio and seeking out strategic options that could change our circumstances, but by the end of the year, we confronted the impending reality that we would have to sell.

Initially, I had no interest in selling, no matter how many people in the years above me — who had similarly sacrificed their lives and their sanity to the station — told me they’d

seen the organization deteriorate every year. I inherited a Board of Directors — comprised of station alums and industry professionals who continue to volunteer their energy and expertise to keeping the organization running — fixed in a hostile stalemate. I couldn’t imagine selling because I didn’t want to lose the opportunities that WBRU allowed. Motivated students with little-to-no industry experience had the chance to interview local and national bands, go to music festivals with press passes, throw concerts in Providence attended by thousands of people and, most

ating budget of $1 million. For someone with no business expertise and little inclination in that direction, it was a bizarre and wonderful learning experience. Working in tandem with student and alumni volunteers who have given so much of themselves to these projects, we turned over every possible rock that might hold a path to financial viability. We ran a fundraising campaign, cut costs by changing our phone lines, continued talks with Rhode Island Public Radio, pursued a joint sales agreement with another local independent station (of which there are increasingly few as

professional and moved one to part time. The resulting animosity between professional and student staff was palpable in every meeting; each blamed the other for our circumstances. I was confused, and a little scared, when the GM before me said that she felt like a completely different person at the end of her term — but now I think I know what she meant. WBRU, it seems, has always been a sink-or-swim learning environment. Rising to the occasion is the only option — there are no alternatives.

My cohort of student leadership was the latest in a series of executive

The process of entirely restructuring our organization, rewriting our constitution and transitioning to a digital platform is not for people who are afraid of a challenge. A sale is not an easy way out. importantly, interact daily with devoted listeners within the radius of a signal that spanned Rhode Island and parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts. We were taken seriously while doing work that mattered to us and interacting with local communities in ways that were as close to peer-driven and mutually beneficial as the University can hope to get in Providence.

As general manager in 2016, I led a staff of six professionals and nine student managers. I oversaw recruitment efforts, long-term business strategies and projects for a studentrun radio station and 501(c)(3) educational not-for-profit with an oper-

they remain unable to compete in a market that favors corporate clusters, who have efficiencies independent stations do not), discussed changing our format, put a professional on the morning show “BRU Breakfast” for ratings, hired a consultant and, after reviews, cut down our salaried professional staff.

As a 20-year-old running a nonprofit that couldn’t turn a profit, I was in the position of informing a salesperson twice my age (who had more experience in the industry and who had spent more time at this particular organization) that we had no intention of renewing their contract. We fired one

boards to continue to operate a failing business that had peaked in the 1990s and early 2000s. It was as if simply keeping the lights on was the only way to preserve a kind of college radio that no longer exists. But we couldn’t keep the lights on anymore.

We struggled to maintain daily operations when our staff dwindled. We were too consumed by crisis management to explore our own creativity or cultivate experiences relevant to a media industry that is largely leaving radio behind.

The recent sale of WBRU’s FM license is what it looks like when a declining business acknowledges a

downward trend and takes decisive action to prevent becoming just another casualty of modernity. Still, station members have been accused of being defeatists by people who oppose the sale. The process of entirely restructuring our organization, rewriting our constitution and transitioning to a digital platform is not for people who are afraid of a challenge.

A sale is not an easy way out. The responsibility we feel to Providence communities, the University and our alums guides each discussion in this transitional period. Our scale has changed, but we’re still working to offer meaningful opportunities and tell important stories in Providence.

My time at Brown has been defined by WBRU — anyone who knows me even tangentially can confirm. I am grateful to this unusual, unmatched institution, and to every student who has stumbled into 88 Benevolent St. and shown their willingness to make sacrifices for the good of an organization that means the world to us and to thousands of our listeners. Whenever an alum told me that their degree might be from Brown but they actually studied at the University of WBRU, I scoffed. But I’m getting older and more sentimental, and I find myself inclined to say the same.

Hannah Maier-Katkin ’18 is the former General Manager of WBRU and can be reached at hannah_maier-katkin@brown. edu.

Rethinking who our veterans are QUENTIN THOMAS staff columnist Last summer, I heard a Vietnam War veteran speak at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He talked about his experiences in the war and the hardships he experienced in Vietnam. But it was what he experienced upon returning to the United States that was the toughest part of the war for him. He described returning home to people spitting on him and having chairs thrown at him. Granted, the Vietnam War was highly controversial, but in this instance, frustration with the war was horribly misplaced. The veteran urged the audience to learn to “separate the war from the warrior.” While the political context of the Vietnam War was substantially different from the wars the United States has fought in the 21st century, his emotional plea still rings true: Today, there’s a significant disconnect between how Americans see veterans and the actual, lived experiences of veterans. If we really want to demonstrate our gratitude for the sacrifices of Americans in uniform, we ought to re-examine our immediate perceptions of veterans and do more to consider their lives and struggles away from the battlefield. Only then can we pursue policies and programs that make veterans’ lives better and properly repay them for their valor.

First, it is easy to assume that our veterans voluntarily joined the military out of an extreme sense of patriotism or nationalism. But this is not always the case. Take Phoebe Gavin, a U.S. Army veteran, as an example. “I grew up in a

dead-end town where there were no opportunities,” she said. She knew that joining the military would provide her with educational aid and free health care. These things were important for her because her parents were poor and she could only stay on her parents’ insurance if she went to school, which she couldn’t afford. Gavin says that she didn’t have the stereotypical inspiration to serve “God and country” that is often projected onto all veterans. Her motives for enlisting were inextricably linked to her well-being and livelihood. Similarly, Jon Mixon, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, cited the poor economy of

stop when they come home. Viral videos of children and pets running toward returning soldiers present only the brief, joyful moments of homecoming, while ignoring the internal struggles that quietly harm veterans in the long run. Veterans often face serious mental health challenges after their service, as the 2007 study “Bringing the War Back Home” found. The study looked at 103,788 American veterans treated at Veterans Affairs facilities after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and found that 25 percent of these veterans received a mental health diagnosis, 56 percent received two or more mental health di-

If we really want to demonstrate our gratitude for the sacrifices of Americans in uniform, we ought to re-examine our immediate perceptions of veterans and do more to consider their lives and struggles away from the battlefield.

1984 and described his motivation for enlisting simply: “I needed a job.” People join the military for various reasons, and oftentimes it’s because it presents itself as the best option out there. This idea is only augmented by the countless number of military recruitment commercials that occupy our television and movie screens on a regular basis. While some of us may have the privilege to not bat an eye at such ads, others don’t have that privilege. For many Americans, military service is an instrument of social mobility — a key way to get ahead.

Second, for many veterans, the war doesn’t

agnoses and 31 percent overall received mental health or psychosocial diagnoses. These mental health challenges can, in turn, contribute to veterans’ inability to adapt to civilian life and find housing and employment; every night, close to 40,000 veterans are homeless. Simply put, war is traumatic and profoundly detrimental to the lives of those who serve.

Third, the deployments that servicemen and servicewomen must go on keep them away from their families for long periods of time — and that distance can have real, tangible consequences for relationships. When I was three

years old, I went half a year without seeing my mom while she was actively serving in the Army. When she came home, she, my grandma and I went to Disney World. Despite going to the “The Most Magical Place on Earth,” it was not a memorable experience for me. The only thing I really remember from that day is treating my own mother as a stranger. I hadn’t seen her in so long that I’d come to see my grandma as my actual mom. While my mom likes to laugh about it now, I know it wasn’t easy for her to grapple with having her own child not recognize her. It’s one thing to acknowledge intellectually that veterans give up a lot to serve their country. But it’s a different thing to really put yourself in the shoes of Americans in uniform and their loved ones — to confront the difficulty of keeping in touch with your children or your parents thousands of miles away.

All this is to say that veterans deserve our respect — real, thoughtful and empathetic respect.

A few weeks ago, student veteran John McCrillis ’17.5 told The Herald that, “A lot of veterans get stuck in this mold of being a veteran, and that’s all they’ll ever be. I didn’t want to have a war story be my definition of my character or who I am.” “Veteran” is a more complex identifier than you might think, and it’s important to explore the complexity of experiences it umbrellas before passing judgement or assuming that an entire group fits into a narrow stereotype. Respect doesn’t mean saying “thank you for your service” to every vet you see. But it does mean that we, as Americans, need to recognize the multidimensionality of the veteran experience.

Quentin Thomas ’21 can be reached at quentin_thomas@brown.edu.

NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017

Social Innovation Fellow builds Bhutanese dairy cooperative

COURTESY OF SHERAB DORJI

Sherab Dorji ’20 established Khemdro Kuenphen Dairy Group, a dairy cooperative, in his hometown of Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan. The co-op, which Dorji hopes will begin operations in April 2018, would potentially increase the profitability of dairy by cutting out middle men and guaranteeing farmers a fair price for their products.

Dorji ’20 returns home to Phobjikha Valley in hopes of providing steadier incomes to Bhutanese farmers

By SOPHIE CULPEPPER STAFF WRITER

This summer, Sherab Dorji ’20 traveled as a Social Innovation Fellow back to his home in Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan.

He went to pursue his dream of making a self-sustaining economic contribution to his community by establishing a dairy cooperative, Khemdro Kuenphen Dairy Group, which he hopes will begin operations in April 2018.

Social Innovation Fellows are selected to build a social venture over a 10-week period during the summer.

“The majority of students in the Social Innovation Fellowship are working on projects from their own community or their own lived experience,” said Alan Harlam, director of innovation and social entrepreneurship at the Swearer Center. The fellowship offers students $4,000 in “personal and programmatic support” for their projects, according to a brochure for the program.

This fellowship “opened my window to the world of entrepreneurship and, specifically, social entrepreneurship,” Dorji said.

But Dorji has expanded his entrepreneurship far beyond one summer.

He is currently taking a gap year and

living in Bhutan to dedicate himself completely to the co-op. Thirty-one out of approximately 370 farming families initially joined the co-op, and this number has grown to 41 households since June.

Dorji has considered how to collaborate with farmers in his community since high school, he said. It was with the intention of discovering how to best accomplish this that Dorji applied to Brown. He said he is motivated to turn his education into “a good investment or a good fortune on the part of my community.”

Dorji developed the specific idea of forming a co-op with his friends at Brown. As first-years, Dorji, Zuriel Mbonde ’19 and Brandon Chia ’18.5 were all especially interested in economics as a force for social change.

The three friends came together to discuss initiatives that would contribute to the economies of their homes as well as developing countries and sought out Harlam for advice.

“We wanted to know how to go about (finding a solution) in (an) equitable way, in a way that would not just be us, from the outside, telling the Bhutanese people what to do, but more understanding the problem, so that we

can create a solution that would most effectively help the people,” Mbonde said.

Dorji’s background has prepared him for this work, he said. “My father was a farmer, before he passed away; my mother is still a farmer,” Dorji said.

“The problem with farming in Phobjikha is that dairy is relegated as the second economic activity after potato cultivation,” Dorji explained, adding that potato farming accounts for more than 95 percent of the average household’s annual income. But since potatoes are a single-harvest crop, they only provide farmers with income once a year. And because potato farmers in Bhutan act as a “secondary supplier” for India, potato prices are vulnerable to the whims of the Indian market, Dorji said.

“So, in the end, if markets are poor in India, then our farmers lose. If harvests are really poor for the year, our farmers lose. If the prices are low, then our farmers lose,” he added.

“As a supplement,” most potato farmers keep anywhere between three and 20 cattle, Dorji said. Half of the cheese and butter produced from the cattle’s milk is consumed at home, while the other half is eventually sold in urban markets. But to reach those markets, farmers are forced to rely on middlemen, who are usually

other potato farmers. Currently, these middlemen cut into farmers’ potential earnings with a profit margin as large as 60 percent, according to a document about the co-op.

The co-op would guarantee farmers a fair price for their product by circumventing the middlemen, potentially increasing the current profitability of dairy for farmers by as much as 200 percent, according to the document.

Over time, dairy farming might even become economically viable enough to act as an alternative to potato farming.

The co-op will offer “group grants and low-interest credit schemes, as well as annual profit-sharing models” to incentivize dairy farming, according to the document.

Dorji said he does not believe the middlemen, who currently profit off of dairy farming, will push back against the co-op, as they understand that it will benefit the community by expanding the dairy industry.

The co-op offers the community other benefits as well. Because dairy products are sold at least once a week, the co-op could provide families in Phobjikha with a steadier source of income. Consolidating butter and cheese production in a single processing unit allows all participating households to access resources no single farmer would have and is more economically

efficient.

The project may give women more power over money as well. Potato farming is a male-dominated financial venture; though women labor in the field alongside men, the flow of money is mainly controlled by men, Dorji said. But women control the profits of dairy farming, so support for the dairy industry also provides support for women in Bhutan.

The Bhutanese government has been supportive of Khemdro Kuenphen Dairy Group, already providing a $21,000 grant for the construction of a central milk processing unit. “The local government is supporting us, not only in words, but in action,” Dorji said.

In January 2018, Dorji will launch an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, which he hopes will raise an additional $50,000 dollars to fund a system of cold storage, a backup power supply and two additional utility vehicles for the collection of milk and the transportation of the dairy products to the markets.

In the next five to 10 years, Dorji hopes to “reach all the households in Phobjikha,” he said. “In the next 10 to 20 years, I want to spread this model from Phobjikha to other parts of Bhutan.”