Wednesday, March 22, 2017

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 38

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

Spring Weekend to feature Young Thug, Erykah Badu, AlunaGeorge Lineup also spotlights Cherry Glazerr, Empress Of, Princess Nokia, What Cheer? Brigade By MADISON RIVLIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Following snow day-related delays and mistakenly disclosed spoilers by artist Young Thug, rumors were finally put to rest Tuesday night as the Brown Concert Agency announced the 2017 Spring Weekend lineup at its annual Whiskey Republic release party. The pub was electric with anticipation in the final hours, minutes and seconds preceding the midnight announcement. Slated for April 28 and 29, the zenith of on-campus live music and performance culture will blend a gamut of musical genres and highlight a variety of gifted artists. Friday night will showcase performances by Young Thug, Princess Nokia and Empress Of, while set lists from Erykah Badu, AlunaGeorge and Cherry Glazerr will follow on Saturday. As previous BCA co-chair Emily Maenner ’16 told that Herald last

ARTS & CULTURE

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Singer-songwriter Erykah Badu will bring her ethereal voice and style to campus April 29 for Spring Weekend 2017. The lineup of artists performing at Spring Weekend was announced at the Whiskey Republic midnight Wednesday, year, the organization strives to include “as many women as possible in our lineup.” This year BCA prefaced their annual release video with the statement that “in 2016 and 2017 under 30 percent of artists at major festivals were women or people of

color.” Like Waka Flocka Flame, who performed at Spring Weekend in 2015, the reveal of Young Thug’s appearance sparked early excitement. The artist is characterized by his sui generis, mumbling vocals that quiver

on mixtapes and his LP “Jeffery,” recognized by Rolling Stone Magazine as the 10th best album of 2016. Recent hits like “Wyclef Jean” and “pick up the phone” with Travis Scott featuring Quavo represent just two snippets of the massive archives the hip-hop and

trap-influenced artist has released during his career. Princess Nokia’s echoing, vocalcentric tracks boast an intoxicating bass that reverberates against R&B-inspired accompaniment. » See SW, page 3

Dinner forges connections between strangers Kuo selected as SPH assistant Bearhead Dinner includes faculty members, students, features dishes from multiple cultures

dean of diversity, inclusion Assistant professor Caroline Kuo to be first assistant dean of diversity, inclusion for the school

By CONNOR SULLIVAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Cast in an alluring haze, the dining room’s atmosphere offers an enigmatic embrace. Camel cigarette embers reveal obscured faces. Distinctive aromas of exotic liquors and oysters permeate the air. Intoxicating chatter navigates everything from Middle Eastern history to the artistry of contemporary hip-hop. Welcome to the Bearhead Dinner — a veritable institution on Williams Street. Hosted by three students, the Bearhead Dinner is a far cry from a typical meal shared with house mates and friends. The brainchild of Berke Buyukkucak ’18, Caleb Thomas ’18 and Berkok Yuksel ’18, it is rather an atypical yet enjoyable experience that hinges on the unknown. The concept is simple: The trio invites eight people whom they are only vaguely familiar with for a night of experimental

By GALEN HALL SENIOR STAFF WRITER

ARTS & CULTURE

INSIDE

CONNOR SULLIVAN / HERALD

The hosts of the Bearhead Dinner, Berke Buyukkucak ’18, Caleb Thomas ’18 and Berkok Yuksel ’18, invited almost-strangers to dine with them. recipes and new friends — no cost required. “It’s all about getting diverse people from different circles together,” Thomas said. In this respect, the three house mates are successful. Last Saturday’s dinner — the fifth and most recent Bearhead Dinner — included a

professor, a post-doc and undergraduates from a range of concentrations and years. The idea for the social experiment occurred to the trio during a Spring Break trip to New Orleans. “We started talking about having dinners once we » See BEARHEAD, page 2

Come April 1, the School of Public Health will welcome its first assistant dean for diversity and inclusion: Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences Caroline Kuo. In her new role, Kuo will “manage, coordinate and centralize diversity and inclusion efforts” within the SPH, according to the University press release. “I am thrilled to take on this leadership role,” Kuo said. As a member of the SPH’s Diversity and Inclusion Planning Committee, Kuo helped produce the school’s administrative Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan — a “living document” that she looks forward to implementing in her new position, she said. Fox asked the planning committee to come up with “steps that we could take to address these issues (of diversity

and inclusion) within the school,” she said, adding that creating a dean position to lead the implementation of the DIAP was a key recommendation. Kuo emerged as a particularly qualified candidate for the new deanship due to the leadership she displayed while on the committee, said Terrie Fox Wetle, dean of the SPH. Kuo “considered each of our goals carefully. … She thought about graduate students, faculty, events and how to encourage diversity through all of those areas,” she added. As she starts leading the implementation of the DIAP, Kuo’s main goals are to recruit more faculty members from historically underrepresented groups, recruit more women faculty members and build an environment in which current faculty members “are thriving and supported,” she said. She also hopes to create an inclusive environment for students by establishing a peer mentoring program, attracting more students from historically underrepresented groups and facilitating a feedback system for students to communicate with faculty members. » See KUO, page 2

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017

NEWS U. remains closed to policies aimed at expanding public access to research of faculty members

ARTS & CULTURE “Spirit,” Depeche Mode’s newest album, makes straightfoward calls to action through music

COMMENTARY Campbell ’18: Lack of indoor recreational space should be remedied in Leung Family Gallery

COMMENTARY Johnson ’19: Empathy for Middlebury protesters necessary despite negative media coverage

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NEWS

PAGE 2 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

» BEARHEAD, from page 1

COURTESY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

Caroline Kuo, assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences, was a main catalyst behind the SPH’s diversity and inclusion action plan.

» KUO, from page 1 Kuo is currently collaborating with the SPH’s faculty members and researchers at the University of Cape Town to train HIV scientists in South Africa. Kuo said this work taught her that in order to have a successful diversity and inclusion initiative, “you have to make spaces for … really hearing what the community, faculty, students and staff want and need.” Kuo said she has been involved in diversity and inclusion initiatives at the University since she arrived as a post-doctoral fellow in 2010 and joined the diversity committee for Brown’s Psychology Training Consortium.

“I’m a first-generation (student), I’m a daughter of immigrants (and) English wasn’t my first language,” she said. “I know what the challenges are of going to an institution where you have to balance economic and family commitments. (These experiences) make the challenges and opportunities of this position very tangible to me.” Kuo is “very tuned in to faculty issues,” said Joe Hogan, professor of public health and biostatistics and a member of the SPH’s Diversity and Inclusion Planning Committee. He added that Kuo work on the DIAP, which focused on faculty members, was “ambitious,” but she “is just the kind of person that gets things done.”

got a house, but wanted to make it a bit more different than inviting friends over,” Yuksel added. “That’s cool but doesn’t add anything to my or your life.” “We don’t normally invite people we’re close with,” Yuksel said. “They’re all sort of acquaintances, with a degree of separation that’s inherent,” he added. “The guests don’t know each other, and they’re all from different backgrounds.” The event’s cosmopolitan cuisine further complements the diversity of guests’ backgrounds. Buyukkucak, Thomas and Yuksel cook a variety of unconventional recipes from a multitude of cultures. Served one-by-one, the delectable and consecutive courses present guests with an experience at once unfamiliar and unforgettable. “We aspire to original pieces,” Thomas said. “We could make a simple burger with aioli or something, but … (we love) having weird recipes that go well.” The chefs’ commitment to creativity manifests itself in homemade dishes that run the gamut from a serving of smoked rabbit to a dish that consists wholly of onion prepared six different ways. Other singular offerings have included Turkish pickled beets and fresh mint served over cacti, courses that speak to the chefs’ rich and assorted backgrounds. “We always try to incorporate Turkish or Southwestern dishes into the dinners,” Buyukkucak said, alluding to his and Yuksel’s Turkish heritage, as well as Thomas’ Arizonian roots. For the ever-variable dinner parties, emphasis is placed on the idea of eating as a shared experience. Buyukkucak, Thomas and Yuksel create dishes that explicitly foster communal exchange. With trays of oysters and cheeses soaked in coffees, the chefs force otherwise disparate guests to

LAURA JARAMILLO / HERALD

interact with one another in order to receive and enjoy the eccentric food. “Though making the food is half the appeal, the real fun comes in seeing people connect that don’t really know each other,” Yuksel said. “We had two guests meet at the dinner and then start dating.” While the dinner is certainly a display to witness, the chefs also attested to what an ordeal it is to prepare the dinners, as recipes must often be formulated well in advance. “The deliberation process has definitely gotten faster,” Thomas said. “But the day of the dinner, we’re still basically cooking from 9 a.m. to the time dessert is served.” “It’s very pushing to the edge both physically and mentally,” Buyukkucak said. “If we fail, we try to compensate somehow. It ends up being a lot about expression, for me at least.” Thomas, a drummer, underscored the “improvisational” aspect of the cooking — a quality analogous to his

music. “I’m drawn to the spontaneous aspect of music, and we reflect that in the kitchen,” Thomas said. “If something messes up, we just reflect on what the next move is,” he added, retelling a humorous incident in which the crew had to salvage chimichangas. A bear head overlooks the dining room table that plays hosts to the Bearhead Dinners. Enigmatic and vaguely enchanting, the head encapsulates the event’s distinctive variability and mystique. But the distinguished piece, painted by the trio’s good friend, Yasemin Orhan RISD ’18, also speaks to a more important facet of the dinner: namely, its paradoxical capacity to breed familiarity out of unfamiliarity. The meal’s guests may be curated from a breadth of backgrounds, but remarkable solidarity can still be found amongst the collective experience of novel recipes. At the Bearhead Dinner, expectations are left at the door, traded for new friends found along the way.

Campaign for consent launches during Spring Weekend release party Positive Change campaign includes distributing tattoos, condoms with consent symbol By RHAIME KIM SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A campaign to encourage students to respect sexual consent during Spring Weekend was launched at the Spring Weekend Release Party Tuesday night. The Positive Change campaign aims to increase awareness about consent by spreading a visual symbol of consent — a plus sign within a triangle — and ensuring the availability of professional staff to respond to harassment at the concert, said Molly Sandstrom ’17. Sandstrom developed the campaign as part of her yearlong fellowship at Breakthrough, a global nonprofit that addresses gender-based violence. Sandstrom designed the symbol, which will be on temporary tattoos and stickers to be disseminated at Spring Weekend events. The Office of Health Promotion is also providing safe sex supplies, including condoms with the symbol, Sandstrom said. Brown Concert Agency and the Student Activities Office are providing funds for the tattoos, she said.

In addition, Sandstrom will provide information about sexual consent and available campus resources through social media and poster infographics. “People feeling unsafe at Spring Weekend (is) probably something that happens every year because of the nature of college and these environments,” said Brown Concert Agency Co-Chair Riley Ryan-Wood ’17. The BCA, who works with event security to promote safety at the concerts, gladly partnered with Sandstrom, who has “been working on this all year,” she added. There are students who feel they are entitled to sexual experiences at Spring Weekend, and the campaign hopes “to disrupt that equation,” said Alex Volpicello ’18, who is helping with the campaign. There are more violations of consent during Spring Weekend because students create “a really strong cultural narrative about what Spring Weekend is,” which can be harmful, Sandstrom said. One of those narratives is the idea that students have to “have fun, or you’re a loser,” Sandstrom said. “The difficulty of Spring Weekend is a lot of people are expecting to hear ‘yes’ because of this idea that it’s a time where a lot of students are hooking up

DOROTHY WINDHAM / HERALD

and having sex,” Sandstrom said. The campaign aims to familiarize students with saying “no” and respecting that response, she said. Sandstrom is organizing a tent at the concert where students can seek immediate professional help for

harassment. Because reentry into the concert is not possible, the availability of help within the concert gates increases accessibility, Sandstrom said. The availability of the tent will be announced during the fire safety announcement at the beginning of the

concert, Ryan-Woods added. Plans to provide in-depth training for interested students on consent and bystander tactics are also underway, in partnership with the Office of Health Promotion and the Office of Residential Life, Sandstrom said.

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017 • PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Graduate student unionization affiliation vote closes Possible unionization on horizon as graduate students vote to affiliate with either AFT, UAW By ISABEL GENSLER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Today, the debate over graduate student unionization at the University starts a new chapter as Stand Up for Graduate Student Employees — the main group pushing for unionization on campus — concludes voting on the labor union with which it will affiliate. SUGSE members decided between the American Federation of Teachers and the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, both of which would offer resources such as legal advice, access to lawyers and guidance in contract writing, according to Ian Harding GS, a member of SUGSE. Results of the vote will not be announced until after Spring Break. The AFT and UAW are similar in that they are both “large, international unions, and they both represent tens of thousands of graduate students and student workers across the country,” said Joseph Skitka GS, a member of SUGSE and its affiliation working group. The two unions have differences, however, which lie in their approach to organizing. In order to form a recognized union of graduate students at the University, a plurality of the bargaining unit — PhD students currently serving in teaching and research assistant roles — must vote in favor of unionization. To secure 51 percent of the vote, a campaign for unionization must take place, which “will affect the whole campus,” Skitka said. UAW “believe(s) that a graduateled, grassroots canvassing structure is the best approach, and it may be a little slower of a process” because it relies more on graduate students being responsible for canvassing, Skitka said. While both unions would send staff members to campus in administrative, supportive and training roles, AFT would also send in staff members as a part of the unionization campaign to walk around campus and talk to students. This approach can move the process along faster, Skitka said. AFT offers “a bit more freedom” by allowing “a local union to determine

their own bylaws and structure, whereas UAW kind of provides a basic structure and bylaws for us in constitution,” Skitka said. He also pointed out the possibility that UAW would have the graduate student union at the University “join a local union with workers from other industries.” Narrowing down to two unions “was a very thorough process where we wanted to exhaustively explore all the options,” Skitka said, adding that “it was really important to us to make students feel like they had the ultimate say in this matter.” SUGSE initially reached out to seven different unions based on which ones had existing relationships with graduate students, and the two ended up being viable options, he added. While SUGSE has gained traction on campus, some oppose unionization because a number of graduate students may already feel content with their departments and their positions within them, according to the Graduate Student Council FAQ sheet related to unionization. What SUGSE is hoping to achieve through unionization is “a better quality of life for graduate students,” Harding said. “Not that our quality of life is necessarily bad, but without a legal, binding contract, it’s liable for change,” he added. “If your department falls on hard times, or the University decides to fund some other project … you have no leg to stand on” without a contract, Harding said. He also pointed out that there are disparities between departments, and that by standing with other graduate students you can help your peers. For example, the minimum stipend is $24,870, but some departments pay more than that or have different policies for how that funding is dispensed, Harding said. For Skitka, there is a “broad ideological argument” for why a union would benefit graduate students. The nature of the administration is that they don’t interact with graduate students on a daily basis and that “their decisions and how they use their power will sometimes leave people behind,” Skitka said. “They will operate in such a way that will try to advance things they care about, like the standing of the University (or the) rankings of departments,” which don’t necessarily speak to the needs of graduate students. “A natural way to resolve the issue of people being left behind is to share

power among everyone who is affected by and contributes to the functioning of the University,” Skitka said. Unionizing could also achieve wage increases, a more robust grievance procedure and a contract obligating the University to follow through on whatever the bargaining unit and the administration agree upon, Skitka said. Some students may not feel comfortable using the grievance procedures built into the University concerning issues pertaining to sexual assault, summer funding, being asked to serve as a teaching assistant for multiple courses or being able to afford health care for dependents, he added. Affiliating with a union and creating a contract could provide enforceable timelines for responding to concerns. In addition, students feeling overworked could notify the union, which “will send in a representative” on behalf of the student to raise the concern. The 2004 decision of the National Labor Relations Board in Brown U. v. United Association of Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America — which ruled that graduate students at private universities were not an appropriate unit for collective bargaining — was overturned this past August, clearing the way for unionization at private schools like Brown. In the months since the overturn of the decision, graduate students across the country have taken steps toward unionization, most notably in the Ivy League, where votes on unionization have already occurred on multiple campuses. Votes on the right of student unions to collectively bargain for graduate students employed by their universities have already taken place at Columbia, Harvard and Yale with mixed results. A vote on unionization at Cornell will take place from March 27 to March 28. Unionization “comes down to enabling effective collective action,” said Danielle Dirocco, executive director of the Graduate Assistants Union at the University of Rhode Island. “When push comes to shove, and we’re not getting paid well, we have the means to come together and apply pressure in an official way to our administration to ensure that our needs are being met,” she added. “And we’re able to do it in an amicable way.” Because URI is a public university

» SW, from page 1

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Friday’s headliner Young Thug released an album entitled “Jeffrey” this year, with hit tracks like “Wycleaf Jean” and “pick up the phone.”

In her latest album, “1992,” which showcases “Tomboy” and “Brujas,” the Nuyorican artist draws on her Spanish Harlem and Lower East side roots, gravitating toward empowering content that reflects intellectual liberation, boundless perseverance, female authority and black feminism. Synth-inspired artist Empress Of diversifies Friday’s lineup with upbeat experimental electronic and dream pop vibes. With a stage name inspired by a tarot card reading, Lorely Rodriguez has toured with the likes of Florence and the Machine and draws audiences with bilingual tracks on her 2013 EP “Systems.” Singer-songwriter Erykah Badu will continue Empress Of ’s genre shift to bring psychedelic, surreal vibes to the Main Green. Badu’s ethereal voice — made prominent by her 2010 LP

MATTHEW BROWNSWORD / HERALD

and not covered by the original Brown decision, graduate students at URI affiliated under the American Association of University Professors in 2002, negotiating their first contract around wages and insurance that year. The concerns of graduate students at URI have continued to revolve around high student fees and low stipends, as well as limited on- and off-campus housing and parking passes, Dirocco said. A level one stipend for the first two years as a master’s student is $17,184 per year. With a maximum 20-hour work week, this amounts to a $23.87 hourly wage. Graduate students at Brown are concerned with having to pay dues regardless of whether or not they want to join the union, according to the FAQ sheet. The average dues paid by UAW affiliates is 1.44 percent of their salary. Harding says that if a union is formed, they will work to negotiate for “a pay raise that covers dues so that we don’t see a difference.” Comparatively, URI graduate students are expected to pay $1,566 in annual fees, but can receive a 20 percent waiver if they hold a teaching or research “assistanceship” qualifying them for a stipend. According to Dirocco, even part-time graduate employees pay the full fee, as well as any graduate student who does not have an assistanceship, meaning they are not currently a teaching assistant or research assistant. Additionally, some departments offer acceptance to graduate students they cannot afford to support in an assistanceship role and therefore are only paid the hourly wage without their tuition being waived — something that is common for most “New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of the Ankh” and her trippy 2015 mixtape “But You Caint Use My Phone” — carries tunes that could likely make anyone “put (their) phone down.” Sounds of the British electro-pop duo AlunaGeorge and American indie-influenced garage rock band Cherry Glazerr offer contrasts to Badu’s chromatic tracks on Saturday. Nominated for Critic’s Choice at the BRIT Awards and placing second in the BBC’s annual rising artist poll in 2013, AlunaGeorge offers feel-good dance music influenced by garage genre themes while Cherry Glazerr’s angsty, percussive sound evident on “Apocalypstick” is prime for a day concert scene. Providence’s staple brass band What Cheer? Brigade will return on Saturday for their annual setlist.

PhD students. A notable aspect of URI’s unionization was that the “president of the university said, ‘You guys need to unionize,’” Dirocco said, adding that as a whole, “we had strong encouragement from our administration to unionize.” Such institutional support is a far cry from the reality faced by graduate students at many private universities, which have historically opposed unionization on their campuses. Before a judge reversed the Brown decision, the University, along with eight other private institutions, filed an amicus brief March 1, 2016 arguing that the NLRB should continue to consider research assistants and TAs as students, not employees. While graduate students attempted to unionize in 2004, former Provost Robert Zimmer issued a statement that the “NLRB correctly recognizes that a graduate student’s experience is a mentoring relationship between faculty and students and is not a matter appropriate for collective bargaining.” Despite its past opposition, the University has not indicated that it intends to push the issue any further. When the NLRB reversed the Brown decision in 2016, the “University made it clear that we would comply with the ruling,” wrote Dean of the Graduate School Andrew Campbell in an email to The Herald. “We acknowledged that it would be the decision of eligible graduate students as to whether or not unionization was right for them, and we affirmed our commitment to promoting an environment that supports open and informed discussion, free of intimidation by any party.”

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

University open access policy remains elusive despite national movement U. researchers slowly embrace open access, express hesitancy over business model By JONATHAN DOUGLAS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

According to the University mission statement, Brown strives to “serve the community, the nation and the world by discovering, communicating and preserving knowledge.” But as Andrew Creamer, the University Library’s scientific data management specialist, pointed out, the University has yet to support a policy encouraging open access to the public to the research conducted by faculty members, limiting the communication of knowledge created at Brown. In recent years, researchers, citizens and aspiring scientists across the nation have increasingly called for open access to scientific papers, journals and data. A number of prominent cases, such as programmer and open access activist Aaron Swartz’ 2013 suicide and the creation of Sci-Hub , an online repository of pirated scientific papers, have put the campaign for public information in the national spotlight. Open access has a number of advantages: It makes scientific research accessible to those that cannot afford it, especially people in low-resource countries, has been shown to increase citations for papers and lowers the barrier to entry for startups. However, questions have arisen over the funding model and reputation of open access journals. These journals typically force the author — rather than the consumer or library — to pay for publication, putting an occasionally heavy burden on the author. Additionally, many new journals simply seek to extract money from researchers and are willing to publish anything that an author pays for. Though open access has become more popular in recent years, researchers have been slow to adapt. Young researchers seeking to establish themselves in a field often aspire to publish in journals with the best reputations, which are often paywalled, said Hope Lappen, a University biomedical and life sciences librarian. If the system of journal publishing were to shift toward open access, tenure and promotion systems would have to change as well, she added. Open access at Brown The debate over open access has come to campus. In 2011, the faculty senate debated instituting an open access policy, which would encourage publication in open access journals. The senate ultimately voted against it, citing fears of agitating relationships with publishers and a suspicion of the peer-review systems of these journals. While Brown has not instituted an open access policy, a number of other universities have. Brown and Yale are the only Ivy League universities with no such policies in place. Harvard, Penn, Dartmouth, Cornell and Princeton all officially support open access and have enacted university-wide policies encouraging or even enforcing it. Columbia has instituted policies in a limited number of its schools. The University also has dealt with the rising costs of journals. From 1994 to 2014, the University more than tripled its expenditures on journals, from $2.2 million to $6.7 million, according to a library budget analysis. The analysis

partially blamed the bundling of journals, rather than their individual sale, for increased costs. This cost has outpaced inflation significantly; from 1986 to 2013, the consumer price index — a standard measure of inflation — rose 113 percent while the cost of serials increased 495 percent. Though open access theoretically reduces the cost for libraries, the University pays twice for institutional acces

themselves. The site gives open access to University research that may be behind a paywall elsewhere, but it has only been used by a limited number of faculty, Creamer said. For example, a search on the website reveals that President Christina Paxson P’19 does not have a profile on the site but individually uploaded her work. University librarians such as Lappen help authors negotiate and understand their grant and publishing agreements to enable them to publish their work in either open access journals or on their

In 2008, the National Institutes of Health created an open access policy, stipulating that the manuscripts of scientific papers with research funded by the agency must be made publicly available 12 months after publication. These papers are published on PubMed Central, a database that is available to the general public. As a main source of funding in the field, this move by the NIH has greatly impacted researchers, said Edward Hawrot, professor of medical science and associate dean of biology.

LAURA FELENSTEIN / HERALD

for some open access journals, with charges being placed on the author for publication as well as the library for subscription; the journals may be free to individuals, but only after institutions pay for access, Creamer said. For Marjo Beltoja ’18, a coordinator of the Physics Departmental Undergraduate Group, these expenses have been worth it. They helped him access

personal websites. While a variety of legal issues can arise when publishing, many authors do not face pushback from publishers, Lappen said. Creamer helps researchers make the data underlying their research freely available as well. He promotes the use of the Brown Data Repository, a place where University researchers can upload their data sets and make them

Though biologists, including Hawrot, continue to publish their research in paywalled academic journals for their prestige, the work becomes available to everyone and grants access to those previously unable to pay for the work, Hawrot added. In particular, Hawrot said researchers at institutions unable to pay for journal subscriptions, particularly those in developing countries,

HERALD FILE PHOTO

U. libraries have been forced to deal with the rising cost of journal subscriptions, which have more than tripled from 1994 to 2014. Libraries across the country have pushed for open access to reduce costs. content for physics DUG meetings as well as for his personal use, while friends at community colleges and in high school have not had such opportunities. Even though no open access policy is in place, the University provides a number of resources to researchers who wish to make their work widely available. Brown operates a publicly available database, Researchers@Brown, where faculty members can post their work and other relevant information about

available to the public. The repository has gained traction among University researchers and enables other researchers to take a deeper look at the data supporting research papers, Creamer said. Impact of national policies Despite failure to implement a University-wide policy, many fields have embraced open access to varying degrees. In the biology department, researchers have been forced to make much of their work open access.

have benefitted significantly. But Erika Denour ’18, a leader of the biology DUG, had difficulty accessing several articles that were published in the last 12 months while writing a research proposal on Medicaid participation in dentistry. “Not being able to access those research articles didn’t impact me being able to write my proposal, but … what if I were a government official at the Rhode Island Department of Health and I couldn’t access these articles? Those people … wouldn’t have

access. That’s kind of scary.” In the engineering department, researchers have embraced open access much more slowly than those in biology. Each engineering discipline has its own publishing “culture,” but in general, there has been a shift toward open access, said Dean of Engineering Lawrence Larson. In 2015, the National Science Foundation — the main source of funding for the engineering department’s research — implemented a policy mandating that all research that receives funding must be publicly posted and available for download a year after publication, similar to the NIH policy. But this policy is only applicable to research grants awarded after Jan. 25, 2016. Due to the slow nature of the grant approval process and scientific research itself, this stipulation has yet to have a strong impact on researchers, Larson said. But this model is a good compromise, Beltoja said, adding that it benefits authors during the 12-month period as well as those normally unable to access content. Alternate models of open access In the fields of physics and mathematics, researchers are particularly strong proponents of making their work available; many in these fields utilize a resource named arXiv, a free online repository for pre-print publications based out of Cornell. While authors are not charged to upload to this database and readers are not charged for access, there is no system of peer review in place, leaving no way to verify a paper’s accuracy. However, papers with errors are typically spotted and removed by the author, said Leon Cooper, professor of science and director of the Institute for Brain and Neural Systems. ArXiv has become ingrained in the research culture in mathematics, though researchers still publish in paywalled journals, said Brendan Hassett, professor of mathematics and director of the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics. At this point, authors publish in paywalled journals for the status associated with doing so, he added. If a journal were to prevent authors from posting their work on arXiv, it would face significant backlash. In the field of physics, the use of arXiv is pervasive as well, as it was originally created for physicists, Hassett said. Similar to the field of mathematics, researchers publish their work both in arXiv and in paywalled journals, mainly for their status. “If it were up to me, I would put everything in the arXiv, but I have a lot of younger colleagues and it means a lot to them to get published,” Cooper said. In electrical engineering, a model known as “gold open access” is becoming increasingly common, Larson said. In this funding model, the author bears the cost of publication, but the research is available to everyone. Completely free open access journals have yet to really take off in the field, partially because no one has figured out the business model, he added. Professor of Engineering Alexander Zaslavsky described a slow embrace of open access as well. Zaslavsky is an editor for Solid State Electronics, a paywalled journal run by Elsevier, a major publishing company. He described the cost of open access publication for » See OPEN ACCESS, page 8

TODAY

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017 • PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

la-crossing the vic tory line

menu SATELLITE DINING ANDREWS COMMONS

Pizza: Mushroom’s Revenge, Spicy Sausage and Garlic, Miss Maple JOSIAH’S

BLUE ROOM

Santa Fe Salad, The Isabella Burger, The Muffaletta

Beef Chili with Beans, Hearty Country Vegetable Soup

DINING HALLS SHARPE REFECTORY LUNCH

DINNER

Polynesian Style Chicken Wings, Braised Cauliflower, Texas BBQ Brisket, Raspberry Swirl Cookies

Cod with Potatoes and Sun Dried Tomatoes, Broccoli with Lemon Juice, Oreo Cheesecake

VERNEY-WOOLLEY LUNCH

DINNER

Italian Sausage Pasta Bar, Mexican Succotash, Corn Chowder, M&M Cookies

Pork Chops in Tarragon Mustard Sauce, Eggplant Parmesan, Greek Salad Bar, Caribbean Rum Cake

sudoku

ELI WHITE / HERALD

Dylan Molloy ’17 protects the ball against a defender during Bruno’s 17-14 win against Holy Cross. Molloy led the Bears with seven goals and three assists. The team plays next at the University of Massachusetts March 25.

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

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle crossword Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 “Survivor” host Probst 5 Dan Patrick’s former employer 9 Treble and tenor 14 Leap on skates 15 By way of, in verse 16 “Groundhog Day” director Harold 17 *Stand to reason 20 Product design dept. 21 Lace place 22 *Show with Sharks 26 Sunset feature 27 Frigid 28 Maritime military org. 29 Liver, for one 31 Part of MoMA 32 Move like a bee 36 *Immature 40 On a clipper, say 41 “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” video game console 42 Salk vaccine target 43 Aleppo’s land: Abbr. 44 It may precede a treaty 46 Swiss river 47 *”The Impossible Dream” musical 51 Speedily 53 __ male 54 19th-century American doctrine suggested by the phrase formed by the first words of the answers to starred clues 59 Turn __ ear 60 Place with slips and sloops 61 Juggle conflicting demands 62 Word before bad news 63 Canadian singer Murray 64 Offended DOWN 1 Binge 2 Prefix with -thermic

3 Chosen number? 4 Use a line, perhaps 5 Like some cuisine 6 Poor, as craftsmanship 7 Excessively proper type 8 “Kidding!” 9 Preschooler’s writing tool 10 Coating 11 Poet Dickinson 12 “Okay” 13 Army NCO 18 Subduing with a shock 19 Begins 22 “__ gonna call? Ghostbusters!” 23 Bicolor coins 24 Smooth transition 25 Go from blog to blog, say 30 Santa __ winds 31 Many craigslist postings 32 Mel’s Diner waitress 33 Purple shade 34 Former hoops star Thomas 35 Birch of “Ghost World”

37 “__ else?” 38 Soft ball 39 __ Book Club 43 Big Bird’s mammoth friend, familiarly 44 Thoreau memoir 45 Unit of current 47 Like lions and horses 48 Helvetica alternative

49 Like about half of American states’ mottos 50 “You bet!” 51 Basic 49-Down word 52 “I did it!” 55 Massage locale 56 Debtor’s letters 57 “Morning Edition” airer 58 Thus far

“I know what the challenges are of going to an institution where you have to balance economic and family commitments.

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— Caroline Kuo, assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences

See KUO on page 1.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

CORRECTION Correction: A previous version of an article published in Monday’s paper titled “Brain Fair brings new voices into field of neuroscience” listed the keynote speaker as Ella Sacks, but her name is Elyn Saks. The Herald regrets this error.

xwordeditor@aol.com

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

Innovation Showcase 2:00 P.M. Davol Square 10

7th Annual Physics Art Show 3:00 P.M. Barus and Holley

Voicing Cuba’s Transnational Turn 6:00 P.M. Orwig Music Building, 109

TOMORROW Springtime Luncheon Buffet 11:30 A.M. Brown Faculty Club

AXOLOTL Day 2017 4:00 P.M. Sciences Library, 315

Language Game Night 6:00 P.M. Faunce, 229

Mental Health and Media Engagement 7:00 P.M. Sayles Hall, 005

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017 • PAGE 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Unsilence the Leung Family Gallery VAUGHN CAMPBELL staff columnist As the weather warms, we will soon begin to see the Main Green fill with students, eager to relax for a short spell before a class or a meeting. On particularly nice or free days, some will undoubtedly stay outside for hours, shirking work in favor of some much-needed relaxation. While students will no doubt be excited for the warm weather, another factor is key to the popularity of the Main Green as well: Brown has no passable indoor space for recreation. This space should, of course, be available in the Stephen Roberts ’62 Campus Center — or as any student knows it, Faunce. At most universities, the campus center is primarily a social or recreational space, holding eateries, game rooms and more. Of course, on the face of it, Faunce contains all of these things: Between the Blue Room and the basement, those boxes are technically checked. And yet rarely, if ever, does it seem that Faunce provides a space for socialization. The Blue Room is filled with meetings of student groups seemingly unaware that J. Walter Wilson

is merely 100 or so feet away. The basement contains students eating, generally miffed at being forced underground by the executive boards hoarding the Blue Room. And Leung Family Gallery? Forget about it. Leung is hardly welcoming to someone with a bit of a cough, let alone to friends wishing to catch up or take

differently. For a start, it could be designed to be more relaxing than the pretentious reading room it currently is. It wasn’t designed to be purely a study space, and there isn’t anything preventing students from using it for other purposes. But the addition of, say, even a single ping-pong table could go a long way in signalling

versity also seems to have tried to compromise by playing music on a few select days. This, of course, satisfied no one, frustrating those who frequent Leung to study but flying under the radar for those who do not. But the real problem is us. It shouldn’t take a sunny, 65-degree

It’s absurd that a university of the caliber of Brown has no general recreational space for students apart from a couple sad pool tables in a windowless room.

a break from their busy schedules. It’s Leung, in fact, that seems to ruin Faunce from the top down: The addition of a deathly quiet study space to the building certainly doesn’t promote its use for carefree relaxation. I have no problem with Leung itself, but its presence within Faunce changes the tone of the entire building. To fix this, Leung should be used

that those sending glares at anyone speaking above a whisper are in the wrong. Yet while a more clear design could be beneficial, Brown has tried this before. Last year, a “poll” (or rather, a very large piece of paper and some markers) was left in Leung for student to comment on how they wanted Leung to be used. The Uni-

day to make us realize that we need a break. Students need an indoor space in which to relax once in a while. The only natural space for this is Faunce — so out of all the campus spaces, can we at least leave our Campus Center untouched by work? To those who want a space to study: Feel free to work as much as you like, but at least do me the courtesy of

walking 100 steps to the Rockefeller Library. Read in the Leung if you like, but stop bringing your essays and your judgmental glares into our Campus Center. And to the University: You make it hard enough for us to relax already; you should at least give us a place to do it when we do find the time. The sheer number of students on the Main Green make it clear that we have both the desire and the time to relax at some point during our days here, yet the lack of space provided by the University makes this next to impossible in the winter months. It’s absurd that a university of the caliber of Brown has no general recreational space for students apart from a couple sad pool tables in a windowless room. The quickest and most effective way to accomplish this is to convert Leung. If we have to, I’m sure we could change the culture of the space. But really, Brown, make this easy on us and redo it. In the building most heavily visited by prospective students, let’s at least try to make Brown look fun.

Vaughn Campbell ’18 can be reached at vaughn_campbell@brown.edu. Or you could simply go to a quiet place and listen for his voice.

Empathy for Middlebury GRACE JOHNSON staff columnist Headlines about the visit of controversial libertarian and political scientist Charles Murray to Middlebury College March 2 were sensational and full of click-bait. The swirling media storm, which included titles such as “‘Bell Curve’ Author Attacked by Protesters at Middlebury College” and “How Middlebury College Enabled the Riot,” leaned toward harsh critiques of the student protesters. Many of those critiques are fair and can help create productive discourse between people with differing ideologies. But to progress toward that open and inclusive discourse, we need to develop a more nuanced view of the protests that does more than simply vilify the student protesters. We need to look at the incident with more empathy and respect toward the protesters’ deep-rooted and valid concerns. The prominent narratives in the media, however, fall short. Critics of the Middlebury protesters depict the protest as uninformed because many of the protesters had not read Murray’s work. While that criticism is completely valid — ­ we should never embrace anti-intellectualism — it was also a generalization: There were, in fact, students in the room who had read Murray’s material. Inspired by Middlebury Professor Matt Dickinson’s preliminary presentations on Murray’s most controversial book, “The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life,” students placed critical pamphlets on every chair in the hall. That Middlebury lecture room should not be portrayed as an uninformed and disengaging crowd, even though there were some who refused to directly read Murray’s writing. And

can protesters really be blamed from wanting to avoid reading Murray’s controversial and offensive material? It might have been a flawed way to engage in protest, but it is also understandable. The protesters were not just stereotypical coddled liberals promoting safe spaces and denying free speech; they were protesting the presentation of pseudoscientific white nationalism, which does not merit critical reading or analysis. As the Southern Poverty Law Center points out, “Bell Curve” proposes that differences in IQ are linked to

was an important means of questioning the decisions of the Middlebury administration. The event, while proposed by a student organization, expanded to include president and professor introductions — it occurred with the blessing of the college president. That deserves questioning, and not just through the “rhetorical resilience” that Middlebury administration promotes. Certainly the protest should not have devolved into violence and left Professor Allison Stanger with a serious injury, but the students weren’t in the wrong

Taking up space and making noise toward a speaker whose research has been used to support arguments that some humans are genetically inferior is warranted.

race and genetics. This is an egregious theory. Instead of condemning the crowd as intellectual cowards, we should try to empathize with the justifiable anger of the protesters. Another common narrative among critics is that physical resistance is a flawed means of protest. While students did not have the chance to personally debate with Murray in an open discussion, protesters had every right to assertively demonstrate and voice their opinion. Taking up space and making noise toward a speaker whose research has been used to support arguments that some humans are genetically inferior is warranted. The protest

by choosing to protest. Moreover, the mainstream media and social media posts painted a grisly picture of malicious Middlebury students. In reflecting on the event, Murray himself described the protest with hyperbolic and unnecessary language. He referred to the protesting audience as “intellectual thugs” and described “their eyes as crazed and their expressions as snarls.” Stanger’s Facebook post, while completely understandable, also used language that inflated the narrative of violence. She claimed that the scene resembled a “Baghdad scene from Homeland” and students “had effectively de-

humanized” her, yet did not mention that Murray’s work left many students feeling dehumanized as well. The violence was inexcusable, but depictions like these are counterproductive. Finally, commentators claim that Middlebury students rejected an opportunity to expand their views, but the talk would hardly have done so. When reading the inflated defenses and criticisms of the Middlebury protests, I stumbled across the online quiz “Do you live in a bubble?” and took it. The quiz was supposed to replicate an exercise from Murray’s book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010” by evaluating superficial questions, such as beer preference and varsity letter awards, to predict your exposure to average “American mainstream culture.” The culture in the quiz of course excludes diverse experiences. By taking this quiz, I confronted Murray’s discourse, but do I believe that it was a productive or enlightening experience? Not at all. Murray’s ideas are based on such insular assumptions and poor reasoning that they don’t broaden perspectives — they simply propagate misinformation. We should absolutely continue the dialogue on Middlebury and its implications for free speech in other colleges. We can learn from those events and make sure that our advocacy is more understanding and effective. Yet we also need to ensure that our discussion tackles the issue with more compassion and less judgment. The political atmosphere across the country is more contentious than ever before, and we can’t afford more sensational and inflammatory media projections than we already have.

Grace Johnson ’19 can be reached at grace_johnson@brown.edu.

ARTS & CULTURE THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017

’80s synth-pop classic Depeche Mode releases new album ‘Spirit’ tackles current political climate, ’60s anti-war sentiments with renewed intensity By ELIZABETH TOLEDANO SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Depeche Mode has never shied away from dealing with tough topics. While the band might be primarily known for its dance hit “Just Can’t Get Enough,” Depeche Mode has managed to keep up a pop beat without abandoning the intense philosophical and political undertones present in their lyrics. Since the early ’80s, the band has consistently produced music without failing their fan base. This legacy continues in their most recent album “Spirit,” which came out Friday. “Spirit,” wrought with emotional intensity, appeals to the same demographic to which Depeche Mode has always catered: the angst-ridden adolescents of the ’80s and, now, their angst-ridden adolescent kids. Depeche Mode stems from the same era as dance-pop popularized by artists like Madonna and Wham! — and let’s face it, the band had its witty, radio-ready moments, such as “Never Let Me Down Again.” But perhaps because their particular moment in the world of John Hughes-style coming-of-age has passed, the band

has turned from playing emphatically ’80s new wave synth-pop tunes to using its music to make straightforward calls to action. The band’s earlier work — exemplified by its indignant 1990 album “Violator” ­— undoubtedly spoke to the darker aspects of interpersonal relationships. But these songs did not have the political implications prevalent in Depeche Mode’s latest release. Somewhat ironically, the album starts with “Going Backwards,” which includes the lyrics, “Ignoring the realities / Going Backwards / Are you counting all the casualties?” Evoking protest music popular in the ’60s and ’70s, these lyrics address today’s political climate. But paired with Depeche Mode’s characteristically cluttered synthetic background, the band conveys this political angst with renewed intensity. The consistent, driving electronic beat in “Where’s the Revolution,” which was pre-released as a single in early February, enforces the overt lyrics, “Who’s making your decisions? / You or your religion / You patriotic junkies.” The lyrics of the chorus, “Where’s the revolution / Come on, people / You’re letting me down” address the listener directly and beg for a political movement. The references to “The train is coming / so get on board” are reminiscent of Cat Stevens’ “Peace Train,” an antiwar anthem. Later in “Poorman,” lead singer of Depeche Mode Dave Gahan

sings, “Poor man still got the blues / He’s walking around in worn out shoes / With nothing to lose” to elicit the same imagery of Janis Joplin or Bob Dylan while creating a distinct framework to approach recent events with synthetic musical strength. As the album continues, the political messages become less focused, but the lyrics address personal issues with the same potent intensity. The song “You Move” approaches a lighter theme, offering lyrics like “Let me be your man” and “I like the way you move,” but doesn’t sacrifice the album’s consistent tone of melancholy and resentment — “We don’t have that life no more.” The song “Poison Heart” also addresses a romantic relationship but with an outright accusatory tone that feels almost political through the repetition of, “You know we have to break up / You’ll always be alone.” In the context of the larger album, this seems to indicate that in today’s political landscape, it comes as no surprise that the singer’s partner has “poison in (their) heart.” The song “So Much Love” recalls the band’s 1990 hit “Personal Jesus” with its persistent, repetitive, “You can forsake me,” again juxtaposing romance and religious imagery to create a poignant lyrical framework for approaching relationships. With the success of “Spirit,” Depeche Mode has avoided falling into the trap of former pop musicians

LAURA FELENSTEIN / HERALD

attempting a comeback. It has consistently continued to produce music since its 1980 debut. More importantly, the band has adjusted its sound without sacrificing its distinct place in the genre of electronic rock. On top of that, the band vehemently

addresses contemporary issues. For better or worse, the ephemeral rock movement linking disco and grunge — defined by bands like New Order, the Pet Shop Boys and the Cure — has permanently infiltrated the music landscape.

Brown club figure skating delivers magical performance » OPEN ACCESS,

authors as “especially grim” in countries such as India or China, where institutions or grants may not cover the cost of open access publication.

‘Disney on Ice’ event includes tributes to ‘Lion King,’ ‘Moana,’ other Disney classics By AMY WANG SENIOR STAFF WRITER

From 7 to 8 p.m. Monday evening, Meehan Auditorium echoed with familiar tunes that evoked childhood memories of talking candlesticks, flying magic carpets and underwater kingdoms. Along to the sweeping melody of “A Whole New World” and the upbeat rhythms of “Under the Sea,” 20 members of Brown Club Figure Skating spun and glided across the frozen surface of the auditorium’s ice skating rink while spectators enjoyed complimentary cups of hot chocolate. The figure skating team’s annual spring performance was themed for the first time. Inspired by — and named after — Disney’s popular series of touring ice shows, “Disney on Ice,” the Brown Club Figure Skating performance featured songs exclusively from Disney films old and new such as “Lady and the Tramp” and “Moana.” The show involved skaters of all levels, performing both in groups and solo. There were also periodic “demos,” in which individual skaters demonstrated common skating moves, such as two-foot turns and bunny hops for the benefit of audience members. “(Putting together the show) has been a great bonding experience,” said Elizabeth Pan ’18, co-president of Brown Club Figure Skating. “It’s really cool to see the creativity of all the skaters and all the hard work (they put in), too — because participating in the

from page 4

JASMINE RUIZ / HERALD

Five members of Brown Club Figure Skating pose at the end of their performance, skated to “How Far I’ll Go,’” from Disney’s “Moana.” The performance was part of the skating team’s spring semester show, “Disney on Ice.” show takes a long time.” Involvement in the show was voluntary for members of the skating team. Those who chose to participate had the opportunity to choreograph and perform their own pieces, Pan said. For the past month, performers were hard at work perfecting their routines, practicing both on and off the ice. Planning the show itself was an even longer process and began last semester partly due to time constraints imposed by the annual closing of the Meehan ice rink after spring break, Pan added. To kick-start the event, 20 performers filed onto the rink for a group number: “Circle of Life” from “The Lion King.” Due to the size of the performing body, Pan and Jacob Jaffe

’17, co-president of the team, worked together to choreograph the piece. In choreographing ice show performances, they took into account both the music and visual effects. “Listen to the music,” Jaffe said, also referencing several movements he and Pan chose to incorporate that “produced a cool visual result.” Brown Club Figure Skating has been around for about seven years, eventually growing from a student activity to an official club sport in 2014. Apart from staging their semiannual shows, the club also competes in regional intercollegiate skating competitions and practices regularly in the mornings at Meehan. The semester performances themselves were established around four years ago but since then have

grown to be much more “cohesive,” Jaffe said. “This year has been more intensive. Our choreography has definitely gotten more structured,” he added. As part of this expansion, Brown Club Figure Skating took initiative on a long-time goal to become more involved with other student groups on campus, choosing to team up with Disney A Cappella, a student-run a cappella group specializing in Disney songs, to put on “Disney on Ice.” The group took to the stage partway through the performance, singing selections from a variety of movie soundtracks, including “I Won’t Say I’m in Love,” “Colors of the Wind” and — fittingly — an entire musical medley from “Frozen.”

Looking ahead Across the board, researchers at Brown believe in promoting the availability of research in some form. But there is no perfect model for publication yet, Larson said. Larson envisions a system in which research papers could be uploaded to a database and then voted on for approval. The voting would act as a form of peer review, weeding out papers with issues and errors. While theoretical, this system could potentially help reduce some of the costs associated with journals, Larson added. Lappen instead focused on solutions that the University could act upon. In order to make publishing easier for researchers — who occasionally feel burdened by the need to comply with both federal and University policies — Lappen would like to see a central repository developed in which researchers could upload their peer-reviewed manuscripts to be accessed by both the funding agency and the University, eliminating some of the bureaucracy surrounding publication. Lappen would also like to see a centralization of University reports on research outputs; currently, there is no single, publicly available report that describes how much research is being done at Brown — a necessary precursor to any open access policy. While open access has gained support both locally and nationally, Zaslavsky described the one true limitation to complete open access: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody, somewhere must pay.”