Tuesday, September 17, 2019

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

VOLUME CLIV, ISSUE 10

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VOTE ON WYATT FACILITY AGREEMENT POSTPONED Proposed agreement would strengthen ties with ICE, make private sale possible

BY OLIVIA GEORGE AND SOPHIE CULPEPPER SENIOR STAFF WRITER AND METRO EDITOR The board overseeing the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility postponed a highly anticipated vote on the facility’s future over unspecified “concerns,” before closing its meeting to the public Monday evening.

The board was scheduled to vote on a proposed forbearance agreement that would strengthen the facility’s relationship to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and set in motion a process for potential sale of the prison, reducing what little public supervision currently exists. The postponement follows a series of clashes over the past few months between community members demanding that the facility shut down and the Wyatt, which has struggled to respond to public outcry.

At yesterday’s meeting, the board apologized for postponing last Monday’s public discussion to the evening of Friday Sept.

OLIVIA GEORGE / HERALD

Protesters gathered outside the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls in anticipation of yesterday’s vote, which was postponed due to “concerns” of the facility’s board. The vote concerns a proposed forbearance agreement with UMB Bank.

13, a time that conflicted with the Jewish Sabbath. Protesters led by Jewish advocacy group Never Again Action shut down the Friday meeting with an impromptu Shabbat service, condemning directors for attempting to silence Jewish voices.

“We apologize to our Jewish friends and ask for your forgiveness,” said Wilder Arbole-

da, a board member at the Wyatt who chaired the Monday meeting. Arboleda explained that the board had postponed the meeting last week over safety concerns, but admitted that the timing was “insensitive and wrong.”

While Arboleda spoke, a sea of protesters in yellow shirts stood with their backs to him. They had gathered to pressure the

board to vote against the proposed forbearance agreement or resign from their positions. As the board member apologized, the activists remained still.

Arboleda then announced that the board would not be voting on the proposed forSEE WYATT PAGE 4

UNIVERSITY NEWS

METRO

U. reorganizes School of Professional Studies

PVD community members call for dialogue in school takeover

Pre-college programs, summer undergrad courses now separate from SPS

Panelists at Annenberg Institute push for open communication as state takeover progresses

BY OLIVIA BURDETTE SENIOR STAFF WRITER The University separated its pre-college programs and summer undergraduate courses from the School of Professional Studies Aug. 1.

“Each of these organizations serves distinct populations, has specific academic calendars on which they function and has specific operational and financial needs,” wrote Provost Richard Locke P ’18 in an email to The Herald. “We determined that creating two independent entities would enable both organizations to operate efficiently, effectively and scale successfully in the future.”

The Division of Pre-College and Summer Undergraduate Programs — which includes Summer@Brown and summer courses for current undergraduate students — and the School of Professional Studies are each also under new leadership, the University announced in a press release June 19.

Adrienne Marcus, who served as

BY CLARA GUTMAN ARGEMÍ SENIOR STAFF WRITER

LEON JIANG / HERALD

Both programs moved into the Jewelry District’s Wexford Innovation Center at 225 Dyer St., across the newly built pedestrian bridge. the associate dean for the programs at SPS, is now the dean for the Division of Pre-College and Summer Undergraduate Programs. She said the separation will allow her division to sharpen its focus and allocate more resources to the work it has been doing for years.

In the past, SPS and the Division of Pre-College and Summer Undergraduate Programs shared staff and resources. Now, “the benefits are that we have our own infrastructures,” Marcus said.

“Besides that, we continue to do the work we’re doing.”

Leah VanWey, professor of environment and society and sociology, is now dean of SPS. She previously served as the associate provost for academic space, and will now work with individual academic departments to develop master’s programs with more interdisciplinary focus.

“There’s only so many people who

SEE SEPARATION PAGE 3

In a panel Monday, Providence community leaders, students and educators stressed the need for dialogue between all groups with a stake in the state’s upcoming takeover of the Providence Public School District.

The city must implement channels to address the current absence of adequate communication that one of the community leaders referred to as a “tragic game of telephone.”

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform hosted a discussion between six panelists, including Victor Capellan, senior adviser to the Rhode Island Education Commissioner; Barbara Mullen, director of the Center for Leadership and Educational Equity’s Learning Leader Network; Travis Escobar, member of the PPSD School Board and PSSD graduate; Carol Pagan, teacher at Alfred Lima School;

University News

Science & Research

Commentary

Ben Guhin discusses how design can improve accessibility Page 2

Roundup: Sharks use shoulders to swallow food, according to University study Page 3

Reed ’21: President overreaches on use of executive power for e-cig ban Page 6

Yan Sosa, a senior at Classical High School, and Dan McGowan, a reporter for The Boston Globe who is covering the Providence school takeover.

The panel follows RIDE Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green’s decision to deny the community a formal and legal role in the state takeover.

On Friday, some community members represented by the R.I. Center for Justice asked to be recognized as a group with the power to object to the state takeover, but the Commissioner turned down their request, The Herald previously reported. At the panel, Capellan said that the Commissioner “listened and learned” during Friday’s hearing and plans for RIDE to work with “the community, the students, the families … at the table.”

Sosa, a member of the Providence Student Union, said that his peers’ main concerns are school spending, the representational gap between mostly white teachers and mostly non-white students, and a more meaningful curriculum. For him, the shape of the takeover needs to answer the questions for students: “How will this help me in my life? How will this help me in my career?”

SEE TAKEOVER BACK PAGE

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Design Week RI examines design role in improving product accessibility

Ben Guhin, design head at U. Policy Lab, shares insight, professional experience

BY ALEX REICE METRO EDITOR

During a lecture Monday evening, Ben Guhin, head of design at the University’s Policy Lab, explained how companies and governmental bodies could use design not just to create a product’s aesthetic, but to further accessibility.

Pulling from his experience working for the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau and as the Head of Design and Technology Policy for the city of Austin, Guhin said that people who work in government “can provide opportunities to create a more inclusive

and equitable community.”

At the CPFB, Guhin attempted to improve the accessibility of government forms and information.

He tried to address “categories of accessibility” beyond physical to include language and technological accessibility as well. “Technology can bring us together,” but it can also “pull us apart,” Guhin said while discussing avenues to improve the digital world’s accessibility.

This is an issue that motivated Niyoshi Parekh ’22 to attend the event. Parekh said she was interested in understanding how design could further economic and social accessibility.

To alleviate economic inaccessibility, companies and government agencies need to go further than putting relevant information online, Guhin said. Content needs to be simple and easy to read, he

said, adding that keeping “helper text” visible clarifies language.

Guhin also said that companies and governmental bodies need to consider making content “ceaselessly functional,” so that devices can continue to access the material even as they age.

A rule of thumb is making “the best thing the easiest thing,” Guhin said.

Sara Pollard, senior UX designer at Infosys Digital in Providence and an attendee of the event, agreed with Guhin. “As a designer, I’m always trying to think of how things can be stripped down so that they’re simple.”

Guhin also emphasized “refining and testing” and “doing and learning” when creating an interface or crafting online content. “It requires the humility, especially as a government employee, to know ‘I am not providing the service as

well as I can, and I don’t have to be embarrassed about that,’” he said. “You really unlock a lot of potential when you stop being embarrassed.”

Guhin then expanded the conversation to designing for inclusion more generally. Citing the addition of curb cuts to sidewalks to accommodate wheelchair users and creating OXO vegetable peelers for people with arthritis, Guhin pointed out instances where government agencies and companies tried to create specific products for “edge cases,” but ended up designing for everyone.

Director for The Policy Lab David Yokum added that the “government does a lot of stuff, and if we want it to do better for us, we really need to bring to bear lots of diverse skill sets and perspectives.”

Guhin’s talk was part of Design Week RI 2019, the sixth iter-

ation of a week of events hosted

by DESIGNxRI. The week aims to “highlight and showcase the design talent here in Rhode Island,” said Lisa Carnevale, founder and executive director of DESIGNxRI. The talk was the first time DesignxRI has collaborated with The Policy Lab, Carnevale said. The Policy Lab is a new collaboration between the state of Rhode Island and the University, launched in an effort to develop “data-driven solutions,” according to its website. Although The Policy Lab’s work was new to Carnevale, she finds “spin-off effects” of rapid technological changes extremely important. With the onset of a period that Carnevale referred to as the “fourth industrial revolution,” she added that discussing and understanding design’s critical role in technology’s evolution is essential.

ALEX REICE / HERALD

As part of Design Week RI, University students and community members alike gathered at RISD to learn about how government employees and companies should prioritize inclusivity.

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3

SCIENCE AND RESEARCH ROUNDUP CATE RYAN AND JACOB LOCKWOOD Sharks shrug shoulders to swallow, study shows Without tongues to move food through their mouths, some sharks use their shoulders instead to pull food down their digestive tracts.

A University study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B used new X-ray technology developed at Brown to capture video footage of bamboo sharks’ muscle and bone movements while they ate. The X-ray videos allowed researchers to see how the sharks quickly swing their shoulder bones to create suction, which moves food back through their mouths.

The study only examined bamboo sharks, but Ariel Camp — the paper’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at the University — believes other shark species likely also use their shoulders to help ingest food. This newly documented shoulder function may help researchers understand why some fish evolved shoulders to begin with, Camp said in a University press

SEPARATION FROM PAGE 1 have the fortune to come here as an undergraduate,” VanWey said. “By really focusing on master’s programs,” the University can allow people from all over the world to “benefit from a Brown education,” she added.

VanWey took over the position of dean from Karen Sibley MAT’81 P’07

release.

University study finds more engaging teachers increase student attendance As middle and high school students begin making their own decisions about whether to attend class, their teachers have a major impact on their attendance rates, according to a recent study from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Specifically, some teachers were more effective than others at promoting attendance, suggesting that more engaging teachers can reduce unexcused absences.

The study — conducted by Annenberg Institute Director Susanna Loeb and Jing Liu, a postdoctoral research assistant — attempts to create a new measure for evaluating teachers beyond their impact on test scores.

“There are multiple dimensions of good teacher quality,” Loeb said in an interview with Chalkbeat.

Teachers’ effects on students

P’12 P’17, vice president for strategic initiatives who had led SPS since its founding. “I am delighted that Brown’s professional master’s and pre-college programs have the full support of the University,” Sibley said in the press release. She declined to speak with The Herald.

In August, the two organizations

continue beyond attendance. In the study, the same teachers who boosted attendance also increased both students’ likelihood of taking Advanced Placement courses and their likelihood of graduating from high school.

University study dives into volcanic magma chamber’s ideal depth New research explains why volcanic chambers that store magma lie within a specific range below the surface of the Earth. The underground caverns that hold magma reside at a “sweet spot” that is roughly six to 10 kilometers below the surface. Using computer models, researchers from the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences found that this is the depth at which volcanic pressures are ideal.

The study found that the location of magma storage is defined by the pressure at which magma can be stably maintained and renewed. The pressure present at this depth is usually between 1.5 and 2.5 kilobars. Pressures outside

moved their offices to the Wexford Innovation Center at 225 Dyer Street, which opened in the Jewelry District this summer, The Herald previously reported. The Innovation Center is also home to the University’s biomedical master’s degree programs, as well as Johnson and Johnson, Cambridge Innovation Center , Venture Cafe and

this range can lead to violent eruptions, according to the news release.

“Between 1.5 and 2.5, the systems are happy,” said Christian Huber, the study’s lead author and a professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences, in the news release. “They can erupt, recharge and keep going.”

This research also helps scientists understand the ratio of magma that is stored under the Earth compared to how much erupts onto the surface.

More broadly, understanding this process helps researchers make sense of volcanic activity in general, which has implications for climate science.

“Magma supplies (carbon dioxide) and other gases to the atmosphere, which influences the climate. So having a guide to understand what comes out and what stays in is important,” Huber said in the news release.

its District Hall.

The relocation “provides an opportunity for Brown to continue to be a catalyst for economic growth and development in this important area of the city — and is further evidence of our commitment to contributing to the innovation economy in Providence and R.I.,” Locke wrote in an

email to The Herald.

Marcus said “it’s great being in this building because it serves all of our needs. When we were in the old building across the street, our staff (was) too big to be in one space.”

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WYATT FROM PAGE 1 bearance agreement with UMB Bank last night, as originally scheduled, and would instead be conducting a private meeting.

“We, the board, also have concerns that we need to have addressed,” Arboleda said as the reason for the postponement. “We will be going into closed session to discuss the draft forbearance agreement with our lawyers.”

At this point, one activist, as on Friday, blew a shofar, a horn used in Jewish religious ceremonies. Two other activists then walked

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

toward the board members and ripped a black cloth in front of them. Dozens of other protesters followed suit until a pile of fabric lay on the floor in front of where the board was sitting.

The protesters were performing an ancient Jewish ritual called Kriah, Tal Frieden ’19.5 later said. Kriah involves tearing cloth as an expression of grief or a response to evil.

“Today, we tore our cloths and we mourned,” Frieden added.

Arboleda closed the meeting by acknowledging the protesters’ objections but recognized that they “have obligations to multiple

stakeholders.”

After the board moved into closed session, Never Again Action held a press conference outside of the prison where they repeated calls to shut the Wyatt down and condemned the board for moving into a private meeting.

Former state representative and Never Again Action organizer Aaron Regunberg ’12 called on elected officials to intervene to shut down the Wyatt. Never Again activists also demanded that local politicians move to ban private prisons in Rhode Island, release all ICE detainees and prohibit local

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

and state collaboration with ICE. Regunberg added that organizers would deliver an open letter to Governor Gina Raimondo Monday evening.

“Governor Raimondo, we are talking to you, as Jews, as immigrants, as Central Falls residents, as Rhode Islanders who were pepper-sprayed and assaulted,” Regunberg said.

“Will our state leaders continue to stand by and watch? Or will they finally step the hell up?”

At press time, the board had not re-scheduled a vote on the proposed forbearance agreement.

OLIVIA GEORGE / HERALD

Activists, led by Never Again Action and AMOR, gathered at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility on Monday night in Central Falls, R.I. They held signs, sang and tore black cloth in protest.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | TODAY

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Center for Gerontology Brown Bag 12:00 P.M. 121 South Main Street

Study Abroad 101 Information Session 12:00 P.M. Page-Robinson Hall

Cognex Info Session 5:00 P.M. Engineering Research Center

Warren Kanders Must Go Town Hall 8:00 P.M. Urban Environmental Lab

TOMORROW Workday Reporting Basics Training 10:00 A.M. South Street Landing

Out for Lunch with Robyn Ochs 12:00 P.M. Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center

Friedman Family Fund Colloquium 3:00 P.M. Metcalf Research Building

Global Brown Welcome Back Celebration 5:00 P.M. Page-Robinson Hall

Q U OTE OF TH E DAY

“Today, we tore our cloths and we mourned.”

—Tal Frieden ’19.5 SEE WYATT PAGE 1

C ORRECTI ON The Sept. 15 article titled “‘Which side are you on?: Protesters shut down Wyatt Detention Facility board meeting” incorrectly stated Catarina Lorenzo’s name as Catarina Lorenza. The article also failed to include that Lex Rofeberg graduated from Brown in 2013.

The article has been updated to reflect those changes. The Herald regrets the errors.

CR O S SWO R D

C LARI F I CAT I ON The Sept. 15 article titled “Brown Daily Herald plans to move after 50 years at 195 Angell Street” described WBRU as “an independent nonprofit internet radio station.” It is more accurate to say that WBRU is “a multimedia digital publishing company.” The article has been updated to reflect that change.

PI Z Z A AN D A MOVI E

ELEANOR YE/ HERALD

Now playing at the Avon Cinema are movies Downton Abbey and Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.

Students interested in a classic evening of dinner and a movie can grab a slice next door at Antonio’s.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

7

The excessive authority of regulatory agencies

BY ANDREW REED STAFF COLUMNIST Last week, after a number of high-profile stories of teens hospitalized with lung illnesses related to vaping, President Trump announced his intention to direct the Food and Drug Administration to ban most flavored e-cigarettes.

While tobacco flavored e-cigs encourage cigarette smokers to quit by switching to the arguably less unhealthy e-cigarette alternative, the more flavorful — including chocolate, strawberry and even root beer float — attract young people who otherwise would not partake in vaping. For that reason, Trump’s announcement received bipartisan praise from lawmakers; in fact, some Senators even called for stricter regulations. And, to my mind, it’s probably a smart move. Even after barring the negative effects of the additives in e-cigarettes, the adverse effects of nicotine — such as an increased risk of heart disease — are well known. So, it’s desirable to prevent teenagers from wanting to vape in the first place.

But my complaint isn’t with what Trump did, it’s how he did it — and what it says about the power of the executive altogether.

Rather than plea to Congress to ban these products, Trump directed the FDA to issue a rule effectively outlawing their sale, at least for the time being. The idea that any president, love or hate them, possesses the authority to

unilaterally ban a commonly produced and purchased consumer good should frighten everyone. Today it may be an issue upon which most people agree, but someday we may not be so lucky. And on that day, we may regret so eagerly surrendering power to the president in the name of a cause which was, for the moment, popular.

The problem is, Congress has given executive departments like the FDA free reign to regulate items within their purview. Over the years, pieces of legislation have given the FDA the power to regulate everything from food and drugs, tobacco products and cell phones and lasers. The power to regulate means that the FDA can, in many cases, constrain and severely damage industries with onerous rules. In some cases, as it appears in this case, the FDA can ban specific products outright. In the case of e-cigarettes, the FDA has the authority to regulate their contents, and now plans to use that power to ban the entire category of flavored e-cigarettes.

Issues of this sort rarely garner more than a few column inches, largely because the rules coming out of the FDA and agencies like it tend to be more modest and more targeted. But this rule, similar to the rule last year banning bump stocks on firearms by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, came not from the careful consideration of the regulatory agency itself, but from a president far more concerned with public reaction than constitutionally prescribed legislative processes.

“And on that day, we may regret so eagerly surrendering power to the president in the name of a cause which was, for the moment, popular.”

Regardless of the wisdom of these rules themselves, it shouldn’t be possible for a president to use the power Congress has entrusted to regulatory agencies to change policy on a whim for the entire country.

The problem isn’t so much that the president overstepped the bounds of his office, it’s that the boundaries are far too wide. It seems perfectly reasonable to think that since Congress gave the executive branch the authority to regulate the content of tobacco products, the FDA therefore has the power to “clear the market of flavored e-cigarettes.” And in this era of hyperpartisanship and legislative gridlock, it seems doubly reasonable to think that giving the executive more power may be the only way to actually get things done.

But this is far too much power for one person. A ban on flavored e-cigarettes could shutter, or at least severely impact thousands of businesses across the country. It may be that it’s worth the economic hit to prevent further generations from becoming addicted to nicotine, but for a person to single-handedly implement such a policy is far from good process.

Andrew Reed can be reached at andrew_ reed@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

What’s the University’s moral litmus test for accepting donations?

To the Editor: The University’s decision to place Director of Development for Computer and Data Science Initiatives Peter Cohen on academic leave in the wake of reports that he helped conceal Jeffrey Epstein’s donations to Massachusetts Institute of Technology raises the broader issue of what moral litmus test, if any, the University should use in accepting donations.

If Cohen indeed violated MIT policy in concealing donations from someone “disqualified” as a donor to MIT, then that is a matter between Cohen and his previous employer (though Cohen’s recent statement that, in ef-

fect, he was in fact just following MIT orders hardly speaks well of his ethical judgment).

On the assumption that other Brown staff who remain in good standing have facilitated donations from, among others, Koch Industries and Safariland CEO Warren Kanders, simply facilitating acceptance of money from morally objectionable sources cannot in itself be regarded by the Paxson Administration as inconsistent with Brown values, on pain of contradiction.

And it’s hardly reassuring to read that some Brown trustees who would defend the University’s gift policy conflate the distinction between the legal and the ethical. As described, that gift policy may be “rooted” in a concern that the

University avoid legal liability but it patently is not “rooted” in ethics.

To be sure, Epstein acted both illegally and morally reprehensibly. The source of whatever money he donated to whomever remains, nonetheless, a matter of debate. Not so the wealth of Kanders, which some at Brown urge the University to decline on the basis that it demonstrably derives from the sale of riot gear and chemical munitions. And — think what you will of the Koch brothers — there is no denying that the funding for the Brown’s Political Theory Project derives in part from the exploitation of fossil fuels that have contributed to the degradation of our planet.

Brown University has a history of accepting the money of morally dubious people and those responsible for societal ills. For that, Peter Cohen should not be the Paxson Administration’s scapegoat. By all appearances, he was hired in the absence of a considered ethics policy for fundraising — this is the midst of a $3 billion campaign no less! — by an Administration whose “core values” he shares. That, of course, is the problem.

By Michelle Mason Bizri Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy

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TAKEOVER FROM PAGE 1 Providence school board member Travis Escobar wants the takeover to foster “an environment that inspires …

instead of feeling like you’re going to a prison.” If the state decides to edit the curriculum in any way, Escobar and the rest of the board will not have official legal control over those changes. How-

ever, they will still control the district’s funding.

The “work needs to be done with teachers, not to teachers,” said Pagan, who is affiliated with the Providence

Teachers Union. Teachers are the ones who are used to “being in the trenches.”

This event is the first in a series of three panels that are scheduled to take place at the Annenberg Institute this

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform hosted a panel to discuss the upcoming state takeover of the Providence Public School District.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 fall, said Susanna Loeb, the Institute’s director. Later in the fall, Infante-Green will speak at the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy.

DANIELLE EMERSON / HERALD

TERRA: ART | LAND | JUSTICE A BROWN ARTS INITIATIVE SYMPOSIUM ON ARTS & ENVIRONMENT Sept 19-20, 2019

Granoff Center for the Creative Arts 154 Angell Street, Providence, RI FREE and open to the public

Activist artists and scholars, a civil rights educator, architect, chef, poet/farmer and others share ideas about humanity’s relationship to land through a cultural and social justice lens • Opening keynote by multimedia artist JACKIE SUMELL

MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER: brown.edu/go/terra

• Panel discussions, exhibitions and film screenings • FARM FRESH RI Pop-Up Market

#BAITerra @BAIBrownU This convening is made possible by gifts to the BAI Director’s Innovation Fund and the Agnes Gund Presidential Lecture Fund.

Photo: Media Productions.

artsinitiative@brown.edu 401.863.1934 arts.brown.edu