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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017
VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 29
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Faculty discusses community outreach U. focuses on obtaining H-1B visas for new hires, setting aside research funds in case of cuts By ROSE SHEEHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
COURTESY OF NICK DENTAMARO
The theatre arts and performance studies department and Sock and Buskin’s production of “In the Heights” bring New York City’s Washington Heights to Stuart Theatre. Originally written in 1999 by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the play showcases diverse characters and narratives.
Theater performance reaches new ‘Heights’
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘In the Heights’ pushes against homogeneity, highlights student talent By JUSTIN FERENZI STAFF WRITER
“Hamilton” — the musical that shook the world of Broadway — has become
so ubiquitous that nowadays, people often think of the play before the political figure. Thanks to this stratospheric success, Lin-Manuel Miranda has achieved international fame and a renewed interest in some of his earlier works. Chief among those is “In the Heights,” a play centered in New York City’s Washington Heights neighbor-
ARTS & CULTURE
hood, which debuted in 1999. Miranda conceived of the music and lyrics for the play while Quiara Alegría Hudes ’04 MFA wrote the book for the play. This month, the “Heights” hype reached Brown’s Stuart Theater with a student performance. The musical focuses on an eclectic group of friends and families who live on the same block. The play’s main character and de facto narrator is bodega-owner Usnavi. Originally
from the Dominican Republic, Usnavi’s father named him after a passing ship he witnessed while immigrating to America — “U.S. Navy.” Usnavi is played by Richard Flores ’16.5, whose impressive rap style sounds uncannily similar to that of Miranda’s style, who originally played the part. In the play, Usnavi strives to make an earnest living in an area riddled with » See HEIGHTS, page 2
President Christina Paxson P’19 and Provost Richard Locke outlined University responses to President Trump’s most recent immigration ban and the suspension of premium processing for H-1B visas at the faculty meeting Tuesday. Locke also presented the budget for fiscal year 2018, and faculty members discussed community outreach efforts. The suspension of fast-tracking H1B visas, which will go into effect April 3 and could last for six months, will have the greatest impact on pending Brown faculty and staff hires who do not already have H-1B visas, Locke said. “If an H-1B visa sponsorship is needed for a pending hire with a start date in September, then we have to get on this right away,” he added. The University will also address concerns about future government reduction in research funding by » See FACULTY, page 4
Med School programs provide assistance for refugees
Refugee Health Clinic, BRYTE address healthcare, education needs of young refugees
By GALEN HALL AND JONATHAN DOUGLAS SENIOR STAFF WRITERS
With the questionable future that many refugees in the United States face, the Alpert Medical School community is taking steps to provide resources and care for refugee children in Rhode Island. The Refugee Health Clinic at Hasbro Children’s Hospital — led by Carol Lewis, associate professor of pediatrics and director of the clinic — is an important first stop for child refugees coming to Rhode Island. Refugees often have difficulties accessing health care during their first year in the country, Lewis said. “(The Refugee Health Clinic) is …
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
INSIDE
SAM BERUBE / HERALD
BRYTE, which was previously housed under the Swearer Center for Public Service, was recently incorporated into the Alpert Medical School. The Med School has been providing funding for the program for several years. unique in Rhode Island,” Lewis said. “We see (the refugees) for their initial evaluations, and they stay with us for their primary care.”
Half of Rhode Island’s refugees are children, Lewis said, adding that they all go through the clinic. These children often need more care than the clinic
can provide. “What we do in a 20- to 30-minute visit here is a tiny drop in the bucket of what (the refugees) need out in the community to keep them
healthy,” she added. The children often arrive at the clinic with physical health problems, but “none of these kids are public health threats,” Lewis said, adding that “they are so vetted … and they have extensive medical exams” before being allowed into the country. The major problems new refugees face include developmental issues and trauma. “I have a Syrian family with a nine-year-old kid who’s never been to school,” Lewis said. In recent years, the clinic has developed community health programs to help these refugees adjust to their new homes. “One of the most exciting things that (has happened) recently is that we received a grant from the Rhode Island Foundation about a year ago to train community health workers,” Lewis said. These health workers help refugees navigate the health care system, which is often difficult due to language barriers and bureaucratic red tape, she added. Lewis also advises Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment, a » See REFUGEES, page 2
WEATHER
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017
NEWS DPS crime log shows series of criminal incidences from December to mid-February
ARTS & CULTURE Re|ACT symposium features 22 international artists, launches Brown Arts Initiative
COMMENTARY Sauber ’20: SEAS allows staff, faculty to focus on efficiency at expense of accessibility
COMMENTARY Jacobs ’18: Reliance on social media for news leads to formation of political echo chambers
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PAGE 2 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
COURTESY OF NICK DENTAMARO
Cast members of Brown’s production of “In the Heights” rehearse their roles. The play centers around the dramatic everyday life of a family living in Washington Heights.
» HEIGHTS, from page 1 crime and poverty, contending with his impish and flighty cousin, Sonny, and vying for the affections of young hairdresser Vanessa. “In the Heights” focuses on the complexity of the everyday lives of its characters, featuring hashed-out drama, salsa interludes and saccharine monologues. Viva Sandoval ’20 plays Nina, a college freshman returned home for the summer.
» REFUGEES, from page 1 student group that provides one-onone in-home tutoring for refugee children. “(In-home tutoring) is a wonderful model because, for a lot of refugee families, the costs to go elsewhere for tutoring are too expensive,” she said. BRYTE was founded in 2006 as an undergraduate student group. It now pairs about 130 tutors from Brown with refugee students each year, and recently it moved from the Swearer Center for Public Service to the Med School, where it can “leverage the older age and life experience that (medical) school students have,” said VyVy Trinh ’11 MD’17, president of BRYTE. “The tutoring is English language acquisition-focused,” Trinh said, adding that English proficiency is often what
Throughout the play, Nina deals with her overprotective parents’ disapproval of her choice to take a leave of absence from Stanford, as well as her relationship with Benny, her father’s employee and the only non-Hispanic character. Meanwhile, Nina’s best friend from childhood, Vanessa — played by Elise Harmon ’17 — longs to move away from Washington Heights like her studious companion. Though the play begins slowly, it picks up during the culmination of the
first half of the musical — when a blackout interrupts the characters. “We are powerless,” they croon poignantly, if a little too on the nose. Stand-outs from this weekend’s performance include powerhouse vocalists Sandoval and Harmon, showcasing singing chops that belong on a Broadway stage. Moreover, Sandoval is the perfect Nina, capturing the character’s complex amalgamation of naivety, cleverness and innocence. Also noteworthy is the
impressive acting talent of Paola Jimenez ’20, whose accent, stage presence and vocals steal the show. On the Broadway stage, “In the Heights” was met with mixed reviews. Many critics lauded the scoring and performances, but some felt that a musical with tickets that sometimes cost over $1,000 was not the best way to comment on social issues like gentrification. With “Hamilton,” too, Miranda faced similar criticisms — while bringing diversity,
inclusivity and representation to the theater is an undisputedly crucial feat, it can alienate exactly the people who these creations are supposed to include. That being said, now more than ever, it is direly important to perform these works again and again. In these tumultuous times, the charge to push back against homogeneity is being led by the art world with great success. “In the Heights” will continue its run at Brown this upcoming weekend.
parents are most concerned about. This tutoring is valuable because English proficiency and achievement in school are often the biggest predictors of success for refugee children, Lewis said. Natalie Feinstein ’20, a BRYTE tutor, works with Kollali, a fifth-grade Eritrean refugee born in an Ethiopian refugee camp. Feinstein helps Kollali improve her English by working off some general guidelines and training provided by BRYTE, though she largely develops her own lessons. While Feinstein is only officially tasked with tutoring Kollali, she helps all five of Kollali’s siblings with their English as well, playing games and completing lessons with them. The program stays with refugees beyond their first two years in the United States, which many organizations do not do, said Julia Chang ’18 MD’22,
academic-year coordinator and summer camp director for BRYTE. BRYTE also encourages “social advocacy in small ways,” Trinh said. Such advocacy can include guidance on applying to college, “mentoring and (developing) social-emotional literacy,” she added. Chang, who tutors Monique, an eighteen-year-old refugee from Burundi, said she has developed a strong relationship with her tutee outside of an academic setting, spending time with her and even helping with her driving test. “She’s really amazing. … I’m so happy I’ve gotten to know her,” Chang said. “She’s so beautiful, so smart, really sarcastic and really knows herself.” The program provides BRYTE tutors with many learning opportunities as well, Chang said. It’s a “bidirectional
learning experience,” she added. “You’re not here to save someone.” Though the Med School only recently took BRYTE under its wing, it has been supportive of the program for a long time, Chang said. In the past, the Med School has provided two grants for BRYTE’s summer camp, which hosted 106 refugees this past summer and is currently in the process of raising money for this year. “It felt like a really natural movement towards the Med School and … a model of acknowledging that health and education intersect in a lot of ways, especially for at-risk populations,” Chang added. The advocacy that BRYTE and community health workers provide for refugees may become more important in the wake of President Trump’s executive order on immigration and future related
policies, Lewis said. Besides continuing these efforts, “there’s not really anything that the medical community can do,” she said. People who work with the refugee community saw the effects of the order firsthand. “I was really struck when … we had (incoming) kids lined up to be seen, and we got emails telling us that they couldn’t come,” Lewis said, adding that the children were four and five-year-olds. “That was kind of heartbreaking.” But members of the refugee community have displayed a “remarkable sense of resilience,” Trinh said. “For many of those families I spoke with … (the executive order) was on their minds, but across the board they said, ‘We’re doing okay — so many Americans have been nice to us.’”
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017 • PAGE 3
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
Watson panel debates ‘Future of the Republican Party’ Republican political analysts discuss party’s direction, division between party members By STEPHANIE REYES SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Despite President Trump’s presidential victory and the Republican Party’s control of Congress, the future of the conservative movement and of the party itself remains uncertain. Republican political analysts discussed these uncertainties and the trajectory of American politics in Tuesday’s “The Future of the Republican Party” — part of the Watson Distinguished Speaker Series — sponsored by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy. The event was also co-sponsored by the Brown Democrats and the Brown College Republicans. David Corn ’81, Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones, mediated the discussion between Mercedes Schlapp — Fox News contributor and political commentator for Spanish media — and John Weaver, a political consultant best known for his work on Sen. John McCain’s D-AZ 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns. Throughout the discussion, the three panelists remarked on the current divide within the Republican Party. “There are two worlds,” Schlapp said. “There is a disconnect in America — the thinkers, the elites, are appalled by (Trump’s) actions,” Schlapp said. “Then there’s the guy working in a coal mine thinking, ‘Goodness, this guy’s fighting
for me!’” Supporters of Trump are pleased with his unconventional nature, Schlapp said, adding that attacks against the mainstream media and his opponents fuel his base. “They want him to step it up to go after Democrats and Republicans” alike, Schlapp said. Though Republicans are currently conflicted over his policies and conduct, Trump’s connections to social conservatives and neoconservatives will mend divisions within the party, Schlapp said. Additionally, the president’s pro-life stance and nomination of conservative judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court have been seen as attempts to reach out to the conservative movement, she added. Weaver, however, was less confident in the future of the Republican Party based on Trump’s current approval ratings. “If his (approval) falls below 38 percent, Republicans are going to start separating,” Weaver said. “We are handcuffed to his success or failure at the moment.” Weaver also voiced concern over the numerous controversies surrounding the six-week-old administration, particularly in regards to its controversial employment of “alternative facts.” “If one of my clients asked me to go out and lie to the press or public, I would resign,” Weaver said. “The president owes it to all Americans — especially to those who voted for him — to tell the truth,” he added. Schlapp juxtaposed what she considered bipartisan efforts on the part of Trump to former President Barack Obama’s inability to reach a middle ground in Congress. Weaver disagreed
NAOMY PEDROZA / HERALD
John Weaver, a political consultant best known for his work on U.S. Sen. John McCain’s, R-AZ, campaign, discussed the current divide within the Republican party during the panel “The Future of the Republican Party.” with her remarks and argued that former President George W. Bush acted more as a national unifier than either Obama or Trump. Focusing on the 2018 elections, the panelists recognized the importance of the Hispanic vote in maintaining Republican control of national politics. Though the electoral map currently favors Republicans, future elections will depend on the success of Trump’s policies in Hispanic communities,
Schlapp added. Schlapp noted the impact Hispanics made in the most recent election, particularly in Florida, where over 50 percent of Cuban-Americans voted for Trump. Based on the strong Hispanic turnout in Florida, Weaver said the Republican Party needs to tailor its efforts to appeal to Hispanic voters in states like Texas. Schlapp — herself a first-generation Cuban-American — emphasized that
the future of the Republican Party hinges on expanding its Hispanic voter base, in addition to attracting other minorities to the party. “Trump cheered getting 35 percent of the Hispanic vote — that’s not good enough,” Schlapp said, adding that even Bush’s 45 percent was insufficient to guarantee the Party’s success in a country with shifting demographics. “The Republican Party shouldn’t be handing the Democrats these minority votes,” she said.
DPS crime log reveals multiple cases of winter larceny Recent crimes include bundle of stolen sweatshirts from Brown Bookstore, stolen wallet By GWEN EVERETT SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The following summary includes all major incidents reported to the Department of Public Safety between Dec. 13, 2016 and Mar. 6, 2017. It does not include general service and alarm calls. The Providence Police Department also responds to incidents occurring off campus. DPS does not divulge information on cases that are currently under investigation by the department, PPD or the Office of Student Life. DPS maintains a daily log of all shift activity and general service calls which can be viewed during business hours at its headquarters, located at 75 Charlesfield St. Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016, 10:50 a.m. An employee of the University reported a stolen blue and gray Tommy Hilfiger wallet from her purse. The woman said her wallet — which contained several credit cards — had been safely stowed in the manager’s office. The wallet is worth $50 itself. Tuesday, Jan. 10, 3:32 p.m. A University bookstore employee reported that a white GoPro camera was missing from its display case. The camera was worth about $300. Wednesday, Jan. 11, 8:43 p.m.
KATE TALERICO / HERALD
A RISD student visiting the Nelson Fitness Center finished his workout to discover that his iPhone 7 had gone missing. The phone was worth about $500. Wednesday, Jan. 11, 6:38 p.m. Two males entered the Brown Bookstore and proceeded to grab six Women’s Polo Hooded sweatshirts as well as twelve Brown sweatshirts. Collectively, the merchandise was worth $1,800. Saturday, Jan. 14, 10:14 p.m. A University employee reported missing a 12” iPad Pro and a Kyocera cell phone from the Brown Bookstore. The iPad was worth approximately
$1,000, and the cell phone was estimated to have cost about $25. Thursday Jan. 19, 2:02 p.m. An employee of the University left her black Columbia jacket in the basement of Caswell Hall. When she returned to retrieve it, the $150 jacket had been taken. Saturday, Jan. 21, 3:02 p.m. A student reported that his apartment had been broken into. Items stolen included a Red Ibanez guitar, a black Lime-G amplifier and a set of guitar pedals. Altogether, the missing musical equipment amounted to a loss of $650. The Providence Police Department responded.
Sunday, Jan. 22, 5:30 a.m. On Washington Street, a University student was assaulted by two males. The PPD responded. Wednesday, Jan. 25, 1:32 p.m. A University student called DPS to report that his black 21-speed road bicycle had been taken from the bike rack near Perkins Hall. The bicycle had been left unlocked and was estimated to be worth $400. Thursday, Jan. 26, 7:10 p.m. A University alum was walking near the corner of Brown and Cushing streets when he was assaulted. DPS included no further description of the assailant.
Sunday, Jan. 29, 11:24 p.m. A student returned to Barbour Hall after winter break to find that her silver and blue Fuji crosstown bicycle — which she had left there for the break’s entirety — had been stolen from Room 70 of the building. It had been valued at approximately $100. Tuesday, Jan. 31, 10:01 p.m. A University student told DPS that her car had been broken into, the thief having taken her backpack. Its contents — a gray Samsung laptop and two credit cards — were valued at $900. Friday, Feb. 3, 1:13 p.m. Two students from Hope High School reported that they were assaulted by a number of young men outside of Tealuxe on Angell and Thayer streets. In the midst of the encounter, one of the students lost an iPhone 5, valued at approximately $250. Saturday Feb. 4, 10:29 a.m. A University student reported her Mac Book Air laptop — which was worth approximately $900 — missing from Sayles Hall. Tuesday, Feb. 14, 9:55 p.m. On Valentine’s Day, a University student told DPS that her Pitman Street apartment had been broken into, with the intruder eventually leaving without stealing any belongings. Providence Police responded. Thursday, Feb. 16, 7:35 p.m. A University employee reported that despite securing his red Dawes 12-speed bicycle, it was stolen from in front of the Pizzitola Center. It was worth an estimated $200.
ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017
» FACULTY, from page 1 identifying the most vulnerable research grants and putting aside funds to supplement them should cuts occur, Locke said. The newest executive order concerning immigration is — like the original — contrary to the University’s values, Paxson said. “Our purpose is still to bring the best and brightest people around the world to Brown,” she added. Stepping down from a national perspective and looking to Providence,
faculty members engaged in small group discussions to brainstorm strategies to unify and strengthen community outreach efforts. “There’s just this wide diversity of things that faculty are doing,” Paxson said. “My concern with (outreach), frankly, is that it’s so broad and so scattered that our impact is not as great as it might be,” if the University focused on specific areas and combined forces, she added. The discussions contributed to a larger evaluation of the University’s ongoing contributions to the Providence community spearheaded by
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Albert Dahlberg, assistant vice president of government and community relations. The evaluation includes a working group and an online survey to capture the involvement of faculty, staff and students beyond Brown, Dahlberg said. Faculty discussed involving community members and entities in decisions about the needs of the community to ensure that engagement efforts actually benefit Providence. The Swearer Center recently organized “a community partnerships unit of three professionals who are out
in the community on a daily basis,” said Mathew Johnson, director of the Swearer Center and associate dean for engaged scholarship. The center is also launching Brown Engage, an online platform for tracking and documenting students who have participated in engaged learning programs, he added. Paxson also announced that Andrew Campbell, dean of the graduate school and professor of medical science, and his colleagues succeeded in renewing the University’s Initiative for Maximizing Student Development grant for another five years.
Locke addressed the recent developments in graduate student unionization. Though the administration has not received a petition to unionize from graduate students, the University maintains that “this is a decision that the graduate students make,” Locke said. “We want to create an environment where people can have a fair and well-informed debate,” he added. To that end, a letter will be sent out to faculty and staff members to ensure they do not inadvertently sway graduate students toward or away from unionization, Locke said.
re|ACT symposium kicks off Brown Arts Initiative International artists speak at weekend-long symposium on arts, environment By ETHEL RENIA SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Last weekend marked a historic time for the University’s arts community: the launch of the Brown Arts Initiative. Thursday afternoon, faculty members, students and administrators gathered in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts’ modern and spacious studios to celebrate and kick off the weekendlong re|ACT symposium on arts and the environment. “We are rolling out the BAI at a moment of uncertainty for the arts and the … humanities community,” said President Christian Paxson P’19 in a speech at the opening event. “We have looming threats to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities (and) some real concerns about
freedom of expression, which is core to what artists do in their lives. In this kind of time, active and principled support for the arts is more essential than ever.” The BAI brings together eight different creative departments and institutions at Brown in order to promote art in an interdisciplinary environment. “The experimental, collaborative and engaged art practice and scholarship … is emblematic of Brown and a hallmark of ” the BAI, said Faculty Director of the BAI Joseph Butch Rovan, who also co-directs the Multimedia Electronic Music Experiments program and previously chaired the music department. Twenty-two international artists, writers, curators, architects, musicians and designers participated in the symposium. With their various backgrounds and fields, the speakers provided an interdisciplinary take on the environment. With their work, they exemplified how creative thought and artistic processes relate to the environment.
“The symposium … was designed to communicate the breadth and interdisciplinary focus of the BAI,” wrote Anne Bergeron, managing director of the BAI, in an email to The Herald. Because the notion of “arts and environment” is germane to all art forms and the notion of “environment” can also be interpreted broadly, a range of future programming opportunities can be created, she added. Keynote speaker Natalie Jeremijenko, an Australian artist, engineer and professor at New York University, spoke on Friday about mutualism — a biological concept that suggests that two organisms or species can coexist in a mutually beneficial state. Pollination is an example of mutualism, in which bees and flowers both benefit from the existence of the other. Jeremijenko questioned the current reductionist attitude in the context of environmental preservation. Rather than seeking to continually reduce one’s carbon footprint, Jeremijenko argued for rethinking humankind’s relationship with the environment
altogether. Her work innovates new designs and relationships that are mutually beneficial to humans and the flora and fauna of a specific location. “We can do more than less. We can do something,” she said. “We can benefit from each other’s presence.” The symposium’s panels also touched on other subjects that syngerized art and the environmental cause. Architects and artists used water in their designs in environmentally responsible ways. Musicians and composers intimately interacted with the natural world to create soundscapes. Photographers and writers explored the plastic pollution of the world’s oceans. The plastic pollution panel featured artists such as Marcus Eriksen, a pivotal player in the legislative battle to ban microbeads in the United States. Microbeads are small bits of plastic found in hygiene products such as toothpaste or body scrubs that pollute water and are detrimental to sea life. Another panelist was Pam Longobardi, who makes art out of the
plastic she collects while cleaning polluted beaches. Plastic will be the one lasting impression humans will leave behind — a marker of the anthropocene, the geological age in which human activity has dominated the environment, Longobardi said. The symposium is accompanied by exhibitions such as Chris Jordan’s “Message from the Gyre,” which pictures dead albatross on Midway Island. The birds died with bellies stuffed with plastic they had mistaken for food. The portraits of the plastic’s victims call for a “radical global change of consciousness,” Jordan said. The exhibition will be on display at Granoff ’s Cohen Gallery until March 24. Throughout the weekend, artists pushed for awareness of environmental degradation at the hands of current human lifestyles. Words by Carl Safina, a nature writer who spoke at the plastic pollution panel, echoed this sentiment: “Why do you make art out of plastic garbage? To make people look — because that’s the role of the artist.”
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RELEASE DATE– Monday, September 29, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich ACROSS 1 Headliners 6 Prefix with final or trailer 10 Ward of “CSI: NY” 14 “Wowie!” 15 Frau’s home 16 Medicine cabinet swab 17 Boil out of the pot 19 Sch. near the Rio Grande 20 Old Testament twin 21 Leaves 22 Goethe classic 23 Sun. message 25 Shortening for pie-making 27 Present in lieu of cash 35 Genetics lab subject 36 Mix with a spoon 37 Hard to lift 38 Where serveand-volley tennis players win a lot of points 40 Dict. entry 42 Sturm und __ 43 Attacks 45 Gin flavoring 47 Neither here __ there 48 Doctors doing reconstructive work 51 Verdi opera 52 Turkish bigwig 53 Where to find Houston St. and Penn Sta. 56 Hammer or saw 59 Stadium cheers 63 Hawaii’s “Valley Isle” 64 Director’s “We’re done,” and hint to the starts of 17-, 27- and 48Across 66 Requests 67 Frau’s mate 68 Backyard barbecue site 69 Newsman Huntley 70 Celestial bear 71 Wield DOWN 1 Tea brand with a lizard logo 2 Consequently
3 “Dancing Queen” band 4 Strong and healthy 5 Word segment: Abbr. 6 “Scram, fly!” 7 Roof overhang 8 Rolled oats cereal 9 Jerusalem’s land: Abbr. 10 Cop show wheels 11 Caesar’s disbelieving words 12 Golfers’ concerns 13 Date bk. entry 18 “Snowy” heron 22 Breakfast sandwich item 24 Deliriously happy 26 CIO partner 27 Clutch tightly 28 “__ inside”: chipmaker’s slogan 29 Classic orange soda 30 Get __ of: throw out 31 Rapunzel feature 32 Hersey’s “A Bell for __”
33 Mortise insert 34 Some MIT grads 39 Charles Lamb, notably 41 Winter ailment 44 Three times daily, on an Rx 46 Tough tests 49 Novelist Willa 50 Auditory canal blocker 53 Colorful old Apple
54 “Parsley is gharsley” poet Ogden 55 Microwave 57 Paddles, e.g. 58 Mexican’s “other” 60 Comic Johnson 61 Word with spray or style 62 Laundry challenge 64 Day before Fri. 65 Swinger in the jungle
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
LILLY NGUYEN / HERALD
A dance session Saturday — part of the Artists and Scientists as Partners Symposium — provided individuals with Parkinson’s Disease an opportunity to express themselves physically in a relaxed environment.
Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
“Why do you make art out of plastic garbage? To make people look — because that’s the role of the artist.” — Carl Safina, nature writer
See brown arts initiative on page 4.
xwordeditor@aol.com
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Goldman Sachs - An Inside Look at Goldman Sachs 6:00 P.M. CareerLAB
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Efficient Academic Reading 12:00 P.M. J. Walter Wilson, 203
The Dialogue: Cyberwarfare 12:00 P.M. Brown Center for Students of Color
“Vegucated” Documentary Screening 7:00 P.M. Smith-Buonanno Hall, 201
The Path to Mental Health 7:30 P.M. Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center
COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017
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comic P-Branes and Bosons | Ricky Oliver
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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017 • PAGE 7
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
The irony of SEAS’ inaccessibility ELYSE SAUBER
op-ed contributor
Before coming to Brown, I had never felt discriminated against as a result of my disability. Despite the crippling anxiety that I have dealt with since the first grade, it was always my towering stature and poor eyesight that made me feel like an outsider in my community. Mental health issues were unsurprisingly prevalent at my small private high school in the middle of Washington, D.C., and most of my peers felt comfortable enough to discuss and share their struggles with mental illness. As September quickly approached and my matriculation to Brown became imminent, I grew more and more excited about the idea of studying at a university that most likely would boast an average height taller than five-foot six-inches. When I arrived on campus, I immediately felt at home among the similarly-sized basketball and volleyball players. For a moment, I felt blissfully content, and all of my insecurities faded away. That is, until classes and my subsequent involvement with the Student and Employee Accessibility Services began. I would expect Brown, as a liberal institution, to provide students with progressive care. At the least, I expected the basic standard of treat-
ment that the law requires. My accommodations have not been viewed as a collective interest of the office, and instead I have been blamed and reprimanded for the mistakes of the SEAS office and university professors. SEAS’ tendency to lean toward internal efficiency — due in part to the sheer number of individuals with disabilities at Brown — has forced me to navigate several breaches of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a piece of civil rights legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis
vices where necessary to afford an individual with a disability an equal opportunity to participate in, and enjoy the benefits of, a service, program or activity conducted by a public entity. To summarize, the University cannot legally exclude students who have documented accommodations from fully participating in basic University activities and must provide resources or make necessary accommodations so that each student may benefit from equal opportunity. Since the beginning of my col-
spent nights before major exams fighting for documented accommodations that I am legally required to have, limiting valuable study time and increasing anxiety leading up to the test. The night before an exam, a teaching assistant told me that to receive extra time to take that exam during the 50-minute class period (I had been granted accommodations for an extra 25 minutes), I would have to stay after class to finish and miss half of my concurrent 1 p.m. class. Therefore, I was given the choice
I would expect Brown, as a liberal institution, to provide students with progressive care. At the least, I expected the basic standard of treatment that the law requires. of any type of disability, physical or mental, alone. Generally speaking, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 — essentially the predecessor of the ADA — states that “no otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability” be excluded from or discriminated against in any program that receives federal financial assistance. In terms of accommodation services for students with disabilities at postsecondary institutions, colleges must provide ser-
lege career, I have dealt with unfair treatment in regard to the accommodations that I undeniably should have. When a professor accidentally mixed up accommodations for the first midterm of my freshman year, I was obliged to perform a series of anxiety-provoking tasks — including taking my exam in Salomon 101 with 200-plus students (instead of a private room), turning in my exam and walking to an unfamiliar building at 9 p.m. to finish the test with my extra time only to find the front door locked. On multiple occasions, I have
between forgoing my extra time or missing class. After a series of email exchanges with SEAS and the professor and TAs of the course, at midnight I was left with no response and no answer. Approximately two hours before the exam the next day, the professor affirmed that missing class was my only option to receive the extra time. I was denied participation in a program or activity — my class — which is not only illegal, but also heightened my anxiety significantly. What’s more is that the email conversations the
night prior caused me to lose several hours of valuable study time. These incidents obviously affected my performance on these exams. I receive accommodations to alleviate my anxiety and to put me on a fair playing field. Instead, I have regularly been subjected to unfairness that has ironically resulted in more stress, a tenfold increase in anxiety and lower grades. Despite my attempts to communicate with SEAS both prior to and after these incidences, these situations keep occurring and SEAS has failed to properly accommodate me. Frankly, I expected more from my dream school. I was thrilled to be a part of the liberal, open-minded and unprejudiced university that had been at the top of my list since I was a child. And while for the most part this has been my experience, I have been disappointed in not only the way I have been treated by professors, but also in SEAS’ lack of responsibility in holding professors accountable for these errors. If Brown truly is the progressive institution that it purports to be, then the mental well-being of students should be viewed as a priority, not merely a threat to the efficiency of the administration. Brown has a responsibility to provide fair treatment to all individuals it accepts into its gates.
Elyse Sauber ’20 can be reached at elyse_sauber@brown.edu.
The narcissism of social media politics JULIAN JACOBS staff columnist We’ve all seen social media’s power to catalyze political change by providing users with a platform to organize and share ideas. After all, the Arab Spring clearly benefited from the proliferation of Facebook throughout the Arab world — approximately nine out of 10 Egyptians and Tunisians reported that they used social media to participate in protests. Here at Brown, taking part in a local protest has never been easier: We’ll see an intriguing Facebook event while scrolling through our newsfeeds, and within seconds, we can designate ourselves as participants. Despite these clear advantages, the rise of social media as a platform for political discourse has had some very pernicious consequences. Perhaps the most widely acknowledged criticism of using social media as a platform for news and politics has been the formation of political “echo chambers” that insulate us from contrarian perspectives, prescribing a diet of information almost exclusively composed of arguments we agree with. In particular, many recent articles have detailed how Facebook conditions our newsfeeds to match our political preferences. The results of this are quite clear: increased polarization, a lack of nuance and, above all, a blunted ability to understand and empathize with other perspectives. These effects are compounded by the selforiented nature of social media. On platforms like Facebook, we tend to create profiles that cast flattering images of ourselves. Much of
Facebook — where the items you like, friends you have, articles you share and posts you write are all open to the community — is about cultivating an image. This is as relevant for 20-yearold pre-professionals with calculated, pristine and sophisticated profile pictures as it is for those that have transformed their walls into bastions for memes, dark humor and obscure irony. When we engage in political discourse on Facebook — by sharing an article, writing an
our feelings of social capital. Consider, for instance, when someone shares a New York Times video depicting the plight of Syrians or the brutality of Boko Haram in Nigeria. Viewers who see the post on their newsfeeds are not simply engaging with the video alone; they are also responding to a third party — the person who posted it. Thus, through social media, the tragedies of impoverished and war-torn communities be-
Through social media, the tragedies of impoverished and war-torn communities become interconnected with our public images. World events that have nothing to do with us are suddenly used to gain likes and win approval on social media platforms, and it’s frequently done through the commodification of injustice, horror and unspeakable cruelty.
impassioned post or exhorting onlookers to sign a petition — we are generally conscious of how our online behavior will be perceived. This works alongside the desire to be accepted — and even praised — by the social communities that we inhabit. What results from this is a kind of neutering of political discussion on sites like Facebook; we choose to post things that will be approved by our Facebook friends and generally supported. Politics is thus inextricably linked to
come interconnected with our public images. World events that have nothing to do with us are suddenly used to gain likes and win approval on social media platforms, and it’s frequently done through the commodification of injustice, horror and unspeakable cruelty. Though this type of “virtue signaling” may incentivize greater political involvement online, I think this is a repugnant and narcissistic way to engage with politics. The issue is exacerbated by the nature of so-
cial media platforms themselves — in particular, their cold ambivalence to the content they facilitate. And I know any person reading this will know exactly what I’m talking about — your Facebook newsfeed might read something like this: “Buzzfeed has posted a video of drunk girls reacting to puppies”; “A U.S. airstrike hits a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan”; “J.K. Rowling says we should not pronounce the ‘T’ in Voldemort”. On Facebook, everything is given the same visibility. Every post has “reaction” options and a comments section (best avoided). And everything is funneled into the currents of superfluous information, the endless monotony of cheap entertainment and engineered dopamine rushes. The abhorrence and triumphs in world news becomes inseparable from everything else, blunting our sensitivity to violence and injustice as well as our empathy for others. The war game montage plays in 1080p right above footage from the real war. Of course, social media does not have to be desensitizing force and beacon for narcissistic politics. But we need to seriously reevaluate how we engage with politics and world affairs on these platforms. In particular, we should all consider why we share the articles we do and what we hope to gain by writing impassioned posts on Facebook. By looking inwards toward our own reasons for political engagement on social media platforms, we might become a bit more understanding of one another and genuine in our compassion.
Julian Jacobs ’18 can be reached at julian_jacobs@brown.edu.
ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017
JENNIFER SHOOK / HERALD
‘Life Will See You Now’ displays affecting sincerity Jens Lekman’s newest LP documents beauty, sadness in mundane experiences By CONNOR SULLIVAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman’s 2015 New Year’s resolution was daunting: He wanted to pen 52 songs — one for every week of the year. The project — officially titled “52 Postcards” — would have been a herculean undertaking for almost any musician, but Lekman pulled it off with aplomb. Few of Lekman’s “postcards” forsake quality for quantity, chronicling broken hearts and national crises through the lens of heartfelt and observational lyricism. But the limit-defying artist responsible for “52 Postcards” must have
experienced a degree of apprehension. Indeed, the track “Postcard #17” speaks to Lekman’s anxious mentality throughout the project. In a stroke of self-reflection, Lekman documents the creative instability inhibiting his writing, singing that he must “trick [him] self into pouring it all out.” Crippling self-doubt is something of a tired trope for the tortured artists of the world, but Lekman, independent music’s spokesman for dejection, opines on working through it with refreshing clarity and sincerity. On “Postcard #17,” Lekman depicts himself climbing out of a hole of insecurities, but at no point does the track ever feel forced or mired in overwrought sentimentality. “Postcard #17” reappears on Lekman’s newly released 2017 LP “Life Will See You Now,” an album that embodies this dark, emotionally fraught dimension of Lekman’s persona. Hints of his sorrow surface in 2012’s “I Know
What Love Isn’t,” but the depression begins to manifest itself wholly in “Life Will See You Now.” Joining “Postcard #17” in its despondency, other songs on the album detail an ex-lover’s perfume (lead single “What’s That Perfume That You Wear?”) and an ailing friend’s tumor (the LouLou Lamottefeaturing “Evening Prayer”), presenting the listener with a humanizing and crestfallen Lekman. But at no point does the despondency of the album preclude an enjoyable and engaging experience for the listener. Unlike so many tortured artists, who tend toward shrouding their depression in innumerable layers of irony, Lekman sings of his foibles with an endearing earnestness. Unwilling to veil their emotion with cynical self-consciousness, the songs play out like sincere documents of the mundane encounters one might have with a woeful friend at a bar, distancing the
album from much of contemporary indie music. Closing track “Dandelion Seed” perhaps best embodies this sincerity as a rainstorm-set rumination on Lekman’s emotional distance from his loved ones. With “Dandelion Seed,” Lekman directly — and honestly — addresses an old friend about his own mounting insecurities. He lends a believable, anecdotal quality to the song by name-dropping locales within his native Gothenburg. Lekman capably describes day-today bouts of misery with these mundane vignettes, portraying quotidian experiences at bus stops and cathedrals with an arresting, transcendent heartache. His capacity for poignantly capturing trivialities with an air of melancholy and admiration remains his most exceptional quality as a singersongwriter. His songs are only made more remarkable by the fact that Lekman’s native language is not English.
The album’s score, replete with rich and upbeat tones, belies its pervading melancholy. Vibrant horns lifted from 80’s synthpop are paired with ebullient backing vocals from artists LouLou Lamotte and Tracey Thorn, providing a sound that would not be out of place on a Jackson 5 record. These elements offer a little levity to Lekman’s despair and grant the impossible-tohate singer-songwriter a much-needed silver lining. Some critics might describe “Life Will See You Now” as post-ironic, full of a welcome sincerity that trumps an all-too frustrating irony. But that is probably too pretentious a phrase for Lekman, who describes how he simply aspires to be a social worker “just like his dad.” This lyric might be the record’s defining moment, a perfect display of the true and unaffected elements that make Lekman and his music so endearing to listeners.