Wednesday, November 28, 2018

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 107

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Rhea Stark ’18.5 earns Rhodes Scholarship Watson initiative presents Costs of War findings in D.C. Stark joins 31 other American scholars to study at Oxford, first U. recipient since 2015

Costs of War team studies human, fiscal costs of U.S. conflicts in Middle East post-9/11

By TYLER JACOBSON STAFF WRITER

Rhea Stark ’18.5 was awarded a 2019 Rhodes Scholarship Nov. 17, one of the most highly regarded international fellowship awards. Stark, along with 31 other award recipients from the United States, will pursue a master’s degree at Oxford University beginning October 2019.

Stark is the 56th student from Brown to earn the scholarship, according to the Rhodes Trust website.

Before Stark, the most recent University student to receive the award was Andrew Kaplan ’15, who was awarded the scholarship in November 2015.

Stark hopes to use her experiences at Oxford to eventually become a curator and design museum exhibits. She will graduate from the University in May with a double concentration in Middle East Studies and in Archaeology » See RHODES, page 3

By SPENCER SCHULTZ STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF RHEA STARK

Rhea Stark ’18.5 plans to complete her Master of Philosophy at Oxford in Islamic Art and Archaeology. She hopes to later pursue museum curation.

The United States has contributed $5.9 trillion to post-9/11 wars that have resulted in around 500,000 casualties, according to two studies produced by the Costs of War initiative from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. The Costs of War team reported its findings to government staffers and media outlets in a Washington D.C. briefing hosted by Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, Nov. 14.

One study titled “Human Cost of the Post-9/11 Wars: Lethality and the Need for Transparency,” found that “between 480,000 and 507,000 people have been killed in the United States’ post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan,” including casualties in the U.S. military, opposition groups, national militaries and other groups.

Of these casualties, approximately 250,000 people killed were civilians.

The figure does not, however, include the nearly 500,000 people who have died in Syria, according to the study.

This tally of total casualties may be an undercount due to “limits in reporting,” wrote Neta Crawford, one of the program directors and a professor of political science at Boston University, in the recent study.

“These human casualties are the heart of the problem,” said Catherine Lutz, a program director for the Costs of War and professor of anthropology and international studies. Too often, the human costs of war are invisible to most Americans, even as these wars escalate, Lutz said. “What’s surprising is that it continues. The level of violence in Afghanistan is actually higher than it was last year; the war is intensifying, even as it falls off the radar of Americans.”

The other study produced by the initiative estimated that the United States has spent $5.9 trillion on post9/11 wars, which reflects war-related » See WAR, page 2

Medical School develops U. offers video testimonial to applicants LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum Applicants to class of LGBTQ+ focused workshops integrated into first year doctoring curriculum

By KATHERINE BENNETT SENIOR STAFF WRITER

After finding that medical students receive an average of five hours of education on the health care needs of the LGBTQ+ community, medical schools across the country have received questions on how to improve their curriculums to promote LGBTQ+ inclusive healthcare, according to a 2011 Stanford Medical School study. At the Alpert Medical School, faculty have introduced opportunities to train students in caring for LGBTQ+ patients through the curriculum and an optional scholarly concentration in LGBTQ Healthcare and Advocacy.

Over the last few years, the office of medical education at the Med School has looked “at our curriculum for various opportunities to ensure there are not misrepresentations (or) incorrect use(s) of … race, gender identity, sexual orientation,” said Steven Rougas,

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director of the doctoring program at the Med School.

To that end, medical school administrators have worked with “lecturers to identify things that are incorrect or have been historically underrepresented in medicine,” Rougas said.

To educate students on the unique medical issues facing the LGBTQ+ community, the Med School began requiring students to attend a threehour workshop this year, Rougas said.

The workshop, called the Rainbow Caduceus, allows students to learn about the barriers to care that members of the LGBTQ+ community face in addition to proper terminology. A small group discussion and a larger group Q&A session follow the lecture to encourage students to exchange ideas about case studies, he said.

In addition, this year the Med School required second-year students to attend a training session focused specifically on the “barriers that transgender patients may encounter and how our students can be advocates to ensure appropriate quality of patient care,” Rougas said.

Previously, Spectrum — a medical » See LGBTQ+, page 3

2023 can choose between video testimonial, alumni interview

By SELEN TUMAY STAFF WRITER

Starting this fall the University is offering prospective students the option to submit a video testimonial in place of the traditional alumni interview as part of their application. The video testimonial aims to lighten the volume of requested alumni interviews and to give students the chance to have more control over their application, said Dean of Admission Logan Powell.

While the applicant pool increases 8 to 10 percent each year, the pool of alumni interview volunteers does not grow at the same rate, according to Powell. Out of the early decision pool, which grew by 20 percent this year, 82.5 percent of applicants requested an alumni interview, 9.1 percent chose the video testimonial and the remaining 8.4 percent selected neither option, Powell said.

“We want the applicant to be able to convey to us who they are in their own words,” Powell said. He hopes the video testimonial will be a “reasonably

DAPHNE ZHAO­­­­

stress-free, unscripted process” that will allow applicants to share things with the Admission Office that they may not be able to in an interview, he said. Powell noted that most alumni interviews just confirm what the Admission Office already knows about the student.

Though peer institutions such as

Bowdoin College and the University of Chicago offer a similar video alternative, the Admission Office’s decision to offer a video testimonial was made independently, Powell said.

The video testimonial is capped at two minutes. Powell explained that » See VIDEO, page 2

WEATHER

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018

COMMENTARY Cardoso ’19: Opening athletic facilities to public deepens U. ties with community

COMMENTARY Allums ’21: U. should increase financial aid for moderate income families

COMMENTARY Fernandez ’21: Students, elite institutions must use influence, resources to create social change

ARTS & CULTURE Students from course on Javanese Gamelan perform in Grant Recital Hall

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NEWS

PAGE 2 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

ALEX SKIDMORE / HERALD

» WAR, from page 1 portions of the Department of Defense’s budget, spending on terrorism prevention by the Department of Homeland Security, future obligations for veterans care and interest on debt incurred to pay for wars in the Middle East since the attacks on 9/11, said Stephanie Savell, a program director for the Costs of War. The Costs of War’s finding greatly exceeds the Pentagon’s estimate of $1.5 trillion in total spending, which only considers “overseas contingency operations,” and not other costs such as interest on borrowed funds or spending on veterans, Savell said.

» VIDEO, from page 1 students should not be professionally producing their video content and they are not expected to rehearse or read through a script. “Any student with a camera phone can do this,” Powell said.

Although the video testimonial and alumni interview do not singularly determine an applicant’s admission decision, they help the Admission Office understand the applicant more, Powell said.

Crawford, emphasized the “unique way” in which the government has funded these wars. “Normally, the United States either raises taxes or has the public participate by buying war bonds, … but now essentially the United States has turned to deficit spending to pay for these wars. That’s a problem,” Crawford said.

By the mid-2020s, spending on interest will exceed actual spending on the wars themselves, according to data from the Costs of War study that addresses the financial costs of the United States’ military conflicts.

“Yet, the United States continues to conduct these wars on a credit card and the interest to pay for these wars

will dwarf the expenditures on the next wars,” Crawford said.

Crawford added that she expects spending to increase further in order to care for wounded or disabled veterans. “The (veterans) most directly impacted should be concerned that there are enough resources to take care of the obligations that the United States took on for their care,” she said.

The Costs of War directors hope that bringing both human-related and economic costs into the public conversation will help to end these “needless wars,” Savell said.

“What we’ve shown in the project and what I’ve learned again and again is that projections of speed, efficiency,

effectiveness were overly optimistic by orders of magnitude,” Crawford said.

“We should be skeptical in any future war of any promises. These wars are never quick and easy.”

The United States’ intentions to promote a “wave of democratization” throughout the Middle East have also fallen short of promised goals, Crawford said. “Despite the hopes that the (United States) would change the way politics in the Middle East is conducted, the use of force does not promote democracy. It hasn’t and, in fact, it probably can’t ever promote democracy.”

The Costs of War project — which began preliminary research in 2010 — aims to engender a “more informed

democratic citizenry” through its findings, Lutz said. “Ultimately, better information will lead to better policy.”

These wars are the “longest and most expensive wars the United States has engaged in since its founding,” Crawford said. As such, the Costs of War team hopes that its findings will put pressure on lawmakers to increase transparency and “hold the government accountable” for its actions abroad, Savell said.

Future research conducted by the Costs of War project will focus on the “opportunity costs of military spending, civilian casualties and indirect harm to individuals,” Crawford said.

Sara Harberson, an independent college counselor, sees the video testimonial as a “big, bold step for Brown. … I love the fact that they are giving students the option,” she said. But she believes that “not a lot of students will take advantage (of the video testimonial) because it’s so new.” If students choose to do a video testimonial, they “have to stand out from the very start” because applications are read through so quickly, Harberson said. “If the student is a very dynamic speaker and

does well in front of the camera, the video gives them a chance to stand out in the applicant pool much better than in an interview.”

Kamran King ’22 said that if given the option he “would still prefer an interview over submitting a video” so he could meet alums “and ask them about their experience.”

Sammie Halem ’22 agreed that the interview provides “fresh insight to Brown” during which she “could relate to the interviewer and get a better sense

of the school.” But the option to do a video testimonial “gives everyone equal opportunity,” especially for students who do not have easy access to alumni interviews, she said.

Dorian Arber-Kornowski ’22 is against the video testimonial option.

The video will allow students to “show the Admission Office who you want to be but not who you really are.”

Arber-Kornowski, who completed an alumni interview during his application process, said he “wouldn’t have

been able to show that (he) can think on his feet” had he done a video. But Arber-Kornowski acknowledged that a video testimonial could allow a student to share an “interesting personal story that wouldn’t come out in a typical interview” and “reduce stress from an interview.”

The video testimonial is a “bold step for students who take advantage (of it), but usually the bold students are the ones who benefit in the end,” Harberson said.

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018 • PAGE 3

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» LGBTQ+, from page 1 student-led, LGBTQ+ advocacy and affinity group — coordinated the Rainbow Caduceus workshop as “an optional evening training to provide the basics around what it would look like to provide LGBTQ inclusive care,” said Becca Raymond-Kolker MD ’21, a co-leader of Spectrum. “We took that curriculum … and got it integrated into the first-year doctoring course” after the University made the workshop mandatory, she added.

The doctoring course is the “required clinical skills training curriculum for medical students, ” Rougas said. While the Med School used to offer an introductory course on LGBTQ+ patient care to students during their second year, the Med School found that students benefited more from learning about the subject during their first year.

Students begin working in clinics within the first two months of their education, so introducing core topics related to LGBTQ+ health care during the first year allows students “to be able to navigate these patient encounters when they’re in their early clinical experience,” Rougas said.

By integrating LGBTQ+ focused workshops into the general doctoring curriculum, all students have the opportunity to gain knowledge and build skills in LGBTQ+ health care, said Michelle Forcier, professor of pediatrics and director of the LGBTQ scholarly concentration. “It’s not just

»RHODES, from page 1 and the Ancient World. As a curator, she plans to elevate the “narratives and perspectives that are traditionally not talked about in museums … particularly (those of) women and people of color,” she said.

“It’s really important that we start to unwind the colonial history that has gone into making modern museums into what they are today,” Stark said. “For instances, if you walk into the (Metropolitan Museum of Art) in New York and you’re standing in the front, to the right will be the Egyptian gallery, to your left the Greco-Roman gallery and to your front the medieval gallery. That’s an Enlightenmentera argument about what a museum should be and what the height of civilization is.” But a museum “should be a place to learn about other modes

for people who have an interest, but it’s a part of everybody’s medical education,” she added.

In addition to the doctoring curriculum, medical students have the opportunity to take extracurricular courses in LGBTQ+ health care and advocacy as a part of a scholarly concentration, The Herald previously reported. Through this program, students take elective courses, attend a series of specialized lectures and create a project related to their studies.

Though the Med School has come far in integrating LGBTQ+ conscious care into its medical curriculum, there is still work to be done, Forcier said.

“There are areas in the curriculum where LGBTQ+ health(care) could be more streamlined and integrated, but that’s a work in progress,” she added.

“Integrating inclusive approaches across the curriculum should be continued,” Raymond-Kolker said. “There is potential for the scholarly concentration to expand.”

Despite the work left to do, the Med School has progressed in LGBTQ+ centered education, RaymondKolker said. “There’s a lot more (LGBTQ+ education) now than there has been in the past and it’s definitely something that Alpert Medical School is actively working on,” she said. “Especially in the doctoring program, they’re being really mindful of how to make it more LGBTQ inclusive, not only through the Rainbow Caduceus training, but also” when teaching how to record “sexual histories, … making

of being and other types of people,” she said.

At Oxford, Stark plans to complete a Master of Philosophy in Islamic Art and Archaeology. She said that it was one of the only universities that “approaches Islamic art not only through an art historical perspective but also an archaeological one.”

“Islamic art is a great place to start putting into practice a lot of the more progressive museum policies that I’m talking about,” Stark said.

Students do not apply directly for the Rhodes Scholarship, according to Linda Dunleavy, associate dean of the college for fellowships. Instead, students apply for nomination through the school, which ultimately decides who to nominate to the Rhodes Trust based on four qualities outlined by the scholarship: academic strength and promise, public service and a commitment to

SAM BERUBE / HERALD

The Med School began requiring students to attend a three-hour workshop on barriers that the LGBTQ+ community faces. This is part of an effort to increase training for students to better care for LGBTQ+ patients. sure that you’re asking inclusive questions (and) not assuming things about peoples’ sex lives,” she added.

As the country continues to examine the relationship between medical care providers and LGBTQ+ patients,

student movements are leading the way in improving care for these groups, Raymond-Kolker said. “That is challenging because being a medical student is … overwhelming. (But) it’s exciting to see, and I hope that … as

my generation of medical students graduates into being physicians, we see there’s a transformation in making sure the (LGBTQ+) community gets better care across the board,” she added.

helping others, leadership and vigor, Dunleavy said. This year, between 30 and 35 students applied for nomination, of which Brown nominated 23.

Five of those 23 were invited to the final interview stage, Dunleavy said. In total, more than 2,500 students across the country sought their institution’s endorsement, with 880 students nominated by 281 different institutions for the 32 scholarships, according to a Nov. 17 Rhodes Trust press release.

Dunleavy said that while “we were very enthusiastic about all” of the 23 candidates nominated, Stark especially stood out. “When she did some of the practice interviews, she represented herself very well and people could get a good sense of who she was” in just a 30-minute time frame, Dunleavy said.

Over the past few years, Stark has been involved with multiple archaeological digs. As part of the Gabii

Project, she traveled to a site near Rome to unearth an ancient Latin city-state that proved to be a “really great place to learn how to excavate.” She has also worked with former Brown professor Matthew Reilly, where she looked at the history of slavery on plantations in Barbados.

In addition, while studying in London, Stark completed an independent study project with Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture Holly Shaffer, where she researched collecting, colonialism and their “relationship to the display of Islamic Art in British Museums,” Shaffer wrote in an email to The Herald. Shaffer serves as the advisor to Stark’s archival and visual research “into the patronage networks that produced two inlaid marble table tops” at two museums, which eventually became Stark’s honors thesis.

Stark “recognizes how museums

and other institutions of cultural heritage can (not only) serve as sites of dialogue and a means of understanding other cultures, but they can also embolden long standing prejudices and maintain colonial practices,” Shaffer wrote. “It is her commitment to confronting these types of questions that made her a compelling Rhodes candidate.”

When Stark found out that she had earned the scholarship, she felt shocked and surprised but also “incredibly grateful” for her experiences at Brown.

“When I came to Brown I had no idea what I wanted to study,” Stark said.

“It was the professors at Brown who helped me find my path and supported me in doing research that didn’t necessarily align with class assignments. So it was really to their credit that I got (the scholarship).”

COMMENTARY PAGE 4 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Make Brown athletic facilities public

JIMMY KIM

CONNOR CARDOSO opinions editor I don’t play basketball. It’s nothing against the sport itself, but I never grew up playing it. While I like to think it was just chance that led me to sign up for other sports during my childhood, I reluctantly admit that even in middle school, I recognized that I lacked the — ahem — vertical prerequisites for success in basketball. From time to time, though, (as we all do) I find myself talking about things that don’t particularly interest me. And indeed, during the beginning of the semester, I found myself talking to a friend who worked at the front desk of the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center about what I thought would be the most boring, most anodyne job on campus — essentially serving as a gatekeeper to the recreational basketball courts. So I innocently asked them how they liked the job, expecting them to tell me it was, in fact, the most boring, most anodyne job on campus. That isn’t quite how they responded, though. They told

me they disliked their job. They said they didn’t like how they were required almost daily to turn away local high school students looking to play basketball.

The University is transparent about its policy toward members of the Providence community using its athletic facilities. It notes on its website that guests — that is, non-Brown or RISD students, faculty or staff — must pay a daily $10 fee to use its facilities, like the basketball courts in the OMAC. But that there is actually demand from other members of the Providence community for access to these facilities was, at least to me, less obvious. Trivial as this might seem, it is through small interactions like these that Brown establishes its reputation in the community. And while it goes without saying that Brown is most interested in serving the needs and wants of its own students, faculty and staff, that does not mean it has no obligations to the community, and it certainly does not justify adopting an arbitrarily exclusive policy. Opening the OMAC and other athletic facilities, even if it’s only for publicized, fixed “open hours” a few times a week, is a small but important gesture that

would not only provide young people in Providence a valuable service, but also help to cultivate a stronger sense that Brown is more than just an ivory tower that exclusively serves its own interests.

Of course, in conversations I’ve had with friends about this topic, I’ve heard objections. Primarily, I’ve been told that the University should care for members of its own community first, and that by opening up athletic facilities to the public, we’re diluting the quality of the services students pay for (through overcrowding, increasing the likelihood of damage to facilities, etc.).

I’m not sympathetic to this argument for several reasons. First, while Brown should prioritize the needs of its students, it still carries a responsibility to support members of the Providence community. Their argument becomes particularly facile when one considers that Brown pays nothing in taxes to the city, despite owning approximately 150 tax-exempt buildings with a combined valuation of over $1 billion.

Though the University does provide the city with payment in lieu of taxes, these payments are a fraction of what it would otherwise pay to the

city. It is unreasonable, and borders on abject greed, to completely dismiss the notion that Brown has responsibilities beyond its own students, faculty and staff when one considers how we continue to benefit from the city’s good will.

It’s also uncompelling to assert that limited public access to athletic facilities would somehow take away from the quality of our experience.

First, and perhaps most importantly, the current policy does not prohibit public access altogether — members of the community are still eligible to use athletic facilities even now, if they pay. The argument that public access somehow takes away from the experiences of members of the Brown community seems more like a pretext for exclusion rather than a legitimate justification for dismissing free public access.

Though it’s true that eliminating the $10 fee during potential open hours would increase the amount of public demand for Brown’s athletic facilities during these times, it strains credulity to hold that this new increased usage would substantially detract from the experience of Brown community members. Midafternoon open hours on weekdays

— the time local students would be most likely to use these facilities — hardly strikes me as a popular time for Brown students, faculty and staff to play basketball or run laps around the indoor track.

While this argument might seem frivolous, it highlights one of many small, effortless gestures the University can make to demonstrate that it is serious in its commitment to contribute meaningfully to the Providence community. The current policy toward public access to athletic facilities is prohibitively expensive for certain members of the community like high school students — and pointlessly so. By creating free open hours at its athletic facilities several times a week, Brown could, with minimal effort, take a meaningful step toward cultivating its role as a member of the Providence community.

Connor Cardoso ’19 can be reached at connor_cardoso@ brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.

TODAY

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018 • PAGE 5

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Robinson Hall is celebrating 140 years as a part of Brown’s campus. Formerly used as the University’s main library, it now houses the Department of Economics, where it still holds over 10,000 volumes dedicated to the field.

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

“The level of violence in Afghanistan is actually higher crossword

than it was last year; the war is intensifying, even as it

”

falls off the radar of Americans.

— Catherine Lutz, a program director for the Costs of War

See war on page 1.

CORRECTION An earlier version of the Nov. 25 article “Tong ’95 elected Connecticut’s first Asian-American attorney general” incorrectly stated that William Tong ’95 is the country’s second Asian-American state attorney general. In fact, Tong will be the country’s second elected Asian-American state attorney general. The Herald regrets the error.

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Neither Slave Nor Citizen Talk 12:00 P.M. Joukowsky Forum

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Should Deaf People Serve in the Military?

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Study Abroad in Spain Information Session 12:00 P.M. Paige-Robinson Hall

Back of the Throat by Yussef El Guindi 8:00 P.M. Leeds Theatre

Pakistan Election Across Disciplines 2:00 P.M. Granoff Center

Brown University Orchestra 8:00 P.M. Sayles Hall

COMMENTARY PAGE 6 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018

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COMMENTARY WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018 • PAGE 7

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The responsibility of privilege MARYSOL FERNANDEZ staff columnist This year’s midterm elections boasted the highest voter turn-out rates in half a century — resulting in a major win for Democrats in the House of Representatives and significant strides in diversifying representation, especially for women of color. However, in general, Tuesday’s results left many on both sides of the aisle unsatisfied, myself included. I voted, and I’m glad I voted. But I am now more sure than ever that just voting is not enough.

Young people who share this feeling of wanting to go further to enact social and institutional change face varying and often conflicting considerations that make academic and career choices uncertain and daunting. Universities, the professional and social centers for these young people, are failing to provide the necessary support to help students work through these uncertainties. What’s more, the intellectual elitism rampant in these spaces often deters social and institutional change. It is much too easy and much too common for administrators, professors and students to limit themselves to the conceptual inquiries that dominate the modern academic sphere. However, uni-

versities and all of their participants have a responsibility to support and encourage the pursuit of social influence and reform. Our privilege as the intellectual elite allows and therefore requires that we explore our role as agents of change.

Careers grounded in the goal of social and institutional change range across countless fields and can take on wildly different forms. This fact makes it difficult for universities to

“Education for Democracy” that publications such as Inside Higher Ed have called for, which demand that students learn to be responsible citizens and engage in the political process. Instead, universities must recognize that students who have a privileged access to education carry a responsibility to contribute meaningfully to society.

In the context of universities, students who aspire to effect change face

cal intricacies and theoretical complications of current social and political frameworks, often pushes us toward the conclusion that we have no ability to influence these forces in a meaningful way. Furthermore, there is a tendency in academia to look down upon the individual who works to move past these inclinations. Those who express a desire to enact on-theground change are often considered naive instead of ambitious. I believe

Our privilege as the intellectual elite allows and therefore requires that we explore our role as agents of change.

provide support to students engaged in this pursuit. Still, there is room for growth in the way that universities are addressing the immense question of how students can effectively participate in change. The most immediate and accessible response is for universities to begin to offer more resources to students, particularly in the way of creating spaces dedicated to addressing this question. These spaces must go beyond the mere

challenges beyond what can be fixed by mere institutional reform. There is a certain mindset of indifference and resignation embedded in the exercises of the high academic sphere that conflicts with the pursuit of social and institutional change. It is easy to get lost in the overwhelming power of the structures that govern our world when studying these structures so thoroughly. Our education, which encourages us to dive into the histori-

it is essential for us to look beyond these large-scale, highly theoretical understandings that dominate university discourse. Appreciating the complexities of world systems does not mean we must disregard the power we could have to influence them.

If anything, our depth of knowledge makes us even more capable of making a difference. I argue it is the responsibility of universities to engage in this process of reimagining.

Deeper still than university guidance or understanding the impact of personal influence, there is another consideration that I believe firmly cements our responsibility as agents of change. We must consider ourselves within a larger context and recognize the power and responsibility that our position of privilege entails. Dedicating our lives to social and institutional change can be difficult when many believe enacting such change is an unobtainable goal. However, I think it is the responsibility of students at elite institutions such as Brown to be aware that there is too much at stake to let uncertainty derail action. I cannot pretend to know if in the end this pursuit will be fulfilling or result in meaningful change. However, I can claim that if there is anyone to resign themselves to indifference, it is not the Brown student with access to a world of possibilities that most of the rest of the world could only ever dream of. Instead, this possibility of meaningful influence urges us, at the very least, to attempt to participate as agents of change.

Marysol Fernandez ’21 can be reached at marysol_fernandez@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@ browndailyherald.com.

Is the Brown Promise enough?

JORDAN ALLUMS staff columnist Fall semester at Brown has invited the usual wave of prospective students crowding the entrance of the Stephen Robert ‘62 Campus Center before they embark on one of the highly recommended campus tours. The members who hope to join the Class of 2023 appear to follow the typical pattern, but there is something distinct about this round of applicants.

In a recent Brown University Community Council meeting, Dean of Admission Logan Powell proudly announced that the amount of early decision applicants increased by 20 percent from 3,501 applicants for the class of 2022 to 4,169 applicants for the class of 2023.

Furthermore, the number of early decision applicants who reported an interest in receiving financial aid grew by 11 percent in the last year.

Powell pins the growth in ED applicants largely to the implementation of the Brown Promise, an initiative that involves replacing loans with University scholarship funds in all undergraduate financial aid packages.

This is another step in a process toward making a Brown education accessible to all families regardless of income. In 2008, Brown first replaced loans with University scholarships solely for families with a total parental income of less than $100,000, according to the University’s financial aid website. This opened Brown’s doors to many more low-income families, but did not reach those moderate-income families who did not qualify for the more generous financial aid that low-income families receive. The difference with the

Brown Promise is the absence of the $100,000 threshold, which granted all undergraduate students loan-free financial aid packages beginning this year.

I remember reading the email announcing the Brown Promise and immediately texting my parents the news. I wanted them to join me in a refreshing wave of optimism after navigating the twists and turns of applying for financial aid as a middle-class family. My parents earn too much money to qualify for

ever, the relief only lasted briefly.

The fact is that eliminating loans from financial aid packages does not eliminate families’ need for them when they are not receiving sufficient aid in the first place. My experience has revealed a key inadequacy of the Brown Promise in making a significant change in my life and perhaps the lives of other moderateincome students. It should be made clear that the Brown Promise does not increase financial aid, but instead replaces loans with scholar-

The fact is that eliminating loans from financial aid packages does not eliminate families’ need for them when they are not receiving sufficient aid in the first place.

substantial financial aid, yet they do not earn enough to be able to comfortably afford my education. Surely enough, when I received my financial aid package for the 2018-19 school year, I found that what used to be loans were replaced by additional University scholarship funds. This change should have ushered in a new chapter of my college experience in which I would no longer be weighed down by the financial burden of my education. How-

ships. Therefore, if the amount of financial aid that families receive remains insufficient, they will still have to request loans from Brown or seek private loans elsewhere, which often carry greater consequences such as higher interest rates and the lack of federal interest subsidies. Indeed, while replacing portions of tuition covered by loans with scholarships may decrease student debt after college, the Brown Promise makes little difference in the short-

term affordability of an education. If the actual amount of financial aid does not increase, families will still struggle to afford the cost of attendance. As long as moderate-income families are unable to afford the family contribution that their existing financial aid packages demand, Brown will remain inaccessible to many students who wish to attend.

My hope is that the University does not assume that the spike in ED applicants signals that the problem has been solved. In order to expand financial accessibility to moderate-income students, Brown should adjust the manner in which financial aid eligibility is calculated so that the family contribution more adequately reflects families’ actual abilities to pay without having to request loans from the University or elsewhere. Financial anxiety makes it very difficult for students receiving aid to fully embrace all of the opportunities and connections that Brown offers.

On multiple occasions, I have felt that my enrollment here hangs in the balance due to financial struggles. Moderate-income students work just as hard and are just as deserving of attending Brown as those who can afford full tuition, and it is cruel that the only obstacles standing in between them and a fulfilling education are financial circumstances beyond their control. Eliminating loans from financial aid packages is a step in the right direction toward resolving this issue, but increasing financial aid would go much further.

Jordan Allums ’21 can be reached at jordan_allums@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald. com.

NEWS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018

U. students, Providence community members perform Javanese Gamelan Javanese Gamelan originated in Indonesia, centers on bronze percussion instrument

By ANNABELLE WOODWARD SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Tuesday evening, musicians, students and Providence community members gathered in the Grant Recital Hall for a performance of traditional Javanese Gamelan, a music form from Indonesia that is centered around an ensemble of bronze percussion instruments, often accompanied by vocalists and dancers. The instruments include hand-played bronze drums, xylophones and gongs ­— some of which Associate Professor of Music Marc Perlman said can be “learned in under an hour” and others that he has spent “40 years trying to master.”

Tuesday’s program focused on the instrumental aspect of the craft, with a lineup of well-known gamelan percussion pieces and a new composition by Teaching Associate in Music I.M. Harjito, who is “one of the best Javanese traditional musicians in the

world,” according to Perlman. The performers are enrolled in a class on Javanese Gamelan taught by Perlman and Harjito. The class meets Tuesdays in the Orwig Music Center and welcomes the participation of graduate students and Providence community members.

Perlman is a musician and academic who has devoted much of his life to studying gamelan music, publishing popular works of scholarship, such as Unplayed Melodies: Javanese Gamelan and the Genesis of Music Theory. He has been teaching the class since 1998 alongside Harjito, an Artist-in-Residence and teacher at Wesleyan University who has made the trip from central Connecticut to Providence “every Tuesday for 20 years” to help instruct. Perlman and Harjito encourage people who have no background in music or Javanese Gamelan to take the class because the selection of simple instruments allows for students of every skill-level to partake.

One ensemble member, Prateek Joshi ’18.5, had negligible musical experience before deciding to take the class.“I played the piano a long time

ago, but I don’t think that counts,” he said.

Joshi had never heard of Javanese Gamelan before this semester but decided to enroll because he wanted to “do something outside of his comfort zone” and “enhance his college experience” before graduation, he said.

He has enjoyed the class because the music is “fairly accessible for beginners.” Within a matter of weeks, he was able to learn the saron, a “fairly simple” instrument that resembles a xylophone with seven keys. “It sounds nice on its own, but when you hear it with the ensemble and see how the instruments all come together, you hear something that’s quite beautiful,” he reflected.

Joshi hopes that in the future the class focuses more on the history and culture of the music form, he said. “If we’re going to play the instruments, we can’t do it in a vacuum.”

Katherine Dunham ’19 came to the performance to support Joshi and expressed a similar desire to understand the musical form in its larger cultural and historical context. “I don’t know anything about it!” she said. “But I’d love to learn more.”

ANNABELLE WOODWARD / HERALD

Students from a Javanese Gamelan class performed in Grant Recital Hall Tuesday night with a variety of percussion instruments.