Wednesday, February 8, 2017

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 11

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Faculty meeting addresses U. response to immigration ban Paxson emphasizes U. support for community members, Locke clarifies DIAP, operational plan

By ROSE SHEEHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

SARA RUNKEL / HERALD

Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, and Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor for the National Review, shared their views on Trump’s political stances at a discussion held by the Watson Institute.

U. hosts dialogue on Trump’s policies Politically diverse speakers reflect on President Trump’s immigration, health care policies

By ANNA KRAMER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A conservative and a liberal came together Tuesday to share their per-

spectives of President Donald Trump in what interviewed students called a “startlingly civil conversation.”

Hosted by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs in a packed Metcalf Auditorium, the discussion between Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, and Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor for the National Review, centered on Trump’s policy decisions.

The talk was moderated by Director of the Watson Institute Edward Steinfeld.

The conversation began with a discussion of Trump’s immigration ban. Though immigration policy needs to be rethought, Trump’s executive power is too strong, and he has too much “legal latitude,” Ponnuru said. Tanden agreed that Trump’s use » See TRUMP TALK, page 2

President Christina Paxson P’19 discussed the impact of President Donald Trump’s immigration ban on higher education at the first faculty meeting of the semester Tuesday. Provost Richard Locke also addressed the financing of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan and outlined parallels between the Operational Plan for Building Brown’s Excellence and the DIAP. The University’s mission consists of advancing knowledge in an open way, bringing the highest standards of scholarship to campus and “affirming with everything that we do that we don’t tolerate bigotry, we don’t tolerate xenophobia and hate,” Paxson said. This mission is threatened by “shifts in beliefs and opinions in broader society” and “specific policy changes that could affect higher education,” she added. The future could also bring changes to Title IX and labor policies, research funding, policies toward

undocumented and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival students and endowments, she added.

Paxson said she supports a two-front response that would balance activity in the policy domain with taking care of Brown community members, especially those whose visas have been threatened, who cannot reenter the country and who are afraid to leave the United States.

Trump’s executive order directly affects 22 community members at Brown, Locke said. The administration has put together a group providing services including financial support and legal advice to anyone affected, he added.

If affected international students find it necessary to remain in the United States over the summer, the University will focus on providing summer housing, work opportunities and research options, Paxson said. “Some students from other countries are afraid that if this executive order survives the court challenge, it could be expanded,” she added.

Locke also addressed questions and confusion about the relationship between the Building on Distinction Plan and the DIAP that arose at a faculty commons meeting in January. The goals of the two plans are consistent, he said, adding that » See FACULTY, page 2

Science, art converge at RISD Nature Lab Students use museum collection to study, create artwork informed by biophilic world

By JENNIFER SHOOK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Tucked away behind the Rhode Island School of Design Art Museum is another museum of sorts, less frequented by members of the Brown community than its conspicuous neighbor.

Described by Operations and Engagement Coordinator Lucia Monge as “a place where art and science come together to explore the human nature,” the Nature Lab at RISD was founded in the early part of the 20th century by RISD graduate and, later, faculty member Edna Lawrence. From its early beginnings as an extension of Lawrence’s classroom, the Nature Lab’s collection has grown from 300 specimens to the almost 100,000 items that now make up the Lab’s continuously growing collection, said Lab Coordinator Betsy

ARTS & CULTURE

INSIDE

Sara Ruppa.

Lawrence taught nature drawing at RISD for over 40 years and believed strongly that the natural world and all its colors, patterns and shapes could and should positively inform artists’ creativity, Ruppa said. In 1937, RISD’s Waterman building became home to Lawrence’s nature drawing classroom and the host of natural specimens that informed her students’ work. After Lawrence’s retirement in the late 1970s, her nature drawing classroom was formally renamed the Edna Lawrence Nature Lab in her honor, Ruppa said.

The current collection is made up of plants, sponges, skeletons, taxidermy and geometric models, amongst other samplings, as well as technology such as a scanning electron microscope, geographical information systems and high-speed cameras.

“It’s a combination of a natural history museum and a lending library, full of specimens, which are used as a teaching tool,” Ruppa said.

The lab is also home to a few living specimens, including a nine-year-old corn snake named Netop, which means “hello friend” in Wampanoag. Netop » See NATURE LAB, page 3

JULIA ROSENBERG / HERALD

The RISD Nature Lab is home to over 100,000 pieces and is used for a variety of classes and programs. The lab, which aims to aid both science and art, is open to Brown and RISD students.

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017

ARTS & CULTURE Punk band The Menzingers explores coming-of-age, nostalgia on latest LP

ARTS & CULTURE Jeanine Staples discusses the link between romance, social movements in her new book

COMMENTARY Campbell ’18: Wintersession should operate with clearer logistics, address student needs

COMMENTARY Hyland GS: Rep. Keith Ellison, D-MN, demonstrates viability for progressive leader of DNC

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» TRUMP TALK, from page 1 of executive power has exceeded its appropriate boundaries.

The talk also addressed health care policy in the Trump era. The Affordable Care Act has reached a 50 percent approval rating, its highest ever, Tanden said. “It’s dramatically more popular than Trump himself.”

Creating a plan to replace the ACA “would require Republicans to actually think about health care,” Ponnuru said, adding that Republicans are willing to do anything to stop the ACA. Trump promised better and cheaper health care to those who are upset with the ACA, Tanden said, noting his populist angle.

“Trump’s version of populism is to reflect himself as embodying the popular will,” Ponnuru said. “If you think you speak for the people, your opponents are the enemies of the people,” which is a mistake in a pluralistic society, he added.

Isolating the opposition can lead to widespread demonstrations, such as the recent women’s marches, Tanden said. Though some would like to view the women’s marches and increased insurgent protests as a coastal phenomenon, that interpretation is

incorrect, she said. In states such as Alaska and Montana, the women’s marches were the largest demonstrations those states’ modern history, she added.

“The (United States) goes mad during elections,” Ponnuru said. But this time, “the fever didn’t break” after the inauguration, he added.

Dave Andrews, a high school social studies teacher from Woonsocket, asked whether the wealth gap would widen under Trump’s presidency.

Tanden’s reply was a resounding “yes.”

Students who attended the discussion said they appreciated the bipartisan nature of the conversation. “I was impressed overall,” said Elizabeth Yeh ’19. Steinfeld was “ideologically balanced” and addressed a wide range of topics, she added.

“Not many events at Brown look both left and right,” said Ethan Shire ’19.

It is “a good idea to get a variety of conceptual and intellectual perspectives,” Steinfeld told The Herald. Tanden and Ponnuru “both have records of not just having strong opinions, but (of) being willing to expose those opinions to probing and analysis,” he added. Going forward, Steinfeld hopes to continue to bring a variety of political voices to the University.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

HERALD FILE PHOTO

President Christina Paxson P ’19 and Provost Richard Locke addressed the conflict between President Donald Trump’s policies and the University’s core values and clarified distinctions between University strategic plans.

» FACULTY, from page 1 “diversity and inclusion is … the pathway toward academic excellence at this university.” The operational plan reflects the four key goals of the DIAP: doubling the number of faculty from historically underrepresented groups by 2022, expanding research on race, ethnicity and social justice, diversifying the graduate student population and supporting curricular and extracurricular initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion, Locke said.

The University plans to commit $165 million to enacting the DIAP, Locke said.

Money for particular initiatives has also been incorporated into the budget either as permanent expenses or as one-time commitments, he added. “This is real money that the University is putting into the budget on a fixed rate to support academic excellence and our diversity plans.”

Locke also discussed possible future efforts by graduate students to organize and join unions in light of the August 2016 National Labor Relations Board

ruling, which found that graduate students who serve as teaching and research assistants can be classified as statuary employees. Since the decision, unions have petitioned to represent graduate students at Harvard, Yale and Columbia, Locke said. The University has made a commitment to “support discussions among graduate students … in an objective, fact-based way,” he said, adding that “we’re going to encourage the graduate students themselves to make that decision.”

ARTS & CULTURE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» NATURE LAB, from page 3

JULIA ROSENBERG / HERALD

As the only art school to have received a National Science Foundation grant, RISD allows students to serve as undergraduate research fellows in the Nature Lab and work with the lab’s unique collections over the summer.

is the “most popular creature you’ll ever meet,” Ruppa said. Many RISD students, who come to the lab specifically to visit and play with the gentle snake, are among Netop’s numerous fans and admirers.

There is also a small contingent of axolotls, a type of salamander that, unlike most amphibians, never develops lungs and instead spends its life underwater. While endangered in the wild, axolotls are a popular research specimen. The gilled, legged, neotenous creatures are a common sight in laboratories where their ability to regenerate limbs and — under the duress of hormones or other stressors — morph into land salamanders makes them a fascinating study subject for biology students.

In fact, a biology classroom is exactly how the Nature Lab’s axolotls came to call RISD’s Waterman building home.

A Brown student taking a comparative morphology class that worked with axolotl eggs wanted to save the eggs at the end of the lab work rather than have them thrown out, Ruppa said.

The student had become acquainted with the Nature Lab after spending her summer working there as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow. She decided to bring the eggs to the lab where they developed into a thriving population, she added.

“Here, they are nearly extinct, but they’re used regularly in research labs (all) over the globe,” Ruppa said. “So, they’re all over the place in captivity, but in the wild … (axolotls) are in one little lake (in Mexico).”

Fellowships through SURF, 10week summer internships funded through the National Science Foundation, are but one of many ways that students are involved with the lab and its work. RISD is the only art school to have received a National Science Foundation grant, Monge said.

RISD students make up a large portion of the Lab’s daily maintenance

workforce. Work-study students care for the lab’s living animals and learn how to pin insects, fix skeletons, make displays and acquire new specimens for museums.

Working at the Nature Lab is like being in a “biology or zoology classroom,” said Evan Fredriksen, a RISD student. While Fredriksen spends his time in the classroom majoring in Film/ Animation/Video, at the Nature Lab he cares for the lab’s various animals and identifies specimens that the museum gathers based off field guides and other resources. “It’s pretty separate from artwork but uses a lot of the same skills,” Fredrikson said.

“It’s not your typical art school education,” Ruppa said.

The Nature Lab is open for free to the RISD and Brown community, but members of the public must schedule visits and classroom field trips to the lab in order to use its resources. While RISD students primarily take advantage of the lab’s collections, it has increasingly become frequented by classes and individual students from Brown, Monge said. For RISD and Brown students alike, the lab serves as a place for students to “just be” and exist in a “biophilic space,” Monge said.

“Students here can learn from the arts and sciences and from nature itself,” Monge said.

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ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Pennsylvania punk band grapples with adulthood on new LP Scranton-inspired ‘After the Party’ displays The Menzingers’ rumination on expiring youth

By CONNOR SULLIVAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Scranton, Pennsylvania isn’t known for terribly much. Some might recognize it as the setting of NBC’s “The Office,” a show that humorously depicts the grind of working at a papermaking company — a droll job that epitomizes so much of Scranton’s mundanity. Once home to a prosperous coal industry, the city has since transformed into a paradigm of the commercially-depressed Rust Belt.

The inhabitants there remain drained by the city’s dire economic straits.

Yet Scranton has fulfilled its purpose by serving as the inspiration for The Menzingers’ newest LP “After The Party.” Catered to those who feel marginalized, disenfranchised, frustrated and defeated, the Scranton-based punk band speaks to a certain brand of individual. Past albums, including 2012’s “On The Impossible Past” and 2014’s “Rented World,” detail the monotony of dead-end food service jobs, the futility of gas station lotto tickets and other generally bleak circumstances.

Similar to the band itself and for the hopelessly trapped characters whose storylines are recounted within these songs, punk is a platform for expressing discontent — a veritable religion that binds and affirms society’s oppressed actors. It is a source of refuge for the blue-collar blues that is maybe eclipsed only by alcohol-soaked comfort. Holding dive bars and house parties as the wistful apotheosis of the Pabst Blue Ribbonridden twenty-something, the band speaks to a drunken escapism that would put Hemingway to shame.

But in “After The Party,” The Menzingers’ fifth studio album, the

hangover has at least partially lifted.

Just like the rays of the sun after a particularly heavy night of drinking, the album hits with painful clarity. Previous albums’ whiskey-fueled anthems have evolved into heart-on-the-sleeve ruminations in a thematic maturation that mirrors the band members’ coming-of-age. “Where are we going to go now that our twenties are over?” ponders Greg Barnett, the band’s frontman, on opening track “Tellin’ Lies.”

The song is torn between ambivalence and longing for the past, reflecting a complicated nostalgia effortlessly highlighted by Barnett’s uncompromising sincerity. Full of references to a youth too quickly passed by, the lyrics carry both a wistful ephemerality and a sense of uncertainty. With a definite duality, the track’s catchy, driving melody belies and fails to capture the speaker’s serious fear of being perceived as a burn-out by society.

This sharp contrast between thematic content and melodic choice captures Barnett’s dismay as he grows older.

The creeping “Black Mass” and the eponymous “After The Party” are also standouts that extend the regrettinged, aged introspection to subjects like tired relationships and alternative culture. “After the Party” references “your silhouette in high top sneakers /And hardcore from laptop speakers,” singularly conveying the quintessential punk scene. “Lookers,” however, remains the LP’s most exceptional cut. With a speaker “lost in a picture frame” and shrouded by “a cloud full of nicotine,” the track is the apex of the album’s confessional nostalgia.

Its position as the lead single of the album is no mistake; the lyrical wisdom is complemented by perhaps the band’s most infectious chorus to date.

“Lookers,” arresting and thoughtful, embodies everything moving about punk, while “Charlie’s Army” stands as the album’s weakest link. Lyrically vapid and musically uninteresting, the track regresses to puerile punk that even blink-182 wouldn’t be caught

KATE TALERICO / HERALD

dead making.

Nostalgia remains an exercise in futility. It’s fitting that most of the memories explored on “After The Party” involve drinking. Like alcohol, nostalgia easily lends itself to dangerous, fleeting self-indulgence.

But on the LP, The Menzingers manage to avoid devolving into more maudlin aspects. Rather, the punk act uses nostalgia to constructively reflect and look toward the past not dreamily, but warily. The album ultimately affirms the notion that being

too embroiled in the past precludes progress, destining one for life as another Scranton townie burn-out.

Luckily, that’s a future that the band, with their strongest album to date, almost certainly will not face.

“The Revelations of Asher” experiments with social justice, identity In innovative amalgam of narrative, poetry, analysis, Jeanine Staples dissects human trauma

By ELIZABETH TOLEDANO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

What does “supreme love” have to do with social justice movements? Jeanine Staples, associate professor of literacy and language, African American studies and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Pennsylvania State University, addressed

that question when she spoke Thursday in Pembroke Hall about the relationship between romance and social movements.

She discussed her ethnographic research on identity — specifically that of heterosexual women involved in romantic relationships — which is the topic of her book “The Revelations of Asher: Toward Supreme Love in Self.”

Though the book focuses on romantic and sexual relations as a window into the tenets of emotional estrangement and misguided love in the United States, it was intended to be something quite different. When Staples first began her ethnographic study, she intended to link the experiences of black women in post-9/11 America with those of women of color in fundamentalist Muslim nations. However, as she wrote, a connection emerged between terror on an interpersonal level and “Terror,” such as that which occurred on 9/11, on a larger scale. In this manner, Staples explores how “impacting, meaningful external revolutions are provided by meaningful, internal revelations.”

Failing to confine itself to any one genre, the book is an innovative take on research analysis, experimenting with form, data presentation and storytelling.

Throughout the novel, Staples plays with various techniques, compiling what is better described as a collage than a book into what she calls a “new literacies event.”

The text, around 600 pages in length, consistently engages the reader through its dynamism and innovative presentation.

The book spans from factual to abstract, written as interspersed analysis,

narrative and poetry. Staples begins with a recollection from her childhood and then transitions into an authentic conversation with her reader, assessing the anecdotes that she has collected and explaining their implications in contemporary society.

Much of the text is devoted to clarifying the book’s layout and intention in an accessible way while consciously catering to an academic readership. In one instant, the reader follows the stories of young black women discussing their crushes, then encounters an experimental poem on trauma, all while Staples breaks the fourth wall to discuss her motive for including the scenes.

The section devoted to narrative amasses the experiences of women involved in the ethnographic study, each told through the lens of a group of distinct characters. The anecdotes, which center around themes in heterosexual relationships including abuse, breakups and abstinence, function as allegories for a larger cultural assessment. Each of the characters, or “fragmented selves,” represents reflections on the shared experiences of educated, black, Christian, heterosexual, cisgender women. Staples follows their stories as they experience

various revelations, and the readers watch while each character’s unique perspectives on everything from God to ideal prospective husbands evolve.

Periodically, Staples creates an interlude for poetry relating to cultural events, specifically 9/11. Some poems also focus on her character’s lives, touching on various traumas including rape and child molestation through the characters’ own voices. Other times, Staples inserts email exchanges, bible quotes and Q&A sections, playing with the presentation of amassed data and the boundaries of traditional prose. Throughout the book, Staples identifies specific speakers and themes through untraditional fonts, highlighting and even changes in the color of the text.

Staples’ work ultimately revolves around a question posed by musician Rachelle Ferrell: “‘How can there be peace in the Middle East, when there’s none at home?’” Her text approaches the question within the parameters of a locally accessible narrative. She reveals to readers how by defying toxicity at home, women can approach an ultimate assertion of selfhood and oneness, a “supreme love” which “heals and saves people.”

TODAY

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017 • PAGE 5

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sudoku

ELI WHITE / HERALD

Elizabeth Goss, founder of Goss and Associates Immigration Law, examined the impact of President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on immigration in Salomon on Tuesday.

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

“I didn’t truly realize I was a good poet until a few years after my MFA program, when my mom told me she could crossword

understand what I was writing.

”

— Keegan Lester, poet

See poetry on back.

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Race and Inequality Seminar 12:00 P.M. Mencoff Hall, Seminar Room

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Trump’s Ban: A Teach-In 5:30 P.M. 85 Waterman Street, 130

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Empowering First-Gen Students to Succeed 4:00 P.M. Metcalf Research Building, 101 Navigating Life at Brown 12:00 P.M. Sciences Library, 520

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Are You Secure?

2:30 P.M. Joukowsky Forum

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In the Wake: On Blackness and Being 5:30 P.M. Pembroke Hall, 305

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Response to Geoffrey Stone’s “Free Speech on Campus” Lecture To the Editor: Though I was not able to attend “Free Speech on Campus,” the lecture given by Geoffrey Stone, professor of law at the University of Chicago, I looked forward to reading about the community’s response in The Herald.

To my dismay, I learned that yet another highly educated white man used the power he had at the podium to mock a student who respectfully asked him to stop using racial epithets. Before you jump to the conclusion that I wasn’t there and that I missed the context, let me assure you that the lecture was recorded and I watched it.

After Stone told the student that he would not refrain from using racial epithets, he used some curse words and asked that student — mid sentence — if the use of those curses was acceptable. I am outraged that this eminent speaker dared to make the joke that his use of the word “jackass” is just as insulting as his use of the “n-word.”

The English language is not equal for all of its users. There is no word I can conjure from the dictionary that demeans a wealthy, educated white man the way I might conjure slurs that demean a black person, a woman or a Jew for being born the way they are.

What I saw in the way Stone treated one of my fellow community members was more than a lecturer being a jackass. I saw a man who chooses to be willfully ignorant about the hatred wrapped into the very phonemes of the words he utters. No amount of hand waving, quotation marks and legal scholarship can hide the fact that he has the power to use racial epithets without recourse. I call on Stone to apologize to that student.

We did not invite him here to talk about free speech as interpreted in the Constitution — we invited him to talk about the more imprecise and debatable notion of free speech on campus. Stone failed to consider the nuances he was charged to address when he mocked that student. To me, supporting free speech without acknowledging how acts of speech can threaten the marginalized members of our campus is not a position I will be cultivating at Brown.

Joey DiZoglio Jr. ’15 MD’20

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Left out in the cold VAUGHN CAMPBELL staff columnist

When I first heard that Brown was introducing Wintersession, I could not wait to enroll. I carefully factored the time difference from my program abroad and skipped a communal dinner to ensure I could be one of the first to register. It seemed like a wonderful chance to return to Brown early, take one of many very appealing courses and hopefully further my progress in my concentration. Unfortunately, due to disorganization within the program and a lack of communication between Wintersession administrators and department faculty, I was forced to forego the opportunity.

On its Wintersession website, Brown promotes the program as not only a venue to take particularly unique or specialized courses, but also to “spread out coursework throughout the year or earn the additional credit.”

This is reflected in the courses offered in this inaugural session: While the three “destination” courses certainly offered a unique opportunity that is difficult to take during the normal semester, the six on-campus courses and one online course were hardly differentiable from typical classes. With one course, CLPS 1292: “Introduction

to Programming for the Mind, Brain and Behavior,” that was pitched as an “introduction to MATLAB,” it seemed clear that Brown intended for some students to utilize their Wintersession, as many students do during their summer one, to further their degree or fill gaps in their required study.

This (after being denied registration to a destination course) was my plan. I wanted to attend Wintersession not only to return to Brown early, but also to earn a concentration cred-

labus. In the meantime, I received my aid award and my account was billed.

I even confirmed my early housing with the Office of Residential Life. Yet as the payment deadline approached, I still had no indication whether this course would serve my needs. I was given no information that would help me analyze whether the investment of multiple thousands of dollars and a month of my time would do anything to further my degree. I was told that unless I was willing to take the class

the myriad other benefits of college, it is absurd to pretend that attendance would be worthwhile for these reasons alone. I can understand that many students might want to attend Wintersession for some of these reasons, but it should not be ridiculous to want more concrete benefits.

To be clear, I do not fault the professor, nor my advisors nor anyone else that helped me in my attempt to take this course. They were simply doing their job: preparing a course to be

Given that Brown pitched filling requirements as a reason to attend Wintersession, the administration should have taken more care to work with departments to ensure it was feasible.

it, hopefully easing the density of requirements I would need in my final three semesters. But first, I needed to confirm with my concentration advisor that the Wintersession course satisfied a requirement with my concentration. All I needed for this was the syllabus.

But after two months and emails — ultimately becoming a daily routine — to many different professors, advisors and administrators, I had yet to receive even a draft of the syl-

for fun alone, I should drop it.

While I enjoy the academic inquiry, personal development and general appeal of taking “fun” classes as much as anyone else, I found that these reasons alone did not warrant attending Wintersession. How could I justify spending thousands of dollars to travel across the country on a course taken purely for its own sake? After all, we are all here with one ultimate purpose: to obtain a degree. While I would count myself a proponent of

finalized before the first day of class.

Especially given that many courses were being taught for the first time, it is entirely reasonable for instructors to have created the course near the end of the fall semester.

But students should not be asked to make a huge commitment with limited information on each course.

Given that Brown pitched filling requirements as a reason to attend Wintersession, the administration should have taken more care to work with de-

partments to ensure it was feasible. It should be immediately clear that the nature of Wintersession — and the limited course offerings — differed from that of the regular academic year and rendered shopping impossible.

Because of this, the structure of Wintersession should have been held to a higher standard than the fall, spring or summer sessions, and students should have been given as much information about available courses as possible. With the amount of discussion and planning that went into Wintersession, it is unfortunate that the implementation fell short.

Given the heightened commitment of attending Wintersession (the extra time, money and effort that is put in by students), Brown should have ensured that these courses ran smoothly for all interested students.

Since this was the inaugural Wintersession, one would have thought that Brown would have taken the utmost care to ensure everything went off without a hitch. I cannot blame the professors for not going above and beyond to be ahead of schedule, but with only 10 courses to plan, Brown should have required a more defined proposal on a timeline better suited to students’ needs.

Vaughn Campbell ’18 can be reached at vaughn_campbell@brown.edu.

Ellison: A progressive future for the Dems SEAN HYLAND staff columnist There has been terrifyingly little introspection by the Democratic Party in the months following the election. It has instead preferred to blame anyone but itself for what happened on Nov. 8. James Comey, Russia, Wikileaks, the media, Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein and the rural, working class have been targeted to deflect responsibility and preserve the status quo. But I am not interested in the extent to which the party forsook its progressive base and supported the nomination of a deeply flawed candidate. I am instead concerned about ways the party must transform if it hopes to offer real resistance to the neo-Nazi ideology now in executive and legislative power.

Later this month, the party has an opportunity to redefine itself, to demonstrate its commitment to the marginalized communities that it has long relied on for support yet so often ignored: The party must elect progressive Rep. Keith Ellison, D-MN, to chair the Democratic National Committee. Ellison — the first Muslim elected to Congress — would offer a significant change to the dominant political culture of the party. His candidacy, which has the support of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, would mean a commitment to grassroots organizing and mass mobilization rather than high-dollar fundraisers attended by the political elites and the neoliberal dogma that has long defined the party’s platform.

The tension between these two visions of the Democratic Party was certainly visible in the recent debate among the DNC chair candidates. It is a fundamental characteristic of politicians confronted with uncomfortable truths to direct attention elsewhere — away from themselves, the party, prominent supporters and donors. Nowhere is this

more obvious than in conversation about the Israel-Palestine conflict. When discussing the region, American politicians navigate a delicate balance of demonstrating knowledge of the region and its history while avoiding scrutiny of the foremost purveyors of violence: the United States and Israel.

On Jan. 18, Ellison and former Secretary of Labor Tom Perez ’83 — the two favorites to win the position — and five others gathered at George Washington University to discuss the ideological state and future of the party. In the moments following the debate’s conclusion, Zaid Jilani, who writes for The Intercept, met Perez and said, “People are quick to condemn the BDS (Boycott, Divestment,

empathy for ordinary people engaged in struggle and a commitment to the interests of oppressive states, bankers and major industries. The evidence of this dichotomy has become rather plentiful in recent decades. Former President Bill Clinton implemented a corporate-friendly trade policy that adversely affected labor and the working class as well as the destructive Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s neoconservative foreign policy was illuminated during her time as Secretary of State and again in her failed presidential campaign with her support of coups in Haiti and Honduras, campaigns to bomb

Later this month, the party has an opportunity to redefine itself, to demonstrate its commitment to the marginalized communities that it has long relied on for support yet so often ignored: The party must elect progressive Rep. Keith Ellison, D-MN, to chair the Democratic National Committee.

Sanctions) movement, but there have also been really strong actions against human rights by Israel.

For example, 1,600 Palestinians lost their homes last year to home demolitions.” Perez’s countenance quickly became filled with angst and frustration, and he turned to walk away, telling Jilani, “Absolutely, I understand it’s a complicated issue.”

Jilani followed him, asking, “Secretary, would you condemn the home demolitions by (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu?” Perez disappeared behind the stage, leaving the question unanswered.

Perez’s profile in courage is not an aberration.

It is, in fact, a peculiarity of the Democratic Party to espouse in the same moment profound love and

Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria and admiration of accused war criminal Henry Kissinger. And though former President Barack Obama’s presidency seems to be a distant, blissful memory, the left must remain cognizant of his most disappointing failures as well.

These include his refusal to prosecute the financiers responsible for the recession or to hold accountable torturers of Muslims; the $38 billion in military aid to an Israeli state that killed 551 Palestinian children in the span of 50 days in 2014; and his astonishingly immoral and illegal drone program that has killed hundreds of civilians, including 12 at a Yemini wedding party. Forgive those of us on the left whose faith in the Democratic elite

has become extinct.

The DNC has before it two distinct doctrines with which to define itself: the Obama-Clinton school of thought that retains deep extant sympathies toward various neoliberal policies, or the more progressive school nearer to the convictions espoused by Sanders. The distinction between them is stark, and the party’s choice of how to resist the neo-Nazi sycophants currently leading the right will have, quite literally, life-altering consequences for the myriad populations targeted by them. This country is in a fight for its soul. If we are to ensure its future does not continue to be usurped by unabridged hate, we must resist more milquetoast policies from the liberal Democrats and embrace a progressive future.

This debate over contemporary party ideology is also active in Rhode Island. Gov. Gina Raimondo supports the more centrist-minded Perez, while 22 state legislators and many other municipal elected officials are endorsing Ellison. Their support of Ellison seems to reflect the wishes of most Rhode Islanders, who fervently supported Sanders in the primaries. The dissonance between what most local legislators and Rhode Islanders want and what its senior leadership actually supports is illustrative of the larger national debate in which the party finds itself.

Absent the ability to overcome the barriers to a new progressive party, we are fighting to raise the moral standard of the Democratic one. The party should not ignore that. On Feb. 24, it has the opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to the progressive ideology, marginalized voices and oppressed communities that so desperately need and deserve its focus. Ellison’s election would do just that.

Sean T. Hyland GS can be reached at sean_hyland@brown.edu.

ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017

Tina Crane and Keegan Lester’s poetry reading worked to captivate a Books on the Square audience Friday night, acquainting spectators with its eloquent verve.

COURTESY OF KEEGAN LESTER

Books on the Square hosts poignant, timely poetry reading Rhode Island’s poet laureate serves to capture poetry’s relevance, importance in modern era

By CONNOR SULLIVAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Decorated poetess Tina Cane and up-and-coming poet Keegan Lester immersed Books on the Square’s audience in articulate elegance at a poetry reading Friday night.

The event was part of the bookstore’s initiative to bring in local writers, said Francesgrace Ferland, a bookseller at Books on the Square.

“Most authors have some sort of local connection,” Ferland said. Cane herself was recently named Rhode Island’s poet laureate.

Cane’s new role necessitates a heightened level of engagement in the public sphere. “It’s new for me.

Being a poet is typically very solitary,” she quipped to the crowd.

Embracing her newfound responsibility, Cane underscored the relevance of poetry today given the United States’ current political climate.

“I’ve been thinking about history, particularly my place as a poet-witness to history,” Cane said.

She emphasized literature’s capacity for protest and the universality of its humanity throughout her reading, cementing its place in challenging power structures and political gridlock.

“As a poet, I will continue fighting.

Writing is fighting,” Cane said.

In light of President Donald Trump’s immigration ban, both writers prefaced their work with readings culled from the affected nations’ poetic traditions. Cane opened with Iranian poetry from Mohsen Emadi, while Lester read Sudanese poetry

by Safia Elhillo. Each of the readings heightened the event’s poignancy. “(The poems’ inclusion) was very timely and on-point,” Ferland said.

Cane’s poetry drew on her experiences growing up in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. With lines replete in references to the area’s “seedy alley, subway and moon,” Cane’s works both submerged the reader in her adolescent coming-of-age among bodegas and the East Village and facilitated the poet’s own self-discovery.

“I write to understand,” Cane said.

“I never am able to think of how to describe my own experience, so writing is a way of revealing the things that I don’t really understand.”

Cane’s poetry also incorporated a measure of intertextuality. The works read played off of those produced by venerated writers Elena Ferrante and Federico Garcia Lorca, cementing the poet’s position in the broader literary tradition.

Lester’s reading provided a sharp contrast to Cane’s poetry, juxtaposing her cultivated urbanity with a sense of heartland sincerity. Speaking with a slow, unaffected drawl, the West Virginia native touched on everything from orcas to football to the plight of the working class, all through the lens of his distinctive earnestness.

“I wanted to prove that the mundane could also be beautiful,” Lester said. “I didn’t truly realize I was a good poet until a few years after my MFA program, when my mom told me she could understand what I was writing,” he said.

DOROTHY WINDHAM / HERALD