Wednesday, April 26th, 2023

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Neurosurgery Department tests AI models on written, oral board exam questions

ARTS & CULTURE

Una Lomax-Emrick ’23 centers absurdity in comedy

Lomax-Emrick creates community through improv, stand-up, sketch comedy

BY GABRIELLA VULAKH SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

The Brown Neurosurgery Department recently published two preprints comparing the performances of Artificial Intelligence Large Language Models ChatGPT, GPT-4 and Google Bard in the neurosurgery written board examinations and the neurosurgery oral board preparatory question bank.

They found that these AI models were able to pass the written exams with “flying colors.” When challenged to answer the more complicated oral exam questions, which require higher-order thinking based on clinical experience and exposure, the models still performed “superbly,” said Ziya Gokaslan, professor and chair of neurosurgery at the Warren Alpert Medi-

cal school and neurosurgeon-in-chief at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital.

s ince its publication, the preprint focused on the oral board exam questions has ranked in the 99th percentile of the Altmetric Attention s core, which has tracked the amount of attention received by over 23 million online research outputs.

“It’s such an exploding story in

the world and in medicine,” said Warren Alpert p r ofessor of Neurosurgery Albert Telfeian, who is also the director of minimally invasive endoscopic spine surgery at RIH and director of pediatric neurosurgery at Hasbro Children’s Hospital.

Inspiration for the study and key

BY DANA RICHIE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The first joke that really made Una Lomax-Emrick ’23 laugh was “cockle-doodle-don’t.” At three years old, they “thought it was such a funny change of phrase.”

s ince childhood, Lomax-Emrick has been committed to being “serious about being absurd.” Today, they pursue this passion through comedic performances like improv and stand-up comedy.

Though they have a background in performance and were “always doing little bits,” Lomax-Emrick did not think of themself as “someone who was very funny” until they got to college.

They said that their confidence

in the world of comedy grew with their comfort in their transness and queerness. “When that sort of settled, I could picture who I was more, so I could picture what made certain things funny,” Lomax-Emrick added.

At Brown, they have found opportunities and communities within campus improv troupe IM p ROVidence, as a member of the Out of Bounds sketch comedy troupe and while performing stand-up comedy on their own.

Lomax-Emrick was first drawn to improv because it was a group of people “making the world as weird as it can be.”

“There’s so much going on, so if you don’t like a choice you made, you can make a new one, and generally, the audience will go with you,” they said. “It lets me take bigger swings and adjust from there.”

A captain of IM p ROVidence, Lomax-Emrick noted that the group is a supportive environment to take

Smiley budget expands city services, raises taxes

METRO proposed $586 million budget subject to approval by City Council

BY NEIL MEHTA UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

Mayor Brett smiley announced his administration’s $586 million budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 at a Tuesday budget address to the providence City Council. The proposal is Smiley’s first as mayor.

The proposal calls for residential property tax rates of $18.70 per $1,000 in assessed value, up from $17.80 in fiscal year 2023, with the 40% homestead exemption maintained. It would decrease commercial property tax rates from $35.40 per $1,000 to $34.10, the Boston Globe reported.

It also calls for an expansion of city services, designating $300,000 to improve litter removal and $100,000 for a new 311 system, as well as $193,000 for sidewalk improvements and $222,000 for graffiti removal. The proposal is subject to approval by the providence City Council, which will

Brown Votes testifies for same-day voter registration amendment in Rhode Island

seek to approve it by mid-June, the Globe reported.

The proposed budget “would rebalance the city’s tax rates, refocus the use of federal dollars and prepare us for a possible recession,” smiley said in a Tuesday press release.

smiley also discussed the city’s ongoing negotiations surrounding its agreements for payments in lieu of taxes, which allow institutions like Brown to make voluntary payments to the city instead of taxes — on top of funding that providence receives from the state in place of a portion of lost tax revenue.

smiley said in the press release that his administration wants to place a commercial property tax on cases where “large institutions buy buildings and lease them to for-profit entities while being granted tax exemptions.” He also discussed a proposed payroll tax, which he said will provide funding to the city “whenever these institutions grow.”

Providence “needs these funds, in order to keep paying our bills on time and to provide the high-quality services we all deserve,” smiley said in

Amendment to state constitution would end 30-day wait period for statewide elections

BY JENNIFER SHIM SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Last month, three members of Brown Votes — a nonpartisan University student initiative focused on increasing voter participation on campus — testified at the Rhode Island state House in support of House Joint Resolution 5770. The bill, if passed, would put forth a ballot question to amend the state constitution to allow same-day voter registration for statewide elections, according to John Bellaire ’25, a civic engagement fellow for Brown Votes who testified at the hearing.

Currently, in Rhode Island, same-day voter registration is only offered for federal elections, whereas statewide elections require voters to register at least 30 days in advance, said Logan Tullai ’25, the chair of Brown Votes’ Advocacy Committee. If the ballot question passed, it would allow voters to “register up to and including Election Day,” said Julian Cronin ’25, another member of the Advocacy Committee

who also testified in favor of the bill.

The Advocacy Committee specifically seeks to “expand access to voting and overcome barriers … to participation,” Tullai said. “That takes the form of meeting with stakeholders and the state House, and then working with on-campus partners … to expand access to civic engagement.”

Cronin told The Herald that on the day of the testimony, each member got around three minutes to make their arguments.

“We argued that all citizens of Rhode Island — whether they just moved here, whether they just registered, whether they just became citizens — all should

Remembering and honoring Ferdinand Jones, Panetha Ott

AI models pass with ‘flying colors’ on written exam, perform ‘superbly’ on oral exam

COURTESY OF ROHAID ALI

The text-based models tested scored significantly lower in imagingrelated questions that require more complex reasoning.

Remembering Panetha Ott, director of admission, international recruitment

33 years of advocating for international students, honoring their stories

BY KATHY WANG UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

When Hlib Burtsev ’26 — a Ukrainian student admitted to Brown last year — was crossing the Hungary-Ukraine border in May 2022, it was “2 or 3 a.m.” in Providence. Panetha Ott, the Office of College Admission’s director of admission and international recruitment, was awake and waiting for Burtsev’s good news. she helped Burtsev and another Ukrainian admit, Oleksii shebanov ’26, come early for the University’s summer session so that they could be safe from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ott “would often laugh and tell us that she was ‘in’ London at 1 a.m., ‘in’ Istanbul at 5 a.m. and ‘in’ singapore at noon,” Associate provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admission Logan powell, who knew Ott for about 20 years, wrote in an email to The Herald. “In reality, she would stay up nearly all night connecting with alumni and prospective students by phone and Zoom.”

Burtsev and shebanov met Ott in person in late August — a meeting delayed by her health issues. They brought her Ukrainian souvenirs, and Ott bought them fish-shaped pastries, taiyaki, from Ceremony on Brook street.

That was the second-to-last time Burtsev met Ott in person, before seeing her again at the 2022 international orientation, where Ott gave her annual keynote address. In her speech, she told Burtsev and shebanov’s story in detail as an example of the resilience their class shared.

Ott died at age 64 of cancer in early December after more than 33 years of recruiting international students. she is remembered for honoring countless stories of students like Burtsev and shebanov while working diligently to ensure the success of international students.

Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, Ott attended Bryn Mawr College for undergraduate education, the University of pennsylvania for a doctor of education and worked towards a phD at Brown.

she is survived by her husband stephen Ott phD ’92, nephew spencer Florence, as well as a legacy of dedication to international students and bringing energy and joy to others.

A genuine love: Working with international students

Joseph pucci, professor of classics and in the program in medieval studies and professor of comparative literature, first met panetha Ott in 1997 after bringing an outreach plan to the Office of Admission that aimed to ensure healthy enrollment in the classics department.

After formulating a plan together, Panetha Ott “would work her magic and gather together hundreds of names of students who were interested in classics” to connect them with pucci or arrange visits every year.

pucci and panetha Ott became good friends. As a classics professor, pucci offered feedback on applicants interested in classics while sitting in her office. They talked. she made pucci herbal tea.

panetha Ott was invested in every one of the countless applications she read, stephen Ott said. “She would come home very excitedly if she found someone special.”

But panetha Ott worked in both ad-

mitting and matriculating international students, said Associate Provost for Global Engagement Asabe poloma.

When Poloma first met Panetha Ott in a job interview, Poloma “her aspiration,” “vision” and “passion” were clear.

In a previous job, poloma and panetha Ott, along with the Office of International Student and Scholar Services and the Global Brown Center for International students collaborated to help incoming international students — including facilitating transportation, obtaining immigration documents and organizing international orientation.

While playing “an instrumental role in coordinating and organizing” IO, Panetha Ott had a “very powerful and symbolic role” because of her keynote speech every year, Poloma said. Her speech was “deeply personal” and tried to make each individual “feel seen” in the large auditorium, poloma said.

Poloma also noted Panetha Ott’s “capacity for creative, imaginative thinking” on top of her “incredible energy,” always “proactively anticipating” student and community needs. These traits became evident during their first time working together when the Trump administration announced an Executive Order preventing people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. The team worked on a tight timeline to support impacted students.

panetha Ott knew how to address a crisis — she was “instrumental” in supporting the admission of displaced Ukrainian students and dedicated time to supporting other students who were refugees or displaced, poloma said.

A ‘fierce advocate’ for students

After Kabul, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021, a group of female students struggled to return to college at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. They were evacuated to the United states, and the University welcomed 15 of them as non-degree students in fall 2021.

Panetha Ott then “worked like crazy” to have them — who she named “The Fantastic 15” — officially accepted to the University, said Chaplain of the University and Director of the Office Reverend Janet Cooper Nelson, who was friends with Ott for more than 20 years. “She was so excited about them,” stephen Ott said.

Out of the 15 students, 12 eventually decided to apply to the University and were all accepted in December 2022, according to powell.

Panetha Ott “had been supportive of them throughout and was a champion

After Sapantzi’s acceptance, she and her family emailed panetha Ott about logistics. Panetha Ott offered Sapantzi’s mother her personal phone number. “It was a lot of relief for my family,” sapantzi said. “We trusted her before we even spoke to her.”

The first time Sapantzi called Panetha Ott was when she had trouble traveling back home. Greek authorities needed her passport number on her COVID-19 test, but the University didn’t provide it. “I was crying at the airport,” Sapantzi said. “I called her even before Health services … she was very helpful. I made it back home.”

Without having met her in person, Panetha Ott became Sapantzi’s “strongest support person in the U.S.” The hope and trust she offered in challenging times continued to impact her students.

When Burtsev was preparing for a “very difficult” journey from Ukraine to the University, Panetha Ott “was really hopeful all the time,” he said. “She always said, ‘there are no problems that are not solvable. There’s always a way out.’”

During Heald’s first year working in GBC amidst the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when “there were so many complications going on” in supporting international students, he received a call from Panetha Ott “out of nowhere.” “I immediately thought, what’s wrong?” Heald said.

“When I answered the phone, she was like, ‘Hi, how are you? … I just wanted to see how you were doing,’” said Heald. “It was a moment of pause for me that she offered to say, stop working for a moment, be you.”

For Cooper Nelson, panetha Ott showed care through simple, daily actions. “Sometimes I’d look up (from my desk), and I’d see her face,” Cooper Nelson said. “And she would smile and say, ‘I just thought I’d stop by and say, hi, I love you.’” Other times, panetha Ott would leave chocolate or something else Cooper Nelson liked on her desk. “And you just knew she’d been here.”

“When you least expected it, but when you most needed it,” she said.

for these amazing women at every stage of the admission process,” powell wrote in an email to The Herald. She was aware of their acceptance before she passed, he added.

Three decided to apply elsewhere — a result of careful consultation with panetha Ott.

All 15 students had “written a beautiful, big card wishing her healing” when panetha Ott was having health struggles, Cooper Nelson said.

“When she came (to the University), there was not really much of an international student program. … she’s the one who built it all up,” stephen Ott said. And “when she really wanted something (to happen), she fought for it.”

panetha Ott pushed hard for expanded international financial aid and increased international enrollment, stephen Ott said.

“She was a fierce advocate for our students,” said Andrew Heald, current GBC program director.

A natural teacher

panetha Ott met stephen Ott as a graduate student at Brown in 1981. she studied classical philology while he studied classical philosophy. stephen Ott told their story in Wayland square Diner, where the couple used to go, sometimes twice a week, even before they dated.

“She was very intelligent,” Stephen Ott said. “She was also extremely intuitive.” panetha Ott occasionally lectured in one of Pucci’s courses. “She was a talented teacher, a natural lecturer,” pucci said, adding that she spoke “cogently” about a wide variety of cultures.

“And she really was a very wise and enriching figure,” said Madeline “Maddy” Noh ’22 GS, who worked with Panetha Ott to teach high school students English and as a Meiklejohn student advising partner. she noted the amount of knowledge panetha Ott had and how she loved sharing it.

“Being with her is an education itself,” said Stephen Ott. “In fact, I think I learned more from her than I learned from anybody in my life.”

Multiple people emphasized how much they loved panetha Ott’s sense of humor. “She made me laugh,” said Pucci. “She was an original one.”

Bringing hope and trust

Stella Sapantzi ’24, a student from Greece, heard about Panetha Ott even before she applied to the University. With family roots in Greece herself, Panetha Ott was close friends with Sapantzi’s high school college counselor.

Former GBC student staff member Nhu phung ’21 — who worked with panetha Ott to interview Heald for his position — recalled that she gave her “a lot of agency.”

“At some point, I wanted to go into higher education administration because of people like her and because of the impact she has on people’s lives,” phung added.

panetha Ott was someone Noh knew she could turn to “for assistance or help” both professionally and as a friend, despite their “very large age gap.”

“She just gave to people unconditionally,” Sapantzi said. “She didn’t expect recognition … for working after hours, or for giving away her cell phone number.”

Every summer, pucci would receive on his front porch a bag of vegetables from panetha Ott’s garden. It always had peppers and tomatoes. She “was proudest of her tomatoes.”

“I looked forward to getting that,” Pucci said. “I got one in August, when she was clearly not well.”

An embodiment of Brown panetha Ott became a symbol of the University for international students. “She was so passionate about the values and ideals of Brown, and she has brought that into the world in her travels and talking to students around the world,” Noh said. “She was so curious, so open-minded … she loved learning so much.”

“It’s easier to (say) what were the

‘She connected on a personal level with every single one of us’ panetha Ott made everyone around her feel seen, Heald said.

She “was like a repository of stories” and “a walking library of the international student experience,” he added.

“It’s really easy in positions like (Panetha Ott’s) to think about the international student experience in terms of data,” he added. She “utilized data, … (but) she reminded us every day that there’s an experience behind that data.”

Despite knowing many students, “she would always remember details about my life and things that I mentioned a very, very long time ago,” Noh said. For sapantzi, Panetha Ott “connected on a personal level with every single one of us.”

This individual attention and care also extended to panetha Ott’s colleagues.

she knew which northeastern Nigerian village poloma was from and inquired about related news she saw. “Even when we’re busy … you always felt when panetha was with you that she was really holding that time with you, and nothing else mattered,” poloma added.

countries she didn’t visit,” stephen Ott said. “I don’t think there’s a continent she didn’t set foot on.”

Panetha Ott was “very well-regarded in the admissions circle,” stephen Ott said. paths of people on the same road crossed throughout the years. An online memorial featured a “thoroughly international group” of people, whether professional staff or former students, who shared stories about her, Cooper Nelson said.

Panetha Ott “brought Brown alive” for all international students who lived far away, Cooper Nelson added.

When the “Fantastic 15” finally arrived at the airport — after complicated logistics and flight delays due to a snowstorm — it was 2 a.m.. poloma, who was picking them up, received a call from panetha Ott, who told her that she would meet her at the airport despite having a call at 11 p.m. with an international alum in south Korea. poloma told Panetha Ott she was fine on her own.

“I showed up to the airport at 1:30 a.m., and not only was panetha there, but with the biggest smile and a poster,” Poloma said. “I just thought to myself, this is not work. This is someone who just embodies so much … That was Panetha.”

COURTESY OF STEPHEN OTT

Panetha Ott supported international applicants through crises like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

COURTESY OF STEPHEN OTT

Taken in Russia on October 31, 2013 on a group recruiting trip.

Friends, colleagues remember Professor Ferdinand Jones

Jones died at 90 in September, trailblazed U. mental health services

BY SOFIA BARNETT UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

Ferdinand Jones, an accomplished professor emeritus of psychology at the University and a pioneer of the mental health services that eventually became Counseling and psychological services, died sept. 10 at age 90.

Born and raised in New York City, Jones is survived by his partner Belinda Johnson, brother Arthur, daughters Joanne Jones-Rizzi and Terrie Jones, granddaughter Zora Jones Rizzi and his great-grandsons Wilder and sy.

During his time at Brown, Jones earned a reputation as a gentle, selfless and innovative professor who spearheaded access to mental health care for students and staff. Joining the University in 1972, Jones split his time between teaching students psychology and putting his knowledge into practice through clinical work with countless students.

When the Department of psychological services — now known as CAps — was created in 1980, Jones was announced as its first director. Jones is also remembered for his work in establishing several psychology courses that encouraged students to consider broader sociological themes that contextualize human thought and behavior.

Since his passing, The Herald has spoken with several of Jones’ friends and colleagues, who described his remarkable career as well as his lasting legacy of kindness, support and an unwavering commitment to ensuring the wellbeing of every community he was a part of.

Making wellness an institutional priority

When sheila Blumstein, professor emerita of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, learned that she would share her post-retirement University office with Jones, she was “over the moon happy.”

Blumstein arrived at Brown just two years prior to Jones and spent much of her career in his orbit. Jones was hired by then-University president Howard Swearer “to start a psychological services department that had its goals shaped around servicing students to work with their mental health and help in any way,” Blumstein said.

Jones’s career within the University is best summarized as “a long list of firsts,” she said.

“Ferd was the first with psych services … interested in the health and wellbeing of individuals, but also the community — and that broad view really made him so effective,” she said.

According to Belinda Johnson, Jones’s successor as director of psychological Services, “Ferd had this view of CAPS as having a responsibility for the positive functioning of the whole University. This is not so unusual now but, back then, it was quite unusual.”

According to Johnson, Jones noticed students feeling isolated and thought, “What can we do to minimize problems that are foreseeable?” He catered programming in service of that goal, Johnson said.

Johnson, who reunited with Jones once they were no longer colleagues, said that she felt “fortunate” for the pair’s connection. “For the last 16 years of his

life, we were a couple. It was a happy and precious time for both of us,” she said.

‘The kind of pioneer who wouldn’t even think that he was a pioneer’: Intersectional psychology

Jones viewed psychology as a multifaceted study influenced by various disciplines and infinite personal circumstances. This view, Blumstein said, was evident in his development of psychology courses that examined the study in connection to other fields, including “Cultural Mistrust,” “The Cultural Context of Psychotherapy” and “Human Resilience.”

Blumstein said these courses were successful at encouraging students to think about psychology with a broader scope.

Jones especially stood out in the field for his observations on psychology through a multicultural lens, Blumstein said. Jones hoped to cultivate resources for all people, everywhere.

“This reflected a lot of his values,” she added.

Blumstein reflected on the impact Jones made at Boston University too, noting his involvement in the school’s Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology, which “provide(s) training, support and clinical services in the culturally competent practice of community-based mental health services and inpatient services,” according to the center’s website. It also hosts a clinical psychology internship program training psychologists to work with racially and ethnically diverse patients.

“Putting mental health care all into a program that … could ultimately train people or teach people to then effectively work with other people,” she said, was “a culmination of everything that he did.”

Blumstein remembers Jones loving his trips to Boston to work as director of the program, noting that Jones was especially appreciative to work with “these folks who are committed with him.”

“One of the issues … for Brown was that there weren’t a lot of people with whom he could work on” culturally informed psychology practices, she added.

“He was the kind of pioneer who wouldn’t even think that he was a pioneer,” she explained. “He was a gentle soul. He really lived and did what he believed.”

Jones was “very active in the connection between mental health and social justice,” Johnson explained.

she described a program Jones helped lead where people of many different races would get together “to talk about their commonality and their differences and come to understandings of one another from that experience.”

“It sounds simple-minded now but was very much not in those days,” she added.

Supporting Black students and fostering community

John Robinson ’67, a former associate dean of the College and associate director of admission, worked alongside Jones. Robinson told The Herald that when he attended Brown, the University “had graduated fewer than 100 Black students in over 200 years.”

Having grown up attending integrated schools where positions of power were almost completely occupied by white people, Robinson said that the support Jones extended to Black students at Brown was particularly impactful.

“In essence, there were no Black faculty, no Black staff, no Black counselors, no Black advisors,” he said. “There was

no Black anything. I used to go down to the bar and have a beer or two just to be around some other people with dark skin.”

After graduating, Robinson later returned to the University as a faculty member. He and Jones worked together to develop the minority peer counseling program and the Third World Center — now known as the Brown Center for students of Color — to create formal and informal infrastructure to advise students of color.

Robinson shared that Jones “provided an antidote” for Black students experiencing isolation at Brown through individual counseling sessions and a weekly group meeting for Black students involved with the program in Liberal Medical Education.

“These were all highly talented students,” he said. “Highly motivated and very driven. And Ferd would meet with them as a group to talk about the pressures they were experiencing … being part of the Black community of Brown.”

“Much of what Ferd did was help students gain their grounding by providing an opportunity for them to confide in someone who understood their environment and what they were going through,” Robinson added. Jones was “the difference between being successful or crashing and burning for many, many students,” Robinson said, noting that his work spanned “literally a couple generations of Black students.”

“We’ll never know just how many,” Robinson said.

Jones felt gratitude toward the students as well. Johnson said that Jones “would always say that he was indebted” to Black students who advocated for increased diversity among faculty.

“It was Black students who put a lot of pressure on the administration to bring in more faculty of color, and he always felt that he wouldn’t have been here had students not put the pressure on.”

Providing care with empathy

“I can say, without question, in all the years that I’ve known him, Ferd was the kindest colleague I’ve ever had,” Robin-

son said. “He had a place in his heart for everyone.”

Robinson recalled an instance when he was dean of student life wherein Jones proved vital in providing much-needed support to a student in severe psychological distress.

“We had a student who … hadn’t slept in days and needed to be hospitalized,” he said. “I remember we were literally looking for him, tracked him down and he was near the sciences Library.”

“Ferd was trying to talk to him, and the rest of us were standing around trying to contain the situation,” Robinson said. The student was resistant to receiving treatment, which meant that opportunities for intervention and mental health care were limited. Under Rhode Island law, a patient is required to pose a risk of “serious harm” before a court can place them in the custody of a hospital or mental health facility.

“Ferd then got close to him, and the student hit Ferd on the head, kind of like a karate chop. And that’s the point at which security could come and take him to the mental hospital for treatment.”

Jones “put himself in harm’s way so the student could do something actionable. You can’t put people in a hospital for saying things that don’t make sense,” Robinson said. “The student had assaulted him, but it was for the student’s own good that Ferd allowed himself to be hit.”

Robinson added that, after undergoing treatment and stabilizing, the student returned to thank Jones.

Blumstein recalled Jones’ role as an advocate for students in another instance where a student was struggling psychologically.

“There was an issue with a student who came in to see me … with severe mental health issues,” Blumstein said. she explained that she did not feel equipped to support this student alone, so she turned to Jones.

“I made a plan with the ultimate goal of getting him to see Ferd, and we did that as a team. I met the student again and was able to convince him that he should see Ferd,” Blumstein continued.

“Ferd was able to get this person the help that he needed.”

“He helped that young man, that young person, live.”

According to Johnson, Jones’ impact was well-known across the University.

“Before I took over as director, I was associate director, and one of my jobs was to monitor appointment availability for students, and it was always an issue,” Johnson said. “Students really did not want to wait — except if it was an appointment with Ferd. They would wait weeks, sometimes even a month, but they didn’t care. They wanted to see him.”

“And that really said something,” Johnson said. “Because that wasn’t true for the other clinicians.”

‘A gentle soul’: Kindness and counsel for all

Johnson also shared that Jones implemented morning meetings at CAps at the start of each work day to check in with staff.

“It might sound like a small thing, but it was really big,” she said. “Everybody felt supported.”

One year, at the CAps end-of-semester staff potluck, Jones brought in a jazz trio for the team’s entertainment. Although there were only seven people at the dinner, Jones wanted his company to be entertained and took it as an opportunity to support the local jazz community, Johnson recalled.

Robinson remembered Jones being “a counselor available to everybody.”

“I know staff members used to love to have lunch with him because they thought they’d get some free counseling,” he joked. “I always appreciated his wise counsel, which was never failing.”

Robinson characterized Jones as “the kind of person on the positive side of humanity.”

“He wouldn’t always give you what you asked for, but he always gave you what you needed,” he said.

Blumstein expressed a similar sentiment, noting that when Jones walked into a room, “the temperature would just go down.”

COURTESY OF JOHN ROBINSON

Professor Ferdinand Jones with Sylvia, John Robinson ’67’s wife, at his vacation home in Maine.

risks in — and that “trying to get all the entire ensemble to think in the same terms, in the same way about the same situation and bring the audience along,” requires a strong community foundation.

Yoni Weil ’24, a performer in IM p ROVidence and Lomax-Emrick’s friend, said that their warmth contributed to making the group a welcoming community for him. He added that they are a “safe person to try new jokes around.”

He recalled watching an IM p ROVidence show before joining the group and being drawn in by Lomax-Emrick’s “silliness and wit.”

s ince he has shared a stage with them, Weil said that Lomax-Emrick is an ideal scene partner because they are a good listener, creative and very funny.

But while improv depends on “mind-melding” and collective investment in a scene, Lomax-Emrick said that the creative process for stand-up comedy is vastly different.

“Writing is way harder than improv because you’re so alone in it,” they added. “You’re really just throwing your own ideas at the wall.”

“It’s about trying to come up with a concept and then twisting it as much as I can so that it’s still true for me but will be surprising to the audience,” they continued.

Lomax-Emrick keeps that goal in mind when embarking on their creative process. They said that things often “get stuck in (their) head for a while,” and they use those ideas as a launching point. Once they have words on the page, they typically read them aloud with a strong sense of levity.

Finn Blomquist Eggerling ’23.5, their friend and fellow creative, said that Lomax-Emrick “leans into the weirdness” while performing standup comedy.

“I think they can understand the absurdity of life in a really fun way,” Blomquist Eggerling added, noting that they admire Lomax-Emrick’s “dedication to the craft.”

“They’ve been very intentional about the ways they’ve honed and sharpened their comedy,” Blomquist Eggerling said. “It is hard to make people laugh. I really appreciate someone who knows that, still does

it and does it in a weird way.”

Lomax-Emrick said their main takeaway from participating in the comedy community at Brown is that they get to “make art that (they are) proud of with friends (they) look up to.”

After writing a 24-hour play with Lomax-Emrick in the fall of 2022, Blomquist Eggerling said that the pair decided to found “Almost Famous at Brown,” an unofficial sketch comedy group that gives students a “space to bounce off ideas.”

Blomquist Eggerling added that this group is more of a “community than a club.”

“As a creative, you need your people to back you up and you need to back other people up too,” Blomquist Eggerling said.

This semester, Lomax-Emrick and several of their friends are exploring a new medium of comedy writing and performing through a Group Independent s tudy p rogram about mockumentaries. Lomax-Emrick and Weil collaborated on the concept of the group’s mockumentary, expanding upon one of their existing jokes about a pair of Bavarian heiress twins satirizing “high net-worth students” at Brown.

“It’s excellent to develop a character that started as just a bit between friends … and then watch other actors take them to new places,” Lomax-Emrick said.

Blomquist Eggerling, who is also in the GISP, said that Lomax-Emrick has been very “kind and generous” while “leaning into the chaos of doing a mockumentary.”

“A lot of comedy is listening, and I think they’re a really good listener, ” Blomquist Eggerling said.

Lomax-Emrick said that their ultimate goal is to “write, perform (and) hire all (their) friends.”

They hope to carve out space for trans people and their stories in comedy through work in both cinema and television. And regardless of where their creative endeavors take them, they want to continue centering absurdity.

“I can’t overstate the power of taking silliness and absurdity very earnestly and seriously,” Lomax-Emrick said. “It’s such a chance to tell yourself that an idea you have matters and such a chance to think about the words we use and the way that we act as a vehicle for being good to each other.”

CALENDAR

Center for the Creative Arts

COURTESY OF UNA LOMAX-EMRICK

Una Lomax-Emrick ’23 was first drawn to improv because the medium supported their passion for absurdity. They explained that good improv requires a strong community foundation.

Study about Venus could provide insight into Earth’s future

Report identifies, compares atmosphere, geology of Venus-like planets

BY NOAH CHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A recent study co-authored by James Head, professor emeritus of geological sciences and professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences, investigates why Venus is so different from Earth — despite the two planets’s physical similarities — and the implications for Earth’s future. The study, published in March, was a collaboration alongside researchers from the southwest Research Institute, the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of California at Riverside.

No other planet in the solar system shares as many similarities to Earth as Venus in terms of size and structure. Modeling the history of Venus could provide insight as to why the planets became so different — surface temperatures on Venus reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit, and sulfuric acid fills the atmosphere, according to NAsA.

“The question is, how does something so similar have such a different atmosphere? And what are the causes of that?” Head said. “It’s not clear how long the Venus atmosphere has been there. We only have about 20% of the geological record.”

By looking to answer these questions, researchers aim to learn more about planet habitability and planet evolution. Data can further reveal information about the criteria needed for life to survive.

The study uses data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive, a compilation of data from observatories around the world. In the study, researchers iden-

tified over 300 Venus-like exoplanets, or planets outside the solar system.

“Venus is the most similar planet to Earth in the solar system. And we don’t really fully understand why Venus is so different from Earth, even though they are so physically similar,” said Colby Ostberg, a fifth-year PhD student at UC Riverside and head researcher of the study. “Observing exoplanets is a pathway to understanding what happened to Venus. We observe planets that have similar energy received from their star compared to Venus.”

“Planets like Venus are a real warning to us,” said stephen Kane, professor of planetary astrophysics at UC Riverside, adding that understanding planets like Venus can reveal how planets can evolve — “how you get a habitable planet rather than a hostile planet.”

The criteria to select the 300 planets was based on planetary size, energy from a nearby star and the temperature level of that star. These planets were said to lie in the “Venus Zone,” which describes planets too hot to have surface liquid, but not so hot that the atmosphere is completely stripped away.

“The Venus Zone is the region around a star where a terrestrial planet will likely have an atmosphere pushed into a ‘post-runaway greenhouse state,’” Kane explained. In the post-runaway greenhouse state, excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps heat, causing surface liquids to boil away.

“For Venus, we see a very thick carbon dioxide-dominated atmosphere,” Kane added.

The list of Venus Zone exoplanets was then narrowed down to five most closely resembling Venus, according to the study. The five exoplanets will be observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest optical telescope in space, and examined by

researchers at the NASA Goddard Institute for s pace s tudies in New York.

With data on the identified planets, NASA GISS could run 3D climate models on the planets, according to Kane. Those models could help researchers model the planetary history of Venus — and even explain what transpired to make Venus so uninhabitable.

According to Michael Way, phys -

ical scientist at NASA GISS, he and others are working with a complex digital program capable of modeling the atmosphere, land surface and ocean of planets. “It’s all coupled together in like three million lines of code, and it runs on the biggest supercomputers we have at NA s A,” he said.

“We take that model and we can use it to model ancient Venus or an -

cient Mars, and the atmospheres of the planets. They will tell us what the atmosphere is made out of,” Way explained. “And then we can do detailed modeling to see whether that atmosphere could support a liquid ocean or not, for example.”

“That’s very important for the search for life, and also important for understanding the potential future of Earth,” Kane said.

findings

The project was inspired when fifth-year Neurosurgery Resident and Co-first author Rohaid Ali was studying for his neurosurgery board exam with his close friend from s tanford Medical s chool, Ian Connolly, another co-first author and 4th year neurosurgery resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. They had seen that ChatGPT was able to pass other standardized exams like the bar examination, and wanted to test whether ChatGPT could answer any of the questions on their exam.

This prompted Ali and Connolly to execute these studies in collaboration with their third co-first author, Oliver Tang ’19 MD’23. They found that GPT-4 was “better than the average human test taker” and ChatGPT and Google Bard were at the “level of the average neurosurgery resident who took these mock exams,” Ali said.

“One of the most interesting aspects” of the study was the comparison between the AI models, as there have been “very few structured head-to-head comparisons of (them) in any fields,” said Wael Asaad, associate professor of neurosurgery and neuroscience at Warren Alpert and director of the functional epilepsy and neurosurgery program at RIH. The findings are “really exciting beyond just neurosurgery,” he added. The article found that GPT-4 out-

performed the other LLMs, receiving a score of 82.6% on a series of higher-order case management scenarios presented in mock neurosurgery oral board exam questions.

Asaad noted that GPT-4 was expected to outperform ChatGPT — which came out before GPT-4 — as well as Google Bard. “Google sort of rushed to jump in and … that rush shows in the sense that (Google Bard) doesn’t perform nearly as well.”

But these models still have limitations: As text-based models cannot see images, they scored significantly lower in imaging-related questions that require higher-order reasoning. They also asserted false facts, referred to as “hallucinations,” in answers to these questions.

One question, for example, presented an image of a highlighted portion of an arm and asked which nerve innervated the sensory distribution in the area. GPT-4 correctly assessed that it could not answer the question because it is a text-based model and could not view the image, while Google Bard responded with an answer that was “completely made up,” Ali said.

“It’s important to address the viral social media attention that these (models) have gained, which suggest that (they) could be a brain surgeon, but also important to clarify that these models are not yet ready for primetime and should not be considered a replacement for human

activities currently,” Ali added. “As neurosurgeons, it’s crucial that we safely integrate AI models for patient usage and actively investigate their blind spots to ensure the best possible care for the patients.”

Asaad added that in real clinical scenarios, neurosurgeons could receive misleading or irrelevant information. The LLMs “don’t perform very well in these real-world scenarios that are more open-ended and less clear cut,” he said.

Ethical considerations with medicine and AI

There were also instances where the AI model’s correct response to certain scenarios surprised the researchers.

For one question about a severe gunshot injury to the head, the answer was that there is likely no surgical intervention that would meaningfully alter the trajectory of the disease course. “Fascinatingly, these AI chatbots were willing to select that answer,” Ali said.

“That’s something that we didn’t expect (and) something that’s worth considering,” Ali said. “If these AI models were going to be giving us ethical recommendations in this area, what implications does that have for our field or field of medicine more broadly?”

Another concern is that these models are trained on data from clinical trials that have historical -

ly underrepresented certain disadvantaged communities. “We must be vigilant about potential risks of propagating health disparities and address these biases … to prevent harmful recommendations,” Ali said.

Asaad added that “it’s not something that’s unique to those systems — a lot of humans have bias — so it’s just a matter of trying to understand that bias and engineer it out of the system.”

Telfeian also addressed the importance of human connections between doctors and patients that AI models still lack. “If your doctor established some common ground with you — to say ‘oh, you’re from here, or you went to this school’ — then suddenly you’re more willing to accept what they would recommend,” he said.

“Taking the surgeon out of the equation is not in the foreseeable future,” said Curt Doberstein, professor of neurosurgery at Warren Alpert and director of cerebrovascular surgery at RIH. “I see (AI) as a great aid to both patients and physicians, but there are just a lot of capabilities that don’t exist yet.”

Future of AI in medicine

With regard to the future of AI models in medicine, Asaad predicted that “the human factor will slowly be dialed back, and anybody who doesn’t see it that way, who thinks that there’s something magical about what humans do … is missing the

deeper picture of what it means to have intelligence.”

“Intelligence isn’t magic. It’s just a process that we are beginning to learn how to replicate in artificial systems,” Asaad said.

Asaad also said that he sees future applications of AI in serving as assistants to medical providers.

Because the field of medicine is rapidly advancing, it is difficult for providers to keep up with new developments that would help them evaluate cases, he said. AI models could “give you ideas or resources that are relevant to the problem that you’re facing clinically.”

Doberstein also noted the role of AI assisting with patient documentation and communication to help alleviate provider burnout, increase patient safety and promote doctor-patient interactions.

Gokaslan added that “there’s no question that these systems will find their way into medicine and surgery, and I think they’re going to be extremely helpful, but I think we need to be careful in testing these effectively and using it thoughtfully.”

“We’re at the tip of the iceberg — these things just came out,” Doberstein said. “It’s going to be a process where everybody in science is going to constantly have to learn and adapt to all the new technology and changes that come about.”

“That’s the exciting part,” Doberstein added.

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The study uses data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive and has identified 300 Venus-like exoplanets.

NEUROSURGERY FROM PAGE 1

Fang ’26: How going to school far away from home has helped me grow

As my first year at Brown comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on what I was doing last year during this time — making the life-changing choice to come to Brown. Choosing to move away from my small, mostly rural hometown in California and the people I’d grown up with to go to the farthest school I applied to was a frightening proposition. However, making the decision to move across the country to p rovidence was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Any prospective first-years with similar uncertainties as decision day looms on May 1 shouldn’t be afraid of choosing a completely new experience for their college years. By moving far from home, I have become more self-aware, resilient and responsible.

With my family being three flights and three time zones away, I quickly learned to be independent when it came to my health. When I was sick, I couldn’t go home to recover. Instead, I booked myself an appointment at the Health and Wellness Center, bought medicine at CV s and tucked myself away in my dorm. When I tore my ACL, I was responsible for learning about Rhode Island’s health insurance policies and attended the emergency room and orthopedic appointments on my own. Distance from my family during these health struggles was tough, but developing healthcare independence has taught me how to take responsibility for my own health without having to rely on others. Now, I’m much more confident in my ability to take care of myself and can easily discuss issues with my doctors and

insurance provider without needing my parents to intervene.

Moving to p rovidence was also a drastic — but necessary — change in my physical surroundings. I have explored p rovidence by running around the city with friends and taking trips downtown, discovering a completely different world than the strip malls

Moving far away from California also allowed me to have a fresh start in a completely new social environment. I didn’t know anyone in p rovidence, giving me the freedom to rebuild my image by escaping the expectations of my parents and childhood friends. After growing up with the same people my entire life, I was forced to use my rusty so -

ty of California school, which was the choice of the majority of my high school classmates.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t significant drawbacks to moving far from home for college. Homesickness is pervasive on college campuses, even if students don’t appear homesick on the outside. There are certainly times when I miss the security, comfort and predictability of my old routine. Facing challenges and having to overcome them without the support of family nearby can build character, but it is still very difficult. In addition, the high costs for transportation are a significant drawback to living far from home, especially since traveling home for break can be too expensive. Despite all of this, I wouldn’t have wanted my college experience to be any other way. In the past year, I’ve experienced self-growth that I feel is at least in part attributable to moving far from home and immersing myself in a completely new environment.

and farmland of my hometown. Life in bustling p rovidence is fundamentally different from the suburbia of central California, and I wouldn’t have understood how exciting — and, at times, frustrating — life in the city can be without living here myself. I’ve also been able to spend my Thanksgiving and spring breaks in other East Coast states. Exploring these new places gave me a new appreciation for the beauty of New England’s colonial architecture, Cape Cod-style houses and antiquated streets.

cial skills and form connections with new people on my own. I was pushed far out of my comfort zone and began making new friends according to my interests and passions instead of proximity. In doing so, I improved my social and communication skills and learned about new ideas and cultures through Brown’s diverse student population.

I also became more aware of my own values, priorities and sense of self in a way that might have been difficult had I stayed close to Fresno and attended the nearest Universi -

Choosing where to spend the next four years is an incredibly daunting and consequential decision for any high school senior, with many important factors to consider. But when it comes to location, prospective firstyears should view living far from home as an opportunity to enter adulthood and become truly independent, not as something to be afraid of.

Juliet Fang ’26 can be reached at juliet_ fang@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald. com and other op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com

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“Prospective first-years should view living far from home as an opportunity to enter adulthood and become truly independent, not as something to be afraid of.”

Baseball drops two of three to Harvard, picks up dramatic walk-off win

Rookies DJ Dillehay

’26, Mika petersen ’26 continue standout seasons

LINUS LAWRENCE SPORTS EDITOR

The baseball team (8-23, 5-10 Ivy) lost two out of three games in a home series against Harvard (14-21, 10-5 Ivy) this week, falling to five games back of a spot in the Ivy League playoff tournament with six games to go in the season. The Bears split a double-header on saturday and fell on Tuesday afternoon in a series finale, which was originally scheduled for sunday but was postponed due to rain.

The Bears’ sole victory came in dramatic walk-off fashion in the backend of Saturday’s doubleheader. Trailing 3-1 entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Bruno mounted a rally, with center fielder Derian Morphew ’23 singling home Jared Johnson ’25 to cut the deficit to one. With two outs and the bases loaded, shortstop DJ Dillehay ’26 — who has displayed a proclivity for late-game heroics before — knocked a 1-2 offering from Crimson pitcher sean Matson up the middle, bringing home

VOTES

have an equal right to vote, and there shouldn’t be restrictions,” he said.

“Sometimes, people aren’t aware of an election until it’s upcoming, or people move — and they deserve” to be eligible to vote in that election, Cronin added.

In his testimony, Bellaire explained that some students may face “restrictive voting laws in their home states” which make them ineligible to vote absentee. Bellaire added that if “Rhode Island had same-day voter registration, these students could change their registration in an instant … which would allow (them) to still have their voices heard.”

Bellaire said that his experience testifying was “interesting and eye-opening in terms of how the political process really works.” He recalled that the group of Brown Votes students watched as the representatives conversed with one another and debated several pieces of legislation before the members were called to testify on HR 5770.

After giving his prepared testimo-

BUDGET FROM PAGE 1

the release. “But equally, the meds & eds also need providence to be a city where students, doctors, researchers and their employees want to be. We will continue negotiating in the months ahead and I look forward to reaching a new agreement that meets both of our needs.”

On The Public’s Radio earlier this month, president Christina paxson p’19 P’MD’20 noted Brown’s “responsibility to contribute to the well-being in the city.”

“We expect that we will have to pay more, and we will,” paxson said in the radio interview. “I’m looking for an approach that creates more alignment between the University and the city so that our growth is good for providence and providence’s growth is good for Brown,” adding that the University hopes to build a “more collaborative and less transactional relationship” with the city.

Ray sass ’23 and Nathan Brasher ’25 to give the Bears their first walk-off win of the season.

“I had struggled the whole day. I was 1-7 (across the two games) going into the last at-bat. I really just needed something to go my way,” Dillehay said.

“I hit the ball, saw it get through and I was very excited.”

Dillehay was one of two rookies who shone in the series, with designated hitter Mika petersen ’26 going 6-for12 and extending his hitting streak to 18 games. Two of those six hits came on bunts.

“I use the bunt quite a bit,” Petersen

ny, Bellaire then answered a series of questions from a representative, an experience he said was “pretty cool.”

Cronin recalled that the students were “really confident that what we were doing was for the right cause and we all came prepared with evidence and stories,” he said.

He added that the experience of testifying taught him that “state government can be slow, like any other legislative process, but that it can be one of the most accessible forms of government.”

According to Cronin, Tullai and Bellaire, HR 5770 aligns with the organization’s core mission. “Brown Votes exists to increase voter access and voter turnout,” Cronin said. “So we believe that it’s responsible and in line with our club’s goals to advocate for (a) nonpartisan, pro-voter agenda.”

The bill “is not designed to advantage anyone other than the voters,” he added. Many Brown students “don’t have access to the ballot box in the state they’re from, so being able to participate here (in Rhode Island) is

The budget also calls for an expansion of the city police force, including funding to hire and train up to 80 new officers for the Providence Police Department through two new training academies. Funding for two new fire academies and technology to address noise violations is also designated in the budget. According to the press release, these changes strengthen “Providence’s public health and safety strategy.”

“Throughout the last year, I have heard — loud and clear — what a problem sound is in our city,” smiley said at the budget address. “Whether it’s loud nightclubs, modified mufflers or ATVs, we need to do a better job of respecting and enforcing our own existing sound rules.”

smiley also noted that the city’s Community Response Team targeting illegal ATV use — which he and Police Chief Oscar Perez announced earlier this month — has already seized 34 vehicles.

weekends when we were playing down south,” petersen said.

Brown’s two losses against Harvard both came by final scores of 4-1. The Bears made five errors across the two games, giving Harvard an unearned run in each. Catcher Jacob Burley ’23 was responsible for the team’s only RBI on Saturday morning. On Tuesday, with Matson back on the mound as a starter, Dillehay once again lined an RBI single up the middle to give the Bears an early 1-0 lead. But by the fourth inning, Harvard crept back to take a 2-1 lead, where the score held until the Crimson tacked on two more in the top of the ninth.

Meanwhile, the Bears’ bullpen was stellar, with Christian Keel ’26, Jack seppings ’25 and Bobby Olsen ’23 combining to allow just three runs across ten innings of work.

“Our pitching did great this weekend,” Achilles said. Harvard is “a good offensive team. The way that we were able to attack and limit extra baserunners forced them to earn their way through it.”

said. “It’s something that I can rely on every game. I really just want to lean in to what my strengths are, so that’s been a large part (of) the streak.” petersen and Dillehay have batted second and third in the lineup, respectively, in each of the team’s past ten games.

“They’re not playing like freshmen anymore, that’s for sure,” said Head Coach Grant Achilles. “I think that’s been the case for a while now. It’s good to see the confidence that they’re showing every time they go out there.”

“I definitely feel a lot more comfortable now than I did in my first couple

important.”

Beyond advocacy for HR 5770, Brown Votes is working on other initiatives to expand voter registration and engagement on campus.

According to Bellaire, the organization is working on creating a voter registration database of Brown students in order to “really target our outreach efforts and provide tailored information” to students based on their home states and cities.

Tullai said that the organization is also considering developing state-bystate absentee voting guides to help ease the process of requesting and mailing in absentee ballots from College Hill. In his testimony, Bellaire explained that some students may face “restrictive voting laws in their home states” which make them ineligible to vote absentee. Bellaire added that if “Rhode Island had same-day voter registration, these students could change their registration in an instant … which would allow (them) to still have their voices heard.”

Bellaire said that his experience tes-

“That game could have gone either way for 8 1/2 innings,” Achilles said following Tuesday’s game. “Just really proud of the effort and … the way we battled today.”

Bruno’s starting pitchers were solid all around, stepping up after surrendering eleven earned runs in eight total innings last weekend against penn. Paxton Meyers ’24 and Santhosh Gottam ’25 each turned in quality starts on saturday, with Meyers tossing six innings of three-run, four-hit ball in the morning and Gottam giving up just two runs in six innings in the afternoon. Dylan Reid ’26 impressed on Tuesday, making his first start of Ivy play and allowing one earned run in five innings.

tifying was “interesting and eye-opening in terms of how the political process really works.” He recalled that the group of Brown Votes students watched as the representatives conversed with one another and debated several pieces of legislation before the members were called to testify on HR 5770.

After giving his prepared testimony, Bellaire then answered a series of questions from a representative, an experience he said was “pretty cool.”

Cronin recalled that the students were “really confident that what we were doing was for the right cause and we all came prepared with evidence and stories,” he said.

He added that the experience of testifying taught him that “state government can be slow, like any other legislative process, but that it can be one of the most accessible forms of government.”

According to Cronin, Tullai and Bellaire, HR 5770 aligns with the organization’s core mission. “Brown Votes exists to increase voter access and voter

The Bears have six games left of Ivy play to make a run at earning one of the top four spots in the conference standings, which would qualify them for the league playoff tournament. They will next host Dartmouth, who have yet to win an Ivy League matchup, for a three-game set this coming weekend before concluding their season on the road against princeton the following weekend. All games can be streamed on EspN+.

“We’re gonna treat every day as an opportunity to gain ground in the standings one pitch at a time,” Achilles said. “Competitive at-bats, competitive innings from the pitchers, give ourselves every opportunity to close the regular season strong.”

“We’re definitely bouncing back,” Dillehay said. “Hopefully a lot of wins” are in store for the team.

turnout,” Cronin said. “So we believe that it’s responsible and in line with our club’s goals to advocate for (a) nonpartisan, pro-voter agenda.”

The bill “is not designed to advantage anyone other than the voters,” he added. Many Brown students “don’t have access to the ballot box in the state they’re from, so being able to participate here (in Rhode Island) is important.”

Beyond advocacy for HR 5770, Brown Votes is working on other initiatives to expand voter registration and engagement on campus.

According to Bellaire, the organization is working on creating a voter registration database of Brown students in order to “really target our outreach efforts and provide tailored information” to students based on their home states and cities.

COURTESY OF BROWN ATHLETICS

The Bears will host Dartmouth, who have yet to win an Ivy League matchup, for a three-game set this weekend.

KAIOLENA TACAZON / HERALD

Mayor Brett Smiley noted that the city’s Community Response Team targeting illegal ATV use, which was announced earlier this month, has already seized 34 vehicles.

UFB completes internal elections for three new administrative positions

Treaasurer, secretary, ombudsperson will serve in non-voting capacities

BY KELVIN JIANG SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Undergraduate Finance Board held internal elections for three new administrative positions — treasurer, secretary and ombudsperson — Tuesday night. An amendment to allow UFB to create appointed positions without student elections passed in the spring Student Government Association elections with 79.1% of 1,463 votes, The Herald previously reported.

Five candidates participated in the election, with Herald staff columnist Tas Rahman ’26 and Sam Walhout ’25 running for treasurer and Catherine Jia ’26 and Autumn Qiu ’25 running for secretary. Walhout and Jia were elected. Peter Tangikyan ’24 ran uncontested for ombudsperson.

Walhout, Jia and Tangikyan are all current UFB representatives.

The elections were determined by a simple majority vote, according to Undergraduate Council of s tudents Elections Co-Director Joon Nam ’23.

According to UFB Vice Chair and Chair-elect Arjun Krishna Chopra ’25, the three new roles will assist the chair and vice chair in administrative tasks and are not voting positions.

The treasurer will “look after the whole student activities fund and advocate for the interests of Brown

students on matters of finance,” while the secretary will “ensure that (UFB’s) communications are clear, transparent, honest and that (UFB) is doing adequate outreach,” Chopra said.

He added that the ombudsperson will work to resolve both internal and external disputes, so that “if a group feels as though they’re not getting enough resources, they’re able to express themselves.”

Current UFB Chair Amienne spencer-Blume ’23 said that the new positions do not add any new functions to the board but “streamline (existing) UFB operations” to allow “the entire board more actual, tangible time to pursue” their visions for the organi -

zation.

During the internal elections process, each candidate delivered a two-minute speech and participated in a five-minute question-and-answer session. UFB members then had up to fifteen minutes of deliberation, followed by a written vote.

The two candidates for treasurer — Rahman and Walhout — pushed for increased transparency and expanded outreach. Walhout called to increase the tracking of historical funding data, an effort he said would bring a more nuanced understanding of funding changes and patterns over time to UFB funding deliberation meetings. Rahman said it would be “helpful to set

up a consistent dialogue with admin at the beginning of each semester (to) make sure that we’re clear on what our priorities are.”

Additionally, the candidates for secretary — Jia and Qiu — both advocated for increasing UFB’s social media presence. Qiu said she would enhance UFB’s Instagram presence as a method of sparking online engagement and capturing student attention.

Jia also wanted to improve how the board organizes historical funding data for student groups by “providing holistic overviews, such as what they’ve been allocated in the past and the structure of their growth.” s he added that a “comprehensive policy

document” would be useful, noting that the extensive information on the UFB site can prove confusing to navigate.

In his speech for ombudsperson, Tangikyan shared that he would like to occasionally solicit general opinions from the entire student body to gather their perspectives on potential disputes.

“I’m really looking forward to working with each of these people ... to revamp our outreach (and) communications,” Chopra said. “The ombudsperson is going to really help us ensure that when specifically communicating with groups, we are able to have a dialogue.”

Exhibition spotlights essays by current, former incarcerated college students

time being exposed to the stories of incarceration from those with “direct experience.”

BY SOFIA BARNETT UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

For just over a month, essays written by currently and formerly incarcerated college students have lined the walls of the second floor of the Watson Institute for International and p ublic Affairs as part of an 11-week exhibition titled “Back to School: Emerson Prison Initiative s tudents Reflect on Unexpected Lessons.”

The exhibition was made possible through a partnership between the Watson Institute and the Emerson p rison Initiative, an Emerson College program providing students who are incarcerated at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord “with an opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in media, literature and culture from Emerson College.”

Cara Moyer-Duncan, assistant director of the Emerson p rison Initiative, wrote in an email to The Herald that “EPI believes that access to a high-quality education that recognizes the potential of … each human being is a fundamental right.”

“The public policy conversation around increasing access to college in prison often focuses on recidivism and employment,” she added. “Those

things are no doubt important, but what we see with these essays is something different.”

An essay from the exhibition titled “Resurrection of Sight” written by Mac Hudson describes his experience gaining access to a college education through the metaphor of gaining sight for the first time. His education through EPI, Hudson wrote, “challenged the limitations of my mind, my thinking, my writing, to find the right idea. The right words to express myself.”

He also wrote that a college education allowed him to access “state resources” — something he could not do before.

“We see the impact on incarcerated college students as readers, thinkers and creators … and as civically engaged members of the communities they belong to,” Moyer-Duncan wrote.

“These essays reveal the transformative power of education, which can allow incarcerated people … to imagine and realize different possibilities for themselves.”

According to Ahmad Bright’s essay, “Portraits of Progress,” EPI also opens up a new community for participants.

“I had never before felt a sense of shared experience and camaraderie as I did during those 18 months of learning, growing and sharing with my classmates,” he wrote.

Angelina Rios-Galindo ’25, a member of the Stop Torture RI coalition focused on reforming long-term solitary confinement in Rhode Island, told The Herald that the Watson Institute, the Ruth J. s immons Center for the study of s l avery and Justice and the Center for the s tudy of Race and Ethnicity in America have all been working together in recent months to “bolster

the conversation surrounding mass incarceration.”

Rios-Galindo acknowledged the “duty of care” necessary when bringing discussions regarding incarceration to the University.

“Most crucial is centering the ideas, experiences, needs and strengths of system-impacted folks and (creating) avenues of support for those that are sharing their stories,” she said.

“The University should increasingly make information and stories accessible, ethically sourced and candid,” she said. “And the folks whose stories are being shared must be involved in the entire process, included in additional discourse surrounding EpI, and (be) credited for their work.”

Mikael Oberlin ’25, a student who visited the exhibition, said that the E p I-Watson partnership was his first

“I feel like oftentimes, narratives surrounding incarceration are delivered through mediums not best equipped to tell the stories,” he said. “Like TV shows or movies set in prisons, or even professors, who can’t relate to any of the experiences, trying to present them … but just end up sounding out of touch.”

“I’m grateful to have information to educate … us from the actual source on campus,” he added.

Both Oberlin and Rios-Galindo emphasized the exhibition’s focus on individuals, acknowledging that different people have different experiences with incarceration.

“It’s not a one-size fits all thing,” Oberlin said.

Rios-Galindo encouraged students to visit the exhibition to learn about “the effects and pervasiveness of mass incarceration.”

“Read something that centers redemption, rather than powerlessness or oversight or the stripping of individuality,” she said. “Ground yourself in the reality of someone else’s experiences.”

Other opportunities for students to learn about incarceration at the University, Rios-Galindo said, include the C s REA’s Mass Incarceration Lab or engagement with the Stop Torture RI coalition and other local advocacy groups.

The exhibition will be open to the public through June 7.

KELVIN JIANG / HERALD

Sam Walhout ’25 will serve as treasurer, Catherine Jia ’26 will serve as secretary and Peter Tangikyan ’24 will serve as ombudsperson. UFB gained the ability to appoint members through internal elections following a referendum in the spring 2023 student government elections.

Exhibition by Emerson prison Initiative open until June 7 at Watson Institute

SOFIA BARNETT / HERALD

An essay from the exhibition titled “Resurrection of Sight” written by Mac Hudson describes his experience gaining access to a college education through the metaphor of gaining sight for the first time.